Fans have been clamoring for more playing time for Max Christie since he joined the Lakers and this might be the year he gets it.

Welcome to our Lakers Season Preview Series! For the next several weeks, we’ll be writing columns every weekday, breaking down the biggest questions we have about every player the Lakers added this offseason. Today, we take a look at Max Christie.

Like the backup quarterback on a football team, no one is more loved and supported than a young NBA player unable to get consistent minutes.

“Why isn’t he playing enough?””He needs more time!””He’d be more consistent if he wasn’t getting pulled right away.”

Everything is colored with a bias that gives the player the benefit of the doubt. The only reality fans see is one where a bigger role means improved production and more wins for their team.

It’s not the worst place for a young prospect to be. But the best place is on the floor. For Max Christie, who averaged just 14.1 minutes per game last season, he spent far more time watching the Lakers than playing for them.

He showed flashes of being an exciting wing player during his moments on the court. He gave a full effort on the defensive side of the ball. He improved as an on-ball defender. He was an irritant defensively, balancing challenging shots and being physical with not fouling.

He was always aware of his surroundings off the ball, lost his man way less than in his previous seasons and constantly kept his hand up to get deflections or deter passers from sending the ball in his direction.

4 mins of Max Christie being disruptive. pic.twitter.com/GOxZeXODNl

— 🏆LakersGuru🏆 (@GuruLakers) September 9, 2024

Offensively, Christie had his moments. He became more aggressive, attacking the rim and finishing through contact. From his rookie season to his second year, he improved his shooting percentages from within 5 feet from 40% to 54.4%.

He shot 35% from 3-point range on the season, which was a hair below the league average, but he had a few good performances, like his 12-point night against the Houston Rockets, when he went 3-3 from deep.

The season, in many ways, felt like a waste. You didn’t get enough information to truly evaluate Christie and you’ll need to see more from him before finding out what his ceiling in this league will be.

However, not all evaluation is based on in-game minutes. The Lakers clearly have seen enough from Christie to invest in him, giving him a 4-year, $32 million deal this summer.

The hope is that Christie’s potential and production will intersect in the 2024-25 season and this kind of investment in their homegrown talent will finally pay off.

What is his best-case scenario?

In the fork in the road that is Christie’s career, Year 3 can be his breakout season. He is officially cemented as the wing of the future and is one of the first off the bench for the Lakers given his offensive production and versatility on defense.

Christie would be clocking in Rui Hachimura minutes and playing around 25 a night. If a player like Hachimura or Jarred Vanderbilt misses games, he’s first in line to take those minutes and get the job done.

Lakers coach JJ Redick trusts Christie to make the right basketball play, hit the occasional open 3-pointer and avoid the mental mistakes he made the year before.

This would be a career year for Christie and he’ll grow into being a near 40% shooter from deep, being a reliable threat from deep, similar to what Taurean Prince was for the Lakers last year.

After the season is over, the Lakers will be applauded for their development of Christie and he will become one of the untouchable players for this franchise, just like Austin Reaves.

What is his worst-case scenario?

Was Darvin Ham right?

Perhaps Christie wasn’t riding the bench simply due to seniority or an already established pecking order. Maybe he isn’t that guy. With more minutes comes more offensive struggles.

His, at times, tunnel vision to attack the basket leads to bad shots and turnovers. His shooting percentages don’t improve and perhaps even take a dip with a higher volume of shots.

With more early playing time, it becomes clear that while the attempt to be a good defender is there, the capability is not.

You’ll see him struggling with the physicality. He is too eager on closeouts and it leads to easy baskets. Suddenly, defenses are searching for where he is on the floor and attacking that area.

Fans quickly go from begging for more Christie minutes to demanding Redick sit him. His name starts getting added to every trade machine attempt and the Lakers prospect finds himself in the all-too-familiar position of someone who fails to make it in Los Angeles and is on his way to somewhere less stellar.

What is his most likely role on the team?

The world is there for Christie to grab. I believe he’ll reach that best-case scenario and is closer to being Austin Reaves than he is to becoming Talen Horton-Tucker.

That means Christie cracks the nine-man rotation, is one of the best defensive options on the team behind Vanderbilt and is trusted by LeBron James and Anthony Davis to knock down open looks from the wing and the corner three.

He’ll get his double-digit points per game, the media attention and, if we’re lucky, Christie will have his own “I’m Him” moment, a game where he introduces himself to the general basketball world and the casual fan learns what the Laker faithful have always known: that Christie is special and will play at a high level in this league for years to come.