In 19 days, JJ Redick transformed the Lakers from a 34–24 team hanging onto the #6 seed in the West to a 43–25 team that could lock up the #3 seed and tiebreakers with #4, #5, and #6 seeds with a win tonight in Houston.
The Lakers have now won 6 straight and 9 of 10 games. Over the first 58 games, LA had the #11 offense, #24 defense, and #19 net rating. The last 10 games, they boasted the league’s #3 offense, #6 defense, and #2 net rating. While their elite play may not be sustainable, the numbers clearly show Redick and his staff and the Lakers Big Three and role players have finally figured out how to transform their offense and defense into juggernauts.
As a team over the last 10 games, the Lakers have transformed their offense into a juggernaut by dramatically increasing their team’s assists, 3-point attempts, and 3 point makes while simultaneously slashing turnovers.
Over the last 10 games, the Lakers’ assists per game improved from 25.2 (#21) to 27.7 (#10), 3-point attempts from 33.2 (#25) to 37.9 (#14), 3-point makes from 1.7 (#23) to 14.3 (#9), and turnovers from 14.8 (#19) to 12.5 (#3).
Defensively over the last 10 games, the Lakers have also transformed their defense from a bottom-10 team to a top-5 team that plays extremely hard and has shown the ability to shut down on opposing team’s top scorers.
Statistically, the Lakers’ defense reduced opponent points per game from 115.9 (#18) to 109.3 (#6), opponent 3P% from 36.5% ((#21) to 30.0% (#1), steals from 8.1 (#18) to 9.8 (#7), and blocks from 4.1 (#28) to 4.8 (#14).
So how was JJ Redick able to transform the Lakers’ offense and defense into juggernauts over a 10-game 19-day stretch? Here are five major Lakers’ problems JJ Redick solved that transformed Lakers into legit contenders.
1. Solving Lakers’ Big Three Problem
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The single biggest problem facing second-year head coach JJ Redick was figuring out how to make the Lakers Big Three of Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and LeBron James win the minutes they’re on the court together.
In the first 68 games in the Lakers’ season, Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and LeBron James only played together for 248 minutes in 14 games, posting a disappointing 109.6 offensive, 114.5 defensive, and -4.9 net rating.
In the 10 game just played, the Lakers Big Three finally discovered how to excel together, playing for 148 minutes in 7 of the 10 games while posting an elite 117.8 offensive rating, 99.4 defensive rating, and +18.5 net rating.
The key to the Lakers’ Big Three winning their minutes on court together was pairing them with Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart to give them the size and defense needed to best complement Doncic, Reaves, and James.
Redick also made the critical decision to move LeBron James from 2nd to the 3rd option when the Big Three are on court together and promote Austin Reaves to the role as Luka Doncic’s co-star and Lakers’ 2nd option.
The sudden emergence the last 19 days of the Lakers as a legitimate contender to win this year’s NBA championship has been buoyed by their dominating wins over the Spurs, Nuggets, Timberwolves, and Rockets.
While the Lakers were not a dominant force early in the season due to disabling injury stints by superstars James, Reaves, and Doncic, they’ve since figured out how to unleash their Big Three on offense and defense.
While the Lakers were not planning on bringing LeBron James back next season so they could use his cap space to sign a big free agent, JJ solving their Big Three problem could make it more likely that LeBron returns.
2. Making LeBron James 3rd Option
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When the Big Three is on the court together, JJ Redick has designated LeBron James as the Lakers’ 3rd highest usage player going forward to allow Austin Reaves to be the 2nd option after superstar Luka Doncic.
LA plans to re-sign Austin Reaves to a new contract to join Luka Doncic as the Lakers’ backcourt of the future. They’re confident they will be able to build a championship level roster around Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
Give Redick credit for not being afraid to broach the subject of LeBron becoming the Lakers’ third option and James credit for being willing to accept the change. Suddenly, everybody has clarity and is on same page.
Designating Reaves as the team’s 2nd option going forward obviously would not work without LeBron James’ blessing, which it has, and the early results have been stellar as the new role’s perfect for LeBron and the team.
LeBron has always been a pass first player despite his otherworldly achievement of scoring the most points in NBA history. Kevin Durant could learn a lot from LeBron James about how to finish his career with class.
When the Big Three aren’t playing, the Lakers are now using two 5-man lineups with winning net ratings. One is an offense-first lineup led by Doncic and Reaves while the other is a defense-first lineup led by James.
JJ Redick designating LeBron James as the Lakers 3rd option was a critical move that needed to be made in order for everybody on the Lakers to be on the same page. Credit to JJ and LeBron for doing what needed doing.
JJ Redick’s decision to promote Austin Reaves to 2nd option behind Luka Doncic and demote LeBron James to 3rd option clarified the Lakers’ pecking order for every player on the team, including the Big Three.
