Could Dan Hurley be the perfect head coach for the Lakers?

The Lakers are putting on the full court press for Dan Hurley, but what kind of coach is he and how would he fit with the Lakers?

The Lakers’ move for Dan Hurley came as a complete surprise and naturally raised a whole host of questions.

How long had they been after Hurley? Was the JJ Redick interest a big smoke screen? What kind of coach even is Hurley?

Those questions can be answered to varying degrees. On the first one, the Lakers have reportedly seen Hurley as their No. 1 option since the beginning of this process. As it pertains to Redick, for now, it’s unclear how serious that interest is/was/will be.

The last of those queries is an interesting one. While both Redick and Hurley have no NBA coaching experience, the latter has a whole, whole lot of college and high school experience and a much larger library of tape to look at.

While there’s always a question of how a college coach is going to adapt to the NBA, there is a lot of optimism that the style Hurley has implemented, particularly in recent seasons, at UConn is pretty easily transferrable to the pros.

A host of experts on the college game, including Sam Vecenie of The Athletic, chimed in on Hurley on Thursday and provided their insight on how he could fit with the Lakers.

Vecenie also wrote a bit more at length about Hurley’s system in The Athletic’s report of the Lakers’ interest in Hurley, too. Here’s a snippet of that.

Hurley is by far the best NBA prospect among college coaches. He runs an intricate, NBA-style offensive system that generates 3s and rim attempts through lots of player movement off screens and dribble-handoffs. It deploys multiple ballhandlers who can initiate the offense into its main actions and disguises its sets well with different variations and counters off the same formations and sets. But the scheme isn’t rigid; Hurley gives his players freedom to play loose and attack based on what the defense is giving them.

Defensively, Hurley has also shown a willingness to adapt to his players’ skills and opponents’ tendencies. He has run drop coverage on pick-and-rolls with bigs like Donovan Clingan and blitzed with more mobile players like Samson Johnson. Last season, he largely brought Adama Sanogo to the level of the screen or deployed him in a show-and-recover scheme.

While the Lakers’ roster isn’t known for next season yet, obviously, the idea of having a system that caters to multiple ballhandlers is intriguing. At a minimum, you assume you’ll have Austin Reaves and LeBron James on the perimeter, plus a point guard. Having a system where all there of them could be dangerous is optimal.

At ESPN, college basketball insider Jeff Borzello offered a similar scouting report and optimism about Hurley’s system translating to the NBA. He did, however, warn about Hurley’s high intensity and emotional demeanor and how that could potentially lead to issues in the NBA.

From a tactical perspective, he’s developed arguably the best offense in college basketball, predicated on off-ball movement and 3-point shooting. It’s a stark change from his offenses at Rhode Island and his early days at UConn, and represents an ability to adapt his X’s and O’s to the modern game. The offensive principles he’s utilized also translate well to the NBA.

The biggest question about Hurley’s coaching style comes from an emotional standpoint. He’s notorious for his sideline histrionics toward referees — and opposing crowds, at times — and his practices are incredibly loud, intense and filled with their fair share of choice words. Hurley’s intensity has translated to plenty of success at the high school and college levels and would be difficult to completely change at 51 years old, but he might have to dial it back for the NBA.

Borzello also spoke to Hurley's success developing players, something the Lakers are also apparently very interested in, particularly when it comes to the likes of Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, and Max Christie.

If you want some first-hand insight into the mind of Hurley, though, then you could turn to JJ Redick’s podcast, ironically. In April, Redick welcomed Hurley onto “The Old Man & the Three,” and while the full episode is worth a listen, particularly in the wake of reports over recent days and weeks, this one snippet tells you a lot about Hurley.

Every basketball coach is a certain level of a sicko and college coaches, in particular, can be pretty out there. But if we’re picking what type of sicko we want as coach, give me the one watching Turkish FIBA basketball games to take plays from.

It seems pretty clear that the X’s and O’s wouldn’t be an issue for Hurley in the NBA. It’s the parts of being an NBA coach instead of a college coach, like the man management and the daily grind, that seem more likely to be the potential pitfalls for Hurley at the next level.

As the Lakers welcome him to Los Angeles on Friday, the front office and Jeanie Buss will likely discuss those aspects. If those things can be ironed out and the transition is smooth, then the Lakers could really be looking at a home run hire.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.