Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - How a Giannis Antetokounmpo Trade Impacts the Lakers... Even if He's Not Coming to LA

Starting point is 00:00:00 Janice Ante Cumpo once out of Milwaukee. He won't be traded to the Lakers, but a Janus deal still impacts the purple and gold. We'll tell you how next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:26 Thanks to everyone for making Locked on Lakers, your first listen of every single day, Monday through Friday, sometimes on weekend. even on holidays, whether you're an Apple person, a Spotify person, maybe you're one of the 37,000-plus subscribers to the Lockdown Lakers YouTube channel because that's an awesome place to hang out. No matter how you do it, you're part of making the Lockdown Podcast Network,

Starting point is 00:00:51 the number one sports podcast network in this or any other known universe. I am Brian Komenetsky with Andy Kaminatsky. You've covered the Lakers for nearly 20 years with the LA Times with ESPN with the athletic and trade deadline season. Andy has always been a very exciting part of each and every one of those years. Lots of stuff to break down there. We'll also give you a little bit of a health update on both Luca Dantridge and Austin Reeves and tell you about other big rumors that go beyond Janus that would also potentially impact the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:01:21 Do you want to let you know that today's episodes brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use code locked on, I should say, locked on for $20 off your first purchase. All right. We'll get to Janus in a second because the wheels are officially spinning with Janus. It has now been made clear. He would like to be moved out of Milwaukee. And so now the bucks are looking to see what's available.

Starting point is 00:01:48 It will impact the Lakers in one way or another. We'll explain how. But first, Andy, some health updates for who might be playing in this game Friday evening in Washington. Well, the good news is, or potentially good news, and either way it is leading towards something good, Austin Reeves has been upgraded to questionable. Now, that does not mean that he'll be playing Friday versus the Wizards,

Starting point is 00:02:13 but you don't do a move like this unless you are confident that you are moving in a direction towards playing. So at the very least, on the heels of the stay ready games and five-on-five and contact drills, things like that, they are increasingly confident that Austin will be returning on this road trip, and they are at least allowing for the possibility of Austin playing on Friday the bad news, or at least potentially bad news, because we don't know yet, Luca after falling off the court in Cleveland, which is a

Starting point is 00:02:51 bizarre thing to say, but there's no other way to describe that effed up court that they have. It's a ridiculous thing to have to say. Right. It really is. It's an elevated court because Cleveland loves to do dumb things, just open-ended statement. Check out their quarterback room for the last 35 years or whatever. Luca hurt his ankle during that game. He played on Wednesday, played through it, but he is questionable for this game against the Wizards. So in a perfect world, we will have both Austin and Luca in this game.

Starting point is 00:03:28 imperfect world, one of the two, more imperfect world, neither of the two. But regardless, I don't think Luca is going to miss much time if he does miss the Wizards game. And again, we are moving more towards Austin back in the lineup. My guess is he will come off the bench, minutes restriction, all that stuff initially, but eventually back in the rotation, and that is a very good thing. Yeah, so obviously, JJ Reddick will have the pregame update. And all of that will talk to you after the game about everything that happened. Because again, sometimes on weekends.

Starting point is 00:04:06 But let's get to the headliner thing, Andy. We're getting towards trade deadlines. It's coming next week. February 5th is the official NBA trade deadline. And the thing that needed to happen to make the trade deadline potentially really exciting has happened. And that is, Yanos Sant'Compo has made it clear that he would like to move on for Milwaukee. That does not mean he will be moved. Just so it's clear.

Starting point is 00:04:37 Didn't ask for a trade. No. He did not ask for a trade. He would never do that, man. He's 10 toes down in Milwaukee. He's just. This is a conclusion Milwaukee came to on their own. On their own without any help from anyone.

Starting point is 00:04:53 It's not in his nature to ask for a trade. No, he's no Dalton connect. No. Well, we'll get to that. Maybe. We will get to that. We will get to that. Yes.

Starting point is 00:05:08 Maybe. To be fair, Janus doesn't have the same kind of juice as Dalton. No. He can't just be bossing folks around. So look. Janus is an employee of the bucks. What he told Sam Amick from the athletic, remember? Just a guy punching a clock.

Starting point is 00:05:24 And he's scrambled eggs. Everyone. was waiting on this. This is one of those deals that had the potential to really paralyze trade markets until some sort of resolution came because every team

Starting point is 00:05:42 who thinks they might have a shot to put together a Janus deal doesn't want to use up any of the capital that they would use in that trade for something smaller while they're waiting and then find themselves unable to make a competitive offer.

Starting point is 00:05:59 So this will loosen this stuff up. Now, none of this means Janus is going to be traded to the Lakers. Certainly not at the trade deadline. The Lakers, you would agree, Andy, have a 0.0 chance of making a trade deadline deal that lands them, Janus Antecompo, I guess, unless they're willing to trade Luca. I would find it pretty stunning. if they and by stunning i mean absolutely impossible and i would go back to like when luca got traded to the lakers assuming shams and windy and everyone else was hacked because this makes absolutely no effing sense

Starting point is 00:06:40 um this time actually if you see a report like that they have been hacked right it the lakers just do not have enough stuff right now to trade for janus at the deadline like frankly I don't think they're going to have enough even at the summer in the offseason where they have a couple more first round picks at their disposal to trade. But for the time being, it's one first round pick. Austin Reeves, who you need to get like a blood oath from him. I am absolutely staying in Milwaukee. Like he needs to get Milwaukee tattooed across his face before you make the trade. That's pretty gangster.

Starting point is 00:07:23 Well, I, for Janus, for trading Janus, they, no, you would need that. With Austin as a walkaway free agent, yeah, they, they need that at minimum. And you know, the Lakers have a couple pick swaps and then a bunch of expiring deals. It is not nearly enough to land Janus. But that does not mean that this potential trade isn't relevant for the Lakers. The first one is it just changes the nature of the market. I mentioned that before. There is more likely to be more movement because A, there's going to be a Yannis trade,

Starting point is 00:08:01 which might, you might. Could be. There could be a Yonis trade which has the potential to open up, you know, a third team might need to be involved. Really, you know, little pieces moving around. Teams that don't get Yonis that might have been waiting would then be available to go do something else. So it just loosens up the potential trade market in significant way.

Starting point is 00:08:23 I have a couple other things that I think are relevant for the Lakers, starting with the idea that of that, you know, the Lakers could be a part of a Yonis trade without getting Yonis. There is a scenario out there. And I don't even know if it counts as a full-fledged rumor, but Miami might be a little more willing to move off of Andrew Wiggins to try to get picks that they could then transfer to Miami, which means maybe the Lakers could. gets Wiggins without giving up Rui Hachamura for a number one pick. I'm not talking about the wisdom of that kind of deal, but it's a different construct than what we had been talking about before. And so the Lakers could insert themselves in that deal to kind of facilitate it, but get Andrew Wiggins back or something like that.

Starting point is 00:09:14 That's a possibility. So those kinds of things just become more live in a season where the Lakers done a lot to offer at the deadline, which I think ultimately probably helps. Well, look, it just opens up more possibilities around the league because a lot of people expect that until the Yannis situation is settled, like he ends up on a new team, there are going to be a lot of teams around the league who,

Starting point is 00:09:44 whether realistically or because they are diluting themselves, are going to believe that they have a possibility of landing, Janus, and until that possibility is no longer live in their minds, they're going to hang on to a lot of stuff because they're worried that that could be the stuff that eventually turns into Janus. Right. So if Janus remains in Milwaukee past the deadline, there could be a lot of teams who ultimately don't do anything because they've been sitting on their hands waiting for this resolution to play out. If you think you have a 10% chance of being able to at Janus or a 15% chance, it's probably worth waiting to see if it resolves itself.

Starting point is 00:10:27 Maybe. I mean, if you're a lot of teams, at the very least, a lot of teams will decide that it is, that it will decide this. Well, a lot of them decide that they have a 10 to 15% chance. Like, you, how you land on that number in and of itself is very important. There is one more, the, and I, for me, the most significant way that, a Janus trade, at the very least, clarity about Janus impacts the Lakers. I think there's one very, very clear way that I think is vitally important to how this

Starting point is 00:11:03 team moves forward. We'll get to it next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by game time. There is nothing like being in an NBA arena that crowd, the energy, witnessing the moment in person, that moment. We all know it. But getting tickets, that part has not always been very simple. And that's, why game time has become the go-to app for scoring tickets fast without the hassle. It puts the advantage back where it belongs with you, the fan, regain your power. You can pull up the game time app, pick an upcoming NBA game, and you get tickets locked in within minutes. And there's an all-in price up front. So there's no surprise fees at checkout. There's no, wait, what the hell was

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Starting point is 00:12:35 And I have a sneaking suspicion that you might agree with me. I think the most significant way that the honest clarity, whether it comes at the deadline where the Lakers have a 0% chance of making a deal or in the summertime where they have maybe a 2% chance, because they do technically have more things. And they have cap space that maybe they could absorb. I don't know. You could get super creative.

Starting point is 00:13:05 Maybe there's a way. But basically they're not in the honest sweepstakes right now. The most important thing for me is that it gives them an off-ramp. It allows them to move forward without the temptation. to wait and see maybe there's something we can do to get Janus in L.A. if not this summer, maybe it's next summer, whatever it might be. That is off the table and the Lakers can move forward and proceed to building this team in a meaningful way with guys on multi-year contracts and try to build around Luca

Starting point is 00:13:52 without, you know, the star efferee, let's wait for the next bit, none of that. That to me is the most important thing about this. Absolutely. I mean, clarity before the deadline would be great for the Lakers. If they really want to try, as I'm hoping, to start building next year's team now, start taking the opportunity to grab some guys that you think could be good around Luka. You want to do that, as opposed to, I guess, just letting your expirings expire and just go the all-cap-space route, like, whatever. If that's the case, then you want this clarity.

Starting point is 00:14:36 You don't want to even give yourself what may be very false hope that Janus is a possibility. Like, it reminds me of years ago during that period post-Cobie's Achilles' tear, but he had not yet retired. and the Lakers were taking these meetings with all of these names that in all honesty, we're, I think, mostly taking these meetings out of respect to Kobe, like just out of, we're not going to say no while Kobe is on this roster, but at the same time, we're not going to create an awkward dynamic of joining this team while Kobe's on the roster. The whole thing was really messed up. but if you recall, Kevin Durant just declined a meeting.

Starting point is 00:15:24 And I remember at the time, people were freaking out like, oh, I mean the Lakers are, look how bad off they are. They're not getting a meeting with Kevin Durant. I'm like, no, no, no. Kevin Durant is doing them a favor. He's actually doing them a favor by saying, I'm not coming here, move in a direction that may be actually possible. Like, you want clarity.

Starting point is 00:15:43 Like the worst thing that could have happened because we covered those teams and it would of. If Kevin Durant had given them a 0.5% chance in their minds of joining, they would have waited that bleep out. I can promise you they would have. And it would have been a waste of everybody's time. And frankly, it would have been more embarrassing than Katie just saying, I'm not interested right now. Now's not the time. Thank you, but move on. And the Lakers with this with Janus, unless the odds really change in ways you and I don't foresee of Janus joining this team, better to find out ASAP. It's not happening. 100%. And it is just, I'm not saying they absolutely would have, but like the Lakers, with

Starting point is 00:16:38 some exception, have often, too often, I would say, found themselves in that sort of, Loop of temporary contracts of guys with one-year deals, one plus ones and things like that. Too many of the players on the roster tend to be free agents at once. And that's okay in the sense of like you always have flexibility and you always have, you know, the possibility of trading expiring contracts, whatever all these things might be. But what you never are able to do is build continuity with your team. build a real roster that can grow together where guys you never know you're going to be somewhere for the long term, but guys can feel like they are part of something in the long term.

Starting point is 00:17:30 You don't get that, that creepy feeling as the deadline comes around. We're like, oh, God, expiring contracts that could be out here. All that stuff, you can't have 11 free agents every year, 10 or 8, or like it's just it's a bad way to build a team and so the lakers continuity is really important towards winning a championship the lakers allow themselves very little content you also can't get you you cut yourself off from access to the best players in the league um i'm not talking just about the you know the the best stars i mean the best players for you know for each tier for each skill set for each man even if they're you know

Starting point is 00:18:14 six or seventh guys, eighth guys on the roster, you know, the guys who are best suited for that around the league, those guys get three or four year contracts. And if you want the best talent, you have to identify it and you have to pay for it in one way or another. And if you are always trying to keep flexibility and always trying to make sure you have options for the next big thing, then you are never going to be able to get the best players, you know, the best role players, the best six men, the best whatever. It's not going to happen. And they need to get off that train and start building around Luca now.

Starting point is 00:18:52 Well, especially too, like the period in between when they won the championship and where they are now, even acknowledging the russ of it all and having to pivot out, steer out of that. And in all honesty, Rob did, I don't think he made all the moves that I would have done as far as steering out of that. But as far as realistic expectations, Rob did about as good of a job as you could expect unwinding a trade that catastrophic. But I think the experience of that, the Rust trade having blown up so much in their face, and also that period of feeling stuck with with LeBron and AD at the time and clearly having doubts about the viability moving forward, but also having in their minds no better option,

Starting point is 00:19:43 and this is an organization that does not know what to do with itself, unless they have superstars on hand. So they were just kind of spinning their wheels, I think not wanting to commit too much to anything because they didn't believe in it. Even if you want to say that they were justified on any level before, they're not now. You have a superstar in his prime in Luca,

Starting point is 00:20:07 and a lot of different, at least potential paths moving forward. If you are not willing to attempt building in a way that involves permanence with your contracts, like three to four years, like that type of permanence, then I don't understand what the point of having Luke on this roster even is, other than just selling tickets. I think it's a great point. And so, yeah, I, it's kind of funny because on the one hand, do I, do I have great faith in Rob Polinka as a genuine team builder?

Starting point is 00:20:46 I do not. But I really want to see him try. Like if my choices are Rob kind of waits around for the next truly genuinely obvious thing to come along, whether that's the Anthony Davis trade, the Lucas trade, the Lucas trade. either luca trade you know that would seem like a no-brainer um and so whatever it might be the thing that's very clearly obviously a good idea um i don't want i don't want to wait around for that and so he's we're going to just sort of put our faith in management to do the right things well okay when we get back i got one more thought on that and then we can talk about some of the other implications from

Starting point is 00:21:32 yannis and uh so what other trade room is that do pack the Lakers, like literally involve actual player from the Lakers and the teams they are talking to. Plus an announcement about Jackson Hayes, so we'll get in all that. Up next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul. It's finally settled. The last team standing in the NFL. We know the matchup, Patriots, Seahawks, Super Bowl 60, and Fandul is making sure you're right in the middle of it with a special offer just in time for the biggest game of the year. And whether you're back in the favorite, riding with the underdog or building one last same game parlay. You're like one of those guys in heat, you know, one last

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Starting point is 00:23:07 to them. We're talking about it. We want to give you a rent, a rent free, a free month of our new every day. We make it clear we are not offering a free month off of your rent. We are not offering that. If you think of the everyday air, like the payment you would make to be in the everyday club, $5 a month, for example, as sort of renting space in the everyday air club, then we are, in fact, offering you a free rent, a free month of rent. If you think of... If you're dangerously close to offering something we're not, Brian. Right. If you think of rent as the payment you make to your life. landlord on the first of every month.

Starting point is 00:23:45 We are not offering you that. Okay. It depends on how you look at it. But anyway, if you need a group chat to keep up with all the chaos of the trade deadline, join ours, the Everydayer Club gives you access. A complaint about your rent. Right. You go there and say that we wish you got free rent instead of a free month of the

Starting point is 00:24:05 Every Day Club. All right. The Everyday Air Club gives you access to the group chat on Discord for Lockdown-Lakers fans, plus national chats where you can hang out with fans from across the league. Andy and I'll be around. You can talk to in those national chats. Other locked on hosts get some great insights as next week rolls around. You get ad-free versions of the show as well, which we know a lot of you like almost as much as free rent.

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Starting point is 00:24:55 Okay, just wait for the subscriptions to fly in. Quick announcement or quick update before we get back into trade talk, rumors, whatever, Jackson Hayes is going to be in the dunk contest. The hype off the East Bay Funk Dunk against Chicago, which was an awesome, awesome moment. Jackson Hayes and rookie Carter Bryant are thus far the only participants that we are aware of. Mack McClung said no. Yeah, well, you know, you do this four times in a row as the little white guy. You really start becoming a bit of a novelty.

Starting point is 00:25:36 Oh. My understanding too, and this is exciting. My understanding is if Jackson Hayes wins the dunk contest, the Lakers are giving everybody a free month of rent. Just kidding. They're not doing that. No, they are. No.

Starting point is 00:25:55 But anyway, that's fun for Jackson. And look, he's actually having a really good season. He might as well try to build on whatever visibility and momentum that he has, especially as an impending free agent. And he could throw down some pretty good stuff. So that should be fun. It's also always, I think, fun to see what centers do when they're in the dunk contest. They're at a natural disadvantage because of how close they already are to the rim.

Starting point is 00:26:25 So it is often very difficult for centers to impress people. At the dunk contest, we all remember the sticker dunk from Dwight, which was so like a Nobody understood it. In real time, nobody did. It remains one of the great misunderstood, underscored dunks in the history of that competition. And so good luck to Jackson Hayes, who will be, since we don't have any rising stars to represent the team or anybody in the skills competition. I don't think it's Jackson Hayes. So kudos to him for getting an invite.

Starting point is 00:27:04 Let's talk about stuff that is related to the Lakers. Actually, no, you had one more point that you wanted to make. Go ahead. I'm, oh, my God, I'm actually blanking on this. Oh, we were talking before about what were we talking about before we were talking about Rob building a team. You were probably distracted by my sales pitch for the everyday. Yeah, I am completely blanking on what I was going to say.

Starting point is 00:27:32 We'll come back to it later if you remember. Let's talk about Dalton Connect, Andy, because he is one of the, the Lakers to have expired. Okay, I remember it now. Oh, wait. Okay, here we go. Really quick. When you were talking before about do you trust Rob to build a team. And I've heard people say this as a reason why the Lakers should go all in now.

Starting point is 00:27:54 However, all in, you can go with this team this season because you've got Luca, LeBron, and Austin, and you don't believe in Rob's ability to build a team around Luca. So therefore, you should just push all your chips in the middle, however limited those chips are, however limited, frankly, the roster may be because you don't trust Rob to build something around Luca from the ground up. If that's how you feel, I understand, but you need to recognize that's not an argument for going all in. that's an argument for firing Raupolinka. You can't make this team more all-in ready than it actually is

Starting point is 00:28:40 because the circumstances of your GM and your lack of belief in the GM creates in your mind more urgency to do something now. The roster is what it is. And it makes far more sense to be prioritizing the big picture with Luca than this roster right now. Again, I understand if that's how you feel, but that is an argument for firing Rob, not for going all in. That's what I was going to say. I agree with you. It's a point worth making. Let's sneak in this story. We didn't quite get to it. We touched on it a little bit yesterday, Dalton Connect. Anthony Irwin, former host in this space and now hosting his own stuff. And with the

Starting point is 00:29:25 off sides network, he reported, was it on Wednesday, I believe, that Dalton Connect and his his team had approached the Lakers management and asked for a trade. There are some conflicting reports about that. Our other friend, Trevor Lane, said he had, he isn't getting his reporting says that didn't happen. I heard Yovon Buhas say that he thought he'd gotten some conflicting information as well. Some of this may be the semantics of requesting a trade versus demanding and approached or didn't approach.

Starting point is 00:29:57 Right. Right. Exactly. You know, our friends are fighting. Andy. There's a tremendous blood feud going on. We're just going to stay out of it. But there's two things about this that I think are funny. The first is the idea that Dalton Connect needs to demand trade or ask for one for the Lakers to actually try to trade it.

Starting point is 00:30:19 Way ahead of you, buddy. Dalton not wanting out has not been the impediment to getting him traded. Nor is wanting out. an accelerant. Nobody wants you. I have seen a couple things probably planted either by the Lakers or Dalton's agents that there are teams that are interested in him. And this to me gets to one of the important things to remember about Dalton.

Starting point is 00:30:51 I have zero trouble believing that there are teams out there. They'd be like, you know what? We'll take a flyer on the guy. like I wouldn't mind have if you're a lottery team or a team with a need for a youngish player who can give you a little bench scoring or something like that, I'd take a flyer on Dalt Connect. The question is whether or not anybody would give you something of value for him. And I think that is where it gets really tricky. And as far as I can tell based on people that we've talked to, based on all the. reporting, it would be very difficult for Connect's value as a player to be much lower than it is now.

Starting point is 00:31:36 Yeah. I think we're going to talk over the course of next week when I was doing 710 ESPN today, filling in for John Ireland with Steve Mason. He raised the question to me about whether or not I think the Lakers ultimately made a mistake in rescinding that trade for Mark Williams, which sent Dalton and a first. to Charlotte. The Lakers would have gotten Mark Williams. He has since stayed healthy, which is very unusual for his career. We can talk about that more next week, but that was, I think, the high point of Dalton's value. There's no question. Like Mark Williams is a talented,

Starting point is 00:32:17 if injury prone, seven-footer. I don't think the Lakers could come even close to getting anybody like Mark Williams, even with all the injury risks and stuff like that. Yeah, I'm seeing on the chat, the live YouTube thing, Mr. TD 331 says he's on sale. I actually don't even think that really gets to it. You know the buy nothing groups on Facebook where you just put something out and you say it's free if you'll come and get it. that's kind of where Dalton is. Like he's sort of free if you'll come and get him.

Starting point is 00:32:58 Like if you have a truck and can pick him up. You can have a joke from the Simpsons free or best offer. Right. Exactly. You know, obviously this makes a huge difference and, you know, it's made a big difference in what Dalton's, the total washing out of Dalton's trade value is one of the things that is really making the Lakers, you know, hamstringing them. not just on the floor, but at this trade deadline.

Starting point is 00:33:25 Because he is their only youngish player drafted in the last year or two that theoretically should have some value. Most second round picks at this point don't. And then, you know, whiffing on the JHS pick, Jalen Hood-Chafino, who's since been released by multiple. Philly, I think. Philly and I thought one other team. I thought he hooked on for like a 10-day, but I could be wrong.

Starting point is 00:33:51 He's currently not in the league. So like that the whiffing on these last two draft picks has been a really big problem for the Lakers. Yeah. I mean, whether you are talking about these players as actual players or whether you're talking about them as potential trade chips, these last two drafts have been pretty brutal for the Lakers. You know, frankly, you can talk about Maxwell Lewis and unfortunately he had a brutal injury with the Nets that. I'm not even sure. But never.

Starting point is 00:34:25 He was not developing as they hoped. You know, where have you gone? Taylor and Horton Tucker. Like Max Christie was the last guy was that they. Max Christie was a great job identifying a guy worth drafting. And then for all of the crap, Rob has taken in some cases, very understandably for the contracts that he has or has not given out. Christy was one that when they signed into that four years, 32, million, a lot of people around the industry in the industry who cover the league, a lot of

Starting point is 00:34:58 people that Brian and I respect, they were very negative on that contract. Not only did the Lakers get that one right, Max Christie is now one of the best contracts in the league. I mean, he is a bargain. So hopefully the last couple years, Christie aside, have been a bit of a blip for the Lakers and they can start getting back on track because this used to be one of their better areas, you know, young talent identification. And by the way, Austin Reeves has to be included in that as well. Like Austin is clearly a win over the last few years. But it hurts them that they do not have these type of players whether to trade or whether to have on the court to help them win.

Starting point is 00:35:48 So we'll be back. We'll be back after the game. It's an early tip on the West Coast with the Lakers playing in Washington. And we'll break that one down for you. Of course, we'll get deep into the trade line. If anything happens, obviously, we will put up a special show just for that. Lock the Lakers on YouTube. So we can hang out with over 37,000 subscribers of the channel.

Starting point is 00:36:11 Check out the Everyday Air Club. We'll see you tomorrow.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - How a Giannis Antetokounmpo Trade Impacts the Lakers... Even if He's Not Coming to LA

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