A Luka Doncic-Austin Reaves backcourt will be VERY POWERFUL even without LeBron – Windy | NBA Today

A Luka Doncic-Austin Reaves backcourt will be VERY POWERFUL even without LeBron – Windy | NBA Today

Let’s have a great day. Let’s have a great day. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Together on three. One, two, one, two, three. Together. Got to run. Got to run. Got to run. Got to run. DK, I’m going to you first. Take off. Take off. Here we go. R. Good talk, Gabe. Good talk, Gabe. Talk. Talk. Talk. Away. Away. Away. Away. Good pass. Let’s go. Let’s go. Back. Back. Back. Back. What we’ve done. We start. Stay solid. I’m ard. Somebody’s got to stop the ball. Let’s go. Talk that out. I’m back. I got one corner. I’m low. J, you low, Jack. Two paint touches. Two paint touches. Nice. Da. Nice. Da. Go. Go. Go. Go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Ro. One, two, three. Good work, fellas. Good work. All right. All right, we’ve got a developing story here on NBA Today. Our Lakers reporter Dave McMinnon reported that Luca Donuch plans to play Tuesday in Phoenix against the Suns. A source told ESPN it’ll be Donic’s pre preseason debut. Lakers coach JJ Reic said Donic will play in two out of the Lakers final three preseason games. So, Brian Lucas playing tomorrow, but no reports on Wednesday’s game against his former team. Um, what do you expect from him this preseason? Well, I don’t know, but I would find it doubtful that he’s going to play in the back toback even though the Wednesday game against Dallas, which is on ESPN. Would be nice. Would be nice. They play finished Friday across the street against the the Kings. So, I think there’s a decent chance the plan for Luca would be tomorrow and then Friday. Look, they need some offense. They need the offense to get going without LeBron. And so, you know, the Lakers have the longest preseason of any team in the league. They play six games. So, it’s not that big of a deal that Luca doesn’t play till now. Um, but one of the things that we heard JJ say very clearly was he wanted championship shape. So, Luca came back in in good condition. Let’s speed see the speed at which he plays with. Austin Reeves, I will say this, has had two excellent preseason games. He’s played in two. He scored in 20 in both of them. He’s looked very, very good. The Luca Austin Reeves backcourt, even without LeBron James, could be very powerful to start the season. I’m very intrigued and interested to see how DeAndre Aton does this season. You know, in 2018, and Brian, correct me if I’m wrong, but nobody batting an eye when Aton got picked over Luca. I am a nobody. I’ll push back on that. No, it sounds good now, but nobody really maybe it wasn’t a controversial pick. No. Um, and so, you know, people are fascinated about who the next great center is, and he’s shown flashes, but over the last two seasons, maybe in the last three seasons, he’s digressed. Um, not scored. People have questioned his effort and and wondered if he could ever be the guy that you expected him to be. Now, the spotlight that he’s in is the same spotlight he was in when the Suns were in the finals. there’s going to be somebody watching him every day. Putting on a Laker uniform is different. He’s playing with LeBron. He’s playing with Luca. I think that there’s going to be tremendous pressure on Eightton to live up to what he could potentially do. And if he could I’m sorry, Aton to live up what he could potentially do. And if he is that player, if he could rebound, if he could average 20, if he could do well in pick and rolls, he is the X factor that could potentially help the Lakers have a lot of a lot of ifs, I would imagine. I would agree. Now, here’s possible. Maybe it is possible. We’ll see. We’ll see. I believe in him. I’m glad somebody does. Um, so, and JJ, I’m sure will uh as we get into the season, Bobby, one thing that stuck out to me from that video we saw there was JJ telling the guys to communicate. Talk talk. You heard him say that. And that’s on defense. We’ve had a lot of talk about offense here on this panel. What about the defense? Well, their defense is going to keep them above water until LeBron gets back. That’s that’s the mo the big thing that I’m going to pay attention to to. We saw glimpses after the Luca trade of this team being a really good defensive team. Certainly middle of the pack overall there. I’m concerned where are they going to get the offense from? And that’s why I say defense, defense, defense for this Lakers team to be above 500 when LeBron gets back, you know, sometime in the next 3 to four weeks. So, without, let’s say, LeBron, you know, he’s he’s not going to play to start the season. We don’t know uh how long he’ll be out. You know, this West is hard. It’s not forgiving, Brian. So, you cannot afford to come out slow out of the gates if you’re anybody, let alone the Lakers. difference between the Lakers being the three seed and being in the play in last year was two games. So keep that in mind when you have a bad five or eight game stretch. The one thing I’ll say about the Lakers, they’re a lot healthier now than they were a year ago. I know that LeBron is not going to start the season uh healthy. Jared Vanderbilt is back and and and much more uh much bigger impact defensively that he can bring. Looked good in the preseason game against the Warriors the other night. Yes. And Gabe Vincent, who was out a bunch early last season. Gabe Vincent’s had a couple of really good games. And look, let’s see Luca with this more slim down figure. Let’s see how he defends. I I have low expectations there. I think you ask him to dominate on the offensive end. You ask him to be passable on defense, but you know, in theory, he should be more agile defensively. Yeah. Look, I I think there’s no question that that’s something. And here’s the other thing. I think I if this is going to be Luca’s team here moving forward, right? And it is kind of now, right? I I also feel like he could work on his leadership too, right? Being more vocal. He’s a lead by example guy. At some point, you got to take some things off the court like taking the guys, right? The Porsche thing. That’s a good start. Like, yeah, I I hadn’t heard any of that in Dallas, right? So, that’s huge. [Music]

The NBA Today crew discusses news that Luka Doncic is expected to make his preseason debut in the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Phoenix Suns matchup.

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