Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Would Bradley Beal Be a Good Fit for the Lakers? Is it Time to Worry About Dalton Knecht?

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Things continue to get weird, and expensive, around the NBA for teams that want off of cumbersome contracts. Reports indicate the Phoenix Suns might just buy out pricey guard Bradley Beal, and then st...retch his remaining salary to open up space to sign more productive players. Setting aside the wisdom of such a move, it would set off a frenzy around the league of teams trying to get Beal on a steep discount. Because while he's not worth the $50 mil he'll be paid this year, but at the $5 mil the Lakers could offer? Or the similar terms most teams could? He'd be a steal. Beal is still a guy who can put up 20 a night, is a good secondary ball handler and can space the floor. Can't defend much anymore, but he's still productive. So would he be a good fit for the Lakers? Better than, say, De'Anthony Melton, who isn't as high profile a player, but would he fill more specific needs for LA? Meanwhile, the California Classic is here, and this weekend the Lakers saw Dalton Knecht, Bronny James (in limited run) and others take the floor. The results? Pretty good for Bronny in limited burn Sunday.... and a couple clunkers from Knecht. And Saturday was worse. Low energy, flagging effort, especially defensively. Is it something to worry about? And finally, the LeBronversations around his future in LA continue. Is there actually any smoke, though? Let alone fire?  HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: Bradley Beal on the move? SEGMENT 2: Would he be a good fit in LA? SEGMENT 3: Summer League!  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.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Monday. Brian Komeneski, Andy Komenetsky, the Phoenix Sons are reportedly ready to buy out guard Bradley Beale. Would he be a good fit with the Lakers? 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 everyone for making Locked on Lakers.
Starting point is 00:00:33 First listen to every day Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast. one is always free. It is never, never behind a pay. You won't hate those things. Locked on Lakers on YouTube. So over 35,000 subscribers are all hanging out, talking to each other, talking to us, and wondering whether or not Bradley Beale might be a fit with the Lakers. Would another potentially useful free agent who could be had well below market value
Starting point is 00:01:00 drop into the Lakers laps because the NBA continues to get weird? we saw Damien Lillard, who won't play this year, or at least not most of it. The only reason he's not going to be on the Lakers this year? Right. Presumably. He is. I'd like to think they're not going to use a roster spot on Damian Lillard, given the more than non-zero percent chance he's not going to play at all.
Starting point is 00:01:28 The Lakers don't exactly have that type of roster space to spare. I agree with you. So, yeah, but he was released and stretched by. Milwaukee so they could sign Miles Turner. Obviously, the Lakers benefited from Portland's decision to buy out DeAndre Aiton. He, of course, came to the Lakers at a very discounted rate. And now, Andy, Bradley Beale, Phoenix Shooting Guard, Bradley Beal, veteran of the NBA. St. Louis' should be pointed out. Went to Shamanad in St. Louis just down the street from where Andy and I grew up. And so he is owed approximately $7 trillion by the Phoenix Suns over the next three seasons, I believe it is.
Starting point is 00:02:15 They are reportedly preparing a buyout, a potential buyout for Bradley Beale. Another wave and stretch like what happened with Damien Lillard. So they would buy him out and then stretch the contract. Just keep in mind when you buy a player out, their money doesn't go anywhere. It stays on your books. Beal is owed 50 million this season, 53 million next season, and has a $57 million player option that,
Starting point is 00:02:44 gosh darn it, I think he'd probably pick up in the season after that. So almost $160 million over the next three seasons, about $160 million. The Sons would then stretch this amount. It comes out of like $20-something million. It's a terrible idea. But this is, we'll let Brent, over at Locked on Suns
Starting point is 00:03:05 handle the stupidity of this idea. Before we dive too deep into whether or not Beal would be a good fit with the Lakers, because at $50 million, you can't trade Bradley Beal. It's very, very hard. Especially since he's had a no trade clause, which presumably the next team he joins will not give him. You know who else has it no trade clause,
Starting point is 00:03:27 Andy? Everybody who is being asked to trade for Bradley Beal, They also have no trade clauses. Well, you know what's funny, actually is... If Phoenix had enough sweetener, they could do it, but they don't. The Lakers, well, it's still Bradley Biel. I mean, Bradley Biel holds the cards if he doesn't want to go to this team. The sweetener don't matter. It's up to him.
