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Speaker 1: All right, what's going on, Laker fans? What is going on? What is going on? Thank you very much for being here. Appreciate you guys hanging out on this Tuesday night. Just one preseason game left for the Los Angeles Lakers, and then we could start talking about some real basketball. But actually, to be honest, kind of enjoyed watching tonight's game. Gave us, obviously, a little bit of a new look here. No, obviously, Luka Doncic, Lakers still missing a ton of guys on purpose strategically. Maybe some cautiousness as well with the organization. But nonetheless, Lakers lose to the Golden State Warriors 101-89, the final score. So we've got a lot to talk about, a lot to hit on. I think, again, for many Laker fans out there, there has been this wait and this anticipation of, like, when the hell is Walker Kessler going to finally play? So we got to see Walker Kessler tonight. We'll definitely spend some time talking about his debut with the Los Angeles Lakers. Austin Reeves, kind of a unique role. By the way, he balled out tonight, but I'm going to give my thoughts on Austin Reeves of when there isn't a Luka Doncic there, what version do you get? But the real question is going to be, what version and what's the most comfortable and effective version for the Lakers of Austin Reeves when Luka Doncic is there. But he had a good night tonight anyways. Too many turnovers, but obviously his ability to facilitate and get buckets and everything else. And then I think the other part, I don't know, it's up to you guys, how much you guys want to pay attention to Lakers blowing. I think at one point they were up 20, 30 turnovers for the Lakers, 30. I mean, at one point, I think the broadcast was kind of rooting for it. They're like, well, I mean, if you're this close, might as well just get to 30. So that's exactly what they did. All right, so we're going to get into all that. Appreciate you guys hanging out. Do me a favor, if you guys don't mind, please subscribe to the channel. We react after every Lakers game. And then, of course, we are doing shows in the morning as well. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday right now is kind of how I have it planned. So a minimum of three days a week. So something to keep in mind there. Okay, let's talk about the game. Let's talk about the game. We'll talk about the game, but I'm going to start this post-game show, of course, of course, spending a decent amount of my conversation about Walker Kessler and talk about areas that obviously he's going to be a huge help for the Lakers. Then also kind of talk about his game, you know, still a little raw, if I'm being honest with you. And I think that I think there's some opportunity for his game to grow, so we can do all that as well. All right, let's do this. Let me kind of share my screen with you guys here so you guys can kind of look at the box score. We can look at the box score together. We can take a look at this here. That way we're both kind of looking at the same thing. Okay, so tonight the most important thing was going to be, and this has been the question around Lakers basketball, it's really been when are we going to get a chance– to see Walker Kessler. When are we going to have an opportunity to see the potential future big man for the Los Angeles Lakers? Someone that, you know, a lot of people feel really, really good about of what he can be for the Lake shown there, by the way, there's also going to be question marks around Kessler. Um, is he going to be available? Did the Lakers give up too much? Like all that stuff's going to come with the territory. And I think we all know that we all understand it, but at least again, this is the fourth of five preseason games that, And this was going to be the first game that you actually get to watch Walker Kessler as a Los Angeles Laker and be able to react to it and everything else. So let's look at what he actually did today. Only 16 minutes, which is not too much of a shock there or too much of a surprise. The Lakers were going to kind of slowly ease him back in. They got one preseason game left on Friday. I'm really, really hoping that they at least play all their main, main guys for that first half against the Denver Nuggets. That game's going to be at Crypto.com Arena. Um, my hope is that we'll see what eventually happens. However, with that in mind, Kessler in 16 minutes, 11 points, four or six from the field, nine rebounds, um, a steal, a block shot. I don't know how he was not credited for two block shots. I was watching, uh, right after JJ Redick finished, they, they kind of, you know, they started, um, showing some of the highlights with, uh, Danny greens on there, Chris McGee's on there and Mike Bresnahan for spectrum sports net. And I don't know how he did not get credit for a second block as well. Did not hit the backboard. He actually blocked the ball. But that was his stat line. All right, that's Walker Kessler's stat line here. 11 points, 9 rebounds, a steal, and a block shot. What did you guys think? What's your initial thoughts of seeing Walker Kessler? I'll give you guys a couple of thoughts here. And this is not going to be just about this game against the Golden State Warriors. I think part of it is, yes, this preseason game, that doesn't mean anything. but also there's a piece of it of like, all right, well, what's it look like big picture and what Kessler is going to be for the Lakers. I thought what you saw tonight is a, is a lot of what you're going to see from Walker Kessler on the defensive side. He's going to disrupt plays. You know, if you drive to the basket and you're not drawn Walker Kessler out to the perimeter, it's going to be really hard to, to, to make some buckets over Walker Kessler. He's just huge. He's seven foot two. So, You know, in today's NBA, it was kind of starting to go back to having that traditional big man, the importance of having a big. And Walker Kessler kind of fits into that mold. I heard maybe it was Bresnahan. I can't remember who it was, but they're kind of having the conversation. Could Kessler be a top five center in the NBA? I don't have that answer for you. But what he did tonight for the Lakers is really what they're going to ask Walker Kessler to do on a night-in, night-out basis. Defend the glass. grab rebounds, get offensive rebounds when you can. I forget off the top of my head who missed the shot. He comes in, gets an offensive rebound, and gets a dunk off the glass. That's going to be Walker Kessler's role with the Lakers. Here's what's a little bit difficult with Walker Kessler in tonight's game. What's difficult is Luka's not there. So if Luka Doncic isn't playing and he's not there, you're going to feel a certain way. You're going to have some hesitation and of really kind of assessing the Lakers and assessing Walker Kessler because you obviously, this is what Luka Doncic, what makes him one of the premier guards in the NBA, one of the premier players in the NBA. He's going to make everybody's life a lot easier, including Walker Kessler. So I thought what you saw from Walker Kessler tonight shows you a little bit of why the Lakers said, we got to go get this big. showed you a little bit why of, you know, the Lakers were desperate to find a long-term big. And if you look at the bigs over the last couple of years for the Lakers, um, of course, Jackson Hayes, of course, Deandre in, um, but really Anthony Davis was the last big that you looked at and you're like, yeah, this dude is, you know, he's one of the ones. Um, And frankly, I'm not trying to compare their games at all because you can't. They're not comparable. Anthony Davis got the full package on offense as well. AD can face up, 17-footer, will hit it right in your face. He can back to the basket. He's got low post moves. I mean, Anthony Davis kind of had the full package when it came to his offensive game on top of what he can bring to the table on the defensive side. That's not Walker Kessler. So Kessler's going to be his own guy, legitimate center, 7'2. He's going to have a huge presence for the Lakers. The Lakers are not asking him to go be Anthony Davis. They're asking him to complement Luka Doncic, Austin Reeves, and the rest of his team and be the anchor on the defensive side. But overall for Kessler, I think it was fun to watch him. I think it was exciting to see him play, exciting to see his potential and what he could potentially bring to the table for the Lakers. But I'll also say this about his game, and again, I'll go back to it. Luka's going to get this man on his own 10, 12 points a game. Now, he's going to have more than that. He'll probably have 15, 16 points a game, something like that. At least that's what you're hoping for. Even higher, if possible, can he get to 18 points a game? Maybe I'm being a little too optimistic. But he's going to get easy buckets because Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic. He's going to get a lot of easy buckets. The question is going to be how much can he kind of create on his own or kind of get, you know, some, some buckets just off the glass, a tip here, a tip there. And I don't have that answer for you. I will see, you know, one of the things I do notice a part of his game still raw, his offensive game is still raw. If that makes sense, right? Like when I said Anthony Davis, and again, these are not the same players, so I'm not trying to compare the two, but, there are certain players and Walker Kessler is not this guy. Kessler ain't the, I got Joel Embiid footwork and I could face the basket and I could, I can, I can hit a 15 footer. At least he is. That's not something that he's either had the ability to show in the NBA or he's highlighted in the NBA, or maybe that's, you know, an area of his game that he's working on. He's not, he's, there's certain bigs in the league that it's like, all right, give me the ball and let me go to work. And that's not why they brought Walker Kessler over But I do think it's going to be important for Kessler to kind of define himself, get the proper footwork for a big man, capitalize inside the paint when he can. Maybe there are going to be some times where you got a little bit of a mismatch. Can you take advantage of it? You know, dribble the ball three, four times in the paint. Double