Tucker

Welcome back to the Lakers newsletter, where we’re likely standing at an airport as you read this.

The NBA schedule is in full swing. The chaos JJ Redick mentioned at the beginning of the season has arrived. The Lakers played a game with seven standard contract players. Austin Reaves went on a heater for the ages, scoring 51 points in a game, 41 in the next, then hitting the game-winner in the one after that. Nick Smith Jr. threw up in the hallway at Moda Center then dropped 25 on the Portland Trail Blazers.

But through it all, the Lakers are crediting their 6-2 start to something that can’t be measured in the box score.

‘Play Laker basketball’

There seems to be an advanced statistic for everything now. As a math person, I wholeheartedly embrace the nerdification of sports. But the thing Redick preaches most to his team is something that can’t be quantified.

Just “playing hard.”

It sounds simple, but, in fact, there is a way to do it wrong.

“That’s what we call ‘fake hustle,’” guard Marcus Smart said. “It’s all for the cameras. It’s all just to look good so you don’t get in trouble in the film room. But when you’re playing hard, you can feel it. You can feel the way you’re playing, you can feel the way the energy. Your body can feel it. Your mind can feel it. And you’d be surprised how the game turns out because of that.”

The Lakers’ early season commitment to simply playing hard has helped them weather injury storms and roster uncertainty. They’ve gone 3-1 in games without Luka Doncic. One of those victories was without Doncic and Austin Reaves, and all have been on the road. LeBron James hasn’t even played a minute this season.

“There’s certain things that we are doing right now that we did not do until mid-to-late January of last year,” Redick said before the Lakers’ game against Memphis.

Naturally, only hours after praising his team’s consistent competitiveness, Redick was frustrated with the effort in the second quarter against the Grizzlies. He called his players “zombies” as they let Memphis score 19 unanswered points in the second quarter.

So, no, things aren’t perfect yet.

But in a long season, with pieces that are still finding their way together, any early glimpse at some of those intangible, championship team qualities are meaningful. Redick lauded his team’s confidence, belief and connectivity in the win over Portland without Doncic or Reaves. Getting any or all of their stars back will change the complexion of what this team will ultimately achieve in April, May or — they hope — June, but the Lakers don’t want to it to affect what they do any given night.

“I think it all started in training camp, really just going as hard as we can, JJ not giving the crap who’s out there,” center Deandre Ayton said. “He wants to play Laker basketball.”

After the Lakers beat the Grizzlies, Smart gave the team a B+ in how hard it’s playing. But after Monday’s win in Portland in which Smith scored 25 points off the bench, Smart upgraded the rating to a B++.

So there’s still room to grow on this report card.

A new boss in town

New Lakers majority owner Mark Walter.

(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

The Lakers officially have a new majority owner.

Mark Walter’s acquisition of the Lakers was unanimously approved by the NBA board of governors last Thursday. It was a monumental week for the billionaire. One day after the sale went final, Walter hoisted the Commissioner’s Trophy for the second time in as many years with the Dodgers, who won the World Series in epic Game 7 fashion. Then on Sunday, Walter was sitting courtside at Crypto.com Arena in a royal blue Dodgers jacket to watch the Lakers defeat the Heat. An arena employee shook Walter’s hand, presumably thanking him for bringing L.A. another championship and already dreaming about the next one that could come for the purple and gold.

Redick said he spoke briefly with Walter after the news and came away impressed with Walter’s enthusiasm to learn about a new league.

“Baseball is an individual sport masquerading as a team sport. It’s a different thing,” Redick said. “Daryl Morey said it best on a podcast a couple years ago. He said the NBA now is the equivalent of the Giants when Barry Bonds was in his prime, basically getting to bat every single time and not only that, getting to pick who pitches to him every single time. That’s what the NBA is. … The impact of star players, a guy like Luka, a guy like LeBron, a guy like AR, it’s just different than any other sport.”

Favorite thing I ate this week

Miso pork katsu sando from Tokyo Sando food cart in Portland.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

As my Uber driver dropped me off at my hotel in Portland, we drove by a collection of food trucks around the corner. He recommended that I make a stop for lunch. Little did he know, I had already scoped out the entire area, and I had my target locked.

