Lakers’ defensive struggles are putting blame in the wrong place

The Los Angeles Lakers look and feel a lot less competitive than their 22-11 record and third-place standing in the Western Conference would indicate. The Lakers don't have anything remotely close to a championship defense.

LA's offensive firepower can mask this at times. But when the Lakers lose, all the wheels fall off in a way that's alarming.

As Lakers observers brainstorm solutions to the defensive woes, they're pointing fingers at Rob Pelinka on charges of poor roster construction. While Pelinka has his flaws, he's actually not the guy to blame for LA's sad defense. That fault lies for more with head coach JJ Redick.

Lakers fans should ask themselves if JJ Redick is doing his job before coming for Rob Pelinka

Former NBA wing Chandler Parsons was discussing the Lakers' poor defense on Run It Back. He threw some shade at Pelinka and LA's front office.

"Luka [Doncic] & Austin Reaves aren't the best defenders in the world," Parsons said. "You have to surround them with elite defenders. You think they'd know that going into the season."

But Parsons was missing the primary issue. He acknowledged that Marcus Smart and Jarred Vanderbilt need more minutes, and this should have been Parsons' thesis instead of the Pelinka critique.

Redick isn't doing his job to maximize the defensive tools at his disposal. It's unfair to blame Pelinka until that starts happening.

To say that the Lakers lack defensive personnel is not only a weird dig at Pelinka; it's a shot at Smart and Vanderbilt. Smart is a former Defensive Player of the Year.

At 31 years old with a ton of miles on him, Smart is no longer the top-five-type defender that he once was, but he's still a very good defensive player that any team would love to have in their rotation. Then there's Vanderbilt, who is one of the most versatile defenders in the NBA when healthy.

Pelinka went out and acquired Smart this past offseason for a reason. He saw that the Lakers needed to improve defensively at the point of attack, and he did something about it.

Could the Lakers be younger and more athletic defensively? Sure. But unless you're arguing that Pelinka should move on from LeBron or Reaves, complaining about the team's defensive personnel doesn't make a ton of sense.

Rui Hachimura isn't a slouch defensively, and the Deandre Ayton/Jaxson Hayes big man corps offers decent enough rim protection. There are enough pieces there to be at least average defensively.

The Lakers' defensive issues are more cultural and attitude-based than personnel based. They are effort-based. That's a Redick problem, not a Pelinka problem. Redick doesn't have his guys ready to compete defensively every night. They aren't always motivated.

If Redick needs to boost Smart and Vanderbilt's minutes, so be it. If he needs to sit down and talk to Luka about effort, so be it. There's a ton of room for improvement for the Lakers defense that has nothing to do with the trade market.