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Darvin Ham: the next best NBA head coach candidate?
Date: February 11, 2021By: Jorie Mickens
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After five underwhelming seasons with head coach Alvin Gentry, the New Orleans Pelicans rode the coaching carousel this past offseason and landed veteran coach Stan Van Gundy.
Van Gundy’s head coaching resume includes two strong years with the Miami Heat, four straight 50-win seasons and an NBA Finals appearance during the 2008-09 season with the Orlando Magic and four seasons with a middling Detroit Pistons team. Hiring Van Gundy was intended to revitalize a franchise that has made the playoffs once in the last five seasons and develop one of the best young cores in the NBA.
Despite finishing 30-42 last season (and 2-6 during the NBA Bubble), many executives within the Pelicans’ organization and pundits outside it were optimistic about the future in The Big Easy.
Fourth year forward Brandon Ingram won the Most Improved Player award after averaging a (then) career-high in points (23.8), rebounds (6.1) and assists (4.2) all while being selected to his first All-Star game. Third year guard Lonzo Ball increased his averages in points (11.8), rebounds (6.1) and assists (7.0) while improving his three-point percentage (37.5%) from the previous season. And despite playing just 24 games (five during the NBA Bubble), Zion Williamson, the No. 1 overall selection in the 2019 NBA Draft, had one of the best rookie seasons in recent memory.
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Before the NBA shutdown, the former Duke standout was averaging 23.6 points-per-game with a true shooting percentage of 62.4%, a level of volume and efficiency we had not seen since Tim Duncan’s rookie campaign 23 years prior.
With those three in stow, newly acquired veterans Eric Bledsoe and Steven Adams and Van Gundy’s reputation as a defensive tactician, many presumed the Pelicans would have one of the best defenses in the NBA this season—that has been far from the case.
Through 20 games this season, New Orleans ranked 23rd in defensive rating (112.7), even worse than where they finished last year (111.9). Not including this season, Van Gundy’s teams have only ranked outside the top-10 in defensive rating three times throughout his head coaching career. The Pelicans also allow one of the highest effective field goal percentages in the NBA (54.7%), which ranks 24th in the league. Another staple of this team last year was their pace.
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During the offseason on an episode of “The Lowe Post Podcast,” Van Gundy said this about Ball: “I don’t think there is anyone better in the NBA of advancing the ball up the floor for your team quickly to allow you to go on the attack before the other team’s defense is set.”
Despite Van Gundy’s praise of Ball’s transition game, the team ranks 17th in the league in pace this season, a far cry of where they ranked last year (second in the NBA), and Ball has since been rumored to be on the trade block.
While it may be too early to call Van Gundy’s hiring a failure, it is worth highlighting another coaching candidate that would have been better suited for the job—Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham.
Ham’s NBA coaching career began in 2011 when he was hired by the Los Angeles Lakers in a player development role. After two seasons in Tinseltown, Ham joined the Atlanta Hawks’ coaching staff where he spent five seasons alongside Mike Budenholzer. Then in 2018, he followed Budenholzer to Milwaukee and helped the Bucks put together two of their best seasons in franchise history.
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In each of the last two seasons, Milwaukee has ranked top-five in pace: second in 2018-19 and first in 2019-20. And to begin the 2020-21 campaign, Milwaukee is currently fifth in the NBA. Milwaukee was also one of the best defensive teams in the NBA during that span. Having a Defensive Player of the Year on your roster certainly helps, but that should not take away from the fact that Milwaukee ranked first in defensive rating during both the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.
As mentioned before, Ham’s effectiveness as a coach is predicated on his ability to develop young talent. Over the past eight years Ham oversaw the development of players like Dennis Schroder, Tim Hardaway Jr., Taurean Prince, Donte DiVincenzo, and Pat Connaughton. Imagine what Ham could unlock with players like Williamson, Ingram, Ball, Jaxson Hayes and Nickeil Alexander-Walker? Ham also would not be the first of Budenholzer’s disciples to venture into the head coaching ranks, as former and current head coaches Kenny Atkinson, Taylor Jenkins, and Quin Snyder all learned under the tutelage of Budenholzer.
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Atkinson spent four seasons as the head coach for the Brooklyn Nets (118-190 overall record) and is currently an assistant to Tyronn Lue with the Los Angeles Clippers. Jenkins overachieved in his first season with the Memphis Grizzlies last year and is continuing to build Memphis’ young core. And Snyder, arguably the most successful of the three, is in his seventh season with the Utah Jazz (287-216) and has turned them into a perennial playoff team currently atop the Western Conference.
Not only could Ham bring his expertise in the field of player development and a winning culture to a historically irrelevant franchise, the eight-year NBA veteran would also provide a youthful and more relatable presence to New Orleans’ infantile roster. That is not to say older coaches cannot have success with young teams (just ask Tom Thibodeau). But at the ripe age of 47-years-old, Ham may have more luck getting a young team to buy into a new system. And not only would Ham lessen the age gap between the team’s head coach and its star players, but he would also add to the small amount of Black head coaches in the NBA.
Former NBA player @Matt_Barnes22 says Black head coaches and executives don't get the same opportunities as their white colleagues
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 30, 2020
Watch his conversation with @TaylorRooks on race, his Blackness and more https://t.co/JKkq9eux8c pic.twitter.com/xJrCOTFJhh
As currently constructed, seven of the NBA’s 30 head coaches are Black: Lloyd Pierce, Dwane Casey, J.B. Bickerstaff, Doc Rivers, Lue, Stephen Silas, and Monty Williams. And after one of the most turbulent years in recent memory, one in which the NBA routinely reminded their audience they care about the advancement of their Black employees, now is the time to turn those words into action.
Van Gundy and the Pelicans could turn things around as the season carries on, but if the team continues to struggle, they should consider a coaching change—and Ham could be the solution to their problems.
Jorie Mickens is an Assistant Sports Director for WSOU Sports, and can be reached at jorie.mickens@student.shu.edu.
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