Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Lakers Trade Up (Twice!) In 2nd Round, Draft Arkansas Wing Adou Thiero

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Friday. Brian Komeneski with special guest, Claire DeLoon. The Lakers trade up in the second round, spending some of that bus cash. Who did they take and wasn't the right move? 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.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Thanks to everybody for making Lockdown Lakers first listen to every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast. this one's always going to be free and never behind a paywall. And Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where over 35,000 subscribers are all hanging out and feverishly Googling a do thiero or thiero. Maybe they're Googling the pronunciation first. That's the guy that the Lakers traded up to get with the 36th pick in Thursday's second round of the NBA draft. We'll get to that in a moment.

Starting point is 00:01:01 Do it want to let you know that today's episode is brought you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use the code. an MBA for $20 off your first purchase. Andy is still out of town, which is my good fortune because it allows me to bring on our friend. Claire DeLoon, you've seen her work at The Guardian. She is like, you've like worked your way up to like voting member of the media. Like they let you vote. You are a very important person. I'm hoping that no one figures out they've made a grave mistake anytime soon. Andy and I did this for a long time, like where we were like in there. at games and in the trenches and stuff, like they never let us vote on anything.

Starting point is 00:01:39 So congratulations there. You've ascended quickly. Thank you so much. This is, you know, I don't know how closely you follow or like how much of a draft person you are. I'm certainly interested when the Lakers do stuff and what they do. And they were pretty aggressive on Thursday moving up from 55 to 45 and then 45 to 36, basically parlaying cash to do that. And they draft a kid from Arkansas, a due Thierro. He is a six foot, depending on who you believe, six foot six or six foot eight wing.

Starting point is 00:02:16 Tremendous athleticism, tons of defensive energy. Not a lot of offense at this point that goes beyond dunking and finishing on the wing. But overall, you know, it seems to me, Claire, to be like the kind of player that the Lakers should be looking for at 36 if a you know the exact center that they wanted wasn't there which is exactly how the second round played out yeah everything i've read so far about the pick makes me really excited about it for the lakers um i saw one anecdote that part of the reason his offense has been kind of rough the last year is because his hands are growing so fast that it's hard for him to like hold on to and keep the basketball and that the sort of presumption is that

Starting point is 00:03:02 once he settled into whatever height he's going to end up being because he's still growing, that his ball handling will settle more into form. So I thought that was a fun and heartening, I guess, anecdote. Yeah, that was actually, it was Kobe Price who sent that out. God, what's the, it's the SoCal News Group is the official title there. On the County Register, I think, yeah. Zero was listed at 510 as a freshman and sophomore in high school, 6-1 as a junior in high school, 6-6 as a senior in high school,

Starting point is 00:03:30 along with his freshman and sophomore year at Kentucky, then 6-8 last year at Arkansas, or this year I should say at Arkansas, that might be Arkansas with some funny tape measures because he measured 6-6 and a quarter at the Combine. But like you say, a guy that's just been grown incredibly fast. Yeah. And shoots free throws reasonably well.

Starting point is 00:03:53 So maybe there's hope for him on that side of the ball. I want to pull up this tweet if I can, but J. Kyle Mann from the ringer who follows the draft very closely, he described Thero and he said Thero would dive into sulfuric acid to maybe get a deflection, which I feel like is exactly the kind of player that the Lakers need. Like that kind of hard-nosed, you know, what was the Banshee, I think was the word that J.J. used to describe the guys they already have on the team who fall into that category. but while they do have banchees on the team already in form of like dorian finney smith assuming he

Starting point is 00:04:32 comes back jordan goodwin assuming he comes back some of those guys vando um they aren't really particularly athletic so they might have like that dog in them so to speak but they're not athletic it's a it's a it's a try it's a dog that's trying its best so to have that um uh you know energy from a guy with actually like peak athleticism i think is really um intriguing. I saw someone else on Twitter. I'm sorry, I can't remember their handle. I apologize for not being able to give them credit. Compare like his comp. They said it was like if Russell Westbrook was controlling O.G. and In Inobie with a remote control. I find me up for the most part. So so yeah, I think it seems like a raw prospect, a lot of you know, really intriguing upside. What I like about it, look, I don't I don't know if this he's going to turn out to be good or not. It seems like a good kid and, you know, and a good prospect.

