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in Ontario, New customers only. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG dot co. Slash audio. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume. We have a very special show today. We're doing a deep dive into like kind of a mid season review of the Los Angeles Lakers mixed with a trade deadline preview with my buddy yovonn Bouja. We're going to get into a
bunch of good stuff today. Yovon, how are you man?
Doing well, Jason, Thank you for having me excited to be on.
It's good to see you. We are actually recording this on Thursday. I think you guys are going to be seeing this on Saturday, but we're recording this on Thursday. After a win against the Miami Heat, Yovan and I were joking before the show about how precarious theme things looked at the end of the first half yesterday. I'll say, though, like having gone back and watched the film, like, I didn't think they played terribly in that first half.
It just they were kind of it was.
Kind of an extension of the funk that they've been in, and honestly, I thought that second half was one of their best stretches of basketball this season in terms of execution on both ends of the floor. And that kind of is the way that I would wrap up this entire Lakers season to this point is a combination of like extremely frustrating lack of commitment to those details and
then some pretty basketball when it all comes together. And so I want to kind of start big picture, and I want to start before we even get into any like like actual traits about the team. Where do you think the team is at mentally right now in terms
of this up and down season. You have this crazy hot start with this crazy low low peaking with that Miami loss on the road to a nice resurgence to a three game losing streak, this trade for Dorian Finney Smith that sends the Angela Russell out, and now we have this win against the Heat. Where do you think this team is at mentally right now?
I think they're in in uncomfortable growth period right now, because last against the Heat that there were some very interesting comments publicly from this group. We spoke with Max Christy at shoot around and he talked about how disconnected they've been, particularly on the defensive end, and he put it more on the players and the coaching staff. He's like, we know what we're running defensively, just for whatever reason,
we're quiet out there. We don't communicate well, we're not on the same page, and we botch a bunch of basic stuff. And you can tell when we're connected, we look really good and we can be a defensive team. When we're not, you can also tell ed we're a pretty bad defensive team. So I thought that was a pretty relevatory statement from a starter on this team, and just admitting that this group is not on the same page right now and that it's something that they've been
talking about and trying to address. Then after the game, you have JJ Reddick just come out and say they had a team meeting at shoot around and he challenged this group from a leadership perspective, and he's talked about several times this season that this is more of an introverted group. They are quiet, They don't necessarily have that like commanding vocal leader. It tends to be Lebron, but outside of him, the rest of the group is pretty
more to themselves. So JJ talked about like, if you guys aren't going to lead vocally, you at least need to lead by example, lead with diving on the ground for loose balls, your defensive rotations, crashing the offensive glass, like doing the little things on the floor that lead to winning basketball.
And you guys have not done that enough late.
So I thought you saw that, especially in that second half, that the group really led by example and everyone was locked in.
They're playing serious basketball, as you like to say.
And then the final thing was AD I think pretty much summed it up where he was like, whether we're up or we're down, we have to stop being front runners. And I think there's been that kind of front runner energy at times with this group, where when they're up, everyone it's all kumbaya. Everyone's happy that they're you know that the spirit's great. But when they're down, everybody separates.
And you've seen that. How many times this season have they had a second half where they just get absolutely smacked and end up losing a game by twenty twenty five thirty points. That's the reason why their point differential and that rating are so bad despite being above five hundred, is because they have these just god awful second halfs.
So I think right now they're in this growth period of trying to figure out the new rotation, trying to figure out the way that they've adjusted offensively and defensively without d Angela Russell. But it's been uncomfortable at times.
There's been some tension, there's been some disconnection, and right now as we're recording this, they're three and four post THEFS trade, and I think they were expecting to be better than that and the twenty ninth in defense over this stretch, Like, I think they were supposed to be better defensively, but right now, I feel like that they're trending in the right direction temporarily, but with this team, as we know, it's kind of a week to week team.
That's why I wanted to start with the mental element, because there's a certain amount of self awareness that is important in all walks of life. But an important piece of self awareness for this Lakers team is that they are not the most talented team in the NBA. Like that, that is the first thing you have to acknowledge. NBA history tells us that you don't have to be the most talented team to win the title. I think, even as recently a great example is the twenty twenty two Warriors.
