Lakerholics

After starting the season with an impressive 3-game home winning streak, the Lakers’ recent 1–4 road trip now has them facing what could become an early season death spin unless JJ Redick can pull off some coaching magic.

With a 4–4 record 8-games into the season, the Lakers are a play-in team, tied with the Clippers for 10th in the West. They have a 114.7 offensive rating (9th), a 118.8 defensive rating (28th), and a -4.1 net rating (21st).
Unfortunately, injuries once again are causing major lineup problems for the Lakers, especially in the front court where critical bigs like Jarred Vanderbilt, Christian Wood, and Christian Koloko have been unavailable.

While Koloko finally played in his first game Wednesday night and made his first basket and block, this was his first NBA game in over a year and a half so it’s going to take time for him to get back into shape and condition.
Meanwhile, the Lakers have still not given any indication that Jarred Vanderbilt or Christian Wood are anywhere near close to being able to return to action, which severely limits the moves JJ Redick can make.

Defense is clearly the Lakers’ major concern, with injuries having stripped them of the bigs and size they need to hold their own on the boards and in the paint. Koloko will help but they desperately need Vando and Wood.
Despite the injuries, the Lakers are still one or two elite players from being a legitimate championship contender. They still need a point-of-attack perimeter defensive guard and an elite backup center to protect the rim.

But barring Vando and Wood returning or Pelinks pulling off a big trade, JJ Redick must make major roster changes to give the current starting lineup more defense and bench lineups more scoring and offensive firepower.

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Adding Defense To Starting Lineup

While the Lakers’ current starting lineup of Austin Reaves, D’angelo Russell, LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, and Anthony Davis has a +4.7 net rating for the 7 games played, it lacks championship caliber defense.

Fortunately for the Lakers, head coach JJ Redick has two moves he could make right now without waiting for a trade or for injured players to return to active duty that would immediately upgrade the starting lineup defense.
He could start Cam Reddish at guard to give the team a legitimate point-of-attack perimeter defender to slow down top scorers and Christian Koloko at center to unleash Anthony Davis to roam free on offense and defense.

Until Vanderbilt is healthy or Pelinka makes a trade, Cam Reddish has shown he can provide the perimeter defense the team desperately needs. Right now, neither Russell or Reaves is able to keep in front of their men.
Reddish showed in his play against Ja Morant that he has the athleticism and physicality to have a major impact on the Lakers’ perimeter defense. He’s also played well enough offensively to avoid becoming a liability.

Christian Koloko is the other player JJ Redick should consider starting. While he will need time to get into shape and condition, the Lakers should prioritize getting Koloko minutes next to Davis as well as when he rests.
Giving Koloko good minutes alongside Davis in two-bigs lineups could pay off big for the Lakers as those are the specific lineups Redick envisions will ultimately empower Anthony Davis to become the best version of himself.

Lakers’ rookie head coach JJ Redick should demote D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura to the bench and create a new starting lineup of Austin Reaves, Cam Reddish, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Christian Koloko.

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Adding Offense To Bench Lineup

After 8 games into the season, the Lakers’ bench of Max Christie, Dalton Knecht, Gabe Vincent, and Jaxson Hayes is averaging just 20.6 points per game. That is the second lowest bench scoring in the entire league.

Dalton Knecht is the only bench player who should remain in the Lakers’ 9-man rotation. JJ Redick needs to replace Max Christie, Gabe Vincent, and Jaxson Hayes with D’Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura, and Quincy Olivari.
D’Angelo Russell should replace Gabe Vincent as backup point guard, Rui Hachimura should replace Jaxson Hayes as backup power forward, and Quincy Olivari should replace Max Christie as backup shooting guard.

Frankly, the Lakers have tough decisions to make on Max Christie and Gabe Vincent, backup point and shooting guards who’ve struggled at both ends of the court and are a major reason bench minutes have been so poor.
Christie may already have played himself out of the rotation and Vincent may not be far behind. While Pelinka might prefer Max and Gabe play due to their salaries, Redick needs to win and his patience may be running out.

Right now, D’Angelo Russell and Quincy Olivari should be a dramatically better bench backcourt both offensively and defensively. Russell is a huge upgrade over Vincent and Olivari could be a major upgrade over Christie.
While Russell will need to buy in to coming off the bench, he could be 6MOY this season while he and Hachimura join Knecht as a trio of Laker bench shooters with green lights to fire every time they touch the ball.

