Lakers Re-Sign Jaxson Hayes to One-Year Deal. Plus, the LeBron-Lakers Relationship.

Lakers Re-Sign Jaxson Hayes to One-Year Deal. Plus, the LeBron-Lakers Relationship.

Hey everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Friday. Brian Kaminsky, Andy Kimenski. The Lakers bring back Jackson Hayes for one more year. Are they done with free agency? That’s next. You are Locked On Lakers, your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers first listen of every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast, this one’s always free, never behind the payw wall. And Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where we can go hang out. With over 35,000 subscribers to the channel, Andy, all of whom are wondering if uh Thursday’s move resigning Jackson Hayes means that the Lakers, at least for the free agent portion of the 2025 off season, have uh done all that they’re going to do. Uh, but we will break that down momentarily. Want to let everybody know first that today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create account. Use code locked on NBA unlocked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Um, I’ve certainly been clear that I I would have been happy if the Lakers perhaps had upgraded uh the the backup center position uh over Jackson Hayes or brought back Hayes really as a third center. Um, as you remind me uh for Thursday’s show, Maxi Clayba is still here.
Yes. I mean, Jackson Hayes may be you you may have gotten everything that you wanted where Jackson Hayes is the third string center on this team because for the time being based on JJ Reick’s willingness to play Maxi Clayba in crunch time of an elimination game in the playoffs despite maybe having met half of his teammates before that game. I’m guessing Clayba’s ahead of Hayes in the rotation. He he could be uh and they are they different skill sets. There’s no question. Um but that said,
one of them is JJ likes him and the other one is JJ doesn’t.
Yeah. Which which one of them played most recently in the playoffs? That it was still one of the more galaxy brain things I have ever seen.
I be I’m still on board with that first run. I don’t think I would have gone back. Don’t think I would have gone back the second time. Crunch time of an elimination game. Maxi has yet to practice with these guys. No pressure. We just need you to save our season. Right. Just give us some high leverage again. Second run. Not what I would have done. Anyway, um that said, it it did always kind of feel, speaking of inevitable, that the Lakers would in fact bring back Jackson Hayes. I I felt like there was always a better chance than not that the Lakers would bring him back. And that is in fact exactly what has happened. The Lakers agreeing to Jackson Hayes uh for a one-year deal that while terms weren’t released, I think we can all assume is for the minimum. And uh
actually according according to Kobe Price covers the Lakers for the SoCal News Group front of the show. It is for a slight bump over the veterans minimum from his last deal I think just because it’s a
you have to right it’s it’s a rollover from the last deal. So it’s about $3 million but it doesn’t count at all against the bannual exception anything like that. Um, interesting quirk because it is Jackson Hayes’s third one-year contract with the Lakers consecutive. He now has a de facto no trade clause essentially as a way of maintaining his own bird rights. Uh, some some old heads may remember when Devin George was a member of the Dallas Mavericks. Same type of setup and the Mavericks wanted to trade for Jason Kidd and include Devin George. Devin George did not want to go to the then New Jersey Nets which were an absolute tirefire and vetoed the trade. Then they eventually worked it out. So he I think they traded somebody else in Deon State in Dallas or something like that. But it’s rare when something like this happens. It’s even more rare that one team will have two players with a no trade clause. As I said before, I there’s a part we’re going to get into the LeBron relationship with the Lakers. There’s been some uh reporting suggesting that maybe uh a trade while not inevitable or imminent is more possible than some close to the situation would have believed before. Close reporting the situation I should say. I tweeted out there’s a part of at Cam Brothers I kind of want LeBron at some point to ask out just as a degree of difficulty challenge to Rob Pelinka to see if he can manage to work out a deal involving both LeBron and Jackson Hayes in both of their no trade clauses at the same time. Like you should win exec of the year if you can actually figure out a way to come up with a trade where two players can veto it. I uh that would be amazing. I just love the idea of Jackson Hayes dictating his destination. Like as if there are like that many like if LeBron we’ll get to it later. We’ll get back to Jackson Hayes in a second. But like if LeBron was bought out for example, like he would only want to go to certain teams. Every team would kick the tires at LeBron James on a minimum basically. Like everybody like, “Hey, you want to come to Jackson?” The market would be less robust, right? Um but like it is it always felt like they were going to bring him back because as a second center, certainly as a third center, um he he had moments last year where um he certainly looked good, you know, following the trade and and all that kind of stuff. He was obviously not so good in the in the in the first round against Minnesota and showed some of the shortcomings