One could argue JJ Redick is in for his first major challenge as an NBA head coach with the Los Angeles Lakers.
His team has not been great defensively, inconsistent offensively and is currently last in bench scoring. Los Angeles has shown flashes of improvement on defense, but there is still more work to be done in that area.
In terms of offense, Redick was not satisfied with the execution of plays against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night. After their film review on Saturday, the second-year coach revealed his players incorrectly ran eight of 12 plays called after a timeout, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“The other thing that stood out was we ran 12 ATOs last night, eight of which we didn’t run correctly. We tried to run two of them again and still didn’t run them correctly. One we tried to run a third time, didn’t run that correctly. So, just a lot of slippage with execution. You should be able to transfer 30 seconds of time delay from the clipboard to [the court]. So, that was kind of frustrating.”
To further clarify, these are not new concepts Redick is trying to install mid-game, these are plays his team should be familiar with after 30-plus games:
“Yeah, the only time we ever really run an ATO for the first time is like first play. We’ll do something different for first play.”
Frankly, nothing frustrates a coach more than drawing up a play for it not to be run correctly shortly after. Especially for a Lakers team that aspires to be championship-caliber, these are not the championship habits Redick coined to begin training camp.
Injuries have fostered lineups with no chemistry together and bench players have been elevated to fill roles. There will be growing pains in that regard, but each player needs to be aware of schemes and plays if they hope to go where they want this season.
JJ Redick wants to see Dalton Knecht play hard during minutes
In a bit of a surprising move, Redick revealed Dalton Knecht would be in the rotation against the Grizzlies. Seeing how his bench production has been lackluster, Redick is searching for answers.
While Knecht possesses the ability to be a flamethrower, he has yet to recapture that flame since last season. However, Redick is not looking for points out of his second year forward, he simply wants him to play hard whenever he is out there.
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