Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Lakers Re-Sign Jaxson Hayes. Are They Done in Free Agency? What's LeBron's Future in LA?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Friday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Komenetsky, the Lakers bring back Jackson Hayes for one more year. Are they done with free agency? 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. First listen of every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast, this one's always free. never bond to paywall and locked on Lakers on YouTube as we can go hang out. With over 35,000 subscribers to the channel, Andy, all of whom are wondering if Thursday's move, resigning Jackson Hayes, means that the Lakers, at least for the free agent portion of the 2025 offseason, have done all that they're going to do. But we will break that down momentarily.

Starting point is 00:00:58 I want to let everybody know, first that today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. I'm down with the GameTime app, create account, use the code, lock, on NBA, unlocked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. I'm certainly clear that I would have been happy if the Lakers perhaps had upgraded the backup center position over Jackson Hayes or brought back Hayes really as a third center. As you remind me for Thursday's show, Maxie Klebeah is still here. Yes, I mean, Jackson Hayes may be, you may have gotten everything that you want.

Starting point is 00:01:34 wanted where Jackson Hayes is the third string center on this team because for the time being, based on JJ Reddick's willingness to play Maxi Claibah in crunch time of an elimination game in the playoffs, despite maybe having met half of his teammates before that game, I'm guessing Claibas ahead of Hayes in the rotation. He could be. And they are different skill sets. There's no question. But that's saying... One of them is JJ likes him and the other one is JJ doesn't. Which one of them played most recently in the playoffs? That it was still one of the more galaxy brain things I have ever seen.

Starting point is 00:02:16 I'm still on board with that first run. I don't think I would have gone back. Don't think I had to go back the second time. Crunch time of an elimination game. Maxi has yet to practice with these guys. pressure, we just need you to save our season. Right. Give us some way.

Starting point is 00:02:37 And go. Again, second run, not what I would have done. Anyway, that said, it did always kind of feel, speaking of inevitable, that the Lakers would, in fact, bring back Jackson Hayes. I felt like there was always a better chance than not that the Lakers would bring him back, And that is in fact exactly what has happened. The Lakers agreeing to Jackson Hayes for a one-year deal that while terms weren't released, I think we can all assume is for the minimum.

Starting point is 00:03:11 And actually, according to Kobe Price covers the Lakers for the SoCal News Group front of the show, it is for a slight bump over the veterans minimum from his last deal. I think just because it's a- You have to. Right. It's a rollover from the last deal. So it's about $3 million. but it doesn't count at all against the biannual exception or anything like that.

Starting point is 00:03:36 Interesting quirk, because it is Jackson Hays' third one-year contract with the Lakers consecutive, he now has a de facto no trade clause essentially as a way of maintaining his own bird rights. Some old heads may remember when Devin George was a member of Dallas Mavericks, same type of setup and the Mavericks wanted to trade for Jason Kidd and include Devin George. Devin George did not want to go to the then New Jersey Nets, which were an absolute tire fire and vetoed the trade. Then they eventually worked it out. I think they traded somebody else in Devin stayed in Dallas or something like that. But it's rare when something like this happens.

Starting point is 00:04:20 It's even more rare that one team will have two players with no trade clause. said before I there's a part we're going to get into the LeBron relationship with the Lakers. There's been some reporting suggesting that maybe a trade while not inevitable or imminent is more possible than some close to the situation would have believed before close reporting the situation. I tweeted out there's a part of at Cam Brothers. I kind of want LeBron at some point to ask out just as a degree of difficulty challenge. to Rob Polinka to see if he can manage to work out a deal involving both LeBron and Jackson

Starting point is 00:05:04 Hayes and both of their no trade clauses at the same time. Like, you should win exec of the year if you can actually figure out a way to come up with a trade where two players can veto it. I, uh, that would be amazing. I just love the idea of Jackson Hayes dictating his destination. Like he's if there are like that many, like, if the LeBron, like, we'll get to it later. get back to Jackson needs in a second. But like if LeBron was bought out, for example,

Starting point is 00:05:31 like he would only want to go to certain teams. Every team would kick the tires at LeBron James on a minimum, basically. Like everybody would like, hey, you want to come back? Jackson, the market would be less robust. But like it always felt like they were going to bring him back because as a second center, certainly as a third center, he had moments last year where he certainly looked good, you know, following the trade and all that kind of stuff.

