JJ Redick’s appointment as the Lakers’ head coach was controversial. Many believed that an inexperienced coach would not be the right fit for the biggest franchise in the league. But Redick proved everyone wrong in his first season. The Lakers finished in third place with 50 wins and 32 losses. However, the playoffs told a different story.
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Redick’s Lakers were knocked out in five games in the first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The early exit has left fans and analysts scrambling for answers, and the microscope is turning toward the rookie head coach.
During an appearance on The Kevin O’Connor Show, Nick Wright didn’t hold back on calling out Redick for being ‘wound too tight.’ Wright believes that Redick can’t perform when the lights are brightest. This is a pattern that has followed Redick his entire career and was outlined by the great Jerry West as well.
In 2022, Redick made a controversial comment about the NBA players from the ‘50s and ‘60s. He said, “[Bob Cousy] was being guarded by plumbers and firemen.” Redick talked about being First Team All-NBA in that era with ease, since there was no real competition back then, according to him. In response, West came out swinging, showing Redick his place.
He said, “He’s a smart kid, but tell me what his career looks like. What did he do that determined games? He averaged 12 points a game. Somewhere along the way, numbers count.” Redick averaged 12.8 points per game with two rebounds and two assists in his career.
West noted that Redick never won at the highest level, a point that is now being resurrected in the wake of LA’s first-round flop. Wright said, “JJ Redick, as Jerry West reminded us, was not a great playoff performer in the NBA, even for his role. And now, in his first shot in the playoffs, he made a big mistake and didn’t want to really take full accountability for it.”
“I think he is wound so tight, he might not be the best pressure performer, and I think you saw some of that manifest itself,” Wright added.
“We now have a 20-plus year history of JJ Redick being wound so tight, he doesn’t perform in the biggest spots.” —@getnickwright https://t.co/VHSNSc2p0r pic.twitter.com/EpdB3dxpCL
— Kevin O’Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) May 1, 2025
Wright’s point to Redick being a poor performer when stakes are high goes all the way back to the former guard’s college days with Duke.
Redick was one of the best college players in his era. He averaged 19.9 points per game while shooting over 43% from the field and 40% from the three-point line in his four-year tenure at Duke. However, the numbers went down in his NCAA runs. Redick averaged 17.4 points per game while shooting 37.2% from the field and 33.8% from distance.
And despite the strong regular season numbers and a startling reputation, Redick never became an NCAA Champion. The trend continued when he joined the NBA as well. Redick averaged just 10.9 points per game in all his postseason runs.
While there is a strong case for his inability to perform under pressure, Redick’s first season as the Lakers’ head coach wasn’t an abject failure. They won 50 games for the first time since 2020, and he managed to keep the team performing despite the varying number of trades that were thrown his way.
Although the first-round exit is going to sting for a while, especially since he had Luka Doncic and LeBron James, JJ Redick will have a lot of positive takeaways from the season.
