Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - What the Locked On Top 100 Reveals About the Lakers In the Western Conference

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

The Lakers have three players in the Locked On rankings of the top 100 NBA players. Luka Dončić (4), LeBron James (12) and Austin Reaves (58). They're the only team with an ultra elite player in Luka, and a (basically) top 10 guy in LeBron. Add in Reaves, and it's not a bad core. But how does that compare to the rest of the conference? Do the Lakers have similar balance to the competition, even if their talent at the very top might be better? How much two way talent do they have, even with the additions of Marcus Smart and an improvement at center in Deandre Ayton? Compare that to OKC, who has a host of legitimate two way guys, the Nuggets, who feature a few names on the list, all of whom (save Jamal Murray) can play on both sides of the ball. Houston was a great defensive team last year, and even after moving Dillon Brooks should be once again this season. So what kind of roster balance do the Lakers have? What's the relative advantage with fit vs. overall talent? How much of both do the Lakers have relative to the competition?  HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: Three in the Top 100! SEGMENT 2: What kind of balance do the Lakers have?  SEGMENT 3: How does what the Lakers have match up with the rest of the conference?  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!5-Hour ENERGYTee up that trip! Enter for a chance to win a dream golf trip for two to any golf tournament* in the USA. Visit 5HEWIN.com for full rules and entry. No purchase necessary. Excludes the Master’s tournament. Ends October 31, 2025.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first yearFanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.comto get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Wednesday. Brian Komeneski, Andy Komeneski. What do the Locked-on Network's rankings of the top 100 players in the NBA say about the Lakers and their chances in the West this year? We'll tell you next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks 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 going to be free, never behind a paywall. Of course, Lockdown Lakers on YouTube, Andy, is where over 36,000 subscribers are pouring over the Locked On Network's rankings of the top 100 NBA players, a project that you and I stood behind. Very, very, very firmly. That is not true. We always argue against the rankings of anything. But I will say it did, it has revealed a few things potentially about how the Lakers match up with different teams across a loaded Western conference. If you're watching on YouTube, kind of see some of these names filing through three names, Andy, for the Lakers are on that list. Luca Donchich at number four, LeBron James at number 12, Austin Reeves at number 58. Now, of course, Andy and I, because we are insiders.

We know some people at this network. We've got the also receiving votes category, if you will, the sort of next 50 and where they were. And there are a couple more Lakers on that list, which is not insignificant. We'll talk about it as the show goes on. A quick reminder about these rankings. These are the network's rankings, not where Andy and I even necessarily put every player. It was very clear that there were some. confusion in the comment section for Monday show with the amount of people leaving comments,

including the clown emoji describing where Brian and I placed LeBron, LeBron and I placed Luca, where Shea was, all this. And I had to really explain, like, these were not our personal rankings. It's an average. It's a consensus. We already said we both had LeBron higher than the network average. We are but two people. There are 30 teams in the NBA with at least one host. Many people voted. Get off our asses.

And, you know, I will say, like, I did actually have Luca at number four. But I have, I think of these things not in like absolutes, but in tears. And so, you know, I think pretty clearly at this point, the best player on planet Earth is Nikola Yokic. After him, I think there's a group of three guys that are, you know, you can make arguments depending on what you value more, if you're looking more forward to this season than last and, you know, whatever it might be. And that's Shea, it's Janus, and it's Luca. And I put them in any order you want because, quite frankly, I don't care. I think that's the next tier. These are the sort of, you know, the elite of that elite group.

If you're a top 10 player in the National Basketball Association, you are an elite there. How many players in the league? It's like 450 guys. Someone like between 450 and 500. I don't know the exact number now that rosters have expanded a bit. Right. Where two-way players come in all this stuff.

Whatever. But like, but like if it's, let's call it 400. If you're in the top 10, you know, that is the top like 1% or two, you know, like, You're the top 150 of the league. You are essentially either a starter or a high quality reserve that could at least be significant on a team that matters. We also talked about to whatever degree you think this is important. And it's something I think we are going to examine with a broader, wider context in this show. The Lakers were the only team in the league that had two players in the top 12.

again, Luca at four, LeBron at 12, regardless of what you think of those individual numbers, compared against the rest of the league, the Lakers were the only ones that had that. And I think you can make an argument that if nothing else from an offensive perspective, that the Lakers may have the best one-two punch in the league. They certainly have, and I don't even think this is even sort of debatable. They absolutely have the best playmaking duo in the league. There is no playmaking duo in the league better than LeBron and Luca. Like two guys who average essentially anywhere between eight and ten assists.

