The Los Angeles Lakers believe they put a special group together for the 2023-24 season, bringing back a number of key pieces from last year’s squad that made it to the Western Conference Finals like D’Angelo Russell while also adding some other quality players to the mix like Cam Reddish.
Reddish is a former lottery pick out of Duke that hasn’t quite panned out this far as he is now on his fourth team despite being just 24 years of age.
Many believe the Lakers could be the right situation for him given their mix of veterans and young guys and the 3-and-D ability that he possesses.
Reddish was asked which of the veterans has taken on a mentorship role with him so far, and instead of saying someone like LeBron James or Anthony Davis, he actually named Russell.
“I would say DLo. I’m locker-mates with DLo, so we talk all the time,” Reddish said. “We talk about the game, the ways to score. Ways to get involved. Impact the game any way possible. So, I would say DLo for the most part.”
Reddish is appreciative of Russell taking him under his wing the way he has. “It’s big time. It’s definitely big time. He’s a big a part of our team. He sees where I can fit in and make an impact. So, it’s big time.”
Russell has had a similar career path as Reddish as the former No. 2 overall pick has been on four teams himself, including two stints with the Lakers.
“It reminds me of myself a lot,” Russell said of Reddish’s situation. “Coming into the league, not really knowing how to be a professional. And you’re getting judged by that. So, figuring out a way to just change your professionalism and do the opposite of everything you’ve been doing because obviously the perception of you is what it is and you can’t change it. Only thing you can change is your approach. So, forget the past and just change your approach and try to work on your professionalism and how you carry yourself. Understand the perception of you and what they say, what it looks like. Just understanding that as a young player.
“As a young player, it takes you to bump your head a few times to realize your perception. So now, you got an opportunity. You got a bunch of vets, a bunch of guys that can help you. Listen. Do more. Do the opposite of what you’ve been doing. I told him when I got to Brooklyn, that was my time of kind of going through what he’s going through. Bouncing from teams. And I get to Brooklyn and I met Joe Harris and I followed Joe Harris. I walked like him. I tried to be there at the gym when he got there. When he left is when I thought about leaving. I was just on his whole regimen. And I found my regimen within that, but he was a guy that I wanted to learn how to be a professional from.”
Russell would go on to praise Reddish for how he has played through the Lakers’ first two games.
“I feel like he’s doing well. The first few games, now that he knows that he’s going to be a defender for us to get on the floor and everything is going to take care of itself. But to get on the floor, you got to guard the Kevin Durants of the world. So for him, knowing that, recognizing that and then embracing the challenge is the next step for him.”
It’s easy to see how much Russell has matured since his first stint with the Lakers. He went from being unwilling to listen to veterans to being a veteran himself that the young guys like Reddish can get advice from.
That is a trait that Russell believes is missing from today’s league compared to the past.
“I mean, just self awareness is one key. But you got to blame the organizations for that, respectfully. But you got to blame the organizations because organizations are deciding to go with youth and younger. So when you don’t have those vets in that locker room and you decide to go younger, that’s the product that you get. You are what you hang around. Me, I came here and had a bunch of vets around me and obviously I wasn’t listening. So to come in and listen and do is a different thing than to know you got to do better or be better.”
Cam Reddish uses ‘dominance’ as word to describe LeBron James
James has almost been in the league as long as Reddish has been alive, and now the two are teammates after sharing an agency with Klutch Sports.
As someone who has watched James for his entire life, Reddish used one word to describe the career of his now teammate.
“Dominance. I feel like as a kid, he came in, what ’03? I was born in ’99. So, he was like my whole live he’s been dominant. Know what I’m saying? I think that’s pretty self-explanatory.”
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