Starting point is 00:05:30 But what I always look forward is process because, I mean, quite frankly, other than, I guess, like Cooper Flagg, like really nobody knows anything about any of these people in the draft and what they're really going to turn out. Nobody drafts a guy at number four thinking they're going to wash out, but it happens all the time. But if you look at process, like, what can the Lakers do to help themselves? Well, they can, they don't have a lot of assets to trade, but what they could do is buy a spend some money, do stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:05:57 And that's what they did. They aggressively used money to move up in the second round. And then they picked a skill set that isn't on the roster. And that to me is what makes sense. It's like find something that you don't have. And with the second rounder, you hope that player isn't actually valuable this year. It probably means things have gone wrong. But like the Lakers don't always have a good process.

Starting point is 00:06:22 So when they do, I like to point it out. Yeah. Yeah. Positive reinforcement. Exactly. But like, so when you look at, I had Anthony Irwin on yesterday and I know he was talking about, I quite frankly thought it was a little delusional, but like hoping the Lakers would have this.

Starting point is 00:06:42 I know. He's usually such a glass half full kind of guy. Yeah. I call him grumpy cat. So like he was sort of hoping the Lakers would have this center issue. somewhat addressed before the draft, like through a trade, whatever it might be. And I just don't see how the Lakers get there.

Starting point is 00:07:03 So when you look at what they need to do, how do you view, and we'll carry this in the next segment a little bit too, but how do you view what they ought to be doing in this offseason? I mean, it's tough because there are like several really clear needs. I think they really need two centers, to be honest. I think they need a starting center and they need a higher, right, and they need a higher level back. up. So that's two roster, you know, spots right there that they need to address. And they really do need,

Starting point is 00:07:31 I think, another like physical defensive, you know, wing or someone who can defend at least like one through three. So like either a defensive minded guard who actually has more offensive upside than like, say, I gave Vincent or a wing who can play down and defend guards. So to me, they have a minimum of three. like glaring needs. And then more than that, ideally if possible. And I think, you know, where I would like to temper Laker fan expectations is that there's just not a ton of like positive assets available right now for them. Even that first round pick that they do have available to trade is immediately less

Starting point is 00:08:15 valuable than it was last summer because now they have Luka Donchich and, you know, the likelihood that that's going to be a top five, for example, pick is a lot lower. So I think they're going to have to get creative. And yeah, I think even if you, you know, obviously there needs to be some sort of moves made this summer. But if you don't see all the moves made, it's not necessarily and like far be it from me to defend Rob Polinka. But it's not necessarily just because Rob isn't doing, you know, his due diligence. It's also because of like what they have to work with assets wise is not ideal. Right.

Starting point is 00:08:47 It's always funny to me. It's like get on Rob for the. stuff. Right. Yeah. I don't, like, I don't want, like the last two years, for example. Well, yeah, it's like, it's like I want, I don't want them to do stupid things. Like, if you, if you make a mistake, you tell this to my kids, like if you make a mistake, don't make it worse by either not admitting it, by trying to lean into it, by trying to do something crazy because you think, you've got this, taking this Hail Mary to get out of the thing that you did wrong. Yeah. But after the break, let's kind of

Starting point is 00:09:22 of explore this a little bit because what the Lakers do this off season is a different thing than the kind of the constraints that you're talking about in terms of what they're actually able to do this off season. And so it's important to put the blame in the right spot. We'll do that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Skims. When I found out Skims was making underwear for men, I was certainly intrigued. I've heard a lot about the quality. I've heard about it from friends and family. Happy to. give it a try. And you know what? I was certainly impressed because if you're somebody who's picky about what you're wearing or at the very least, you want to be able to wear it to do multiple

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Starting point is 00:11:01 Like basically they drafted Dalton Connect and that was it. And Brony James. And Brony James. That's true. Who, by the way, Loki had a perfectly good season for the 55th pick. 1,000 percent. He was great in the G League. He was definitely a better player at the NBA level at the end of the season than he was at the beginning. He was like a game highest scorer in the game that he played that nobody else played.

