Redick’s Rotation

0:00Basketball a game of Giants and Bears number 99 George Mican one of the greatest perhaps the most complete player the game is ever seen The Lakers Captain Elgin Bay Two seconds, one second, let's close it up Jelly West Bayer from the other side of the big club try Ford since it's a great sky hook up and go breakers well Magic on the middle just what I thought a hook shot at 12. Go You're feel fade away Five, six, three, two, one James puts up the three. Oh, it's gone. Dr. John the Drive step back, put it up, put it in What's up Laker fans you're listening to the Laker Film Room podcast on Pete joined by Darius and D as we continue our season preview Today we're going to discuss Reddix rotation and how to get to the 240 minutes that are required to get through an NBA game and So we're going to start with the idea of the whole roster being fully healthy full well knowing that's going to be the exception rather than the rule

1:03And so to sort of buttress that after we get to that 240 we're going to talk about the next guys up and the reasons why at the different spots and what not D and so Reddix has typically played nine or ten players at different points of his rotation I think his preference is for nine and before we get into the numbers because one of the things I've found with doing this exercise D is there's value in just writing down okay this guy's going to play that many minutes this that guy's going to play this many minutes Adding them up and being like oh there's fewer minutes available than I thought there would be or we got to play another guy here What not but before we get into the details of that what are your thoughts more broadly on the Laker's rotation? I think generally I'll be very interested to see how they patch together the front court minutes from the perspective of defense versus offensive roles one of the interesting things and I think this is a discussion that will have a Bunch and have had already in various forms is Luca being a forward defensively but offensively being more of a primary initiator and so almost like a guard

2:12and the idea of who you slot next to him offensively can vary widely Depending on what the defensive capabilities are of those players who flank him and so We think of Luca as a guard offensively, but as a forward defensively and one of the challenges I think the Lakers are going to have is finding Enough defensive presence at the forward spot to take up some of those 240 minutes that you need to allocate to front court players and so this is one of the interesting challenges to me when you think about how to put together a rotation and how to find 240 minutes of playing time for all of your guys because we can say Luca's gonna play 38 minutes a night and Austin's gonna play 36 to 38 minutes a night, but in the sort of like how many ministers grimes play and how many minutes does

3:16Tybalt play or Zaire Williams or Jake LaRavio or any of these guys some of that pita's gonna be based on who are these guys defending And who is the other team playing? Because the Lakers don't have a well our point guard is point guard sized our shooting guard is It's different and the cross matching I think defensively Lends itself to a bunch of versatility in building out lineups But it also creates an interesting challenge when you're like the other team has too big forwards on the court Who are the Lakers playing right now in terms of both offensively and defensively absolutely and that's why Sussing out rotations are a little bit different than Sussing out lineups and it's hard to do one without the other For sure for exactly the reasons that you pointed out because it's like how do we know Based on kind of the who the opponent is and all of that, but I do think throughout the regular season there is a You sort of live with the This is less ideal against this particular team, but we're sort of gonna have the nine to ten guys that we regularly have

4:19I do wonder if there's some flexibility on this roster to have well This is this role players a night. Say it's the ninth man or something like that And he's gonna get an extra shift because he's a better matchup for this team Versus the next night where it's gonna be somebody else and so let's do that let's start out with sort of the the pillars of the starting lineup I think our Luca Austin and Kessler and how many minutes did they're going to play and I start from The basis of what they've always played so Luca averaged 35.8 minutes a game last year So I'm gonna round all of these up to the nearest whole number so 36 minutes a game for Luca 35 minutes a game for Austin Do you see any reason for that to be higher or lower this year? No, I think that sounds about right so I'm right on there with both Luca and Austin in the 35 36 minute range Me as well and so then with Kessler with Utah We don't know it's gonna be the same with the Lakers, but if Utah he was 30 or 31 minutes Do you push that up a minute or two now that he's got the big contract and sort of the bigger role or do you think that's about where he'll be?

