Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers Sign Jake LaRavia, Finney-Smith to Houston... Are Lakers Thinking About 2027?

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Day 1 has come and gone, and the Lakers were quiet on the transaction front Monday, as free agency opened (officially) across the NBA. Two big moves that impacted the team directly. First, Dorian Finney-Smith left (as was becoming apparent), heading to Houston on a four-year deal. That's more than the Lakers wanted to offer the 32-year old forward, which is understandable. They quickly responded by signing forward Jake LaRavia from Sacramento for two years at $12 mil (or so). LaRavia isn't as accomplished as DFS, but is also a decade younger and is coming off an upside semi-breakout season, the first where he's had access to consistent playing time. LaRavia, at the least, defends some on the perimeter, and can shoot (42% last season). After that? Crickets. That said, free agency isn't over, the Lakers have some money left to spend, and are rumored to be very much in play for center Deandre Ayton, who can't sign with another team until he clears waivers after his buyout in Portland, and De'Anthony Melton, who (if healthy) would add real perimeter D to the rotation. That, given the dollars available to spend, would be a decent outcome. The Lakers would need to find a few other parts, but would have gotten younger, added a little D, and found a center (albeit a risky one). Will it happen? Or are the Lakers falling back into a common trap? It's reported they're trying to maintain maximum flexibility for the summer of 2027. Yes, not next summer, but the one after that.  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: DFS out, LaRavia in. SEGMENT 2: What are the Lakers doing next? SEGMENT 3: Are the Lakers looking at '27?  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch 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.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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 Locked on Lakers for Tuesday, Brian Kaminetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, day one of free agency, the NBA. And the Lakers are pretty quiet. And they're sending up some signals that might disturb fans. But other than that, things are going great. That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network,

your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on. Lakers first listen to every day Monday through Friday, no matter how where you get your podcast. This one's always free, never behind paywall. And of course, Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where over 35,000 subscribers are all, they are all the stick figure poking meme, Andy, poking at Rob Polenka asking him to do something.

Day one, a free agency has essentially passed as we record at about 10 o'clock Pacific on Monday evening. Although the best way to have to have. actually get the Lakers to do something is have us do a live show prepped for having them do nothing. And then, of course, something catches us by surprise that we weren't expecting. We have to scramble and bam. Right. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we are not starting over.

No, no, but like, do it again. We have to do it again or something like, or we're just outdated or whatever it is. But yes, to undo live programming is a specialty of the Lakers. So we'll break down everything the Lakers did and more importantly, really what they were saying. I think that was just as important as the move that was made today and the potential moves that might be upcoming in the next couple of days. I want to let you know first, though, that today's episode is brought to you by Fandual. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So the free agency, which now started at 3 o'clock Pacific, a much more reasonable hour for those of us with children, I suppose.

but it's for anybody. Like, some of these free agents, they were having steak dinners at 2.30 in the morning because it was their second meeting with a team. Like, there was something kind of fun about the midnight phone call, but I don't need it anymore. I mean, look, no civilized sport. And frankly, civilized organization says,

hey, you, person we value. Go sit down at three in the morning and have your third rib-eye inside. And make incredibly important life choices. Right, while you're on the verge of vomiting. Like, I mean, seriously, like, this was long overdue to change. Fair point. So the free agency opened at 3 o'clock Pacific on Monday, and, of course,

took a minute to get going. Once it did, there was a pretty good flurry of activity. The first thing relevant to the Lakers, of course, was that Doreen Phenney Smith, as kind of became expected, moved on from the Lakers to the Houston Rockets who gave him a four-year contract. The Lakers just were not willing to go up that high with DFS for reasons that I think are, in fact, understandable given Dorian Finney Smith's age. As I always like to remind people, he is significantly older than you think. This contract that Houston signed him will take him through into his age 36 season. and that I can understand the Lakers balking at.

