The Los Angeles Lakers took a risky bet when they hired JJ Redick as their new head coach, with Redick having 0 coaching experience at any competitive level. But it seems that the 15-year NBA veteran has taken to coaching like a fish to water, with point guard D'Angelo Russell hailing Redick as the first coach he's been able to build a relationship with while praising his play-calling through training camp to ESPN.
"I'm not throwing shots at anybody ... but I've never really had the opportunity to build a relationship with a coach over a long period of time."
"For me, to see how JJ is trying to bring the play calls and just level of IQ into each practice and each film session, to see how he's prioritizing that. I've always been a guy that wants to prioritize high IQ, [high-level] verbiage, [high-level] film sessions ... like, let's rise to that. And he's obviously doing that. It's something to look forward to."
"I was on the golf course and I was thinking about it (a play Redick drew up in camp) and I sent JJ a little voice note, thanking him for putting that [play] out. I'd never seen it. I'm not trying to hype it up but I thanked him for showing me that... I saw him getting into his bag right there and it's exciting for players to notice stuff like that."
Russell averaged 18.0 points and 6.3 assists on 41.5% from three last season despite his broken relationship with his coach, so it'll be interesting to see how he plays for Redick this season.
D'Angelo Russell And Darvin Ham Kept Clashing Last season
D'Angelo Russell had a complicated relationship with former Lakers coach Darvin Ham which seemed to hit a boiling point by the end of the season. Ham would throw Russell under the bus during exit interviews before getting fired by the franchise in a shockingly weak move for an NBA coach.
"It’s amazing how people just skip that core part of having a consistency with your lineup is all predicated on health and performance. If you’re coaching a team and one of your starters is like 10 games in a row, just s**ting the bed, what are you going to do?"
Russell and many teammates couldn't hide his dissatisfaction with Ham when he was benched at various points last season, with Russell even publicly rejecting Ham condescendingly saying that he believed in D'Lo during a rough spell.
During media day, Russell clearly highlighted the difference between Redick's coaching and what they had last season, dropping some shady comments about Ham's lack of structure for the team .
"I do too, but you know how that goes. I think, last year, we didn't really have the structure defensively that we needed as a team. And that kind of hurt me a little bit, trying to help my team. Like I said, JJ is trying to push structure everywhere and implement it everywhere..."
It was clear that the Lakers were playing without a set structure last season, but with Redick on the squad now, it'll be interesting to see how the Lakers perform this season with the same core Ham took to the first round.
Related: JJ Redick Holds Full Lakers Team Meeting To Set Ground Rules And Expectations For New Season
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