Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Lakers Make Big Addition to Basketball Operations, Luka Makes 1st Team All-NBA

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

The Lakers under new owner Mark Walter have promised to make significant additions to the organization, especially on the basketball operations side. That process started over the weekend with the Lak...ers adding former Pelicans executive Rohan Ramadas as an assistant general manager. He served as a VP of strategy and operations for New Orleans and will likely serve a similar role here, working to reshape cap strategy, analytics and so on. A source told ESPN's Dave McMenamin that Ramadas "implemented AI and coded models to aid the front office," and that before arriving in an NBA front office was in aerospace. So yeah, the guy is quite literally a rocket scientist.  It can be very challenging to figure out an executive's skill level when they're not at the top of the org chart, and it's also a potential mistake to judge a person by the organization they used to be at. Do the Pelicans's struggles reflect any shortcomings on Ramadas's part? Very, very hard to know. But not for nothing, he seems pretty well-respected, and more importantly, the Lakers are making moves by looking outside the franchise.  That's good.  Meanwhile, no surprise, but Luka Doncic was named to the All-NBA First Team. And no Lakers landed on the NBA All Defensive squads. Also no surprise.  How can the Lakers find more defensive talent? We discuss.    HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: New blood in the F.O..    SEGMENT 2. Luka makes All-NBA.   SEGMENT 3: Where can the Lakers find more defense?    Everydayer ClubIf 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/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 5-Hour ENERGY Get candy-flavored chaos with Fruity Rainbow 5-hour ENERGY®️ Shots - available online at https://5hourENERGY.com or Amazon   KALSHI For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code LOCKEDON to get ten dollars when you trade ten. Kalshi. Trade on anything.   DoorDashFrom tipoff to overtime, stay in your bag and order on DoorDash.Get snacks, drinks, gear — whatever gets you through the season — delivered right to your door.DoorDash. In your bag all season long. RugietGet 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnhlRugiet. Performance medicine for men.   Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel.Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get two-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins.Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game.   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.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The Lakers hire an assistant general manager, Luca Donchich, makes the first team all NBA a busy weekend in El Segundo. That's next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for stopping by Locked on Lakers. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Komenesky, the Lakers, making good on the promise to fill
Starting point is 00:00:34 out the front office, not just from a business standpoint, but also from a basketball operation standpoint. I would, I'm not if this tech qualifies this. It's the first major hire, but a very significant move by the Lakers. They hire Rohan Romedas as an assistant general manager. He'll work under Rob Polinka. He was previously, Andy, the vice president of strategy or a vice president of strategy and operations for the New Orleans Pelicans. I'll have a similar gig in L.A. focusing on cap analytics data, things like that. Yeah, I got some perspective from Jake Madison over at Locked on Pelicans. Some of his comments included Smart Eppen Dude, said he could have worked for nearly any team,
Starting point is 00:01:29 had a lot of offers, but had stayed with the Pelicans for a while, as has been reported. He is quite literally a rocket scientist. He is like that smart. He actually worked in aerospace, like that field. So it's not hyperbole to describe the guy as smart as a rocket scientist. He actually is that smart. And he's going to be working in the Rob Polinka during his exit interview with JJ Reddick in talking about the areas that he wanted for his co-assistent general managers
Starting point is 00:02:06 because he said he wanted to hire two. He was looking for one guy to be, or gal, to be in charge of. Did he actually say gal? He did not. That was making. He didn't actually. Is he looking for a gal with some nice gams? He did not actually.
Starting point is 00:02:27 That's an HR problem right off the back. Well, they probably have to hire an HR person as well, unless that was Kurt and Linda's department. But he did not actually specify the gender of any hire in either direction. I just wanted to acknowledge it's 2026. So you are allowed to hire women. But regardless, one of the assistant general managers was going to be involved more in the analytics data space, the other in player development. and scouting that sort of thing. Rohan Ramadas is clearly in the analytics and data space.
Starting point is 00:03:07 He, according to a report from Dave McMeneman and Shamsharania from ESPN, quote, while working for the Pelicans, Ramadas implemented AI and coded models to aid the front office. The source told ESPN, I'm picturing Kurt Rambas looking at these models from behind like a portable word processor and saying, what is this sorcery? First of all, I can't see this man's games. I don't know what he looks like. I will say, if you look at Rohan Ramadas's LinkedIn page, and you can, you mentioned the background in aerospace,
Starting point is 00:03:42 worked for 12 years at the Aerospace Corporation, reaching senior project manager of mission design, which I know is the job you and I were considering before we picked this one. And you will be pleased to know. I mean, they've recruited the bleep out of both of us. It really wanted us badly. And then they settled for Rohan Romedos, which apparently worked out well. I think it worked out well for all of us.
