Is there a rift brewing between Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick and his former podcast co-host, LeBron James?
After Saturday’s practice session, Redick openly held James accountable for the Lakers‘ current issues, especially on the offensive end.
“Since we’ve gotten Bron back, we haven’t been as organized offensively,” Redick told reporters, via BasketNews. “Too many random possessions. That’s on me. It’s those 3 things: defensive clarity, role clarity and offensive organization.”
Further to Redick’s point, the Lakers offense has been stagnant with James on the floor in the last 10 games, with Redick’s men amassing only 109.7 points per 100 possessions. For context, that’s nearly 4.0 points fewer than when Luka Doncic is on the floor.
But their bigger issue has been defense. Redick urged his team to build defensive fundamentals amid a 10-game stretch in which the Lakers have allowed opponents to shoot 53% from the floor in six losses.
“I really believe in getting back to basics and understanding the needs of the team and each guy, creating more clarity,” he said. “I know having played that what can seem very simple up there isn’t simple once you’re in real time and live action. It’s not going to happen in a day, but we have to get back to building our defensive fundamentals.”
Were Lakers Better Without LeBron?
Nearly every metric suggests that the Lakers were a better basketball team before LeBron James returned from his sciatica on Nov. 18.
With James on the floor, the Lakers’ offensive rating (117.5 to 115.1), defensive rating (118.1 to 121.9) and net rating (-0.6 to -6.8) all get significantly worse. Furthermore, James has the worst defensive rating on the entire team, including the bench, and the worst net rating among all players not named Dalton Knecht.
All the more alarming is that the Lakers are getting progressively worse with James on the floor. Through nine games in December, they’ve been outscored by 11.8 points with James in the lineup, with a net rating of -23.4 across five losses.
LeBron James Unhappy in L.A.?
There’s increasing chatter that LeBron James may be unhappy with the direction of the Lakers under JJ Redick.
After Thursday’s Christmas Day loss to the Houston Rockets, ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins said that James’ body language “was awful” during the game.
“When he’s not engaged, or if he feels some type of way, it speaks in his body language,” Pekins said of James. “And last night, his body language was awful.
“He was not engaged. He was pouting, moping and walking up and down the damn floor, and he was complaining.”
Perkins took it a step further by hinting at a rift between James and Redick when he said that the latter was not as vocal in blasting his team before “The King” returned.
“He wasn’t having these conversations earlier in the season when LeBron James was out,” Perkins said of Redick, while reacting to the Lakers coach’s postgame comments.
The Lakers (19-10) will try to snap their three-game losing streak against the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night. With Austin Reaves (grade 2 calf strain) out for the foreseeable future, Redick is expected to insert Marcus Smart into the starting unit.
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