Luka Doncic could make his debut with the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday, coach JJ Redick said Wednesday.
Doncic took part in his first practice with the Lakers since his surprising trade from Dallas last weekend. The Slovenian star had not played for the Mavericks since injuring his left calf on Christmas Day.
Doncic won’t play when the Lakers begin a three-game homestand against the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night, but there’s a good chance he will return when the Lakers play the Indiana Pacers on Saturday or the Utah Jazz on Monday night.
“We’re kind of just assessing it day by day,” Redick said. “We hope to have him back within the next few games. We just had noncontact practice today, but we got some good work in for about 45 minutes, and he’ll have a stay-ready game at some point over the next two days.
He’ll have some more opportunities to play live basketball, and then we’ll make a decision on Saturday. If it’s not Saturday, hopefully it’s Monday. (But) those decisions will be made on Saturday.”
The NBA’s broadcasters were paying attention: Shortly after Redick spoke, ESPN announced it would air the Pacers-Lakers game on Saturday, moving a Jazz-Suns game to a different time.
Doncic watched from the bench at Intuit Dome on Tuesday night as LeBron James led the Lakers to a 122-97 win over the Clippers, marking their ninth victory in 11 games.
James is still adjusting to the trade of his close friend and teammate Anthony Davis, but he has already expressed excitement about playing alongside Doncic, who he calls his favorite NBA player.
Doncic joined in 5-on-5 drills in his first Lakers practice. He ended the session chatting with Redick, James, assistant coach Scott Brooks, and forward Dorian Finney-Smith, who was Doncic’s teammate in Dallas for 4 1/2 seasons. Finney-Smith was traded to the Lakers from Brooklyn shortly after Christmas.
“Even though I don’t like the way things went down — I feel like he definitely should have got that money — but I’m happy he’s on my side now,” Finney-Smith said.
Finney-Smith also laughed at the Mavericks’ reported concerns about Doncic’s conditioning and weight.
“I know him, (and) he wants to play the whole game,” Finney-Smith said. “I think he played 40 minutes every game last playoffs. That’s one thing about LD. He wants to play. I don’t really look at the noise. I look at his production. If I’m putting up those kinds of numbers, maybe I should be 270 (pounds).”
Whenever Doncic returns to the court, Redick doesn’t think he will have any trouble adjusting to playing with James in the Lakers’ system.
“The biggest learning curve is just the language,” Redick said. “He knows basketball. He knows it at a high level. We use a lot of the concepts that he used in Dallas, which a lot of teams use. We haven’t reinvented the wheel or anything.
We are trending in the direction of playing really intelligent offensive basketball, and then you add in Luka, who’s a supercomputer on the court, who can see everything and has seen every coverage, every defense, it adds another layer for sure.”
