Lakers broadcast stat shows JJ Redick had an 80-9 as coach when leading at halftime (now 81-9 after win against Utah). The 90% win rate is the best in NBA history.
How can anyone see this and say this guy is anything less than a good coach? 90 games is a large enough sample size. He’s legit. Win, lose or draw the Lakers FO would be dumb to let him go.
I knew he was going to be amazing when Reddit thought he would suck. This place couldn’t predict where the shit out of their ass is gonna land
Some days it really could be debatable where it’s going to land
the trick is to spread your ass prior to sitting down
Like when youre on a roller coaster, perhaps.
Or when it’s in a cup
you shoulda seen the way they were talking about Mike Brown during the regular season last season lol
Well, I have IBS, so joke’s on you, I really cannot
Because he was on YouTube. That’s it. He’s clearly an intelligent coach who has done well and potentially could go far as a coach.
Yeah it all has to do with the podcaster memes being funny and LA being the media microscope that it is. The funniest part is if you actually listened to his podcast, and it was your only familiarity with him, it was clear he has extremely high bbiq.
That’s completely ignoring his reputation as a player beforehand.
There was that whole episode where they acted like they were going to hire Hurley after Shams initially reported they were hiring JJ just so they could act like they were doing their due diligence and not just hiring Lebron’s podcasting buddy.
Turns out Lebron’s podcasting buddy is actually a pretty good coach.
To be more charitable to the detractors, it’s because he had 0 coaching experience at a high level. Usually ex-players find a veteran coach and become an assistant for a few years before they get a shot. People felt like he “skipped” the line.
His skill at drawing up ATO plays is nuts. I realized he’s the real fucking deal when he drew up that buzzer beater 3 for Kennard at the end of the Lakers vs Magic game back in March
He’s one of my favorite Magic players ever (one of the few Magic jerseys I own also) I’m super happy for his coaching success
Greg St. Jean drew that ATO btw
I will be the first to admit that I thought it was a dumb hire. But he has impressed me. I don’t think we have the depth this year to make a real run in the playoffs, but maybe they will surprise me.
You’re one Cameron Carr breakout and a back-up C from having the depth.
Maybe but I think we need a little more from our regular role players but I like your optimism
We have great depth 1-9 right now with Carr having potential to hopefully be a good 10th piece. Just need a backup big and I honestly think we’re contenders. Every signing we got right now other than Looney has looked like an incredible fit.
The other problem is we also need absolutely everyone to stay healthy because any injury fucks our depth hard. Our 11-15 is no question the worst in the league and unplayable (Reason we’re running an 8 man rotation 3 games into the season)
Well done Lebron
Putting aside Redick’s ranking, I think the stat itself is conceptually interesting as a way to try and measure coaching. I feel like it could be a way to compare coaches in a way that normalizes for the talent they have, at least better than raw win loss record. Coaches who didn’t have talented rosters are less likely to be penalized because their teams won’t be up at halftime anyway. And if the team is up at halftime, then at a baseline you should have a better than 50% chance at winning the game. And most people attribute blame for blown leads as least partly to coaching.
I wish it were an easier thing to look up though. Would be interesting to see if the rankings pass the eye test otherwise for who people perceive as good and bad coaches. Or if it is even strongly correlated with the talent the coach has had.
It’s kinda like pointing out Ty Jerome is leading the league in scoring. Does anyone think Ty Jerome is a better scorer than Luka or Shai. No. It just shows that Ty Jerome has been having a great start to the season. In the same vain all this stat is saying JJ has had good start as a coach. Don’t really get comments complaining about these kinds of stats the number of games are literally shown they aren’t trying to mislead you.
I think the problem is you’re extrapolating a lot from this one stat. It’s just highlighting that his record in these games is the best. He’s had great players on the team, but the team as a unit has never been world breakers, so it’s impressive regardless. That is enough to say that he is a good coach. Which I think is the point most are trying to make. The ones who are saying that he’s an all timer because of this are clearly exaggerating or should not be taken seriously.
