Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Is JJ Redick Coaching the Team He Wants, or the Team He Has?

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

The Lakers got thumped by San Antonio on Wednesday, and in what is becoming a trend for this Lakers squad, when they lose, they lose. But this loss, more than others, seems to have created significant attention around the team, how it's constructed, and whether or not its flaws are correctable. Because the Spurs were faster than the Lakers, they put pressure on the defense the Lakers couldn't handle, and (more or less) kept them - and especially Austin Reaves - off the free throw line. The Lakers are going to struggle to get faster. They're going to have to be a defensive team that becomes greater than the sum of its parts. That's often a tall task, especially in the postseason. It also means JJ Redick needs to maximize what he has... and is he? A lot of this conversation can be boiled down to two role players - Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt. Should the Lakers finally pull the trigger on swapping Rui for Marcus Smart in the starting lineup? It would balance that group defensively in ways obvious even to podcast hosts. So why hasn't Redick pulled the trigger? And what about Vando, who is flawed but could at least in theory address some of the team's shortcomings, whether in defensive energy, offensive rebounding and general disruptiveness? Clearly Redick doesn't believe in Vanderbilt, or that the tradeoffs he presents are worth it. But are there ways to get him into the lineup while mitigating those?  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: Why the loss to the Spurs seemed different.  SEGMENT 2: Looking at Rui. Is a lineup change needed?  SEGMENT 3: What about Vando?  Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclubSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Mint MobileTurn your expensive wireless present into a huge wireless savings future by switching to Mint.Shop Mint Unlimited Plans at http://MINTMOBILE.com/LOCKEDONNBA.Disclaimer: Limited time offer. Upfront payment of: $45 for 3-mo., $90 for 6-mo., or $180 for 12-mo. plan required($15/mo. equivalent). Taxes & feesInitial plan term only.  Greater Than 35GB may slow when network is busy. Capable device required. Availability, speed, & coverage varies. See mintmobile.com.QuoMake this the year where no opportunity and no customer slips away.Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to https://www.Quo.com/lockedonnba.Quo — no missed calls, no missed customers.ZocdocStop putting off your doctor’s appointments and get the care you need.Go to htps://Zocdoc.com/lockedonnba to find and instantly book a top-rated doctortoday.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 LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is JJ Redick coaching the team he wants or the team he has? That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Lockedon Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Lockedon Lakers. First listen of Every Day. I'm Brian Komeneski with Andy Kamenetsky, co-hosts of Locked on Lakers, what we consider

the number one show on the number one sports podcast network on this or any other planet. Thanks so much for tuning in, matter how you get the podcast, whether it's Apple iTunes, Spotify, subscribe there, or perhaps Lockdown Lakers on YouTube. We certainly appreciate you tuning in. Andy, it was an ugly game, an ugly, ugly affair on Wednesday as the Lakers got thumped by San Antonio. They were eliminated from the NBA Cup, but more importantly,

it was a game that laid bare, not necessarily stuff we didn't know about the team, but was like, oh, this is how it can be problematic, the lack of the lack of speed or some of the positional issues, you know, the lack of bench punch. Like all of that was out there for people to see in ways that were, you know, kind of hard to watch at times. Well, it also, too, it didn't just lay bare the weaknesses that we've,

talked about with this team just that. It also reinforced the idea that when the Lakers lose, and they are 17 and 7, so they are winning much more than they are losing, but when they lose, they get the bleep kicked out of them. Like, they lose. Like, we're going to, we're going to lean into it. And what I think this speaks to is not the idea that they can't beat good teams because they have beaten good teams before. I mean, they have had losses at times against teams. And that frankly they are better than like, say, a half-strength Atlanta Hawks team that they should have beaten. Instead, they lost by 20. It's just an overall tendency of when you want to say either the bottom falls out, the bottom falls out because the weaknesses really get picked at

or some combination of both. They fall hard. And what it makes it look like is until the team's weaknesses are better addressed in some way, whether internally, whether through trade, schematics, better overall focus for 48 minutes. However you want to put this, when the Lakers are vulnerable, they're very, very vulnerable. And I think that's the big thing. I think that's the issue because it's that question of not being able to easily address it. There's not, Sometimes you look at a team, they're like, okay, we're not shooting the ball well. You know, we didn't make our free throws. We didn't like, but you can expect those things to level out over time.

You can look at the roster and say, we could tweak this, we could do this. This guy is underperforming. You expect more here. You look at the Lakers roster, like the bench scoring issue. You know, Marcus Smart certainly, you know, did his part on Wednesday night, made eight three-pointers and all that stuff. A, he's somebody who could end up into the starting lineup eventually, but also B, that's not something you count on. Marcus Smart shooting like he did on Wednesday. And then you look around the rest of the way.

No, one could make an argument that it's actually much scarier when Marcus Smart takes eight threes. Well, we're going to talk about that because, you know, a lot of this conversation we're going to get into today is sort of related. It's big picture stuff that is funneled through the prism of Jared Vanderbilt as so many things seem to be. And Ruey. I think a lot of this is a prism of Vando and Rui two very polar opposite players. If you could somehow combine them into one person, they'd be like a $50 million player. But it also, though, really quick, like in continuing the conversation, I think it also speaks to some differences between the issues that are inherent to this roster that maybe cannot be fixed, like truly fixed, internally. as is you can try to make them better, but there are inherent skill sets missing on this roster, or attributes missing on this roster that really cannot be fixed without a trade. Or there are also

questions of, could these things be made better if you went about handling the roster and some of the lineups differently? I think both things are actually a legitimate question for the Lakers. you know, and those things you're talking about, bench scoring is going to be problematic with this roster. Guys like Jake Laravia can pop up sometimes, but they're not, you know, Lou Williams in his heyday, Jordan Clarkson, you know, the guys who come off the bench for the spurs, you know, Champany can score and Kelton Johnson can score and Dylan Harper can score. And like, there's just a lot of that on that bench. and the Lakers don't have that. They don't have the type of speed that other teams do. You know, that athleticism gap is still there.

And that's not something that you can just wave a wand and fix. It's interesting to me that, you know, LeBron talked about this. Austin talked about this after the game on Wednesday. They need to be like defensively five on a string. You know, it can get cliche and people can throw that expression. around and all that. But in the case of the Lakers, it's true. Like, they need to be a team that functions very efficiently as a group, always with high effort, but where essentially, when you talk about five guys on a string, because you don't have a wealth of great

individual defenders, you're essentially talking about we need to be better than the sum of our parts. And that is not an easy thing to do, particularly against really good teams, you know, teams with a lot of athleticism, teams that can pick on your weaknesses. The idea of making our whole better than the individual pieces, it's something that you can do, but it's also very difficult and there's probably a ceiling as to how good you can make that. Well, there's probably a ceiling, but I think there's also the approach. And we will get into this. And you mentioned the idea at the top of the show, is JJ coaching the roster that he has or the roster that he wants?

I do think that JJ's approach to this makes it in some ways more difficult than it needs to be, or at least seems more difficult than needs to be to me. Like, am I saying that if JJ did everything correctly, the Lakers would be playing at the level of the thunder and they would seemingly have no week? weaknesses? No, like a Wembe List Spurs while a worse team overall turns the spurs into a team that is in a lot of ways an actually worse matchup for the Lakers, because they really have at that point no choice other than to lean into the guards and wings that they have who are fast and are athletic and can push advantage, push pace, get to the line. and the Lakers did not react well to this, both in terms of their overall deficiencies, like the inherent weaknesses that they have,

but also they were legitimately following the crap out of the spurs in this game all the time. They were sending out. Their offense was reaching. Yeah, none of it was good. But you also, though, look at, for example, JJ after the loss in his post-game media, talked about how right now, quote, containing the ball is probably the most difficult thing for

our team right now. And then he mentioned that the things that help you win at the margins. We're not very good at that. We can't crash the boards. We don't force a lot of turnovers. Like, these are all things that are calling cards of Jared Vanderbilt. And to be clear, Vando is a flawed player. He is not the panacea for this team.

I don't think if Vando was in the... the rotation, most to all of the problems would be solved in and of itself. I think there can be a ceiling on how many minutes you can play him. But when you take a look at the recurrent weaknesses and issues of this team, and JJ being, I think it feels like he is actively avoiding playing Jared Vanderbilt. Like Jared Vanderbilt is his very loud last option that he does not want to go to. He has given Dalton Connect minutes ahead of Vando. He has given a due thero minutes ahead of Jared Vanderbilt. When Maxi Kleba has been healthy, he has given those minutes to Maxi. He has played

Gabe extended minutes when Gabe has been healthy. It is very clear he does not want to play Jared Vanderbilt, even though Vando is somebody that very specifically addresses some. of these issues. You could argue he is in the league in a lot of ways to address these type of issues. And I think that raises the question of coaching the roster you want versus the one that you have. I think also this is a question of how Rui is utilized both as a starter versus coming off the bench and the question of why won't mark a smart start. You know, if maybe that'll happen soon if he stays on the court. but JJ hasn't seemed inclined to do that. He's seemed inclined to keep the offense first starting lineup,

which I understand the potential pluses, but there are glaring minuses, and it feels like there are glaring ways to address several needs of this team that JJ just simply doesn't seem interested in going to. I want to let people know, that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long.

Both Rui and I feel differently about the Rui question and, you know, obviously both of us have said we, since training camp, we would start smart if possible. Smart hasn't always made that an option. And I think there are some other things going on with why Rui is still in the starting lineup even beyond smarts availability. But I feel very differently about the, the Rui question versus the Vando questions, but we should unpack both of them next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Zock Doc guys.

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I do think with Rui, Andy, there is some element here of the sort of the small P politics. of, you know, you have a guy who's not done anything wrong. And, you know, has said he wants to be part of the team. He's doing everything you ask him to do. He's on certain nights like Wednesday. Other games, taking, you know, is whether taking or finds himself in a very reduced role offensively, all of that stuff. And he had a usage in the loss of the spurs of 5.8. He's about, he's usually around like a 13, correct?

13, 14, is somewhere in that neighborhood. Give or take, sure. Um, and so, you know, I think there is some of that. Like you don't want to feel like you are penalizing somebody who isn't doing anything wrong. He's going into a contract year. Um, you know, and while the Lakers, I think, want to keep him, there's always, it always gets touch you with players when there seemed, seemed to be moved to the bench as they're going to try to get paid by someone. So I think the Lakers to some degree are trying to kind of do right by him. AJ's trying to do right by him.

He's really popular player and all that. That to me is the easiest one of like you need better defense. You need a better defensive structure and a better sort of a defensive culture. And smart does that better than anybody on the team while not totally crushing the offensive slot that he's in. He's not a good shooter Wednesday night, notwithstanding. that's, you know, part of the reason he was able to shoot as much as he was because the Spurs happily left him open for most of the game, even when he was hitting shots, which is not

something teams do to Rui, which is part of his value. But except for the fact that he doesn't get the ball. But that's the space. Like they ignore Jared Vanderbilt, for example, and they don't ignore Rui, and that keeps the spacing theoretically what it should be. I would swap those two guys out starting to me that is first and foremost unless you think smart just can't do it. That to me is the easiest step one. Let's try this.

Assuming you can work over again the sort of small peat politics of it all. I mean, I'll dress a few parts of this. I don't see why Marcus Smart can't start. You can make his minutes work for whatever you want. There are guys in this league who've been. starters who play 12 minutes a night. That wouldn't be the case for Marcus. But you can make this work as far as the basketball aspect of it is not a problem.

It's the guy going into a contract year politics of. We just spent like two days ago, everybody was up in arms because Rich Paul said, you know, that Reeves should come off the bench. And that changes sort of in the minds of some people, the perception of them. Reeves is also averaging 20 something points a game. is going to get paid no matter what. Rui is not in that boat. This is a communication thing between J.J.

and Rui, Rup Lincoln, Rui. We value you as part of this team. We consider you part of our future. We hope you are going to be our future. This is a skill set thing. And the question of Austin moving to the bench, remove the politics of it. When you're talking about the defensive issues,

it doesn't actually solve the problem. If you swap in Marcus for Austin, you're still left with Rui Garland. out of position, which is one of the problems of this team. It helps a little bit, but it doesn't help. Not a lot. It actually doesn't. And Reeves is going to play 35 minutes a night, whether he starts or comes off.

