FULL: Let's talk Lakers depth, MAILBAG

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1:03Every who shows this? And we're live. Welcome everybody here to the Lakers Lounge Podcast. I'm Anthony Erwin, Senior Lakers Insider as well as Lead Lakers Content Creator 4. Offside, joined on this fine Monday afternoon by you guys as normally right. This would be a Sunday episode that we record a mailbag for and when we get to the NBA season or when we get closer to the NBA season, we will return to that schedule but for now. And I think for another week or so, we're probably going to be going, you know, mailbags will be recorded or streamed live Mondays and then we will kind of carry on through the week from there. But today on the show, I said something on the show with Raj was it Thursday? It had to have been Thursday that people freaked out over.

2:03And then I tweeted about it and people freaked out even more in response to my tweeting about it. I said that I don't think the Lakers right now are deeper than last year's team or even as deep as last year's team. Let alone deeper than last year's team. People got angry, people said some stuff. It went down. Kalshi got involved for some reason? Yeah, it was a whole thing. So today on the show, we're going to start with that conversation. We're going to pick up on that conversation a little bit here and then maybe over the course of the week, I'll ask guests about it and see what they think or whatever. So we'll talk a little bit about that. I did get a mailbag episode from iTunes. So I'll answer that one. I asked Twitter for some questions. So I'll answer those couple of questions that we got there.

3:03But after that, that leaves a whole bunch of room for you guys to hit me with questions and comments and insults and whatever else you're going to hit me with over the course of the show. And yeah, we'll just kind of see where this one takes us. So without any further ado, we'll quick further ado. Please hit that like button. Please hit that subscribe button. Please turn on notifications both for YouTube and for this channel. Today shows brought to you as always here on YouTube by price picks. Use that promo code HMA said a $5 lineup of your own. And if you win that lineup, you get $150 worth of free price pick selections immediately. A $0.00 Sapsually all of that good stuff. And then, and by the way, the football has been excellent so far. So if you haven't gotten it on that action so far, or yet, use that promo code HMA to get in on the action on price picks. And then if you guys were listening to the show in podcast form wherever it is that you get your podcasts preferably on Odyssey, but anywhere you get them is fine by me.

4:06Please hit that subscribe button wherever it is that you get those podcasts and tell your friends about the show. Tell your friends this is the best show ever until your enemies that this complete dipshit is whining about the depth. And you've got to see how dumb this guy is either way, whether it's a regular listen or a hate listen, they all count the same to me. So tell your friends and enemies about to show if you want to. And then yeah, we dive on in starting with the concept of depth. So as things stand right now. Let's let's let's compare just the players right and we will get to some of the nuances involved in all that good stuff. So last year, the Lakers trotted out a starting lineup of Marcus smart at their best might my preferred lineup was Marcus smart Austin Reeves, Luca donchich LeBron James, Indiana.

5:13And then coming off of the bench, you would have Ruby hot humor, you would have Jackson Hayes, you would have Luke can art, who was added to the roster later in the year. You had Jake Laravia makes nine and then from there, if you want to include like Jared Vanderbilt, you could technically there were some stretches where Maxi Kleba got some run. But like from there, like the rotation took a significant step back, right, you could include Brony, if you want to include Brony because of the way that he played late in the year. But regardless, like as far as players that when they were out there seemed to belong, I would say the Lakers went about 90. And one of to me, the top statements about the depth across the roster from the top on down is the fact that the Lakers were able to win a playoff series and you can try to poke holes in it all you want.

6:13And it's been a weird thing to watch Lakers fans poke holes in the only playoff series that their team is one in the last two years. But you could poke holes in it all you want, but at the end of the day, the Lakers won four games before the Houston Rockets could win four games and they advanced further in the playoffs without Luca and without Austin Reeves for most of that series. And again, there are qualifiers, there's all of that that, you know, and circumstances that went into winning that series, but at the end of the day, the Lakers won a playoff series. And over the course of the year did plenty of winning, they won 53 games in the season where Austin Reeves missed almost half of it. Luca Donchich, you know, missed almost 20 games. LeBron missed significant chunks of the season. And yet the Lakers were able to stay afloat because of their organizational depth or their roster's depth from the top on down, meaning at any given moment, the Lakers had enough top end town.

7:18Top end talent and, you know, rotational talent to get by. Now let's look at this year's team right off the bat, the starting lineup is, I think significantly worse than last year's team. I may be not significantly, I would say worse, but this year's team, you have Quinn Grimes, Marcus Mark, I would say given the way that Marcus Mark played last year. I roughly maybe Grimes is a slight upgrade because of his shooting ability. Marcus was a significantly better defender. We'll see how that plays out over the course of the year. Austin is Austin, Luca is Luca. The hope this year is that you'll get a better or more frequently around Austin Reeves. And if that is the case, then that is a better, you know, that is a real shot in the arm. You have Jake Laravius sliding into the spot that LeBron James held last year and I'm sorry.

8:19And even if it's Sire Williams and even if it's Mamu, none of those three guys are going to be able to fill the shoes that LeBron James is taking with him. And then rounding things out, a significant upgrade from DeAndre Aiden, a huge upgrade from DeAndre Aiden to Walker Kessler. And now hopefully Kessler's able to stay healthy. But if he is and if he plays, you know, even a league average amount of games, then it's a huge shot in the arm for the Lakers. And if you want to say it wipes out the step back from LeBron to Jake Laravius, I'd hear you out. Coming off the bench, you have Sire Williams, you have Matisse Thible, you have Mamu, who will be the six man of the year. I can't edit for six minutes of the year, maybe hopefully this year.

9:21And then rounding things out, you have Colin Sexton. And that's like a nine man rotation, which again, you know, the next player down would be like, Jare Vanderbilt. And if you want to say that he would be part of the 10 man rotation last year, might be part of the 10 man rotation this year. In terms of number of players, I would say obviously the same number right nine to nine. Drink up, baby. Vanese people happy hours here to get you wins and have some laughs. Matthew Berry here and my podcast, Vanese people happy hour, has the sleepers bust and start to advice you need to win your league. We're diving into the tape, we're crunching the numbers to bring you sleepers, bust weekly start, sit 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 Berry, wherever you get your podcasts. Now, that would in terms of just raw number of rotational players, it being nine to nine does poke a significant hole in my argument that like, OK, this year's team is not as deep as last year's team.

10:37But it also pokes a significant hole in the argument from your guys perspective, which is this team is a whole lot deeper than last year's team. I just, I don't see it. Now, where I would say that where I would argue on, you know, in terms of last year's team, that on any given play, whenever LeBron, Luca and Austin were healthy together in any given play in terms of like top end. And roster talent, the Lakers were at or near the level, if not higher than the level of basically any team that they played. And by that, I mean, like every line about there had at least one or two even of Luca, LeBron and Austin, and in terms of creativity on the ball that helped really kind of keep them afloat last year. Now, this year, in order to keep it as close to apples to apples as we can, you swap out LeBron and you insert Walker Kessler.

11:46And in terms, and that becomes like the top end talent that, you know, one or two of those guys are going to be on the court at any given time. And yes, I do think Walker Kessler is maybe a little underrated from the standpoint of connective tissue offensively. He is a good advantage compounder, but he isn't really an advantage gainer in the ways that LeBron was last year and will likely be again this year. And, and, you know, having LeBron in those moments when Austin missed significant time or Luca wasn't available for the final, you know, monthish of the season, including the playoffs. Having LeBron kept the Lakers afloat to the extent that they that he could and, you know, and not having him, you know, and basically swapping out LeBron for Jake Laraviet, you are going to feel that now I, it's been this really weird thing that I've noticed with Lakers fans where for a variety of reasons, whether it's the Kobe rivalry, whether it's because LeBron chose a different team and free agency.

12:59Whatever it is, because of the annoyance with clutch, for whatever reason that you want to land on Lakers fans have been very excited to move on from LeBron James and I'm just pointing out that, you know, when you're just factoring in or when you're when you're putting together computing a team's depth going from LeBron's, you know, having LeBron in that rotational spot to whether it's Jake Laraviet, who last year kept the Lakers fans. Last year kept getting worse over the course of the year, whether it's Zyre Williams, which I think Lakers fans are getting their hopes unreasonably high for, whether it's Matisse DiBole or Mamou, like not having LeBron and inserting some combination of those players into his spot in the rotation is going to make the Lakers worse during those minutes. And I look, I'm excited to watch Zyre Williams. He's a great by low candidate. He is a great potential project here moving forward, who the Lakers could maybe turn into a real rotation player, you know, this year and hopefully in the years to come.

