JJ Redick's hot Lakers start quickly turning into deja vu nightmare

Yesterday at 04:05 PM

Not having Anthony Davis or Rui Hachimura on the court automatically puts the Los Angeles Lakers at a disadvantage. This was the case on Wednesday night, as the Lakers fell 131-114 on the road against the Memphis Grizzlies without their starting frontcourt. Two of the team’s top four scorers were sidelined with a heel injury and an illness, respectively, factoring into the team’s misfortune against Ja Morant’s squad. After a blazing-hot 3-0 start to the season, JJ Redick’s crew now finds itself 4-4 and feeling an immense amount of pressure ahead of the NBA Cup.

When the Lakers took down the Minnesota Timberwolves, Phoenix Suns, and Sacramento Kings to begin the season, it appeared as if a new energy had been created from within. Redick, unlike former Lakers head coach Darvin Ham, brought a new sense of passion and reason to fight every single night. From the very first game of the season, one could tell that this year’s Lakers squad had a chip on their shoulder and something to prove.

Anthony Davis and LeBron James set the tone for this team, and Redick was the main motivating factor behind getting the secondary players to care about their respective roles. For the starting backcourt of Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell, Redick implored confidence in them and urged his two guards to really help drive the attack on offense. Everything Redick had envisioned was successful against three playoff-contending teams during the first week of the new season.

One week later, Los Angeles’ offense is back to looking like it did to end the 2023-24 season, and that sky-high confidence this organization had to begin the year is back at ground zero. The bottom line is that regardless of who the Lakers were missing, in this case Davis and Hachimura, there needs to be a sense of urgency to fight. LeBron had 39 points on Wednesday, yet nobody else really stepped up on either end of the court with Los Angeles being shorthanded.

This is something James alluded to in his postgame remarks, as the Lakers leader was not pleased with the effort he saw from his team in light of their fourth loss in the last five games.

“At the end of the day, especially when you lose bodies, you got to compete. You got to compete even harder," James told reporters after the game. "You got to be out there giving it everything that you got and on both ends. I think there were times that we did that, but the majority of the time, I don't think we sustained energy and effort.”

When Redick was questioned after the game about certain players needing to put in the effort and how he addressed this with the team, the Lakers head coach simply stated, “I just did,” before storming out of his postgame press conference in frustration.

"You're talking a lot about 2 or 3 guys, getting them to put in the effort. You talked a lot about wanting to play hard and LeBron being the guy that played hard in tonight's game. How do you address that with the team?"

JJ Redick: "I just did." pic.twitter.com/yyzCoh9DPJ

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) November 7, 2024

Returning home after a five-game road trip that didn’t go their way, where do the Lakers go from here?

The answer to this question is not a simple one, as this year’s version of the Lakers run by Redick is beginning to look very reminiscent of what the team looked like before Redick.

New coach, same problems for Lakers

Leadership was a major problem inside the Lakers’ locker room and on the sidelines last season. Although Los Angeles did find success with Ham as their head coach, as he led the team to their in-season tournament championship last season and the Western Conference Finals in 2023, change was necessary in order for this franchise to regain their true championship relevance. After all, a team with James and Davis should have no problem getting to the playoffs.

But that is the problem the Lakers face in what has turned out to be a heavily loaded Western Conference, with 13 of the 15 teams competing for a play-in tournament spot at the very least. Even the Utah Jazz and Portland Trail Blazers, the two worst teams in the conference, have proven to be competitive here and there because of their athleticism. There are no off-nights when it comes to Western Conference matchups, which is why much of the same problems the Lakers had a season ago are once again popping up.

The main reason for this is because coaching wasn’t the end-all, be-all problem for the organization. Redick checks off a lot of boxes, and his demeanor is absolutely a positive for the Lakers. We have seen his mentality and aggressiveness create a sense of pride early on this season, and most importantly, Redick is a coach James and Davis fully trust.

With this said, Redick is only able to coach the team he is given. When effort isn’t given when the coach is imploring it and when talent on one side outweighs that on the other, there isn’t much Redick is going to be able to do. That was the case on Wednesday when the Lakers were trounced by the Grizzlies.

“We have to be better with basically every aspect of the game,” Austin Reaves said in his postgame remarks. “The main thing is just competing and following the game plan. You know, they (the coaches) lay out good stuff for us to execute, and we just haven’t done that on this road trip.

“There are a million different ways you can help your team win games, and we haven’t done those on this road trip.”

Los Angeles always has massive expectations to meet. One loss always seems like the end of the world, so just imagine what losing four of their last five feels like. At 4-4 overall on the season, there is no need to panic or hit the reset button. However, the Lakers expecting massive change compared to last season is a major ask considering that nothing about this team’s identity changed.

Defense is still a problem for this team because of the personnel they have, and there are very limited options to find true production outside of the starting lineup. With Davis and Hachimura sidelined, the problems that exist on Los Angeles’ bench are amplified.

Lakers’ bench struggling to find identity

Every team in the NBA is different when it comes to their rotation sizes and minutes that are allocated. The Golden State Warriors, for example, are committed to using 11 or 12 players every single night, whereas the Lakers and Redick have a strict eight-player rotation. This group consists of James, Davis, Reaves, Hachimura, D’Angelo Russell, Jaxson Hayes, Dalton Knecht, and Gabe Vincent.

