Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Deandre Ayton Understands Opportunity with Lakers, Wants to Be Part of a Winning Culture

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Deandre Ayton (and Jake LaRavia) met the local media for the first time on Tuesday afternoon in El Segundo, and not surprisingly, most of the attention was on LA's new starting center. The vibes around Ayton, who not that long ago was viewed as a potentially ascending star, has definitely soured. Not to a point where nobody wanted him when Portland chose to buy him out and cast him into free agency, but enough that he was seen as potentially damaged goods, and a negative player even for a Lakers roster that quite literally didn't have a center. Ayton indicated he's aware, and can only show that he cares, and that he wants to be part of a winning culture. The opportunity to be part of something like that -- led by Luka Dončić and LeBron James -- was a major reason he signed with the Lakers. Ayton says he understands the spotlight, can't hide from it, and doesn't want to. Obviously the proof will be in the pudding, but right now, there's no pudding to be in (so to speak). All he can do in July is say the right things and get to work in the facility, and in that sense he's off to a good start. LaRavia, meanwhile, comes with a chip on his shoulder, having been (in his mind at least) underestimated and undervalued by a pair of teams to this point, but also understands there's work to do establishing real value as an NBA player. He shot the three well last year, but needs more volume before he can truly call himself a high end shooter. So everyone seemed to arrive at the facility with some self-awareness. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, the Summer Lakers wrapped up the California Classic. Did Dalton Knecht rebound and restore some confidence... if not in himself, in Lakers fans?  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: Ayton meets the media. SEGMENT 2: Saying the right stuff? SEGMENT 3: A successful finish to the California Classic?  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.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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 Wednesday. Brian Komeneski, Andy Komeneski, DeAndre Aidan, introduced to the L.A. Media. Does he understand the assignment? That is 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 making Locked on Lakers, your first listen of Every Day Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast. This one's always free. Never behind a paywall. I sneezed twice during the introduction. Can't fight off that third one. Locked out Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out.

This is the danger of doing this show live. Lockout Lakers on YouTube. Land the plane. I'm trying. Where you can go and hang out with over 35,000 subscribers to the channel, all of whom Andy are very interested in what happened. happened in El Salvador on Tuesday where DeAndre Aiton and Jake La Ravia, but mostly DeAndre Aten, were introduced to the local media. And Andy, you were there and not dressed as well as

DeAndre Aiton was. No, I don't think anybody was as dressed as well as DeAndre Aiton. I want to make this clear just from the beginning. There is absolutely no evidence, nor did we hear anything about the fact that the press conference started about 90 minutes late. And given the recent reports from the athletic of DeAndre Aiton being late to flights, late to practices or whatever, again, I want to make it clear. There is zero evidence whatsoever that DeAndre Aiton was the cause of delay. I'm just saying it felt like the jokes writing themselves. I hope you didn't create one of those like strice and effect situations with this.

because I'm not sure most people even knew that the press conference had started late. Now their brains are working. Well, I think there were some people who tweeted about it, but also, damn it, I sat there for an extra 90 minutes before anything even got started. Somebody's going to hear about it. But I will say this, DeAndre Aiton's suit was worth the weight, and just his general fit was worth the weight. He looked really good.

He looked really happy. And we will get into some of the particulars of what he's, said, but I think just overarching view, D'Andre Aitin said all of the right things during this presser and said a lot of things I thought very thoughtfully with a lot of introspection. It seemed like he was very conscious of making a good, you know, a good first impression. And saying all the right things is not doing all the right things. That requires action. But for the time being, DeAndre Aiton can't do all the right things.

things because it's July. But as far as making a good first impression, I thought a lot of what Aiton said resonated well. Yeah, I mean, look, as they say, the proof is in the pudding. Andy, there is no pudding right now. That's just not a choice. We barely have the ingredients for pudding. In fact, a lot of Lakers fans are angry that Rob Polinka hasn't acquired more pudding for the regular season at this point. But I mean, I agree with you. Like I think the biggest part of this

that stuck out to me that I think is honestly the most important is the self-awareness. Like he didn't pretend that people haven't been, you know, they hasn't heard the negative stuff about him. He didn't pretend that those ideas aren't out there. I didn't even really- Or that they don't bother him. Right. But I also didn't get the impression, too, that he was, he felt like he wanted to argue those points in any way other than I hear it. I don't like it. I, you know, I don't want to say like necessarily took takes responsibility for it, but definitely where, but I am aware of what of what I need to do to fix it. which is implicitly saying,

okay, this is what people are saying. I probably haven't performed to the level that is expected of me or that I think I can perform to. There may be some extenuating circumstances. He kind of alluded to context, the situation he's been in the last couple seasons, and maybe a little instability in Phoenix and things like that. But there was an acknowledgement that, okay,

