Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - NBA Free Agency Reaction Show! Who Are The Winners And Losers? | NBA Squad Show

Episode Date: July 4, 2025

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On today's Lockdown NBA Squad Show, free agency has shifted some things. Guys got re-signed, guys got moved, but did anybody actually get better? Let's talk about all that and more right now. Welcome to Lockdown NBA Squad Show. My name is Nick Engstead, host the Lockdown NBA and Lockdown Mavericks podcast. This is the squad show where we take over the feet of your favorite lockdown show. It's an open invite for any host to join, talk about anything they want in the NBA.

Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use that code, Lockdown NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download game time today. Is it? Game time. Game time.

I'm joined today from Lockdown Thunder, Rylund Stiles, locked on Rockets, Kevin Durant's new DM partner, Jackson Gatlin, DeAndre Aitin, Superfan number one, Brian Kamenetsky, the biggest fan of Jonas Valchunis, this side of the Mississippi, Ryan Blackburn, and the guy that now has to answer

to Chris Ops-Porsinkis' doctor, Brad Rowling from Lockdown Hawks. We may end up. somewhere completely different gentlemen, but I want to talk about the Rockets first. A lot of people are talking about the Rockets, getting Kevin Durant, all these different moves that they've made. I think they've made nine moves in free agency. Are the Rockets doing too much or are the rockets now like in the tier with the thunder right now? We've got Riley. We've got Jackson. We might as well start there. Rockets are about to run the West everybody. In fact,

I'm moving my nameplate over Ryland because Rockets are going to finish with a better record than the, no, we're not actually doing all that. I'm going to back that up a little bit. no look I mean how can you not put the rockets in the same tiers at least on paper on paper they're contenders man I don't see I don't see how are you all using the same paper I mean I hope you're using the same paper my paper looks pretty good even even through rockets tinted shades but how does everybody else feel come on who's buying that who's buying the rockets coolate again okay okay they they they were two seed put the coffee they were two seed in a super competitive West averaging 28 points a game. And so now they have Kevin Durant. And only three made threes.

It was ridiculous. No. Yeah. Look, they, they were a 52 win team. They added Kevin Durant. Like, they might crack 60 wins this next year. And they're going to, they're going to meet the thunder in the Western Conference Finals. It's those two teams. Like, let's just fast forward to next May, because that's what's happening, Ryland. Okay. Jackson, question for you. You have 17 power forwards on the roster who's actually going to shoot threes for this team outside of Katie and Fred Van. Dang. Jabarisma Jr. is going to shoot threes and be just fine at it. Reed Shepherd is going to shoot threes and be great.

Aaron Holiday is actually going to play some minutes and shoot some threes. Tari Isson's an okay shooter. Give him some respect. DFS. DFS shoots three. DFS will shoot threes. There you go. Their shooting woes are a thing of the past. They will no longer be a bottom five three point shooting team.

We're shooting for middle of the pack, mediocrity here in Houston. Just wait. That's good enough, right? A Thunder just won a championship middle of the pack three-point shooting. Yeah, if you got the elite defense, then the shooting doesn't really matter as much. I am now picturing Clay Capela taking threes right now, and I've seen plenty of that in practices. It's not going to work out very well for you. Lots of two big lineups.

It's going to be a lot of fun. We've seen Stephen Adams take threes and warm-ups. Anybody men at a game where you see Stephen Adams warm up? I've definitely seen a three-parallis on the squad show right now. Why are we talking about three-point shooting so much? we actually had to we actually had to trade john crellis to another network in order to get under the second apron like we had to lose that salary we had to be named later so i i do like houston though i think that they are they're going to be a fantastic team during the regular

season as long as kevin durand stays healthy and surely like he'll stay healthy throughout the entire season i i don't see any way that that uh that is that's something that comes back to bite them they're built to like withstand a little bit of Katie missing some time. I think you go into it with the expectation that Katie's probably going to miss, you know, anywhere from 20 to 25 games. And they're not going to just suddenly crater without Katie. I mean,

they won plenty of games last year where Jalen Green didn't show up as their leading score. So if you just suddenly remove your leading score from the equation, this rocket team has plenty of experience doing that this past year. So I think they'll be just fine even in the games where Katie misses. The goal is to have him healthy for a 16 game run in the postseason. Not far be it from me to further pour the Rockets Kool-Aid, but they're literally changing Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks's shot selection for Kevin Durant's shot selection. That in and of itself to me is enough to give him like five more wins in the regular season.

My question, though, is Reid Shepard? Is he like, he's the backup point guard, like how much are they going to ask of him? So we didn't see a lot of him last year at all. A lot. Look, they gave him a shot last year. They gave him like the first quarter of the season to see if he was ready for the NBA. He wasn't. He was deer in headlights.

He did not look ready for it. then they pivoted to Aaron Holiday. There is a lot riding on his shoulders to be able to make things work as the backup point year, which I think kind of speaks volumes about how invested the organization is in him and how much they really believe that he's ready to take that step forward. Near the end of the season and some of the spot minutes that he would get in like garbage time moments or even a few of the games that he started near the end of the year, he looked like a completely different player than he did from, you know, the bright lights moments

earlier in the season. So I think for a steady like 12 to 15 minute a night roll backing up Fred Van Bamblite next year with Fred and Emin Thompson kind of handling the primary ball handler responsibilities. And then obviously a lot of it, a lot of the offense going through Shingoon and KD as well, he'll be just fine in that role. The other thing, too, is like the, the Rockets still have so much stuff that they can use, whether you're talking appealing players, draft picks, you know, whatever to, to acquire, if you find you need another ball handler, that's not going to be hard for them to come up with.

no not whatsoever and i and i want to like just really quickly in case anybody else and here decides to bring up this topic of discussion this is not a championship or bust move for the rocket's like i keep seeing that terminology thrown around and it's like the dumbest thing because championship it's two teams and we're going to submit it to the end of season two teams that matter you already said that that but that that that implies that like yes championship is the goal while you have katy but it's not or bust if it goes wrong like it would be disappointing if the rockets didn't at least make to the Western Conference Finals after this move and match up with the Thunder.

