Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Are the Lakers Overrated or Underrated? Plus, LeBron's Next Milestone (and a crazy Kareem record)!

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

The Lakers are in an interesting spot. On the one hand, they were dumped rather unceremoniously from the playoffs by the Timberwolves last spring. The perception, at least in some circles, is that they didn't make any big swings in the offseason. Nothing glamorous, managing only to acquire a couple of distressed assets (Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart) while a big piece (Dorian Finney-Smith) went to Houston. On the other hand, while the new guys might not be All Stars, even with some of the shine off their proverbial apples, those two still fill critical holes the Lakers played with in the postseason, and represent significant upgrades. Meanwhile, they have a top five guy in Luka Dončić and a top 10 guy in LeBron James. And they won 50 games last year, finishing as a three-seed in a brutally competitive Western Conference. So are they paying a "Lakers Tax" when it comes to perception? Both of the team's offseason, and its standing in the West?  And finally, LeBron is up for (yet another) extremely cool milestone this year. HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: Are the Lakers being overrated or underrated? SEGMENT 2: Let's be fair to Deandre AytonSEGMENT 3: LeBron and Kareem records.  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first yearGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers. For Thursday, Brian Kaminetsky, Andy Kemenetsky, are the Lakers being underrated or overrated? Someone needs to make a decision. We'll do that next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everyone for making Locked on Lakers your first listen of every single day,

at least all the weekday ones. through Friday, no matter how, where you get your podcast, whether that's on Spotify, whether that's on Apple, where you can subscribe, or you're going to YouTube, and where 36,000 plus subscribers see the show. They watch us. They see our smiling faces, Andy, on every show, no matter how or where you're getting the podcasts, you're always getting it for free. We're never going to make you jump over some sort of paywall to do it. Do you want to let you know that today's episode of Lockdown Lakers is brought to you by Monarch Money, where you can keep track of more of the money that you have because we're not charging you for this show.

Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code locked on NBA at Monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. It's how the Lakers get covered, Andy, is always a fascinating thing for me because there is both, I think, a, perception, and I think it's probably true, the Lakers get an enormous amount of attention. When they're good, they get a ton of attention. When they're bad, they get a ton of attention. They just get a ton of attention. But I think sometimes that equates to the assumption that they're always being pumped up. They're always being overrated and this, that, and whatever.

I'm not sure that's true. I think there are times when people around basketball don't want to look like they're giving the Lakers too much shine. It's a very interesting dynamic that we're going to talk a little bit about today. This is something I've talked about on a few different occasions on different shows. Something I've noticed in a lot of national media and podcasts that, you know, I respect the hosts. I think they do a really good job. But you will often hear them talk for 10 minutes. about why they don't want to talk about the Lakers.

And we're not going to talk about the Lakers. And there's no reason to talk about the Lakers. We're not going to get into it. And then 10 minutes pass after a bunch of Laker analysis and a bunch of Laker commentary where it's been decided we are not going to talk about the Lakers and we're going to move on. Because understandably, there can be, I think, a sensitivity towards the idea that you are using the Lakers as a way of leveraging cliques.

leveraging attention, leveraging reaction, because the Lakers are not a team that pretty much anybody is indifferent towards. Like, they're not a team. People either love them if you're a Laker fan or you hate them. If you're basically the other 29 teams, fine, whatever. I'm just saying they are not, for example, the pre-honest Milwaukee Bucks. Like a team that most people are, yeah, you know, they're around. like the Lakers, like the Yankees, like a lot of other big market,

frankly, money, juggernauts, can create a lot of polarized and in some ways visceral reaction. I think there are a lot of media that want to try to make it seem like they are not trying to milk the Lakers for all their worth, even though they recognize the Lakers are worth a lot. And if they can subtly milk some of it, they're going to. I don't blame them. But I think it can, I think though it can color a lot of how people go about talking about the Lakers,

because like you said, Brian, they don't want to seem guilty of hyping them. And I think we have a great example of what that looks like with two guys. You talk about, you know, we're in that time of the off season where people are reacting to who did the best, who did worst, all these other things. And two guys who are great around the NBA at the athletic. You have David Aldridge. He does this every year where he kind of, he has his own criteria. So it's not just straight up who are the best teams. But he ranks the off, the 25 off season by team, who did the best, who did the worst and all that kind of stuff. Not saying who's going to finish ahead, but he's got his column out there. It includes the Lakers and we'll tell you where.

