Lakers vs Bucks Preseason Preview and Game Thread: An early reunion with Darvin Ham

Darvin Ham will see the same Lakers team he coached less than six months ago, but this time as an opponent in the preseason.

The Lakers will travel east to face the Milwaukee Bucks on their home floor on Thursday. This will be the first time the purple and gold will meet their former head coach, Darvin Ham since the team fired him last May.

Start time and TV schedule

Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Milwaukee Bucks

When: 5 p.m. PT, Oct 10

Where: Fiserv Forum

Watch: NBA TV, Spectrum SportsNet

In the Lakers' second preseason game, we learned that LeBron James and Anthony Davis are in tip-top shape, the starting five looks good and Austin Reaves needs to work on his 3-point shot. Head coach JJ Redick was happy with the screens the team set compared to their first preseason outing and AD played the four alongside Jaxson Hayes.

Two games in, we're already seeing how different Redick's coaching style is from Ham's, who is currently an assistant coach with the Bucks.

Redick has been really detail-oriented, complimented by players for his structure and is focused on the team's daily progress on the court.

When Ham was in charge, the focus was on the team's overall morale, long-term outcomes and he leaned more on the veterans than on young prospects like Max Christie.

Redick also has certain goals for this team that could make them look like a different group on the court compared to last season. Here are two changes we've already seen this preseason.

The Lakers will shoot more threes

In the first two preseason games, the Lakers attempted 32 and 40 3-pointers, more than they averaged per game last season (31.4). Redick may have joked that he wants the purple and gold to shoot 50 three-pointers this season, but it won't be a surprise if they average close to 40 attempts.

After all, Redick, who made a name for himself in the NBA thanks to his ability to shoot from deep, has been bullish on modernizing the Lakers' offense. Nothing screams modern basketball more than 3-point attempts.

AD will play more at the four

In Sunday's game against the Suns, specifically in the first quarter, we saw AD play the four when Haynes was inserted in the lineup alongside him. This was a rare sight last season and one that Redick wants to experiment with more this year because of their ability to switch 1-5 defensively. It also grants Davis' wish to play his natural position, which hopefully helps in easing up his workload.

It will be interesting to see if the Lakers religiously abide by these two changes throughout this season. The fact that we're seeing it as early as the preseason is already an encouraging sign.

Hopefully, these will be two of the many changes that yield better results than what the Ham administration achieved with this team.

Notes and Updates

• In case you missed it, the Lakers officially unveiled their city edition jerseys and in my opinion, it's their best one in a long while. You can read more about that here.
• From the injury report, there's no word yet about LeBron and AD's status, but expect Jarred Vanderbilt (foot surgery), Christian Wood (knee surgery) and Christian Koloko (not cleared by NBA protocols) to sit out for this game.
• As for the Bucks, Khris Middleton (ankle) and Gary Trent Jr. (elbow) won't be available.
• We will be live on Playback for this game, so be sure to join us!

You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani.