Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LeBron James Picks Up His Option, With a Strong Message. Meanwhile, Finney-Smith Opts Out

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Monday. Brian Kaminetsky with special guest, Domyn Rangula, LeBron James, ops in and sends a message at the same time while Doreen Phine Smith quietly ops out, I guess. That's all coming up 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 Lockdown Lakers.

Starting point is 00:00:35 First listen to every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how we're going to get your podcast. This one's always free. Never Behind pay a wall. Of course, locked on Lakers on YouTube is where over 35,000 subscribers are all wondering exactly what to do with today's news. Sunday, a busy morning for the NBA generally and the Lakers specifically. We will unpack all of it here in a moment. I want to let everybody know today's episode is brought to you by Fandu. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets while their first, when your first $5 bet wins.

Starting point is 00:01:05 So, yeah, I mentioned it in the open special guest, Dom and Rangula, favorite of the show. Love the opportunity to get you on. You're very popular man these days appearing on important national podcasts. So we appreciate you still being willing to hook up with your roots. I love it on, man. Thank you for thinking of you. And thank you for Andy slacking off. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:01:33 No, I always appreciate when Andy leaves town. because it lets me talk to people, you know, I like better. So this was, Sunday morning was crazy. Like I wake up and I'm like, oh, yeah, it's an opt-in day. Like, we got to figure this stuff out. And all of a sudden, LeBron opts in. That part was kind of expected. And if he'd opted in with nothing else, we'd all be going about our days.

Starting point is 00:01:56 Yeah, nothing would happen. And then later in the show, we'll talk about this because from a practical standpoint in terms of what your Los Angeles Lakers roster looks like next season. And the news that followed that Doreen Phine Smith is not going to pick up his $15 million option and will instead enter free agency, that has a much bigger chance to impact what the team looks like, certainly in the near term, than LeBron's thing. But LeBron is LeBron. So let's start with LeBron. What was your news? And we'll get to the Rich Paul quotes.

Starting point is 00:02:28 What was your reaction to the news here when you saw it? So like you said, I think that as we were projecting, what this summer was going to look like. I think this was the most, it just seemed like the most logical option for all parties involved, just getting the notification that LeBron James was going to opt in, was as expected as anything else that could have happened mechanism-wise this summer. And every discussion I've had, every podcast I've listened to,

Starting point is 00:02:57 every kind of thought process I've had about this off-season, included LeBron opting in. So like you said, I think comparing it to the DFS news is definitely interesting because the DFS news was the one that really I didn't have a handle on and it was going to have a big impact on what they do. But what followed LeBron's opt-in is what has changed the complexity of this morning, hasn't it? It is. And so if you missed it, nice setup. If you missed it, the quotes from Rich Paul to ESPN, LeBron wants to continue. compete for a championship. He knows the Lakers are building for the future. He understands that,

Starting point is 00:03:37 but he values a realistic chance of winning it all. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we've had for eight years with Jeannie and Rob, and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career. We understand the difficulty in winning now while prepping for the future. We do want to evaluate what's best for LeBron at his stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count. The Lakers understand that and are supportive of what's best for him. I mean, so much to unpack. I mean, the efficiency of Rich Paul in here of packing news into a very small space is to be commended. A lot of past tense. Yes, right? There's very little about the future. The past tense thing is really what struck me.

Starting point is 00:04:25 Yep. It's everything, like, you know, appreciative of the partnership we've had. He knows the Lakers are rebuilding for the future, which may be news, by the way to Luca. So, I mean, this is top. These guys been at it for a while, but it just goes to show. This is top shelf work from LeBron and his management team in terms of these types of statements. You know, I'll say this. I think in reading the quotes, there have been quotes from the Rich Paul Camp,

Starting point is 00:04:54 specifically around Anthony Davis, wanting a set happened in, in previous. years that I wouldn't say bothered me. That's not the right word, but it's like, oh, this stings, like whatever is, this is clearly a stinging message being sent across the bow. I didn't read this in that way. And maybe it has a little bit to do with the Lakers' future is sort of settled in a way with Luca's presence. And my assumption is that Luca is here for the long run. And he obviously indicated positively about the ownership change, et cetera. And so I read those quotes and my kind of thought process

