Los Angeles Lakers Season Preview: Center Upgrade, Perimeter Shake-Up & Fantasy Fallout

Los Angeles Lakers Season Preview: Center Upgrade, Perimeter Shake-Up & Fantasy Fallout

We’re here to talk about the Los Angeles Lakers. Let’s get into their season. Michael Bolton. Thanks, Josh. It’s Michael Bolton here and it’s time for another episode of the Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast. Let’s get to it. Let’s get to it in You are Locked on Fantasy, your daily NBA fantasy podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. Hello and welcome to the locked on fantasy basketball podcast brought to you by basketball monster. My name is Josh Lloyd and unlike the Lakers, I would never decline having a handy on staff. I’m also the lead fantasy analyst at basketball.com and today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Thank you also for making Locked on Fantasy Basketball your first listen every day. We are free. We’re available on all platforms. So, hit the thumb on the double bang. Leave your comments. It’s uh it’s Lakers time. News. Basketball Monster. I have finished my first round of projections, the first base pass. There are certain things that haven’t resolved. A bunch of restricted free agents. And we’ll go through and make edits to all of these things, but we are planning on opening Friday, US time. I don’t know what time. Usually in the morning, but I do not know what time. That is Saturday morning in Australia. I do not know what time. Friday is the expected open date for basketball monster. All right, here he is. We’re talking Lakers. It is one of the hosts of the Lockdown Lakers podcast. Andy Camonetski is back on the show. Andy, the Lakers are always a topic of conversation everywhere. Anyone goes talking about the NBA, there’s marketable stars, there’s big names, but that we’re not going to talk about those guys. Who cares? We don’t need to talk about Luca that much. We don’t need to talk about LeBron that much. What I want to talk about is someone who I was a little bit concerned about last season after after the Luca Donuch trade happened. I thought, okay, Austin Reeves beat out D’Angelo Russell and made it very clear that he needed to be in that starting group. I thought, oh no, with Luca arriving with LeBron already there, what’s what’s Reeves going to do? How is he going to work in this in this role? Which we didn’t know what the role would be? Is he playing off ball? What’s he going to do? But somehow his numbers got better when Luca and LeBron were there. I don’t really know how that happened. I don’t know if that’s a realistic thing cuz it’s obviously a small sample size. H how can how do you do that? Is it possible that Reeves can continue playing that same role that he did last season alongside Luca and Lebron? Because obviously players are going to miss time and he’ll be elevated, but as the third string player whose number somehow went up when he was put into that role behind two superstars, like how did he do it and can he keep doing it? Yeah, I mean, first of all, he’s in a contract year. So, I think while Austin’s not a selfish player by nature, these guys are all going to be conscious of how their play affects their next contract and their bottom line. That’s just human nature. So, he is, I think, going to be looking to maintain his numbers, but I think he should be able to do it in a pretty organic way. The Lakers seem, I think, very committed, at least for the time being, to Austin as a long-term fit. I think they’re going to be watching a lot to evaluate Austin’s viability with Luca longterm. Um, I think they’re going to, unless some team offers him just an ungodly amount of money, I think they’re likely to try to sign and retain him if for no other reason than to just have him as a tradable asset moving forward. The Lakers don’t have a ton of them, but they’re definitely going to be evaluating Austin as a long-term fit, part of a foundation for the Luca era. And I think Austin is pretty well situated, not to mention motivated to maintain the type of numbers that he had last season. So when I say that his numbers were, you know, better, like his usage went up somehow in in the time that when when Luca and LeBron were both there post Allstar break, he went from it wasn’t much, but like I expected, okay, so he was hitting like 23, 24, and I expected to go to like 21 or 22, but it went up to 24 25. His assist rate did drop down, but his shooting became better. He was a 41% three-point shooter. He shot 90% from the line. His overall efficiency spiked, which is one of those things that people think happens all the time is when you play with better players, your efficiency goes up. It doesn’t always happen, but it did in this case. In terms of like the role of ball handling and play making, we did see that dip and and I expect that that is something that that happens again with Reeves in this sort of um alignment for this upcoming season. But like that level of shooting that level of increased usage and just responsibility is that like do you think that they are sort of not looking at him as because often third place guys you could see the guy across town Bradley Bill as the third string guy in Phoenix like everything created like he just did nothing whereas Reeves was able to sort of maintain what he what he was up to like that level of efficiency like is there is always going to have a skepticism but is there a level of flukiness to it or is it was it just things that made sense with the way that he was you performing that task? ask. You know, it’s interesting. I’m thinking about this now in real time off the top of my head and without having the numbers in front of me and some of the splits with usage and things like that. I think there could be an element of remember when they traded for Luca, he wasn’t healthy. So, some of the postluca trade included Luca not being available. So during that period where you don’t have Luca available and Anthony Davis is now in Dallas, you’re going to see some of Austin’s usage go up. I think just because you know at this point there’s no Anthony Davis, there’s no D’Angelo Russell who had been traded for Dorian Finny Smith. There’s no Luca because it took a few games before he was available. you’re going to need Austin to do more. That like there were there was the game in Denver where they had sat like threearters of the team and and it was basically Austin and a supporting cast and and they damn near beat the Nuggets in Denver which was an incredibly impressive showing. But like those are the type of nights that I mean Austin’s usage in that game was probably like 750. I mean he was asked to do everything. So, in that sense, I I would I think the numbers could be a little noisy. And again, I I don’t know this without having them in front of me, but I think they’re going to be looking for Austin to do a lot from a, you know, practical we are trying to win games standpoint from a LeBron is 41 so you don’t want to overload him standpoint and also a we are evaluating him and Luca. We need to see how well the two of them can be maximized together. And part of that evaluation means giving Austin at least some opportunities with the ball. I’m looking at up at the moment from let’s say 1 of March onwards. So like you got the trade deadline, there’s your star break, there’s Luca coming back. So first of March onwards, they played about 460 minutes, the three of those guys together, and Reeves’ usage went down to about 20%. Luca was at 27, LeBron was at 25. um in that time. So, it was a dip. But I think what is interesting about the way this Lakers team is set up is that during the the times when Luca or LeBron or both of them are not on the court, they don’t have that other sort of guy on the bench who’s this, you know, I’ll use Jordan Clarkson, former Laker as an example, who comes in and just takes all the shots and tries to run the show. So, you Reeves is going to have that opportunity. Like in the 93 minutes that he played without LeBron, he had a usage of 39 during that time. So they just sort of put everything onto his shoulders and you already mentioned that one game where you he was able to do a bunch of stuff by himself that he was able to shoulder that load. And I really value this in players, these guys who are able to bring their game up and bring their game back down. Hey, you need me to pass, I’ll do that. You need me to scale the usage up, you need me to spot up for a bit and fit in. That sort of a guy doesn’t take away from those other players. and then when the opportunity and they’re going to give him plenty of those opportunities when those guys are either out or on the bench, he’s going to be able to maintain those numbers which enables those those figures I think to stay relatively consistent and that’s I I think one of the great strengths of what Reeves can do and one of the strengths of how that they structured this um this Lakers squad. I want to talk about the starting lineup in a second and you know some sort of pain points I guess with that or or maybe some ideas of what they can do. We’ll get to that in a second. Today’s episode though, it is brought to you by the Game Time app. You might want to go see a concert. You’ll be logging in, you’re waiting forever. You go into these waiting rooms and it just takes forever. Then you lose your spot because internet connection falls out or something happens. 