But it's also not the or bust part of it because that implies that you gave up your future in order for a shot to win a title right now. The Rockets still have a super bright future and a chance to win with Katie for the next two or three years. So it would really be disappointing to you, Jackson, if they don't get the West Finals, which means that they're going to have to play in all likelihood,

one of Oklahoma City or Denver in the second round, losing to one of those two teams in the second round would be disappointing for this Houston team. I think that that's still taking a step forward, especially if they battle hard in that second round series. Depends on the outcome of the series, right? If you get like manhandled by the Thunder or the Nuggets, like, you know,

gentlemen sweep, whatever, that would be super disappointing. If you go like go all the way, a competitive seven game series, whatever, and you just come up a little bit short, you know,

a couple different things break your way. And you're talking about advancing versus not advancing. I think that's a different discussion. I would agree. I think that's, I think it's Houston, Denver. How do you,

how do you feel, Rylan? looking at this Houston team. Are you worried at all, looking at it from a Thunder perspective? You know, I think that they're interesting. They gave the Thunder some stylistic problems a year ago without having these additions. And then now, the only thing that I'm left questioning is how they're going to jostle this front court and like how often are they going to play double bigs and how often are

they going to maybe not have their best defensive lineup out there because the way that the thunder were able to navigate having a middle of the back three point shooting team in the playoffs and in the playoffs a terrible three-point shooting team was that they were so elite defensively with every lineup that they put out there and whenever you put a lineup out there with changoon and kevin durant perhaps you're going to have some lapses that you otherwise wouldn't if you're houston but i do think that it's houston and denver in the west that are the two biggest threats to Oklahoma city it's pretty clear like minnesota losing keel alexander walker they're probably going to be just a little bit worse you never know what they can do during the season though they

they seem to find ways to continue to add talent. I don't really see the Lakers challenging at that level, though. Brian, sorry, sorry, DeAndre Aten, probably not going to be digging deep to lead some playoff series wins here. You missed the big. Ryan's not buying into the dominating going on in L.A. right now, okay? I will look. It is, the Lakers are trying to just sort of keep up with the Joneses here.

Like, you know, keep up with Houston. The Dillon Joneses. Keep up with. keep up with Denver if you can, you know, not fall. And obviously, DeAndre Aiton doesn't do that necessarily when you look at what everybody, you know, he's not acquiring Kevin Durant. It's not the same thing. But even if you, why not, why not just, why wouldn't you just go get KD though?

Is Rob Polinka dumb? He could have just gotten KD. I mean, just the GM wouldn't give it to him. Does he have a history of just getting a star player? from another gym. Did Rob Polinka forget his cup of coffee when he tried to talk to 25 for 25 and Luca trade jokes on the squad show? Just the frustration of having DeAndre Aiton drop into the Lakers lap in an offseason where they wouldn't otherwise be able to find a center was enough to keep Matt away from this show. So he's so deep as his Luca PTSD. But like I look at it this way. Even if I would even if you stipulate that Aiton, is none of the professionalism bad habits that he's built up over the last few years.

And all of it stays exactly the same. He's still so much better than Jackson Hayes that the Lakers are significantly better than they were at the end of last season. I like the Laravia signing. I think that will replace 75% of 80% of what you were going to get from DFS. So I'm not worried about that. And then you're swapping out Jackson Hayes, who is a replacement level NBA player for a guy who has never averaged less than 14 and 10. You know, for all of our problems with Aidan and they are myriad,

he's still a pretty productive guy who does all of the things that you would want a center to do. on a Luca led team. He's a good pick and roll player. He can get above the rim to finish. He's a good offensive rebounder. He can do all that stuff. They're replacing Jackson Hayes. So that's the guess.

You don't measure Aiton against the ideal center that the Lakers could pick if they could pick anyone. You measure him against who is he replacing and what was available. And they're paying him less than the spurs are paying Luke Cornette. I'm just glad that LeBron feels exactly the same way as all of that. He might not.

LeBron crashing out of front of him. He watches DeAndre Aiton. Aiton's going to sit there and watch a rebound and watch like three or four Lakers fight over the same rebound. I think we all know the play I'm talking about here from his Phoenix days. And LeBron is going to crash out magnificently. It's going to be awesome to win this. Get the Rich Paul statements, Friday.

Jackson Hayes picked up a foul every 13 second. I mean, again, the thing is about, the thing about Aiton, though, it's not about like, no, no, no, Nick, we're talking about Jackson Hayes. Come on. Get the idea. The thing about Jackson Hayes is it's more about with Aiton, the lows are like, he could check out. Like, and he can check out much more. There's also some pressure, though, of like not, like, this is your last chance, I think. I think this is your last chance in the league. Well, if you can't get the professionalism stuff right next to LeBron and Luca and the Lakers, then everything. team just going to quit trying to even make it happen.

