Dan Hurley might go to the NBA.
According to ESPN, the Los Angeles Lakers are targeting Hurley to be the team’s next coach. The University of Connecticut has won the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons under Hurley. The Lakers are searching for a coach to replace Darvin Ham after losing in the first round of the playoffs this spring to the Denver Nuggets.
Former Duke and NBA player JJ Redick has been seen as the front-runner for the Lakers coaching job in recent days, but the Lakers are reportedly preparing to offer Hurley a “huge” contract to get him into the NBA.
The 51-year-old Hurley will take over a team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis looking to make another push to the Finals. After winning the 2020 NBA Finals, the Lakers lost in the first round of the playoffs twice and missed the postseason in 2022. In Hamm’s first season in 2022-23, the Lakers were the seventh seed and reached the Western Conference Finals before being swept by the Nuggets.
James, who turns 40 in December, has a player option on his contract for the 2024-25 season that he must exercise by June 29. Assuming it is exercised (and there’s no indication it won’t be), James and Davis will make a combined $90 million next season.
The Lakers have limited financial and roster flexibility beyond James and Davis. They hold a 2024 first-round pick at No. 17 after the Pelicans bet on the Lakers’ roster and acquired the team’s 2025 first-round pick earlier this summer as part of the Davis acquisition. With that pick, the team’s 2029 first-round pick and other players on the roster, Los Angeles could have a shot at acquiring the No. 3 pick along with their star duo.
But adding another top player would add depth and could force the Lakers to rely on minimum-salary players for the majority of their roster. Just ask how that went for the Phoenix Suns this season, who lost in the first round to the Minnesota Timberwolves in their first season with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal on the same team.
Hurley had a record of 292 wins and 163 losses as a college coach.
Hurley has won nearly 300 games in 14 seasons as a head coach at the top level of men’s college basketball. After two seasons at Wagner, Hurley took the reins at Rhode Island, where he transformed the Rams from an 8-21 record in his first season to a 23-win team in his third season.
Hurley was hired by the University of Connecticut after leading the Rams to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2017 and 2018. The Huskies were in terrible form when he was hired. Connecticut had finished under .500 each of the previous two seasons and had only made one NCAA Tournament appearance since winning the national title in 2014.
In Hurley’s first year, the University of Connecticut went 16-17, but won 19 games in his second year before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the college basketball season early. Since then, the University of Connecticut has made four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and has become a dominant team in men’s college basketball.
The Huskies have dominated opponents in the past two NCAA Tournaments. In 2023, the University of Connecticut defeated every team they played in the tournament by 13 or more points and won the national title by defeating San Diego State.
UConn fared even better in the 2023-24 season. The Huskies lost just three games all season and won by even more margins against their NCAA Tournament opponents. UConn won all six of its tournament games by at least 14 points. The Huskies defeated Alabama 86-72 in the Final Four and then defeated Purdue 75-60 in the national title game.
