FULL: Anthony tempts fate and goes a full episode remaining optimistic about the Lakers

0:00Oh boy, he always seems to get involved. I'm telling you, too many coconuts are hitting him right on top of the skull. I think Anthony will be a great acquisition. I think he can do it all. Every who shows this. And we're live. Welcome everybody here to the Lakers Lounge podcast. I'm Anthony here when senior Lakers insiders, as well as lead Lakers content creator, foreoffside, joined on this fine Tuesday afternoon by Harrison Fagan, he of SB Nation. Again, getting used to this zero intro, like approach to the show so that little gap right

1:04before I'm going to try to eliminate that. But aside from that, you know, I'm kind of excited. I like not getting a note from YouTube saying that my show can't be monetized. That was great. So I think we're going to stick with this. But other than that, Harrison, how are you doing coming off of this long holiday weekend? Pretty good. I went on a boat yesterday. Didn't get injured. So, you know, that was sort of against all odds. I thought, you know, I thought I would jack down. I'm Brian. Huh? No, it was a real boat. It was a, it was a duffy boat in Newport Beach. And my only goal for the day was like, don't come in here with a new injury story to tell Anthony about like how I reenacted the Brian Windhorse. I fell between the boat and the dock and broke my rib. Like that was like, I was like, I, when he told that story again, I like Brian. When he told that story, I laughed so hard that I was like, it's going to be karma for

2:05me that this is going to happen. And so I was very careful getting on and off of that boat. I haven't heard that story from Brian. I have. He told it on the show. He was telling it on one of the pots where they were like, they were like, why are you in so much pain, Wendy? And he's like, well, I was stepping on to a boat. And just recently, it was like the last year or so. But the bond is still not. I'm going to, I'm going to text and I'm safe. I can get that, get that story from him. Yeah. But no, I was running a victory lap on not having that happen to me. Not doing that. Yeah. I'm now going to get hit by a car when I go for a walk tonight for victory, laughing this. Or you're going to be falling, you're going to fall getting into your car. That'll be, that'll be how it goes. Today on the show, so I've had quite a few listeners and viewers recognize that I can be, I kind of lean pessimistic when it comes to my analysis of the Lakers.

3:08People just don't think about that. Yeah. Yeah. And I've noticed the listeners that have noticed this trend from you. No, no, I've picked up on it. And so today on the show, what we're going to do, and really we were going to do this last week, right, Harrison? Yeah. This was a podcast. This was an episode concept from last week that we were all ready to do. And then like 30 seconds before we were going to go live, we found out that the clippers were, were found guilty of cap circumvention. Which by the way, the fallout from that has been tremendous. It's just like certain people and beautiful. Yeah, like certain people, certain accounts just haven't tweeted at all. Not not not even just about like the clippers thing, but like at all. That's been hilarious. It's been it's also been kind of funny to see one of the takeaways be, can you believe the clippers didn't, they didn't tell me separately of everybody else that they were circumventing

4:16the cap and they sure hope they don't get caught. That's also been not to just reenact the entire hoop collective archives to start this podcast. But did you listen to their show today when I haven't yet, I haven't. Okay. So McMahon reported, McMahon said he reported that the Lawrence Frank notes were not paper notes. It was like on a computer. He kept computer notes digitize notes of the crimes that were committing. And then he just turned them over to the NBA. It's like, yeah, you know, I like to cooperate. You caught me. So yeah, I, I, I found a lot of that very interesting. I made a note in yesterday's episode how crazy it's been that like the Lakers won a championship after the Anthony Davis trade and we've gotten more criticism of that acquisition nationally than we've gotten from some outlets even after, you know, this has played out the way

5:20that it has. So that's been kind of funny to monitor and keep an eye on as well. Maybe if that stuff comes up by way of a comment or a live chat or whatever, Harrison and I will dive back into that. But today what we're going to do is I'm going to try to be optimistic about the Lakers throughout the entirety of the episode. And we're going to go kind of subject line by subject line and see how long I can last as far as, you know, just maintaining the utmost positivity that that that one can realistically ask for. And I'm going to do so in a not obviously sarcastic way. You know, I owe you guys at least an attempt at this just to show that I see a world where some of this stuff plays out in a way that the Lakers are hoping. And I'll get I'll put on my PR hat and I will I will spin whatever potential criticisms might exist in the Lakers favor. And see if you guys enjoy that version of the show more than me just being real and saying

6:25I don't know about this roster. You're really selling it. You're like, I'm going to lie to you for the next hour, but just so you know, I still think this roster sucks. Yeah, I'll be I'll be Clippers employees talking to National NBA insiders. I think I mean, look, as much as you lean pessimistic, I think you are more than capable of seeing the path to like this working out. Like you are able to intellectually conceptualize these things. It's like just because you don't think that something is the most likely outcome doesn't mean that you can't like figure out how it would happen if it was going to. Yeah. Yeah. It's like in golf, right? If you put yourself in a tough spot, you have to visualize yourself hitting the shot that you need to hit to get out of that tough spot. And you can kind of feel out what that swing would kind of feel like you can you can take a couple practice swings to try to figure out what that looks like and and and picture

7:26it in your head. And then hopefully you can execute it. And that's essentially what I'm doing here is I think the Lakers put themselves in a really tough spot by prolonging building an actual competitive roster. And I think they've put themselves in a really tough spot by by, you know, trying to basically completely rebuild a roster around only Luca Doncic and around Austin Reeves. And you know, we'll see if they can execute this tough shot. But like what we're going to do on this episode is kind of outline what that tough shot would look like, what this flop shot over a sand trap and under a tree might look like. And and and again, try to stay positive. We're off to a great start here with Anthony Phillips telling me that I need to stop being a Lakers fan. No. Not for the next hour after that, maybe, but for the next hour, Anthony is putting on

8:30the purple and gold face paint. And he is he is rallying the troops out in front of Staples Center. I am. I am. We consider crypto.com arena the the alamo for this episode specifically. Um, a quick one. Before we do the full purple and gold face paint one time, just not and then just not acknowledge it. Just do the whole just sit here with it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is how people think I am like non Lakers fans. People think I wear the purple and gold face paint. Lakers fan wearing clippers colors right now. You're like, if you pull that shirt up a little bit, it's going to say LA Clippers. He's like, it's like hashtag free Lawrence Frank. I guess. The weight is over. Football is here and so is draft Kings. draft Kings is now live in all 50 states. One app every sports nationwide new draft Kings customer sign up with code 2400 spend

9:34five bucks to get $200 in rewards within 21 days includes all markets. That's code 2400 in partnership with draft Kings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem called 1 800 gambler 1 800 my reset Connecticut call 888 789 7777 or visit ccpg.org on behalf of boot hill casino in Kansas. Bettax pass through may apply in Illinois 21 and over void in Canada. Bet with draft King sportsbook to get bonus bets that expire in seven days or trade with draft Kings predictions to get predictions dollars that expire in one year. Event contract trading involves risk of loss predictions offer void in New York. Non withdrawal rewards issued as $50 click to claims every seven days for 21 days terms at DK and G dot co slash offer limited time offer nationwide based on sportsbook predictions and free to play sports contest availability varies by state. So anyway, yeah, that's how this is going to go. Please hit that like button. Please hit that subscribe button. Hit us with a comment in the chat and and and any kind of questions that you have for the back half of the show and we'll try to answer as many of those towards the tail end as we can.

10:34A quick kind of warning for how I'm recording this. So Miles had to come home from daycare a little early and he is currently napping and he has been napping for a little while. He came home with a bit of a fever and if he wakes up, I might have to just jump or record the rest of this episode. He gets kind of snugly so he might sit here with me for as long as we have to have him here when we finish the episode depending on how early he wakes up. So we'll see how that goes. And then yeah, hit that subscribe like all that good stuff today shows brought to you here on YouTube by price picks use that promo code HMA and you will get $150 worth of free price picks elections when you sign up use that promo code and win a $5 lineup or or more of your own. Also please subscribe wherever it is that you get your podcast preferably and Odyssey

11:35but anywhere you get them is perfectly fine by me. And tell your friends about the show. The show is grown a ton over the course of the summer. It would be nice to see that continue on into the season. I have a like tenetive goal of 10,000 subscribers before we finish this year or maybe you know maybe even the all start break depending on how the season goes and hey depending on how close we get to the best case scenario of the season. All right. So let's go ahead and start with I'm just going to go in order here Harrison. You know of the bullet points on the right and we're going to start with the most important I think thing that needs to happen for the Lakers to have any chance whatsoever at the kind of season that we're hoping that they have. And that starts with and ends with frankly, Luca Doncic, like solidifying himself early

12:36often and throughout the you know the season's MVP conversation. He needs to be in that absolute upper echelon of superstars in the league. That's what the Lakers are banking on. They've built a roster to hopefully make that as easy as that can possibly be for him. So yeah, like what would you say is the likelihood what's your confidence level that Luca can perform up at the level that the Lakers desperately need him to play at? Yeah, I mean, for me, this is less of a like if things go right. This is less of a variable to me and more of like a constant where I just like Luca's going to dominate Luca when he plays NBA basketball games, Luca dominates them. Like that's just what he does and that sort there's sort of a there's a metronome to that a little bit of like you're going to even when he's fatten out of shape, like he is still going to dominate NBA basketball games, especially in the regular season.

13:39And so like he's just that good where he's always going to make that sort of impact. And so for me, this is less of like a you know, like Luca needs to dominate for the Lakers do that. Like obviously, yes, that's correct, but I sort of am more like, you know, I think the things that you're going to get to after this, I think are more important swing factors for the Lakers this year because I think that there's a world where Luca dominates and the team still isn't as good as they want to be. But like I sort of feel like that, especially with the Kessler edition and you know, like again, all of this is always there's always the health caveat in the regular season NBA in 2026 and everybody's always getting hurt and stuff like that. But like when Luca's out there, if the roster is out there, if Kessler's out there, like Luca's going to dominate to me. I don't, I just don't see how that doesn't happen. Yeah, like of the the bullet points listed on the right, this is the one I am the most confident in. If he stays healthy, he's going to be an MVP candidate.

14:41If he and and like honestly, my I have a sort of conspiracy theory that like this roster was basically designed to win Luca an MVP award. Like the main goal here is not, you know, they're obviously going to say like title contention whatever. But like I think the main goal was putting him in the best possible position to really, you know, like lift this team on his shoulders and the Kessler edition, especially, I mean, that's a good move regardless for winning basketball games. You know, it's that that's not I want to make it clear. It was really exclusive things. Yeah, I don't think they added Walker Kessler to prop up Luca stats or something specifically. But it does seem like a big goal of this team is, you know, hey, Lucas the engine, like everything is going to operate off of him now. Like we're not going to have any, you know, that that's honestly the biggest argument for getting rid of LeBron is like there's not going to be any more like how do these guys fit together? Like how does this like how does this work on the court? It's like every piece is a direct complimentary piece to Luca now. Yeah, except for the fact that they don't necessarily have, you know, the elite athlete

15:46love threat at the center position that you would like to have. But yeah, right? Well, but Jonathan Camingo was supposed to be there and that just didn't work out. And that's okay. Sometimes you need an offseason to recover from that. So, uh, they did one more one more. One more. One more transaction cycles max. No, I'm staying positive and I'm saying that, you know what? If if a player didn't want to be here, then he didn't like Kobe. So and a do Tiero could be that that lob threat. And he gets up above the rim like he's he's a pretty good athlete in that respect. And as Pete started to doubt I'm remembering I finally did learn how to pronounce his name. It's the hero. Yeah. Yeah. Um, like so far, he's a good player in the hero or theory, you know, that's how I keep remembering. That's how you remember it. Yeah. So I'm staying positive. I am positive that theory will be proven correct. So yeah, I, I, but like as far as the Luca thing, um, I think it's also like, like him,

16:53he's always in that MVP conversation, right? He's always in it to such an annoying, uh, extent that like NBA people talking about Luca don't. Ches, uh, you know, MVP candidacy often is just really annoying because of the ways that they talk about Lucas game compared to like some of the other candidates or whatever. Um, again, I'm not going to say I, I don't feel like Lucas should have been the MVP last year to be clear. Like that was that would not have been my vote if I had a vote. But like the way that people talk about Luca versus like other candidates through, uh, you know, it's like coach Pete always talks about like a deficit model that people discuss certain things through. I feel like that's the definite and that's not even like a Lakers hate thing. That's like going back to Dallas. I would discuss Luca where it's like it's, it's that Gordon Ramsay meme of like him talking to the child chef and he's like, oh sweet gorgeous. And like that's them talking about like Yoke's defensive limitations. And then it's like Luca, it's like you idiot sandwich. Like, yeah.

