3 takeaways from Lakers Media Day 2024

The Los Angeles Lakers 2024-25 season nears as they conducted media day. The Lakers brought back their core from last season. LA lost Taurean Prince and Spencer Dinwiddie in free agency while adding Dalton Knecht and Bronny James in the draft.

The Purple and Gold’s main storyline going into the season is their new head coach, JJ Redick. Redick has never coached, but his basketball IQ has been proven as a former player.

With that in mind, let’s dive into our Lakers media day takeaways.

Hands out of pockets for JJ Redick 👀 pic.twitter.com/X7W205BwEl

— Lakers All Day Everyday (@LADEig) September 30, 2024

A change in coaching philosophy

The shift from Darvin Ham to Redick has seen an uptick in positivity from players. While the players didn’t directly call out Ham’s coaching from last season, it wasn’t very subtle.

“I’m not one to compare but it’s been really detail-oriented so far,” forward Cam Reddish said. Point guard D’Angelo Russell added on, saying, “Last year we didn’t have the structure defensively as a team.”

Redick emphasized paying attention to detail in all aspects of the game. This stark contrast has brought optimism throughout the Lakers organization, and we will see if it translates to success on the court.

JJ Redick’s full Media Day interview

Loved a lot of things JJ mentioned, especially how serious he is in his approach with playing close attention detail in all aspects pic.twitter.com/4lBlGLsemp

— LakeShow Highlights (@LSH_lakeshow) September 30, 2024

LeBron and Bronny are making history

LeBron James and Bronny James are making history this season as the first father-son duo in NBA history.

Bronny’s confident he got a defensive stop on LeBron and is adamant that he didn’t score on him

“Year whatever he is, he’s gonna get that call” 🤣 pic.twitter.com/zA8b4YyWFU

— Lakers All Day Everyday (@LADEig) September 30, 2024

They have already engaged in trash talk with each other after a recent matchup against each other. LeBron claims he scored on Bronny, claiming it was good defense but better offense. Bronny claims that LeBron stepped out of bounds and got the stop.

While the true outcome of that matchup is unknown, this upcoming season will be exciting with the father-son duo.

5️⃣#LakersMediaDay x @bibigoUSA pic.twitter.com/QDcQMzzI9I

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) September 30, 2024

Starting lineup continuity

Redick has announced that the Lakers will start Russell, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, LeBron, and Anthony Davis.

Redick announced the starting five on the Lowe Post with Zach Lowe, stating, “Yeah. Yeah. It’ll be the starting five that went 23-10 last year.”

This starting five played at a high level to close out last season, and it makes sense to roll with them moving forward. Under Redick’s new system, this talented offensive unit could take a jump to the next level.

The Lakers have a lot of optimism under their new head coach. Redick and the LakeShow will kick off preseason action on October 4th against the Minnesota Timberwolves.