Shams Charania explains LeBron’s timeline to return ➡️ What’s his best role for Lakers?! | NBA Today

Shams Charania explains LeBron’s timeline to return ➡️ What’s his best role for Lakers?! | NBA Today

All right, developing story. LeBron James is back with the Lakers, practicing for the first time this season. LeBron missed opening night this year. The only time that’s ever happened in his 23-year career. The Lakers just wrapped up a five-game road trip and host the Jazz on Tuesday. For more, we bring in ESPN insider Sham Shirania. Shams, you reported over the weekend that James was officially reassigned back to the Lakers from the NBA GLeague affiliate in South Bay. Practice is going to be wrapping up here soon. What is the latest on LeBron’s timeline? George, a source just told me moments ago that LeBron James is looking good at practice today at the Lakers facility. He could return as soon as Tuesday’s home game against the Jazz or Sunday in Utah or if he wants to be cautious and patient next Tuesday at against the Clippers. It’s really just going to be predicated how he feels coming out of practice today, the next day, the rest of this week potentially. He’s going to want to be smartened and calculated. We know that’s how he’s been throughout his career with his body. And so whenever he plays, we know he’s going to be cleared. Could he use more caution to be ready uh later this week or next week potentially and get more practice time? One thing I have heard consistently over the last several days, LeBron James is motivated and eager to get back on on the floor for the Lakers, he’s seen this start that the Lakers are on and he’s excited about this team, I’m told, and the camaraderie that he knows he’s coming back to with this unit led by Luca Donuch and Austin Reeds, DeAndre Aiden, and Ruie Hachimura. Shams, great stuff as always, man. Always appreciate the insight. It’s good to have the king back here. Now, JJ Reic was asked before LeBron took the podium there or, you know, with the gaggle of reporters that it’s TBD in regards to the game on Tuesday against the Jazz here in Los Angeles that they’ll wait to see how he feels after today. So, when LeBron does get back on the court, Ramona, how do you expect him to fit in? Well, if you’re the Lakers, you could not be happier with everything he just said because part of the best part of covering this league for as long as we have and as long as LeBron’s been around, he everything has a has a reference point. He goes back to Spo and he says, “It’s positionless basketball.” He said, “I need to fit in. I need to feel my way back in. These guys have great chemistry. This is like the first day at a new school. I got to figure out what they’ve been doing.” That is everything the Lakers want to hear because they’ve been rolling and he’s been paying attention. And he realizes, okay, I’m not going to just come in and take over. I’m going to fit in, not fit out like he used to say with Luca Dantic when he first came to the Lakers. And there’s the Kevin Love reference to Cleveland. So, I think that was exactly what you wanted to hear from LeBron James. He’s just going to fit in wherever he can because clearly he needs to get his win back, too. He said he had the lungs of a newborn baby. Hall of Famer Lakers got first world problems. You’re adding arguably the greatest player of all time back to your lineup, you know, and Austin Reeves, uh, he’s going to have to get in the back seat probably a little bit. I know LeBron’s saying the nice things and I’m going fit in. He’s LeBron James. Uh, Luca’s going to be Luca. I think LeBron’s going to be, you know, basically take over the second. Yeah. In scoring and and shots and and Austin Reeves is going to be, you know, this his best season so far. So, that’s a scary trio. The guy I’m intrigued to see, George, we talk about him all the time. DeAndre Aandre, how is he going to be with LeBron? The picks that he’s going to set. Uh, keep an eye on DeAndre Aiden. Uh, David, how do you see LeBron’s role? So, this may sound like a demotion or what, but I promise you it is not. And the the what I see LeBron James being is potentially Super Saiyan Draymond is a guy that fits in uh on both sides of the court. And I think when you look at last year, the Lakers were at their best those first 10 games right after Luca got there. They had the number one defense in the league. And a lot of that was LeBron James getting in those passing lanes, guarding Joic if he had to, doing all the stuff to muck up an an opposing offense. Now, it was not sustainable in large part because LeBron James is also carrying such a large load offensively. Now, when you have Luca and Austin Reeds doing what they’re do offensively, LeBron James can rest a little bit, but also be a Draymond offensively. Set some of those screens. When he sets screens for Luca, they have one of the top offenses in the league. I expect to see a little bit more of that. Get some of those back cuts, do some of those things that really confuse opposing defenses. So, he’s not exerting as much energy. He’s fitting in offensively and he is doing all the things that are necessary defensively that made them such a great team for those first few games when Luca got there. That I think is the formula for LeBron and the Lakers to be sustainable through playoff time. Well, to your point, David, they’re a bottom third team defensively. And last year there was a specific inflection point where he became the best defender, which was they got blown out in Miami by like 40ome points, one of the worst losses in Laker history, which says a lot because there’s a long history there. and and he turned the corner there and really led them defensively. So, that’ll be a role he is going to have to play on this team as well. Back-to-back against the Spurs last week became back-to-back Steph Curry master classes. Wednesday night, Steph put on a show, 46 points, taking over the second half and carrying Golden State past San Antonio. Just a pure Curry takeover. And it was only the beginning because the next game on Friday, Steph kept that wave rolling with a cool 49, including 31 in the second half and a game-winning free throws to sweep the Spurs in San Antonio to top off an NBA Cup thriller. The chef joined MJ as the only players with 35 plus and back-to-back 45 point games. But against New Orleans Sunday, the hot hand came from elsewhere. Steph only had three points in that first half. Moses Moody came out swinging, shooting seven of eight