EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — After seeing his team stumble when it mattered most in the fourth quarter during its 4-1 first-round series loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick pointed to improved player conditioning as a must heading into next season.
“I’ll start with the offseason and the work that’s required in an offseason to be in championship shape,” Redick said Thursday in a news conference with reporters to close the Lakers’ 2024-25 season. “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.”
Redick did not single out any player by name after L.A. was outscored 127-85 by Minnesota in the fourth quarter during the series, but it is widely known that one of the knocks on Luka Doncic on his way out after the Dallas Mavericks traded him was the 26-year-old star’s struggles with weight and conditioning.
Late-game execution was one of many ways the No. 6-seeded Wolves dominated the No. 3-seeded Lakers.
“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.”
After Redick benched L.A.’s starting center Jaxson Hayes four minutes into Game 4 and kept him out of the rotation in Game 5 as Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert piled up 27 points and 24 rebounds in the clincher, the Lakers’ lack of big men was obvious.
“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, Lakers president of basketball operations and GM, said of 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.”
L.A. attempted to acquire 7-foot center Mark Williams from the Charlotte Hornets just before the trade deadline, but the deal was rescinded after Williams failed to pass a physical examination with the Lakers.
“There’s NBA rules that prohibit us from speaking to a particular transaction, but I’ll say in general, it’s very clear and it was clear then … this roster needs more size and needs a center,” Pelinka said. “That’s a very clear and obvious by-product of trading potentially the best big in the league to Dallas to get a point guard. Of course, that’s going to open up a huge hole.
“The trade deadline and the moments up to it don’t allow you the requisite time to explore every single unturned stone to add a big to our roster. We just didn’t have the time after the Luka trade. But now we do.”
Pelinka says he knows that LeBron James, who has a player option to return to L.A. for an NBA-record 23rd season in 2025-26, will be monitoring how the Lakers use that time to improve the team.
“I think LeBron’s going to have high expectations for the roster,” Pelinka said. “And we’re going to do everything we can to meet those. But I also know that whatever it is, he’s still going to give his 110 percent every night, whether that’s scoring, assisting, defending, rebounding, leading. We know that’s always going to be 100 percent, and that never wavers.”
Though Pelinka predicted an offseason rife with player movement around the league, and sounded hopeful that it would aid in his pursuit of new personnel, he made it clear there were three Lakers he had no interest in parting with: James, Doncic and Austin Reaves.
“The level of confidence in Austin Reaves, LeBron James and Luka Doncic is at an all-time high still,” Pelinka said. “I think those three guys have incredible promise playing together. And we will collectively do a better job to make sure they’re surrounded with the right pieces to have ultimate success.”