5:22I think he'll probably be in the 30 to 32 minute range And so if we settled at 30 minutes a night, which is what he played two seasons ago his last healthy full season Then I figure that's a good baseline to start with and if it's above that actually during the season then It would make sense to me, but I'm not gonna Outright project that is 32 minutes if that makes sense all right So between the three of them we're already up to 101 minutes accounted for so 139 minutes left to allocate and I want to go to that next crew of players between Grimes Sexton and Mamu I would say would be the next three guys up in that respect with Grimes last season He played off of the bench mostly 29 minutes a game with which is a lot for a bench player He played 75 games overall, but only 19 starts and still all the way up to 29 you got a figure that's a little bit higher with him as a projected starter for the Lakers Where do you see him minute wise for the Lakers? Yeah, I would imagine that numbers a little bit high

6:23I also think that reflects a certain amount of nicknurses preference to play a shorter rotation at times and people don't talk about nicknurs this way But he's sort of like tibs in that and the guys that he trusts he likes to play his best players a lot And if you're not one of his best players you may find yourself in and out of the rotation If you're one of those core six or seven guys you're gonna be up in the 26 28 minute range And that's where Grimes found himself I would almost prefer to go back to the range where Grimes was at with the Knicks and Detroit Dallas because he'll be a starter. I would imagine it would be like Let's say 26 to 28 minutes A nine does that seem too little for a starter for you. Yeah, I don't see his minutes going down from last year I would guess it's more in the 30 to 32 range So let's put the difference there and say 29 30 minutes Let's say 29 to get a to get us down to an even 110 minutes left and all of this is a rough draft right

7:28But let's put him around that range or so and so with that 110 minutes left to allocate Collin Sexton guy played 24 minutes off of the bench last year It's historically been a starter, but last year played more off of the bench than as a starter This year projected to be a backup with Austin starting with Grimes getting anywhere between 26 and 32 minutes a game from those low to high and how do you project Sexton's minutes? Do you see him getting some minutes alongside Austin right because we've already got Austin projected it 35 and I think he's the direct backup of Austin But that's only 13 minutes there with Austin projected at that 35 So you see them playing together a decent amount and kind of where do you see his minutes at? So this is the everyone's healthy version when everyone's healthy. Yeah, I expect Sexton to be around 20 minutes a night Okay, essentially and because everyone won't be healthy I expect his season long average to be closer to 22 to 24 minutes a night This is a great point and this explains also guys like Grimes for example getting 29 minutes a night off of the benches

8:31If somebody else is hurt it might not necessarily push him into starting lineup But it will boost his minute. So this is a good point that their minutes per game average does not necessarily reflect what the everybody's healthy looks like and I'm with you at that 20 minute a night Type of mark and so that brings us down to 90 minutes left to allocate with momu He played 22 minutes a night for Toronto last year. Where do you see his minute range? So I want to sus this out a little bit more with momu So let's actually take a break here P and when we come back on the other side. I want to dive in P here's a fundamental question when it comes to how much does momu play how much center is he going to play for this team? I have it in my mind about a half and half but this is a great question and so much of this goes back to can loony still play and loony still Move around. I like the idea of loony and I like the idea of loony in a five out and two years ago But he didn't look good last year and we were cracking up over text the other day talking about how he's the oldest 30 year old and NBA

9:38Two years older than Austin but if he was like he's been in the league forever exactly and so The answer to that question somewhat depends on kovan looted me and I don't know if loony's gonna be playable or if he's just the guy Fill in that leadership role at the end of the bench that is it projected be part of the rotation But in my mind at this point I have it as a half and half split for momu of the four spot and the five spots So I do think he's gonna play a decent amount of center. I don't think you signed him to that contract to just stick him at the four So based off of our Kessler number there's essentially 18 minutes of center minutes available How many of those do you anticipate momu getting more than half of them? Yeah, I do because if he gets more than half of them loony is essentially a Very bit player and that's the thing too is to be part of a rotation players don't usually Play six minutes a night in a rotation. You're gonna get two ships and the ship is usually six minutes And so I don't project anybody if everybody's healthy and they're in the rotation to be under that 12 minute mark and so

10:46gosh, I The other thing too as we sussed this out these that if no one does get minutes and it follows that rule of nobody gets less than 12 or if you want to lower that to 10, but there again There's nobody in single digits, but in the rotation type of thing. That's not really a thing in the NBA That starts to really squeeze a lot of the forwards like Jake and Zaire at a do cam car As we try to get to this number marking again, we've got after sex and we've got 90 minutes left to distribute On a healthy night It's really hard to get those guys minutes and so some guys are gonna be squeezed so I'm gonna say that loony's out of the rotation To start out the season and mama gets all of those 18 minutes that are left over and then handful of minutes of power forward as well, but I think gosh We'll see this is a super interesting question. I don't know. Do you think loony's gonna be in the rotation? I would imagine he's not there you go So this is just me speculating here. I think loony's the third center and

