Lakers Training Camp Notebook: Trusting data and analytics, seeing the young guys be rabbits

The second Lakers practice of training camp gave us high energy from the younger players and conversations about data and analytics.

LOS ANGELES — Tuesday was the first day of training camp for the Lakers. Day Two, to the untrained eye, looked like more of the same.

Austin Reaves and Dalton Knecht were shooting together and the same player groups from the day before were working on free throws and other fundamentals.

However, Lakers coach JJ Redick talked about his adjustments between both practices, using data and analytics and leaning on his rookies for energy.

“We’ve been measuring their load capacity throughout the preseason and yesterday was an outlier in terms of their load,” Redick said. “And we brought it again today. Very curious to see the data from today compared to yesterday and the overall competitive spirit of this gym was fantastic. We talked on Monday night about physicality. I thought our defense today, stepped up a level in terms of physicality. We tried to clean up some stuff from yesterday, so we’ll just continue to do that continue to build on that.”

When discussing data, Redick spoke enthusiastically about the subject. He mentioned before using math and analytics as a coach and Wednesday’s after-practice conversation gave us a glimpse of that.

“I went over to Bronny before practice and I was like, ‘Dude, you ran six miles.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, I know.’ 
Somebody already shared that with him. I think my experience as a player was very helpful because I got to come in at the tail end of all of this tracking stuff. It was something, especially as I got older, that was important to me in terms of measuring just my capacity and my load. And if a guy has got a strong buildup and he’s feeling good, that’s important information for him,
it’s important information for the coaching staff. Dr. LeRoy Sims, who we hired this offseason, our Director of Player performance, he’s on top of things. He’s always available for the players. And it’s something we’ll use throughout the season.”

It’s always encouraging to have a coach interested in using the latest technology to improve his job. However, there was a different level of enthusiasm when talking to players like Anthony Davis about data and analytics.

“I don’t know what some of that stuff means,” Anthony Davis said. “It doesn’t matter to me. What matters is if we have more points than the other team at the end of the game.
That’s all I care about. These things that they come up with as far as analytics, these categories and stuff like that. It doesn’t even matter. It has no importance to me whatsoever.”

This debate will likely rage on for years to come, but as long as the Lakers staff is delving into the details and the players are giving their all, it’s more of a conversation than a problem.

Young guys were rabbits

One of the focuses early into training camp is assessing the rookies and players early in their careers. Have they made progress? Are they showing signs of being quality NBA players?

Redick gave us some insights into how the young Lakers core is performing.

“We had a nice little, we’ll call it a transition drill in practice today that was more a conditioning drill,” Redick said. “And we challenged Jalen [Hood-Schifino] and Max [Christie]. We called them the rabbits and they responded well.”

I have never heard a coach call his players rabbits, but I understand the sentiment. The mammal is known for having an abundance of energy and running for extended periods of time with no sign of fatigue, which seems like something you’d want in your young players.

Redick also mentioned Knecht as a high-energy player in practice on Wednesday but acknowledged that it was a rougher day for him.

“He’s [Dalton Knecht] got a heater,” Redick said. “That’s what he showed me, first of all. He didn’t shoot it well today and I told him after that his level of compete today was really high. He didn’t get down on himself about missing shots. He was super engaged and it really showed in the last conditioning transition drill where, in the second part of it, he was challenged to be the rabbit and that competitive nature came out.

“It was really cool to see. And for a young guy, like I lived this. I think a lot of players live this when the shot’s not going in, you can sort of hang your head. He didn’t do that today. That’s been the biggest thing for him. He’s got a high level of care.”

All rookies will experience growing pains and Knecht will be no exception. The energy is there and we saw glimpses of his shooting during the Las Vegas Summer League.

Hopefully, the next practice and preseason will give us more hints of Knecht becoming this franchise's shooter of the future.

Notes and injury updates

• Cam Reddish still didn’t participate during 5-on-5 scrimmages for the Lakers but was able to do more non-live action work with the team.
• Jarred Vanderbilt and Christian Wood also did not practice with the team on Wednesday and the Lakers are still waiting for the NBA to medically clear Christian Koloko.
• Also, there were a lot more questions about the Lakers' live DJ. According to Redick, it was LeBron James’ idea to have one so they did it. It must be great to be king.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.