Sure. But also, I'm just saying, like, the things that we are talking about in the starting unit, trying to get your team off to the best start on both ends of the floor, part of the problem is Rui is continually guarding out of position. No question. Because there's nobody else to do this. If you start Marcus ahead of Austin. it might placate some people who want to see Austin come off the bench, but it doesn't actually

address this issue. But as far as the politics go, you need to explain this to Rui. I mean, to be totally honest, if you value Rui as part of the future, I would actually look to give him an extension now while he's extension eligible. You can tell him as much as you want. Like, we value you. This isn't going to affect how we want to, you know, how much we would want to pay you there. But plans change. And if he finds himself on the open market and the, you know, the promises that the Lakers made to pay him like a, you know, a fifth starter, so to speak, or a fringy starter, go out the window. I've been a very big proponent of Rui.

I think the everydayers know this. I also don't think that you can keep your team at a position of weakness when you've been trying to establish yourself as at minimum of four seed because you're worried about the feelings of a fifth starter, particularly a fifth starter that quite frankly you're not utilizing enough anyway. I agree. If you're going, if for politics, basketball, combination of both, whatever, if you're going to insist on keeping Rui in the starting lineup, you need to actually maximize him.

The Lakers are 34th in the league for three-point attempts. They're 17th for percentage. Rui is their best three-point shooter by a mile. He is fifth on the team for attempts per game, sixth by 36. per 36 minutes, taking out the guys who aren't in the rotation. So he actually goes down per 36 minutes. Side note, Luca is currently leading the league with 10.6 threes per game. Granted, it is steadily going down.

It needs to keep going down because you can't take that many when you're shooting just under 34%. But like, they need to, if they're going to insist on keeping Rui in the starting lineup, they need to actually utilize his skill set because right now, he's kind of, of a floor spacing non-shooter. And if that doesn't sound like an actual thing, it's because it's not. If you want to say his gravity provides something, sure. That's what I think they're trying to maximize.

But they've got four guys out there with gravity anyway. Like, there's only so far Ruiz gravity goes from theoretical to actual thing. If he's taking like four, three's a game, five on a good night, like there's only so much the gravity. actually matters. Don't you think too? Some of this would be solved by just play faster. Move the ball, get up the floor, and do things faster.

Like, I feel like... Of course. Yeah. I mean, like, you can get Rui more shots by running more of your offense that allows eventually that penetration that usually results in Rui cutting or being available in a spot up and all that stuff. Like, I feel like half the time they just run out of time to give somebody like Rui a good shot. It would be helpful, but there are times when they move the ball around and it moves a lot

between Luca, Austin, and LeBron. I mean, there's an element of you need to be looking to do this, like actively looking to do this. Like the Lakers are not so unique, or shouldn't be so unique that other guys around the league who aren't even as good of a three-point shooter as Rui get more shots. Some of this is they don't look to do it. Can you use Rue? Ruey in a, you know, like frankly how JJ was often used when he was a player, where he's constantly running, constantly running off screens. I don't know if they're terribly creative with how they think about maximizing Rui, but I also would have to, full disclosure, probably do more investigating into what exactly could they be doing with Rui inside his skill set? Or take a look at it doesn't seem terribly creative, but I don't know.

Well, I mean, I, look, I have no idea. I would have to go through, like, synergy and stuff like that. Take a look at some of the clips where Rui has been running off screens. Like, they don't do that for Ruey a whole lot. That being said, if his screen navigation offensively is at the level of his screen navigation defensively, I'm not looking to go there. You mean, like, the video game where your character gets stuck in the corner and just sort of trying to walk and it can't. But I just feel like there's an element of bleeper get off the pot with the way they use Rui, like whether as a starter or we both think he should be moved to the bench where he'd actually get more shots,

the amount that he's actually involved in the offense. I think there's like, again, the sort of team culture issues. I think there's some of it I still think may be related to smart and what they feel he can do and how much he can handle. And it has been in the lineup a lot. Sure. You know, there's been missing too much. And then I think, you know, it's just this idea, too, of what Rui does for the offense,

even if he's not shooting. The other half of this, of course, Andy, is Jared Vanderbilt. And he is a player who also garners a lot of conversation and attention for somebody who probably, at maximum, will be playing 15 minutes a night. So we'll talk about that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Quote, New Year, New Systems. This is the time when a lot of us look at the messier parts of running a business think there's got to be a better way because there is Quo, Q-U-O, the smarter way to run your business systems. If you are ready to make your workday smoother, keep customers connected without the headaches.