The miso pork katsu sando from Tokyo Sando felt like culinary perfection after a chaotic back-to-back turnaround.

In case you missed it

No Big 3, no problem: Nick Smith Jr. helps lead Lakers to fourth consecutive win

Jake LaRavia won’t be unknown to Lakers fans much longer with games like this

Luka Doncic drops triple-double to power Lakers to victory over Heat

Luka Doncic returns and Lakers get a road win at Memphis

NBA approves Buss family sale of Lakers to Dodgers majority owner Mark Walter

Austin Reaves hits game-winner as Lakers hang on to defeat Timberwolves

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at [email protected], and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

Kyle Schwarber, 33, DH, 4.7, 19.9: Schwarber is a premier slugger with 187 home runs in four seasons with Philadelphia, where he also was an exceptional clubhouse leader. He is pretty much restricted to designated hitter and is approaching an age where offensive production might decline. He still merits a lucrative multi-year deal, although going longer than four years at a $30 million average annual value (AAV) might be inviting buyer’s remorse in 2030.

Kyle Tucker, 29, OF, 4.5, 27.3: Although his 2025 bWAR was lower than that of Bellinger and Schwarber, Tucker might have the highest sticker price in this free-agent class. The average of projections from 20 ESPN experts is 10 years and $391.5 million for a $38.8 million AAV. The Dodgers are considered a prime suitor because of their deep pockets and need for a productive corner outfielder.

Eugenio Suárez, 34, 3B, 3.6, 26.8: A drop of nearly one win above replacement from the top three free agents — Cody Bellinger, Schwarber and Tucker — still puts Suárez in an enviable position. Splitting the season between the Diamondbacks and Mariners, Suarez tied a career high with 49 home runs and drove in 118 runs.

Alex Bregman, 32, 3B, 3.5, 43.1: Even though Bregman’s bWAR was slightly lower than that of Suárez, he should command a larger deal because he’s younger and more well-rounded. Bregman missed 44 games because of injury in his single season in Boston but still put up solid numbers. His average bWAR over his 10-year career is 4.3.

Trent Grisham, 29, OF, 3.5, 14.6: Grisham is an enigma, a first-round draft pick who blossomed with the Padres only to crater and bat under .200 three years in a row. But in 2025 he rebounded, swatting a career-high 34 home runs with the Yankees in 2025. Grisham also has two Gold Gloves in center field. Still, he’s a bit of a gamble.

Bo Bichette, 28, SS, 3.4, 20.8: Bichette showed his toughness by playing effectively in the World Series despite a lingering knee injury. Bichette can flat-out hit, accumulating more than 175 hits in four of the last five seasons with above-average power. He also plays a premium position and will turn only 28 in March, meaning he could command a contract exceeded only by that of Tucker.

Toronto Blue Jays’ Bo Bichette hits a three-run home run during Game 7 of the World Series, Nov. 1, 2025, in Toronto.

(Ashley Landis/AP)

Pete Alonso, 31, 1B, 3.4, 23.3: Alonso was disappointed by the tepid interest in him as a free agent last offseason, re-signing with the Mets on a one-year, $30-million deal with a player option. He’s expected to test the market again after once again posting the glittering power numbers that have made him a fan favorite in New York for seven years.

Josh Naylor, 28, 1B, 3.1, 8.4: The 5-foot-10, 235-pound left-handed slugger produced well in 2025 while splitting the season between the Diamondbacks and Mariners, batting a career-high .295 and hitting precisely 20 home runs for the third time in five seasons.

Gleyber Torres, 29, 2B, 2.9, 18.7: Torres needed to restore his value after taking a one-year deal with the Tigers following a ho-hum 2024 season with the Yankees. He did so incrementally and should land a measured multi-year deal this time around.

J.T. Realmuto, 35, C, 2.6, 38.8: Realmuto is recognized as one of the top-hitting catchers in baseball, and he’s clearly the top free-agent backstop, proving in 2025 that he can still catch upward of 130 games while putting up solid offensive numbers. Still, he will be 35 on opening day and his .700 OPS was his lowest in a decade.

