JJ Redick Begins Lakers Coaching Tenure With Nearly-Impossible Task of Winning Now and Later

In introducing Redick, L.A. executive Rob Pelinka spoke of building for the long term while also competing for championships right away.

Redick offered an Anthony Davis-centered vision for the Lakers’ immediate future. / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

It was a press conference to answer questions.

But all we came away with was more of them.

It was a chance for the Los Angeles Lakers to explain the Dan Hurley saga.

L.A.’s top basketball executive, Rob Pelinka, told reporters to ask him later.

It was an opportunity for JJ Redick to offer a unique vision for the roster.

Turns out Redick wants more Anthony Davis and more three-pointers.

The Lakers formally introduced Redick as head coach on Monday. He’s the 29th head coach in franchise history. He’s also the fourth in the last seven seasons. After giving up on Luke Walton, dumping Frank Vogel and jettisoning Darvin Ham, L.A. has handed the keys to Redick, a player-turned-podcaster with name recognition that stretches a mile wide and experience that runs an inch deep.

“I have never coached in the NBA before,” Redick cracked. “I don't know if you guys have heard that.”

In hiring Redick, the Lakers ended one of the stranger coaching searches in recent memory. They liked Redick … but not enough to offer him the job after it first opened. They wanted Hurley … but weren’t willing to pay enough to get him. Pelinka said Redick was in L.A.’s “Plan A pool of coaches” but declined to elaborate on why Hurley had jumped ahead of him.

“Today’s sort of JJ’s day,” said Pelinka.

Later, Redick pulled back the curtain a little. He confirmed the first meeting with the Lakers came in May, at the NBA’s pre-draft combine. He described hearing the news of L.A.’s interest in Hurley like everyone else, in a newsbreak before Game 1 of the NBA Finals. And he said Pelinka was on the phone with him soon after.

“At no point was my ego or feelings hurt or bruised in any way,” said Redick. “Dan Hurley is a two-time national champion at UConn. I am a two-time 55 Swish League champion in the third and fourth grade division. Like, I understood.”

Redick was polished during a 45-minute gaggle with the Los Angeles press, which, after years of work in the media, you would expect he would be. He described the feeling of committing to the Lakers while on the Duke campus, revealed he had spent parts of the last year journaling about coaching and joked that he was looking forward to calling his first challenge.

Asked what criticisms he hoped to prove wrong and Redick was ready with a four-word answer.

“I don't really have a great answer for your question because I really don't give a f---,” said Redick. “Honestly. I want to coach the Lakers. I want to coach the team. I don't want to dispel anything. I don't. I want to become a great coach in the NBA and I want to win championships and I want my players to maximize their careers. That's all I f------ care about.”

Redick has the approval of key figures in the locker room. LeBron James largely stayed out of the coaching search, Pelinka said, but James and Redick’s relationship is well known. The two have been podcast partners in recent months—that podcast and all of Redick’s media ventures will halt, Redick said—with a healthy respect for each other’s basketball IQ. Redick said his first conversation with James about the coaching job came Thursday, shortly after he was offered it.

“And that was very intentional on both our parts,” said Redick. “I knew I had an understanding that he did not want to be involved in this, and for me, I didn't want to go down the path of hypotheticals with someone that I consider a friend and someone that I have a great amount of respect for.”

Davis did get involved in the coaching search. “Very involved,” said Pelinka. At 39, the clock on James’s career—in L.A. and perhaps otherwise—is ticking. Davis, 31, is the key to the Lakers present and future and Redick said he plans to take advantage of him.

“One of the things I brought up with him is just the idea of him as a hub,” Redick said. "There's a bunch of guys at the [center] position in the NBA that sort of operate in that way. I don't know that he's been used in that way and sort of maximized all of his abilities.”

But Davis and James aren’t the issue. Davis played 76 games last season, earning All-NBA Second Team honors. James played 71 games, performing well enough to land on the All-NBA Third Team for the third year in a row. Redick praised the Lakers roster but he’s smart enough to know it needs changes. Come Wednesday night Pelinka will be free to deal as many as three first round picks but the spending limits in the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement make roster changing deals more difficult.

Redick looked the part on Monday, despite zero NBA coaching experience. / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

“The trades are less prevalent than they used to be,” said Pelinka. “So will we look for trades that help us become a better team? Absolutely. Are those trades, did they have the same probability that they did under the old system? No, it is a different system, so we've got to be mindful and thoughtful around that.”

Pelinka talked of long term plans with Redick, about prioritizing player development, about modernizing a Lakers franchise that for years operated like a team whose rich history and favorable zip code was enough to build a winner. He floated the idea of building out a coaching app, of “gamifying player development” to connect better with the younger generation of players.

“I think innovation's got to be at the core of that,” Pelinka said. “We have a vision … of hiring out his support staff in sort of this tech bullpen way of getting innovative minds to help bring his basketball strategy and bring his basketball philosophy to life in a way that our players can grasp it, learn it, and actually grow their basketball IQ.”

Fine. Innovation is good and there’s no doubt the Lakers—who have one of the NBA’s smaller front offices—could use some. Player development is great, as Oklahoma City, Denver, Minnesota and the rest of the teams at the top of the Western Conference can attest. Pouring resources into getting the most out of Austin Reaves, Max Christie and Jalen Hood-Schifino makes sense.

But the Lakers can’t do just that. Los Angeles is attempting to thread the tightest of needles, to build a winner around the soon-to-be 40-year old James now (which could require trading draft picks) while planning a future beyond him (which would require keeping them).

Pelinka said the goal was to compete for championships “whether that's in the short term or the long term.”

Houdini has pulled off easier tricks.

Redick is certainly bringing a passion to the process. Make no mistake: Redick didn’t need the gig. Three years after retiring from the NBA Redick reached the height of basketball broadcasting, a lead analyst on ESPN with a burgeoning podcast company. He chased the job because he wanted it, because he believes—despite no coaching experience—the work he has done since his playing days ended prepared him for the role.

“I just felt like this is what I'm supposed to be doing,” Redick said.

On Monday, Redick sounded like a coach.

In a few months, the Lakers will find out if he is one.