Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Lakers Open Against Golden State, Get Houston on X-Mas. Plus... Luka Dončić Back In Action!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone, welcome to Lockedon Lakers for Monday. Brian Kavanaugh-Kinezky, Andy Keminetsky. It's LeBron versus Steph on opening night. Plus, Luca is back in action. All that next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:27 Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers' first listen of every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast. This one's always going to be free for you, and we're never going to put it behind a paywall because that's just a jerky thing to do. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where over 36,000 subscribers to the channel all are hanging out talking about Luca Donchich, getting back on the floor,

Starting point is 00:00:46 and of course talking about LeBron James versus Steph Curry on opening night, because yes, while Luca Donchich is the new star of this team, that is LeBron versus Steph that the NBA has set up. We'll get to that in just a moment. Do it let everybody know that today's episode is brought to you, you buy GameTime, download the GameTime app, create an account, use the code locked

Starting point is 00:01:08 on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. So when you want to go to crypto.com arena, Andy, on October 21st, you can check the GameTime app and you will be there to see Steph versus LeBron.

Starting point is 00:01:24 The league may not, doesn't know how many more of these opportunities they'll get. It is still a marquee matchup even with the torch being passed to Donchich. Not a surprise, I think, that this is where the NBA is going on opening night. LeBron v. Steph still has a lot of juice in terms of getting eyeballs. As you said, there's only so many of these left.

Starting point is 00:01:48 So the league will very understandably, and I think rightly, milk the matchup for as much as they still can, for as long as they still can. And I think also this might be key early enough in the season that for the time being, Both guys are likely to be healthy, and the teams, by definition, cannot at least even possibly be underperforming. Well, they can't be underperforming, and there's no, like, you know, load management on opening night. But, I mean, I'm being serious. No, it's 100%. There are, I mean, there's no guarantee that either guy doesn't get hurt during training camp or doesn't do something during the preseason or whatever.

Starting point is 00:02:31 but your best odds to guarantee that Steph and LeBron will be healthy. They play four times this year. Is the first one on opening night? If you wait till Christmas, if you wait till Martler the King Day, you risk one of the two of those guys, or maybe even both being out of that game. Or the team, you know, particularly in the case of the Warriors, because they are an older team.

Starting point is 00:02:57 But you could be missing guys, stuff like that. I mean, it just, it's the best way to at least get the most spice with Lakers Warriors. And for what it's worth, as much as there may not be much left to milk from LeBron v. Steff unless we happen to get it in the playoffs, the games themselves, Lakers, warriors over the last few years, have tended to be really good games. Yeah. We've had some of the best regular season games of the last two or three years. between these two squads.

Starting point is 00:03:32 So in that sense, it's a pretty predictable but sensible opening night matchup. Yeah, very, very smart on the part of the NBA. I mean, there are a lot of people, and we'll get to this in a second, because the Christmas Day game,

Starting point is 00:03:50 which again is at crypto.com arena, another statement as to where sort of the NBA thinks the Lakers are, once again, not making the, Lakers are always going to play on Christmas, but they're going to make them travel. They're not going to make them go to New York. They're not going to, you know, they're slotting a game in Los Angeles for either presumably that what is like the three o'clock Eastern time or the later game.

Starting point is 00:04:17 I think it'll probably be the prime time game at like three or whatever it is out here. There's a third game of the slate. However, I don't know the exact times, but it's Cleveland at New York, San Antonio at Oklahoma. than Houston at Lakers, Dallas at Warriors, Minnesota at Denver. Right. And so,

Starting point is 00:04:37 I mean, I think there's some people who are curious or think the NBA might have missed an opportunity in not scheduling Lakers versus Mavs in that time slot. I mean,

Starting point is 00:04:50 I get it. The flip side is LeBron versus Katie and what is going to be, you know, a matchup of arguably the consensus number two seed in the Western Conference versus Luca and the Lakers on Christmas. It's hard to go wrong with that one.