from three. Moody joins Klay Thompson and Steph Curry is the only Warrior players to make seven plus threes in a single quarter. And I don’t know if the Warriors have had a better soldier over the years than him. He just just never complains. All right, now another story for Draymond. Herb Jones drives the lane. Draymond gets the foul here and watch this. So Draymond gets into it here with a fan. Fan chirping at Draymond. Here’s Draymond after the game about it. A woman, you know, it was a good joke at first, but what you say? You can’t keep calling me a woman. Do I look like a woman? She’s a Do I like a woman? She’s a very good rebounder. Yeah, for sure. But please call Lisa Lesie was a good rebounder, too. She owed her. So you see security came to talk to the gentleman there. Later in the third, Al Horford finds Steph for three. Curry finished with nine and three. Warriors still win 124 to 106. All right. After a tough 24-point loss to OKC, this team, they took their next three games pretty seriously here. So, Mark, what’s your takeaway from this stretch from the Warriors? You know, a week ago, things look pretty bad the way they started on this road trip and the way the Warriors have played these past three games. I mean, obviously Steph put on his cape in San Antonio, but those were two great wins. Uh typically when you play a team like New Orleans, they’re going to be in a high when you know you got a new coach coming in and they figured that one out with a great team win. So I think this was uh you know with new pieces like Al and and still trying to figure out their way without Kaminga. I think this was just a a very good LA great week mentally and for the Warriors. You know, I was watching Steph’s interview on uh Saturday night, guess it was on Prime when he was talking to the Amazon host and he goes, “Look, we’re not the only team that’s had a really bad game in Oklahoma City, and it got me to remember how much these guys have been through throughout this run. Steph, Draymond, they’ve been through these stretches before where they look terrible and it looks like the wheels are going to fall off and no one panics. So turning it around and having three great games after having that trough and that that terrible game in Oklahoma City that it’s not surprising because these guys are such veterans. David, yeah, I mean this has been a really weird season already for the Warriors. They played like 10 road games already. They’ve beaten LA in LA. They’ve beaten the Nuggets. They’ve beaten these Spurs teams. They have inexplicable losses against Indiana and the Bucks. Steph gets uh sick. And then you go to San Antonio and you have what is the blueprint for the Warriors to believe they could beat anybody not named OKC, which is Draymond getting in Wimy’s face and showing that he’s equipped to defend anybody, including Victor Women. Forced a lot of turnovers when he was guarding him. Jimmy Butler was helping on those pick and rolls. Also, Steph went crazy. But this is how the Warriors win these big games. It is the intensity of somebody like Draymond in these situations. getting one of the I think two players to block Wimby all year. That is what this Warriors team is built on for all these last few years and what they’re going to use to sort of ride the wave after this crazy sort of road trip and early season stuff uh is over with. But I one more thing about Draymond. It’s okay if somebody compares you to Angel Reese like she’s a good player. You could take it as a kind of a compliment as you can you know of getting rebounds at quarterbacks. Yeah, this team has a roster that’s been riddled with injuries and you know for three straight seasons really if you think about it and no first round pick this year so the urgency is cranking up fast here. What do they do here? Mark pray that Zion and Dejante come back as soon as possible. Um I talked to Joe Dumars and it certainly was a touch tough thing to do. He’s known you know Willie since he was a teenager. um and he gave him patience and then I think ultimately he wants the Pelicans to play tough basketball on both ends of the floor. That wasn’t happening. And he brought in James Burggo who’s, you know, a veteran in his own right as a coach and he’s pushing him to get that out of the Pelicans right now. I mean, you just have to you cannot have the worst record in the league. You can’t give that first round pick to Atlanta and have it be a top five pick. It’s a disaster. And to me, I think you got to look and do whatever you can. Look, may maybe you go try to upgrade the team. They have good pieces. Dejante Murray’s good. Williamson when he comes back is healthy and when he’s healthy, he’s he’s good. Like, you got to almost look at what the Clippers have done the last few years where they just had to give all their picks to Oklahoma City because of the Paul George trade a few years ago. You cannot just keep losing. There’s no there’s you can’t you got to do like whether maybe you go trade for a veteran. Yeah. You bring somebody in so you don’t end up in that spot. And to your point, like if you watch their home games, there’s not a lot of people there. Even most recently with the Lakers, as you know, but you got to have reason to go, right? Again, that’s the point. But even when the Lakers or Yeah. But the Lakers were in town recently and you could get tickets easily. I was told I know people that were at that game. So, all right, David, what do you think of this situation? I mean, the best thing that the Pelicans can do is get all the top scientists they can and invent a time machine. They go back, get those draft picks they traded away inexplicably in the summer because I don’t know what you could do. There’s not a franchise in the league right now that I would want to be less than the New Orleans Pelicans. This team is going to be bad for a long time and you had options to have high picks and they are gone. I’m not sure what Willie Green could have done with this roster with the fact that Zion is is hurt, with the fact that Dejonte Murray is hurt. I just do not understand what he could have possibly done better uh for this franchise or for this team as currently constructed. Yeah. [Music]

The NBA Today crew discusses the latest storylines surrounding LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors and New Orleans Pelicans.

0:00 Shams Charania joins
3:25 LeBron’s best role
6:40 Warriors’ outlook
8:59 What do the Pelicans do?

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