JJ Redick needs to replace current bench rotation players Max Christy, Gabe Vincent, and Jaxson Hayes and create a new 4-man bench rotation with D’Angelo Russell, Quincy Olivari, Dalton Knecht, and Rui Hachimura.

Max Christie’s poor play and Anthony Davis’ injury may have opened the door for Lakers’ rookie head coach JJ Redick to make a pair of quick and dramatic changes to upgrade the defensive play of his 9-man rotation.

Coach Redick started the process of upgrading the defense of his 9-man rotation by inserting Cam Reddish to replace Max Christie, who started both season and game poorly after a new contract and raise offseason.
While L.A. still lost the game to Detroit, Reddish was the only Laker with a positive plus/minus and likely stole Christie’s backup shooting guard role and possibly re-opened a long shot opportunity to win a starting spot.

With Anthony Davis questionable due to a heel injury, it appears the Lakers are accelerating Christian Koloko’s opportunity to earn a rotation role as they’ve made him active for tonight’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies.
While Christian has not played in over a year, tonight will be his Lakers’ debut and it could not have come at a better time. After a great start, L.A.’s struggling and desperately in need of an injection of size and defense.

While replacing Christie and Hayes with Reddish and Koloko will help the Lakers defensively, there are still other key rotation moves to consider, including what to do about the situation with center Jaxson Hayes.
There’s also the dilemma of what to do about the D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves backcourt, which may work for the regular season but is likely to be an albatross for the Lakers once the NBA playoffs begin.

Gabe Vincent is still struggling mightily and Redick has already shown he’s not going to sit around and wait for players to start playing well. His move to replace Christie showed he’s not going to hesitate if changes are needed.
The Lakers may also have a quality replacement option for Gabe Vincent in Quincy Olivari. Considering how quickly Redick was in replacing Christie, Gabe Vincent should realize his rotation role is on the line right now.

Lakers ownership and front office needs to realize this Lakers roster is one of two quality rotation players from becoming a legitimate championship contender this season. Time to invest in Anthony Davis and LeBron James.

Besides starting and closing with last year’s conference finals lineup, JJ Redick is also pairing Anthony Davis with D’Angelo Russell and LeBron James with Austin Reaves for the Lakers’ middle-of-game rotations.

Strategically, JJ is making the move for several reasons. First, he wants to take better advantage of the elite pick-and-roll chemistry D’Angelo Russell already has with Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves with LeBron James.
Secondly, he wants to make sure every lineup used will both be balanced and competitive. That means making sure the offense and defense balance of every lineup is sound and that lineup has the 2-way talent to compete.

One of JJ Redick’s strengths as a head coach has been his work ethic and attention to detail. Unlike Darvin Ham, Redick has a vision for the players he wants on the Lakers squad and how he wants them to play basketball.
JJ’s other strength has been his ability to make quick decisions, which is what he did with both the starting lineup and with this recent decision to pair Davis with Russell and James with Reaves for team’s middle lineups.

With a roster that brings back most of the players from last year’s team that made it to the Western Conference finals, the Lakers have an opportunity for the first time since signing LeBron to build chemistry and continuity.
JJ Redick has a chance to do in his first 5 games what it took Darvin Ham almost half a season to do, which is figure out who should be starting and closing games and who should be part of the team’s new 9-man rotation.

So let’s take a closer look at JJ Redick’s plan to create balanced and competitive middle-game lineups by pairing Davis/Russell and James/Reaves with complementary combinations of bench players.

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LAKERS 9-MAN ROTATION

The above chart displays a sample 9-man rotation utilizing only players who are currently on the Lakers’ roster and able to play. Christie, Vincent, and Hayes are likely to be replaced in the rotation at some point in time.

This Lakers rotation includes 8 different 5-man lineups. 4 of the 5-man lineups consist of starters Reaves, Russell, Hachimura, James, and Davis, who will start and close both the first and second halves of each game.
The other 4 lineups will be 5-man mixes of starters and reserves led by Davis/Russell or James/Reaves who will follow the starters and precede the closers and fill out the middle of the first and second halves of the game.

