NBA Media Days have come and gone, which means the Los Angeles Lakers had their first practice of training camp on Tuesday.
This Lakers team has high expectations after a successful offseason, and things seem to be off to a good start as Darvin Ham revealed after practice that everyone was healthy and able to participate.
While the Lakers head coach was not willing to single anybody out, saying that everyone looked good, rookie Jalen Hood-Schifino stood out to some Lakers players in the first-round pick’s first official NBA practice.
D’Angelo Russell originally took a similar stance as Ham, not willing to single anyone out, although he eventually came around and named Hood-Schifino as someone who impressed him.
“Everybody, man. I don’t want to do all that,” Russell said. “If I could give everybody on the team credit, I would. I will give you one actually. Jalen [Hood-Schifino] played really well today. He made shots and got after it.”
Austin Reaves also named Hood-Schifino when asked how all of the new guys looked.
“Obviously it’s a new group, but those guys are super talented and super willing to buy into what we’re doing and it showed today,” Reaves said. “I think there were a lot of teaching moments. You mentioned playing on the go, you can see their reaction to what they’re being told, so it was great. Everybody looks good, the new guys looked good, Jalen [Hood-Schifino] had a really good day for his first day. So we’re super excited.”
The Lakers drafted Hood-Schifino 17th overall out of Indiana, hoping he can eventually be their point guard of the future. At just 20 years of age though, Hood-Schifino showed in Summer League that he still has some developing to do to be a quality NBA player, although it seems he has made some big strides since then.
Hood-Schifino will have a ton of good veterans to learn from during his rookie season, whether it be Russell and Reaves in the backcourt or LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the frontcourt.
Given the Lakers’ depth at the guard position he likely won’t see many minutes right away although impressing your teammates and coaches in practice is definitely the best way to see the floor in games.
Ham names Russell as starting point guard
Even if Hood-Schifino is able to earn some minutes out of camp though, it won’t be in the starting lineup as Ham has already named Russell as the starting point guard.
With Reaves, James and Davis also locks to start, the Lakers have one spot up for grabs between now and Opening Night.
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