17:53Right. Yeah. It's like the like Yoke it's like blows a defensive assignment and it's the like he works at McDonald's. He's, you know, trying to, you know, make progress. He's trying to get back up on his feet and then Luca blows an assignment. It's like, what's this 35 year old working at McDonald's for? You know, like it's the, it's the, no, it's like we get like a think piece about like, oh, wait, did you see what Yoke did there though? He's directly conserved that energy and then you see his 2K energy bar inflate and he's able to get up the court and get the basket back. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so yeah, like I, but I, I will say this though as far as like the, the Luca, uh, MVP candidacy, like, or the season that he needs to have, I'm not just talking because it's like asking him to maintain the statistical production that he had that last month of the season. That's obviously unrealistic. But obviously, yeah, obviously.

18:55Did you see his numbers that last month? That was crazy. Well, what was average was the last month. It was, it was unbelievable. Uh, I'm just saying I'm not, I'm not going to rule it out. Uh, nobody has a average, like, except for maybe like, I'm trying, I'm trying to stop the Slovenian death threats from coming in after I expressed Lucas skepticism last episode. So just cut that part. All right. I'm going to find, I'm going to find a split. Let's do this. So see all stats. Uh, I'm, I'm all in. He can do whatever it was. Let's see. So in March, he played 16 games at 37 minutes a game. Um, shot 49.2 point, uh, uh, uh, 2% from the field, um, on 20 attempts for game. He shot 39% from three point range on almost 13 attempts for game.

19:57That's pretty insane. Um, got to the free throw line and made 83% of his three, three throws. I think that's actually like a, a real key identifier for like how well he's, he's playing as a free throw percentage, um, averaged 37.5 points per game averaged seven and a half, uh, seven and a half. I realize it was 37. Yeah. He, he average, I thought it was like 34 and I was like, he, he could do that. You know, it's like, I don't know if that's the best thing for the Lakers or him, but he could probably average 35, averaged 37 for the seasons probably. Yeah, he went, he went for, yeah, 37.5, eight and seven and a half as far as like assist, rebounds and, uh, points or whatever. And, uh, yeah, like I don't know if that's necessary. Like that isn't realistic to explain. The point for game is not a realistic expectation. Everything else in there, I feel like he could approximate. Sure. Yeah. Um, none of that felt that above the norm for me.

20:59I mean, he had to take the three. It's just a matter of whether or not they go in. Like I'm not the 13 three point attempts was the number that jumped out at me there. Because like, honestly, like I don't, he's, he's not going to, he's going to take that many. It's just, well, it's funny because like, as, as I was getting ready to make this point, you have Robo cop eight to nine asking, what's the overrunner on Luca continuing to argue with the ref constantly? The leaders LeBron and smart are gone. So who's going to call Luca out? Well, nobody really called Luca out last year. Even with LeBron and Marcus Marta. I feel like smart. I feel like smart actually did sort of hold him accountable a little bit. Maybe. Yeah. If anybody would have that kind of guy, like he just, Mark, he just like, I, he'd yell LeBron, you know, like, I don't think it's kind of tough for smart to say much because he also enjoy talking to referees. It was just a very chatty team. Like it was a very, like when it came, like it was not a group that I would enjoy referring if I was a referee. But last year's what NBA team would you enjoy referring?

22:00Ooh. I feel like there's no good answer to that. They all, I mean, they all complain. It's just a matter of degrees. The Sacramento Kings because there is zero chance that I am the worst person on that court at my job. Then anybody involved in that. I came from the Sacramento Kings perspective. They're like, Zach Lovett. Whether it's Doug Christie, and you're like, Hey, buddy, maybe you should be worrying about what you're going to do now that player option is exercised. Okay. Right. Doug Christie, like yells at me, it's like, Doug, do you know what defense they're running? Yeah. But so. But yeah, like, but two Robocops point here as far as the referees thing. One of the, the, the thing I enjoyed, frankly, most about that March. And it was an incredible 100% that, yeah, that that that that Luca had.

23:01But what I enjoyed most about it was he was one tech away from getting suspended. And I know that this sounds like a snide point to make or a snide way to make this point. But he has this like pent up energy in him, right? And I thought last year, said it on the show, said it to you, I think I thought last year, multiple times that we thought this was a huge factor in that run. Yeah. And I thought that that that extra energy that he would allocate towards yelling at the referees would actually more frequently be re funneled into being a more positive and productive teammate, whether it's talking to players on defense, whether it's talking, you know, as you're walking towards a huddle or in the huddle and stuff like that. Like he likes to talk, you know, he likes to be a boy. He wants his presence known on a basketball court one way or another.

24:01And I would like for us to get to a point this season earlier, where that energy is driven in that way, rather than needing to wait all the way to as he's approaching suspension to approach leadership that way. So like I have zero questions, zero concerns about the statistical production that we're going to see from from Luca this year. I am not worried about that at all. He is one of statistically one of the most productive players we have ever had in the NBA. So I'm not worried about that at all. But as far as like, you know, the leadership and the stuff like that and the defense and all and the things that like MVP voters look to him to screw up so that they can analyze him the way that they do. I would like to see Luca give them less ammunition this year. And I'm not saying that they're going to be fair and I'm not going to base how good I think Luke

25:04has been based on what we see from those voices, from those voters or the voting results even. I just want to see from Luca this year and I think the Lakers need from Luca this year. Real leadership because as Robocop kind of pointed out, this is an extremely young team. And the Lakers need there is a real leadership void dead that Luca needs to step into. I want somebody to clip out of content as Robocop pointed out at you saying that. Where's this man going with this point? As Robocop pointed out, corporations are bad unlimited corporation power corporate power. Yeah. All right. So the next, but that's not, yeah, that's not where I thought you were going with the text thing. I thought that you were going to say you wanted Luca to go like full Rashid Wallace in October. Just get all 15 texts out of the way. First 15 games just knock them all out, get it all out of your system.

