Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick is making a significant starting lineup change for Friday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers, inserting Cam Reddish in the place of D’Angelo Russell, who will come off the bench for the first time this season.
Reddish will join a starting group that includes Austin Reaves, LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Anthony Davis.
According to Lakers reporter Mike Trudell, this is not a permanent or a demotion for Russell, but Redick is looking for a spark defensively with Reddish:
Cam Reddish is starting, with D'Angelo Russell coming off the bench. JJ Redick told me they're looking for more balance in the starting lineup, with a defensive presence, plus some offensive pop off the bench. He emphasized it's not necessarily permanent, nor a inditement on…
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) November 9, 2024
Redick benched Russell in the second half of the Lakers’ recent loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. A video clip came out showing Redick very animated on the bench after some lazy plays by Russell preceding his benching.
Before Friday night’s game, Redick addressed that and said it was more about how the entire team was playing than Russell.
“To be clear, some of the younger staff members brought that to my attention this morning. I will say, first of all, basketball to me is an emotional game. I’m a competitive person, I’m a passionate person. Sometimes for a brief period of time, you lose control of that emotion,” Redick said. “It’s not the first time that it’s happened, I’ll be honest with you. Maybe it’s the first time that something like that was over Twitter. But it’s gonna happen again. It may happen two hours from now. That’s just the reality. I think about myself as a player, now as a coach, certainly when I watched NBA games and analyzed NBA games, I’m not a zombie. That’s like what we kind of refer to as a non-passionate, non-competitive, non-expressive people. I’m not a zombie. I don’t like seeing myself in that light. When I watched the video, I actually forgot it happened.
“But I want to be clear on something and DLo and I actually talked about this today. That was not directed at him. Yes, it came after I think a shot in the corner that he took, but there was 25 plays that preceded that from a number of different players. When you’re 1-3 on a road trip and you get to a point where you feel like you’re in a ballgame on the road and a play like that happens, you let out some emotion. But it was not directed at DLo. It was directed more at the series of plays for two-and-a-half quarters that preceded that. Not DLo’s shot.”
With Russell now headed to the bench, he will have the opportunity to operate with the ball in his hands more with the second unit. It will be interesting to see how it works and if Russell is receptive of that role, but they will give it a look on Friday.
Lakers coach JJ Redick says relationship with D’Angelo Russell is good
When speaking pregame, JJ Redick stated that his relationship with D’Angelo Russell remains strong despite the animated video clip and benching.
“DLo and I are good. He’s great. He’s been a professional. I’ve asked him, he’s a pick-and-roll player and he’s playing in an offense that doesn’t feature a lot of drag pick-and-rolls and high ball screens. He’s been super professional, he’s been super coachable. Him and I established a baseline level of our relationship this summer. We’re good.”
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