After only two preseason games ahead of the 2020-21 NBA season, Talen Horton-Tucker has taken the league by storm.
The versatile second-year player has far exceeded expectations in the time he’s been given during the preseason and continues to impress fellow Klutch Sports client LeBron James along the way.
James spoke highly of Horton-Tucker on Tuesday’s Zoom call before catching a plane to face the Phoenix Suns tomorrow night.
LeBron talks about first seeing Talen Horton-Tucker play four years ago and telling his agent to take a look at him. pic.twitter.com/ugF0xUwhZ0
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) December 15, 2020
“First of all, obviously the basketball we can see what he’s capable of doing,” James said. “For him to be 20 years old, he hasn’t even scratched the surface yet of what he’s going to be, but the kid can flat out play.
“I saw it about three and a half, four years ago. I was watching a high school basketball game and I happened to catch Simeon [Career Academy High School] playing, and I told our agent at the time, it’s now Talen’s agent, Rich Paul, told my agent I said, ‘You need to take a look at this kid Talen Horton-Tucker that’s at Simeon, the kid is super talented.’ This was like four years ago.
“Long story short, I mean obviously you see what he’s doing now, and he’s going to continue to get better and better and better as the days go on. He gets an opportunity to practice against us and veterans and things of that nature.
“He’s going to continue to improve and he’s going to do some really good things in this league for a long time.”
Although it is only the preseason, and there’s no telling whether Horton-Tucker will have a sizable role on the team moving forward, the 20-year-old has definitely turned some heads around the league while making a case to crack the Lakers rotation.
The Lakers have one of the deepest teams in the NBA, and the coaching staff will have a tough time trying to get Horton-Tucker minutes despite his obvious talent.
He could end up cutting into some of the minutes of the veteran players on the squad if he can continue to prove to be a force to be reckoned with on the basketball floor.
