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"He has a tendency to seethe" - Brian Windhorst questions JJ Redick’s "immature" coaching style
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- "He has a tendency to seethe" - Brian Windhorst questions JJ Redick’s "immature" coaching style
There is no other way to put it: the Los Angeles Lakers have been terrible in the past few games. They lost their third straight after getting routed by the Houston Rockets 119-106 on Christmas Day.
Their head coach, JJ Redick , wanted his team, as well as the rest of the NBA world, to know how disappointed he is in them after their recent struggles.
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Redick felt that the Lakers needed some good old-fashioned tough love. He has been doing it publicly during post-game press conferences in the past week, taking shots at some of his players for not knowing a play and criticizing the team's lack of defensive effort.
ESPN's Brian Windhorst said Redick's lack of experience is showing, emphasizing the need for the young coach to maintain his composure after tough losses.
"I think he's a very tactically strong coach," Windhorst said on the Hoop Collective. "But he has a tendency to seethe and it shows."
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Redick's tendencies
Before his coaching stint, JJ was an analyst for ESPN. Watching the 15-year NBA vet get into heated discussions on "First Take," Windy said he is not surprised by Redick's frankness.
"He would sometimes seethe on First Take. Stephen A or Mad Dog would get under his skin, and he would seethe on there," the analyst explained.
This tendency has been evident in his coaching since he took over as head coach in 2024, as seen in his verbal altercations with officials and the use of irate timeouts early in a game.
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Now, the second-year coach is openly expressing his disappointment to the media and the fans, saying that the Lakers " do not care enough to be professional ." For Windy, his tendency to seethe is a character flaw that Redick will learn how to fix in time. Last year, he criticized the coach for this exact reason, calling his coaching immature .
"We all have pluses and minuses. This is one of the things that he's gonna deal with. He lets it come out a little bit. He gets a little bit loose," he said. "I suspect when he gets to be a more veteran coach, he won't let that happen."
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Does JJ need to show accountability?
After their loss to the Rockets, their sixth in the last 10 games, the Lakers held the fourth spot in the Western Conference with a 19-10 record. With their offense as their only saving grace, thanks to Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves , their defense has been the biggest issue.
However, ESPN's Kendrick Perkins believes that the burden to improve shouldn't solely rest on the team – Redick needs to pick up his own slack, too, as head coach. The analyst slammed him for this.
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" JJ Redick — everybody find it cute and funny when he goes on these rants and publicly calls out his team," he said . "But JJ Redick got to do better as well. It's always everybody else's fault, but not JJ Redick. That's a problem for me."
If Redick continues this trend, Perkins believes it would likely cause tension within the team, exacerbating the Lakers' struggles.
"When your team is not responding, and your team is not putting the effort that's needed to compete at a high level, that means they are not listening to the coach, and the respect level is not there," Big Perk added.
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When he was still an analyst, Redick called out Milwaukee head coach Doc Rivers for always throwing his players under the bus. Now, he's doing the same thing.
Perhaps, in this case, the Lakers need this type of tough coaching amid their subpar play. But constant seething will not help him or the team in the long run, as Perkins has noted. So, he needs to keep the team's woes inside the locker room.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Dec 27, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
