NBA Coach of the Year power rankings: Where does Lakers coach JJ Redick stand?

There aren't many people that could have pictured JJ Redick coaching the Los Angeles Lakers, and coaching them quite well, at this time a year ago.

Last November, Redick was known for his popular basketball podcast The Old Man and the Three, and for his work as an announcer and analyst as part of ESPN's NBA coverage. It wasn't until this March that he began a new podcast with LeBron James called Mind the Game, and that marked the point where speculation began to really brew that he might be a serious coaching candidate.

Less than two months later, Darvin Ham was fired after just two seasons as Lakers head coach, and that's when the Redick hype train really left the station. NBA fans really enjoyed themselves this summer as they followed the Lakers' coaching drama as the team pursued UConn head coach Danny Hurley before ultimately going with Redick when the back-to-back NCAA Tournament champ turned them down.

Nobody knew quite what to expect from Redick in his first year on the job. Those in and around the game certainly respected him for his long playing career and obvious knowledge of the game, but at the same time, this was a guy that hadn't coached anything beyond youth basketball before taking over one of the most prestigious and highly-scrutinized jobs in all of sports. Anything was possible.

We're now 15 games into the regular season, and Redick has passed every test with flying colors. The Lakers are 10-5 (and should really be 11-4 if not for a handful of missed free throws in the waning moments of Thursday night's home loss to the Magic). That's a 55-win pace, and currently good for the 4-seed in the Western Conference.

Redick has made his mark in a number of ways. He's pushed the Lakers to take more threes, and though they still don't rank in the top half of the league in attempts from deep, they're up from dead last a year ago to 24th this year, and their efficiency from behind the line has them ranked 16th in makes.

The rookie coach has re-engineered the Lakers' offense both outside and inside the arc. L.A. is relying less on isolation and is sharing the ball willingly this year, and Redick has installed Anthony Davis as the sun around which the entire offense orbits. AD is putting up a career year as a result.

Redick has also made smart lineup tweaks such as sending D'Angelo Russell to the bench in favor of rookie Dalton Knecht, a move that has benefited both players. Russell's absence from the starting five has put the ball in LeBron's hands more, which history has shown us is always a good thing. LBJ has responded by posting monster numbers, including the third-best assist rate in the league and a career-high in three-point percentage.

Thursday night's loss to Orlando notwithstanding, the Lakers have been tough as nails in close games. This is a testament to Redick's late-game problem-solving ability, which is why L.A. is 8-2 this year in games decided by single digits.

Redick has made it clear that his main goal is to win games and championships, but he's also putting on a hell of a campaign for NBA Coach of the Year. Where does he rank as of now amongst other NBA head coaches?

There's a clear leader in the NBA Coach of the Year race, but JJ Redick may be next in line

There is no shortage of quality candidates for Coach of the Year through the first portion of the NBA season. Let's rank the top 10 to see where Redick stands.

10. Joe Mazzulla, Boston Celtics

Joe Mazzulla has come a long way since being vilified for losing to the Miami Heat in the 2022-23 Eastern Conference Finals. He guided the Celtics to one of the most stress-free championships in recent memory last season, but it's unheard of for a coach to win a title and then win Coach of the Year just one year later, because expectations are already sky-high. Boston is the favorite to repeat. To win this award, Mazzulla would have to break the Warriors' all-time wins record.

9. Mark Daigneault, Oklahoma City Thunder

Nobody has ever won the NBA Coach of the Year award two years in a row, which means that Mark Daigneault is probably not in the running after taking home the hardware last year. He also faces a similar problem to Mazzulla, in that the Thunder are favored to be the 1-seed in the West, so unless he puts up a truly gaudy win total, few people will be impressed enough to bestow him with their votes again. Oklahoma City is incredibly young, and Daigneault has done a masterful job, but this one just isn't happening.

8. Taylor Jenkins, Memphis Grizzlies

Mazzulla and Daigneault have done outstanding jobs with stacked rosters, but Taylor Jenkins has managed to keep the Grizzlies above .500 in the West despite enduring the worst string of injury luck in the league. It might be easier to list which players haven't been injured on Memphis than which ones have, but we'll try anyway. Ja Morant is still week-to-week with the hip injury he suffered earlier ths month. Desmond Bane is back after missing seven games with an oblique strain. Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard and Vince Williams Jr. have all missed extended time too. Somehow, Jenkins has held it all together.

