LOS ANGELES — It wasn’t that I didn’t think JJ Redick could coach.
A razor-sharp, all-time shooter? Who we know knows ball because we listened to him talk ball for years, including while he was still lacing ’em up? Sure, he probably could.
It was just that I thought he really did have to be a basketball sicko to start with this particular gig.
It was the way the Lakers churn through coaches – six since 2011, including three since Rob Pelinka took over as general manager in 2017.
It was the expectation for the new guy to find a novel way to squeeze fresh juice out of a roster that was as redundant as it had been the season before, and to it do it under the searing stage lights that stay trained on the NBA’s most popular and picked-apart team.
It was the fact that Redick – a rookie with no coaching experience except for his son’s Brooklyn Basketball Academy youth team – was so clearly the organization’s second choice, hired only after the Lakers were spurned by UConn’s Dan Hurley.
And then it was Redick’s declaration, in his introductory news conference, that he didn’t give a (expletive) what anyone thought of him. Dude doth protest too much, I thought.
And his prickly response in the preseason to a reporter’s relatively benign question about what next steps Redick wanted to see from Rui Hachimura: “You tell me, you’re creating the narrative … I don’t care about what the next step for Rui is, I care about how he impacts winning.” A touch sensitive, no?
And then came the predictable tough stretch, a few bad losses in a short span, a sure-fire recipe for some side-eyeing, the superstar player’s podcast pal at the controls, learning to fly on the fly. What could go wrong?
A lot!
But nothing has.
As a tactician, as a human, Redick keeps getting it right. With his blend of basketball nerdiness and NBA cool, he’s earned buy-in from everybody. That’s whether he’s whispering sweet strategy to his superstar savants or going out of his way to recognize the efforts of the role players — or educating fans who stand to learn much, before and after games, from a thoughtful coach who’s also a natural showman on the mic.
He’s flexible, accountable, as smart as advertised and seems often to be trying to suppress a smile, he’s having so much fun.
How lucky can a team get? Forget the Luka Doncic deal; count your blessings, Lakers fans, that Hurley stayed in Storrs.
Because Redick really is the right man for this job.
Even in the midst of that embarrassing couple-game stretch in December. Remember when the Lakers lost by 29 points to the middling Minnesota Timberwolves and then, two days later, by 41 points to the mediocre Miami Heat? And how that wasn’t just the Lakers’ fifth loss in seven games but, score-wise, the worst two-game stretch in team history?
But a blip.
Because Redick plugged Max Christie into the rotation, playing him 31 minutes the next game – a two-point overtime loss at Atlanta – before inserting him into the starting lineup in place of D’Angelo Russell full time. And the defense got better; from 27th (117.7 defensive rating) before to fifth currently (110.6), despite a major roster overhaul in February.
Redick also had a good talk with James, and that, combined with a couple-day respite, sparked something in the 40-year-old star: “We had a long conversation in Miami. I think since that morning, just the way he’s played, energy-wise, leadership-wise – I mean he was great tonight in the huddles – it’s been, and I’m not going to say it was bad to start the year, but it’s been awesome. It’s been different.”
And then there was the blockbuster of all blockbusters to start February, when the Lakers traded Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic and not only didn’t miss a beat in transition, but picked up the pace.
They went 10-2 last month and transformed into the 3-point shooting team that Redick envisioned. Went from taking 33.7 3-pointers – 28th in the NBA – to putting up 40.4 per game, eighth-most. The math really is mathing.
The 15-year NBA vet pushed the right buttons, picked the right spots, and proved to be someone whom his players can count on to live and die a little with every game.
Like on March 10, after the Lakers’ 111-108 loss in Brooklyn to the Nets, then 22-42. Never mind that his team was without James, Jaxson Hayes, Dorian-Finney Smith and Hachimura, Redick was mightily displeased: “I don’t think being short handed is an excuse for how we played basketball tonight. I think it was an overall mentality just to take shortcuts tonight. We just wanted to take shortcuts.”
But on Thursday, after the Lakers’ skeleton crew lost to the Milwaukee Bucks 118-89, after they went 3-3 playing six games in eight days, Redick – whose family lost all of the belongings they brought to L.A. in the Palisades Fire – was reasonable, compassionate.
“It was going to be tough no matter what and the added game made it harder,” he said, referencing the adjustment that moved a game against the San Antonio Spurs that was previously scheduled for January to this past week’s gauntlet.
“You’re not built to play six games in eight nights. What our guys just went through, it’s difficult.”
So too is his job, even if he’s making it look easy – waking up Friday as the fourth seed, 43-26, with as many victories as Darvin Ham had in his first season at the helm, but with 13 regular-season games to go.
It’s not that I don’t think Redick should be in the conversation for Coach of the Year; it’s just that I don’t think he can win. And he might never, unless one of his teams can eclipse the Golden State Warriors’ historic 73-win season that eclipsed the ’96 Bulls’ 72-win record.
It’s the Luka and LeBron of it. Like Mike, and Shaq and Kobe after him.
In end-of-year award conversations, coaches get docked points for driving superstars, even if they should get extra credit.
But those aren’t the end-of-the-year conversations that really matter, are they?
No, in Lakerdom, they’re supposed to be talking about championships. So I’ll just say: It’s looking like a good thing they got themselves a podcaster/broadcaster who can coach a big game.
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