Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - No Luka, No Reaves: Hachimura, Ayton & Nick Smith Jr. (!!!) Lead Lakers to Win In Portland

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

 The Lakers came into the game Monday in Portland without Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, getting the night off after beating Miami Sunday at home. LeBron James is still on the sidelines. Gabe Vincent is still hurt. So a lot -- a lot -- of star power and rotation depth was in street clothes. So if you were expecting a blowout, you were almost right... but probably not in the way you expected. The Lakers used a very strong second half to pull away from the Blazers, winning 123-115. Huge games from Deandre Ayton in his return to Portland (29 points on 14-19 shooting, plus 10 rebounds and three blocks), Rui Hachimura (10-15, for 28 points) and Nick Smith Jr., pressed into action and allowed to cook, finishing with 25 points 10-15 shooting. those three provided the buik of the scoring, but they weren't the only contributors. Bronny James had his best game as a pro, with six assists, a steal and very sold defense against the Blazers. Jake LaRavia had 11/5/6. Marcus Smart didn't shoot efficiently, but set a strong defensive tone, contributing to three steals. It was a fantastic win for a shorthanded Lakers team building all sorts of confidence, and piling up important wins even with key pieces missing.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky  SEGMENT 1: Lakers win in Portland, even without stars.  SEGMENT 2: Team effort.  SEGMENT 3: What these victories do for the team.  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DoorDashNext time someone goes off for 50, use promo code NBA50the next day to get 50% off on DoorDash with DashPass — plus your shot at the Bag Drop.DashPass members only. 50% off up to $10 the day after a 50-point game with promo code. Terms apply.No Purchase Necessary. Ends April 13th. Open to U.S. residents 21 or older. Visit DoorDashInYourBag.com for full details.DoorDash — In your bag all season long.RobinhoodYou expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today at robinhood.com/yourmoney. Your money. Your move. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Options, futures, and crypto trading carry significant risk and may not suit all investors. Securities offered through Robinhood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Futures trading is offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC and not SPIC or FDIC protected. Crypto offered through Robinhood Crypto, LLC (NMLS ID 1702840), not FDIC or SIPC protected. Portfolio management offered by Robinhood Strategies, an SEC-registered advisor.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBAfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting https://FanDuel.comto get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Tuesday, Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, no LeBron, no Luca, no Reeves, no problem for the Lakers. They win in Portland. We'll break it down 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 Lockdown Lakers first listen to every day Monday through. Friday, no matter how we're going to get your podcasts. This one's always going to be free for you, never behind a paywall, and locked on Lakers on YouTube is where over 37,000 subscribers, Andy, are all really impressed with what they saw in Portland on Monday night,

the Lakers to say short-handed would be an understatement. They go into this game. Obviously, LeBron's still sideline, but more importantly, really for, at least for current developments, Luca Donchich and Austin Reeves both getting the night off on the second night of a back-to-back. Those guys have been carrying quite a load, so you certainly understand it. Gaye Vincent still sidelined, so some star power and rotation depth missing from this game. You might have thought, Andy, it was going to be a blowout, and you were almost correct,

except probably not in the way that you were thinking. The Lakers pull away in the second half. They win 123, 115. Lots to like in this game, and we'll break it down in a second after we tell you that today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create and count use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. The Lakers keep on rolling. And three big performances in this game statistically, but lots of good performances. is if you touch the floor, you contribute it.

Yeah, before we get into those specifics, just adding a little more context regarding Luca and Austin from Dave McMenemans report at ESPN, quote, the Lakers are managing Donchich on the second end of a back-to-back after he played 77 total minutes, nice number, in the last two games following an early return from his leg contusion and a sprained finger on the left hand. Sources told ESPN's Sham Sharania,

Donchich is listed on the injury report with lower, leg contusion management, the same issue that caused him to miss three games last week, and then added Reeves, who had not missed a game yet this season is on the injury report with right groin soreness. He played 38 minutes in Sunday's win, Dan Wojke from the athletic, tweeted out sources tell me, Reeves' groin injury is something he played through last night, hope it's nothing too serious. It's important to remember to, I think, we already noted that the Lakers were short-handed, and we're going to get in, into all of the guys that stepped up to offset for the fact that they were short-handed.

But here's one of the most impressive elements of this win to me, maybe even the most, like if you're just looking at it, one thing to take away. The Lakers were an extremely short-handed team playing on the second end of a back-to-back. The Blazers, you know, they've got a couple guys missing, but they were at much fuller strength. They haven't played since Friday. So there is no reason that the Lakers should logically, forget be able to beat this team. Portland is always a hard place to play on the road. And this Blazers team has been better than a lot of people expected.

But a lot lined up logically for the Lakers to lose this game in ways that to be totally honest, nobody would really justifiably rightly be upset about except for the fact that these guys clearly will not accept the notion of scheduled loss or just you see that with this group. They just do not accept that.

And I think to your point, Andy, and we'll get into some of these performances in a second, whether you're talking DeAndre Ait and Rui Hachamora and Nick Smith Jr. And two-way player Nick Smith Jr., if you're not familiar with who we're talking about. And why, and like particularly with a guy like Smith, why these, these, these, these, these, these, these, these, these, the, these, these, the, these, the, the, this, the, this, the, the, the, they talked about a little after the game, but, you know, somebody like Nick Smith. It was just a, a perfect opportunity. I thought, uh, JJ Reddick did a great job, kind of apportioning the minutes and the combinations on the floor were really good, but, you know, to your point about not accepting a schedule loss, the one quarter, the Lakers lost in this game was the,

the first quarter. They were down by nine at the end of the first quarter and like you could reasonably look at this and say all right, we don't have many players. It's like it's not even we don't have any players and we're you know, it's, they're playing a good team. You mentioned

Portland playing better than people expected that, you know, they came into this game four and two. Drew Holiday has been fantastic. Deni Aviah could make an all-star team this year. Tamari Kamara is a really good defensive player. Jeremy Grant can still do some things. So, like, you're looking at this team that puts an enormous amount of ball pressure on.

They profile, at least athletically, is one of the best defensive, you know, potentially one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. And you've got to make up a nine-point deficit with your three best scorers in street close. And three best ball handlers, three best facilitators. The best player. Yeah. Three, but, and not just though the three best players. it goes without saying those are their three best players. But the three best players that, quite frankly,

keeping bleep on the rails. And you could see keeping bleep on the rails was a real struggle, particularly in, I would say, the first two and a half quarters of this game, the Lakers had a difficult, understandably difficult time trying to do that. It took time to kind of work through, like, how are we going to do this?

You know, they got some stability. later in the game. And then, you know, it is the way that the game shook out, somebody like Nick Smith, for example, was able to, they didn't run a lot of stuff. They just, and Reddick talked about this after the game. They, they isolated. Let's, let's just, you know, man up against another player, clear out and go.

And look, I mean, the percentages in this game were insane. You know, what the, the three guys who, who led the charge, offensively for the Lakers. DeAndre 8 and 14 of 19 from the floor. Rui Hachamur of 10 of 15 and Nick Smith 10 of 15. The Lakers as a team shot 59% in this game. Did they play a little bit over their heads? Yeah, I think that's fair to say. But here's the thing about it. I don't know about that. Keep going, but I'm not sure. In the NBA, when you shoot 14 of 19, 10 of 15, 10 and 15.

Like, you know, you're having the type of night where like more stuff's falling than it normally does. But here's the thing about that. You got to play to make that happen. Like you have to, you know, keep in on a game. You have to keep grinding. You have to believe that you have a chance,

not only just a chance to win that you can win, maybe even should win the game to continue to work to do that. You have to, if you're Nick Smith Jr., you have to have the confidence to be like, I'm going to keep trying. I'm going to take shots that, you know, maybe if you're in the crowd, you're looking like, dang, that's a lot of heat check from Nick Smith and just keep effing going. And he did. And like, I just have an enormous amount of respect for the way the guys played this game

on Monday night. Yeah, the reason I was saying that I didn't. think they necessarily played above their heads was just the idea that for Dianre Ait and the shots that he was making, those are very D'Andyton. Oh, for sure. Yeah, that I agree. And Rui, for example, you know, 10 of 15 for this game, that's obviously a super high percentage except Rui in eight games has not shot below 50% from the field. Right. This season. And where did he live in this? Not to cut you off, but where do you live in this game? 15 shots, only four from three point range.