Jorge Polanco, 32, 2B, 2.6, 20.7: Polanco hit 26 home runs and posted an .821 OPS, the switch-hitter’s best season since 2021 when he hit 33 homers and drove in 98 runs. Chronic knee problems have put his shortstop days behind him and cut into his range at second or third base, but the bat still plays.

Mike Yastrzemski, 35, OF, 2.6, 16.8: Although the grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski posted his best OPS (.839) since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he might be entertaining only contract offers of one year at $10 million or so.

Ryan O’Hearn, 31, 1B/DH, 2.4, 3.1: O’Hearn is an accomplished left-handed hitter coming off a season split between the Orioles and Padres. He can expect a large raise from the $3.5 million he made in 2025, perhaps tripling it.

Marcell Ozuna, 35, OF/DH, 1.6, 29.5: Ozuna is a proven power bat who has exceeded 20 home runs in nine seasons and led the NL with 18 homers and 56 RBIs in pandemic-shortened 2020. After tremendous 2023 and 2024 seasons in which he totaled 79 homers and 204 RBIs, Ozuna slipped in 2025, batting .232 with 21 home runs while battling hip pain.

Luis Arráez, 29, 1B, 1.3, 16.5: Arráez doesn’t get much love from bWAR or fWAR, but he sure can hit, leading all major leaguers with a .317 lifetime average. He led the NL with 181 hits in 2025, but because he doesn’t hit for power or walk much, his OPS was a pedestrian .719. The three-time batting champion should continue to be paid about $14 million a year, with the question becoming for how long.

Paul Goldschmidt, 38, 1B, 1.2, 63.8: Goldschmidt boasts the highest career bWAR of any free-agent hitter and he has made it clear that he is not ready to retire. His productivity, however, is trending downward, especially his power. With only 10 homers and 45 RBIs in 534 plate appearances with the Yankees last season, Goldschmidt is no longer an elite hitter.

Victor Caratini, 32, C, 0.9, 4.3: Catchers are at a premium in this free-agent class and Caratini is one of the few with a potent bat and ability to play more than 100 games in a season. He most recently delivered decently on a two-year, $12-million deal with the Astros and could land a similar contract because of the scarcity of backstops.

Welcome back to this week’s Lakers newsletter, where things are going to get weird (in a good way). Lakers basketball is officially back Tuesday as the team begins its regular season with the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena.

Coach JJ Redick downplayed any suggestion that his emotions entering his second season at the helm were significantly different than last year, but he said something that resonated with me as I’m entering my first full season in the NBA world.

“The fun part about this,” Redick said, “is the chaos.”

Let’s embrace this chaos.

Make Luka joyful again

Redick has a word for what Luka Doncic does. When the star guard skips up the court after a one-footed jump shot. The way Doncic grins slyly at his bench after a particularly bold pass. How he makes even the most unimaginable feats seem possible when the ball is in his hands.

‘He’s a weirdo,” Redick said in the most affectionate way possible.

“He has an ability to do what I would call, like, silly stuff, but still be locked in. It’s important to him that basketball is fun. … He’s at play. And that’s part of what makes him great.”

When he was drafted third overall in 2018, Doncic was 19 years old. People called him “The Wonder Boy.” He played with the joy of a child who was discovering new things each time he stepped on the court.

Now he’s 26. He’s seen that the NBA isn’t always just audacious step-back threes and sky-high lobs. Sometimes business gets in the way. Doncic’s ability to bridge the gap between his inner child and the outward seasoned veteran will be what defines the Lakers’ success this year.

“By being in a clearer headspace, and by that I mean just mentally and emotionally in balance, it allows you the freedom to just be yourself,” Redick said of Doncic. “That gets reflected in his expressions, his interactions with teammates, his interactions with our coaching staff, his desire to toe that line between competition and joy and playfulness that truthfully makes him the special person and player that he is.”

Redick has had a unique view of Doncic’s style. They were teammates in Dallas during Redick’s final year. They were unexpectedly reunited by a late-night trade so monumental that it even dominated the conversation at the Super Bowl.

But the shell-shocked version of Doncic wasn’t exactly the joyful player Redick remembered. Doncic said the basketball court has always been his “peaceful place.” The trade shattered not only the collective NBA mind, but also Doncic’s own spirit.

