Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers Can Add Talent This Offseason. Or Depth. But Can They Add Both?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Friday. Brian Kemenetsky, Andy Kemenetsky. How can Rob Polinka build depth and raise the talent level on the Lakers? That's next. You are Locked on Lakers, your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers, first listen to every day Monday through Friday, no matter how where you get your podcast. This one's always going to be free. It is never going to be behind a paywall. Locked on Lakers on YouTube. It's where you can go hang out with over 35,000 subscribers to the channel, Andy, all of whom are trying to figure out just exactly how the Lakers can make their team better this offseason. It is not an easy proposition.

Starting point is 00:00:55 I know it's something that we have looked into. We've had conversations over the last week or so about this question of depth about changing the top end, But I think one thing emerges, you know, you had your big fake trade that you put out there. None of this. There's no easy or obvious path for the Lakers to take. Yeah. First of all, just to refresh those who missed Thursday's episode, my big fake trade concept and cannot emphasize this enough, emphasis on fake, although I do think it is at least

Starting point is 00:01:33 reasonably grounded in some degree of reality in terms of what it could take to get the players the Lakers would acquire from Houston and Brooklyn, the two teams in this fake trade, but also what they get. The Rockets would get Austin Reeves, Dalton Connect, gave Vincent, shake Milton, and a 2031 first round pick. The Nets would get Rui Hachamura, Maxi Klaba, Cam Whitmore from Houston, and pick swaps two years from the Lakers, 2028, and 2030. And then the Lakers would get Jabari Smith, Jr., Nick Claxton, Dylan Brooks. You end up with a bench, of a presumably opted in or re-signed Dorian Finney Smith, Jared Vanderbilt, Jordan Goodwin, who I would be very surprised if the Lakers did not retain unless he's traded,

Starting point is 00:02:19 just because he's too inexpensive and I think he's an NBA player. Bronny, then whoever you would acquire with your taxpayer mid-level exception, either in my mind it should be the best scorer available or the best backup center available and then veteran minimums looking to rebalance the roster, create less. By the way, just to you do not as a technical matter if you, let's say

Starting point is 00:02:46 you know, you did something like this you don't have to use the exception on one player. You could in theory split it in two but the exception the Lakers probably have available to them is likely so small probably not practically going to be able to do that.

Starting point is 00:03:03 It would be more of a question if LeBron did the opposite out and re-sign for far less. Right. Then you could take that larger exception to divide it. But some people say one player, you can technically make it multiple players, but just in case people are trying to go down that road, it's not going to be a big enough

Starting point is 00:03:24 exception to get. You're better off getting one, the best player you can versus two, who are probably to be closer to minimum. Absolutely. It's a little bit under $6 million, the taxpayer mid-level. But the goal was to rebalance the roster and the start. lineup, less positional and skill redundancy. You gain a little bit more youth.

Starting point is 00:03:44 Like I said, it's not a flawless new roster, but I think it could be a good roster. And the majority of the feedback that I got, whether in the comments section of the show, or I put out a post in the community section of the YouTube channel, we often solicit stuff from our audience there. What do you guys think of it? And I would say it was about 70, 30 in favor of it.

Starting point is 00:04:07 And if nothing else, I think, What I did not get a lot of was there's no way in hell that Brooklyn would do this or Houston would do this or the Lakers would do it. So if nothing else, I think I landed on something semi-realistic that also one of the goals Brian and I had in examining this trade was realistic both ways and also realistic obstacles the Lakers would face in trying to reshape the roster if they really wanted to do something a little more radical. It's a tough question because, you know, Oklahoma City, let's just get this off the table right now. Oklahoma City is better than the Lakers in a wide variety of ways. They appear to be better than pretty much everybody in the conference. You know, kudos to Denver, it looks like, for pushing them as much as they did. But the gap between Oklahoma City and the rest of the conference.

Starting point is 00:05:06 appears to be pretty big in NBA terms and isn't necessarily set to get smaller next season. There'll be questions about long-term, how can they keep everybody? Can this happen to think Oklahoma City is really well set up to be good for as long as a team can be good in the modern NBA? But certainly for next. I mean, if you're, if right now what you're sweating is, can they keep this together in 2029 or 2030, I think you're kind of missing the plot. You know, 2028, you know, and and all that stuff. Focus on right now. Right now looks pretty damn good.

