The Los Angeles Lakers overhauled more than half of their roster in the summer of 2026. That included a ton of free agency spending. The financial commitments that Rob Pelinka made have not made an impact on who JJ Redick has chosen to feature thus far.
Mainly, that comes in the form of the starting lineup. Redick has opted for Matisse Thybulle and Ziaire Williams to be his starting combination on the wings. To his credit, that has looked like the right call in the present, amid the Lakers' 3-0 start. Thybulle and Williams are both thriving.
It just feels a touch odd given where Pelinka chose to invest the majority of the offseason money. Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili, and Collin Sexton were the four big acquisitions with which the Lakers started their spending spree in free agency.
Combined, those players are making up roughly $66 million on the cap books this season. About $36.3 million of that money is entering the game off the bench. Kessler has been the only player to start. Grimes, Mamukelashvili, and Sexton have all been second-unit contributors.
JJ Redick is not letting money dictate any of his starting lineup decisions
This is by no means any indictment of Redick, or even Pelinka. It is simply an interesting observation of how things have played out thus far for the Lakers.
Typically, when a team spends big like Los Angeles did over the summer, you would anticipate the big-money additions to be the guys who are prominently featured. Instead, Redick has two players who are on minimum deals in his starting lineup. Money talks, just not to JJ, apparently.
In all fairness, it is not like the $36.3 million given to Grimes, Mamukelashvili, and Sexton has been an afterthought by any means. Each of those guys have received a fair bit of playing time off the bench.
Grimes (26.0) is actually averaging more minutes than Thybulle (24.3), despite coming in with the second unit. Mamukelashvili is playing 22.3 minutes per night. Sexton, even while being eased in following his preseason injury, has also gotten a healthy 18.0 minutes in his first two games.
Changes can still come throughout the year. The Lakers have not even had all their potential contributors available with Adou Thiero and Cameron Carr yet to be made available for a regular season game. Perhaps more data will invite Redick to tinker with the formula eventually. in any case, the numbers JJ will look at will have nothing to do with the financial figures.
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