The 2022-23 Los Angeles Lakers have completed their first week of training camp under head coach Darvin Ham.

The week in El Segundo has included culture-setting film sessions, jovial shooting contests, Kendrick Nunn playing basketball, taped rectangles on the floor, new terminology, uncertainty over Russell Westbrook's role, and amusing Patrick Beverley soundbites. Let's run through it (in no particular order).

What to know from Lakers camp, Week 1

The Week in Westbrook

Westbrook's second season in Los Angeles began with a subdued and admirably candid press conference at Media Day. Instead of spewing clichéd pablum, he implicitly acknowledged what every NBA follower is acutely aware of: the Lakers would, ideally, still prefer to trade him. And they still might at any minute.

Since the basketball began on Tuesday, Westbrook has seemed more enthused, including when he outdueled LeBron James and Anthony Davis in a corner shooting contest.

As for him and Patrick Beverley, Westbrook insisted the good vibes the two have emanated are, indeed, just that. “I'm an easy-going guy,” he said. “I don't hold grudges, life's too short.”

But will he start?

Ham has been reluctant to name Russ the starting point guard. Most likely, this is a tactic to motivate Westbrook to bring defensive intensity and adapt to whatever role he's asked to play. If he doesn't, Beverley, Dennis Schroder (yet to arrive in Los Angeles due to visa issues), Nunn, or Austin Reaves could seize the starting spot before opening night.

Thus far, Ham has raved about Westbrook's energy. I'd be shocked if Russ didn't start the first preseason game. If he can actually drill corner 3s — as he did in the shooting contest — it would go a long way to keeping him on the floor in crunch time, which is ultimately more important than who starts.

As for the starting lineup overall?

On Friday, Ham revealed that Russ, Nunn, LeBron, AD, and Damian Jones make up his most-used starting lineup — though that doesn't mean he won't switch things up going forward. Reaves and Beverley have gotten reps with the A-Team, too.

“We’ve been mixing it up a lot, so a bunch of groups together,” Reaves said. “But, I mean, yeah, we’ve gone up and down a lot, so we’ve seen a lot of different lineups.”

Ham said the aforementioned group has been “really, really good.” When asked what he likes about that specific combination, he noted Nunn's catch-and-shoot and pick-and-roll skills, his ability to score at all three levels, and his peskiness on the other end.

“He's like a little water bug defensively,” Ham said. “He can squeeze through pick and rolls, he can avoid screens, he can chase. He's athletic so he gets good contests.”

Ham also shouted out Jones' athleticism, saying he can “run like a deer, jump to the ceiling” and provide rim protection, hard rolling, and elite screening.

“Those attributes, between those guys — it fits perfect,” said Ham.

Ham will continue to tinker.

“I’m just looking at everything. I see what fits with a small lineup, with Bron at the 4, AD at the 5, the traditional lineup. We haven’t paired Russ and Pat Bev together just yet, but we’ve been throwing out all types of lineups together out there. K-Nunn has been with some. Damian Jones and Wenyen Gabriel, Thomas Bryant — we’ve been rotating people all over the place just to see.”

Ham (and his staff, announced on Tuesday) didn't waste time setting a tone

The Lakers' first official practice was preceded by a film session. Ham didn't show actual basketball film (he didn't want to show Milwaukee Bucks footage) but instead worked with the analytics department and video coordinators to produce slides illustrating the Xs and Os of his system in theory, as well as articulate “house rules,” as Nunn put it. Juan Toscano-Anderson said the session established “what he's gonna demand of us — non-negotiables — and I think that set the tone.”

On the court, Ham had rectangular boxes taped down to emphasize spacing and begin implementing his “one-in, four-out” system — in both half-court and transition situations — a trick Mike Budenholzer deployed with the Bucks.

The Lakers' spacing was atrocious last season, and the shooting prowess of the roster remains a question mark. At Media Day, Rob Pelinka acknowledged the need for more shooting, though he expects certain players to improve from 2021-22.

Ham also introduced a chaotic-sounding game called “cutthroat”, which awards points for stops but requires the offense to score — under restricted circumstances — to earn the chance to play D.

Defense

Speaking of defense, Ham has shed light on his “centerfield” defensive system. The Lakers will be using a drop-heavy pick-and-roll coverage, utilizing the bigs as hands-off anchors. The aim is to force players off the three-point line and into contested twos, as the Bucks do.

Reaves said the scheme will be less switch-heavy than Frank Vogel's. The Lakers' rim protection (AD+Jones) should enable the perimeter defenders to be more aggressive with their individual matchups.

Davis, who takes pride in switching onto wings, said the notion of him dropping back is a major adjustment.

“It’s more of a Milwaukee system how they have the bigs back in the paint,” Davis said. “For me, I’m more up on the ball, ‘Let me affect the play.’ So that’s the biggest difference for me. It’s something that I’m trying to transition to…Not helping as much…Staying out of plays when it’s not my assignment.”

Ham said he's devising a pick-and-roll package that allows AD to switch onto smaller players when the situation calls for it.

In general, the early days of camp focused on defense. Ham even brought in his former teammate, four-time Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace, to loom over the proceedings.

“In terms of defense, we want to contain, contest and control,” Ham said when explaining his core principles. “That’s: contain the ball – keeping the ball out of the paint as much as possible by playing good on-ball defense. Make sure that we contest shots all over the floor, making multiple efforts to contest shots. Not laying on screens, not dying on screens, but fighting through screens and keeping your pursuit and getting to a contest. People not being lazy, running off early, but all five guys putting bodies on bodies to control the glass.”

