LeBron on Lakers: ‘We don’t have room for… much error,’ is he pushing L.A. to make upgrades?

Was LeBron James just being honest and echoing what his coach had said moments before? Or was he passively aggressively hinting at the need for his team to make a move at the trade deadline?

Both things can be true, which is the smart way to read into LeBron’s comments after the Lakers went to the Intuit Dome and lost to a better-balanced, better-executing Los Angeles Clippers team on Sunday night.

First, J.J. Redick was honest about the state of his team in his postgame comments, “We don’t have a huge margin for error… We don’t have a guy on our team that’s going to necessarily always draw two to the ball. We don’t have a guy on our team that’s going to be able to get past his guy one-on-one and get to the paint and spread it out to the perimeter.”

LeBron echoed those thoughts when asked about Redick’s comments.

“That’s how our team is constructed. We don’t have room for error, for much error… We don’t have a choice. I mean… that’s the way our team is constructed. And we have to, we have to play close-to-perfect basketball.”

LeBron is right. The Lakers are 22-18 — with the point differential of a team that should be 17-23 — because of how this roster is constructed around LeBron and Anthony Davis, a team with a lot of one-way players and not enough shooting or depth.

LeBron also has a long history of using passive-aggressive tactics to convey his desire for the team to make a move and upgrade the roster. That may also be in play here.

The Lakers are expected to make smaller moves around the margins at the trade deadline — ideally to add a more traditional big man to the mix, someone who can play next to AD — but not make an all-in move. At age 40, LeBron may want the bold move now, but good luck finding one that makes any sense for the Lakers. Are the Lakers going to give up the two first-round picks they can still trade to get Cameron Johnson out of Brooklyn? Does he truly change things? Jimmy Butler would be pricy (it would take the Lakers giving up at least four players and a pick in a three- or four-team trade) to get a 35-year-old with a game that has looked in decline this season, a lengthy injury history and the desire to sign a massive contract extension wherever he gets traded. How long do LeBron and Butler coexist peacefully in the locker room? What other player out there really moves the needle? Zach LaVine is not that guy.

LeBron is right, these Lakers have no margin for error. It’s just difficult to see what they do about that until next summer.