Image Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Kendrick Perkins Rips Into JJ Redick After Lakers’ First Round Playoff 2025 Exit

The Minnesota Timberwolves handed a 4-1 series defeat to the LA Lakers in the NBA Playoffs 2025 first-round series.

Image Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Lakers’ championship dreams shattered once again as they suffered their second-consecutive first-round exit from the NBA Playoffs. Following the elimination, several pundits and experts blamed the loss on rookie coach JJ Redick and his bold strategies. One of them was Redick’s former ESPN colleague, Kendrick Perkins, who didn’t mince words and blamed the early exit on his coaching decisions.

While appearing on SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt, he pointed out the Redick’s strategy to not use his bench at all in an important Game 4, which eventually backfired, and the Lakers fell to the Wolves 116-113. Speaking about it, Perkins said, “Hey, I’m JJ Redick, I know basketball more than anybody in the world. I’m going to stick with this small-ball lineup no matter how big the Minnesota Timberwolves are. I’m going to do it my way because I only care about offense.”

"I’m JJ Redick, I know basketball more than anybody in the world…I never want to do this and blame this series on one individual, but I have to blame this series on JJ Redick." – Kendrick Perkins pic.twitter.com/26RWCXGtIN
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 1, 2025

Perkins further said that while he didn’t want to blame the series on one individual, he would “have to blame this series on JJ Redick.”

Also Read: The Los Angeles Lakers’ Championship Hopes Have Once Again Ended in the First Round of the Playoffs- What’s next for JJ Redick and the Group?

Brian Windhorst Calls Out JJ Redick For Lakers’ First-Round Series Loss

Apart from Perkins, Brian Windhorst also called out JJ Redick and said that he would soon realize that he didn’t put the team in the best winning position. Notably, Redick played all his starters for the entire second half, despite the fact that his stars including LeBron James and Luka Doncic were seemingly exhausted.

Calling out the same, Windhorst hailed Redick’s coaching style as immature and said, “JJ Redick coached very immaturely in this series.” He added, “He was still seething and upset about the previous games to the point where Reggie Miller said on the broadcast, he had to try to calm him down in the pregame meeting because JJ was acting, frankly, childishly.”

Brian Windhorst calls out JJ Redick after the Lakers lost in 5 to the Timberwolves.

"Reggie Miller said on the broadcast last night he had to try to calm him down in the pregame meeting because JJ was acting, frankly, childishly." pic.twitter.com/kRzpWvTE7j
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 1, 2025

Windhorst also called out the incident where Redick abruptly walked out of a press conference ahead of Game 5 when a reporter asked him if he didn’t discuss substitutions with his assistants. The pundit added, “He walked off and stormed off in the pregame session with reporters. Regardless of the question.”

In Game 4, the Lakers maintained a double-digit lead in the second half. However, they ultimately fell to Anthony Edwards’ 43 point-gameplay.

Also Read: LeBron James’ Recent Playoff Stats Indicate It Might Be Time for King James To Pull Curtains on His Glorious Career

JJ Redick

Kendrick Perkins

Los Angeles Lakers

Garima Ranawat

Garima is a sports writer with around two years of experience in Indian sports and a newfound interest in the NBA. Inspired by the leadership of cricketing legend MS Dhoni, she wishes to bring in newer perspectives to the NBA fanatics with her writing.