The Los Angeles Lakers have embraced an approach that's rooted in a controversial period. The upside is that the team appears to have figured out how to address its most glaring flaw, which should at least temporarily quiet external concerns.
The unfortunate reality facing Lakers head coach JJ Redick, however, is that his latest decision is something of a callback to a choice that cost Darvin Ham the locker room.
Redick turned heads on Friday, Nov. 8 when he rolled out a starting lineup with one obvious name excluded from it: D'Angelo Russell. Russell had started each of the Lakers' first eight games, but was benched after just 22 minutes of action the last time out.
It was a risky decision to start Cam Reddish over Russell, especially when one considers the vast difference in their production, but Redick appears to have passed the first test.
Los Angeles defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 116-106 on Friday, thus ending a slide of four losses in five games. Russell provided a desperately needed dose of offense to a second unit that ranks in the bottom third of the NBA in virtually all scoring metrics.
With Russell turning in one of his best showings of 2024-25 and the Lakers improving to 5-4, Redick's gamble seems to have paid off—a fact that only dampens the memory of 2023-24.
Darvin Ham benched D'Angelo Russell and lost the Lakers locker room
Faced with finding quality in the same roster Redick has been tasked with utilizing, Ham made a similar decision in 2023-24. He benched Russell for a total of seven games, which seems like a harmless enough approach to the unenviable task of creating production among an offensively limited second unit.
Unfortunately, Ham and Russell had already begun to fall out during the 2023 Western Conference Finals due to the former head coach's controversial decision to bench him in favor of Dennis Schröder.
On paper, moving a high-level scorer like Russell to the bench makes sense. He's a shot-creating guard who can shoot the lights out, and while he's more than capable of creating for others, his primary value is found in his ability to get hot at any given moment as a scorer.
The mistake that Ham made in 2022-23 and 2023-24, however, was not communicating with Russell about the decision to bench him—and thus, the locker room was lost.
Fast forward to 2024-25 and Redick has made the same decision as Ham. The question facing the first-year head coach is if he's going to fail to provide the proper dialogue about what the benching means and how Russell fits into the Lakers' hierarchy moving forward.
If Redick mismanages this delicate situation, a logical rotation decision could result in the locker room losing faith in their head coach for the second time in as many seasons.
Thankfully, the arrangement seems to be off to a great start. Russell scored 18 points in 25 minutes during his first game as a reserve, seemingly rectifying his issues with inefficiency as he shot 6-of-12 from the field and 2-of-4 from beyond the arc. In turn, the starters were finally granted a moment of reprieve.
It's easy to overreact in November, but Redick has taken on a challenge that could legitimately make or break Russell's future with the team—and perhaps his connection with the locker room.
Daunting as that may be, Redick may have just saved the Lakers' second unit and season if Russell is receptive to the change.