After signing a lucrative one-year, $23 million contract, J.J. Redick has shown he is worth every penny … and then some.
Now I know that no expert on the planet will ever say that J.J. Redick is the best player on Brett Brown’s Philadelphia 76ers team. However, his importance this year has gone way beyond his original title of “vet leader”.
Redick is the second-leading scorer on the team. Think about that for a second. A 34-year-old is the second-leading scorer on one of the best teams in the league. That is remarkable, to say the least.
Redick deserves his credit for a being a key cog in “the process”. His shooting on the court has done wonders to the 76ers. To go along with that, according to the team’s staff, he has been vital in the development of the younger players.
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There really isn’t much more you could ask Redick to do. His addition to this team is turning out to be one of the 76ers best offseason acquisitions in a considerable amount of time.
A Career Year
Along with helping the team, J.J. Redick is personally having the best year of his career. His statistics in every category are up from his career averages. Most notably, he is averaging over four more points than his old average of 12.3 points per game. This is also on pace to be his highest scoring year ever.
Now some would point to the talented players around him and say that they are the the reason for his scoring spike. And honestly, they may have a point, the players around Redick have really helped him thrive in this system.
What needs to be noted, though, is that Redick has had a history of playing on good teams. He has played with stars before, like Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, and Blake Griffin. Despite all of this, he is doing his personal best this year, on this Sixers team. Whether you want to attribute that to the excellent play of the players around J.J. or to J.J. himself is up to you.
Regardless, Redick just seems like he is having fun this year. Long are the days of him being heckled at Duke for being the “perfect white kid”. Philly fans love Redick and Redick loves them back.
Think about this, Redick is making $23 million this year, he is in an area where everyone seems to love him, and he is playing the best basketball of his career. Really the only chink in his armor is that he had a minor slip up with the media.
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Even with this, however, no lost love has been shed on J.J., as he is still a favorite. Forget just on the court, this could turn out to be one of J.J.’s best years in life.