Lakers Lounge

You're going to want to stick around for the very end, where Harrison takes an opportunity to plug his work to give away free commercials and, in the process, may have ended his relationship with the show. Before that, the guys talk about their levels of optimism in this team.

Anthony dives into the various mailbags and finds some great questions that allowed him to riff on some interesting subject matter. LeBron took a picture with Nikola Jokic's agent. Does it matter? Luka Doncic's Jordon promotion tour is pretty well timed. How nervous should we be about the Lakers' coaching staff? All that and plenty more.

Anthony opens the mailbag and gives one of the weirdest analogies for the offseason that you'll ever find.

LeBron lit the internet on fire again, this time by appearing in a picture with Nikola Jokic's agent. Anthony talks about that situation, why he doesn't think LeBron is going anywhere and how he thinks it will all play out. He also talks about the state of media through the lens of this LeBron situation.

Anthony and Pete cover a ton of ground in this one. They start with a conversation about their careers' impacts on their Lakers fandom and whether they miss just being a fan. They then dive into this team's identity and how to build a rotation with that in mind. They discuss their confidence in JJ Redick, then wrap with some questions from the live audience.

Anthony took a very different approach to watching Fantastic Four and found it really improved his experience watching the movie. This leads him to a conversation with Pete about fandom and both of their careers, and whether they ever miss just being fans. From there, the dive into their conversation about the Lakers' identity and how to build a rotation around that.

Anthony's brain is scarred forever by what he saw from JJ Redick in the postseason. He asks Pete to talk him off that ledge. They also wrap with a few questions from the live audience.

Anthony brings back Trevor Lane (LakersNation), who has quickly become a friend of the show. The guys talk about Luka Doncic's extension, which is looking likelier by the day. They go from there to the final couple moves they'd prefer the Lakers make and why they haven't yet. If this is the final roster, the guys talk about their expectations and the identity they think will fit best around Luka....

More reports are surfacing that indicate Luka Doncic will not waste any time on signing his max extension with the Lakers. Anthony and Trevor discuss how we got here and if they were ever nervous that we might not have.

The Lakers' identity this season is obviously going to be Luka Doncic and everything that he brings to the table. But you still have to build something around him. That is the identity Anthony is curious about. He asks Trevor Lane about the approach he'd prefer between leaning towards offense with Gabe Vincent or defense with Jarred Vanderbilt.

Anthony and Harrison zoom out on this summer and try to figure out whether this was a successful offseason (if this is it). Anthony talks about his mortality. His kids join in the fun. Good times.

Anthony and Harrison were in the middle of a point about LeBron wanting to win a championship with Bronny when, boom, in barged Myles. So, what other choice did Anthony have but to ask him and Avery what they've thought about this Lakers offseason if this is indeed it.

Anthony and Harrison are concerned that the Lakers aren't actually committing to the future or the now and, if not, it makes it basically impossible to maximize either.

Anthony quickly discusses the two main topics from today's Lounge. He was going to talk rotations here too but it's too convoluted so he's holding off to have that conversation with a guest you'll probably like.

Considering it's a late-ish July pod episode after most of the Lakers' work seems to have been done, this was a packed episode. Anthony offers up the latest on what he's hearing, then discusses Luka's recruiting efforts. He then dives into some initial rotation thoughts and player combination rules and wraps up with some questions from the live audience.

Since the introduction of the play-in tournament and the flattening of the lottery odds, NBA teams are approaching the offseason in a way that has severely limited the trade market -- to the Lakers' chagrin. Anthony explains what the Lakers are still trying to do and the hurdles they're struggling to clear.

Anthony outlines the beginnings of a rotation, then dives into some rules he has for minutes and player combinations based on this current roster makeup. Then, he dives into some questions from the live audience.

Anthony is pretty stoked to see Christian Koloko back with the Lakers in this capacity. He also watched a few clips of Chris Mañon and is excited about that addition, too. Then, in a surprise move, the Lakers waived Trey Jemison III. Anthony offers his semi-educated guess about who might get that third spot heading into camp.

Anthony welcomes in a friend of the show in Jason Timpf (Hoops Tonight) now that the offseason is juuuuuuust about finished. The guys talk about what the Lakers accomplished, what they're capable of and the work still needing to be done sometime in the future (and hopefully soon).

Anthony and Jason take a look at this Lakers offseason now that it feels like it's mostly done (it may or may not be -- hard to tell). Given the constraints they placed on themselves, it feels successful. Should they have placed those constraints, though?

It might be a little early in the offseason to be talking top 100 lists, but Anthony saw the latest one in which Kobe slid down a bit and has some thoughts. Does defense not matter?

Anthony starts by narrating a piece about the league preparing itself for the seasons of Jokic/Luka/Giannis and offering some additional context seeing as he wrote that piece a few days ago. Then, right as we were ready to post this episode, word dropped the Lakers are waiving Jordan Goodwin. Anthony gives his thoughts on that too.

Anthony breaks down the decision to Waive Shake Milton and what has to come next to open up the room to officially sign Marcus Smart. The next 24 hours are going to be interesting. From there, he talks about the kind of trade the Lakers need to make in order to avoid waiving Jordan Goodwin. Then, dives into the mailbags to answer your questions.

Ah, yesterday. When we had hope that maybe, just maybe, Rob Pelinka would execute a trade in the offseason that would allow the Lakers to keep a useful, cheap player. Those were the days.

Anthony opens up the ol' Twitter mailbag, where listeners are apparently really excited about the Marcus Smart addition. So excited that they're wondering if he might play award-winning defense. Anthony discusses that and plenty more.