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So go to lockdownlakers. Dot supercast.com. Again, Lockdownlakers. dot supercast.com or check the link in the show notes to learn more. One of the things that makes, like you said, Andy in the last segment,

the Vanderbilt, I'm sorry, the Rui-smart thing kind of seemed like an easy thing to try is because you're talking about guys whose minutes probably wouldn't change that much anyway. You know, Rui is going to play, you know, some nights over 30, but, you know, many nights in the 20s.

Marcus Smart's going to play somewhere in the 20s, occasionally more than 30. But that's not a major adjustment. You take Austin Reeves and put them on the bench, unless you just do it for organizing your rotation differently, there is no world in which you reduce Austin Reeves to a 25-minute. a night player. It is not going to happen, nor should it. He's your third best player, if you're, you know, depending on how you feel about where LeBron is right now. Vando is a fascinating

thing. You made a comparison yesterday. You started, and I don't remember the exact context if it was Vanderbilt specifically, but sort of the backup quarterback phenomenon, bring up what you mean by that, because it was along the lines of something, that I think is very true about Jared Vanderbilt. But remind folks in case I didn't hear it. We see a lot of fans, whether in the comments section for YouTube of people hitting us up on Twitter at Cam Brothers, say nothing of, I brought this up before.

I've seen other people who cover the team bring this up before, wanting to see JJ play Jared Vanderbilt more often, or at least give Vando more of a try, less of a short, leash when he is on the court. I think I would not be surprised if nothing else. I would say if Vando is on the court hyper aware of if I make one mistake, I'm going to get yanked as opposed to some other guys with longer leashes. And that can affect the way you actually play.

We've also seen evidence over the years of Vando's shortcomings, specifically offensively, where he just has had difficulty. landing on any consistent utility. He's kind of bad at everything. I think he is a decent ball mover, but other than that, he just has not been, he's not been particularly consistent at anything,

consistently successful at anything. The finishing is the area that I think really creates the problems. For all the focus on make Jared Vanderbilt a corner three shooter happen this year, really the problem is the finishing. Even his offensive rebounding, Andy, which can sometimes, you know, the energy and the willingness to try to go after that offensive rebound, if every time he gets it, he either can't convert the rebound or has to kick it out somewhere, it mitigates the value of what he's doing.

To some degree, it does. I don't think it is without any value, but it doesn't mitigate. It doesn't eliminate. Right. It doesn't make it as valuable as it could be. But there's also, in football, you will often see fans clamoring for the backup quarterback. on a team that's struggling, in part, sometimes it's because the backup quarterback is an unknown commodity.

He can be a rookie, someone that you're just imagining what they're like in your head. But also, too, if there is a struggle of any kind, the guy that isn't playing becomes in your mind the potential solution. And while we've seen plenty of evidence of what Vando can't do, the things that he can do are some of the areas where the Lakers are most lacking. And it does, like I said earlier in the show, get perplexing why JJ seems to be going so far out of his way, not to play the guy any minutes, like any minutes, who does address, not solve, but address some of of the more glaring issues on this team that very few players on the team are actually equipped

to address? The backup quarterback comparison to me is a good one. Like sometimes you end up in a situation where you know what? You put that backup in. It's like, oh, my God, what were we thinking not putting this guy in originally? Most of the time, you are reminded, if not relatively quickly, certainly over time, why the guy was a backup. Sure.

And I think Vanderbilt is, before we even get to the parts that I think like, I do agree with you and where I think you could tweak the rotation to find minutes for him and whose minutes would get lost. Vanderbilt is appealing also too because the things that he does do are really appealing to fans. He tries really hard. He, you know, gives a lot of energy. I'm not trying to discount the value of these things. But like when you watch a game and you're frustrated by your team, the guy who looks like he's working really, really, really hard is going to be your favorite and the one you want to put in.

He has a reputation at least of better defense than some of, you know, the players that are playing instead of him. I think the reputation exceeds the reality in certain aspects. I think he is a more challenging defender to integrate into a defense than, say, smart, who is just a better overall team defender and does more things well and all that. There are certain things Vando's actually not that great at defensively and certain things he is good at. Oh, it fits right in. Yeah.

