Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers Look Unlikely to Make a Trade, and Jaxson Hayes Gets Dumbest Suspension Ever

Starting point is 00:00:00 The NBA trade deadline is Thursday, and the Lakers are starting to look like they think they'll do better this summer. We'll tell you why they're right. Sort of. 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 and even on holidays, no matter how or where you get your podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:36 This one's always going to be free for you, whether it's Apple, whether it's Spotify. Maybe Andy, you're one of the 37,000 plus subscribers to the Locked-on Lakers YouTube channel, no matter how you're doing it, you're part of making the Locked-on Podcasts Sports. Locked-on Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network in this or any other known universe. I'm Brian Kipanetsky with Andy Kaminetsky, nearly two decades covering the Lakers for ESPN, for the LA Times, ESPN Radio. with the athletic. And trade deadline season is always an exciting one.

Starting point is 00:01:11 We have all of the news from a busy Wednesday as we head in to the final day before the end of the deadline. Plus, Andy, the single dumbest suspension you're going to find maybe in any season ever. Jackson Hayes will not be available as the Lakers play Philadelphia Thursday night for really stupid reasons. We'll talk about a minute. Andy's still no action from the Lakers. They are one of a ever-shinking group of teams that have done nothing to this point heading into Thursday's deadline. Yeah, they're the trade deadline version of the off-season warriors who spent the entire summer trying to figure out how they were going to sign Jonathan Comingo to a contract that they didn't want

Starting point is 00:02:06 to give him that Kaminga really didn't want to sign. And tonight they offloaded him to Atlanta in what was really a sign of surrender for Christopps Porzengis. They received no picks. They received no young players in return. And unless Christop's Porzinger starts becoming less sick less often, they really received no help. Yeah. Although they did stick into Kaminga by sending into a team who's better.

Starting point is 00:02:36 player plays his position. I don't know. Really? Really? I'm just saying, I don't know if they did it on purpose or not. I mean, clearly the Hawks think they can use it. I was going to say what the lawyers don't have a vote on that. I just think it's kind of, I think it's a little fitting that, you know, there's a bit of a crowd where he's going.

Starting point is 00:02:59 But we'll see how it works out. I hope he gets a chance to play. And at the very least, we can find out. out, you know, if he's got a chance to carve out a real NBA career. But so, you know, the comminga piece is off the board. And, you know, the Lakers just, by all reports, Dan Wojke, a few others, just don't look like they're going to be active. They were, I guess, tangentially part of a deal in the sense that a pick they once owned

Starting point is 00:03:33 was traded to the Toronto Raptors as the Warriors also traded Trace Jackson Davis. But it just doesn't look like the Lakers are going to have the space or the stuff, the flexibility, the wherewithal, the willingness, whatever it might be to get a deal done before the deadline. Yeah, or potentially. I mean, depending on what they are looking for, what you think they should be looking for, whatever. There may not have been an opportunity either. I mean, correct. There has, there has not, there have not been, I mean, ever since I guess DeAndre Hunter and Keon Ellis moved, there really haven't been any players reportedly that the Lakers were seriously interested in, whether through reports or just rumors or people saying, hey, this guy could be good,

Starting point is 00:04:34 then all of a sudden it gets sucked up in the NBA Twitter echo chamber. Like there really has not, there has not been much movement that you think specifically, wow, that could have been really good for the Lakers and I don't understand how they didn't get in on it based on what it took for player X to move, what that other team gave up, whatever. it gets back to the question of will they do anything by noon on Thursday?