Starting point is 00:05:08 I think though, like I was thinking about this, like why not the Mavs? A, it's been done. Like by that point, they'll have played a couple times. But also, too, I do think the idea that the league, it's one thing. Like, you can put the Lakers on TV on Christmas almost no matter where they are in the conference. They've got Luca, they've got LeBron, they should be very good, but that's sort of secondary. The Lakers, you can put them on TV, whenever.

Starting point is 00:05:37 That's not the same with the Mavericks. And I think you look at Dallas, Kyrie Irving will not be back on the floor by Christmas. You never quite know with Anthony Davis. You don't exactly know what that team is going to be. There's some people who think they're going to be pretty good, even without Kyrie, others. I know you're a little bit more skeptical.

Starting point is 00:05:57 I think the league is just going with a more sure thing. Laplona and Luca versus, you know, KD and the up-and-coming Houston Rockets. You know, that's a high floor game. Even if you think higher ceiling for Dallas Lakers, I don't know about that. It's a lower floor for sure. It's, I think from a basketball, like a pure basketball perspective, the odds of Lakers Rockets being a better game. I think is higher than the odds of Lakers Mabs.

Starting point is 00:06:32 We're going to see, according to Mark Stein, in the NBA Cup, formerly known as the IST, the first match that the artist... It's called to me. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. It's like, you know, the naming rights with the Coliseum. As far as I'm concerned, USC plays in the Coliseum.

Starting point is 00:06:48 I don't care what you call it. But according to Mark Stein, the opening game of the NBA Cup slash IST for the Lakers bracket, that's going to be Lakers Mavs. That's going to be a primetime game. And whatever we as fans, we as media, however we may feel about the NBA Cup, the players are taking it seriously. Like the players have thus far treated the games like they matter if for no other reason than they actually do, regardless of the NBA Cup, because the regular season games, which I actually think is one of the genius elements of the NBA Cup, even if players don't give a bleep about winning the NBA Cup or even if they're not motivated by the $500,000, they care about the

Starting point is 00:07:39 regular season. So in that sense, you're going to get good games. And it's, you know, it's funny because like from a Lakers perspective, like I 100%, you know, you know, you want them to win those games because it's the Western Conference there, they matter to say the very least. I just don't want to play in the final. I don't want to play in the extra game. Like if they could somehow figure out a way to win all of their NBA cups and win their group and simply decline to play in the final, like that to me is the ultimate outcome. As much as I know a lot of people, including our friend Harrison Fagan at the Silver Screen Role would prefer that they raise another banner.

Starting point is 00:08:26 The other thing that really stuck out to me, Andy, you would barely know that there's an Eastern Conference based on the opening night games and the Christmas Day games. There barely is an Eastern Conference. Good call. Opening night is two Western Conference teams. I'm so two Western Conference games. And Christmas, is it four of the five?

Starting point is 00:08:49 Yep. are do feature Western Conference teams. But, but if you want to take the glass half full look at the Eastern Conference, for many, many years, the Knicks had been included in this thing every single year for no other reason than being the Knicks. They're at least good now. Like Cleveland versus New York. Well, that's a good game.

Starting point is 00:09:16 Right. That's actually, it's a good, legit. legitimate real NBA basketball game as opposed to in the not so distant past when the Knicks were simply hosting at the garden because they happened to play at the garden. Like that was the only reason the Knicks were being included. So in that sense, at least the Eastern Conference game is a legitimate game, even if the conference is fraudulent. Well, what's funny to me is like you can find some decent,

Starting point is 00:09:50 games in the Eastern Conference. Like Atlanta, for example, low-key, has had a great off-season. They're, I think, a really intriguing team with a lot of fun players and all that kind of stuff. Detroit is a, you know, fun, up-and-coming young team. Orlando.

