Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Too Slow Lakers Lose Big to San Antonio, 132-119. Austin Reaves Struggles Again...

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

The Lakers have been eliminated from NBA Cup play, losing to San Antonio in the quarterfinals Wednesday night at Crypto. There wasn't much to love in this one. The Lakers got off to a decent enough start, but once San Antonio found their legs, the Lakers just couldn't keep up. Final score, 132-119. The big issues were defensive, where the Lakers simply couldn't string together enough stops to hang with San Antonio, and then claw their way back into the game after falling behind. The Spurs were able to get out into transition, outscoring the Lakers badly on the break. They used their bench to help build a lead, outscoring the Lakers bench. They got to the free throw line more than the Lakers, which always represents a problem for a team that doesn't tend to win at the 3-point line. Marcus Smart, back in the lineup, had a great shooting night (26 points, 8-14 from 3-point range), and whatever defensive spine the Lakers had came from him. LeBron James went for 19/15/8, and Luka Dončić finished with 35 points and eight assists. But Austin Reaves didn't have the bounceback game the Lakers needed after a clunker in Philly. Rui Hachimura didn't have the ball enough to make an impact. But overall, it was a night where the team's deficiencies were on display. Too slow. Struggle to get points if they can't get to the line. Difficulty generating good looks. And major defensive problems. Back to the drawing board. HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: Lakers get thumped, out of NBA Cup.  SEGMENT 2: Transition hurts.  SEGMENT 3: Was Rich Paul telling the truth?  Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclubSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Mint MobileTurn your expensive wireless present into a huge wireless savings future by switching to Mint.Shop Mint Unlimited Plans at http://MINTMOBILE.com/LOCKEDONNBA.Disclaimer: Limited time offer. Upfront payment of: $45 for 3-mo., $90 for 6-mo., or $180 for 12-mo. plan required($15/mo. equivalent). Taxes & feesInitial plan term only.  Greater Than 35GB may slow when network is busy. Capable device required. Availability, speed, & coverage varies. See mintmobile.com.QuoMake this the year where no opportunity and no customer slips away.Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to https://www.Quo.com/lockedonnba.Quo — no missed calls, no missed customers.ZocdocStop putting off your doctor’s appointments and get the care you need.Go to htps://Zocdoc.com/lockedonnba to find and instantly book a top-rated doctortoday.RobinhoodYou expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today at robinhood.com/yourmoney. Your money. Your move. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Options, futures, and crypto trading carry significant risk and may not suit all investors. Securities offered through Robinhood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Futures trading is offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC and not SPIC or FDIC protected. Crypto offered through Robinhood Crypto, LLC (NMLS ID 1702840), not FDIC or SIPC protected. Portfolio management offered by Robinhood Strategies, an SEC-registered advisor.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Spurs beat the Lakers bad on Wednesday night. Did San Antonio show everyone the formula to beat L.A.? 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. Locked on Lakers, Kamenetsky brothers, Brian Kaminetsky, Andy Kamenetsky, thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers

your first listen of every day. Of course, part of the Locked on Lakers. podcast network, the number one podcast network in this or any other known universe, no matter how or where you get your podcast, whether Spotify, Apple iTunes, maybe your subscriber, one of 37,000 plus to the YouTube page, getting it there. However you do get the podcast, however you get the show, we certainly appreciate it. This was, Andy, on Wednesday night, a very anticipated game that had a very anticlimactic ending. fairly anti-climactic middle.

It was really basically anti-climactic after about the first 12 minutes. But I think, you know, about the first to eight minutes, honestly. The Lakers were up for about seven or eight minutes to start this game. And then the Spurs finished the quarter up 3930. Keldon Johnson wreaked havoc in that first quarter. coming off the bench, one of many guards and small wings who tore the Lakers a new one in this game. It was interesting. The Spurs did not have Victor Wenam and Yama. There had obviously been a lot of anticipation that Wemby would play in this game and make it the most marquee matchup possible.

