JJ Redick Introduced as Lakers Head Coach – Full Press Conference

JJ Redick Introduced as Lakers Head Coach – Full Press Conference

I think in industry in general and in sports in specific sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in patterns of being in a seam of s a sea of sameness and doing the same thing that everybody else is doing but uh when we embarked on this search it was really important for us to see if we could do something a little bit different and um quickly in our conversations with JJ it was very evident um that he had a unique perspective and philosophy on basketball and how it to be taught um I think immediately when we sat down in Chicago at the combine we shared a a basketball philosophy that was very similar and it was based on highlevel strategy it was based on a certain way of communicating with players and teaching them and probably most importantly prioritizing Player Development for people in the room that study this new cap system that we’re now on in the NBA there’s there’s a hard system with you know first and second apron and I could get into all the details but at the core of that is going to be the importance of a great franchise like the Lakers modernizing and leaning into developing our young players um and building that and with players here like Max Christie and jayen H chafino and Austin Reeves and ruy and on and on it became evident that one of JJ’s passions was bringing some of the incredible things he’s done in basketball thinking and in basketball content to Player Development as we build out that and I think that’s going to be something that’s really exciting for our fans to see is how we take a a a new and unique approach of Lakers Excellence with Player Development and combining that with highlevel strategy and high level attention to detail on the basketball court with how we play with how we’re organized how we compete and ultimately how we win so a very very proud moment for us today to introduce JJ reck as our new head coach thank you thank you Rob I appreciate it um this this process uh has been surreal to say the least one of the things that kept coming up during the process with Rob we kept talking about the word gratitude and uh I think that’s where I’ll start is just uh feeling so grateful for Rob jeie the entire Lakers Organization for entrusting me uh in this position and I I take this responsibility uh very seriously I have never coached in the NBA before I don’t know if you guys have heard that my motivations for doing this uh it starts with a very simple Foundation uh of service um I think about the greatest moments especially towards the end of my career was about helping players um and so it starts with the desire to serve players to serve the Lakers organization to serve our fans um it’s also about competition and performance collaboration leadership uh these are the things that that drive me and uh they will all be important as I build out my staff uh as we think about the people we want to draft and get in free agency uh and as we think about Player Development it’s it’s all about those things um I think about the NBA today you know the the game is evolving and it’s evolving fast and one of the things in coaching that I think you have to be is adaptable um you have to be adaptable to your roster you have to be adaptable in game planning against your opponent and that’s one of the things uh I really will strive to be uh lastly I just want to say like sitting in this seat I know what the expectations are uh Lakers fans have some of the most passionate uh fans around the world and the expectation is a championship and so it’s it’s my job it’s our staff’s job it’s Rob’s job it’s all of us to to deliver a championship caliber team uh that’s what I signed up for hey JJ Mike trell with the Lakers in Spectrum Sports Net amongst the things you were alluding to just your personality the competitiveness Rob spoke about this that drive you as a player did you start to think about head coaching in that context like the closest that you can get to fueling that finding that competitive fire and did that drive you at all towards this Lakers position um there were certain coaches that I had throughout my career that um would say you’re going to coach someday uh doc was probably the the first one that that did that but it was really when I was in Dallas at the end of my career and I I was hurt for most of those two and a half months I didn’t play a lot Rick Carlile and I was spent a lot of time together and and he really planted the seed about coaching now at the time I knew I was going to retire I didn’t know what I wanted to do and I wanted to be able to be home for a little bit I didn’t think it was the right time um you know when I retired and and I literally when I retired my performance coach and I we we talked about all the things that I loved about being a player and it was a lot of those qualities that I just listed and it’s all part of coaching and uh you know as I think about the culture we want to create here uh part of that is just a competitive culture like we want to come in every day thinking about competition JJ Jim Hill kk9 news congratulations you mentioned what you learned from Doc Rivers what’s the most important thing you learn from Doc that’s going to help you to make an adjustment into the NBA with no previous head coaching experience um the most important thing I learned from Doc you know it’s interesting because I probably took something from every coach that I ever played for um you know doc was such a good motivator and one of the things that I think he is particularly good at is creating a vision uh communicating a vision and