That's worked out for guys before, right? How many times the last chance guy on a LeBron team worked out? Last chance you. If I already had like 200 million in the bank and this was my last chance to like establish myself before I was run out of the league, but I'm sitting on $200 million or whatever it is, I might be out of the league. I'm not sure. Can you drive down an icy driveway, Brian?

That's the question. He was born into Bahamas. Can you turn into the skin? That's the question. The man has never seen snow. Give him a break. He also sleeps on an air mattress every night as a 200 million dollar man. He's frugal.

You want that kind of. He won't care about the next contract. Would you rather him be Malik Beasley? I mean, what do you want? At least he and LeBron can bond over that. I love the Lakers mafia swore. That's a good thing. I love this Lakers mafia swore of that Aiton is actually underrated.

Brian is, Brian is legitimately not part of that. And yet he is still buying all the Aton Gool-Gool-Lade right now. I'm not it's not that he's underrated it's that he doesn't suck like you think you look at this at the reactions he the Andre aiden and think he's trash he's not I'm not talking about a guy going out and being an all-star and this is going to be the year he puts it together and you know he's going to see his talent and we're looking at you know 23 and 10 baby like no but he doesn't suck like there's the the narrative is swung too far in the wrong direction on Aiden, I will say it again. If he does nothing to fix any of the issues that he has from a professionalism standpoint, he makes the Lakers, you know, whatever, 65% better at the center position than they were

at the end of last year. Just because Jackson Hayes isn't very good and his backup was Alex Lenn, Christian Coloco. I mean, Trey Jemison. Like those are the, those are the centers. Lakers finish the season with. Can I just call on somebody on this stream? Today's episode of the Locktime MBA Squad Show brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create that account, use the code Lockdown MBA to get $20 off

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We were talking about the Thunder and the Rockets being the top of the West, and you got nothing to say about the Nuggets right now. I think the Nuggets are squarely in that mix. What's going on? I'm fighting my time, just like the Nuggets. We talk about the Lakers. We talk about DeAndre Yating. Ryan just like Yolkich just sees horses running around.

Yeah, you know, I'm just very, very. much like Yokich in that regard. We're just going to wait until October comes around. But no, I think that's, how drunk are you right now? I think that Denver has a chance to win 60 games. 60. I did not think that they would like get anywhere close to that during a Yokuch tenure because one, they didn't have a good backup center ever before. Now they've got Yonis Valanchunis who's like, hey, Brian, he might be better than DeAndre Aten. I just want to let you know. And they're on home. You all point better than DeAndre Aten. But either way. Like now you've got Cam Johnson, who's, I think, a better player than Michael Porter, though they're in the same tier.

They got back Bruce Brown, who's just going to be wearing cowboy hats all around Denver and hanging out some, hang out some shots to people, things like that. And Tim Hardaway Jr. is a good spot. So they're back. Like, this is a, this is a team that they were, the two big weaknesses for them were that they were so narrow around that core for around what Yokinch was doing. and they had zero depth whatsoever. And they've addressed both this offseason. Look, from a Thunder's perspective, they should hope that you and Jackson are absolutely right,

that these two teams go win 60 games, and then the Thunder are the one seed, you guys are the two-three seed, and then the Thunder aren't to worry about it until the West Finals because they're trying to not only repeat for the first time since those Warriors teams, but just simply get out of the second round or better since those warrior teams.

So it's going to be very tough for the Thunder to pull this off. And if they have to play Houston or Denver any earlier, then the chances of them falling by the way, way of what these typical champions have done grow exponentially. So the Thunder should hope that these two teams are really good. I think that Denver is a bigger threat to OECC than Houston because of Yokic and because of just how they play basketball really bends the Thunder style of defense in a way that no other teams been able to do to this point consistently.

And then Houston is right there as well. But I think it is a clear top three in the West. It's going to be a lot of fun. This is a, I didn't think that they could turn this around. The fact that they were able to trade Michael Porter Jr's contract is crazy. They got a better player. I want to take the squad show hat off for one second. I know we're supposed to poke fun at each other.

But like I'm actually so impressed with Denver's moves. Like they walked away. Being able to be able to like. Say nice things on the squad show. Oh, what? I thought we were supposed to be mean to each other. Shut on, Jackson. You have to be mean the entire time.

I just want to clarify for Matt Moore wherever he is listening that the only reason I'm on the squad show is because I finished my homework in time. So, um, all right. No, but like actually is it, how weird is it that like next year, the winner of the Western Conference might just be the team that actually like eaks out the one seat, like between the Thunder, the Rockets and the Nuggets. And I think you give the benefit of the doubt to the Thunder. They're the youngest team.

They just did it this past season. They should be able to truck through the regular season with ease again. But at the same time, like it's nothing is a given, right? They sustain some major injuries this year and we're able to power through those. But like if you lose SGA for an extended period of time for any reason, like, whoever wins the one scene in the West might just cakewalk to the finals if they don't have to deal with the other two teams.

Or if the Thunder have a significant injury that actually prevents a player from playing, which J-Dubb, obviously, he got hurt and was playing through some stuff and was still fantastic in the finals, so credit to him. But Denver missed out on having Aaron Gordon in Game 7. I don't think they would have won that game either way,

but it certainly didn't help that they didn't have a good version. I still don't know who on the Nuggets, Gar's DeAndre Aiton. So you guys figure that. you know i i i have a player who the altitude the altitude guards d'angrae can i wager here i've got a guy who's averaging 14 and a half points and 10 rebounds on his per 36 numbers anybody want to wager a guess who that is because it might be better than diondra aidan is a jock landale

jock landale here we go would you rather have d'andre aided or jock landale because they're both 14 and 10 guys baby you laugh but i was actually like when all of this stuff was happening i'm like ooh jock landau my good belief. How down bad do you have to be to be like, this is my point. This is what we were doing. The litmus test.

