3 reasons JJ Redick would make a better Lakers head coach than Dan Hurley

There's something strangely yet exhilaratingly fitting to waking up to a Woj bomb on the 80th anniversary of D-Day. ESPN Senior NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted out some major news this morning, and while it certainly can't be compared to storming the beaches at Normandy, as far as NBA stories go, this one hit like a Martin B-26 Marauder.

The NBA Finals will begin tonight, and while the matchup between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks is a fascinating one, it's sure to be overshadowed by Woj, who reported that the Lakers are making a major push to bring UConn's Dan Hurley aboard as their next head coach.

Hurley is on top of the world right now, and in the time since his Huskies have cut down the nets for the second year in a row, he's been conducting the hype train towards an unprecedented three-peat.

UConn is well-positioned to actually make a run at history, having secured what On3.com currently ranks as the No. 8-ranked recruiting class in the country. The Huskies also got the recent good news that Alex Karaban, the team's sharpshooting forward, is returning for another year. Hurley has also done a tremendous job in replacing the outgoing dynamic duo of Tristen Newton and Donovan Clingan by landing the services of former Saint Mary's point guard Aidan Mahaney and former Michigan center Tarris Reed.

Would he really want to give up a chance at true college basketball immortality to move cross-country and take one of the most famously volatile and scrutinized jobs in all of sports? If Woj's report is to be believed, the Lakers may make him an offer that will be difficult to refuse.

Until this morning, most of the recent chatter about the Lakes coaching search has been about JJ Redick, who is a very intriguing candidate himself, though for different reasons than Hurley. Have the Lakers really had a change of heart on uniting LeBron James with Redick, his podcast co-host? Or was making a push for Hurley the plan all along?

There's so much that we still don't know about this story, and so much that could change, but while things are still up in the air, the most important question is this: Who would be a better hire for the Lakers? After thinking through the pros and cons of each of the two leading candidates to replace Darvin Ham, I feel confident in saying that JJ Redick would be the best choice, and here's why.

3. JJ Redick understands NBA basketball better than Dan Hurley

I have no doubt that both of these guys have more basketball knowledge in their pinky than I could ever possess. Coaching in the NBA and coaching in college is a very different ballgame, though, and while it's still basketball, it might as well be two different sports.

Redick played for 15 years in the NBA, and in the three years since his retirement, he's remained focused on the game at its highest level. He's become a rising star in the NBA media world for his incisive analysis and deep knowledge not only of the intricacies of the game itself but of the players in the league. This is a guy that actually got Ben Simmons to open up on his podcast about his travails of the past few years.

Hurley has been at UConn for six seasons, and in that time he's resurrected a Huskies program that went 14-18 and had those wins vacated due to recruiting violations in the season before his arrival, and turned it into the most dominant college program since Billy Donovan's Florida Gators won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007.

Hurley has had success at every stop in his coaching career, but there's a world of difference between turning around Wagner, Rhode Island, and yes, even UConn, and turning around the Lakers, who have gone through head coaches faster than a Kardashian goes through boyfriends.

Hurley has had such great success because he's known for being such a maniacally driven worker. That's a great quality to have, but it also means that he's been singularly focused on how to be the best possible college basketball coach for at least the last 14 years. Thinking about how to succeed in the NBA is not a luxury he could afford while navigating the rigorous waters of recruiting and coaching at UConn full-time.

Listen to an episode of The Old Man and the Three, JJ Redick's podcast with Tommy Alter. He's constantly breaking down the complexities of the NBA game in an understandable way, and he has a steady stream of NBA stars that he interviews and obviously gets along with. It's refreshing to hear some of the NBA's best players open up about their lives and their play because Redick is one of the few media people who can match their understanding of what it takes to succeed in the league, both on and off the court.

Redick's new podcast, Mind the Game, allows him to show off his knowledge of the game even further, and the fact that he co-hosts it with LeBron James, who has one of the highest basketball IQs of all-time, is proof enough of Redick's bona fides.

