Lakers Lounge

Anthony—I’ve loved your show since your Locked On days, and it just keeps getting better. Hope you get your wish to travel more to cover the team—does Jen like jewelry? Anyway, I have a couple of questions: 1. When a player needs surgery, who picks the surgeon—the player or the team? If it’s the team, I’d fire all of them. Slow or no recovery from Gabe, Vando and Wood at a minimum. Too coincidental for my taste. 2. What would you think of a DLo and JHS or Wood, plus 2 #2 picks, for Deandre Hunter and the Lakers’ getting back their #1 pick from the AD trade? Atlanta does it b/c Hunter is at $21M for 2 years after this one, and Rissacher is developing at that position, whereas DLo and JHS or Wood are all expiring contracts, so it’s a money deal for the Hawks. For the Lakers, they take on long-term money, but gain a decent 2-way wing and get their pick back. Keep up the good work. Viva Exceptionalism

Rob Pelinka is that sales rep that got a really big sale his first year that any other rep would of got as long as they had a pulse and the luck to call that one person. Who now can’t get a sale to save his life and just sends out emails and set ups follow ups and doesn’t close

What does the possibility of Vanderbilt returning actually mean for the Lakers? How does he Impact the team, and where does he fit into the rotation?

Hi Anthony, Great job with the podcast. It is pretty obvious that the Lakers are currently at a crossroads with the Lebron/AD era. It can go one of two different ways. The first is what Pelinka has done all summer, which is do nothing to change the roster. The reasons are plenty that you’ve covered. Ultimately, the Lakers in their current roster need upgrades at multiple positions: A big, a two-way wing and a two-way guard. Due to the Pelinka tax, I think the Lakers would need at a minimum of six first round draft picks to get those three types of players. They have the contracts to trade, but not the picks to attach to them. Right now, the Lakers have a 29 first and a 31 first available to trade. One immediate way to get more first round picks is to trade Reaves. You can probably get 2 firsts from him due to his under-valued contract and his production. However you would still be short and you’d have another hole to fill. A lot (all Lakers fans) have asked why haven’t they done anything and the truth of the matter is Pelinka can’t do anything. They simply don’t have enough assets to get the multiple players that are needed to fill the multiple holes. Trading 2 firsts to fix one of the three holes, will just leave the Lakers with two missing holes and no way to fix them. They’re a ship that’s sinking into mediocrity. The solution is apparent. The thing to do is to trade Anthony Davis. You’ve got Lebron James in his age 40 season still playing at an All-NBA level. Contrary to everyone’s opinion, he’s the franchise, not Anthony Davis. No matter how much people want to say it’s AD’s team. It’s not. It’s Lebron’s team. Just like it was Kobe’s team before him. The Lakers go as far as Lebron takes them. The trade is simple. Call up Golden State. Offer Anthony Davis for Steph Curry. You would need to add about $10 million in salary (Gabe Vincent) to make the money work and also trade one of the minimum guys (Reddish, would be my pick). No picks, no swaps. The trade is essentially Davis for Curry. Two All-NBA top 10 guys switching teams. We saw what Lebron and Curry did in the Olympics. Imagine that in a JJ Reddick motion 5-out offense. You couldn’t stop that pick and roll. Curry and Lebron are at a point where they need each other to win. Two lions in the winter who are stronger together than against each other. I know every Golden State fan is screaming the same thing: “Steph is a Warrior for life. He wants to say with one team.” Let me break something to you Warrior fans, everyone says things like that when you’re winning 4 titles in 12 seasons and you can get Kevin Durant during a cap spike year. Now, cut to your current situation, the Warriors didn’t make the playoffs last year. They made lateral moves and didn’t improve the roster. You’re really putting a lot of stock in Pods to be the next Klay. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a 2nd year player that showed flashes and not much more. Golden State is essentially in the same spot as last year (8-10 seed) in a much better, more stacked Western Conference. Everyone wants to be a Warrior for life when they’re winning. Talk to me when you’re not relevant, which the Warriors are very close to being this year. The reality is the Warriors would deep down probably agree to it. Let’s face it, they’ve had multiple chances to improve their team via trade this off-season. PG-13, Lauri, all trades that could’ve happened if they were willing to overpay. Guess what, you overpay when you have Steph Curry and you really believe you have a shot a championship. They didn’t and those players aren’t on the roster. The consensus is that the Warriors will trade for the next star. Guess what that… The next star is going to require 3-4 firsts, Pods, Kamenga, and filler. Just ask the Lakers; The price for AD was 3 firsts, multiple swaps, Ball, Ingram, Hart. It’s going to cost you and I don’t believe the Warriors want to spend that kind of capitol to give a soon to be 37 year old Curry another chance at the title. In this scenario, they get an All-NBA player to build around in Davis, who’s 5 years younger. The answer is Curry to the Lakers. Lebron gets a running mate in Curry and they open the championship window for at least three years. They still have multiple firsts they can trade to get another center (Myles Turner perhaps) who can help anchor the defense. It won’t be AD, but Curry even at this age is a better offensive player than Davis. Curry and Lebron can even elevate Reeves, Vando, Knecht and Rui. Now, if the answer from lakers fans is we would never trade a big for a guard. Let me take you back to the summer of 2011. Chris Paul to Lakers trade that was killed by David Stern and the NBA. That trade involved one of the best Laker bigs: Pau Gasol. The same Pau Gasol who was Kobe’s running mate, won 2 titles with the Lakers, made 3 NBA final appearances and was Kobe’s guy. If the lakers don’t do a Curry trade, this is what the future will entail: Lebron plays two more seasons, at best they get knocked out in the second round for the next two years. Lebron retires and the Lakers go big game hunting to get the next superstar. Only this time, every superstar looks at the roster and they see a now 34-year old Anthony Davis who is on the downslide, three firsts (because you know Pelinka ain’t trading those), Reaves, Bronny, Kenect, Rui, Vando and not much else. Good luck getting a superstar with that. Curry for Davis is the trade. It gives the Lakers a three year window, after which everyone retires and the Lakers have a completely clean slate and a bright future to get a couple of superstars. This is the way.