Starting point is 00:11:24 someone had to be but like it's not it's not crazy to think that there will be a stretch this year where they need to play 15 minutes a night and he can do it like i think yeah so look the lakers put themselves in a box that they are not quite able to get out of yet you know obviously the luka trade is a is something that you do at least in my opinion a hundred times out of a hundred but it because it was so unexpected it did kind of throw off the plan what they had to had available, the assets they might have and all these other things. And so they are in a difficult position to make the team better. The fault, at least for me, is to Rob for putting them, you know, somebody getting them into this box. But how they get out of it, you can make some really bad moves out of desperation for a center, for example, if you're not careful, I think.

Starting point is 00:12:18 Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think it's funny because it's like, it's like the, um, the, the, the, the, the dog meme where it's like we're all looking for the guy who did this. It's like that's that's literally you, Rob Plinka, you are the guy who did this. But at the same time, you can't change the circumstances now. Like we're living in the current reality. And that reality is that they did give a bunch of minimum guys one plus one deals. They did, you know, make a lot of mistakes. I would say with the roster they were probably too hesitant to move stuff when those things had more value, that sort a thing. I would say one positive, you know, sort of glass half full thing I would look at is like,

Starting point is 00:12:59 I think Rui is a more desirable asset this summer than he was last summer. Like he had a better showing towards the end of the regular season. He was like a key contributor to the team. He looked better in the playoffs than he did last year. So I would say that's, you know, a positive thing. And also, I believe is Gabe on an expiring now? Gabe's on an expiring. This is the intriguing part about like the the reporting that was kind of popping out of Miami on I think it was Wednesday where like

Starting point is 00:13:29 the the heat would be are interested in expiring contracts in an Andrew Wiggins deal. Oh, that's the one thing to Lakers have. Speaking of expiring contracts. Hey, we've got plenty of that. It's Gabe and Rui and Maxi and Maxi, right?

Starting point is 00:13:45 Yeah. And Shake Milton. Oh, yeah. And there's, I'm forgetting someone. But yeah, they got plenty of that. So, you know, hey, Miami, hey Pat Riley. But yeah, that's about it. You know, they have one draft pick they can trade. They have Dalton Connect.

Starting point is 00:14:02 What do you, who I think's value is. Probably, I would say maybe like late first round pick value, like maybe second round pick value, is. I personally, I, maybe they can swing a trade for like Nick Claxton or something like that. Maybe they can afford to get a Clint Capell. if he's available, like, I think he might end up costing more given what the center market looks like. But it's not, that center isn't a position that's easy to fix in this offseason because there

Starting point is 00:14:35 aren't a lot of guys that I think fix the problem available. Yeah, no, I mean, it's definitely slim pickings and the guys that would be like ideal fits next to Luca, like everyone else in the league is fully aware of, you know, what kind of center plays well next to Luca Donchich and they're not going to like do the Lakers a solid by making it easy for them to get those players like I've heard still a lot and I'm a huge Walker Kessler fan I think he would be a beautiful fit both age and timeline wise and also skill set wise but like you have another thing coming if you think Danny Aange is just going to be like you know who would really help the Lakers who are in my same conference my player and so I'm going to facilitate

Starting point is 00:15:16 that for Rui Hachamora Dalton you know what I mean like if it's if it's a If the Lakers had enough stuff to get Walker Kessler, because I don't see why Utah is in any particular hurry to trade. It makes no sense to me. He's on their timeline. Like, why would they trade? And he's good. Like, his defense metrics are insane. And so if the Lakers had enough stuff to do it, it probably would be a Laker already.

