SACRAMENTO — Lakers guard Luka Doncic will miss at least one week with a left finger sprain and a left lower leg contusion, the team announced Sunday before a road game at Sacramento.
The star guard suffered the finger injury early in Friday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. It didn’t slow him down at all, though, as Doncic finished with 49 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists in a 128-110 Lakers victory. The 26-year-old is off to a blazing start as his 92 points in the first two games are the most in Lakers history to begin a season.
The Lakers announced Doncic will be reevaluated in about one week, but it will be a busy stretch without the five-time All-Star. Already without LeBron James as the 40-year-old deals with a sciatica injury, the Lakers have four games in six days this week. After Sacramento on Sunday, the Lakers (1-1) return to L.A. to face Portland on Monday and have road games at Minnesota and Memphis on Wednesday and Friday, respectively.
The Lakers will be down to just nine standard contract players Sunday as center Jaxson Hayes was also ruled out with left knee soreness. He will miss his second consecutive game. James and forwards Maxi Kleber (abdominal muscle strain) and Adou Theiro (knee) are also out.
Rigged underground games run by the New York mafia.
NBA figures exchanging insider information as part of illegal betting schemes.
These are some of the wild allegations filed in two criminal complaints this week by federal prosecutors in one of the most sweeping and sensational betting scandals in recent professional sports history.
At the heart of one of the cases, prosecutors charged several figures using private insider NBA information, such as when players would sit out, to help others profit in leveraged bets online.
Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, who played with the Clippers for two seasons and later was a member of Clippers coach Ty Lue’s staff before earning the Trail Blazers head coaching job, is charged with rigging underground poker games that three of New York’s Mafia families backed, authorities said.
Billups and Damon Jones, a retired NBA player, according to one of the two indictments revealed Thursday, were used to attract wealthy players to the games and were referred to as “Face Cards.” But according to the federal indictment, the two were part of the cheating teams. In exchange for taking part in the games, the “Face Cards” received part of the winnings.
The teams, according to court filings, used rigged shuffling machines that read deck cards and predicted which player on the table would have the best poker hand and relayed that information to someone, referred to as the operator. That person then relayed that information to one member of the cheating team on the table, known as the “Quarterback,” or “Driver,” according to court filings.
In some cases, the cheating teams used poker chip trays that could secretly read the cards on the table. In other cases, players used glasses that could detect special markings on the cards.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella of Brooklyn said at a press conference said the defendants used “special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read pre-marked cards” and tables that “could read cards face down on the table … because of the X-ray technology.”
He cited “other cheating technologies, such as poker chip tray analyzers, which is a poker chip tray that secretly reads cards using a hidden camera,.”
“Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows he is a man of integrity; men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others,” Chris Heywood, Billups’ attorney, said in a statement Tuesday night. “To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his Hall-of-Fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game.”
2. Alleged mob ties
The games in the New York area were backed by three of New York’s organized crime families: the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese Mafia families, authorities said. According to the complaint, at least a dozen of the 31 defendants were associates or members of those three families.
Among those named in the indictment was Joseph Lanni, identified as a captain in the Gambino crime family. Known as “Joe Brooklyn,” Lanni was also named as a defendant in a 2023 racketeering, extortion and witness retaliation indictment, where members and associates of the Gambino family were accused of trying to take control of New York’s carting and demolition industries.
Last week, Lanni pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, according to court records.
3. A tip about LeBron James
Federal prosecutors allege that between December 2022 and March 2024, the defendants , used inside information to defraud bettors, including which players would be sitting out games and when players would “pull themselves out of games early for purported injuries or illnesses.”
Damon Jones, a retired NBA player and friend of LeBron James is accused of inside information for sports betting related to the Lakers and specifically “Player 3,” a prominent NBA player.
Although the indictment does not name the player — the date referenced in 2023 when the player sat out matches when James sat out against the Milwaukee Bucks due to ankle soreness. According to the indictment, Jones, a friend of James, profited from the non-public information.
“Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out!” Jones texted an unnamed co-conspirator, according to the indictment. “[Player 3] is out tonight.”
On Thursday, the Lakers declined to comment on the investigation. A person close to LeBron James told The Times that the Lakers star didn’t know that Jones was allegedly selling injury information to gamblers placing bets. Neither James or the Lakers have been accused of any wrongdoing.
3. A ‘shady’ injury
According to the indictment, when Terry Rozier was playing for the Hornets, he told others he was planning to leave the game early with a “supposed injury,” allowing others to place wagers that raked in thousands of dollars, New York Police Commissioner Jennifer Tisch said.
Rozier and other defendants allegedly provided that information to other co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of betting profits.
Another game involving Rozier that has been in question was played a day earlier, on March 23, 2023, between the Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans. Rozier played the first 9 minutes and 36 seconds of that game — and not only did not return that night, citing a foot issue, but also did not play again that season.
Posts still online from March 23, 2023, show that some bettors were furious with sportsbooks that evening when it became evident that Rozier was not going to return, with many turning to social media to say that something “shady” had gone on regarding the prop bets involving his stats for that night.
The Lakers were not whole for their season opener and that meant Luka Doncic had a heavier load to carry while LeBron James sat on the bench injured in this game against rivals Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
So, the question while James recovers from sciatica injury on his right side, is who will fill his void and help Doncic navigate the stretch his running mate is out.
The Lakers didn’t get that complete answer Tuesday night, falling 119-109 to the Warriors at Crypto.com Arena despite Doncic’s impressive performance of a near triple-double with 43 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists.
James is entering an NBA-record 23rd season, but it was the first time over his career that he has missed a season opener.
He sat on the end of the Lakers’ bench dressed in a double-breasted suit, cheering his teammates on, offering words of encouragement when necessary, knowing that was the only way he could help until returns to the court in mid-November.
“It’s hard to forget about LeBron, (but) the reality is, when you’re focused on the group that you have, you’ve got to make the group work,” said coach JJ Redick afterward. “Sometimes you can just be like, ‘Oh my God, we’re gonna get LeBron back at some point.’ Like it’s awesome, but you are focused. I’ll be honest with you, I did have one moment in that first half when we had a few possessions when we couldn’t score against the zone and I thought, ‘It’d be great to have LeBron.”
Lakers guard Austin Reaves gets past Warriors guard Gary Payton II for a layup during the second half Friday night.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
When the Lakers went inside to center Deandre Ayton, he didn’t overpower the small Warriors. Ayton got seven touches, scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds.
But he had four turnovers. One of the other issues was his teammates trying to get the ball inside to Ayton. The lobs just weren’t working, a big reason why the Lakers had 19 turnovers.
“Yeah, today, I was realizing I’m probably a confusing big (center), whether I can roll and stand in the pocket, probably gets a little difficult for them sometimes,” Ayton said. “I’m so used to the league having that low man on me. Sometimes I can’t even finish a roll, and I tiny bit linger around the free-throw area just to be available for him.”’
Austin Reaves showed he was up to the task with James out, producing 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
But he had a team-high five turnovers and picked up five fouls by the third quarter.
