Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers Really May Get Jarred Vanderbilt Back Soon, for Real This Time

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Thursday, Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, very challenging time in Los Angeles. Sports are not necessarily top of mind for everyone, but there are some considerations about whether Lakers are going to play tonight against Charlotte, thinking of families, thinking of the impact on our community, and we'll talk about that stuff and more next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks, everybody for making Lockdown Lakers.

Starting point is 00:00:43 First listen to every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how you get your podcasts, always free, never behind a paywall. Lockdown Lakers on YouTube is where over 27,000 people, quite frankly, may not be paying attention to what we're doing today, which we completely understand. Obviously, a very challenging time in Los Angeles. with the fires across the region, really thinking of everybody who is affected by this, not just, you know, obviously, you know, people in the Palisades and in Altadena and beyond, but, you know, members of our locked on community have been impacted by this.

Starting point is 00:01:25 So really, you know, it's just a hard time for everybody. But, you know, we're here. Hopefully this is a welcome distraction for a lot of our audience, which we know consists of a lot of Angelinos, just like me and Brian. Brian acknowledged how this has affected the locked on community. We want to send our best wishes to Daryan Viziri, the host of Locked on Clippers. He's been public about this. So people may be aware, but his family home, very, very important. likely burn down in an area that have been absolutely wiped out by these fires. So, you know,

Starting point is 00:02:08 Darien's been on our show a few times. Great guys. So obviously we are wishing him the best, wishing the best to any of our listeners, our viewers who have been affected by this. Stay strong as you can. Stay as positive as you can. Optimistic during a very difficult time. Be there four-year people. It's funny. These fires that just keep breaking out around Los Angeles, it reminded me of how

Starting point is 00:02:39 in 1983, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, his Bel Air mansion, caught fire. I want to say it was some type of internal issue inside the house, but it burned down. And among the items destroyed

Starting point is 00:02:55 was Kareem's jazz albums collection. I'm sure a lot of our listeners and viewers know. Kareem is a jazz fanatic, frankly a jazz expert. He's written books on jazz, and he lost this collection. And Laker fans began bringing him albums to the forum on game days to just help him replace that collection. And Kareem has said many times it was an act of kindness that really took him

Starting point is 00:03:25 back and meant a lot to him. And I bring this up just as a reminder for people in L.A., this is a time to be kind to each other. Like just, it's always great anyway, but now especially, really a time for it. Do want to let people know before we keep going today's episode brought to by GameTime, download the account, download the app, create an account, use code locked on NBA, $20 off your first purchase. stories like that we learned on

Starting point is 00:03:58 it's Wednesday night as we sit and talk today Tuesday night after the game with the loss to Dallas terrible really bad loss got a reminder of what this is even for players and members of the organization

Starting point is 00:04:19 JJ Reddick's family evacuated from Pacific Palisades, a lot of athletes and families and team personnel live in that area. So it's not surprising. You know, we saw the news at Kauai Leonard. Clippers star, Kauai Leonard was taking time away from the team to be with his family. They've been evacuated. They may have lost their home.

Starting point is 00:04:44 I'm not sure. But, you know, point being, you know, these are things that impact everyone. They impact the wealthiest members of our community and the poorest members of our community. And as you say, I think that that idea of being gracious to each other, being kind to each other is the best approach to it. From a logistical standpoint, there's not been an announcement to this point as to whether or not we're recording around 8 o'clock on Wednesday for Thursday show. that the Lakers will or will not play. They are scheduled to play tonight at home against the Hornets. I don't think they will.

Starting point is 00:05:31 I don't think the NBA should put this game on if for no other reason, then it is a bad idea to have people moving in, you know, being on the streets, moving in a direct, you know, all these things and having 15, 16, 17,000 people congregating in any one place that might, for some reason, need to take first responders away from a different part of you don't want to I mean there's always understandably correctly a police presence at any type of event like

Starting point is 00:06:03 laker game live events concerts whatever and that's the way it should be you do not want to be diverting police presence to the crypt for a basketball game I my wife had mentioned that she had heard I had not been able to verify this but she had heard that arena and Vegas had offered to allow the Lakers to play there. I'm sure maybe San Diego could be an option. We'll see. I mean, it's a logistical thing the Lakers also need to figure out because they have this string of home games.