And while I'm not going to offer the hot take of the Spurs are better without Wembe because that's just nonsense. What I did think made this interesting about, this for the Lakers is without Wembe, even though Wembe is the best player on the Spurs, and he is the most impossible spur to replicate, not having him really force the spurs to lean into all of their guards and smaller wings and push tempo and make this a speed game. And that plays into everything. The Lakers are terrible at checking. 132 to 119, the final score, San Antonio wins. They eliminate the Lakers from NBA Cup play, Andy.

I guess just have to rebuild. They might as well start tearing it down now and rebuild the team for next year's Cup to see if they can hang another banner. But we'll see how that goes. But there were a few things to like it. I feel like they've gotten complacent since they won that first cup. They really have. I mean, what are we doing here?

There were a few things to like in this game. Marcus Smart made his return, and I'm afraid actually used up maybe too many of his remaining three-pointers for the month of December, although maybe he's got a few banked because he missed so many games. So that was encouraging, I think, you know, at least on one end of the floor. And in some ways you could look at this as another positive stepping stone, at least from an energy standpoint, from LeBron. You know, Luca got off through his typical hot start offensively.

But the big picture, and I think the big takeaway for Lakers fans and for Lakers commentators and for Rich Paul, is that this game really landed on the blueprint of the flaws that the Lakers have. They just looked slow in most ways against this team. and when they can't get to the line consistently, and in this one they didn't outside of Luca, the Lakers really didn't get in the line. Austin Reeves didn't shoot a free throw until the fourth quarter.

When those things don't happen, when Reeves isn't good, and he wasn't in this game, the Lakers are in trouble. And this was another example of that on Wednesday night. Yeah, the Spurs got to the line 36 times in this game, and LeBron was asked about it afterwards, and he was like, I ain't mad at it. I mean, he noted, you know, could a few of the calls gone another way, sure,

but he acknowledged, man, they were forcing the issue. Other than, ironically, Darren Fox, the fastest guy on the spurs, every spur who played at least 12 minutes tonight got at least two free throws. And it was really spread around throughout the entire team. Like nobody went an outrageous amount of times. Like, to put it in context, Luca, not surprisingly, led the Lakers with 14 free throws. I don't mean to imply that Lucas 14 were outrageous, just that nobody on San Antonio came close to matching the amount.

Stefan Castle and Luke Cornett had nine apiece to lead, co-lead, the spurs. but it was just representative of this absolutely relentless wave of we are going to push and push and run and run and run. Stefan Castle had 30 points in this game. Deerun Fox 20, three guard slash wings off the bench. Kelvin Johnson, Julian Champany and Dylan Harper combined for 46 points. And even a guy like Devin Fasel who was quiet in the scoring column in this game, he only had eight points to attend from the field.

He had three steals, five assists, and was just part of, again, these guards and wings all over the place, controlling the tempo of this game. And the Lakers simply could not keep up with it. They started the first seven or eight minutes okay. and they attempted to make a bit of a push in the second half of the fourth quarter. But for the most part, they were just completely on their heels in ways that track towards this team's biggest weaknesses defensively. Do you want to let people know that today's episode is brought to by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use code locked on NBA.

$20 off your first purchase. there was you know the the lakers shooting percentage actually turned out to be okay and that was you know i mean by shooting percentage from three i should say specifically turned out to be okay and that was mostly um marcus smart just getting super duper hot as the as the game went on he made eight of his 14 three point attempts the lakers as a team were 16 and 37 So you can do the math, Andy. Their Mark Smart had half of their three-pointers in the game. But early, when St. Antonio went on that late first quarter run,

which extended into the second quarter, the Lakers were really struggling to hit a shot. And their offense got very inefficient. And this is something that we've talked about, particularly against athletic teams that can run, that will take the ball in transition, that will get up and down the floor, and put a vulnerable Lakers half-court defense

in an even worse position. The offense has to be efficient, and it needs to be efficient even, you know, in both the results, getting the line, obviously making as many shots, you know, shooting around 50% if you can, all that kind of stuff.

But at the very least, the shot selection, and the shot balance has to be good. Or they're going to find themselves on their heels constantly in games like this. And they cannot run with a team like San Antonio. And you mentioned in the beginning, like, you know, Wembe not playing in this game changes the dynamic a little bit in terms of like San Antonio doesn't go quite as fast. I think they leaned into their advantage.

