As he prepares for his 22nd NBA season, Lakers star LeBron James appears to be energized by the chance to compete alongside his son, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. After Wednesday’s practice, Anthony Davis detailed a spirited exchange between LeBron and Bronny James during a five-on-five scrimmage.
“It’s fantastic to be able to be here and witness it in practice,” Davis said. “Bronny hit a three over him today. Everybody was talking smack in Bronny’s favor. Then Bron came down and just bullied somebody. Just took it out on (the defender) — I forgot who it was — and got a layup. Bronny came down and hit another 3, I think over Austin (Reaves). And Bron wanted the ball. So you could see, even though they weren’t matched up, the competition is there. And that’s what we love to see.”
At age 39, LeBron is coming off a long summer of basketball that culminated with a gold medal for Team USA in Paris. New head coach J.J. Redick has talked to team trainer Mike Mancias about slowly getting LeBron ready for the start of the season, but he declined to divulge any details.
“I think we have a pretty clear plan,” Redick said. “We’ll share that plan when it’s appropriate.”
There’s more from Los Angeles:
- LeBron believes third-year wing Max Christie is ready to take on a larger role this season, McMenamin adds in another story. A second-round pick in 2022, Christie received a new four-year, $32MM contract this summer. “I think for me it’s kind of just proving myself again,” Christie said. “I haven’t proven too much as a player in this league. I’ve had spurts and sporadic moments where I’ve been really good, but I want to put a whole season together. Hopefully I get the opportunity to do that this year.”
- Redick has to balance his analytical side with his basketball instincts as he adjusts to viewing the game as a coach, observes Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. Although Davis believes “numbers aren’t anything,” they’re very important to Redick, who wants as much statistical data as he can get. “More information is better,” Redick said. “That’s how I … every person we’ve hired, that’s been a key thing that I’ve told them. ‘Do you want to get in the weeds?’ ‘Yeah, I do want to get in the weeds. Yeah.’ So as much info as possible.”
- General manager Rob Pelinka had a surprisingly quiet summer in terms of personnel moves, but he indicated at a recent press conference that he’s willing to part with future first-round picks to make the Lakers better this season (hat tip to Lake Show Life). “I think the philosophy that J.J. and I are aligned on is: We want to build sustainable Lakers excellence … every lens that we look through has to lead to sustainable Lakers excellence,” Pelinka said. “So the direct answer to your question is: Yes, we would do a trade with both (available first-round draft) picks if that would lead to sustainable Lakers excellence. We would also use one pick to make a marginal upgrade if we felt it was the right thing to do.”
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