Recently, the Los Angeles Lakers received word that star LeBron James would miss the beginning portion of the regular season due to injury, as reported by Shams Charania of ESPN. It's not a great sign for a Lakers team that is looking to hit the ground running in Luka Doncic's first full season with the franchise.
On Thursday, the Lakers also got an injury update on one of their key offseason signees, guard Marcus Smart.
“Marcus Smart said he plans to take things ‘day-by-day' with his Achilles tendinopathy. He plans on playing in the preseason but isn’t sure if he’ll be available on Sunday yet,” reported Jovan Buha on X, formerly Twitter.
The Lakers signed Smart this offseason on the buyout market in an attempt to help shore up their backcourt defense, which was predictably putrid during the team's first round playoff loss vs the Minnesota Timberwolves last year with Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic in the backcourt.
Smart won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award in 2022 and was a starter on the NBA finalist Boston Celtics that year, but was traded in the 2023 offseason and has been off the court more than on it over the past two years.
However, if he is able to stay somewhat healthy this year, he could end up being a steal for the Lakers.
Still, the main news of the day on Thursday revolved around James, who recently conned the NBA world into thinking he was retiring in what turned out to be an ill-conceived ad for Hennessy. James is widely considered to still be an All-Star level player when he's healthy, but that may not be the case this year if this injury is a sign of things to come.
In any case, the Lakers will kick off their 2025-26 season against the Golden State Warriors on October 21.