Starting point is 00:06:02 He was obviously not so good in the first round against Minnesota and showed some of the shortcomings and a lot of that came back. But like as a guy who would be playing second minute or, you know, third-minute, third-center minutes against second and third-thirds, he did okay. So I don't have a problem, you know, from a performance standpoint or then bringing him back. It kind of always seemed like that was going to be what happened. Is this question of like, can you improve the guys in front of them maybe a little bit? Well, it also too.

Starting point is 00:06:38 Jackson Hayes has the same agent as Luca Donchich and DeAndre Aiton. I've talked a lot over the years about how those politics with Clutch has influenced moves with the Lakers. have no doubt that the that we are now in the bill duffy business that there are politics with that well in the same way that there are politics with every agency and every team particularly the powerful ones that happen to represent your most important clients like this stuff happens all the time and just as a precursor to fans who used to or have still been unhappy with the perceived power dynamic between the Lakers and Clutch, and that is something we're going to talk about in this show.

Starting point is 00:07:24 There's going to be some of that with Bill Duffy and his agency and Luca, as long as Lucas is on this team. Yep. There's no question. And, you know, look, in the grand scheme of things, the, the, the, uh, in the politics worked out, I think pretty well with getting DeAndre Aiton. Yeah. The level of faith here is pretty mild, you know, sign our guy.

Starting point is 00:07:47 It's not like they asked him, you know, for three years or 10. million or it's like okay like this is you know he they're slotting him into where he ought to be and again while i i'm not you know not a huge haze guy um he showed that he can be a backup center and if you what i do like about this is if aton misses time and he has uh every year basically of his career you can plug in a player who at least has some overlap and skills And, you know, he's not as good. He's not as good of a rebounder, but like at least the vertical threat part of it, the finishing at the rim, the lob threat, whatever. There are enough things like you kind of want somebody who can do that.

Starting point is 00:08:33 The interesting part to me, though, Andy, is like, does this mean the Lakers are done? Technically speaking, this brings the Lakers to 15 players. They, though, could not pick up Shake Milton's player. I'm sorry, team option to drop them back down to 14. So if they weren't a T, same basic thing. If they wanted to sign another player, if they wanted to use the biannual exception, pull a player in via trade, trade exception, treated like a trade exception. There is still some wiggle room for them to add a player.

Starting point is 00:09:10 But as a few people have pointed out, they have tended to keep that 15th roster spot open. So do you think really from a free agency standpoint, at least that they're done? Well, first of all, I was listening to Anthony Irwin and Yobam Buha talking, I believe, on the Lakers Lounge about the biannual exception money because of where the Lakers are with their payroll right now. And by using a full middle level exception, they are fully hard capped at the first apron. They can't exceed it. They don't have right now quite the full biannual exception. They're available to the soft full. Yeah, it's about three and a half or a 3.4 mil of the 5.1.

Starting point is 00:09:48 That would obviously lower, though, if they cut, if they cut Shake Milton or didn't guarantee his contract. I suspect Shake in the guarantee date is July 20th. I think they are right now, Shake's place on this roster is being, I think, fluidly, actively determined by do we need to waive him in order to make room? Do we need to guarantee him in order to make a trade possible? Like if we need $3 million to balance money, something like that. Right now, I think Jake Milton is just sort of a, what do we need him for more from a cap or roster perspective than an actual player? So that's where some of the, I guess, flexibility that they could have moving forward. I think it's going to come down to, do they need extra money?

Starting point is 00:10:46 For example, if DeAnthony Melton becomes a real option for them. Can they get them for 3.5, you know, can they get them for 3.5, you know, 3.4 and then eventually they wave somebody or whatever. Like, do they need shake Milton as part of a deal where they bring back fewer players? Like, it's fluid. I haven't heard them really at this point linked to anybody in free agency other than De Anthony Melton. Other than Melton. Yeah. Let's hold that thought because we'll talk about that because let's just say like Melton comes available. That's a pretty easy problem to solve. But then can the Lakers execute trades given some of the other potential restrictions? And obviously, of course, we'll talk LeBron and get to all of it next. Locked on Lakers brought to you by game time. We have all been there. Log on early waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale only to lose your spot for a show that you've been dying to see. And live music should be about making memories, not be stress of ticket shopping. It's where game time comes in. Game time makes getting concert tickets

Starting point is 00:11:49 faster and easier than ever. Prices actually go down as it gets closer to Showtime and you can save up 60% off with their killer last minute deals. And if you're wondering what your view is going to look like before you buy, that's where Game Time helps out. The app shows you panoramic seat view. So you know exactly what you're going to be seeing from where all of it, what the view is going to be. With game time, the price you see is the price you pay. There are no hidden fees. take the guesswork out of buying concert and show tickets with game time download the game time app great an account use the code locked on NBA for 20 bucks off your first purchase terms apply again create an account redeem the code LOCK ED oh and NBA for 20 bucks off download the game time app last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed so one thing I do think Andy that this that this resigning seems to indicate is that the Lakers are not confident that they're getting Al Horford. I mean, I think it can be dangerous.

