Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Can the Lakers Make Real (and Needed) Improvement at Center?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Lakers have a big, needed center, but not necessarily that many ways to fill it. We'll explain what they might be able to do 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 everybody for stopping by Locked on Lakers, Brian Kiminoski, Andy Komenetsky. As we continue to kind of break down what the Lakers looking at as we get close. closer and closer to the summertime.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Looking today at the center position and what might come of that, Andy. The Lakers, I think, did about as well as they could, given their restrictions last year in terms of money available assets and things like that. When they re-sign Jackson Hayes, slotted him back in a backup position, and then they were able to bring in DeAndre 8. who was, I think, and the two of them overall, I think, were pretty good, like in the regular season, when it's all said and done. Certainly for the amount of money they were being paid, they provided more value than that. But obviously, when the Lakers got to the second round against Oklahoma City, both those guys were pretty clearly overmatched. So the general consensus hasn't seemed to change. They need an upgraded center.

Starting point is 00:01:30 Yeah, I think both Aiton and Hayes individually, like you said, were fine. And I think both of them had some highs during the season. I think Jackson Hayes improved a lot from last year to be like a legitimately quality backup, if not necessarily a luxury as a backup, certainly quality. And DeAndre Aitin had highs during the season. I think sometimes his highs were underrated. but the lows could be very, very stark. And more importantly, while you, I think you can accurately argue that for $8 million,

Starting point is 00:02:11 the Lakers got a performance that was perfectly acceptable from DeAndre Aiton. You might even say it was upper end value for $8 million. But he did not regularly outperform his contract. And that was really the goal for the Lakers. That was the hope was that they would bring in DeAndre Aiton, and you have one of those good problems, which is that he clearly outperforms his $8 million contract. He opts out of the deal and the Lakers have to figure out what to do next.

Starting point is 00:02:45 But they were hoping that $8 million would feel like a steal over the course of the season. And I don't think it did. I don't think he underperformed 8 million, but the goal was for him to overperform it. And he did not do that. I think certainly up to the hopes of the season.

Starting point is 00:03:06 And just even more broadly, the two of them as a duo and individually are not at the level of what the Lakers need for their ambitions moving forward, trying to have this team built around Luca, trying to go on deep play

Starting point is 00:03:24 off runs. Neither one of them, I think, is good enough for what the Lakers want and likely won't be. So if nothing else, the idea that if you ran back both of them, it's going to feel like there's a pretty glaring need at that position, unless the rest of the offseason was just so successful that they managed to bolster everything else but the center position, you felt like you could work around it, they're not going to be enough. Yeah, I think if you wanted to make an argument for those guys, you would say, you know, I think when Aiton was good, which sort of went in blocks. Like he was good for, you know, eight weeks at the beginning of the season. And then he was really bad for about eight weeks or 12 weeks or whatever, you know, nine weeks.

Starting point is 00:04:14 That is really good at the end of the season. He was quite good against Houston and was just simply overmatched against the Thunder. not a lot to be ashamed of there, and especially offensively, to be shut down by the combination of Chet and Iheart and those guys on a team that was sort of struggling offensively. Anyway, I get that. I think if you wanted to make a case for Aiton,

Starting point is 00:04:40 you'd say when the Lakers hit their stride, the light bulb kind of went off for Aiton. if he were to play for the Lakers over the course of next season, like he did in the final eight weeks, he's clearly outperforming the value of that contract. That's way better performance than an $8 million player, you know, in terms of a pretty consistent double, double,

Starting point is 00:05:07 and, you know, the shooting in the high 60s and all that kind of stuff, that's high performance. I think, you know, one of the problems with Aiton, You said it before, like sometimes you don't notice when he's playing well, but you always notice when he's not. The problem with my theory here is how confident are you that Aiton would be able to take what he did toward the end of the season and apply that to 82 games next season? I would not begrudge anyone in the slightest for being skeptical that it would work out that way. So the question becomes, though, what do you do? Because you can't fill out every hole.

