What’s the Lakers’ ceiling with Ayton, LeBron’s new Role & did the Thunder build a dynasty | SPEAK

What’s the Lakers’ ceiling with Ayton, LeBron’s new Role & did the Thunder build a dynasty | SPEAK

Paul, but just be honest with us. What is the Lakers ceiling with DeAndre Aton? The Lakers silver. Wow, that’s a good question. Now, he definitely feels a need for the Lakers, but I’m not sure if he’s the answer in winning a championship. Key and TJ. I mean, if you had have told me that they were getting the Joker or Ante Takoupo, then I would have been like, “Oh, they should be the favorites.” But since they’re getting a guy who’s still trying to find his way in the NBA, he’s been on multiple teams. This being his third team in I believe six years being the number one pick and not really yet finding a home. I’m not sure how much he pushes pushes the needle. Now, yes, he can bring some intangibles that they need. A shot blocker, a live threat. A big guy in the middle are things that all the the thing all the things that the Lakers needed. So, in answering your question, what’s the Lakers ceiling with DeAndre Aiden? Now, they lost in the first round in three straight years. Oh, here we go. Man, I think they’re silling truthfully key. I think they’re still in need of more athleticism and and more defense on the perimeter. I think they’re a second round ceiling. You know, you got to understand LeBron is a year older. Will LeBron play 65 or more games? That’s got to factor into it. How healthy will Luca been be? They don’t have too much depth yet. So, if they make it to the second round with the roster as constructed, that’s a win-win for the Lakers. Just being honest. You know, I I I look at them as a championship type team. I don’t know if they can get there or not, but if you go back to last year, TJ, and and we looked at the Mark Williams kid, the Mark Williams kid we made the trade for, then all of a sudden the medical didn’t work out. Everybody was hyped about that. DeAndre Aiden is a better basketball player than him being put in the right situation. You think Mark last year he averaged 15 and 10. Well, DeAndre Aiden was 14 and 10 in only 40 only in 40 games. His high when the Suns went to the championship that year that they lost, he was 18 and 10. His career average is 16.5 in 10. That’s pretty good basketball. I would say for a five. You know, this isn’t We’re not talking about a guy who’s shooting solid. Yeah, it’s very solid. So, if you add him TJ with Luca and even though LeBron is older, but guess how long we’ve been saying that? About 10 years, six, seven years. About 10 years now. Oh, he’s a little bit older. Are you ready? He’s a little bit older. And he’s still going to average like 26. 20s. In the 20s. See, that’s the Laker hate. That’s in the 20s. He averaged 24. He’ll be in the 20s still. Yes. Okay. So, let’s say he give you Let’s say he give you a solid quarter. 23. He just can’t do it. He’s just coming off 24. Okay. So, give him 25. He gonna take a step up. As he get older, just keep taking steps up. Keith, well, I mean, the last 10 years he got older and he keep Luca team now. I don’t think it’s Luca team. Come on now. What you think the ceiling is for us? I’m It’s competing for a champ. It’s competing for a championship. And this is why our weakness was perimeter defense and a big guy. We We need We needed a center. We needed a center and rim protector. We can still get somebody on a perimeter. Just any game that we play in for the most part, you got Luca, you got LeBron, you got DeAndre Aiden, we going to have three of the top eight players on any team. majority of guys we go against, the majority of teams we play, we gonna have three of the top eight guys, we gonna have three of the top eight guys if the starting 10, if we play the Denver Nuggets right now, you going to put Jokic over him, you’re going to put Jamal Murray over him, nobody else on Denver. So, we always going to have somewhat of an advantage when it comes to the top players in a starting lineup. When you start talking like this, the the hunger that you can hear in his voice, he knows he got something to prove. We got the first, he’s the first pick. Luca was the third pick in the same draft. The last, if I could recall, guys do that was actually LeBron, Chris Bosch, and Dwayne Wade with uh LeBron being the first pick, Chris Bosch being the fourth pick, and Dwayne Wade being the fifth pick. You got two of the top three guys on the same draft class on the same team, and he’s hungry. They vilify him. They vilified him in Phoenix. They vilified him in Portland. He hungry. What you looking at? I get it. And I he has every right to be motivated being that he’s going to be in a great culture. But look, this team ain’t that I just looked at that starting five. That starting five ain’t stopping nobody on defense. When I look at and I’m looking at the the the the teams in the west, Houston, OKC, Denver. Look at this team defense. Look at this. We play Luca playing back a different defensive player. We played pretty good team defense at the start of the Luca. Yeah, we did. whatever you call it. Two and three weeks. Whatever