Okogie? Horford? Melton? LAKERS FREE AGENT OPTIONS? Plus, Luka’s Extension Timeline

Okogie? Horford? Melton? LAKERS FREE AGENT OPTIONS? Plus, Luka’s Extension Timeline

Hey everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Wednesday. Brian Kimki, Andy Kineski. Is a little bit more help available now on the free agent market. Can the Lakers get a little bit better? 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 Lock on Lakers first listen of every day Monday through Friday. No matter how or where you get your podcast, this one’s always going to be free and never behind a payw wall. And Locked on Lakers on YouTube and we’re over 35,000 subscribers. We’re all hanging out, talking to each other, talking to us, and wondering if there is a way the Lakers might be able to squeeze out just a little bit more from this uh free agent summer. And to that uh degree, Andy, to that to that end, um a little bit of news today, which we’ll get into here in just a moment, but um it’s it’s interesting to think about like who’s still out there, what the Lakers might be able to do. And for me, um it’s a little bit like can you solve one thing? Can you add one skill set to your roster? because there aren’t any more like DeAndre Aens out there who are going to kind of fix a bunch of things maybe at once. Maybe you could make that argument about Bradley Beal um were he to become available. But to the idea of like let’s fix one thing, an intriguing name uh is likely to end up on the free agent market. Well, there’s no likely about it Josh Akoji is going to be a free agent because the Hornets waved him. So th this isn’t a buyout situation or anything like that. You still got a clear I think when you’re waved, you still got to clear waivers, but he’s going to Well, but I I suppose that’s true there. The expectation is that he’s going to hit the free agency market if for no other reason than I think most teams, even if they want him, would like to get him for less than the seven and a half million guaranteed. Um, but you are correct. It is not a done deal that somebody will not pick him up off waiverss at that price. It just the seems unlikely. No, I agree with you. The the expectation seems to be um that that will be the case. Either way, he’s going to be uh available for somebody to add to their team because Charlotte, ahead of the guarantee date for his contract, uh declined to pick it up. Um, Akoji was not somebody that I had on my radar if for no other reason than I had no idea about his contact contract situation and whether there were guarantees or anything like that. But in so far as the idea of guys that could be available theoretically for a price point that the Lakers could afford and fill some needs that the Lakers could really use filling. Josh Aoji checks a few boxes, namely the defensive versatility along the wing, defending guys one through three, an area where the Lakers are really quite weak in terms of either established NBA players or guys that don’t have serious question marks in other areas. Aoji has some question marks of his own. He’s not a perfect player, but he can really help your team defensively. Yeah. And you know, look, Akigi uh is he’s he’s a terrible shooter. I mean, when you talk about offensive issues, like you know, that that is what it is. He is a terrible shooter. He’s gotten better. He has gotten better over the He has I mean I mean, yes, but sort of. I’m not saying he’s gotten good. I’ve said he’s gotten better. He his over he shoots 30% for his career. A lot of that is dragged down for from earlier in his career. with the Suns, for example, he shot 33% which is not good, but it’s not like 27 or 28% like he was shooting in Minnesota, right? I mean, his but that’s a sort of a high water mark. He then, you know, he shot with Phoenix last year. He was uh at at a what apparently was an unsustainable 38% drop back down to uh 32% with the Hornets. Obviously, context matters. You know, you’re playing with a with a pretty lousy Charlotte team, but about he only played about five games with Charlotte. 15. Um but and but he only played 25 with Phoenix last year, too. So, it’s like, you know, he didn’t play a lot, period. Um he is over the course of his career a bad shooter. He’s 40% from the floor. Uh 29.9% from three-point range. The high water mark for a full season with him is like you say, 35% from three-point range. But even that year, he only shot uh 39% from the floor. So, he is a very low percentage uh shooter. He’s just not a particularly good offensive player. I mean, I I think that is certainly not an efficient one. No. And um you know, he’s never averaged more than eight and a half points a game. Like, he’s just he’s I’m sorry, over a full season. He’s just not he’s not a particularly good offensive player. um he’s not going to drive up your assist totals. He’s like just you know he but what he has is a very specific skill set which is defense. And you know, it’s what I I think it’s it’s interesting when you look at what the Lakers might do is first, you know, obviously this would require them to open up a roster spot by letting uh Shake Milton go. Uh and they have till July 20th, which is a few days from now, to get that done. I think the expectation from most people is that they will. Um, but it hasn’t happened yet. And there is at least an argument the Lakers could make for holding on to Milton so that his contract can be included in um in a trade. So that would be the reason really to to to hold on to him more than