Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Rotation Questions: Where Do Jarred Vanderbilt, Jake LaRavia and Dalton Knecht Fit In?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone welcome to Locked on Lakers for Thursday, Brian Kaminetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, as the Lakers get ready for their preseason opener, JJ Redick talks rotations. Where does Jared Vanderbilt fit into all of this? 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 Lockdown Lakers.

Starting point is 00:00:32 First listen to every day, Monday through Friday, matter how, where you get your podcast. This one's always going to be free. Neverbond paywall. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 36,000 subscribers to the channel, Andy, all of whom are getting ready for a preseason basketball game coming at the end of the week. The Lakers getting ready in their first week of the preseason, plenty of stuff from injuries and beyond to talk about over the course of today, Andy. but and then along with that, I should say,

Starting point is 00:01:07 the idea of who might be in the rotation as that starts to shape up, who's in, who might be on the outside looking in and all that good stuff. It is, they're not tons of surprises early, I would say, but a lot of it, Andy, will depend on who's healthy. And to that degree,

Starting point is 00:01:26 we did get a little more movement and it's positive movement, more guys on the floor. Well, sort of. It is more positive movement in the sense that Gabe Vincent was a full participant in practice on Wednesday. And LeBron was doing some individual on court work to the best of my knowledge. Brian and I were not able to make it to practice on Wednesday, but to the best of my knowledge, it was not terribly specific what the on court work was. But it is undoubtedly part of a ramp up that will be slower and methodical. know that LeBron is not going to play Friday against Phoenix, but Gabe Vincent being back in full is obviously a good step forward for the Lakers. Unfortunately, though, Maxicleba

Starting point is 00:02:11 tweaked a quad on Tuesday and is slated to get an MRI just to take a look at the extent of whatever damage. JJ Redick expressed some hopefulness that it will not be anything serious and that would sideline Claibah for a while. How much Claibah was slated to play this season, I think is very much an open-ended question. But at the same time, he did manage to leapfrog Jackson Hayes in game five, an elimination moment in the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:02:49 So there is something JJ, at minimum, likes about Claibah or at worst, liked more in that moment than Jackson Hayes. I think what he liked in that moment was specifically that Maxi wasn't Jackson Hayes. I think that was most of what it was JJ wanted to put somebody big on the floor. Flat did not trust Jackson to give him any kind of decent minutes and was, I think, fairly to say, grasping at straws in that situation. The hope is that that injury is not particularly serious. The Lakers are obviously three days in the training camp

Starting point is 00:03:33 are being extremely cautious with everyone. And, you know, LeBron, while limited individual drills had already been ruled out of Friday's preseason opener, he is also, you know, he was in street close on Tuesday. So, you know, moving from street close to individual workouts indicates, you know, being on the floor is better than not being on the floor. They're just going to be real slow with him. You know, they have still another three weeks before the regular season opener on the 21st.

Starting point is 00:04:08 I think for me, if he's not practicing by, hello, like legitimately practicing by, you know, the 15th, 14th, something like that, a week before that game, that's when I start to get really concerned. or obviously if they say something to that before that. I mean, up until then, I'm not going to be too worried about LeBron. And I see him being on the floor as progress. With Claibor real quick, you may very well be right that JJ just liked the idea that Maxi, as you said, wasn't Jackson and could offer something different in a large person-sized package. But it is worth remembering JJ was teammates with Claiba in Dallas.

Starting point is 00:04:53 Sure. I'm not saying he's not impossible that JJ had visions of Kleba contributing something or bringing something to the table beyond just size, especially because he played Claiba in crunch time, like the last five minutes of that elimination game five. Right. I maintain galaxy brain. Sure. But still, I'm not. All I'm saying is I'm not reading that moment into where he. I think it's pretty clear. The Lakers and, you know, JJ knows Claibah.

Starting point is 00:05:32 Luca knows Claibah. Like there is some familiarity. The guy's been around for a while now. He's got a skill set that is different than Jackson. Like I think the backup center role, you will see more of Jack. I don't think you'll rarely see all three of them play in the same game. But I think you will have moments where Claiba, is the better matchup as a backup center than Jackson.

