Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Donċić Is Set to Punish the Mavericks Tuesday Night

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

No star is perfect. All are vulnerable to some form of criticism. For Luka Donċić, it's his conditioning and his defense, both of which have frequently been called into question over the course of his already stellar career. But while those two potential shortcomings are now a problem for the Lakers to deal with, they likely won't help the Mavericks Tuesday night at the Crypt. Because one thing everyone agrees on? Luka is a very, very competitive man, and ain't above holding a grudge. He will be ready to punish Dallas and GM Nico Harrison not only for the shocking trade that sent him to LA, but for badmouthing him on the way out of town, too. But this game is about more than just Luka's revenge—though make no mistake, everyone has their popcorn ready. Tuesday against the Mavs is a chance to validate the results of Saturday's huge win in Denver. If the Lakers come out and once again, Luka, LeBron James and Austin Reaves all look like they not only can co-exist, but thrive sharing a court? If the Lakers, facing a seriously depleted Mavs squad, can once again hold an opponent around 100 points? That'll do a tremendous amount to show what we saw over the weekend is the direction the team is going, as opposed to a blip. It will send the signal that the Lakers really should be considered in the top tier of Western Conference teams, a group currently led by Oklahoma City and then Memphis and Denver. It will help internally for a Lakers team that rightly feels good about itself, but also understands that time is not necessarily on their side. The amount of synergy they have to create in a few short weeks is a challenge, given how many more reps the opposition has been able to pile up all season. LA doesn't have a lot of time to reach its ceiling, so the confidence that comes with coming through in "prove it" games can't be discounted. This is a mental exercise for the Lakers as much as physical. It's not surprising to see James talk about execution this week. But where before it was framed more as a threat—the Lakers have to execute because they have no margin for error—now it's an opportunity. James was essentially saying that this team has the intellectual capacity to design and execute a game plan even without having a ton of time together. Their IQ is a strength that will help them jump the line. So that's a lot to think about on Tuesday night, and nobody will blink if you'd rather just pop some corn and see if Luka can drop a 50 spot on his former employers.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: Luka is ready for his revenge. SEGMENT 2: LeBron talks about execution. SEGMENT 3: NO MORE CITY CONNECT JERSEYS! Your favorite podcast now has a newsletter! In One-stop for ultimate team and league coverage delivered right to your in box. Sign up for free now, at lockedondaily.com.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!RobinhoodWith Robinhood Gold, you can now enjoy the VIP treatment. The new Gold Standard is here with Robinhood Gold. To receive 3% boost on annual IRA contributions,  sign up at robinhood.com/gold. Door DashThey Swoosh, You Save: when any player scores 50 or more points in a game during the 24/25 NBA regular season, DashPass members save 50% on an order, up to $10 off with promo code NBA50. 50% Off 1 Order (Up to $10 Off)Offer valid from 9:00 AM PT through 11:59 PM PT after a 50 point performance in any game during the NBA season on orders placed at participating merchant locations. Valid only in the United States. Maximum value of discount is $10.00. Discount applies to subtotal only; does not apply to fees, taxes, and gratuity. Not valid for pickup. Limit one per person. Not valid for the purchase of alcohol. Fees, taxes, and gratuity still apply. Must have an active DashPass account. Use promo code NBA50 to redeem. See further terms and conditions at https://drd.sh/8ONpZP/.FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Tuesday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, the Dallas Mavericks are in town. Andy, you know what that means a Markeith Morris revenge game. I'm just kidding. It's Luca Donchich. That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Lockedon Podcasts Network,

your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers. First listen to every day Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get you podcast. This one's always going to be free. Never Behind Paywall Locked on Lakers on YouTube as we're over 32,000 subscribers are all getting their popcorn ready, Andy, because people are waiting to see what Luca Donchich,

who, look, Andy, we, none of us is above criticism. Even the stars of this game are not above criticism. You can talk about Luca's defense. You can talk about Luca's fitness, but it's real hard to complain about the level of competitiveness. And, and I say this in the best way possible regarding a star athlete,

pettiness that Luca reportedly carries and the idea of him facing the Dallas Mavericks tonight, the team that not only traded him without warning, but badmouthed him on the way out of town. I think a lot of people are wondering exactly what

Luca is going to do to them tonight. Well, I'm going to have to disagree with you a little bit. It couldn't be that difficult. to complain about his competitiveness and pettiness because Nico Harrison traded him. He apparently found something to bitch about when it came to that. I think he just said, I think he just thought the fitness question overrorope. He clearly did not think that Luca's competitiveness and pettiness rose to the same level of apparently his love of food and beer,

if you want to believe the messaging that Dallas is continuing to try to put out there. But yeah, if one wants to believe in the power of signs, in the power of signposts, however you want to put it, Luca's game against Denver on Saturday, 32 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals, just one turnover, and a whole bunch of yelling, snarling, sneering. He was basically like that scene in White Men Can't Jump when Woody Harrelson's getting himself pissed for the tournament. And he's just screaming, I'm in the zone, man. I'm in the effing zone.

That's basically what JJ Reddick directed Luca to do during that game against Denver, message sent, message received. It is, if you believe in all the power of that stuff, it would feel like the stage is being set. That was the dress rehearsal. This is the opening night. And Luca would like rave reviews from the critics. Well, look, I mean, a lot of things.

This is going to be a night. Anthony Davis obviously not playing for the Mavs. He's still out for a little while longer. And, you know, Max Christ will be back and that'll be some of it. But there's not even this question. question of, you know, mixed emotions of Anthony Davis being back out on the floor. Like there's literally nothing that Lakers fans have to kind of negotiate here around it. And as PS1, PSI 8 points out on the chat, is it pettiness if it cost you the supermax, this trade.

It's not just, like, it is $120 million that Nico Harrison took out of Luca's pockets. Everyone in the NBA is set to watch Luca try to dismantle Dallas. And more than that, Andy, the Lakers as a team are going to do what they can to facilitate it. So different nights have different themes. You go back to the last Kobe game, we were there in the game against Utah. Everybody on that team was feeding him to try to get him as many shots and points as possible. It's not going to be that because this is a game with more direct meaning in the standings, whatever. But all of his teammates are going to be oriented towards allowing Luca to throttle Dallas.

I think they all understand what this game will mean to Luca because, as we've said many times, this was somebody who pictured by all accounts and by the purchase or the process of purchasing a second home in Dallas, expected to be a lifer with the Mavericks. He had expressed absolutely no desire or agitation or any way you want to put it to leave. Like he had given Dallas no signs of wandering eyes or anything like that. And I imagine, I mean, we've, we've heard this sentiment from a lot of players. If somebody like Luca isn't safe, none of us other than maybe like Yokic, Wembe, SGA, like none of us should ever feel safe.

And even as all these guys recognize that this is a business and they often make business decisions for themselves and as well they should. The notion that there is no loyalty whatsoever, I think for a lot of players, was reinforced by this. And even the ones, you know, the narrative and conversations about Luca and conditioning and whether the conditioning issues are in any way related to some of the injury issues for Luca, that is not new. That has been around for a while.

I'm sure there has been plenty of whispering among players about at some point he might need to change what he's doing or, you know, the idea that he does not put in on that side of the game, of his craft the way he could. They also all think he's effing incredible. And again, the idea that if you want to send that the point that you're making, like, if he's, if you can't respect and appreciate that, then I'm truly disposable. Right. But also too, it's like, you know, and from the Lakers standpoint, from his teammates standpoint, there is an element of punishing the thought process that makes a guy like

Luca disposable that makes a player like, you know, that like, okay, you think, like, look, again, none of us is above criticism, but you think it's that easy to replace, you know, that your culture is that I'm so damaging to your culture that I need to be moved out and all that. Go ahead and try. This is what you missed. And his teammates are going to, I think, help him facilitate that. I mean, like, but what I don't want to reduce this game because I mean, I'm a real, I kind of do.

But you shouldn't just reduce this game to whether or not Luca can put 87, you know, put 77. And as a lot of people in the chat are saying, up on his former teammates, because that would be really cool. There is, you know, and look, in L.A., we have a history of star players outscoring the Mavericks by themselves. We've seen that done. Obviously, you know, Kobe famously doing it right before he scored 80. And Luca and Kobe, there was that mutual admiration. You know, there's a mural that just went up around. LA of that moment where

Luca was surprised by Kobe being courtside Mavericks Lakers and the two of them interacting. That classic shot of Kobe in the orange ski vest has gone up like it would be a pretty awesome tribute to Kobe if he outscored the match. I mean, the right. And that was, I mean,

reminded the number. I mean, that was the game was against the Mavericks and Kobe had outscored them. Yes. He had 60. I believe it was 62. I believe it was 62. And Phil and the Lakers were just running away with the game. And he, you know, Phil was like, you know, we're going to sit you and all that stuff. And Kobe didn't care.

