[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, welcome everybody to the Lakers Legacy podcast where Rob Polinka talked the talk.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now he walked the Walker Kessler.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he put his money, where his mouth is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And boy did he put his money and his picks, where his mouth is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jonathan Hernandez of the Lakers Legacy podcast, welcome to day two of the 2026 NBA free agency.
[SPEAKER_01]: And boy, did we get a day two?
[SPEAKER_01]: Say hello to your new look, Lakers, your new Luka Lakers.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like to call them white privilege as the Lakers get more and more gentrified by the season.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lakers have secured their big man and that's the biggest news of the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've captured their white whale, no pun intended.
[SPEAKER_01]: Walker Kessler is now a Los Angeles Laker.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so is Quentin Grimes, Sandra Mamuschkiddish Vili, and Colin Sexton.
[SPEAKER_01]: what a time.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll get into my thoughts on each of these signings.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a flurry to begin the morning today, starting with the Walker Kester sign and trade news.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then after that, it was Bing Bing Bong.
[SPEAKER_01]: Domino's falling left and right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lakers, all of a sudden have their roster and none of us are sure how we're feeling about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Sandra, Quentin Grimes, Walker Kester News, shouldn't have been.
[SPEAKER_01]: Shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise to you guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: I pretty
[SPEAKER_01]: the details of how I thought it was going to go down in yesterday's live and it went down kind of how I thought except there were a couple of things that were off mainly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mentioned in last night's live that I thought that Danny Eng would squeeze us for everything that we were worth.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was correct both first going out unprotected.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also had to give up two pick swaps.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those I'm a little less concerned about because 2028 picks swap.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, do we really risk being worse than the Utah Jazz?
[SPEAKER_01]: I know they've improved, but we've still got Luca Donchitch and we just got Walker Kessler, you know, like people overreacted to how many picks we gave up.
[SPEAKER_01]: for Anthony Davis in the New Orleans Pelican's deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And while I know Walker Kessler is in Anthony Davis, none of those picks ended up coming back to bite us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like none of those picks swaps ever conveyed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, obviously that's because we had LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but all that to say,
[SPEAKER_01]: It's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the other thing that was different from my prognosis or my prediction was the fact that we unfortunately were not able to offload any other salary in this deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: We just straight up absorbed Walker Kessler and his 30 million dollars.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or $32 million average annual salary, $30 million this upcoming year, we just had to absorb all of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We weren't able to give up Vando de Andre 18 or Dalton connect like I wanted us to be able to do so that we have a little bit more of cap space, but essentially the deal ended up playing out how I thought it would play out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And at the very least, if there's one silver lining for the Lakers.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the fact that Walker Kessler's number ended up coming in lower than I expected because if you know, in the the last couple of lives I've been doing I had been pegging Walker Kessler at the very least at 36 million dollars average annual or 36 million dollars for his first year and then obviously you would escalate from there, but it ended up only coming in at 30 million dollars for his first year and I believe.
[SPEAKER_01]: like 130 over four, what was that?
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe his average annual salary
[SPEAKER_01]: 32 million dollars per year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's not bad at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what allowed us to obviously secure Quentin Grimes, Sandra, and Colin Sexton.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I thought we'd be able to secure those guys anyways, and I think we ended up overpaying every single one of these players a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: The only guy we didn't end up overpaying in my opinion is probably Walker Kessler,
[SPEAKER_01]: And I guess you could say in a vacuum we didn't overpay for Colin Sexton.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he got what he was supposed to get based off of his recent play, just not sure Colin Sexton is a good fit for this team necessarily.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm I'm going to withhold judgment until we fully.
[SPEAKER_01]: see what this roster looks like because I obviously, I don't think we're done.
[SPEAKER_01]: We still have at least one more roster spot to fill.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll get into the roster sheet.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll get into what the Lakers can do and I also have some.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll get into the free agent's left.
[SPEAKER_01]: What the Lakers need?
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, point of attack defense.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wings will get to my list of best available.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll get to what Lakers, what trades the Lakers might be able to do
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lakers traded their 2031 and 2033 first round picks.
[SPEAKER_01]: They traded a 2028 and 2030 swap.
[SPEAKER_01]: They only have one swap left.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe it's the 2032 swap and their 2033 second round pick.
[SPEAKER_01]: So those are the only assets that we have if we want to try and finagle a little bit more cap space or if we wanted to try and dump like
[SPEAKER_01]: Vanderbilt, and maybe Dalton connect with the second round pick or the pick swap.
[SPEAKER_01]: So anyways, we'll get into all of those details.
[SPEAKER_01]: But having said that, what a whirlwind of a day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jonathan Hernandez, Lakers Legacy podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you guys for joining me before we move any further.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I could please ask you guys to like this video, comment down below, and let's all pause for a beat.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to subscribe to the YouTube channel, please make sure you're subscribed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Click it right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please do me that favor.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would greatly appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, let's get into things.
[SPEAKER_01]: So first off, I just want to bring up this image because
[SPEAKER_01]: For anybody for the long time, OG, Lakers Legacy, viewers, listeners, followers, whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: You would know that I've sort of been trying to like manifest this and prophesy this for about more than a year now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually made this video nine months ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: called Kessler and Grimes could reshape the Lakers Luca Donchitch era.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now when I made this video, it was during a time when both players were on their respective teams and I had pitched this idea to trade for both of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: with the idea that we would still have a current roster of like, really would still be there, LeBron would still be there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, it did not end up happening the way that I wanted to, but just the fact that we've now got quenching grimes and Walker Kessler is pretty crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: So anyways, just wanted to share that.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so now let's get into the Lakers roster.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I'll get to I see a super chat here from Vinny and I will definitely bring that up once we get to that section.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Vinny for the super thanks, super chat also just to let you guys know if you want your comment or question answered, please uh, yeah, super chats are very much welcome and appreciated.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so here's what we have the Lakers roster currently.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm still going to keep Austin Reeves capital number on there, even though I know it's like $41 million.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here's what we have to work with.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got a Luka Donchitch up top $49.4 million.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got Austin Reeves.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to make $41 million next season, but his capital is just $20.9.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though we've already used up all of our cap space, obviously.
[SPEAKER_01]: Walker Kessler, $30.2 million will be his first year salary.
[SPEAKER_01]: around that amount.
[SPEAKER_01]: Quentin Grimes, he signed a $60 million for your deal with a player option the fourth year.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can get into all the player option hysteria in a second.
[SPEAKER_01]: But essentially his first year salary will start at $13.9 million.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a fine contract averages out to $15 million per year.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is lower than the full non-tax pair.
[SPEAKER_01]: Emily Quentin Grimes is still 26 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: money for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jared Vanderbilt still on her books.
[SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, 12.4 million dollars, although right now, we are sorely lacking in any sort of point of attack defense.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're sorely lacking in any sort of six foot nine small forward power forward and so Jared Vanderbilt is kind of like the loan guy in that respect.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he's on the team, 12.4 million dollars.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got Sandra, Mama, Kellish,
[SPEAKER_01]: for over 50 at about 13 million dollars per year.