Meanwhile, Matt Moore, who you guys may know from this very network, Andy, locked on nuggets and all kinds of other stuff. He's on just about every show that the network. Yeah, he and Hayes and Doug Branson do the first of the daily locked on NBA shows. It's really good. It's actually become one of my favorite NBA shows out there and not simply because they're on our network. The chemistry between Doug and Matt and Hayes is really good. So Matt has a story that he wrote for FanCide.

And this is the headline kind of inspired what we're talking about here today, why the 2026 Lakers are overhyped but underrated. And now look, I think people need to understand. And I don't want to speak for Matt Moore. Maybe we'll get them on the show and he can speak. speak for himself, but I can tell you, it deeply, deeply pains Matt to have to talk about the Lakers in really positive terms. He's still mad that the Lakers were gifted, Luca Dantritch, and he may never get over it. He's become, remember the scene in Breaking Bad where Jesse breaks

down talking about Waldron? He can't keep getting away with this. That's him talking about Rob Polinka and the Lakers. And in this case, Luca Donchich seemingly falling into their laps the way Walter White seemingly skates out of every mess that he makes personal criminal or otherwise. Yeah, I mean, he's Jennifer Gray to Matthew Broderick's Ferris Bueller. Like, you know, how is my brother always getting away with these things? He makes him very cranky.

He'll tell you the same thing. But what he's talking about here, I think, is exactly. right. When you look at what people are saying about the Lakers off-season, there is a trap that I think actually David Aldridge, who I deeply, deeply respect. One of the best out there. And a really wonderful person, it should be noted.

So he wrote this about the Lakers in their off-season. He said, the butt, you know, let me skip to the part. noticing who they added, DeAndre Aiton, Marcus Smart, gets into the Jake La Ravia thing a little bit. But he says, quote, we'll see if Aiden can still be a major difference maker after flaming out in Phoenix and Portland. Similarly, smart isn't what he was in Boston.

But many advanced stats show he's still one of the better defensive guards in the league, and he's better defensively than anyone else L.A. can roll out. Losing Doreen Phine Smith, though, is a blow. He's got the Lakers at the 20, in 24th in terms of off-season ranking, so to speak. How did you do? He has the Miami Heat, who did basically nothing but acquire Norman Powell this offseason. He's got Brooklyn, who did the Michael Porter Jr. thing drafted 11 billion players,

none of whom seem to have any relationship to like a coherent roster building thing, still haven't figured out what to do with Cam Thomas, and that's about it. And the Pistons, who had a pretty quiet off-season, losing a bunch of guys and adding, in terms of impact players, really Keroslovert, I think is the biggest name that they added, depending on what your opinion is, on Duncan Robinson. Some of what David put the Pistons, at least a couple spots ahead of the Lakers for, was the idea that Jaden I.B. will return. and a healthy Jaden Ivey is a big boost, which is totally correct, but you could also make the same argument about a totally healthy Luca Dantzich, who I think everybody would agree, runs circles around Jaden Ivy as a player.

Yeah, J.Nivey is a real. If you have to choose between the two of them, right, I'm going to choose Luca. And then the only teams that David Aldridge has ahead or behind the Lakers are the Sons, who lost Kevin Durant, the Pelicans who nobody can figure out what the F they're doing, the Raptors who are just kind of hoping the pieces that they had meld together with everybody healthy, the Pacers who lost their franchise face, the Celtics who lost their best player. And are, by the way, intentionally reshuffling the deck here.

They're not going to be bad, but they are intentionally not trying to push the envelope because Jason Tatum is out. Right. The Celtics lost a few players in Holiday and Porzingis that matter. They obviously don't have Jason Tatum for the season. The Pacers don't have Tyrese Halliburton and Miles Turner is now in Milwaukee. And then finally, Golden State, who got an incomplete because they've quite literally done nothing. Those are the only teams behind the Lakers. Two years ago, they called that a polinka.

So that phrase in there, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, David wrote. And I say this not to pick on David Aldridge specifically, but I think he's so much better at his job than we are at ours. Like, let's make this clear. If he's not in the Hall of Fame, he's going to be. He is in the Hall of Fame. Right. That's what I said about Luca running circles around Jayvitt, Jay Navi. That's David Aldridge. He doesn't even have to run circles. He like can just speed walk or even jog circles around us. He can hire people, he can hire people to do it for him. He didn't have to get off his ass. Yeah, it's not worth his time to run.

