Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Luka Is an All-Star Starter, LeBron's Streak Broken... Plus, Lakers on "Two Timelines?"

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

First things first, the Lakers have an All-Star starter. That's not unusual, it happens every year it seems! And this year, it's Luka Dončić, who will represent the purple and gold for the World team. Meanwhile, though, LeBron James had his two-decade streak of All-Star nods snapped, and it's an open question as to whether he'll eventually make the team... or even if he wants to, in his heart of hearts. The numbers put him on the bubble, or pretty close to it at least. And there's time to burnish the resume, if that's what it takes. Meanwhile, the trade deadline is creeping up, and on ESPN.com Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst have described the Lakers as being on the (now dreaded) "two timelines." That's one where you're trying to send LeBron out a winner, and another where you're building around Luka. But are these really separate timelines? How does that work practically, where you could pick up a player that helps significantly this year, but wouldn't be the type of player you'd want to use next season. The Lakers have lots of potential cap space this summer. A trade that bleeds into it, if it's someone they like, basically just signing a guy now, as opposed to later. One timeline, Lakers. One. You're not sophisticated enough for two. HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: Luka is an All-Star, LeBron isn't... not yet at least.  SEGMENT 2: Two timelines?  SEGMENT 3: The Lakers need to pick a lane, and only one is really viable... and they know that.  Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Turbo TaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.  QuoMake this the year where no opportunity — and no customer — slips away. Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to https://Quo.com/lockedonnba.Quo — no missed calls, no missed customers.  GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now. 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.

Luca Donchich is an all-star starter. LeBron James is not, and are the Lakers on the dreaded two timelines path, Andy. That's next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers first listen to every day. Monday through Friday, sometimes on weekends and even on holidays,

no matter how or where you get your podcasts, we appreciate you. helping make the Locked-on Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network, and this or any other known universe, Apple, Spotify, maybe you're one of the 37,000-plus subscribers to the YouTube channel. We certainly appreciate it. I'm Brian Komenetsky with Andy Kaminetsky,

cover the Lakers for nearly 20 years for outlets like the athletic in ESPN. And Andy, we're going to get to this because somebody used the two timelines, expression to describe where the Lakers are going into the deadline. And anybody who's followed the Golden State Warriors know that nobody wants to be on two timelines, Andy. We need one timeline.

But before, I'm not even sure I'm 100% sold on the timeline. They're on it. They narrowed down to one, but definitely don't want to. The Lakers have not shown the ability to handle one timeline. No, when it comes to timelines, they have not earned the right to multitask. no. So, okay, that's something we're going to get to here in a moment. We do need to get to kind of the news of the day, which comes with no real surprises, but still a great deal of interest. Luca Donchich named an all-star starter. I believe he's a leading vote getter across the NBA,

at least in the Western Conference. He was the leading vote getter across the Western Conference. When you factor in the fan vote, the media vote, and the player vote, he was second overall in the West behind Luca Dachich. But he did, you know, it wasn't that far off from Nikola, excuse me. Yolkich, yeah, from Yokic. He was second behind Nikola Yokic by 0.75 in the weighted score when you combine again. Players, fans, media. lousy Russian judge wouldn't give him a 10 point on that. And obviously how the bots vote and all that stuff.

But ultimately, though, he was second overall in the West with all of that in total. First, when it came to just the fan vote by about 400,000 over Yopich. So what does this mean to quote the SNL thing? Nobody knows. It's a little hard to figure out what this format is and what it's going to look like. How many players are going to be on there? Who's playing for who? Donovan Mitchell says he wants to be on the international team because he's Panamanian.

And it's all very confusing to me. But Luke at Donchich honored with that all-star start. However, the teams are divided up or whatever it looks like, he'll be on the court to begin. LeBron James, Andy, not elected. His historic streak of All-Star nominations is over after two decades, probably not one that's going to be broken anytime soon. And what's interesting about that isn't so much the question of whether he deserved to be named or not. I think most people agree that he doesn't.

But what he does for the game, is he going to be added to the team? Does he even want to be added to the team? these are two very interesting questions first of all do i think lebron actually wants to be like named to this team added to the team if it means he actually has to take part in whatever the f this all-star game is going to look like the format all of which is convoluted and stupid but the good news is inevitably when people complain the legal change it for next year So you only have to suffer through this totally ridiculous. That's why I don't.

