JJ Redick: Too often guys don’t wanna make the choice, and it’s pretty consistent who those guys are. Saturday’s practice is gonna be uncomfortable.. I’m not doing another 53 games like this”
The vibes in that locker room are disastrous
Idk what else he has left to try at this point. It’s a roster loaded with guys who don’t want to try on defense or just aren’t good enough at max effort. They are going to get sliced by every decent offense. It isn’t going to get better. No coach can fix it. The heart of the issue is the personnel
It’s not about them being bad defenders, its about them not trying.
If I’m a coach, I understand my team doesn’t have great defenders and probably never is going to be a top 10 defense, all you can ask for is EFFORT. Most of the team isn’t even trying.
It’s inexcusable. I guarantee if they put 100% effort on defense, they can be league average at least. In clutch games their defensive rating is good, which shows us that in a super tight game with 5 mins left, they can play d… the fact that they arent playing for 43 minutes is just effort.
This is absolutely true but also not going to happen. The starting lineup includes Luka, Rui, and Ayton —- three guys who have never made a defensive effort — and a 41 year old. Where is the effort going to come from?
Finding one defensive minded player does a lot for a rotation. I don’t know who that is, but you got to find someone with that dog in them.
Like Marcus Smart?
Ok maybe you need two
Like Jarred Vanderbilt?
Ok fine maybe you need three. I’m a Spurs fan trying to help the Lakers, I’m not really sure what to do here.
Thanks for trying 👍
This is more on Pelinka. Dude needs to get more 2 way players.
Don’t help. They don’t need it.
They’re the Lakers, theyll somehow end up with two hall of fame defenders by next season.
People hate on him but Rudy is 100% the reason we went from no defense to a pretty good one
That dude has more than one dog in him, which has to be painful because I assume a human body only has extra room for one dog at max.
He’s got that dogs in him
How good is reaves?
Reaves trying his best on defense might be worse than Lebron not trying. So I hope that answers it for you.
Reaves is an average defender on his best days
Ass
Just look at Denver. They ass on defense but I wouldn’t say they don’t try.
oh we definitely have our days
We also have better defenders. Swatson, AG, Bruce and Braun are all good, Jamal is ok, jokic is ok if not in foul trouble, and everyone else is mediocre or bad. That’s a pretty average defense
swatson is a nice name lol
The problem is he hasn’t tried new things at all lol, the team is garbage depth wise but you can’t just trot out the same starting lineup expecting a change when it’s not working. There is no logic behind starting rui and Lebron together when your back court is bad defensively, took him long enough but rui probably gets benched next game
Uhm look at that bench. There is not much to try. This roster is a play in team simply thanks to Luka and (if he wants to try) LeBron. Reaves cool yes, but besides of those 3 the team is absolute garbage. Ayton turned into late Suns Ayton too now.
Lakers fans don’t want to admit it but Reaves needs to be traded while he’s still hot. He will fetch solid assets with his contract and get rotational players, he’s a terrible fit with Luka and Rui can’t be a starter. Reaves has to go if Lakers want to contend this season.
AR wants to be a Laker and will take a discount (he said it himself) to stay. That’s a massive asset in the 2nd apron era, salary cap space is as good as gold when you’re trying to build a team that can compete with OKC.
Lakers are unlikely to beat OKC in a 7 game series regardless, so they need to think about the future and not just this season.
It’s really the only choice. You trade up with reaves and then LeBron leaves and you put all your resources building around Luka.
jj redick going to chatgpt to fix morale
As is expected from a duke grad smh
I found it very interesting in the first quarter, after the Rockets hit a backdoor lob to Thompson, that Luka immediately looked to JJ (he rotated late) and seemed to be lobbying him about something. It was kinda the same vibe he gives off when he tries to act like he’s not guilty about something to the refs that I’ve seen him do before. On the play, Lebron helped off his man to stop the drive and Luka didn’t cover for LeBron.
We all know his defense is suspect, but I’m curious if it gets to a point where JJ starts naming names because Luka was awful to start.
What could he possibly be lobbying for at that point?
“I barely play defense, I don’t want to play any defense at all.”
This guy needs more leadership coaching.
They were just the highest in the league a couple weeks ago lol
Maybe having the mouthpiece of LeBron go on a podcast and start shitting on Reaves wasn’t great for chemistry after all 🤔
I missed most of the game, who’s he talking about?
Rui for sure.
I’d probably say LeBron, his effort was poor on both ends today. I think he’s coasting this season and not serious about contending.