Starting point is 00:05:05 And I guess for those who are skeptical, what are the reasons that they're not? Are they being too picky? Are they being too myopic and too tunnel visioned for either Janus or some equivalent all-star, all-N-B-A player or bust? otherwise there's nobody worth using a cap space on. I look at it this way. It's like they,

Starting point is 00:05:35 the answer to could they make a deal is obviously yes. I mean, they could find a way to use that pick and stuff like that. The question is, and obviously, even if you are a Rob Polinka skeptic, even if you are a Rob Polinka hater, you still don't,

Starting point is 00:05:55 want them to do something dumb just for the sake of doing it. That is not helpful to the team and franchise that you love. No, I do not want a performative messaging trade by Polink in the front office at all. That is a terrible idea. It'd be one thing if it was like, you know, you had 14, you know, you're the Oklahoma City Thunder and you've got 26 second round picks and you can, I mean, you can kind of leave them as tips when you go grab lunch for the, you know, for the rest of the front office. Lakers have, I saw this on, you know, somebody tweeted out like a Lakers fan, you know, geez, you know, they've seen a lot of these trades go by. Like the Lakers can't even give somebody two second round picks to do X, Y, and Z. The answer is,

Starting point is 00:06:47 no, they can't. They don't have two second round picks. And, you know, so I think, this the frustration around this trade deadline, which again, we'll see what happens between, you know, as we record on Wednesday evening and, you know, Thursday at noon, we'll see what happens. But the frustration with this trade deadline in a lot of ways is kind of the frustration of a bunch of other trade deadlines put together because Europe's, set that the Lakers used, you know, second round picks to like get rid of Mark Gassall or, you know, the JHS stuff. And like, Kendrick Nunn. Kendrick Nunn.

Starting point is 00:07:36 Like, like how. They got Rui through Kendrick Nunn and three second round picks, but they were only in the position to do that because they were trying to offload a mistake. Right. And so they've had to use second round picks to undo mistakes. They've had to, they don't have a. appealing trade pieces because they've missed badly on their last two first round picks. And so, like, there's real frustration with those kinds of bits of mismanagement, which has led the Lakers to a position where, in a lot of ways, based on the way the market

Starting point is 00:08:14 has broken so far, Andy, the only moves they could make seem like moves that are overpaying for something with limited assets that would limit them this summer. The question becomes, would the Lakers just be better off trying to create as much flexibility as they can in the summertime versus trying to navigate an increasingly thin market where they seem like they'd have to overpay. It seems to me like the answer is they're better off waiting. It doesn't make the answer any less frustrating. Well, here's the thing, too, that they're limited in how much they can overpay anyway. Like, overpay is a really relative term for the Lakers to begin with.

Starting point is 00:09:09 Because, like, what's the best offer that they can make? Yeah, to clarify, I mean using the first round that they have available on a player where you go, I don't know. Sure, but I'm taking it even a step. further. There's only so much ability they have to overpay, regardless of who they're bringing in. Like, forget who the incoming player is. I'm talking about the act of overpayment. They can overpayment using Rui, whatever expiring Flotsam and Jetsam that you want, one first, whatever degree of hope you have for Dalton resuscating his career in a new environment.

Starting point is 00:09:54 I guess the 30 minutes of a due theory, if you really like them. I mean, I'm saying that's, because Austin Reeves is off the table. They're not trading Austin. And Austin is tricky to trade in his own right because he's a walkaway free agent. But like, that's the best they can do. Like, that's their overpaying mechanism before you even get into the question of who are they going to overpay. And then you start thinking about for this team to really have an impactful, trade deadline, like really impactful for this, for this season specifically. It is damn near impossible to do that with the limited assets I just described and the fact that this team is clearly more than one player away, unless that player is like Yokic.

Starting point is 00:10:40 Like they are more than one player away from winning a championship this year. The Lakers have made, it seems, the calculation that they will be better off this summer. The way the trade market has broken so far, there is some evidence to back that position. There is unfortunately evidence that undercuts it as well. We'll tell you about both next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Indeed. Indeed, it's not about just finding someone willing to take the job. It's about finding the right person with the right background who can actually help your business move forward.