Starting point is 00:03:48 But what's funny, though, is the Lakers currently have two players with no trade clauses, obviously LeBron, and then Jackson Hayes, which, to be clear, the Lakers did not offer this to Jackson Hayes in order to entice him, come back. There's a CBA rule. If you sign three consecutive one-year deals with the same team because of bird rights and CBA stuff that I don't want to get into the weeds of, but you get a no-a-a-a-de facto no trade clause just as a way of maintaining your bird rights, which is important to players. So Jackson has to agree to any type of trade. If the Lakers ended up getting Brad Beal on a post buyout deal, he would not have another no trade clause. But it would be pretty
Starting point is 00:04:34 insane for all three players who've had no trade clauses in like the last 10 years in the NBA to all end up on the same team. Yeah, Mo Wagner actually has, I think, a similar. Oh, yes. Yes, he does. Him resigning with Orlando. It is insane what they're doing. Before we dive too deep into whether or not it would be a good idea for the Lakers that have pick him up, I do want to let everybody know that today's episode, Andy's. brought to you by Fanduil. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. It is important. Remember, DeAndre Aden, great example. Would you trade for DeAndre Aden giving up three or four players and all that to get him because he costs $35 million in a season? No. I think most people wouldn't have done that. DeAndre Aiden at $8 million a year? Two thumbs up. I'm on board with that.
Starting point is 00:05:28 Bradley Beal at $50 million a season, I'm going to pass. Bradley Beal at $5 million a season. Setting aside, need fit, all that. Bradley Beal is more than a $5 million player. So that part, sure. Absolutely. I mean, Bradley Beal has become a very controversial, picked apart player, seen as extremely overpaid.
Starting point is 00:05:54 He's at injury issues. He is not, I think, seen as a winning player, like a player of his stature. He has not been to the playoffs particularly often. He's a part of the Phoenix Sun's hellscape over the last couple seasons, which, to be clear, was not entirely his fault. No, it certainly wasn't his fault. They gave up so much to get him or gave him all that money. Right. And, you know, the roster building nonsensory that's gone on.
Starting point is 00:06:26 with the Sons. That's not on Bradley Biel, but he's nonetheless been one of the faces of it. What's interesting, though, is that his numbers in Phoenix, just like the pure numbers, have actually been pretty good. In his two seasons in Phoenix, he averaged almost 18 points a game on 50% from the field, almost 41% from behind the arc, four assists a game, four rebounds a game. He's actually been reasonably, I mean, more than reasonably. He's actually, I think, been pretty solidly productive over there. He is not a great defender. Never particularly was with the Wizards, never particularly was with the Sons.
Starting point is 00:07:04 And I doubt will be one for the next team he plays for. But as a $5 million player, which is the max the Lakers can pay him if they want him at all, that's the highest they can go, he would even on this team replace Austin Reeves as the proverbial or perceived best bargain in the league, Bradley Beale, $5 million is an absolute steal. There are questions, I think, about whether or not, because the Lakers, for the time being, presuming Sheikh Milton gets eventually waived,
Starting point is 00:07:37 if they don't do a consolidation trade, they would only have one roster spot. You could make an argument about whether different skill sets on this roster are needed more than Bradley Beals, but in terms of pure talent, Bradley Beale is the best free agent out there that the Lakers could even sort of realistically sign. Yeah, no question.
Starting point is 00:08:00 Assuming he passes, he clears waivers. Can you imagine? No, I really can't. Neither can I, and I can imagine a lot. So I think this question is, before you start in with what, Would it be more valuable to have a different player than Beal? I think you decide what would Beal do? One thing he wouldn't do, I think, is start.
