As the Los Angeles Lakers’ offseason creeps closer to the NBA’s free agency period, there is a growing feeling JJ Redick will be hired to be their next head coach.
He has virtually no coaching experience of any kind, but some believe he is shrewd and knowledgeable when it comes to the game of basketball. He has exhibited his basketball IQ as a member of ESPN’s NBA broadcast crew and as LeBron James’ co-host on the “Mind the Game” podcast.
Plenty of people are skeptical Redick can succeed as the Lakers’ head coach, given his lack of experience and his relationship with James. But Carmelo Anthony, who played on the Lakers alongside James two seasons ago, said on “7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony & The Kid Mero” he thinks Redick can make it work (h/t Lakers Nation).
“In this particular situation, JJ has been away from the game. So he’s able to gather this information a study the game and watch the game and talk to coaches and talk to GMs and go sit in in these training camps and understand the formulas of everybody. It’s almost the Steve Kerr path. … Because I know the mind of (LeBron James), and if you got a mind on the intellectual standard, we gonna get along. But the minute that you start thinking that you know more than me, we got a problem. I ain’t gonna say nothing to you, but I’m gonna let you shoot yourself in the foot. Right, so to me, I think JJ, I (expletive) with it because I think JJ has an opportunity. It’s just about what opportunity that he has. Because we need new culture, we need new energy in those seats.”
Perhaps Redick does have the making of a great head coach. However, it is extremely rare for someone to immediately become one without first being an assistant.
Kerr did so with the Golden State Warriors nine years ago. However, that team had a clear leadership structure, not to mention the personnel to win an NBA championship. If Redick isn’t able or willing to hold James accountable, it could turn into a messy affair.
One quality Anthony didn’t mention is having the requisite leadership skills and knowing how to handle huge egos. Sometimes the only real way for an aspiring head coach to learn those skills is to be an assistant for a little while and witness an experienced and capable head coach do his thing.
Then there is the matter of the inherent pressure and scrutiny of coaching the Lakers. Coaching the Warriors, a team that had long been a laughingstock and had last won it all in 1975 when Kerr took over in 2014, doesn’t compare.
