Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Mark Williams Trade Rescinded: Did Pelinka Make a Mistake? Can Lakers Find Another Center?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Monday. Brian Kavanaugh, Andy Komenoske, the Lakers no longer have that center that they traded for. So where are they going to find one? 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.

Starting point is 00:00:29 First, listen to every day Monday through Friday and sometimes twice on Saturdays, no matter how or where you get your podcast, this one's always free, never behind paywall, locked on Lakers on YouTube. It's wherever 31,000 subscribers are all hanging out enjoying this prodigious volume of content that we're producing. Because, Andy, the Lakers simply refuse to stop giving us reasons to do things. The Lakers and the NBA,

Starting point is 00:00:56 the most recent being the rescinded Mark Williams trade. I talked a little bit about it on the Saturday, a mini reaction show, but Andy wasn't able to record. So we're going to get into a little bit of it today. Ask the question whether or not Rob Polenko should have seen this coming. If somebody made a mistake here. And then, gosh, things are just, if you're Nico Harris, just going from bad to worse, we'll get to explain that in a minute.

Starting point is 00:01:22 Do it to let everybody know that today's episode is brought to you by Fandual. Right now, new Fandual customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. So you hear about this news, you know, and what's your initial reaction to the spiked Williams trade? It was incredible because these things don't happen. Like, I mean, like to have a full-on trade rescinded never takes place. Like it's one thing for a player to fail a physical or to have questions from a physical. and the deal ends up getting amended because the team sending out said player can offer some type of concessions to ease the receiving team's concerns or just make it worth their while. Or sometimes you take on a player and you know that there are physical issues, but you want the player bad enough and you're confident enough to say, all right, this is fine.

Starting point is 00:02:26 This is basically what we expected to actually have the deal follow. apart altogether. That is exceptionally rare, which leads me to believe when we eventually find out what was going on with Mark Williams. And side note, I feel terrible for Mark Williams because this is the type of thing that you might as well be carrying around a sign that says damaged goods. I feel back for a ridiculous statement the hornets put out. afterwards about how excited they were to have him back.

Starting point is 00:03:04 Right. This, it feels like whatever is going to come out is pretty dramatic just because it would take a lot for the Laker. It would take, I don't mean dramatic like when, just to clarify, like when the Lakers discovered the heart issue with Romatorio. No, I know what you mean. This has to be something that is pretty, pretty. dramatic, for lack of a better word, to make the Lakers decide this player that we were, A, super enthusiastic about and be aware had injury histories, that it was worse than we imagined, having already gone into this, knowing there would be a certain amount you have to accept with a player with that. He's played 80-ish games over three years. You have to expect. You have to expect.

Starting point is 00:04:01 there's going to be a couple things that come up. You're like, well, I'm not wild about that. But I mean, you have to. I'm imagining. It's probably a pretty dramatic thing. It's also, too, it's like it's interesting. When you look at the, I think sort of the interpretations of this, the Lakers are obviously looking long term.

Starting point is 00:04:20 And it reminds me a little bit about what some of the consensus was about Andrew Bynum when he was drafted that like his knees and like the shape of his legs and all this stuff were based. basically like a time bomb. And it turned out whatever it was they were worried about was accurate. Like his health pushed him out of the league. You know, I don't know if what the Lakers found here, which reportedly was not the back injury, which I think a lot of people were suspecting that it would be. Like this is Mark Williams's back problems, which reportedly kept him from working out as much.

Starting point is 00:04:57 And all these, like that would be the thing that would be the giant red flag. That apparently wasn't it. And the Lakers are obviously looking at not just, is he going to be healthy for the rest of this season or is he going to be healthy for the rest of next season? But when you can trade for a 23-year-old player with the expectation and probably have to sign him pretty quickly after this year, or potentially at least, you know, your, you know, Ramona Shelburne,

Starting point is 00:05:25 for example, noted that they went over these medicals pretty carefully. Yeah. and just weren't able to kind of get, you know, past like his, the issues with like long-term health, whether that's a year down the road, two years down the road, five years down the road. But, you know, he, he could be healthy for the rest of this season.

Starting point is 00:05:49 And people are going to look at it and say, like, what were the Lakers thinking? You could be healthy next season. You know, it's, I feel bad for, I agree with you. I feel bad for the guy because now everybody's going to be sort of staring at him waiting for, you know, this inevitable, horrible injury to bring up, vaporized or something. Like, yeah, under content, like I sent on a tweet at Cam Brothers.

