With five weeks until training camp kicks off for your Los Angeles Lakers, it appears the team is wasting no time to prepare for the 2023-24 season.
New footage from UCLA Health Training Center, LA’s practice facility in El Segundo, reveals two critical forwards for the club’s future were working out in tandem recently, which should be an encouraging sign for anyone who cares about next year.
All-NBA Lakers small forward LeBron James looked on as 25-year-old power forward Rui Hachimura, freshly signed to a generous new three-year, $51 million contract, put up some three-point shots.
Hachimura announced in June that he would not be participating in FIBA World Cup activities this summer, despite Olympics.com initially announcing he would be. The upshot of that is he’ll have a lot more time to work out under the watchful eye of the Lakers organization, during his first official offseason with the team.
After a somewhat uneven regular season in LA< Hachimura really came on strong for the franchise during the team’s playoff run to the Western Conference Finals last spring.
In just 24.3 minutes a night, the 6’8″ forward out of Gonzaga averaged 12.2 points on a probably-irreplicable .557/.487/.882 shooting splits, 3.6 rebounds, 0.6 dimes and 0.5 steals a night.
