In a non-shocking move, the Los Angeles Lakers have hired former three-point sniper and ESPN analyst, J.J. Redick as the team's 29th coach in franchise history, including being LA's 8th bench boss since Phil Jackson left the organization in 2011.
Redick's name has been thrown around coaching circles ever since he took an interview with the Toronto Raptors in 2023. Since then, he has taken several interviews, but at least in my opinion, I viewed that more as Redick exploring his options as I could not envision him putting his growing media career on hold with outlets such as ESPN, as well as his successful podcasts "The Old Man & the Three", and "Mind the Game" which he hosts with his now superstar player, LeBron James.
By taking the Lakers' job, Redick has decided to throw himself into the fire by taking over a job where it seems coaches' careers, especially first-time ones, reputation as bench boss goes to die before it can ever start.
I do think Redick can be an elite NBA head coach, but I do not believe it will be with the Lakers.
Los Angeles underratedly has been one of the most dysfunctional organizations in all of the sports over the last decade. Aside from LeBron James deciding he wanted to live in Los Angeles in the summer of 2018 and did not need to be pitched, the Lakers have not recruited a big star to their organization since Shaq in 1998, unless you count Dwight Howard in 2012, who they traded for but ended up losing in 2013.
Since James' got to Los Angeles in 2018, the roster construction has been weird, to say the least. Throughout his entire career, we have seen the best way to maximize James' skill set is to put ironically, players like J.J. Redick was in his playing days around LeBron, elite three-point shooters who James' will find a way to get the ball to as he attacks the paint. I assume Redick will try to run a 5-out offence which will need elite shooters to be successful and based on his history, I have no faith that Rob Pelinka will be able to pull that off.
Supposedly, GM Rob Pelinka and Owner Jeanie Buss view Redick as potentially their modern-day version of Pat Riley, who famously has gone on to have one great coaching and executive careers in NBA history after coming from the booth. As promising as that sounds, it seems that people have forgotten one big part of why Riley was so successful right away.
It was not as if he just came down from the booth to the sidelines and started rattling off titles. Riley was an assistant coach under Paul Westhead with the Lakers from 1979-1981 before he took as the head man. Riley worked with Magic Johnson, he worked with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he saw them in practice or around the facility every day.
Redick can talk basketball all he wants with LeBron James but he is never been in the battle with him. He has never had to draw up plays for James & Anthony Davis, and he has not seen their practice tendencies, that is a major difference here.
Of course, there is the scenario where the Lakers finally support a coach by putting the proper personnel around that support Redick's vision and his stars, but based on this leadership group's history, I do not have faith in the Lakers as an orginzation.
Only time will tell, but the most likely outcome here is that the Lakers underachieve based on the expectations of their fanbase where they either miss the playoffs or just squeak in, where in two years, Los Angeles is likely looking for a new coach while Redick goes back to the promising media career he left behind.
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