Los Angeles Lakers Season Recap: Success or Disappointment? | LeBron James & More

Los Angeles Lakers Season Recap: Success or Disappointment? | LeBron James & More

we’re going to talk about the Los Angeles Lakers their season was it a success a disappointment or is this just what should have happened what it means as we move forward Michael Bolton has he got his Lakers jersey on thanks Josh it’s Michael Bolton here and it’s time for another episode of the locked on Fantasy Basketball podcast let’s get to it let’s get to it indeed you are locked on on Fantasy Basketball your daily fantasy basketball podcast part of the locked on podcast [Music] Network hello and welcome to the locked on Fantasy Basketball podcast brought to you by basketball monster my name is Josh lyd and if my grandmother had Wheels she would have been a bike I’m also the lead fantasy Analyst at basketball monster.com and you can find me on Twitter as always red rockball on Tik Tok red rockball and on Instagram at lockon Fantasy Basketball we got to talk more about Monopoly go it is the fast-paced game that lets you team up with friends for tournaments to unlock awesome prizes like unique unique stickers for trading cool playing pieces hilarious emojis for tting your friends so download Monopoly go now free on Google Play or the app store thank you also for making locked on Fantasy Basketball your first listen every day we are free and available to double bang on all platforms and that’s what you should do you listen to the audio you watch the video you thumb your comment you Bell yeah you tell me about all of your success and there was someone who said hey Josh can you send me your Monopoly go um Lincoln I did shout out to Monopoly go and then he sent me some of these things I was really needing to complete this thing loved it awesome Chris thank you very much for doing that appreciate that a lot as that’s the things we talk about Monopoly go that’s not the only game I play I do play cooler games MLB the show as I play every single game in 162 game franchise against the computer what am I a nerd that loves numbers or something who knows we’re talking the Los Angeles Lakers now I am recording this a few days before it’s released that’s what happens in the offseason we we record a bunch of things people schedules and we back them up and put them out at certain points you’re going to get this one and then probably the same day or maybe the next day you’ll get my second mock draft of the cycle and that will be after all of the prospect videos are done and I think we had pretty good luck I think there was only two two to three players that we actually did Prospect profiles on who ended up um not remaining in the draft Hunter Salis pton Sanford Caleb love maybe one other but not that many so pretty good so all the prospects are done we’re going to go through do mock drafts big boards and then we’ll do have we will have some other draft analysts guests on and we’ll cover that in sort of different ways we we’ll talk about different things versus the individual player prospects so that’s all coming up now that’s a lot of words but we’re talking we’re talking Lakers we got to talk Lakers that’s where we’re at at this point of the season this is the 17th team review and that’s where the Lakers four now there is I’ll get to that in a second actually let’s just have a bit of a look at how things were for the Lakers they were 47 and 35 for the season plus 1.8 net rating that’s about in line and lost in the first round of the playoff to the nuggets and honestly that’s just what this team is they’re in the playin two years in a row yes they made the Conference Finals the year before but there are obviously weird little breaks that happen at times that push teams maybe further than they they shouldn’t and this is fine this is what the team is they were 12th on offense they were 16th on defense their preseason over under was 47 and a half so basically the right bang on they won 47 games their pre preseason preseason over under was 47 and a half what did I have them as 46 and then I adjusted that my first pass was 46 I adjusted to 47 so actually banged it right on the head W me hit the under hit the games exactly wow that probably will never happen again let’s talk about the draft do they have a pick I don’t know because they theoretically have pick number 17 in this draft but it’s one of the draft picks that was swapped to the Pelicans as part of the Anthony Davis deal and the Pelicans can choose whether they want it or not they can either have the draft pick Swap this year or they can defer it to next year actually is it even a swap I’m remember sure it’s a swap might just be they no it’s not even a swap they just get straight up the pick my bad that swap is incorrect but they can say I’ll take this pick pick 17 or they can defer it to next year and just just take the pick next year so the general wisdom consensus is that you know weer draft with the Lakers LeBron pushing 40 um and maybe they don’t get as much health out of Anthony Davis that maybe that pick is better than 17 maybe it’s 11 maybe it’s 12 I don’t know but it’s a stronger draft and the Pelicans will almost definitely defer this pick I would say the 2025 meaning the Lakers will have pick 17 they will also have pick number 55 when everything starts off the most common starting group for this Lakers team was the one that you would expect D’Angelo Russell Austin Reeves LeBron James Anthony Davis and the Man in the middle and by the middle I mean the best player on the team Ru hamura this is a lineup that a lot of people criticize Pockets ham about um not going to early enough this is the lineup that gave him so much success you know what I just got realized I got completely distracted I was telling you about