Lakers Post Job Listing for Head Strength and Conditioning Coach After Redick Remarks

The Los Angeles Lakers are taking action to address head coach JJ Redick's concerns about the team's conditioning.

The Lakers listed a job opening for a "Head Strength and Conditioning Coach" last week on TeamWorkOnline, as noted by NBA on ESPN.

Redick told reporters after the Lakers' Game 5 elimination by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the 2025 NBA playoffs that his team had "a ways to go" in terms of conditioning.

"Certainly there are individuals that were in phenomenal shape, there's certainly other ones that could have been in better shape," Redick said after the Lakers' 103-96 elimination loss on May 1. "That's where my mind goes immediately, is we have to get in championship shape."

The job posting, which offers a salary range of $200,000 to $250,000 per year, seeks a trainer who will help each player design an individual strength and conditioning plan and tasks the candidate with "motivating players and holding them accountable for their work in the weight room."

Among the essential functions listed with the posting are being able to document players' ability to meet weightlifting and conditioning goals and "effectively motivate athletes to achieve maximum potential in all areas of performance."

ESPN's Brian Windhorst said Wednesday on Get Up that it was "a little unusual" for a team to issue a public job posting for this kind of position, but that the Lakers "do operate a little differently than a lot of teams."

If the Lakers fill the position this summer, the new conditioning coach might not get to work with Luka Dončić immediately. ESPN's Dave McMenamin reported after the Lakers' elimination that Dončić plans to play for the Slovenian men's national team in this summer's EuroBasket tournament, and that he will be working with own conditioning coaches "throughout the offseason."

ESPN's Tim MacMahon previously reported that the Dallas Mavericks' disagreement with Dončić's decision to hire his own "body team" of Slovenian national team strength coach Anže Maček and physiotherapist Javier Barrio Calvo was part of the reason why the Mavs ultimately traded him. The Lakers will likely hope to strike a better balance between their incoming hire and Dončić's staff ahead of the 2025-26 season.