When first asked on Sept. 24 about the Lakers’ potential Opening Night starting lineup, coach JJ Redick provided clarity, humor and also uncertainty. 

The obvious clarity: Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and Walker Kessler would make up 60% of the team’s first unit. 

The humor: Redick saying the two other starters “will not be two white guys”.

And the uncertainty came from Redick openly acknowledging both of the final two starting spots were up for grabs. 

Nearly 2 ½ weeks later, the Lakers are still figuring out who’ll fill those two final starting spots for the regular season opener against the Warriors on Oct. 21 at Crypto.com Arena.

The nature of the Lakers’ first week of preseason has made it challenging for the team to assess who should fill those starting spots.

Reaves and Kessler both sat out of the preseason-opening win over the Kings on Oct. 5, in addition to Collin Sexton being sidelined, while Doncic, Reaves, Kessler, Sexton, Matisse Thybulle and Ziaire Williams sat out of the matchup against the Warriors on Oct. 6, which was the second night of a back-to-back. 

Reaves made his preseason debut, and Doncic and Thybulle played, in the Oct. 8 home win over the Kings, but Kessler, Williams and Sexton remained sidelined, with Kessler and Sexton yet to make their preseason debut. 

Kessler’s status for his potential preseason debut in Tuesday’s exhibition against the Warriors in Las Vegas hasn’t been determined yet.

Redick said Sexton, who’s dealing with a lower right left injury, is “probably a little bit further behind” Kessler. 

The Lakers’ player-availability changes have made it difficult for Redick and his staff to determine starters with 1 ½ weeks before the games start to matter in the standings.  

“I would say we’ve certainly seen glimpses of the things we like,” Redick said. “It’s hard because we’ve just been a little disjointed with the guys being banged up, so there’s nothing definitive yet.”

While the Lakers are using the final week to figure out who the starters will be, Quentin Grimes is primed to be one of those starters.

The 26-year-old wing has started in all three of the team’s preseason games so far, averaging 13.4 points (53.4% shooting, 46.2% on 3-pointers), regardless of who else was available. 

“Feel like Quentin is a really nice complement to Luka and AR,” Redick said of Grimes last week. “He’s obviously got the experience of playing with Luka prior in Dallas. In all our team building, it was about finding guys that complement Luka and AR, and we feel like we did that.”

That leaves one starting spot open, with Ziaire Williams receiving a lot of praise for what he’s shown behind the scenes. 

The 6-foot-10 forward played a significant part in setting the defensive tone in the preseason-opening win over the Kings, but has been limited over the last several days because of a foot contusion. 

But the Lakers have been impressed by what the Lancaster native has shown. 

“Activity, length, shot-making, plays the game the right way,” Reaves said of Williams. “[He] checks all of the right boxes for a guy you want on your team.”

Jake LaRavia has also impressed during the preseason, averaging 12.7 points (63.6% shooting), 3.3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals in the three preseason exhibitions.

He’s also showcased an improved jump shot (54.5% on 3s). 

“He’s worked on his shot,” Redick said. “There’s a lot of things that we did this summer.  And he was really focusing on three very minor tweaks. From there, he felt really comfortable with those tweaks. And so from there, it just comes down to repetition. And from repetition, you get confidence. That’s just the way shooting works: It’s form, repetition, confidence. It’s hard to have confidence without the first two. And it’s hard to have good repetitions if your form sucks. 

“And it’s not that his form sucked, his form had a really good base. But he just made small tweaks. He’s shot the ball really well in practice. In our live play, we tracked all the stats throughout every practice we’ve had so far, he shot it well. He shot it [well in games]. So he’s in a great place offensively. And then you add in all the stuff that he does: The intangible stuff, defensively and 50-50 balls, all that stuff. He’s a really valuable player.”

Notably, second-year forward Adou Thiero started in the most recent game against the Kings, when Williams was sidelined but Sandro Mamukelashvili, LaRavia and Thybulle were available.