Add The California Post on Google The Lakers enter training camp with coach JJ Redick feeling “pretty confident” in three of the five spots.
Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and Walker Kessler will make up 60% of the first unit as the team’s “Big Three”.
Redick doesn’t know who will fill those slots, but was confident in making a declaration with what won’t happen with the roster.
“The other two spots will not be two white guys,” Redick quipped during Thursday’s joint media availability with general manager Rob Pelinka. “Those are the two things that’s not changing.”
So that counts out the final two starters being a combination of Jake LaRavia, Sandro Mamukelashvili and/or Dalton Knecht.
But that also leaves room for at least one of them to join the first unit.
Redick’s comment came after an offseason in which there were several jokes about the racial breakdown of the Lakers’ 2026-27 roster, which includes six white players.
Matt Barnes, the former Lakers forward and current “All the Smoke” co-host, joined in on the jokes, saying to the California Post in an exclusive interview earlier in September, “They’re calling them the ‘Snowtime Lakers’ – a play on the Lakers’ successful “Showtime” era.
But even with Redick joking about how his team’s starting lineup won’t look, there are still plenty of options for how the first unit will be around Doncic, Reaves and Kessler.
LaRavia and Mamukelashvili will compete for a starting spot – albeit it sounds like only one of them could actually earn the nod.
Newcomers Quentin Grimes, Matissa Thybulle and Ziaire Williams will also factor into the starting lineup competition.
With nine new players on the roster, there are a lot of directions the Lakers could go with the final two starting spots.
“We have great wing depth, and I’m really excited for camp to start next week and for us to go through the preseason process,” Redick said. “There’s a lot of minutes, there’s starting spots that are up for grabs. We’re going to have a highly competitive camp.”
And even with the competition, it’s apparent what direction the Lakers won’t go in with the two starters alongside Doncic, Reaves and Walker.
