Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - How the Lakers Can Beat the Thunder in OKC, Plus, Nico Harrison Fired in Dallas

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

The Lakers have a big game tonight in Oklahoma City against a Thunder squad that is throttling the NBA, even while All NBA forward Jaylen Williams hasn't played a single minute this year. Chet Holmgren has missed time, as has Lu Dort. Doesn't matter. The Thunder have been incredibly good defensively, for starters, and that doesn't change when the lineup shuffles around. (The offense does, but that's a different story.) So the Lakers have to figure out how to navigate an incredibly disruptive defense that can out-athlete them all over the floor. Of course, that was the situation last year, too, and the post-trade Lakers played Oklahoma City very competitively, to the point some wondered if they should have been trying to draw OKC in the playoffs. Can the Luka Dončić/Austin Reaves combo repeat last year's success, with LeBron on the sidelines? If so, that would add some serious legitimacy to this early season start for LA. Meanwhile in Dallas, the hammer finally dropped on Nico Harrison. The GM who traded Luka to LA is out of a job, after the Mavs struggled post-deadline last year, and have been awful to start this season. Fans have been chanting Fire Nico! at every home game, and the situation became untenable. But it also means the Mavs could be broken up, and if that happens, where those pieces land could play a huge role in the playoff race.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: LA vs. OKC!  SEGMENT 2: How the Lakers can pull an upset.  SEGMENT 3: Thank you, Nico!  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DoorDashNext time someone goes off for 50, use promo code NBA50the next day to get 50% off on DoorDash with DashPass — plus your shot at the Bag Drop.DashPass members only. 50% off up to $10 the day after a 50-point game with promo code. Terms apply.No Purchase Necessary. Ends April 13th. Open to U.S. residents 21 or older. Visit DoorDashInYourBag.com for full details.DoorDash — In your bag all season long.BILTTurn your rent into rewards and start earning points around your neighborhood by going to https://joinbilt.com/lockedonnba.DripDropStock up now before the heat hits hard — and keep your body and mind performing at their best with DripDrop.Right now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order.Go to dripdrop.com and use promo code LOCKEDONNBA. WayfairDon’t miss out on early Black Friday deals.Head to Wayfair.com now to shop Wayfair’s Black Friday sale for up to 70% off.Mint MobileReady to say yes to sayingno?Make the switch at https://MintMobile.com/LOCKEDONNBA Upfront payment of $45 required (equivalent to $15/mo). Limited-time new customer offer for first 3 months only. Speeds may slow above 35GB on Unlimited plan. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details.RobinhoodYou expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today at robinhood.com/yourmoney. Your money. Your move. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Options, futures, and crypto trading carry significant risk and may not suit all investors. Securities offered through Robinhood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Futures trading is offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC and not SPIC or FDIC protected. Crypto offered through Robinhood Crypto, LLC (NMLS ID 1702840), not FDIC or SIPC protected. Portfolio management offered by Robinhood Strategies, an SEC-registered advisor.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBAfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting https://FanDuel.comto get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Wednesday, Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, Lakers versus Thunder tonight. Are the Lakers ready? That's next. You are locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Lockedon Lakers. First listen to every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how where you get your podcast,

this one's always free. Never behind a paywall. Locked on Lakers on YouTube. where you can hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel, Andy, all of whom are celebrating with us. The fact, the Locked on Network is, in fact, the number one podcast network in the entire universe as far as I can tell. The copy says America, but I'm just going to go ahead and say the universe.

And all of those people, Andy, are dialed into tonight's game. And it's a big one. It's the thunder who seem entirely unbeatable at this point with a monstrous point differential that only increased given what they did to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night. To be fair, the Warriors did not have Al Horford. More stuff. No, they did have stuff. Well, they did. I think Steph played. No, no.

Steph just played poorly, but he didn't play. They had Steph. I just assumed I saw that score. Nope. They won by 24 points. They were actually the ones, the Thunder, missing more players. They did not have obviously Jalen Williams, who was not playing yet this season. They did not have Lou Dort.

They did not have Aaron Wiggins. And they did not have a care in the world during this game because they curb stomped the Warriors without all those guys. And this is what they've been doing. This is what the thunder have been up to since the beginning of the season. They are now 11 and 1. They have a point differential that is crazy, crazy good, well above. It was 13 going into that game.