doesn't come. You got a nice little right hook. And there's an easy bucket for the Lakers. You take a little bit of pressure off guys like Luka Doncic and Austin Reeves. So I think his game actually, I think it could evolve. Like I think there's a tremendous amount of upside offensively for him, but he's going to need a little bit of work. Like I said, I still think it's raw. He had a possession earlier, kind of went to the basket, one hard dribble, kissed it off the glass. It's like, nice. All right, good. He had another possession. He's kind of slashing, gets it, and goes up with the left hand. Nice. They're going to need him to, you know, that's an area of his game where I think they're going to need him. So Kessler's first night I thought successful, but I think a long way to go. And I think, you know, where the Lakers are going to depend on him the most, go shut it down on the other side. Plenty of offensive guys that can go do what they do. for the Lakers offensively. And you're going to get opportunities because of how much attention are going to the Lakers, the backcourt, some of their guards and everything else. Go hold it down on the defensive side. Go own the glass, grab rebounds, get offensive boards when you can really be that anchor for the Lakers on the defensive side. And then offensively, I think the Lakers they'll, they'll, they'll handle some things there. So that was my initial thoughts on Walker Kessler. Again, his stat line. If you're looking here, 16 minutes of play, 11 points, 4 of 6 from the field, 3 of 4 from the free throw line, 9 rebounds, a steal, a block shot, and assist. Also had one turnover. Plus 15 in the plus minus. So you go look at this, you know, for every Lakers player that's on here, plus 15 is the highest plus minus, which doesn't surprise me. Again, if you're a player that can play defense, if you're a player that's going to be an anchor for the Lakers on the defensive side, then there's a good chance that you're going to be a plus in that plus-minus stat more times than not. So I'm going to keep in mind there of what he was able to accomplish and produce for the Lakers in his debut. Okay, let's take a look. We got, I'm sure, a lot of people that want to give their opinion on this. So let's take a look here. First off, Jay, thank you, brother. I appreciate you. Thank you very much. Let's get another one here from Nick. Nick, are the Lakers not releasing Bronny because they're waiting until after Lakers versus Philly to have father versus son matchup to sell merchandise. I do want to hit on some of this Walker Kessler stuff, but let me answer your question here, Nick. I think their players, Lakers, will release before they release Bronny James. I heard J.J. Redick say it in the postgame show in regards to Bronny. And by the way, thank you for the super. I appreciate you there. If you do send in a super, of course it's going to get red, so just keep that one in mind here. One thing from Nick, I will say that there are other players that the Lakers would release before Brawny. Dalton Connect is an easy one to answer in regards to that. We'll see what eventually happens. I don't think there's really any value left in Dalton Connect for the Lakers. I think a team will take a flyer on him. I don't know what they're going to give for him. So I don't think he's going to be released. Now, that doesn't mean that there can't be some kind of package deal and the Lakers go get that two for one or three players for two players, whatever. It could be three for one, whatever it is, right? Clearly for the Lakers, you know, there's some players at the end of that bench that just don't look like they're going to be a part of the future. I would say Bronny is not technically one of those guys, right? Like, I don't think Bronny's a guarantee or a lock the way hey, if they can get rid of Dalton Connect, they'll get rid of him. If they can get rid of Jared Vanderbilt, they'll get rid of him. Jaden Hardy probably, you know, not on the top, top of that list, but is in that conversation. So I think on the Bronny front, I heard Redick say that he's basically had four bad preseason games or he hasn't had good preseason games, but he also said he's playing with a unit that's not exactly– Here's what Bronny needs if he's in a game. If Bronny's in a game, he's going to need to be playing with guys that are real NBA players, not two-way guys. And that way, Bronny can just kind of focus on one or two things, not get overwhelmed, not try to be a ball handler or anything like that. That's not obviously going to put Bronny in the best position. Nick, thank you, brother. I appreciate the super there. HH, thank you for the super very much. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. Let's get to some more of these comments. And I think I'm specifically going to try to look at Kessler a little bit here. I saw Kessler able to actually catch a pass and instantly knew he was better than Aiton. Probably going to get a lot of this year about DeAndre Aiton. Aiton's going to come up here and there. I'm not too surprised about that. I think we're going to see that. Kessler was impressive tonight, but I need bigger sample size against teams that actually have a center. The Friday matchup against Denver's Jokic should be a good gauge. That's a good point. I think there's also something about when you're watching one of these games and you're watching the Lakers specifically, it's like, okay, what's the opponent? Who's the matchup? Frankly, I don't think the Golden State Warriors are going to be very good this year. I think they'll be basically trying to– they'll be trying to– make the post season. And it feels like that's kind of been their role here the last couple of years. But with all that being said, part of the reason why the Lakers got Walker Kessler is because they know they got, they got to deal with when Benyama and all the other bigs that are on the, the on the San Antonio Spurs, Isaiah Hartenstein and Chad Holmgren who are on the thunder and just that Oklahoma city thunder team. They drive the ball to the basket. They put a lot of pressure on you. You've got to have a big. Think of some other teams here real quick. The Denver Nuggets, of course, have Jokic. So a lot of teams got some size here and go bare when they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves, just using that as an example. So, yes, you can't walk away with one game with Walker Kessler. It's, ah, I know exactly what this guy is. All right, let's get a couple more in here. All right, dang, Alan, this team is going to be so awful. Listen, let's wait here for a quick second. I mean, you didn't have Luka Doncic play. This team really has not played a handful of their guys. Who else didn't play? A dude didn't play tonight. Cam McCartan played. I know those are some of the youngsters. Colin Sexton, we still haven't got a chance to see. Pump the brakes here. Here's what nobody should be saying in preseason. The team's great. The team sucks. Nobody should be saying either one of those. No one should be saying, Amazing team, crappy team. No one should be saying either one of those. You just got to kind of let preseason play out. 30 turnovers will be low going into next season. That 30 turnovers thing is crazy. We're going to get into that in just a second. All right, let's see what we got here. Let's see what else we got here. I want to see a couple more of these. I want to see a couple more of these Walker Kessler ones. Walker Kessler changes everything. Kessler is solid, but feel we gave up too much to get him. All in due time. You might be right. I'm not here trying to tell you that that's not the case. Solid work by Kessler. We just need another shot blocker when he's off the floor. Yeah, I think that's a good point. I think that's a good observation. I think a lot of people say that for sure. A lot of people spending some time on Dalton Connect. And I'll come back to Delta Connect here in just a second. Kessler looked impressive. I like a true power forward on this team. Yeah, they're going to need more size, period. So it's just kind of a simple way to put it. I think a lot of people feel the same way. They're going to need more size, period. They're going to need more size. And you don't know how many games Walker Kessler is going to be available for you. They're going to need more size, period. So we'll have to kind of wait and see what the Lakers do in regards to that. Okay, I want to talk about Austin Reeves here in just a second because I think Reeves had a really interesting game as well. And for me, I think there's a couple different ways to look at Austin Reeves' night. And he's just always naturally, I think, going to be an interesting conversation. So we're going to do that in just a second. Before we do so, let's give a shout out to Brad Wallace and the Wallace Firm. wallacewins.com slash Sliwa. Shout out to Brad Walsh and the Walsh firm, a phenomenal partner here of the show and of the channel. Freaking guy invited me yesterday to the Rams-Bills game and I couldn't make it. Are you kidding me, Sliwa? You couldn't make it to that damn game? I couldn't make it. I couldn't make it. I was doing some radio out here in San Diego, but anyways, this kind of shows our relationship as well. One of the things, one of my favorite things about the relationship that I have with him and the relationship with the channel is very simple, is the fact that listeners have trusted me that, all right, if I'm saying that this is the right guy to go to, and I hope you never need him with a serious injury or wrongful death, then, um, then people trust me on it. And I've had listeners either go to the website, wallacewins.com slash Sliwa and fill out a free consultation form, or they've reached out to me or they've reached out directly to him. So again, we'll keep this thing simple. I hope you never need injury attorney, but if you're in the state of California, you got the best in the business that's supporting this channel. And I hope you support them as well. If that's something that you need. And hopefully, like I said, you never need them. Okay. Uh, let's keep rolling here. Let's keep going. Uh, Austin Reeves. Let's talk about Austin Reeves here real quick. Missed that game, guys. I mean, are you kidding me? I'm watching that game on