Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Is Luka Dončić Already Focused More on Conditioning? Plus, Lessons for the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Friday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Komeneski, is Luca Donchich committing himself to fitness this offseason. Early reports say, yes, 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 Locked on Lakers your first listen to every day,

Starting point is 00:00:34 Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast, this one's always free. and never behind paywall and locked on Lakers on YouTube is where 35,000 plus subscribers once again have to look at my uncontrusted face because I shaved this morning and are also, Andy, thinking about the Lakers and Luca Donchich, because, oh my,

Starting point is 00:00:57 no person that I can think of in the basketball universe is going to be more scrutinized about their physical fitness, about their food choices, about their body shape and all that kind of stuff more than our guy, Luca. I think Zion Williamson would like a word, but still, you know West Coast. That is fair.

Starting point is 00:01:22 No Slovenian player. No, Slovenian playing for the Lakers. No, that is absolutely true. But yeah, as long as Zion is still in the league, Luca will always have somebody to take a little bit of that heat often, But if nothing else, Luca has been more recently trashed and more loudly trashed in light of the trade that sent him to the Lakers and the messaging coming out of Dallas. The old tubby can't be relied on for a max deal.

Starting point is 00:01:55 So let's send him out. That was my nickname in college. So as two people, Andy, who are very clearly and obviously dedicated to fiscal fitness, I feel like this is a good place to start. There is Luca Fitness News. Nothing better than middle-aged white dudes breaking down the fitness of elite athletes. Right. Get off your ass, pro.

Starting point is 00:02:19 Every now and then you really stumble upon the fact of what a joke is that we do what we do. Kind of, it is. There is a certain who are you too common? But look, in the NBA, you need to be a certain level of fitness. to really truly be among the elite. And Luca over the course of his career, has gotten by certainly on natural talent. And I'm sure, I don't know like he doesn't work hard,

Starting point is 00:02:50 but fitness is that good without working. Like I don't care how naturally talented you are. Nobody just rolls out of bed, I guess emphasis on rolling with Luke. And puts up the type of production and numbers. and like insane plays without putting in the work. It doesn't happen. So it's a, what Luca does this offseason is incredibly important.

Starting point is 00:03:22 The Lakers have made a point. JJ Redick talked very openly at the end of the season about needing to be, achieve championship level fitness. He certainly did not exclude Luca from that category. They made no effort to imply that Luca was at that level and everybody else needed to catch up. They talked about, you know, he did a good job. He was in with his workouts. He kept up with all that. But they didn't, they made it pretty clear that they believe that Luca can and needs to do better in that regard.

Starting point is 00:03:56 And so if you're looking for early signs that maybe Luca is taking it seriously, Jason Gallagher, who is a producer of the Mind the Game podcast with LeBron James and Steve Matt Nash. And oh, by the way, the former host of the show, Lakers head coach J.J. Reddick. He was on. And he also produced the old man in three where he worked directly with J.J. Reddick. It doesn't seem like somebody who would speak out of turn, especially as a producer of, you know, like you got to be careful about this stuff. on an episode of a podcast called The Dumb. And it's not a show I'm familiar with, but that's what he was on.

Starting point is 00:04:40 You can find it on YouTube and other places. And so he said this about Luca. I've heard from folks that are pretty honest about the conditioning stuff or whatever, that Luca has already begun to clean slate, like starting anew. He's already like in this mindset of changing a lot, changing a lot about himself. Now, I've heard it before, but not from specific people that have been critical of him. And so, look, he was somebody who's obviously speaking, I think, carefully using his words carefully. I, in my multiple decades on this planet, have often gotten into the mindset of changing things about myself and maybe not quite gotten all the way there in terms of

