After a red-hot start to his coaching career with three straight wins, JJ Redick’s momentum has taken a massive halt with four losses. And tonight was no different as the Grizzlies blew out the Lakers. Sure enough, recent struggles have led JJ to make some tough decisions, which included benching D’Angelo Russell for most of tonight’s second half. And he revealed the reason behind it after the game.

Addressing the $60 million rich guard’s key weakness, JJ said, “Level of compete, attention to detail, you know some of the things we have talked with him about for couple weeks. And at times he’s been really good with that stuff and other times, you know it’s just reverting back to certain habits.” Well, consistency has been a problem for D’Lo ever since he joined the Lakers. Unfortunately, it’s been even more evident this season as he is averaging a career-low 12 points. And that led to him playing less than 22 minutes tonight.

However, Redick assured that his benching had no deeper meaning, “It wasn’t like a punishment. I just felt like you know for us to have a chance to win this game. That was the route we wanted to take.” With Russell getting benched, the head coach transferred his minutes to Gabe Vincent, and he revealed why postgame, “Gabe in the first half, especially defensively, was fantastic and I just wanted to see what that’d look like.”

But the decision did not help the Lakers because Gabe also struggled all night and scored only six points. Meanwhile, D’Lo finished the night with 12 points.

JJ Redick has high expectations for D’Angelo Russell: “Vocal Leader”

Yes, Russell did not play up to his standard tonight. But it was only a couple of games ago that he scored 19 points and helped the Lakers win against the Raptors. Sure enough, JJ had high praise for him that night, “I would say he’s been one of the more vocal leaders on our team, and that goes back all the way to before training camp on the days that he was in the gym.” Moreover, Redick revealed that this was a challenge he issued D’Lo even before the season started. And he wanted this to be a standard for the point guard, regardless of his performance on the court.

JJ also confirmed that D’Lo’s spirits are high despite the recent shooting struggles, “He’s gonna have a lot of good games where he plays really well. His spirit has not diminished at all with any sort of, whatever you want to call it, shooting struggles to start the season.” Of course, Russell can be an All-Star caliber player when he finds his groove. But the problem is he is unable to stay consistent. And if he manages to overcome that issue, Redick will not hesitate to increase his playing time.