Ranking 3 best coaching jobs for Milwaukee Bucks assistant Darvin Ham

Another year, another NBA head coaching cycle that prominently features Milwaukee Bucks assistant Darvin Ham. Despite all of the attention and interviews he’s gotten for various job openings, no team has taken a chance on him yet.

This year, there are three openings so far and they all have been linked to Ham. The Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Lakers, and Charlotte Hornets are all looking for a new voice to lead them going forward and Ham would be a quality choice for any team that chooses to hire him.

That being said, what about the fit for Ham? We all have confidence that he’d do a good job wherever he goes, but which job would put him in the best position to succeed and isn’t an absolute tire fire of an organization?

My criteria will is some mix of organizational competence, roster construction, and pressure. Before all of that, let’s get some honorable mentions out of the way.

Honorable mentions: Jobs that aren’t open at the moment, but could be

I’ll toss four teams in this pile: the Brooklyn Nets, New York Knicks, Utah Jazz, and Philadelphia 76ers. All of these are speculative since they don’t actually have a job opening yet, but it could become available soon.

The Nets had a tough season with injuries, vaccine mandates, and general dysfunction that led them to be the seventh seed. Steve Nash took a lot of flak during their series with the Boston Celtics, but it’s hard to put all of the blame on him when the roster just wasn’t very good outside of the two stars and a couple of role players.

Reports indicate Nash will be back, which is a good decision. He’s still a young coach and the players like him.

I doubt Tom Thibodeau gets let go in New York, but I’ve never been a fan of his whatsoever. The Knicks had a fun season last year to get back to the playoffs but took a major step back this year (as Thibodeau-coached teams tend to do). I’d let him go, but I don’t think the Knicks will just yet.

Utah is set up for a cataclysmic offseason after another disappointing playoff exit. Reports are that Rudy Gobert wants out and Donovan Mitchell may not be far behind him. There have been rumors that Quin Snyder may bolt as well (perhaps for the Lakers), so this is a fun potential opening to watch.

Philadelphia is still in the playoffs but after escaping disaster in the first round and staring down a 2-0 series deficit against the Miami Heat, things are dicey for Doc Rivers. This is another one where I don’t expect he’d get let go because they’ll have the “well, Joel Embiid wasn’t healthy” excuse but they’re certainly going to consider it!

You could also toss teams like the Houston Rockets (Stephen Silas) and Detroit Pistons (Dwane Casey) in here, but those teams would have decided to let those guys go at this point, you’d have to think.