Are The Lakers Built to Win Now

Trevor Lane of Lakers Nation joins Zach & Zack to talke about Bronny, JJ Reddick, and is this team built to win now and long run.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
All right, So obviously the draftjust happened last week, and the big
storyline has to be is basketball nowbecoming a family business? And who better
to talk about that than Trevor Laneof Lakers Nation. Trevor, thanks for
coming on the show. Yes,we had to lead off with that because

(00:22):
my co host cannot stand the factthat Brownie James went fifty fifth. Overall.
Well, first of all, thankyou for having me on. If
you think basketball just became a familybusiness that I've had here for you,
because you look across front offices aroundthe NBA, somebody's son or Nett or
whatever is in charge in a lotof places right now. You know,

(00:45):
I talked to my co host Juniorover there about I'm a Knicks fan.
So when j R. Smith waswith the Knicks, we had a guy
that had no business touching the court. Chris Smith signed a deal with the
Knicks. It's all about making guyshappy. So at the end of the
day, I'm not really a Idon't care about Bronni going there. But

(01:07):
in your aspect, what can Bronniebring to this team that they may have
been missing? Well, so Ithink the answer is just honestly is nothing
right now. I mean, he'snot expected to contribute at all to this
coming season. That's not the expectationfor him, nor should it be.
I mean, just about anybody who'spicked in the second round like this,
they're not going to be expected tostep in and play that coming season.

(01:30):
They're going to spend time in theG League. They're going to develop,
and that's what Brownie is going tobe doing. He's going to be playing
a lot with the South Bay Lakers. I'm sure they'll get his moment on
the court with his dad. Butunless something either goes incredibly right where Bronnie
shocks everybody and is ready to playright now, which is expecting, or
everything goes horribly wrong in that everyoneelse on the Lakers roster is injured,

(01:53):
I don't think we're going to seea whole lot of Bronnie James out on
the floor for the Lakers this year. And once again, that's that's to
be expected. He needs time todevelop and he needs time to grow.
He is a legitimate NBA prospect.He turned heads at the Draft combine.
Uh. He he is a talentedplayer. This isn't just you know,
some guy off the street that's gettinga that's getting an NBA job for nothing.

(02:14):
I think that he does have talent. Yeah, he does have talent.
I get that, But Trevor,I just wonder how Bronnie really is
going to be developing or look todevelop into that that NBA caliber player As
of right now, I saw thathe was listed mainly as a defensive specialist.
In his other categories, he's seenas like an average NBA prospect.

(02:38):
You know, with the Lakers beingfifteenth and offense sixteenth in defense this season,
is there any specific way that theyplan to build him out? Is
there is there a side they wantto try to lean into. Is do
they want to plan on trying toget him to a point where he's caught
ready with his father or what's thelong term expectation? Yeah, I think

(02:58):
that in terms of the Arctic,But what type of player he could turn
into. You look at a guy, I mean, some people thrown up
their defensive player like Drew Holiday orsomething that's crazy, we're setting up aar
way too high. But you lookat like a Gary Payton the second,
a guy who's a little bit undersizedbut has a long wingspan and that's going
to allow him to defend up afew positions. He's six one and a
half or so, but he isa six to seven wingspan. He is

(03:20):
a pretty good defensive player, andhe's not bad in the short role,
just reading the floor and making thecorrect pass. So that's kind of what
you're looking to build him out tobe that type of guy who maybe at
some point, if he hits theceiling, he'll be like, you know,
the eighth or ninth guy on aroster that you can plug in somewhere
and you can get a solid,you know, fifteen minutes a night or
something out of him. That's probablywhat we're looking at here for Brownie and

(03:42):
how the Lakers are going to developand they're going to develop him into somebody
who can be that defensive specialist foryou while providing a little bit on the
other end of the floor work onthat jumper. He's not going to be
a lead ball handler or anything likethat. That's I think is the future
for Brownie here if everything works withthe Lakers. Absolutely I agree with that
one because I kind of looked athim in the same aspect of a Gary

