The only player who will not make the trip is rookie Cameron Carr, and his absence has nothing to do with his own preferences. Stein reported that the No. 24 pick is bound by a league obligation that happens to fall at exactly the wrong time.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeague sources say it would have been 17 of 17 if just-drafted swingman Cameron Carr wasn\u2019t required to participate in an official NBA rookie orientation that conflicts with what Don\u010di\u0107 is calling a \u2018team bonding trip,’\u201d wrote Stein.<\/p>\n
For a franchise that has spent the last month absorbing the departure of LeBron James and rebuilding its roster around Doncic, the attendance sheet doubles as the first measurable answer to a question that has hung over the offseason: Would a locker room full of newcomers actually follow the new franchise centerpiece? On the evidence of one voluntary August trip, the answer arrived quickly.<\/p>\n
Why Cameron Carr is the only Laker staying home<\/p>\n
Carr\u2019s conflict is a scheduling collision rather than a snub in either direction. The NBA runs an orientation program for its incoming rookies, and the league typically stages that rookie transition program in late August \u2014 squarely on top of the window Doncic has carved out in Ljubljana. Attendance at the league program is not optional for draft picks, which leaves the 21-year-old guard as the roster\u2019s lone forced absence.<\/p>\n
There is a mild irony in the timing. Orientation exists to integrate rookies into NBA life, and in this specific case, it is the one thing standing between a rookie and the most valuable integration exercise his own team will run all summer.<\/p>\n
The Lakers open training camp in late September,\u00a0so Carr\u2019s first extended run alongside the full group will now wait for the formal calendar rather than the informal one.<\/p>\n
What the No. 24 pick is missing<\/p>\n
![\"Cameron](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/USATSI_29257134_168403908_lowres-e1784399806822.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The absence stings more because Carr is precisely the kind of player a bonding trip is built for. The Lakers moved up to take him at No. 24 in June\u2019s draft, betting on a wing who turned a stalled start at Tennessee into one of the best breakout seasons in the country.<\/p>\n
At Baylor last season, Carr averaged 18.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.3 blocks per game while shooting 49.4 percent from the field, numbers that ranked him fourth in the Big 12 in scoring and earned him a spot on the conference\u2019s All-Big 12 third team.<\/p>\n
He carried that form into July, averaging 18.0 points per game across four Summer League appearances. The profile is a clean fit next to Doncic: a 6-foot-5 athlete who scores off the catch, attacks closeouts and protects the rim from the wing, which is exactly the archetype that tends to thrive on the receiving end of Doncic\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n
None of that changes because of one missed trip, and the practical cost of four days is small. The symbolic cost is the part worth noting.<\/p>\n
Every other new Laker will land in Los Angeles this fall already holding a shared reference point \u2014 the workouts, the dinners, the golf, the inside jokes formed in Ljubljana \u2014 and the youngest player on the roster will be the only one starting from zero.<\/p>\n
Rookies typically fight uphill for belonging anyway, and Carr will now do it while being the single member of the team who was somewhere else when the group became a group.<\/p>\n
16 yeses is the real story<\/p>\n
The aggregation cycle has treated Carr\u2019s absence as the headline, but the more consequential number is the other one. 16 players said yes to a voluntary overseas trip in the middle of August, organized by a teammate most of them have never played a regular-season game with.<\/p>\n
The committed list runs through Austin Reaves, Walker Kessler and Bronny James, along with returning players Dalton Knecht, Jarred Vanderbilt and Jake LaRavia and offseason additions Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton, Ziaire Williams, Matisse Thybulle and Sandro Mamukelashvili.<\/p>\n
That is not a small ask. August is the one stretch of the NBA calendar players fully own, and Doncic is asking a largely rebuilt roster to spend part of it on a trip whose itinerary, first reported by ESPN\u2019s Dave McMenamin<\/a>, blends real work with deliberate downtime.<\/p>\n \u201cThe itinerary will include workouts, golf and some Ljubljana tourism and bonding,\u201d McMenamin reported.<\/p>\n