Dan Hurley turns down Lakers' offer, will stay at UConn

According to Jeff Goodman of Field of 68, Hurley — who met with Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and head of basketball operations Rob Pelinka on Friday — “strongly considered” leaping to the NBA but ultimately decided it wasn’t the right career move for him.

While he was impressed with the Lakers’ “vision for him,” Woj adds, Hurley didn’t want to walk away from the opportunity to make history by winning a third straight NCAA title.

Hurley is expected to finalize a new deal with UConn soon that will make him one of college basketball’s highest-paid coaches. Wojnarowski says those negotiations are ongoing, while Goodman hears from a source that Hurley has a six-year offer worth about $50M on the table from the Huskies.

It’s a disappointing setback for the Lakers, who had talked to other head-coaching candidates since dismissing Darvin Ham last month but had zeroed in on Hurley and made him their top choice. 

According to Wojnarowski, the Lakers will regroup this week and will continue interviewing other candidates for the job in the hopes of filling the vacancy before the June 26-27 draft.

James Borrego — the only candidate to have two in-person meetings with the Lakers so far, per reporting from Woj — will remain in the mix, as will JJ Redick, whom Shams Charania and other reporters previously described as the front-runner for the position. 

Wojnarowski suggests that Redick has yet to have a formal interview with L.A., though Charania said last month that the two sides spoke at length at the NBA Draft Combine.

As our head-coaching search tracker shows, the Lakers have also been linked to several veteran assistant coaches around the NBA, including Sam Cassell, David Adelman, Micah Nori and Chris Quinn.