Lakers’ Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves Concern Robert Horry

This seemed like the perfect time to share some opening-night optimism. Instead, Robert Horry offered realism surrounding his outlook on the Los Angeles Lakers entering the 2026-27 season

“To be honest with you, I have no clue,” Horry told Fadeaway World.

The reasons have nothing to do with ignorance or a lacking opinion. Horry works as an on-air analyst for Spectrum SportsNet, the Lakers’ flagship station, and monitors every game closely. And that’s the point.

The Lakers’ success primarily revolves around Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, but they also have nine new players to integrate. The Lakers acquired a young, intriguing center (Walker Kessler), but he only played in two pre-season games after healing minor injuries. The Lakers have little margin for error in a crowded Western Conference that features the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs and a handful of second-tier teams.

Horry spoke extensively with Fadeaway World on the Lakers’ upcoming season, how he hopes Dončić and Reaves will adjust their game and why he considers Michael Jordan to be the undisputed GOAT.

Editor’s note: The following one-on-one conversation has been edited and condensed.

What do you expect from the Lakers this season?

Horry: “It’s hard because they haven’t given you anything to go on yet. Luka, AR and Kessler only played one game together, and that was only a half. You don’t know what the starting lineup is. They don’t have a backup point guard. It’s just a mess over there to me. I’m also a big believer in preseason. I know that nowadays, people just don’t believe in preseason. But teams don’t even practice much. Why can’t they play in preseason? Everybody is always scared of injuries. But you’re going to get hurt, regardless. If it was meant to be, it was meant to be. You can walk across the street, and get hurt. But have they put a product out there on the floor that we can really gauge them on? Someone can look good for five minutes. But do they look good together? So I have no clue, to be honest with you.”

What are the main question marks you have about the Lakers, given their lack of time together?

Horry: “How will they use Walker Kessler? Watching him in the last preseason game, I don’t think they used him the right way. There were moments where he rolled to the basket. He had guys on his back, and the guys shot jumpers without dumping it down to him and giving him a dunk. One thing I know about watching bigs and playing with great bigs is that you got to give them a little bit of sugar. If they do all of that work, you got to give him the ball and put them in a position to score. If you don’t, it takes a toll on them.

Walker Kessler hadn’t played for almost a year. So he needs to get his rhythm back. He needs to get those opportunities. Also, look around Luka. He hasn’t played with a big that he has trusted in two years. AR is AR. And so there is no way you can win shooting jumpshots like that. You might say well New York won it with shooting jump shots. But they also have a guy that scores in the paint (Jalen Brunson). OKC shoots jumpers. But they also have a guy that scores in the paint (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander). Luka? One out of 10 times, he gets in the paint. Hopefully, this year will be a little bit different. They’re going to need to change up the identity in order to make it into the Play-In or the playoffs.”

What does the Lakers’ identity need to be?

Horry: “A team that moves the basketball and makes the defense move. They’re not good enough on the other end defensively to just come down and jack up a quick shot. They have to make the team work defensively and then get a great shot, not a good shot. Yeah, you can depend on Walker Kessler getting back. But Walker Kessler is not Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal or Tim Duncan. He’s not a guy that is going to intimidate you on the backside of that defense. Plus, guys don’t shoot in the paint anyways. So what point is he to deter anybod?. So that will be the biggest key – they have to move that basketball and make teams work defensively before they take a shot.”

That starts with Luka. How do you see him doing that while still tapping into his individual greatness as a scorer?

Horry:  “I saw a play where they got Luka off the ball and they actually ran a play for him off the ball. He comes off a downpick and gets into the pick. That’s going to be crucial. Luka is too dynamic of a player to do that all the time. But at the beginning of the game, make Luka’s defender work in other ways. When you have to come off screens and check a big man, that takes a toll on your body instead of just getting over screens. You have to make the defense move in more ways than just pick-and-roll.”

Given that, how do you see Austin’s role being similar or different compared to last season?

Horry: “When I look at Austin, he is the one player in the entire league that works too hard to get his shot off. He and Brunson remind me of each other. They do so much. They try to get the foul. They dribble so much. They spin. They have the stepback. Luka does that, but he plays more at a pace and is slower, controlled and methodical. AR has done that so much. That’s why he’s getting injured. He’s doing too much. He needs to take a backseat and only do that when necessary. Don’t do it everyvtime he’s down the court. When you watch Austin, I wonder, ‘Why did he work so hard to get that shot off?’ He could simplify it a little bit and get that same shot with less effort.

Look at his first couple of years and then his last few years. As he has gotten better to get his shots off, he works way harder. If you watched Kobe [Bryant], he was like that at the beginning of his career. As he got older, he did more simple things. And he still got to his same spots with better efficiency. He made the shot. Of course, there are times you have to do all of that extra work. But he doesn’t have to do that every time he touches the ball.”

Assuming full health, who do you think the Lakers should start with Luka, AR and Kessler?

Horry: “It’s funny that JJ [Redick] doesn’t want another white guy to start. But I’m going to say that Mamu [Sandro Mamukelashvili] isn’t white. He’s European (laughs). They have to start Mamu. He’s too good, man. The more I watch him, the more I fall in love. When you watch games, you try to pick out weaknesses that a guy has. I know it’s a short period of time. But I haven’t seen a weakness in his game. He comes off the bench with his energy. He can rebound. He can push it. He can hit the spot-up 3. I haven’t seen him hit a mid-range. But who cares. He can get to the rack and dunk on you. You can’t start Quentin Grimes. I hate to say that because I love Quentin Grimes. You can’t start him because you need a secondary ball handler off the bench. Who on that bench would you trust until Collin Sexton comes back. You can’t start Quentin Grimes.”

Who would be your fifth starter then?