26:08And then you can devote that energy to defense the rest of the season. Luca to referees is Mario's comment here, dead or alive. You're coming with me. Like, and that's a tech. Luca, you can't say that to the rest. You know, honestly, that's two or three. Yeah. It's actually that. Yeah, I think dead or alive you're coming with me. That's probably an ejection. That's probably. Yeah. Although I mean, you're doing them the option of a live. That's not necessarily a threat. Yeah, I don't know. It's their choice for Luca on this one. Yeah. It's their choice. All right. The next bullet point that we have here is another Austin leap, right? He gets this Max or near Max contract that he signed with the Lakers. He is now, at least from a cap allocation standpoint is now the second best player on the team. Or second most important player on this roster. And there are there, there have been questions about like what role he can play on a championship contender.

27:13The one thing I will say to, you know, to, you know, again, being positive here is that the Lakers at every turn have asked more season and season out from Austin Reeves. And every year, he is not just met that bar, but he's jumped over it. He's flipped over it. He's, he's, he's, you know, Yoda flipped over it even, you know, he's, he's just, he's handled those increased expectations really well every stage of his career. And, you know, while I think it is fair to have those questions about whether he can play up to a 40 plus million dollar a year level. I, I, this is another one of those bullet points that I'm not that concerned about. I think he'll be fine. So I, I also think he will be fine in the regular season, like where the questions start to come in for me is in the postseason. And you know, I have to like hand up here, like I, I was one of the people saying, you know, if Austin is making 40 million a year next year, like that's, that's a problem for the Lakers.

28:19I felt like that was, it was too much. It was too much of a percentage of the cap to allocate to him. And like it's too big of a commitment to making him your second best player in my personal opinion. Now he could prove that wrong. He's proved a lot of people wrong throughout his entire NBA career. And it's so far betting against Austin Reeves has been a horrible bet for most of his career. And so maybe he does live up to this and maybe he continues to get better. I know he's going to try. You know, I have no doubts about that. But, you know, to me, this is like the biggest, this is the actual biggest variable swing factor in the season is is Austin ready. We saw it. We saw promising start last year in terms of like being the day and day out. Number two option behind Luca and like the way that the season started and how good he looked. And he was like in all star conversations. And I just want to see him do that sort of thing over the entire course of the season. And you know, health permitting it's certainly possible. But that I think that to me is a much bigger question than, you know, the Luca one.

29:23I think part of this also is that like I think one thing that has really helped Austin meet or or exceed expectations year in year out. And like I think the factor or factors that have helped him the most is that he's been on teams where teams, you know, the opposing team has to pay X amount of attention to LeBron X amount of attention to Anthony Davis X amount of attention to Luca Donchev. And this is going to be the first year where some of that attention. There's going to be almost an attention deficit, you know, where where compared to the other rosters he was on where he is now going to be the second line in those scouting reports. You know, just below Luca Donchev and that is going to make it more like he has to be better to, you know, then he was last year to live up to his contract and he's going to have to be better.

30:28Then he was last year against more attention on a night in night out basis. And I think like, yeah, I think there's plenty here to be worried about. I guess for me. If I was if you were to ask me to be optimistic for the sake of this exercise. What I need from Austin isn't even like being an all star from a creator standpoint because I think the makers have a ton of creativity on this roster. What I need from Austin is just be a knock down catch and shoot threat. And that's something that like he has, you know, frankly struggled a little bit with compared to your expectations of him as a shooter. You look at him shoot a basketball and you're like that guy knocks down at or above 40% of his open threes, right? Like that that guy like he should he should be one of the league's better shooters, right? That shot looks like it goes in really frequently.

31:29But then you look at his career totals and especially from a catch and shoot standpoint, it isn't where you would like to see it. And if he and Luca are going to work. And we can like let's just set the defense stuff to the side because I think the conversation about he and Luca as defenders has become really, really stupid. Yeah, what they need to be is overwhelming offensively. And if they're going to be overwhelming offensively, that what is absolutely critical, crucial, like it would be a fatal flaw in the equation if it does not live up to expectations is Austin. And then it needs to be the kind of like fire in the living room shooter where, you know, teams react like gangbusters whenever they see that he is going to be on the other side of a swing swing play. And or if he's one of the passes in the swing swing play, right, that forces the defense to, you know, rotate hard out to him and allow that pass to go to the corner to a wide open shooter because the team doesn't want to see Austin get a good look.

32:41That's that's honestly all I'm asking of Austin this year, like maintain everything roughly what it was last year, but become a significantly better shooter, a tangibly better shooter. And if he does that, I think the $40 million will be a perfectly fine investment. And I'm very confident again, because of the way that is shot looks, I think that he's going to be like I think he can do that. And again, we can we can call this positive conjecture, we can call it, you know, standing or viewing the world through purple and gold covered glasses or colored glasses. But like that is what the Lakers need from Austin this year. And frankly, it is what his limited his impact at times in the playoffs is not being that knock down three point shooter. And if he can become something close to that, if not that outright, then the 40 mil is perfectly fine spent money. And like worst case scenario, just don't be.

33:45So far below the bar that he needs to play at that the contract starts, you know, you start hearing whispers of like, he does anybody really want to trade for that contract. And that's the late confidence. It's not going to be with us. It's going to be loud. Like there, there's going to be, you know, like if he doesn't live up to it, it's going to like people talk about the Vando contract. Like it's like Timothy Mobsgov in 2016. Like it's a, I get it's a bad deal. It's not like positive money at all. But it's like the way people talk about that deal, you would think it's like the worst contract ever handed out an NBA history to a role player. And it's like, it's just not like it's a bad deal. But like, you know, and my point, the reason I bring that up is that if Austin is underperforming it $40 million, like the discussion is going to be, is this the biggest overpay, it's going to be on first take, is this the biggest overpay in NBA history. And it's going to be loud. And that, that sort of, you know, once you were done racially profiling Austin as a shooter for five minutes, I, I just, he just looks like he should be able to shoot a basketball. You just look at him.

