When Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick accepted the job, he singled out Austin Reaves as one of the players he was looking forward to working with.
Thus far, Reaves has responded well to Redick as the team’s new head coach though he did have a rough road trip defensively.
Reaves was consistently getting targeted and seemed to allow opposing players to get whatever they wanted, but he looked much better in the wins against the Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors. Redick noted Reaves’ showings and praised him for turning things around.
“His level of compete on the defensive end has been better for both games,” Redick said. “He’s not taking the night off. His mindset is to compete. I trust night-to-night with our group that he’s going to go out there and compete.”
Reaves revealed that he and Redick sat down to talk about his defense and reinforced he loved being coached.
“I hang my hat on playing hard every possession and in that roadtrip there were a couple instances where I wasn’t. [JJ] sat me down and showed it to me. I appreciate it because I love being coached. I respect what he has to say. Once you see it, you can’t argue it.”
Reaves previously credited Redick for challenging him to compete harder and he outlined what his head coach told the team to help them come back to win against the Raptors.
“Compete harder, stick to our system and trust that. I feel that’s what we did. We found things that worked in the third quarter and kept running them. We gained a lead and kind of just didn’t look back from there.”
Lastly, the guard acknowledged that things haven’t been smooth to begin the 2024-25 season, but appreciates Redick and the staff for holding the players accountable.
“You wish it was smooth sailing the whole time,” Reaves said. “You’re going to go through ups and downs. I think not playing well on the road trip might’ve been a good thing for us to completely buy into what we knew we needed to do to be successful. Our coaches are putting us in the positions to be successful. When we buy in and do it, good things happen. Even if it’s a game plan adjustment, they’ll come in and say ‘We messed up, we need to do this instead.’ Everybody is kind of just holding each other accountable, so it’s a beautiful thing to see.”
The regular season will be filled with bumps and roadblocks, but it sounds like Reaves and the group are responding well to Redick and the staff. Defensively, Reaves will have tougher challenges but as long as he does his best then the team can make do.
JJ Redick emphasizes starting lineup change is fluid
Austin Reaves’ uptick on both ends might have to do the recent starting lineup change, though JJ Redick said that things are fluid and can change at any time.
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