The Los Angeles Lakers must completely switch gears now that they are without both Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves for the foreseeable future. Doncic and Reaves were the team’s two leading scorers, so head coach JJ Redick must now figure out different lineups and rotations in order to get the best he can out of this team.
And that is Redick’s focus over the final few games of the regular season. Following the Lakers’ loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Redick made it clear that he needs to find nine guys that will be locked in together for the playoffs, which is why he did not hesitate to pull players like Rui Hachimura that weren’t.
“I called the early timeout because Rui didn’t do his job, so took him out of the game,” Redick said after the loss. “We’ve got to find nine guys that are all in on us fighting and willing to go out on whatever metaphor you want to use — I don’t want to use a war metaphor in this time — but whatever you got to do to go out and fight and be all in on the team, we’ll find the nine guys. It’s a great opportunity for us, over the next three games to find those guys.”
Some of those players are obvious as they have been part of the Lakers’ rotation all season long. LeBron James, Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard, Deandre Ayton, Jake LaRavia and Hachimura are all sure to be a part of Redick’s postseason rotation. Jaxson Hayes would seem likely be part of that as well depending on the matchup.
But those last couple of spots are up in the air and Redick is far more focused on finding those players than the Lakers’ seeding at this point.
“You obviously have to tackle the situation in front of you,” Redick noted prior to Tuesday’s game. “We have a unique situation in front of us and we gotta prepare our team, our group that we have available, to play in a playoff series. That’s how we approach the next four games, how we approach next week leading into Game 1. Like I said, it’s finding who’s gonna be able to play in the playoffs for us. That all goes into it. The seeding part probably went out the window after the OKC game.”
Bronny James has seen increased minutes as of late while the likes of Adou Thiero, Kobe Bufkin and Dalton Knecht all bring something different to the table as well in the backcourt. There’s also veterans Maxi Kleber and Jarred Vanderbilt in the frontcourt.
Two-way players aren’t eligible for the playoffs, so Nick Smith Jr., Drew Timme and Chris Mañon won’t be options for Redick unless the Lakers choose to convert them into a standard deal, which would force them to release someone else. Regardless, Redick will be watching closely to see which players step up and earn the opportunity to get some playoff minutes for this team.
JJ Redick says Luka Doncic motivated to return for Lakers
The hope of Doncic potentially returning for the Lakers in the postseason remains there as the superstar traveled to Europe in hopes of speeding up his recovery process from the left hamstring strain he is dealing with. And Redick says Doncic is in good spirits and highly motivated to get back on the court for his team.
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