Starting point is 00:05:59 He is a better ball mover. You know, he has a little bit more, you know, the three point percentage has been a little wonky over the last, you know, a couple of seasons. But he certainly is a more competent three-point shooter if you wanted somebody to stretch the floor than Jackson is. I'm not saying that JJ doesn't have faith in Claiba as a potential useful player. I'm just saying I'm not using what happened in game five as any sort of barometer of what is to come this year.

Starting point is 00:06:32 So it was, you know, on that sense, the Lakers are kind of moving along, getting ready to go. I think you'll see the starters and stuff play, you know, some limited, very limited minutes early on in camp. They've got six preseason games, which is a lot. And so moving on from there, the question is as training camp starts to shake out, who's going to be in the rotation? Who are the guys who are early season favorites before we even get to the starting lineup stuff? Just like who are the nine guys, the 10 guys that you would expect to see in the rotation? And to that end, JJ talked a little bit about that on Wednesday.

Starting point is 00:07:14 He mentioned or was asked about the guard rotation. And per Yovam Buhha's block, he mentioned when talking about the guards, Luca, Austin, Gabe Vincent. One second, real quick, let me find it in front of me. Here we go. Luca Donjic, Austin Reeves, Marcus Smart, Gabe Vincent, and Jake LaRavia as rotation locks. And what I found interesting about that is JJ grouping La Ravia with the guards. because while particularly defensively on some level,

Starting point is 00:07:55 Jake has done a little bit in terms of checking twos, he has spent some time in floor lineups, if you go to like cleaning the glass and other places, where he is technically playing a guard spot. I think he is much more thought of as a forward around the league. I mean, I think you could argue he is closer to a four than he is a two. But I found it interesting that he included, La Ravia with the guards just in the sense that it might be in some ways indicative of how

Starting point is 00:08:27 JJ is envisioning some of the positions being allotted, some of the rotational spots. Obviously with LeBron and Luca, there is a lot of flexibility in the way you can both use them and what you can regard them as. you know, Luca may be, Luca may be listed as the starting small forward on this team. He is also for all intents and purposes, their starting point guard. Yeah, I mean, and

Starting point is 00:08:55 he has historically been listed as a starting point guard, but either way, he functions as one. But what I found, yeah, I mean, what I found interesting about it, though, is the idea that if he is thinking of Laravia, at least theoretically, slotted in guard minutes,

Starting point is 00:09:11 that could be indicative of what he is, say, not envisioning, at least for the time being, for Dalton Connect, in the rotation because it's certainly going to be hard to play more than five guards in your rotation or guys that you are thinking about with guard minutes, but also, too, who he's thinking about with forwards. And based on the way he was talking today about Jared Vanderbilt, it sounds more and more like he is slotting some of that forward minutes allotment for Vando. Yeah, I think a couple things in there.

Starting point is 00:09:50 The first one is I completely agree with you. I think that I wouldn't get too hung up on, oh wait, Jake LaRavia is a guard now. He's playing the two. No, he's a three. You know, like he's going to play sort of those swingy three, you know, minutes. You know, he's less of a three four than he is a two three. So I think he gets thrown in the bucket with the, you know, I don't know about that, but keep going. Either way, I mean, he's, you can consider him with some of the skills that he has as sort of a two guard.

Starting point is 00:10:23 You can consider him a small four, which is I think what most people look at him as. If you're going really small, you can play him at the four. But like, I just, I wouldn't get, my point is I wouldn't get super hung up in the cat. categorization of the position, because as you note, when you're essentially your two point guards are six foot eight, you know, six, six, six and six eight, then you have a lot more flexibility. So what that means for Dalton Connect and what I think I agree with you, it means for Vanderbilt we'll get to next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Pellateau.

