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After two seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers as the team's head coach, Darvin Ham was let go by the Western Conference franchise. He reportedly had a chance to stay in the West, particularly in the same division with the Lakers, but passed out on a chance to work with Phoenix Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer, per NBA insider Marc Stein.
“League sources say Budenholzer made a run at trying to convince Darvin Ham to join his staff in Phoenix, but Ham — fired as Lakers coach on May 3 — is said to have understandably passed after two exacting seasons in Lakerland. The Suns responded by asking David Fizdale, from Vogel’s staff, to stay on as an assistant coach on Budenholzer's new staff after initially offering him a front office role.”
Mike Budenholzer attempted to lure Darvin Ham to be part of Suns staff
Budenholzer and Ham are very much familiar with each other, particularly from a coaching perspective. Ham worked under Budenholzer as an assistant head coach for the Atlanta Hawks from 2013 to 2018. When Budenholzer went to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2018, Ham followed him. Three years later, Budenholzer and Ham reached the pinnacle of coaching success in the league when they helped steer the Bucks to an NBA title by defeating the Phoenix Suns in the 2021 NBA Finals.
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When the Lakers dismissed Ham, he still had two years remaining on his contract with the team. He could still be aiming to continue his career as a head coach in the NBA somewhere else, which may be a major reason why he turned down the opportunity to join Budenholzer on the Suns coaching staff. It is also possible that Ham wants to take a bit of rest after two high-pressure years as the Lakers bench boss. Ham led the Lakers all the way to the Western Conference finals of the 2023 NBA Playoffs and had Los Angeles winning the inaugural In-Season Tournament. In the 2023-24 NBA campaign, the Lakers returned to the playoffs under Ham but LA got eliminated in the first round by the same team that struck them out in the previous year's WCF — the Denver Nuggets.
As for Budenholzer and the Suns, they will be looking to capitalize on their immense potential, something they failed to do in the only season Frank Vogel spent calling the shots for Phoenix. The Suns parted ways with Vogel — another former Lakers head coach — after Phoenix got swept in the first round of the playoffs by Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves. They weren't too shabby under Vogel, as they won 49 games, but Phoenix must have felt the team could have done a lot better considering it paraded a Big Three of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal.
As a two-time winner of the NBA Coach of the Year award, Budenholzer has the Suns' trust that he could turn Phoenix into a real NBA champion. That is going to be easier said than done, but such a scenario would also be poetic, considering that Budenholzer's only NBA ring so far came at the expense of Phoenix. With or without Ham, Budenholzer will be determined to make a champion out of the Suns and he'll have help from the likes of Chaisson Allen of the Utah Jazz and Chad Forcier of the Wisconsin Herd, who both have been added to Phoenix's coaching staff.
Budenholzer has collected 484 wins against 317 losses for a 60.4 percent win rate across 801 games through his NBA career as head coach.
