Despite LeBron James and Co.’s Humiliating Playoffs Exit, Draymond Green Sides With Darvin Ham Amid Firing Rumors

Earlier this week, the Denver Nuggets crushed all hopes for the Los Angeles Lakers of playing deep into the playoffs. Following this, many fans and experts seem to be in consensus for the Lakers head coach, Darwin Ham to be fired from the organization. However, the Golden State Warriors forward, Draymond Green, doesn’t seem to agree with that idea.

In a recent episode of his podcast, The Draymond Green Show, the Warriors star discussed this disappointing end to the season. However, he is not among the ones who believe Darwin Ham solely deserves the blame. Green suggests that the veteran coach’s tenure was affected because the roster wasn’t good enough to contend for a title this season. He said,

“I think it would be wrong to fire him. He’ll catch a lot of flack for the season that they had. I think that’s garbage. Their roster didn’t get better than last year, and they were a play-in team.”

To an extent, Green’s argument has its merits. It would be unfair to solely blame Ham for the team’s inability to mount a solid championship run. However, it is worth noting that the Lakers were leading in all four of their losses to the Nuggets. However, blowing such leads and failing to hold on to win can probably be traced back to poor coaching. After the Game 2 loss, Lakers star Anthony Davis also made headlines after he questioned certain plays and setups that the coaching staff had the team run.

While Green may not feel the same, the sentiment seems to be quite the opposite in the Lakers locker room. Apart from Green, former NBA player and analyst Charles Barkley also believes the Lakers head coach shouldn’t be blamed for this loss. However, as of now, it seems more than likely that Darwin Ham’s days are numbered in LA.

Charles Barkley defends Darwin Ham after the Lakers’ playoff exit

TNT analyst Charles Barkley had a blunt message for people who were blaming coaches for the loss of their team. Both Phoenix Suns and the Lakers’ first round exits were immediately pinned on their head coaches, Frank Vogel and Darwin Ham for the blame. In an episode of Inside the NBA, Barkley went on a rant about why the coaches were not to be blamed for these eliminations. He said,

“A lot of these people on television, they’re cowards. They want the players to like them. They don’t want to do their job, which is to tell the truth. I just want to say this about coaching. Anybody who thinks the Lakers suck is because of Darvin Ham or the reason the Suns suck is because of Frank Vogel: You don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

In his rant, the former NBA player defended coach Ham on how he was “getting his career started.” However, as Chuck claims, media and news networks want to portray an image of pleasing the players. On that note, the Suns legend added, “The Lakers suck and the Suns suck because of their players. It has nothing to do with the coaches.” 

In a way, Barkley might be right as Ham did not have any power over roster construction to address the flaws in the team. With this same roster, Ham managed to win the In-Season tournament last year as well. Hence, it was likely that the major flaws in the team mainly concerned the players and the front office.