Finally Time

Aloha,

It’s finally time for Lakers basketball again. And I’m excited about our team for the first time in 3 years, even though the first few preseason games are more like controlled scrimmages.

For me the story will be the young guys. I’m actually glad that we didn’t have the trade capital to land an aging star because we could already have a couple on the roster.

This was the summer of Austin Reeves, other than a couple of guys caught up in trade rumors, no other NBA player generated as much press as Austin. And rightfully so, he proved in the FIBA tournament that the end of last season wasn’t a fluke. He naturally will targeted more this year but he is a high IQ player and I’m confident he will adjust. It won’t take much of a leap for him to go from high end role player to star.

The other player that could make a leap is Rui. He might actually be the most intriguing player for me. When Rui became available i immediately was interested. While he had not lived up to high expectations, he had flashed that often enough for me to believe we had no chance of landing him. Of all of Rob’s mid season acquisitions I thought Rui was the best from a price point. The day Rui was acquired Phil Handy called Darvin and said give me Rui. Phil said he saw a little Kawhi in Rui. Big, strong, mobile with a sweet midrange game. All indications are that he has been one of the hardest workers on the team. A little better 3 point shooting will open up that midrange even more. While he is not a Kawhi on defense yet he proved to be pretty good in the playoffs guarding 2 through 5. With a full camp and knowledge of the system I expect he will become even better. Confidence is king in sports. He went from a miserable organization to the Lakers where LeBron is mentoring him. If you listen to him, he is really confident and I’m excited to watch him grow.

The next guy of interest for me is Vando. While his offensive game has to come a long way before him entering the future star conversation, he is quite unique in the NBA. If the reports are true and he really is now 6’ 11”, he might be the only guy that size in the NBA that can hang with guys like Ja and Steph. That alone makes him extremely valuable. If he can consistently shoot say 35% from 3 that would be huge.

The last guy, I will file under future star. Max Christie. While Cam Reddish has more experience and I would love him to finally unlock his potential, it’s Max that has been turning heads in training camp. He has gained 18 pounds of muscle since entering the league. He was pretty good as a rookie but if you watched summer league, you could see the tremendous growth in his game. The Lakers lost the summer league when they decided they had seen enough and pulled him. He was dominant. When Max came out of high school, he was a five star recruit and one of the top players in his class. He had a mediocre Freshman year in college and probably should have stayed another year. But we are fortunate that he didn’t because we probably wouldn’t have landed him. He could end up being as big a find as Austin in a couple of years.

As usual there is a lot of chatter on who the Lakers could target mid season for a trade. But this team is so deep that we may not need a trade to win another ring. I will be paying close attention to the kid’s development this year.