“We haven’t had a lot of time together as a complete group,” Reaves said. “Obviously, we’re still not complete, but we’re just gonna continue to build, get better, and learn how to play alongside one another. I mean, I had five turnovers tonight, and I don’t think a couple of them are just dumb. But a couple of them were just miscommunications on where I needed to throw a pass to DA (Deandre Ayton). It wasn’t the wrong read. It was the wrong pass at the right time, basically. So it’s just like learning those little things, and you learn those on the fly.”
The Warriors, meanwhile, had four players score in double-figures and that was a big difference in the game. Jimmy Butler led the Warriors with 31 points, Stephen Curry had 23 and Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield each had 17.
The Lakers fell into a hole in the third quarter, going down by 17 points, putting them in catch-up mode.
They were outscored 35-25 in the third. They allowed the Warriors to make 60% of their shots, 50% (five-for-10) of their three-pointers.
Even with the Lakers cutting that deficit to six points in the fourth, their poor play in the third doomed them again.
“The trend I see is that we continue to be a terrible third-quarter team to start,” Redick said. “That was last year. That was the preseason. Gotta rethink some things and it’s, you know, a two-way thing with the guys. What do they need at halftime to make sure they’re ready to play? They’re not ready to play to start the third quarter.”
Etc.
The Lakers picked up the rookie option on Dalton Knecht for $4.2 million for the 2026-27 season, according to people not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. … The Lakers said that forward/center Maxi Kleber has an oblique strain and will be reevaluated in two to three weeks.
Norwalk resident Andrew Garcia filed Monday with Los Angeles County Superior Court to dismiss without prejudice a claim he had filed earlier this month seeking to recoup his money after a big announcement teased by James on social media ended up having nothing to do with his NBA career, now going into its 23rd season, coming to an end.
Garcia said Monday he decided to drop the case after he accepted an offer from the PrizePicks fantasy sports app. The company has deposited promo funds in the amount of $865.66 — the full amount Garcia spent on two tickets to the Lakers’ game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 31, 2026 — into Garcia’s PrizePicks account, according to documentation viewed by The Times.
Garcia said will be able to cash out any winnings he receives off those transactions. In addition, he said, PrizePicks will be giving him tickets to a Lakers game of his choice and some other merchandise.
“I didn’t have to dismiss the case” in order to receive the deal from PrizePicks, Garcia said, “but I chose to, because I was like, you know, you guys are fully compensating me for my loss, and then some. There’s no reason for me to further pursue this, because then it would look like I’m double-dipping, you know?”
PrizePicks vice president of communications Elisa Richardson confirmed the deal in an email to The Times.
“We reached out to Andrew after seeing the news and finding out he was a PrizePicks player,” Richardson wrote. “We’re always looking for ways to surprise and delight our players.”
On Oct. 6, James posted on social media that he would announce “the decision of all decisions” the next day. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer also included a video clip teasing “The Second Decision,” a reference to 2010’s “The Decision,” in which James famously announced his intention to play for the Miami Heat.
Garcia wasn’t the only person who thought a retirement announcement was imminent — and he also wasn’t the only one who wanted to be sure to see James on his farewell tour. According to Victory Live, which analyzes verified ticket resale data across the secondary market, ticket sales for Lakers games jumped 25 times higher after James’ teaser post and the average price for those tickets increased from $280 to $399.
Ticket sales and prices returned to normal soon after it was revealed that “The Second Decision” was nothing more than a Hennessy ad. In his lawsuit, Garcia claimed James owed him the amount paid for the tickets because of “fraud, deception, misrepresentation, and any and all basis of legal recovery.”
A fan who spent hundreds of dollars for tickets to what he thought would be one of LeBron James’ final NBA games is looking to recoup the money in small claims court after it turned out “The Second Deicision” teased by the Lakers superstar had nothing to do with his retirement.
Norwalk resident Andrew Garcia filed a claim Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court that states that James owes him $865.66 because of “fraud, deception, misrepresentation, and any and all basis of legal recovery.”
Garcia told The Times that he spent that amount for two tickets to the Lakers’ game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 31, 2026, at Crypto.com Arena , thinking it would be the 40-year-old NBA icon’s final game against the team that drafted him in 2003.
He and other basketball fans were under that impression after James posted Monday on X that he would be announcing “the decision of all decisions” the next day. The post included a video clip teasing “The Second Decision,” a clear reference to 2010’s “The Decision,” in which James famously announced he was going to “take my talents to South Beach” to play for the Miami Heat.
Garcia said he purchased the tickets within 10 minutes of James’ social media post.
“I was like, ‘Holy s—, LeBron is going to retire! We’ve got to get tickets now,’” the 29-year-old Garcia said. “Like, literally, because if he formally makes this announcement, you know, there’s gonna be some significant price changes, right?”
Garcia is a huge fan of the Lakers and James, as well as an avid basketball fan in general, so he thought it would be cool to see the NBA’s all-time leading scorer play for the last time against the team with which he started his career and brought its first title in 2016 after his return from Miami.
“Moments like that, I understand the value,” Garcia said. “There still may be some moderate value [to the tickets], however it’s not the same without him retiring. I remember Kobe’s last year, it was kind of what this would have been, per se, where every ticket was worth a lot. Every game had value. …
“I missed out on that. I was a little bit younger at the time. I obviously wasn’t in a position to where I could just buy tickets unfortunately at that age. I believe I was like 18 or 19 at the time. And that’s one of my biggest regrets as a sports fan. I really wish I could have gotten the Kobe’s last year. So I see this as a potential to kind of make up for what I lost with Kobe.”
But “The Second Decision” ended up having nothing to do with retirement. It was merely a Hennessy ad.
So now Garcia wants his money back.
“There is no circumstance absent him saying he’s gonna retire that I would have bought tickets that far in advance,” Garcia said. “I mean, I buy tickets, but I don’t buy tickets five months’ advance. I’m the kind of person that buys tickets five hours in advance. It was solely, solely, solely based on that. So that’s why I was really thinking, ‘You know what, this might be grounds for a case.’ ”
The Times reached out to an attorney said to be working with James related to the claim but did not receive an immediate response.
In light of everything that has happened this week, though, Garcia said he’d still be willing to pay the same amount of money to see James play during his eventual retirement tour.
“Of course,” Garcia said. “I would probably spend more, because life is all about memories and experiences.”
SAN FRANCISCO — The Lakers entered training camp with hopes of finally establishing chemistry between stars Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves. But the trio have yet to see the court together. On Sunday, they all stayed on the bench during the Lakers’ 111-103 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center.
With Doncic (rest) and James (glute) already out, Reaves was rested Sunday after an already full first week of training camp. The fifth-year guard had the highest workload on the team entering the first preseason game that took place after three days of practice. He scored 20 points against the Phoenix Suns as one of the few offensive bright spots in Friday’s blowout loss.
Without their top offensive playmakers, the Lakers got a lift from guard Gabe Vincent, who made his preseason debut after nursing a knee injury. He had 16 points and five assists while center Deandre Ayton, who scored just one point on two shots in Friday’s preseason game, scored seven points, all in the first quarter, with seven rebounds.