Starting point is 00:12:53 Like you said, there is another roster spot that they can open up. There is a reasonable amount of money that they can put towards another free agent. I do think if they thought they could get Al Horford really had a good lane for that, they had held off on signing Jackson Hayes because maybe he's got somewhere to go.

Starting point is 00:13:13 But I feel like, I personally feel like, even if you thought you might lose Jackson, you know, tell Bid Duffy like, hey, can you hold out? We'll hold out as long as you can. We'll bring them back. But if you need to go somewhere else, we get it. But you hold out for Al Horford as long as you can and just will replace Jackson Hayes if we need to. That's my radio. That makes sense.

Starting point is 00:13:39 I think I would like to think that even with the politics, again, of players, shared agents, all that stuff that you could say, look, we are trying to build the best team around your superstar best client. Al Horford, with all sincere respect to Jackson Hayes, helps more along those lines. Like we said, we will save a spot for Jackson figured out, but feel free to go to other teams, but this is the thing we need to do. So the question of like, are they done and like the shake thing part of it? To me, the one thing that makes it really easy is like if you can sign Milton and that means you release shake, that's easy. And it's no disrespect to shake Milton.

Starting point is 00:14:27 But like, you're plugging in a two for a two and replacing a two that quite frankly is not going to play much with a two that two that would and fills in a really important shortcoming with the roster, namely. a he instantly, even with Gabe Vincent, Melton would become the best defender that the Lakers have in the back court. That to me, it seems pretty easy. Like I don't think they're out of it based on my understanding with that. So I'm not freaking out about it. Like they used up this last valuable spot. No, they have an easily creatable roster spot that they can do with Shake Milton's

Starting point is 00:15:14 contract. So again, if they need to sign the Anthony Melton immediately, that is an easy thing to remedy. I think the larger problem could theoretically be price point or something like that. Say there's another team that really wants Melton. He is coming off an ACL injury, they're ACL or Achilles, right? I think ACL. So if they need to get the Anthony Melton immediately, it shouldn't be that hard to do. So we'll see what happens there.

Starting point is 00:15:41 I would say, you know, the league could get a little quiet. over the weekend, 4th of July, 4th of July weekend, people go to holidays. But of course, Andy, you and I remember it wasn't that long ago when our 4th of July weekend was ruined by the Lakers acquiring Steve Nash. So things can happen over holiday weekends. There's no question about it. Where do you, where do you, how do you read the LeBron stuff? Because, you know, there has been more talk, not just of, you know, we'll see. what happens at the end of the year, but that maybe, maybe, maybe there is a little bit more to this idea that LeBron and team LeBron are looking for an out sooner, perhaps, than next

Starting point is 00:16:25 offseason. There were some interesting comments from Brian Winhorst, ESPN, obviously has covered LeBron in different capacities for a long time, and he was on one of the ESPN shows. I'm not going to read the entirety of his quote because it's just, there's a lot. But part of it was, quote, when the idea of a trade came up, this was when the first comments from Rich Paul first came out. I slammed the door on it. First of all, LeBron wants to be a Laker. If he didn't want to be a Laker, he would have opted out. He has no trade clause. Over the last three days, I have unlocked the door. I wouldn't say I'm

Starting point is 00:16:56 opening the door. I would say I'm unlocking the door. The door that I slammed and locked on Sunday, I'm not 100% sure. And then he went on to describe the Lakers, as he said, quote, essentially viewing LeBron as an expiring contract. And he said, and that may sound like a toss-off statement, but it's not insignificant. LeBron has never been an expiring contract, quite literally never in his 23 years, over nine contracts, over different teams he's been on. Basically, he's never allowed himself to get to an expiring deal, was Winhorse's point. And I think framing LeBron's contract as just another expiring deal,