14:17But he's not he's not on the veteran minimum for a reason. Same goes from your T-stible, by the way, right, like people have just convinced themselves, oh, he's going to be better next year for the Lakers than Marcus Mark was. And it's like, maybe possibly, but he wasn't exactly he hasn't exactly been a, the image of health in the NBA for the last few years either and people are like, well, he's only 29. It's like, okay. But in terms of like games that he he's missed over the over, you know, the last chapter or so of his career, he has been as available as an older player in the NBA. So I consider him kind of an older player in the NBA until proven otherwise. Otherwise, he wouldn't be available at the veteran minimal contract that he's currently on. So, you know, he got that. And, you know, sexton is an interesting interesting player. I am very excited to see. Sexton be able to step in and get downhill without the need of a screener on the ball.

15:24That is something that I am, you know, I think will really help the Lakers offensively, but defensively. You know, he's not huge. And, you know, like I am a little concerned about the collective size coming off of the bench. And we hadn't even talked talked about the fact that the backup center this year in terms of just one center to another is Cavan Lune who is washed. Not might be is washed watch him play. I'm sorry. There were stretches where the Pelicans were leaning on DeAndre Jordan instead of Cavan Lune last year. And, you know, that doesn't speak very well to the physical state of Lune's game. Now, I do think he is going to be a very helpful locker room presence. There are probably going to be one or two or three games per month that Lune steps up and is like, hey, look at that.

16:31You know, I do think he he serves an important purpose and his ability to rebound defensively and maybe generate a couple extra possessions offensively on the boards. For the most part, there is a huge hole in the rotation for backup center minutes. And you can say that it's going to be mom and all that stuff. But he is way too small for me to just write him in pen as the backup center that the Lakers need. That is something that the Lakers internally are very aware that they need to address. And maybe they do before training camp or before next season or whatever. But as it stands right now, that is a huge chat, you know, box that went unchecked this summer. And you could even say it was checked and then the Lakers traded Deandre eaten away. But they erased the check mark that they had on there. And now they no no longer have a backup center.

17:35And they still like in in terms of starting caliber players, they only have four of those. They only have, you know, in in terms of the possession positions that they're going to play, they don't have a fifth starter right now. And that I think it's hard to like call a team very deep when they don't go five deep and they're starting group. So yeah, I look, it's been this weird that this happens every off season. This happens every, you know, especially in my analysis, where I will look at moves that a team made and, you know, nobody likes to hear that their new toys. And I think that's kind of where we currently sit in the gap between how I feel about this team right now. And how with the consensus might be about the Lakers right now. And it certainly doesn't help that my case that, you know, Pete is very high on this roster.

18:36You have other really smart people out there like Darious and is talking Raj who are all very high on this roster. And, and you know that I think influences how how people are going to feel about it. But same time I've I've listened to Trevor talk about this team and I've listened to to to Yovon talk about this team. And I know how I feel about this team. And I think at best we can say that everybody is kind of split on it. And we know that the Lakers signed a bunch of they they they attempt to do address a lot of the depth. But in addressing the depth and leaving holes in either the depth or in the starting group that affects the overall depth of the roster. So we'll see how this turns out. But I wish I was more optimistic. Oh, I'm allergic. I'll be let's see. I'm going to play.

19:44I'm going to listen to every. Alright, so Avery is going to explain lightning. So why they're lightning because they're bowling who's bowling the angels. Okay, the angels are bowling. And if they have a lightning that means they have a strike. A strike. Yeah, and damage. They have all of the points. Okay, I like it. I like the theory. Who told you that? Mommy. Mommy. Good job, Mommy. Alright, say goodbye everybody. Bye everyone. I'm going to play. Alright, I feel better. Shout out to Avery. Maybe that's what I'll do. I'll just I'll just compile a whole bunch of clips of Avery being adorable. So when I am negative about the team, I can just play that and put you in a better mood. I've got a couple of comments from people who I follow or respect on Twitter. And I think those are worth addressing before we move on and answer your guys' questions specifically.

