JJ Redick's Plan for LeBron James & Anthony Davis Reveals Lakers Incompetence

The Los Angeles Lakers are off to a good start to the 2024-25 season after defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves in the opener. Things move really fast in the NBA, so there isn't much time to celebrate the much-improved Lakers.

The grueling NBA schedule has already reared its head as the Lakers have their first back-to-back of the season. Los Angeles will host the Suns on Friday, followed by the Kings on Saturday.

Naturally, the biggest question leading up to these games is the availability of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. When asked about it, head coach JJ Redick said that there was no plan in place and they will play it by ear depending on how the two stars are feeling on Saturday morning.

Lakers News: JJ Redick Has No Plan For LeBron James & AD in Back-to-Backs

This is clearly a problem. When your two best players are a soon-to-be 40-year-old and an injury-prone seven-footer, there has to be a clearer load management plan.

Unfortunately, however, the Lakers don't have that luxury. The front office has failed to build a roster capable of surviving LeBron or Anthony Davis missing any time. In a competitive Western Conference, the Lakers simply can't afford to manage the load of their stars because of their insufficient depth.

This is especially the case for Anthony Davis. The only other healthy big man on the roster is Jaxson Hayes right now, and whether he is an NBA-caliber rotation player is debatable. The Lakers desperately need AD to play over 70 games again this season and if he doesn't, they will almost certainly be a disaster on the defensive end.

The Lakers can't be fooled by the strong start. If GM Rob Pelinka wants to make sure this is a competitive team, he needs to make sure there is enough quality beyond LeBron and AD so that they can take a night off. Whether this front office is capable of doing that, however, remains to be seen.

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