Offense

Ham's offensive principles? “Playing fast, playing fundamental, and having fun. It’s fast, physical, and fun. The biggest thing with that is just running habits and spacing.”

Ham is deploying a positionless spacing system that should encourage running, ball movement, off-ball motion, and allows players to settle into any one of the spots he's outlined with rectangles.

“The good thing about the system: every position is interchangeable,” Davis said. “You could have Scotty Pippen, the smallest guy on the team, in the dunker.” (On that note: Davis said the undrafted rookie “had a really f*ckin good day” on Wednesday, and Pippen's team “torched” the squad with LeBron, AD, and Westbrook.)

Ham wants the Lakers to run the floor off boards and get into their offense early. Once set, he wants to eliminate extended sequences of guys dribbling or standing still.

“Everything has to be a quick decision,” he said.

AD is ready

It's not secret: The Lakers need AD on the floor to be an above-average defensive team, and they need him to be a dominant two-way force in order to compete in the West.

Fortunately, Davis says he's 100 percent healthy (though he revealed a wrist injury hampered his shooting last year). More than once (because he got asked about it a few times), he stated his goal to play 82 games this season — or, at least miss zero games for injury reasons. Ham has said he'll heavily manage AD and LeBron's minutes.

AD said he'll “be ready for wherever coach puts me,” and stressed that Ham wants him looking to score from the post, midrange, and beyond the arc.

LeBron is an alien

One of Ham's first takeaways was LeBron's otherwordly gifts, even at age 37.

“LeBron is not from this planet, that's for damn sure,” Ham said.

The coach specifically pointed out LeBron's ability to grab a rebound and push the pace. The first-year coach said the Lakers will implement a package for LeBron to create isolations out of defensive rebounds.

On another note, LeBron is apparently all-galaxy at pickleball — his latest investment — and, well, everything else.

LeBron's basketball versatility and IQ are out of this world, too. Because of Ham's positionless system, he's been purposefully vague when discussing how he'll cater his game to the current roster.

“It doesn’t matter how long you’ve played this game, the day you think you can stop learning is the day you start going backwards,” LeBron said Friday. “I’m always trying to figure out ways I can get better and learn from coaches, new teammates and life in general. Every day is a learning experience for me, and I love being a part of this new coaching system, new coaching style, new head coach and the group of coaches that came in. It’s fun.”

LeBron's preseason plan

Ham said he wants LeBron to play enough in the preseason to establish a rhythm, but his staff hasn't quite figured it out yet. LeBron said he wants to play “more than I played last year” — which was about two and a half games.

If you'll recall, the Lakers went a foreboding 0-6 in the tune-up contests last year. They'll begin action on Monday at Crypto.com Arena against the Sacramento Kings.

Patrick Beverley is a vibe

“It's been a vibe,” Beverley said about training camp on Wednesday. He was asked to elaborate:

“It's like you guys going into the office, you guys have something that you thought about the night before,” he expounded to reporters. “You come into work, you put it on paper, everything's good. Your lunch tastes great, the water tastes a little bit better, your co-workers are getting along, the sun's out, work was a vibe.”

Beverley also hilariously downplayed the competition level at practice, pointing out that his team has enjoyed some scrimmage victories.

“My team's been winning a lot. Competition-wise, I've been a part of a lot wins so far.”

Don't expect to see much cutting from Pat Bev, though.

“I'm not a cutter. My numbers say shoot threes … I know your numbers probably say, you're a reporter or whatever. I don't know if you should be a fireman. That's not what your job entitles. You wouldn't want to do that, so I wouldn't want to cut.” (Fair enough — I'm nowhere near courageous enough to be a firefighter.)

Ham singled out Beverley, LeBron, AD, and Russ for leading by example with their intensity.

“Every team needs that grinder,” Ham said about Beverley. “He knows how to play that mind game without being silly…He's passionate about what he's saying.”

He recalled when the Lakers brought Beverley in for a workout when he was still playing overseas — Ham was a coach at the time in Los Angeles — and said he's the exact same guy today.

That's Kendrick Nunn's music!

Arguably, Nunn has the third-highest ceiling on the Lakers this season, depending on how Russ' role shakes out.

Nunn has not only practiced this week, at long last: He supposedly looks ready to roll.

“Kendrick today was killing, I don’t think he missed a shot all day,” Reaves said Friday.

Ham described Nunn's first week of practice as “phenomenal.”

“He's shooting the ball well. Making the right reads, defending … I told him he's going to be a big part of what I'm trying to do and he's embraced it, and you can tell by his play thus far.”

Nunn is the Lakers' fourth-highest paid player and the team's leader in career three-point percentage. He is in pole position to start at the shooting guard and maybe their ultimate X-factor (besides health).

Encouraging stuff, all around.

Other nicks and bruises

A couple of Lakers are still dealing with minor health issues. Lonnie Walker IV (ankle) and Troy Brown Jr. (back) have been limited. The Lakers are not concerned about either, at the moment, though it's cost them chances to truly compete for a starting job, to this point.

Overall, a successful, drama-free opening week of training camp, though, plenty of work is left to be done.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” said Ham. “You got to just to choose a couple or three things that you want to really get done and focus on that and the rest is going to take care of itself. It’s a marathon. It’s not a sprint.”