Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick’s sharp comments in his end-of-season press conference were seen as a veiled shot at Luka Dončić.
“I’ll start with the offseason and the work that’s required in an offseason to be in championship shape,” Redick told reporters on Thursday. “And we have a ways to go as a roster. And certainly, there are individuals who were in phenomenal shape. There are 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.”
“Get Up” host Mike Greenberg and ESPN’s NBA insider Brian Windhorst agreed that Redick was referring to Dončić, whose poor conditioning and off-court habits were reported as reasons why the Dallas Mavericks traded him.
“There isn’t any question that he is talking directly to Luka Dončić there, right?” Greenberg asked Windhorst.
“Yeah,” Windhorst replied. “I can see Nico Harrison sort of lighting a cigar, watching that press conference.”
Harrison, the Mavericks general manager, was heavily criticized for trading away Dončić, a generational talent who is still entering his prime, the manner it was executed and little return they got in the trade with the Lakers.
Dončić missed 32 games this season, including 22 due to a nagging calf injury which he sustained while still in Dallas. In their 103-96 Game 5 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves which ended the Lakers’ season, Dončić hurt his back before halftime.
Dončić led the Lakers in scoring with 28 points but he only made 7-of-18 shots. He also missed his final two attempts — the final one from point blank — which would have cut Minnesota’s 95-91 lead to only a basket with 2:45 to play.
Luka ‘Gave Up 41 Points’ in Game 5: Analyst
The Timberwolves repeatedly hunted Dončić, who was the Lakers’ weakest link on defense.
Mike Jagacki of LockdownHoops.com slammed Dončić’s atrocious defense in the Lakers’ Game 5 loss.
Jagacki said it was “one of the worst defensive performances” he’d ever watched “in a must-win playoff game.”
The basketball analyst pointed out that Timberwolves stars Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle hunted Dončić down because “Luka just has such a wide base and poor movement fundamentals on defense.”
It was the same problem the Mavericks had when they lost to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals last year, which prompted Harrison to trade him for Anthony Davis, an All-Defensive center, albeit six years older than Dončić.
“Lakers can’t even hide Luka in the zone. Gets blown by on the wing, poor footwork – wide base, lung steps, no explosive slide, no positive pelvic angle to generate lateral movement. Looking around for his help – the true sign of a bad defender,” Jagacki wrote on X.
Lakers’ Individual Conditioning Program
According to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, Dončić will play for Slovenia in the Eurobasket this offseason which will run from August 27 to September 14.
Redick is hopeful to get a better conditioned Dončić at the start of the training camp. The Lakers coach revealed that he and his staff will work on individual conditioning program tailor-fit to each player.
“It’s something that we’ll build out over the next couple of weeks with our player development coaches, our performance staff and our training staff,” Redick said. “We obviously recognize it’s a long season and some guys have routines and it’s not that we’re looking to completely break routines, but you we do want to have a program in place for each guy so that when they come back in mid-August, September, we can build off of that and start training camp in a really good spot conditioning-wise.”
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