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The Los Angeles Lakers took a swing on Dan Hurley and missed. Hurley decided to decline the six-year $70 million deal to remain with the UConn Huskies. With LA still searching for a new head coach, Hurley recently made an admission about the contract offer Los Angeles gave him.
During an interview on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Dan Hurley admitted that the Lakers could have offered him a contract with enough money that he would have accepted the deal. However, the UConn coach does claim that he doesn't know what that number would be.
“To say that it's not a motivating factor – the finances –to leave a place, it's definitely a thing…To leave all that behind, there probably is a number. I don't know what that is.”
Is there an amount of money the Lakers could have offered Dan Hurley that would have resulted in him leaving UConn?
“To say that it's not a motivating factor – the finances –to leave a place, it's definitely a thing…To leave all that behind, there probably is a number. I don't… pic.twitter.com/5nsMtFNpYn
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) June 13, 2024
That's just got to be a gut punch to the Lakers franchise. They potentially could have offered him more money on the contract and Dan Hurley could have said “yes.” But it's now a woulda-coulda-shoulda situation in Los Angeles.
Hurley will remain as the head coach of the UConn Huskies for the unforeseeable future. The Huskies have won back-to-back championships and are seeking a three-peat. If they can accomplish that feat, that would align Dan Hurley with legendary UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden, as the only college coach to win three National Championships in a row.
Who will Lakers sign as head coach?
With Dan Hurley out of the picture, Los Angeles is likely casting a wider net. The JJ Redick hype is still alive as he's booked an interview with the Lakers. Redick was a brilliant player throughout his career and his smarts helped him maintain a successful 15-year career in the NBA. The downside of JJ Redick is that he has no coaching background.
Another name that's popped up in the rumor mill is James Borrego, who is currently an assistant coach of the New Orleans Pelicans. He has plenty of experience coaching in the NBA and won two championships as an assistant for Greg Popovic and the San Antonio Spurs. The last head coaching gig Borrego held was with the Charlotte Hornets from 2018 to 2022.
As of now, those seem to be the top two candidates on the Lakers head coaching list. Making the right hire is crucial for this franchise as they haven't seen much success recently. Although they won the championship in the 2020 bubble, Los Angeles has largely been a disappointment for several years.
