May 2, 2025 • 12 mins
The Lakers' season ended with a gentleman's sweep by the Minnesota Timberwolves, prompting a critical examination of the LeBron James era and the future direction of the franchise.
• The LeBron James tenure since July 2018 has been largely disappointing despite the 2020 championship
• Three consecutive early playoff exits including "gentleman sweeps" suggest systemic issues
• Trading for Luka Doncic creates challenges in roster construction due to his defensive limitations
• Austin Reeves may be better suited as a trade asset than a core piece alongside Doncic
• The Lakers need to prioritize rim protection and perimeter defense to complement Luka
• JJ Redick's coaching decisions and lineup management need improvement
• Front office leadership under Jeanie Buss and Rob Pelinka should be questioned
• Future roster moves should focus on players who specifically enhance Doncic's strengths
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's up everybody?
It's your favorite show'sfavorite show.
Get a Bucket.
I'm your host, trayton, asusual.
I hope you're all having awonderful, wonderful day.
Today we're going to talk aboutmy Lakers dropping the ball.
No pun intended, but before wedo that, please make sure to hit
that like and subscribe button.
Comment tell anyone who'sanyone about the show, trying to
get the ratings up a little bit.
You know, just a little bit.
But like I said, ladies andgentlemen, today we're going to
talk about my Los Angeles Lakersand we were derailed.
(00:25):
We were derailed a little bit.
I'm not going to lie to you all.
It was kind of piss poor.
And here's my thing.
The reason why I'm upset themost is we've been gentleman
swept the last three years and Ican actually say this LeBron
James tenure, this LeBron Jamesexperiment that my Lakers have
had to endure since July 1st2018, it's been a failure.
I don't count the 2020 bubbleyear Notice.
(00:47):
I said the year like the wholeyear.
I don't even.
I try not to acknowledge, butironically, that's the year that
we happened to win thechampionship Blown.
If we wanted the prior year, Imight've helped out the case,
but right now we can't donothing like retire LeBron
James's jersey for Lakers.
What has he done for us?
(01:07):
Again, the championship for2020, trash that year.
Trash.
People even tried to discreditthe 2021 season.
How can we do that and notdiscredit the 2020 season?
And again, that's our onlychampionship.
And after that, like the firstyear, he got there right, missed
the play-in playoff entirely,then lose.
(01:30):
I'm sorry we won a championship.
I'm sorry we.
We did win that championship,that that championship.
Then, after that first roundexit in 2021, then 2022.
I want to say we missed theplayoffs all together.
Was that right?
And then 2023 sweep in thewestern conference finals.
I'll give us sweep.
We lost and then we got,gentlemen, swept in the first
(01:53):
round 2024.
Now 2025, gentlemen, swept.
Like I said, the lebron jamesera for the lakers trash.
He has made all NBA selections,all-star appearances.
What has he done for us?
Because during this time, wethought of Nikola Jokic, luka
(02:13):
Doncic, hell, even AnthonyEdwards getting past LeBron
James, just saying so again.
The tenure for the Lakers ledby LeBron James, the tenure for
the Lakers led by LeBron Jamesnot that good.
And keep in mind we also tradedAnthony Davis, who was supposed
(02:33):
to be our future, for now LukaDoncic.
That's tough, that's going tobe tough because people are
saying we won the trade.
I said when that trade happenedit's not definitive that we won
that trade.
We've got to wait and see.
So again, ladies and gentlemen,it's very tough to say we won
that trade.
We got to wait and see.
So again, ladies and gentlemen,it's very tough to say we won
that trade wholeheartedly.
The first six years of both Lukaand AD's career, ad actually
(02:54):
played more games than Luka.
Luka, just in this playoffseries, got injured.
I have question marks on ifLuka going to play past 2030.
He already said he ain't wantto play as long as Braun.
So how long does Buddy reallywant to play?
Does he want to play for usreally long term?
That's what we got to figureout.
(03:15):
Anthony Davis might haveactually stayed a little longer,
and we at least get rimprotection plus scoring.
With Luka, we need defenseacross the board, because he
don't do defense at all.
And then we got to add rimprotection.
So guess what?
Now we got to adjust the rosterand with Luka at our point
guard, braun no longer ourfuture.
We got a couple of things toconsider Now when we're looking
(03:37):
at this.
Ladies and gentlemen, look atthis real quick.
I just need y'all to repeatthis.
Y'all see this Lakers lose tothe Wolves 103-96, and we get
gentlemen swept.
Like I said, ladies andgentlemen, that's kind of y'all
peep.
This right here, that gentlemensweep really truly does hurt.
And what this does for me, forreal, for real, makes me think
(03:59):
we need to trade this man righthere.
Wait, let me get right there.
Right there, we're going tohave the trade buddy right here,
because Austin Reeves is goingto be our what?
Our?
Point guard.
No, that's Luka Doncic.
Luka Doncic is the Lakers pointguard.
So now we're going to have what?
Him be the off guard, all right.
Well, I already said, luka don'tdefend.
So if Luka don't defend, we'regoing to need Austin Reeves to
(04:23):
defend.
But Austin Reeves is not adefender for me.
Austin Reeves is a role playerwho is best probably off the
bench.
If I'm being honest, he can getme about 12 to 15 points.
I can take that.
He proved he can shoot a littledecently.
I can take that too.
But when the defense isactually keying on him, that's
when we're going to have trouble.
(04:43):
And I hear y'all he scored 20during the regular season.
That's cute.
Keep in mind when D'Lo did 18,led our team in three-point
shooting and assist-turnoverratio.
Everybody was going at D'Lobecause he had one bad playoff
or a bad playoff appearanceagainst one team.
Realistically, that same teambeat us the year before too,
(05:05):
like they've had our number, butwe wanted to go at D'Lo.
So now we got to look at playerslike Austin Reed.
I'm looking to trade AustinReed, especially when Luka
Doncic is our future, andapparently people are really
high on a player like AustinReed.
Some people think this man is astar in the making.
Cool, let's finesse people,then, and actually get somebody
(05:26):
who can play well alongside LukaDoncic.
Hell, maybe we can actuallypair Luka with Donovan Mitchell.
I think that could actuallywork out, because Donovan
Mitchell does play a little bitof defense.
I don't want him to be theprimary defender, but I think
that's a better option thanAustin Reese, don't you?
Again, we got to look at Luka.
(05:48):
What's best for Luka?
He needs a rim protector.
He needs someone like a KyrieIrving.
I don't think Austin Reevesfits that bill.
He needs people who can defendwings guards.
I don't think Austin Reevesfits that bill.
When we were playing the Wolves,the Wolves were actually
attacking Luka Doncic and AustinReeves every chance they could
(06:11):
get.
So why not trade that personand bolster up the roster?
Again, that's something we haveto do.
And if we can trade Braun too,why not?
Because, again, luka's ourfuture.
So, as a ball-dominant player,is he really going to play well
(06:32):
with Braun?
We had glimpses, but I dobelieve there are other players
out there that we can try tofinesse and pair with, and the
only thing is we got to makesure that Braun likes to trade,
because he does have hisno-trade clause.
Him and Bradley Beal are reallyhurting teams right now.
But again, if we can find acompetent trade for him, for
Braun, maybe Braun's cool withit.
(06:53):
Cavs, donovan Mitchell maybethat's a thing who knows, but
we'll have to find out.
But again, we do have to makesome trades and I do expect
Austin Reeves, rui Hachimura,dalton Gannett them players to
get traded.
Hell, dalton was already tradedat one point in time, so it's
not really a leap to say hecould get traded too and he has
(07:15):
good value.
Don't get me wrong.
All these players have decentvalue.
Let's try to look for thefuture now.
