Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - How Luka Dončić Changes the Future for the Lakers (Mark Walter Helps, Too)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Thursday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, the future looks bright for the Lakers, according to ESPN, and it's due to one guy. 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.

Starting point is 00:00:27 Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers your 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 locked on lakers on youtube andy it's where over 36,000 subscribers all hang out asking questions of each other talking to each other talking to us leaving us mailbag questions which is critical you may be wondering Andy why I'm wearing these sunglasses Andy it's because the future is so bright you got to wear shades I've got to wear shades nice know this because ESPN this week put out there

Starting point is 00:01:01 and by the way this is how you know I'm cool my shades are clip off. That is how all the cool kids do it. ESPN this week released their annual future rankings. A thing that was generally speaking in years past had not been something Lakers fans particularly enjoy reading, but this year, Andy, this year things are different. The future is bright and you've got to wear shades.

Starting point is 00:01:29 The Lakers this year in ESPN's overall future ranking. come in at eighth. Last season, they were 21st. So this is a clear climb, quote from Bobby Marks, even with LeBron James's future unclear. The Lakers still moved up 13 spots for the last ranking. The considerable jump is largely due because of trading for Luca Donchich in February and then extending the All-Star, All-MBA Guard in August, the security of having Donchich under contract for at least the next three seasons, the attraction of the Los Angeles market and significant cap space in the next two seasons have the Lakers positioned well. And we're going to get into the breakdown of the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:02:16 Because the mostly part, because he does say mostly, and the stuff that's categorized in the other than Luca section matters. Yeah. You had initially said in the introduction that it's one guy that has the Lakers rising up the ranks, that one guy obviously being Luca Donchich, but I would actually... Well, I would actually say

Starting point is 00:02:39 it is two people in the sense that the other one is Mark Walters, because Mark Walter makes a big deal in terms of the Lakers overall future. And I say this because they have five different categories

Starting point is 00:02:55 for ranking these teams and they take their averages, create the aggregate, yada, yada. But the five categories are players money draft market and management obviously you could grade it one through 30 because the lakers have the league has 30 different teams the lakers have players at nine and obviously that is a massive lucidantitch reflection unless you really love the potential future with austin reeves or believe in a big bounce back for dalton connect or really do love what you saw from brawny in the summer league but otherwise it is i'd say 90-ish percent lucca 10-percentish everyone else

Starting point is 00:03:36 divide the rest of that pie however you want money comes in at six money last year was at 20 and that that that stuff is important and i want to make sure that let me run out the rest draft as far as draft equity draft picks etc 23 market number one and management 17. The top 10, by the way, just rounding that out because in and of itself, I find this interesting. OKC number one, Houston two, the Knicks three, the Cavs for the Clippers five, I have thoughts. Golden State six, I also have thoughts. Seven, Orlando, eight, the Lakers, nine, Denver, 10, the Spurs. So, yeah, we'll break some of those other categories down because like I said, I do think they matter. I'm not going back and redoing the open, but still,

Starting point is 00:04:30 still nonetheless, they matter. But, I mean, it really does begin with Luca because the context, everything about the Lakers were a good team with Anthony Davis and LeBron James. Like, they won a lot of games. They, you know, very recently went to the Western Conference finals. Like they they were very good, but they were a team with a future that was to say the least challenging. The idea of how you build a team around a 40 year old and an injury prone guy on the back end of his prime, it is tricky. Like you have this constant need of like you got to go all in because like you put like it's not good.

Starting point is 00:05:24 I did not quite good. Like you are sort of capped in in your in your talent. You're boxed in with what you can do. And the Lakers had in front of them a very, very difficult proposition of how they were going to both improve the team now to make it good enough to win something. But also set themselves up, meaning. for a post-Lebron future that they didn't even know when was going to begin. Still don't.

Starting point is 00:05:56 Right. But, well, no, they actually do know the answer. The answer is now. The post-Lebron future, even with LeBron on the team, is actually now just because you actually, you have a path that is evident and clear, regardless of when, how much longer LeBron is on this, team, the remainder of this season, one more season, two more seasons, whatever.

Starting point is 00:06:23 You know what the future beyond LeBron is going to be and what you want to do with it. During Lucas introductory press conference, I asked Rob Polinka, like beyond a guy of Luca's talent and just, you know, the sheer basketball, what does it mean to just have a path, like a clear path for you as a general manager? looking to map out what you want for the next five years. And his answer was everything. He's like, it means everything to me. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, it's a good way of looking at it.