Starting point is 00:10:08 So it's just that like nobody wants to watch those. Those are not bankable Christmas teams. You know, the Orlando Magic and Paulo Bancaro than Franz Wagner. They deserve maybe to be watched on high-profile games, but they ain't there yet in terms of attracting the casuals on a Christmas day. It's not that there's no good teams in the East because there are, but the drop-off between the good teams and the bad teams is staggering.

Starting point is 00:10:42 Whereas that and not to step on you, sorry, but it's that and the fact that the good teams, are super unreliable. Like, I don't know if anybody, like, nobody's, like, really firm on Milwaukee. They've got Janus, but that team could be, you know, very, very mid, you know, not and, you know, without a really good, dominant Milwaukee team,

Starting point is 00:11:07 you know, putting that on, you know, on Christmas. And, like, the Sixers with Joelle M. Bede are not something that you can bank on. The Celtics are injured. It's like there, it's, The best, the most interesting fun teams, I think, even Indiana without Halliburton, it's kind of a wait and see. The most interesting and fun teams to me are Orlando, Detroit, and Atlanta. But they're not getting Christmas slots.

Starting point is 00:11:35 Yeah, they don't, I mean, it's a shame because the Pistons actually in particular, I think a really fun team to watch. Orlando, I think, is just a really interestingly constructed team. Yeah. But they don't have a name recognition value. All right, let's talk about Luca Dantra Jandhi. He was back on the floor Friday, full, floor Friday for Slovenia against Germany as they get ready for Eurobasket play.

Starting point is 00:11:59 We'll tell you how he looked literally and figuratively next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by game time. We have all been there logging on early, waiting forever for concert tickets to go online, only because you lose your spot for this show, you have some type of computer glitch or whatever. You've been dying to see. Now you're at the back of the line.

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Starting point is 00:12:59 Again, create an account and redeem the code L-O-C-E-D-O-N-N-B-A for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. Last-minute tickets lowest price guaranteed. All right. So one of the things that I thought was interesting, we did a show, was a Thursday or Friday we talked about the rankings across the NBA. That was for Friday.

Starting point is 00:13:27 Friday show. The Locked on Network is ranking our channel. The NBA channel is ranking the top 100 players across the NBA. You took some flak because you put Luca behind Anthony Edwards. I put him in front there, but still took a little flack because I think I had him at fourth instead of third or second. We both had him at fourth. But I made it very clear and I've stuck to it. I will address specific questions about my ranking process or whatever.

Starting point is 00:13:58 I'm not going to argue with you. If you're looking to argue about the number, not doing it. I have it tiered maybe just a little different than you. I think Yokic is his own tier. I think the next tier basically is Luca, Shea and Janus in any particular order you want to put him in. I think you're putting in that group. It doesn't really matter. We weren't allowed to do tiers.

Starting point is 00:14:20 It comes out as numbers, man. You can explain this away all you want, Brian. It's a waste of your own time. If people are going to be pissed, they're going to be pissed. No, I understand that. I'm just sort of clarifying how I look at these things. They don't. But they might.

Starting point is 00:14:38 They might not. The people who will be mad about this, they don't. People who are mad don't care. I agree with you. They don't listen to words. They're not interested in words. They're interested in the number in front of Luca. that's it.

Starting point is 00:14:51 So one of the things though that was common in this, in the complaints of the, the Luca advocates was like, you know, last year he wasn't in great shape because he was hurt and all these other things. We're not picking on him. It's just he never had a chance to really get healthy.

Starting point is 00:15:08 You're not factoring in that he's skinny Luca now and he's in great shape and all that kind of stuff. Hold on to that for a second because I think people, many people are missing the real value of Luca's transformation. So we'll get to that in a second. But let's talk about how he played. Played 24 minutes against Germany at 19 points, five assists, three rebounds, got a technical foul.

