Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Should JJ Redick Start Dorian Finney-Smith Over Rui Hachimura?

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

At 20-15 and sitting fifth in the Western Conference (as of Monday night), the Lakers are very firmly in that cluster of teams that have shown themselves to be better than the fringe-y teams but not as good as the elite ones. As Rob Pelinka shifts into high gear (or at least Trade Season does), the Lakers have a very narrow window to pass through when it comes to making impactful moves. They've already used their most straightforward trade chip, D'Angelo Russell (along with a handful of second round picks) to acquire Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton. They don't have much inventory left. One of the biggest things the Lakers can do, then, is maximize the assets they have. And with every day that passes since DFS arrived in LA, it seems like the Lakers are on a path to do just that. Or try to, at least. It would mean swapping Finney-Smith and Rui Hachimura in the starting lineup. Why? For defense, for better bench scoring, and to make the best use of what the Lakers have. There are other compelling reasons, as well. Will JJ Redick pull the trigger?  HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: Why the second half against Houston was very important. SEGMENT 2: Rui or Finney-Smith in the starting lineup? SEGMENT 3: Do the Lakers need to trade for positions or skill sets?  Your favorite podcast now has a newsletter! In One-stop for ultimate team and league coverage delivered right to your in box. Sign up for free now, at lockedondaily.com.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!PrizepicksNow’s the perfect time to join.Download the app todayand use code LOCKEDONNBA to get $50 instantly when you play your first $5 lineup! That’s right—no need to win to get the bonus, it’s guaranteed. PrizePicks—Run Your Game! Ultimate GMA special offer for Locked On NBA listeners: Use promo code LOCKEDONCBB (all caps) when you download Ultimate College Basketball HC at ultimate-cbb.com or look it up on the app stores, to get a free boost for your program. It’s the perfect way to kickstart your coaching career. Ultimate College Basketball HC—begin your coaching legacy today! Turbo TaxReady for stress-free taxes and the most money back, guaranteed? Head over to TurboTax.com today and get matched with your Expert. Only available with TurboTax Live Full Service. Real-time updates only in the iOS mobile app. See guarantee details at TurboTax.com/guarantees.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelFrom big upsets to game-winning drives, the NFL Playoffs are better with FanDuelnew customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in BONUS BETS - GUARANTEED - Win or Lose.Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. Make this playoff season unforgettable with FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Tuesday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kemenetsky, should Dorian Finney Smith start over Rui Hachemura? And what should Rob Polinkin could be looking for on the trade market? And are those answers related? All that 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, your first listen to every day. Monday through Friday, no matter how or what, where you get your podcast. This one's always going to be free, never behind paywall, locked on Lakers on YouTube,

Andy is, and we can now say this officially, without any rounding. Over 27,000 subscribers are tuning in and wondering what exactly the Lakers are going to do at the trade deadline. And even before that, because new arguments are percolating

around the starting lineup, we will unpack all of these things here in a moment right after I tell you that today's episode is brought to you by Fandul from Big Upsets to Game winning drives of the NFL playoffs, excuse me, the NFL playoffs are better with Fanduel. New customers can bet $5 and get $250 in bonus bets, guaranteed. Win or lose, visit Fandual.com to get started. Full disclosure, you saw Raj jumped in yesterday.

For me, I was on vacation with my family. I did not really see the game in Houston, caught some clips and highlights, read about it, and all that stuff, think it got the gist of it. I would say, Andy, at least my takeaway before we get to this whole DFS, Rui Hachamura thing, I was very encouraged the Lakers came back in the third quarter because otherwise it would have been abundantly clear. The Lakers have a real and potentially unsolvable problem when it comes to the really bouncy athletic teams around the league. There is a lot that got evened up in the second half of that. that game against Houston for all the problems that they had in the first half, for example,

rebounding and on the offensive glass, like, I don't know how many second chance points exactly that Houston had off their 11, 11 offensive rebounds in the first half. I just know this piece of the equation. The Lakers had zero. The Lakers had zero second chance points in the first half. like Jalen Green had 18 points in the first quarter. And, you know, he's a very inconsistent shooter and score. But that type of bouncy player going off like he did in a quarter, particularly once Max Christie was subbed out of the game, 12 of his 18 points came after Christie sat.

