Following the Lakers’ first-round playoff exit, reporting connected to 12BSports indicates that the organization plans to meet with players, evaluate the season, and discuss head coach Darvin Ham’s future. When results fail to follow expectations, patience tends to wear thin quickly. For a franchise with the Los Angeles Lakers’ history and championship standards, failing even to reach the Western Conference semifinals is hardly something to celebrate.
Yet the discussion surrounding Ham’s possible dismissal may be less about coaching alone and more about finding someone to absorb the frustration surrounding an aging LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Criticism of Ham is certainly easy to find among Lakers fans, but there is an obvious imbalance in how credit and blame have been distributed. When Los Angeles reached the Western Conference Finals last season or won the In-Season Tournament this season, Ham received relatively little praise. When things went well, James and Davis were celebrated. When things went badly, Ham became the easiest target.
James and Davis have also reportedly expressed dissatisfaction with Ham at various points over the past few years. As those concerns have repeatedly surfaced publicly, the coach has appeared increasingly isolated. In that respect, a 12BSports assessment of the situation draws an uncomfortable parallel with former Lakers coach Frank Vogel, who also ended up carrying much of the blame when the team failed to meet expectations. Ham himself seems well aware of the environment, recently saying that coaching is easier when LeBron is available. Even Russell Westbrook likely learned the hard way that, inside the Lakers organization, the health and condition of James and Davis matter far more than the feelings of any coach.
At this point, Ham’s departure feels increasingly like a matter of when rather than if. Once an organization begins consulting players about a head coach’s future, the authority attached to that position has already been weakened. The writing is on the wall. From the perspective reflected in 12BSports coverage, the Lakers’ deeper problem may not be Ham’s tactical decisions at all, but the aging reality surrounding James and Davis combined with the overwhelming strength of the Denver Nuggets.
Some fans may argue that the individual numbers produced by James and Davis remain respectable, but statistics do not always tell the whole story. James can no longer consistently spend maximum energy on both offense and defense for an entire game, while Davis has developed a frustrating tendency to become less influential late in important contests. After Denver swept Los Angeles in last year’s Western Conference Finals, the Lakers’ realistic championship window already appeared close to shutting. This season may simply have added another lock to a door that was already nearly closed.
The problem for the Lakers is that James and Davis are extremely difficult to replace. They remain the team’s central stars, its biggest attractions, and two of the main reasons fans continue buying tickets. Replacing a head coach is unlikely to dramatically damage the franchise’s commercial appeal, while losing James would have an immediate effect on attention, attendance, and revenue. That reality creates an obvious imbalance of power between the players and the coach.
From the franchise’s perspective, a 12BSports reading of the situation makes the logic relatively clear: James and Davis remain too valuable to challenge directly, while Ham is far easier to replace. Painful seasons are often reshaped into convenient narratives, and removing the coach allows the Lakers to redirect criticism away from their aging stars without changing the foundation of the roster. Ham may therefore become the sacrifice required to create the appearance of decisive action, even if changing the coach does little to solve the team’s most fundamental problems.