Starting point is 00:05:51 Right now looks good. They've got all the draft picks you need to replenish players who might leave. They have the flexibility to keep their stars. Like, anyway. So, you know, the Lakers, it's. It's going to be really hard in any scenario to put yourself in, oh, we got you. We got to make ourselves as good as the thunder this off season. That is an overly ambitious goal because they just don't have the-

Starting point is 00:06:16 You misspelled impossible. It's probably true. It's also a mistake in my mind to think of it that way. I think it's a mistake for the Lakers to think of, we need to create a team that match up perfectly with Oklahoma City because A, even with what I just said, stuff does change in the NBA, guys get hurt, things happen, you know, whatever. And the minute you start calibrating your roster to compete against one specific team, suddenly another team comes from over here, two other teams come from over there.

Starting point is 00:06:57 And now, okay, great, you're set up to face one team really well, but you're kind of screwed against others. What the Lakers need to do is figure out a way to build the best team they possibly can around Luca. And then you roll the dice and hope that it matches up well with all the other good teams can play. Because if it doesn't, you know, I mean, you did your best. You got Luca Donchich and that was, this is the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

Starting point is 00:07:32 kind of lot that the Lakers have cast for themselves going forward. Well, especially too, because Luca is in his prime and assuming, and for now it is an assumption, but I think it's an assumption that most people think is going to be reality and there's reason to be confident that Luca is going to be around for at least three to five years with this team. And he's in his prime, which gives you a runway. So you don't have to be thinking. I think this was some of the trap that the Lakers fell into towards the, the last couple seasons of LeBron and AD together,

Starting point is 00:08:06 the idea that LeBron is near the end of his career, Anthony Davis is, if nothing else, near the end of his prime, you have to constantly try to put yourself as close to contention as possible. In reality, what you're doing isn't really a contender. It's just the closest that you can get in one offseason because you don't feel like you have the luxury towards

Starting point is 00:08:32 the luxury of building towards anything. With Luca in his prime, I'm not saying you should take his prime for granted or the window for granted or that, you know, you have so much luxury of time, everybody can relax. But it does prevent you from having to take really big, either really big swings,

Starting point is 00:08:54 really big risks, or doing things that, again, feel like stopgap solutions that get you 70% of the way, but because you're insistent on going as far as you can and 70% is as far as you can get, but you're not building towards anything sustainable, towards anything that would have time

Starting point is 00:09:17 to actually morph into a legitimate contender. There's a word you use there that I think is the most important part of the equation. Because, like, how? how you view the future and how you view team building. What, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what you're trying to build. All of that is really important word there, uh, that I want to get into next. Lock on Lakers is brought to you by DoorDash. NBA fans, you know what time it is.

Starting point is 00:09:54 It's the playoffs. And that means big performances, even bigger rewards. DoorDash is bringing the heat with a slam dunk deal for dash pass members during the 2025 NBA playoffs. It's called they swoosh. You score any time a player drops 50 or more points in a playoff game. DashPass members get a free three-piece. Crispy Tender's combo from Wingstop the very next day. You just place an order of 20 bucks or more. Use the code Wingstop 50 at the checkout.

Starting point is 00:10:21 And that combo is yours. It is crispy. It tastes awesome and totally free. Offer valid noon to midnight the day after the game terms apply. And have you ever looked at your delivery fees and thought there's got to be a better way? Well, you were right the whole time. With DashPass, you get $0. delivery fees and exclusive perks like this one.

Starting point is 00:10:38 So think about how much you would save over a season with DashPass. So again, here's the play. Sign up for DashPass to unlock this and more exclusive deals all season long. Again, any player scores 50 plus in a playoff game. DashPass members can get a three-piece Krispy Tender's combo for free from Wingstop the next day, $20 or more order. And the code Wingstop 50, that's DashPass, your door to more savings. more flavor and more ways to win terms apply.

Starting point is 00:11:09 I think the important part of what you're getting at here is the idea of risk because it's all moves are risky. All trades are risky. Every free agent signing is risky. You can do things where, you know what? Best laid plans. It was a good idea at the time. Didn't work out.

Starting point is 00:11:33 This happens all the time in sports. I think in a lot of ways it happened to the Clippers. The way the Clippers attempted to build their team, there's not a lot that you look at and say, well, that was really stupid. I mean, like, you know, whatever cracks you want to make about Paul George, the Lakers tried to get him. They at one point thought they were more secure to get him than LeBron. You know, the Lakers sat through a lot of the 2019 offseason waiting for Kauai Leonard to make his decision. Like the Clippers did a lot of things that the rest of the league would have done. And I know it looks especially bad now, given where the Thunder are, given where SGA is.

