Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LeBron James: All-NBA Streak Will End. Luka Dončić is in Danger, Too?

Starting point is 00:00:00 LeBron James' remarkable 21-year all-NBA streak will end, and Luca Donchch's eligibility for postseason awards is also threatened. How will that impact the way the Lakers use him the rest of the season? We'll tell you 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 to every day.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Monday through Friday, sometimes on weekends, even on holidays, and now multiple times a day, even. No matter how you are taking in the podcast, whether that's Apple, iTunes, Spotify, maybe you're one of the 37,000-plus subscribers to the Lockdown Lakers YouTube channel. As a matter how you do it, you're part of making the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network anywhere you'll find. And Brian Komeneski, Andy Kaminowski, we are happy to be part of that network. We have covered the Lakers for nearly 20 years with LA Times with the SPN, with the athletic. And actually longer than we've been covering the league, Andy. LeBron James has been an all-in-being performer, like in consecutive years. So probably the most interesting thing that happened,

Starting point is 00:01:16 other than Victor Wembeyanama exploding in the first quarter of Tuesday night's big win for San Antonio over the very short-handed Lakers was it meant officially. We knew this was coming, but it meant officially that LeBron James would not be able to play the 65 games required to be eligible. eligible for postseason awards, meaning that 21-year streak of all NBA honors for second, third team, whatever, comes to a close. It is a remarkable statement of his durability, of his, obviously, his talent. But what's interesting about it, too, we'll get into this. Lost and maybe in some of that is Luca is getting kind of close, too. Luca, who is still an MVP candidate, and certainly a first-team all-NBA candidate,

Starting point is 00:02:06 he now only has six games that he can miss, having missed 11, with that 65-game threshold, and Thursday's game in Dallas is still a question mark. So that actually could have some tangible impacts on how the Lakers approach the rest of the season. We'll get to that in a second. Your thoughts, though, just with this LeBron thing, let me do a close. It's pretty crazy. I mean, to put this in perspective, the streak began for the 2000, I believe the 2004, 2005 season. George W. Bush was still president while that was happening.

Starting point is 00:02:45 That was the year, I am pretty sure that the first of the Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, Dark Knight trilogy of Batman came out. I'm pretty sure. going to say this was the year the Adam West Batman premiered. No, it's closer than me. It's close. It doesn't quite go back that far, but again, this is an absolutely staggering achievement by LeBron to be able to maintain that type of production, that type of excellence, frankly, that type of relevance for this long of a sustained period, 21 consecutive seasons.

Starting point is 00:03:28 It's like a lot of things LeBron has done over the course of his career. There is no template or not a lot of easy comps for it. It's amazing. As far as it ending this season, it felt like this was going to be pretty inevitable when he missed, what was it, the first 14 games with the preseason sciatica. Like the idea that LeBron was going to be able to avoid missing more than three games for like, what was it, the next 68, just felt both impossible and frankly, a dumb goal. If it was ever there, it would have been a really stupid goal on LeBron's behalf.

Starting point is 00:04:13 And LeBron, as many things, dumb ain't one of them. So you kind of knew this was going to be the case. It was just a matter of when it was officially over. Yeah, and it's cleaner, I think, too, just because, Yeah, it would have been fascinating to see if LeBron played it basically this level for the rest of the season. Would he be voted in for that or not? I mean, this way is just it's cleaner, I think, for everyone. Nobody has to think about it would have been very fringy.

Starting point is 00:04:41 Similar to the All-Star game thing, it would have been very fringy. Well, it would have been one of those things, and I know we're going to get into it, where it would have felt more like LeBron was getting in because so many other players were ineligible. and by NBA rule there are three all NBA teams. Right. Or that people were voting for him because they kind of felt like a legacy thing or whatever. So looking at it from from Lucas standpoint, though, you know, it's this is where you start to wonder like how this threshold and these awards, which are meaningful to players,

Starting point is 00:05:16 which less relevant to Luca, but, you know, can be relevant for the type of contract that you can get and all this other stuff. Luke is not a guy who is notorious for sitting out games, but, you know, I think everybody appreciates a chance to be first team all NBA. Everybody appreciates a chance to, you know, be an MVP candidate. And at the very least, Luke is going to be in the top five, you know, if things continue the way they are. I wonder what happens when this threshold runs in.

Starting point is 00:05:53 into what teams and players think might be the best thing for them medically. If sitting out a game, you've got a guy, you're heading into the playoffs. And Luke is sitting on, you know, right at a 65 game pace and is super banged up on the second night of a back-to-back. Like, you know, with the playoffs around the corner, does he sit and pull himself out of that? Do the Lakers ask him to? Do, you know, there's a lot of interesting stuff that is potentially set up that impacts, you know, the way that, that these games are going to be played that are going to come up over these last, you know, 20-something games. I don't really know.

