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UConn males’s basketball head coach Dan Hurley is ready to fulfill with the Los Angeles Lakers about probably taking the pinnacle coach job, Adrian Wojnarowski stated Thursday on ESPN’s NBA Countdown.
“I am informed that Dan Hurley goes to fulfill tomorrow with Rob Pelinka — the Lakers’ VP and GM — and Jeanie Buss, their proprietor,” Wojnarowski stated. “Dan Hurley and his agent, they will sit down tomorrow and undergo the framework about what a deal would appear like and what a Dan Hurley-Lakers partnership would appear like in LA. The Lakers have been extraordinarily aggressive attempting to lure Dan Hurley out of UConn.”
Adrian Wojnarowski @wojespn
Reporting on the Dan Hurley/Lakers talks for NBA Countdown with @malika_andrews pic.twitter.com/NwwK1Qaluq
Wojnarowski continued: “It is a negotiation that has traction. It is a state of affairs for Dan Hurley the place the chance to signal a protracted and really profitable contract is obtainable to him and he’s very critical about these conversations he is having with the Lakers. I do suppose it is a course of that — a method or one other — will wrap up pretty shortly.”
Although Hurley has reportedly not decided but, Wojnarowski reported “there’s momentum in these discussions.”
The coach knowledgeable UConn officers of his curiosity within the Lakers job on Wednesday, telling his gamers concerning the state of affairs on Thursday, per Wojnarowski.
Hurley has coached UConn since 2018. He led the Huskies to back-to-back nationwide championships in 2023 and 2024.
The Lakers are looking for a alternative for Darvin Ham, whom the group fired after two seasons in Might.
Wojnarowski reported earlier Thursday that the Lakers had been “getting ready a large, long-term contract supply” for Hurley.
Though Wojnarowski wrote that the Lakers have interviewed different candidates together with assistant coaches James Borrego (New Orleans Pelicans), Sam Cassell (Boston Celtics) and David Adelman (Denver Nuggets), in addition to former participant JJ Redick, the ESPN reporter stated Hurley “has been the main target of the Lakers’ search.”
Los Angeles fired the whole thing of the group’s teaching employees after the crew’s first-round loss to the Denver Nuggets, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported.
That might give Hurley a contemporary begin because the Lakers look to construct a championship contender round Anthony Davis regardless of the uncertainty over whether or not LeBron James will return subsequent season.
Hurley signed a six-year, $32.1 million contract with UConn after the crew’s 2023 championship season. He’ll owe the varsity a buyout of $1.875 million if he walks away this summer season, per Sportico’s Eben Novy-Williams.
That worth could possibly be price it for the Lakers in the event that they imagine they’ve discovered a brand new long-term chief in Hurley. The franchise hasn’t stored a head coach in place for greater than three seasons since Phil Jackson’s ultimate marketing campaign resulted in 2011.
The crew may be hoping that hiring Hurley would assist persuade James to remain in Los Angeles. The star should resolve by June 29 whether or not to take his $51.4 million participant possibility for the 2024-25 season, per Spotrac.