34:53No, his shot looks like it. It's a huge difference. You're like, he's got the Zac Efron in high school musical hair. I just, I expect him to be a shooter. I can't believe you just did that for five of your positive cases. Like, yeah, Austin's white hillhead shots. He needs to hit shots. Like, he, and also he has a, all right, do you disagree that he has an aesthetically pleasing jumper? No, no, I'm not disagree. I think sometimes the selection is part of the problem. And like, I think sometimes, you know, we saw in JJ's first year, I felt like he encouraged some bad habits in that respect in trying to give Austin confidence. I think it was like a well intentioned thing. But I think that it was just basically like, hey, shoot like your Steph Curry from anywhere. And it's like, okay, he's not that level of shooter. Very, like no one is really. But I was just going to say that like, you know, for Austin, the money as much as we don't want it to, it does change the conversation.

35:59It no longer is Austin is this like, look at, look at how valuable it is to have your third best player on like your sixth highest contract or whatever. It's not like, like, he's going to have to be bawling out for this to be positive value. And so I think that it does change the conversation in that way. It's just like, it's a little bit different when we talk about him after games now where it's like, okay, it's become it's less through a well, yeah, you know, like he's not a perfect player. But like, he, you know, he still provides like more positive than negative. And like, I felt like that was true every season of Austin's career. And this year will be the biggest test of that because of how much of the cap they're committing to him. Yeah, and look, nope, I'm not, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do. You're not allowed to only I am. No, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not going to say the thing that I was about to say. I am Mr. Positive. And I will positively jump to the next point. We'll get to the break.

36:59I'm so far so good. 35 minutes in. I'm doing all right. So the next bullet point is written as gambles hit and by gambles, what I mean is all of the Lakers contracts that they signed this year in free agency outside of maybe Colin sexton. I think Colin sextons is is in a different kind of category. But Quinn Grimes, Walker Kessler and Mammuz, those contracts are all paying a player up to the role that the Lakers hope that they live even Austin's you can you can group in with this too. But they are playing all of these players up to the level that the Lakers want them to play at. And and and like what I mean by this gambles hit thing is we can and we can lump Austin in with that group too. If you want, but all of these gambles need to hit right Grimes needs to prove that he is in every day starter Walker Kessler needs to prove that he is a

38:10deep all NBA defensive talent. You could win all star suggest he could be. Yeah, yeah, like he needs to he needs to live up. He needs to scale up to the extent that the Lakers are paying him to scale up. Mammu needs to be not just a in analytics darling, but an actual larger sample size impact darling. And so, you know, for all of these for all of these gambles that the Lakers made. They're all of them need to pay off because they aren't deep enough. I don't think to make up for it if they if they don't. So how confident are you are you that the Lakers gambled wisely this summer. I think Mark Walter has shown nothing, but good instincts when it comes to like what he's putting money into speculatively in hopes of getting a return. So. So normally I would riff. I would have a little bit of fun here. Yeah, you're not allowed to know you're not allowed to.

39:16But I mean, I this is this is really where the off season was like this is why I was so lukewarm on the off season when we started talking about it like in the direct aftermath of the Kessler sign and trade is that I just feel like you and we don't have to talk about this for 20 minutes on your productivity pot again, but like I just feel like they basically spent all their ammo. And I'm just not sure that they spent it on like that you know they spent all their money and I'm not sure if I like what they brought home enough to be like I'm you know that I'm good that we don't need anything else. Yeah, like they they went to the market with a hundred bucks and they came back and they're like all right we're having smashburgers like what like one where the money go. But like in smashburgers say Raj would just say hey, hey beyond Wapper Burger King. It's a lot of food. It's a good deal. Drink up baby. Fantasy football happy hours here to get you wins and have some laughs. Matthew Barry here and my podcast fantasy football happy hour has the sleepers bust and start to advice you need to win your league.

40:25We're diving into the tape or crunching the numbers to bring you sleepers bust weekly start said advice whether you're defending a title or desperately avoiding last place. I've got you covered every single weekday. The bar is open. It's fantasy football happy hour with Matthew Barry wherever you get your podcasts. And I would disagree. But like the problem with code let's rewatch this one for 20% off in the burger king app. Yeah, I would say that like as far as my like confidence level in these gambles gambles paying off I would say Kessler I am very confident in so long as you can stay healthy I think he is as talented as the the Lakers think he is and as the jazz have thought he is for years to such an extent that they were finding reasons to not play him. At a time when they were trying to lose as much as they possibly good it's always a sign to their facility had home alone traps all over it just for Walker.

41:26Yeah, it's like Danny Ainsh had poured gasoline down the stairs right before Walker tried to walk down it and right there's like. But yeah, like the like the it's it's it's a great sign when a team that needs to lose is finding reasons to not play you so I like. Kessler and I like his chances of playing up to the contract that the Lakers gave him. I think Grimes is going to be an interesting one where I think there are going to be nights where you're like Jesus like maybe he should start nausea should come off of the bench but like he feels like. He feels like this years guy of like you know we're going to get the overreaction to like the small sample size theater over the first five games and it's like the Lakers already got their third star it's Quinn rise. Right, I think I think there's a world here where Grimes who had success with Luca right this is somebody who Luca vouch for personally. I think he has a skill set that meshes well in between Austin and Luca in you know on the teams perimeter and if he can defend.

42:38You know consistently then I think the Lakers are going to be you know like really really good at that position in this gamble can pay off so I'm a little bit like so if I were to go in order of like confidence with the the gambles that the Lakers have made. I would go Walker first Austin second Grimes third and then we'll talk about mom who are in a little bit and that isn't to say that I'm like lower on Grimes then then Austin I'm just saying that like I just need to see it more I've seen more of Austin to be able to confidently say he can play up to that contract. I think that there's a world here in a very you know easily attainable world here where Grimes does play up to this contract and and honestly like the contract isn't that crazy four years 60 million I think is what he's getting paid yeah no Grimes is Grimes is the biggest lottery ticket to me on this roster in terms of like the biggest you know the least amount invested in terms of what could be the highest reward like this is a guy we've seen get 40 points in NBA games.

43:41Before like he clearly have a ton of talent it's just like does his talent is his talent conducive to winning basketball and can he do enough of the other stuff like off of Luca and Austin to have a bunch of value you know as as a role player versus like sort of a pseudo star in Mickey Mouse March. Right I think that I think that yeah and and again as I talked about with Austin Grimes does have a more recent history of being a capable catch and shoot threat who does space to floor in a more tangible way consistently and the sea look like he can shoot to you. Yes shot is really nice looking it is you know like. Like navigating like I just see like 73 mines in front of me and I'm just going to side set all of them.

