With 25 games remaining in a season, a lot of great teams will have figured out who they are by now. At the very least, they would be turning the corner on the type of unit they expect to be ahead of the NBA Playoffs. The Los Angeles Lakers are not there yet and JJ Redick pulled no punches reminding everyone of that.
"We're a work in progress," Redick told a reporter in a response to the overall assessment of the guys after a 4-4 homestand.
That's definitely not the sentiment you want to be hearing from your head coach at this stage of the season, but unfortunately for the Lakers, that is their current reality. The team is finally getting healthy, the opportunity to figure out the rotation and personnel has only arrived, plus concerns on both ends of the basketball court still exist in abundance.
In some ways, the Lakers should feel rather pleased with being 11 games above .500, given everything they have been forced to navigate up until now. However, this is the point of the campaign where they will be asked to turn the corner.
Redick needs to take the 'work in progress' and finalize what the Lakers will be
The ultimate excuse for the Lakers this season has been health. To some extent, it is a fair one.
LeBron James has pointed out in the past just how difficult it has been to figure out how the Lakers can optimally function as a unit when the guys beside you are not consistently present. It makes it tough to build chemistry. The sense of familiarity is not quite there.
Granted, this is a roster that features a lot of the same players from recent seasons. That should offer some relief to the aforementioned aspect. Alas, things are never quite that simple.
New roles, new schemes, new rotations — it all adds up pretty quickly. Players are constantly being asked to adjust and evolve. Having the extra setback of navigating inconsistent lineups and combinations does not help anyone.
The 4-4 record during the homestand captures pretty adequately just how much work there is left to be done. During that stretch, the Lakers have been as underwhelming as the win-loss column would suggest. They are 20th in offensive rating (111.1), defensive rating (114.9), and net rating (-3.8).
Expectations in Los Angeles are becoming milder by the day. Redick will be asked to properly pinpoint the biggest areas for improvement and how to solve them, building a foundation for success down the stretch of the season in the process. If that does not come, their postseason will be a short one once more.