Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Skinny Luka? Dončić Looking Good in Photos. Plus, Austin Reaves' Agent Weighs in on Rumors

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone. Welcome to Locked on Lakers for Tuesday. Brian Komeneski, Andy Keminetsky. I got two words for you, Andy. Skinny Luca? That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Lockedon Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:26 Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers. First listen of every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how where you get your podcast, this one's always free, never behind paywall. And Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where 30. 35,000 plus subscribers are all dissecting every image that they have been able to ingest over the course of a holiday weekend of Luca Donchich. Andy, we talked going into the weekend about how Luca's fitness level will be scrutinized, like very few athletes on the planet as the Lakers head into next season. and it's as if Luca heard the show

Starting point is 00:01:05 because this weekend has been filled with photography of Luca Donchich. He's posting stuff on his Instagram. He's out at the Real Madrid, I believe it is, basketball contest and wearing fitted t-shirts and looking skinny.

Starting point is 00:01:25 And Andy Kamenetsky, I cannot believe, for a second, that this isn't at least somewhat intentional. No, absolutely. I mean, you combine that with Luca's wife posting a picture of something that she was cooking, presumably both for herself and for Luca, that if we are all being honest, honest, none of us know exactly what she was making, much less was that the first step, like, you know, the final step could be then add lard or whatever. But for the time being, she put. She posted a pan full of what appeared to be vegetables, rice, maybe some limas, all sorts of stuff that look really healthy. It appeared to be in some type of clear broth. And it wasn't, at the very least at this point, it wasn't deep fried. But we have reached Andy the stage of the summer. I mean, marked the time.

Starting point is 00:02:23 It's May 26th as we record. we've reached the scoping Lucas Wife's Instagram feed for clues as to what Luke is the thing though. Here's the thing. You can only scope Luca's wife's Instagram if she's posting photos. And if she's posting photos, one has to assume that unless this is the most offline or I guess sort of not paying attention to anything online in the NBA Twitter or Instagram discourse, one has to assume that they are very aware not just of what they are posting,

Starting point is 00:03:08 but the reactions to the things that they are posting. Everybody seems to be leaning into right on the heels of Jason Gallagher, the producer of Mind the Game, So before. Yeah, this is what prompted our conversation on Friday. Right. Somebody that is very presumably quite connected.

Starting point is 00:03:30 He's also a big time Dallas Mavericks fan. So between those connections and the ability to speak directly with JJ Redick, with Luca Doncha, I mean, with LeBron, not saying those are his sources, just saying there's a lot of different avenues Jason has for hearing, hey,

Starting point is 00:03:50 Luke has taken this whole fitness thing, really seriously these photos on the heels of that chatter and for what it's worth. Obviously, different pictures from different angles, you know, skinny Luca, depending in a different photo, I guess could look like, you know, not quite as skinny or medium-sized Luca or whatever. But that being said, if this is the after photo, you want to compare it to this picture of Luca just with the Lakers before, there's no question. Luca looks thinner in the after.

Starting point is 00:04:22 That is true in these photos at least. There is also a report, I guess, in Slovenia. And this is where we're going to start leading on our Slovenian, new Slovenian listeners that can kind of guide us that what Luca has been up to. I'll read here from the translation that the story was all over Twitter over the course of the weekend, so I cannot totally vouch for the translation into English. But do you need my help, Brian? I've been brushing up on my story.

Starting point is 00:04:58 I know. I know you've been working hard. I will go ahead and read what's on the page in front of me. I'm the go-to for the Lockdown Lakers podcast when it comes to translating Slovenian. Please feel free to correct me if you catch a mistake. Away from the cameras and attention, he is preparing, he being Luca, a sharp response. both of the unfortunate past season, which was marked by a wide range of health problems,

Starting point is 00:05:23 an unplanned move from Dallas, and all the criticism. There were a lot of criticism due to his faltering fitness and allegedly unsportsman-like life. Again, I'm not totally, you know, the translation might not be perfect. In the first phase of the long period between the seasons, Donchich, now without basketball,

Starting point is 00:05:39 dedicated himself to transforming his body in Lubyanya, Lubiana, I believe is how you pronounce the name of the city, which indicates both guided indoor conditioning and a modified diet. First, physical results are already clearly visible, and the measurement results are also encouraging. And then we'll see a Eurobasket what comes next. But like, you know, so you get that report out of Slovenia, and then you get the photos of a guy looking skinnier.