I mean, I think, like, they're trying. I think J.J. is hoping they can get a more complete version of that with Thero over time. like he's better at maybe he can be better at more things for a guy who's probably not going to contribute that much offensively. So I think and there the list of coaches that have not been able to figure out how to make Jared Vanderbilt work is getting pretty long. A lot of coaches seem to try it and over time go away from it. And so JJ is not alone in that regard. I do think, though... I'm not sure I totally agree with that, but continue.

Sure. I do think, though, that there is an easy substitute here, and a lot of Vanderbilt's minutes you could give to Gabe Vincent, or from Gabe Vincent. Because Vincent's supposed to be giving you a little bit of outside shooting, never shoots the ball. he's supposed to be providing you some defensive integrity in the back court, which the Lakers obviously need. But his size issues relatively consistently get exacerbated.

And when you're not going to take Reeves off the floor, putting him next to somebody who has similar problems can be difficult. I might see what happens. What happens if I can at least put a larger action? defender on the floor and see what happens there. That's where I would try to find Vando minutes. If nothing else, it just gets frustrating, not just when you see the areas where Vando could theoretically help, but you also hear J.J.

talk about the areas where they're lacking. It's like, bro, like, when you are... He clearly doesn't think he's as good as those things as others people do. Right, but he's... Vando is by any... realistic measure better at those things than most of the guys on the team, even if you don't think Vando is as good as his biggest proponents would say that he is. He's better at those things than a lot of other guys on the team. And there comes a point where it's like, look, you can only

lament the absence of these qualities for so long while not playing a guy that is at least one of your better players at addressing those absences before again, it just starts looking like you are going out of your way not to address it using one specific player. I just don't think he thinks Andrewville is very good. I mean, I don't think he's like, I don't think it's like, I'm not going to play that guy. I'm not going to, I just don't, I think. But he's playing other guys that I think you can also make an argument aren't that good either.

I already mentioned one that I might try a swap. and I don't know if it would work. I don't know if it would make a difference. It's more than you're trying. I just know for the most part by not playing Gabe Vincent is not going to create, I think, a major sense of loss because Vincent hasn't been that great. And so I. But that's a guy that JJ clearly thinks has a lot of trust.

There's no question. There's a lot of trust in. And, you know, there's, there are probably. He's a little bit. there, you know, is his Torian prince. Like every coach has players. Yes. Torian's a better comp.

Like what they do and, you know, believe that whether, um, justified or not, often things are justified in ways that we don't see there. Sure. You know, there are 10 different things going on in the sequence of a play where, you know, maybe Gabe Vincent does X, Y, and Z poorly, but he unlocks these three things. what they're trying to do offensively, because in the sequence of stuff they're trying to do, he sets a better screen. He is in the right spot more often. All these things that are not always plainly obvious, even to people like us who watch a lot. So I do give coaches a lot

of deference of these things. He clearly knows more than we do, but that being said, I just, I just, ultimately, he does, he clearly does not think Vanderbilt is that good. and that the tradeoffs for giving him those minutes are worse than the boost you might get in areas of need. And that is where I would say, and I said this in reaction to the Spurs loss for Thursday show, I think those deficiencies are magnified in JJ's head more than what I see on the court, but also frankly, the numbers bear out. the numbers do not bear out this being as big of a problem as JJ seems to think it is. They're going to have to try something because, you know, the deadline, we'll get into a little bit more next week about, you know,

what the Lakers might be able to do to try to address some of these deficiencies. They are limited, like, you know, what if Yonis becomes available between now and the trade deadline? Can the Lakers make an offer that would be tempting to Milwaukee? The answer is no, not really. that kind of thing will have to wait until the offseason more than likely. And even then, the Lakers probably still couldn't make an offer that would be as good as anything. Houston. Not unless Austin Reeve says, I have been dying my whole career to be a Milwaukee buck.

And who doesn't say that? A Milwaukee buck on a team without Yonnas. Like, that's what I want. For my crime. It doesn't seem likely. So we'll talk about these things and like where the Lakers can go, what they might be able to do in the next week. The Lakers do play on Sunday.

But then, you know, it's kind of it is a quiet stretch of the schedule while the NBA finishes up the cup. Lakers, the upside of losing is they will, you know, get a little more rest. And so we'll see how that goes. Lock on Lakers on YouTube is where you know hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel. Thank you so much for making us your. first listen of every day. We will see you on Monday.