11:51I think mom who's gonna play a ton of backup five. Yep. I like loony more than consensus So I actually think loony can still play. I'm not calling out Yovon here for example But I've been listening to Yovon talk. I know that you're on with him for the Lakers collective and I would imagine That of all the free agent signings loony would probably be the one that Yovon is lowest on I don't want to speak for him, but I've heard him talk about all of the players enough where I think he views loony as the break glass in case of emergency player rather than a guy that he projects to be in the rotation Or would want to be in the rotation I think that's totally fair to D that's something that I've been waiting for that to circle back around on Lakers collective because This is a point I wanted to make I kind of wanted to argue with him a little bit in favor of loony while totally understanding where he's coming from on that front I think it's a reasonable perspective and I think that if loony was still a viable

12:52Rotation player, I think he would still be on the warriors. It's a simple way of putting it That said I think that he can still contribute But I don't think you pay momoo what you're paying him. Yes essentially just be a backup power forward I also think that momoo traditionally has been his best offensively as a pure stretch big And your defense is gonna suffer because of that, but that's not today's discussion Today's discussion is who are the guys that are in the rotation I also wanted to comment on this and I'll use momoo for this point I don't think JJ wants to play 10 players. I think he wants to play nine and I think that He wants to allow for those nine guys to really find a rhythm and really get into the flow and I don't think JJ wants to have a guy who at the last spot in the rotation is playing two five-minute shifts a night

13:55I think he would much prefer that guy just be exiled from the rotation at all or entirely be next man up and An injury or whatever may push that guy back into the rotation or he may get some minutes here or there every couple of weeks But not as a permanent fixture and a guy that is gonna be looked to every night So I'm gonna have momoo in the 22 to 24 minute range and so let's go on the high end of this I think he's gonna get every single backup center minute and I think he's gonna play Maybe an overlapping shift with Kessler Where he comes in Kessler stays in they get Two or three minutes of big ball and then Kessler goes out and a wing comes in and then they go to a more speed-based group Yeah, is how I envision the rotation going. I think there's a good chance. That's exactly how it goes Although I think it would be my mistake to just have nine guys this year I know that's what reddick prefers and you're probably right

14:55That's the direction that he does go in. I think this team's more conducive stretching it out to 10 or 11 I think that's a better way of leveraging depth and you can play players for shorter shifts Which means they can play a little bit harder expand a little more energy in that shorter shift and to yesterday's topic about the defense Possibly being a little better than people expect is that idea of playing with swarm tactics and using your speed and all of that I think that's the best version of this lakeers defense But it's better if you're relying on a couple more extra guys to do that and again Some of this is an academic conversation because from a night to night basis especially with several of the guys that we have Lakers don't have a ton of guys who played more than 65 games last year They've got a handful and that's one of things I actually like about the new signings between Mamu grimes and sexin is that they're generally healthy They don't miss a lot of games due to injury But beyond that point of extending the rotation I agree with you. Let's push mom up to about 24 it justifies the contract a bit And it leaves the lakers was 66 minutes remaining. Let's move on to Jake Lurebia

15:57I know that you know Laker fans are a little down on Jake after he sputtered out to end the season But he played all 82 games last season and average 25 minutes a night now He started 43 games which he was not the intended starter really at any point But it speaks to the degree that you're gonna have players out and what we were talking about earlier about how A player like that will get a buck to their minutes per game as a result of well you're healthy tonight So you're gonna play a little bit more and I think we see that with Jake But even without that 25 minutes tonight. I think they were intending on him playing 16 to 18 at the very least and so I know that he's not really high on the list in terms of laker fans preferred rotation But I'd be surprised if he's out of the rotation or not playing sort of a similar role that he was to last year I totally agree and I don't see him playing fewer than 18 minutes a night I think Jake is probably a two to three shift player a night and if it's three shifts It's because he's starting most starters play four shifts because they start each half and then they come back in at some point during each half