To be fair to Bron, he recently had to be the number one option again for a few games with AR and Luka out, and I’m not quite sure his conditioning is back enough yet to be able to sustain that for a long stretch of games. But he was one of very few bright lights during those games, so I’d cut him some slack.
Rui though, I don’t know what’s going on with him. I feel like he started the year off really well, was being more aggressive at getting to the mid range and shooting over people with his size, but it feels like lately he’s just been standing in the corner again not doing much. He’s really more of a bench player that you pull out when you need some offensive juice, we need a more defensive guy to take his place if he’s not gonna be a huge plus for the offense.
The thing with lebron is simply he is old. He can give effort but if nobody else is doing it him doing it would only make it harder on his body while not accomplishing anything. So he is just going to coast as well. That and the conditioning like you said. Bron has been one of our better defenders so far so like you said I don’t think he is talking about lebron.
Sounds exactly like the stuff Messi fans used to post as he started to age.
-Messi fan
LeBron was the oldest player in the league last year. Now he’s one year older.
It’s just time catching up.
Rui is very wealthy. These guys get paid so much money. I don’t think they care much.
When Zach lavine is literally telling a fan that he’s not paid to play defense, it’s very clear that these guys don’t give a shit
I mean the owners are just giving out $100 million contracts like candy, idk if I would care either
Should be the opposite. You get paid so much that you feel an obligation to try.
I’m a bartender at a hotel and our liquor is crazy overpriced and I feel an obligation to make a good cocktail because people are spending $11 for a shot of Tito’s lol. If I can feel that moral obligation then these dudes should feel it too
I think the difference is job security. If I suck at my job, I just get fired and then I’m fucked, so I do my job well even when I don’t want to. If NBA players suck at their job, they still get paid out the duration of their contract and most will likely still be able to get another contract that pays life changing money. Doesn’t surprise me that some guys just don’t have that motivation.
I think it shouldn’t be Lebron, that’s the limitations of playing him at 40 and JJ should know you have to account for his age and lack of production in certain areas. He’s been coasting on defense the past few seasons. He doesn’t close out, he doesn’t rotate, he doesn’t rush back on defense, he gets beat easily off dribble. He reserves all his energy on offense and even then settles a lot on jumpers. He’s 40, and that’s drawback playing him. Occasionally he might get a chase down block or a dunk and all his fanboys are posting about “he’s doing this at 40, still one of the best defensive players!” But that’s expected.
*41 in a few days
He probably made this decision once he wasn’t offered an extension. Everything around LeBron has been weird this season. Not listening to the coach, Rich Paul podcast, not playing with any effort, vibes around the team are bad since he came back
Yep I think LeBron is mailing it in and soft quitting because he didn’t get his contract extension which would of atleast made him the highest earner ever but he didn’t get it and KD has that honor now. LeBron-Pelinka Cold War
Ayton possibly Bron
I don’t think it’s Ayton. JJ has been speaking highly of him all season and this was probably his first noticeably bad game tonight.
Ayton is far from the problem.
Kleber and LaRavia are scared to take open 3s.
Rui plays like he’s 6’2.
Vando is the worst offensive player in the league. Man takes 2 years to load up a spot up three to shoot like 13%.
Redick is definitely talking about more than 1 guy.
Lebron not getting back on defense, not boxing out. Complaining to refs.
LeBron wasn’t doing much of anything until we were down 23 and he was like “let me look like im trying real hard to get us back in the game for 3 possessions”.
he even contested one shot!
That’s how I saw it. Make sure everybody knew it wasn’t his fault, then stomp off to the back as soon as the final buzzer goes off.
Lebron was always the best front runner
Ding ding ding 👃👈
Hate to say it, but this team wide lazy play started when he got back
Absolutely. Can’t wait until we can use the relief from his contract next season so we can build out a real team.
Not sure if you watched the last game, Vando was literally the best player on the team. He’s improved so much since he started getting minutes again.
He was so bad against the Suns, which was the Lakers last game before today. His offense was a disaster, which isn’t surprising, but it was his defense that shocked me. He got beat back door for layups, and got blown by on ball multiple times by guys like Booker and Gillespie, who aren’t exactly hyper athletes.
He’s had one good game all year and everyone is acting like he needs to get 15 minutes a game. He’s too inconsistent, they’re all inconsistent. It feels like we are sleep walking trying to get to the playoffs. We’ll see how this plays out
It’s the most typical fan complaint. Fans of teams that are good but not great will always INSIST that one random guy is the solution to a lot, when it’s just not the case.