“We came with more intention,” Vincent said compared to the Lakers’ 103-81 loss to the Suns on Friday. “We were more focused. Obviously it’s different with those three not playing. They’re a huge part of our team and everything that we do. But next man up.”
After their first two preseason games, the Lakers have one week of practice until their first home preseason game against the Warriors on Oct. 12. Coach JJ Redick said that although Doncic was scheduled to rest for the first two preseason games after he played in EuroBasket with his national team, the Slovenian superstar is still expected to play before the team officially opens its season on Oct. 21. The Lakers have four preseason games remaining.
Whether James, who was held out of early training camp practices because of nerve irritation in his glute, will play in the preseason remains to be seen. Entering an unprecedented 23rd NBA season, James is on a slower ramp-up schedule than previous years, Redick said.
The Warriors took a similarly cautious approach with their aging superstars as Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler III and Al Horford were all limited to one half. The 37-year-old Curry still scored 14 points in 15 minutes, draining five of seven shots from the field and drawing loud cheers from a nearly full Chase Center crowd when he laid up an acrobatic shot through contact and pointed two finger guns into the ESPN baseline camera.
Redick called it a challenge to get a proper evaluation of his team in a 48-minute preseason game when his top three stars are out, but after Friday’s preseason opener, he was looking for better organization on offense early in the shot clock, playing with pace and more physicality.
“We’ve got to be more physical getting open,” Redick said before the game. “We’ve got to be more physical with our screening. That doesn’t change based on who’s in the lineup, so that habit, we can build that.”
“Championship habits” is one of three pillars Redick has preached relentlessly during training camp, along with championship communication and championship shape. He said he would judge the latter in part by whether players are sprinting back on defense.
The Lakers were outscored 23-5 in transition Sunday and 42-11 through two preseason games.
With the exception of a 10-0 Warriors run to end the second quarter and a nearly six-minute stretch to begin the third quarter during which Golden State pushed a seven-point halftime lead into a 23-point rout, Redick said the overall competitiveness was “much better” than against Phoenix. But the next challenge will be to put forth that effort consistently.
It follows a recent theme Redick introduced to the team: Kaizen, the Japanese word for improvement.
“It’s just getting 1% better each day,” said forward Jake LaRavia, who had 10 points and three assists. “And that goes along with just winning the day. We thought when we played Phoenix, we didn’t. Today, we thought we did a good amount better, obviously, still not the result that we wanted, but we’re working in the right direction.”
When LeBron James was asked about how a former defensive player of the year and a former No. 1 overall pick could elevate the Lakers roster, the superstar instead offered a different offseason addition’s name first.
Jake LaRavia’s signing came with less fanfare than the moves that brought Smart and Ayton to the Lakers, but the 6-foot-7 wing hopes he can be equally as influential in a quiet connector role behind some of the league’s biggest stars.
“We got a lot of dudes on this team that can score, a lot of dudes on this team that can put the ball in the bucket,” LaRavia said Wednesday at Lakers training camp. “So I’m here to complement those players, but to also just bring energy every day on both sides of the ball.”
The 19th overall pick in 2022, LaRavia is a career 42.9% three-point shooter, averaging 6.9 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. After beginning his career with the Memphis Grizzlies, he was traded to the Sacramento Kings last season, playing in 19 games. His team option wasn’t picked up, putting the 23-year-old on the free agency market.
The Lakers, in need of three-and-D players to pair with Luka Doncic, were quick to call.
“To get a young player — a young player in free agency for a team that is trying to win a championship — it’s an incredible opportunity for myself and our player development department to have him continue to grow,” coach JJ Redick said last week. “Jake, I’m very high on him. His level of commitment to what we’ve asked of the guys this offseason has been very high.”
Two days into training camp, LaRavia said he’s been asked to guard four different positions. He’s played often with Doncic’s group and marveled at the five-time All-Star’s impressive array of shots. One of his main objectives during training camp will be to understand how to best to space the court when the ball is in Doncic’s hands.
“It’s gonna make my life so much easier playing with someone like that,” LaRavia said.
LaRavia, who was born in Pasadena but moved to Indianapolis as a child, grew up rooting for the Lakers. Following his father’s fandom, LaRavia said he idolized Magic Johnson.
Now sporting the purple and gold himself, LaRavia is realizing that the team is bigger than just basketball, he said. Compared to his experiences in Memphis and Sacramento, it is obvious the Lakers brand stretches globally.
While suddenly in the spotlight, LaRavia has tried to keep a low profile. He was married a few days before training camp started. He relishes the chance to go unnoticed at local restaurants.
He wants to be recognized only for his wins on the court.
“I understand what this organization wants every year, which is championships,” LaRavia said at media day. “It’s a winning organization, and my one goal being here is just to continue to provide rings.”
Gabe Vincent fully participates in practice
James was held out of practice for the second straight day Wednesday, but still participated in individual drills, Redick said. Guard Gabe Vincent, who missed the first day of training camp, returned to practice and appears to still be on track to play in the Lakers’ first preseason game in Palm Desert on Friday against the Phoenix Suns.
Smart (achilles tendinopathy) and rookie Adou Thiero (knee) remained out, although Smart stayed on the court after practice for extra shots. Redick said Tuesday he expected the 31-year-old guard to be fine by the end of the week.
Forward Maxi Kleber sat out as a precaution after tweaking his quad during conditioning Tuesday and will get an MRI exam, Redick said. Kleber, who missed almost all of last season with a foot injury after being traded to the Lakers in February, said at media day he was entering the season fully healthy.
LeBron James did not participate in the Lakers’ first day of training camp Tuesday because of “nerve irritation in the glute.”
James’ teammates Marcus Smart, Gabe Vincent and Adou Thiero were “under either return to play protocols or modified protocols” during the team’s first sessions.
James is entering his NBA-record 23rd season and the goal is to ramp him up to be ready for the regular-season opener Oct. 21 against the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena.
“Yeah, I think it’s probably a little bit longer of a ramp-up leading into opening night for him just obviously in Year 23, it’s uncharted territory here,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “So, I felt, and in talking with performance and in talking with Mike (Mancias, James’ personal trainer) and LeBron, like probably did too much last year in camp, which was great for me as a first-year head coach to get buy-in from him.
“But it’ll be a slower process with him leading into the first game. He’s obviously got 22 years so far of wear and tear on the body and he’s dealing with a little bit of nerve irritation in the glute. So, we’re just playing the long game with LeBron.”
Redick said Vincent was “just modified” and the hope is that he’ll play in the preseason game Friday against the Phoenix Suns in Palm Desert.
“He should be good to go live by the end of the week and we expect him to be able to play Friday,” Redick said. “And that’s just, again, the management of, as we did last year as well.”
Smart could be seen shooting after practice, but the Lakers are taking it slow with him as well.
“Marcus, he’s dealing with a little bit of Achilles’ tendinopathy,” Redick said. “He’s been in a slow ramp-up. He was a modified participant, nothing live today. He’s expected to be fine by the end of the week.”
Thiero said Monday that he still has some “swelling” in his left knee that kept him out playing in the summer league in Las Vegas and has slowed his time on the court since then.
