Within the Los Angeles Lakers‘ newest recreation in opposition to the Philadelphia 76ers, JJ Redick made a stunning determination by transferring D’Angelo Russell to the bench for the primary time this NBA common season, opting to start out Cam Reddish as a substitute. Redick later broke down his reasoning for the lineup shift.
After a disappointing five-game street journey, Redick felt it was time to shake issues up. “Pay attention, I used to be a participant,” Redick stated after the Lakers‘ win through Lakers Nation. “DLo and I talked about this. I’m not any person who’s simply gonna overreact and have 19 (totally different beginning lineups). Effectively, hopefully not. Hopefully, we’re wholesome.”
Redick acknowledged that making the choice wasn’t straightforward, particularly given the necessity to method these modifications with empathy. “It required loads of thought, and to be trustworthy with you, it additionally required eradicating emotion from it as a result of there’s a steadiness as a coach in attempting to do what you consider is finest for the group but in addition being empathetic and delicate to every participant. You need to maximize and empower them, not mess with their confidence or self-image,” Redick added.
“There’s a extremely laborious steadiness that I needed to work by,” he continued. “I got here on this morning with the workers, and we talked about it—it was a part of our dialogue in our coach’s assembly. All of us felt prefer it was the appropriate factor to do for proper now. And each of these guys had been nice tonight.”
Head coach JJ Redick of the Los Angeles Lakers reacts throughout the first half in opposition to the Philadelphia 76ers at Crypto.com Area. Harry How/Getty Pictures
JJ Redick gives excessive reward for Russell and Reddish
Redick counseled each Russell and Reddish for getting into their roles and executing nicely on the courtroom. “I felt each these guys starred within the roles they’d tonight,” Redick stated. “Cam took one shot in 27 minutes however had a big impact on the sport. Defensively, Paul George by no means acquired going at any level. Within the first half, we had three smash display screen assists from set performs, and I feel Cam had two of them. That’s sacrifice, and it’s unselfishness.”
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“For DLo, I feel he starred in that function as nicely,” he continued. “Huge-time power increase off the bench and a extremely environment friendly night time for him. He simply performed actually good basketball, however throughout the board, it was a workforce win for our group.”
LeBron James weighs in on the scenario
After the Lakers’ victory, LeBron James defined that the mindset of each Russell and Reddish made the brand new rotation efficient. “What allowed it to work was the sacrifices that DLo and Cam have continued to make, and clearly the most important sacrifice is DLo going to the bench,” James stated.
“It’s no secret that our bench has been struggling to search out methods to attain, and one of the best ways to vary that’s to place a scorer on the bench,” James continued. “DLo got here in and gave us a big-time push off the bench, and Cam did job of attempting to make it robust on PG all night time, so it was a complement that labored on each side, offensively and defensively for our ball membership.”