and a lot of that came back. But like as a guy who would be playing second minute or you know third minute uh third center minutes against second and third centers um he did okay like and I so I don’t have a I don’t have a problem you know from a performance standpoint with them bringing him back. It kind of always seemed like that was going to be what happened is this question of like can you improve the guys in front of him maybe a little bit. Well, it also too um Jackson Hayes has the same agent as Luca Donuch and DeAndre Aton. Um I’ve talked a lot over the years about how those politics with Clutch has influenced moves with the Lakers. I have no doubt that the that we are now in the Bill Duffy business. um that there are politics with that as well. In the same way that there are politics with every agency and every team, particularly the powerful ones that happen to represent your most important clients. Like this stuff happens all the time and just as a precursor to fans who used to or have still been uh unhappy with the perceived power dynamic between the Lakers and Clutch. And that is something we’re going to talk about in this show. There’s going to be some of that with Bill Duffy and his agency and Luca as long as Luca’s on this team.
Yep. There’s no question. And you know, look, in the grand scheme of things, the the uh I mean, the politics worked out, I think, pretty well with getting DeAndre Aton. So,
the level here is pretty mild. You know, sign our guy. It’s not like they asked him, you know, for three years or 10 million or it’s like, okay, like this is, you know, he they’re slotting him into where he ought to be. And again, while I I’m not, you know, not a huge Hayes guy, um, he showed that he can be a backup center. And if you what I do like about this is if Aton misses time and he has uh every year basically of his career. Um you can plug in a player who at least has some overlap in skills. Um and you know he’s not as good he’s not as good of a rebounder but like at least the vertical threat part of it, the finishing at the rim, the lob threat, whatever. There are enough things like you you kind of want somebody who can do that. The interesting part to me though, Andy, is like, does this mean the Lakers are done? Technically speaking, um this brings the Lakers to 15 players. Um they though could uh not pick up Shake Milton’s player, I’m sorry, team option to drop them back down to 14. So if they guarantee, it’s same basic thing. if they wanted to sign another player, if they wanted to um tra use the by annual exception to pull a player in via trade trade exception, treat it like a trade exception, there is still some wiggle room for them to add a player, but as a few people have pointed out, they have tended to keep that 15th roster spot open. So, do you think really from a free agency standpoint at least that they’re done? Well, first of all, I was listening to uh Anthony Irwin and Yvon Buha talking, I believe, on the Lakers lounge about the bannual exception money because of where the Lakers are with their payroll right now. And by using a full mid-level exception, they they are fully hardcapped to the first apron. They can’t exceed it. They don’t have right now quite the full byanual exception available to them,
but it’s not full.
Yeah. It’s about three and a half or 3.4 4 mil of the 5.1. That would obviously lower though if they cut um if they cut Shake Milton or didn’t guarantee his contract. I suspect Shake in the the guarantee date is July 20th. I think they are right now Shakes’s place on this roster is being I think fluidly actively determined by do we need to wave him in order to make room? Do we need to guarantee him in order to h make a trade possible? Like if we need $3 million to balance money, something like that. I right now I think Shake Milton is just sort of a what do we need him for more from a cap or roster perspective than an actual player.
Yeah. So I that’s where some of the I guess flexibility that they could have moving forward. I think it’s going to come down to does do they need extra money for example if DeAnthony Melton becomes a real option for them? Can they you know can they get them for three and a half you know 3.4 and then eventually they wave somebody or whatever like do they need Shake Milton as part of a deal where they bring back fewer players? Like it’s fluid. I haven’t heard them really at this point link to anybody in free agency other than DA Anthony Melton.
Other than Melton. Yeah.
Let’s hold that thought because like we’ll we’ll talk about that because let’s just say like Melton comes available. That’s a pretty easy problem to solve. But then can the Lakers execute trades given some of the other potential restrictions? And obviously of course we’ll talk LeBron and get to all of it next. Lockdown Lakers brought to you by Game Time. We have all been there logging on early, waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale only to lose your spot for a show that you’ve been dying to see. And live music should be about making memories, not the stress of ticket shopping. It’s where Game Time comes in. Game time makes getting concert tickets faster and easier than ever. Prices actually go down as it gets closer to Showtime. And you can save up to 60% off with their killer last minute deals. And if you’re wondering what your view is going to look like before you buy, that’s where Game Time helps out. The app shows you panoramic seat view, so you know exactly what you’re going to be seeing from where all of it, what the view is going to be. With Game Time, the price you see is the price you pay. There are no hidden fees. Take the guesswork out of buying concert and show tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account. Use the code locked on NBA for 20 bucks off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account. Redeem the code L O C K E D O NA for 20 bucks off. Download the Game Time app. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. So, um, one thing I do think, Andy, that this that this resigning seems to indicate is that the Lakers are not confident that they’re getting Al Horford. I mean, I I I think of it can be dangerous. like you said, there is another roster spot that they can open up. There is a reasonable amount of money that they can put towards another free agent. Um, I do think if they thought they could get Al Horford really had a good lane for that, they’d have held off on signing Jackson Hayes because maybe he’s got somewhere to go. But I feel like I personally feel like if even if you thought you might lose Jackson, you know, tell Bid Duffy like, “Hey, can you hold out? We’ll hold out as long as you can. We’ll bring him back, but if you need to go somewhere else, we get it, but you hold out for Al Horford as long as you can and just we’ll replace Jackson Hayes if we need to.” That’s my reading of it.
That makes sense. I I think I would like to think that even with the politics again of players, shared agents, all that stuff that you could say, “Look, we we are trying to build the best team around your superstar best client.” Al Horford, with all sincere respect to Jackson Hayes, helps more along those lines. Like we said, we will save a spot for Jackson figure it out, but feel free to go to other teams, but this is the thing we need to do. So, um I I the the question of like are they done and like the shake thing part of it like to me the one thing that makes it really easy is like if you can sign Melton and that means you release shake that’s easy and it’s no disrespect to Shake Milton but like you’re plugging in a two for a two and replacing a two that quite frankly is not going to play much um with a two that would and fills in a really important shortcoming with the roster, namely a he instantly even with Gabe Vincent, Melton would become the best defender that the Lakers have in the back court. That to me seems pretty easy. Like I I don’t think they’re out of it based on my understanding with that. Like so I’m not freaking out about it like they used up this last valuable spot. No, they they have an easily creatable roster spot that they can do with Shake Milton’s contract. So again, if if they need to sign DeAnthony Melton immediately, that is an easy thing to remedy. I think the larger problem could theoretically be price point or something like that. If say there’s another team that really wants Meltton, he is coming off an ACL injury. Either AC ACL or Achilles, right? I think ACL. So, you know, he I and he was, I believe, coming off veterans minimumish or by annual exceptionish type of money. So, it’s not like he’s somebody that would command eight figures on the open market or anything.
Mel made 10 last year. Um, but he’s also coming off an injury,
right? Okay. Well, uh I would think that unless he ends up pri and I don’t know how many teams actually have the money right now to pay the Anthony Melton more considerably more than the Lakers could anyway. So I I yes I think if they if they need to get the Anthony Melton immediately shouldn’t be that hard to do.
So um we’ll see what happens there. You know, I would say, you know, the league could get a little quiet over the weekend. Um, Fourth of July, Fourth of July weekend, people go to holidays. But, of course, Andy, you and I remember, uh, it wasn’t that long ago when our Fourth of July weekend was ruined by the Lakers acquiring Steve Nash. So, things can happen over holiday weekends. There’s no question about it. Um, where do you where do you how do you read the LeBron stuff? because you know there has been more talk not just of you know we’ll see what happens at the end of the year but that maybe maybe there is a little bit more to this idea that LeBron and team LeBron are looking for an out sooner perhaps than next off season. There were some interesting comments from Brian Winhor to ESPN. Obviously has covered LeBron in different capacities for a long time. And he was on one of the ESPN shows. I’m not going to read the entirety of his quote because it’s just it’s there’s a lot. But part of it was quote, “When the idea of a trade came up, this was when the comments from Rich Paul first came out. I slammed the door on it. First of LeBron wants to be a Laker. If he didn’t want to be a Laker, he would have opted out. He has no trade clause. over the last 3 days, I have unlocked the door. I wouldn’t say I’m opening the door. I would say I’m unlocking the door. The door that I slammed and locked on Sunday, I’m not 100% sure. And then he went on to describe uh the Lakers, as he said, quote, essentially viewing LeBron as an expiring contract. And he said, and that may sound like a tossoff statement, but it’s not insignificant. LeBron has never been an expiring contract. Quite literally, never in his 23 years over nine contracts over the different teams he’s been on. basically he’s never allowed himself to get to an expiring deal was Winhorse Point. And I think framing LeBron’s contract as just another expiring deal, that’s a little much just in the sense that LeBron is way more complicated to trade than your your run-of-the-mill expiring deal. Um, but that being said though, and and this is something Winhorse alluded to and I believe it was Sam Ach and others had reported that the Lakers did not broach the idea to LeBron of another one plus one deal where LeBron would opt out, sign a new deal with another player option, 50-ish mil a pop. That setup that has just been sort of in perpetuity for LeBron and the Lakers. And I get a sense that in part it was not broached because the Lakers weren’t looking to do this and LeBron didn’t agree to it uh or didn’t ask for it, I should say, because he thought he would get told no.