then getting you to buy into that Vision day after day now those Clippers teams we didn’t reach our ultimate Vision unfortunately um but that’s something that he was always so great at he’s he’s an incredible Communicator welcome JJ and Rob good to see you um if I could ask one of you both Rob obviously in today’s media landscape the twists and turns of a coaching search kind of become public fodder can you speak on you know you guys are obviously very ecstatic to have JJ in this role but there was a pursuit of Dan Harley before and just where did things stand did you put the JJ process on hold in that moment and just how did that play out yeah happy to talk more about the entire process at another time today’s sort of JJ’s day and I will say this from the start he was in our play plan a pool of coaches that we were really interested in exploring and I think the most important thing is throughout the process JJ and I had Direct and sort of constant communication um to keep each other in the loop with what he was going through with his previous job with the NBA finals and I was keeping him a breast of the search and I think sometimes before a partnership is forged when you can have real honest conversations before you actually become Partners it solidifies the relationship and I think looking back to how transparent we were with one another um even in the midst of stuff going on in the media I think it actually solidified our confidence and belief and working together and JJ to retire at a long successful career a lot of athletes that’s it’s a tough transition you were able to quickly parlay that into the successful podcast Venture obviously broadcasting the NBA Finals with that going in your direction like that could have been what you did the next 20 years uh why did you decide that coaching was what you wanted to do your basketball life I’ll answer the question in a second I want to follow up on something Rob just was talking about and that’s you know when when the process was going on and we first met in Chicago uh you know I was uh getting ready to call game one of the NBA Finals uh when when the Dan Hurley news broke and and Rob was uh quick to call me we had a great conversation uh during that whole 4-day uh period like at no point was my ego or feelings hurt or bruised in any way Dan Hurley is a two-time national champion at Yukon I am a two-time 55 swis League champion in the third and fourth grade division like I understood you know I understood uh you it’s it’s funny because Dave I get that question all the time and and I’ve certainly gotten that question a lot U from people that I trust and and confide in over the last year um it was really after I interviewed for the Toronto job last year that I I knew that I wanted to be a head coach in the NBA and so the last year uh I spent a lot of time talking to coaches uh talking with GMS picking their brains I am very fortunate that I have a small circle of people that are currently working in the NBA that I am friends with that I can confide in they can help me um and the further I got into those conversations the further I got into my own sort of journaling about coaching um thinking about it and visioning it Rob and I talked about this a ton um I just felt like this is this is what I’m supposed to be doing I mean I again I brought it up like I have zero coaching experience in the NBA but I would argue that I’m very experienced and and it started 22 years ago when I went to Duke and I got to play for Coach K for four years spent 15 years as a player honestly the last three years have been invaluable in preparing me for this moment being able to connect to players talking to them on the podcast being in in uh coaching interviews with ESPN calling games analyzing the game in three different formats um all of that has helped prepare me to be an NBA head coach Rob JJ over here Dan Wy with the LA Times Yes um questions for both of you guys JJ first um how do you kind of Envision there I think Yan wrote something about Anthony Davis and kind of using him um how do you envision kind of Anthony Davis LeBron James here as part of this team provided LeBron resigns and then Rob for you how are you going to sort of thread the needle of the late stage of potentially LeBron’s career with the transition into whatever’s next um you know I think the the first thing is um with any player Anthony Davis LeBron James um Austin Reeves uh any player on the roster uh I can have a vision for how I want to use them but there has to be buyin and collaboration right so I can sit up here and tell you how I would like for them to play but if there’s no buyin then it doesn’t really matter um so I think part of the next two months uh and I know those guys are going to be busy with uh Team USA part of the next two months is is just having conversations and Anthony and I already had a conversation a week ago uh about some ideas both offensively and defensively and uh I think both of us felt really comfortable uh going forward with that sort of as the as the base uh starting point of of how he’s going to play on this on this team and you know one of the things I brought up with him is just um the idea of him as a hub um there’s a bunch of guys at the five position in the NBA that that sort of operate in that way and uh I don’t know that he’s been used in that way uh and sort of maximized all of his abilities um so that’s that’s a simple thing with him with LeBron look uh you have to certainly uh get by in and talk to him about how he wants to play um you know him and I have joked about this but like he shot over 40% from three this year like I I want him shooting threes he’s going to have his