What they did do in response almost right after Andy was they signed Jake Leravia from Sacramento. He broke into the league with Memphis. He is a 23-year-old forward 6-8 to 35 or so. He is actually younger than Dalton Connect. So like in terms of when you think about Yon, youth and stuff like that. The guy they just signed coming into his, I believe, fourth year in the NBA is younger than last year's number one pick. So in that sense, the Lakers definitely injected a little bit of youth in there. La Ravia is not a guy who's ever had a chance to play a huge

role in a rotation, but he has some skills. He's a good shooter shot over 42% last year in both of his stops. He, depending on who you're talking to, can defend a little bit. But he, you know, just all around a decent basketball player, okay rebounder, stuff like that. Good offense. I think overall rebounder, he's fine, not great. Offensive rebound, he's actually pretty good for his position. Like I've looked at a few different metrics or look at like his per 36 numbers. The last two seasons per 36, he's averaged two plus offensive rebounds.

If you go to cleaning the glass, his offensive rebounding metrics for the last few. seasons have been pretty good. So while as an overall rebounder, he might not be as strong as you'd want for a guy that's like a three, four tweener forward, that one piece of rebounding is actually pretty good. I'd say at the very least above average for his position. He played well last year, well at least to the point that the kings were hoping they would be able to keep him. But Austin Reeves, perhaps, the closer in this deal. For those who missed it, a friend of the show, Trevor Lane from Lakers Nation, was, I don't remember if the interview was set with La Ravia and Reeves happened to be in the car,

or if it was with Reeves and Loravia happened to be in the car. But either way, they were in the car together doing this interview with Trevor Lane. And Trevor told Austin that he should be recruiting Jake Laravia. And Austin said, don't worry. I'm ahead of you. I'm doing this. Austin the closer. There you go. So a couple little bits of feedback that we got. We talked to one person who said, you know, his offensive bag is relatively limited, basically to shooting. But again, pretty good at it, three-point shooting. Defense, he said, is his calling card, surprisingly athletic, strong, and scrappy. That's code for white. Yeah, it is. We talk to,

which he is. We talked to De Michael Cole. We've confirmed that. multiple sources. Multiple sources. Confirmed. So we talked to De Michael Cole, got a quick comment from him. He's the host of Locked on Grizzlies. He said La Ravia has really good hands defensively,

active on-mall defender with his hands, can rebound well as a little wiggle offensively. He can shoot this past season was the first year. He really started putting things together. He was initially kind of buried on a very deep Memphis team. Memphis, he ended up, you know, out there basically in a numbers game. again, deep team, too many players.

And he ended up in Sacramento, played well for the Kings, but they didn't pick up an option and risked this happening. So, you know, I what's interesting to me about this, and we'll get to where they go from here, because obviously Jake Laravia is not Andy a center. And a lot of centers flew off the board. On last year's team, he might have been their center. That's true.

and give a time. He might be on this year's team as well. He would have carved out a pretty solid role as at minimum. You are. You're right. I am speaking too soon, perhaps. So there's some things. DFS out. He probably is their starting center right now. Yeah, I got to be honest.

I think, you know, is right now Dorian Finney Smith a better player than Jake LaRavia? Probably is, I do think, is there a chance of this looks pretty comparable this year and next? also probably. I think there's a decent chance. And just again, the finances do sometimes matter. And I just don't think the Lakers in good conscience can give Doreen Phine Smith a four-year deal that takes them into age 36. But where I really think this is reflective of issues that management has had here, and we don't need to necessarily spend a lot of time on it.

It's another example of the Lakers giving up a fair amount of assets for a player that they don't keep. for very long. They gave up DeAngelo Russell and three second rounders for a player that walked in three months. And it's just not good asset management. It's not something that they've been good at over the last few years. Yeah, even if you wanted to try to give them a mulligan of sorts and say when they traded for DFS, even if they had known at the time, because this was being kept under wraps for a while, that Luca was a possibility. It's not like bringing in Luca Donchich, otherwise known as Dorian Finney Smith's best friend,

would have necessarily changed the math on keeping DFS around. And I think it's really important to point out, I seriously expect slash hope that the Lakers talked about this with Luca. And even if Luca was not thrilled at the idea of losing one of his close, as friends in the league to free agency that they explain the thought process and the overall plan well enough to Luca that he could not be mad about it because you're still in this period where while everybody is expecting that Luca is going to sign an extension in August, it is not yet. It's not yet done and it cannot be done until August. So you have to be, as

an overarching part of this whatever they do in free agency, whatever they do in trades, you need to be in continual conversations and communications with Luca if they attempt to read his mind, a player that they've known for three months to figure out what they think he wants, that's a really, really bad way to go about doing this. And so after the break, let's talk a little bit about, you know, some of the, you know, potential centers that are no longer on the board because centers. All of them? No, not all of them. Most of them. But not all of them. And so we'll talk about that. And we'll talk about the big, wavy red flag that came out of the day for me more than the inactivity. The inactivity is relatively explainable. And we'll explainable. playing all of it next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Fandul. Summer sports, they are in full swing, and whether you are all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green or high stakes soccer action,

