JJ Redick should be officially named head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers any day now, which means Redick will soon coach Anthony Davis, one of the best defenders in the NBA but one who Redick did not believe was in the top 10 this season.
As a member of the media, Redick could vote on who he believed should win the league's Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, and other awards and honors. Among them was the NBA All-Defense Team, of which Anthony Davis was a part for a fifth time in his career. Davis was named to the first team, signifying voters believed he was among the top five defenders in the league. But Redick wasn't one of them.
Redick featured three big men not named Davis — the Miami Heat's Bam Adebayo, the Minnesota Timberwolves' Rudy Gobert, and San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama — and his second team did not include Davis either. Instead, Redick limited his second-team selections to just one big man: the Cleveland Cavaliers' Jarrett Allen. He also named the Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, Denver Nuggets' Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Orlando Magic's Jalen Suggs, and Boston Celtics' Derrick White to his All-Defensive second team.
While Davis was very vocal about not winning Defensive Player of the Year — he finished fourth behind winner Gobert, Wembanyama, and Adebayo — AD is apparently not harboring any resentment toward Redick for his All-Defense team voting.
“One source close to the process insists that JJ Redick's refusal to place Anthony Davis on his All-Defense ballot this season is a topic both parties can set aside with little fuss now that Redick is Davis' coach in Lakerland,” NBA insider Marc Stein reported on his ‘The Stein Line' Substack.
Anthony Davis primed for another big year
Regardless of what JJ Redick believed when he was filling out his awards ballot near the end of the regular season, Anthony Davis is one of the best and most impactful defenders in the NBA. The impact of Davis, who was exceptionally available this season, can best be seen when he is not around at all; in the six games in which AD did not play this season, the Lakers were 2-4 and allowed 126.3 points per game.
Projected to be a defensive dynamo after a wildly successful freshman season at Kentucky, Davis has seemingly exceeded most expectations placed upon him. Over his decade-plus in the NBA, he has proven to be one of the best post defenders and shot-blockers in the league. This past season, Davis, who ranked third in the NBA in rebounds per game (12.6), blocked 2.3 shots per game, good enough for fourth in the league. He also ranked fourth in defensive win shares while anchoring a defense that also included 39-year-old LeBron James and offensively-minded players such as Austin Reaves and D'Angelo Russell.
It will be interesting to see how Redick schemes the Lakers' defense to try to further accentuate Davis's strengths and hide some of the weaknesses of some of the other Laker defenders. All eyes will be on Redick, who has never been held a major head or assistant coaching position.
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