The Los Angeles Lakers are sitting a few games above .500 at 22-18 and sixth in the Western Conference, barely good enough to avoid having to participate in the play-in tournament to qualify for the NBA playoffs were the season to end today. Not much breathing room to suffer an injury, a sudden lull, or a tough part of the schedule. LeBron James would argue that razor-thin margin is par for the course with this team.

Speaking with the media after a 116-102 loss to their cross-town rival LA Clippers, in response to some questions from Dan Woike of the LA Times, the Lakers star bemoaned the fact that the Lakers can't tolerate much error, appearing to blame it on the way the team is constructed.

"We don't have a choice [but to accept that the margin for error is slim]. I mean, that's the way our team is constructed. And we have to play close to perfect basketball," James said.

Head coach J.J. Redick agreed with the sentiment, adding that the team can not, "create that margin organically," according to Dave McMenamin's coverage.

It's tricky to tell exactly what to make of comments like this following a frustrating loss in mid-January. With less than three weeks until the NBA trade deadline, the knee-jerk reaction may be to correlate this with a plea to team president Rob Pelinka to make a move that gains the Lakers some extra margin. Or, maybe it's just a frustrated postgame press conference addressing the reality that it's tough to win on a nightly basis in the NBA.

There is an empirical reality to what James and Redick are getting at, though, with both James and Anthony Davis having contributed far more to the team's scoring this season than they have in most other seasons with the Lakers.

Not since 2019-20 (a title-winning season for the Lakers, one should note) have James and Davis contributed so much to the team's overall scoring as this season.

One could debate whether those two leading stars leading the way is optimal or not. 2022-23 brought more scoring support from other parts of the roster, but that year was lowlighted by a poor offensive fit with Russell Westbrook.

The two stars got even more support the year before from Russell Westbrook, Malik Monk, and Carmelo Anthony. At the time, adding those layers of support seemed like a possible win for the Lakers offense, but they now serve as cautionary tales against adding pieces just for the sake of adding.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as LeBron James Appears to Express Dissatisfaction With Lakers Team Construction.