JJ Redick will be in the running for COY

[og15]

JJ always came across as extremely competent when I heard him speak.

Competent coaches lose all the time

They said JJ was a smart guy. So why did he take this dumb job opportunity?

He was all about fame if you ask me. He even said the Lakers wasn't a good job the year before lmao. Yet here he is coaching an aging LeBron and AD. This team just doesn't have enough to compete.

You don't think it has anything to do with the 4 year/$32 mil contract they threw at him?

maybe he'd figure it would all go to **** in a year or two and theyd still have to pay him the balance of the deal and then he'd go back to doing his other stuff with an extra ~16 million or so he didn't actually have to coach for

There are only so many NBA head coaching jobs available in general and even fewer on a yearly basis. In addition, the NBA does a lot of coach rotation.

This means that sometimes it's best to just get into whatever position is available and if you do well enough, you're now in that coaching rotation.

[MrPainfulTruth]

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If true, I think the bigger problem is the roster and leadership from the top (Pelinka). How many head coaches do this group had to run out of town until they can look at themselves in the mirror and say or am I the problem here?

Why you callin it "this group" and not name the elephant in the room? Do you think Rui had much say in this? Or even AD was asked before they "drafted" Bronny and hired JJ?

[Revived]

Also, the defensive scheme is total trash. Just switching 1/5 pick and rolls for no reason and just destroying the defense. Atlanta didn’t play great today and LA played like it was game 7 of the playoffs. Bad execution down the stretch and lost after benefiting from several lucky breaks. Disappointing performance and poor coaching performance. The defensive scheme is horrible. The offense was also stagnant.

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Yup you said it perfectly. What the hell is this?

It's not like DLo is the only bad defender on the team, is there anybody in the rotation that's a positive defender outside of AD? And even in that short clip not all of that is scheme related, like what was Gabe doing on that last play?

Gabe Vincent was considered a good defender in Miami and he comes to LA and now suddenly he’s a awful defender? And that has nothing to do with coaching or system? Come on.

[ElectricMayhem]

Why you callin it "this group" and not name the elephant in the room? Do you think Rui had much say in this? Or even AD was asked before they "drafted" Bronny and hired JJ?

Thank you! Everyone is walking on eggshells trying to avoid the elephant in the room. And my question is, why are there eggshells in the elephant's room? Elephants are mammals! What are they not telling us?

The fact of the matter is, we all know what's going on. We know who's pulling the strings behind the scenes. And that's going to keep happening until he retires or they move him. But he's not going to retire now that he's gotten a family member in the league with him. So they'll just have to trade him - maybe to the Clippers so Max can play with his brother.

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[blueNorange]

And to think, people questioned his basketball knowledge because he ruffled some feathers with his ESPN hot takes.

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16th offensive rating this year
15th offensive rating last year

talk about jumping the gun on “night and day”

[KyRo23]

And to think, people questioned his basketball knowledge because he ruffled some feathers with his ESPN hot takes.

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16th offensive rating this year
15th offensive rating last year

talk about jumping the gun on “night and day”

Does context not matter?

Injuries and DLO playing out of his mind last season have to count for something. For anyone who actually watches laker games see the difference.

[PhilBlackson]

Darvin Ham watching the Lakers while the Bucks are surging up the standings....LOL

[doogie_hauser]

If the regular season ended tomorrow, I feel like Ime Udoka deserves to win, but he won't, because of his unsavoury behaviour that resulted him in being fired from the Celtics (Journalists a lot more about what went down which resulted in his termination from Boston, which hasn't been made public).

Kenny Atkinson's gong to lose from here unless the Cavs have a collapse in the second half of the season

[The-Stallion70]

JJ always came across as extremely competent when I heard him speak.

Competent coaches lose all the time

You don't think it has anything to do with the 4 year/$32 mil contract they threw at him?

maybe he'd figure it would all go to **** in a year or two and theyd still have to pay him the balance of the deal and then he'd go back to doing his other stuff with an extra ~16 million or so he didn't actually have to coach for

There are only so many NBA head coaching jobs available in general and even fewer on a yearly basis. In addition, the NBA does a lot of coach rotation.

This means that sometimes it's best to just get into whatever position is available and if you do well enough, you're now in that coaching rotation.

Hah well so do dumb ones there mate

Of course if you're a Clips fan that would explain why you're salty

[Lo Wang]

The Lakers have been a mid-tier team since 2021, across 3 coaches. They're built around Lebron, who has gotten older and lost a little bit of oomph every year. They're still a mid tier team. Are you certain you want to blame this on coaching again?

I don't even think there should be drama. On paper, they've performed within reasonable expectations for a roster like this. People get caught up with the big names being in LA, but this roster has been more solid than spectacular the whole time. They probably would have been a contender again in 2021 with better health, but now it's about to be 2025 and the team is just old. Lots of good stuff on this roster, but also lots of flaws. As many have always pointed out: it's very hard for this roster to put good offense and defense on the floor at the same time.

No idea what's behind your Bronny thoughts here. I can see cringing at JJ for towing the company line and agreeing to invest in Bronny's development, but imagining the coach is the primary decision maker about how Lebron James' son is handled is a strange assumption. The front office drafted him, and agreed to embrace this publicity stunt. The coach has some say in this now, but he's not the architect.

1) I've never blamed Vogel or Ham. Not once. The roster clearly has issues. However, I think JJ is a worse coach than Vogel and Ham and is doing a poor job.