how I was recording this in advance and the reason I wanted to tell you that is that I don’t know who the coach is of this team but by the time this show is out you might know is it Jes bgo does seem like we’re heading that way is it JJ reick who’s the other one that’s involved in that Kenny ainson I don’t know who it’s going to be I’m not going I’ll do that sort of stuff more in the preseason when we talk about the impact of the coach but we don’t know but what I was going to say then what I did start to say was about the criticism that Darin ham have for some of his lineups and his overreliance on the artist forly known as Prince which was pretty bad but I think Lakers fans or or just people who talked about the Lakers in the media in general were deluding themselves a little bit in thinking that ruy haimura in the starting group was the guy that was holding holding them back there were curious decisions benching D’Angelo Russell benching Austin Reeves all that sort of stuff was pretty weird and ham had some very curious rotational decisions but this in the end was the lineup that they went with more than any other was it their best lineup no the best lineup was almost the same lineup except it didn’t have D’Angelo Russell in there it had Spencer dwy in there obviously dwy came across on the buyout after being traded to the Raptors and the Raptor saying absolutely not we’re not even negotiating with you we’re just going to cut you see you later that was a plus 15.2 I wouldn’t say dwy was good because he wasn’t but he was a part of that best lineup D witty Reeves hat Mur LeBron and big ant Davis free agents Max Christie is a restricted free agent on this team I will talk about him a little bit more later on I do like Christie he hasn’t really had any sort of opportunity to show anything for LA so I get the feeling that he’s yeah and we all know that I love BJ Boston and I think that christe might be falling into that BJ group where it’s a guy that I like as a wing who doesn’t really get the opportunity to shine but every year that he doesn’t get the opportunity to show it I Lose My Faith because it means that he’s not showing enough behind the scenes to the coaches anyway and they see him closer than I do so it’s only been two years for Christie he is still really young this was his age 20 season I would look to bring him back or other teams I’d look to bring him in but yeah I was more excited after year one I’m still interested but every year that we don’t get opportunities when they’re calling out for opportunities is a little concerning and when BLS and then is his stenham being bad maybe but when BLS like cam reddish are getting minutes I start to go well surely surely we can get a little bit of Max Christie but maybe not maybe that’s not in the what they’re looking for maybe that’s not what we’re after who knows look at the unrestricted guys there are a few players here who played roles tan Prince and Spencer dwy had significant enough roles the other guys Harry Giles and Mason Jones we don’t care about too much I’m not thinking that dwy and Prince are going to be a in huge demand or B massive priorities but if they’re coming back and they’re getting minimum contracts having that sort of depth is fine I guess the difference with dwiti is that we hope that Gabe Vincent is healthy and then you don’t require him as a fourth point guard so he probably doesn’t come back in that scenario Prince is a different story and hopefully the new coach doesn’t over overuse him the way that Pockets did this last season there are some guys with player options and these are the important ones here really cuz obviously we’re talking about LeBron O James who it doesn’t really matter whether he has a player option or not it’s all about what he wants to do whether he’s going to decline that and and take the new contract now or accept it and be a free agent like there’s so much drama seemingly always about LeBron and what’s going to happen I don’t really think there’s any danger of him not playing for the Lakers next season I don’t think any of the bronny stuff is real um but I also don’t know so yeah LeBron’s got a $51 million player option he’s going to be 40 he’s awesome still at some point it will drop at some point but I I I just can’t tell you when that’s going going to be it doesn’t really matter that much the big questions going to well does matter but in terms of where he’s going to be I don’t think there’s any sort of question about that the next one is going to be what D’Angelo Russell does it seemed for all intents and purposes that Russell was going to be traded that was the word on the street and then in true shortsighted nature he had a 10 game hot streak so they didn’t trade him and then when it got to the playoffs he struggled a lot and I’m not I’m not saying that d’angel Russell was a bad player cuz he’s not he’s also a guy that has significant limitations and shortsighted thinking and teams are always doing this nearly always every team is very shortsighted or very slow and those two things can coexist and by slow I mean they don’t move off of a player whose value is going to decline early enough therefore hamstring their own team and any trade value they get back or they see something that just happened and went well DLo just shot 50% for three for 10 games well he must be the best ever and they don’t make any moves to capitalize on that now Russell has player option does he think he’s going to get more I don’t know I don’t think he will I I think he’ll probably be back and then we’ll have another year full of um decisions and discussions about him being traded but that is probably the big one the other two I don’t really care Jackson Hayes and cam reddish they were reddish was definitely played too much he just he can’t