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Starting point is 00:13:51 last year. All you have to do is file by February 28th. Take taxes off your plate, Mark Walter, and get back to your life. Visit turbotax.com slash local to book your appointment today. The trade deadline, Andy, is the, really, it's here. And this is like your last shot at getting the Everyday Air Club with the promotion we're running now. If you need a group chat right up until noon on Thursday, the Everyday Air Club gets you access to the Discord for Lockdown Lakers. national chats. We can hang out from fans across the league. I was in there on Wednesday afternoon,

Starting point is 00:14:30 leaving questions and comments, poking around, answering what I could. Andy's in there too. You also get ad-free versions of the show, which we know a lot of you want because we get your emails. If you sign up by the trade deadline on February 5th, you can use the code deadline to get your first month free. That's Thursday. So tap the link in the show notes to learn more or go to Lockedonlakers.supercast.com. So, Andy, here's the good news. The Lakers, if they wait for the summer, you are always in competition with other teams that have significant cap space. Over the last day or two, this according to our friend Yossi Gosselin on Twitter, you know, big cap expert that is, I think he works for hoops hype primarily, but lots of great insights.

Starting point is 00:15:24 site following him. In the last 48 hours, the Clippers, Jazz, and Wizards. Remember, Anthony Davis, going to the Wizards on Wednesday afternoon made bid trades that eliminated their cap space. The Lakers are the only competitive team remaining that can offer max cap space in the 2026 offseason. The max part of it is not super relevant for like there being one guy that you really want to make that offer too, but having the most cap space to offer among, you know, teams that aren't Brooklyn makes a difference. You know, Lakers are an appealing destination.

Starting point is 00:15:58 They have Luca Donchich. To have the most cap space, potentially to offer is significant. The flip side to that, Andy, is it is a god-awful year for unrestricted free agents. There are not a lot of good players out there that you would really want to be spending a lot of money on.

Starting point is 00:16:22 Well, the good news is one of the best ones is Austin. And the Lakers have an inside track on him. So I guess if you want to try to think of this as glass half full, that's a good start. It is worth remembering, too, that the cap space that they have can also be used to absorb players in a trade. You get to the tricky piece of what do you use to entice this other team when, say, by the NBA draft, this period where the Lakers have.

Starting point is 00:16:54 three first round picks, you can do some work with three first round picks, but depending on the type of player that you're talking about trying to acquire two, maybe three might need to go to that one to the team of the player that you're acquiring, assuming they plan to keep Austin Reeves, which all indications are that they will, as far as players that they would actually have to use in a trade that any team might even sort of be interested in, you know, you can only sign and trade Rui once. Right. And then at that point, you're done.

Starting point is 00:17:31 I don't picture the Lakers getting much traction on a Gabe Vincent signed and trade. But I'm just saying like, well, no, and just to kind of extend that a little farther, to open up the largest amount of space possible Lakers have to renounce a lot of these players. And obviously that opens up space, but it also opens up roster spots. that you have to replace. The point being, though, in just bringing this up, there are ways to do this. And the cap space can be about more than just free agents. Correct.

Starting point is 00:18:05 But even with that in mind, because the Lakers are lacking in terms of tradable assets, tradable players, they are just like at this deadline right now, limited in how they can go about doing this. Even like with all the space, if they wanted to start making an aggressive bid on a restricted free agent like, say, Peyton Watson, and they put out an offer that really makes Denver have to think about it or Walker Kessler with Utah. That's great. Maybe they get those guys, but in the meantime, that money is earmarked and they can't use it on somebody else. And there's a waiting period. And regardless of how Denver or Utah, in this theoretical, feel about matching whatever

Starting point is 00:18:48 offer sheet for Watson or Kessler, I can promise you, they're going to make the Lakers wait this thing out, just so they can't do other stuff. And the waiting, I believe the waiting period is significantly shorter than it used to be. But the other thing about it, too, that's still a few days where, you know, 48 hours or whatever where you're more limited. So I,

Starting point is 00:19:07 here's some of the, the unrestricted free agents on the market. We mentioned Austin Reeves, not expected to move. Probably the best player after that. You could argue as LeBron. You know, Norman Powell is on that list. But then it's Chris Stapspores.

