When coach JJ Redick started extolling the virtues of Austin Reaves’ play and how the Lakers had asked for a little more from the guards, Redick also mentioned the word defense.
No, Reaves isn’t a lock-down defenseman, but he has shown Redick during training camp and the first two preseason games that he knows how to guard.
“I never thought he was a sucker defensively, but he’s doing everything he can on that end,” Redick said after the Lakers’ practice on Tuesday. ‘He knows what to do. He’s in the right places. If he has to deviate, he deviates. If he has to be the low man, he is the low man. When he’s supposed to be at the nail, he’s at the nail. He just does a lot of good things on the basketball floor.
When Reaves spoke to the media, he was told about Redick’s comments. Reaves raised his eyebrows and smiled.
“So he said I defended well, didn’t he?” Reaves asked.
In a sense, Reaves was told.
Read more: Lakers LeBron James and Bronny James play together for the first time in the NBA preseason game
“Oh, did he say that? Oh, wow,” Reaves responded.
Redick said Reaves knows where to defend. Does Reaves think that’s a good thing?
“Yes, I hope so. It’s better than not being in the right place,” Reaves said. “No, I think it’s just a foundation, having a system, knowing exactly where the rotation is going to be, where you’re supposed to be, where the help is going to be. It makes you feel good when you get the guarded the ball, knowing, ‘Okay, I can be a little more aggressive, because I have AD [Anthony Davis] in the back row and I know he’ll be there. But not just AD, if they skip it to the corner, then X [teammate] will be there.’
“So just having confidence in what we’re doing and the foundation we’re laying is the most important thing to me.”
Over the course of his three years with the Lakers, Reaves has shown he can do a lot of things. He has been able to run the offense, make the right pass for an assist, shoot the three, drive the lane and shoot the floater.
There is more Redick wants to get out of Reaves.
“We talked a lot all season. We’ve seen it in the gym,” Redick said. “He’s had a specific type of pie to choose from, a menu to choose from so far in his career. We’re going to try to put it on the menu a bit more. Just make it a bit more dynamic. I wouldn’t actually say ‘shocked’ [but] I’m really pleasantly surprised at how much he can do without the ball. He’s a great passer. He is able to create pace both off the ball and on the ball. He’s just a very dynamic offensive player.”
More threes, please
So Redick said he was “joking about the 50” times per game the Lakers should shoot 3-pointers this season, but 40 is a good number.
Last season, the Lakers made 31.4 threes per game, the third-fewest in the NBA. They scored 11.8, the seventh least, while scoring 37.7%, which ranked eighth.
In two preseason games, they are 21 for 72 (29.1%). So the Lakers come in at three, they just don’t make enough money. They’ll get another chance Thursday when they meet the Bucks in a preseason game in Milwaukee.
“Yes, I think 40 is a lot, but if you generate good numbers, that’s a great number,” Redick said. “I would like us to average five or six more threes per game. But you have to be conscientious about how we generate those threes.
“I actually think we did a pretty good job of getting good looks. There were a couple of forced rebounds in transition off the dribble in the first half. Then there were a couple of offensive rebounds in the second half that I thought that maybe they we could have kept the ball moving and got a better shot. Overall, I like the mentality of shooting when the set is set and shooting good threes.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter on all things Lakers.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
