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Speaker 1: terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight.
Speaker 1: You're at the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody of all of
Speaker 1: you guys are having a great week so far. Well.
Speaker 1: JJ Reddick is the brand new head coach of the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers, and so we're going to take ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen minutes here just to give my initial impression
Speaker 1: on the hire. You guys are the joke before we
Speaker 1: get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels you
Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys don't miss show announcements.
Speaker 1: Son't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcasts under Hoops tonight, and then keep dropping mail bag
Speaker 1: questions and the YouTube comments. We're actually gonna hit a
Speaker 1: mail bag intomorrow's show. So I'm gonna be grabbing questions
Speaker 1: from this video as well as the video we did
Speaker 1: on Tuesday, kind of wrapping up the NBA Finals. So
Speaker 1: drop questions in the comments. We'll get to them in
Speaker 1: tomorrow's mail bag. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of different angles I want to come
Speaker 1: at this from, but I want to start from the
Speaker 1: perspective of risk because there's gonna be a lot of
Speaker 1: focus on JJ's lack of experience and all of the
Speaker 1: risk that comes with that. And the reason why I
Speaker 1: have an issue with that is there's a risk no
Speaker 1: matter who you hire in this coaching field. It's kind
Speaker 1: of the reality like, ideally you want to hire a
Speaker 1: coach that has a great amount of experience, a great
Speaker 1: amount of talent, and a proven track record, right, But
Speaker 1: those guys tend to have jobs, right. There was one
Speaker 1: of them that fake came available, maybe eleven play not
Speaker 1: really that serious of an option, right, and Dan Hurley
Speaker 1: he had, you know, lots of experience, proven track record,
Speaker 1: you know, this big personality, obviously one of the most
Speaker 1: respected basketball geniuses in the world. Right, But he has
Speaker 1: a job right now, right, Like, those guys aren't just
Speaker 1: sitting around waiting to be hired. And so no matter
Speaker 1: what direction the Lakers had gone, there was risk. Let's
Speaker 1: go for a former head coach. Let's go for someone
Speaker 1: like James Brego or Kenny Atkinson. Well, those guys had
Speaker 1: mediocre prior stops. There's no guarantee that they're going to
Speaker 1: just come into the Lakers and have a ton of success.
Speaker 1: Oh well, what about these longtime experienced assistant coaches. Well,
Speaker 1: there's plenty of examples in NBA and NFL history of
Speaker 1: guys who were successful coordinators or successful lead assistants that
Speaker 1: transition to a head coaching job and then struggled. There's
Speaker 1: a certain amount of risk there as well. There was
Speaker 1: no option. It was an unavoidable part of this process
Speaker 1: that the Lakers would encounter some risk when they chose
Speaker 1: a new head coach. And so JJ obviously fits that bill.
Speaker 1: But I didn't think that that was something that they
Speaker 1: could avoid. The focus on experience. Experience is important, but
Speaker 1: not at the expense of talent. Like if you were
Speaker 1: looking at checking boxes and all the different things that
Speaker 1: you look for in a head coach, right, Like I
Speaker 1: want a certain amount of competitiveness. Well, JJ has that.
Speaker 1: Like what kind of person would give up their cush
Speaker 1: media job to take over being head coach of the
Speaker 1: Lakers which comes with much heavier workload, much more travel,
Speaker 1: much more pressure, much more criticism. Why would you do
Speaker 1: that to yourself and your family. It's because he's obsessed
Speaker 1: with basketball. It's because he's a psychotic competitor, something that
Speaker 1: has driven him to all of the success that he's
Speaker 1: had as a basketball player. Give me talent in competitiveness
Speaker 1: any day of the week, they're going to find a
Speaker 1: way to succeed. JJ has the competitiveness. I do believe.
Speaker 1: I do believe he has the talent. I think he's
Speaker 1: a very bright basketball mind. I think he's obsessed with
Speaker 1: modern NBA offense and all the different intricacies that make
Speaker 1: especially five out offense work. As we know with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: they shifted to five out last year, and there were
Speaker 1: some growing pains early in the year, but they really
Speaker 1: took off the second half of the year, and I
Speaker 1: even think there's another level that they could get to
Speaker 1: on that end of the floor. So by virtue of
Speaker 1: JJ's competitiveness and his desire to learn everything there is
Speaker 1: to know about five out offense, I think he's gonna
Speaker 1: help that offense get to another level. So like he's
Speaker 1: got the competitiveness, I personally believe he has more than
Speaker 1: enough in terms of natural talent for the job. There's
Speaker 1: a personality piece, and there's gonna be some growing pains
Speaker 1: there for sure, because I think that JJ is a
Speaker 1: really competitive guy, right and obviously there'll butt heads with
Speaker 1: players from time to time and it's not going to
Speaker 1: be a perfectly seamless transition. But if you surround him
Speaker 1: with an experienced set of assistants, and as long as
Speaker 1: he has the buy in of Lebron James, who's the
Speaker 1: most experienced star in the league, I think that process
Speaker 1: over the next few years can be smoothed over. But
Speaker 1: in general, in terms of the core piece of it,
Speaker 1: I do believe JJ's personality is big enough. He's got
Speaker 1: enough aura in the long run to be a very
Speaker 1: successful head coach, and so honestly, as I look through
Speaker 1: it and it's like competitiveness, you know, personality and aura,
Speaker 1: talent and experience. Like, obviously he's lacking in the talent
Speaker 1: and experience part, but I think he has a chance
Speaker 1: to be really, really good in the other three areas.