shoot the ankles are done it seems like I just I don’t think he actually needs to be on an NBA roster or at least in an NBA rotation and Hayes had some solid enough moments but the sort of backup center play players can be cycled through pretty easily and yeah is he’s not the answer to play next Anthony Davis very clearly and that’s cool Christian Wood has already picked up his um player option so he’ll be playing next season on a expiring deal and for those of you who still fro Christian Wood that means it’s contracted your Christian Wood I’ve seen there are still people who believe in Christian Wood and I cannot understand it I saw somebody again this is one person but when there’s one person when you’re looking through St there’s usually going to be a cohort that are behind the same thing talking about man people talk about Alex s and some people will compare alexar to Chris Baran yeah I can see it but actually what I see I think is probably more interesting is Christian Wood what are we what am I reading here you think alexar being Christian Wood and then in the same sentence saying that’s great and that means he’s worth a number one pick means that there is your eyes are in backwards I’m not really sure what to understand with this I don’t know how often we have to see this with wood who to be fair showed some improvements in his game but I don’t care anymore he’s not a rotation player he’s not worth the fuss he’s not worth the fuss that he causes at times he’s not worth any of this but he’s back on a minimum deal he’ll be expiring contract and someone somewhere maybe even listen to this will care but that’s not going to be me today’s episode is brought to you by Monopoly go we’ve got to talk about Monopoly go cuz it’s fun like I I don’t know what M you know what Monopoly is it’s a board game but that’s not what this is It’s on on your phone it’s Monopoly go it’s mobile you use it on your phone and it’s got all the elements of the classic Monopoly but different things you play against your friends you team up you trade these stickers boost in terms of getting um extra money to get properties to then take the rent off them or get extra dice for more turns and more rolls you got those stickers you trade you can go to large tournaments as well you build up your board with um very themed specific buildings in those environments it’s just a fun thing to play on your phone with your friends against your friends jump into those tournaments as well you can win big massive multipliers for all of these things win with your friends win win with your friends win against your friends it’s all there at Monopoly go so discover something new something fun in Monopoly go download it for free at Google Play or at the App Store today’s episode is also brought to you by Fel Sportsbook it is winner take all time now in the NBA and the NHL with the playoffs and Fel is giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 150 bucks to bet on spreads money lines player props and more visit fel.com lockon and make every playoff shock count I can’t tell you who I’m going to be betting in the NBA Finals cuz at the time of me recording this I don’t know who is up against the Boston Celtics is it going to be Oda I think it’s going to be Dallas but I was a little bit worried after that game three when Derek Lively was out understanding how much better Lively had been than Gafford and that’s a story from when we do the Maverick season review as well that without Lively they would struggle and they and he was a big impact now whether he is the difference between them actually choking a three-nil lead I don’t think so but it is uh a little bit interesting I think if Dallas wins that they will push Boston to seven and Boston will win I think if the Wolves win I think Boston wins in five would be my guess five anyway but we can check all those odds over at Fel America’s number one sports B and don’t forget to gamble responsibly okay that is the beginning of the Lakers segment now let’s talk about the Players let’s go through the starters and I’m going to go be really sort of um really clear I hope I’m clear always but you just I think the differentiations relatively straightforward with this team we’ll start with Anthony Davis who one of those guys that I’ll admit like in the offseason I was talking I think it was when Matt Smith was on we were saying does Anthony Davis still have irrespective of health does he still have number one per game upside and we both said I don’t think so I’m not sure those rebound numbers continue to drop for him I’m not sure he’s actually got that still in him but he did he was picked at number 13 he was fourth in minus one rankings third on Yahoo sixth in points he average 25 and 13 almost 13 3 and a half assists 1.2 steals 2.3 blocks and that rebound thing is Big because go look at his numbers and how much the rebounds have dropped push it back up to 13 it’s almost a universal truth that when Anthony Davis plays all of his minutes at Center the fantasy values through the roof 58 on twos only 27 on threes I think that part of his game is gone but he also decided he was hitting fre throws again now I’m not going to tell you and sit here and say wow finally Anthony Davis cared and he was playing games and that’s What mattered it’s not I don’t care what you tell me I don’t I don’t care we know why Anthony Davis played games this season 76 of them he didn’t get hurt he had some smaller injuries yes and in the past he probably would have sat a little bit more in terms of resting and back Tob backs which makes 100% sense in any situation unless you’re the NBA or the people who love to see um players tortured on the court he shouldn’t have played 76 games he was clearly hurt from about game three with a small injury he still put