I understand what the chatter is, and this is the opportunity for me and a fantastic one and possibly the best anybody could ask for playing with Luca Donchich and LeBron James to fix it. And I think that self-awareness was important. Yeah, he described the opportunity in particular of playing with Luca. It was like a video game. But he noted how both LeBron and Luca are guys that have averaged, as he put it around nine assists a game for their career.

So the unspoken part is, these guys can make me look pretty damn good and will probably be really fun to play with. And he was asked at one point in the press conference about whether these questions about his motor and desire, stuff like that are fair and whether or not he could be misperceived. And after taking like a beat, like a thoughtful beat, and I thought he did that a few times, including to a question that I asked him that we'll get to later. But Aiton said, quote, I feel like at the end of the day, I'm on. on the court I'm supposed to perform, and it's just different routes with organizations,

whether they want to win or a lot. I've just taken my route to where I want to win. When it comes to wins, you play hard when you know everybody goes implicitly on the court to win. You do everything you're supposed to or you can do to win. And that concept of winning came up a lot with Aiton. Like he noted, and to be honest, I had never really thought about this before. this is his first time ever in unrestricted free agency of sorts. You know, it's after a buyout. It's coming when a lot of teams don't have the cap room to even offer him what he probably

thinks is his fair market value. You know, the last contract he was on came off a restricted free agency offer sheet. So this was really his first time with as much of as much of full choices as possible. Like I am going to the place that I want to go of my own free will with as many options in front of me as possible. And winning came up a lot. And it sounded like if nothing else, the last couple seasons in Portland where they were doing a lot of losing was a reminder to him of I've been around winning because he was the starting center of a team that went to the finals in 2021. I've been around losing. Losing sucks.

Winning is a hell of a lot more fun. I look better in the process. Yeah. And I think with that, he sort of talked about the right stuff too. Like, what is it that you need to do on this team that produces winning basketball?

Like he didn't talk about, I got to score 25. And I got to do this. It was set hard screens, roll hard to the basket, rebound aggressively, you know, get up and down the floor. Rim protection was something he talked about as like, you know, really needing to improve his game. And I think that's something that we'll get into based on your question later. But, you know, just like stuff like that, there is that under, like those are the winning things. Now, big line, those are not fun things to do.

Although, I will say, setting a hard screen so you can spring Luca, there actually is some incentive payoff there at the end. But you know what I mean? Like these, he's, some of the things he's talking about are the things that you have to kind of constantly grind and remind yourself to do as a player because they're not always fun and glamorous, but he understands the assignment. Well, and look, the guys around the league who do the proverbial. dirty work and we'll get into Jake La Ravia who was also introduced and he described himself in

some ways as one of those guys who was willing to do anything, hustle, energy. He's been described as one of those guys over the course of his career like Dorian Finney Smith has been one of those guys. As much as those things, they really do affect winning and they don't always get called out, you know, on sports center, you don't see him in a stat sheet. These guys aren't doing it purely altruistically. This is the way they get paid. Everybody is looking to get paid. Dorian Finney Smith and other guys like him, I think Jake LaRavia is one of them, are smart enough to realize my way of getting paid in the NBA is not to try to put up

25 a game. That, you know, it would be great if that was the route, but that's not the route that's going to work for me. You know, Dorian Finney Smith has been doing all the little things that contribute towards winning. He's also made 10. of millions of dollars. Like this is not purely like a sacrifice that's just about winning. And I say that because in some respects, DeAndre Aiton, if he does all of those things, they can lead to a lot of what he wants from his career anyway. Like it doesn't have to be in either or.

And let's let's stay on this because I mean, this incentive structure thing is something I think. think sometimes, I don't say trips fans up, but fans can get hung up on that. Like, are you doing it for the right reasons? And I want to break into that and get into what you

heard from La Ravia as well, as well as Summer League. Did Dalton connect bounce back? Kind of, yeah. All that coming up. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Monarch Money. Have you ever checked your bank account and wondered, where did all my money go all

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reliable, whatever, okay, he picks up the $8 million option that he's got next year, perhaps. But after that, are you looking at veterans minimum type contracts? Are you looking at, you know, three or four million a year, five million? Look, you know, it's nice work if you can get it. But it's not 20 million a year. It's not 25 million a year. It's not 30 million year. It's not building yourself back up to that place where you feel that you're being paid like, you know, if not an elite center, elite adjacent. Is that okay? Like if that understanding is prime in his mind to go along with, I kind of just the pride aspect of it, of wanting to do things the right way, reaching a certain level of maturity, whatever it is. How do you react to that sort of mixture

of motivations? Well, first of all, I do think it's important to remember. It was very, very widely reported that towards the end of DeAndre Aitin's time in Phoenix, and this was very specific to the season where they went to the finals, DeAndre Aitin was told, if you do a lot of these less glamorous things, the rebounding, the defense, the screens, all of that stuff, we're going to take care of you. But like this is the thing that we need from you with Chris Paul now on this team, Devin Booker, Cam Johnson, Mikhail Bridges, like this is the thing we need from you. And DeAndre Aiton, to his credit, did all of that stuff. He did it all and he was a big part of why the Sons got to the finals that year. And then the Sons didn't

take care of Aiton the way that they, by many, many reports said that they would. And I think that led to him in a lot of ways being disillusioned. Like, is it still on him to be a professional? Of course. But everybody has worked the job that at some point you either were promised or felt like it was heavily implied, do X, and this is the payoff. And the payoff doesn't come. And that sucks. And I think everybody can relate to it. it. And it doesn't matter if DeAndre Aiton is still a multi-millionaire who's made nine figures over the course of his career. That still sucks. I think it is, like I said, it is incumbent upon him to do all the right things. The reasons why, to some degree, I don't care as long as it happens,

I tend to think that the more you get rewarded for them, the more you find the joy in them and the point to doing them and it feels like you are part of a winning puzzle. I also think it was pretty clear during this press conference that DeAndre Aiton knows he is not seen as a winning player and that bothers him. He doesn't like that perception. I asked him directly, you know, with the idea of, because there have been a couple of questions, that you haven't really played up to what is seen as your full potential. Where are the areas that you feel like you need to grow the most, where are you most determined? And after, like I said, taking kind of a thoughtful beat, he said, mainly just protecting the rim as much as possible, closing out possessions

defensively. Every pick and roll, I'm setting a hard, every pick and roll, I'm setting a hard screen. When I roll to the rim, I'm rolling the rim aggressively, just really emphasizing the things that the team wants. This is my role and playing hard at it. If you are looking for DeAndre Ait and to have self-awareness about the things. that are needed from him more on a regular basis, those would be the items. Again, he's got to go out and do it on a regular basis. But that is most of what people look for from Aiton. The first step is him being aware, yeah, those people may have a point.

Yeah, and I think like, you know, my answer to that, the question I asked at the beginning or at the beginning of the segment is essentially like it's more of a long-term issue. Like, if you think a guy is more motivated by his next contract, then let's say Aden plays 65 games this year, averages 16 and 10, defends the rim, does all the stuff that you would want. You get the top end season from him. He obviously walks away from next year. You have to decide, do I trust that this guy is going to reproduce that after I pay him? This is not an uncommon NBA story.

But it's a long-term issue, not a short one. but I also agree with you. Like they're when guys find success, when they find the respect of people, you know, around the league, when you can change the minds of people. Javelle McGee,

I think, you know, in a different, maybe a different scale or whatever, is a great example of a guy who changed minds around and completely changed the perception of who he is. Kyle Lowry went from a guy

bouncing around early in the league. And this is something you and I talked about with Kyle Lowry a pretty great length for a piece we did with him years ago for the Players Tribune. Kyle Lowry, early in his career, it's easy to forget because now he's like a borderline Hall of Fame player. He was at one point considered pretty uncoachable and not somebody that teams really wanted. And he talked with us about how basically time around Chauncey Billups, Billups told him straight up like, dude, you're going to waste your opportunity because you're too, hard-headed and you're too hard to coach and you're not focusing on the right things. And then once Lowry did that, he went on to have a brilliant career. Like these things really do change at times.

To the point that by the end of it, he was the guy that teams sought out to put in their locker room. To be the culture guy. Yeah. Absolutely. That's what I'm saying. So, you know, I think you have to allow space for both things to be possible. You know what? Maybe the reputation in, you know, he's going to be better for the Lakers than they, within Hayes was last year. He's going to be better than they would have been, had they not been able to sign him. That's not the point. But like, can they, you know, can they hit the ceiling of what Aiton can provide them? That, that really depends on, at the very least, playing in a way that disproves what people are saying about what the last couple of years in Portland.

