JJ Redick just completed back-to-back 50-win seasons in his first two years as an NBA head coach, a feat the Los Angeles Lakers had not achieved since the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons. Yet he finished tied for seventh in Coach of the Year voting.
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Channing Frye, a good friend and former teammate of LeBron James, took that slight very personally. On his podcast, the Road Trippin’, he was questioned whether Redick was worthy of being honored with the award.
“For sure,” Frye said. “I think we take what JJ Redick has done with the Lakers for granted because you just feel a certain way about JJ Redick, or you go, ‘Well, he has LeBron and Luka.'”
The numbers underscore the limited support. Redick managed only three points, earned entirely from three third-place votes, placing him well behind winner Joe Mazzulla, who scored 392 points after receiving 62 first-place votes.
Redick did not crack the top half of the balloting even though the Lakers won 53 games and claimed the Pacific Division. Mitch Johnson of the San Antonio Spurs and J.B. Bickerstaff of the Detroit Pistons each collected well over 100 points, while Redick finished behind coaches such as Charles Lee and Jordan Ott, whose teams won fewer games than the Lakers.
The gap between wins and votes is precisely why Frye pressed his case. A team that navigated significant injuries to key contributors, including two of its top scorers, and still produced consecutive 50-win seasons ended up with the same modest point total as coaches whose clubs fell short of that mark.
Frye took the discussion even further by comparing Redick’s situation with those of other coaches who had access to a star talent.
“There have been a lot of players and coaches that have had LeBron and Luka, with all those injuries,” Frye added. “The Lakers play a brand of basketball that equates to winning, and they battled injuries, especially to two of their top three scorers.”
The Lakers earned the No. 4 seed in a competitive Western Conference. Both Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves dealt with injuries late in the season that limited them heading into the playoffs.
Still, Redick’s group advanced, eliminating the Houston Rockets in six games before falling to the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder in a four-game sweep in the conference semifinals.
In Redick’s words, speaking near the end of the season, the Lakers team is still far from being ready for championship contention.
“Yeah, I believe in continuity,” Redick said. “I do think that if you’re trying to win a championship, and this organization is. I’m trying to win a championship. I know Rob Pelinka is trying to win a championship, I know Jeanie is, I know Mark is. We’re trying to win a championship. So you have to be realistic and assess where you’re at, and we’re not good enough right now.”
His first season as head coach saw him take the Lakers to a 50-32 record and a third seed, despite having no prior coaching experience at any level, and he placed sixth in that year’s Coach of the Year awards, which were won by Kenny Atkinson.
Redick now owns two straight 50-win campaigns yet has never placed in the top three in either year’s balloting, an outcome Frye, Lakers fans, and others around the league view as an incomplete reflection of what he has already accomplished, with the denial of fuller credit remaining a live debate.