Starting point is 00:06:31 I know the league wants guys to play, but I don't necessarily know if the league wants guys who aren't healthy or healthy enough to be playing just because they want to keep themselves eligible for an award. That seems like cutting off your nose despite your face if you're the league. This is an extension of one of my big. pet talking points in covering the Lakers and also just covering the league for the last anywhere from five to ten years, maybe even a bit longer, that the whole load management catch-all both phrase and also the way it is used to describe anything involved, players missing a game

Starting point is 00:07:14 for a definitively broken leg. Like the idea that you are managing an injury, like a legit injury. The league has an injury issue right now. It has an availability issue right now. And it's not simply because players are not willing to play through discomfort the way players were 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago. Could it be for some players or a handful of players? Sure. Although I guarantee there were players from the 70s and 80s who thought the players from the 90s and do thousands were soft. Every generation thinks that the generation that comes after them is softer than what came before them.

Starting point is 00:07:57 This is the way the world works. But we're dealing right now with a league that has a legit injury problem. We have a legit problem with players not being able to perform because they shouldn't be out there. Even if they could play through something, they shouldn't be out there. And then you combine the, that with the salaries that a lot of these superstars are making, you know, 40 million, 50 million,

Starting point is 00:08:25 60, creeping up on 70 million dollars a season, these owners want to get a return on their investment. And the best return on that investment is in the playoffs. The reason you sign these stars in the first place is for the playoffs. So these owners, they're willing to sacrifice some of these regular season games. I don't care how much player empowerment, finger quotes, people want to talk about this league, these billionaires are not going to allow their athletes to sit for funsies if they really think they could be out there. And this 65 game threshold was created as a way to incentivize guys wanting to play. But I think what's being revealed is they didn't need incentivizing to play. They needed better health to play. And that's what's going on right now.

Starting point is 00:09:14 It's a little bit about, I mean, look, is the load management thing an issue? Sure. Like, you know, they've, and I'm not like, I'll say this. I think the rules that they have in place around these nationally televised games broadly are smart. And I think broadly work. There are some loopholes and things to get around. But it's like for our big, marquee, marketable moments, like, we need guys on the floor. Um, okay. And I, I think that's, there's some reasonable stuff here, but like, I think you could do that and lose the minimum game thing and accomplish most of what you want.

Starting point is 00:09:55 Sure. Because it's a little like tanking. Like the, it's, the incentive structure is what it is. And you can kind of try to tweak it on the margins and things like that. But it just, you, you can't tell the Utah Jazz that it's better for them to keep winning than it is for them. then to keep that top, that pick that they lose if it's outside the top eight. Like, it's very hard to really say that. Like, you know, you can develop your young players. You can learn how to win. You can develop a better culture. Okay. Like, those things matter.

Starting point is 00:10:29 But you can also play Ace Bailey 37 minutes a game and figure out a way to lose because you sit Laurie Markin and Jaron Jackson Jr. Like they're, it's just like you can get, you almost always get your young guys. And it's a, the league has kind of a misalignment of incentive structures because the draft and star players and the playoffs and all these things are just as important as they are. So really, it's going to be a fascinating thing to watch with Luca if he gets close to this threshold to see how he talks about it, how the Lakers talk about it. Who gets the ultimate decision-making power here? Like would they let Luca override, you know, the Lakers' training staffs preferences? So we'll see. Hopefully he doesn't get to that point.

Starting point is 00:11:13 And also for anybody who had thought about Austin Reeves as a fringy all-NBA player, somebody that had, if nothing else, been pacing himself towards all-N-B-A consideration, he blew through that cushion a long time ago. So if it's not Luca, there will be no later. Third team, Jake Laravia, just because he's been one of the only players in the league who's played enough games. What did you get for being the Iron Man? But if it's not, if it's not Luca, this will be a season where no Laker ends up on the all-MBA team. So plenty more on this to come.

Starting point is 00:11:49 We'll obviously be talking and getting ready for Thursday's last game before the All-Star break and then lots of stuff to cover as the break gets going. But we can't leave it until we tell people about this. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Indeed. And hiring, it's not just about finding someone willing to take a job. It's about finding the right person with the right background who can actually help your business move forward. And if you want candidates who match what you're looking for, indeed sponsored jobs, that's your move. Instead of just hoping that some incredible candidate magically appears in front of their laptop, seeing your post,

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Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LeBron James: All-NBA Streak Will End. Luka Dončić is in Danger, Too?

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