The entire Los Angeles Lakers roster is expected to spend four days in Ljubljana in August. There will be basketball workouts, golf, some time around the city and, most importantly, a chance for the players to be together before training camp officially begins.
Luka Dončić will be the host, and that’s what makes this more interesting than the usual NBA offseason gathering. Dončić is bringing his teammates to the city where he grew up, into an environment where he is completely at home. He will use those four days to begin building relationships within a team that has been largely reshaped, and he will do it for the first time as the Lakers’ unquestioned leader. The trip is another sign of the change that had been underway in Los Angeles since he arrived from Dallas.
Luka Is No Longer Entering Someone Else’s Hierarchy
For years, the Lakers were LeBron James’ team, and every important decision was made with him in mind. After arriving in one of the most shocking trades in recent NBA history, Dončić gradually took control of the offense, but there was still another figure in the building whose authority could never be overlooked. LeBron’s departure ended that transition, Luka is no longer stepping into someone else’s hierarchy. He now has to build one of his own.
Following a Familiar Leadership Model
Informal summer gatherings were one of the ways LeBron developed relationships within a roster before the coaching staff officially got the players back. Before the 2019/20 season, he brought the Lakers together in Las Vegas, when a large group of new players had to be fitted around him and Anthony Davis.
There was nothing revolutionary about the workouts themselves, because the value was in the invitation. The best player on the team called everyone together and made it clear that, as far as he was concerned, the season did not begin on the first day of training camp. Dončić is now doing something similar, only in his own setting. Instead of Las Vegas, he chose his hometown.
The First Real Meeting of a New Team
According to reports from the United States, the four-day schedule will include basketball work, golf and time spent exploring the city. The exact itinerary and practice locations have not been announced, but the full roster is expected to attend. Some of the players already met in Las Vegas during Summer League, though Slovenia should be the first chance for this new group to spend several days together without the demands of the regular team calendar.
The timing matters because the Lakers have changed considerably this summer. A new roster is being formed around Dončić and Austin Reaves, and many of the responsibilities still have to be defined. Walker Kessler arrived as a center whose game fits the way Luka operates in the pick-and-roll. Kevon Looney should bring experience, rebounding and physicality, while Sandro Mamukelashvili gives the frontcourt a different kind of option.
Each of them will have to find his place in an offense that will depend heavily on Dončić’s reads and decisions. The Lakers, however, cannot expect his individual quality to solve every game on its own.
Chemistry Begins Before the First Practice
Four days in Ljubljana will not answer the most serious basketball questions surrounding the team, JJ Redick and his staff will have to figure those out over the course of the season. An informal gathering can still give them a useful starting point, especially once the schedule begins and almost every practice is followed by a game, a flight or a film session after a loss.
With so many changes to the roster, the Lakers will have to begin with basic things. New teammates need to learn how to talk to one another and get a sense of the personalities around them, who can accept criticism without taking it personally, who stays quiet when something needs to be said, who calms the group when a game turns difficult, and who makes the tension worse? A few dinners and several days together will not create real chemistry, but they can at least begin that process in August, rather than discovering everything for the first time once the season is already moving.
Leadership Away From the Scoreboard
Dončić has as much to learn from the trip as anyone else. There is no need to prove his basketball authority. With the ball in his hands, he can control almost every part of a game. The other side of his behavior has also been visible throughout his career. His arguments with referees, frustration and open displays of dissatisfaction have occasionally made life more difficult for both him and his teammates.
Ljubljana gives him a chance to get to know the group without the pressure of a scoreboard, while also showing the new players what he expects from a team now clearly built around him. He does not need to make a major speech or create a show around his leadership. Being present, speaking to the players and taking responsibility for bringing them into the team’s way of working would be enough.
Golf will probably draw plenty of attention, particularly after Luka spent part of this summer talking about his growing interest in the sport. The course may also reveal a different side of the players than a basketball workout would. Someone will take the round far too seriously, someone will try to hide how badly he plays, and someone may get his first real opportunity to speak with Dončić without the coaching staff and the rest of the organization nearby.
The Lakers First Entered Luka’s World Last Summer
The gathering in Slovenia also continues a relationship the Lakers began building immediately after the trade. Last summer, the organization did not simply wait for Luka to return to Los Angeles. Assistant coach Greg St. Jean spent 40 days with the Slovenian national team during its preparations and EuroBasket run, while other members of the franchise traveled to Europe to follow Dončić’s work and recovery.
The Lakers were trying to understand their new player’s habits, his commitment to the national team and the environment that had shaped him. At the time, Dončić was still coming to terms with the fact that he was no longer a Dallas Maverick. He had believed Dallas would be the franchise he represented for most, perhaps all, of his career. The support from Los Angeles carried more meaning than the usual monitoring of a team’s best player. Now the direction of that relationship has changed, and Dončić is the one inviting his teammates into his world.
There Needs to Be Real Understanding
Most of them already know what playing beside him will look like. They know the ball will often be in his hands, that they will have to recognize the passing lanes he creates and that he will control the rhythm of many possessions. Ljubljana will allow them to see a side of him that is less visible during the NBA season. Dončić, in return, will have to understand how his new teammates react when they are not viewed only through the roles they fill in his basketball vision.
LeBron’s gathering in Las Vegas came before a championship season, but four days in Slovenia should not be treated as a prediction of a similar outcome. The comparison matters because of what has changed inside the Lakers, not because one summer trip guarantees another title.
Last year, representatives of the Lakers came to Europe to show Dončić that he had become the franchise’s priority. This time, the entire team is expected to come to him. In Ljubljana, Luka will begin doing something LeBron did for years in Los Angeles: bringing the group together and taking responsibility for what it is supposed to become.