Starting point is 00:06:12 And, you know, I mean, look, you want to talk about, like, forget what Luca's wife is. is doing, Lucas certainly knows the meaning of putting stuff on his own Instagram. And if he had, you know, say, put on 15 pounds since the Lakers were bounced by Minnesota, I don't think he'd post that. No. And first of all, it's worth noting that one of the photos, the photo from Real Madrid that's gotten a lot of attention, Luke is actually wearing white, which often makes you look, frankly,

Starting point is 00:06:45 fatter. Like if Luca, if Luca was trying to hide pounds, he would be. wearing if not a black t-shirt navy brown something darker so the fact that luke is out there you know out in public in a white t-shirt lets you know that he's feeling good about the revenge side though to play devil's advocate he's rich enough to afford the kind of t-shirts that would be very slimming so who's to say i think look the point of all there's i think unless i'm just going to say this i feel like unless you've got the foundation to work with slimming stuff tends to make you just look big Well, I think it's a matter of he was already in shape compared to like normal people.

Starting point is 00:07:29 He needs to be in elite NBA basketball shape. And so I think what the point of all this is is, you know, again, the season has been off. You know, they've been done for like a month. And it looks as if Luca is taking the off season conditioning. seriously. He, I'm sure, gave himself a little bit of time to heal to make sure he wasn't hurting himself, but at the very least, whether he's been exercising a ton or what the workouts have looked like or whatever it might be. He clearly looks like he's in pretty good shape. And then we will see in Eurobasket what that translates into. And, you know, we joke about these sorts of

Starting point is 00:08:11 things. But it is enormously important that Luca come into, training camp this year healthy and ready to take on the kind of load that he has in years past. I mean, for all the, you know, can Luca do this? Can he make

Starting point is 00:08:33 it through a season like whatever? You go back two seasons. He led the playoffs in everything. Yeah. Everything. Every statistical category that you can come up with. Luca, when the Mabbs made that run to the finals, led the NBA

Starting point is 00:08:49 in it, points, rebounds, minutes, you know, all the three-pointers attempted, three-pointers, all of this stuff. He was at the top of all of it, and the Mavericks made it to the finals on the strength of defense. So we have very recent proof

Starting point is 00:09:08 that, A, Luca can play on a team that plays good defense, because that's how they got to the finals, and Luca can carry a team, you know, statistically and make it all the way through because he led the NBA and everything in those playoffs. But that said, it is critically important that he show up in shape, feeling good, and ready to do what needs to be done.

Starting point is 00:09:30 Both for the Lakers, but I also think for himself as well. Absolutely. We saw a lot of comments in reaction to Friday show, which was at least led with the report from Jason Gallagher. And a lot of people pointing out, you know, all this talk about Lucas Conditioning, where like he's perennally one of the league leaders in minutes, like, you know, average per game, total minutes.

Starting point is 00:09:51 Like, yes, nobody's denying that Luca can play a lot of minutes. The problem is there is legitimate reason to believe that the, that the heavy minutes that he plays, that his body may not necessarily be able to handle it over the course of an entire season or that there are injuries connected to that have those heavy minutes. Like Luca is a But there's one other thing to that that I want to

Starting point is 00:10:21 get to next because it's not just what you're talking about for this season. There's more to it and we'll get to it next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Wayfair. The days are getting longer. The weather's heating up. Everybody's eating healthy just like Luca. People are spending

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Starting point is 00:11:48 Like, it matters for his ability to get through. this season and and all of that stuff. And like, can you be what they need him to be in the fourth quarters of games, which, you know, he seemed to run out a little bit of run out of steam in the, in the first round this year. Now, look, it's on, it's sort of a season that never really got going. Because he had an incredibly long off season, you know, no, I mean, in terms of like, playing.