Speaker 1: And so again, like experience is important, but not at
Speaker 1: the expense of talent, And you can supplement experience by
Speaker 1: surrounding him with experience, right, Like we see this with
Speaker 1: players too. It's like you take the twenty twelve thunder,
Speaker 1: you add a Derek Fisher, you add a Kendrick Perkins.
Speaker 1: It's like those guys aren't the dudes actually doing most
Speaker 1: of the heavy lifting, but it just provides the veteran
Speaker 1: presence that helps those guys navigate that environment. The same
Speaker 1: thing goes for the coaching staff. As long as JJ
Speaker 1: has experienced minds that he can lean on through the process,
Speaker 1: who can confront him and be like, hey, like when
Speaker 1: you communicate this to that player, like I had this
Speaker 1: happened to me three years ago, you know, maybe next time,
Speaker 1: try this. It seems to resonate better, Like you're right
Speaker 1: about what you're thinking, but we just got to work
Speaker 1: on the delivery, you know, whatever it is like all
Speaker 1: of those processes can be smoothed over by virtue of
Speaker 1: supplementing him with experience. And again I put this on
Speaker 1: my note, give me talent plus competitiveness, Like just because
Speaker 1: someone's in over their head for a certain job doesn't
Speaker 1: mean they're incapable of succeeding in that job. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: can be a little intimidating and intense upfront, but once
Speaker 1: you break through and learn, as long as you have
Speaker 1: the talent, as long as you're competitive and work hard enough,
Speaker 1: the success to me feels inevitable. And so I think
Speaker 1: that there's a lot less risk here than what is
Speaker 1: what it would appear like on the surface, giving the
Speaker 1: available candidates that are out there, I want to zero
Speaker 1: in on the offensive end a little bit more so,
Speaker 1: like again, like one of the things that I think
Speaker 1: I and we're going to talk about this in much
Speaker 1: more detail when we do my five Biggest Takeaways from
Speaker 1: the postseason pod, which I was originally going to do
Speaker 1: today but I'm probably gonna end up doing tomorrow morning
Speaker 1: just by virtue of this report. But you know, I'm
Speaker 1: a big believer that ball and player movement is important.
Speaker 1: We saw what happened with Dallas right, they were an
Speaker 1: elite offense for three rounds against specific types of matchups,
Speaker 1: but a couple adjustments from Boston and their offense completely
Speaker 1: fell apart. And it was, in my opinion, in large
Speaker 1: part because of a lack of ball and player movement.
Speaker 1: Like as long as they had shooters spacing in the corners,
Speaker 1: but Boston didn't have to help off of them, Dallas
Speaker 1: couldn't get consistent quality looks right. It was a lot
Speaker 1: of iso. It is a lot of over the top
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots right Like to me, ball in
Speaker 1: player movement in the five out context is more resilient
Speaker 1: offensively in the later rounds, especially of the NBA playoffs,
Speaker 1: And the Lakers made a switch to five out last year.
Speaker 1: They've made a lot of progress on that end of
Speaker 1: the floor, but they can still get a lot better.
Speaker 1: There was even in the postseason in particular, there were
Speaker 1: a lot of moments where the Lakers got away from
Speaker 1: their five out attack and ran a lot of just
Speaker 1: like spamming pick and roll and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: Having a coach that is kind of like, I mean
Speaker 1: this in a complimentary way, like a nerd like kind
Speaker 1: of who will geek out about the all of the
Speaker 1: different elements of modern five out offense, and there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of different ways to look at it. Right, There's
Speaker 1: like sets that you run to begin possessions. There's the
Speaker 1: way your natural five out motion flows after the defense
Speaker 1: deals with whatever first action you run. There's off ball action,
Speaker 1: there's counters and things along those lines. That's going to
Speaker 1: be vitally important for this Laker team, especially because they
Speaker 1: play a lot of non shooters, guys like Jared Vanderbilt,
Speaker 1: guys like Anthony Davis. Right, So, like, I actually think
Speaker 1: JJ has the potential. There will be some growing pains,
Speaker 1: but because of his obsessiveness with that side of the ball,
Speaker 1: I think he can do a lot to help the
Speaker 1: team get to another level on that end of the floor.