Starting point is 00:12:16 But I don't think it was stupid. It just worked out really badly. I think here's there was, but the word is risk because it's not that what the Clippers did was stupid, but you could see, you could really see it with Philadelphia. But even going back a few years, you could sort of see like the. Big money for guys with, you know, sort of somewhat dicey health histories. Like, you know, you could see the potential problem. Now, maybe I ask Nico Harrison.

Starting point is 00:12:48 That's what the Lakers are doing with Luca. No question. The risk today looks different than like you see Paul George, Kauai Leder, they're hurt all the time. Fast forward. Rewind a few years. It wasn't quite, you know, everybody was four years younger, five years. it wasn't quite as as obvious as it looks now, but the risk was still there.

Starting point is 00:13:12 That was the downside. You got a lot of money tied up in guys who do have some sketchy health history. The equivalent of that for now for the Lakers to be like the big swing for Joel M.B. Who undoubtedly, I mean, say which I mean, Embed in the 20-something games he was able to play last year and limp through. And it was still remarkably effective. Like he's really good, but he makes a huge amount of money. You almost know for sure that he's not going to give you more than 50 games in any season you ever want. And there's probably a 50% chance, 50 to 75% chance every year that he's not even going to be available in the postseason when you need him.

Starting point is 00:13:58 So, you know, and then you're hoping for that one or two seasons where he is available, that's the season you catch light. in a bottle and you happen to be better. Like, it's not that there isn't a way that a Joe L.M.B acquisition could pay off. It could. But the risk is so much higher than the odds of reward that it's a god-awful idea. It's like Russ. It's like Russ. There was a way that you could justify the Lakers having done that.

Starting point is 00:14:28 When the deal happened, once you and I picked our jaws up off the ground, and had a few belts to calm down. I mean, we both presented the devil's advocate argument for the Rust trade that made sense in terms of certain things that you would want from Russ, the ways that he could keep the offensive float when LeBron actually rested. Things like that, you could justify it. The problem is the ways that it could go south were neon red, flashing and you knew going into this, it's either got a land perfect or it's likely going to be a disaster with damn near no middle ground. And as it turned out, it was a disaster. And just as bad,

Starting point is 00:15:20 it leaves you in a position where you have no pouts. Like the Lakers have done reasonably well, sort of extricating themselves from this, but they've put themselves in a position where they've had to used an awful, they used a lot of assets to get Westbrook, which was still amazing to me. But they've also had to use a lot of assets to get out of it, even as they've done a decent job, you know, kind of making themselves competitive again. It's come at a very high cost. So you can't do that again. And, you know, so I think there's a huge difference between and I think fans get caught up in the all in versus punting. How can you give up a season of Lucas Prime, a season of Luca Plus LeBron?

Starting point is 00:16:04 a season of all this stuff. And I agree. This is why I don't want to, I think the sort of gap year idea that not just we, we talked about on a show other people have, you know, do you keep your powder dry and all that kind of stuff? It's not an unreasonable idea, but I also think it's limiting. Like if you can get better for next year, do it. Just do it in a way that doesn't, you know, all in has risks associated with.

Starting point is 00:16:34 that are kind of silly. Like, you know, if you're a team that if you're going all in from a position of strength, that's different. Oklahoma City could, you know, I think they're going to win a title this year, could make sort of all in, more all in moves and just put a, try to put a vice grip lock on the NBA for the next half decade. They could try stuff like that. They have enough stuff to really plan ahead in that way.

Starting point is 00:17:01 The Lakers wouldn't be going all in from a position of. strength. They'd be doing it from a position of relative weakness. And that almost always turns out bad. Because let's say like to use the poker metaphor, if the Lakers went all in with their chip stack and doubled it, would they be in a position to win a title? I don't know. But the chance there'd be maybe, but there's a chance, there's a much better chance that they'd end up in a in a much worse spot. An example I would give of a team going in from a position. of strength would be when the Raptors rolled the dice on the Kauai deal.

