Breaking news : JJ Redick On What He Wants From The Lakers’ Fifth Starter Next To LeBron, Davis, Reaves, And Rui

 

Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick has had four players start every game when healthy this season, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, and Rui Hachimura. There has been a fair bit of rotation when it comes to that fifth spot, though, and before the Lakers’ game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday, Redick revealed what kind of player he wants for it.

“A lot of discussion around that,” Redick said. “Because of some injuries and truthfully just trying to find something that worked, we tried a bunch of different lineups. We don’t want to do that, and ideally we want to have that fifth guy be a complementary piece to the other four guys and that complementary piece most likely looks like a point-of-attack defender.

 

“A guy that doesn’t need the ball in his hands,” Redick continued. “He’s gonna play hard, he’s gonna pick up full court, can shoot threes. So yeah, we’re tying to find some level of consistency for the group and that fifth guy. If there’s somebody that can sort of find consistency individually, we’d like that spot to remain with the same guy.”

 

Well, it appears safe to say D’Angelo Russell won’t be getting back that starting spot. The one individual on the Lakers roster who somewhat fits the bill is the one who was the fifth starter against the Grizzlies, Max Christie.

Christie doesn’t need the ball in his hands, plays good defense, and is a good shooter, although he hasn’t shot the ball well this season (32.1% from three). The 21-year-old finished with seven points (1-3 FG), two rebounds, one assist, and one block against the Grizzlies. He didn’t have a great game offensively but did well on defense.

Christie revealed after the contest that Ja Morant was his main assignment and he did manage to cause some problems for him. Morant had 20 points against the Lakers but went just 6-21 from the field.

 

Christie keeping Morant quiet was a big reason the Lakers won 116-110 to improve to 14-12 on the season and Redick had high praise for the guard in his postgame press conference