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JJ Redick has noticed Austin Reaves’ defensive acumen

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As coach JJ Redick began to extol the virtues of Austin Reaves’ game and how the Lakers have asked for a little more out of the guard, Redick also mentioned the word defense.

No, Reaves is not a lock-down defender, but he has shown Redick during training camp and the first two preseason games that he knows how to guard.

“I never thought he was a chump defensively, but he competes his ass off on that end,” Redick said after the Lakers’ practice Tuesday. “He knows what he’s supposed to do. He’s in the right spots. If he’s supposed to veer, he veers. If he’s supposed to be the low man, he’s the low man. If he’s supposed to be at the nail, he’s at the nail. He just does a lot of really good things on the basketball floor.”

When Reaves talked to the media, he was told about Redick’s comments. Reaves raised his eyebrows and smiled.

“So, he said I was playing good defense, or no?” Reaves asked.

In a sense, yes, Reaves was told.

“Oh, he said that? Oh, wow,” Reaves responded.

Redick said Reaves knows where to be on defense. Does Reaves think that’s a good thing?

“Yeah, I would hope so. It’s better than not being in the right spot,” Reaves said. “No, I think it’s just, you know, having a foundation, having a system, when you know exactly where the rotation is going to be, where you’re supposed to be, where the help is going to be. It gives you a good feeling as you’re guarding the ball, knowing, ‘All right, well, I can be a little bit more aggressive because I got AD [Anthony Davis] on the back row and I know he’s going to be there. But not just AD, if they skip it to the corner, then X [teammate] is going to be there.’

“So, just having faith in what we’re doing and the foundation that we’re putting in is the biggest thing for me.”

Redick determined to succeed Lakers’ audacious coaching experiment

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PALM DESERT, Calif. (AP) — JJ Redick knows his personal intensity will always turn him into his own harshest critic if he isn’t careful, so he vowed to give himself some grace in his self-evaluation as the Los Angeles Lakers ‘ new head coach.

One game into the preseason, Redick is already testing his tolerance for his own mistakes after the Lakers failed to make proper defensive switches Friday night against Minnesota.

“We just didn’t really execute that at all,” Redick said Saturday after practice in the Coachella Valley. “We maybe executed it less than 10% of the time. Something we’ve drilled, and it was very clear in the pregame meeting that’s what we were doing, so you certainly question, like, ‘Am I not making this clear? Is it something I’m doing?’”

Redick is comfortable acknowledging both his immediate frustration and his broader awareness that this epic journey has only started.

Just over three months into his first coaching job at any level, Redick is still drinking from a firehose of information, responsibilities and nuances — everything from play designs to the intricacies of personnel management. But while his mind whirls every day with thoughts on how to implement the basketball vision he’s been building in his mind, the 40-year-old former NBA guard is also determined to enjoy the ride of his first season with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

“I would say what we have tried to create is an energy and a vibe in the gym every day,” Redick said right before training camp began. “I would call it focused joy, if that makes sense. We’re grateful every day to be in this gym.”