I suppose everyone still remembers the reaction to hiring JJ Redick as the Lakers coach. Remarks ranging from, ‘all JJ’s coached is his son’s youth basketball team’ to ‘he skipped the line to become the Lakers coach’ came flying from all over the place. Of course, while the no-coaching experience is a fact, the other side of that would be that he wasn’t the first to do so. There is also the aspect that the man is a wizard when it comes to the knowledge of the game and beyond.

But the criticisms continued, as they would. However, it seems that Shams Charania is here to put all of that to rest. At least until further occurrences. For now, though, Charania, in his ESPN debut, has amazing news of what Anthony Davis & Co. think of their new coach. From an anonymous source, that is.

“I have one person with the Lakers telling me the accountability and how detailed he is and focused with his game planning, his prep, his out-of-bound plays, that is what gets players up and gets excited about this. And right now, he has LeBron James and Anthony Davis’ buy-in. And that’s the most important part,” the new senior ESPN NBA Insider said in his appearance on Get Up.

Perhaps a major reason why Coach Redick is already gaining massive support is that he understands the pulse of the players. After all, he was an NBA player until three years ago. Moreover, Redick made it clear that he was all about analytics. In fact, Los Angeles has already installed cameras and backboard sensors to analyze workouts at the training complex and track how much players run during practice.

More importantly, though, JJ wanted to ensure their focus was on player development.

Coach Redick detailed his vision for the Lakers; has a specific plan for Anthony Davis

That was something the former sharpshooter made clear to Rob Pelinka during the hiring process. With LeBron James getting close to retiring (in all honesty, the man is well past the average retirement age, but this is the ‘King’ we are talking about. Father Time has nothing on him!) and Anthony Davis is also on that path (not retirement, but age), it’s only natural the franchise look towards their future.

And to that point, the Duke alum had a non-negotiable condition. “One thing that was non-negotiable was that everyone we hired was a sicko, a basketball sicko,” he said of his staff. Well, good for them!

But as of now, in the absence of Bron, everyone turns to AD. As such, JJ wants to try with Anthony Davis what the Lakers squad implemented in the 2019-20 season. We know that ‘The Brow’ has almost primarily played the center position for quite a long time. And while the 6’10, 253-pound big man has the skills to carry out his center duties effectively, he has wanted to get back to power forward as he believes it to be his natural position.

And after experimenting with the two-big lineup of Jaxson Hayes and Anthony Davis, JJ Redick is quite happy with the results. “What I really like is having AD at the four and him being able to be in that switching group while still having some size at the five with Jaxson. That part of it I like a lot,” he said.

Back in the 2019-20 season, Los Angeles had the enviable duo of Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee at center. As such, Davis found himself getting quite some time at power forward. And it was a success, too, considering they were arguably the best defensive team. Hopefully, we can see something along the same lines going forward.