Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers

The NBA Draft is Tuesday, and the Lakers will certainly have some big choices to make, whether they trade the pick or use it. And Tuesday also is a reminder of the incredible stakes that have been put on this season, not just by fans and media, but by Rob Pelinka and the front office. After all, he's been noting pretty consistently that this is the spot the Lakers hoped to be in, and that this sum...

In Monday's big episode with NBA/Lakers Draft expert Mike Garcia, we covered a lot of ground, including where things stand in the front office, how the Lakers are preparing (or aren't preparing) for this Draft and offseason, what qualities they ought to value, and more.  In our bonus show with Mike, we unpack a few more things, starting with the question of whether the Lakers would be better off d...

In Monday's big show, we cover a ton of ground with Draft expert Mike Garcia (@canyondriver), a huge favorite among Lakers fans for his incredible Lakers-focused coverage.  Mike not only walks us through his views on some of the players most frequently mocked to the Lakers at 25. Players like centers Tarris Reed Jr., Henri Veesaar and Zuby Ejiofor, and then another higher upside, higher risk playe...

There's a lot of pressure on the Lakers to improve this offseason, and that process begins in earnest on Tuesday with the NBA Draft. The Lakers have the 25th pick, and after their last two first round selections (Jalen Hood-Schifino, Dalton Knecht) have not panned out, it's critical they get this pick right.  What exactly does that mean?  Should the Lakers go after the best available talent? A cen...

The Lakers have been pumping the importance of this offseason for a while, in part (one might argue) because they hoped to change the subject after a series of underwhelming trade windows.  Well, now we're here and the hope was the Lakers would be filled with options, and the world would be their oyster. Things look a little more complicated than that, but nonetheless people expect big things. Peo...

The Lakers have been linked to Jazz center Walker Kessler in one way or another for a couple of seasons. None of it made a lot of sense, given that Kessler is young, good, fits Utah's timeline and was under contract. Meaning there was zero reason for the Jazz to trade him, and especially not to the Lakers.  Now, though, Kessler is reaching restricted free agency, and it's time for Utah to have to...

The Locked On Podcast Network is Celebrating it's 10th birthday, and to kick things off, we're bringing you our list of the 10 most impactful moments of the last 10 years.  It includes a lot of hirings and firings, surprise resignations, critical trades and monumental signings.  There are incredible highs, including a title during one of the most disruptive societal moments a great many of us have...

It's generally believed that the Lakers want to bring back Austin Reaves, which is great because Austin Reavess wants to come back to the Lakers. And no question, beyond the mutual admiration, a lot of the speculation that returns Reaves to the Lakers has been built around the idea that when it comes down to it, the market for Reaves around the league just won't be that strong. There aren't that m...

The Knicks have knocked off the Spurs, putting an exclamation point for the ages on the 2025-26 NBA season.  And with the conclusion of the year, it's time for a time honored tradition: drawing conclusions and trying to get some lessons about what you need to win a title in this league. Every year, it's easy to react to the team that just won, but is that the best approach? After all, New York bec...

The Lakers are simultaneously trying to build next year's team, and the franchise long term. On Friday's big show, we spoke with Khobi Price of the California Post about the progress, or potential lack of progress, the Lakers have made replacing some of the front office personnel (think scouts) that are critical to the pre-draft process. And what about the infrastructure of basketball brains that...

The Lakers are simultaneously undertaking two projects that have some overlap in the Venn Diagram, but aren't entirely aligned. First, they have to think about how to build a winning team around Luka Dončić as quickly as possible, putting enormous pressure on this offseason to be quite excellent. Second, they're engaged in a long-term project of building out the basketball operation and the franch...

Well that was insane.  Down by as much as 29 points, the New York Knicks capped off one of the greatest comebacks in modern sports history, pulling ahead for good on an OG Anunoby tip with 1.2 seconds left for a (to say the least) improbable Game 4 win. Now up 3-1, they seem to have a very strong hold on the series as it returns to San Antonio for Game 6.  And for San Antonio, basically the only w...

The Lakers have a lot of work to do this offseason, and as today's guest Raj Chipalu of Lakers Today notes, they're going to need to compress what normally is a few cycles of team improvement windows (trade deadlines, summertime) into a shorter amount of time if they want to catch up quickly to the leaders atop the West.  So what does that look like in practice?  We continue our offseason makeover...

The Lakers have a million different directions they can go this offseason, even without having tons of tradable contracts or massive amounts of draft capital. Want to create more cap space? Let guys like LeBron and Rui Hachimura go, and Luke Kennard while they're at it. Want to (more or less) run it back? That's easy enough to facilitate. Maybe Austin Reaves stays, and LeBron goes?  So when you th...

The Lakers have to figure out what their priorities are this offseason, because they may very well have to choose between different needs.  Is it the wing?  More bench depth?  A center that really matches well with Luka Dončić?  The answer is yes to all of them, and where the Lakers go depends in part on the best player available at each position. Even if you think they'd be better off with a cent...

Karl-Anthony Towns is having a moment.  After years of being seen in some circles as not quite good enough to be a critical piece on a winning team, KAT has had an incredible postseason, as the Knicks continue a pretty historic run of playoff dominance. It's not that he's never been good in the postseason before (he has) but he's never been THIS good. And who knows, may never be this good again. ...

For much of the year, the expectation was that LeBron James wouldn't be back next season, but Austin Reaves would. Then the vibes (and the results) shifted, and it seemed like both would be back. Now, it looks like James is a little more iffy, but the assumption remains that the Lakers will re-sign Reaves.  But Brad Turner of the LA Times, speaking on Spectrum Sportsnet (the Lakers TV home) said t...

The Lakers are in a bind. It doesn't seem like they are clamoring for LeBron James to return... but they also may not be able to afford to let him go. James, for his part, has decisons to make. What does he value most next year? Is it a paycheck that aligns with his value? The best chance to compete for a title (all of it being relative)? Proximity to his family? The most comfortable atmosphere, w...

A look at the Lakers' potential free agents Marcus Smart (player option) and Luke Kennard (unrestricted free agent). Smart proved to be an indispensable defender and culture setter for the Lakers, one that's definitely worth more than the $5.4M deal he can decline. Were Smart to hit the open market, there would be competition for his service. How much, and for how many years, can/should the 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 Pel...

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 tra...

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 nobo...

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 nece...

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...

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 t...