The 2023 NBA Draft has come and gone, which means that the start of Summer League is just around the corner for the Los Angeles Lakers.
This year’s Summer League team should be a good one as Max Christie and Cole Swider are both returning from last season. Additionally, the Lakers made two selections in the draft, taking Indiana guard Jalen Hood-Schifino with the 17th overall pick and then Pepperdine wing Maxwell Lewis with the 40th overall pick.
A majority of the rest of the roster will be filled with undrafted free agents with the Lakers already bringing in a few. The Lakers reportedly signed Florida big man Colin Castleton and Missouri guard D’Moi Hodge to two-way contracts while also signing Florida wing Alex Fudge and TCU guard Damion Baugh to Exhibit-10 contracts.
With a number of roster sports already filled, the question now becomes who will coach that group. In Darvin Ham’s first season last year, Phil Handy coached the Summer League team in the California Classic before Jordan Ott took over in Las Vegas.
This year will be different though as Dan Woike of the L.A. Times is reporting that assistant JD DuBois will coach the Lakers’ Summer League team:
JD DuBois will coach the Summer League team from what I’ve been told https://t.co/FGgiYF8lVI
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) June 25, 2023
DuBois has plenty of experience as he served as a player development coach on the Toronto Raptors under Dwayne Casey from 2017-18. He then followed Casey to the Detroit Pistons where he was an assistant coach from 2018-22 before joining Ham’s staff on the Lakers last summer.
Coaching Summer League isn’t new for DuBois as he notable coached a Cade Cunningham-led Piston’s summer team in 2021. His role this summer will be to find minutes for all of the team’s players to display their talents while beginning to implement Ham’s system since some of the players will have a chance to make the team’s roster in training camp.
With this much talent on the roster, the Lakers could very well be in the mix for a Las Vegas Summer League roster.
Lakers’ Las Vegas Summer League schedule released
Speaking of Las Vegas, the Lakers schedule was recently released and they will be playing with Golden State Warriors, Charlotte Hornets, Boston Celtics and Memphis Grizzlies in their first four games.
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