Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers Make a Big Show of Support for Luka Dončić Before the Start of Eurobasket

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

He's signed the contract. He's not going anywhere anytime soon. But the Lakers certainly aren't resting on their laurels. As Slovenia prepares to start Eurobasket play Thursday afternoon against Poland, the Lakers brass, starting with Jeanie Buss and Rob Pelinka, stopped by practice to show support. They took photos. Pelinka released a statement, making it very clear how much the organization supported Luka in this moment that is so important to him. And if it's important to Luka, it's important to the Lakers. That's how it works, now. It wasn't something the Lakers needed to do, but it was smart to hop on a plane and cross an ocean to support their guy. It's a good look, it's smart business. It's the type of extra step the Lakers have historically taken for its stars, and now Luka is on the receiving end. Meanwhile, we open the mailbag, starting with ... Luka questions! Can Dončić play the type of defense that would allow him to be seen as teh league's best player? Even better than Nikola Jokic? (Or if not better, really close?) If he plays at an MVP level, and LeBron is, say, Top 8 or so again this year, how many games does it mean the team has won? What about the pick-and-roll combination of Luka and Deandre Ayton? How potent might it become? And what kind of offense should Lakers fans expect from JJ Redick this season, more broadly? Finally, is the Laker most likely to ask for a trade not the guy most media are thinking of?  HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: The Lakers make a smart trip to Poland. SEGMENT 2: Luka on D, Luka as MVP.  SEGMENT 3: Who asks for a trade?  Listener SurveyWe’ve put together a survey to learn more about our listeners and make your favorite podcasts even better. Go tohttps://lockedonpodcasts.com/survey/ to get started. Everyone who completes a survey will be entered for a chance to win one of ten $100 Amazon gift cards.  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!OpenPhoneStreamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/lockedonnbaMonarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first yearGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, 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.

Hey everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Thursday. Brian Kaminetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, Lakers management goes a long way to show more love to Luca Donchich. We'll explain that, plus a Luca-themed mailbag. All that coming up 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 your first listen of Every Day.

Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast. We're always going to have one for you, and it's never going to be forcing you to take money out of your wallet and give it to someone else. It's always free, Andy, and it's never behind a paywall. Lockdown Lakers on YouTube is we can go hang out with over 36,000 subscribers, many of whom we're leaving questions for our mailbag, which we appreciate and we'll dive into later in this episode questions about Luca. an interesting question about who the next Laker to demand a trade might be, and it's not necessarily who you're thinking of. So we will get into all of that and more in just a moment,

but I do need to let everybody know that today's episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with the Monarch Money. Use the code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. All right. So we're getting all that other good stuff. in a moment. But today, as the Slovenian national team opens up Eurobasket for like the real games,

they'll play the hosts Poland at 1130 Pacific. For those of you who are curious, that is the most humane time on the West Coast that Slovenia will be playing. If you want to catch them at any other time, you're going to have to get up really early in the morning. So it's Slovenia versus Poland. And in order to show support for their new franchise player, Andy, Lakers management continues to go all out. Jeannie Buss, Rob Polinka, the Rambi, and the director of player performance and health, Dr. Leroy Sims. They are all in Poland to watch the Lakers' next franchise face compete with the

Slovenian national team in Eurobasket, Rob Polinka said, quote, we just wanted to make a statement to Luca that we support what he does for his country. It's really important to the Lakers when we have a player that's the face of our franchise just to show that support for him. And it's just great to see him with his teammates, interacting, having fun.

As you said, I guess this was in response to somebody. He's in great shape, really committing to working hard this summer and to be able to watch that in person was worth flying. over the ocean to come be with him. Glad that it specified that they flew over the ocean. Didn't go under or around. You can never, and chef's kiss, if there's ever an opportunity to make the statement,

3% more flowery, you know, damn well, now it's going to jump on it. He makes me blush. So look, I mean, the Lakers haven't had a star player, and you can see the pictures there if you're, watching along on YouTube, by the way, Apple, iTunes, Spotify, great ways to subscribe to the audio product. It's, Paugasol was the last, would you, you would agree, Andy, the last star player they've had who has had overseas commitments for the Lakers. Like, you know, since I think there may have been a couple other players who have played for their national teams, but nobody, nobody where you would think the Lakers would hop on an airplane.

