- The Lakers need to ride their young players — Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart — to complement LeBron James and build a brighter future, Martin Rogers of USA Today argues. It’s important for that quartet to grow and develop chemistry with James, rather than playing veterans like Rajon Rondo and Michael Beasley, Rogers adds.
Lonzo Ball was once again named the Lakers‘ starting point guard on Saturday against the Spurs, but that doesn’t mean his status in the role will be permanent. Rajon Rondo made a solid return to the lineup after being suspended for three games, scoring 12 points and dishing five assists in 29 minutes. Ball struggled in his first start and shot 2-8 from the floor.
“I didn’t play well tonight,” Ball admitted, according to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. “Bad game. I’m human. I don’t play good every game.”
Both Ball and Rondo share similar playstyles, looking to play in transition and make their teammates better. They both struggle shooting from deep and prefer to attack the basket for points. The major difference lies in experience, where Rondo holds 11 more NBA seasons of playing time.
“Doesn’t matter who starts. They are both fine either way,” head coach Walton said. “They just want to win, is what they told me. They know that the decision is made by the coaching staff and they support each other and whatever it is they’ll go out and do their job.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- The Suns have a promising young core featuring Devin Booker, Josh Jackson and Deandre Ayton, but the organization still has a ways to go before reaching true success, writes Gina Mizell of The Athletic. “Teams don’t just overnight become championship organizations or great playoff teams,” Suns forward Ryan Anderson said. “It takes time to build. You have to allow some time for that, but you can’t really make an excuse for not playing hard.”
- Willie Cauley-Stein has so far backed up his talk about getting paid next summer, James Ham of NBC Sports writes. Cauley-Stein has averaged an impressive 16.5 points and eight rebounds in six games for the Kings this season.
- The Mercury News’ Logan Murdock details how Jordan Bell plans to work himself back into the Warriors’ rotation. The 23-year-old has seen limited time behind starting center Damian Jones in the team’s first six games. “It felt good to be out there,” Bell said. “It sucks when you’re watching the team do damage and you know you can help. But you got to understand how to be a pro and just realize some matchups aren’t right.”
According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, the Lakers will keep Lonzo Ball in the starting lineup – where he has excelled during the suspension of Rajon Rondo – when Rondo returns from his three-game absence this evening against the Spurs.
The Lakers, who were 0-2 in Rondo’s starts to begin the season, went 2-1 in Rondo’s absence with Ball averaging 12.7 points on 53.6 percent shooting (40 percent from 3), 7.3 assists, 7.0 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game.
Meanwhile, Rondo, 32, averaged 13 points on 57.1 percent shooting (50 percent from 3), 10.5 assists, 5.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals in the Lakers’ first two games. So, it’s not like Rondo wasn’t playing well. But, evidently Luke Walton has liked what he’s seen from Ball and wants to continue with the momentum his team has going.
It’s unclear from McMenamin’s report whether this is a permanent move with an eye to the future, or just a temporary one subject to change based on how both players perform moving forward.
The Lakers secured LeBron James this summer, which has led to speculation about which elite talents can potentially be paired with the four-time Most Valuable Player. Mark Heisler of the Orange County Register looks at Pelicans’ superstar Anthony Davis, who tops the Lakers’ wish list, according to Heisler.
Speculation of Davis’ possible desire to eventually land in L.A. was fueled when he fired his longtime agent to hire Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, who also represents James. For his part, the Chicago native downplayed the switch in representation means that he’s eyeing the Lakers. Instead, his focus is to be part of a winning culture.
“Winning definitely helps everything, helps with your legacy, helps be on the top of the list,” Davis said. “But going to the playoffs every three years doesn’t help my case.”
- When the Lakers did sign James, the entire dynamic of the team’s on-court expectations changed. With a superstar of James’ caliber, expectations rise, attention is commanded, and every move is scrutinized. Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports writes that the organization is still getting acclimated to the “LeBron Effect.” The team started 0-3 and it seemed that panic mode was all but the norm, but after two straight wins, that flurry of doubt has simmered, but with James around, this will be the culture to get used to.
- Despite being waived by the Lakers, Johnathan Williams re-signed to a two-way pact and has made the most of his NBA opportunity. Tania Ganguli and Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times look at Williams’ journey from college to the professional level and how he is fueled by the initial disappointment of being waived.
- In our earlier edition of L.A. Notes, we looked at Lance Stephenson‘s early play for the Lakers, Luke Walton‘s fine and more.
