Let’s begin with some math: 5 groups have gained an NBA championship since 2020, the Los Angeles Lakers are one in all them, but they’re now on their third coach over that point span with the hiring of JJ Redick.
Frank Vogel gained a title, then acquired fired. Darvin Ham made the convention finals, then acquired fired. Now Redick parachutes in because the hot-shot rent as we hear ridiculous comparisons to Pat Riley and Steve Kerr and Eric Spoelstra. It is nearly too absurd to even chuckle.
Yeah, we get it. Redick is a brilliant man. He seems and sounds sharp. The Riley comp, if you happen to actually need to be this lazy, lands in your lap from a headshot standpoint, as does Kerr due to their comparable participant profiles and broadcasting backgrounds.
This is not to say Redick will not be a profitable coach. Or hell, even an all-time nice one. But when he’s, like these names above, he’ll be the exception. Not the rule. The rule is that the majority NBA coaches are tied nearly on to their rosters. They could get somewhat kind of out of the group they have been granted, however not a lot. The Lakers, who’ve employed and fired seven coaches since Phil Jackson left in 2012, aren’t alone in at all times considering they’ve managed to establish the exception.
To run down the checklist of coaches that had been imagined to make a major distinction solely to fare, barring a roster enchancment, a lot the identical as their predecessor would take eternally, however let’s take a look at a number of current examples.
The Hawks employed Quin Snyder to exchange Nate McMillan — who, it is value noting, was largely the advantage of circumstance himself as Atlanta acquired wholesome in 2021 simply as he was changing Lloyd Pierce — when it turned out that McMillan, with a number of extra years of proof, wasn’t truly capable of carry a Hawks roster that may’t defend and is simply too reliant on stagnant particular person creation.
Snyder got here in with a plan to play quicker and shoot extra 3s, and the Hawks acquired worse. Doc Rivers was introduced in to exchange Adrian Griffin in Milwaukee, and the Bucks, report smart, acquired worse. Rivers was additionally tabbed because the man to enhance on what the Sixers had been capable of do below Brett Brown, who by no means made it previous the second spherical. Two coaches later, the Sixers nonetheless have not made a convention last.
Chauncey Billups supposedly spoke the identical level guard language as Damian Lillard, who now performs for Rivers. Steve Nash had the identical because the former-player clout. Monty Williams was the man to steer Detroit into the longer term, and he lasted one 12 months. Jason Kidd, in precept, simply acquired the identical extension that McMillan did in Atlanta — a coach who occurred to be on the sideline when the celebrities aligned. Kidd is just not a greater coach than Rick Carlisle. He simply acquired Kyrie Irving as a mannequin citizen and big additions on the commerce deadline.
Once more, if the crew adjustments for the higher, and the coach, in flip, magically will get higher, do the mathematics. At the moment final 12 months, Joe Mazzulla was supposedly a foul coach. Did he immediately grow to be a championship one as a result of he discovered when to name timeouts or as a result of he acquired Jrue Vacation and Kristaps Porzingis?
Was Nick Nurse that a lot better than Dwane Casey, who actually gained Coach of the 12 months the summer season he acquired fired, or did he simply stroll into Kawhi Leonard?
Is Chris Finch, the man who put Rudy Gobert on the courtroom in an apparent swap scenario vs. Luka Doncic to lose a conference-final recreation, some sort of savior or did he occur to be within the seat when Gobert got here in to ensure a top-flight protection and Anthony Edwards advanced right into a famous person?
Did the Knicks grow to be a No. 2 seed as a result of they’re “A Thibs crew!” or as a result of they acquired Jalen Brunson? Earlier than you reply, everybody realizes that Tom Thibodeau is an effective coach. That is not the purpose. The purpose is he went 78-76 over two seasons earlier than he acquired Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart and Isaiah Hartenstein and Donte DiVincenzo and eventually OG Anunoby. Time was when Thibodeau was on the new seat as a result of he didn’t, supposedly, know coach fashionable offense. Humorous how Brunson modified that.