Starting point is 00:05:37 was I agree with everything that's being listed here. Like I don't think Rich Paul said anything that I disagree with. A lot of this and a lot of the reaction to this news, I think depends on how realistic you are about A, the Lakers current situation where they rank in terms of being a contender, being in the West, where they actually slot in and B, how realistic the options are for them to improve this summer. And we have to keep in mind when we talk and when, like, Rich Paul talks about the Lakers building for the future,

Starting point is 00:06:13 at LeBron's age and his stage in his career where even if he doesn't declare it and plan on it, this could be his last season for what he, right? It just, he has been at that stage now for at least a year, probably two years where he couldn't enter that season, maybe not planning on it. could end up being his last season as a basketball player. So his conception and his vision of what a long-term building looks like could literally mean that, hey, they're going to be ready to contend next off-season. And that even is too long for me to wait. And I would tell LeBron, you're right.

Starting point is 00:06:49 That could be too long for you to wait. And so it's like a combination of all of those things. How realistic are you about the Lakers right now? how realistic are you about their chances to improve and see how realistic are you, if you're LeBron James, thinking about how long can you actually wait to really be in the hunt? Yeah, what's funny, though, about that statement is like, you can read into that, this could be my last year. You can read into it, I could be here for two or three more years.

Starting point is 00:07:17 Yeah. Like, there's so much ambiguity there. And what I think absolutely does. And again, I don't think it's filled with. animus but what it certainly does is opens the possibility of more than ever i think not finishing my career in los angeles like that to me has always been the until i see signs that he's going to go somewhere else i'm just going to default to he's not going anywhere else this is more along the lines of i don't necessarily need to finish here now i think the amount of places he can go is

Starting point is 00:07:54 relatively limited. I think the amount of places he would go is relatively limited. About 85% of it is maybe 90 would be Cleveland. And then I would say that about 7% is the Knicks and then 3% the field. And I always say that because I think LeBron is very aware of what it looks like. He sees the KD discourse. He's like all these things of like being seen as somebody is just hunting cities to win championships at this point. Cleveland checks the boxes of a place that is a natural, it makes a thousand percent sense that he would want to finish in Cleveland. And they're actually pretty good. Whereas like if he starts just hopping around to like Orlando because they suddenly made that. You're a mercenary at that point. I don't think he wants that.

Starting point is 00:08:43 So I do, I do grant your point about jumping around. And I think it's like it's not a leap to the first question being after you see these rich ball quotes it's like okay well let's start actually thinking about okay a trade request okay where to where and so i agree that my my men my mind went right there too i'll disagree with your percentages though okay i so the cleveland thing definitely is the number one option here for a lot of reasons i think first and foremost going to the east if lebron does want to to leave it would make only sense to to do it to go to the east because staying in the west like other than a trade demand to okayc you're basically it's a total crap shoot in the west at this point it's like leaving like my wife and i

Starting point is 00:09:32 talk about all the time like we'd love to own a house and like what city we do want to let's move to san francisco it doesn't really right right right exactly doesn't solve a problem seattle doesn't solve the problem exactly exactly so i would say that is first and foremost so the cleveland they are well into the second apron, I believe, and it makes trades a little bit difficult. But I will say, I grant your point about KD and I've been on top, like I think the way KD's career has panned out has been really disappointing. A player of his caliber should not be in any way even approaching being a journeyman, and that's where KD has landed. I will say, though, the Knicks are really, really interesting. And they do have the same.

Starting point is 00:10:19 salaries and mechanisms to make a pretty clean trade where it's like the Knicks won't be gutted, but the Lakers can also get some pieces that can help them and fit better with Luca. And I will say like the difference between KD and LeBron in a lot of these situations is if something like this were to happen, I can speak for myself as a Laker fan, but I think even the organization, this would be a handshake. Hey man, we had a great time. Thank you for everything. Like it would be a genuine, it would be a genuine, like, I'm telling you, my, my reaction to Rich Paul's quotes today were just to nod in my head and say, yeah, this all tracks. Like, this makes sense to me. Let's stick on this for a second after the break, because I think you are 100% right about how this could potentially play out.

