LA Lakers Rumors Roundup: Darvin Ham to assemble coaching staff, LeBron James predicted to demand trade next season and more | May 28th, 2022
The LA Lakers have officially hired Darvin Ham to become their new head coach starting next season. Ham reportedly received a four-year deal to try and help the Lakers return to contention. The one-time NBA champ certainly earned his first head coaching job after stints with the Lakers, Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks.
Meanwhile, the Lakers are still inviting prospects for workouts despite not having any picks in the 2022 NBA Draft. With limited cap space next season and the success of Alex Caruso and Austin Reaves over the past few years, the Lakers are surely in the hunt for another undrafted gem.
Here is the latest LA Lakers rumors roundup for May 28th, 2022 brought to you by Sportskeeda.
Darvin Ham wants staff with head coaching experience
Now that Darvin Ham has officially replaced Frank Vogel as the head coach of the LA Lakers, it's time to assemble his coaching staff. According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Ham is expected to bring in personnel with head coaching experience as his assistants.
Ham made a strong impression on Lakers in several areas, including his championship pedigree, his commanding presence, history of coaching stars and toughness. Ham will start assembling a staff expected to include head coaching experience. twitter.com/wojespn/status…
There are several options for Ham and the Lakers out there, with the Charlotte Hornets as the only team remaining thats hiring a head coach. Terry Stotts could be offered a lead assistant job, as well as Kenny Atkinson. Stotts and Atkinson were among the finalists for the head coaching job before Ham was chosen.
Other possible options for the Lakers include former OKC Thunder and Washington Wizards head coach Scott Brooks, former Orlando Magic head coach Steve Clifford, former Sacramento Kings and Lakers head coach Luke Walton and former Hornets head coach James Borrego.
Bleacher Report has bold prediction for LeBron James next season
For the first time in his career, LeBron James was linked to a possible trade this season. The LA Lakers are in a tough situation, especially in the future, so trading LeBron is one of the most logical moves they can make. However, it seems like the team will try their best to surround "The King" with better players and compete for championships as long as he can.
Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report made a bold prediction for James and the Lakers next season. Hughes thinks that LeBron could demand a trade out of Los Angeles, especially if the team suffers another disappointing and embarrassing year next season.
"The Los Angeles Lakers have no promising young players likely to ascend, no depth, virtually no first-round picks to trade, no reason to believe Russell Westbrook will be better in his 15th season than he was in his 14th and no legitimate chance to contend, now or in the near future. Don't you, LeBron James, think long and hard about engineering an exit?" Hughes wrote.
LA Lakers to hold workouts for potential undrafted prospects
The LA Lakers do not own any picks in the upcoming NBA draft, but they still invited a handful of prospects for a workout. Jovan Buha of The Athletic reported that the Lakers have invited six prospects to a private workout scheduled for Saturday morning.
The Lakers are holding a draft workout with the following participants tomorrow (Sat., May 28):
Collin Gillespie – Villanova
Tyrese Martin – UConn
Drew Peterson – USC
Quenton Jackson – Texas A&M
Keon Ellis – Alabama
Cole Swider – Syracuse
Collin Gillespie of Villanova, Tyrese Martin of UConn and Keon Ellis of Alabama are among the top 60 prospects in the draft. Quenton Jackson of Texas A&M is in the top 100, while Drew Peterson of USC and Cole Swider of Syracuse are both unranked.
The Lakers have had good success signing undrafted players like Alex Caruso and Austin Reaves. Caruso was a key role player in the team's 2020 NBA championship run, while Reaves was one of the bright spots of the Lakers' season. If they can find another diamond in the rough, it's a big boost for a team looking to improve their roster.