After exiting consecutive games at halftime, Cam Reddish could be in line to miss upcoming games with knee soreness.
The Lakers’ lineup shuffling is set for even more mixing and matching, it appears. Cam Reddish, who has dealt with knee soreness in the last two games, is reportedly set to miss multiple upcoming games.
On Sunday, Dave McMenamin and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that Reddish would miss “a few games” with left knee soreness. The Lakers had already ruled out Reddish for Monday’s game.
ESPN sources with @wojespn: Los Angeles Lakers F Cam Reddish could miss a few games with left knee soreness. Reddish has averaged 6.5 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 33 games. He’s started 26.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 15, 2024
Reddish has started each of the last two games but has only played eight and 11 minutes in those games, respectively. He exited at halftime of each of those contests and was replaced in the starting lineup.
The Lakers play every other day for the foreseeable future but are at home for the next four games as well. It’ll offer him a chance to rehab at home and, hopefully, be ready before the Lakers depart on their road trip at the end of the month.
This would present an interesting opportunity for the Lakers to keep Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell in the starting lineup. That pair, along with Reddish, Taurean Prince and Anthony Davis, started the previous game. Inserting LeBron for Reddish would be an interesting decision.
Max Christie has gotten an extended run as well with Reddish limited recently. This would offer more minutes for him as well as the potential to expand minutes for Rui Hachimura as he returns from injury.
It also is a pretty costly time for Reddish to miss. If Christie excels, as he has recently, then it’s going to be harder to make the argument to keep Reddish in the starting lineup if Christie, a younger player, is contributing at a similar level.
Ultimately, though, the Lakers have gotten more out of Reddish this season than just about anyone could have conceivably predicted. He’s shown to be a legitimately good defender who, at times, can still be a contributing piece offensively.
Some overexposure of him from head coach Darvin Ham is one of the biggest complaints about him this season, which could change in the coming weeks. It is, though, yet another shake-up to the rotation for a team that has had to deal with them all season.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.