Before the Los Angeles Lakers host their annual Media Day on Monday, Sept. 30 to signal the start of the 2024-24 season, general manager Rob Pelinka and head coach JJ Redick will host their own press conference on Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 1 p.m. PT at the UCLA Health Training Center.
Pelinka and Redick have not held a media availability since the Lakers introduced their 2024 draft picks Dalton Knecht and Bronny James, which was before NBA free agency even started.
Since then, the Lakers have not made any moves as they will go into the 2024-25 season with essentially the same roster. The only changes are Knecht and James replacing Taurean Prince and Spencer Dinwiddie, who departed in free agency.
The Western Conference looks to be even better this season, so the Lakers will be relying on internal improvement in order to get back in the championship conversation. They finished with the eighth-best record in the West and were defeated in the first round of the playoffs a year ago.
The hope is that replacing head coach Darvin Ham with Redick will lead to improvement as well, although the latter has never coached before at this level. With that being the case, it will be interesting to hear from Redick on Wednesday about the plans for his first training camp and preseason.
With LeBron James and Anthony Davis coming off Olympic runs with Team USA this summer, Redick may need to ease them into training camp to ensure his stars stay fresh and healthy. If that is what they do though then it will be harder to install Redick’s playbook in such a short amount of time before Opening Night.
As far as Pelinka goes, he will certainly have some explaining to do on Wednesday about why he did not make any moves to improve the roster. The clock is ticking on the James and Davis era as the Lakers won’t have many more opportunities to win a championship with them.
They still have plenty of holes on their roster though, most notably at the center position, so it will be interesting to see where Pelinka stands and what his plans are to improve between now and the trade deadline in February.
Where to watch JJ Redick’s Lakers introductory press conference
Rob Pelinka and JJ Redick’s press conference will be broadcasted live on the Lakers’ YouTube page as well as Spectrum SportsNet at 1 p.m. PT on Wednesday.
There should be a ton of questions for Pelinka and Redick heading into the season, especially after an offseason that didn’t consist of any roster upgrades.
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