20:51So I wrote, let's see. So here we go. So I'm going to I'm just going to go in the order that I see him here. So Vene who Rosas a podcast with had an interesting comment that I think frames this in a in a more productive way. He says, I think they have better complimentary depth to the two main guys this year, Austin and Luca, but would like a defensive wing to feel great about it. So complimentary depth and then and then is talk Franco who who also is really bright about this stuff. Now I'm not going to address the LeBron part of this because I think he is a little too low on the brawn and it for like to I just disagree on that front. But what he did is he kind of made a similar point to Vene in that like by by basically abiding a roster wide identity.

21:58The Lakers will be more your I guess they'll be deeper as a unit than they were last year because the pieces fit better together or because the identity is more consistent. And he went and you know in his case he went with with the identity of you know higher motor players more athletic players younger players and stuff like that, which I think is worth diving into a little bit more as well. But I do want to kind of build on this point of complimentary depth and that because the pieces or because this puzzle was built with two guys in mind that the depth adds to this team will be more productive than some of the you know deeper rotation players in the Lakers had last year or the rotational depth in the Lakers had a lot of this last year. And I think that's an interesting notion. I would push back in that like all right, if you're if you're building out a team.

23:09And you're you know the starting point is Luca in Austin. I would want a point of attack defenders to help them on the perimeter, which the Lakers have Matisse Dibble, who is an excellent point of attack defender. You have Grimes who is kind of more conceptual point of attack defender. And then from there, it's like. I don't like to play right so I didn't really include him on in in the depth of either of these rosters. I know a lot of people have really high hopes for a new hero, but I am a little concerned that JJ Reddick might struggle to get him on the court for a lot of the same reasons than he is struck that he is struggled to get to the Lakers. Jared Vanderbilt on the court. So I'm not really comfortable counting him right now. Cam Carr is a really intriguing young player, but I need to see it on an NBA court before I can sit or him, you know, write him in pen in the rotation.

24:22So he takes a step forward this year and picks up where he left off last year, but if I'm going to include him this year, then I would probably have included him last year, so I would consider it a wash. And that and that right there kind of is your point of attack defense, right? You could maybe say, Colin Sexton, but he has not been a good point of attack defender. And Hardy is one of the worst perimeter defenders in the NBA bar none. So I'm not considering him in addition to the rotation in this sense. And you could say like high motor guys, like all right, Colin Sexton is definitely high motor. Ziya Williams definitely high motor. He is not a point of attack defender, though. He's kind of a tweeter defender, but he is a very good team defender. I would say that Walker Kessler is high motor, but he's more of an anchor defensively. So he's not really going to help you much on the perimeter. And then like, you know, somebody like, mom, I'm not going to consider him high motor. You could let you know, I just don't really see the high motor argument there. Now, if the Lakers are basically going to, you know, say, you know what we're going to be as good as we could possibly be defensively, and we're going to be overwhelming offensively. And if the roster was built specifically just to do that.

25:47And okay, then I think Vene's point of complimentary depth is is worth noting here, right? Because, you know, Grimes is a more complimentary offensive player than Marcus Mart was last year. Walker Kessler is a significantly more complimentary offensive player than Aiton was last year. And I would say, you know, offensively, Colin Sexton having the skill set where he can break guys off of the dribble on his own and and start the blender that way, that might be a more complimentary skill set than anybody that the Lakers had coming off of the bench from the guard positions last year. I tend to think that people are overlooking what it looked like when the brawn did buy into the small things and just kind of fit in alongside Luca and Austin more last year.

26:49But if you want to say that, you know, that was definitely not going to happen again next year. I don't know why you would say that, but sure. And if that is where you're coming from, I could understand what you're saying or why one would believe that some of the wing role players that the Lakers have might be more complimentary than LeBron. I think that is more people are kind of filling in talent gaps with hopes and dreams. But regardless, do you, I guess. But I do see where Vene and where is talker coming from when they talk about the fit of this roster. I do think this roster fits better together. And I could, you know, I think because of its fit in terms of the actual pieces from a basketball perspective and the personalities, I could see this team, you know,

27:52that they're not just messing better over the course of the season than last year's team meshed. But in terms of just like raw talent and number of, you know, role players that, that, you know, that the Lakers have this year compared to last year, I think it's a less talented group. I don't think that there is enough rotational depth to make up for that step back in terms of raw talent. Maybe the chemistry is enough to make up for it. Hopefully that's how this plays out. And before I dive into the questions and stuff like that, I also, I'll also say this as I always say, I hope I'm wrong. I hope over the course of the season, maybe some of these guys at the tail end of this rotation do pop and the Lakers have more options at the back end of the rotation than they had last year.