He's like, don't worry. I'll get more, you know, soon. And it was like a week and a half later, that was 81. So all of that, all of that aside, you know, the parallels in history and the opportunities here for all that. Yeah, it was BC points out, 62, 61, Kobe over the Mavericks after three, 95, 61 as a team. Those are fun games to cover. Oh, that was different because, like, not to get too far field here, 81 was different because, like, for a lot of that game, we were mostly focused on the fact that the Lakers were losing,

like a game they really needed to win. For that Dallas game, we were acutely aware of the first. fact that Kobe was outscoring Dallas and we're keeping track of just that. But like I was saying, Andy, while it would be totally understandable to reduce this to just what can Luca do to get his revenge against Dallas and the sort of cultural benefit that can come from his teammates helping him, like let's bring the gang together by making Nico Harrison's life horrible bonding experience. It's not just about that.

And I will explain why next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by DoorDash. NBA fans get ready. They swoosh you save. Thanks to Dash Pass every time a player drops 50 or more points in a game, apropos of nothing in particular. You score a huge deal the next day. It's simple.

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just on iTunes or Spotify or your favorite podcast app, but also as a newsletter. You go to LockdownDaily.com and you click on Lockdown-Lakers and this show, along with some great analysis around the network, is delivered to you every single day. So yeah, go to do that. It's a, as a favorite us. I mentioned this, Andy, before the break. It is, it's more than just Luca versus Dallas because this game is a little bit of a prove it. It's a little bit of a do it again kind of thing. Like I think the Lakers got a lot of attention. Like they woke a lot of people up to, oh, wow, you know,

geez, 18 and 8 over their last 26 games or whatever that is. And, you know, oh, man, the defense. I'm looking up some numbers here. Lakers have been playing some pretty good defense, even when Anthony Davis has, like, it can be a minute before the national media adjusts to the, oh, the Lakers suck to maybe they're pretty good. And if you...

I'm sure Charles Barkley still claims they suck, but... Again, we talk about how we try not to make this about specific media members, but yes, that is who I was thinking of when I said that. Oh, we were all thinking and I just said it. I know. and he'll be fine. I do not worry about it. Nobody needs to pass a hat for Charles Barkley,

let alone just us. Yeah. Pass all the hats for us. We're not above it. Again, sign up for the newsletter. If you go out and you kind of crap the bed on Tuesday after this really impressive win. and Luca and LeBron and Reeves again look like they're kind of playing three separate games.

And, you know, Dallas is going to come into this game woefully short-handed. You know, PJ Washington is questionable among other, like among their active players. And then, you know, AD is out and a bunch of players are missing. Daniel Gafford. Gafford's out, lively, still out. Caleb Martin, Dwight Powell's doubtful. Like they are. You think people talk about whether or not the Lakers can get by playing, quote,

unquote small with just Jackson Hayes, the Mavericks would kill for Jackson. I mean, like literally murder somebody for Jackson Hayes. That's how small they are right now. They are we. And so, you know, if you let Dallas, let this team get away, you don't take them seriously, and they put up 120 on you when they really shouldn't. It's Kyrie and a lot of guys who are much more limited. It undoes a lot of the, even if you win the game, let's say you win, it, you know, and it looks ugly and you kind of, but like, you really undo a lot of that work that you did on Saturday and not just externally for how people look at the team, because I, I don't think the Lakers really.

LeBron does not care what the Charles Barclays of the world think of the Lakers and the team. But that said, they all understand, and we'll get to this in the next segment or maybe a little bit later in this one. The the amount of time that they have to maximize whatever their ceiling is is very limited. And it's much more limited than the teams that they're competing against who have been together at the very least all season. And so you need those boosts of following up good performances with another good performance and another good performance. Because a lot of this, Andy, to me, feels like a mental game as much as anything. Well, I do. I do. I do. I do. I don't expect at all, but they would look past the Mavericks, even in this state, just because, well, you, you, you had mentioned that.

