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The Los Angeles Lakers can ill afford another injury absence befalling their already-depleted roster. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what they’re getting.<\/p>\n
Per Jovan Buha of The Athletic, reserve small forward Cam Reddish will miss Friday’s bout against the Phoenix Suns due to undisclosed personal reasons.<\/p>\n
Bench center Jaxson Hayes, however, who had been merely probable due to a sore left foot, has seen his status upgraded to available just in time to suit up.<\/p>\n
Hayes was the standout bench performer for L.A.’s surprise 110-103 victory against the reconstituted Minnesota Timberwolves, who swapped out four-time All-Star power forward\/center Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks in exchange for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and draft equity just prior to this year’s preseason.<\/p>\n
Hayes scored 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting, in just under 16 minutes while backing up All-NBA center Anthony Davis.<\/p>\n
Reddish was a healthy scratch in that same game, and clearly is not seen as a piece of Los Angeles’ rotation by head coach JJ Redick. The 6-foot-8 Duke product was, like Hayes, once a lengthy, athletic top-10 lottery pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. Unlike Hayes, Reddish’s weakness as a shooter (and his mediocrity as a defender) have made him something of a liability.<\/p>\n
Across 48 contests last year (26 as a starter, as ex-head coach Darvin Ham gleefully toggled his rotations seemingly without rhyme or reason), Reddish averaged a career-worst 5.4 points on .389\/.336\/.759 shooting splits, 2.1 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.0 swipes, in 20.5 minutes a night.<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen how big men like Christian Wood and Jarred Vanderbilt will be deployed when healthy, but presumably Vanderbilt (a far better defender than Reddish, if a similiarly poor shooter) will at least have a role.<\/p>\n
For now, Redick is starting Ham’s year-end first five of point guard D’Angelo Russell, shooting guard Austin Reaves, small forward Rui Hachimura, power forward LeBron James (though James and Hachimura are often cross-matched defensively), and center Anthony Davis. Behind that first five, Redick has shown an early affinity for wings Dalton Knecht and Max Christie, point guard Gabe Vincent, and Hayes.<\/p>\n
Knecht’s fellow rookie Bronny James, 20-year-old son of LeBron, played spot minutes on Tuesday, but that seems to have been more the exception than the rule. During a lengthy regular season, it seems at least possible that Redick will be amenable to a deep rotation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Los Angeles Lakers can ill afford another injury absence befalling their already-depleted roster. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what they’re getting. Per Jovan Buha of The Athletic, reserve… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n