made his preseason debut Thursday<\/a> after missing the first two games due to a tweaked ankle. \u201cWe just got to keep giving him confidence to be himself. He\u2019s really good offensively and communicates defensively, but we need him to be himself. He doesn\u2019t need to try and fit in for anybody.<\/p>\n\u201cEarly in training camp he was trying too hard to not disappoint anybody instead of just playing basketball the way that he knows how to play basketball \u2026 Like I said, we want him to be him and if he does that, he\u2019s going to be really, really big for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamukelashvili admits he\u2019s still learning. His versatility comes with the need to be \u2014 well \u2014 versatile. Many of his responsibilities change depending on the lineup on the floor. Defensively, when he\u2019s at the five, he\u2019s got to know his coverages, make sure he\u2019s not too far from the ball handler, but also not too close to the rim. When he\u2019s at the four, he needs to be physical and vocal and make sure he\u2019s sticking to his guy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a learning curve for me, for sure,\u201d he said. \u201c[Assistant] coach Lindsey [Harding] is doing an amazing job just in explaining and we work on it after shootarounds and after practices. \u2026 staying vocal on the court helps me because it kind of keeps my mind going all the time, and you just can\u2019t relax.\u201d<\/p>\n
His skillset fits seamlessly around anyone. His contract, though, means that skillset has to be conducive to winning, whether it be now or sometimes in the four years he\u2019s under contract. But for now, Mamukelashvili is just focused on getting better:<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to get better. I\u2019m trying to be more physical. I\u2019m trying to not get out-rebounded. But you know, third game, and I\u2019m sure I\u2019m just gonna keep getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can follow Connor on Twitter at @cmorenoNBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 After popping out to the 3-point line following a ballscreen, Sandro Mamukelashvili caught the ball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,318351,459,82],"class_list":["post-926289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lakers-scores","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}