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Okay, so we’re all going to sit here, Andy, and assume that LeBron and Luca and Reeves and Aiden are starting. Last season, almost every time, it was Ru Hachimura who was positioned in that other position. Whether he was the three or the four, it doesn’t really matter. Ruie has been someone that I’ve been very critical of of his game. He’s had some improvements in his shooting. I still don’t think he takes enough threes. I don’t think he does enough other things. And I think he sort of just exists at times. and I don’t know what he brings, but it would be foolish of me to suggest that Ru Hachimuru is not going to be starting with this group. Do you think there’s any chance that it’s not? Do you think that his position is tenuous where they go, well, it’s not working. There’s someone else we can put in there because they lost Darren Fine Smith in the offseason because I’m not really sure what the other option would be in that position. I don’t think it’s foolish at all to think that Ruie could end up coming off the bench because I think it actually makes sense with this team. I would like to see Marcus Smart get put in the starting five alongside LeBron, Luca, Austin, DeAndre Aiden. Like I think those four LeBron, Luca, Austin, DeAndre Aton, those four guys I think are pretty much in pen in the starting lineup. I would be extremely surprised somewhere between surprised and shocked if those four didn’t. But I think Marcus Smart makes more sense with that starting five in terms of some of the defensive versatility that he provides um the ability to guard a wider variety of positions than some of the players they would otherwise have out there including Ruie. When you start looking at Luca, LeBron, Ruie, and even Don DeAndre to a certain extent, you get kind of a redundancy defensively in terms of the guys that they would be looking to guard. It’s basically fours and fives. maybe maybe a few big threes, but I’m not suggesting that Marcus Smart is going to be the was it 2022 when he won defensive player of the year like that version of himself as a point of attack defender. You know, he’s had some injuries. He’s slowed down a bit. He apparently has gotten into very good shape this off seasonason, so maybe that’ll help. But even if he’s not ideal for that role or like prime Marcus Smart, he’s better than the other options they would have out there if you keep Ruie in the starting lineup. And one of the issues that I think the Lakers have had over the last couple seasons is redundancy in their starting lineup. Then in the meantime, the last couple of seasons, and it really reared its head during the playoffs, they’ve been starved for bench scoring. And Ruie is a very good scorer. He is a score first player. And I actually think he will get more utility coming off the bench. He’s still going to play a lot of minutes regardless. I think he’s going to play somewhere between 25 to 30 minutes even coming off the bench because he’s that important for this team. But and there have been times in the past where Ruie I think his focus and comfort level has waned if he’s come off the bench. But I think he’s going to be in this situation with more uh high-end ball handlers and playmakers on the court with him at all times. Like he’s pretty much always going to be playing with one, if not two, of LeBron, Luca, and Austin. So, that’s going to help. But in the meantime though, I think he’s just going to get more shots and have more of an opportunity to be a focal point. There were times last year where Ruie wasn’t getting enough shots in a starting lineup with Jackson Hayes at center. Now, put DeAndre Aton in there. DeAndre Aton is a far more talented offensive player than Jackson Hayes. You’re going to be looking to get DeAndre Aton rightly. More touches, more opportunities. I think Ruie is going to get lost in the shuffle in a lot of ways if he doesn’t come off the bench. That’s right. Because like I like I said at the start of this you segment here on Rui is that I’ve been critical of Ru because you know at times I don’t think he does enough things that aren’t scoring and a lot of that was inside the arc two-point scoring but you’re right like when you’re surrounded with four players who are significantly better than you offensively. You’re not there to score. You’re there to stand around and do some other things and like he’s not if you turn Ruie into a little things player you’re not going to like what you get. And I don’t I don’t even mean I don’t even mean this to be like a criticism of Ru. actually a pretty big proponent of. And I think in like in certain areas defensively, for example, I think he’s improved a lot. I think he’s done more of the asks. I think, frankly, he’s often been put in a very difficult position