I remember LAC fans insisting guys like Covington or Mann were the solution, when the reality is that if you’re relying on marginally better players to solve all your woes, you’re just not good enough.
Go play Vando more and his total lack of offense will have people pulling out their eyes insisting more Rui minutes are the solution. If both suck, people will insist Adou playing spot minutes will be the difference maker. Turns out, good but not great teams will struggle.
Kleber and LaRavia both have been terrible 3p shooters over their careers, so hoping they would magically start making them is beyond wishful thinking.
LaRavia has been far from terrible from 3 for his career. 2 years over 40% and high 30s with Sac.
But for real, how hell Ayton play 36 minutes and only have 2 rebounds.
Rui too 0-6 with no defense or rebounds as a 6’9 player in his prime is pathetic
He’s allergic to rebounding. It’s uncanny how slow he is to react to a ball coming off the rim.
Which explains his defense. Just ball watching.
100%. He’s got slow foot speed that’s compounded by slow reaction time. It looks like he’s not trying but tbh, I really think that’s all he’s got.
He will never talk shit about Bron and Luka even though they are a huge problem. If it’s directed at Aytan that’s fucked up. He’s been are most consistent guy all season he was due for a bad game.
I don’t think JJ is a pussy. He’ll get on LeBron or Luka I bet. I hope. Lebron is probably gone in 4 months anyways. They’ll be friends even if he gets on his ass. Like a mean teacher who pushes you to be better. You thank them later on! Lol
That might hurt their podcasting careers
That usually works if the teacher is much more senior, wiser and better at their field than the students.
Looks more like Rui
You’re an idiot if you don’t think this is directed at Rui, and frankly Luka as well
Luka can only play 1 way. Luka ball
He’s horrendous off ball, and lazy.
Do you think it’s conditioning issue, or is he just being lazy?
I don’t have the luxury (time) to watch other teams’ games so it’s a genuine question.
It’s both. He’s gotten heavier through the year and is packing on some weight compared to “slim Luka” that everyone was talking about
Also he simply doesn’t value that end of the court.
I miss Luka but I sure don’t miss these conversations lol
Maybe stop starting Rui who’s 0-6 with no defense ?
Rui is so hot & cold. He has those games where you’re reminded he was the number 1 option of his own team before LA, and then he has these other games where you’re reminded it was the Wizards.
When was he ever the number 1 option on the wiz?
Right lmao
When Beal is sitting? I kid.
But am I?
Your actually right. He wasnt an outright #1 option though because we legitly had nobody. It was a very brief stint. Eventually rui had a groin injury and derailed his career with us. Then Deni took his minutes and position.
At no point was he the number 1 option of the wizards. That was always Beal. I know people don’t watch the wizards but we don’t need to make shit up.
So who was for the other 40 games a season?
There was only one season where both Rui was on the team and Beal had real time missed, and it was the season Rui got traded
He was never the 1st option on the wizards though?
You mean wizards role player and third fiddle Rui? The NBA media revisionist history on players that wind up on the lakers is ridiculous. See it this year with Ayton as well. These guys have shown who they are
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The Lakers have had the same issue in the LeBron era. They don’t have enough guys who can offer you something on both ends of the floor. The coach has to read the game every night and try to fit a Rui, Vando, etc into the game. It’s an impossible task. They desperately need a starting level 2 way wing.
Exactly pelinka hasn’t done anything to fix the same issues with the team for years. Just lucks into star players. Should have been fired after trading for Westbrook.
Let’s be real the Luka heist covers up all those sins
Pelinka isn’t interested in making this team better. Why try and compete with this roster? You are handicapped by Lebron. He acquired Luka and is happy to coast until he can clear the books and go wild in the 2027 offseason and try and build a team around Luka, who will still only be 28 by then and have 5 years of competing in him.
The Luka trade wasn’t a win-now trade.
a lot of lakers fans have differing opinions
It’s almost as if a team with Luka as the best player is not the same as having AD as the best player
You might not believe me but in February of this year, the lakers actually traded Anthony Davis, a 5x all-defensive player, for Luka Doncic, a cone
maybe just maybe this led to people changing their minds
Stay tuned! Saturday you’ll be able to hear JJ yelling during practice from anywhere in LA County.
