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Two Years. 103 Wins. JJ Redick has been successful. But can he coach the Lakers to a title??
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00:00Two years in, J.J. Redick, head coach of this team, and I'll freely admit, I will freely admit,
00:05and I'm also thrilled to have been wrong, by the way, I didn't love the signing when it happened.
00:11When it happened, at no point was I sitting here going like, well, J.J. doesn't know basketball.
00:16Of course, J.J. knows basketball. He's an NBA player, been around. It's just, you know, a guy
00:22getting on that job, the Lakers head coaching job with no real experience. The only experience
00:27we've really seen at that point was on television, where he definitely shows a great basketball
00:31acumen. And then, of course, the podcast that he was doing with LeBron, I'll freely admit,
00:36and I admitted yesterday, I have not been the biggest fan of the entire LeBron tenure.
00:43However, this last year, I really, really loved this team. I really just kind of fell back
00:48in love with the Lakers. And J.J.'s got this team really running on a lot of cylinders that
00:53I've really enjoyed watching. You, as a former Laker, and a Laker great, and a former head coach
00:58as well, what is your assessment so far, two seasons in, of what J.J. Redick has accomplished?
01:07It, what he has accomplished is, I mean, and not just he, like, as a coach, you're relying on a
01:13ton
01:13of people in order for you to do your job well. But to me, J.J. has far surpassed all
01:21of our
01:22expectations, right? Like, because none of us knew what to expect. If you haven't done the job
01:29before, and I was in a similar situation in terms of not having coached a team prior to being hired
01:37by the Knicks in New York, but if you haven't, if you haven't done the job before, like, you don't
01:42know what you don't know. You're learning it as you go in a lot of ways. You're not learning
01:47basketball, to your point. You're not learning relationships and how to talk to guys and
01:53communicate. You're really learning, like, you know, your systems, your process for how you want
01:59to lead. You're learning how you feel about what time practice should be. Are we going to have
02:05shoot around on certain days? You know, are we going to spend an extra night in Dallas? Are we
02:09going to go ahead and go to the next city? Like, you're learning how to manage the team, not
02:14understand basketball. So, to me, the job that, let's start with just on the court, because we
02:20don't have a purview of the decisions they're making necessarily off the court. The Lakers have
02:27won 50-plus games in its first two seasons. I think for any coach of any amount of experience,
02:35that box should be checked. Yes, he's done the job there. That's 103 total wins in two
02:41years. Impressive. The team, short of injuries to Luka and Austin Reeves this year, they were
02:49in the top three seed and by far the hardest, most difficult conference in the NBA, in the
02:56Western Conference. Third seed behind the two teams we saw play the most amazing basketball
03:03game we've seen in a long time last night, right? Like, just a few steps back from those
03:08two teams in terms of the regular season record, et cetera. The relationships that he's curated
03:17with Luka, bless you, Luka, Austin Reeves, LeBron, like, you're a big part of the job at this
03:27level is getting buy-in from your superstar players. Yeah. Your all-star players. And
03:32then, of course, yes, everybody else. But he's developed that with the Lakers' best players.
03:39Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? So it's like... I mean, hell, he had a podcast with one of
03:42them before he even joined the team. Bro, it's like he's doing the job and more. Like, when
03:46you see the way guys are performing individually, the way they were able to kind of plug in DeAndre
03:52Aiden's arrival, Marcus Smart's arrival. And what he's gotten out of Aiden, like, you can't deny it.