defensively because of those imbalances I talked about before where he’s often been asked to guard twos and sometimes even ones. And he just he can’t be reasonably expected to do that. But at the end of the day, he’s a scorer first. And if you’re not putting him in a position to get the best thing out of him and you’re really banking on him to start doing his third, fourth, fifth best things, you’re not going to like what you get. It’s it’s not a good use of Ruie. So I actually think while again he may not be happy about it, I think in the long run he would actually be better off and his numbers would probably be the same if not better coming off the bench. Yeah, you’re right. Like also I I think that you realistically he’s a four and so is LeBron. So you both sort of there’s a redundancy in positions. Like I didn’t really even thought about the Marcus Smart. The other guy that I thought might be an option there who really did step up last season. It’s probably more of a long shot. One of Austin Re’s best mates apparently Jake Laravia who was signed during the offseason. He can also do like he can do a bunch of different things like he can pass at times. He can play passing lanes. He can sometimes block shots. He can score. He can rebound. He can do those little things. He’s not a the guy that’s like I I need the ball to score. I can do a bunch of different things. So, and he’s got that like size to be like, okay, you’re the the guy that plays the three. You play you’re bigger than the guards and you’re smaller than LeBron and you sort of sit in the middle there. So, that’s another option. And that’s you talk about bench scoring or just bench depth. They were playing what, six guys last season in the playoffs. Like just adding smart eight and five in the second half of game four. Yeah. Yeah. You add these guys in who are like legitimate rotation pieces. that gives you that extra bit of depth rather than relying upon the broken foot of Jared Vanderbilt and whatever the the knees are of Gabe Vincent. It gives you some other options. I know that somebody that’s watching this is going to be screaming or maybe they’re just calmly saying it to themselves cuz Josh, it’s got to be Dton Connect. They need shooting in there. It’s not going to be Dton Connect, is it Andy? Because in the starting lineup, yeah, there’s like I assure you there will be one person watching this who was like, “What? He’s so good. JJ Rick loves him. He’s a shooter.” He was bad for most of last season. His summer league was one of the worst summer leagues I’ve ever seen from a secondy year player who’s almost 20. I’m going to say almost 25. I think he’s 24. Where does where does Daltton connect just quickly, where does Daltton connect go from here? Like is I say this in all honesty. Is he even part of like the first 10 guys in the rotation on this squad? I don’t know. There’s something actually Brian and I talked about um for both uh earlier for earlier episodes this week on Locked on Lakers. We actually have delved into Dalton Connect. He’s come up a lot in some recent coverage around the team. Um, I’m not sure to be honest. Like I I’m not ready to give up on him as a player or as somebody who would be in the rotation. And as as talked about before, the bench in particular needs scoring. Like Dalton is not going to start, I don’t think, unless he improves in a pretty drastically in a lot of ways because especially defensively. If you’re going to take Ruie out of the starting lineup, it’s to bring a skill set that they don’t have. Ruie can shoot. So, you don’t need Dalton in there for shooting. Ruy, if anything, like you said, Josh, needs to be a higher volume three-point shooter, but he has shot 40 plus% the last couple seasons with the Lakers. like he can do that. He is, if nothing else, a more confident scorer I think at this stage of his career than Dalton Connect. And he’s and he’s a better player than Dalton. So he Dalton is not going to enter the starting lineup for Ruie because that just that doesn’t really make sense and it doesn’t really address issues unless he just shows up in training camp having really turned around what we saw in the summer league and really doing some things consistently that we haven’t seen from Dalton. As far as though him coming off the bench and a role, I think it’s going to come down to a improving some of the defensive issues that we’ve seen with him and some of his read and react. In a lot of ways, I think it’s read and react on both sides of the ball. Like there have been issues with him uh reading plays correctly as an offball player, you know, running off screens, timing, stuff like that that I think has become an issue for Dalton. I also think too in fairness to him, rookies on teams