I did some looking around. You know, obviously, Yokic is probably the best passing big man ever. Jamal Murray is a very good passer on balance. I'd give it to Luca and LeBron. Steph and Draymond, two very good passers. I'd still give it to Luca and LeBron. like in James Hardin and Chris Paul, I guess if you really want to start going through stuff, two very good playmakers still give the edge to LeBron and Luca pretty easily.

You know, then when you throw in Austin Reeves, we're going to talk about more. The Lakers have some of just the best pure playmaking in the NBA. And again, that is part of a foundation that can be important. Yeah. And, you know, this is one of these things that we kind of wanted to talk about. Because when you think about rankings, so the last thing that we got into yesterday was this question of sort of fit.

Like, does it matter more to have super top-end talent or, you know, one Uber star and a lot of sort of BB plus, you know, four guys, if you want to look at these rankings, between 60 and 120, which like you say is, you know, if you're in the top 50, you're probably, you know, somebody who's at least in, you know, whispered about it's like maybe one day they'll make an all-star team if you haven't already. And if you're in the top 100, top 150, you're probably a pretty solid starter. So if you have that, is that better than, you know, sort of more of a top heavy roster? And it gets to questions of fit. It gets to questions of skill set and all that kind of stuff.

So the Lakers have three guys. And we didn't really get to Austin Reeves at 58, which is about where I had. I don't remember my exact placement of him, but it was somewhere in that neighborhood. I had him somewhere in the 50s as well. And so, you know, is that what, you know, from a talent standpoint, does that give the Lakers enough to kind of work with, especially, Andy, when you start to factor in that while they don't have any other players in the top 100, They do have Rui Hachamura, who appears in the top 150. They have DeAndre Aiton, who also appears in the top 150. And they did sign Marcus Smart, who does not.

He was not ranked high enough, not surprising given not just a bad season last year, but a season where he quite literally fell off the radar because that's what happens when you end up getting traded to Washington. Like people literally forget that you are in the NBA when that happens. So, and I know, like, we'll get into it after the break, but I think what's instructive here from a fan standpoint is trying to figure out what these rankings say about the overall quality of your team. And it starts with how many good players do you have? Because ultimately you need a certain amount of talent. You know, you can't surround, you know, Eurobasket, where Luca, by the way, is playing today.

so we will, you know, for watching, listening on Wednesday, YouTube broadcast on Tuesday night for Wednesday, but, you know, Luca plays on Wednesday against Germany. Obviously, that'll be a big story for Thursday show. But like Luca is playing with one other guy, I think that has European, like frontline European pro-Lea experience. You can't do that in the NBA. You can't take Luca and put him with five replacement level players or whatever

and expect that to work. You need a certain amount of talent. But you also need that talent to work in a way that makes sense and a way that is coherent where the strengths and weaknesses complement each other. And I know for you, Andy, that has been a big question this offseason. Yeah, that question of roster fit with talent but also roster balance. And in pouring through some of the numbers with this project and looking at how other teams shake out in terms of their overall talent,

but the skill set and offensive, defensive balance with these teams, like how well do their pieces fit together, complement each other, offset different weaknesses? I think there's a lot in here that is potentially revealing about what the Lakers' strengths are and some of the areas of concern moving forward that I think underscore why we've continually said. We think this Lakers team can be very good. We think with a few breaks coming their way or maybe they're better on paper and they decided to make one more move to try to just put themselves in the inner circle of contention. They could be there, but there are also reasons

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One of the things before we even get into the comparison, Brian, of the Lakers versus the rest of the teams in the league looking to contend. And I think can at least semi-realistically look to is how much we were talking about the tier of player can be revealing, but also what you bring to the table as part of that tier. Like, for example, Austin Reeves comes in at 58, top 16 in the league, which obviously means you are a very good player, which is something that you and I have talked about with Austin all the time. He is very good, full stop, but I've expressed some of my reservations about Luca and Austin as building blocks, maybe even two of the biggest building blocks of this team moving forward because of some of the redundancies as players in terms of their weaknesses. And the comp I've come up with a lot was Desmond Bain. And Desmond Bain comes in at 46 in the top 100 for the Lockdown Network. For all intents and purposes, while I do think

