JJ Redick might be the most capable podcaster in NBA coaching history. In all seriousness, the Los Angeles Lakers head coach has nearly made everyone forget how inexperienced the critics called him after his initial hire. This next season can help distance him even further from that label.
Redick approaches his third season as a head coach with the challenge of making the pieces of a brand-new team fit together. As things stand, the Lakers will have nine new faces in Los Angeles when accounting for just the main roster alone. That kind of roster retool comes with plenty of questions for the bench boss.
Who completes the Lakers' starting lineup?
This is the question on everyone's mind right now. Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Walker Kessler, and Quentin Grimes are expected to make up four of the five starters in Los Angeles. Who gets that last spot?
If Jonathan Kuminga arrives via free agency, there might be a relatively easy answer to this question. If the free agent forward chooses another team, Redick's job will be much more difficult.
Would the Lakers coach consider a by-committee approach to the starting forward spot? Or, does Redick have an early favorite in mind from the internal options currently available to him? There are few subjects more fascinating.
Does JJ Redick still run a nine-man rotation in 2026-27?
Almost as an extension of the first question here, after Redick figures out who his starters are, it will be just as interesting to see how many players are regularly coming off the bench for him this season. Does the Lakers coach still go with nine?
Largely, that was Redick's preference last season. However, that may have had to do with the Lakers' shallow depth on the roster as much as anything else.
Rob Pelinka took a page out of the Oklahoma City Thunder's playbook and pushed for more capable bodies heading into next season. Long gone is the three-star formula with limited options beyond them. Does that invite Redick to naturally include more players in the rotation on a nightly basis?
How big is the offensive burden on Luka Doncic?
Speaking of abandoning the three-star approach, LeBron James is gone and so is the Lakers' second-highest usage player from last season. How do his touches and offensive impact get redistributed and does it involve Doncic's offensive burden increasing?
"Hopefully not" should be the answer. Luka already led the league in usage percentage during the 2025-26 season at 38.1 percent. Anything more would be signing him up to get gassed or hurt (again).
When the Dallas Mavericks made their run to the NBA Finals in 2024, Doncic posted the second-lowest usage percentage of his career, only trailing his first playoff run with the Lakers. Redick will need to find a way to share the offensive load in 2026-27 with the new arrivals.
How does Lakers defense evolve with Walker Kessler?
Kessler is the type of elite defensive center that a good coach can build an entire defense around. That creates natural curiosity as to how Redick plans to do that in the upcoming campaign.
Redick found success defensively last season by getting the Lakers to play more zone and man-zone hybrids as the season went along. After the All-Star break, Los Angeles ranked 14th with a defensive rating of 113.4.
Some are already under the impression that Redick has his work cut out for him following an offseason that focused more on the offensive end than the defensive side of the court. However, Kessler gives JJ the type of weapon down low that he has yet to have in his first run as a coach.
Watching the tactical shift that comes with that will be a must. Will the Lakers naturally start playing a scheme built around maximizing Kessler in drop coverage? Does Redick accomplish that while keeping elements of what made Los Angeles successful last season?
The offense should come easy for the Lakers between all the talented players and Redick's natural aptitude for that end. Defense will be a much bigger question mark. The answer of how to be solid on that side of the court starts with the proper utilization of Kessler for Los Angeles.
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