National Basketball Association

Summer League another opportunity for Lakers' Marshall

Published Jul. 11, 2014 12:45 a.m. ET

foxsports

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Starting at the point, 45 games wasn't enough for Kendall Marshall to make his point throughout NBA circles, but he's OK with that.

Marshall was signed by the Lakers out of the D-League last December. In 54 games with the Lakers, he made 45 starts, and averaged 8.0 points and 8.8 assists -- second in the league behind the 10.7 assists per game Clippers point guard Chris Paul dished out.

Still, Marshall, who was once a lottery pick of the Suns, has just a non-guaranteed deal with the Lakers next season. He feels like despite showing success for the first time in his NBA career, he has more to prove.

"For some reason there's always a reason why I'm successful or why I'm not successful, so I kind of need to put that doubt to rest and just go out there and prove I can play," Marshall said.

The Lakers point guard will be one of the few veterans for the Lakers when they open up summer league play in Las Vegas on Friday. The only player on the team's summer roster with more NBA experience than Marshall is four-year veteran Rodrigue Beaubois, who spent last season in Belgium.

Marshall wants to prove that he belongs.

The team has arrived in Vegas for #LakersSummer https://t.co/UrC71btTt4
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) July 10, 2014

He also wants to further prove that he can run a team. Not just any team, however, but a winning team. The winning aspect, Marshall says, is the "main thing" he wants to get across.

"I proved I could get playing time last year, but we still weren't successful as a team so that means a lot to me," he said.

Not far behind the winning is just an overall grasp of what the coaching staff wants. Considering the Lakers don't currently have a head coach, that's made things a little tougher for Marshall. Leading the Lakers during summer league will be associate head coaches Larry Lewis and Mark Madsen. There's no guarantees what they're installing this summer will be installed once training camp opens under whoever the next Lakers head coach will be.

"It's a little hard because one thing I take pride in as a point guard is knowing my offense and defense like the back of my hand," Marshall said. "It's kind of hard to do that. So, it's focusing on just getting better and doing things that can be successful no matter who the coach is."