But like even when Wembe plays, they'll still run the Lakers out of the building if they if they kind of perform offensively like they did on Wednesday. They will, but at the same time though, Wemby is a focal point that comparatively to what they had the night will slow them down to some degree. He's somebody that the Lakers have had success defending. I mean, earlier

in this season, sometimes also, to be perfectly honest, I think Wemby is still susceptible to bad shot selection himself. And I think often he will do some of the work for the Lakers defense. Sure. I don't think you're wrong. All I'm saying is like, I don't, that sounds silly to say. You know, like the Lakers fans shouldn't be sitting back on this one going, well, just wait until Wemby backed is back to the Lakers to be fine.

I think this game would have played out in a lot of ways, very similar San Antonio. absolutely could have and probably would have leveraged a lot of those same. I mean, unless there was a chance and other teams are going to try to do the same. Yeah, I mean, unless there is a chance, and I say this only because we've seen the Lakers do this before, if they saw Wembe's absence as an opportunity to maybe lay back a bit thinking this is a team that we've already beaten before when they had Victor Wemniama, much less now they don't have them. and it allowed them maybe to lose some of their focus at the start of this game. In particular, I thought the shot selection in the first half was pretty bad at times.

I mean, I think Luca and Austin were especially guilty of this. I would like to, you mentioned that balance that needs to be there. a guy like Rui who had two shots about three and a half quarters into this game and we are not that far removed from Rui having one shot. Like this is not a situation where Rui can demand the ball. Like guys have to give it to him. Guys have to be aware of looking for him. It's more to it than just that.

There's a lot of stuff going on here that I think limits their ability. Because you know, you can give the ball to Rui. but you got to give it to them in a certain way and in the right time and through the right motion. And I think that's the tricky part. We'll get to it next. Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Game Time. The World Cup is coming to North America

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Do it to let people know about the Everydayers Club, Andy, because you all all made Locked on Lakers first listen to Every Day. We thank you very much for doing that and helping make Lockedon Network, the number one sports podcast network. You already live your team every day. Now it's time to take up a level and go ad free. Join the Everyday Air Club and get locked on Lakers with no interruptions. Members only Discord access and more all for just $5 a month or $50 a year. All you got to do is go to locked.

I'm excuse me, that's not it. You go to Lockedonlakers. Supercast.com. Again, locked on Lakers. dot supercast. Dot com. And you get all those benefits. Again, no ads.

We get your email. And members only Discord access, other stuff. So again, go to that URL. Check it out in the show notes as well. See if it's for you. The Rui thing is, I think, symptomatic. Because it's not like they're freezing out Rui. It is it's indicative of what you're sort of not seeing like when they can't get into the paint effectively when the ball doesn't move.

It's not just move around and land in Rui's hands. It's got to get to generally a place where somebody is in the paint and either kicks out to Rui on the perimeter or Rui is cutting, you know, does that little elbow cut. and gets the ball there for a mid-range shot, whatever it might be, you don't just hand the ball to Rui and let him cook. That's not how this works. And so I think if Rui is in a situation where he's only getting one or two shots or something like that, it's because they're not getting enough motion, enough penetration in their offense to be able to create the type of action that

results in Rui getting the ball. And that includes, by the way, transition opportunities where they can get about that and you kick to Rui in a corner or take advantage of an imbalance defense. The Lakers were taking the ball out of their own net for most of the end of the second half of the first quarter into the second

and things like that. That's not going, you put those things together. You're not kind of laying a foundation for a game where you're going to see a lot from Rui. I guess. I mean, the flip side is Marcus Smart got a ton of threes in this game. And he is no. He's also, but he also starts the ball in his hands more.

But these were largely catch and shoot threes. He wasn't starting his own. He wasn't. There's a couple times where he dialed up his own shot. But for the most part, he wasn't. They did a better. And sometimes they did a better job, especially as the game went on. But like, you can, my point is you have to do stuff to get Rui the ball.

