Luka Doncic could make his long-awaited Los Angeles Lakers debut Saturday, coach JJ Redick said Wednesday.
The Slovenian star took part in his first practice with the Lakers after a blockbuster trade from Dallas last weekend. Doncic, sidelined since Christmas Day with a left calf strain, hasn’t played since his days with the Mavericks.
While he won’t suit up for Thursday’s showdown against the Warriors, the reigning NBA scoring champion has a strong chance to return when the Lakers face the Pacers on Saturday or the Jazz on Monday.
“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 televise the Pacers-Lakers game Saturday, bumping a Jazz-Suns matchup.
Doncic watched from the bench at Intuit Dome on Tuesday night while LeBron James led a 122-97 blowout of the Clippers for the Lakers' ninth victory in 11 games.
James is still coming to grips with the trade of Anthony Davis, his close friend and teammate for five and a half years, but already sounded excited about forming a new partnership with Doncic, his self-described favorite NBA player.
Doncic participated in five-on-five work in his first Lakers practice. He ended the workout on the court chatting with Redick, James, assistant coach Scott Brooks and forward Dorian Finney-Smith, who was Doncic’s teammate in Dallas for four and a half seasons. Finney-Smith joined the Lakers shortly after Christmas in a trade with Brooklyn.
“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 Mavs’ 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 gets back on the court, Redick doesn’t think he will have many problems adjusting to playing alongside James in the Lakers’ schemes on both ends.
“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.”