Here are Friday’s G League assignments and recalls from around the NBA:
- The Lakers assigned rookie forward Moritz Wagner to the South Bay Lakers on an injury rehab assignment, according to a team press release. Wagner, the 25th overall pick, missed the preseason due to a left knee contusion he suffered on July 10th. The University of Michigan product has been medically cleared to return to action.
The offseason addition of Lance Stephenson is already paying off for the Lakers, who saw Stephenson put forth an impressive performance in Wednesday’s road victory against the Suns. He scored 23 points, dished out eight assists and grabbed eight boards in 25 minutes, shooting 10-14 from the floor.
“With [Rondo] being out, he’s our backup point guard pretty much right now, and he controlled the game,” LeBron James said of Stephenson, as relayed by Joey Ramirez of Lakers.com. “He had great pace and found guys.”
Stephenson, a former nemesis of James, did his work off the bench on Wednesday. Since leaving the Pacers in 2014, he’s grown accustomed to coming off the bench and providing depth for teams in the backcourt.
“He still goes one-on-one, and he’s really good at it [so] we’re not gonna take that away from him,” head coach Luke Walton said. “But he’s doing more of how we want him to do it. He’s sharing the ball.
“He danced a bit late in the game, but for the most part he’s playing within the style we want to play. And he’s competing on defense, and that’s why he’s winning so much favor with the [coaching] staff right now.”
There’s more from Los Angeles tonight:
- Lakers coach Luke Walton was fined $15K (full release) for publicly criticizing the officiating after the team’s overtime loss against San Antonio on Monday. Walton was upset with what he perceived as excessive flopping from the Spurs, coupled with the various missed calls for his own players.
- Clippers guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has already become a rotation player that the team can depend on, writes Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times. “He’s just a really good player,” coach Doc Rivers said of the rookie.
- Just three games into his new contract, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has moved from a starting role with the Lakers to coming off the bench, Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register writes. The impressive play from Josh Hart earned him a starting spot on Wednesday, forcing Caldwell-Pope to the second unit.
It has been an eventful month for Johnathan Williams, who participated in camp and the preseason with the Lakers, was waived, re-signed on a two-way contract, and played key minutes in the team’s third game of the season.
After racking up eight points, four rebounds, and three blocked shots in just 14 minutes during his NBA debut vs. San Antonio, the Lakers’ newest big man said he had to keep reminding himself how to handle the situation, as Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times relays. “Stay in the moment,” Williams said. “Just stay in the moment. Just stay locked in during the game. Just always stayed locked in when I’m on the bench.”
The Lakers don’t have a ton of reliable options at the five, so it will be interesting to see if Williams continues to be a part of the club’s rotation going forward — because NBA G League training camps are underway, the 45-day clock on his NBA service time will continue to run as long as he remains with the team.
Since leaving his post in 2014, David Stern hasn’t often spoken publicly and candidly about the major issues and controversies he dealt with during his long tenure as the NBA’s commissioner. However, Stern opened up about a few of those topics during a conversation with Chris Ballard of SI.com.
Stern, who insists he stepped down as NBA commissioner rather than retiring, continues to stay peripherally involved in the sport of basketball, investing in gambling, wearables, and streaming apps.
Speaking to Ballard, he explained why he’s now enthusiastic about sports gambling after being opposed to it during his time as commissioner, and shared his opinion on a few NBA stories, past and present. The piece is worth checking out in full, but here are a few highlights from Stern:
On why he’s no longer opposed to legalized gambling on the NBA:
“I always said the reason we don’t want to have gambling is because we don’t want Junior going to the game and coming away disappointed because the home team won but they didn’t cover. But as soon as they allowed daily fantasy, I said that’s it, there’s no sense in having daily fantasy and not being in favor of betting — especially when you add in the fact that so much of it is already done offshore illegally and lining the coffers of some people you don’t know.”
On the Warriors’ current dynasty, and whether it’s bad for basketball:
“It’s great. They’ve got a great team. Interesting players, a dynamic coach, owners that demonstrate that they care, they’re about to open up a billion-dollar-plus building…. I think it’s only good. And I don’t believe in the debate about super-teams, because when I started there were two super-teams: the Celtics and Lakers…. Look at the attendance and the ratings and the product sales. We’re the most metricized business there is, and all signs are positive.”
