Things were not supposed to be this easy for the Los Angeles Lakers. The team was hanging onto the label of fringe contenders before the now legendary Luka Doncic trade. The acquisition of Doncic signified a desire to ignore the rest of the 2024-25 NBA season to some. However, that was far from the case for head coach JJ Redick and his staff.
The Lakers coach seized the opportunity to maximize the window Los Angeles had in front of them and the results have spoken for themselves. This recent road trip may have some cooling on the expectations for the Lakers, but onlookers would be wise not to ignore the tremendous coaching job done by Redick and how it should continue to guide Los Angeles to a championship ceiling for this year's campaign.
Lakers figured things out much faster than they were supposed to
The Lakers' recently-passed four-game road trip was always going to be a tough part of their schedule. It got made excruciatingly difficult when important rotational players started dropping like flies. That is without even mentioning the missing elephant in the room. Some might prefer the goat comparison when reaching into the animal kingdom.
Not having LeBron James, who was lost to a groin injury, put the Lakers in a tough spot. James has been an integral part of the success for Los Angeles throughout the entirety of the 2024-25 season.
When factoring that in and adding the absences of Jaxson Hayes, Rui Hachimura, and others, Redick was forced to experiment with rotations that otherwise may have never seen the light of day. There were moments when some interesting lineups were discovered, but there were also times when the results were very underwhelming.
The fact of the matter here is that even with some of the recent shortcomings, Redick and his group have still looked impressive post All-Star break.
The Lakers are tied for the fifth-most wins since the NBA's midseason festivities. During that time, Los Angeles ranks fourth when it comes to defensive rating (109.3) and ninth regarding their overall net rating (4.2).
The offense remains a work in progress with the Lakers posting the 19th offensive rating (113.5) since the break, but to revisit the sentiment above, a lot of that can be excused when considering the injuries that Redick and his staff have been forced to navigate.
Doncic has started to look a lot more comfortable within the Lakers offense of late, but even when looking at his overall time with Los Angeles, the Slovenian superstar is on a historic pace to start his tenure in Hollywood. With Luka rounding into form and LeBron's return date nearing closer, there should be little doubt that two players who are that talented can figure it out.
More precisely though, it will be Redick and his staff that play a big part in that. The first-year head coach has not been afraid to experiment with ideas that some may have thought of as odd at first. The small ball lineups, for example, have done wonders defensively for the Lakers.
As the Lakers continue what has been a very successful campaign, it is always important to offer some well-deserved praise to not only the players who are delivering, but the coach and his staff that are positioning those athletes to succeed.