Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers are “going to be a defensive team,” vowed the All-Star big man following their first practice of training camp Saturday.
AD has made it his mission to win Defensive Player of the Year this upcoming season.
Head coach Frank Vogel, meanwhile, said opponents of the Purple and Gold will “get smashed in the mouth.”
Per ESPN:
“You’re coming to play [the] L.A. Lakers — you’re going to get hit,” Vogel said after his team finished the first of its two-a-day sessions. “You’re going to get smashed in the mouth.”
Vogel, whose Indiana Pacers teams were a perennial playoff force thanks to their defensive prowess, wanted to set the tone with his new group on that end of the floor. He dedicated nearly an hour of the first practice to on-the-ball defensive drills and principles.
“He’s a defensive coach and wants to have a defensive mindset,” Davis said of Vogel. “We’re going to be a defensive team. We made sure we covered a lot of defensive schemes today.”
Vogel said that [Dwight] Howard, a three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year award winner, was particularly physical as he played with reserves against a first five of James, Davis, Danny Green, Rajon Rondo and JaVale McGee — a lineup that Vogel was testing out together.
“I’m preaching ‘play physical’ — he probably overdid it a little bit,” Vogel said when asked about Howard. “You know, he’s knocking guys around. Look, you got to deal with that.”
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