NBA Offseason Guide 2022 - Darvin Ham is in, but the Lakers have more questions to answer

After a disastrous season that saw the Los Angeles Lakers miss the playoffs for the second time in the LeBron James era, the Lakers' front office wasted little time in making changes.

Head coach Frank Vogel, who led the Lakers to a championship just 18 months ago, is out, and former Milwaukee Bucks assistant Darvin Ham becomes the team's fifth different head coach in 10 seasons. The last Lakers coach to make it to his fourth season was Phil Jackson in his second tenure, which ended following the 2010-11 campaign.

The hiring of Ham will certainly give the Lakers a fresh perspective, but in reality, he will be walking into the same situation that Vogel left behind. The Lakers are a team coming off their worst season since 2016-17, with $130 million committed to the trio of James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook, and entering this summer, they have little flexibility to change the roster via free agency, the draft and trades.

MORE: Lakers rank 18th in Future Power Rankings

Roster status: Championship or bust but with cracks in the foundation.

Last offseason, the Lakers traded for Westbrook hoping he could be a third star alongside James and Davis, and filled out the roster with mostly minimum salary veterans around that trio.

The trade backfired (and we are saying that politely) and the missed opportunities in free agency have the Lakers entering this offseason with more questions than answers, starting with the search for a new head coach.

Winning a championship in 2020 should have bought job security and more equity for Vogel. Instead, he's out after the failed Westbrook experiment, despite injuries to James and Davis forcing him to use 39 different starting lineups in 2021-22.

The situation the next head coach is