Starting point is 00:04:06 Interesting. Interesting thing here, though. One of the reasons perhaps that he picked the Lakers is the aerospace corporation is based in El Sondon. So he worked in El Sondo for a bunch of years. He's a USC guy as well. He is a USC. That's the next thing I was going to say. He got his Masters of Science and Astronautical Engineering at U.S.
Starting point is 00:04:28 USC and was just a couple years ahead of Andy, who also got his Masters of Science and Astronautical Engineering from USC. Andy, the guy who doesn't believe in space travel. Yeah, that department recruited the, they really recruited me. They wanted me badly. I had my freshman year. Can I back up for just a second? I don't want to back.
Starting point is 00:04:52 Andy believes in space travel in the sense that space travel has happened. Yeah, I don't think he's not. He's not a denier. He doesn't believe the moon landing was fake. Andy just doesn't believe in the value of space travel. No, I think there are other things we can and should be spending our money on. I just, I didn't want to leave people thinking that you were some sort of conspiracy theorist. No, I'm not a kook.
Starting point is 00:05:17 I just don't think we should be spending our money on this. Anyway, so it's really hard to, you know, is this a good, higher, bad hire? I think there are a few things you can look at. First, the fact that they did it is it's like, you know, they're in the process of doing it. They said they were going to do it. They're doing it. That in and of itself is good. The second part of it, I would say, is like, well, is he the right guys?
Starting point is 00:05:45 I don't know. And it's very difficult to establish, you know, whether a somebody who's not at the top of the org chart in a basketball. operations is really good, less good, like, because you, they're not in charge ultimately. So he does seem well respected. He is considered obviously quite intelligent. And, you know, we'll see. But I like that they're doing it. Well, one, because like you, I don't know much, if anything, about Rohan Ramadan
Starting point is 00:06:17 at all. And we'll be looking to learn. But one thing I would say, and this would apply to anybody that they are high. hiring for the you know from other front offices whether we're talking about the other assistant GM role or other places where they may look to generally buff out the front office I would caution our listeners and viewers from making straight line comps or like straight line judgments based on what that front office did and the hire like for example with ramadas I am without deeply reporting this. I'm just going to say, just in knowing how this stuff works,
Starting point is 00:07:03 Rohan Ramadan is very, very unlikely to have been the guy who spearheaded that, frankly, ridiculous Pelicans trade that led to them trading 10 spots up and giving Atlanta their pick for this year so they could draft Derek Queen. I certainly hope not. If he was responsible, I would not have led with that in the interview. I'm just saying that's not the way this stuff generally works. Because even if he really thought this was an incredible idea, if Joe Dumas, who ultimately runs the Pelicans front office, thought it was a terrible idea, it wouldn't have happened.
Starting point is 00:07:40 I have no idea what Ramadas's thoughts on that transaction was or wasn't. I just know he's not the guy that made that happen. And I can guarantee that is something Joe Dumas, felt strongly about or else it doesn't take place. And I just think it's important to remember, it would be one thing if, say, they hired Joe Dumars to replace Raw Polinka, work alongside Palinka,
Starting point is 00:08:08 or they brought in Darry, just another guy with a big name who is currently without a job, then you can start making those straight line evaluations. But with someone like Ramadas, if you're looking at the Pelicans last few years and you've been unimpressed, I wouldn't put all of it on him because I just doubt it's accurate. Yeah. And it's just like I said,
Starting point is 00:08:37 all you can kind of look at is whether or not like you kind of go by reputation. Like do other people, does it seem like, and as you said like Jake Madison, like he has been. pursued by other organizations. He is somebody who seems to have been in demand. Like, you know, the Lakers are also, according to Dan Wojke, of the athletic,
Starting point is 00:09:09 another name the Lakers are reportedly pursuing is Prosper, Carra. I'm going to struggle with his name, Carangwa, who is with the Sixers. And I, again, I don't know if he's good or great, whatever, but if you look at the reporting around it, he seems to be in demand for a lot of franchises. So people are pretty good at understanding, like looking past the kind of the win-loss record of the team and looking at the people who are under, like you say, with the Sixers, ultimately, you know, Darryl Morey is making decisions there, you know, and, It's not, you know, the people working underneath them. So they're doing the jobs that they're asked to do. It's a positive thing for the Lakers. They'll continue to build out the basketball department.