Starting point is 00:19:23 Zingis, John Collins, Anfernie Simons, Harrison Barnes, Mitchell Robinson, Robert Williams, Kobe White. Like, not bad players, Tim Hardaway, like, but not Keanu Ellis, who was traded but not extended yet. Not world beaters. And, you know, the best high-profile players are the restricted free agents, you know, guys like, you mentioned Peyton Watson, you mentioned Walker Kessler, players like, players like that who are theoretically the type of you know guy that that could be bailed there are you know

Starting point is 00:20:02 Lou Dort could become a free agent if the I'm expecting he will but yeah that's the under a team option on on Lou Dort so it's certainly possible he could become one same with heartenstein too and again unsourced whatever this is just I I the everydayers who've been every day since the last off season, no, I have been earmarking those two as potential possibilities for a while. But the dilemma the Lakers are going to face is you have to remember that if you, let's say Peyton Watson, to get Payton, to get Denver to give up Peyton Watson and not, you know, trade Aaron Gordon or do other things to try to create space to keep him, you're going to have

Starting point is 00:20:49 to get pretty close to maxing him out, which means you've, basically used up 85% of your cap space, if not all of it, depending on exactly what that number turns out to be. You've used all of it on one player. That may or may not be a good idea, but you've still got a ton of roster spots that you need to fill out. So the best players, if you want a guy, you know, Walker Kessler is going to cost you between, I would think, 25 and 30 at the very least, to even get probably more to get Utah to even consider. consider letting him go after what they've turned down a lot of opportunities to move Walker-Castler before you've got to figure even paying Jaron Jackson and Laurie

Starting point is 00:21:31 Markinen and they're going to have to pay Keonté George they didn't make this deal without who by the way you made much taller than he actually yes no I had Keishon I was I had Keishon George on my brain who's about actually I said he's 6-8 which he is uh Keishon George is actually about 6-11 with the hair but uh keontay George is 6-4 which is still very big, but not 6-8. So, again, Department of Corrections and Retraction, which has been busy this week. The Lakers are going to have to make a lot of decisions on how they do things. They're going to have to do things very smartly, very kind of deliberately and relatively

Starting point is 00:22:09 creatively if they want to put together the roster again through trades, through signings, because they're going to have a significant number of roster spots that need to get get filled. So I want to float something kind of that they'll never do, but might, you know, in a different universe with a different franchise, might be something that is worth exploring. Plus, Andy, the dumbest suspension, possibly in the history of the franchise.

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Starting point is 00:23:32 And you get $200 in bonus bets if you win. Make it count because after the Super Bowl, season's over. Last call for football on Fandul, an official sportsman partner of Super Bowl 60, visit Fandul.com to get started. I get the Jackson Hayes here in a second. I just, the Lakers theoretically could be one of these teams that like, say, the Brooklyn Nets this year,

Starting point is 00:24:03 Charlotte this year has they done this sort of thing. thing twice, maybe even three times over the course of this deadline, where they've used their cap space as a repository for allowing discarded players to have a landing spot, a player that nobody particularly wants, but they can be absorbed into a team's cap space. And for their troubles, you get two second round picks or a second and something else. Like a couple of years ago, I mean, I forget which team it is. It may be the Wizards ultimately end up with Anthony Davis based on a first round pick that they got for basically taking a contract.

Starting point is 00:24:54 Okay, here's an example. Laker fans may remember. It goes back about a decade. but when the Lakers absorbed Jeremy Lynn's contract, they got, I believe, a first round pick for that. Yeah. I know they got a pick. I believe it was a first.

Starting point is 00:25:10 They did that, you know, take a look at Lynn, see what they think, whatever, but it was primarily about getting that pick. They'll never do it, and nor should they. They need to be as aggressive as possible to try to, you know, get this team built and going as quickly as they can around Luca. but it just like it the fastest way for them to probably to replenish assets would be doing something like that. They just can't and won't and really shouldn't. But I say I mention this only because I think it frames kind of the space that the Lakers occupy both because they're the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:25:49 But also the fact that when you have a will be turning 27 year old Luka D. And you just don't have, you can't do that. Like you need to try to build around these prime stars as aggressively as you can. Well, here's, they should have been doing something like that a couple years ago when they, and I want to have a larger conversation about this once the trade deadline is finally over. The dust is settled and we know exactly what the Lakers did or did not do. but that is something that they should have done the last couple years leading up to eventually ending up with Luca hand delivered to them to their surprise because they clearly were not

Starting point is 00:26:40 looking to invest in the LeBron AD era anyway, the last few seasons of it, right, wrong, however you feel about it. And we talked about this. It was transparently obvious that they stopped believing in it the last couple of seasons. And they did a lot of talk about cap space flexibility and they never really did anything with it. That's actually the time when they should have been taking on those sort of contracts to gain assets, which if nothing else, they could have framed as we're going to use this for future trades involving LeBron and AD, even if they knew damn well they weren't going to do it.