It's honestly, it's one of the reasons why I don't really bother learning how they're dividing everybody up, what the rules are. Because it's going to change in a year anyway. I have given them advice over and over that they will not take, but just play a basketball game with a bunch of stars. Log off Twitter. Don't listen to Charles Barkley. Don't listen to Shaq. don't listen to what a bunch of eggs on Twitter say and count your money. It's not that complicated.

But anyway, I, if I had to guess, LeBron would love to be honored in the sense that who wouldn't want to be honored. Everybody loves recognition of their work, but all things being equal, I think LeBron would prefer to have several days off. And I don't blame him between his age, the mileage, and the fact that after what, 21 All-Star games or whatever, there's really nothing new to explore unless you've really been dying to play against the world as a member of America, which I would argue LeBron's done many times as an Olympian. So really nothing for LeBron to take in that he has not already done. The question, though, of whether or not he will actually be named, I got to be honest. I thought that this was more of a will Adam Silver do the type of legacy nod that he several years ago gave to Dwayne Wade and Dirk

Novitsky in their final season, you know, an acknowledgement of what two all-time greats meant to the league. A, that's complicated because we have at this point no formal knowledge of whether or not LeBron is going to retire after the season, and you can only do the legacy nod, I think, once. You can't do it which is why Rob Polinka is strenuously lobbying Adam Silver to make it happen. Right. And Rich Paul in one of the podcasts said that he doesn't, that LeBron does not want a charity nod. But what is also interesting, though, is when you go through that weighted score, again, like I mentioned before, 50% fan vote, 25% how the players ranked, 25% how the media ranked. LeBron is not actually that far down. He was eighth in the fan voting,

ninth in media, eighth in player voting, which for the West came out to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. I believe 9th overall for his weighted score, which is kind of bubble, but certainly not so far down

that LeBron, in terms of the overall scoring would seem ridiculous on the All-Star team. I'm not even saying that's the reason to put him on. I'm just saying I'm surprised that just by the numbers, he's actually legitimately on the bubble. Well, like I said, like, you know, it's 50% fan voting. So the fact that he was relatively high in their helps. But what I think is in regardless of whether he makes the team or not, this is probably part of the reason that, you know, recency bias.

and all that kind of stuff, if you look at LeBron over his last 10 games, 26 and a half points, 7.6 rebounds, 7.6 assists, 53% shooting, all of which, and this is kind of remarkable, are basically his career averages. And now, I am not claiming here that LeBron is playing with the same force and dominating level as he has. I'm just saying the number. The number numbers over the last 10 games are remarkably similar to his career numbers. And so I think people see that and or like maybe caught a couple games or like he's LeBron. It's an all star game. I don't know if he'll make it or not. You know, guys like Austin Reeves, for example, were, you know, on the team basically until he got hurt. Like is Yokic going to be able to play in this game is going to make a difference in all these? There's just, There's so many variables to who is going to end up on the team and when and all that kind of stuff as we roll into February. But it's a good sign for the Lakers that if they can get Austin Reeves, who is clearly very important to this team, back onto the court that the third leg of this three-legged stool that they have of LeBron James,

where there was some concern at the beginning of the year, is looking like. like a guy who can be part of a contributing, you know, contributing part of a good team. Yeah. Again, like when I say that his numbers in this surprise me, I'm just so it's clear, I'm not talking about LeBron's stats. I'm talking purely how the fan player and media voting shook out. I was surprised to see LeBron this high up in the overall weighted score, like not agreeing, disagreeing, not even the point. I'm just. Well, no, but you're right. There are a lot of reasons to think that he wasn't going to, he's only played 24 games. Right. I just was, I just was surprised. And it makes this, I guess what I'm saying is it actually

makes it a more interesting question than I had expected before I really looked at the numbers that the NBA supplied breaking down all of this. I really thought it was going to be more of a legacy question and the politics of that since we don't know. know yet whether or not LeBron is retiring. Again, I don't even know if he wants to be a part of this. But I just found that really interesting. I think if he knew he was coming back next, knows he's coming back next year,