Starting point is 00:10:05 And, you know, they need to do it. And they need, you know, needs to be done pretty quickly because there's a lot of stuff going on. The emphasis that everybody's expecting with Romedos and, you know, analytics and data, this is an area where the Lakers have needed to. to buff out the front office. There have been questions over the years of how much the Lakers even, like, have that department formally.
Starting point is 00:10:33 You know what I mean? Like, you know, they obviously have had people involved with analytics inside the building because everybody does, but the idea of it being buffed out enough and that they've got enough of those resources, having somebody like Romedos, if nothing else, just represents
Starting point is 00:10:51 the new era under Mark Walter with more money and more expansion in ways that are just long overdue. As I've said many, many times, even if you think Rob Polinka deserves more credit as a basketball ops guy than he gets, he needs these additions because the jobs too small. We'll let you know some other places where the Lakers are getting some honors as a franchise in some places where the roster may have missed out. And this front office thing relevant to that for sure. We'll explain it all when we get back. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by five-hour energy drink.
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Starting point is 00:12:56 access to the entire channel, really. So that just doesn't mean fans of the NBA, but also hosts that do periodically appear on these NBA channels. And of course, you get the show ad-free, which we know for some of you is a big deal. So again, Locktonlakers.
Starting point is 00:13:12 Dot supercast.com. Check it out in the show notes. See if it's for you. No surprise, Andy, over the weekend, that Luca Donchich was named officially to the all-NBA first team. He finished fourth in MVP voting.
Starting point is 00:13:25 So especially in a positionless era where you do not need to, you know, you just pick the five best guys if you're a voter. It would have been quite shocking for Luca to not be in that top five for all NBA. But he made it. And kudos to him. Yeah, he finished with 482 out of a possible 500 points that you can get. 91 total first place vote, first team all NBA votes. and nine second team all NBA. The next closest to him was Cade Cunningham, 414.
Starting point is 00:14:03 Why nine voters opted to put Luca second team all NBA as opposed to first? I don't know. I also don't particularly care because he made the team with a lot of room to spare. The next closest guy behind Cade was Jalen Brown, who was almost 100 points behind Luca, meaning Luca was a very, very firm first. I mean, he came within 18 points of a perfect score. So it speaks to the widespread respect to the season that he had.
Starting point is 00:14:39 And you can make an argument that that incredible march that the Lakers had, that Luca was the best player in the league for that month and certainly was the best offensive player by a long shot. So it was nice to. see the league ultimately make that special circumstances exception for him and Kate Cunningham because they both deserved it and it's nice to see those seasons recognized. Yeah. And I think it's indicative of this sort of constant workshopping space that everybody's in right
Starting point is 00:15:15 now trying to figure out like what's the best way to promote, you know, promote play, competition to avoid tanking and also acknowledge that like players need to be kept healthy as much as you can. I mean, the Western Conference Finals is being impacted by injuries, you know, actually finally kind of catching up again with Oklahoma City, who have now down both Jalen Williams, J. Dub, with that hamstring, it just keeps recurring. And then also now A.J. Mitchell is on the shelf. So tied to two, the thunder are the,
Starting point is 00:15:53 now the team that is really battling injuries and stuff like that. So the NBA got this one right. We'll see how they can continue trying to, you know, kind of walk that tightrope. A place, Andy, where the Lakers, not surprisingly, didn't receive any honors. All defense. Not that they were a terrible defensive team this year overall,
Starting point is 00:16:17 but they're not a great defensive team overall. I said, you're an awesome model. I said they weren't. terrible. A couple months, they were actually pretty damn terrible, Brian. They were pretty terrible for a couple. Brian, one of their months, they were 29th out of 30 for defensive rating. They were pretty terrible for a few months. Yeah, I agree. That part's bad. I don't know why you're trying to sugarcoat this. They were not good. I'm not trying to sugarcoat. I'm just trying to be fair. But terrible maybe certainly at different times, applies for sure. So yeah, no
Starting point is 00:16:50 surprised that they didn't have any all defensive members represented, but it does raise the question of like how. Like Marcus, I should say, Marcus Smart might have gotten some votes. I don't know he wouldn't have made one of the teams. He might have gotten some votes had
Starting point is 00:17:08 he played enough games. And so he missed the games played threshold. So he probably would have been in the mix of players that you might consider putting on that team and it wouldn't have been ridiculous if they did. But broadly speaking, aside from him and anybody you would even think about putting on that team. Well, this is the thing I wanted to drill down on. It's not that nobody made
Starting point is 00:17:34 all defense first or second team because that was completely unexpected to begin with. What jumped out to me was that no Laker got a single vote and had Marcus Smart qualified, I think he might have, like you said. But other than Marcus smart, there's nobody. Like, LeBron and AR did not play enough games to qualify for postseason awards. They wouldn't have gotten any votes. They wouldn't have gotten any votes.