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Starting point is 00:12:12 It's like you can envision, because you have ball handlers that are very large people, you can envision lineups of the Lakers are going big where La Ravia, let's say, if Marcus Smart's on the floor, for example, could technically be playing kind of a two or a two three or something like that. If they're going smaller at six seven, six eight, you know, La Ravia can function as a three, four kind of guy. Like it just, they have a lot of flexibility. If LeBron on a given night, they're going. really small and he's you're playing your backup center you know that kind of thing and so i i think to see the the the big point of that as you noted is that he didn't talk about dalton um that

Starting point is 00:12:56 at least not as a rotation lock it doesn't mean don't mean don't may may not be able to no but when you mentioned you mentioned five guards you know and stuff like that and you know there are still players on the roster that are going to be in the rotation that we're not mention you're running out of space real quick and I think yep you know functionally what it means is that as they start the season Dalton connect is not a regular member of that you know initial nine certainly not group of nine and it doesn't seem like he's got the inside track to be the 10th guy on nights where they where they go 10 and that is notable you know that this guy who um was, you know, where they looked like the trajectory was so strong going into last season and then, you know, throughout the early part of the season and all that kind of stuff, comes into a second year, albeit on a better roster with no, you know, obvious path to early rotation minutes. And, you know, they, what did you think of what the, the sort of explanation that was given for Dalton Summer League? If you heard it, people missed it.

Starting point is 00:14:08 it actually was brought up last week, but again, this week, the idea that Connected just trained way too hard at the end of the season and was essentially burnt out physically by the time Summer League rolled around. That's what management talked about. Dalton kind of reiterated that himself.

Starting point is 00:14:29 What did you make of that? I think it's possible. I mean, whatever you like or dislike about Dalton, And one of the consistence that you hear about him and heard from multiple people is that he really does spend a lot of time in the gym. He is constantly out there working. And however much you think that work is translating into success and development and improvement, notwithstanding, still a lot of work. And I could see him, I could picture given the way the second half of his season post-recinded trade, played out. I could picture a scenario where Dalton really went hardcore, wanting to make the

Starting point is 00:15:14 best possible impression for the Summer League and ironically, potentially making it worse because he was burnt out. To some degree, I guess I don't even care because I just want to see him play well in preseason. Like Dalton's rookie season was both really unusual in terms of the different circumstances like he went from being this super hot commodity

Starting point is 00:15:43 in the first couple months where there was talk about him potentially as like a dark horse rookie of the year. There was a few weeks of how could JJ Reddick even possibly consider taking Dalton Connect out of the starting lineup? He had a couple 30-point games. then he ends up in part of that rescinded deal that as much as they traded him,

Starting point is 00:16:05 they traded him for a complete opposite player. It's not like they traded him for a souped up, more seasoned Dalton Connect. They traded him because they needed a starting caliber center. And from there, his minutes dwindling as they got closer to the playoffs, in all honesty, that's not unusual for rookies at all, unless you're talking about really, really high-end rookies who have just, been rotation mainstays for the entire year and are like, you know, top five, top six players on your team. It's not unusual at all for rookies on, you know, three seed caliber teams to

Starting point is 00:16:44 start playing less and less. Like, you know, I've talked on a bunch of shows, you know, particularly while the Lakers were playing the Wolves in that first round series, liking what we've seen from Terrence Shannon. And those moments he got extended minutes against the Lakers, I thought look really good. Terrence Shannon also spent a lot of time in and out of the Timberwolves rotation. Sure. So it's, there was a lot of things both totally predictable with Dalton's rookie season and quite literally, you can't find a comparison point. So a lot to wrap his head around. I just want to see him play well. The other part of this is Jerry Vanderbilt and, you know, how he kind of fits in the rotation. I mentioned yesterday, I don't think there's a player who is

Starting point is 00:17:27 more influential in terms of the Lakers ceiling than D'Andre Aidan. You know, I saw something on the, on Twitter today over the course of the afternoon, which team has the best big four, like the best top four, I should say. And, you know, the fourth guy in the photo for the Lakers after Luca LeBron and Reeves was Aiton. And that's exactly who I would put in there as the fourth guy. I think he's the fourth, fourth, most talented player on that team. And so I think he's going to have an enormous influence on what the top end is for the Lakers. I think the second guy, though, that has the most sort of X-factor capacity is Jared Vanderbilt,

Starting point is 00:18:13 because he has not really been somebody capable of making a consistent contribution over the last couple seasons. And while there's always the temptation with Vando to sort of assign him skill set, that he doesn't always demonstrate. The skill sets that we know about are, you know, it's stuff the Lakers could use with this roster. I think he's their best overall defender on this team when healthy, just like when you factor in all the different parts of defense, guarding with versatility, you know, on-ball defense,

Starting point is 00:18:51 a disruption factor of the ability to navigate screens, physicality, the energy, the edge, rebounding, which is a part of defense. Like, there may be guys on this team who do certain things better than Vanderbilt of all the lists that I just read off. But I don't think there are, there's anybody on this team who does more of those things as well as Vando. And there's certain things that, again, he's flat out the best app.

