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JJ Redick

Why Mastering ‘Clutch’ Minutes Could Be Lakers’ Secret Weapon

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The ability of Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves to make big plays and close out games enabled the Lakers to win 21 of 27 ‘clutch’ games so far this season. The Lakers’ ‘Clutch-Ability’ is their secret weapon.

‘Clutch’ games happen when lead is 5 or less in last 5 minutes of game. In the 70 games they’ve played this season, the Lakers have the #1 ‘clutch’ offensive rating, #6 ‘clutch’ defensive rating, and #1 ‘clutch’ net rating. The 45–25 Lakers could easily have ended up with a a disappointing 35–35 record had they not dominated ‘clutch’ minutes. Their ‘Clutch-Ability’ not only kept their season alive but now offers a path to the championship.

After losing the last 3 of their first 58 games including two buzzer beaters, Redick made the decision for the Lakers to go into full playoff mode and they responded by winning 11 of their next 12 games with solid defense.
During those 12 games, the Lakers’ offense not only continued to be a juggernaut but the Lakers suddenly started to also play inspired defense, winning ‘clutch’ games vs. the Knicks, Wolves, Nuggets, and Rockets twice.

Right now, the Lakers are playing better than any team in the West other than the Thunder or Spurs, the two teams left ahead of them in standings. Their goal is to do the same in the next 12 games they did to the last 12.
While they won’t be able to catch #2 Spurs or #1 Thunder, the Lakers could finish 56–26 or 55–27 if they can replicate the last 12 games. Do that and Luka Doncic would likely win MVP and JJ Redick NBA Coach of the Year.

The Lakers’ recent elite 12 game streak not only catapulted them into the playoffs as dangerous opponents and possible favorites but could also have changed ownership’s minds about what they should do next summer.

How Redick Suddenly Transformed Lakers Into Legitimate Contenders

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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.

Lakers Steal Nuggets’ Tiebreaker! Rockets’ Tiebreaker Next Target

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If the #3 Lakers sweep this week’s 2-game series with the #4 Rockets, they would then have a 2-game lead to lock down the #3 seed in the West and own tiebreakers with the #4 Rockets, #5 Nuggets, and #6 Timberwolves.

Saturday night’s miraculous victory over their nemesis Denver Nuggets was the best Los Angeles Lakers triumph since winning the 2020 NBA Title. The back-and-forth heroics by players on both teams was truly playoff quality. Reaves’ crafty intentional missed FT and floater to send the game into OT, LeBron’s horizontal dive for that loose ball, Marcus Smart’s clutch steal and key three in OT, and Luka’s killer fade-away to win it were unforgettable.

Right now, there’s no team in the NBA that’s as hot as the Los Angeles Lakers. Two weeks ago, the team was in disarray after losing three straight including two at the buzzer and looking nothing like a playoff contender.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and the red hot Lakers are on a 5-game heater with 8 wins in their last 9 games, including impressive victories over 3 of the Top-10 teams in the NBA in the Knicks, Timberwolves, and Nuggets

The Lakers right now are playing their best basketball of the year. They’re on the precipice of locking down the #3 seed in the West if they can sweep their 2-game Monday and Wednesday road series against the Rockets.
Before winning 8 of 9, the Lakers’ had 116.0 offensive rating (#11), 116.8 defensive rating (#24), and -0.8 net rating (#19). Last 9 games, LA had 122.5 offensive rating (#2), 110.1 defensive rating #6, and +12.3 net rating(#2).

Houston dominated Los Angeles 119–06 in their only meeting last Christmas day but these aren’t the same Lakers the Rockets manhandled in December. Lakers will win both games and steal Rockets’ tiebreaker.

Next 3 Wins Could Put Nuggets & Rockets in Lakers’ Rearview Mirror

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Starting as the #6 seed, the Los Angeles Lakers have won 4 straight games in a row and 7 of their last 8 to leapfrog the #5 Denver Nuggets and #4 Houston Rockets and take over the #3 seed in the West by a half game.

Tomorrow night, the Lakers begin a 3-game stretch that could catapult them into a 2-game lead for the #3 seed with 13 games left or erase what they’ve accomplished the last 8 games and return them to the #6 seed. The 3-game stretch includes Saturday night home against the #5 Nuggets and Monday and Wednesday on road vs. the #4 Rockets. LA would have tiebreakers and 2-game leads on Denver and Houston if they win all 3.

