Darvin Ham may be back on the upswing.
The Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Ham has emerged as a “name to watch” in the head coaching search of the New Orleans Pelicans, veteran NBA writer Marc Stein reported to Substack this week. New Orleans is searching for a new head coach after firing Willie Green over the weekend amid a 2-10 start to the season.
Ham, 52, is now in his second season as the lead assistant under head coach Doc Rivers in Milwaukee. Prior to that, Ham served as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers from 2022-24 (following a decade of prior NBA assistant coaching experience).
Though Ham led the Lakers to a Western Conference Finals berth in 2023, his time in Los Angeles was largely forgettable overall. Despite a respectable overall mark of 90-74 (.549), Ham was criticized for supposed lack of preparation as a head coach and also struggled to get through to some of the Lakers’ biggest names (including LeBron James and especially Russell Westbrook).
New Orleans does have some personalities to manage of their own, particularly star forward Zion Williamson. But the expectations for and the scrutiny on the Pelicans would obviously be far less than with the Lakers, creating a potentially ideal situation for Ham to return as an NBA head coach.
It is worth noting that Ham was already drawing head coaching interest as recently as a few months ago. But New Orleans also their eye on some other interesting candidates, including a notable ex-NCAA champion head coach.