Austin Reaves reveals how JJ Redick has changed Lakers identity on defense

The Los Angeles Lakers were one of the most disappointing teams in the NBA in 2023-24. It started well, as Los Angeles followed reaching the 2023 Western Conference Finals by adding one of the breakout stars of the playoffs, Gabe Vincent, on a team-friendly deal, and winning the inaugural NBA Cup.

When the dust had settled and the bigger picture had been revealed, however, the Lakers had fallen to 1-8 over their past nine postseason games and looked thoroughly disjointed on defense.

The end result was Los Angeles losing in the first round of the Playoffs for the second time since 2021. It also led to the decision to part ways with former head coach Darvin Ham and replace him with one of the most enigmatic hires in NBA history: JJ Redick.

Lakers shooting guard Austin Reaves has provided an early response to a question that fans and analysts in Los Angeles and beyond have been desperate for answers to: What exactly does Redick bring to the table as a head coach?

Per Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times:

“No, I think it’s just, you know, having a foundation, having a system, when you know exactly where the rotation is going to be, where you’re supposed to be, where the help is going to be. It gives you a good feeling as you’re guarding the ball, knowing, ‘All right, well, I can be a little bit more aggressive because I got AD [Anthony Davis] on the back row and I know he’s going to be there. But not just AD, if they skip it to the corner, then X [teammate] is going to be there.’"

Reaves continued:

“So, just having faith in what we’re doing and the foundation that we’re putting in is the biggest thing for me.”

It remains unclear how that will translate to the regular season or postseason environment, but the specifics of what Reaves has diagnosed as changes from one regime to the next are compelling.

JJ Redick installing a new foundation for Lakers' defensive success

Reaves' description of the early changes under Redick are a thinly-veiled comment about what went wrong in 2023-24. Anthony Davis earned All-Defensive First Team honors for his individual brilliance, but the team at large was generally dysfunctional, if not outright uncoordinated.

It's why Davis led the Lakers, as well as all centers across the NBA, in three-point field goals contested—while simultaneously anchoring the interior.

Redick appears to have diagnosed the cause of that dysfunction as a lack of consistency as far as rotations and general positioning are concerned. As Reaves alluded to, no one seemed to know where their teammate would be at any given moment.

Redick's solution is to implement a new system that hammers home the importance of positioning, thus transforming a reactionary style of defense into more of a structured approach.

That alone should help Los Angeles improve upon its defensive rating, which ranked in the bottom half of the NBA in 2023-24. More importantly, it should enable players to be more aggressive when on the ball due to the knowledge of where their teammates will be located.

It's a simple change that should enable the first step toward becoming the elite defense that any team with Davis on the floor should be capable of becoming.

It's worth noting that the Lakers were No. 3 in the NBA in defensive rating in 2019-20, when Davis anchored a championship-winning team. Los Angeles also finished in the top half of the Association in that same regard in 2022-23, when it reached the Conference FInals.

More will need to be done for the Lakers to realize their defensive potential, but it's a promising start for Redick as he looks to rebuild and restructure the team from within.