The Los Angeles Lakers were surprisingly dumped out of the 2025 NBA Playoffs in five games in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves. In the aftermath, head coach JJ Redick stated that Lakers players needed to get into “championship shape” in the offseason, and Robert Horry called him out for that on Nightcap.
“First of all, what does JJ know about championship shape?” Horry asked. “Has he ever won a championship? … I just wanna know what is championship shape? That’s all I’m asking. Do you know what championship shape is? Because, for me, when you talk about championship shape, that means you’ve been there, done that.”
Redick didn’t win the national title at Duke and failed to capture an NBA championship in a 15-year career in the league, either. Horry, who won seven NBA titles in his career, wonders what someone like that would know about being in championship shape. He also felt that this was a shot at Luka Doncic and wondered why Redick said it out loud.
Here is what Redick said about Lakers players needing to be in championship shape.
“I’ll start with the offseason and the work that’s required in an offseason to be in championship shape,” Redick said. “We have a ways to go as a roster. There were individuals who were in phenomenal shape, and there were certainly other ones who could have been in better shape. That’s where my mind goes immediately, is that we have to get in championship shape.”
Redick also added that the Lakers’ staff will be putting in place specific training plans for every player this offseason.
“I think that’s something we’ll build out over the next couple of weeks with our player development coaches, our performance staff, our training staff,” Redick stated. “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 we do want to have a program in place for each guy so that when they come back in August, September we can build off of that and start training camp in a really good spot conditioning-wise.”
The Lakers were completely outplayed in the fourth quarter in the series against the Timberwolves, getting outscored 127-85 over the five games. Fatigue has been pointed out as one of the reasons for that, and Redick wants all his players in top shape before training camp.
Redick’s comments aren’t quite as scathing as one might have thought initially. You’d want the head coach to send that message to the players, but he perhaps didn’t need to use the term “championship shape,” as that is what has led to him coming under fire from the likes of Horry.
Redick also stated that he can get better and that he wasn’t satisfied with his first season as a head coach. There was a lot to like about the job the 40-year-old had done during the regular season, as the Lakers went 50-32 and were the third seed.
The playoffs didn’t go according to plan, but Redick will hopefully learn from his mistakes. The top brass certainly hasn’t lost any faith in him, as the Lakers believe in his leadership and won’t be firing him. That is certainly the right decision, too, as he has shown enough to suggest he could turn out to be an excellent coach.
