Los Angeles Lakers coach J.J. Redick is dealing with adversity for the first time since taking over.
Wednesday night was a critical game for the Los Angeles Lakers as they looked to finish their road trip on a positive note with a win at the Memphis Grizzlies. The Lakers were missing forward/center Anthony Davis, but still maintained the confidence to win. That confidence faded quickly as the Lakers suffered one of their worst losses of the season at the hands of the Grizzlies 131-114.
This loss is evident of the lack of input the front office made to the roster, the lack of perimeter defense and the challenges that first-year head coach J.J. Redick would endure. The Lakers started the season 3-0 with three solid wins over Minnesota, Phoenix and Sacramento. Los Angeles would then lose four of the next six games, all on the road.
On Thursday, NBA insider and analyst Brian Windhorst was on First Take to talk about the biggest game recap. The second game recap the Lakers at the Grizzlies where Windhorst talked about the dysfunction of the defense and the continuous problems that the team encountered last season with Darvin Ham as head coach.
The Lakers’ defense continues to be a significant problem under a new head coach. Last night, the Grizzlies made 51.6% in field goals (48-of-93) and were 50% from the three-point arc (17-of-34). Eight of their top nine players were in the negative as they were without Davis.
Windhorst mentioned that the defensive efficiency of D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves was terrible. He also mentioned that Redick questioned Russell’s effort not in the game, but also in the press conference.
“At one point last year, he (Ham) took D’Angelo Russell out of the starting lineup because him and Austin Reaves playing together was just untenable trying to defend.
“Last night, J.J. basically questioned D’Angelo Russell’s effort right in front of everybody like Darvin Ham was basically doing that, not in a press conference setting.”
Reddick might possess a lack of coaching experience, but he isn’t afraid to call out players based on poor play or effort. As Windhorst suggests, Russell’s lack of effort at certain times is common and has now extended into another coaching staff except this time, Russell is going to be publicly reprimanded.
It may be a new year and a new coach for the Lakers, but the same problems continue as the team struggles with defense and effort. These are attributes that Reddick knew of the team before taking the head coaching job. Much of the Lakers’ problems, outside of the front office, is the key players outside of their best attributes. Russell might be a solid scoring player, but he is a liability on defense.
“D’Angelo Russell has been in the league for seven or eight years, I think he is the player that he is, but I will acknowledge that players can change stuff in the middle of their career. The issue really is, the Lakers’ one remedy is to have their coach go at them and try to get more out of them.
“Ideally, you would have made changes to your makeup so this wouldn’t be such a problem year over year. They just didn’t do that, they elected not to change their roster,” Windhorst added.
The Lakers’ front office didn’t do Reddick any favors with the roster so it will be up to him to develop the talent and heart with this team. Windhorst said the Lakers are a play-in team in a loaded Western Conference, but a three-seed in the Eastern Conference.
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