Remember when the Los Angeles Lakers hired former Duke star JJ Redick? There were a lot of people who predicted failure, that he had no experience, that they should have gone after a more established coach, say, Sam Cassell, or Kenny Atkinson, or UConn’s Dan Hurley, for whom they were ready to open the vault.
In the end, despite the controversy, they hired Redick, and he’s panned out pretty well.
In his first season, Redick won 50 games, and this past season, he won 53. In both seasons, the Lakers finished first in the Pacific Division.
His career record now stands at 164-103.
That’s all very impressive, but even more so when you consider that this team is in a long and slow transition. LeBron James is still an amazingly effective player at 41, and he works hard to maintain his presence, but he’s not the player he was a few years ago. He doesn’t work as hard on defense as he used to, and he’s not feared in the way he once was.
Ideally, this should be Luka Doncic’s team now, but Doncic has historically been poorly conditioned, and there are those who believe that, at 27, he may have already peaked.
When you get past those two, 29-year-old Austin Reaves is getting 34.5 minutes per game, then it’s Marcus Smart, who is 32, with 28.5 mpg. Rui Hachimura pulled 28.3, De’Andre Ayton is pulling 27.2, from former Demon Deacon Jake LaRavia handled 25.2 and former Blue Devil Luke Kennard, got 32.6 minutes.
Redick has done a tremendous job with a team handling what could be a difficult transition, and an uncertain future for both stars (James for age and Doncic, essentially for durability).
In one sense, the best thing for L.A. would be if James finished his career elsewhere. He’s making $52.6 million, while Doncic is getting $54.1. Additionally, Reaves will be a free agent, and while the Lakers would like to keep him, it will be difficult to keep three guys who all want big money. Who do you let go?
We’d argue for the guy who will be 42 next year. James has had a great career, but he’s going to be a free agent as well, and at this point in his career, the math is inexorable. They simply can’t pay him what they have. We could imagine him going to Dallas for a year to mentor Cooper Flagg, or perhaps the San Antonio Spurs for similar reasons, but to stay with L.A., he’d likely have to take a big pay cut.
The Lakers won’t pick in next week’s NBA Draft until the 25th pick, which could mean a shooter like Duke’s Isaiah Evans, or a risky pick like Jayden Quaintance or Koa Peat.
If James left, they would have a good bit of money to pursue free agents, like possibly Detroit’s Jalen Duren or former Blue Devil Gary Trent.
L.A. has always been a magnet for great players, and they could pull that off again via free agency. It’s just a question of the fit.
In other words, while Redick has done a tremendous job with the players he’s had, improvement for L.A. is going to be more on GM Rob Pelinka, who, to be kind, has a reputation for not being entirely straightforward.
It’s possible he could find some talent that slips through the draft, which could happen to former Blue Devil Maliq Brown, but L.A. has just one draft pick and not that many assets they could get a good return on. And given Pelinka’s reputation, that is even more complicated.
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