Lakers 2029-2030 Pre Season Press Conference

[greepleairport]

Good day, everyone. This is my first pre-season presser as the Lakers Coach and it is my pleasure to deliver updates on our squad this year. Thank you for joining us today. I'd like to thank my Mom for believing in me and Giannis for forever! He's played a major role for these Lakers over the years, but he will be taking a back seat to the younger talent this year. At 34 years old, I believe he has earned as much!

We'll be looking to push our rebuild this year and give a different group of guys playing time. Lucking out with some auto-sims that appear to be ones that might work out, we want to put new PG Tony Cucone right to work in the starting lineup and get Wyatt Battle some minutes too. We're pushing last year's rookie stand out David Leiker into the role of 6th man and get Dominick Cobb some extra minutes too.

Re-signing Andre Nickels and Ronald Jackson was a great move for the team as well, though Jackson did have a slight misstep in training this year. We're confident he'll bounce back and continue to produce results similar to last year. Nickels showed up big for us down the stretch last year, proving his talents as a point-getter which we look forward to seeing this year too. Our strength remains inside with a strong team of centers and power forwards. We'll lean on them most heavily, capitalizing on their strengths inside.

All in all we won't be winning the 'ship this year but are setting up to be a threat down the road. We have the tools and guys we like - now it's time to execute. Thanks again for joining us today - we'll now take questions.

[Wombataholic]

When do you think the Lakers will make a return to the playoffs?

[MexicanMamba]

How is Giannis responding to the youth movement of the team? Has he seemed on board or might there be a move to try getting him to a contending team in the twilight of his career?

[garbageman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: You've got a lot of young players on your team with a lot of promise. If you could add on (or improve) one position or aspect of your team, where would that improvement need to come?

[kucoach7]

How does Leiker feel about being the sixth man? Is he taking it humbly or does he see this as his team already and wants to shine?

[greepleairport]

When do you think the Lakers will make a return to the playoffs?

When Giannis contract expires I’ll have a better answer to this, but I’ll ballpark within the next five seasons, hopefully the next three!


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[greepleairport]

How is Giannis responding to the youth movement of the team? Has he seemed on board or might there be a move to try getting him to a contending team in the twilight of his career?

Giannis has been on the trade block, so I think he knows he’s no longer the focal point of the Lakers. I’m sure a top team in the league would inspire him to finish strong!


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[greepleairport]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: You've got a lot of young players on your team with a lot of promise. If you could add on (or improve) one position or aspect of your team, where would that improvement need to come?

I would be happier to see us in less foul trouble overall, but I’m really looking forward to watching guard roles develop, and I think we have great talent in Ronald Jackson leading that charge and paving the road for Cucone and Leiker to start stepping up.


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[greepleairport]

How does Leiker feel about being the sixth man? Is he taking it humbly or does he see this as his team already and wants to shine?

Don’t want to put words in his mouth, but his 6th man push is a big one from last season, as someone who was lost in a sea of bigs on the team. He went down to an unfortunate injury at the end of the season, but as his coach I put a lot of value on the role of 6th man and think a good 6th man can lead a team to a ‘ship. I love the 6th and love this 6th!


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[false9]

Has there been any discussion in trading Jacobs or Minter before they hit RFA?

[greepleairport]

Has there been any discussion in trading Jacobs or Minter before they hit RFA?

During a rebuild anything is possible, especially when you have two solid and game centers like Jacobs and Minter on your team. Minter has been on the trade block since last season or near the end of it, simply because we haven’t quite been able to work him into the rotation, similar to Fortunato who got picked up in the off season (shout out to Fortunato and his new team!).


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