The Los Angeles Lakers have gone 0-3 in April after a dominant March, which saw them go from fighting to stay out of the Play-In Tournament to rising all the way to the No. 3 seed in the West. Unfortunately, injuries to Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves have caused the franchise to crash in their last three games, with terrible performances leading to blowout losses.
Their 123-87 loss to the OKC Thunder on Tuesday was extra notable after head coach JJ Redick had a public spat with Jarred Vanderbilt on the bench, subbing the forward out after 17 seconds in the second quarter and not playing him for the rest of the game.
The situation between Redick and Vanderbilt has been discussed endlessly since, with many questioning if there are any bad feelings personally between the coach and player to cause such a public spat. However, Redick’s post-game comments on his players seemed to indicate the coach was fed up with his roster as a whole, not just Vanderbilt.
Redick’s actions have caused former NBA All-Star Jeff Teague to share a bold take on the Club 502 Podcast, saying that Redick will be fired by the Lakers after such disrespectful behavior to players on his roster.
“Oh, he did that to an NBA player?… He won’t be the coach next year. He’s gonna get fired. People are gonna stop liking him… You gotta take the blame… Your players need to know you f— with them.”
After Redick also criticized Deandre Ayton’s inability to ‘catch the ball,’ Teague suggested Redick take some accountability and answer questions about his player’s struggles by putting the onus on himself.
“‘Maybe we’re just running some bad plays. Maybe I gotta draw some better plays so he can be more effective.’”
This is a typical overreaction to an incident on the Lakers amid a losing streak. We literally saw Redick get into a sideline confrontation with Luka Doncic a few months ago, so it’s highly unlikely the Lakers draw a line after a spat with Vanderbilt. If the NBA is a results-based business, it makes no sense to fire the former rookie head coach you brought into the NBA after two consecutive 50-win seasons.
Redick just proved over March what he could do when his roster is healthy and playing the kind of basketball he wants them to play. While there were still tense moments from Redick, who tends to react negatively whenever a possesion goes awry, If he was reacting to a bad possession by Vanderbilt in the Thunder game, he definitely overreacted on the court. But it was nothing even close to being serious enough to warrant a firing.
Redick also criticized Ayton and Rui Hachimura, having a similar moment with Rui in the first quarter but moving on from it. Vanderbilt got pulled from the rotation entirely and hasn’t been a mainstay in the rotation anyway in the Redick era.
He’s averaging 4.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in 17.4 minutes this season under Redick, as compared to when Vanderbilt averaged 6.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 55 games and 21.9 minutes under coach Darvin Ham. This was despite Vanderbilt being consistently injured, so it’s clear Ham relied way more on Vando than Redick ever has.
Hopefully, the return of star players to the lineup will make these marginal issues go away. Redick will yell at his players no matter what, but that isn’t something that’s a fireable offense.