Starting point is 00:12:19 He played deep into the, they made the finals. Then there was internet. national play. And he comes in, he kind of get, you know, he's, he's never really healed. He gets hurt. He comes back. He's traded. Like all of like there was no rhythm to what they were doing. And so he got sick. He got sick before one game and got hurt during another one. So there's no opportunity really to gain a rhythm throughout. But that said, it's not just this season and his ability to carry the team and all that kind of stuff and all that kind of stuff. And do all the stuff the Lakers, you know, want him to do. The bet that Nico Harrison made was not this year, Luca's not going to be worth it,

Starting point is 00:13:01 or even really next year that Luca's not going to be worth it. It's that over time, in the long term, he is a bad bet. And why is he a bad bet? Because he doesn't take care of himself, because he's been playing professional basketball since he was, what, like 16 or something like that? Younger. That's right. And it's years and years and years and years. And so while he's 26 years old, he's got mileage of a 30-year-old. I'm just making up numbers here.

Starting point is 00:13:38 But this is what Nico Harrison is essentially saying. And so where I will agree with him is that like all athletes, it gets harder as you get older. And so doing the same thing that you could do at 22 is harder when you're 28. Doing what you want to do when you're 28 is harder when you're 33, 34. And these guys, again, age differently, athletically because of all the pounding that they take in this game. And so Luca's long-term prognosis really is based on his ability to come into every season, having maximized his office. off seasons, having done all that stuff, and admitting that you can't do the same stuff that you used to do. Kobe used to sit in the locker room and eat McDonald's before games. And I swear to

Starting point is 00:14:35 God, it is still the most stunning thing to me to remember just in terms of how different NBA locker rooms and environments and fitness and health is now. They used to deliver McDonald's to players from the McDonald's at Staples Center and guys would be sitting there eating it pregame. That is so different than anything that would happen today. Nobody would touch that stuff, certainly not in front of before a game and definitely not in front of media. But like even Kobe reached a point where it's like, I can't. Absolutely. I got to start taking it.

Starting point is 00:15:10 So the idea that Luca at 26 be like, all right, it's time to really do this. And then what I thought was interesting was the part of the report, again, translation notwithstanding, that he's preparing a sharp response. Like it says to me, like you and I talked about this Friday, I think it was, where like there is at least some degree of potential for like, Luca to do this out of spite. Yeah. Out of revenge. Out of all these kinds of things, you know, people make the joke.

Starting point is 00:15:46 all the time about, you know, guy, girl, whatever, your breakup body after your significant others. I've said many times. I've said many times. I want Luca to come back with his revenge body. Yeah. I mean, so, you know, over the course of the long term, you want it to be something that Luca does because he understands the merits of it.

Starting point is 00:16:03 But in the short term, if he does it to humiliate Nico Harrison, the impact is to be the same for the Lakers. And, you know, that report indicates that he is hyper aware of, you know, he is. all of, you know, the bets that Dallas made against him and why and has every intention of proving them wrong. It doesn't mean he's going to be able to avoid injury entirely. Nobody does that. But if he puts in the work, he's going to be in a lot better place. Speaking of revenge and humiliation, Austin Reeves's agent went on Twitter and predicted that should Austin get traded, the Lakers will be humiliated in the process and perhaps feeling some

Starting point is 00:16:51 revenge from Austin with whatever team he'd be playing for. He tweeted out, quote, next year is going to be a show. People have no idea what's to come. Keep putting him in trade rumors for second string centers, which first of all, in and of itself, was kind of aggressive for an agent to put out. out there. Also a reminder, when athletes say that they're not, you know, they don't pay attention what's said on social media.

Starting point is 00:17:18 They know, they have no idea. They're all lying. Well, here's the thing. They're all lying. Even if they don't follow it themselves, they all have people who do it for them. So like, you know, I don't want, if Austin is, if Austin doesn't want to be, you know, get himself lost in the comments section, if he doesn't want to do the KD kind of thing where KD seems to fuel himself based on.

Starting point is 00:17:42 stuff he reads on social media and genuinely just seems to enjoy the interaction. If that's not for AR and he wants to be out, you know, playing 18 holes three or four days a week, he can do it knowing full well what people are saying because somebody will tell him because clearly at the very least his agent is paying attention to it. We have both over the years heard from the people around certain athletes about things that either we had written or said on air or whatever. you know, it's been pretty rare directly from the athlete. There's only been a few times where over the years, like an athlete has asked me to give them a copy of something that I wrote,

Starting point is 00:18:22 like a profile or whatever that they knew I was doing. But we've heard from enough people in their orbits to know that these guys are made aware. It's funny when he talks about like the second string centers, like I am assuming that that is a reference to Daniel Gafford because Gafford is I actually don't know if it's a reference to anyone specifically. I just think it's more of like a I read it more as like a broad, you're wildly undervaluing Austin and you know throwing him in deals with any center you can find.