(04:03):
Payton or even a Avery Bradley.For those of you that may remember Avery
Bradley. The big question I wantedto ask you is are Connect four sold
out in LA? Is everybody buyingthat game? Now? They have to
be, I mean, they've gotto be closest. I don't know if
they're actually sold out yet, Butwhat an incredible steal in the draft to

(04:25):
get Dalton Connected all the way atseventeen. And I love that he picked
jersey number four. Were all Ilove funds, we were all rooting for
it, and it's a great marketingopportunity. So Connect four is one of
that Lakers jersey. Now leading intothe next question is how much of a
factor did dalton connects defensive intensity orlack of really go into him sliding?

(04:49):
And how a static are the Lakersthat he did fall to where he did.
Oh, the Lakers are beyond thrilled. I've talked to people within the
organization and they they were in displeave. They could not have imagined if
he was going to be there.They couldn't even get him in for a
workout because nobody was projecting he wasgoing to be there. A lot of
the mock drafts had him at sixthoverall, so they didn't even get to

(05:10):
work him out because he was notprojected to be on the board or anywhere
close to the Lakers at seventeen,and so to get him there they were
thrilled. But from my understanding,what caused him to slide was his age.
He's twenty three, he's on theolder and he spent five years in
college. So teams were passing himup in favor of going with some younger
players that they felt like had alittle bit more upside. But that was

(05:32):
the reason why he slid because hewas a phenomenal scorer in college. He
was a three level scorer and aguy that, again the Lakers didn't think
a talent of his caliber would beavailable to them at seventeen. They were
not anticipating being able to select him, and they were on draft night they
were over the moon at their goodfortune that he was still sitting there.

(05:54):
So, Trevor, at this pointand where the Lakers are, you know,
this is a team that very muchbeen built around Lebron James and the
fact of him being the King James, and now with this son coming out
of the team, what are theexpectations of Lebron James at this point,
with the fact of you know,he's been the veteran, he's been that
twenty six points a game player allthe way back since two thousand and four.

(06:17):
So what's the kind of is hestill expected to be at that elite
level. What's his you know,leadership standing within the organization at this moment
kind of what's his expectations for thisupcoming season. Well, the torch was
really officially I think passed last seasonto Anthony Davis. It's Anthony Davis's team
now. Even over the summer,Lebron's agent Rich Ball was very very loudly

(06:41):
saying, Hey, focus on AnthonyDavis. Don't worry about what Lebron wants.
Focus on Anthony Davis. He's theguy now that should be the focal
point. And Lebron has been tryingto get Anthony Davis to really run the
offense since he arrived in twenty nineteen. I mean even back then that was
the plan. So it's Anthony Davis'steam at this point. Lebron still has
high expectations, but J. J. Reddick has talked about taking the ball

(07:03):
out of his hands more, lettinghim be more of an off ball player.
This is something Lebron's also been talkingabout for years. I think he
wants to take some of that burdenoff of himself. And what's really interesting
is this year, we just heardyesterday that he is willing to take a
pay cut in order to help theNighters add talent by freeing them up to

(07:24):
use a mid level exception, givethem a bit of spending power, and
so now Rob Blake and the Lakersfront office will have the ability to go
target some players in free agencies.It seems like Lebron, both through his
actions and his words, is gettingready to take more of a backseat this
coming season, is ready to havesome other players do some of the heavier
lifting on the team, and thenhe's going to pick his spots, which

(07:46):
he's going to be forty in December. That's exactly where he has to be
right now in his career, andI think there's nobody better to pass the
torch on to Anthony Davis. Butstill, when you have Lebron on your
team, you're constantly in win nowmode. With that being said, if
you look right now in July,obviously there's three months until we even get
close to basketball, this is relativelythe same exact rosterd lo ops. Is

