Coaching in the NBA has always been an ambition of Dan Hurley’s 👀 – Woj on Lakers target | Get Up

On Get Up, Mike Greenberg is joined by Adrian Wojnarowski, Udonis Haslem, Brian Windhorst and Andraya Carter to discuss the breaking news that the Los Angeles Lakers are targeting UConn Huskies’ Dan Hurley as their next head coach. Then, Pete Thamel joins the show to detail the motivating factors for the Lakers and the changing landscape in the NCAA.

0:00 Lakers targeting UConn’s Dan Hurley as next head coach
1:30 LeBron James’ approval
4:45 Pete Thamel details
9:30 College basketball transition to NBA

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your first reaction well my first reaction is remember when we were covering the men’s college basketball tournament and how highly were we speaking of Dan Hurley back then his relationship building is one of the biggest keys to his success as a head coach like that’s one of the biggest things think about it when they won the National Championship two seasons ago they lost three starters from that team and then repeated as national champions because the guys he brought in and the guys that he was developing all believed in themselves and they believed in the system UD said he’s going to bring a little bit of energy he’s going to bring a lot of energy Dan Hurley has so much passion fire and excitement for the game and for the Lakers team that at times looked lifeless out there on the court this season looked like they didn’t have very much Direction look like they didn’t have very much energy or wanting to play together they’re going to have that from Dan Hurley and what is the biggest credibility badge than LeBron James signing off like LeBron James and the relationship that he has with Coach Hurley that’s going to be the biggest thing as far as him going into this locker room like hey let’s do do this together that does exist in fact if we can put up Cindy uh if we can put up the the tweet from April 19th um this could be described as foreshadowing it could be coincidence either way it’s certainly interesting so JJ reic of all people had interviewed Dan herley on his JJ’s podcast and posted that LeBron responded to it that’s why you see at JJ reic there talking about Dan Hurley he’s so damn good along with his staff super creative with their o love it the W this is you know two months a little less than two months ago yeah you know and there’s no question that uh Rob palenka Genie bus have pursued Dan Hurley with an understanding of how it would be received certainly with their key players but you know you talk to other and I’ve heard from NBA head coaches who didn’t know any of this was going on because Yukon has so many players in the draft this year head coaches are watching a lot of tape on Yukon they might have saw him a little bit in the tournament they’re in the middle of their Seasons they’re watching tape on Donovan kingan and uh Spencer and Castle Stefan Castle right and more than one has commented to me about how sophisticated their offensive actions are how their stuff they would like to take from what yukon’s doing and that they’re running stuff in college they don’t see other coaches running and that they think it would translate to the NBA certainly Rob paleno believes that there’s no question there’s an adjust it is a major adjustment the NBA is almost an entirely different sport than college basketball but I think getting the right staff around a coach like Dan Hurley understanding there’s a learning curve but I think what the Lakers view when you talk about trying to have a program in the NBA who are the college coaches who’ve done well Billy Donovan going to Oklahoma City now he took over a championship ready team he came in in a situation where he was asked to win a title right away Quinn Snyder goes go to Utah in a rebuild they draft Rudy goar they draft Donovan Mitchell and they developed this group but they saw it as a program Brad Stevens to Boston those are the success stories but I think certainly all of those coaches adaptable and uh certainly a lot of it is your ability to connect with players and understanding and you look at let’s say a rick patino or John caliper maybe one of the things that at the point in their career now patino had really good success with the Knicks then came back in Boston you have to understand the players are the stars you are not the star Dan Hurley can be a big figure in that position but you are a star as the college coach you are everything you are the sun everybody revolves around you are not that in the NBA you have to understand that but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a big presence and you can’t lay a foundation and I think coach like Donovan who Dan Hurley has a very close relationship with he has always gone to Billy Donovan for advice in his career whether was going to a high major winning back to winning a title and trying to repeat there are lessons to be learned from those coaches go really quick I’ve got Pete the tweet that LeBron was responding to that right the clip was was him describing how he made over his offense by looking at feba games and looking at college football formations and that’s the one thing that NBA people say about Dan Hurley is that he has proven to be malleable and that’s what LeBron was responding to that that tweet was about him talking with J reck about that which brings us to Pete thill our outstanding College reporter who covers both college basketball and and particularly football for us and and Pete we cannot help but notice hembo pointed it out on Twitter earlier Jim Harbaugh National Championship boom goes to the pros Dan Hurley back-to-back national championships maybe as wo reports on the verge of jumping to the pros that doesn’t feel coincidental in this moment of of total upheaval and change in college sports what is your reaction to all this here Pete yeah grany it’s a great Point by hembo and I think it comes down and can be distilled by one succinct Point why why play in a league and coach in a league and run a team in a league that is a quasi professional League that’s figuring it out when you can actually go to an established professional league and coaching that League that has it figured out that has its TV contracts lined up that has its business in order that isn’t subject to the whims of random court cases and sporadic enforcement college sports are professional sports but they are not as well-run and they’re not as succinct as the established American professional sports so as we’re making this transition to quasi professional and losing the amateur status you could obviously argue it was lost long ago the The Rules of Engagement are just cloudy right now clear as mud is what what a bunch of uh SEC ads and presidents told me about the future of College athletics in Destin so you can either you can either coach and work and clear as mud or you can go to a place where the bottom line is very simple the reporting structure is very clear in the future especially look