Los Angeles Lakers head coach J.J. Redick hasn’t coached a regular-season game in the NBA. Yet one former coach in the league in Stan Van Gundy has already compared him to longtime Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr in the sense that they were both players in the league before they became coaches.
“He’s somebody that really had to learn the game and rely on what he knew about the game and how to play it,” Van Gundy told the Southern California News Group. “It’s something he had to give a lot of thought to. NBA basketball is very hard for anyone playing it. It requires a lot of work, but some guys it requires more of to be able to compete at that level. And he’s certainly one of those guys.
“I think you can compare him to what Steve Kerr did. I think there’s a lot of similarities there.”
If Redick can enjoy even a fraction of the success that Kerr has during his tenure leading the Warriors from the sidelines, fans of the Lakers will likely be thrilled.
Kerr has been the head coach of the Warriors since the 2014-15 season, and during that span, Golden State has probably been the most dominant team in the league. He has coached the team to four titles — in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022 — and six NBA Finals appearances since he replaced Mark Jackson.
Granted, while Kerr is widely perceived as one of the league’s elite coaches, it’s unlikely he would have four titles to his name as a head coach if it weren’t for all of the talented players he has been fortunate enough to coach. During his tenure, the Warriors have employed the likes of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant, all of whom will probably be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame at one point or another.
Fortunately for Redick, the Lakers have an all-time great player on their roster in LeBron James. Anthony Davis is one of the top big men in the NBA as well, and when he’s at his best, he can dominate both sides of the ball.
Davis and James have also proven that Los Angeles can make deep playoff runs with them as a star duo. The pair led the Lakers to the 2020 NBA title, and more recently, Los Angeles reached the 2023 Western Conference Finals as the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference.
The Warriors saw success right away under Kerr, as they won the title in his first year as head coach. The Lakers may have to do the same under Redick in order to validate Van Gundy’s comparison between the two.
