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Initial reviews on JJ Redick as a head coach are in and, unsurprisingly, everyone even remotely close to the Los Angeles Lakers is raving about his organization, communication, and approach to the at-times daunting task of coaching a LeBron James-led Lakers team.
Redick wowing the organization isn't exactly shocking, especially given the levels of toxicity within the locker room under his predecessor. What has been just as — if not more — interesting to track has been what people around the league have been looking for and what they've seen from his tenure.
Overall, league sources are most impressed by Redick's attention to detail but have questions about the staff the Lakers assembled around him.
“It's obviously way too early to say anything definitive about Redick and whether he can coach,” one Eastern Conference scout said. “We do mostly know about his assistant coaching staff. That's where it's fair to wonder how this is going to go.”
As you may recall, it took quite a while for Redick to put his staff together. Initially, the Lakers had hopes of landing James Borrego, Sam Cassell, Jared Dudley, and other promising younger coaches. The initial crop of former head coaches the Lakers had hoped to mentor Redick included Terry Stotts and Jacque Vaughn, among others. Wave after wave of appealing candidates either signed elsewhere or stayed in their current gigs.
In the end, Scott Brooks and Nate McMillan were brought in for experience, and Greg St. Jean, Bob Beyer, Lindsey Harding and Beau Levesque rounded out the rest of the coaching staff.
Sources close to the Lakers say St. Jean has been tasked with handling the offense so far, while Beyer focuses on defense. Brooks and McMillan have mostly been overseeing this and maintaining constant communication with Redick, whose focus to this point has been on building relationships with his players.
“No offense to any of those coaches, but it's just not the elite staff a team needs next to a coach with as little experience as JJ has,” said an NBA scout. “The Lakers treat these jobs as if the assistant coach has to be thankful to get to coach the Lakers, but it doesn't quite work that way anymore. They don't pay enough to live comfortably in L.A. and they go through head coaches so quickly you just never know if you'll be there for more than a year or so. Makes it really difficult to land the talent JJ needed.”
What JJ Redick, Lakers are doing in preseason
Still, league sources have mostly been impressed by what the staff has accomplished so early in the preseason. Various scouts I've spoken to have pointed to the amount of organized offense the Lakers are running so far, even if the system and sets are a little rudimentary.
Sources close to the Lakers say the focus has been on getting guys used to running organized offense, then the focus will turn to improving the sets they're running.
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Defensively, the Lakers have actually taken some strides forward, according to those paying attention around the league. Between personnel and the ways the staff is utilizing them, the Lakers have looked cleaner on that end of the court.
Redick getting LeBron's buy-in
To this point, the biggest difference by far has been the level of buy-in Redick and his coaching staff have gotten from players compared to last season.
“Huddles last year were honestly pretty incredible,” an NBA assistant said. “You had guys not even bothering to pretend they were listening. I don't think I ever saw a coach lose a team as quickly as (Darvin) Ham did. This year, you can sense a real belief in what they're trying to build. That's the first step. It's early, but you have to start there.
“It was always going to improve compared to last year, but even beyond that, Redick seems to really have their attention. LeBron especially.”
In the NBA, that's the critical first step. Leadership starts at the top in locker rooms, with guys falling in line behind a team's best players. Last year, Lakers and league sources say James was out on Ham very quickly. Recently on Netflix's Starting 5, James could be seen calling Ham's plan to limit his minutes “garbage.” Sources close to the situation say that was a fairly regular scene last year.
So, with James bought in with Redick and an actual plan in place for this season, the Lakers feel ahead of schedule. Yes, there are fair questions to be asked of Redick and his staff, but that was to be expected. Redick is a first-time coach surrounded by a questionable staff. How they answer those questions will go a long way in deciding the kind of season the Lakers are in for.
