Lakers Head Coaching Search Takes Shocking Turn

The drama never ends in Los Angeles. Just when everyone thought the Lakers were almost guaranteed to hire JJ Redick as their next head coach, things took an unexpected turn. The NBA world woke up to shocking news that UConn head coach Dan Hurley is in fact the frontrunner to get the Lakers job.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Lakers and Hurley are in advanced talks to get a deal done and the UConn coach has been the no. 1 choice of the Lakers' top brass since their search started.

Lakers Head Coaching Search Takes Stunning Turn

This is certainly a shocking turn of events. Ever since the firing of Darvin Ham, plenty of potential candidates have been bandied about in the media, including Redick, James Borrego, Sam Cassell, and many others. Hurley's name wasn't mentioned once. He wasn't even included on the "next Lakers head coach" odds on sportsbooks.

"Hurley has been at the forefront of the Lakers' search from the beginning of the process, even while the organization has done its due diligence interviewing several other candidates."

- Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN

The fact that this is so out of left field doesn't mean that this is a mistake. In fact, one could argue that Hurley is the best coach the Lakers could hire. The 51-year-old head coach is coming off back-to-back national championships at Connecticut and he just won the Naismith College Coach of the Year award.

Hurley has never coached in the NBA but he has extensive coaching experience in college, working at Wagner and Rhode Island before making the jump to UConn and turning the Huskies into a juggernaut.

Whether Hurley ends up being the hire over Redick remains to be seen but this is a fascinating update considering that Redick was widely considered to be LeBron James' preferred candidate. One has to wonder what a potential Hurley hire would mean for the future of LeBron James in Los Angeles.

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