(08:13):
that a trading piece. Are theylooking at potentially a sign and trade with
Paul George and the Clippers or whatoptions are out there where they can make
the changes necessary to be in awin now mode. Yeah, so everybody
opted in d'anel, Russell, Jackson, Hayes, Cam Reddish, with the
exception of Lebron James, those threewe knew Lebron was not going to opt

(08:35):
in. He was going to optout to sign a new deal. But
Danzel, Russell, Jackson, Hayes, Cam Reddish, they all opted in.
You add Bronning, you add DaltonKanek. The Lakers are out of
roster spots. They still want tobring back Max Christie restrict the free agencies,
so assuming they do that, they'refifteen. They're out of roster spots.
So that means they're going to haveto make some trades here over the

(08:56):
next week plus. They're going tohave to find some deals that they're going
to bring in somebody in free agency. They have to clear room on the
roster, so that's going to becritical. D'anngel Russell will absolutely be a
trade ship. They're going to usehim as an expiring contract. See if
they can drum up some interest outthere on the market and maybe combine a
player or two. With D'anngel Russell'sexpiring contract, they have a couple of

(09:16):
future first round picks they can moveand then see if they can get an
upgrade, maybe on the wing orin the paint, if they can find
another big to play next to AnthonyDavis. So Rob Blake has got some
work cut out for him here.He's got to find some trades and he's
also got to go find somebody touse the mid level exception that now Lebron
is going to provide them with,assuming they can find an impact player.

(09:39):
So now he's got to go findsomebody to take that mid level exception,
and he's got to find a wayto clear up some roster spots, maybe
consolidate some talent and bring back anotherimpact piece, and then the Lakers will
be off and running. So there'sgoing to be a lot of activity over
his next week plus here as freeagency kicks off. So as the roster
is currently construct in bringing in aguy like JJ Riddick. I know a

(10:01):
lot of people talk about how hedidn't really have experience. I listened to
the podcast. He has a lotof knowledge. I'm sure he crushed it
in the interview process and that's reallyultimately what led to the job. How
are they constructed to build this offensearound Anthony Davis? Is it the way
that we expected the Lakers to buildwith a bunch of three and D wing

(10:24):
players kind of you know, getthe ball on the outside, but build
it from the inside type of deal. Yeah, I think that is going
to be the plan. They're goingto focus on two way players, but
that's not anything new. Everybody,all thirty teams are talking about about having
two way players. The Celtics showshow critical it is that you have players
like that across your roster. Soeverybody's going to be looking for two way

(10:45):
players, guys who can provide somethingon the offensive end, floor spacing as
well as defend of at least aleague average level. They're going to be
looking for players who can do thosethings. JJ has talked about making Anthony
Davis a hub similar to the waythe Denver Nuggets would use Nick Kjokics,
the way the seventy six Ers woulduse Jelmbiid. They want to run the
ball through Anthony Davis more. They'vehad an issue the last couple of seasons

(11:09):
where Anthony Davis would be schemed outof games by opposing defenses. JAJ seems
to believe that he can prevent thatfrom happening and make sure that AD gets
touches on the offensive end, regardlessof what opposing defense they are doing.
So they very much want to runthe ball through Anthony Davis. That's going
to put some pressure on AD's passing, which has gotten better over the years,
but they want to make sure he'sthe focal point of the offense and

(11:31):
then everything else will fall into placeafter that. Now, Michael Thomas,
Michael Thompson played for the Lakers.Is there any chance that they can find
a way to get Clay to cometo LA? Yes, yeah, there
is. They're in the mix rightnow for Clay Thompson. There are other
teams in the mix as well.The big one is probably the Dallas Mavericks

(11:52):
as another team that has been rumoredto be a landing spot. The Clippers
are in the mix as well,but I think they can. They will
have a midlevel exception to use that'salmost thirteen million dollars, but they'll also
have the ability to accept the playervia sign and trade, not with Lebron
taking this pay cut. So Ibelieve Clay is going to want more than
the mid level exception if you canget it, And so perhaps we're looking

(12:13):
at a sign and trade. Thereis that where they use Dandrew Russell's contract
in order to bring them client.That's probably what Clay would want. I
don't know if that's exactly what theLakers plant is going to be, or
if they would rather use Dandrew Russell'sinspiring contract in the trade for someone else.
If it's a Jeremy Grant, aCam Johnson, a Wing someone like
that, we'll see. But theyare in the mix. For Clay.