And if you can't do those things, Rui's not going to get a lot of shots. Well, you know, Rui doesn't, it also, you know, Rui doesn't make his own kind of action and stuff like that. Like, I mean, yes and no, he's not a guy that, like you said, that you have, you set up the offense for Rui to cook, but Rui is a three-level score. He's somebody that can get the ball from the corner,

you know, rack a close out, get to the elbow, put up a middy. Like, he's capable of doing some stuff. I am willing to bet just, like the game where he had one shot. If you go back to, once the advanced stats come up there a little bit later on NBA.com, when you go to touches,

I'm willing to bet. I'm not disputing that, Andy. I'm talking about how you get him the touches. I think some of this is being mindful of just doing it beyond the stuff that you're talking about that I'm not saying doesn't exist. I'm saying I think you're over complicating it to some degree. You got to look

for the guy. They don't always look for him. There is. Well, but I'm just saying, well, then that makes it even more obvious, dude. Like, this is, this is not new. This is something that's gone on with Rui. And I think, and I, I, I'm wondering if the issue isn't, they're not looking for Rui as so much as they're not doing the things on nights where Rui doesn't get the ball. They're not doing the things effectively that help make that happen. And it's more than simply, hey, guys, we got to remember to pass the ball to Rui.

He's over there. I think it's I think it is more complicated and is symptomatic of other things that is that get problematic with the offense. Sure, but I I think they are more connected if nothing else than you are. It sounds at least like you're talking about. Again, if they manage to find these met this many shots from Marcus Smart or, you know, frankly, some of these guys finding them for themselves, you know, they found a lot of shots for DeAndre Aiton that requires. a certain amount of... They come from much different spots, though. Right, but they still require some degree of action.

They still require some degree of awareness. I don't think they are often aware enough of Rui, period. Like, just they're not, especially when Rui often plays with four other primary scoring options, which gets back to the whole, he should be coming off the bench. You're not going to get any argument for me on that. Should be starting the thing. And hopefully this game where he played 28 minutes and likely would have played 30 had it not been a fake comeback. And, you know, I talked with Marcus during Tuesday's practice and I asked him, has there been a discussion about or a goal of limiting your minutes?

And his answer was, and I asked this specifically because you've theorized that you think part of the reason he has not started is an effort to keep his minutes down. in his response, if you take him at face value was, no, basically, if they need me to play more minutes, I'm going to play more minutes. If they can find ways for me to play fewer, I'm going to play fewer. I don't see any reason. And if he can only play 22 minutes, 23 minutes a game, start him and play him 22 to 25 minutes a game. I think, you know, I've said that since the beginning of the season. Sure. No, I know that. They're doing that and they're trying to placate Rui to some degree. Right. Um, I, let me put it. this way. I doubt Rui felt pretty placated the night, even though Lawrence Tanner announced him

with the starting five. Like, I think you could sell Rui on the idea of, hey, we can get you more shots coming off the bench because he ain't getting that many in the starting unit. Like, he's just not consistently getting the amount that I think would frankly help the team. It's, it is a, it's, the lake. are an interesting group offensively because it's not that they don't have anybody else who can score outside of their top three. But they don't, they have a, the next best shot creator out of that group, is it smart? Like a guy who, you know, can put the ball on the floor. Like, you know, Gabe, you and I were texting back and forth about Vanderbilt.

during this game. And, you know, I would have liked to have seen JJ try Vando in a game where you are getting cooked defensively. And really, your offense was not the problem. And I think, you know, if you're looking for a way to do that, like to get Vando in the game, I think the easiest way to do that might be to just play Gabe less. Because you're not getting a ton of the defense that you're looking for. and he's not providing enough of the floor spacing.

You know, you're talking about another guy who, you know, if you think Rui is not having an impact offensively, but the difference though, barely ever shoots. Right. The difference, though, is because this is something I talked about in the preseason, then we'll get, we'll break soon and then finish out the show. When Gabe played legitimately terrific during the preseason,

my basic response was, that's awesome for Gabe, and that's great. he is also handling the ball and calling his own number way more often than he's going to in real games because half of the starting unit is either injured or resting. And that's not his actual role. And so that's kind of my point. If you're not going to get the, if he's not going to provide the defensive upgrade that you're sort of looking for in the back court along with that floor spacing and you're kind of getting neither of those things, then you don't need to play.

because you can get a little more size at the very least with Vanderbilt than you do with Gabe. And you're not sacrificing offense because Gabe's not giving you that either. I would like, I understand conceptually, JJ. We'll talk about it now. I understand conceptually the reservations with Vando. I just think JJ, I think he amplifies them. in his head more than what's actually happening on the court. But we can talk about that, talk about the defense that wasn't played.

