Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick offered something of a challenge to his players on Thursday that everyone immediately took to mean one thing.
Redick addressed the media at an end-of-season press conference Thursday, one day after his Lakers were eliminated from the playoffs by the Minnesota Timberwolves. The coach emphasized that a major focus for the Lakers roster should be to “get in championship shape” during the offseason.
During his end of season remarks, JJ Redick, without naming names, says the roster must "get in championship shape" during the offseason.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) May 1, 2025
While Redick did not name names, pretty much everyone assumed he was at least partially alluding to Luka Doncic. Some even made reference to Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, as Doncic’s conditioning was thought to be a key factor in the decision to trade Doncic to the Lakers.
— Cameron Magruder (@ScooterMagruder) May 1, 2025
That means Luka cause he is fat
— Quan Wick (@TheFinalQuan) May 1, 2025
No more fatty Luka pic.twitter.com/fmHldED52C
— @leohersh24 (@leohersh24) May 1, 2025
The concerns about Doncic’s conditioning go back years. The Lakers are aware of that, but think that they have ways of getting him to commit to healthier habits. Even if Doncic is not the sole focus of Redick’s comment, though, it’s hard to imagine Redick did not have him in mind at least a little bit when sharing it.
To be fair to Doncic, some of the issues he encountered in the playoffs were not down to conditioning. He battled through Game 3 of the Lakers’ first-round series while seriously ill, and he suffered a back injury that clearly impacted him in Game 5.
Doncic averaged 35.1 minutes per game after being dealt to the Lakers, with the number rising to 41.6 minutes per game in the series against Minnesota. For better or worse, Redick demonstrated during that series that he prefers to ride his key players hard in big games, and Doncic might have some work to do in order to live up to those expectations.
