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

0:00Right now, new fan duel customers can get up to $300 back in bonus bets every day for 10 days. Place a tournament bet using the token, and if it doesn't win, you'll get up to $300 back in bonus bets every single day for 10 days straight. You can even mix things up with same game parlays for a shot at a bigger payout. Fan duel. It's time to dance. 21 plus in president's lexates. Bonus bets are nonwithdrawable and expire seven days after receive. Tokens are received in increments of one per day. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandal.com. Gamlin problem called 1-800-Gamler. Now at the Home Depot, receive 12 months special financing and free basic installation on carpet projects with life proof, life proof with petproof technology, home decorators collection, and traffic master carpets. Bring a new look to your floors, or give them a durable surface that stands up to life's tough messes. Get 12 months special financing on installed carpet projects right now at the Home Depot. Offer valid March 12th or March 29th, 2026. Exclusions and additional charges may apply for licenses at Home Depot.com slash license numbers.

1:00You know what I can really go for right now? Literally anything that comes in a McDonald's carton, wrapper, or bag, or a McDonald's cup. Yes, any of those items should do it. We've got your cravings covered. Now stop in for the flaky filet of fish, the crispy snack wrap, or a large fries for just $2.99. Limited time only, price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Bottom up bubble. From athletic stuff like a full-core pickup game, swish to athletic-ish stuff like a half-mile stroll. Get those steps in. Head to Sierra or Sierra.com for the brands you want at the prices that let you do it all. From athletic to athletic-ish, Sierra's got it. When you walk into a Burlington, you're walking into amazing prices and great styles. That's main character energy. Because at Burlington, the wow deals aren't the only thing turning heads. Find fashion, the best brands, new trends,

2:02and so much more for every room in your house. Go ahead, you deserve these deals. But seriously, with these savings, why shop anywhere else? Burlington deals, brands wow. 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.

3:05Or 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.

4:09It'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?

5:09Because 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.

6:11It 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.

7:11And 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.

8:12But 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.

9:14So 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 absolutely insane. So like right now, new fan dual customers can get up to $300 back in bonus bets every day for 10 days. Place a tournament bet using the token and if it doesn't win, you'll get up to $300 back in bonus bets every single day for 10 days straight. Luke can even mix things up with same game parlays for a shot at a bigger payout.

10:15Fandool, it's time to dance. 21 plus in present and select seats. Bonus bets are nonwithdrawable and expire seven days after receive. Tokens are received in increments of one per day. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandold.com. Gamling Problem Call 1-800-Gamler. There's nothing like your first Mac. Here's what people online are sharing. At Doctor Rain says, everything is just so smooth and fast I still can't get over it. Thinking stuff between my phone and this is just chef's kiss. At Mr. Incredible 488 says, Apple Silicon basically cures low battery trauma. That's how they felt with their first Mac. How will you? Introducing the all new MacBook Neo. An amazing Mac at a surprising price. Find out more on Apple.com slash Mac. Hiring isn't just filling a role. It's about finding people who can drive results. Indeed sponsor jobs helps you match with the right candidates faster. Make candidates by skills, certifications or location. Join the 3.3 million employers worldwide that use indeed to connect with quality talent that fits their needs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to help get your job the premium

11:19status it deserves. And indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring? To hit the right way. With indeed. Bob Evans, creamy Mac and cheese and buttery mashed potatoes are made for those Easter moments you just can't plan for. Realizing that Easter egg hunting really builds up an appetite. Or that time when the neighbors burnt their entire holiday meal and you invited them over. So this Easter, when there is no plan, say hello to plan B-O-B from Bob Evans. Because when you bring out the Bob, you'll always have something delicious on the table, no matter what the Easter bunny brings. When you need quick and easy comfort, bring out the Bob available now in your refrigerated section. 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

12:20three. 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

13:23attempts. 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

14:27warriors 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

15:28three 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.

16:33Yeah, 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

17:38on 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

18:40Detroit 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

19:41getting 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.

20:43His 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

21:45like 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

22:46type 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

23:47part 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

24:47quarters 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

25:52six 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

26:53bad 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.

27:53Yeah. 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

28:56so 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. There's nothing like your first Mac. Here's what people online are sharing. At Doctor Rain says, everything is just so smooth and fast I still can't get over it. Sinking stuff between my phone and this is just chef's kiss. What Mr. Incredible 488 says, Apple Silicon basically cures low battery trauma. That's how they felt with their first Mac. How will you? Introducing the all new MacBook Neo, an amazing Mac at a surprising price. Find out more on Apple.com slash Mac. Bob Evans, creamy Mac and cheese and buttery mashed potatoes are made for those Easter

29:58moments you just can't plan for like realizing that Easter egg hunting really builds up an appetite or that time when the neighbors burnt their entire holiday meal and you invited them over. So this Easter, when there is no plan, say hello to plan B.O.B. from Bob Evans, because when you bring out the Bob, you'll always have something delicious on the table, no matter what the Easter bunny brings. When you need quick and easy comfort, bring out the Bob available now in your refrigerated 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.

31:03So 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.

32:03You 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.

33:04D.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.

34:04We'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. All right, guys, quick break. This one's actually something I've been using personally. Cold days, big games, busy schedule, no time to cook. That's why I've been rocking with factor. I've been ordering their protein plus meals, especially the grilled chicken with roasted veggies. Perfect for me, because I'm trying to keep my energy high for shows without feeling heavy after eating. What I like about factors, quality ingredients, lean proteins, real veggies, whole food fats, no refined sugars, no artificial sweeteners, no refined seed oils, and it fits the schedule. They've got 100 rotating meals weekly, keto, calories, smart, Mediterranean, GLP, one support, and even new muscle pro connection, a collection for strength and recovery. And the convenience is crazy. Always fresh, never frozen, ready in about two minutes. No prep, no stress. I use this and you guys should too, especially if you're balancing work, school, gym, and

35:04Lakers games every other night. And to factor meals.com, slash LakersPod50 off and use code LakersPod50 off to get 50% off your first box plus free breakfast for a year. That's 50% off and a free breakfast item in every box for a year while your subscription is active. Again, factor meals.com slash LakersPod50 off code LakersPod50 off. Let's get back to it. All right. Everybody, make sure you guys go check out factor. I'm very seriously good. I love factor. 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.

36:07It'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

37:12guy 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.

38:12Three 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

39:16super 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

40:21all 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.

41:23Like, 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.

42:24So 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

43:25will 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.

44:27I 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,

45:27I 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

46:29really 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. That's a real thing at NBA front offices. There's nothing like your first Mac. Here's what people online are sharing. At Dr. Rain says, everything is just so smooth and fast,

47:30I still can't get over it. Sinking stuff between my phone and this is just chef's kiss. At Mr. Incredible 488 says, Apple Silicon basically cures low battery trauma. That's how they felt with their first Mac. How will you? Introducing the all new MacBook Neo, an amazing Mac at a surprising price. Find out more on Apple.com slash Mac. 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.

48:31Why 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.

49:32Just 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

50:33against 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

51:33and 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.

52:34I 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.

53:35And 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.

54:36Now 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

55:38that 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,

56:39if 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

57:40with 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,

58:42low 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.

59:42I 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.

1:00:44But 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.

1:01:45So 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.

1:02:47Like 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.

1:03:47The 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.

1:04:47The 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.

1:05:49So, 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

1:06:51in 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

1:07:53of 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.

1:08:54To 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

1:09:56course 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.

1:10:57I 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 on the Lakers Collective YouTube channel. 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.

1:12:00My 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.