The Los Angeles Lakers are heading into the 2024-25 NBA season with a unique brand of momentum. Darvin Ham is out, JJ Redick is in, the roster is almost identical to the team from a season ago, but injuries were a factor, and Anthony Davis and LeBron James have since become gold medalists once more.
Forgive the mouthful, but 2024 has provided conflicting signs as to how much better the Lakers actually are heading into the 2024-25 regular season.
It could be argued that parting with Ham is a case of addition by subtraction, as he seemed to lose the locker room in 2023-24. Furthermore, Davis and James are shining examples of how thriving with Team USA can propel a player forward in their NBA careers.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Lakers will receive an opportunity to prove how much better they are under Redick on opening night when they tip off against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Opening Night of the 2024-25 NBA season on TNT October 22, per sources:
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 12, 2024
🏀 Knicks at Celtics, ring night
🏀 Timberwolves at Lakers pic.twitter.com/RGWFglVZ9F
It's possible that opening night won't matter all that much in the long run, but as the Lakers look to return to contender status, the Timberwolves are an important opponent.
Lakers vs. Timberwolves scheduled for opening night
Los Angeles is coming off of a season in which it went 47-35 and lost in the first round of the playoffs. It was a disappointing result considering they reached the 2023 Western Conference Finals and won the first-ever NBA Cup later that year.
The Timberwolves, meanwhile, are coming off of one of the greatest seasons in franchise history—and will look to build upon that success in 2024-25.
In 2023-24, Minnesota won 56 games and reached the Western Conference Finals. It was the franchise's deepest postseason run since 2004, as well as its best regular season from both win-loss and win-percentage perspectives since that same 2003-04 campaign
The salt in the wound was the fact that the Timberwolves defeated the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the playoffs—just one round after Denver eliminated Los Angeles.
Minnesota, led by breakout star and Olympic gold medalist Anthony Edwards, is expected to contend once more in 2024-25. It was the best defensive team in the NBA a season ago, utilizing that prowess to propel it to the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference.
If the Lakers are hoping to contend in 2024-25, then perhaps this opening night game against Minnesota will be more important than one might presume.
A win over Minnesota would give Los Angeles an early edge in the head-to-head tiebreaker department. Few expect the Lakers to have as strong of a record as the Timberwolves, but in the event that they're jostling for position toward the end of the season, every win will have counted.
Considering the Timberwolves were just one win and a tiebreak away from the No. 1 seed in 2023-24, opening night will be as relevant to the Lakers' championship aspirations as ever before.