But that said, this is the kind of thing that the Lakers are really good at. This is not necessary. This isn't something that, look, first of all, he already signed the contract. Second of all, like, the team has been very supportive of Luca and set all the right stuff and done all the right stuff. This is not necessary, but it's really smart. Yeah. And so kudos to Lakers management. for taking an extra step like this and recognizing an opportunity to continue to show support.

Because again, this isn't about Team USA. This is Team Slovenia. And you are saying, you know, most of America isn't concerned about whether or not Slovenia does well in Eurobasket. But it's important to Luca. And therefore, what is important to Luca is important. to management. Well, like you said, Luca has already signed his extension, but it's only a two plus one.

And in today's NBA world, you start getting towards the player options and the end of the contracts quicker than you may realize in real time. So you are always, particularly a franchise like the Lakers, but frankly, organizations around the NBA, I mean, take the bucks, they are, you know, they waved and stretched Damien Lillard

in a way that is going to be financially and logistically painful for that. But they did it with the express idea of we're going to create the space to bring in Miles Turner because we want to continue to show Janus to whatever degree that we can. We are going to try to keep putting contending teams around him. I don't know if they also flew to Poland or whatever country, Greece is competing in to show Janus that they're serious. But if they just saw these Twitter photos of Polinka and the game. Fire up the Jets. We got to go.

John Horst is screaming at the pilot right now. Let's get going, man. Come on. Bond delay. Exactly. Is this as fast as this jet goes? These are the things that you do. in order to let your franchise.

Is there a cronky? But like in all seriousness, is there a cronky there watching Nicolioch? I don't know. I don't know. But, you know, considering Nikola Yokic has not signed his extension. And granted it's financial,

but or at least seems to be. It's also interesting too because Rob Polinka was asked about, you know, concerns with Luca doing this, you know, worries about injury, mileage, that sort of thing. He said, quote, zero problems.

I mean, it's just something we believe in for the Lakers organization. And I think there is some degree of the Lakers recognizing the value of this in terms of, like we said, supporting your franchise face. And also assuming Luka comes out of this all in one piece, there are global marketing and stage opportunities that. No question. An organization like the Lakers, they are always very aware of this stuff, and I don't blame them. Well, no, and I don't mean to cut you off, but like, to be fair to them, that is part of the calculus of why you get excited about signing a player like Luca. It's the winning, but like you don't think the Dodgers were excited both about the talent of Shohei Otani, but also the global phenomenon that is Shohei Otani. Like that was that's part of the reason he got.

I'm not being critical of them. No, I'm saying like I forgot exactly how much show hey got because so much of it is deferred. But like that's why he got $700,680 deferred. Okay, that's why they gave him $700 million. If, you know, if he didn't have that global component to it, they would have paid him a lot. But I don't actually think it would have been $700 million. It begins to pay for itself.

We've seen it with Otani and the Dodgers pretty quickly. But, you know, if you asked Rob and Jeannie and everybody that's in Poland right now, you know, if Luca had said to you, hey, do you guys mind if I don't do this? Or, you know, I'm thinking about perhaps not competing for Slovenia. Deep down, they're all thinking, sweet. Like, they are because Luca is their franchise face. He is their investment. he is the foundation of all the success that they want to have. So if you're asking me if they would be disappointed that Luca,

for whatever reason, decided not to compete in your own basket, no. But they're never going to stand in the way of it. In the same way, no organization stands in the way of their franchise phase doing this sort of stuff. Like, we've been asked before. Like, couldn't the Lakers have put this in Luca's contract? Like, not if they wanted to sign it. Right.

