Has JJ Redick Proved He's the Los Angeles Lakers' Coach for the Long Haul?
JJ Redick has perhaps the single-most high-profile and pressure-packed coaching job in basketball.
He's the top man on the bench for the Los Angeles Lakers, perhaps the most storied organization in the NBA. And, as if that wasn't enough, he has LeBron James on his team, whose presence on any roster has typically meant "title or bust" for each of the last 19 years.
Those two things have him, almost by default, on an uncoolable hot seat. And there probably isn't a single personality in or around the league who could have altered that situation over the short course of two seasons.
Following the Lakers' second-round sweep at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Redick's detractors or that rare breed of fan that simply expects perfection in every campaign could use those pressure points as the foundation of their argument to let him go.
From there, they could build out and talk about how L.A. ranked in the bottom half of the league on defense this season. They might even nitpick an offense that ranked ninth, despite having Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and LeBron.
They could get even more specific after that. Why doesn't he have Luka play off the ball more? Why couldn't his staff develop Dalton Knecht? How did he have Maxi Kleber on the floor to close that OKC series over Rui Hachimura?
There are plenty of fair questions to ask. But even in this hyper-pressurized situation, when you zoom out, it's hard to see Redick's tenure with the Lakers as anything but a smashing success.
First of all, he's hit the magic number of 50 wins in each of his two campaigns. That's big, especially in the NBA's era of forced parity.
And he did that with his most famous player in his 40s. That same player's agent has a podcast on a prominent national platform. Several times over the course of LeBron's career, he's put both subtle and not-so-subtle pressure on coaches.
Redick totaled 103 wins in two seasons while navigating the admittedly easier side of the most absurd trade in the history of the league. He had to figure out how to integrate Luka on the fly and with the Slovenian arriving to the team injured.
This season, he balanced the needs of three on-ball offensive stars, all three of whom spent significant chunks of the season hurt. He managed to get James to buy into a third option role, despite spending two decades meticulously controlling every aspect of his teams' attacks.
Redick may have drawn more out of Deandre Ayton than anyone has since Chris Paul was his point guard for the 2021 run to the NBA Finals. He mostly bought into a rim-runner's role, shot a career-high 67.1 percent from the field and was more consistently engaged on defense than he was at any point with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Redick facilitated breakouts (or in some cases re-breakouts) of several role players, including Luke Kennard (averaged double-figures and shot 47.4 percent from three in the playoffs), Marcus Smart (one of the most positively impactful defenders in the league this season) and Rui Hachimura (one of the most dangerous catch-and-shoot threats in the league).
He and his staff even have Bronny James, who averaged 4.8 points and shot 36.6 percent from the field in college, occasionally looking like an NBA player now.
He's checked several boxes that you'd want filled by either a win-now or developmentally-minded head coach. And he's done it with a roster that probably doesn't fit the new face of the franchise all that well.
Ironically, then-Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison built the near-ideal team for Luka, with one high-end secondary creator, a bunch of gritty perimeter defenders (including some shooters) and rim-running centers.
Reaves may be able to do a reasonable impression of Kyrie Irving if he stays healthy and keeps developing. Ayton, again, was better than his typical self at the rim running, but the Lakers could use more help there. And the defense obviously needs upgrades.
The good news is that there's time. Maybe not for LeBron, but Luka is only 27. Reaves, who turns 28 this offseason, can enter free agency, but L.A. has his Bird rights.
The core is strong with those two. The front office just needs to tweak the supporting cast. And assuming it doesn't put wildly mismatched players together, it doesn't really have to worry about having a coach and make the pieces work together.
If anything, in a Western Conference featuring OKC, the San Antonio Spurs, the Denver Nuggets and several other teams constantly on the verge of contention, it's a wonder the Lakers have performed as well as they have.
If anything, Redick has overachieved. Holding a second-round exit against him, when it came at the hands of the reigning champions and without Luka logging a single second, is ridiculous.
The Lakers and their fans are in an almost permanent state of wanting championships. So falling short of that may feel like a failure to some.
But the reality is that the Lakers, basically since the moment the Luka trade was completed, have had and continue to have one of the brightest futures in the NBA.
They have a perennial MVP candidate in his 20s, another offensive star and one of the brightest young coaches in basketball.
Redick hasn't just proved he's a good NBA coach. He's proved he's the right one to shepherd L.A.'s Luka era.
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