Right. Lived entirely in the mid-range. Yeah. And it's interesting, too, with Rui and D'Andre, you've got two guys. We've talked about this a little bit before more through the prism of D'Andre, but I think it applies a lot to Rui as well. You've got two guys who live in the mid-range, like this space that in the modern NBA, defenses are just hardwired to ignore you.

And they're hardwired to a lot of times give you those shots because those are quote unquote bad shots. And I think a lot of times we saw this with the Sons team that DeAndre Aitin was with that got to the finals that lost to the bucks. They had a bunch of guys between Devin Booker and Chris Paul and even like campaign, like all these different guys who were really good in that area. and I think it becomes very counterintuitive for teams to defend them because you're so used to conceding that. This is where Rui and Aiton and, you know, I mean, when they're back, Luca and Austin and LeBron can all be very good. But those two guys in particular, I think, can provide a lot of really good consistent support because they're often operating in areas where defenses just aren't used to really loading up. It's, you know, finding those spots. There's a reason DeMar de Rosen is still such an effective offensive player.

And it's in part because, like, he lives in this space. Like, he has perfected this area, this, this part of the game. Shea lives there. Yes. Let's stick on this for a second because there's another, there's so, God, there's so many things about this game that I think are just fantastic. But let's keep talking about how these guys scored, what they did. and then who else contributed?

Because there were a lot of really important contributions, including, I think, a career best game from somebody who set foot on the floor. We'll get to it next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by game time and basketball season. It is officially here. Oh, hell yeah, it is. Nothing beats being in the arena for these opening games, but getting tickets can be a headache between waiting in queues, surprise fees,

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Download the GameTime app, create an account. Use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. That's code L-O-C-E-D-O-N-N-N-B-A. for 20 bucks off swipe tap ticket go so one of the things that i think is just really cool about the way this game kind of progressed is you can kind of see everybody excel in their role it's like what is the thing that you can bring to this game to help the lakers win ruy hotchamura we need you to go score go score you know d'ondra a go be a number one like you

you know, you've been this player before. He is probably from a pedigree standpoint, the next in line. Like when they, we talked about this, Andy, when they signed Aiton, we're like they're, you know, most of the time he's going to need to be a, the third best player, the fourth best player, the fifth best player. But they're going to be five nights a year where they need them to be the first of the second. This was one of them.

And he totally came through it. 29 and 10, three blocks. He also played the last, I would say. seven-ish minutes with five fouls. So once he checked back into the game, he had to walk that fine line of not picking up that six-fowl, especially because Jackson Hayes twisted his ankle

in this game, hopefully fine moving forward. But at that point, the setter in depth is DeAndre Aden and DeAndre Aden. So he had to walk that fine line between not picking up that six-file, but also making himself a deterrent defensively when he needed to be. and he managed to do that. 10 rebounds?

Aitin has been, it was funny, you and I were texting during the game and you had said that you were a little surprised that Aiton played, just given everybody that was already out, they might have given him an extra number two. My reading of the T leaves was just that he still wasn't going to be healthy enough after missing a couple games. And I responded with you, hashtag revenge game. And I know that a lot of people would wonder,

why would DeAndre Aiton have a feeling of revenge towards the Trailblazers, which gave him a lot of money, let him keep a lot of money to go sign with a better situation. And A, you know, there was a lot of whispers, wasn't quite at the level of Luca on the way out of Dallas, but there was certainly some whispers about DeAndre Aten on the way out that felt very coordinated by the Blazers. And B, these guys come up with motivating reasons all the time. but you know that. Andy, if they had done a thank you, DeAndre video at the arena, he still would have been revenge. No word on whether. I don't know whether or not there was one.

There was not. And I don't know that for sure. I'm just going to say, there was not. I'm guessing. There was not. There was not a thank you, DeAndre, all that's going to happen is it gets booed and you don't want to do. But like, I had a feeling.

I remember when we went through the schedule when it was released, I had actually marked this game as one that I was cured. curious to see how would DeAndre Aiton perform, like in this game for the first time and Phoenix for the first time as a Laker, like on a serious big boy team. And this was a hell of a night for Aiton when his team really needed it. And so, you know, you look at, you look at that and, you know, you're impressed with like, okay, go do the thing that you, you know, you're not going to be asked to do all the time, but like, hey, this is the night we need it. Rui, go be a score.

We need you to be a score. Go lift us. You're like, you know, pure offensive player. The best, probably the best player the Lakers had available as a pure offensive talent. Go be that guy. You know, you got all the space you need to do what you want to do on the floor. Go do it. And he comes out with 10 and 15 from the floor, six of six from the line, 28 points.

And then, you know, you get to Nick Smith. And it's like, look, they could end up in a situation. like this again with Smith where it's like, you know what? Break glass in case of emergency. Go out there and try to cook Nick Smith and he goes two of 23 from the floor. Like that could be the next time they try. But on this night, Andy, they said Nick Smith, go be an offensive player. You know, why do they sign him?

Because he's really quick. He's a person who can create his own shot, which the Lakers do not have a lot of. And this was a night where you know what, there's a little bit of a space for a guy to go create his own shot, try to get hot and take as many of them as you want. And what does Smith do? 10 of 15 from the floor, five of six from three point range,

six assists and 25 points. And as Marcus Smart said after the game, talking with Mike Trudell on the floor, like this guy has to like come to the practice every day and work his ass off to stay in the league. Yeah. I mean, I tweeted during this game. at Cam Brothers, this is the type of game that can keep Nick Smith Jr. in the league.

And I'm like, that may sound harsh, but I don't mean it that way at all. He is fighting to stay in the league. I know he was a former first round pick. He's on a two-way contract very early into his career. He is fighting to show that he belongs, that he's got the talent, that he can offset his size, I think, to be perfectly honest, they can offset lack of discipline at times and, you know, like bad decisions, you know, bad shot selection. Which, by the way, some of which we saw in this game.

Look, if I'm being totally candid, I had not been particularly impressed with what we saw from Smith up to this point. Like, there were flashes here and there, but during the preseason, I thought he looked, eh, during the games where he played this season. I thought he was largely, eh? Again, a few flashes here or there. This was a night, though, where he was truly needed. And even if he was playing badly,

he might have been able to stay out there just because the options were so limited. But he played really well. I thought there was a great moment. J.J. Reddick with about, I don't know, four-ish minutes left in the game. Smith had put up a couple wild shots. and I had been kind of calling his own number,

even by the standards of where JJ said go ISO. He was going a little too ISO. JJ took him out for about a minute. And then he put him back in, and I have no idea of anything was said to him or not. But then he came back into the game and was much more settled and focused. Get back-to-back threes.

Then he set up DeAndre Aiton at the rim. This was, I don't even want to say like a, game of a lifetime for Nick Smith Jr. But it may have been like a lifeline game. He probably pretty close. I mean, look, here's the thing about Smith is, you know, he started. Geez, I don't remember exactly how many games he started. I could look it up here.

But like, you know, in Charlotte last year, he started 27 games. Played in 60, started 27. So like it is sort of unusual to find a third year player, former first round. He's only 21 years old. who, you know, who has started games of the NBA. It's not like he, you know, never had good games in Charlotte last year. I don't know exactly why they let him go. They've got too many sort of young guys and players and it's a tire fire of an organization.

And Lord, who knows. But, you know, he's, he's clearly got, you know, some offensive chops. He's just really undersized. his struggles to defend. People think brawny is undersized, you know, they're basically the same height. Bronny outweighs him by 40 pounds, you know, 35 pounds, you know, depending on how,

if you believe Nick Smith is really 185 and I don't, you know, and then, you know, Bronny is, I think, listed at 2.15, I think he might even be a little bigger than that at this point. Like, he's a sturdy young man. Like, Nick Smith is a flawed player, but like these guys, It's just a reminder me too, Andy.

Like, we spend a lot of time this guy. We try not to, but like in basketball fans, basketball analysis. Like, this guy sucks. You know, like, I don't understand. Like, how good you have to be to be Nick Smith struggling to stay in the league, you know, for all this stuff. Like, these guys are all so flipping good. And it is really cool to see a player who's obviously like still. working at it and has put his life into basketball, give himself a situation where he gets to keep playing.

Like he has has this kind of of game. It's just really cool to see. Like if you just have a sports fan standpoint. Yeah. When we get back, I want to offer, it may not be an exact comp, but like just an example that the Lakers have experienced several years ago that can show how it takes like a couple years, different setting, better structure, but you can actually find them. Then we should talk about brawny and a couple of others. That's who I was alluding to earlier. Yeah, and a couple others. So we'll get into that coming up next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul.

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the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Yeah, make your your comparisons. As Sony, I was laughing, by the way, Lion King was referring to Nick Smith Jr. as Herky Jerky. Like, I think, like, Dave Herkey Jerky, the guy who invented the expression, looks at Nick Smith and he's like, that's way beyond anything. Wait, are you being serious?

No. Dave, oh, okay. There is no person named Dave Herkey Jerky. Okay. Okay. That sound... Did I really sell that? Well, it's such a random thing to say that I assumed it was real because... No, it's not. I mean, I don't know where the expression came from, but it's not from somebody named Dave Herkey Jerky Jerky.

Yeah, well, you said it so specifically and so randomly, I figured it had to be real. But anyway... But yeah, like, I don't even think, like, Herkey Jerky Jerky doesn't even begin to describe what Nick Smith looks like when he's playing. But that's why, Andy, when you watch him play, half the time... he looks completely and totally out of control. Thinking about Nick Smith in his situation, how he is very early in his career as a first-round pick already in prove-it mode and like career preservation mode, but sometimes these guys just need a different place.

They're not the exact same type of players, and they are certainly not the exact same type of builds. But it became, I think, easy to first. forget because he immediately found a role with the Lakers. But when the Lakers traded for Adam Morrison and Shannon Brown, Shannon Brown was, by his admission, a throw-in in that deal to make the money work. And Shannon had already been on two teams in two seasons with the NBA. He'd been a first-round pick. He was a rookie on LeBron's

Cavs team that he carried to the finals that had no business being in the finals in 2007 except for the fact that LeBron was on it. But Shannon Brown was a rookie on that team. His career with Cleveland and then Chicago had been

extremely up and down. He had spent a lot of time with the G League by his own admission. He wasn't quite ready for the professionalism and some of the adversity to deal with it. He was almost out of the league when he ended up getting, I want to say it was like a non-guaranteed contract with Charlotte and played well enough to make the team, but still wasn't like a solid, he wasn't on solid footing in his career, got traded the Lakers, surprisingly ended up in the

rotation quickly, and then from there managed to carve out another several years in the league. And Shannon's issue was he really didn't quite have a position. like he was too small to be a small forward, but didn't quite have the shooting to be a shooting guard. He didn't have the point guard skills to be a point guard. He just was this incredible athlete and a really hard worker who just landed in the right place. I'm not saying that's going to happen with Nick Smith,

but this stuff does happen. Well, I get, I would, I say that this is why I like the signing. He's 21. He's 21. he has a skill set the Lakers don't have, which is a guy who can create his own shot in the back court. You know, once you get past, you know, your star guards, they don't have that. Like, that's not something that's on the roster. And so it's like, go throw a dart at that and see if it works. By the way, it's kind of already paid off. Like, if this is the only thing that Nick Smith

does as a two-way player this year for the Lakers, That is a win of a two-way signing. He just helped them win a game that they had no business winning on the road. You know, and they're six and two now, having played half their games without Luca and all of their games without LeBron. Like if you told anyone that they would be six and two, given that that circumstance, they wouldn't believe it. So Nick Smith Jr. is already proven to be a worthy two-way signing.

But it's like, I do agree with you. That point about context makes a huge difference. Like, I don't know, like you say, I don't know if Nick Smith is going to become a good rotation level NBA player in L.A. I can guarantee you he wasn't going to be able to do it in Charlotte. Well, also, too, it is a reminder after Shannon, after Malik Monk, after the way Dalton Connect is seemingly struggled to get his mojo back after spending an hour in that building. He was in the airport.

Everybody needs to be freed from the Hornets in order to truly find whatever their potential may be. Like other than Doug Branson, who's fantastic. And Walker Mel, if he's still doing the show, like at Lockdown Hornets, those guys are great. I'm convinced, Andy, that the minute he left Charlotte Lamello Ball would develop AC Green levels of durability and Chris Paul levels of discipline. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. He would transform into another human being. He'd be more like Lonzo.

Let's let's let's let's talk. Lonzo is always the more responsible rather. Very much so. Let's talk about Brani because I kind of had talked about earlier in the show. Like everybody go do the thing that you can do to be a contributor to this win. And for Brony James, what does that mean? That means go play really good defense. you know, active, aggressive defense and pass the ball.

And this was to me, I realized he had was like the 17 point game at the end of the season last year. I actually think on the whole played pretty well Sunday night against Miami. This was, I think, his best game at the NBA level. And I think I don't even think it's really all that close when you consider, again, playing real minimum against a real team playing their real players and making, he looked like a rotation level player at the NBA level. The thing that jumped out at me was the six assists and zero turnovers. Because it exemplifies to me the control that Brony was showing in this game.

This was the first game. I've seen Brony at the very least play this year. And definitely the only one that had any real. stakes since Brony's been in the NBA, where Brony looked completely unafraid. Like he looked just completely not nervous. He looked completely sure of himself. He was not tentative. It doesn't mean that he did everything perfectly.

But we talked about that, you know, Brony didn't technically close the win against Miami, but he played a lot of crunch time. And I said this in our post game from the Miami. me win. It was great that Brony put himself in the position to do that. It was legitimately awesome. But there were a few possessions, like two of them back to back, where Brony clearly was looking to do anything other than shoot or put the ball up. And it threw the offense out of whack. And he wasn't even looking to be a strong enough playmaker in that moment. He just looked like somebody who did not want the ball and kind of just wanted to be out of the way.

and it messed up the offense on those possessions. Tonight was not that case with Brony. Like, Brony looked very decisive in everything he was doing. I agree with you. This is the best game that he's played as a pro. And, you know, if you can detach, you know, he had a couple moments in Sunday's game where, you know, he drove to draw players.

You know, I retweeted one of them. I forgot who exactly who posted it, but I retweeted it. Like, that was an example. of brawny driving aggressively to create something to make something happen kick the ball is smart smart hits a three-pointer um like but he did that like five times in this game like he consistently drove to move players on the blazers around and made really good passes my favorite was the one where he's driving baseline and he fights letting la ravia because it's brodie going to make something happen and also la ravia moving and giving him that outlet

Um, I just, if you can, if you can separate the brawny part of it and which is, I'm really hard for people I know, but if you can separate the brawny part and just think of it as the 55th pick in the draft last year, who was not ready at the NBA letter. When they drafted in the news project, not ready. And you could see it in his NBA minutes last year. He was wildly overmatched. your 55th pick at 21 years old in one year, almost exactly one year, has gone from unplayable to consecutive games where you took him and, you know, the 14th, 15th guy in your

roster and you played him for almost 40 minutes and you were even on the floor and he was making positive contributions. Like if you just think of it that way, you have to be really happy with what's, going on here with his development. The question isn't, is he going to be a star? The answer is no. The question should be, can he become a useful NBA caliber rotation player? And the evidence increasingly, I sound like a magic eight ball, the evidence increasingly

points to yes. I don't know if I'd say increasingly, but I would say incrementally. And I think, but I mean, increasing in increments. Well, I guess increasingly to me sounds like, It's almost steamrolling where I think with Brony, that's not what I'm mad, but I understand what you mean. Well, also to the reason I say this is not to in any way try to detract from what Ronnie was doing.

I don't want to create expectations for him that are unfair because Lord knows he's already dealt with enough of that. I would rather keep it grounded. But the incremental stuff that he's doing. And again, just seeing him tonight just look decisive. And, you know, unafraid to make mistakes, unafraid to whatever was just, it was great to see because, you know, I've talked about this a lot.

By all appearances and everything I've ever heard about him, every interaction I've ever had, he's a good, hardworking young man who just wants to prove himself on his own merits, whatever that is. And it's nice to see the work showing signs of paying off. Yeah, for sure. But, you know, this stretch of time where all these guys have missed games, the upside to it, maybe this is something we can talk about in depth tomorrow, you know, because they're between games.

We have a little more time to talk about non-game days. Go on a limb and say there's no practice. Probably not. I'm not tired. I'm not practicing. But, you know, just what the, this, what are we learning from this stretch? Like, what is the value, especially since they're winning these games? it's not even a moral victory type stuff.

The Lakers, I think, are gaining a lot of really important things deeper into the roster in ways that I think will pay dividends over the course of the season. So that is something to look forward to. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the show. Thank you to all of you who are joining a very crackling conversation and chat board on the live show, which we do after. after every Lakers game, home or road, weekend or weeknight.

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