I don't think they were the most talented team in the league and they won the title. There's a lot of different ways that you can create opportunity for yourself
through the commitment to those details. The reason why the commitment to the details is so important is like what you're talking about, those moments where the Lakers have a ten to fifteen point lead, but they kind of squander it down and end up barely scraping out a win with a couple of big shots from Lebron late or or it's the game where they fall down by ten and instead of rebounding back from that, they just give
up and lose by twenty five. That's where the commitment to habits and details will carry you.
Like, there is a certain floor that.
Every basketball team can have just simply through effort and execution. If you're just in the right spots on defense all the time, and you compete physically for every loose ball, and on offense, you sprint into your cuts, you set solid screens, you get to the right spot on the floor, and you execute your offense properly. If you do all of those things, you will you will give yourself a chance to fight back even when things aren't going your way.
And so like when you get up fifteen, if you continue to do those things, even if they're playing more desperate than you, you should at least kind of hang on right when you're down by fifteen, If you're at least doing all of those things, you should be able to hang onto the rope, and when they lose desperation, you'll gain some ground on them. It is a basketball
character thing that is absolutely necessary. And the reason why I ask you about this is this is like a non negotiable for this team if they want to get to where they want to go. I heard JJ talk about I don't want to coach a good team. I want to coach a great team. You and I talked about this on your pod the other week. Yeah, last week, Lebron comes out after the I think it was after the Houston loss. I want to be a great team.
I thought Steph Curry's comments after the game last night when he was like he was like, if you guys think I'm okay, like leading an average team, you're insane, and like, that's the step one is be committed to the work.
Once we accomplish that, then we can.
Shift to the big picture and talk about strength and weaknesses of the team, how to address these sorts of things. But there is a decision that has to be made, and last night is not the first time this season that they've made this decision. Like, Hey, tonight, we're gonna do it, guys, That's not the first time they've made
that decision. It was jarring to watch Yovan the difference in the way they were defending when they got into like precarious switches compared to the games against San Antonio. The games against Dallas where like Austin gets Bam, BAM's got Austin in the post instead of everyone standing around Lebron hard double teams and they're in position off that. Max was really bad defensively in the first half and he ended up losing Tyler Harrow on that play, but they were at.
Least offering support. There was a peel off switch.
There's a like again, JJ talked about we're not gonna do one to five switching any that was just a game plan specific thing for the Spurs and for Dallas. Okay, we're gonna do less switching tonight. Well, Bam sets a monster screens Suddenly it ends up having to be a switch. He buries Max in the post. Instead of just standing there. Ruey stunts, Anthony Davis stunts, They offer him support. They forced Bam to pump Bake. He ends up missing a
hook shot. Like this team is capable of doing the things that JJ is asking them to do, they just have to do it. And so again, it's not about one game, and this is why we can't ever react to any one game step one before we go any further with this team. What they did last night needs to be their journey. It needs to be what they do on a daily basis to maximize the talent that
they have on this team. So the pivot point that I see for the deadline and this is where I want to kind of shift gears towards what we can expect in February. I see two different directions that the Lakers can go. Option number one is anchor Lebron, Anthony Davis and Austin with two way athletes, and the way that this was manifest is like an upgrade at the two. Basically, I thought Max was pretty rough in the first half yesterday.
Max is a very up and.
Down player because he's a young player, so that's to be expected. You have more of a rock solid option so that Max can be a backup but still play twenty twenty five minutes, get his reps, but not be someone that you depend on. And that requires what you saw at the end of the game. That requires Lebron to be hit in tough right shoulder fades, hitting little elbow jump shots and pick and roll Austin to hit shots like that. It leaves the onus on Lebron in
Austin to do enough offensively. Option two is to get super aggressive on the shot creation star front, which is like, let's go get a Zach Lavine, Let's go get a brandon Ingram, Let's go get a Collin Sexton, let's go get a Jordan Pool whoever?
That is right?
Which direction do you think the front office is lean? And I should include two before I pitch this to you. The role player element probably includes them potentially hunting for a backup center if that's something that you to do. But which direction do you think the front office is leaning more towards at this point? And where are you leaning at this point?
So I'm leaning toward the former option.
You and I have spoken about Bruce Brown as a potential option that we think would make a lot of sense with this group. And I look at the twenty twenty model, not necessarily from the big man perspective, but the put a bunch of two way perimeter players around Lebron in eighty. Have those guys be relatively interchangeable from a skill set perspective? And if you can think about DFS and Max next to Lebron Ady Austin or DFS and Bruce Brown or Max and Bruce Brown and like that,
there's so many combinations. Vando when he gets back, obviously leans more defensive than offensive, but that the Lakers started to use him in some interesting ways last season before the injury in Boston, So I like that model more than the ladder. I think the playmaking. There's been some growing pains with Austin as he has transitioned to being a full time point guard, but he also had a performance like last night where fourteen assists, one turnover and
it was just dissecting the heats zones. So I thought, like, there's going through matchups where Austin struggles, and I do think there's some overlap between Austin and Lebron in terms of the matchups where they both struggle, where athletic teams that can put pressure on the ball can't affect both of those guys, and that's when you'll see higher turnover games and them not being as necessarily efficient offensively. But those were also the types of teams that De Lo
would struggle against. So if they do go out and get another playmaker, I think it would have to be a different kind of player arc type than the one that they previously had.
But I think they're.
Going to lean more of the playmaking route between those two paths. That that is my sense currently. I know in conversations with people around the team in the fallout of the DFS trade, one thing that they wanted to evaluate was the playing and if there was a bit of a hole there after trading d LO, And I think there has been, Like I think that the playmaking overall, it's probably been fine, but there have been some stretches
where they've they've struggled. And I don't even think it's necessarily making a wholesale change of bringing in a new starting point guard or a new primary ball handler.
I think it's more so just like.
They could just use a third reliable ball handler, playmaker initiator, even if it's like a bench player, so that could like we talked about Bruce Brown as a guy who kind of checks a couple boxes where he does have some history being that type of guy off the bench in Denver, and then he also, excuse me, is a type of two way tip, a two AA wing that he can kind of check a couple of those boxes. Because I think the Lakers have three holes right now, and I don't know how realistic it is to check
all of them. But in terms of playmakings versus two a wings. I think that the Wing acquisition was probably dfs and looking more toward a backup big or a playmaker.
Yeah, I would agree with you. I agree with you
that there's there's three holes. I would say that the backup center hole as a hole that most teams in the NBA have, And there are these teams out there where it's like teams like Dallas is a good example, I think in other examples like Detroit with Jalen durn and Isaiah Stewart, where it's like you almost feel like you have two starting centers and then they do like that both of them play like twenty four minutes ish and they and they just play their asses off the
entire time they're out there. That's a great luxury. I don't want to sit here and pretend like that wouldn't be super helpful to have like a Walker Kessler that would be able to come in for twenty twenty five minutes a night and play really high level center.
And help the team.
But that's a weakness that like quite literally almost every team in the league has, except for a couple of others, mainly just because there's just not that many good centers in this league, and most of the backups come with gaping holes. Like I always think it's funny when I'm listening to Bucks and it's like, we just need to have a center that can defend, and I want to be like, yeah, you're right, Bobby Porters sucks at defense, and bringing in a center that can defend would really help.
But Bobby Portas is also really good at offense. And whatever guy you bring in that's better at drop coverage and tracking guys around is probably going to be a guy that janks things up for your offense on the other end of the floor, because that's just the type of player that you're dealing with there right now.
When it comes to the shot.
Creation versus the the athletic support debate, I think it comes down to discussing what level you can get to on either end of the floor. And when I start thinking about the Lakers trying to outscore people, what I get worried about is like, can they outscore Denver? I don't know. I don't know that they can. Let's say they get out of the conference. Can you outscore Cleveland?
