Jon Elmore may not fit the usual image of a Summer League guard, but he’s getting his shot with the Los Angeles Lakers anyway.
At 30 years old, Elmore is still fighting for a place in the game. He’ll turn 31 on December 20, and this latest run gives him another chance to show he belongs. The fact that he’s wearing a Lakers jersey, even in July, is enough to put him in front of a bigger audience.
Elmore is a 6-foot-3 guard and a member of the 2019 NBA Draft class, though he wasn’t selected this year. His path has taken him all over the map, with stops at Trieste, Orlandina, Ionikos Nikaias, Sopron, Siauliai, Sioux Falls Skyforce, Cleveland Charge, Stockton Kings, Manisa and Calgary Surge.
He also has a G League title on his résumé. Elmore won a 2025 G League championship, and during the 2025-26 season with the Stockton Kings, he averaged 13.8 points and 6.1 assists per game.
Long before the pro stops and the Summer League spotlight, Elmore built a legendary college career. A West Virginia native, he initially went to VMI, where his father Gay Elmore had played, but he left school to help care for his struggling grandfather. Later, he joined an intramural team at Marshall and eventually earned his way onto the varsity roster.
Once he got there, he made the most of it. Elmore led Marshall to its first NCAA Tournament win ever, scoring 27 points in an upset of Wichita State. He also finished with Conference USA’s all-time records in scoring and assists, and became the first player in Division I history to score more than 2,500 points and hand out more than 750 assists.
After spending recent summers in The Basketball Tournament, Elmore is back on a bigger stage with the Lakers.
In Other News...
Rich Paul Just Weighed In On The Lakers' Luka LeBron Debate
Since the Lakers brought Luka Doncic in from Dallas in February 2025, the conversation around the offense has had a familiar center of gravity: how to fit him alongside LeBron James without wasting what each does best. James still put up strong all-around production, and the postseason only sharpened the debate over whether the Lakers were asking him to do enough of the organizing or too much of the adapting.
Rich Pauls latest comments only added another layer to that discussion, because the push and pull around James role has become one of the defining questions of this new version of the Lakers. Some around the team have pointed to a more productive stretch when James handled more of the playmaking, while others have focused on the ways the offense stalled when the ball stayed too long in one place, leaving the fit between the two stars still very much under the microscope. [Read more 🡒]
Walker Kessler Arrives With Massive Pressure Lakers Fans Will Understand
The Lakers have officially finalized the acquisition of Walker Kessler, bringing in a center whose arrival immediately invites the usual Los Angeles scrutiny that comes with playing the position. In the teams press release, Rob Pelinka leaned into the idea that the backbone of the franchise has long been a dominant big man, praising Kesslers skill set and character while stressing how he fits with the players already in place.
Kessler also made the move feel personal on his end, posting a farewell message to the Jazz and reflecting on four seasons in Utah. For the Lakers, the transaction is done, but the real test starts now, because every new center in this market gets measured against a history that leaves very little room for ordinary expectations. [Read more 🡒]
LeBrons Lakers Ending Suddenly Looks More Unsettling Than Fans Realized
Derek Fishers reaction to the way some Lakers fans greeted LeBron James exit says a lot about how complicated the partnership has become. Fisher was struck by the celebration around a departure that, on paper, should have felt like the end of a star era, but in Los Angeles, LeBron never occupied the same emotional space as the franchises homegrown icons. He arrived with a rsum already built elsewhere, and that distinction still shapes how some fans and former players talk about his time with the team.
The larger backdrop is a relationship that never seemed to settle into easy trust, with the tensions around the Russell Westbrook trade and what followed only adding more friction. Even now, former Lakers are split on where LeBron belongs in the franchises story, which is part of why this ending feels more unsettled than a typical farewell. For a player of his stature, the debate is not just about what he did in purple and gold, but whether the Lakers ever fully made him one of their own. [Read more 🡒]