Starting point is 00:05:57 Aiton might answer some of this for you by not entering the free agent market. And if he does pick up his option for next year, do you try to trade him? Do you feel like you can make him a backup? Do you feel like you would have to attach an asset to do that? What do you do because you got to prioritize if you're LA? I think a lot of this would depend on if you were looking to trade Aden for whom, in particular what type of contract? Like as an example, just making this up,

Starting point is 00:06:32 not anything that's being reported as the Lakers exploring it or whatever. Stop aggregating Andy. Right. But let's just say that the Bucks go through with trading Janus as widely expected this offseason because it just feels like they can't keep doing this any longer. at that point you expect that the bucks are going to start just cleaning house and start just trying to go into, or at least what I think they should do, they should be tearing this thing down to the studs and looking to rebuild, trying to get as much draft capital as possible because they're not, nor will they ever be a free agent destination. Case in point, when they had Janus, they couldn't get free agents. So I don't think they're going to be getting many free agents as a starter kit. So they're going to be looking to move, I think, a lot of their veterans on larger salaries. Miles Turner is coming off a downseason in Milwaukee, even though there was a lot of waves, arms around happening.

Starting point is 00:07:35 And, you know, he raised some recent eyebrows by airing some bucks dirty laundry, specifically about Janus and being late for everything, which could be Miles Turner just trying to get traded FOH. So we'll see. But, you know, if you trust his overall track record, which is that of a center that can hit threes, block shots, he's a starting, he is a legit starting caliber center whose contract is not incredible, but it's not onerous either. It goes on a few more seasons. It never reaches 30 a year. You could likely, I think something like a pick and Aiton and whatever filler.

Starting point is 00:08:19 just to get Turner off Milwaukee's books, I think could be a legit starting point. The only reason they have Miles Turner on this team was to make Janus happy. If Janus isn't on this team anymore, they have no reason for him. They need to get out from under that money. And if you look around the league, there are not a lot of good teams that need a center.

Starting point is 00:08:45 Like it's basically Boston, maybe the Warriors, depending on how good they think they're going to be, how well they think Draymond and Miles Turner could mesh. Like, there's not much of a need around the league for, you know, among teams looking to win at that position. I mean, maybe it takes more than what I'm describing, but the larger point is, I don't think folding DeAndre Aiton into that deal would be a problem, given the money they're saving, and DeAndre being $8 million expiring.

Starting point is 00:09:19 No, the issue, I mean, I guess you try to trade 8 and into your cap space if you have some, because again, as we've discussed, the Lakers, the mechanisms that they can use to create cap space available to trade players into is actually tricky. Like you've got to renounce guys, and if you want to bring them back, like you got to, you renounce Rui,

Starting point is 00:09:41 but you want to bring them back. And so you have to do a lot of cap mechanics and a lot of cap math. to make something like that work. I think you'd probably have to throw in, I think, to make the math work. If you were going to try to equalize salaries,

Starting point is 00:09:52 you'd have to throw in somebody like Jared Vanderbilt to make math work, which obviously is going to make, you know, you have to add sweetener, you know, from Milwaukee's standpoint. I think,

Starting point is 00:10:03 like, that's possible. I mean, I think the Lakers could certainly look to see in these, like Jason Kidd getting fired on, um, on Tuesday in in Dallas could be something that shakes loose roster moves there. Like I think you look at this as I wonder if certain players are going to be available

Starting point is 00:10:28 and what the price on those guys is going to be. So next let's kind of look at, you know, like the viability of getting those guys. What's realistic, what isn't? and the kind of the trickiness of all of it. We'll get into it next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Indeed. You got workplace chaos, deadlines are stacking up. The inbox is overflowing.

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Starting point is 00:12:47 For a limited time, download CalShe app and use the code locked on, L-O-C-E-D-O-N to get $10 when you trade 10. K-A-L-S-H-I-C-C-T trade on anything. 18-plus-only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable. for all investors. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calshy.com slash regulatory. Part of the issue here with used Turner as an example, he's going to be turning 30. He was okay in Milwaukee last year.