[SPEAKER_01]: This one is a little bit rich.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know we've been watching a lot of Sandra tape recently and he can do a lot of versatile things.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like an analytics darling.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's he's a good player, but we in my opinion I feel like we are
[SPEAKER_01]: overpaying slightly for him to reach his potential instead of buying low, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: We're kind of like preemptively paying for the ceiling that he can hit versus getting a bargain.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not I mean, that's something to quibble about, but honestly, Sandra was making the veteran minimum last season and we're pretty much basing this off of one really good year where he was a good solid six man of the year candidate.
[SPEAKER_01]: which is great, but I don't know if we should be like jumping the gun here and giving a dude $50 million over four years plus a fourth-year player option.
[SPEAKER_01]: Having said that, he could definitely make me eat his words.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just would have preferred if we didn't preemptively pay for a player's ceiling, you know, versus
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's give Sondro $7 million, like we gave Jake LaRavia, and he peaches his ceiling.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got a bargain.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's like, all right, we're already going to give you $13 million and hope that you grow into that contract.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's my main gripe with the Sondro deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other gripe being, is this guy really going to be our starting power forward?
[SPEAKER_01]: He's actually more of a small ball five.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I don't know how I feel about Sondro playing the four.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then after that, we've got Colin Sexton, 9.3 million dollars.
[SPEAKER_01]: He ended up taking the room MLE just two years.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: The player, I'm not sure about, but it is very Rob Polinka a guard.
[SPEAKER_01]: We do need his skillset having this like jitterbug physical guard who can also attack the paint and his quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: and active and has a lot of history on it with his hands and whatnot.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's Colin Sexton, we've got the Andre 188.1 million dollars and if the Andre 18 stays, the fact that he's now a backup and if he actually buys into that role, I mean, that actually helps.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's probably still
[SPEAKER_01]: a really good value at that price just remains to be seen whether he'll actually lock in and the lake is should be ready at any moment to flip him if another team wants him and they can get any sort of value for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: If not flip him soon, if they can, you know, free up some cap space to potentially, you know, resign, really, but we'll get into that in a second.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there is the Andre 188.1.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got Jake LaRevia 6 million dollars.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we actually could still use Jake LaRevia, because we don't have a lot of wings, like I mentioned, it's pretty much just Jared Vanderbilt and Jake LaRevia at 677, 648.
[SPEAKER_01]: Manning the wing position for us and then somehow we have Dalton connects still on this team 4.2 million dollars essentially an expiring contract because the makers have a club option on him for 2026 that they can just get off of before training camp and then he's an expiring contract
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we've got Dalton Connects former Tennessee team made Cam and Car 3.3 million dollars, Ronnie James 2.2 million dollars, a doofy arrow 2.1 million dollars, and then two open roster spots.
[SPEAKER_01]: But as we know, Rob Polinka likes to leave one roster spot open for training camp.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I realistically right now, it's actually one open roster spot unless the Lakers do
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, some consolidation trades unless they dump a few players.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, yeah, I guess, okay, before I get into, okay, here's how I will do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Before I get into the in my thoughts on the individual players and the signings because we of course have to talk.
[SPEAKER_01]: a lot about Walker Kessler.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me just give you my raw reactions to everything that was coming in at light speed and how I'm currently feeling about the roster.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, top level macro stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, you guys already know if you tuned into last night's life.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like all
[SPEAKER_01]: but understanding a couple of things, like one Marcus Mark walking for just $6 million a year to the Houston Rockets.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I understand that maybe Marcus Mark just wanted to go back home to Texas where he started, maybe he wanted to reunite with Emaidoka.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just wanted to be known.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just wanted to come out that the Lakers offered him that same amount and he just refused it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, if they didn't even offer him anything,
[SPEAKER_01]: Or they didn't even counter offer, then I'd be pretty mad.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or if they actually opted for Colin Sexton, instead of Marcus Martin, I'd be pretty kind of annoyed by that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's part of what kind of like leaves a sour taste in my mouth regardless of the fact that I do like, obviously, Wavocester, Quentin Grimes, Sondro.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like these players all in a vacuum, but understanding that Marcus Smart could have been easily retained and we did not retain him because from a tangible and an intangible culture setting standpoint, he's the exact type of guy that you would want on this team.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't understand why he's not on this team right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's the market smart side of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then number two, like losing the players that we lost, Luke Canard, that's fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can actually still replace him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like replacing the shooter is the easiest thing to do in the NBA.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then,
[SPEAKER_01]: It looks like we're going to lose Ruihachimura.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe not.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll get into how the Lakers can potentially retain him because right now, he hasn't signed with anybody yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think anybody else has more than the non-tax per Emily of $15 million to spend, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think just understanding the players that went out, it's like, did we actually improve and upgrade?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of, it's hard for me to reconcile those two things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like think about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like LeBron James, really hatching more a loop canard, Marcus, Mark Jackson Hayes is gone.
[SPEAKER_01]: We essentially traded those four players for Walker Castle or Quentin Grimes, Soandro and Colin Sexted.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you know, vacuum if you're not taking into context, like long-term thinking or whatever, like,
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not a good trade, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: But understanding that LeBron was ready to move on, understanding that we are trying to refashion this team around Luka Donchitch and what best fits Luka Donchitch.
[SPEAKER_01]: Understanding that we clearly got younger.
[SPEAKER_01]: It makes sense, but at the same time,
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if we got better because currently, as currently constructed, we traded Ruhi Hachimura and Lebron James for Sondro Mamu, who's the power forward that we're replacing those two integral guys with.
[SPEAKER_01]: Unless we're bringing Ruhi back, it can't be Sondro, that dude, I mean, Sondro's good,
[SPEAKER_01]: Where is the power for replacement for LeBron and Rui?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the biggest thing that I'm sort of like, and on top of that, as we all know, where's the point of attack defense?
[SPEAKER_01]: We are sorely lacking in six foot seven, six foot eight plus guys, all of a sudden, because two of them went out, or two or three of them, Jackson Hayes, LeBron and Rui went out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think that's where I'm kind of having trouble
[SPEAKER_01]: reconciling this roster right now, even though in a vacuum, I can say again, Walker Kessler, we did our job successful offseason because no matter whatever else happens, we created a core three for the future, at least for the next three years.
[SPEAKER_01]: God knows what happens from there, but we got Walker Kessler, Austin Reeves, and Luca Donchich, the Great White Hope, the Great White Privilege.
[SPEAKER_01]: Quentin Grimes, ancillary piece, but he's on the same timeline.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody's on for the next three years with a player option in the fourth.
[SPEAKER_01]: So people hate the player option stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I understand.
[SPEAKER_01]: But who knows, maybe everybody decides to opt out that fourth year and the Lakers just start from scratch.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're essentially giving themselves a two to three year window as they should because Lucas is going to have to make a decision whether he wants to stay and whether we've
[SPEAKER_01]: builds a competitive competitive enough roster around him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they're giving themselves a two to three year timeline.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously it should be sooner than that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But
[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of swimming around a lot of different things right now, but I'll just say, the most important thing is the Lakers got their third guy, Walker Kessler, and not only did they get their third guy, they got their defensive anchor, one of the best and most elite rim protectors in the league at just 24 years old, three and a half seasons, and he's already cemented himself as
[SPEAKER_01]: on elite rim protector, essentially.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's the most important thing that I feel like in spite of all of our nitpicks and squabbles, we got Walker Kessler.
