Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić Expected to Rejoin Lakers This Week, Return to Action TBD. Plus, Nick Smith Jr. Signed!!!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Luca Donchage is heading back to Los Angeles, giving an update on when he might rejoin the team. Plus, the Lakers have made a choice, and it's Nick Smith Jr. Did they make the right one? That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast,

Starting point is 00:00:22 part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for joining Locked on Lakers and Brian Kaminowski with Andy Kaminetsky, lots of stuff to unpack on today's episode, including the Lakers, solidifying the roster for their first-round matchup against the Houston Rockets, which of course starts on Saturday, 5.30 p.m. Pacific time is game one from crypto.com. Lakers add Nick Smith Jr. to the roster, not totally unexpected. It was either

Starting point is 00:00:56 going to be him or Drew Timmy. We'll break down whether or not they may be right choice. But Andy, the big news on Monday, Sham Shara, reporting that Luke Donch, just headed back to Los Angeles. I guess he's expected to arrive Tuesday, and then both Shams and Mark Stein, reporting that Luca is expected to rejoin the team perhaps as early as Friday ahead of the series. In between, I guess maybe poking around that little hamstring,

Starting point is 00:01:26 seeing how it's healing, how the LeBron James of hamstrings in Spain has put things back together. Yeah, the hamstring, de la LeBron. That's where we're going to be looking at for the or the haman strings. As far as this expert goes, I hope that that is the proper translation of hamstring in Spanish. Well, it certainly is now, baby. It should be.

Starting point is 00:01:55 If this doctor is able to get Luca back on the court this much faster than anticipated or just period during the playoffs, he will become known as Medico Chingon. Bad ass doctor. I do like that in this scenario, you translate ham into Spanish but not strings. I'm covering my bases. String stays English. There's apparently no Spanish word for strings, but there is. Not that I knew off the top of my head. And as you know, I love to reach out to and show appreciation to our non-English as first language speaking.

Starting point is 00:02:35 the drama to those of us joining from Slovenia. Ola to those joining us from Spain, who first began following Luca with Real Madrid. And because I know you appreciate my efforts so much, you will look past whatever I butcher. Hamo strange. It ought to be. It really should be.

Starting point is 00:02:55 So obviously, I don't know what this means. And I'm not sure anybody does yet in terms of like how close. The doctor is like did the man perform miracles like what happened over there? I mean, he was for those who may not miss it. He was receiving injection treatments, presumably stem cell based treatments that are unavailable in the US. And you know, those treatments have happened and now he can come back and it's just a matter of whether or not they have sped up healing. I don't think it means, let me put it this way. I would be very surprised, as I think you would be very surprised,

Starting point is 00:03:37 if the results of any new evaluation meant that Luca was somehow available for the beginning of this series, the question becomes, does anybody think that the timeline perhaps might be accelerated based on the success of these treatments? Yeah, I would find that, I mean, it would be a happy shock, don't get me wrong, but I would find it pretty shocking. my guess, and I emphasize that it's a guess, but I think it feels pretty common sense deduction, Luca's done with the treatment in Spain. And there's nothing that he can't do in the States at this point that he couldn't do over there, but he might as well be with the team so they can monitor him more closely. There's more direct communication as opposed to having to time things with European time,

Starting point is 00:04:29 and it can be more difficult to just do the communication piece of this. Plus just being around the team, you know, the value of having him around the team. Yeah, absolutely. Luca's presence matters, even if he's not going to be playing. He's one of the leaders of this team, and he's the franchise face. I have no idea what this means for Luca's readiness or where he is on the timeline, and neither one of us wants to speculate if for no other reason. than to provide false hope.

Starting point is 00:05:02 But I think it's pretty obvious. Sometimes that's the best kind, though, Andy. Yeah, I mean, look, y'all want to smoke up some hopium. Don't let me stand in your way. But I am just deducing that he's done with whatever needs to be done overseas, i.e. what is not allowed in the States. So there's no reason for him to be away from the team. Nope.

Starting point is 00:05:25 It's just a matter of somebody laying like Mayagi hands on him at this point. trying to keep that healing going. We've got to get that clip for this week, now that I think about it. And the other half of Shams report was that Austin Reeves is really not expected to be ready between now and at least sort of mid to the end of the series was how he put it. That is the expectation. I guess there is no LeBron James of Obliques available in Spain. Excuse me. LeBron de laob bleaks. It's really as if I'm doing the show with a native speaker sometimes.

