The Los Angeles Lakers have officially reached their halfway point of the season. The team sits at 23-18, good for a fifth place tie in the Western Conference in head coach JJ Redick’s first season at the helm.
There have been some good moments and some rough times so far this year that Redick has had to navigate. In assessing where his team stands, the coach admits they are still looking for more consistency but feels good with where the Lakers are at overall.
“Yeah, I think we’re still searching for more consistency night-to-night,” Redick said after the Lakers’ win over the Washington Wizards. “I really love our group. I really love our group when we’re connected, we play professional competitive basketball and we execute. We’re a really good team when we do that. I think even though we’ve had ups and downs, to be a top-six team in the West right now, Scotty (Scott Brooks) again today reminded me of the Atlanta and the Orlando games. We’re like two games away from where we would feel really good about how things are, but I like where the team is at.
“I thought [this was] Doe’s (Dorian Finney-Smith) best game. He made shots but his activity defensively was great tonight. Max [Christie] tonight I thought had a really standout defensive performance [with] the job he did on [Jordan] Poole and making it tough on him. But yeah, I like our group. Guys are really starting to not just accept roles, but embrace roles. Bad teams, they reject their roles. Good teams accept their roles. Great teams embrace their roles. We’re trending in that direction.”
It is imperative for players to embrace their roles on the team in order to really succeed in them and Redick feels these Lakers are doing just that. Getting players to buy in is important for a coach and Redick’s ability to do that should be applauded.
In terms of where he would view himself midway through his first year as a coach, Redick similarly felt good overall with what he has done with these Lakers, though there are always things he looks back on and wishes he could change.
“My assistants would have a better answer for you,” Redick noted. “I think I was very comfortable on day one. I think I’m more comfortable now. I think the synthesis of information has always been very easy for me. I think being able to communicate that has been natural. I think I’m getting better at that. In-game, there’s certain things that sometimes are out of your control, but the things that I can control I think I’ve been pretty good with.
“But there’s obviously things, you look back at certain games or losses, and you’re like ‘Hmm, should’ve done that.’ The San Antonio game is a great example. With Wemby we were in 1-5 coverage as one of the few games we’ve had where we’re switching across the board and we talked about it as a staff pregame. Looking back at that game, we shouldn’t have been in coverage with Charles Bassey. Killed us on the offensive glass and made a difference in the second half. There’s always things you’re evaluating and wish you could do better.”
It’s impossible to judge a coach after just half a season, but there is no denying Redick has done some good things so far with the Lakers. His continued growth as a coach should only continue to improve this team and hopefully lead to great success down the line.
JJ Redick praises Lakers ‘professional approach’ vs. Wizards
JJ Redick was certainly happy with how the Lakers performed against the Wizards in their victory Tuesday night and praised his team’s professional approach from the beginning.
“I think it just starts with a very professional approach from our team,” Redick said. “That was one of our more complete games, regardless of what time of season it was or who the opponent was. We just had a really professional approach. We executed at a pretty high level.”
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