Lakers newsletter: Don’t expect a great start to the season

Hey everyone, this is Dan Woike and welcome to the latest edition of the Lakers Newsletter, where every day the season gets closer and the nice relaxing days of the summer fade into the rearview. Do I sound excited? Do I sound sad? Yes. Yes I do.

It’s a funny thing, the final days of the offseason making me feel all sorts of ways. I’m excited for what’s to come, anxious about the heaps of responsibility and sad about the time with my family and friends that I’m about to lose.

It would all be easier to process if it was simple, a singular, straight-line emotion that I could prepare for instead of a muddled mess of feelings that could be its own Pixar movie.

So for you, dear reader, I’ll do you a favor. Let’s simplify things. And let’s focus on the FEAR you should feel about the days ahead. Because there are a lot of things working against the Lakers getting off to a great start in 2024.

The starting blocks might actually be walls

The NBA schedule release has become a bit of an event, fans desperate for something that resembles news to jolt some excitement into the late summer while people like me go scrambling for hotel rooms and baby-sitters. It’s a day people have come to look toward, despite, like one team exec told me, “we’re gonna play 41 at home and 41 on the road.”

That’s guaranteed (well, kinda, the In-Season Tournament can throw some wrinkles into that but the gist is true). What isn’t so certain? The NBA preseason.

The Lakers dropped a little bit of a surprise not long after the NBA announced the schedule, and it could be one of the reasons why the safe bet, when it comes to the Lakers, is for them to get off to a slow start.

The Oy of Six

It shouldn’t have actually come as a surprise, Crypto.Com Arena undergoing another round of renovations this summer leading to this barnstorming. It’s also, generally speaking, good business for the Lakers to give fans in the region a chance to see them play closer to home.

But the reality of this is that the Lakers spend their preseason with six straight games on the road, a weekend in Palm Springs followed by a trip to Milwaukee. They come home just to go to Las Vegas before flying to Phoenix and Golden State for the rare preseason back-to-back.

One school of thought is that this kind of travel early in the season can help a team bond by forcing them to spend time together on planes, buses and in hotels without distractions. But the roster is basically the same and one of the new additions is LeBron’s son, so yeah, no mysteries there.

This travel will be a factor early in the season, the Lakers likely to be at least a little fatigued from the road-heavy start to the season.

The Golden rules

LeBron James appeared on Lakers’ social media this week in the team’s weight room, a sign that his post-Olympic reset has come to a close. These kinds of long summers, the one that he and Anthony Davis agreed to in service of country, push everything else back and change offseason plans.

Both players are back in the gym, though things in the upcoming weeks will be a little different. The team, as of now, will not be taking one of the player-led minicamps that it’s done in the past.

Maybe it’s a perk of continuity; maybe it’s an acknowledgment that there’s no need to push things right now.

Either way, the Lakers’ two most important players put their bodies to use and left some of their available mileage in Paris in search of a gold. That bill could come due if they’re not careful.

Both players, though, are smart when it comes to this kind of stuff, so it’s safe to expect they’ll ease themselves into the season — which doesn’t exactly scream “hot start.”

The learning curve

Let’s remember something that you’re going to get reminded a lot about here in the next few weeks. This is JJ Redick’s first time doing this, and because it is, it’ll probably take some time for him to get into a real rhythm.

The Lakers will have to learn his new system and a bench full of entirely new assistants. The coaches, for the most part, will need to learn to coach and work with players they’ve never shared a bench with.

And the team’s schedule — six-straight against playoff or play-in teams to start — on the heels of everything else laid out here and, yeah, it could be a rough start.

Counting the preseason, the Lakers will play 11 of their first 14 basketball games away from their home floor. Their two best players are coming off the Olympics. Their coaching staff is entirely new.

And optimism early? Maybe it should be replaced with a sizable dose of caution.

Pack It In

I went to Santa Monica last weekend to see Bronny James make a public appearance at Rizo Sports as part of Topps’ Hobby Rip Night, and predictably there was a lot of talk about Bronny’s dad.

“Who would win in a three-point contest, Steph Curry or your dad?” one kid shouted.

“Seth (Curry)?” Bronny wondered.

“No! Steph!” the kid yelled.

Bronny, thankfully, did the responsible thing and picked against his father.

The spotlight on him is undoubtedly going to be bright, but he handled his time last Saturday with grace, swapping out some pretty valuable cards with whatever those kids in the card shop brought to deal. He and his dad have both been in the gym this week as the Lakers ramp toward training camp.

Song of the Week

“I Don’t Wanna Wait (Live)” by The War on Drugs

What a gift, another live Drugs record just as they get ready to bring their tour with Lucius and The National to Los Angeles early next month. Like last week’s MJ Lenderman tune, this is a VERY pro War on Drugs space and their live shows are always terrific. The new live record is a great listen.

Let’s chat

Any other questions you might have about this offseason? Players you want to have me dig in on? Let me know. Email me at [email protected] with your questions and we’ll answer as many as we can next week.

In case you missed it

Lakers preparing to sign center Christian Koloko to two-way contract

Q&A: Jeanie Buss is wowed by WOW wrestling — and LeBron James. ‘He might be the greatest of all time’