Horry: “If you have a full healthy team, I would have Sexton coming off the bench. The way [Ziaire] Williams is shooting the ball, I would have him start. If it’s a full team, I’ll throw Grimes and Williams in as the starters. Grimes can guard 1, 2 or 3. Then you can let Luka guard 4s. That’s the only way they will be successful this year. They have to put Luka on bigger guys like they once did with Magic Johnson. He can’t guard point guards even though he is a point guard. He can’t guard two guards because he’s not fast enough. So the next best thing is to go bigger because he’s 6’7 or 6’8 and has some strength. So he can guard the 4, and let Williams guard the 3 and AR or Grimes will guard the 1 or 2.”

You sounded conflicted though with saying Mamu should start.

Horry: “Yeah, that’s in a perfect world. In a perfect world, I would start him and bring Grimes off the bench. Think about Grimes and the energy he provides and the way he shoots the ball. He has the length and ability to affect guys full court. That’s my starting lineup.”

What do you like about Mamu so much?

Horry: “Look at the way he rebounds. I always watch body language and watch how guys move and if they’re comfortable playing with each other. He knows his spots. When he gets the rebound, he pushes it. Everybody is trying to get back. But you have Luka trailing, and you can flip it to him for a quick screen. Boom. He has a shot. Meanwhile, Mamu is rolling to the basket to get the offensive rebound to get the ball back. When he gets down the court, he gets to his spot. I haven’t seen him miss too many open 3s. He knows how to get to his spots.

The hardest players to stop are guys that are left-handed. It’s the weirdest thing. You’re not used to it. They’re unorthodox. That’s hard to stop them. That’s why Manu Ginobili was so good. Even though he was around great talent, it was even harder. You’re used to everyone in the league doing something right-handed. The next thing you know, he’s using his left.”

Given all of this, where do you see the Lakers ending up this season?

Horry: “It won’t be No. 1 or 2. That I can tell you (laughs). OKC and the Spurs are going to be one and two in the West. They are too damn good. But it’s all going to be about how they play as a team. You also can’t count out Denver. I really like what the Rockets have done with getting their point guard back (Fred VanVleet). They got the guy that I wished the Lakers had kept with Marcus Smart. A team that won’t be talked about a lot, but will be interesting is Utah. At 3, 4 and 5, they have players that are 6’10 or seven feet tall (Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr., Jaxson Hayes). But they’re still young. How are they going to put it together? Who knows what Minnesota is going to do with the crazy guards they got. Also look at Portland. Dame [Lillard] is back. They have Ja [Morant] there. They’re going to be a team that is good again.”

Out of your seven championship rings, which one are you most proud of?

Horry: “’95 [with the Houston Rockets]. Just with what we had to do and accomplish. We didn’t have home-court advantage. We started out in Utah. It’s so hard to play in Utah. We went into Game 5, and won that. Then we were down 3-1 to the Suns, and then we came back and won that series. We played the No. 1 team in basketball in the Spurs and beat them. Then we played the No. 1 in the team in the East with Orlando, and swept them. It was a great run. At the level of play that I was at the time, I also felt good as a basketball player. Don’t get me wrong. The 16-1 streak [with the 2001 Lakers] was a close second. That will never happen again. I also don’t think another three-peat will happen in sports again after the Dodgers lost.”

What about the Spurs? One assistant coach predicted to me that they’ll three-peat.

Horry: “Here’s the thing about that. Wemby is so frail and fragile. Last season was the first year we got a full year out of him. Just because they have Wemby doesn’t mean they’re going to win. It takes everybody else. Think about OKC. The Spurs had to go to seven games to beat an OKC team that didn’t have its third-best player (Jalen Williams). People keep forgetting about the Thunder. They’re good. Anything can happen. There’s one turned ankle, that’s a wrap. It’s going to be hard to three-peat.”

You played with and against a lot of GOAT candidates. Who is your GOAT?

Horry: “I love [Michael] Jordan. I look at weaknesses that players have. So every time someone asks me that question, I say, ‘Name a weakness that Jordan had.’ Everybody says, ‘He couldn’t shoot 3s.’ That’s why this generation is messed up. He still averaged 30 points and not by shooting 3s. And when he did shoot 3s, he knocked them down. You think about a bunch of guys now taking a bunch of bad 3s and bad shots to get 30. Jordan took great shots, and still got 30. So what weakness did he have? He had none. That’s how I separate my GOATs. Who has a weakness? If you talk about someone being a GOAT, they can’t have a weakness.

It’s so funny. Kids today just see highlights. That’s when they get bombarded. They don’t look at the totality of what they did, what they had to overcome and how the game has evolved. They say, ‘You guys played so slow.’ Well, yeah, because you didn’t want to go to the whole and get your head taken off (laughs). You have to methodically do this thing.”

Plus, MJ had those six 3s against Portland.

Horry: “Yeah, but that’s the way this day and age is. That’s what wrong with the NBA right now. These owners keep hiring guards to coach. They don’t have any ingenuity other than to shoot 3s. That’s not how the game of basketball is played. The game of basketball is played to get buckets, man. Whether it’s 2s or 3s, you have to get buckets. These analytical people that say that 3s are the way to go. Look at the past NBA champions. None of them have just been 3-point shooting teams, except for the Boston Celtics (in 2024). Go to Golden State. Yeah, Golden State has everyone thinking you need 3s to win. They take 3s to win because they have some GOATs at the 3-point line, and not some bums.”

And they were an elite defensive team, too.

Horry: “Exactly. That’s what gets lost in this thing. There are other things that go into this game besides shooting 3s that some people overlook.”

 Mark Medina is an NBA contributor to Fadeaway World. Follow him on X, Blue Sky, Instagram, Facebook and Threads.