And if he can do that, there are some rewards that can get a guy. I mean, I think you have to be open-minded to the idea that both outcomes are very possible. That he doesn't, and we learn, you know, people at a point. Or, you know what? New culture, new whatever. Play with Luca, long-term opportunity. That's enough to get him going. Also, too.

26. 26, I believe. Yeah, I mean, it's still 20 young. A small tiny advantage that he might have moving forward just because any center playing for the Lakers falls under scrutiny because of the lineage of big men who've played with the Lakers, but in particular under the watchful and sometimes petty eye

of Shaquille O'Neal, Aiton and Shaq have a good relationship. And he referred to Shaq as Unk. So if nothing else, I don't think Shaq is going to be getting into Aiton's head the way he got in Dwight Howard's head and frankly destroyed a lot of the guy's prime. Well, that's good. Yeah. No, no.

I mean, he spoke glowingly of Shaq during this introductory presser. I think he said that he played with Shaq's son or something like that, but they have a relationship. He's a lot older than Shaq's kid, I think. Shack's been very supportive of him, he said. You talked to Sean Hiken, correct, for your show this week. week. And the one thing that I thought was interesting that Huyken has been saying is that, you know, you can say a lot of things about Aiton and some of them are fair or so or not. But like, he's the, the idea that he's a bad guy is not fair. Hikin disputed that. Sean Hikin,

who covers the Blazers for the Rose Garden report in 6.20 a.m. in Portland, been around the team a long time. He disputed that pretty heavily. Didn't dispute the idea that sometimes Aiton's motor is low. He isn't always as serious as he needs to be. But the idea that he was a locker room problem, he disputed. And those are two different things. And, you know, being both of those things is worse. The motor question, it doesn't matter if you're a good guy. You got to go hard. I mean, and you got to be able to, you know, put it up, you know, put up the numbers and put up the effort and be consistent about it. But, you know, we covered when he was with the Lakers, Wesley Johnson, who could not have been a nicer guy.

I mean, really, really good dude. But, you know, we saw Kobe was frustrated with Wesley Johnson because he's like, somebody's like, dude, you have all the tools. Just not an aggressive enough player, not a, you know. Right. Great guy. But just not. Great guy.

Dalton Connect. Did he rebound in the final game of the California classic? Sure hopes. So that's next. Before we get to the Summer League, Andy, any comments on La Ravia who was also there? He talked about himself a lot as a hustler who does a lot of different things on the court, talked about the excitement of playing with a lot of high IQ guys on the team, Luca, LeBron, Austin. There was a nice moment of self-awareness that I caught with La Ravia.

He was asked about his three-point shooting last season, with Memphis and Sacramento career high over 40%. And while La Ravia acknowledged that, he also acknowledged it was at pretty low volume and said unprompted basically, I gotta start putting up more of them and making them before I really can be thought of as an impact shooter. And I just thought that was really good self-awareness.

He also had an interesting response. When I asked him about Zach Kleinman, who runs basketball office, or GM or whatever title for the Grizzlies has admitted that they made a mistake by not picking up the final year of his rookie deal option. Sacramento, according to Matt George, Locked on Kings host, very plugged in with that team. They thought they were going to be able to keep La Ravia, and they were surprised that the Lakers or any team came in with a bid that essentially they couldn't match because of cap restrictions

because that last year of the deal wasn't picked up. But with those things in mind, I asked Loravia if he thinks he's been kind of an underestimated player. And he said, quote, yeah, I think I just bring something to the table. You don't find a lot. Just as far as going out and doing the little things on the court while still being able to space out, knock down threes, guard both sides of the ball at my size. I bring energy to the court every night.

Everyone values that. And I took that as kind of a roundabout way. of saying he does tangible things, but also does a lot of the intangibles that everyone appreciates, but not everyone knows how to quantify. But I thought that was an interesting, I thought it was an interesting response to my question. Yeah. He also looks 12 years old. Well, he's only 23, but it was interesting.

