Coming into last season, there was a lot of pressure being put on Los Angeles Lakers young guard Talen Horton-Tucker to step up following the losses of numerous rotation perimeter players. While there were definitely some good moments, overall Horton-Tucker did not live up to expectations in his third season.
As such, Horton-Tucker has undoubtedly been hard at work looking to improve his game and be a serious contributor for the Lakers this season. The Drew League is a popular place where NBA players sometimes show up and play games against better-than-average competition, and Lakers star LeBron James recently appeared himself, dropping 42 points to lead his team to victory.
Horton-Tucker also made an appearance at the Drew League, and while his team did get the win, his individual statistics didn’t quite stand out as he struggled with his shot, via Law Murray of The Athletic:
Hometown Favorites beat Saints 81-67
Talen Horton-Tucker: 14 points (5/13 FGs), 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block in his first W @DrewLeague
Jerry Evans led Hometown Favorites with 25 points
— Law Murray ? (@LawMurrayTheNU) July 18, 2022
But despite the less than stellar showing, Horton-Tucker still valued the experience and plans on tuning things up more to get his shot to fall:
THT says this experience was better because he got a win, but wants to "tune things up" and make shots. 3 didn't fall for him today, but felt good about coming back and contributing overall.
— Law Murray ? (@LawMurrayTheNU) July 18, 2022
There still remains some promise around Horton-Tucker as he still will only be 21 years old at the start of next season. But these types of performances won’t instill confidence amongst the fanbase. The Lakers have held firm in their belief in Horton-Tucker’s potential, and he could play a crucial role for the team this season.
Horton-Tucker’s attitude about his performance is also a positive thing as he knows his shot did not fall and he wants to remedy that. But he also found other ways to contribute and help his team get a victory which is very likely what the Lakers would need from him.
Perhaps Horton-Tucker has another opportunity to really dominate the Drew League the way one would expect an NBA player to do so and inspire a bit more confidence that he will be a real piece of the Lakers’ climb back into championship contention.
James dominates Drew League with 42 point performance
On the other end of the ideal Drew League performance was Lakers superstar LeBron James, who teamed with Chicago Bulls All-Star DeMar DeRozan to lead their team to victory.
LeBron finished with 42 points, 16 rebounds and four steals in leading the MMV Cheaters to a 104-102 victory over Black Pearl Elite.
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