Starting point is 00:18:01 Luca clearly played enough games to qualify, didn't get enough votes. I mean, maybe if you want to squint, you could say if Jared Vanderbilt had played enough games, he might have gotten one or two votes. But I'm just saying that's squinting. and that's as far as the list goes. Is anybody from Jared Vanderbilt's family, a voter? Because that's the only way that happens.
Starting point is 00:18:24 Well, the only reason I say that is because there are a couple like athletic polls and things like that, mentioned like, who do you think is the best defender in the league? And Jared Vanderbilt got a couple votes. So that's the only reason I'm saying he might have possibly gotten a couple votes. I'm not saying he should or, by the way. Whatever. I'm not saying he should or shouldn't have.
Starting point is 00:18:43 All I'm saying is that's as far as you can go. You have to squint to maybe see it. And Lakers were the only team in the top six in either conference to not receive at least one vote for a player for all defense. If you expand it into the top eight, the playoff teams, it's just then the Sixers and the Sons. And I think Dylan Brooks would have gotten at least a vote, if not many votes, had he played the necessary 65.
Starting point is 00:19:15 if you expand it to play in teams, you can add Charlotte. The point being, they were a very unimpressive group defensively for the season. And it comes on, you know, it comes on the heels of the Lakers playing pretty good defense in the Rocket series, albeit against a Houston team that is not that great offensively with Durant, much less without him. and then we saw the limitations defensively against the Thunder. They did a pretty good job. I didn't think they played a bad defensive series against the Thunder.
Starting point is 00:19:54 But one game kind of got away from them, but overall, I thought they were fine. They were fine, except you could see the limitations and the crack showing in the way they did a legitimately good job corraling SGA, but it was at the expense of everyone else, largely being able to go off. And like I said, other than March, where they had a top 10 defensive rating 10th, every other month in the season was either in the teens, the 20s, or one month where they were nearly dead last.
Starting point is 00:20:30 So unless you think March is indicative of what they could be with better collective health, like that's who they really are, it just speaks to, you know, there are a lot of areas that need shoring up this off season, but defense really is one of them. I want to, when we get, after the break, I want to kind of get into that because,
Starting point is 00:20:53 like what they are at their peak, I think is important to diagnose and diagnose relatively accurately. And then, though, like you said something else, too. It's like when they played, I thought a, you know, a certainly a very respectable defensive series against Oklahoma City, especially given their challenges on the other side of the ball, which make it much harder to play good defense. I think it reinforces what you're talking about and the need for the Lakers to improve on that end.
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Starting point is 00:22:38 Play your game. So a couple of things I think you're interesting about this, Andy. First and foremost, I do think it actually, the fact that the Lakers won 53 games with the injuries and the defensive problems and the up and down defense that they have, they put it together for March, sustain that defense into the first round of the playoffs. I think pretty respectfully into the second is actually,
Starting point is 00:23:03 as a couple people in the chat have pointed out, again, a really nice reflection on the coaching staff and the culture because you always want a team that's going to be a little bit better than the sum of its parts, particularly on that side of the ball. And I think the results kind of show that, like the Lakers getting zero love in all defense, again, with the Marcus Smart caveat, but still managing to put together like some really, you know, sustained success there near the end of the season when they started to get most of their players back, which is what you might think what they might argue.