Starting point is 00:06:35 But I would find it stunning on a bunch of different levels if this game happened tonight at the crypt. I'd frankly be pretty surprised if it happened at all. And listeners by the time they hear this may already know the answer, but I would be shocked in the worst possible way if it happened at the crypt. Yeah, I think, you know, to use the NFL as an example, the NFL has already announced that the Rams are scheduled to play Monday night against the Vikings, that that game will take place one way or another, but if it doesn't take place in L.A., and I do not think it will,

Starting point is 00:07:11 that it will happen in Arizona. They'll use the stadium there. And I think something like that will happen with this stretch of home games for the Lakers where they just moved to another arena. It's like, I mean, remember. And again, I could be wrong, but at the very least, I think that's what should happen. Well, it reminds me of years ago during Hurricane Katrina when New Orleans was flooded and the Hornets ultimately played a season in Oklahoma City. and I don't think, you know, I both don't think and frankly, deeply hope it's not going to be that extreme for the Lakers as far as having to relocate for that long, but it would not surprise me if they needed to relocate for a few games. I, you know, and it's, I'm not sure people can hear it. I have the news on in the background.

Starting point is 00:08:10 Pretty much everybody who lives in L.A. has the news on in the background. Andy and I are both lucky enough to live in a part of the city that is about as safe from fire danger as anybody in the city can be at this point. Take nothing for granted, but it would have to get exceptionally out of hand for it to reach us. But it's, it's, you know, and that's the case for, you know, a lot of people around the city, but it's just, it's a really difficult time to be doing much of anything that said. we will try to get you through the show. And with that, kind of move on to Lakers business.

Starting point is 00:08:51 And there is some of that starting, Andy, with Jared Vanderbilt. Lakers actually made an announcement about him. And he may be coming back this time for reals. We'll see. We'll talk about it next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Game Time. I love live events, whether you're talking about sports, music, theater, comedy, One of my best memories of 2024 was going to Hamilton on Broadway last spring in New York with my family.

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Starting point is 00:11:34 in his return to play progression and has advanced to full court activities with contact. The team will continue to monitor his ramp up to ensure a successful return. Vanderbilt will be re-evaluated in approximately one week. So that is a really big deal. That is confirmation that Vanderbilt is both is improving. It is confirmation that Vanderbilt is on the floor doing basketball stuff. It's confirmation that he's going full speed and taking contact. These are all of the steps that need to happen before a guy can come back and play.

Starting point is 00:12:07 It's my understanding that he has been practicing with coaches as opposed to players in terms of just the protocol right now. And also one would imagine the contact from coaches would not be as physical as contact from players. But it's still a step forward. And it's a significant one. And I've mentioned this before with Vando in particular. What has given me very cautious optimism because there's, I don't think anything with this Vando situation would be more appropriate than

Starting point is 00:12:43 cautious with your optimism is they've been increasingly detailed and specific in terms of what we're being told and the information, which makes me feel like they are increasingly confident that he's going to be on the court because, I mean, quite frankly, beyond the fact that they obviously want him out there for the team's health, they want him out there because they want to help Vando. If Vando has one more setback, they start looking bad with it. Like, they really start looking like, no, seriously, what's going on that you, it's because it were approaching a calendar year since Vando last played. And, you know, a lot of starts and stops, you know, not to mention the whole, we didn't tell you guys during the off season, but he had double

Starting point is 00:13:40 foot surgery. Like, that stuff starts adding up after a while. So I, this gives me, again, very cautious optimism that they are confident about this. Because as we've discussed before, they're often cagey. Well, I think they're, they're cagey both because they're cagey because this is sort of how every team seems to do it now and because they legitimately just didn't know. like there's there's so much uncertainty about the injuries and like you say like you think you're confident and then like oh like you got the other foot operated on then you're like oh but it's going okay and then

Starting point is 00:14:21 no it's not and you know you look up and it's after it's 20 25 and the guy still hasn't played a game yet so I can understand being a little gun shy here they got a month I mean the game still at this point the game still matter so technically speaking Rob Polinka didn't lie. That's true. Because he did say that they were confident that Vando would be back when the games mattered. Right. They still matter.

Starting point is 00:14:48 They do. I mean, the Lakers are in the thick of a Western conference. You're always jockeying for seating. Like, it really does matter. So for the time. Shame on us for assuming he meant the first one, but he just meant any of them. Yeah. I mean, Rob Polinka is a man.