Starting point is 00:15:39 But like, they don't. I mean, and Danny is never really in the business of trying to help the Lakers as like a lifetime Celtics tenured person. But also, I think especially now because he, he was unwittingly involved in the Luca trade and did not know he was helping the Lakers get Luca Donchich. So imagine his surprise when the three-team trade he was involved in where he didn't know who the third team was or what was happening, ended up being him being the final puzzle piece to help the Lakers get their franchise cornerstone. He was none too thrilled about that from everything I've heard. And yeah, I would say unless it's years later after that player,

Starting point is 00:16:21 has left the Utah Jazz, I would not expect the Lakers to be acquiring any promising young players from the Utah Jazz anytime soon. Is there anybody? Like who is on who's your person? Like I think like the guy that I think is realistic that I would be like, okay, that's at least plausible. He's, you know, if they go into the season with, you know, him is the starting center. It's not ideal, but it's significantly better than, you know, Jackson Hayes. That to me is Capella. Do you, I mean, is there somebody that I'm missing? Like, I just don't. Kind of on the downturn, I would say.

Starting point is 00:16:56 He is. He is. He doesn't want the starting job mostly because Akangu is better and that, you know, he's younger and they've invested a lot in him. Yeah. I would say if I was the Lakers, I mean, like, obviously, if anything is an upgrade, no offense. But like, um, but I think, you know, you're, you're wanting to get younger and more athletic, generally speaking, if you can.

Starting point is 00:17:18 So some of these, like, I've heard Rick Lopez talk and stuff. stuff like that. And it's like, that's just the exact wrong direction to be headed in my opinion. I think Nick Claxton's the best possible fit on the board. You know, like salary wise, it's not like astronomical. It's obviously more than you'd probably like to spend, but like it's still, you know, doable. And it's predictable. And it's predictable. You kind of know what he's going to be. And I think he's good enough to fit what they need. Beyond that, I mean, does Dallas want to dance again? Daniel Gafford, you know, obviously we know what that looks like with Luca.

Starting point is 00:17:56 Or, I mean, or lively for that matter. But I really doubt Dallas is doing anything with lively, especially now that they have Cooper Flag. So, yeah, I mean, realistic. What does realistic really even mean at the end of the day? I mean, they just got Luca Donchitch in the middle of the season. So who knows? Although I have been getting so annoyed at the discourse, like, about, you know, that trade.

Starting point is 00:18:17 And when they talk about like, oh, Desmond Bain went for five. first round picks and Luke only went from one. I'm like, they got Anthony Davis. Like, can we please put some respect on Anthony Davis's name? Like, how many first round picks? Let's do this fun little thought exercise. How many first round picks do you think you could get for Anthony Davis? So add those number of first round picks to the number of picks that Dallas got.

Starting point is 00:18:39 And then you're a little closer to the- right. And like half these picks turn out to be like, and you tweet about this a little bit on Thursday. I saw it. I was like 1,000-% agree. it's like you know I think it was it was it corn uh cornheiser was like questioning whether or not anthony davis is going to the hall of fame like yes of course he's going to hall of fame

Starting point is 00:18:59 what are we talking about here but like he's a bullet Alex Caruso's probably going to the hall of fame at this rate like what are he even talking about a couple more titles he might he's a two-time champion I mean look I don't think any of us would have done the luka thing exactly the way that Nico did Nico that was terrible but to say like to try and do apples to oranges and say like, oh, well, Desmond Bain netted this many firsts. You know what I think it is? It's the couch GM plague where everyone's just trying to like speak in GM speak and try and do it all from home and like the obsession with picks and like aprons. And it's it's so nerdy. It's just watch the basketball guys. Like leave the leave like the hand ringing about trades and

Starting point is 00:19:42 caps based to us. Please. We don't even like doing it. It's also context too. It's like why did Orlando pay that much for Desmond Bain because they were the worst shooting team in the NBA last year. And Bain solves an incredibly big problem for them in a suddenly wide open Eastern conference. And they had this stuff. It makes sense. Austin Reeves, who you could argue is as good as Bain. Some people might think he's a little better. Some people think Bain is better, whatever. You can't trade Austin Reeves for the same in the same way because Reeves is in a walk year and he's not going to have the same kind of appeal and all that kind of stuff. So You got to find a team that wants me.

