EL SEGUNDO — Deploy the soldiers.
That was the message of Lakers assistant coach Greg St. Jean on Wednesday morning, referring to the defensive nature of the team’s wings.
Read more UCLA’s Bob Chesney follows Curt Cignetti on a similar path via different means
“The guys on the wing that know their assignment,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of St. Jean’s message. “We’re going to deploy them and they’re going to attack and they’re going to be aggressive.”
Offensive firepower on the Lakers is hard to ignore. Led by Luka Doncic, who led the NBA in scoring (33.5 ppg) last season, their 2026-27 roster has no shortage of shooting talent and shot creators. But during training camp – just two days into assembling the team’s identity with a full roster in the building – defense has been a leading topic in El Segundo.
“Our main priority is defense,” forward/center Sandro Mamukelashvili said. “Finding our strength, making sure we rotate correctly, make sure we are physical, we communicate, and I think that has been the tone for the past two days, making sure we are connected on defense and we’re moving the right way.”
Center Walker Kessler said the Lakers are going to be a “nasty defensive team.”
Guard Quentin Grimes said he believes “we can be one of the defensive teams in the league for sure.”
Redick has pointed to the plethora of wings – saying during his preseason news conference last week that there are six or seven players who could earn playing time. Those wings have already been called disruptors. Kessler and center Kevon Looney have already been identified as “commanders” of the defense, using their voices.
Redick said things were going so well Tuesday, he had to modify his plan and cut practice short.
“It was wonderful,” the third-year head coach said.
Star guard Austin Reaves broke down the first two days of practice in a few ways.
Things are going well, he said. But he also has a headache from being on the opposing side of five-on-five basketball as a specific grouping of Lakers.
“Trying to score on Matisse (Thybulle) and Ziaire (Williams), especially with Adou (Thiero) out there too, and then Walker on the back line is not easy,” Reaves said. “I had to deal with that all day yesterday and today, and it’s not fun.”
Thybulle, Williams and Thiero are part of that versatile wings unit, which Redick said he spoke with earlier this week about their assignment.
Thybulle has been named to the NBA’s All-Defense second team twice in his career, and is widely considered one of the league’s best defenders when healthy.
“Matisse is such a unique player; he just really is,” Redick said. “I think our guys, hopefully at some point this season, will pick up on the fact that if he’s in the passing lane, you shouldn’t pass the ball over there because he’s probably going to steal it. We’ve already seen that happen about seven times in live play.”
Read more Can Dodgers’ hitters carry September momentum into October?
Thiero has shown in leaps and bounds his high-flying athleticism. Williams expressed to the Southern California News Group during the offseason the coaching staff’s desire for him to be a point-of-attack defender.
“With Matisse, he’s an All-NBA defender, has been,” Grimes said. “Ziaire has shown what he can do in the league defensively. And I’ve shown what I can do in the league defensively for a while. And I feel like when all three of us are on the court today, they were like, ‘pick your poison.’”
Redick said on Tuesday that the wings have set the tone for the team defensively; emphasizing “disruption without gambling.”
“There was a lot of physicality, a lot of grabbing and holding,” Redick said Tuesday. “We’re not telling guys to gamble, but we want disruption. And those guys, those guys did a great job. The entire group did.”
There is one Lakers guard who identified himself as a player who needs to step up defensively: Collin Sexton.
The 27-year-old, who averaged 15.4 points per game for the Charlotte Hornets and Chicago Bulls last season, said he has been studying how Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart approached their roles when they played for the Lakers – becoming defensive tone-setters and pests for the team.
“I know how much I can impact ball pressure, how I can start picking up full court and just being disruptive on the defensive end,” Sexton said Monday when asked about his defensive role. “And I think not doing it always, but picking and choosing the flow of the game and trying to change the pace of the game a little bit on the defensive side. I think that’s something that me and the coaches, we’ve been talking (about), how I can bring that competitive juice, but also that physicality and ball pressure.”
Grimes also mentioned potentially “sliding in” to Smart’s role on the team last season, a vacant defensive spot that helped inspire the Lakers’ late-season run during March.
Defense isn’t the Lakers’ clearest strength. Some league analysts have already gone so far as to say it will be a weakness for the team this season.
But in the early days, these players believe their defense can send a message to the test of the NBA.
“I feel like that’s kind of cool to fly under the radar, and we’ll surprise people maybe during the season,” Grimes said.
Read more Ducks 2026-27 season preview: 3 questions after a frenzied offseason