JJ Redick’s appointment as the Lakers’ head coach last year was controversial. Many believed 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. In the regular season, to be exact.
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The Lakers finished in third place with 50 wins and 32 losses. However, the playoffs had a drastically different narrative. 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. The microscope, not surprisingly, has been focused on the rookie head coach. During an appearance on The Kevin O’Connor Show, Nick Wright stated that Redick is ‘wound too tight’, adding that the coach can’t perform when the lights are brightest.
Wright, who also co-hosts the First things first show on Fox Sports, pointed out that the pattern of faltering when the stakes are high has followed Redick throughout his playing career. It was outlined by yesteryear Lakers great Jerry West, too.
In 2022, Redick had made a controversial comment about the NBA players from the 1950s and ’60s. “[Bob Cousy] was being guarded by plumbers and firemen,” he had said.
Redick talked about players being able to make First Team All-NBA in that era with ease since there was no real competition. In response, West, who passed away last year aged 86, had come out swinging, showing Redick his place.
“He’s a smart kid, but tell me what his career looks like. What did he do that determined [the] games? He averaged 12 points a game. Somewhere along the way, numbers count,” West said.
Redick never won at the highest level
Redick averaged 12.8 points per game with two rebounds and two assists in his playing career. West also added that Redick never won at the highest level, a point that is now being resurrected in the wake of LA’s first-round washout. Wright recalled West’s words while commenting on the Lakers’ loss.
“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,” said Wright.
“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,” he added. Wright’s point to Redick being a poor performer when the stakes are high went back to the former guard’s college days with Duke.
“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
Redick was one of the best college players in his era. He averaged 19.9 points per game. He also shot over 43% from the field and 40% from the three-point line during 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 sterling 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. He also managed to keep the team performing despite the 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, Redick will have a lot of positive takeaways from the season.