Starting point is 00:11:08 So we'll do all of that. And plus, we'll break down this DFS thing. Got up next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandual. Summer sports are in full swing. whether they're all about baseball into the lights, golf and the green, or greens are high-stakes soccer action. Fandual is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You're already following the action. Why not make it a little bit more thrilling?

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Starting point is 00:12:07 if Doreen-Smith, he has opted out of his $15 million player option, if he signs somewhere else, the Lakers will be able to open up access to the larger exception of 15, I think it's 15. million dollars they have to play around with that can be divided up among multiple players. It opens up a host of options, sort of. That's something we can break down a little bit as the show goes along, because you have to be able to sign people, and it's questionable, whether or not, how much value it really is out there on the free agent market right now. So we'll get to that in a minute. Obviously, the Lakers would also have to replace what Dorian Finney Smith was doing.

Starting point is 00:12:44 So some of that money would go to replacing the guy who just left. But anyway, back to the LeBron thing. One thing I definitely agree with you, I don't think this is going to become like some sort of ugly situation. I think if we got to a point where LeBron was like, you know what, in this year, like the end of the summer, I'm like, I'm looking at this roster and it's just not doing it for me. I want to get to the East because, you know, we could be a 50 win team here. And there are four or five teams with a better chance to win than us. So I don't think anything would happen until it was almost basically set. I don't think you would hear about a LeBron trade demand.

Starting point is 00:13:25 I don't think I think all of this, assuming you could keep everybody, keep it on their hats. And certainly the Rich Paul crew are good at keeping a secret when they need to. I think the deal is sort of the Lakers. The Lakers have been very good at, it's the one thing as an organization. Like, whenever trades happen with the Lakers, people can kind of piece together like logical options for the Lakers. But trades usually come out of nowhere when they do them. And so it's a benefit of having three people in your best.

Starting point is 00:13:52 Right, right, right. No, and especially for a transaction like this, this happens at like between owners and between eight, like this is happening at a very high level. There's no, you know, assistant GM involved and some head scout involved. No, no, no. This is this is top level. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:14:11 Like, so you, I mean, you agree. Like, if it were the Knicks, for example, Ananoi and a couple other thing, Mitchell Robinson, just, you know, they need centers and all that kind of stuff. Like the parameters of that would be set before anybody, and it would just happen. Absolutely. It wouldn't even be, yeah, I don't even think you'd even get a leak saying

Starting point is 00:14:30 LeBron has chosen X, Y, Z as his preferred destinations. The next notification for something like this will be a, it'll just be, I think that you just, this is the trade. I think that's how it goes out. If and if this were to happen, if it could be timed for that early September window when traffic on these types of shows tends to wane, use that bump just to, you know, kind of keep. Think of the podcasters, LeBron. Please. I mean, he's one of us.

Starting point is 00:15:05 Yeah, he is. Yeah, that's true. That is true. We welcomed him into the club. We were here first. From a practical standpoint, though, I think this is probably the best option. for the Lakers. I mean,

Starting point is 00:15:15 setting aside the language that Rich Paul and crew used, which are, you know, getting the internet to go crazy on Sunday. From a, from like an actual outcomes standpoint, this is the best thing short of the LeBron opting out and opting in for $25 million,

Starting point is 00:15:33 which was never going to happen. Right. Because now they have clarity. The problem with these one on one and ones every year, and if he opted out and said, I want another one and one, they would have given it to him. because he's still in all, he's still LeBron, he's still in all NBA, he was on in all NBA second team last year.

Starting point is 00:15:50 He finished sixth in the MVP voting. We are still talking about an extremely good player who would be impossible to replace on the free agent market this offseason. So they don't want him to walk. But now what they have is a definitive endpoint if they want to walk away from the LeBron thing after this year. And so what you really need more than anything with a 41-year-old star coming up on 41, is clarity. And now at least they have it. It creates hard potential decisions

Starting point is 00:16:20 and potentially awkward ones that they'll have to navigate it. But now they can look at their ledger and be like, we can take LeBron James off the books after this year. What does that mean? How do we prepare?

