Ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers season opener against the Timberwolves, JJ Redick spoke on the challenges he will face as the new coach. He noted that he doesn’t want to react entirely emotionally when something goes right or wrong. He added that when the team struggles, he blames himself, but noted that the Lakers just want to buy in and get better as a team.
“Learning not to get too high or too low. Actually, probably not too high. That’s the challenge… Self-criticalness and low points go hand in hand. If we aren’t executing… I tend to blame myself. I trust my coaches. There’s not been any ‘Why are we doing this? You guys said you’d coach this’.”
“It’s more like ‘Am I not doing this a clear way? Because it’s not happening on the court’. That’s a low. Losing is a low. And that’s where, throughout the season, we just have to maintain as a group, all of us, that this is a process. Our goal is to get better every single game, every single week. We believe as a group, if we do that and embrace that, by the end of the regular season, we’ll be a very good team.”
For JJ Redick, he will need to learn how to handle both success and failure soon, as he is a first-time head coach who aspires to do this for a long time. Balancing the two and managing your emotions is of paramount importance to a coach in the NBA, as the position can be an incredibly toxic job.
Managing your players, while being answerable to the franchise, and trying to compete with the rest of the league is a very difficult task. Furthermore, Redick will have to be answerable to the Lakers’ fanbase, one of, if not the most vocal fanbases in the entire league. So he must stay focused on the task at hand.
Stan Van Gundy: JJ Redick Is Similar To Steve Kerr
Stan Van Gundy, a former head coach in the NBA who coached Redick when he was with the Orlando Magic, spoke recently about Redick as a new head coach. Van Gundy had high praise for Redick, comparing him to legendary current Warriors head coach Steve Kerr.
“He’s somebody that really had to learn the game and rely on what he knew about the game and how to play it. It’s something he had to give a lot of thought to. NBA basketball is very hard for anyone playing it.”
“It requires a lot of work, but some guys it requires more of, to be able to compete at that level. And he’s certainly one of those guys. I think you can compare him to what Steve Kerr did. I think there’s a lot of similarities there.”
Redick has the chance to impress a lot of fans with his coaching aptitude and tactical planning this season, as the Lakers look to bounce back from the last few disappointing seasons. If Redick can get the Lakers back to prominence, and make them competitive, he will become beloved by the fanbase.
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