Lakers Lounge

After wrapping up their conversation about the Clippers scandal and the media's role in it, the guys dive into a couple fun questions from the live audience about other signings they felt may have made more sense than the ones made this summer.

Anthony starts with a conversation about the changes coming to what Lakers games are going to look and sound like whether you're in the arena or watching from home. Then, he explains why ESPN's response to questions about its reporting fell hilariously short. He wraps with questions from the live audience.

A listener asked in the iTunes mailbag whether Anthony had heard anything about Lawrence Tanter's replacement, which led to Lakers game presentation in general and the coming changes there. From there, Anthony launches into ESPN's pseudo statement following a week of radio silence about their disproven Clippers scandal reporting.

Don Van Natta Jr. tried to issue a statement on behalf of his, Baxter Holmes' and Ramona Shelburne's (and Sham Charania's) infamous reporting that didn't age well almost immediately. Anthony explains why the defenses gives fall hilariously short, then dives into questions from the live audience.

Anthony has heard your notes about how he feels about the Lakers and challenged himself to an optimism battle. He and Harrison discuss the most important factors facing the Lakers and explain what it would look like if those things swung in the team's favor. Buckle up, kids. We're being happy today.

Anthony and Harrison introduce the concept of this episode, which takes a little while because of how out of the norm it is for Anthony to practice optimism. They kick things off with what the Lakers need from Luka Doncic.

Anthony's ask of Austin Reaves this year is relatively straightforward, and something he should be able to carry out. Harrison makes fun of Anthony for racially profiling Austin for like five full minutes.

Anthony asks Harrison after a full episode of positivity and optimism whether he feels better about the team. Turns out, that helps! After talking about Mamu's fit, the guys discuss their findings and whether they felt like card-carrying homers at any point in this discussion.

Anthony outlines the types of lineups he expects to see at various stretches of the Lakers' games this season. Who is going to start? Will they have a bench mob? What will the bench/starter combo lineups look like? Which rules does he foresee for teammate combinations? This was a fun way to look at the roster and figure out how the puzzle pieces might fit.

Anthony predicts who he thinks will be the opening night starters, but also explains why he thinks we might see tweaks to that group and why who starts is important. He then discusses the bench lineups he's curious about, as well as the starter/bench combo groups that often play a key role in the middle portions of the game.

Anthony explains why the garbage lineup will a) be fun and b) is actually important, then outlines the directions he'd take their small and big lineups. From there, he answers a couple questions and calls it a day.

This episode is... a lot. The guys talk about how they'd feel about this if they were Clippers fans. They discuss ESPN's reputation coming out of this. Raj sneaks a few minutes of Lakers basketball talk in, too, and they wander all over the place to try to touch on every aspect of one of the biggest stories we'll cover this year. Oh, and Q&A. They do a Q&A too.

Anthony tries to figure out how to spell sike, Raj explains how Kawhi's response to this was perfect and the table is set for one of the more wide-ranging conversation these guys have had in a little while.

Anthony and Raj discuss Kawhi's complete apathy toward every team's culture he's been a part of, epitomized by his statement about the Clippers punishment.

Anthony tells a story to outline how dangerous it is to allow one person (Shams in this case) to monopolize information.

The live audience stuck around for the whole episode to arrive at a pretty familiar question: So... how can we benefit from this?

The Clippers Clippers-ed and now we get to laugh at the Clippers. Anthony and Harrison handle that task, with a little help from a very special guest.

The Clippers were caught and punished. Anthony and Harrison couldn't have planned today any better.

Anthony and Harrison explain the ways this might impact the Lakers but more than anything, are relieved that the league isn't tolerating such brazen efforts to skirt the rules.