NBA Rumors: Ex-Lakers HC Darvin Ham Joining Doc Rivers' Bucks Staff as Top Assistant

The Milwaukee Bucks are hiring former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham as an assistant on Doc Rivers' staff, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Ham was an assistant under Mike Budenholzer for four seasons in Milwaukee before leaving to take the Lakers job in 2022.

He compiled a 90-74 record in his two years with Los Angeles. While he guided the team to the 2023 Western Conference Finals, a first-round exit this season was too much to bear.

Before the Lakers fired their coach, ESPN's Dave McMenamin and The Athletic's Shams Charania, Jovan Buha and Sam Amick published postmortems on 2023-24, and the report from The Athletic was particularly withering toward Ham. It pointed to some of his puzzling lineup decisions and inability to understand the PR demands specific to coaching the team along with stars as big as LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

But there's a reason the Lakers hired Ham in the first place. The 50-year-old was a highly regarded assistant, one who seemingly had a bright future ahead as a head coach.

Ham wasn't the sole reason for Los Angeles finishing seventh in the West and losing in the first round, either. There are only so many ways for a staff to scheme around Austin Reaves and D'Angelo Russell being the third- and fourth-best players within a postseason context.

For Rivers, bringing Ham back to the Bucks was a no-brainer given his past experience working with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez.

Making a major hire for the bench probably points to how much pressure Rivers is feeling as well. Milwaukee went 17-19 under him to close out the year, while Antetokounmpo's calf strain doomed any hopes of advancing out of the first round.

The two-time MVP might be signed through 2027, but he could easily grow discontented if the Bucks yet again flatter to deceive in the regular season and fall well short of the NBA Finals.

Hiring Ham may provide a level of risk for Rivers in that fans will have a natural alternative to point to if Milwaukee isn't showing any signs of improvement to open 2024-25.