Los Angeles Lakers guard Gabe Vincent has sent the Lakers a clear message prior to their 2025-26 season opener against the Golden State Warriors, which tips off at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday at 7 p.m. PT.
Los Angeles will be missing 21-time All-NBA superstar power forward LeBron James (right side sciatica), rookie second-round draft pick Adou Thiero (knee surgery recovery), and big man Maxi Kleber (oblique strain) against Golden State, but everyone else is expected to be available.
The Lakers went just 1-5 in the preseason, but were without James for that entire stretch and were strategically resting five-time All-NBA First Team superstar guard Luka Doncic and high-scoring shooting guard Austin Reaves for much of it, so that record isn’t entirely representative of what this team’s ceiling or rotations will look like this year.
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Vincent, who himself sat out a few preseason contests with injury issues (sadly a recurrent theme of his Lakers tenure), offered up a vote of confidence in the roster LA is fielding in 2025-26.
“I’m all in on Laker basketball. I’m all in on this team,” Vincent told The Athletic’s Dan Woike prior to the start of Los Angeles’ season on Tuesday. “They’ll get everything I have to offer … I’ll be pouring everything into it because I’m trying to win.”
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Vincent had emerged as a possible 3-and-D replacement for Dennis Schröder when the Lakers signed him to a three-year, $33 million free agent deal hot off a 2023 NBA Finals run with the Miami Heat. But his interest in offense — and his health — promptly cratered not long after the ink was dry on the UC Santa Barbara product’s new contract.
The 29-year-old vet missed all but 11 games for Los Angeles in 2023-24, but was largely healthy last year.
Across 72 regular season contests in 2024-25, Vincent played more sparingly than he had in Miami, averaging 6.4 points on .400/.353/.714 shooting splits, 1.4 assists, 1.3 boards, and 0.7 swipes a night. His touches and minutes were reduced a bit in the playoffs, as he averaged a scant 2.8 points on 35.7 percent field goal shooting (30.8 percent from 3-point land), 1.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 19.8 minutes per. He was primarily out there for his point-of-attack defense.
Vincent, forward Jarred Vanderbilt, and — hopefully — former Defensive Player of the Year guard Marcus Smart are the Lakers’ top perimeter defenders this season, and will be leaned upon heavily to cover for sieves James, Reaves and Doncic on that end.
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