JJ Redick says Lakers will go back to more two-big lineups with Anthony Davis
After resisting the idea throughout much of the season, JJ Redick revealed at practice on Thursday that he would be using more two-big lineups in the upcoming games for the Lakers.
Every coach has their preferred style of play and JJ Redick’s more modern approach has meant favoring small ball lineups vs. playing multiple big men.
Without a large sample size of him as a head coach, this could be chalked up to a roster construction issue as much as it could be a coaching style. However, the Lakers have leaned small as the season has progressed — and particularly post-Dorian Finney-Smith trade — for better or for worse.
With those small ball lineups producing mixed results, though, Redick appears to have gone back to the drawing board.
At practice on Thursday, Redick spoke about the recent signing of center Trey Jemison to a two-way contract. While doing so, he revealed that Jemison could be part of more two-big lineups in the near future.
“We kind of went away from those two big lineups,” Redick said. “It’s something we did last night. It’s something we’re going to try to get back to for small stretches of games. It doesn’t mean we won’t play small ever, but that’s something I think where, when we can get some practice time, we can really work on those small ball looks.”
It’s hard to undersell how little the Lakers have tried out small ball lineups. Effectively, two-big lineups are a more concise way of saying “Anthony Davis with another big man.”
So far this season, AD has played less than a minute with Christian Koloko, 20 minutes alongside Armel Traore — who is more of a power forward — and 36 minutes with Jaxson Hayes.
In defense of Redick, none of those lineups have a positive net rating and the Hayes-Davis pairing has a net rating of -16.7. That figure ranks as the worst net rating in any two-man lineup featuring AD this season with at least 20 minutes played.
They’ve been bad!
When Redick was asked earlier this season about why he didn’t use two-big lineups more, he said it wasn’t a great fit, particularly for Hayes. Now, at the same time, 36 minutes is not a large sample size in early December, let alone mid-January.
It appears, though, that something in the Heat game, where Hayes and AD played three minutes together, led Redick to believe that the Lakers can find success playing the pair together, as well as the two-way signings, more moving forward.
If it does work, it will also raise some interesting questions ahead of the deadline. With the Lakers continually scouring the market for a center, it might hasten their search or change their priority list.
Whatever the case may be, it’ll be a telling stretch of games for the Lakers and how they will approach things moving forward.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.