UCONN, COACH DAN HURLEY AGREE TO 6-YEAR, $50 MILLION DEAL A MONTH AFTER HE SPURNED OFFER FROM LAKERS
STORRS, Conn. (AP) — UConn and men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley have agreed to a six-year, $50 million contract through the 2029-30 season, nearly a month after he turned down a lucrative offer to coach the Los Angeles Lakers.
Hurley, who passed on guiding the storied NBA club to return to the two-time defending NCAA champions, can also earn more through performance-based incentives, a Monday release from the school stated. He will receive $6.375 million next season in addition to his $400,000 base annual salary, which includes compensation from speaking, consulting and media obligations.
The agreement, which includes a $1 million annual retention bonus, will be covered by increased ticket sales revenue and donations from the Husky Athletic Fund, the release added. It replaces the six-year, $32.1 million agreement reached in June 2023 after Hurley won his first national championship with UConn.
Hurley — 141-58 in six seasons with the Huskies and 292-163 overall entering his 15th as a Division I head coach — acknowledged that the Lakers’ six-year, $70 million offer was “obviously tempting.” He was also mentioned as a candidate for the Kentucky coaching vacancy after John Calipari left for Arkansas. But Hurley reiterated last month that he belongs at UConn and stated in the release that “it’s an honor” to coach and represent the school and is proud of what the program has rebuilt for supporters and fans.
He added: “We will continue to obsessively pursue championships and historic success, while continuing to develop great young men. Bleed Blue!”
UConn President Radenka Maric called Hurley the nation’s best men’s basketball coach and said he was delighted Hurley will continue to call it home. Athletic director David Benedict praised Hurley and wife Andrea for pouring themselves into rebuilding the program added that the contract recognizes the “immense” effort that has produced the results and the dedication it will require for the program to sustain it.
TRADING MIKAL BRIDGES TO KNICKS SENDS NETS INTO REBUILD. GM DOESN’T THINK IT WILL BE LONG ONE
NEW YORK (AP) — When the Brooklyn Nets made their first deal with the local rival New York Knicks in four decades, they traded away their best all-around player in Mikal Bridges.
Bridges was the key piece the Nets acquired when they sent Kevin Durant to Phoenix in 2023, and his brilliant play down the stretch got them into the playoffs that spring.
No key player came back this time. The trade with the Knicks was all about the haul of draft picks the Nets could accumulate for future success.
So, the Nets are heading into a rebuild, but general manager Sean Marks doesn’t think it will be a lengthy one.
“This build, do I think it’s going to take time? I mean, I think we’ll be strategic in it,” Marks said Monday.
“But I do think being in this market, with this amount of draft assets, we’ve done it before. And so again, I think, not that it’s going to be expedited by any means, but I don’t think it’s a long process, either.”
The trade was agreed upon just before the NBA draft last month and completed Saturday. The Nets received the Knicks’ first-round picks in 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031, the right to swap first-round picks in 2028, a first-round pick from Milwaukee next year and a second-round pick in 2025.
Four picks in the first round of what’s expected to be a strong 2025 class looks nice on the draft board, but it’s probably not going to look pretty on the court or in the standings until then. Especially considering the Nets were thinking about multiple championships when Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden were in Brooklyn just three years ago.
“I think you have to look yourself in the mirror as an organization and sort of say what’s the best path for us moving forward here, and how do we do this and how do we have that sustainable success that we want,” Marks said. “So when you’re able to (add) that amount of draft assets over the course of the last year, I think that’s going to help us in our trajectory long term.”
Bridges averaged 26.1 points from the time the Nets got him at the 2023 deadline through the rest of that season, but that slipped to 19.6 in 2023-24 as the Nets went to 32-50 and missed the postseason. But Marks said the trade wasn’t about Bridges’ performance and denied speculation that the swingman asked to be dealt.
“I think it’s been reported that Mikal wanted to leave or requested a trade. That could not be further from the truth,” Marks said. “That’s just not in Mikal’s character. That’s not who he is and that definitely did not happen. He was told by me when I called him and let him know that we’re at the 2-yard line.”
