For the players, coaches, team staff and media, the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2014-15 season starts on Monday.
Starting Monday, the players will all be on the clock. They will answer questions, pose for photos, dress in team attire and conduct sit-down interviews. Monday is Media Day for the LA Lakers. The regular season may still be 29 days away, but for the players, coaches and media covering the team, Monday serves as the start of the new season. After a day in front of camera and microphones, the Lakers will go to bed not suffering from soreness one last time.
On Tuesday, the team will open training camp.
A single three-hour session is scheduled for the first day of camp, as the players and coaches expect to discuss philosophy and get in a work out. On Tuesday, new Lakers coach Byron Scott will assert his authority for the first time.
Actually, Wednesday likely serves as a better representation of the day Scott will truly make his presence felt. On Day 2 of training camp, Scott has scheduled two sessions, and that is not a rarity on the Lakers' training camp schedule. The Lakers will be doing two-a-days for the majority of the first week at camp, and it appears Scott’s hard-nosed reputation will not take long to impose itself on this Lakers team.
On Thursday, the team will again have a double session. An early afternoon session lasting two hours will set the table. Then, the purple and gold will reconvene for another two-hour session at dinner time.
On Friday, the team will only hold one early session and hope to skip the late afternoon Friday traffic. However, the players won’t be driving too far. On Saturday and Sunday, Scott has the team running two-a-days again.
The next day, on Monday, Oct. 6, the Lakers will be in San Diego to play the Denver Nuggets in their first game of the preseason. Starting in San Diego, the Lakers will play eight preseason games over the next 20 days, including one stretch of three games in four nights, all of which are in different cities.
Monday may only be Media Day, but it is the unofficial start of the 2014-15 LA Lakers season.
NBCLA.com will have daily reports from training camp, have a report on every preseason game and cover the LA Lakers throughout the 2014-15 season. Check back at NBCLA.com/TripleThreat throughout the season.
2014-15 LA Lakers Training Camp Roster: Nick Young, Jordan Clarkson, Jeremy Lin , Keith Appling, Xavier Henry, Ed Davis, Wayne Ellington, Ronnie Price, Kobe Bryant, Jeremy Tyler, Steve Nash, Jordan Hill, Ryan Kelly, Wesley Johnson, Julius Randle, Carlos Boozer, Roscoe Smith, Robert Sacre, Jabari Brown