Starting point is 00:19:20 And when he is at the top of his game, we even saw this. In a handful of games last year, when Vando was still recovering from that double foot surgery and never quite really became the fully realized version of himself, there were quarters or halves of games where Vanderbilt completely effed up the opposition and completely changed the tone and tenor of games through just this very singular quality that he offers. Like Marcus Smart is, I think, the closest thing that the Lakers have to Jared Vanderbilt, but he's not exactly the same type of player. He's a more physical defender. He's not, you know, he's a strength defender. Vando is more of an athletic defender and, you know, a bouncy guy. He's faster.

Starting point is 00:20:14 He's quicker and that kind of thing. And so, you know, I think smart has, you know, fairly impeccable defensive instincts. which matter hugely in terms of, of really being a dominant defensive player. But with Vanderbilt, it's a different way of presenting that defense. And certainly as a front court player, he offers something that isn't offered with the other guys. Well, he's a front court player that is, I think,

Starting point is 00:20:46 even counting Marcus Smart, if he's healthy, he is their best defender defending one's two, and threes, even more so. Maybe. I mean, in certain situations, I think depends on what kind of scheme you're running or whatever. But if you're looking at guys who are with quickness and, you know, those type of guards, those type of wings, I think Vando, at this stage of Marcus Smart's career, Vando is better at that. It depends.

Starting point is 00:21:11 I mean, I think, I think there are certain, you can certainly make the argument. And, and the point, though, is like it, it offers a certain level of versatility. It offers a certain way. It offers JJ Redick the opportunity to play defenses with different schemes because you're not constantly forced to switch. Or if you want to have something, switch, you can do a lot of different stuff when you have capable defenders like Smart and Vanderbilt available to you.

Starting point is 00:21:39 But it's all predicated on health. And Vanderbilt at Media Day talked basically it didn't matter, you know, what you asked him. The answer was going to be tied back to being. healthy. He feels good. His body feels good. He's ready to go all that other stuff. And you know, you could tell the sort of frustration of the last couple seasons coming through there, lifting with being as healthy as he was. But then, you know, Wednesday, JJ Reddick kind of echoed that from a coaching standpoint in that, you know, Vando looks just way different. The health aspect

Starting point is 00:22:16 of it, he looks like the guy that Lakers acquired before all the injuries. really started to pile up. So when we get back, we can talk about kind of what that means and where Vando potentially fits in from a minute standpoint player combinations and all that. We'll do that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul, the NFL season in full swing. And Fandals, making sure you are ready for every kickoff with a can't miss offer. Right now, new customers bet just $5.

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Starting point is 00:23:49 which injury is probably more concerning what they're dealing with with LeBron or what they're dealing with Smart. To me, I think it's no question. It's Marcus Smart. It's a left Achilles tendonopathy, so essentially tendonitis in that Achilles tendon. And, you know, that's A, not an area of mess with, but B, more importantly, smart himself is coming off of two very injury-laden seasons. And so, you know, you obviously have to be super careful with him, but you also want to get him

Starting point is 00:24:22 back on the floor, particularly if there's any inclination that you think you might want to start him at the beginning of the season, he's got to be, you know, he's not doing that if he misses the first week and a half or two weeks of training camp. Yeah, it's really interesting. And I guess potentially unfortunate, depending on how long this goes on for smart, but we had talked a lot about that fifth starting spot, which seemed, I think, to a lot of people handicapping this. And JJ has said he has not made up his mind with the starting lineup, although four of the slots, I think, by common sense are set in stone. It really had felt like the fifth spot was a battle between Marcus Smart and Rui Hachamura.