This is not meant to take something away from Mazzulla or Nurse or Finch or Thibodeau or some other NBA coach who is not Kerr or Spoesltra or Gregg Popovic. It goes with out saying that they are all extremely good, completed and succesful basketball folks. It is simply an incontrovertible fact that almost all of them, actually over time, won’t ship a bottom-line consequence that deviates an considerable distance from the lifelike normal of the roster with which they’re working.
The consequence, by the way in which, is the operative time period there. Coaches impression gamers and groups in all types of the way. It is about relationships and communication behind closed doorways. Actually, Redick informed Taylor Rooks in 2022 that he seems at teaching “as a method to assist.”
“I had so many individuals assist me in my profession,” Redick stated. “And never simply head coaches; assistant coaches, participant improvement folks, they usually have such a helpful place in my coronary heart and in my life. And I might like to be a kind of folks sometime.”
What Redick is speaking about, the relationships which might be cultivated by way of teaching, the impression one individual can have on one other, which is a really rewarding and fulfilling factor, is nice and all, however that is not what will get head coaches employed or fired. This is not highschool the place the job description contains the molding of younger males. Redick is not getting a $1,500 teaching stipend whereas additionally instructing third-period science.
No, he is reportedly getting north of $30 million over 4 years to do one factor: ship outcomes. Wins and losses. That is it. So, let’s hold it proper there: The Lakers gained 47 video games final 12 months and misplaced within the first spherical. You possibly can level to Kerr, who nearly miraculously took the Warriors from 51 wins and a first-round defeat of their last season below Mark Jackson to 67 wins and a championship in his first season on the helm (with largely the identical roster), however once more, that may be a once-in-a-lifetime exception.
That Warriors crew was being egregiously under-coached by Jackson. One may argue there has by no means been a extra ripe basketball scenario for a brand new coach to stroll in and grow to be a right away hero with a complete offensive overhaul begging to be made.
Inform me, on a macro degree, what’s Redick going to take action in a different way than Ham? And we’re not speaking about Taurean Prince minutes. We’re speaking about issues that may actually change the fortunes of the crew. Redick says LeBron goes to play off the ball extra and Anthony Davis will probably be utilized in a featured method?
Wow. Cease site visitors. We have some revolutionary concepts right here! The Lakers have been making an attempt to play LeBron off the ball for years. It is why they introduced in Russell Westbrook for crying out loud. You recognize what the important thing to taking part in LeBron off the ball extra is? Discovering somebody higher than D’Angelo Russell to play on the ball. Not hiring JJ Redick.
Certainly, coaches aren’t employed and fired at such an absurd frequency as a result of there’s actually a lot distinction from one to the following. The press releases will speak about commanding respect of the locker room and all that jazz, however in fact, coaches are simply the simplest variable to vary when issues aren’t going in addition to you’d hoped.
You possibly can’t simply up and alter gamers. There are contracts. And a wage cap. However coaches can at all times be swapped out and in, and so long as that is the case, groups just like the Lakers will proceed to package deal their “exercise” on the bench and attempt to promote it as precise progress on the courtroom.
It is the front-office equal of that man who stands at half courtroom dribbling the air out of the ball, wowing the much less discerning fan with an array of fancy maneuvers meant to distract you from the truth that in all his circle spinning, he hasn’t truly moved any nearer to the aim.
In all chance, the Lakers are usually not any nearer to their aim of successful a championship with Redick than they had been with Ham. And so they actually weren’t any nearer with Ham than they had been with Vogel, who truly gained the entire thing as a result of he had a two-way roster with a number of playmakers and measurement and defensive versatility (and since Anthony Davis acquired to shoot midrange jumpers in a high-school fitness center, however that is irrelevant).
So this is what is going on to occur: The Lakers are both going to vary their roster considerably sufficient to really change their on-court fortunes, by which case Redick, and the oh-so-smart individuals who employed him, will probably be showered with reward, or they will not enhance the roster, and LeBron and Davis will not be as sturdy as they had been final 12 months, and Redick immediately will not look so shiny.
At which level, we’ll all begin speaking about who’s going to exchange him.
On the lookout for extra NBA protection? John Gonzalez, Invoice Reiter, Ashley Nicole Moss and particular visitors dive deep into the league’s largest storylines every day on the Past the Arc podcast.
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