JJ Redick expressed at the Los Angeles Lakers' Monday media day that he wants this team to push the ball and get out in transition more in the upcoming season. When they can't run in transition, he hopes that they'll be able to initiate their first action on offense with about 18 or 19 seconds on the shot clock.
The idea here is to speed up the offense, increase the pace, and force defenses to be on their toes more than in the past. Obviously, this is a bit of a departure from Luka Doncic's typical preferred play style. In the past, he has been accustomed to controlling the pace and slowly probing defenses.
In spite of how much of a challenge this might be for the Lakers' best player, it's still going to be a smart strategy for LA to take. Getting into their actions on offense early is going to lead to more mismatches and defensive breakdowns from their opposition. It's going to encourage overall activity, ball movement, and off ball actions instead of just predictable isolation-type plays.
Taking this approach will also create the opportunity for earlier involvement for role players. Secondary actions will have more time to develop. It will prevent other players from getting stuck just waiting in the corner while Luka dissects the defense by himself.
Playing faster hasn't typically been Luka's calling card
With all that said, there's obviously going to be an adjustment period for number 77. Adjusting to a quicker trigger on offense may feel a bit unnatural at first, but it's just going to have to be a situation of Doncic balancing his desire to be aggressive with discipline. Getting into actions early doesn't necessarily mean forcing a bad shot.
Choosing to make faster decisions on offense can often increase the potential for turnovers and misreads. Doncic is going to have to calibrate his pace and be able to process things quickly. As for the role players, they'll also have to be ready to run off Luka's actions early on and either make the proper cut or spot up accordingly.
Pushing the tempo like this will also create the potential for some fatigue over the course of a full season. Redick is going to have to manage the rotation in a way that prioritizes rest and assigns the proper workloads to key players so that the idea doesn't backfire.
This could be the next step Luka Doncic needs to take in his career. Having him evolve from purely an isolation master into a more mature and value-maximizing offensive orchestrator would only serve to make the Lakers that much more dangerous. But the coaching staff and fan base alike know that it's not a magic bullet, and this approach is likely going to create some hiccups before it pays off.