Starting point is 00:13:33 If you're a Miles Turner believer, you could talk about it in the context of just a horrendous year all around. without Janus on the floor a lot, without other guys that were expected to be there, a player like Miles Turner is going to be less effective. He is somebody who needs other people to generate his offense for him. Hard to make an impact defensively when the team is that bad. So you go back a couple years before that, you know, pretty consistent numbers in terms of defensive impact and stuff like that. I think he's a little bit on the decline. Probably was also miscast as a player who,

Starting point is 00:14:13 on like kind of a regular basis would give you 18 a night like he did a couple years ago. I think he's more of a 12 to 15 point a night guy on a really good team, not an 18 to 20 guy. And that's okay. Lakers wouldn't need that. They'd really want him there for defense.

Starting point is 00:14:31 And to space the floor. And a little bit. Yeah, I mean, a big who can space the floor be useful for the Lakers. There's no question. And protect the paint. Still a guy who pops off so often for four or five.

Starting point is 00:14:43 six blocks in a game. I get the appeal if you could make it work. Okay. But draft picks, if you use any draft picks for Turner, it's probably going to cut in your ability to get impact players with what you have left, just because the picks, the Lakers are going to be trading most people around the league

Starting point is 00:15:06 are soon they're going to be in the mid to late 20s. So they do have somewhat limited value. And then the other part of that is, are you okay with Miles Turner basically being the big acquisition in what you do this offseason? Because at $30 million, that's probably what you're going to acquire. If you can kind of bring most of the band back, but you've added Miles Turner at the cost of some of your future flexibility, is that good enough? is center more important in this context than a two-way wing? You know, would you rather go for Miles Turner than take a crack at, you know, Tari Eason or Peyton Watson or seeing if you could maybe overpay for Jalen Duren,

Starting point is 00:15:53 if the Pistons really are, as reported earlier this week, trying to maybe bring him back for less money than they otherwise would have because his playoffs were such a disaster. Yeah, and I mean, when I thought about Miles Turner, for example, it's not even so much lobbying for Turner the way I was, say, three years ago when reportedly the Pacers would have been willing to take on Russell Westbrook's contract and a Turner deal if the Lakers had just thrown in enough picks. And I was very much for doing that because I thought, well, I thought at the time,

Starting point is 00:16:29 and it turned out to be accurate, the Lakers were not going to be able to get a better player than Miles Turner for Russell. Westbrook and ultimately they did not. It's not even so much wanting Turner, although I do think he would be an upgrade at center compared to what they have. He'd be an upgrade. The question is, is by enough. Yeah. Right. Well, the real reason I was thinking about somebody like Turner or, for example, Nick Claxton in Brooklyn, who could, they certainly have no need for him over there. And, you know, he's got his strengths, his weaknesses. I think he would be an upgrade over Aiton, but I was also thinking about those guys specifically as deals that could be made that could

Starting point is 00:17:11 reasonably include Aiton because you are taking money like pretty large contracts or bigger than teams like the Bucks or the Nets want. You're taking them off your hands and cleaning some of their books. So in return, the cost of doing business in the form of DeAndre Aitin's $8 million expiring wouldn't be that onerous. So that's the reason he, you know, with everything going on in Dallas, you mentioned Jason Kidd getting fired. I know we'll hear from fans asking about Daniel Gafford.

Starting point is 00:17:47 I personally consider him more of a luxury backup than a... I don't think Gafford's enough of an upgrade to give up a lot of assets. I completely agree. I'd actually... If you're looking for Mavericks who might be on the move because age-wise, they don't quite fit what you know what you would think would be the timeline for the mabs especially if they trade kairi i'd be much more interested in a guy like naji marshall who is you know a pretty useful wing um but he's 28 and um or somebody like p j washington who is 27 um and i think would be a nice addition to the lakers front court can do a lot of just a good player

Starting point is 00:18:30 It depends on who else is still on the Lakers with Washington specifically because he's more of a four than a three. You start getting some redundancy. This gets to a lot of stuff. We talked about this early in the week. It's not so much, do you like this player? Do you not like you? Can you go get the best players you can or whatever? I like Rui Hachamura, but if you get two other players at different positions as part of your free agent or trade acquisitions