17:03so Let's call Jacob back up and let's say that he's probably playing three six minute shifts a night and let's call it an even 18 Especially during the regular season during the playoffs. I could see Jake being a 12 minute Guy or a 10 minute guy where he's playing two shorter shifts very similar to what happened to him these past playoffs One of the things that our conversation is revealing to me though Pete is you've essentially gone down This path of minutes through the lens of who were the lakers best players, which I think is the right way to do it You went to the core three and then you went to grimes and then you went to sexton and momu Those are essentially the lakers best what six guys right To get to the nine man rotation. There's three guys left essentially and that's Jake who we're talking about now And then there's Tybal and there's Zayar

18:06one of those three players is likely to start at the other forward position in my opinion and so let's take our second break here Pete and when we come back, I'm very interested to see where we go for those last two to three rotation spots You Jason is an avid hiker who loves the outdoors during what should have been a peaceful hike that calm was suddenly broken A mountain lion appeared on the trail just yards away Fortunately, Jason had packed his Bernaless lethal launcher armed with kinetic rounds Jason fired a warning shot deterring the mountain lion and giving his family time to get to safety Bernaless lethal launchers fire powerful kinetic and chemical irritant rounds designed to stop threats visit Bernal dot com that's b-y-r-n-a Bernal dot com purchase and shipping restrictions vary by state and municipality go to Bernal dot com to check availability at your location So I'm with you on Jake at around 18 minutes of game I think that's possible even if he does start because I think that spot without a true kind of starting forward

19:13The minutes will be distributed over a few different players and you I think hit on a couple of them But we've got a couple of more in the young guys that I think this conversation is going to lead to as well That even if he does start I could see that 18 minutes of game and then Tybal and Zahir getting something similar even if they're not starting But it is easier to get to that mark there. So Given Jake 18 minutes and night that puts the lakers down to 48 minutes remaining at those other spots And so I actually want to talk about that cluster between Tybal Zahir, Adoo and Carr I think those are the four next guys up actually let's throw vando in there as well because we were talking about him yesterday I'm a little skeptical that he's in the rotation especially as we talk through this But one thing that stands out to me about all of them is they're all forwards to some degree or another I guess Tybal can be a shooting guard. He's more shooting guard size But they are like of that defensive ilk car brings the offensive talent of course But they're positionally somewhere between twos and fours and I'm curious how many of those guys we end up playing

20:14That was another part about you're talking about the framing of you know You're just kind of going down the list of the best players But there's also a certain amount of well We've got duplication at this one spot But does there need to be another guard in the rotation? I guess that could be Tybal But again, he basically plays that defensive wing type of role in a lot of ways is how do you see this cluster of Five players fighting over the remaining 48 minutes where even if all of them are playing 16 minutes a night That only leads room for three of the five to be able to play Yeah, so I want to divide these into two separate groups. I look at car and Tybal as two slash threes wings essentially shooting guard slash small forwards and I look at Williams adieu and vando as three fours so small forward power forward type of players and I would call vando more of a four three I would call adieu more of a four three and I would call zayaire actually a three four if that makes sense in terms of positional leanings

21:19And so to me Pete It's a competition of who's going to get the sort of wing minutes between car and Tybal and who is going to get the sort of More forward minutes between adieu vando and zayaire So I want to kick that idea to you before I comment I see it more as like a competition between zaya and Tybal but then you could throw vando in yeah You're probably right without you framed it you know my instinctive reaction to this you probably saw the look on my face was You got to play the kids. Yes, the way that you're setting up that battle. It's like Tybal's got to get minutes when he's healthy and again He might be one of those candidates of this being an academic exercise But he's only healthy enough to play a very limited amount of games That's certainly been the case of his career the last couple years But Tybal's too good to be a DNP but putting him up in a it either him or car type of thing

22:20For one, I don't think hard does the same job defensively as Matista's and so I don't view that quite the same way But Kara at his frame. I don't see him competing for any minutes at the four certainly not and even at three spot I think that's kind of a small group that I think you'll be able to play three a decent amount But I see him as that sort of two three type of player despite being on the taller side and having that great standing reach that he has But yeah, I see him as a tall two which does put him in competition with Tybal So yeah, I'd be grudgingly agree with the framework that you set up there D I just it's a very reflexive like play the kids damn it look. I want car to play I do not see an immediate pathway for him to play honestly I think that when everyone is healthy yeah when everyone is healthy I expect Tybal to play over him. I just do I do too on the nights where one of Luca or Austin sits or If Grimes doesn't play I expect car to be the guy who goes from out of the rotation to enter the rotation