TV, and I'm like, you sure you didn't make it to this one? Is this game going to overtime? Yep, it's going to overtime. Going to overtime. Okay, so a couple quick things here, and I'm going to stay on Austin Reeves here for a quick second. I had a really, really good conversation with Trevor Lane. By the way, tomorrow morning, Kobe Price, the California Post, he's going to join the show. He's coming up tomorrow evening. We're going to do the show with Kobe at 9 a.m., 9 a.m. tomorrow. So 9 a.m., be a part of it. So something to keep in mind there. Okay, let me keep going. We had a good conversation with Trevor Lane. And I was like, Trev, what do you think? You know, what are people going to say about Austin Reeves? This is him coming off that preseason game where he went 2-7 from the field. I think maybe he had eight points, eight assists, something like that. And the exact word, that Trevor said that kind of threw me off a little bit even though I think he's right I think he's accurate but he said it's going to be a nightmare as in people are going to overreact to Austin Reeves no matter what the hell he does people are going to overreact to him here's Reeves tonight phenomenal 28 points 10 of 18 from the field uh hit four threes seven assists that's an awful number the seven turnovers so let me I'll come back to that Lakers at 30 as a team Seven of those turnovers came from Austin Reeves. Obviously, you can't do that. You can't be a ball handler and have seven turnovers. That's just terrible. But I will say this about Austin Reeves. I don't really have any questions about Austin Reeves when it's kind of running through him. Like, I think Reeves is a really good player, and I think he's unselfish. I think when he's... When he's in a rhythm, really tough to stop him. When he's kind of getting to the free throw line and you don't really know how to play him. I think Austin Reeves, he's got a lot in that bag when it comes to his game and his ability and everything else. So I think Reeves, I don't got an issue. Austin Reeves, when I knew Luka wasn't playing tonight, I'm like, okay, Reeves is probably going to do what he does, which is I'm going to get some dimes. I'm going to set other guys up. I'm going to take the right shots. I'm going to get into rhythm. I don't have to think twice. It's just kind of everything's run. The ball's in my hands and I do my thing. That part, I don't have any issue with Austin Reeves. The question with Austin Reeves is always going to be this. The question with Reeves is always going to be 28 points, 10 of 18 from the field, four or four from the free throw line. Again, the seven dimes, you can't have seven turnovers. I'll continue to emphasize that. I'm not justifying that at all. You cannot be a point guard and have For every assist you have, you have a turnover. I mean, you're not in the league if that's the case. You guys know what I mean. Okay, so, and that's not going to be there all the time. It's just kind of the nature of preseason. The biggest question I have about Austin Reeves, how can Reeves be himself or the best version of himself when Luke is on the court? You're going to have the ball less. You're going to get less opportunities. You might be, you know, Second guessing yourself of like, should I go? Should he go? Should I run things? No, no, no. Maybe I shouldn't be so aggressive. I got Luca like naturally, naturally when you got when you're playing with a top five player in the NBA. Naturally, that's a fair question to ask. Do I go? How much am I turning on? You know, am I putting my foot on the gas? No, no, no. Slow down. Slow down. I got to I got to make sure Luca eats first. Because don't get it twisted, and everybody knows this, Luka eats first, he eats second, he goes back and sits back down, takes a breather and says, I'm going in for thirds, like it's Luka. It's Luka's team. And I think the biggest question for Austin Reeves, and the good thing is both of these guys got a really good relationship together. They got chemistry off the court. That chemistry on the court, I want to see it. And I know there's a lot of stats out there that say, hey, when these guys play together, their plus minus was through the roof and they were efficient and all that stuff. Okay. But it's different now. There ain't no LeBron James. Teams are going to obviously, they're going to figure out how to key in on these two guys. And I'm not telling you that they cannot have success, but when I see Austin Reeves have a 28 and seven and shoot very efficiently, I asked the question of what's that dynamic look like when Luke is right next to you. And I think that's what a lot of people are going to want to see. Um, and maybe listen, maybe there's going to be times where it's like, good Lord, those two are so potent together. And, um, and there are times where, you know, they're staggering them. So Reeves is running things on offense. And then there's other times that Luke is running things on offense. But I also want to see when these two are on the court together, how effective can they be? How good can they be? What is their ceiling? I don't have that answer for you, but that's why. When people have the question about Austin Reeves, that one comes up a lot. It's like, okay, what's this thing look like when these two are together, when they're at their best and everything else? All right, let's take a look at some of the comments here. This one more on the Austin Reeves front. Okay, let's see what we got here. Reeves has a turnover problem, and he has a defensive problem. The only person he can guard is Brawny. All right, let's keep going here. A lot of positive talk in this chat this evening. Give Austin some love. He's all good. You know, I never want, if I'm going at Austin Reeves, and I don't even know if this comment's for me or if it's just literally to the chat, but if we're going at Austin Reeves, for me, it's always the angle of, has it looked together? That's the only thing that I'm paying attention to and I care about. Has this whole thing kind of looked together? So it's not about not giving him love. We give him love, but we're thinking about the big picture as well. I'll get another one here. A.R. and Luca are dominant together. We already have a pretty big sample size. Well, I'm going to need to see. I think whatever you see in the past, let's see it with this team specifically with this team, specifically with this team, because I do think this team, it's a little bit different now. All right. Here's one. But then when playoff hits, Reeves turns into Shaggy Dew and the opponent is a ghost. Okay. Yeah. AR got to get a handle on the turnovers, the positives, 28 points and seven assists. Okay. So I think, you know, fair, fair to kind of put this in fair to kind of assess him tonight. And I'm not too worried about it again. I think, you know, for Austin Reese, I think he can, he can get his, I know he's talented. I know he's one of the premier players. He's, you know, he, he has a chance of being an all-star. Let's put it that way. Him, And Luka Doncic together, what's that look like over 48 minutes? What's that look like over an 82-game season? Obviously with all these other players that are going to be there as well. Okay, let's get another one here. It's the turnovers. Hopefully AR can work on that part of his game. Austin Ball handling has evolved. That was sick. Crispy handles. He's a good player. He's a very good player. Is it fair to say... that one of the more positive players in all of preseason is Mamu. Is that safe to say? Ten points, four or seven from the field, a couple of nice threes as well, seven rebounds for Mamu. Mamu, to me, is developing into kind of like one of the players that we could be looking back on, hopefully. I mean, we'll see what happens. And when the dust settles, you can be like, yeah, Mamu was a phenomenal signing. And it ain't just me. I'm sure there's a lot of Laker fans out there as well that are saying the same thing. They're like, damn, that dude, he's got a beautiful jumper. That's Southpaw. That's a beautiful jumper. Oh, wait. He can get to the basket as well. He can create for himself. Oh, wait. He actually can dish in a nice dime when he needs to if somebody's cutting back door. Oh, wait. He can actually dunk the ball as well as he had, you know, a couple of nice highlights so far in this preseason. Mamu to me has probably been one of the definitely, definitely one of the the positive so far in in preseason as well. OK, so we got the Mamu piece here. Like I said, this dude is. And by the way, for those who continue to kind of ask the question of what are the Lakers going to do with Mamu in regards to, starting lineup, not starting lineup. And I know some people are going to continue to try to make a case. I've had some people hit me on X and say, Al, I think this guy should be in the starting lineup. I'll just say this. You can have players that are talented that are not starters. And those players can also be a starter. Nobody's saying that he's not talented enough to be a starter. But I also think there's the question sometimes that you got to ask, what's the best fit for the team? How do they want to use him? Do they need kind of some offensive, some offensive punch when you take out some of these first unit guys? But Mamu will make a case for himself and a very strong case once I think the season starts that, hey, to close out a game, you got to have your best five in and I'm one of your best five. So, That's the case that I think Mom was already making. I think it's going to be fun to watch. Just a couple of things on this game, specific players, and then we'll hit on the 20-point blowout or that they were up 20 at one point and the 30 turnovers. Quentin Grimes, I still think he's going to be starting. Nine points, four or seven from the field. Six assists. I like that from Quentin Grimes. That's good to see. Loravio was obviously in the starting lineup. So was Matisse Theibel. probably expect these guys to come off the bench I mean they're playing a little bit of a role that's not their exactly their their most comfortable role and then most of the other guys that we got a chance to see I mean Jaden Hardy puts up 10 points I think the guy is kind of a bucket he can go get you a bucket the question is just going to be you know what the Lakers are going to ask from him or need from him as and also they're kind of trying to figure out here are they going to have what player is going to be the the the the lone man out here when the dust settles Mamu Armanu. Okay, I'm going to take this. Let me just do this real quick just so I can do this and kind of get this over with. Lakers, by the way, first half, they were phenomenal. Second half is when they struggled. 