JJ Redick has never been shy about the analytics behind the Los Angeles Lakers' offensive structure, and his postgame press conference after a win over the Washington Wizards served as a clear statement of where he wants his big men to live on the floor. When a reporter floated the idea of encouraging his centres to step beyond the arc, Redick did not wait for the question to finish.
"Hopefully not," Redick said. "It's so important for those guys, for our team, for them to put pressure on the rim. The emphasis is not for our bigs to pick-and-pop and shoot threes. It's to put pressure on the rim."
The answer was less about the individual shot selection and more about how Redick wants the Lakers' offence to threaten defences. With Luka DonΔiΔ and LeBron James carrying the creation load, the team's bigs are being asked to be a finishing and screening engine rather than a second layer of spacing.
Redick extended the same philosophy to the way he talks about the roster's new contributors. Asked about the steadiness of one recent acquisition β a veteran wing who has slotted cleanly into the rotation β the head coach leaned on a few familiar words: pro, steady, consistent.
"He's a pro. He's just very steady. And very consistent in execution, in effort," Redick said. "There's a gravity that he has off the ball, both as a spacer and as a mover. And then just has been a terrific decision maker for us."
The Wizards game had also given Redick another young contributor to highlight. In particular, he pointed to the first-half run that set the tone. A big dunk following offensive rebounds had shifted the building's energy, and Redick made a point of framing that kind of play as the blueprint.
"He had a great first run and DA had a terrific second run. Both those guys were really good in the first half," Redick said.
Defensively, Redick was asked about the Lakers' three-point defence, which has quietly become one of the best in the league since the All-Star break. His answer turned analytical rather than rhetorical.
"There's two ways to sort of measure expected field goal percentage, expected three-point percentage. One way is to take a look at every shot and use basically league averages," Redick said. "The other way to do it is to individualise it for each shot for each player."
Redick also singled out Jake β one of the team's younger defenders β and pointed to the measurable drop in his blow-by rate as evidence the Lakers' schemes are now layered with individual accountability.
"Especially post All-Star break, his blow-by rate is down. I just think he's doing a much better job of just containing the basketball. His execution of what we're trying to do, and what his role is, going back to December, has been at such a high level," Redick said.
The wider Lakers story this spring has been a team that has climbed the Western Conference standings on the back of an overhauled defensive identity and a reshaped offensive hierarchy. But what Redick's postgame remarks made clear is that this is not an accident of personnel. It is a coach who has drawn hard lines about roles and is willing to say so in public.
If opposing coaches were not sure before, they are sure now. The Lakers' big men will not be wandering to the corner. They will be rolling, diving, and punishing the rim. And a team built around DonΔiΔ and James has decided that is the version of its offence it wants to run deep into the postseason.
