At the beginning of the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching search, New Orleans Pelicans assistant coach James Borrego was in the mix along with ESPN color commentator JJ Redick, who was viewed as the frontrunner for several weeks.
However, UConn’s back-to-back National Championship winning head coach Dan Hurley became the new No. 1 option as L.A. put an all-out effort to hire him as their next coach. But now that dream is over as news broke Monday afternoon that Hurley would stay in Connecticut for a chance to three-peat.
General manager Rob Pelinka is now back at square one with Borrego and Redick. It is safe to assume those two will be back at the top of the list for this position, but Borrego may become the lead candidate for the Cleveland Cavaliers head coach opening as well, Brian Windhorst of ESPN reported on Get Up:
“James Borrego, who [the Lakers] interviewed about 10 days ago, he’s gaining momentum in Cleveland. He’s expected to interview there early this week as a potential leading candidate developing with the Cavs.”
Borrego is set to meet with the Cavaliers on Tuesday, per NBA reporter Marc Stein:
James Borrego is scheduled to meet with the Cavaliers about their head coaching vacancy in Cleveland today, league sources say.
Borrego is also back at the forefront of the Lakers' search after Dan Hurley passed on L.A.'s offer to stay at UConn.
More: https://t.co/A6ycVmnZ8Y
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 11, 2024
Should this materialize, it further constrains Pelinka in a weak coaching pool and pushes him to come to terms with Redick or one of the other candidates they’ve interview. The other option would be to reconvene and look for other candidates outside of those two.
To that point, the NBA Draft starts on June 26 and their reported plan was to have a head coach in place by then. So time is ticking for L.A. to find this new coach and they have to move fast on whoever they deem is their Plan B, especially if it is Borrego and the Cavaliers also want him.
It is also worth noting that negotiations could get interesting due to how public Hurley and the Lakers’ conversations were. Say Borrego or Redick are viewed as the guy, it is plausible for them to seek a deal close to the one offered to Hurley.
Head coaching search to resume with JJ Redick & James Borrego still candidates
After striking out on Dan Hurley, it did not take long for rumors to come out about the Lakers circling back to JJ Redick and James Borrego.
Noth Redick and Borrego are expected to remain in this search and L.A. could bring in the former for his first formal interview. It will be worth monitoring how both candidates would respond to being the Lakers’ runner-ups and if that leads to more drama in this search.
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