Hate him or love him the under dog’s on top. Oh damn, sorry for busting out into song there. There is probably no player in the league who has been hated on more than J.J. Redick through the course of his college and pro career to this point. But why, because he went to Duke?
Personally, I can’t figure it out. The guy is a phenomenal shooter and has been working his ass off to crack the rotation in Orlando for the past couple of seasons. To no avail of course. Just when I thought he was going to be a useful piece to the Orlando Magic puzzle this season, along comes Courtney Lee and Mickael Pietrus to gobble up all his minutes at the 2 spot.
But when Courtney Lee came up lame for the final game in the Magic-Sixers series, Redick’s number was called. And he stepped up in a big way. He shot 5 for 7 from behind the arc, and really spread the floor with his clutch shooting. The biggest benefactors of his shooting however were Rashard Lewis, and Rafer Alston. They had seemingly wide open lanes to the hoop, and plenty of room to operate. Something they hadn’t had in previous games in that series.
Don’t get me wrong though, I realize J.J. Redick is the worst defender on the floor at any point, regardless of who you are playing. There is probably not a two guard in the league he can stop from blowing by him. But does he need to be a great defender? When you have long athletic players like Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, and Dwight Howard at your side to erase your mistakes, does it matter all that much? Sure Mickael Pietrus is a much better defensive option, but against a great defensive team like the Boston Celtics you need amazing outside shooters like Redick on the floor to keep the defense honest and spread the floor.
People often don’t realize the positive ripple effects a team gets from having a shooter like Redick on the floor. The defense can no longer cheat into the paint looking for strips, as this will give Dwight Howard more room to operate inside. It also means penetrating guards like Rafer Alston have more lanes to take the ball to the bucket. Why? Because if the shooters on the perimeter are weak, the defense will just collapse on Alston knowing there is no threat on the kick-out to the perimeter. However, if J.J. Redick is on the perimeter, and you collapse on Alston forcing him to kick-out, you may as well just add 3 points to the board. With the right amount of daylight and time to set his feet, Redick just doesn’t miss. I liken it to the effect that Steve Kerr, Toni Kukoc, and/or John Paxson had on the oppositions defense cheating off them to double team Michael Jordan when the Bulls were dominant in the 90’s. If they tried to cheat off the shooter to help on Jordan, Michael was more than willing to kick to the open man for the 3 point shot. If you don’t believe me, here is the proof to the right of the 1997 NBA Championship, Stockton cheated off of Kerr to help on Jordan taking the ball to the hoop, and the kick out to Kerr resulted in a game winning three point in Game 6.
J.J. Redick has shown in the last two Magic games, that when he gets an open look from the perimeter he’s going to knock it down. My only concern is that Stan Van Gundy doesn’t seem to be communicating to his team, specifically Hedo Turkoglu and Rafer Alston, that for the threat of the perimeter shot to be in the minds of the opposing defender and subsequently result in the spreading of the floor, you need to kick it out to him over once in a while and give him a look. That’s the only way to keep the defense honest. Last night I saw countless occasions where Ray Allen cheated way off of Redick into the paint, and the Magic failed to kick the ball out for the wide open look. Hedo Turkoglu force up numerous tough shots from 10-15 feet with a defender in his face, while Redick stood out on the arc, all alone with no body with in reach.
Maybe Ray Allen was showing no respect for Redick’s shot, but most likely the saavy veteran Ray Allen started to realize that regardless of how open he left Redick the Magic just weren’t kicking it out to him. Therefore he could be better used clogging up the middle. The Celtics comeback ensued.
Sure the Magic held on and took Game 1. But if Dwight Howard wants to make his life a lot easier on the block for the remainder of this series, he may want to encourage his teammates to give Redick the odd look on the perimeter.
I’ll leave you with this final thought from J.J. Redick about the Boston Garden fans. J.J. is ready, someone, anyone, please give him the rock…
