The Los Angeles Lakers have surprised everyone with how well they’ve performed under rookie head coach JJ Redick. The Lakers have a 39-21 record and are second in the Western Conference. They performed better after the trade deadline when they had a blockbuster deal with the Dallas Mavericks and acquired Luka Doncic.
Los Angeles ranks 13th on defense and ninth overall in the league. Out of the 30 clubs, the Lakers rank 12th overall. But in the previous ten games, they’ve played better. They rank fifth overall, third on defense, and eleventh on offense.
Many believe that the success the team has had has a lot to do with the coaching job of Redick. As a first-time head coach, there were doubts about what he could do. However, he’s silenced the critics with his leadership.
On Wednesday, former NBA players Chandler Parsons and Lou WIlliams spoke highly of Redick’s impact.
“No one right now would think they would be the two seed,” Parsons said. “No one right now would think they’d be the best defensive team in the NBA. A lot of that has to come down to coaching. He has everybody happy.
“You got a guy like Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, his numbers go up. How does that happen? That’s got to be something to do with the coach. Just knowing JJ, he’s such a student of the game. He’s so brilliant… it’s undeniable what he’s doing.
He continued:
“You got to give him his credit. I don’t care that he’s on TV and he’s more recognizable than some of these other coaches. He’s doing a hell of a job and he should be in the talks for Coach of the Year.
“We all had our concerns about JJ Redick being the Lakers head coach. He shut all of us up.” – Lou Williams
Lou and Chandler give flowers to JJ Redick for game planning the Lakers’ rise to the 2-seed in the West 💐#LakeShow pic.twitter.com/qLC4LUMsSG
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) March 5, 2025
Williams added this:
“We all had our concerns about him being the coach and we had opinions about it… He’s a worthy coach, give him credit.”
Redick wants the Los Angeles Lakers to avoid the Play-In Tournament
Aside from securing a playoff spot, another way to participate in the postseason is through the Play-In Tournament. However, Redick is not a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers being participants at the tournament this year.
With the recent success the Lakers have had, Redick is focused on winning more games as the postseason approaches. After their 108-102 win on Sunday against the Denver Nuggets, the head coach talked about his intentions of leading the team to the Playoffs.
He’s focused on simply winning games and doesn’t pay much attention to the seeding of the Western Conference. Staying away from the tournament and securing a top-four spot in the standings would mean they can have home-court advantage in the postseason.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
