As has been the case over the last three seasons with the addition of the Emirates NBA Cup, NBA teams are enduring abnormal stretches in their schedules. The Los Angeles Lakers are starting one of those slates.
Los Angeles takes on the Sacramento Kings on Monday, the first of five games over the next seven days. Considering the increase in these types of schedule quirks and the personnel he rosters, most notably the 41-year-old LeBron James, Lakers coach JJ Redick made the decision to forego game-day shootarounds and detailed the rationale after Sunday’s practice.
“This is, generally speaking, our toughest month from a game standpoint,” Redick said. “We got front-loaded to start the season, and then we paced everything out, and now we’re front-loaded again.
“For us to deal with it, I think it’s just reading the team… Part of that though process was, we have a 41-year-old who shouldn’t be on his feet twice a day. The other part of it was just reading personnel. What are we actually getting out of shootaround based on who’s on our team? That’s the reality.”
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Redick’s experience backs this decision
As he does with many aspects of his coaching, Redick leans on the experiences he had during his playing days, noting that a decision like this isn’t rare.
“I was on a number of teams that would make that decision halfway through the year,” he added. “For us in Philly, we always met at the arena after the first month, month-and-a-half of the season because that was good for Joel [Embiid]. That was good for our star player. For him to not have to wake up at 8 a.m., drive in, get to the facility, all that stuff. It was just good for him.”
The Lakers have a back-to-back at Sacramento and home against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday and Tuesday, host the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday and end the week with another back-to-back on the road against the Portland Trail Blazers and home against the Toronto Raptors.