Redick becoming the Lakers\u2019 newest coach raised eyebrows<\/a> considering the fact that he no prior coaching experience.<\/p>\n Redick silenced his critics and established a reputable debut season calling the shots for the Lakers, leading the franchise to 50 wins<\/a> and a third seed placing in the competitive Western Conference.<\/a><\/p>\n Even with the young head coach finding rotational hardships<\/a> and making bold and questionable decisions<\/a> during the NBA Playoffs<\/a>, the purple and gold franchise remains devoted to building around him.<\/p>\n As they moved on from Darvin Ham<\/a> after two seasons of highs and lows, the Lakers held lofty hopes that Redick will finally be the coaching voice that they have been looking for.<\/p>\n Los Angeles viewed him as someone who could be their Pat Riley in this era<\/a>, the driving force behind the \u2018Showtime Lakers\u2019 dynastic success during the 1980s.<\/p>\n Mychal Thompson<\/a> was a key part of those golden years by the Lakers under Riley\u2019s leadership, and he sees similarities between the two.<\/p>\n \u201cThey do remind me of each other,\u201d Thompson told former teammate Michael Cooper on CLNS.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are very arrogant in their knowledge of the game, they are demanding, they treat you like men, as long as you are accountable, they are very intense, the way they approach the game. [Redick] does remind me of a young Pat Riley.<\/p>\n \u201cCan he achieve Pat Riley\u2019s success? I hope he does. I\u2019ve said on the air before his style reminds me of Riles a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n He added there are other similarities too, commenting: \u201cPat Riley was one of the handsomest coaches ever, and now JJ Redick steps into his shoes. He\u2019s like a young Riles no question about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n With his coaching wits and leadership, Redick is bound for success in LA<\/p>\n Thompson has been a huge fan of Redick\u2019s coaching expertise and potential. Previously, he also notably argued that the 40-year-old can be the LA version of Gregg Popovich<\/a> within the Lakers.<\/p>\n But both Riley and Popovich are two of the winningest coaches in basketball, and time is the ultimate truth teller if Redick can match their legacy.<\/p>\n Redick hammered his desire to be the long-term coach<\/a> of the franchise in the aftermath of the Palisades Fire incident. With how he leads and analyzes the game, he holds a solid shot to be the Lakers\u2019 established presence on the sidelines.<\/p>\n With having Luka Doncic<\/a> and LeBron James<\/a> at his side, he has an opportunity to succeed short-term and long-term.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers enjoyed a very promising first year of coaching from J.J. Redick. After Dan Hurley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,1331,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,7177,6,2483],"class_list":{"0":"post-24932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-j-j-redick","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-lakers","12":"tag-lakers","13":"tag-lalakers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangeleslakers","18":"tag-mychal-thompson","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-pat-riley"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114488393590749599","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2212303211-941x627.jpg\")
Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesMychal Thompson sees Pat Riley in JJ Redick<\/p>\n