Desmond Bain is a better overall player than Austin Reeves, the difference between 46 and 58, I think you would agree with me, is not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. I know for the people that love to debate numbers, they'll say it's huge. In reality, it's not. And I do think I think the further you go down in a rankings list

like this, the relative, like there's a bigger difference between the number one player and the number eight player than there is between player number 60

and player number 80. Absolutely. 1,000%. And I do think that Desmond Bain is in the aggregate a better player than Austin

because he's a two-way player and he's an elite shooter while being a better defender. than Austin. There's certain things Austin does better than Bain. But what I find interesting about this is I think Desmond Bain is in a lot of ways a much better compliment alongside Luka if you were looking to build specifically around Luka than Austin, because I think he addresses certain needs with Luca that Austin can't, namely defense, but also he's an elite

shooter, whereas Austin is a good shooter, but not yet elite. So in a lot of ways, he can pay off Luca's elite playmaking ability better. However, the magic, I think you can actually argue, could use Austin Reeves more than Desmond Bain, even if you think Bain, like me, is a better player than Austin, because if you look at that roster, they need, arguably, Austin's overall playmaking ability and kind of three level scoring and solid playmaking more than the elite shooting and the and the above average defense of bane because they have more defense on that team so although the the elite shooting is a really big deal absolutely i look i love the pickup of bain that they were the word i believe the worst three point shooting sure last year sure but they also

just need better playmaking and better variety. But to your point, like context is huge here. And the third segment, actually, there's a player, maybe we'll get to it before them. But there's a, there's a, there's a Lakers player for which context in these rankings becomes, I think, critically important if you want to think about like numerical value and where guys land from year to year.

But I, you know, what you're talking about gets to a topic that we, I think, you know, touched on a little bit last week even. when we were in the mailbag about would you rather rebuild around, you know, a superstar or, you know, with Luca, like a true superstar or kind of like the Dallas model that he had before? It's like a lot of really good players. And like one guy who's clearly whatever. And, you know, then you set aside like the Kyrie questions and whatever. But that in some ways is what they were doing. The thing about this is this is where context starts.

it's in skill sets and all that become more important. When you are, like, are Luca and LeBron a perfect fit? Not at this stage of LeBron's career only because you can start to question the defense. There's, you know, there's a lot of playmaking there. In a lot of ways, it can really work. In a lot of ways, I can think of at least a couple things that are question marks. But overall, pretty good. But is what about Janus and Luca?

Less natural fit, in my opinion. Like when you think about these things, what does it look like to have Janus and Luca playing together, especially with Janus as, you know, functioning essentially as a point guard? I don't necessarily love what that is. But at the same time, Janus is so good that sometimes you just say, we're going to put these two incredibly talented people together because they have so many strengths and so few weaknesses. that you can kind of figure it out. The further you get down on a list like this, that's when you have your Desmond Bain versus Austin Reeves question, where, yeah, I agree with you.

I think Bain is a little bit better player. But I can absolutely construct scenarios, whether you think Orlando is one or not, where Reeves is a better player for my team than Desmond Bain would be. And that's the trick, is as you get further, down this list where some of the shortcomings become a bigger deal because the overall, whether it's because they don't have quite as many strengths or the relative strength of those strengths compared to the elite players isn't as high. Austin's a really good playmaker, but he's not

Luca. He's a really good scorer, but he's not KD. So that means his defense is more of a problem. Like his weaknesses are more of an issue. I just look at this and like, yeah, the, the top two guys for the Lakers fit together pretty well. And then when you start to factor in what Marcus Smart does for them, the improvement that DeAndre Aiton makes for them. Do I think that overall Oklahoma City's got more depth? Of course they do. You know, but do, does, are there six teams in the with more depth than the Lakers? I don't think so. Well, here's where it gets interesting.

We'll get into more of this coming up after the break, but I want to set this up before we actually hit the break. The idea of superior depth, what does that mean? What defines it? The Lakers have, as we've talked about, three players in the top 60 for the Locked-on-Top 100, Luca de 4, LeBron at 12, Austin at 58. And then they have two players, D'Andre Aiton at 126, Rui at 149, who crack the top 150.

And like we said, that is actually pretty good to have five guys in essentially the upper third of the NBA. And the talent that we are talking about is considerable. But it is extremely slanted towards offense with those five. Like, to put this in perspective, the best defender, Of the five people we named, Luca, LeBron, Austin, Rui, Aiton is pushing 41 years old. And there's no question, he's the best defender, particularly when you need defense of these five. I don't think I need to explain why that's not ideal. And then when you start going down the rest of the roster, you can start landing on more of the defensive presences on this team.

