While Las Vegas served as a chance for the Summer League Lakers to excite fans about the future, that wasn’t the sole thing accomplished in the desert.
While typically a place to make an appearance before heading to the casinos and clubs, the Lakers did more than that this July. With a reshaped roster, a mixture of new signees and incumbents met in Vegas for a sort of player’s mini-camp to start working out with one another.
Khobi Price of the California Post had some details during a recent radio appearance on 97.1 The Fan.
“There was a veteran’s camp in Vegas. I’m just going off the top of my head but I know Jake LaRavia was there, Walker Kessler was there. Sexton was there. Mamu was there. Bronny James was there. Jarred Vanderbilt was there. Jaden Hardy was there…That’s part of building chemistry. It started in mid-July in Vegas where you’re having veterans camp. They’re not doing anything crazy but getting workouts, getting to know one another, especially when it’s so many new faces. Austin Reaves was there. So many new faces that even stuff like that, that can help build chemistry and just help build familiarity.”
It might be a small thing that didn’t necessarily have a big impact, but seeing the players get together from the jump is something fans will always like. If nothing else, it lays the seeds for future workouts together this offseason.
On that topic, it was commonplace for the Lakers to have a minicamp just before the start of training camp during the LeBron James era. Will that continue in the post-LeBron era Heading into a season where, as mentioned, there are a lot of new players joining the fold, it would make more sense than normal to get everyone together for some extra work before the season starts.
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