Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers

Hey, the NBA Finals are here, and we react to Game 1, including shout outs to some well-liked former Lakers. 

And from there, it's a continuation of Wednesday's discussion of potential trade targets for the Lakers, given some of the limitations in the free agent market (i.e. less flexibility than advertised, and a weak free agent class overall). Wednesday, we talked about potentially available Pelicans, like Herb Jones, Trey Murphy III and Yves Missi. We kicked around potentially gettable Magic players, like Desmond Bane and Jalen Suggs. A few dudes on the Nets as well. 

Today? Lakers fans are focused on Peyton Watson when it comes to the Nuggets, but he remains a tough get, both because he'll cost a lot of money, and because Denver isn't likely to let him go... and especially not to the Lakers. 

So what about the guys they're reportedly motivated to offload in order to save enough money to sign Braun without having to foot a big tax bill? Cam Johnson... or Christian Braun? 

What if you could turn Jarred Vanderbilt and Dalton Knecht, two players that have little value to the Lakers, for Braun, a player who absolutely fills a needs (assuming last year was an aberration) but comes with big risk, namely a contract extension that kicks in next season and lasts for five years at an average of $25 million per. 

It's a risk, for sure, but one with potential rewards as well. 

We discuss. 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky 

SEGMENT 2: What about Braun? 

SEGMENT 3: What kind of risks do the Lakers need to take? 

5-Hour ENERGY

Betterhelp

KALSHI

DoorDash
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The Lakers could try to improve the roster this offseason primarily through free agency, which is a path they've certainly hyped up but also might not yield all that much fruit, given that the cap space accessible from a practical standpoint isn't nearly as large as some of the rosier projections might imply. Moreover, there aren't many good unrestricted free agents, anyway. 

So what about the trade market? 

If you look around the league, there are some intriguing names the Lakers could kick the proverbial tires on, whether guys like Trey Murphy III and Herb Jones on New Orleans, or someone like Jalen Suggs on Orlando? The Lakers are going to have to be pretty creative, and make sure they use whatever capital they can generate in the most effective way possible. 

Would one path be using a distressed asset like Jarred Vanderbilt to acquire another distressed asset, but one that would have an easier path to playing time? 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky 

SEGMENT 2: Jalen Suggs, perhaps? 

SEGMENT 3: Trades and trade-offs. 

5-Hour ENERGY

Betterhelp

KALSHI

DoorDash
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The Lakers would like to upgrade at center. That much has been made pretty clear. Certainly Lakers fans would like to see the same thing. 

The complicating factor is Deandre Ayton, and his player option for next season. Ayton made about $8 million this year, and will make similar money next year. It's certainly possible he reads the market and decides there's a longer term deal out there, but nobody would be even a little surprised to see Ayton decide his best avenue is to stay in LA and play out the option. 

So which one is actually better for the Lakers? 

For Ayton non-believers, the answer might be trickier than you think.

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky with Deondre Hawkins of 710 ESPN Los Angeles

5-Hour ENERGY

Betterhelp

KALSHI

DoorDash
From tipoff to overtime, stay in your bag and order on DoorDash.
Get snacks, drinks, gear — whatever gets you through the season — delivered right to your door.
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Quo
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Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to http://Quo.com/lockedonnba.

Indeed

Gametime

FanDuel

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The Lakers are trying to build a team around Luka Dončić that can push the Spurs and Thunder at the top of the conference next year. 

The Lakers are trying to build a team that can win in a sustainable fashion around Luka. They're trying to get younger, to get more athletic, to add better centers, better wings and better depth. In short, they're trying to do a lot of things at once, and don't necessarily have a ton of resources to do it (despite what the team has been implying...). 

So how much is too much when it comes to salaries for LeBron James and Austin Reaves? How do the Lakers get better if they don't bring those guys back? 

And what should be the priorities for the org as they enter the summer? 

It starts with trying to figure out where the Lakers are relative to the teams at the top. Unfortunately, because Reaves was damaged and Luka was out, the Lakers didn't get a feel for what the matchup looks like at full strength. (Or at least with the Lakers at full strength, since the Thunder were still missing Jalen Williams.) 

We talk about this and more with 710 ESPN's Deondre Hawkins! 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: How do the Lakers match up? 

SEGMENT 2: Where are the priorities? 

SEGMENT 3: What comes next? 

