The Los Angeles Lakers were knocked out of the first round of the playoffs in Game 5 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and some would like to point their fingers at head coach JJ Redick. In the last two games of the series, he made some rotation decisions that some would agree with, and it may have cost them the game.

Redick was asked before Game 5 about his decision to keep his starters in for the entire second half of Game 4, and it seemed like he was not a fan of the question. After he gave a response, he swiftly walked out of the pregame press conference. There were many against Redick's actions, but Jay Williams was the one person who stood up for him.

“JJ Redick didn’t storm out. He exposed the echo chamber show. The problem isn’t his temper — it’s a media culture that confuses ‘gotcha’ questions with journalism. Y’all begged for new voices in coaching… now you’re mad they’re not playing the old PR game,” Williams wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

In most cases, coaches would answer the question but keep it nice and simple. Williams thinks that Redick may have known it was a setup to get him to say something that was clickbait material.

JJ Redick walks out of pregame presser

Before the Lakers stepped out onto the court for Game 5, Redick held his pregame press conference and was asked if he would lean on his assistants more in this game after not making a substitution in the fourth quarter of Game 4.

“Are you saying that because I'm inexperienced and that was an inexperienced decision that I made? You think I don't talk to my assistants about substitutions every single timeout,” Redick said.

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The reporter responded with “No, I just think there's a lot of coaches lean on their assistants in those situations.”

“As do I. That's a weird assumption,” Redick said.

Redick then stormed out of the press conference, and many people were left confused about what had left him so angry. The Lakers went on to lose Game 5, but not in the same way that they lost the previous game. Redick made sure to give players such as Luka Doncic and LeBron James breaks in the second half, but it still wasn't enough to overcome an athletic and young Timberwolves team.

The Lakers will now have to go back to the drawing board and see how they can get better next season.