is inclined to think that he's coming back next year. I say he'd rather have the week off because he knows full well, that if he makes any kind of announcement that this is his last season, assuming he does it before the All-Star game and not after, I think he is going to be on that team as well he should because he's LeBron. But if he is, you know, maybe if he's not, I don't know, but that he's closer to a merit scholarship here, so to speak, is a good sign for the Lakers as they head into the trade deadline, Andy,

and navigate the dreaded two timelines, according to Brian Windhorst. We'll break it down next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Quo. New Year New Systems. This is the time when a lot of us look at the messier parts of running a business and think it's got to be a better way. And there is Quo, QUO, today's sponsor brought to you, today's episode brought to you by Quo, the smarter way to run your business communications. If you are ready to make your workday smoother, keep customers connected without the headaches.

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Lockedonlakers. Supercast.com. Check out the Everdale club. Find out if it's for you. If it's not, you keep doing the show, consuming the show in exactly the same way, and you have exactly the same experience. So we appreciate you either way. Andy, I was concerned because the folks over in Golden State,

I believe they invented two timelines. Well, it's because they were light years ahead of everyone else. Remember that Joe Lacob, Joe Lacob loudly and proudly and frankly, and frankly, quite condescendingly and rudely, let the rest of the league know that they were just light years ahead of everyone. Like, you might as well not even bother trying to catch up to us. Nothing throws your Millennium Falcon out of hyperspace faster than trying to add a second timeline.

I mean, he's basically saying, we are light years ahead, you dip in the asteroid field, nothing you can do about it. Well, they're not anymore. So Jimmy Butler, by the way, looked like he had a terrible, knee injury on Monday night, which is really ugly, so hope he's okay. But, you know, so Brian Windorst and Tim Bontemps are talking about stuff on, this was on the dot com. Dot com, yeah.

And so from this column. Column about the trade deadline. Right. From, I should say, ESPN.com. There are many.coms. The Lakers is from the article. The Lakers have been making calls to acquire perimeter help. and rim protection. League sources, said,

in between Rui, Hachemura, Gabe Vincent and Maxie Claibor, the front office is about $40 million in expiring contracts sent out in trades, but the Lakers are operating in two timelines. They want to maximize the end of 41-year-old LeBron James' career, but swapping out expiring contracts for short-term help could hinder their ability to reshape their roster around Luca Donchich. If James moves on or retires after the season,

the Lakers could resign Austin Reeves and still have $15 million in cap space. Andy, do you believe the Lakers are on two timelines? And second to that question, if they are on two timelines, should they be on two timelines? I will say this much if they are on two timelines, Mark Walter get around to the firing. Like just pick a timeline and fire someone on it. That's the first thing you should be doing as the Mark Walter, like firing whoever decided on two timelines. Like, with all sincere respect to Wendy and Bond temps, I'm a big religious,

Pooh-Collective podcast listener. I like both of their work. Respect them both. No. Like, no. There is but one timeline for the Lakers. No multiverse. That is Luca Donchich's timeline.

Like now, if there is a move that can be done at the deadline that somehow helps right now, like really makes a massive impact right now and also sets up for the future. Awesome. Like by all means, pull the trigger on that scenario. I happen to think it's going to be difficult for the Lakers to make that type of impact moves slash moves given, as we've gone over many, many, many times, the lack of assets they have coveted ones currently available at the deadline. but if they prove me wrong, awesome. Very, very happy to be wrong. But there is one timeline.

Like the notion that you would be serving two different masters, sending off LeBron the right way, but also the future with Luca, that's ridiculous. Like if you wanted to send off LeBron the right way or maximize LeBron's time with the Lakers, you had a few years to do that. And you opted not to. And so it's clear, I am not even being critical that they didn't do that.

Like after the Rust deal, keep going all in, all it. Like, I'm not even being critical of them not doing it. I am simply saying, you had a few years to do it, you didn't do it. The time is now passed, especially because you have a franchise superstar in his prime. If you wanted to do right by LeBron that way, celebrate an icon, should have done it before. Time has passed. That it would be insane,

like a fireable offense to attempt to real, I mean, I don't even know what a all-in move for this team would be right now. I'm going to get to that in a second. Like they don't, most teams with a negative point differential

don't seem one move away. But I'm just saying like, I don't even know what that would be. Or any, it's the rope-a-dope. Any move that, that prioritizes this season even by 1% over the future with Luca, fireable offense.