up really good numbers but in the end like what did it bring us what did it bring what did it bring the the NBA what did it bring the Lakers I’m not I’m not really sure would they have been as good without him probably not like I’m not saying he should have sat 30 games or anything like that but he was much look the the seasons before with Davis he’d been injured but they were significant we saw the injury happen big twist of a knee big twist of an ankle and he was out for 25 games and that’s what happened the year before it wasn’t like he just sat every back to back and just randomly rested he suffered a big injury that cost him about 2 months and that didn’t happen so he played through these smaller things that he’s always going to get but we cannot Bank on that obviously if you miss a bunch of games one year you are not going to miss a bunch of games the next season necessarily if you play a bunch of games one season that does not mean that you play a bunch of games the season after all of it is still relatively uncorrelated will I take Davis in the top five almost definitely not will he go in the first round yeah the question I think comes in will you take Anthony Davis ahead of jeel em beid and that’s a big one isn’t it and I actually think I might I said yesterday or the other day on the Philadelphia one Philadelphia show that I’m just out on the recurrent knee problems of embiid and that’s where I do lean into injury stuff you get the same injury the same body part multiple times then I really I’m going to be done with it and that’s not where at with Davis at all his player comps are amazing year seven of David Robinson one of the best fantasy players of all time year nine of hakee Elijah one one of the best fantasy players of all time he was 96th in EPM 998th percentile in CPM a just ridiculous numbers how about this though he was only in the 66th percenti of contesting shots at The Rim yet still blocked 2.3 shots so he just didn’t contest that many shots so I look at all this and go okay well maybe the rebound don’t stick maybe he’s not this free throw shooter but he actually could block more shots and I that’s interesting now he is 31 and as you get older you do decrease your Rim frequency so maybe it doesn’t but it’s not C it’s not tapped out it’s not capped this isn’t the best case scenario for blocking shots for Davis it could actually be higher which is ridiculous but at some he’s 31 he’s probably got one to two more years at this level I would say and if there’s already been some sort of declines across his game but awesome I don’t really know how much more positivity I can give with Davis and I don’t want to sit and make this a as the kids would say glazing session on LeBron James but we got to do a little bit of it the bloke’s 39 he played 71 games he played 35 minutes a game he obviously picks and chooses his spots a little bit more but 11th ranked player in minus one eighth in points ADP of 25 I’m still not going to do it I’m still not going to take him in the first round the man is going to turn 40 in December I’m not taking a 40-year-old who this season yeah didn’t suffer that yes they go on the injury report every single game we know this he didn’t suffer that significant injury that caused three to four weeks to be missed big ankle sprain big groin strain didn’t suffer that luckily had little bumps and bruises and got a little bit more progressively hurt and sore and beat up as the season went on which is what happens but he was ridiculous 257 and 8 26 7 and8 honestly if you round up that’s just LeBron he’s not prime LeBron cuz he’s not hit 60% from the field but he’s not far off and then he added an extra wrinkle by hitting 41% of his threes now in the past he’d be like a 65 twoo guy and he’s not that anymore and I worry that that 41% three is a little anomalous and he’s not going to hit to a game and hit him at 41 so if I was looking at LeBron and saying well why wouldn’t he be the 11th ranked player or eighth in points next season I’d say it’s to what if he goes to 37 from three and that goes to 1.7 triples and then the scoring goes from 25.7 to 24.9 these are all small changes but they drop him and I think that when you look at his numbers it’s hard to look at LeBron’s numbers and go yeah they’re going to get better like I don’t think that’s really easy to do now finding a comparison for LeBron is impossible because not impossible who plays this long nobody at this level nobody and the two names that come up were year 18 of KL Malone sure Carl would have preferred things to be around year 13 but it’s year 18 for K Malone and then I didn’t even know how to justify or not justify categorize Michael Jordan because theoretically it’s the 15th season of Jordan playing but he had one year off in the middle to go play baseball he had three years off and a retirement but this is basically the final season of Jordan’s career Wizards Jordan and LeBron’s numbers are way better than Jordan at that point but the way these comparisons work they’re not on pure rate stats or pure counting stats it’s based on things like Rim frequency and rim deterrence and passing creation and passing rating and offensive load and all that sort of stuff and they the two guys again mainly because of age and Longevity that he matched up with still insane 998th percentile EPM 98th percentile CPM probably more in saying that in box creation he was in the 99th percental so he’s still doing everything for his team at this age this guy is unbelievable and I’ve said it in many shows and in this one at some point he’ll drop off but honestly maybe he doesn’t M maybe he doesn’t and I don’t know why he’s able to beat father time but I don’t actually care he’s ridiculous I won’t pick him in the first round I probably won’t pick him in the