Starting point is 00:17:38 Yes. Because they were a team that kept getting to the Eastern Conference finals, kept getting eliminated. It was very obvious that they were a good team, but they were not going to get over the hump as constructed. I think it was pretty clear that as much

Starting point is 00:17:54 as the DeRosen Lowry backcourt was very good, it had limitations that could not be overcome. It was going to have to be broken up at some point. So they said, you know what, we will roll the dice on the foundation that we have, you know, a pretty good culture. I mean, the Raptors are known as a pretty well-run organization. We think we are a Kauai Leonard away from winning a championship. We will go all in and we can live with him

Starting point is 00:18:22 leaving if that's what ends up happening, win or lose, but especially if we win, as it turns out, they won. And I can promise they have zero regrets about any. anything that came after, including Kauai exiting. I think you also have to understand what, I think Toronto was in a position to where they were comfortable saying, and if it doesn't work, we can let Kauai go, we can ship Kauai out, we can do whatever and start back over again because, you know, we can sort of build it back up in a way that, you know, they're in that process right now. I think the Lakers don't, the Lakers have less of that ability because they have to, you know,

Starting point is 00:19:06 it's one thing to say like we can't quite build a championship team next year. We can get close and we can put ourselves on a good path. We can get better. We can play competitively. We can put ourselves in a position that not that anybody's rooting for it. If Shea, you know, has an MCL sprain or something at the wrong time, misses the playoffs, okay, the door is open. Maybe we can step through it or something.

Starting point is 00:19:30 something like that. You know, you, there is that room for, but you don't want to put your, you know, you can't just say like, we're just going to hold off on a year of Luke, especially since you don't know, like you have to still have to show Luca that you have a plan to keep building and keep working. And I just, I feel like the Lakers are in a place where they can look at what they have. They can, they have to, they can improve it. but they have to be really selective in how they choose to improve it.

Starting point is 00:20:05 And so that's what I want to talk about next. So the thing that was most important to me about the BFT, the Big FIC trade that you put together, Andy, is how it reinforces the idea that you can improve the continuity and the talent level and the way those pieces fit together in your starting five. maybe through your sixth man. You could also, in theory, say, trade Austin Reeves in a way that you don't get a single player back that's as good as Reeves, but you get two or three guys that ultimately add to the depth of your roster.

Starting point is 00:20:51 You've still got LeBron James, and now you feel more confident with what you've got. And, you know, trying to look a little more like Indiana, where they have one really great star and then a lot of really good players behind it or something like that. But it's hard to do both. And so the Lakers, I think the biggest thing is you have to figure out how, what kind of team we want to put together

Starting point is 00:21:17 and then pick a path to try to get there. And you can't deviate from it. The biggest problem that I think they have is, you know, Minnesota, for example, this is part of Dan Wakey's really good. newsletter for the week at the LA Times talks about how Minnesota kind of hit a home run with Nikiel Alexander Walker in the fact they found a guy who kind of scuffled around a little bit wasn't showed some promise in New Orleans but

Starting point is 00:21:43 wasn't you know great Indiana did this with Obie Toppin and Neesmith who actually was pretty good in Boston but they just couldn't keep him he showed a lot of the same skill set showed flashes but he is never consistent show and And Neesmith, by the way, it should be noted, has been better in these postseason than he has throughout a lot of. Sure. But he showed a lot of the skill set. And what those teams did was they were like, okay, you know, you're perfect for what we need here. And they plucked those guys away and they said, you know, Obie Toppin, New York was kind of using you this way.

Starting point is 00:22:18 We're going to use you this way and it's going to make you better. The Lakers have to hit home runs like that on their players, whether it's the guy they signed for the exception, whether it's trades that they make. eventually teams are going to start trying to pick off guys from Oklahoma City's roster when the Thunder have to start making decisions about their supporting players. Finding players around the league where the Lakers can say, they can't afford that guy. Let's trade for him now. The challenge there, though, is generally speaking, a lot of those guys have weaknesses in three

Starting point is 00:22:55 or four or five spots, and they might have really good strengths in two or three or four or five spots. you have to then make a jigsaw puzzle out of the imperfect players so that the imperfect players match together so that you can use each of their individual skill sets that work at the same time. That has been the problem the Lakers have had. It's not that their supporting guys aren't good at anything. It's that they're not good at enough things and the way the pieces fit together on the bench wasn't good. I was going to say they're also, it's not even that they're not good at enough things. it's they're not good at enough different things.

