Bill Simmons Calls Out JJ Redick And Lakers' Amidst Struggles

The Los Angeles Lakers are on pace for a mid-50s win total, but Bill Simmons believes they are winning in spite of themselves, not because the locker room is well put together. In fact, Simmons thinks the culture is dramatically fractured.

Simmons claimed that head coach JJ Redick looked like he wanted a drink on the sidelines during games. Among the reasons why, the Lakers' defense was pointed at as the primary problem. Simmons predicted a first-round elimination for Los Angeles against any opponent.

"This is not a 22-11 team. I don't think they're a 22-11 team. JJ Redick seems like he's ready to start drinking on the sidelines during these games. The vibes are just very strange," Simmons said on his podcast.

"Their last 15 games, they're -4.9 offensive rating, which is fifth worst in the league/ The teams behind them are Sacramento, Indiana, Utah, and Washington. Think about that. New Orleans has a better net rating than them. Defensively, they are 29th in the last 15 games. You're losing any playoff round you play with how bad they are on defense. And they don't seem really happy either."

LeBron James and Luka Doncic's Fracture Destroying Lakers

ESPN's Ramona Shelburne and Brian Windhorst blew the lid off the biggest story in basketball when they revealed the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis swap was the impetus for a "delicate" Luka-to-LeBron James transition.

As they shared, the team was sending a clear message to LeBron this past offseason that he is no longer the Lakers' power broker. It's Luka's team, now.

"The purpose of the meeting was as clear as their choice of door: Doncic is the face of the franchise now, and the Lakers wanted him -- and everyone else -- to know it," Shelbourne and Windhorst wrote.

"Over a bottle of Opus One, Pelinka and Redick explained not only their strategy in building the team around Doncic's skill set, sources told ESPN, but also the complexities of the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement and how they planned to navigate them."

With such a drastic pivot from James to a player who has many of his same skills but is a completely different player to build a culture around, Redick was always going to deal with headaches. James has been said to be the most powerful man in the sport, holding an unofficial title that supersedes even the NBA Players Association's President.

Replacing him was never going to be easy. As Simmons, and many other non-Boston Celtics fanalysts are noticing, it looks quite stressful for Redick to navigate.