anything. So, if it’s not a Kogi, um Al Horford is a name that’s out there that um seemed like it wasn’t a possibility, but at least, you know, it does, you know, reporting on uh early this week that Horford may actually still be considering the Lakers among other teams if he decides to play at all. There’s still the Bradley Beal question. You know, I think air coffee guys like that are are still free agents. And anybody like that um is going to wait as long as they can to find the right situation because most of the money is dried up. But it’s like if you can pick one thing, if you’re the Lakers, what do you try to solve? I would look to try to find point of attack defense, you know, positions one through three because it’s it’s not that they have nobody who can do it because, you know, Jared Vanderbilt in a vacuum can do it. Jordan Goodwin in a vacuum can do it, but they have their own considerations offensively as well. Like we talked um in a show last week about the idea of I think Ruie one way or another needs to come off the bench for this team because I I just feel like a starting unit of Luca, LeBron, Austin, DeAndre Aton, and Ruie, which is right now I think the widely projected starting five for this group. There’s too much redundancy in terms of I think some positional overlap, but also defensively. There is not nearly enough plus defending out there. There’s too many guys who I think defend more or less the same position or the same type of players. The the bench unit for this team right now does not have nearly enough scoring. My basic thought process is a RU is the most natural candidate to get moved to the bench. B, you know, questions about what you lose in terms of his force spacing things like that. If you can’t get a functional offense out of Luca, LeBron, Austin, DeAndre Aton as your foundation, then either something doesn’t work with your system. It is not as good on the court as it is on paper for for whatever reason, but you should be able to get enough offense out of those four guys. Yeah. that you can put a fifth guy out there who may not provide much offensively but provides a skill set that is desperately missing with the way things are currently projected. I had talked about Jordan Goodwin as potentially the guy you could put in there in like a you know probably 15 to 20 minute a night starting role. You know a lot of the Ruie would end up playing more minutes than him off the bench in this theoretical. you know, Vanderbilt could be a possibility. I’m open to the idea of Jake Lorravia, but I need to see more before I really come around to that. They need somebody to fill that type of role, and Josh Aoji could be a possibility there. I um yeah, I mean my my first choice of all these guys, I mean the better version of him is Dan Anthony Melton, you know, who is, you know, I I think at this point, you know, Golden State is the the odds on favorite here to um to land or reand Melton um according to the most of the current reporting. But after the break, let’s let’s kind of break down maybe where the Lakers could go, which guy you might hold out for. Would you hold out um a little bit longer and just sort of let to see what else might happen over the course of the rest of the summer? Or if you get a chance, jump at one of these guys who might still be available. So, we’ll do that next. Apologies, I am frozen right now. So, well, Andy, while you are figuring that out, let me tell all you and all the people that Lock Lakers is brought to you by Monarch Money because uh we all wish that managing money felt easier and with Monarch Money, it can. 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So, take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com code locked on NBA for half off your first year. Um, I I am curious about two things. I I I think ultimately they will release Shake Milton and open up a spot. I think they are by all accounts trying to figure out a way to open up a second roster spot by, you know, in a trade, what a lot of people call a consolidation trade where you trade two, you bring back one, that opens up another roster spot. Um, I think they would ideally love to keep one open. I don’t think they have the luxury to do that, but neither do I. I I So, I’m curious as to whether or not they if they just release shake and they can’t pull off a trade because would they fill that spot or would they leave it open and then who would they try to fill it with? If you could get a guy like Al Horford, I feel like that’s a no-brainer. I do feel like somebody like Josh Kogi, um I’m not sure they would jump at that. I think they that they might just keep open. I I’m not saying that’s right. I just think that’s sort of what they would do. I tend to agree with you that particularly because the back of the roster has so many question marks. I don’t know if this team I know Rob Pelinka often likes to maintain that flexibility of having that one open roster spot and in a vacuum as a concept, I understand it. I just don’t think this particular this particular roster allows you that luxury. I think you should be trying to get as many good players as you can. Especially because like if say you’re leaving space for the buyout market or something like that. For the most part, I think the player that you’re going to get in the buyout market is likely no better or more impactful than the person you would pick up now. So, I would rather have the guy that you have now for an entire season and the optionality of just that person being