Starting point is 00:05:26 execution, particularly when it comes to fitness, although this body doesn't just happen. It's at least an interesting thing, like the phrasing of that, at the very least, Andy acknowledges that Luca understands that he may not have quite hit the bar in seasons past. I think there is something to be said about the way Luca left and the way Dallas messaged, we really don't trust him because he is too undisciplined and frankly too reckless about his body. I mean, that's really the messaging Dallas was putting out there. And these are not new concerns about Luca. It's not like Luca got traded to the Lakers and then Dallas started a whisper campaign

Starting point is 00:06:16 that otherwise sounded completely out of sync with everything we'd ever heard about Luca. this has been a thing with him for a while. If you read The Wonder Boy, the book that Tim McMahon from ESPN wrote about Luca, and really you should because it's a great look at just how Luca became Luca. His dad was a professional basketball player overseas, and his dad had a reputation, frankly, as somebody that didn't get the most out of his career because he enjoyed a little too much eaten and a little too much imbibing himself. And, you know, not like at a problematic level or anything like that, but just the idea that.

Starting point is 00:06:56 No idea. Well, no, I'm saying it was not implied in the book that it was at a problematic level. Just so people don't misunderstand. But the idea that, you know, lifestyle and enjoying the finer things got in the way of Luca's dad's career. And clearly, Luca's career is at a level that his dad's never reached. but there has been that concern that whatever is the absolute ceiling that Luca can reach, whether you're talking about as a player or just in terms of availability on an 82 game basis,

Starting point is 00:07:30 that fitness and conditioning and, you know, not the willingness to not indulge in everything that he wants. You know, like the willingness to take on a healthier lifestyle. even if it isn't as much fun or as much enjoyable. Or put in just a matter of putting in the extra 20%. I mean, and look, as you get older and Luca is not an old man, but he's played professionally in Europe. He's already played professionally for, was he now going into his seventh season? This will be his eighth season.

Starting point is 00:08:04 Eighth season. Okay. So I mean, that's, you've got a lot of, you're starting to pile up the mileage. You know, the injuries are there. And, you know, he plays a lot of ball. He's playing Eurobasket this off season. he plays when they're Olympic qualifiers, he takes that stuff very serious.

Starting point is 00:08:17 There's a lot of basketball, a lot of money. Even in your 20s now, you have to start considering these things and being proactive about stuff because you may be 26 in chronological age, but his body probably isn't. And before people say,

Starting point is 00:08:37 like, you know, how can you be that good if you're not taking? There's a very easy analog for this that Lakers fans will certainly be able to, I think, make a parallel with that I think you can do with Luca. And I'll explain what I mean by that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul. The NBA playoffs are in full swing. Every night delivers highlight worthy performances, major momentum shifts, can't miss moments whether it's a game-winning shot or breakout player.

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Starting point is 00:09:46 you get $200 in bonus bets. So pick something super obvious for that $5 bet. Make every moment more with Fandall and official sports betting partner of the NBA. So we'll get in a second to some interesting stuff that's been written in a couple places over the last couple days about things that playoff teams that are teams that are no longer in the playoffs. Teams are out and aspiring for higher things can learn from the teams that are still in.

Starting point is 00:10:20 So we'll get to that, some interesting things on those lists. But I think, you know, the point that you're making about ceilings and maximizing your ceiling, the easy analog here for Lakers fans is Shaq. Like, Shaquille O'Neal is unquestionably one of the most dominant players the league has ever seen. At his peak, you could make an argument that, you know, peak, peak Shaq. was maybe the, I mean, he would make it. It's his nickname the most dominant player ever in individual, you know, just in individual slices of moments.

Starting point is 00:11:00 I'm not saying yes or no, but I'm saying you could make that argument. It would probably be him or will, just in terms of pure unstoppable domination. This is unguardable. What you also cannot argue, even if you are a believer that Shaq is the, you know, in individual, just that one. moment, peak is the most dominant ever. That peak didn't last long enough. That his dominance was short-circuited by his own unwillingness to really take care of himself,

Starting point is 00:11:36 tear of his body, you know, everybody got hurt on company time, I'll heal on company time, all that stuff. And that fundamentally was a major source of the gripes that Kobe had with him. is that Shaq just didn't take that stuff as seriously as Kobe did. Few people have. But, you know, a lot of these guys, you know, a lot of lesser players than Kobe and Shaq, actually, that's how they stayed in the league. Obviously, a guy like LeBron has been investing in his body for years and years.

Starting point is 00:12:09 And a lot of people hope that that sort of rubs off on Luca. But, I mean, I think it's that. I think it's, he's got to be. be aware of what people are saying about. I mean, he certainly has to be aware of what it means if he does come to camp out of shape or not in good shape, like how that validates Nico Harrison. The other side of that, too, and the Nico piece of this and how this became personal, one of the things that you hear from multiple reports, people that have been around Luca, is that loyalty means a lot to him. Like, is, it.

Starting point is 00:12:49 It is a concept that is extremely important to him. He, I know, felt like he was offering that loyalty to Dallas. He never had any plans of leaving. He had envisioned himself as a Dallas lifer. And it wasn't just that he got traded. He got traded in a way that was unceremonious. And I would imagine humiliating on a lot of levels. And the hope is that you use Nico as,

Starting point is 00:13:19 like an avatar for your spite. And everything that you want to prove Nico wrong can be demonstrated in the form of what would feel like a revenge body. Like you come into training camp looking the best that you ever had. And there will be skeptic, look, there will be cynics and skeptics who say this would have never happened had Nico not made the trade. Therefore, Nico is kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't. And that may be right, but here's the deal.

Starting point is 00:13:48 Here's the deal. I don't care. Like from a Laker fan's perspective, not our problem. That's for them to sort out and, you know, look in the mirror and figure out what went wrong. All that matters is what Luca does with the Lakers moving forward. And if he does this more because it's about double middle fingers than it is, I guess, professional pride or wanting to maximize his career, I don't really care. I don't care.

Starting point is 00:14:14 I would prefer it be more about like recognizing the value because I think that's, That lasts better. I think what would happen. Yeah. I think ultimately what would happen is the motivation might not stay the same. I would think that if he stays in shape for the rest of the time he's with the Lakers, assuming that's multiple years, that's not going to be fueled purely by spite. That's going to be fueled by recognizing what it does for you.

Starting point is 00:14:41 I'm just saying if the impetus is all about double middle fingers, I don't care. As long as it happens. The interesting thing about it to me too is like obviously look if he's a little bit thinner you can see if guys are a little bit lighter this and that but I mean Yokic is a really good example of this because he you know with with Denver there were years where oh he's he's not quite an NBA shape in this that whatever and you kind of look up over the last couple of seasons and Yokic has a motor and endurance like few players in the league plays huge minutes gets up and down the floor, all that stuff.

Starting point is 00:15:20 But he still doesn't look like Janus, or it doesn't look like, you know, LeBron or he's not yoked out and all this other kinds of stuff. He just has the stamina and the endurance. Obviously, he's a big guy. He has the strength. And so I think a lot of ways, like the proof with Luca will be sort of in the appearance, but mostly in what it looks like on the floor. and how it translate. I'm not expecting Luca to show up, you know, looking like he's going to be on the cover of men's fitness or something like that.

Starting point is 00:15:57 Like it's just, but it is critical that he meet the standard that JJ Redick and the rest of the coaching staff is talking about. So we'll see. I mean, we will get an early look because he's playing Eurobasket, which both can help him get ready for the season, but also something that he needs to be ready to go play in. And having time to sit at the end of the season.

Starting point is 00:16:17 because the Lakers are the playoffs will help all of these things as well. Interesting stories that have been put out. There's a version of this on ESPN.com written by Zach Kram. Yovam Buha at the Athletic wrote something similar, specific to the Lakers about the types of things that teams that are not in the playoffs, including the Lakers, can learn from who's still here. in terms of the four teams playing in the conference finals. And there were a lot of interesting things to pull out of it, things that related to the Lakers on these lists,

Starting point is 00:16:55 which have some overlap to them. You want to break down maybe a couple things that you pulled out of them. They talk about turnovers, depth, identity, one of the interesting ones on the ESPN list, how to hide an offensive-minded guard on defense. might apply to Lakers. I mean, maybe. So there are a lot of places to start. Guards, guards. Guards. One of the things that Jack Cram pointed out was the importance of reliable rotation depth. And also I would add to this rotational balance because I think in the case of

Starting point is 00:17:34 the Lakers, they were pretty hand in hand. And we talked about this a lot over the course of the playoffs and post-game reactions. And I still maintain that JJ played a role in the rotational depth issues for the Lakers by bailing out on too many guys too quickly. Like you have to be willing to push some buttons other than the absolute safest or best. But it doesn't change the fact that the Lakers not just need a better depth behind LeBron and Luca and Austin, if you consider them their stars. The Lakers have certainly treated them that way. But they also need specifically more two-way guys.

Starting point is 00:18:13 Like, they're top four and two-way guys that provide balance. Their top four guys this season, I think, are Luca, LeBron, Austin, Rui. I think that is pretty difficult to refute. It's four guys that are primarily offensive first players. Like, LeBron, at his best, can still be a very plus defender, but it often comes with offensive sacrifice. Sometimes that can be balanced out well. We saw that there would be games where Luca would spend a lot of the first, certainly

Starting point is 00:18:41 first quarter, but a lot of the first half setting the table. table, LeBron would close. But for the most part, I think LeBron is still considered an offense first player. Like, Rui's had two-way moments. And I think he actually improved a lot as a defender over the course of last season, still more of an offensive guy. I don't think Reeves or Luca are quite as bad as their defensive reputations, but they're not plus defenders. No. And they certainly, they require a certain degree of protection around them. If not protection, a certain structure that allows them to play to their strengths and hide some of their weaknesses. Right. And then you get to someone like DFS who on paper might be their best two-way player or sort of slotted to be that guy.

Starting point is 00:19:23 But he doesn't take enough shots. He can disappear offensively. And I think he doesn't provide quite the defensive versatility that I think people hoped for when they traded for him. Like, it's telling that even with him on the roster, JJ often opted to put Rui on guards like Steph and Ant and the like. Like DFS, LeBron, Rui, and Luca are all arguably fours defensively. So there's an imbalance. Like Vando, I think could do a little bit more offensively than the Lakers use him, but he's still a defense first guy. Like Jordan Goodwin, defense first. Dalton Connect, all offense. Like they need to find more balance within the rotation.

Starting point is 00:20:07 I think the balance in a lot of ways, two-way balance is going to be the key to finding more depth. Because it's a tricky proposition. We'll stay on this for a second, you know, after the break. It's a tricky proposition, but you can, there's a team, you know, certainly a couple teams that you can look at of this remaining four and point very clearly to where like that kind of thing works. and we'll get to that next. I mean, I think a great example of what you're talking about is the Knicks, where you have a, you know, Brunson is a lesser defender than both Luca and Reeves. I think Brunson is worse than both of those guys defensively.

Starting point is 00:20:58 So, I mean, you know, Cat for, you know, has moments where, you know, he blocks trouble. But, like, he's never been, you know, it's a pretty good rebounder, but he's never been considered a great defender that's always been one of the knocks on him. But like you start looking around the rest of that thing. And you've got Bridges who, you know, is not just a good defender, but also somebody who can score a little bit for you and hit some three-pointers and all that kind of stuff. Anonabee is somebody who has a legitimate two-way reputation. Josh Hart, you know, averages 10 rebounds a game as a guard.

