It’s been an eternity more than two months since Kyle Kuzma dropped 30 points and 10 rebounds in a 110-98 victory over the Portland Trailblazers in the Summer League championship game, and our first glimpse of the 2017-18 Lakers is just around the corner. Lakers Media Day 2017 is on Monday, September 25th between 12:30 – 2:30pm PST, at the brand new UCLA Training Health Training Center in El Segundo, CA.
After spending 2016 in Santa Barbara and 2015 in Hawaii, the team will be staying in town for training camp this season, to break in their new state of the art facility. Although the Lakers have reportedly been hard at work for quite some time now, formal practices begin on Tuesday, September 26th, and the first game is against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Saturday, September 30th.
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Media Day | Monday, 9/25 |
| Training Camp Begins | Tuesday, 9/26 |
| First Preseason Game | Saturday, 9/30 |
| Last Preseason Game | Friday, 10/13 |
| First Regular Season Game | Thursday, 10/19 |
As part of the 2016 NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement, the preseason is shorter (six games instead of eight), and the regular season starts about ten days earlier, in order to lessen the number of back-to-backs and 4-games-in-5-nights stretches that teams have to play. Lakers training camp is shorter as well, going from six days last season to just four this year. While this less compact schedule will likely be beneficial to the product in the long run, Luke Walton and his coaching staff face the challenge of implementing their offensive and defensive principles on a shortened timeline, while the players have less time to foster chemistry with each other.
The team was gracious enough to send us an invite, and I’m incredibly excited to be representing Forum Blue & Gold at Lakers Media Day 2017. If you have any questions that you’d like me to ask, please leave a comment below and while I can’t guarantee that I’ll get to yours, every submission will be considered. Much more to come on Monday!