50, and they're not paying that much attention in the second half. Three-point attempts for the Golden State Warriors. They shot 53s, guys, 53s. That, my friends, is today's NBA. Um, Lakers gave up the 15 offensive rebounds, but I think that number was much lower in that first half when obviously Walker Kessler was there. Only other thing I'm going to point here. Oh, did they redo this year? They took away one of the turnovers. So we didn't get to our 30 turnovers is 29 turnovers for the Lakers. Apparently. I think they redid that. Cause when I started this, uh, they were definitely at 30 turnovers. Okay. Um, let's read a couple of these comments here and then I want to just hit on, the end of that bench as well. Cause I saw some comments on Delta connect, which I'm going to hit on as well. Um, Mamu, there goes that man. Everybody's going to freaking love Mamu. They are, uh, they really, really are. Okay. Let's see what we got here. Um, let's get some more in here. Uh, let's see. Three starters are all world players. We just need Mamu, Thero, and Zaire to step up. Okay? Let's get another one in here. Mamu is not a starter. You would have three defensive liabilities on the court. I'll go back to it. It's not necessarily talent. It's fit. Right? It's the fit that you have that's the most important. And how they close out a game might be completely different than how they start a game. I mean, shh. Jake LaRavia started a lot of games last year. It doesn't mean he was closing. All right, let's see. Warriors going to be fourth or seventh in the standings. You guys believe in the Warriors? I don't know. I'm not sold on that team. We got Luka, Kessler, Reeves, three all-world players, Mamo, and Thero Zaire. We need them to step up, okay? Got that one in there. Let's see what we got here. This is interesting. We'll let this kind of conversation go where you guys want it to go. I see a lot of people putting some brawny stuff out there. DK only had six minutes on the floor. Trash James has played more minutes than DK throughout the preseason, and he played 11 minutes tonight of complete garbage, but Slee and Lane are capping for James. So what do you think? Do you think we have a side business going here? That if I compliment brawny James... I get paid on the side. That's not how this works. Okay? That's not how this works. But here's what I would do if I were you. Don't compare the two players. I mean, for the love of God, you know, part of one of the things that I wanted to do today is I'm just continuing to watch Dalton connect. And I don't even know really what to say. There was a comment here. Is DK really this bad? Honestly, I cannot believe that this is the same player we drafted just a few years ago. It's been sad watching his decline. I saw this a little bit earlier. I starred it. guys, we're talking about players that really are not going to have a role with the Lakers. And if you really want to be incredibly passionate about get Bronny James off of this team, that's fine. But we're kind of wasting our breath here. You need 15 players on your roster. So they're going to have 15. And if you want to gauge Bronny James in just preseason games, go ahead and do so. It's not like Bronny's going to get 35 minutes a game. It's like wasted energy. I think this one is more interesting to me because the Dalton Connect piece of all this, I mean, it's like I'm watching this. I want this nightmare to end for this guy. By the way, kind of for everybody. I think for the Lakers, all right, it's a guy you drafted. It's another wasted pick. The Lakers have had plenty of those over the years. You just want the franchise to move on, and you want this guy to be able to move on. So it's, you know, the connect piece. Guy can't even get minutes in a preseason game. I mean, it shows you kind of where he is in the depth chart. That means the Lakers are looking at, no, no, we'd rather look at these two-way players. Guys that we think are actually going to be with the organization. And, you know, from my perspective, obviously, it feels like he would be the odd man out. Now we'll see. I can't predict it here, but tell me what value Dalton connect has to the Lakers right now. And if you're another team out there, are you really kind of going out of your way to go bring the Dalton connect to your team? I just want to see him somewhere else. Like I don't even know what to tell you guys. And I don't even want to see him somewhere else to pay attention to him. I just don't want to see him on the Lakers anymore. So the Dalton connect thing, that's, that's a real thing there. That's a real thing. Let's see what you got here. Agree with you. 100% on question remains. Can Luke and ARS chemistry, gel in big games let's think of some historical best case scenarios wall frazier or the pearl monroe others um i don't think you have to go that far back i mean i think you know the question you got to ask yourself which i don't think are good comps you know people are going to say well luca and kairi did it kairi was a freaking killer i mean and that team had like all these other pieces that fit right They got a couple of bigs that knew their roles. They got wings that knew their roles. They had guys that focused just on the defensive side. And then you got Kyrie that was like, you know, watching this guy play. Kyrie's an amazing basketball player that's done it on the biggest stage, that didn't have any, any trouble doing it in an NBA Finals. Arguably one of the most clutch shots in the history of an NBA Finals game in Game 7 against the Warriors. So we can't... I don't really have a comp for you, right? Like, Austin Reeves right now is known for, hey, this guy has a lot of promise. You know, what he was able to accomplish. Did they overpay for him? He hasn't done enough in the playoffs. Like, that ain't the resume of a guy like Kyrie. So, we'll have to wait and see. We'll have to wait and see. Let's see what else we have here. Some people just, they're not happy with Bronny. They are not happy. They're mad at me for JJ playing Bronny. I didn't play him. What do you want me to do? And I'll say it again. I thought Bronny last year, specifically in that postseason, I thought he had opportunities. And I didn't look at Bronny James and say, this guy's the worst player on the floor. I look at Dalton Connect and I'm like, yeah, I don't think you play this guy. DK needs to be traded for his sake. He could get real minutes on a losing team. Guys, we've been saying that now for a year and a half. He's still on the Lakers. He's still here. You know what I'm hoping for? I'm hoping for, you know, in the next, before opening night, you know, opening night's a week from today, by the way. They got some random, you guys saw the schedule. I'm going to show you guys the schedule. A week from tomorrow, the Lakers will have to make a decision. The decision's going to have to be, all right, what's it looking like, fellas? Who are you going to take off of this team? Because the Lakers, by that point, by the time we get to next week, they're going to have to go from, 19– or 16 players down to 15. So how they get there, they get there. Let me show you guys this. Where is this? What am I doing here? What am I doing? Am I an amateur? Am I on a scroll? All right, let me show you guys this. I'll show you guys this schedule for next week. Let's see what we got here. Okay, so next week, Tuesday, will be opening night, just so you guys can see this. Here's opening night. Did you guys know opening or opening day, Celtics Pistons at noon? What's going on here? I don't hate it. I mean, you were just going to have two games anyways. You were going to go 4 o'clock and 6.30 anyways. That's typically opening night, or sometimes it's a little bit later if they have, typically they have the Lakers on. Celtics Pistons at noon, followed by Sixers Knicks at 4, followed by Thunder Spurs at 6.30. That's next Tuesday. And then Wednesday, Lakers will play the Warriors. So that'll be opening night, official opening night around the NBA. But how random is that? How random is that? A few more of these comments, and then we're going to call it a day. Again, thank you for hanging out here on the show, tuning into the postgame show. I know a lot of people, we get a ton of people live, but we also get a ton of people that watch later. So thank you for being here, whether you're live or you're coming in a little bit later. Bye-bye, Connect. This tequila shot for you. Cheers. Let's see what we got here. If Brawny had a breakaway, he would pull up and go in the opposite direction. He is petrified to attack. Okay. Sick of the Warriors. Oh, you're telling me. When that schedule came out and they're like Lakers-Warriors, I'm like, I got to watch this again. How many times do I have to watch this damn team? I feel like every opening night is that. Okay. Okay. So, you know, kind of final takeaway here. Again, I think Mamou has been absolutely fantastic in the preseason and available. We've been actually watching him play. That's number one. Walker Kessler's debut, phenomenal to see him play. Great to see him, you know, obviously kind of go into the role that we think he's going to have with the Lakers. I think the number three thing, like I mentioned with Austin Reeves, it's great to see Austin Reeves do his thing tonight like he did. The biggest question when the season starts, him and Luka. How are you the best versions of yourself together? We'll have to wait and see on that. 9 a.m. tomorrow morning, I'm back. I'm going to do a show with Kobe Price of the California Post. He was at the game tonight, so we'll connect. We'll talk all things Lakers, a little bit of NBA as well. Hope you guys can join us tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Thank you very much for being here. Appreciate you guys being a part of the show. Please subscribe to the channel, and I will see you tomorrow morning. Thank you, everybody.
