JJ Redick and the Lakers coaching saga

He's a 6'2" shooting guard whose shooting isn't very good and who doesn't have the handle or the burst to get by guys and get into the lane. Pretty good athlete, works hard defensively, but at his size and with the other problems noted, that's just not gonna work at the NBA level.

Agree completely.

I saw several USC games on TV last season. While he had some moments, I never thought I was looking at a future NBA rotational player.

Maybe he can make great strides as he gets older but I would be very surprised.

SoCal
 
If we could get true off the record comments, I would love to know existing and prospective coaches’ actual views about potentially coaching LBJ. ...............I would really love to hear unfiltered thoughts from NBA coaches on these considerations, but that isn’t going to happen. So I’ll have to do with our collective musings.

Im pretty sure they are exactly what you think they would be...........

It was often said that Tarkanian failed in the pros due to the salary cap, which was not a problem at UNLV.

Irony winner for today ^^^
 
Hurley-watch is over: he's staying at UConn.

While in the short term this may not be the ideal Duke outcome, since UConn should still be very good next year, there are some positive domino effects:
1) There won't be a late rush of really quality players currently on the UConn roster to the portal (because coaching changes open up a 30-day window for portal moves). I mentioned previously that a guy like Taris Reed, who transferred this offseason from Michigan to UConn, would've been a great get for UNC to replace Bacot, but now we don't have to worry about that ;)
2) This is good for the long-term health of the college game. A constant exodus of the best coaching talent to retirement or the NBA would've been a major problem as the game we loves navigates a new era. Now, Hurley can be the "face of the sport" for now... until Jon Scheyer overtakes him :)
3) It'd be cool for a Blue Devil to coach the Lakers, if that's indeed what'll end up happening now with JJ. I'm personally nervous that he'd be set up to fail (if the Lakers suck the next few years because of an aging LeBron they can use their inexperienced coach as a scapegoat), but I don't think that changes the positive optics for us.
 
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Hurley-watch is over: he's staying at UConn.

While in the short term this may not be the ideal Duke outcome, since UConn should still be very good next year, there are some positive domino effects:
1) There won't be a late rush of really quality players currently on the UConn roster to the portal (because coaching changes open up a 30-day window for portal moves). I mentioned previously that a guy like Taris Reed, who transferred this offseason from Michigan to UConn, would've been a great get for UNC to replace Bacot, but now we don't have to worry about that ;)
2) This is good for the long-term health of the college game. A constant exodus of the best coaching talent to retirement or the NBA would've been a major problem as the game we loves navigates a new era. Now, Hurley can be the "face of the sport" for now... until Jon Scheyer overtakes him :)

Props to Hurley. I like him even more now. Thought LA would have a been a great and lucrative move. But dang, to turn them down to coach college basketball, takes some serious gumption and vision for what he sees ahead for UCONN.
 
Props to Hurley. I like him even more now. Thought LA would have a been a great and lucrative move. But dang, to turn them down to coach college basketball, takes some serious gumption and vision for what he sees ahead for UCONN.

he can bide his time for a job that isn't a cluster (LBJ runs the team, demands his kid, cupboard pretty much bare otherwise)...he's the hottest thing in coaching right now, and could get pretty much any open NBA job if he wanted it. He really wants the knicks.

Word on the street is much of the hullabaloo was to make up from the complete botching of the UK rumors....turning them down so emphatically hurt his negotiating power....and if you believe that, this was executed perfectly. Hurley and Uconn were the center of basketball news, and the university had to bend over backwards to keep him on board. I suspect his agent was happier with his handling of this than the UK thing.

Go JJ.
 
Awkward for the Lakers now. They seem to have gone all in on Hurley and been rebuffed. Now one has to wonder in retrospect what happened with JJ. Did he also say "thanks but no thanks?" Did they go halfway down the Reddick road and change their minds? Do they now circle back to JJ and try again?

In 2004 the Lakers wiffed on K and ended up with career NBA re-tread Rudy Tomjanovich. He coached a whipping 43 games. Then Frank Hamblen stepped in for 39 games, before they wound up with Phil Jackson again.

Not sure where the search goes from here.
 
Count me as shocked that he didn't take the Lakers' job. I figured it was, pretty much, a done deal. Frankly, I'm a little surprised that the Lakers didn't offer him even more money (if the 6-year, $70 million offer is accurate). But maybe money is not that important to him (you can live quite nicely in Storrs on $5 million a year) or his wife did not want to move to the west coast or something else (like LBJ and his son) turned him off to the job. Who knows but I give him credit for being loyal to UConn and the college game (for now, at least). Plus, I figure he will use this as leverage to get even more money from the state of Connecticut. When you read next year that the governor of CT is announcing a surprise deficit in the state budget, blame Dan Hurley.

Who knows but JJ may end up in LA, after all.
 
For sure. He'll get massive job security which is great, but since they want him so badly, why not try and negotiate some stuff that makes his life easier. Having Bronny parked at the end of the bench will not make his life easier, but hey, it's his call.

Maybe Dan wanted to work remotely. You know, stay on the east coast but coach the Lakers via Zoom. And the Lakers balked at this. Who knows?
 