3. Taking & Making More Threes
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JJ Redick has always wanted the Lakers to increase their 3-poimt attempts to at least 40 takes per game. During the last 10 games, the Lakers have dramatically increased their 3PA from 33.2 (#25) to 37.9 (#14) per game.
Even more importantly, the Lakers have been able to increase their 3PM over the last 10 games vs. earlier in the season from 11.7 (#23) to 14.3 (#9). That’s an increase in points generated by 3PM of 7.8 points per game.
Before the last 10 games, the Lakers consistently lost the 3-point battle by -5.1 points per game. During the last 10 games, however, LA turned tables and dominated the 3-point differential by a huge +11.4 points per game.
Transforming the Lakers from a bottom-10 3-point shooting team to a top-5 3-ball juggernaut in the middle of the season is unheard of but JJ Redick has suddenly pulled it off. The big question is how long can he sustain it?
The 43–25 Lakers have played a total of 68 games with 14 games remaining in the regular season. Over the last 10 games, they have 6 players who took more than 3.6 3PA per game and sank more than 1.4 3PM per game.
The Gabe Vincent trade for high-percentage 3-point shooter Luke Kennard was a major factor in the LA’s sudden embracing of the three. The trade finally gave the Lakers 2 lethal laser shooters who could space the floor.
JJ Redick has already shown interest in a 5-man small ball lineup that includes the Big Three with LeBron James at the five plus the Lakers’ elite duo of laser 3-point shooters Luke Kennard and Rui Hachimura.
JJ transforming the Lakers from a bottom-10 to a top-5 3-point shooting juggernaut could be a massive difference maker in the playoffs. It could even change the Lakers’ plans for an extreme makeover next summer.
4. Sharing And Protecting Basketball
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The Laker’s success both on offense and defense the last 10 games has been due to their increase in assists and decrease in turnovers. During the last 10 games, the Lakers assist-to-turnover ratio jumped from 1.7 to 2.2 per game.
After the late February 3-game losing streak, Redick told Doncic, Reaves, and James that they needed to shoot less and pass more to win and that the team was essentially unbeatable when they generate 30 assists in a game.
Besides increasing assists, the Lakers need to reduce turnovers, which can kill a team’s offense while putting stress on their defense. The top-5 teams with the best assist-to-turnover teams will have a ratio better than 2 to 1.
To the Lakers’ credit, they not only listened to Redick’s demand but actually started to immediately generate more assists and reduce team turnovers. Assist-to-turnover was a unique area that affects both offense and defense. During the last 10 games, the Lakers have averaged 27.7 assists per game (#11) vs. 25.2 (#21) for first 58 games and 12.5 turnovers (#5) vs. 14.8 (#19). Overall, the Lakers upped their assist-to-turnover ratio from 1.7 to 2.2.
Right now, the Lakers go into each game looking to generate 30 or more assists per game and limit their turnovers to fewer than 12 per game. After the last 10 games, they’re now at 27.7 assists and 12.5 turnovers per game.
Redick knows that optimizing sharing and moving the ball and limiting killer turnovers is a sure formula for winning basketball games. Hot as LA has been, there is still room for them to improve and get even better.
Dramatically increasing assists and decreasing turnovers could have been the most significant of the five major problems that JJ Redick solved that have transformed the Lakers’ offense and defense into Top-10 juggernauts.
5. Solidifying Center Rotation
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The last of the five major problems that JJ Redick solved to transform the Lakers into legitimate contenders was to solidify what was a questionable center rotation headed by enigmatic Deandre Ayton into a plus rotation.
Through patience, communication, and holding players accountable, Redick has been able to get the best possible out of all three Lakers’ centers and has somehow molded them into a capable coherent center rotation.
Deandre Ayton may be on the verge of finally becoming a team-first player, Jaxson Hayes has become a highlight real and Luka Doncic favorite, and a healthy Maxi Kleber could be their missing floor spacer and rim protector.
Right now, Redick appears to be satisfied with a combination of center by committee where Ayton starts, Hayes backs him up, and Kleber fills in to make matchups work. As a group, they have all the requisite center skills.
The wild card for the Lakers’ center rotation is the the option of playing small ball with LeBron James as the five, which will likely be a major weapon the Lakers can turn to if they do not like the center matchups.
The recent renaissance of Deandre Ayton could be the final genius move by JJ Redick. If Ayton can really join the rest of the Lakers and play hard and focus on protecting the rim, setting screens, and attacking the boards. JJ has been patient but also demanding accountability from Deandre. This could be an amazing moment in Ayton’s career if he can follow through. We’ve already seen Deandre respond to help Lakers win last 2 games.
JJ Redick deserves kudos for a great job getting Ayton to accept his role on the Lakers and to integrate both Hayes and Kleber into the rotation. JJ has taken a weakness and possibly turned it into one of the Lakers’ strengths.
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