What is next for Lakers? The team plans to add the center, JJ Redick says that they need to “get into the form of the championship”

The day after the end of the Los -Angeles season, the General Director Rob Pelinka and Jay Jay Rick told reporters that it went wrong and what would happen next.

One big, obvious problem in their first round against the Minnesotsky Timbervolves: Lakers, which became small for most of the series, Dominated on the boards A team that hires Rudy Gobert. Go to the figure. Pelinka made it clear that in the next season they would add a playoff caliber center to the list, and Redik said that the season is played out, did not change its philosophy.

“I am aware of the necessity in the amount, and, of course, Gobert in Games 4 and 5 really hurt us in offensive glass,” Radik told reporters. “But this is about,“ What do you have in front of you? “Thus, I can have a philosophy, I can play up the temperature and move the ball to the side and perform seven different actions on other ownership.

Both Pelinka and Radik confirmed the commitment of the franchise to the nucleus of Luke Donchich, Lebron James and Austin Reeves. Redik said that Lakers needs to improve his training in the next season, but praised Volkov for replaying them.

“Maybe it is sometimes difficult for a coach or player to admit this: we lost the best team,” Redik said. “This is just a reality. We did. And we put ourselves in a position to win games 3, 4 and 5, and we could not do it in the fourth quarter. And where, I think, you really need to evaluate and really try to grow as a coach and, of course, as a group, how this group looked like the next year. ”

There is a great change

At the end of the trade period, it turned out that the front -office of Los -Ageles took a bold step to support his front. At the press conference on February 6, Pelinka told reporters that he felt that the team had found an “perfect guy” to fill his hole in the center: Mark Williams.

Lakers agreed to send Charlotte Hornets in the first round of 2030, the unprotected choice of the first round of 2031, Dalton Knecht and Kam Reddish for a 23-year-old large person. It was a high price, but they considered this “the opportunity to give (Donchich and James) all the resources that they need for the play -off,” Pelinka told reporters. Two days later, The deal was canceledThe field according to Lakers, Williams suffered a physical failure. According to Agent Williams, Jeff Schwartz -I Williams himself – He was healthy enough to playSo Los -Angeles effectively retreated from the transaction.

It is unclear how Williams would fight as the main partner of Donchich, as well as the defender of the rim of the Lakers in the playoff series. Without it, however, the radish remained with several imperfect options in the center against Minnesota: Jaxon Hayes, Alex Len or not at all. Young large Christian bells and Traray Jamison could not play in the playoffs, because they are concluded in bilateral contracts. Maxi Kleber, purchased in the transaction from Donchich, suffered an operation on his legs at the end of January and was not cleaned to play before the game 5. Redic was so desperately needed to help the advanced that he threw Kleber for five minutes in the game for liquidation.

“When you make seismic trade in the end, your list and building around it, it is like an attempt to build a plane in the sky,” Pelinka told reporters on Thursday. “And now we have a chance to get a landing in this plane, put it in an Angar and really find out the parts that we need to modernize and change. And this is what we will do. ”

Pelinka said that Lakers “know that we have a lot of work on the list”, and in the offseason in the off -season “one of our main goals” will be. He said that this special need was “very clear” from the moment they made Donchich’s trade.

“This is a very clear and obvious by -law of trade, potentially the best in the league, in Dallas to get a player,” Pelinka said. “Of course, this will open a huge hole. And I said earlier: the deadline for trade and the moments before that do not give you the necessary time to explore each stone in order to add large to our list. We simply did not have time after the trading of Luke. But now we are doing it. ”

Pelinka said that he would focus on “making sure that next year we will have the necessary size to have a team to fight for the championship.” Given how Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford complemented Donchich Mavericks, it is not surprising that Los -Angeles would like to find someone like that.