Starting point is 00:15:03 I mean, look, the game next year matter too. That's true. You know, they all do. Don't they all matter? on one level or another. The other big thing about this is, Andy, we are a month away from the trade deadline, February 8th. So today's the ninth.

Starting point is 00:15:23 Right. So the ninth you get now with like a full like calendar month. Like here we go. And one of the big things that will influence, I think, how the Lakers approach the trade deadline, There's obviously, well, how many games are you winning and losing? You know, the big picture, 30,000 foot view of like, are they worth investing in more than they already have? The DeAngela Russell thing, which is pretty, I don't want to say it was a no-brainer because as we've talked about, there were tradeoffs involved in this thing.

Starting point is 00:15:58 But like the idea of trading DeLo, I think it was something that everybody had grown across the idea at the very least that it could happen. including by the way de angelo russell oh yeah i i i'm i he probably wonders why it took this long um i mean remember he opened media day like saying surprise surprise yeah acknowledging like y'all didn't expect to see me here did you except us we did we were the only ones um in some ways i'm surprised he's still not here but either way the other thing about this is like getting vando back in the next with you with a week or so or two gives them another idea of what they need. Like, where are your needs?

Starting point is 00:16:43 Do you need a big physical center? Do you need another defensive wing? Do you need more help in the back court? The Lakers are going to have to really prioritize. And, you know, I've read a couple reports that, you know, one of the things the Lakers want to do is be able to take a look at whether or not you can use Jared Vanderbilt as a better small ball. center option than Rui Hachamura.

Starting point is 00:17:10 And that is something that you need to look at. You need to be able to have a view. I know Vanderbilt's been on the team. I know they've seen him do stuff like that before, but it is a different group. And you need to see both what it looks like this year. Every year is different. And most especially,

Starting point is 00:17:27 you need to see what Vanderbilt himself looks like and how capable he is of filling a role. And so to get this information, you know, knock on wood where he plays four or five games before you got up to make a definitive decision of the deadline. That's a big deal for the Lakers. It's also too. I mean, I am sure that, you know, it's, there's been so much time with Vando sidelined, unfortunately, that it becomes difficult to recreate all the, the details in your

Starting point is 00:17:57 mind. But like, I'm sure he has played some small ball center, but that has not been a primary role for Vando since he's been here. Like, it's been much more filled by LeBron and Rui than Vando even when Vando was healthy. So the idea that you would need an extended look at it to figure out the viability, that actually does make sense. I mean, because it really, it's not something that he's done before on a regular basis. And point of fact, in terms of just sheer size and like sheer frame, he is smaller than both LeBron and Rui. Yep. So it is something that you need to take a look at.

Starting point is 00:18:37 And there are plenty of guys who thrive seemingly undersized there. You know, DFS had had a lot of success in Brooklyn playing that role. And I think, you agree. This is a matchup based thing. It's not something they're going to throw Jared Vanderbilt out against, you know, Carl Anthony Towns and see what happens. No, I mean, that's where you go with your larger center, like the actual. I don't know everything about coaching basketball,

Starting point is 00:19:05 but that feels like an AD assignment to me. So fans are really irritated. Many, a large contingent of the fans, the 27,000 subscribers to the Lockdown Lakers channel here on YouTube, are frustrated by the small ball thing. But I will explain next why I think to some degree this approach makes some sense and potentially leaning into the idea of, you know what, we have our center and our small ball lineup might be a better alternative.

Starting point is 00:19:43 We'll get into that next. Lockdown Lake is brought to you by Ultimate College Basketball H.C. I want to tell you about a brand new mobile game that's really exciting. Ultimate College Basketball H.C. If you've ever dreamed of being a college basketball coach, this is your chance to step into those shoes in Ultimate College Basketball H.C. You control every detail of your program from recruiting players to hiring coaching staff to overseeing training camps, handling NIL deals, even managing scholarships like this

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Starting point is 00:21:30 So it's a valuable asset for NBA fans everywhere. Go to Lockedondaily.com. click on Lockdown Lakers and you are subscribed. We talked about this. I think it was the end of last week, the story that Dan Wojke at the Times wrote, talking to scouts around the league who question whether or not the Lakers, their biggest priority really is a backup center, if that's really where they need to be putting their assets.

