Lakers DOMINATE Kings | Back-to-Back Blowouts & Offensive Surge

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Hello, everybody. Welcome in to the Lakers Collective Happy Monday,

Yovon Buhat, Jason Timfheim, Trevor Lane.

We've got a lot to talk about. The Lakers.

With a dominant weekend back-to-back blowout wins over the Warriors and Kings.

What can we actually take away from those games?

We'll get into that. What does it mean for the Lakers moving forward?

What about the Lakers offense?

Some changes there.

The rotation changes as well.

Plus, we're going to be taking your questions and comments.

Before we get into that, guys, happy to see you here on a Monday.

Hope you guys both had a wonderful weekend.

Good to see you guys.

As has been consistently the trend all season,

all it takes is a couple of easy teams on the schedule for the Lakers to get back in the win column.

And Trevor and I were joking before the broadcast.

We were like, the Lakers have no choice but to get a signature win or two over the next couple of weeks.

Or it's just going to get super dark, because their schedule is intense over the next couple of weeks.

My discord has been monitoring this.

But a lot of our episodes come after deflating Lakers losses.

And they've had a lot of big losses before we've recorded in the next day.

So it's nice to do it after a couple of big wins in the context of like, you know, point differential.

Yeah, a rarity for us these days.

We tend to have last episode.

We were all wearing all black dealing with the three game losing streak.

And now we've got a two game winning streak to talk about.

I guess before we even get to that though, Jason, JJ Luca, apparently the split here is happening.

They just do not like each other, right?

That's what's going on drama in LA, I have to provide a little bit of perspective here.

I know every one of you guys who's listening to the show who played organized basketball at any level,

or even just plays basketball regularly with your buddies or whatever it might be, it's competitive.

It's heated. Sometimes you get upset at each other.

Sometimes you snap at each other and then you get over it because you're competitors.

Like I do not think there's anything to take away at all from the Luca, JJ thing.

Other than it's good that they have a relationship where JJ can be critical of him.

And a relationship where Luca can snap back at him and it's not some sort of deal breaker.

This is just part of the process of being competitors.

I usually think it's weird to fix this kind of thing never happens.

Because then I want to be like, does nobody have a competitive motor anywhere in this building?

Right?

So I wouldn't work yourself up too much about the conflict between JJ and Luca.

I think that's all just basketball.

Oh, come on.

What's first taken to talk about that?

All right, guys, we got a two game.

I agree with you.

100%.

It's not.

It's nothing.

But the Lakers, a two game win streak, both dominant wins, both wins that didn't see much

of the starters in the fourth quarter.

As we knew going into these games, easily dismissed, right?

Because it was the Warriors Without Staff, even though they are still in a above 500 team.

The Warriors Without Staff and the Sacramento Kings, literally the worst team in the NBA.

Is there anything we could take away from this in a positive way that is meaningful or

can it all simply be just dismissed as they were playing inferior opponents and this is

just what the Lakers do?

We're talking to the great dismissor here because I said last week, coming off that stretch

that I no longer care about Lakers results against teams with under a 60% win percentage.

We've seen them that they have the third best record in the West behind only OKC in San Antonio

against below 500 teams.

They have dominated these teams, not to this extent, and that's where I'm going to take

this though.

But like in general, they have fared well against this caliber of opponent.

Our questions with the Lakers are, can you beat the other five teams in the top six in

the West, which we will see?

They're going to play Denver, Minnesota, and Houston.

It combined five times over their next nine games, and those are their three most likely

first round opponents.

So we'll be getting potentially a first round playoff series preview here over the next

few weeks.

But what I will say with a couple of things with this stretch over the weekend, I had to

look this up multiple times because I did not believe it.

But this was the first time the Lakers had consecutive double digit wins since November

28th and November 30th.

That's over three months ago, so we just went through over 90 days of Lakers basketball

without consecutive wins of double digits.

So like that feels notable, that feels like a step in the right direction.

Like they just have had so many close wins against lottery level teams.

Like there's some stretches I was looking at in the schedule where they're beating lottery

teams, eight points, six points, nine points, and it's like, you know, that I think with

how they played this weekend could have been 20, 25, 30 points.

So like that's a step in the right direction.

And I think we're going to touch on it more deeper into the episode.

But the offensive uptick, I think the synergy with the big three, the big three got their

point differential and net rating into the positive over this stretch here.

You can actually win games with those three together.

But I think like the synergy, there's just been like, I think the usage has condensed to,

you know, like Lucas usage has gone down, Austin's usage has gone down.

LeBron has been kind of around the same.

But like it does feel like there's a little bit of a better balance there.

Some of the off ball actions that they've been running with pin downs and flare screens

and also some of the stack and horn stuff.

So I think there's been a lot to like with the offensive process.

Now the key here is can they maintain this?

Because we've seen this from this group throughout the course of the season where they'll

have two, three, four, five good offensive games in a row.

And then they just fall off and expliquely they can't shoot, they can't, I mean shooting

is a big thing too.

37 threes over the past two games.

But can't shoot, can't pass, you know, turnovers, et cetera, can they maintain this is

my question.

I would say like some encouragement here at the last couple of games.

All right, the great dismissor is a little bit optimistic about about what we're seeing

right now.

And I'm just a little bit, but, but I do think what you're saying about it.

It's been three months since we've seen back to back double digit wins.

I think that speaks to why has this season felt so down, right?

I mean, they're, you look at the record and they are 36 and 24 on the season.

And yet the way the narrative is around this team, the conversation around the team,

you would think they were at a below 500 team.

And part of that is I think we haven't seen these big, kind of crews, easy, non-emotional

wins, right?

Every game that we've seen from this team has either been this heavy loss and oh man,

they still can't win or when they do it, it's a close game and they've got to win it

in clutch time.

There haven't been a lot of these kind of easy stroll through the park type game.

So getting two of them at this stage of the season certainly needed.

So again, I don't think we can necessarily declare a mission accomplished here.

Have seen some good things from the Lakers offense.

Jason, what are your thoughts?

The guy I've been mostly impressed with has been Luke Canard.

And the way I think he is fitting seamlessly into the offense, Jason, what are you seeing?

Yeah, like we talked about earlier in the show last week, the insane rate at which the

Luke Canard continues to get to the basket and or score off of close outs rather than

scoring at a spot up situations against 16 made shots at the rim this season.

He's actually converting spot up possessions at 1.59 points per possession, which is like

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Again, it's more complicated than just what he's doing off of the catch as a shooter.

The reads that he makes every time he drives a close out he had a beautiful one last night

a little lob pass to Jackson down the middle of the lane.

He just always seems to make the right decision when he gets into the middle of the floor.

I think one of the biggest keys has been how well the big three has shot basketball from

three.

Over the course of this three game stretch, the big three have made 27 threes and they've

shot 48% on them between the three of them.