Redick’s new move ensures that the Lakers will always have one of their two superstar bigs in Anthony Davis and LeBron James and one of their two playmaking guards in D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves on the court.
By establishing two complementary middle-of-game lineups anchored by a superstar big and playmaking guard, Redick simply established a scheme by which the Lakers would always have balanced, competitive lineups.

The new scheme not only optimizes the Lakers best two pick-and-roll duos but also maximizes time on the court by the team’s five starters while minimizing it for the four reserves included in the Lakers’ 9-man rotation. One of Darvin Ham’s biggest shortcoming as a head coach was how long it took him to decide on the starting lineup that made the conference finals and how often his midgame lineups were not balanced or competitive.

Once Vanderbilt, Wood, and Koloko have recovered from their injuries, there’s a good chance they, or other players for whom the Lakers trade, will eventually replace Christie, Vincent, and Hayes in the 9-man rotation.

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STARTER/BENCH MINUTES

JJ’s new rotation also assures that the Lakers always have two starters in every lineup and 180 or 75% of the 240 minutes per game will be played by Lakers’ starters and only 60 minutes per game or 25% by bench players.

The Lakers have a bench scoring problem. They currently have the league’s best starting lineup, averaging a stunning 98.0 points per game and the league’s worst bench lineup, averaging a league worst 20.1 points per game.
So far, all five of the Lakers’ starters are averaging double figures and the team has won 4 of their first 6 games and are facing a November schedule that is much less challenging and offers an opportunity to rack up wins.

While it’s still early in the season, Redick is not likely to have too much patience with Christie, Vincent, and Hayes. Christie and Vincent have been terrible and Hayes is possibly facing a domestic violence suspension.
Hopefully, the Lakers will get Vanderbilt, Wood, and Koloko back from injury or trade for more talent to upgrade their bench to replace Christie, Vincent, and Hayes with players who play better offense and defense.

Ultimately, the Lakers are going to have to make a decision on the Reaves and Russell backcourt, which realistically is not good enough defensively to be a championship backcourt. Most likely decision is to trade Russell.
The other starting lineup change the Lakers may consider is moving Rui Hachimura to the bench to boost scoring and replacing him with a second big on the roster like Koloko or making a trade for a big like Walker Kessler.

The Lakers need to optimize minutes for their starters and minimize minutes for their bench until they get players back from injury or from a trade that will enable them to upgrade their bench offense and defense.

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LAKERS’ NEXT 30 DAYS

Last season, the Lakers finished their first 20 games of the season with an 11–9 record. Right now, the Lakers are 4–2. Over the next 30 days, they will play a dramatically easier schedule with 14 mostly winnable games.

The toughest games will be those against OKC and San Antonio and two games against Memphis. Other than those games, the Lakers should have a realistic opportunity to go 9–5, 10–4, or 11–3 over the 14-game schedule.
At best, the Lakers current team could enter December as a top-2 team in the West with a 15–5 record. At worst, they could enter December as a top-6 team in the West with a 12–8 record, slightly better than last season.

One thing that seems clear is that this year’s Lakers team is dramatically better despite essentially being the same as last year’s team. The difference, of course, has been the terrific job done by rookie head coach JJ Redick.
Redick has been a revelation who’s taken the Lakers by storm with the strength of his personality. The players have embraced his approach and vision and there’s no doubt the front office will be forced to make moves.

Ideally, the Los Angeles Lakers need a new starting point guard who’s an aggressive point-of-attack defender and a new starting center who can protect the rim and start alongside Anthony Davis in a two-bigs lineup.
The Lakers will have to look to a trade or free agency to get a new point guard but there’s a chance that Christian Wood or Christian Koloko could work out as the second big to start next to and complement Anthony Davis.

JJ Redick has shown in just 6 games that this Lakers team is just one player or two away from being a legitimate championship contender. Jeanie Buss and Rob Pelinka will have no choice but to be forced to make a big trade.

As the 2024–25 NBA regular season finally kicks off, new Lakers’ head coach JJ Redick is implementing a stunning and dramatic 5-step plan to finally transform the Los Angeles Lakers into a modern NBA franchise.