Starting point is 00:21:29 I mean, like, so they have support from guys who can score 15 points a night. relatively without taxing them too much. And every once in a while you look up an OG's got 32, or Josh Hart has 26, where McHale Bridges hits eight three-pointers. You know, it's like that kind of offensive production from your defensive-oriented players are the guys who are designed to be there,

Starting point is 00:22:01 to be the glue that holds the stars together, that just doesn't exist with the Lakers. I mean, I think the Lakers, because of that had to scheme their way around defenses. Like, you know, you see a lot of those times. Well, why is Rui matched up with, you know, a guard? Why is it? Because eventually, you know, you're trying to like preempt some of the switch hunting.

Starting point is 00:22:24 You're trying to like enforce certain things. The help can come from somewhere else and set up these scenarios. But it requires a lot of work to engineer around things. And the Lakers got to the playoffs. they were even kind of doubly screwed in terms of the amount of choices that they had buttons that JJ could press because they had no rim protection. Well, it's interesting that you bring that up. The all defense teams came out today and not unexpectedly, no Laker made first or second team all defense, but not. It could have happened had the trade not happened.

Starting point is 00:23:00 AD might have landed somewhere. Maybe, but I don't know if he would. Maybe. I don't know if he would have been healthy enough to qualify. So I'm guessing. That's true. I forget the rules. I'm guessing no Laker ends up making it.

Starting point is 00:23:11 It's a reminder of how impractical the defensive surge that the Lakers had, like the style of that surge, even acknowledging the effectiveness of it for a few months. Like, in the end, you can only be better than the sum of your parts for so long. And other than Denver, no team had as many wins, 50 wins, without at least one guy. getting one vote than the Lakers. Every team that was 50 wins or higher had at least one guy who got one vote for all defense. But like this speaks to brought him up a few times.

Starting point is 00:23:49 One of the reasons why I'm interested in Nick Claxton, like beyond the fact that I think he is realistically getable and he fits reasonably well as the prototype Luca Center or what we believe to be that, what Luca likes. and he's under contract for a few more years. So unlike Daniel Gafford, for example, there's no question about what's his next payday going to be. You know what Claxton is going to cost for a few years, and you work with that, and I think it's reasonable.

Starting point is 00:24:19 He's somebody that is solid enough on both ends. Like on about 27 minutes a game, he averaged like 10, 7, 1.5. And he's had better averages with better teams. But like, it's not world beating. but he doesn't kill you on either end. If you need some scoring, you can play Claxton. If you need defense, you can play Claxton. Like, he is somebody that I think can just balance the team a little bit more.

Starting point is 00:24:48 One of the things I think they should be looking for is, is this a player that you can picture being on the court a fair amount in a variety of scenarios? I think Claxton is actually one of those guys. I think that's certainly possible. And I They're not going to have Probably not going to have their choice of like perfect centers to be able to bring in And he's not to be clear

Starting point is 00:25:10 He isn't he's not only yeah But he's less he's less imperfect in my opinion than somebody like Daniel Gafford He's an excellent shot blocker and can be a good rebounder and shoots at a high percentage It's mostly finishes the rim and dunks and things like that But he the reason he's never been able to translate what looked like he's a great fantasy player but part of the reason he's never been able to translate that into a steady starting gig

Starting point is 00:25:35 even with a bad team like Washington like teams are like excited to pay him a young player all that stuff is because he's not a great defender he's not a team defender at least certainly by reputation that can anchor a defense

Starting point is 00:25:53 with rim protection understands and reads you know in a lot of ways you're especially if you really let your your big stay closer to the basket. In a lot of ways, they're like the goalie in hockey or in soccer. Like they see everything in front of them. They're communicating. They're talking.

Starting point is 00:26:12 They're making the rotation. They're anticipating plays. And that apparently is not something. We'll get deeper scouting reports on him before the end of the summer. But that's apparently not what Gafford excels at. So what's interesting is one of these things you mentioned before, and there's more on this list, including identity, which is a big one that I don't think we'll have time for today. Maybe we'll save for next year.