But outside of this I mean,ladies and gentlemen, the
supporting cast it won't really,it's looking a little
lackluster Again when we bringthis up.
If I just point to the boxscores, real quick, let me see,
(07:35):
right there, did I go to theyeah, all right, so right here,
can y'all still see this?
Y'all see, right here, rightBoom, this is Dash.
You know what I'm saying?
Like that's them, that's theirproduction.
This is us.
That's not that.
(07:55):
Like this, some do not plays.
I need to figure out JJ.
How come we couldn't add someextra bodies on the court at
this point in time?
Hell, alex Lynn might be one ofour tallest players.
(08:16):
How come he couldn't get nolove?
Shaq Milton can actually scoresome.
We could have used some extrascoring.
Like, austin Reeves plays 41minutes, 14 shots, 12 points.
Dalton couldn't have tried tojack up a couple threes Like for
(08:36):
real?
Hell, I would have taken Bronnytried to shoot something.
Like JJ, we got to trysomething, bro.
We got to try something which Iget it.
It's your first year, right,kudos, you got 50 wins as a
season.
But looking at the supportingcast, though, champ, like the
supporting cast here, we do havesome pieces.
You could have tried to use alittle bit more.
I appreciate you scaling backon Jackson Hayes' PT.
(08:58):
But, dog, next year we can't dothe same stuff.
I'm sorry.
I want to see some improvementsfrom JJ Redick now and again.
With a new roster maybe we cando some new things.
But we got to focus on some keyelements for my Lakers, like rim
protection, like perimeterdefense, like actually focusing
(09:24):
on Luka and not LeBron James,because what we did with Austin
Reeves and D'Angelo Russell waswe wasted time trying to figure
out which one should we keep,which one should we trade, which
one should be the third optionofficially, which one should
come off the bench, draw a linein the sand.
Laker fan, a Laker organizationplease.
(09:44):
Because right now I'm alsosaying to maybe we should get
rid of Jeannie Buss, rob PalenkaI've been saying we should.
Maybe Jeannie should sell theteam.
I'm at the point where I'm like, officially, jeannie sell the
team please.
I don't even know if we knowwhat we're doing now.
This is wild.
(10:05):
Again, ladies and gentlemen,three gentlemen sweeps in a row.
One of them was a sweep.
My bad, it does sound better tosay three gentlemen sweeps in a
row, which is a crazy statementto make.
In general, again, we weren'tsaying this.
We were not saying this, butmove this forward to a three.
(10:25):
Now we saying it, just sayinglike it's crazy.
So, again, los Angeles Lakers,we have been derailed, and it's
not just this season that'scaused it.
It's probably been since 2018.
Coincidence, I don't know.
But, ladies and gentlemen,maybe I'm just emotional right
now because we just lost, but Iwant y'all to let me know too,
(10:47):
though Am I off my rocker?
Am I wild?
Because I feel like I stated alot of things that actually are
factually true.
But again, I know some peopleare going to call me a hater.
The bronze stands, and that'sfine.
I know austin reeves stands aregoing to call me a hater, and
that's cool.
Hopefully, y'all realize nowy'all were foolish, stupid,
(11:08):
ignorant, because he's just arole player.
Stop talking about him as much.
He didn't perform well versusthe Wolves is what it is.
But hopefully the Lakers canmake the right offseason moves,
and I'll be talking about thosemore as the offseason happens.
But, ladies and gentlemen, y'allheard my gripes.
Let me know what you all think.
But that does conclude the endof the show.
(11:30):
So, definitely, I appreciateyou all for listening.
I also appreciate the trollsthat have been coming on for my
Lakers.
It has been entertaining.
I will say that it has beenentertaining.
Hopefully we can cut those downjust a little bit, but I get it
, though we did lose in badfashion.
Oh, I'm not trying to have usget clowned too much, but it's
deserved though it's deserved.
