Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick revealed the starting lineup for his team heading into his first season with the franchise.
During a podcast appearance with his former ESPN colleague Zach Lowe, the longtime NBA sharpshooter said that he already knows the first unit for the Lakers. It includes Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis.
James and Davis once again proved themselves as two of the best players in the world during the 2024 Paris Olympics, helping lead Team USA to win a gold medal against France. The rest of the starting lineup for Redick is well-suited to complement those two stars.
As noted by Redick, the five players mentioned above went “23-10” during their games together last season.
When he was head coach of the Lakers, per Basketball-Reference.com, Ham did not play this five-man group until January 21. That realization somehow took until more than halfway through the season.
The starting lineup JJ Reddick committed to in @ZachLowe_NBA's pod, Austin/DLo/Rui/LeBron/AD, played ZERO minutes before January 21st last year.
43 games and Darvin didn't even think to put those 5 guys together.
— Jason Timpf (@_JasonLT) September 25, 2024
But starting from when this group began playing together, it became one of the best high-volume five-man lineups in the league.
Los Angeles has outscored opponents by 9.46 points per 100 possessions in the 547 minutes that this unit has played alongside one another, via PBPStats. It is a data-backed group that performs well on both sides of the ball.
Redick is making the right choice to put these players together and we can only imagine how much better these past two seasons could have looked if fans saw more of it from Ham.
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