second round and if you get him in the third round you’re probably going to get a successful story out of it he was just awesome again you can hate on him as much as you want you can find him corny as much as you want you can laugh at his interviews with Peter Crouch and yeah I know Crouch is a legend whatever the man’s just ridiculously good simple as that today’s episode is also brought to you by door Dash door Dash yes with door Dash you know what it is you can get food delivered cool but it’s not just that you can get whatever it is now Mother’s Day is done and I hope that you use door dash for Mother’s Day to get all of these um gifts for your month but you know what’s coming up now now this is where we we differ because in Australia Father’s Day is not until September but I know for you guys in America Father’s Day is coming up so let’s flip the SC script here on door Dash cuz they haven’t actually flipped it and given me the updated one but if you’re looking to get something in advance for your dad for Father’s Day well we can get that over at door Dash check out all of the different options whether it is food it’s groceries Tech retail clothing whatever it is that you want door Dash will have all of those different options we’ve got the code locked on MBA as well which get you 50% off your next order and that is up to $15 when you spend $15 or more on your next order of grocery or retail or convenience order using door Dash today terms apply all right now we’ve talked about the two main blocks here let’s go to D’angelo Russell now you might think that I’m biased against D’Angelo Russell it’s not I don’t think it’s bias I don’t have anything against the man in particular he I just don’t think he’s as good as other people do and I if you have that opinion that’s cool if I have it I think it’s also cool but I will say this I was I got some things wrong on D’Angelo Russell this season I watched D’Angelo Russell get benched in the playoffs the previous season right I saw that happen saw the team go completely away from him I saw him come back in and then start him and play him over Austin Reeves this season that’s a little weird but then I saw them go this isn’t working they reduced his minutes as a starter and then they benched him went all right I have seen this story before he has played poorly they have reduced his minutes slowly and now they’ve pushed him to the bench he played on the bench for a bit of time went I don’t think he’s very good I don’t think they think he’s very good I am out on holding on to D’angelo russling fantasy and I said we’ll drop him and then he went back to the starting lineup he went absolutely crazy and I was completely wrong very clearly I should have had a little bit more patience going well who else are they going to play there and my thought was literally anybody that doesn’t that makes more sense next to Reeves and LeBron because I don’t think Russell makes any sense next to those guys but they went back to that a he put up great numbers for this huge stretch and he was great now in the end those numbers are insane 50th in minus one dang Russell he’s only 28 as well by the way 44th on Yahoo 63rd on points beat his ADP smashed it the only trade that I did all season in fantasy interestingly involved me getting D’Angelo Russell I didn’t go out and ask for de I didn’t initiate the trade someone just said I’ll give you D’Angelo Russell and if you give me Aaron n Smith and I went I don’t really like D’Angelo Russell but yeah I I will take that every single day of the week I did and it worked out really well for me so I don’t really know where I’m going to sit with D’Angelo next season because 183 and 6 and a half is great defensive numbers are poor 83 from line is awesome he’s never been that good before 42 from three is also awesome so there’s huge regression ability or regression potential in the shooting percentages and he played 33 minutes T night but what if he doesn’t what if they get what if Chris Paul does come here and they decide that Paul is going to be the St they shouldn’t because Paul is absolutely washed what if they they do I think Russell is probably going to be someone I look at in the 70s maybe but I don’t know this is this these numbers this 50th ranking this 183 and six on 83% from the line and 42 from three I don’t look at this and go well there we go there’s our new Baseline his best comps were year six of Terry roia and year five of CJ McCullum solid players lowish I guess upside players but solid players his advaned metrics were very strong again I I’ll I thought that he was going to be way worse than he was he definitely proved me wrong 84th percenti EPM 74 and CPM one thing I look at and if I want to talk about regression and I and I did about his free throw percentage and his three-point percentage he was only 38th percen all in getting to the line and part of that is Reeves being there Davis being there LeBron being there now if something random does happen he moves to another team LeBron out of you know just goes well I’m actually done with the Lakers there is actually scope for free throw rate to jump massively and then that does actually push him up much higher so just watch that with the way the current team is configured I don’t think there’s you know huge hope that it jumps but all it takes is one little thing to shake loose and there is massive scope for that part of D’s game to jump up he was way better than I could have anticipated I think he’s way better than any Lakers fans could have anticipated he still had he struggles in the playoffs absolutely he’s totally fine as a mid pack starting point guard like I’d have to go through and ranked and bit is he like the 17th best point guard in the NBA I don’t know that feels about right like off the top of the