The Opening Tip

• Gregg Popovich won’t be the Spurs’ head coach next year. More here. 

• Jalen Brunson is nasty 

• The Miami Heat are washed

Tonight’s playoff game

1. JJ Redick is just Darvin Ham with a thesaurus

You might remember JJ Redick. He’s the one who hosted a few contrived podcast episodes with LeBron last year, then woke up a few days later as the Lakers head coach. He got to that point by getting angry on First Take, being mean to Bob Cousy, tweeting like Nets-era Kyrie Irving, and generally positioning himself as the smartest guy in the room. 

When he got the Lakers job, he presented his BIG ideas, spoke like a thesaurus, lectured us about a college player who averaged 4 PPG, and threw shade at Darvin Ham, who had coached LA to a Western Conference Finals in his first season.

Redick’s first season as Lakers coach ended on Wednesday to the Wolves, in a five-game loss in the first round as the favored 3 seed. (Remember: 11 of 12 ESPN people picked them to win the series.)

Here’s how he handled it: Poorly. Redick stormed out of the pre-Game 5 press conference because someone asked him about an obvious strategic failure the game before. Watch it here. His disdain for the blockheads among him is palpable. 

During the Game 5 broadcast, we learned Reggie MIller had to ask him to stop acting like a child in a production meeting. After his season ended, Redick threw shade at Luka (which, fair) and gagged up these six words: ‘I can be a lot better.’ 

There’s no way he believes that, because he believes he’s perfect.

[WATCH: Charles Barkley roasts JJ Redick]

2. Daily GIF: Brunson FTW

To quote a Knicks fan friend: ‘Brunson absolutely shook his candy ass’

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3. Trivia

4. How much rope do these guys get?

As long as this newsletter is alive, we will ask this question: If the Heat have the best coach, a great GM and the No. 1 market advantage in the NBA, why are they .500 (or worse) every year? 

The gilded era of Jimmy Butler dragging this team past its reasonable ceiling is over. The underbelly is this: The current Heat are an underachieving franchise with two untouchtables guiding the team toward nowhere in particular, with supreme job security.

Why? You have to assume it’s those two fluky Finals runs. Otherwise, this is the body of work since LeBron left in 2014: 

• One 50-win season

• Three straight years as an 8 seed 

• 1.5-ish homegrown stars (Bam, Tyler Herro)

• 3 million non-trades for available superstars 

Pat Riley is on the precipice of self-awareness. Erik Spoelstra is a LeBron/Jimmy merchant. Here’s to five more years of those two doing nothing despite every advantage.

Quick hits

• LeBron is doing the thing where he takes no responsibility for anything. 

• Celtics are massive favorites against the Knicks.

• Tyrese Haliburton’s dad has been banned from all Pacers games.

• Interesting offseason subplot: When/if Luka will sign his $229M extension.

• The Suns quietly demoted/fired James Jones as GM. 

• Jalen Brunson’s series-winner last night got the rare double-bang from Mike Breen.

• Fact we just found out: Kevin Love’s dad, Stan, who just died, was the brother of Mike Love, member of the Beach Boys.

Reads + Pods

• This version of Jamal Murray could swing the NBA playoffs [The Ringer]

• What a championship says for these teams [ESPN]

• Big Lakers ambitions squished by, of all people, Rudy Gobert [Defector]

That's the buzzer.
Thanks for reading the 396th edition of The Grip.