Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers

The season officially kicks off on Monday, with Lakers Media Day. It unofficially kicked off Thursday, when Rob Pelinka and JJ Redick met the media. They answered questions for just over a half hour on a range of topics, and generally sounded like people pleased with a busy summer's work and ready to begin the Luka Era in earnest, with a team that is his now on every level. 

Some of the highlights: 

• Pelinka said that once they knew LeBron was leaving, they built a template based on 1) Keeping Austin. 2) Finding a "franchise center." 3. Getting younger with "dribble, pass, shoot" types who could work well around Luka. Certainly they believe the mission was accomplished in that regard. 
• JJ said three spots were locked in the starting lineup. (If you need us to tell you which... how did you get here, anyway?) And while he didn't reveal any big hints about the other two, he did say it wouldn't be "two white guys." Sorry LaRavia and Mamu. There's only room for one of you. 
• JJ and Pelinka both agreed this roster makes sense, in terms of its construction. They've put something together that is coherent in their eyes, even if it's incomplete. Speaking of which... 
• Both Pelinka and Redick made it clear that the Luka-centric rebuild wasn't going to be executed in one offseason. This is a project that is still in progress. Asked if he thinks the Lakers have a championship caliber roster, Pelinka deferred, and certainly didn't say yes. 
• They're done switching 1-5 now that Kessler is in the fold. That, said Redick, was a strategy borne from necessity, not preference. 

More to come on Monday at Media Day! 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky 

SEGMENT 1: Pelinka and Redick meet the media. 

SEGMENT 2: A roster in progress. 

SEGMENT 3: Competition for starting spots. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

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Austin Reaves signed a massive contract this offseason, moving him from one of the great bargains in the NBA to ... something else. And based on the results of our listener survey, no Laker has more pressure on him going into the year than Reaves. People are worried about whether or not he'll live up to the contract, and whether that contract will age well. They're worried about the defense (which he doesn't help). They're worried, basically, about everything associated with Reaves as a true number two, expected to step in behind Luka Doncic and lead the team. 

ESPN, for its part, has Reaves ranked at 37 in its NBA Rank project this year, a massive bump from last season (60). Is that a fair placement? 

And more importantly, what does the slotting say about where Reaves fits into the league's upper crust, now that he's paid like one of those guys? It's a strange space, where folks in that range can elevate to raise the ceiling of a team, or hurt it by underperforming or getting hurt. The Lakers no longer have the financial flexibility afforded by Reaves making well under market money. Now, the pressure will be on to earn it. 

Meanwhile, the Lakers will sound different this year. First, longtime public address announcer Lawrence Tanter announced his retirement earlier this summer. Now, we're learning that Stu Lantz, who has been part of the broadcasts on TV since the 80s, will only be calling home games after enduring some health issues that kept him out of the booth last year. 

Great that he's well enough to work, even in a reduced capacity. For a legend like Stu, we'll take what we can get. 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: Austin Reaves under pressure. 

SEGMENT 2: Where does Reaves stack up? 

SEGMENT 3: What the Lakers need from each tier of player. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

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It's the Locked On NBA Top 100 player rankings! Today, Wes, Matt, Haize and Andy come together to rank players 21-30. Will LeBron James continue to slide? Does Cooper Flagg crack the top 30? Find out on today's episode!

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The Lakers made a bold push to acquire Walker Kessler in a summertime sign and trade with the Jazz, giving up the rest of their first round draft capital and a whole lot of money to bring in the young, hopefully ascending defensive standout. Some liked the move when it happened, some thought the Lakers overpaid. But if ESPN's summertime player rankings are to be believed, at the least the Lakers spent all this stuff on a player that's pretty good! 

Kessler landed at 73 in the annual rankings, one spot ahead of Isaiah Hartenstein, one spot behind VJ Edgecombe. 

The question is if there's room to grow, because if Kessler actually gets better -- and there's a very good chance his offensive numbers rise playing with Luka, who has made far lesser players than Kessler look good -- that puts him more towards the league's top 50. Now the Lakers would be cooking with gas. 