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new customers can bet just five bucks, you get $150 and bonus bets if that first bet wins. So just pick something really obvious. Open the FanDwell app today or visit fendul.com and get started. All right. So for most people that have been listening, listening to the show, like we've been saying for a long time, Andy, the Lakers are in a box. This is, and the box got even got a little bit bigger on, on Monday when DFS went to

Houston because it opened up a larger exception for them. They went from the taxpayer mid-level, about almost $6 million to $14, I believe it is, 14 in change for the, the full mid-level, the non-taxpayer mid-level. But even then, you're still kind of in a box because the market for centers for different players, you know, $11 million a year. We talked about Luke Cornett as a guy, for example, it's like, well, maybe the Lakers could get him with a, you know, a taxpayer mid-level and stuff. He got $11 million a year, basically, from the Spurs. So that wouldn't have worked. Lakers, I guess, could have gone in on that.

But that takes up basically everything you're doing. Brooke Lopez, we got two in 18 from the Clippers. Clint Capella got, I think, close to about six and a half a year, seven. He got about six and a half, seven a year. Seven a year in a year in what became, I think became a sign in trade technically. Kavon Luni got $8 million a year to babysit New Orleans. Yep, he got $8 million a year. So, like, you know, you're looking at for most players a market of about $7 to $10 to $11 million a year.

and then somebody like Deeron Sharp, who was never going to be let go for, you know, the money that the Lakers committed didn't actually make it to the opening of free agency. He re-signed in Brooklyn before free agency open. So this is what kind of what the box looks like. And it's annoying and it's frustrating because the, you know, other teams are making moves. You see players you might be interested in. And the Lakers are not really participating in. Again, I don't have a problem with them letting DFS go, and I don't have a problem with the guy that they signed to replace him.

It should be noted that the Lakers, the two names that they are most attached to, DeAnthony Melton, who is a very solid defender in the back court and would be a welcome addition to team. He missed all of us, he's him the knee injury, but assuming he is ready to go, he is somebody who has been attached to the Lakers and probably would come at a reasonably reasonable price, did not sign with anybody on Monday.

So he is still out there. The big name is DeAndre Aiton, who cannot sign with anybody until he clears waivers on Wednesday. He was bought out by Portland and needs to clear waivers. He is unquestionably the best center that is realistically available on the market. So he's still there. the Lakers are rumored to be attached there. And there's a reasonable chance that come Wednesday,

the Lakers have D'Andre Aiton, which changes the math here. It's so like that part of it, like the Lakers were never going to be able to do everything you would want them to do without making trades. There's only so much you can do signing through free agency. And if they end up with, which we've been telling. our listeners, our viewers.

Right. We've been saying this repeatedly consistently. If you end up with Aiton, who has, you know, all of his flags are red, all of them. But, you know, when he's engaged is still a very talented player. If you end up with him at $8 million, $7,8 million a year, because that's all the Lakers can pay him at this point. And he knows that, and they know that, and everybody knows that. And La Ravia and Melton. and that's really the allotment, maybe a minimum guy somewhere,

that's the allotment that you have for your free agency, that's actually not a bad result. Assuming Melton is healthy, assuming Aiton is healthy, and all of that, you're not going to do much better with about $18 million or $19 million to play with. So I think it's important to remember that the Lakers were never going to be able to fully maximize the value, of this offseason without trades.

