Los Angeles Lakers had no clear backup plan if Dan Hurley refused their offer.

It’s been nearly six weeks since the Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated in the NBA playoffs, and they still do not have a head coach. After their top choice, UConn legend Dan Hurley denied their offer, the Lakers are reportedly all out of ideas with no firm plans in place.

“In talking to different people today, there has not been a clear Plan B for the Lakers from this situation,” said Lakers insider Jovan Buha. “I thought that this was likely going to just be a five-day interlude and the Lakers would go back to the JJ Redick well and try to circle back and mend fences and just go back and make him the front-runner or the favorite or whatever term you want to use again and that would be the likely outcome.

But in having conversations with people in and outside of the organization today it has been a mixed bag in terms of what is the Plan B.”

Initial reports had the Lakers focused on JJ Redick from the very start. The 39-year-old former sharpshooter is a well-respected voice in the community and has close ties to 20x NBA All-Star LeBron James.

But after days of speculation, Hurley emerged as the top choice out of nowhere.

He met with the Lakers, including GM Rob Pelinka and team owner Jeanie Buss, personally this weekend but when it was time to make his choice, he turned down the opportunity and re-committed his future back to the Huskies

It was a move that shocked the Lakers, and everyone else, but it was especially brutal given that they could have hired both JJ Redick and James Borrego weeks ago when they still had a chance.

As the summer rolls on, the urgency to find a coach is only going to intensify but the Lakers cannot afford to rush this process. They have so much on the line heading into next season and a wrong step this late into the game could be the one that brings the entire franchise down.

Dan Hurley Pursuit Was A Smokescreen

There is no question that the Lakers had some contact with Dan Hurley this weekend but not everyone agrees on how serious he was as a candidate for the job.

According to Jovan Buha, many across the league view the whole thing as a charade meant to act as a smokescreen for some form of ulterior motive.

“I had been hearing from people on Thursday that they were a bit skeptical of the way that this situation was playing out, that some of the reporting was playing out.

They just felt it did not pass the smell test at all and that JJ Redick was still the favorite,” said Buha.

It’s possible that the Lakers were just trying to call in a favor for Hurley in his ongoing negotiations with UConn but it’s also possible that the team wanted to be seen negotiating with a higher-profile name. It wouldn’t be the first time that the Lakers used shady methods to control the narrative but many feel they are going to the extreme with this coaching search.

Whether their top choice was Redick, Hurley, or someone else entirely, things have clearly not gone according to plan for the Lake Show and it seems nobody on the inside is sure of what to do next.

This summer, deciding their next coach will no doubt be among their most important decisions and it cannot be taken lightly but their trickery and deception throughout the process may do more harm than good in the end.