On his decision not to approve the Chris Paul-to-the-Lakers trade when he was serving as New Orleans’ de facto owner in 2011:
“I did it because I was protecting the then Hornets…. To this day everyone always asks me, ‘Well, why did you keep Chris Paul from going to the Lakers?’ I didn’t keep him. I didn’t approve the trade. No team sells or trades a future Hall-of-Famer without the owner signing off, and I was the owner’s rep. But I wasn’t going to hand up [New Orleans GM] Dell Demps.”
More on the failed Paul trade with the Lakers, and the Clippers deal he eventually approved:
“I didn’t do a great job of explaining it at the time. There was a trade that Dell Demps wanted us to approve and I said heck no, but he had told [Rockets GM] Daryl Morey and [then-Lakers GM] Mitch Kupchak he had authority to do it and he didn’t. I said no. We just settled a lockout and you want me to approve a basketball trade?
“[Demps] had agreed to [trade Paul to the Lakers for] Kevin Martin and Luis Scola or something, and I said we can do better than that…. And the next trade was [to the Clippers for] Eric Gordon and Al-Farouq Aminu and what we thought was a really great draft pick, the 10th pick, which turned out to be Austin Rivers. At least those three and someone else [center Chris Kaman]. But Dell Demps is a lousy general manager and none of those players are currently with the team anymore, and he may lose Anthony Davis.”
Three days after participating in an on-court altercation between the Lakers and Rockets, and two days after being suspended for his involvement in that fight, Rajon Rondo told ESPN on Tuesday that he didn’t intentionally spit on Chris Paul, and offered some harsh criticism of the Houston point guard.
“I had a mouthpiece in my mouth and I exasperated because I was about to tell him to ‘Get the [expletive] out of here,'” Rondo said. “Look at my body language [in the video]. My hands on my hips. I turn away for a second. Look at Eric [Gordon] and Melo [Carmelo Anthony] in the video. If they saw me spit, they would have turned their face up or something. They had no reaction.”
Rondo, who was displeased that he received a longer suspension than Paul, bemoaned the fact that both the NBA and the media – in his view – sided with CP3’s account of what happened on Saturday. League sources tell ESPN that Rondo claimed he was provoked into throwing a punch at Paul after the Rockets guard poked a finger into his face and left a scratch under his eye.
Arguing that Paul’s actions to “provoke the situation” were overlooked, Rondo suggested that the media-created images of the two point guards contributed to that portrayal of the incident.
“Everyone wants to believe Chris Paul is a good guy. They don’t know he’s a horrible teammate,” Rondo said. “They don’t know how he treats people. Look at what he did last year when he was in L.A.; trying to get to the Clippers locker room. They don’t want to believe he’s capable of taunting and igniting an incident.”
While Rondo has never played on the same team as Paul, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard claims that CP3 isn’t a perfect teammate. During the final years of the Lob City era in Los Angeles, there were rumors that Paul rubbed teammates like Blake Griffin the wrong way and often didn’t see eye-to-eye with head coach Doc Rivers.
The Rockets and Lakers will meet again on December 13 in Houston.
The Lakers lost their third consecutive game to open the 2018/19 season on Monday night, dropping their record to 0-3 and making them one of four NBA teams that remains winless. However, speaking after the game to reporters, including ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, LeBron James said that he’s not fazed by his new team’s slow start.
“It’s not tough,” James said after the loss to the Spurs. “I know what I got myself into. It’s a process. I get it. And it will be fine. … I didn’t come here thinking we were going to be blazing storms right out of the gate. It’s a process, and I understand that.”
There have been some concerning signs for the Lakers in their first three games — the club has allowed 131.7 points per contest, has only shot 28.7% on three-pointers, and has struggled to get reliable production from the center position, relying last night on newly-signed two-way player Johnathan Williams for key minutes down the stretch.
Still, the Lakers’ schedule so far has featured three strong Western Conference opponents in the Trail Blazers, Rockets, and Spurs, and James is right that the Lakers’ new-look roster was expected to take some time to jell. When LeBron has changed teams in the past, his new clubs have been a little slow out of the gate — the Heat were 9-8 to open the 2010/11 season, while the 2014/15 Cavaliers got off to a 5-7 start. Those teams turned things around, and the four-time MVP expects the Lakers to do the same.
“We’re going to continue to get better,” James said. “We’re going to continue to get better. I like the direction we’re going in. Obviously, it’s not resulting in the wins right now, but it’s such a long process.”