Last summer in Las Vegas, a veteran NBA coach spoke about the Lakers’ decision to hire JJ Redick, noting that nothing can prepare anyone — an assistant, an announcer, anyone — for the sheer volume of decisions that a head coach has to take every night. .
Most of the choices are relatively small: which play to take out of a timeout, when to use a challenge, how to adjust pick-and-roll coverage.
When it comes to decisions, it’s a tall order.
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But Friday night, with the Lakers having lost four of their last five games, Redick took a less common path. He made a big choice.
After a benching Wednesday in a loss to Memphis, Redick moved point guard D’Angelo Russell to the second unit in favor of Cam Reddish, who wasn’t even in the rotation three games ago.
Such decisions are fraught with doubt, the kind of moves fans can make against a coach, as they did a year ago when Darvin Ham sent Austin Reaves to the bench after nine games to start Reddish.
On Friday, the move worked about as well as it could for all parties involved. Reddish took on the responsibility of defending Philadelphia’s best perimeter player, Paul George. Reaves, relieved of that responsibility, had his best shooting game of the season. Russell gave the toothless Lakers bench a real bite.
And most importantly, the Lakers won, beating the 76ers 116-106 in their first game in Los Angeles after a 1-4 road trip.
LeBron James had 21 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists, his second triple-double of the season. Anthony Davis scored 31 points to lead the Lakers, and the team made 16 three-pointers on the season, including six from Reaves.
Russell scored 18 points off the bench, the most points shared by a Laker reserve this season.
Redick pulled Russell midway through the third quarter against the Grizzlies on Wednesday, citing a lack of attention to detail after the game. Video of Russell’s final play against Memphis showed an angry Redick slamming his chair against the court several times in frustration.
“For me, basketball is an emotional game. I’m a competitive person, I’m a passionate person,” Redick said Friday before the game. “Sometimes, for a short period of time, you lose control over that emotion. It’s not the first time this has happened.”
Redick said he told Russell the anger was not directed at him specifically, but that it was because of compound errors the Lakers made early in the second half of a game they thought was winnable. Redick said his conversation with Russell went well.
“DLo and I are good. He’s great. He has been a professional,” Redick said. “I asked him to… he’s a pick-and-roll player. And he plays in an offense that doesn’t feature a lot of… pick-and-rolls and high-ball screens. He has been super professional; he has been super coachable. He and I established a baseline for our relationship this summer. We’re good.”
A season ago, Russell was sent to the second unit for seven games. That another coach has made a similar choice this season speaks to the defensive issues Russell-Reaves’ backcourt has had at times.
The split worked Friday against Philadelphia, which was without point guard Tyrese Maxey and center Joel Embiid.
Now, deciding how long to keep the change going will be the next big decision on Redick’s plate.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
