Rashad McCants wants the Los Angeles Lakers to find LeBron James another scorer or two for JJ Redick’s plan to succeed.
Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and new head coach JJ Redick
The Los Angeles Lakers currently sit second in the Western Conference and are also the fourth best team in the league. A scenario that has not happened for the franchise in a long time. Credit to it is with the way LeBron James and his teammates have implemented the game plan of new head coach JJ Redick.
The one loss so far brought in questions regarding missed foul calls. Had they been accurately called, the franchise could have been sitting with an unbeaten run. JJ Redick did not even talk about the calls, instead blamed himself for not switching things up when the Phoenix Suns were on a hot scoring streak.
That could mean that coaching alone is about to unlock a team that couldn’t sign a player in the offseason. But as this is very early in an 82-game marathon of a season, some are cautious. Those some included Rashad McCants who had this to say while on the Gil’s Arena podcast.
They don’t got a bench to sustain it, so it’s gonna look good early. My problem is, if they don’t bring nobody in to sustain in, it’s gonna crumble, late. But it’s going to look good the whole way there. Cause there’s not nobody can do with that, guarding that type of action. They don’t got no defense for that.
Rashad McCants on the Gil’s Arena podcast
The Lakers are off to a hot start but got issues on the horizon 👀 pic.twitter.com/wRXJaVSwT3
— Gilbert Arenas (@GilsArenaShow) October 29, 2024
The rest of the podcast panel echoed McCants’ point. They felt that the lack of bench production could be the undoing of all the good happening with the team. The Lakers currently do not have more than two role players who can consistently score 10-plus points per game.
JJ Redick’s game planning has LeBron James and teammates floating through games
Keeping the bench problems aside, one of the major standout points from these first four games has been game management. JJ Redick has masterfully schemed their offense and defense to such a degree that players are literally floating around on the court.
What it means is that gone are the days when LeBron James and Anthony Davis would take on opponents one-on-one and the rest would just stand around. Now everyone is constantly moving to create the best opening.
It does not matter who ends up with the opening, all they have to do is score. If not, on the next sequence it lands again in that player’s hands, and they pass it to their best scorer. That was evident from King James’ outburst towards Rui Hachimura.
As Rashad McCants mentioned, there is no defense that can stop this form of basketball if it is executed perfectly. But for perfection to last the entire game, they need at least one more solid player. Solve that, and it is likely that the Los Angeles Lakers could surprise many.
