The start of NBA training camp is just around the corner as the Los Angeles Lakers’ annual Media Day is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 2. From there, the Lakers will begin practicing to prepare for the preseason opener against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 7.
The preparation for the season has already started for the Lakers though as everyone has been working out and getting in shape all summer.
That includes LeBron James’ annual player minicamp, which is something the Lakers do every year before training camp in order to get to know each other better.
There hasn’t been much talk about the minicamp yet, although Austin Reaves revealed to ESPN’s Zach Lowe that it did indeed take place in San Diego this past weekend and everyone on the roster was in attendance:
“Obviously Bron puts it on. We went down to San Diego. We got down Thursday and had a dinner on Thursday night and then Friday and Saturday was workouts and practice. Not really practice, but just getting in the gym and doing a lot of 5-on-0 stuff, running over basically foundation stuff. There was a little bit of playing here and there, but not much. Coaches were there but it’s basically player-ran. It was great. It was 100% attendance, everybody was there, everybody was active and everybody looked good. We did a lot of shooting competition stuff. AD is shooting the ball really well right now, that’s something that I’ve tried to get him to do more is shoot it because if he does that at a decent level, which he can because in the bubble year he shot it really well, but literally you can’t guard him. But just the whole weekend, it was good. We had dinners and stuff and it was really just an opportunity for everybody to learn one another and get closer.”
Coming off a season in which they made it to the Western Conference Finals despite completely remodeling their roster at the trade deadline, there’s been a lot of talk about what the Lakers can accomplish with a full training camp together to gain some continuity.
The Lakers brought back a lot of their key pieces from last season although there are also some new faces, so LeBron’s minicamp and training camp are extremely important for this group. The Lakers have typically had success when they’ve had good chemistry off the court, and this minicamp is specifically designed to create that.
It remains to be seen how things will come together when the Lakers take the floor for the first time, but there’s no denying that there hasn’t been this much optimism surrounding the organization since they won the championship in 2020.
Reaves believes Lakers have most talented roster in NBA
Part of that optimism is because of who the Lakers brought back from last season while part of it is because of the new additions.
With both of those things coming together though, Reaves believes the Lakers have the most talented roster in the NBA. Games aren’t played on paper, however, so it will be up to the Lakers to go out and prove it this season.
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