at a place like Yukon that doesn’t have BigTime football as a driver doesn’t have the TV contracts that the SEC and the Big 10 have the future there is going to be difficult to project and then greeny we could do a whole show on will there eventually be a breakaway of Big Time football where does that leave the NCA where does that leave the NCA tournament when Mike shashy made this decision 20 years ago greeny it was a radically different decision than the one Dan Hurley is making now and the primary reason for that is the entire plate tectonics of College athletics have shifted drastically for what for what what he’s talking about for anyone who does not know there was a moment in time when the Lakers tried to hire Mike shashy and I think that well you were covering it so you tell us uh 20 years ago is the 20th anniversary of the Lakers pursuit of Mike shashy they offered him $8 million a year in 2004 that’s like a solid like that puts you a above average in the NBA right now massive offer to Mike shashy he turned it down if Mike Shashi was in the same position at the same age with the way college basketball has changed he almost assuredly would probably be the Lakers coach that’s what Dan Hurley is facing now a very different world uh than what Mike shashy he could continue to dominate in college and he did he had won three national titles at that point can you continue to dominate at Yukon is it sustainable it might be Dan Hurley’s his will his stature in the profession but there are going to be football schools with the ability with Revenue sharing and nil that are going to be able to offer players more money than you can he’s got a top five team returning a team that could potentially three repeat in college basketball but if you want to coach in the NBA and you want to coach at that level the Lakers give you a chance to get access to what you need to win a championship is what there’s five or six or seven players we all know who they are and you better have one of them if you’re going to win a championship the Lakers give you a little better chance than anywhere else almost anywhere else to get that player and you know that’s certainly everything Hurley’s got to look at right now well the one thing that College athletics has now lost and again this just from talking to coaches and from what I’ve seen is selling the brand like Coach K back in the day could say hey do you want to come play for Duke do you want to be a part of Duke basketball it meant something the Brotherhood I’m not saying it doesn’t mean anything now but it means a lot less when I could go to Duke for this amount of money or I can go somewhere else for more money so the money playing into it the brand doesn’t necessarily mean something as much anymore in college athletics the Lakers organization that brand having that across your chest that means something so that’s the big difference from the NBA to college basketball Pete it feels to me like down is Up and Up Is Down and in in college sports just in and specifically in basketball we have John caliper leaving Kentucky to go to Arkansas you have Jay Wright walking away from the sport at a time when I think he was facing a lot of these kind of questions can I keep doing at villain NOA what I have been doing here because we you know we aren’t Alabama and we don’t play Big level football and now we see Dan hurly potentially jumping to the NBA should we be expecting more of that should we be expecting to see more of those of decisions in the immediate future well I think Dan Hurley accidentally summed this up for you greeny in a couple weeks after they won the title he tweeted out portal day one and it’s a picture of him lying in the fetal position in his office uh having to deal with that and and that’s Dan Hurley’s personality to a t by the way he’s sarcastic to the point of costic in it’s sort of a delightful Northeast way um but I think what Dan Hurley is saying is college basketball is a year-to-year business your roster one season has very little to do with your roster the next season I think if you walk in the average American sports bar right now and say can you name five college basketball players for next year I don’t think anyone can unless they’re like a hardcore Message Board fan and that constant churn and that constant turnover makes it challenging to do what w said Dan Hurley does so well run a program be a program Builder when you have all these new starters like Andrea pointed out earlier and then your roster is 80% different every year year that becomes taxing and unsustainable over a long period of time if you’re going to pour into these players and really be have your program built on development how would you feel about Dan Hurley being your next coach granny I love it I love it I heard UD talk about you know getting comfortable with being uncomfortable that’s something that from the football side Bill parcel’s taught and Bill bich taught and it’s really how players respond you know being in that uncomfortable State you get the most out of your players there’s a couple reasons why I love this move number one pedigree okay we’re talking about Dan Hurley who’s a football who’s a basketball lifer coming from a basketball family kind of equated to the harbaughs and in the way the harbaughs their father was a legendary High School football coach both brothers John and Jim you know both successful head coaches um both in collegially and a professional level and I think Dan could do the same thing with this Los Angeles Lakers program number two we talk about program building okay I’ve said before on the show greeny I think the big three era is done you just don’t have enough horses on the roster to be able to sustain the whole season I think you got to be able to have stars but you also got to be able to build out your roster and that comes with development we talk about players like Austin Reeds and ruy hore you know developing those guys and some of the other younger guys on on the Lakers roster if you think about the the series against the Denver Nuggets where they got the where but they got the gentleman swept they literally lost in five games by a total of 11 points those games were lost in the margin in the margins imagine what a coach could do developing some of our younger players and having those guys stepping up when outside of um LeBron James and Anthony Davis okay that where that’s where the NBA is right now you got to be able to develop these guys I heard Wes talk about how the CBA is now set up where you can’t have the big you know all these Big Time Players on your roster you just can’t do it you got to be able to develop these players and that’s where I think a coach who whole aspects about developing can really help the Los Angeles Lakers creep up in the Western Conference really well said yeah this is one of those days you know we all judge a basketball three-pointer by how many bangs Mike Green gives it this one’s three W bombs today I put three emojis bam bomb bomb enormous all right he [Music]