The Lakers opened training camp for the 2026-27 NBA season on Tuesday, and JJ Redick walked away from the first practice encouraged by what he saw. After day one, the head coach laid out the three things he wants this camp to hammer home.
“I have three goals for camp,” Redick said, via Infanity TV. “And it’s continue to establish our defensive principles, continue to establish our early offense, which has been our main priority for all of September.
And then lastly, just get in great shape. And so we’ve gotten terrific buy-in for the last several weeks, and today was very additive to those three things.”
It is a familiar theme for Redick, who also spent 15 seasons in the NBA and seems to have a soft spot for the number three. At media day a year ago, he said he wanted his players to be in championship shape, have championship communication, and championship habits.
That approach helped the Lakers put together a 53-29 season in 2025-26, giving Redick back-to-back 50-win seasons in his first two years on the job. There were plenty of questions when he was hired in 2024, especially since he had never coached even at the high school level, but he has settled in as a strong head coach.
Redick also said this is the first time in his three years with the Lakers that he feels the roster pieces actually fit. He added that he knows who three of the starters will be and joked that the other two won’t be white guys.
Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and Walker Kessler are locked in as three starters. They are the team’s three clear best players, while the final two spots are wide open with a long list of candidates. Training camp could end up deciding who gets the nod when the season starts, so there is plenty at stake over the next stretch.
One of the biggest things that stood out to Redick on opening day was the group of wings. He has already praised that part of the roster, and he doubled down when asked what excited him most.
“There’s more than one thing,” Redick said. “I think yeah, I told the team after this, our group of wings is deep, and we met with them last week about what their assignment is, and they understood the assignment today, and that was exciting. They set the tone for us defensively.
“There was a lot of physicality, a lot of grabbing and holding, a lot of disruption, without gambling,” Redick continued. “We don’t want [that].
We’re not telling guys to gamble, but we want disruption. And those guys did a great job.
The entire group did.”
The defensive side of the ball remains the big question for this Lakers group. With Doncic and Reaves leading the offense, the scoring should be there.
The concern is whether the defense can hold up, though Kessler believes the Lakers can become a nasty defensive team. If that turns out to be true, they could end up blowing past expectations.
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