On Monday the Los Angeles Lakers officially announced that their Media Day for the 2017-18 season will take place on Monday, Sept. 25 from 12:30-2:30 p.m. PST.
They also announced the schedule for their training camp, which this year will take place at their new practice facility, the UCLA Health Training Center in El Segundo.
Training camp will last just four days this year from Sept. 26-29 before the Lakers begin their preseason schedule on Sept. 30 against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
The reason for the shortened training camp is because the preseason was cut short this year with the regular season beginning earlier in an attempt to limit player rest on back-to-backs.
Instead of their normal eight game preseason schedule, the Lakers have just six preseason games this year and will open the regular season on Oct. 19 against the Los Angeles Clippers.
With less time to prepare for the preseason and the regular season, Lakers second-year head coach Luke Walton will have his hands full as the Lakers made some significant roster changes this offseason.
In addition to drafting four rookies in Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart and Thomas Bryant, the Lakers also added former All-Star Brook Lopez in a trade and shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope through free agency.
After suffering through the worst four-year stretch in franchise history the Lakers organization is now optimistic about what is to come in the future for Walton and his young team. Their 2017-18 journey begins in just two short weeks.