Whether you like Aiton or not at $8 million a year, you know, probably for one year, he's significantly better than a player that you probably would be expecting to get without having to give up players. Other than, I mean, I guess the best, if you believe that the best version of Mo Wagner, who if nothing else you believe, because I believe he is still available,

as a free agent. If you believe like the best version of Mo Wagner or at the very least, you believe Mo Wagner is more likely to bring his best, like attempt to bring his best on a day in, day out, game in, game out basis. Like you could maybe talk yourself into believing that Mo Wagner is just, if nothing else, the center acquisition that will piss you off less. Like Brian and I were talking about this. The only thing, I think the only thing you can say about Mo Wagner, being better from a total talent perspective than DeAndre Aiton is that you know he'll show up to practice on time. No, but I mean, he will be on your team playing when you wanted to be.

No, I mean, I think he will give more. Aiton's a better player than Bob. No, I think, yes, Aiton is a more talented better player. I think he is going to be more of a crapshoot on a game in, game out basis than Mo Vagner will be even as a lesser player. And as you often like to point out, coaches really want reliability and consistency. I'm not making the argument that they should go after Mo Wagner, old friend, ahead of Aiton. I'm saying he's the only center out there that I think you could even talk yourself into the idea of being a better option than Ait.

That's maybe. And I don't think that's, and I don't think, you know, they both those guys get hurt a lot too. So it's, which guy do you want injured more? Yeah, they both get it. Aetting is a better fit with what the Lakers need and how they play. Aidan's a better fit. But, you know, there just there isn't much out there to solve the problem without a trade. You know, if you want to, you know, acquire somebody better,

it's going to be a Nick Clackson through a trade or something. I do think the LaRavia signing increases the chances that the Lakers could trade Dalton Connect. again, La Ravia is younger and quite frankly has been a better NBA player. Dalton's only had a year and it was all over the place. His highs have been I think higher though

than Arabia. In a 37.9 No, look, he's Dalton can show, I'm not in any, I'm not itching to trade. And La Ravia La Ravia shot 42% from three last year.

That is potentially an outlier. It's like seven. 8% higher than any percentage he's ever had. It's, you know, so it's one of these things where that's all. Sure. It's worth, you know, kind of looking at the thing in totality. It's, you know, they just, they're not, they're, they're you with the box means

you can't do everything without trade. So they, if they come out of that with free agency and then they figure out of how to use Rui's contract, use Gabe Vincent's contract. Vanderbilt probably will be on the team next year because trading him costs you assets. That stuff will be something you can put into a deal. The Lakers shouldn't be done yet. But I will say the part that raises the red flag for me, I'll set it up here to continue talking about it more at the end of the break.

And we'll maybe get a little bit of LeBron talk in here just because I know it's something that you have opinions about and you are not on the show for Monday to go through it. A lot of what was reported out of this was that the Lakers are making their calculations based on keeping a clean cap sheet and maximum flexibility, maximum space for the summer, not of 2026, Andy, but for the summer of 2027 to sign a maximum free agent. Now, you know, that's Janus, that's, you know, a few other people like that are that are supposed to be, you know, potential free agents that off season. We have seen this movie before. We have seen the Lakers do this. And the notion to me that you would, I'm not saying go out and do dumb things, but that you would take good options off the table for you to try to make a splash in two off seasons while you're trying to. make sure that Lucas stays here.

And more importantly, don't want to use up two years of the guy's prime. Again, don't do stupid things. Don't try to chase Houston who had a phenomenal day or Oklahoma City, who's better than them.

Denver had to swing a great trade for Cam Johnson, I think. They re-signed Bruce Brown. You can't try to go toe to toe, but you can still do stuff. And to say it gets back to what I've always said, Andy. If you think the only thing you can do to get guys in is maintain cap space, it shows you have zero confidence in your ability to do it any other way.

And this says to me, the Lakers have no confidence in their ability to sign a player that will actually be good enough that you can trade them in two years. When we come back, I've got a couple thoughts on this just because you said we've seen this movie before. And I think we've maybe seen a version of the movie. before, but theoretically what we are talking about could, and I emphasize could be more of a reboot or a sequel or some different version of the movie than what we've seen in the past. And also I've got some thoughts on the 2027 thing. So get into that coming up next.