Starting point is 00:25:02 If ultimately this gets solved by health as opposed to training camp performance, that would suck. I mean, look, Rui's been on the other side of it. For all the crap that Darvin Ham took at the beginning of the 23, 24 season, when he started Torian Prince out of training camp ahead of Rui, that was really Rui not having a particularly good training camp, in part because he had been hurt. And, you know, Darwin's hands were tied a little bit. I mean, all jokes about how much he clearly loves Torian notwithstanding.

Starting point is 00:25:36 Rue did not have a good training camp, and Torian actually had a really strong training camp. So sometimes these things work themselves out in ways that aren't particularly pleasant are preferable, but that's just how it shakes out. Yeah, and I mean, if smart, if the Lakers have to be at all cautious with Smart as they open the season, the first few weeks of the season, he's not going to start. I mean, it's just it's, it answers the question before you really have to answer any others. There are no other, you know, what about this lineup, that combination, playing to strengths.

Starting point is 00:26:08 It is all a completely moot point if, if smart isn't, if they're worried about smart being able to get through the season healthy. But anyway, in that all of this is, you know, smarts availability and workload is going to be directly related, I think, to what Vanderbilt does. And so, you know, this idea of Vanderbilt looking like the guy the Lakers wanted to be, particularly defensively, particularly with the amount of activity. And on the other end, cutting, moving, creating havoc is a regular season player,

Starting point is 00:26:44 a guy who can, you know, get you an office. offensive rebound and just outwork players. Hustle is a very important skill set, particularly in the regular season, hustle and energy. Vando can be really effective in that way, even if we don't buy into, and they were circulating on Wednesday,

Starting point is 00:27:04 the look at Vando's improved jump shot videos that are yearly at this point. I hope it's true, but I'm not counting on any of it. But he, he as much as any player, probably in the NBA, needs to be as close to healthy as possible to be the fullest version of himself.

Starting point is 00:27:23 Yeah, both he and Marcus Smart. I'm talking earlier about the similarities between them and the differences. One thing they have in common is they both can be real tone-setting players, just in the way that they play, and the physicality and the relentlessness of it. And some words from JJ were very optimistic

Starting point is 00:27:41 in terms of what he's seen so far from Vando, but also, I think this is important. what he's envisioning for Vando because last year, whether because Vando missed so much time or even when he got back on the court not being all the way there, prevented J.J. from building up as much trust in him as Vando would have preferred for what it's worth, what I would have preferred. I thought he should have played Vando more. And I was pretty open about that. But J.J. talking about Vando during Wednesday's practice, quote, and specifically talking about the type of on-ball pressure that he wants to be applying more regularly. defensively as part of their schemes. I think with a healthy Vando and hopefully a healthy Marcus,

Starting point is 00:28:21 I think our ability to put more pressure on the basketball earlier in the defensive possession will be a real thing. It's night and day the way Vando's moving right now. Even from when we finish the season, his growth and body mechanics this summer, it's evident the first two days of camp. He went on later to say

Starting point is 00:28:37 it looks like we do have the pre-injury version of Vando. I've talked a lot within this summer just about how he got put into a tough spot post-trade, referencing the Luca trade, because he had to play the five. There wasn't other options. Just play small had to be the backup five. They were our two options. So just getting him back on the perimeter defensively, his body being in a good place from athleticism and agility standpoint will be super helpful for our team. And that, by the way, references a big issue.

Starting point is 00:29:08 I know I had a lot. I heard fans have. I think, Brian, you did at times as well. The way Vando was utilized defensively. It often didn't feel like he was on the perimeter enough with his defensive assignments. I think sometimes the super excessive switchiness that JJ employed often allowed Vando to be taken off the ideal assignments for him, just because the Lakers were so frequently

Starting point is 00:29:39 and often willingly switching. But I would love to see Vando, just utilized more like this. Again, that very unique skill set he has for this team that it really needs. Well, in there are certain matchups where, you know, you want to stick him one-on-one on someone he can, you know, is good for that kind of lockup thing. There are certain matchups where it doesn't work as well. You know, he's running off lots of screens or this, that, whatever.

