With the rose-tinted goggles of the rookie season taken away from the JJ Redick experience, there is pressure on the Los Angeles Lakers head coach to add some real creativity to the team on both ends in the 2025-26 NBA season. That element was missing a little too often last season.
This was brought up by Jovan Buha on a recent episode of his podcast. The Lakers reporter did not hesitate when discussing what adjustments he was most excited to see during Redick's second season as a head coach.
"I would like to see a higher level of offensive organization and creativity," Buha said. "The Lakers having better offensive principles, being a bit more organized in terms of consistently running sets. ... On the defensive side, ... have a little bit more creativity and not just default to switching."
Creativity really was the buzzword at the focal point of the message. It was definitely the right one. Redick has displayed plenty of potential to be the bench boss in Los Angeles for a long time. That will only come if the former NBA sharpshooter continues to improve moving forward.
JJ Redick's adjustments will make or break the Lakers’ season
Offensively, Buha highlighted that when Redick 'busted out the whiteboard' in 2024-25, there were strong results. When the offense was properly choreographed by the Lakers coach, it yielded exactly what the Lakers were looking for.
The problem was the inconsistency. In particular, this element really dropped off after the blockbuster trade for Luka Doncic. Granted, that was a tough spot for a rookie head coach.
Redick was forced to figure out a whole new offense, with different principles, on the fly. At times, that did look good for the Lakers. However, there was ultimately too much falling back on just giving Doncic the ball and forcing him to figure it out without a strong plan in place.
The Lakers will need to properly unlock the two-man game of Luka and LeBron James in 2025-26. There should be plenty of ways for Redick to dream up ways of punishing opposing defenses with the unfair superstar advantage Los Angeles has on offense.
Defensively, Redick was forced to work around the lack of presence down in the paint. Too often, the high levels of switching and activity pushed the Lakers into mismatches that could otherwise be avoided. With Deandre Ayton in Los Angeles, the overreliance on that style is no longer a necessity.
Redick will need to be at his best during his second season as a coach to allow the Lakers a fighting chance at being contenders in 2025-26. This time around, the head coach will get a full training camp with his squad to really figure out what the best version of this team looks like.