Starting point is 00:23:38 My answer to that would be, and I think you'll probably agree, is, if what you are at your peak, and I think Luca being back might have hurt them in some ways in terms of who gets targeted more easily and all that other stuff, it might have helped them in other ways, in part because the offense would have been significantly better, which makes your defense better and all that.
Starting point is 00:23:59 But we'll call it a net neutral. Do you mean in the playoffs really quickly? I'm talking about the playoffs. I don't think they would, I don't think they would have been worse defensively against Oklahoma City with Luca, back because, A, Luca does certain things actually quite well on that side of the ball, but also, most importantly, they would have had an easier time scoring. Their possessions would have been better,
Starting point is 00:24:22 which allow them set their defense and all that. It also just puts less pressure on your defense when your offense is, when your offense is better, it makes it easier to defend because every single possession defensively doesn't feel like your survival depends on it. Like it didn't against the thunder because they just did right yeah um so but but i think that reinforces the point that you were kind of getting at before which is if that is like you know sort of the peak and you're not really able you're not going to be able to sort of do much better than that you're not able to operate at a higher level you saw limitations there were just like sort of there if you want to like you sort of use a football term like their base defense
Starting point is 00:25:10 It's not that it was bad. They just didn't have a lot of options. There weren't a lot of ways that they can defend, whereas to use Oklahoma City as an example, to use the Spurs as an example. They are much more able to match up and try different things and counterpunch and do that kind of stuff, much more so than the Lakers,
Starting point is 00:25:32 whether because they're one-way players, if you want to call an Alex Caruso, you know, sort of a one-wayish player, a Lou Dort, and I think that's minimizing their offensive contributions. But if you want to, they're thought of as defensive players. Because their quote unquote,
Starting point is 00:25:51 one-way players are just better at the thing that they're supposed to be doing, which is true. I mean, say even if think Jared Vanderbilt's a really good defender, Alex Caruso and Lou Dorder better. Jared Vanderbilt's not an elite defender. That's the difference. Those guys are way.
Starting point is 00:26:06 You can get away with more shortcomings if you are elite at the things that you're great at. And so those guys are elite. Those guys are not only elite defensively better, you know, whatever. They're also significantly better than him offensively. And so the Lakers didn't have those. And then, you know, and then they don't have the center that they can put in who's like a defensive stopper. They don't have a wing guy.
Starting point is 00:26:33 Like there's no Matisse Thibel or something like that who you look at it. So, okay, the guy's kind of limited offensively. Man alive, is he a lockdown defender? You know, prime thibble or something like that. So like you say, just tons of limitations. This is the big thing they have to figure out in terms of how they're going to approach the soft season because, I mean, there are many factors that need to be figured out in terms of who are you bringing back and at what cost we've talked about before. if they are serious or leaning towards bringing back both LeBron and Austin,
Starting point is 00:27:14 unless LeBron is going to take a pretty serious discount, or Austin really is serious about the idea of, you know what, I don't need every dollar possible. Like, I don't think, I don't think Austin's going to get the max possible for him. No. You know, that's almost 50 mil a season. like if Austin was insisting on that, the answer is you let him walk. Like he's not worth that.
Starting point is 00:27:38 But if you bring both of those guys back, unless one or both is taking significantly less than I think either of them currently expects to take now, you might be in a position where you end up having to run it back because they're really, you're sort of out of, you're out of outs at that point. You're out of avenues. You're basically, the logic would be, we think with better collective health, what we saw in March, that's who we really are. And that is sustainable. And we can do that moving forward.
Starting point is 00:28:15 You know, maybe we tweak a couple pieces here and there, use the mid-level on somebody we think can be impactful in a specific area. But we think, again, fingers crossed for better health, what we saw in March is really who they are. If they don't do that, they're going to be looking to, I think, find more newer faces. But we just ask you this, even if that's true, even if they come with like, this is who we are, and they may end up having to run it back for a bunch of different reasons. Sure. You know, run a bag. You know, but like, even if they say like, okay, we think that's kind of what we are,
Starting point is 00:28:51 what that was while good, very good, I don't think it was good enough. Like, would you, I mean, you would agree with that. Like, you need, even if that is, you know, like, you know what, that actually who's here, they still need to get better. Like, that's why, you know, the Herb Joneses of the world and all that kind of stuff are still going to be tied to the Lakers all summer and should be. Right. I mean, what makes it really unfortunate beyond the fact that April was all those injuries
Starting point is 00:29:17 is the March slate that we saw, we didn't get to see them at full strength against the thunder, which would have been one of the measure, you know, like the true measuring stick games. We were hoping that those two games they had in April against OKC, you know, best case scenario, the Lakers win one or both of them. Then it's like, holy bleep. Like this team really looks like they can make a run. Or if nothing else, they lose respectively and respectively, and you get some information.
