NBA Rumors: Dan Hurley to Meet with Lakers’ Pelinka, Buss on Friday About HC Job

UConn men’s basketball head coach Dan Hurley is made up our minds to meet with the Los Angeles Lakers about potentially taking the top coach job, Adrian Wojnarowski acknowledged Thursday on ESPN’s NBA Countdown.

“I’m urged that Dan Hurley is going to meet the following day with Bewitch Pelinka — the Lakers’ VP and GM — and Jeanie Buss, their owner,” Wojnarowski acknowledged. “Dan Hurley and his agent, they’ll sit down down the following day and battle by the framework about what a deal would sight admire and what a Dan Hurley-Lakers partnership would sight admire in LA. The Lakers were extraordinarily aggressive searching for to lure Dan Hurley out of UConn.”

Wojnarowski continued: “Here’s a negotiation that has traction. Here’s a order for Dan Hurley the save the chance to tag a prolonged and intensely profitable contract is on hand to him and he’s very interested by these conversations he’s having with the Lakers. I discontinuance deem right here’s a task that — one manner or every other — will wrap up somewhat immediate.”

Although Hurley has reportedly no longer made a resolution but, Wojnarowski reported “there is momentum in these discussions.”

The coach told UConn officials of his curiosity in the Lakers job on Wednesday, telling his avid gamers relating to the difficulty on Thursday, per Wojnarowski.

Hurley has coached UConn since 2018. He led the Huskies to be taught-to-merit national championships in 2023 and 2024.

The Lakers are browsing for a replacement for Darvin Ham, whom the organization fired after two seasons in Could well well.

Wojnarowski reported earlier Thursday that the Lakers were “getting prepared a huge, prolonged-timeframe contract offer” for Hurley.

Even supposing Wojnarowski wrote that the Lakers hold interviewed other candidates including assistant coaches James Borrego (Original Orleans Pelicans), Sam Cassell (Boston Celtics) and David Adelman (Denver Nuggets), as effectively as old-fashioned player JJ Redick, the ESPN reporter acknowledged Hurley “has been the level of curiosity of the Lakers’ search.”

Los Angeles fired the complete lot of the organization’s instructing staff after the crew’s first-spherical loss to the Denver Nuggets, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported.

That might give Hurley a new launch as the Lakers sight to blueprint a championship contender spherical Anthony Davis irrespective of the uncertainty over whether LeBron James will return subsequent season.

Hurley signed a six-three hundred and sixty five days, $32.1 million contract with UConn after the crew’s 2023 championship season. He will owe the college a buyout of $1.875 million if he walks away this summer season, per Sportico’s Eben Novy-Williams.

That charge will doubtless be charge it for the Lakers in the occasion that they hold about they’ve chanced on a new prolonged-timeframe chief in Hurley. The franchise hasn’t saved a head coach in field for higher than three seasons since Phil Jackson’s final campaign ended in 2011.

The crew is also hoping that hiring Hurley would abet persuade James to preserve in Los Angeles. The megastar must prefer by June 29 whether to employ his $51.4 million player probability for the 2024-25 season, per Spotrac.