One way in which the Los Angeles Lakers are differentiating themselves from last season — despite a very similar roster — is the roles that head coach JJ Redick is going to give some players. One of those players is Austin Reaves, as the fourth-year guard is expected to take on more responsibility in 2024-25.
Previous head coach Darvin Ham had Reaves playing more of a two-guard role, specializing in off-ball movement and helping facilitate only after D’Angelo Russell and LeBron James. Redick, though, wants Reaves to be more hands-on, truly becoming a combo guard with decision-making responsibilities.
If Reaves is going to have the ball in his hands significantly more, though, there is a concern that his shooting efficiency could slip. Reaves’ shooting numbers dropped 4.3% from the field and 3.1% from three between Years 2 and 3. But Redick doesn’t see a similar decrease happening this year.
“We hope there’s not a dip in efficiency. If anything, I would expect there to be an increase,” Redick said. “He’s gonna figure out ways to get to the free throw line. He has a unique talent because of his level of basketball intelligence to get to the free throw line. He has been a volume 3-point shooter and he’s shot it well. So he’s been fully committed to paint 2s, 3s and free throws.
“So if anything, I would expect his efficiency to increase. With him, and all our guys really, I’m gonna pour into them and empower them and keep my belief in them. If they don’t shoot it well, that’s OK. This is a long season. I started a season 3-for-25 from 3 and shot 40% for the year. We’re gonna continue to preach the same things because I believe in the long-term this is what’s best for him.”
Redick is taking an approach with Reaves that has been a long time coming. The fourth-year guard has proven himself to be exceptional with the ball in his hands, both as a scorer and a distributor. Relegating him to being a spot-up shooter takes away what he does best.
And having more trusted ball-handlers can only help the Lakers, not hurt. It provides James a chance to play more off-ball and preserve himself, and gives Russell more of an opportunity as a spot-up shooter where he excelled in moments last season. Now, it just becomes a question of if Reaves can keep that efficiency up.
JJ Redick evaluates Lakers’ preseason opener
The Lakers opened up the preseason against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Palm Desert on Friday night, suffering a 124-107 loss in Redick’s coaching debut.
Key players like LeBron James and Anthony Davis didn’t play so it’s hard to take too much away from the game, but JJ Redick discussed what stood out to him in the loss.
“There’s a lot that stood out,” he began. “I think if you just look at the game in its entirety, we got destroyed in the possession battle. Turnovers and offensive rebounds. I think they took 15 more shots than us. In some ways, that’s the game right there.
“Having said that, I think there was a lot of good stuff that we did. I told our guys before the game three things I’m going to judge you on and how we are going to measure this game are organization, our talk and our level of compete. And I thought the third one, we had that at a really high level.
“But overall, I think our guys played with the right intent. I thought offensively, we really moved the basketball well at times, and we got off to a slow start there. And sometimes that can hurt your defense, but yeah, there’s a lot of good things we can take away from this game.”
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