Starting point is 00:20:19 Like, just it is frustrating. It's Anthony Davis. Like, let's not, let's not forget how good Anthony Davis actually is as an NBA player. People love to forget how good he is. Yes. I want to ask you about the Western Conference and what that looks like,

Starting point is 00:20:36 where the Lakers fit in, because, oh my God, it's very hunger games out there right now. And so we will do that next. Lockdown Lakers is brought to you as well by game time. Have you ever decided the last minute to head to a ball game with friends or family? I know at our house, we're constantly doing that for soccer games. Angel City, L-A-F-C, you go there, it's game day, and you kind of want to be like, let's last minute, let's see if we can sneak into this thing for a pretty good price.

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Starting point is 00:21:43 Download the GameTime app, create an account, use code, locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase terms, Why? Again, create an account and redeem the code L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-N-B-A for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today, last-minute tickets lowest price guaranteed. So it's not getting any easier in the West. Like the Lakers won 50 games. They still should be pretty good this year. But even beyond the gap between the Lakers and Oklahoma City, which is probably pretty significant. Like, who are the genuinely terrible teams right now in the West? Are there any that

Starting point is 00:22:28 you look at and say that team's just awful? Like, flat out, like, they might struggle to win 20 games wizard style. Like, the West doesn't have that. I would say Utah is probably going to be really, really bad. And I think the Pelicans are also going to be really awful this year, because there's no like timetable to return for Murray at this point that I know of. Zion obviously is a walking injury risk. I think their draft choices like while they got some talent, it's like some clunky fits. And they just got rid of, you know, CJ.

Starting point is 00:23:02 So he was sort of like the adult in the room. So I would guess that those are probably at the bottom of the West. But I mean, two years ago, New Orleans won a fair amount of games with, you know, it's just a matter of guys getting earned, you know, Jones and Murphy and those dudes. Did you see that the kid they drafted, Derek Queen, posted his post on LinkedIn,

Starting point is 00:23:23 celebrating his new, he's announcing his new. I thought that. I feel for him because I feel like one of the worst draft decisions in NBA history is going to hang over him for the rest of his career. And he's going to have to be like incredibly good to offset how incredibly dumb that was of New Orleans in my opinion. I would not have, for people who don't know, they essentially are betting on themselves. to make not just the playoffs next year,

Starting point is 00:23:47 but really had finished somewhere in the top third of the league because otherwise unprotected pick goes back to who does that deal with? Atlanta. So basically they offered their or they gave up their unprotected first round pick next year to move up 10 spots in the draft this year to move from 23 to 13, I believe. And they could easily have the number one overall pick next year, I think. Absolutely. That's in play.

Starting point is 00:24:14 And this gets to what we're talking about here. Like you need to win to get in the top eight and really get in the top six. Like this year it took 50 wins. 48, I think, was six. Like the Pelicans are going to win 48 games next year? I mean, you know, and then you look at it. Yeah, it comes back to the same thing, which is kind of just that self-awareness and being able to look in the mirror and like be honest with yourself about who you are.