Starting point is 00:08:30 Nope. I do not think they would change their starting lineup. I do not think the Lakers would offer to change their starting lineup. Nor should they. At the possibility of changing their starting lineup. Nor should be to accommodate Beal. Nor should they. I agree with you.
Starting point is 00:08:44 What I do think he would provide, and this is important, he would immediately provide them with just a tremendous, tremendous boost to a bench that has lacked any kind of scoring punch. I mean, just it has been a problem for a couple seasons. And Beale comes in and provides back court scoring, which is something like us just have not had since I guess sort of trying to turn DeAngela Russell into that. So do you see a different role or a different primary value for Beal? And then we can talk about whether that's worth it compared to what else they might get on the other side of the break. I will answer that on the other side of the break. So that is next.
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Starting point is 00:10:27 Open the Fandle app today or visit fandle.com to get started. But back to this Beal conversation, again, he would have the ability to fill an important role on this team and would not be expected to carry them offensively. Hopefully that could help him stay healthier. Beale played 82 games in consecutive seasons in 2018 and then again the following season and hasn't played more than 60 since then. So some of that is his actual health. Some of that is Phoenix, but he's just been banged up a lot.
Starting point is 00:11:11 It's always had a history getting hurt. Always has. And so, you know, there are concerns there, but he would really definitely uplift their bench scoring in a significant way. way and that matters. Yeah. I mean, we saw that all throughout last season and particularly in the playoffs. The Lakers bench, especially once Dorian Finney Smith joined the starting group, but even while he was there, they just could not be relied on for persistent, consistent production.
Starting point is 00:11:40 Even when they were playing with guys like LeBron or Anthony Davis or Luca or Austin, you need somebody from, that's not part of the first five who can score like that. And Bradley Beal can do that. He also is not somebody that should start alongside Austin, Luca, LeBron, and DeAndre Aden, Rui would be the guy that would come out of the lineup. The other four, you can't argue for the other four to come out. Right. If you don't, you could play, I mean, if you wanted to, you could, you know, put Beal as sort of your nominal point guard. You'd be playing sort of a small lineup and all that.
Starting point is 00:12:18 But, like, yes, it would have to be Rui that comes out. Right. It would have to be a Rui that comes out. And let me tell you something. If you think there are defensive questions with the starting five with Rui in there, wait to you see what they look like with Bradley Biel in place of Ruey. Like Rui is prime run our test compared to Bradley Biel. The other option would be moving Reeves. And Reeves is a better player at this point than Beal in politics of that would be terrible. I was going to say, I think he is a better player than Bradley Biel. But like you said, the politics of that I think would matter a lot. and the Lakers want to keep Austin Reeves. And even if they didn't, this isn't the best time to trade him anyway because he's in a walk here. And also, I just think Bradley Beal makes more sense coming off the bench. He's already done that role in Phoenix. Like we saw with Russell Westbrook, once you take that Band-Aid off, it's always difficult for the first team that does it.
Starting point is 00:13:13 But like we saw with Russ, like we saw with Carmelo Anthony, once it happens, the other teams feel far more comfortable. doing it and the player, I think, has more of an acceptance of it because they eventually realize it's not that bad. And as long as I get, you know, a nice chunk of minutes, it's going to be okay. Especially when you're still getting, well, that's Andy technically not. He wouldn't be getting $160 million. He'd have to leave $15 or so on the table to get the buyout. So he's getting his $140 million or $145 million regardless. I mean, it's a little, I mean, like, little, Lillard, for like, there was the initial report right after Yannis and Lillard that Yonis from Chris Haynes, that Yonis wasn't pleased about this. I think that was Janus basically
Starting point is 00:14:02 trying to make it very clear. Like I didn't tell Milwaukee to do, I didn't make the Bucks do this so that when I leave, you don't please don't like be like, well, Janus made them release and stretch Lillard. And I think that was Yonis signaling. I didn't tell him to do this. So that he wasn't happy. But like the initial report like Lillard was always unhappy. And then it became like, no, Lillard's kind of ecstatic about this because there were all kinds of reports that he was uncomfortable. Not the Bucks were doing him wrong. He was just uncomfortable being away from his family.