It is higher now against the plucky upstart Lakers, the little engine that could. And I, you know, I joke, but the Lakers are surprising a lot. lot of people this year, not just from being good. I think people expected them to be pretty good, but the level to which they've played without LeBron taking the floor at all, with Luca missing four games, with Austin Reeves missing some time. And yet, the Lakers are right near the top of the Western Conference. This is a major test for them early in the season. We'll break down in a second. can also talk to you about a really interesting article from Dave McManneman about the impending free agency of Austin Reeves, who is getting richer and richer by the game.

Plus, Nico getting fired in Dallas, which is obviously directly related to the Lakers and Luca. Oh, really? What for? Where do you do wrong? That finally, that finally mercifully for Dallas fans happened. Definitely going to get into that tonight. I need to let people know that today's episodes brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new customers can get about just $5.

And if your bet wins, get $300 and bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fendule.com to get started. Yeah, apparently there was an 8 a.m. Dallas time meeting for NICO to meet with the owner. By 8.30, they were looking for new management. I can't imagine what Nico did wrong. I look at this game tonight, Andy, and I'm really excited, not necessarily because I expect the Lakers to win,

although they did play the Thunder very effectively last year. They were one of the teams that actually in the West who played most effectively against Oklahoma City. But I look at this as, you know, particularly given that the game is on their floor as a really good litmus test to win. where the Lakers are. They don't need, I mean, winning the game would be great,

but they don't need to dominate it. But you go into Oklahoma City from my belief and play a really competitive game, this shows that you are right, you know, nothing about this start is fluky. Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, the Lakers played the Thunder. I mean, they've played actually the last couple of years,

the Thunder very well in the LeBron AD era and in the Luca LeBron Austin era last year they beat them. They played them two times in three days. They beat them once by almost 30 points on their floor. Then they played them again in Oklahoma City. And things were going very well until Luca got ejected in the fourth quarter. Yeah, a ref thought Luca was talking to him. He was actually jogging with a fan.

They were having fun. The ref made himself the main character. Luca got ejected in the fourth, and the Thunder outscored the Lakers 29 to 12 after that. Luca had been playing well. The Lakers has been playing well. So this is a good test. The Lakers obviously won't have LeBron, but the Thunder at minimum won't have Jalen Williams. I don't know about Lou Dort.

And for my ESPN-N-L-A-710 weekly Lakers show, Lakers talk, I had Rylan Stiles from Locked on Thunder on to preview the game. There was a few things he said that I thought were interesting. First of all, and I have dug around and have not been able to find any quotes from Mark Dagnow or The Thunder or anything specific to Wednesday's game. But Rylund said that thus far early in the season, they have not played Chet Holmgren in back-to-backs because he's had some back issues and stuff like that. And his general health over the last few years has been at times difficult to maintain. However, he only played 25 minutes in the front end of this back to back. And clearly it was not that much of a struggle because he scored 23 points in 25 minutes plus 11 rebounds to assist. So he missed zero shots from anywhere on the floor, 9 of 9 from the field, 2 of 2 from 3 point range, 3 of 3 from the line.

So theoretically, this could be a game that is considered an exception just because his night, was relatively easy, but we'll see. Don't know about Lou Dorts availability. It's interesting. Talking with Rylan about, you know, the strengths, there are a lot of them, and the relative weaknesses of the thunder. He mentioned, you know, their defense has been number one this season, despite not having Jalen Williams' second team all defense on the team at all so far this season.

He mentioned that they have been kind of weaker. in guarding the mid-range and the mid-range been kind of vulnerable. And I was like, oh, that's interesting because the Lakers are the best team in the league for their mid-range field goal percentage. Rui obviously has been crushing it there, but the Andre Aiton's good, Luke is good, Austin's good. So I'm like, oh, this could potentially be a swing factor for the game. And I suppose it could be.

But to put this in perspective, rather than being the best in the league at this particular section, like the second best, they're merely the eighth best. Like this is one of their vulnerable spots where they are eighth best in the league, where they are legitimately vulnerable or just have not done a good job, conceding it, whatever, is corner threes. They are one of the worst teams in the league in terms of their overall field goal percentage from the corners. I believe they are actually dead last.

The potential problem there is that the Lakers are currently 28th in the league for shooting corner threes. And when I was talking about this with my producer at Lakers talk, he wondered how much of that could have been just Vando. I did the math. If you subtract Vando's two of ten from the corners, the Lakers do go up from 28th to 27th. He's got two? He's got two.

I didn't think he had two. He's got one corner three from the left corner and one from the right corner. But that man is never going to get that 50th career three-pointer. Oh, he's passed it. I think he's on 51 now. I thought he was still stuck on 49. Good for him. No, that was pre-the-makes.

But either way, Vando ain't help in the Corner 3 project, but he's not the reason they're being drugged down, to be totally honest. It's really Austin, Dalton Connect, and Marcus Smart that are doing the most damage. I look at statistics like that, too. not so much what the Lakers doing, because I think the Lakers kind of are what they are as a three-point shooting team. And while I don't think they're terrible,

you know, they've got shooters. What they aren't is a team that should be orienting themselves towards three-pointers. They shouldn't be overly aggressive in their scheming to try to exploit, you know, a perceived weakness with somebody's three-point defense. But also, too, I look at with a team as strong defensively as Oklahoma City at a number like that and would need at least for myself to, you know, whether it's reviewing film, talk play, get to the why.

Because it's clearly that, you know, Oklahoma City probably could be much better at that if they really devoted themselves to it. percentages are obviously subject to some degree of luck, particularly this early in the year, so you don't know how that plays into it. And you are going to give up something somewhere by choice when you're a good team. And so I don't expect the least, Andy, the Lakers would see a number like that and try to, you would see a number like that and try to exploit it. I think they will try to run their own. offense, try to get in the mid-range. And what they're going to have to do, I think, I'll tell you next.

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But built isn't just about rent. It's about rewarding you and your entire neighborhood. Built has made everyday life feel more rewarding from your neighborhood to your travel plans because if you're out grabbing food at your local restaurant or going to the gym, you can earn rewards there. all these places that you're going, you know, it is an opportunity for you to earn money towards your rent. So turn your rent into rewards and start earning points around your neighborhood by going to joinbilt.com slash locked on MBA. That's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T dot com slash locked on MBA. Make sure to use that link so they know we sent you. One of the things that I think makes games like this such an opportunity is, you know,

Oklahoma City's offense is going to be somewhat dictated a little bit maybe by who plays. You know, if Chet plays, it looks different than if he doesn't and all of this other stuff. But the guys that they plug in, whether it's, you know, A.J. Mitchell, who's been fantastic to start the season. He was actually starting to break out a little bit last year and then he got hurt. But whether you're talking about AJ Mitchell, whether you're talking about the other Jalen Williams, they plug in a bunch of people and the offensive talent might go down compared to all NBA Jalen Williams, but the defense does not really suffer, even when somebody like Lou Dort isn't available. The Oklahoma City Thunder continue to play outstanding defense.

So it's not just about not turning the ball over. it is the discipline of can you execute your offense trip after trip after trip after trip after trip after trip because for the lakers to play good defense i think in this game a lot of it is going to be predicated on their offense if they're sloppy if they do what they did in atlanta in terms of giving the ball away they're they're going to get run out of the gym even if they're not sharp, but take care of the ball like they did against Charlotte with a lower turnover number, they got a chance to be in this game. I just, they are going to be forced to execute at a really high level. And to this point, Andy, against better competition, they've generally elevated to the

occasion. Well, you hit an item that was on my list and just to dig into it further. You know, we talked about heading into the Hornets game. They were 28th in the league for steals, dead last. in deflections, dead last in terms of points off turnovers. There are lousy defense anyway. The Lakers did a good job against Charlotte, but some of that is the incapabilities of the Hornets to force that type of stuff.

Right now, the Thunder lead the league for steals, 10 and a half a game. That's without Jalen Williams, who averaged one and a half last season, and as I mentioned earlier, all defense team last year. They have seven guys right now averaging a half. at least one steal a game. If Lou Dort doesn't play, that makes it a mere six. And Cason Wallace leads the league with two and a half steals a game. This will come as no shock to anybody.

They lead the league in points off turnovers, which would be a problem for anyone, but especially the Lakers who, frankly, suck defending in transition. So like Luca and Austin, they got to be opportunistic with hit-ahead possibilities, but they got to be careful. We talked about Marcus Smart. and some of the adventure against Charlotte, you can't have that against this Thunder team.

They will eat those type of iffy passes alive, like Vando's got to take care of the ball. Like everyone just needs to be really, really on top of their decisions. Like their decisions against the thunder are going to be huge. And it's not, look, I mean, the Lakers weren't as athletic as Oklahoma City last year either and played this game.

So, but like what they, but they can't get into a track meet with a thunder. They can't try to out athlete Oklahoma City. It's not going to work. And so similar what you said about the corner three thing, Brian. I feel very confident that Lakers are not going to try that either. No. And it's what they what they really need to lean into is their physicality, that, that physical nature, that physical play. They actually have more size now, you know, with, with, with, with, with, with, with,

and available to them to go along with a little bit more athleticism. them in the second unit with Jackson Hayes and stuff like that. So they have that, you know, that hop, you know, against a guy like maybe like Hartenstein. I'm sorry, the size to go against like a Hartenstein or something like that, perhaps more effectively than they did last year. But, you know, they need to be able to execute their way around the kind of pressure that Oklahoma City is going to put on them.

And Luca has been masterful and remains masterful at drawing, you know, allowing himself to draw a double higher on the floor because he feels confident he can pass out of anything. But what do the Lakers do with that second pass? What happens to the third pass in that sequence? Are they able to turn, if Oklahoma City does put pressure high on the floor against Luca and create a sort of four on three at the three point line and below, can the Lakers execute that effectively and make Oklahoma City pay for that kind of over-committance? to Luca. And if they don't overcommit to Luca, can Luca make them pay for not doing it?

Yeah. You mentioned that the Lakers have more size now than when they faced the Thunder in those two games in the post-Luca era. Rylan mentioned DeAndre Aidan and like that presence as something that he thought could be a difference maker for the Lakers in terms of just having more size. You know, it'll be interesting to see again. if Chet plays or if his minutes are limited at all, but that he thought that he could, he thought that Aiton could, in his own right, be a difficult matchup at times for both Hartenstein and Chet Holmgram,

depending on what the situation is where they're on the floor, stuff like that. But I think he was looking for, you know, that combination of increased size with Luca, I mean, with Aitin and Rui actually did not play in the game. I don't remember why, but he didn't play in the game that the Lakers lost.

So those two guys adding a little more athleticism, more size could be a factor there as well. The Thunder, for what it's worth also, they're not a great offensive rebounding team and they're not a great second chance points team. So that can hopefully help the Lakers. How often do they miss? Well, you know what? I was looking that up. Their two point percentage is really high, but they're not a great three-point shooting team.

And the point being, they're not a team that that makes a ton out of, forget even just second chance opportunities, just offensive rebounds. So the only reason I bring this up is the Lakers are not a great defensive rebounding team. So they may be able to catch a break in that sense against the thunder if they are really mindful of trying to create one and out possessions. Yeah. And some teams just don't. You know, that's by design. They're not intentionally trying to put a lot of pressure on the glass. But like if anywhere where there's a play, what they really can't afford is to have, you know,

those relative weaknesses of the thunder to allow them to be a strength on Wednesday night. That's my point. That's my point. Don't take a team that isn't good on the offensive glass and give them the opportunity to become good. That is exactly. you're making the point well that I was that I was looking to put it out there. So I'm just excited to watch it. I don't necessarily expect the Lakers to win in Oklahoma City,

but I do expect them to come out and play a good game. I do expect that it will be competitive. I hope Chet plays because these become much more of a measuring stick and you're able to do it. For what it's worth, Oklahoma City doesn't play again until Friday. I'm sorry, Saturday and it's against the Hornets. So, you know, maybe they feel like with two days

off and a light work on a light work on Tuesday that check can come back for the back to back so we'll see. Nico Harrison, Andy, is he the third greatest GM in Lakers history? I'm not sure. It's either third or fourth, but he just lost his job in Dallas in one of the most amazing arcs obviously related to the start the Lakers are having right now. We'll get to that, next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Mint Mobile.

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It's the equivalent of $15 a month. limited time new customer offer for the first three months only. Speeds may be slow about 35 gigabytes on the unlimited plan. Taxes and fees extra C. Mint Mobile for details. We did see this comment here from Derek Malfoy in the chat. Oklahoma City forced you to turn the ball over and then they beat you in transition. The Lakers transition defense needs to be superb. And obviously that gets to the turnover point that we were making.

Before the, I mean, what I would reiterate though, too, is it's not just. about turnovers. It's also about the shot quality. The Lakers are taking shots out of the rhythm of their offense. Oklahoma City is going to get out in transition anyway. You know, and, you know, you are going to have bad defensive possessions because your defense is going to be imbalanced. So it's really the quality of your offense, a step past turnovers that I think has to be really high. This is truly one of those games where bad offense, could get blamed for bad or bad defense could get blamed but bad offense is actually the problem so um just something to keep an eye out for um we'll we'll get to this reeves stuff here in a minute we'll see

if we have enough time for it today uh but it's it's to say the least an evergreen story day mcmahoneman has a great feature on austin's impending free agency um you know the parts about wanting to stay in l a finish a laker not necessarily looking for every dollar he can find None of that is necessarily new, but the context around Austin's free agency, obviously different, given the All-Star level that he's been playing at over the course of this year. But man alive, Andy, the NBA, in terms of NBA news, this Nico Harrison thing is just great. The swing from two-year window fortune favors the bold and all this stuff to fired. record speed yeah um and it was it was a dismissal that felt very much inevitable and necessary like i this was one of those situations that had become untenable for dallas obviously we're

referring to the aftermath of nico harrison's decision that it should be noted was signed off on by Patrick Dumont, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. And I think he... It's sort of an unfrozen caveman lawyer aesthetic, if we're being honest. Well, he's been frozen a long time because if you ever hear him talk about basketball, it seems like he hasn't seen any since about 1986. But the aftermath of the Luca trade between the team immediately going into free fall, last season, this rough start they've had this season,

the Fire Nico chance that have been just loud as bleep every single game that Dallas plays at home. Just the rising anger, like true anger from Maverick's fans, is really something that just made it where this had to happen. I think Patrick Dumont needs to take more public and specific accountability for his role in making this happen. And I would say based on the open letter he wrote to Mavericks fans, his first opportunity to do that, he's 0 for one. Swimming. Well, I would say it's a swing and a miss, except you have to actually

try to swing in order to miss. Where the Mavericks go from here is going to be fascinating to watch. One thing that I will note now, just because I've seen, it in the comments section. I've seen it directed at us on Twitter at Cambrothers. No, the Lakers should not, nor will they trade back for Anthony Davis. That's not going to have to look like. I mean, you might have to trade Austin just to make the math work. What I think is one of the things that I think is fascinating about this beyond the sort of portrayed Luca. somebody i forget who it was suggested that like if the lakers were offered a d and cooper flag for luca they would say no and i think that's absolutely right i don't think they would do that

lucas 26 um the the beyond this just sort of amazing car wreck nature of this and how predictable a lot of it was given this sort of arrogance to be honest that that was displayed after this trade There was very little, I thought, felt humility coming from, from Nico. And he would talk about this stuff. And it was, it was, you know, there was a lot of confidence and a lot of arrogance. And it didn't work last year. Guys got hurt. It didn't get.

It wasn't working this year. And this was, this was direct democracy at play. Like, fans were simply not going to allow this franchise to move forward with, with him in charge of it. It just wasn't going to work. It's shocking. to me that, I mean, I guess you could say with the Dumonts because they were new on the job in terms of being owners of this family. And like we said, they clearly have not paid much attention to basketball, maybe ever, but certainly not recently. And this seems to be a play thing for them, the owning the Mavericks.

But Nico should have known, of all people, just how much Luca meant. to this organization. It would have been like the Lakers deciding to trade Kobe. The fans predictably revolting me like, oh, what? You know, now that I think about it, they were kind of attached to the guy. They did seem to like Kobe.

I mean, I knew he sold a lot of jerseys, but, you know, in retrospect, there were signs, and I guess we missed them. Our bad. Like that it took them by shock is just. All of it. stunning. And so you look

at what the other part of this that I think is really interesting and highly relevant to the Lakers is the impact on the Western Conference because I mean I know you were very down on Dallas going into the season. I certainly wasn't buying some of the post trade like you know

here because the Dark Horse you know championship candidate in the Western Conference because they you know they got the defense now they got the front line. I was like no I don't see that but I thought they could certainly maybe a, you know, a back end playoff team if things went right or whatever. But the where they are now, there's a lot of talk of trading AD now.

There's a lot of talk of trading Daniel Gafford when he become. They should have traded AD or looked to trade in the minute they landed Cooper. Yes, absolutely. But, you know, and there's talk about trading Daniel Gafford and all these other things. So like if the, A, you're taking a team that was expected to be at least one of of the competitive teams in the West and dismantling it. B, those parts are going to appear somewhere if they start making those trades. And it, you know, there are a couple teams like that, you know, like you look around the

conference, the Clippers right now who are certainly not going to punt on this season in the way that the Mavs might. The Clippers are struggling mightily so far this year. The, you know, the Western Conference, the back end of it right now is a little bit softer, I think, than maybe some people expected. You know, Oklahoma, sorry, New Orleans, I think internally at least had higher hopes for this season. They are dreadful.

And so there could be a lot of player movement from the back end of the conference. And meanwhile, the teams at the top, given how the Lakers have played, given what San Antonio is doing, given Denver looks like they are. If there was any question, we back baby. They're, they looking good. You know, Houston with their new lineup looks like. So there may not be as much depth in the conference as there was last year. So in obviously Oklahoma City.

