Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - What Did the Lakers Learn From the Warriors Loss? Plus, LeBron James' Body Language

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Thursday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, the Lakers got spanked in the opener against Golden State. What did they learn from watching film? We'll tell you 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.

Starting point is 00:00:30 First listen to every day, Monday through Friday, sometimes on weekends, no matter how you get your podcasts, This one's always going to be free for you and not locked behind a paywall. That doesn't matter, Andy, if you're getting it off. iTunes, if you're getting it off, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, if you want to watch the magic happen, you hop over to Lockdown Lakers on YouTube, where over 36,000 subscribers are standing with their arms crossed and tapping their feet and expecting the Lakers to show them something a little better on Friday,

Starting point is 00:00:59 or they're just going to turn this car around, Andy. They don't care. people were I don't remember like the Lakers have won like one season opener it's like 17 years it seems like they always lose the season opener people were particularly against Golden State

Starting point is 00:01:17 like I believe they've lost four season openers against Golden Strait in succession like they were Lakers Nation was an extra level of livid after that opening night loss on Tuesday. And, you know, so they came in to, you know, with a lot to work on, on practice on Wednesday. And I think everybody will be excited to hear they did, in fact, practice.

Starting point is 00:01:46 They didn't just go, don't worry, we've got it figured out. We'll get into that in a second, 80. Probably the most important thing, you were there in El Segundo on Wednesday. The first and foremost thing, they got a health update on Luca Donchich. Yeah, we weren't not given much. It's really not even entirely clear what happened with Luca in late in the fourth quarter against Golden State. The internet doctors have seemed to decide that it was a groin injury. But JJ Redick talked a little bit about how he sort of like he felt it in his hip, which can all

Starting point is 00:02:27 also mean kind of a groin thing. And Luca, after the game, said he did not think it was going to be serious. And JJ said, quote, he seems to be fine. I don't think it's anything major. He got some treatment this morning. And we didn't practice long, but he was a participant in practice. I did not sense that for the time being, anybody is particularly concerned about this. We'll see if Thursday, Lucas, they are practicing on Thursday.

Starting point is 00:02:54 we'll see if Luca is a full participant in Thursday, what the practice even entails. But for the time being, nobody seems particularly concerned. So I am going to, and I know this is risky with this organization's track record when it comes to transparency and health, I'm going to take him at their word. Oh, Lucy with your foot. Well, there's no, look, there's no point in me misinforming our audience trying to speculate what Luca has.

Starting point is 00:03:25 Again, especially considering we've barely gotten any details, like, of the general, beyond the general vicinity. You would, it would have been better to just not see the little limpy moment or whatever, but until you have evidence that he is, in fact, not fine, we can work with the idea that he's going to be okay. The other big storyline, which we will get to over the course of this show, is related to LeBron James. And he is essentially his body language and behavior on the sidelines in Tuesday's opener.

Starting point is 00:04:01 He was noticeably sort of distant, aloof, unemotional, uncommunic. Statu-esque, like almost embalmed. He was. He barely moved. I mean, like, he really truly. Honestly, if you'd painted him silver or something like that, you could put a hat in front of him. People would have come by and thrown change in.

Starting point is 00:04:21 Or they could have barred it from like Madame Tussaud's, the LeBron Wax figure. That's true. Do we know for sure that was LeBron and not just wax? Well, if it was, it has LeBron's new glasses. It was weird. He was

Starting point is 00:04:37 still there two hours after the game was ended. He was still sitting on the bench on his big chair. But melting. I do like it when the Lakers get to use the big chair Phil Jackson set up that they clearly have kept around for anybody who has back pain and LeBron James got to use.

Starting point is 00:04:57 Look, the Lakers also came out of nowhere. They almost brought back Phil in 2012. You never know. You know what? Let's just keep the chair. It's a big arena. We've got the storage. Just keep the chair.

Starting point is 00:05:14 I know JJ just got extended, but this organization, they'll can anybody's ass. But they also want JJ to be the. their coach for decades. He may need the chair eventually. So we'll get to LeBron in a moment here, but the chatter about what the hell happened on Tuesday and what can be done to fix it was an interesting one. You got a bunch of player response, but I know like the biggest reaction that I saw, both from professional analysts and online analysts, you know, social media fans and stuff like that, two basic categories. Bench is still a problem. Athleticism is still a problem.