Starting point is 00:26:35 Definitely want to get into that one. But you talk about depth. The depth question is fascinating because it can mean different things. It's not just how many players are you playing. It's also how good are the players that you are playing and how many things can those players do? You talk about the redundancy of the Lakers being too oriented towards offense. They don't, because they don't have enough chips, like ideally you would, you know, keep, let's keep Rui and we'll keep Austin and we'll fill it around them.

Starting point is 00:27:11 And then we'll have even, you know, more good players and this. They may not have the luxury being able to do that. So it might be the, the idea might be, you take Rui and you turn him into as good of a player that fills a hole and adds more of that balance and depth as you possibly can. Hopefully not sacrificing too much of what Rui gives you in terms of three-point shooting and, you know, production with a second unit, whatever might be. You take Reeves and try to turn him into, and I'm not advocating that they have to trade either one of these guys, but if you do, it's to try to create the kind of depth that the

Starting point is 00:27:50 Knicks have, because you don't have enough tools to create. the depth that the thunder have. The thunder, their depth in part is we've got 12 guys so we can put on the floor confidently and mix and match parts as we need it every night. The Knicks don't do it that way. The Knicks have

Starting point is 00:28:07 six guys, but there's six guys, four of them can do all kinds of things. I think it's going to be difficult for the Lakers to, I mean, the Knicks, the Knicks have six guys like that. Just clarify, I don't think they can

Starting point is 00:28:23 get guys as good as the Knicks have. Well, that's why I was going to look to the model that they have to follow. Well, I don't know. We can get more into this next week. I actually look at a team like the Pacers as potentially more of the model of what the Lakers could theoretically be looking for because there's a lot of depth that they have there, but it's a lot of depth. This is something I know I wanted to mention.

Starting point is 00:28:47 It was something Zach Pram brought up as well. They've got guys that are second team, third team. flyers that have worked out really well. And the Lakers have had a recent success story in that with Rui. Like Rui was a second team player. That's a good point. That's a good point. That they did very, very well with. And I think the Lakers are going to have to really do their homework with a lot of available free agents on a budget because they are likely or trade pieces that are considered like B to B plus level players. Like it's going to be there are only so many A's. if any, like A level players.

Starting point is 00:29:25 I think they're going to have to look for guys who are seen as C's that actually, if you use them right or Bs. Sure. Yeah, something like that. That turned out to be B minuses or Ds that turn out to be C pluses. I mean, those are... We'll see. I mean, the variance could depend on the player that you're talking about how you think they can use them, who's available, whatever.

Starting point is 00:29:44 But the point being, I think that they're going to... And this is something we've talked about before with Rob Polinka and our, I would say, wavering content in his contentment in his ability to drill down on the details they're going to have to be really detail oriented this offseason because they're not going to have, I think, the ability to go after

Starting point is 00:30:08 a lot of, you know, can't miss, everybody understands exactly why you're going after that guy type of player. They're going to be needing to try to hit in some unexpected ways. And they're going to have to be creative and they're going to have to be smart and they have to be very targeted in what they're looking for. But again, somebody like Rui, Rui has been far better as a Laker than he ever was with the Wizards. Some of that is the

Starting point is 00:30:36 Lakers have had better structure and players like LeBron and AD around Rui, and that's going to make Rui's job easier. But I think they've also been better at figuring out the stuff Rui's actually good at. There's a template here that even beyond the page. Pacers that LA fans will understand. And I will get into that when we talk about identity next week. Lockdown-Lakers on YouTube is where you go hang out with 35,000 plus subscribers. Three-day weekend coming up, everyone have a great Memorial Day. We'll be back next week.

Starting point is 00:31:13 Not exactly sure, Monday or Tuesday, but we'll see you next time.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Is Luka Dončić Already Focused More on Conditioning? Plus, Lessons for the Lakers.

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