Brian, did you ever once consider Dwight Powell from the Dallas Mavericks? We didn't get that back. We still have Maxie. We don't need Dwight. They were best friends. And it would be the power of friendship

to get them back together. He was also in the Ray John Rodo trade. The rocket's already disassembled the power of friendship by stealing a dodo who owns the power of friendship team not even not even Luca could keep his best friend on the team I don't think maxi has that kind of pull it's probably we'll get under who are the power of friendship team like they just they have to be until those guys make money and they decide you know the next with the Villanova crew but that's it is is going from Tom

Tibido to Mike Brown and upgrade to anyone yeah no side grade It feels like a lateral move to me. I think it's a marginal upgrade only because Mike Brown is more willing to experiment in the regular season. But I think him and Tibbs both have their postseason limitations, right? I think they've both been proven out as not the best, quickest postseason coaches. But I thought Mike Brown was okay the last time that the Sacrable was the last King's playoff series against the Warriors and they lost. The only one? The only one.

Yeah, yeah. But like Deer and Fox got hurt. I think they win that series if Deeran Fox is healthy. Mike Brown had coached well, but he was also coaching his former team, which he kind of knew intimately, and I don't know how much of a leg up that was, probably a lot.

But I think it's a slight upgrade. It's like a B to a B plus, but I don't, still are going to be a problem for them, probably. That was pretty underrated how creative Tibbs got in the playoffs when they're making the conference finals and doing some impressive things, just trying to manipulate the fact that Carly-Lithony Towns

was Carin-Lentany-Towns and like that they still had to kind of make up some of those differences. But now it'll be fascinating. I think Mike Brown's okay. He's he's very clearly okay. And like they've got Jordan Clarkson now sick. Yeah. How much is it going to be just okay, they got they got Clarkson.

They added to Yabuselli as well. Like they got a couple of debt pieces. Like and just if you get back into this season and everybody's healthy from the jump, like how much is it just going to be like, okay, Mike Brown just like actually has like a solid like 10 deep. NBA rotation that he can rely on and will rely on as opposed to Tibbs running his guys into the ground starting in November. And the two best teams in the East are out of it, right? No Boston, no Indiana to have to try to get through. He might just sort of fall into a better, more success. Like the Knicks might fall into the NBA finals because the Cavs love to throw up on themselves

in the playoffs. The Celtics aren't in it. The Pacers aren't in it. And you look around and you're like, I don't know who else is in it. Maybe the Hawks. I don't know. That's a perfect segue to the Hawks. No, they're going to be a top four. No, top four team in the east. Your top four in the east next year are going to be Cavs, Knicks, Hawks, Magic. Right there. Those are your top four seats. It's an extremely bizarre timeline that we're in where Wes is bringing up the Hawks as a finals team.

Hawks and Finals in the same breath. Lots of fandom graphics about how the Hawks have the best title odds changed in the last two weeks. I don't know where I am. It's like I've gone back a decade. It's very, very strange. and it's not like completely preposterous and everything goes well it's like this is pretty open shrug emoji like i totally get it it's it's fun forzingus never plays but if he's there sign me up odds to make the finals or is this odds to win the finals or make odds to win the finals hawks plus 3,000 boston southex plus 3,700 normal sport just a very normal thing that was that you just said there Boston won the championship like 13 months ago and now they're longer odds than the hawks to win remind me i still remember the confetti falling on me just thinking about like the one time that a team

had to face the celtics at all basically full strength then they just but elana's Atlanta's better than boston for next year they are yeah right now oh yeah no it's why i mean just if you needed to design a team that could protect tray young defensively they did it i think i think they did it yeah and i think i think it also too it's like everybody forgot johnson missed yes you know the second half of last year on of all these great moves they get johnson back it's gonna they're gonna be awesome they're be fun to watch league pass five as long as canard is not on the court with tray they'll be all right uh keep lu canard away from trey young everybody else is well suited to surround him protect him and yeah you you mentioned johnson they won 40 games like no one was excited about the hawks last year but winning 40

games with jama missing like 45 games was actually a pretty solid outcome for that roster and now they're like a lot better and a year older so it's how much are you guys celebrating the kill alexander walker signing because Atlanta used to be the team that always talked about getting free agents and never got them. And then you just got the one guy that everybody with a full mid-level exception, every fan base was like, let's just get to kill Alexander Walker. Atlanta came away from the NAW sweepstakes as the winners. It is kind of on brand that it would be a non-famous free agent that everybody wants. The Hawks have only gotten one famous free agent in my adult life and it was Dwight Howard in case you're wondering how that went. He is actually the cousin of the

is he really i hadn't heard that nepo famous like that's a new thing uh but no i mean the short answer is like yeah it's kind of surprising and it was also like out there for a week it's like hey the hawks are the favorites and i'm like the hawks are the what on on what on the number one free agent that's available and also he doesn't have like a starting spot guarantee like sometimes it's like yeah oh you can see why guy would go that one spot he isn't he's not going to start i don't think right and it's exactly the same thing yeah Atlanta that he did in minnesota he's signing it to be a six or seventh and like willingly doing it and like clearly wants to be there. So it's a yeah, it's different.

