Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - How Realistic Is a Luka Dončić Return for the Lakers? And at What Potential Cost?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Luke and Donchich is on his way back to Los Angeles and is trying hard to get back on the floor, but is it really more likely than it even was last week? 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 stopping by Locked on Lakers. I'm Brian Komeneski with Andy Keminowski. Lots to get into as the Lakers get ready for their first round match.

Starting point is 00:00:37 against Hughes Prockets. Game one Saturday at 530. We got obviously a week's worth of previews to get into. We'll talk a little bit of Luca Donch. It's just the historic season that Luca has, has he finished today? We're not really sure. I guess that's part of the big conversation from Monday, which is the news that Luca Donchich is on his way back to Los Angeles. He's planning on joining the team this week. A couple reports from Shams and at ESPN and Mark Stombeen. that he will be back with team on Friday, presumably, I guess, getting looked at in between to see how the healing has gone in Spain. But, Andy, no timetable yet or no word yet

Starting point is 00:01:23 on any kind of return to play. Until we hear anything much more concrete, whether from the Lakers or I would expect just reports, I am going to assume that he is on the early side of whatever the timeline is, simply just because it's the more responsible way of doing it, and I don't want to start setting up our audience for false hope. I mean, the one thing that I feel comfortable deducing is once Luca is confirmed back in the States, or even once it is confirmed that he is heading back to L.A., he's done with the

Starting point is 00:02:03 treatment that you do in Europe, because the things that he's, many of the things, if not all of the things that he's doing in Europe with stem cell injections, PRP are things that you cannot do in the U.S. So by definition, that means he's finished with those treatments and whatever the rehab constitutes. That's something he can do in the States with his people, Lakers training staff, all that stuff. That's the only thing that I'm willing to definitively think. Everything else is going to be a lot of wait and see how. it goes keep your expectations low and allow yourself to be pleasantly surprised yeah i think that's the

Starting point is 00:02:45 right way to handle it and you know it's it's funny because like he is obvious and this is something we want to get into he is obviously trying you know incredibly hard to get back onto the floor like to the point where personally i'm actually you know a little worried about like i this is the type of injury, a hamstring is the type of injury that if something goes like, you can really mess with you long term. Like this is a bad thing to make worse. And so, you know, we are running up against here like the very admirable impulse for an athlete, you know, a highly paid athlete, a leader of a team, a, and a, you know, sort of God tier player to get back on the floor with that need to really make sure that as much as possible sort of discretion is the

Starting point is 00:03:45 better part of valor here. Like nobody does anything really stupid. It's like, you know, we'll get to the Austin Reeves portion of this in a second. But like it, and I don't like making doing like media commentary, but like we hear fans talk about this a lot if they, particularly if they don't like a player and hot take sports stuff. I mean like, you know, Stephen A, there's a segment floating around socials on Monday, just like, you know, talking about LeBron being healthy and like, you know, Austin Reeves and Luke at Dodgers, what's the matter with you? Why aren't, you know, LeBron spends the money, he's healthy and ready to go. What's, what's wrong with you guys?

Starting point is 00:04:25 Implying that somehow both of those players just haven't been trying to stay healthy? Like, I don't know. I don't know where that. everybody's body is exactly the same that they're that Luca and Austin and LeBron are somehow dealing with the exact same physical conditions and it's basically we're come it's like you're comparing like a blind taste test or something where it's three similar things and you're supposed to just decide which one tastes best or I guess in this particular case which one is most manly and able to stay on the court.

Starting point is 00:05:08 Also, and this is not a shot at LeBron, but kind of forgetting that LeBron missed the opening, what, 14, 15 games with sciatica. So again, and look, it's incredible that, I mean, it's both ironic and incredible that LeBron is right now the last man standing in terms of entering the playoffs. And I don't want to in any way downplay the achievement. Like it is remarkable.

Starting point is 00:05:35 And it's a testament to what LeBron does. I've talked about this a lot. This bleep ain't easy for LeBron anymore. It takes a lot of work to keep yourself at this level at his age with that mileage. So he should be celebrated for it. But the idea that these are three exact same things, except one of them is willing to be out on the court and the other two are softer, you know, going back to when people were accused.

