The Los Angeles Lakers have dropped four of their last five games to see their record fall to 4-4 in the new year. After a promising 3-0 beginning to the season, Los Angeles has fallen flat on their road trip.

They lost to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night, without the services of star Anthony Davis or Rui Hachimura. But one of the stories within the game was the lack of playing time for point guard D’Angelo Russell.

Russell had played semi-poorly to start the season and he saw seen few minutes against the Grizzlies, Against the Detroit Pistons, he played 33 minutes, and against the Toronto Raptors, he saw 32 minutes of game action.

But against the Grizzlies, with Los Angeles missing multiple players, he only saw the court for 22 minutes. This includes six minutes of Russell being out on the court in the second half of the game.

Head coach JJ Redick was asked about this after the game and he delivered a clear message about his reasoning.

“Just level of compete, attention to detail, some of the things we’ve talked with him about for a couple of weeks,” Redick said when asked why he limited Russell’s role in Memphis. “And at times, he’s been really good with that stuff. And other times, it’s just reverting back to certain habits. But it wasn’t like a punishment. It just felt for us to have a chance to win this game, that was the route we wanted to take.”

Russell has had a strange time with the Lakers as he has been in trade rumors consistently. Los Angeles is expected to once again try to move him at the trade deadline this year since he is on an expiring contract.

While Russell does give the Lakers another primary ball-handler on offense, he has seemed to shrink when the lights get brightest. It has caused all sorts of issues for this team and his defensive abilities also cause different issues for the team.

This year, Russell is averaging just 12.0 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game. But one of the biggest problems has been his 3-point shooting as he is only averaging 29.2 percent from beyond the arch.

If Russell can’t turn things around, his days will be numbered on the court. Los Angeles will likely try to trade him but he could improve his trade stock by performing better throughout the season.