[SPEAKER_01]: cost us a pretty penny, but we got it done.
[SPEAKER_01]: It does feel similar to Anthony Davis where it's like, oh, we gave up, so we gave up all the young core and all of these picks and all the picks up.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we got Anthony Davis.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can at least work from there with our best foot forward, best foot forward, dust has settled.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a clearer picture of what the future looks like.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think,
[SPEAKER_01]: even if you're stacking up the rosters from last season and this season and you're like, I'm not actually sure if this is the better roster especially when you're taking into account continuity at the very least in the macro sense of having a forward vision and understanding what your timeline in the next three years looks like versus, well, LeBron's gonna be on for one more year, but what happens next year?
[SPEAKER_01]: How are we gonna replace his salary slot?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, instead of doing that whole rigomerola things again,
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like for better or for worse.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is our roster.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've made our bed.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna lie in it and hopefully not die.
[SPEAKER_01]: But clearly, the makers have hired all these analytics guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: They hired that rocket scientist out of the New Orleans Pelicans.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, these are the players that they identified.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for at least the first year to see how this goes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm sure Sandra came up as some analytics darling that they saw some
[SPEAKER_01]: dark horse diving in the rough potentially.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hope it plays out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so far, he has shown really great flashes of being the exact type of versatile forward slash small ball five that would fit very perfectly in a JJ rhetoric system.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, having said that, it still feels very, I guess, here's where I get to like just my overall thoughts.
[SPEAKER_01]: It feels very underwhelming, even though we we mission accomplished Walker Kessler's there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually let really like
[SPEAKER_01]: Clearly, with one open roster spot left or one or two, but really one because Rob Belinka, again, likes to go into training camp with one open roster spot, it feels we're missing six foot nine players.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're missing point of attack defenders, where are those guys?
[SPEAKER_01]: And we've still got some fluff to sort of fluff and some fat to filter out with Jared Vanderbilt, Dalton Connect,
[SPEAKER_01]: deandre 18.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, as I said at the top, deandre 18 actually, that's good value for a backup.
[SPEAKER_01]: If he assumes that role and if he buys in, but how much can we count on deandre 18 buying in, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: So those are my thoughts.
[SPEAKER_01]: The biggest thing is I think the the bigger shock for me was the
[SPEAKER_01]: signing.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was, uh, I'm not the biggest colon sex in fan.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll say that right now, even though, you know, he's had a very good NBA career and even last season in just 22 minutes, and we'll get to his stats in a second.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though last year, he was very efficient coming off with the bench played a really solid role as a bench guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, the Colin Sexton one is the one where I was like, what did not have this on my bingo card and for for a reason, because I did not want Colin Sexton this this signing reminds me a lot of like, like the Lonnie Walker, a Kendrick Nun signings of the past, you know, I mean, it worked out for us with Malik Monk, but yeah, I'm the Colin Sexton one.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I saw the when I saw that he was getting the room Emily, I was like,
[SPEAKER_01]: this should have gone to market smart.
[SPEAKER_01]: This should have gone to Kelly Ubrae, who signed for this same amount with the Indian Pacers.
[SPEAKER_01]: I understand that we need some sort of backup ball handling and we need a downhill attacker, but I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Colin Sexton, I'm sure I will warm up to this, but this one is the one that I'm trying to like reconcile when I feel like we could probably
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the other thing too is, again, my biggest gripe is like, I don't know why Sandra is getting 13 million dollars a year, like, who is this guy, you know, like, I know who he is and he's a guy that I feel like highlighted in the past, but like I didn't think he was a 13 million dollar player, you know, so.
[SPEAKER_01]: the price tags on this is a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's some sticker shock to them for real, not saying that they can't grow into these contracts.
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, you would have liked that the Lakers, you would have liked for the Lakers to have paid these guys in buy-low scenarios versus hey, we're giving you your ceiling salary.
[SPEAKER_01]: We hope that you can grow into it, kind of deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, now Sandra has to live up to this $13 million contract, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a little bit
[SPEAKER_01]: gives you a little bit of anxiety.
[SPEAKER_01]: Having said that, we got Walker Kessler.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's really quickly talk about Walker.
[SPEAKER_01]: Walker, Los Angeles Ranger.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, Walker Kessler, still only 24 years old, he will turn 25 this upcoming July.
[SPEAKER_01]: War number 24, maybe an Ode to Kobe, who knows.
[SPEAKER_01]: Seven foot two with a seven foot five wingspan, 245 pounds in his career, he has averages of 9.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.2 assists, half a steal a game, but 2.4 blocks, that's where he makes his living.
[SPEAKER_01]: 68% from the field and actually the fact that he's averaging 9.3 rebounds in just 25 minutes is very impressive.
[SPEAKER_01]: You'd imagine that number is going to be in the 28 to 33 minutes per game range especially on this team.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are going to need his defensive anchorness to anchor everything and he's going to feel what it's like to be Anthony Davis.
[SPEAKER_01]: what Anthony Davis felt like for the last couple of years being the Lonesome defensive anchor for the Lakers.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's now going to rest on Walker Kessler shoulders.
[SPEAKER_01]: But 68% from the field 26.6% from three, although last season he was like six of eight from three that free throw percentage is nearly 54.5%.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm hoping that he can raise that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But
[SPEAKER_01]: Walker Kessler in his first few years in the league has already cemented himself as one of the premier and most elite shot blockers in the NBA.
[SPEAKER_01]: As I mentioned his first two years in the league, he was like top three, top two in blocks per game.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the only one who was beating him was like Victor Wembanyama in terms of blocks per game.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then yeah, so his block percentage and his timing
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes you see him and he you're like he kind of moves very ploddingly and yet with his 7 foot 5 wing span and the way that he's able to sort of again use his great understanding of angles and time his shot blocks perfectly whether it's a big man taking in those physical body blows or it's a guard driving it to the rim.
[SPEAKER_01]: Walker Kessler is just an expert shop blocker, even without being necessarily this high-flier.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's this stat from
[SPEAKER_01]: All NBA, all city, all NBA.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is the lowest fuel go percentage by opposing players as the closest defender on shots in the restricted paint area.
[SPEAKER_01]: Among players who defended 400 plus shots at the rim from 2022 to 23 through 2024 to 25.
[SPEAKER_01]: Walker Kessler shows up here, as the third best rim protector, behind just Victor Wimbanyama and Shet Homegrain, except he has the higher volume of shots defended between those three players.
[SPEAKER_01]: Out of 1,144 shots,
[SPEAKER_01]: he's holding opponents to 54.3, 54.37% at the rim.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, that's third only to Victor Huemba Nyama and Chet Hongren.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just super impressive numbers from a player this young who's only going to get better who's started to flash his three-point shooting.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is honestly a huge deal to get.