dome but I don’t know I don’t know anyway got him wrong used logic that I thought was correct that wasn’t and made a bad call on it it does happen and I will be better in that in the future Austin Reeves was also really interesting player this season I thought that he would have way more hype coming into the year played on Team USA plays for the Lakers people absolutely incorrectly just assume he was an next Alex Caruso cuz he was white he played for the Lakers and he was uh an undrafted player when he’s absolutely nothing like Caruso I thought he’d go way higher so I was like I’m interested in taking him around the 80s or I had him ranked around the 80s he was getting his ADP was 89 thought fine he started off the season horribly like really bad and there were many many people wanting to drop him in the end 96 in minus one 53rd in yah hooks he played every game 81st in points league so basically he just returned the value of where you picked him which when the season started off he was nowhere near that it was also some weird rotation stuff he went to the bench early in the season he shooting was unbelievably off the usage was down but in the end it all sort of corrected he’s almost 26 he going to be 26 like very soon 32 minutes a night he averaged 164 and 5 a28 steals in.3 blocks shot 85 from the line one of the big things that got Reeves through the year before was an insane twoo percentage and it was still good but it wasn’t the 66% or whatever it was the year before 58 it was insane free throw rate which was good but still not what it was the year’s pass and we’re getting more of a baseline here where Reeves is so I look at all of this stuff from Austin and go with the way the team is currently constructed I I don’t see much more but if Russell was to go if LeBron was to suffer a big drop off 194 and7 is I think ceiling level for Reeves which is great the problem is is his defense was disgusting it was so bad he got roasted all the time and that’s why we’ll jump ahead here and say that he was only 56th in uh effective plus minus percentile it’s like League average basically League average I think is 60 so bit below crafted he was a little bit better 71st percentile but defense killed him if you want to get we’ll stay on the negative side of things in terms of deflections 21st percentile just does nothing defensively and that led to a lot of problems I’m not sure that he’s going have the ability to improve all that significantly which is going to always hamper his fantasy upside because I obviously steals are part of fantasy but it also leads to the problem of is your role and are your minutes secure what I do like as a positive thing is the best player comp to what he did was year three of a certain Damen Lillard and not a certain Daman there’s only one of them it’s Damen Lillard year three Damen Lillard is the best comp to what Austin Reves just did I went H all right that’s that’s eye opening the next best was Steve Smith year three of smudge now many of you wouldn’t have remembered Steve Smith hey if you want to know about remembering old players there’s going to be a guy we bring up later with some of the comps and I’m going to say I’ll tell now I didn’t know who the hell they were so good luck with that but Steve Smith so they lard obviously Legend Hall of Fame type player Steve Smith very good very strong very capable starter don’t know if he made an All-Star team but he does NBA TV stuff now just a very strong play I think we’re going to see four years or so of Austin Reeves as a top 100 guy and maybe top out at top 60 I would guess let’s talk about ruy hachimura one of the most overrated players in the entire NBA I think actually he’s not very good as a player at all don’t think he’s terrible don’t think he should be out of the NBA but I guess part of that is me just pushing back on um the the way that people talk about this guy he’s 26 he played 68 games he played 27 minutes and I slow start to the season he’s one of the wor worst category fantasy players per minute that exists 180th but play 27 minutes a game 161st in points his ADP was 137 still people always buy in and I don’t get it he averaged 13 points that’s great four rebounds but the problem is is outside of scoring he does nothing four rebounds one assist six deals point4 blocks and he did all this with unbelievable efficiency 60 from2 and 42 from three and honestly I don’t buy that for a single second he relies so much on the mid-range he relies on Elite shooting numbers at times to get him to even this mediocre level of production and I just don’t have any trust that it stays there and if the shots aren’t going in he literally does nothing he’s not a yage stopper he’s not the next Yannis or Kawai as people laughably had called him in the past he is an you know what he is he’s Los Angeles DeAndre Hunter with a little bit more offensive pop whose shooting percentages feel like they’ve made out of a house of cards I just think he is bad for the narrative that is surrounding haimura is he okay as your seventh man who occasionally starts sure is he ever someone a Target in the fantasy league probably never the two comps for him are just wild honestly Jake Layman year three and Sam Hower year two I bet you don’t think those guys is what Ru hmer is but that’s sort of what he is like very sort of onedimensional it’s scoring and nothing else to be fair 74% all EPM is better than what the impact of Austin Reeves is 51st on crafted fine part of why I don’t like what Haim M brings as a player is a the lack of Defense the lack of defensive events the iffy shooting I believe that the inconsistency in shooting the bad shot selection is he doesn’t have any idea how to pass 21st percentile in passer rating he just doesn’t move the ball he’s got got to be a shot