Khobi Price, Southern California News Group Lakers Reporter

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It's always football season right here on the free Odyssey app. After all, it's time to have a conversation with Kobe Price, who covers this Lakers squad for the Soul Cal news group. Kobe, how are you? Hey, how's it going? I'm good, man.

I'm good. Well, not too much of a breaking news with Darvin Ham getting the boot. I guess the next question is how long do you think it's going to take to get a coach? And we've already heard of some of the candidates fill us in.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, I wouldn't expect I would not expect for this to be a search. I think it could definitely take weeks for, you know, for the Lakers to nail the right candidate, if not for anything, just to do their due due diligence to, you know, interviews, you know, maybe have multiple multiple rounds of interviews to find the right person for the job. And obviously, the names of potential candidates have been out there have been put out there already. You know, Mike Brunenholzer, Charles Lee, Kenny Atkinson, particularly JJ Redick going on this. There's a couple of names I'm blanking on right now. But then there's going to be an abundance of names, an abundance of people funds of coaches will be interviewed for this job.

So the process has to play out. And I guess we'll also see how it plays out and who else could possibly be interviewed for the job as well. Kobe Bryce is here with us from the SoCal news group. Darvin Ham, it was pretty apparent from anyone who watched the game, his interactions on the sideline with the players. And I mean, even a couple of games ago, LeBron James imploring and jumping up and down for him to to challenge a call. Was Darvin Ham in over his head? No, I wouldn't go that far.

In over his head, I think would be a little bit too far. But I just don't think he I think at a certain point, you know, the locker room there was there was a disconnect. There was a disconnect that's been going on for months. And it just continued to rise, even regardless of the Lakers success to end this 2023 2024 regular season. And once you once that disconnect happens, and it isn't repaired, and the confidence within the locker room, even within some, you know, outside the locker room, but within the organization, they don't have that belief or confidence that the coaches, the current coach that being Darvin Ham, now, former coach, isn't the right person to leave them, then it's just hard to bring that that coach back, even if, you know, set players like them as a person or like having morale and what have you, if they don't believe that or have the confidence that that person that they coach is the right person to leave them, especially when you have the stars that the Lakers have, it's hard to bring that person back regardless of who they are. Kobe, when you think about the impending and potential free agency of LeBron James, how does this coaching hire affect that? Are they just going to hire the guy that they know LeBron James wants and hope for the best?

Or how does this affect things? No, I wouldn't expect that because essentially last time, or maybe not last time, but a couple of coaching cycles ago when, you know, when they let go of Luke Walton and Ty Lue, I mean, obviously it's going to be a name that gets brought up as Clippers coach Ty Lue. He was an option.

He was a front runner. They had interviews. Obviously, he's, you know, LeBron's at the time, his preference, and he didn't get hired because disputes within the contract negotiations or disputes in the terms or of, you know, the hiring. So even if LeBron says, you know, this is my preference, it doesn't mean that that's what's going to get done. Obviously, LeBron's preference will have influence on, uh, on the process more than likely, but just because of LeBron says, you know, this is big, like, or plainly says, this is the guy I want, or, you know, uh, this is who I want. Doesn't mean exactly who's going to get, that's exactly who's going to be hired. But you, uh, I would imagine that, you know, LeBron will have influence on this process.

Um, even if he, you know, with the player option that he has, I think it's June 29th to figure out. So this could play a factor into it, but I would also expect for them to have a coach, um, hired well before LeBron makes that decision for the player option or the deadline for that decision, rather. Kobe Price is here with us from the SoCal News Group. Yeah. I mean, it'd be one hell of a scenario where LeBron James puts in his two cents and doesn't stick around. I would think this would be indicative already of what most people assume is that he's going to stay on Los Angeles Lake. Are you, are you feeling good about that fact?

Yeah. I mean, at least as of right now, and, you know, the season just ended on Monday officially after they got knocked out, uh, by the Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs. But even after Monday, the feeling was that, you know, LeBron will be back on the Lakers. Now, how that looks when there is opting into the last year of his deal or opting out and signing the brand new, you know, two or three year deal, or maybe even a one-on-one, whatever it may be, uh, there's still a feeling around the team that he will be back with the Lakers.

It's just more so a matter of how, not so much if, but you know, it is also, you know, we have another month and a half until he has to officially make that decision. And I would imagine that, you know, the head coach hiring potentially could have an impact on his decision or maybe how long is that decision to be made. When you think about the Lakers outside of obviously looking for a head coach, how can they quote unquote retool the roster? What are some options that they have available to them to improve as a team?

They have a few different options. Even, you know, this is let's assume that LeBron does come back and he's going to be one of the higher, you know, one of the highest paid players, not just on the team, but in the league that does limit you from a cap flexibility standpoint, but there are still other options, you know, come, you know, the NBA draft, they'll have three first round picks at their disposal to trade. So that opens up different avenues in terms of chasing star players or even high caliber players, uh, potential, uh, all star caliber players rather. So those sorts of players can be on the table for the Lakers. Um, you know, getting guys like Gabe Benson and Jerry Vanderbilt back after, you know, injury, injury, riddle 20, 23, 20, 24 seasons will definitely help as well. Uh, there's also the D'Angelo Russell factor. What is he going to do with his player option?

There are a few other players with the player options as well. So there are a few different avenues, you know, especially through trades and chasing after maybe star caliber players, or even just high level role players who may not be the biggest names, but who impact winning at a high level, which we've seen that every championship continue team needs. I mean, just look at the Denver Nuggets. It wasn't just Nicola Jokic and Jamal Murray hurting the Lakers in that series.

It was also Aaron Gordon from my comported junior, uh, you know, really doing damage in that series. Look around the league is a lot of times it's high level role players. And to me, I think that should be more of the Lakers focus, not so much the star players, but the Lakers do have a potential rather potentially have the, uh, the what's needed or necessary to acquire, you know, star players, or even like I said, high level role players, which I think they're probably more in demand or should be more demanding rather than maybe like another star player. Regardless of where LeBron James ends up, you bring up an interesting point. Do you take LeBron James as someone who will, uh, you know, leave some money on the table to help out the team or is he going to go for every dollar incentive that he could get? I would, I mean, based off of the previous, I guess it was previous few contracts, he's definitely maximized the financial already that you can make. So I would not expect for that to change, um, at least not significantly, uh, at least not significantly, like maybe if you're talking about like a million or two, but I would definitely expect for him, you know, just my opinion and my view on things to him to maximize, uh, whatever financial position he can be in, especially in what's expected to be his last couple or few years, uh, as an active player in the NBA. Man, go out and get the 50 plus while you can.

Who cares if you're worth a bill, it can always go out there and get some more cash. Well, Kobe, thank you so much for taking the time to hop on and join us. We know that things are always going to be interesting with the Los Angeles Lakers. So I know you're going to be busy. Okay. No, I appreciate it. And thank you so much, so much for having me on.

No problem. That Kobe price. Baseball is in full swing. NBA playoffs are heating up and your NFL team is gearing up for training camp. Listen to the latest on the teams you love here on the Odyssey app, the biggest sports radio stations in the country, providing unrivaled local coverage of their teams all in one place, exclusive interviews with players, coaches, and team executives streaming live and always available on demand.

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