Starting point is 00:15:37 So in that sense, he's in mid-season form. Hasn't played an organized game, like with like referees and whistles and uniforms and stuff, since the Lakers were eliminated. That was his first real five-on-five game. I thought overall, again, metaphorically and literally, he looked pretty good. You know, for a guy who hasn't played a lot of basketball of late,

Starting point is 00:16:02 and Germany's got some legit guys on that squad. I thought he looked good for a guy who had or had not been playing basketball of late. I thought he, I full disclosure, did not get to watch the whole game. I was doing it. I saw like, I've watched a bunch of highlight videos. Right. I was doing radio for 710 ESPN and my show was live during Lucas game. But I did see some highlights. I thought he looked good in what I saw. He looked lively out there. He did not look like somebody who was getting his timing back, even if I think he was 9 of 22 from the field. Like it wasn't the most efficient game he's ever had, but he didn't look like somebody struggling to get his feel out there. He definitely had high energy. He got into it. it with former Laker Isak Bunga from Germany,

Starting point is 00:16:50 so a little bit of Laker on former Laker crime. And he looks, he also, the physical piece of this, he looks good. Like at this point, we've seen enough of Luca between the magazine spread and

Starting point is 00:17:05 the press conference and now this game to say like, there's no way around this. He looks like somebody with a transformed body. And I know that there are a lot of Laker fans who feel like this narrative has been overblown and people are focusing on it too much. And this becomes like backhanded praise of Luca because it's also an acknowledgement of the past conditioning issues that I know a lot of Luca fans feel like isn't fair to him. And you can whatever you think about how much of an issue this was or was not for Luca, I think in a lot of ways you're missing the larger point.

Starting point is 00:17:45 Like, you can still think Luca was awesome before and acknowledge this will be helpful for him. This will put less stress on his body. Like, this does not guarantee he won't miss games, but I think it ups the odds that he'll be able to stay out there more. And either way, what this will do, and I think this will be great for the really big Luca fans, you will no longer at least hear the criticism of it. Like if Luka gets hurt, it's not going to be because he doesn't take X seriously. It's simply going to be because he got hurt. So if nothing else, him transforming himself gets rid of that thing that you're sick of hearing about.

Starting point is 00:18:30 I think that's definitely true. And look, I think he will move a little bit better. I think he'll have, who look, frankly, I think a little more like he did two years ago, not based on weight, but just based on health and things like that. So if he goes, gets through Eurobasket, gets through training camp, he's going to look like he did a couple years ago because he's going to be healthier and stronger going into the season. I don't necessarily think, again, to tie it back to the rankings or the tiers or things like that, does that make Luca 20% better than he was?

Starting point is 00:19:04 No, I think it makes him closer to the Luca that he has been traditionally, who I think is probably this, you know, when they acquired him, we kept calling him like at worst, a top five player generally considered to be top three. And I think he gets, the point is he wasn't that last year. So I think he returns to that place. And you were kind of alluding to it.

Starting point is 00:19:27 The value here isn't Luca is going to be way better than he's ever been next year because he's so fit. It will help him. I really believe that. I think you'll see most of the difference in the like first step defensively and just a little bit quicker with, you know, the little more explosive, just a little bit better on contact, whatever it might be. Where I think this has value is it's going to raise the odds that you get more seasons like this. I agree. More seasons of Luca at his peak.

Starting point is 00:20:04 And you don't risk having Luca at. 29, 30, or 31 fall off a cliff because he never took care of himself, kind of like Shaq did. Like, Shaq kind of fell off pretty. He still was effective because he was Shaq. But the gap between prime, like prime Shaq wasn't a thing as long as it could have been. I think that's something that most people would agree on, probably Shaq, if you really pinned him down, which is hard to do because he's very, very, very. big. But like this transformation, if he does it, is going to make Luca look like this,

Starting point is 00:20:46 hopefully at 33, 34, 35 years old or something like that. That's the value for Luca and the Lakers in this. That second contract that he signs with L.A. has a much better chance of really paying off and being a great deal for the Lakers. It's not just about like, is he 10% better this year. I mean, I think we shouldn't be overthinking this. There is no downside to a superstar professional athlete getting his body in better shape. There's no downside to this. You're overthinking it if you're trying to come up with ways that, you know, I've heard people say, well, is he going to lose strength? Like, you know, what happens if he loses a bit of that mass that was, you know, that was part of his game? He was able to overpower people. He's still going to be

