Hurley is coming off back-to-back national titles with the Huskies, who would hate to see their coach jump to the NBA.
What would LeBron James think about this move happening? We don’t kow yet, but a few months ago James tweeted about Hurley and it seems like he loves what the coach and his staff have done at UConn.
Here is James replying to a video of JJ Redick, who has also been on the Lakers’ radar, and Hurley talking about UConn’s offense:
He’s so DAMN GOOD!!! Along with his staff. Super creative with their O! Love it
Monday brought news that Dan Hurley decided to turn down the Los Angeles Lakers and stay at UConn. Of the many aspects of the news, perhaps the most notable was that the Lakers were willing to pony up the big bucks to land their target.
In reporting Hurley is staying put, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski revealed L.A. was prepared to make Hurley one of the six highest-paid coaches in the NBA — to the tune of a six-year deal worth $70 million, good for more than $10 million annually.
Naturally, this begs the question of what coaches would have been making more than Hurley, as well as who would've been making less. NBA head coaching salaries are not the tightly-guarded secrets that NFL head coaching salaries generally are, but teams are rarely willing to plainly spell out how much they are paying their head coaches.
That does not stop the information from getting out, though. There are sourced reports on the contract value and annual salary of the top coaches in the league.
With that in mind, who are the highest-paid coaches in the NBA?
Below is a table listing the five highest-paid NBA head coaches, per NBC.
NAME
TEAM
SALARY
RECORD
Steve Kerr
Golden State Warriors
$17.5 million
519-274
Gregg Popovich
San Antonio Spurs
$16 million
1,388-821
Erik Spoelstra
Miami Heat
$15 million
750-527
Tyronn Lue
Los Angeles Clippers
$14 million
312-217
Monty Williams
Detroit Pistons
$13 million
381-404
Based on these numbers, Hurley would have slotted in behind Williams.
You may be asking why there are only five coaches listed. That's because, until recently, NBA head coach salaries were not interesting enough topics for insiders to report on. Combined with how stingy teams tend to be with this sort of information and reporters like Wojnarowski end up only reporting on the biggest numbers such as above.
That is not always the case. Mike Brown's negotiations with the Sacramento Kings, for example, were heavily covered and the news spread quickly once he reached a deal that would pay him $8.5 million annually. But for the most part there is little solid reporting on how much coaches around the league make.
The next question, then, is why do the coaches mentioned above warrant investigative reporting and high salaries?
Steve Kerr
Kerr signed a two-year extension worth $35 million with the Golden State Warriors in February, making him the highest-paid coach in the NBA. It is not hard to understand why. Kerr took over the Dubs in 2014 and immediately found success, winning four NBA titles in 10 years at the helm. Kerr is one of the winningest head coaches in the modern era and certainly one of the most respected.
The players play the game, but every great player needs a good head coach to put them in position to succeed. Kerr did that to such an extent that he created a modern dynasty behind Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Which essentially earned him the right to ask for whatever he wants in contract negotiations.
Gregg Popovich
Coach Pop needs little introduction, but we'll go full speed ahead anyway. Popovich is one of the best head coaches in NBA history from just about every angle. He's coached the San Antonio Spurs since 1994 and won more than 1,000 games on the team's bench. He helmed a dynasty of his own centered around Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. Popovich won multiple titles with that core, with the last coming in 2014 over the dying embers of LeBron James' Miami Heat team.
Popovich is a legend and that's why the Spurs gave him a massive five-year, $80 million deal last offseason to stay with the franchise until (presumably) the end of his career.
Erik Spoelstra
Spoelstra's rise from video coordinator to championship-winning head coach is the stuff of legends and the Miami Heat were happy to reward him accordingly. After winning two titles with LeBron's Big 3 and twice winning the Eastern Conference with the Jimmy Butler/Bam Adebayo core, he signed an eight-year deal worth $120 million with the Heat in January 2024.
Spoelstra is widely recognized as one of the best tactical coaches in the game and, at only 53, has many good years ahead of him. Miami was wise to lock him up for the long run.