Starting point is 00:17:32 that's a little much just in the sense that LeBron is way more complicated to trade than your run-of-the-mill expiring deal. But that being said, though, and this is something Winhorse alluded to, and I believe Sam Amick and others have reported, that the Lakers did not broach the idea to LeBron of another one-plus-one deal, where LeBron would opt out, sign a new deal with another player option, 50-ish-mill-a-pop,

Starting point is 00:18:03 that setup that has just been sort of in perpetuity for LeBron and the Lakers. And I get a sense that in part it was not broached because the Lakers weren't looking to do this. And LeBron didn't agree to it or didn't ask for it. I should say because he thought he would get told no. And I think a really interesting theory about this. Finish with your say, but I think that part of it is interesting. Yes.

Starting point is 00:18:32 Also, I agree with pure surf clips. Stop tightening. It's too loud. Okay. I don't think LeBron, in terms of the power dynamic between him and the Lakers and whatever negotiations might go on between them, whether for the rest of this season, a potential trade, anything like that, it doesn't help his leverage to be perceived as having asked and been turned down. like that does not help I think his perception that he's built up as I would say the most powerful athlete in North American sports. I've said that for many years. I think he is. I think he still is. But in this back and forth, you don't want to be seen as somebody who was turned down. It's interesting. I remember a couple weeks ago when we were doing shows right on the heels of the sale of, you know, the bus family selling to Mark Walter. One of the things that I said at the time was I thought in this era,

Starting point is 00:19:27 that with Mark Walter, now, Jeannie may be the governor, but everybody knows it's Mark Walter's team moving forward. Like Mark Walter and that group, it's his. And I said that I thought it was more likely from this point forward that the Lakers would not automatically do that setup with LeBron anymore. And the reason they wouldn't do it is not because they necessarily want the relationship with LeBron to end. It's because this setup with a 40-something-year-old player with no end point at that price point is not tenable for team building. It's not tenable for roster building. It's not tenable for planning.

Starting point is 00:20:09 You can't function that way, especially when you have a generational superstar in his prime. And I've been saying this now for a couple years that this setup doesn't work. But I also never thought that with Jeannie as the ultimate shock caller, she would ever, frankly, have the stomach to say no, or to not proactively keep LeBron for as long as he wanted. Now the power, just to conclude, because I think this really matters, the power dynamic between LeBron and the Lakers has shifted. And the minute LeBron opted in,

Starting point is 00:20:46 the Lakers gained the majority of power in this moving forward. forward. That power dynamic has completely shifted. Well, I think it's certainly changed. I mean, LeBron has some influence over. And LeBron gains something, which is easier flexibility for next year. Like, for example, the part about this that I think is fascinating is this notion of the Lakers, like how the relationship here and the idea of LeBron not wanting to make. a grand pronouncement of trade demanding to be traded or something like that. And putting that out there, like you say, like, the market's not as good as put something

Starting point is 00:21:31 together, like, whatever that might be. And it's part of what I see as a theme with what's going on here that I will, you know, we can dive into a little bit more next. So we were texting Andy a little bit earlier in the day. and just passing notes back and forth thoughts about what to talk about for the show. And I, you know, you would mention, you know, this idea of Wain and Horse and others people reporting. Like it wasn't, you know, Rich Paul's group, we didn't ask for a one in one. And it was never offered.

Starting point is 00:22:14 It's an easy, clean explanation for everyone. And my thought, my, my wonder, the thing that I wondered was, is that true? Like, because if team, who would probably want the leverage, although there is one reason I think that may not be this way that I will explain here in a minute. Team LeBron doesn't necessarily want to give up their leverage. If they went and said, we'd like a one-in-one, the Lakers, for all the reasons you say no, the one part of this that I think everyone would agree on would be, you know, the Lakers would say it respectfully. I'm sorry. Right.

Starting point is 00:22:57 You just can't. We just, at this point, we need to have the ability to pivot the team as we need to, you know, and all that. What they would do is say, but here's here's how we're going to present this to the world. You didn't ask. We didn't offer. And there are a lot of good reasons why team LeBron wouldn't necessarily ask. The biggest one being, if you, LeBron has always wanted two things. He wants to win and he wants to make sure he's earning 90-ish percent of the value that he deserves,

Starting point is 00:23:34 particularly since that first contract with the heat where he took a little bit less and all that. But since then, for a lot of reasons, he's always said, I need to get paid my value. More power too. I agree. And he also understands that if LeBron doesn't get, agrees not to be paid his value, that trickles down to every player across the league. I don't think it's his primary concern, but I think he's aware. Okay, sure.

