Luka Doncic is bringing the whole Lakers roster to Slovenia for a four-day minicamp in August, and the trip says plenty about who runs this team now.
The Lakers will spend part of August in Ljubljana.
ESPN's Dave McMenamin reported Wednesday that Doncic is hosting the entire Los Angeles roster in Slovenia for a four-day minicamp that will include workouts, golf, some tourism and bonding ahead of training camp.
Players organize offseason runs every summer around the league, but flying a full roster to his home country is a different level of investment, and it shows Lakers fans exactly who is setting the tone for this team after a summer of change.
Good teams usually figure out who they are before opening night, and Doncic clearly wants to get that work started well ahead of time.
A New Team That Needs the Time
This roster barely knows each other, which is what makes the timing smart.
Los Angeles brought in Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Matisse Thybulle, Ziaire Williams, Jaden Hardy and rookie Cameron Carr this offseason, with LeBron James moving on to Philadelphia in free agency and Austin Reaves signing a new four-year deal to stay.
That is a lot of new faces around a star who has officially taken the reins in Los Angeles, and Doncic has already said he believes this group can be really good.
A few days of workouts and shared meals in his home country is how a leader speeds up chemistry that would otherwise take until December to build.
Why This Matters
Doncic led the league in scoring at 33.5 points per game last season while adding 7.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists a night, so nobody questions his game.
The question since he arrived has been whether he would embrace being the organizer, the guy who sets the tone for everyone else, and this trip answers it before camp even opens.
New teammates like Kessler, who Sexton says brings a competitive mindset every night, get a head start on learning how Doncic wants to play.
Role players like Ziaire Williams get face time with the star before the games count.
"I think we have a really good team. I'm very excited to start the next season. Obviously, last season didn't end how we wanted, so we're excited for the new season," Doncic told Rich Lerner of Golf Channel earlier this month.
The Real Work Starts
None of this guarantees wins, and a golf outing in Ljubljana will not teach Kessler pick-and-roll timing overnight.
It does remove excuses, though, because nobody on this roster will be able to say the group never had time to come together.
Reaves, who averaged 23.3 points last season, already fits next to Doncic, and the rest of the rotation will have had extra days together before the preseason opens October 5 in Sacramento.
Doncic played 64 games last season and his year ended early with a hamstring injury in April so the Lakers are betting everything on him being healthy and locked in.
A player who spends his summer building the team around him sounds like one who plans to deliver, and that might be the most encouraging thing Lakers fans have heard all offseason.