Can you outscore Boston? Can you like that's it I'm worried about, like, oh, like, let's say they got zach Lavine, which the those hot, super high salary guys are just really difficult to match. But I think zach Levine is a really chew in offensive fit with this team. It would be an obvious offensive upgrade. Like, do I think zach Lavine, Lebron, Ad and Austin is going to outperform
offensively the top offenses in the league. I don't know, However, I do think, because I've seen it, that Lebron and Austin and AD can scale up offensively a certain amount in the postseason to where they have a puncher's chance to compete on that side of the floor. But if you anchor them defensively, I actually think there's a level
this team can get to defensively when they're engaged. And I know this sounds at frankly just ridiculous because of how bad they've been defensively this year, But in theory and engaged Anthony Davis and engaged Lebron, and engaged Drian Finney Smith and engaged let's call it Bruce Brown in an engaged Austin Reeves that is committed to the details
and builds out the have it's necessary. Within JJ Redick's defensive scheme, I think they can hit a really high defensive level while also having a certain offensive upside because of Lebron and Austin and Ad and so there's a risk both ways. Right, if you go after a playmaker, it's possible that you're just not good enough defensively and
you can outscore people. If you go all in on a athletic support type of player, then you have a shortcoming in playmaking shot creation that we've talked about that I agree with you that has manifested since the De Lo trade.
There's holes both ways, but the.
Defensive the defensive hole for going for a role player, there's nothing in house that can scale up and cover for that, whereas Austin and Lebron might just make shots.
And if they do, maybe you win the whole damn thing.
That's where I look at it, where like there's a certain scaleability with like what if Lebron and Austin, Like for instance, last year and in the first round series, I thought Lebron and Ad were awesome. That wasn't the issue. I didn't think shot creation was the issue. I thought the issue was they weren't supported athletically the way they
needed to be. If they Denver scored every time down the floor in Game two and in Game five down the stretch, you get stops on thirty percent of those possessions. You're up three to two in the series against the defending champs, and I think they match up really well against Minnesota. So like it's one of those things where
it's just it's flawed either way. And so we go back to my original question, which is like, which is like if this team commits to the work, that's step one, which flawed path is more likely to lead to the promised Land. And I think anchoring them with athletic support has the upside of Lebron and Austin versus anchoring them with offensive support has the downside of them just not
having enough defensive talent to get the job done. Let's start talking about some specifics and before we get into the trade of the actual trade market, where is Vando at in his return at this point? Do you think his return is imminent or do you think we're still a few weeks out.
I would say relatively imminent.
JJ said that early next week there's going to be an update in terms of a more concrete timetable, So that to me typically is what when the team gives a timetable, it's like a seven to ten day on the short side, So I would expect Vando to potentially be back in the next couple weeks. On the shorter side. He one challenge they've had right now is that they're trying to find scrimmage reps for him, but the team has not been practicing. They are not practicing. They are
practicing Thursday. The G League team has been out of town, so he was getting some reps with South Bay, but they've been trying to get.
Ready group anymore they do, so he's been doing it with the coaching staff, but but they want him to get actual five on five reps with like the team and see what it looks like and ramp that up.
So maybe like the end of next week on the very early side, but I would suspect it probably goes into the following week. But that then gives you like a week and a half to evaluate this group and he'll JJ has already said he's going to be on a minute restriction to start at about like ten to fifteen minutes, so you don't really get the sample size that you want, because that's been a big thing for them, has been saying, we want to get Vando back, we
want to get Christian Wood back. We want to see what this group looks like healthy, so we can like because right now, sure it looks like we need another wing defender, but maybe Vando is simply that wing defender. Like it looks like we need a better backup five.
Maybe Christian Wood is that better backup five. But we don't know if we're going to see those guys back before or the trade deadline, so they might just have to make a call as to you know, what do we think this group looks like, what do we think the holes are and how do we plug that? What's your best guest with Christian Wood? Christian There's been no updates on so that's the one that I think is. You know, I asked about it a couple of days ago and JJ just kind of laughed, it was like,
no update, So that what I'm like. You know, they just released Quincy Olivari as a two way guy, added trade Jemison from New Orleans. He's a big six eleven, two hundred and seventy pound I mean, physical monster, So that to me could be a sign that between him and Coloco that they're more looking at some younger, cheaper options the backup five spot. But yeah, I think Christian Wood for now it's that one's on the back burner.
