Chris Manon is in the Los Angeles Lakers’ projected 2026-27 rotation as a point-of-attack defender when needed. That gives the two-way wing a defined job before preseason even starts, while the team is still sorting through open minutes on both ends of the floor.
JJ Redick has two of the team’s five starting positions open and says the bench rotation is open as well. Quentin Grimes is expected to take one of those openings, while Collin Sexton is lined up as the primary offensive reserve at point guard.
Chris Mañon and the Lakers’ perimeter
The Lakers list 16 players under standard contracts, which leaves the rotation crowded even before the first preseason game. Chris Mañon fits into that squeeze as a defensive option rather than a volume-minute projection, the kind of player a staff can call on when the matchup requires a steadier body at the point of attack.
That role is narrower than the one Grimes appears set to inherit. Grimes carries the fourth-highest salary on the team for 2026-27 at $14 million, a sign that the Lakers are preparing him for a larger nightly load while Mañon is slotted behind the main offensive pieces.
Quentin Grimes at the front
Quentin Grimes is the clearest beneficiary of the Lakers’ unfinished roster picture. With two starting jobs still open, he is the player identified as most likely to claim one of them, which makes the opening days of camp more about sorting responsibilities than inventing them from scratch.
Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves sit at the center of the offensive plan, so the remaining questions turn to who handles the defensive pressure on the perimeter and who absorbs the first reserve minutes. That is where Mañon’s name matters: not as a headline scorer, but as a player the staff may trust when it needs one more stop.
Monday in Sacramento
On Monday in Sacramento, the preseason opener against the Kings should give the first real clues about how much of that projection holds. Dalton Knecht already looks like the odd man out at this stage, and the early minutes will show whether the Lakers keep Mañon in that emergency defensive lane or widen the assignment.
For now, the best read is plain: the Lakers have 16 players, open starting spots, and a bench still in flux, so Chris Mañon’s path runs through defense first. If he gets onto the floor in that role, it will say as much about the Lakers’ need for perimeter resistance as it does about his own place in the rotation race.