Starting point is 00:06:03 using Luca and Austin of faking the injuries during OKC because they were having bad games and that was their way out. Meaning at this point they're committing to like anywhere from a three to six week to an entire offseason bit essentially to get people to not talk about one bad game that they played. Like, that is such galaxy brain, what the F man? Like, really think about what that means. They are so upset, Austin, and especially Luca,

Starting point is 00:06:43 because Luca had had the worst game before he got hurt. They're so embarrassed and on tilt over one bad game that they're willing to fake an injury that lasts for weeks, if not months, that actually gets more attention what they're doing because they're in the playoffs as opposed to just playing the next game and everyone would have forgotten. It is. It is. And it's the sort of thing.

Starting point is 00:07:10 It's like, I can assure you, I can assure everyone, both of these guys really want to play. Both of these guys are very tough. both of these guys put their bodies through the ringer. This stuff is bad timing. You know, you get into April or something like that and you just cross your fingers and hope nothing goes wrong because if it does, there's simply no time to recover. And like I only bring it up because, you know, this sort of thing, like this is the type of

Starting point is 00:07:50 stuff that pops up when players get hurt at this type of year. And I don't think the Lakers necessarily will be guided by it. But I do think it takes players, excuse me, who shouldn't be on the floor. And it pushes them to try to do things that they shouldn't because they hear these things. And they're not because they're worried about what people are saying, but they're competitive. And it drives them to, you know, these are people. if you say you can't do X or you should be doing X, and if you,

Starting point is 00:08:25 you know, kind of call them out on their, like they're going to respond because that's how these guys are wired. And like I look at and I realize it's not the same injury, but what concerns me about Luca and like the potential of coming back early, different injury, but similar scenario, I think about Tyrese Halliburton a lot.

Starting point is 00:08:43 And, you know, the op, you know, playing on a really bad calf. And, you know, a strain going to game seven of the NBA finals.

Starting point is 00:08:54 Like I don't think there's a player on the planet who wouldn't have tried to play. But then he gets hurt. He's out. He loses the season. I'm not saying the exact same thing could happen to Luca, but what I get worried about isn't Luca is going to do something that makes it so he can't play next year. It's that Luca's going to do something where he loses his offseason. And he comes into next year not out of shape.

Starting point is 00:09:20 because he just got lazy, but out of shape because he couldn't do anything. And he's going to push just as hard, and he's going to try to play just, and he's going to try to do all the things that he did this year, some of which we're going to outline here. Luca officially became the scoring title leader and all that stuff this year.

Starting point is 00:09:39 The stuff he did this year was remarkable. And the future of the Lakers is Luca, and it includes next season. This is what, you know, we'll have plenty of time to talk about LeBron and the LeBron discourse and all that kind of stuff about next year, not just what we're going to see in this series. But like, it frustrates me to no end when people like, we got to look for the future as if next year isn't part of it. So I want to talk next about like what Luca accomplished this year. We want to talk about Austin Reeves and the news we got around him. And then we'll get a little bit into some of these matchups, things to look forward to.

Starting point is 00:10:18 I also, I want to offer my thoughts on the risk-reward piece of this. Sure, absolutely. We're not entirely in agreement on this, but my source of disagreement comes with a very specific set of parameters. So we can get all that coming up next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by TurboTax. It's tax time, but for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot, like trying to book an appointment. that's not convenient, sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth, wondering if these people really get your situation.

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Starting point is 00:12:26 We love it. And if it isn't, that's okay. We love you just the same. So everyday club, check it out. All right. So, yeah, I know we don't see this exactly the same way in terms of the risk reward for Luca here. So, you know, kind of lay that out.

Starting point is 00:12:45 This is my basic parameters for deciding whether or not this is worth the risk at all. I'm not particularly concerned about Luca coming back having some type of setback where he essentially goes back to square one and it's basically the same injury because were I to guess and I could be completely wrong about this but this is what I'm picturing

Starting point is 00:13:10 given he's going to have a long offseason regardless unless you think Luca coming back really can get the Lakers all the way to the finals maybe win the whole thing, in which case you worry about the after effects. Right. I mean, if that's what we're talking about. But nobody really thinks that. Right.

Starting point is 00:13:31 And that's, if I'm being real about this, part of my thinking. I'm picturing this one or two rounds in all likelihood. Maybe they get themselves with Western Conference finals, but I'm thinking one or two rounds. If Luca has some type of setback that essentially takes him back to square one, where he's dealing with essentially the same injury, then I'm picturing essentially the same rehab, same treatment, all of that stuff, in which case,

Starting point is 00:13:59 I doubt it bleeds much into the off season and anything heading into the beginning of regular season more than we would have been dealing with anyway. I would agree with that. So that being the case, if they don't think the risk of anything worse, like a, and by worse, I mean a worsened essentially, new version of this injury happens, then I think it's okay to take this sort of risk.

Starting point is 00:14:26 And because I consider that definition of risk fairly low. However, if there is even a 5% chance of this thing becoming worse, where all of a sudden you're talking about grade three and you're talking about a considerably longer rehab process. and all of a sudden it does start bleeding into the regular season and Luca can't come out of the gate strong, then I would say it is not worth it at all. Right. So they need to be exactly on point when it comes to the pros and cons of this and the doctors need to be in alignment.

Starting point is 00:15:08 They need to be sure about what these risks are and in the way that they are defining them. if they're being defined the way I'm defining them, I'm okay with it. And as far as the idea of recurrence with hamstrings, you know, susceptibility, I got to be honest, I think this is baked into the cake already. I think Luca is already susceptible to this. He's had multiple hamstring and calf and soft tissue injuries over the course of his career. And I am guessing there's going to be more to come. this is just what it is?

Starting point is 00:15:45 Sure. But first of all, fundamentally we agree on the basic parameters here of whether or not. Like if there's a risk, like that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about that. Like it wasn't 50, like they didn't send Halliburton out on the floor and be like, look, man, there's a 50-50 shot. You're going to snap this thing. I'm sure it was like there's a risk here.

Starting point is 00:16:08 We think you can make it through the game. You know, you got the rest of the. the off season to heal. That part, you know, like there's there's all, it's never a zero percent chance. It's a question of like if it's so you and I basically agree on the parameters here. Like there's the one thing I will not say, I don't think the baking and the cake thing is, is really true because there, these things are a matter of degree. And if you do something to a guy, if you take somebody who has a sort of susceptibility to something and you wrap that injury up significantly higher, then I think there's an even greater risk.

Starting point is 00:16:49 It becomes something that transfers from something that becomes sort of part of the fabric into something that it's like debilitatingly chronic. And you look at somebody like James Hardin or something like that. Hamstring injuries can undo a player's prime. Sorry. leaking all over things in ways that are potentially really problematic. So, the Lakers has to have to be really careful about it.

Starting point is 00:17:19 That part, I think we completely agree with. But the other thing about this from like a series standpoint, and we're going to get into, we're going to get into over the course of the week, the importance of game one. Game one for the Lakers, game one in the playoffs is always important. Always.

Starting point is 00:17:39 Like, it just doesn't matter. matter if you have home court, not this. Game one is always incredibly important. This series, it's even more so. If the Lakers go out and get dusted in this game one, there's a very good chance. It's harder for them to come back. Just like it kind of pops that balloon of belief and it may just reveal, it may just reveal that they can't do it. Possibly, but you, they need to be able to full. themselves into it like you know and we you know sort of like that theme that we've kind of of disbelief that we've been talking about like they have to be able to fool themselves it

Starting point is 00:18:19 makes it also makes it so houston's going to sort of smell blood in the water and be like oh man we can we can get out of this um you know we can get out of this like quick get ourselves some rest and like make a run here um game one if you get ahead and you win game one it gives lebron more space. It gives, you know, you are, you know, one of the things we'll talk about over the course of the week, there's a great deal of risk of kind of burning out LeBron over the course of this series. If you make the team come from behind over the course of the series, it's going to be even harder. The third thing is, if you want to extend the Lakers playoffs to have any chance of like, oh, you know what? Oh, my God. like great work LeBron James of hamstrings in in Spain like you fixed him miracle of miracle stem cells work he's like the scans look good he can come back that's more than likely not going to be game one game two you're talking game three game five and if the lakers are

Starting point is 00:19:23 already down three to one do you really bring back luka from this injury I don't think you do so context maybe maybe not but like all I'm saying is like it's a you put it all the And for me, like the significance of this game one is way higher than it would have been had the Lakers finished in the four spot. Everybody's kind of intact. And it's like, okay, they're at home. But like, you've still got Luca. You've still got Reeves. You've still got LeBron.

