The Lakers ended their long search for a head coach on Thursday by reportedly agreeing to a deal with JJ Redick. When the team parted ways with Darvin Ham, few probably expected Redick to be a legitimate candidate, let alone the frontrunner.
But for better or for worse, it seems like we are just days or weeks away from a former player turned media personality leading the purple and gold next season.
Without any history as a coach, it’s impossible to know his approach to the game unless you can sit down and talk to him, as the Lakers have done. But as a media personality, you can hear some insight into his coaching philosophy and his thoughts on the Lakers.
Combing through hours of First Take appearances is something I wouldn’t wish upon my greatest enemy and there’s very little actually philosophy discussed in that show anyway. His “Mind the Game” podcast with LeBron James is the exact antithesis of that — on purpose, by the way — and offers as much insight as you could imagine.
The middle ground is his “Old Man & the Three” podcast where JJ mixes a little philosophy with a little bit of analysis. There were a lot of episodes I could have looked back on, but I limited it to the last year as I parsed through some of the notable soundbites on the Lakers, both in regards to
So, what has he said about the Lakers there?
Leaving Anthony Davis off All-Defense teams...
Let’s start with the big one that I’m sure many remember. JJ Redick had a vote for the All-Defense teams this year and not only did he not include Anthony Davis on the First Team, where he ended up finishing, but he flat out did not put him on an All-Defense team.
While he did not address leaving him off All-Defense, he discussed AD’s season when he included him in his All-NBA Third Team.
“And then it came down to Anthony Davis or Victor Wembanyama for the final spot. I know, I know that the Lakers are in the play-in. I can’t deny that Anthony Davis had an outstanding individual season. The defensive numbers for the Lakers as a team are not great. They’ve been basically right around league average all year. But his impact defensively, particularly protecting the paint, at the rim, all of the metrics says he’s been a top-10 defender at that position. You factor in that with 25 (points) and 12 (rebounds), a boost in assists this year, Anthony Davis gets the final spot on my Third Team All-NBA.”
It doesn’t offer much in the way of an explanation for leaving him off an All-Defense team but, perhaps, he was simply adding some motivation for his future center.
Previewing Lakers-Nuggets...
Prior to the playoffs, Redick previewed the Lakers’ series against the Nuggets and laid out some key aspects for the Lakers.
“If I’m the Los Angeles Lakers, I need to get LeBron James out in transition. I need transition buckets. The shooters, Austin Reaves, Taurean Prince, Rui Hachimura, of course D’Angelo Russell, who has had an incredible season, they have to shoot the ball well. Denver, good 3-point shooting team, not a high volume 3-point shooting team. Can they win the 3-point battle there? Fast break, can they win that there?”
On one hand, it’s good insight and shows he did know what he was talking about. On the other hand, just about every team is going to say they want to win the fastbreak points and shoot the ball well from 3-point range.
On Lakers free throw advantage...
One of the (annoying) talking points of the season around the Lakers was their free throw advantage. That reached it’s boiling point after a Raptors game when Toronto head coach Darko Rajaković sounded off.
Following that tirade from Rajaković, Redick talked about the Lakers and free throws.
“We’ve had a big enough sample size, two seasons now, where there’s a disparity in free throws for the Lakers. They don’t foul and they get to the free throw line. That is a function of their two best players and their ability to get into the paint. It’s a function of them having a physical advantage on nearly every player they play against. I brought this up recently. So, what LeBron said isn’t necessarily wrong. On the flip side, I don’t think what Darko said is wrong either because if you rewatch a lot of those fouls, there was some marginal contact, so I get the frustration.”
Just the fact he was sensible about the whole topic and situation when so many other talking heads weren’t makes me want to sign off on him.
On Lakers 2023 free agency...
Let’s go all the way back to last offseason. The Lakers stood pat with what they had, which was seen as the right call but basically everyone at the time, including Redick when he assessed their work in free agency.
“When I think about some of the mistakes the Lakers have made in the LeBron era in terms of their personnel and roster building, and this is not just the fit with Russell Westbrook. And I’ve talked about Russell Westbrook a ton. I always said, ‘He’s the same player he was in Washington. He’s the same player he was in Houston.’ Maybe he lost a little athleticism but the Lakers knew what they were getting. It was a terrible fit for him…I’m not just talking about that. You go back to 2020, they win the championship. 2021, good team, don’t get out of the first round and, they basically had built a team around LeBron and AD with 3-and-D guys and went with non-shooters. And they did it again last offseason and then they make the trades at the deadline.
Now, if you look, you’ve got Gabe Vincent coming, Taurean Prince coming on a very favorable one-year contract…you bring Russell back, you bring Hachimura back, they’ve got a really good basketball team. So much of their success, ultimately, in the regular season specifically, so much of their success will be based on health and if Anthony Davis can go play 70 games, 72 games, if LeBron can go play 70, 72 games. We’re talking about one of the best teams in the Western Conference, for sure, going into next season.”
Perhaps the Lakers should get him in the building pronto before they make some ill-advised trade as they’ve done in the past.
It’s not a complete look into his mind, and it doesn’t offer deep insight into his defensive coverages or offensive approach, but it does show some of his thinking about the Lakers.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.
