LA Clippers: What J.J. Redick can do against the Utah Jazz
Defensive…Prowess?
J.J. Redick is not known as a premiere defender. He’s not long, nor is he very athletic. However, what he lacks in the physical department, he more than makes up for in the mental department. J.J. gives it his all and often seems to be in the right spot on defense. His thought process allows him to play solid team defense. This is something that was drilled into him by his former head coach, Stan Van Gundy:
"“When you have a great commitment to winning like J.J. does and you play hard and you’re tough and you’re smart as hell, you’re gonna be a pretty good defender, especially as a team guy,” Van Gundy said. “Smart, tough guys who want to win, it usually won’t be too hard for them to pick up the defense.”"
In the Playoffs, J.J. will do just that. He’s a very driven individual and will be able to turn his defensive play up another notch. For most of the series, J.J. will most likely be matched up against Rodney Hood and Joe Johnson. Hood is the Jazz’s 4th leading scorer, averaging 12.9 points per game. With more focus going onto the other premier players for the Jazz, J.J. will have to make sure he wins his match-up more often than not.
Past Proof
Let’s not forget that just a few years ago, J.J. was asked to cover James Harden in the Clippers’ ill fated series against the Houston Rockets. Despite losing the series in the worst way possible, J.J. was a very serviceable defender. ESPN even broke down how smart J.J. was when defending Harden.
"Defenders are trained to leverage their strengths, and Harden uses that against his opponents. He interprets size and length as merely a bigger strike zone for drawing contact. Aggressive defense gets faked into aggressively pursuing nothing or into fouling its focus. This is why J.J. Redick did such a counterintuitively good job on Harden last series. Redick isn’t long and isn’t experienced in pressuring the ball. So, he positioned himself in front of his mark, gave Harden some room and stayed keyed on where his torso moved. When Harden attempted to draw contact, Redick whipped his hands up and away, like he was playing bloody knuckles."
J.J. should keep applying his defensive savy against the Jazz. Basically, if this series goes south, it won’t mainly be due to lack of defense by J.J.