(11:50):
I that must get clowned toomuch, but it's deserved though
it's deserved.
I will say that Shout out toAnthony Edwards and the Wolves
for winning.
We'll be following along withthem.
But, ladies and gentlemen, likeI said, this does conclude the
episode.
So I greatly appreciate you allfor listening.
Thank you and definitely likesubscribe.
Comment to anyone who's anyoneabout the show.
My name is Trey.
I'm the host of Get a Bucket.
What's up everybody?
It's your favorite show'sfavorite show.
Get a Bucket.
I'm your host, trayton, asusual.
I hope you're all having awonderful, wonderful day.
Today we're going to talk aboutmy Lakers dropping the ball.
No pun intended, but before wedo that, please make sure to hit
that like and subscribe button.
Comment tell anyone who'sanyone about the show, trying to
get the ratings up a little bit.
You know, just a little bit.
But like I said, ladies andgentlemen, today we're going to
talk about my Los Angeles Lakersand we were derailed.
(00:25):
We were derailed a little bit.
I'm not going to lie to you all.
It was kind of piss poor.
And here's my thing.
The reason why I'm upset themost is we've been gentleman
swept the last three years and Ican actually say this LeBron
James tenure, this LeBron Jamesexperiment that my Lakers have
had to endure since July 1st2018, it's been a failure.
I don't count the 2020 bubbleyear Notice.
(00:47):
I said the year like the wholeyear.
I don't even.
I try not to acknowledge, butironically, that's the year that
we happened to win thechampionship Blown.
If we wanted the prior year, Imight've helped out the case,
but right now we can't donothing like retire LeBron
James's jersey for Lakers.
What has he done for us?
(01:07):
Again, the championship for2020, trash that year.
Trash.
People even tried to discreditthe 2021 season.
How can we do that and notdiscredit the 2020 season?
And again, that's our onlychampionship.
And after that, like the firstyear, he got there right, missed
the play-in playoff entirely,then lose.
(01:30):
I'm sorry we won a championship.
I'm sorry we.
We did win that championship,that that championship.
Then, after that first roundexit in 2021, then 2022.
I want to say we missed theplayoffs all together.
Was that right?
And then 2023 sweep in thewestern conference finals.
I'll give us sweep.
We lost and then we got,gentlemen, swept in the first
(01:53):
round 2024.
Now 2025, gentlemen, swept.
Like I said, the lebron jamesera for the lakers trash.
He has made all NBA selections,all-star appearances.
What has he done for us?
Because during this time, wethought of Nikola Jokic, luka
(02:13):
Doncic, hell, even AnthonyEdwards getting past LeBron
James, just saying so again.
The tenure for the Lakers ledby LeBron James, the tenure for
the Lakers led by LeBron Jamesnot that good.
And keep in mind we also tradedAnthony Davis, who was supposed
(02:33):
to be our future, for now LukaDoncic.
That's tough, that's going tobe tough because people are
saying we won the trade.
I said when that trade happenedit's not definitive that we won
that trade.
We've got to wait and see.
So again, ladies and gentlemen,it's very tough to say we won
that trade.
We got to wait and see.
So again, ladies and gentlemen,it's very tough to say we won
that trade wholeheartedly.
The first six years of both Lukaand AD's career, ad actually
(02:54):
played more games than Luka.
Luka, just in this playoffseries, got injured.
I have question marks on ifLuka going to play past 2030.
He already said he ain't wantto play as long as Braun.
So how long does Buddy reallywant to play?
Does he want to play for usreally long term?
That's what we got to figureout.
(03:15):
Anthony Davis might haveactually stayed a little longer,
and we at least get rimprotection plus scoring.
With Luka, we need defenseacross the board, because he
don't do defense at all.
And then we got to add rimprotection.
So guess what?
Now we got to adjust the rosterand with Luka at our point
guard, braun no longer ourfuture.
We got a couple of things toconsider Now when we're looking
(03:37):
at this.
