JJ Redick Encouraged By Lakers’ Early-Season Chemistry

The Los Angeles Lakers have exceeded expectations to begin the season as they currently are tied for the best record in the league at 8-2.

After completely overhauling the roster this past offseason, everyone thought it would take some time for the team to gel, but things are already starting to click early in the season and head coach JJ Redick is happy with what he’s seen.

“I think we’re already a really together group,” Redick said after the team’s recent win over the Portland Trail Blazers. “You don’t become a resilient team in 10 games, five games, or 20 games. It takes a full season to build that resiliency, and hopefully, you get to participate in the playoffs. And that’s where your resiliency really gets tested, whatever you built throughout this season. But the fact that this is a very together group, and we’ve already shown a level of resiliency, it’s exciting. It’s promising that I don’t want to continue to vote on that.”

The Lakers got a head start on their chemistry-building process when the whole team joined Luka Doncic is Slovenia for a minicamp to get to know each other. Redick then led a strong training camp and preseason, which had the Lakers prepared to compete from the jump.

JJ Redick likes how Lakers have responded to adversity

The Lakers have already faced some adversity this season with injuries and early-game deficits. But Redick likes how his team has responded while acknowledging they are still a work in progress.

“Again, I’m not just saying this, we all want good results,” Redick said. “This is gonna be a long process, and it’s gonna take time for us to become a great basketball team. I like that our guys have responded to some adversity. Tonight was a great example where we get down pretty big, early, and we just stick with it. I told them at halftime, ‘I don’t get upset if you’re executing and you’re playing hard. Can we execute a little better?’ That was the question posed at halftime, and I thought they did a good job of that. Same for a few plays there in the fourth.”

The Lakers will head out on their first extended road trip of the season starting with Sunday’s matchup against the Detroit Pistons. That will tell Redick more about his team and the direction they are headed in moving forward.