Starting point is 00:07:00 So, I mean, I take your point. I think it makes a lot of sense. You know, so they went from this situation that was incredibly challenging to try to, to game out, because then you'd have to figure out, like, you got to get another star around AD because he would need that. And like, how do you do it? Where do you? like and then who is that center going to be to make anthony davis happy you you you just have this

Starting point is 00:07:25 thing this gift handed to not just like oh the lakers got gifted a star because they didn't just get gifted a star they got gifted a top we'll just you know we'll we'll we'll use the the the lowest possible top five player in his prime. So you don't have an injuring his prime. Just entering it. So you don't have like these issues of what the clippers had to deal with of like, okay, you've got Kauai. What do you do?

Starting point is 00:07:59 Do we keep Kauai? Do we not keep Kauai? I mean, there's a lot going on there. But like table that for a second. And then like, well, we can get Paul George. Let's go get Paul George. And like, we've got James Hardin. It was played well.

Starting point is 00:08:12 Like, you know, you get into these cycles, the Sixers with Joelle M. Bid, and then they go get Paul George, which I'll be honest, we all knew it was a bad idea. But like, you know, you sometimes as an NBA franchise feel forced because you need the stars. The stars are hard to come by. And we had a conversation about this a couple weeks ago, I think it was, where the problem with these stars is you really don't get to choose. which one you want. You just have to take the one that's available, and they're often imperfect.

Starting point is 00:08:48 You know, every team of the league would be like, God, if I could just pick a star, I'd take Nikoliyokic or like Shea or Luca. But then you'd laugh and be like, well, obviously you would, but you can't. Right, or Webby. You can't have Luca Donchich, though, if you're trying to rebuild your team.

Starting point is 00:09:05 He's not available. Lo and behold, Andy. So it's just this, the reset that this, gave the Lakers that's reflected in these rankings just cannot be overstated. It's again, the Lakers now have a path moving forward that helps them, for example, offset the fact that draft they came in at 23, which might even feel generous, given their lack of immediate control with a lot of their picks.

Starting point is 00:09:37 There's, you know, a few that are promised. If you're thinking of draft picks in terms of trade equity, in addition to young players, and quite frankly, that is the way the Lakers often think of their draft picks. They don't have as much control over them right now as they would need issues with management and decision making, which I do want to talk about later in the show just because in particular compared to the clippers and the warriors, and their overall ranking ahead of the Lakers, but also in particular categories

Starting point is 00:10:14 that put them ahead of the Lakers, I find curious. But so much of what you need to do as a team in order to put yourself on a path that is even realistically great, much less championship potential, you have to have that superstar. Like, you just do. Like, it is a, you know, it is a star. driven talent league.

Starting point is 00:10:41 And the Lakers have that guy. And it provides a lot of, you don't have all the answers, but you still have clarity. And that clarity is so important. Let's keep breaking some of these things down because where else this plays out in these future rankings is key. You mentioned Mark Walter. He plays into this. And I think I know where you're going with some of these questions about.

Starting point is 00:11:08 management scores. So we'll break all of that down next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Monarch Money. And there are a lot of people out there who cannot name all of their financial accounts or even what they're worth talking 401Ks, properties, investments. And if you don't have a full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That's why Monarch Money exists. It's an all in one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life. together in a clean, easy-to-use interface on your laptop or on your phone. You can link all of your accounts together in minutes, see data visual, smart characterization of your spending without ever touching a spreadsheet. You get back in control. And this is really important. Like my daughter,

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Starting point is 00:12:31 So we'll get to the Walter of it all and the management stuff here in a second, but just to kind of finish up the Luca conversation and what it opened up for the Lakers. it's mentioned by Bobby Marks in that write-up. And we saw it this summer. You not only have a star, you have a star who's at an age that makes him a reliable presence for the next decade, really. Certainly Lakers hope. I think the chances of him not signing the next extension with the Lakers very, very low, even if he doesn't finish it, he's going to start it.

Starting point is 00:13:12 I think they're just financially. There's not really any reason that he wouldn't. But, you know, so you start to break these things down. And, you know, I don't want to have the kind of nobody wants to play with LeBron. Nobody like, people would play with LeBron. It's like, Braun's gotten a lot of people paid, man. He's gotten a lot of people paid. But if you're a star and you're joining a team and it's hard to say, I want to, I'm going to hitch my wagon to LeBron.

Starting point is 00:13:42 on at 38, 39, 40, 41. Like, you can't, like, I don't know what's going to happen after that. If you're, you know, you don't want to necessarily be like, I'm going to, I'm going to take my prime or the end of my prime and I'm going to parlay it with Anthony Davis's post prime. Like, that's not an easy sell. And I love AD, but like, that's just, if you're thinking of your own. future, that's a tough sell. It's not a tough sell with Luca. If you're a free agent next year and you're looking around 27, 28 year old Luca, if you're in two summers from now, it's 28, 29 year old.

Starting point is 00:14:29 You don't have to worry about a post prime Luca for a while. And now, especially if you watch him playing, and this sustains himself in terms of just how he treats his body, how he takes it. like you the Lakers have a three or four or five year window where other great players or near great players can look at them and be like, I'm going to get to play with Luca Donchich over the course of my contract and I know we're going to be competitive because it's hard not to be competitive on a team that has Luca. I mean, part of the thing that made the Hedels so devastating and scary to the rest of the league or the same principle with the Splash Brothers. and that Warriors group in their primes or what we're seeing right now with SGA and Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgram

Starting point is 00:15:18 is it's not just the talent, it's the age of the talent. And when you assemble enough of that talent together with the space where they can actually grow and improve, and, you know, it's one of the reasons that I have been frustrated at times a lot, frankly, with the Lakers, if not refusal to ever rebuild from the ground up,

Starting point is 00:15:43 because I know that that can be a massive undertaking, but the impatience with developing young players, like really a full commitment, like the era with the kids and Lonzo and DeLo 1.0, and B.I and Julius Randall was frustrating to watch because it was just plainly obvious. The Lakers were not invested in those guys as players. I agree.

Starting point is 00:16:08 Saw them as trade chips. And I get, they ended up trade chips that brought in Anthony Davis, and obviously that helped bring the Lakers a championship. But the problem with that always being your M.O. Is if you're always looking for superstars and you're always looking to bring in ready-made talent, you may end up with the higher ceiling, but you also end up with a shorter runway. Because those guys generally speaking are seven, eight, you know, the case of LeBron, 20 years into their career. You don't get as much of a potential runway. And, you know, bleep happens

Starting point is 00:16:45 during seasons, you know, but with Luca at this age, and particularly if the Lakers can manage to bring in, if not just super high-end role players that perfectly supplement him, another star-level player who is somewhere in his 20s, like all of a sudden you just get a runway and multiple cracks at that apple because, man, winning championships is hard. You don't want to have to go about it in a short window. And, you know, like I will use the Dodgers as an example. Like the, I mean, first of all, I think, you know, side note them winning last year and show his first year makes it. All you can do, it takes a lot of pressure off, but all you can do is put together as much talent as you can and hope it works and give yourself like the best possible chance.

Starting point is 00:17:44 The Dodgers have put themselves in a position where every year, if they play to their potential, they've got a chance to win the World Series. They're not going to win the World Series every year because it's hard and things go wrong and, you know, guys just don't quite play or another team rises up, weird stuff happens, whatever. All you can do is put yourself in position to do it. And in basketball, it's, I think, even harder to keep that window open. I think you can maintain it in baseball for longer, especially because you can pay more guys and you're not as tied up into one or two players in order to be successful.

Starting point is 00:18:18 The Lakers are now in a position where they can give themselves that opportunity. because the one thing you need in the NBA, as you point out, Andy, is that star. You have to have some guy who's at least tall enough to ride the ride, so to speak. And it doesn't have to be Luca or Yokic or Janus, one of those top three guys, top for it. But it sure helps. The better your sort of transformational superstar is, the more it papers over potential weaknesses in your roster. Look what Denver did last year with Yokic in what it was perceived as a down year for them. Yokic was so freakishly good that he took a team that had issues and they damn near beat Oklahoma City.

Starting point is 00:19:12 And they got, you know, they managed to kind of reshuffle the deck a little bit this offseason. They got better. They rearranged some stuff. and now in theory won't have to rely on Yokic as much. Are they going to win a title? Don't know, but they gave themselves a better chance. And they can, you know, the Lakers are going to have seasons where they're surrounding Luca with phenomenal talent, I hope.

Starting point is 00:19:35 And they're going to have seasons where Luca's got to carry them a little bit more. But if you have Luca, just like if you have Yokic, just like if you had LeBron in his prime, just like you've got a chance. You're in the conversation definitionally. Yeah. It's extremely important. So again, the timing of all this in Lucas career is huge for the Lakers. Also, too, the fact that this sale to Mark Walter and his group imminent is a massive, massive development for the Lakers with their future moving forward.

Starting point is 00:20:06 As I mentioned, they were ranked 20th for money in the 2024 future rankings. They are now at six. And coming up, we can explain why that matters so much. And then again, want to talk a little bit about the management score that puts me in a position where I feel like we're taking up for Rob Polinka when it really isn't our goal. But fair is fair. Andy, consistent standard is all we're asking for here at Lockdowne Lakers. Right. Fair is fair. And some of this doesn't seem to be applied fairly. So we'll get into that coming up next.