Count me as shocked that he didn't take the Lakers' job. I figured it was, pretty much, a done deal. Frankly, I'm a little surprised that the Lakers didn't offer him even more money (if the 6-year, $70 million offer is accurate). But maybe money is not that important to him (you can live quite nicely in Storrs on $5 million a year) or his wife did not want to move to the west coast or something else (like LBJ and his son) turned him off to the job. Who knows but I give him credit for being loyal to UConn and the college game (for now, at least). Plus, I figure he will use this as leverage to get even more money from the state of Connecticut. When you read next year that the governor of CT is announcing a surprise deficit in the state budget, blame Dan Hurley.

Who knows but JJ may end up in LA, after all.

When he didn't make the announcement Saturday, I figured he wasn't taking the Lakers job. Prior to that, I thought it was done deal.
That said, I thought the 6 year deal would be close to 100 mill.

As for why? My guess would be he didn't want to be known as the coach who ended LeBron's career and got into spats over Bronny.

He also just super charged UConn's already skyrocketing brand profile.

As for living nicely in Storrs? Not sure that's possible at any price.........
 
Count me as shocked that he didn't take the Lakers' job. I figured it was, pretty much, a done deal. Frankly, I'm a little surprised that the Lakers didn't offer him even more money (if the 6-year, $70 million offer is accurate). But maybe money is not that important to him (you can live quite nicely in Storrs on $5 million a year) or his wife did not want to move to the west coast or something else (like LBJ and his son) turned him off to the job. Who knows but I give him credit for being loyal to UConn and the college game (for now, at least). Plus, I figure he will use this as leverage to get even more money from the state of Connecticut. When you read next year that the governor of CT is announcing a surprise deficit in the state budget, blame Dan Hurley.

Who knows but JJ may end up in LA, after all.

some rumblings are this was to gain contract leverage, after he botched using the UK job for the same. I'm sure his agent much happier here....almost seemed *too* contrived to be organic....like given that the lakers were done 6 weeks ago, why weren't they talking them? Makes no sense given they said he was their top candidate "all along".....unless it was the hurley camp who was the one who then indicated they were open to discussion.

He can get any open nba job he wants....no reason to grab the first one that comes up....since it's a pretty crappy situation and poorly run front office....and given hurley's "no drama" policy with recruits, I can't imagine dealing with the LBJ/Bronny thing was appealing.

He can afford to wait until one of the knicks/celtics/nets jobs opens....which should almost be guaranteed for one of those teams in the next 5 years (just based on average coach tenure)....and in the meantime, he got some recon, and huge leverage with uconn.
 
Hurley makes more than $5 million at UCONN....convert as you wish, but I don't see that as appreciably less than making $12 million in LA, and he doesn't have to deal with multiple bosses....if he really wants the NBA, there will be more attractive offers to respond to.
 
some rumblings are this was to gain contract leverage, after he botched using the UK job for the same. I'm sure his agent much happier here...almost seemed *too* contrived to be organic...like given that the lakers were done 6 weeks ago, why weren't they talking them? Makes no sense given they said he was their top candidate "all along"....unless it was the hurley camp who was the one who then indicated they were open to discussion.

He can get any open nba job he wants...no reason to grab the first one that comes up...since it's a pretty crappy situation and poorly run front office...and given hurley's "no drama" policy with recruits, I can't imagine dealing with the LBJ/Bronny thing was appealing.

He can afford to wait until one of the knicks/celtics/nets jobs opens...which should almost be guaranteed for one of those teams in the next 5 years (just based on average coach tenure)...and in the meantime, he got some recon, and huge leverage with uconn.

Over time, the Lakers are the most valuable franchise in the NBA, even though that rating bounces around a bit from time to time. And that job is considered the top job maybe in all of basketball.
 
Hurley makes more than $5 million at UCONN...convert as you wish, but I don't see that as appreciably less than making $12 million in LA, and he doesn't have to deal with multiple bosses...if he really wants the NBA, there will be more attractive offers to respond to.

I think it's more of a no-brainer for JJ than for Hurley. Hurley is a proven commodity in coaching. You care argue how it translates from college to the NBA, but at least he has the chops.

JJ **might** be a good coach. He has a great mind for the game, but that's a small part of coaching. I don't know that Reddick is likely to be offered a better opportunity than the Lakers without proving himself in one way or another.
 
Hurley makes more than $5 million at UCONN...convert as you wish, but I don't see that as appreciably less than making $12 million in LA, and he doesn't have to deal with multiple bosses...if he really wants the NBA, there will be more attractive offers to respond to.
My bad, and, yea, I misread the amount; he supposedly has a 6-year $50 million offer on the table from UConn. If my math is right, that about $8.5 million/year. You can live damn well on that in north-central Connecticut.
 
My bad, and, yea, I misread the amount; he supposedly has a 6-year $50 million offer on the table from UConn. If my math is right, that about $8.5 million/year. You can live damn well on that in north-central Connecticut.

I would also assume there's a lot of incentive comp. Not sure if those figures include that or not. Supposedly, he got $2M in incentives this past year....
 
I could be extremely jaded, but I feel like these stories about the Lakers job opening are about two people: Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania.

Marc Stein has entered the chat.

“I had been warned early on by one well-placed insider, for what it’s worth, to stay ready in case former Villanova coach Jay Wright emerged as a stealth candidate,” Stein wrote on his Substack, The Stein Line, on Sunday. “That backstory is sure to surface sooner rather than later… presumably soon after the Lakers do or don’t land Hurley.”
 
Having a tough time shaking the hunch that Coach K takes the job on like a 2-year deal, then leaves with LeBron.
 
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