Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers badly need a center. Everyone knows it.  Walker Kessler is a very good young pivot who rebounds, can catch a lob and has fantastic defensive metrics. He's the kind of player a team could build around. Buuuuuuuuut, reports out of Utah say they're listening to everything this offseason. Some guys (Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton, John Collins) might be available, but someone like Kessler?...

The Lakers have some work to do this summer to improve the team enough to realistically compete for a title, but multiple reports indicate that might not be so easy.  Why? Not just because the price for certain players (namely centers) might be steep, but because the rest of the league might be in the mood to punish them for being gifted Luka Dončić at the trade deadline. The Athletic's Jovan Buha...

Many tried to sell this NBA Finals between Oklahoma City and Indiana as a clunker. Two small market teams without the league's biggest stars (even though it does have, you know, it's MVP). Well, Game 1 showed how much potential for sheer entertainment this series contains.  A jumper from Tyrese Haliburton won the game for the Pacers with .3 seconds left on the clock.  Indiana's depth was on displa...

The NBA has become a wasteland for coaches over the last few months. This week, the Knicks canned Tom Thibodeau, despite just having made the Eastern Conference Finals.  Why? The reasons are still emerging, but it's reasonable to say that Thibs is someone who tends to wear on players and organizations over time. The same can be said for Michael Malone, who did last a decade in Denver but clearly w...

Basically every Lakers fan knows that Luka Dončić is eligible for a contract extension this offseason. Everyone knows that the Lakers will give Luka whatever it is he wants, whether talking dollars, years, player options and whatever.  What people may not know is just how long Luka has to make this decision. most of the good parts of the NBA offseason will be past by the time his date of eligibili...

The Lakers will be looking to upgrade their talent any way they can going into next, year, and will have to get pretty creative about it.  One source of improvement for the rotation that might be a little unexpected? How about Bronny James?  That, via long time NBA writer Sean Deveney : " And it appears the Lakers are dead-set on pushing for Bronny James to be part of the rotation next year. "I do...

The NBA Finals are here, and the mediasphere seems unsure of what to do with a series that doesn't include big cities or the most name brand stars.  Still, a Finals that features the league's MVP, along with a fantastic story out of the East (Tyrese Haliburton, going from spare part/meme on the Olympic team to Eastern Conference champ) should be something the NBA can market. And they should lean i...

There are a lot of ways teams are building winners around the NBA right now. One of the big topics of conversation is depth.  Oklahoma City is already in the Finals. They've got depth in almost cartoonish quantities. Indiana is expected to join them, and have plenty of depth as well.  The Lakers, as you may have heard, are lacking in that department. Whether it was a good idea or not, teams with r...

After a season of upheaval, Lakers need to figure out how to create an identity heading into next year. The good news is that Rob Pelinka and Co. don't have to do a lot of thinking to figure out the core of that identity - It's Luka Dončić. The identity is a team that plays hard, plays defense, plays unselfishly. Sure. All teams say that. But the path to that is figuring out how to create those at...

According to ESPN's Shams Charania, LeBron James plans to pick up his player option for 2026, worth about $52.5 mil.  While Shams noted there's still time for things to change, this appears to be the most likely outcome for LeBron and the Lakers. And in some ways, it's the most expected, given the options. While there was always the dream (pipe dream, really) that James might leave about $20 mil o...

Last week, early reports of Luka Dončić dedicating himself more seriously to fitness were giving Lakers fans some encouragement.  This weekend, things looked even better. In the form of pictures! From Luka's Insta page, and from pictures taken of him in the crowd at Real Madrid and even food pics from his wife's social media. We saw a thinner looking player, and what appeared to be a healthy, deli...

There is virtually no limit to the level of scrutiny Luka Dončić is set to receive this summer around his fitness. So when anyone says anything on the subject that provides some potential insight, it'll get attention. That's the case with Jason Gallagher, a producer of JJ Redick's "Old Man and the Three" Podcast, as well as the "Mind the Game" pod hosted (formerly) by Redick and then and now by Le...

LeBron James is now the oldest player in NBA history to garner MVP votes. Wednesday, when the league announced the results, not surprisingly Shai Gilgeous-Alexander walked away with his first trophy, with Nikola Jokic the runner up. But down there in sixth was LeBron James. His first MVP votes came as a 19-year old with the Cavs in his rookie season. And now, he's finished 6th.  Pretty remarkable,...