Starting point is 00:19:00 or whatever, Rui might not fit as well. And you might have to let them go because you've got to put these pieces together. And I think the argument you might want to settle on if you're the Lakers is for the player that costs you the most, do you want to make a play for Duren? Do you want to make a play for Peyton Watson? All of these things have a ripple effect for what else you would do around the roster. So for that one guy, you go pick the best player that you think you can find. You know, I think of the, if I could pull anybody off the free agent market and just assign them to the Lakers, I would choose Peyton Watson because of the potential 3 and D because of the age, because of the athleticism and all that kind of stuff.

Starting point is 00:19:44 I don't think Denver's going to let him go. But the point is, if you have Watson, that makes certain players on their current roster that they might want to bring back a little bit more redundant. I still think you go get the best player that you can and then you figure it out from there. like the Lakers need to know who are our prime targets, whether that's through a trade, through free agency or whatever. And if we get that guy, what are the next three moves for that guy?

Starting point is 00:20:12 Because if the next three moves, if you get a center who's a guy who plays like Duren, is going to be different than if you got a center who's plays like Miles Turner. You need different players to fill it around that. So Lakers need like 8,000 different flowchart, which is probably why it's helpful to hire more than just have Rob in the front office. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

Starting point is 00:20:34 Do not undercut what the Rambyer doing. They're working very hard as well. They deserve their credit for assisting Rob. But yes, this is why more manpower is needed, as I've said many, many times. Even if you think Rob is an underrated president of basketball ops and never gets the credit he deserves, It's too big of a job for that small of a shop. But we can talk about this too, moving forward. Like there are a lot of needs that have to be identified.

Starting point is 00:21:08 I mean, not even identified, addressed. And there's only going to be so many, at least this offseason avenues for addressing them. But also, some of this may get dictated by who is even available at whatever position that would be good. enough to invest in. You know what I mean? Like you may end up looking more for wings, for example, than centers, even if you think there's an equal market because the attainable wing options may be better than the center options, particularly if any of them require big investments. I am seeing people trading Austin Reeves in the comments. And I just want to remind everybody, you can't just sign and trade Austin Reeves. Austin has

Starting point is 00:21:56 Austin has to want to go to the place that you're signing and trading him to. This is not a no give back situation. But you can't just assign him a contract to another team. It's not a question of, you get to trick him into signing a deal with the Lakers and then send him out. That's not how this is work. I see people saying like, you know, Austin Reeves can't block a trade.

Starting point is 00:22:19 Sure he can. Yes, he can. By not signing a contract to go play with that. Actually, he's, he actually is the only person in the scenario that can block the trade. It's actually only Austin. The term thing is really. Sign and trade works.

Starting point is 00:22:38 It's the very definition of one. But I, the sign and trade thing is, is wildly far-fetched in almost every situation. They're very difficult to pull off. They're even harder to pull off now than they were under the old CBA. and with good teams that Austin would theoretically want to play for and keeping in mind bad teams are unlikely to trade for Austin and pay them a lot of money because it's turning 28 next year. So a rebuilding team, you've pointed this out with Milwaukee,

Starting point is 00:23:12 a rebuilding team is less likely to trade for Austin Reeves because it doesn't fit their timeline anyway. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't see it. And so, you know, or maybe they're just willing, They just need to spend their money somewhere. Who knows? Maybe they're locked on podcast wants to use the exciting whites meme like we do.

Starting point is 00:23:32 I mean, there's all kinds of choices here. But next, I want to get into a hypothetical that's been kind of kicking around Lakers' social media, not because I think it's going to happen because it's not, but because I think it really drives home the types of thinking and choices and decision-making that Lakers are up against I'll explain next.