I would pay more to be at that practice than at their next 3 games combined. Would be cool
I always wonder with coaches like JJ (that already yell a ton) how they will be able give the team a good kick in the ass to get going that doesn’t just involve more yelling
as a former college linebacker who had a very .. uhh, vocal coaching staff, and also being in the army, I can say that the most effective thing for the “yelling” types of leaders/authority figures is when they go quiet/stoic when you’re expecting them to yell more. Just switching up the delivery to being extremely calm and matter-of-fact was usually enough to make everyone realize shit was hitting the fan.
he might threaten them to bench them forever and tank their value… considering that most of the roster is a FA this summer.
Dude looks like he’s about to snap any minute now
What living long term at the Four Seasons does to a mf. Pretty sure he still doesn’t have a home lined up.
which would be odd because he was renting the home that burned down
Zero chance someone as wealthy and with as much status as him doesnt have a house or a realtor able to rent him a property
Yall understand there’s like a four seasons residences part that’s separate from the hotel?? I’m sure people rent out those units, it’s not a daily hotel fee/rate if I’m not mistaken.
The way you kids turn on people 😂
More than a month ago everybody was like - the vibes were immaculate, JJ is the second coming, Lakers are gonna be the champions. How quickly this subs flipflops on reactionary takes is hilarious.
I mean it’s a huge fucking sub, the haters just got a platform for a night.
Yeah, it’s reasonable to believe that each night in a thread of thousands on a sub of millions, that we’re seeing completely different groups. One group that is excited, but doesn’t go on a thread about the Lakers doing badly. And another group that are upset, that come to negative threads to commiserate. People act like it’s a small group of fans that keep flip flopping lol
I really wish people understood this about reddit and not just on sports subs.
What if I told you the exact same thing happened last year… JJ being crowned the savior from Darvin Hammas and all was surely fixed in the first couple weeks of the season. Time is a flat circle. Somehow Pelinka escapes all blame for the horrific roster construction through it all (more blame going to LeGM) and Nico bailed him out big time with the Luka trade.
It’s unreal
It would take prime Phil Jackson to fix this mess. . Nothing JJ can do when your 3 best players are also the 3 worst defenders in the league LOL
Phil would have had LeBron traded in the summer lol. This year is cooked
Phil coach, or Phil the GM? Coz that is 2 vastly different resumes.
Lamar Odom on crack???!!
Yeah, with that no trade clause and LeBron not wanting to leave his family? This imaginary Phil is quite impressive
never let reality get in the way of a good story
Trae Young isn’t on the Lakers
You are outta your mind if you think LeBron is one of the three worst defenders in the league. Even old AF and lost three steps he’s debatably the best defensive player on the team.
Yeah for like 2 plays lmao
Yup lol
The type of comment someone makes when the only basketball they watch are highlight reels.
When he decides to get back to actually play defense sure.
League cooked once JJ finds the right ChatGPT prompt to win basketball. Any day now.
Wish he could just say the name
Its Rui Hachimura. The guy Lakers fans think Miami will take in basically a straight swap for Andrew Wiggins.
How far we’ve come from “the Lakers figured something out by putting Rui on Jokic”
To be fair they did figure something out.
(how to get laker fans hopes up for the rest of that series)
Lakers still undefeated in moral victories
You have it wrong: he’s the guy we don’t want to trade for Wiggins and wouldn’t do a straight swap for.
We don’t want Wiggins unless it comes at no cost because we know he hasn’t been 2022 Andrew Wiggins at basically any other point of his career.
Every trade is going to come with a cost. Nico Harrison is not a gm anymore
What are you talking about? Aside from when Wiggins’s dad died, he has consistently been playing at the same level since he joined the Warriors (and now on the Heat, although he’s been struggling as of late, but so has the entire team). Last year in particular was an incredibly good year for him even before he got traded to Miami, he just ended up traded because his was the only contract that would make the money work.
Wiggins is an incredibly consistent 17 and good defense
You got Luka and AR in the starting lineup getting attacked on defense wcyd
I love how it’s just accepted that Luka is a turnstile on defense. The complete lack of effort is laughed off or excuse for …reasons.
I’m not saying it’s right, because it’s not, but there are certain guys in the league who just are what they are. Luka is a heavy usage, ball-dominant offensive star. He doesn’t give much effort on defense other than trying to generally be in the right spot. That’s not going to change after this many years. He doesn’t have the lateral footwork to be a “good” defensive player. Nobody thinks a noticeable increase in effort is going to significantly change his defensive game.
It just is what it is, and teams with Luka know this just as much as we do, so they need that defensive effort to just come from other guys in order to have a functional team defense with him on the floor.
Nico vindicated
Trade Luka to Mavs for AD and Max Christie
As a Mavs fan, accepted! We’re instantly title contenders.