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Starting point is 00:21:30 questions, capturing leads, so you never miss a customer. Open Phone is offering our listeners 20% off the first six months at openphone.com slash locked-on MBA. That's OPEN-H-O-N-E-com slash locked-on MBA. And if you're switching from another service, Open Phone will even port your existing numbers over at no extra charge. Open phone, no miss calls, no miss customers. It's a capped league, Andy. So why should the wealth? Unless you are partnered up with aspiration, allegedly, allegedly.

Starting point is 00:22:06 It's a capped league unless you just want to plant trees, in which case. Allegedly. A lot of trees, which is good for the environment, Andy. A lot of trees, allegedly, because there's. There's no evidence of these actual trees, but allegedly they're growing. We should call Kawhi the Lorax who speaks from the trees. But so why does it matter so much that the Lakers are now owned by a rich guy? Like a real rich guy, not like one of these fake Jeannie Bus rich people.

Starting point is 00:22:39 One of these pauper billionaires. I mean, here's the thing, though, there is a difference. Like Jeannie Bus and the bus family, by any normal standards, are stupid rich. Like they own the Lakers. That makes you definitionally. You're wealthy. You're sitting on a hot property right there, the Lakers. But the problem is the Lakers are their primary business as opposed to most ownership groups around the NBA,

Starting point is 00:23:12 were increasingly filled with like venture capital money and tech bro money and all these other different industries where you know Microsoft or Steve Balmer they the team is in a lot of ways their plaything or their status symbol or even something that they care about like you know Steve Balmer say what you will he deeply cares about winning oh a little too much too much But either way, you have to have funds that can keep up with the Joneses. And the bus family simply did not have that. And that would come through not necessarily in terms of payroll because they would spend for the players, but in terms of their entire front office department, scouting departments,

Starting point is 00:24:06 analytics, training staff, creature comforts, all these different. areas that matter to players, that matter to bringing in the best people to run your team, the Lakers could not afford to keep up with the other teams around the league. There's no point to being the number one market as they were ranked in this thing. If you're going to be 20th in money, bringing in Mark Walter, that is a big difference maker. And, you know, you think of all. And it's going to, it's going to happen both slowly and I think a little quicker than people are anticipating.

Starting point is 00:24:41 Like the big changes that people are looking for, Mark Walter running the show, like some of these things are going to take a little while. But the smaller, like what they need, they will have. You know, if the need is a larger training staff,

Starting point is 00:25:00 a better training staff, a bigger analytics staff, a bigger basketball staff, and whether that need is determined by people inside the building right now, you know, Rob says, I need more people. They will have more people.

Starting point is 00:25:14 Or more likely, you know, de told you need more people. If I had to put my money on one or the other, that's where I would put it. But, you know, we need, you know, this, we need that. We need a, you know, better ice bath machines. Like, whatever it is, they're going to get their stuff.

Starting point is 00:25:32 And the scouting, you know, is going to quietly get better over the next couple of years. Not the scouts they have aren't very good, but they have sort of a notoriously small, small scouting department. They're going to be everywhere. And so stuff like that just makes a difference. And the Lakers are going to be a team that not only has the market, but also backs it up with material, with stuff, with the organizational heft and excellence that makes the market

Starting point is 00:26:05 even more attractive because people get what, like that you get with the Dodgers, which is both you get to play for the Dodgers, but you also have this institutional excellence that goes along with it. And speaking of institutional excellence and what goes on inside the buildings, decision makers, brain trusts, all that stuff. Look, these rankings don't truly mean anything in the sense that the teams either suffer or benefit based on their rankings. So neither of us are going to lose our minds over this other than just we do think that the Lakers rising up reflects something positive potentially moving forward.

Starting point is 00:26:46 I will say, I do think it is kind of insane that the Clippers management, which even if you put aside what's going on right now with Steve Balmer and Kauai Leonard and aspiration and the accusations of CAPC circumvention and Pablo, Tori continuing to find out stuff that I imagine they didn't want known, they have completely F themselves by continually tying their fortunes to Kauai Leonard. Like there's been more than one instance where this has really not worked out as they've gone well. No, but they've continually trapped themselves doubling and tripling down because essentially they've been pot committed. Or the warriors.

Starting point is 00:27:35 What's the point I was making before? Like you end up in a situation where you like, you have to keep resigning Kauai Leonard. Yeah. That's the situation. That's what you put yourself into. Right. And the Warriors management, I mean, to put it mildly, got way the hell ahead of themselves, uh, celebrating their two timelines and being light years ahead.

