EL SEGUNDO — It was more than five months ago when Luka Doncic first expressed eagerness for what this past week would bring for the Lakers.
Immediately after the Lakers were eliminated in the first round of last year’s playoffs with their Game 5 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, within the context of not having significant time to form chemistry with fellow team stars LeBron James and Austin Reaves before the postseason after being traded to Los Angeles in early February, Doncic said he was “excited” to have this preseason to work with those two – as well as the rest of his teammates.
So how would the 26-year-old Slovenian star guard describe his first Lakers training camp, in just three words?
“Fun,” Doncic said plainly after Thursday’s practice. “Excitement, hard.”
More of the “excitement” will come for the Lakers on Friday night when they match up against the Phoenix Suns in their preseason opener in Palm Desert.
“Obviously, with excitement,” Doncic said about his approach to the preseason. “For me, I can’t wait for the regular season. I know it’s way different, the preseason. Can’t wait for the real games. But getting the [practices], getting chemistry together, that’s about it.”
Coach JJ Redick said James (glute nerve irritation), Marcus Smart (Achilles tendinopathy), rookie Adou Thiero (knee) and Maxi Kleber (quad) won’t be available to play on Friday.
Redick said Kleber will be sidelined for “a few days” after suffering a “very minor” injury in his quadriceps earlier in the week.
“We’re gonna be cautious with him,” Redick said of Kleber, “Just like we are with all our guys right now.”
Redick said players will likely play in “shorter bursts” so they can “really focus on pace and sprinting back” against the Suns, with another preseason game against the Golden State Warriors scheduled for Sunday in San Francisco.
“I don’t think guys are gonna play for 8-10 minutes at a time, whatever the rotation ends up being for those three, 3½ quarters,” Redick added. “Also want to just be sensitive to guys that have had a higher workload in camp, like Austin. In terms of our measurements, he’s had the highest workload in camp. Wanna be sensitive to Luka coming off EuroBasket.”
Redick added: “We have not discussed exactly what we’re doing [on Friday] and what we’re doing Sunday in terms of rotation and playing time. But I know we’re just gonna be sensitive to the long game.”
The “hard” part that Doncic alluded to is likely tied to the “championship shape” mantra Redick has emphasized publicly since May 1, the day after the Lakers’ 2024-25 season ended disappointingly.
“Championship Habits”; “Championship Communication,”; and “Championship Shape” were displayed on a yellow board inside the Lakers’ training facility during the portion of practice open to media members.
Redick joked that players probably didn’t like him after finishing Thursday’s practice with a conditioning drill.
“I told JJ about a week or two ago, ‘If we all hate you, but we all hate you collectively, that’s great,’” Gabe Vincent quipped. “So as long as we’re together in it, obviously, no one wants to run at the end of a long practice. But we know the goal we have set for ourselves, and we know what we’re trying to do moving forward. And we all embraced it. We all got the run in and we all got better for it.”
Being in “championship shape” isn’t just a mantra that can’t be defined. Redick shared on Thursday how he measures whether the Lakers are where they’re supposed to be.
“There [are] three ways I kind of view, are we in shape: the first would be, are we sprinting back defensively?,” Redick said. “Are we playing with pace offensively? And I would include our ability to crash and then get back on defense in that. And then are we being physical? So if those things are being done at a really high level, we’re in shape.”
Doncic made sure to mention that being in “championship shape” is a mental demand, too.
“We just talked about [on Thursday], it’s not just physical shape, it’s mental shape too,” he said. “So that kind of goes both ways. Both are very important. Everybody’s in great shape. Everybody’s running a lot, so it’s been great so far.”
SUNS AT LAKERS
When: Friday, 7 p.m.
Where: Acrisure Arena, Palm Desert
TV/Radio: Spectrum SportsNet, 710 AM