28:53I hope that the notion of fit and cohesion is something that helps the Lakers more than I am considering right now and that that idea of cohesion is enough to make up for the step back in terms of raw talent from last year to this year. Hopefully that's how this plays out. And if it is, I will happily sit here and and and senior guys' praises who have been calling me an idiot to this point. All I ask is that if it doesn't play out that way, you guys get to come on back here and we get to have that conversation again. And we actually do hold the people to account who build this built this roster at a time where we are probably going to see some organizational people because of the change in ownership and all that stuff. And maybe just maybe the people who built this roster, if it doesn't play out the way that it's more optimistic defenders might feel it's going to play out. If it doesn't go that way, then it's it's probably finally time for a complete blank slate and another attempt at building around the good.

30:09All right, let's go ahead and dive on into the iTunes questions here of which we have one. So uncle Jackins, that's a interesting name content A plus incessant chuckling F minus I've been listening for several years and I will probably keep listening because of the analysis guests. Lakers passion and great care taken are excellent, but I dearly hope that the unsufferable chuckling of baits it is truly painful and I've turned off multiple episodes because it was simply too annoying to keep on it belittles the content. Honestly, it's honest, I guess true to who he is, but man, is it tough to listen to, especially on headphones. Story time. So some of you might know this it was a long time ago now, but I was the original host of locked on Lakers Harrison and I were the original hosts of locked on Lakers.

31:16And at the time David, I think had a couple other people in mind before us to be completely frank. And and then when Harrison and I started hosting the show together, he came with the objection this very similar objection of like, hey, you guys, you guys laugh too much. It's just too much and I said, I'm sorry, man, it's kind of difficult to turn that off because we just enjoy laughing when we talk about sports. I think sports talk should be fun. And he was like, well, all right, let's see how the numbers look and let's see if the complaints continue and then maybe kind of go from there and I was like, deal, we can go with that. So the show continues and he Harrison and I continue hosting the show that we as we always did and it just kept growing. It was just it was it was pretty significant growth.

32:19I know it was growth from zero, but it was significant growth. It was on a level that like it was growing faster than I think almost all of the other shows in the network. We were always at or among the leaders in terms of downloads and stuff like that. And and eventually David was like, whatever it is that you guys do, it seems to be working. I was wrong and I was like, respect, cool. And and basically what I learned from that here moving forward was that like from now on, whenever I do this, now I'm not going to I'm not going to go overboard. And there are certainly times where it's possible that I do go overboard with with laughter and stuff like that. But for the most part when when I talk about sports and when I listen to shows about sports when I listen to content or watch content about sports or pop culture or anything for that matter. I am always going to be drawn to fun. I am always going to be drawn to finding what I find funny about various various situations and you know, just host the show with that in mind.

33:33So if you do turn the show off from time to time of apologies if you do stick around and as the show continues to grow. And I continue to be proven correct in my assumption that people enjoy laughter and fun with their sports. Then, then you know, might not be for everybody, but as I have kind of learned over the years, I'm just going to be me. And if I try to wander too far away from from who I am, you guys are going to notice it and the show will be worse overall as a result. But I appreciate the honest feedback. I appreciate the five star of you. Oh my God, really? We're doing this, huh? Now Streamyard isn't working. Nope, I'm not laughing. I'm not, you know, go. Oh God bless you Streamyard.

34:36Anyway, let's go into the Twitter questions that we have. And the first one that I got was from at Lake or goat 17 two questions has this been the wildest offseason you can remember. Lakers and NBA wide second. The new Lakers jerseys are awful, but what was the reaction like in 1999 when the Lakers changed to the Kobe era uniforms. That seems like it was a major change at that time. Well, there was no internet really. So like, you know, I do recall on some forums and stuff like that that people were not exactly thrilled. That was also at a time when the Lakers were going from the Great Western Forum to a staple center. And there was some concern there. But more than anything, I honestly think. Fewer people cared about the uniforms then.