I look at it this way. Any effort to win around LeBron, win for LeBron, is really, it's winning for Luca. LeBron is part of the apparatus that allows you to take advantage of Luca. Austin Reeves is part. Like everybody operates in this thing, like, how do we maximize our ability to win with Luca Donchich? And in this particular case, they have LeBron James.

I just read off the numbers that he's averaging over the last 10 games. He's averaging 26.5 points of game, 7.5 assists, 7.5 rebounds, 53%. Like, that's a pretty good player to help, you know, make a team that Luca Donchich can win on. But it's not about LeBron. It's about Luca. And the part that I find kind of to your point about, you know, these people, players and this and that, that I just, I find puzzling. Andy, I need you somebody to identify for me these mythical players that are the type of player that could help send LeBron off into the

sunset, like, as a winner, but aren't the kind of player that you would want around next year. Like, to me, it's, it's, if it, it doesn't make any sense to me that you would, be you would acquire a player. And if that, like, and say no to that guy. Like, we think he's really good. And we can help us this year. But we don't want to pay him next year because we have cap space that we can use to go out and acquire a player who's as good as this other guy that we're trying to trade for

right now. Like, these players, I don't think, exist. And you're either a kind of player that they'd want to build around, like build with. or you're not. And I agree with you. I think it's going to be tough for the Lakers really even to be buyers or frankly sellers

because the stuff that they have to sell isn't very appealing. And the stuff that they have to buy with isn't very appealing either. It doesn't go over. Same stuff they'd be selling. Correct. Nobody wants to buy it.

Nobody wants to take it. I'm just saying it's the same stuff. Yes, it's all the same stuff. And so I just, that to me is is the is the style i i this this all screams typical lakers you know three we're we're looking in three d's we're looking in three d here it's we can't just live in the moment we have to understand keep our optionality to be to be we want to win we want to win don't get us wrong but to be clear to be i mean just or maybe even to be fair to windy and

Bonteps. This felt like their interpretation of what's going on. No, but I think it's there. To me, it read as their interpretation based on a lot of, I mean, this is sort of the conventional wisdom of how the Lakers like, we sort of, we want to be able to, because we, we need, we want to be able to, you know, celebrate our stars and do right by our stars. Let's, let's, none of this to me is, is, to me, it's my reading of is out of line of how the Lakers have been approaching virtually every deadline for the last like four years. Well, okay, let's talk about that coming up next because I think there's one key difference

to the past deadlines that you're talking about and this one now that I think changes the math on or I would like to think changes the math because it's very, very different. Is it a third timeline? It's not a third timeline, but I will explain what it is coming up now. Next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by TurboTax. Tax season doesn't have to take over your life. This year, TurboTax is making it easier than ever to just hand things off and then move on with your day with TurboTax full service. You can have your taxes done for you by a trusted local expert. Start to finish without the stress or the guesswork. Instead of spending hours trying to figure out forms, you can meet with a local tax expert in person. or connect online. They handle everything from W2's self-employment forms and work to get you every deduction. That is huge. And it's a huge time saver and gives real peace of mind knowing an expert is handling as opposed to yourself. And let's be honest, you don't know what you're doing.

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I said earlier in the show, the Lakers have not earned the right to multitask. At this point, some would argue they have not earned the right to one timeline, much less multiple timelines. But the difference, because you were talking about before, the Lakers and that history of wanting to send out superstars the right way, icons, things that they have signaled before in the past, in the LeBron era, all of that is true. But they've never done that. And I've seen less and less of that coming out ever since they had a star like Luca in his prime. The last couple times we've talked about sending off stars the right way, and they were very different context,

but still just superstars, end of their careers, that focus, was Kobe and figuring out the best way to, frankly, get Kobe through his 20th season so he could play that final game. And there was no stakes to the season itself, including a little bit regrettably actually developing their young players. But they got Kobe through it and his final game was won for the ages. It was awesome. We were at that very entertaining.

We also saw that for a few seasons with LeBron. But that was all before Luca was here, which dramatically changes whatever approach you would have. Just to clarify, the stuff with LeBron over the last pre-Luca was not send LeBron off. It was take advantage of. Sure. However you want, well, but at the time, though, I think they were planning on LeBron with AD being the superstar in hand for the foreseeable future because they were not expecting Nico Harrison to lose his money.

Right, but that's my point. It's like they weren't looking to send him off. They were just trying to maximize what they realized was probably a relatively short window. However you want to frame it, the difference is they did not have a generational superstar in his prime that absolutely should changed the math. And again, the way Winhorst and Bontemps wrote this thing, to me, it felt more like their purview of a two timelines than anything, if nothing else, they were being said. I mean, the one Western

conference exec that is quoted in this piece even said that you need to, you would think that whoever they bring in needs to be a good fit around Lucas. So like the one exact they even talked to, unnamed, but even that one, acknowledged the Luca prioritization over LeBron. Let me clarify here. I think they're saying it.

I don't think they mean it. Those two are not the same thing. But that's kind of my point. It's like this notion of like seeming like, I think it's theater is what, you know, that the Lakers are sort of engaged in when, to be fair, I think Rich Paul is making this a little less appealing to them to even go through the theater of it. but it's the it's the theater of oh my god we're torn between you know honoring lebron and doing

me being it's another version of we're going to be aggressive at the deadline you know we're going to be buyers we're going to be movins and it's the next the next we're holding our powder for the next deadline next deadline comes but it's the next one that's going to be like it's just another version of the i don't believe them when they say that they're there feel like this LeBron tilted timeline is even a minor priority in the organization. I just think it's part of the tableau that they like to set and paint as they describe what they're going to do at a trade deadline where, to be frank, everybody knows how hard it's going to be for them to make a,

a substantive move. Like last week I saw, you know, they're trying to, in the CUC, they're looking around, they're asking about this, whatever, but then they're also, Lakers are trying to look for like minor moves.

Like, I think they'll try to do something, but I don't think they're going to give up the first round pick because I don't think there's anybody out there that's worth it. I don't think they're going to have a lot of luck moving those expiring deals. And I don't think they're going to want to attach anything to those deals because they don't have very much. stuff. So if you want to really maximize this offseason, whether LeBron comes back or not,

you need to have all of your stuff so you can make trades to bring people in to that cap space so you can sign guys so you can do whatever. I'm not even looking two summers ahead at the free agency of Janus or whatever. I'm saying if you want to take advantage of next year and build around Luca, which they should, then you need all of your stuff. You don't want to waste the second rounder to get rid of Maxi Claibah and Gabe Vincent. Well, I mean, it depends on who you're getting. Maybe a second. Right.

Maybe maybe a second round. You don't want to do it. You don't want to get rid of a first rounder or pick swaps or things like that unless it's somebody, as you've noted, that you think fits into next year's roster. Well, okay. Let me give an example of what I'm talking about. And it speaks to a specific rumor, if you want to call it that reports, whatever, of guy the Lakers were interested in. This was more heading into the season, I think, than where we are now.

But Andrew Wiggins. And there were reports that this was being tied up, in part because Miami was signaling they wanted to keep Wiggins be competitive because Miami never wants to rebuild all that stuff, but also that they wanted a first round pick. The Lakers were balking at a first round pick. To me, someone like Andrew Wiggins, who I think would, in the grand scheme of this season, be something of an upgrade or if nothing else more of a positional fit upgrade. I don't think he's going to move the needle a ton for this team. But more importantly, he's turning 31 this season. The idea of giving up a first round pick for a guy that one of his main things,

if not the number one thing you'd bring him in for, is to be a wingstopper, your perimeter defensive specialist. as he's entering the back end of his prime. And then potentially even in a position of resigning him, unless the plan is to bring in Andrew Wiggins for this season and then flip him in the off season as a potential expiring for somebody else. And then maybe that somebody else is. That's getting kind of cute.

Well, it is getting kind of cute, but I'm saying that would be the plan. And I'm not saying it's a good one. I'm not saying it's realistic. I'm saying it's the plan. Someone like Wiggins to me is too far into his career age-wise to be part of a Luca Donchich plan moving forward. Because again, I don't want a designated wingstopper who on his new contract

is going into his mid-30s. And would still command a pretty good salary. Right. I don't want to, I think that's a bad idea. Now, someone like Herb Jones, if you can get Herb Jones before the deadline, by all means, pull the trigger on that, do what that takes, because Herb Jones can be a part of the future moving forward. Trey Murphy has been connected to this team. If you can make that happen, I'm not saying I think it will. I'm saying if you can, that makes sense because he fits needs that you have with Luca. He can grow with the team. Even a minor, or not minor, not minor, because I think he could be helpful, but smaller move. Guy like Keon Ellis, he can grow with this team. He makes sense. He fills some needs.

Will that make the Lakers a contender this season? No. That gets to my sort of litmus test, Andy. I'll ask you, if the money, reasonable, you know, let's assume reasonable money, not cheap, but not a bargain, but like market contract for somebody like Keon Ellis. Lakers have $50 million in Cap room. you'd think they would use that likely to try to get more than one player at the very least,

is Keon Ellis the type of player that you would sign using some of that $50 million in cap space? Me? Yes. And that's the lit. That's the, that's, that is the only question. Like if you, if you're worried about, well, he's, would you spend, would you do that with Andrew Wiggins? Would you sign Andrew Wiggins to a market contract in this off season? Even with the understanding he'll make less than he does now,

I would be, and I was advocating for the Wiggins deal before the season started, I would be hesitant to do it now, given what it means, you know, going forward. You get kind of a year and a quarter out of it. Like,

eh, that's not great. No. Especially if you give up that pick. Yeah, and I mean, and I've seen some people, and to be clear,

I don't agree with this line of thinking, but I've seen some people who cover the team, make the argument that you should go all in this season because there is a chance that, you know, assuming Austin comes back and looks like Austin or close enough to Austin before he got hurt. And LeBron, like this could be the best teammates Luca has around him.

Like, you know, the best star caliber teammates. You know, LeBron's still at 41 could be maybe the best people that you put alongside Lucas, so you should go all in now. I don't agree with that. I don't picture that being the case. But if it is, to me, that's more of an argument for trading Luca now while he's under contract and getting a boatload of stuff for him and just completely going in a different direction. Because if you're really that defeat us that you think this is the best it's going to be, then move Luca. Or I guess it's an argument for firing Rob.

But the idea that this is the best it's going to be, what are we doing? But it's also, it's not even just like, even if you could say this is these are the best stars we're going to get, you have to, what has become abundantly clear about this roster is that you have to organize the rest of the roster in a way that that covers, that lends this Lucas skill set and mitigate some of these problems that they have that are so obvious to everybody. You know, the Laker Film Room podcast with Pete and Darius. So this guys did a great job breaking down the Raptors win, talking about like what they were doing playing with the zone and playing bigger and using Drew Timmy, but kind of being limited to being able to use them in a zone because they're the slowest bunch of MFers you're going to find.

And, you know, Drew Timmy is a skillful player who is a well below average NBA athlete. I hope they have an opportunity to figure out how to use them. but like you know you can't can't be careful with what you're doing here they just they the rest of the roster needs to be tended to it's not just about going all in for your stars if you could get a guy like wiggins without giving up that pick i mean maybe you consider it but you know but if it involves giving up assets then i think it becomes a problem um this is all stuff that we can get into after what should be a fascinating game. Hopefully, Tuesday night in Denver, the Nuggets

have played quite well without Nikola Yokic now have Aaron Gordon back in the lineup. Christian Brown is still injured, but Peyton Watson has been really good in Yokic's absence, and obviously, Jamal Murray is doing all-star stuff. He will be somebody who is on the all-star roster. But again, he's a world guy. And so it's very confusing to figure out, what these rogstrom's going to look like because he's from Canada, which is part of the world. It's very confusing. Lockdown Lakers on YouTube is we're going to hang out with over 37,000

subscribers to the game. Check out the show notes. Learn more about the Every Dare Club on the Lockdown Lakers podcast. And we'll see everyone after the game.