“The joy wasn’t there,” Doncic said.

Doncic was also struggling with a calf injury that kept him sidelined for a week after the trade. He made his debut on Feb. 10. He has said that, in retrospect, that first game was the highlight of his first season as a Laker because of the way the crowd received him. But it took maybe 10 or 15 games for the joy to truly return, Doncic said.

“At the end of the day, we’re all human,” guard Austin Reaves said. “It’s not like we’re robots out here that don’t have feelings, don’t have emotions, anything like that. … That’s not saying that he wasn’t fun to be around. He was always, still joking, having fun, but you can tell that he’s at peace with it. And he’s excited to go to war with us every night.”

Doncic has been adamant about trying to become more of a vocal leader this season. Time has healed his trade wounds, and Doncic said he’s felt much more comfortable speaking up around his teammates. He treated them to a Porsche driving experience as a team-bonding activity and gifted everyone his newest signature shoe. He traded jerseys with Jarred Vanderbilt at a recent practice just for fun. He and Rui Hachimura trade barbs about each others musical preferences.

In front of reporters, Doncic is not a gregarious interview subject, but he still dutifully plodded in front of a hoard of cameras and reporters Monday after practice. Reaves walked by and said loud enough to make sure everyone could hear that Doncic was his “favorite teammate ever.”

Doncic, laughing, responded that Reaves was his least favorite.

“He’s a big kid,” Doncic said sarcastically. “Very childish.”

But in Doncic’s world, that’s a good thing.

Defense wins championships

Gabe Vincent chases a loose ball during last season’s playoffs.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Gabe Vincent got the starting nod in LeBron James’ place during the preseason finale and will likely hold onto that role as the season begins in earnest. He has surely earned it.

Vincent shot a sizzling 55.6% from three-point range in the preseason and averaged 16.3 points per game. It was a glimpse of the player he showed he could be in Miami when helped lift the Heat to the NBA Finals.

The 29-year-old guard is also a gritty defender and strong communicator. The Lakers need that to improve on their defense that allowed the Sacramento Kings — playing without stars Keegan Murray, Domantas Sabonis and DeMar DeRozan — to shoot 54.7% from the field.

Doncic said a major piece missing from the Lakers’ defensive performance was physicality. Redick said he saw what the defense could be in two- or three-play bursts in each of the games following a flat performance against the Golden State Warriors in the first game. Now the key is to turn those flashes into sustained stretches.

“Building our habits, building our communication, and being in great shape, it’s how you build a great defense,” Redick said, echoing his three mantras of the year. “I could have put ‘championship defense’ up there. What does that mean? Actually what does that mean? Doesn’t mean anything. It literally doesn’t mean anything. How do you have a championship defense? You gotta have great habits. You gotta be able to communicate. That builds trust. And you gotta be in elite shape so you can play harder than the other team every night. It’s pretty simple.”

Favorite thing I ate this week

Oxtail ragu with pappardelle pasta

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

It’s not a bad gig when you get to watch basketball for a living and in between games eat at different restaurants across the country. But after days, and sometimes weeks, on the road, a good home-cooked meal just hits different.

That’s why my culinary highlight came out of my own kitchen this week: Oxtail ragu with pappardelle pasta from Trader Joe’s. And because I like counting on home cooking after road trips, the leftovers will be waiting for me in the freezer for later this season. Nothing says comfort food like a big bowl of noodles.

In case you missed it

Luka Doncic expecting tough test vs. Stephen Curry and Warriors without LeBron

LeBron James is off the hook for $865.66 as fan calls off ‘Second Decision’ lawsuit

Reigning NBA champs Oklahoma City Thunder aim to end NBA parity era

With LeBron James out, Lakers lean on Luka Doncic to open season

Lakers story lines: Five things to watch as the season begins

From oops to aahs, Jaxson Hayes and Lakers work to catch more of Luka Doncic’s passes

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at [email protected], and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

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…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at [email protected], and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

Welcome to this week’s Lakers newsletter. It’s been a long time since we’ve been in your inboxes and even longer since I specifically have.

