It was part of the last championship of the Lakers, what Pope does that inspire one of the new players

The Los Angeles Lakers have had a productive offseason between the 2023 NBA Draft and the free agency market. Still, there is one of the rookie players that is looking for inspiration not from LeBron James or Anthony Davis but from a former Laker that has also won a championship title with the Denver Nuggets, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

While most of the spotlight regarding the Lakers Summer League guards is going to Max Christie, Jalen Hood-Schifino, and Maxwell Lewis, the undrafted rookie who has signed a two-way contract with LA, D'Moi Hodge, is quietly making a name for himself as well.

In their latest win against the Charlotte Hornets, Hodge scored 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting to go along with five rebounds, two assists, one steal and two blocks. Hodge's two-way play has been encouraging, and fans will appreciate who he said he models his game after.

"I really like KCP," Hodge said. "I met him like two days ago, and it was really nice meeting him in person; he actually knew who I was, so it was just great to meet somebody like that. I met him outside, I was walking, and he was on IG, and he pulled up a picture of him and me, and he was like,' This is you?' And I was like, 'yeah.' He was like, 'I've been doing my research,' and he was giving me some advice and stuff, so that was really cool."

The reason Hodge decided to join the Lakers

The undrafted guard has the 3-and-D skillset that every NBA team craves and explained that was a large factor in his decision to sign with the Lakers. “That's a big reason I signed with the Lakers. I know they like shooters. Having LeBron and DLo and AD getting so much attention, they want shooters they can kick out to. So I feel like me being the shooter I am and playing defense; if you can play defense, you stay on the floor… So that's my main mentality; I know I can knock down shots, but that's been my focus on the game, not about making shots, but I want to get deflections, get steals and have energy on the defensive side because defense leads to the offense so that's my main mentality in the games and stuff like that.”