The win-loss records for the last 10 games for the West’s top 6 teams is a roadmap for how they got where they are. The #1 Thunder went 9–1, #2 Spurs 8–2, #3 Lakers 7–3, #4 Rockets 6–4, #5 Nuggets 5–5, #6 Wolves 6–4.
Right now, the Lakers have suddenly transformed themselves from an offense-first team that could not defend anybody to a legitimate feared and dangerous contender that no NBA team wants to face in the playoffs.

Over the last 8 games, the Lakers’123.3 offensive rating was 2nd best, their 109.8 defensive rating was 7th best, and their +13.5 net rating was 2nd best. Before the last 8 games, the Lakers’ net rating for first 43 games was -0.7.
The Lakers sudden improvement both offensively and defensively has happened so quickly and dramatically that most pundits still question whether the Lakers Top-5 play is sustainable, especially in the playoffs.

For me, the eye test confirms what the numbers say: The Lakers are a Top-5 offensive and defensive team right now. The number don’t lie. The Lakers aren’t the favorites but they’re the team nobody wants to play right now.

REDICK HAS LAKERS COMING TOGETHER AT RIGHT TIME

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Heading into the stretch run, JJ Redick needed to address 4 major issues that were keeping the Lakers from being a contender: morale was down, Big Three wasn’t working, offense was struggling, and defense was poor.

After losing 3 straight games including the last two buzzer beaters, morale on the Lakers was understandably down as most of the roster were on expiring contracts and were worried about their future as an NBA player.
The team was not sharing or taking good enough care of the ball, James had replaced Reaves as 2nd option and was struggling, the Big Three was losing its minutes on the court, and the team’s defense was non-existent.

Redick went to Luka, LeBron, and Austin and challenged them to share the ball to get everyone involved, reduce turnovers, play harder on defense, and take and make more 3’s to transform their offense into a juggernaut.
Over the 8-game stretch, the Lakers completely reversed their season long trend of winning by only the slimmest margins, posting double digit blowouts in 6 of 7 games they won and only losing to Denver by 7 points.

Redick further tweaked the Lakers rotation to create two starting quality lineups: an offensive juggernaut with Luka and Austin as the top two options and a defensive smart zone driven LeBron led backup lineup.
Last night’s game showed JJ Redick has also been successful in convincing LeBron James to become the Lakers’ third option to unleash Austin Reaves. Expect LeBron to play more small ball center to protect him defensively.

Redick’s management of this roster deserve high praise. Every player on the Lakers, even the enigmatic Deandre Ayton, has responded to to JJ’s challenge and leadership and are playing their best basketball of their life.

Lakers Discover Winning Formula! Juggernaut Offense & Zone Defense

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The Los Angeles Lakers may finally have discovered the winning formula to transform their offensively talented but defensively flawed roster into a team with a juggernaut 3-point offense and aggressive team zone defense.

After losing 3 straight including 2 straight ‘clutch’ losses, the Lakers were playing like the Lakers always had, guilty of not sharing the ball enough, turning it over too much, and taking and making too few 3-point shots. The Lakers 116.0 offensive rating season-to-date was #11, their 116.8 defensive rating #24, and their -0.7 net rating #19. Their 25.2 assists was #21, their 14.8 turnover #19, their 11.7 3PM #23, and their 33.2 3PA #25.

During their last 7 games, the finally healthy Lakers have been playing like the offensive juggernaut everybody expected they would be with Luka, LeBron and elevating their defense by deploying smart zone defenses.
Over the last 7-game stretch, the Lakers’ 121.1 offensive rating was #5, their 107.3 defensive rating #7, and their +13.8 net rating #2. Their 28.3 assists was #6, their 12.3 turnovers #6, their 14.9 3PM #6, their 39.0 3PA #14.

While the sample size is small, the Lakers underwent an astonishing transformation over a 7-game period to make giant leaps from #11 to #5 offensively, from #24 to #7 defensively, and from #19 to #2 in net rating.
The Lakers transformed their offense by increasing assists from 25.2 to 28.3, cutting turnovers from 14.8 to 12.3, raising 3PM’s from 11.7 to 14.9, and upping 3PA’s from 33.2 to 39.0 while deploying smart zone defenses.

The big questions are what’s behind the Lakers’ dramatic turnaround on offense and defense, is this new level of performance sustainable, and what does it say about the Lakers ceilings offensively and defensively.