No one’s saying he’s a historically good coach, just that particular stat is historically good. I think it shows that he’s a good coach though. Granted, I don’t really see anyone who’s made the argument that he’s a bad coach either. He’s good. Simple as that.
lmao same people that were touting mazzulla’s win percentage 6 months ago by the way
obviously i don’t know you as the special snowflake you are, but plenty of celtics fans were touting his winning record while having two mid-20s all-stars in their prime on his teams to begin his coaching career
Doc Rivers couldn’t do jack sh*t with every loaded roster given to him, xcept for Celtics
really amazing, esp given general game to game variance due to 3pt shooting, like, you’d think in modern basketball you’d just get unlucky a few more times
People in this sub were saying ‘er hes a podcaster lmao’
Glad he made all of those people look stupid
That’s a ridiculous stat. He’s always had a good team but never a truly elite team or even real contender which makes this even more impressive.
Were never getting the podcast back :(
He’s gonna be coaching Lebron’s grandson, watch!
steve nash is cool but JJ and lebron felt like true co hosts, this new podcast feels like nash is a producer that occasionally chimes in to lebron
I think he’s talking about the Old Man and the Three. That’s the podcast JJ was known for. Mind the Game hasn’t really dropped in quality since Nash took over.
I mean I really enjoyed JJ literally drawing up and breaking down plays while discussing concepts with LeBron on his version of the podcast, Nash feels like he’s just interviewing LeBron most of the time
Yeah, with JJ I felt like I’d leave an episode understanding the modern game, schemes, and strategy more than when I pressed play. I loved Nash as a player, but just listening to both versions you can kinda tell why one is still coaching and the other isn’t.
yeah. Old Man and the Three does not flow well with Cam Johnson, as opposed to JJ Redick
ok but the person you’re replying to literally said they prefer Mind the Game with JJ
Get him to the Ravens
He’s like bizarro Kenny Atkinson.
Has the LeBron and Nash version been good? Haven’t been paying attention
JJ was the one with the sauce
It’s pretty good but JJ and Bron was top tier. Redick is a true basketball sicko. He would bring a lot of interesting X and O talk to the table that Bron would give interesting insight on
If I recall JJ talked more scheme’s and strat on the podcast. As a casual I remember learning new terminology and plays id never considered. This is no slant on Nash. I love him and watch every ep of the current version of the podcast but its way more about vibes now than strat.
its fine its definitely not a bad basketball pod
It’s good but it doesn’t get into really granular analysis like JJ did.
Lakers last year and this barring injuries are a real contender.
My Podcaster
I was one that was very very skeptical of the hire, so glad he’s doing well and I was very wrong about it all
All of this while having AD on the team, not having AD on the team due to injuries, having LeBron without AD, Luka arriving, Luka,LeBron and AR, DeAndre Ayton existing on the roster etc. He’s a good coach
We were 53 win team last season with +40 different starting lineups. JJ is a great coach and adaptable despite many describing his coaching style as stubborn
Exactly.
All of those star players have missed a decent amount of time during his coaching stint too. They’ve won more than I would’ve expect the last few years
Yep.
Also don’t forget, he won 50 games his first season despite his house burning down and having to live out of a hotel. The NBA having to condense the Lakers schedule bc of the wildfires meaning the Lakers had to play 4 games in 5 days at one point. A lot of outside stuff that would have affected just about anyone but he managed to still win 50.
Nah but Lakers fans said DominAyton was the missing piece and had such an amazing contract
He was a good contract. We were wrong
He did have an amazing contract lmao and he played solidly for someone that only made 8 million dollars. He’s just not starting center material for the Lakers.
As a personality, I love JJ.
He’s refreshing. Loved him during his time on First Take.
I just appreciate that he has a no nonsense, no bullshit attitude and has no problems expressing that.
But he played for duke so he is immediately bottom 10 in nba whatever’s of all time.
