Hey Trevor, thank you for taking the time and joining us. Hey, no problem.
Thank you so much for having me. Today, we saw the press conference, we played portions of it earlier here on the show. What was the most, I mean between Polinka and also Doncic, what stood out to you the most from the presser?
Yeah, you know, I thought there were a number of things. I thought how hurt Luca appeared to be by what the Mavs had done by moving on from him, that stood out. It was clearly that was still sitting with him. That's something that will be driving him and fueling him moving forward as well as, you know, Rob Polinka's comments about the trade market in general and acknowledging that they do have moves they still need to make. They need to still find a center for this team and that tells you that they've got, you know, their work cut out for them here and now less than 48 hours ahead of the trade deadline. But also just the optimism moving forward about the team now being built around Luca and what that's going to look like heading into the future.
But it was a short press conference but a very informative one. I think that was one that was, it gave us a lot of insight into what the plans are here now moving forward for this Lakers team. But you had mentioned Trevor, Rob Polinka's comments about rounding out the roster in the front court, how difficult it might be between now and Thursday and then also heading into the offseason. What do you think is the likeliest scenario or situation that they do between now and in April? Well, priority number one has to be finding a center. They have to find somebody. Right now, they have Jackson Hayes as the only center that's on their roster on a regular contract. They have a few players on two-way contracts and Trey Jemison, Christian Coloco are our guys that can kind of fill in here and there, but they need a starting quality center. And so that's what they have to find before Thursday's trade deadline in order to have any kind of a shot to make a run at things this year.
But Rob Polinka did note that that may not be easy to do on a short timeline here. And it may take waiting until the off season. Maybe they find a stop gap, somebody who can just kind of fill in at the position for the time being. There's been rumors connecting them already to Steven Adams of the Houston Rockets, Nikola Butrovic of the Chicago Bulls, Jakob Pertl of the Toronto Raptors, but specifically he said they were looking for somebody that's a vertical threat, somebody that can catch those lob passes from Lukas. So they're looking for a high flyer, a big with a lot of athleticism and finding that guy may take a little bit of time. So this may be something that bleeds into the summer, but I do think they'll make some kind of a move to find another center ahead of Thursday's trade deadline. Trevor Lane is joining us here from Lakers Nation, knowing that it's going to take time for LeBron James and Lucas Amash and all of these new pieces that they will ultimately bring in. What is the most likeliest of outcomes that they go to the playoffs and compete hard and wait until next year and get into the off season?
What do you think is the best possible outcome realistically for this year? Well, I do think that if the right opportunity is in front of them, they will surrender their 2031 pick, which is the only first round pick that they have available to trade. They have other first round picks, but because of the stepping rule, they can only trade that one pick. If the right opportunity for the right center is there, they'll make that move right now. But if that's not there, then what they'll do is they'll hold off. They'll wait until the summer when they'll have $40 million plus in expiring contracts to potentially go use on the trade market.
And Gabe Vincent, they've got a few other players, Rui Hachimura would be on one as well. Maxi Cleva, who they just acquired in trade, would also be on an expiring contract. So they'll stack those salaries up and see what they can do this summer.
But LeBron James at 40 years old, I think they want to give him every shot they can to win right now. So if they can find the right move in the next day and a half here, they will make that move and then try to really go all in and win immediately. We've we've heard so much. It's now the Tuesday getting ready to roll into Wednesday. We had this.
The straight went down on Saturday and right out the gate. It was said that LeBron James didn't know. Nobody knew. A couple of people knew.
Do you think he had any inkling that something like this might have been on the horizon? Yeah, I mean, I know they kept it very quiet and they kept it very quiet for a long, long time. It was Rob Palenka. It was it was Nico Harrison from the Mavs, a one on one conversation. They involved their ownership on each side.
So really, we're talking four people that are involved in these conversations. And that's part of why it was such a surprise and why so many other teams right now are frustrated that they didn't get a chance to get in on the negotiation and maybe make a bid on Luca. But do I buy that LeBron really didn't know? Did you really find out when he was out at dinner in New York after the Lakers game against the Knicks? I don't know. I mean, some of the reporting is that that LeBron that that Rich Paul, his agent, knew a day or two ahead of time and things of that nature.
So I don't know how much I buy that. Really, they were completely in the dark, especially with how quickly Anthony Davis waived his trade bonus that that seemed a little strange. But regardless, the deal got done very, very secretively. They were able to keep it all quiet, which in this day and age is is nearly impossible to do. I mean, this is a Herculean task by all parties involved to keep this as quiet as they did and make it such a shocking thing.
We've never seen this before. It was such a shock that everybody, all of the top media members, everyone across the industry said, this is fake. This is not real. This has to be Sean Sarania, who reported it must have been hacked. And then we we found out that it was indeed real.
So it's an incredible effort by everybody involved to keep this as quiet as they did. Trevor Lane is joining us here from from Lakers Nation. You know, there are a lot of rumors that are getting thrown around specifically about Kevin Durant and what may happen as a result of what may not happen with Bradley Beal and his no trade and Jimmy Butler. And now there's Durant, maybe back to Warriors, how they want to pay and fit that in financially.
I have no idea. It's even been bandied about that at some point. LeBron ends up in Golden State. Do you see any scenario given now that they have Luca and his cap space? I know he has a player option.
