What kind of head coach do the Lakers need?

After only two seasons, the Lakers have officially fired Darvin Ham and are back on the market for a new voice in the huddle. What traits should they prioritize this go-around?

Being the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers is a double-edged sword.

On the fortunate end, the title comes with a level of notoriety few in the field will ever sniff. From constantly getting interviewed for sideline hits in between quarters and having huddles mic’d up for a national audience to hear, the job puts the coach in the spotlight. A rarity compared to the anonymity of some at the helm of smaller market teams.

“Coaches are just not famous. They just aren’t,” said one fan last year after multiple onlookers tried and failed to identify Mark Daigneault — the head coach of Oklahoma City Thunder and winner of this season’s Coach of the Year award — from his picture alone.

Darvin Ham, however, is famous. And with fame, comes expectations, pressure, and a magnifying glass ready to dissect every molecule of a decision. Fair or not, failure is not an option in Los Angeles. Context is just another word for excuse.

That is the less fortunate end of coaching the Lakers that Ham has just been slain by.

After another uneven regular season that landed his team in the play-in tournament and eventually getting bounced out of the first round by the Denver Nuggets, again, Ham was fired by the Lakers on Friday.

Although not surprising after days of speculation, Ham’s departure does put the franchise back in a precarious position of having to accomplish something they failed to do for over a decade: find a head coach who sticks.

This is the third time in six offseasons that the Lakers will be on the market for a new head coach. Whoever the new hire is, they will be the seventh since 2011.

While the coaching carousel in Los Angeles is ostensibly due to the team’s self-governed championship or bust mantra, it also represents how difficult it is to find the right person for the job.

Ham was far from the only reason why the Lakers fizzled out. He did, however, play a role.

In an extensive piece from the Athletic that dropped just minutes following the team’s elimination, Ham’s lineup management, preferential treatment, questionable game plans and lack of self-accountability were reported as major causes of internal frustration.

This frustration was not hidden as several Lakers made not-so-subtle jabs toward the coaching staff throughout the year.

Back in January, Anthony Davis publicly questioned the validity of the team’s defensive scheme, which called for actively playing off certain shooters. According to the NBA’s tracking data, the Lakers led the league with 1753 allowed wide-open threes allowed this season.

And during the team’s series recent series Denver, Davis made his most pointed statement yet, admitting: “We have stretches where we just don’t know what we’re doing on both ends of the floor.”

When asked about Davis’ comments, Ham did not downplay them but instead chose to “agree to disagree.” Whether right or wrong, this amplification signaled he and the star were on different pages at the worst time.

Regardless of who ultimately was at fault for Ham’s short tenure with the team, it was clear that both sides had reached the point where wires had not so much been crossed but cut.

So, the Lakers find themselves at a familiar crossroads in their attempt to find the right voice for the locker room. Essentially, there are two paths they can opt to take.

The safest and most likely option is to find an experienced individual who fits within the team’s timeline and will not replicate what was viewed as Ham’s shortcomings as a first-time head coach

Reports have already indicated as much with veteran coaches such as Ty Lue, Jason Kidd, Mike Budenholzer and Kenny Atkinson seen as potential candidates for the opening.

Based on this initial list and given the criticisms of Ham, it is safe to assume that the team will look for someone who possesses specific qualities that can: earn the respect of the roster — especially the stars — optimize the rotation, have better timeout and challenge management, and perhaps most importantly, hold themself accountable even when not at fault.

Beyond these aspects, the front office would be wise to find a coach who will light a fire under this team sooner. Under Ham, the Lakers have had to climb out of early-season deficits in the standings continuously.

As a result, this forced LeBron James and Davis to exert more energy later to claw their way into the playoffs. Some of this was out of Ham’s control, like handling the Russell Westbrook situation and a flawed roster in year one.

However, this season saw the most healthy James and Davis have ever been during their time with the Lakers, and still, they barely scraped by as the seventh seed.

The Western Conference was a monster this year, to be fair, And in another season, 47 wins might have slotted them higher. That said, this should not absolve the lack of desperation with which Ham and his team approached the 82-game slate.

From their woeful first quarters — -10.3 netRTG during the first four months of the season — to taking too long to settle on the right starting lineup, the Lakers punted valuable time that ultimately came back to bite them.

“I’m tired of people living and dying with every single game we play,” Ham placatingly said following a loss earlier in the year. “It’s ludicrous, actually. It’s like, c’mon, man. This is a marathon.”

Despite some validity to Ham’s sentiment, for a team who finished the season just four games out of having home court and losing a series in which they led by at least nine points in each game, a little extra urgency could have had a major impact.

A veteran coach will not magically be exempt from making these mistakes but could be seasoned enough to know what future consequences can arise from early bad habits.

On the other end, one potential issue with going the experienced head coach route is they likely will only serve as a stopgap compared to finding a younger coach whom the team can grow with.

Despite Luke Walton and Ham proving not to be the long-term solutions, they did represent the Lakers’ longing for a coach who can be here for the long haul, a desire that some in the organization may still have as among the veterans already linked to the Lakers are several first-timers.

Some names that have already been reported to be on their radar include JJ Redick, David Adelman and Charles Lee.

While a younger voice in the room carries more risk, as the Lakers have seen firsthand, there is also potentially far more upside.

Although there are cases of older coaches being able to adjust to the modern game, some of the league’s most exciting and successful current coaches fall on the younger side as they have proven more equipped to navigate the nuances of an evolving sport.

For as many critics Ham had, it is worth noting he did implement a 5-out system that, coupled with clever playcalling, directly led to the Lakers’ best offense in over a decade.

Finding a coach who can provide the positives that Ham offered while also injecting the franchise with more new ideas could be appealing to those in the brain trust who have an eye down the line.

And given that continuity has been a buzzword tracing back to last summer, one of the most effective ways to construct it beyond just retaining players involves also having the same person on the sideline for more than a few seasons.

That said, there are legitimate question marks on how a young coach would fare coaching two stars, especially one about to turn 40, and a title window shrinking by the minute.

Whether experienced or not, the Lakers need to ultimately find the best person for the job this time. Yes, they do have to prioritize the short term when doing so, but they can not turn their back on the future in the process.

It would behoove them then to cast a wide net in their search in the upcoming weeks. They might not reel in their own Gregg Popovich or Erik Spoelstra, but could finally land someone that bucks a trend of immediately getting thrown back into the ocean.

All stats courtesy of Cleaning the Glass unless otherwise stated.

You can follow Alex on Twitter at @AlexmRegla.