The Los Angeles Lakers are looking to regroup after University of Connecticut head coach Dan Hurley rejected their offer to be their next head coach. Hurley was reportedly offered $70 million over six years, but he opted to remain in the Northeast rather than head West to take on the challenge of coaching in the NBA.
Before the Lakers aggressively courted Hurley, JJ Redick was seen as a strong favorite to land the job. But no matter the reason Hurley turned down that job, the franchise is looking bad as a result.
In a roundtable discussion article, Vincent Goodwill was asked who should be the Lakers’ top coaching target now, and he said that perhaps Redick doesn’t want to be associated with the “circus” the Lakers are perceived as being (h/t Lakers Daily).
Via Yahoo Sports:
“Some folks around the league feel J.J. Redick won’t want to be involved with this circus, and that he won’t want to be a second choice, but he wants to coach,” Goodwill wrote. “The Lakers seem very intrigued by him for whatever reason and the focus will smoothly shift to him. Because, who else? The coaching cycle is nearly over, and Redick does a podcast with…LeBron James.”
The Lakers reportedly want to have a head coach in place before the NBA draft, which will start on June 26. That is just over two weeks away as of this writing.