I guess you could try, but. Not a good idea. No. This is, this is part of it. And I just, I think the, and the way Rob phrased the statement is important.

It's like, we know how much he values this, that he values this experience. And so he's putting it in, in Lucas terms. He's not pretending like, you know, we're here.

We love European basketball and we're here to support the, the growth of the game. It's like, no. we're not making up any other excuses or reasons or BS or whatever. It's like, we are here because it's important to our most important player. As a person, it's important to our most important player. Like, they're not necessarily selling a lot of jerseys and this and that,

but like I guarantee you that there will be a moment where Luca is considering something with Lakers or this, that, whatever. try, you know, do I put in a little extra effort to try to bring in a player or whatever it might be where he thinks of like, these guys flew to Poland to watch me practice before I was playing, you know, the next day or whatever it is. Like that's a big deal. It's a big gesture and it is a, it is a smart way to spend your time. And I'm not, it's, I'm sure it's not in time. You know, they like Luca and like, you know, you want, it's genuinely want to show support for your player. But it's not. it's a smart thing to do. Absolutely. Let's move to the mailbag, Andy, because we've got a lot of Luca-related questions and a very intriguing one, I think, about who might be the next Laker to ask for a trade. So we'll do all of that next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Monarch Money.

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Leave us the stuff that you want to answer, whether it's on Twitter at Cambrothers, Kamenetsky Brothers at gmail.com. If you want to do things, the mailway. And then also over the YouTube page on the community section, we post these mailbags. And people have some interesting ones. and a lot of them started with Luca. Actually, a lot of them from the same guy.

But they're all good questions. So we're going to go through a lot of them. Yeah, the typical Jesse 5068 had a few questions regarding Luca. Let's see where we begin. How about start with this one. If Luca can be a consistent, positive defender as well as gain that burst back he lost, could Luca climb to the real best in the league discussions? He's already there.

Luca's already a part of the best in the NBA conversations. Consensus top five guy. Yeah. I think what we're really talking about is could he be truly best in the league MVP frontrunner, the guy that essentially displaces Yokic consensus? because Yokic has been considered the best player in the NBA, I'd say for at least three seasons. Yeah.

And it's not going anywhere. He may not win MVP every year, but that's a different thing. He's been considered the best player in the league for. Yeah, people, voters get bored. But I think he is just that much. And like, here's what I'll take. So, like, I think these are very difficult conversations to,

to really quantify. I don't know if it's necessarily a matter of, like, Luca becoming a positive defender. But what I do think it becomes is a situation where the Lakers are playing good enough defense, whether it's because of Luka or because they've designed something that works around Luka. And, you know, the Lakers are a top 10 defense. And meanwhile, Luca is putting up the numbers that he did in Dallas a couple years ago, 33 and, you know, 8 and 8 or something like that.

I think it was, you know, something just incredibly absurd. Then I think you start to talk about them, if not the best player in the league, certainly maybe the second best, because you're taking away the thing that people focus on to be like, yeah, but it's not a question of does Luca become positive? It's, does Luca play well enough on defense and do the Lakers especially play well enough defensively that we're just not talking about it? And we can focus on the highlights every night and the massive numbers that he's putting up and the new body and the fact of the Lakers, for all of this to happen, the Lakers, in my opinion, would have to be third or fourth in the conference, probably. You know, they can't be pushing for seventh or eighth or ninth or something like that.

They've got to be up in the top half or competing for it. If all those things happen, I think there's a shot that you look at at the very least and say he's right behind Yokic. Yeah. And first of all, you referenced that best season. from a couple years ago. That was actually 2024 where you short changed him a little bit. He was averaging a shade under 34 points a game, a shade under 10 assists, and nine rebounds on 38% from behind the arc, 49% from the field.

