The “why” is excellent fodder for talking heads. Did Dan Hurley finally decide he just couldn’t leave his recruits, the Huskies and the East Coast? Was this all a leverage play to get more money out of UConn? (Reporters close to Hurley say no, he actually struggled with the decision.) Were the Lakers offered lowball? (Let’s not call $11.7 million a year, double his current salary, “lowball,” however, it also wasn’t an offer from the Godfather he couldn’t refuse.) A little bit of all that?
Ultimately, why is debatable – Dan Hurley rejected an offer to coach the Los Angeles Lakers to stay at UConn.
The bigger questions: Where do the Lakers go from here? What is the plan?
Hurley looked like the Lakers’ home run. Do they have another one? Or are they looking for a sneaky one-two punch in the future? A solid single?
What the Lakers reportedly look for in a coach seems more like a fantasy wish list than reality: a “grinder” who is a tireless game planner, commands the locker room, holds players accountable and is also very good at player development. . (Not only will a coach not incorporate all of this, but things like developing a great player are organizational, not just coach-driven.)
Lakers head coach is unquestionably one of the most prestigious jobs in basketball, however, it comes with a lot of red flags for coaches who have options (like Hurley or Monty Williams and Tyronn Lue years before). Ultimately, talent wins in the NBA, and the Lakers have finished seventh or worse in the West in 11 of the last 12 years (the exception was the 2020 Covid season, where they won the title). More concerning in attracting talent, even coaches who have won — Frank Vogel won a title for the Lakers, Darvin Ham led them to the Western Conference Finals a season ago — don’t last. No coach since Phil Jackson has lasted more than three seasons with the Lakers.
Where do the Lakers go from here? Is there a plan?
The obvious answer is that the Lakers will resume talks with JJ Redick and James Borrego. How far these conversations go depends on who is spinning, but ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reports they never took it seriously (although the buzz was loud enough that some within the organization thought Redick would eventually get the job). Borrego is a proven and experienced coach who is considered a strong offensive mind, but he has had no success in Charlotte. Redick is the biggest name — and LeBron James’ podcast partner — who could grow into the role, but it would be a big roll of the dice since he has no coaching experience.
Marc Stein mentioned a fascinating name in his newsletter: Former Villanova coach Jay Wright. A few years ago, this was the guy every NBA front office was drooling over. Not only does he have a talent for Xs and Os, but he has also shown incredible player development skills, and his temperament seems better suited to coaching in the NBA than Hurley. The question is: Does Wright want to go back to coaching? Would he find something like the offer made to Hurley difficult to refuse? If not Wright, is there another rock star college coach ready to make the jump to the NBA?
Regardless of who is hired, what the Lakers need — what they paid lip service to but must now move on from — is stability. They need a coach who can develop players and develop a program and culture, and that takes time. The Lakers have always been able to sign free agency stars or sign guys in trades, but when they hung flags it was because they had developed a core of good young players to go along with those stars – Byron Scott, AC Green and others in the Showtime Era, Derek Fisher, Andrew Bynum and Luke Walton in future starting lineups. Look at the teams competing in this year’s NBA Finals and notice that they select and develop players around their stars to make it all work.
The only thing that seems certain right now is that the Lakers will take their time. This will likely extend until after the NBA Finals, although the Lakers want a coach before the NBA Draft, which gives them a little time.
But what’s the plan?