And I think a really interesting theory about this. Finish what you’re saying. Like I I think that part of it is interesting.
Yes. Also, I agree with pure surf clips. Stop typing. It’s too loud. Okay. Um, I don’t think LeBron in terms of the power dynamic between him and the Lakers and whatever negotiations might go on between them, whether for the rest of this season, a potential trade, anything like that. Um, it doesn’t help his leverage to be perceived as having asked and been turned down. like that does not help I think his perception that he’s built up as I would say the most powerful athlete in North North American sports. I’ve said that for many years. I think he is. I think he still is. Um but in this back and forth, you don’t want to be seen as somebody who was turned down.
Um it’s interesting. I remember a couple weeks ago when we were doing shows right on the heels of the sale of, you know, the bus family selling to Mark Walter. One of the things that I said at the time was I thought in this era that with Mark Walter, now Jeanie may be the governor, but everybody knows it’s Mark Walter’s team moving forward. Like Mark Walter and that group, it’s his.
And I said that I thought it was more likely from this point forward that the Lakers would not automatically do that setup with LeBron anymore. And the reason they wouldn’t do it is not because they necessarily want the relationship with LeBron to end. It’s because this setup with a 40-some year old player with no end point at that price point is not tenable for team building. It’s not tenable for roster building. It’s not tenable for planning. You can’t you can’t function that way, especially when you have a generational superstar in his prime.
Right? And I’ve been saying this now for a couple years that this setup doesn’t work. But I also never thought that with Jeanie as the ultimate shot caller, she would ever frankly have the stomach to say no
or to not to not proactively keep LeBron for as long as he wanted. Now
the power just to conclude because I think this really matters. The power dynamic between LeBron and the Lakers has shifted. And the minute LeBron opted in, the Lakers gained the majority of power in this moving forward. That power dynamic has completely shifted.
I I well, I think it’s it’s it’s certainly changed. I mean, LeBron has some influence over and LeBron gains something which is um easier flexibility for next year. Like for example, I I the the part about this that I think is fascinating is this notion of the Lakers like how the the relationship here and the idea of LeBron not wanting to make a grand pronouncement of trade demanding to be traded or something like that and and putting that out there and like you say like the market’s not as good put something together like what you know same, you know, whatever that might be. Um, and there it’s it’s part of what I see as a theme with what’s going on here that I will, you know, we can dive into a little bit more next. So, we were texting Andy a little bit earlier in the day and you know just passing notes back and forth thoughts about what to talk about for for the show and I you know you had mentioned you know this idea of Windhorse and others people reporting like it wasn’t you know Rich Paul’s group was we didn’t ask for a one-in-one and it was never offered it’s an easy clean explanation for everyone and my thought my my wonder the thing that I wondered was is that true? Like because if team LeBron who would probably want the leverage, um although there is one reason I think that may not be this way that I will explain here in a minute. Um team LeBron doesn’t necessarily want to give up their leverage. Um if they went and said we’d like a one and one, the Lakers for all the reasons you say say no. Um the one part of this that I think everyone would agree on would be, you know, the Lakers would say it respectfully. I’m sorry,
right?
Just can’t. We just at this point we need to have the ability to pivot the team as we need to, you know, and all. What they would do is say, “But here’s here’s how we’re going to present this to the world. You didn’t ask. We didn’t offer. And there are a lot of good reasons why team LeBron wouldn’t necessarily ask. The biggest one being if you LeBron has always wanted two things. He wants to win and he wants to make sure he’s earning 90ish% of the value that he he deserves. Particularly since that first contract with the Heat where he took a little bit less and all that. Since then, for a lot of reasons, he’s always said, “I need to get paid my value.”
More power to him.
I agree. And he also understands that if LeBron doesn’t get agrees not to be paid as value, that trickles down to every player across the league. I think he I don’t think it’s his primary concern, but I think he’s aware.
