JJ Redick makes sobering admission about Lakers’ concerning issue

The Lakers are in the middle of a slump, and JJ Redick is scrounging the bottom of the barrel for answers.

JJ Redick began his coaching stint with the Los Angeles Lakers in dream land; the Lakers won his first four games in charge, and even though there was going to be a drop-off sooner than later, it looked as though Redick had righted the ship for the Purple and Gold — elevating the team built around LeBron James and Anthony Davis even though they didn’t change much in the way of personnel. However, Redick is beginning to understand the difficulties ingrained within the Lakers job especially after their lifeless performance on Monday night in a 109-80 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

One of the main selling points of Redick’s coaching style was that the Lakers were moving into more of a free-flowing style of offense, but all of that was lost as they mustered all of 80 points against the Timberwolves — with James and Davis combining for just 22 points on a putrid 8-30 from the field.

Now, the Lakers head coach is realizing that their derelict performance in their 127-102 defeat to the Denver Nuggets back in November 23 may not be an outlier after all.

“It’s looking more and more like it’s not an aberration,” Redick said of the Lakers’ struggles, per Jovan Buha of The Athletic.

LeBron James’ decline is the Lakers’ worst-case scenario

It feels downright blasphemous to say that LeBron James is in the middle of a steep decline. He has been so good for so long that it’s hard to fathom living in a reality where James is no longer the dominant basketball player he’s always been. But we might be there at that point, and the Lakers cannot afford for James to struggle the way he has as of late.

James barely made it to 10 points on the night, and this might have been the worst professional game of his career apart from his disastrous eight-point performance in the 2011 NBA Finals. The Lakers are in grave danger of missing the playoffs if James’ decline persists.

What made the Lakers a dark-horse contending threat heading into the season was the fact that both James and Anthony Davis have proven in the past that they can lead the team to great heights. But the Lakers simply cannot afford to have both their stars struggle on the same night, especially when one of their best offensive weapons, Austin Reaves, was out due to an injury.

The good news for the Lakers is that perhaps they can explain their struggles away due to the tough schedule they’ve had as of late, playing five games in seven nights. And for a team led by literally the oldest active player in the NBA, that could spell disaster, and spell disaster it did on Monday night.