Lakers fans ‘should not worry’ about if Luka Doncic will sign an extension 👀 – McMenamin | NBA Today

Lakers fans ‘should not worry’ about if Luka Doncic will sign an extension 👀 – McMenamin | NBA Today

All right, Celtics fans, look away. Sorry. Marcus Smart dawning the purple and gold for the first time yesterday. Here he is addressing the media for the first time. When you get a guy like Luca calling reference and checking on you, try to see where you at to to see and uh that that if you want to come, you know, join something special that he’s trying to cook up over here. Um and and for him to say that, you know, to see that he can really use my help. Um that meant a lot, you know. um played against Luke a lot. Uh been on a lot of opposing ends of uh you know, Luca Magic and uh to be able to to come out and uh be on his side at this time means a lot. It first came my agent, you know, I’m working out and and I get a call from my agent saying, you know, hey, Lucas reached out and I’m like, yeah, whatever. You know, like all right. And then another day, same thing. Luka reached out again. And now it’s it’s real, you know, it’s no longer um whatifs. It’s real and it’s something we need to talk about and uh that was a great feeling like I said and uh that’s kind of what kind of got the things going to for me to be here and I’m excited to be here. So there he is Marcus Smart George Sedanado in for Malikica Andrews today alongside Dave McMinnon. David Dennis Jr. and NBA champ our guy Kendrick Perkins. So Dave you shot that video that we just saw Luca playing a pretty big role as a recruiter in the Marcus Smart situation. New look for him. So what does that tell you? it. Well, first of all, let’s talk about the guy he’s talking about, Luca Donuch. There was ownership by Luca of this off seasonason to stamp down that he wants to be part of the Lakers moving forward and he wants others to join him. So, he makes calls to DeAndre Aton, the guy who came into the draft with him as the number one pick. Now, he’s the center for the Lakers. Makes calls to Marcus Smart. Needs to fill the point of attack defender spot that Dorian Finny Smith occupied last year. He now plays for the Houston Rockets. gets Marcus Smart to come. And I think as we look forward, we look at that August 2nd date when the Lakers can offer an extension to Luca Donuch worth four years, $222 million up to that figure. And I would say if you’re a Laker fan, you shouldn’t have any worry about Luca coming to some sort of an extension or agreement with the Lakers, which means he won’t just be a Laker for next season, won’t just be a Laker for the season after that. I think at a minimum, we’re talking about a three-year extension. perk. Look, this this has accountability and disrespect all over it. And Luca took it right into the off season. And I know it’s early, y’all. I know it’s early. And I know it’s early for hot takes, but damn it, I’m going out on the limb early in this summertime. And I’m going to say I’m betting on Luca Donic to win the MVP next season. This is the type of commitment that I want to see from a great player like Luca. I want to see the videos of him working out. I want to see that he’s taking accountability for his losing weight and getting in shape. I want to see him being committed to the organization and to his franchise and to his head coach by reaching out and getting players around him. You talk about getting DeAndre Aiden. They got him right a center that he needed. They also went and got a guy Marcus Smart who they haven’t had a primary defender like that on the wing since Alex Caruso. And now all of a sudden Luca is saying I’m ready for this season. I took the disrespect from last season with the Mavs trading me. I’m holding myself accountable. And all the greats in the history of greats have went through some type of adversity or went through some type of thing throughout their career where they had to have an accountability part. And we’re seeing that through Luca right now. I I I’m sorry. I I just Let me rewind a little bit. I just do not totally like the way we’ve been talking about Luca Donis in this off seasonason. You’re coming off of one of your worst seasons. Not just, you know, performance, but like in terms of the expectation, in terms of the injury, the Mavericks moved you uh out to Los Angeles and then you got embarrassed in the first round of the playoffs. and we’re supposed to be talking about this guy who needs to be an MVP type of dude and we’re celebrating the fact that he looks like he’s in shape. Like that should be a bar should be way higher than that for somebody of Luca Don’s caliber a performance right now. You have to be one of the top three best players in the league for the Lakers to have a shot not to be bounced in the first round. And I want to hear more than you look like you’re in shape on Instagram. By the way, a lot of people are in shape are still bad at defense. Being in shape doesn’t stop you from falling asleep on back screens or being left on the island come playoff time. You have to clear way more hurdles than looking good in a shirt on Instagram. I need to see the Luca Donic that is in that conversation with Jokic, with Giannis, with those guys like he was before last year because all this workout video is not moving the needle for me in the way that I that makes me believe that you’re creating an actual contender with that Los Angeles Lakers. Well, well, David, you did you keep the same energy with with Nola Joic? Because Nola Joic had to go through a stage of his career where he had to get in shape before he No, he had to lose weight and get in shape before he hit a stage to go win a championship. Yiannis Toupo had to put on 50 lbs and work on his body before he went and got to the mountain top. Steph Curry had to go, you know, bust his ass and put on weight and size before he got to the mountain top. All the greats that have accomplished a goal had to reach some type of adversity. Hell, hell, LeBron James had to leave Cleveland and go to Miami to learn the recipe and to learn how to to to how to learn to reach the mountain top. Michael Jordan, he took his bumps and bruises against the bad boy Pistons in the in the Celtics and had to get in the weight room before he reached the mountain