So please allow me to (re)introduce myself: Hi, my name is Thuc Nhi Nguyen.

After spending most of my career covering college sports and, briefly, the Chargers, I’m taking over Lakers beat coverage for The Times. I’m originally from Seattle and divorced from the NBA after 2008, but moving to L.A. for work brought me back in, especially with how the Lakers have such a hold on this city.

Through the twists and turns, I’m smiling through it all and can’t believe this is my life: I get to chronicle what will surely be a (for better or worse) historic Lakers season while joining a legendary legacy of Times beat writers. Let’s make this a fun ride.

First impressions

I am not the only new person around this beat. The Lakers made three key offseason additions that could play major roles this season, and Deandre Ayton and Jake LaRavia made their unofficial debuts as the preseason started.

Ayton was the biggest signing. After the Trail Blazers bought out Ayton’s contract, the Lakers scooped up the 7-foot center to fill their most glaring position of need. The former No. 1 overall pick hoping to reestablish himself at the top of the league believed his third team would be his “last chance.”

The talk of a revenge tour sounded hollow, though, when he scored just one point in the Lakers’ first preseason game. He missed both of his shot attempts from the field in the blowout loss.

Ayton said after the game he was more focused on the defensive end to send a message to his teammates and coaches that he could be the dominant rim protector they need. He had two blocks.

But coach JJ Redick said the team’s three centers — Ayton, Jaxson Hayes and two-way player Christian Koloko — didn’t use their mobility enough in the first preseason game. The trio is as athletic and mobile as any center group in the league, Redick said. But they didn’t get to the level of the screener when required. Redick is confident the Lakers can iron out the defensive details.

“We’re going to ask a lot of [Ayton] defensively,” Redick said. “And he’s been the anchor of the Finals defense, so he can do it.”

Ayton, who helped the Suns to the NBA Finals in 2021, doesn’t mind being the center of attention: “Pressure is a privilege,” he said multiple times at media day.

LaRavia is feeling a new kind of pressure in his first season as a Laker. The 23-year-old, who was born in Pasadena, previously played in Memphis and Sacramento, but acknowledged that putting on the purple and gold felt different.

When LaRavia was asked if he had an early training camp highlight play, he shrugged. “That’s not really my game,” he said. The humble approach makes him an ideal addition to a team that already has plenty of offensive firepower with LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.

Redick values the 6-7 LaRavia for his versatility and energy. When Reaves sat out of the second preseason game, putting all three of the team’s top playmakers on the bench, LaRavia suddenly found himself handling the ball much more than anticipated. Redick thought LaRavia looked “sped up” in the role. He had two turnovers. Redick anticipates that LaRavia will initiate the offense occasionally, but it won’t be his primary responsibility. The brief preseason experience in the unique situation will still serve LaRavia well going forward.

“It’s obviously going to be different when Luka and LeBron and AR are all in the lineup and I’m throwing it to them,” said LaRavia, who had 10 points and three assists Sunday against Golden State. “It’ll be more of me being that spacer rather than being on-ball and being the connecting piece. But either way, I’m comfortable doing both things.”

Guard Marcus Smart, one of the other big-name offseason additions, has yet to appear in the first two preseason games. He is battling Achilles tendinopathy.

Second impressions

Lakers coach JJ Redick.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

In his first time as a head coach, Redick navigated a chaotic year both professionally and personally. Redick lost his home in the devastating wildfires. A month later, the Lakers traded for Doncic. They surged to the No. 3 seed in the West, but lost to Minnesota and Redick was criticized for playing the same five-player lineup for an entire half. He acknowledged after the year that he could “get a lot better.”

How Redick, the long-time player, continues to grow into Redick, an up-and-coming NBA coach, is a storyline I’m interested to follow this year.

Redick has already established good will among the organization. He was awarded a contract extension ahead of training camp, building on the four-year deal he signed last year. Extending a rookie head coach after one year and a first-round playoff exit felt like a surprising move, but for an organization that could be in for major changes soon (read: James in the final year of his contract) locking in a head coach at least gives the impression of stability.

One important person who figures to be a mainstay for years to come approved.

“It was great to work with JJ,” Doncic said at media day. “Hopefully we can work till the end of my career.”

