JJ Redick’s brutally honest admission after Lakers playoff exit

LOS ANGELES – Following the Los Angeles Lakers’ early playoff exit at the hand of the Minnesota Timberwolves, head coach JJ Redick’s postseason coaching debut has come under criticism from fans and pundits alike. Prior to Game 5, Redick got into an exchange with a reporter who seemingly questioned his decision to not make any substitutions during the second half of Game 4. Redick was seemingly offended at the suggestion that he made a rookie coaching mistake without conferring with his assistants.

But following the Lakers’ early playoff exit, JJ Redick did admit during his postgame press conference that he needs to be better as a coach.

“I’ll use my own thoughts to evaluate myself, and I’ll use what my players say, what my coaching staff says to evaluate,” Redick said. “But I know I can be better and I know I will get better. I don’t necessarily take any satisfaction from how the year went.”

“That’s not to say I’m not proud of what the group was able to do and how we were able to figure things out on the fly and put ourselves in a position to have homecourt in the first round,” Redick continued. “But there’s always ways to get better, and I can get a lot better.”

While the Lakers’ initial hire of Redick was met with some skepticism, considering he didn’t have any previous coaching experience, some of those criticisms seemed to melt with the success the Lakers had during the regular season. Redick coached the team to 50 wins and the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference while navigating multiple major trades.

And he has the support of his franchise player. During LeBron James’ postgame press conference, the Lakers star gave an emphatic endorsement of Redick’s abilities as head coach.

“I think JJ will continue to grow. He had a hell of a rookie campaign for a rookie coach,” James said. “It’s a lot different being a rookie coach. It’s already hard being a rookie coach in the NBA, and it’s a hell of a lot harder being a rookie head coach, coaching the Lakers. That’s a whole other ball game. I thought he handled it extremely well. I thought he just learned every single day. He held us accountable, he pushed us.”

Coming into next season, Redick will be in the second year of a four-year contract he signed with the Lakers last offseason. And presumably, he’ll have an overhauled roster to work with.