three or four bursts every game where he gets out in trans transition and does things that no one at his age should ever be able to do but he he does it um it’s it’s really just figuring out in the half court uh putting him in different spots both as a scorer and a facilitator uh that’ll be part of the conversation over the next next couple months yeah I think first um we want to respect and honor LeBron’s ability on June 29th to make a decision about his contract he has a player option as we all know um so definitely we’ll give him that time to to go through that decision but I will say if he does return to the Lakers the proof of concept and having two allp proo players as the core pieces of your team has worked for us to the highest level of course in 2020 but if those two players are at the core of what you’re building we’ like our chances um and of course we’ll continue to have conversations as we approach free agency here in the next week or so of how we want to tweak or uh change make roster changes to put ourselves in a competitive um position built around those two players hey Rob JJ over here uh yovon buha with the athletic uh first for JJ how have you gone about preparing for this position especially kind of through the interview process and then how have you gone about developing your coaching philosophies um again it goes back to sort of how I answered Dave’s question you know some of my co coaching philosophies lie in uh the different roles I’ve had post retirement I think a a big thing for me is uh you have to look at your roster and then you have to figure out how you can create margins with that roster and this roster you know let’s say last season um they did a good job of not fouling and getting to the line they did a good job of creating a margin with fast break points and points in the paint um you know when I think about that uh with this team was like how do we generate good threes how do we generate more of that defensively how do we scheme better um how do we turn turn the ball over less like all these little margins right the team was 29th in offensive rebounding percentage if you look at the trends of the NBA right now uh teams that really value possessions are sending guys from the corner they’re not worried about getting three guys back I mean when I play you either a go guy or get back guy um I think giving players the freedom especially from the corners to crash is is huge you can create a margin there that all came from just analyzing the game over the last three years um you know philosophically culturally again those are all based on experiences um you when I think about culture again the foundation of it has to be competition um there has to be joy in it though like you the pursuit of greatness can’t be miserable every day that somebody walks in this building they have to enjoy it uh I think part of being a coach right is like can I maximize each player that helps maximize the group and does everybody in the building not just the players and staff does everybody in the build building enjoy coming to work every day um that’s that’s sort of on me to create that culture and then uh one for Rob uh as of Wednesday you guys will have access to your three first round picks uh have you thought or I guess what can you share about how you potentially might use those are you thinking maybe something bigger move a couple smaller moves how are you thinking about building the roster over the next week or so yeah I think JJ hit it on the head when he said our goal is to build a team that compete for championships you know whether that’s in the short term or the long term we always have to balance those two things um and I do think in this system as I I opened um some of the trades are more difficult especially if you have a second apron team and a first apron team there’s a chance we’ll be in the first apron the the trades are less prevalent than they used to be so will we look for trades that help us become a better team absolutely um are those trades um do they have the same probability that they did under the old system no it is a different system so we’ve got to be mindful and thoughtful around that and I do think um as I stated at the beginning part of the road to a really really good team and you can look around the landscape of the league right now with um many young teams doing really really well is going to be lean hard into that Player Development piece and of course part of that is is drafting the right way we’ve had a great track record here of drafting good players and developing them um and we’re going to continue on that path as well um so that’s not a yes or a no if the perfect trade comes along and we can use picks to make it and win a championship yeah we’ll do it is that trade going to be there I don’t know it’s harder in this system to find perfect trades JJ and Rob cop price Southern California news group got one for both you guys but first JJ um kind of a two-parter do you plan on Coach uh coaching in both summer leagues and how is the process of putting together coaching staff come so far there any names you can I guess tell us that you’re targeting or bringing on no names for you we’ve certainly discussed the names but no names for you yet yeah um yeah some some league is is certainly on the table we have we have talked about this um there there’s a few factors and we’ll just sort of make the decision at the time but I’ll be heavily involved in uh Las Vegas um our understanding at least right now is you know we’ll still be doing a lot of free agency work here uh during this that first part in Sacramento yeah just on the names question Kobe uh we’ve already started a a very