Let’s start with some math: Five teams have won an NBA championship since 2020, the Los Angeles Lakers being one of them, yet they are now on their third coach in that time period with the hiring of JJ Redick.
Frank Vogel won a title, then got fired. Darwin Ham made it to the conference finals, then was fired. Now Redick parachutes in as a hot-shot mercenary as we hear ridiculous comparisons of Pat Riley and Steve Kerr and Erik Spoelstra. It’s almost absurd to even laugh.
Yes, we understand. Redick is a smart guy. He is sharp in seeing and hearing. Riley Comp, if you really want to be that lazy, falls into your lap from a headshot standpoint, as does Kerr due to their similar player profile and broadcasting background.
This doesn’t mean that Redick won’t be a successful coach. Or hell, even an all-time great. But if he is like the above names, he will be an exception. No rules. The rule is that almost all NBA coaches are tied almost directly to their roster. They may get a little more or less benefit from the group they are assigned to, but not by much. The Lakers, who have hired and fired seven coaches since Phil Jackson left in 2012, aren’t always alone in thinking they’ve managed to identify the exception.
To run down the list of coaches who, barring roster improvements, have only made a significant difference in hires, let’s look at some recent examples.
The Hawks hired Quin Snyder to replace Nate McMillan — who, it’s worth noting, was largely a benefit of the circumstances themselves as Atlanta heads into 2021 healthy, just as he was replacing Lloyd Pierce — That’s when it turned out that McMillan, combined with years of evidence and little else, had actually been able to lift a Hawks roster that couldn’t defend and relied heavily on steady individual production.
Snyder came up with a plan to play faster and shoot more 3s, and the Hawks took off. Doc Rivers was brought in to replace Adrian Griffin in Milwaukee, and the Bucks deteriorated in terms of record. Rivers was also hired as the guy to improve upon what the Sixers were able to do under Brett Brown, having never advanced beyond the second round. After two coaches, the Sixers have still not made the conference finals.
Chauncey Billups reportedly spoke point guard language similar to Damian Lillard, who now plays for Rivers. Steve Nash’s dominance was similar to that of the former player. Monty Williams was the man to lead Detroit in the future, and he lasted one year. Jason Kidd, in theory, got the same extension that McMillan got in Atlanta – a coach who was on the sidelines when the stars aligned. There is no better coach than Kid Rick Carlisle. He received Kyrie Irving as a model citizen and a massive addition at the trade deadline.
Then, if the team changes for the better, and the coach, in turn, magically gets better, do the math. At this time last year, Joe Mazzulla was considered a bad coach. Did he suddenly become a championship because he knew when to call timeouts or because he got Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis?
nick was a nurse He Much better than Dwane Casey, who literally won Coach of the Year over the summer, was he fired, or was he simply moved to Kawhi Leonard?
Is Chris Finch, the guy who put Rudy Gobert on the court in an obvious switch situation vs. Luka Doncic to lose the conference-final game, some kind of savior or was he in the seat when Gobert needed to guarantee In came a top-flight defense and Anthony Edwards developed into a superstar?
Did the Knicks become the No. 2 seed because they were “A Thibs team!” Or because they got Jalen Brunson? Before you answer, let everyone know that Tom Thibodeau is a good coach. that’s not it. The point is, he went 78-76 in two seasons before getting Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart and Isaiah Hartenstein and Donte DiVincenzo and finally OG Anunoby. There was a time when Thibodeau was on the hot seat because he reportedly didn’t know how to coach a modern offense. Funny how Brunson turned it around.
This doesn’t mean to take anything away from Mazzulla or Nurse or Finch or Thibodeau or any other NBA coach who isn’t Kerr or Spoeltra or Gregg Popovich. It goes without saying that they are all incredibly smart, accomplished, and capable basketball people. It’s just an undeniable fact that most of them, certainly over time, will not produce a bottom-line result that deviates an appreciable distance from the realistic standard of roster they are working with.
By the way, result is the operative word there. Coaches influence players and teams in every way. It’s about relationships and communication behind closed doors. Really, Redick told taylor roux In 2022 he sees coaching “as a way to help.”
“A lot of people have helped me in my career,” Redick said. “And not just the head coach; the assistant coaches, the player development guys, and they hold a very valuable place in my heart and life. And I would love to be one of those guys someday.”
What Reddick is talking about, the relationships that develop through coaching, the impact one person can have on another, is a very rewarding and gratifying thing, very nice and all that, but the main This is not a reason to hire or fire trainers. This isn’t high school where the job description includes molding young men. Reddick is missing out on teaching third period science as well as his $1,500 coaching stipend.
No, he’s reportedly getting $30 million over four years to do one thing: deliver results. Win and lose. That’s it. So, let’s put it out there: The Lakers won 47 games last year and lost in the first round. You can point to Kerr, who almost miraculously led the Warriors under Mark Jackson from 51 wins and a first-round loss in their final season to 67 wins and a championship in his first season (largely the same roster With), but again, this is a once in a lifetime exception.
The Warriors team was being poorly coached by Jackson. One could argue that there has never been a better basketball situation for a new coach to come in and immediately become a hero with a complete offensive turnaround.
Tell me, on a broader level, what is Redick going to do that’s so different from Hamm? And we’re not talking Taurean Prince minutes. We’re talking about things that will really change the fortunes of the team. Redick says LeBron is going to play more off the ball and Anthony Davis will be used exclusively?
Very good. Stop traffic. We’ve got some revolutionary ideas here! The Lakers have been trying to get LeBron off the ball for years. That’s why they brought in Russell Westbrook for crying out loud. Do you know the key to making LeBron play more off the ball? Looking for a better player to play with than D’Angelo Russell But ball. Not hiring JJ Redick.
In reality, trainers are not hired and fired with such absurd frequency because there really is so much variation from one to the next. Press releases will talk about respect in the locker room and all that, but the truth is that coaches are the easiest option to change when things aren’t going the way you expect.
You can’t just change players. There are contracts. And a salary range. But coaches can always be changed in and out, and as long as that’s the case, teams like the Lakers will continue to package their “activity” on the bench and try to sell it as real progress on the court.
It’s the front-office equivalent of the guy who stands at half court and takes the air out of the ball, surprising the less discerning fan with a series of fancy maneuvers intended to distract you from the fact that he’s playing his entire ‘Spinning in circles,’ it actually got even closer to the goal.
In all likelihood, the Lakers are no closer to their goal of winning a championship with Redick than they are with Ham. And they certainly weren’t any closer than Vogel was with Ham, who actually won the whole thing because he had multiple playmakers and a two-way roster with size and defensive versatility (and because Anthony Davis needed midrange jumpers. Had a chance to shoot in a) high-school gym, but that’s a different matter).
So here’s what’s going to happen: The Lakers are either going to change their roster so significantly that it actually changes their on-court fortunes, in which case Redick and the very smart people who hired him are praised. Will go, or they won’t improve the roster, and LeBron and Davis won’t be as durable as last year, and Redick suddenly won’t look so bright.
At which point, we’ll all start talking about who will replace him.
Looking for more NBA coverage? John Gonzalez, Bill Reiter, Ashley Nicole Moss and special guests delve deeper into the league’s biggest stories every day on the Beyond the Arc Podcast.
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