Redick: Laravia’s role is similar to Hart’s and he can sustainably develop into an efficient and productive shooter.
6686 Sports News on November 6 The NBA regular season continues. The Lakers will face the Spurs at home today.
Before the game, Lakers coach Redick talked about Laravia's success with the Lakers this season.
"I'm not surprised at all. That's why he was the first guy I called in free agency. I feel like he can accomplish a lot at a very high level. A lot of times in this league we have superstars and then we have specialist ball. A lot of rosters are built around that model. Frankly, there aren't too many players that don't fall into those two categories. One of the types, whether you're a rim protector, a cut-and-run guy, you're a 3-and-D player, you're a running shooter, or you're a ball-handler. There are all kinds of players, but there's not that many types of players that can do it all well.
That's why - I'm not comparing him to Hart - but Hart has been in that role with the Knicks for years, and he can do a lot of things every night. Vea can impact a game without scoring in double figures, so we're excited to get him.
I think the area he needs to develop is to continue to develop into an efficient, high-volume shooter. He obviously shot over 42% from three last year, but I think when our lineup is fully healthy, he can be a 2-point shooter every night. A 5- to 30-minute player, in addition to everything else he can do, he's going to get a lot of open opportunities. He's going to get a lot of open opportunities as a whole, so he needs to continue to develop into an efficient, high-volume three-point shooter, but that doesn't affect everything else he does. "
So far this season, Laravia has played 8 games and has scored 20+ points in 2 games. He averaged 12.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3 assists per game, shooting 58.5% from the field and 56.5% from three-point range.