When the Los Angeles Lakers signed Jake LaRavia in free agency, the move wasn’t widely discussed given his relative anonymity to the common NBA fan.
LaRavia split the 2024-25 season between the Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento Kings, but ultimately signed with the Lakers in free agency when the latter decided not to keep him.
So far, LaRavia has rewarded Los Angeles with strong two-way play and a versatile skillset that complements the stars well.
Head coach JJ Redick had high praise for LaRavia and called him someone that can impact the game whether he’s scoring or not. Before Wednesday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs, Redick revealed that LaRavia was his first call at the start of free agency so he isn’t shocked by how well the wing has played.
“I’m not surprised. There’s a reason why he was the first person I called in free agency,” Redick said. “I felt like he could do a lot of things at a high level and so many times in this league we have the superstar and then we have the specialist. A lot of roster construction works that way. And frankly, there’s not a ton of guys that don’t fall into one of those two archetypes, whether you’re a rim-running, rim-protecting big, you’re a 3-and-D guy, you’re a movement shooter, you’re an on-ball defender. There’s all these archetypes, there’s not a lot of archetypes for the guy that can do a little bit of everything well.
“That’s why, I’m not comparing him to Josh (Hart), but Josh for New York has been that for a number of years where he just does a lot of stuff every single night. Sometimes Jake can impact a game without scoring in double figures. There’s not a lot of guys in the league like that, so we were really excited to get him. I think the growth area for him is just continuing to evolve as a higher-volume shooter with efficiency. He obviously shot over 42% from 3 last year on lower volume, but he’s a guy that I think can be, when we’re fully healthy, and 25 or 30-minute a night guy and he’s going to get a lot of open looks in addition to all of the other stuff he’s gonna get. But he’s gonna get a lot of open looks as a whole so just continuing to evolve as an efficient high volume 3-point shooter, and that’s not gonna take away from all the other stuff he does.”
LaRavia broke out offensively in a win against the Minnesota Timberwolve and Redick challenged him to use it as a reference point, but that isn’t the only way LaRavia can help the team win games. His combination of passing, spacing and defensive IQ make him a valuable part of the Lakers and it’ll be fun to see how he grows his game the rest of the way.
Jake LaRavia showing everyone who he is after viral Anthony Edwards moment
Anthony Edwards went viral for wondering who Jake LaRavia was when the Lakers last saw the Timberwolves, but the forward took it in stride and admitted he thought it was funny.
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