Are Lakers primed for a title run with Luka’s new look? 👀 + Clippers’ path to the finals | NBA Today

Are Lakers primed for a title run with Luka’s new look? 👀 + Clippers’ path to the finals | NBA Today

It is rare that Luca spends an off season on this side of the Atlantic, but this is an important week and perhaps that explains this summer tour. Yesterday, as Luca was arriving in New York City, the summer special of men’s health was released sporting that slimmer Donic. It caught a lot of folks attention here. And then last night, Luca went to a Yankees game, met Aaron Judge, got some shoes signed, Dantic jerseys, but again, we don’t usually hear a lot from Luca typically at this time of year. While he was at the game though, he caught up with the legendary broadcaster Michael Kay. Take a listen. After that deal was made, the Mavericks got a lot of criticism regarding it. And then they start to leak out stuff while we don’t know if he’s ever going to be in shape. You should mail him a copy of the Men’s Health magazine. They probably saw it, so I don’t have to worry about that. Hendrick Perkins beaming in from his home studio. Mark Spears and Dave McMenan. So glad you’re here for this conversation as we continue to contextualize the summer of Luca Donuch. Dave, what should we be reading into? I mean, he got he got the Dallas joke off his chest right on the broadcast with the Yankees here. What should we be reading into this week? The fact that he’s back and I don’t know, the fact that on Saturday he could sign an extension with the Lakers. Yeah, Malikica, you mentioned it. This is the first time he’s come back in the summertime after being drafted to the the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA. He would go to Europe and stay in Europe until training camp, right? And so this time around though, he’s here for a reason. Not just for a promotional tour with his sneaker company. He’s going to be in New York and then Chicago and end in Los Angeles. Why would he do that? Coincidentally, the Lakers on Saturday can offer him an extension worth upwards of four years, 229 million, or maybe 3 years, 165 if he wants to go back and be a free agent with 10 years service and then be able to get a big payday then. Not that 165 isn’t a big big payday, but a 300 plus million dollar contract. And listen, I I spoke to someone close to Luca over the weekend and they told me that Luca’s mentality is win now. So, this isn’t signing away to the Lakers and saying, “Okay, you guys go uh you have my commitment and I’ll have some patience here.” It’s I want to win this year. I want to win the subsequent year. So long as my name is signed to a piece of paper saying I’m a member of Los Angeles Lakers, I expect to be in a position to be able to raise banners at Crypto.com Arena. Okay. So there there’s a whole lot of there there again this is the first time correct really that we’ve seen at least that I can remember Lucas spending any time in the United States in an offseason. Right. So there is that and then there’s the fact that on Saturday he can sign he becomes eligible eligible to sign this enormous extension with the Los Angeles Lakers. We’re not reporting that that’s happening right now, but it does seem like a mighty big coincidence here, Perk, that Luca would be in Los Angeles on the date that he is eligible to sign. But Dave said something important here. He said that Luca wants to win now. Does this Luca that we’ve seen on the the the health cover here put them in championship mode? Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Absolutely it does. I mean, think about it. He went to the NBA finals and and he was chubby still drinking beer. Now you have a in shape Luca who God see his cheekbones. I see veins popping out of his ear. And my high school coach always used to tell me right you never know who’s watching you. When I used to go to AU tournaments where the world is watching Luca and not only the Laker fan base and the Laker organization, but guess who else is watching Luca? His teammates. He has set the bar this summer and showed commitment not only to the organization but to his teammates and also the most important person on this team right now and that is LeBron James. LeBron James over the past two days have been posting on social media that the King is back to work. The King is in the lab at 4:00 a.m. in the morning. seem like LeBron James is excited because remember Dave, you reported that LeBron was going to be keeping an eye out on the Lakers and the moves that they were going to make. Well, they made some moves. They got DeAndre Aton, they got Marcus Smart. Most importantly, they got an engaged Luca Donic who LeBron James uh admires so much and wants to play alongside with. So, this is all positive for the Laker fan base and the Laker organization. You know, just like Luther Vandros, whether he’s big, whether he’s skinny, he’s he can perform. He’s going to be a showstopper. We know what he’s going to be on. He’s he’s going to be legendary. I want to see what he is on defense. And we’ll get the first opportunity to see him in in the new body in in the Euro Cup. But if this man can put the effort, the intensity into playing on the defensive end, why can’t he be the best player in the league? Why can’t he be the one that leads this team to a championship along with LeBron? I like to me that is the missing piece for him being one of the greatest players of all time. And so I’m really really curious to see how he changes that part of it because to me that’s he’s in shape now. What’s the only thing we could point a finger at? defense and we know schematically JJ Ric will give him a chance to be an effective defensive player. After the Lakers parted with a perennial defensive player of the year candidate in Anthony Davis last year, they vaulted the top five in the league in defense with the bigger