A great coach can raise the floor of a mediocre team in the NBA. We’ve seen it time and again — upstart teams often find their spark through the tutelage of a great coach. Maybe said coach is an elite play designer, maybe their rotations are flawless, maybe they connect with the players and bring the best out of their roster.
Whatever the case, it’s not uncommon for a team to find success thanks to coaching… until it’s time to compete with the best in the league deep in the playoffs. That’s usually when a lack of roster talent catches up to a team, and that’s the situation JJ Redick might be facing in year two.
The Lakers roster is not mediocre: It’s good. Maybe really good. Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves provide one of the highest floors in the league. Solid role players in Jake LaRavia and Rui Hachimura bump the ceiling up to deep playoff contenders, and JJ Redick, with a full year of coaching under his belt, realistically gives this team WCF hopes.
But as great coaches can usually pull mediocre rosters to the edge of the postseason, they can also carry good rosters to, well, usually about the conference finals. That’s usually when a good roster, no matter how well-coached, is outmatched by a great roster that is also well-coached.
Take last year’s WCF; the Wolves, a good roster with a very good coach, were dispatched easily by the Thunder, a great roster with a very good coach. Chris Finch has been awesome in charge of the Wolves — and there was pretty much no chance that he could cook up anything that would give his team a chance in that series.
Is the Lakers roster dynamic enough to compete?
Redick might run into that same problem when the playoffs roll around. Even if he improves as a coach in year two (which I presume he will) and the team performs as well as it can, his biggest problem might be that the Lakers simply run out of firepower against the league’s elite.
The center rotation, while better, still raises plenty of questions. Are Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes reliable in a playoff series? Is there enough diversity of skill on the wing, or will the combo of Rui Hachimura and Jake LaRavia feel redundant? Will LeBron, set to turn 41 this season, finally lose some steam?
These questions don’t have immediate answers. Nonetheless, JJ Redick has his work cut out for him in 2025-26. Even if he’s at his best, the Lakers will have a ceiling they need to break through in a cramped and crowded Western Conference.