On Tuesday, it was announced that Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was named the 2025-26 NBA Coach of the Year. It wasn’t much of a surprise, as he guided the Celtics to a 56-26 record and the second seed in the Eastern Conference, even though franchise player Jayson Tatum was out until March after tearing his Achilles in last year’s playoffs.
Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick did a fine job by getting his team to win 53 regular-season games and claim the Western Conference’s fourth seed despite numerous injuries to key players. He didn’t receive any first or second-place votes in the Coach of the Year balloting, but he got three third-place votes, resulting in him finishing seventh in the voting.
Ever since the Lakers hired Redick nearly two years ago, plenty of people have doubted that he has been the right man to coach the team, especially given that he had virtually no coaching experience and was LeBron James’ co-host on the “Mind the Game” podcast. But Redick has been gradually showing that he not only has the basketball acumen for the job but also the requisite leadership skills.
Fans are hoping that next season, he will have a good enough roster to guide the Lakers to the NBA championship.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: How Lakers’ JJ Redick did in Coach of the Year balloting
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
