Looking back to the 2024 NBA offseason, it should feel easy to recall the amount of scrutiny that pundits and experts had for the Los Angeles Lakers when they decided to hire JJ Redick as the newest head coach of their franchise. The further time moves away from the initial skepticism, the easier it becomes to look back and comment on how silly those conversations were.
In all fairness, the concerns about Redick lacking coaching experience was not the most absurd of talking points to be having. However, those conversations would often omit or otherwise discount the obvious brilliant basketball mind that the Lakers rookie head coach had. Anyone that followed Redick's career after retiring from on-court action could easily recognize the strong understanding he had of the game.
Over halfway into the 2024-25 NBA season for Los Angeles, Redick continues to reaffirm why he was indeed the right man for the job.
JJ Redick continues to tick all the boxes for the Lakers
When the former NBA marksman walked through the doors in Los Angeles, he was given close to the same roster than Darvin Ham had in the previous season. Despite that, the Lakers managed to quickly position themselves far better in the standings than last year's group. When the unit he had to work with improved, the results reflected that.
Swapping D'Angelo Russell for Dorian Finney-Smith was a move that many thought could properly boost the Lakers. It has yielded the desired results and the credit for that should not only go to Finney-Smith, but Redick as well.
While the start has been slow for Doncic, his head coach undoubtedly has the offensive mind to figure the situation out in Los Angeles. Redick has coached the Lakers to a top 10 offense in the league throughout the 2024-25 NBA season despite the shortcomings of the roster construction.
JJ Redick said that the Lakers’ offense needs to run through Luka Doncic’s hands, with LeBron James and Austin Reaves running it more when they stagger the primary ball handlers.
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) February 23, 2025
The most recent victory over the Denver Nuggets offered yet another reminder of the head coach's aptitude. Redick was hilariously quoted about the sleep deprivation he had suffered preparing for the matchup.
"I pretty much haven’t slept since we walked off the court in Portland," the Lakers coach told Matt Peralta. "I spent a lot of time on this game, our staff spent a lot of time on this game. I envision our guys playing hard, they played harder than I could’ve envisioned.”
Redick and his staff certainly had their fair share of work, trying to create a plan to slow down Nikola Jokic with the known deficiencies in their frontcourt. The best player in the world may have finished the night with a triple-double, but it came in a 123-100 loss where the superstar center only scored 12 points and shot 2-of-7 from the field, while also turning the ball over six times.
It was the first win in Denver for the Lakers since April of 2022. For Redick, it was just another example of why he deserves the bench boss role that he has.