Redick said Thiero was running, cutting and jumping with coaches, but that they will take it slow with him.
“It’s really about playing the long game with him,” Redick said. “We look at this year as a developmental year and there’s no reason for us to push his body and create a long-term problem. His knee is in a really good spot. We just want to be really careful.”
Redick said, “that’s the goal,” when asked if James will be ready to play in the season opener.
James, 40, has played 71,104 minutes over his career, including the playoffs.
“You’ll hear me use this a lot: it is unchartered territory,” Redick said. “I don’t think there’s a proven way to handle someone who has this much mileage, this many minutes, been asked to do so many things on both ends of the court. We asked a lot of him last year, we asked a lot of him to start the year in camp, so it’s just working as a partnership and trying to figure it out.”
Even with James not practicing, Austin Reaves said it won’t be a problem for the three leaders to find ways to make it smooth for their teammates.
Along with James and Luka Doncic, Reaves is viewed as one of the Lakers’ stars and he says James always is engaged even when he doesn’t practice.
“Yeah, just communication,” Reaves said. “To have good dialogue back and forth, what everybody likes, what we can do to be successful. With him being one of the highest IQ guys to ever play the game, I think it’s not that hard to piece it in even if he’s not out there right now, He sees the game just as good as anybody that has ever played the game. So, like I said, it’s having conversations, dialogue back and forth what we feel like we can do to help our team be successful is going to be, I think, key.”
Deandre Ayton spent the last two years fading away from the national spotlight on a team that was closer to getting the first overall pick than getting to the first round of the playoffs. On Monday, the 7-foot center stood in front of flashing lights, answered questions in a packed news conference and glanced up at a shiny line of 17 championship trophies.
Ayton, whose inconsistent career hit a new low in Portland, where he was bought out of his contract and criticized for a poor work ethic, smiled at what he called “the biggest stage.” The former No. 1 overall pick is ready to launch his revenge tour with the Lakers.
“It’s the biggest opportunity, I can say, of my career,” Ayton said Monday at Lakers media day. “Some people say it’s my last leg, some people say it’s my last chance. Well, it’s the opportunity I can say I’m truly not going to take for granted.”
Marcus Smart knows the feeling. The 2022 defensive player of the year is coming off a contract buyout in Washington. After nine years and three all-defensive team honors with the Boston Celtics, Smart has played in just 54 games over two injury-plagued years with Memphis and Washington. The 31-year-old recognizes some may have forgotten the “Celtics’ Marcus Smart” — the player who guarded all five positions, knocked down timely threes and brought contagious, tone-setting toughness.
The Lakers still remember.
“I know what he brings to the game,” LeBron James said. “I know that team is first, second, third, fourth, fifth, when it comes to Marcus Smart.”
Despite his resume and standing in the league, Smart doesn’t expect automatic entry to the Lakers’ starting lineup.
“Whether I start or come off the bench,” Smart said, “my presence will be made.”
Lakers guard Marcus Smart takes part in media day at UCLA Health Training Center on Monday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Smart’s defensive prowess could be a significant boost to a starting group that figures to include James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. Rui Hachimura, who started in 57 of his 59 regular-season appearances last season, is in the final year of his contract after averaging 13.1 points and five rebounds per game last season.
Facing the possibility of coming off the bench ahead of a contract year, Hachimura said he would defer to coaches to decide what was best. Coach JJ Redick said the team has seven or eight starting-caliber players, and the starting lineup doesn’t weigh heavily on his mind entering his second season at the helm.
But Ayton’s starting position feels solidified.
The center was the Lakers’ most significant offseason addition after the blockbuster trade that brought Doncic to L.A. also left the team without a starting center. Jaxson Hayes, who was thrust into the starting role out of necessity but fell out of the rotation during the playoffs, will be a valuable one-two punch with Ayton at center, James said. Forward Maxi Kleber, who played only five minutes after joining the team during the midseason trade with Dallas, said he is fully healthy after a lengthy foot injury.
Kleber, 33, knows firsthand the impact Doncic can have on a post player’s career. Kleber has played with Doncic since the Slovenian superstar was drafted in 2018 and marveled at Doncic’s ability to get easy shots for his teammates. Lob chances will start falling from the sky like never before for Ayton.
After practicing together in the offseason, Kleber commended Ayton for getting stronger and adding to his physical presence on the court. Redick has challenged the entire roster to arrive in “championship shape.”
Ayton didn’t need the additional motivation.
“You guys have an Angry Ayton,” the 27-year-old said, “where I’ve been disrespected most of my career and just been doubted. And I’m here where all [that is] behind me and I can add all that fuel into winning and playing alongside Luka.”
Doncic, out for his own redemption after last year’s trade and conversations about his weight and work ethic, was eager to begin his first training camp with the Lakers. Coming off a quarterfinals appearance at EuroBasket with the Slovenian national team, Doncic said he felt stronger and quicker on the court after his offseason physical transformation. One of the league’s pick-and-roll savants, Doncic should help Ayton rediscover the dominance he flashed while helping the Phoenix Suns reach the NBA Finals in 2021 and post a franchise-record 64 wins in 2022.
Finally back in the NBA spotlight with a new team, Ayton relishes the chance to chase more meaningful records.
“You can feel the pressure through the door,” Ayton said. “This team wants to win a championship.”
Of all the reams of words publicly spilled at Lakers media day Monday, only one really mattered.
When LeBron James was wrapping up his interview with the folks at Spectrum Sportsnet, host Chris McGee asked, “By the way, see you at next year’s media day?”
James’ laughing answer set the template for a season.
“Maybe.”
So the Lakers should treat the next eight months emptying their assets and foregoing their future and playing with the desperation of a team trying to earn one last piece of jewelry for arguably the greatest player ever?
Maybe.
So should the fans here and around the league show up in droves and line up around the block for their last live look at a living legend?
Maybe.
Or, if everything goes wrong and things get ugly, should the Lakers and James willingly part ways through a midseason buyout?
Maybe.
No matter what happens, the fact that James didn’t reveal his intentions in his first public appearance since last spring means that this Laker season has the chance to be a murky maybe mess.
Everybody knows where the Lakers stand, as Rob Pelinka said last week. He wants James to finish his career here.
“We would love if LeBron’s story would be he retire a Laker,” Pelinka said. “That would be a positive story.”
But still nobody knows where James stands, and it’s not obvious, because, while he’s 40 and entering his NBA-record 23rd season, he looks young, and acts energetic, and Monday at the Lakers facility he was at his charming best.
“Just excited about the journey and whatever this year has in store for me,” he said.
He’s probably not saying because he truly does not know. Next spring is a lifetime away. He doesn’t know how he’s going to feel. He doesn’t know how his basketball future could look.
But because he’s not saying, this season could seemingly go one of three ways.
It could go the Kershaw Way. James could once again be one of the top players in the league but get worn down by the strain on his body and in the last weeks of the season he could call it quits. The Crypto.com crowd gets a chance to say goodbye and his Lakers teammates can use his retirement as inspiration for a deep postseason run.
Or, it could go the Kobe Way. James could decide in the middle of the season that he’s had enough and embark on a league-wide farewell tour, the sort that once brought the tough Kobe Bryant to tears.
