As always, context matters in the preseason. The Lakers lost again Thursday, but played without LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Kendrick Nunn, Patrick Beverley, Dennis Schröder and Troy Brown Jr.. Doesn't matter if you think this season won't be that good, if you remove those seven dudes from any game the results will be ugly. Particularly since the Wolves used their regular rotation. Still, there were highlights, including the season debut of Lonnie Walker IV and a bust out game for Thomas Bryant.

Walker was given a lot of responsibility, running the offense in addition to trying to spark it, and broadly the results were positive. A couple highlight reel plays mixed in with some surprisingly good passing. He finished with three assists, but it rightly should have been much higher. This was not a Lakers squad that capitalized on every opportunity to give a teammate a dime.

Moreover, Walker was praised by Darvin Ham for his effort and intensity on defense. His give-a-bleep factor (especially regarding attention-to-detail stuff like off ball positioning, etc.) on that side of the ball hasn't been high enough to this point in his career, by his own admission. If he's gonna play this year, he's gonna have to at least TRY to defend. That's the minimum.

Bryant, meanwhile, hasn't had a ton of steady playing time, but nonetheless this was his best game of the three. 10 trips to the free throw line - making eight, which already makes Bryant an outlier relative to last year - plus seven rebounds in 26 minutes of play. More games like this can help make Ham's rotation choices difficult, and the more hard choices Ham has to make the better. (Affirmative choices, obviously. "I don't want to play any of these clowns" isn't what anyone wants.)

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: AD doesn't play, again. Any concern? Walker makes his debut.

SEGMENT 2: The good and bad of Walker, focusing on the better-than-expected passing.

SEGMENT 3: A good game for Bryant, helping bolster a center rotation that hasn't quite hit expectations to this point.

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