The Los Angeles Lakers have been strong this season under second-year head coach JJ Redick, but recently suffered their first sequence of back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Clippers and Phoenix Suns on the road. Despite the team having several issues to address, it took nearly 30 games for their first back-to-back losses to come, as they sit at 19-9.

The Lakers can, of course, point to Luka Doncic, who played only one half over the last two games, but it shouldn't excuse them from losing to the Clippers. However, Redick understands that it goes beyond that, highlighting an area of weakness he's identified with the team.

After the loss to Phoenix, Redick highlighted decision-making as an area of weakness.

"It comes down to making the choice, it's making the choice. There's shortcuts you can take, or you can do the hard thing. You can make the second effort, you can sprint back, it's just a choice. There's a million choices in a game, and you're very likely not going to make every choice correctly. But, can you make the vast majority of them correctly?" Redick shared.

Looking at the Lakers' recent loss to the Suns, they had 17 turnovers, allowed 62 points in the paint, and conceded 24 points off those turnovers. Luka might not have been out there, and Austin Reaves was coming off the bench in his first game back, but it was almost a 30-point loss, so there's more than just two of their players missing being the problem.

Even though Luka and Reaves getting fully integrated back into the lineup should help the Lakers solve their problems, the reality is they'll struggle to compete with the top of the Western Conference if they can't add more quality around their stars. As seen recently, an injury to one or two of their stars can derail this team significantly.

When it comes down to it, the Lakers have a lot of expensive players who aren't providing much to their rotation. In addition, a young player like Dalton Knecht isn't a key piece of this rotation, so there's room for the Lakers to make a trade to bring in players who can strengthen this rotation.

The Lakers still have some time before the February 5th trade deadline, but if there's an opportunity to acquire a player or two to add to this rotation, they shouldn't hesitate to act, giving themselves the most time possible to integrate potential new players.