But but Vanda, it seems like he could be back within the next couple of weeks, which would obviously be a much needed infusion to this group.
That's always where I'm at with the backup center thing, especially if you can have a couple different types, like if you have this big, bruising guy and then you've got more of like the running athlete in Christian Coloco
or Jackson Hayes. Like I think, I think the gap between a two way backup center and a backup center that you see traditionally throughout the league is like one of the smaller gaps that you'll see in the league, Whereas like the gap between like a backup point guard and a two way point guard feels like a chasm, right, Like the the gap between like the Jalen Hoods Chaffino types and a you know, a D'Angelo Russell or the
type of big gap type. You know what I mean, yeah, exactly, whereas like, like, like I think like a Christian Colloco type could come closer to a Bobby Portis in terms of overall two way impact, just because he's just going to play hard and he's big, and he's athletic, and he's gonna do all these really basic things. Okay, let's talk about the trademarkt a little bit. Let's start on the playmaker side of things. If there is a specific type of guy that like, a specific guy that you prefer,
let us know. And then among the guys that you've heard mentioned with the Lakers, talk to us about where the Lakers prioritize them. Actually let me let me pitch you a really quick one. Do you think it's one hundred percent chance the Lakers make another deal?
No, I would not put it at one hundred percent. I would put it at let's say, sixty five percent. I think it's more likely than not that they make another deal. But as I hinted at a little bit earlier, the recent intel I've been getting is that they are more likely to do a smaller deal with one or two second round picks than actually using a first round pick, or you know, let alone both first round picks.
I think part of that is the market right now.
If you look at the types of guys that have moved, it's been those like fringe starter, high level bench guys, the Schroeders, DFS, Dlo, Nick Richards. So I think if there will be better players that move around the deadline, but right now teams will really hesitant to move first round picks in general.
Now I don't agree with that strategy.
I think if you're the Lakers, like we've talked about it several times over the past year, you got to go for it. You have eighteen months potentially with Lebron and Ad left, and I think you need to make the most of it. Put the picks on the table, go take a bigger swing. But the recent until I've heard it, seems to be trending toward them leaning more toward making a smaller deal than a bigger one.
Okay, so let's start with these bigger swings. Well, actually, are there any playmakers out there that you view as a smaller swing, like, let's say Collin Sexton, for example, Is there anybody in that boat that you think they're exploring.
I think Lonzo is someone that's going to be on their radar, and I think depending on the price, if you could get him for a second or two seconds, I think that's an interesting swing. And also someone with that six foot six frame that could potentially I think, be similar to Bruce Brown check a couple of boxes where he can He's bulked up a little bit throughout his career, so he can guard us and even some smaller threes and potentially be part of like a one
through three switching scheme. And then offensively, I think, especially if you're just coming off the bench as a secondary ball handler, playmaker and also a spot up shooter, like I think he is someone who's an interesting gamble for them. So I would look at kind of the hybrid guys like a Bruce Brown or Alonzo Ball or a couple guys that I've reported on that have been linked to
them having call In Sexton and Malcolm Brogden. So in neither instance, I mean, those guys are making a little bit more money, so you probably have to include RUI. I don't see the Lakers being able to put Jared Vanderbilt in any of these deals without including a first round pick to attach with him, so that kind of limits like right now. I think the biggest thing for them is just the contracts are really tough where people don't want Gabe Vincent's contract Ruey is very much I
of the beholder type asset. And then Jared Vanderbilt has three more years left and the salary figure isn't that bad, but that's still a lot for a guy who's basically been injured for two years, and teams are reluctant to take on that type of money. So I would look at those four as potential guys that two of them more wing or big guard types that can check a couple boxes, and then two of them the more traditional backup slash you know, off guard in Sexton and broad Day.