collaborative dialogue around how to build out JJ’s bench and and you know clearly leaning into that experience with the front of the bench coaches and finding um hopefully a couple guys that our former head coaches I think is going to set JJ up for support and at the end of the day that’s what we’re most interested in doing is make sure we help him select and build a staff that sets him and the team up for success and that’s beginning today on the first day of his job and then Rob one for you specifically obviously JJ and LeBron they had have had a podcast going since March even if it wasn’t direct conversations with LeBron how if it did did that podcast factor into the process of the interview and and all of it I think at the core of a a really good NBA head coach um one of the core core Necessities especially with today’s player is communication and I think JJ’s one of the best basketball communicators out there period hard stop um anyone that’s paid attention to what he’s done in built and his interaction with players and coaches and Executives um he’s special at that um in terms of the involvement with our captains with this coaching search and the coaching process I think um you know you’re asking a question about LeBron um he was very supportive of our organization in this process and that’s a different word and I want to be mindful of the word then involved so I would say say it again LeBron was very supportive of us in our process but chose not to be heavily involved and we respected that um Anthony Davis our other Captain um chose to be very involved and was very involved I I talked to him throughout the process and got a lot of help and wisdom from him um and he was very excited um for today well it’sa R in Fox Sports uh this is a two-parter to uh Rob I’m going to begin with you um JJ just broke the news that he’s never had any NBA head coaching experience um considering that what was it during the interview process that he did or said that made you feel excited to go this route yeah I think uh NBA head coaching experience and NBA experience aren’t mutually exclusive things I think JJ has an amazing amount of NBA experience that’s going to make became a great NBA coach and he talked about it already whether it’s coming up being sort of mentored and tutored by a Hall of Fame coach and Mike shashki whether it’s the Hall of Fame coaches he played for throughout his career whether it’s the conversations with numerous Allstars that are high IQ players that he could share basketball and strategy with it was just really important to us as we made this hire to find a head coach that could sit across the table from some of the smartest and best players in the world this is the stage for those players to be able to relate to coach hold them accountable lead them Inspire them and we felt like JJ was very unique in holding all those qualities to do that and we’re very confident in that and JJ it’s obviously no secret that you have a very close relationship with braon he could have done a podcast with anybody in the world he chose to do it with you what was his advice to you throughout this whole coaching search process he didn’t provide any advice um LeBron and I did not talk about uh the Lakers job uh until Thursday afternoon uh about 30 minutes after I was off for the job uh and that was very intentional on both our parts um you know I knew I had an understanding that he did not want to be involved in this um and for me I didn’t want to go down the path of hypothetical uh with someone that I consider a friend and someone that I have a great amount of respect for so for for for us it it just came down to literally Thursday afternoon and and I talked to him for about 15 20 minutes and got off the phone that was it D Hernandez with the LA Times Rob uh first for you um you know I think you mentioned you used the word Innovative uh in your opening remarks it’s wondering if there were any plans uh you know to add to the analytics Department scouting front office to maybe help find you know JJ find those edges that he was talking about that’s a great question Dylan and I think you’ve hit on a really important theme um JJ and I have had some really robust conversations um around Innovation and sort of even gamifying Player Development if you think about a 20-year-old basketball player today and maybe a 20 yearold basketball player I don’t know 10 15 20 years ago the modium of learning are completely different I mean we all probably some of us have kids we have nephews nieces kids and athletes are learning in new and innovative ways so we’ve talked about how do we translate coach reck’s offensive system to a app-based or a phone based deliverable where players can be buying into a philosophy and learning it in a way that meets today’s Young player and I think innovation’s got to be at the core of that we have a vision for to your point of hiring out his support staff in sort of this Tech you know Bullpen way of getting Innovative Minds to help bring his basketball strategy and bring his basketball philosophy to life in a way that our players can grasp it learn it and actually grow their basketball IQ I think there’s no one in the room that would argue that JJ is not one of the highest basketball IQ players and thinkers in today’s game how do we now take that and deliver it to our players that’s that’s our goal here and something we’re really really excited about JJ hi over to your left hi I’m Kyle kker with Fox La congratulations you mentioned in your opening statement that this uh expectation here is obious championship and that is what you signed up for lofty goals obviously how do you manage those expectations and do