{"id":285081,"date":"2025-10-07T23:55:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/285081\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T23:55:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:55:15","slug":"lakers-get-first-glimpse-of-what-marcus-smart-brings-to-the-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/285081\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers get first glimpse of what Marcus Smart brings to the court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Lakers<\/a>\u2019 first practice of the week gave them hope of what they can look like whole when Marcus Smart<\/a> takes the court.<\/p>\n

Smart has been dealing with Achilles tendinopathy most of training camp and has been limited in practice. But coach JJ Redick<\/a> said after practice Tuesday that Smart \u201cdid most of practice, including some live play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redick said LeBron James<\/a> and Luka Doncic<\/a> \u2014 along with Maxi Kleber (quad) and Gabe Vincent \u2014 did \u201cmodified, mostly individual work.\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarcus participated in some live [practice] and then was out at the end,\u201d Redick said. \u201cYeah he was awesome. He was awesome. He, I think given the workload of today, I was impressed that he was able to sustain his level of intensity for as long as he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redick said Doncic was out for \u201cload management.\u201d Then Redick laughed.<\/p>\n

Smart has been one of the NBA\u2019s better defenders over his career, winning defensive player of the year for the 2021-22 season while playing for the Boston Celtics and being named to the All-Defensive first team three times \u2014 2019, 2020 and 2022.<\/p>\n

That will be a big part of his role with the Lakers, and during practice they got a glimpse of his defensive tenacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he guarded me a little bit at the first of practice,\u201d Austin Reaves said. \u201cYou still feel that pressure. You feel the intensity that he brings on the defensive end, and that\u2019s going to be big for us. We need that. We need him to be the best version of himself. With that communication that he brings, especially defensively, he\u2019s been in the league a while. He knows how to win at the highest level. So, very excited to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Washington Wizards bought out his contract, Smart received several calls from Doncic<\/a> about joining the Lakers.<\/p>\n

Smart eventually signed with the Lakers<\/a> for two years and $11 million.<\/p>\n

At practice Tuesday, Smart left an impression.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looked great. He was moving great,\u201d Jarred Vanderbilt said. \u201cBut like I said, his main power is that he\u2019s vocal. So being able to help the guys. Communicate, that\u2019s a big part of defense also. Being physical is one of them, but also being vocal, being able to communicate. I think he does both at a very high level. So, he can definitely help us on that end of the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt is the Lakers\u2019 other top defender, his versatility allowing him to guard multiple positions.<\/p>\n

He was asked to envision what the Lakers\u2019 defense will be like with himself and Smart together on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cAw, man, just causing havoc,\u201d Vanderbilt said. \u201cNot only physically but just vocally. He\u2019s a vocal guy as well, so it\u2019s being the anchor of the defense, flying around, setting that tone defensively. Like, I\u2019m excited. I can\u2019t wait to share the court together.\u201d<\/p>\n

LeBron James ad<\/p>\n

At some point after practice, the Lakers were asked if any one texted them about James\u2019 cryptic post about \u201c#TheSecondDecision\u201d on Monday.<\/p>\n

It left many wondering if James was talking about retiring.<\/p>\n

He was not. It was about an ad for Hennessy that was posted on social media Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys are idiots,\u201d Redick said when asked, laughing as he spoke. \u201cWe all knew it was an ad, right? No, I think most people that text me are also aware that it\u2019s probably an ad, so it wasn\u2019t. \u2026 Nobody was freaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, James is entering his NBA-record 23rd season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just got a couple calls, like, \u2018what is this?\u2019\u201d Reaves said, laughing.<\/p>\n

Rui Hachimura wanted to know what was going on.<\/p>\n

So he contacted James just to be sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, [I got] a couple texts. But I texted him too,\u201d Hachimura said. \u201cBut he was using a [weird] emoji. I don\u2019t even know. I didn\u2019t understand at all. But he loves to do that type of stuff. Surprises, right?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lakers\u2019 first practice of the week gave them hope of what they can look like whole when…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":285082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[2384,70911,67077,146916,38269,8604,95868,3365,121575,9105,58083,1260,1721,134317,62,146917,20026,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-285081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-end","9":"tag-floor","10":"tag-gabe-vincent","11":"tag-hectic-offseason","12":"tag-laker","13":"tag-lakers","14":"tag-little-bit","15":"tag-luka-doncic","16":"tag-maxi-kleber","17":"tag-month","18":"tag-national-team","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-phoenix-suns","21":"tag-redick","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-third-day","24":"tag-training-camp","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115335589105762240","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}