The Lakers’ recent coaching missteps are just the latest blip in a concerning trend

The Los Angeles Lakers fired Darvin Ham on May 3, embarking on their third coaching search of LeBron James’ tenure in Hollywood. Nearly seven weeks have passed since Ham was fired, and with two weeks until the NBA Draft and free agency, fans and media alike are wondering what the Lakers have in store.

Among the long-awaited rumors was that former player and now media superstar JJ Redick was going to be the Lakers’ head coach, but Los Angeles shook things up last week by saying Connecticut’s Dan Hurley was “under consideration.” Hurley is a talented coach, has won two consecutive NCAA championships and is the perfect candidate to take over the Lakers long-term, but it seemed unlikely that Los Angeles would actually poach him.

Viewers turned their skeptical eye toward the Lakers’ front office after Hurley turned down a suspiciously low six-year, $70 million contract offer, and while it wouldn’t be the last time LA handled a coaching vacancy poorly, there’s a reason for it.

Hurley is the third coach to turn down the Lakers job.

The Lakers had “public interest” in three coaches but didn’t have many chances to make the hire.

Last year, as everyone in Lakersland became increasingly dissatisfied with Darvin Ham’s performance as head coach, rumors began to fly that L.A. might snatch up the incumbent, established coach. Before and after Ham’s firing, Los Angeles was connected to head coaches in Tyronn Lue, Jason Kidd and Dan Hurley, all of whom were better organizations than the Lakers and offered more.

While Lue and Kidd were merely media-generated speculation, there’s no doubt the Lakers had something to do with the rumors and were hoping to hire one of the players from the Los Angeles Clippers or Dallas Mavericks. The Dan Hurley fiasco wasn’t just a headline, the two actually met with the University of Connecticut star coach and made an offer that ultimately flamed out in embarrassing fashion.

When news broke that Los Angeles had offered Hurley a six-year, $70 million deal — much lower than Monty Williams’ — it became clear the Lakers had no intention of luring Hurley out of his current position.

Whether the Hurley furore was an attempt to appease impatient Lakers fans before hiring Redick or someone of similar stature, or whether Rob Pelinka and Co. truly believed they could hire Hurley for such a low price, it shows further incompetence from Los Angeles’ front office.

It’s been a tough year for the Lakers’ coaching staff, and inconsistency isn’t the first time this franchise has had one in the last 15 years.

The Lakers have not been managing their head coaching position well.

The latest mistake is just another misstep from LA’s front office.

Los Angeles should be one of the best teams in the league, but it has been astoundingly inept over the past decade when it comes to front-office decision-making. The team has had seven coaches since Phil Jackson left in 2011 and is set to hire its fourth coach of the James era this summer.

After parting ways with the understandably inexperienced head coach Luke Walton, the Lakers found a proven leader in LeBron, Anthony Davis and the impressive Frank Vogel, who led the team to a championship in his first year in Los Angeles but was fired just two years later after an injury-plagued 2021 and a 2022 season that saw them miss the playoffs.

Vogel had many successful years as head coach of the Indiana Pacers alongside Paul George, and the disastrous Russell Westbrook trade had nothing to do with him, yet the Lakers still fired him. This is just another example of a worrying trend of LA’s front office prematurely firing coaches and hiring less-qualified replacements like Darvin Ham.

Now, it looks like they’re doing it again after firing Hamm.

Despite being a historic franchise, the Lakers are not a marquee destination.

A mediocre lineup with little room for improvement will seal the Lakers’ fate

The unfortunate reality for Lakers fans is that even though the Lakers brand is the strongest in the league, they are a legendary franchise in a major Western city in the NBA, and they have two superstars, they are not a popular destination for coaches. There are a few reasons for this.

The biggest problem for Los Angeles is a talented but weak roster that has little room for improvement compared to the burgeoning Western Conference. There’s no way Los Angeles will reach the same level as the Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder or Minnesota Timberwolves next season, and they’ll likely only be on par with other good teams.

LA has overlapping members above and below the rotation and can’t field its best five players at the same time in a playoff environment, Austin Reeves and D’Angelo Russell aren’t good enough defensively or athletic enough to be starting backcourts in the postseason, Rui Hachimura is too similar to James, and Jarrett Vanderbilt gives LA one more non-shooting player on the court, which is why the Hams played Taurean Prince for extended periods with disastrous results.

The Lakers have contracts that make them easily tradeable, but they don’t have many blue-chip assets to trade and don’t seem willing to part with future draft picks to acquire a top-tier player. This roster could become a reality for future coaching candidates going forward.

Another factor that might put off potential coaches is the age and wear and tear of their two superstars. James will turn 40 next year during his 22nd season and is working out more than any player in the team’s history. Davis is only 31, but he’s been injured multiple times and has proven to be a bit of a fragile player that won’t improve with age.

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