JJ Redick just became the first Los Angeles Lakers head coach since Phil Jackson to secure back-to-back 50-win seasons for the franchise after the 127-113 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday. The Lakers were brave enough to give an inexperienced face a chance to be their bench boss, something another organization passed up on. They have been highly rewarded for doing so.<\/p>\n
A lot of people think Redick would not be in Los Angeles without LeBron James. The less talked about part of how the second-year coach ended up with the Lakers has the Toronto Raptors at the forefront.<\/p>\n
The purple and gold were not the first team to look at Redick and think he could be a head coach in the NBA. That distinction belongs to the Raptors. They, ultimately ended up going in a different direction, choosing former Memphis Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajakovic as their guy in 2023 instead.<\/p>\n
The Lakers proved daring enough to do what the Raptors wouldn\u2019t. The podcaster and nepotism criticism did not bother the franchise enough to dissuade them from a clearly brilliant basketball mind. Many will still try to take away from what Redick has done in Los Angeles, but it is crystal clear the Lakers won this gamble.<\/p>\n
Lakers making the JJ Redick hire the Raptors wouldn’t set them up perfectly<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I interviewed for the Toronto Raptors job in 2023, I left Toronto and said, \u2018I want to be an NBA head coach,” Redick told Benjamin Royer<\/a> of the O.C. Register. \u201cIt was an obsession of mine for a full year and a half before I ever got the [Lakers] job.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Redick hit 100 wins as the Lakers coach after his team beat the Cavaliers. Daniel Starkand pointed out<\/a> this made JJ only the 16th coach in NBA history to win 50-plus games in each of his first two seasons.<\/p>\n The Redick ride has not always been perfect in Los Angeles. Last year’s NBA Playoffs showcased some struggles<\/a> for the then rookie coach. However, on the whole, there have been a lot of positives to take away.<\/p>\n Redick has done a strong job maximizing what has been in front of him<\/a>. The teams and circumstances have not always been perfect, but the Lakers coah has proven himself resilient. <\/p>\n There has also been a clear ability to manage big egos<\/a>. Redick got LeBron to accept an approach of less being more. Deandre Ayton seemingly turned the corner<\/a> in accepting his role too. The Lakers coach even challenged the team to get in championship shape<\/a> after last year. Many thought that might have been directed at Luka Doncic. If it was, the message landed in the most perfect way.<\/p>\n Redick proves his capabilities time and time again. The gift that keeps on giving would never have been possible if the Raptors were just a little more daring back in 2023. In 2026, the Lakers are surely thanking them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JJ Redick just became the first Los Angeles Lakers head coach since Phil Jackson to secure back-to-back 50-win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-692463","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-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116331101797765293","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692463","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=692463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}