Favorite thing I ate this week

Left: banh beo, steamed rice cakes with shrimp and mung bean. Right: bun bo Hue, spicy beef noodle soup, a specialty from Hue, a city in Central Vietnam.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

There is one thing I like talking about more than sports. Food. Welcome to a sliver of the life of a sports reporter.

Before Sunday’s preseason game in San Francisco, I channeled my Vietnamese roots for lunch at Tuyet Mai. My family is from Hue, Vietnam, which was the former imperial capital of the country and is known for its royal cuisine. The restaurant owners recognized my Hue accent immediately when I ordered two Hue classics: bun bo Hue and banh beo. Of Hue’s regional dishes, my favorite is banh beo: a steamed rice cake topped with shrimp, mung bean and pork. I can almost never pass it up when I see it on a restaurant menu. But my mom’s is still the best.

Got food recs in an NBA city near you? Send them to me as I explore the league for the first time. I don’t eat sliced tomatoes in sandwiches or sushi in land-locked states. Everything else is fair game.

In case you missed it

With their big three out, Lakers work on ‘championship habits’ against Warriors

Why Luka Doncic didn’t play in Lakers’ preseason opener against Suns

Lakers’ Luka Doncic easing into training camp after hectic offseason

Jake LaRavia, at only 23, fits right into Lakers’ future plans

LeBron James looking at slow ramp-up to Lakers season

‘Angry’ Deandre Ayton not taking his ‘last chance’ for granted with Lakers

‘I don’t know’: Lakers’ LeBron James unsure when it comes to future

Plaschke: LeBron James is ‘maybe’ retiring? This is going to be fun

Until next time…

Your basketball takes are welcome! What are you most curious about this Lakers season? What can I find out for you? Slide into the inbox: [email protected], and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

Kyle Tucker homered twice and drove in five runs as the surging Chicago Cubs routed the Angels 12-1 on Saturday night.

Reese McGuire added a grand slam and tied a career high with five RBIs to help the Cubs (75-55) win for the seventh time in nine games.

Cade Horton (8-4) gave up three hits over six scoreless innings and Ben Brown went the rest of the way for his first major league save.

Busting out of an extended slump, Tucker has three homers in two nights following a 25-game drought. The outburst has come after he was given three games off by manager Craig Counsell earlier in the week.

Jo Adell homered late for the Angels (61-68), who totaled eight hits while losing the first two games of the series.

Victor Mederos (0-2) and Carson Fulmer were charged with all 12 of the Cubs’ runs. The Angels fell to 2-6 since pulling off a three-game sweep of the Dodgers from Aug. 11-13.

McGuire’s grand slam in the fourth gave the Cubs a 6-0 lead and they made it 10-0 in the sixth when Tucker went deep for the second time. It was Tucker’s eighth multihomer game and first since May 2024 against the Angels with Houston.

Adell’s home run in the seventh, his 29th, ended Chicago’s shutout bid.

Key moment: With two outs in the third, Michael Busch tucked a double just inside the first-base line and past a diving Nolan Schanuel to get Tucker to the plate before his first homer of the game.

Key stat: Angels star Mike Trout went 0 for 3 with three strikeouts as his 22-game on-base streak came to an end.

Up next: Angels RHP Kyle Hendricks (6-8, 4.93 ERA) will face his former team Sunday in a matchup against Cubs RHP Jameson Taillon (8-6, 4.26).

Sean Byrne knows how to show an audience a bad time. Sixteen years ago, the Australian filmmaker launched onto the scene with “The Loved Ones,” his proudly grisly debut about a misfit teenager who gets gruesome revenge on the boy who refused to go to prom with her. Part expert torture porn, part exploration of adolescent romantic anxieties, the film was an instant midnight-madness cult item that took Byrne six years to follow up.

When he did, he went in a different tonal direction with “The Devil’s Candy,” a surprisingly emotional psychological thriller about a heavy-metal-loving painter who moves his family to a beautifully rustic home, only to lose his mind. Working in recognizable horror subgenres, Byrne entices you with a familiar premise and then slowly teases apart the tropes, leaving you unsettled but also invigorated by his inventiveness.

