Lakers must be in 'championship shape' next season, says JJ Redick - ESPN

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — After seeing his team stumble when it mattered most in the fourth quarter during their 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 any player out by name after L.A. was outscored 127-85 by Minnesota in the fourth quarter in the series, however it is widely known that one of the knocks on Luka Doncic on his way out the door after the Dallas Mavericks traded him was the 26-year-old star's struggles with weight and conditioning.

Late-game execution was one of the myriad ways the No. 6-seeded Wolves dominated the No. 3-seeded Lakers to advance. «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