Marcus Smart, Jared Vanderbilt, but some of the other weaknesses start becoming a thing and perhaps a problem for putting them on the court past a certain points. One of the reasons why it's very important that Jake La Ravia can perhaps be a somewhere between solid and neutral on both sides of the ball. Like if he can level out essentially as an offensive presence, well enough. A defensive presence. Well enough. That actually can be a real asset for this team, the way it's currently constructed. But coming up next, I went through, like I said, the teams that are considered at least inner circle or slightly along the edge of the inner circle contenders and where their representation in the top 100 shook out.

And I think it's actually pretty revealing insofar as illuminating the strengths of this Lakers roster, but also picking out some of the worry spots. We'll get into that coming up next. So as I go through these teams, Brian and for obviously the audience, pay attention to, A, the players that I'm listing and more or less where they shake out. I'm just going to give you like top five, top 10, top 20, 25 round numbers type stuff. But also, too, are they one way players? Are they two way players?

Like how well do they do on either side of the ball? How much variety is there? Because I think it's actually very revealing. Start with OKC. One top five player in SGA, who is elite offensively and I think solid defensively. Two in the top 20 with Jalen Williams now. And he's one of only two players who made all NBA and all defense. Three in the top 30 when you bring in Chet Holmgren, obviously two-way player.

Then you have five guys in the top 70 with Alex Carrou. Russo and Isaiah Hartenstein. Gruso elite defensively. Isaiah Hartenstein, two-way player. Six in the top 75 with Lou Dort, who is a premier three-and-d player in this league. And then you've got a guy like-at-le-at. But like, you know, he's a very good outside. He's a very good outside.

Like I said, three-and-d. He's a three-and-d player. He's one of the best in the league. And then there's a guy like Kaysen Wallace who comes into 124, who I think you can make an argument should even be higher. But that underscores just how incredibly well that roster is constructed. Cleveland, one guy in the top 10 with Donovan Mitchell, two guys in the top 20 when you throw in Evan Mobley, who's the other of only two players who made all NBA and all defense, defensive player of the year.

Three in the top 30 with Darius Garland, four in the top 60 with Jared Allen, who is, I think, at least a one-and-a-half-way player. And there is some balance, but the number one concern about this team, I think, is the limitations of a Mitchell Garland backcourt with some redundancy and size and defensive issues. Denver, number one player with Yokic, who is always counted on to paper over certain weaknesses. Two in the top 35 with Jamal Murray. Three in the top 45 with Aaron Gordon, two-way presence. Four in the top 80, Cam Johnson, and they are really hoping that he can be a two-way presence

or more than Michael Porter Jr. was. five in the top 100 with Christian Brown, who I think is pretty close to a two-way player. Yeah, he's not an elite offensive player, but he can score enough. No, he's pretty, but in a different system on a different team, Christian Brown would be a more. It is also ascending. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. Houston, one guy in the top 12 with Durant, two in the top 40 with Alpern-Shangoon, three in the top 50 with Amman Thompson, all defense.

scored 14 points per game last year. They need him to take that next step now. Four in the top 65 with Fred Van Vleet. They're counting on guys like Jabari Smith Jr. Tari Isson, who can do a little bit on both sides of the ball, particularly Jabari's a pretty good player. Yeah, to take steps forward. But in that particular setup, you've got a guy like Durant who they're hoping can

solve the offensive issues and everybody else can bring together the defense. and the secondary scoring all that stuff. The Knicks. One guy in the top 10 with Jalen Brunson, two in the top 20 with Carl Anthony Towns. And they're one of the few teams at this level with their top two guys who are one-way players. Three in the top 45 with OG and Anobi,

four, top 60 with Mick, Kale Bridges, five, top 90 with Josh Hart. Latter three guys are really relied on to do a lot on both sides. Mitchell Robinson pops up when you get outside the top 100. But I think what's interesting about these is like, you know, yeah, okay, it's easy to discount the value of 63. Oh, they got, you know, it's like, what's the 85th best player? Like 60, if you have three guys who are all, you know, good defenders, you say, and then you add Mitchell Robinson if he's, when he's available to that list. Like, you can, like, that's, those are high quality guys to fill in.

around two players who are not defensive players. I think you compare the Knicks to the Rockets, for example. The Rockets are relying on lesser other than, well, A.M. and Thompson is not yet, but they're hoping he ascends. He's already an elite defensive player, but they're hoping he can provide a little bit more offense. But the Rockets in guys like Yson and Smith and whatever are relying on lesser offensive players. to bring that defensive presence. Although Jabari Smith, pretty good offensive player, too.