looking to make playoff runs and that’s what the Lakers were looking to do often don’t play a lot. So like the idea that Dalton’s playing time went down as the season went along, that in and of itself to me isn’t necessarily that alarming. Like if you look at most of the players who were like all rookie team, all second team, they most of them were on teams that were in the lottery. Yeah. Or you know, someone like a Jaylen Wells who really popped in ways nobody expected. But like it’s it’s pretty uncommon for guys to be first or second team all rookie playing on a team with actual stakes. So, in fairness to Dalton, it’s not shocking that his minutes would go down. That being said, though, he looks uncomfortable on the court right now in ways that he needs to rediscover the form from the first couple of months where he looked terrific. Yeah, exactly. And I’m sure that the failed trade plays a part in that as well, but he’s got, you know, honestly, if he wants his career to blossom and continue, he’s as blunt as it is, he’s got to get over it. like he he just well I mean what I would say to him you know if I was somebody within the Lakers or if Dalton would listen to me I don’t see why he would but I would just let him know look they traded you for a skill set in Mark Williams that you can’t possibly provide which is being 7 feet tall they traded Anthony Davis they needed a playable center they also needed a contract that could match Mark Williams because he’s still on a rookie scale deal like they didn’t really have any other options for a rebuilding team. They didn’t trade Dalton Connect for like a souped up more seasoned version of Dalton Connect. They traded him for almost the complete opposite player of what he is. So, while I know I I know it’s easier said than done to say, don’t take it personally because I’m not the guy that was told, “Hey, you got to move to Charlotte.” like I I get where you wouldn’t like this, but at the same time, it’s like it’s not really shade that they were looking to trade you. They needed a completely different skill set. They needed a salary that would line up with Mark Williams, and they needed a player that a rebuilding Charlotte team would be interested in. There was really nobody else to trade on the roster. That is true. But that also Andy brings us to talk about the center position because this team relied upon Jackson Hayes as the starting center last season. A um a challenged player, a a limited player if we’re going to be fair and if we’re going to be unfair, I’d say like just honestly a bad player for most of his NBA career. But after we’ve already talked about one, I’m sure he’d appreciate you at least saying that’s unfair. I can’t wait for him to start sticking his finger up and swearing at me on some sort of social media live platform that he’s got because, you know, not that he’s ever done that before. The second buyout guy is DeAndre A. You made a great point earlier at the show and I want to bring that back and we can criticize DeAndre Aton as much as we like. Like it’s very easy to do that. Like I don’t know, he’s probably not going to suffer any snow issues at his driveway in Los Angeles, but you know, these are things that have happened to him. This is a man who contests as the few shots as I’ve ever seen from a big man. Refuses to get free throws. Doesn’t decide to shoot threes. I don’t know what he does half the time, but he doesn’t have to do anything. Like he all basically all he needs to do is show up and he’s already an upgrade over Jackson Hayes. Honestly, he doesn’t need to be in a high level offensive role, but he can be. He can scale that up. And we saw he we saw him do that it for stretches in Portland. We saw him do it in Phoenix. He’s not going to be a great defender, but he’s big enough and he shows some ability at times to be a defender. And I don’t know, I don’t want to judge the man too harshly, but I I do think that he might be somebody that if he’s placed in a situation where there might be the stakes might be higher that he might actually like focus a little bit like he might he might try at times. I I do think that there might be a little bit of that to his game. So, we can say that he is a a terrible number one overall pick. He’s such a we could all laugh at him. He gave up all this money. This it couldn’t be a better situation for DeAndre Aiden and also for the Lakers to have him there because like you don’t need him to do anything. You need to do 50% of what he’s been doing in other spots. So I guess my my question I guess my I know my question is so what like we already know that he’s going to be the fourth offensive option. So from I’m sure you’ve done some deep dives into Deion Aiden. What are the other things that