Speaker 1: My main concern, and the main thing that I think
Speaker 1: JJ is going to struggle with at first, but I
Speaker 1: think he'll learn and get better at in the long run,
Speaker 1: is the accountability piece. Accountability was the biggest weakness of
Speaker 1: this Laker team. What that means to me is like
Speaker 1: accepting mediocre results and like remember when Darvin Ham would
Speaker 1: refer to things as like, oh, we're just in a marathon,
Speaker 1: guys like we can't overreact to every win and loss,
Speaker 1: like we're just trying to get through this grind. And
Speaker 1: it's like, no, you have to attack the regular season
Speaker 1: in order to have postseason success. That is a fact.
Speaker 1: I pulled this stat for the pod that I'm doing
Speaker 1: tomorrow on the five biggest takeaways from the postseason. Twelve
Speaker 1: of the last thirteen NBA champions had a top four
Speaker 1: regular season record, and the one team that didn't was
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty one Milwaukee Bucks. They had the seventh
Speaker 1: best record, and they were a dominant regular season team
Speaker 1: in the previous seasons. And that was that funky COVID
Speaker 1: season when guys were in and out of the lineup.
Speaker 1: If I remember correctly, Brook Lopez missed a ton of
Speaker 1: time in that season. So, like NBA history tells us,
Speaker 1: you can't chill your way through the season. You have
Speaker 1: to attack everything from day one of training, establish habits,
Speaker 1: build out, attention to detail. That is what will carry
Speaker 1: you to play championship level basketball. Down the line, that
Speaker 1: comes down to JJ. He is going to have to
Speaker 1: ride those guys in terms of their attention to detail
Speaker 1: every single day of practice, every single game, every single
Speaker 1: time out. He's gonna have to be really diligent about
Speaker 1: how often he holds those guys accountable in order for
Speaker 1: this team to get where they need to go. And
Speaker 1: I think there is a challenge there when you're looking
Speaker 1: at Lebron James and it's like, dude, you're JJ Redick.
Speaker 1: When I was playing, you know, when you were playing
Speaker 1: in the league, you were a player that wasn't even
Speaker 1: in the same stratosphere as me. Like, there's a certain
Speaker 1: level of like, will JJ be able to look at
Speaker 1: Lebron and demand a lot out of him? Will he
Speaker 1: be able to look at Anthony Davis and demand a
Speaker 1: lot out of him? Will he be able to look
Speaker 1: at all those guys That I think is going to
Speaker 1: be the hardest part. But again, as long as he
Speaker 1: has Lebron's support, I think that's gonna be key. Lebron's
Speaker 1: gonna have to stand behind JJ to help him hold
Speaker 1: these guys accountable. But as long as that attention to
Speaker 1: detail is there and they continue to make strides on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor, I do think this
Speaker 1: is a job that JJ can succeeded. The main thing
Speaker 1: is the last thing I put the coach. It certainly
Speaker 1: plays a role here. I thought Darvinham did a lot
Speaker 1: to hurt the Lakers in the regular season last year
Speaker 1: in terms of just rotation stuff. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: the Lakers' main issues are personnel related. They're not athletic
Speaker 1: enough in the back court. They do not have a
Speaker 1: starting caliber player that can both defend on the perimeter
Speaker 1: to high level and be a plus offensive player. That
Speaker 1: player does not exist on the roster like they beyond
Speaker 1: Lebron and Ad so like, Honestly, the main driving force
Speaker 1: of whether or not the Lakers have a successful season
Speaker 1: is going to come down to what they do with
Speaker 1: those three draft picks, what they do in free agents,
Speaker 1: and what they do just over the course of the
Speaker 1: next month to tinker with the roster. So like, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, like we can talk about
Speaker 1: JJ all we want, and I like him as like
Speaker 1: a long term coaching prospect with this Los Angeles Lakers team,
Speaker 1: but they're gonna have to hit some home runs in
Speaker 1: the offseason to give this Lakers a team a chance
Speaker 1: to compete going into next season. And I'm really curious
Speaker 1: to see whether or not they can give him the
Speaker 1: horses they need to succeed, but again to kind of
Speaker 1: put a bow on it all. Yeah, there's risk involved,
Speaker 1: but I didn't think that was an avoidable part of
Speaker 1: this process. Yes, experience is important, but not at the
Speaker 1: expense of talent. I think JJ is talented and freaky competitive.
Speaker 1: Give me a talented and freaky competitive guy in a
Speaker 1: job like this ten times out of ten, I think
Speaker 1: he's gonna find a way to figure it out and
Speaker 1: be successful. All right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for today. As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for
Speaker 1: supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow to go over
Speaker 1: the five biggest takeaways of the postseason, as well as
Speaker 1: to do a mailbag. I'll see you guys though the
Speaker 1: volume