LOS ANGELES -- As the Los Angeles Lakers finish their final preparations for the first game of the post-LeBron James era, coach JJ Redick said Tuesday that his "biggest unknown" is how his new-look roster will "deal with adversity."
"That's different for every team," Redick said. "That's different, maybe, in how we deal with adversity in November versus how we deal with adversity in March. Hopefully, there's growth throughout the season so we can deal with adversity in the right way, and that will ultimately prepare us for a deep playoff run."
Though Redick predicted that the Lakers will prove to be "really committed to each other," he acknowledged that his large-market team faces an outsized amount of intense scrutiny whenever it struggles.
"It could be [Wednesday] night, you're going to come to me and tell me that the world is ending and the sky is falling," Redick said. "We've got to work through that together. [The scrutiny] depends on the team and depends on the market. With the Lakers, how many times did we lose last year? Twenty-nine times? [So, the sky was falling] 29 times."
Luka Doncic and the Lakers will open the season Wednesday hosting Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena. The Lakers enter the season without James, who spent the past eight seasons as the face of the franchise. Additionally, Rui Hachimura, Marcus Smart, Deandre Ayton, Luke Kennard, Jaxson Hayes, Gabe Vincent, Dalton Knecht and Maxi Kleber all departed from last season's roster.
During a transformative summer, the Lakers acquired starting center Walker Kessler in a sign-and-trade with the Utah Jazz, drafted Cameron Carr in the first round, and added Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Collin Sexton, Ziaire Williams, Matisse Thybulle and Kevon Looney in free agency.
As a result of that extensive overhaul around stars Doncic and Austin Reaves, NBA general managers dubbed the Lakers as one of the league's "toughest to predict" teams in an annual survey. Redick dismissed that label, saying that the survey was a "fun exercise" but that "predictions don't mean anything."
But the lingering unknowns about the Lakers include their opening night starting lineup. Doncic, 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.
Reaves, who is now the Lakers' longest-tenured player, says he believes this season's group is composed of "high-character guys" who will "come together when adversity hits instead of splitting apart."
"We're good enough to win a lot of games, but I don't think we're as good as we can be," Reaves said. "With the [repetitions] and in-game competition and going through adversity, that will only build us to be better in the long haul."