03:59It's been phenomenal. And Rui this season? Like, Rui has made himself extremely important to this
04:05team. He has. And I mean, you always have to look at, look, fans and listeners and viewers,
04:12you always have to look at when it's contract year for guys. Like, always pay attention to when
04:18that's approaching. Because then, like, there's a different level of, like, urgency. Not focus
04:27or commitment to playing basketball, but just urgency. And with this being a contract year
04:33for Rui, like, I think he found just a deeper level of consistency in how he showed up in
04:40full form. But a lot of that is, like, J.J. Reddick is maniacal in his preparation, in his
04:46approach, in his mindset. He's obsessive about details and attention to detail. And to me,
04:54the Lakers play basketball the way he's wired. That's how they've played. So it's like he's
05:00checking all of the boxes and more. Yeah, did the team come up short against the best team
05:06in basketball without Luka Doncic? Sure, they did. But it's, to me, it's not because he didn't
05:12coach well enough. Of course. Like, literally in all four games, they were either tied or up at
05:19the half or in the third quarter. They were in it. They were in pretty much every single game.
05:22And then the separation happened, you know, the thunder with the depth that they possessed. Like,
05:27they got the separation they needed to win the games. But I think J.J. Reddick's doing a phenomenal
05:32job. And when you think about it from a long-term perspective, like, and they said it at the
05:40press conference and even why they hired him. Like, he was the right fit because he's skilled
05:47enough and capable enough to help the team win now, but also forward-thinking enough and innovative
05:55and creative enough as a young coach to coach, like, a different version of the team if they
06:00ever get to that point. Right? So, like, if the Lakers did decide, you know what, you know, maybe
06:06LeBron re-signs, maybe he doesn't. Okay? So now if LeBron signs somewhere else, Luka's 27,
06:13Austin Reeves is 26. Will that be the real test for J.J.? The LeBron-less Lakers for J.J.
06:20to run
06:20here? Is that going to be, like, we really see what J.J. really has up his sleeve when he
06:24loses
06:25LeBron? I don't know. I think it's harder. It's harder to coach when LeBron's on the team
06:33in terms of, like, the expectations and the standard that has to be set, and not in a
06:38negative way. Of course. It's supposed to be harder to coach. Not like you mentioned with
06:42Kobe. Yeah. It's supposed to be harder. The standard is there. That's why when we talked
06:45about Dave Roberts yesterday, like, because you have Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts and
06:51Ohtani, like, that doesn't make his job easier. Like, to get those guys to buy into your game plan
06:57and what you're doing and what you're asking them is hard. So, I think, J.J., I've seen
07:02it from Ty Lue and other NBA head coaches. Like, they never want their star players to
07:08be out for any reason. But it's like, you get to play with toys that you haven't gotten
07:13to play with in a while when sometimes you don't have a certain guy. Because now that
07:19creative hat as a coach does have to come on. And I think he does have the type of mind
07:24that if they were forced to kind of flip the team to a team that didn't have LeBron
07:30and now you add a couple pieces with those resources there, yeah, I think he's creative
07:37offensively. I think he's willing to try things on the defensive end. You saw how they threw
07:42a lot of bodies at Shea Gilgis, which we said other teams are going to mirror because the
07:48Lakers did a great job defending SGA. Guess what? The Spurs are mirroring a lot of
07:54right out the gate. And without Fox. Like, dude, I still can't get over last night's
08:00game. That was about as good as it gets, dude. It was. And I mean, but that's the
08:04challenge, right? Is, yeah, J.J. and the coaching staff were, I mean, maybe they
08:09weren't watching that game because it might hurt to watch it. Because it's like you
08:14want to be there. You wish you were there. So, you may not watch it live, but if they
08:19did, like, that's what they are envisioning. That's what we have to get to. Um, but it's,
08:25it's, the margin is smaller than people think. Even sometimes when the score says something
08:31different, um, the games are much closer than the score sometimes indicate it's, it's one
08:37or two possessions per quarter that make the difference between winning a game or not.
