Lakers News: JJ Redick's Plan for Rui Hachimura Next Season

How Redick envisions Rui Hachimura's role with Lakers next season.

Andrew Wevers-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Lakers introduced J.J. Redick as their new head coach on Monday, marking the start of Redick's tenure leading the team. Redick already has plenty to to do as head coach at this time, including filling out his coaching staff, preparing for the NBA Draft, and free agency.

Along with all this, Redick of course will be working on establishing relationships with his current players and coaching them to be better versions of themselves, including forward Rui Hachimura. Redick broke down some of his thoughts and plans for coaching Hachimura while speaking with reporters Monday.

“I thought he had a fantastic year last year," Redick said. "Beyond just the Lakers, and LeBron and Anthony Davis, I’m excited about some of the younger guys on this roster, and helping them. I’ve had great conversations this weekend and two that I had that I loved were my conversation with Austin [Reaves] and my conversation with Rui. For him, in terms of him and how envision him on this team, I want him shooting more threes. I brought up the offensive rebounding, I think he can be an elite offensive rebounder ... Rui can be an excellent cutter, and part of that is because we're going to manipulate screening angles, he's gonna get mismatches, and he can really score at the basket if he has smaller players on him."

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In his first full season with the Lakers in 2023-24, the 6-foot-8 power forward averaged 13.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game. He also averaged 26.8 minutes per game, which was his highest since his second NBA season.

After averaging 9.6 points per game during his first year with the Lakers in 2023 (he was traded to L.A. from the Washington Wizards midseason), Hachimura continued carving out a larger role with the team the following year.

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