Starting point is 00:23:59 I don't want to get in the weeds about it. Right, it doesn't matter. But like, I just think that's, I think that plays a role. If he wants to be able to move next year, he's got to give teams a runway to be able to do it. Next year, there will be far more teams across the league that have cap space. there if lebron had opted out this year nobody could sign them other than to a taxpayer mid-level that kind of thing if he opts out next year teams will have runway to to prepare for that sure um and be able so what lebron doesn't want i said this earlier in the week if he wants out

Starting point is 00:24:43 we will find out that he wanted out if everybody does this the way that they would want to we'll find out when they announced the trade, there's not going to be a, I want to leave and I demand to go to these two or three franchises for the reason that you talked about. Because if those two or three franchises either can't put together a deal and Rich Paul knows which ones can and can't, or kind of don't want to, that is a terrible look for LeBron. And one that he was especially given that he's not, he can't be that unhappy here. He just opted in. So I think those dynamics play a lot into what we're seeing. The truth is LeBron does not have a lot of leverage in this situation with the Lakers over this next year. I mean, that's just flat out true. He really doesn't have, in my opinion,

Starting point is 00:25:32 assuming the Lakers are willing to remain strong with the idea of we want to be respectful towards LeBron, we want to treat LeBron right. I would say we're never going to do him dirty, but they can't trade him without his permission anyway. So doing him dirty is essentially impossible in terms of any type of transaction, but they want to treat LeBron with the stature that he has earned and that he deserves. But all that aside, they really hold all of the cards in wherever this is going to go moving forward. Because while LeBron has a no trade clause, he does not have a you must trade me if I ask clause. Like if LeBron wants to be traded, if LeBron wants to be traded, then, you know, The answer is, okay, we will explore it.

Starting point is 00:26:24 And I think that if there is a deal that is, you know, 50, 50, 50 in favor of the Lakers and Team X or maybe even like 60, 40, like, okay, you can live with that. And then you maybe generate some goodwill about the way you helped, you know, one of the all-time icons in sports get to his next destination. and you did that the right way and something the Lakers care about a lot. But they do not owe it in any way to LeBron to undercut their own future moving forward in order to help him. And LeBron can't make them do that.

Starting point is 00:27:04 And even with like the idea of LeBron is not going to want to go to a team that has to give up too many players that he wants to play with because it defeats the whole purpose of wanting to go there, even LeBron's no trade clause, in some ways isn't really a hammer, because if he exercises it,

Starting point is 00:27:20 then he's where he doesn't want to be. He's stuck in the same place. And the Lakers get a really good player playing for them regardless, because LeBron is not going to sit out season 23, age 41, because he's not stupid. And nor is he going to, and I heard Wasting Lambrey talking about this with Zach Lowe

Starting point is 00:27:44 on the newest episode of Zach. show and I think he's exactly right. I think we've talked about this a little bit. LeBron isn't one of these guys. Like he again, he's not that miserable here because Jimmy Frontler is what you're getting. Correct. And that's actually the example that was used. But like if LeBron really wanted out, they could have figured out how to do that before he picked up the option and they would have figured out how to work on the option that we get the Everything would have been lined up. And he'd already be gone.

Starting point is 00:28:18 If he was that unhappy, he'd already be gone. And so two things are true. The Lakers are not going to buy him out because that gets them nothing. That is not. They're not doing that, nor should. No. And LeBron, to his credit, isn't going to do the Jimmy Butler. He's not going to knock over, you know, coolers and make life.

Starting point is 00:28:44 So he's never done that. He's always done the passive, aggressive, as you like to call it. But he's not been that guy. And he's not going to start being that guy now, particularly at a time when teams aren't going to bend over backwards and gut their rosters because they're getting prime LeBron at age 29, 30, 31. So this is interesting.

Starting point is 00:29:09 Like, to me, the part that's most interesting about it is, the conclusion. Does it conclude with LeBron just saying, you know what, I'm done after this year. It's been a great year. He announces in training camp sometime. Don with the NBA or done with the Lakers?

