JJ Redick torched Lakers' players after Christmas loss, but the real blame lies with the GM who acquired them

JJ Redick's frustrations with his Los Angeles Lakers team have been evident for some time now. You see it in some of his angry timeouts, in the shots some of his players take and the defensive miscues many of them make. The Lakers have stayed near the top of the Western Conference largely because of their stellar work in close games, winning all 10 of their games that have reached clutch time. That was never sustainable. Whenever they encounter a team that's bigger and more athletic than they are, their flaws are laid bare for the whole world to see.

That's what happened on Christmas, when the Lakers were blown out and bullied by the Houston Rockets. Just as they were by the San Antonio Spurs in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup, the slower Lakers were exposed on a marquee stage. And Redick has had enough of it.

"We don't care enough right now," Redick said. "And that's the part that bothers you a lot. We don't care enough to do the things that are necessary. We don't care enough to be a professional." He went on to blast his team's "effort and execution," and he promised that the team would have an "uncomfortable" practice on Saturday, ahead of their game against the Sacramento Kings.

Maybe there's a short-term burst coming, but the notion that effort is a choice in the modern NBA is pretty outdated. In today's ultra-fast, ultra-deep league, it's a skill, and it was one that quietly carried the Lakers through long stretches of the regular season last year. Remember the banshees, Redick's term for his energetic role players? Well, Jarred Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent have been nonfactors offensively, making them tough to play consistently. Dorian Finney-Smith, acquired last December, is gone now. He signed with Houston for the mid-level exception. Given his age and the injury he was dealing with, that might have been a defensible loss for the Lakers at the price Houston paid.

But why on Earth is Jordan Goodwin thriving on Phoenix's bench instead of their own right now? Goodwin was an essential reserve last season. The Lakers waived him to make room under their first-apron hard cap for Marcus Smart. They could have attempted to use draft capital or cash to clear any of a number of less valuable players off of their roster to accommodate Goodwin, with Bronny James being the most notable. Instead, they let go of a younger, healthier player to add an older, injury-prone one. Smart has been effective when he's played, but health has predictably been an issue.

There was never much of a question that the Lakers would prioritize someone like Smart over someone like Goodwin. Smart is a name brand, a Defensive Player of the Year with high-level playoff experience. The Lakers have a habit of prioritizing such players. Deandre Ayton was their most notable example of that this offseason. Rob Pelinka loves his former high draft picks. 

Since the disastrous Russell Westbrook trade cost the Lakers most of their depth, he's been trying to replace it with down-on-their-luck lottery picks. In the five seasons since that deal, they've acquired 10 former first-round picks with five or fewer years of experience as buy-low swings: Malik Monk, Lonnie Walker, Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura, Mo Bamba, Jaxson Hayes, Cam Reddish and now, Ayton, Nick Smith and Jake LaRavia. Meanwhile, smart teams are consistently plucking high-energy former second-round picks and undrafted free agents off of the Lakers and watching them blossom into exactly the sort of players the Lakers need right now. Goodwin in Phoenix. Scotty Pippen Jr. in Memphis. Jay Huff in Indiana. And, most notably, Alex Caruso in Chicago and Oklahoma City.

Ayton is a good player. Hachimura is a good player. Neither of them have ever been high-effort players, and that's frankly because the Lakers have never really valued high-effort players. The scouting department finds gems for them on the margin, but Pelinka would rather have skill and draft pedigree, which is valuable in context, but exactly what isn't needed on a team led by Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and a 41-year-old LeBron James. And nearly a year after getting Dončić and changing the course of their franchise for the next 5-10 years, he still seemingly hasn't adjusted to his franchise player's needs. Or his coach's for that matter.

Fans have had all sorts of complaints for Redick lately. They think Hachimura should come off the bench. They think Vincent shouldn't play at all and that two-way guard Nick Smith has to play more. There are grains of truth in these complaints. It's possible that the Lakers haven't fully optimized their rotation yet. But at a certain point, you're just shuffling deck chairs. Redick can potentially make lemonade out of these lemons, but he can't make the champagne these fans expect every June. He just doesn't have the ingredients.

We've been having versions of these same conversations for years now, and at a certain point, attention needs to turn to the person shopping for the groceries. The Lakers have a new owner in Mark Walter whose track record with the Dodgers suggests he has nearly limitless resources to spend in building a first-class organization. When he took over the Dodgers, he quickly replaced incumbent general manager Ned Colleti with Andrew Friedman and has won three World Series since.

Pelinka is now in Colleti's position. His coach is stating outright that this team needs energy and effort. The league as a whole is shifting toward energy and effort. When the Lakers lose on big stages, it's usually to teams that play with, you guessed it, energy and effort. The trade deadline is a bit more than a month away. If this team is going to have any hope of genuinely contending for a championship, it will have to add energy and effort. If they can't do that, well, it would be hard to justify keeping the general manager who's spent the past half-decade or so ignoring it almost completely.