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In an ideal world, by now the Lakers would’ve already gotten at least one look at what their team would look like with close to their full roster available.
But that’s not the situation the Lakers find themselves in entering Friday’s preseason finale against the Nuggets at Crypto.com Arena.
It’s also not a matter that coach JJ Redick is worrying about, with his team primed to getting closer to being whole before the games start to matter in the standings next week.
“Can’t control it, so it’s not even a concern,” the Lakers coach said. “Play the guys you can play.”
Thursday provided optimism that the Lakers will have more guys available to play in their final exhibition after multiple key players sat out the previous four games.
Ziaire Williams is trending in the right direction after dealing with left foot swelling, fully participating in Thursday’s practice after sitting out the previous three exhibitions.
Luka Doncic also fully participated after getting the night off against the Warriors on Tuesday.
Which means the Lakers could have their preferred starting lineup available against the Nuggets for the first time this preseason.
But even with a healthier roster, the Lakers still need to show they can improve in two key areas before the Oct. 21 regular-season opener against the Warriors: defensive rebounding and ball security.
Both have been areas of struggle over the last couple of weeks.
Which is why it was a significant focus of Thursday’s practice.
“I’d like us to do a better job taking care of the basketball, and I’d like us to do a better job on the defensive glass,” Redick said. “Those two things, showing improvement there, showing a heightened awareness offensively of being organized with certain groups, and the heightened awareness of not playing in a crowd and just making a simple play.
“And then defensively, we did three different box-out drills [on Thursday] at practice; it’s a point of emphasis going forward.”
It’s clear why those areas are being emphasized.
The Lakers had the third-worst defensive rebounding rate (63.1%) and second-worst turnover rate (24.1%) among all teams that’ve played in the preseason entering Thursday.
They emphasized reducing their turnovers before playing the Warriors this week but recorded 30 giveaways.
“Just like a bunch of new guys,” Quentin Grimes said of the Lakers’ ball security issues. “You don’t know where guys might cut, guys might spot up, you don’t know guys’ tendencies right now. Like some guys play in certain preseason games, some guys don’t, but it’s getting those reps in with each other, figuring out where guys like the ball, where they don’t cut when you got the ball, stuff like that. So guys are just trying to figure out a rhythm, but once we get that rhythm and the spacing and stuff like that, it’ll calm down, for sure.”
Walker Kessler’s return helped on the defensive glass against the Warriors — at least for the first half that he played before sitting out the second half.
Having Williams, the Lakers’ second-tallest player at 6-foot-10, should also help.
“It just takes all five of us to gang rebound,” Williams said. “Especially when [Kessler’s] not in. We just gotta do a better job of just wanting it a little bit more. We’ll get there.”