JJ Redick Wants Nick Smith Jr. To Be Aggressive

Luka Doncic led the way and LeBron James had another strong outing, but it was two-way contract player Nick Smith Jr. who gave the Los Angeles Lakers an extra boost in their win over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night to snap their three-game losing streak.

Smith dropped 21 points in 24 minutes off the bench, including knocking down five 3-pointers in the victory. With Austin Reaves out due to injury, as well as veteran reserve Gabe Vincent, head coach JJ Redick turned to Smith for his scoring ability and he was ready for the call.

After the game, Redick spoke highly of Smith, reminding everyone that this isn’t the first time this season the young guard has sparked the Lakers while adding that he loves his aggression when on the court.

“Yeah, I said before the game, he’s helped us win two games prior to tonight,” Redick said after the win. “He helped us win tonight. He’s been in a lot of NBA games for someone his age. So this is not new. It’s why we wanted him on a, we couldn’t sign him to a 15th spot because of the apron, but it’s why we wanted him on the Lakers and part of our program, because we knew he could score.

“I like when he’s aggressive. I think sometimes we gotta, and I think for the most part we did tonight, there was some plays there towards the latter part of the fourth quarter where we were a little wonky with our organization and our spacing. But he can just do him within our structure. A lot of times, good things happen.”

After practice on Monday, Redick expanded upon wanting Smith to stay aggressive offensively.

“We want him to play his game always, and there have been a number of opportunities for him. A couple of them haven’t gone well and he didn’t get second half run, and some of them have gone really well and he’s helped us win. So we want him to be him. I think there’s times when we want him to embrace that off-ball laser mentality because he is such a good spot-up shooter historically… So there’s that part of it, and there’s balancing it with the productiveness within our structure so that we’re organized.”

Replacing what Reaves brings to this Lakers team is not possible for one player to do, but Smith’s scoring ability is certainly needed right now. Aside from Doncic and James, the rest of the Lakers for the most part are players who need to be set up. But Smith is more than capable of getting his own shot and he got himself going immediately in this contest, making his first seven shots.

Many have already called for the Lakers to sign Smith to a standard contract and it is clear that he is a real NBA player. If he continues to play like this, the Lakers will have a decision to make coming up soon.

Lakers’ Nick Smith Jr. believes he can hoop with anybody

One thing Smith doesn’t lack is confidence. The Lakers guard made it clear that to succeed in the NBA you have to be confident in your game and he believes he can get on the court and hoop against anyone.