[SPEAKER_01]: a defensive anchor like this, who not only block shots, but also gobbles up rebounds.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then on the offensive end of the floor is almost a perfect pick and roll partner with Luca Donchich.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now he doesn't aesthetically, he does it a little bit differently than guys like Jackson Hayes or Daniel Gaffard where they're like, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: seemingly six inches off the ground, but he doesn't really need to get off the ground that much.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's almost like if you remember Andrew Biden on the lakeers, he was also a lob threat just because his arms were so long and he could just catch everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, because Walker Kessler is one of the best pick and roll finishers in the paint.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he sets very solid screens.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows how to roll to the basket.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got some finishing skill around there.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just
[SPEAKER_01]: dunks and putbacks in what not.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's just a really good finisher on the roll.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got some short roll capabilities as a playmaker as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a fast decision maker the way that he's able to process things so quickly defensively that also translates over to the offensive end for him as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I like Walker Kessler because
[SPEAKER_01]: On the outset, when you look at his stats, you're like, oh, that's just like Tyson Chandler, probably.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he's got a lot more offensive versatility and feel and skill than just a typical run up and down the court, clean up Tyson Chandler, Samuel Dalombear type.
[SPEAKER_01]: Samuel down there deep cut.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why his name came to mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, Walker castler much more skilled and he's also starting to show and flash a lot more or not a lot more, but he's starting to flash that three point shooting ability as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is a huge deal, guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: The fact that we were able to get this done because imagine if we weren't able to get this done.
[SPEAKER_01]: it would have been a disastrous off season.
[SPEAKER_01]: Honestly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, we would still have our two first round picks, but imagine what would we have done with that?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, split them up somehow, and then maybe we get Daniel Gaffard, or I don't know, it's, he was expensive to get, but when you sort of think about, and I know I'm kind of galaxy-braining this a little bit, but I mentioned this on X, but
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, two first round picks for the right to sign him to $32 million a year.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a steep price.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two picks, swaps.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, that's a that's a steep price.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when you factor in the fact that
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're head, if you just do the mental gymnastics, we kind of already traded one of these picks 2031 and one of these pick swaps for Mark Williams a year and a half ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you take that out of your mind, thank God, we didn't, you know, lock into that deal and we were able to rescind it, right, but if you already take that as like sunk cost.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then think about, we just added one first round pick and another pick swap to upgrade Mark Williams into Walker Kessler.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like imagine if we had traded for Mark Williams and we have Mark Williams right now on our team.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's almost thinking like, okay, Utah will engage you in a sign and trade will trade you mark Williams and a first round pick and a pick swap for Walker Kessler.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how I'm viewing it in my head.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when you take into account that Luca Donchich actually went for less first round picks than Walker Kessler.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then things can level out and shake out, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: If I told you, Luca Donchich and Walker Kester, we were able to get those two players for the three first round picks and three pick swaps.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you would have been like, really?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's how I'm sort of reconciling the price point in my head.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really don't think it's a tough pill to swallow understanding that we had to get this done.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's probably the most important position
[SPEAKER_01]: lock in honestly.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was the Lakers number one priority.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yes, say they were desperate or whatever and say that Danny age pressed that pressure point of desperation.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got Walker Kessler.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were teaming him up with Luca Donchich.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those 9.5 points are about to shoot up to like 12 to 13 points.
[SPEAKER_01]: Based off of just the easy shots he's going to get.
[SPEAKER_01]: Easy
[SPEAKER_01]: Colin Sexton as his point guard, and now they're going to be teammates again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like a rookie Quyante George, and so like, Kessler has never played with a primary creator and a playmaker as good as Luca Donchich.
[SPEAKER_01]: Forget about Luca Donchich.
[SPEAKER_01]: He hasn't played with as good of a playmaker as Austin Reeves.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm very excited to see what he's going to do on both ends of the floor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, I'm just looking at some news right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, let me know if anything happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: I forget that like, shit is still going down.
[SPEAKER_01]: But anyways, yeah, those are my thoughts on Walker Kessler, despite any sort of, with whole things I have on any of the other signings or they're pretty much nitpicky, the Lakers overall did what they were supposed to do by securing this guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's Kessler.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's move on to why don't we do Colin Sexton first?
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Colin Sexton, and this is from statnews.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, check out their website.
[SPEAKER_01]: Colin Sexton six foot three in height six foot four, somehow still only 27 years old feels like he's been in the NBA forever, former Cleveland Cavalier, former jazz he played with Walker Castler actually, he actually has very nice career.
[SPEAKER_01]: Excuse me, averages, 18 points, 2.7 rebounds, 3.66, 0.8 steals, 47% from the field, 38.9% from 3, 84% from the stripe, those are all really efficient, good numbers, regular season last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: In just 23 minutes per game, he averaged 15 points, 2.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.1 steals, 48% from the field, 40% from 3, 85% from the stripe.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, pretty consistent with his career averages, very efficient player.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look, the thing that
[SPEAKER_01]: bothers me about Colin Sexton is that he's a defensive disruptive player by histrionics and sort of optics alone, but he's not a good defender, fundamentally, consistently analytics, whatever you want to say.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's also just 6465.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like with Colin Sexton we're getting into that like
[SPEAKER_01]: Patrick Beverly, when he was already washed up or Dennis Schroeder gave Vincent sort of like he's a good defender because he's doing a lot of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's doing wax on wax off a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like slamming his palms on the floor, but fundamentally he's like not a good defender.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's definitely not as good as Marcus smart.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think that's the only reason why I'm like, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got an offensive player who we do need and we got a
[SPEAKER_01]: semi downhill threat who can put some pressure on the rim.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got a guy who can create a shot for himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do think he's worth his nine million dollars.
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, is that what we actually needed based off of what this roster is looking like.
[SPEAKER_01]: You would hope
[SPEAKER_01]: You would hope that he was like 60% of the Defender Marcus smart was.
[SPEAKER_01]: But anyways, Colin Sexton, he does have a good motor.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does give effort.
[SPEAKER_01]: And who knows, maybe he'll play better defense with JJ Redick and maybe he'll fit perfectly into JJ Redick's modified zone schemes, which everything schemes, whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: At the very least, he gives the Lakers that change of pace speed dynamic.
[SPEAKER_01]: that weekend sort of have off the bench and if anybody goes down, if anybody is injured, like Austin Reeves again or whatever, Colin Sexton can very competently or more than competently fill in as a starter.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's Colin Sexton, this one again, I can go either way, I can see him changing my mind very quickly, but right now I would have preferred Kelly Ubrae,
[SPEAKER_01]: Colin Sexton, there he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's move on to Quenson Grimes.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Quentin Grimes, I'm way more excited about because obviously I've been pining for this guy for a while now, still only 26 years old, six foot five was drafted by the New York Nix when he came out of the league.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know people have been throwing around his like defensive analytics and he was much better when he was with the nicks.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like a bad defender now based off of the, the pie charts and the graphs or whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like trust me, Quentin Grimes is a good defender.
