Sources: Lakers getting willing big offer to Hurley

The Los Angeles Lakers are focusing on UConn males’s basketball coach Dan Hurley because the franchise’s next coach and are getting willing an enormous, prolonged-term contract offer to bring the assist-to-assist NCAA nationwide champion to the NBA, sources instructed ESPN.

The Lakers own had preliminary contact with Hurley and the edges are planning to escalate discussions in the impending days, sources instructed ESPN. Hurley has been at the forefront of the Lakers’ search from the origin of the technique, even while the organization has carried out its due diligence interviewing plenty of varied candidates, sources said.

Lakers vp of basketball operations and total manager Rob Pelinka and governor Jeanie Buss are alive to to formally consult with Hurley their imaginative and prescient of marrying his dominant program — built upon his tactical acumen and his elite player screech — with the storied Lakers brand, sources said.

Hurley, 51, has in total described his ambition to in some unspecified time in the future coach in the NBA and has expressed to the Lakers a necessity to discover the beefy image of a partnership with in point of fact appropriate one of basketball’s winningest franchises, sources said.

Hurley instructed UConn avid gamers at educate Thursday that the Lakers had contacted him and that he changed into once listening to what they had to philosophize, sources said.

The pursuit of Hurley comes on the 20th anniversary of the Lakers attempting to rent then-Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski to a file-breaking contract in 2004. Krzyzewski elected to remain with the Blue Devils, however the climate has dramatically modified in faculty athletics. The demands of NIL fundraising for non-vitality-football colleges equivalent to UConn are an in particular relentless grind — and are anticipated to transform even extra sophisticated.

As for the Lakers’ stars, LeBron James has been impressed with Hurley’s sophisticated offensive actions. Assuming James returns to L.A. in free agency, the alternative of the utilization of the Fifty fifth make a choice on this month’s NBA draft on USC freshman guard Bronny James makes Hurley a inspiring extra inviting candidate. If that occurs, James gets of venture to play with his son and the supreme thing about Hurley and his crew becoming guilty for Bronny’s pro screech.

In a social media put up responding to a podcast interview with JJ Redick, James posted on X about Hurley: “He is so DAMN GOOD!!! Alongside with his crew. Gargantuan ingenious with their [offense]. Be pleased it.”

James has no longer had any conversations with the Lakers about Hurley or Redick, or the coaching search on the total for that topic, a offer conscious of the drawback instructed ESPN’s Dave McMenamin on Thursday. James, by strategy of his representatives, has made it determined that the Lakers must composed fabricate what is supreme for the organization and that he is wide awake and respectful that the Lakers must make a decision on a coach who will doubtless be with the crew beyond his playing career.

The Lakers own been dedicated to making All-NBA forward Anthony Davis a essential fragment of the dialog on the next head coach and desire to substantiate he is aligned with how a fresh coach plans to neutral him on offense and defense, sources said.

The Lakers own had plenty of interviews with varied candidates, including Contemporary Orleans Pelicans assistant James Borrego, Redick, Boston Celtics assistant Sam Cassell and Denver Nuggets assistant David Adelman, sources said. The Lakers own proceeded with conversations with varied candidates over the final few weeks, however the potential of touchdown Hurley has been the focal point of the Lakers’ search, sources said.

Allotment of the attract of Hurley traces assist to the altering landscape of NBA roster building below the collective bargaining agreement. Thanks to the roster-building boundaries of the fresh second apron, the potential of immense-market groups to make contending rosters by trading a pair of draft picks and younger avid gamers for a third megastar player has largely been eradicated. Past the 17th make a choice on this month’s draft, the Lakers own a younger core of Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Max Christie that management believes can composed show even bigger improvement below Hurley’s coaching, sources said.

After traditionally dominant assist-to-assist nationwide title seasons, Hurley has emerged as essentially the most coveted coach in the game — and the alternative of him leaving UConn and the Mountainous East Conference for the Lakers has big implications for faculty basketball and for the NBA. Hurley has constructed a juggernaut that has lapped the game — culminating with the NCAA’s first repeat champion in 17 years and a tournament performance that produced the supreme point differential in tournament history: 140 parts.

The alternative of UConn winning a third straight title looms with the return of a preseason top-five crew, however the Huskies did lose two lottery picks (heart Donovan Clingan and guard Stephon Fortress) and a first-crew All-The US point guard (Tristen Newton) to the NBA draft.

The Lakers pushed apart coach Darvin Ham after a first-round exit in the Western Conference playoffs. Ham changed into once 94-70 in two seasons — including a slip to the Western Conference finals in 2023.

Hurley is 141-58 (.709) in six seasons because the UConn coach, and he holds an NCAA tournament file of 12 consecutive double-digit victories. A son of Naismith Corridor of Reputation coach Bob Hurley Sr. — for whom Hurley played for at properly-known St. Anthony High College of Jersey Metropolis, Contemporary Jersey — Dan Hurley spent 9 years as a excessive faculty coach at St. Benedict’s Prep sooner than like a flash rebuilding faculty functions at Wagner and Rhode Island. His older brother, Bobby, is the head coach at Arizona Snarl.