Tyronn Lue
Unlike the names above, Lue has not won a championship with his current team. He is a title-winning head coach after helping lead the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers to the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history, but Lue has spent the last few years in Los Angeles with the Clippers. He's gone 184-134 despite dealing with numerous injuries to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, making one deep playoff run since he was hired ahead of the 2020-'21 season.
In May 2024, Lue signed a five-year $70 million deal with the Clippers. He has clearly found success with the franchise and they are happy to have him.
Monty Williams
Many an eyebrow was raised around the NBA when Williams signed a gigantic $78.5 million deal with the Detroit Pistons last summer. At the time it was the biggest contact given out to an NBA head coach in history. Williams had just finished up an uneven final season with the Phoenix Suns but was only two years removed from an NBA Finals appearance.
It took almost no time for things to go sideways. The Pistons set an NBA record for longest losing streak under Williams' watch and finished the 2023-'24 season with only 14 wins. Williams remains in place as the team's head coach but will have to start showing he's worth his high salary soon.
The Los Angeles Lakers are going to eventually pick a head coach to lead them into next season and when that happens, it won't really matter who breaks the news three minutes before the rest of the world has it. But being cynical isn't as fun as keeping score in the Adrian Wojnarowski-Shams Charania parlor game, which has an interesting new chapter based on some at-odds reporting on L.A.'s search.
Less than 48 hours ago, The Athletic's Charania shoveled some more fuel into the JJ Redick hot-stove by establishing the player-turned-podcaster-slash-broadcaster as the leader in the clubhouse.
The Los Angeles Lakers are zeroing in on JJ Redick as the front-runner to be the franchise’s next head coach, league and media industry sources told The Athletic.
No final decision has been made yet, and the Lakers still have steps remaining in their head-coaching search process, league sources said. But the indications are strong that Redick is their leading choice at this stage.
The Lakers have had preliminary contact with Hurley and the sides are planning to escalate discussions in the coming days, sources told ESPN. Hurley has been at the forefront of the Lakers' search from the beginning of the process, even while the organization has done its due diligence interviewing several other candidates, sources said.
So one can see the problem. Redick and Hurley can't both coach the Lakers unless one of them wants to leave a great gig to become an assistant.
At times like these it's important to parse the language and point out that we're all in this situation because step-by-step reporting of each and every twist and turn of the process has been turned into an opportunity for news. In the not-so-distant past a consumer would only hear about a team selecting a new coach when that coach had been selected. It was less entertaining but that world didn't require a dictionary and thesaurus to divine meaning from the verbs included in every stage.
And that's not a slight. Woj and Shams are at the top of the field. But there's a real chance neither Redick nor Hurley coaches the Lakers next year, despite all the "zeroing in" and "targeting." In the court of public opinion, fair or otherwise, Shams is the Redick guy now and Woj is the Hurley guy. No one is going to do the work of parsing all the semantics and journalism to give either an out if life happens and talks don't go well or offers aren't accepted or matched.
Until there's a final decision the winner in these types of situations tends to be the person with the most recent information, which would be Wojanarowski. There's certainly something to be said about waking up in the morning to a legitimately shocking chyron on the screen and considering an event horizon that would profoundly impact both pro and college basketball.
It's nice to be reminded every so often that the Woj-Shams sideshow can be a lot of fun once a person gets out of the weeds and learns to embrace the bombs.
The Los Angeles Lakers' search for their next coach has taken a dramatic turn as they are now targeting UConn's Dan Hurley, according to a report by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
Wojnarowski shook up the basketball world early Thursday morning with his report that the Lakers are looking to give Hurley a massive longterm deal and that talks are going to heat up over the next few days.
Hurley has led UConn to back-to-back NCAA titles over the past two years.
Wojnarowski broke the news in a series of tweets:
ESPN Sources: The Lakers have had preliminary contact with Hurley and sides are planning to escalate discussions in coming days. Hurley’s been at the forefront of the Lakers’ search from the beginning of the process, even while the organization has done its due diligence…
Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss are eager to formally discuss their vision with Hurley of marrying his dominant program --- built upon both his tactical acumen and elite player development -- to the storied Lakers’ brand, sources tell ESPN.
