Very early into the 2023-24 season, Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham made the unexpected decision to move guard Austin Reaves to the bench. He had a myriad of reasons for doing so, but one of them was being unsure about the pairing of Reaves and D’Angelo Russell, opting for a more defensive-friendly partner for Russell in Cam Reddish.
But on Saturday, Ham made another major lineup change, moving Russell to the bench in favor of Jarred Vanderbilt to create a wing-heavy, defense-first starting lineup of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Reddish, Vanderbilt and Taurean Prince. The result was a big victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder to end a four-game losing streak and a stretch of five losses in six games.
This change also placed Russell back next to Reaves, except now leading the second unit instead of the first. Ham spoke about what makes this different and why he likes the pairing as a bench pairing instead of in the starting lineup, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Austin and DLo, they’ve had some really good synergy together on the floor. And so that second wave allows us to play a little faster, a little more offensive. I’m looking forward to both, seeing how this starting lineup applies their pressure on the game early and then also see, once we start making substitutions, the variety in which we get things offensively.”
Generally, teams prefer a high-powered offensive unit to be a bench unit instead of starters. A majority of teams like to start the game with defensive presence and energy to set the tone, and that could be what Ham is going for with moving both original starting guards to the bench.
It remains to be seen if this is a long-term change or something that serves solely as an energy boost to revive a skidding Lakers team. But if the wins keep coming, the lineups won’t be shifted around.
D’Angelo Russell not concerned about bench role
The Lakers guard seemed to have a good attitude about being moved to the bench, especially after the first result was a big victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“Obviously we switched the lineup and the result was a win, so for me, that’s all that matters. Just finding a way to impact winning and bring energy whenever I’m out on the floor. Starting is a different monster. You’re playing against starting units, you’re playing against the scouting report, you’re playing against a lot of things like that. When you come in [as a reserve] you got to jump back on where the starters left off at as far as matchups and things like that so figuring out ways to find some kind of advantage coming in at a later time.”
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