It's not. David Aldridge has much better things to do. But this is the phrase that really got my attention. We'll see if Aiton can still be a major difference maker after flaming out in Phoenix and Portland. And I think that is kind of at the heart of a mistake that a lot of people make when they're talking about where the Lakers are and what they've done. And it's a mistake that our colleague, Matt, more does not make despite how much it must tear him up inside. And that's what we're going to talk about next. Lockdown Lakers is brought to you by Monarch Money. Most people cannot name all of their

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I have to think about college and tuition and dorm expenses and all that stuff is really daunting. Monarch money can help me streamline the process and create a plan for this next step. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code Locked on MBA at Monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That's monarchmoney.com code locked on MBA for half off your first year. So the mistake Andy I think people make is one that is reflected in. I'll give Matt the glory here because he is the guy, one of the few that I've seen this offseason, who I think understands the context of these additions the Lakers have made,

because there is no question. D'Andre Aden is, in some ways, a disappointing player. He has not, you know, when you take a guy number one, the hope is he is, what if he could become a Hall of Famer? Or at the very least, you say, like, well, this guy's going to be. an all-star. He's going to be an all-star a couple times, right? Or a few times he's going to, and it just, that hasn't

happened for DeAndre Aten. I think that's fair to say. It's definitely fair to say. He doesn't have any all-star appearances. And there's never really been when it's like where, like, you look at it like, geez, Mike Connolly's never made an all-star team. Like, he's that, he's

good enough. Like, nobody's clamoring for DeAndre Aiden to get on an all-star team. Marcus Smart had a really rough season last year in terms of, like, perception. Like he was heard a lot. He was let go by the Celtics. He was kind of somehow ended up a wizard. Like your basketball career is not going well if you're trying to play meaningful

basketball and somehow you end up on the Washington loser. Which, by the way, now that I think about it, could explain a lot of David Alder's perspective because I'm pretty sure he's still based in D.C., which means he could have seen a disproportionate amount of Marcus Smart. Sad Marcus Smart. That might actually be coloring his perception a little. It could be. But like, you know, so and he acknowledges that Smart is both, you know,

not that long away from a DPOY season, the events player of the year and is a, is still a quality defender who's a step up for anything the Lakers have. And that the metrics like him. And that's the thing. It's like he had a really awkward and ugly season. and there is no question. There are health concerns about Marcus Smart.

But the metrics on him and our friend Cranjus Mick Basketball from the Lakers Exceptionalism Pod has pointed this out a few times with a bunch of different stats that he calculates and other things. Like he still graded out despite all of it. Marcus Smart still graded out as a very good defender last year. And so I'll read what Matt wrote here. in his story that I think is critical

for understanding the Lakers' offseason. When the lake, now I'm reading from his article, when the Lakers' only major offseason editions were DeAndre Aden, Marcus Smart, and Jake La Rehabilia, it's easy to say they added more name power than actual impact.

But it's better to think of what those players are than who they are. For example, I don't think the addition of Aden is as adding the number one former number one overall pick who was shipped out from Phoenix and then waived two seasons later by the Blazers. Think of it simply as the Lakers added an elite pick and roll big next to Donchich. And he goes into some of Aiton's qualifications there. Six most points per game is the roll man in pick and roll set-ups last season. Big lob threat, big body, screen, navigate space.

And most importantly, Andy, he's replacing Jackson's. and Hayes in the Lakers playoff rotation. Go back. DeAndre Aden hasn't, didn't wash out of Phoenix and Portland in the sense of he was unproductive completely.

He just wasn't what they wanted him to be. He still put up, he's a guy who's average like 15 and a half and 10 for his career, maybe a little bit higher. So he's been a very productive player. There's also two with Phoenix

and Aiton. And, you know, while there's obviously an Aiton, just as a professional to remain professional during adversity, it's been very well reported that the sons told him, if you do some of the non-superstar, non-statistically driven, non-number one overall stuff that is expected during this finals run, you embrace defense, you embrace some of the dirty work, we will reward you. Like, we will gladly willingly reward you. He did all of that stuff and was a big part of getting to the 2021 finals for Phoenix. And then Phoenix was like, well, you know, if you can find an offer, we'll match it.

But they did a lot that I think really soured DeAndre Aiton's attitude and outlook towards that franchise, his last couple seasons in Phoenix, which again, there's an onus on him to maintain, the proper attitude and professionalism. I'm not trying to excuse it, but Phoenix, even a lot of his detractors in the Phoenix media have said they kind of did him dirty there. And then the situation in Portland was just a mess.

Like in terms of an organization being pretty rudderless, kind of, you know, in this post-Demian Lillard period of not exactly knowing what they were going to be with a lot of inexperienced players and inexperienced coach, again, D'Andre Aiton, there is a professional, onus upon him. But if you listen to him during his introductory press conference with the Lakers, and it's just words, he needs to back it up with actions, but for the time being, there's no opportunity. He has said in so many words, he knows he's not seen as a winning player and it bothers him and that he is excited to play relevant basketball again. And when relevant basketball is taken away from you, you kind of miss it.