Yeah, Lonzo Ball is an interesting option. I actually think he'd be a fantastic fit alongside Austin. I think he's a good defender. I think he plays hard and competes for loose balls. I think he's a more natural offensive fit with everybody because he's a guy that can knock down, catch and shoot jump shots. Is really good like connective passer, like he is like Austin in that regard for when he's driving closeouts, he's so good at like making that next play, and there's a lot of good there. I
just am so freaked out about Lonzo's health. It just feels like such a gamble.
For a guy.
Like there's there's health conversations around guys that I think are somewhat unfair, like sometimes like guys like Cam Johnson or Zach Lavine. Like Zach Lavine, like, yeah, he had a bad year last year. He played seventy seven games a year before, and in the five years before he averaged like sixty seven games played or sixty five games
played or something like that. Like there's that, and then there's the I haven't touched a basketball in years thing with with Lonzo ball, right, and like that That's where it gets a little a little freaky for me. I'm kind of out on Malcolm Brogden because it's like injury concerns and I just don't think he's particularly great on
either end of the ball. The reason why I am partial to the Bruce Brown thing is I actually I think that the Lakers struggle with ball pressure in a way that is separate from some of their half court shot creation stuff. Like I think when they get pressured and they don't get into their offense until later in the clock, they can get stagged and things can fall apart. But when they get the ball up the floor and they run their stuff, I feel like they do okay.
And one of the things that Bruce Brown did for Denver for ages, it wasn't like he was quote unquote running the offense. He would just bring the ball up the floor and make the high post entry tookitch and then they would go play their play their game. And so it was Bruce has a unique ability to just like grab and go that allows you to deal with ball pressure in the backcourt and get the ball at
the floor and get into your offense. And so I think that's why Bruce remains my favorite option, because he brings a bunch of different characteristics to the table that accentuate the team. Like he's a good rebounder. This team is desperate for guys that are good rebounders, can handle ball pressure and bring the ball to the floor, something this team desperately needs. The catch and shoot think can
get a little tricky. But like I don't know about you guys, but when I was watching Max and Cam just break every open three in the Spurs game, I wasn't exactly out there thinking like, oh, but Bruce can't shoot either, you know, like it's like like an upgrade's and upgrade at the end of the day.
Colin Sexton is an interesting option. I think.
I think he represents a middle ground in a lot of ways because he one has like legit offensive upside. Two, he competes on defense as a ball pressure guy. Three, he's at a more achievable salary. And for you could kind of envision a scenario where he could be that fifth guy at times where on certain nights it makes sense to go Austin Colin dfs lebron ad. But then like, if the matchups are different, you can go to a
different guy at that two guard spot. But he also get an anchor bench units, like, oh Austin's out for a night, Well, Colin can scale into a role like that, like if Austin misses a game at some point this season, what the hell are the Lakers gonna do in terms of guard ball handling, Like, I get.
That Austin plays all that shit exist we saw last night.
Good God, yeah exactly, So I think I think Colin there's a deal that I that I kind of like was looking at where it's like, what if you did something with Utah where you got Kessler and Sexton and you did something with the pick protections from the original d LO trade. Do you think that a deal is anywhere near the top of the Lakers radar that sort of deal.
Those are both guys that they've had interest in.
I reported on you know that they had some extensive talks with Utah before the season.
For Kessler. The biggest hurdle right now is just the asking price.
Utah wants two first round picks for Walker Kessler, and that's not factoring in the potential inclusion of Calling Sexton in a deal. I will say if the Lakers are willing to include Rui in such a deal, which right now that they do value Rui a lot and view him as a longer term piece. But I think for the right deal that they would be willing to include him. You could do something like ru Jhs and Christian Wood with a first round pick.
You could remove the protections.
You could even throw in a pick swap or a couple seconds if they really want additional draft assets for Walker Kessler and calling Sexton, and on the Laker side, obviously you're getting Sexton in Kesler, but you're you're saving two million on your tax.
Sheet this year, so that that's good for.
Them, but then longer term for Utah, you're actually saving some money next year because JHS and christian Wood are expiring contracts and ruly makes less than Kessler and Sexton combined, so in terms of getting the.