Could Hurley become a great NBA head coach if given the time to learn on the job? Absolutely he could, but history has shown that coaches just don't get that kind of leeway, especially with the Lakers, who haven't had a coach last for more than three years since Phil Jackson returned for a second tour of duty from 2005-11.

2. Dan Hurley's temperament isn't suited to the NBA

Make no mistake about it, Dan Hurley is an absolutely phenomenal coach. I love watching him work. But will his intense style fly in today's NBA? There's no way.

NBA players aren't looking to be yelled at. They don't want a fire-breathing dragon on the sidelines, and they're not going to be down with running extra wind sprints at practice. Not in 2024. And whether you want to blame that on the amount of money players today make compared to when coaches like Chuck Daly and Pat Riley roamed the sidelines, or you'd rather pin it on today's culture of load management and player empowerment, that doesn't make it any less true.

Would Hurley adjust his style in the NBA? Of course. He's not just a motivator, he's also a tremendously cerebral coach who has shown an ability to know just what his team needs to succeed. You can't just flip a switch and turn that intensity off completely, though, and the first time Hurley barks at Anthony Davis for not boxing out or yells at LeBron for taking plays off on defense, it will not go over well. It was many years ago, but Jerry Tarkanian, another famously intense national championship-winning coach who wasn't afraid to speak his mind, lasted only 20 games after leaving UNLV for the San Antonio Spurs.

LeBron has stated his respect for Hurley before, and it would take Benoit Blanc, Daniel Craig's character from Knives Out, to peel back every layer of the (glass?) onion that is LeBron tweeting his praise of Hurley in response to the UConn coach's conversation with Redick on The Old Man and the Three.

It's been a running joke for years that the coach of LeBron's team is actually LeBron, and as funny as it is, there's a lot of merit to it. LeBron runs the show, and even at 39 years old, it's hard to imagine that he's going to finally loosen the reins and allow a coach to come in and implement his own system, even if it's someone who he respects.

Redick and LeBron are friends, and while the old heads out there will grumble in disgust at the idea of a head coach and his star player being buddy-buddy, it's a new world we're living in. If a player and his coach don't see eye-to-eye, then this partnership will be over before it even begins. Redick is the surest bet to get the Lakers on the same page.

1. College coaches have not had meaningful success in the NBA

There's long been a stigma that college coaches can't hack it in the NBA. That's not really the case anymore, as Billy Donovan and Quin Snyder are two examples of former college coaches that are now respected members of the NBA coaching fraternity. Respect is one thing, though. Championships are another, and Donovan and Snyder have won five playoff series between them in 19 combined years on an NBA bench.

Only one head coach has ever won both an NCAA championship and an NBA title, and that was Larry Brown, who accomplished the feat when his Detroit Pistons upset the Lakers back in 2004. That was LeBron's rookie year, so you know it was a long time ago.

Many successful college coaches have taken their shot in the NBA, but by and large, it hasn't worked out. Rick Pitino and John Calipari come to mind as coaches that have experienced the ultimate success in college, only to flame out in the pros. John Beilein is the most recent example, and he barely made it half a season, going 14-40 with the Cavs before resigning.

Brad Stevens is one of the few college-to-NBA success stories, but even he didn't win a title in his eight seasons with the Celtics before stepping down to become Boston's president of basketball operations.

Redick had a lengthy playing career as a 3-point specialist, followed by a celebrated media career as an analyst and a broadcaster. Remind you of anyone? I'm not saying he's Steve Kerr, but if you're the Lakers, it's an intriguing parallel.

The Lakers have a long history of attempting to land the biggest names in college coaching. They once courted Tarkanian, and they made a huge push once upon a time for Redick's college coach, Mike Krzyzewski, and his alma mater's rival, North Carolina's Roy Williams. This pursuit of Hurley is just the latest in that decades-long quest.

No one knows yet if Hurley will be able to resist the glamour and undoubtedly huge money that the Lakers can offer him to leave his dynasty-in-the-making in Storrs, Connecticut, and as of now, no official offer has been made. If Rob Pelinka and the rest of the Lakers are smart, though, they'll go with Redick instead.