The trade — the first between the teams since 1983 — allows Bridges to join former Villanova teammates Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo with the Knicks and could make New York a contender in the Eastern Conference. A few miles away, the Nets could be one of the worst teams in the NBA in new coach Jordi Fernandez’s first season.
Marks said he told Fernandez during negotiations that moving Bridges and building through the draft was a path the Nets could pursue, and was up front with Nic Claxton before re-signing the center.
The Nets couldn’t offer Marks good draft assets when he was hired in 2016, having dealt them to Boston in the 2013 blockbuster that brought Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to Brooklyn. That trade put the Celtics in position to draft Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum to start the core of the team that won this year’s NBA title.
Now the Nets will have draft picks and cap space. They just no longer have a talent anywhere near the level of Bridges.
“It’s a difficult decision, because Mikal was the focal point or this organization for the last year since we did the trade,” Marks said. “So, not an easy decision, but at the same time when you have an offer like we did from New York, I think that sets us up on a very, very clear direction and pathway to continue to build this team to sustainable success and that’s the ultimate goal here.”
AGENT: HEAT RE-SIGN F HAYWOOD HIGHSMITH TO $11M DEAL
The Miami Heat are bringing back free agent Haywood Highsmith on a two-year, $11 million deal, the forward’s agent confirmed to ESPN on Monday.
Highsmith, 27, averaged a career-high 6.1 points with 3.2 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 66 games (26 starts) with the Heat in 2023-24.
He entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of Division II Wheeling in 2018-19 and played in five games with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Highsmith spent the 2019-20 season in the NBA G League and played in Germany in 2020-21 before returning to the NBA with Miami in 2021-22.
He owns career averages of 4.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 17.6 minutes in 144 games (38 starts) with the Sixers and Heat.
REPORT: PELICANS SIGNING C DANIEL THEIS TO 1-YEAR DEAL
The New Orleans Pelicans are signing free agent center Daniel Theis to a one-year deal, ESPN reported Monday.
Theis, 32, will be joining his sixth NBA team since entering the league with the Boston Celtics in 2017-18.
He spent most of the 2023-24 season with the Los Angeles Clippers, averaging 6.3 points and 4.1 rebounds in 59 games (three starts).
He has career averages of 7.4 points and 4.8 boards in 373 games (151 starts) with the Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers and Clippers.
This summer, Theis is representing his native Germany at the Olympics in Paris. He helped the German squad win gold at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, where the United States finished fourth.
JOEL EMBIID CALLS NEW BIG 3 IN PHILLY ‘AMAZING’
Sixers superstar Joel Embiid loves the look of the new Big 3 in Philadelphia while admitting that his “patience was tested” along the way.
The 76ers just landed superstar Paul George on a max deal this offseason, the missing piece to what Embiid hopes results in a championship alongside himself and rising star Tyrese Maxey.
“I think as far as the fit, it looks amazing,” Embiid told ESPN. “It is great, especially when you got a big … I don’t like to call myself a big, but when you got a player that posts up and that isos quite a bit, you need to have willing shooters and guys that are not afraid to pull the trigger. PG, great shooter, 40 percent, 45 catch and shoot; Tyrese, we know great shooter, off the dribble, catch-and-shoot.
“On paper, and as far as the fit, it looks fantastic.”
Further, the team was able to keep Kelly Oubre Jr. and signed Caleb Martin, Andre Drummond and Eric Gordon.
It’s a far cry from this point last year, when the team was saddled with the offseason drama of James Harden, who was eventually traded to the Los Angeles Clippers in November. Sixers general manager Daryl Morey was very deliberate in carving out cap space to land a player like George to make a title run.
“I’d be lying to say that patience wasn’t tested,” Embiid told ESPN. “Because I’m at the point where there’s no awards, there’s no regular season or no All-NBA or All-Stars is going to change the way my legacy is. Well, there’s a few things that can change it, but the main one is the championship. So when you start thinking about what you want to be remembered as, you want to be remembered as someone that’s won.”