you think that they are reasonable expectations in the short term Tang of the second part first yes um I think they’re reasonable um I don’t look at the current roster as as being that far off from a championship caliber team uh in terms of managing expectations I think in life you just you just got to embrace things you know you just really have to embrace things you don’t run from it if you need to talk about it you talk about it um you know there’s not a player I I I never played with players in the NBA who were like you know what this year’s not the year I don’t I don’t think we can win a championship now the expectations here are certainly different and um as we sort of build out the culture um one of the things and and Rob and I have talked about this you have to let go of outcomes you just do it has to be about the enjoyment and embracing the process and if the Los Angeles Lakers on day one get better every single day I’m very confident that come April we will be a CH Championship caliber team you still have a have to have a lot of stuff go right and you can’t have a lot go wrong that’s every single championship team just acknowledge that right but I I think it is more about loving the process of getting better the power of the group U if you look at the NBA now and Rob is talking about the second April look if you look at the NBA right now uh the group matters more than ever it you certainly need the stars but the group matters more than ever you need six seven eight guys who can play minutes deep into the playoffs the Boston Celtics the Dallas Mavericks the Pacers the Timberwolves it wasn’t about the individual it was about the group JJ and Rob good to see you mark Medina Sports te sporting tribute JJ um when it comes to accountability what do you think that looks like when you’re managing LeBron ad and the rest of the roster um I think it’s about establishing the standards early on I think it’s it’s that simple um you know we just talked about expectations for a Championship uh what do you expect from me what do I expect from you let’s have that dialogue let’s establish what the standards are dayto day it’s as simple as that um I talk about you know maybe not publicly but I talk talk about conflict all the time because in the NBA conflict exists it’s a natural thing in a competitive sport the sport is conflict right throughout an NBA season it’s okay to have internal conflict right I I think you have to go about confronting those conflicts and holding people accountable right confrontation to me is about conflict resolution conflict avoidance and being Direct being open uh that’s that’s how you have to do it but it it starts with just a very simple Baseline standard of what we’re expecting of each other JJ Ramona shelburn ESPN um you you mentioned something earlier that kind of caught my ear and how you journaled about coaching you know I think that’s interesting is journaling right is and how you get to there um and I and I I was wondering where what did you write down what did you where did you get to this place where this is the job that you wanted right I mean you could have had another job a couple times ago you’ve interviewed for other ones you could have waited and stayed on on our side of the business for a while but you chose the Lakers so what was it about this job and how did you get to that process um this job was about the Lakers this job was about the Lakers and it was about LeBron James Anthony Davis two of the greatest players ever um I’ve been able to do some incredible things in my life I I really have I mean Rob knows this like Monday night I called game five of the NBA finals Thursday I’m in Cameron one of my sons is playing at Duke camp in The Practice Facility the other son is in Cameron Indoor Stadium and I’m on the phone with Rob and jeie committing to this job in the Duke Hall of Fame room I’ve gotten to do some amazing stuff in my life right this might be the best and it’s I when I think about like this job in particular it’s not just about getting the job what what I wanted to do was do the job I wanted to coach the Los Angeles Lakers and uh and so that was that was where I landed on pursuing this versus you know potential other opportunities JJ 20 years ago while you were at Duke the Lakers tried to pry Mike cheski away from Cameron indor to be here what did Coach Kay tell you uh in regards to maybe looking back at that or just this job opportunity in general um yeah coaches since 2004 has had um a great relationship with the Lakers and the bus family um um he was very complimentary of the organization um and he truthfully he was very helpful um throughout this process it started you know I didn’t know coach had like Google alerts or I don’t know how he gets stuff his news but I guess somebody tipped him off that uh you know I was potentially interviewing for Charlotte so I was literally flying back from a game and landed at LaGuardia and we talk for 30 minutes that night um ultimately did not uh do the full interview there and and kind of put that coaching thing on pause and then this opened up and Coach throughout the process was very helpful uh in terms of just me navigating the interview process um you know Robin IED communication all of this stuff like coach was great um he’s he still is like uh you know I’ve told the young guys this I’ve talked to nearly every player on the phone some guys are ducking my calls it’s okay um but like Jaylen and and Maxwell they were like hey coach and I’m like I’m not comfortable with that please call me JJ you know there’s one person in my life that I played for that I call Coach and that’s Coach K like he’s still that to me I think just