I think one of my long-standing theories is if you're going to be a very good star pairing

of some kind or star combo of some kind, you've got to have multiple guys in that group

that love to take catch and shoot threes or that are very capable three point shooters,

because it's the only way you can get a force multiplier effect rather than a diminishing

return effect.

I think when you've got guys that don't have utility without the basketball with each other,

that can lead to that lob diminishing returns taking effect.

I think again, those three guys just being confident three point shooters in the stretch

has driven it.

We talked about it before the season.

We were like, oh, LeBron is a good catch and shoot player, we just need Austin to figure

it out.

Of course, Austin figured it out and then LeBron went into a tailspin, although Swarth

mentioning LeBron's last six games or so.

He's been shooting the ball pretty well from three, I think is like 41% on about five

attempts.

A good sign of positive progression there.

The big three ironically has been pretty good defensively this season.

They've in five hundred and sixty four possessions according to cleaning the glass.

They have a one eleven point nine defensive rating with the big three on the floor together.

Now some context there being, you know, there's some weaker opponents in there, but there's

also some stronger opponents in there where they've defended reasonably well.

And then their last three games, the Luca LeBron Austin pairing has a one twenty eight offensive

rating when they're on the floor together.

And that's with that kind of rough deandre eight in group and before you just discount

the opponents entirely.

And I think there's some context here because like Phoenix was a top ten defense before

the game.

The warriors were a top ten defense before the game.

The context that's worth mentioning there is like both of those teams are smaller on

the perimeter.

And Luca and LeBron in particular just feasted against those teams in the post LeBron

just absolutely annihilated the sons in the post and Luca absolutely annihilated the

warriors in the post.

But I'm choosing to go positive there because we had seen in the previous season LeBron

and Luca primarily focused on hunting bigs in switches to less effect than it could have

been if they would have been more deliberate about attacking smalls.

And it always frustrated me because I always thought that was their best strength as they

are bigger than most perimeter defenders.

I think it's awesome that there seems to be a cultural shift within the team this year

that specifically LeBron and Luca have been using their size to punish smalls a lot more

frequently.

And I thought like again, if you you can talk about how it's a lighter matchup with

Golden State and Phoenix being smaller on the perimeter.

But I look at those as two very good defenses, Golden State had been feisty for a week or

two before then and playing some of their better, stepless basketball in terms of just

how much they were competing and playing defense.

Although those teams for extended stretches had nothing they could do with the Lakers offense.

And you know, it's funny, you look at that middle tier in the West that, you know, Minnesota,

Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, the Lakers are almost certainly going to play one of those

three teams in the first round.

And if the season ended today and you asked me what was going to happen in any of those

three matchups, I think they're going to get their butt kicked by all three of them.

But if there was a pathway for them to be at least competitive and or upset a first round

team, which I think even if the Lakers just won one series going into next year's off season,

just winning one series could completely change the kind of like the momentum of the franchise

going into that next season.

They're only shot to upset somebody in the first round as their offense is just awesome.

And so this is positive, a positive trend in that direction.

But last thing I'll say to Yovon's point, they fooled us before this year where they kind

of have a decent season, a different decent couple of offensive games.

They have shot the ball well at a spot up situations pretty well in these three games.

That can be a fickle thing for the Lakers.

What happens if that starts to tilt and go the other way?

We've seen them go turnover pronet stretches.

So like it's really just about sustaining at this point.

But I'm hopeful that with the big three healthy available consistently, they can at least

reach an offensive level to be feisty competitive, at least an upset risk in that first round.

Yeah, that's going to be the key for that.

It's it's what level can they get to offensively that's going to it.

We talked about going into the season, they can be a top five offensive team.

That's the kind of ceiling that they've got, the kind of upside that they've got on that

end of the floor.

And if they're going to make any headway in the postseason, that's what they're going

to need to do.

Now, I think one of the things that we need to mention, we're taking a look at their

their offense specifically is, JJ Retic has been hammering ball movement.

And that's something where even just from an aesthetic standpoint, the Lakers offense

has stagnated, looked ugly at times this season through stretches.

The ball can stick too much.

We can talk about Luca hanging out of the ball, though, too much.

Well, over the last two games over the weekend.

And again, this is against inferior opponents.

Their defense is not play well.

There's an element of Lakers offense playing well also, but the Lakers passes increased

significantly compared to where they were at on the season.

In fact, the Lakers over the weekend, I pulled this stat.

They averaged 292 passes made in these games, which is up from 269, they're averaging

on the season.

So that is a significant uptick in the amount of ball movement, the amount of passes that

they are making.

But in conjunction to doing that, they've also ranked number one in the NBA in turnover

percentage since the All Star break.

So you've got a combination of two things that sometimes is not very easy to do, both

increasing your passing volume, well, decreasing the amount of turnovers that you are incurring.

So I think the combination of those two things has been critical for the Lakers offense as

well.

We're seeing more guys getting involved.

We're seeing more upfall actions.

We're seeing more movement.

And this has me at least somewhat optimistic that they are headed in the right direction.

But Yovon, as you mentioned, we still need to see them do these things against the top

quality teams, which are very quickly on the way.

And one thing I just quickly looked up that to me passes the eye test is, so I looked

at the Lakers record against the top 10 offenses, excluding themselves, so technically including

Detroit at 11, because Lakers are now up to 10th offensively.

And then the top 10 defense is, and I know cleaning the glass has their version of this,

but I just did it quickly, just calculating the record.

There are five and 12 against the top 11 offenses, again, excluding themselves, five

and 12, and then 7 and 13 against the top 10 defenses.

So when percentage wise, 29% when percentage against the top 10 offenses, 35% when percentage

against the top 10 defenses, and point being, I do think there's element here that both

gold state and Sacramento were lacking that I would like to see in some of these big matchups

coming up of, I think what really tests the Lakers is one, you can score on them.

And like if you can defend like, okay, but score, like we saw, I mean, I think the Charlotte

game was kind of like the epitome of this, if you have a certain level of offense, even

if you're not that good defensively, you can really make the Lakers pay, and if you're

getting out in transition, if you have a lot of movement, a lot of off-ball movements,

some shooting, they really struggle with that.

But like the biggest thing for me with like the gold state matchup was like, they could

just not generate good looks in the half court.

Like part of that, let's give the Lakers some credit for their defense.

Part of that was like, who I mean, who was running the show there and like what was

going on.

So, one thing I'm interested in with some of these tests coming up is like, okay, even

if the Lakers are performing well offensively, when they meet a team like a Denver who can

score just as easily and actually has been a better offense this season, how do they

fare in that matchups?

That's just something I'm going to be tracking here over the next couple of weeks.

Denver is one of the things that I point when because we're seeing a lot of, I think,

Marcus Smart and now Maxi Cleba as well as part of the rotation.

He's taking on that second shift in the second quarter.

Maxi is taking on that DA spot.

I thought DA got pulled.

I think it was against gold state just for making mistakes.

His backline defense was not there and that defense was terrible.

Oh, it's awful.

It was awful.

And maybe it was.