Starting point is 00:21:38 really strong. There's only going to be things added from it. My final thing also, just in terms of the 10% better, 20% better, how does it fit into the rankings? I consider putting Luke at fourth an acknowledgement that he's really effing good. You, the viewer, the listener, may not. And that's fine. Again, I'm not here to argue. I just want you to understand how I think of it. I think of it as one hell of a compliment. You don't have to just understand how I think about it. I think I speak for Brian as well. I used to have arguments to the people,

Starting point is 00:22:15 your disrespect, like is Kobe the seventh best player, the eighth best player or the 11th? But like, definitionally speaking, if I say somebody is the eighth best player in the history of the league, you simply, that cannot be.

Starting point is 00:22:34 disrespectful. It just can't, definitionally. And yeah, we live in this world. We do. Do the Lakers have a Dalton-Connect problem? I think they do. And some interesting evidence of that next. So I will, I'll note this by saying that I didn't actually listen

Starting point is 00:23:00 to their show together and I am not putting, I don't want to put any words in anybody's mouth about anything anybody said about Dalton or didn't say. But our friend, Tim underscore NBA, Cranjus McBasketball, along with Yovan Buha. They did a show where they talked about, like kind of broke down what they thought the rotation would look like from a minute's standpoint. And then they aggregated, they talked about where their differences were, this and that, whatever.

Starting point is 00:23:30 What I thought was interesting about it was obviously they all had Aiton James, Smart, Reeves, Donch just a starting five. That's what we think it's going to be. the bench. What's what we think it should be? We're not predicting yet it will be. That's true. Although I do think it will be. The bench minutes they had projected going to regular rotation minutes.

Starting point is 00:23:53 Rui, getting the bulk of it, then La Ravia, Vincent, Vanderbilt, and Hayes as the backup five. What was interesting about that to me, Andy, is the name that does not appear on it, which is Dalton Connect, last year's first round pick, a player for whom the Lakers had, hopefully still have, high hopes. So Cranjus posted on Twitter an interesting stat about Dalton. Dalton Connect's offensive role was as an off-screen shooter in 10 of the first 23 games he played, then in just two of the final 57 games he played.

Starting point is 00:24:36 This is the real heart of it. L.A. really went away from him, from him as that J.J. read a Kyle Corber type as the year progressed, and he still couldn't make the reads. That was the part that really got my attention anyway. He said, and he still couldn't make the reads. Defensively, we've seen sort of a lot of the things, same problems. Here's another one. He had a decent bit of opportunity

Starting point is 00:25:08 and those off-ball screening scoring possessions were really struggle. A lot of it was mental. His reeds pre-catch and post-catch weren't as sharp, and he put himself in a lot of tough positions with the shots he took. Dalton Connect is described by many people,

Starting point is 00:25:26 including himself, Andy, as a hooper. He just gets out there in hoops, which implies one of two things. often people talk about it as a guy just lives, breathes, and whatever basketball, like Dalton has no other interests other than basketball, he's a hooper. It can also mean a guy who sort of just instinctively plays the game and the nuances of what is required in an NBA level for in terms of understanding, in terms of basketball IQ and all that kind of stuff, may not be as strong. of a focus. And what I am getting concerned about... I don't think the lot...

Starting point is 00:26:11 For what it's worth, I don't think the latter definition you threw out is how most people talk about being... I don't necessarily think it's how most people talk about it, but I think it is a way that it can be talked about. And what I'm concerned about with Dalton is that he isn't... He is a low basketball IQ player.

