LeBron James & Anthony Davis Break Silence as Lakers Struggle in JJ Redick’s “New System”

“Obviously, it’s going to grow and we are going to integrate more things within that. But, I think this is a good first step of seeing how he wants me to play”. Anthony Davis had a candid answer to give after the first night he played under JJ Redick’s offense strategy. When the former NBA player and analyst was selected to be the Lakers’ head coach, doubts emerged on whether he could deliver. After all, Redick possessed little to no coaching experience. The Lakers maintained a fair win record, so they didn’t raise questions earlier. However, they have now lost 5 of their last 7 games, including the recent one against the Timberwolves. In light of this, the players have taken it upon themselves to provide explanations.

In the aftermath of the Lakers-Timberwolves game, Anthony Davis provided his thoughts on the team’s performance over 21 games. The renowned Center took a somewhat diplomatic approach in answering the query. He stated, “Sometimes we look like a team, you know, that can compete with anyone, and sometimes we look like a team that looks terrible, and not going to do anything this season.” In the end, Davis believed it was up to him, and others, to decide which team they belong to.

When reporters asked LeBron James the same question, the 39-year-old attempted to defend their recent record through the same reasoning he had given earlier. The reasoning is that both JJ Redick and the Lakers need to adjust to the new changes.

“We’ve been good at times, obviously. Been poor at times, but I think that’s what to expect with a new system, new coaching staff, some new players. We trying to work in a new thing,” said LeBron. “So um, wouldn’t say, uh, ‘I’ll take it’. I don’t never want to say that. I don’t just confine to that, but it is what it is. This is up with our record and, you know, we got to continue to get better on both ends of the floor. It’s tough, the West is tough, we know that.”

The recent remark by LeBron James came several weeks after he outlined not putting massive expectations on JJ Redick. In fact, he had stated that it would be “unfair” for anyone else to do the same. More recently, the NBA All-Time Scorer had discussed the change in playing under new management, stating “This is the lowest usage rate of my career, so it’s definitely been an adjustment”. LeBron is doing his part to accommodate and requesting others to not judge as well. However, the Lakers’ current situation has now become hard to ignore.

It was only one season ago when the Lakers had to play through the Play-In series to reach the playoffs. A repeat of the same looks possible now, as the team has fallen to the 8 seed due to their 12-9 win record.

Even by mid-November, a report had come out to highlight that the team was performing worse under Redick when compared to their record under Darvin Ham. After all, during the 2023-24 season, the offensive rating for LeBron James and Co. stood at 115.9. The defensive rating was at 115.3 and the players shot the three-pointers with a 37.7% average success rate. In the first 8 games of the ongoing season, the offensive rating dropped to 114.5. Furthermore, the three-point success rate dropped to 34.4%, and the assists went down from 28.6 assists to 26.6 assists per game.

The recent matchup saw the Lakers losing against the Timberwolves, aka a team that had a 9-10 win record. The game wasn’t even close, as they lost by a 29-point margin! Amidst this, even the head coach had to admit that they needed to address the struggle.

Taking a shot at both offense and defense, JJ Redick addresses the Lakers’ uneven play “It’s not an aberration”

The recent game saw the Lakers recording their lowest score of the season. Therefore, the eyes were on JJ Redick to speak out about what went wrong. For the head coach, the offense certainly took a hit, since “We got off to a good start defensively. Then we made a couple of mental lapses, two ISO threes, and didn’t execute in the post against Randle. That deflated us, and we weren’t scoring on the other end.” The failure to maintain momentum cost the team, since “the offense can deflate you.” The fact that the team wasn’t performing as well as they did during the earlier part of the season was the point that the 40-year-old said he would address with the staff. After all, even he now believed that poor performances had become the norm for his team.

“It’s looking more and more like it’s not an aberration” Redick admitted. In the last few games, Redick had reportedly dismissed the poor performances by calling them a rare instance. Now, even that cannot be said.

With the team only having played around a quarter of their matchups, there is still hope. However, time is running out for LeBron James and co. While the players would rather give their best than put the blame on JJ Redick, the head coach himself realizes that he has to go back to the drawing board.