Lakers rookie Cameron Carr rotational minutes against Atlanta Hawks, Digi Mart USA News (Atlanta): Lakers rookie Cameron Carr is set for his first rotational minutes of the season against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night, the lanky wing’s first opportunity to impact the game outside the final minutes of games, as he did in his first two NBA appearances.
Carr, 21, started for the Coachella Valley Lakers in their G League opener last week and scored 13 points in 20 minutes in a 104-98 victory over the Salt Lake City Stars. He will help lighten the load of fellow Lakers ball handlers with both Quentin Grimes (right finger sprain) and Austin Reaves (illness) out.
“There’s always room to grow as a player,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of Carr. “For Cam, that growth is going to come on the defensive end.
He’ll get comfortable just through reps and minutes within our offense, and he’s incredibly skilled. I think it’s really hard to not be in a rhythm.
I mean, he talked about it with somebody on our staff yesterday. It’s a challenge.”
The Lakers (9-2) selected Carr as the No. 24 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft through a draft night trade with the New York Knicks. He averaged 18.9 points per game while shooting 49.4% from the field and 37.4% from three-point range for Baylor last season.
In seven games over the summer during the NBA Summer League and the California Classic, Carr averaged 17.4 points on 42.3% shooting.
Redick added that the G League has provided reps for young players, such as the 7-foot-1 wingspan guard, to work on skills that used to be developed through practice in the old NBA schedule.
“Tonight’s a great opportunity and he’s going to play and he’s going to play hard and we’ll assess it and we’ll show him film and he’ll get more reps after that,” Redick said of Carr, who debuted Nov. 1. “Tonight’s a great opportunity for him to learn and grow.”
Second-year wing Adou Thiero spent time moving between the NBA squad and the G League last season. He said that when a player is young it is important not to take things personally when not playing often, and to stay ready for opportunities.
“Just when my time came, I’m gonna make the most of it,” Thiero said. “But until then, I’m gonna sit on the side and cheer on my teammates.”
Thiero added that effort and hustle during his first handful of rotational stints in the NBA were most important for him and the Lakers.
Now, for Carr, his first real opportunity in a Lakers jersey has arrived.
The NBA announced Friday that Lakers star Luka Doncic was named Western Conference Player of the Week after a three-game stretch, all victories, in which the Slovenian star averaged 45 points on 52.5% shooting overall and 39.5% from three-point range, along with 7.0 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.3 steals in 36.3 minutes per game.
Doncic has now won weekly honors 20 times in his NBA career, five of them as a Laker. The 27-year-old scored at least 40 points in each of those games and ended his run on Friday by scoring 53 points in a 124-118 NBA Cup Group C victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.
Grimes sat out Monday’s game with a right finger sprain suffered in Sunday night’s victory over the Detroit Pistons. Redick said Grimes underwent an examination in the arena after “banging his finger” during the game, and X-rays came back negative.
Redick said Monday in Atlanta that he does not expect Grimes to be out more than a game or two.
“It’s just some swelling,” Redick said. “It’s obviously a shooting wrist or shooting hand as well.
So I think just being cautious with it, and hopefully he’s back, you know, (in) the next game or so.”
Grimes finished with 12 points on 4-for-12 shooting in 32 minutes against the Pistons and had played in each of the Lakers’ 11 games this season. The 26-year-old guard is averaging 8 points per game on 43.1% shooting, primarily coming off the bench in the first season of a four-year, $60 million contract.