Or, given the organization’s recent sketchy history, it is entirely possible it could go the Typical Lakers Implosion Way.
LeBron James jokes with reporters as he arrives for interviews at Lakers media day on Monday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
James could spend the year making the Lakers dangle on that “maybe,” subtly fighting against the loss of his team leadership to Luka Doncic, passively aggressively chiding Pelinka to improve the roster at the trade deadline, even occasionally threatening to quit on the spot.
Because it’s too tough to trade him and the Lakers don’t want to spend the bucks to buy him out, they spend the rest of the season dodging his barbs, then, simply let James’ contract expire and watch him flee to home Cleveland for his swan song.
Three scenarios, but only two happy endings, and to make matters even more complicated, much depends not on James, but on the roster around him.
Are the Lakers going to be any good? Are you ready for it?
Maybe.
The Lakers only played 23 games with both James and the recently acquired Doncic last season, and they were 15-8 and grabbed a third seed and were acting like the best team in the NBA at one point before they disintegrated against Minnesota in the playoffs.
They added Deandre Ayton for length, Jake LaRavia for defense, Marcus Smart for toughness, and a new body for Doncic, a formerly pudgy and breathless kid who has acknowledged his very adult transformation.
“I’m in a better place for sure,” he said Monday.
Is that good enough to lead a team to a better place in the competitive West? Who knows?
Will it be good enough to convince James to ask for a new contract and stick around for yet another year? That doesn’t seem likely but then again, The Oldest Living Baller currently exists in the unlikely.
The only certainty is that James is going to make this decision on his own time, in his own voice, through his own podcast or social media or heck, maybe another 30-minute TV special called, “The Last Decision?”
How ever this plays out, he’s not saying anything now, which was obvious when he answered the first question at his media day news conference with dodgy utterances.
“I mean, I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, I’m excited about today, I’m excited about an opportunity to be able to play a game that I love for another season. And whatever the journey, however the journey lays out this year, I’m just super invested, because … I don’t know when the end is, but I know it’s a lot sooner than later.”
He provided his most telling hint that he’s leaning into retirement when he talked about appreciating his final tours around the league.
“Knowing that the end is soon, not taking for granted, you know, a Tuesday night in a city that maybe I don’t want to be in that night … let’s lock in because you don’t know how many times you get the opportunity to play the game or to be able to compete,” he said. “So there’s times where you wake up and you just feel like you just don’t have it. So those will be the days where I know I can lock back in real fast, like, OK, well, you won’t have many days like this, so let’s lock in and enjoy the moment, enjoy the rest of the ride.”
Bronny and LeBron James pose for photos at Lakers media day as Rui Hachimura takes a selfie in front of them.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
He was asked if, now that he’s played with son Bronny, would he stick around to play with his Arizona-freshman son Bryce? His answer was LeBron at his fatherly best.
“No, I’m not waiting on Bryce,’ he said. “No. I don’t know what his timeline is. He’s his own young man now, like he’s down in Tucson. We’ll see what happens this year, next year, you know, but he has his own timeline. I got my timeline, and I don’t know if they quite match up.”
He was asked if his decision would be influenced by a chance to play with Doncic. His answer was LeBron at his jabbing best.
“Ah, nah. As far as how long I go in my career? Nah. Zero,” he said. “The motivation to be able to play alongside him every night, that’s super motivating. That’s what I’m going to train my body for. Every night I go out there and try to be the best player I can for him, and we’re going to bounce that off one another. But as far as me weighing in on him and some other teammates of how far I go in my career, nah.”
It may be Luka Doncic’s team, but it’s still LeBron James’ world, and he’s going to control his narrative down to the last syllables of the last sentences of his final goodbye.
A former Miami Heat security officer has been accused in federal court of stealing millions of dollars worth of team memorabilia — including a game-worn LeBron James jersey from the 2013 NBA Finals — and selling them to online brokers.
Appearing Wednesday at U.S. Superior Court for the Southern District of Florida, retired Miami police officer Marcus Thomas Perez pleaded not guilty to the felony charge of transporting and transferring stolen goods in interstate commerce.
Perez, 62, faces up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. His attorney, Robert Buschel, declined to comment when asked on Wednesday by The Times.
According to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and the Miami field office of the FBI, Perez worked on game-day security detail for the Heat from 2016-2021, and later worked as an NBA security employee from 2022-2025.
While employed by the Heat, the press release states, Perez “was among a limited number of trusted individuals with access to a secured equipment room” where “hundreds of game-worn jerseys and other memorabilia” were being stored to be displayed at a future Heat museum.
“During his employment, Perez accessed the equipment room multiple times to steal over 400 game-worn jerseys and other items, which he then sold to various online marketplaces,” the press release states. “Over a three-year period, Perez sold over 100 stolen items for approximately $2 million and shipped them across state lines, often for prices well below their market value.”
One example listed in the press release is the jersey that James wore in Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals, during which the Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs 95-88 to win their second straight championship. Perez allegedly sold the jersey for around $100,000; it was sold in an online auction for $3.7 million in 2023.
In executing a search warrant at Perez’s home April 3, law enforcement “seized nearly 300 additional stolen game-worn jerseys and memorabilia,” all of which the Heat confirmed had been stolen from their facility, according to the press release.
A proposed international league described as the F1 of basketball gained attention over the weekend when Misko Raznatovic, the agent for Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, posted a photo on Instagram of him meeting in shorts and bare feet with LeBron James and the Lakers star’s business partner Maverick Carter on a yacht off the coast of the French Riviera.
Raznatovic accompanied the photo with an intriguing comment: “The summer of 2025 is the perfect time to make big plans for the fall of 2026! @kingjames@mavcarter
The post triggered speculation that perhaps James and Jokic could team up on either the Lakers or Nuggets, but more likely it suggests James has more than a peripheral interest in the new league.
Front Office Sports reported in January that Carter was advising a group of investors trying to raise $5 billion to jump-start the league but that James wasn’t involved. That may have changed.
So what’s the league about?
Early discussions are of a touring model with six men’s and six women’s teams playing in eight cities, none of which is likely to be in the United States. Investors include the Singapore government, SC Holdings, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, a Macau casino operator, UBS, Skype founder Geoff Prentice and former Facebook executive Grady Burnett, according to the Financial Times. Reports have linked VC firm Quiet Capital, tech investor Byron Deeter and Hong Kong-based Galaxy Entertainment to the effort.
Investors are leaning toward not allowing players in the league unless they cut ties with the NBA, making the model somewhat like LIV Golf — the professional circuit funded by (PIF). A better comparison in terms of format and scale might be Formula 1 Racing, which holds 24 races a year across five continents.
Raznatovic’s involvement would be key. His Belgrade, Serbia, agency BeoBasket has a partnership with Excel Sports Management and represents dozens of top European players, including Clippers center Ivica Zubac.
The EuroLeague is currently recognized as the world’s second-best basketball circuit, but can’t come close to paying players NBA-level salaries.
