LOS ANGELES — JJ Redick already knows where he will begin the Los Angeles Lakers’ preparations for next season after the first-year head coach watched his team fade in its first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA playoffs.
“I’ll start with the offseason and the work that’s required in an offseason to be in championship shape,” Redick said Thursday, a day after the Western Conference’s sixth-seeded Timberwolves eliminated the third-seeded Lakers with a 103-96 victory in Los Angeles.
“We have a ways to go as a roster,” Redick added during his news conference alongside general manager Rob Pelinka. “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 didn’t mention any players by name, but Luka Doncic’s perceived lack of attention to conditioning and to maintaining his weight was widely reported as one of the reasons Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison was moved to trade one of the NBA’s best young scorers for Anthony Davis in February.
Redick likely didn’t mean his comment specifically as a shot at Doncic, because the two have been close since their 2 1/2 months as teammates with the Mavericks at the end of Redick’s playing career. Doncic praised Redick on Wednesday night after the Lakers’ season ended.