5-Hour ENERGY

Betterhelp

KALSHI

DoorDash
From tipoff to overtime, stay in your bag and order on DoorDash.
Get snacks, drinks, gear — whatever gets you through the season — delivered right to your door.
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Quo
Make this the year where no opportunity - and no cutsomer - slips away.
Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to http://Quo.com/lockedonnba.

Indeed

Gametime

FanDuel

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The Lakers have some hard choices to make this summer. And while the idea of bringing back Austin Reaves isn't necessarily one of them -- unless a better alternative presents itself, a relative long shot, the Lakers don't have any viable way to replace Reaves if he goes -- there could very well be some uncomfortable conversations about how much it costs to get the deal done. 

Tim Bontemps of ESPN reports that many NBA insiders expect Reaves's deal to come in at or above $40 mil a year, as opposed to, say, $35 million. That's not a trivial difference, and could cause the Lakers a little pain as they try to build a high-end contender as quickly as they can around Luka Doncic. 

He notes that teams like Brooklyn and Chicago are in position to make very significant offers, much closer to the maximum Reaves can get under CBA rules. That would require Reaves to enter situations where titles aren't part of the equation, but if the money was that much better, and maybe if he felt the Lakers lowballed him, could he go that direction? 

It feels like Reaves wants to come back. He's said he's not interested in squeezing as much as he can from the team. The Lakers want him to return. What remains to be seen is the number. What's something the Lakers, and Reaves, could both feel good about? 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky 

5-Hour ENERGY

Betterhelp

KALSHI

DoorDash
From tipoff to overtime, stay in your bag and order on DoorDash.
Get snacks, drinks, gear — whatever gets you through the season — delivered right to your door.
DoorDash. In your bag all season long.

Quo
Make this the year where no opportunity - and no cutsomer - slips away.
Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to http://Quo.com/lockedonnba.

Indeed

Gametime

FanDuel

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The Lakers have a challenging offseason coming, nobody doubts that. But did the just-finished Western Conference Finals provide any type of guide for how they should approach it? 

After all, the "forget it, we're all cooked" dynasty that was supposed to be the Oklahoma City Thunder ended in a year... but then again, it wasn't so much because the Thunder did anything to take steps backward (other than get some poorly timed injuries). San Antonio just caught them, and look to have something massive building themselves going forward. 

So what now? 

Well, the series highlighted the value of depth, not just as a playoff tool but a regular season weapon that makes your playoffs better. It raised questions about how you build teams, and with what in mind. Do you match up with specific teams? Or just build the best version you can around the stars you have? And what about Chet Holmgren's struggles? After a terrible WCF, would Sam Presti pull the trigger on something significant as Chet starts his max-dollar extension? 

And does the discourse around Chet remind anyone else of the conversation LA is having around Austin Reaves? 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky 

SEGMENT 1: The lessons of the WCF. 

SEGMENT 2: Could OKC's loss mean more summer movement in the NBA? 

SEGMENT 3: Chet and Reaves. 

5-Hour ENERGY

Betterhelp

KALSHI

DoorDash
From tipoff to overtime, stay in your bag and order on DoorDash.
Get snacks, drinks, gear — whatever gets you through the season — delivered right to your door.
DoorDash. In your bag all season long.

Quo
Make this the year where no opportunity - and no cutsomer - slips away.
Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to http://Quo.com/lockedonnba.

Indeed

Gametime

FanDuel

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The NBA put out its long-awaited rules designed to curb tanking through lottery reform. The rules are a little complicated, and include provisions that not only flatten lottery odds -- out is the old system of tons of ping pong ball combos, in is the 3-2-1 system where teams get (wait for it) three, two or one ball each. Next year, though, we'll see new wrinkles like a "relegation zone," where the three worst teams actually lose a ping pong ball. There are (minor) rules that restrict pick protections, and rules that limit how many seasons consecutively teams can draft in the top five. 

All of these are designed to remove the most obvious incentives to lose on purpose. Obviously the league can't keep teams from being bad. A certain amount of teams are going to suck every year, even when they're trying not to. 

What the league can do, however, is remove incentives for teams to lose on purpose, so more teams on more nights are actually attempting to win the game. This is likely where teams like the Lakers, who don't frequently find themselves in position to tank, will see the greatest difference. Standings in a conference as competitive as the West shouldn't be determined substantively by whether a team happens to play a lesser squad in November, before the tanking starts, or in March when they've thrown in the towel. 