23:26So you see him in that next man up group Is there an argument to play him over Zaire which I know is very different from we were talking a little bit about this yesterday I like Zaire's talent I also think there's a little bit of wishcasting going on about him I know he's one of the players that's in the mix possibly for a starting spot right and here I'm talking about should Zaire be a DNP in favor of getting the rookie a few more minutes But Zaire's young himself right he's only 24 years old and so do you see that as possible battle between car and Zaire? I want all of these guys to battle it out. I Was nodding along to you right now and based off of our conversation yesterday Which you were revealing a little bit here. I do think there's a little bit of wishcasting going on with Zaire There reports of him putting on a little bit of weight and the prospect of him having the right defensive skill set Historically Pete Tybles a better player than him. He just is Tybles made all defense teams. He is an excellent defensive player Tybal can't play power forward, but it's not clear that Williams can play power forward

24:30So what are we actually talking about here? Yeah, if I had my brothers and I was in the coaching room with these guys when everyone was having their Conversations about who should play earlier you commented within the context of our Jake discussion that the fifth star Could totally be a guy who doesn't get a lot of minutes. I could argue vando could be a token starter. He played five to six minutes to start each half and he not play again after that Who was the old player that used to do that was it Keon Dooling? Javeil did I was gonna say Javeil was a guy. Yep exactly Where Javeil played 12 to 15 minutes a night, but he basically played one shift each half and then it was way more Dwight as the traditional backup big and then AD as the guy who played both Center and power forward and was playing 35 to 36 minutes a night, right? And so to me Pete the play the kids and get the kids experience There is a scenario where both a do in car are prioritized in ways where the guys on minimums aren't

25:38And then if you were to say who do I like better as a player overall between Tybal and Zair Tybal's the much more experienced well-known improving commodity at this point in terms of a viable rotation player He played in the playoffs for Portland this past year and has a history of doing that well enough to be trusted So how many minutes do you give Tybal in a rotation when he's healthy? I would give him the same number of minutes as Jake So you've got 48 minutes left. Let's give 18 of them to Tybal Okay, and so we've got 30 left between Zair, car, a do, and vando yesterday you were making a vando argument, right? Do you see now that we've whittled this down to the 30 remaining minutes? Which is really two players in my mind We've got two players left out of the four that are gonna get in the rotation How do you see that shaking out between the four of these guys? I think two players are gonna play anywhere between 14 to 16 minutes a night each, right?

26:38And this is why there's roster screams for a consolidation trade totally right where you can turn three into two or two into one where Instead of two guys playing 14 to 16 minutes one guy plays 28 minutes and There's your rotation solution and that also gets you to JJ's preferred nine. Yeah, I think you have to give a do a chance I like vando I might be the last guy who does though I think you have to play a do and then after that I think that if it's between Zair and vando I think it's going to be Zair who plays but I personally would also like to play vando I'm not arguing Zair should be out of the rotation He's the new player. I think you have to give him a chance to start the year But the rotation that we're talking about in October whatever 23rd whenever the season starts I could see

27:40JJ figuring it out by Thanksgiving of no actually This is what it needs to be now. We'll probably have a new version of this conversation around them What's working what's not after 15 games or so? But that's how I see it going is I would advocate for vando personally But I don't think he's going to be the guy that goes in the rotation I think they're going to give a do a chance and I know they're going to give Tybal and Zair a chance to at least compete and so I would imagine car and vando being the two odd players out from the five that we started with So I want to see him battle it out. I think this is the training camp battle portion of the conversation of Whoever's playing best who's healthy at the time They're going to win these type of minutes and so I'm all for the type of competition that you can have at these spots Again, my preference if there's only two spots left in the rotation would be car and a do But I agree with you that it's like we were to be Williams and a do and I think that's okay