It has now been a decade since that distinctive riff on “The Shining,” and for Byrne’s third feature, he once again pillages from indelible sources. “Dangerous Animals” draws from both the serial-killer thriller and Hollywood’s penchant for survival stories about hungry sharks feasting on human flesh. But unlike in the past, Byrne’s new movie never waylays you with a surprise narrative wrinkle or unexpected thematic depth. He hasn’t lost his knack for generating bad vibes, but this time he hasn’t brought anything else to the party.

The movie stars Hassie Harrison as Zephyr, a solitary surfer who explains in on-the-nose dialogue that she prefers the danger of open water to the unhappiness of life on land. An American in Australia who grew up in foster homes and who lives in a beat-up old van, Zephyr encounters Moses (Josh Heuston), a straitlaced nice guy whom she hooks up with. Not that she wants him developing feelings for her: She takes off in the middle of the night so she can catch some waves. Unfortunately, Zephyr is the one who gets caught — by Tucker (Jai Courtney), a deceptively gregarious boat captain who kidnaps her. Next thing she knows, she’s chained up inside his vessel out at sea, alongside another female victim, Heather (Ella Newton).

Like many a movie serial killer, Tucker isn’t just interested in murdering his prey — he wants to make something artistic out of his butchery. And so he ties Heather to a crane and dangles her in the water like a giant lure, pulling out a camcorder to record her final moments as sharks devour her. Watching his victims struggle to stay alive is cinema to this twisted soul and Zephyr will be his next unwitting protagonist.

Working from a script by visual artist Nick Lepard, Byrne (who wrote his two previous features) digs into the story’s B-movie appeal. Tucker may use old-fashioned technology to record his kills, but “Dangerous Animals” is set in the present, even if its trashy, drive-in essence would have made it better suited to come out 50 years ago as counterprogramming to “Jaws.” With Zephyr’s tough-girl demeanor and Tucker’s creepy vibe, Byrne knowingly plays into genre clichés, setting up the inevitable showdown between the beauty and the beast.

But despite that juicy setup, “Dangerous Animals” is a disappointingly straightforward and ultimately underwhelming horror movie, offering little of the grim poetry of Byrne’s previous work and far too much of the narrative predictability that in the past he astutely sidestepped. There are still subversive ideas — for one thing, this is a shark film with precious few sharks — but Byrne’s sneaky smarts have largely abandoned him. Rather than transcending expectations, “Dangerous Animals” surrenders to them.

One can’t fault Harrison, whose Zephyr spends much of the movie in a battle of wills with her captor. Because “Dangerous Animals” limits the amount of sharks we see, digitally inserting footage of the deadly creatures into scenes, the story’s central tension comes from Zephyr trying to free herself or get help before Tucker prepares his next nautical snuff film. Harrison projects a ferocious determination that’s paired with an intense loathing for this condescending, demented misogynist. It’s bad enough that Tucker wants to murder her — beforehand, he wants to bore her with shark trivia, dully advocating for these misunderstood animals. It’s an underdeveloped joke: “Dangerous Animals” is a nightmare about meeting the mansplainer from hell.

Alas, Courtney’s conception of the film’s true dangerous animal is where the story truly runs aground. The actor’s handsome, vaguely blank countenance is meant to suggest a burly, hunky everyman — the sort of person you’d never suspect or look twice at, which makes Tucker well-positioned to leave a trail of corpses in his path. But neither Byrne nor Courtney entirely gets their arms around this conventionally unhinged horror villain. “Dangerous Animals” overly underlines its point that we shouldn’t be afraid of sharks — it’s the Tuckers who ought to keep us up at night — but Courtney never captures the unfathomable malice beneath the facial scruff. We root for Zephyr to escape Tucker’s clutches not because he’s evil but because he’s a bit of a stiff.

Even with those deficiencies, the film boasts a level of craft that keeps the story fleet, with Byrne relying on the dependable tension of a victim trapped at sea with her pursuer, sharks waiting in the waters surrounding her. Michael Yezerski’s winkingly emphatic score juices every scare as the gore keeps ratcheting up — particularly during a moment when Zephyr finds an unexpected way to break out of handcuffs.