08:41And, uh, you always have to believe that there's enough in the room to get one or two more possessions
08:46per quarter. You are listening to Derek and Decker here on the fan L.A. Of course, our phone
08:51number 855-97-LA-FAN. That's 855-975-2326. And of course, the chat is live on YouTube and Twitter
09:00and Twitch. And of course, we are getting to a lot of your questions. And we are talking a little
09:04bit about J.J. Redick and his tenure so far with the Lakers. And I, you know, you mentioned
09:09something that really kind of got in my ear when we were first talking about what it takes
09:13to be a head coach in, in the NBA. And, you know, you got that job over there in New
09:17York
09:17and with quote unquote, you know, lacking experience in the head coaching department. But like you
09:22mentioned who you surround yourself with is so important. And how, how much of that is
09:27you as the head coach being able to surround yourself with people or even the front office
09:31kind of putting guys maybe upon you might be not the right way of saying it, but yeah, but
09:35point taken. Yeah. But like how much of that is how important, like on the echelon of the
09:41take percentage wise to zero to a hundred percent, how important is just having that coaching staff
09:45that you personally trust? I mean, it's, I'd say it's all 100 because in order for you to be as
09:53effective and impactful as a leader, like it is about the people you're surrounded by that allow
10:02you to authentically show up as yourself and how you want to coach and how you want to lead and
10:07the
10:07way you want to connect. And so it's, I think it's, it's always been collaborative to some degree,
10:15but it's, it's more collaborative now than, than it's ever been. And it, it, it depends on,
10:22on the coach himself and, and, and JJ situation, just like for me as a, as a first time coach,
10:29like you're, you may not have the long list of NBA coaches that you've worked with before,
10:36because it's your first time coaching. So most likely, right. The front office with the Lakers
10:42had some names and, and there were specific guys that were targeted to come and join JJ to kind of
10:49surround him with that NBA coaching experience veteran coaches. You see there now, Nate McMillan
10:54and Scott Brooks, two guys that are former head coaches, uh, that understand the game have done
11:00it for a long time. Um, and then even some, the, the younger coaches and support that you surround
11:06yourself with, like it's vital because if, if you're wasting any energy or time, uh, you know,
11:13not in alignment or, or not able to solve problems and, and find, find your way through hard things
11:19together because that trust isn't there. Players sniff, like players sniff that out in a millisecond.
11:26Oh, don't they ever. Oh my God. And it, it's a wrap. I've only played for like two teams where
11:31I noticeably noticed that coaching staff hated each other. I will say they were fun experience.
11:38I mean, the team, the teams were, were terrible, but I can't stress enough. There was something very
11:43entertaining about it. I actually kind of looked at those as experiences as, well, these are actually
11:48great that I'm getting these early in my career. Cause now I know exactly what not to be a part
11:52of
11:52for the rest of my career. Sure. Were you ever a part of any teams like that? You don't have
11:55to
11:55say the team, but, uh, no, not, not hated each other. Uh, I don't, I think that's strong.
12:02Dysfunction. No, not as much. I was very fortunate. I mean, I was very, very fortunate,
12:07man. I played for great, great coaches. And if there was dysfunction, they kept it in their
12:13coaches locker room. They did not bring it to a player locker room where we could see it or
12:17feel it real quick. Before we wrap this up, we talked about the other coaches that you've got
12:20to surround yourself with. It could be a thing, even though you got those guys with those head
12:24coaching experience could be like too many cooks in the kitchen, maybe too many minds in the kitchen.
12:28Yeah, it's possible for that to happen. Uh, and, and it's, it's all about just how you message it when
12:35it's time to communicate with players. It should be one message, one vision. It's the head coach's
12:40message. It's the head coach's vision. We can disagree all day and, and, and, and private as
12:46coaches. Like we're, it's like, we're brothers. We're, we're a team. So when the door is closed,
12:52we're supposed to have it out like brothers. But when we walk out and we go to school,
12:57let somebody pick on your brother. Guess who's going to be there? His brother. Like it doesn't
13:01matter that we just got through arguing. We're at school now and they're picking on us. We're in a
13:05fight. So that's how it is as coaches as well. And whether you disagree or not,
13:11when you get in front of the players, it has to be one message. And that's from the head coach.
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