The Los Angeles Lakers have already seen some major benefits from having JJ Redick as their new head coach. They are 10-6 through 16 games, better than they have been in each of the last few seasons to this point, and they have the fourth-best offense in basketball via offensive rating.
But where they have really struggled is on defense. Saturday night’s collapse loss to the Denver Nuggets highlighted what was already known as an issue, which is that the Lakers are not good defensively. Prior to games beginning on Sunday, L.A. ranked 27th in the NBA in defensive rating.