Ladies and gentlemen, look atthis real quick.
I just need y'all to repeatthis.
Y'all see this Lakers lose tothe Wolves 103-96, and we get
gentlemen swept.
Like I said, ladies andgentlemen, that's kind of y'all
peep.
This right here, that gentlemensweep really truly does hurt.
And what this does for me, forreal, for real, makes me think
(03:59):
we need to trade this man righthere.
Wait, let me get right there.
Right there, we're going tohave the trade buddy right here,
because Austin Reeves is goingto be our what?
Our?
Point guard.
No, that's Luka Doncic.
Luka Doncic is the Lakers pointguard.
So now we're going to have what?
Him be the off guard, all right.
Well, I already said, luka don'tdefend.
So if Luka don't defend, we'regoing to need Austin Reeves to
(04:23):
defend.
But Austin Reeves is not adefender for me.
Austin Reeves is a role playerwho is best probably off the
bench.
If I'm being honest, he can getme about 12 to 15 points.
I can take that.
He proved he can shoot a littledecently.
I can take that too.
But when the defense isactually keying on him, that's
when we're going to have trouble.
(04:43):
And I hear y'all he scored 20during the regular season.
That's cute.
Keep in mind when D'Lo did 18,led our team in three-point
shooting and assist-turnoverratio.
Everybody was going at D'Lobecause he had one bad playoff
or a bad playoff appearanceagainst one team.
Realistically, that same teambeat us the year before too,
(05:05):
like they've had our number, butwe wanted to go at D'Lo.
So now we got to look at playerslike Austin Reed.
I'm looking to trade AustinReed, especially when Luka
Doncic is our future, andapparently people are really
high on a player like AustinReed.
Some people think this man is astar in the making.
Cool, let's finesse people,then, and actually get somebody
(05:26):
who can play well alongside LukaDoncic.
Hell, maybe we can actuallypair Luka with Donovan Mitchell.
I think that could actuallywork out, because Donovan
Mitchell does play a little bitof defense.
I don't want him to be theprimary defender, but I think
that's a better option thanAustin Reese, don't you?
Again, we got to look at Luka.
(05:48):
What's best for Luka?
He needs a rim protector.
He needs someone like a KyrieIrving.
I don't think Austin Reevesfits that bill.
He needs people who can defendwings guards.
I don't think Austin Reevesfits that bill.
When we were playing the Wolves,the Wolves were actually
attacking Luka Doncic and AustinReeves every chance they could
(06:11):
get.
So why not trade that personand bolster up the roster?
Again, that's something we haveto do.
And if we can trade Braun too,why not?
Because, again, luka's ourfuture.
So, as a ball-dominant player,is he really going to play well
(06:32):
with Braun?
We had glimpses, but I dobelieve there are other players
out there that we can try tofinesse and pair with, and the
only thing is we got to makesure that Braun likes to trade,
because he does have hisno-trade clause.
Him and Bradley Beal are reallyhurting teams right now.
But again, if we can find acompetent trade for him, for
Braun, maybe Braun's cool withit.
(06:53):
Cavs, donovan Mitchell maybethat's a thing who knows, but
we'll have to find out.
But again, we do have to makesome trades and I do expect
Austin Reeves, rui Hachimura,dalton Gannett them players to
get traded.
Hell, dalton was already tradedat one point in time, so it's
not really a leap to say hecould get traded too and he has
(07:15):
good value.
Don't get me wrong.
All these players have decentvalue.
Let's try to look for thefuture now.
But outside of this I mean,ladies and gentlemen, the
supporting cast it won't really,it's looking a little
lackluster Again when we bringthis up.
If I just point to the boxscores, real quick, let me see,
(07:35):
right there, did I go to theyeah, all right, so right here,
can y'all still see this?
Y'all see, right here, rightBoom, this is Dash.
You know what I'm saying?
Like that's them, that's theirproduction.
This is us.