version of Luca, right, for the remainder of the regular season. I think you will get a an ability to use him in different ways which could only help JJ Reick’s defense. In the Western Conference right now, it feels like we’re talking in tears. Oklahoma City, you can argue, is in a class of their own here. And then maybe you’re looking at the Kevin Durant new look Houston Rockets potentially. You’re looking even at at the Denver Nuggets who retoled a little bit this summer. I’m not sure the Los Angeles Lakers are quite in that tier, but Luca Donuch that we have seen now uh and his sort of new body that he’s showing the world. And then also LeBron James in the gym at 4:00 in the morning. I thought 7:30 was okay for me. 4:00 a.m. It ain’t going to happen. This is one of those things I kind of manifest manifested for a long time. Sort of tried to speak it into existence, but uh you just never know if it’s it’s really going to happen cuz I love the hoop. I love to play this game, but I love my family more than any of it. So, I have so much gratitude for for Steve Balmer, for El Frank, Too, Gillian, everybody in the Clippers organization for uh you know, bringing me in. If I’m really honest, I wanted to get back and play here by any means necessary, right? I didn’t even care what the team looked like. I just want to be home, be here with the Clippers. And to tell you, man, I’m just so excited about the moves that the team has made this off season, right? Uh and Brad coming to the team, Brook Lopez, all the young guys. I talked to James, I talked to Kawhai, you know, and I’m I’m even more excited about what I think we we have a chance to do. So, we were all at this press conference yesterday and I thought, I’ll be honest, I thought that we were going to hear Chris Paul say that this is going to be the last Harrah. I thought we were all going to be showing up to hear Chris Paul saying this is where I wanted to end my season. And you know what? I should have known better. I should have known better than to count out CP because he was talking about still having championship aspirations still with this roster. The one thing that’s evaded him here, Mark, do you see this group, even with their AP cards, being able to sort of be in that conversation? Hey, I resent that. Our Hall of Fame trying to send me those letters. I know we’re talking about seasoning. So long as you don’t resemble that, just um they got a lot of new interesting parts, right? Brooke, John. What about Bradley? We haven’t heard Bradley speak yet. I’m waiting to hear Bradley speak. Two years ago, I did a diary with Bradley. Why? Because his addition to Phoenix was supposed to be magnificent. It was supposed to give him a big three. He’s supposed to be a future Hall of Famer. It was a bust. Bradley Bill has to be on a mission to get respect back for the special player he is, the special shooter he is. He doesn’t have to be forced to play point guard anymore. I saw him in Utah last year. He was really emotional. I could tell this wasn’t a good place for him. M this is his chance to push Phoenix up. They lost to a great shooting guard. You got to be that or better, Bradley. Well, he spoke with his actions by giving up the number three jersey to Chris Paul. I think was obviously a classy gesture and they have a long-standing relationship through their connection through the Jordan brand for for years. I think the thing that can be really beneficial to Chris here is that we are mentioning all these other names, right? You’re mentioning the additions of Brook Lopez and Bradley Beal right on down the line where he’s not to your point. His wife told me has no pressure. That’s right. Like he doesn’t need to be the Chris Paul that we’ve seen over the years. He needs to be a guy who can be as reliable as possible. He played 82 games last year, right? And someone who can give them spot minutes in the fourth quarter to close out games. We know he’s a master at that. And just help this group come together. Be a guy a coach on the bench for Tailoo. and they have a deep relationship as well. It’s a really good fit going into the year. I really like the Clippers roster here, Perk, but all of this comes back to one thing in my mind and that is the health of Kawhi Leonard. This team goes as Kawawaii goes. No, you’re right. I mean, and you’re talking, we’re talking about an older ball club and getting to the postseason is healthy and uh they need to be healthy, but they got to get to the postseason. And we’re talking about in the tough Western Conference, we know at any given time Kawhi Leonard could be the best player on the floor. We just don’t know when he’s going to be on the floor. So if I was the if I’m the Clippers, if I’m Tyoo, I want to hit the start of the season. I want to hit the ground running. I want to come out and I want to have the best record in the NBA. I want to set the tone early because the the Western Conference at the start throughout the course of this season in my opinion is going to be like the playoffs. Every single night is going to be a battle. So again, the Clippers just got to get to the postseason healthy with fresh legs which is going to be a hard task. And if we see the Kawhi Leonard that we saw play 39 minutes or whatever it was against the Golden State Warriors that final game as they were trying to stay out of the playin and this the team that we saw against the Denver Nuggets in that first

Kendrick Perkins, Dave McMenamin and Marc J. Spears join Malika Andrews on NBA Today to react to Luka Doncic’s summer tour, if his new physique puts the Lakers in championship contention, Chris Paul rejoining the Clippers and their path to winning a title.

0:00 Luka’s summer tour
3:07 Does Luka 2.0 put Lakers in title contention?
6:11 Chris Paul reintroduced by Clippers
7:30 Clippers’ path to NBA title

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