Hi, everyone, welcome back to Lakers newsletter. This is Thuc Nhi Nguyen, The Times’ Lakers beat writer. Thank you for your warm welcome into this space (and your food recommendations). We’re now halfway through the preseason, and let me tell you: I can’t wait until we get real basketball back again.
We are at least one step closer to seeing what this Lakers team really looks like as Luka Doncic is expected to make his preseason debut against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday. He is expected to play in two of the final three preseason games and, with a back-to-back coming, it’s most likely that Doncic will finish his preseason play on Friday at Crypto.com Arena against the Sacramento Kings instead of in Las Vegas against his former team, the Dallas Mavericks, on Wednesday.
Doncic’s return can help answer some questions about the Lakers, but there is still plenty to address with one week until the season opener.
The LeBron James decision
If you didn’t hear, LeBron James was at the center of a major announcement last week.
No, it’s not that the Lakers star and my dad share an affinity for Hennessy.
It’s that James will be sidelined for three to four weeks as he manages sciatica in his right side. The timeline announced by the team last Thursday means James will miss the regular season opener on Oct. 21 against the Golden State Warriors. As he enters Year 23, James still has room for more firsts: This will be the first time in his NBA career that he doesn’t play in a season opener.
While coach JJ Redick has tried to downplay preseason decisions about the starting lineup, he admitted Monday that James’ prolonged absence “complicates things a little bit.” With every group, Redick said, it’s about finding balance: ensuring there’s enough shooting, facilitating and defense to go around while also managing each player’s own temperament.
“We have a week to figure that out,” Redick said Monday, “and I think it will reveal itself to us.”
The Lakers’ next decision
Marcus Smart
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
So who will be up for the role?
Marcus Smart, who figured to be a potential starting candidate even when James was healthy, will make his preseason debut on Tuesday. He was battling Achilles tendinopathy to begin the preseason.
Smart returned to practice last week, working up to being a full participant during practices Thursday and Saturday, and impressed Redick with the classic Marcus Smart hustle and defense. Even while sidelined, Smart was lauded for his communication and leadership style.
Smart was already considered as a potential starting option over returner Rui Hachimura because the Lakers were looking for a stronger defender at the point of attack. They may have rediscovered another option in Jarred Vanderbilt.
Finally healthy from a lingering foot injury, Vanderbilt has earned rave reviews for his defensive resurgence during training camp. The 6-foot-8 forward has 13 rebounds, four steals and one block in three preseason games. He even turned heads with tweaked shooting mechanics to potentially increase his influence as a potential three-and-D option.
But Vanderbilt is one for 10 from three-point range in three preseason games.
The offensive load during James’ absence will likely fall more toward Hachimura or free agent addition Jake LaRavia.
Second-year guard Dalton Knecht could provide a scoring punch off the bench, especially after Redick said Knecht was the team’s best offensive player in training camp. Knecht, who struggled during summer league because he over-trained during the offseason, was outscoring his teammates by 42 points during live practice periods by Sunday. Redick rewarded him with a starting spot in the home preseason game against the Warriors and he responded with 16 points on four-of-nine shooting from the field and was six of eight from the free throw line.
But the 24-year-old who was briefly traded last year to return only when the deal fell through needs to earn his playing time by showing other skills.
“His ceiling is going to be based on his improvement this season as a defender,” Redick said.
Austin Reaves has already carried the heaviest workload of the preseason, especially as Doncic and James were out. Reaves delivered with 41 points in 44 minutes in two games, but knows any single Herculean effort won’t be enough to replace James long-term.
“It’s a next-man-up mentality,” Reaves said, echoing a similar message from Doncic. “Nobody is going to fill what he does with one person. I can’t go be LeBron. I wish I could. But I think you got to do it as a collective group. And that’s what we’ll do.”
Favorite thing I ate this week
Clockwise from top left: Shrimp shumai, fried shrimp ball, baked BBQ pork bun, steam pork bun and shrimp noodle rolls.
(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)
The Lakers got a valuable week at home, but I stayed on the road for a friend’s wedding in Brooklyn. To me, there’s no better way to celebrate than with dim sum.
We schlepped from Brooklyn to Manhattan’s Golden Unicorn, where I was too impatient to take a picture of everything, but the first wave included baked BBQ pork buns, steamed pork buns, shrimp noodle rolls, shrimp shumai and fried shrimp balls.
My dim sum staples are har gow and the classic pork and shrimp shumai, but my favorite dish this time was mango pudding (unfortunately not pictured). Loaded with chunks of fresh mango, it was the perfect sweet treat before I spent the next few hours in food coma mode.
In case you missed it
Luka Doncic set to play in first preseason game against Suns Tuesday
JJ Redick isn’t overly concerned about the Lakers’ on-court chemistry
LeBron James to miss Lakers’ opening game because of sciatica issue
Natalia Bryant makes her debut as a creative director with Lakers short film
Until next time…
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