If Raznatovic’s social media post is an indication, the new league could launch as soon as the fall of 2026. Until then, fans wanting an alternative to the NBA can check out Ice Cube’s tour-based Big3 basketball league, which makes its single stop in Los Angeles on Aug. 9.
Shaquille O’Neal has an issue with a recent ranking of the all-time best NBA players.
On Monday, Bleacher Report released its list of the “top 100 NBA players ever,” based on a compilation of rankings from a “legion of B/R NBA experts, writers and editors.”
O’Neal finished just outside the top five. He didn’t seem to have an issue with that.
Shaq’s beef was with the placement of his former Lakers teammate, the late Kobe Bryant, who landed outside of the top 10.
“Kobe at 11 is criminal,” O’Neal wrote on X in the comments of a Bleacher Report post that revealed the list’s top 20. He left his comment a little more than an hour after the original Bleacher Report post went live.
Bryant is followed on the list by Hakeem Olajuwon, Kevin Durant, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West.
O’Neal has made no secret of his feelings on where Bryant ranks among the league’s all-time greats. In 2023, the Diesel told The Times that his “first team” on such a list would be himself, Bryant, Jordan, Johnson and James.
(Coming off the bench for O’Neal on that hypothetical team were Curry, Allen Iverson, Duncan, Karl Malone, Isiah Thomas and Abdul-Jabbar.)
Last month, in connection with the Netflix docuseries “Power Moves with Shaquille O’Neal,” Shaq revealed another personal top 10 list in which he ranked Bryant at No. 2, behind Jordan and just ahead of James.
Bryant ranks fourth in all-time NBA scoring (33,643 points) and his “Mamba Mentality” work ethic is still cited as a major influence on current athletes. He spent the first eight years of his career as Lakers teammates with O’Neal, with L.A. winning three NBA titles during that span.
Those Lakers also lost to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals. Soon after, O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat, with tension between the two superstars seen as one of the main reasons for the move. O’Neal won another NBA title with the Heat in 2006. Bryant won two more with the Lakers, in 2009 and 2010.
Over the years, O’Neal and Bryant acknowledged their rocky relationship as teammates but also insisted that they actually were close friends.
“I just want people to know that I don’t hate you, I know you don’t hate me. I call it today a ‘work beef,’ is what we had,” O’Neal told Bryant on “The Big Podcast with Shaq” in 2015.
“We had a lot of disagreements, we had a lot of arguments,” he said later. “But I think it fueled us both.”
Years later, when it appeared their feud might be heating up again, the two NBA greats took to social media to nip that notion in the bud.
“Ain’t nothin but love there,” Bryant wrote of his relationship with O’Neal.
“Kobe and I pushed one another to play some of the greatest basketball of all time and I am proud that no other team has accomplished what the three-peat Lakers have done since the Shaq and Kobe Lakers did it,” O’Neal said. “And sometimes like immature kids, we argued, we fought, we bantered, we assaulted each other with offhand remarks on the field. Make no mistake, even when folks thought we were on bad terms, when the cameras are turned off, he and I would throw a wink at each other and say let’s go whoop some ass.
“We never took it seriously. In truth, Kobe and I always maintained a deep respect and a love for one another.”
Of course he would take the guaranteed money, more than anyone else in the league besides Brooklyn could give him.
Of course he would stay in Los Angeles, where son Bronny sits on the bench and his home sits on a hill and his myriad businesses are sitting pretty.
Of course, of course, of course … but …
Bronny James (9) leaves the court ahead of father LeBron after a win over Minnesota, during which they became the first father and son to play together in the NBA on Oct. 20, 2024.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Wait a minute. There was a catch.
For the first time since James arrived here seven years ago, there was no second or third or fourth year attached to his contract.
The Lakers didn’t offer him an extension. They refused to guarantee him a spot here after next spring.
For the first time in his Laker career — actually, the first time in his entire 23-year career — James will thus play this season on an expiring contract.
In NBA speak, that means two words.
Trade bait.
Except James has a no-trade clause, and it’s unimaginable he would agree to go to another team that would have to gut their roster to match his salary.
So for the first time, the wiley, elusive, flexible LeBron James is stuck.
He’s stuck on a team clearly catering to the needs of a different superstar in Luka Doncic.
He’s stuck on a team that might be viewing his contract not as an asset but an albatross.
He’s stuck on a team that might be looking to get rid of him but can’t.
He’s stuck on a team where he said he wants to end his career, but where that ending might eventually be out of his control.
He could perhaps free himself by thinking about Nov. 29, 2015.
That is the date that Kobe Bryant, a month into his 20th season, officially announced his retirement.
You remember it, right? What happened next was the most surprisingly delightful farewell season-long tour in the history of sports.
“I thought everybody hated me,” Bryant said at the time. “It’s really cool, man.”
Hate him? America loved him, and showed him that love in every NBA arena across the country, standing ovations from coast to coast as he cruised his way toward that stunning 60-point career finale.
The Lakers were generally terrible, the hobbled Bryant was mostly awful, but the nights were wholly magical, the stone-faced bad guy opening himself up to a national respect and admiration that he never knew existed. It was important that he saw this before he retired. It became infinitely more important that he saw this before he died.
LeBron James flexes for the crowd during a game against the Hornets.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
At the end of the tour I wrote, “… a final act that, in typical Kobe Bryant fashion, was unlike any other in the history of American sports. Opening up to a world he never trusted, becoming accessible and embraceable after years of stony intensity, Bryant used the last five months to flip the narrative on his life and career, erasing the darkness of a villain and crystallizing the glow of a hero.”
Bryant had said before the season that he would never do a farewell tour, that he didn’t want to be lauded like baseball fans lauded the prolonged retirement journey of the New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter.
“We’re completely different people; I couldn’t do that,” he said.
Yet saddled with an expiring contract just like James, Bryant ultimately wanted to do something that James might consider, giving the organization a head start at rebuilding while controlling his own narrative.
Before Bryant’s decision could be leaked, he announced it himself in an open letter to basketball that was so touching it became an Oscar-winning film. He even arranged for a copy of the letter, sealed in an envelope embossed with gold, to be placed on the seat of every fan attending that night’s game at then-Staples Center against the Indiana Pacers.
Not exactly a T-shirt, huh? It was elegant, it was classy, it was perfect, just like the tour, initially criticized in this space as being selfish before your humbled correspondent finally realized that Bryant was right, it was really, really cool.
“It’s fun. I’ve been enjoying it,” Bryant said. “It’s been great to kind of go from city to city and say thank you to all the fans and be able to feel that in return.”
You hear that, LeBron?
This is not a call for James to retire, but a call for James to begin considering how that will happen, and how the classy Lakers would nail it if it happened here.
Lakers star LeBron James battles three-time MVP Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets for rebounding position during a playoff game in Denver.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Granted, the James and Bryant situations are not comparable. Even though James is 40, and Bryant was 37, James is still one of the league’s best players while Bryant was statistically one of its worst. And while James is still physically powerful, Bryant never fully recovered from his torn Achilles and was battered and broken.
James might have more gas in the tank while Bryant was clearly done.
But James himself has indicated that he probably has, at most, two years left. And every season his injuries become more insistent and debilitating.