(12:35):
There is that kind of bring himhome mentalities that for the Lakers. Still
does the radio broadcast for the Lakersas well, so that is certainly a
possibility. But there are other suitorsout there too, So I no means
is it a lock. But whatdoes seem to be clear is that Clay
and the Warriors are done and he'sand he's moving on, whether it's the

(12:56):
Lakers or somewhere else. Absolutely,And Trevor, I want to jump back
to JJ Reddick for just a second, just to talk about the fact of
as somebody who is hosting two ofthe top sports podcasts and is now basically
dumping them when they're at their peaksto step into this coaching role. This
was something he was asked about,and he had stated that he was cutting

(13:16):
the podcast, wasn't going to bea part of him in order to solely
focus on this. Do you thinkthat that was a discussion with the Lakers
organization. Do you think that washim wanting to solely just invest in this
And do you think that that's somethingthat potentially down the line the Lakers will
jump on board with I doubt it. I don't think they would jump on

(13:37):
board with it. Here's the problemis that while he is the coach of
the Lakers, he falls under thecollective Bartony Agreements rules against cambering, and
so that makes it infinitely more difficultfor him to host a podcast because he
can't really talk about players on anotherteam without being subjected to those rules.
There's still things you can talk aboutwithin the Lakers. But even then,

(13:58):
if he, you know, saysomething about a player on the podcast and
that goes out publicly and maybe theplayer doesn't like that, it just opens
up a whole can of worms thatyou probably don't want to So I would
be surprised if the podcast comes backwhile he's the coach of the Lakers.
Could he He could be in certainlysome interviews, some in house stuff and
things like that with the Lakers,But the coaching the Lakers is the full

(14:18):
time job as it is, andthen when you add in the tampering aspect
of it, it just I don'tthink you can do both both things at
the same time. Absolutely absolutely not, because you know, you see what
Draymond Green does. It's a littledifferent being a player, but then when
you step in a head coach role, obviously you have those tampering rules.
For the Lakers going into this year, seeing how the playoffs unfolded last year,

(14:41):
there's gotta be some reason for optimismbecause as strong as the West may
have looked, it kind of lookedopen in my eyes anyways. Where there's
some young teams that haven't quite reachedthat mentality, maybe the veteran teams can
come in and sweep them off theirfeet. So there's got to be some
reason for optimism if they can getthe right pieces in there. And JJ

(15:05):
Riddick gets that offense flowing. Yeah, and that's true of a lot of
teams right now in the West.But I'm looking at things and saying,
hey, why not us. Ifthe MAVs made the run this year,
we could make them run next year. We could be the team to come
out of the West. Unfortunately,though, there's like twelve thirteen teams that
can legitimately say hey, we couldbe the next team to come out of
the West. I mean, there'sgonna be most likely we're going to see

(15:26):
playoff caliber teams because remember Memphis wasjust insanely injured all season. They're a
playoff teams if they're healthy. Soyou've got twelve thirteen playoff caliber teams.
We're going to have teams in theWest that are playoff caliber not even making
the play in It's not going tobe easy to get through the Western Conference.
And we're still seeing guys just pileinto the Western Conference. To Jean

(15:46):
Dat Murray being the latest, theAtlanta Hawks from the East send him to
the West. So we'll see whathappens over the next week here with player
movement, because at some point Ithink players are going to pick their heads
up and go, huh, theEastern Conference is much easier path. Let
me go over there. But untilthat happens, the West is going to
be an absolute gum. But thereis a lot of parody and there's opportunity