Speaker 1: All right, what's going on, Laker fans? What is going on? What is going on? Thank you very much for being here. Appreciate you guys hanging out on this Tuesday night. Just one preseason game left for the Los Angeles Lakers, and then we could start talking about some real basketball. But actually, to be honest, kind of enjoyed watching tonight's game. Gave us, obviously, a little bit of a new look here. No, obviously, Luka Doncic, Lakers still missing a ton of guys on purpose strategically. Maybe some cautiousness as well with the organization. But nonetheless, Lakers lose to the Golden State Warriors 101-89, the final score. So we've got a lot to talk about, a lot to hit on. I think, again, for many Laker fans out there, there has been this wait and this anticipation of, like, when the hell is Walker Kessler going to finally play? So we got to see Walker Kessler tonight. We'll definitely spend some time talking about his debut with the Los Angeles Lakers. Austin Reeves, kind of a unique role. By the way, he balled out tonight, but I'm going to give my thoughts on Austin Reeves of when there isn't a Luka Doncic there, what version do you get? But the real question is going to be, what version and what's the most comfortable and effective version for the Lakers of Austin Reeves when Luka Doncic is there. But he had a good night tonight anyways. Too many turnovers, but obviously his ability to facilitate and get buckets and everything else. And then I think the other part, I don't know, it's up to you guys, how much you guys want to pay attention to Lakers blowing. I think at one point they were up 20, 30 turnovers for the Lakers, 30. I mean, at one point, I think the broadcast was kind of rooting for it. They're like, well, I mean, if you're this close, might as well just get to 30. So that's exactly what they did. All right, so we're going to get into all that. Appreciate you guys hanging out. Do me a favor, if you guys don't mind, please subscribe to the channel. We react after every Lakers game. And then, of course, we are doing shows in the morning as well. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday right now is kind of how I have it planned. So a minimum of three days a week. So something to keep in mind there. Okay, let's talk about the game. Let's talk about the game. We'll talk about the game, but I'm going to start this post-game show, of course, of course, spending a decent amount of my conversation about Walker Kessler and talk about areas that obviously he's going to be a huge help for the Lakers. Then also kind of talk about his game, you know, still a little raw, if I'm being honest with you. And I think that I think there's some opportunity for his game to grow, so we can do all that as well. All right, let's do this. Let me kind of share my screen with you guys here so you guys can kind of look at the box score. We can look at the box score together. We can take a look at this here. That way we're both kind of looking at the same thing. Okay, so tonight the most important thing was going to be, and this has been the question around Lakers basketball, it's really been when are we going to get a chance– to see Walker Kessler. When are we going to have an opportunity to see the potential future big man for the Los Angeles Lakers? Someone that, you know, a lot of people feel really, really good about of what he can be for the Lake shown there, by the way, there's also going to be question marks around Kessler. Um, is he going to be available? Did the Lakers give up too much? Like all that stuff's going to come with the territory. And I think we all know that we all understand it, but at least again, this is the fourth of five preseason games that, And this was going to be the first game that you actually get to watch Walker Kessler as a Los Angeles Laker and be able to react to it and everything else. So let's look at what he actually did today. Only 16 minutes, which is not too much of a shock there or too much of a surprise. The Lakers were going to kind of slowly ease him back in. They got one preseason game left on Friday. I'm really, really hoping that they at least play all their main, main guys for that first half against the Denver Nuggets. That game's going to be at Crypto.com Arena. Um, my hope is that we'll see what eventually happens. However, with that in mind, Kessler in 16 minutes, 11 points, four or six from the field, nine rebounds, um, a steal, a block shot. I don't know how he was not credited for two block shots. I was watching, uh, right after JJ Redick finished, they, they kind of, you know, they started, um, showing some of the highlights with, uh, Danny greens on there, Chris McGee's on there and Mike Bresnahan for spectrum sports net. And I don't know how he did not get credit for a second block as well. Did not hit the backboard. He actually blocked the ball. But that was his stat line. All right, that's Walker Kessler's stat line here. 11 points, 9 rebounds, a steal, and a block shot. What did you guys think? What's your initial thoughts of seeing Walker Kessler? I'll give you guys a couple of thoughts here. And this is not going to be just about this game against the Golden State Warriors. I think part of it is, yes, this preseason game, that doesn't mean anything. but also there's a piece of it of like, all right, well, what's it look like big picture and what Kessler is going to be for the Lakers. I thought what you saw tonight is a, is a lot of what you're going to see from Walker Kessler on the defensive side. He's going to disrupt plays. You know, if you drive to the basket and you're not drawn Walker Kessler out to the perimeter, it's going to be really hard to, to, to make some buckets over Walker Kessler. He's just huge. He's seven foot two. So, You know, in today's NBA, it was kind of starting to go back to having that traditional big man, the importance of having a big. And Walker Kessler kind of fits into that mold. I heard maybe it was Bresnahan. I can't remember who it was, but they're kind of having the conversation. Could Kessler be a top five center in the NBA? I don't have that answer for you. But what he did tonight for the Lakers is really what they're going to ask Walker Kessler to do on a night-in, night-out basis. Defend the glass. grab rebounds, get offensive rebounds when you can. I forget off the top of my head who missed the shot. He comes in, gets an offensive rebound, and gets a dunk off the glass. That's going to be Walker Kessler's role with the Lakers. Here's what's a little bit difficult with Walker Kessler in tonight's game. What's difficult is Luka's not there. So if Luka Doncic isn't playing and he's not there, you're going to feel a certain way. You're going to have some hesitation and of really kind of assessing the Lakers and assessing Walker Kessler because you obviously, this is what Luka Doncic, what makes him one of the premier guards in the NBA, one of the premier players in the NBA. He's going to make everybody's life a lot easier, including Walker Kessler. So I thought what you saw from Walker Kessler tonight shows you a little bit of why the Lakers said, we got to go get this big. showed you a little bit why of, you know, the Lakers were desperate to find a long-term big. And if you look at the bigs over the last couple of years for the Lakers, um, of course, Jackson Hayes, of course, Deandre in, um, but really Anthony Davis was the last big that you looked at and you're like, yeah, this dude is, you know, he's one of the ones. Um, And frankly, I'm not trying to compare their games at all because you can't. They're not comparable. Anthony Davis got the full package on offense as well. AD can face up, 17-footer, will hit it right in your face. He can back to the basket. He's got low post moves. I mean, Anthony Davis kind of had the full package when it came to his offensive game on top of what he can bring to the table on the defensive side. That's not Walker Kessler. So Kessler's going to be his own guy, legitimate center, 7'2. He's going to have a huge presence for the Lakers. The Lakers are not asking him to go be Anthony Davis. They're asking him to complement Luka Doncic, Austin Reeves, and the rest of his team and be the anchor on the defensive side. But overall for Kessler, I think it was fun to watch him. I think it was exciting to see him play, exciting to see his potential and what he could potentially bring to the table for the Lakers. But I'll also say this about his game, and again, I'll go back to it. Luka's going to get this man on his own 10, 12 points a game. Now, he's going to have more than that. He'll probably have 15, 16 points a game, something like that. At least that's what you're hoping for. Even higher, if possible, can he get to 18 points a game? Maybe I'm being a little too optimistic. But he's going to get easy buckets because Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic. He's going to get a lot of easy buckets. The question is going to be how much can he kind of create on his own or kind of get, you know, some, some buckets just off the glass, a tip here, a tip there. And I don't have that answer for you. I will see, you know, one of the things I do notice a part of his game still raw, his offensive game is still raw. If that makes sense, right? Like when I said Anthony Davis, and again, these are not the same players, so I'm not trying to compare the two, but, there are certain players and Walker Kessler is not this guy. Kessler ain't the, I got Joel Embiid footwork and I could face the basket and I could, I can, I can hit a 15 footer. At least he is. That's not something that he's either had the ability to show in the NBA or he's highlighted in the NBA, or maybe that's, you know, an area of his game that he's working on. He's not, he's, there's certain bigs in the league that it's like, all right, give me the ball and let me go to work. And that's not why they brought Walker Kessler over But I do think it's going to be important for Kessler to kind of define himself, get the proper footwork for a big man, capitalize inside the paint when he can. Maybe there are going to be some times where you got a little bit of a mismatch. Can you take advantage of it? You know, dribble the ball three, four times in the paint. Double doesn't come. You got a