So that is really, also Luca's playoff averages. Wow. A shade under 31 points a game. eight and a half rebounds, eight assists. Or excuse me, nine rebounds, eight assists. Right. I mean, does anybody wonder why he needed a bit of a break after that? I mean, it's like, and he wasn't healthy.

Like, you could see why last season, by his standards, was set up to be a bad one. Again, by his standards. So I think this couples well with a question from ICL-7-8, If Luca's MVP and LeBron is a top eight player, where do the Lakers end the season at? I would say two or one seat in the West. One of the best records. If Luca is at an MVP level and LeBron is playing top eight, which probably means you're talking about them pretty close to top five in the league.

Sixth and MVP voting last year. Assuming those two guys don't play at those levels and there's a bunch of, of other injuries around them and they're essentially playing at that level in order just to keep the train on the tracks. I'll put it this way. The Lakers were a three seed last year. It sounds very difficult for me to believe they'll be below a three seed. I think that's probably true. I'll put a number value on it. I think they'd be that's that's probably assuming again, relative health for the rest of the roster guys play two expectations. That's probably 53, 54 wins. I think, which not going to be enough to catch Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City is going to win more than that if they're healthy. I actually think Houston will win more games this year than they did last year. So it may not even catch. But if the Lakers are three, four, five games better than they were last year, first of all, I think that is going to put them in the top four at least because I think Denver could be three or four or five games better as well. But that puts them in that conversation. That puts Luca in that conversation.

I would agree. Here's one that I found super intriguing. We'll answer one more Luca question from typical Jesse. And I'm going to combine these and we can maybe carry this over the break. Can you see the Luca Aiton Pick and Roll being the deadliest action in basketball? And there's an eight and follow up, we'll say for another time there. And then do you see JJ implementing more offball actions to free up the load on Luca like we saw early with Dallas last season before? for they traded him. So two sort of scheme related questions for regarding Luca.

The deadliest action in basketball, that's a really high bar to me. Like you and I think have been pretty bullish about the DeAndre Aiton edition and how we think people are overlooking just how much he can bring to the table as a legitimate starting center. We're going to need to dial it back a little bit. Yeah, like deadliest action in basketball. No, I mean, not until we see evidence of D'Andre Aitin playing at like an all-N-B-A-or-N-B-A or a minimum, all-star level, which ain't easy to do in the West. Super cool if it happens.

But do I think it can be a very effective play for the Lakers? Oh, yeah, definitely. Include LeBron in that, by the way, too, running some of that action for DeAndre Aiden. I will carry the rest of this. So the second part of the question will carry it over the break. But I do think I think Aiton's it's interesting. Like, you know, he's not a rim protector in the way, you know, he'll offer a little bit there. He's a very good rebounder and he'll offer a lot there.

And he's not a high flying act like you're bouncing gazelle up and down the floor or something like that in terms of what you think of as like a vertical threat and whatever. Jackson Hayes is more of a leaper than DeAndre Aiton is. But Ait is a very good pick and roll player. And the capacity to use him in multiple ways in the pick and roll because Hayes, to the extent that he was useful as a pick and roll player was only rolling to the basket and throw it, throw it up to him and go get it. Aiton has a mid-range game. He can get down.

You can run action to get him down in the post. to receive a pass. There are a lot of ways that you can utilize Aiton in the pick and roll, whether he's in it setting a screen, which he also does pretty well, or if he's the recipient of it in secondary action, which kind of leads to the next question. Doesn't need to be the best in the league to be really, really good

and really, really effective. And I think Luke is going to like it. And if all goes well, DeAndre Aten's going to tear up the second year of that contract and get himself paid a lot more money. So we'll get to the rest of these Luca questions plus this question of the next Laker potentially to ask for a trade. We'll do all that next.