[SPEAKER_01]: This dude knows how to chop his feet.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's very physical.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows how to stand guys up, especially if like more of the, especially if the primary score is like Jalen Brown, James Hardin and Devon Booker are trying to post
[SPEAKER_01]: And more than that, he just competes, you know, I, I care less about what the analytics say recently than I do about what is this guy actually capable of doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen enough tape of Quentin Grimes even if it is three years ago with the New York next.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen enough to know that this dude can lock in and if we're giving him 15 million dollars a year and JJ Retic is personally recruiting him because they have a relationship with one another and they've worked out in the offseason with one another and Quentin Grimes ended up staying and renting JJ Retic
[SPEAKER_01]: house or whatever, I have hopes that Quentin Grimes can get back to his New York NYX defensive self and the analytics, the advanced analytics and the warp and DRPM or whatever defensive Lebron will align with what we know he can do in maybe it's been more spurts than consistently the last few years, but again, I don't understand where all the Quentin Grimes is a bad defender stuff is coming from.
[SPEAKER_01]: That one is that one I think is hogwash.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, anyways, Quentin Grimes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he had a chair pretty bad playoff.
[SPEAKER_01]: So though he did have a 20 point game against Boston.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's also the game where he's where he did that three, like clutch three pointer combo where he hit the clutch three pointer and then picked up Jalen Brown, knocked the ball loose, picked them up 90 feet of the
[SPEAKER_01]: 24 second violation.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the game where that happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it was a win for the sixers.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had 20 points in the playoffs everywhere else.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was pretty mediocre.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't have the same sort of role that he had.
[SPEAKER_01]: The prior season, but even given that last season he averaged 13.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 45% from the field, 33.4% from 3, nearly a stealer game, 84% from the stripe.
[SPEAKER_01]: These stats are a little bit muted from what he's typically done in the past because if you look at
[SPEAKER_01]: you know years he's been a high volume three point shooter and let me actually pull up this other card.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if we look at his season with the Philadelphia 76ers where he got the when he first got traded from the maves like through 28 games he showed off his primary creation chops both as a creator for himself but also as a playmaker 22 points.
[SPEAKER_01]: 5.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.5 steals, 0.4 blocks, 47% from the field, 2.93 pointers may per game on nearly eight attempts, shooting 37% from three.
[SPEAKER_01]: That just kind of shows you Quentin Grimes upside.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you've seen his tape, this dude is pretty explosive, surprisingly explosive, especially when he racks baseline and attacks closeouts, he's a guy who's got pretty surprising
[SPEAKER_01]: can shake and bake a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a myriad of pull up jump shooting, movement shooting capabilities as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the biggest thing that I think is going to make him an integral part to this team where he is your new and true jack of all trades master of none, connective player on both ends of the floor.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have been lamenting the fact that
[SPEAKER_01]: for the last couple of years, we've had players who have been one-dimensional.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, they can play defense, but they can't hit a shot to save their life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, they can play offense and play make, but they can't play any defense.
[SPEAKER_01]: We finally get a guy in Quentin Grimes, who can competently do both, and at times do both very well, and people still want to complain.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't understand because he's only making the non-tax pair MLE even less than the non-tax pair MLE.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm not sure why people are blocking at the 60 million, I think people are seeing the 60 million dollars and kind of going crazy, but he's making less than the non-tax pair MLE folks.
[SPEAKER_01]: And right now it's only going to be 13.9 million dollars.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I actually think it's a fair price for Quentin Grimes and the fact that he's still only 26 years old, there's still some potential there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if Austin Reeves goes down, I know that quantum rhymes can competently fill in for him the a steady force on the offense event and at his ceiling score 20 points, five rebounds, you know, five assists, nearly five assists.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so really like the quantum rhyme signing, I think he's a player who I think maybe on a championship team, you view him as like your stable six man off the bench, but
[SPEAKER_01]: Who knows, he may come back to his New York next ways of just being that locked in three and D Max Christie type of guard that in every other stop he's, you know, very validly started at the shooting guard position.
[SPEAKER_01]: I understand it's more dire with Austin Reeves and Luke of there, but like literally he started next to Luke Adonchich with the Dallas Mavericks.
[SPEAKER_01]: He started with the New York next.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't really see why
[SPEAKER_01]: he can't fill that role again, you know, being a literal 3 in D, six foot, five combo guard for the Lakers.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there is Quentin Grimes,
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the signing that outside of Walker Castle, like I love the most because I think you can slot him in a bunch of different ways.
[SPEAKER_01]: The perfect plug and play sort of player.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm seeing this overpaid, you know, comments in the comment section.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I'd like to just just point out he's making less than the non-tax pair Emily and it's only going to look even better as hopefully the salary cap continues to rise, but the non-tax pair Emily is going to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, oh, what happened with Rui?
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't look like we've gotten word on Rui yet, but uh, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, what was I saying by Quentin Grimes?
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: His contract is totally fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't I don't I don't I don't agree with the overpaid stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, if you're making less than the non-tax pair Emily and the non-tax pair Emily is only going to keep rising year by year, it's it's fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so that's Quentin Grimes really quickly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's talk about
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, Sondro, Mammu, Kalish, Vili, 27 years old, six foot nine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Last season, he was like a six man of the year, candidate got some votes.
[SPEAKER_01]: He got three votes, six man of the year.
[SPEAKER_01]: 11.2 points, five rebounds, two assists, 0.8 steals, nearly half a block in just 22 minutes per game off the bench, 52% from the field, 39% from three on good volume, 1.4 I believe, 74.7% from the stripe.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the playoffs, you kind of fell off, five points, five rebounds, 0.7 steals.
[SPEAKER_01]: Having said that, he didn't have a real point guard.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a manual quickly, and then Scotty Barnes and RJ Beard and Brandon Ingram doing weird stuff with the ball at the wing position.
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing that I'll say about Sandra is this dude, he should let it fly more often because he's got a quick ass trigger that shot looks very fluid and
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of crazy the way that he moves on the perimeter on offense and the way that he can sort of act as this quick fire movement shooter at six foot nine, you know, so I think JJ read it is going to make him shoot more as he should and his ability to sort of play five out for us, but be this versatile forward who can.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, someone mentioned it earlier, dribble past shoot.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of these guys, say for Walker-Castler, can dribble past shoot.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sandra can put the ball on the floor.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can finish with either hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can pass and play make.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a very underrated part of his game.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nearly two assists per game coming off of the bench.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can also rebound pretty well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know five rebounds over 22 minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't really tell you how well he can rebound.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this dude,
[SPEAKER_01]: He does have deficiencies defensively for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, laterally, he's gonna get cooked for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he does play with physicality.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does rebound the ball.
[SPEAKER_01]: And most of all, I think he's gonna make us a very potent offensive team.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is gonna be a player that,
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, I would love to have Rui back and I would love to have both of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you're just comparing the two, I think he's going to frustrate JJ Reddick a lot less, because he's a quick decision maker, high processing speed, kind of similar with Quentin Grimes and Walker Kestler.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are all guys who, unlike Rui, pick the game up faster and are either more
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think with Sondro, he's kind of like Quentin Grimes.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to be sort of like this perfect plug-and-play, connective piece that will allow the lakers to one.
