When your favorite team makes an early, ugly exit from the NBA playoffs, especially when everyone had sky-high expectations, the silence from the organization can feel deafening for a fanbase that lives and breathes basketball. You’re literally replaying every bad pass, every missed shot, every questionable coaching call in your head. So, when a key figure finally pops up in public, looking like they’re just chilling, it can feel like a straight-up slap in the face to fans still deep in their post-playoff mourning. That seems to be exactly what’s happening with the Lakers community after rookie head coach JJ Redick was spotted for the first time since his team’s seriously disappointing playoff flameout.

The moment that got the Lakers faithful buzzing (and low-key fuming) came courtesy of the Los Angeles Rams’ official Instagram account. They dropped a picture of JJ Redick and Rams head coach Sean McVay looking all chummy, deep in conversation, with the caption: “Thank you Coach Redick for stopping by today! 🤝”.

Redick was at the Rams’ facility, checking out their first day of OTAs and seeing how McVay, a Super Bowl-winning coach, runs his ship. This was JJ’s first real public appearance since the Lakers got unceremoniously bounced from the playoffs. Talk about timing! Now, let’s rewind to why this might be grinding some serious gears.

The Lakers’ season was a total rollercoaster that ultimately crashed way too soon for many. After making a huge splash by acquiring Luka Doncic to pair with their existing stars, expectations were through the roof. And to be fair, the regular season under first-year coach JJ Redick was pretty solid on paper – a 50-32 record, nabbing the No. 3 seed in a tough Western Conference. But then the playoffs hit, and it all came crashing down.

The Lakers were unceremoniously dumped out in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves. For a team with championship aspirations and a #3 seed, a first-round exit is nothing short of a disaster. So, when that picture of Redick at the Rams’ practice dropped, let’s just say the Lakers community wasn’t exactly sending congratulatory high-fives. The frustration is still raw, and seeing their coach seemingly unwinding with another LA team while they’re still processing the playoff failure? It definitely did not sit well with a lot of people.

“Lakers in 5! oh wait…”: Fans let JJ Redick hear it after playoff flop

The online reactions were swift and pretty brutal, summing up the current mood perfectly. That initial wave of “fire the coach” is just the tip of the iceberg when a fanbase feels let down. The sarcasm and the pointed questions? Those cut even deeper. One of the most common, and painful, refrains you see after a highly-touted team flames out early is the mockery of those sky-high preseason predictions. That “Lakers in 5!” energy that was probably buzzing around L.A. before the playoffs? It came back to bite, as one fan sarcastically commented: “Lakers in 5! Oh wait...”

You can just feel the disappointment dripping off that one. After a regular season that saw them grab the #3 seed with a solid 50-32 record, and with a superstar duo like LeBron James and the newly acquired Luka Doncic, a first-round exit at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves was a bitter pill to swallow.

Another didn’t mince words, hitting him with: “JJ should get fired lol. Terrible coach.“ That might sound harsh for a coach who just won 50 games and got a #3 seed, but for a fanbase like the Lakers’, it’s championship or bust. A first-round flameout, especially after landing a superstar like Doncic, just isn’t going to cut it, and the coach is often the first one to catch the heat when expectations aren’t met. Playoff success is the only currency that really matters in Lakerland.

Then there are the classic coaching critiques, especially when it comes to rotations and trusting your depth (or not trusting it, as the case may be). Another fan, clearly still stewing over how that playoff series against the Timberwolves went down, had a very specific (and very loud) question for Redick: “Ask him if he knows he has a 18 man roster??? If he answers yes then ask why he only played 5 players the whole 4th quarter!!!”

In that crucial Game 4 loss to the Timberwolves (116-113, which put the Lakers in a 3-1 hole they wouldn’t recover from), JJ Redick actually played only five guys for the entire second half. We’re talking LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and Dorian Finney-Smith (who came off the bench to be part of that ironman five).

According to NBA statistician Keerthika Uthayakumar, this was the first time since the play-by-play era began in 1996-97 that any team had used only five players for an entire playoff half. That’s wild. Even though Luka (38 points) and LeBron (27 points) both denied fatigue was a factor, saying they just missed point-blank shots, that fourth-quarter collapse with a super-tight rotation is exactly the kind of decision that will have fans questioning a rookie coach.

And for some fans, it wasn’t just what Redick was doing, but the fact that he seemed to disappear after the season ended so abruptly. The Rams photo op was, for many, the first time they’d seen or heard from him since the Lakers were eliminated. That led to comments like this: “Nice to see JJ still alive lol. Haven’t seen him since the end of the season.” “Bro what’re you doing on a football! Nah man get back on the court we got a chip to win next year..there’s no time for this vacation and learning from other coaches bs lol.”

Fans want accountability. They want to hear from the coach, and when there’s silence, followed by a casual appearance at another team’s practice? It can definitely rub people the wrong way. Ultimately, for a segment of the fanbase, the regular season success just doesn’t matter when the playoff performance falls flat.

All the tactical debates, all the what-ifs, boil down to how the playoffs went. Fifty wins and a #3 seed are nice, but in L.A., banners are what count.