Starting point is 00:16:33 How do we do that? What could we do with that contract? What if he wants to be traded? They can play through all of these scenarios much more actively than they could. Well, he's also got a player option for the next year. And we don't know if he's going to pick it up.

Starting point is 00:16:44 Right. And alignment of a title window as well. I mean, this is like, this is, LeBron James has rightly been the center of the universe and the nucleus of whatever organization he's a part of. And even with Luca's presence last year and even next year, if LeBron's on the team, it is still a LeBron team. That'll always be the case. That is the kind of player he is. That is kind of the force that he is. Like, he is still the leader and he is, everything will be kind of, yes, they will take into account what Luca wants and how things fit around him in long term, that is the plan. But with LeBron and the team, there's like two contrasting sort of championship timelines going on where the sense of urgency, if it escapes, if LeBron

Starting point is 00:17:35 does end up in a different market, all of a sudden then you have complete clarity around, okay, it's actually Luca and Austin for the next X amount of years that we have to think about and how we're going to build around, how we're going to do this. Okay, we have these trade offers for this XYZ. And right now, if Rob Plinka got a trade offer right now that maximize their opportunities to win this next year, but hurt them three years down the line, that's a difficult decision because it's it's it's it now with with lebron not in the picture if that happens you have clarity now this might make them worse like there's a lot of bad outcomes of this i'm not like the one thing i'm

Starting point is 00:18:22 not going to do here is celebrate that a lebron trade right that's not going to happen this is a if it were to happen it's a very logical again i come back to how realistic are you about this lakers team that really is like i think that ultimately is the or like even like snapping your fingers like, okay, well, they're done with the LeBron. Right. Where do you, how do you equate the Luca part of this? Because the Lakers don't, Luca Dantich has not signed an extension. Like there's every expectation that he will. But like the question you raised there about three years from now versus this year.

Starting point is 00:18:55 Like I agree with you, Luca has a longer time horizon. You can look at it and say, if they can't fix it this offseason, and I think there's a good chance, they can't fix it this. They're going to be good. They're not a trash team. But there's, you got to be a lot better than good. to win in the Western Conference this year. And so if they can't fix it this offseason,

Starting point is 00:19:13 but they can set themselves up so that the following two off seasons are really going to be potentially very strong. I can give up this one. But like the three-year time window of like, if it gives us three years and then in year four, we could have problems. Like I don't know if he would, like I don't think Luca wants to. No, that's way right.

Starting point is 00:19:34 So like, but when you put that? Because Luca was excited. like got out there and was excited about the the mark walter thing because he understands this is going to be my owner for the next decade and i like that setup so i think they have some wiggle room but how do you how do you sort of manage those two timelines in terms of thinking about luca with a little bit longer but also the pressure to kind of put something together that works now yeah no i think it's a good call out also i did say three years i should have said two years you're right it's like it if the if lebron james does leave the team this offseason all the pressure actually is on next

Starting point is 00:20:15 off season and not even beyond that i think that is a completely fair assessment also though i think it's a completely realistic situation because man they have clean books like at starting next off season and they will have three first round picks that they can trade they're in prime position to be kind of a leader of that off season to get whatever's out there and whatever stars out there. I mean, look, look, I know the Lakers front office is doing this because that's what they do. Look, man, Janus is going to stay this soft season, it looks like. But one more year and you're in a position to make that kind of trade now.