35:36Because there was so much excitement about the fact that they had just gotten shacked. It looked like the organization had, you know, real direction for the first time in a long time. By the time those uniforms came around, Kobe was Kobe. And I think everybody was just kind of like, I don't care what they're wearing. Just go out there and win, please. And that's how it turned out. So it like if the Lakers had won multiple championships in these abominations, I think people would feel differently about them. One of the funniest things was that the Lakers and like the literal players thought that those really weird black uniforms that like. You know, you had the purple that kind of black fades purple or purple fades the black, whatever it was. The literal players thought those were cursed and eventually like refused to play in them any longer.

36:42And I think that's kind of how everybody's going to feel about this stuff. Like I think fewer people would be complaining about the uniforms if there was more winning done in said uniforms. And, and, you know, I, that not enough winning has taken place in uniforms that people already didn't like very much. I think that's why a lot of people kind of feel the way that they do about them. Now as far as this season being the wildest that I can remember is terms of Lakers and overall NBA stories. Yeah, I think so because you have an owner right who was now suspended for a whole year. The Lakers sold again. You had the Lakers told LeBron James to go away and you know, it basically an entire starting five that won a series last year is not.

37:42They are no longer on the team anymore. And so like I think, you know, in terms of organizational flux from the Lakers perspective, as well as just like overall craziness in the NBA. You know, you had Janus get traded from from from Milwaukee to Miami. You had Lemmello ball go from Charlotte to Minnesota. You had Minnesota completely revamped their team wide identity. Yeah, you had the Jalen Brown thing as well. Like it just the entire NBA lost their freaking minds this year. And it led to I think, yeah, the most chaotic offseason of my lifetime. There might be older people who feel differently, you know, and there might be older Laker fans specifically who feel a little differently. But as far as like from an NBA combined with Lakers perspective, I don't think it's very close.

38:48This was an absolutely loony tunes off season. I don't want to answer this question. Let's see if you guys have any questions in the chat. I'm not going to answer that one. Um. Yeah. I know I'm sorry. Like it like people are commenting about the iTunes comment from earlier. Please don't have fun. Yeah, I think it's not them. Of course you guys have to have fun. I'm not going to answer that question. What an insane comment. You know, mission 24. Stop laughing. Like I just. I don't know. That's a crazy thing. And and David Locke having that like feedback from me and Harrison early on in our careers. Like and and then immediately being proven incorrect. Like to me, it would. I would have to hear. I'm trying to think of sports content

39:50that doesn't have laughter in it. And I'm coming up blank, you know? Like I think the vast majority of people just really want to have fun in talking about sports. And like yeah, I might come off as I'm not particularly fun because I'm negative about, I'm more pessimistic about the Lakers. But I try to make up for that with having literal fun on the show. So yeah, I don't know. All right, so D Russ 11, the legend, saw the comments on the last vid, people got to calm down. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Ross got his basketball talk segment. It was a time of celebration for him. Yeah, I honestly stopped paying attention to the comments because here's this thing that happens really frequently in Lakers coverage or Lakers analysis or just like sports analysis.

40:52Or honestly, just collective analysis of anything really. But oftentimes people mistake analysis that they agree with or that they like hearing because they agree with it. People oftentimes consider the analysis that they agree with correct objectively. And that's not how this works. Like I'm willing to hear somebody out who says, you don't know, I'm willing to hear somebody out who says, you don't know, I'm willing to hear somebody out who says, you don't know, we don't know how this is going to play out. We should let it play out. I mostly agree. The only issue there is that like I have a job to do and if my analysis like if every episode was me hopping on here being like, is this Lakers team going to be better than last year's Laker team?

41:53I don't know, we'll find out. Please hit that like and subscribe button everybody. Like that nobody would do that. Like that's not how sports analysis works. Like I'll be the first to tell you, if somebody asked me a question about like, hey, who are the Lakers going to trade for over the course of the season? I'll say, I don't know. I don't know what they're looking to use as trade chips. I don't know if they're going to look to keep their powder dry depending on how this season goes. I can't tell you how that is going to go right now. And I will say that as part of my like reporting and stuff like that because that is objectively the reality. I don't know that quite yet. But as far as analysis of a Lakers team that I am not as high on, I will always use a disclaimer of like, yeah, we don't know, we got to see how this plays out. I hope I'm proven incorrect in not feeling as good about this team as other people might.

