3 Rotation Changes JJ Redick Should Consider

The JJ Redick era is off to a great start. The Los Angeles Lakers’ new head coach has breathed new life into his new team, a welcome change after last year’s team too often felt flat and uninspiring under former coach Darwin Ham.

Redick has pushed all the right buttons over the first two weeks of the season, and despite a tough early season schedule, the Lakers are sitting strong at 4-2 after taking a big lead over the Raptors on Friday night. , and then held on at the end of the season. fourth quarter.

Lakers fans should like their team’s position, as only the Suns and Cavs have beaten Los Angeles so far. The two teams are a combined 10-1, with the Suns’ only loss coming to the Lakers in the second game of the season.

Redick has the Lakers playing good team basketball, but despite positive contributions from most of the roster, Anthony Davis is still in the spotlight thanks to the strongest start of his career. Davis has undoubtedly been the team’s best player, and his 30.6 points per game average ranks third in the league behind only Nikola Jokic and Tyrese Maxey.

Every new NBA head coach tinkers with his roster to create a strong rotation, and Redick was no exception. With only six games under his belt, we’ll likely see a lot more experimentation, but before that we have a few suggestions he might want to put into action.

Max Christie is just 21 years old and is under contract until at least 2027-28, with an option to extend his contract for a further year. He’s a player the Lakers have invested in and has room to improve, but that’s not a good enough reason to give him more than 18 minutes per game on a team that looks like a contender.

The Lakers need willing and capable shooters around LeBron James. Even with a new coach, this fact has always been and remains irrefutable. Christie shot 41.9 percent from three in his rookie season, but it’s looking more like rookie luck with each passing day. He dropped to 35.6 percent last year and is just 3-12 this season. Until he understands his outside shot, he doesn’t need to spend as many minutes.

According to NBA Advanced Stats, every Lakers two-player pairing Christie is involved in has a negative net rating, with the exception of nine random minutes when he played with Cam Reddish. Gabe Vincent didn’t blow anyone away either, but at least he performed well when paired with Dalton Knecht or Austin Reeves.

Christie has a good reputation as a quarterback, but he’s no Tony Allen or Marcus Smart. If that were the case, we could excuse the fact that he only averages one goal per game. As it stands, he simply doesn’t bring in enough playtime to justify that much playtime. Give Cam Reddish a little run, or better yet…

I know I’m not alone when I say I like someone like Dalton Knecht. The former Tennessee Volunteer was one of the most impressive players in the country as a college player, and then he captivated many NBA fans with his breakneck performance against the Suns in the preseason.

Knecht is only a rookie, but Redick already trusts him enough to play him over 16 minutes per game. This is a start, but it is not enough. Knecht’s ability to provide instant offense off the bench should make him the team’s sixth man, and the more minutes he gets now, the more they will pay off later in the season.

We’re still working with a small sample size as we’re only six games into the season, but Knecht is on six of the Lakers’ top 10 five-man lineups based on net ratings. He played the most minutes alongside LeBron James, D’Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura and Jaxson Hayes, and this lineup excelled on both ends of the floor.

Knecht plays less than Max Christie, but he was a much more influential player on the court. Give him a few minutes of Christie and watch the second craft take off.

This proposal may turn some heads. Sitting with a guy who’s off to an MVP-caliber start to the season? Yes, that’s what I’m suggesting. Redick made Davis the focal point of the Lakers’ offense, and it was clearly the right move. Brow knocks down jumpers, gets to the line and finishes in the paint. He does it all, so why do we want to take him off the court?

Davis remained remarkably healthy last season. The 76 games he played in was a career high, and he looks even stronger this year as he slightly increased his minutes per game to 36. However, that’s another reason not to overwork him.

Davis hasn’t averaged this many minutes since the 2017-18 season, and don’t forget that he played for Team USA in the Olympics this summer. All this basketball takes a toll on the body, especially for a big man with a troubling injury history.

The Lakers don’t want to win the regular season, they want to really compete in the playoffs. Burning AD is not the way to achieve this goal. Redick needs him fresh if he’s going to play his best against Nikola Jokic, Chet Holmgren, Rudy Gobert and Derek Lively II in the postseason, which means he needs to get a couple extra minutes of rest each game until then.

Fortunately, Jackson Hayes proved that he was eminently capable of stepping in and holding the fort. Hayes is happy to do the hard work surrounded by the rest of Los Angeles’ starting lineup, and that’s fine since Los Angeles has more than enough offensive players with LeBron, Reeves, Russell and Hachimura. Hayes can lock up his man, clear the boards and put some dunks back while A.D. takes a breath.