The five biggest questions still facing Luka and the Lakers
WITH LESS THAN half-hour till tipoff earlier than the Los Angeles Lakers’ preseason recreation towards the Golden State Warriors final week, Luka Doncic was the solely participant on the courtroom.
While each rosters readied themselves in the locker rooms at T-Mobile Arena, Doncic — given the night time off by Lakers coach JJ Redick — used each little bit of the hardwood for a basket-to-basket battle towards three of L.A. assistant coaches.
In an train designed to faucet into the mixture of ferociousness and pleasure that Redick says is the optimum emotional airplane for the 27-year-old star, Doncic was not given an inch by Lakers head video coordinator Michael Wexler.
The 5-foot-11 Wexler, a gritty guard who earned a spot on the Pepperdine basketball staff, was armed with a foam-covered persist with bat at the arms and prod at the physique of the six-time All-Star.
Lakers participant improvement coach Justin Robinson — standing 6-foot-9 with a sturdy body, like his “Admiral” dad — waited for the proper time to crowd Doncic with a double staff.
And then there was Lakers assistant coach Greg St. Jean, who, although he was technically on Doncic’s staff in case he wanted to go out of the double to reset the offensive possession, often broke the guidelines and blitzed Doncic, too.
One journey down, Doncic tried a pull-up 3. The subsequent, he acquired Wexler and Robinson to chew with a hesitation dribble and blew by them for a lay-in.
On one other, he planted himself at the foul line and launched the one-legged fadeaway jumper that fueled the Hall of Fame profession of his former Dallas Mavericks teammate Dirk Nowitzki.
After half-a-dozen full-court possessions, Doncic caught his breath and shot 45-foot bombs from the sideline.
When he airballed one, Wexler snickered.
“It’s not an easy shot, OK?” Doncic barked again.
After the break, Doncic blazed down the left facet of the courtroom and veered again via the lane with a right-hand dribble when Wexler lower him off.
With all of his momentum taking him towards the sideline, Doncic put the ball in his left hand, prolonged that arm again towards the basket and flipped in a finger roll over Wexler’s head, eliciting an “oooohhhh” from the a whole bunch of followers in the decrease bowl.
After the bucket, Doncic flipped his center finger in entrance of Wexler’s face.
Retribution.
Lakers president of basketball operations and basic supervisor Rob Pelinka watched all of this unfold from the bench, sitting subsequent to Doncic’s physiotherapist, Javy Barrio.
If it is the coaches’ duty to encourage Doncic with inventive drills like this 15-minute pregame gauntlet in Las Vegas, it is Barrio’s job to maintain him wholesome, after a late-season hamstring harm sidelined him for the playoffs final spring.
Which leaves Pelinka tasked with constructing a staff round Doncic’s spectacular expertise — he secured the second scoring title of his profession final season by topping 40 factors 16 occasions — that may contend for a championship.
Doncic’s pregame show in Vegas left little doubt that he’ll be as thrilling as ever to observe this season.
But there are still main questions facing this Lakers staff, with the season about to open Wednesday towards the Warriors (7 p.m. PT, ESPN).
Doncic is undoubtedly the greatest participant on the Lakers. But is he prepared to guide them?
With LeBron James signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in free company this summer time, the pathway was cleared for Doncic to formally develop into the subsequent face of the franchise.
His work started nearly instantly.
He supplied suggestions to the entrance workplace because it constructed out the roster, notably requesting an “A-list center,” sources informed ESPN.
“When you can co-create something that’s powerful with a star like Luka, and retrofit a team around him, then there’s buy-in,” Pelinka stated final month. “We love those roundtable discussions where ideas are shared.”
And then he footed the invoice to host the total staff for a four-day minicamp and bonding journey in his hometown of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in August.
“I think there is a natural chemistry with this group that I think started over the summer,” Redick stated throughout coaching camp, crediting Doncic’s function in fostering it. Doncic has given the staff motive to imagine in him.
He has maintained a exercise and dietary routine that resulted in an improved physique that he confirmed off on the cowl of Men’s Health in summer time 2025.
“When you got a guy like Luka, going into the game you feel like you can beat anybody,” Lakers backup heart Kevon Looney stated. “We feel like if we do our job, he’s going to do his job and he’s going to clinch us the game.”
Redick informed ESPN he already empowered Doncic to take management final season.
“There were really two dynamics for us,” Redick informed ESPN. “We like to use the term ‘partnership.’ I don’t want him to view me as an authoritarian or anything like that. It’s a partnership. It’s open dialogue and all that stuff, which I think he likes.
“And then the second half … your greatest offensive gamers ought to really feel a degree of freedom and a degree of autonomy to be inventive, however they have to do this inside the construction of the staff and the offense.”
Doncic, if he stays healthy, provides stable, star-level production. It’s the rest of the roster where questions remain.
Do they belong in the championship conversation?
Doncic told ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on media day that he believes the Lakers can win it all this season.
“I really feel like I say these items loads, however if you happen to do not assume we will win a championship, you then should not be right here,” he said. “I’m all the time going to imagine. If I do not imagine, no one believes. So I want to indicate that I imagine — which I truthfully do — and go from there.”
Outside projections aren’t as optimistic. ESPN’s Basketball Power Index gives them just an 11% chance to make the Western Conference finals.