Starting point is 00:27:20 I, you know, like, I mean, I'm seeing some things in the, in the chat, for example, you know, the, the, you know, the, you know, the, you know, the, you know, the, you know, the, you know, Mark Walter should have fired Rob Polinkar right away and they're stupid for keeping on. Like, you know, I think it will start with changes on how the basketball department has run. But keep in mind, you know, as aggressive as the Dodgers have been and they've, you know, Andrew Friedman and all these other things. Ned Colletti stayed with the organization for like two years, um, after, after, you know, Mark Walter purchased the Dodgers. And like to blow everybody out of the building, I think in this moment of transition this season, I don't think would have made a lot of sense. Just the scouting department. Right. But like, you know, there isn't even like an assistant GM that you can appoint to take over for Rob.

Starting point is 00:28:10 Like they don't. We already established in the read, Linda Ramas is busy doing Mark Walter's taxes. Right. And then they fired the bus children who would have been like if you needed an acting GM if you fired Rob, Joey Bus probably would have been the best guy to

Starting point is 00:28:28 to have do that on an interim basis and they fired him. So it just the infrastructure wasn't there for big changes this year, but I do think those changes are going to come and firing Polinka wouldn't have changed the

Starting point is 00:28:47 circumstances on the ground. A new GM wouldn't have any more assets that they could use to build out the team. I do think changes are going to come sooner rather than later to how things are done, even if some of the same personnel get to keep their jobs. We really

Starting point is 00:29:04 do need to note that Jackson Hayes will not be playing in Thursday night's game against the Philadelphia 76ers who are a very good team when everybody is able to play and it's hit and miss on any given night. Obviously Paul George, unavailable

Starting point is 00:29:20 because of the PED suspension. But it's going to hurt them to not have Hayes. Who will be missing from the game because he shoved the Washington Wizard's mascot as he ran by the Lakers bench. His name is G. Wiz. I had no idea he exists. Actually, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:29:46 I'm gendering G.WIS. No, it's a he. I check. Yes, according to the Washington Wizard. website, G-Wiz is Ahee. It could be. It kind of looks like if Grover and the Cookie Monster had a baby. Which, again, I don't know if that's possible.

Starting point is 00:30:04 But G-Wiz is the mascot who was shoved. When he did it, he ran into the G-Wiz was shoved into a cheerleader, I believe. Jackson is actually lucky he only got one game for this. I have, you watch the clip and you can find it. I have no freaking clue what he. was thinking when he did that. I mean, I think the short answer was whatever he was thinking he didn't think it through. I would like to think that Jackson in his head thought this was a version of what the

Starting point is 00:30:41 Lopez brothers used to do, the Lopi with their running feuds with mascots. This was in particular a big part of the Robin Lopez brand. He used to have these fake fights with mascots all the time. Of course, big part of this, you need to make sure the mascot is on the same page with you. This is done. This is done if Jackson Hayes, he was teammates with Robin Lopez, a one, but he really should have known this. But I believe he was. This is like WWE.

