The Los Angeles Lakers kicked off their preseason slate on Friday night in Palm Springs against the Phoenix Suns, although superstars LeBron James and Luka Doncic were among the players that didn’t suit up.
James has been dealing with a minor glute injury early in camp, so JJ Redick made it clear early on that he would not be suiting up against the Suns along with other injured players Marcus Smart, Maxi Kleber and Adou Thiero.
Doncic, on the other hand, is healthy but coming off a summer in which he played for Slovenia in EuroBasket, the Lakers are being cautious to ensure he is not overworked before the season.
Ahead of Friday night’s game, Redick discussed the plan for Doncic this preseason.
“As a coach, you want all those guys out on the court. That’s just the reality. We want to be smart with both of them. Two different situations, but we’re gonna treat it sort of the same way,” Redick said of Doncic and James.
“Our expectation is Luka will play in the preseason. We’re gonna use next week to continue to just get him in a good spot with his body and energy and all that stuff. He was great the first two days of camp, it was a lot. I think it made sense given his workload this summer to just kind of pull back. He’s in a great place physically, mentally. So we’ll just continue to use next week to get him ramped up and get all the guys acclimated with him.”
It remains to be seen if James will suit up this preseason, but Redick broke down what he has been doing so far in training camp.
“For him, it’s different in Year 23,” Redick said. “For a normal return-to-play protocol, we try to get 1-on-1, 2-on-2, 3-on-3 exposure versus coaches and then eventually live. He knows his body, so we’ll work with him, we’ll work with Mike (Mancias) on making sure he gets a point of comfort where he can sort of be a full participant. But he’s been on the court every day, he’s been in the weight room continuing to get his body ready. But he’s been doing his individual workouts with (Greg) St. Jean.”
While getting reps to build chemistry during the preseason would be ideal, it is not gonna come at the risk of getting their superstars injured or overworked.
The Lakers have six total preseason games so hopefully Doncic and James will be able to play in a couple of them. If not, the organization clearly has trust that they will both be ready for Opening Night.
Luka Doncic describes Lakers training camp in three words
With it being Luka Doncic’s first training camp in L.A., he is still getting adjusted to things. When the superstar was asked to describe the first few days of camp using three words though, he came up with fun, excitement and hard.
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