available as opposed to waiting around for theoretical player X. And you know, Rob Rob Pelinga does like to do a lot of theoretical planning like he likes to have flexibility for a lot of theoreticals which we’ve talked about before. Well, look, I mean, because it’s always it is always without with Rob about the next thing, you know, because we’re going to be able to get the next guy. We’re going to be able to get the next, you know, it’s the whether you believe it’s 2026 and they don’t want to take on money. Um, beyond there, you know, Dan Wakey reporting that the Lakers are not interested in um, he was on with Zack Low on the new episode of Zack Low Show on the Ringer said, you know, flat out Lakers do not are not interested in Wiggins. And now, is that based on the price? Because is is Miami still insisting on a first round pick for for Wiggins, a first round pick and Dalton Connect, something like that. Or is it because they just don’t want to take on Andrew Wiggins’s contract? Dan didn’t elaborate. I think it’s probably as much the latter as it is the former, but if they’re asking for a first rounder, it’s a moot point anyway. Yeah. So, you know, that is one one of my major criticisms of Rob is it is always sort of about the next thing that we’re going to do. Maintaining the flexibility so we can get, you know, the next star guy and, you know, Giannis or Joic or whoever comes available as opposed to just fix your team now, make a team better now. Um, pick up good players now. have have confidence that you can pick the right guys so that if something else comes up, those people that you picked up have value around the league. I mean, I honestly think the Vanderbilt contract and is has has sort of spooked the Lakers and Rob to like being kind of gunshy about signing anyone to uh to multiple seasons. I think I just think they’ve I I think he’s just not I don’t think they have the confidence for this sort of thing, too. I mean, I think there’s probably an element of that, too. And I mean, I think you can take it back further to the rust trade. I think that being such a spectacular disaster has made them has made them I think very Are we sure? I think it’s made them very Are 100% sure the the Westbrook trade didn’t work? I mean there’s there look there’s always time in hindsight and things like that. You know sometimes in with the light of day and distance things can look a little bit better but thus far it’s still leaning towards disaster. Um like I think that has played a role in all that. And look, it may just be as simple as even if the first isn’t involved, like we don’t we don’t think Andrew Wiggins is going to make enough of a difference for us right now compared to maybe some other options that could be available down the line. I mean, Andrew Wiggins, do I think he fits on paper in certain ways better than say Ruie or other guys? Yes. Andrew Wiggins has also not been involved with any high level of winning for several years. And you you ask Warriors fans about the last three years of the Andrew Wiggins experience and their general consensus was get him the f out of here. Like I mean it it he was great in that title season for the Warriors ever since then. And to be fair to Wiggins, some of this is for reasons that have to do with his personal life and a lot of really tough things happening and I have empathy for that, but it doesn’t change the fact that he has not been close to the same player since then. So they they may just feel like for whatever uh for whatever Miami’s asking price is combined with the idea of having him for a couple more years, they just don’t think he would be as impactful as what they know Ruie provides and perhaps more immediate flexibility, whatever. But they one way or another they need to be filling some of these needs across the roster. And you know, they need to find defenders that they don’t have for this team. And but the problem but the problem is, and this is where I would say, you know, and I know there are a lot of people who are not in on the Wiggins thing, and I get it. Um, I wouldn’t trade the first rounder. Would I trade Ruie and Dalton? Yeah, I think I would. Mostly because I’m kind of down on Dalton. I think if you can, you know, res-slot Wiggins and, you know, and and for Ruie in their lineup, it makes just makes a lot more sense. Everybody slots into places that make sense. Wiggins still a good defender. You’re not relying on him to be, you know, a a second or even a third scorer for your team at this point. He probably in that in that starting lineup, he’d be the fifth scorer, you know. So I just and all he it’s like go defend all the time and that’s your job and I think that would be fine and it would work out really well. It rebalances the roster. The problem with guys like they need somebody like him regardless. I don’t disagree. There’s and so I would just say go get him. Um and again I’m kind of down on Dalton and I think you know is there a chance you’d be selling low? Absolutely. there’s also a chance you’d be selling before the bottom drops out of his market um to whatever degree it exists. I the the problem and with why I would I would make 100% sure that I can’t get Melton before I go for Joshi because while Melton is not a perfect offensive player, he’s better. And the Lakers have too many one-way players, one of their major problems is they just have too many one-way guys. and you know that’s what he would be. U Melton is a little bit more of a two-way player. Al Horford is a little bit more of