Starting point is 00:26:34 And that ultimately, that is going to be the thing that keeps. When you see guys talking about not making the reads, like they have to stop using certain sets because he's not able to make the correct reads, that he doesn't pre-catch, post-catch, do these things. And we all know defensively, you know, we've seen it. And we've seen the footage of JJ Redick yelling,

Starting point is 00:26:57 and I'm like, dude, this is your play, essentially pull your head out of your rear. Yeah, I mean, continue. I think there has been too much focus. on that one play. No. That is people. People often treat that play like it happened to every single game.

Starting point is 00:27:14 And there's no evidence that it happened to every single game. That's what else. Well, there is potentially evidence that not literally that mistake, but meant that we're the mental side of things, the read and react side of things, which is incredibly difficult. We talk about it a lot defensively. Like what, you know, sure. Defense in the NBA is you have to be able to read stuff. And if you are a two-tenths of a second late with your reads,

Starting point is 00:27:45 oftentimes you're dead. And I am not trying to make this out to be an easy thing. And I'm not even, it has realized nothing to do with Dalton's, like innate human intelligence. I've never met the guy. I don't, you know, it doesn't really matter. He doesn't need to be able to do algebra. He needs to be able to read defenses or read,

Starting point is 00:28:04 read offenses, you know, all that stuff. I am starting to wonder if what is really going to hold him back more than anything is it just is not a high IQ basketball player. And there's some mounting evidence and that two guys have, you know, the preseason rotation and it does not include him. I don't think it's a great sign, especially coming off a terrible, a terrible, terrible summer. I mean, it's not a great sign, but I think it is worth noting, first of all, that they have two guys penciled in for rotation minutes that JJ clearly doesn't trust either. So the idea that Jackson Hayes or Jared Vanderbilt are locks to keep those minutes, I think that could be getting ahead of yourself too.

Starting point is 00:28:50 Right, but I will say this. If they're going to play a backup center, it's not going to be Dalton Connect. No, I understand that, but we haven't always seen evidence that they're going to regularly play. They could go small, sure. A backup center. And we saw in the playoffs that JJ was willing to forget forgo a backup center. He was willing to forego his entire bench at times. And the thing that I would say in terms of those plays being abandoned for Dalton,

Starting point is 00:29:22 without trying to take up for the things that clearly or push aside the things that clearly need to be fixed, like Dalton is a flawed player, and there are several parts of his game that need to improve. We have also seen over the course of JJ's first season with the Lakers, impatience has sometimes been a theme. And I think a willingness to abandon stuff as opposed to writing out certain things, not all, I mean, not in a way that it was always destructive for the Lakers. And there have been times, to be fair to JJ, where he's been. impatient with certain things.

Starting point is 00:30:03 He's been very flexible. He's been flexible. The playoffs he was not. The playoffs he got all that. But I think in the regular season, too, there were times where I think he got in, I'm not saying inflexible. I think impatient, there's a difference, to me at least. I think there's a difference between impatience and inflexible.

Starting point is 00:30:22 Regardless, though, I'm not ready to give up on Dalton yet just because it's one rookie year that was for him personally very weird. Like he had a very weird, no-template thing for all intents and purposes happen. You know, the laugh, there are very few comps for the rescinded trade that he experienced and it very clearly messed with him. He also dealt with a lot of roster turn.

Starting point is 00:30:52 You know, the roster changed two or three times, which without having heard the entirety of Cranches and Yova, on's discussion. I don't know how much they acknowledged at least the idea that some of these plays could have changed because the composition of the roster changed at times, some of what they were looking to do with Dalton. I look back at, say, Andrew Beynum, you know, his first couple of years in the league, the second season, even when the regular season, he averaged like 22 minutes a game, it went down to 11 in the playoffs. And Kobe was clearly unconvinced with the potential of Andrew Bynum

Starting point is 00:31:32 because he wanted his ass shipped out for Jason Kidd. Now, Bynum, I think, had a much more intuitive feel for the game than Dalton. Like, I think Bynum's inherent basketball IQ, you could even see it as a rookie. I mean, he was also 11 when he entered the league, whereas Dalton came in at 24. Sure. I get all of that.

