“One of the things that I brought up with [Anthony Davis] was the idea of him being a hub,” said JJ Redick during his introductory press. 7 months later, a lot has changed in the Lakers roster. The Lakers shook the sporting world with the blockbuster trade. While we imagined Anthony Davis to carry the team’s legacy post-James era, Rob Pelinka replaced him with Luka Doncic. Undoubtedly, it’s a massive upgrade despite his conditioning woes.

Now, the blockbuster has left the Lakers fans in a cautious thrill. To be precise, the pressure of winning the 18th ring and carrying the rich legacy has been placed on a 25-year-old with serious fitness concerns. However, the fans can finally smile—at least for the moment—as the team revealed a solution for two major roadblocks. Most importantly, LeBron James may not receive one of the solutions very well.

Firstly, we have Luka Doncic’s word for his injury concerns. The last time the NBA world saw him on the court was on 25th December 2024 and he hasn’t played a single game since then, dealing with a calf strain. While Luka is only days away from returning to court, more importantly, as a Laker, there’s a major concern. Calf injury is something that he has been dealing with for quite some time. Notably, he missed playoff games in 2022 with the same injury.

Organically, a reporter directed a question regarding Luka’s recurring injuries at his introductory press conference. This was where the Slovenian star gave the solution for one of the roadblocks. “For the first time, I took my time to get it to heal 100. Other times, I think I just wanted to go back in quarter, playing basketball. and not really be healthy 100%  This time I just took my time which was normal amount of time to 100%,” said LukaMagic. While we hope for an injury-free Luka show, Rob Pelinka cleared another roadblock this time, which may upset LeBron James.

Rob Pelinka unveiled the Lakers’ new phase with Luka Doncic

We all know how badly LeBron James wanted to win his 5th ring. Most importantly, the Lakers also want to win their next championship. However, JJ Redick, during his intro press made it very clear that he was focused on something more than just winning a ring. He wanted to develop a “championship-caliber” team.

Well, we are only halfway through it. Speaking of the Lakers’ next phase, Pelinka said, “We know our roster has continued work to do to become complete and just to be clear around the vision for our roster, we’re going to build a roster that fits JJ Redick’s Philosophy. His basketball philosophy. That’s something that we believe in that we support and we want to lean into. So in terms of roster decisions JJ and I collaborate extensively around that and fitting how he wants to play.”

Moreover, looking at JJ’s vision, the star coach’s philosophy is simple. It’s player development and combining that with high-level strategy and high-level attention to detail on the basketball court. Even though JJ wants to win a ring, he wants to do it the right way. It’s by developing a ‘Champion-caliber’ team. It may take a season or two but does James have time? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.