Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Athletic's Player Tiers Show the Lakers Don't Have Enough Top Level Players

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

The Western Conference Finals are, understandably, creating angst around the league, including among Lakers fans. Why? Because pretty much everyone is watching the Thunder and Spurs thinking, "We're not nearly as good as they are."  And considering both teams might not be done improving (especially San Antonio) the existential crisis is warranted.  Law Murray at The Athletic has been publishing his tiered list of the top 125 players in the NBA. The Lakers will have four guys on it -- Luka, LeBron, Reaves and Marcus Smart, who snuck in at the bottom of the lowest tier -- and one (Rui Hachimura) who was in the group of players who just missed out. Four of those players can or will be free agents this summer, meaning the Lakers have work to do just to hold on to the talent they have, let alone upgrade.  Meanwhile, OKC and San Antonio basically double what the Lakers have. Meaning those teams can go eight deep before anyone who isn't among the league's best 125 players (or basically the top 25%).  That's a depth problem that is difficult to combat, and that's before you even see where guys land, because both Western Conference elites have plenty of dudes near the top of these lists.  Nobody said Rob Pelinka's job would be easy!   HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky    Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 5-Hour ENERGY The funfetti flavor is BACK on https://5hourEnergy.com or Amazon, crack open Confetti Craze 5-hour ENERGY®️ shot today!   KALSHI For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code LOCKEDON to get ten dollars when you trade ten. Kalshi. Trade on anything.   Reddit Reddit is where the real fans hang out. Download the Reddit app and dive into your favorite team for hot takes, fresh memes, and the group chat that never sleeps.   QuoMake this the year where no opportunity - and no cutsomer - slips away.Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to http://Quo.com/lockedonnba. DoorDashFrom tipoff to overtime, stay in your bag and order on DoorDash.Get snacks, drinks, gear — whatever gets you through the season — delivered right to your door.DoorDash. In your bag all season long. PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use codeLOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNBA Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel.Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins.Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game.   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.

The athletics new player rankings drive home to challenge the Lakers face this offseason. We'll explain 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 stopping by Locked on Lakers. Plenty to discuss this afternoon. Law Murray, great basketball writer over at the Athletic, has a new set of rankings out. player rankings does it in tiers, which side note is the correct way to do it.

And it is looking like, Andy, the Lakers are going to have four players in what amounts to the top 125 players in the league. Marcus Smart sliding in right at the end of Tier 5. We learned that Austin Reeves is in Tier 3. that came out on Wednesday. I'm going to go out on a limb, presume that LeBron James, and certainly Luca Dantritch, are at least going to be in tier two and tier one at worst.

So that gives the Lakers four players in the top 125 with Rui Hachamura just missing out. He was in the sort of next group of guys that missed the cut. So no real big surprises there in terms of where, guys are. I will say it's a nice thing for the Lakers that smart popped back into that list because I don't think last year he would have made it given where he had been in his career. So that part of it is a win. But it's a good outlining of where the Lakers are with their stars and particularly their supporting cast. Yeah, just to break down a little bit more about how law,

how he considers his tiers, like what type of players we're talking about anywhere in tier, five and it was five a b and c he considers you 101 to 125 just outside the top 100 quality rotation player and again ruy just missed that he would be considered somewhere 125 130 which is for all intents and purposes the same level a quality rotation player tier four 61 to 100 player who is a good starter if not quite a star flexible tier rounds out the top 100 tier three were austin reves and another guy we're going to mention because it just happens to be an interesting bit of a kismet, 31 to 60. Star consideration is not ideal for this level of player to be the best on a team, but it is

great if this level of player is the third best player of a big three. That feels on the nose with Austin a flexible tier. Did you write this, Andy? Then tier two is All-Star caliber player who can lead an adequate team tier one, two are locked at 30 total players, but I made them flexible this year. and then tier one is the top 10, a player who can reasonably consider first team all NBA, cap to 10. Obviously, Luca is going to be there.