I remember our everydayers will remember my fake three-team trade that brought Jabari Smith Jr. over to the Lakers that essentially traded everybody that was not nailed down. Right. I was excited. It would have required, Jeddah. And I believe my response is, they're not trading Jabari Smith, Jr.

No, but I was offering Houston, Andy. I was offering Houston a lot. in that deal. That's true. I was. But I just, and I think when you do it this way, you can, to me at least, you start to see some of the relative weaknesses of the Lakers in terms of where do they, a defense that's going to need to be greater than the sum of its parts. But I also think, you know, again, it's, they, they were able to defend throughout the second half last year for long stretches. And, you know, some of that fell apart a little bit in the playoffs, whether that's health or a couple other factors. But some of it is just, you know, and I think they've gotten better on that side of the ball.

They lost DFS, who is a, it was important part of that. But they have a. And Jordan Goodwin, who I think mattered there as well. I do. He did. But I don't include him quite as much because I don't think he played the minutes. And they're replacing him with a player who is. a better defender who is probably going to play more minutes in.

I guess I'm including him because I think A, he should have played more and B, I think even with this right, but what I'm, but in the period where they were playing good defense, he was playing more like he was playing more but he's not going to play as much I don't think as smart for example. Right, but it's not like it's I don't want to get. I don't have an argument over Jordan Goodwin. My point is they've replaced

even if you think Goodwin. Goodwin was a difference maker. It's not like he went unreplaced. And so they got a better player in smart to do what Goodwin was doing last year on that side of the ball. They could have still used him. Again, they could have, but they didn't. No, no, I mean this coming season with Marcus Smart, they still could use him. They could have.

I would have liked for them to keep him, but they didn't. But they still upgraded over what they were. last year. And, you know, they, they have a center upgrade in Aiton, for no other reason that he's a much better rebounder than anybody they were able to put out on the floor last year. Absolutely. And so, like, the tendency is to focus on what some of these guys aren't good at. They're disappointments. They're this, they're that, or whatever, but you have to compare it defensively and offensively to what they finished the year with. And even, defensively, even with some of the holes that make them, I think, less likely to win the Western

Conference than the Thunder, the Nuggets, or the Rockets, they've gotten better. Maybe even the Timberwolves as well. Maybe. I like the Lakers a little bit more. Sure. I didn't get to the Timberwolves in this, but they also between Ant, who was a two-way player, Randall, Gobert, Jaden McDaniels, who was in the top, I think, 75. or 65 and Nas Reid, who is in the top 80, I think they also have more overall balance than the Lakers. They do.

You can certainly argue that. Maybe not overall upside talent, like player to player to player, but I do think that's more bad. And I think most of these teams have more athleticism in the Lakers, which is, you know, potentially an issue. You know, so there are certain places where the Lakers have a lot of sort of collectively. the Lakers got a little bit more athletic from last year to this year, but they're still not going to be able to compete with some of these other teams in that category. So I think that's the value of what we're looking at here.

Like, you know, we'll get to a little bit more context. I'll save this stat and what it, you know, one more way that I think, you know, especially as you get lower in the rankings, why context is so important. We'll save that for tomorrow. But let us know what you think of. about these rankings where you think the Lakers fit. If you think they're being underrated, overrated, properly rated.

If anybody got screwed by this, then somebody on the Lakers that should have been in that top 100, let us know. Actually, you know what's funny. You and I talked about this a little bit offline. And we've discussed this plenty during the off season. And at this point, it is what it is. And dudes just got to pick it up.

But if you had asked in December, does Dalton connect, have a shot of, if not landing in the locked on top 100, certainly receiving votes. The answer would have been yes. And spoiler alert, he did not receive any votes. Maybe. I'm not sure I would have gotten him that high. Or top 150? I mean, look at some of the players in the top 150.

Maybe. I think the way he was playing in December with a 37 point game and, you know, can discussions about whether JJ Reddick can afford to take him out of the starting lineup, I think there would have been some expectation that Dalton would have been in the top 150. I guess when you look at it that way, that's fair. So we'll finish up maybe a little more of this conversation for Thursday. We'll also obviously recap what happened to Luca at Eurobasket. Leave us questions.

Leave us comments. We'll use them for the show. Locked on YouTube or hang out with over 36,000 subscribers. See everyone tomorrow.