It's like Polinka and the, in the press release announcing the signing of La Ravia, you know, goes on about, you know, a two-way player and can score at three levels and can do all these other things. And our friend Cranches Spring basketball, Tim underscore NBA, Lakers Exceptionalism Pod pointed out like on Twitter. He's like, you know, don't do that, Rob, because he actually hasn't been a three-level score. He has a, like, you

raise expectations in a certain way, but I do think. Rob getting flowery and talking too much. It's weird, I know. He didn't get biblical. I mean, there is that. But like, so, you know, they're going to have to figure out how to use La Ravio

and play to his strengths and all that kind of stuff. But at 23, finally, you know, sort of, he is certainly an ascending player. How high he ascends, I think is the question. But he is a guy who is on his way up. He seems to have some potential there. And look, the Lakers definitely got younger. I mean, they've added a 26-year-old starting center.

I don't want to say La Ravia is automatically the sixth man, but they're seventh man. eighth man, whatever it is, 23. Like, it's making some progress in that regard. So I'm excited to see La Ravia. I said it when they signed him. I think there's a good chance that he and

DFS look reasonably similar in terms of their production over the next couple of years. So we'll see. Summer League, Andy, the final game of the California classic played in front of at least 19 people. They did clarify during

the broadcast that because the lower bowl was super, super empty. Apparently that was blocked off for this game for scouts only. So to be to be all right. Well, I, then I'm happy to hear that because man alive, otherwise I was worried the California classic had lost. I didn't see anything above the lower bowl. So I don't know. I'm just saying the visual we saw was misleading.

It was pretty bad. Or potentially misleading. It might be accurate. I don't know. A thrilling. didn't come back, Andy, for the summer Lakers led by Dalton Connect. And so that was really good to see. There was a moment about, I will say, his energy level and effort level increased throughout

the weekend, if you want to include this as like the last part of the weekend throughout the tournament. He got better as it went along from an effort standpoint. He didn't score very well. And he didn't play great on Sunday, but at least he looked like he was trying. And there was like a switch that went off. It was almost like somebody like walked behind him and flipped on the Dalton swag switch. And he just looked like the connect that was effective with the Lakers in his best moments during the regular season last year.

Yeah, part of an 89,88 win over the Spurs. Last minute put back by Darius Bazely, who also played terrific. connect miss where connect drove the lane and pulled that defense to him allowing you know kind of kind of creating the space for beasley uh for basley to make that follow yeah and we might talk a little bit about darius basley he's been in the NBA before um he he has experience he is a 230 games i think yeah i mean he is a even by NBA standards he is an athlete um but dalton connect 25 points nine of 18 from the field hit four threes also had eight rebounds. Like you mentioned, he just looked, he looked more confident out there. He looked more

engaged out there. I don't remember, I apologize who I'm not giving credit to, it might be Matt Peralta from Lakers Nation, but pointed out that last year, for whatever reason, Dalton Connect got off to a slow start in the California Classic as well, but got better as things went along. We'll see how he looks in Vegas. But we talked about it is important that Dalton, and connect, given his experience and his place on this team, whether as a potential trade chip or somebody actually in the rotation, it's important as a second year guy who actually played last year that he looks like one of the best players in the summer league. This was a nice, nice start to hopefully realizing that. And then I mentioned before, Darius Basley has been

very good in three games with the Lakers. Yeah, I lie. I don't. Basley is not. somebody who has any, there's no space for him on the Lakers roster. I mean, he's obviously going to get. For the time being, for the time being. There's, and that's what I was going to get to. Like there's, there is a, you know, if nobody else invites him, there's a good chance he ends up on a training camp roster with the Lakers or, you know, I don't think he's even two-way eligible at this point.

He's got too much NBA experience. But, you know, so you look at it and. He can't do a two-way, just a part of it. Yeah, so I was 98% sure on that, but it's always leaving room to be wrong. you know, he's earned a training camp invite somewhere. The question, you know, like he, it's a great, like, he was showing you, like, he's a guy with 200 and something games of NBA experience, you should look better and be able to dominate and all that kind of stuff.

And he did. But the Lakers Summer League team, it just shows you, like, what athleticism looks like in like, are these guys? I mean, I don't know, like, what, if you took these, like, athletically, if you took these guys, put them on an NBA court with other, you know, the highest, it would look, but like relative athleticism. This summer league team for the Lakers is a very athletic group. They have been out, they have out-athleted the other teams they've played throughout the three games,

not necessarily out-basketballed them, but it's just a reminder of, like, what athleticism does. for a team. And the Lakers haven't had that over the last couple of years. And I think it is important to try to add that. So like if the Lakers were to make a trade that sent out three players and brought in one and, you know, maybe you're signing another player. De Anthony Melton, by the way, now looks, their rumors are he's much more likely to go back to Golden State than to L.A. Bradley Beale, the clubhouse leader for that buyout should have happened. still is the clippers it appears to be. So who knows what's going on with the players that the Lakers might bring in. There are still some other names out there, you know, mere coffee players like that that are at least intriguing. Your coffee could be a sneaky good pickup.