Were I to guess, LeBron will be on the high end of tier two. What was interesting about this, though, and actually jumped out at me immediately when I saw where Law was in his tier installation, was that we had just talked about a hypothetical based off some Twitter chatter of signing and trading Austin to the Pistons for Jalen Durham. Like, would you do this? Let's say both teams are down. Money works. I said ultimately I think I would.

You said ultimately you think you wouldn't. But we both agreed it's not an obvious decision in either direction. And we both thought that while they are very opposite players, in terms of, status and stature and just overall talent skill around the league. They're basically at the same level. Case in point, Jalen Duren is part of Law's Tier 3A, which put him with Bametabio, Stefan Castle, and Alperin Shungoon. Austin Reeves coming in at Tier 3B with OG and Anobi,

La Mello Ball, Palo Ben-Caro, Darius Garland, Tyler Hero, Brandon Ingram, Jaron Jackson Jr. Laurie Markan and Norman Powell. So in law's opinion as well, these are actually pretty comparable players, which speaks to it speaks to some of the issues the Lakers are going to have trying to create the type of depth that they want because if you start looking around at the teams that they are aspiring

to catch and then pass, particularly in the Western Conference. Those teams got a lot more players in these tiers, Brian. Yeah, we'll get to that in a second. I mean, I think this a lot more, like a lot more. But that, you know, the issue, like I said, I could be talked into it. And I think the most compelling argument to make for a Duren, a hypothetical Duren for Reeves swap is age,

beyond even positions and need and all that stuff. It's like one guy is going to be 28, the other guy is going to turn 23. So I think that's a pretty big deal. But like you say, it raises that issue of how do you, if you're the Lakers, make trades, open up roster spots, do things, increase your cap room, all of these other things. How do you do that? without opening up another hole. If you create another, you know,

you want to make another, create another $20 million, $25 million in cap space by letting Rui Hachamura, you know, potentially walk because you've renounced his rights to open up that space. Even if you bring it a player,

you still now have to replace Rui Hachamura. If you decide to trade Austin Reeves, presumably you're doing it for like you say you think jalen duran is better okay you're you're you know that's obviously not nothing i also think he's just harder to find it's harder to find a center of his skill level than a guard of austin's skill level it's a totally defensible position and i get it and like i said i could probably be talked into it um by somebody you know who's just a little smarter than you um and so like but either way if you trade Austin, you need to replace Austin's skill set.

And so Duren fills one hole, a couple holes, and create it. But if you swap Austin for him, creates other holes. If you don't do it, you've allowed one of your holes to stay plugged because Austin comes back and he presumably does the stuff that you want him to do. but you have this other hole over here that isn't filled because you didn't trade Austin for Jalen Duren. It's why I said when we were discussing this, the ideal is you somehow find a way to put out an offer sheet that Detroit doesn't match. And you keep Austin on top of it where it's Duren and, Austin and. The Lakers have a lot of ands to fill out for this roster.

and not nearly as many avenues or tradable assets or, frankly, players out there that seem available, whether as free agents or via trade, to give you all the ends that they need. And in that scenario they're talking about where you make them into an and, there's a very good chance to kind of create the ability to do that. You're renouncing LeBron and Rui, and maybe you can only bring one guy back. I don't know, maybe you don't bring either one of them back. Like, it just complicates things. And that's, that is the challenge that that is facing the Lakers this offseason.

But, you know, it's, I mean, I think the other thing about it too is it's like, you've made this point before, and we'll break here in a second, but like you've made this this point before, like, whether you like Reeves think he's really good, think he's really about like, he's right around the top 50 in the league. because with these tiered things, the guy who's 56th is functionally the same as the guy who's 49th on any given day, one could be better than the other. It's just like these are all had it 30 to 60. So somewhere in there.

And he's more toward the back of that tier. So he's probably closer to 50. Duren is right in that tier right above him. So he's sort of guesstimating here. because by the way, they're listed alphabetically when you go look at it. So you can't exactly tell where somebody would be. These guys are really hard to find. Yes.