Starting point is 00:06:11 It's hard to tell the difference. The other part of the news over the weekend, other than the Lakers securing that four spot to play Houston, is that they gave that 15th roster spot to Nick Smith as opposed to Drew Timmie. clear that those were the two guys they would be choosing between Andy and I had a discussion about where we might go with it. I know you were sort of leaning towards Timmy. I sort of agnostic. I see value. I mean, I was fairly agnostic too. Right, sure, sure. I didn't have a strong leaning towards. This is this is likely not going to be the type of decision that swings the series. But the thought process behind

Starting point is 00:06:59 going with Smith over Timmy was pretty much along the lines of what we suspected it would be if they went this way. Clearly they just feel like they need a guard. They've got more bigs than guards. They need a guard. And particularly against the type of defensive pressure that Houston can put out against teams, you don't want to be left in a situation where brawny no disrespect is sort of your only kind of backup in that position he's done better i think he's made progress as a player and had some really you know solid minutes in the role that he's been playing you want more options there the second part of it Andy i think is just that skill set of a guy who can come in and hit threes and bunches create his own shot if you feel like you have to pull the lever for a microwave type instant offense player, it is more Nick Smith than Drew Timmy.

Starting point is 00:08:08 That seems to be the philosophy that they had in choosing one over the other. Next, let's talk about whether they made the right choice, but also what it says about the composition of Lakers roster and what it might say about the series. We'll do all that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by game time. There is nothing like being in an NBA arena, the crowd, the energy, the moment. Getting tickets, though, that part not always so simple.

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Starting point is 00:11:22 I think Timmy's a better player, but I also think that a better overall player. But I also think that in a situation where defensive pressure is really going to be cranked up, like to a million, some of his sort of utility as an offensive player is going to be mitigated because it's not going to have as much breathing room as he typically might in a game where Timmy's playing either,

Starting point is 00:11:46 even with the starters versus, you know, just the intensity ratchets up and less athletic players, I think can get penalized by that. And then also, you know, hustle players, so the other guys where their advantages are mitigated. So I'm cool with this. And I wasn't surprised either. Well, JJ really telegraphed this in Friday's game versus the Sons, where Nick Smith got real minutes and Timmy didn't. Like at that point, it was pretty obvious where he was leaning unless he was giving Nick Smith, Jr. one last opportunity before landing on Timmy instead. And JJ, I think, has trusted Timmy more over the course of the season than he trusts Smith.

Starting point is 00:12:34 But I think your point, if nothing else about the hustle piece of this, I actually think Drew Timmy is the classic. They will let him make some shots before they really start guarding him guy. like even in the playoffs. So that piece of it, I don't entirely agree with. But from a skill set standpoint, if you're looking for what Nick Smith specifically brings or what is specifically missing with Luca and Austin out, Smith obviously replicates that more than Timmy, I think against Houston's size, even with Maxiclaiva active. And whenever Cleaver plays, I always feel like that ratches it up.

Starting point is 00:13:14 up the odds of him getting hurt is the double ed sword with playing maxi unfortunately. But I think with Houston's size, you can make an argument that Timmy from a matchup standpoint could be more useful. But I understand the logic with Smith. I said at the time, even while leaning Timmy, I didn't have a strong opinion on it one way or the other. I'm good with it. And to Smith's credit, played well against Phoenix, played well against Utah. I mean, to whatever degree this becomes an earned it thing. He earned it as much as Timmy would have. Yeah, it's a it's it's I think they chose skill set rather than matchup and I mean, let's be honest. If either if you're defying either guy, it probably means something has gone wrong.

Starting point is 00:14:00 But I just I think they just decided, you know what we might need this particular skill set. And rather than the guy who kind of fits the matchup maybe slightly more. I, I, I, I, I, That question, though, of like, what kind of roster do they have? Like, what do we need here? Timmy, I think, replicates a little bit more of what they already have. And so when you're trying to think of, like, what kind of weapons can we deploy against the Houston Rockets, like, you're a little short on athleticism. Okay, well, how do we fix that? We're a little short on playmaking.

Starting point is 00:14:36 I don't think that's Nick Smith's forte. No, it is not. I think Timmy's a better playmaker than it. from the, but like, you know, he's not bringing the ball up court. Like, just however you judge, sure, but he is a better playmaking passer, but he's, you know, you can't have. So like there's just, it really does illustrate where,

Starting point is 00:14:59 how badly they get short-handed. And, you know, you have to choose between, to some degree, front court playmaking and passing skill, which I think Timmy is a better wheel, greaser in that sense than Smith is versus a little bit of extra ball handling that might help you get literally just get the ball from your basket across half court and then bucket making because that's where Nick Smith sort of stops being a classic point guard. He's a shooting guard kind of like brawny. He's a shooting guard wrapped up in a point guard's body within in terms of his

Starting point is 00:15:40 size. So, like, I agree. Like defensively, if you're playing them a lot, it could be a problem. You know, offensively, he just provides you something that you hope if you need it, you get lightning in a bottle. Something that just occurred to me, too, with choosing Smith over Timmy, they must be reasonably confident that Jackson Hayes by the time the series starts is going to be fine. Because if they were concerned about his availability, then you have to activate Timmy.

Starting point is 00:16:09 Yeah. Like you have to. So that's good news because I'm not going to lie. Both of us have been a bit concerned about Jackson missing these last few games. And because there really has not been a lot of details offered since, Jackson is going to be really needed in this series if they're going to try to pull off an upset. So they must feel reasonably confident he'll be available. Yeah, I hadn't really thought about that.

Starting point is 00:16:32 But like as an athletic, mobile big, you know, he's going to play a super. important role. I mean, I, we'll get deeper into the center position, obviously, as the week goes on and we're, you know, scheduling previews and doing all these things and one of the talking about. Jackson will be on with us from Locked on Rockets this week. At minimum, we're going to look at home as well. Yeah. In setting this up with Jackson, that's going to be figured out. I'm going to reach out to other guests as well. So with that in mind, like, it's, it's, the, the, the center position is one of the places that the Lakers, you know, their ability to utilize it is, different because you're missing Luca and Austin who help activate those guys and get them involved. The two-man game between Luca and Jackson in particular, the two-man game between Austin and DeAndre has been, you know, and Aitin has been good. But the fact that you have both of them with a sort of specialty wildcard guy in Claibah

Starting point is 00:17:38 who will be deployed in very specific situations. And we'll almost certainly execute what he's being asked correctly, because that's what he does. I am really looking forward to the impact that Jackson could have in a series playing against backups, playing against second teams and things like that. If Aiton continues to deliver what he has, and then Jackson does what he does.

Starting point is 00:18:03 Quick note before we go, I think we retweeted it earlier in the day, the best social media clip I think you're going to find with the Lakers today was the one of DeAndre Aiton being informed that they were playing the rockets and seemed genuinely upset that it was a spoiler alert. He did not know after the game and apparently was very much looking forward to finding it out himself and was kind of hurt when the media spoiled it for him. So I apologize on behalf of our profession to DeAndre.

Starting point is 00:18:34 I mean, this wasn't exactly like that. in something exactly like back in 1999 letting folks know before they entered the theater oh by the way russ willis is dead the whole time in the sixth sense like the scenarios have been pretty well covered publicly um and the odds of them getting houston were fairly well known it reflects something that we've said about dandre this whole season he is a genuinely eccentric dude for for best better and for worse, genuinely eccentric. I don't think I'm getting the exact quote right, so I'll call it a paraphrase from Marcus Martin in that interview

Starting point is 00:19:16 a week or two ago when he said, you know, Donner is my guy, but he's kind of all over the place. It is easy to see why he is both, the general consensus is he is both very much liked on a personal level as a human and can be somewhat frustrating as a player. But anyway, plenty more to come on, is health, plenty more to come on these matchups, plenty more to come on what is coming to with this series, both for Tuesday show and throughout the rest of week. Lock on Liquors on

Starting point is 00:19:49 YouTube is where you can hang out with over 38,000 subscribers. Do check out the Everyday Air Club. See if it's for you. And we will see everyone on Tuesday.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Dončić Expected to Rejoin Lakers This Week, Return to Action TBD. Plus, Nick Smith Jr. Signed!!!

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