LAS VEGAS — Adou Thiero loves to fish.
Although the Lakers wing says he is still searching for the best spots in Los Angeles to cast a line, he and former Lakers center Jaxson Hayes would chat – not nearly to the point of ad nauseum – about their love of fishing, sharing the sport from their respective Appalachian-area upbringings.
For Thiero, the lakes and ponds – or Leetsdale, Pa., along the Ohio River where he grew up – are an outlet for expression outside of basketball, he told the Southern California News Group. Through conversations with teammate Austin Reaves, golfing is on the 22-year-old’s radar too.
Fishing requires patience: the wait before the bite and then the following moments of excitement and precision to reel in a catch. Thiero, who is entering his second season with the Lakers after being the franchise’s second-round pick in the 2025 NBA draft, is finding his patience on the hardwood during the summer league.
“He’s starting to find his pace where he can fit in and be dominant in his own way,” Lakers first-round draft pick Cameron Carr said of Thiero on Friday. “We’ve been talking a lot. Just finding out opportunities to attack, get downhill. I’m proud of that. He’s done a heck of a job. He works so hard, plays so hard. Basketball gods rewarded him.”
And it’s paid off. Thiero’s Friday-night performance against the Oklahoma City Thunder was one of the best from the opening slate of games in Las Vegas: 20 points, four rebounds, four assists, three steals, two blocks and zero turnovers.
“He took what was in front of him,” Lakers summer league coach Ty Abbott said of Thiero on Friday. “He attacked matchups. He understood that there was going to be some paint swarming. Those guys are going to try to flood and meet him at the rim and he made the right pass. And then when he started doing that, it started to open up for him and he was able to finish at the rim.”
Thiero continued to roll in the summer league, recording 15 points (on 4-for-12 shooting) on Saturday in a 91-70 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers now have a 4-1 record in the summer and a 2-0 record in Las Vegas. Carr did not play on Saturday, suffering a right thumb contusion believed to have happened during Friday’s game, Abbott said.
“I don’t actually have any updates on how severe the injury is, but just to be cautious, (we) held him out tonight and we’ll see what the next steps are,” Abbott said of Carr, who will have at least two days off before the Lakers’ next summer league game on Tuesday against the Clippers.
Lakers forward Arthur Kaluma has emerged as one of the best summer league talents not on a two-way or guaranteed contract in Las Vegas, scorching Dallas from beyond the arc. The 6-foot-7 forward who spent last year with the South Bay Lakers in the G League made 6 of 11 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 34 points in a dominant showing to lead the Lakers to victory.
“I’m glad Arthur is on my team,” said two-way guard Chris Manon, who tallied 10 points and eight rebounds on 4-of-10 shooting.
Kaluma said he prides himself on being a 3-and-D player and on Saturday, he felt that he was firing on all cylinders from both sides of the ball.
“People come to summer league for opportunity,” Kaluma said. “To be able to come out here and perform at this level has been amazing.”
Thiero was often used atop the key during Saturday’s game, playing up top as the Lakers’ first line of defense against a Mavericks team that shot just 39% from the field.
The Arkansas product, who enjoyed a dinner with his former college coach John Calipari on Wednesday night in Las Vegas, said that Lakers coach JJ Redick wants a point-of-attack on-ball defender. He feels as if he can “cause havoc” on defense and provide that role for the Lakers going forward – increasing reps game by game as a defender after having a delayed start to his 2025-26 season as a knee injury suffered in college kept him out of last year’s summer league entirely.
Year One in the NBA wasn’t a “fair opportunity,” Thiero said, as he dealt with injuries in what Redick had at times called a “developmental year” for the 6-foot-7 guard. Yet, Thiero still appeared in 25 regular season games and broke into the playoff rotation for six games in 2026.
Now, through the summer and soon to be the season ahead, Thiero has a full runway to sculpt a role on a heavily-different Lakers roster.
“I would say, coming in from college, you have guys that are very athletic or some guys that are always in the right position,” Thiero said earlier this week, when asked about his discernment of when to exert explosive energy and when to make the right basketball play.
Thiero continued: “I can use my athleticism better to finish plays, because at this level, everybody is either athletic or everybody has IQ. Everybody is here for a reason. So now I got to understand when to use my athleticism and when to play off, too and play a little bit more slowly. That’s what I’m just figuring out and getting those reps on everything.”
Notes:
Lakers two-way guard Peter Suder had arguably his best game of the summer Saturday, making 5-of-8 shots for 14 points off the bench in 17 minutes. …
Fellow two-way player, forward AK Okereke, had a quieter night on the scoreboard, ending the game scoreless, but made up for his goose egg with five assists, three rebounds, two steals and one block in 18 minutes off the bench.