Starting point is 00:21:59 And I know that flies in the face of a lot of what many fans think, certainly, especially after the Houston game, came up again, I think, a little bit in the Dallas game, just because of like the lack of ability to really take advantage, perhaps of size. I just still can't get there. You know, I love the idea. Like, if the Lakers can acquire a guy who can play with AD and won't get played off in the playoffs and, you know, can rebound and, you know, defends a little bit as a rim protector. Like, okay, you're kind of discussing Miles Turner.

Starting point is 00:22:42 Are you going to be able to trade for Miles Turner? Probably not. I don't think with what the Lakers have and where the Pacers are. I don't think that's something that I would put my faith in. Is it impossible Turner gets traded? No. But, you know, the kind of player that you're talking about there is essentially a starting center. And trading for a starting center only makes sense if you have starting center minutes to provide

Starting point is 00:23:10 because you're going to be paying starting center rates to get that guy. And the Lakers don't have starting center minutes to give to anyone. I don't talk. No, somebody again, like Turner or you could. Yolkich. Yeah. Well, I mean, look, you could, and I've seen people make that argument for, say, Walker Kessler. But I think Walker Kessler or, you know, Miles Turner, the fit is obvious just because

Starting point is 00:23:36 because he's such a well-established commodity at this point. The Lakers had been linked to Turner in the past and I lobbied my ass off trying to make that deal happen and unfortunately was not successful. Proof, if nothing else for some of the listeners who feel, if they don't like what we say, they worry that we're influencing the organization in a bad way. Trust me, we're not. We know, because we've heard from people, they've heard the show. I'm just telling you we're not influencing them. Look, think about all the things that we've wanted that have not happened. Trust me, we're not influencing.

Starting point is 00:24:12 I can't influence anything that goes on to my own house. What they do an Elfugnda? No, again, we know that there are people inside the building who've heard the show. We know that for fact, but we also know for fact because of that they're not listening to us. someone like, I brought him up before, Nick Richards. I think if you could get him backup center in Charlotte, he would be a perfect addition because, A, you can only expend so much capital on him because of what makes sense,

Starting point is 00:24:42 but also he makes like $5 million. Like somebody like Jalen Hood Chafino matches up perfectly with Richards. Maybe you throw in a vet minimum guy to make the money work. Maybe there's someone else Charlotte wants to add on a minor deal, whatever, you attach a second or two or whatever to make it worth Charlotte's while. Do they have any left? I think they did, but maybe they do.

Starting point is 00:25:05 I think they do, but it could become problematic if they ever want to make any of the first that have conditional. I think that could be something. Yeah, it is complicated for them. They had three that they controlled, I think, without any issues. All three of those went in the. So I'm not sure they actually can trade seconds anymore. I'm not sure.

Starting point is 00:25:28 They might be able to do future seconds, something like I don't know. I actually don't know the answer. But the point being, remove the logistics of it and just conceptually, somebody like Nick Richards makes sense because A, he'd be an upgrade over Jackson Hayes or Christian Coloco or I think Christian Wood, should he ever become available. He would be better than everybody they have. He slots perfectly into that type of role.

Starting point is 00:25:57 And I think he could play 10 to 12 minutes during the playoffs. And that's all he's going to play during the playoffs if that. And that's fine. And I think he'd be helpful during the regular season. As far as the idea, though, if they ended up just sticking with kind of medium ball lineups. To me, what the Dallas loss demonstrated wasn't even so much the need for another center as they need better rebounding. Like this team needs better rebounders, period. And, you know, this is where you look at some of the small ball lineups, Rui for his position. He's not a good

Starting point is 00:26:39 rebounder. Like, he's actually been good on the offensive glass this year, but for the most part, he's not been a good rebounder for his career. Like, Austin is not a bad rebounder for a guard, but he's not a great rebounder either for the most part. A lot of occasional games, but it's not really what he does. Like, you know, DFS is, I think, good for his size, but not great. Vanderbilt, if he comes back, Vando is great on the glass. Like, he's really good. Someone like Vando, frankly, will help the Lakers on the boards more than Jackson Hayes,

Starting point is 00:27:13 even though Hayes is four or five inches taller than Vando. I mean, then, yeah, then Vando, Fando is a better rebounder than him. Some of this is lacking skills as opposed to pure size. I think this is a huge. And Dallas was missing, Dallas was missing Daniel Gafford. And Lively was in foul trouble. Right.