TRANSFORMING LAKERS INTO JUGGERNAUT OFFENSE

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Heading into the last month of the regular season, the Lakers essentially have transformed what was a Bottom-10 NBA offense into a 3-ball powered offensive juggernaut that’s now playing like a Top-5 offense in the league.

So what’s behind the Lakers sudden meteoric offensive jump from the middle of the pack to the 5th best offensive rating in the league the last 7 games? The answer is more assists, fewer turnovers, and more threes.
Basically, the Lakers simply transformed their offense into a juggernaut.
In the last 7 games, they created 3.1 more assists, had 2.5 fewer turnovers, took 5.8 more 3-point shots, and made 2.5 more 3-point shots per game.

The result was a 5.1 points per game increase in the Lakers offensive rating for the last 7 games vs. the first 3/4 of the season primarily due to taking 5.8 more 3-point shots and making 3.2 more 3-point shots than earlier in year. Behind the scenes, two things happened to open the door for the Lakers to transform their offense into a juggernaut. The first was the trade for Luke Kennard and the second was the new stable starting lineup and rotation.

JJ Redick has to given credit for doing a fabulous job keeping this team motivated and together, especially since many players are on expiring contracts and unsure of what their future will be in purple and gold.
Redick has smartly focused on playing two starter-quality 5-man lineups with strong positive analytics results. The first is a Doncic and Reaves offense-first lineup and the second is James alone in a defensive lineup.

There’s no question the Lakers have transformed their offense into a juggernaut the last 7 games. If Redick can keep the Lakers playing offense anywhere close to the level of the last 7 games, LA will compete for a ring.

TRANSFORMING LAKERS WITH SMART ZONE DEFENSE

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Finally healthy for the last quarter of the regular season, the Lakers have transformed their defense from a Bottom-10 defense to a Top-5 defense by integrating a smart zone defense with their other team defensive tools.

So what’s behind the Lakers sudden and surprising Top-5 team defense? After a frustrating first 3/4 of the season, JJ Redick has finally figured out how to get his talented offense-first roster to play inspired defense.
Redick’s solution was to add a 2/3 smart zone to their defensive toolkit to provide a different look, disrupt opponent offensive rhythm, eat up clock early in possessions, and simplify roles for weak individual defenders.

The gratifying result has been a 9.5 points per game reduction in their defensive rating, going from a 116.8 defensive rating (#24) for the first 3/4 of the season to a 107.3 defensive rating (#6) for the last 7 games.
While the Lakers must prove over the 17 games left in the regular season that their enhanced defense is real and sustainable, both the eye test and the analytics numbers confirm that LA’s defensive improvement is for real.

Part of why the Lakers players are playing better defense are the savvy moves Redick made to share the ball more and get everybody involved on offense so they feel like they’re again playing for their Lakers future.
While everybody expected Redick to be an excellent offensive head coach, nobody really expected him to be able to get the Lakers players defending with multiple efforts at the elite level they have performed last 7 games.

There’s no question that using an innovative new smart zone defense 20% of the time has transformed the Lakers’ defense into a Top-5 unit that enables them to better protect the rim and defend the point-of-attack.

TRANSFORMING LAKERS INTO CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM

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Offense and defense in basketball are synergistically connected. Good offense leads to good defense and good defense leads to good offense while bad offense leads to bad defense and bad defense leads to bad offense.

Right now, the Lakers are reaping the synergistic benefit of transforming their offense into a juggernaut and their defense into a smart zone defense. Their good offense and defense are synergistically improving each other.
Eliminating bad offense from turnovers and low percentage shots clearly helps the Lakers defense just as eliminating bad defense that allows fast breaks or offensive rebounds can make their offense be more efficient.

Right now, much of the Lakers’ big improvement in offense and defense has been due to Redick and his staff finding the right combinations of personnel with enough offense and defense to win minutes on the court.
There are still challenges with what to do with LeBron when all three play together, how to better protect the rim without any elite shot blockers on the roster, and how to have better point-of-attack defense playing man.

Functionally, Redick has opted for an offense-first starting lineup led by Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves and a second defense-first starter-quality lineup led by LeBron James with several of the team’s best defenders.
Two defenders who have been crucial is getting the Lakers new smart zone defense to provide better point-of-attack defense and rim protection are Jarred Vanderbilt and Jaxson Hayes, who have ignited the zone defense.

While the Lakers still have a ‘flawed’ roster, Redick and his coaching staff have done a fantastick job transforming their offense into a juggernaut and their defense into a Top-5 unit boasting an innovative smart zone defense.