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Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick announced recently that the team would be\u00a0returning to their most successful starting lineup of 2023-24. That is the grouping of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, D\u2019Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura that went 23-10 in games they started together last season.<\/p>\n
Former head coach Darvin Ham experimented with several other lineup pairings, but ultimately landed on this one in the second half of the year when the Lakers desperately needed to go on a run. That lineup had a plus-5.2 net rating after Jan. 1 and was efficient on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n
Redick obviously likes the record associated with that lineup from last year, but he spoke specifically about what he likes when James, Davis, Russell, Reaves and Hachimura are on the court together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the fact that in the games they played together last year, they were 23-10 with essentially the equivalent of a top-five defense,\u201d Redick said. \u201cI like the size a lot, particularly on the front line with Rui, LeBron and AD. And Austin is what I would say a bigger or slightly above average sized two-guard. So I like the size of that group.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the versatility having three guys who can play with the ball in their hands. You brought up the systems, some of our systems will require players to be off the ball and that doesn\u2019t mean standing around off the ball. It means being involved in screening actions and so far in some of the smaller settings we\u2019ve done that\u2026 like AR is a great example.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked very early when I got the job and he spent time with us in Vegas and I told him, I said you know, to this point in your career, you\u2019ve played one way and you\u2019ve got like a great skill set and it\u2019s this circle. All we\u2019re doing, we\u2019re not taking anything out of that circle, we\u2019re just adding to that circle. We\u2019re making the circle a little bigger. We\u2019re making your bag a little bit bigger, making you a little more hard to guard, making you a little bit more dynamic. I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do for all the players in our program, not just the starting five.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under Redick, the Lakers already seem to have a greater priority for size and versatility than they did under Ham. The previous head coach was much more guard-focused and wanted L.A. to be able to get out and run, even at the expense of the defense.<\/p>\n
If Redick continues with his strategy into the season, it\u2019s possible the Lakers may have earlier success and won\u2019t have to play catch up in the latter half of the campaign.<\/p>\n
During a press conference earlier this week, JJ Redick was asked about Rui Hachimura, his performance for Japan in the 2024 Olympics, and his\u00a0vision for his role on this team\u00a0moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Rui was fantastic, particularly in the lead-up and exhibition games going into the Olympics, and then also had a couple of really good games in the Olympics,\u201d Redick said. \u201cIn terms of his role, I think that\u2019s something that we will define with him, and we will also be open-minded to that evolving.<\/p>\n
\u201cRob brought up the corner crashing because when he\u2019s not posting up or not playing out of closeouts or not screening, Rui is an excellent shooter. We want him shooting corner 3s, so he\u2019s already gonna be in the spot to corner crash. So we\u2019re trying to ramp up his offensive rebounding, we\u2019re gonna ask a lot of him defensively, particularly with bigger wings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if you look at some of the advanced stuff from last season when he gets the ball in the post against a mismatch, that\u2019s a good option for us. When he\u2019s attacking a closeout, that\u2019s a good option. When he\u2019s playing out of screening action as a roller and getting into the pocket, that\u2019s great for us. So he\u2019ll have a big role, and we\u2019re gonna ask him to do a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick announced recently that the team would be\u00a0returning to their most successful starting lineup of 2023-24. That is the grouping of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n