It's Not Time For The Lakers To Fire Darvin Ham

Your 2023-24 Los Angeles Lakers (16-14) are two months into their new season, and it hasn't gone exactly the way anyone would have hoped. The team has been dealing with a plethora of injuries throughout the roster, though not many to stars Anthony Davis or LeBron James, but they have found different ways to stay afloat.

However, one issue for this team has been the lack of continuity within the rotations all season. One could argue that the injuries to this team have been a cause of this though.

One thing is for sure about this team, and that is that Los Angeles has a very passionate fanbase. They are one of the best in the league - if not the best - and when things aren't going the way fans want them to, they start to look for ways to change that.

The common theme around the Lakers right now is for the team to fire head coach Darvin Ham. But I am here to tell you that firing Ham isn't the answer, at least not right now.

Ham is only in the second season as the head coach of the Lakers, and he helped them get to the Western Conference Finals a year ago. That isn't easy to do as a rookie head coach, even with James on the roster.

We can also take in the fact that the Lakers essentially had a new team in the second half of the season last year. Ham showed his worth at the end of the year last season, and while it has been a struggle so far this year, it's not entirely his fault.

This isn't the final form of the Lakers, and while there have been some problems, I'd argue that Ham has helped keep this team together. With all of the injuries that this team has seen, they could have fallen down even farther, but they haven't.

He does have some questionable rotations and isn't immune to criticism, but getting rid of him doesn't make sense at this time. If the Lakers get bounced early in the postseason this year, then the narrative would be fair to discuss.

The front office believes in the job that Ham is doing, and it seems that the players do as well. He can relate to them well being a former player, but he does need to improve his in-game adjustments.

If there is anything to criticize him about it's that. But Ham is still new at the head coaching position, and he essentially is learning on the fly with a team that has championship aspirations. He showed that he could evolve at the end of last season, and I believe he will do the same this year again.

Firing Ham right now wouldn't solve anything, but it would create more instability for this franchise. It would also sense a bad message to the rest of the NBA, and it could cause the Lakers trouble in finding a replacement.

We are still only in December, so let's just take a deep breath here for a second. Ham deserves to go through the entire season before any major shakeups occur at the head coaching spot.