Allen Sliwa, Lakers Radio Network

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Follow Inside the Green Room on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Allen, how are you, man? I'm good, brother.

Thank you for reaching out and having me come on. No doubt about that. I guess the first question. I guess general consensus is that LeBron James is going to return. What say you and potentially under what circumstances or what could he do? Well, I think what he'll do no matter what is opt out of that contract. He'll continue to have a tremendous amount of leverage on the organization. It's kind of something that he's done a number of different times in his career.

Why not play that leverage if you can? He's got, obviously, the power. He's somebody that fills up the arena. Lots of nationally televised games are had because of LeBron James, and he's good for business. Here's another thing. He's also still a really, really, really good basketball player, even at age 39.

He was one of the best players in the series that included Nicola Yocas, Jamal Murray, Anthony Davis. So I think the Lakers got to obviously try to figure out what they need to do to make sure Braun stays. And hopefully it's a partnership that includes a chance at competing for an NBA championship, because ultimately that's what Laker fans want. And that's what the brand's about.

So the goal is that they could accomplish both. Allen Sliwa is here with us, the chair of Sportbreeze Show on the Infinity Sports Network. Well, Allen, LeBron likely staying. Darvin, him, I feel like he's pretty much on the clock right now. Is it a foregone conclusion that he's going to be out as head coach?

Yeah, I think it is. I mean, there's a couple of things. First off, anytime this is just comes with the territory, but there's always a fall guy. And usually it's the coach that's the fall guy in most sports. And I don't think that's going to be much different with Darvin Ham.

And listen, I get it. To be frank with you, I think there were opportunities or moments during the season where Darvin Ham, I think you were looking at the coach and saying, well, that's an interesting decision or Torian Prince starting 50 games in the regular season. Or if you want to go to the playoffs, you can look at game two specifically Lakers up 20. They look completely disjointed towards the end of that game. Jamal Murray hits that buzzer beater on Anthony Davis. Lakers lose the game by two. And they, I thought, lost their chances of making this a series against the Nuggets in game two. After the game, Anthony Davis talks to the media and basically tells them, look, we go through stretches. We don't know what we're doing on both sides of the floor. I don't really hear players or I didn't see players advocating for him.

That's obviously not a good sign. And I do think it's just a matter of time before the Lakers fire Darvin Ham. Ooh, Allen Slee was here with us. Lakers radio broadcaster also covers them for ESPN LA. Who could they potentially replace him with? It's a good question that that part's not clear. And I think it's hard to answer that question, especially right now, because who knows if there's a coach that's currently coaching in the playoffs, that's going to be out of a job by the time the dust settles.

So it's funny, I don't have an answer for you, and I think I would be making just complete guesses. There was some chatter a little bit about Juwan Howard, potentially. I know he just signed as an assistant. I can't remember even the team that he signed, but I just saw that news. That's right.

That's exactly where it was. So I hope the Lakers, if they're going to fire Darvin Ham, have three, four names in mind and have their top list. But I also wouldn't be surprised that there's somebody coaching right now in the playoffs that's not going to have a job that could potentially be of interest.

So we'll find out who it's going to be. But I think you could definitely I think there's going to be and I that's probably the bigger issue with the Lakers right now is they can't find a sustainable coach. I mean, since Phil Jackson has left, how many different coaches have they had? Nobody really lasts longer than three years.

Is it a maximum that you'll have that was Frank Vogel? But for the most part, everyone's around two years. So they're also having a difficult time letting anything marinate. Alan, we know, as you said, coaches, they get the blame.

They're also easiest to move. When you talk about roster flexibility, how can the Lakers legitimately improve? What draft capital do they have, not have? Who's a valuable asset that they could move on?

Would it have to be Reeves? What do you hear? So I remember I'm going to go back to the NBA trade deadline and NBA trade deadline was on a Thursday and the deadline was at noon. That night, Lakers had a game at Crypto.com. Rob Palenka was there and he basically addressed the media talking about how the Lakers didn't end up making a deal.

And I remember some of the things that he said. He said, look, draft capital right now, we have one first rounder that we were able to give away in the summer. We're going to have three first rounders that we have the ability to move. Went on to say that, you know, you can't buy a house that's not for sale. Even if the Lakers wanted to make a move, which I'm sure they did, there were some players that they were identifying.

They didn't have the opportunity to do it. So this summer, I'm going to take him for his word that he will. And we don't have to take him for his word. LeBron has a player option and LeBron's not kicking back and paying attention to what the Lakers are going to do with their 20-29 pick.

He doesn't care. So I think there's going to be a lot of pressure on the Lakers to use those three first rounders. I know they would love to keep Austin Reeves, but if I'm a team out there and I'm making a deal and I'm getting some first rounders back, I also want to make sure Reeves is a part of a deal as well.

So those are the assets that you have. Rui is another one. Jared Vanderbilt is another one.