His son is on the team. Do you think he's just going to finish in the purple and gold? I do think that's still the plan for LeBron James.
And we'll see what what winds up happening. I mean, they they made no no qualms about the fact that Luca is LeBron's replacement. He's in to take over that role. But LeBron is still around. He's still playing at an extremely high level. He has as many years left as he wants. It's not a question of his physical abilities.
It's a question of mentally. Can he continue to ramp up and prepare his body the way that he does? So as long as LeBron wants to keep going, he can keep going.
Luca is in to take over that role at some point. And he will become the star the Lakers are building around. He already really is the guy now the Lakers are building around into the future and ideally for the next decade or so.
This is who they're building around. But LeBron James doesn't necessarily have to leave the Lakers either in order to go contend somewhere else. I think the opportunity will still be there in LA for him to continue to win and find a way to move forward.
But it's going to be on the front office to round out this team with the right pieces. It's possible that he takes a look at opportunities elsewhere. He does have a player option this summer. But what we've heard is he will not waive his no trade clause in order to be moved by this Thursday's trade deadline.
So he wants to see how this all fits with Luca and then go from there. It'll be a very important summer obviously for the Lakers as it always is. But up to this point, I mean, the sentiment is still that LeBron James wants to play for the Lakers and wants to finish his career here in Los Angeles. There was a full expectation even as recently last week he said Anthony Davis is the best player on the team. There was an expectation that, you know, LeBron would ultimately pass the torch to him. It's another thing when Luca Doncic, as great as he is, is kind of shoehorned into the situation and coronated, something that obviously wasn't the case for Anthony Davis. Is there anything to LeBron's ego with Luca being in the building and knowing that father time ultimately is against him?
I don't think so. I mean, LeBron is an extremely smart guy. He knows exactly what's going on. He knows exactly what's happening and the reporting right now has been that LeBron's actually looking forward to being able to mentor Luca and to leave the Lakers in the best spot he possibly can and have that be part of his legacy. That, you know, he didn't burn all the bridges in Los Angeles.
He didn't force them to give up all of their future assets and he leaves the club in a very strong place moving forward. So Luca himself today was talking about how much he believes he can learn from LeBron and playing beside him this season. So I do think that LeBron is not going to be too worried about any of this. His spot is secured and I don't think he needs to be worried at all about Luca taking his place or anything like that. This is, LeBron's talked for years and years about how much he admires Luca's game and how much he'd love to play with him and Luca himself today called it a dream come true. So I think they're going to work out just fine.
I think they're going to be a great pairing. You think about JJ Reddick, not in the spotlight for a while. I think he's going to buy himself a little bit more time. What does this mean for what he has in front of him as Lakers coach? He's still in his first year. Well, I mean, what a challenge for JJ Reddick. Not only his first time as a head coach at anything, right? This is his first experience as a head coach and he's coaching the Lakers in maybe the brightest spotlight of all.
That's a difficult scenario to step into. They've had a really solid season. They're the five seed in the Western Conference. Has he made mistakes? Yes, but that's to be expected. He's made mistakes out on the court, but he's also done a great job keeping the players bought in. We continue to hear to a man, the players are talking about how the coaching staff is preparing them for every game to execute out there on the floor. That's a great, great sign, but what a monumental challenge this is to go from having Anthony Davis to now Luca. He's going to have to adjust all of his schemes.
Everything's going to have to change on the fly. This is going to be a big task for JJ Reddick. So far, he's definitely been up to the challenge. He's managed to keep this team motivated, to keep them focused, keep them winning games and keep them in the mix in the Western Conference.
Now it's a whole new task to integrate Luca into this group. We'll see. This is a lot to put on JJ Reddick, but so far he has met every challenge and then some with the Lakers. Hey Trevor, as we wrap things up, we saw the reaction down in Dallas.
I think it's safe to say nobody threw a fit. Nobody had any funerals for the fact that Anthony Davis is leaving, huh? Yeah, you know, there's a lot of Lakers fans who were sad to see Anthony Davis leave, as well as Max Christie. I've had a lot of people telling me they wish they could have held on to Max Christie, who has really grown right in front of the eyes of Lakers fans, but there's an understanding that this was the move from the Lakers side that you had to make.
A hundred times out of a hundred, you have to make this trade if it's presented to you. From the Mavs side, I get it. They feel betrayed. They feel like Nico Harrison has made a huge mistake and robbed them of their franchise player. I think they're going to love Anthony Davis. He's a great player and I think he fits great with this Mavs team, but I understand why there's a lot of frustration right now in Dallas.
And Laker fans, they feel like they got another superstar. Hey Trevor, where can people follow you and all of your work with Lakers Nation? Yeah, you can find a lot of my work over on the Lakers Nation YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Lakers Nation. We're putting new stuff out there every single day on the team, the latest rumors, everything that they're looking at doing, the trade market, all of that can be found there as well as the Lakers Nation.com podcast over on Apple podcast, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts. And then all of our written work is over at Lakers Nation.com. Yeah, man. I remember when Lakers Nation got started with Gary. Oh man, it's been a long time.
It has indeed. A lot of parallels here. Well, thank you so much again, Trevor. You got a lot to do. We'll catch you down the line. Okay. Hey, thanks a lot. Appreciate you.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-02-04 22:35:54 / 2025-02-04 22:41:44 / 6