nice little right hook. And there's an easy bucket for the Lakers. You take a little bit of pressure off guys like Luka Doncic and Austin Reeves. So I think his game actually, I think it could evolve. Like I think there's a tremendous amount of upside offensively for him, but he's going to need a little bit of work. Like I said, I still think it's raw. He had a possession earlier, kind of went to the basket, one hard dribble, kissed it off the glass. It's like, nice. All right, good. He had another possession. He's kind of slashing, gets it, and goes up with the left hand. Nice. They're going to need him to, you know, that's an area of his game where I think they're going to need him. So Kessler's first night I thought successful, but I think a long way to go. And I think, you know, where the Lakers are going to depend on him the most, go shut it down on the other side. Plenty of offensive guys that can go do what they do. for the Lakers offensively. And you're going to get opportunities because of how much attention are going to the Lakers, the backcourt, some of their guards and everything else. Go hold it down on the defensive side. Go own the glass, grab rebounds, get offensive boards when you can really be that anchor for the Lakers on the defensive side. And then offensively, I think the Lakers they'll, they'll, they'll handle some things there. So that was my initial thoughts on Walker Kessler. Again, his stat line. If you're looking here, 16 minutes of play, 11 points, 4 of 6 from the field, 3 of 4 from the free throw line, 9 rebounds, a steal, a block shot, and assist. Also had one turnover. Plus 15 in the plus minus. So you go look at this, you know, for every Lakers player that's on here, plus 15 is the highest plus minus, which doesn't surprise me. Again, if you're a player that can play defense, if you're a player that's going to be an anchor for the Lakers on the defensive side, then there's a good chance that you're going to be a plus in that plus-minus stat more times than not. So I'm going to keep in mind there of what he was able to accomplish and produce for the Lakers in his debut. Okay, let's take a look. We got, I'm sure, a lot of people that want to give their opinion on this. So let's take a look here. First off, Jay, thank you, brother. I appreciate you. Thank you very much. Let's get another one here from Nick. Nick, are the Lakers not releasing Bronny because they're waiting until after Lakers versus Philly to have father versus son matchup to sell merchandise. I do want to hit on some of this Walker Kessler stuff, but let me answer your question here, Nick. I think their players, Lakers, will release before they release Bronny James. I heard J.J. Redick say it in the postgame show in regards to Bronny. And by the way, thank you for the super. I appreciate you there. If you do send in a super, of course it's going to get red, so just keep that one in mind here. One thing from Nick, I will say that there are other players that the Lakers would release before Brawny. Dalton Connect is an easy one to answer in regards to that. We'll see what eventually happens. I don't think there's really any value left in Dalton Connect for the Lakers. I think a team will take a flyer on him. I don't know what they're going to give for him. So I don't think he's going to be released. Now, that doesn't mean that there can't be some kind of package deal and the Lakers go get that two for one or three players for two players, whatever. It could be three for one, whatever it is, right? Clearly for the Lakers, you know, there's some players at the end of that bench that just don't look like they're going to be a part of the future. I would say Bronny is not technically one of those guys, right? Like, I don't think Bronny's a guarantee or a lock the way hey, if they can get rid of Dalton Connect, they'll get rid of him. If they can get rid of Jared Vanderbilt, they'll get rid of him. Jaden Hardy probably, you know, not on the top, top of that list, but is in that conversation. So I think on the Bronny front, I heard Redick say that he's basically had four bad preseason games or he hasn't had good preseason games, but he also said he's playing with a unit that's not exactly– Here's what Bronny needs if he's in a game. If Bronny's in a game, he's going to need to be playing with guys that are real NBA players, not two-way guys. And that way, Bronny can just kind of focus on one or two things, not get overwhelmed, not try to be a ball handler or anything like that. That's not obviously going to put Bronny in the best position. Nick, thank you, brother. I appreciate the super there. HH, thank you for the super very much. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. Let's get to some more of these comments. And I think I'm specifically going to try to look at Kessler a little bit here. I saw Kessler able to actually catch a pass and instantly knew he was better than Aiton. Probably going to get a lot of this year about DeAndre Aiton. Aiton's going to come up here and there. I'm not too surprised about that. I think we're going to see that. Kessler was impressive tonight, but I need bigger sample size against teams that actually have a center. The Friday matchup against Denver's Jokic should be a good gauge. That's a good point. I think there's also something about when you're watching one of these games and you're watching the Lakers specifically, it's like, okay, what's the opponent? Who's the matchup? Frankly, I don't think the Golden State Warriors are going to be very good this year. I think they'll be basically trying to– they'll be trying to– make the post season. And it feels like that's kind of been their role here the last couple of years. But with all that being said, part of the reason why the Lakers got Walker Kessler is because they know they got, they got to deal with when Benyama and all the other bigs that are on the, the on the San Antonio Spurs, Isaiah Hartenstein and Chad Holmgren who are on the thunder and just that Oklahoma city thunder team. They drive the ball to the basket. They put a lot of pressure on you. You've got to have a big. Think of some other teams here real quick. The Denver Nuggets, of course, have Jokic. So a lot of teams got some size here and go bare when they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves, just using that as an example. So, yes, you can't walk away with one game with Walker Kessler. It's, ah, I know exactly what this guy is. All right, let's get a couple more in here. All right, dang, Alan, this team is going to be so awful. Listen, let's wait here for a quick second. I mean, you didn't have Luka Doncic play. This team really has not played a handful of their guys. Who else didn't play? A dude didn't play tonight. Cam McCartan played. I know those are some of the youngsters. Colin Sexton, we still haven't got a chance to see. Pump the brakes here. Here's what nobody should be saying in preseason. The team's great. The team sucks. Nobody should be saying either one of those. No one should be saying, Amazing team, crappy team. No one should be saying either one of those. You just got to kind of let preseason play out. 30 turnovers will be low going into next season. That 30 turnovers thing is crazy. We're going to get into that in just a second. All right, let's see what we got here. Let's see what else we got here. I want to see a couple more of these. I want to see a couple more of these Walker Kessler ones. Walker Kessler changes everything. Kessler is solid, but feel we gave up too much to get him. All in due time. You might be right. I'm not here trying to tell you that that's not the case. Solid work by Kessler. We just need another shot blocker when he's off the floor. Yeah, I think that's a good point. I think that's a good observation. I think a lot of people say that for sure. A lot of people spending some time on Dalton Connect. And I'll come back to Delta Connect here in just a second. Kessler looked impressive. I like a true power forward on this team. Yeah, they're going to need more size, period. So it's just kind of a simple way to put it. I think a lot of people feel the same way. They're going to need more size, period. They're going to need more size. And you don't know how many games Walker Kessler is going to be available for you. They're going to need more size, period. So we'll have to kind of wait and see what the Lakers do in regards to that. Okay, I want to talk about Austin Reeves here in just a second because I think Reeves had a really interesting game as well. And for me, I think there's a couple different ways to look at Austin Reeves' night. And he's just always naturally, I think, going to be an interesting conversation. So we're going to do that in just a second. Before we do so, let's give a shout out to Brad Wallace and the Wallace Firm. wallacewins.com slash Sliwa. Shout out to Brad Walsh and the Walsh firm, a phenomenal partner here of the show and of the channel. Freaking guy invited me yesterday to the Rams-Bills game and I couldn't make it. Are you kidding me, Sliwa? You couldn't make it to that damn game? I couldn't make it. I couldn't make it. I was doing some radio out here in San Diego, but anyways, this kind of shows our relationship as well. One of the things, one of my favorite things about the relationship that I have with him and the relationship with the channel is very simple, is the fact that listeners have trusted me that, all right, if I'm saying that this is the right guy to go to, and I hope you never need him with a serious injury or wrongful death, then, um, then people trust me on it. And I've had listeners either go to the website, wallacewins.com slash Sliwa and fill out a free consultation form, or they've reached out to me or they've reached out directly to him. So again, we'll keep this thing simple. I hope you never need injury attorney, but if you're in the state of California, you got the best in the business that's supporting this channel. And I hope you support them as well. If that's something that you need. And hopefully, like I said, you never need them. Okay. Uh, let's keep rolling here. Let's keep going. Uh, Austin Reeves. Let's talk about Austin Reeves here real quick. Missed that game, guys. I mean, are you kidding me? I'm watching that game on TV, and I'm like, you sure