Starting point is 00:23:29 Like they're often very good at the same stuff and not good at the same. I mean, it's some of what I've expressed concerns about with, you know, moving forward, Luca and Austin, especially once Austin stops becoming, you know, one of the best bargains in the league. Like Austin has many of the same weaknesses or concerns that Luca has, the difference being Luca is just at a far. far, far different level than Austin. But like, for example, if let's say Anthony Edwards was the Luca of this team,

Starting point is 00:24:07 I would say absolutely you could go in at that point with Austin because there's a lot that Austin doesn't do well that Anthony Edwards does do well, namely defense, the athleticism that aunt has that's some of the best in the league that Austin doesn't have. or like prime Jimmy Butler, if you were looking to team him up with Austin Reeves. Right. And Reeves, in turn, would provide more playmaking, more support and all that kind of stuff like that. I think in particular, like, you know, we're going to focus more, I think, for the rest of the show on some of the guys like six through 10. But I think even when you look at the top of your roster, I think what's most ideal is when your two best players or three best players not just play well off each other and compliment.

Starting point is 00:24:53 each other well, but can strengthen where the other guy is a little bit more deficient. And that, I think, this is in the conversation about Luca and Austin, but this is one of the concerns that I have about those two big picture moving forward, again, at the price point. But also, it gets into some of the stuff that you're looking to have supplementing each other among supporting players. There was something interesting in the piece that Dan Woikey wrote, the newsletter. Everybody should be subscribing Dan's coverage of the Lakers is fantastic. But he was talking with an NBA talent evaluator, as he put it.

Starting point is 00:25:32 And in talking about Nikiel Alexander Walker, he said that one of their pro scouts focus on, quote, find the man before he becomes the man. And, you know, we had mentioned the funder pieces that could get picked off. Like I would love for the Lakers to have an ability to bring in center Jalen Williams. I don't think they will because the time being he's still so inexpensive. There's a team option on him. I'd be stunned if the Thunder don't pick up. I think it's less than $3 million.

Starting point is 00:26:04 I would be surprised if he became available. But somebody like him or the biggest shame that the Lakers couldn't somehow figure out a way to get there on Sharp along with Dorian Finney Smith and the deal with Brooklyn is, That was before Dayron Sharp is coming up. He's going to be a restricted free agent. I think it will be really difficult for the Lakers to get him as a restricted free agent. Brooklyn will match. All the Lakers can offer is the taxpayer mid-level. Brooklyn will match it.

Starting point is 00:26:38 That's the end of that. Right. So I think they would be, DeRon Sharp would be doing Brooklyn a favor. Right. I don't think. I'm frankly, I'm not sure Dayron Sharp would sign an offer sheet from the Lakers unless the market is just very,

Starting point is 00:26:51 he's what, 20 something, he's probably 24, 24, 25. Should I promise. You know, like, yeah, not a prayer. So, you know, the Lakers have to try to put themselves in a position to find the man before he becomes the man, which is not always easy with, you know, their price points and some of the limitations that they have. But then also they have to, I think, just pick really well when it comes to.

Starting point is 00:27:18 to vet men guys when it comes to taxpayer mid-level exceptions. You know, I've got, they've had in recent years bad and good luck with that. Kendrick Nunn was a disaster with the taxpayer mid-level exception. Lonnie Walker, I think, was like a solid double. They need to find someone that is at least as successful as Lonnie Walker. Like, that's bare minimum. Yeah, because Lonnie was good, but he wasn't. Like, Yelani was a nice surprise based on, like, but in sort of raw absolute terms, I,

Starting point is 00:27:53 Alex Caruso is a good example of an undrafted free agent. I mean, I went and looked at, you know, how the thunder were constructed and how all these other. And, you know, they've had a couple, you know, Dort was an undrafted free agent. They kind of plucked Isaiah Joe off of the scrap heap from Philadelphia. They've drafted well. Aaron Wiggins, who's been a useful player for them, was a 50-something pick in the draft. Like they've got a lot of,

Starting point is 00:28:21 but they've also given themselves 800. They completely, it forgets. Like, what's his name? Pod, the pod, you know, pods. Or, no, I'm sorry. Not Pajemski.

Starting point is 00:28:35 Who's the seven foot tall guy weighed about 110 pounds? Poku, right. That, that, okay, C drafted. He's out of the league. That guy was terrible and it didn't make a blip. The Oklahoma City has given themselves so many cracks at players. And a luxury of time. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:28:55 And misses have been in like they've got guys like A.J. Mitchell and like who got hurt. Like they can't even get them in the rotation. That's how many opportunities they have to do this. The Lakers don't have that. And so they have the challenge for the Lakers is that. They have to be right on everything. And this is where I feel like the Lakers consistently don't take advantage of the opportunities that they do have.