28:44Right, I don't think that's a problem or even if it's Williams and vando I think that there's more know how in vando doing that although I think if you've got Jake and vando and Matisse and Williams in the lineup that's a lot of defense But I think you also have a certain amount of duplication of like Williams is a good athlete, but I don't think he's a mind-blowing one and I think he's probably the best athlete of that crew And part of the reason for my advocacy for both car and a do goes beyond They're young basically rookies and ado's case right these second year, but barely played last year But it's not just that it's that a do bring something to the table that nobody else on the roster has in that Five-star type of athleticism while also having a level of strength that if he works out That's a thing that we didn't talk about a ton yesterday D But you were mentioning hey, this is kind of a skinnier team than last year's team that if a do does work out He brings a level of strength to that forward spot that we don't really have a ton of that

29:45I think it's worth investing in and then car like cars got some real offensive game While having some things to bring to the table defensively And that might be the thing that does keep him on the bench for sure But he's a whole another couple levels offensively I think then any of the other guys that we're talking about here and it's not just for me an argument Of I invest in the kids and one day it'll pay off That's a big part of it But I also think that they bring something different to the table than the guys that we've already established as yeah That guy's probably going to get minutes The idea of car being nurtured In the same way that max christie was nurtured in that like no man You're never all of the way out of the mix of things And we want to give you chances to play I think he's too talented and offensive player in terms of what his ceiling is To just leave him out there One piece of this beat and will I think dive into this more when we get back into the individual player previews Not all of these guys are going to get their own entire pod like we'll do it in batches

30:47But I was looking at Jake shooting numbers earlier and His percentages from three This is starting with his rookie season all the way up through last season with the lakers So 33.8 34 percent 42.3 percent And then last year with the lakers 32.1 percent The outlier year is obviously the 2024 25 year the year that he split between Memphis and sack Romano every other year is basically around 34 ish percent and last year he was at 32 percent I don't know If he can scale up as a shooter the way that like we would like him to and it may just be that single year where he split between the kings and the grislies Was a true outlier and he'll never approach the 38 39 percent sort of guy that he was that season If Jake's not hitting shots and zayers not hitting shots

31:51But let's say table is and then you've got Cameron car out here That's where I think things can pivot the car is not like oh his defense isn't allowing him to get on the court It's more like Do we actually have enough offense on the court to support Luca and Austin the way that we want them to because if you want to invest in a do and I do too And I actually still think there's a pathway for vando to be like a player that is just like he's Good In the ways that we need a player to be good with the size and everything else that there's a version of this roster No, the rookie with the sweet outside jumper who can spot up 25 feet out and attack a closeout and run in transition That guy's actually useful. Yes, and more useful than the non shooting wings that we've got four of exactly So that's where I think car if he just plugs away and keeps working hard and doing this thing that you may get your wish

32:56After all, but at the start of the year I see him badly made out but losing out to Tybal because that's how I see the positional Slotting working could totally see that and so this was fun to sort of talk through this I do think we got up to 10 or 11 players in terms of who we think gets minutes So it will be interesting to see if reddit extends his rotation But got a wrap up here. We'll be back tomorrow. Maybe talk some offense or got the board of governors meeting today too So maybe get some news about the Lakers sale. I know how I'm silver's gonna comment on that But until then you've been listening to Laker film room podcast. We'll catch you guys next time James has got to be unloaded the kale the kale wants attorney double-team just half-out about broken up by worthy Kept the magic worthy guys on his belly magic sword Magic fire is again it will acres win the game the Lakers win the game 16 revolts

34:00The ties and NBA finals A lot of Laker fans You see is something that's very rare indeed a Laker to get MVP change in Boston of all place are you kidding me? Hard to believe me Unreal are you kidding me? Lakers looking to push Spinning in the lane back for the saw and ready pass and it's back to a three-point game. Don't be Brian picked up by bow This Got caught down on five Ryan Remember the little child of a gentry That is something injury Kobe. I mean one is shot. I mean you can't defend that You're getting me two point one seconds remaining Denver a foul to give Yokech Trying to disrupt Rondo he puts it in here's Davis for three in the win. Oh, it's gone

35:02Anthony Davis has wanted for the Lakers James again. Oh, he hits another one LeBron James Putting together a closing corner against the nuggets. This historic 2020 NBA championship belongs to the Los Angeles Lakers The Lakers conquer the bubble and banner number 17 will soon hang in the rafters