Why the Lakers KNOW Max Christie is on the Verge of a BREAKOUT YEAR! | How They UNLOCK His Potential

Why the Lakers KNOW Max Christie is on the Verge of a BREAKOUT YEAR! | How They UNLOCK His Potential

[Music] welcome back everyone over the past couple of years now the Lakers have collected a fair amount of young Talent which they might even be adding to with them currently owning the 17th and 55th overall draft picks in the upcoming draft and while that’s all fine and dandy it won’t mean much if they cannot develop them and not only develop them but find a way to get them on the court which they’re not able to do very much with now former head coach Darvin ham who really held them back in my opinion with that being especially true for one certain player and well from the title of this video you probably know who I’m about to mention with that being Max Christie a 21-year-old shooting guard that they traded for back during the 2022 NBA draft really telling you about their long-term belief in him but again he has unfortunately been kind of held back by sporadic playing time and that has been in spite of him playing rather well in that sporadic playing time showing legitimate promise to become a really good 3 in Wing if not even a little bit more than that and with that in mind we’re going to talk about why the Lakers front office has so much belief in him why they’ll without a doubt bring him back in free agency and then how they will and maybe should go about unlocking him next season but before we get too far into it I would genuinely appreciate it if you could take a brief moment to drop a like subscribe to the channel if you have not already and hit that notification Bell to never miss out when I upload a video but without further Ado let’s dive right into it and I think we’ll Begin by talking about what they have to do first which would in fact be giving him a new contract if you’re not aware Christie will be a free agent though the good thing here is that he will be a restricted free agent meaning the Lakers have the ability to match any contract that is offered to him and while like I mentioned before I was not happy with the playing time that was given to him it may have indirectly helped the Lakers keep him primarily due to kind of keeping him hidden although deflating his overall value again I would have much rather at chrisy get playing time as I believe he could have and would have helped their team especially with them not having either one of Jared Bandy build or Cam reddish available for the final few months and after them chrisy is their best perimeter Defender but going back to the contract here they should be able to retain him for a fairly small one now I would not be entirely shocked if he got an offer from a different team but I cannot imagine it would be a big one likely no more than around 5 million per year and in my opinion that is probably around what he’ll get I’m thinking somewhere along the lines of a threeyear $15 million contract or maybe a 4year $20 million contract with a player option year number four though I imagine that Chris you would prefer a shorter term contract because much like me I imagine he is very confident about his ability to become a productive role player and again the good thing here is that it will be fairly easy for them to retain him it should not take too much money nor will they have to deal with a bunch of teams offering him a contract maybe a couple of them but not many teams like to have their cap room held hostage to begin with which is in fact what happens when you offer a restricted free agent a contract if you have no idea what I’m talking about whenever you offer a contract to a restricted free agent the team that player last played for has 48 hours to match that contract and throughout that 48 hour time frame the team that offered that contract is not allowed to offer that money to a different player therefore why their money is kind of held hostage and that right there is the primary advantage having a restricted free agent more often than not that alone will scare other teams away from set player every little bit of cap room matters during free agency after all and that should help the Lakers be able to retain Christie moving on here though what kind of role should they give him next season and how do they put him in a better position to make an impact both of which need to be addressed in my opinion though I think a good way to start would be removing the competition around him I really like cam reddish but he often took minutes away from Christie though that did come down to darham having a preference for him over Christie and who knows maybe their future coach might as well I’m not really sure why they would given Christi’s three in the ability but hey I guess you never know and that to me is why they should maybe think about moving on from cam reddish again I’d like what he offered their team on defense but I think they can get a similar output from Christie while at the same time getting more reliable three-point shooting although simply a more durable player in general which does in fact matter by the way for whatever reason cam reddish cannot seem to stay healthy up until this point he has never played more than 58 Games any1 season only managing to appear in 48 for them last season with about 10 to 15 of them being with him trying to play through injury and while I really do hope he can overcome that I’m not sure I’d be willing to take a bet on it I think the only way I’d really want to bring it back back would be if Tori and Prince left their team which I don’t find very likely nor do I want to happen they have the ability to offer him a contract worth about 5 million per year which would be a pay increase for him and I think that would be an offer that he is willing to accept and then not to mention him being very open about wanting to come back to their team as well and with that being said I think I’d probably have to let reddish go now they don’t have control over him opting in or out of his player option but I might think about trading him if he opts in with the primary goal here again to find more playing time for Chris I mean at this point I don’t think he would be taking a risk by relying on him to fill an every game role for them Ione am very confident about his ability to play 15 to 20 minutes per game and I think they should be too even in the limited playing time that he got he was solid for them for a guy that virtually never got to touch the ball apart from spot up shooting he was fairly efficient on offense shooting aboute 43% from the field over 35% from three and then most importantly nearly 45% on Corner threes which is pretty incredible I’m that is literally what you want from a three andd role player on the same team as LeBron a guy that can knock down three-point shots and specifically Corner thre is a efficient rate while at the same time playing good defense and well that was exactly what Christy gave them not only that though but he even proved to be valuable in their starting lineup during a 10 game stretch when both reddish and Vanderbilt were hurt although re still coming off the bench Christy became a part of their starting lineup and believe it or not that fiveman lineup combination had the best net rating of any lineup on their team that played over 50 minutes and no I’m not joking about that either the combination of DLo Christie Prince LeBron and AD at a net rating of plus 9.7 over three points higher than their second best net rated lineup the lineup plays 79 total minutes together and primarily excelled through their defense with a defensive rating of 105.5 they would have been number one in the NBA now we’re obviously not talking about a lineup that played a ton of minutes together but 79 total is a pretty good sample in my opinion that right there proved that chrisy can be an effective role player for them all they have to do is give the opportunity and then put him in the right situation I mean giving him 5 minutes one game then 20 minutes the next game and then followed up with a dnp is not a good way to use him they need to give him a regular role within their rotation at the end of the day you cannot hope for a young player to become a consistent role player without giving them a consistent role and with Christy only being 21 there is plenty of potential that just waiting to be unlocked here again I love having winged up but at some point they got to believe in him and putting multiple guys around him that’ll take away from him that’s simply not a good way to do it and with them likely giving him a contract that is worth more than a minimum they will be investing in him to take that next step and the logical thing to do there would be actually giving him playing time in my opinion there is little doubt about his ability to fill a basic 3 andd role for them he has already shown the ability to be a good Defender and spot up shooter though I think there’s even more to his game I mean like he has shown throughout summer league and preseason he can be a scoring threat when giving the opportunity and while I don’t think we should be expecting that from him in the short term I think that is something that could show up in the long term though it will ultimately come down to how they develop him and of course actually giving him a regular role within their rotation but with all of that being said what do you guys think how do you feel about Max Christie and the role he should fill for their team entering next season let me know your thoughts in the comments down below that will do it for this video though big thank you to those of you took the time to watch until the end of this video and until the end of all my videos in general I really hope you enjoyed it and if you did be sure to drop a like on the video subscribe to the channel if you have not already and hit that notification Bell to never miss out when I upload a video but as always thank you for watching and have a great day [Music]

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