Starting point is 00:27:36 And they still out rebounded the Lakers. This gets to my point. Look, the reason I didn't include Kessler even in the discussion at the beginning is because I don't think Utah is going to trade him because I agree with you. we made this point earlier in the week, it does not make sense for the jazz unless they are completely overwhelmed by an offer. And that seems to be where the reporting is on this. Like, okay, if you do something where you're willing to, quite frankly, wildly overpay for

Starting point is 00:28:05 Walker Kessler, good as he is, 23-year-old center whose defensive metrics leap off a computer screen, okay, they'll do that. But the Lakers can't make that offer. The best they could do would be like those two first rounders unprotect the pick they owe Utah and they'll like give them Anthony Davis or something. I don't know. But realistically, I just don't think the Lakers are in a position where they can target position over skill set. They have to acquire the best skill sets that they can.

Starting point is 00:28:47 to, you know, at the most effective cost that they're able to because that's what they have. Like, you can't, you cannot address all of their needs with what they've got because if you, you know, and you trade too many players in your rotation to go get some big, you know, name somewhere makes $40 million. Then you've got to replace three or four players in your rotation. Like, they just don't have that luxury. So get the best player. If you can find the best rebounder,

Starting point is 00:29:20 I don't care if he's 6-8, 6-7, that could help them. Go get a rebounder. If you can find a ball handler or a bench score or whatever it is, I would favor that over this sort of, I don't want to call it an obsession, but hyper-focus from a lot of places on it's got to be a backup.

Starting point is 00:29:42 They do need another big. I'm not saying the need isn't there. And if that's where it lines up, Great. I'm not against the idea, but I don't think they should overpay for a player who isn't going to help them when it really matters. And I don't think they should overpay just because center is something that is an obvious need. Yeah, again, like you, if they can find a, you know, if you can somehow get somebody on Miles Turner's level, you know, or I guess Kessler's level and it really works like, okay, fine, you figure out the rest later. if for no other reason than perhaps this sets up the Lakers well moving forward. And, you know, somebody like a Nick Richards to me, I think would be perfect.

Starting point is 00:30:24 But like, you know, this comes up a lot, for example, when you talk about the Denver matchup and Yokic and who's going to be there to, you know, to handle Yokage and that size and whatever. The last, you know, last year in the playoffs and I think the majority of games AD has played lately against Yokic, it's largely been more or less a draw. the real problem they've had, to me at least, because Yokic is a problem for the whole damn league. To me, the real problem, the Lakers have had is the inability to guard Michael Porter, Jr. Michael Porter Jr. is the guy that's been killing him. And guess what? DFS now on this team,

Starting point is 00:31:03 and Vando, should he be back, those guys are much better equipped to handle Michael Porter, Jr. than Rui. And all on, I mean, like, this was a matchup. No question. And really, Denver had no good matchup for Rui. And I think those guys actually, because Denver keeps coming up, I actually think those guys will matter more in a matchup against Denver than center X that the Lakers might not be able to get anyway. And I just think it really, you know, that, that, what you're talking about there, and we can quit here, really illustrates the point you're making.

Starting point is 00:31:41 The improvement that they need is with rebounding. And that's, I mean, I'm not talking about probably. a six foot two guy who rebounds well for his position. I'm not quite going that far. Josh is not available. Oh, God. I'd do that in a heartbeat. No pun intended.

Starting point is 00:31:57 We loved him when he was a rookie in a second year guy with the legors. So like that part is, you know, again, get the skill set. And if he's six, nine and it's really more of a power forward, that's okay. I mean all of this to wrap it back up, you get a better view when you get to see what Vanderbilt is capable of for a week or so, week or two before you actually get to the deadline. So we will try to keep people as updated as we can on where the Lakers may or may not be playing or when they may or may not be playing or where.

Starting point is 00:32:38 Obviously, the team will certainly be putting out alerts. The NBA will be putting out alert. Again, thinking of everybody in the community across L.A., people who know people in L.A., people who just care about other human beings. It is as bad as it looks on TV. You're not here and you're watching on TV from somewhere else. It really is as bad as it looks on TV. If you don't have to leave your house because of like an evacuation order or anything like that, seriously, stay home. Stay home.

Starting point is 00:33:08 This is a stay indoors at home. home as much as you can. Stay safe. So we will see everyone tomorrow.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers Really May Get Jarred Vanderbilt Back Soon, for Real This Time

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