LOS ANGELES — The Lakers have fired coach Darvin Ham after two seasons, both of which had some unarguable successes and both of which ended with the Lakers losing to Denver in the playoffs.

The team reached the Western Conference finals in Ham's first season and won the in-season tournament in the second. But inconsistent lineups and too much experimentation with personnel combined with a lack of locker room support led to frustration with the bench.

Whatever the cause, the future is now what matters most.

Who, or maybe more interestingly, where, will the Lakers turn to next?

The established candidates

There's an assumption in some NBA circles that the Lakers, as they've been prone to doing, will turn hard toward the other direction after deciding the road they were traveling was incorrect.

They replaced an outsider in Mike D'Antoni with an insider in Byron Scott. They replaced Scott, an experienced coach, with Luke Walton, who was getting his first head coaching job. After Walton, they went with someone more experienced in Frank Vogel (after talking with other experienced coaches such as Monty Williams and Tyronn Lue).

And after Vogel, they hired another first-time head coach — Ham.

So if the Lakers are going to zig after they zagged (no, not Mark Few), where could they look?

Golden State assistant Kenny Atkinson was a finalist for the Lakers job two summers ago. Former Portland head coach Terry Stotts has been high on the team's wish list on multiple occasions, with the Lakers trying to hire him as a lead assistant, according to people familiar with the situation who are not authorized to talk publicly on the matter.

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