I'm still. I'm sick of these cities with geographical advantages. This is awful. Atlanta comes away with all the top tier free agents. Yeah. What's the temperature and humidity rate outside in Houston right now? God awful. It's Hawks exceptionalism again.

Yeah. No, but actually, obviously look, a lot of this health permitting with Porzingis, right? But I mean, is Porzingis a little bit of also an asset here as a third? $30 million expiring contract and could the Hawks potentially actually if if his health struggles continue right could they not just flip I mean a congo is a starting caliber center a Congo can start just fine could they not then flip porzingis and congo probably does

that or two into something else he probably does if prongas isn't healthy no I was going to say there's a chance he starts even if porzengis is there I don't know yet I haven't heard definitively but like if they want to manage porzengis if they're kind of get him on board to play 25 minutes a game to stay healthy like it makes total sense to me but you're right if If he's just like out, I mean, there's the weird illness with Porzingis. If he's just like can't play, then yeah, he's a giant expiring contract. And they also paid a price to get him where it's like basically no risk at all. And it's fine if he doesn't play.

I mean, they want him to play. Obviously, he raises their ceiling quite a bit. But if he just can't stay on the floor, it's like, oh, all right, you trade the 22nd pick of the draft to get off Terrence van. That's not a big price to get a true, like, top 30 guy when he's healthy. I just think, too, I just want to. Oh, go ahead. No, I just want to point some math. things out. If you just add

Christop's Porzingus's expiring salary, Luke Knorrh's expiring salary, Zachary Rieza Shea's rookie salary, and throw, I don't know, two first round picks that might be owed by Milwaukee back to the bucks, it pretty much matches Janus's salary.

There are multiple ways. There are multiple ways for that to happen. The other one is Wisconsin native Jalen Johnson, who grew up there and is from there, and would be probably appetizing to the bucks that they wanted to do. I'm not saying they're going to do that, but if, if, if you just makes himself available, it's the Hawks, you have to have him wanting to go to the Hawks, which I always like,

it's kind of a small wrinkle, as much as we're talking about the hawks in a good light right now. It's not usually the destination that someone like that would pick. What if he told him chick-fil-a was invented in Atlanta? That might sell him. Is that enticing enough to Yonis? There are a lot of Chick-fil-A's. There's one in every corner here. If they, if the city promises him only in Atlanta, they'll open on Sundays.

just one time uh what was that commercial where the guy has the taco belt can'tina like in his house like can they can they do that in the house yeah taco bell's a nuggus thing keep keep out they're not that i'm saying chick-fil-a just steal their idea it would be you know put one in his house little little booth very atlanta little high school kid that just like works there all the time We're the biggest losers in free agency right now, other than the Lakers, of course. The Lakers won because four hours ago it was the Lakers. Now they're winning.

No, we're just not the losers. I mean, would you have traded, would you have traded Dorian for Giann'tre Aden? Absolutely. Yes. I would not have done that. Just out of the record, I would have done that. I would have done that. Brian, I'm with you on this.

You know what? I'm on the Aton train with you. Let's do this. I love the FAA. They're dominating the squad show together, guys. We're reading off the clip. Dorian Finney Smith is a 32-year-old, you know, decent, but on the downside three-and-d wing, you know, that no longer can really guard down. Like, you can't guard twos and ones anymore.

And, like, it's a great signing for the Rockets. I'm not taking away from what Houston did here. But for what the Lakers needed, do they need that or do they need a center who isn't Jackson Hayes? And so, like, yeah, they traded a, in this scenario, they're trading the seventh, eighth guy in the roster for a starter. That's a no-bra. You do that every time. Yeah, absolutely. The only reason, like, we talked about Aiton on a show last week.

And the reason not to do it is because to get to $35 million, the Lakers would have had to trade like four rotation players. And Yonre Aitin's not that good. But for $8 million and giving up essentially DFS, but then you sign La Ravia. I mean, to me, it's kind of a no-brainer. I think, yeah, look, you do it in a vacuum. It's a no-brainer in a vacuum, but I think the idea here is that, like,

if you could have kept DFS and gotten literally anybody else, then, like, that would have been a better possible outcome. Jack Landale makes $8 million. You could have had him. Why does Jack Landau make $8 million? He's a living, breathing TPE. Just let him live, okay? That's all he is.

It's a non-guaranteed contract all four years. It's like the greatest thing ever. I was excited at the prospect of them acquiring Jock Landale. I'm not lying. I want you to know, John Laydale has gotten more run on this show than he did all season on Locked on Rockets. I just want you guys to know that right now. And look, Denver's had a better off season.

The Rockets have had a better off season. The Hawks have had a better off season. We don't need to be talking about the Lakers that much, although I'm happy to it's good for traffic. But I'm just saying like it's, this is a very significant signing for the Lakers to maintain. retain a team that still has a second team all NBA player in LeBron James, a all-star adjacent player in Austin Reeves, and Skinny Luca.

Hey, you've got to watch those angles on those pictures. You got to get it on video and you're going to get it. I've seen it. No, Skinny Luca is in the same light as hoodie mellow and Ben Simmons hitting off season threes until we see it in person. New Lakers owner, Mark Walter, is going to import every. ounce of food in the facility from Europe this year. I just would like to point something out about the

billionaire. They're all going to be walking. They're going to walk everywhere. It's going to be very continental. It's going to walk. Yeah. They're going to, they're going to walk from, from Lakers games down the street to, down the street. That's it. That's as much walking as they're getting. They're going to, you know, throw a couple coins at street musicians. It's going to be great. And Luke is going to stay skinny.

Wait, can we go back to, did anybody really lose free agency? The Sacramento Kings. The Bucs. They got Schrooter. Sick. I know. The Sacramento Kings. Yeah.

They at least got somebody. They did. They sacrificed Jonas Valchunus to do. They did lose. The Sacramento Kings went back to like when Alan Krabb was making $20 million a year or whatever. And they're like, let's just do that with this guy. And then they tried to give up Monk too. The thing that I didn't get up.

They're actively trying to trade him. Like why would you try to get Schroeder and then you'd also try to give up monk? Like I would just keep both of them. Because now they had done a shooter and they're like, oh, man, we did the thing again. where we have too many points who don't fit together except like a way worse version of it well and they went from Jonas to Dario Sariot

Sarich and I was waiting for Dario's gonna get bought out I was waiting for minutes after that trade like that's all but there's nothing else there's nothing else in the way Dario is staying on the Kings minutes is a long time in free agency Brad I don't know very Chicago Bulls style trade

where it's like that's it huh Bulls have been tough too okay we have totally as a society wormhole the idea that Alan Crabb made almost $77 million of playing NBA basketball. I have never forgotten it.

That is a spectacular full west. I mean, the Nets gave them that four-year offer sheet and it got matched. All right. Who has the brightest future between the Bulls, the Wizards, and the Nets? The Wizards.

Have you looked at the Nets roster? Yeah, it's horrible. The Nets are legitimately probably going to start. Yagor Demon, Cam Thomas, Terrence Mann, Michael Borders, Jr., and Nick Claxton. Demon's terrible. Not bad.

Not bad. For what? It's a 10. You don't know if he's terrible. 10 seen the east right there, Nick. At what point does, can Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. look off each other at the same time? Yeah.

Is that the start of his podcast or on the court? Yes. Thank God they got Yeager Dimmin because my God, they need somebody to spoon beat these guys. That Nets roster, just pull it up one day. Just look at it for a little while. I just got a stare. I mean, I'm just thinking about, like, I love what Michael Porter gave to Denver. He being the locker room leader for the Brooklyn Nets.

That group. That's not. They're not going to be crazy money. Like, he's not going to stay there forever, right? What are they going to do? Yeah. I mean, they made five first round picks, kept them all in their all projects, all five of them or projects. They didn't like try to, like, get an older guy who was like a low ceiling player.

Nope, we're taking five. That's the hardest part. It's not that I have no idea if any of those guys are good or not, but how do you give 12 players that all need development enough time to actually... Did you hear their starting lineup? I just rushed straight out to. Brian, 15 losses. That's how you...

Or sorry, 15 wins. That's how you do it. They're going to have 15 wins all season long. I get it. But Washington, I like Washington. Like, there were like three or four players that I would take five players. I would happily take off that roster. Yeah.

The Wizards should no longer be in those conversations. conversations they are they have too many do Brian wants all the geriatrics from the wizard's roster yeah do the Toronto Raptors replace them just kind of like what do you do one type of thing what direction are they going what are they doing I don't know what to make out of them yeah Brad you really like the the Murray Boyles guy you drafted him in our mock draft I did like Murray Boyles I still do I don't know Toronto's like the worst place for him maybe like yeah he's just a he's a very Raptors player so I just I don't I know why they like it although

they just changed their front office so who's i don't even know who's evaluating players for the rafters i drafted them and then got fired but i think they said after that they already knew he was leaving because it was like the next day it was it was very odd it's true it wasn't a parted ways it wasn't wasn't there wasn't there a room that comma on malwatch would have been the the pick if messiah was going to pick him i mean i would believe that i don't know i mean he's from africa i feel like masai is always going to pick those guys yeah i mean i felt bad for mori boyle's because It's like, oh, you got, you're going to go play behind Scotty Barnes, who's like the good version of that kind of player,

but it's like, it doesn't, they're not going to really fit together. And then they have paid Yaka Purdle like a billion dollars. I don't know what they're doing. It's the Raptors. They're better than the, they have play. I mean, they have some decent players. It's just I don't know what they're playing. It's different than the Nets for sure.

Oh, they're doing. Oh, they're leaving. Oh, they're leaps and mouth better than the Nets. Yeah. To be very clear. The Nets don't have a single player that would start on the Raptors. I don't think. I mean.

Who are the bottom five teams in the east this next season? What the hell? Like, this is kind of hard to pick. Nets and wizards for sure. The Hornets are going to be in a weird. I mean, they're trying, but they're trying. They're going to try. I don't know if they're going to be good, but they're going to try.

They signed Mason Plumlee. Are they trying or they're starting? They're trying. They're trying more, I would say. Watch up for trying more. Are the Sixers going to start Trend in Watford? The Sixers could be down there again. Sixers could be.

If a bead can't play, we can't. never know if he can play. There's no team in the NBA. No team in the NBA is a wider, expected win range than the Sixers. Shout out to the Mock Draft Squad Show where we were all talking about the Sixers. And I think it was Philip from Matt from Lockdown Magic that was like, yeah, you know, and if the Sixers, if Joelle and Bede can play and he's like being all like nice about it and like going and shout out to our new guy on Locked on Sixers, Mark Fers out of it.

And Bede is cooked. There's no chance that he plays the same way. And it just goes straight into it. And everybody lost it because we're just, we hadn't heard of the Sixers guy like come out and say it like that. Are we 100% sure that the heat don't land somewhere in the bottom? Whoa. Oh, Wes.

All right. Here we go. Let's see. Words. If everything goes to plan, they will be in the bottom five. Let's go, baby. We need to have one good pick. Let's go.

Pull in the rip court right now. They, they beat the Hawks in the playing tournament last year to get into the playoffs, kept their pick for 2026. That's the move. The Sixers with moderate health will be better than the heat. There is no moderate health, right? Like the Sixers, to your point before, it was like, they're either going to win 55 games or they're going to win 25 games.

There is no in the middle for them. That's true. The Raptors could be better than the heat. The Bull probably won't be, but I guess it could be. The Bulls won more games than the heat. They did win more games last year. Orlando will be. The Pistons will be.

The Bucs will be. The Pacers still will be. Nicks will be. Celtics will be yeah it's not going to be good Wes sorry it's be great oh he said it's according to plan it is going to be good is great are we sure yonis is like going to play 70 games if he doesn't that team is yeah that team that's pretty bad team the bucks could the buck's could definitely Kevin porter junior is leading that team to 50 wins how dare you i mean you get you get you get one yon cycle turn and things go pretty sideways for Milwaukee

and the hawkster would love that just for yeah not their powder driving in Houston. Who's met the third best player on their team? Who's the second? Miles Turner. Yikes. Miles Turner was the fifth player on the basers in the finals. I like that move from Milwaukee.

Like I'm glad that he got Miles, but then I'm just like, you look at the rest of the roster and you're like, damn, this sucks. For what reason? Like, why did they?

Oh, they didn't just screw over the Pacers. That was the reason. That was all the incentive they needed. If that's the truth, then I respect it. Otherwise, I don't get it. But it is a goal. I made this comparison before. Like they look like a college team, like a mid-major college team that got one five-star recruit. And you're like, wow, that's pretty cool. And then you don't know anybody else on the roster.

They're all just like weird transfers and players like guys that you never heard of. So they're like Rutgers of Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper were like combined into correct. They have a bunch of like seventh men on their team. They were like Ben Simmons's LSU team. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they have much of seventh men. It's like, you know, Gary Trent Jr. is fine. Like Tori and Prince is kind of fine. AJ Green is fine. Bobby Portis is fine.

But none of them are good. They're not like top five players on a good team. So and that's like their three through what three through seven. I think they're starting point guard is Kevin Porter Jr. It is. It's not good. Things are about to go real sideways. Remember when your team was built around Kevin Porter Jr?

What they brought in Russ? Pretty sure they're their backup point for us. Lots of meets it too. Yeah. I think my big takeaway from this show is that Milwaukee is. significantly worse than I thought they were. That's why, look, when we were trying to say who got the worst off season, I said Milwaukee like very early on.

I really think they got, they're just awful. They're in a horrendous situation. It's not good. It's not good. It's not good. They are going to be paying Damien Lillard, right? They're going to be paying Damian Lillard for as long as SGA is getting paid on this new contract.

I mean, Lillard, basically it's the Javari Smith Jr. contract is the dead money on Damien Lillard. Yeah, almost exactly the same amount. Almost the same. When you start to quantify it that way, that is that like top five most insane swings that a team has ever taken? They're basically paying $40 million for Miles Turner

for Miles Turner. For years. It's really 50 million for Miles Turner. If you do it that way, it's 27 plus 22. So you know, 40 50, that's a, it's a lot of way. We've gone long enough without talking about how one of the losers of the off season so far has been Joe Dumars is New Orleans Pelicans.

Oh, thank you. Presented by Zion Williams. I have some thoughts. about the pelicans in a good way as someone who covers the hawks in a good way I mean no no no to be fair not to go for the pelicans I was like for the hawks I didn't know there was pelicans colate out there the pelicans have made two uh very well two very bad trades with the hawks in the last 12 months uh and the first one was like I liked it more than everybody else did

the dice and daniels de jonti murray worked that great for the hawks that was not like universally panned when it happened this one was universally panned like I can't I can't find a single person. I've been trying for a week now to find a single person that liked it. I haven't found one yet. I have given this a lot of thought, Nick. It's worse than the Luca trade. Whoa.

Wow. No. At the 40 minute mark, just an absolute bomb. We found a single NBA media personality that says that a trade was worse than the Luca trade. Hear me out. So is your list, Babe Ruth, the, the Hoth, Pelican trade, and then Luke? To be compared to Babe Ruth, that's cool. That was the NBA.

That was such a great quote. Are the Pelicans going to give up A.J. DiBansta next year to the Hawks? I hope so. They gave up an unprotected, 2026 pick, the better of their own, which is going to suck, and the bucks, which we already knew was going to think. We just went through their roster. And they were like, yeah, but to move up to 10 spots did they get Derrick Queen, worth it. not Cooper Flag, not Dylan Harper,

but I like Derek Queen, fine. I hate him now. I like them in the draft process. I'm like, this guy's going to stink. Because Joe Dumars's draft history is horrible. He's the guy that took Darko. Mateen Cleves, he's had some of the biggest busts in NBA draft lottery history. He does not draft well.

He took Jeremiah Fears way too high at seven and then moved up 10 spots to get Derek Queen. These guys are going to stink. They're going to be bad. Yeah, but the Zero Fears jersey is going to sell them enough. The really fun thing about that is that not only did they just trade that pick for Derek Queen, the Hawks are like, you know what? We also want 23. We're going to have to take 23 as well.

And they're like, okay, sure. We'll give you 23 back. If you want your guy. At least the Maverick's got Anthony Davis, a player who we know has played in NBA games and has made all-star teams and has won a championship. We don't know if Derek Queen is going to be good. and you just gave up something that could legitimately be the number one pick, a top, let's call it even a top three pick in a generational top three draft that people are talking about.

Yeah. It's a horrible trade. It's not impossible that Max Christie will have a better career than Derek Klingwomen. That's 100% true. The Mavericks at least walked away from the Luca trade with something. We have no idea if the pelicans are going to walk away from this trade with anything. The part that I think is really unfair is like, Queen could have a really good rookie season and a really good career.

But like Zion gets hurt in this. You know, like there are 25 other things that could go wrong. They're sort of the Western Conference version of the Sixers where like the win range is probably 20. But like 15 other things could go wrong with the with the Pelicans. They have a terrible season. They give up what turns into the third pick. And Derek Queen is a first team all NBA rookie. like all of those things.

This is a, like the, the whole time in the pre-draft process, you talked about what a unique skill set that he is, and I was going to take a unique set of circumstances for him to hit his ceiling. And I couldn't think of a worse front court from the inner into. To try to maskade his flaws and highlight his strengths than the New Orleans Pelicans. Well, there was that, like, brief bit of chatter, like, you know, the Lakers are calling or other looking for any center they possibly can. They've, they've inquired about Misi with,

with the pelicans and like why on earth the pelicans would trade misi after a really really good rookie season young player on that i guess but like why they would do that and you're just sitting there like and the answer is essentially i don't know joe marr jo du mars does stuff yeah i made a list of joe de mars's uh some of joe de mars's transactions over his career all i'm ready drafted darko millich type drafted rodney white drafted matine cleaves all in the lottery all of them bus. When Rashid Wallace and he gave Rashid Wallace and Alan Iverson these huge contracts

when they got off of those contracts, he used that money to sign Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon. They basically just had these two huge Albatross contracts. Jackson Gatlin, you can look them up. But they had this huge arbitrage contracts on their books for essentially a decade and they couldn't make any moves. He traded Chauncey Billups for

Alan Iverson when Alan Iverson was 33 years old. Shout out. This guy is the king of bad moves. And you'd think he would, like, learn from all of that. I have a legal pad. The amount of hate to pull out a yellow legal pad to write all those down. I had to do a whole thing on this. And so it's awful.

And he didn't learn anything. He learned nothing. He spent time in the league front office where, ostensibly, they'd be like, these are good NBA teams and these are bad NBA teams. and he was just like, no, not not getting any of this. When they were showing him the bad NBA teams, was it all just teams run by Joe Dumars? But they were just like, this is bad.

Don't do this again. I feel like we didn't get Darko enough time. And listen to Lockdown Pelicans, whose podcast art is on the side of the smoothie king center right now. If you can be drive by, it's pretty sick. I swear to you, I almost,

I wanted to talk. I wanted to do a crossover. And I said, you know what, it would be mean to James. I literally said I really thought that like the day after I was like do I do I even ask you know what I'm not going to ask Jake it would just be him trying to explain it and you laughing basically I'm just Jake in tears by the second segment I basically had the yellow legal pad out on the draft night that West just pulled out and I was trying to figure out like why this was bad like wait is there a single way this could possibly be bad for the Hawks the answer is like oh no no no no this is all I mean it may not be great maybe the Pelkins win 40 games I don't know maybe maybe it's fine but even then by the way if it's still not making the playoff. You just wait.

Wait, their guards are Dejante Murray, Jordan Poole, and Kevin and fears, right? Jose Alvarado. Alvarado. What's how all rookies are really bad, like usually, especially one and done rookies, and they just drafted two guys in the lottery that they're going to probably play.

And I couldn't imagine, I couldn't imagine a worse, a better vet for Jeremiah fears than C.J. McCollum and a worse vet for Jeremiah fears than Jordan Poole. Yeah, you throw them in their, Yeah, it's, and if he plays, why did they do that trade? They don't want the CBA guy around. Because they're going for it, Wes.

What are they going for? What? They're doing their best, okay? You guys are going to be, it's going to be egg on your faces when Joe breaks out the, the press conference where the fans are finally starting to see the vision. That's all. Oh, I had a good moment. Now I'm having a bad moment.

Oh, you guys are a good team. Cooper flag and Summer League will be our next You guys know that Cooper Just go on and on All right, that's a good That's a good spot to end after Brian took all the wind out of the sales Not mine

Yeah, he shows DeAndre Aet Don't forget Go check out Go listen and watch DeAndre Aten Highlights all over YouTube You can just search DeAndre A I have one Aten stat that I would like to share Before we go

Oh my God Because me and Brian are driving the The A-Train. We called the A-Train. The A-Train. Thank you for-A-Rain. A-Train did not end up doing well in the boys. I don't know if this.

Like murder people. List of centers to average at least 14 points, three offensive rebounds, 10 total rebounds, one block and shoot 56% overall from the field. The status. DeMontasabonis, Avicha Zubach, and DeAndre Aten. It's a pretty good company.

Wow. That's the old, Thaddius Young graphic, with Michael Jordan, LeBron James. Don't ruin it, Ryan. Don't ruin it. Fad Young was really good.

He was. You're like, what was that young would start at? He just not. He might even be if you could choose between Sad Young and Jackson Hayes, who would you have taken?

I'm sorry, Jackson and Gatlin over both of them. I want Igwadala. Okay, there we go. Now we can end. The death ray pointed at the earth. Do you be Brennan Carlson.

Incredible. There you go. We can just that right there.