you want to call it. Whatever you want to call it. It’s 6 months to the season. Y’all play good defense for two weeks. He had just got there though, Paul. He’s going to be in training camp. No, look, we going to be better on defense. We going to be better. So, where do you see the Lakers falling in? Like, what seed? What you We’re the third seed. We at least one through four. One through four. One through four. I would say we’re the third seed. One through four. I would say we going to be at least three or four. Nope. OKC going to be in the top. That’s why I didn’t say one. Denver going to be in there. See, I don’t I don’t buy Denver like you buy. Houston going to be in there. That’s why I said Houston and OKC. Minnesota going to be in there. That’s four right there. They going to be in the top five. I don’t know where Minnesota going to be. I know Minnesota is going to be a tough out, but I don’t know where they going to be. Clippers going to be in there. They’ll fall apart. They’ll And then a healthy Warriors team. A healthy Warriors team is not better than us. A healthy Warriors team are not better than us. They push they push Minnesota to seven games, right? No. No. No. No. They didn’t. No, they didn’t. A healthy Warriors team is not better than pushed them in seven game, but they get they beat Minnesota at least once or twice. Played them better than Lakers did. We didn’t we didn’t have a rim protector. We had Rooney go out there looking like Kareem and Bill Russell in a combination. So it it changes now with DeAndre Aiden. I understand when you look at DeAndre Aiden, Paul and you you look at where he started at in Phoenix and then all of a sudden they said goodbye and then Portland decided to say goodbye. But could it be could it be that I’m in a different space in my mind cuz I’m in a different place now. So I’m going to be different than I was in Phoenix. Well, whether he has to or not, sometimes when you in a bad situation, you don’t necessarily give it your all. You just you want to get your check and go home. In this situation, when you in LA and you playing for the Lakers at that position in particular, okay, you you going to come to play. He’s You can listen to him in his presser and tell, okay, for day one so far when the Laker uniform on, he seems very motivated. Yeah. All his pressure has been like that. When he got drafted, I saw his presser. When he when he got he was like, I can’t wait for this opportunity. I love DeAndre Aiden, but I got to see it. I got to see the change in attitude. I got to see what his character is going to be like. You know, this is the thing. It ain’t It ain’t been a question of his talent. It’s a it’s been a question of him being motivated. It’s been a question of him living up to being the number one pick. Now, he’s been solid as a as a NBA player. 16, 15, and 10, them is solid numbers. I can’t take that away. But when you’ve been traded around the league few times and you a number one pick and it’s only been six years, there has to be some other question marks. Can he fit in in a culture with a winning environment when he’s not used to that? Hopefully, this is the perfect environment for him. I love that he’s with LeBron and Luca and it can change his perspective on the day-to-day being ready on what it’s like to be a pro because this is exactly what he needs. So, hopefully it’ll work out. But still, even if it work out to that and his talent and his mind is there. I’m looking at what everybody got better. Like, how much better did the Lakers actually get? We got what we wanted, which was a five. Got what we wanted and needed and needed in the worst way. Speaking of LeBron, TJ, um, does LeBron still fit with the Lakers given the fact that DeAndre Aiden and Lucer’s there? When you had a talent, you fit on any team. Great athletes, great players will find a way to make sure they can fit in, that they can add value to a team. I I I see no problem with LeBron not fit. I don’t I don’t see how there could be a conflict. Now, is he going to have the ball as much now with Luca? Probably not. But when Luca got traded to Lakers, everybody said, “Oh man, this a bad fit. This not going to work.” It worked pretty damn well to me. They they worked out really well. Now, started off strong and it surprised everybody. Yeah, we went into the playoffs and things didn’t go the way we planned and we would have liked, but I I thought that that combination of Luca and LeBron was really good. But now it’s going to be up to JJ Red to see how can he spread these minutes out to where if LeBron is sitting in the corner while Luca is dribbling the like you got that has to be a minimum. Luca can’t dribble the ball 17 18 seconds of the shot clock and everybody you can’t you you’re not going to be able to do that all season every possession. They gonna figure that out now that you have a training camp but 100% LeBron fit in with the Lakers if he want to fit in. Now, key, you said the question was, does LeBron still fit on the Lakers? I don’t think he does because if we’re saying moving forward that this is Luca’s team and Luca needs a certain type of roster to thrive and carry. They’re