[SPEAKER_01]: You could play him next to Walker Kessler, obviously, play him at the four, but the lakers could also play small ball five with him operating at the top of the key, dribble handoffs, popping out to the three-point line.
[SPEAKER_01]: putting the ball on the floor, taking it all the way into the paint, actually playing making for other people.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like the, he's like the fully realized version of Drew Timmy, but a little bit more nimble.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's funny because
[SPEAKER_01]: Sondro, you know, maybe on the defensive end of the floor, you have concerns about his lateral speed.
[SPEAKER_01]: But on the offensive end, he can actually move those puppies.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's sometimes the ironic case with things like offensively.
[SPEAKER_01]: He looks like he can move pretty well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Defensively, he's kind of cooked.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you like everything that he can do versatility wise on the offense, event of the floor.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the fact that he's just like a laser shooter.
[SPEAKER_01]: It remains to be seen whether that can be translated if he ups his volume, but this dude can shoot shoot.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you watch his stroke, he gets that thing up quickly and fast.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so,
[SPEAKER_01]: Teams are going to have to, this is a true pick your poison, sort of roster that the Lakers have, at least on the offense event of the floor, because everybody, for the most part, can shoot, can put the ball on the floor, can make cook decisions, can pass, and you're looking at ping-pongzing, like ping, the ball ping-ponging all around, beautiful basketball sort of deal, kind of the way that Luke and Nard helped our offense get to a very healthy place by the end of the year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the Lakers will be the highest extent of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see the highest extent of that type of when things were clicking and the cylinders.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're firing on all cylinders that march.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we'll be able to see more of that with Sondro Quentin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Kessler and Colin Sexton.
[SPEAKER_01]: So obviously we're going to be a more offensively skewing team.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's Sandra Mammu Kellish, Vili.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, my biggest gripe in problem with him is like
[SPEAKER_01]: Does he deserve 13 million dollars already?
[SPEAKER_01]: I know he's good.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know he's got potential, but like, that's a huge leap for someone to make.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not saying you can't make it, but like, we are really banking on this is really an investment, you know, this isn't like a short thing whatsoever.
[SPEAKER_01]: But having said that, I can understand because if his archetype, why a player like this is someone that JJ Reddick would covet.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, the Lakers have new, a new scouting department,
[SPEAKER_01]: They hired a literal rocket scientist.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt because they have constructed this roster in the image of Luca Donchitch, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: Every move that they've made is two fit, Luca Donchitch.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I will give them the benefit of the doubt for now with this move.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, let me show this real quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll, let's move on to like the free agency portion
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, now that we've talked about all of the Lakers new signings, okay, this is from Vinnie, Jay, Hodge, 88.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for the super chat Vinnie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Given the team now, what trade can be done, how can we add fibles, I or even coming up via sign and trade need wings?
[SPEAKER_01]: We cannot
[SPEAKER_01]: enact a sign and trade for these players because they are unrestricted for agents.
[SPEAKER_01]: So no sign and trades for any of these players.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we
[SPEAKER_01]: do try and acquire them.
[SPEAKER_01]: It will have to be through us opening up some cap space by waving and stretching Jared Vanderbilt or getting off of him entirely somehow with only one second round pick to trade and one pick swap or also looping him in along with Dalton Connect to get rid of Dalton Connect's 4.2 million dollars or finding a new partner for DeAndre 18 right now DeAndre 18 to me seems like the most tradable player because there might be a team out there that could actually use a
[SPEAKER_01]: We shall see, but in terms of who do we look at now to Vinnie's question, let's take a look.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me pull up my list of best available point of attack wing defenders slash forwards left on the market because outside of
[SPEAKER_01]: outside of wings, actually.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the Lakers also are just missing power forwards.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we forget our only power forward is literally Sondro and he's actually more of a five slash small ball five.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're actually in need of a power forward as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So,
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so this is my current best available veteran minimum options.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll get into what the Lakers can do in just a second, but in terms of if they don't do anything else, if they don't do many players, if they don't wave in stretch Vando, which I'm not sure why they wouldn't do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But let's say they don't do anything else.
[SPEAKER_01]: To me, these are the best point of attack forwards left on the market.
[SPEAKER_01]: At the top, we've got Matisse Thibel.
[SPEAKER_01]: He would be like,
[SPEAKER_01]: my number one guy that I would hope to get, and he does have a relationship with JJ Reddick.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they may have missed each other on the sixers, but I know they're very simple in their personalities, and he was on his podcast, et cetera, et cetera.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we've got Zeya Williams.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a legitimate six foot nine.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's still young.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a player that I would also try and sort of bank on.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the Lakers were interested when the nets let him off his team option.
[SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, I would love for us to get both Matisse Thibel and Zyre Woods.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we get both, I would feel a lot better about this roster.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's Matisse Thibel Zyre Williams.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there's Jeremy Sohan, World Champion Jeremy Sohan.
[SPEAKER_01]: He, yeah, he can still defend at the point of attack.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's also six foot eight, six foot nine, if we're able to, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: is hard to reconcile, but as I mentioned in the past, Jeremy Sohan is a much better finisher than Mando.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can do more with the ball.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can play make better.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's actually pretty explosive as a dunk or spot threat, which we know Jared Vanderbilt can't finish, even if he gets an open layup.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in a Banshee switch, everything line up, Jeremy Sohan can still do the job.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you remember in the finals, like literally the last possession, he was thrown into the game,
[SPEAKER_01]: That's his job to lock down the opposing teams, you know, best ballhandler.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if we're looking for defense, there's Jeremy Sohan in his prime.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jeremy Sohan was averaging 11.6 rebounds to assist and playing great defense.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the most versatile defenders that I've ever seen actually.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can literally guard 1 through 5 because he's so mobile, so strong, so physical.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's Jeremy Sohan.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other guy, now he's shorter, but if you're looking for a market smart replacement,
[SPEAKER_01]: I know he's already 31 years old, but this dude, this dude can bang, this dude can hustle, this dude is athletic, even at 31, 32 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: To me, he'd be a great market smart replacement from a defensive hustle.
[SPEAKER_01]: energy and heart perspective like this dude really competes.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's super physical.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's the type of guy who when it comes down to 50 50 balls, it's probably 80 20 balls with Javante Green.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then on top of that, he is surprisingly very athletic at the rim, an explosive sort of shooting guard six foot three, six foot four guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I would love to have Javante Green on this team to
[SPEAKER_01]: when it comes to bully ball energy, same goes for a guy's like Bruce Brown.
[SPEAKER_01]: Bruce Brown, I think maybe this is the finally, the year that the Lakers get Bruce Brown.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Bruce Brown is a, I don't know if he'll take the veteran minimum, but if he were able to get the veteran minimum, that would be actually pretty good value for the Lakers, because Bruce Brown is a guy who can also dribble past kind of shoot in recent years and
[SPEAKER_01]: based on what the lakers are trying to build offensively, like Bruce Brown's a really good off-ball cutter.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows how to relocate.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows how to get the ball moving, obviously having played with the Denver Nuggets and their sort of healthy, heliocentric offensive system as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it might be time for Bruce Brown folks.