And now that the Lakers are under new ownership with no ties to James, and now that current management has already given this team to Doncic, James doesn’t have much of a future here.
He has made noise about going back to Cleveland, and maybe after this season he’ll want to return to where his career started.
But if he’s even thinking about retirement after this year — a legitimate option for the first time — he shouldn’t wait to do so while walking off the court following an early-round loss by a mediocre Laker team.
Nobody does retirement tours like the Lakers. And nobody has ever done one like Kobe Bryant.
Decidedly in the twilight of his career, LeBron James can learn from both.
Bronny James stood with his back to the wall with both hands buried in his workout shorts, his practice with the Lakers summer league team complete, his voice sounding more confident now that he’s entering his second season in the NBA.
He had to endure the outsized pressure and criticism of playing last season with his superstar father, LeBron James, a season in which Bronny and his dad made history by becoming the first father-son duo to play together in an NBA game.
Now, Bronny is more assured about his talents and he’ll get to showcase what he’s worked on when the Lakers play the Golden State Warriors in the California Classic on Saturday in San Francisco.
The Lakers will play three games there and then head to Las Vegas for the NBA Summer League.
That is where the most anticipated summer game could take place because the Lakers open the action against Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 overall pick in the June draft, and the Dallas Mavericks on July 10.
Like all last season, James knows a lot of people will pay attention to that game — to him, still, and to Flagg.
“Last year it was a crazy environment for me to step in and produce right off the rip, like being nervous too,” Bronny said. “So, I feel like this year, I’ll be able to go out and play freely and know what I’m gonna go out and do for me and my teammates. So, yeah, I’m just really excited to be able to play nervous-free.”
Dalton Knecht got some extra shots up after practice Wednesday, his stroke looking just as impressive as it did last season when he shot 37.6% from three-point range during his rookie season with the Lakers.
Knecht, too, is especially looking forward to playing in Las Vegas.
“Vegas, I mean, I feel like all of us didn’t care who we played [last summer],” Knecht said. “It was just go out there and play. Our fans always show up. We go out there all the time and it’s pretty much Laker fans that sell out that arena and show us so much love. We’re just trying to go out there and try to put on a show no matter who we are playing.”
Lakers rookie Adou Thiero, their second-round pick (36th overall) out of Arkansas whom they acquired in a trade with the Timberwolves, is dealing with a left knee injury and will not play this summer. The Lakers said Thiero is in the final stages of his return to play and expected to be fully cleared for training camp.
For James, one year of playing in the NBA has made a difference as he approaches this summer.
He appeared in 27 games last season, starting once, and averaged 2.3 points per game on 31.3% shooting, 28.1% from three-point range.
“Yeah, it’s definitely some more excitement than nervousness, for sure,” James said. “I’m just ready to go out there and play and be better than I was the last time I was playing. Just having that mindset of being ready to play and ready for whatever’s thrown at me, no matter the role, what I gotta do on defense, offense, everything. Being a good teammate for my new summer league team, stuff like that.”
Besides skill work, James said his plan for the summer is to be in “elite condition” and to “be disruptive on the defensive end.”
“So that’s my main focus, probably why I’m getting a little leaner,” he said. “But I still got 215 [pounds] on me still. So, I’m just running a lot, getting a lot of conditioning in. And then just staying on top of my diet, eating healthy, being a professional. It’s just Year 2, so I gotta lock in on the things that I didn’t know before my rookie year and being better and excel with that. Yeah, my main focus is this year, or this summer, has been being in elite condition. That’s what I’ve been talking to my coaches about.”
Knecht played in 78 games last season, averaging 9.1 points over 19.2 minutes per game.
As the season progressed, Knecht said the game slowed down for him and that allowed him to improve.
When the Lakers were eliminated from the playoffs by the Timberwolves, Knecht said he went to work right away. In his eyes, there was no time to waste.
“Right after the [playoff] loss, I pretty much started right away. Didn’t take much time off,” he said. “So I was getting in the gym, starting at 6 a.m., going with the guys at 10 and then coming back later at night just to get as many shots as I can, just working on my game and my cuts.”
Lakers superstar LeBron James will once again make NBA history by playing in his 23rd NBA season.
James exercised his player option for $52.6 million to play for the Lakers during the 2025-26 season, his agent and CEO of Klutch Sports Rich Paul told The Times on Sunday morning.
James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, had been tied with Vince Carter for the most seasons played in the NBA at 22. This will be James’ eighth season with the Lakers.
James, 40, is 50 games away from breaking Hall of Famer Robert Parish’s record for the most games played in the regular season.
James averaged 24.4 points per game last season, 8.2 assists and 7.8 rebounds.
Fellow Laker Dorian Finney-Smith reportedly declined his $15.3-million player option and will pursue free agency, a person with knowledge of his decision told The Times. Finney-Smith, who is coming off a strong season with the Lakers, is expected to be pursued by multiple teams. He could still return to the Lakers. ESPN was first to report Finney-Smith’s decision.
Last week, Austin Reaves declined the team’s maximum offer of four years for $89 million, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
Reaves, 27, still has two years left on his deal, for $13.9 million next season and $14.9 million in the 2026-27 season, and he holds a player option for the last year of his deal.
Lakers forward LeBron James (23) and teammate Austin Reaves react to a referee’s call during a 2025 NBA playoff game against Minnesota.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
He was third on the Lakers in scoring last season, averaging career-highs in scoring (20.2), assists (5.8), rebounds (4.5) and minutes per game (34.9). He shot 46% from the field and 37.7% from three-point range.
With the James and Smith player option questions resolved Sunday, the Lakers are focused on filling out their roster. They added an athletic wing player when they acquired Adou Thiero in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves, who drafted him with the 36th pick in the second round.
The most pressing need for the Lakers remains a center, and they’ll have to look into free agency or via trade to acquire one.
The Lakers have the taxpayer mid-level exception of about $5.65 million to spend.
“As I said at the end of the year, we know one of the things we have to address is the center position and that’s clearly going to be one of our focuses as we begin the free-agency period,” Rob Pelinka, the Lakers’ president of basketball operations, told Spectrum SportsNet after the second round of the draft Thursday. “… “So, we’re looking forward to just putting in the hard work and making sure we take care of all the needs on the roster to give [Lakers coach] JJ [Redick] the tools he needs for this team to be great next season.”
Now that you’re the majority owner of the Lakers, everyone is expecting you to whack their two most prominent leaders in hopes of transforming the basketball team into your baseball team, but you should instead initially act in terms your Dodgers would understand.
Agreed, this might be a tough call, and certainly there could be temptation to immediately can the two Lakers employees who most epitomize the incestuous decisions that have dragged the once-shining championship organization into dull mediocrity.
Pelinka, the president of basketball operations and general manager, was hired eight years ago because he was the agent and confidant of Kobe Bryant.
Redick, the head coach, was hired last summer because he was LeBron James’ podcast bro.
Neither man came to their current positions with strong qualifications. Both men were beneficiaries of a post-Jerry Buss culture in which daughter Jeanie would surround herself with friends and family.