Starting point is 00:14:42 It wasn't going. Particularly at a time where he was going through a divorce. Like there was a lot going on in his family period. It just wasn't comfortable. and that is an underrated thing that happens with athletes. We forget that they're people with personal lives. But now he can go rehab wherever he wants. He'll sign wherever he wants.
Starting point is 00:15:01 And he basically loses like $10 million. Actually, no, Lillard doesn't lose anything. Lillard doesn't lose a nickel. And so like that part of it, like Beal, I agree with you. I think coming to a team like this in this context, too, If he wants to be on a winner, there's a very good chance that any winning team he joins already has a two guard, like ready to play in a starting lineup that's ready to work. And he would come in and fill in a niche. And that part of it I don't worry about.
Starting point is 00:15:33 The question becomes, what is more valuable? Let's say the Lakers can offer and the numbers keep shifting around a little bit, but most people seem to think they have most of the BA, the, the bi-annual. They want the whole thing. They just wave Shake-Milton. I don't think that I just saw something from Eric Pinkis, you know, Cap-Guru. So that still might leave them short unless they wave Goodwin, too. But they have about $4 million.
Starting point is 00:16:00 But again, it doesn't really matter with somebody like Beal because unless he just wants the, he doesn't really get extra money. Right. necessarily out of this. So he can go wherever he wants. But would say. signing somebody like Beal be more valuable than signing somebody like DeAnthony Melton, somebody who's been linked still out there and has been linked very closely to the Lakers
Starting point is 00:16:27 and you could argue, Andy, may already be in their pocket and they're just waiting for all the accounting to line up before they sign him. This is what I think the interesting question that the Lakers would need to answer between, say, Bradley Beale and D. Anthony Melton, now the two names linked most prominently to the Lakers, Bradley Beal in terms of pure talent and certainly in terms of career cachet and name value, considered a better player than De Anthony Melton. There's no way around this. He is still in stature, even with all the things that have happened over the last few years,
Starting point is 00:17:01 Bradley Beal is considered by 30 out of 30 GMs across the league to be a better player than De Anthony Melton. And De Anthony Melton is just as risky, if not riskier, in terms of inability to keep him on the court. you know d anthony melton's coming off a major acl injury like there's a lot of questions six games last year 38 the year before right there's a lot of questions about d anthony melton's ability to stay healthy just like there's been with bradley deal the thing that's interesting about melton though is he is more likely to fill a skill set in terms of defense and in particular
Starting point is 00:17:39 point of attack point of attack defense you know from one through three that the Lakers don't have anybody currently on the roster that they feel comfortable giving regular minutes to. Like Jared Vanderbilt is great for that role, but his own health issues aside, there's the offensive issues and there's the lack of offensive utility that has been there with Jared Vanderbilt. I think JJ Reddick could be more open
Starting point is 00:18:06 to giving more of that role and responsibility to Jordan Goodwin, but for the time being, I'm not convinced JJ will. So for all intents and goodwin, I just, I mean, but goodwin also too as an offensive player, you know, shot the lights out when he first arrived in LA and then kind of regressed to where he had been for most of his career. Melton had one season of fairly high-end shooting. But for the most part, as a three-point shooter at the very least has been very inconsistent. Yeah. I mean, neither. 37%, 36%, you know, we have a couple, one year at 39, the year before that,
Starting point is 00:18:49 I guess the year before that at 38. So it wasn't too bad, but inconsistent. Neither one of them is really considered a proven offensive player. If you want to say Melton is more so than Goodwin, fine. But offense is not either wrong suits. But I think Melton is nothing else. If nothing else, he's the more established NBA player, if not the more established offensive player. And like I said, for the time being, I would be open to JJ giving more of a legitimate shot to Goodwin in that role.
