When JJ Redick was hired to coach the Los Angeles Lakers, the move was met with skepticism given his lack of experience in the coaching ranks.
The Lakers found themselves in a similar position when hiring Darvin Ham after deciding to part ways with championship coach Frank Vogel. By choosing to move off Ham for another candidate with no previous experience, it was a big gamble for L.A. especially considering LeBron James was nearing the end of his career.
Redick’s first season has been a roller coaster, especially with his roster going through different iterations.
The Lakers have undeniably exceeded expectations though as they are firmly in the mix of the Western Conference playoff mix despite all of the injuries, trades and roster turnover. That is a huge credit to Redick, who Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone believes is responsible for their success.
“Different players, different coaches. There’s a lot of change within the Lakers… They’re a different team. JJ is coaching them and his fingerprints are all over this team,” Malone said before the recent matchup between L.A. and Denver. “They’ve added another MVP candidate in Luka and the most amazing thing I think about that trade is just how the Lakers defense has gone almost to the top of the charts. They play small, they play athletic, they play a lot of versatile guys and they’re just really disruptive on that end of the floor. You have to be able to counter that.”
Realistically, Redick could not have asked for a better season as an NBA head coach. He gets to coach two of the most dynamic players ever in James and Luka Doncic, as well as a roster full of players that are buying into what he is teaching.
Granted, pressure and expectations have been sprung upon L.A. after shockingly acquiring Doncic, but those lofty goals come with the territory for an organization like the Lakers.
Unfortunately, injuries have prevented Redick from fully figuring things out with Doncic in the fold. However, this is what he signed up for when putting his name in the coaching pool and with the playoffs approaching fast, that gelling process will have to be sped up.
JJ Redick told Lakers to stop complaining about schedule
In today’s NBA, the Lakers went through an unheard of stretch of playing six games in eight days with three sets of back-to-backs. As mentioned, injuries have been mounting and the playoffs are less than a month away.
Fortunately, L.A. came out of that stretch 3-3 and that’s despite JJ Redick needing to rest some of his rotation players because of the crammed scheduling. A lot was made of the absurdity of having that many games in a short amount of time, but Redick told his players to not complain about it and just focus on going one game at a time.
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