Starting point is 00:06:09 Like, you know, it, it turns out that Mark Williams has actually been three kids inside an incredibly realistic body suit. Like, again, something just insane to make the way. Because the point that you bring up about seeing this as much a long-term, as short-term investment for a guy that is only 23 and was playing at the time that the Lakers traded for him. They were willing to initially invest in a center that they knew had health issues, but it's the type of center Luca wanted.

Starting point is 00:06:48 So for them to turn around and decide, we cannot feel comfortable counting on this guy long-term. again, whatever is going to eventually come out, I would be surprised if it's not a pretty pronounced very specific thing that they are concerned about in terms of Mark Williams' long-term future. Like, this is not a, this is not a, ooh, gut feeling. I don't know about this. Right, no. Or also like a, I doubt this is a last-minute skittishness thing.

Starting point is 00:07:24 I imagine this is something very specific. Because if, I mean, not to get too deep in the weeds, but there, if the Lakers fail him for medical stuff and the Hornets think it's BS, there are mechanisms for these types of things. So you can't just, you know, cold foot a physical in that way. But there are two, there are two big issues that come out of this. And, you know, one, which we will certainly get into before, you know, as the show goes, on is what do the Lakers do now. But then another interesting one that we can at least touch on in the next segment is whether or not this is something that Rob Polink screwed up and whether or not the Lakers made a

Starting point is 00:08:06 mistake here and screwed because they cannot go get another center via trade because trade deadlines passed. You don't get like an extra, you know, three hours to put something together because something like this happens. So we'll ask both of those questions next. The Lakers is brought to you by Skims. I am somebody who's very picky about underwear. I only wear boxer briefs, period.

Starting point is 00:08:32 And they have to have a very specific feel that I'm looking for. It's like Goldilocks. You got to be just right. So when I heard that we had locked on could try out some skims underwear, my first thought was skims makes men's underwear since when? It's like, yeah, they do. And then my next thought was, am I going to like him? Because again, I'm picky.

Starting point is 00:08:50 And the answer was, hell yeah, I'm going to like them. I tried the three inch and the five inch boxer briefs, and they're both super comfortable. They're soft. They don't bunch up. They feel great on my skin like they look really good. I highly, highly recommend you check them out. Shop skimsmen's at skims.com.

Starting point is 00:09:10 And here's the most important part of this entire messaging about skins. You need to let them know we sent you. After you place your order, select podcast in the survey and select our show in the drop-down menu that follows Locked-on Lakers. I would argue that's even more important than you're enjoyment of the skims. I know you're actually going to enjoy them. Shop skims, men's at skims.com.

Starting point is 00:09:42 So I saw, you know, there was certainly some debate, Andy, about this. By the way, if you haven't signed up for the Locked-on Daily newsletter, Locked-on-Lakers newsletter at Locked-on-Daily, please do so. It's very similar to buying underwear the right way. You go and you sign up for the Locked-on-Lakers newsletter at Locked-on-Daily, have this show and also a little bit of... tons of great analysis from around the network delivered to your inbox every day. Just one easy way to get a lot of great NBA insight.

Starting point is 00:10:13 So a lot of people, there was some debate, I think after the trade was rescinded, as to whether or not this was something that the Lakers ultimately screwed up. Because there's an opportunity cost I mentioned in the last segment. If Williams, if you should know that Williams can't pass a physical, then you are costing yourself the opportunity. to go get someone else. And the Lakers badly need a center. I compare, I do it like this.

Starting point is 00:10:43 You know, the Lakers got medical stuff from Charlotte and you look at it and you get the reports and all that kind of stuff. But I kind of see it like, I said this on Twitter at Cam Brothers. It's like the Carfax looked clean. But then you get the car and you look under the hood and you see problems with it.

Starting point is 00:11:04 You know, it's not that anybody was lying. It's not that somebody was, you know, I don't think the Hornets were necessarily trying to defraud the Lakers here or anything like that. The Lakers got the car into their garage. They did an inspection and they found there was more going on there than was in the initial reports. I have no idea if Charlotte knows about this stuff or they don't, but the Lakers found stuff that they don't like. And I don't necessarily see this as the fault of Polinka. I see this is how the process is supposed to work. my hot take on this just because I think we are expected to have a very strong, you know,

Starting point is 00:11:42 smoldering opinion pointing our finger at somebody on either side, whether the Lakers. The lame some of the people in this room. Yeah, whether the Lakers or the Hornets were supposed to be angry at somebody. My hot take is, I think it's very possible that nobody on either side did anything wrong. I think it is possible. And I think this will, this will become more clear when it eventually gets leaked out what was going on with Mark Williams.

