JJ Redick and Rob Pelinka sat in the nearly identical places on the team’s practice court as they did last June when Redick was introduced as the Lakers‘ head coach. In the time since that decision last June, a lot has changed for the Lakers.
Pelinka earned a contract extension and an elevated front-office title after trading for Luka Doncic. Redick went from coaching unknown to a successful culture builder, even if his boldest strategies in the playoffs didn’t keep the Lakers from being eliminated after just five games for the second straight year.
“Every year we embark training camp, the journey of a season, with the goal of putting another banner up, and any season we don’t do that, we’ve fallen short of our ultimate goal here,” Pelinka said as he began Thursday’s news conference. “That said, this season was full of some exciting things that we really need to lean into for our future. One is the coach sitting next to me. JJ brought just a complete revival of energy and incredibly hard work ethic, attention to detail, a spirit to our team, to our group, to our franchise as a rookie coach that we haven’t seen in a long time.
“Our level of confidence, my level of confidence couldn’t be higher.”
Still, Thursday wasn’t about celebrating any of that — at least not on the surface. The rawest and most prevalent emotions were still tied to the Lakers’ losing 4-1 to Minnesota in a best-of-seven series in which were beaten by “the better team,” Redick said.
“Coming into the building today, sort of an eerie, familiar feeling,” Redick said. “I’ve always felt like a team is a living organism. And that season, you’ve got to feed the organism, and you hope that it’s healthy. Certainly, every organism has some chronic issues, and you try to address those. Then when you come in after the season, it feels like a funeral.
Read more:Plaschke: Lakers’ season ends in humiliation … and hope
“It feels like the death of that organism.”
Exit interviews, which were conducted with players Wednesday night and with Redick and Pelinka on Thursday, give a sense of the initial autopsy — with hints and promises of what the future should hold.
Here are the biggest takeaways from Redick’s and Pelinka’s comments on Friday:
The roster
Pelinka addressed the elephant in the room — the lack of a giraffe on the court.
“I’ll say in general, it’s very clear and it was clear then, and we spoke to it that this team and this roster needs more size and needs a center position,” he said. “That’s a very clear and obvious byproduct 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. And as I said before, 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.”
So what kind of center?
“I think in terms of center traits, it would be great to have a center that was a vertical threat, lob threat, and someone that could protect the interior defensively. I think those would be keys,” Pelinka said. “But there’s multiple different types of centers that can be very effective in the league. There’s also spread centers that can protect the rim. We’ll look at those as well. So I wouldn’t want to limit the archetype, but we know we need a big man.”
Pelinka also said he believes in the Lakers’ core.
“The level of confidence in Austin Reaves, LeBron James and Luka Doncic is at an all-time high still. So no change in how we feel about those three guys,” Pelinka said. “And in terms of assessing it, we lost the series, so we did not accomplish what we wanted to do, which was win in this series. But in every series, to me, it’s like a game of chess. You learn and then when you get to play the game the next time, you’re better. But 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. And we talked at the beginning what ultimate success is here. And we’re going to put in the work to allow that group of guys to win a championship.”
LeBron James and his role as the Lakers build the roster
“LeBron is a GOAT, one of the GOATs of the game. And he’s been a completely selfless leader. And I think we saw that in this playoff series, moving to playing more off the ball and committing more to the defensive end,” Pelinka said. “I think it’s just a testament to his championship DNA and character. And I think LeBron’s going to have high expectations for the roster. 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% every night, whether that’s scoring, assisting, defending, rebounding, leading. We know that’s always going to be 100%, and that never wavers.”
On what needs to improve
The most direct criticism of the team came from Redick, who said he believed the Lakers needed to be in better condition to compete for a title.
“I think I’ll start with the offseason and the work that’s required in an offseason to be in championship shape. And we have a ways to go as a roster,” Redick said. “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.”
The spotlight on decisions as Lakers head coach
“We all know what the Lakers is,” Redick said. “I talked about it when I did my opening press conference, I know what I signed up for and I know there’s a lot of blame that gets placed on me and I’m willing to accept that. Believe me, no one’s harder on me than me. In terms of our players, I think they handled it well all season. And we certainly had ups, and we certainly had downs, and we were able to weather that as a group. I think it’s hard sometimes to admit this and maybe this is hard sometimes for a coach or a player to admit this. We lost to a better team. That’s just the reality. We did. And we put ourselves in a position to win Games 3, 4 and 5 and we weren’t able to do that in the fourth quarter.
“And that’s where I think you really have to evaluate and really try to grow from as a coach and certainly as a group, whatever that group looks like next year. Minnesota is a great basketball team. They really are.”
On coaching Luka Doncic
“I think our first conversation when he flew into L.A. that night, he wants to be coached. He wants to be held accountable,” Redick said. “And I think he’s expressed to me and what I’ve expressed to him is very similar. I want to bring out the best version of Luka. And that’s what he wants from me. And so that’s the partnership going forward. That’s the expectation. And that’s the baseline of what we’re trying to do. Let’s try to bring out the best version of Luka and hopefully win a championship doing that.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
JJ Redick and Rob Pelinka sat in the nearly identical places on the team’s practice court as they did last June when Redick was introduced as the Lakers‘ head coach. In the time since that decision last June, a lot has changed for the Lakers.
