In basketball as it is in life, you can’t have it all. Despite how great a team may be, there’s no such thing as a perfect roster. Every team has a weakness. That is certainly the case with the Los Angeles Lakers as head coach JJ Redick recently blasted his guys for their defensive woes. However, NBA analyst Shannon Sharpe believes that may just be something Redick has to come to terms with.
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At one point in the season, the Lakers were 15-4. They were one of the best teams in the Western Conference, despite missing LeBron James for most of the season. And just 10 games later, the team is reeling at 19-10 with a 3-match skid to show for their efforts.
After their most recent loss against the Houston Rockets on Christmas Day, Redick seemingly had enough. The second-year coach chose to light his team up during his post-game press conference.
“We don’t care enough right now,” Redick said to the media. “And that’s the part that bothers you a lot … We don’t care enough to be a professional.” Redick looked visibly extremely agitated about his team’s effort on the defensive end. “It comes down to just making the choice. It’s making the choice,” he might as well have bellowed.
Shannon Sharpe claims to understand why Redick is upset and tried to explain the bitter truth about the team’s situation.
“We don’t need no defensive clarity, you don’t have anybody that can play defense other than Marcus Smart,” Sharpe said on Nightcap.
Sharpe proceeded to make a note of Lakers’ rotational players to further explain his point. “Luka can’t play defense. Austin Reaves can’t play defense. LeBron is at the age [where] he can’t play defense. You’ve got guys who aren’t defensive guys,” he added.
Doncic and Reaves shoulder such a large responsibility on offense, it’s unrealistic to ask them to give elite-level defense on the other end. It doesn’t help that LeBron, at 40 years old, is unable to be a lockdown defender.
The only two players with strong defensive upside are Smart and Jarred Vanderbilt. “You’ve got to understand what you have. You don’t have a defensive team,” Sharpe proclaimed.
The Lakers could solve their defensive problems with a high-octane offense. However, there are some issues in that regard as well since the team doesn’t quite have high-level talent outside of their big three. Sharpe doesn’t know where the production is going to come from if at least two of their top three players are off the court.
“When one of those guys, when two of those guys are off the court, then now what’s the role clarity? You’ve got guys that can’t do a whole lot,” Sharpe professed.
To make matters worse, Reaves will miss at least 4 weeks due to a calf injury. This stretch without their second-best player will really show the glaring holes in this roster, which will give the team the answers they need on what they’ll have to address at the trade deadline.