Luka, Kyrie, Coop, PJ, Gaff. Let’s go, playoffs!
We have a similar issue with our starting lineup with KAT and Brunson, but we also have OG, Mikal, and Hart.
Spoiler: he will go another 53 games like this
bro said dont come to school tomorrow
Hey, you might not get 53 more games of this!
he just got a raise. he should want to get fired lol.
Don’t stick your career in lazy.
This is gonna end badly lol
Too many egos in 1 room. JJ better be careful not to turn on Luka.
Luka played in Europe. I’m pretty sure he can handle a pissed off coach.
Lmao he ran Carlisle out of town. A coaching legend who’s a top 5 coach in the league at worst.
That was for turning players against each other. If he’s calling everyone out equally it probably won’t be an issue.
if Luka can’t handle this then he’s never gonna win anything. He’s part of the issue and needs to start by being a leader and being part of the solution.
Luka might be the best offensive standalone player in the league but if you don’t surround him with 3 and D players this is what happens. Also Austin is like a charmamder Luka so it is redundant
I think Jokic is the best standalone offensive player. Then Shai at second. I know Luka was a monster in the beginning of the season but he isn’t the most efficient scorer and his misses almost always lead to easy offense. He’s also been on a rut playmaking side with high turnover rates recently although he did get back from injury, new baby.
Shai might be the second best scorer, but he can’t raise the floor of an entire offense. He’s not playmaking like Jokic, Luka and even Cade do.
I think he’s a Charmeleon tbf.
Like he can tell anything to LeBron
I’m not even sure he could tell anything to Bronny lol
LeBron isn’t one of the guys he’s talking about here.
He should be talking about LeBron because the effort is not consistent from him
Luka does this times 100 lol
LeBrons one of the best defenders on this team lmao
He’s not talking about LeBron. Please watch a game
Yea he is not going to last in this current league. How many times is he going to get mad at the team before it leads to losing the locker room if he hasn’t already
I feel like the problem with the Lakers is not the head coach. Roster has lots of talent but they don’t fit well together.
No I don’t think he’s the problem, but continuously having to call them out can lead to him losing the locker room.
the problem is hes a “players coach” but also needs to balance being stern with them
I got to watch them live recently. JJ would go out of his way to talk to each and every player coming on or off the court. If a rotation was missed he’d turn red and yell, then get back and pep them up. At this point, the onus is on the players actually taking him seriously
Honestly lakers are the perfect example of the coach caring more than the players, absolutely insane to see that at the professional level
Oh shit
You love to see it lol
I thought the vibes were immaculate
Seniority comes first
JJ’s refusal to play Bronny 40 minutes a game will get him shitcanned
It’s a good thing they hired an experienced coach to weather this storm.
This is exactly how I thought Jason Kidd’s tenure in Dallas would turn out
JJ Redick is Darvin Ham without the pockets
Quit disrespecting Mr NBA Cup!
Salute
How so exactly? Also, who do you think JJ is talking about exactly?
Btw, i hate Lakers
Yea hes gonna be podcasting again by april.
I enjoyed his podcast. I wouldn’t be sad about that.
Jj gotta learn how to coach. He’s not gonna last long constantly calling these guys out in public like this.
Always loved and respected my bosses who dogged on people in public.
Nico is somewhere sipping on some wine with his pinky up
he turned a team that was completely Luka-centric that made the finals into a lottery team, so no, he can never look good as the mastermind behind the trade
This team is pretty much in purgatory until LeBron retires or leaves. They can’t build around the future (Luka) while he’s still there
This guy is such a performative blowhard
What the fuck are you guys even saying at this point? He’s mad at his team and showing it. “Performative blowhard” is ridiculous lmao
this screams ayton is about to quit on this team permanently. That guy will not handle criticism at all. the guy is SOFT and has to be coddled.
Lakers fans about to get the full ayton experience
Can I interest you in a 6’ 10” big who plays defense and rebounds (when he’s available) in exchange for a certain Slovenian? I’ll even throw in Max Christie and a first round pick
JJ is gonna find out that you can’t go all 1990s coach on 2020s players because you’ll lose the locker room.
Ehhh he will just bench someone. I feel he has showed his hand and yelled too much for it to impact them. It’s just another day. Im starting to question his rotations and decisions lately as well. I hope he makes himself uncomfortable too.
Starts with bron. Nobody wants to say it. Been taking trips off for 5 years.
Luka might be the laziest superstar we’ve ever seen defensively. Rather complain than come back in defense!