The Los Angeles Lakers are becoming the laughingstock of the NBA if they weren’t already. Despite having one of the best players in NBA history and another All-NBA player who many claimed was a top-five player two years ago, Los Angeles has started 0-4 on the season.
It hasn’t just been an 0-4 start where the team has gotten a bit unlikely and could have won any of the four games. It is an 0-4 start in which the Lakers were thoroughly outplayed in three of them, with Russell Westbrook losing the team the game against Portland.
Westbrook did not play on Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets so he could not be the scapegoat. Instead, another issue continued to plague the Lakers as the team continued its trek to be the worst three-point shooting team in the league. Los Angeles shot 26.7% from beyond the arc.
As a team, the Lakers are shooting a league-worst 22.3% from beyond the arc. It has gotten so bad that any help is viewed as a massive positive, including players who haven’t played basketball in 18 months. Former NBA sharpshooter JJ Redick was on the call for Wednesday’s game and during the broadcast, brought up how Darvin Ham jokingly tried signing him to a 10-day contract.
Lakers trying to lure JJ Redick from ESPN? pic.twitter.com/LCVTcSkFKe
— Brandon Contes (@BrandonContes) October 27, 2022
Obviously, Ham and the Lakers were joking about Redick signing a 10-day contract on a whim to play against Denver but the fact that this even feels like a real conversation is the sad part.
Ironically enough, JJ Redick would actually make the Lakers better.
It is not going to happen as Reddick is a retired man that is doing well for himself in the media after retiring. But even though he has not picked up a basketball in 18 months and is no longer in NBA shape, he would still be a huge add to this Lakers team.
You could pluck Redick out of the ESPN broadcast tomorrow, give him a Lakers jersey, and just tell him to stand in the corner and it would have a positive impact on the team. Because then the Lakers would at least have someone who other teams have to respect from beyond the arc.
Instead, teams are begging the Lakers to take more threes (and they are obliging) and it is having a compounding effect. Not only are the Lakers struggling to knock down these shots but the floor spacing is a mess, so LeBron James and Anthony Davis can’t even do what they do best near the rim.
There are only two players on the roster that are shooting above 30% on the season from three — Matt Ryan and Austin Reaves. Ryan and Reaves have attempted eight and 10 threes on the season, respectively. Max Christie is 1-1 on the season.
3 Lakers who simply have to play better (not named Russell Westbrook)
The Los Angeles Lakers need to get out of this 0-3 hole and if that is going to happen, these players need to step up and simply play better.
The next best is LeBron James, who is shooting 25.7% from three. You cannot tell me that JJ Redick wouldn’t actually improve that.