Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers Have an Identity Problem, Part II: Roster Construction

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

After Tuesday's loss to Detroit, JJ Redick noted that the Lakers have an identity problem. In the sense that they don't really have an identity. For Thursday's show, we talked about part of that equation, namely leadership. The team is in a transition from a LeBron-voiced squad to one where Luka Dončić is both the face and the leader, and unquestionably the team's best player. But the styles are very different, and both elevating Luka and having LeBron step back are muddling things. But another part of the lack of identity? Roster. The Lakers just aren't built to effectively maximize Luka on either side of the ball, which inherently makes it harder to build a culture, or identity, or discernable style of play. So is that something that can be fixed? How did we get here? To say the least, Rob Pelinka has work to do. And so does JJ Redick, broadly, and Friday against Memphis because the team is again shorthanded.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: The Lakers are down more guys against the Grizz.  SEGMENT 2: How much does roster construction hinder building an identity? SEGMENT 3: What can be done?  Everydayer Club  If 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/everydayerclubSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now. 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.

J.J. Redick says the Lakers don't have an identity yet, and one major problem, these are my words, could be the roster. 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, sometimes on weekends, often on holidays, no matter how where you get your podcasts, whether Spotify, Apple Podcasts, maybe. be one of the 37,000 subscribers to the YouTube channel, Lockdown Liquors YouTube channel. No matter how you're doing it, you're helping support the number one sports podcast network in this or any known universe.

Brian Kemenetsky and Andy Kaminetsky, long time covering the Lakers with the LA Times, ESPN, the athletic. Andy, as the Lakers face the rare two home game non-consecutive against the same team, back-to-back thing, against Memphis, a team that is playing better.

The Lakers have some injuries that are piling up. JJ Reddick has talked a lot about identity. In difficult times, identity, a team's culture, a team's identity is something that they often will lean on to kind of get them through

some, you know, play at times when people are available. And you got to play different guys and in different positions and all this kind of stuff. That is what they are facing. We'll get to this conversation about, you know, kind of where the Lakers are going wrong with their identity. But we got to update people on exactly who isn't going to be on the floor on Friday night because the list just keeps getting longer. Yeah, we already knew that Austin Reeves, Ruehachamura, and Gabe Vincent were going to be out for this game, but Adieu Thero has entered the chat. He somehow sprained his MCL.

I have absolutely no idea how this happened. There has been no reporting of it to the best of my knowledge. The only way we've even known is the Lakers made an announcement. And it's not like we saw some specific moment where Thero looked hurt. I didn't notice. It is for just people it is his other. knee. It's not the knee that kept them out at the beginning of the season. It's the other one. Sure. Which I don't want to say that's better, but it is, at least it's not a recurrence of the same injury.

Then, you know, you add, you go from Thero, Jared Vanderbilt has been downgraded for the game on Friday as well. He's questionable. Right. But my point is he was nothing and now he's been downgraded. So we don't really know if Vando is going to be able to play. Right leg soreness. Yeah. I mean, join the club, man. So the Lakers will be playing a Memphis team that has sort of slowly kind of started to find its footing a little bit. They've still got some problems.

They're still not performing at the level. I think they had hoped going into the season, but they are not struggling at the level that they were at the beginning of the year. Lakers got to figure out how they're going to maneuver against Jahn and Jaron Jackson, Jr. And they've got some dudes on this roster. They do have some dudes, although they are dealing with injury issues of their own heading into this game. Zach Eadie and Brandon Clark and Vince Williams are all out and John Conchar as well. Jalen Wells and KCP, who missed the Grizzly's most recent game.

a very tough loss against the Sixers where I saw some of this game, John Morant had 40 and was incredible. Those two guys are both questionable with hamstring injuries. And like I said, KCB didn't even play in that game. The absence, we've known for a while that Edy and Clark aren't going to be there. They've played most of the season without Zach Edy. So they're pretty used to that by now. Well, but the reason I was going to bring this up is for my ESPNLA 710 show,