“From the point of view of the central features, it would be great to have a center, which posed a vertical threat, a threat to the forehead and someone, who could protect the inside in the defense,” Pelinka said. “I think it will be the keys. But the league has several different types of centers. There are also spread centers that can protect the rim. We will also look at them. Therefore, I do not want to limit the archetype, but we know that we need a big person. “

Adherence to the nucleus

In addition to desire, Pelinka expressed a desire to improve protection on the wing. “This is an important need,” Pelinka told reporters. “We see how it plays in the play -off, and at any time you can update your defensive core around the perimeter, I think this will help.” If you are busy building hypothetical transactions with the participation of Reeves, you can waste your time.

“The level of confidence in Austin Reeves, Lebron James and Luke Donchich, is still at a high level,” Pelinka said.

He added: “I think that these three guys have an incredible promise to play together, and we will all do the best job together to make sure that they are surrounded by the right parts to achieve final success.”

Redik told reporters that the three players “Three Lakers” would communicate “in the offseason, and the team would like to“ gather them together at some point for some mini-camp. ” Redik suggested that a full training camp with Donchich will help them in 2025-26.

“I think this is where you are building the foundation and building blocks before the end of the year,” Redik said. “I think that there is value in repetition, and, frankly, we have not received tons of repetitions, and this is the nature of the execution of the season. But, of course, to feel very confident and very optimistic of these three in the future. ”

Assuming James collects his own version of a player of $ 52.6 million next season Or signs a new transaction with a similar starting salary, Los -angles will experience a luxury tax or less than $ 7 million from the first apron. There are several assets projects in it, but it also has a potential free agency of Dorian Finni-Smite (or potential expansion), so the front office should be creative to improve the list along the edges. Pelinka was not too concerned about it.

“Last year there was a lot of talk about the restrictions on the first apron and the second apron, and there were people trying to predict how the outer period of trade might look two months ago,” Pelinka said. “The deadline for trade has come, and then we all witnessed how it was not only for Lakers, but also for the league, in general, a huge and historical edge of trade. Therefore, I think that the lessons of the system are still changing methods, and I think that it is in the offseason, there will also be a lot of movement around the NBA. He just feels. ”

Pelinka said that he expects “we will have many opportunities to see,” since other teams will aggressively in changing their relevant lists.

‘We must fall into the form of the championship’

Lakers scored a total of 33 points in the fourth quarters of games 1 and 5 against Minnesota, and they were covered by two -digit numbers in the fourth quarters of games 3 and 4. It is fair to say that the moose -angeles wear out during the games and during the series.

Is this because the list is simply not deep enough? The editor was crazy In order not to replace in the second half of the game 4? Were the guys in the rotation not in uniform?

Redik said that when he thinks about how he wants the team to improve, it all starts with the “work that is required in the off -season to be in the form of the championship.”

He continued: “We have ways to go to the list. And, of course, there are people who were in a phenomenal form, there are, of course, others who could be in the best form. This is where my mind immediately goes: we must come to the form of the championship. ”

Lakers JJ Redick Storms coach from the press conference after the issue of composition solutions

Sam Quinn

Redik said that the development coaches of players, staff and training personnel will participate in the development of off -season programs for each player over the next few weeks.

“We obviously understand that this is a long season, and some guys have procedures, and we do not want to completely break the procedures,” Radik said. “But we want to have a program for every guy, so that when they return in mid -August, September, we can build this and start a training camp in really good point air conditioning.”

It is difficult to hear how Radik says this, not thinking about Donchich in the world well -documented fears that Dallas have On air conditioning and durability of superstars. Redik did not say the name of Donchich in this context, but, separately, he remembered their first conversation after Donchich arrived in Los -angles, in which Donchich said that he wanted him to be trained and bear responsibility.

“I want to identify the best version of Luke,” Redik said. “And this is what he wants from me. And here is the fact that this is a partnership, this is a expectation, and this is a kind of basic line of what we are trying to do. Let’s try to identify the best version of Luke and, I hope, win the championship by doing it. ”