As the midway point of the 2024-25 season approaches, the Los Angeles Lakers are in an interesting spot as new head coach JJ Redick has them at sixth in a loaded Western Conference.
It’s no secret that the Lakers’ roster has holes though and if they truly want to compete for a championship, moves will need to be made.
LeBron James made that abundantly clear after the team’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers as he stated they have no room for error on a nightly basis as currently constructed.
Redick actually echoed James’ thoughts and discussed what it takes for his team to get wins consistently.
“We don’t have a huge margin for error. Nor can we create that margin organically,” Redick admitted. “It has to be emphasized daily to touch the paint, to play paint-to-great mentality, make the extra pass. We don’t have a guy on our team that’s going to necessarily always draw two to the ball. We don’t have a guy on our team that’s going to be able to get past his guy one-on-one and get to the paint and spread it out to the perimeter. Like, that’s just not our team. So we have to do it through connectivity, through execution. And when we do that, we’re really good.”
The Lakers’ latest loss is a prime example of what Redick is talking about as turnovers, missed open shots and inability to rebound cost them against the Clippers on Sunday night.
Redick was happy with how the Lakers competed but also talked about the issues that continue to plague them.
“It was one of those games where you want you offense to help your defense, and didn’t make shots, turned the ball over,” Redick said. “I thought we did a good job. Eleven possessions of zone in the first half, they scored eight points. We did a good job of mixing it up. I can say they have a great team. They have Hall of Famers, [Ivica] Zubac is a monster. I thought he was, in some ways, the difference with his offensive rebounding and particularly in the second half. Gave up nine offensive rebounds in the second half, he had six of them.
“Against great teams, you know, you make mistakes, you d on’t get a loose ball, you don’t get the defensive rebound, they make you pay. Every time we made a mistake, they made us pay. But our guys competed, we fought, we stayed together. You know, this was a good process for us, didn’t get the result we wanted. Did some really good things in the second half. That’s a real defense. They have a real defense and they’re physical.”
JJ Redick: Nothing is going to be easy for Lakers
The Lakers have been at home for most on January but have largely been unable to take advantage of this stretch as they are 4-5 in their last nine games.
JJ Redick knows things aren’t going to come easy for the Lakers but also expects the tide to turn for them at some point.
“You can certainly look at a calendar and say this is an easier part of the schedule or this is a more difficult part. Nothing is going to be easy for our team. And I figured that out very early in the season. And that’s OK,” Redick said.
“We’re going to keep fighting. … We have 18 losses, so by the loss column, we’re sixth. We would like to be higher. I think there’s a couple games where we would all say we should have won. We haven’t had any of those games where you’re like, ‘Well, we kind of stole that one.’ We’re going to get a couple back at some point. We just got to continue to trust each other and we’ll be fine.”
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