It could both things could be true here, but I thought DA lost his second shift, but

then we saw the same thing happen the next night against Sacramento where the beginning

of the second quarter, when DA would normally come back in instead, it was Maxi Cleba.

Jason, what are your thoughts on Smart and Maxi and in place of Jared Vanderbilt, we

seen Vander lose his opportunities.

What can those guys do as defensive stability bringers, those guys who can bring that

level of defensive intensity and attention to detail out there on the floor kit?

Can that bring something to this team that can at least prevent them from giving up these

these big runs, even if they're not going to be a top 10 defense?

Maxi is looking great physically.

That was something that was really jarring to me this last week and just how well he's

moving.

I think it's a combination of him kind of being in and out of the rotation enough that

he's been able to keep his body right, but like he actually brings a level of

like defensive playmaking at the center position that you just don't get from Aiton or Jackson,

and I think that that kind of gives you just a different look in that respect.

He's got a super high motor, play super hard, has good athleticism for the position, can

guard multiple types of positions.

He just kind of gives him a different defensive look.

I think ultimately like we're at that part of the season for JJ where he's got to start

making some tough calls about how he wants his playoff rotation to look, and I'm totally

on board with him, like making some of those decisions now to try to kind of like take

a look at what these lineups could look like and actually piece together what he expects

his rotation to look like when we get the April.

I mean, it really is time to your point about Aiton losing a second shift, like let's

say that you plan on playing Aiton only 16 minutes a game when you get to the post season,

and that's like if things go well.

Well, you need to get as many reps as possible with the lineups that would facilitate that

type of rotation now anyway, and I think I just am I'm completely on board with JJ throwing

things around and trying to get a rotation that works.

Just to give a rotation that works, Yovon, the rotation that you've been asking for for

quite a while, the starting lineup, Luca Austin, smart, LeBron, Aiton, plus 14.5 in point

differential right now per 100.

That's only in 186 possessions, but they ranked the 80 according to the last ranked

in the 85th percentile defensively, 52nd percentile offensive, which is maybe the inverse of

what we would typically see.

So good things there, but as we got a super chat from LeBronky said, why not start Jackson

Hayes from now on?

He's not the same as last year, bigger body, not as Valprone, high motor and better at

protecting the rim.

Yovon, now that they've got some measurable success here with that starting five,

should JJ continue to tweak it and could Jackson Hayes rejoining the starting five be

part of that?

Yeah.

Can I throw Yovon a stat before you go?

Really quick?

Yeah.

Remove Aiton.

So just those four, Austin, Luca, LeBron, Marcus, 232 possessions plus 19.4 per 100 possessions,

a 123 offensive rating, a 103.5 defensive rating.

They've used Aiton, Rui, Jackson, Jake, Maxi, and Luke are the other six guys that have

each gotten opportunity in those looks?

So I'm on board with starting Jackson over DA.

I think it's been over half the season now at this point that DA has been relatively

underwhelming and inconsistent.

But we're kind of at the halfway point, I guess, I would say it started in that, there

started to be some signs in mid-December and then I think the coming out party in a negative

way was the Christmas game where he just no showed and was a dud in that game.

And then since then, like even early in December, we'd started to see him not close some

quarters or not close some games, you know, not playing fourth quarters.

And that's progressively just been like at this point, I'm more surprised if he closes

the fourth quarter than I am if, you know, he is out there.

So I think politically and as, like if we reference the ESPN story and some of the things

the Lakers have done, the lion shirt, the crunk drink and how they've tried to hype him

up, I think if you move him to the bench, you probably should just remove him from the

rotation entirely.

I don't think he would accept a bench role willingly and be like this, he's already

having trouble accepting the Clint Capella role.

Now if you give him the 2026 Clint Capella role of coming off the bench as a backup center,

I don't think he's going to accept that.

So I think at that point, you have to be prepared if you were to move him to the bench to

move forward with Jackson, Maxi and Smallball.

That would be your, your center look.

So I think there still is a version of DA that like, you know, if you go back to that first

six or seven weeks, like that version of him to me is still the highest ceiling center

on the roster.

Like he just can do certain things that Jackson and Maxi and Smallball can't provide.

And if we think about a potential first round rematch with Minnesota, it would be nice to

have DeAndre Aitner in their battling with Rudy Gobert and Nas Reed and Julius Randall,

et cetera.

And it would be like a major difference compared to what the Lakers had last postseason.

That said, I mean, you referenced the second shift.

I thought, you know, last night in the beginning of the third quarter, a big part of them going

on that run was the offensive rebounds and some of the scoring in the paint.

DA got pulled earlier into that.

So like JJ showed he's got a quick hook with him.

But I mean, in terms of like reliability and confidence with him right now, it's not

existent.

And I've been arguing, I think even some of these games, like I think their Orlando

game is a perfect example.

I thought, you know, he put up the 2010, got the double, double, I still think he was

bad defensively.

Like that's been the thing that I think has been the most discouraging is like, he'll

still have the games where he has the efficient night seven for eight, 14.16 points, whatever

eight, nine, 10 rebounds.

I think the defense said like the floor defensively has fallen off where that's the thing I'm

most concerned with of like he's been pretty bad in drop coverage and like teams are targeting

him more and more.

You could beat him off the dribble or if you're a good mid-range shooter, you just walk

into an uncontested, like he's like a deep drop big all the sudden again.

I just have not liked the defense for a while, but I, you know, the starting lineup has

worked.

I haven't loved a lot of this has been like they kind of boosted the numbers over the

weekend a little bit.

It wasn't working as well earlier last week, but you know, it's better than the alternative.

And we've seen the OG starters play again, including closing the Orlando game and they've

lost their lives.

Yeah.

I'll sabotage.

Don't know.

Yeah.

That was surprising to see him go back to the those starters and it simply does not work.

You know, before we leave Aiden, where are you at on the like, when you mentioned that he,

you could use him legitimately against, I think about the wins the Lakers had against Minnesota

at the beginning of the season in October, Aiden was instrumental in those wins.

He was very, very important.

What's your optimism that you can get back to that?

Because I think we're now at a kind of a decision point where you either have to continue

going to DA and hope that by playoff time, you can get back to that recognizing that that

could be a very important thing for you.

If you can get back to the DA, we saw the beginning of the season or is your thought that

it's going to happen just gone and you just say, let's rip the bandaid off now and let's

move ahead with the lineups that are that are having more success.

Well, I think we can operate in fantasy land or we can operate in reality.

So I think the reality of the situation is they're just going to keep him as the starting

center.

And I think things would really have to go off the rails for like, you know, even more

so than they have up to this point for them to really make that change.

So I think he's going to continue to be the starting center now.

I think we've seen JJ reduce the minutes.

He's had several games in that like 18 to 22 minute range where he has a really quick

hook, especially in the second half, and like won't play the final 18, 20 minutes of

a game.

I think you might see more of that.

I think we'll have some moments, but I don't think it's going to be consistent.

I think that the DA we saw the first six weeks of the season is gone.