Starting point is 00:06:06 We can touch on both. To me, the athleticism thing is really interesting because I agree. The Lakers are still not a particularly by NBA standards athletic. team. But they weren't terribly athletic last year either. And at least during the regular season, we're pretty successful. So that to me is an interesting one to kind of parse. Yeah, except for the fact that last year, they were more, the degree of athleticism that they had last year was boosted up in no small part by Anthony Davis and Max Christie. I'm talking. Let me just be clear. When I talk about these things, I talk totally post. post trade. The team that they had post trade. I would say that's a small, that's too small of a sample size. I mean, and most of the foundational, uh, building was done with AD and Max on this. Like, they spent a lot, they spent more of the season with those guys than without them. Sure. Um, you know, Jordan Goodwin for that team was on the upper half of athleticism. He's not on the team anymore. You know, LeBron was. Was. one year younger with 100% less sciatica than he has right now.

Starting point is 00:07:22 But I'm just saying, I think it is a fair criticism. I think they, because if you look at, you know, Jackson Hayes is one of the more athletic guys, but he's a holdover. Jared Vanderbilt, one of the more athletic guys, he's a holdover. You know, D'Andre Aiton is not unathletic for his size. I don't consider him plotting, but he's not super athletic. You don't get an athleticism upgrade from either Marcus Smart or Jake LaRavia. Bronny's one of the better athletes, but he's not ready. Dalton Connect is on the upper half of athleticism on this team,

Starting point is 00:07:52 but he does not seem ready. And a due zero might be the best athlete on this team, and he's not even healthy enough to play. So I do think the team is less athletic than last year. I don't know if there's the thing. I don't know if they're less athletic. I don't think they're necessarily way more athletic. My question, the bigger question.

Starting point is 00:08:09 They're definitely not more athletic this year. The question becomes how much can be like, Like, is that going to... Rue is one of the more athletic guys, but again, hold over. Sure. But I, I, they, they, the people they lost, essentially DFS in terms of the rotation players, DFS isn't a leap off the page athlete either. But again, that's not, we're, we are framing this differently.

Starting point is 00:08:34 I'm looking at the entirety of last season because I think that matters in terms of, it's fine. Yeah. You can't say they won 50 games, but not count 60% of the season. I understand that. But all I'm saying is they had some success post trade as well with essentially a lot of these guys. And so my question is, and one of the things that I think is interesting to think about is they were able to compensate for that and win games last year, whether they were more athletic before the trade or after they still had some good success after the trade. this year, obviously it is still very noticeable.

Starting point is 00:09:15 I don't know if that's something that people thought was fixed in the offseason or not. I don't necessarily agree with you. I don't necessarily why I think why they would think the Lakers got athletic relative to last year. The question is, are they going to be good enough at the other stuff to, be able to compensate for the lack of athleticism. I think part of what makes this, if you're talking about this specific reaction, the athleticism question in reaction to last night's game, I think it is because they lost to a Warriors team that may be more athletic than them, but is not, I think, considered consensus upper half athleticism in the league. And they looked at times,

Starting point is 00:10:09 super athletic compared to the Lakers. What is it, what's it going to look like when you see Oklahoma City in Houston? I think that is what informs much of this reaction. It's who it's who they lost it. You know, they lost to one of the only teams in the league that has like more age-related injury concern stuff than them. And that team looked more athletic than them.

Starting point is 00:10:35 So that's why I bring up the question, because is it different this year? Are they going to be punished potentially more this year because maybe other skill sets don't match up or was it kind of one game? They did address some of those questions in the film, which we'll get to in the next segment as well. So that couple of other things that people were upset about

Starting point is 00:10:57 will get to all of it next. Lockdown Lake is brought to you by Mitt Mobile. If you are still overpaying for wireless, and let's be honest, you probably are. It's time to say yes to saying no. at Mint Mobile. The favorite word is no, no contracts, no monthly bills, no overages, no hidden fees, no BS. Say yes to making the switch and getting the premium wireless for just 15 bucks a month. Mint makes it simple. All plans come with high speed data on limited talking text delivered

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Starting point is 00:13:27 that the Lakers are more athletic than maybe we're giving them credit for because they are not. or say that, oh, because they weren't terribly athletic last year and still were successful, that it might not hurt them this year. The differences between one year to the next are always something that's kind of fascinating to me. If you have a different skill set that, you know, kind of around something that wasn't as much of a problem or a weakness that you could overcome can become much more of an issue. obviously some of this is you know and people are going to hate hearing it because it's both