And it sounds like he misses it. Well, I agree. And I can't prove it. You know, of course you do. And look, there's, if you're ever a center who wants to rehabilitate his image and put himself in a position to get a big payday again, go find Luca Donchich and sign with his team. Go figure out a way to get to Luke's team. And he's made a lot of lesser players look really good. But I think the thing to remember here and what Matt is.

getting at and what we've really tried to hammer home is it's you have to compare Aiton not to what the idealized version of him is like warts and all if he corrected nothing about what people have criticized him about over the course of his career nothing still fell asleep defensively still made mistakes still he's still way more productive than what the lakers have had at the end of last year, not when Anthony Davis was here, obviously, but, you know, in the post-80 era, he is far and away their best center. He can, he is a much better rebounder than Jackson Hayes, who will help, and that will help them defensively. It will help them on the offensive glass that, you know, Aden's presence there. He has a much more versatile offensive presence

than Jackson Hayes, which will help, you know, Luca, it'll help LeBron, it'll help J.J. Reddick, it will diversify what the Lakers are able to do offensively without sacrificing that ability to get above the rim off pick and roll. There's just no scenario in which he is not two or three steps above what the Lakers were playing with at the end of last year. And that makes a huge difference. And he makes the same point about Marcus Smart. Even if he's not what he was in Boston, he's still better than what the Lakers were able to work with last year at a critical position of meat, a guy who can defend back court players who were really, so Lakers didn't have that last year.

Not at a level that JJ Redick trusted, at least, particularly as the playoffs went along. I've already said my piece about I think JJ could have and should have extended more trust to both Jared Vanderbilt and Jordan Goodwin during the playoffs. I think that was frankly a mistake by JJ. But if he doesn't trust the guys, he doesn't trust the guys. He's going to trust Marcus Smart. Yeah. And just it will balance.

You know, Dorian Finney Smith is no longer really a guy who can guard twos, you know, when you might need that. It's just not something he's able to do. Marcus Smart can do twos and threes and threes where DFS was really threes and fours, which is something the Lakers needed less these days than they used to. It's just there's all of these things. It's like, what are you replacing? And then I think people forget because they were balanced and we'll get,

We'll get to LeBron here in a minute and kind of a crazy milestone he's got. I do think people forget the Lakers won 50 games last year. It's easy to feel like they, it's not like they, they were the recency bias of them losing in the first round the way they did makes people forget. I think especially to, because they were seen, real quick, I think too they were seen as the favorite in that series. and a lot of people including in retrospect us,

we both thought the Timberwolves were a good team and we took a lot of bleep from our audience for acknowledging, no, really, this team's very good. What we ultimately underestimated with Minnesota was how much the advantages that we acknowledged at the time they could potentially have over the Lakers in certain matchups or whatever really manifested. That part we totally underestimate.

Replay that series with the Lakers having a center that's more viable. Sure. Changes the whole thing. Absolutely. Crazy, crazy milestones coming up for LeBron. It seems to happen every year, but this is kind of a fun one. Andy will explain next. So as you know to Brian, it is always milestone season for LeBron every year because

the guy has played longer than anybody else. He has produced at a higher level, frankly, than most people ever do, much less at this particular age, which means every year there is another record that LeBron is approaching to break. And I want to say it was ESPN in looking ahead to some different milestones for players across the league. They noted that LeBron is very easily on pace to pass Kareem for all-time field goals made. Kareem currently has 15,837. LeBron 15,488, which means he's less than 400 behind Kareem.

The fewest amount of field goals LeBron's ever had in a season was 422 in the 2021 season for the Lakers, and that was both COVID-shortened and injury shortened. That was the year of Solomon Hill and LeBron's leg. So it played fewer there. The next fewest amount was 558. 2018, 19 for the Lakers, which was also injury short. And LeBron had the groin injury, the first major injury of his career. Every other season that he's played his normal amount of games, normal amount of minutes,

he's had somewhere between like 6 and 700 field goals made. So short of an injury, he is on pace to easily lap Kareem become the all-time field goals made record, or leader, and you can add that to all the other ones. But this is what I love about this. on the fact that it's just acknowledging, holy crap, LeBron has done a lot over the course of his career. It allows me to bring up one of my favorite under the radar records in the NBA that nobody is ever going to touch. That also involves Kareem. And that is all-time two-point field goals made. Two point.

