How JJ Redick proved everyone wrong in first two seasons as Lakers coach

There is a certain amount of arrogance that you have to have when you become the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

When the front office hands you the keys to basketball’s most glamorous franchise, the one draped in 17 championship banners and impossible expectations, you’re not allowed to have excuses. 

That is why what JJ Redick has done in his first two seasons as head coach of the Lakers deserves far more credit and respect than he’s getting nationally. 

In fact, here’s currently getting ridiculed. 

Last-second substitutions aside, let’s be honest about the situation Redick inherited when he was hired back in the summer of 2024. 

Redick didn’t take over the 1996 Bulls or 2017 Warriors. He inherited an aging top-heavy, injury-riddled roster featuring a 40-year-old LeBron James and a walking MRI in Anthony Davis. But Redick was still under constant pressure to win every single night. That’s what comes with the job. 

Oh, and did we mention he had never coached before at any level?

Not in college, not as an assistant, not in the G League. Nowhere. 

Redick went from sitting across the table from LeBron on a podcast talking basketball philosophy, to holding a clipboard and coaching LeBron on the court. 

Everyone thought Redick would fail spectacularly. 

Instead, he won 50 games in Year 1.

Then he followed that with 53 wins in Year 2. 

Not since Phil Jackson had any Lakers head coach had back-to-back 50-win seasons, and Redick accomplished the feat in his first two years ever doing the job. That matters. 

It matters because coaching in today’s NBA is less about X’s and O’s and more about managing egos, adapting on the fly, and convincing millionaire superstars to sacrifice parts of themselves for the greater good of the team. 

Redick already has a long list of coaching accomplishments. He was gifted Luka Doncic in the middle of last season and had to start from scratch on how to get the most out of a roster that had no rim protection. He guided them to the No. 3 seed in the West.

This season, Redick’s greatest coaching accomplishment was convincing LeBron to become the third option. Something he’s never done before.

“I’ve never been a third option in my life,” said James. “So to be able to thrive in that role…that was pretty cool for me at this stage of my career.”

Redick convinced one of the greatest players of all time to be selfless and humble. That does not happen unless a coach has complete trust inside the locker room. 

Despite having “three quarterbacks” Redick got buy-in from three ball-dominant creators to find a way to play together. Normally, that’s a chemistry disaster. Instead, it became one of the more selfless Lakers teams in years. 

“JJ did an amazing job of fitting all that together,” said Lakers GM Rob Pelinka. “It was incredibly impressive.”

Redick spent two seasons coaching without the benefit of practice days. Without roster balance and without a reliable center. It felt like the Lakers were constantly trying to patch leaks in a sinking boat, while simultaneously racing the fastest teams in the league. 

Redick’s decision to switch to zone midway through the season was a great example of adaptability. Early in the season, the Lakers did not have the foot speed to survive in man-to-man coverage. So Redick switched to zone. The players all would later admit that the communication required to play zone sharpened them defensively when they switched back.

Now that’s coaching. 

And when Doncic and Reaves both went down with serious injuries on April 2, the season should have collapsed right there. Any other team would have folded and started booking their tickets to Cancun. 

Instead, Redick recalibrated again. 

He shifted LeBron back to the number one scoring option. He unlocked Luke Kennard, and he unleashed Rui Hachimura. 

Redick understood Kennard’s game from years of watching him dating back to high school and college. Redick did what nine other coaches couldn’t do, and challenged Kennard to handle the ball, create offense, and make reads off the dribble instead of being a spot-up three-point shooter. The result was a triple-double in his first game. A little over a week later, came a stunning 27-point performance in Game 1 of the first round series with the Rockets that sparked the eventual upset. 

Redick helped develop a hesitant and overwhelmed Hachimura into one of the most dangerous playoff shooters the NBA has ever seen. Hachimura shot 56.9% from three during the postseason and looks more confident than at any other point in his career. That’s coaching. 

The season didn’t end the way anyone wanted. A sweep is never how you want to go out.

But without Doncic, the Lakers were trying to survive against the youngest, deepest, and most athletic team in basketball. The reigning Champion OKC Thunder. 

And that’s not an indictment of Redick. If anything, the fact that the Lakers remained competitive at all says more about him than the sweep itself. 

And now, for the first time under Redick, the Lakers will enter the offseason with real financial flexibility and a clearer understanding of their identity. They will have plenty of cap space to spend. They have Doncic as their centerpiece. Most importantly, they have a coach who players genuinely believe in. 

Two years ago, everyone mocked the hire, but Redick is no longer a podcast host pretending to coach. 

He’s a real one.

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