NBA insider rips ‘immature’ Lakers head coach JJ Redick following first-round exit
from Eric Smithling, with YardBarker.com/www.yardbarker.com
NBA insider Brian Windhorst held nothing back when examining why the Lakers were bounced in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, offering particularly harsh criticism of his former ESPN colleague, Lakers head coach JJ Redick.
The Lakers lost to the Timberwolves, 103-96, on Wednesday, ending the series 4-1. Los Angeles lost three consecutive games after splitting the first two of the series.
Windhorst ripped Redick’s questionable lineups and “immature” behavior, in addition to the team’s poor roster construction that left it without a frontcourt presence following the stunning Luka Doncic trade.
“I don’t mean this in a personal way: JJ Redick coached very immaturely in this series,” said Windhorst during Thursday’s edition of ESPN’s “Get Up.” (h/t Awful Announcing)
“He was still seething and upset about the previous game,” Windhorst added, before resharing an anecdote from TNT color commentator Reggie Miller, who said during Wednesday night’s broadcast that he had to calm Redick down during a pregame meeting.
“JJ was acting, frankly, childishly,” Windhorst said.
Windhorst also mentioned Redick walked out of a pregame news conference after becoming angry over a question about his rotations, which the NBA insider criticized as a poor look.
Arguably, Windhorst’s harshest criticism of Redick came when discussing the Lakers lineup. He described Redick’s decision to use only five players for the entirety of the second half of Game 4, a 116-113 loss, as “irrational” and ripped him for “doubling down” on the strategy afterward.
“And then, in this game,” Windhorst continued, “he put a guy [Maxi Kleber] who hadn’t played in three months ahead of centers he had on his roster.”
“Kleber’s on the court with five minutes to go in a two-possession game. That is not a rational decision,” Windhorst asserted.
The Lakers boldly hired Redick, a former 15-year veteran and podcast host, as head coach in June 2024 despite him having no prior coaching experience.
While he fared better than most expected as a rookie head coach in guiding the Lakers to the West’s No. 3 seed, Redick’s inexperience was partly to blame for his team’s quick playoff exit.
The Lakers have a lot of work to do with their roster this offseason to avoid a similar fate in 2026, but their head coach has just as much, if not more, room for improvement.
As anyone who watched Redick on ESPN’s morning shows last season knows, the former Duke Blue Devil often presents himself as the smartest in the room. There’s a fine line between knowledgeable and condescending, and he would routinely fall into the latter.
“I know I can be better,” Redick said in the immediate aftermath of the Lakers’ Wednesday loss. At least one of his former co-workers agrees.