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section.

Is he capable of having a one off or even a couple games in a row like that?

Yeah, I think that's still within their own possibility.

But I will know, like I think he's cost himself some money here over the last couple months

and with the story coming out and just like all the negative attention on him.

So I think he's going to have a lot of pressure on this first round playoff series where, I

mean, he's going to like, if the Lakers lose in round one, I think like Austin will catch

some flak, JJ will catch some flak, DA will probably catch the most flak.

I would just like, you'll probably fill that out there.

I think he's going to be sort of the scapegoat with a potential first round exit.

So he's got a lot of pressure to deliver in the first round.

And I think that that might force the best version of him out, just like needing to fight

for his MBA contract and future.

But I don't think it's going to be reliable because at this point, he is not really had,

I mean, does he add like three good games in a row since December?

I don't think so for being honest.

I think keeping him in the starting lineup is a completely defensible decision because

of his upside.

I think he'd have quick hook, which I think JJ has shown.

Like I think, yeah, I think the way he's managed, the eight in situation has made a lot

of sense to me.

It's been like, we're going to see what he looks like.

Our starting lineup with him is still performing well because the other four are so good.

Let's give him a shot, certain matchups, he's going to feast in the short roll, certain

matchups, he's going to have, you know, like the Anthony Black matchup where he's hitting

hook shots.

So there's going to be certain looks where it makes sense.

And then I think JJ will pull him when he's not locked in or if the matchup isn't right.

And I think that that makes perfect sense.

And it's not like there's some, it's not like Jackson is so damn good.

You have no choice, but to start him over, you know, like that kind of thing.

I haven't seen you reliable, which like I never thought I would say about, I agree with

you.

I never thought Jackson Hayes and reliable would be as long as he's a propping matchups

that he has.

Regardless of whether or not he starts, I don't think eight is going to play like eight

and if he bring him up eventually, I think he's going to pal.

I have a theory about D.A.

And I thought that I thought coming into the season, okay, maybe we're going to get the

Dwight Howard parallels, of course, you know, in terms of Dwight's second stint with

the Lakers and the one championship, where Dwight was, you know, back against the wall,

all this negativity about him, he's got to come in and prove everybody wrong.

Dwight older, different phase of his career and all of that, then D.A., but I'm like, you

know what, maybe, maybe this is that situation for D.A., but I think there's a key difference.

And I should have paid more attention to it in the off season.

The key difference being Dwight came in without a guaranteed contract.

Dwight came in with his NBA future on the line.

D.A. has eight million dollars coming next season, regardless of what he does.

No matter what he does, he's got at least eight million dollars coming next season.

I think we are not at the point yet.

Remember he's getting paid the Portland money this season as well.

So he's, he's cleaning up nice.

I think D.A., I made this analogy the other day on basketball bulletin D.A.

He needed to make the leap without the rope, like the dark night rises.

He needed to make the leap without the rope in order to get to the point where he's going

to ultimately become the rim running big that he needs to be put in the consistent effort

night and night out.

I think his back needs to be literally against the wall, figuratively, against the wall

here in terms of his next contract before we're going to see him really lock in on the

stuff that he needs to do.

And that's not for a long time.

That's not for a while.

Not for a while.

All right.

We are going to dedicate the rest of the show to Q&A here.

We'll get into your super chat questions, your chat questions.

We'll get into all of that.

So fire them off in the comment section, refers to quick word from factor.

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All right.

We've got your questions, your comments, to get into, let's start here, Ryan said.

New CBA means two ways, slash second round picks must be stars in roles slash gym finds.

Bolo Nelson, Plowden, Fernando, Blake Hinson, guys, I think L.A. should look at in the summer.

I do think there is an increased importance around the NBA on finding guys that could

be rotation players on very cheap contracts.

It's just the reality of the collective bargaining agreement of the way that everything is played

out.

You have to be able to have bargains on your deal.

It's part of the reason why so many teams were, as we saw at the trade deadline, completely

allergic to negative value contracts because teams simply, you can't have anybody on your

roster that is not pulling their weight, that is not providing bang for your buck.

That said, you know what we've talked about this quite a bit, like the Lakers, they've

kind of been hit and miss and to a degree, the draft is hit and miss.

There is an inexact science to it, but the misses have really hurt this team lately.

Yeah, the back end of the roster is just not really rotation ready and we've talked about

it before, but you do look at, you know, I think about Tomlin in Cleveland and Denver

finding Spencer Jones and just some of the, like, you look at the top organizations and

the top teams in the league, they all have that one undrafted guy, two way guy, glee

guy that they discovered that is like now a key part of the rotation.

The Lakers are the exception here, right?

So I mean, or you could go back to Austin Reeves, but now we're going back to 2021.

And so they don't really have, or they had a guy in Jordan Goodwin and then they let that

guy go.

So I think that's like the challenge for the Lakers here is just finding these positive

value underappreciated players.

I also think they need to prioritize like a lot of the guys that have popped have been,

I mean, like Spencer Jones, like that's the one I look at and I'm like the Lakers, like

Spencer Jones would probably be my choice to be the fifth starter if he was on the Lakers

or like heavily in that conversation with Marcus and Jake and Denver just like pluck that

guy.

And I'm just like the Lakers, again, if we look, even if we look at like the back end

of the roster, it's like Dalton, Adieu, it's Dalton Adieu, Bronnie and Kobe Bufkin.

Three of those guys are six five and under and then the guy that's above six five has

like real offensive questions and like is just, you know, relatively raw on that end.

So it's like, they just can't, they continue to not find the two way guys and it's or, you

know, they just prioritize like scoring back court players, which they have several of

those already on the roster and including two of their three best players.

So I just, I think they need to do a better job of like identifying archetypes, but also

then like finding these types of guys, giving them an opportunity and empowering them in

their rotation.

And they did it last year with Jordan Goodwin, but they need to do it more and to Ryan's

point, like this is a huge part of roster building under the new CBA.

I'd take it a step further and say out west, when you have Oklahoma City in San Antonio,

like, you got to think from step one, like, OK, C in San Antonio, have Wembee and Shay.

So right off the top, you don't have some sort of massive superstar advantage.

Your best case scenario there is that Luca eventually gets an awesome shape, becomes a

super consistent three point shooter and gets a tiny bit better than those guys.

That's your, that's your best case scenario.

So with that being the case, you look at J.Dub as a number two or a chat as a number two,

you look at Steph Castle as a number two, you look at, you know, whoever it is you want

to look at as in that conversation in San Antonio, you're already working at a, at a disadvantage

from, or you're, you're not working with much of an advantage from the top.

So from there, as you look down the roster, San Antonio's got a million draft picks,

Oklahoma City has a million draft picks.

The only way that the Lakers are going to compete with these teams is if they hit at various

levels of the organization in their scouting department.

So whether that's, you've got to hit on your first round picks, you've got to hit on your

second round picks, you've got to hit on your vet minimum signings, you've got to hit on

a two way guy, you've got to hit on a trade, you've got it, there's like so many different

areas that they're going to have to hit just to compete.