finisher and I think a lot of the times I just want someone better to be the guy finishing the shots so he’s only 26 I’m not going to rule out some level Improvement and he has improved over the last two years for sure but he’s just one of those guys that the narrative around him really gets not it doesn’t get to me but I always feel like I need to push back because I just don’t think the narrative reflects reality at all maybe you don’t think I’m reflecting reality here and that’s okay as well there year starters let’s talk about some other players know we got four other guys that we’re going to get into here because I think these are probably the the important ones that we need to cover off um but there’s not going to be huge discussions on a lot of these players cuz one of them is Spencer diny who I don’t know he’s 31 now he had some real struggles in um Brooklyn he finished 184th in minus one despite playing 28 minutes a night he was drafted at 106 and I’m going to be honest with you I don’t actually remember where I was with dinwoody in terms of fantasy value at the start of the Season I’m going to say I was low because I was like I think that Ben Simmons is going to be playing and getting a lot more minutes so I’m not interested in din with his poor Fantasy game I don’t 100% remember that though he averaged 10 points in 28 minutes he shot 39% he shot 34% from three he averaged 2.7 rebounds 4.7 assists and as usual no defensive stats he has always had a horrible fantasy profile and what do we mean when we say fantasy profile not to get too off off track here a a bad fantasy profile is someone who has low low peripheral numbers basically what they do is score and even then they do that and it requires a lot of shots cuz their efficiency isn’t good they can’t buoy themselves or As Americans would say buoy I would just say boy um themselves with now in the past he was a good assist player but when you’re playing next to Reeves and Russell and LeBron you’re never going to get assists and where he fits like no team I don’t think will be investing in dinwi as a starting point guard to get those assists back to being useful so I just think that his time as a standard League guy is done he’s best comps were year seven of Pooh Richardson yes real name not really but that’s what he went by and year 12 is Cory Joseph and by year 12 is Cory Joseph I mean Cory Joseph’s 12th season which of course I would say it was Cory Joseph’s worst worst season but he’s got lots of competitors for being that cuz he’s terrible as well 73% allm 56 in crafted again reasonable reasonable but no upside no excitement shouldn’t be looking to bring him back at all one of the reasons why he’s just so bad as a peripheral player that when everything drops like it has he’s just not going to be that guy he’s he’s regularized I hate that word adjusted defensive turnover rate you’re creating defensive turnovers which is regularized and adjusted over some multi-year stuff sixth percentile he does nothing defensively now he had some moments there the the clips of him guarding Damen Lillard he’s got the size but as a general event Creator he stinks and for us in fantasy that’s important especially when your minutes come down you got to do some other stuff and he does not so I am out am I out on tan Prince well I guess I would have to been in on Toran Prince to get there to be fair I did add Toran prince in most of my leagues in the first week of the season because the Lakers had a great schedule I added him before game one they had haimura out and Vanderbuilt out so he was going to get minutes and he went absolutely bananas in that game and it was one of the biggest W initial pickups that I had but I also never fooled myself into believing that tan Prince was him or he was good was useful but Darin ham did 229 in minus one even though he played maybe I was harsh on rimur maybe tan Prince does way less with more he finished 152nd on Yahoo again do not buy those rankings whatsoever he played 78 games he averaged n points with three rebounds 1.5 assists and7 steals for a three and D guy he hits the three okay but the D has never been there never and my theory on a lot of this is when you you’re this sort of a size player and you’re not a high usage player people think you’re 3 and d and if you have long hair and if you have dreadlocks and you’re putting in effort and they’re swishing around people makes it look like you’re a better Defender than you are a lot of people could be fooled by someone who does like chaotic type movements or is I don’t even know the right way to say it’s like the way that a lot of people would think that um Russell Westbrook was a good Defender because he would like snar and do like quick movements or something bro that who cares Prince is a little bit like that his best comps were year seven and then year eight of rul Butler rest in peace 18% old crafted plus minus that actually Rings true a lot and 42nd on EPM like he was just bad 17th percental offensive loobe he just had nothing to do offensively now part of that is the team do you want tooran Prince to do more no of course you don’t he’s one of those guys that you go okay well they’ve got a good little schedule here the Lakers could tooran Prince hit me 33s for three games in a row yeah yep and that’s the only time that I get interested because nothing else that he does is any interest to me at all those 27 minutes are just not going to repeat I don’t think at any point for the rest of his career the Lakers this is going to sound is it pandering I don’t know a little bit but Jared Vander bilar played 29 games only he played 20 minutes only yes Vanderbilt was played off the floor in the playoffs at times he has some offensive struggles but his defensive ability in the regular season was