you didn't make it to this one? Is this game going to overtime? Yep, it's going to overtime. Going to overtime. Okay, so a couple quick things here, and I'm going to stay on Austin Reeves here for a quick second. I had a really, really good conversation with Trevor Lane. By the way, tomorrow morning, Kobe Price, the California Post, he's going to join the show. He's coming up tomorrow evening. We're going to do the show with Kobe at 9 a.m., 9 a.m. tomorrow. So 9 a.m., be a part of it. So something to keep in mind there. Okay, let me keep going. We had a good conversation with Trevor Lane. And I was like, Trev, what do you think? You know, what are people going to say about Austin Reeves? This is him coming off that preseason game where he went 2-7 from the field. I think maybe he had eight points, eight assists, something like that. And the exact word, that Trevor said that kind of threw me off a little bit even though I think he's right I think he's accurate but he said it's going to be a nightmare as in people are going to overreact to Austin Reeves no matter what the hell he does people are going to overreact to him here's Reeves tonight phenomenal 28 points 10 of 18 from the field uh hit four threes seven assists that's an awful number the seven turnovers so let me I'll come back to that Lakers at 30 as a team Seven of those turnovers came from Austin Reeves. Obviously, you can't do that. You can't be a ball handler and have seven turnovers. That's just terrible. But I will say this about Austin Reeves. I don't really have any questions about Austin Reeves when it's kind of running through him. Like, I think Reeves is a really good player, and I think he's unselfish. I think when he's... When he's in a rhythm, really tough to stop him. When he's kind of getting to the free throw line and you don't really know how to play him. I think Austin Reeves, he's got a lot in that bag when it comes to his game and his ability and everything else. So I think Reeves, I don't got an issue. Austin Reeves, when I knew Luka wasn't playing tonight, I'm like, okay, Reeves is probably going to do what he does, which is I'm going to get some dimes. I'm going to set other guys up. I'm going to take the right shots. I'm going to get into rhythm. I don't have to think twice. It's just kind of everything's run. The ball's in my hands and I do my thing. That part, I don't have any issue with Austin Reeves. The question with Austin Reeves is always going to be this. The question with Reeves is always going to be 28 points, 10 of 18 from the field, four or four from the free throw line. Again, the seven dimes, you can't have seven turnovers. I'll continue to emphasize that. I'm not justifying that at all. You cannot be a point guard and have For every assist you have, you have a turnover. I mean, you're not in the league if that's the case. You guys know what I mean. Okay, so, and that's not going to be there all the time. It's just kind of the nature of preseason. The biggest question I have about Austin Reeves, how can Reeves be himself or the best version of himself when Luke is on the court? You're going to have the ball less. You're going to get less opportunities. You might be, you know, Second guessing yourself of like, should I go? Should he go? Should I run things? No, no, no. Maybe I shouldn't be so aggressive. I got Luca like naturally, naturally when you got when you're playing with a top five player in the NBA. Naturally, that's a fair question to ask. Do I go? How much am I turning on? You know, am I putting my foot on the gas? No, no, no. Slow down. Slow down. I got to I got to make sure Luca eats first. Because don't get it twisted, and everybody knows this, Luka eats first, he eats second, he goes back and sits back down, takes a breather and says, I'm going in for thirds, like it's Luka. It's Luka's team. And I think the biggest question for Austin Reeves, and the good thing is both of these guys got a really good relationship together. They got chemistry off the court. That chemistry on the court, I want to see it. And I know there's a lot of stats out there that say, hey, when these guys play together, their plus minus was through the roof and they were efficient and all that stuff. Okay. But it's different now. There ain't no LeBron James. Teams are going to obviously, they're going to figure out how to key in on these two guys. And I'm not telling you that they cannot have success, but when I see Austin Reeves have a 28 and seven and shoot very efficiently, I asked the question of what's that dynamic look like when Luke is right next to you. And I think that's what a lot of people are going to want to see. Um, and maybe listen, maybe there's going to be times where it's like, good Lord, those two are so potent together. And, um, and there are times where, you know, they're staggering them. So Reeves is running things on offense. And then there's other times that Luke is running things on offense. But I also want to see when these two are on the court together, how effective can they be? How good can they be? What is their ceiling? I don't have that answer for you, but that's why. When people have the question about Austin Reeves, that one comes up a lot. It's like, okay, what's this thing look like when these two are together, when they're at their best and everything else? All right, let's take a look at some of the comments here. This one more on the Austin Reeves front. Okay, let's see what we got here. Reeves has a turnover problem, and he has a defensive problem. The only person he can guard is Brawny. All right, let's keep going here. A lot of positive talk in this chat this evening. Give Austin some love. He's all good. You know, I never want, if I'm going at Austin Reeves, and I don't even know if this comment's for me or if it's just literally to the chat, but if we're going at Austin Reeves, for me, it's always the angle of, has it looked together? That's the only thing that I'm paying attention to and I care about. Has this whole thing kind of looked together? So it's not about not giving him love. We give him love, but we're thinking about the big picture as well. I'll get another one here. A.R. and Luca are dominant together. We already have a pretty big sample size. Well, I'm going to need to see. I think whatever you see in the past, let's see it with this team specifically with this team, specifically with this team, because I do think this team, it's a little bit different now. All right. Here's one. But then when playoff hits, Reeves turns into Shaggy Dew and the opponent is a ghost. Okay. Yeah. AR got to get a handle on the turnovers, the positives, 28 points and seven assists. Okay. So I think, you know, fair, fair to kind of put this in fair to kind of assess him tonight. And I'm not too worried about it again. I think, you know, for Austin Reese, I think he can, he can get his, I know he's talented. I know he's one of the premier players. He's, you know, he, he has a chance of being an all-star. Let's put it that way. Him, And Luka Doncic together, what's that look like over 48 minutes? What's that look like over an 82-game season? Obviously with all these other players that are going to be there as well. Okay, let's get another one here. It's the turnovers. Hopefully AR can work on that part of his game. Austin Ball handling has evolved. That was sick. Crispy handles. He's a good player. He's a very good player. Is it fair to say... that one of the more positive players in all of preseason is Mamu. Is that safe to say? Ten points, four or seven from the field, a couple of nice threes as well, seven rebounds for Mamu. Mamu, to me, is developing into kind of like one of the players that we could be looking back on, hopefully. I mean, we'll see what happens. And when the dust settles, you can be like, yeah, Mamu was a phenomenal signing. And it ain't just me. I'm sure there's a lot of Laker fans out there as well that are saying the same thing. They're like, damn, that dude, he's got a beautiful jumper. That's Southpaw. That's a beautiful jumper. Oh, wait. He can get to the basket as well. He can create for himself. Oh, wait. He actually can dish in a nice dime when he needs to if somebody's cutting back door. Oh, wait. He can actually dunk the ball as well as he had, you know, a couple of nice highlights so far in this preseason. Mamu to me has probably been one of the definitely, definitely one of the the positive so far in in preseason as well. OK, so we got the Mamu piece here. Like I said, this dude is. And by the way, for those who continue to kind of ask the question of what are the Lakers going to do with Mamu in regards to, starting lineup, not starting lineup. And I know some people are going to continue to try to make a case. I've had some people hit me on X and say, Al, I think this guy should be in the starting lineup. I'll just say this. You can have players that are talented that are not starters. And those players can also be a starter. Nobody's saying that he's not talented enough to be a starter. But I also think there's the question sometimes that you got to ask, what's the best fit for the team? How do they want to use him? Do they need kind of some offensive, some offensive punch when you take out some of these first unit guys? But Mamu will make a case for himself and a very strong case once I think the season starts that, hey, to close out a game, you got to have your best five in and I'm one of your best five. So, That's the case that I think Mom was already making. I think it's going to be fun to watch. Just a couple of things on this game, specific players, and then we'll hit on the 20-point blowout or that they were up 20 at one point and the 30 turnovers. Quentin Grimes, I still think he's going to be starting. Nine points, four or seven from the field. Six assists. I like that from Quentin Grimes. That's good to see. Loravio was obviously in the starting lineup. So was Matisse Theibel. probably expect these guys to come off the bench I mean they're playing a little bit of a role that's not their exactly their their most comfortable role and then most of the other guys that we got a chance to see I mean Jaden Hardy puts up 10 points I think the guy is kind of a bucket he can go get you a bucket the question is just going to be you know what the Lakers are going to ask from him or need from him as and also they're kind of trying to figure out here are they going to have what player is going to be the the the the lone man out here when the dust settles Mamu Armanu. Okay, I'm going to take this. Let me just do this real quick just so I can do this and kind of get this over with. Lakers, by the way, first half, they were phenomenal. Second half is when they struggled. 