JJ Redick is the Los Angeles Lakers’ newest head coach and inherits a delicate, but also high-pressure situation. With L.A. looking to win another championship with LeBron James entering his 22nd season and Anthony Davis in hi prime, there will some heat on Redick to hit the ground running right away while also putting an emphasis on player development.
However, this could backfire as sometimes trying to balance two directions does not pan out, like what the Golden State Warriors have done. When having an all-time great like James on the roster, L.A. needs to win at a high level to keep up with an even more competitive Western Conference.
Having James and Davis in his corner will be essentially for Redick, a first-time head coach. However, as a member of the media last year, his voting ballot for end-of-season awards was released and it revealed that Davis was not on any of his All-Defensive teams. Now that Redick is coaching Davis, this could create some possible tension between the two parties. The first-time head coach explained his decision to leave Davis off of his ballot, via SiriusXM NBA Radio:
“Well, there’s a big difference in being a top-10 defender and making an All-Defense team. There’s a distinction between the two, Anthony Davis is one of the two or three best defensive players in the NBA. Again, I did this the last two years where I explained all of my votes and you certainly have to factor in, the stats, the advanced stats and then, of course, the team performance on defense. And in both years, I weighed heavily on how the team performed defensively.”
There remains a clear disconnect between Davis and the media due to the Lakers star’s lack of consideration for defensive awards. After being snubbed from a Defensive Player of the Year award during the 2022-23 season, receiving no consideration, he finished fourth in voting this season.
However, Davis is climbing the charts as he finished All-Defensive First Team this past season and hopefully, he can truly have a shot next season to win Defensive Player of the Year. Perhaps Redick can help his star big man gain his proper recognition as even though he left him off his own ballot, the coach is clearly still high on Davis as a defender.
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