There will surely be unintended consequences, and the League will have a chance to tweak or even scrap these rules after the 2029 season. But a new era in NBA drafting is upon us, and folks will be very interested to see how next season is impacted by it. 

SEGMENT 1: New rules! New rules!

SEGMENT 2: Did the NBA get it right? How do these new rules impact the purple and gold? 

SEGMENT 3: More on how the new rules -- and layoffs in El Segundo --  impact the Lakers. 

5-Hour ENERGY

KALSHI

DoorDash
From tipoff to overtime, stay in your bag and order on DoorDash.
Get snacks, drinks, gear — whatever gets you through the season — delivered right to your door.
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Indeed

Gametime

FanDuel

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The Lakers have a lot of work to do this offseason, and have neither a great range of tools at their disposal, nor a great group of free agents who might be available to sign. And after being promised some significant action this offseason, many fans are noticing the potential issues, here. And that leads to our mailbag questions for today from @socioisbackapparently661 and @ScottSemple-vr2qo, both of whom are essentially asking a question that might seem crazy to most Lakers fans, who have been waiting for big, bold moves for a few trade cycles: 

Would the Lakers be better off kicking the can down the road one more year? 

Finally, we tackle one more Q, from @dailyromznation615, who wonders if a sign and trade with the Clippers sending Austin Reaves to Inglewood in exchange for Kawhi Leonard would make sense. 

A bold proposal for sure! 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky 

5-Hour ENERGY

KALSHI

DoorDash
From tipoff to overtime, stay in your bag and order on DoorDash.
Get snacks, drinks, gear — whatever gets you through the season — delivered right to your door.
DoorDash. In your bag all season long.

Rugiet
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Rugiet. Performance medicine for men.

Indeed

Gametime

FanDuel

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

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The Lakers have to figure out how to resign their own key free agents, starting with Austin Reaves and (probably) LeBron James, and moving on to (probably) Rui Hachimura. But to improve the team, they're going to have to find some new guys, too. They can't just run it back and expect a different result. (Especially after selling the Bold Summer of '26 to fans for a while.) So at the least, the Lakers need to kick the tires on what is ultimately a weak year for free agents. 

Particularly the unrestricted variety. Because while guys like Peyton Watson, Tari Eason, Walker Kessler and Jalen Duren would look great next to Luka, they're also going to be darn near impossible to pry away from their current teams without the Lakers going crazy large on an offer sheet. Like, renounce everyone and throw all that money to your RFA big. Not a great strategy. 

So who are the players in the next tier? The ones who still come with a big price tag, but nothing like the guys above? 

And given their limited trade chips and a cap situation that isn't quite as flexible as it's sometimes presented, how should LA prioritize offseason needs? 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky 

SEGMENT 1: The restricted free agents like Peyton Watson? Don't get your hopes up. 

SEGMENT 2: Where should the Lakers look? 

SEGMENT 3: Deeper options at C and F. 

5-Hour ENERGY

KALSHI

DoorDash
From tipoff to overtime, stay in your bag and order on DoorDash.
Get snacks, drinks, gear — whatever gets you through the season — delivered right to your door.
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Rugiet
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Indeed

Gametime

FanDuel

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On Tuesday, JJ Redick got three third place votes for NBA Coach of the Year, which is actually a couple fewer than he received in his first season as Lakers head coach. So two years as a coach in the league, two years finishing on the COY table. Pretty good! 

So two big questions: Did JJ (and by proxy the Lakers) get the credit he deserved? And how did Redick improve from Year 1 to Year 2? 

Lakers fans don't agree about much, but there does seem to be some level of consensus that Redick was an improved coach this year. More willing to try new schemes and move outside his comfort zone. More creative in what the Lakers did, and displaying a far better temperament throughout the year (i.e. not so high strung). When you look around the league, having a coach that seems like he can be around for a while, with a defined culture and structure. 

Otherwise that sort of thing can't be built. 

If the Lakers are going to emulate the Dodgers over the long term, this is the sort of stability they should be striving for. 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky 

SEGMENT 2: Did Redick improve? 

SEGMENT 3: Why it matters that JJ looks legit. 

5-Hour ENERGY

KALSHI

DoorDash
From tipoff to overtime, stay in your bag and order on DoorDash.
Get snacks, drinks, gear — whatever gets you through the season — delivered right to your door.
DoorDash. In your bag all season long.

Rugiet
Get 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnhl
Rugiet. Performance medicine for men.

Indeed

Gametime

FanDuel

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

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