Lakers, UConn's Hurley in talks about head-coaching job (2024)

The Lakers and Connecticut coach Dan Hurley are in contact about Los Angeles’ head-coaching vacancy, team and league sources confirmed Thursday.

The Lakers are preparing a long-term contract offer to the 51-year-old Hurley, according to ESPN, which first reported the talks. Hurley has led UConn to back-to-back national championships, elevating his status as the top active coach in college basketball. Hurley, who began his coaching career at the high school level, has not coached in the NBA, but built the Huskies into a powerhouse that is 52-5 in their last 57 games.

His move to Los Angeles would be significant for a Lakers team coming off a first-round playoff exit. Los Angeles hopes to retain star LeBron James, who must decide whether to exercise his $51.4 million player option for the 2024-25 season by June 29.

Should Hurley leave Connecticut, it would also send shockwaves throughout college basketball, with the coach of its preeminent program departing nearly two months after most coaching carousel activity. Connecticut was poised to be a preseason top-10 team and a contender to win its third consecutive national championship.

A source close to UConn’s program said it was business as usual today in Storrs, with the Huskies slated to practice in the middle of the day, and that a deal with the Lakers was far from done. UConn has not offered Hurley a new deal since he signed a six-year, $32.1 million contract last year, after the first of the two titles, but a contract could be in play.

The Lakers’ search has centered on JJ Redick, the ESPN broadcaster and former NBA player, and New Orleans Pelicans associate head coach James Borrego. Redick was the first candidate to have a face-to-face meeting with the Lakers three weeks ago, and Borrego did an in-person interview with Lakers officials for a second time last week. Los Angeles fired Darvin Ham on May 3 after two seasons.

In April, James praised Hurley after hearing him talk on Redick’s podcast. James wrote on X: “He’s so DAMN GOOD!!! Along with his staff. Super creative with their O! Love it.”

He’s so DAMN GOOD!!! Along with his staff. Super creative with their O! Love it

— LeBron James (@KingJames) April 19, 2024

Hurley’s contract includes a separate, heavily reduced buyout if Hurley leaves for an NBA head-coaching position — $1.875 million, versus a $7.5 million buyout if he leaves for a college head-coaching job.

UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma, appearing on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Thursday, said he was with Hurley on Wednesday night and randomly brought up the Lakers’ head-coaching vacancy.

“I have no idea where this is going or what’s happening, but I just leaned over and I said, ‘I think you could win a lot of championships with the Lakers, more so than a guy who’s never coached,’” Auriemma said.

Auriemma said Hurley “just looked at me and nodded.”

“It’d be a bad day for UConn if this happens and it’d be a great, great day for Dan Hurley,” he said, adding Hurley is “crazy if he doesn’t take it.”

Geno Auriemma was with Dan Hurley last night and says he told him "I think you could win a lot of championships with the Lakers, more so than a guy who's never coached." 👀

🎥 @dpshowpic.twitter.com/wAZXbF2Gah

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) June 6, 2024

If hired, Hurley would join Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan as active NBA coaches to win a national championship at the college level. Donovan, who also won back-to-back NCAA Tournaments while at Florida, left the Gators for the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015 and has made six playoff appearances in nine seasons. Larry Brown, who captured a national title at Kansas and an NBA Finals with the Detroit Pistons, is the only head coach to win a championship at both levels.

What would Hurley bring as an NBA head coach?

Hurley is by far the best NBA prospect among college coaches. He runs an intricate, NBA-style offensive system that generates 3s and rim attempts through lots of player movement off screens and dribble-handoffs. It deploys multiple ballhandlers who can initiate the offense into its main actions and disguises its sets well with different variations and counters off the same formations and sets. But the scheme isn’t rigid; Hurley gives his players freedom to play loose and attack based on what the defense is giving them.

Defensively, Hurley has also shown a willingness to adapt to his players’ skills and opponents’ tendencies. He has run drop coverage on pick-and-rolls with bigs like Donovan Clingan and blitzed with more mobile players like Samson Johnson. Last season, he largely brought Adama Sanogo to the level of the screen or deployed him in a show-and-recover scheme.

In terms of scouting, Hurley’s teams were among the most well-prepared in the country. They identified their opponents’ weakness and relentlessly attacked them with pinpoint precision. Once they found a set that worked, they were unafraid to run it multiple times in a row until the opponent stopped it. — Sam Vecenie, senior basketball writer

Required reading

• What can Lakers learn from each NBA conference finalist? Be bold, but smart
• Timeline of Lakers’ coaching history over past 12 seasons
• Inside a Lakers season gone wrong and what’s next for LeBron James, Darvin Ham
• How UConn became college basketball’s unlikeliest modern Camelot

(Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)