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So if you forgot it, the second question from typical Jazzy 5068, which I believe is his birth name, or her, I'm not sure. Do you see JJ implementing offball actions to free up the load on Luca like we saw with Dallas early last season before they traded him? I didn't watch enough Dallas basketball know exactly what they were doing, but broadly, Andy, what do you think about the types of actions that they'll be running? What I want to see in, I mean, we've talked a lot. I know about like two-man synergy between LeBron and Luca, Luca and Austin,

you know, and also what we had seen pre-Luca trade with LeBron and Austin. And then the idea of synergy involving all three of the primary initiators, playmaker's scores on this team. Can you find a way to create action that directly involves the three of them playing off each other? And to be honest, I don't know how. much of it is going to look that way in terms of, for lack of a better way of putting almost like a three-man weave, something like that. What I do want to see, whether you're talking

about off-ball action that becomes part of a play, the way LeBron and Luca play together, all three of them, LeBron and Luca and Austin, because I think that is going to be also something that they are evaluating as well, how the two of them play together. I want to see just in general more action scheming, however you want to put it, that involves less of any of the three of them going ISO and just kind of let Luca cook, let LeBron cook, let Austin cook. I want to see more of them working in some type of synergy with either each other or the rest of the team where it doesn't feel like at the end of the day, you're just waiting for one of those three guys to create a shot for themselves and you're allowing a defense to set, you're frankly allowing 14 or 15

seconds to fritter by before it feels like you're even doing anything. I want to just see more play with purpose. Before I even think about the ways I would look to have Luca operate off ball or whatever, I just want to see more offense with purpose. I'll even, I'm okay with them setting up ISO, you know, to, you're running actions that where the result is you get a matchup that you want and, you know, off motion or whatever that allows a player to take a player one-on-one, whether that's AR or Luca or LeBron or whomever. But I think the important part is, are you doing that off of action? Are you doing that off of, you know, same guy brings up the floor, a ball up the floor,

you know, comes over like one screen or something like that and then just pounds the ball on the ground. That's what I'm talking about when I see the end result of, you know, let whoever cook, that type of setup. And I think, you know, in terms of the question about off-bogg-in, I didn't watch enough Mavs to know exactly what they were doing offensively. And I don't necessarily think you're trying to take the load away from Luca. I think you're, frankly, you're using Luca to take the load away from LeBron. Now, that doesn't mean that there won't be times where they want to give, you have Austin Reeves. you have LeBron James. You could afford to get creative with what you do.

But I don't think, you know, the idea is you want to just lighten Lucas load. I think you want the ball in Lucas hands as much as you can. But I do think you can run a lot. To maximize the other guys, there's the people, they're going to run a ton of screen and roll. They're just, they're going to, there's going to be a lot of pick and roll. But you're going to run that with Luca and LeBron. You're going to run that with Luca and Aiton. You're going to have LeBron and eight like you can do a lot of things.

So and it's, but it's that third guy, that fourth guy. Where are you putting the other? What actions are you running? What other things are you doing with that pick and roll to, to create shot opportunities for the player who's off the ball? The player is on the weak side. I think that's going to be where JJ is going in the rest of the staff is going to try to get creative. And you don't want to overcomplicate it. there is such a thing as like we've got like making it too difficult it's like we've got luka

we've got lebron you can do a lot of simple things that will rely on their talent level and their vision to give people good open shots in spots that you want shots to come from um but you just don't want what you don't want to see like you said is a little bit like it happened last year where the offense would get oddly stagnant despite having that much offensive talent on it um Let's wrap here with this question, and it comes from Twitter. It was left for us, and I'm just scrolling back up to it, from Aditya, who asks the question, do you think Dalton Connect will request a trade if he doesn't get playing time in the first months of the season? Andy, we, of course, have been focused on what people are really hoping happens,

the turmoil creating trade demand from LeBron James. There's a lot of wishcasting going on out there from people who just want this to be a thing. I had never really thought about that. The idea that Dalton Connect actually might be someone who asks out if he can't find a way to get into the rotation. It's a hard thing to predict just because both of us have interacted some with Dalton, ask questions or whatever, but I don't have a really strong idea of how he's wired. He's a hooper. Well, I was going to say also off the top of my head, I don't know who Dalton's agent is,

because sometimes this stuff matters, like depending on if your agent is more on the aggressive side, confrontational, that sort of thing. That being said, though, if it is pretty clear after a month or so of the season that Dalton is only really going to get minutes if somebody's hurt, if somebody or somebody's really start to struggle and you got to try somebody else or garbage time when you compound that with the idea that they did actually trade Dalton. And granted, they, and I think this is something Dalton really needs to remember. Like it's important.

