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The Los Angeles Lakers' head coaching job is the highest profile vacancy in this offseason's coaching carousel, and it looked as though the Lakers were well on their way to hiring JJ Redick away from the ESPN commentary booth to succeed Darvin Ham. However, in what seems like the 11th hour, the Lakers are reportedly pivoting towards making UConn Huskies head coach Dan Hurley their number one target.
Hurley has been making waves in the coaching world amid UConn's run of dominance. The Huskies have stood tall in the collegiate basketball world over the past two seasons, and Hurley's stock has skyrocketed accordingly. But beyond his deep knowledge of the game's Xs and Os, the Lakers might be looking to bring Hurley in for his ability to develop young talent, which would work well should the Purple and Gold decide to select Bronny James on draft night.
“You're gonna have to grow your young players. The idea of Bronny James in the Lakers; who better, potentially, than Dan Hurley, to be the development coach to lead his growth. [He's a] coach who's really dominated the college sport. You talk about Xs and Os acumen, player development… from day one of this Lakers search, it has been Dan Hurley,” Adrian Wojnarowski said via UNSPORTSMANLIKE Radio on ESPN.
The #Lakers over the next few days are in a full-court press to convince Dan Hurley to come to LA. @wojespn via #USL on @ESPNRadio @ESPNLosAngeles pic.twitter.com/ABXAd7TpX2
— UNSPORTSMANLIKE Radio (@UnSportsESPN) June 6, 2024
Indeed, bringing LeBron James' firstborn son does not come without its fair share of risk; the Lakers have the 17th and 56th overall selections for the upcoming draft, and the last thing the Lakers would want is to bring Bronny in but fail to put him in a position where he could develop properly.
Wojnarowski added that some of the NBA coaches he has talked to said that the coaching smarts of Dan Hurley will translate to the NBA game and the Lakers clearly believe this to be the case given that they're in hot pursuit of the UConn head coach. Bringing Hurley in, however, could potentially kill off two birds with one stone — bringing in an experienced coach who is widely regarded, even by LeBron, while also having someone who could bring out the best in Bronny.
Bronny James, the unknown of the 2024 NBA Draft
Everyone knows the deal with Bronny James by now; any team that selects him in the draft will have a real shot at acquiring the services of LeBron James given how strongly James has expressed his desire to play with his firstborn son. Alas, drafting Bronny isn't a guarantee that LeBron will be coming in a package deal, which is what makes the 19-year old guard out of USC the biggest question mark of the draft.
ClutchPoints NBA insider Brett Siegel wrote that Bronny could go anywhere from 20 to 50, depending on teams' appetite for risk. The common line of thinking is that James is still likely to go in the second round due to his lackluster season at USC, but at the very least, the 19-year old guard is turning heads with his performance in the draft combine.
Bronny James still has a ton of potential as a defense-first guard who could, perhaps, space the floor if he continues working on his jumpshot. He has good size at the guard position; listed at 6'4 and 210 lbs., he certainly has the physical tools to hound even the league's best ballhandlers. But his offensive game needs a ton of work. James shot 37/27/68 in 25 games last season, numbers that won't earn him any playing time at all at the NBA level.
At pick 17, James is simply too big of a risk for the Lakers to take on, unless they have a guarantee from LeBron that he'll re-sign if they draft his son. At pick 56, Bronny may be off the board. Plenty of difficult decisions await the Lakers. But perhaps they become more encouraged to take Bronny if they manage to snag Dan Hurley from UConn.
Were the JJ Redick rumors all smoke and mirrors from the Lakers?
At what feels like the 11th hour, there is a new frontrunner for the Lakers job even though the discussion surrounding the head coaching vacancy was dominated by JJ Redick. Redick looked poised to take the job and it seemed like he was only going to finish his commentary duties for the NBA Finals before he officially began his coaching career.
Dan Hurley can still decline the Lakers' offer and remain with UConn, so it's not like hiring Redick is out of the question. But it's certainly a major turn of events that the Lakers have been eyeing Hurley from the start instead.
