Dan Hurley to the Lakers Isn’t As Risky As It Sounds

If Dan Hurley—the latest glitzy name to emerge in the Los Angeles Lakers’ coaching search—were to win the job, he would face some potentially daunting challenges: a superstar nearing his 40th birthday, a flimsy supporting cast, a dearth of young talent, and of course the usual soaring expectations that come with coaching the purple and gold.

But if Hurley, who just coached Connecticut to back-to-back national championships, were to stumble in Los Angeles, it almost certainly wouldn’t be due to a lack of NBA experience, or some fatalistic belief that college coaches are doomed to fail at the pro level, just because so many others did.

From the moment Hurley’s name surfaced Thursday morning, in a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the usual tropes and cautionary tales began flooding back: Jerry Tarkanian. Rick Pitino. John Calipari. Lon Kruger. Leonard Hamilton. John Beilein. Fred Hoiberg. And on and on.

But the league has changed, and the basketball world is flatter than it was 25 years ago, or even a decade ago. The old constructs don’t necessarily apply. NBA head coaches now arrive via every conceivable path—from the U.S. and overseas, from the film room, the broadcast booth, and the G League, and occasionally straight from an NBA roster, with zero coaching experience. The notion that a college coach can’t handle the gig feels woefully outdated.

“I always thought it was inaccurate,” said P.J. Carlesimo, who made the leap from Seton Hall to the Portland Trail Blazers in 1994 and went on to coach three other NBA teams, with varying levels of success. “This is a player’s league. If you have good players in this league, you’re going to be successful.”

That much has always been true. And recent NBA history suggests it’s simply about finding the right coach and the right fit, regardless of their background or experience.

Brad Stevens was considered a risky hire when the Boston Celtics plucked him from Butler University in 2013 and made him the league’s youngest head coach, at age 36. Boston lost 57 games in his first season, mostly due to a poor roster. But the Celtics started adding talent, and Stevens rapidly accumulated respect and victories, guiding the Celtics to seven straight playoff appearances and three trips to the Eastern Conference finals. He ascended to general manager in 2021 and handed the reins to Ime Udoka, a first-time head coach himself, who promptly took the Celtics to the NBA Finals.

There were doubts, too, when the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015 hired Florida’s Billy Donovan—who had spent his entire coaching career in the NCAA—to take over a roster featuring Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. They made the conference finals in his first season and continued to thrive even after Durant left for the Golden State Warriors. Donovan has now coached nine seasons in the NBA, compiling a 399-319 record with Oklahoma City and Chicago.

Reflecting on his own first NBA opportunity, Carlesimo was quick to note that he got the benefit of inheriting a Trail Blazers roster with Clyde Drexler, Clifford Robinson, and Rod Strickland. Portland won and made the playoffs in each of his three seasons there. In later years, Carlesimo took on flawed (and/or young) teams in Golden State and Seattle, and failed.

“I had an opportunity to coach at a better level. So did Brad,” Carlesimo said. “You look at other guys, whether it’s Lon Kruger when he did it, Leonard Hamilton when he did it, Tark when he did it, Cal even when he did it, they didn’t get like a team like that. … So I think what fueled that [perception] was the number of college coaches that took really challenging jobs, that it wouldn’t have mattered who coached. I mean, it could have been Phil [Jackson] or Pop [Gregg Popovich] or Red Auerbach, it was going to be a tough road for the first couple of years.”

If Hurley does land in L.A., he’ll enjoy the benefit of a talented, veteran roster—albeit one with some caveats. LeBron James, who will turn 40 in December, might have only two or three seasons left. His younger costar, Anthony Davis, has a lengthy history of injuries and has never been suited to be a leading man. The rest of the roster is wonky—which is arguably why the Lakers are searching for their third coach in four seasons.

But if Hurley, 51, is given a longer contract and a little latitude as the Lakers transition out of the LeBron Era, he’d have a great chance to succeed, Carlesimo said. And Carlesimo has as good a grasp of Hurley’s acumen as anyone—he coached him at Seton Hall in the early ’90s, and the two remain close. Carlesimo attended Hurley’s practices at UConn and, as a broadcaster, covered several of his games.

“He’s a great coach, he really is,” Carlesimo said, citing Hurley’s organization and attention to detail, as well as his demeanor. “The fact that he can be demanding and push the guys, but do it in a good way, where he uses humor. He’ll jump all over them, too. But they’re extremely well prepared. They’re so good coming out of timeouts. They’re so good coming out of the locker room at halftime. They’re so good in situations like underneath out of bounds and side out of bounds. He’d call a timeout in the NCAA tournament, and you knew they were going to score in the next possession.”

That kind of acumen translates well, said Ron Adams, a longtime NBA assistant coach, currently with the Warriors, who briefly worked under Stevens in Boston and watched him evolve. “Brad was a consummate coach in college,” Adams said. “He was an X and O guy, par excellence.” The same could be said of Hurley, who learned at the feet of his father, the legendary Bob Hurley Sr. “I think he’s a marvelous coach,” Adams said of Dan Hurley. “He comes from a tremendous basketball family. … I think his skill set is excellent for coming into the pros.”

There’s a stubborn notion that an intense, demanding college coach will fail at the NBA level, because NBA players won’t accept that style as easily as a young college player. There’s a hint of truth there, but that belief ignores the success of demanding NBA coaches like Popovich or Tom Thibodeau or Michael Malone.

“I know a lot of people will say, ‘Well, he’s a really demanding coach,’” Adams said. “Well yes, and that’s going to be a strength in the pros. You may have to dress it up differently, but that will be a strength of his if he’s good with people and good at bringing out the best version of a player. That’s going to work in the pros, too.”

There is no one model for a successful coach in today’s NBA. Malone, who coached the Nuggets to the championship last year, followed the traditional assistant coach path in the NBA. Frank Vogel, who coached the Lakers to the title in 2020, began his career in the film room under Pitino in Boston. The Thunder’s Mark Daigneault, who won Coach of the Year this season, began his career in the G League. Steve Kerr had never coached at any level before taking over the Warriors and leading them to four championships.

Even the two coaches in the 2024 Finals underscore the point. Dallas’s Jason Kidd began his coaching career with the Brooklyn Nets, just days after retiring as a player with the New York Knicks. He struggled in Brooklyn and Milwaukee before finding his footing in Dallas. Joe Mazzulla had been an assistant coach for just three seasons with the Celtics before being thrust into the top job in 2022, at age 34. Both men said the path doesn’t matter as much as the knowledge a coach brings to the job.

“All the fundamentals are the same,” Mazzulla said. “You have to communicate. You have to build relationships with people. You have to have a great staff around you. You have to have great players. You have to get those players better. You have to empower people around you. You have to know whatever level you’re at, what goes into winning and what could lead to losing. I think no matter the level, it’s all the same.”