I love the Spencer Jones comp that, that Trevor or that Yovon used because if you think

about it, like he's, I was talking about this with, with Adamara's this morning on the

all NBA show, like, especially for a matchup like Minnesota, they were sorely missing Spencer.

Spencer is such an important player for them.

He can legitimately step in and start games for them.

He's like a spot starter, like you, we, having something like that would be so clutch

for a Lakers team that literally needs to fill the restarting spots next year.

They're not all going to be big names that we know about.

Yeah, one of them might be a Clackston, one of them might be a Tarieson or Peyton Watson

in the restricted free agency, but there's no way you're filling all three of those spots

unless you get a hit somewhere, you know, and like, maybe that hit is you nail the three

in the five and you convince LeBron to come out of discount.

Maybe the hit is, you convince Rui to stick around at a discount.

Maybe the, the hit is, it's a two way guy that you find.

Maybe it's a development trajectory for a Duthiero that lines up at one of those positions soon,

but ultimately one of those positions is going to have to be filled by somebody on the margins.

A vetman that just absolutely hits a two way guy that just absolutely hits a trade

that you find that another team didn't value this player as much as you did.

Like, it's just going to require that level of like down the roster hits

because you're just operating at a talent disadvantage compared to the top teams in the, in the West.

And that is where the Mark Walter of it all needs to really manifest, right?

That's where we needed to, because based on the recent history of this club,

there shouldn't be a lot of optimism that they're going to be able to do those things.

Based on what we've seen them execute, we're up to Lincoln.

When he has hit on things, it's been on the bigger moves rather than the smaller moves.

And the smaller moves that he has hit on, have it been guys that have been able to be part

of the team's core for the future?

Like Malik Monk stylistically is not a fit for this team right now,

but he was a hit, nonetheless, just in being an NBA rotation player that you found.

He was on a minimum contract, provided value on a minimum contract.

For sure, we're not able to keep him over the summer.

That's not all on the front office.

That was the intricacies of the CBA and what he could be offered.

And all of that, then we think about Jordan Goodwin.

OK, you found something with him.

We're not able to hang on to him.

So even the hits that they have had that have been on the margins,

haven't been turned into long-term pieces for this club.

So you have to hope that with new voices coming into the front office,

and Rob Polink is still expected to run the show.

And that's what all the reporting has suggested.

But with more voices coming in, Tony Bennett coming in now.

And we expect this front office to be beefed up even further

as we get closer and closer to the summer.

That's where you have to hope change is going to come from.

And we're going to see a shift here.

Because organizationally for a while now,

it's felt like the Lakers have been behind the times

compared to the rest of the NBA when it comes to finding, identifying,

not just finding talent, but the right talent.

That 3-in-D style, the two-way types of players.

Yobani was just speaking about how the Lakers

are printed towards these smaller combo guards

and getting guys that are deficient on one side of the ball

or the other rather than rolling the dice on a guy

that if he does hit, could be that kind of two-way player.

So that has to be the source of optimism.

It's that the new voices coming into the front office

will allow the Lakers to be successful in areas

that they've not been successful in the past.

And in today's NBA have become more of a requirement

than a luxury in terms of building overall team success.

All right, let's go here to this next one.

SC Lakers, Lakers 27-28 champs, I'm putting money on it.

I don't know what the odds look like on that right now,

but if you're right, I would imagine the odds look pretty good.

But you could probably make a little bit of money there

if that happens.

So that would be what, three cycles.

You get an off-season, a trade deadline, and an off-season.

I guess in another trade deadline.

So four cycles, it's not out of the realm of possibility.

It's just like, you're just writing a very narrow line there.

Rob's going to have to hit on a lot of stuff between now and then.

I think this is the most realistic, optimistic path

to winning a title, like barring.

I guess if they pull off the honest, then all bets are off.

I think you could win.

I'll go out on a limb here and say you could win a title

with Yannis and Luca together in year one together.

Outside of landing Yannis, I think it's going to be really difficult

to build a roster in one summer, even with the cap space,

on par with an OKC, a San Antonio Detroit, et cetera.

So I think it is, I think it's going to be a multi-cycle build for LA.

So it's going to be 26 off-season, 2027 deadline, 2027 off-season,

then going into the 2027, 28 season with, hopefully,

a championship roster, which would be in line with SC Lakers.

At that point, do you, how much do you worry about a pissed off

Luca that now you're multiple cycles in before you get to a point

where you can win?

Luca can be a free agent in 2028.

A lot of pressure on the next few transition,

I mean, not transition cycle.

You could call it a transition cycle or transaction cycles.

This is a big transition coming up this summer.

It is a big transition.

I mean, at the same time, like, Luca kind of signed a little bit

of his power away with the extension, right?

Like, if he wanted to hold their feet to the fire,

he could have not signed that extension.

And this off-season would have then had a lot more pressure on it.

But to my knowledge up to this point,

he has not really held their feet to the fire in terms

of forcing them to make moves or pushing them in a certain direction.

He has remained patient and optimistic with the roster,

with the vision.

So maybe that tune changes.

If they had, like, let's just say, hypothetically,

I think right now, the most realistic scenario

is the Lakers losing round one.

Let's say they lose in round one.

And then maybe next year, there's like a little bit of progress,

but they lose in round two.

That's where it starts to be like, is Luca going to hold

their feet to the fire and get them to actually do something

more drastic?

Have we ever given you an example of a European star

really quote unquote, hold the feet to the fire?

I wonder if there's like a cultural thing there that kind of stopped.

Yannis is kind of dancing around the fire, right?

Yeah, Yannis is like, Yannis is doing that.

That is the thing, though.

There is that, that perception.

And we've seen that conversation take place

that the European players, the non-American players that come in,

they're, they're city that they wind up in,

becomes like their adopted second home.

And so those guys, there's a sense around the NBA

that those guys are much less of a flight risk

than the dudes that grew up playing the United States,

playing AAU ball with a lot of these guys

are very familiar with the culture here,

very familiar with all the different cities in the,

in the country, they're more willing to bounce around

to different places.

So there is a greater sense of security

with the international players coming in

in terms of them being part of your franchise long term.

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For no.

I'm trying to, yeah, like dirt didn't really.

No, I don't think anyone's done it.

Like, he was pretty loyal.

Yeah, this is kind of doing it now with the,

with not as, you know, the on and off trade demands.

But, uh, yeah, I guess that's the closest.

No, he will never demand a trade.

You know, but the, but the box made aside,

they don't like him tomorrow.

We don't, we don't know.

Depends on the breakfast.

I'm just thinking of that whole saga.

I mean, it's on the breakfast choice.

That's coming around the deadline was embarrassing.

That was awful.

Those ridiculous.

Anyway, that, that'll give me going again.

Mama do said last year we were beating good teams.

Why are we struggling so much this year?

We basically have the same roster.

I've a theory here.

