Lakers' JJ Redick Explains Why LA's Offense is Ranked 29th in Last Month

The Lakers have had some trouble on offense recently and JJ Redick explained why that has been the case.

Dec 23, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick watches game action against the Detroit Pistons during the first half at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Lakers don't have a particularly potent offense right now. They haven't been able to put together games where they have been scoring a bunch of points. A lot of their wins have been because of their defense. They have scored 116 points or more just once in the last seven games.

December has been brutal for them offensively. Prior to the last couple of games, their offense was 29th in the league for the last four weeks. It was a struggle for them to get the ball in the hoop with any consistency. For a team that was so good offensively in the first few weeks of the year, it is strange.

The Lakers need to get that fixed as the season gets closer to the playoffs. A move at the trade deadline could help with that, too, but coach JJ Redick has a bigger reason for the struggle on offense and it's a pretty simple reason. He doesn't think the team is shooting enough threes.

“The offensive end, I think is in some ways no different [than defensively] because it’s the same thing,” he said. “For the group, how do we create and generate good shots? I think it’s not one thing, it’s probably a few things. I would probably point immediately to our shot profile. Over the last 13 [games], we’re taking five more non-paint 2s – we’re shooting 39% on those.

“And for all the people that hate math, I shared this with the team this morning and I think it’s really interesting. We’re last, or second to last, in the last 13 [games] in our offense. Those five extra non-paint 2s, if we shot them at the same rate as Phoenix – who shoots 49% on non-paint 2s – our offense would go from 29th to 27th.”

Redick clearly thinks the team needs to launch more threes in a smart way. He doesn't think the team is generating enough wide-open threes. They also don't have many knockdown three-point shooters on the roster. Outside of Rui Hachimura, they don't have a single guy who shoots better than 37% from deep.

That makes it pretty important that the Lakers improve the roster at the trade deadline. Redick wants to generate more threes, but he also needs guys who can hit those threes. He doesn't have a lot of reliable guys from outside, which might be why they've taken more midrange shots instead.

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