Lakers’ low-ball offer for Dan Hurley is exactly what’s wrong with the NBA’s marquee franchise

When the Detroit Pistons badly wanted Monty Williams as their head coach last offseason, they moved heaven and earth to make it happen. The deal that finally secured the former NBA Finalist reset the coaching market: six years, $78.5 million. In the year or so since then, virtually every top coach in the NBA has cashed in. Erik Spoelstra got the most expensive coaching contract in NBA history at a reported $120 million over eight years. Steve Kerr didn’t quite reach that length, but his average annual salary of $17.5 million on a two-year extension with the Warriors pays him more annually. Gregg Popovich and Ty Lue have re-upped in that range. Tom Thibodeau likely will at some point this offseason. This is what a top NBA head coach costs now.

Let’s compare the financial resources available to the Pistons and the Los Angeles Lakers. Forbes estimates that the Lakers, as a franchise, are worth more than twice as much: $6.4 billion vs. $3.08 billion. Only the Warriors earned more estimated revenue than the $516 million that Forbes projected for the Lakers last year. The Pistons came in at a much more modest $274 million. Economically speaking, these are two teams that should be punching in different weight classes.

So when the time came for the Lakers to go all-in on Dan Hurley, their coach of choice, how much did they offer? According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski: $70 million over six years.

Williams is, obviously, a more proven NBA commodity than Hurley. But in the past, the Lakers haven’t shied away from offering top-dollar for college coaches. They famously tried to lure Mike Krzyzewski in 2004 with a five-year, $40 million offer that would have paid him at the top of the market. Go back even further and they were willing to pay top dollar for UNLV’s Jerry Tarkanian in 1979 as well. These pursuits came with Dr. Jerry Buss at the helm. The elder Buss also happily paid Phil Jackson at the top of the market to take over the Lakers in 1999, and then again in 2005.

But coaching has been a persistent problem during the Jeanie Buss era,…

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Author : Sam Quinn

Publish date : 2024-06-10 19:22:34

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