The decision to hire JJ Redick despite his lack of coaching experience was part of an overriding decision by owner Jeanie Buss and GM Rob Pelinka to refocus Lakers’ team building around player development and continuity.
With the new CBA’s financial and competitive challenges and looming retirement of LeBron James, Lakers’ ownership and front office realized the time to modernize the team’s offense and defense was long overdue.

The Lakers ended up bringing back most of the players from last season’s roster, drafting Dalton Knecht and Bronny James Jr. and adding Christian Koloko but losing Taurean Prince and Spencer Dinwiddie via free agency. Unfortunately, efforts to upgrade the roster, including adding a starting quality center to pair with Anthony Davis, have been hindered by the lack of open roster spots due to multiple players accepting player options.

Despite struggles to upgrade the roster, expectations are soaring as the Lakers have enthusiastically embraced Redick’s elite basketball IQ and detailed 5-step plan to modernize the Lakers offensively and defensively.

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1. Embrace Advanced Analytics

The first step needed to modernize the Lakers is for the organization to fully embrace advanced analytics. Embracing analytics means changing your identity, how you play, what you prioritize, who you want to be.

Make no mistake, transforming and modernizing a LeBron James and Anthony Davis led Lakers’ team that finished 2nd in the NBA last season in points-in-the-paint and made-free-throws will be a major challenge.
For four years, the Lakers have held onto their old school offensive and defensive tendencies, forcing them to offset a negative deficit from 3-point shooting by over-relying on points-in-the-paint and made-free-throws.

Whether JJ Redick can successfully convincing the Lakers to embrace analytics and modernize their game will obviously depend heavily on how superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis buy into the new direction.
Lakers’ ownership and front office are convinced that Redick has the coaching chops and personal charisma to pull off what Luke Walton, Frank Vogel, and Darvin Ham were unable to do as former Lakers’ head coaches.

On offense, embracing analytics means shooting more threes, crashing the boards, and playing 2-bigs and 4-out. On defense, it means switching 1-through-4 to better prevent paint penetration and wide open 3-point shots.

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2. Increase 3-Point Shot Attempts

Last season, the Lakers were the 8th most accurate 3-point shooting team in the league, hitting 37.7% of their 3-point attempts. Unfortunately, they took and made so few threes they finished 28th in 3PA and 24th in 3PM.

Last season, the Lakers under head coach Darvin Ham averaged 11.8 made threes per game while allowing 14.7 made threes per game, resulting in a negative 3-point differential of -2.9 made threes or -8.7 points per game.
The Lakers were able to offset +6.9 points per game last season by winning points-in-the paint by +5.1 points (55.8–50.7) and made-free-throws by +1.8 points (15.1–13.3) but leaving them with a deficit of -1.8 points per game.

Strategically, the best way for the Lakers to continue to win the battles over points-in-the-paint and made-free-throws is to increase their 3-point takes and makes to dramatically improve spacing and wide open paths to rim.
Traditionally, the Lakers have used the old school path of dominating the paint in hopes of opening up outside shooting. The smarter path today is to use volume 3-point shooting to create spacing to attack the paint and rim.

Redick wants the Lakers to shoot 5 more threes per game, which would have increased their 3PA per game from 31.4 3PA per game to 36.4 3PA per game last season, which would have ranked them as #9 in the league.

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3. Increase Offensive Rebounds

Besides attempting more threes, JJ Redick also wants this season’s Lakers to focus on grabbing more offensive rebounds. Last year, the Lakers ranked 30th out of 30 teams with a meager 8.2 offensive rebounds per game.

The challenge faced by teams looking to improve offensive rebounding is figuring out how to attack the boards while still being able to get back on defense in time to prevent easy fast break points by the opposing team.
Unfortunately, the Lakers allowed 16.2 fast break points last year, ranked 27th out of 30 teams and extremely disappointing considering they were obviously not prioritizing offensive rebounding or transition defense.

Redick wants the Lakers to commit to offensive rebounding, especially by corner shooters crashing the glass with a goal of generating so many offensive boards that it forces opposing teams to defensively rebound.
The simplest way to prevent opposing teams from leaking out for easy transition buckets is to force their defensive rebounders to stay and fight to prevent the Lakers from dominating the boards and getting easy putbacks.