Starting point is 00:20:51 Like, you can really position yourself for that kind of a player in just one off season. It's going to take an off season. It's a crazy thought to think about Luca and Janus playing together. Right. But that's what the front office is doing, right? That this is, I, has to be like the number one scenario that they have outlined right now. it's like, okay, let's wait for that to happen. And look, man, this Denver situation, you start going down the road and you're like,

Starting point is 00:21:14 okay, there's a lot of situations around, especially the West where, you know, people are going to start getting impatient if the West continues to be like this. And so it's all about positioning. And I do think that is a good call out that, look, Luca also, I mean, he also will want to compete for championships. And so this whole offseason and trade deadline could be

Starting point is 00:21:36 building towards what you can do next off season. And look, the big stuff is what Rob Polinkler does. And that big, big stuff, like, he could position himself well for next off season. And then you're kind of, it makes sense. And I also understand why LeBron would be impatient waiting for that. After the break, I want to break down what you're just saying a little bit more. We'll definitely, we'll do a little bit on DFS. But you just kind of tugged at a string with the Lakers in their front office that I think is,

Starting point is 00:22:06 worth pulling on a little bit more because it gets to some of their potential advantages, but also some of their worst habits. We'll do that next. All right. So I think one advantage to Lakers have in this offseason is this is this is actually one of the places where the box that they put themselves in and the limit of, it's a lousy free agent market. There aren't a lot of game, you know, like Nikiel Alexander Walker is expected to actually sign

Starting point is 00:22:40 and get more money than even this exception that DFS. would open up. Like if I could swap out the two of them and that was my only thing. And now I got to figure out centers and all that. I will take Nikiel Alexander Walker 26 years old. He kind of replicates a lot of what DFS does. He can guard a little bit deeper into the back court ones and twos. And like so that's an upgrade.

Starting point is 00:23:01 That affects your timeline. People forget, Dorian Finney Smith is much older than people think. He's been for a while. Yeah. God bless him. But he's, you know,

Starting point is 00:23:09 in the next contract, you sign with him takes him, you know, into his mid-30s, 34, 35 years old. So the fact that there isn't much that the Lakers can do, which is extremely frustrating the Lakers fans, is actually the one time where I do think it sort of legitimately opens the door

Starting point is 00:23:29 to what you're talking about of like, what happens if we wait a year and see which guy is in a bad situation? This has been a terrible habit of the Lakers story. Of like, we got clean books. We're just going to go out there and put some, videos together and get us Lamarcus Aldridge and we're going to get Carmelo Anthony and we're going to just we're just going to do stuff because we're the Lakers and we've got cap space and um to some degree I think cap space will never be less important than it's like you know you got to have the

Starting point is 00:23:57 pieces you've got to have flexibility you've got to have good players under contract um but the flip side is maybe can they wait I think is how do you think this works because I hate that habit that they have of just waiting for the next star to fall into their lap but maybe there is a window here just to see how things happen over the next year. I'll say that if it comes down to waiting, I think that Luca and Austin together, I think that the front office believes that that duo is good enough at the top level. And so if that big star doesn't materialize,

Starting point is 00:24:34 if that Janus, Yokic dream doesn't materialize, I think that they can actually position themselves to still between trades. Again, I think like these kinds of things, like they start developing well before. So if they get win that, hey, that free agency probably is not going to materialize, I think they can be really active at the trade deadline, accumulating good pieces, good pieces on contracts from teams that perhaps are struggling more than they thought and they need to offload salary because of, you know, the CBA stuff. And position themselves to be, okay, let's not worry about free agency, but let's just accumulate assets right now. on contracts and they'll be in position to do that way better at the trade deadline and next

Starting point is 00:25:21 off season. And so I think that with the salary structure and the way teams are struggling, like by next off season, who knows what financial situation teams are in? Like, again, I point to the West, like the West is such a disaster right now where you could be a close to second apron team in the play in and you're like, what are we doing here? We got to reset here. And the Lakers can be in a situation ready and where. waiting for those teams. If they can't get the big fish, there's plenty of little productive fish with nice contracts that they can accumulate.

Starting point is 00:25:53 And, and I mean, realistically, the big trades now, the big acquisitions that happen are not in free agency. They're in trades. And so they'll be well positioned to accumulate those assets. Right. And be ready. That's my thing. It's like, do you, what I always get annoyed at is the, the emphasis on space and clean

Starting point is 00:26:12 And all this stuff. It makes it so like, it's like, do you have any confidence in your ability to recognize and sign a player to a contract that will have some value around the league that will not be seen as a, as a, you know, a millstone and make some deals? And now, boy, that vendor contract. Yeah, that Vandal contract. I'm just looking at it. I'm like, oh, boy.

