El Segundo, CA – With the Los Angeles Lakers’ preseason debut looming, the first signs of the impact new coach Durbin Hamm has on the team are beginning to emerge.
For starters, Ham said that guard on Friday Kendrick Nunn and center Damien Jones I participated lebron james, Anthony Davis When Russell Westbrook in his favorite starting lineup in training camp so far.
And although James only appeared in three of those games after LA went 6-0 in preseason last year, we’ll likely see more of the Lakers’ star on the court heading into the regular season. .
“Last year was last year,” James said after practice. “It’s over now. It’s all about how much work you do every day this year and how you can get better. That’s all.”
Nunn’s inclusion in the first unit shows just how much difference a year can make for the 27-year-old Nunn, who missed all of last season with a bone bruise in his right knee. He seems poised to contribute in the way the Lakers have planned. LA committed the entire taxpayer mid-level exception to signing Nunn as a marquee free agent in the summer of 2021, filling the rest of the roster with veteran minimal deals.
“Kendrick was a killer today,” said the guard Austin Reeves On Friday. “I don’t think he missed shots all day.”
Hamm said Nunn impressed him with workout sessions during the offseason, which only continued at camp.
“He’s like a new player. He’s a free agent for us,” Hamm said. “So I told him he’s going to be a big part of what I’m trying to do. He’s embraced it, and you can see it in his play so far.”
Jones, who played in Los Angeles on a series of 10-day contracts in the 2020-21 season, joined James, Davis, deandre jordan Dwight Howard occupied that position last season.
“Damien is really young and athletic big,” Hamm said of Jones, who is 6-11. “He runs like a deer. He can jump all the way to the ceiling. It sets up a good screen, rolls hard, creates a constant threat at the rim, and again, defensively exists in the paint.”
Hamm will no doubt tinker with the complementary parts of the Lakers’ franchise players to find the most impactful pairings. None of that works unless a comfortable level is established between the role player and James, who controls the offensive action as usual.
So, even if he’s 37 and entering his 20th season, giving James a little more burn on the exhibition slate could be more beneficial than trying to keep him around for the long haul.
Hamm said of James, “We don’t want to go crazy, but it’s enough to establish a rhythm and get into game mode with a good rhythm going into the regular season.”
While unlikely to see James play in all six games in the Lakers’ preseason slate, the four-time champion and team only saw James appear in the Lakers’ third and sixth games on the preseason schedule. It’s a course correction from last year’s approach that didn’t. Exactly how much James will play remains to be seen, though.
“I played more than I did last year,” James said of the expected preseason workload. “I played more than last year.”