And there just aren't that many of them because there are 30 teams. And, you know, if you're the 60th best player, if you're the 50th of the best player, on average, you know, you'd be the second best player on some team somewhere, you know. This is why I constantly say when I have experienced. expressed my concerns that the Lakers have Austin slated at a station higher than he's actually good enough to be. It's not a slam on Austin. It's a recognition of how flipping good you have to be to be like a legit second best player on a team looking to go on deep playoff runs or win a championship. Like you've got to be, you got to be great to be the third best player.

Hell even that fourth best player. And that is a great seg to the other point that we wanted to make off of these rankings. We'll do it next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Quo. Spring, it's a natural reset point. And if there's one thing that can quietly cost businesses money, messy communication, missed call, scattered text, no clear threat of who said what. And that's why Quo, QUO, is the smarter way to run your business communications.

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Looking at these rankings, Andy, illustrates the double problem the Lakers have. There is the one of, they have four players in what you would sort of roundly call the top 125. That is fewer than, say, the Oklahoma City Thunder. It is fewer than the St. Spurs. Both of those teams have essentially double that amount of players in the top 125. So that's problem number one. Before we even get to where some of those players might be on this list, you're already looking at a situation where one team, or now two teams,

have twice as many players in the top 125 across the league as you do. That makes playing them an uphill battle. Well, especially too, when you are a team like the Lakers right now that is in extreme win now territory with Luca in his prime and a lot of buildup to this particular off season where you cannot get away with kicking the can down the road anymore, whether you're talking about optically or logically. You've got to make a lot happen this offseason. The roster will, I think, not be realistically complete to truly be at the level of OKC or the Spurs after one offseason.

I'd love to be wrong, but it's not realistic. But they've got to be tangibly better. You've got to have a tangible idea of what the direction is. And, okay, we feel 65, 70% of the way after this offseason. Then we look at the next trade deadline and the next offseason. And then it feels like, okay, we are. position to be there. And you got to make this happen in a really,

really short amount of time, which becomes difficult because it means gathering a lot of players in a league that is increasingly dictated by quality depth, even more so than just who the stars are on your team. And then, again, if you're looking at the teams like the Spurs and the Thunder, which seem poised to be in charge of the Western Conference for a while, and like the benchmarks to meet,

those teams have a lot of both stars and quality depth. We'll talk about the depth here first. The thunder, and I'm not getting into the order, but guys who appear in the top 100 or will appear in the top 125, they're either in, if you haven't seen their names yet, they're in tier two or tier one, presumably which come out over the course of this week,

so you don't have to wait too long to see. Alex Caruso, Lou Dort, Shea, obviously, Hartenstein, Chet, obviously, A.J. Mitchell is in sort of the back end of Tier 5 and moving up quickly. I didn't see Kaysen Wallace in there. Yes, he is. Oh, Casein Wallace is in there.

Okay, that's what I would have assumed. It's Lou D'Orne, Kaysan Wallace, A.J. Mitchell, Isaiah Hartenstein. Right. J.L. William. Yeah, Chet, Alex Caruso. Right. And then you go to the Spurs, and it's Steph Castle, Julian Champany, De Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper, Kelton Johnson,

Devin Vassell, and O. Wembe. So just on... A guy like Carter Bryant, who he's going to be there next year. Could be. I mean, it's hard to say, but he certainly seems like on a different team with more opportunity for minutes, he certainly could be.

So you have a depth problem. First, just off that, you have a depth. You are chasing depth. I was listening to Yossi Goslin's podcast. He just put out a big thing about the Lakers outlining their offseason, their cap sheet, their holds, all these super useful stuff. And he has a third apron podcast. And he had our friends, Anthony Irwin and Harrison Fagan on. And, you know, Anthony made the point that, you know, teams, you know, are so much more physical now.

