JJ Redick Must Solve ‘Big Three’ To Prove He’s Lakers’ Coach Of Future

JJ Redick has an opportunity to prove to new owner Mark Walter and the entire Lakers organization that he’s destined to become their next great head coach by making critical changes to solve their Big Three dilemma.

The sample size is small but numbers don’t lie. The Lakers’ Big Three of Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and LeBron James has played 192 minutes in 12 games with 107.7 Offensive, 117.4 Defensive, and -9.7 net rating. Sunday night, the Doncic, Reaves, and James Big Three had their worst offensive game of the season, being dominated by Boston 111–89, playing 20 minutes and posting 104.7 offense, 122.7 defense, and -19.1 net rating.

The Lakers’ only Big Three lineup so far this season to win their minutes played is the 2-man lineup of Doncic and Reaves, which played 511 minutes in 21 games with a solid 116.3 offense, 111.2 defense, +5.0 net rating.
LeBron’s 2-man lineups struggled. He played 725 minutes with Luka in 32 games with 111.9 offense, 117.9 defense, -5.9 net rating and 390 minutes with Austin in 17 games with 110.5 offense, 116.2 defense, -5.7 net rating.

Currently 5th in the West with a 34–22 record, Redick has just 26 games before the playoffs to solve the Big Three dilemma, save the season, and show he has the vision and courage to be the Lakers’ coach of the future.
After starting 15–4, the Lakers have evolved into a .500 team, going 19–18 over their last 37 games. With a tough closing schedule, LA could easily go 7–19 to finish the season 41–41unless JJ can pull off a coaching miracle.

If JJ wants to save his job and become the Lakers’ head coach of the future, he cannot stay the course. He must aggressively solve the team’s ‘Big Three’ problem, finish the regular season strong, and overachieve in the playoffs.

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CAN REDICK MAKE LAKERS ‘BIG THREE’ LINEUP WORK?

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Realistically, JJ Redick has two options to save this season and his job. The first option is to figure out how to make the Big Three starting lineup work. If that fails, his second option is convince LeBron to come off the bench.

After Sunday night’s devastating blowout by the Celtics, the Lakers should understand how precarious their situation is right now. After a 15–4 start, the Lakers have evolved into a .500 team, going 19–18 in their last 37 games.
Right now, they face a difficult schedule where 19 of their last 26 games are against teams with a winning record. Go 7–19 and Lakers finish year 41–41.
In the end, JJ must solve the Lakers’ Big Three problem to save his job.

At this point, Redick needs to be honest with his players, letting them know the primary plan is to figure out how to transform the Big Three starting lineup into the juggernaut everybody expected that can win its minutes.
But Redick also needs the team to understand failure to build a winning Big Three starting lineup will ultimately lead to breaking up the Big Three to build better balanced lineups with LeBron likely coming off the bench.

So what can JJ realistically do to make the Lakers’ Big Three play winning basketball? To start with, JJ needs to start calling a lot more plays and replacing lower performing iso ball with higher performing called plays.
Right now, the Lakers’ starting lineup has become a boring my-turn-your-turn half-court iso offense. The Big Three haven’t built any chemistry or synergy. It’s also time for Jaxson Hayes to start over Deandre Ayton.

While 12 games is a small sample size, the numbers and the eye test both say transforming Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and LeBron James into a Big Three that wins the minutes they play together may simply not be possible.

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CAN REDICK CONVINCE LEBRON TO COME OFF BENCH?

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Should JJ Redick not be able to figure out how to transform the Lakers’ Big Three starting lineup into a juggernaut, his only other option would be to break up the Big Three and convince LeBron James to come off the bench.

Internally, the Lakers’ ‘best practices’ under new owner Mark Walter should emphasize data-driven decision making. The numbers are basically screaming the Lakers’ Big Three starting lineup is not a winning lineup.
But alternatively, the numbers are also saying that there’s an elite starting lineup Redick can build around Luka, Austin, Marcus, and Jax and a second starter-quality lineup built around LeBron, Rui, Vando, and Deandre.

While asking LeBron James to come off the bench seems like a risky move, the subject’s already appeared in numerous articles and the noise will only get louder as the starting Big Three continues to lose their minutes played.
There’s also a point where LeBron will see the writing on the wall and may actually volunteer to come off the bench for the Lakers. That’s the solution Redick’s relationship with James should ultimately bring to fruition.

LeBron is also smart enough to know the Lakers starting Big Three is simply not working. The tendency is to take turns and there are not enough balls, shooters, defenders, or glue guys to build a real winning lineup.
James can also see that the he’s the logical choice to come off the bench, just like he recently did in the All-Star game. Reddick can’t wait too long for a miracle. LeBron should start coming off the bench before playoffs.

The last thing Redick wants to do is quietly stick with his Big Three starting lineup come hell or high water. That would be professional suicide that could easily lose Redick any chance at being the Lakers coach of the future.