Starting point is 00:24:39 And I think, you know, the playoffs this year were a wake-up call for the Lakers that, as good as they looked towards the end or you know, I would say towards the middle to late regular season, because they did take a little bit of a dive at the worst possible time heading into the playoffs. But, you know, they weren't as close maybe as they thought, I think, and as some of us thought. And I think the watching the athleticism, the speed,

Starting point is 00:25:04 the depth of some of the teams that made deeper runs, I think that became apparent. And so it's the same principle as why I'm so anti what New Orleans did. It's just like, know who you are, have an understanding of that, and do what you need to do to address that and figure out how far away you are from being good and where you are right now and what moves are the most prudent right now. And I think the Lakers aren't so far away that it's worth blowing it up or just punting another season, which would be what I recommend New Orleans would do and just

Starting point is 00:25:34 keep that pick. But they are far enough away that they can't just have like a tepid offseason. and they have to be aggressive and they have to at least try to make as many moves as possible. I think about with the Lakers relative to the rest of the West. It's like they, you know, LeBron was pretty healthy last year, AD before he was traded, reasonably healthy, was hurt more with Dallas than he was with the Lakers. Obviously, you have Luca who is, you know, they're very clearly making a point Luca is to make sure people know, like he's taking the fitness thing very seriously. this offseason.

Starting point is 00:26:11 And I certainly understand why. It's really hard to figure out how they get way better. And, you know, I think they can improve. And I think they can put themselves kind of on the fringes of stuff. But if you're, you know, you talk to Lakers fans earlier in the show, like, do it again. If you're hoping to be able to make that jump to where you can catch, you know, Houston as a regular season two seed. you think you can catch Oklahoma City competitively and stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:26:43 That's a tall order for this, for one off season. For sure. And I think some of the lessons learned, I would argue, are that maybe, obviously, it's important to stay out of the plan or at least, you know, lock up that seven seed so that you get a couple of cracks at it. But I think JJ had a lot of pride in ending up as a higher seed this year. I think the team had a lot of pride in that as well after being in the plan several years running, but you saw how little that mattered ultimately when it came down to it because the West

Starting point is 00:27:13 is so deep that you don't get handed a bad, you know, team to match up within round one unless you're the one seed. And even then, they're probably not that bad. So I would say hopefully the Lakers have learned their lesson that especially with your either first or second best player, depending on the day, being 40 years old and the oldest player in the NBA, it's important to like de-emphasize the regular season wins to some degree. Like definitely focus on chemistry building, definitely focus on building good habits. But you don't need to play all your best players,

Starting point is 00:27:45 you know, like 38, 40 minutes to win against Washington on a Tuesday. If it means you're going to end up as the sixth seed instead of the three seed, it just really doesn't matter that much at the end of the day. The West is too good. I want to run something by you because I know you are a supporter of the work and achievements of LeBron James. with, by the way, good cause. Yeah. I think I hitched my wagon to do a good one.

Starting point is 00:28:12 Smart move. I have long maintained that LeBron is a problem because he has stayed not just good. Second team all NBA this year. And I realized the rules are different. He finished top six in MVP voting. Yeah. I realize the rules are different and different guys get hurt or whatever. I don't care.

Starting point is 00:28:32 He was like you say. top six in MVP voting. He was an all-N-B-A player. I don't think anybody expected him to be this good for this long, and it's causing problems because the Lakers can't figure out what to do because he's way too good to walk away from. If you, you know, it's not like you can just take that $50 million and spend it on something else.

Starting point is 00:28:56 That's not how this works. So he's way, you're not going to replace him if he leaves. It's impossible. but you can't plan for how long he's going to stay because I don't even think he really understands he's like the minute he started to suck I think he would walk away when's that going to be yeah I think I would be shocked if it's more than two years at this point because I know how committed he is to leaving while he's still really good like I don't even think obviously he wouldn't stay around long enough to suck but I don't even think he would stay around long enough

Starting point is 00:29:28 to like come off the bench or something like he wants to to be like one of the couple best players on his team until the end. And he doesn't want to like decline in public view. I think he'll feel that decline before we'll ever see it. Yeah. And that's why I think just based on the way he's been talking and based on, you know, some of the uptick and injuries in recent years, like I thought this year was going to be his last year coming up.

Starting point is 00:29:57 I guess it still might. But I think Luca extended that timeline maybe a little bit just because he can do some of the ball handling and facilitation that LeBron was being tasked with. But to me, if I had to place a bet, my bet would be not this year, but the year after, would be the last one. That's when Bryce is NBA eligible. And I just, yeah, knowing LeBron, I just don't see him pushing it to the extreme outer limits. I think he is already winding down.