2) With Bronny, I'm just responding the original post. Stating that if there is an issue, JJ is culpable as well. After the publicity stunt, JJ should have the ability to determine who is on the active roster. If not, then he needs to advocate more behind the scenes. Either way its on him. The "earned not given" line was a misstep and players will remember that, as it says he is in agreement with these decisions. Getting blown out and seeing this kid on the bench hurt while Quincy is busting his ass in GLeague sends the msg that the rhetoric isnt serious. Then watching Reaves' treatment gives the same thing.

3) JJ offensive sets and defensive schemes are not good. Defensively is a disaster. This team should be a slightly over .500 team. Its looking like this team is gonna win 36-38 games. They padded their record due to an easy early schedule (easy teams, at home, teams missing best players). He is underperforming expectations. I had several posts before the season trying to clarify expectations because was obvious that people would move the goalposts. The reasons behind that would be interesting to examine.

4) I think that people are jumping over backwards to defend JJ while going at Ham is ridic. If you say the team gave up on Ham..then they look like they have given up on JJ. Guess that means he's a bad coach. Scheme wise, Ham imo was much better than JJ. I think people have never played basketball in college or pro, so they aren't used to being around coaches and think that silly podcast was something groundbreaking. Its not hard to break down tape and play monday morning quarterback. Thats not the hard part about coaching.

Hmmm I guess I agree with you on more than I assumed in the last post.

I think Vogel is pretty proven as a good coach. I thought it was laughable when they fired him. I didn't have strong feelings on Ham, and JJ I'm still in wait and see mode. I think JJ had some good ideas to start the season, and he executed them well. Making AD more of the focal point, gave them more functional rim pressure and allowed their other guys to operate with more space on the perimeter. However, AD the #1 option comes at the expense of AD the defensive anchor, so we watched the team invert itself from a defense-heavy team to an offensive one, without moving the needle. But AD was also on fire, and we already know that's never been sustainable. Now that he's come back to earth and Lebron is on an epic cold streak, there's just not enough fire power to win with offense alone.

I had low expectations of the Lakers. I had them missing the play-in and finishing 12th in the conference. So JJ isn't really disapointing me. I really think there are at least 10 rosters with more going for them than the Lakers do. The ceiling of this roster always felt like: being average on both ends and maybe winning enough crunch time games to have a better record than their net rating. The basement felt like: AD or Bron get injured and this team is just not able to compete night to night. I was wrong about their offense being their downfall though.

I liked Redick as a player and enjoyed his podcast. I have no feelings on him as a coach yet. I don't have a problem with his offensive sets, but I agree the Lakers look clueless defensively. The defensive personnel is worse than last year, most because Lebron really can't make any kind of long rotation anymore, and they have to play him on the backline. Arthritic Lebron + really slow POA defenders and there's just too many holes there. They don't have the personnel to play bigger up front so there's no even an easy offense for defense sacrifice to make in the frontcourt.

I'm fine with everyone on the Lakers being clowned for the Bronny thing, JJ included. I just don't think he's one of the main guys to point the finger at. I also haven't followed the Bronny media circus at all so I don't know much about how he's been handled.

I just want to say this is a really good post. No stats. Just pure basketball intellect.

P.S. I'm not kissing a mod's behind because I have 2 strikes. That's just great writing and so refreshing to not see a stat line.

[Lo Wang]

And to think, people questioned his basketball knowledge because he ruffled some feathers with his ESPN hot takes.

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16th offensive rating this year
15th offensive rating last year

talk about jumping the gun on “night and day”

I don't know what is going on with this Lakers team. Lebron's getting a lot heat for his connections with you know who (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say his name). Could this be bothering him along with the Bronnie controversy?

I don't think he's fallen off because of age. I think we're looking at a Ben Simmons mental situation: it's been a rough year for Lebron. He was responsible for Redick, Bronnie, and that comment he made about parties. That's a lot for 1 person to have to through ... and what if he's guilty of some crimes at these great 1 of kind parties?

It's really strange behavior from Lebron to play that badly last game and then take a hiatus for personal reasons.

P.S. This is just speculation, but I think something "shocking" happened and it affected his game so badly he has to take off.

[BadWolf]

We don't know who...

[og15]

JJ always came across as extremely competent when I heard him speak.

Competent coaches lose all the time

maybe he'd figure it would all go to **** in a year or two and theyd still have to pay him the balance of the deal and then he'd go back to doing his other stuff with an extra ~16 million or so he didn't actually have to coach for

There are only so many NBA head coaching jobs available in general and even fewer on a yearly basis. In addition, the NBA does a lot of coach rotation.

This means that sometimes it's best to just get into whatever position is available and if you do well enough, you're now in that coaching rotation.

Hah well so do dumb ones there mate

Of course if you're a Clips fan that would explain why you're salty

Okay? I'm saying that him losing doesn't mean he's not competent, sometimes it happens that competent coaches lose because their team is not good enough to win as much as expected.

Salty about what exactly? I really don't understand what you're trying to read into all this, but it is somewhat amusing

[Revived]

He just coached the Lakers to beat the crap out of the Celtics. Boston was on second night of a back to back but their supposed to be the mighty Celtics so should’ve beat a team like the Lakers regardless so credit to Redick for having the Lakers in position to give a good ol butt whooping.

[Dr Aki]

Nah, Boston just had an off shooting night.

Probably burned out from playing the Clippers last night

[Tracymcgoaty]

Boston basically rested their big rotation and Jrue against Clippers for this match.

[Revived]

OP was right, it looks like Redick will in fact be one of the finalists for COY.

[Homer38]

Much better coach that Ham.....

[Dr Aki]

The crazy off ball movement stuff has really have unlocked Reaves, and Rui

Who needs Dan Hurley anyway?

[JustBuzzin]

OP is a genius!