So what's fair? What's not? And how does Kessler fit even more neatly into what the Lakers are likely going to try to do offensively? 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: Kessler at 73 on ESPN!

SEGMENT 2: Justified ranking? 

SEGMENT 3: Kessler's secret weapon offensively.

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The Lakers aren't necessarily expected to contend for a title this season, but Luka Dončić is still one of the favorites for MVP. Which is a testament to both his star power, and his incredible skill as an offensive player, because MVP candidates almost definitionally come from elite teams. 

But what about the other guys? Who has a chance to be Most Improved from this year's roster? What about Coach of the Year? Could Cam Carr break into the Rookie of the Year conversation? What about Austin Reaves on an All-NBA Team? 

While there's no question each of these guys would love to take home some postseason hardware and it's always interesting to see what kind of love Lakers players/coaches get for things like this, the real value of the discussion is how it frames where the Lakers could end up. The best case scenarios for this team likely have some combination of Grimes as an MIP, Luka in MVP voting, Collin Sexton in the 6th Man convo, and AR gunning for All NBA. 

 Maybe some of those things don't happen, but a couple almost surely need to for that scenario to have some legs. 

So we break down the most likely ones from FanDuel Sportsbook's preseason futures tables. 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky 

SEGMENT 1: What about the Lakers and postseason awards? 

SEGMENT 2: Grimes? Mamu? Bronny? Dalton? Huh?

SEGMENT 3: The market is getting set already? 

PHOTO CREDIT: Erik Williams-Imagn Images

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A LOT of eyebrows went up among Lakers fans heading into the weekend when news of an investor presentation created by the Josh Kushner/Bob Iger ownership group to bring in more cash to their group and round out the sale of the team from embattled owner Mark Walter. 

The pitch lays out how the team plans to build the team's value up to (we bleep you not) $30 billion over the next decade. And that, by the way, is more a middle ground estimate. If things go really well, that number could get a lot higher. (So they say.) How they plan to get there seems to be through a combination of very, very aggressive marketing and monetization of everything in the org that isn't nailed to the floor, plus things like international rights, growing value of the NBA more broadly, and a rapid increase in ticket revenue built not simply on price increases (though that's happening, and would have even had the team not been sold again), but by eliminating the role of ticket brokers. 

That will functionally serve to jack up prices, because on the secondary market tickets often go for below face value. And when they go higher, it's the broker that gets the money, not the team. 

More than anything, fans are very, very worried this is a sign the Lakers will be much more concerned about money and paper value than titles and banners. Are they right? 

And is this a big concern across the league? 

Finally, more preseason odds from our friends at FanDuel. Who from the Lakers is in real contention for postseason hardware? 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky 

SEGMENT 1: The Lakers next owners are aggressively raising money. 

SEGMENT 2: What does the prospectus mean for Lakers fans?

SEGMENT 3: More preseason odds for Lakers players. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

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Preseason odds for postseason awards don't necessarily say everything about a team's chances, but they can be instructive. So for the Lakers, who aren't expected to move mountains this year when it comes to the Western Conference standings, where players land on some of the preseason betting lists is worth a look. 

And thankfully, our friends at Fanduel Sportsbook have their numbers up for view! 

No surprise, Luka Dončić has the fourth best odds in the NBA to win MVP, which is a testament to the respect he gets as a player, because MVP almost always comes from a team at or near the top of a conference. That's not where the Lakers are expected to be. Meanwhile, who else appears on different lists? Is Austin Reaves seen as a real candidate to contend for an All-NBA slot? What about Walker Kessler for Defensive Player of the Year? Or Most Improved? 

What does having two players (Sexton, Mamu) in the conversation for Sixth Man mean for the team this year? Especially considering how poor the bench has performed over the last couple of seasons? 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: Who is on the board for postseason awards? 

SEGMENT 2: What about Kessler? 

SEGMENT 3: Why 6MOY is a key race to watch in terms of Lakers success this season. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

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Every year, ESPN breaks out its Future Rankings, looking at the prospects every team in the league has going forward, based on things like roster quality, draft capital, financial flexibility, quality of management and quality of market. 