Lakers talk, my weekly show about the Lakers, I previewed these games with Joe Mullinex from Locked on Grizzlies. And he noted how with basically just Jaron Jackson Jr. and then the backups of Jock Lawndale, who he's had some offensive moments, but he is not a good defender at all. and Christian Coloco, who has been a foul machine for Memphis, and Jaron Jackson Jr. is prone to foul trouble as it is. The paint could be really vulnerable for Memphis. Joe said it's been a problem at times over the last couple weeks, and then especially if Jalen Wells doesn't play in this game,

him along with Cedric Howard, those are the main guys that Memphis would be looking to put on Luca and LeBron to try to slow them down, get them out of rhythm. Cedric Howard is having a terrific rookie season. But Wells' absence, if he doesn't play, would be a big deal. So we'll see how this works, but Memphis, while I don't think, other than Eadie, they're not missing anybody as important as Austin

and arguably even Rui. They're going to be missing some dudes. So the Lakers have to treat this as an opportunity. January, they have the third easiest schedule in terms of strength of schedule. So they've got only four games out of 16 against teams above 500, although some of the sub 500 teams they are playing have started to pick things up. But bottom line is starting Friday, they have an opportunity and they need to cash in. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandul.

Before tip off, check the Fanduel app and see what's dropping during NBA happy hour. It's every Friday from 6 to 7.30 p.m. Eastern time. Yeah, the Lakers have to any winnable game, whether that's a, you know, home games against midish to lower midish teams, whatever it might be. The Lakers are never going to be set up right now to dominate anyone because they just, you know, right now they're missing too many people. but some games are more winnable than others. I do feel that Memphis is probably catching a break because they might have trouble defending the rim. The Lakers have trouble getting into the paint right now.

So something theoretically has to give, maybe, or maybe nothing does. So we talked on Thursday for Thursday's show about this question of identity. And JJ Reddick noted after the Pistons game, just to kind of catch people up if you missed that up, episode that the Lakers don't have an identity. They're sort of searching for one at this point. They haven't been able to build it up. Injuries have played a role.

Certainly in that, they've not been able to put out a consistent starting lineup. You noted Andy on Thursday's show that basically everyone has taken a turn in the Lakers' starting lineup this year. So, you know, Addu Thero hasn't. Maxi Claiba hasn't. both of those guys have been in and out of the lineup themselves. Trying to figure out how to develop the kind of culture and identity that Redick, I think, is referring to is a tricky proposition. We spoke on Thursday about the leadership aspect of it, the transition from LeBron to Luca and how that is sort of influencing the process. And what is needed from, and what's needed from both of them at third?

There's still the two biggest leaders on this team. There are still responsibilities for both of them. And how the Lakers need to facilitate this, where JJ needs to fill in. Do we need to hear more from Rob Polinka? Just all of this stuff like the leadership architecture. That'll kill some time. Yeah. I mean, the answer, even if it's yes, is good luck with that.

But, you know, the leadership. He'll start talking before we know what the season will be over. If they were, you know, the next time there's a six or seven game win streak, we're much more likely to hear from Rob. They are in a position, though, where that just sort of that leadership DNA and the leadership architecture and the day-to-day voice, so to speak, of the team is shifting. But it is, of course, not the only thing. It is hardly the only thing. It may be arguably not the most influential thing. That influences what your identity is, what your culture is, whatever you,

whatever word you want to use for your basketball team, there's a lot more that goes into it than just who's doing the talking. Yeah. I think, you know, we have to make sure that we are including JJ. For sure. Absolutely. In terms of that leadership piece of this, we can get into how he handles the roster and the roster itself.

And some of the limitations that are there, even when they're at full strength, much less this particular incarnation of it that's constantly in flux that I think does get in the way of preventing an identity. But there are also elements of laying down the law and laying down what you want from these players and what seemingly you will tolerate and what you won't. That question of sort of institutional disciplines, so to speak, and drawing lines and holding lines. and things like that, is a really interesting one to explore because that question, the ability to execute on that type of coaching and instill that type of accountability

is directly related to what your roster looks like. And so we'll get to all of those things next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandual Fridays. They're already feeling different during basketball season like today. And FanDuel is making them even better. Every Friday night before the games tip off, Fandual gives fans a new way to kick off the weekend with NBA Happy Hour. NBA Happy Hour is your official pregame,

