The Los Angeles Lakers made offseason headlines with the unorthodox hiring of former player and analyst JJ Redick as their newest head coach. Now, about halfway through the NBA season, the Lakers are in no better position than they were last season.
When Redick was hired on June 20, the reaction around the league wasn’t one of absolutes but rather curiosity. Redick had made a name for himself as a media personality in the years since his retirement from playing, co-founding ThreeFourTwo Productions, where he hosted several podcasts — eventually becoming a color commentator for ESPN. Thrust into one of the most high-pressure positions in sports, Redick became only the 13th non-interim head coach in NBA history to be hired without any previous coaching experience.
“I have never coached in the NBA before,” Redick said at his introductory press conference. “I don’t know if you guys have heard that.”
Much of the intrigue surrounding Redick’s hire came from his relationship with Lakers forward LeBron James. Only four months before Redick’s hiring was finalized, the two co-hosted a podcast titled “Mind the Game,” in which they discussed basketball strategy in depth. According to Bleacher Report, James had no involvement in the hiring process. Despite the report, many fans assumed that Redick’s relationship with James was a catalyst for the decision.
Even with Redick and James’ friendship, it was actually University of Connecticut Head Coach Dan Hurley who was the leading candidate for the esteemed Lakers’ position. Hurley had just come off of back-to-back NCAA National Championships in March, which made him all the more appealing to the Los Angeles front office. However, Hurley rejected the Lakers’ six-year, $70 million offer, opting to continue coaching the UConn Huskies.
With Redick came a raw authenticity that had been absent from the previous Lakers coaching staff. Former head coach Darvin Ham’s tenure was marked by criticism and a lack of accountability, which ultimately resulted in a disappointing first-round exit to the Denver Nuggets last season. However, with the nature of Redick’s former job as a media analyst, the first-time head coach brought his fiery and opinionated personality to the Lakers rather than leaving it behind.
This change in character was felt immediately. At the end of the introductory press conference, when asked about any concerns, Redick simply replied, “I really don’t give a f**k,” setting the tone for the season and marking a clear change in leadership styles.
While it was difficult to pin expectations on the organization due to the unprecedented nature of the hiring, Redick and the Lakers came out the gates hot. In their first game under Redick, the Lakers defeated the Western Conference finalists Minnesota Timberwolves 110-103. Astonishingly, it was the Lakers’ first opening-game win since 2016. The team proceeded to win its next two games, starting the season 3-0 — a feat the team had not accomplished since 2010, a year in which they won the NBA Finals.
Since their hot start, however, the Lakers have barely managed a .500 record, sitting at 20-14 and fourth in the Western Conference — the same place they finished last year. Interestingly, the team has passed the early season eye test in some ways.
Comparing Redick’s offense to Ham’s, there is a clear emphasis on court spacing, which has generated more three-point attempts through opposite-side looks off the ball screen and direct big-to-guard dribble handoffs. Redick’s offensive scheme emulates a strategy used by Hurley called a corner skip action. This involves a cross-court pass simultaneously with an off-ball guard screen and a dribble handoff that gives defenders a difficult choice of whom to guard. The result has been a surge in three-point attempt rates, as well as the percentage of field goal attempts from the three-point line, rising from last year’s .358 to the current .391, according to Basketball Reference.
Another major change under the Redick regime has been center Anthony Davis’ usage rate. Redick made it known that he planned to use Davis more than the previous coaching staff, using the term “hub” to describe Davis’ on-court role during the introductory press conference. So far, he has backed up that claim. Davis leads the team in usage rate at 29.6%, the first time he’s led the team in this stat since joining the Lakers in 2019. Davis flourished early on, leading MVP considerations before the Lakers’ current struggles.
With the multiple positive strategic changes, it would make sense for the Lakers to be in a better position relative to last year, but they aren’t. Many point to Redick as the easy scapegoat for the season’s shortcomings so far, but the problem is more complex. Redick has clearly made the appropriate on-court changes needed for success, but his players have not executed.
With the evolution of basketball and the NBA, three-point shooting has become the most important statistic. The average team attempts 37.5 three-pointers per game compared to the 22.4 league average in the 2014-15 season. This exponential increase has made outside shooting absolutely essential for success in the modern NBA. While Redick’s offensive scheme has generated more three-point attempts, the team’s three-point field goal percentage has dropped significantly from .377 to .348. This decline is substantial enough to drop the Lakers from the eighth-best three-point shooting team last season to the 20th-best this season.
Players such as guard D’Angelo Russell have seen huge drop-offs in three-point efficiency this year. Last season, Russell shot an effective 41.5% from beyond the line compared to this year’s dismal 33.5%. Even James has struggled, going from shooting 41% to 35.7% from outside. The players have simply failed to execute in what is now the most crucial component of the game.
It is difficult to say whether the Lakers will recover from their midseason slump. The NBA season is an 82-game war in which every team has their ups and downs. Redick has clearly made schematic changes that align with contemporary basketball success. Only time will tell if the Lakers can right the ship.
Jordan Hum is a Sports Intern for the Fall 2024 quarter. He can be reached at jrhum@uci.edu.
Edited by Benjamin Flores and Jaheem Conley