Starting point is 00:19:53 They can come back and win this. It's another reason for game one to be monumentally important. Yeah. I mean, game one in a series, I mean, forget the context of Luke and Austin being out. game one traditionally is very impactful over the course of a series anyway. Right. If you win game one, it doesn't guarantee you the series, but the odds shift pretty dramatically in your favor,

Starting point is 00:20:19 just getting that first one under your belt. So yeah, there's just a lot of layers to this. It's really interesting to think about Luca and the possibility of him coming back. Obviously, we will get more news about. this over the course of the week. We do need to update, update you on Austin Reeves and the potential there for him. And hopefully, too, we'll get some updates over the course of the week about Jackson Hayes. So all of that and more coming up next.

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Starting point is 00:22:49 five-hour energy.com or at Amazon. The other part of this, of course, is Austin Reeves. And, you know, the juxtaposition here of just Luca coming back has gotten people thinking about, you know, what's next. Austin, Shams reporting, still expected to return sometime in early May. That hasn't shifted. I don't know if, you know, how much Luca's timeline actually has bumped up. You know, if he comes back early May, you know, second week of May, it's still in that sort of early part of the, I've heard, I've seen four to six weeks. I've seen six to eight weeks, a lot of different projections about this kind of stuff. There is no movement yet on Austin. And at the very least, I don't think anybody should be picturing either one of them coming back during the first round until somebody says one of the, you know, they at least have a shot until you see them on court, until you see them doing something.

Starting point is 00:23:59 Yeah. There have been no whispers, no reports, no anything I've heard. I mean, I'm going to be at Lakers practice on Tuesday. we'll see if there are any even fleeting details about Luca and Austin. My expectation is that if one of them managed to come back, it would be Luca before Austin. I would be very surprised. If it's the other way around, I could be completely wrong. There is always a chance since there's no lower extremities going on with Austin.

Starting point is 00:24:32 Maybe by Saturday or the beginning, middle of next. week, it starts turning into more of a pain management or an effectiveness while dealing with pain because when you have that level of pain and Austin's injury is a very painful one, your body will often not cooperate in ways that you need to in order to play well, no matter how much you feel like mentally you are tolerating the pain, the physical won't follow. But maybe if it's something like that and Austin's legs are fine, he tries to give it a go, playing through it. But the expectation that I'm running with is that Luca would be the one to return first.

Starting point is 00:25:20 Who knows if either one of them will? Yeah, I'll be honest with you. I get no sense of one. being faster than the other, you know, that Luca would be... I'm going apart off the original timelines. Yeah, I mean, a little bit, but, I mean, I just, I don't have any sense of it. It is just worth noting, you know, as sort of Luca, get, you know, a name, scoring title on.

Starting point is 00:25:48 I feel like, just what the Lakers lose by not having, like, he has had a remarkable season. You know, first one in L.A. And it's a shame it really is a shame that they can't take him into the playoffs because there was certainly a strong chance that we would have been treated to something very special in terms of, you know, reminiscent of that run, you know, they have with the Mavericks to get him, you know, through to the finals. And like all these other things just to show exactly how, you know, dominant he is. And more importantly, you just feel awful for him because, you know, so much of the work and the effort and all these things, it's obviously all geared toward this part of the season and to not be able to participate in it is kind of heartbreaking beyond the, you know,

Starting point is 00:26:48 the obvious things that it does to the team in scuttling their chances. So it's just the whole thing is pretty brutal because we're talking about a guy who, you know, had a historic, genuinely historic, not even us like hyperboizing offensive campaign. It was just truly remarkable. Yeah, I don't think it should be overlooked how much it signals the way Luca cares about this franchise and cares about being the face of it and the responsibilities that he, he's making this effort to get back in the first place. Whether you think it's the right thing to do, irresponsible, whatever, too risky, it speaks to the idea that he wants to be back.

Starting point is 00:27:36 And it's not just because he is a sickly competitive dude. Like, nobody would have expected or demanded that Luca go overseas, get stem cell injections, PRP. Like, frankly, it did not occur to anybody that I know I've been talking to or conversations around the team, reports, whatever. This was not on anybody's bingo card that he would do this. So it speaks to just how much I think he really embraces the responsibility of being that guy for this team.

Starting point is 00:28:10 You mentioned the scoring title over at the network. We, as an NBA channel did voting for different awards like MVP, first team all NBA, all defense, six man of the year, some additional made-up categories. And we as a network, we as a network decided that we would ignore the 65-game threshold because we just wanted to say who we would have voted for within reason, particularly with when some of these guys, you're talking about missing it by, in the case of Luca, one game, you know, someone like Cade Cunningham,

Starting point is 00:28:47 I want to say it's maybe two or three games. I voted Luca third in the MVP race and obviously first team all NBA. But one of the categories that the network had was offensive player of the year. And I voted Luca number one. I think Luca's offensive season this year, like what he generated as a one-man army, just that kind of force, it's insane. And I don't think there has been a player. since like prime step that bends an offense the way Luca does now.

Starting point is 00:29:25 Like even somebody like Nikola Yokic, who I know can score from all over the floor, playmake from all over the floor. I've said before I think he is the most matchup proof player in the league. But there's like a live wire dangerousness with Luca that I don't even think there's there with Yokic because Yokic can hit long threes. You know, he can hit a 32 footer. but you don't expect him to take them the same way Luca does. Like there is a holy bleep he may pull the trigger on this at any given moment with Luca

Starting point is 00:29:59 that just terrifies the bleep out of every defense he goes up against. And I think he was the best offensive player of the year. And to your point, it's just it's a shame that he is not going to be able to pay off what he did all season, or at least we don't know for sure. I'm working with the assumption of all, but you're right. I mean, 33.5.7 and a half, almost eight rebounds, over eight assists a game,

Starting point is 00:30:29 16, 40-point games, 50-point game, 60-point game. The whole thing is stupid what he was able to do this year. And, you know, we talked about what the Lakers have lost by not being able to, have him in the postseason and what it means not just for their ability to win right now but to see him with Austin and obviously we can't even see Austin like well the late team loses there but it is it's worth I part of the other thing that I I didn't like about Stephen A thing and I don't

Starting point is 00:31:08 again I mean it's not about media commentary though is stuff like that moves like part of what is so disappointed about it sucks for luka like you get so wrapped up in how it you know disappointing for the team how it's disappointing for the long-term future how it's so many like these are people and like this guy just did all of this stuff over the course of this year and he can't play i feel the same way about austin who leads the league still although jake laravia i think is trying to catch up but like austin still leaves the league in getting punched in the face, or like elbowed in the face, or hit in the face over the course of 80,

Starting point is 00:31:53 over the course of a season, like these guys want nothing more than to play and on a human level to not be able to go through all of the stuff to get to this point and not be able to play in the part of the season that matters most is gutting to these guys. And you talk about the dedication that somebody like Luca has to the organization to go, fly overseas to get treatments that you can't get in the in the U.S. And then fly back with just like a fingers crossed hope that you might speed up your healing by a couple weeks.

Starting point is 00:32:29 It says a lot. And it's part of the reason why we'll get into it for next year. I really want to, you know, for me, like the conversation really does need to be framed about not just building for the, it is about building for the few. future with Luca while not forgetting that this guy's prime is happening right now. And you cannot, it is irresponsible to waste or set aside a year of it if you can avoid it. So that's all stuff we'll talk about. We're going to get deep into.

Starting point is 00:33:02 It's ironically the same argument a lot of people would have for him playing in these playoffs now if he can. Yeah, no, you're right. We want to get deep into some of the matchups and things like that. We will start on that into Tuesday afternoon's short show. We've got some big previews coming up. We're going to get a lot of people on the program for some crossover episodes and all that get everybody as prepared as we possibly can for the Saturday game one. And a lot of it starts with LeBron and investigating the role that he is going to have in this series

Starting point is 00:33:40 and how exactly the Lakers can set him up for a level of success. So we'll focus in on that for Tuesday, and we'll see everyone then.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - How Realistic Is a Luka Dončić Return for the Lakers? And at What Potential Cost?

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