(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
After much speculation over the last few months, the Los Angeles Lakers have officially fired head coach Darvin Ham after two seasons with the team.
Even though there were some conflicting reports over the last few weeks saying that Ham was safe regardless of how far the Lakers went in the NBA playoffs, the team decided it was time for a change, as it seemed as though the head coach had lost the locker room.
With the Lakers having a head-coaching vacancy once again, the rumors have already started swirling about who will be Ham’s successor in Los Angeles, with a number of candidates emerging on Friday.
According to Bovada, the favorite to be the next head coach of the Lakers is someone who is already in the building, with assistant coach Phil Handy having the best odds to land the job right now.
Phil Handy is currently the favorite to be the next Los Angeles Lakers Coach
Phil Handy +200
Juwan Howard +650
Quin Snyder +650
Jared Dudley +700
Sam Cassell +700
Kenny Atkinson +800
Steve Clifford +900
JB Bickerstaff +1200
Mike Brown +1600
LeBron James +2200 pic.twitter.com/r3FrtD5xoH
— Bovada (@BovadaOfficial) April 30, 2024
With the Lakers intent on trying to convince superstar forward LeBron James to stay with the team because he’ll likely opt out of his contract next month, the team will likely want his input on the next head coach.
Handy has been with the Lakers ever since James joined the team and was the assistant to survive when the team parted ways with Frank Vogel a few years ago.
Although Handy is the favorite right now, it’ll be interesting to see where this coaching search goes from here, especially if other coaches around the league are fired after getting knocked out of the NBA playoffs, namely Tyronn Lue of the Los Angeles Clippers.
The post Odds Show A Clear Betting Favorite To Replace Darvin Ham appeared first on The Cold Wire.