{"id":81108,"date":"2024-06-11T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T16:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=81108"},"modified":"2024-06-11T12:00:25","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T16:00:25","slug":"lakers-make-quick-pivot-after-being-refused-by-uconn-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/11\/lakers-make-quick-pivot-after-being-refused-by-uconn-head-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Pivot Quickly After Being Refused By UConn Head Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Orleans Pelicans associate head coach James Borrego is \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheSteinLine\/status\/1800518255112769665\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">back at the forefront<\/a>\u201d of the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 head coach search, according to NBA insider Marc Stein. This news comes after UConn men\u2019s basketball head coach Dan Hurley <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/10\/breaking-dan-hurley-turns-down-lakers-returns-to-uconn\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">rejected their six-year, $70 million offer<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Breaking down UConn coach Dan Hurley\u2019s decision to pass on the Lakers with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/notthefakeSVP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@notthefakeSVP<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Hva71IVENV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Hva71IVENV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wojespn\/status\/1800377331179278796?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 11, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>ESPN\u2019s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Borrego is the only candidate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/40295979\/dan-hurley-meet-lakers-friday-coaching-job-sources-say\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to have multiple in-person interviews<\/a> with the Lakers this offseason.<\/p>\n<h2>Lakers Pivot Quickly After Being Refused By Dan Hurley<\/h2>\n<p>If Borrego is indeed the favorite, the Lakers will have competition. In fact, the Albuquerque native <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/11\/cavs-to-interview-highly-sought-after-head-coach-candidate-james-borrego\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">is meeting with<\/a> the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday for their coaching search.<\/p>\n<p>That said, the Cavs can\u2019t offer the prestige that comes with being the Lakers head coach. Should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> re-sign, Cleveland will be hard-pressed to say their roster is more suited for an NBA title run. Lastly, the Cavs\u2019 roster won\u2019t come with built-in chemistry in the way the Lakers\u2019 would, given Borrego\u2019s familiarity with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, the Lakers may not offer as much job security. They\u2019ve moved on from their last three head coaches \u2014Luke Walton, Frank Vogel, and Darvin Ham \u2014within three seasons of their being hired. The future of the roster isn\u2019t on solid ground either, as James may leave as a free agent this offseason. Even if not, he\u2019s 39 years old, and won\u2019t play for much longer. Davis himself is on the wrong side of 30, with a medical history that would put broken glass to shame.<\/p>\n<p>If they\u2019re offering similar contracts, Borrego very well could choose the Cavs over the Lakers.<\/p>\n<h3>JJ Redick Still In Play?<\/h3>\n<p>With that said, ESPN analyst and 15-year NBA veteran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/redicjj01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">JJ Redick<\/a>\u2019s sustained candidacy makes even more sense. Borrego has been his stiffest competition during this coaching search. Should he take Cleveland\u2019s head coaching gig, it only increases the chances he becomes L.A.\u2019s head coach.<\/p>\n<p>There are still several other assistants the Lakers must consider though, such as Sam Cassell (Boston Celtics) and David Adelman (Denver Nuggets). Furthermore, Redick may be miffed by how the process has played out. Early on, Redick appeared to be the frontrunner due to his playing experience, basketball IQ, and relationship with James. Indeed, per Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports, some believe \u201cwon\u2019t want to be <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LegionHoops\/status\/1800522933116563670\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">involved with this circus<\/a> and that he won\u2019t want to be a second choice&#8230;\u201d (h\/t Legion Hoops).<\/p>\n<p>This may all prove to be a moot point, even if true. As none of the coaching candidates are ideal hires, the fascination the Lakers have with him makes him a legitimate candidate regardless. Of course, Redick\u2019s resume doesn\u2019t measure up to a two-time NCAA champion. However, his hire is much easier to swallow if it\u2019s between him and a field of assistant coaches who were never NBA head coaches or let teams down in that role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Orleans Pelicans associate head coach James Borrego is \u201cback at the forefront\u201d of the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 head coach search, according to NBA insider Marc Stein. This news comes after UConn men\u2019s basketball head coach Dan Hurley rejected their six-year, $70 million offer on Monday. Breaking down UConn coach Dan Hurley\u2019s decision to pass [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":81122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1608,9,62,33,3],"tags":[5008,1557,2279,4557],"class_list":["post-81108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lakers","category-basketball","category-cavaliers","category-nba","category-pelicans","category-news","tag-dan-hurley","tag-james-borrego","tag-jj-redick","tag-nba-offseason"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}