Opening night of the 2022-23 regular season for the Los Angeles Lakers is a week away, and they are focused on being ready for the grind of the schedule right away.
Key members of the team, including LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Patrick Beverley, Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schroder, have missed preseason games for various reasons.
James, Beverley and Westbrook were held out of the last two contests for rest. Davis was out for two games with lower back tightness. Schroder had been stuck overseas until a few days ago.
According to head coach Darvin Ham, all regular rotation players will play what would be considered normal regular season minutes in L.A.’s last two exhibition contests this week.
But there’s one exception: Troy Brown Jr., who has been slow to recover from a back injury. In fact, he is not expected to play in the first game of the regular season versus the Golden State Warriors.
Troy Brown Jr. won’t be ready for the season opener as he recovers from a back injury, Darvin Ham said. TBJ went through a good individual workout pregame today in Golden State but still needs to progress to taking contact.
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) October 9, 2022
Brown was one of the team’s free agent signings in July. As a young 6-foot-6 forward, he was brought in with the hope that he would become a reliable 3-and-D role player.
It looks like the Lakers will not have a clue if he will live up to that hope until perhaps the second game of the regular season, which will take place on Thursday, Oct. 20 versus the Los Angeles Clippers.
