Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Report: LeBron James to Pick Up 2026 Player Option. What Does It Means for Lakers Offseason?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Wednesday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, LeBron James reportedly will opt into his deal for next year. What does that mean for the Lakers? 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 Locked on Lakers, first listen to every day, Monday through Friday, to matter how where you get your podcast, this one's always going to be free. Never locked. behind some grotesque paywall. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 35,000 subscribers,

Starting point is 00:00:43 Andy, all of whom are looking for a little bit of clarity in what the Lakers might do for next year. And some of that could be coming reasonably soon, at least. According to Sham Sharania talking to Pat McAfee on the Pat McAfee show over at ESPN, LeBron James is likely he is told to opt into his. deal for next year to pick up his $52 million. I'm sorry, is it 52 and a half? I don't want to short change him. Player option for next year, which sounds, I guess,

Starting point is 00:01:21 like it would be the obvious thing to do, but it is not necessarily and has a lot of big implications for the Lakers this year and down the road. Yeah, it was, I think, the most expected for him to do, just in the sense that nobody is really anticipating LeBron leaving. Like we've talked about this on previous shows, there are not a ton of, I think, realistic, viable options for LeBron that are just as attractive to him from both a basketball

Starting point is 00:01:56 and a lifestyle perspective, lifestyle including his family, and being close to his wife and his youngest daughter. and Brony, obviously, with the Lakers. Bryce, I'm not exactly sure what his situation is next season in terms of college. But being as close to the family, being as close to his outside business ventures, Hollywood, yada, yada, yada. But that being said, there had always been, I guess, the remote possibility of him opting out and walking, but more importantly, the prospect of him opting out than opting into a new one plus one deal

Starting point is 00:02:34 or two plus one or something like that, you know, with the people prognosticating, how long will he play? Is he actually trying to line this up so he can play, if not with Brony and Bryce, certainly at the same time as Brony and Bryce, and that, in my opinion, creates complications for the Lakers that, frankly, could be untenable.

Starting point is 00:02:57 And I think could lead to some very uncomfortable but necessary conversations and parting, of the ways between LeBron and Lakers, assuming, you know, Shams did allude to the idea of potentially opting in and extending off that number. I don't know exactly how that would work or if that, you know, how that's even possible. Like, I'm not doubting Shams. I'm just saying I don't know how that would work. But assuming he is simply opting into that last year and whether that leads up to LeBron's final year in the league or his final year under contract with the Lakers. From the Lakers perspective on a bunch of different levels, I think that is the best possible outcome for next season and also moving forward.

Starting point is 00:03:49 And by the way, Bryce is going to Arizona next year to play. So that is reasonably close. It is not hard to get to Tucson. And I'm also very confident given what's going on. now that LeBron is not going to try to force his way and I guess Brunney's way to the sun. To the sons? No, I don't think so. No. No. Probably not. But it's interesting, you know, like the dynamics here are are a little bit kind of fascinating. Like the the perfect world version of this would be LeBron opts out, says, I'll leave $20 million on the table, gives the Lakers, you know, the access to bigger

Starting point is 00:04:35 exceptions, a little more flexibility this offseason and all those other things. That would be the ideal. And there are a lot of people who go, you know, look at he's made, you know, he's worth a billion dollars and he's made so much. Does he really want to win? LeBron has, like many stars, you know, who are second team all NBA players. I mean, it's not like LeBron is coming off some sort of. stretch of disappointing seasons or whatever might be and needs to sign below market value

Starting point is 00:05:03 because he hasn't shown that he's worth market value. The odds, you know, nobody ever really thought the idea of him leaving 20-something million dollars on the table was particularly realistic, especially given that doesn't, it doesn't open up a lot of possibilities of who. they could go acquire in a relatively thin free agent year. It always, you have more options. I'm not saying, I mean, there's always better to have more options than few, fewer. But it's not like there are tons of appealing names out there and, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:43 guys that you look at that the Lakers would suddenly be able to go get. You don't gain max cap space from LeBron taking $25 million off the top. And so it's clear, neither one of us thinks he's obligated to. I don't think he is. No. My point is just like, you, it's you gain the extra money in a better exception, which isn't nothing, but it's also not, like you say, a max deal. That was, that's the, that's the best thing that could have happened to Lakers for this season.

