The Los Angeles Lakers took a big risk in the summer of 2024 when they hired JJ Redick to be their head coach. He was only three years removed from his playing career, had only been an ESPN analyst and was the same age as the team’s best player in LeBron James. Then, midway through his first season, the team made a stunning blockbuster deal for Luka Doncic, and Redick was tasked with rebuilding the game plan on the fly.
But Redick has rolled with the punches, and has adapted the team at every moment to match the needs of the personnel. L.A. has won 50 or more games in each of his two seasons and went from a first-round exit to a second-round exit from Year 1 to Year 2. He now has a brand new team to coach once again, this time built around Doncic, and Lakers champion Danny Green is very confident in what he can do.
“I didn’t doubt JJ at all when he first came in, I knew he’d be a good coach because he’s just very meticulous in how he does things,” Green said on 710 AM ESPN L.A. “I think he’s — I don’t want to say superseded — but he’s definitely exceeded people’s expectations. With the group he’s had, people didn’t think it would work. How are (LeBron James) and (Luka Doncic) and (Austin Reaves) gonna work? And he figured it out, they figured it out. He’s only gotten better, so that’s part of the reason why I think this group is going to be a good regular season team. And they’ll probably surprise some people throughout the year. We’ll see where it lands, health-wise, if they have the depth, if in the playoffs who they match up with, can they make a decent run?”
Redick is one of the biggest reasons to have confidence in the Lakers this upcoming season. He was likely instrumental in helping build this roster — when he didn’t have much say over the previous iteration of the team — and put his focus into higher IQ players that can pass, dribble and shoot outside of just the star trio of James, Doncic and Reaves.
James is gone, but in his place are a slew of smart role players that are more than just single-skill specialists. Redick has routinely been able to build defenses that are greater than the sum of their parts and offenses that work with the strengths of the team’s stars. That alone is why Green’s confidence in him is not misplaced.
Danny Green likes new pieces on Lakers roster
The Lakers have nine players on their regular roster that were not on last year’s team: Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Collin Sexton, Matisse Thybulle, Ziaire Williams, Kevon Looney, Cam Carr and Jaden Hardy. There are differing opinions as to how those new pieces will fit around Doncic, but Green is liking what he’s seeing.
“I mean, at first I wasn’t sure where they were going the direction and then everything happened so fast. And I was like, ‘Damn, OK. This piece, that piece.’ And I liked a lot of the pieces they picked up. I know they’re young, so not super experienced. I think they’re going to be a pretty good regular season team. Playoffs, I don’t know because of the youth and experience, but I like the moves they made, I like the pieces they have. They have more depth, they got younger and faster. They can get out and run a little more.”
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