The NBA announced its All Rookie squads, and (not surprisingly) Dalton Knecht wasn't among the 10 honored first year players. To his credit, Knecht was relatively close, finishing in a tie for 13th in vote total. It's a fair result for a guy who had a lot of highs and lows over the course of the season. His strong suits were clear (shooting, offense, athleticism) and his weaknesses (defense) equal...

NBA Squad Show: Conference Finals are set to COLLIDE as New NBA Era changes championship landscape   Can the Oklahoma City Thunder overcome the Minnesota Timberwolves' depth in the Western Conference Finals? As the NBA playoffs heat up, the Thunder's defensive prowess faces a stern test against the Timberwolves, who have been a force in the West all season. Join Nick Engstad, Doug Norrie, and Ryla...

There was a lot of feedback to Monday's show running down the league's (mostly) starting centers and judging whether they qualify as a "foundational piece," i.e. the level of player the Lakers reportedly would have to receive in order to send out Austin Reaves in a trade. In the process, we saw a variety of opinions on:  AR's level as a player.  His overall trade value.  Whether we had the right p...

The Lakers, it is reported, would trade Austin Reaves for a "foundational piece." That doesn't have to be a center, necessarily, but certainly the five is LA's biggest need, and as LA's best trade chip, people are going to at least make those connections.  But practically speaking, who exactly would that mean? Like, sure, the Lakers would trade Austin for Nikola Jokic or Wemby... but that's not a...

The Austin Reaves Conversation is definitely a real thing. In his Thursday newsletter, Dan Woike of the LA Times relays how the Lakers are looking at things. First things first, Reaves is not untouchable. But to move him, the Lakers (quite rightly) will want a foundational piece in return, not some rental or a transitional player. Reaves is a very good player, and they'd need a very good player in...

The assignment for Rob Pelinka is clear: Build a winning roster around Luka Dončić. In the short term, that (likely) includes LeBron James. In the long run, it won't. Is Austin Reaves part of the equation? It seems like it, but is that set in stone?  The Lakers have a lot of needs—center, rebounding and wing depth at the top of the list—without a lot of assets to make it happen. Pelinka has some e...

Lakers fans love wallowing in the misery of the Celtics, but even Lakers fans don't wish for this sort of thing. Monday in Game 4 against the Knicks, Boston star Jayson Tatum went down with a ruptured Achilles. He'll miss much of/most of/all of next season (the exact recovery is TBD, but even with modern surgery and treatment, it's a months-long recovery). So now Boston, a team that would have had...

The Lakers weren't part of Monday's NBA Draft Lottery, but they were definitely impacted by it.  An already challenging Western Conference is set to get even harder, with the Dallas Mavericks overcoming incredibly long odds (1.8%) to win the top pick in this year's draft, otherwise known as the Cooper Flagg Sweepstakes. This is a remarkable turn of events for a team far better equipped to compete...

The Lakers have a lot of thinking to do this offseason about how to improve the roster. In theory, the idea would be to fill in areas of need—starting with center but not ending there—around the core of Luka Dončić, LeBron James and Austin Reaves. But the challenge comes in getting players good enough to meaningfully improve the team without having to give up ... well, it's not going to be Luka, a...

Most people assume that LeBron James will be back for another season—at least—but nobody actually knows for sure at this point.  And that apparently includes LeBron, who said on his Mind the Game podcast that he hasn't actually sat down to discuss next season with his family at this point. Hasn't thought about whether he wants to go through the grind again, or whether he's mentally up for it. Now,...

The rumors are already percolating! Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks superstar, NBA champion, is thought to, perhaps, be on the trade block.  And, of course, should he decide he wants out of Milwaukee, there are reports that the Lakers would be among his desired locations.  So let's start with the first part, first. Is it really possible Giannis could actually leave Milwaukee? Yes, it is. The Bucks ar...

JJ Redick finished sixth in Coach of the Year voting, and now the guy who hired him matched it in Executive of the Year voting.  Lakers GM Rob Pelinka had his highest finish since joining the team, after a notable year that started with zero action in the summer (like, seriously, nothing) and finished with a significant trade for Dorian Finney-Smith and then the NBA-altering deal for Luka Dončić....