(16:07):
here. But there's a lot ofteams right now that all feel that they've
got a shot in the West.Speaking with Trevor Lane, host of Laker
Nation, appreciate you joining us.I do have to ask you one final
question before I let you go.Are the Lakers planning something special for Jerry
West? You know, I don'tknow specifically if they are. When they

(16:29):
do when they have to say they'rehome opener or something like that, they
certainly should. I don't know forsure. I have not heard specifically that
they're doing that. But Jerry Westmeant so much to the franchise, meant
so much to basketball as it's whyhe's the logo. But with everything that
he meant, with the teams thathe assembled as an executive, with the
things that he accomplished on the courtas a player, they absolutely should have

(16:52):
something special for him to start offthe season. Again, I have not
specifically heard that that's in the worksor not. Obviously they've got some I'm
here to put something like that together. Absolutely, and I think they should
because, like you said, hemeant so much to the organization so much,
the NBA, the Shield obviously beingthe logo, and we look forward
to whatever that is and hopefully theLakers can get the right pieces in there.

(17:15):
Because as much as people may notlike the JJ Reddick aspect of being
a coach, I do think hehas that ability to step in a role
like Steve Kerr did coming in fromcommentary going in and you know, podcast
coming in. I do think hehas that ability. What do you feel
about that? Yeah? I thinkthat they look at JJ Reddick and they

(17:36):
think this is a guy who canbe the next you know, when we're
setting the bar extremely high, butthe next pat Riley can be the guy
that comes in and is there goingto be a learning curve, Yes,
but this is a guy that's sucha bright basketball mind that he's going to
grow, He's going to adjust veryquickly, and we believe that he can
be the coach for a long time. Now. Nobody hires a coach,

(18:00):
rarely hires a coach and says we'regoing to fire this guy in like two
years and move on. Everybody isoptimistic that they've found their coach for the
more the foreseeable future. And theLakers have certainly done that a few times
now, when the hired Luke Walt, when the hired Darvin Ham. But
the Lakers think that despite the redflags of no coaching experience with JJ Reddick,
they think that's something he can overcomeand he can figure it out.

(18:22):
And we'll see if they're correct inthat, but they believe that he's such
a bright basketball mind that he's goingto be able to overcome the challenges that
now lay ahead. I got tohold John for one more second before I
let you go promise last question.Beating off of that, A lot of
people from the outside looking in arelike, hey, you're making these moves
to make Lebron happy, but clearlyit looks like they're trying to build not

(18:47):
only to win now, but alsothey have an eye on the future.
Does that feel what it is?Is that actually what it is? That
accurate? Yeah? Absolutely, andthey and they have specifically said that's what
they're trying to do. They recognizethat they need somebody to develop their talent
for the future. They've referenced MaxChristy Austin Reeves, Raria Chamura, obviously
now Dalton Knet, Rodney James.They want somebody who can build up this

(19:10):
young talent. And that's not necessarilyjust the Lakers trying to commit to,
you know, rebuilding the future oranything like that. That's the reality of
the new collective bargaining agreement where you'vegot these new salary cap tiers, particularly
the second tier apron. I thinka lot of teams are going to look
at that as essentially a hard capat about one hundred and eighty nine million,
and so you have to have apipeline of young talent because what's gonna

(19:32):
happen as we're seeing happen right nowwith sat Contavious Calopope, the Denver Nuggets
play and the Warriors, maybe PaulGeorge and the Clippers. As teams get
expensive, they're gonna have to makesome difficult decisions, and some veteran players
get too expensive, they're gonna haveto wind up with other clubs. And
that means you'd better have a youngplayer on a cheap contract ready to step
into that role. And so developingthat pipeline for the future with the new

(19:56):
collective bargaining agreement is more important nowthan ever before, so I think that's
of the mass here for the Lakers, as they do commit to having JJ
Reddick on board in order to helpdevelop those players for the future. Trevor,
I appreciate your time as always greatinformation. I always enjoy having you
on the show, and hopefully nothingbut the best for the Lakers this season.

(20:17):
Hey, thank you very much.Appreciate you having me absolutely Thanks. Jere