a two-way player. Like you just need guys who can play both sides of the ball. And that’s something that while Andrew Wiggins is imperfect, he certainly is a two-way player even at this stage of his career. Again, I am not making the case not to get Andrew Wiggins. I’m just saying that it the case to not get him or where the Lakers may not be as interested. Again, it may be Miami’s asking price is just too high. They are currently projecting right now that they really want Wiggins to be a part of this core. Eric Spolster said this on the record. I don’t know if it was in summer league or wherever, but he said this recently that Andrew Wiggins, they consider him part of their core moving forward. They’re excited to have him for a full season. This may be posturing to raise the price. It may actually reflect Miami, a team that never wants to rebuild. They will always try to make the playoffs every year, wanting Andrew Wiggins for that quest to make the playoffs. I’m just saying that the argument they if there is some skepticism about the idea of how much Andrew Wiggins has consistently affected winning over the course of his career, I can see that argument even if I’m not saying don’t get him. Yeah. I just from my perspective, if it’s the contract, that’s a bad reason. If it’s the asking price, that’s a different question. Um there will we’ll kind of follow some of these free agent stories. I don’t think the Lakers are going to make a move particularly quickly. Um but, you know, as more guys kind of trickle onto the market, I think they’re going to wait out this beal thing to find like you don’t start making moves and and jumping the gun for someone like Aki. It’s not I don’t think you do that, but it raises the question of what they should be getting. They can afford to be patient. Um, but it’ll be interesting to sort of follow along to see what shakes loose and how aggressive the Lakers might be. Um, next though, let’s talk a little Luca Donuch uh and and what his timeline for extending with the Lakers might look like. Get to that next. I um I think fans like the next thing is uh Luca like we’re we’re kind of everybody’s neck deep in the LeBron thing but you know we’re kind of wondering like but fine this is his last year it’s not his last year whatever it might be. Luca on the other hand is um obviously the the major imperative for the Lakers. Brian Windhor uh this week on uh on with with on with uh Tim McMahon was that their podcast correct was they were doing this. Um he’s talked about it this is this has come uh up for Wendy I think both on the Hoop Collective and on ESPN’s NBA show. So this notion of when Luca uh Luca is going to extend, he is extension eligible on August 2nd, he is saying do not freak out if the extension doesn’t get signed right away because he’s going to be playing in Euro Basket and historically does not do any basketball NBA business when that is going on. So I think that’s true. Um when what what do you think how much do you think what they’re doing this summer is really going to impact not when he signs but either what kind of contract he signs or the I guess nightmare scenario for the Lakers which is he doesn’t sign before the season starts. They enter the season without a without an extension. That’s a red flag obviously. I’d like to think little to nothing because I would like to think that they are in continual constant communication with Luca. This is something I’ve talked about a lot over this summer with whatever moves the Lakers are making are not making the reports of the 2026 offseason focus, the 2027 offseason focus, like contract lengths, whatever. The one thing that should be constant and crystal clear in all of this is communication with Luca. Like if they are, and I say this only because when you see a lot of the reporting about this, there there often seems to be an assumption that they have no idea what Luca’s feeling is and therefore they better dazzle him this off seasonason or else Luca’s not going to sign this extension. My thought is if they don’t know exactly what Luca is thinking like every single damn day, they’re doing something wrong. Like there is no reason for them to be reading Luca’s mind or trying to sense what he wants. You should know what he wants. You should know does he like how things are going? Any thoughts you have? But like Bill Duffy, his agent, DeAndre Eaton’s agent, he was in the building when DeAndre Eaton was being introduced. Saw him there, reintroduced myself, all that stuff. He had plenty of time to talk with Bill Duffy. Like there are opportunities for communication. And if if they are not at any point clear in how Luca is feeling about any of this stuff, that in and of itself is a bigger problem than whatever moves they decide to make, don’t make, whatever. There should be no ambiguity about how he’s feeling. Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, I this is one of those things that, you know, look, we’re all excited, especially like compared to comparing to summer league. I you know the Bronnie story is interesting. The connect thing is intriguing if not the outcome right now that Lakers fans want but it’s still kind of a fascinating situation to watch when you compare him to other rookies and is that I am so overwatching summer league and I am very much looking forward to a higher quality of basketball with Euro Basket um than I’ve seen in summer league and I’m going to see in summer league. The only thing I’m not looking forward to are when these games happen um on the West Coast because that could make for some uh uncomfortable viewing times. I I think the only reason Lakers fans would be nervous is just because they don’t trust the front office. Sure. They just don’t have that fullon belief that they’re, you know, it’s going to be good. They’ve got a plan. they’ve got, you know, buy in. They’re going to improve the team enough or look like they’re interested in improving the team enough or send the right signals or show the right blueprint or whatever it is to Luca so that if they remain relatively quiet this off season, which aside from DeAndre Aiden almost literally falling into their laps, they’ve basically done. if they’re going to kind of got steered into their lap, but fallen might be a little bit uh too passive. Yeah, he was they were very lucky that Aiden became available is really what it is is, you know, they were they were more lucky that Luca Donic became available for them. DeAndre Aton becoming available is just a heads up from the shared agent, right? But I mean I don’t think at the beginning of the I think at the beginning of the summer everybody said DeAndre Aiden could be had in a trade like I know you know Portland would be like yeah we’ll do we’ll we’ll we’ll put something together for that. But the idea that Aiden would be available as a free agent I don’t think was necessarily on everybody’s radar. And so that’s what I mean like he’s just become you know an unexpected free agent kind of falls into your lap. not quite the miracle of Luca Donuch, but you know, a smaller version of that. Um, other than that, they’ve been very, very quiet. And so, if that quiet continues up until training camp, they say shake, uh, release shake, but leave that 14th spot or 15th spot open. Um, or whatever. if they need to be able to then convince Luca that the blueprint for next off season or for the trade deadline or whatever is going to be strong. And if the line is, hey, you know, we’re going to have three first round picks to be able to trade and we’ll have extra cap space and all this other stuff. If I’m Luca and I’m I look at their track record, I’m a little I’m at least wary. I don’t I mean I I don’t think he’s leaving. I don’t think I mean the short answer of where could he go is anywhere he wants but I don’t think he’s leaving. I just I don’t think Lakers fans trust the front office but really have a a good plan. That’s fine. But I do think it is important for all of us to remember because all of us do a certain amount of projection with this because we are so steeped in the day in day out of the Lakers front office and have been invested in this for so long. We likely have a much more formed idea of what they are capable of pulling off, not capable of pulling off than Luca. like there there is a certain amount of bias and I don’t even mean bias that’s unwarranted. I’m just saying bias because we have paid so much attention to this and like the you know the minutiae of it and the granular of it in ways that Luca likely has not because why would he have been? So the idea that Luca would have as preformed an idea of the Lakers front office on the same level that all of us would honestly I think is perhaps at least a bit of an assumption, right? I mean really it’s it’s does Luca feel comfortable? Does Bill Duffy feel comfortable? I was going to say does does Bill Duffy feel comfortable? And again, they need to be in communication because you and I both think that the idea of really not making a serious move, you know, other than perhaps rare exception until the 2027 off season. the way this has been very widely reported as a Laker plan. I will say again, I remain skeptical of how much this is actually the plan. But if it is, it really doesn’t matter what we think of it. What matters is what Luca thinks of it. And if Luca is, for reasons we may not even understand, okay with it, that’s honestly all that matters. Our disapproval, while I’m not going to say is irrelevant because I want people to watch this show every day hearing and watching, it’s going to be irrelevant. It’s gonna be irrelevant to Rob Pelinka, right? But it what really matters is does what does Luca think about this? And again, I go back to my original point. They should know exactly what he thinks of plans A through Z. There should be no ambiguity at all. Um, so it’s just something to keep an eye on. The biggest thing is it’s it almost surely will ex if if Slovenia has a decent run in the Euro basket, uh which is a pretty spread out tournament as it is. If if assuming that’s the case, you’re not going to hear about any of this until September. Um it’s really not until training camp rolls around, if there’s still not an extension that I think Lakers fans need to start worrying. Um you know, we’ll everybody will be talking about it. We’ll all want it to happen. Well, all you know, everybody, you know, there will be pots that get stirred around the league the longer it goes. But I think up until training camp, it’s just not really a thing. The LeBron, I think, questions um are much more like if there’s smoke, there’s fire in terms of any kind of discontent with with the team. There is no smoke right now with Luca and to to create it I think would be a mistake. Um Lock on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 35,000 subscribers to the channel. We’ll be back tomorrow. Send us your questions. Send us your comments. It’s a great time for mailbag stuff. We’re happy to answer as much as we can. We’ll see everybody tomorrow.

