{"id":850454,"date":"2026-10-04T04:03:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T04:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/850454\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T04:03:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T04:03:22","slug":"lakers-notes-thybulle-two-way-players-laravia-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/850454\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Notes: Thybulle, Two-Way Players, LaRavia, James"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luka Doncic<\/a> and Austin Reaves<\/a> are expected to be the leaders of the Lakers\u2019 offense this season, and an aggressive group of wing defenders is getting them ready for that role, Benjamin Royer of The Orange County Register<\/a> writes in a subscriber-only story. \u201cThey all annoy the hell out of me,\u201d Reaves said of the group, led by offseason addition Matisse Thybulle<\/a>, and Thybulle expressed similar respect for the team\u2019s two stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to work sooooo hard,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re so talented. \u2026 I think for me it\u2019s great because getting to play against two of the best offensive players in the NBA every day just primes you for \u2013 I think it primes all of us, but me specifically \u2013 just primes you for what to expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Thybulle, the group includes Ziaire Williams<\/a>, Adou Thiero<\/a> and Bronny James<\/a>, who all spend time honing their defensive skills against two of the league\u2019s best scorers. It\u2019s not clear yet how the playing time will be allocated among them once the season begins, but everyone figures to benefit from the training camp battles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to make me better on the defensive end just picking them up full court,\u201d James said. \u201cI\u2019m annoyed by them, they get annoyed with me in practice. \u2026 Just continuing to do that will make me better for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more on the Lakers:<\/p>\n

Forward AK Okereke<\/a>, wing Arthur Kaluma<\/a> and guard Chris Manon<\/a> occupy L.A.\u2019s two-way slots, and coach JJ Redick talked on Saturday about what they can contribute to the team, Royer adds. Redick views Okereke and Kaluma as \u201c3-and-D guys\u201d with good size on the wing, while Manon offers a variety of skills. \u201cHe can guard the ball and he can scale up and guard wings as well,\u201d Redick said.
\nJake LaRavia<\/a> helped to stabilize the Lakers last season, playing all 82 games and moving into the starting lineup when Doncic, Reaves and LeBron James<\/a> were sidelined by injuries. However, he admits that his performance slipped after the All-Star break, and he wasn\u2019t used at all in the team\u2019s final two playoff games, Royer states in a separate story<\/a> (subscription required). \u201cThis summer was a summer of reflection and intentionality for me,\u201d LaRavia said. \u201cI think the way that the second half of the season went last season was not the way that I intended it to go. You hit mental lapses in the season. I hit a mental lapse last season and I wasn\u2019t able to shake back from it. \u2026 And as a professional athlete, that can happen, but when you play on this stage, that can\u2019t happen. So this summer, a lot of it was just mental reflection for me and working on that side of the game.\u201d
\nBronny James is focused on improving his point guard skills as he prepares for his third NBA season, per Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times<\/a> (subscriber link). \u201cJust taking those steps, encouraging my guys, getting them in the right spots and stuff like that. Making sure we\u2019re organized,\u201d James said. \u201cFor sure, that\u2019s what a point guard is. You\u2019ve got to be talking to your guys, got to be helping people get to where they need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are expected to be the leaders of the Lakers\u2019 offense this season, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[3515,2411,14646,1013,7,1006,15035,4077,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,368,7211,6,4610],"class_list":["post-850454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-lakers","tag-adou-thiero","tag-ak-okereke","tag-arthur-kaluma","tag-austin-reaves","tag-basketball","tag-bronny-james","tag-chris-manon","tag-jake-laravia","tag-la","tag-la-lakers","tag-lakers","tag-lalakers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleslakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-matisse-thybulle","tag-nba","tag-ziaire-williams"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117380658169307174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}