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Starting point is 00:25:02 You ever watch a game and think, man, those fans are probably going crazy right now. On Reddit, you're plugged into millions of fans who are just as hopeful, dramatic, analytical, and loyal as you are. Reddit is the app for authentic conversations about anything and everything. I cover the Dallas Mavericks, and as soon as Cooper Flagg hard launched with his girlfriend, I went straight to the Mavericks subreddit because I had to see exactly what Mavs fans are thinking and saying about that. I also need to go anytime a call goes against.

Starting point is 00:25:26 the Oklahoma City Thunder. Go to the Thunder subreddit. You got to see what they're complaining about. Go check it out for any time a team gets kicked out of the playoffs or advances in the playoffs. It's incredible to have a real-time reaction from all these fans from all over the place. It's like the ultimate second screen. You're checking reactions, catching up on news, or just seeing how everyone feels about

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Starting point is 00:26:05 Quick reminder to people about the Everydayer Club. You can go to Lockdownlakers.supercast.com and check it all out. See if it's for you. 50 bucks a year, five bucks a month or 50 bucks a year, gets you access to the Discord channels with Locked on Lakers and Lockedon Lakers listeners, but also every other channel across the NBA. So it's not just us you're talking to, are Lakers fans. It's everyone around the league. If you just want to keep that conversation going,

Starting point is 00:26:34 you also get the show ad-free, which we know because we get your emails is important to a lot of you. So check it out. Information in the show notes as well. See if it's for you. If not, we love you just the same. So again, this is not going to happen. So, you know, we can, but it's an, it's an interesting hypothetical to me. And at this time of year, hypothetical trades, I think, are really useful for sort of figuring out of out what your priorities are and what you need to be doing, especially if you're like the Lakers, and you don't have that many choices. You got to make sure each one you make is spot on perfect. So the Lakers, some people are disappointed, Andy, in the especially the playoff performance of

Starting point is 00:27:16 Austin Reeves. The Pistons who were eliminated in the conference semifinals were certainly disappointed by the performance of Jalen Duren, who made an all-star team in his third year, I believe, fourth year. I forget. He is likely going to, I think there's a pretty good chance that he's going to make all NBA this year. So I'm a good young player to say the least. Playoff performance, notwithstanding. Reporting from the athletic earlier in the week indicates the Pistons are still very, fourth C. Right, that makes sense because he's extension eligible. So reporting from the athletic earlier this week indicates the Pistons are still very much in the, we're going to keep Jalen Duren business, but they're hoping maybe to get a little bit, shave that number down a little bit based on the playoff performance

Starting point is 00:28:04 and the fact that not a lot of teams around could offer him a contract. So, Lakers, by the way, are one of those teams, but we'll see. What people have been kicking around, though, Andy, is a hypothetical sign and trade that would essentially send our, and I put it in air quotes from my perspective, playoff disappointment, for their playoff disappointment. And in theory, everybody addresses certain needs that they have. The Pistons are obviously a very strong defensive team. Even if Duren was out of the picture, they would still probably be a strong defensive

Starting point is 00:28:42 team. What they need is secondary playmaking and secondary scoring. Reeves next decade would help juice that offense. The Lakers definitely. need up center presence. They need more youth. They need rebounding. They need defense. Duren, I would have to, you know, I is certainly an upgrade over, you know, what they have. I mean, that's that, you know, that I don't think that's any question. Which would you do that? If you could swap out Reeves for Duren, would you do that? Before even answering that,

Starting point is 00:29:19 I just want to lay out some of the numbers so people understand this scenario that was being reported by Hunter Patterson from the athletic covers, the pistons. The idea that, I don't know if you go so far as to say Detroit's going to try to lowball Jalen Duren, but they are trying to pay him, I think, less than they thought they were going to have to. Less than the max, which is what they assume that we're going to have to pay him halfway through the year. And these are the max numbers, by the way. The max if Jalen Duren does not. make all NBA. The standard max would be five years, 239 mil, about 44 million A.AV. If he makes the all NBA nod,

Starting point is 00:30:02 five for 287, which pushes up the average annual value to around 57 mil. Other teams can offer him a max of 4 and 177, which is around 44 mil, which is interesting just because if he doesn't make all NBA, the max another team can throw at Jalen Duren or you start creeping up to it isn't really that much different

Starting point is 00:30:29 than what Detroit would pay him. So I think you do actually have the opportunity to start getting into a space that could make Detroit squeamish if they're thinking about this at all. So it's not one of those things where, remember with Austin Reeves, the max any other team could offer Austin and ultimately nobody ever did because I think they thought it was a waste of time. The gap was much bigger than what the Lakers ultimately ended up paying Austin.