Starting point is 00:14:06 it sounds like an excuse and it's also unsolvable until he comes back some of this is just they don't have a huge member of their rotation while lebron is out and that's just the way it is they figure out how to compensate and so that gets into i think some of the stuff they were talking about Andy at practice on Wednesday. Like, what are the correctibles there? And it was interesting to me that when you heard them talking about it, they didn't seem to think necessarily that what was on the film was a total disaster. No, actually, the consensus was pretty much not that they watched themselves on film and

Starting point is 00:14:50 thought, you know what, we were a hell of a lot better than it felt in the moment. But what they didn't feel like was it was as disastrous. as it felt like in the moment and that there was a lot there that was more within their control to have fixed during the game and certainly moving forward. Here's Jared Vanderbilt talking about it. That it wasn't as bad as we thought it was. It's a couple of things that we could clean up on that could easily change the way

Starting point is 00:15:16 the game and it's something that things are controllable. And, you know, even though we got down a lot in that third, we far back and cleaned up some stuff. but just trying to put a game playing the other for 48 minutes. But some of those things are just super minimal that could change the outcome of a game. So it's locking in and focusing on those. And then Gabe Vincent shared a lot of similar sentiments as well.

Starting point is 00:15:42 I think there was a lot of good things to take away. I think there were some glaring things that we can work on, which in some ways is encouraging. You know, you find things that end up being 12, 14 points. since, oh, we can clean that up with one conversation. That game looks a lot different. So some revelations we found, some things that we can clean up. But game one of 82, we just got to get better each game.

Starting point is 00:16:07 And some of those more specific items, we've got more clips, but it'd start getting long after a while. But JJ and Vando talked about marking the right guys when they're getting back in transition. Like, JJ thought they did a pretty good job. getting back in transition to protect the lane, but marking the shooters in transition was something that they said they did not do a good job of at all. Hence, some of the shots that say, Buddy healed

Starting point is 00:16:39 or a lesser shooter like Jonathan Kaminga had, and they were hitting those shots, much less someone like Steph. You know, they all acknowledged, and this was something you brought up, Brian, before the game, that, like, the Warriors are such an unusual team to play against and their style is different than, you know, 95 to 100% of the league that they're kind of an anomaly to prepare for. So to some degree, they are an anomaly in terms of what you can and can't take away from it. But, you know, they felt like taking better care of the ball,

Starting point is 00:17:13 you know, really being careful right now with what they're doing because by everybody's own admission, you know, the screen and roll synergy between Luca and DeAndre Aiton or Austin Reeves and DeAndre Aden, it is still very much a work in progress. So they have to try to be extra precise to offset the lack of chemistry that currently they're dealing with right now. So there was a lot they felt like was in their control to do better with moving forward. And that's kind of what I was getting at. Like, where, where can you? you make up, where do you make up for these weaknesses? You know, how do you avoid your, you know, the margin for error that may already be, you know, the, that is really essentially created by

Starting point is 00:18:00 not having great athletes or not having great defenders all up and down the floor, a bunch of two-way guys. You're not Houston. You're not Oklahoma City. What can you do instead? And like, those kinds of things, making sure you pick up the right guy, making sure, like, that attention to detail, the cohesion that comes with it is becomes critical. And that a lot of these questions like honestly, and I think a lot of the frustration with how they looked on Tuesday comes out of this idea. And I know it's something you've, you've been leaning on like that they just didn't maximize the preseason.

Starting point is 00:18:42 And like I can't say had they played everybody, all their starters one more game like, Tuesday wouldn't have happened. I don't know if they were looked materially different, but they still could have done it. Like you start to stack those things up. And like, did you get as far along as you could have gotten, even if it still would have looked like there were still things left to do? It's interesting. I, really, I think unprompted after the game last night noted that it was only the second time that the full rotation has played in a game atmosphere together. I believe it's something Austin brought up as well. And Vando, in talking with us, unprompted, brought up that idea as well. So I just asked Vando point blank, like,

Starting point is 00:19:31 are you guys behind where you thought you would be or should be coming out of training camp? And I thought his answer was interesting because it was an attempt, I think, at either a no or downplaying the concept. But just the pause before even answering my question, I thought was pretty revealing. I mean, I wouldn't say behind, but we had new players regardless. So I think it was going to take time for everybody to jail together.

Starting point is 00:20:02 You know, playing with a guy like, you know, D.A. and him playing with guys like Luke and they are. It's an adjustment for everybody. So I think regardless of if we all played Creeces or not, And we still was going to take a little bit of time for us to haul jail and get that cohesively. So like I said, each and every game, that's our goal to try to build and keep gaining chemistry throughout everybody. And, you know, as I said, we still got 81 more to go. So just to keep building every quadrant of the season.