Starting point is 00:19:17 But until we see that he will, then the role is unfilled for this team. And you could argue that they need somebody to do the things that you would ask of Melton more than they need the things that would be asked of Bradley Beal. Even after we talked about the bench scoring that they lacked, you could fix that by just moving Rui to the bench. and that would in a lot of ways address some of the things that we're talking about. And between that, maybe Jake Laravia and, you know, a center that you can keep out there for 25 to 30 minutes and 8. And like, there's some things there post-A-D they have now that they didn't have last season. And I wonder, too, I mean, like, I agree with you. You know, you could look at Goodwin in that space.
Starting point is 00:20:04 I actually think you could argue you could argue you need both of them. Sure. of it, to have, especially if you are able to swing a trade that includes Gabe Vincent for a backup center, you know, something else, you know, that would might bump, or, you know, you move Claiba in something. If you decide you can find a different way to get a backup center. It's a, both of these problems are real. And to some degree, it comes down to like, which one, you know, which guy do you think you get more use out of? Do you think you would find, are there ways you would play melting down the stretch of games? Could you leave them on the floor, depending on certain lineups if you really needed to boost your defense a little bit?
Starting point is 00:20:45 Who would you sit in those situations? Is there somebody in the front court that you could do if you needed to go big, sort of defensively oriented and shifts everybody down one and Reeves kind of becomes your one? And like, they're just, the Lakers don't have that sort of modular roster yet. where like, you know, you look at what Indiana did, you look at what Oklahoma City did, where they have enough of these sort of two-way pieces where you can plug in the couple guys that maybe are more offense or more defense and they're supported in the on the other side. The Lakers don't have that. Beale doesn't really solve that problem.
Starting point is 00:21:25 He is way too indexed offensively. Melton, I, he might be able to give them a little. bit more of, you know, if he's shooting, you know, a little bit more of that kind of spacing and then more reliable defense. I have a feeling. We'll ask people, we'll come back, talk about Summer League after the break, but I mean, we can even put up a poll on the YouTube page. I bet if you ask most people on our community page, at least, they would vote for Melton. I think I am probably more inclined to vote for Melton, assuming both of them are equally healthy. I would need to know Melton.
Starting point is 00:22:04 this healthy. But if I could pick the skill set, I think I'd lean defense because they kind of need Beals bench scoring, but they clearly need some combinations of backcourt defense. And Melton does that with a little bit
Starting point is 00:22:22 more size than like Gabe Vincent does. But let us know what you think in the comment section on the YouTube page or Cam Brothers on Twitter. Summer League Andy had Dalton Connect. Look. That's next. Let's accentuate the positive, Andy.
Starting point is 00:22:47 Bronny James, who did not play, and I didn't realize this, but I guess there's physical stuff or whatever. It was kind of quietly announced he was going to be on a bit of a minutes restriction in the California classic. I don't, maybe I missed it. And if so,
Starting point is 00:23:02 I apologize. I don't entirely understand why. He only played 10 minutes on Sunday after not playing on Saturday. Yeah. It's been described as conditioning. issues. What has not been described, and unfortunately, Brian and I are not in the Bay Area to ask about this, but it has not been clarified why Brony would not be in the proper conditioning right now, as opposed to Dalton Connect or anybody else on the team. There's been no mention of a specific
Starting point is 00:23:31 injury. He was banged up at different points last season. Maybe it's just maintenance. I don't know. It's hard to know also, too, with somebody like Brony who, you know, didn't play, down the stretch of the regular season, didn't really play in the playoffs. But that doesn't have anything to do with injury. He's not in the rotation. So it's hard to know. So he played his 10 minutes on Sunday. Presumably we'll play a little bit more on Tuesday.
Starting point is 00:23:56 We'll play more in Vegas. And everything looked good. You know, I thought, you know, nice continuing progression from last year. Again, 10 minutes here. But looked, I thought, particularly comfortable defensively. knocked down a three, got in the lane, made smart choices. Just another, you know, it's interesting. Summer League, you'll see this a lot of times.