But like that type of player going off in the Lakers, you know, all the transition points, all of the fast break opportunities that Houston was getting and the Lakers did not. Those are the type of things that bring out the worst fears when it comes to this Lakers. But to your point about the way the third and fourth quarters played out, the Lakers out rebounded Houston 25 to 21. Basically, even on the offensive boards, they held Houston to under 40 percent, both from the field and from behind the arc while shooting, I believe, 49% from the field,

52% from behind the arc in that second half, obviously problems in the last minute or so of the game and you're always at a disadvantage if you dig yourself that big of a hole to start a second half. Right. But what it did show is the Lakers have to really play at the top. of their focus and their energy and their intensity if they're going to play with a team like Houston, but they can do it. A lot of it's just a matter. A lot of it really is a matter of the willingness to do it.

And they talked about it after the game. Yeah, I think it's the willingness to do it. And the part that sticks out to me is when you talk about attention. It's like sometimes look, guys are too quick. you get a little step on you and that's going to happen. That's going to happen to the Lakers no matter what they do at the trade deadline. And honestly, no matter what they do in the starting lineup. But it's like you need to do all the stuff to prevent some of these things from happening.

And that means being attentive about putting a body on someone when a shot goes up, really being mindful of who is my guy in this situation? Who is a body that I can find to? do this, making sure that your shot selection on the offensive side is sound that you're not making bad passes that force you to play and turnover and transition defense and all that kind of stuff. They have strength, the Lakers do. A lot of it is literally strength that helps them against a lot of teams. They're 20 and 15. They're good, but they are not bulletproof. and I don't think there's a trade out there that changes that necessarily.

And there's not a trade out there that's going to make them suddenly able to compete on the same level of athleticism as the Houston of the Western Conference or the Detroit's of the Eastern Conference. but what they can do is lean into their literal strength, lean into some of their experience, and their basketball sense to just do the right stuff. And that, I think, mitigates some of these. But they cannot afford any slip at all because those teams are going to continue to give them problems. It always is funny to me too, Andy,

like separating NBA teams into athletic, versus not athletic. But I think people understand. And the Western Conference, I don't think, is filled with crazy, bouncy teams that the Lakers can't play with. But the ones, the teams around the league that are this way give the Lakers problems. And they don't have to be good teams. They just have to be athletic.

It's two recent games that we've seen, whether you're talking about against Houston or Cleveland, where a, you know, in the case of Jared Allen or Stephen Adams, they were given trouble by teams getting offensive rebounds against them, second chance opportunities, and doing well with them. And they're two very different players like Jared Allen is much more of a fast, bouncy athlete, whereas Stephen Adams just moves guys out of the way. And both of these guys, it should be noted. Like, you have to try to figure out ways to offset the Stephen Allen's and Jared

Allens of the world. But the reality is those guys do that against the entire. league. They're a problem for everyone. Like, Adam doesn't have much of a role on this Houston team, but when he plays, that's still what he's good at. And the Lakers, this gets to, and we'll maybe talk about this in a minute, like what the Lakers need. A bigger body behind Anthony Davis might help against Stephen Adams, but is that the problem you really need to solve? It's an interesting question. Yeah. And, you know, Jared Allen, I think some of this was just AD getting pulled away from the

basket because somebody was getting beaten off the dribble and nobody rotating over to address Jared Allen at all. Or like there was one monster putback, for example, that Stephen Adams had basically racing from in between the top of the key and the arc all the way to the basket. And that wasn't even a matter of Stephen Adams being arguably the strongest guy in the league and being able to just move guys at will whenever he wants. That was nobody paying. Nobody pays. paid attention to Stephen Adams. Like that was a detail problem. That was not a Stephen Adams is like Thor type problem.