key to a lot of those lineups Jared Vanderbilt can play center defensively people think he’s a three he is not he’s a big man who’s a little bit shorter but can guard small players but him having those significant low body foot injuries a it’s a red flag cuz he had a lot of those earli in his career as well and in college that’s like not great that they’re reappearing but the fact that he wasn’t out there I think is just a low-key reason why this team struggled because it’s his ability to be flexible and versatile that really helps a lot of these other players now he’s not going to be a good fantasy I don’t think we should fool ourselves into that 222 Richie Beno in minus one he was drafted 144 and only 8% of leagues though he averaged five and five in those 20 minutes with 1.2 steals he’s not a shop blocker he’s not a scorer he rebounds he gets Steals and he’s not a bad passer and that probably doesn’t happen in enough volume for him to matter 59% on his twos 30 on his threes I don’t think the threes are ever going to get there he’s only 25 but I don’t think they’re going to get there he needs to be 63 64 in his twos really we’ll see if it ever gets it now when I talked about the comps for a play this is what I meant who is Kenny dard rookie year Kenny dard was the best comp for Jared Vanderbilts age 25 season and rookie year Brian Russell jazz legend Kenny dard who’s that 54th percent on EPM 65th on crafted again I think he’s an impactful player who is not really a fantasy guy Rim defense this is where we get a little interesting like 22nd percentile in being a good rim protector he’s not and maybe that’s one of the issues that offensively he needs to be a center defensively he’s more on the perimeter he can’t really do Rim defense stuff so he sort of sits as like he’s not big enough he’s can’t shoot well enough he’s sort of you just want one extra skill to to be a be able to develop Elite rebounder really good hands guy really good steals Guy solid good good passer but it’s just a weird package that requires certain things to work and it’s just never going to be I don’t think that fantasy guy for us and I could have gone through and talked now about jayen Hood chafino we didn’t see anything of him I like Colin Castleton I’m not going to talk about him didn’t really see any of Gabe Vincent as much as I like him as well I’m not going to Regal you with my thoughts on cam reddish this season of thieving minutes I’m not going to tell you about Christian Wood and well I already have actually about how bad Christian Wood is what I want to talk about here is Max Maxwell not Maxwell Lewis Maxwell Christie because I still like him now I did tease a lot of this stuff at the start of the show and these numbers are bad right 400th in minus one that’s yuck he’s just turned 21 he played 14 minutes not he actually played 67 games but it was a lot of like in and out and the 10th Man Guy versus the guy that should have probably been playing 24 night and I would love for him to do that next season but I don’t know that he’s going to be on this team four and two in those 14 minutes with 0.9 assists and3 steals shot 43 and 78 nothing there should get you excited 36 on three that’s all right 50 on two all right he’s barely played there are clear Frameworks here and when I look at the comparisons rookie year Jaden McDaniels that’s timber wolves McDaniels and year two Malik Beasley now if you could combine Jaden McDaniels and Malik Beasley into one player you’ve probably got an All-Star to be honest one of the best defenders in the league with one of the most willing three-point Shooters now that’s not how comps work you don’t get to combine those two things into one super player imagine combining Anthony LeBron James into Michael Jordan and car Malone he’d be even more of the goat than you already is but there’s just enough here now look the advanced stuff it stinks 14th percentile EPM ninth on CPM what is this crap but what I like for him as a guard Wing 6’7 good size I think he can shoot 53rd percentile in Block percentage he is a guard who can protect the rim and those little sneaky stats in fantasy end up maybe mattering this would have to be a 350 player deep Dynasty League which every Dynasty league needs to be at least that deep but I am not giving up on Max Christie even though we barely saw anything year three is the one that if it doesn’t happen then I’m out and I’m already a little bit out but I do like a few of the things we saw the fit here just isn’t working with the way the Lakers like to run things and that is UNT forunate for Max it’s unfortunate for you if you wanted me to keep talking about the Lakers because I’m done and we’re not going to be doing it anymore on this show so I think that trying to work out I don’t even know how which order I’m going to post this in whether I’m going to post the last draft prospect show before this or after this I’m not sure I think I’ll do this one first and then we’ll do the draft prospect show after and then we’re into mock drafts tomorrow hit the old thumb hit the Bell double bang it guys we are done here here thank you so much for listening everyone see you [Music]

Join Josh Lloyd as he dives into the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2023-24 season. Was it a success, a disappointment, or just what was expected? In this episode, Josh discusses:

The overall performance of the Lakers this season.
LeBron James’ incredible longevity and impact.
Anthony Davis’ season highlights and injury concerns.
The Lakers’ draft pick situation and potential future moves.
Key players including D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, and Rui Hachimura.
The potential coaching changes and their implications for the team.

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