42:55But I can't hop on here every show and be like, all right, everybody, let's talk about the guard rotation. Is it going to be as good this year as it was last year? I don't know. All right, we will talk to you guys tomorrow. Like that's not going to be a very good show. So, but what I will say though is like, you know, just based off of the comments that we've gotten as more and more analysts or podcasters or friends of mine, talk themselves more and more into this team and as I kind of find myself slipping the other way, more and more people are going to be like, oh, well, Pete's right. Pete has to be right. Of course, Pete's right. And it's like, he's not. We don't know yet. Maybe he will be proven correct. But like just because what Pete is saying sounds better to you than me saying, I don't like this roster very much or I don't think this roster is good enough

43:57to make the last few years of just kind of kicking the can down the road worth it. Like you may not like me saying that as much as Pete hopping on here and saying that this team is this good or whatever. That doesn't like Pete isn't correct. I am not correct. We will find out who is going to be correct over the course of the season. And at that time, he and I will talk about the things that we got right or wrong in our analysis in the run up to the season. But what I think a lot of people were kind of screwing up in their comments and chats and stuff like that to us here in this channel is like, yeah, Raj might be saying that more things that you agree with, but that doesn't make him correct. And I figured I figured I was just going to write that. I found myself writing that on a few comments in a row

44:57and I was just like, you know what, I'm going to leave it alone. I'm going to let people argue themselves until they're blue in the face. And then I'm going to address it in a future video and then we will see how it turns out. By the time we get to the off season or by the way, by the time we get to what this roster is actually going to look like next year, which there are still tweaks that have to be made to be legally compliant with the NBA's rules. All right. Hey, here we go. My, our Vikings. All right. So Jalal Shabaz, 1231. Our Vikings are 2 and 0. Who would have thought I was texting a Vikings fan? Friend of mine today. And if you would have told me before the season that Kyler Murray would get hurt on like his fifth play as a Viking, miss the next two games and that the Vikings would be 2 and 0

45:58going into week 3, you know, beating the green Bay Packers and beating the Bears in Chicago, I want to call you crazy. And again, I love to be wrong. I'm thrilled that I was, you know, if you would have told me, you know, when I watched Kyler Murray sing there on the field because that green Bay Packer threw that dirty hit, which by the way, he was not punished for any further, which is crazy. But anyway, if you would have told me right there and then, yeah, a couple weeks from now, you know, Kyler will be getting ready to come back and he will be coming back to a Viking scene that is 2 and 0 in the top division. I'd have been like, hold on. What? Sure. Why not? And that's basically where I am. And he's like, sure. Why not? The Viking's defense is like, really, really good. I think Dallas Turner is going to like be a real vote getter for like defensive player of the year. Like he's that good. He's incredible.

46:59Let's see. BDA Pink, players that should be improved one year later equals basically everyone on the roster, bar, Bible and loony. So players, all right. So internal growth. Luca was pretty damn good last year. I don't know how much better he can be, especially then like the last month of the season. And then let's see. Austin probably should have a bounce back season just in terms of availability. So I would agree there. BDA Grimes. All right. So I'm not counting Grimes or any of the new additions here I'm guessing because I don't think anybody paid close enough attention to any of those players to be like,

47:59oh, yeah, that guy's definitely getting better than that. You know, this year. I don't know that I would necessarily go there with any of those guys like that. Jake might have a bounce back season. You know, his shot. I really failed him last season. But I've also seen way too many Lakers just forget how to shoot. And that problem organizationally has never really been addressed to such an extent that I can just confidently say, oh, yeah, Jake was, he's going to learn how to shoot again. I don't know. Hopefully. But the Lakers don't really do anything to help players figure out how to shoot or relearn how to shoot. So I don't know that he is like that I can definitely confidently say he's going to improve. Bronnie probably will improve. I think Dalton is a lost cause. And I'm not even sure he's going to be on the roster next year. Yeah, I could see some internal growth. But too many players are new on the Lakers for me to just be like,

49:02well, I barely watched that guy last year. And he's definitely going to be better next year because reasons. I'm not really comfortable taking that next step beyond that. Oh my God, really. Good Lord Streamy Art. Be better. All right. So this was a this Sky Falcon 5. Bronn is top end talent though. Isn't that more spots eight through 15. So this is a semantics debate at this point that Raj and I were having in the slack in the in the Lakers lounge slack. And this is basically the point that he made is that like most people consider depth as you know non stars. And that the Lakers non stars this year collectively should be better than the their non stars last year.