Starting point is 00:31:11 It's fake. It's staged. The mascot is a part of this. So I am wondering if either he was doing his version of this without thinking it through or, I mean, again, this is best case I'd like to think it. or he just thought it was a funny joke in the moment, shoved harder than he expected, whatever. I would really like to think it was not the, that Jackson Hayes, this mascot, G.Wiz, was running too close to Hayes

Starting point is 00:31:44 because he was running G.Wiz around the court with like an oversized Wizards flag. and Jacks didn't like it and shoved it. Like that would be incredibly dumb, unprofessional, deserving of a suspension. I'm sure at some point he will end up explaining himself. It'll be interesting. We had no idea this even happened. No, because also too, if you watch the clip,

Starting point is 00:32:14 it was dark in the arena. Like it's like the lights were off, guys were ready. Like nothing. Like, even if it was sort of a fun thing to be doing, like, nobody could even see. The whole thing was, it was just like, I'm sure it was an impulsive thing. Like, you know, he's going to be very contrite when he speaks to the media. I don't know what I was thinking. I was, it was so stupid.

Starting point is 00:32:38 I really apologize. I let my team down. But what he should do as a public olive branch, Jackson Hayes should invite G. to be part of his dunk contest set. Like, G-Wiz throws him a lob. Ooh, that's a good idea. Jackson jumps over G-Wiz. Like, he should involve G-Wiz,

Starting point is 00:33:01 and that also would be a good way to get a wizard of any type involved in the All-Star game, like some type of representation. Well, I don't think there's any wizard involved. I'm pretty sure. Unlikely. Maybe I don't think. Actually, I think maybe in the Rising Stars games,

Starting point is 00:33:17 they might have. So I think George is, George and Saar, I think, are playing in that. At least Kishon. But, you know, I think both. But before we go, Andy, I do want to ask, like your thoughts on Anthony Davis being shipped to Washington. Obviously, it was a year ago, basically,

Starting point is 00:33:38 that Anthony Davis was a Laker and moved to Dallas, obviously, in the Lucca deal, didn't even make it really a year there before he goes. and he's now a Washington wizard. I'm honestly hanging out with G. Wiz. Well, now G. Wiz has a bodyguard. Next time Jackson Hays shoves G. Wiz, he's going to have to deal with Anthony Davis. Yeah, exactly.

Starting point is 00:34:06 You're going to have to go through AD in order to make this happen. And eventually, once he's, finger quotes, healthy again, Trey Young. Honestly, I think there's a better situation for AD, and I know it's weird to say that about the Wizards. but this is once everyone is together and they are actually serious about trying to win games, I imagine they're going to do a lot of tanking for this season just to get one more good young player. But once they get everybody together and presuming everyone can stay healthy, is it a championship team? No, but they can be competitive.

Starting point is 00:34:42 They can be interesting. And for the Wizards, this is the best way of landing AD. because they can potentially put him in a more competitive setting that maybe he works, you know, helps some of the younger players gain more experience, get into the playoffs, get some, get some seasoning that they need, get the fan base more excited, make the games more watchable. But they did not give up anything of value. So there is, you know, the looming Anthony Davis extension,

Starting point is 00:35:13 which was in no small part the reason Dallas wanted to trade AD beyond. We'll see, by the way, how much that the, I, I would be surprised if AD got some sort of full max from Washington. Oh, he's not, he's not going to. I'd be stunned. But the pressure would have been higher to do something more than Washington was comfortable or whoever traded for AD if they gave up assets or players that matter because then you start getting to that whole, well, we don't want to surrender these assets and have the guy walk

Starting point is 00:35:44 for nothing. If AD eventually ends up walking because the money. that he wants is just not palatable for Washington, it's fine. Like this is actually a perfect way. I do hope though that he gets a chance to be healthy and play. Like Dallas was always going to be the guy that they used, they gave up. Oh, he needed to get the hell out of there. He was the face of that disaster and it was not his fault.

Starting point is 00:36:09 It was not his fault and he was always going to be tainted by that. Washington, they'll love him. They'll be happy to have a star and I, I hope it works out for them. At the very least on paper, that could be a pretty entertaining team next year. We'll, of course, be back with any updates if the Lakers do anything, really if they do nothing.

Starting point is 00:36:27 We will try to update you throughout the day and when the deadline is over. Locked on Lakers on YouTube, he's where you can hang out with over 37,000 subscribers to the channel. We will see everyone across the day on Thursday and certainly after the game.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers Look Unlikely to Make a Trade, and Jaxson Hayes Gets Dumbest Suspension Ever

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