Inside JJ Redick’s first year as Lakers coach: ‘I know I will get better’

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In late October, the Los Angeles Lakers ran an action for rookie wing Dalton Knecht early in the second quarter against the Phoenix Suns. Knecht had a split-second opening to launch a 27-foot 3-pointer, but he turned it down. The ball ended up in LeBron James’ hands with the shot clock waning. James tried to drive but couldn’t create separation as the shot-clock buzzer sounded.

As the Lakers ran back down the floor, coach JJ Redick stood up and scolded his group. The TV cameras picked up part of his message, with Redick yelling, “Shoot the f—ing ball!” The clip went viral.

Later that evening, after the Lakers lost their first game of the 2024-25 season, Redick grew increasingly agitated at the postgame podium, dropping the handheld microphone on the table and looking away

Redick’s reaction diverged from his comments to The Athletic a few weeks earlier at the team’s UCLA Health Training Facility. When asked how he thought he’d handle his first loss as an NBA coach, Redick assured that he’d be OK.

“I’ll be fine,” Redick said. “I’ll be fine.”

But Redick wasn’t fine after that loss. He was indignant. He was deeply disappointed.

Every time he stepped on the floor as a player during his 15-year NBA career, he expected to win. He was crushed when he didn’t. And every time he steps on the floor now as the Lakers coach, he has the same experience.

“I think I should win every time,” Redick said ahead of the next game.

Redick’s confidence and competitiveness were present all season. He ended several pre- and postgame news conferences with a spicy mic-drop. His face is incapable of hiding when he didn’t like certain questions — especially the narrative-based ones he publicly chastised during his successful media career.

In the 2025 NBA playoffs, specifically, he had two moments just like that late October game in Phoenix. During the third quarter of Game 2 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Lakers’ only win in the series, a clip of Redick laying into the team with expletives during a timeout went viral.

“It’s not something that I want to do,” Redick later said. “But it’s something I’m more than comfortable doing. I think tonight it was just more about getting that urgency button switched back on.”

And, ahead of Game 5, with the Lakers facing a 3-1 series deficit, Redick had another mic-drop moment.

Following his controversial decision to play the Lakers’ second-half starters for the entirety of Game 4 — a first in NBA playoff history — Redick defended the decision at his practice media availability and his pre-Game 5 availability.

At practice, he told reporters he didn’t think his players were tired in the fourth quarter, when they were outscored 32-19 after playing 24 straight minutes.

“Looking back now, what did we score — 19, 20, 13 in the fourth quarter?” Redick said Tuesday. “It’s a trend more so than that. … Our two best players missed layups at the end. I don’t think they missed layups because they were tired.”

And then, before Game 5, he was asked if he would lean on one of his assistants to help track his substitution pattern.

“Are you saying that because I’m inexperienced and that was an inexperienced decision that I made?” Redick quipped before eventually dropping the mic and walking away. “You think I don’t talk to my assistants about substitutions every single time out?”

JJ Redick STORMED OUT of his press conference after he was asked if he will lean on his assistants when it comes to fourth quarter substitutions tonight. pic.twitter.com/xDSMBxhFTL

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) May 1, 2025

Redick’s decision was semi-defensible considering the Lakers’ supporting cast’s struggles in the series and a daunting 3-1 series deficit on the line. But his refusal to admit afterward that it might’ve been a mistake or had drawbacks, especially considering it had never been done before for good reason, appeared to be a mix of hubris and stubbornness.

The more Redick defended the decision, the more of a national talking point it became. And the more the series went against him and Los Angeles, with the favored Lakers losing in five games, including twice at home, the worse it looked optically.

It reached a fever pitch on Thursday when ESPN reported that TNT’s Reggie Miller, who was the color commentator for Game 5 of Lakers-Wolves, said he had to calm Redick down during his pregame meeting. For context, coaches typically go straight from their pregame news conference to the TV meeting, meaning Redick was likely already riled-up from the question about his substitutions.

Dating to his days as a star at Duke, Redick has been a polarizing figure. Most people have an opinion about him — good or bad. He has a mix of good looks, charm and intellect that can be intimidating. He can toe the line between confident and cocky. His answers, while often thoughtful and eloquent, can sometimes seem demeaning to reporters in tone — like he’s above being questioned or challenged.

But Redick is unabashedly himself, for better or worse. There is a duality to him — “duality” was one of his buzzwords of the season — that allows him to be wildly competitive and confident while also maintaining proper perspective within losses and with his weaknesses.

After the Lakers were eliminated from the postseason, Redick reflected on his season and acknowledged that he still has a lot of room for improvement as a coach.

“I’ll use my own thoughts to evaluate myself, and I’ll use what my players say and what my coaching staff says to evaluate. But I know I can be better,” Redick said Wednesday. “And I know I will get better. I don’t necessarily take any satisfaction from how the year went. That’s not to say I’m not proud of what the group was able to do, and how we were able to figure out things on the fly and put ourselves in a position to have home court in the first round. But there’s always ways to get better. And I can get a lot better.”

And that feedback came immediately from the Lakers organization. On Thursday, Pelinka opened his season-ending news conference by singing Redick’s praises. And as The Athletic reported on Friday, Redick’s job is safe, and the Lakers remain confident in him actualizing his potential as a promising young coach who had, all things considered, a successful debut season.

“JJ brought just a complete revival of energy and incredibly hard work ethic, attention to detail, a spirit to our team, to our group, to our franchise as a rookie coach that we haven’t seen in a long time,” Pelinka said Thursday. “Our level of confidence, my level of confidence couldn’t be higher. He’s a great partner to work with. He’s an incredible basketball mind, and I know that every year for him will be things to celebrate and learning lessons. That’s just who he is. That’s exciting for the Lakers, for our fan base and for our future.”

Redick understood he’d be judged by wins and losses in the NBA coaching seat. In Los Angeles, coaching the Lakers, there’s an extra layer to that. It’s championship-or-bust every season. And every decision is magnified on social media and national TV, digital media and podcasts. No playoff rotational decision caused a stir quite like Redick’s bold Game 4 move.

Redick got into coaching, in part, to better channel his competitive urges. He missed the chase. The pursuit of a championship. The camaraderie in the locker room and on the team bus. The challenge of problem-solving and overcoming high-stakes obstacles.

And he’s turned out to be a good coach, despite his inexperience. The Lakers finished 50-32 and No. 3 in the West. They had a 20-4 stretch in which they had the best defense in the league — a testament to Redick’s defensive system and game-planning. He navigated difficult rotation decisions, tweaked the team’s identity multiple times and earned rave reviews from his players for his preternatural communication skills. Most important of all, he seamlessly integrated Luka Dončić on both sides of the ball, with their prior relationship as teammates playing a significant role in the quick assimilation.

Aside from the nadir of the Lakers’ season, from late November through mid-December, Redick quieted the doubters during his rookie coaching year. There weren’t many negative things to say about him — at least until this playoff series.

But like any first-time coach in the postseason, he is going to have learning lessons. And while Redick hasn’t spoken about any specifics, he said he’s going to spend the offseason self-evaluating and figuring out how he can be a better coach next season.

“We all know what the Lakers is,” Redick said Thursday. “I talked about it when I did my opening press conference. I know what I signed up for, and I know there’s a lot of blame that gets placed on me and I’m willing to accept that. Believe me, no one’s harder on me than me.”

(Photo: Harry How / Getty Images)

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