He could. If he can be had for, you know, so look, there is work to be done. But if the Lakers were to trade out three guys bring back one, sign one free agent, you suddenly have an open roster spot. you could do worse than at least offering Basley the opportunity to come to training camp and show you can do that and pre-season games and all that other stuff.

And if nothing else, man, I just root for guys like Basley or whoever because this is so hard. Like what these guys are trying to do. Like I think one of the things that you and I really learned over the course of doing this for so long just how difficult this is. Like I think everybody can conceptualize broadly. Yeah, making the NBA would be hard.

But when you see these guys up close so many years in, years out, and realize just how good, like, they all are, and like what separates guys who are, you know, definitely NBA players versus low-end rotation guys versus fringe NBA. Like, the space between the low-end NBA guys and fringe NBA guys can be pretty slim. Sometimes it's all just about situation and opportunity, but a guy like Basley who's been in the NBA and wants to return, you root for someone like that. You root for someone like DJ Stewart, who I think has looked very good in Summer League,

who I know he's been cut from a bunch of training camps. Like you just want to, you feel for these guys because it's really damn hard. Smokey on the comment, we can quit here, but smoking in the comment section said, you know, don't be hyped by Basley.

You saw this with Quincy last year. meaning Quincy Olivary, Basley had been around the league and hasn't done much at all. And obviously that's true. Otherwise, he wouldn't be trying to work his way back into it. But I do think, like one of the things that's hard for a lot of times with fringy players.

And Basley was a second rounder, I believe, that was traded to Oklahoma City. He was a late first round pick. Late first round. These guys go, they're the best player on their, if not the best, you know, the best player.

They're stars on their AAU team. They're stars on, they're not just talking about Basley here, but just generally. There's stars in their, in college for however long they play. There's, they've been stars everywhere they've ever gone.

And all of a sudden, you end up in a place where, oh, bleep, I can't be a star. I've changed how I play. And, you know, Mike Garcia, Canyon driver,

the, you know, great draft analyst, knows a ton of basketball, ball. He had a couple nice things to say about Basley on his Twitter feed. And I responded as like, he clearly understands what you need to do if you're Darius Basley to get back in the league. And it's not be a star. It's push hard on rebounds. It's

you know, make the hard cuts. It's make the right pass in traffic. Like little stuff like that. Because if Baselie lands back in the league, he is not going to be a star. And that's kind of like how I like how Brani plays, even in these games. He gets more aggressive. Bronny, by the way, did not have a good game on Tuesday. But generally speaking, like the arc for Brony is he's getting more aggressive and he's

getting more confident, but he still attacks games in the same, to me at least, in the same kind of way that he thinks that his NBA role is going to be, which is as a role player, not as a star. And I think that can be a hard thing for players to learn. you know, to Smokey's point, it can take two, three, four seasons and somebody saying you can't be in the league anymore before you can completely change those habits.

Well, I mean, just to put a pin in what you're saying, Darius basically did have a couple seasons with the thunder, albeit on bad thunder teams that were in the process of rebuilding to where they are now, but where he was a double-digit average score. You know, he had one season where I think he averaged about 13 points a game. That did not keep it.

him in the league because like you said that that's there are more guys that if you gave an opportunity to put up double digit scoring they could do it. Oh, 95% of the guys that you see in the G league or on an NBA roster, if you gave enough shots, would put up 10 points again. Right. Exactly. Like that, which isn't to say that it's easy. It just means there's too many guys who can do it and likely can do it better than you.

what's the thing that you can do that separates you, in this case Darius Basley from some of these other guys, that if nothing else can secure you a role as a low-end NBA rotation player at minimum, he's got the athleticism. Like he is a real NBA athlete. What else can you do? So we'll see. Yeah. Locked on Lickers on YouTube, so we can go hang out with over 35,000 subscribers to the channel.

We'll keep an eye on what's happening, free agency and trades and all that good stuff. But other than that, we'll see everyone tomorrow.