too kind of repetitive. Now, are you asking LeBron to be a three and D guy? LeBron, go stand in the corner. We need you spotting up. Those the type of players that Luca thrived under a live threat guys being ready to shoot when he penetrated. So if LeBron has the ball, you’re taking away from Luca. Are you going to be asking Luca to set screens, stand in the corner? Uh because Kyrie Irvy don’t do that. He didn’t do that. He not sitting in the corner waiting to shoot the three. But LeBron did he was But LeBron did some of that at the start last year when he got when they got Luca Le was bringing the ball up the court. LeBron was going into the corner, key, all my relationships were great at the beginning. I’m single now. I’m single. Like, it was great at the beginning. It was great. The honeymoon, all that. It was boom, boom, boom. And you talking about personal relationship, not on the court. We settled in. Oh, man. Come on. Now that they settled in, look what happened. They got swept in the playoffs. A gentleman’s sweep. Four to one. So it’s it’s it’s like who’s going to change that game for who? I don’t think anybody gonna change the game. Luka is the future. So you think you think JJ going to go into practice like, “All right, we got to defer.” But Paul like Luca has never won a championship. So his way and his style of playing is not winning the championship. So at some point, but he didn’t win it at some point. You got to realize like how I’m doing things isn’t working. And so I’m not going to change completely, but I got to change a little bit. They got to play to his strengths. So look, so what does Chris Paul do for us if we we bring in Chris Paul? Half court offense. He makes y’all a lot older. That clearly we get older. We might be the oldest team in the league at that point. And then you have two 40 year olds that’s going to be hanging out, going to dinners, and drinking wine on the road. That’s what Chris Paul is going to do for y’all. So you don’t So you getting ready you getting ready to tell me he can’t set Luca up or LeBron up or nobody like that? Listen, the Lakers don’t want to bring a old people’s home to to the locker room now. Come on. Well, the last time we did that, we found ourselves in a championship. They just fell apart. Is that Yeah, but they didn’t have two 40 year olds. I don’t know how old I This was the oldest oldest. No, they probably wasn’t. And then you just had the youngest team in uh second Well, Malone was up there. It wasn’t 40 though. And GP had a hole in his glove. So this fall and they know they they played NBA finals together. I don’t like that. They got to Lakers got to get younger and more athletic on the perimeter. What was the issue? They defense, right? They didn’t have no athletics. They couldn’t keep up with he out there and going through his Jord throwing. But now with Now with Aiden in the middle though, come on. You not just getting layups now. You You going to be They going to be contested layups. You not just getting to the paint and nobody’s there to challenge you. The knock on Aiden is like he don’t play hard all the time. Yeah. for Paul. All right, that happens in a lot of situations because what’s happening if he’s not getting the ball like he used to but he he understands coming to LA gives him a better chance to be the guy that he was supposed to be coming out of Arizona. Change of environment, change of scenery. What option is he? He 16. He might be option. He might be the three and a half. He’s going to be the fourth and at best fourth option. going to be obviously Luca, LeBron, Luca, LeBron, Luca, then Reeves, and then maybe Richie and then maybe Ruie. Yeah, whatever, man. I can’t listen to you. I got I got to talk about I going to come up. He going to be Yeah. When you said the option though, that’s Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. Put it this way. They’re not going to just be coming. No, but this the thing though. If he catch three to four lives a game, you get four to five offensive rebounds. You got to get your own points. Get you some rebounds. Lives is not going to be there because you don’t be there. They going to be there. All right. Because he has shooters. So if LeBron is spotting up while he pick and rolling with him, if I’m helping out on LeBron, I’m like, “Go ahead, kick it to LeBron for three. I’m helping on this lob. Go ahead.” You act like LeBron threes are just horrible. No, I ain’t say that, but I’m I’m taking a lesser of two evils with LeBron cuz LeBron slashing and going to the basket. I don’t want none of that. But that three, he have that. But he 40 something% from three. Anyway, uh let’s talk about a young team. The Thunder have agreed to a fully guaranteed 5-year rookie max extension with Chad Hong. The deal could reach up to $250 million and keeps him and OKC through 2020 2031. They also locked up SGA to the Supermax extension last week. So Paul, are the Thunder on track to being the next dynasty? They’re absolutely on the track. They’re on the track. And what I mean by that, you have to win one to get on track. So now we was on the sidewalk. We’re on the track. But there’s three teams that’s