The Los Angeles Lakers’ season has been nothing short of a rollercoaster. One week, they are stacking wins and it looks like they have found answers to their offensive rhythm and defensive shortcomings. The next, they are losing games everyone expected them to win. The bottom line is that their problems are not being solved, and Kendrick Perkins believes it is simply because they are not a good team.
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The Lakers started 2026 with three wins on the trot but then hit a brick wall in the form of the San Antonio Spurs. Since then, they have dropped games to the Kings, Bucks, Hawks, and Hornets. Those were supposed to be easy wins on paper. Instead, they left JJ Redick and company wondering what exactly they are doing on the court.
No matter how good Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, or LeBron James are at scoring, they just cannot seem to stop anyone on the other end of the floor. The Purple and Gold’s struggles have even left Perkins exasperated.
“Did you just have the audacity to call the Lakers a team?” asked Perkins on an episode NBA on ESPN on Friday. “That’s not a team. That’s a bunch of individuals.
“I’m willing to bet everything that I have that there’s no a group chat with the Lakers, and if it is ain’t nobody saying nothing. I’m willing to bet there is no team dinners on the road.”
Perk on the Lakers:
“That’s not a team, that’s a bunch of individuals. I’m willing to bet everything that I have that is not a group chat with the Lakers, I’m willing to bet there’s no team dinners on the road…that’s showing up to work, do your job, everybody go their own way.… pic.twitter.com/HXt6H4BAnT
— Oh No He Didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) January 16, 2026
Whether the Lakers have a group chat or spend time together off the court is one thing, but it is clear that their on-court chemistry feels strange. It is almost as if no one acknowledges each other until the referee sets up for the opening tip. There is no way they will survive in the West if they continue playing like that.
Perkins further claimed that the entire Lakers team right now looked like a bunch of guys just punching into work. “That’s a bunch of individuals. That’s showing up to work, do your job, everybody go their own way, and hat’s how they perform on the floor.
“When you have defensive teams with defensive individuals that look the way that they’ve looked, not on the same page, then they definitely don’t have the chemistry off the floor,” the former NBA champion added.
At some point, this stops being about talent and starts being about identity. The Lakers do not need another scorched-earth quote or a players-only meeting that leaks to social media. They need to decide what kind of team they want to be on a nightly basis.
Defense is not just about effort. It is about trust, communication, and buying into something larger. The West is too deep and too unforgiving for a team still figuring itself out in January. If this season is going to turn around, it will not be because of one hot shooting night. It will be because they finally start acting like a team that expects to be around in April.