44:44How about Walker you buy it into the three point shot. He says he know I don't know he looks like he can shoot Anthony I don't know weird so does mom who. So does Jake. I feel like the Lakers should be a pretty good shooting team of Dalton looks like he can shoot. Jake is the only white guy that doesn't get the racial profiling at the three point line like team still leave him open they're like it's fine let him Jake. It's because his hair cut stupid. You say the only white guy that doesn't get the automatic hard clothes out you just assume that's what he's out there for like they're like now I've seen this guy shoot it's going to hit the side of the backboard. Let's do they were right. Yeah no last year he just wouldn't shoot he just stand there and yeah because he hit the side of the backboard so frequently that like yeah yeah yeah. Yeah but I think I think Grimes like as a gamble I think like I could see that one paying off the one that you know that I am a little nervous about is momo because I don't see how he starts.

45:56And so that's the biggest like analytics heat check basically of like it can this guy live up to how dominant like the small sample size numbers say he can be. In stretches and can he actually be that valuable in an extended role and the answer in the playoffs for Toronto was absolutely not. And so you know we we kind of got to see that but he is a he's going to be a good regular season contributor I'm pretty confident about that. Yeah I think the thing with momo like when that when the report dropped that there were people in the front office who were annoyed with the Dodgers people they thought they were too. Errogant and analytics like heavy did like for a second did you think that was about momo. You think they just like walked in like look at that guys impact numbers we got to get that guy and look at his like his his adjusted he are his adjusted LeBron plus minus four okay it's a new metric I just invented.

46:58But no we know that it wasn't that we've come to find out a little bit more about what that was about but but yeah with like with with momo. I would have I would have loved if that money or that contract would have gone to a player that was definitely going to start on this team I'm not saying that momo can't start or won't start I think eventually he will get an opportunity is. In opportunity especially if Jake continues to forget how to shoot or to shoot i think mom who would probably get the the next call after Jake. And and look I think with how the off season played out and based on the stuff that you know I've heard after the fact and some of the reporting about these various situations as well. I think there's a world where the offer that the Lakers made to momo was also made to come in the first coming up probably turned it down and then the Lakers pivoted to momo thinking that eventually they would be able to come back to come in anyway because nobody thought coming up was going to sign early in the off season and they were right it just you know just so happens that coming to chose the wolves over the Lakers coming

48:14to down was like there's no way there won't be better offers for that for me than that. Harrison you're not factoring in the you know how much a player option is worth on the open market in terms of actual price on being able to choose your next destination next September. Yeah yeah you do you can you imagine how I would have handled that interview if he was a Laker like to if if Aaron Turner oh I didn't even thought about this yeah. We would not be having this show right now you would not you would not be being positive I'll tell you that. Hey this technically counts as me being positive if I'm talking shit about it the player who you're like you're like hey get this loser out of here yeah I but like yeah could you imagine how. Could you imagine how I would have handled Aaron Turner going on a different podcast and and like saying could you imagine if he said that on my podcast like if he came on this show and was like look for a date Sacramento is going to have money Chicago is going to have money.

49:17Could you imagine like the face that I would have made in that moment on the air he's a fucking Laker now this is why nobody want you. Aaron where'd you go. But but but anyway like the mom who won how confident to you in this one living up to because like I did I don't know if you saw this but for yesterday's episode I basically outlined like the various situational lineups at the Lakers going to have next year so I I started with the starters and then it's bench unit and then the combo units where it's it's some combination of starters and bench and then I talked about like small and then I talked about the first thing that I was going to do was I was going to do a lot of these lineups and big lineups and stuff like that and the guy who I came to most frequently like looking for ways just to to get return on investment. I was trying to slip mom we went to a lot of these lineups and I was kind of having some difficulty doing it so like how confident you and in this signing paying dividends.

50:28I was trying to learn that this could look really bad if he can't play the four as much as it seems like they're betting on him being able to play the four some next to Kessler because if that just doesn't work if it's just not tenable on on offense or defense then like you're sort of in trouble having devoted this contract to him and especially while not really having a true backup center beyond him. That's sort of where I get a little bit nervous about it and it's like you know could you have gotten Kelly Ubrei could you have gotten you know even coming up you like with that money and just felt better about okay our four spot is locked in like I like mom who I think he's like a good player I'm just not sure that like he is the right fit for what this team needs. But you know if I'm going to go positive it's you know the case for this Lakers team is hey we are quadrupling down on a strength we want to be unstoppable on offense and we just want a bunch of guys that can go get a bucket and that can space the floor and that can make quick decisions and like our yeah maybe our defense is only going to be like okay but but we're going to try hard and our offense is going to be unstoppable and it's like almost like the it's like the nuggets model from 2022 when the next one is going to be on the next one.

51:45Yeah, I think they won the title. Yeah or 2023. Yeah, 2023 whenever it was yeah, yeah, when the nuggets won the title it's like okay their defense is like all right and they get by but it's just like you cannot stop them from scoring and I think that that is sort of the model that the Lakers are going for is like we just don't want to have anyone besides Jake that you can play off of. But but here's any looks like he can shoot. Mom also looks like he can shoot about that. Yeah, but but like but with with mom who like to have you play the guys that look like they can shoot on this roster. We're going to do a little test and then just say like column sex and it's her everybody off the case like. Yeah. Theero I believe we haven't seen him do it a lot yet but the reason we haven't yeah but like in theory maybe he could but so yeah so but like with with the mom who's

52:50going to be playing into your point like the Lakers offense is going to be especially during the regular season like we'll see how it fairs in the playoffs when teams have multiple games to get used to defending this many shooters this much offense and stuff. But the the thing that like on on a random Wednesday in Milwaukee this team is going to be able to do to some of these teams is going to be incredible to watch right like random Wednesday in Milwaukee they might put up 200 have you seen the block. They might break some records. Brandon Wednesday in Milwaukee. He got he got kuz giving Ted talks during yeah, I can take these guys down. You see, kuz say he can't I have a chat to every position.

