OFFSEASON: Training Camp (09/09/13)

Can you believe it? Training camp is just a few weeks away!  With the Lakers' media day officially scheduled for September 28th, it won't be long before we see the purple and gold take the court again.  You're going to see some new names and new faces as we head into the 2013-2014 season.

With the departure of Dwight Howard, the Lakers have bought fully into providing head coach Mike D'antoni the players that fit his style of basketball.  The only caveat is they did not sign any players to long term deals or big money contracts.  This is to preserve cap space for the next off season when they can completely rebuild the team from the ground up.

Here is the Lakers roster as it stands today:

Point Guards: Steve Nash, Jordan Farmar, Steve Blake
Shooting Guards: Kobe Bryant, Nick Young, Xavier Henry, Jodie Meeks
Small Forwards: Wes Johnson, Shawne Williams
Power Forwards: Jordan Hill, Ryan Kelly, Elias Harris
Centers: Pau Gasol, Chris Kaman, Robert Sacre

Some of those names you might recognize and others you may not.  I've covered Farmar, Young, Kaman, and Johnson in the last entry so this time I'll focus on the latest additions.  In general the new players added are young and athletic.  That doesn't always translate to being good players, but it is a solid foundation for players in an up-tempo offense.  Also keep in mind that some of these names will change either through trades or simply being cut from the team.  Training camp is essentially tryouts after all.

Shawne Williams- 6'9" forward who played for D'antoni on the Knicks where he had 1 solid year shooting 3 pointers (40.1%).  Had questionable character issues.

Elias Harris- 6'8" forward from Germany.  Athletic.  His game is similar to Earl Clark's from what I hear.  A scrappy hustle player who can hit open shots. Will be a rookie.

Ryan Kelly- 6'11" forward who is known as a shooter.  Has good defensive fundamentals but lacks footspeed.  Will be a rookie.

Xavier Henry- 6'6" guard who played on the Pelicans last year. He's 22 with tons of room to grow.  Unfortunately he hasn't shown much at this point or he wouldn't be available for this cheap.

Before training camp the Lakers will add several other players for the team to scrimmage against.  Then we'll start seeing them play some pre-season games.  This team is going to be much quicker than last year's.  And with all of the players finally on the same page the offense will flow much smoother too.  The biggest question marks will be that of health and the quality of defense the team will play.  I think this team has the potential to surprise people based on the chemistry aspect alone, but we'll see.

We'll get into that more in the next entry when we get some practice reports.  Until next time...