They did not trade Dalton for a souped up, more seasoned version of Dalton. They traded Dalton for a center. They traded him for skill sets that he cannot possibly provide, no matter how well he plays, unless he grows like seven inches overnight. It's not going to happen. It should be cool. It would be cool, but not going to happen. Unlikely.

But the fact that he knows they have traded him before, and if he starts out not playing and knowing the stakes of this season, you know, they are playing for highest seed as possible, championship run, yada, yada, yada, yada, he might decide in order to set myself up, not just for my next contract, but frankly, the foundation of my career, I may need to be somewhere else. Oh, yeah, I think there's a good chance that something like that happens. But I think, I don't think it'll be like a big public demand. Like, your Dalton connect, like, don't, you don't do that.

don't make a big deal out of that sort of thing. But I do think quietly, everybody might be like, you know, maybe the best thing here is for you guys to help us find all the place where he can get a little bit more playing time, where he can develop, you know, more in an environment, like frankly, Charlotte, where he can get a lot of playing time and the stakes of his mistakes. are just aren't as high. Yeah, I mean, the catch 22 is obviously, if he doesn't play, the Lakers don't put themselves in the opportunity to get maximum value for him. So, and he becomes, if say he's supposed to be the theoretical sweetener, if the primary salary is Gabe or Maxie or both or whatever, he seems less sweet if he's not really playing.

And, you know, the, you have to really think back to the, first few months of the season last year to really get the highest upside vision of Dalton. And, you know, these guys are on the league. They scout everybody. They have an, there are probably teams like a Charlotte that spent plenty of time scouting Dalton before the draft because they thought they might have an opportunity to take him. But nonetheless, it becomes a damned if you do, damned if you don't type thing because the Lakers may not be able to get the maximum value for Dalton without playing him. But if they play him, they have to be willing to write out some mistakes.

Otherwise, you're not going to raise his trade value. You know, there's, there's, it's a complicated dance. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing. I think if it gets to the point where he's not, if he, if he's asking for a trade, um, behind the scenes, call up Rob like, hey, the deadline's coming. Can you move us? Or the summertime, you know, it's like by then, the, if it reaches that place because

he's not playing, which is. why he would ask for a trade, the Lakers by that point aren't going to be able to use him as sweetener. It's just a matter of, you know, maybe somebody has interest in him, maybe, you know, the $5 million plus or $6 million he makes this year is useful, whatever it is, he's not, there is not, you're not dealing with value at that point. And so that part of it, I think, essentially goes out the window. And you're just trying to find a place that wants him and where you can get a decent return because you don't want to give them away, but you would what you would look for a decent return because again, if the Lakers aren't playing and there's maybe a reason for that, but also

is it going to get better next year when you're more competitive and you have more, you know, dollars to go out and get, like, there may just not be an avenue for it. So I think that's how it would go. Keep sending us your questions. Keep sending us those mailbag questions because we will use them throughout the rest of the off season. We will update you on everything that happens with Slovenia versus Poland on Thursday afternoon for Friday's show. Get you ready for the weekend. The two games in Slovenia plays there starting Saturday against France.

That'll be a good game. French are a loaded bunch with tons of NBA players. Lock and Lakers on YouTube is where you can hang out with over 36,000 subscribers to the channel. Find us on iTunes. Find us on Spotify. We'll see everyone tomorrow.