Lakers' Dan Hurley Pursuit Takes Another Massive Turn

Earlier on Thursday, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN sent shockwaves to the NBA landscape by reporting that the Los Angeles Lakers are in advanced talks with UConn head coach Dan Hurley. Previously, it was widely expected that JJ Redick was going to be the next head coach of the Lakers and Hurley's name was never mentioned among potential candidates.

In yet another shocking turn, it turns out Hurley may not be as interested in the Lakers job as initially thought. Sam Amico of HoopsWire reported that he is "likely to remain at UConn and continue to build championship contenders.

"No one is really saying as much, but the Lakers job could be thankless. Dan has a good thing going right where he is."

- A HoopsWire source

At first, this may come off as a surprise. But once you think about it, it makes plenty of sense on Hurley's part.

He has already won back-to-back NCAA championships and is on a six-year contract worth $32 million. He is considered the best college coach working right now and he is only 51 years old.

Hurley presumably thinks that he will have more NBA opportunities in the future. Taking a big risk to join the Los Angeles Lakers may not be the smartest move when you have an excellent program in Connecticut.

The Lakers fanbase and the organization always have high aspirations. They want the team to compete for championships year in and year out, even if they don't have a championship-caliber roster.

And Los Angeles doesn't have a championship-caliber roster and Hurley likely knows that. Lakers head coaches are regularly unfairly maligned and LeBron James is known to churn through coaches. Recent head coaches Frank Vogel and Darvin Ham were both made to be scapegoats for the roster-building mistakes the front office made.

Surely, a lot of coaches would love the opportunity to coach LeBron James but Lakers ownership and front office complicate things. It is therefore understandable that an elite coach in a great situation might turn them down. This is something the Lakers' top brass should think hard about.

More Lakers news and rumors: