The Los Angeles Lakers have a different kind of energy about them this summer. That by no means guarantees that they'll outpace the 2024-25 and 2025-26 teams that exceeded 50 wins, nor does it guarantee they'll win another playoff series. What it does, however, is represent a necessary shift toward a sustainable formula.
Gone are the days of Los Angeles' ceiling being all but exclusively decided by the top-end talent they've assembled. In their place: The intangible qualities that drive true contenders.
Every team needs talent and Los Angeles is by no means short on it. Luka Doncic, for instance, is already a six-time All-NBA First Team honoree and two-time scoring champion at 27 years of age. He's also led teams to the NBA Finals once and the Conference Finals twice as the clear-cut No. 1 option.
Austin Reaves, meanwhile, is coming off of a season during which he averaged 23.3 points and 5.5 assists per game despite playing in a system that had three high-volume on-ball specialists.
That isn't necessarily new for Los Angeles, of course, as they've had an elite 1-2 punch for the better part of the past decade. Anthony Davis and LeBron James once occupied that lane, and Davis was later replaced by Doncic. Last year, they even had the aforementioned three-headed monster.
The difference between the 2026-27 roster and those in recent years, however, can already be seen and heard in training camp, as the conversation isn't about talent but intensity and effort.
Talent is no longer the fixation as Lakers embrace winning in the trenches
Los Angeles signed Walker Kessler to control the interior with his rim protection and rebounding—skills that aren't always pretty, but can make or break a defense. It signed Quentin Grimes to defend high-volume guards—a burden that offensive stars Doncic and Reaves aren't necessarily perfectly suited to shoulder.
The Lakers also brought in a deep cast of athletic wings known for their defensive capabilities, offensive spark plugs in Sandro Mamukelashvili and Collin Sexton, and a three-time NBA champion in Kevon Looney.
Each of those moves represent a welcome shift toward building a roster with coherently defined roles and complementary skill sets. Lakers head coach JJ Redick acknowledged exactly that when he stated that this is the first time during his tenure that the "pieces actually fit together."
The perhaps inevitable result has been Los Angeles turning in a training camp that's included steady praise for things other than talent.
Lakers are finally defined by more than star power
Redick made waves when he noted that the Lakers ended a recent practice early because of how intense the effort and physicality became. He noted that Grimes was picking players up full-court and hounding them in a way that set the tone for everyone around him.
Ziaire Williams echoed the sentiment, offering an evaluation of the Lakers' roster that should have every fan feeling giddy: "There's no slack; you see four or five wings out there playing hard, everybody else has to pick it up a notch."
That's a refreshing change of pace from the Lakers teams that lacked depth and relied all but exclusively on star power. Yes, the stars still need to perform, but having players who are willing to go all-out on defense creates the foundation for not only sustained success, but the potential to overcome the occasional off night from Doncic or Reaves.
It may not be quite as star-studded of an environment as it once was in Los Angeles, but the Lakers have planted the seeds for something fruitful to grow by investing in the margins.
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