Safe to say JJ will be modernizing LAL’s offense, AD’s usage & the Bron x AD P&R and looking to surround them with shooters (back to the modernizing the offense thing)
he’s been studying LAL for awhile now… this will be interesting pic.twitter.com/jcp7ylNovy
— ²³ (@SpeakContext) June 4, 2024
Safe to say JJ will be modernizing Lakers’ offense,
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June 4, 2024 9 Comments
This podcast is from Dec 2022. In this episode of The Old Man and The Three Things with JJ Redick details just how LeBron James, Anthony Davis and The Lakers are winning so much. Yes, it’s the dominant play of AD but JJ made some mad scientist charts to discuss the correlation between shooting and success in The NBA.
The main reason why I am thrilled that the Lakers are hiring JJ Redick as our new head coach is he will finally force the Lakers into modernizing their offense. The Lakers cannot win shooting just 30 threes per game. Not when teams like the Celtics are shooting 40 to 50 threes per game.
Not to minimize the importance of defense, rebounding, passing, screening, and all of the little things that are essential to winning basketball, but it’s obvious that JJ Redick is a strong believer that winning in today’s NBA depends on shooting a volume number of 3-point shots. You can counter with PIP and FTM but unless you have shooters, you’re not going to have a good half-court offense.
JJ’s charts pretty much showed that the 10 teams with the worst offenses ranked in the lower half in 3PA while the 10 teams with the best offenses ranked in the upper half in 3PA. Percentages didn’t really matter. Lakers were 13th in percentages but second to last in 3PM.
While the Lakers are going to prioritize two-way players, they’re also going to prioritize trading for players who are volume 3-point shooters. This was a point in time when the Lakers were playing well, everybody was shooting lights out, and AD was dominating.
JJ pointed out that what was important was that AD must be surrounded by shooters just like LeBron. The biggest change were going to see with JJ as head coach is the Lakers are finally going to join the 3-point revolution.
https://twitter.com/LakerTom/status/1798155661106397386
https://twitter.com/LakerTom/status/1798157743402135662
Tom, it was our system not our shooters. All of 3’s came from drive and kick’s and transition 3’s. We were 7th in percentage DLO shot over 40%, LeBron shot over 40’s, Rui shot over 40%, he shot 43% as starter in 39 games. Prince shot 39.8% and Austin was a respectable 36%. The key is running more action for 3 point opportunities. I don’t care who you trade for, no one would have shot a ton of 3’s in last years system. Now I don’t see them becoming Boston. We were a top points in the paint team and we led the league in free throws. Boston by the way was 26th in free throws. What I hope for is at least in the 10th to 15th range in attempts.
Michael, you have been saying this for several years now and I have always agreed with you that it is the system that wastes our 3-point talents. And this goes way back. Here is hopping that JJ would be able to fix that.
Thanks Buba, it’s a sore point with me. Darvin completely mismanaged this roster.
Aloha, Michael,
I do think you’re right that we need to run plays to get wide open threes. It should be a priority Lakers have never prioritized getting open threes. That’s going to change ww/JJ imo. JJ believes offense starts outside/in not inside/out like the Lakers have always played. What you run outside determines your opportunities inside, not the other way around imo.
I also think we also need proven volume shooters. It’s hard to turn a guy who takes 2 or 3 threes per game into one who takes 5 to 7 threes, which is what the Lakers need to do to go from 30 to over 35 threes per game.
When you think about it smartly, it’s the proverbial chicken and egg situation. Which should be the focus and which should be the result?
Lakers now get their threes by attacking the paint in traditional drive-and-kicks. At first glance, that makes sense since they want to attack the rim, get points in the paint, and get to the line. But it’s fighting up hilll.
What they should do if they we smart is surround LBJ and AD with better, higher volume 3-point shooters and run plays to create spacing and open threes and two things will happen:
1. Lakers will start shooting making more threes. Don’t need to be Celtics and take 40 per game but JJ will have them in top 10 w/35+ per game.
2. Suddenly, it will become impossible to double LeBron and AD and they will feast on single coverage or the Lakers will rain threes on them.
JJ will make Lakers New School: 3PM -> PIP
Will Finally End Lakers Old School: PIP -> 3PM
Finally, I wonder if JJ becoming coach could result in the Lakers re-signing D’Angelo Russell. DLO became a top-10 volume 3-point specialist last season. I think JJ increases odds Lakers keep DLO.
Guys have upped their 3 point attempts all across the league. It’s not unusual. Rui for instance shot 3.4 for the season but 4 as a starter. I don’t think 5 or 6 is a huge stretch. He also scored 16.7 as a starter, shot 43.9% from 3 as a starter, and 57% from the field. And his defense really improved after he started. Not bad for a 5th option. The word is that he is not being shopped and it makes sense unless it’s for an all star. Darvin really screwed with him. Austin and DLO.
The problem imo was how the three starters surrounding LeBron and AD were unable to make a three in the Denver series. I still believe we need to upgrade at least two of our three role player starters. DLO and AR cannot start together. We need a true 3&D wing or second big, even if it forces LeBron to have to play more three. Be fun to see how the offense changes with JJ. Hiring him was the biggest move of this summer regardless of what we do with personnel. It’s the move we desperately needed as a franchise. A visionary who will take us into the modern NBA,