he’s going to bring that solidify that position that makes him not Jackson Hayes? Well, to begin, he is a far better rebounder than Jackson Hayes. He he has never averaged fewer than 10 rebounds in in his career. He has basically averaged three offensive rebounds per game, which is fantastic for extra possessions, for cheap points, for an offense that obviously JJ Reic had to, as Rob Blink often likes to say, rebuild the airplane while in the air. And you know the the roster that they were left with post Luca trade, it’s first world problems because you get Luca, but the reality is it was not built well for all of Luca’s skill sets. They didn’t get a ton of time together because Luca missed some, LeBron missed some games, we missed some games. Like there there was very little continuity and fluidity in the way they were able to build it. The offense was not as good on the court as it felt like on paper with Luca and LeBron and Austin Reeves and Ruie and down the line. So Eightton just his ability to be a great target around the rim. He his conversion rate, you know, off lobs just in general in the restricted area is extremely good when he wants to. And I have a feeling he’s already talked about in his introductory press conference how playing with Luca and LeBron feels like he’s being set up for a video game. So he is going to be set up with some of the best lobs he has had in a long time, which I think is going to motivate him to screen better, roll hard to the rim at all times. I think he recognizes um a that he talked about this during his introductory press conference. He is seen as not a winning player and it seems to bother him. Now obviously it’s easy to say that in introductory press conference you have to go out there and do it for 82 games in the playoffs but he can only for the time being say the right things like he doesn’t have the opportunity right now to go on the court but he seems very cognizant of the detractors. He talked about kind of missing the idea of playing meaningful basketball. It’s one of those you don’t really know what you have till it gets taken away because 2021 he was the starting center on a team that went to the finals and DeAndre Aton was an important part of that run like he made he made a difference. Then cut to a couple years later, he is playing for a Portland team with a bizarre roster that’s in the middle of a rebuild. And little bit, I think they’ve discovered a a direction now, but the time he was there, they were, I think, pretty rudderless with a, you know, first-time head coach and John Chanty Phillips. And I think he it seems like at least recognizes that playing meaningful basketball on a team that matters is something that he enjoyed and would like to do again. I think he also recognizes if this stint does not work out, I’m not saying he’s going to fall out of the league because he’s too good, but he will place himself as somewhere between probably a taxpayer mid-level exception guy to veterans minimum, something like that. Like I would be surprised if he made more than a full mid-level exception for the rest of his career if this doesn’t work. And it’s a high-profile setting for him. He’s being set up to succeed with the players around him. You know, again, he he shares an agent with Luca Donuch. Like that played a big role in him ending up on this team. I am willing to speculate that Bill Duffy, their shared agent, gave Rob Pelinka a heads up. Hey, this buyout that a lot of people don’t seem to be expecting, it’s coming before you sacrifice some assets to trade for a center. This could be coming your way. and DeAndre Aton was clearly the best free agent center that that hit the market this year by by a wide margin. And even if Aton doesn’t improve a single thing that people use as uh detracting from him, he will be an upgrade over Jackson Hayes. Like if he if he doesn’t all it comes down to, isn’t it? Yeah. I mean, look, he a I think for his career, he averages something like 15 or 16 and 10. Yep. If he just gives you 16 and 10 and like a block or two blocks a game, that’s going to be really really useful. Like he will make them better. I know he’s a legit starting center. Yeah, he is. And I know that people I’m I’m going to sit here and say that he’s my favorite player. I’ve been very critical of him in the past. But it is also like it’s very easy to pile on him and I don’t think that many people would be aware of this. And you can debate the the effect efficacy or the usefulness of things like screen assists, right? But he wasif fifth in the NBA in screen assist. Well, not not on our channel. We cannot debate it on this on on our particular network. We are not allowed to. No, no. It’s a it’s a if you know, you know. It’s a it’s a message