So, was Rob Pelinka, through the traditional sources close to the situation, pulling the ol’ okey-doke on all of us the last few weeks? Promise ’em a podcaster — albeit an ex-player with analytic chops but no coaching experience beyond grade-school kids — and then turn around and hire an actual championship coach?
Or was Dan Hurley, the current toast of Storrs, Conn., the latest big-time college coach who didn’t like what he saw coming down the road? The transfer portal and NIL changed the equation enough, but schools legally paying players may be chasing away more college coaches accustomed to controlling their environments. And, more ominously, there’s the prospect of a brand new Division I structure that rewarded the power conferences and downgraded the rest — programs like, um, Connecticut of the Big East, back-to-back national champions.
If I’m him, I’d want to get out too.
We woke up Thursday morning to stunning news, delivered by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski: The Lakers “have had preliminary contact with Hurley and sides are planning to escalate discussions in coming days.”
And there was also this: “Hurley’s been at the forefront of the Lakers’ search from the beginning of the process, even while the organization has done its due diligence interviewing other candidates.”
JJ who?
Should this actually happen … well, The Athletic’s Shams Charania is probably wiping the egg of his face as we speak. Charania — whose rivalry with Wojnarowski to break NBA news over social media is an entertaining sidelight to what actually happens in the league itself — reported two days ago that the Lakers “are zeroing in on JJ Redick as the front-runner to be the franchise’s next head coach,” according to “league and media industry sources.”
And when the prospect was brought up on a podcast Wednesday, Redick said it would be “addressed once the season is over.”
Maybe sooner. Little did he know.
Assuming the latest reports were correct and the Lakers are serious about giving Hurley the keys to this Bentley, can this work?
Hurley has succeeded at Connecticut with a manic level of intensity — toward his players, toward the refs, presumably toward people surrounding the program — that works with college kids for a 35-game season, largely because everyone in the program understands who the ruler is. With experienced professionals — especially a roster with (potentially/probably) LeBron James and (definitely) Anthony Davis — how long does that style work before they tune him out? Half a season?
I hate to say this, but I look at Hurley and I potentially see Bill van Breda Kolff, who was a successful college coach at Princeton but flamed out with the Lakers in the late ’60s mainly because he and Wilt Chamberlain were at swords’ point from the moment Wilt arrived in L.A. When you’re sure of your methods and your philosophies and you view any questioning of them as a threat, that’s when things blow up.
It’s the difference between commanding and demanding respect. But if Hurley can adjust his full-out, hard-nosed style to his new audience and his new environment, it could work.
The idea that Hurley’s player development skills are considered a plus here tells me the Lakers are in fact thinking about their future, which in itself is a positive. Does that mean Pelinka might resist the urge to package the No. 17 pick in this year’s draft?
Then again, does this also mean Bronny James is definitely on their draft board? And how might that locker room dynamic complicate life for the new coach?
We know, at least, that the palace intrigue in the Lakers’ building is as thick as ever. Where were those stories that proclaimed Redick as The Guy coming from? Were there multiple leaks coming out of the front office, or Rich Paul’s office, or others from LeBron’s camp or A.D.’s camp? A diversionary tactic, maybe?
And here’s a reminder: Customarily, big Lakers decisions aren’t made until all of the members of Jeanie Buss’ kitchen cabinet weigh in. The old-school nature of this front office remains charmingly goofy in some respects, but it’s less charming when a big decision has to be made and, as has reportedly happened in the past, people who really have no involvement in basketball operations get to have a say.
Maybe they’ve all given a thumbs-up already. Or else they’ve been bypassed, if reports are true that some people in the Lakers’ building were stunned by Thursday’s report.
You suppose Pelinka and Buss kept the true direction under wraps all this time? Maybe this really was the ol’ okey-doke.
Hurley had one endorsement even before all of this became public. Connecticut women’s coach Geno Auriemma told the Dan Patrick Show on Thursday morning that during a UConn fan event at which he appeared with Hurley on Wednesday night, “I leaned over and said, ‘Hey, I think you could win a lot of championships with the Lakers, more so than a guy that’s never coached.’ He just looked at me and nodded, we had a good laugh.”
And Auriemma swore he had no inkling that anything was actually going on between Hurley and the Lakers. Make of that what you will.
There is one other intriguing aspect of this development, too, and maybe the sources who leaked it had this particular day in mind: The very morning that the archrival Boston Celtics were to begin the NBA Finals against Dallas, in search of that 18th banner that would break a tie at the top, the Lakers stole the attention and stole their thunder.
Perfect, isn’t it?