Starting point is 00:29:27 Done with the NBA. Okay, okay. Like it says, you know, early October, enough time for the NBA to set everything up, make the All-Star game about him and all that kind of stuff, that I'm done. I'm done after this year, which is certainly a possibility. that that's possible or he just picks another team next year or he just stays one more the lakers

Starting point is 00:29:51 do this from a year to year one year contract do you want to stay do we have the room does it make sense for everybody yes we'd love to keep you like there are a lot of ways this but the conclude i think the actual stuff in between here and the conclusion isn't going to be interesting until we see the conclusion and then everybody goes backwards and does the reporting to to find out how we got there. Because I think it's going to be incredibly normal until whenever the conclusion comes. Well, unless there is some type,

Starting point is 00:30:19 I mean, by conclusion, if you're including a trade request or something like that, that's obviously not. But my point is I don't think we'll ever know about the trade request until he's traded. I could be wrong. I could be wrong about that. I think it's too complicated to trade law on

Starting point is 00:30:33 because it's essentially. They will, do you agree with me that they would try to keep it? I think they would, I think they would try. I think they would try. I think it will be too complicated. I also don't think, frankly, it's been LeBron and Clutch's style to do much quietly, in all honesty. And I think it's just too complicated anyway.

Starting point is 00:30:51 It is so difficult to try to work out what is essentially a three-teen trade because LeBron comprises his own team. It's the same as like when Kobe demanded a trade in 2007. You have essentially, like you've got to satisfy him as to. You have to satisfy him. you have to satisfy Team X, you have to satisfy the Lakers. That is very difficult to do, particularly with a player like LeBron in silence. That's really, really damn hard. I'm skeptical that that can be kept that far under wraps.

Starting point is 00:31:26 We shall see. I mean, if they could, it's in a massive credit to all three parties. I just would be surprised if it's possible. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, but also, too, the one thing that makes me think of it is there's a very limited amount of teams that he would even have to be traded to. I think it's it's Cleveland, it's New York.

Starting point is 00:31:47 Enough people have said, keep an eye on Dallas. And I'd be like, okay, keep an eye on Dallas. But it's not much more than that. So we'll see. But it's just, you know, I am. Like, I find the end of people's careers in some ways a lot more interesting, especially. And we've never had an end to a

Starting point is 00:32:06 career or potential into a career where a guy is still performing in the way that LeBron is. Sixth MVP voting. And you're wondering if he's going to retire at the end of the year. I mean, when LeBron opted in, I said this a lot heading up to the eventual point of LeBron opting in. I wanted LeBron to opt in this season because even if LeBron had left and you clear a certain amount of cap space, and this is before you even knew DFS was going to be gone, I still don't think the Lakers would have had the ability through free agency to replace what you have in LeBron.

Starting point is 00:32:42 In the short term, I think the Lakers would have been worse without LeBron. And I don't want the Lakers to be worse. Yes, not nearly enough time to replace them. So I wanted LeBron to opt in. But if I had needed to choose between LeBron opting out and walking and the Lakers being, in my opinion, worse this coming season, or LeBron opting out and the Lakers doing another one plus one, at 50-ish mill of pop, I'd have chosen LeBron walking, even though that sucks. Because like I said, and I think the Lakers have recognized this. And for whatever reason, I think, have come to the conclusion that they need to act on it.

Starting point is 00:33:23 This setup is not tenable anymore. Or the setup that had been there was not tenable. It is not whatever happens now moving forward with the Lakers and LeBron, it's on the Lakers terms now. Right. That's critical. And that was necessary. And it doesn't have to be hostile.

Starting point is 00:33:40 It doesn't have to be animosity between LeBron and the Lakers. I don't want that for either side. But the Lakers needed to regain some agency in this. And they did. They can choose and more importantly plan for whether or not they want. And LeBron can make his own choices from there too. We want you to come back. Hey, LeBron is another finish a sixth again this year in MVP voting.

Starting point is 00:34:01 And things look good. Hey, bring them back. Why not? Like there's like, but you want to have that ability to plan. Locked on Lakers, speaking, planning it, Fourth of July weekend. People can plan for that. Locked on Lakers on YouTube. So we can go hang out with over 35,000 subscribers to the channel.

Starting point is 00:34:17 We of course will be back over the weekend, if anything important happens, but at worst, we'll be back on Monday. Everyone have a great weekend. Enjoy your fourth. Enjoy your weekend. We'll see you at the latest on Monday.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Lakers Re-Sign Jaxson Hayes. Are They Done in Free Agency? What's LeBron's Future in LA?

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