The whole Danny Hurley to the Lakers thing never made sense and on Monday, he shot it down. He’ll be at UConn, chasing a three-peat, and good for him.
There are a few reasons why this never seemed like a great move and not least of all because Hurley is an East Coast guy. And by East Coast, we really mean Northeast.
You could imagine him at a Duke or UNC, but really, he’s a Jersey guy and the Tri-State area probably suits him best.
We could imagine him taking one of four NBA jobs someday: the Knicks, the Sixers, the Celtics or the Nets. The Lakers?
It just seems like it’s out of his comfort zone. And for all his confident swagger, which is totally earned and deserved, Hurley strikes us as a guy who needs to be rooted. And that’s not really something that L.A. does very well, particularly for a guy from gritty Jersey City.
Aside from those points, the Lakers were only willing to make him the second highest paid NBA coach in Los Angeles (Tyronn Lue would have made more), and honestly, L.A. is a bit of a mess.
Sure the Lakers have LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but James is pushing 40 and Davis has an extensive injury history. If you look at some other teams – for instance, Oklahoma City, Cleveland or Utah – the core is young and promising. Los Angeles is not nearly at that level and there is no indication they will be any time soon either. Jerry West is not coming through that door, folks!
All in all, our sense is that Hurley is exactly where he should be. Can UConn pull off a triple crown?
It won’t be easy. They lost their center and point guard and rebuilding is not easy, even with the portal. Everything is a crap shoot.
That said, Hurley has proven to be a brilliant coach. He’s proven so much that betting against him now seems to be really foolish. However, the other thing is this: he’s made UConn the hunted. Everyone is going to be after the Huskies and it will only get worse in the post-season. He did a masterful job of handling it this past season…but he had Donovan Clingan, Stephon Castle and Tristen Newton head to the league.
Look back at 1993 Duke for an example. That team lost Christian Laettner and Brian Davis but realistically was a contender for three straight.
Didn’t happen.
On the other hand it doesn’t matter very much. The odds of UConn pulling off a third straight championship are not great but as long as Hurley stays, the Huskies are going to be in the hunt…at least until the Knicks job opens up.
Because he’ll have a much tougher time turning that one down.
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