Pelinka earned a contract extension and an elevated front office title after trading for Luka Doncic. Redick went from coaching unknown to a successful culture builder, even if his boldest strategies in the playoffs didn’t keep the Lakers from being eliminated after just five games for the second straight year.
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“Every year we embark training camp, the journey of a season, with the goal of putting another banner up, and any season we don’t do that, we’ve fallen short of our ultimate goal here,” Pelinka said as he began Thursday’s news conference. “That said, this season was full of some exciting things that we really need to lean into for our future. One is the coach sitting next to me. JJ brought just a complete revival of energy and incredibly hard work ethic, attention to detail, a spirit to our team, to our group, to our franchise as a rookie coach that we haven’t seen in a long time.
“Our level of confidence, my level of confidence couldn’t be higher.”
Still, Thursday wasn’t about celebrating any of that — at least not on the surface. The rawest and most prevalent emotions were still tied to the Lakers’ losing 4-1 to Minnesota in a best-of-seven series in which were beaten by “the better team,” Redick said.
“Coming into the building today, sort of an eerie, familiar feeling,” Redick said. “I’ve always felt like a team is a living organism. And that season, you’ve got to feed the organism, and you hope that it’s healthy. Certainly, every organism has some chronic issues, and you try to address those. Then when you come in after the season, it feels like a funeral.
Advertisement
Read more: Plaschke: Lakers’ season ends in humiliation … and hope
“It feels like the death of that organism.”
Exit interviews, which were conducted with players Wednesday night and with Redick and Pelinka on Thursday, give a sense of the initial autopsy — with hints and promises of what the future should hold.
Here are the biggest takeaways from Redick’s and Pelinka’s comments on Friday:
Pelinka addressed the elephant in the room — the lack of a giraffe on the court.
“I’ll say in general, it’s very clear and it was clear then, and we spoke to it that this team and this roster needs more size and needs a center position,” he said. “That’s a very clear and obvious byproduct 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. And as I said before, 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.”
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So what kind of center?
“I think in terms of center traits, it would be great to have a center that was a vertical threat, lob threat, and someone that could protect the interior defensively. I think those would be keys,” Pelinka said. “But there’s multiple different types of centers that can be very effective in the league. There’s also spread centers that can protect the rim. We’ll look at those as well. So I wouldn’t want to limit the archetype, but we know we need a big man.”
Pelinka also said he believes in the Lakers’ core.
“The level of confidence in Austin Reaves, LeBron James and Luka Doncic is at an all-time high still. So no change in how we feel about those three guys,” Pelinka said. “And in terms of assessing it, we lost the series, so we did not accomplish what we wanted to do, which was win in this series. But in every series, to me, it’s like a game of chess. You learn and then when you get to play the game the next time, you’re better. But I think those three guys have incredible promise playing together.
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“And we will collectively do a better job to make sure they’re surrounded with the right pieces to have ultimate success. And we talked at the beginning what ultimate success is here. And we’re going to put in the work to allow that group of guys to win a championship.”
“LeBron is a GOAT, one of the GOATs of the game. And he’s been a completely selfless leader. And I think we saw that in this playoff series, moving to playing more off the ball and committing more to the defensive end,” Pelinka said. “I think it’s just a testament to his championship DNA and character. And I think LeBron’s going to have high expectations for the roster. 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% every night, whether that’s scoring, assisting, defending, rebounding, leading. We know that’s always going to be 100%, and that never wavers.”
The most direct criticism of the team came from Redick, who said he believed the Lakers needed to be in better condition to compete for a title.
Advertisement
“I think I’ll start with the offseason and the work that’s required in an offseason to be in championship shape. And we have a ways to go as a roster,” Redick said. “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.”
“We all know what the Lakers is,” Redick said. “I talked about it when I did my opening press conference, I know what I signed up for and I know there’s a lot of blame that gets placed on me and I’m willing to accept that. Believe me, no one’s harder on me than me. In terms of our players, I think they handled it well all season. And we certainly had ups, and we certainly had downs, and we were able to weather that as a group. I think it’s hard sometimes to admit this and maybe this is hard sometimes for a coach or a player to admit this. We lost to a better team. That’s just the reality. We did. And we put ourselves in a position to win Games 3, 4 and 5 and we weren’t able to do that in the fourth quarter.
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“And that’s where I think you really have to evaluate and really try to grow from as a coach and certainly as a group, whatever that group looks like next year. Minnesota is a great basketball team. They really are.”
“I think our first conversation when he flew into L.A. that night, he wants to be coached. He wants to be held accountable,” Redick said. “And I think he’s expressed to me and what I’ve expressed to him is very similar. I want to bring out the best version of Luka. And that’s what he wants from me. And so that’s the partnership going forward. That’s the expectation. And that’s the baseline of what we’re trying to do. Let’s try to bring out the best version of Luka and hopefully win a championship doing that.”
Sign up for our weekly newsletter on all things Lakers.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