Starting point is 00:19:00 I guess the only reason I think that's how I looked at it. Look, it certainly could be. I just think it's interesting that he said second string centers because the overwhelming majority of the proposed Austin trades, fake trades, and over the course of this week, we're actually going to go through one that I created, a pretty sweeping trade that involves Austin and frankly involves most of the team. Just in an effort to try to illustrate if nothing else, whether you guys like this trade, don't like this trade, whether Brian likes this trade, doesn't like this trade.

Starting point is 00:19:38 Sort of the options, I think, in front of the Lakers, in terms of making big change and limitations in front of them and how big the change could actually be. I've seen Gafford linked to the Lakers more than I've seen. The consensus seems to be unless, of course, Nico just feels like they have to exact some sort of tax on the Lakers because of the Luka part. But I have seen much more of like Gafford to the Lakers, not Gafford as part of. of a Reeves deal. I think the consensus is

Starting point is 00:20:07 the Reeves wouldn't go in a deal. Like, Gaffert's on good. He frankly shouldn't go in a deal. And it's the same with Claxton. I mean, he and Claxton are in kind of that group where the consensus seems to be you ought to be able to get that done or certainly would try to get that done without putting Reeves in. And if you don't, if you can't do it without putting Reeves in, then you probably

Starting point is 00:20:27 walk away. I just agents in this case are like players where the accuracy of, you, the accuracy of, you, of the disrespect. If he's seen one thing that puts Reeves in a deal for a player that he thinks to say backup player, whatever, then it's all Austin's being traded for backups. But there's another part of the Reeves moving to the next contract, whether that's with the Lakers or someone else or the trade rumors or whatever it might be. Another report from the weekend that I thought actually was pretty good for the Lakers

Starting point is 00:21:02 if they keep Austin around. next. So, Andy, the general, we all know that if Reeves decides this offseason, if he can sign an extension this offseason, but it's only going to be worth about $19.5 million a year, if he waits, can do much better as a free agent following next season. Eric Pinkis at Bleacher Report in a column about Reeves and what he might do in free agency indicated that he might be he being Reeves should he get to free agency after next year would look for a deal starting around $30 million a year, which would be a significant raise over what he makes now.

Starting point is 00:21:59 And it would be a significant raise over what he could make that $19.5 million. it's 50% more than what he could make if he signs the extension. But it's well short of what a max deal would be. And so if that number is true and somewhere in the ballpark of what Austin Reeves might be looking for, that changes the context, at least for me a little bit. I mean, because I don't, I mean, anybody thought you were going to be able to keep Austin or a player of his production for, you know, anywhere less than like 25 to 30 million, with the cap going up, new CBA, all that.

Starting point is 00:22:42 You're insane. Like, you're not going to get Austin for $20 million. That's just not going to happen. He is in this market that we live in easily a $25 to $35 million player. And so the number that we're already sort of talking about is that $30 million range, that's a lot different than 42. That's a lot different than Austin is going to be, you know,

Starting point is 00:23:06 looking for, you know, hunting right away for the max deal or whatever. That is a significant difference. Big difference in those numbers. And so I took that actually as a relatively encouraging sign for the Lakers in terms of how you figure all this stuff out and what the right amount to pay him and still be able to pay other people.

Starting point is 00:23:25 30 million is a pretty good number for him. Well, it depends on how wide of a. range we're talking about with 30 million. Like if 30 million starts creeping into 35, 36, like anything's still in the 30s range. Yeah, let's say he has an all-star adjacency. Let's say he does what Aaron Riley says come back, comes back next year and crushes it. You know, averages 23, seven. Like, again, if you look at his numbers this year, he was one of 12 players. I put up the numbers that he did. So if he does it again in a, depending on what the market looks like,

Starting point is 00:24:00 you know, is it, would I want to give them $42 million a year? No, would somebody? Possibly. What makes this tricky with Austin is I can see an argument where Austin could be worth more on a different roster than this particular one. Because the most important thing that you have to think about with any roster construction moving forward is what is the best way to supplement Luca? And I think Austin is a very interesting player in that there are some ways where I think he fits beautifully alongside Luca and other ways where I think he is, if not the exact opposite of what you'd look for to supplement or support Luca. He's on the border of it. Like he is on the border of exacerbating a lot of Luca's weaknesses while in some ways strengthening his strengths.