Draft cap and you gotta pay.
And yeah, so I think that that, like in theory, is something that that makes sense.
It just kind of comes back to the asking price.
And I guess I'm more willing to give up both first round picks if I'm getting both of those guys, like I do. Like what we could talk individual guys, But there are some potential packages out there of a Sexton, Kessler, a brown Yakup Pardle, and to a much lesser extent, at least from my perspective, Malcolm brogged in Jonis Valentiunis
and all those pairings are realistic. From a salary perspective, Lakers can mix a match basically Ruy and Gabe as the starting point, and then depending on how many other salaries they have to put into the match. But I think those are all again brogged in valentunis not as sold on on those two guys, but especially the other two Purl and Brown or Cussler and Sexton.
If you can get.
Those types of guys, you know, those types of duos back, I think that checks a couple of boxes, and potentially, depending on who you're sending out, this kind of reshuffles this group and add some size, add some defensive versatility, and I just think makes them a more viable playoff threat.
Yeah.
The one thing I would say if they did get a call in Sexton is I would I would That's where I would turn around and I'd explore looking at something that's on the side for a guy like a Josh Green, where I would still be concerned about not having the perfect two for closing games because I keep thinking about the final five. Like my basketball philosophy centers around the five first and goes out from there.
And that's why I.
Think Ruey has to be included in any deal. That if if Ruey is the asking price in a deal that brings back a player that is in that five, then I think you gotta do it, because to me, Ruey is not in that five. He's in that five some nights but he's not in that five every night, like you know Austin is, you know Lebron is, you know a d is Who's who's it gonna be in the two three? When the when it's pivotal game two, you're down one zero on the road in Okay, see
it's ninety five ninety five with five minutes left. Who do you have out there that That concept, to me is like there needs to be a more high floor option than what they have on the roster right now. And that's why I would look at in that direction
if they made that sort of deal. But the Sexton, Kessler Edwards deal is an interesting deal to me on a bunch of levels because I think it's a massive regular season floor razer in terms of like your ability to sit Anthony Davis for a game, or your ability to sit Lebron or Austin for a game. I think if I think it's going to be difficult to overcome that at this point without that type of deal. Before we move on to the role player corp, is there a any.
So is it exactly in completely off the table?
I wouldn't say completely off the table, but from a salary matching perspective, it's it's really hard, like one of the only negatives.
In my opinion of the deal.
Like, I think there's two clear negatives from the Delo trade, and one was obviously the hit in playmaking that they've taken. But the second thing is just from a salary matching perspective, any bigger trade was likely going to have to require d Loo both for or the actual salary number of just under nineteen million. But also he's the only double
digit salary that they have that's expiring. So if you are giving up a lot of salary, you don't want to necessarily be taking back RUI gave van Do and having all those guys on the books next season and then in Vando's case, two more years after that. So like, because then the asking price kind of changes of some
of these guys who don't necessarily have value. It's one thing if you're giving up expiring contracts or semi valuable contracts, but once you start giving up salary that teams don't want back in return for salary that they don't want, they're going to start asking for stuff that the Lakers aren't gonna want to give up. So I wouldn't say he's off the table entirely. My reservation with it is you talk about the closing five, and like, I just
have concerns about a zach Lavine. Austin reeves back court defensively when it comes down to it, and I think if you go the zach Lavine route, I almost wonder if you have to consider moving Austin at that point either probably not in that deal, maybe in a separate deal to get something else back.
I almost feel like you have to kind of.
Restructure your entire top of the roster and like the hierarchy of it, just because I feel like zach Lavine and Austin it's a better version of the Austin Dilo situation. But there's still similar concerns of I think Zach like, we've never really seen him in high stakes games, so that's kind of its own thing, but I think teams
will target him. He's improved defensively, but he's still a glaring minus and I don't know how he fits into this roster from like a team defense perspective when we just haven't really seen it from him in big moments. So that would be my concern with that of just what that looks like and what that fit is and then potentially having to pivot and go in a different direction. So I think between some of the big names out there,
I like Brandon Ingram more than Zach Lvine. I also think Ingram, I know, is not like he profiles as a better defender than he actually is, but at least like I think he can fit off the ball a little bit cleaner. And he also is six point eight six foot nine, so like he has a certain level of length and athleticism out there that if you can find a way to channel it, I think he could be I mean this is in a positive way, but like a better version of RUI, like a much higher
version of Rui. And that's something that I think could fit in that closing five.