Starting point is 00:24:21 Are guys playing in a way that's like, I'm the, you know, Brony could be more ball dominant if he wants, whatever, or are you going to play kind of like how you would play with your NBA team if you're a younger player trying to break into the rotation? Bronny played more like the latter, at least to me, where in spots, you know, he looked. looked, you know, he wasn't always bringing up the ball. He wasn't doing it. Like a lot of that was going to other players.
Starting point is 00:24:47 But he just looked very comfortable and very confident, again, particularly defensively with what he was doing. 10 points in 10 minutes. 10 and 11. 10 and 11. Knock down a three. Stealing a dunk. I was, I was like, this is good.
Starting point is 00:25:03 This is good. Yeah, Brani knocked down two threes, actually. He also, he had a great play where he got a steal from behind. and poked the ball away from whoever was handing the ball for Miami. I think it was whoever there was their first round pick. I forget the guy whose name I'm not going to attempt to butcher right now. He is from out of town. Right.
Starting point is 00:25:24 He is, I call him Miami ball handler. Brawny took the ball off the steel straight to the rack, threw down with a lot of force. It was a really, really nice play. One of the threes that he hit was actually off balance fading away. It was a legitimately difficult shot. And he just looked very comfortable out there. It looked like very under control, very relaxed. It was interesting when you said you thought he was playing more like he would be used.
Starting point is 00:25:53 And I'm not even saying you're wrong. My counter would be I'm not sure how brawny is going to be used. I just mean that as a guy playing primarily off ball as opposed to a prime. But he is a two. He's not a one. He's a two. I don't know because. I don't know because he's, he at times seems like he is two guard skilled, but he is point
Starting point is 00:26:16 guard size. So the truth is I, I'm not even, I'm not saying this to argue with you. I'm saying I legitimately still don't quite know what his use will be in the NBA for however long his career lasts. I mean, it's, it's not a knock on. I would say the only thing I would add to that is just a sort of acknowledgement of like he moved the ball around like he didn't attack like he wasn't like I'm out here to be our scoring no two guard that he's not wired he's not wired like that anyway I mean that's just not he's I mean it's funny to say this about LeBron James all time leading score in NBA history but LeBron is not naturally wired to score first I agree just he just happens to be incredible at it but and has played for so long but brawny is you can tell he learned a lot
Starting point is 00:27:05 from a brawn but i thought brawny looked really good out there i i'm i would like to learn more about what was keeping him from playing on saturday and what is causing these minutes limits but you know i wouldn't read if brawny played badly in this game i wouldn't read too heavily into it either what i'm looking for from brawny in his particular case when we'll get into dalton dalton is a totally different context but in brawny's cases do you see incremental improvement from last season, rookie year largely in the G League. And the answer based off those 11 minutes is yes. I would say that here's the formula with second year players,
Starting point is 00:27:48 anybody who's been through the program more than once, you want them to look like the best players on the floor. Cole Swider, who was fantastic this weekend, I think is ultimately kind of what you call in baseball, a 4A player where you're not quite ready for the major leagues but you're probably too good to play in the minors.
Starting point is 00:28:12 So you used to call Colin Castle in that. Yeah, same thing. You know, he looked like one of the best players on the floor. He's played NBA minutes. He's been through NBA training camps. He's been through summer leagues. Like, you would want him to look like
Starting point is 00:28:25 one of the best players. So whenever you have experience, you want those guys to stand out as your best players on the floor. And that brings us to Dalton Connect. And I don't think we're going to have enough time to get through this whole conversation on Connect because he was bad over the weekend. He got a little bit better on Sunday, particularly as the game went on, second half started to find a little bit of range offensively, not necessarily so much with three-point shooting, but just little floaters and getting into the lane and stuff like that. And it just picked up his energy, which was atrocious on Saturday.