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a little action, and a whole lot of Friday energy. That's NBA happy hour only on Fandual, the official sportsbook partner of the NBA. It is. It's interesting, Andy, that you go to that place. of, you know, I mentioned the first segment, like the, you know, the leadership architecture and, you know, JJ's role, Rob's role, the players, all of these things. When we'll use Detroit as an example, because Detroit was the impetus for the question that JJ was asked because their identity is obviously some athleticism, aggressiveness, but very, very physical play. An idea of we're going to follow you basically on every play with the belief that while you'll get some whistles, the referees aren't going to call

everything. And ultimately, this will tip in our balance. And so, I mean, they're comfortable sending guys to the line. They lead the league in opponent free throw attempts. They, they bake that into the equation. It's not even, it's obviously there's an element of they're not going to call quite literally everything, but they've baked into they will call a lot and we're cool with it. Right. Exactly. And like, but, you know, but again, they're not, you, you're going to, you're to send people the line, but you're not going to file out all your players every game because there is a limit. And you are meanwhile establishing a tone for how the games will be played and a physicality that allows you to play very aggressive defense and all that stuff. It is a,

it's an identity. It's an approach that fits their roster extremely well. So the Lakers are looking for something like that. And the trick for, them is trying to figure out how to make the type of identity construct the kind of identity that they want with the players that they have. And I know you and I both have had different times of this season major questions about what the skill sets are on this team and now without Austin Reeves for the long term and hopefully not that much longer without Rui. but some of those shortcomings are just blindingly clear right now.

Yeah, and for the time being until Austin is back, but even as they hopefully get Rui back soon, hopefully Vando doesn't miss any games, but if he does, it's one or two tops. Like part of what they're going to do, and I think this, if you don't even necessarily consider it identity, it would be at least a short-term personality and focus, they have to play with a lot of discipline.

Like they have to play in a way that cuts down on controllable mistakes. And part of the issue that they had against Detroit, even when you take into account, Detroit is a better team than them this season, and they had more of their better roster available. The truth is, the Lakers hung with that team, despite all the deficiencies and all the ways that Detroit is very, very much constructed to pounce on the Lakers' weaknesses and capitalize on them, they hung with them for three quarters.

And part of that was, to their credit, they played their asses off defensively. They worked hard in this game. The effort was there. The execution was not always perfect, but the effort was there. And they offset some of the execution and talent issues. with disruption of their own and creating plays for themselves through defensive disruption.

Then Nick Lauderia, for example, in the first half, was, you know, his overall numbers for the game weren't great. And overall, Jake, is I don't think, played particularly well over the last four or five weeks, at least in certain spaces, in certain areas of what the Lakers need from him, he has not produced. But in terms of effort and activity,

in the first half, especially of the game on Tuesday, he was extremely disruptive. Yeah, we'll get to this in terms of the roster construction. I don't think Jake has so much underperformed as he's more or less performed to what can be expected from him and the cracks that he's supposed to fill are now wider because of the people that are missing. That's really his role on this team is to grease the wheels and fill the cracks. But regardless, when around halfway through the third quarter, the last few minutes of the third quarter to the top of the fourth, the Lakers mistakes just started piling up in ways that Detroit was capitalizing on and really never looking back.

And I heard our friend Jason Tim from the Hoops Habit podcast. He's been on the show with us before. Really, really great basketball coverage. He summed this up very well. it felt that times like Luca and LeBron were having a contest to see who could pull off the most difficult pass possible. And they were constantly one-upping each other by failing, essentially. And like those are the type of things that as an extended coach, as a guy with as much security as you can possibly have, does not say to these guys, enough of this bleep, knock it off. like then that's at some point that's on him for not sure call him out if nothing else call out

they Lucas called himself out too like they're the the problem here is a difference between Luca calling himself out and JJ I've heard they've talked about turnover if you want to be more explicit calling out yes that's fine that's fine I don't have a problem with it what Luca and LeBron are doing though in part is like I'm much more critical of you know the times when those guys don't get back on defense. To me, that is much more of a culture setter.

