Basketball never stops.
The offseason is a time to rest, reset, but also prepare and train for the year ahead. Luka Dončić is already hard at work posting his workouts on Instagram.
This is a big year for Dončić. LeBron James is gone, making Luka, without question, the Lakers’ leader. This team will be a representation of him.
While the start of the year is still months away, Luka wants to get to work as soon as possible.
Dave McMenamin reported on Wednesday that Dončić will bring the entire roster to
Slovenia for a four-day mini-camp in August.
The Lakers clearly want to build their chemistry quickly.
They already held a mini-camp during the Las Vegas Summer League. That was smaller than what this will be in Slovenia, since the entire team will be in attendance.
Dončić running this should be music to Lakers fans’ ears.
It shows that Luka wants these guys around him and welcomes them to his birthplace, Ljubljana, Slovenia. None of this is required for Dončić to do. His taking this initiative is exactly what you want from your team’s top player. LeBron would often have a mini-camp in Vegas right before training camp, and now Luka is doing something similar, but in his own way.
With so many new faces on the Lakers, the more time they can get together, the better. Hopefully, this mini-camp and then the official one sometime in September will create a scenario where the team can hit the ground running in October when the season starts.
This will likely be a fun and friendly team event. Luka seems to have caught the golf bug, just like his buddy Austin Reaves, and has it as part of this four-day event. With that, along with some tourism mixed in, it sounds like a fun work trip.
If, at the end of this, the team knows each other better and has built some rapport, then it’ll be a success. Hopefully, this can become a new tradition and be a way for Luka to cultivate the culture of his Lakers teams.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