Since Davis and Hachimura were out recently, Cam Reddish was given a bigger role to prove himself, and Max Christie has also seen some minutes here and there to begin the season.

The main problem for Los Angeles is that this is it … this is their bench. Maybe Christian Koloko will provide some added frontcourt depth at some point, but Bronny James is a non-factor, Jarred Vanderbilt is still weeks away from making his season debut, and Maxwell Lewis hasn’t played at all.

Overall, it is not hard to say that the Lakers have arguably the worst bench in the league when it comes to finding immediate production on either side of the basketball. Every statistic backs this claim up, as Los Angeles ranks 29th in the league in average bench points per game.

If Davis is out or goes down with an injury, who can Redick truly turn to and feel comfortable with?

The same question can be asked about James and Reaves. Obviously, there is no replacing a star player with immediate, identical production, but the Lakers simply don’t have the extra firepower on their bench needed to take down the best of the best in the West. When players struggle, much like Russell did against the Grizzlies, Redick has nobody to turn to who can provide a spark.

Every team in the league is beginning to recognize this about the Lakers, which is leading to a faster tempo in order for Redick to make changes to his lineup. When the bench comes into the game, the other team is automatically in the advantage.

Unless the Lakers make a significant roster change, this burden is going to fall on the shoulders of Vincent, Hayes, Reddish, and eventually Vanderbilt when he returns. Aside from stepping up defensively and playing a hard-nosed brand of basketball that Redick is trying to implement, the Lakers’ bench must not overcomplicate things. One or two timely threes can be the difference in the other team going on a 7-0 scoring sprint once Davis or James check out of the game or struggling to find a rhythm since basketball is a game of runs.

Luck is not on the Lakers’ side right now, and it is hard to imagine that their bench will suddenly become better overnight since nothing was done to improve it in the offseason.

D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves futures uncertain

While they are not a second-apron team, the Lakers are basically locked into the roster that they have at the moment since they are $45,001 below the second-tax apron and do not want to exceed this number. Essentially, the only way that the Lakers could improve is by getting creative in trade talks involving players with middle-tier contracts: Reaves, Russell, Hachimura, Vincent, and Vanderbilt.

There is a lot of time between now and the trade deadline in February. Executive Rob Pelinka and his front office will carefully examine how Redick handles this team over the next month and, more importantly, get a sense of the direction things are trending in near the holiday season. After all, Davis is having a terrific start to the season and James is beginning to get into his regular-season swing, so there is no need to jump to conclusions on anything just yet.

At the same time, Russell and Reaves are the two players on this Lakers roster worth discussing in depth.

Russell has been involved in trade conversations dating back to last season pertaining to the Lakers making a trade for another star player. Ahead of the trade deadline during the 2023-24 season, Los Angeles attempted to trade for Dejounte Murray, who was playing for the Atlanta Hawks and next to Trae Young, another Lakers trade target at the time. While the Lakers were willing to move Russell and some draft compensation for Murray, the Hawks held no desire to acquire the former All-Star guard from Los Angeles and instead wanted Reaves.

This was something the Lakers were unwilling to do, as they have held Reaves in high regard for quite some time. The notion that Reaves was untouchable in trade talks carried over to the offseason when Pelinka and his staff were evaluating potential trades that the organization could pursue. A few teams inquired about Reaves, yet the Lakers remained adamant that he is their third essential piece next to LeBron and AD.

Word from Los Angeles is that the organization has remained adamant on their stance about Reaves, hence why they didn’t entertain the idea of including him in trade packages this offseason. However, many other front office personnel around the league are weary about the idea of the Lakers truly holding onto Reaves long-term since he could be the path to them moving Russell in a package for another star-like talent. Who that star could potentially be is the ultimate question, as there is no telling which players could become available between now and February.

It does appear as if Russell could wind up being on the move between now and the end of his contract with the Lakers. His struggles since arriving in Los Angeles have been well-documented, and there is a lot of uncertainty that exists for Redick and his backcourt.

Since the start of the season, Russell’s overall production has declined, and the Lakers head coach recently made the move to bench the 28-year-old against the Grizzlies due to his lack of effort.

“Level of compete," Redick said of Russell regarding why his playing time was cut. "Attention to detail. Some of the things we’ve talked with him about a couple of weeks. At times he’s been really good, other times it’s just reverting to certain habits. It wasn’t like a punishment, but for us to have a chance to win this game, that was the route we wanted to take. Gabe in the first half, especially defensively, was fantastic. I just wanted to see what that looked like."

Vincent, Knecht, Reaves, and now Reddish are four other players Redick is giving minutes to in the backcourt alongside Russell, which is why the veteran is on a thin leash right now. Unlike Ham, who constantly rolled out the same lineup hoping for better results, Redick is not one to sit back and watch the same things happen. He is going to make moves that put his team in the best position to win.

Eight games into the 2024-25 season, Redick is beginning to stray away from using Russell in big moments in favor of others, which is an early sign of what is to come. With recent first-round pick Jalen Hood-Schifino likely to be included in trade conversations the Lakers hold this season, Russell could be right next to him in a package that nets the Lakers an impactful talent to make a serious push come time for the playoffs.

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