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Sure. That's the worst kind of thing. You lose your guy, you know, in the half court, you know, somebody blows by you off the dribble, whatever it's going to happen, don't love it, but it's part of it. Get back on defense. Like, you know, that was part of the problem with LeBron last year that Reddick did after that Miami game where LeBron was just atrocious.

It was like, you just, you have to do be. you have to be better. And he was. The way that that stuff, though, is related to the roster. Part of the reason they were trying to make those passes is because, especially without Austin, the roster doesn't provide offense. It really doesn't provide. I'm not saying you can't be more careful with the ball.

It's not my point. But the need to have to force. stuff into spaces where you probably shouldn't try is heightened because without Reeves in the lineup and then without Reeves and Rui as a high level shooter and a guy who at least if he gets the ball can score at a few different levels. Without those guys in the lineup, the shortcomings of who is left are really obvious. And there's just there's very little offense left on this roster. And so the two guys who can pass to generate it feel like they have it.

And that gets me to sort of where we started. Real quick, I would, you're not wrong, but I would buy that more if they didn't do some of this stuff with everyone at full strength too. Of course they do it. But my, but you really have, but you are doing it more. There is a need to force that gets even harder, you know, the gamble and all these other things because regular order is in it. When they get careless with the ball when things are going well,

it's because you're feeling a little loose to you see a little overconfident. You're starting to, you know, try to, you know, throw lobs all over the place, which is they do all the time. They do that when things are going well. The end result is the same. You get turnovers. But the, I think what is at the root of it is different when they're struggling, even if the end result, turnover.

is the same. You know, guy like DeAndre Aiton, we see how like more limited he is without those other, you know, that other action, that umbrella of offense around for him to work off of. Like it's been more of a struggle for him.

LeBron isn't LeBron, LeBron. And so, you know, teams don't have to pay attention. Like it gets back almost entirely on Ken Luca be sort of nuclear. And if he can't, and he hasn't over the last month or so, you know, the beginning of the season, he was incredibly efficient. Austin was incredibly efficient.

And that was sort of it in hindsight, I think, substituting for an identity on the floor. What are they good at and what are they missing? J.J. said something earlier in the week at practice that I think is really instructive for getting at the core of why the Lakers are struggling to find an identity. We'll get to it next. So before we get to the rest of this identity conversation, we want to remind everybody about the Everydayer Club.

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and you can join. If it's not for you, leave it alone. You don't have to. Show stays exactly the same for you. Again, every day a club. So JJ earlier in the week was talking about, he was asked about Nick Smith. And this was after Nick had that big game

where, you know, five of ten from three point range, you know, thinking, what did it, 20, 25 in that game, I think it was? I think he had 21. It was against the Kings. Yeah. You and I had seven, I think, in that game. And JJ basically said, you know, he's talking about Smith.

Like, you know, we know what he can do offensively. He's got defensive limitations. Like, and it's not, we're not calling him out. He knows that too. And in the context of that, though, he said, we have a lot of guys who are sort of good at one thing and not others. Like you have, you know, Nick Smith, who is a, you know, at least, you know, an offensive talent, if not always dominant.

He certainly got that ability to put the ball on the floor, go to the basket, create his own shot, which is something, you know, that you don't see much of on this roster. but he can't defend. You know, Rui is an excellent shooter, but struggles defensively. Jake Laravia, who we were talking about in the first segment, was brought here in part to be a shooter with the hope that he could kind of have, you know, a role on a decent defensive team. He's actually performed pretty well defensively and hasn't shot the ball well at all.