Okay. Sure. I I I don’t want to get in the weeds about Right. It doesn’t matter, but like I just think that’s I think that plays a role. Um, if he wants to be able to move next year, he’s got to give teams a runway to be able to do it. Next year, there will be far more teams across the league that have cap space. There, if LeBron had opted out this year, nobody could sign him other than to a taxpayer mid-level, that kind of thing. If he opts out next year, teams will have runway to to prepare for that. Sure.
And be able So what LeBron doesn’t want, I said this earlier in the week, if he wants out, we will find out that he wanted out. If everybody does this the way that they would want to, we’ll find out when they announce the trade. There’s not going to be a I want to leave and I demand to go to these two or three franchises for the reason that you talked about because if those two or three franchises either can’t put together a deal and Rich Paul knows which ones can and can’t or kind of don’t want to terrible look for LeBron and one that he was especially given that he’s not he’d be that unhappy here. He just opted in. So, I I think those dynamics play a lot into what we’re what we’re seeing.
The truth is LeBron does not have a lot of leverage in this situation with the Lakers over this next year. I mean, that’s just flatout true. He really doesn’t have, in my opinion, assuming the Lakers are willing to remain strong with the idea of we want to be respectful towards LeBron. We want to treat LeBron right. Um, I would say we’re never going to do him dirty, but they can’t trade him without his permission anyway. of doing him dirty is essentially impossible in terms of any type of transaction.
But they want to treat LeBron with the stature that he has earned and that he deserves.
But all that aside, they really hold all of the cards in wherever this is going to go moving forward. Because while LeBron has a no trade clause, he does not have a you must trade me if I ask clause. like if LeBron wants to be traded. I if LeBron wants to be traded then oh you know the answer is okay we will explore it and I think that if there is a deal that is you know 50/50 in 50/50 in favor of the Lakers and team X or maybe even like 6040 like okay you can live with that and then you maybe generate some goodwill about the way you helped uh you know one of the all-time icons in sports get to his next destination and you did that the right way and it’s something the Lakers care about a lot, but they do not owe it in any way to LeBron to undercut their own future moving forward in order to help him. And LeBron can’t make them do that. And even with like the idea of LeBron is not going to want to go to a team that has to give up too many players that he wants to play with because it defeats the whole purpose of wanting to go there. Even LeBron’s no trade clause in some ways isn’t really a hammer because if he exercises it then he’s where he he’s where he doesn’t want to be. He’s stuck in the same place. and the and the Lakers get a really good player playing for them regardless because LeBron is not going to sit out season 23, age 41, because he’s not stupid and nor is he going to and I heard Wazny Lamre talking about this with Zack Low on on the newest uh episode of Zach’s show and I think he’s exactly right and I think we’ve talked about this a little bit. LeBron isn’t one of these guys like he he again he’s not that miserable here because
Jimmy Butler is what you’re getting at. Correct. And that that’s actually the the example that was used. But like if LeBron really wanted it out, they could have figured out how to do that before he picked up the option and they would have figured out how to organ they would option they would get the trade. Everything would have been lined up and he’d already he’d already be gone. if he was that unhappy,
right,
he’d already be gone. And so, two things are are true. The Lakers are not going to buy him out because that gets them nothing.
That is not
They’re not doing that, nor should they.
No.
And LeBron, to his credit, isn’t going to do the Jimmy Butler. He’s not going to knock over, you know, coolers and make life so he’s never done that. He’s always he’s done the passive aggressive as you like to call it, but he’s not been that guy. And he’s not going to start being that guy now, particularly at a time when teams aren’t going to bend over backwards and gut their rosters because they’re getting prime LeBron at age 30, you know, 29, 30, 31. So on the this is interesting like to me the only the part that’s most interesting about it is the conclusion. Yeah.
Does it conclude with LeBron just saying you know what I’m done after this year. It’s been a great year. He announces in training camp sometime
done with the NBA or done with the Lakers? Done with done with the NBA.
Okay. Okay. like it says, you know, in o early October enough time to for the NBA to set everything up, make the all-star game about him and all that kind of stuff that I’m done. I’m I’m I’m done after this year, which is certainly a possibility. Um that that’s possible. Or he just picks another team next year or he just stays one or the Lakers do this from a yeartoyear, one-year contract. Do you want to stay? Do we have the room? Does it make sense for everybody? Yes, we’d love to keep you. Like there are a lot of ways this but the conclus I think the actual stuff in between here and the conclusion isn’t going to be interesting until we see the conclusion and then everybody goes backwards and does the reporting to find out how we got there because I think it’s going to be incredibly normal until whenever the conclusion comes. Well, unless there is some type I mean, by conclusion, if you’re including a trade request or something like that, that’s obviously not