top. This is nothing new. Like guys hit this as young players that hit the ground running when they come into the league. They hit their head on the on the wall every now and then and then all of a sudden they have to bounce back. I watch Jokic go full 48 and not worried about if he’s going to tire out. He’s gone seven games and done and and push teams that limit. I these are not things that I worry about. We’re talking about LeBron’s, Curry, Giannis’s, people like that. I do not worry about if they’re in shape at the beginning of the season. I don’t need to be worrying about that about about somebody like Luca Donuch. David, I agree with you. Defensively, he’s need to show the commitment. But think about being in shape. He’s been a pro basketball player since he’s 15 years old. Last year, he missed seven weeks with the calf injury. It’s the longest he hadn’t played basketball in 10 plus years as a pro. So, his body fell out of shape. The important thing is he’s responded to it, worked on his diet, worked on his offseason conditioning, and you should get a better version of him. You have to allow for him dealing with an injury that no other guy that he’s ever dealt with before. You know what, David? You’re also missing this and this it’s been a couple years since we had this with Perk. His favorite mocktail is that Skinny Luca and we’re getting it this summer. He’s going to be drinking a lot of Skinny Luca mocktails. Big Perk is going to have those ready. All right, with Marcus Smart now in the lineup, the Lakers get some much needed depth. So, Perk, I hear something caught your eye. I’m Kendrick Perkins, better known as Big Perk. And nothing gets past me. Freeze. Just when you thought it did get past me, there I am. I spy a problem. I spy it all. Tear the hell off. [Music] And I do. And I do. And you know, we have this term in my neighborhood. We have this term in my neighborhood that game recognize game. And Luca recognized game because he’s played against Marcus Martin. Marcus Martin and him has battled a lot through his young career and he knows he knows what it feel like to battle a former defensive player of the year. This is Luca spot against anybody else in the NBA. I want you to look this low post area right here. Look at Marcus Smart being able to take the contact, being able to hold his ground without fouling and make Luca take a a tough contested side. Here it go again. Marcus Smart being a pest that he is, making Luca uncomfortable, forcing him to a tough contested two-point shot. Luca saying, “I know what this guy’s going to bring. I know the tenacity that he has.” in Marcus Smart in Luca career against Marcus Smart. He has shot 29.7% when Marcus Smart is the closest defender. Again, game recognized game. It’s a reason Luca hopped his ass on that telephone to call Marcus Smart because he know what he’s going to bring to the table. Yeah, I don’t think there’s any question about that. I think Marcus Smart is excited. But Dave, you kind of alluded to it earlier. how much of an impact can Smart have considering, look, he hasn’t played 60 plus games in three seasons, which is a great point to point out, George, but obviously he wasn’t in the best situations in Memphis because of the injuries they suffered as a total team and in Washington. I I don’t even want to call them Washington. He was with the Washingtons. You can’t use the the W. They weren’t trying to win, but he was so excited to be in the Lakers facility yesterday. It was like he got a new lease on life. He’s back in a winning situation. Yeah, he’s on the other side of the Celtics Lakers rivalry, of course, but he recognizes that both those franchises play to win parentally. And I I think just that kind of effervescent attitude will do a lot for this group. He looks at it like we got a chance. I asked him the the West is stacked. Yeah. And he said, “Well, I would stack us up against anybody else in the West. We have no ceiling.” that to me that that energy that confidence will do a lot getting this ball rolling in the right direction from day one of training camp. Yeah. Listen, I had Marcus Smart on the radio show on 710 ESPN here in LA and I asked him about that Wizards situation specifically. He looks sorry. He he he talked about the finger being a real issue obviously, but I asked him, look, sometimes these teams in their situation, they want uh to play the young guys and make sure that those guys get some run. and he kind of laughed a little and says, “Yeah, you know, it’s a different circumstance when you’re playing on a team like that.” So anyway, all right. Marcus Smart isn’t the only guy to play for both the Celtics and the Lakers. Shaq is an oldtime Lakers great, winning three titles, three finals MVPs, and a regular season MVP in LA. He also played his final 37 games of his career for Boston and going for nine and five in that stretch. Then Rajan Rondo, one of two players to win titles with both the Celtics and the Lakers, joining Clyde Lovalelet. A young Rondo won a title with Perk back in ’08 on the Celtics and then again in the bubble with the Lakers. And then lastly, Isaiah Thomas finished fifth in the MVP voting for the 1617 Celtics while scoring nearly 29 points per game and trailing only MVP Russell Westbrook in clutch time scoring. He also averaged 14 a game in 21 games for the Lakers later in his career. All right, Perk, let me ask you a question. And this is a tough one because you know people are watching because they’re always watching. Would you have suited up one more season if the Lakers would have come calling? You damn right. I would have. You damn right. Especially Especially for the vet minimum. Suit me up. And I would have I would have did my road to the tea and that’s sitting on the bench and being the extension of whatever coach they had at the time. You damn right I would have suited up for the Lakers. All right, fair enough, Perk. I love it. You keep it 100 all the time. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

On NBA Today, Dave McMenamin joins to react to Marcus Smart revealing that he was recruited to the Los Angeles Lakers by Luka Doncic. Then, Kendrick Perkins and David Dennis Jr. discuss what this could mean for LA moving forward.

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