And so, you know, that area of what he's supposed to provide the Lakers, has not been there. And so you get Jared Vanderbilt, who corner three is a side is a very limited offensive player. And even his defense, we've seen numbers about boxing out and guys getting kind of caught in the half court,

all these other things. They don't have a lot of two-way players. And they also don't have a lot of players with like multiple skill sets, if that makes sense. And I think mixing and matching those types of things to then find a playable identity is really challenging. And the Lakers just haven't built up a roster that fits together well enough

to have an identity that goes beyond our three best players need to be really good. I mean, I think that is, I think that's true to some degree just because of the inherent roster limitations, even at full strength. Like if you look at what I think most people would consider the five best players on this team, Luca, Austin, LeBron, Rui, Aiton. They are all very offense-first players. But then even if the Lakers want it, like if JJ, front office, Luca, LeBron, like Austin, the guys that really matter most,

put their heads together and said, we are going to be super offense-first, elite offense. The problem is after the top five guys, you have a bunch of players who are more defense first, energy first, like I talked about, someone like La Ravia, cracks fillers first, more than they are offensive. So it becomes very difficult to keep that going for an entire 48 minutes. And I think, like we can't overwhelm you with points. Right.

outside of our, you know, the big three first and foremost. Now, you know, I will say that when you mentioned before, the idea of mixing and matching and there can be a challenge, you may be right. I have continued to say since last season and certainly this season, I think JJ should take that challenge on more in terms of trying to find more of an identity or if nothing else, more of a compromise, more of a thing you can fall back on more,

maybe just through balance. And we saw, I think, some proof of concept through necessity, because of everybody that was hurt, the starting lineup of Luca LeBron Smart, LaRavia, Aiton, is as balanced, or at least on paper, one of the most balanced lineups the Lakers have put out there to start a game this season. And lo and behold, it has,

had some of the best results they've had for like three quarters against one of the best teams in the league, I think in part because of that balance. It almost feels at times like JJ has been looking for like identity quarter by quarter where he starts things out super offense, then gets super defense, then super offense, then super defense. And I'm not sure that's what he's trying to do. But regardless, I've said many times, I think the approach to this. is a mistake. Well, I think, you know, for example, I know a lot of fans when, when, but there are pieces

also too. Yeah. Yeah, we got wanted Vando to be in the starting lineup, you know, with smart. And I think they're splitting that up because it makes it easier to keep both smart, one of Smart and Vanderbilt on the floor at, if not all times, most times. And then some overlap between the two. And then obviously, La Ravia has kind of become sort of. of an offense, you know, an energy kind of disrupting sort of play.

At least he works hard. I mean, LaRavia was one of the guys. I remember we talked about this last week that I suggested as a possibility if you weren't going to go with Fando. But the part of that I honestly think it's, I mean, at this point, it's like most people, I think who followed this team pretty regularly, fan or media, I know, we, we is sort of, if not assumed, hoped. that Smart would be in the starting lineup for Rui

before the season even started. As it's gone along, there is nothing that is more universally looked at as like, hey, why don't you try that than Rui out of the starting lineup, Marcus Smart into the starting lineup. I don't know why they don't do that. That is one that even as somebody who generally tries to give coaches some leeway or, you know, workshop through, here are the devil's advocate reasons why this

thing that I think might be a good idea may not be the best idea. This one I'm out of options. I have no idea why Marcus Smart doesn't start for Rui. And I do think as an identity, you know, what he brings at the beginning of game, he being smart, makes a difference in the type of ball that you play from the jump. And that matters. Yeah, absolutely I think it matters. I mean, we've tried to emphasize this a lot. When we harp on the starting lineup, it's not about, you know, defining who your five best players are or trying to create a hierarchy.

You know, I have suggested before the possibility of Vando's starting. He's clearly not one of the five best players on this team. I've been open to La Ravia in that mix. La Ravia is clearly not one of the five best players. It's about creating floor combinations and an entire flow through your rotation. But the other piece of this, though, even when you look at the roster fully intact or what they've looked to do with who's been available, because, you know, in fairness to JJ, landing on a consistent starting lineup, a consistent rotation has been impossible for reasons completely outside of his control. True, can't do anything about that. we have a pretty clear idea of what he would do with the full lineup, and that's where I disagree

with him. But the idea that he hasn't been able to do the ideal or do anything consistent, that's simply not. Yeah, that's not him being stubborn. Right. The players aren't there. Or random or whatever. Right.

That being said, though, it's very difficult to figure out exactly what JJ would be doing offensively or what he's trying to instill offensively, which is clearly the direction. that he leans towards. He is clearly an offensive first coach. It's very difficult to figure out exactly what they're looking for as an offense anyway. Like there is so much ISO ball. There is an allowance of, I think, bad shot selection, undisciplined shot selection.

