Just two games into his NBA coaching career, Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick has already put his name next to a coaching legend. With the Lakers comeback win over the Phoenix Suns on Friday, Redick became the first coach for the Lakers to start a season 2-0 since Phil Jackson did so.
Jackson led the Lakers to a 2-0 start back in the 2011-12 season and nobody has been able to jump out to multiple wins in a row. Just considering how many coaches that Los Angeles has gone through, it seems that Redick is proving his worth early on.
Los Angeles has taken down the Minnesota Timberwolves and Suns to open the year, two playoff teams from last season. While it's still very early in the year, this could be a good sign for the Lakers.
They have looked much better under Redick on both sides of the ball. The offense has much more movement and has seemed to keep opposing teams on their toes throughout the entire game.
However, Redick declined to take any credit for the success and instead pushed it toward star big man Anthony Davis. Davis has dominated through the first two games of the season in the system that Redick has put together.
"There's an intentionality to have [Davis] involved as much as possible," Redick said. "We recognize what type of player he is and that he can create mismatches. ... There's a comfort level and a confidence level that he has that, if the game starts getting wacky, he knows the ball is going to come back to him. ... The ball is going to find him."
Over the summer, Redick talked about using Davis as more of a "hub" within the offensive system and so far, it's been working. He believed that Davis had been underutilized over the years and wanted to correct that early on.
Even co-star LeBron James has been impressed with the play of Davis. He has called him the "focal point" of the offense for every game.
"It's very important that he's the main focal point for us every single night," James, 39, said after finishing with 21 points and eight assists. "We know what he's going to do defensively, but offensively we have to find him in multiple places on the floor throughout the whole game. And we've done that through two games."
This success from the Lakers and Redick may be premature but they can continue to build off the result. If Los Angeles can continue to play at a high level, they could be a sneaky good team this season.
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