Starting point is 00:29:03 especially on the defensive side. I mean, he was really bad defensively, I think both days, but especially on Saturday. Connect, not only is a guy who was in the league last year, he played. He played real minutes, maybe not as many as people would have liked, but he got real NBA experience.
Starting point is 00:29:25 He is also an old second year player. He's 24 years old. Jake Laravia, who the Lakers signed at the beginning of the free agent, period is younger than Dalton Connect. I think the expectation for Connect is for him to play well and stand out in Summer League. And he did not in a good way on Saturday and Sunday. And if that continues through the rest of summer play, it's very distressing, I think, for the Lakers on multiple levels, which we can unpack over the course of the week.
Starting point is 00:30:02 Yeah, the litmus test, you and I. I was talking about for second year players who, like you said, played real NBA minutes. And Dalton, the last couple months of the season was in and out of the rotation. But he spent enough time that he qualified as having a legit first season. They should look so good that you wonder if they're going to get shut down at some point because the Summer League is kind of a waste of their time. Like Brandon Ingram during his second year. Great example.
Starting point is 00:30:30 Brandon Ingram. And Brandon Ingram's rookie season, while Brian and I were. very insistent guys, he's going to be good. Just give it a minute. His rookie season was very up and down. He had a lot of people down on him. And then he played one game in the summer league, crushed it. And the Lakers like, okay, we've seen enough. He doesn't need to be here. Let Lonzo, Kuzma, Josh Hart, Caruso, those guys get more minutes that they need more than B.I's fine. That would be the litmus test for Dalton Connect. Forget the fact that he didn't pass it this weekend. He was like the fourth or fifth best player on his own team, much less not passing
Starting point is 00:31:08 the litmus test. It was, you know, Brony and his 10 minutes was better, 11 minutes. Cole Swider was the best player. DJ Stewart was very good. Yeah, I mean, that I was going to say, and then guys that you don't know. Right. He was terrific. I don't mean you, although I do mean you. You don't know them. I don't know him. But like the average basketball fan does not know who these people. You got to be hardcore to know who some of these guys are. Now, grant, this guy. are killing themselves to try to impress an NBA team somewhere. They're trying to make a G-League roster. They're trying to get an Exhibit 10 contractor, a two-way, or whatever.
Starting point is 00:31:43 So the incentive structure is different, but you're right. They just looked more complete. Dalton shouldn't have to work that hard to be better than those guys anyway. In terms of stature, pedigree, where he already is in the league, you know, you do wonder maybe, or at least the thought crossed my mind. whether he is preoccupied with yet another round of trade rumors and the idea of being out there playing for the summer league team wondering if he's going to get traded again over the course of this offseason.
Starting point is 00:32:15 It would be natural since he quite literally knows the Lakers would trade him. And, you know, when this, when the rescinded deal happened involving Chris Paul and, you know, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol, like, you know, Pau was as professional as he could be. but it bothered him. Lamar Odom never recovered. He demanded to get traded. If those guys who had been in the league way longer and had already been traded at that point in their career, if it bothered them that much, you can understand where Dalton might theoretically be distracted. But if that is the case or whatever else may be going on with him, he needs to work his way through it because he's not doing himself any favors playing like this. And he's certainly not doing the Lakers any favors if they're trying to trade him.
Starting point is 00:33:01 He's not doing them any favors If they want to keep him either Like if they want to keep it's because they're picturing him having a role There's no question You want the guy to play well Yes So we'll talk more about this Obviously heading into the final of the California classic
Starting point is 00:33:16 Hopefully Dalton goes out and just crushes it And puts a lot of this to bed But we'll see Locked on YouTube As you can go hang out with over 35,000 Subscribers to the channel I think I'd have that memorized by now We will of course be back on Tuesday
Starting point is 00:33:31 will obviously jump in should anything important happen, a signing, trade, whatever it might be. So make sure you're sticking around, follow us on Twitter at Cambrothers. And if anything happens, we will jump in earlier. Otherwise, we'll see you tomorrow.

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