Starting point is 00:30:06 But the center aspect of us is just super important because a lot of what I think from the coaching standpoint, you know, whether you agree or disagree, I think they, did a lot of what they did because they felt like they just didn't have a lot of other choices. We'll see. I'm not sure I agree with that, but this coming season will confirm. We'll find out. Right. Because, you know, you didn't have, you know, when you have LeBron James or you have Jared

Starting point is 00:30:31 Vanderbilt as your centers or like guys like that where you are playing essentially without rim protection, when you're playing with essentially without, you know, lockdown guys in the print. Like you don't have a lot of stuff. So you try to pick like, what is our path? to the most cohesive defense that we can put together. And there were times where the Lakers did quite well at this. And we're quite an enormous amount of energy.

Starting point is 00:30:56 But now let's assume five weeks into the season, six weeks in the season that Vanderbilt is healthy, smart as healthy. Aiton is rebounding the ball well and at least providing an improved amount of rim protection over what they had in the second post-trade last year. you don't need as much of that. You don't have to necessarily rely on one thing. And you also are taking Vanderbilt,

Starting point is 00:31:25 who does need to be deployed proper. I don't think he is a universally perfect defender, kind of just put him out there and he'll, you know, he can do whatever you want him to do. You do need to sort of use him in ways of maximize his skill set. But that starts first and foremost, but at the very least letting him play forward instead having him be your center. And so they are just so much better equipped to use players like Vanderbilt effectively this year

Starting point is 00:31:57 then last based on the surrounding roster. And then if Vanderbilt remains the healthy version of himself, he allows them to use him because he's both available but also capable of doing what you would want him to do. Just to put in perspective how much time Vando missed over the last couple seasons and how much I think that ultimately affected him. In 2021, he played 64 games. And remember, that was a 72 game season because the league was coming back from the pandemic. 2020, he played 74 games. 2003, 78 games. The next two seasons combined 65 games. And often Vando, came back, didn't quite look right, ended up going back on the shelf, being out for a while,

Starting point is 00:32:49 then being brought back. It disrupts his rhythm. I'm sure it disrupts a lot of his confidence, you know, just not having his body at full strength. You mentioned, and we can get into more of this over the course of this week and over the course of the preseason. For the talk about the improved jump shot, at least in practice, in the corner threes and yada yada, I would love to see it. I will bang this drum forever. What matters is actually Fando as a finisher. Like his ability around the rim is way, way more important than his ability to hit an open corner three.

Starting point is 00:33:26 Just far more. Yeah. And he was, he's the difference between Vanderbilt, let's assume he can play defensively. Like he really is the, you know, the player that Lakers want him to be.

Starting point is 00:33:38 And, you know, becomes a plus defender, especially relative to, what else they have available to them, which is obviously like, it doesn't matter of Jared Vanderbilt or Marcus Smart or perfect defenders, or if they're deployed in the most perfect way for them, if they are still, you have to do it based on what you have. The difference between Vanderbilt being an effective player,

Starting point is 00:34:01 particularly the playoffs, one you can really actually use in your rotation versus played off the floor, is going from a negative, offensive player to a neutral one. And he was just bad. He was bad as a three-point shooter. He was bad in the mid-range, and he was terrible around the rim.

Starting point is 00:34:21 Like, that's got to be, you know, sort of league average. He's got to be at least competent at one of those things. Yes. You know, preferably, the one that seems the most obvious is finishing, but we'll see.

Starting point is 00:34:33 I mean, but you're right. I mean, everybody pays so much attention to the corner three. I mean, his, you know, his percentages as a rim finisher, are just awful. And the last couple of seasons, they've really been abysmore. Right.

Starting point is 00:34:45 Hopefully that's health-related. Hopefully those two things are ready to be. I think it's very possible it is. But we'll find out. And so that will be the thing that makes him truly an effective and useful player for the team this year,

Starting point is 00:34:57 particularly as it goes on. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you're going to go hang out with over 36,000 subscribers to the channel. Of course, Lakers playing Friday night. Preseason opener, we'll get you ready for that. We'll see everyone tomorrow.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Rotation Questions: Where Do Jarred Vanderbilt, Jake LaRavia and Dalton Knecht Fit In?

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