Starting point is 00:26:34 And, you know, I thought it was, I mean, I, I didn't think it was going to be this limiting when they signed it. I thought I'd be like potentially like, you know, decent number for a guy who helps somebody that's like, oh man. But I just, I don't think they have tons of confidence in their ability to do that sort of thing without having to attach stuff to get rid of players that they need to move. So maybe that's part of it. You know, this is one area where I think JJ Reddick might be very helpful because I would say Rui, the benefit, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, Rui was such a win because A, they got him at a good. trade value, but B, over time, he and the team have improved his situation. Like, he has grown into not only being worthy of his contract, but actually better than his contract.

Starting point is 00:27:23 And that is if JJ continues to develop as a coach and continues to have off-season with these guys and just builds and builds and builds, that is one area where, I mean, let's let's be honest. Like, I think Darwin-heim got too much crap for a lot of the things that happened with the Lakers, but that is one area where we didn't see a lot of specific individual player growth that I think, hopefully, we can see with JJ. And that'll really like this offseason to see how players look next year, I'm very interested to see how some players come back and spend the off season.

Starting point is 00:27:57 And I think, you know, if there's a lesson of the finals, it's, you know, first, I mean, it is important not to, the, the Pacers are a lot more like the, you know, the pistons that beat the Lakers in the sense like you look at it's a lot more talent on that team than you sort of get credit for but it's like you know your second best player is siakum and things like that and like you can build a team particularly around Luca that has one a plus plus plus and Luca and like six B pluses and be a pretty effective team even if you don't have that that absolute second star like Dallas had you know with Kairie and all that kind of stuff there's a lot of ways to do this um I I want to to make sure we touch on DFS before we go because this is a tricky one, right?

Starting point is 00:28:45 Like, which would you rather do? Like, do you want to bring back DFS and then you're paying, you still have access to your taxpayer mid-level, about $6 million, or are they better off kind of letting him go, having that larger number to play with, but a bigger roster hole that they need to fill? This is where, um, how. Luca responds to this LeBron news is going to be pretty interesting because

Starting point is 00:29:14 DFS is a very good friend of Luca. Luca was not happy when Dallas let DFS walk or traded him. I forgot what the transaction was, but anyways, Dallas let DFS go and Luca was not happy about that. And I think Luca and DFS, it was good

Starting point is 00:29:31 for Luca to have DFS around here. If Luca starts feeling a little queasy about, hey, why is LeBron like what's going on here? DFS may have value just sticking around just for that. And I take your point about him being older. I think that JJ overused him in the playoffs. Like, I mean, there was, there was a lot of overuse of a lot of players.

Starting point is 00:29:55 Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I think DFS in a more managed role can still be very valuable. His contract may be a net negative or you may have to sign him at that. But if that's something that keeps Luca at bay. and makes him sign a max extension and makes it easier for that to happen might be one of those things where you just got to bite the bullet

Starting point is 00:30:15 as a part of a LeBron transaction that happens. And you can consider those things in conjunction. If Luca is quietly excited about having his own team and, you know, hey, I love LeBron, but it was time. And you can kind of explain to him that, hey, DFS was very good for us, but this is the situation with the money and we're actually building for next off season. This is one of those areas where I know the Lakers can over index on appeasing your star.

Starting point is 00:30:44 I think this one almost I would run through Luca, all these scenarios. And wherever we land, I'd be happy to go that route. Because I think the problem with DFS isn't, is that, it's a little like Rui. Like Rui is, if you traded Rui, for example, you need to replace the skill set. You need to replace. He was a 40 plus percent three-point shooter. was, you know, especially like, depending on how you rearrange your rotation, could be an extremely valuable guy to help carry his second units offense.