Starting point is 00:06:14 Short of that, this is second best. Oh, this is, in terms of realistic options for the Lakers, this is, assuming it is opting into the final year and then whatever comes next comes next with LeBron as a true free agent. This is by far the best outcome for the Lakers short and long term. It gives the reason, and I think it's probably the best outcome for LeBron too, because ultimately, I think he'll be a Laker as long as he wants to be a Laker, performs well. and, you know, the Lakers can continue to work him into the architecture of all of these things. But as Shams points out in this interview with Pat McAfee,

Starting point is 00:07:05 LeBron still wants to be competitive. He still wants to go win as much as possible. And if you want to be able to, for example, have an opportunity to go play in Cleveland and finish out your career there, that's the only other, like you mentioned, a couple minutes ago, like, there are a lot of realistic places where he could end up this offseason, I agree. But we did talk about a scenario.

Starting point is 00:07:30 Like if he wants to win faster and you say, you know what, I got one year left, I'm going to finish it in Cleveland, or I'm going to go to Cleveland, son a two-year deal, second year is the last one. This is how it's going to go. I don't think a lot of people,

Starting point is 00:07:44 he'll still get a ton of bleep for it, but it'll be different bleep than if he went to Golden State. If he goes in, like, there aren't a lot of people. people who are going to like completely think that the idea of, I want to go finish my career in Cleveland if you're LeBron James, is at least not partially rooted in. I'm from there.

Starting point is 00:08:07 My career started there. I want to finish there. And so LeBron, if he- Good stuff in a documentary too. I'm not saying it has to be the only reason. I'm just saying it's nothing wrong with creating good content for a documentary. I'm just saying. We've got more summertime.

Starting point is 00:08:24 We're going to have to fill down the road. I'm all for it. I'm just saying in terms of the chapters of however LeBron's career is going to be documented, rightly so, that would be a really interesting chapter. Right. So, I mean, look, it gives everybody flexibility. I don't, here's what I don't think this becomes about. And they were like, the Lakers have made this pretty clear.

Starting point is 00:08:46 And we can carry this into the next segment. The Lakers have made this pretty clear. It's Lucas team. LeBron understands that it's Lucas team. I don't think this is about leverage to, you know, keep the Lakers on their toes and making sure they're going all in for me and this because LeBron understands. So they're no longer, if they go all in, it's not all in for him.

Starting point is 00:09:08 It's all in for Luca. Now, you could look at it and say, like, it could be hard. If like LeBron goes, replacing LeBron with somebody as good as LeBron might be hard. so let's try to make this year's team as good as possible. But that's not going all in for LeBron. It's going all in for Luca. And so next, I want to get into why, like the one big thing that this creates for the Lakers that makes this the best outcome of the realistic outcomes. We'll do that next.

Starting point is 00:09:48 Locked on Lakers is brought to you by DoorDash, NBA fans. You know what time it is. It's the playoffs. That means big performances. Bigger rewards. DoorDash is bringing the heat with a slam dunk deal for DashPass members during the 2025 NBA playoffs. It's called they swoosh. You score anytime a player drops 50 or more points in a playoff game.

Starting point is 00:10:09 Dash pass members score a free three piece. Crispy Chicken Tenders combo from Wingstop the very next day. Just place an order of 20 bucks or more. Then use the code Wingstop 50 at checkout. And that combo is yours. it is crispy. It is delicious and totally free. Offer valid noon to midnight the day after the game, terms apply. And if you ever looked at your delivery fees and thought,

Starting point is 00:10:31 it's got to be a better way, you know what? You were right this whole time with DashPass. You get zero dollar delivery fees and exclusive perks like this one. Think about how much money you would save over the course of a season. So here's the play. Sign up for DashPass to unlock this and more exclusive deals all season long when any player scores 50 plus in a playoff game. DashPass members can get a three.

Starting point is 00:10:52 three-piece, crispy tenders combo for free from Wingstop the next day with a $20 plus order and the code Wingstop 50 dash pass your door to more savings, more flavor, and more ways to win. Terms apply. You and I disagree a little bit about, you know, the potential implications of LeBron playing for the Lakers for longer than a year or a couple years or whatever. You know, you guys, you don't find a lot of guys averaging whatever it was, 25, 8, and 8. He played 70 games last year.

Starting point is 00:11:25 He played 70 games the year before. He's been pretty good. But what the Lakers benefit from here, if LeBron comes back, picks up the option, we'll work out the rest later, is an end date. There is a date at which the Lakers now would control when potentially the LeBron James era ends. potentially, you know, there's just, there's a clean end date that the Lakers have control. If he comes back and he said, if he opts out and says, I want to do a one and one, they'll do it. But that's not as good for them because then the control of what comes next goes back to LeBron.

Starting point is 00:12:07 And this gives the Lakers, it gives LeBron an out a clean, you know, restart, whatever it might be. But it also gives the Lakers an endpoint. And that's really valuable for that. It's extremely important. And, you know, we can debate and we have debate. before, the pluses and minuses of how long the LeBron era lasts for the Lakers, how much goes into supporting LeBron at this stage of his career, with the mileage, all of that stuff. But I think one thing you've even agreed on this, in the summer of 20s, 26, in theory, the Lakers start gaining way more flexibility, depending on how they approach this offseason. there is an argument that could be made given the potential contracts that are ending Rui,

Starting point is 00:12:54 Austin, maybe now LeBron, down the line that the Lakers could be best served treating this offseason as something of a gap year and not committing to anybody that they don't truly love moving forward beyond this season. We'll have this debate another day. I'm just saying I think there is a legitimate debate. There's certainly an argument to be made for it. Right. There's an argument to be made for it. But regardless of that, in terms of trying to build a roster around Luca,

Starting point is 00:13:27 that not just Luca can bring out the best of those guys, but those guys can help support Luca as much as possible. You need as many two-way guys, as many athletic two-way guys as possible. Two-way guys cost you more money. and it is not practical for one guy in his 40s, who also requires a certain support system of his own, but also you know is not going to be in all likelihood around for the long term. It becomes extremely difficult to build the roster that you want around Luca

Starting point is 00:14:06 with one guy taking up that much of your cap space who is essentially a short-termer. I think just from a practical longevity, sustainability standpoint, that's difficult to do. By that argument, you just want him gone after this coming season. And I want him gone. You would want LeBron. If you could choose for this to be LeBron's season, last year, LeBron plays 70 games again next year, averages 26, 8, and 8, whatever it is, has an identical year to this one. You still would, you want.

Starting point is 00:14:40 It depends on what I'm paying him. Depends on what I'm paying him. million dollars something maybe not quite a max how much i don't know 40 something million probably no no you want to go right i mean i don't think you can build the roster that you want around luca it's a math problem i don't think you can do it combined with especially especially if you are keeping austin and lucca lebron and austin as a core you're not going to be athletic quick powerful and big enough I think to win in the NBA. You're not going to win a championship with the cost,

Starting point is 00:15:16 with those three at the type of money that we're talking about, you're not going to be able to do it. I think we have a, it's not easy. You're not. Okay, the odds do not. The choices you have in front of you.

Starting point is 00:15:29 If you're determined to keep Reeves, then I agree with you. It becomes harder, you know, with LeBron still there. It's not really as much about LeBron. as it is the context and everything that goes in. Sure. I've always maintained LeBron's playing at a high level, but it is really difficult, especially as rosters, I mean, as.

Starting point is 00:15:52 But like for clear, I'm not, and I don't mean, it's not a question of being like, Andy's a LeBron hater, all these other things. Whatever. People are going to reduce it to something that's stupid. That's true. But like, you know, it's, but it's just as a point of clarity. Like if you had your choice, LeBron, this would be the last. year of LeBondon. If it's at this price, yes. Yes. I think that's fair. And the hard part is

Starting point is 00:16:20 replacing him. And this gets into the question of what, you know, to some degree, you talk about the gap of your question, but like, you know, what exactly it is that you're trying to build around Luca? And, you know, the Lakers don't have a lot of assets. They don't have a lot of things that they can use to trade for guys. And you're right. Like if LeBron is done next year and you just kind of keep everything else it is going into next year with Lakers, you know, they won 50 games. We're in a bad team. Deficient in the playoffs. But they were pretty good during the year. And they had no reps together. Like, you know, you head into an, you head into this coming training camp with presumably LeBron, Luca and Austin having an entire, you know,

Starting point is 00:17:07 training camp to work together, JJ Redick having an entire offseason figuring out what to do with them and more of an idea of what the team's going to be. And some sort of. I realize too, like if they run it back more or less the same, the one thing I am confident that they will bring in are more centers. They will not go into next season with Jackson Hayes as their only option at center. And so Jackson could walk. You won't have Jackson Hayes to kick around anymore. Yeah. So it's like I get like the you can run it back more or less with the same core, add viable bodies at center. And like it's not like you go into the season. You're like the Lakers are not going to win a title. Like I don't I would not pick the Lakers to win a title. But they're not going to be a trash team. Like that's still too, way too much talent to be a bad team.

Starting point is 00:18:04 And so I think that's, you know, some. level of perspective is is needed here. Is that wasting, what's critically important here isn't whether or not you're wasting time with LeBron. That's, LeBron's, like, the man is not stupid. He can look at the environment that they're in right now and be like, if I really, really, really, really, really, really want to win, I will opt out and figure out somewhere else to go.

Starting point is 00:18:28 Like, it may be hard for the Lakers to construct a championship caliber team next year. competitive playing meaningful basketball. Yes, they can do all of that. But win a title, you'd probably better off going to the Eastern Conference. But like they can be a good team next year if just by upgrading at center. That's all they really need to do to maintain good team status. Good team status probably not good enough in the West. So I mean, is it a good?

Starting point is 00:19:03 gap year, sort of? It's a gap year in terms of overall commitment. Like true visionary steps A, B, C, through Z, this is what we are doing to build what we think will be our contending team for the next handful of years. And it's not about whether or not LeBron is okay with it. It's about who are they asking that question to? Yeah. It's Luca.

Starting point is 00:19:27 I mean, if Luke says, I'm going to sign, don't worry, I like what we're doing here. the extension is going to be like none of this really is about LeBron. All of it is about whether or not Luca is like do you need, does Luca need to see you go all in next year? That, you know. That, okay, coming up next, because we plan on talking about,

Starting point is 00:19:50 more about Ross Construction, identity, that sort of stuff. But all of this, though, I think has to be started at a specific point. And we'll get to that coming up next. I've heard a lot of people. People, you know, different podcasts covering the Lakers, ESPN LA, where you and I appear regularly on our own show. Talk about the idea of this offseason wanting to put your best foot forward with Luca,

Starting point is 00:20:22 wanting to impress Luca in order to get him to sign that extension in August. And in case people don't know this, Luca cannot sign the extension before that. It is not legal. So you can't try to come up with a scenario. You actually go to prison. Yeah, Luca will be sent to the gulag if he signs this thing at a time. So will polinka. So we'll even like Jeannie and the Rambi.

Starting point is 00:20:47 Like everybody gets sent to the gulag. And all of a sudden, I was about to say all of a sudden, Joey and Jesse are running the team, but to a lot of fans listening right now, they're like, go on. Don't threaten me with a good car. A small price to pay, though. But anyway, so you can't get an inked commitment from Luca before free agency begins, even if Luca wanted to. But what I think is really important, like the idea of showing your commitment to Luca, obviously it needs to come through action, but it's most important that it comes through communication.

Starting point is 00:21:32 Like they need to be talking with Luca before they do all of this. That's the action. Right. But action, a lot of people consider action. No, I understand what you're saying. That's exactly the point I think is critical here. Because if Luca understands the concept of a gap year, like if you, if you go to Luke and say, look, we will do whatever you want in terms, you know, we will pursue

Starting point is 00:21:58 whatever you want. We obviously cannot promise that teams will cooperate, but we will pursue whatever you want. But we look at this landscape and we honestly don't think that our best options are available this offseason. We think we will have better options this upcoming 2006. That's the path we think would be best for building around you. What do you want us to do? Because we'll ultimately do whatever, what they should not? do is try to read Luca's mind and dazzle him.

Starting point is 00:22:34 That would be the worst thing they could possibly do. Because you do stupid things. Like what I, the, the part about like tree, looking at the writing on the wall and saying, I don't know what we can do this year. We got, you know, we don't have a ton of appealing contracts still digging ourselves a little bit

Starting point is 00:22:53 out of these other, you know, mistakes that we might have made. And, you know, the Vanderbilt contracts not looking great. Like, we don't have a lot of pieces. and let's let's just, you know, let's just wait. The part about this that I don't like is I feel like it's reductive.

Starting point is 00:23:10 In years past, the Lakers have done the thing where they, like, at all costs, we're going to preserve our cap space. And that's what we're going to do. We're going to have all this space. We can, we'll sign guys. We'll do sign and trades. And it never works that way. And it really doesn't work that way across the league.

Starting point is 00:23:29 particularly effectively because the players that you tend to have to go get are often, you know, the Paul George's of the world and the Joe L.M.B. Like, you know, whatever it might be. Players, you rarely are in position to go sign a prime free agent like Luca Donchich or something like that. Like it's all guys in their 30s or you're overpaying for somebody coming off a career year, whatever it might be. Um, and so you limit yourself. You, you know what? If we sign a guy to a three year deal, We don't think we're creative enough to figure out how to trade that guy for something else or whatever might be. And I think that what the Lakers have historically suffered from is a lack of creativity.

Starting point is 00:24:11 So don't limit yourself by saying, we don't want to trade for anybody. We don't want to sign people because we don't want that money on our books. What you should be saying, and this is all then done in consultation with Luca, it's like, here are the guys we can go get. Here's what's on the table. Here's what it's happened. We think this is a good player. Let's go get them. If we need to move him, we'll move them later.

Starting point is 00:24:35 But don't do stupid things. Don't do things to try to, you know, like you say, dazzle Luca and certainly don't do things to try to dazzle Luca that you're not talking to Luca about. Right. It's that communication aspect. And then you have to decide whether or not, you know, if Luca suggests trading for, you know, not literally, but the proverbial Russell Westbrook, this time you have to say no.

Starting point is 00:25:00 And here's why. We love you and we're saving you from yourself. Like this is not going to help you down the road. But whatever it is, like I think they can make moves that are designed to make them better for next year. As long as they don't make bad ones, you can always trade someone. You can always find another move to make and all that kind of stuff. You know, Dalton, if you hold on to Dalton Connect and don't include them in a trade for this year, is that, you know, it's not guaranteed you're going to get something better for him next year.

Starting point is 00:25:32 You might, he might lose value next year. So like make moves that are constructive and good for the organization. And that's okay. You don't have to preserve next off season and like it's, you know, Gollum. You don't want to do that. But I do think, though, that you need to be, I think, very frank and honest with yourself and, and with Luca about the difference between what is available, potentially at least in the offseason 2026 versus what is available now with whether with free agents or whether with your

Starting point is 00:26:10 trade assets. Because it isn't preserving it like Ghalm if you think our options in 2026 are potentially that much better than what we have in here. Look here, man, here are the players we can sign for this money now. Here's who we can we can go get. players that are interested that will sign for the money we have available. Here are the trades that we have available to us. We can send Dalton here. We can send AR there. We can do this, that, whatever. We think this is going to improve our team. We think this is a really good move for rebalancing the roster long term. Let's do it. We think this is a really, we don't think this is going to help serve you or whatever. I just, if you're Luca, I would think, I would hope.

Starting point is 00:26:55 And if the answer isn't this, and the Lakers probably have a bigger long-term problem, but I would think the thing that Luca is looking for first and foremost from the organization as he decides whether or not this is where he wants to spend the next half decade, at least, is competence. Yep. And so, you know, you demonstrate competence by saying, we could do this and it's splashy. It'll make us look like we're busy. But it's not going to help you win. next year and it's certainly not going to help you win in two years. You know, we're not we're not punting on next season,

Starting point is 00:27:31 but we're also not going to compromise your capacity to have a, you know, a sustainable future here by doing something dumb. Well, I think that there's also too, and I know we're going to talk about this over the course of the week, but I think this really starts getting down to the identity of the roster and the style that you want to be playing. Like this is something that Luke and J.J. Reddick and Rob Polinka need to come together on and form some type of consensus. Like what is your identity as a team? Like what is the thing that above all else you want to be falling back on and the thing that you're going to be building towards. So that is always

Starting point is 00:28:15 your fail safe. Like you look at the thunder. The thunder's identity even more than Shea is their defense. Like their defense is so swarming and disruptive and its ability to create offense through that swarming and that disruption and the rotations and the precision and all the different types of defenders that they have. I think more than anything else, that's the identity that they fall back on. And the thing that they know they can always lay, you know, lay their head on. The Lakers were like that in the 2020 season when they won a championship. So they need to figure. out what that identity is, what do we want to be building towards? And then from there, you start answering questions like, what is the future of Rui with this team? Like, Rui is entering, you know,

Starting point is 00:29:04 his final, the final year of his deal. And to me, if, if you don't feel confident or enthusiastic about Rui being part of your future moving forward, you need to move him because he's too good of a player to eventually this upcoming off season, just walk for nothing because you're trying to think about cap space or, you know what, the perfect deal just didn't come around and, you know, we never found what we were looking for. That gets what I was saying. He's too good for that. He's too good.

Starting point is 00:29:38 And he's your highest expiring contract. And that's the problem with cap preservation as an end goal is that it leads to really bad asset. Or can. It can. It doesn't always, but it can. But it often leads to really bad asset management. It often does with this organization.

Starting point is 00:30:00 You start renouncing players that you don't need to renounce. You don't try to keep a guy. You don't pick up an option because it's like. And again, it's all designed to create this free. They'll always say, well, you can acquire people into your cap space. When you need players first and foremost, and like sign and trade. are harder to do now than they've ever been. So you don't really want to count on that.

Starting point is 00:30:23 And I just think free agency is a really lousy way to build a team. It's a good way to supplement a team. It's a bad way to build one. And, you know, so the Lakers don't have a lot of draft choices. That's not something that they can acquire without breaking it down in ways that really could get Luca to leave. You know, that basically is like, let's trade Luca for six first round drive. draft picks and a couple of young players.

Starting point is 00:30:51 And if that's the avenue you want to go down, okay, but I don't think it is. And when I say, okay, I don't actually mean okay. Don't do that. Like, their avenue for building the team is going to be through for the next few seasons, realistically are smart trades and modest free agent signings. That's really, I think, what you have available to you. You might be able to trade into the second round this year. You've got the 55th pick.

Starting point is 00:31:24 You could draft Ronnie again, I suppose. Same spot. But like maybe you go by the 38th pick, the 36th pick, whatever it might be. But like you're not going to go acquire two or three or four first round picks that can let you build up the kind of depth that Oklahoma City is built up, that Indiana has used. to build up their roster, like certain avenues are not going to be available. Others are, and we'll get into those over the course this week. But the Lakers just have to, like you say, they have to have an identity of what kind of team they want to be and then have an identity about or a plan, a blueprint that's realistic about how you can become that team.

Starting point is 00:32:09 You know, which blueprint you choose. Do you depth, this, high, you know, pack up the talent at the top of the roster and figure out the body? There are a lot of ways to do it, but they got to come up with some paths and they have to talk to Luca about how to do it. Yeah. I mean, everybody has to get on the same page about what the vision is. And we've talked about Rob Polinka before. The vision has to be about more than just acquire the superstar all NBA talent because guess what? That's everybody's vision.

Starting point is 00:32:38 Like everybody wants Nikola Yokic or SGA or Ant or whoever if they can get them. Like, that is not a unique vision. Like, and frankly, it's not even a vision at all. That's just grabbing the obvious players that you would get if you could. It's what do you want to be building if you add any of those guys? Like, what do you want to be? And, you know, the identity of this team last season was to put it mildly all over the place. But I don't blame anybody involved.

Starting point is 00:33:12 I don't blame JJ. In a lot of ways, I don't even blame Rob Polinka because, They started out the beginning of the season one way. Then even the DFS trade sending out DeAngelo Russell before Luca Dantzich was even on anybody's mind. That fundamentally changed a lot of how the Lakers played. Then once you acquire Luca and send out AD and in his own right, Max Christie, who was important to the defense, your team shifts again. And then on top of it, you lose a lot of reps with Luca, with LeBron, with Rui, even Jackson Hayes because of different injuries. I give in a lot of ways everybody a pass.

Starting point is 00:33:48 Like even if I don't think JJ often worked with what he had in front of them to the best degree possible. Or I think Luka and LeBron and Austin often lost discipline over the course of games in terms of really just spamming what worked. Like as far as rudderless identity, I really do think it was in a lot of ways unavoidable because a totally unexpected franchise altering trade suddenly emerged that, of course, you do. But now there's no excuses.

Starting point is 00:34:22 Now it's you need to start envisioning what you want to be and build towards it. Even if next season isn't the best version of it, you need to be building towards it. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is we can go hang out with over 34,000 subscribers to the channel, all of whom will be leaving questions and comments as we get into these questions. of identity and character and approach and start laying out blueprints, including mock trades that Andy has lovingly crafted inside trade machines across the internet. So we'll get into that over the course of the week. We'll see everyone tomorrow.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Report: LeBron James to Pick Up 2026 Player Option. What Does It Means for Lakers Offseason?

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