Starting point is 00:20:31 I get a really strong sense that even if they don't feel like they are dramatically behind the eight ball, they don't feel like they're in front of the eight ball either. And I really do feel like they don't be standing next to it. They are at best standing alongside the eight ball. And I get a pretty strong sense that they thought if nothing else, they would be further along from training camp than where they are right now. And whether that means frustration with how training camp was handled or just frustration at the circumstances that may have caused training camp to be handled,

Starting point is 00:21:10 that way. Or both. Or both. A little bit of both. We'll see. There is more to talk about with this, obviously. And obviously, the Lakers are welcoming a very challenging team to the arena on Friday in the Minnesota Timberwolves. But we got to talk about this LeBron thing because everybody else is for sure. So we'll do that next. Walkdown Lakers is brought to you by Skims. I am somebody who is super picky about underwear. I only like boxer briefs. They have to have a certain perfect Can't be too tight, can't be too loose. It's like Goldilocks. I want them just right.

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Starting point is 00:22:35 After you place your order, select a podcast in the survey and select our show Lockdown Lakers in the drop down menu that follows. We noted it in the first segment. LeBron was not, I would say, an active participant in the festivities on Tuesday. Look, we were on. He wasn't an active anything. He was barely an active, like, sitter. He was conserving energy.

Starting point is 00:23:10 Like a hibernating snake or, you know, squirrel or bear or something. And look, all of us who, all of us who have had back pain know, sometimes you've got to sit really still. Oh, yeah. But that said, this was a major talking point from everyone who was inside the arena. It was noticed by members of the media. It was noticed by fans. It was just noticed.

Starting point is 00:23:37 Brian, just real quick, Brian and I were not at the game on Tuesday, but I was at practice on Wednesday. and without naming names, because none of this was on the record, I can say that the reporters who were at the game, this was something they noticed as well. You know, there was debate amongst people about how much this means anything at all in terms of LeBron's headspace, but everybody was in agreement. Dude was barely moving and seemed disengaged from what was happening.

Starting point is 00:24:10 Now, I should say Wednesday at practice, JJ was asked about it and said LeBron, asked about LeBron's engagement level, watching film and all these other things and said LeBron was active in the film session and was communicative and talking about stuff they need to improve and offering his expertise and all of that stuff. Now, I don't, I'm not in the film session. I don't know that part. JJ is smart enough to answer that question with,

Starting point is 00:24:46 of course LeBron was actively communicating with his teammates and this, that, and the other. I don't think it's going to put the issue to bed. What we'll put the issue to bed is LeBron, you know, getting some steps in on Friday and in subsequent games

Starting point is 00:25:03 until he's back on the floor. Yeah. Look, this is one of those things where obviously LeBron's body language and body inactivity caught a lot of people's attention. Flipside is if LeBron was moving around too much, people would be questioning whether or not the sciatica was real because we're already seeing a lot of people questioning whether or not he is just faking an injury in order to show the team what life is like without him because, hey, you didn't want to give me an extension. Why don't you take a look at the post-Lebron era for the Lakers in real time right now?

Starting point is 00:25:38 For the record, Brian and I have both said, we do not think that's happening. We think the man has sciatica, which is believable because he's pushing 41 and has been playing now 23 seasons of NBA basketball, plus enough playoff basketball to count for like another 10-year career. It's a miracle. It's a miracle he hasn't gotten. And he just took up golf. Right. It's a miracle that he has.

Starting point is 00:26:01 Which gives people sciatica. But he has not been fighting sciatica since the moment he became a Laker. But nonetheless, this is the conspiracy. theory, neither Brian and I believe in it. But the truth is this. LeBron is famous for his, as I like to put it, passive, aggressive behavior. And none of that was helped this offseason with the opt-in and the statement from Rich Paul. And then LeBron often being conspicuously silent in moments where he has in the past chimed in on social media. He was chiming in on basically everything but the Lakers during the off-season.

Starting point is 00:26:40 And like these are the type of things and this type of chatter about LeBron right now and people reading in the worst motives, this is what happens when you are constantly inviting people to read into messaging that you may or not may not be sending out. You can't have this both ways. And again, neither one of us is even saying. that that is what LeBron is doing right now. But he has created an atmosphere where this will happen because he very willingly invites it.