Starting point is 00:31:17 And also, like, he did a lot of good things. He's also got really obvious shortcomings. And the problem with the Lakers roster is the shortcomings and the stuff, they don't, they don't match up right. And so DFS. How many of our, like, best players are power forwards right now. That's basically, like, a big issue. Yes.

Starting point is 00:31:34 Yeah. And, like, in DFS is supposed to be, like, your 3-and-D guy. and he is and he shot the ball fine he wasn't totally healthy but he dFS play fine you'd have a great playoffs but like over the rest of like you saw what you were supposed to see but he's not an athletic three and d wing guy or whatever like you know who can go up and guard your your the opponent's best point guard and drop down and pick up you know do all that stuff that some a lot of these guys so he's not super athletic in that way yeah um and that on a team with no where the kid they drafted in the second round who,

Starting point is 00:32:12 God willing, won't play very much. He's instantly the best athlete on the team. The second best athlete on the team is probably maybe Rui, maybe, or Brony. Ronnie might be the second best athlete on the team. The third or fourth best athlete on the team is Braun.

Starting point is 00:32:31 And he's 72 years old. Like we're just, like, Luca is an extraordinary athlete, but not in the, like in the one thing that he isn't is the high flying right super fast whatever thing when we oh i don't know he's looking pretty light let's see let's see what he looks fantastic the european diet man oh we should just move the team i know i was i was joking they should uh the new owners

Starting point is 00:32:55 should fly in all the meals from europe for luca why not like whatever works man yeah i spite for nico harrison very powerful i'm here for that was that was that was it's what i'm here for that was if that's what it takes. I just, it's, like they need to figure out a way to get some of their, that's why like Alexander Walker, who again,

Starting point is 00:33:15 if you just, if you go look at your Twitter timeline, like it's looking less and less likely that that money will be able to get him, even if they have the $14 or $15 million to spend. Minnesota would just keep him for that much. But like, it's, like that's,

Starting point is 00:33:31 they need to upgrade those aspects of it. Like when you think about the center, they need a center who can rebound, offensive rebound. Like they just, they need to put the pieces. You look at what succeeded in the finals this year and what succeeded in the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:33:46 And it was young, athletic deep. Both Oklahoma City and Indiana went 10 deep in the playoffs, which is like unprecedented. Like by the end, sure, they were down to 7, 8, whatever, 9 people.

Starting point is 00:34:01 But, I mean, other years, teams get down to 6 players by the time it's time. and so this is just the way it is and I really I thought what Indiana did specifically of like hey we're going to play like small shifts quick shifts we're going to go deep into our bench we're going to turn every corner we're going to flip every matchup and try to do this I thought it was really compelling

Starting point is 00:34:24 and from a team building point of view like you're saying this is where you look at what the Lakers are looking like and you're like it has to be get younger get faster somehow some way And it's like it was the young two-way players. You have enough two-way guys in Indiana that you can take your one-way guys and support them better. And like, you know, but you say like you can support Austin Reeves. If you have three more two or three more guys in your roster who are legitimate two-way players,

Starting point is 00:34:52 all of a sudden, Austin's defensive, like, he can't be it's a pretty good defender because he's not unwilling. He competes. Yeah, he competes. You just don't want them guarding the other teams score or main score in the playoffs. Like, you need to avoid that. And you can protect Luca. Like, you can do it. The problem with the Lakers is they have a ton of one-way guys.

Starting point is 00:35:11 Like Vando's two one-way. Rui is a one-way guy. Like, you know, just piling these people up. I would like to have you just let's just let's just let Andy stay on vacation because we didn't cover it. And, um, but at the very least, let's find a time to get you back on before the end of the summer. I don't know if. Oh, dude. I had a blast.

Starting point is 00:35:31 I would love to. because like, you know, it's, I don't know if you're writing the song of the summer. I'm not sure what you're up to. We want to have you back. But when this all gets sorted out, figure out what happened. Oh, I'd love to. I had a blast, man. All right, Dom and Rangula, go check them out across socials.

Starting point is 00:35:47 If you were watching us, you probably follow them anyway. But thanks again for the time. Really appreciate it. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 35,000 subscribers to the channel. We will see everyone tomorrow.

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