NBA insider Shams Charania reports that Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick has broken “a number of clipboards” over his first month in charge. Charania appeared on Sportscenter on Friday, where he spoke about how some of Redick’s vocal criticisms of his players resonated within the Lakers locker room.
“As a coach, JJ Redick has been nothing short of detail-oriented, structured,” Charania said. “He has brought accountability to this group in terms of how he’s coached them. Anytime you’ve got a coach who puts in as much as he does, on and off the floor, you know it gets palpable, how much he wants to win, how passionate he is about the game.
“Kevin, I’m told there have been a number of clipboards broken over the first month of JJ Redick as head coach of the Lakers,” Charania continued. “He’s supremely passionate—and that’s palpable within the roster—about how badly he wants to win. He’s a perfectionist.
“I had one person tell me today, he has brought a level of accountability to this Lakers group, but that also comes with a level of expectation in the standard he has held this roster to,” Charania added. “Obviously, he made some comments about D’Angelo Russell the other night. We’ll see how his team responds to him tonight.”
Redick ruthlessly called out D’Angelo Russell following the Lakers’ 131-114 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies at FedEx Forum on Wednesday. The 40-year-old wasn’t happy with how Russell was competing against the Grizzlies and thought there was a lack of attention to detail on his part as well.
Redick also stormed out of his postgame press conference after criticizing all the Lakers players except LeBron James for their effort against the Grizzlies. It’s clear that he isn’t going to pull any punches if he doesn’t like what he sees from his group.
To Redick’s credit, he isn’t afraid to admit when he gets things wrong either. Redick took accountability after the Lakers lost 109-105 to the Phoenix Suns on Oct. 28. He thought he could have done better in two key situations and promised to be better moving forward.
I don’t think players are ever too comfortable with a coach calling them out in public, but when he also openly speaks on things he got wrong, they respect that. I think that is the case here.
Redick’s Lakers have now dropped to 4-4 on the season, though, after a 3-0 start. The honeymoon phase seems well and truly over now and I want to see how quickly this first-time head coach can get his team out of this rut. Great coaches are able to navigate past difficult waters and we’ll find out a lot about Redick’s capabilities during this rough stretch.
The Lakers Have Been Worse Under JJ Redick Than They Were Under Darvin Ham In Key Areas
There was a lot to like about Redick’s Lakers three games into the season. Their underlying numbers were great and everything was going swimmingly. Now after going 1-4 in their last five games, those numbers aren’t looking all that good.
Redick’s Lakers have a worse offensive and defensive rating, have shot worse from three, average fewer assists per game, and more isos per game than Ham’s team in 2023-24. That’s not a good sign, to say the least.
It’s still fairly early in the season, of course, and Redick has plenty of time to improve those numbers. His first opportunity comes against the Philadelphia 76ers at Crypto.com Arena tonight, with the game tipping off at 10 PM ET.
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