NBA Insiders: JJ Redick Was Not Ready for the Moment vs Timberwolves

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J.J. Redick
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It took staying up into the wee hours of the evening but the Minnesota Timberwolves are flying back from Los Angeles as first round victors, after their 103-96 win in game 5 finished off the Lakers for good. Pretty much everyone nationally picked against the Wolves before the series, but by the end of game one, it was clear there were problems in tinkletown with this matchup.

LeBron James and Luka Doncic provide all sorts of problems, sure, but with Anthony Edwards leading the way, Minnesota has plenty of its own star power… and waaaaaay more depth than the Lakers, after their front office sent it all to Dallas for Luka.

And by the time round one started to heat up, there seemed to be another clear Timberwolves advantage: Coaching. Chris Finch has his critics, but we saw the antithesis of the coach Finchy is, with J.J. Redick during what wound up being a 5-game series.

JJ Redick - NBA: Playoffs - Los Angeles Lakers at Minnesota Timberwolves
Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images

Throughout the first round, Reddick often looked flustered, frustrated and openly willing to cuss out his players (and media members) publicly. Those have never been traits we’ve seen displayed by the almost always calm, cool and collected Chris Finch

Minnesota Timberwolves make a mockery of JJ Redick

Anything Lakers is going to dominate the headlines, nationally. If it’s an upset 1-3 season-ending playoff loss to podunk Minnesota… now that requires special attention. And under the bright lights of LA, they don’t like losing to teams from states they can’t name the capitals of.

On First Take (ESPN) Thursday, Stephen A. Smith and Brian Windhorst had their crosshairs focused on JJ Redick took plenty of the fire.

“I don’t mean this in a personal way, JJ Redick coached very immaturely in this series. He was still seething and upset about the previous games to the point where Reggie Miller said on the broadcast last night he had to try to calm him down in the pregame meeting because JJ was acting, frankly, childishly. He walked off and storm off in the pregame session with reporters. Regardless of the question, it’s not the way to start.

Not only did he double down on his, frankly, irrational decision not to substitute for an entire half in a playoff game. He doubled down on that. Then, in this game, he played a guy who hadn’t played in three months ahead of centers that he had on his roster.”

Brian Windhorst – Get UP (ESPN)

It was always going to be an uphill battle for the Lakers to contend with Minnesota’s size, even if nobody wanted to see it beforehand. After rescinding a trade for Mark Williams earlier this season, and dealing Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic, Los Angeles had no answer for Rudy Gobert or Julius Randle.

Of course, that was especially evident during game five as Gobert finished with an easy 27 points and 24 rebounds. He was able to constantly mop up misses and found his way to the bucket without any resistance.

Related: What We Learned About the MN Timberwolves in Series Clinching Win Over Lakers

Jaxson Hayes, the Lakers 7’0″ center, got a whopping 30 total minutes in the series and didn’t play at all in game five. Minnesota dominated in the painted area as well. They had a 56-to-40 points advantage in game five and they outrebounded the lakes 54-to-37.

Was JJ Redick in over his head vs Timberwolves?

JJ Redick acted like a child when asked about his substitution decisions after game four. It was reflective of a coach with few levers left to pull, and the heavy lifting required by both LeBron and Luka to make up for roster construction and their coach was never going to be enough.

At 40 years old, Redick is in the first season as an NBA head coach. He’s the same age as his superstar LeBron James. His inability to adjust in the biggest games of the season was exposed in this series.

It wasn’t just Windhorst taking a shot at the young Lakers coach. Former NBA big man Kendrick Perkins joined Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter to discuss Redick’s role in the loss as well.

“‘I’m JJ Redick, I know basketball more than anybody in the world. I’m going to stick with this small-ball lineup no matter how big the Minnesota Timberwolves are. I’m going to do it my way because I only care about offense. Forget the fact that they have Rudy (Gobert) and Julius Randle has been punishing us in the paint. Jaden McDaniels has been going off in this series. I’m going to stick with a 40-year old LeBron James playing the center position’…Scott, it was ridiculous. I never want to do this and blame this series on one individual, but I have to blame this series on JJ Redick.

When it comes down to the postseason, as a coach, you have to make adjustments. When you see that things aren’t going as planned…and you lose this series in five, then you have to take the blame for this. You didn’t make any adjustments whatsoever.”

Kendrick Perkins – ESPN

It’s very possible JJ Redick has a long and notable career as a head coach. We’ll see if he learns from his mistakes in this series. No doubt, some introspection would serve him well.

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