50:02I disagree. Like to me, depth is a stand in for margin for error. Right. So for me, I look at depth as number of good basketball players on your basketball team. Or you know, in football or you know, baseball, the number of good baseball players on your baseball team, the number of good football players on your football team. That's how I kind of considered depth. And the fact that the Lakers again, like ask yourself how the Lakers would fare this year. If Austin misses as much time as he did last season. They probably able to stay above water probably because Luca is Luca. But not to the same extent that they did last year. I mean, the wrong guy helped quite a bit with that. Ask yourself how a a a series or a month or however long would go next year.

51:02If Luca and Austin missed any time together. Ask yourself how the Lakers are going to do next year. If Walker Kessler misses anytime, which by the way, based on his career to this point, there's a solid chance he's probably going to miss a little bit of time. And the Lakers answer to that is like, all right, here's Kavan Looney. I just don't see it. So, like I think the Lakers have significantly less margin for error this year than they had last year. And to me, that is a statement about the Lakers depth organizationally. I get it. Like if you guys are looking at it solely from the standpoint of depth is stars over there. Everybody else on the roster over here. I mean, yeah, like the Lakers turned LeBron contractually into a couple of other depth pieces. They didn't address his spot in the starting lineup, which again affects their margin for error.

52:04But overall, like, I can see where you're coming from. If that's if that's how you're defining a roster's depth, I just I define it differently. And if we can't like agree on the semantics to be used, then I can understand why there are just like two ends of the spectrum on this conversation that just are never going to agree. All right. Let's see, we will answer one more. Um. All right. I think we're good. Yeah, I don't get it. Richard case. You would think a shooting coach would have already been hired. I really don't get it the way that the Lakers handle this aspect of things.

53:07It just doesn't make any sense to me that like they have seen so many players be able to shoot somewhere else. Get to the Lakers and forget how to shoot. And even it even from like the just from a PR perspective. The Lakers have enough money. They generate enough revenue to hire a shooting coach just for the sake of being like, look, we try to address this. I'm sorry. Like, you know, whatever is going on there. And they would argue like, well, because everybody has their own shooting coaches. We don't want to we want to empower these players and these players camps to optimize their development and all this. None of the smartest organizations do it like that. None of them. And all of the organizations that are better known for getting more out of their young players or actually developing their youth.

54:10They do very closely monitor and very closely influence players development and growth. The moment they get into the building until the moment that they leave the building. And and the Lakers don't. And and I think, you know, you look at the track record over the years of of getting the absolute most from their young players. You have examples of success with Austin Reeves, but I think you have a lot more examples of failure with the Jalen Hootrophinos of the world and the Dalton connects of the world. And and you know, I would like to see the Lakers change their approach to this. You know, just like night and day. And that was a hope with Mark Walter, but he wasn't really allowed to mess with the basketball side of things and. Then he's gone. So now we'll see how Bob Iger and Josh Kushner feel about that.

55:16All right, that is going to do it here for this episode of the Lakers lounge podcast. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Thank you everybody for your questions and your comments and your chats. We might disagree and that is perfectly fine to disagree. And hopefully if we do disagree, whoever of us might in my in this case, myself. If you know, if one of us has to be wrong and it is me being on the more negative side of things and the Lakers do prove those of you who are more optimistic correct, then we all have that much more fun watching them next season. But you know, if I do wind up being right. That's like, here's what I will for this one commenter from iTunes. I won't laugh directly at you. I'll laugh with you. We will all be laughing together about that. Have a great rest of your day. Everybody, make somebody else's please hit that like button. Please hit that subscribe button. If you guys are watching on Twitter, go to youtube.com slash at Lakers lounge to find the show there and subscribe so you don't miss the other four.

56:28The other four days to show that we four shows a week that we do over there. And until tomorrow when Harrison and I will be on here talking about whatever we feel like talking about have a great rest of your day. Make somebody else's. Bye everyone. The one had packed his Bernaless lethal launcher armed with kinetic rounds Jason fired a warning shot deterring the mountain lion and giving his family time to get to safety. Bernaless lethal launchers fire powerful kinetic and chemical irritant rounds designed to stop threats. Visit Berna.com that's B-Y-R-N-A Berna.com purchase and shipping restrictions vary by state and municipality. Go to Berna.com to check availability at your location.