Gabe Vincent is 6-1. He is a very good defender against players in his typical size range, but he is limited in what he can do against players much taller than himself. In a perfect world, you wouldn’t want to leave him alone on the floor against, say, a 7-foot future Hall of Famer who can score from anywhere. Frankly, such players hardly exist, so against most opponents it will not be a problem. The Phoenix Suns happen to have Kevin Durant.
That was the difference in the final minutes of JJ Redick’s first loss of his coaching career on Monday. With the score tied at 101 and just over three minutes remaining, Durant hit on a very basic and highly successful strategy. It was about hunting the little guy.
This is the most basic switch hunt you’ll ever see. Rui Hachimura protects Durant. Bradley Beal, protected by Vincent, appears and enters the screen. The Lakers will be forced to make a switch. Durant sank a jumper past a smaller defender. One possession later, things were much the same, with Durant needing to score in traffic, but he added two more points to Phoenix’s tally.
Even if that approach didn’t directly lead to points, it created an advantage that ultimately led to points. Durant found Vincent again, and even though he swung the ball and Devin Booker missed the shot, the Suns got the offensive rebound and Royce O’Neal got an easy floater with everyone out of position. Scored.
This final bucket finally gave Phoenix the three-point lead they needed to win the game, but Redick was held accountable after the game.
“If there’s one thing to point out, it’s probably me,” Reddick said, noting he could have blitzed Durant early in the fourth quarter. I could have done that, but don’t think that was the perfect option. No one gave him the tools at his disposal.
Blitzing against Phoenix is ​​a very risky approach. The Suns have three star perimeter players, last year’s 3-point percentage leader, and a corps of role players more than capable of knocking down open looks. They’re a team you don’t want to commit to 4-on-3. In a perfect world, you’d want to protect them head on.
The question is, who could Redick do it with? Max Christie, a 6-5 wing, was supposed to be that player for the Lakers, but he has struggled mightily so far this season. The Lakers have lost minutes in all four games this season by a combined 55 points. Even after two years on the bench, he’s still too immature for high-leverage minutes, especially on offense.
Jared Vanderbilt is the best perimeter defender on the Lakers’ roster, but he’s been injured. Even if he wasn’t, well, he’s not even aggressive. He’s just bad. As the Lakers found out in the 2023 Western Conference Finals against Denver, trusting him in the big moments is the same as playing 4-on-5 offensively.
This could have been easy if D’Angelo Russell had made the shot. He’s not as good as Durant, but he’s at least bigger than Vincent and would open the door for the Lakers to win with offense rather than defense. Instead, he made 2 of 3, but his last two attempts both fell wide open in the fourth quarter. Redick couldn’t trust him to finish games, especially when he left the offense in the hands of Austin Reeves.
Dalton Knecht is an offense-first rookie. Jackson Hayes is a center and he’s more mobile than most big men, but the Lakers couldn’t get very close against a Suns team with so much firepower on the perimeter. Now we have covered the entire rotation.
This is an issue Redick faced late in Phoenix, and one he will continue to deal with as the season progresses. The Lakers have four generally reliable players in LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Hachimura, and Reaves. Barring any injuries or extreme fluctuations during a game, they will shut out most of the Lakers’ games and can be widely trusted to perform on both ends of the floor. But basketball teams use five players at a time instead of four. Also, as we’ve discussed, the other players on the team all share significant flaws.
On Monday, Mr. Reddick decided that Vincent’s flaw – his size – was the lesser of all these evils. That decision may have cost the Lakers the game, and from that perspective, he was right to take some responsibility for the loss. But there weren’t any good options available for him either, and while it’s reductive to reduce each Lakers season to the trade market, there really aren’t any other solutions available to the Lakers here.
Redick allows the Lakers to surpass their talent, but that talent has its limits. On Monday night, that ceiling was exactly as high as Durant’s. If the Lakers want to break through that ceiling, they’ll need to give Redick the tools to do it.