So first of all, just to Mama do's point.

Let me just give you guys the numbers.

Last year, the Lakers were 19 and 13 against teams

in the top 10 and point differential.

They were fifth in win percentage in those matchups

and fifth in point differential in those matchups.

This season, they're just five in 12,

which is the 19th best win percentage in those games.

They're getting outscored by 13 points per game

in those matchups against top 10 point differential teams,

which ranks 27th in the NBA.

So there's a massive difference.

I really think it comes down to two things.

One, I think LeBron was so much better last year

than he was this year, especially for that like second,

two thirds of the season.

And then two, and this also kind of has to do with LeBron,

but the team in general was so much better defensively last year.

It was, LeBron was better defensively.

Dorian Finney-Smith was in the picture.

He was better defensively.

Just as a team, there was a better defensive identity

and commitment to that end of the floor.

I just think in general, the team hasn't been good enough

defensively or good enough at the LeBron spot

to be as good against the best teams as they are.

And like, here's the thing, like you guys want to ask me

what's going to happen in the next couple of weeks.

Like, oh, what's the universe for the Lakers notch?

That's a two big wins.

Like they beat Denver and Denver and they beat New York

or something like that.

What's going to drive something like that

is like Luca's going to be Luca,

but Austin and LeBron have to be great.

Like that's really the thing.

And they got to be pretty good defensively.

So like if the Lakers play mediocre,

like defense up to their potential

and they get good contributions from their co-stars

and Luca's Luca, then I think they're going to notch

some big wins in the next couple of weeks.

Like it really just comes down to that.

Can I pose a question to you guys?

Sure.

Because I've gotten this a lot either in my chat

or on social media.

So there's been a line of thinking with some fans

that because the Lakers were so good last year

against above 500 teams, elite teams,

and they lost in round one, that the inverse is true.

And because they have been bad against these same teams

that they're going to be good against them in round one.

And my argument is like, I think that just indicates

that there might not be a correlation

between like the success against the top teams

and like how you fair in the playoffs

from like a positive context of like beating those teams

in the regular season doesn't mean it will translate.

But I don't think you can make an argument

that losing and getting your ass kicked to those teams

is going to somehow translate in a positive direction.

So I don't know if I'm galaxy rating that.

But it feels a little obvious of like,

it's always better to fair better against the best teams.

I will not entertain the argument that losing

to the best teams is like somehow a good thing.

Losing is never a good thing.

Like ever, ever, ever a good thing.

Like I saw like University of Arizona fans

are like, oh, I'm really glad we lost to Kansas

and to, I think it was, it was the other team

they lost to, I'm blanking right now.

But they, Texas Tech I think.

But they lost a couple of games

and it's like, they're like, oh, it's better.

It means that we have a chip on our shoulder.

I'm like, yeah, you don't get me wrong.

Like it's good to get humbled every once in a while.

But like, as an Arizona fan, I'd rather go 30, you know,

and hoist the trophy.

So like, I don't think there's such thing as a good loss.

The cope is strong.

That's, that's what's going on there.

No, I, yeah, I agree.

It's not good to be losing to the best teams.

I do think, and I've made this argument

quite a bit in regards to the Cleveland Cavaliers

that I thought they hit their stride way to early last season.

They were not playing their best basketball

in a competitive playoff time.

They got hit by injuries.

I think for them, getting off to like a slow start

the season and then improving as season goes on

and ideally being at their peak

can playoff time could actually work out for them.

So despite the early season struggles,

it could wind up being a positive thing

if they wind up moving in a positive direction

as the season gets deeper in

and then they're playing, they're peaking at the right moment.

I think there's something to peaking at the right time.

I don't think that applies to this year's Lakers.

If anything, I would look at the fact

that they were beating those teams

in the regular season last year

and then getting their butts kicked in the playoffs

as more of a nod towards how much the intensity,

the athleticism ramps up, come playoff time

and for the Lakers, that being a weakness,

the athleticism ramping up.

If the Lakers are putting forth 95% effort

in a regular season game and they're playing the wolves

and the wolves are putting in that 80% effort

because it's a regular season game

and they're not flying around defensively

the way that they can, the Lakers may be able to get a win.

When both teams are going at 100% come playoff time,

that athleticism deficit is gonna be a bit more pronounced.

So I think it speaks more to that,

that things pick up come playoff time

and teams may be more locked in for a playoff series

that the Lakers are able to take advantage of

during the regular season last year

than some evidence that they're magically going

to beat these teams that they've not been able to beat

here during the regular season.

And by the way, I hope I'm wrong.

I hope I am dead wrong.

I hope this is all this huge sign

that they're gonna turn around

and they're gonna go on a magical run-complat

but I dream.

I think that if the Lakers are gonna be competitive

in the first round of being upset threat,

they're gonna get some wins here in the next couple of weeks

that show that upside.

And I think if they just get their ass kicked

by every good team the rest of the way,

they're gonna get their ass kicked in round one.

That's kind of what I think.

Five of the next nine are Denver twice, Houston twice

and Minnesota twice.

I said last night on my show that I think,

as crazy as this sounds,

two and three would be a success to me,

just with how much they've,

they're not even close to 500 against that caliber of opponent.

If they go two and three in that stretch,

like that would show,

like you start to draw me back in.

Well, our next episode will be Lakers contenders.

Question mark.

It's coming, it's coming.

At the end of next week, it's coming.

All right, let's go here.

Now trade in the summer.

Houston Kessler or Mitch Robinson free agent.

Well, I mean, the two guys that are RFAs there,

I've talked about, it's just, it's so tough

to get even one RFA.

I tend, guys, I tend to look at RFAs

as though they're not even really available.

They're not even really free agents.

Don't entertain that too much.

I guess there's some context around Peyton Watson

and Denver where maybe that could become a thing.

I still think Denver would make other moves.

Now, Mitch Robinson is actually a free agent.

I think those are the types of guys

in terms of the conversation around the Lakers

that it would be more beneficial to focus on

and just say, hey, these other guys, the RFAs,

it's a long shot, it could even happen.

If it does, it's probably via sign and trade

and we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

What are your thoughts on, I guess, on those players,

but as well as the potential of targeting

like a Mitch Robinson in free agency?

Mitch is really good.

He was a big part of the run in the late first quarter

that restored order in the San Antonio game

for the next day.

My thing with Mitch is like, I've always been

a little skied out by his health.

And there is somewhat of like the hack and Mitch thing

can become a problem that arises in certain scenarios.

Like to me, Mitch kind of makes a lot of sense

in a role like he's on in the mix where they can use him

but they can also play without him.

I think it kind of works in that sense.

I'd like Mitch if the Lakers had a really good backup center

but then it's like, okay, are we getting Mitch at a discount?

So a lot of the conversations surrounding Mitch

just centers around what kind of money are we offering him?

Kessler to me is just completely off the reservation

in terms of a realistic target.