But my point is I don’t think we’ll ever know about the trade request until he’s traded.
I could be wrong. I could be wrong.
I think it’s too comp I think it is too complicated to trade LeBron because it’s
they will do you agree with me that they would try to keep it.
I think they would I think they would try. I think it will be too complicated. I also don’t think frankly it’s been LeBron and Clutch’s style to do much quietly in all honesty. Like I I and I think it’s just too complicated anyway. It is so difficult to try to work out what is essentially a three-team trade because LeBron compromise uh comprises his own team. It’s the same as like when Kobe demanded a trade in 2007. You
like you’ve got to satisfy him as to
you have to satisfy him. You have to satisfy teamx. have to satisfy the Lakers. That is very difficult to do, particularly with a player like LeBron in silence. That’s really, really damn hard. Um, I’m skeptical that that can be kept that far under wraps. We shall see. I mean, if they could, it is an it’s a massive credit to all three parties. I just would be surprised if it’s possible. Yeah. I mean, but also too, the the one thing that makes me think that is is there’s a very limited amount of teams that he would even ask to be traded to. Um, I think it’s it’s Cleveland, it’s New York. Enough people have said keep an eye on Dallas that I’d be like, “Okay, keep an eye on Dallas.” But it’s not much more than that. So, we’ll see. But it’s it’s just a you know I am like I find the end of people’s careers in some ways a lot more interesting especially and we’ve never had an end to a career um or a potential end to a career where a guy is still performing in the way that LeBron is six MVP voting and you’re wondering if he’s going to retire at the end of the year. I mean when LeBron opted in, you know, I said this a lot heading up to the eventual point of LeBron opting in. I wanted LeBron to opt in this season because even if LeBron had left and you clear a certain amount of cap space, and this is before you even knew DFS was going to be gone, I still don’t think the Lakers would have had the ability through free agency to replace what you have in LeBron. In the short term, I think the Lakers would have been worse without LeBron. And I don’t want the Lakers to be worse.
Nearly enough time to replace him.
So, I wanted LeBron to opt in. But if I had needed to choose between LeBron opting out and walking and the Lakers being in my opinion worse this coming season or LeBron opting out and the Lakers doing another one plus one at 50-ish mill a pop, I’d have chosen LeBron walking even though that sucks because like I said and I think the Lakers have recognized this and for whatever reason I think have come to the conclusion clusion that they need to act on it. This setup is not tenable anymore or the setup that had been there was not tenable. It is not whatever happens now moving forward with the Lakers and LeBron, it’s on the Lakers terms now. Correct.
That’s critical.
And and that was necessary and it doesn’t have to be hostile. It doesn’t have to be animosity between LeBron and the Lakers. I don’t I don’t want that for either side.
But the Lakers needed to regain some agency in this and they did. they can choose and more importantly plan for whether or not they want
and LeBron can make his own choices from there too.
We want you to come back. Hey, LeBron is another finishes sixth again this year in MVP voting and things look good. Hey, bring him back. Why not? Like there’s like but you want to have that ability to plan. Um Lock Lakers, speaking of planning, Fourth of July weekend’s coming. People can plan for that. Lockdown Lakers on YouTube. It’s where you can go hang out with over 35,000 subscribers uh to the channel. We of course will be back um over the weekend if anything important happens, but at worst we’ll be back on Monday. Everyone have a great weekend. Enjoy your fourth. Enjoy your weekend. We’ll see you uh at the latest on Monday.

The Lakers did something that felt fairly inevitable, if not super popular, on Thursday, re-signing free agent center Jaxson Hayes to a one year, minimum level contract.

Is this a perfect outcome? No, and it would still be nice to improve over him as a backup to Deandre Ayton, particularly given Ayton’s rather extensive injury history. But the Lakers have plenty of runway either to sign another player if they’d like (they can release Shake Milton to open up a spot) or use one of their expiring contracts to acquire a player. We’ll see.

Is Hayes the right guy for the job? You can certainly argue he performed well enough last year to earn the gig. And playing against backup, or even third string centers (remember, in some circumstances at least Maxi Kleber will get minutes), he’s fine. It would be nice to do better, but the move likely means Al Horford is probably off the table.

Meanwhile, what is going on with the relationship between LeBron James and the Lakers?

Is LeBron more inclined to leave, sooner rather than later? Even through a trade request? What happens if he makes one? What would that look like?

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: Hayes is back!

SEGMENT 2: Are the Lakers done?

SEGMENT 3: What’s up with LeBron?

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Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.

FanDuel
Right now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.