Starting point is 00:30:59 This is pretty similar. In a vacuum, would I do that? Yeah, because I think it's harder to find Jalen Duren than I think it is to find Austin Reeves. Even if you think right now that Austin, is the better or at very least more seasoned, more polished, more experienced player. And I think an argument can be made that way. I think Jalen Duren is really good and it's just harder to find Jailen Duren just by definition

Starting point is 00:31:33 of his size. Also interesting is Detroit had been a team this whole year that I had had earmarked as potentially competition for the Lakers with Austin. I actually exited to Cahill from Locked on Pistons a couple times asking him, like, you know, whether or not he thought Detroit could be interested in Austin, you know, just because they need more fluid with their offense. They need more shooting. They need somebody alongside Cade to help. And they have enough defense on that team to help protect Austin. So as a theoretical, would I do this?

Starting point is 00:32:10 Because ultimately, I think if you end up doing this, the money is going to. to be roughly the same in either direction. We're just for our hypothetical, you call it a swap. You're paying each guy the same. Yeah. I would ultimately do that because I think it's just harder to find Duren. In a perfect world, what you do is if you really want Jailen Duren, you put out an offer sheet that Detroit doesn't match, you get Jailen Duren and then you end up going over the

Starting point is 00:32:37 cap to re-sign Austin. I think that's how the Lakers are trying to design it if they could. Yeah, but if you're really looking to try to keep getting better, unless you, unless you can find a lot of other options to offset what you lose in Austin, what you want is during and, whether it's Austin or somebody else. That gets to the issue, which is with all of these guys, it's really an and situation. It's not an or like I think you can make if the way the league,

Starting point is 00:33:07 if games this year are an indication of the way the league is sort of trending. I think you can make an argument that Reeves' skill set is actually, certainly equally, if not more important than Duren. The Lakers would be left with if they don't replace him. The Lakers would be left with Luca as their ability to get into the pain. And offenses, as we've seen, particularly against these really good, versatile, switchy defenses that can put multiple players in multiple positions, eat up teams that can't get in the lane. And, you know, Reeves, when you start to kind of compare his playoff numbers in terms of how he got into and finished in the lane was actually quite good relative to other players around the league. Again, where Reeves completely collapsed this year and last year actually as well is his outside shot, his three point shot, just completely disappeared.

Starting point is 00:34:08 So I wonder, I actually think you probably need what Reeves provides. And if you can't prevent it or if you can't replace it, you're so lucca dependent to get anything going into the paint. You're not going to be able to have a functional offense in the postseason. Whereas, and I think Duren's offensive limitations, he needs to be fantastic defensively, I think, to compensate for that. And I know he's good, but I don't think, you know, I don't know if he's. He averaged almost 20 points a game this year. Like, I didn't think it's important to remember. He was bad in the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:34:49 Like, yes. But that is not typical of how he played this year. Right. I would. I think it was 18 something, I thought, but I could be right. He averaged 19 and a half points a game. 19 and a half. I thought it was 18.

Starting point is 00:35:03 But either way, I mean, that's basically the same. Right. That's not a guy who can't score. Right. But a lot of that, my understanding, and I plead a little bit of ignorance here, I don't watch 50 Pistons games a year. Neither do I. Is motor. It's rebounding. It's motor. It's things like that. All of things that, as I like to note, are less effective in the playoffs. Motor does not get you nearly as far in the postseason as it does in the regular season because everybody is playing hard. and you're also playing against, in theory, the best defense, the best defenses.