Like, I'm not quite sure what JJ would be looking for. Again, to be fair, it's impossible to know, without having enough guys available on a regular basis. But it is difficult to figure out exact, even to some degree going back to last year post-Luca trade, it is difficult to figure out exactly what he would be looking for. And I don't think they have enough discipline offensively, enough patience, enough of a foundation,

even if everyone was there. I don't think, I don't think they move fast enough. one thing. But like, absolutely. They, they, they, they, they, you're, your, your stars, you know, a lot of this, you know, we're talking about Luca. I mean, if, you know, be frank. Not only Luca, but he's a no, but it's, it's a large part of it. You know, when people talk about like really bad shot selection and all that kind of stuff, um, or, you know, the, the, the, the, the, possessions going by without enough ball movement, you know, they start, it ball starts in

Lucas hands doesn't always leave it. That is, some of that is going to happen. Because, you know, just high volume stars are going to take a lot of shots. They're going to, you know, part of what makes Luca, Luca is the ability to, you know, that step back three, unlocks things, all these other things.

It also, I think, is related to what I was talking about before when Austin isn't available. We really, you know, it hasn't been that long of an absence, but we're starting to get a good feel for how important Reeves is to this team. If we didn't have it before, I know we did, but the royal we out there may not have, the limitations come back. If there's a place that I think I'm critical, like they do, the numbers seem to bear out when they run more stuff. everybody's definition of what action is and what counts as organized offense and what isn't is slightly different. But broadly, when they run more organized offense, less read and react, less, you know, what sometimes what people call freelance is just essentially a read and react kind of thing. The more organized they are, the better they tend to be.

Absolutely. The problem is the rest of this team is very poorly constructed to be built around Luca Donchich. Yes, it just is. It's kind of a gap year, and we knew that. Yeah, yeah, I think they were hoping to paper over it. I think they thought, you know, you'd get enough shooting from La Ravia, you get it from, but there is not nearly. You could argue with 20 and 11, they have papered over it.

Nine games above 500. They are, there's not nearly enough shooting. Perhaps that comes around, you know, Vincent being heard. They thought maybe they get a little something from him and in all, you know, and so on and so on. There's all kinds of, we thoughts. but it's not a roster that's constructed to maximize Luca. Absolutely.

And that first and foremost is what needs to change. You can't have like a real identity that seems to make sense that is coherent unless your roster is constructed in a way that reflects who your best players are. And they don't have that. you and I are plenty critical of Rob and will continue to be or whatever. To some degree, it's understandable because it's not like this is something they plan for. When LeBron showed up, for example, they had two or three years where they kind of thought this was something that could happen and could lay a foundation for it.

Luca was dropped in their lap and they didn't magically get two or three extra picks or extra cap space or anything else to go along with it when they got Luca. they had to just try to make a new roster. It's a roster that was built around Anthony Davis, who they traded. Right. They didn't have a lot to work with over the summer. And fixing this stuff, but why they don't have an identity, this is all why. And they got to figure out something that they can lean on.

It may just be one of these things ultimately that is, when Austin Reeves gets back, we're going to just, you know, have another situation where we need our three-backed. best players to be awesome. They, they've talked about different stuff they went and when things are going well, it kind of works because the hyper efficiency of those guys was, you know, with those two was really allowing space for other players to operate. It turns out, though, you know, Luca plays with a certain physicality, but they're not an overly physical team. You get outside of, you know, Marcus Smart. Vando. Laredo, Vando to some degree. But he's very physical in some ways and not that physical in others.

You know, and but, you know, the modern LeBron is a different kind of physical than he was before. DeAndre Aden is a, you know, a good rebounder. He's not a, you know, what you would consider a physical player. And kind of down the line that way, they're not athletic enough to be physical in a way that, like, the pistons are. Sure. because they don't move well enough. But so it's, it's a, it's a complex problem. And you've got to get everybody back and they've got to at least decide what are the things that we can fix.

Hopefully it starts Friday night against the Grizzlies. Lockton Lakers on YouTube is where you go hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel. We'll see everyone after the game.