Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Does Bradley Beal Make More sense for Lakers Than a Wing Stopper? Plus, Jaxson Hayes Waives No-Trade Clause

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

Monday, we talked about the (reported) impending buyout in Phoenix for guard Bradley Beal, who would instantly become a highly sought prize on the free agent market. He was quickly linked to the Lakers, and not just because everyone is quickly linked to the Lakers. Beal would fill a big need as a bench scorer and playmaker, but is that something the Lakers need more than, say, De'Anthony Melton, who can hit some 3's and more importantly defend higher end guards? Or do the Lakers need a wing more than either one? We asked listeners to weigh in, and generally they preferred Melton over Beal. It makes a lot of sense, but would that be the right call? How do the Lakers prioritize better talent vs. roster needs? If they can fill a lesser need with a better player, is that better than the opposite? Meanwhile, the riddle of Jaxson Hayes and his no-trade clause—one that wasn't given to him by the Lakers as a favor, but was a function of him signing another one-year deal? Turns out he waived it, and that might explain why the Lakers are paying him a little more than the minimum this year. Here's more money in exchange for giving us the ability to move your contract if need be. It's also, likely, a favor to Hayes's agent Bill Duffy, who just happens to represent Deandre Ayton and (oh by the way) Luka Dončić. So while the extra cash for Hayes might be a little frustrating to Lakers fans, because it eats into their available cash through the Biannual Exception, this sort of relationship management is smart business.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: Beal or Melton, Lakers fans weigh in. SEGMENT 2: The Hayes deal, clarified. SEGMENT 3: How to prioritize need vs. talent?  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 Tuesday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kemincki, Bradley Beal, D. Anthony Melton, or other. You have opinions. That's 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.

First listen to every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast. This one's always free. never behind paywall and locked on Lakers on YouTube. Andy is where over 35,000 subscribers are going back and forth as to how they think the Lakers might want to fill out at least the probably the free agent portion, we'll say of the offseason roster changes based on that money a little under $4 million of the Lakers have left as part of their bi-annual exception, at least for now.

So we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about Jackson Hayes. trading, I guess, security in staying in one spot for a little bit of extra cash. We'll explain what we mean by that in a moment. Do want to let people know that today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So we talked on Monday's show, Andy, a lot about Bradley Beale and the potential of him being bought out by Phoenix. that does seem to be.

No reporting indicates that the breaks have been pumped on that idea as of now as we record on Tuesday afternoon. I'm sorry, Monday afternoon. The context around that trade has changed with Norman Powell being sent by the Clippers to Miami. John Collins, part of a three-way deal, goes to the Clippers. And a lot of people believe that that is opening the door for Bradley B.L. who end up in Los Angeles, but not with the Lakers, but the Clippers.

That said, still a lot of reporting any of the Lakers are interested. And this question of Beale or DeAnthony Melton or someone else, it's interesting because in some ways, to me at least, it's more than even just about the individual players. It's kind of like, what are you looking for? What skill set do you value the most? And by the way, props to our audience, who we've always said, we think is a very smart, very attentive. They watch the league. They know what's going on because we ask you guys to comment in terms of who you would rather see the Lakers go after with that remaining free agency money, Bradley Beale, De Anthony Melton, free agent X.

with the idea of all these guys are potentially available for the money the Lakers can spend, who would you go after? And based on both the comments section of Monday show, but also a poll that I put up in the community section of the Lockham Lakers YouTube page, 56% of you with over a thousand people weighing in for the voting, so props to all of you for making your voices heard, this is why democracy. Yeah, this is why democracy works. 56% said they were at that.

