News Lakers Team Notes

Lakers News: LeBron James Doesn’t Think NBA Finals Being Small-Market Teams Should Matter Less

LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers were sent home in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, falling to the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games. The Timberwolves went on to lose in the Western Conference Finals to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the team that has been the most dominant in the league all season long.

On the other side of the bracket, the Indiana Pacers have had one of the craziest runs to the NBA Finals in league history, completing four 15-point comebacks in the first three rounds and winning three games when trailing by seven or more in the final minute. But the Thunder-Pacers Finals — lacking in big-market appeal or significant star power — became a topic of discussion prior to the start of the series.

James, a player who has been in a major market for half of his career and turned Cleveland into a big market by himself, still holds huge appreciation for the Pacers and the Thunder. He explained on the latest episode of “Mind the Game” why he isn’t bothered by a small-market NBA Finals:

“I don’t know where it comes from. Listen, I played in Cleveland for 11 years and we were a small market. I just think it’s all about the storylines, it’s about what people can say on TV and create these Superman vs. Batman or DC Comics vs. Marvel. When it comes to the game of basketball, it doesn’t matter who’s representing who, it’s about two great teams. We talked previously in a lot of our episodes, we praise a lot of individuals and rightfully so. We have unbelievable individuals in our sport over the years who have done great things and have put themselves in a position to be talked about. But one thing we cannot disrespect is great teams. We can’t disrespect the 2003 Detroit Pistons with Chauncey, Rip, Tayshaun, Ben, Rasheed, rest of that group. These are teams that are completely put together. You can disrespect the 2019 Toronto Raptors with Fred VanVleet, Kawhi, Pascal. That’s a great team; you look at that roster like that’s a great team.

“So we have this Indiana-OKC situation and these are two great teams. And if you’re a basketball fan and you really love our game, you can learn so much from watching the way both of those teams play. Yes, you have your favorite players or favorite colors and there’s something to that. But if we’re just talking about the purity of the game and the sport, these are two teams that play the game the right way. And you love to see it. And even after that, they f—-ing earned it. They’ve been through the trenches, and injuries happen and things of that nature, but at the end of the day you’ve still gotta show up and play the game. The game is won in between the four lines. If someone’s injured, you can’t just forfeit because you have your players. You still have to play the game. Indiana’s been playing great basketball, and OKC has been doing this all year. And I think it’ll be a great Finals to watch. I love the game, so I’ll be in attendance.”

While the NBA would certainly be happy if James and the Lakers were in the NBA Finals, there is so much to love about the two teams currently playing, like LeBron says. They are both well-built teams with deep benches, fun role players and a star at the top of the chain.

Both teams play defense — the Thunder at a historic level — and can go on scoring flurries that make the game fun to watch. The dramatics of Game 1 showed just how exciting this series could be. And while it may not be great for ratings, it’s great for basketball, James argues, for the Thunder and Pacers to be where they are.

LeBron James calls bubble purest form of hoops​


The 2019-20 Lakers were a special group as they overcame a ton of adversity to win the NBA Championship.

The Lakers finished that tumultuous season in the Orlando bubble and came back with the championship, which was the fourth in LeBron James’ illustrious career.

Since the Lakers won that title, a lot of people have tried to downplay it. The circumstances were certainly unique playing in the Orlando bubble with no fans in attendance, but that doesn’t make it any less of a championship. The circumstances were the equal for everyone and one team ultimately came out of top.

James discussed the bubble on the latest episode of “Mind the Game” podcast with Steve Nash and stressed that it was pure hoops.

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Source: https://lakersnation.com/lakers-new...inals-being-small-market-teams-should-matter/
 
Lakers News: Magic Johnson Sends Message To Luka Doncic

Luka Doncic spent the second half of the 2024-25 season in a daze following his shocking trade to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Doncic had been sidelined for weeks due to a calf strain and was close to making a return before the Dallas Mavericks traded him to Los Angeles. Despite the abrupt ending and difficult circumstances, Doncic and the Lakers were able to cobble together enough wins to secure the third seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

Unfortunately, Doncic’s first Lakers’ playoff series went poorly as the team lost in five games to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Almost immediately following L.A.’s elimination, people called for him to get into better shape to carry a team deeper into the playoffs.

