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Rookie head coach JJ Redick is pleased with how his Los Angeles Lakers coaching staff took shape this offseason.
“I’m mostly excited just to work, just being in the gym out here in this facility with the guys and our coaching staff,” Redick said on the “Lakeshow” podcast on September 6. “That’s been the best part… It’s been fascinating because you’re fitting puzzle pieces together about skillsets and personalities. I couldn’t be happier with the staff that we’ve built here.
We have a blend of youth and experience. Obviously, Nate (McMillan) and Scotty (Brooks), but also Bob Beyer, who has been at the front of the bench for almost two decades in the NBA. The biggest thing for me was I wanted to make sure I had a bunch of sickos on my staff and I think I’ve accomplished that. They’re grinders.”
The Lakers have surrounded Redick with former NBA head coaches (McMillan and Brooks), along with G League Coach of the Year Lindsey Harding. Beyer, Greg St. Jean and Beau Levesque complete Redick’s staff.
MacMillan and Brooks have coached a combined 2,363 NBA games.
Brooks is a former NBA Coach of the Year and guided the Oklahoma City Thunder with the young trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden to the NBA Finals in 2012.
Lakers Coaches Named to ‘NBA 40 Under 40’
Redick and his assistant Lindsey Harding were named to The Athletic’s NBA 40 Under 40 list.
Redick, 40, was a rising star in TV broadcast and social media platforms three years into his retirement as an NBA player when the Lakers offered him his first NBA coaching job even without prior bench experience.
This accomplishment “speaks to his basketball IQ and the respect he has earned across the sport, not only after 15 years in the NBA but with his smart media appearances and basketball podcast,” according to The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov, who compiled the list.
Vorkunov came up with the list, which includes NBA coaches and rising NBA front-office personnel “after much deliberation and many discussions” with front-office executives, coaches, league office officials, agents and staffers from the players’ union, as well as others in the NBA orbit.
Redick previously worked for ESPN as their top basketball analyst after his former LA Clippers coach Doc Rivers left to take on the Milwaukee Bucks’ head coaching job.
Meanwhile, Harding, 40, was the first woman to win NBA G League Coach of the Year after guiding the Stockton Kings, Sacramento’s farm team, to a league-best 24-10 record. She and Redick also interviewed for the Hornets head coaching job that eventually went to Charles Lee, 39, who was also named to the NBA 40 Under 40 list by The Athletic.
Landing an assistant coaching gig with the high-profile Lakers “is just the latest sign of success for Harding after a sterling playing career, where she was the Naismith National Player of the Year at Duke, the No. 1 pick in the 2007 WNBA Draft and a solid player during her professional career,” Vorkunov wrote.
JJ Redick Embraces Pressure of Coaching the Lakers
Redick knows the perils of taking such a high-profile job with the Lakers on his first try.
But he revealed during his introductory presser that this is what he wanted after failing to land coaching jobs with Toronto last year and Charlotte earlier this offseason.
“I’ve got to do some amazing stuff in my life. Right?” Redick said, per the Los Angeles Times. “This might be the best. When I think about this job in particular, it’s not just about getting the job. … What, I wanted to do was do the job. I wanted to coach the Los Angeles Lakers.”
Redick said he knows the expectations that come with coaching LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
“I just want to say sitting in this seat, I know what the expectations are. Lakers fans have some of the most passionate fans around the world,” Redick said. “And the expectation is a championship. And so it’s, it’s my job, it’s our staff’s job, it’s Rob’s job, it’s all of us, to deliver a championship-caliber team.
“That’s what I signed up for.”
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