from on high. Um but he was fifth in the NBA in screen assist. And I don’t think many people go, “Yeah, DA does the dirty things. He just he springs open his shooters.” Like no one no one thinks that, but he does. Like the guys ahead of him was Sabonis, Go, Jokic, and Hartenstein. All right. Okay. You don’t look at him as that sort of guy. Also, I said that he’s like a bad rim protecting center. He was like his contest numbers in terms of contesting shots. They they weren’t awesome. Like don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t putting up great numbers, but he was still like in the mix there. He contested more shots per game than Zack Edy did. He contested uh what he was at like 7.8 per game and Jiren Jackson was 8.1. And Jiren Jackson, we think of him, what a great rim protector. Now Aton might contest them. He doesn’t get his hands on them. He doesn’t touch them, but he was at least putting in the effort and and I think that it is easy easy to criticize this guy. There’s so many bad stories that have come out. But I think that the like you mentioned the finals run, he tailored his game to what needed to be done. And that’s exactly what he’s going to need to do here. And it is going to be really interesting to see how the Lakers deal with this. And that upgrade is it’s going to be immense. And what is also immense is this show because that is done. We are over Andy and all of the Marcus Smart, Jake Larabia, DeAndre Aiden talk is going to be your I didn’t even get to talk about Bronny James who actually looked like a legit player at times in summer league and my my comp for Bronny when he came into the draft. I said look if you best case you could probably turn him into a Patrick Beverly sort of player and I saw um I saw quite a bit of that. So I I’ll be interested to see if he’s able to maybe step ahead of like a Gabe Vincent. I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m sure locked on Lake there yet but he’s progressing. I will say this, he’s progressing, I think, as well as they’ve hoped for. Um Nate McMillan, one of the Lakers assistant coaches, said he was a very, very qualified hedging statement, but he said we I’m paraphrasing a little bit, but we expect him to possibly get some minutes, which is as hedging and non-committal of praise. But, you know, he could have said, look, we think he’s still a year away, but we’re very happy with the way he’s progressing. You know, just the idea of even floating this as a possibility, I think shows that they they really do feel like Bronny is progressing well and they should because he did he missed an entire year of college. He came in, he was bad for most of last season, but there were some flashes. It’s just it’s just something to keep an eye, but Lockton Lakers will cover all that from the big names Luka Donuch, LeBron James to, you know, LeBron James senior and LeBron James Jr. and all the LeBron James you can possibly have, you’ll have over on Locked on Lakers. Andy, thanks again for coming on. Anytime, brother. All right. We didn’t even cover Luca. We didn’t cover LeBron because I don’t know that I need to talk with a local expert to talk about, hey, is Luca going to be good? Yeah, I think he’s going to be all right. Yeah. What am I going to talk about? He’s awesome. Is LeBron LeBron? Yes. Like, we don’t need that stuff. It’s about those little bits and pieces to fill in the periphery of our discussion about these teams. And that’s exactly what I did there. I hope you enjoyed that discussion with Andy. We’ve got the magic show coming up later on. was going to be the Raptors, but that is pushed back a day. So, we’ll get that coming. Don’t worry, I still hate them. That is coming up soon as well. Guys, we are done here. Thank you so much for listening everyone. See you. [Music]

Los Angeles Lakers Season Preview | Fantasy Basketball Outlook 2025–26

Josh Lloyd and Andy Kamenetzky of @LockedOnLakers break down the Lakers’ offseason—and its fantasy fallout. Key additions like DeAndre Ayton, Marcus Smart, and Jake LaRavia shift rotations alongside returning core members Luka Dončić, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves.

Here’s what fantasy managers need to know:

Center Upgrade – Ayton’s presence in the paint should transform rebounding and inside scoring.

Defensive Intelligence – Marcus Smart adds grit, leadership, and defensive versatility.

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0:00 – Introduction
0:18 – Lakers season overview
2:45 – Austin Reaves contract year
7:02 – Reaves’ usage with LeBron and Luka
10:25 – Lakers starting lineup discussion
14:57 – Dalton Knecht’s role
19:36 – Deandre Ayton’s impact
27:48 – Ayton’s screen assists
30:27 – Bronny James progress
30:49 – Conclusion