The Corner Three: Zo on Five Burning Free Agency Questions & Spike on Why JJ Redick Will Fail as Lakers Coach
Only one round of the postseason left!
1. What do you make of the newest Jimmy Butler rumor, that the Sixers are not only willing to trade for him but also will offer him a max contract?
First of all, I think everything is posturing. Jimmy is using the Sixers, Sixers using Jimmy, and the list goes on. That said, I think Daryl Morey and crew should not do the deal just so ownership can feel like they’re righting some years-old wrong, but only of it’s the best option and best deal to make – and quite frankly, until Paul George puts ink to paper while having a sip on Steve Balmer’s yacht, it probably isn’t.
Basketball-wise, though, they could do a lot worse. I’m of the personal belief that Jimmy, while insanely frustrating and weird at times, plays his absolute best when there’s a disrespectful chip on his shoulder – and what better way to ensure that’s the case than for the Heat to essentially say “thanks but no thanks, enjoy Philly (again)”?
2. If Paul George truly is Plan A, what kind of pivot do you think is in place for if it doesn’t work out?
So hard to answer, but I really don’t know if whatever they consider Plan B or C would even be available to them should they spend the first week of free agency on a date with PG. That’s why I think it’s so crucial for Morey to not get tunnel-visioned here: Can’t go after Paul George and still see the guy you tried to get many times when you were with the Rockets, you need to be much more objective than that.
3. Brian Windhorst said the Sixers are “lurking” as a real possibility for LeBron James. Really?
I buy that the Sixers will gleefully meet with and offer to pay LeBron but I just can’t see him abandoning L.A., given his business setup – basketball and everything else aside, even. That’s really it; nothing Sixers-related has shocked me in so long but I would be genuinely floored if this happened.
4. Do you think the Sixers will keep the 16th pick?
That pick is as good as gone — most likely for a readily available contributor or a guy on a rookie deal who they already know can hoop and won’t have to wait long for.
5. How would you address the backup center position in draft/free agency?
My first choice would be Andre Drummond but can absolutely be talked into a dude younger and with growing upside. I love BBall Paul, but should he not be shipped out because of that extremely trade-friendly contract, I think his future here next year is as a power forward.
SPIKE’S CORNER - JJ Redick Is Going To Fail
JJ Redick is going to be the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. I can’t believe that’s a real, true sentence that I just wrote but it is. Likely sometime after the NBA Finals, we’ll get to see the Lakers’ slimy GM introduce their slimy new coach at a press conference, as LeBron tweets something like “wow man!! Good for JJ!! One of the best basketball minds. This is a shocker!! #CoachJJ #TacoTuesday.”
There are a number of reasons why this job is mostly impossible and he’s going to fail. But the biggest one isn’t what you’d think. (No, it’s not the commute from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.)
The standard reasons are all valid: It’s a win-now job for a team that cannot win now. It’s a high pressure environment because it’s LeBron and the Lakers and everything will be under an insane microscope. JJ Redick has never coached before at any level and has never worked in the NBA aside from being a player. Everyone on the team knows that it’s LeBron’s podcast partner. Some insane Lakers fans have even posited to me that the reason that Rob Pelinka is hiring JJ Redick is because he wants it to be perceived that LeBron was involved and wanted the coach even though LeBron had nothing to do with it, simply for job security. Look, it’s not a healthy situation.
(Spike’s note in Spike’s article: I was going to write something about the Celtics today but AU said he was writing about the Celtics so I was like well ah shit, I’ll just write about JJ Redick and write about the Celtics next week.)
But the real reason that JJ Redick is going to fail is because he’s never going to be able to handle the media. If that wasn’t obvious before, it’s obvious now.
Redick did his most cringeworthy interview yet for 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston, a sports radio station. It was full of normal questions like “Who do you think should have been the Eastern Conference Finals MVP,?” and “Should Jayson Tatum shoot fewer threes?” and “If Boston doesn’t win the title, why do you think that is?” Completely normal questions. Of course they wanted real answers, which only would annoy two people on the planet. One is Mike, of course, but the other is JJ Redick. His answers were so unnecessarily combative and condescending that it makes it hard to get through the entire interview without yelling.
This is obviously not the first time Redick has scoffed at a normal sports question or debate. We’ve seen it happen numerous times during his debate show appearances on ESPN. So if your response to my theory here is “I’m sure he knows what he’s getting into as Lakers coach,” I might ask back, “Do you think he knew what he was getting into when he agreed to go on FIRST TAKE?”
I’m not sure that Redick understands that these are the sort of questions from the sort of people that he’s going to have to deal with every single day, sometimes multiple times per day. There are some coaches that are able to get away with being enormous condescending dickheads (Doc, Pop, etc…) but they have the advantage of being old as shit and not giving a fuck, so most people think it’s cute. Redick will not be given that free pass. In today’s world, on that team, every time that he’s an asshole it’s going to be clipped and shown ad nauseam (as it should be).
Unless the Lakers are the best team in the NBA, the job of consistently answering people that he feels like are dumber than him will be too painful for him to manage, and he’s too egotistical or stupid to be able to hide it. He will most likely drown.
I’m going to have to start a second basketball podcast just breaking down JJ Redick’s press conferences. I’ll call it “Mind the Game That Is Minding the Game.” Perhaps JJ can be my co-host after he gets fired. The one with LeBron might be awkward.