Starting point is 00:12:11 For the time being, I'm acknowledging we both don't know what it ultimately was. Or if there's reporting ultimately that the Hornets are less than truthful in their medical reporting. Or if there's reporting that the Lakers really did get cold feet and decided, We gave up way too much stuff here. There is more that will come out. I suspect that it is not the Lakers deciding at the 11th hour that they don't want to do this because if that gets out, good luck getting other teams to deal with you on big moves, particularly if you're Rob Polinka and speaking frankly, most of the GMs around the league from everything I've heard don't like you anyway.

Starting point is 00:12:57 and they're not that excited to do deals with you anyway. If you all of a sudden on top of whatever they already don't like about you have a reputation as somebody that'll go back on your word because hashtag reasons, good luck moving forward. Yeah, I agree. But the reason I think it is very possible that ultimately neither side did anything wrong here is it is possible that what eventually we will learn spooked at the Laker, is something the Hornets weren't even aware of

Starting point is 00:13:30 because it's something they weren't looking for because they didn't have a reason to be looking for it. Like, for example, lately they had been not focused on Mark Williams. You know, Mark Williams' back apparently wasn't the reason for this at all. But, you know, he's recently, it was a foot injury that was keeping him out. You were a bad foot that kept him out at the beginning of the year. Right. Like, they may have been focused so much on his foot and getting him back on the court.

Starting point is 00:13:57 and Mark Williams had played like the last 20-something games, there may have been something else going on in his body that they weren't focused on because they didn't have a reason to do this. And it's not like every time a player undergoes a physical or meets with a doctor that they inspect the player from head to toe looking for everything. Like you don't do that. And medical diagnoses vary from sometimes doctor to doctor. It's why people get second opinions.

Starting point is 00:14:26 And then in terms of the Lakers, for the opposite side of the same reason, they may have gone into this knowing, okay, there are three things with Mark Williams that we know that he's had past injuries for. These are the garden variety things we have to be comfortable with in terms of a risk assessment. But then all of a sudden, they discover something else that it's like, oh, his long-term future may be more at risk than we realized. for reasons that we had no reason to suspect in the first place. Like it's a surprise to everybody. It could be. Or could you be doctors just not reading the same thing, the same way? Or like you say, the Lakers just having a different set of criteria that they're operating on.

Starting point is 00:15:13 It's not whether or not Mark Williams can play now. It's whether or not Mark Williams can play in four years. And so, you know, I'm looking forward to getting more information about it, just because it's a kind of a fascinating story, but in the short term, what it does for the Lakers is, leaves them without a center other than Jackson Hayes on their regular roster.

Starting point is 00:15:37 They have two-way players in Christian Coloco and Trey Jemison, but those guys, as long as they are two-way on two-way contracts, are not eligible for the playoffs. So they would have to make roster moves just to allow one of those guys, to be on the team. Obviously, Dalton be on the playoff roster.

Starting point is 00:15:59 Obviously, Dalton Connect is a Laker again. And you get all the stuff back, you know, where the picks and whatever and long term, maybe they'll be better off making another trade later on with more stuff this summer to work with. But that said, they got to figure out now what to do with that position. They no longer have that empty roster spot

Starting point is 00:16:24 to work the buyout market. They have to create that now because Cam Reddish is a Laker again as well. And the buyout market, Andy, is not going to be a place that offers high-end players that could even remotely solve their center problem. No, we'll get into some of those names over the remainder of the show. But this also quickly speaks to the one last thing in terms of fault or what Rob Lincoln you know, screwed up, you know, the idea of you focus so much on Mark Williams, you could have just gone out and gotten a different center with less injury risks, you know, like Walker Kessler

Starting point is 00:17:03 or Miles Turner. Those guys, by all accounts, were not available. Like, there were, there were no reports of another team having deep discussions with the jazz about Walker Kessler. As we've explained many times, it makes no sense for. the Jazz unless they got a godfather, you know, seriously? Like, you're really going to offer us this? Okay. Offer for Walker Kessler. It makes no sense for where they are rebuilding to get rid of a 23-year-old double-double who is one of the best shop lockers in the league. Like that makes no sense. Miles Turner is 29, but the Pacers are playing very well and they're not an organization that likes to rebuild. Again, short of a godfather type offer that also allows.

