Admission to Dan Hurley’s contract offer will make Lakers fans tear their hair out

The Los Angeles Lakers attacked Dan Hurley and missed. Hurley decided to turn down the six-year, $70 million deal to stay with the UConn Huskies. While Los Angeles is still searching for a new head coach, Hurley recently admitted to the contract offer Los Angeles made to him.

During an interview on The Dan Le Batard show with Stugotz, Dan Hurley admitted that the Lakers could have offered him a contract with enough money for him to take the deal. However, the UConn coach says he doesn’t know what that number would be.

“To say that’s not a motivator – money – to leave a place, that’s definitely one thing…Leaving all that behind, there’s probably a number. I do not know what it is.

This just has to be a gut punch for the Lakers franchise. They potentially could have offered him more money on the contract and Dan Hurley could have said “yes.” But this is now a situation that could have been avoided in Los Angeles.

Hurley will remain the head coach of the UConn Huskies for the unforeseeable future. The Huskies have won back-to-back championships and are aiming for a three-peat. If they can accomplish this feat, it will align Dan Hurley with legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden as the only college coach to win three national championships in a row.

Who will the Lakers hire as head coach?

With Dan Hurley out of the picture, Los Angeles is probably casting a wider net. The JJ Redick hype is still going strong as he booked an interview with the Lakers. Redick was a brilliant player throughout his career and his intelligence helped him maintain a successful 15-year NBA career. The downside to JJ Redick is that he has no coaching experience.

Another name that comes up in the rumors is James Borrego, who is currently an assistant coach for the New Orleans Pelicans. He has extensive coaching experience in the NBA and won two championships as an assistant to Greg Popovic and the San Antonio Spurs. The last head coaching position Borrego held was with the Charlotte Hornets from 2018-2022.

As of now, these appear to be the top two candidates on the Lakers head coaching list. Making the right hire is crucial for this franchise as they haven’t had much success recently. Despite winning the championship in the 2020 bubble, Los Angeles has largely been a disappointment for several years.