JJ Redick says Lakers must be in ‘championship shape’ for next season

Time and time again, JJ Redick witnessed his team stumble when it mattered the most in the fourth quarters of their Western Conference first-round series against the Timberwolves. This is why the Lakers coach pointed out the importance of improving player conditioning for next campaign. 

During Thursday’s end-of-season news conference, he addressed the next steps. “I’ll start with the offseason and the work that’s required in an offseason to be in championship shape,” he said. “And we have a ways to go as a roster. And certainly, there are individuals that were in phenomenal shape.

“There’s certainly other ones that could have been in better shape. That’s where my mind goes immediately is we have to get in championship shape,” added JJ, who didn’t single out any player by name after being outscored 127-85 in the fourth quarter during the series lost against Minnesota.

Even though efficiency in the last moments was just one of many ways in which the third-seeded Lakers were beaten, the truth is the No. 6 seed was simply better. “Maybe this is hard sometimes for a coach or a player to admit this: We lost to a better team,” Redick said. “That’s just the reality. We did.”

The Los Angeles tactician took the bold decision of benching the team’s starting center Jaxson Hayes just four minutes into Game 4, and decided to keep him out of rotation in Game 5, as rival Rudy Gobert collected career highs that night of 27 points and 24 rebounds.

“I think when you make a huge trade at the deadline where you trade your starting center for a point guard, of course that’s going to create significant issues with the roster, and we saw some of those play out,” Rob Pelinka shared postgame.

The purple and gold president of basketball operations and GM, then added his thoughts on the Doncic-for-Anthony Davis trade. “We know this offseason, one of our primary goals is going to be to add size in our frontcourt at the center position,” he said.