[SPEAKER_01]: If he's willing to take the veteran minimum, and then we've got lower end guys like Jason on Tate, one of my personal favorites, Joshua Coghi.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got Ochaik Bajji, I've mentioned in the past that, like, I've kind of got an off Ochaik because he's like six foot four.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not as tall as you think he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Although I will say that he is, he is very cut and physical well built.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got strong broad shoulders and he does play good defense.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has shown the ability at least one season with the,
[SPEAKER_01]: Toronto Raptors that he can knock down a three point shot.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm willing to give Ocheck Baji a shot if we're looking to just continue to go young and athletic.
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, he's kind of like a mighty mouse, like a mini mouse out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not as tall and as winging as you would think.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's O-Chak Baji, Gary Trent Jr., I would love just to get more shooting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also a good swiper, no swiping, swiper, yes, swiping, ball hawk, and he's still only 27 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what offers he has out there, but if he is willing to take the veteran and minimum, I don't know why he would because he opted out of his veteran minimum with the bucks, but maybe he just wanted to get away from the bucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's Gary Transjunior.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now Larry and Ann Stunior is not a point of attack.
[SPEAKER_01]: wing obviously, but I put him on here because he's a power forward and we actually need power forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we're not going to resign, Rui or get a guy like Jonathan coming us.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Larry Nans Jr is someone to consider KCP, Asterisk, not as enthused with this one because, you know, KCP is old and he's has started to show, you know, that age, but it sounds like he may be
[SPEAKER_01]: Under the radar, out of Jack in the box, options would be Isaac Bonga in Europe.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that there's rumors that the pistons have been trying to prime away from like Olympiaco's or whatever his team is, but Isaac Bonga has perennially been like a defensive player of the year in the ABA league that he plays in.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you remember in Fib of basketball, he won defensive player of the year during that time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Isaac Bunga is also still only, I think he's still only like 27 years old, which is kind of crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me just make sure Isaac Bunga age.
[SPEAKER_01]: 26 years old it's crazy six foot nine with I mean if you're looking for wing size six foot nine with a seven foot wingspan showed the ability in euro basket play to actually knock down a three-point shot so yeah if you're looking for I mean I don't know where the lakers are at with their international scouting but if they've beefed it up at all and they've been you know monitoring guys overseas Isaac
[SPEAKER_01]: much in the same way that the Dallas Mavericks brought Dante exome back from overseas and before he had his injury ailments was actually a pretty good reclamation project.
[SPEAKER_01]: Could we do something like that with a guy like Isaac Bunga?
[SPEAKER_01]: And obviously, he would probably only cost the veteran minimum.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's Isaac Banga, and then there's Kessler Edwards, who also played with Luca Donchich on the Dallas Mavericks.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I thought he played pretty well, actually.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why he's just been relegated to the Geely again.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's only 25 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Mavericks were playing him at small ball five at times, and I really liked his versatility.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this guy has what?
[SPEAKER_01]: What's his wingspan?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a near seven foot wing span at six foot eight, eight foot 10 standing reach.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, those are like very dark horse candidate, then I don't think the The what's a called the Lakers would look at, but I would be pleasantly surprised if they were looking that money ballish deep.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, now let's talk about really quickly, can the Lakers do any trades.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's look at this again.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is our roster, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lakers only have, again, one pick swap and one second round pick to trade.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I do think that we can take dolls and connect, attach the second round, pick to him and dump him and get 4.2 million dollars back.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not enough to sign anybody, but,
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's say we're able to dump Dalton Connects 4.2 million dollars along with a second round pick.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we wave Jared Vanderbilt, after that wave and stretch him, we would gain back $7.4 million.
[SPEAKER_01]: $7 million, you tack that on to Dalton Connects like $4.2 million that we just dumped.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the lakers would open up around $11 million of salary, all of a sudden.
[SPEAKER_01]: What could we do with that $11 million?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that's enough to sign a guy like Jonathan Kominga.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that's enough to sign a guy like Rui Hachimura.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if we were able to find a home for DeAndre 8 and after that, send him to a team that could actually use him and maybe attach her pick swap on top of that, then you free up nearly $19 million.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're able to get rid of,
[SPEAKER_01]: Dalton Connect, deandry 18.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, we would be out all of our picks, obviously.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this is just to make the best team that we possibly can.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right now, you get rid of deandry 18.
[SPEAKER_01]: You get rid of Dalton Connect and then you wave and stretch your Vanderbilt.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you do those three moves, we would have,
[SPEAKER_01]: what is the fast math on this?
[SPEAKER_01]: We would have $19 million.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think with that $19 million, you can get really Hatchimura and or Jonathan Kominga.
[SPEAKER_01]: So is that a route that the makers could take?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if we do end up dumping, you know, if we do end up dumping,
[SPEAKER_01]: DeAndre8s and who then becomes our backup big.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of a sudden you have another roster spot to fill.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who's available on the market right now for big men?
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's another thing to keep in mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the makers do have the ability to open up around anywhere from 11 to $19 million.
[SPEAKER_01]: If they're able to do something with Vando,
[SPEAKER_01]: Loan second round pick and their loan pick swap.
[SPEAKER_01]: I doubt they'll be able to get anything done, but we will see.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now the other option that the Lakers can take is, they can take those salaries, particularly deandre and connect, because those are like if you take deandre, jakele-ravy and connect salaries, that is a combined,
[SPEAKER_01]: 18 million dollars of expiring contracts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, how do teams improve their roster if they don't have any assets?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, they can give another team's salary cap relief.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if the Lakers are able to take go to a team that has say,
[SPEAKER_01]: a player with multiple years on the roster that's a wing that they'd prefer instead.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're like, hey, we can give you these expiring contracts.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to give you anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, you may have to give us a second round pick.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, are there any trades out there where the lakers can actually trade for a wing like a very low level wing and not give up any assets, but salary relief in the form of trading expirings for multi year deals or if not multi year deals if we're just trading expirings for expirings can we entice a team.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who has a wing defender that we want.
[SPEAKER_01]: to take on DeAndre and Dalton Connect and we give them the pick swap or our second, our loan second round pick and we swap expirings.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are there any players like that?
[SPEAKER_01]: This list, I'm just gonna tell you, is not gonna be inspiring because
[SPEAKER_01]: These are very low level wings.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, we don't have any assets to trade.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the only asset that we have right now that I think is worthy of that other teams will be interested in it in is if we give them salary capital E, or long-term relief by taking on longer, their longer-term contract.
