JJ Redick is determined to succeed in the Los Angeles Lakers' audacious coaching experiment

JJ Redick knows his personal intensity will always turn him into his own harshest critic if he isn't careful, so he vowed to give himself some grace in his self-evaluation as Los Angeles Lakers ' new he coach.

One game into preseason, Redick is alrey testing his tolerance for his own mistakes after Lakers failed to make proper defensive switches Friday night against Minnesota.

“We just didn’t really execute that at all,” Redick said Saturday after practice in Coachella Valley. “We maybe executed it less than 10% of time. Something we’ve drilled, and it was very clear in pregame meeting that’s what we were doing, so you certainly question, like, ‘Am I not making this clear? Is it something I’m doing?’”

Redick is comfortable acknowledging both his immediate frustration and his broer awareness that this epic journey has only started.

Just over three months into his first coaching job at any level , Redick is still drinking from a firehose of information, responsibilities and nuances — everything from play designs to intricacies of personnel management. But while his mind whirls every day with thoughts on how to implement basketball vision he's been building in his mind, 40-year-old former NBA guard is also determined to enjoy ride of his first season with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

“I would say what we have tried to create is an energy and a vibe in gym every day,” Redick said right before training camp began. “I would call it focused joy, if that makes sense. We’re grateful every day to be in this gym.”

Redick is installing detailed schemes on offense and defense. He’s garing a mountain of analytic data. He’s also still learning coaching basics, like how to challenge calls and when to call timeouts — although he’s getting plenty of support in that area from longtime NBA he coaches Nate McMillan and Scott Brooks, his top two assistants.

Lakers kept almost same roster from last year’s team, which finished eighth in Western Conference and lost to Denver in first round of postseason under Darvin Ham, so Redick is supposed to be change that les to success.

So far, his players appear to be buying into Lakers' audacious experiment.

“ whole structure and foundation se coaches have brought in for us is a great start,” Austin Reaves said. “Because I feel like a lot of times last year we won games off talent. And when you have talent around structure, n you have opportunity to do something really special.”

Even while D'Angelo Russell was on golf course after practice last week, he couldn't stop thinking about a particular play drawn up by Redick that was entirely new to veteran point guard.

“So I sent JJ a little voice note kind of thanking him,” Russell said. "I’d never seen it (before). I’m not trying to hype it up, but I thanked him for showing me that. I saw him getting into his bag right re, and it’s exciting.”

Lakers have redoubled ir commitment to player development under Redick after coach me it clear to general manager Rob Pelinka during hiring process that he thought every NBA team could get more out of its talent. development system will be dedicated to improving Lakers’ youngsters, most prominently second-round pick Bronny James.

Redick and Lakers are embracing analytics as well, tracking how much players run during practice and installing cameras and backboard sensors to analyze workouts at training complex.

“One thing that was nonnegotiable was that everyone we hired was a sicko, a basketball sicko,” Redick said of his staff.

Redick has repeatedly mentioned “efficiency” as a key factor in his coaching approach. He likes quick, information-packed team meetings and brisk practices that start on time and end on time.

This focus is clearly a carryover from his playing career. Redick knows a player’s average attention span because he was a player just three years ago, and he wants to cram maximal growth into minimal time.

Redick even agreed to LeBron James's suggestion that Lakers should have a DJ at practice, allowing DJ Meel to set up shop in a corner of training complex’s gym last week.

“He was a really good player, so before coaching and stuff, we just respected him as a player,” Rui Hachimura said. “I played against him — it’s crazy — like two or three years ago. I remember that. So we understand his philosophy and what he’s talking about and stuff. It’s easy for us to understand.”

Redick’s life has been on fast-forward ever since he got Lakers' top job, surprising most of sports world and thrilling basketball wonks who loved his cerebral approach to game expressed on his podcasts and in his brocasting career.

His family h been settled and happy in Brooklyn after Redick’s playing retirement in 2021, and he h to combine his new job with anor cross-country move with his wife and two children.

While preseason has just begun, Redick's ideas are alrey surfacing: On opening possession Friday, Lakers ran a play featuring a skip pass that looked an awful lot like one of fundamental tenets of UConn offense run by Dan Hurley, who famously turned down Lakers’ ardent vances before Redick's hiring.

“ anxiety that people may assume I’m having is around how my team is going to perform,” Redick said. “I think we’ve mentioned word ‘preparation,’ and once you’ve invested a lot in preparation, you just have to accept that, and n it becomes, ‘I want to see how my team does against anor team.’ ... I’m not going to be perfect. I think preparation and attempt to get buy-in from my guys is focus.”