Last year, the Lakers were 8th. This year, they're 13th. 

Why the downgrade? Mostly because the financial flexibility and draft capital they had last summer was used this summer. So they fell in those categories. Thankfully, they did rise in roster quality, but the overall effect is a downgrade. So what comes next? On the one hand, 13th isn't bad. To the extent you think these types of evaluations are revealing, you'd want to be higher. But it's not bad. And meanwhile, 13th in the NBA actually translates to fourth in the Western Conference, meaning many of the team's competitors seem to have equally murky future prospects, or worse. And these are the teams the Lakers have to compete against. 

As in all things, the wisdom of these rankings will likely be revealed based on this season, and learning whether or not the extensive list of moves made by Rob Pelinka in the offseason play out the way he hopes. If Rob is right, the future looks a lot brighter. If he's not? 

Don't ask. 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky 

SEGMENT 1: The Lakers are 13th in the Future Rankings. 

SEGMENT 2: The categories that matter... 

SEGMENT 3: Context is king. Where LA fits with the rest of the conference. 

PHOTO CREDIT: William Liang-Imagn Images

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Tuesday at the NBA's league meetings, Adam Silver spoke to the media for the first time since dropping Adam's Silver Hammer on Steve Ballmer and the Clippers. 

He had a few things to say about the LAC, but of greater interest here were his comments about Mark Walter and the impending Lakers sale. Did the league have any inkling as to Walter's potential financial issues and the existence of a federal investigation when it approved the sale from the Buss fam? Silver says no, and it's certainly believable. He also says he didn't know about the deal between Kushner/Iger and Walter until the handshake was done. 

That's perhaps a little tougher to believe, but also doesn't really matter that much, assuming the NBA didn't tap Kushner/Iger on the shoulder (their ownership group was looking at an expansion team) and suggest he give Walter a call. 

No surprise, there wasn't any talk of the impending sale for LA. Too many impending deals. 

Meanwhile, it's expected the salary cap is going to be a couple mil higher next offeason. Doesn't sound like all that mich given the size of payrolls, but for a team like the Lakers, hoping to preserve the ability to use a full non-taxpayer midlevel, this sort of thing matters. And from there, it's a a reminder too that one way the Lakers can improve is by creatively inserting themselves into trades that require multiple teams, whether to stash draft capital or players they like, ideally without giving up all that much. You want talked coming in, but not going out. 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky 

SEGMENT 1: League meetings. Folllowing Walter's money? 

SEGMENT 2: How ownership is changing. 

SEGMENT 3: Salary cap help is coming. 

Photo Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images

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Last week, the big news for the Lakers was an assistant GM, but the team didn't stop there. On Friday, the squad also filled out the sports science staff, adding Keith D'Amelio as their new sports performance guy. (Director of Integrated Performance Systems, technically speaking.) 

This isn't necessarily a *new* new position—the Lakers have struggled for years to maintain a consistent sports medicine and sports performance department (the evolution of the training/sports science/performance space is a story in itself...). D'Amelio appears to be a new cog in that machine. But it still feels like they're building it out, and hopefully this hire can bring some stability to this part of their operation. Because it's a big factor in how free agents, when presented with opportunities to choose between good franchises, ultimately make decisions. 

Jeanie Buss meanwhile is representing the Lakers at league meetings, which shouldn't surprise anyone. It's obviously too quick for the Lakers ownership to get a vote from the rest of the league. Josh Kushner still needs to sell his shares of the Miami Heat, and reports suggest the group still needs to add a few more investors. So when will the league be ready to go here? Hard to say, but given that the Lakers can't for a variety of reasons make many big personnel moves for a few months (we explain) and that they seem to be carrying on with hiring, it's not such a big deal. 

Finally, ESPN is again previewing the West. The Lakers are bunched in with last year's 3-6 teams, in the "flawed" W.C. contenders category. Fair? 

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky 

SEGMENT 1: More hires in the basketball department! 

SEGMENT 2: The Lakers are still repped by Jeanie, which is fine!

SEGMENT 3: "Flawed" is fair? 

Photo Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

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