Starting point is 00:29:49 As it was, there was no information to be gained because both Luca and Austin got hurt. So the ass kickings were. inevitable. Well, there was a little bit of information. I don't totally disagree with it. Just because they were down huge when those guys already got hurt. I mean, Austin, I guess, got hurt early in the game, but Luca didn't leave the game until the third quarter.
Starting point is 00:30:09 Right, but he was hurting during. True, true. I mean, you're right. They really, they really got like a half, half of a half game sample size of what it looked like. And then both Luca and Austin were essentially out. And then they weren't there for the second game. So they really didn't get enough info.
Starting point is 00:30:30 If they try to avoid a route of running it back, then, yeah, they have to look around for, you know, Herb Joneses and other names that have been connected to them and figure out who they're going to prioritize. I think it may very well come down to, in a lot of ways, a financial decision between Austin and LeBron, unless, again, one of them is taking a pretty deep discount, just because the math won't work.
Starting point is 00:30:58 It becomes a math issue. Well, I mean, and, you know, our friend is Doc Franco, who if you don't subscribe to his substack, you should. It's just a great Lakers resource, great Luca resource, knows the international game really well.
Starting point is 00:31:16 So there's just all kinds of benefits to it. He actually had a really nice newsletter over the weekend where he kind of broke some of these things down. And like some of the names that are out there, you know, are like Herb Jones and people like that. But, you know, we've, we, people are still talking about Walker Kessler or, you know, Atari Eason or things like that. Those last two are restricted free agents can be very difficult for the Lakers to pry away. And so I mentioned in the first or second segment, I forget, but like I mentioned like why this front office build needs to happen fast. I mean, I think the best avenue for the Lakers to to make these sorts of improvements defensively are,
Starting point is 00:31:55 going to be finding undervalued assets from another team. Maybe that's something that your analytics guy can find. Maybe that's something that you're, you know, you break down through film study, you see. But they're going to have to find something somewhere that isn't, everybody, everybody wants Herb Jones. Herb Jones is going to cost you a lot of stuff. It may be worth it. And I think back in a winning environment could make a difference. But like, you, Walker Kessler is not a practical option.
Starting point is 00:32:24 If you want to be able to fill out your team in meaningful ways, you're going to have to find hidden gems in a lot of other places. That requires a staff. And that's why these things are so important. I will reiterate a point I've made a few times when people talk about the 2024 finals run that Dallas went on and using that as a model of how to build around Luca. Derek Jones Jr., who was a veteran's minimum signing for the Mavericks that year, was Fantastic. It was one of the best veterans minimum signings, probably like the last five or so years. Like that good. They need to hit on something like that. Somebody who dramatically outperforms their contract. It's like the way we talked about DeAndre Aiton.
Starting point is 00:33:12 Do I think DeAndre Aiton gave them $8 million worth of production? Yeah, I do. But what's disappointing about that is the Lakers signed Aiton with the hopes that he would dramatically outperform that contract. And over the course of the season, I don't think he did. Yeah, I think maybe, but not significantly. I think, you know, when he was good, he was better. The problem is he was often not great. And like, you know, could he, you know, we talked about him before.
Starting point is 00:33:43 Like, is he going to perform like he did in March in an entire season next year? If he elects to come back, pick up that player option. I don't know. the Lakers is going to kind of go all in and decide and sort of just assume that he will. We'll find out. But plenty more to kind of break down over the course of the week, including what the sweep of the cabs by the hands of the New York Knickerbockers might mean for the future of LeBron James in Los Angeles.
Starting point is 00:34:13 Shout out to former Lakers, Jordan Clarkson, and Josh Hart. Yeah. So the Knicks are just cruising to the finals this year. And so we'll break down some of those other things, trying to line up some good guests to lay out what's coming in the off season. And then as we get closer to the draft, we'll get you ready for that as well.
Starting point is 00:34:34 Locked on Lakers on YouTube as we can hang out with over 38,000 subscribers of the channel. We'll see everyone next time.

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