Is JJ Redick the Lakers’ next savior or scapegoat?

Lakers coaches have a rough history

BY TRAVIS MORAN

The Lakers have nailed down JJ Redick as their next head coach. MADDIE MEYER/GETTY IMAGES

This week, the Los Angeles Lakers hired ESPN broadcaster and former NBA player JJ Redick as their new head coach. Replacing the fired Darvin Ham, Redick will be the Lakers’ eighth head coach since Phil Jackson left the position vacant following the 2010-2011 season. 

“High on prestige [but] shit in every other way,” is how one Western Conference scout describes the Lakers job. But anyone who coaches the Lakers receives, if nothing else, professional street cred and global spotlight. Controlling owner and team president Jeanie Buss also understands the intrinsic connection between label and reputation. Even in this liminal state—even after a Boston Celtics championship—the Lakers and LeBron James remain the NBA’s marquee brands. 

Buss once fought her brothers in court for control of the organization, worried that any executive they chose would “fire [Magic] Johnson and ‘cause irreversible damage to the Lakers team and to the brand.’” After UConn’s Dan Hurley, the franchise’s first choice to replace Ham, rebuffed the Lakers, some felt that wounded the brand. Now the Lakers will do their best to sell Redick as their latest coaching messiah—and as the ideal manifestation of Magic’s vision for a former-player coach who will “hold everyone accountable.” 

The question now becomes whether Redick will make the Lakers true championship contenders and win their first ring since Ham’s predecessor, Frank Vogel, steered the Lakers to the 2019-2020 NBA title. 

If he does, he’ll join Riley and Jackson as previous Lakers saviors. If not, he will join a long line of scapegoats.