Yeah, every time I watch dak Lavine play, I have my basketball fan in me that gets super excited about what it would look like if he was playing alongside Lebron and Ad. But then every time I follow it through to fruition, I just get immediately off board in terms of all the other holes that it opens up. And to your point, it just there's a version of it where you make several moves and it kind of pieces together into a new team. But now you've got a brand new team, and it just it just involves
a great deal of risk. And that's before we even get into the injury stuff, which, like I said, is I think a little overblown with Levine. But there's just been an often the issues over the years that it's worth mentioning brandon Ingram was going to be the next guy I brought up. He's a more achievable salary point. But it opens up the same sort of issue in terms of like, okay, but now what are you doing
at the two? Let me just pitch it to you like this, Do you think the Lakers are seriously exploring a brandon Ingram trade or do you think that's more in the zach Lavine territory.
I think it's more in the zach Lavine territory.
But I think he's someone that, depending on the price, they would have interest in.
But it's your point.
It does like you've already made the move for DFS and theoretically you're not trying to shop him or reduces like you want a certain role for him as either a starting level guy or or closing level guy. A big piece of irritation. Can you go brandon Ingram DFS on the wings. So Ingram and DFS in theory could work, but I think they're going to be tested in terms of their primitive quickness, lateral agility, and just ability to contain the ball. And I think from a salary perspective,
like it is much easier to make him work. As you mentioned, he's in the mid thirties, so you can get there with Ruy and Gabe, you're at about twenty nine, and then you know you're throw in a couple of
minimum guys. Maybe they take on a JHS as like a low stake scandal or something, but that one's more I think realistic, just from making it work once you get into the forties with guys like Zach Lavine, guys like Jimmy Butler, I think that's where the Lakers just don't really have the matching salary.
So I agree when it comes to the other big salary guys like I'm out on like a Jimmy Butler trader Zach Lavine trade. If if you called David Griffin and you could get brandon Ingram, I think you do it. I think it's I just think it's such a talent play for a team that does have a talent deficiency, and there's some things you like, like you talked about, like, that's not a team that you talking a team that would need to switch. That team would need to switch.
That's a team that would need to switch, contain double and rotate and and even then it would be difficult. But like, I think there's enough talent there to at least consider it as a play. All Right, we only have a couple more minutes, so I want to do rapid fire style. I'm just going to hit you with some names I just want. I just want you to, as best as you can just guess a percentage chance that this guy is a Laker after the deadline. We'll
start with Bruce Brown thirty five percent. Let's go Walker Kessler twenty five percent, Colin Sexton twenty percent, let's go Brandon Ingram.
We'll say eighteen percent, Lons of ball ooh thirty two percent.
Okay, let's two more, will go Malcolm Brogden fifteen percent, Josh Green thirty Okay.
I'm trying to think if there's anyone that I'm missing, let's try. Let's try like another backup center like Robert Williams, we'll say okay, all right, So it sounds to me like.
They're relatively conservative here, you know.
Yeah, for sure, No, I got you. So it sounds to me like they're still kind of just exploring all these options and they're not really committed and they're going to make this decision as like a right at the deadline kind of thing.
Yes, that is that makes a lot of sense.
All right, you havevon tell us about what you got going on over at your channel before we get out of here.
Yeah, so please check out Bouha's block and my channel, Yovan Bouja on YouTube. Also wherever you at your podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, et cetera. And then also be sure to subscribe to The Athletic to read all my work and my reporting on the Lakers trade deadline and where this team is at at the midseason point.
Great stuff has always been. It was good to see you as well. That's all we have for today. We'll be back tomorrow with our usual Friday mailbag. We will see you guys then, what's up guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.