The Los Angeles Lakers are on the clock. Just two seasons after giving Darvin Ham his first gig as an NBA head coach, the Lakers have decided that going in another direction is what's best for the franchise after the team suffered back-to-back playoff exits at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. And it's looking like the Lakers already have someone they want to hire, as according to reports, JJ Redick is the frontrunner for the Purple and Gold's vacant head coaching job.

There is always pressure for the Lakers to contend for a championship; after all, high expectations come with having the duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the roster. For Austin Reaves, he's not hoping for much in whomever the Lakers hire as their next head coach. Reaves simply wants his future head coach to match the players' approach when it comes to competing for a title.

“I don't know when they're hiring a coach, so I'm right there with y'all on that news. But hopefully we get somebody that comes to work every single day the way that we do ready to go try to win a championship,” Reaves said in a Zoom call, per Daniel Starkand of Lakers Nation.

Are those words subtle shots towards Darvin Ham? Who knows. It's disingenuous to take what Austin Reaves said and construe them as some sort of dislike towards the former Lakers head coach. Nonetheless, it's understandable why Reaves would want someone who is connected with the team on a deeper level, as there were plenty of reports that Ham didn't have the full buy-in of the locker room this past season.

Austin Reaves and the Lakers' need for a consistent system

Beyond having someone who matches the team's desire to win a championship, Austin Reaves prefers his next head coach to be someone who can establish a system that makes the most out of the talent the roster has on hand. For the Lakers, there was a sense that they left something on the table this past season; there was a stretch where Rui Hachimura and Reaves came off the bench while Cam Reddish and Taurean Prince started.

For Reaves, having a more established system would lead to more consistency. This could then help the Lakers achieve their contending goals much more easily as they try to avoid entering the 2025 NBA playoffs as a lower seed amid the growing competition out West.

“I feel like that's something you need in any sport you play, like consistency in basically a system and just growing that with what we have. Obviously Bron and AD is a very special duo to have, but just growing a system around those two to basically help in whatever they need and then playing around them. But I think that we're heading in the right direction, obviously with a coaching change coming up,” Reaves added.

Now, that last sentence is a much more direct shot towards Darvin Ham. Perhaps a change in head coach is truly what's necessary to unlock another level for this iteration of the Lakers as they seek to maximize the twilight years of LeBron James' career.

Reaves makes his 2024 NBA Finals pick

While Austin Reaves is busy with his non-basketball life pursuits, seeing as he's set to compete in the American Century Championship golf tournament, he is still keeping close tabs on what's left of the 2024 NBA playoffs. Of course, there is plenty of excitement surrounding the 2024 NBA Finals matchup between the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics, and for Reaves, the choice of which team he's rooting for to win it all is easy. After all, he is a Laker through and through.

“I gotta go Dallas just because I can't choose Boston,” Reaves said.

It will be interesting to see how the Mavericks defend a Celtics team that will have five shooters on the court at all times. The Mavs had someone to help off of in every series to this point (Ivica Zubac, Russell Westbrook, Josh Giddey, Rudy Gobert, and Kyle Anderson, just to name a few), but the Celtics won't afford them that luxury.

Alas, the Mavericks have the best player in the series in Luka Doncic as well as one of the greatest closers of all time in Kyrie Irving. This will be a matchup that stands to go down to the wire, and it might all boil down to which team can execute better in the clutch. The 2024 NBA Finals begin on Thursday at 8:30 PM E.T.