53:50Yeah, he was like, you remember when when, oh, yeah, when people were calling him a bad contract and he's like, oh, I'm a bad contract who's like athletic. No, it's like a throw-in. They were talking about him being like, being thrown into the honest trade. He's like, what? Oh, we even get thrown in. He could've been in the front. He could've been in the front. He could've been in the front. He could've been in the front. You just throw in a point. No, throw-in denied. It's, we saw that. No, no, no, you're not sneaking him in here. How bummed you think he is that he didn't end up in Miami. That's got to be like a, that's a real brutal twist for, for Kus. I will say this in fairness to Kus, he didn't say how well he can guard every position. Yeah, that's right. That was going to be in my defense. He can guard one through five. I don't know how capable he, he, it depends on the one through five for both positions. Yeah. He's as likely to guard any of the positions as any of the other ones. Yeah, like when there, it just depends on who the other team's best player is.

54:52What, with that, is hunting him on the switch. Yeah, right. But yeah, like I, I think like, Mammu, what I'm really excited for, I don't know if you watched any of his games so far in, in Fiba play, but what I'm really excited for with Mammu and, and basically all year we're going to do this and we're not going to be alone in doing this. Everybody's going to be doing this. He's going to be compared to Rui, right? Because I was essentially the choice that the Lakers made was should we bring back Rui and have him finally start at the proper position. You know, we saw how good Rui looked in moments that he was starting, you know, when LeBron or Luca were out and, and that's a very natural fit. We know what the floor would be there with Rui, even if the ceiling is, is maybe not where we would like to see it. And they basically said, we'll go with a potentially lower floor in Mammu with the thinking being that maybe he can raise the ceiling collectively just by being such a faster decision maker, being more capable as a facilitator.

55:56And, and, and somebody who is, is just, you know, a, a, an advantage compounder, I think is, is one way I would really kind of analyze his games. He's just so good at when a superstar breaks down the defense, compromises the defense and the ball finds its way to Mammu. He never, ever, ever makes it so like not, not only does he not make it so that like the advantage is lost, right? The gears don't stick. Yeah. He almost always makes it so that advantage that the Lakers or would, would gain or Georgia gains or Toronto gained last year when he was on Toronto. The advantage that that was created, he always made it, you know, either took advantage of that, of that compromise or increased the advantage that his team has with the decision that he made and how quickly he makes it. So like, yeah, the offense is going to be absolutely astounding, like potentially overwhelming to a point.

56:57Yeah, to, to a point where like, it could be the best offense in the league and, and, and maybe even buy a little bit and, and, and like you said, it has to be and, and, and, and the, and the other things are making here. We've, we've talked a little bit about how, you know, Luca can make Kessler better and how, you know, like, like, or how Kessler is going to make Luca better by having like the natural screen partner or the natural screen role game, like the exact type of big that Luca likes playing with. But like, I don't know that we've talked enough about like, how much better Luca has the potential to make Kessler by how easy he can make his job. Like, we saw Luca turn Jackson Hayes who sucks into a positive offensive weapon. And, yeah, I just think like, you know, if he can do that with, like, on a much lower scale with Jackson, like, I, I think we might be underselling the leap that Kessler could take as an offensive weapon just by, but like he's never played with a ball handler anywhere near Lucas Calibre.

57:58Like, or a series of ball handlers, like, it's an entire team of ball handlers. Like, the ball handler is like, you're often Calibre. Yeah. Right. And, and, and, and so yeah, like that's, and, and, and like, that's the gamble that the Lakers made with all of these guys is that this situation is going to elevate all of those guys to a point where they are worth at as much or exceed their contract value, right? But they'll play at a level higher than they have played to this point in their careers. And it, like, if I was to, you know, and, and part of my, like, like you said, Harrison, they see, like, there is a vision. There is a world where this all works out. There is a world where they execute this tough golf shot around the green. You know, it's just about my confidence level and then I'm actually pulling them this off. And, and, like, you know, in going through this exercise, I have, you know, you know,

59:03there is the, it's, it's not like nothing that we have said so far today. Anybody would listen to or a non-Lakerpan would listen to him be like, they are being homers, right? Yeah, that's delusional. Yeah. Yeah. Like, we haven't said anything outright delusional today. And I think that's kind of the purpose of the specific, we've said plenty of delusional things just not today. Yeah, yeah, that's true. And the last, the last bullet point here before we go into some Q&A or whatever, but the last bullet point here, and I think is a really important one to monitor over the course of this season. I think the West collectively is worse this year than it was last year by quite a bit. O.K.C. is worse than they were last year, just in terms of raw talent. They aren't going to be able to go at teams in waves to the extent that they did last year. They can sell it in a calendar. Well, maybe. Well, they're probably going to have Jaylen Williams. Oh, well, provided Jaylen Williams has recovered and like, there's no reason to infect that he didn't, like they're going to have him back.

1:00:06We thought that we thought he was going to be recovered last year, but he had to get like one of those weird things where he had to have, like, he had that surgery and then they kind of like, they, they fucked it up and they had to go back in. And like, whenever they have to go back in and fix a surgery, it's like almost like, you almost have to assume that's going to be a right off season where it's just like that's, that doesn't seem ideal to have to come back out. But I don't necessarily think you can assume that that part of the body that was, that the surgery it was worked on is ever going to function at quite the same level again. Maybe not. I think, you, OK, see, I don't disagree actually. We're arguing semantics. I don't disagree. OK, see, took a little bit of a step back. I just don't know how actually, functionally like impactful that is on the rest of the West because they're still going to be really good. Yeah. I would say the spurs probably got better. You know, and they, they were always going to get better internally and then they added a couple of pieces as well. So I actually, I like the Tobias Harris fit for them a lot. I feel like that's going to be like a so much so that they don't need LeBron.

1:01:09I mean, not that much, but. And then let's see. So Phoenix probably got a little bit better. I think they'll be better next year than they were last year. And they took a step forward last year as it was. Houston will see. I'm not positive about Houston. I didn't love that Thompson contract. I know everybody was lauding it and stuff like that. But it's hard to pay somebody that much money who can't shoot. They just cannot shoot. That's really, you know, maybe he learns. But if he doesn't, that becomes a Ben Simmons type contract. Well, I mean, we know the vibes at least they're going to be great pair. Okay. Yeah. They're always together no matter what locker room in Houston. That's all that ever follows Kevin Durant. That's all that like, you know, that's the only type of locker room he's ever played in. You know, it's funny.