This means the Lakers officially have De Anthony Melton based on the results of this poll. Yes. Unfortunately, that is not how things work. But if nothing else, we're getting the pulse of Lakers Nation, which we like to do. 56% say De Anthony Melton, 34% say Bradley Beale. 5% said Chris Paul, who was the third name that I put in there when I created this poll, just because he's the biggest name that I think has been consistently linked to the Lakers. He has made it very clear that he would like to play the twilight of his career,

however long that lasts in Los Angeles near his family or certainly close to his family. And then 5% saying others. Others have included Gary Payton the second, Marcus Smart, where he bought out by the Wizards, Al Horford, who was still out there unsigned. And I say props to you guys, not even because De Anthony Melton is necessarily the right answer, but I think an audience that simply was looking at names and doing some of the frankly star referee that we often accuse this franchise of doing would automatically say Bradley Beale and while you can make I think a very compelling case that Bradley Beale is the right answer again props to our audience for clearly giving this some thought what and that gets because I was really chewing on this

overnight after we did the show and like really thinking about it because And this is why I mentioned this idea of like, which skill set do you value more like versus the player? Because I think you can make a really good argument that the Lakers need the defense that comes in theory with the Anthony Melton more than they need the offensive oriented sixth man that you theoretically get with Bradley Beale. Even though they need that six man. They need both. And that's the thing. So you can make a very compelling argument for either guy. And in a vacuum, I think I would prefer if I could only fill one hole with a player that I knew would tick the box.

Like we have this guy and boom, Lakers good to go in that regard. The problem is Andy, of course, we live in the real world where real context starts to play into it. And, you know, I think Bradley Beal is a wholly unreliable player in terms of health. But as you noted on Monday's show, DeAnthony Melton may be less reliable, given that he's coming off a major injury and was injured a lot the year before as well. They are both health risks, period. Given that, then I started thinking, are you better off with the better player? And I think at this point in his career, as maligned as he has kind of become,

Bradley Beal is probably a better overall player than De Anthony Melton. I don't think that's a controversial statement. Melton's good, but Bradley Beal, if nothing else, is far more established as a good player. I think if you ask 30 GMs around the league, put the salary aside, who do you think is a better player, Bradley Beal or DeAnthony Melton? It will be at worst 29 out of 30 saying Bradley Beal. Yeah, I think that's probably true. We get putting the money aside, which essentially you can do now before you couldn't. Or the context of the roster, I guess, like, you know, if you had seven guys who can play Bradley Beale's role and nobody to defend, which I guess.

You're the Phoenix Suns. Right. And look, some people would say that's actually the Lakers right now. But I think most the general overwhelming consensus would be Bradley Beals a better player than Anthony Milton. And so, you know, Melton and low efficiency guy shoots a little. you know, can shoot a little bit from three point range, you know, two or three assists a night, all that kind of stuff. But I, it's hard, I think, sometimes to have that balance between best player versus greatest need because we talked about it a lot when they were trying to think about

the center position. Like you've got to, do you want to go get a lesser center that because because you badly need a center? Or do you get a better wing and figure out center later? Do you get the best player that you can? And I think the more I think about it, if I had access to both, I'd probably very nervously take Beale at this point, only because I really don't know what I'm getting with Melton's help.

It's interesting. A few reactions that we got in the comment section, there were a lot of fans questioning whether or not Bradley Beal would willingly come off the bench. If you would chafe against that, there was reporting that he didn't like this in Phoenix. He eventually did it, but that he was very unhappy about it. We talked before about how often I think it is easier for the next team to get a guy of Beal's stature to take on this sort of role once the Band-Aid has been ripped off.

You know, we saw that with Russell Westbrook. The Lakers ripped that Band-Aid off. And then Russ seemingly pretty willingly has come off the bench in his next stops. You see that a lot over the course of guys' career. To me, it's a moot point because if Bradley Bill isn't willing to come off the bench, I wouldn't sign him. Oh, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Not even because he has to come off the bench, but if he's not even willing to go there,

and this is something that needs to be ironed out before you sign him, I wouldn't do it. Because that is, if nothing else, there is a high probability that you will need him to do that. and he'd be unwilling, I would rather just cut this thing off before it starts. I saw a lot of people mentioning this came up during the live chat of the show, that Austin should come off the bench instead of Bradley Beale. As we both said, I don't think the Lakers would look to do this, A, because you can make an argument that Austin Reeves at this stage of his career is a better player than Bradley Beale or the more ascending at the very least.

But remove that piece of it, the part. politics of this with the Lakers for the time being wanting to keep Austin Reeves around. You don't have him come off the bench in a walk year. There are exceptions. The Lakers did that with Lamar Odom and they ended up being able to keep him for a while. But Lamar was an unusually team friendly guy. And it wasn't without. Well, there were there were complications for those who may not remember there was a long, long period before Lamar eventually resigned with the team. And I'm not implying that Austin isn't a team-centered guy. I'm just saying it can be a dangerous game to play. Right. So after the break, I have a couple questions for him. We'll make sure we get into this

Jackson Hayes thing as well and just how it affects what the Lakers are doing and reflects perhaps a larger new world order in Los Angeles. But I got a couple more questions about the broader things that we're talking about here when you talk about Beale versus Melton versus other. We'll do it next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul. The summer sports are in full swing and whether you are all about baseball and the lights,

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So pick something super obvious. Bet open the Fandual app today or visit fandul.com to get started. So let's knock out this Hayes thing real quick because the news of the signing of Jackson, the resigning of Jackson Hayes was controversial, I guess, in some Lakers circles. And it was even sort of made more frustratingly controversial when, and this wasn't anything the Lakers did. It's just a rule in the CBA that when you sign consecutive three, you know, if you're a person who's signing consecutive one-year contracts, it comes with a de facto no trade clause because you are then basically, it is it's sort of just insurance. for the player to have some sort of security that the place that they're going to be signing is where they could be staying if they're on this, if a team is not willing to commit to them beyond a year. And so that made Lakers fans angry.

But you can in fact, then I don't want to get out of order. Then it came out, the Lakers were giving Jackson Hayes slightly more money than they had to 120% of the minimum as opposed to 100. which eats into about a million dollars worth of the biannual exception that they have to offer somebody like De Anthony Melton or Bradley Beal or other in your poll. Marcus Smart if he's bought out. That's an interesting name. And so you got that. But we learned on Monday that Jackson Hayes had in fact waived his no trade.

And that starts to put a few of these pieces together. Perhaps he was compensated a little bit extra by the Lakers for the ability of the Lakers to take that contract and put it into something else, some sort of trade. But, Andy, as you've noted a bunch of times on Twitter, this all goes even deeper than that. Yeah, first of all, I want to give credit. I believe it was Dan Wojke from the Athletic who first reported this about Jackson Hayes and waving the no trade clause. Dan, for those unaware, is now covering the Lakers for the athletic and to do some of the same. great work that he did at the LA Times. And I'm just going to say this right now.

Luca Donchich, DeAndre Aiton, Jackson Hayes. They all share the same agent, Bill Duffy. And without doing even the slightest bit of asking around, I am going to declare, that is not a coincidence. Like, it is no coincidence that these three guys have all ended up on the Lakers at this time, particularly as the Lakers are looking to try to get Luca Donchich to extend to the setup of his choice. And this is all part of, I think, the quid pro quo that goes on between teams and agents all the time. DeAndre Aiton steered to the Lakers seemingly after the buyout with the Blazers.

It would not shock me in the slightest. I said this last week. If Bill Duffy had given Ra Plinka heads up, hey, I know you guys could be looking around for different centers, be making a deal. DeAndre is going to be getting a buy-off from the Blazers. It's been kept pretty quiet, but I think he'd be interested in joining this team. DeAndre Aitin ends up agreeing with the Lakers. Hey, bring back my other client, says Bill Duffy, says Ra Pallinka, sure, but we got to get rid of the no trade clause. Bill Duffy, fine, we can live with that, but we want a little bit more of a bump. Rob Polinka, fine, we can live with that. And I mean, in all honesty, even if Jackson had

that no trade clause while it's not ideal, in the grand scheme of things, it's probably a relatively small sacrifice compared to the other positives. And also, too, if Jackson's not playing, my guess is he wouldn't stand in the way of a deal anyway, because he'd want to land somewhere where you'd have a better chance of reestablishing his market value. And if he is playing, there's at least a decent chance that the Lakers don't trade him anyway. But regardless, it feels like there have been a lot of machinations in a back and forth mutual scratching of backs. And hopefully this is a good potential sign of the future with the Lakers and Bill Duffy Incorporated, similar to what we always talked about with LeBron, Anthony Davis, and Clutch.

And the very perceived and real influence they had over the organization, hopefully there will be good judgment exercised by Rob in this relationship. Sometimes he has to say no and to be fair to Rob. There are times he definitely told clutch no. It's also worth pointing out for what this is worth. Bill Duffy's reputation, he's been a powerful agent for a long time. He's always that a reputation is pretty easy to work with. So we'll see where that goes moving forward. But, you know, Bill has been in this industry for as long as Brian and I have covered the Lakers, covered the NBA. I've met him a few times in passing, but my understanding of his rep has always been that he is relatively easy to work with. So we'll see how this works, moving forward.

So back to the question of how to fill this last hole. The Lakers are going to still try to make trades. They're going to try to fill out the roster in other ways. But they really only have one slot, if you're going to sign a free agent, they only have one other slot to do it with. If they can do it two for one, and obviously there have been multiple reports, the Lakers have been trying to swing trades, trying to get rid of some of these expiring contracts, maybe ship out two contracts, get one back. There's all kinds of things. Whether they can actually do it is something that remains to be seen.

If you could pick one skill set to try to shore up, before. we get into this issue of, you know, better player versus skill set or whatever, which one would you take? Like what are they missing that if you could snap your fingers and say, sign a guy, get a guy who fixes that problem? Which one would you pick? I will tell you that, Brian, coming up next after the break. If I had the ability and obviously the context matters in terms of which players we are talking about how much better a different player might be at more skill sets than this one thing that I'm narrowing down. But in terms of the thing that I would look for from a player,

it would be point of attack defense for positions one through three, you know, some smaller, small forwards around the league. Because I don't think the Lakers have anybody right now that JJ seems to 100% trust. Right. Or that you look at and say the shortcomings on the other end aren't problematic. Jared Vanderbilt, while I think there could be some creative ways to find utility with him offensively as a screener, as a guy that can move the ball reasonably well. He's just such a different regular season player than he is a playoff player. As an 82 game

regular season player, I think you can find some of that offensive utility a little bit easier than you can in the postseason. Well, it's also, too, right now, the larger problem with Vando for all the focus on his lacking outside shot, the real problem is his inability to finish around the rim. Like somebody of Jared's athleticism and that physicality and that, you know, that willingness to do the dirty work and, you know, he's a really good offensive rebounder. But the fact that he finishes so poorly and is not. really he's not really an option around the rim and he's not a great free throw shooter on top of it.

So sending into the line if he can't finish isn't necessarily an advantage either. He's just not a good offensive player. Right. That becomes an issue. I think Jordan Goodwin, if you gave him more opportunity, could be, I think, passable enough offensively. And then in the meantime, defensively does so many things that this team needs, whether as a rebounder, as somebody that I think can guard both down and up. You know, he's somebody that can be very disruptive.

Like, I don't picture him playing 30 minutes a night on this team, but I think he is somebody that could play 15 to 18, something like that. And maybe plays kind of a perfunctory starting role as somebody that you put on those type of players early on in a game, try to get him out of the rhythm. And then somebody would come off the bench playing more minutes than him, like say, Ruey if Jordan Goodwin, not that they play the same position, but just in the way a rotation works. But the Lakers really don't have much optionality in terms of those type of defenders. I mean, their overall defense in general is lacking, but particularly that piece of defense.

That is the basic idea. Whereas Bradley Biel's that's the Melton signing. Right. Bradley Biel's skill set is really needed on this team. but they have more guys who can do what Beal does, even if they need more of it. They have fewer guys who can do what Melton or a Marcus Smart or Gary Payton the second can do. It's, the hard part is really just, you know, the problem, the hardest part about finding a defense, a defender. I was going to say defense or a defender and it came out defender. Finding a guy who is that kind of defender is context matters so much in that kind of thing. There are very few guys and these guys are generally paid significant money or they're just

they're just not people who are available like go trade for Herb Jones. Okay, with what? I mean, I'm guessing the Lakers would have done that if they could. If it was that, somebody would have. It was that simple. I mean, the biggest problem with trying to trade with the pelicans right now is nobody can figure out what the F they're doing. Right. You understand what we're getting like, okay, maybe the Lakers can't put together the right thing.

But, you know, somebody out there has got more assets. Oh, yeah. It was easy to trade for Herb Jones, who's got that genuine wing defensive profile and all that kind of stuff. Seems, you know, young players seems like the kind of guy that you can kind of, you can kind of, It's sort of scheme agnostic and you can make it work. Most players are very dependent on how they're used on the broader scheme, on who's around them and all that kind of stuff. Again, I think people like to use the Oklahoma City and Indiana examples.

Like, just go get Aaron Neesmith. And like there's some truth to that. But Aaron Neesmith is even better when he's got, you know, two or three other guys around him who are genuine two-way players. And now you can use those players differently in a situation where the rest of the supporting defense isn't as good. It can be hard to get the same defensive value. It doesn't mean you shouldn't add them because they're still going to make your team better.

But the lower, the further away you get from elite, the more diluted that impact becomes. And so it's whereas Beal. I think you can more confidently say, Beal is going to, if we sign Beal, it's going to have the impact that we want versus signing Melton. I still am like, you know, a segment ago, I was like, you know, God, I just, I agree with you that that lane that I would like them to fill is the one that you're talking about. But now it gets into that, which player is better? What's the gap between the two players that you're talking about? You know, could they, if the best, you know, the third thing on that list, I think you could say, maybe be a backup center or a genuine wing to kind of at the height of a DFS to be able to play

and fill that role maybe differently than the Ravia can or something like that. Can you find that guy? Not as high a priority, but if that's the best player, do you pick that guy? the balance here starts to get really tricky, especially when your pickings are getting kind of slim. And also too, when your team is not one guy away anyway. Like the fact that we've named so many different areas that you'd like to show up reinforces that unless the Lakers can somehow swing a trade for a two-way star, like they're going to have to choose between Beal, Melton, somebody like that that's still available in free agency,

and look to do some type of consolidation trade or some type of move if they want to come as close as they possibly can to addressing as many areas on the list. And it's going to be difficult even if they spend the remainder of that biannual and make moves. Like it's still not going to be easy, but find it. It's one of the reasons that we said the DeAndre Aitin trade was so great for the Lakers. Beyond the fact that DeAndre Aitin is a legit starting center in the NBA, he's averaged to double double, like whatever flaws that he has on the court, attitudeally, you know, general lack of true passion for basketball, whatever.

He is a massive upgrade at what they had at Center post Anthony Davis, and they gave up nothing to bring him in other than money, which allows you to keep these other assets to maybe make other deals. Like, they're going to have to do a few things regardless if they really want to try to put this roster this season as close to contention as possible. That's the part about it, the Aiton thing that I still think is just so frustrating to hear people talk about it because they don't like. like Aiton as a player, which can't get it.

He's not healthy a lot. The motor is questionable and all this other stuff. Although you've had some conversations with people who covered him. It's like, you know, you do need to draw a line at the guy isn't a decent guy. It's a bad guy. It's a locker room cancer. Like that stuff may not be. And we'll do some DeAndre Aiton scouting reports.

But I just, you cannot get past how critical it is for the Lakers to have filled that role, filled that space with a like him, dislike him, perfect fit, not perfect fit, legitimate NBA starting center. Yeah. Like these, you know, say what you will about DeAndre Ait. He is not a marginal caliber starting center, particularly the engaged version of him is a very quality center. Hell man, the seemingly unengaged version of T. Anthony Aiton has been productive and like, Like I know there can be noise and stats and people will say,

you have to watch the whole games. And Brian and I've watched, Brian and I've watched DeAndre Aiton play his entire career, which is why, while we said we want to get more perspective, Sean Hiken, for example, who covers the Blazers for the Rose Garden report.

We're going to look at him on our show, but he is going to be on my show for ESPNLA 710, that I'll be taping in a couple of hour, or I'll be broadcasting in a couple hours, but there will be YouTube and audio versions of it that you guys can seek out. Sean Heikin's going to be on this show, and I've heard him talk on other shows

about how he doesn't believe the reports about DeAndre Aiton being some type of locker room cancer are true, even if he, I think, does agree. I don't want to speak too much for Sean, but the idea that DeAndre Aiton, not many people are, but DeAndre Atene, ain't Kobe. Like he's not going to be, he is never likely going to be one of these guys that lives,

breathes, sleeps basketball. But here's the thing. Brian and I covered Andrew Bynum. And I've seen some comps, Laker fans, talking about how this, you know, this is another Andrew Bynum. The Lakers would thank their lucky stars if this was another Andrew Bynum. Like Bynum may not have been inherently passionate about basketball. I think that is fair to say about Drew.

We got to know them reasonably well. We were around him on a day-in-day-out basis. But that's not the same thing as not caring. He likes science. It's not the same thing as not caring, man. In the 2010 playoffs, in particular the finals, he dragged himself through it on a really bad leg. That I remember I asked him after they won the championship,

do you think you could have played game eight? If there had been one, he laughed. He's like, oh, God, no. He's like, this is as far as I could go. Like, you know, Bynum one season was second team, all NBA. He was an all-star. He was at the best parts of his career, somewhere between, you know, top 10 to like top five,

top three center in the NBA. If that comes without caring about it at the level of Kobe or LeBron or players like that, okay. It may not be ideal, but that doesn't mean it can't be productive. Remember the context here, too. DeAndre Aitin is not going to be the team's best player. It's not going to be the team's second best player. Probably they're not counting on to be the team's third best player.

And on any given night, depending on what you think of Rui Hachamura, assuming he's still here. And right now he is, he's not going to be the team necessarily be counted on in any night to be the team's fourth best player in terms of scoring, in terms of go-to-go-to-guy. Every night, what they need from DeAndre Aten is we need a rebound. and we need you to play defense. Some nights it's going to work better than others. And we need you to be accounted for on offense.

Part of the problem with Jackson Hayes was, unless he was rim running, you would ignore him. And that was part of the- That's where the skill in the half court comes in because Jackson isn't as good a player in the pick and roll. He's not just like DeAndre Aiton is just much better than Hayes. And so one of the issues the Lakers kept running into during the playoffs, And even as the regular season continued and teams got more of a look at Luca, LeBron and Austin together is that the Lakers had a difficult time dealing with switches. And they didn't really have a lot of switch busters. If you attempt to switch guys with Aiton, he's going to punish you.

Like, I mean, he is in a lot of ways of switch. Particularly. And this is where the, this is something that, you know, when we were talking about like Yakub Pertl, for example, not a. great fit with Luke a very good player, not a great fit, does a lot of things the Lakers need. One of the biggest was offensive rebounding because after the Lakers and the Laker film room guys did a great breakdown of this, but after the Lakers traded AD, they couldn't punish those switches. It's not even just a matter of go to the guy with the smaller guy on him because that's not always

what you want. Oh, look, big man has small man. Throw it in. Let's get. Because that can screw up your offense. But where you really can punish ending up with a small on a big is on the offensive glass. And Jackson Hayes is not a good offensive rebounder. DeAndre Aitin is significantly better in that regard.

So when you talk about punishing switches, there may be a little bit of that element of like, hey, you know, DeAndre has got some offensive skills. But DeAndre Ate would go to work in certain situations. Where he can really punish teams. without even getting out of your offenses, now LeBron on the wing, Reeves, somebody can just go ahead, drive, try to make a shot,

but knowing that Aiton is going to be, Aten is going to be in position to get an offensive rebound and a footback. It's a lot of what the wolves did to the Lakers in the first round. Correct. All right. So we'll see, keep your questions coming, keep your comments coming. We'll get to this LeBron stuff.

over the course of week. Lakers playing Summer League one more game in the California Classic tonight, so we'll react to what we all hope will be a better game from Dalton Connect. And get ready for Vegas, baby. Lock on Lakers on YouTube is we're going to hang out with over 35,000 subscribers. Remember to subscribe to the audio version of this program as well on Apple or Spotify. We'll see everyone tomorrow.