JJ Redick was about to educate his first sport within the NBA, a step into a brand new life that he was certain he wished for himself. He was not the hotshot Duke star, the aimless former lottery choose, the dependable NBA starter, the trusted vet or well-known podcaster.
This was one thing completely different.
“You know, I think whatever I envisioned in my previous life, that’s gone,” Redick mentioned. “This is who I am now. I’m a coach.”
And because the Lakers coach, he wished to make one factor greater than every other clear. Outcomes can be secondary. Improvement can be first. A shooter can’t management whether or not or not an open jumper goes in; they solely can management the quantity of labor they’ve put into giving that shot the absolute best likelihood to go in.
And after his first NBA win, Redick strengthened that concept.
“They’re bought into the fact that this is a process and we’re not going to compete for a championship right now,” Redick mentioned opening evening. “We have buy-in from our players, we have buy-in from our coaching staff. That’s all we want right now.”
The Lakers did purchase in, even when the season got here to a pause on account of a historic pure catastrophe, even when the primary characters modified on account of a historic celebrity swap. They witnessed historical past when their chief fulfilled a dream to play together with his son, they reshaped their tradition with one commerce and pulled the emergency brake to get out of one other. A homegrown star rose; the NBA’s all-time main scorer moved one step nearer to his final basket.
All by way of it, the large wins, the crushing losses, the high-end drama and the 48 minutes of mundane, the Lakers adopted Redick’s lead.
However they didn’t compete for a championship — not at this step of their course of. Their season ended, dropping to the Minnesota Timberwolves within the first spherical of the playoffs, 15 wins away from the championship they hoped to say.
And, as quickly because the mourning ends, the work erecting the bridge from one win to 16 of them can start.
For the primary time for the reason that Lakers final ended their season as champions, the constructing course of gained’t be centered on LeBron James. They’ll have a summer time to place the correct items round a brand new point of interest in Luka Doncic, the 26-year-old way forward for the franchise.
That search is predicted to begin within the center, the place the Lakers will look so as to add a middle to pair with one of many NBA’s high passers. The Lakers already tipped their hand on this midseason after they adopted up the Doncic deal by agreeing to commerce a first-round choose and Dalton Knecht to Charlotte for Mark Williams.
However the Lakers didn’t move Williams’ bodily with the staff, folks with data of the choice however not licensed to talk publicly pointing to knee and decrease leg considerations as the explanations. Some folks across the NBA merely puzzled if the Lakers obtained chilly toes. Others questioned the match within the first place.
Regardless, the Lakers are anticipated to go on the hunt to improve the place, and once more, could have their 2031 first-round choose and Knecht because the carrots to attempt to land one. A reputation like Brooklyn middle Nicolas Claxton will definitely be linked to the Lakers.
Dorian Finney-Smith, about to be 32, has grow to be a favourite within the locker room. He has a participant choice for $15.3 million and may very well be searching for his final important long-term deal.
Doncic and the Lakers will possible have extension conversations with him being eligible for one in August. Austin Reaves can be eligible for an extension that may very well be value as much as $90 million over 4 years, however Reaves is predicted to garner important curiosity for rather more cash when he can grow to be an unrestricted free agent in 2026.
And there’s James, who can choose out of the final 12 months of his contract to restructure his deal. And, clearly, at this stage of his profession, retirement will get nearer with every single day, with solely James understanding for certain the place that street ends.