So you got Gabe Vincent is another one. They got tradable contracts. I just don't know who the player is that the Lakers are going to try to identify. We've heard the name Trae Young a couple different times. Maybe it's Trae Young, who's a clutch client as well.

But we'll have to wait and see. Allen Slee was here with us from ESPN L.A. Do you think Trae Young would fit in with a LeBron James and Anthony Davis? Is there another player that you think would be an ideal fit to help this squad just really be contenders again? So listen, I think in the short term, can Trae Young be a player that is an upgrade from the point guard spot, can be a true threat from the outside?

I don't think is too concerned about the, you know, the big moment where I think we'll kind of actually could potentially thrive in a big moment. But here's the problem with Trae Young. If you're trading all the assets that you have for Trae Young and you think Trae Young and Anthony Davis are going to be the two guys that once LeBron is gone, you want to build around.

I don't like that duo. You know, I that doesn't sound like a duo to me that's going to be competing with the Oklahoma City Thunder, with the Minnesota Timberwolves, with the Denver Nuggets, some of these other up and coming teams. You know, the Spurs are only going to get better. Ja Morant, once he comes back to the Memphis Grizzlies, I go down to Zion if he's healthy with the Pelicans. There's a lot of good teams in the Western Conference. So Trae Young might be a more short term solution, but trading every asset you have for Trae Young and eventually when the dust settles, it's Trae Young and Anthony Davis. That one doesn't sound like a winning proposition to me. You know, Alan, when you think about what the future might hold, is it more likely that LeBron James is going on a retirement tour as a Lake or is it legitimate championship contention?

What's more likely? I think it better be championship contention because, listen, if it's a retirement tour, why am I giving up all these assets? Why am I, you know, if it's a retirement tour, that's a completely different game plan than I'm trying to win and I want to win. So I don't think it's going to be a retirement tour. I think LeBron, by the way, I think he believes he's going to be in the league for a couple more years. So I don't think this upcoming year would be his last year anyways.

So with that in mind, I think the goal is going to be to compete. Alan, we've heard so much about his son Bronny and certainly the words around it have changed from I want to play with my son to I just would love to play in the league with him and then obviously due to his health issues it's his choice and then we get word after the elimination that the Lakers would be willing to absolutely bring on Bronny even as a later round pick. Is that a foregone conclusion that that's bait to try to keep LeBron in town? Yeah, I think so.

Right. I mean, if you look at if Bronny James wasn't the son of LeBron James, and you were looking at him purely from a basketball perspective, I think you would be encouraging Bronny to stay in college, continue to develop. You know, obviously he had the heart issue, didn't get a chance to play a full season. I'm sure that he would like to improve his draft class and everything else. But maybe this is being fast forwarded now because you don't know how many years Bron has. I think that what he said in the past about wanting to play with Bronny is what he actually wants. Maybe now he's downplaying it more because there's other teams that may say, hey, if we draft Bronny, maybe we could get LeBron James.

So I think maybe that's more strategic. But ultimately, at the end of the day, I think if you're asking the Los Angeles Lakers to use and I'm going to just assume this is a second round pick because I don't think they would ever use a first round pick for this. But if you're asking them to use their number 55 pick, I want to say in the second round on Bronny James, I don't think they would hesitate to do that if they're accommodating to LeBron.

OK, Alan, final question for you. So if I wanted to get drafted into the NBA, all I'd have to do is be real close to LeBron and foregone conclusion, right? You're a second rounder. Yeah, you're a second rounder, no doubt about it.

You might they might pick you up to maybe you don't go maybe you don't get drafted, but you're on the G League team. I'll take it. A two way.

Nothing wrong with a two way contract. Hey, Alan, I will take it. Hey, Alan, thank you so much for joining us. I know you're quite busy. ESPN, L.A., all your radio work with the Lakers.

Where can people follow you and everything that you do? Twitter at Alan Sliwa. And if you want to follow me on YouTube, YouTube Hoops Talk with Alan Sliwa.

Hey, we know everything with the Lakers is always busy. Can't wait for the storylines to continue to unravel over the next couple of weeks. A final question. When would Darnham really get the boot? Are we thinking next several days, next several weeks? What do you think they would let him go? I'd be surprised if he's the coach in the next week or so or it has not been announced.

I just don't really know what the purpose would be if if the season your season ended, you fly back to Los Angeles like they did last night. You got probably the rest of this week to meet with management ownership. I don't know what what you'd wait for.

And that would just be my I don't know. I don't have an inside info on that, but I would assume within a week I really wouldn't understand why you would wait on that. OK. Hey, Alan, thank you again. Look forward to catching you down the line. Enjoy the drama. OK. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. What up, y'all? It's your boy, Danny Green, three time NBA champ.

You either rooted for me or rooted against me. Join myself and my close Harrison Sanford on the Inside the Green Room podcast. Whether you're a diehard fan or casual about your hoops, this podcast brings you the game like never before. Follow Inside the Green Room on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast.