Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - How Continuity Impacts the MVP Race, the Playoffs and the Lakers' Offseason

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

Monday, we talked about the MVP race, and whether Luka Dončić is getting a fair shake compared to the rest of the top candidates, or if the goalposts move more for the Lakers star (as they often do for those tied to the Lakers).  One interesting wrinkle to the conversation was provided by Iztok Franko, who notes that among all the MVP candidates, Luka has played more minutes with more guys who haven't spent much time together, yet he's putting up huge numbers and more importantly, the Lakers are piling up wins. But the continuity question has relevance that goes well past just the MVP voting. It'll have a big impact in the playoffs, as well. When teams like Denver (Jokic, Murray, Gordon, Braun, etc.) and Thunder (SGA, Williams, Dort, Wallace, Chet, etc.) can lean into reps and history in ways the Lakers can't.  On the other hand, the Lakers have guys like Luka and LeBron, who are arguably so advanced that they're continuity proof, so to speak. And then the Lakers have to think about how to build real continuity going forward this offseason.  Continuity! It's the word of the day, the month and the year to come.    HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky    Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! TurboTax This year you’re getting a major upgrade — Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. QuoMake this the year where no opportunity - and no cutsomer - slips away.Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to http://Quo.com/lockedonnba. RobinhoodYou’re no longer just a spectator. Play by play. You decide. Trade Every Play with Robinhood.Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. 5-Hour ENERGY Have your cake & drink it too. Birthday cake-flavor is back, no fork needed. Vanilla-y cakey flavor, caffeinated kick, and no sugar. It's party time. Order Now at 5-hourENERGY.com or Amazon. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. During the tournament FanDuel is offering$300 back in Bonus Bets every day for ten days. Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game.   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.

When it comes to the Lakers, continuity impacts everything from the MVP race to the playoffs. Even the offseason will explain next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks, everybody for joining Locked on Lakers. I'm Brian Komenetsky with Andy Kaminetsky. Plenty to cover in this episode today.

A reminder will be back after Tuesday night's game against the Cavs. Excited to see the Lakers play good competition again as they try to nail down a top three seed in the West. So Monday's show, Andy, was all about the MVP race and like where Luca fits in and how that discussion is going and whether or not Luke is sort of being treated fairly and all that other stuff. one of the the interesting nuggets that didn't make it into that show came from our friend istach franco who has covered luka in particular for a very long time but writes fantastic stuff about the lakers and the nba on his substack which i highly recommend everybody um everybody subscribe to but he had an interesting point about lucas candidacy um which will make

make now, but it really is relevant in other ways, too, about continuity and how it fits into the other candidates. And Istok's point was compared to Jalen Brown, to Wembe, to Yokic, to Shea, nobody is playing with a bunch of strangers more than Luca on a roster with fewer guys who have spent time together than Luca. His point was, That should, you know, kind of gives you maybe a more favorable idea of what Luca and the Lakers are doing this year makes it a little bit more impressive. But it also kind of frames where the franchise is. And so I just, it was, it was a really interesting point that he was making both little picture and as we're going to get into big picture. Yeah, it's not surprising.

Is Doc a really smart guy? he's been on the show before. We have recommended his coverage to our viewers and to our listeners all the time. You definitely should check him out. As far as the framing for MVP, and even if you go through his piece on this, he's not looking to necessarily make the case for Luca over everybody else. He said at the end of it, like ultimately, I think there's great cases to be made for really the top four guys, Luca, Wembe, SGA,

and Yokage, I think, are the consensus top four with Jalen Brown gaining some steam, but I would be surprised if he finished at the end of the day ahead of those four. The framing device of continuity, I think, is interesting. And I hadn't thought of it that way specifically in terms of framing what Luca is doing for this season. Like, if nothing else, it speaks to his ability on the fly to make offense work. work in a lot of ways with a wide variety of revolving characters, you know, in and out of the lineup. It has not always been smooth. I mean, we've talked about the grand majority of this season. The offense was not functioning to nearly the degree that people expected beyond just

the. But Luca can paper over a lot of problems just from his own offensive dominance. I don't, I don't necessarily think the spurs have a ton more continuity. OKC, Denver, and to whatever degree you consider Jalen Brown a key figure in this race, those three teams, the continuity is off the charts. And it is a reason that all three of those teams have been in the finals recently, have won championships recently and seem to perennally be in that mix over the last, say, five years. It's because they keep working together and they have the luxury of getting better together. And the central figures have been together longer. And there's no question of the five players we've talked about. Luca is the most disadvantaged. He's the one

that's had to work the most with the least in terms of just pure knowledge of each other. You know, he is, I think in a lot of ways, the closest thing we've seen to Steph in terms of just the pure bending of a defense because Luca can do so much scoring, shooting, and playmaking from everywhere. He really does become somebody that can completely change the geometry of how you look to defend any team that he's on. So, yeah, it's an, again, We're not looking to get into another MVP debate or discussion. We did that for Monday's short show. But it is, it's an interesting, if nothing else, and smart way to talk about just all of the things Luca does and just how much he means to this team. So after I want to get into what this means, not just for the MVP candidacy, because, you know, it's just it's another thing to think about.

about another way to frame the very difficult separating of these players in terms of what's your preference and this and that, whatever. But the playoffs are coming up and this kind of continuity is relevant to that, especially in ways that go beyond that top seven season long thing to just who's in the lineup for you. For example, with Denver, guys like Christian Brown are back and he's not in that group. But, you know, Aaron Gordon, not in that group of top seven minutes guys because they've been injured for so much of the year. Presumably, they'll be back in the playoffs. So the calculus changes for what continuity looks like and what it means and how it impacts a series.

It doesn't just impact the series, though. It ought to impact what the Lakers, how they approach the off season as well. So we'll talk continuity when we get back. Walkdown Lakers is brought to you by five-hour energy drink. Welcome to the five-hour energy flavor draft. We're looking at every aspect of the draft to let you know which flavors are the best, which ones could be sleepers, the board's set. Flavors ready, and only one can be the top overall pick.

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So who plays the most minutes? Who are your top seven, top eight minutes, you know, minutes guys for the season is relevant because it's a good framing for who's been around for most of the season. When you get to the playoffs, continuity looks different. You know, Jalen Williams, for example, hasn't, isn't among the top seven and minutes havers for the Oklahoma City Thunder, but it certainly matters when he's back and the continuity that they've developed, you know, over a title winning season and beyond becomes more relevant in that stretch. And so, you know, we mentioned Aaron Gordon. We mentioned, you know, Christian Brown, guys like that with the nuggets who are back and don't have anything to do with. Yokic's MVP candidacy and things like that,

but will have an impact on the playoffs. The Lakers go into the postseason, assuming everybody is healthy, definitely on the short end of the stick when it comes to time together, series together, all of these other things. They do have at least two supercomputers in LeBron and Luca and a pretty intelligent player as well in Austin Reeves,

guys who can figure it out. but it's not like the other teams are filled with dummies. So the question becomes, like, how much do other teams have an advantage over the Lakers in the playoffs when it's all said and done? I think it's big. I mean, I'm not saying it's insurmountable, like, that it's an advantage that the Lakers can't overcome. I mean, they've beaten Denver this year, two out of three games, despite lacking continuity. they've beaten a lot of teams this season that have had more time together. But for example, when you mentioned Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon not being in the top seven for minutes this year for Denver, I'll be honest, I don't care because they've had so much time with that group, assuming they're healthy.

To me, that's irrelevant. It's irrelevant. It's irrelevant for the MVP conversation. It's irrelevant for the playoffs. It doesn't matter when it comes to the playoffs because these guys have that time to get. together. So, you know, that, you know, Jalen Williams wasn't there for Oklahoma City. It only matters. Yeah. With with Jalen Williams, for example, it only matters if he gets enough time between when he's returned and the end of the regular season just to feel comfortable and like back in a rhythm. But the continuity is already established. It's all built in. Absolutely.

Right. So the Lakers are going to be dealing with an uphill disadvantage compared to pretty much all these other teams other than San Antonio. Between the relatively little time they've spent together compared to certainly these other teams and the playoff and experience that is its own side thing they're going to have to deal with, the Lakers are the most disadvantaged. It helps that LeBron and Austin, I think, have a lot of reps together. and like LeBron, Austin, and Rui have a lot of reps together.

Jackson Hayes, it's now in his third season with the Lakers. Like every bit that you can look at or find in terms of those reps together can matter a lot. That's also why it's so important that they not only landed on a formula that works, but a big piece of the formula was clarity. It was really important that everybody understands, exactly what they're going to be doing, but they're going to be figuring out a lot more information in real time than I think OKC will, Denver will.

That's just the reality of it. The good news for the Lakers is like if you're going to have to be led by a guy who has spent less time around your other players has only played one series and in that series only played four games, three and a half, if you really think about how sick Luke probably still was, after game three. But like the, it,

Luca is that guy. If you have to think of a, a player who you feel comfortable plugging into a playoff series with guys who he has never played in the playoffs with, Marcus Smart is another guy I feel very comfortable with in that regard. You know, so that, that will certainly help,

I think, because these are all like really difficult things to quantify and difficult things to figure out exactly how they, impact a series. But the different, you know, in a tight playoff series, you know, these little shades of advantage or disadvantage can end up making a difference where one possession, one miscommunication, one something or other can be the difference between, you know, winning a game and losing one. So I did the last thing I would, the last thing quickly I would say just in terms of having to overcome the lack of continuity compared to most of these other teams.

one big advantage they will have is Luca is as good or better as any of the best players on these teams we've discussed at just taking over a game. I don't think there's, I don't think there's anybody in the field that is better than Luca at taking over a game. It may not always be taken over the exact same way,

but I don't think there's anybody better than Luca. And again, we talked about what Luca has papered over in terms of just his overall talent, that's another part of it. Yeah, and it's, you know, for a team that has thrived in, on late game execution, that will be tested against, you know, in these playoff moments, against teams that have more reps together as a group in these types of situations. So that's something to look forward to. The other thing, we don't have to get, you know, super deep into it yet

because we, you know, we still got a lot of season and hopefully a lot of postseason. to talk about. But it will also ought to impact the way the Lakers look at the offseason. There is a belief, or at least was, especially before the Lakers started rolling, that it was going to be pretty much they were in turn over the roster completely in the off season and flip this thing upside down, start with almost a brand new batch of guys with almost nobody under contract going in next year. Nobody they have to have under contract.

how they approach this offseason in terms of adding the players that need to be added to really create a long-term foundation around Luca, while also bringing back a team where not everybody's wearing name tags for the first six months of the season, introduce each other three months of season. It's been an interesting balance. And how they look at that, like what should we bring back to maintain a little continuity? what is available to what's worth really turning things over. And then more importantly, the new players that we bring in, are they brought in on one-year deals or they brought it on three-year deals?

Or they brought it on four-year deals? All of this stuff is really interesting to watch. Yeah, I've said many times I still believe they need to start building towards sustainability and future forward. And they need to be thinking about dedicating resources in years towards players. that are, if they're worth bringing in at a certain price point, they're worth committing to at a certain price point in years as well. I do think it matters. They clearly want to team up Luca and Austin. And assuming that ends up the case moving forward, you start getting into

multiple years of Luca and Austin together. And when you really start drilling down on, and we mentioned OKC, Denver, and Boston as these teams with continuity. It's not just the roster. It's their top two players have played together for a long time. Jamal Murray and Nikola Yolkich have incredible chemistry. Shea Gildjus Alexander and Jalen Williams play extremely well off each other. It took Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum. It took them, I think, a couple years as young players with some degree of overlap to figure

it out, but the time was worth it. And they now play extremely well off each other, too. It's extremely important that the continuity includes your top two players, you know, that they get those reps together. And if nothing else, that seems to be the Lakers plan short of something very unexpected. And in terms of just sheer continuity, and I think the way to build continuity, that is a good thing. Yeah, 100% agree. we'll see what happens both, obviously,

the postseason first, but it's just one of these things to kind of store away in the memory bank as once the season's over and you head into the off season, what exactly it is you're trying to build and how. So plenty more to come on Tuesday, Lakers playing at home

against the Cavaliers. A marquee matchup for sure with Donovan Mitchell and James Hardin and Evan Mobley and company in town. Should be a really good one. We'll be back after the game to break it all down. We'll see that. Thank you.