JJ Redick Promises 1 Big Lakers Change After Suns Loss

Los Angeles Lakers head coach J.J. Redick was understandably frustrated after his team’s embarrassing 127-100 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night.

Just 24 hours after Austin Reaves called out L.A.’s biggest weakness, Redick opted to do the same.

“Really like how we played offensively in the first half,” the Lakers coach said of how his team looked against the Suns.

“Defensively, we were physical. Had a couple, I would call them Gameplan mistakes. I thought we had a better first half than the score. We just kind of lost it offensively and we weren’t getting stops on top of that.

“You get down and there’s certainly can be some momentum and some energy but I thought our guys kept playing. I don’t know what we were, 7-for-26 in the second half from 3. I thought we got some good looks but sometimes the missed shots can sort of have an effect, especially when you’re not getting stops on the other end,” he continued.

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And that’s when Redick pledged to make one big change going forward.

“Look, we may have to just look at some things defensively, particularly against really good offensive teams about what our overall sort of strategies are,” he said.

“They kind of got whatever they wanted. Their main players got to their spots and hit tough 2s, which they do. And they still took 42 3s… But our guys kept playing. Our guys kept playing, it was just a tough night.”

At the moment, Redick believes that the Lakers lack the manpower to stop some of the league’s more elite offensive players.

“I would say, if you think about being disruptive, I think it starts there. Some of it is personnel-based, we don’t necessarily have a ton of guys that can go and pick up full court,” Redick added.

“But teams are trying to disrupt what we do, just like we’re trying to disrupt what other teams are doing. And whether that’s with screening action of DHOs, whatever it may be, we need to be better there.

“We need to be better at executing gameplans, but look, sometimes against a team like this or a player like [Nikola] Jokic, you can gameplan all you want, but great players are gonna be great sometimes. Their three guys were great tonight and Jokic was great the other night.”

Redick obviously is a great talker. That is part of the reason why he got his job. And as such, it is hard to argue with his assessments.

But at a certain point, talking won’t be enough. He is going to need to deliver action.

Will Redick be able to step up and be a better coach that Darvin Ham was? Maybe. But at the moment, they are looking quite similar.

Anthony Amador

A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school Games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.