I should point out, it's not like a done deal. The Lakers have DeAndre Aiden here. It is not like guaranteed, you know, Jordan Clarkson, for example, was bought out by Utah on Monday. and it is already being reported that he's going to land with the Knicks in New York. It's actually a good pickup for them as a bench score. He's going to love New York. He is. Jordan Clarkson is going to love.

As much as we like to kind of tease JC and all that kind of stuff, like the last time he played serious basketball, like a couple years ago when the jazz weren't tanking, like starting in November, Clarkson was pretty good. So he can offer a decent amount to that team. So there is no DeAndre Aiton will clear waivers and is expected to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers. There's a lot of smoke there, but he's not the only, you know, the Lakers are not the only team that can bring Aiton in or might want to.

So it's a good an option as they're going to get, but it's also not a done deal. know, you, you can't count on it yet. So, yeah, I just, I look at this and I fear two things. First, again, that confidence question. And then, too, like this sort of sales pitch of like, you know, don't worry, our next stars coming in 2007, guys, we got you covered Lakers fans. We've got a plan. You know, we've got this set up.

It's like they were, I realized there's a. gap between them and the top teams in the West, but you've still got Luca Dantritch, LeBron James, and Austin Reeves. You won 50 games last season. Like, you know, the idea that you're just going to wait, doesn't sit well. Okay, well, there's a couple thoughts I have on this. First, when you mentioned that we've seen this movie before, I think we have to a degree. In the past, when the Lakers have done this hoarding of cap space, and you and I have covered this team for a long time and it's something that you and i have been very critical of them for doing for a very long time and for those who really care enough to find the receipts from say 2017-2018

godspeed but you'll find them you're there a better thing to do with your time but the difference though and this is a very big difference that i can't recall an example of the lakers really doing this with this specific difference typically it has been keeping cap space open, that flexibility open, to get the first star in, to get a star in at all. And then we'll see if we can build around them once we get that star in there. But it's just been the idea of we are open for business for any star, come take our money for hashtag reasons. Like, just come here and we'll figure out the rest.

They actually have the star in hand now. And I can't think of an example where they've ever at least reportedly or we've actively seen them play the Capspace game where they actually have the star in hand, which I think makes it a different game. It is because you are theoretically adding to something that you already have. I'm not saying it as an endorsement. I'm saying it's a different game. It is a different game than imagining. It's the difference of Monopoly versus, you know, Monopoly Chicago Edition. I just don't see it as different enough.

I think it's, I think it is different because you are actually adding, assuming Lucas stays, you are adding to something concrete and you are giving other stars a reason to come to you as opposed to you jump in the pool first. No, you jump in the pool. Okay, but what if they, what if the, you know, if they don't, they don't, they don't. Let's say, I don't want to, I don't, I want to be the man. I don't want to be the guy who plays. Whatever.

Again, I'm not, if you don't, I'm not endorsing the plan. But I'm just saying, my point is not that you're endorsing it. My point is I don't agree with you that it's the same game, that it's not basically the same thing. What you are counting on is that your avenue to get a star. Yes. And deciding that you, by the way, that you need to, you know, that this is, you know, the avenue we need to take is signing a guy that we know

somebody's you know you know that that magical free agent of you know season of 2027 which we've seen the magical free agent season of 2012 and 2016 right but those were all when they were doing but no i'm just talking around the NBA where you where there's going to be 12 guys who were going to be free agents and there are all these stars again i don't want to i don't want to even get into the i'm not i'm not arguing with you about whether you're endorsing it i'm explaining no that's not what i'm saying I don't want to even get into the, all I'm saying is that I think it's, it is a different way that they're doing it to some. It's a different way of playing the same, then fine. It's a different way of doing something stupidly, differently because the market never turns out the way that you want.

I think it is. And if Janus, just to use a name, wants to come to L.A., if that's what he wants to do, and you've got $24 million that you need to clear, to make it happen, you can do that. Of course. Again, I don't really even want to get into a weeds about a debate over it. I'm saying it is a somewhat different way of doing it. If it's a different way, it's still dumb. Fine.