It is a culture that led to outsized decision-making roles for the likes of Linda and Kurt Rambis. It is a culture that is diametrically opposed to the meritocracy that has made this town’s other glamour team so great.
Now that the Dodgers have basically swallowed the Lakers whole, it might be a foregone conclusion that Pelinka and Redick would be among the first to disappear.
Memo to Mark Walter:
Mark Walter, the controlling owner of the Dodgers, recently became a majority stakeholder in the Lakers.
(Emma McIntyre / Getty Images)
Hold up rounding third.
Both Pelinka and Redick have earned a chance to show their strengths in a new system in which there will certainly be increased scouting, advanced analytics and a new professionalism for an infrastructure that had been difficult for any official to succeed.
Ned Colletti was the Dodgers’ general manager when Walter’s group bought the team in the spring of 2012. He lasted two more seasons, Guggenheim Partners pouring money into the team and giving him every chance to succeed before firing him.
Pelinka deserves at least half that chance.
Don Mattingly was the manager when Walter bought the team. He lasted four more seasons, finally parting ways after the 2015 season.
Redick deserves at least a portion of that leash.
Although both men have been viewed as overmatched both in this space and by NBA insiders across the landscape, each has done well enough to not be summarily beheaded the minute Walter walks through the door.
Start with Pelinka. You do know he has an NBA championship on his resume, right? While Alex Caruso dismissed the 2020 title as phony last week after he won another ring with Oklahoma City, that first one still counts, and Pelinka still deserves credit for overseeing it.
Yes, Pelinka is the villain who ruined everything by letting Caruso walk while gutting the title team to acquire Russell Westbrook. But he’s also perhaps the only executive in NBA history to acquire three players the likes of LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis.
He had lots of help there — Magic Johnson recruited James, and James recruited Davis, and Nico Harrison handed him Doncic — but still, he was the final cog in making it happen.
Pelinka also engineered the splendid undrafted free agent signing that was Austin Reaves, which led to the Lakers finishing this season as the third seed in the West.
You don’t fire a decision-maker the same year his rebuilt team finishes third in basketball’s most competitive neighborhood. You don’t fire a decision-maker two years after his team reached the Western Conference finals. And you certainly don’t fire a decision-maker until you know what’s happening with his best employee.
It seems clear that James is going to opt in to his $52.6 million contract this week and remain with the team — and son Bronny — for at least one more season. If that’s the case, then Pelinka should get the chance to add the rim protector he’s been seeking to maximize Doncic and give James one more opportunity at a ring.
However, if James unexpectedly turns down the money to seek better title opportunities elsewhere — not a bad decision for the Lakers, honestly — then the ensuing roster chaos will not be the right time to make a change at the top.
Either way, the situation is fluid enough that Pelinka should be allowed to see it through.
The same goes for Redick, who did an admirable job in his first regular season before melting down in the playoffs.
Granted, some would consider his first-round series game management against the Minnesota Timberwolves a fireable offense, particularly in Game 4 when he used the same five players for an entire second half. He didn’t do himself any favors when he later reacted to criticism of that decision by bristling at a reporter’s question before stalking away from a pregame news conference.
During the most important moments of the season, Redick was in over his head. But as he admitted, he’ll learn, he’ll grow, he’ll get better, and he did well enough during the regular season to believe him.
Redick coached one team before the arrival of Doncic and the departure of Davis. He coached another team afterward. He deftly handled both of those teams while smartly disarming the potentially divisive distraction that was Bronny. Redick also empowered Reaves to become a legitimate third threat before Reaves joined his coach in a playoff disappearing act.
All of which brings this surprisingly sugary piece to this upcoming week, the start of the NBA’s summer madness, and the pressure is on.
Like it or not, Pelinka and Redick are a pair now, a tandem joined by the appearance of a new owner with new expectations.
Pelinka needs to find a big man who can help carry them deep into the playoffs. No matter who Pelinka acquires, Redick has to scheme around Doncic and make it all work.
They won’t get many chances under a new Dodger regime that demands sustained success, but they deserve at least one chance to take advantage of the massive changes that this new ownership group will surely create in returning basketball’s greatest franchise to new glories.
Memo to Mark Walter:
Keep Pelinka‘s and Redick’s names in the lineup card.
The Lakers and Clippers put in the work during the NBA’s two-day draft that was completed Thursday night and now they will turn their attention to shaping their rosters.
The first key dates are Sunday, when LeBron James and Dorian Finney-Smith have to inform the Lakers and when James Harden has to inform the Clippers of their decisions to opt in or out of their contracts, and Monday, when the NBA free-agency period begins.
James has a player option for $52.6 million and Finney-Smith has one for $15.3 million.
“At that point, we’ll know the tools we have to go out into free agency and fill out the roster with the draft ending tonight,” Rob Pelinka, the Lakers’ president of basketball operations, told Spectrum SportsNet after the second round of the draft Thursday. “The work for that has already begun, but the focus now will turn from draft focus to free agency and we won’t rest until we get it right.”
Harden, who has a player option of $36.3 million, also has the same day to let the Clippers know his desires.
“He’s our No. 1 priority,” Lawrence Frank, the Clippers’ president of basketball operations, told the media after the first round of the draft Wednesday night. “We’re super hopeful that James is here and he’s here for a long time. He has a player-option, so he can opt-in … or he can opt-out and hopefully we can do a deal that makes sense for both sides. But James, as you guys know, was phenomenal and we hope to continue to see his play.”
The Lakers were able to add an athletic wing player when they acquired Adou Thiero in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves, who picked him with the 36th pick of the second round.
The most pressing need for the Lakers remains a center, and they’ll have to look into free agency or via trade to acquire one.
The top big men are Indiana’s Myles Turner, Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez and Atlanta’s Clint Capela.
Turner, who made $19.9 million last season, is probably headed back to the Pacers and will do so at a price the Lakers can’t offer him. The Lakers have the taxpayer mid-level exception of about $5.65 million to spend.
“As I said at the end of the year, we know one of the things we have to address is the center position and that’s clearly going to be one of our focuses as we begin the free-agency period,” Pelinka said on the Lakers’ TV show. “And that’s right around the corner.
“So, we’re looking forward to just putting in the hard work and making sure we take care of all the needs on the roster to give [Lakers coach] JJ [Redick] the tools he needs for this team to be great next season.”
Though the Clippers drafted a center in the first round with the 30th pick, getting Yanic Konan Niederhausher of Penn State, Frank said his team “probably will have at least three centers.”
The Clippers can use their non-taxpayer mid-level exception that’s projected to be about $14.1 million on a player or two, and perhaps even find a center.
They will also perform due diligence by calling other teams to see about trade opportunities.
“You’re always in constant contact with all the teams,” Frank said. “You have a good sense of the things that you can be involved with and other things that you’re not.”
Free agency begins Monday at 3 p.m. PDT, but players can’t sign contracts until July 6.
Also, Clippers wing Norman Powell is eligible for a contract extension. He has one year left on his deal that pays him $20.4 million next season.
“At the appropriate time, we’ll sit with Norm and his representatives to talk about what kind of an extension and what it would look like and how it would fit in the bigger picture,” Frank said.