Starting point is 00:27:18 And I think it's worth reminding people. And look, if anything, I am, you know, the people who watch this show regularly, the everydayers, we thank you very much. Put me, there are people who leave comments basically every day calling me a LeBron. honk and like all of these things. So if you're going to categorize me on one side of the other, I am too pro LeBron for some people. I have to think he's pretty good at basketball. But like this is one of those things. Like he's worth reminding people.

Starting point is 00:27:53 He started the offseason with we're watching. We're paying attention. That's my, you know, we're getting near the end. I got to keep an eye on what the Lakers are doing here. You know, it's not as Brian Windhorst noted on ESPN radio this morning. It's not us like speculating. It's what Rich Paul said. Right. Exactly. And then, you know, at media day, he was like, I'm excited to work with Luca.

Starting point is 00:28:15 What gets me coming back? All that stuff was like a full season of Luke and all that said all the right stuff. But when he got hurt again, what resurfaced was the while I'm out, I'm going to be watching again. And I'm going to be doing that stuff. And so when you go to the game and they're getting their asses kicked and you're just sitting there, like you said, the first segment, a. a wax statue from Madame du Sods. He's,

Starting point is 00:28:41 he knows. Like he is, he knows the reaction that this is going to create. And I don't, there are times when it's like, I agree where even if he is kind of trolling a little bit and it's like go touch grass, where I agree with him,

Starting point is 00:28:59 this ain't one of them. Like you know, you know what it means if you sit there. You don't communicate with a single teammate on the bench. Like you're sitting next to your kid half the game. You know, at least give him some fatherly advice about, you know. So, yeah, I mean, this, if he wants this to not be a talking point, he knows how to fix it. And look, he may want it to be a talking point.

Starting point is 00:29:21 I don't think it's in LeBron's best interest to make this a story to keep this. I don't think it is either. To keep this something people talk about for the next however long. I think he'd be majorly misplaying this if he does. Yeah, it is in his interest to. just kind of squash it quickly. And we'll see. And I think the closer he gets to playing again,

Starting point is 00:29:45 particularly if the Lakers are, you know, at the very least, you know, somewhere around 500. It's not a disaster. And the season is still very fixable. Some of these things will change. But it's not, I don't think this is a road he wants to go down. So the last thing I would say, though, in LeBron's defense in terms of that, you know,

Starting point is 00:30:06 report about him observing the team while he's out, seeing how things are going and how it might affect his next move, he'd be doing the exact same thing if he was playing. Of course. But I'm saying I think people have forgotten that part of it. But that's why you and I, you know, when Rich Paul said that stuff at the beginning, we're like, obviously. And when Rich Paul and when it was reiterated when he got hurt, the answer was obviously. And it's like, it's not something we would have spent a lot of time on.

Starting point is 00:30:36 oh my God, what are they saying? Because we've broken this down and explained why we don't think this threat is, you know, what it used to be. Even while the relationship may not be perfect, we would continue to ignore it. When he sits there like that, it takes that and it makes it a story. Now it's like, oh, wait, but remember what he just, remember what his team was saying, you know, only, you know, a week ago, two weeks ago. And so this isn't, you know, this isn't us, you know, like reading tea leaves and connecting dots.

Starting point is 00:31:13 This is us, you know, the royal us looking at there's this guy sitting there. This is the stuff he said. You know, so it's up to it's, it really is up to him to kind of show that that's not, that this isn't a story. And he doesn't do that with texts or Instagram posts. say, you know, geez, guys, go touch grass to use the expression again, he does it by engaging like he normally does in games he doesn't play. Nobody's asking him to do stuff that he doesn't. These guys been in the league for 20-something years.

Starting point is 00:31:48 When he doesn't play, he engages with his teammates. That's been the pattern. I was going to say, and then we can quit on this, but one game of this type of body language, whatever the body language means, if it even means anything at all, grand scheme of things not a big deal. But if it continues on for another five games, 10 games, it could start to become something that the rest of the team is like,

Starting point is 00:32:11 yo, what the hell, man? It's a thing. It's absolutely a thing. You and I are not overly dramatic. We do not turn things into things unless we really think they're things. That would be a thing. Anyway, locked on Lakers on YouTube, plenty more. The Lakers are going to practice on Thursday.

Starting point is 00:32:27 So we'll have more to get you ready, more analysis of Tuesday, more to get you ready for Friday. for tomorrow show locked on lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 36,000 subscribers to the channel see everyone tomorrow

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - What Did the Lakers Learn From the Warriors Loss? Plus, LeBron James' Body Language

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