and sat within the practically equivalent locations on the workforce’s apply courtroom as they did final June when Redick was launched as ’ head coach. Within the time since that call final June, rather a lot has modified for the Lakers.
Pelinka earned a contract extension and an elevated entrance workplace title after buying and selling for . Redick went from teaching unknown to a profitable tradition builder, even when his boldest methods within the playoffs didn’t maintain the Lakers from being eradicated after simply 5 video games for the second straight yr.
“Yearly we embark coaching camp, the journey of a season, with the objective of placing one other banner up, and any season we don’t try this, we’ve fallen in need of our final objective right here,” Pelinka stated as he started Thursday’s information convention. “That stated, this season was stuffed with some thrilling issues that we actually have to lean into for our future. One is the coach sitting subsequent to me. JJ introduced only a full revival of vitality and extremely arduous work ethic, consideration to element, a spirit to our workforce, to our group, to our franchise as a rookie coach that we haven’t seen in a very long time.
“Our degree of confidence, my degree of confidence couldn’t be larger.”
Nonetheless, Thursday wasn’t about celebrating any of that — at the very least not on the floor. The rawest and most prevalent feelings had been nonetheless tied to the Lakers’ in a best-of-seven sequence wherein had been overwhelmed by “the higher workforce,” Redick stated.
“Coming into the constructing at this time, type of an eerie, acquainted feeling,” Redick stated. “I’ve at all times felt like a workforce is a dwelling organism. And that season, you’ve acquired to feed the organism, and also you hope that it’s wholesome. Actually, each organism has some power points, and also you attempt to handle these. Then if you are available after the season, it looks like a funeral.
“It feels just like the loss of life of that organism.”
Exit interviews, which had been carried out with gamers Wednesday night time and with Redick and Pelinka on Thursday, give a way of the preliminary post-mortem — with hints and guarantees of what the long run ought to maintain.
Listed below are the largest takeaways from Redick‘s and Pelinka’s feedback on Friday:
