The Los Angeles Lakers are heading into a pivotal 2025-26 campaign, as the storied franchise will attempt to compete for a title in a loaded Western Conference with a 26-year-old Luka Dončić and 40-year-old LeBron James remaining at the helm.
Los Angeles' game-plan will also be fully dictated by incoming second-year head coach JJ Redick, and some recent comments from the former 15-year NBA vet has indicated that Dončić needs to prepare for a massive change in play-style at an individual level.
During his press conference at the Lakers' media day, Redick reportedly let media members in on his plans for coordinating the team's offensive attack, a decision that may heavily impact Dončić's on-court productivity.
"JJ Redick expressed at the Los Angeles Lakers' Monday media day that he wants this team to push the ball and get out in transition more in the upcoming season," FanSided's Will Eudy wrote Thursday morning.
"When they can't run in transition, he hopes that they'll be able to initiate their first action on offense with about 18 or 19 seconds on the shot clock."
"Obviously, this is a bit of a departure from Luka Doncic's typical preferred play style."
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"With all that said, there's obviously going to be an adjustment period for number 77. Adjusting to a quicker trigger on offense may feel a bit unnatural at first, but it's just going to have to be a situation of Doncic balancing his desire to be aggressive with discipline."
Through the first 7 seasons of his NBA career, the core tenets of Dončić's offensive philosophy have included playing with as little pace as possible to throw defenders off of their rhythm. Dončić's patience, surgical footwork and deceleration ability has historically led to efficient offensive production for himself and his teammates.
With Redick aiming to push the pace next season, this practice could take a short while for Dončić to get used to. This isn't to say that Dončić is incapable of playing fast, but that his usual order of operations for creating offense will need to change.
Instead of patiently hunting switches, keeping his defender in jail behind him and then seeking either a lob pass to a rolling big or drive-and-kick opportunity for a three-point marksman, Dončić will simply have less time to make these crucial decisions.
The Lakers can be confident that Dončić can successfully adapt to this new system, but an early-season struggle could be expected as the Slovenian superstar learns more about his new teammates and gets his timing down as a play-maker.
Either way, Dončić's spectacular career 8.2-assist average will likely see an increase after the conclusion of this regular season.
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