1:02:10It's like, you could make the case for Houston. It's like, well, Katie probably won't have another burner scandal, right? He hasn't already. He's got to have learned his lesson. I get this point, you know, let's see. So the other one, the nuggets got worse, worse this year. The Grizzlies got better, but I don't think they're going to factor into the playoff picture. The Blazers got better. You don't think so? No, the Blazers got better. But like, I think they're in kind of that Memphis category as well. Golden State seems like an absolute garbage fire. Whatever's going on there. The Clippers obviously got worse. The Jazz, I think got worse. Like I really don't like that roster without Kessler and Green defense. No, they're going to be better than they were last year though, just because they're going to have to start fighting. Yeah, that's what I mean. Like they got a little better.

1:03:10Even I don't think they got better. I think they're in that Portland, yeah, I agree. I agree. Grouping. Dallas, I think they're still kind of looking their wounds and they're probably in like the lower tier of the West or whatever. But my point being that like the West, I think, isn't the gauntlet that it has been in recent years. And I think with the West taking a slight step back, with the East taking a step forward, I think that this is a year where the Lakers can kind of gauge how well these gambles are paying off, while still remaining in position to have home court in the first round. Like I think there's a world here where the Lakers, I think the overrunner still sits at about 46 and a half, 47. I think they hit that number and finish at the top of their division just by way of the West not necessarily being where it typically is.

1:04:18And I think that's really important given all of the variables that we've talked about over the course of this episode. And I mean, the variable that you didn't entirely mention is that the teams that they're going to play the most in their division are all, like pretty bad. The specific is for a pretty bad division. Yeah, except for Phoenix, right? And even Phoenix, they're okay, but they're not juggernauts by any means. That's an unbeatable team for the Lakers. I think they'll probably win between 45 and 48 wins this year. Or maybe like now, like 45-ish wins is what I would probably put Phoenix at. So they aren't terrible, like you're saying they'll be fine-ish. But yeah, Sacramento sucks. Sacramento scores. The lawyers are probably going to be horrible. The Clippers are probably going to be horrible. Yeah. I can't wait to see what the basketball gods do to the Clippers. And then so- Have they not got enough? No. No, not to my book, no.

1:05:22But yeah, like I think the point being here that like another bullet point that I have a decent amount of confidence in, right? The possibility that the West does take a slight step back this year. And it's funny because I went on an episode of Wild Back. And I talked about how Rob Polinca was right in that teams did wind up having to sell off pieces because of their apron situations. Where I think he misstepped pretty drastically was in thinking that those teams would make those decisions and help the Lakers with those decisions. And you know, because- You didn't rob didn't buy a couch for two years because he's like, I think my neighbor's going to put that one out on the street and then they gave it to somebody else. Right, yeah. And the, but like he was right in, yeah, like you're saying that that neighbor did get rid of his couch.

1:06:24He was just wrong in that couch. All the couches went to the Atlanta Hawks. And it's like, you showed up with a moving van and just took all the couches. It's a throwball in there. Yeah. But yeah, I like just kind of on a macro level of like how, how did this help your confidence in the Lakers this season? I mean, I actually do. I actually do. I actually do feel better. Yeah. I think I was more optimistic than you. I feel like my questions about this team are not in the regular season. I think they're going to be really good. I just, you know, I have questions about the ceiling. Yeah. This was fun. I'm going to try being more positive. Maybe not to the extent where it's like causing me physical pain like it did today. But like, I'm going to try Lakers physical pain. We've seen how this goes. It's you start getting positive and all of a sudden someone's leg falls off.

1:07:24It's funny. People in my neighborhood actually needed an amputation today. Unfortunately, people in my neighborhood will often like ask about my job. And there are like so many just like ridiculous nuggets that I could just throw out there. And one of them is that I have to be cautious with how optimistic I get about the Lakers because devastation. People will blame you. People will blame you when something goes wrong. I'm always like something a little nice. Whenever the Lakers somebody gets hurt, do not Google my name. Like yeah. All right. Well, that is going to do it here for this episode of the Lakers Lounge podcast. Harrison, anything that you want to plug for we get you out of here. Just two things. Number one, SB Nation app. You can download it. App Store and Android. It's still US only right now, I believe, but it is like the app has been great.

1:08:28I've been having a lot of fun with the conversations in there and like especially on Silver Screen and Roll. And I also want to plug a pH lock 666s comments that did someone say Clippers and it would have been very funny if when we were talking about them Pete just popped up again. Pete just shows up. Pete's like bloody Mary, but for the Clippers, he just like. It's like if you stay if you say Steve Balmer three times, Pete just pops up. Yeah, I really, really, really, I really, after we recorded our pod, like I felt like I was, I felt like I was levitating a little bit. I was just like I needed this. It's been a long, it was a long week at work at home and with like family stuff and whatever. I just like my ice coffee tastes better today. The sun feels good on me. You know, I was just like, I was, I was glowing after that. I almost walked down to the Intuit Dome just to like redo the showing up to my biggest

1:09:31haters funeral like selfie. Yeah, you should have. I was like, it's, it's pretty sunny out. I don't want to push it. Like I don't want to like it's like it. Blah blah. You're just dealing with like outside the Intuit Dome. You guys are dealing with like my weather, like the weather that I live in. You guys are just paying a lot more for it. I pay too much money to live in Los Angeles for it to feel like this outside. It's unbelievable. I moved away and all I'm seeing is like, damn, how are the, how are these poor bastards going to survive this week? And I'm like, that's been the weather for like four weeks where I'm at. You know, we're just not, we're not the toughest Texas. Texans will tell you. All right. That is going to do it though. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Please hit that like button. Please hit that subscribe button. Turn on notifications for the show and for YouTube. So you get to notifications for the show. Subscribe wherever it is.

1:10:32It's your catch of progress. And use that promo code HMA on price picks to get $150 worth of free selections when you sign up. Use the code and win a $5 lineup until tomorrow. And I will be opening up the mail bag. Have a great rest of your day. Make somebody else's and hey, feel better miles. He's been. He's seeing my kids sick. It's the worst. Were you too positive about him? You know, I did compliment him the other day. You're like, oh, my God, I'm so proud of the child you're becoming and then he just instantly falls ill. Yeah, Insta sick. Just like, oh, there's a fever. Yeah. All right. Well, yeah, have a, have a good one, everybody. Bye, everyone.