Starting point is 00:35:40 So, I mean, everybody has bad postseason. Personally, I wouldn't want to hold it against a guy who's shown that much promise before age 25. I wouldn't want to write him off, which is why the Pistons don't seem to be at all interested in doing that. I'm not going to call him a guy who can't perform in the playoffs. It's stupid. But I would be at least based on what my seeing. I would be a little worried about his offense, and the defense to compensate would have to be really good.

Starting point is 00:36:12 He'd be an excellent rebounder, better lane presence, younger player than Aden. There's a lot to like. I just don't know if I would do it for Austin. Sure. But I bring it up mostly to drive home the problem that the Lakers have, of if you use existing players to fill holes, you have to be careful not to create another giant hole.

Starting point is 00:36:35 Well, that's why I said that in a perfect world, what you look to do is it's Duren and or big target acquisition and and you keep Austin Reeves or, you know, you find through other players ways that you are truly offsetting Austin. You know, if if I had to choose between the two, like I said, I'd probably choose Duren. I understand why others, you or whoever, would choose Austin. I don't think it is a massively cut and dry decision in either direction. I mean, in all honesty, I don't. I think there are reasons you could. It's a really hard choice. That's why I find a hypothetical interesting.

Starting point is 00:37:15 But it also, I think, illustrates why it can't be one or the, it will be difficult to make it one or the other and still get as better as you need to be. But at the same time, like I mentioned, you know, the center position, the options out. there. I'm going to be watching how Mitchell Robinson does over the course of this, you know, this series against Cleveland. If they end up winning what he does in the finals because he's a potential free agent, the Knicks are expensive, maybe he becomes a casualty. But, you know, you look around and like, you know, Orlando, I could picture them doing a lot this offseason. But like Wendell Carter Jr. feels very similar to me, like a Daniel Gapard type, like luxury backup. I don't feel great about him as my starter.

Starting point is 00:38:05 A guy like Darren Sharp in Brooklyn is interesting. They're on Sharp's like good, but not. But I was going to say he's also totally unproven for something like this. He's never, like Mamu in Toronto

Starting point is 00:38:20 who is definitely going to turn down his player option. I know. He's a back. Yeah. But you know what I'm saying? Like these are, and these are by the way, like the best potential free agents out there. Like, So you just start getting into what is attainable. And, you know, it's going to be difficult.

Starting point is 00:38:38 Last thing I'll say about this, and ML Bolt on the chat and as we go live on YouTube is, I think makes made the point that, you know, we sort of alluded to it. But I think the best argument for picking Duren is age is 22. And so, you know, it's, I think it's for me, the argument for him would be you're, you're helping reset sort of your timeline a little bit with younger players. you're adding athleticism, you're adding youth at a time, you know, that in a way that overall benefit, probably benefits the franchise. The question becomes, does it make better next year? And that, I think, would be an open question. Are you taking a step backwards, whether

Starting point is 00:39:21 it's a small step, medium step, whatever, to take more steps forward over time? There's an argument to be made for that, but it's also a really tricky proposition. for the Lakers who are trying to maximize every year of Lucas Prime going forward. So I think I could be talked into it and might not even be that hard. I just don't think, I think before the playoff started, I think a lot, and certainly after a couple games of it, if you weren't watching Detroit very closely and didn't have any reservations about Duren, I think about 85% of Lakers fans would have signed up for that deal. Here's, okay, I guess last thing I would say on it, the real answer to the real answer to

Starting point is 00:40:02 this question of would you trade Reeves for Duren? The real answer might just be who else is on the roster? Who else can the Lakers get? And does Reeves or Duren fit better with whoever else those names are going to be? That might actually be the answer. If you can't, and if you keep one, who's the option for the, you know, secondary ball handler who can score a little bit? Who's your other choice for that? If you don't get a guy like Duren, a front more an all-star caliber center, who is your center? Is it an upgrade over 8 in ways that you need? So plenty to think about. Lockdown Lakers on YouTube is where you can hang out with over 38,000 subscribers.

Starting point is 00:40:40 We'll see everyone next time.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Can the Lakers Make Real (and Needed) Improvement at Center?

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