7. Ty Lue, Los Angeles Clippers

Ty Lue is one of the most respected coaches in the league, but he's never won the NBA's highest coaching honor. He may have a chance to change that this year, because what he's done with a depleted roster is worthy of recognition. The Clippers lost Paul George in free agency and haven't yet gotten a single minute out of Kawhi Leonard, yet Lue has L.A. at 9-7 while crafting the team around a 35-year-old James Harden, a suddenly All-NBA-level Norman Powell and a new stadium with a nifty new feature called "The Wall." Lue has been given lemons and has made lemonade.

6. J.B. Bickerstaff, Detroit Pistons

At 7-10, the Pistons have the worst record of any coach represented on this list, which should tell you how bad things were before J.B. Bickerstaff took over. Monty Williams proved to be one of the most disastrous head coaching hires (not to mention one of the most expensive) in sports history, but Bickerstaff has the Pistons looking like an actual NBA team after five years in which they never won more than 23 games in a season. Cade Cunningham has taken a major leap with Bickerstaff's guidance, and he's also learned to coexist with backcourt mate Jaden Ivey, a super-talented player that Williams largely ignored. If the Pistons can hang around .500, Bickerstaff deserves COTY consideration.

5. Jamahl Mosley, Orlando Magic

Many NBA insiders pegged the Magic as one of the teams poised to ascend to a new level this year, but that was when they thought that Paolo Banchero would be on the court. Banchero looked like the league's newest superstar in Orlando's first five games, but a torn right oblique is set to keep him out until at least Christmas. Nevertheless, Jamahl Mosley has steered the Magic to seven wins in their last eight games, including an epic win over the previously-undefeated-at-home Lakers on Thursday night. Mosley's team is tenacious defensively and unbeatable at home (only the Magic and Cavs are now undefeated on their home court), and he's used Banchero's absence to instill a newfound confidence in Franz Wagner, who hung 37 points and the game-winning three on the Lakers with under three seconds to play.

4. Steve Kerr, Golden State Warriors

Steve Kerr is no stranger to the Coach of the Year award, as he won it when he led his Warriors to a record 73 wins in 2015-16. Golden State has undergone multiple evolutions since that team dominated the league, and Kerr has done some of his best work in this, the first year of the post-Splash Brothers era. Klay Thompson is gone to Dallas, but the Warriors have only gotten better since adding Buddy Hield. Kerr has overseen an Andrew Wiggins renaissance while trusting his young players with larger role, and he's guided Golden State to an 11-3 record and the current 1-seed in the West. Eleven different coaches have won multiple Coach of the Year awards, and Kerr is more than deserving of joining that list.

3. Ime Udoka, Houston Rockets

Ime Udoka's time in Boston ended unceremoniously, but he's molded the Rockets into a legit contender almost immediately. Last season, Udoka conjured up a 19-win turnaround as he got the Rockets to .500 for the first time in four years, and this time around, his team looks like one of the best in a loaded Western Conference. The Rockets are ranked second in defensive rating in the entire league, and on offense they don't have one alpha, they have 10 guys that can beat you. Houston is one of the youngest teams in the league, but Udoka has quickened the development of Alperen Sengun, Jalen Green, Jabari Smith, Tari Eason and Amen Thompson to such a degree that this team looks poised to contend well into the future. Because of Udoka, the Rockets are well ahead of schedule.

2. JJ Redick, Los Angeles Lakers

After such a glowing preamble up top, we finally get to JJ Redick. We've extolled most of his virtues already, but what we didn't mention was the enormous pressure he was under from the moment he accepted this job. Whether Lakers fans expected anything of him or not, history has shown that being LeBron's head coach is not a position with a long lifespan, which meant Redick needed to show right away that he could hack it in the league. His work ethic has already become (in)famous, as Baron Davis reported (and Redick later admitted) that he saw the new Lakers coach studying film while at a car wash. Redick has made it clear that he intends to earn people's respect through his coaching, and he's doing an exemplary job of it so far.

1. Kenny Atkinson, Cleveland Cavaliers

As good as Redick and the rest of this list has been, Kenny Atkinson of the Cavs is running away with this award like Usain Bolt in the final 50 meters. It's nearly Thanksgiving, and Cleveland just lost its first game of the season earlier this week, then immediately bounced back with a 28-point win to move to 16-1. Atkinson has not only made Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland coexist, he's made them thrive. Evan Mobley has tapped into more of his considerable potential in Atkinson's first year, while the Cavs' bench has the highest net rating in the NBA. Atkinson was working wonders in Brooklyn with a no-name roster before being poisoned by the toxic Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving-James Harden "Big Three." It's safe to say that he's making the most of his second chance in the first seat.