Starting point is 00:25:01 And while I want to make it clear, I am not comparing Luca Donchich and DeAngelo Russell as apples to apples players. Because clearly, Luca Donchich is on a different stratosphere than Delo, but you're comfortable with that? I am very comfortable with it. It is, though, very similar to the propositions that the Lakers kept dealing with having Austin and Delo teamed up. They complemented each other very well in the ways that worked, but the ways that didn't work became more and more problematic. So this is what I would say. The more that you commit to Luca and Austin together, which, you know, like you're starting to talk at that point, Lucas extension, like, a hundred, probably somewhere between like a hundred to 110 million dollars with both of those

Starting point is 00:25:55 guys, you need to be very sure that with what is left, you can not just support Luca, but support the next best player that requires damn near the exact same support as Luca. You know what I mean? Like it becomes X amount of needs. Can you fill them all with what's available? Austin and Luca, I think, is a foundation. In some ways, it could be really good, but you have to be really confident that you will have enough remaining

Starting point is 00:26:28 that you can fill out all of the other stuff that you'd need to fill out anyway with Luca, but in a lot of ways, Austin doesn't help with it all. Yeah, I mean, I think in some, it's, we will get more into this, I think, for tomorrow. tomorrow show because it is what you're getting at is fundamentally an extension of the conversation we finished last week or we got started last week finishing the week about what the Lakers can learn from teams still in it, what the playoffs have taught teams like the Lakers. And this is kind of a fundamental question of it because two things, I think, this is a great example of two things can be true at once.

Starting point is 00:27:16 There are people who just look at how Reeves to $30 million for Austin Reeves, 35 million, especially in the new economy of the NBA, where salaries are going. That is going to be the number for a player like Austin, a player in Austin's caliber. Absolutely. If you're not going to be paying him $35 million, chances are you're going to be paying somebody else who's got flaws that come out that can be. potentially exploited in the playoffs. You're paying that guy, $28 to $35 million.

Starting point is 00:27:49 And somebody else, you know, Rui in the new economy could be a $25 million guy. Like if he has a good season next year or something like, you know, so there, it's all the numbers are things that we have to, I think the basketball public scamp to get used to. But where the Lakers are, and this is maybe we'll start here tomorrow, where the Lakers are, you have to make sure the pieces fit together really, really well because you have a very limited number of assets. I also think, too, and this is obviously not Austin's fault in any way that much of what was liked about Austin, I think both from fans and certainly with inside that building, was that he was arguably the biggest bargain in the NBA. Like he was on the shortest of lists of best contracts in the league, not counting rookie scale guys. Like I don't even think that is debatable. You could make a very strong argument that Austin had the best contract in the league.

Starting point is 00:28:57 I've talked about before, I think there have been times where Austin's contract has been too good for the Lakers' own good. But you have to be able to look at Austin in this new economy. And, you know, recognize what it means to have him at 30, you know, somewhere between 30 to 40 million and what could be left over. And can you build around that? Yeah, all those, all those things I mentioned before. But you also, I think, have to do it in ways where you're not holding it against Austin essentially for getting a raise. Therefore, he's not as fun as story for you. Right.

Starting point is 00:29:36 That's not. But it is the other thing. I'm going to quit here. He's better than he was when he signed a contract. Absolutely. So that makes a difference too. Yes. So we'll keep unpacking all this stuff.

Starting point is 00:29:46 We'll get into your trade idea, which kind of is an offshoot of the question that we're bringing up here. So plenty to get into this week as the conference finals inch toward the just regular finals. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is going to hang out with over 35,000 subscribers of the channel. We'll see everyone tomorrow.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Skinny Luka? Dončić Looking Good in Photos. Plus, Austin Reaves' Agent Weighs in on Rumors

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