In his first-ever stint as an NBA head coach, JJ Redick has led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 6-4 record after 10 games in the 2024-25 season. Redick has done better than some expected, considering his lack of experience, and he has the Lakers thriving on offense, in particular.
Lakers Offensive Stats
Points Per Game: 116.6 (7th)
Offensive Rating: 117.0 (5th)
Field Goal Percentage: 47.7% (8th)
Three-Point Percentage: 35.4% (17th)
Free Throw Percentage: 81.5% (4th)
True Shooting Percentage: 59.0% (9th)
Assists Per Game: 27.1 (10th)
Turnovers Per Game: 12.4 (4th-lowest)
Assist to Turnover Ratio: 2.19 (2nd)
The Lakers ranking highly in so many key categories is a great sign and bodes well for them. Their Assist to Turnover ratio is what I’m most impressed about from that list. The Lakers ranking second there is a sign of a well-structured offense and Redick deserves a lot of credit for that.
The only category where the Lakers don’t rank in the top 10, is the three-point percentage. I wouldn’t necessarily blame Redick for that either. According to the NBA, the Lakers have the sixth-lowest shooting percentage on wide-open threes (closest defender 6+ feet away) this season at 36.0%.
All Redick can do is scheme plays that get his players those wide-open looks. It’s not his fault they can’t knock those shots down at a good enough rate. If the Lakers continue to rank near the bottom as the season goes on, they might need to consider trading for a shooter or two.
While Redick appears to have a handle on the offense, the same cannot be said about the defense. The Lakers have a defensive rating of 117.5 this season which ranks 26th in the NBA. That’s simply not good enough and you won’t a win championship if the defense is that bad. It’s still very early, of course, and it will be interesting to see where the Lakers stand on this end of the floor when we get to the All-Star break.
JJ Redick Had Explained What His Offense Would Look Like
Before the start of this season, Redick appeared on The Lowe Post podcast and spoke on a variety of topics there. At one stage, Redick shared what people can expect the Lakers offense to look like.
“In terms of what the offense looks like, there will be a decent amount of movement,” Redick said. “The shot profile will hopefully improve. We talked about ways to create more paint touches, we talked about ways to shoot more threes, we talked about some of the leeway that you have to give certain players with their mid-range shots, whether that’s in the post or isolation. But hopefully the shot profile improved.
“From a possession standpoint, one of the margins this team created last year and historically with this group, has been free throws,” Redick continued. “Outside of that there hasn’t been a lot of margin creation, so we’re going to try to create some margins.
“One of which is, we’re really going to emphasize offensive rebounding, corner crashes,” Redick added. “… I’m not comparing that to any previous coach or previous system, but those are some of the things that will look like a team that I coach.”
There is certainly more ball movement and the shot profile has improved as well. The Lakers are still not shooting enough threes, though, as their average of 32.8 per game is the fifth-lowest in the league. They are also fifth-lowest when it comes to offensive rebounds, with just 9.0 per game. Those are areas that Redick would want to see an improvement in, and if and when that happens, this offense will go up another level.
Redick’s focus for now, though, would be ensuring the Lakers win their next game against the Memphis Grizzlies at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday at 10 PM ET. This would be the second meeting between the teams this season, with the Grizzlies winning the first one 131-114.
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