Ideally, the Lakers want to have a top-10 offense and defense. To do that, they need to increase offensive rebounds from 8.2 to 11.0 per game and reduce transition defense from allowing 16.2 to 13.5 points per game.

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4. Switch 1-Through-4 on Defense

Defensively, Lakers have always been a team that prefers their perimeter defenders to stick with the players they’re defending and fight over picks, which often allows opposing ball handlers to put our defenders in prison.

Refusing to switch on the perimeter ends up allowing easy midrange jumpers and lethal floaters by opposing ball handlers who have their defenders on their hips over our centers who are playing drop coverage.
Redick’s new strategy of switching everything one-through-four is a major change in how the Lakers plan to handle picks by guards and forwards. Importantly, the change to switching is a better fit with drop coverage.

Switching one-through-four makes it dramatically easier for our perimeter defenders to stay in from of the players they’re guarding, prevent any penetration into the paint, and challenge any attempted 3-point shots. Considering neither Austin Reaves or D’Angelo Russell are elite perimeter defenders, switching one-through-four will definitely make it harder for opposing teams to target and take advantage of them as weak defenders.

Finally, switching one-through-four not only is a better fit for Lakers centers playing drop coverage but is also perfect for playing two bigs with Anthony Davis able to roam free to provide elite defensive help.

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5. Deploy 2-Bigs 4-Out on Offense

In addition to switching everything one-through-four, JJ Redick wants to pair Anthony Davis with a second big, believing that a two-bigs lineup is essential to the Lakers having championship caliber size and physicality.

While Rui Hachimura will likely start the season at small forward, it would not be a surprise if the Lakers opted to trade Rui in order to open up a starting spot to pair a second big with Anthony Davis in a two-bigs lineup. One of the Lakers best performing lineups last season were lineups where Christian Wood was paired with Anthony Davis. While Wood did not have a good shooting season last year, Chris could see lots of action alongside AD.

Finding a starting quality center who can be paired with Anthony Davis will be a major focus of the Lakers’ front office heading into the trade deadline next February. This should be the Lakers top midseason priority bar none.
Whether it’s Christian Wood or Christian Koloko or a trade for a starting center like Robert Williams III, JJ Redick clearly wants to move to a two-bigs lineup where Anthony Davis is paired with another elite big man.

There’s no question that the Lakers view their greatest need right now as finding a second starting quality big to pair with Anthony Davis. There’s a good chance that Christian Wood or Christian Koloko could be that big.

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With LeBron James’ and Anthony Davis’ preseason debuts slated tonight, we may finally get a glimpse of how the Lakers will play under new head coach JJ Redick, with big changes expected both on offense and defense.

Offensively, Redick knows the Lakers must modernize their offense and embrace the 3-point shot to win rings in today’s NBA. Look for the Lakers to increase their 3-point attempts from low 30’s to high 30’s or even low 40’s.
Anthony Davis will be the hub for the Lakers offensively and LeBron James will play more off the ball to save energy. Also expect more off-ball motion and screening and more running set plays versus letting players freelance.

Defensively, Redick plans for the Lakers to switch one-through-four, which means switching everything unless the opposing center is making the pick. This makes it easier for defenders to prevent penetration and stop threes.
Most importantly, switching one-through-four works better with drop coverage as it prevents opposing ball handlers from using screens to put defenders in jail for easy midrange jumpers, floaters, and/or free throws.

While Darvin Ham’s reign as the Lakers’ head coach ended up burning and crashing, there were moments when the greatness of James and Davis and the innate talent of the rest of the roster was able to shone through the fog.
Included in those moments were the Lakers’ league 5th-best 22–10 finish to last season, their league 3rd-best 118.5 points per game after February 3rd, and their starting lineup’s league 2nd- best 110.5 team defensive rating.

Those isolated stats are like easy veins of gold for an analytics-oriented coach like Redick to mine. They show this Lakers roster not only has the potential to be a top-10 offensive team but also a top-10 defensive team.
While most NBA pundits view the Lakers as a likely play-in team at best, Redick already has the Lakers’ players, organization, and fans giddy with optimism that they finally have their next Pat Riley or Phil Jackson.

Replace the chaos, distrust, and inconsistency of Ham’s reign with the attention to detail, shared trust, and proven consistency of JJ Redick as the Lakers’ new coach and visionary to see their championship potential.