on the track in my eyes that I feel like it. The Celtics are still on track. Think about it. They just won last year, right? They got a whole new team, Paul. That’s all right. They still got their core, but they still built to win a championship when you got those two. Denver’s on track because they just reloaded. So say this, Denver won two years ago, right? So now you like, all right, if they won, if they win next year, because Denver can win it next year, that’s going to be their second one in like three, four years. You on track to be a dynasty cuz a dynasty is three chips in a certain amount of years. Yeah. Like if you win three and six, that’s still a dynasty. I just don’t see Denver. I don’t see Denver. Denver’s right there. They took OKC to seven. They pushed all they pushed, but OKC had never been in that situation. Like they young. OKC ain’t going to be that way again in 26, 27. They they they but I’m saying Denver got better. You understand? With the best player that got more weapons now. If they stay healthy, they right there. Celtics may not be there this year next year, but the year after they going to be right back in the mix. So, are are they on track? Absolutely on track. They got a young core. They signed all their players. They going to be back. They going to be scary for the next four or five years being that they if they can stay together. They on they on the road. They on the road for a dynasty. But so much has to go right. That that’s the biggest problem is you have to have great health. You got to have a bit of luck. Like Homer missed some time last year. If he missed time, like there’s just so much. And then now when you win, guys want to get paid. So now they just they’ve given Homegrren a max rookie extension. They gonna give Jaylen Williams a max rookie extension. At some point when they start hitting that apron, they going to have to pay the piper. They going to have to start paying guys. And now they going to be in the tax apron and they going to lose. They’re going to lose guys. So are they on track? Yeah, they’re on track. Will they be a D? I’mma say no. I’m going say it’s just it’s not going to happen because of what Paul just there’s just so many teams that are right there right Denver, Boston, Houston. And it’s like and will we be having this conversation if if Hallebertton didn’t go down? Will we be having this conversation even about whether or not they would be a dynasty? The fact that they got out of there with a victory in game seven, we could have it allows us to have this conversation. But you got to also think about the money. The money in contracts are so important. Boston, right? Just think about what Boston they paid 300 million, another 300 million, you know, 70 million, 80 million, and then they start saying, “Well, we got to get rid of him, him, and him, right? in him and we ain’t going to resign him and now we going to wait on Tatum to come back in 26 27 what does that even look like for Boston so you got to think that unless they are able to do it in the next four years so to speak that means you knocking championships down in these next idea was it with these tax aprons and all that like where this come from collective bargaining agreement man they need to get rid of that they need to get yeah they need to get rid of like the bat is going to be with the uh big market teams who make the money. Like nobody you really you start liking a team. Oh, we got to let him go. We can’t afford to pay him us. We going to be in a tax apron. Like nobody wants that. Let these dudes stay on these team. Let people build dominant team. Yeah, but it ain’t it ain’t about what the fans want. It’s about what the owners want. You still making money either way. You still making money either way. They rather make $5 and a buck 50 cuz when when you look at this Oklahoma, they about to pay Jaylen Wood. They going to give up three almost a billion dollars in contracts. It’s all seen the SGA, Chad Homegrren, and Jaylen Williams. Just those three guys about 800 about 800 something million. When your bench players come up, they going to want to be paid. So now you’re going to lose what makes you a really good team. Well, that’s what OKC kind of went through before with Westbrook and and and Durant and and James and those Baka and those dudes because their contracts was coming up and everybody wanted to get paid. They couldn’t pay they couldn’t pay uh the beard the beard. They chose Ibaka over James Hart. Yeah. So they had to make they had to they had to pick and choose. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey.

Keyshawn Johnson, Paul Pierce, and T.J. Houshmandzadeh break down what Deandre Ayton brings to the Los Angeles Lakers and discuss the team’s ceiling heading into the season. The crew also debates whether LeBron James still fits with the Lakers’ new direction. Then, they shift to the Oklahoma City Thunder — did they quietly build the NBA’s next dynasty?

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What’s the Lakers’ ceiling with Ayton, LeBron’s new Role & did the Thunder build a dynasty | SPEAK
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