On Tuesday, Oct. 20, Lakers coach JJ Redick said his “biggest unknown” is how his new-look roster will “deal with adversity.” He spoke the day before the team’s 2026-27 opener, its first game since LeBron James left for Philadelphia.
Los Angeles enters the campaign with a roster built around Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves.
Redick said handling setbacks could look “different, maybe, in how we deal with adversity in November versus how we deal with adversity in March.” He predicted the group would be “really committed to each other,” but acknowledged that his large-market team faces an outsized amount of intense scrutiny whenever it struggles.
He noted the reaction to every loss in 2025-26: “[So, the sky was falling] 29 times.”
Redick also talked about defense. He said the Lakers looked like an average defense early in camp but that “our standards for that have elevated. We have the chance to be a good defense.”
The Lakers ranked 10th defensively during the preseason, but Redick cautioned against reading too much into that standing. He pointed to transition defense and defensive rebounding as the main weaknesses the team must address.
The lineup is still not set. Dončić, Reaves and Kessler will start, but Redick has yet to announce who will join them at the two forward positions. Redick used 12 different players in his starting lineups during the preseason as the Lakers posted a 2-3 record.
In the league’s annual survey of general managers, the Lakers were named one of the teams that are “toughest to predict.” Redick called the survey a “fun exercise” but said “predictions don’t mean anything.”
The Forward Spots Will Decide Whether the Defense Holds Up
Redick framed the open question as one of character, but the more concrete problem is on the floor. He named defensive rebounding as a top weakness, and two of the five spots that handle most of that work are still undecided going into the opener.
Twelve different preseason starters shows a coaching staff still testing combinations. That means the Lakers will probably face their first real adversity before they have a settled rotation to face it with.
How Redick fills the forward spots, and how quickly he commits to a pairing, will say more about where this team stands in November than any comment about its resolve.
The Lineup Becomes Public Against Golden State
The Lakers open the season Wednesday, Oct. 21, hosting the Warriors at 7 p.m. PT at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles. The game will be televised on ESPN.
The forward pairing Redick has not yet named will be revealed at tipoff, and the teams meet again Oct. 30 at Chase Center as an NBA Cup group game.
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