Hey I’ve loved JJ as a podcaster, and I love him as my team’s coach. Having said that, fuck Duke.
I still remember the Rosenberg “This is why I’m hot” remix about Duke lmao 😂
JJ is easily the best coach we’ve had since Vogel
Lol
It was meant as a joke btw lol he’s a good coach tho
I know I was laughing at your joke
Remember when they got clowned on for hiring “lebrons friend” and a “podcaster”?
One of the greatest role players of all time, one of the greatest college players period of all time, yet he’s a podcaster. I can’t take fools on the internet seriously. Giant case of “on the internet no one knows you’re a dog” lol
“Build bridges your whole life to be called a bridge builder, but you fuck one goat…”
great coach
That’s my basketball sicko!
I miss Old Man and the 3, but it has been great to see him get a coaching platform and gig
I miss him and Legler talkin shop before the playoffs, GOATed convo’s.
Not bad for a podcaster. Remember how much this sub mocked the Lakers for the signing and said he would be terrible?
Why does he always look absolutely disgusted with life?
He’s that type of coach that’s really only happy when their team has reached perfection.
Not-not quite my tempo
The Mourinho gameface
He has to forever live with being a Duke alumnus.
Dude is a great coach who’s been let down by his GM (aside from the fleece of the century).
That’s an odd way to put it. He’s coached for only 2 seasons. The second season, they got him Luka for Anthony Davis.
So your narrative is that the GM has “let him down” EXCEPT for the greatest NBA trade in history?
Also worth noting: the Lakers haven’t had NBA scouts during all this time. Pelinka is operating without a lot of the tools most other GMs has. He’s missed one some stuff, but overall has done okay.
Why the hell don’t they have scouts
Buss family had basically their whole wealth in the team, not billions outside it so it operated mom and pop style basically. The brothers were the college scouts for a time.
Because the biggest team in the NBA was owned by broke billionaires.
NBA teams now have salaries in the 200M range, if the owner’s wealth outside of the team is less than say 10B, or if they have poor cashflow business, they are literally too poor to own a team.
The Buss family was the extreme case of that, they had nothing outside of the Lakers.
FIRST season. Luka came to the Lakers in JJ’s first season.
I mean, yes JJ is very lucky to coach the players that he has but that happening overnight in his very first season couldn’t have been easy. A build around AD and a build around Luka are two very different experiences on both sides of the ball and that 24-25 roster honestly wasn’t even good at being either.
This year feels like the first time both JJ and Luka got a roster a bit more tailored to them.
it was a huge fleece but also left the Lakers roster very poorly constructed. Basically tanked the last 1.5 years of Lebron there because of it. obviously they had to accept the trade tho
lol, like they had the pieces to win a chip? They had a decrepit Lebron and even more decrepit AD.
they didn’t have the pieces to win the chip bc of Pelinka
Not really a great trade, more like the NBA blatantly rigging positive outcomes for the Lakers. It’s honestly hilarious to me how people really assume that was a trade, like a legit trade, lol how many examples do you need to finally realize the obvious? The Lakers are the most favored franchise in the NBA. I am a fan, started rooting for the team because of Afro Kobe, but I’m not blind
A trade that awful has less to do with the GM who benefited and much more to do with the GM who screwed himself.
I think he got exactly what he wanted, if not everything (a backup big and an elite wing)
Luka ironically needs another PJ/Gafford trade lol
Manage to keep Hayes instead of getting Looney and the Lakers would already look much better.
If we keep Jax we don’t have Mamu and one of the other guys.
Literally couldn’t match the Jazz offer
Dudes needed to swallow their pride and kept Aytan. He would have filled the void. Or Jaxon Hayes.
You’re asking the guy who couldn’t mentally handle not being the first scoring option to mentally handle not even being the staring Center.
He’s handling it extremely well being the backup in Washington.