Starting point is 00:28:01 And at this point, they have very little to show for their two times. time line efforts other than the self-induced Jonathan Kaminga cluster bleep. Yes. That those are literally nothing. Yeah. And I don't, I mean, I'll be honest. I think the Lakers right now on paper are better than either one of those teams. And I think the Lakers, even with good health assumed for all three teams, I think the

Starting point is 00:28:28 Lakers are going to finish ahead of Clippers and the Warriors. That those two front offices both finished in the top five, in the Clippers case, second for management. Like that is a lot of reputation voting there. Like the Clippers in the write-up are seemingly being praised for their potentially clean books in 2027, which the Lakers would have been absolutely crushed and have been crushed for that type of, mindset or planning, you know, just like the concept of open books down the line and cap flexibility, cap flexibility. Even like even before Luca's arrival made that type of plan truly ridiculous. And even the write-up of the warriors, to be totally honest, in this thing, made them sound kind of screwed.

Starting point is 00:29:23 And like, my point bringing any of this up isn't to take up for Rob Belinka because Brian and I've been both pretty open about the idea that we think the Lakers could do. better than Rob and at minimum should be open to doing better than Rob. But like I said earlier, fair is fair. And I do think this speaks to what I've talked about before where I feel like people who cover the league in various capacities often look to downplay what the Lakers do and things that are positive as much as they can, not because they're anti-Lakers or they're rooting against the Lakers or anything like that. They just don't want to seem like they are. hyping the Lakers past a certain point. And seeing this write-up of, in particular, the Clippers and Warriors management,

Starting point is 00:30:11 which right now I think have made pretty big messes with both of their teams ahead of the Lakers, I was just like, really? Like, really? I, um, there is also, I think a, it happens with players. The example I always like to use and, you know, I think a lot of everydayers, especially everydayers who go back to our, you know, you go back further in our, you know, 15 years or whatever of Lakers podcasting. I always like to point to the example of DeAngelo Russell and Emmanuel Moodye.

Starting point is 00:30:55 DeLo came in, had a really rough first two, three weeks. Emmanuel Moodye was awesome. For those who don't remember him, he was a rookie point guard for the nuggets at the same time. By the way, there's a reason, like the fact that you have to say for those of you who don't remember him, reinforces what I'm doing. I just want to make sure the context. Sure. The same year, Dilo was a rookie for the Lakers. They were drafted around the same time as each other.

Starting point is 00:31:23 Mudi A went like three or four picks later or something like that to Denver. And a lot of people thought maybe the lake should take it. And Moudier gets off to a great start, except those were the best two weeks of basketball. I played in the NBA. But for about six months, Emmanuel Mudiier was. was the hot prospect and look at what Denver did. And DeAngelo Russell sucked and he was a bust. And it takes a while for the narrative to catch up.

Starting point is 00:31:48 And I think, you know, it is, it is two things can be true at once, as our friend Darius Soriano likes to say. Golden State has been a well-run organization. They have done a lot of smart things. That can be true at the same time as, are they doing smart things right now? I don't know. Are they in a bit of a rough patch right now?

Starting point is 00:32:14 It seems like they are. Are they making excellent choices now? I don't think they are. So like they're getting credit for past action. And I'm not saying they should be 27th on this list. But they're just, they're kind of being grandfathered in to the top 10 here because that's where they've always been.

Starting point is 00:32:37 And people, like, they didn't get dumber necessarily, but they're, I don't think they're at the top of their game. By the way, it's, they're running into the problems that all teams run into. That's why they tried the two-track thing, because they're trying to get around NBA gravity, and gravity always wins. Pretty much. Pretty much undefeated. But anyway, we will eventually get to next week some of these mailback questions. But these future rankings, I think, are indicative of, if nothing else, a future and potential that the Lakers still have to make good on.

Starting point is 00:33:19 You know, they still have to capitalize on what's in front of them. They still have to make smart decisions. And I think everybody inside the building in El Segundo is on the clock because, you know, new ownership is coming in. But there's a reason Brian is going back to the sunglasses gag again. future is so bright, Andy. You got to wear shades. You got to wear shades. Lockdown Lakers on YouTube. He's working. Go hang out with over 36,000 shade wearing subscribers, all leaving us questions,

Starting point is 00:33:50 leaving us comments, subscribe on Apple, subscribe on Spotify as well to get the audio version delivered to you every day. We'll see everyone tomorrow.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - How Luka Dončić Changes the Future for the Lakers (Mark Walter Helps, Too)

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