But Byrne can’t redeem the script’s boneheaded plot twists, nor can he elevate the most potentially intriguing idea at its core. As Tucker peers into his viewfinder, getting off on his victims’ screams as sharks sink their jaws into them, “Dangerous Animals” hints at the fixation horror directors such as Byrne have for presenting us with unspeakable terrors, insisting we love the bloodshed as much as they do. Tucker tries to convince Zephyr that they’re not all that different — they’re both sharks, you see — but in truth, Byrne may be suggesting an uncomfortable kinship with his serial killer. But instead of provocatively pursuing that unholy bond, the director only finds chum.

Hey, everyone, welcome to the Lakers newsletter, a time for me to write a bunch a basketball items all in service of me trying to make you listen to a song of my choosing.

This week, I wanted to share kind of a common exercise I take in the summer, and how my thoughts on team building are evolving.

The man before the man

I was speaking to a longtime NBA talent evaluator this week when we began speaking about the playoffs and the game Minnesota wing Nickeil Alexander-Walker had just played against the Thunder — 23 points, four rebounds, six assists and five made threes in eight attempts while playing the kind of on-ball defense that teams all want.

Alexander-Walker will be an unrestricted free agent after this season and due for a healthy raise from the $4.3 million he earned this season. He’s exactly the kind of player whom Lakers fans want to see the team chase.

But as I was speaking to this exec, he mentioned a saying a previous employer tasked their pro scouts to focus on: “Find the man before he becomes the man.”

See, a lot of Alexander-Walker’s value to the Timberwolves comes from how his on-court impact dwarfs his impact on the team’s salary cap. He’s currently Minnesota’s ninth highest-paid player. Next season’s full mid-level exception is $14.2 million. The taxpayer mid-level exception is $5.7 million.

The latter seems as though it’ll be too low to get a two-way wing entering his prime like Alexander-Walker, and the full number (which the Lakers aren’t projected to have available) would make him the fifth highest-paid player on the Lakers’ books next season.

All of this is to say that, in speaking with scouts and executives from around the league, the key to having the best possible roster isn’t signing Alexander-Walker — it’s adding a player who can affect your roster as he has in Minnesota.

Finding rotation players who can play on rookie and minimum contracts is one of the keys to building depth. When the Lakers won the championship in 2020, Alex Caruso, Dwight Howard and Kyle Kuzma were all on bargain deals. This year in the playoffs, the Lakers’ “cheap” players were Jaxson Hayes and Jordan Goodwin.

Although one obvious pathway for the Lakers to improve this summer is via trade, packaging a group of players with expiring contracts for higher-impact players, another is going to be on the minimum-contract market.

Trouble is that every team is looking for help like this and they’re all fishing in a free-agency pool that’s generally regarded as weak, especially when it comes to players who scouts think could be both affordable and improving.

Luckily, when it comes to this type of player, situation and opportunity, as well as system and fit, are as important as talent — maybe even more. And role players who got paid when they hit the market and didn’t live up to the paycheck, well, they can usually be had for cheap as they try to rebuild value.

With Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves, the Lakers have a core that they’re familiar with and know the kind of players that work around them. Finding great role players before they get paid like great role players should be the charge of any contending front office.

Luka look

Photos of Doncic looking trimmed down in early stages of summer hit the internet this past week, with Doncic posting some himself on his Instagram, including workout photos in Lakers gear.

Without trying to gauge whether Doncic is in awesome shape or in a flattering T-shirt, I will say this: There were people in his camp who felt as though he was in store for a big offseason because of the humiliation he felt in the discussions about his work ethic and conditioning after he was traded from Dallas.

With EuroBasket getting underway in late August, the Lakers should expect a fully engaged Doncic whenever he gets back to Los Angeles.

Song of the week

“Elderberry Wine” by Wednesday

If there’s new Wednesday or MJ Lenderman music, it’s ending up here. The steel pedal, the vocals, Lenderman on guitar … some real song of the summer stuff for me and the kind of thing I’ll have on repeat for months. Also, another great Wednesday video.

In case you missed it

So far for the Lakers, it’s been status quo in the offseason

The Lakers should draft a big man who’s also a grown-up

Until next time …

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