LAS VEGAS — For most players already signed to NBA teams, summer league offers opportunities they won’t typically get once the regular season arrives.
Roles shift. Players are tasked with doing more than normal. Responsibilities increase, often creating a significant contrast between their summer league usage and what’ll be asked of them when they’re on the main roster.
This is a situation Lakers second-year wing Maxwell Lewis is in.
And not just this summer, but over the last year – which has prepared him to have the approach he has for the Lakers’ summer league play, which will continue on Monday night against the Boston Celtics (7:30 p.m. PT; NBA TV).
“It’s not all about just scoring 30 [points],” Lewis, the Lakers’ 2023 second-round pick, said after the team’s practice on Sunday. “Because the job you’re doing right now in summer league, most of those guys aren’t doing that in the NBA setting. That’s just real.”
This mindset is why Lewis, despite averaging 11 field goal attempts through the Lakers’ first four summer league games, is focused on doing “the little things to stay on the floor” during the exhibitions.
And why when asked what he wanted to add to his game before summer league and what he needs to work on before the regular season starts, he pointed to simple – and less glamorous – parts of the game.
“Just defense,” Lewis said. “Just knowing coverages and just being more IQ-wise smarter on defense. And just catching and shooting. I feel like I haven’t shot the ball well so far in summer league, but I know it’s gonna come. I’m still high in confidence.”
Lewis added: “Guarding on the ball, just one-on-one, coming off handoffs, coming off ball screens. And just talking, being a low man, not getting backdoored, just little things like that.”
The adjustment Lewis has gone through over the last 13 months is common.
Lewis was the offensive focal point in college, especially during his last season at Pepperdine when he averaged 17.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 31 minutes.
He also spent significant time with the organization’s G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers, as a rookie. Lewis averaged 14.9 points on 12.9 field goal attempts in 25 regular-season games with South Bay.
But with the Lakers, his role is different, leading to adjustments.
“It’s definitely a tough pill to swallow, but I feel like I’m facing it,” Lewis said. “Everyone can’t be a Paul George, a Kyrie Irving, so I know what I can do. I feel like maybe…three, four years from now I can get back to that, but just trying to get in the league and stay in the league by doing the little things: 3-and-D. Just trying to focus on that, for sure.”
Lakers summer league and South Bay Lakers coach Dane Johnson recognized the adjustments Lewis is making.
“We’ve done a ton of catch-and-shoots before the draft for summer league,” Johnson said. “We’re just trying to get him to read those closeouts. He can shoot the ball, we just want him to shoot more. I’m trying to get him to just catch and shoot, catch and shoot, just keep it simple.
“And then defensively, just playing hard, being able to guard multiple positions, better on the glass, because you’ve got to do all those little things to be a good role player.”
Johnson emphasized the importance of Lewis’ ability to read defenses while his defender is closing out on him.
“For those types of guys, reading closeouts is going to be huge because most of the time the main guys, [Anthony Davis], [LeBron James] are going to make a play. They got to throw it out. So can you read the closeout with a shot, drive, whatever it is, or get to the next action?
“So it’s just constant work with our coaches, even on one-on-O’s, we still try to hit that in the head with him and other guys. Just trying to keep it simple. It’s a simple game at the end of the day. Keeping things simple, shot, drive, play off of that.”