Starting point is 00:31:53 I'm just saying guys, guys sometimes need a little bit longer. I'm not, I think every. everything you're talking about with Dalton, I'm not disagreeing in terms of the issues and the things that need to get fixed. I'm not disagreeing with any of it. I'm not even disagreeing with your assessment of the basketball IQ. I'm just not ready to declare it unsolvable yet. I'm not writing him off, but I will say this. This is something that occurred to me over the weekend when I saw this from Tim. And again, I didn't hear that. I didn't hear the conversation.

Starting point is 00:32:31 I just, it, and no question, this is reinforcing stuff I already was very worried about, much of which I've been talking about all summer. Like I'm not sure how, you know, intelligent a player he is.

Starting point is 00:32:48 But the Lakers didn't work him out as far as I know. Like he never, I don't think they interviewed him. I don't think they got him into the building. I don't remember off the top of my head. They might have talked. Maybe they, interviewed him at the Combine.

Starting point is 00:33:01 I know, but like he, I do not believe they worked him out because I don't think anybody expected him to be available. Nobody. When they took him. No, forget anybody,

Starting point is 00:33:13 nobody expected him to be available. So, I mean, and, you know, obviously people in the chat, whoever it is, I mean,

Starting point is 00:33:18 I looked it up, I didn't see it. But like, it's, it is possible I am wrong here. Um, but I don't think they worked them out. And if you,

Starting point is 00:33:27 when you don't work out guys, you don't have as good of a feel. you don't sit down with them, you don't do those interviews, you don't. And so it is possible that this is something that the Lakers actually didn't pick up on because they never talked to the guy. And I'm not, it's not even a criticism when somebody falls into your lap and the overwhelming consensus when they took him was dude like fell into their laps, you take him. I'm not, I'm not criticizing the pick.

Starting point is 00:33:57 But I'm saying is this may be one of these wrinkles that is that that the luck, you know, in air quotes of him falling, if this turns out to be a fatal flaw or such as something, if not fatal, but like, you know, puts a ceiling on where he can be. This might have been one of those things that's like the downside of it. Westwood points out on the chat, two and a half years ago, Dalton was a 6'1 nobody to junior college. He's older, but not very experienced playing high-level basketball, didn't play high-level AAU,

Starting point is 00:34:38 and stuff like that. And that's both an argument for him being able to grow into it, and it's also an argument against it. I think you can... He is continually, for the course of his basketball career, he has continually improved, and he's continually gone to higher levels and eventually conquered them.

Starting point is 00:34:57 But always, like when he played at Tennessee, he was the man in Tennessee, with the focus of it. Sure. I'm assuming northern Colorado or whatever, he'd think that's where he was before. He was the focus of their office. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:35:10 And so he's got to be able to adjust into the role. And nobody thought he was a particularly great defender at Tennessee. We got some people who vouch for him a little bit, but better than advertised as, you know, but not good. like there the it is it is a concern it's a concern that I have so we'll see I mean and just the Lakers drafted him with the idea of he's basically ready to go as a mature player as an older player that he's going to require less development and less seasoning I'm not okay I'm not sure

Starting point is 00:35:48 about that piece of it I'm not saying you're wrong I'm saying I'm not sure you're correct I'm not sure that they saw him as seasoned and done because he was 24. It's not like he stayed an extra year at the same school. He kept going to different school. So I would not make that assumption. Let's, I want to let's carry this through tomorrow because I'm seeing some really interesting comments and stuff that's like worth talking about, you know, in terms of like how, what changes for a player when they go from college to the pros?

Starting point is 00:36:24 It's actually relevant to some of the stuff with Brani that we've been, we actually have not really had a chance to talk about. Make for a good conversation tomorrow. Locked on Lakers on YouTube as we go hang out after you hang out, talk to each other, talk to us, leave us questions, leave us comments. Subscribe there. Subscribe on Apple and on Spotify. We'll see everybody tomorrow.

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