2024 NBA Finals – Game Two
The “why” makes for excellent talking head fodder. Did Dan Hurley ultimately 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 genuinely struggled with the decision.) Was the Lakers offer lowball? (Let’s not call $11.7 million a year, a doubling of his current salary, “lowball,” however, it was also not a Godfather offer he couldn’t refuse.) A little of all of the above?
Ultimately, the why is moot — Dan Hurley spurned 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 felt like the Lakers’ home run swing. Do they have another? Or are they looking for a sneaky double down the line? A solid single?
What the Lakers reportedly are seeking in a coach sounds more like a fantasy wish list than reality: a “grinder” who is a relentless game planner, who commands the locker room, will hold players accountable, and also is very good at player development. (Not only is one coach not going to embody all that, but things like great player development are organizational, not just coach-driven.)
Head coach of the Lakers is unquestionably one of the most prestigious jobs in basketball, however, it comes with plenty of warning signs for coaches who have options (like Hurley, or Monty Williams and Tyronn Lue years earlier). Ultimately, talent wins in the NBA, and the Lakers have finished seventh or worse in the West 11 out of the last 12 years (the exception was the 2020 Covid season, where they won the title). More concerning in attracting talent, even the coaches who have won — Frank Vogel won a title for the Lakers, Darvin Ham took 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 their conversations with J.J. Redick and James Borrego. How far those conversations have gone depends on who is doing…
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