Starting point is 00:17:50 allows the Pacers to remain really competitive this season. I don't know how the Lakers were going to get Miles Turner either. And that's before you even get in the mechanics of matching Turner's salary and all that. I don't know what Rob Polinka passed up while getting, you know, in the weeds of a Mark Williams deal and like really focusing on that. But looking around at the centers that didn't move or the centers that didn't seem available, it doesn't feel to me like there was much of an opportunity cost on this side with Belenka.

Starting point is 00:18:25 Well, I mean, you didn't get Jonas Valenchunis. You could have gotten Vucevic or whatever from Chicago, but these are not players that the Lakers particularly wanted. I mean, I don't, I can only speak for me. I do not consider that an opportunity cost. No, but I don't, and I don't consider that I agree with you, the Turner and Kessler stuff. They didn't get traded for reasons that are obvious. You can say the same thing about Williams.

Starting point is 00:18:48 And I think if you're looking for conspiracy. It shocked a lot of people that Williams was even available. Right. And that's part of the, I think if you're looking inside, if you're looking a little sideways at the, the Charlotte front office, it's that nobody seemed to think Williams is available. Suddenly he is and you wonder if it's because they knew something that medically that other people didn't and then they were trying to pull a fast one on someone. Or it could just be similar how the Lakers kind of knew what the preexisting conditions were with Andrew Bidenman didn't want to have to sign him to another deal.

Starting point is 00:19:23 The Hornets knew that an extension was coming up soon for Williams. They didn't want to pay him. And, you know, not, I guess, you know, same reasons that Dallas thought Luca was going to be too heavy and didn't want to pay him a Supermax. They just didn't want to make the investment. So they, the short-term problem here, though, because we all have gone very quickly, Andy from like, wow, they really big risk with Mark Williams who's healthy

Starting point is 00:19:52 now and we'll see what happens. This roster actually looks pretty complete to nope, they got another big hole in there defensively, positionally, whatever. And as well as Jackson Hayes played at times, you can't rely on him to be the sort of the

Starting point is 00:20:10 everyday guy playing big minutes and all that kind of stuff without some kind of consequence. So is there, anybody out there that could make a difference for the Lakers this season. Plus, bad news for Anthony Davis. We'll cover that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul when the game tips off. The NBA action is just getting started. And there's no better place to get in on it than with Fandul, America's number one sports book. With Fandul, you can place live bets throughout the game. So even if

Starting point is 00:20:44 you miss the opening tip off or want to bet on a fourth quarter comeback, you can stay in the action. And if you're looking for a bigger payout, you can even combine your live bets on the same game parlay. And the live betting feature is really awesome because it keeps every moment of the game exciting, whether you're backing your team that you love personally for a late game rally or you're picking a player just as a mercenary to hit a clutch three on your behalf. You never feel like you missed your chance. Plus, the app is really easy to use. And when you win, you get paid instantly. Right now, new Fanduil customers can pay just $150.

Starting point is 00:21:18 You can just get, excuse me, $150 in bonus bets with your first $5 winning bet. Five bucks. That's all you need for a winning bet, $150 in bonus bets. Visit fanduel.com to join today. Fandle.com is your shot for $150 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with Fandle, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. A couple small things, Andy. I didn't realize this.

Starting point is 00:21:48 And I just, apparently Jalen Hood-Chifino's waived. the jazz after they acquired him. I wasn't paying attention. That sucks. Yeah. Oh, man. Like, Jay, I'm, Jay, Jess is going to have a hard time finding another job in the NBA.

Starting point is 00:22:08 I feel really bad for him. He seems like a nice kid, but he has had a brutal go in the NBA. And it's hard to think of a problem. player who over his first two seasons in the NBA has showcased himself as little as JHS has. I mean, it just, I really feel for the kid. Yeah, I mean, I think he'll end up on a two-way somewhere at some point, but yeah, it could be tricky.

Starting point is 00:22:35 I mean, the path is, it's not easy for players like him that get, find themselves jobless so quickly. The other piece of big NBA news was that Anthony Davis, who left his first game with Dallas, but in the third quarter of what was a dominant performance to that point, actually was hurt a little bit more than he let on after the game. And he'll miss. It looks like possibly even a few weeks, as they may be more. We'll see.

Starting point is 00:23:07 Hopefully not. But with the recurrence of that injury, or maybe it might be a slightly different one. But either way, Davis is going to be out. And I feel really bad for him because, you know, the ovation he got when he went to Dallas, you know, for everybody was worried, they were going to boo everyone because, like, you know, he, they gave him a nice ovation. He played really well. He's done such a good job getting rid of this sort of stigma, at least for the time being,

Starting point is 00:23:37 of being hurt all the time. It's been pretty durable over the last couple of seasons. And I think Andy probably rushed a little bit to get back on the floor in Dallas to try to, you know, show people what he was. I think if he was still in L.A., that trade never happened. I'm not entirely sure he's even in whatever equivalent for the Laker game was,

Starting point is 00:23:58 you know, Saturday afternoon. I don't know if he'd been playing. I think it's certainly possible. You're correct because he is, he played, put it this way, when he was still with the Lakers, I know we had talked even about the possibility of the Lakers,

Starting point is 00:24:15 if they were winning enough, creating a cushion of plausible deniability where you hold him out for the next couple of games, even if he is close enough or you could reasonably put him back out on the court just to give him that extra time and then allow him to not play in the All-Star game. It's very difficult to not play in the All-Star game

Starting point is 00:24:38 if you've just played in a regular game. Now AD is, unfortunately, clearly going to miss the All-Star game and more. Quite possibly many. Beyond that, Jeff Stott's, one of the best sports medicine people out there to follow on Twitter in street clothes, tweeted out with surgery being discussed as a possible option, it seems more and more likely AD has a core muscle injury. Surgery comes with a high success rate, but it would likely end this season. We both really think a lot of AD professionally and personally, and it just, it's. it sucks to see such a

Starting point is 00:25:17 great player who I think really was taking to heart the idea of these Mavericks fans are upset about this deal and I get it and I want to make them feel better and then having that get cut out so quickly. That's awesome. Yeah. I mean, I feel bad for like Nico Harrison and like a get your popcorn ready like,

Starting point is 00:25:40 you know, sort of franchise drama kind of way. like watching from very far away. I feel bad for it. He is a person, which is much, much worse. Daniel Tice,

Starting point is 00:25:51 Andy, as far as I can tell, the best available buyout center of guys that we know currently are out there and available. The Lakers do have enough space that as long as the player

Starting point is 00:26:04 that they're trying to sign makes under $12.8 million of pro-rated veterans minimum after they make the roster space that's required, they can sign a guy, I don't know if they can do two. I think I know they can at least do one. But man alive, there is not much out there.

Starting point is 00:26:22 And in terms of street free agents, probably the best two are Tyson, Mobamba. I was going to say, Mobamba is out there. His first stint with the Lakers did not work out at all. Although he was hurt for a lot of it, maybe presumably healthy, knock on wood. If he ended up who the Lakers targeted, it goes better. You mentioned Daniel Tice. There had been a rumor circulating that he might go to Europe as a free agent as opposed to looking to be a buyout guy in the NBA. I've seen Marvin Bagley's name come up as a potential.

Starting point is 00:26:58 If he's bought out. Well, just he's not bought out yet. He's not bought out yet, but somebody that could get bought out, I agree. It's not a great option. But if you're looking for somebody who's 610, like he is there and he's played NBA games. You know, I've seen Chris Boucher come up as a potential buyout guy if Toronto decided to do that. You know, he's rail skinny, but he's tall. And he's at least tries to be active defensively.

Starting point is 00:27:26 You know, Larry Nance Jr., I've seen his name come up as a potential buyout guy in Atlanta. You know, he's been an undersized center before. He's obviously been a Laker before. And he's a smart, helpful player, but he gets hurt constantly himself. Yeah, I'm less worried about that. I just, I think if you're looking for. He's another version of what they already have. Right.

Starting point is 00:27:45 He's, I like the idea of adding Larry Nance to the roster. He's just a smart, versatile player that, again, if you find yourself in need of 20 minutes a night from that guy for 10 days, you're going to get quality minutes

Starting point is 00:28:01 where he's not going to screw anything up. And I think that's important. You can play with a lot of people. He will fit right in. But he doesn't solve your bulk at center. We need another big body, a vertical threat, like all that kind of stuff. Larry Nance doesn't solve any of that stuff.

Starting point is 00:28:17 And he's talked about as somebody that could be on the buyout market, but we haven't actually seen any movement from Atlanta, that they're going to let him go anyway. The options for the Lakers at the moment, short and I was going to say projected, short of somebody very unexpectedly getting bought out by a team. And that's before you even get into the idea of what was his original contract? Was he under a mid-level exception? Is he even eligible for the Lakers to sign?

Starting point is 00:28:50 Like Marvin Bagley, where he bought out, is somebody that might be on the Lakers radar just because his contract just gets in under that wire. So he might be one of the few guys you actually could target at all, whether you like it or not. Like we had talked before about with Mark Williams. one of the things that we liked about him being brought in is he could be of short-term help for them at center just because he would be one of two centers on the roster with any NBA experience at all. But we both thought that there was a possibility that his role in these playoffs could be relatively limited just because the Lakers, some of their best defense, certainly of late, has been going small. And they've been doing a really good job with that.

Starting point is 00:29:38 and there's matchups around the league that you can get away with it. And in all honesty, Lakers have even managed to figure it out against guys like Aviza Zubots and Carl Anthony Towns in recent games. Like both of us suspected that they could, if nothing else, close a lot of games going small, even if Mark Williams was on the roster. So it's not impossible for them to try to do the thing that they're going to be setting out to do when Luke is back. you know, in the postseason, but it does become harder if for no other reason than having fewer options.

Starting point is 00:30:13 And one thing that at least is still out there that could really matter around playoff time is that it is not guaranteed that Maxi Claiba is out for the season. He might be. You're about, it's about two months of, you know, before he's evaluated that, you know, gets you back right in theory close to the end of the season. Is he, you know, he did not play well this year with. Dallas, but he has been a functional player, decent defender, can shoot a little bit and that kind of stuff over the course of his career. So, you know, maybe you get a little bit of internal

Starting point is 00:30:49 help with Claib. I think because of the surgery, it's sort of just assumed he's not an option, but he might be. But short of that, I think what they are most likely going to do, maybe you sign somebody like Daniel Tice. I think probably more likely you convert Christian Coloco at some point over the season to a regular contract, which is, I think ultimately what they might have done anyway, but they really would have liked to have gotten through this season without having to change their books, so to speak, with Coloco. I assume it would be him and not and not Jemison of the guys that they would put out there. But ultimately, they're just going to play.

Starting point is 00:31:32 They're going to play with Jackson Hayes when, you know, the matchups are there and he's playing well and they're going to play small in all the other times because you're not signing Daniel Tice or Mo Bamba and giving them 27 minutes a game with this roster. It's just not they're not good enough and it's not going to happen. So get used to small ball. Yeah. I mean, it's really unfortunate for for Likers and they're just going to have to figure. Unfortunately, the short term.

Starting point is 00:32:01 Well, I guess we'll, you know, we'll find out. Yeah, I mean, look, the long term is they get back the assets that they use for Mark for Mark Williams and maybe in the off season where they're not as under the gun. And hopefully they look good in the... And I think you get access to one more, more pick swaps, more stuff in the summer than you have now. Right. And hopefully they look good in the first couple months or so that we see of the Luca era. And it makes them an attractive, attractive destination for whatever center free agents are going to be out there.

Starting point is 00:32:35 Again, they have more trading options with a little, they have their pieces back and a little bit more of a breathing window to make it happen. But in the short term, it's going to require, we've talked about the execution piece of this and the Lakers needing to execute to win. Maybe Mark Williams was going to provide them a bit more of a cushion. Maybe Luka is certainly going to. But at the end of the day, they go back to having to execute defensively at the top, top end of their game. going to have no other. Yeah, I mean, this is the news that was dominating the weekend, but obviously, Andy, Luca Donchich is at least, he's listed as questionable for tonight's game, expected to make his debut as a Laker. And we, of course, will be back following the game with

Starting point is 00:33:22 all the analysis of Luca's knock on wood debut. LeBron expected to be back and forth. We're going to get a view of what this team looks like going forward. Obviously, everybody really excited to see Luca play. So check us out after that. We'll see everyone after the game.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Mark Williams Trade Rescinded: Did Pelinka Make a Mistake? Can Lakers Find Another Center?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.