The competitors — from the champion New York Knicks and Western Conference champ San Antonio Spurs; to 2025 champion Oklahoma City Thunder; to different latest champs in the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets; to the revamped groups in Philadelphia, Minnesota and Miami — is stiff.
But even leaving these groups out of it, is it sensible to convey up title discuss?
Their new staff not solely has little expertise collectively, however some key, new items have little expertise on the sport’s biggest stage. L.A.’s 4 big-ticket free brokers in Walker Kessler (4 years, $130 million), Quentin Grimes (4 years, $60 million), Sandro Mamukelashvili (4 years, $52 million) and Collin Sexton (two years, $27 million) have began simply six playoff video games of their careers mixed.
Redick shares his star’s confidence in the group, nonetheless.
“Unless somebody blatantly tells me that we’re not trying to win, I think that every year,” Redick stated of his perception in the Lakers’ possibilities. “I think because of our talent, because of our fit, because of our depth, I really like our team.”
Is Walker Kessler sufficient to shore up their shoddy protection?
He’ll actually assist.
L.A. mortgaged what was left of its future to land the 7-foot-2 massive man, sending two unprotected future first-round picks and two decide swaps to the Utah Jazz in the deal.
“If you look at what you could potentially get in the draft or what is potentially going to come in free agency, those centers just don’t exist,” Pelinka stated final month.
“So when the opportunity comes and you have a superstar like Luka in your building, you have to seize it. And we feel very comfortable and confident about that decision and what we put into it.”
The Lakers had been keen to pay the monumental worth to repair their most urgent downside: their protection.
L.A. completed twentieth in protection final season, permitting 115.5 factors per 100 possessions, a regression from Redick’s first 12 months when the Lakers completed seventeenth.
The attraction of Kessler, 25, past being on the identical profession timeline as Doncic and the 28-year-old Austin Reaves, is his talent set, which ought to enable Redick to make use of a base protection he’s extra comfy with.
“We have the guys that can pick up full court and guard and be disruptive and then we have Walker back there,” Redick stated of this 12 months’s staff, which additionally contains Sexton, Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle.
The Lakers switched 40.6% of the time towards on-ball screens in the final two seasons beneath Redick, the highest charge in the league over that point, in line with GeniusIQ.
Kessler not often performed that means in Utah, switching solely 10% of the time in his profession towards on-ball screens and enjoying in a drop scheme 52% of the time.
Kessler’s 2.4 blocks per recreation profession common is the second greatest in the league since 2022-23, behind solely the Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama.
And in that point, he additionally ranks in the high 10 in opponent area objective share amongst the 41 gamers to contest not less than 2,000 photographs inside five ft of the basket, in line with ESPN analysis.
“He’s a great defensive player,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr stated of Kessler. “It’s not very wise to go in and challenge him at the rim. … He’s one of the best rim protectors and one of the best defensive centers in the league.”
The Lakers look completely different, however are they improved?
The Lakers are the first staff in league historical past to win a playoff sequence and then lose all five starters from that group the following season.
James, Rui Hachimura, Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard and Deandre Ayton helped gasoline the Lakers’ late-season run: from the finish of February via all of March, the staff went 16-2 and regarded like one in all the greatest in the league.
Losing these gamers means dropping a mixed 59 years of expertise, too.
“I don’t want to compare the teams or the rosters, and I really have not thought about last year’s team,” Redick informed ESPN.
Instead, Redick believes this roster options extra optionality.
“What excites me about this roster is there are elements of modern basketball that we just haven’t been able to do,” Redick informed ESPN. “Even with Smart, Smart at his age, can’t pick up full court every single possession. And he was the only person that was even capable of doing that on our team last year to begin with. So just that alone, that’s exciting.
“I feel Walker has the potential to be one in all the greatest rim [protection] guys, and when he is performed, he is been that for the most half. … So, it is extra simply being enthusiastic about this staff, than evaluating the two groups.”
What is the backup backcourt situation?
Doncic and Reaves have already proved to be a dangerous backcourt pair, combining to average 56.8 points and 13.8 assists per game last season.
But they won’t be on the court 48 minutes per game and, based on their recent injury history, they won’t be in the lineup for all 82 games, either.
And with Sexton sidelined for all of the preseason with a right calf issue, Redick’s other backcourt options have not performed well.
“That fourth ball handler for us hasn’t been nice,” Redick stated this previous week.
This preseason, Jaden Hardy averaged 2.6 turnovers and 1.2 assists and shot 41% (30.4% from 3) in his 14.2 minutes per recreation; Bronny James averaged 2.4 turnovers and 2.8 assists and shot 25% (12.5% from 3) in 16.4 minutes per game; and two-way guard Chris Manon averaged 1.6 turnovers and 0.8 assists and shot 44.4% (25% from 3) in 12.4 minutes per recreation.
James, for his half, has been restricted by a quad contusion he suffered simply earlier than the begin of coaching camp, sources informed ESPN, and Redick added that the third-year guard has typically shared the courtroom with coaching camp invitees, moderately than rotation gamers and famous how James completed final season as a playoff contributor.
But the gap behind the Lakers’ star backcourt could possibly be the a part of the roster Pelinka must fortify the most if the Lakers severely plan to contend.