J.J. Redick ’embarrassed’ after 41-point loss to Heat, but Lakers issues mostly about roster

First, the problem was Frank Vogel. Then it was Russell Westbrook. Then it was Darvin Ham.

Now the spotlight is on new coach J.J. Redick who understandably said, “I’m embarrassed. We’re all embarrassed” after the Lakers lost their last two games by a combined 70 points — the worst two-game stretch in franchise history — with the second of those games being a 41-point blowout loss to Miami Wednesday night.

It’s not just the last two games. The Lakers are 2-6 in their previous eight with a bottom-four offense and defense in the league in that stretch. LeBron James had been in a shooting slump but broke out of it against the Heat — 29 points on 12-of-18 shooting, and he hit his first 3-pointer in five games — however, Anthony Davis continues to struggle of late. AD has has averaged 18 points a game in his last seven (down from more than 33 points a game prior to that) and is shooting 15% from 3 over that stretch. All those numbers don’t even do the eye test justice — the Lakers’ stars and role players have looked unfocused, and the effort level has been low for a couple of weeks.

Coach J.J. Redick tried to take “ownership” of the issue with some honest comments after the latest loss. Here are his quotes, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

“We’re having trouble right now on both ends with, like, base-level game-plan stuff. It’s odd. It’s very odd…

“Has to be some ownership. You can splinter, and it’s easy to not want the ownership, particularly when it’s embarrassing. I’m embarrassed. We’re all embarrassed. It’s not a game that I thought we had the right fight, the right professionalism… There has to be some ownership on the court, and I’ll take all the ownership in the world.

It isn’t just Redick taking responsibility.

For my money, Redick has been an upgrade as a coach over Ham — he’s tried to move the Lakers away from LeBron (or Austin Reaves, or D’Angelo Russell) pounding the ball out top, hunting mismatches and playing a predictable brand of basketball. The ball has moved better and Davis has been put in better positions to succeed.

However, a chef is only as good as his ingredients — and the Lakers can be a brutal Chopped basket of a roster to fit together. This is what the Lakers are — an inconsistent team that can be good, but not great.

The Lakers were a 47-win team a season ago, but with the net rating of a 42-40 team, and that was a season LeBron and Davis missed just a combined 17 games for health reasons. While the Lakers did have health issues with role players a season ago, and Darvin Ham seemed intent on playing lineups that didn’t fit, the conceit that this team was just a better coach away from challenging the top of the West was flawed.

However, the Lakers acted on that premise. While they tried to lure Klay Thompson and other veterans, at the end of the day the only roster changes were veterans Spencer Dinwiddie and Taurean Prince going out and rookies Dalton Knecht and Bronny James coming in (and Bronny, for all his potential, was never going to help the team much this season). This remained a top-heavy roster that required LeBron and Davis to be All-NBA level players nightly to win at a high level. LeBron has done that for stretches, but he’s not the LeBron who wore a Heat jersey anymore, the guy who could just put a team on his back every night for 82 games and carry them if needed. He can do it for stretches now, but not consistently. If the vote were held today, LeBron very well might not make an All-NBA team for the first time since his rookie season — he’s still an All-Star level player, a very productive player by league standards, but his game is understandably not what it was at its peak.

The Lakers need at least a few things to make this roster work (and, ultimately, maybe more than a few): A more traditional big next to Davis to take some of the load off of him; a high-level 3&D wing (which they hoped Jared Vanderbilt would be, however he has not been healthy). They need more shooting and more guys who can do some secondary hot creation. Look at the league’s elite teams — Boston, Oklahoma City, Cleveland fits the mold — and everyone on the roster is a two-way player who can shoot it, create a little, and is at least a competent defender. The Lakers are a roster loaded with one-way role players.

There is no magic bullet, and with the team up against the first tax apron and limited draft capital to trade (first-round picks that are years out), Rob Pelinka’s options are limited as GM. Expect the Lakers to make some kind of deal at the deadline, it just may be on the margins. Pelinka will largely have to watch the roster he built this summer play out.

Reddick will get these Lakers to take ownership and perform better, and this spiral will eventually stop (maybe back in Los Angeles Sunday night against Portland). These Lakers are not as bad as they have looked in this 2-6 stretch. However, this stretch is a reminder of what these Lakers are, which is a good but inconsistent and flawed roster.

That reality just seems to be sinking in for some.