{"id":118593,"date":"2025-01-17T12:14:03","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T17:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=118593"},"modified":"2025-01-17T12:23:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T17:23:49","slug":"lakers-guard-austin-reaves-jj-redick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/17\/lakers-guard-austin-reaves-jj-redick\/","title":{"rendered":"JJ Redick Outlines Lakers Guard’s Good and Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s debatable whether the\u00a0<\/span>Los Angeles Lakers<\/span><\/a>\u00a0are better, worse, or the same as last year. While it is evident that\u00a0<\/span>JJ <\/span>Redick’s<\/span><\/a> team plays differently in some aspects under his rule, other aspects look eerily similar to those under\u00a0<\/span>Darvin Ham<\/span><\/a>. That said, Lakers guard\u00a0<\/span>Austin Reaves<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is one part of this Redick-led team that does look different. He is having the best NBA season of his career. However, that doesn’t necessarily cover up all of Reaves’s flaws, which his coach pointed out publicly<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

JJ Redick Outlines Lakers Guard’s Good and Bad<\/h2>\n

Lakers Guard Austin Reaves Receives Two-Handed Critique from HC<\/h3>\n

Even before\u00a0<\/span>D’Angelo Russell<\/span><\/a>\u00a0got traded, Reaves had established himself as LA’s third star behind\u00a0<\/span>LeBron James<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Anthony Davis<\/span><\/a>. Sure, “star” is a debatable term in conjunction with Reaves, given that he would likely not be viewed as such on another NBA team. In Los Angeles, though, with the Lakers, he’s the next, best, closest thing to another star they have.<\/span><\/p>\n

If Reaves isn’t star-worthy in the true sense of the term, his numbers at least reflect what a team’s third-best player should produce on a nightly basis. He’s averaging 17.9 points, 6.2 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.1 steals per game. His three-point shooting and efficiency aren’t great. However, given the Laker’s collective lackluster long-distance shooting, a few ticks above 36% isn’t terrible. Redick, who has made his affections for Reaves known even going back to his podcasting days, recently spoke about the good and the bad<\/a>, as it were, of Reaves’ game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a daring mentality\u2026 when he\u2019s played the right way\u2026 is a primary creator, and taking the right shot, made the right passes, I\u2019ll be honest with you, he\u2019s played an all-star level.\u00a0<\/em>It\u2019s when the game kind of goes sideways\u2026<\/em>It\u2019s like you can\u2019t get out of character. You can\u2019t then decide, I\u2019m going to take bad shots, because I haven\u2019t had a shot in a while. I\u2019m going to make that pass. Our team needs you to play the right way every time that he\u2019s done that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

To Should or Should Not Trade<\/h3>\n

There is no denying what Reaves begins to the Lakers, star or not. Without him, the Lakers are even worse off this season and likely outside their current playoff positioning (21-17, 6th seed). What Redick described in Reaves’s good and bad elements is on point because we all see them every night. When the Lakers are playing badly, and Reaves mirrors that, he becomes turnover-prone and takes some highly questionable shots. But are his flaws worth the upside? Or, as Redick sees, the current\u00a0<\/span>All-Star level basketball<\/span><\/a> Reaves is playing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reaves has been rumored in trade packages for a few months now. The Lakers are adamant they won’t be trading him. On one hand, Reaves is their most valuable trade asset. The return would be much higher than any other current player not named\u00a0<\/span>LeBron<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or AD. On the other hand, if the Lakers cannot make another significant trade between now and the deadline, they absolutely need Reaves if they have any aspirations of even making the playoffs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lakers are unlikely to move Reaves, considering that the organization views him as a part of their future. Additionally, as it appears thus far, he and Redick look made for each other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s debatable whether the\u00a0Los Angeles Lakers\u00a0are better, worse, or the same as last year. While it is evident that\u00a0JJ Redick’s team plays differently in some aspects under his rule, other aspects look eerily similar to those under\u00a0Darvin Ham. That said, Lakers guard\u00a0Austin Reaves\u00a0is one part of this Redick-led team that does look different. He is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":118600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1608,62],"tags":[240,4556,509,3839,2279,38],"class_list":["post-118593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lakers","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-anthony-davis","tag-austin-reaves","tag-dangello-russell","tag-darvin-ham","tag-jj-redick","tag-lebron-james"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118593"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118610,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118593\/revisions\/118610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}