NBA Rumors: 2-time NBA champion was the LA Lakers’ first choice for the head coach role

Rob Pelinka is doing the best he can to make the LA Lakers competitive again. [Image source: Getty Images]

The LA Lakers had a horrible season, missing the playoffs while totaling 33 wins, the lowest win total of any LeBron James team in his 19-year career.

While it's true that the team dealt with injuries – even James missed 26 games – there was a bigger problem. As soon as the season ended, the Lakers fired Frank Vogel, their head coach, and began a search for a replacement.

The team hired Darvin Ham, an experienced assistant who has two championship rings. However, the former Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach was not their first option. Instead, it was Michigan Wolverines coach Juwan Howard.

Juwan Howard was reportedly the Lakers’ top choice for the head coaching position 😳 https://t.co/oCFQqthAEo

Juwan Howard could have been the LA Lakers head coach

Juwan Howard had a lengthy NBA career as both a player and a coach. The big man won championships with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013 and was Miami's assistant coach until 2019.

Howard and LeBron James played together during those championship years in Miami. Furthermore, he played at Michigan alongside Rob Pelinka, the LA Lakers general manager. In addition to that, Howard has more than two decades of NBA experience, making him the perfect candidate.

Juwan Howard is happy where he is now and doesn't want to join the Los Angeles Lakers. [Image credit: Getty Images]

Unfortunately for the Lakers, Howard declined the interview as he chose to remain at Michigan. According to Mark Stein, an NBA insider, the Lakers preferred Howard over any other candidate:

"The most interesting thing I’ve heard while we wait for Ham’s official introduction is that, according to the latest buzz in league coaching circles, Michigan’s Juwan Howard was the Lakers’ preferred candidate among the various coaches to whom they were linked who were under contract elsewhere and thus ultimately unavailable — ahead of Philadelphia’s Doc Rivers and Utah’s Quin Snyder."

Howard's sons, Jace and Jett, are a big reason why he wants to stay at Michigan. They both play for the team, which is a very unique and amazing basketball story.

Howard, on the other hand, has much more job security at Michigan than he would have as the Lakers' head coach. After all, it will be a difficult task to fix the roster and make them competitive once again. James isn't getting any younger, while Anthony Davis can't stay healthy and Russell Westbrook is not the player he was a few years ago.

Darvin Ham is officially the Lakers head coach

The Lakers recently posted an announcement of the hiring of Darvin Ham on their Twitter account. This will be Ham's first head-coaching job, and it will be interesting to see how well he does.

Ham has enough experience and knows what it takes to win it all. After all, he was an NBA champion as a player with the 2004 Detroit Pistons and as an assistant coach with the 2021 Milwaukee Bucks.

OFFICIAL: Welcome to Los Angeles, Coach Ham! https://t.co/V91QyME7EI

The Lakers won an NBA championship two years ago, but they have been awful since then. Landing a new head coach does seem like a step in the right direction, but they will have to pull more moves to compete with the rest of the league.