I, it's in, you know, one of the things that sticks out, you talk about Cleveland. And this is really what separates a team that's, you know, I'm not, I mean, I think what Houston has done to get them with you know, up to 23 and 12. This is a very good team. Yeah. That's ascending quickly. You know, I think what they've done is pretty impressive.

but there's a difference. Like they have some flaws that can be exploited and some inconsistencies. Cleveland is really a great example of what you get when you put the, wow, they got some athletes. And oh, wow, they're also really good as a team. The Lakers had trouble with Portland in certain spots just with the bounciness. The difference is Portland is a terrible basketball team. And so you can beat them with good team play and usually beat them pretty easily. Cleveland is the other way around.

They can mall you in a hundred different ways. This conversation is related, I think, in a lot of the ways that we've been talking about it, to another one of the big issues that came out of that game, which is who really should be starting at that other forward position with LeBron? And is it Rui Hachimura or is it Dorian Finney Smith? And when you talk about athleticism, and attention to detail and stuff like that and how you,

what's the recipe for countering some of those disadvantages the Lakers have? I think you can start to make a pretty clear case for one guy over the other. That was not a subtle setup. We'll get to it next. What a tease. I know. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul from big upsets to game winning drives,

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Get started with $200 in bonus bets. That's fandul.com. Make this playoff season unforgettable with Fandall, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Maybe so, Mandy, of the mystery of that, of my opinion here, was undone by that tease going from the first to the second segment. Do want to let people know, sign up for the newsletter, the Locked-on Lakers newsletter, get the podcast,

delivered right to your inbox every day, along with a lot of great analysis around the league. Great way to both keep up with the show, but also with everything that's happening around the NBA in one quick newsletter. Go to Lockdowndaily.com, click on Locked on Lakers. Rui Hachamora, I think, is a hardworking player. I think he's a team guy. There's a lot to like. He's shot the ball beyond certainly my expectation. when he got here, I was very suspicious as to whether or not, you know, playoff Rui was going to be sustainable. It has been and more in terms of his outside shooting. It brings a lot to the table. His flaws are, I think at this point, pretty well baked in.

He is not a good rebounder for his size, not consistently enough. And he is not a good defender. And I think, for me at least, he's not a good defender in part because of the, you know, because of this attention to detail thing. The instincts aren't great there. And you can say the exact opposite about Dorian Finney Smith on that side of the ball where the instincts are excellent. And I think that to me is the biggest reason that it would make sense to flip-flop those guys. Because if you are going to be giving 30-something minutes to one of those dudes,

and you need somebody to help inoculate you against the Houston's of the world, Finney Smith's going to be better at it than Rui, I think. I agree with you. It's interesting. I also think one of the reasons that moving Rui to the bench could be beneficial for both the team and Rui is, first of all, I think it could give him more opportunities to play at his natural position, which would be the four. He's playing more as a three, certainly defensively, with this team.

That's fair. Yeah. That does not play to Rui's strengths as a defender at all. And while Dorian Finney Smith, we've talked about this before, DFS, I think, has been trending more in terms of most effectiveness guarding bigger wings or fours, maybe even sometimes as an undersized five. He is more capable of being an effective wing defender than Rui is. I mean, he's just, he is, it's a better defender, period, and he's a more versatile defender, period. I also, you know, it was interesting when JJ pulled Rui less than a minute into the third quarter, put DFS back in. He said he wanted to give Rui a mental break.

It was nothing Rui did wrong when he thought Rui responded well. When he came back in the game, I actually thought Rui played fine in the second half. And the first half, at least offensively, Ruey played well. He scored 10 points. But there is an energy and an edge and a synergy that gets created defensively. with DFS being out there to compliment Max, to compliment AD, while he still has not the scoring upside and total ways he can score like Rui, his offensive role is clean and makes sense.

