Shannon Sharpe Backs Rich Paul After NBA Agent’s Analysis Gets Proven Right

Shannon Sharpe backed Rich Paul's statements that the Los Angeles Lakers were not title contenders this season.

Shannon Sharpe Backs Rich Paul After NBA Agent’s Analysis Gets Proven Right

Shannon Sharpe backs Rich Paul's statements (Image credits - Firstsportz)

🔍 Explore this post with:

ChatGPTPerplexityGrok AIGoogle AI

Shannon Sharpe has always supported LeBron James over the moon in the past few years. The former NFL star has often been vocal about his allegiance to James and come in defense of the four-time NBA champion whenever criticized.

Rich Paul is one of the most popular agents in the NBA. He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Klutch Sports Group and his most notable client is James, who he shares a longtime friendship with as well.

The Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in an uncertain position at the moment. They did not lose consecutive games at all in the beginning, but currently find themselves on a three-match losing streak after a 119-96 blowout loss to the Houston Rockets on Christmas day. The loss has raised several doubts surrounding the franchise.

The Los Angeles Lakers had a strong start to the 2025-26 campaign, led by league-MVP contender Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. The latter has been the story of the season so far for the Lakers and veteran star LeBron James has started to find his old self once again after a slow start to the year. The Purple and Gold are currently placed at fourth in the Western Conference standings with a 19-10 record.

Despite their impressive record, the Lakers have shown signs of weaknesses throughout this campaign. Lack of energy, speed and defense have been some of their weak points. Rich Paul raised a few eyebrows when he said that the Lakers were not title contenders this season. Shannon Sharpe agreed with Paul’s statements and was critical of the Lakers as well.

Your (Lakers) three best players don’t play defense. You can’t win. You can’t score enough because if you miss a shot, they gonna go down to the other end. At one point, I saw the Rockets were shooting 57% from the floor and 50+% from three. I don’t care, Luka can score 40, LeBron can score 25 and AR can score 30 but the other team gonna get layups and get dunks.

Shannon Sharpe via Night Cap

The head coach JJ Redick was unhappy with the Lakers’ performance lately as well and has called out his team for their lack of energy during games. They will be looking to bounce back in their next game against the Sacramento Kings.

Los Angeles Lakers may be disconnected right now

The Lakers may arguably have the best offensive backcourt in the NBA right now. Doncic is having an MVP-caliber season and is currently leading the league in points per game with 33.7 points. Reaves is averaging 26.6 points per game while James is averaging 20.2 points. Focusing on improvements, the four-time champion has secured 25.6 points over the last seven games.

Jake LaRavia spoke to the media after the disappointing loss and mentioned about there being a disconnect in the locker room.

I couldn’t tell you (lack of defense). I think there might be a disconnect right now. But we’ll get on track. Have this meeting, what JJ was talking about, and hopefully the uncomfortability of it can kind of move us in the right direction.

Jake LaRavia via Media Interview

While Lakers have the offensive firepower, it cannot make up for its lack of defense every night. The team will have a really hard time during the playoffs as they take on young and athletic teams if they don’t find a solution.

The losses are exposing the Lakers

This wake up call for the Lakers may have been a longtime coming. The Lakers did show their Achilles heel last season in the playoffs when they were beaten by the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games. Since then, they have not added any young, athletic, wing defenders that could make a difference to their squad in the offseason.

Jarred Vanderbilt
Jarred Vanderbilt (Image credits – Fadeaway World)

Jarred Vanderbilt had struggled for minutes earlier this season despite being one of the best defenders in the team. But the forward has seen his game time increased in the last few games. Vanderbilt spoke about about the team’s issues in the post-match press-conference.

This kind of been the trending thing even when we were winning. Obviously, wins kind of shadow a lot of stuff. But it’s been the same pretty much all year, of how we finish games, lose games. Transition defense, rebounding, stuff like that, it’s been a trend all year. But obviously, when you’re winning, it kind of shadows that. It’s just a little bit more highlighted now.

Jarred Vanderbilt via Media Interview

With still two-thirds of the season to go, Redick and his coaching staff will have their hands full in trying to find a way to get the best out of this team defensively. If not, it only proves Rich Paul and Shannon Sharpe’s point about the team’s title contention.

Also Read: