Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Rob Pelinka Says the Lakers Will Be Aggressive Reshaping the Roster for Next Year

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Friday. Brian Kavanaugh and Kimmenecki, Andy Komenetsky, Rob Polinkin and JJ Redick put a bow on this season and look forward to next. I'll never guess what the top priority is. That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lickers. First listen to every day, Monday through Friday,

Starting point is 00:00:33 no matter how where you get your podcast, this one's always free, and never behind Paywall and Locked on Locked on. Lakers on YouTube is where you can hang out with over 35,000 subscribers to the channel, Andy, all of whom are beginning the offseason now. This is official sort of the first real show of the off season for the Lakers. Rob Polinka and J.J. Reddick meeting with the media on Wednesday, Thursday. Thursday, I should say, in El Segundo. And you were there to hear it.

Starting point is 00:01:03 We will get to all the stuff that they said here momentarily. I do want to let people know. Today's episodes brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. So the players, I guess, did their exit interviews after the game, Wednesday night. That is sort of how they're doing it now, which sort of sucks, but what are you going to do? But JJ Redick and Rob Polinka both met with the media.

Starting point is 00:01:36 had an extended press conference on Thursday afternoon, covered a lot of ground. It was interesting to hear both how they evaluated this season and then what they're thinking is coming in this off season. I always got the impression, Andy, that obviously they had a strong belief that they could do something this year. And that seemed to be confirmed on Thursday. They're disappointed with results.

Starting point is 00:02:06 ultimately see this season as transformational and a success. Well, certainly transformational at the very least and maybe successful in the sense that they put themselves in a position to transform. But they said during the press conference that their goal is to win a championship. And even before the Luca Dachic trade, they entered this season previously with that goal. So any way you slice it, they will say they came up short of that goal. I think just the difference is because they have Luca in the fold and they seem pretty confident that he is going to one way or another be a long-term member of the organization, that they'll have at least another year or so with LeBron. You know, LeBron had his postgame comments where he was non-committal about his future.

Starting point is 00:03:01 I'll take some time, think about him. We'll get into more of that next week as we start thinking about individual players and stuff like that, just letting people know we will talk about it. But they seem confident at the very least about the future moving forward. And I just without even getting it, I think they're fully expecting LeBron to be back. The structure of it, what it looks like is maybe TBD. But I think there is every expectation that LeBron will be on. on the team next year and possibly going forward after that.

Starting point is 00:03:37 But they would say they came up short, but they feel like they are in a good place to do better next season. As Rob Polinka compared it, because they made such a radical trade during the season for Lucas, sending out Anthony Davis, Max Christie, really imbalancing their roster from a positional standpoint, and then the Mark Williams rescinded deal ultimately made it so it was never truly addressed. Rob compared it to trying to fix an airplane while in midair.

Starting point is 00:04:15 And I guess if you really want to take the metaphor all the way, the plane crashed. But as unfinished airplanes tend to do. Yes, but they feel like they have a much better idea now moving forward of how to make a plane that will stay in the air longer before having hopefully a very successful and regaled landing. And so look, I mean, like to the, as Rob said, like the hangar is, you know, the plane's now on the ground and it's in the hangar and they are, they're going to, you know, they're going to, they're going to get this thing fixed up. And it's an acknowledgement that the team that they had was not ideally built. I'm not, this is not to excuse.

Starting point is 00:05:01 the way that they played in playoffs. I mean, I think they were the, we talked about it post-game Wednesday, you know, into Thursday show. The stars weren't as good as they needed to be. They're all kinds of. JJ Reddick was not as good as. Right. Circumstances we can talk about, or we don't, you know, that we talked about that

Starting point is 00:05:22 aren't necessarily taking shots. Like, the only one that I think played legitimately played poorly when I say the stars weren't in what they needed was awesome. The other two, mitigating circumstances, fine. Bottom line, it wasn't what the Lakers needed. JJ Reddick wasn't what the Lakers needed. The roster wasn't what the Lakers needed. It was all of it failed in one way, shape, or form in the series against Minnesota.

Starting point is 00:05:48 But they've got this thing, you know, and what I found really interesting about it, before we even get into where some of these changes will come, is that Polinka, who normally Hedges, I think it's fair to say. This, what you're about to get into, caught my ear immediately, and I tweeted about it at Camperors. Very explicitly said that the team is going to look different next year. It wasn't, we'll see what we can do. It wasn't, you know, we believe in like, you know, it was the team will look different

Starting point is 00:06:23 next year, which it needs to because, you know, it went from a LeBron Anthony Davis-oriented team. to the best they could try to do something like that, to a Luca-danchic-oriented team. And now you've got to build a team that works for Luca. And what I think is helpful to them, we spent how much of last off-season talking about the challenge that the Lakers had because they were in a box that was, you can't really, it's hard because you don't know how long is LeBron's going to play.

Starting point is 00:06:54 Then you have to try to figure out how do you build around Anthony Davis as he gets deeper into his 30s, there's there the it's there the it's hard and he and lebron are becoming somewhat redundant to build around even if they play well together how do you work that and you know so what how do you plan a year two years three years now it's easy in at least in terms of understanding the plan executing it whatever but knowing the plan it's like build a team that works for luca donchich that is the assignment lebron will be fine for how long he's on the team fitting into this ecosystem that the Lakers are going to create,

Starting point is 00:07:36 LeBron will be fine. But the thing they have to do is build around Luca. And Rob was surprisingly, I thought, forward about declaring that the team will look significantly different next year. It's not just that Rob declared that the team would look different next season, because that's something I would have expected because frankly, if he didn't say that, it would sound like they believe that they lost in the first round simply because of bad luck or they didn't have time, enough time with an otherwise perfect roster to compete. I expected the idea that he would say it was different, or that it would look different. What really, though, caught my attention was Rob was asked by Dan Wojke of the LA Times,

Starting point is 00:08:27 in so many words, what did you learn this season or what were your takeaways from the first year of this new CBA? We are often reminded by Rob Apern World that we are now living in and these constructs that frankly Rob Polinka often used as precursors for excuses for why he could not get deals done because it's so complicated in this new CBA to make things happen before you even. get into the idea of can't buy a house that's not for sale thing to takes I mean it's worth right he did make some pretty bold we're gonna you know when they didn't do anything two trade deadlines ago it was because they were keeping their powder dry so they could make big bold moves last off season none of which happened sure but but usually he is more bullish about the assets that they have as opposed to his ability to get something done or promising to get something done.

Starting point is 00:09:26 What I thought was interesting, though, is he predicted that this off season is going to have a lot of movement. He predicted that there would be a lot of deals happening in this off season because there are a lot of organizations that are aggressively looking to win. Therefore, there will be opportunities there. He said he was excited for that. And I thought that was interesting just because in a lot of ways, it puts, Rob on the spot to make something happen because you're predicting the climate. It's not just that you're even talking about your own assets.

Starting point is 00:10:02 You're predicting the climate will be there to make these things happen. And if, say, he is correct that there is a lot of movement and it doesn't involve the Lakers, then it really starts to look worse for Rob. So I thought that was really interesting in and of itself. A little more on this before we get to. I think a provocative thing that JJ Redick said and what Rob identified as the number one need for the team, which will come as a surprise to absolutely no one. So all of that coming up next.

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Starting point is 00:11:43 The Lakers are, regardless of what LeBron does this, you know, like, one of the, you know, how, I should say how LeBron does what he does, the Lakers are, you know, if you believe what Rob's said on Thursday, as high as ever on the core three of Luca LeBron and AR, which he said he was. Right. Even if you believe that they might secretly shop Reeves this offseason, throw them in the right deal, whatever it might be, because we are getting much closer to the point where you have decided whether or not you want to give him $35 million a year, which somebody will happily do.

Starting point is 00:12:25 the the the motivation is still and the need for the lakers to do stuff like urgent move with a sense of urgency is still there it's not different um you have much more clarity because you're building around lebron but if you are not building around lebron anymore but if you believe if you really do believe in a fundamentally lucca lebron pairing a the top of your roster. You still got to move relatively aggressively because LeBron's not getting any younger. But also, you're still very much in the, we need to impress Luca stage of this relationship and make sure that Luca believes, and no reason he shouldn't, but that Luca believes this organization wants to build a championship caliber team around him. And more importantly, understands what that looks like, and if they're smart, kind of keeps him in this process.

Starting point is 00:13:29 And so, you know, it's not like the Lakers have, you know, this, you know, long runway that they can, they need to be on the stick this summer and working diligently to make this roster better. And like, there's no rest here. Well, again, Rob put himself on the clock. That way he said, we are going to be aggressive.

Starting point is 00:13:52 He said that he expects action. He said that he expects to be a part of it. Both he and JJ identified Center as the number one need for this team. And we already saw that when they attempted to make the deal for Mark Williams. And then for whatever reason, and I'm sure eventually there will be more details that one day come out. But they did not like what they saw in the medicals. They rescinded the deal.

Starting point is 00:14:17 And that's ultimately what led to going into the playoffs with. in their minds one playable center, Jackson Hayes, that turned into no playable centers, I guess, save five minutes of Maxie Claibus. Side note, I asked Rob, given that once the trade deadline ended, they knew center depth was in size was going to be an issue, even with your rosiest projections just because at the time, they thought Jackson Hayes was basically the only playable center, and Alex Len gained no traction in the rotation at all during the regular season. I asked what was the thought process behind not converting either Christian Coloco or Trey Jemison, something that our everydayers know I have harped on a lot as what the F man.

Starting point is 00:15:12 Rob took about a three-ish second pause, and I think it was the longest pause before any question I heard Rob answer, maybe longer than Rob or JJ, before saying, quote, we thought Alex was a good player that deserved to be on our roster, and then the coach, ultimately, JJ, is going to make the decisions of who plays and who doesn't, which it's a long pause to come up with a complete non-answer. he's so good. Why was he beaten out by a guy in Maxi Claiba who might have needed name tags to know who the rest of his teammates? Every time you sort of talk about these things, the answer gets close to whatever the cost would have been to adding what they thought was probably going to be an irrelevant player to the playoff roster.

Starting point is 00:16:01 The Lakers didn't want to pay it. Again, I am not speaking with a firm ironclad understanding of the charges here, but that is my guess. And so that is what I am thinking. And anyway, center, though, is the number one. That's the number one thing they are identifying. Rob talked about, you know, that he was asked about what they'd be looking for in a center.

Starting point is 00:16:29 And he said, quote, it would be great to have a center that was a vertical threat, lob threat, someone that can protect the interior defensively. I think those would be keys. But there's multiple different types of centers that can be very effective. the league. There's also spread centers that can protect the rim. We'll look at those as well. So I wouldn't want to limit the archetype, but we know we have to have the big man. Then he also added, and JJ, I believe also confirmed this that they would be looking for more defensively oriented wings. They need a couple of them. Before we get to the wing, they need two centers.

Starting point is 00:17:01 They don't need one. Oh, sure. They need two. And, you know, I don't want to, I don't need to get into a long thing about Jackson. I don't want to make the playoffs a full summary of Jackson's season because it's not fair. But, you know, in terms of building a championship roster, he's clearly not a player that you can count on for something like that. They really need two centers that work well with Luca. They need a guy who can spread the floor, I think. They certainly need a, you know, that vertical threat that Luca really likes. I don't know. I'd say there isn't necessarily even a potential a role for Jackson on this team next year. But they need to fill that out significantly around, I don't even say around him.

Starting point is 00:17:49 That's that overstates his, Jackson's position and the safety of that position going forward. They just, they need, if nothing else, to kind of find a model that replicates a little bit of what they had with like a javel and a Dwight or something like that, where you have two different types of centers that you can use. Dwight actually was still a reasonable lob threat, not like Javail, but Dwight could still pop up and dunk for you and things like that, but have that good defensive profile, whatever it is. They just need to figure it out. It's not quite as limited as you need to find a guy like Miles Turner

Starting point is 00:18:29 who can defend and defend the rim, but also space the floor because you have other options with Luca. I don't have to work around Anthony Davis in the same way. But it's really clear that they need centers. And I think once you figure out maybe who your centers are, you can start to build the rest of the roster out with the idea that, you know, you probably try to bring DFS back, you know,

Starting point is 00:18:56 but they kind of need to fill the Max Christie role of a. It's going to be tricky to see how, you know, as opposed to a three, four. They need at least three, rotation, three to four rotation caliber additions to this team. You know, one or two rotation caliber centers. Maybe one of them ultimately is Jackson in a backup role, but you still need at least one more high-end center. You need at least one or two more defensive wings.

Starting point is 00:19:28 The Lakers are not steeped in trade assets, whether you're talking about picks, whether you're talking about young players, whether you're talking about hugely desirable contracts. They've got a few expirings, but expirings, I don't think, mean as much as they used to. And then in the meantime, one of them is, say, Rui, who I think played well enough that at the very least, he ain't expendable at the very least, not easily expendable. No.

Starting point is 00:19:56 And I, you know, I look, everybody loves the NBA offseason. But, you know, how the Lakers prioritize stuff. because I think I realize what they said about AR, for example, and the confidence in this and that. And I don't think they're making it up. But the only two people that I am like 100% sure, like willing to say 100% will be on the team next year are Luca and LeBron. That's it.

Starting point is 00:20:25 There's nobody else that I can come up with scenarios that basically shuffle every other player in the, this deck. Luke is not going anywhere. LeBron, assuming he wants to come back, is not going anywhere. And that's it. Because if you, you know, Reeves is by far the most valuable chip that they have. If you want to try to do something really bold to reshape what your roster looks like,

Starting point is 00:20:55 find a top flight center, whatever it might be, then you really want to make a bold move that way. Your best chip is Reeves, who is probably one of the most attractive trade people. in the NBA, let alone, you know, just on this team. Rui, I think, has put himself in a place where he becomes more, much more tradable, you know, more valuable. Gabe Vincent, I think rehabbed his, his image enough over the course of this season. They didn't have a great playoff, but had over the course of the season show that he's a pretty

Starting point is 00:21:26 useful rotation player at, what is it, $11 million or whatever it is next year. So, like, they, they can figure out some stuff via. a trade. And, you know, this will get a lot of time to get into the salary mechanics of like LeBron's return. If he opts out, can they get him to sign for less? All these other things. But the bottom line, at least for this, the conversation we're having today is if it's not Luca and it's not LeBron, I think everything is pretty much going to be on the table. I did. Agreed. Which is fun. What is the thing that JJ Reddick is looking for in the roster next year? And what are we looking for in JJ?

Starting point is 00:22:11 That's next. So it's funny, Andy, the news of the day was really taken up a lot with Brian Windhorst talking about JJ Reddick and evaluating his playoff performance. We called it immature was the word he used. He talked about him being sort of so tightly wound in the pre-production interview. that Reggie Miller had to like talk him down and stuff. You know, we saw the incident and I don't, at the time, I didn't even really call it an incident where the reporter asked him a question about like, do you need an assistant coach to hold your hand on the fourth quarter to make sure you don't do something stupid again, which is

Starting point is 00:22:55 basically what he was being asked. And JJ did like it. He phrased it more politely, but not really any less awkwardly. Not the implication was about that. Yes. I'm sure everybody has seen this. You can find the viral clip. J.J.

Starting point is 00:23:11 got huffy about it and kind of that was the last question and started. And on the one hand, it's like, but when you start to put all these things together, the we're on edge thing. We're doing it. And like the, he got, JJ's always throughout the season would periodically set reporters in their place if he thought they weren't being smart enough about basketball and all that. But got much more short and terse and all that stuff with the. media over the course of the last, you know, week and a half. Um, you combine that, you know, the on edge thing with the out of the press

Starting point is 00:23:48 conference with the report from Windhorst and all these other things. You and I, when we were talking about the things with JJ when he was being celebrated at the beginning of the year, he's a sicko. He's a, you know, film junk. He, you know, he lives and he breathes. He's going to, he's a grinder, Andy, a grinder. A grinder. Lakers got there, grinder. One of the things that I was worried about and I know we talked about was,

Starting point is 00:24:09 if you're that intense, you have to learn how to unplug, and you have to be able to learn how to like project stuff and project confidence and all that. And I think JJ did a really good job of that throughout the year until the playoffs. And then I think he struggled with that part of it. And I feel like his demeanor didn't project and deliver confidence, it made them more tight and unsure than the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:24:45 I mean, it's interesting. Like, I know we talked about the idea of whether or not JJ was being out-coached and how much of this was being a rookie coach. And I'm sure to some degree, there is an element of it being your first time because for the most part, the first time you do any type of job, there's a lot of learning that goes along with it. You'll look back. You never forget your first time, and he's certainly not going to forget this because no, he'll never let him. No, his first time is very viral. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:25:15 Like an adult film. But it's like your first one in Orgy or something. Diving in. Well, I mean, you know, those adult stars, it's the first time they do a film as well. But like, I don't think JJ, the mistakes at least in my mind that he made, are so much a direct reflection of being a rookie in over his head with the knowledge, but more about not being able to fully control his personality, like the fire and the intelligence that JJ clearly has and his competitiveness,

Starting point is 00:25:54 I think they're all real traits and they're all great elements that can serve him well if they don't envelop him in the process, which I thought happened pretty dramatically over the course of these playoffs. And to me, and I mean, this is not me Monday morning quarterbacking, the everydayers, no. This is stuff I talked about during the series. Absolutely. But just where we are now, I think it led to a lot of impatience. I think it led to overthinking, particularly in games four and five, to some decisions,

Starting point is 00:26:28 whether all five guys for the entire second half, no substitutions, Maxie Kleba and Crunchtime, that are somewhere between overthinking and frankly, galaxy brain. And I think also JJ had a, I don't know JJ well enough to know if he is a control freak, but he is somebody that if he was a control freak, it would not surprise me. And it felt like JJ's inability to control everything to his liking led to,

Starting point is 00:27:00 like you had mentioned, his personality coming out in ways that ultimately tighten the team, I think, decreased a lot of their own self-confidence. I think in some ways it pretzled himself into a knot inside a box where he left himself with very few outs. Like some of the rotation decisions he was making was basically like, we're going to make ourselves smaller, less athletic, and slower. Yet like, yeah. What are you doing? man. Well, you can't do that. Like, look, I said during the series, you got to play Vando.

Starting point is 00:27:39 If you don't want to play Hayes, fine. I even understand it. But you got to play Vando more. If you're not going to play Vando, you got to play Hayes. Then if you stop playing Jordan Goodwin, then at that point, you're taking one of the only guys that helps make you bigger, help put you on the glass. Like, everything's not going to be to your liking. You need to work within those constructs.

Starting point is 00:28:01 I, and I, look, I, I think if you. look around, you know, the idea of shortening playoff rotations is very, is you know, I think when you see, you know, teams, it is always hard when you are clearly the weaker team. And I think what's surprising was

Starting point is 00:28:17 the level to which the Lakers were weaker in this series than Minnesota. Most people expected something that was pretty evenly matched that ultimately the Lakers, at least we expected something that would be pretty evenly matched that ultimately the Lakers would prevail.

Starting point is 00:28:33 The disparity was Stark and the responses available to him were, I think, largely basically a range of bad options. And so I am probably more sympathetic to the actual choices that he made in the series. We've gone through the no substitutions thing. Claibate thing was a little nutty, but like, again, like, I don't, I'm not looking around the old terms. Like, okay, you do you some, you dust off Dalton Connect and throw him out there. Do you put in Jackson Hayes after you've basically essentially benched him? Like, not essentially, you did. Like, your option tree is somewhat limited.

Starting point is 00:29:20 And when you're down and you're, you're really struggling, you know, sometimes you try to, you know, hit the thing that is. So I get it. and I don't think the Klaibati thing really hurt them. I heard the team. It hurt JJ's reputation, which would be more specific. But the demeanor stuff is stuff you really can control. And that's what you project,

Starting point is 00:29:45 how you do it, how you prepare, because if we're seeing that, it feels like this was probably maybe something that the players picked up on as well. That's something very much in his control and isn't dependent on Minnesota. And so I think,

Starting point is 00:30:00 of, you know, when JJ said, you know, I'm going to get better and I'm going to do so. I believe he will do all of those things. And the players praised him last night, you know, Wednesday night, had really wonderful things to say about him. I'm not worried about this going forward. But of all the things that I think he really needs to improve it, like that personality stuff, I think is probably top of the list. And the tone, obviously in the way JJ conducts himself,

Starting point is 00:30:30 with messaging, whatever, it's going to matter in terms of, say, trying to get Luca Donchich into better shape because JJ made a point of mentioning that the team needs to be in championship conditioning and championship shape. There's no other way for that to be interpreted than putting Luca Donchich on notice about his conditioning, or if nothing else, dude, we are trusting you not to let yourself go during the offseason and then try to play yourself into shape during training camp. Is it possible that there's somebody else additionally on the team that JJ is thinking about with conditioning? Sure.

Starting point is 00:31:16 But is it possible that that person is someone that JJ was thinking about with the same importance as Luca? Hell no. That player doesn't exist. And, you know, if there are seven guys on the roster that they feel like weren't in championship condition, four of them probably be gone anyway. So it's like, Luca, I mean, that was very clearly messaging. And he mentioned, JJ said, you know, it's not everybody. There were guys in championship shape, basically.

Starting point is 00:31:48 So none of us were like, wait, was LeBron not in good shape? You know, like, I think we all know who we're talking about here. but there's no way to say that out loud without people saying what you're saying, which is this is a really important off-season for Luka. And J-J is smart enough to know that. Absolutely. And I don't have a problem with them saying it as an organization. And there will be many opportunities for us to talk about Luca and fitness.

Starting point is 00:32:16 But this is, you know, he's going into the off-season relatively, first of all, early, but also relatively healthy. don't think it's a big international off-season, but we'll check on that. But either way, it's like he's going to come into camp, you know, and have any, like, last off-season was a mess between the late run for the Mavs, his health, trying to play.

Starting point is 00:32:41 He never had an off-season last year, and you could tell. This year, that won't be the case. And so we'll see. We can pick up on this for Monday. Locked-on Lakers on YouTube is where we can go hang out with over 35,000. subscribers. Leave us questions,

Starting point is 00:32:55 leave us comments, as you'll see over the course of the offseason. This is the time. We empty the mailbags and we do all that stuff. So your participation is encouraged and we will see everyone Monday. Have a great weekend.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Rob Pelinka Says the Lakers Will Be Aggressive Reshaping the Roster for Next Year

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