Evaluating Lakers Head Coaching Candidates: Mike Budenholzer

After two seasons, the Los Angeles Lakers chose to part ways with head coach Darvin Ham. The team came into this season with championship aspirations but fell far short, losing to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, the second consecutive year the Lakers came up short to Denver.

Following a promising first season, the Lakers preached continuity and chemistry going into this year, but that simply didn’t happen. While some of that can be attributed to injuries to multiple rotation pieces, Ham also made many questionable rotation decisions. Taking too long to find the right starting lineup and moving key players to the bench didn’t go over too well.

Additionally, Ham’s failures to make proper adjustments against the Nuggets in the playoffs would also aid in the Lakers choosing to dismiss him.

And now that the move has bee made, the attention goes towards who will replace him and the most decorated is former Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer.

Budenholzer spent 17 years as an assistant under Gregg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs and 10 years of NBA head coaching experience with the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks. He led his team to the playoffs in all but one of his seasons as a head coach and in 2021 led the Bucks to the NBA Championship. Along the way, he was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2015 and 2019.

The Bucks decided to part ways with Budenholzer following their shocking first-round playoff upset at the hands of the Miami Heat in 2023 and he did not coach anywhere this past season. There is some precedence for the Lakers bringing in a coach after a year off as they did the same with Frank Vogel in 2019 and that led them to a championship in 2020.

There could be a bit of a question about Budenholzer being the successor to Ham as the former Lakers coach was a long-time assistant under Budenholzer. Ham learned a lot from Budenholzer and the two remain close, so perhaps the Lakers could be wary about following up Ham with the person he learned from as they will undoubtedly have a lot of similarities.

Lakers candidate Mike Budenholzer’s strengths

Budenholzer is very experienced and knows how to build a great defense. His teams have finished in the top six in defensive efficiency in six of his 10 years as a head coach. Additionally, his regular season success can’t be denied as he has the 11th-highest win percentage in NBA history of coaches with at least five years of experience.

Spending so many years under the learning tree of Popovich means he has a great foundation and he has had success with different types of teams. His time with the Bucks proved he can win and get the best out of superstars while his time with the Atlanta Hawks showed he can make the sum of a team greater than its individual parts.

With a year off to re-evaluate, watch and learn from the outside, it is very conceivable that Budenholzer could have picked up some new tricks that will make him even better as a coach.

Lakers candidate Mike Budenholzer’s weaknesses

There has been a stubbornness at times with Budenholzer in regards to his strategies, lineups and rotations, particularly in the postseason. Too often he has stuck with matchups or things that simply were not working believing that it will ultimately turn around and it hasn’t which has led to some playoff disappointments.

The same can be said for his rotations as he would often be reluctant to play his stars bigger minutes even in situations where adjustments could be made when it is called for. The fact that he was the teacher to Ham could also mean that some of the same things that were disliked about the former Lakers head coach could be the case for Budenholzer as well.