He is a shooter that you have to respect. He can make those shots. He serves a purpose spacing the floor. And then off the bench for Rui, I think he actually provides something that bench unit needs pretty badly, and we've seen it all year, which is a primary scoring hub. And the closest they've had to it all season was DeAngelo Russell, and he was very inconsistent in that role. He thrived more as a facilitator than a score. But Rui is more of a score than

DFS. He's a better, more established score than Dalton Connect at this stage of his career. He's a better, more established score than Gabe Vincent when he eventually returns. And there, I think, is going to be more of just a lane for Rui to. to occupy and a need to fill. Like you can argue that both units, DFS and Rui, make more sense for the opposite place their starting games. I think, and that's the other half of it that I was going to go to. And this weaves into this broader conversation of what the Lakers need to be doing.

Part of, I mean, in terms around the trade deadline and stuff like that, what kinds of players who should they go get? What kind of players should they go get? and what is worth giving up to get that guy. One of the things you have to do, though, to really make that work and really make this difficult calculus the Lakers have of not a lot to offer but kind of need some stuff or maybe you want to make the big splashy move and quote unquote go all in or whatever.

The first thing you have to do is allocate your own resources in the best way possible. And one of the things that I like, about the Russell move. As big of a fan as I was of DeLo, and even how he was playing when he wasn't playing, when the shot was off, his impact was positive and all that kind of stuff, it still made sense to send him to the bench

for this group this year, both because Reeves and Russell were really struggling to defend together, but also it was making Reeves a worse player because his defensive response, which he was kind of failing at were also undermining his offensive responsibilities, which needed to be better. I wouldn't say he was failing at those,

but they could have been better, as we've seen. There's a little bit of something like that here. You're right. Like the Lakers got a little bench scoring out of D. Delo and it didn't totally work out. It wasn't totally natural. But there were games when you could tell the difference that Dilo was there to give you 16 points

so you weren't otherwise going to get. This is basically the same thing. it's not that Russell was necessarily doing lots of things wrong. He kind of wasn't. His shot would have come around. It just didn't fit right. Rui is not necessarily doing everything. He's doing what you would expect Rui Hachimur to do at a pretty decent level, I think.

It just doesn't fit quite as well, especially now that you've tweaked the roster and have different personnel. Also, too, like if this move is coming and it feels like it is, I mean, Dorian, And Dorian's time keeps increasing. JJ is clearly comfortable with him. You can tell his teammates are comfortable with him. You can tell that they really respect what he brings. I think he's pretty easy to play with. You know, I actually for my show, Lakers talk on ESPNLA 710 Monday nights,

I had Adam Armbrecht on from Locked on Nets. And to get more of a scouting report on DFS, I'll tweet out some links and stuff like that. Maybe try to put them in the show notes. I think our listeners here would definitely enjoy Adam's thoughts on DFS just from covering him for a couple of years. But he mentioned that he's a guy that teammates love immediately. And he just picks up things very, very quickly. But this move feels increasingly like it's coming. And Rui is playing ever since DFS arrived like a guy that feels like it's coming.

And if that's the case, I think it is better for all involved to just rip the Band-Aid. And, you know, Rui, I'm sure is not going to like it. But the only thing worse than receiving bad news is when you're dreading bad news. And when it feels like bad news is coming and you have to think about it, this brings closure to the situation. Rui is still going to get a lot of minutes. If for no other reason, then he's a top six player on this team. And you can't have, unless you're Tibbs, you can't have five guys playing like 45 minutes a night. Like, Rui is still going to have a very important role on this team because they need him to have one.

But I feel like, again, it makes more sense. Like, both guys are a bit miscast in their roles right now. I just feel like right now, especially once DFS arrived, it's very similar to when we thought Vando playing this season was a thing. I had lobbied for Vando to actually start and Rui to come off the bench for a lot of the same reasons that I feel like DFS makes more sense starting and Rui coming off the bench.

