Dan Hurley’s rejection stings, however ache does not should linger for Lakers

Let’s get this out of the best way: The Los Angeles Lakers are just a little embarrassed.

They received turned down very publicly by their crush, and that carries ache whether or not you are a junior excessive pupil or a multibillion-dollar worldwide megabrand.

However the Lakers have been right here earlier than. Dan Hurley passing on their head-coaching job to stay on the College of Connecticut should not be a disaster for Jeanie Buss, Rob Pelinka & Co. It needs to be a actuality verify.

In 2019, the Lakers have been turned down by each Tyronn Lue and Monty Williams, and it later turned obvious that each believed the Lakers had lowballed them with their contract affords.

“I simply did not assume I used to be handled pretty,” Lue later informed ESPN. “And I wasn’t simply going to just accept any provide simply to get a job.”

A yr after spurning the Lakers, Lue turned the pinnacle coach of the crosstown LA Clippers, and two weeks in the past he signed a contract extension value roughly $14 million per season. Williams selected a five-year cope with the Suns over the Lakers again in 2019, and is now making greater than $13 million per yr because the coach of the Detroit Pistons.

Each figures are increased than what the Lakers reportedly provided their first alternative, Hurley, this time round. League executives have been evaluating the Lakers’ provide to Hurley on Monday afternoon — six years and $70 million, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski — and debating whether or not it was actually a very good provide or could possibly be thought of one other lowball.

It could have been an enormous wage for a first-time NBA head coach and one which is likely to be not possible for Connecticut to match. However some believed if peeling Hurley and his high-energy, culture-setting, inventive model out of a golden collegiate state of affairs was actually the Lakers’ moonshot transfer this offseason, not providing him a top-five teaching wage was, in impact, one other lowball.

There was widespread marvel within the league when the information broke final week as as to whether the Lakers’ curiosity was actual. Ultimately, that ended up swinging the opposite manner. Now, the query is whether or not Hurley’s curiosity was ever actual — not a place the Lakers have been seeking to be in.

So issues are bleak for the Lakers proper now. However they have been bleaker — and never that way back.

Again in 2019, Frank Vogel was launched as head coach figuring out he was no higher than the Lakers’ third alternative. Former workforce president and franchise legend Magic Johnson had just lately blasted Pelinka on nationwide tv for “backstabbing” him. At the moment, the Lakers had missed the playoffs for six consecutive years.

After settling for Vogel, the Lakers recovered by buying and selling for Anthony Davis, then catching fireplace within the Orlando, Florida, bubble to win the seventeenth championship in franchise historical past.

The Lakers, now, are in a greater state of affairs with their roster than they have been in that problematic spring of 2019, however they’re coping with the identical problem. Within the summary, the idea of being the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers appears extraordinarily engaging. Nice market, a magnet for gamers and an incredible model.

Nevertheless, the job itself is extraordinarily difficult in the mean time.

The Lakers have completed higher than seventh within the Western Convention standings simply as soon as previously 12 seasons (after they gained the title in 2019-20). Their franchise participant, LeBron James, turns 40 in December. They haven’t any salary-cap house except James have been to depart in free company (he has till June 29 to decide on his $51.4 million participant possibility). They’ve restricted commerce belongings.

They play in a super-competitive convention the place the groups behind them are upwardly cell and aggressive and many of the groups in entrance of them are going to proceed to be good — or get even higher — within the instant future. They usually have a large and extremely demanding fanbase and are below a relentless microscope by the nationwide media as a result of they drive large viewers engagement internationally.

Vogel gained a title in 2020. Darvin Ham reached the Western Convention finals in 2023. Neither lasted longer than three seasons. No Lakers coach has since Phil Jackson.

These are a few of the components Hurley undoubtedly was weighing earlier than making his alternative over the weekend. It is exhausting to even quantify what could be thought of a “profitable” season for the Lakers in 2024-25 with out figuring out what adjustments are made to the roster. Avoiding the play-in event, frankly, could be an inexpensive if difficult purpose.

It is pure to marvel the place precisely the Lakers at the moment are of their teaching search. Getting turned down by a school coach is not the top of the world, however the Lakers’ course of has left them in a good window, 5 weeks after Ham was fired. There are solely 16 days left earlier than the 2024 NBA draft, the place the Lakers will successfully start their free company as a result of they’re anticipated to be energetic in commerce talks. The official begin of free company comes simply 4 days later.

The one candidate recognized to go to Los Angeles aside from Hurley is New Orleans affiliate head coach James Borrego. He’s at the moment a finalist for the Cleveland Cavaliers teaching job and is predicted to interview in Cleveland early within the week with Golden State Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson additionally scheduled for a go to, in line with sources.

J.J. Redick’s identify has been connected to the Lakers job since Ham’s firing. Redick has been disciplined in indirectly discussing the Lakers’ job in quite a few media appearances in latest weeks at the same time as rumors swirled round him. However his contact with the workforce had been minimal, sources stated, main as much as the Lakers’ aggressive pursuit of Hurley.

The Lakers would possibly really feel some strain to land one other large identify after Hurley turned them down, and Redick, regardless of his lack of expertise, would qualify. However in 2019, when he was turned down a number of occasions, Pelinka went with the secure Vogel and was rewarded, albeit within the quick time period.

Going for Hurley was a stunner and aggressive, nevertheless it additionally informed a deeper story: The Lakers weren’t in love with the opposite out there candidates. They could preserve trying outdoors the field, even perhaps for an additional faculty coach now that their willingness to enter that market has turn out to be clear. There is likely to be one other employed coach on the market who finds the provide Hurley turned down extra engaging than Hurley did, particularly within the present NCAA surroundings.

It is likely to be tempting for some who resent the well-known Laker exceptionalism to have some enjoyable at their expense as they cope with this problem of their very own making. However historical past tells that the Lakers are hardly ever determined and, even when issues do not work out, there are typically extra choices at their disposal than are at all times obvious. This occurred with Vogel, who turned out to be the fitting coach on the proper time. It might occur once more, perhaps even with Redick.

Pelinka is in a tricky spot however not an not possible one. His work on the roster this summer season, at the very least within the quick time period, would possibly find yourself being extra necessary than this teaching rent.

At the very least as soon as the egg is off the workforce’s face.