Player Grades: Lakers vs. Wolves

Grading every Lakers player’s performance from the team’s 110-103 win against the Wolves.

The last time the Lakers won a season-opening game, Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov were making their debuts and Brandon Ingram was a rookie. The one holdover (of sorts) between those two games? D’Angelo Russell.

Anthony Davis ensured that streak stopped at seven on Tuesday while also kicking off the JJ Redick era with a win. While the Lakers had a lot of things go wrong — a horrid shooting night from the 3-point line, for example — they won the game on the margins, something Redick had preached all offseason.

The Lakers had three more offensive rebounds, eight fewer turnovers and attempted 10 more shots overall. It wasn’t perfect, but that fact alone should be plenty of encouragement.

So, let’s dive into the win. As always, grades are based on expectations for each player. A “B” grade represents the average performance for that player.

Anthony Davis

38 minutes, 36 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks, 1 steal, 11-23 FG, 1-3 3PT, 13-15 FT, +1

One of my favorite traditions is Anthony Davis torching the reigning winner of the Defensive Player of the Year. He spent an entire playoff series embarrassing Jaren Jackson Jr. and has constantly wreaked havoc on Rudy Gobert.

Tuesday was no different in that regard. AD made a loud statement to open the season on both ends of the court. If this is what him being the hub of the offense looks like, look out.

Grade A+

Rui Hachimura

35 minutes, 18 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 block, 7-14 FG, 1-4 3PT, 3-4 FT, +19

It might sail under the radar given both how dominant AD was and the history made by LeBron James and Bronny, but Rui was fantastic. The bulk of his scoring came in the opening three quarters and it was needed as LeBron uncharacteristically struggled.

As impressive as anything were a number of strong defensive plays he made. Through the preseason and now into the first game of the regular season, Rui has looked solid and that’s a good sign for the Lakers.

Grade: A

LeBron James

35 minutes, 16 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks, 7-16 FG, 1-4 3PT, 1-1 FT, -6

An odd game from LeBron. While he had some loud baskets with a couple of huge dunks, it was an overall pretty bad night from him. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that he reached double figures in scoring.

That being said, if the Lakers can win the non-LeBron minutes by 13 points, imagine what’s going to happen when he actually plays well.

Grade: C+

D’Angelo Russell

34 minutes, 9 points, 1 rebound, 5 assists, 2 steals, 4-12 FG, 1-7 3PT, +15

Unfortunately, D’Angelo Russell’s poor preseason form carried over into the regular season. He never looked great in the game he played and he didn’t look all that great in this one.

That being said, he had an important stretch in the fourth quarter where he knocked down a tough floater to stop the Wolves’ momentum, then threw a pair of alley-oops to LeBron and Jaxson Hayes that really changed the momentum.

Grade: C

Austin Reaves

36 minutes, 12 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 6-14 FG, 0-5 3PT, 0-1 FT, +12

Like his backcourt mate, it wasn’t a particularly great game for Reaves. The Lakers probably can’t withstand many nights of them going a combined 1-12 from the 3-point line.

Half of Reaves’ scoring did coming in the third quarter where it looked like he was turning things around. Alas, it was one of those nights for him and D’Lo both.

Grade: C+

Jaxson Hayes

15 minutes, 10 points, 4 rebounds, 1 block, 4-5 FG, 2-2 FT, -1

Overall, a strong night from Hayes. I love the two-big look with him and AD and it allowed the Lakers to do some creative things defensively.

The rebounding is still going to need to improve, but outside of that, hard to ask for more out of him in his minutes.

Grade: B+

Gabe Vincent

17 minutes, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1-2 FG, -2

I’m not going to make any sort of sweeping judgements after a singular regular season game and I’d encourage everyone else to follow suit. Nearly every Lakers guard was bad on Tuesday.

However, Vincent’s contract is very tradeable and the Lakers will likely be looking for in-season upgrades. He’s going to have to show his worth. Tuesday was not a great start at that.

Grade: D+

Max Christie

11 minutes, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 0-3 FG, 0-3 3PT, 2-2 FT, -5

I think it’s important to remember that, for all the talk about him and all the buzz, Christie is still a 21-year-old that’s going to be playing his first real rotation minutes this season. He’s going to have plenty of nights like this.

Grade: C-

Dalton Knecht

16 minutes, 5 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2-4 FG, 1-3 3PT, +7

It’s going to be really hard to keep Knecht off the floor this season. On Tuesday, he played the second-most minutes off the bench with only Vincent playing more. If he keeps impacting games, that number will go up.

Now, that being said, there were more than a few occasions he struggled defensively. That’s going to be the determinant in how much time he gets on the court this season.

Grade: B+

Bronny James

There’s no grade for Bronny, who only played three minutes. I’m just going to use this section for those still reading to say it’s objectively very cool that LeBron and Bronny got this moment and all the bad-faith criticisms about the attention it got are extremely whack.

JJ Redick

Hoo, boy! It’s hard to imagine a better debut for Redick in his first game. Everything about this game felt so much better. The team was creating good offense, they weren’t losing the game on the margins and they didn’t need to rely on heroics from both AD and LeBron to win.

Again, it’s very early and he will eventually face adversity, but my optimism in Redick being the real deal is only growing.

Grade: A

Tuesday’s DNPs: Maxwell Lewis, Cam Reddish, Jalen Hood-Schifino

Tuesday’s inactives: Jarred Vanderbilt, Christian Wood, Christian Koloko, Quincy Olivari, Armel Traore

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.