But man alive, the top of it is just as bananas as it was, except now we could have a lot of redistribution that makes this Western conference even more interesting. The Mavericks could become the equivalent of like, you know, those chop shops where cars get stolen, they get taken to and they just get stripped down. Yeah. They get stripped down and, you know, someone's got an engine driving around and someone's got a carburetor and someone's got two wheels and someone else has got the other two wheels.

Like that's don't you agree? Like the easiest out for it's Michael Finley right now who's sort of taken over. Interim. Like interim, but like, but I, however that goes. They're co-GMs, which by the way, that's a setup that's going to work great. Nope. Don't want to working down there in Dallas. Plenty of material for our friend Nick Angstad at Locked on Maps, but that was a bad idea.

But isn't like the easiest thing for the next person to do to take it apart and try to put, because if you try to, you know, go with Nico's vision, you're kind of on the hook for what they've got right now. If you're a GM of that team and you want to buy yourself some time, even independent of whether or not it's probably the right thing to do, and it probably is, you know, it's you would, I think you protect yourself a little bit by making those trades, trying to recoup some picks and building around flag. Well, it's it's fortunate for Michael Finley or whoever his co is, I forgot his name, or whoever ultimately ends up doing the job without an interim tag. The protectionist move is also the correct move. It would be insane to do anything other than

go into rebuild mode, particularly you've got, they actually have their first round draft pick this year. It's the only one they're going to control for a while. This draft class is considered every bit as good as the one that, the rookie class that we have right now. Anything other than a tear down and again, turning yourself into a chop shop, but legal, makes no other sense. something else, though, that occurred to me when I was thinking about this, Brian, like, in terms of what Dallas is going through right now and this open revolt on the heels of a, both controversial in a lot of ways, jaw dropping what the F were you people thinking trade. This could have been the Lakers in the aftermath of the Rustyel.

Like this absolute, there could have been fire rob or fire Polinka Chan. going on after every game because, I mean, I wouldn't say that the Rust trade was at the insanity scale of the Luca trade just because Luca was entering his prime. You know, he's shown himself capable of carrying a team to the finals, five straight, first team, all NBA, yada, yada, yada. But the Rust trade was pretty close. It nailed shut the window. Right.

That's the LeBron. Yeah. And, you know, it indirectly, both indirectly and directly cost them Alex Caruso. It really, I don't know if LeBron and AD ever would have won another championship together, but that move basically shoved it all in a coffin and said, it's dead. You know, I don't know if that, if the same reaction never happened because there were more faces and more people that you could blame. a lot of people went towards LeBron and AD and Clutch. Russ was such a polarizing, divisive personality that a lot of the anger was directed

at him and make no mistake, Polinka and Jeannie got plenty of heat as well. But it never reached that same level of what happened in Dallas, which I'm not saying in retrospect, I wish the fans had acted that way or anything like that. I'm just saying it just dawned on me. I'm like, the Lakers really could. have had the exact same situation. It wasn't as bad because, A, they didn't trade away their star players. You know, they didn't.

The players that left in that deal were not the kinds of players that you're like, I'm sorry, what? Like, the, I'm sorry, what was who they acquired and all that kind of stuff. And it was a terrible, terrible idea. But what it did do was the difference between. that trade and the Luca trade from from you know from Dallas or say is it put the Lakers on this really bad trajectory but it was a much slower downward trajectory like it didn't automatically you know rip out the next

10 years of it didn't seem like just it made it so you know had the Luca trade not happened the Lakers still would have been trying to undo the effects of the Westbrook trade The difference is they would have been trying to undo it from a spot where they were like the sixth or seventh best team of the Western Conference with zero ability to do anything. It nonetheless though, it's it's. It was a dismantling, you know, Luca took that Mavs team to the finals and then they moved him. Again, it's not completely apples to apples, but it is apples to fruit. Like it still was dismantling the core of a championship team not far removed from it. in a way that was very like, wait, they did what?

Like, Russ is clearly not gonna work here. Like, and it just, it just dawned on me. Like that really could have been a Laker uproar as well. And it never reached that point. People were pissed, but it never reached that point. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel. We of course will be back after the game to break it all down.

And then we'll get deeper into this Austin Reeves thing before the end of the week because I think it creates a fascinating dynamic for this offseason, especially if LeBron chooses not to return. We will see everyone after the game.