is Bears it’s relevant to this discussion you were the one of the first players to have a podcast while he was active what’s going to happen with M the game you’re going to be the first coach to have a a podcast while he’s active no I I am uh for the time being and hopefully it’s a very very long time uh I am excommunicated from the content space so I there would be no podcast um we’ll we’ll do something uh when I have a breather uh from what we have coming up I’m going to be drinking out of a fire hose for the next month but at some point uh we’ll just do something for all the people that listened and we’ll have a small little video but I I’m I’m done with podcasting for now so Rob and JJ JJ bra JJ um Rob you guys keep talking about culture what does that mean and how do you go about putting that in place what what becomes immediately um impactful when you get to spend time with JJ is he has a Obsession about winning and an obsession about Excellence um we’ve had players come through here that share that mindset but I think the two things that come to mind in terms of culture are mixing the service component that JJ talked about at the beginning his job my job is not to be out in front as much as it is to be behind the players supporting them to be great and providing all the resources the coaching the mentoring for them to be great and then just obsessing about the details to get to a place of excellence and to get to a place of winning I think th that combination of those two Divergent things is really important to our Championship culture here um I’ll be very simple in my answer like to me culture is is very simply two things it’s it’s how a group interacts with each other and it’s the things that a group prioritizes and so as the head coach and as the GM like along with the players we have to determine how we’re going to interact with each other and what we prioritize and it’s it’s all those things we talked about Mitch were there a couple people that didn’t get a chance that we want to I’m more than happy I know you guys traveled a long way to get here happy to do a couple more JJ what are you most most curious to learn about just the process and art of coaching like as you go through this this year my first challenge no I uh I you know it’s interesting because I have uh you know going back the last year um I’ve always been a I’ve always been a visual person as a player I relied on visualization um in a workout in high school I would um I had a free period and on game days I would I would walk through the gym and I would look at certain spots on the floor and I would visualize coming off screens and where the defense would be and the angle which I shot the ball the arc on the ball and I’ve sort of I’ve visualized every scenario um for the last year that’s what I’ve done in terms of coaching and the the the fun part I think for me is just going to be actually having that become reality and learning uh I consider myself to be someone who has a high level of curiosity and a love of learning um I’m not going to be perfect I know that right the pursuit of perfection which I’ve tried my whole life I’ve recognized you’re never going to get there um so giving myself a little bit of Grace uh is going to be important I’m not expecting Grace from any of you I I don’t expect that it’s fine um I really don’t I don’t uh but giving myself a little bit of that is going to be important um if there’s like a specific thing I mean it’s it’s very simply what is the feeling going to be like walking out for your first regular season game uh and sitting there and putting your hand over your heart for the national anthem what is that feeling going to be like hi coach yeah I work for kyodo news Japanese news Warrior so so I want to ask two questions about Ru hura um first one is um um obviously roster is not set yet however how do you want to use his strengths on the court and second one um he hasn’t made it official yet but in my opinion he’s probably playing for the Japanese national team in the Paris Olympic it’s if he does would this affect your plans for ruie I’ll start and then hand it off to coach we we had the privilege this morning of being able to have some time with ruy he was in the facility um and you know super excited to watch JJ coach him and he did share with us and I’m sure he’ll have his own news that he’s thinking through the Olympics and um you know hopefully there’ll be good news there but it was great to sit upstairs with him early earlier today and uh he’s going to have a great great summer yeah I thought he had a fantastic year last year um one of the things and maybe I should have mentioned this uh to Ramona’s question but you know beyond just the Lakers and LeBron and Anthony Davis um I’m excited about some of the younger guys on this roster and and helping them uh you know I had great conversations this weekend uh two that I had that I loved were were my conversation with Austin and my conversation with bre and uh you know I think for him in terms of how I Envision sort of him on this team like I want him shooting more threes uh so that’s a big big part of it um I brought up the offensive rebounding I I think he can really become an elite offensive rebounder um as we sort of build out uh our offensive system and how we’re going to play um when we start incorporating movement and cutting um Roy can be an excellent cutter and part of that is because uh you know we’re going to manipulate screening angles he’s going to get mismatches and uh he can he can really score at the basket if he has smaller players on him uh first of all uh Eric pigas with bleach report thank you rob for a little bit of extra time just