At one point last week, it looked as if the Los Angeles Lakers were set to hire longtime NBA player JJ Redick as their new head coach. But then UConn basketball's Dan Hurley entered the fray. And now, it's unclear exactly who, if anyone, is the frontrunner to land the highest-profile job in the league.

Hurley, who had not been reported as even a potential candidate for the first month of the coaching search, suddenly became the top candidate as the Lakers put a full-court press on the back-to-back national championship-winning coach. Ultimately, Hurley decided to pass on the Lakers job to return to UConn, where he is expected to sign an extension for less money than he was reportedly offered by Los Angeles.

Until Hurley's proverbial hat was thrown in the ring, Redick had been considered to be the favorite to replace Darvin Ham, who was fired early last month following a first-round playoff exit. But even with Hurley seemingly out of the picture, Redick may no longer be at the top of the list — if there is a set list at all, according to The Athletic's Jovan Buha.

“In talking to different people today, there has not been a clear Plan B for the Lakers from this situation,” Buha said. “I thought that this was likely going to just be a five-day interlude, and the Lakers would go back to the JJ Redick well and try to circle back and mend fences and just go back and make him the frontrunner or the favorite or whatever term you want to use again, and that would be the likely outcome. But in having conversations with people in and outside of the organization today it has been a mixed bag in terms of what is the Plan B.

“I’ve heard things ranging from ‘JJ is still the front runner,' ‘JJ is still the favorite' to ‘JJ is in the mix,' but there might be a little bit of a reset there in terms of the Lakers really reevaluating all the candidates again and sort of refreshing the candidate pool in terms of looking at everybody through a new lens. I've heard JJ is out and that JJ is not under consideration anymore. And I've heard that the Lakers are going to scrap the entire pool and start over.”

Lakers potentially passing on JJ Redick

Former NBA player JJ Redick

It's unclear why the Lakers appear to have changed course so much in the last week or so. When Ham was fired, top reported candidates included Los Angeles Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue (a longshot considering his contract status), former Milwaukee Bucks coach and Ham's mentor Mike Budenholzer, Golden State Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson, New Orleans Pelicans assistant James Borrego, and Redick.

The only reported candidate without coaching experience, Redick nonetheless seemed to ascend to favorite status after Lue agreed to an extension with the Clippers and Budenholzer was hired to become the Phoenix Suns' head coach. While there was — and still is — considerable doubt and suspicion of his candidacy considering Redick hosts a podcast with Lakers star LeBron James and because he has never even been an assistant since retiring from the NBA in 2021, it seems odd that the Lakers would get such cold feet this far into the process.

In his video, Buha also mentioned that had Redick not been a part of ESPN's NBA Finals broadcast team, he believes Redick would have been hired already to be the Lakers' next head coach.

If the Lakers are truly starting over in their search, they will likely have to move relatively quickly, as the Cleveland Cavaliers are also searching for a new head coach and will most certainly be sniffing around Borrego and possibly Atkinson as well.