All too often, NBA coaches will drag their feet on changes to the starting lineup, citing the need for proper sample sizes when in reality, waiting only puts off the inevitable. Only eight games into the season, JJ Redick decided he wasn't going to wait for data to tell him what he and his coaching staff already knew: D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves needed to be split up.
So, Russell went to the bench, Cam Reddish stepped into the starting group, and Reaves was finally handed over the reins. The Los Angeles Lakers have won the two games since (albeit against lesser opponents), and the returns for both Reaves and Russell have been positive. Also importantly, the locker room welcomed the change in ways they never did when Darvin Ham attempted the same tweaks.
For Redick, the thinking was fairly simple, and the process that led to this decision started well before the season tipped off.
Sources close to the situations said that, even when Redick announced publicly on The Lowe Post podcast to Zach Lowe that he would start the season with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Rui Hachimura joining Russell and Reaves as the team's starters, citing their stellar record together last year, he and his coaching staff were already contemplating how to stagger Russell and Reaves so that the latter could spend more time on the ball than he did last year.
The issues with the Reaves-Russell backcourt start on the defensive end, where Russell needs to be hidden, but Reaves doesn't have the foot speed to operate as a point-of-attack defender. Ideally, Reaves would take opposing teams' lesser perimeter threats to save energy for his creative responsibilities on offense. With Russell also out there, Reaves would look consistently exhausted by the end of games, lessening his impact in the possessions that really matter.
So, the priority became finding a player on the roster who could defend at the point of attack but also not hurt the offense's spacing too badly. Originally, the Lakers had hoped that player would be Max Christie. He got off to such a dreadful start that he's now completely out of the rotation. As a result, in stepped Reddish.
Ideally, a backcourt combination with the defensive limitations that the Reaves and Russell backcourt have would overwhelm opposing teams offensively. While they're good offensively (they carried an offensive rating of 115.7 last year and so far this year sit at 114.2), that isn't anywhere near good enough to make up for those defensive issues. Redick knew this coming into the season and, when the initial sample backed up those questions from last year, he acted quickly.
For Russell, he has consistently maintained throughout his career that he's most comfortable with the ball in his hands. In a starting group featuring not only Reaves but also James and Davis (who the Lakers have made a concerted effort to make a bigger part of Redick's system), Russell found himself standing still, waiting for a shot attempt. He hasn't looked comfortable in that role, to put it nicely.
In the minutes he's run bench units, he's been able to control the game as he prefers and has looked quite a bit better. These last two games, Russell has averaged 16.5 points on 52% shooting from the field and 38.5% from three. Reaves has also stepped up, averaging 23.5 points on 56.7% from the field and 47.4% from deep. Granted, it's a small sample size against compromised opponents, but the improvement has been tangible for both players.
Another factor that needs to be pointed out is how likely it remains that Russell will be traded this season. Even before Russell was removed from the starting lineup, the Lakers hadn't been closing games with him. Gabe Vincent has been getting those minutes, instead. The less reliant the Lakers are on Russell if or whenever they do trade him, the less they'll need to work to replace his production as part of said trade.
While the possibility of moving Russell isn't explicitly a part of the process that went into this new role for him, we can't ignore a steady trend that's been taking place right from the start of the season.
Famously, the Lakers locker room did not respond well to Darvin Ham going away from the starters last season. So, how are they handling it so far?
Sources say the players were somewhat surprised Redick went away from Russell as quickly as he did, but, through improved communication, Redick has been able to maintain better buy-in. It also helped that he did give that group a shot from the onset of the season. Some internally are still concerned about how Russell will handle this over time, which makes it all the more important the Lakers keep winning as they figure out this new approach.
Moving a player like Russell to the bench obviously comes with its own set of risks, but doing nothing and hoping Russell and Reaves would magically figure it out was always the more treacherous path. Redick made the switch. Now the Lakers have to continue winning to prove it was the right decision.
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