LeBron is currently third at 12,929. He's a little bit behind Carl Malone. He will pass Carl Malone. Kareem is the leader at 15-836, the same number as before because Kareem did not take threes. That puts LeBron a little shy of 3,000 behind Kareem. The most amount of two-point field goals that- crazy. The most amount of field goals or two point field goals that LeBron has ever made in his career,

two point baskets, 536. That's the high water mark, or I should say high mark as a Laker. That's his high mark as a Laker, 536, 2. If you use that as the standard moving forward, this high water mark as a Laker, which is pretty high, it would require LeBron playing about five and a half more seasons at that exact pace. If say it leveled off to, oh, I don't know, 500, which would still be pretty good for a guy in his 40s. The guy pushing 47, 48. LeBron would have to play until I'm guessing he's about 47 or 48 to touch that.

Like, that is a record that Kareem holds that nobody is ever going to touch. Like I said, it is a very under the radar, but pretty staggering record that Kareem holds. I want to say Marcus Thompson from the Athletic first brought it to my attention in an article that he wrote a couple years ago. That I was like, wait, what? I never thought about it that way. And then it looked at it was like, oh, my God, Kareem is ahead of everyone. Like, everyone. It's when you, you know, both LeBron and you were just talking about these, this, this, you know,

field goals made statistic and, you know, field goal attempts. You talk about two-pointers. LeBron, LeBron is a career leader in field goal attempts. He's got over 30,500 field goal attempts. LeBron, though, in just attempts, if you took LeBron and Kareem in their attempts, only their attempts, they'd be in the 50s. I'm sorry, only their makes, I'm saying, you know, versus. is everybody else's attempts, they'd be in the 50s.

So like, you're not even, you're not counting the misses here. And what I think it's one of these things where, you know, particularly with LeBron, because Kareem toward the very end was more of a role player, you know, more of a guy who wasn't relied on to be, you know, a superstar and so on and so on. I don't think that's a player. Still a good player. Still was, yeah, for sure. But he wasn't putting up, you know, 20 points a game.

He wasn't playing 35 minutes a night. He wasn't doing that stuff. It is just a reminder. Though he was playing 31 minutes a game when he was 39. No, it's, look, the dude, like in all of this, the yoga, the stretching and all the stuff that Kareem did, the longevity, you know, Kareem was kind of LeBron before LeBron was. Like, he was, he was an exception to a lot of rules back then, too. That's why it seemed like he was running away with all the records.

I just, I marvel at the consistency of players like that. It is so easy to forget when somebody does something spectacular and makes it routine, you lose track of how spectacular it is. Remember the, you're better at remembering the individual's seasons. but the year, you know, Kobe scores 81, you know, there's 60. That's 2006. Right. And he, he has whatever it was, you know, six games in a row or whatever, seven years,

like we're with 50 plus. And, you know, you're aware of like, this is really impressive. But then he dropped, you know, the streak is broken with like some game in the mid 30s. I think it was. And you're just like, kind of an off night for Kobe. Like you forget just when, when, when, players are so routinely good for so long, it's easy to forget. And LeBron, like Kareem did before him, but LeBron in ways that really nobody has ever done, continues to

pile up excellence in incredibly profound and amazing ways. I mean, like, the Dodgers are experiencing a little bit of this with Clayton Kershaw this year, who's been very much. remarkably good and kind of surprisingly so in a bigger role than the lakers that the dodgers i think hoped he would need to play but you know he's not quite you know he's not throwing 96 anymore and it's it's smoking mirrors it's like and there's some old man game to what lebron's doing but lebron's a lot closer to still throw in 98 than than Kershaw is. And it's just easy to forget what this is. And when you bring up a number like that,

it's a reminder both of what he's chasing in terms of Kareem, but also just how long guys like that have to be not just good, but great to put up those kinds of numbers. Real quick, I have to correct myself. I had said before, Kareem's field goals, total field goals, 15,837. That is the number that LeBron is going to pass in all likelihood this year. But that is one higher than his 2.15,836.

I misspoke. During the 1987 season, Kareem made one and three, bringing his career total to 1 of 18 from behind the arc. I'm guessing there was a heave involved or something. Probably. Or you know what? Cream's feeling a little saucy at age 39. You know what? You're expanding your game, Andrew Bynum style.

Lockdown Lakers on YouTube. He did actually mentor Bynum, so. He did. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is we can go hang out with over 36,000 subscribers to the program. We will try to get Matt Moore on to force him to say nice things about the Lakers. It'll be worth it just for that. But I appreciate his work there recognizing something

that you and I have been pointing out to people. So love that validation. We will see everyone tomorrow.