LOS ANGELES — Lakers sixth-year wing Cam Reddish is making the transition that several NBA players before him have.

Going from “The Guy” in high school and college, and being a highly-featured offensive option early in their NBA career, to a player who has to star in the role that’s needed of them.

After a start to his career that featured inconsistency and being traded multiple times, it appears that Reddish is starting to find his footing.

Reddish, who made his second start of the season in Sunday’s home game against the Toronto Raptors, got inserted into the rotation last week because of his approach to the defensive end of the floor.

That same approach got him his first start in Friday’s home win over the Philadelphia 76ers – a game in which Reddish only attempted one shot in 28 minutes.

“Every team is different, every coach is different,” Reddish said after the team’s practice on Saturday. “I go out there and do what he tells me to do. In my past life, I was going out there doing what I wanted to do. And that doesnt necessarily work all the time.

“So I just go out, be a star in my role and do what I can to help the team win, whether its one shot, five shots, 10 shots, whatever. Just try to go out there and impact the game.”

Reddish’s offensive role has diminished his last few seasons in the league, which included stops with the Portland Trail Blazers (2023) and New York Knicks (2022-23) after starting his career with the Atlanta Hawks (2019-22) after being the No. 10 pick in the 2019 draft.

Reddish, who’s in his second season with the Lakers, entered Sunday averaging 2.3 field goal attempts per game after averaging 4.9, 7.8, 8.3, 10.1 and 9.6 in his previous five seasons.

“I mean, I didnt have much of an option,” Reddish said on adjusting his game. “I kept getting traded. You just learn throughout those years. Its a learning experience. Its a journey. Just learning every day.”

Reddish added: “I was getting the ball all the time growing up. So I didnt know anything else, you know what I mean? But now I was forced to kind of learn and expand my game and it dont happen overnight, but little by little, I feel like Im getting better at it.”

Lakers coach JJ Redick, who played in the NBA for 15 seasons, understands the evolution had to go through.

“I can empathize with him for sure because, like a lot of NBA players, youre the No. 1 option in high school, youre the No. 1 option in college, and then you get to the NBA, youre struggling to carve out a role, and you have to figure that out,” Redick said. “And its not something that is this very linear thing.

“You just kind of have to have a long-term view and really embrace the things required for that specific team to get on the floor. And for us, having a defensive presence guarding the primary matchup, primary scorer, those are the things that we need Cam to do. I told him early in preseason, I said, look, were going to figure out the offensive part of it and where we can have you feel like you have a role there. But full stop for you to get on the floor, it has to be on the defensive end. And over the last week, hes really embraced that.

LET IT FLY

Rookie wing Dalton Knecht, who came into the NBA known as a high-level shooter, has had a slow start from the beyond the arc, shooting just 27.8% on 3-pointers entering Sunday.

Those struggles havent altered Redicks thinking of Knecht.

“To me, hes gotten some really good looks, both organically and when weve run sets for him,” Redick said. “I am undeterred in my thinking that he is a tier-one, top-one percent shooter. I see it almost every day. Sometimes you go through stuff and…it was always hard for me early in the season if I initially didnt get off to a good start shooting 3s. It became more than it was.

Im not speaking for him, but I think for shooters, its hard mentally when you get off to a slow start shooting the ball. It can kind of weigh on you. Ive talked to him about it, he believes the next shots going in every single time. And so do I.