4 Outside-the-Box Head Coaches Lakers Should Target to Replace Darvin Ham
By Cem Yolbulan
Jay Wright
Regardless of how well-respected or established they may be, college basketball coaches don't always make the smoothest transition to the NBA. Plenty of elite NCAA coaches get hired by an NBA team and fail to bring the level of success they had to the pros.
Not only is the game different at the collegiate level, but the demands and expectations coaches and players have of each other are completely different. Not everyone can adjust to that.
Therefore, it is certainly a big risk to hire a first-time NBA head coach from the college level. Even if that coach is one of the best modern head coaches in college basketball. Jay Wright, who coached Villanova for 21 seasons and led them to four Final Fours and two national championships, is one of the best coaches currently not working.
The 62-year-old has never closed the door on coaching in the NBA. He is consistently rumored for head coaching vacancies and he reportedly flirted with the Sixers job last season before they hired Nick Nurse.
If LeBron James and Anthony Davis are open to the idea of working with Jay Wright, the two-time Naismith College Coach of the Year winner might be one of the best options the Lakers have.