The best teams are very, very physical. You looked at how Boston played and Detroit in the Eastern Conference. They were obviously out, but they were very successful during the year. San Antonio and OKC especially very physical on the floor. Part of the reason he is correct, like it's a much more physical, more athletic league, but part of the reason those teams can play the way that they did is because they have this depth where you're going eight or nine deep without sacrificing anything. Like, you know, your top eight guys are in the top 125 in the league.

There's no drop off anywhere. So, you know, your playing style is somewhat dictated by depth. It really does make a big difference, not just in the regular season, but also what you can do in the playoffs. But then you get to the other half of this problem, Andy, which is where these players land on the list. And, you know, the spurs have multiple tier one. two and three players. And some of their guys, you know, like a Stefan Castle

is moving up, already excellent and moving up. Dylan Harper already on the list and moving up. Wemby is in that, you know, firmly, deeply in that tier one. Wemby may be the list. He might be. We haven't got that far, but he's, he's in tier 1A, like that much we know.

Like, so now you have, both a depth problem and a top end depth problem. Obviously, the Thunder have, you know, SGA, back-to-back MVP, Jalen Williams, you know, Chet. All of those guys are, you know, upper echelon players. You've got Alex Caruso, who is, you know, I'll call him a somewhat limited offensive player, but is... Not his postseason, man.

No, he's been shooting all really well. No, but he is, he is an elite level defender. And that moves you up, you know, in a ranking like this. So like now it's not just depth. It's quality depth that the Lakers are chasing. It is an enormous hill that they have to, to climb. Yeah. And they're going to have to be really creative this offseason.

They're going to have to be really resourceful. They're also just going to have to be really detail oriented. you know, there is a strong argument for using that 25th pick on a player as opposed to looking to trade it. I mean, obviously, all roads should be open for business just because the Lakers are not in a position where they have the luxury of being choosy. But they may need to try to find a player with the 25th pick that they can actually put on the court now. because if they can actually get that pick right, and the last couple of years, they've been less successful,

but their track record for success along these lines is not that far removed. That would be a massive win, just because it's one more player that they can put on the floor comfortably that doesn't mean if Dalton's still on the roster or if Vando, which clearly how JJ feels about him,

is on the roster. And like, these guys that JJ does, does not want to play. And he alluded to in talking about in his exit interview, the need for more guys nine through 15 on this roster. You know, if Jake Laravia is back next season, he's going to have to reprove himself because after a strong opening couple months,

his play was very erratic. And by the end of the playoffs, he was out of the rotation for a reason. So, yeah. Two things about Jake. A lot to get done. Yeah, two things about Jake and we can quit here. Two things about Jake and one potentially depressing thing to think about.

Jake is a great example of a guy who's sort of regular season depth and was a great example of, I mean, to his credit, he might have gotten tired because he played every game. And that's not something that he's done over the course of the season, you know, in his professional career, been like an integral part of a team's rotation of times. playing some seriously heavy minutes. But a lot of what allowed Jake to continue to keep playing and be a constructive player, even when he wasn't shooting well, which was a lot of the season, was hard work and hustle. Those things are less effective in the playoffs. They just are because everybody is hustling.

Everybody is so like all of a sudden your superpower, when for Jake, a lot of it really was just hustle and gumption just isn't as effective. thing I'll say is you mentioned the Lakers have a pretty good track record in terms of drafts and things like that, which is true, but not with anybody who's still in the building. It is worth noting that the infrastructure that has been responsible for a lot of those strong drafts is gone. And so what replaces them, I don't know. We'll see what that looks like. and it could be good, it could be just as it could be better. But I don't think we can any longer sort of give the Lakers the benefit of the doubt as a team that has drafted well because nobody is there who made those picks.

In Tony Bennett, we trust, man. In Tony Bennett we trust. Darn right. So Lock on Lakers on YouTube is where we can hang out with over 38,000 subscribers. We'll see everyone next time.