Ayton seemed like locker room cancer and Hayes contract extension was tough with all the deadweight the roster was carrying (Knect, Bronny, Vando) and AR and Walker’s extension alongside Luka’s existing effect on the payroll
They just couldn’t have signed Jax at that moment
while pelinka is not a good GM, i genuinely think lakers were ruined even before that since westbrook trade and they cannot recover from that assets hole.
Well he still signed off on that trade, regardless of how much input LBJ had. Giving up Kuz KCP and Caruso in a single off season is straight up malpractice in the modern nba.
i agree i am just saying that they were doomed from even before JJ signed , since the Russ trade. Genuinely no assets after that.
Plus a first that eventually turned out to be Jaden McDaniels…
JJs strength is gameplanning, usually pretty blatant the first few minutes what the plan is. His weakness that is improving each year is getting away from that when it goes to shit.
I love how much he hates the halftime interview lol
His post game stuff is way better, he’s usually got some fun dry zingers in there
The Anti-Doc
It’s not surprising, Luka and Lebron do a really good job at beating the teams they should beat and winning games that they are ahead.
My big question that relates to this post is if we will see as many games from the Lakers were its clearly obvious they don’t have it against a superior or equal team and they just move on to the next game mid game. Some might say this Jazz game is an example that they should be different, I don’t think it is.
I think it’ll be different. I actually think the Clippers game was a better example. That was a game they probably would’ve lost last year. With Austin’s turnovers and Luka’s awful game, Lebron probably would’ve checked out, and the rest of the team would follow their stars.
This year’s team mostly has guys with defined roles and role player attitudes. They’ll just keep doing their jobs consistently regardless of the score or the performance of the best players.
True, I do think it should be different but I am interested if it will be different.
I’ve said this years Lakers team is probably a better net rating worse record team than last year just because 53 wins is alot.
Yeah, that sounds right. 53 is a lot, especially with more teams trying to win this year. They did leave a little bit on the table last year against a weak division, so that’s one place I could see it balancing out.
As long as they show up against worse teams, I think they’ll be right around 50-52 wins. The start of the season has been a good start in that regard.
Interesting you say that, the prior year before we got Luka it felt like we were in every game but came up short each time
Against teams were supposed to beat
Dude 22-23 had some of the most frustrating losses, losing to the hornets after lebron loses his shoe? Pacers buzzer beater? Dallas buzzer beater?
ugh
It really was frustrating to watch. Feels so different having Luka who just gets his own bucket and makes difficult shots look easy
Lebron will always have love here in LA, but man i missed having a pure offensive beast
And you are correct. This is just another example of coaches who have the privilege of stars playing for their system, here it comes the deceiving numbers and so on. Phil Jackson with all his rings, then being completely exposed in any other management position that doesn’t have star players carrying the performance. Steve Kerr kinda the same thing, awful team president and GM, then here it comes Curry carrying his ass, etc.
We all know basketball is a collective sport and blablabla, everybody has a piece of the success, but really, 5v5, one guy makes all the difference, way more than other mainstream ball sports. So yeah, even if it is a collective effort, at minimum LeBron and Luka are like 80% of the cause for this record. If JJ ever leaves and somehow achieves success in wildly different scenarios, wildly different rosters, like the true greats faced in their careers (Pop, Riley, Larry Brown, etc), then we can talk
GM and Coach have completely different skill requirements. Someone can be a good coach but a bad GM and vice versa.
Both are HR jobs with different levels of management skill. Usually GM, team president and so on, they demand way more from the management side (hence why Phil was exposed so badly, a complete clown). The problem of these aggrandizements of coaches carried by stars is just that: for the most part they have a good relation with their star players, that’s it. Able to manage their ego, build a system that maximizes their play, etc.. this is not something mindblowing as people make such a fuzz about the Steve Kerr records, now here it comes JJ, etc..
I do think JJ is a pretty decent coach, even if he is still raw in some regards, but let’s not derail into neanderthal territory, this necessity of aggrandizing the next big thing as much as possible
Nobody is saying reddick is a “true great”. They’re just saying he’s good.