[SPEAKER_01]: So with that said, let's get into some targets.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, here we go.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am going to pull from the grave my Patrick Williams agenda, because if the lakers are looking to recoup some assets,
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they can trade for Patrick Williams.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's only 25 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now he's making $80 million over the next three years, but this does fit the Lakers three-year timeline.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, maybe you do not want to fill your roster with Patrick Williams, but at this point, we're all capped out anyways.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it doesn't matter if we're able to get Pat Williams for let's say, we're able to trade them Vando, Vando and Connect for Patrick Williams.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we don't have to give up anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I would do that because Patrick Williams can actually knock down three point shots, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's a player I would look at.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let's say we have, we trade them deandry, 18, Dalton, connect,
[SPEAKER_01]: four Patrick Williams.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's a scenario where the bulls would actually give us a second round pick.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the ligars are right now in the position to try and try to regain as many assets as they can, whether that second round picks or anything else.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because they're so their asset
[SPEAKER_01]: trade out some expiring to the bulls, tell them we'll take on Patrick Williams remaining three years, that $18 million because we actually need a six foot nine wing, even though I know Patrick Williams is, you know, recently has been more of a power forward defender.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've like in Patrick Williams too, like DFS and his prime.
[SPEAKER_01]: in prior videos and prior breakdowns, but Patrick Williams is a guy who intrigues me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure if the Lakers want to stomach the $18 million over three years, but if we're desperate for six foot nine wings, I don't know, he might be an option.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then his teammate, Isaac Accoro, he is expiring $11.8 million.
[SPEAKER_01]: If the Lakers said, hey,
[SPEAKER_01]: What if we gave you DeAndre and Dalton connect?
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you give us Isaacacoro?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I know Isaacacoro is not a six foot seven plus wing defender, but he is a six foot five combo defender who can guard up to the three.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's not bad, you know, career 35% three point shooter.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we were able to make that swap and maybe only give up the second round pick and get Isaacacoro, that might not be a bad move, especially because Isaacacoro is pretty athletic too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then now we're getting to some kombucha girl yucky targets, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Kaukuzma, we also do need a power forward and Kaukuzma has shown the ability to sort of, you know, oscillate back and forth between being a small forward, slash power forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: If the lakers were like, hey, we'll match Kaukuzma's salary.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll give you the expirings that we do have along with a pick swap.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys could replenish some of your assets as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you take a pick swap off load Kaukuzma onto us?
[SPEAKER_01]: and all of a sudden we have Kalku's material place, Ruby Hatchimura.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's an option as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Another yoke option would be DeAndre Hunter, who the Lakers have been linked to in the past and actually almost traded for him last season.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you remember that rumor that we traded Ruby for DeAndre, and I was like, this is a bad idea, but DeAndre Hunter, this one is harder to match because I think the Lakers would have to use
[SPEAKER_01]: Vandos salary, deandry salary, and Dalton Connect salary all at once.
[SPEAKER_01]: And given the fact that Vandos salary goes on for another year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure if the kings would do this, but this is just something to keep in mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe they would if we give them a second round pick or a pick swap.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the one that I really like is, oh, be top in at the end of this list here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Still only 28 years old, $15 million this year, $16 million the next year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Could we end ties
[SPEAKER_01]: the Pacers to give us a will be top.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if we gave them Dalton connect, gave them jakele ravea, you know, like, hey, here's jakele ravea.
[SPEAKER_01]: They, they, I think they could actually use the Andre 2.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, if we gave them these players, added the second round pick or something or added the the pick swap.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, this would depend on the Pacers actually being okay with relinquishing Obi-top, and because I think he's an important piece, even though he was very injured last season.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's an important piece next to Tyre's haliburton as this run up and down, lob threat.
[SPEAKER_01]: to rob threat complement to Tyre's halibird.
[SPEAKER_01]: And but Oby top and would be perfect for this team because he'd also be that sort of aerial release valve for Luca Donchitch and Austin Reeves that would only amp up our speed, youth, and explosiveness in transition.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I would love Oby top in, I'm just not sure if we can entice the Pacers to do something like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: But these are the types of trades that right now, the makers are probably looking at, given the fact
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, assets to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's why you're looking at bottom barrel guys like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: So There's OB top in
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so that'll I think that'll pretty much do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do have weekend to close this show.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you guys have any questions, feel free to shoot them below, but outside of that, that's where I'm kind of leaning.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know someone mentioned kind of Williams.
[SPEAKER_01]: I should have put his name on here too.
[SPEAKER_01]: That would be a great.
[SPEAKER_01]: pick up because he's actually six foot seven.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, put him in the same tier as Mati style, Zion Williams.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully, we can get two or two out of three of these guys because the Lakers very much needs some point of attack wing help.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other thing I want to know, and I mentioned this, I mentioned this in the last mentioned this in the last video, but do not be
[SPEAKER_01]: marker.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, five games last year, he had a shoulder injury, but like if you're looking at the 55 games the year prior, tack on 15 more games to that 10 to 15 more games, the Utah Jazz were resting people.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know this because of fantasy basketball, it was very frustrating to own a Utah Jazz player of consequence.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were trying to tank.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I know some people I've been like, oh, Walker Custer's never, never healthy.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not true.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was only not healthy last season.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other seasons were a huge asterisks that you had to place on him because the jazz were doing some fishy asterth and sitting guys that they shouldn't have sat, including Larry Markinon.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Walker Custer was definitely a part of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, anyways, thank you guys for watching.
[SPEAKER_01]: Once again, if I could please ask you guys to, if you haven't already, please hit subscribe.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would greatly appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's free.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please hit like.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please mash the hype button.
[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate you all for hopping on.
[SPEAKER_01]: This has been,
[SPEAKER_01]: a record setting week for me doing these live streams.
[SPEAKER_01]: I only started doing these live streams literally a year ago during the free agency period was always very nervous about doing this because I didn't think anybody would watch didn't think I had anything insightful to say was always worried that I would ramble myself to oblivion which I do anyways and that nobody would want to hear it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you guys for tuning in.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, it's helped me gain some confidence to do this more often.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this past week has only, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: heighten that confidence for better or for worse, but hoping to do this more consistently throughout the rest of the summer throughout the season.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you guys continue to tune in and hopefully we continue to grow this show and this platform, thank you once again for subscribing, liking, commenting, engaging, they all really help the channel grow.
[SPEAKER_01]: With that said, this has been Jonathan Hernandez of the Lakers Legacy podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is your new look, Lakers.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is your new Luka Lakers.
[SPEAKER_01]: We shall see what they do from here on out, but it is not over, it can't be over.
[SPEAKER_01]: If it is, we'll talk about it then.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll talk about final grades when we have a clearer picture of what our final roster looks like.
[SPEAKER_01]: But having said that, some early starts on Friday, we get to see Cameron Carr, Chris Minion,
[SPEAKER_01]: Adieu Fierro, the liquors have a fun summer leak team.
[SPEAKER_01]: They also sign Zyer Smith, former number 16 pick of the Philadelphia 76ers.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a high flyer as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Should be some very fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: slam ball to watch in the California classic and then after that summer league and Vegas as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So tune in with that said, thank you guys for, yeah, thanks you guys for hopping on to all of these lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yes, happy Fourth of July to you all as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I need to like decompress and take a break.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm not sure if I'm going to be doing any more of these lives for the rest of the week.
[SPEAKER_01]: But who knows, if something breaks, if Ruiz back, if we get Jonathan Caminga, I guess I'd have to do so.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for watching.
[SPEAKER_01]: Catch you guys later.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have a good night.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have a great 4th of July.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jonathan Hernandez of the Lakers Legacy podcast and I will catch you guys next time.