Dan Hurley had 70 million reasons to take the Lakers job. However, there are some things money can’t buy, and he decided to return to UConn to try to win three straight national championships rather than accept Los Angeles’ six-year offer.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski He cited Hurley’s desire to pursue that third title, along with a significant contract extension he is expected to receive, as reasons for Hurley to stay. What wasn’t said was another factor: that the Lakers’ job simply isn’t that attractive.
That statement may seem crazy given that the Lakers are a prestigious franchise with 17 championships. They have a squad that reached the Western Conference Finals in 2023 behind two All-NBA players: Anthony Davis and LeBron James.
While that all sounds good on paper, the reality is that the franchise has an uphill battle ahead of it until LeBron James retires. No Lakers head coach has lasted more than three years since Phil Jackson retired in 2011. Their next coach will likely continue that trend after a few miserable years at the helm.
Why the Lakers’ job is one of the worst in the league
This Lakers squad is setting up a coach for failure
The expectation for any new Lakers coach will be nothing less than winning a championship. And even if that lofty goal is met, 2020 championship coach Frank Vogel will tell you his job security might not last long.
For the Lakers to win it all, they’ll have to beat a ton of teams in the Western Conference. They had to fight their way through the Play-In tournament just to have a chance to compete in the playoffs last season, where they were eliminated in five games by the Nuggets.
Those with gold and purple glasses will point to Darvin Ham as the reason for those shortcomings. But Ham led the team to overperform in 2023, and he wasn’t the one defending Nikola Jokic during either of the team’s last two playoff exits.
This Lakers roster is good, but they are working with a talent deficit compared to the league’s elite teams. LeBron and AD were unusually healthy this year, and that still wasn’t enough for the team to finish better than eighth in a loaded Western Conference. Both players will be a year older next season and don’t have much time left at the top.
The Lakers have some avenues to improve their team. They will have three future first-round picks available to move after the draft. It would be surprising if they used all three for a short-term upgrade, though: They passed up a similar opportunity to improve at this last trade deadline, realizing they were too far from their goal to waste future assets.
The Lakers’ work has too much drama around it
What makes the Lakers job even less appealing than the enormous expectations is the sideshow that comes with it. No job carries a higher level of scrutiny. Ham couldn’t take it anymore and begged fans to take a long-term view.
“I’m tired of people living and dying with every game we play,” Ham said midway through last season. “It’s ridiculous, actually. It’s like, ‘Come on man, this is a marathon.'”
That attitude won’t get you very far in Los Angeles. The Lakers dominate national headlines no matter what they do or what time of year it is. For the second year in a row, franchise talk has dominated coverage at the start of the NBA Finals (remember LeBron’s alleged retirement contemplations from last year?).
That intense pressure is further exacerbated within the organization, where leaks to the press are the norm.
Ham had no less than six anonymous sources threw Athletic’s Shams Charania under the bus around mid year. In addition to an active player, Christian Wood, publicly tweeting “lol” in a passive-aggressive response to lack of playing time. None of that even takes into account the biggest pressure point of all.
Coaching LeBron James in his final act is an unwinnable responsibility.
LeBron’s greatness is undeniable, but he has not been an easy player to coach throughout his career. He will be his tenth coach once the Lakers make a decision. He holds them all to an extremely high standard, even Trying to get Heat coach Erik Spoelstra fired at the beginning of their relationship together.
Getting along with LeBron is the most important part of the Lakers’ job. Once a coach loses it, it’s over. What makes it even more difficult is that James is still an All-NBA player, but he is clearly on the decline. He will have to face the final stage of his career with extreme grace. And then there’s the Bronny problem.
Imagine if Bronny James was drafted to this team, which seems like a likely possibility. That will create one of the strangest locker rooms the NBA has ever seen. The next Lakers coach will have to develop Bronny to LeBron’s liking, keep LeBron’s legacy intact, lead an eighth-place roster to a championship and maintain that level or risk being fired a few years later.
There will be better jobs for Hurley to choose from in the future, and he knows it. When you look at those challenges, winning three national championships in a row seems pretty easy.