Austin struggles, all that coming up next. Lockdown Lakers is brought to you by Zock, Doc. Guys, it is almost 2026. Those days of waiting for someone to become a full-blown emergency before you see a doctor, it's over. There's no more walking it off for six months, pretending your weird shoulder stiffness is just sleeping wrong. Rubs some dirt on it.

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Start getting the care that you need. Go to Zocdot.com slash locked on NBA to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today. That's ZOC, doc.com slash locked on MBA. Zock dock.com slash locked on NBA. It is very hard for this team, I think, to succeed. They've managed to figure it out in Philadelphia on Sunday. But part of the, I guess the other side of the coin, Andy,

when with Austin's improved play and, you know, 28 points a game and all that stuff, is that when they don't get much from him and they didn't on Wednesday, it's hard to find other places where other guys are going to pick up that slack. Obviously, Luke is going to get his shots. LeBron, 7 of 14 from the floor, 5 of 6 from the line, 15 rebounds, 8 assists, had 19 points. That's right in the range, I think, of what, you know, give or take people, I think we'll get out of LeBron for the most of the year. I think most of his games will be somewhere in the 19 to 25 point range with the occasional game that blows up a little beyond that. But, you know, Rui is somebody who, I think, to some degree, feeds on the success of other players in the lineup.

And Aiton obviously feeds on the ability of other players to get into spots on the floor that then make him available. You know, Jake Laravia isn't a guy who's going to create a lot of his own offense. We just talked about Gabe. Like, they need Austin Reeves to be good. And when he's not good, it puts an enormous amount of pressure on the rest of the team. He had seven assists. He had eight rebounds. It's not that he did nothing to contribute in this game, but they need his offense.

And he had four points with two minutes left in the first half. That is a very, it creates a burden that I think is very difficult for the team to overcome, especially, you know, when the team can pick. pick on him defensively. I was going to say, in all honesty, I actually thought the bigger problem for Austin tonight was defensively than the offense. It was not his best offensive, you know, productive night, but they scored 119 points and they found sources of scoring in other places.

It's not necessarily the most ideal pretty way to do it. But I thought the bigger problem was Austin was just getting shredded defensively. And JJ talked after the game about in so many words, Austin had to do a lot of caring earlier in the season when periodically Luca or LeBron or both of them missed games. There was a lot put on Austin's shoulders. Austin legitimately performed very well. These last couple games,

we might be seeing some of this catching up with him. Possibly for sure. I think it is also, again, incumbent on those type of nights that Austin, and he's not the only guy, but that's especially a night where he should be looking to try as often to be setting up other guys or being as conscious of getting other guys involved

when he, if it's a night where he's not really feeling it, you could tell that he was getting frustrated that he wasn't getting to the line. That was very clearly bothering me. I think he had six assists in the first half. I mean, he was, he was moving the, but the problem is he's got to, he's got to get into the paint and put the ball on the floor

and put himself in a position either to be filed or whatever. That's how he generates his assists or in the open floor. It's, you know, or sometimes it's how he looks to get to the line. I mean, when he gets, when he gets to the paint. Right, that's what I'm saying. Like all of those things,

but it's all predicated. The assists and the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, putting the ball on the floor, getting into the paint and then making stuff happen that way. Yeah, I really, in all honesty, Austin's offense tonight was off, but that to me wasn't really the biggest problem.

The biggest problem was he was getting picked on a lot defensively. Not to be clear, he was not the only problem defensively. Like the Lakers as a group, I would say other than some, I think, good lane contests and baseline contests, both from DeAndre Aiton and Jackson Hayes and Marcus Smart making the most things happen defensively. As a group, they were pretty bad. I mean, they just were really bad. They were awful in transition.