Nobody is saying? Just look at the other comments, lol typical social media vitriol, people go to the extremes to justify either the best thing ever or the worst thing ever. Well, forgot the quotations, “people”. This same behavior happened with Steve Kerr by the way, even Spoelstra. The desperation to see (and talk about) the next big thing
I am looking at the other comments, I’m not seeing people calling him a “true great”. Some of them are saying he’s a great HC, but that’s different from what you are talking about.
For coaches after 1997, the data shows that JJ is tied for second to Steve Kerr. This is accounting for excluding the 43 games Luke Walton coached in 2015-16 while Kerr was out.
Top 5 coaches’ records of first 90 games when leading at the half:
#
Coach
Team
Record
Win %
1
Steve Kerr
GSW 2014-17
85-5
.944
2
Tom Thibodeau
CHI 2010-13
81-9
.900
JJ Redick
LAL 2024-27
4
Nick Nurse
TOR 2018-21
80-10
.889
5
Dave Joerger
MEM 2013-16
79-11
.878
People say it’s the talent lots of teams had the talent not even Jordan’s coach had that record which means that JJ had a great gameplan for maintaining a lead. Maintaining a lead in basketball is one of the hardest sports ever. The reason? Players get hot in basketball morale is real. Sometimes having the lead players take the foot off the gas. Momentum is real. Players get tired. Sometimes subs are brought in. So in order to maintain that lead JJ always was pulling in great lineups
He also inherited a team with AD/Lebron/Luka
Let’s not crown him guru nanda just yet
Bro didn’t even read the first sentence of what he responded to
Nah man
Spoelstra went on like a 27 game win streak with the Heat and didn’t have that record. I’m not saying he’s the greatest coaching mind ever but it’s impressive
I wonder how much of that is due to always having either Luka or LeBron (or both)—two known non-chokers
That’s a huge part, but also because having a guy like Luka or LeBron is one of the easiest ways to have a good team. Good coaches with good teams win.
You can build a good team without a true top 5 player, but it’s hard. You gotta have a great plan and strategy as a coach, have all the players bought in, and execute it flawlessly. Your players then must complement each other, otherwise opponents can exploit your weaknesses and you will lose.
Or, like last game against Utah late, you can have Luka bring up the ball, pass the ball to AR, run to the left with a screen, get the pass from AR and shoot the three. They ran that play like 4 or more times, and it almost always worked. I was looking at that and thinking ‘that shouldn’t work so well’. But then I realized that at that point there was probably not much to be done. Luka is just that guy, so they won.
What I think differentiates JJ as a good coach is his adjustments to adversity with key players missing. Without Luka and AR, Lakers were complete underdogs, but they embarrassed Houston. When Luka got traded in LA, Reddick managed to organize good defense without a real center. He isn’t perfect of course, but he really knows what he is doing, and understands how to win.
Also, it’s funny you mention known non chokers, where there are a ton people on reddit talking about 4-6 finals LeBron, and Choka Oncic
Counterexample would be Jason Kidd
Love JJ. Nitpicks - playing stars too long in garbage time (which also would allow more bench player time for say Vando) Better for injuries and starter minutes and finding chemistry/confidence?. Happy he’s in L.A. and I see a great fit with Luka
But if he blows one lead I know Lakers fans will be talking crazy on their sub about how he “always blows leads”
The Lakers sub seems to freak out more about acting like he’s some big meaniehead bully to rookies. Dalton just fucking sucks, Adou was hurt for most of last year but every draft people make snarky comments about how JJ will never play them
They’re still scared from the Darvin time & early JJ time when we’d stink up the 3rd quarter & make our lives unnecessarily harder
And now JJ is closing out games or making comebacka ON the 3rd quarter
I’ve sat through two seasons of Darvin Ham. JJ definitely does not “always blow leads” that is insane talk and divorced from reality