Saturday featured a sudden, but necessary starting lineup change for the Los Angeles Lakers. For head coach JJ Redick, this is his first adjustment to the lineup as L.A. was clearly lacking a defensive presence on the perimeter.
Redick decided to move D’Angelo Russell to the bench in favor for Cam Reddish, who got thrusted into the rotation with limited bench production. While Reddish is not a scorer, his defensive intensity caught the eye of his coach.
Although the Lakers beat a depleted Philadelphia 76ers team, Reddish looked like a good fit with Austin Reaves in the backcourt. However, Redick made it clear that this starting lineup change is fluid and not permanent.
“It’s all fluid… I just want to be clear, this is all very fluid,” he said.
During a subpar five-game road trip, the Lakers took a clear step back after starting this season 3-0. Going 1-4 on their first trip had to not have sat well with Redick and he revealed his line of thinking behind this adjustment.
“Listen, I was a player,” Redick said. “DLo and I talked about this, I’m not somebody who’s just gonna like overreact and have 19 (different starting lineups). Well, hopefully not. Hopefully we’re healthy… It required a lot of thought and to be honest with you, it also required removing emotion from it because there is a balance as a coach in trying to do what you believe is best for the group but also being empathetic and sensitive to each player and trying to maximize those players and empower those players and not mess up or sort of put something in their head about what they are or what they aren’t. There’s a really hard balance that I kind of had to work through. I came in this morning with the staff and we talked about it, it was part of our discussion for out coach’s meeting this morning. We all felt like it was the right thing to do for right now. And again, both of those guys were great tonight.”
Whether this starting group is together for the rest of the year or a handful of games, it is reassuring to see Redick being proactive when it comes to making changes.
Last season featured changes being made too little, too late and hopefully this bodes well in the long run for L.A.
JJ Redick praises D’Angelo Russell & Cam Reddish for embracing new roles
Specifically for D’Angelo Russell, it has to be hard to get benched yet again, but he and head coach JJ Redick seem to have an open and positive relationship. Making lineup changes can be difficult, although Redick praised both Russell and Cam Reddish for embracing new roles.
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