Magic Johnson is the latest person to call out Doncic’s conditioning and warned that the upcoming year is important for the franchise during an appearance on ESPN’s “First Take” on Thursday morning:

“Luka gotta understand this is not Dallas. To your point, Kobe, superstar who led us, Shaq led us to a championship, LeBron led us. And that’s what’s missing here. We shouldn’t have to tell you to be in shape, you should have been about that, right? Especially when you’re a superstar. So this is gonna be an important year for the Lakers, important offseason for the Lakers.”

Johnson understands more than anybody what it’s like to be the face of the Lakers franchise and while Doncic has the talent and popularity to fill that role, he’s still got more to accomplish on the floor. Johnson isn’t the only former Laker to call him out as Robert Horry also noted Doncic needs to be better on the defensive end.

As far as Johnson’s other comments, this summer is a pivotal one because they’ll need to find pieces to surround Doncic with long term. This season’s roster wasn’t built with him in mind, so finding complementary players will go a long way in ensuring Los Angeles is in a better spot to compete for championships.

The Lakers will go as far as Doncic can take them and it’ll be exciting to see if he’s up to meet the challenge.

Luka Doncic putting in work in weight room​


Because the conditioning angle has been talked about endlessly, it’s hard to imagine that Luka Doncic isn’t doing what he can to prepare for the 2025-26 season. In fact, he recently posted a video of himself getting work done in the weight room and looks like he’s already in better shape.

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Source: https://lakersnation.com/lakers-news-magic-johnson-sends-message-to-luka-doncic/
 
Lakers Rumors: Dorian Finney-Smith Underwent Left Ankle Surgery

While the Los Angeles Lakers’ blockbuster trade for Luka Doncic stole all the headlines, they made another under-the-radar move this past season when they acquired Dorian Finney-Smith from the Brooklyn Nets.

The Lakers have been looking for a quality 3-and-D wing for a while now and Finney-Smith fit that bill with L.A. only needing to send D’Angelo Russell and second-round picks back to Brooklyn.

Despite not putting up big stats, Finney-Smith played a huge role in the Lakers winning 50 games and earning the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. He did that despite playing through a lingering ankle issue that began in Brooklyn.

To finish out the year, Finney-Smith often found himself sitting out back-to-backs in order to keep his ankle as healthy as possible. Now that the season is over though, Finney-Smith underwent surgery on the left ankle to fix the issue, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN:

Los Angeles Lakers forward Dorian Finney-Smith underwent surgery on his left ankle and is expected to be able to participate in training camp ahead of the 2025-26 NBA season, sources told ESPN.

The procedure will allow the 31-year-old Finney-Smith to play pain free after cleaning up a lingering ankle injury that he fought to play through the last several seasons.

Addressing the ankle injury now is the right thing to do as Finney-Smith will have plenty of time for rest and rehab before the start of training camp at the end of September. The hope is that this surgery will fix the issue and it will not linger into the 2025-26 season.

Despite the expectation that Finney-Smith will be ready for training camp though, his future with the Lakers is currently up in the air. The 31-year-old has a $15.4 million player option for the 2025-26 season that he has to decide on by June 29. He is currently eligible for a contract extension so can sign anytime before that.

If he doesn’t sign an extension and declines his player option though, then Finney-Smith will become an unrestricted free agent. But that scenario seems unlikely as there is clearly mutual interest on the forward returning to L.A., especially after the team brought in his former teammate and close friend in Doncic.

Dorian Finney-Smith reflects on first season with Lakers​


Even though it didn’t end how they wanted it to, Dorian Finney-Smith enjoyed his first season with the Lakers and reflected on it after the team was eliminated.

“Being here has been amazing,” he said in his exit interview. “Making it to the 3-seed has been fun, Luka coming in February was a big surprise to many, especially me. Happy to be back with my dawg. Just mad right now that our season ended.”

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Source: https://lakersnation.com/lakers-rumors-dorian-finney-smith-underwent-left-ankle-surgery/
 
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