Tari Eason, I was actually talking about this

with Adam R.O.'s today too,

because we were talking about Peyton Watson with Denver

and he has some concerns about paying a lot of money

to Peyton and I was like, yeah, me too.

I like Peyton a lot at 25 million a year.

I don't like him much at all at 35 million a year.

Similarly with Tari Eason,

like Tari Eason, what interests me is like,

if you could somehow poach him away for like four years 80

where it's like you're paying $20 million

but he's a guy that's a knock down,

stand still catch and shoot player,

which in some systems where he's asked to make more reads

and put the ball on the floor more,

it might be more of an issue

but if he's only playing in transition

and shooting corner threes

and guarding the other team's best player,

I actually really liked Tari Eason.

And at that number,

I think that he can give you 95% of what a super expensive

small forward would give you a role player, small forward,

at a much cheaper number.

So like Eason is the one guy in a restricted free agency

where I'm like, I would throw him like a four year,

$80 million deal and see if he can't steal him

from Houston because Houston doesn't want to go deep

into the tax.

Yeah, I think Eason is the guy that's the most available

of the top restricted free agent,

restricted free agents because Kessler,

I mean, they've turned down multiple insane trade offers

for him.

I think they're gonna,

I mean, they just invested in the roster

with the Jaron Jackson Jr. trade

to create this jumbo front court.

I think they're gonna keep him and test that out.

But I mean, I love Kessler.

If there was any way to get him,

including trading picks for him,

I would, you know, be fully on,

like I would pay him 35 million.

I'd give up to first for him.

I am very, very high on Kessler.

Peyton Watson could become available

based on Denver's ownership history with the roster

and some luxury tax stuff.

But I think they will, I mean,

Cam Johnson has been rough here.

Like I'm really rough gaming in some Minnesota.

I liked his defensive performance to a degree against OKC,

but missed a couple big shots late in that game.

So like, I think Cam Johnson's the one

that they would probably prefer to get off of

is just can you find someone who can talk themselves

into Cam Johnson?

And then Eason is the guy, though,

that I think is like maybe the sixth or seventh man

on like a full strength Houston team

that is kind of expendable,

especially if he's going to be in that high teens,

low 20s range salary wise.

So I think Eason's got a bull with a competitive offer.

Mitch, I like, I just, I agree with Jason.

That to me, he's more of like,

he's in the Steven Adams role

where like he can, he's a, he's a starting level center,

but you don't want to rely on him

more than like load amid 20s minutes a night.

And ideally, like the best, like,

you're playing with house money

when you have him coming off the bench

or in like a too big lineup.

And similar to how Houston's used Adams

or how the NICS have used Robinson.

So if he's like the 20 plus million dollar a night

center who is being counted on to play like 34 minutes,

that's a little bit too much for me.

And like Mitchell Robinson and Jackson,

I don't think is enough at the five.

So I think it just depends on like which path they go down.

But I'd be open to Mitch.

I've grown on him.

I like him a lot.

I like what he does on the offensive glass.

I just don't know if you want to lock in to him being your

starting center, night in, night out.

I think he's more kind of, as you said,

Steven Adams role type.

And I think if you're going to target the RFA's,

you have to be very prepared to go have

the sign and trade conversation.

Because otherwise, Houston, Denver, whoever,

has the ability to eat up your cap space for the whole

first week of free agency.

They don't have to tell you anything until July 7th,

because of the moratorium.

But when that lives, that's a long time to be sitting

on the sidelines with even if it starts to take 20 million

for Taris and with that much money,

tied up on your book.

So you can avoid that by getting into a sign and trade

situation, but then you're giving up stuff

in order to get that player.

So I think how Rob Blinker walks that very fine line

is going to be absolutely critical this summer.

All right, let's go here.

Thoughts on Luca Reeves, Smart Rui Hayes.

We started it on November 2nd.

And that lineup was so good.

LeBron Timmy, Vando, Eaton, The Bench has worked for us too.

I mean, you'll buy it.

I forget what phrase you use.

But in terms of just reality of what's happening

and what's not, LeBron's not coming up.

Fantasyland.

Yes.

Yeah, LeBron's not coming off the bench.

The big three.

And I know some people don't like me using the big three

moniker.

I guess I'll say the three best players

on the Lakers who all average over 20 points per game.

Those three players, those guys are not, of course,

Luca's not coming off the bench.

But even splitting Austin or LeBron,

they're not coming off the bench.

They're both going to be starting.

LeBron is LeBron James.

He is not going to come off the bench.

And then Austin is a franchise centerpiece

for this group that they are trying to retain this summer.

They're not moving him to a bench role either.

So the three guys who are 100% locked in

are the big three.

Smart seems to have taken that fourth perimeter guy role

and has played well in it.

And the lineup that has backed that up.

And then I think if there's any potential wiggle room,

it's at the center spot.

But again, I think you lose DeAndre Aiden

if you pull the plug on him as a starter.

So I don't think they're going to entertain that.

This is an interesting lineup.

This could be a lineup that we see

during the middle portions of a game.

But one thing I've talked about

even with the staggering of the big three is like,

yes, it's important to, there is somewhat of a ceiling there,

maybe a cap with what you can do with the big three.

But come play off time.

Those guys are going to be playing 38 to 42 minutes.

You're going to have them on the floor together

for at least 20 minutes, including the final six to seven

minutes of most competitive games.

So you got to find a way to make that work.

Like if the big three doesn't work,

this whole thing does it, unless you're just dominating

the other half of the game, which is theoretically possible,

but unlikely, it's just not going to work

if you cannot make the big three work.

So I think we've seen some progress lately.

I think the offenses look better.

There's been a better synergy.

But they're not splitting it up in a starting context.

I like what JJ has done with Austin and Luca

playing more together, LeBron playing more by himself.

Like he's done some nice things with the bench groups,

but this is a nice bench group.

It's not going to be the starters.

There's starting to gain real momentum too.

Like that, like there's no reason to mess with that at all.

This, this group with Marcus alongside the big three

or the 320 plusters, as you must call it,

I would ride them out as much as possible right now

and try to build synergy.

Yeah, that agree 100%.

If you can't get LeBron Austin and Luca to work,

you're cooked either way.

So you have to get three of them on the floor working.

Joban said, politics will be our undoing EDA usage,

brawny, which bit of NBA politics hurts us most.

Also, we may have the worst late game inbound scheme.

I thought they, I thought,

JJ Reddick and Phoenix scheme was basically,

they got a great shot on that.

Even the Luca, I mean, until, you know,

the, whatever happened happened, like he was open.

The play worked, the play worked.

It's sort of what bit of politics hurts us most.

I mean, you kind of, it's kind of somewhere

can take two minutes.

Alex Caruso is where it might like, I mean, Alex Caruso.

Yes, that, that's earlier.

In recent, I mean, if you want to look at it this way

and again, making these two connections,

let me a little bit of a stretch, but like,

brawny having a full roster spot.

I think there's been multiple times that that has hurt

rather than just being on a two-way contract.

I mean, half you want to go to it.

