When the Los Angeles Lakers selected Michigan State guard Max Christie in the second round of the 2022 NBA Draft, he wasn’t expected to be a regular contributor in his rookie year. However, due to lineup fluctuation and injuries, Christie has played in 38 of L.A.’s games, averaging 13.3 minutes in those contests.
He hasn’t affected the box score in any significant way thus far, but he has shown some impressive tools such as a 41.9 3-point percentage and some better-than-anticipated defensive chops. In this short time, he’s certainly caught the eye of Michigan State alum and Lakers legend Magic Johnson.
Johnson likely wasn’t directly involved in drafting Christie, a decision that fell on another Michigan man in general manager Rob Pelinka, but he definitely supported the decision.
In speaking about Christie, Johnson cited work ethic and attitude specifically as reasons to be excited about the Lakers rookie’s future prospects, according to Bryan Kalbrosky of USA Today:
“You know what? He got a lot of playing time, which I didn’t think he was going to get this season. That’s going to help develop him. He needed to get stronger. So when the Lakers had guys who were hurt, he even started a few games. I’ve been really impressed with his attitude and his work ethic. When you look at him in another year or two, he’s going to be something special because he has a high basketball IQ and he was coached very well by Coach Izzo and he watches LeBron every day. He watches Anthony Davis every day. He gets to be mentored by LeBron and that goes a long way. He’s soaking it all up.”
With the Lakers completely overhauling their roster at the NBA trade deadline, it’s difficult to see Christie getting consistent opportunities for minutes with the team for the rest of this season. However, similar to Talen Horton-Tucker, he’s shown enough flashes to earn himself spot opportunities and take advantage of them.
He also may be able to learn even more as he practices with and sits alongside a quality Lakers team, again similar to the experience Horton-Tucker had with the 2020 championship roster. Perhaps in 2023-24, Christie can get an opportunity for regular playing time in L.A.
Christie observing James’ preparation
As far as learning how to be an NBA player, there’s no one better to study than LeBron James and that has been the case for Christie.
He revealed that he has studied James’ gameday routine and preparation in order to help him develop and avoid hitting a rookie wall.
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