That's not that.
(07:55):
Like this, some do not plays.
I need to figure out JJ.
How come we couldn't add someextra bodies on the court at
this point in time?
Hell, alex Lynn might be one ofour tallest players.
(08:16):
How come he couldn't get nolove?
Shaq Milton can actually scoresome.
We could have used some extrascoring.
Like, austin Reeves plays 41minutes, 14 shots, 12 points.
Dalton couldn't have tried tojack up a couple threes Like for
(08:36):
real?
Hell, I would have taken Bronnytried to shoot something.
Like JJ, we got to trysomething, bro.
We got to try something which Iget it.
It's your first year, right,kudos, you got 50 wins as a
season.
But looking at the supportingcast, though, champ, like the
supporting cast here, we do havesome pieces.
You could have tried to use alittle bit more.
I appreciate you scaling backon Jackson Hayes' PT.
(08:58):
But, dog, next year we can't dothe same stuff.
I'm sorry.
I want to see some improvementsfrom JJ Redick now and again.
With a new roster maybe we cando some new things.
But we got to focus on some keyelements for my Lakers, like rim
protection, like perimeterdefense, like actually focusing
(09:24):
on Luka and not LeBron James,because what we did with Austin
Reeves and D'Angelo Russell waswe wasted time trying to figure
out which one should we keep,which one should we trade, which
one should be the third optionofficially, which one should
come off the bench, draw a linein the sand.
Laker fan, a Laker organizationplease.
(09:44):
Because right now I'm alsosaying to maybe we should get
rid of Jeannie Buss, rob PalenkaI've been saying we should.
Maybe Jeannie should sell theteam.
I'm at the point where I'm like, officially, jeannie sell the
team please.
I don't even know if we knowwhat we're doing now.
This is wild.
(10:05):
Again, ladies and gentlemen,three gentlemen sweeps in a row.
One of them was a sweep.
My bad, it does sound better tosay three gentlemen sweeps in a
row, which is a crazy statementto make.
In general, again, we weren'tsaying this.
We were not saying this, butmove this forward to a three.
(10:25):
Now we saying it, just sayinglike it's crazy.
So, again, los Angeles Lakers,we have been derailed, and it's
not just this season that'scaused it.
It's probably been since 2018.
Coincidence, I don't know.
But, ladies and gentlemen,maybe I'm just emotional right
now because we just lost, but Iwant y'all to let me know too,
(10:47):
though Am I off my rocker?
Am I wild?
Because I feel like I stated alot of things that actually are
factually true.
But again, I know some peopleare going to call me a hater.
The bronze stands, and that'sfine.
I know austin reeves stands aregoing to call me a hater, and
that's cool.
Hopefully, y'all realize nowy'all were foolish, stupid,
(11:08):
ignorant, because he's just arole player.
Stop talking about him as much.
He didn't perform well versusthe Wolves is what it is.
But hopefully the Lakers canmake the right offseason moves,
and I'll be talking about thosemore as the offseason happens.
But, ladies and gentlemen, y'allheard my gripes.
Let me know what you all think.
But that does conclude the endof the show.
(11:30):
So, definitely, I appreciateyou all for listening.
I also appreciate the trollsthat have been coming on for my
Lakers.
It has been entertaining.
I will say that it has beenentertaining.
Hopefully we can cut those downjust a little bit, but I get it
, though we did lose in badfashion.
Oh, I'm not trying to have usget clowned too much, but it's
deserved though it's deserved.
(11:50):
I that must get clowned toomuch, but it's deserved though
it's deserved.
I will say that Shout out toAnthony Edwards and the Wolves
for winning.
We'll be following along withthem.
But, ladies and gentlemen, likeI said, this does conclude the
episode.
So I greatly appreciate you allfor listening.
Thank you and definitely likesubscribe.
Comment to anyone who's anyoneabout the show.
My name is Trey.
I'm the host of Get a Bucket.
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