You could say they could have kept Jordan Good

when if brawny was on a two-way contract.

Instead, I mean, there's things like that.

Have politics hurt the Lakers at times?

Yes, it certainly has.

It's also, there's also been moments

where it's helped the Lakers too.

I mean, go, Lebron being a Laker to begin with,

they overpaid Contevious Caldwell Pope

so that they had an open line of communication

with Rich Paul.

And next thing you know, Lebron is suddenly a Laker.

I don't know.

The Lakers have played the politics game.

There are some things to get frustrated with,

but we shouldn't also ignore that it's helped them

at times as well.

Well, you can do both.

That's the main key.

Like, you can play agency politics.

Just basically, you can sign brawny James

and still retain Jordan Goodwin

if you manage your assets well.

You can do what you need to do to appease your top-end talent

while also being good at finding two-way players

and being good at finding better minimum contracts

and being good at, like, they're not mutually exclusive.

One last thing I wanted to tell you guys,

since Austin returned from his calf injury,

the big three have played 130 minutes over eight games

and they're plus 12 net.

It's a decent sample.

All right.

That's good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, one thing a lot.

I mean, just go back to the last summer,

they signed the Andre Aiton who shares an agent

with Luka Daunchich and they signed Jake Laravia

who shares an agent with Austin Reeve.

So, I mean, that's where politics can help you in terms of,

like, there's a lot, I mean,

you can go through several teams over the last 20 years

have had a situation where a team is really close.

Like, back in the day, Dallas would Dan Fagan

like, there will be these situations where an agency

and a team are really close

and there's, like, sort of a funnel

with certain guys to that team.

So, I'm not saying they've clearly not gone,

like, 10 for 10 in the politics situation

that there have been situations that have,

I mean, I think a lot of, like, you know,

a Cam Reddish being on the roster

as long as he was on the roster.

Like, that was another, like, quiet politics thing

that was sort of undermining the back end talent

of the group.

But I would say in the macro sense,

the Lakers have come out more on the positive side

than the negative side with the politics.

All right, we'll finish with this one.

Luke Canard is 100% the X factor on this team.

We no longer will have the worst bench scoring

in the league, which was holding us back.

And to point, the Lakers, since the All-Star break,

just to run that number there,

since the All-Star break, the Lakers are 23rd

in the NBA in points scored off the bench.

So, a bit of an upscoring in so many different ways.

I was looking through his play type sheet on Synergy.

Like, he's made 12 shots out of spot ups,

seven coming off of off ball screens.

Those typically end up being twos.

He's, it's interesting.

We talked about him as a movement shooter.

He's just two for eight this year,

coming off of D.H.O.'s or off ball screens.

So, like, he's not shooting the three super well,

on the move, but then he's 10 for 14 on spot up three.

So, just like insane.

But then he's also curling around D.H.O.'s

and off screen actions and hitting twos.

He's hit eight shots in transition.

He scored on a cut five times,

even as two offensive rebound putbacks.

Like, the dude is just scoring in so many different ways

on offense because he's like the epitome

of the advantage basketball player.

When he just plays with an advantage,

he can dribble shoot and pass really well.

And so, when you have stars that can create advantage,

it works.

Our guy Raj did a little post where he just,

he posted a video of a stack pick and roll rep that they ran

with, I think it was Austin back screening for Jackson,

Luca the ball handler.

But they put, they put Luke in the weak side.

And it's like when you're choosing between tagging

an easy dunk or skip pass to a dude who's 10 for 14

on spot up three,

it just puts you in a lot of tough spots.

Like, he just addresses so many specific things

to Laker's suck at that like he's become immensely valuable.

It's a casual reminder that like when we're evaluating players,

and we should probably keep this in mind when we talk

about Tara East in the summer.

When you're evaluating players,

your value is unique to what you're doing for your team.

And if your team needs you to do XYZ and you're good at XYZ,

you're gonna be a lot of value,

even if you're not necessarily good at ABC.

You know what I mean?

Like, I just think Luke has addressed a lot of specific needs.

To give you guys an idea,

this was coming into last night's game.

So this number may have shifted.

But as of yesterday, Luke Canard as a Laker,

generating 1.52 points per shot attempt,

which is the best number of any guard or forward

in the entire NBA,

the only guys that generate a higher point per shot attempt

are the lob catching exclusive biggs,

like Jackson A's Jericho Sims.

Those are the only guys that are getting more points

per shot attempt are the guys who all they do is dunk.

That's absurd efficiency.

I think the, you know, quickly before we wrap,

the biggest thing for me with him is just how quickly

he makes decisions, right?

Like the notion of the 0.5 decision making

that every team's looking for

from their role players of shoot past dribble.

Like the Lakers role players, that's not a strength

of if we think about like Marcus and Jake and Rui and Vando,

those guys can all struggle with their decision-making

sometimes offensively in terms of just what's the best

course of action here and reading a defense.

And like I think Marcus has his moments where,

I mean, like he can move the ball and he's a good playmaker.

And but he can also have the moments

where he calls his own number,

like tries to force a pass that's not there or whatever.

And then Jake can lose his confidence.

Rui is basically only looking to shoot

and Vando just has his offense limitation.

So I think Lucas come in and just been a breath of fresh air

with the offense of he gets it, he shoots it,

he drives, he swings it, like it's just, it's boom.

And he just greases the wheels in a way

that the Lakers don't really have

with any of the other role players.

So I think he's been huge off the bench.

I think the biggest question with him will continue to be

how do they manage his defensive limitations

within certain lineups?

And like, there's been some lineups lately

where in the Golden State game,

one of Golden State's best stretches came

when it was Austin, Luca, and Luke.

I think you got to be careful with like that trio together.

You throw in Rui and now you're dealing with,

you know, a bunch of kerosene there defensively.

So I think you got to be careful

with like the lineup combinations,

but I have like offensively he's been an A plus, I think,

and you know, it's been a really big boost off the bench.

That's the overarching theme for the season.

You got to be careful with the lineup combinations

for each of you reddit.

Put it on a t-shirt, right?

There it is.

There it is.

All right, guys.

Well, hey, we appreciate everybody coming in.

If you haven't done so yet,

please make sure you do hit the subscribe button

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Follow us over on Apple Podcasts.

Spotify wherever you listen to podcasts.

Guys, this was a lot of fun.

And you got Pelicans coming up tomorrow

and then Thursday in Denver,

taking on the nuggets.

Jason, you'll be at that one.

I'm excited to talk about the next two games

with you guys on Friday.

Yeah, I'll be at Lakers Nuggets on Thursday.

I'm super excited.

First time going to a nuggets game this season.

My first time going to ball arena.

I'll be in section 104.

So if any of you guys are there and you want to come say hi,

I'll be the tall guy with the long hair.

Have fun there.

Hopefully we get to talk about a Lakers win the next day.

That would be a blast.

Yeah.

Everybody, thank you again so much.

Appreciate all of you.

Until next time, we'll see you.

Stay safe.