Starting point is 00:30:25 Do you think he finishes in L.A.? I kind of do. Yeah. I didn't a few months ago I was pretty like especially when Cleveland got eliminated early I was like that just makes so much sense for both sides like Cleveland clearly is also wasn't as close as they thought I think obviously there's injury stuff you could point to but like I just think they also don't quite have it and I think it's become clear and then from with LeBron I think I can't imagine him ending his career anywhere besides LA or Cleveland like I don't think it's the only place he could exactly at his big gauge he's not trying to like start over um so it would i could see him like narrative wise being like i'm going to end it where i started it you know that sort of thing but now that the lakers have sold so they're going to like have more to invest you know i mean it would be hard to imagine him leaving before he gets to reap any of the rewards of like that ownership change um and also i think

Starting point is 00:31:21 he likes playing with luka and realistically the east is really weak so next year he probably would have a better chance in Cleveland than in L.A. But in the big picture, I just don't really see any situations that he would want to go to where he has a way better shot. And his whole family's in L.A., and he loves it here. So I think he's staying. I mean, I get all the complications,

Starting point is 00:31:44 and I get that it makes it hard for the Lakers, and I get, you know, he still sucks the oxygen out of rooms and all that. The Lakers have already turned things over. It's Luka's team. Everything they do roster-wise is going to be for Luka and all that. LeBron from everything, it seems, is totally fine with that because he can play with anybody and he's still going to be LeBron. I don't think people fully appreciate what they're trying to chase.

Starting point is 00:32:09 Those people who are trying to chase them out of L.A. and perhaps even just get them to retire, don't think they really appreciate what they're chasing out. I think there's so much of the discourse around LeBron is like what you would imagine someone who's 40 would be. versus the reality of the player that he is right now. Like, you know,

Starting point is 00:32:30 I get frustrated because I hear Bill Simmons a lot talking about like, oh, well, of course he's going to miss. I remember going into last season. It's like, well, he's only going to play like 50 or 60 games.

Starting point is 00:32:39 And then his co-host was like, why? And he's just like, because he's 40. And it's like, but that's, it's just based on nothing. Like,

Starting point is 00:32:46 because this is unprecedented what he's doing, I think people have a hard time wrapping their brains around how good he still is. And it's like he's not, this isn't like, post-injury Kobe where you know like he the in good faith the organization is doing right by him but really he's like a shell in the player he was before like this is still a really careful player I mean even Kobe fans can admit like you know late in his career he wasn't the Kobe we like

Starting point is 00:33:13 admire and love really to the same degree anymore on any given night like he would have his nights right and I'm a big Kobe fan as well so that's that's said with love and respect but like um I think LeBron is still, like you said, second team all NBA. Like it's and those, the people who are, you know, my colleagues who are those of us who voted for him for all NBA. Like this is not like an honorary like you're there because you're people want to come up with reasons to not vote for LeBron. Like they're they're searching for reasons why he doesn't deserve credit. Like they're sick of giving him credit. They're talking about voter fatigue.

Starting point is 00:33:49 This man has been in the league for 20 plus years. But it's just undeniable. how good he still is. So just be grateful that that exists on your team. And then when it's gone, it'll be glaringly apparent why you should have been grateful. That's what makes sense. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is we can go hang out with 35,000 plus subscribers to the channel.

Starting point is 00:34:10 Thank you so much to Claire Dalloon. Go find her at Claire MPLS and of course at the Guardian where you not only can but should be reading all of her stuff because it's really, really good. You get to take the off season off? You get to rest? Nope. I have some stuff in development that I'm working on right now,

Starting point is 00:34:31 and then I'm also going to be in Vegas for Summer League. So I'll be right back in basketball world. Sooner or later. Thanks so much for taking the time. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. All right. We'll see everyone on Monday.

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