It's the same basic concept. It's asset maximization for what you got. You have a certain amount of skill sets. You've got to plug them into the right places. And I don't think of Rui Hachamura as the type of guy who's going to undermine a locker room. But I mean, look, say what you want about Russell.

And did he play well off the bench? Was he always consistent? No, you know, like sometimes the DeLo bench experience had its shortcomings. Like, you know, he needs time to be able to do stuff and whatever. And he's, you know, the, the goofy decisions seem more amplified when he's playing 18 minutes a night or 22, all that stuff. But by all accounts, as far as I could tell. He took the job, you know, the, the situation professionally.

He handled it well. He wasn't grumbling. He wasn't making himself, you know, the main character in the story here. You said like, like, Rui probably wouldn't like it. He absolutely wouldn't like it, but he would do it. And that's the thing. It's like, you don't want players to like the idea unless they're like 38 years old and really need to be like, they're like, I shouldn't be here.

Like, you don't want a guy. his prime. We just signed a big contract, hoping to be a starter finally on a good team in this league to take a demotion like that. Well, and even if you don't want to call it a demotion, anybody, any NBA player who goes from starting coming off the bench reads that as a demotion. They just do. That is how these guys are wired. And you wouldn't want him to like it, but he'll do it. And he'll do it and he'll be professional about it. And if it helps the team win, then he will be fine. It'll be fine.

You'll be exactly what you want, which is a guy who wishes he was starting, but he's going to get out there and do what he can to help the team. There was one other thing here that you mentioned that I think is critical for thinking about how the Lakers go forward with the deadline. Something we're going to get into, I think, a lot over the next couple of weeks, at the least. I'll start to break that down next.

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lineup. That's right. There's no need to even win to get that bonus. It's guaranteed. Prize picks. Run your game. There is, I think, one other really good reason, Andy, to do the thing. We should mention. You talked about Jared Vanderbilt. We do actually have some Jared Vanderbilt health news. As always, it comes to the disclaimer. Believe it when you see it. And nobody's entirely sure what this means. but JJ Raddock has said that there is meaningful progress with Jared Vanderbilt's return to play protocol and he's getting closer. I mean, again, I'm not entirely sure what any of these things mean,

but they seemed pretty jazzed on the whole thing. Also, too, for those unaware, tonight's game in Dallas, it's not just Luca that's going to be unavailable. Kyrie Irving is going to be unavailable as well. He's going to be out one to two weeks with a back-eague. issue, which turns a game that the Lakers really needed to win on the heels of the Houston loss to one that like, no, seriously, no BS, win this damn game. Yeah, go win the game.

And this thing of Dallas is a half game behind the Lakers. And the nuggets are a game ahead. Like, everybody's got their bumps and bruises and stuff like that. The thunder clearly at the top of the conference, the rockets and grizzlies, I think, are kind of separating themselves from everyone else as like the next two, just in the standing. So I'm not talking about playoff matchups and whatever. But everyone else in there, like the nuggets got problems.

The Mavericks have problems. The Clippers have problems. The Lakers have problems. But like the Lakers can pretty firmly get themselves into that four or five area with, you know, by finishing this home heavy stretch in January with a good record. and then doing things like beating a wounded Dallas team in Dallas tonight. You can go a long way.

Yeah, it's really important. Keeping the theme with what we had talked about before, put a body on Derek lively. It stands what he is on the back of his jersey. Yes. Keep an eye on Derek lively. He's the guy that you need to watch for when it comes to the offensive rebounds. He averages three per game. There's your friendly neighborhood.

outing report. All right. So you talk about Daniel Gafford, too, as well. Another guy. Just watch those dudes on the place. If you see a tall center on the Mavericks, put a body on. But the good news, though, is the fourth leading offensive rebounder per game on average for Dallas is actually Kyrie Irving. So he's out of.