Whatever. So when you have Luca and LeBron and Austin Reeves and at least some capacity to improve. But let me get to the next point. part of it because I again, I'm not looking to debate whether or not they should or shouldn't do it. I'm saying it's just one difference in all the other times the Lakers have done. I'm not talking about the rest of the league. I'm just talking about the Lakers. The other reason though that frankly I want to say a little bit suspicious that this is actually the plan. And again, I could be totally end up wrong about this and people will throw back their seats and whatever.

but I'm a little bit suspicious that this is the plan because Austin Reeves at that point, the summer of 2027 means that they are theoretically letting Austin walk in 2026. Because all we keep hearing about is that they want to make Austin a Laker for life. I mean, they've hung on to Austin for this long when they could have potentially traded him. you would think you'd want to have them around. And at that point, that means your cap sheets aren't clean. Like we've heard way, we've heard way more about them wanting to build around Luca and Austin than we've ever heard about the summer of 2027, 2026, yes.

26, yes, never 27. And that we're hearing this right around the time when Rich Paul has made it clear that LeBron is concerned about whatever type of commitment that they will have for this team while LeBron's here. And saying things that feel like, at the very least, something of a pressure campaign to do some bleep now. Makes me wonder a little bit if this is perhaps coming from the LeBron-Ritch Paul side of things, trying to create a perception that the Lakers are really going to sit on their hands for two years. years, essentially, which makes, unless this is truly what Luca wants them to do, this would be one hell of a risky way to go about trying to maximize your star in his prime.

It makes me wonder a bit where this is coming from. I think, you know, we'll see what kind of pushback they get. We'll see how they follow through on that plan. But this is not new. I mean, we've heard kind of rumblings of them and like, you know, looking at stars and, you know, valuing flexibility and all these things. This is not a brand new thing. And even with Reeves under contract, other than the everlasting gobstopper of Jared Vanderbilt's deal, like they don't have much. Like, it would be Luca currently.

You're presumably a resigned AR. And you don't have a lot else on your, on your book. So they would have the space, but they would have space to bring somebody else in. Sure. I just I'm it can be done until I start seeing more evidence of this. And again, I'm open to the idea of being revealed as wrong. I am skeptical. If you told me that they were waiting around for 2026, I would believe that in a second.

I think you can even make an argument for it, even if you don't think it's compelling. Just because they can't do much this year anyway. Right. You are right. But in 20, this is the reason. In 2026, they can theoretically have really clean caps as well, a clean cap sheet as well. And they can sign guys and then they could theoretically trade them for star X. So the 2027 thing, to be totally honest, forget that it's a stupid idea.

It doesn't even make sense. Well, it does. It does make sense if you are, because it removes the step that you're talking about of, making trades, acquiring guys and doing stuff. It removes that step. It is a, you know, that's, and that's kind of my point. It's like, I also have a hard time. It's the single easiest way to get to this clean sheet is kind of just to do nothing

or not commit to anything. I would, I'll put it this way. If that's the plan, Rob Polinka will not be the GM who fills out the 2027. I'd be stunned if that actually, I think, which is also why I think that this is kind of but this feels far-fetched to me. We'll see. I agree with you. I'm skeptical where this is coming from.

Where it comes from and what it really looks like in practice is a good question. And it is not unreasonable. It's coming out of nowhere. The 20-20-7- That part I don't agree with. I don't think it's coming out of nowhere. I think there has been this talk. There has been more talk about flexibility and when you get it.

And, you know, in a post-look-like, How do you add that next star in the post-Luca trade world? And so, like, this notion of trying to maintain flexibility to go get that next star, I don't think that's new. Like, it may be a little bit more explicit, but I don't think it's necessarily new. One thing that we don't have time to get into today, but I want to talk about for tomorrow, which hopefully will be filled with more free agency news for the Lakers, is this question of the realness of a LeBron James?

James trade threat coming from Rich Paul. What that might look like in practice, because I think it is way different than most people do, at least most people that like we talk through, but perhaps not you because we haven't talked about it and let's not before tomorrow's show. Keep it fresh. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 35,000 subscribers. We will be back tomorrow, of course. if anything breaks over the course of the day, that's super important.

We'll throw something up on the YouTube page and on the audio page, or you know, you get it through Apple or Spotify or whatever. So we'll definitely keep you updated with any reaction that's necessary. But after that, we'll be back for our regular show on Wednesday.