The Los Angeles Lakers have been making headlines both on and off the court, and for both good and bad reasons. The Purple and Gold have strung together three straight wins to open 2026, and with a 23-11 record, are currently sitting in the No. 3 spot in a highly competitive Western Conference. Yet, there is still plenty of negative noise surrounding the organization.
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Head coach JJ Redick has not been shy about calling out his players for a lack of effort or deviating from a game plan. That’s not the issue, though. Redick does it by talking to the press, making it appear that there is some sort of dysfunction inside the locker room that is not being handled.
And it’s not just JJ, either. LeBron James has been vocal about his frustration with not getting the ball as much as he used to, which contradicts Redick’s statement of the offense “being out of sorts since Bron came back.”
However, there’s only so much that can be said to the basketball media, as Mike Malone pointed out. “I am a firm believer in you have a lot of those conversations one-on-one in the locker room,” the former Denver Nuggets star said.
“In front of your team, you call guys out. I know for myself, going into every season, you want to eliminate as many distractions as possible. Winning is hard in the NBA,” Malone continued.
Should coaches call out their players’ faults publicly?
Coach Michael Malone shares his take on JJ Redick speaking openly to the media about the Lakers’ mistakes. pic.twitter.com/XXNffXAl8u
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) January 8, 2026
“When you have JJ calling out his players, you [have] got LeBron talking about not having the ball enough, DeAndre Ayton talking about not having the ball enough. There’s a lot of noise around this team right now,” he added.
It’s indeed a bad look for the league’s most popular team. If the famed organization allows this, what does that say about their executives? Fortunately, the Lakers are winning, but Malone brought up how they haven’t really beaten any notable teams.
“They’re playing better. LeBron and Luka, at least it looks like they are playing better together, but can they beat a team that’s over 500?” asked Malone.
The league has a funny way of exposing teams that let small issues linger, especially as the schedule tightens. If this group truly wants to be taken seriously as a contender, the talking needs to cool down, and the focus has to shift back to the floor.
Beating good teams, not just stacking wins, will determine whether this noise is simply background chatter or a real problem. And Wednesday night will be a good test.
The Lakers will have to deal with Victor Wembanyama and a red-hot San Antonio Spurs side. Can they survive the onslaught of Wemby, Castle, Harper, and Fox? If they do, it would suggest that the Lakers’ dysfunction can still coexist with success. If not, there will be more soul-searching to do, and perhaps a few more complaints aired through the media.