One of the things that I think you said that is totally relevant to this is like, we mentioned Jared Vanderbilt here at the top of the segment. The Lakers believe he's going to come back. There is a quote, that story from Dan Wakey at the LA Times when he's talking to other scouts and stuff that, you know, the idea that the Lakers are really do want to see what it looks like when Vanderbilt is back. You try to assess the needs. I sort of understand this in terms of like what I was talking about before about asset management. But the flip side is and the reason if you're going to make a change, it makes sense to do it before Vanderbilt gets back. you're not changing like five things at once. If you do it now, you can play with the rotation for however many games that is before

Vando comes back, before Christian Wood is back, before you have these other players. And you're not trying to analyze like one more data point in that. Like, wait, did that change because Vanderbilt came back? Because we switched starting lineups because Wood is back. Do it now. You know what the team looks like for four or five games with this new start. lineup. And then when you reintroduce another player, you have a better idea of what the baseline was to decide what kind of player we need next. Because I thought you and Raj had

started an interesting conversation and it continued into the comment section and all that. And certainly Lakers' Twitter is live with this one. It's like, what do the Lakers go out and get? There was a huge clamoring in the first half especially. Go get another big. Why don't we have Jonas Valen-Sunes yet? Or whatever. so on and so on and so on. But the Lakers have to be really careful. Like, are they trading for position or are they trading for skill set? Which is the better approach?

Well, it's interesting. Like, when we were talking about this rebounding issue that the Lakers had against either Houston or Cleveland, it got me thinking about, remember in the series in 2023, the first round against Memphis, where the Lakers, whenever the second unit was out there, they getting killed on the boards. And I was getting really frustrated because I was like, just put Wenian Gabriel into this game. Like if you put Wenian into this game who, you know, Wenian is, he's not the most skilled

player in the world, but he is a very good rebounder for his size. He's a particularly good offensive rebounder for his size. The Lakers with LeBron and Rui out there, they just need one more guy who is six, eight, or taller. Just put him out there and it will solve the rebounding issue. And finally, Darwin put Wenian back in the rotation, and it did just that. And obviously, a guy like Wenian won't automatically solve rebounding issues against all teams or, you know, depending on the size of the players you're talking about, and Memphis was missing

a couple of their big guys. But what made me think about this was just the idea of, I don't know if the Lakers need necessarily another big man, you know, depending on what the big guys. would cost, but they do need better rebounders. If you can find better rebounders, credible rebounders at different positions, that is going to at least solve this to some degree. Like, they are missing right now a skill set in rebounding more, I think, than necessarily size. If you can find it in both and the price is right, great. But the Lakers are only going to have so many opportunities to solve more than a handful of issues through the trade market.

And you also have to think about, like, is whoever you're going after worth the price? How does it fit? Like, you know, the Walker. Kessler question, assuming he really is available. And side note, I do not understand. For the life of me, I don't understand why if Utah is dead set on a rebuild, a 23-year-old double double true center who's a great rim protector. The defensive metrics on Kessler, if you buy defensive metrics at all, are insane.

If he really is available, I almost feel like it's a red flag. Either that or Utah's front office, like wants to do something super specific that for whatever reason doesn't involve Kessler. But the idea that you can't rebuild with him at 23 makes no sense. the idea of, well, we don't want to pay him. Just pay him. Like, what are you saving your money for? The free agents that never come?

Like, you have to pay somebody. If you give Kessler $25 million a year, it's not like you won't be tradable. No, and I just don't get it. It may be cost more than, I don't know. But to me, this is, you know, the, if you can get Walker Kessler, okay, great. Like, I buy that. Like, I was a little more suspicious. People who were smarter than me really break down the numbers well, have shown,

what Kessler's impact is. Even if he's not a perfect fit around AD, you know, the trickle effect, whatever it might be. Like, he's really good at some important stuff. And you can kind of figure it out. And, you know, having that high level player on that side of the ball

has tremendous value and can make, I think could lengthen Anthony Davis's career, even if it just means playing 25 minutes a night of a guy, 20 minutes a night with a guy who can lighten his burden like that can be really meaningful for Davis. But after somebody like him, like Jonas Valenciunis is a name that we hear constantly. And I know you've said many times you don't like it. And I think, I mean, I agree with you.