The free agent market has another name coming. Veteran wing Josh Okogie will be let go by the Charlotte Hornets, and once he clears waivers (which he will), will become one of the more intriguing low-key names on the market.

Why? Because while Okogie has some limitations offensively (he’s a career 40% shooter from the floor, and 29.9% from downtown) the guy can defend. That’s a skill that’s valued around the league, and is in short supply on the Lakers. Especially at what would almost certainly be at or close to a vet minimum deal.

So would the Lakers make a play for him with the roster slot they presumably will open up by letting Shake Milton go. (This bit of business needs to be done by July 20th.) Or maybe the Lakers are still in play for De’Anthony Melton, who also fills a defensive need while being a better offensive player. Reporting is out there that Al Horford is still considering the Lakers, if he decides to play instead of heading to retirement.

The Lakers still could use someone to round out the rotation and fill a hole in the collective skill set. Would Okogie make sense?

Meanwhile, August 2nd is the first day Luka Dončić is extension eligible on August 2nd. But don’t be surprised if it takes a minute for him to put pen to paper, because of his obligations to Slovenia in Eurobasket. So when should the Lakers start to sweat?

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: Okogie? Horford? Someone else?

SEGMENT 2: Can the Lakers find some extra help somewhere?

SEGMENT 3: Luka’s timeline.

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