Day: June 6, 2024

The Los Angeles Lakers’ decision to target Dan Hurley as their next head coach aligns both with what they want to accomplish long-term and the message LeBron James sent to them about his future with the franchise as he nears the end of his career. James informed the Lakers that their next head coach would have to be one that was also a good fit after his exit.

“When this process started for the Lakers when they dismissed Darvin Ham, they obviously spoke to LeBron about the coaching situation,” said Brian Windhorst on First Take. “From what I understand, what LeBron said to them was, ‘You have to hire somebody who is for beyond just me. I might be here for another year. I might be here for two years. You’ve got to make a decision that’s built around Anthony Davis. That’s built around what the Lakers need for the next decade, not just what I need.’

“Certainly, his feelings on the head coach are going to be taken into account, but that’s the message LeBron gave them. This type of hire this type of going for this type of candidate aligns with that.

“Secondly, LeBron has praised Dan Hurley and his acumen very recently in public especially after this podcast he did with J.J. Redick. It is incredibly ironic that he just did a podcast right after [Hurley] won the second national title in a row with J.J. talking about X’s and O’s, talking about where he gets some of his creativity, talking about how he’s morphed as a coach. And I do think that is going to be received positively by LeBron.

“Any coaching person any anybody that the Lakers were looking for in this hire is going to be some level of a risk because there wasn’t a bonafide highly proven NBA coach sitting there. The only coach that was really out there that met that criteria was Mike Budenholzer. The Suns moved in on that very quickly and made that hire.

“Whoever the Lakers were going to hire, they were going to have to step out a little bit of their comfort zone. So that’s one of the reasons why you saw J.J. Redick’s name attached to it, because they were looking for somebody who had very high potential yeah so if you’re going to take a you’re going to make a high risk hire, which any coach who never been a head coach in the NBA would be what you want is a high reward. Dan Hurley is a high reward type situation.”

Windhorst previously added during a spot on Get Up the James didn’t suggest they hire Redick.

Rob Pelinka and the Los Angeles Lakers view Dan Hurley as a potential coach that can transform the franchise over the long-term and is well suited to adapt to the changing the landscape of the NBA that prioritizes player development.

“The Lakers, Rob Pelinka, they want to put a program in place in L.A.,” said Adrian Wojnarowski. “They don’t want to have just coach-to-coach. They want to put a program in for the long-term. They want Dan Hurley’s player development program.

“The NBA is changing. You can’t in L.A. anymore just trade three or four first round picks to bring in a star player and think you can have a roster that will win. That’s how they got Anthony Davis. But you are seeing you have to draft well. You have to develop your young players.

“In L.A., I think the belief is always you’re going to be able to get the star player who finds his way to L.A., but you’re going to have to grow your young players.”

The NBA is nearing completion of a combined 11-year, $76 billion set of deals with Disney, NBC and Amazon. The deals average out to $6.9 billion per season for the NBA, which is more than 2.5 times higher than its existing deals. The NFL recently doubled its fees under its last deal to around $10 billion per year.

An official announcement could still be weeks away as it will need approval from the Board of Governors.

ESPN’s deal is considered the “A” package and they will pay an average of $2.6 billion per year, which is up from $1.5 billion under the current deal. While ESPN will broadcast fewer overall games, they retain both The Finals and a Conference Finals annually. ESPN will be allowed to air games on its direct-to-consumer streaming service expected to launch in 2025.

NBC will pay an averaged of $2.5 billion per year, while Amazon will pay $1.8 billion per year. NBC and Amazon will alternate broadcasting one of the two Conference Finals series. Amazon will also broadcast the In-Season Tournament and Play-In games.

NBC will air around 100 games per season with approximately half airing exclusively on Peacock. Games would air on NBC on Tuesdays and Sundays when there isn’t a conflict with NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.”

The global popularity of the NBA was a big motivator for Amazon’s Prime Video.

Warner Bros. Discovery will almost certainly lose their longtime partnership with the NBA. Warner had a chance to commit to a deal at $2.2 billion per year, but sources say they walked away due to their displeasure with the price relative to the value of the package. Warner believed the NBA took too many playoff games and the play-in tournament out of its package to give to Amazon.

When Warner’s exclusive window closed, NBC quickly submitted a $2.5 billion per year bid. NBC tried to get a share of the Finals during their talks with the NBA, but ultimately fell short with ESPN/ABC retaining it exclusively.