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[Los Angeles Lakers]

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/

 

[Los Angeles Lakers]

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/

 

[Los Angeles Lakers]

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/

 

[Los Angeles Lakers]

Magic Johnson Discusses Offseason Needs For Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers are entering an important offseason in which they will look to build the right roster around Luka Doncic and LeBron James to become true championship contenders. Many have opinions on what the franchise should do this summer, and that includes the greatest point guard of all-time Magic Johnson.

The Lakers legend has always been one to speak freely about what he believes the franchise should do and this offseason is no different. Johnson appeared on ESPN’s Get Up and praised Doncic for getting into better shape before breaking down what he feels the team needs to do to become a championship-level team:

“Well first of all, great job by coach JJ Redick to put everybody on notice on the Lakers team that they have to be in better condition for them to win an NBA Championship. And I’m glad that Luka listened to JJ, and now look at him. He looks great right now and the rest of the Lakers have to do the same thing. And Luka, it’s great what you did in Dallas, but the difference is, in Los Angeles, we expect championships and we expect our superstars to lead us to a championship. LeBron has already did that, now we want Luka to do the same thing. But it’s gonna take more than just Luka. It’s gonna take more than just Luka being in shape. Rob Pelinka has gotta improve the roster. We need a big man and so hopefully we’ll be able to get a big man during this offseason. I think we must improve the bench as well, and so Rob will have a chance to do that as well. We gotta get faster. Right now, the Lakers are too slow and Minnesota really exposed the Lakers. When they had individual matchups, they went at Luka and they went at Austin Reaves, so they must improve the defense. If they don’t improve the defense, it’s no way the Lakers can win a championship.”

The playoffs certainly exposed the Lakers’ faults and the pressure is on Rob Pelinka to improve those issues this summer. Ultimately, all eyes will be on James and Doncic, and Johnson feels they must embrace that:

“They have to take on that mindset, it is them two against the world. Kareem and I used to say it’s us against the world and we didn’t mind that, we embraced that. We went out and said bring it on, and so him and LeBron gotta say hey, we gotta get together and say it’s us against the world, but we need other guys to help us win the championship. All you have to do is look at these playoffs right now and these Finals. SGA is not playing by hisself. Haliburton is not playing by hisself. You need four other guys. And last night you saw eight guys actually help the Pacers win that game last night. So if the Lakers are going to win a championship, it’s gonna take more than just Luka and LeBron. Now they must play at a superstar level, yes we understand that, but they need help. So, we need a center, an athletic center, and then we need some other pieces to help put LeBron and Luka in a comfortable situation, in a situation that they know that they can win a championship.”

This offseason is shaping up to be an action-packed one across the entire NBA and the Lakers will have to make the right moves if they hope to keep pace in the extremely competitive Western Conference. Doncic and James will lead the way and if Pelinka and the front office can build the right roster around them, the Lakers will be ready to take on anybody.

Lakers’ legend Magic Johnson’s NBA Finals prediction holding true​

Prior to the start of the NBA Finals Lakers legend Magic Johnson made a prediction that the series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers would be much closer than people thought.

With Thunder in five being the prevailing belief throughout the basketball world, Johnson saw things going differently and he has proven to be right.

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Source: https://lakersnation.com/magic-johnson-discusses-offseason-needs-for-lakers/