But like, I think sometimes people are missing the kind of the forest for the trees here. Like if you could get Valenciunis for Gabe Vincent and a second. rounder. I mean, I think they have a couple left that they can do. I forget. But like, or something really minor. Okay, fine. But if you have to start giving up real value in whether in your current rotation or in your draft capital, even a heavily protected first round pick, you got to be real careful with that because what is Valanchunis, is Valenciunus going to solve your athleticism problem? He's certainly not. He might help you with Stephen Adams's of the world. But he also...

If you don't play Houston in the playoffs, I don't know how much Valentuna is going to help you at all. If you don't play Denver in the playoffs, I don't know how much is going to help you at all. But honestly, even if you do, I'm not sure how much he's going to help you because I don't know how much he would end up playing. I don't think he's going to play much at all.

Because if you play... Or let me say this. Are you comfortable if you get Jonas Valentunis? What's the downstream effect of trying to figure out, like, okay, we've got Valanchunis. He's a player who historically has played between 20 and 30 minutes a night because he's a good player. I'm not trying. You've called him overqualified for this, but let's just say he doesn't.

Okay, so now your main lineup is LeBron now at the three with 80 at the four, Valanchunus at the five. Valenchus is not a good defender. He's not going to protect the rim in the slightest. It doesn't make Anthony Davis's life any easier. He does help with the rebounding a little bit. you could rebounder. But now who isn't playing, where does Dorian Finney Smith fit in? Where does Christy? Christy fit in.

You know, with a lot of stuff. Where does Rui fit in? Where does, you know, like how do you get some of these other guys? Where does Vanderbilt fit in if you play? Who's running your second unit if Gabe Vincent isn't there anymore?

Right. And who, and if Rui is not there, who's scoring, it's like, I'm not saying that these guys aren't, are untradable or can't, you know, whatever.

But is your defense with Jonas Valenchunis there easier to attack or harder to attack than one that features Dorian Finney Smith more? I think it's easier. He's bigger, but he's a much lesser defender. And so, like, I just, and if it costs you very little, great, whatever. But if you have to start giving up real assets to do it,

then you've got a problem. Because even if you make the protections on a pick, like to the, oh, it's not going to go there or whatever, you still lose control of that pick. You know, you can't promise it to Washington and say it's one through 20 protected for two more years and then trade it to someone else. You've lost control of that pick. So I just think that to be careful and really trade for the skill sets that they need, not just the positions that they think they need. Finally, real quick, we'll get more into it over the course of the week. but I just wanted to address because there had been the report that Bradley Beale would be willing to lift his no trade clause for a handful in teams that include the Lakers. It's not going to happen.

Like for a bunch of reasons that is, I'm not saying that Beal wouldn't lift it. I'm saying he's not going to be a Laker for a variety of reasons that makes absolutely no sense. If the Lakers trade for Bradley Beal, I'm not even getting into how the finances were. would work, whatever. Unless it comes back with... Means they got their whole team. Just so you know, they have to gut like a good chunk of their team. I would say like if it came with massive draft compensation to take on Beal's contract, you know, maybe you consider it. The sons don't have any draft compensation. So that's not something that can go. If it is torches and pitchforks, legitimately. It means you've

learned nothing from the Russ. It's never going to happen. Nothing. And if Bradley Beale is kind enough to wave his no trade clause for the Lakers. I think the Lakers politely say thank you and kind of wave it back. Just wave it right back there. It's not going to happen anyway. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hanging with over 27,000 subscribers to the program. Make sure to check out the postcast of Day of Palais and also the Locked on Lakers newsletter. Go to Lockdownlakers.

Click on that subscribe button for Locked on Lakers and all of this goodness is delivered to you every day. We'll be back, of course, after tonight's game, hopefully celebrating a road win for the Lakers in Dallas. See, everyone. Later tomorrow, tonight on YouTube, tomorrow on audio.