They were awful in transition, but they were also bad in keeping track of guys off ball. They were allowing backdoor cuts. Well, you mentioned this at the beginning of the show, Andy. Like, this is a terrible matchup, you know, for Austin. Because you go through this Spurs lineup. And, you know, the one guy they put on the floor for any meaningful amount of time who really isn't an offensive player is Luke Cornett. So that's a nice screen. You know, the starters are period.

Period. Well, Kelly Olinick, who plays significant minutes. And but then, but then, you know, both of those guys, Cornett and Olinic are the only two guys on the floor that Austin Reeves would basically never be guarding, you know, but you look at everybody else that he might either get switched on to, that he might have to pick up. You can't really hide him or Luca or anyone, you know, Harrison Barnes is a still.

a quality shooter and an offensive player you've got to pay attention to. Dearon Fox is obviously an excellent all-star caliber player. Vassell is a tough cover and Castle is a tough. It also gets made tougher too when JJ's insisting on a lot of these lineups where, for

example, Rui is guaranteed to be guarding one of these guards or small wings because you're not asking Luca to do it and you're not asking LeBron to do it. And DeAndre Aiton clearly is the wrong guy. It leaves Rui and for all of Rui's defensive imperfections and we we have certainly been candid about

them, he is often being asked not just to guard out of position, but guard ridiculously out of position. Like in ways that make no sense. Harrison Barnes, Darren Fox, Castle, Vassell, Kelden Johnson, off the bench is a tough cover. Champany is somebody you got to keep an eye on because you shoots the ball very well and get into the pain a little bit. The Champany twins are like, they are low-key, really solid role players.

I've got both of them on my fantasy team. I'm very pleased. I have all the Champneys. But, you know, Dylan Harper is like, but like, they've got a lot of dudes who are like under 6'8 who are very difficult to cover. And it puts a special kind of pressure on somebody like Austin in ways that other teams might not because there is. And it's not like, you know,

Deer and Fox is sort of in an echelon above, but like do you, you have castle on the floor and you have to leave? So it's not a good matchup, but like there's nothing Gabe's going to do really to get in the way of those things. So in that regard, I think, you know, the, again,

I go back to like a potential Gabe for Vando swap. If there, if maybe that's a way to get, um, more minutes for Vanderbilt, which, you know, I don't know what.

I've got reservations about Jared, but I've also have increasingly large reservations about Vincent. So, I mean, I'm sure we're going to talk about more of this over the course of the week, but we're getting a lot of it tomorrow for sure. I feel like one thing that JJ could do with Vanderbilt that he does the opposite of, I would play Vando with as many offensive players as possible. so you can't, if nothing else, ignore him as easily. When he has played Vando, he's often played him with largely defensive players

where his offensive questions become even more amplified. And I feel like, again, it's obviously on Vando to progress and gain consistent offensive utility in ways that he hasn't. Like, that's clearly on Vando. That's not on JJ. But I also feel like there are ways that. you can use Vando for 10 to 15 minutes very strategically, in part with who you put him out there on the floor, that frankly, JJ does the opposite up in ways that I honestly don't understand.

He clearly doesn't know a lot of faith in Vando. And he's not a panacea. Like Vando is not a solution to all of this. I'm just saying it's a tweak. It's a tweak. It's a tweak that would address pretty, or at least a ten, to address pretty glaring issues. I,

we'll talk about it for Friday's show because, you know, I do think there's sort of an interesting. Vanderbilt is, is a, as a really interesting player to me in a variety of ways. And,

you know, we can unpack some of that. He's almost like the proverbial backup quarterback. It's not a bad comparison. And like in terms of what I think, we'll save it for Friday because I think a lot of what you're talking about is kind of what I'm getting at. But it's just, you know, the Lakers are a team that have very obvious strengths and very obvious weaknesses. And the question that Rich Paul laid them all.

The question that Rich Paul was getting at was how much do their weakness, become a bigger problem as the season goes on and in the context of a playoff series. That's the question that I think the Lakers are really going to have to face as they try to figure out what can we do to improve this roster. And it may involve sacrificing players like a Rui Hachamura or certainly the draft picks, which I don't think they're terribly worried about. you know, could you even come up with a trade where Austin Reeves would be a live possibility? I don't think so, but we will talk about all of those things tomorrow.

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