Starting point is 00:29:25 It is a capped league. The Lakers can't spend in ways that other teams can't. Everybody operates sort of under the same rules and the same restrictions. What they could have is the league's biggest and best scouting department. They could have the league's biggest and best basketball operations department. And they don't have either one of those things. And I'm not saying I've done the, you know, the recent research of the last couple months to see exactly where. But historically, the Lakers have operated with small scouting staffs.

Starting point is 00:29:59 They, I mean, we know who's in their basketball ops department. It's like four guys. They have a very small basketball. Like, if you need to be able to find talent under. Every rock in every cranny where you have to find, you know what, this guy doesn't look like much, but man, he sets the meanest screens and is perfect coming off, you know, pin downs to corner three. It's like, let's go get them. Like you need to have, you need guys in all corners of the earth watching games and all over the damn place.

Starting point is 00:30:32 And the Lakers, I think, don't have the, I think they are, they need to improve their architecture for those kinds of things. if they're going to exist in this sort of low asset environment for the next, you know, five to 10 years, which they probably will. And my guess is they probably will not buff out the stock. Oh, I think they absolutely won't. Right. And look, Rob Polinka, like these are the smaller detail type issues that we've talked about with Rob that I don't think are his strong suit.

Starting point is 00:31:05 And I've often thought he has not paid enough attention to him to his credit. I think this season was, for the most part, one of his better years with that kind of stuff. But when it comes to filling out players six-ish through 12, and that matters, it's going to really require drilling down on the details. I think one of his weaknesses has been often looking more at name and body of work than specific skills and how the skills mesh and where that player is. is, you know, in their particular part of their career. And look, Dwight 2.0, Malik Monk, Mello, I think were examples of recent wins with like either the taxpayer mid-level or vet

Starting point is 00:31:52 minns, you know, Trevor or Riza, DeAndre Jordan, Christian Wood, Dwight 3.0, not so much. And he's going to have to, I think, do a very good job identifying both what the team needs and who that player is and not just simply the name recognition or just body of work. It's got to really start coming down to what can this guy do with this specific infrastructure? Because I think that's part of the reason Nikiel Alexander Walker has succeeded. I'm sure he's gotten better and credit to him for, I'm presuming, very hard work. he also happens to be in a very good structure for him. That's, context is huge with every player.

Starting point is 00:32:41 But I think the biggest, I think one of the biggest pros for the BFT, as you talk about why it would be a good thing for the Lakers, if you can create enough to, like a part of why Indiana is effective at plugging random guys in over the course of a series, over games, whatever is it? Because if you're putting guys around Miles Turner who can play two ways, Siakum can play two ways, Nemhart is a, you know, periodically, ask Laker fans blows up and scores a little bit, can shoot is a good on-ball defender. Halliburton, you know, he's not a great defender, but he can do, he's, you know, he does other things. Well, also, if you have enough guys around him who can defend, then it's not as big.

Starting point is 00:33:25 That's the thing. The Knicks, one of the biggest problems the Knicks had, I mean, going back to I talked earlier about the idea of your stars, not just complimenting each other with their strengths, but also offsetting weaknesses. Their two best players are Jalen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns, both of whom are terrific players, but neither one. And by the way, the Knicks have done probably, like people talk about like making the Eastern Conference Finals

Starting point is 00:33:49 as if it's easy or like it's some sort of terrible result. Like some years you just can't, like, can't quite win, you know. And they run into a team that matches up well with them, that's pretty hot and all that. They're a really good team, but this is one of the things that it's a weakness is that Brunson and Kat have very similar weaknesses. And it becomes harder to work around that.

Starting point is 00:34:14 And we'll quit here, but like the value of what you talk about with that reorganization of the top of the roster where sacrificing Reeves means you could come in your plan here with Claxton and Dylan Brooks and who's the third new guy. Javarie Smith Jr. around LeBron and Luca, now you have more balanced, more guys who do two-way stuff. So these darts that you're throwing to fill out the rest of the roster, and that's what the Lakers would be doing, are more likely to work because you have more balance and more guys who can support those darts in more ways. And so those guys are more likely to fit and be able to play in the way that you want if you have more supportive players around them.

Starting point is 00:35:06 But anyway, it's an interesting conversation and stuff. I'm sure we will keep talking about over the course of the next month heading into the draft. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 35,000 subscribers. We hope you have a great weekend. See everyone on Monday.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers Can Add Talent This Offseason. Or Depth. But Can They Add Both?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.