50, and they're not paying that much attention in the second half. Three-point attempts for the Golden State Warriors. They shot 53s, guys, 53s. That, my friends, is today's NBA. Um, Lakers gave up the 15 offensive rebounds, but I think that number was much lower in that first half when obviously Walker Kessler was there. Only other thing I'm going to point here. Oh, did they redo this year? They took away one of the turnovers. So we didn't get to our 30 turnovers is 29 turnovers for the Lakers. Apparently. I think they redid that. Cause when I started this, uh, they were definitely at 30 turnovers. Okay. Um, let's read a couple of these comments here and then I want to just hit on, the end of that bench as well. Cause I saw some comments on Delta connect, which I'm going to hit on as well. Um, Mamu, there goes that man. Everybody's going to freaking love Mamu. They are, uh, they really, really are. Okay. Let's see what we got here. Um, let's get some more in here. Uh, let's see. Three starters are all world players. We just need Mamu, Thero, and Zaire to step up. Okay? Let's get another one in here. Mamu is not a starter. You would have three defensive liabilities on the court. I'll go back to it. It's not necessarily talent. It's fit. Right? It's the fit that you have that's the most important. And how they close out a game might be completely different than how they start a game. I mean, shh. Jake LaRavia started a lot of games last year. It doesn't mean he was closing. All right, let's see. Warriors going to be fourth or seventh in the standings. You guys believe in the Warriors? I don't know. I'm not sold on that team. We got Luka, Kessler, Reeves, three all-world players, Mamo, and Thero Zaire. We need them to step up, okay? Got that one in there. Let's see what we got here. This is interesting. We'll let this kind of conversation go where you guys want it to go. I see a lot of people putting some brawny stuff out there. DK only had six minutes on the floor. Trash James has played more minutes than DK throughout the preseason, and he played 11 minutes tonight of complete garbage, but Slee and Lane are capping for James. So what do you think? Do you think we have a side business going here? That if I compliment brawny James... I get paid on the side. That's not how this works. Okay? That's not how this works. But here's what I would do if I were you. Don't compare the two players. I mean, for the love of God, you know, part of one of the things that I wanted to do today is I'm just continuing to watch Dalton connect. And I don't even know really what to say. There was a comment here. Is DK really this bad? Honestly, I cannot believe that this is the same player we drafted just a few years ago. It's been sad watching his decline. I saw this a little bit earlier. I starred it. guys, we're talking about players that really are not going to have a role with the Lakers. And if you really want to be incredibly passionate about get Bronny James off of this team, that's fine. But we're kind of wasting our breath here. You need 15 players on your roster. So they're going to have 15. And if you want to gauge Bronny James in just preseason games, go ahead and do so. It's not like Bronny's going to get 35 minutes a game. It's like wasted energy. I think this one is more interesting to me because the Dalton Connect piece of all this, I mean, it's like I'm watching this. I want this nightmare to end for this guy. By the way, kind of for everybody. I think for the Lakers, all right, it's a guy you drafted. It's another wasted pick. The Lakers have had plenty of those over the years. You just want the franchise to move on, and you want this guy to be able to move on. So it's, you know, the connect piece. Guy can't even get minutes in a preseason game. I mean, it shows you kind of where he is in the depth chart. That means the Lakers are looking at, no, no, we'd rather look at these two-way players. Guys that we think are actually going to be with the organization. And, you know, from my perspective, obviously, it feels like he would be the odd man out. Now we'll see. I can't predict it here, but tell me what value Dalton connect has to the Lakers right now. And if you're another team out there, are you really kind of going out of your way to go bring the Dalton connect to your team? I just want to see him somewhere else. Like I don't even know what to tell you guys. And I don't even want to see him somewhere else to pay attention to him. I just don't want to see him on the Lakers anymore. So the Dalton connect thing, that's, that's a real thing there. That's a real thing. Let's see what you got here. Agree with you. 100% on question remains. Can Luke and ARS chemistry, gel in big games let's think of some historical best case scenarios wall frazier or the pearl monroe others um i don't think you have to go that far back i mean i think you know the question you got to ask yourself which i don't think are good comps you know people are going to say well luca and kairi did it kairi was a freaking killer i mean and that team had like all these other pieces that fit right They got a couple of bigs that knew their roles. They got wings that knew their roles. They had guys that focused just on the defensive side. And then you got Kyrie that was like, you know, watching this guy play. Kyrie's an amazing basketball player that's done it on the biggest stage, that didn't have any, any trouble doing it in an NBA Finals. Arguably one of the most clutch shots in the history of an NBA Finals game in Game 7 against the Warriors. So we can't... I don't really have a comp for you, right? Like, Austin Reeves right now is known for, hey, this guy has a lot of promise. You know, what he was able to accomplish. Did they overpay for him? He hasn't done enough in the playoffs. Like, that ain't the resume of a guy like Kyrie. So, we'll have to wait and see. We'll have to wait and see. Let's see what else we have here. Some people just, they're not happy with Bronny. They are not happy. They're mad at me for JJ playing Bronny. I didn't play him. What do you want me to do? And I'll say it again. I thought Bronny last year, specifically in that postseason, I thought he had opportunities. And I didn't look at Bronny James and say, this guy's the worst player on the floor. I look at Dalton Connect and I'm like, yeah, I don't think you play this guy. DK needs to be traded for his sake. He could get real minutes on a losing team. Guys, we've been saying that now for a year and a half. He's still on the Lakers. He's still here. You know what I'm hoping for? I'm hoping for, you know, in the next, before opening night, you know, opening night's a week from today, by the way. They got some random, you guys saw the schedule. I'm going to show you guys the schedule. A week from tomorrow, the Lakers will have to make a decision. The decision's going to have to be, all right, what's it looking like, fellas? Who are you going to take off of this team? Because the Lakers, by that point, by the time we get to next week, they're going to have to go from, 19– or 16 players down to 15. So how they get there, they get there. Let me show you guys this. Where is this? What am I doing here? What am I doing? Am I an amateur? Am I on a scroll? All right, let me show you guys this. I'll show you guys this schedule for next week. Let's see what we got here. Okay, so next week, Tuesday, will be opening night, just so you guys can see this. Here's opening night. Did you guys know opening or opening day, Celtics Pistons at noon? What's going on here? I don't hate it. I mean, you were just going to have two games anyways. You were going to go 4 o'clock and 6.30 anyways. That's typically opening night, or sometimes it's a little bit later if they have, typically they have the Lakers on. Celtics Pistons at noon, followed by Sixers Knicks at 4, followed by Thunder Spurs at 6.30. That's next Tuesday. And then Wednesday, Lakers will play the Warriors. So that'll be opening night, official opening night around the NBA. But how random is that? How random is that? A few more of these comments, and then we're going to call it a day. Again, thank you for hanging out here on the show, tuning into the postgame show. I know a lot of people, we get a ton of people live, but we also get a ton of people that watch later. So thank you for being here, whether you're live or you're coming in a little bit later. Bye-bye, Connect. This tequila shot for you. Cheers. Let's see what we got here. If Brawny had a breakaway, he would pull up and go in the opposite direction. He is petrified to attack. Okay. Sick of the Warriors. Oh, you're telling me. When that schedule came out and they're like Lakers-Warriors, I'm like, I got to watch this again. How many times do I have to watch this damn team? I feel like every opening night is that. Okay. Okay. So, you know, kind of final takeaway here. Again, I think Mamou has been absolutely fantastic in the preseason and available. We've been actually watching him play. That's number one. Walker Kessler's debut, phenomenal to see him play. Great to see him, you know, obviously kind of go into the role that we think he's going to have with the Lakers. I think the number three thing, like I mentioned with Austin Reeves, it's great to see Austin Reeves do his thing tonight like he did. The biggest question when the season starts, him and Luka. How are you the best versions of yourself together? We'll have to wait and see on that. 9 a.m. tomorrow morning, I'm back. I'm going to do a show with Kobe Price of the California Post. He was at the game tonight, so we'll connect. We'll talk all things Lakers, a little bit of NBA as well. Hope you guys can join us tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Thank you very much for being here. Appreciate you guys being a part of the show. Please subscribe to the channel, and I will see you tomorrow morning. Thank you, everybody.
