Austin Reaves Discusses Expected Changes To Lakers’ Offense

The Los Angeles Lakers are entering a new era after LeBron James departed in free agency offseason, shifting their focus to building around Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.

With all of these roster changes will also come schematic changes from head coach JJ Redick and a big focus will be on not being one-dimensional. While Doncic and Reaves will have the ball the majority of the time, the Arkansas native believes their versatility can open up their offense.

“I think just being able to be versatile in what we’re going to do every single possession. We’re going to be able to do different things this year than what we were not capable of doing last year,” Reaves said at Lakers Media Day. “We’re going to be able to play more I think, free-flowing basketball and it’s not going to have to be pick-and-roll every single possession. So we’re going to implement good offense, and we’re going to move the ball side-to-side and get teams in rotation.”

Redick wanted more players who can dribble, pass and shoot on his roster and general manager Rob Pelinka tried to act on that wish. With two starting spots up for grabs, Quentin Grimes projects to be a candidate for a starter with his ability to be a secondary scorer.

Additionally, Sandro Mamukelashvili is another player who can do a multitude of things on the offensive end, along with Collin Sexton, Ziaire Williams, Jake LaRavia, Matisse Thybulle and Jaden Hardy being quality depth options.

Obviously, all their skill sets vary in terms of scoring output, but they can bring a multitude of skills to the table. Redick can certainly deploy various lineups, combining skills to accompany his star-studded backcourt more so than last year, which Reaves is clearly excited about.

JJ Redick reveals plans to stagger minutes for Luka Doncic & Austin Reaves

James’ absence projects to be significant as the Lakers do not have a decorated third option offensively. So, Redick needs to get creative with how he manages Doncic and Reaves through an 82-game season.

Staggering is commonly deployed by head coaches so bench units do not struggle without having star power. While L.A. has someone like Sexton who can be a flame-throwing scorer off the bench, it puts too much pressure on him offensively if he has to run everything.

To avoid any drop-off with bench units, Redick admitted that he expects to stagger Doncic and Reaves so there is at least one lead ball-handler on the court at all times.