Like, you know, but like, I see, oh, okay, I see what you mean. Like, Luke is not just going to be focused, but like, yeah, you're correct. There is no, I cannot picture them not being laser focused on this game simply because of the context. Like, there, there's too much focus on the game itself. If anything, the concern I would have. have would be if the team played out of character trying too hard to allow Luca to put up like a septuple double, like where they're just feeding him on every single possession. There's no ball movement at all. Like they're really out of character trying to create a scenario where Luca can absolutely rub the Mavericks face in this. Like that to me would be a bigger concern than the idea of they're not going to be focused or caught up in this game in and of

itself. They're not going to be thinking about, I don't remember off the top of my head who they play on Thursday, but I can promise you that will not be on their mind. It's a good team though. It is. I want to say it's the Timberwolves, but I don't know for sure. But either way, to me it's more the idea of them not building very specifically and surgically off what they did Saturday because they're too focused on trying to let Luca go nuclear. Yeah, I think there's probably some risk of that for sure. Or Luca too focused on going nuclear. Or conversely, even Luca being too focused on.

trying to make sure he doesn't get outside the game plan. And like, you know, he's trying to pull back and everybody's trying to push it. So, yeah, everybody's got to be on the same page in that regard. And this, Luca looked on Saturday for the first time, like he was really comfortable, physically, mentally, spiritually with the team, you know, since, since he arrived. And we've talked about this and he's acknowledged it. Weird thing to wrap his head around. Facing Dallas is going to reignite.

some of that weirdness for me. It just will. Like this is very typical for players when they play a former team, much less the only team they've ever known. You know, this is at some point I want to talk at least a little bit about Max Christie, just acknowledge him. Like, this is going to be weird for Max. And that as well. I mean, he's not going to get whatever treatment AD gets, assuming AD is traveling with the team and we've tried to find out. I've been looking it up. I didn't see. I mean, he's not going to play. Were I him, I wouldn't want to, I wouldn't show up in the building until I could play. Yeah, I mean, you, you potentially lose the chance for your tribute video to be in any way organic because, right, but I would just wait until, I mean, it's tribute video if he, you know,

I don't know if Dallas comes back to L.A. this year, but if it's the beginning of next year, it's still going to be the same video. I know, but it feels sort of weird when it's like eight, nine months after the fact and you've been in, you know, you've played your team theoretically. I mean, I get it. But I mean, I just wouldn't, I wouldn't want to be there without playing. Right. But like Max, Max will get some type of acknowledgement on the video board. He's not going to get like a five minute video, but he'll get some type of acknowledgement. This is going to be weird for Max. And, you know, Max has played extremely well for Dallas. He's averaging 15 points on 40, on 50, 44, 84 splits, five rebounds, three assists and a steel. Like, he's been.

really good. It wouldn't surprise me if he got a little spun out for this game because he's young and as mature as we've talked about Max's like much more than his age. Older, more seasoned players have gotten out of character facing a former team than Max. I expect this experience has aged him a little bit, that mustache that he's had that I've always said makes him look like a sophomore in high school. It's going to be a little fuller. a little more manly.

I hope he plays well. I mean, I really do. I absolutely do. I really, I want the Lakers to win, but I hope Max has a really good game in a loss. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think it's cool. You know, the injuries have helped too.

Like how much freedom he's been able to get in some ways out of necessaries. He played well from the moment he got to Dallas. But like, even more so now he's getting a little bit more freedom to do stuff. And so I think that's great. And I'll be certainly rooting for Max throughout the rest of his career. It's just this is this is one of those you know the the Lakers are in a really interesting spot and LeBron talked about execution after after the game on Saturday and it's what's funny about it is he's talked about execution a lot over the course of this season but the way he did it then you know now

is very different contextually from what it looked like earlier in the year and I'll explain that next. So it's one of these things, Andy, when you look at this question of execution, LeBron earlier in the season, you know.

I know you're going to mention that the city jerseys have been executed. That's actually, that would have been a great segue. I was going to start with that, but you're right. The Lakers reportedly

are not going to wear their city connect jerseys anymore. They had something like six more games left to wear them, and they're just not going to. They're just not because they were one in nine. Like the Lakers have an Oklahoma City like record in any of their other jerseys. And so they're just going to burn. They should burn them.

They honestly should burn them. It just goes to show you that if you want something done, scream at your favorite team over social media, it makes a difference. We, I mean, we've certainly been on that train for a while. Just stop wearing that. We were, when they were like one in five, I was like, that's enough. I've seen enough.

Stop wearing those things. And they finally did. So that's great news. But so I want to get to this question of LeBron. And because, you know, you have talked about, and we have talked about like this margin for error question and how little they had. When LeBron used to talk about execution and marginally, he was talking about it from a position of disadvantage. Like, all we have is our ability to execute because if we don't, we're going to get throttled by good teams. And so when he talks about the execution, the level of execution that they had against Denver,

executing the defensive game plan against Nikoliyokic and all that kind of stuff, he said this, we have two to win, James said, in order for us to be successful, in order to win ultimately long term, We have to trust our game plan. We have to trust and be dialed in to the attention to detail. We have the, this is the important part. We have the personnel now that we can really lock into our game plan and really be super strategic about how we want to execute offensively and defensively. What strikes me about this, Andy, tell me if you agree or disagree,

is LeBron has obviously been around the block a few times. He knows that they're up against it in terms of the clock. and they're not going to be able to get the kind of synergy that they need. They're just not going to get the reps that Denver has and OKC has and all. They've got to bring it together quickly. And he is pointing to their IQ, their collective intellect, and essentially saying, we can skip the line here because we got a bunch of guys who are super talented and super smart.

And if we lock into what we're supposed to be doing, our brains can carry us a lot farther than we otherwise might go. So execution becomes a weapon at this point and not the last ditch thing to keep us from being overrun. That's how I read. This gets back to the idea of the supercomputers, the way JJ has talked about Luca and LeBron. And to a lesser but I think still tangible extent, Austin and like the way the three of them can read the floor. And then you have smart veteran role players like Gabe Vincent and Jared Vanderbilt. the Fass, Rui, like, guys, by the way, it was a plus eight billion since joining the

Lakers. Yeah, he also. I don't know if plus minus is like the be all end all stat of the entire universe. People can argue about it and it's contextual. It's all that stuff. Dorian Finney Smith, this from our friend Mike Trudell, is a plus 163 in 20 games. I don't care if you think it's a somewhat misleading statistic. that says you're doing good things for your basketball thing.

He also has the quote of the season so far for the Lakers today, Monday during practice, talking about playing alongside Luca and LeBron, said he's been getting, quote, butt-naked, wide-open shots, and then said, excuse my language. I think he recognized the language wasn't too salty. He was more bringing up nudity in front of female reporters and stuff.

It was a great. Or maybe he just reads. does watch his mouth. Like maybe that is, maybe he's like Ned Flanders. Maybe butt naked is, in his mind, kind of a curse word.

I suppose it's possible, but either way, but naked, wide open shots is just a phenomenal quote. What LeBron is talking about, though, in terms of the execution, everybody understanding their roles,

everybody executing exactly what they're supposed to do. We mentioned this, I believe, for Monday show, but that's among the reasons that I'm really glad JJ said on the record that the offense will run primarily with Luca as the first point guard, then LeBron, then Austin. Because beyond the whole common sense of it all, why the hell else would you get a 25-year-old sort of version of LeBron if you were going to let the 40-year-old version of LeBron do more heavy lifting? It doesn't make sense.

It also consolidates things for the last 27 games. They don't have time to organically land on something that works. They need to define what are you doing, then go execute that. So JJ just laying it out, putting the emphasis on clarity that he's been doing since getting the job before training camp even opened. And I love seeing him just, it's going to make things simpler. This is the way it's going to run. Yeah, for sure. Go do it.

I, um, I just, I want, because I, the idea of Luca and LeBron playing together. Like, when they made this deal, the first thing that popped into my head after, you know, everyone else is like, man, it's a shame, shame, shame. got hacked like that and then they hacked windy and they hacked everybody's been hacked like the entire NBA media sphere has been hacked once I got past that it was like I don't know exactly what this is going to look like but you can't put two guys who can do cooler stuff on the floor together like lebron and luca like I really want to see this like I am excited to see it so the more the this isn't just total self-interested dealing here. Like obviously, Lakers winning a bunch of games,

Luca putting up huge numbers, Lakers making it, it's good for the show. I'm not going to lie about that. But if you like basketball, like this is a cool experiment the Lakers are running here with these three guys together and trying to make it work.

And, you know, to be able to counter the notion that there's only one basketball and, you know, LeBron's not going to want to give it up. And Luca can't play off the ball when he needs to. or any of those kinds of things. As a basketball fan, I want to see this go well. And I want to see awesome stuff,

like on a night-to-night basis. One of my favorite plays from Saturday, we mentioned it on the show, was just that skip pass from Luca, across the floor to LeBron, who was already on his way to the bucket, read the play, knew the flyby was coming with the defender,

and he gets an easy dunk. Like those kinds of little ball movement, little cuts, little things like that, where you know the two of them are seeing things that the other guys aren't. That's what I want to be doing. It's like pairing, if you're a hockey fan, a 36-year-old Wayne Gretzky

with the 24-year-old version of Wayne Gretzky. That's essentially what the Lakers have done here. Something I talked about on Lakers talk, my weekly show for 710 ESPN in Los Angeles. Angeles is these Lakers, we are still figuring out exactly who they are. And we're learning who they are in real time because beyond the fact that there have been so many different incarnations of this team, beginning at the start of the year, when they were all offense, no defense, then they suddenly shifted into all defense,

no offense. Then they started to be getting like a middle ground version of it, a little bit more balance. Then AD gets hurt. And for a while, it looked like they were just trying to hold down the fort and doing it actually pretty well until, until AD got back. And then all of a sudden, AD's traded. You're bringing in Luca. But there's a delay before Luca can be there and minutes limit for Luca, minutes limit for other guys.

Now there's 27 games where we are working off a small sample size, learning about what this team can do on both sides of the ball because they're trying to, in a lot of ways, buck convention defensively. as well as, you know, figuring out exactly the best ways to make LeBron and Luca be unstoppable offense. And they're going to be going up against a slew of really good teams for the majority of the next 27th. Well, yeah, you mentioned, you know, we were trying to figure out the schedule because they were so preoccupied with, you know, this game. It is Minnesota, like you say, and then two games against the Clippers as part of this home. stand. The rest of the homestands no easier, but that's what they're looking at. You and I have covered the Lakers now for almost 20 years. We have been around a lot of NBA. We've frankly been around a lot of sports. We've covered the Dodgers before. We've

covered the Rams. We've been around a lot of different teams. You're written stories about bull riding, for God's sakes. It's really rare to have a team be this new this late in the season. Like genuinely, I'm not exactly sure what to expect. I have pretty good ideas of what it could be. And in both of our cases, we feel like both the floor and the ceiling have been raised with Luca. But there's still so much discovery.

Like, that's really cool. Like, you don't get that very often. You don't. And I will remind people, not that they necessarily need it, but the last time the Lakers did something like this. where they put the thing back together at the trade deadline in ways that were not necessarily expected. And as surprising as it was, like, how they got out of the Rust deal, this was way more surprising. Like, that was pretty like, dang, like, okay, like, let's see what they go do now.

And they were so excited by just having the Russ saga be done that that really energize them beyond the way that, the way that they're the team construction got better that year when they went to the Western Conference finals. This time they traded for Luca Donchich. Like that's a whole other level of surprise, but also an entirely different level of opportunity. Well, I'm seeing like Grotto Rabbit in the chat pointing out POW and I assume he's talking about the midseason acquisition of Powell and obviously. Gasol he means specifically. Yes.

That took a lot of people by surprise you and I were covering the team, and that was one that was kept super, super tight and quiet. But Kobe and Powell was very easy to imagine right away how that was going to work. And it was part of the reason why the two of them, the first game they ever played, looked like they'd been teammates for six years. Because beyond the fact that they were both so good and so smart and so versatile, it's not that difficult to picture. how Kobe and Powell are going to play together.

You and I both believe in the upside of Luca and LeBron. And like we, you know, neither one of us have ever bought into the idea, you know, there's only one ball like there's going to be conflict over who, like, no. But there's still more to figure out with Luca and LeBron than there was with Kobe and Powell. No question. No question. But again, it creates different opportunities.

I will say like the Gasol thing, I was, I was like parking in the facility like on my way into practice that day when I when that news broke and it was like I'm sorry what and this is the same kind of thing it's just the this the games like this matter because they have to stack success on top of success on top of success as quickly as possible again because I believe they're going to have to do this as much as a mental exercise where they're going to have to believe in the things that they're really good at in ways that that time and the normal development of a team they just don't have the opportunity so athletes are brilliant at this professional athletes particularly at inventing the circumstances that they need to succeed if they need to

Michael Jordan decided X, Y, and Z billion people all said he, you know, slighted him in some way. And that's how he, you know, does Kevin Durant does this kind of stuff. These are the mental games that these guys play to put themselves in the position to succeed. And the Lakers as a team are going to have to do that, I think, to some degree. But we'll see. A good game tonight will certainly go a long way to reinforcing the good stuff that came out of the Denver game on. Saturday. Certainly that's what Luca wants. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you go hang out with over 32,000 subscribers to the channel. We of course will be back following the game

for all the analysis of what we hope is a big Lakers win. See everyone later.