want to ask the coach here you mentioned visualization and uh coaching is a lot about details have you visualized ized how you will build out those chops of rotation management end of game management clock management load management you know like series management everything that goes into those little details and do you have a philosophy a plan do you obviously you don’t have the firsthand experience doing it yourself you’ve been around it you’ve experienced it through other coaches and will that be something you rely on heavily with support from your bench yeah again you know going back to just collaboration like this is all going to be a really fun part of this summer um over the next couple months um leading into September um is thinking about all those things right once the roster is set um rotations game management load management all that stuff um I think a a big and and I told Rob this in Chicago this this is like a big thing for me is just my relationship in communication with analytics and my relationship and communication with performance um those are as important as anything else that I can do as a head coach um and so I’ve certainly thought about all that stuff it’s it’s obviously going to be dependent on the roster um but yeah it’s I’m going to use math I’m going to use math hey JJ clar with the guardian first of all sorry right in front of you first of all happy birthday um second of all what misconceptions or concerns about you that you’ve heard in the last few weeks are you the most like looking forward to dispelling when you’re the coach um it’s a valid question and I’ve certainly heard everything um you know it’s it’s been a really interesting uh six weeks or so um just in terms of uh you know being part of the engagement farming uh industry you know it’s been really interesting um however I I I don’t really have a great answer for your uh question because I I really don’t give a like honestly I want to coach the Lakers I want to coach the team I don’t want to dispel anything I don’t I want to become a great coach in the NBA and I want to win championships and I want my players to maximize their careers that’s all I care about hey coach Timothy Parker Spectrum networks Los Angeles I talked to Ryan Holland about you he said you were very meticulous in your preparation and said you had one of the most cleanest lockers too how does that translate into being a head coach from a player to a head coach that same meticulousness yeah um look I I I’m sure there are coaches that uh have a certain level of OCD like me that have been super successful I’m sure there’s coaches that are messy that have been successful um you know I I I think I don’t think there’s like a a perfect sort of personality to be a coach um I have to be me though you know what I mean by that like I have to be me for me to be a good head coach I just have to be me I I trust in who I am I I I know what my weaknesses are I don’t know all my blind spots as a head coach let’s be honest I don’t because I haven’t done it yet um I know what my strengths are like I’m confident in myself and who I am um and if the OCD helps at all great it’ be fantastic I would I mean I would love it if I could walk in the coach’s locker room and everybody’s just as dialed in as I am with just how compartmentalized their locker is but it’s okay if it’s not that way hey JJ Jim Alexander from the Southern California news group welcome back to La by the way um with all the experience that you’ve had in various facets of this game are you anticipating that there’s going to become something there’s going to have something come up this year that you’re going to say oh boy I didn’t see that coming and how do you handle that yes um it wasn’t that question was it no uh my expectation around something coming up and and challenges um on the court off the court um the scrutiny all that stuff I have uh the highest of expectations that things are going to be there and yet I recognize it’s probably going to be worse than I could imagine um in terms of how I would handle it look I don’t know what’s the situation right what’s the situation um Rob and I talked during this process about a very specific thing and and goes back to one of my earlier answers like some things can’t be avoided some things I think can be avoided if you set those standards and expectations early and so when you get to game 60 and something happens you’ve already sort of built in the system for how to deal with that good one more Dennis Freeman uh the Comon bulletin uh coach what’s your priority as far as developing and evaluating talent at the G League level yeah um we we definitely talked about that during the process and I I think one of the things that we discussed um we discussed different hypotheticals of course um one of the things we discussed is like what what is the vision for how we’re trying to play and and so a big part of evaluating um players in the g-league uh second round picks undrafted players whatever guys on the summer league roster all of that thing is like can they fit with who we’re trying to be um and so you know I’ll just be honest with you a big a big thing for me is like you need two-way players you need guys that can guard uh to be a championship level team um so there’s going to be an emphasis on that whenever I evaluate anyone that we’re looking to sort of bring up on one of those last roster spots thank you

JJ Redick’s full Los Angeles Lakers head coach introductory press conference with Rob Pelinka. Redick speaks on his coaching inexperience, how he’s done with his podcasts, his relationship with LeBron James, and more.

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