00:00The question moving forward is are the Lakers building around LeBron's final chapter or
00:04Luka's future? Now we already know it's Luka's future. Can they keep a LeBron to have him be
00:14there for the last farewell tour year? Is he going to be, does he even want to be there?
00:20I think it's the biggest question because Luka made it very clear. He talked to management,
00:26he talked to the front office after the end of the season. I want Austin Reeves here. I want
00:31Austin to be a part of my future here with the Lakers. And I don't want him to be a
00:36part of a
00:36trade because there was a lot of rumors talk going around. Like, could Giannis be available to come
00:42to the Lakers? I feel like it would have to be some sort of package with an Austin Reeves if
00:48that
00:48happens. And Luka made it very clear. I don't want that to happen. So then you got to look at
00:54this,
00:55this Lakers team and its core and what they did together when they were all healthy and when they
01:01went on that great stretch during the regular season before Luka Doncic and Austin Reeves got
01:08injured against OKC. Yes. It's always against OKC just handed the Lakers a lot of L's this year.
01:15Whether it was injuries, whether it was sweeping them. God, I can't stand in the playoffs. Yeah,
01:21it's tough. So the Lakers need they need to get young. They need to get athletic and it's going
01:28to take time. This is going to be a one to two year plan if they want to get back
01:34to dynasty level
01:37championship Laker basketball, which is the standard here. Like it should be championship or bus,
01:43which you guys you cannot forget. LeBron James did that when he came to the Lakers. And I will say
01:50this could be like I this could be a mistake that I did when the Lakers traded for Luka. I
01:57was like,
01:58this is going to be amazing. LeBron's last championship is going to be Luka's first.
02:03I thought it was going to work out. I thought this was going to be the most incredible partnership.
02:08LeBron James was so high and so happy that they got Luka. He was shocked. I mean, Luka came over
02:14shell shocked. We all remember he was crying. He did not want to leave Dallas. And LeBron took him under
02:19his wing and said, be you. Don't try to be something you're not. Don't try to fit in.
02:23Just be you. And LeBron was very vocal about Luka being one of his favorite young players in the
02:28league. So I think as Laker fans, we all thought, okay, this is going to be a beautiful partnership.
02:33This is going to be, this is the future. Like we, we can win another championship with Luka
02:40and LeBron. And we saw very quickly, I'd say about a year sample size is when everyone kind of went,
02:46I don't know. I don't know if this is going to work. Yeah. The biggest issue that the Lakers have
02:52is the front court right now. It's it was for this most recent season. It was DeAndre Ayton and it
02:58was
02:59Jackson Hayes. DeAndre Ayton lived up to his reputation and that the highs are great. And you
03:05wonder, whoa, why isn't this guy's career more prominent? Yeah. And then there's the lows where he
03:11just checked out and Jackson Hayes played the entire fourth quarter of that final game against
03:15OKC because JJ Redick at times said DeAndre Ayton is unplayable. And it's unfortunate that it's LeBron
03:22or Austin Reeves who has to take less money or play elsewhere in order to fix the DeAndre Ayton
03:29problem. Yeah. Because as we mentioned, what do the Spurs have? Victor Wembenyama down low. What does OKC
03:35have? Chet Holmgren down low. What does Denver have? Jokic down low. Even when they were beating
03:41Houston, Alper and Shang-Goon was getting his in three of those games. There is a missing,
03:47physical, tall, long, I'm here to do the dirty work presence down low that is not there. And in
03:54order to free up money to find someone who was willing to do that, it is one of the backcourt
03:59guys that are going to have to either not be in the Lakers purple and gold or in the Lakers
04:05purple
04:05and gold for far less money than they could get elsewhere. OK, so then I guess let's get back to
04:11the question. What what what is the Laker? What are they building this next team around? It's
04:17obviously Luka, right? But is LeBron a part of that picture? Because when we heard Rob Palenka talk
04:23in the end of the season presser, he sounded very different talking about LeBron versus talking about
04:30Austin Reeves. So let's play the LeBron one first, just so you get the vibe. I want you to read
04:36through
04:36the lines, LA. OK, really listen to what he's saying. LeBron, we probably haven't seen a player
04:43that has honored the game to the extent that he's honored the game. He's given so much
04:50to his teammates, to this organization. And the thing we want to do more than anything else is
04:56honor him back. And I think the first order of business there is allowing him to spend the time
05:02he needs to decide what his next step are. Does he want to play another year in the NBA?
05:07And that'll be, as he said to you guys last night, family time, I think time of his inner circle.
05:13And we just want to honor that for him.
05:16I think I heard like five honors in there. Also, shout out to the speed typer that we were
05:24getting the audio. I took speed typing classes, I think in middle school. I know I'm fast. That
05:31was fast. How faded are the letters on that keyboard? They are typing so hard. That's impressive.
05:38We just want to honor all the speed typers out there. I just want to honor all the speed typers.
05:41I want to honor LeBron James. And we just want to honor LeBron James.
05:45The thing is, is it was very much talking in past tense. Yeah. And it didn't feel like an urgency
05:57of we need to get him back. It was, all right, LeBron, you're going to do what you want to
06:02do.
06:02You are a legend in this game, but whatever you decide, I guess that's what it's going
06:09to be. So it's almost like they're playing chess against each other and they're playing
06:13chicken. Who's going to, who's going to make the first move? And is this kind of like a
06:19kind you're saying, like everything you're supposed to say, you're saying all the right
06:24things to keep him happy and to honor the legacy that is LeBron James.
06:32And we just want to honor LeBron James. Children's medicine is candy flavored for a reason because
06:41I'm giving you medicine or information that you don't want to hear. Yeah. So I am going
06:47to make it as sweet and reminiscent as possible. And he's doing right by LeBron in regards to
06:55bigging him up, making sure that he is not even directly thinking about a world without
07:03him while also letting him know, Hey, we are planning for a world without you. And there
07:08is a world where you are a Laker next year, but you are going to have to play for the
07:14least
07:14amount of money you've played for since 2014. In 2014, LeBron was on a, uh, a contract that
07:20paid him $20 million, $20 million, $644,000. That's over a decade ago. And that's the number
07:26that it's probably going to have to be close to. He's going to take a 12 year pay cut as
07:33one of the greatest of all times. I don't see that happening, but okay. This is what you
07:37also have to consider. Is it worth it for him to have a farewell tour in a place where
07:44he has history and he has his home and he has his family and it's a place where he can
07:49play with his son because would he be taking this deal for Bronny? Because Bronny is on
07:54this team because of LeBron James. Now don't get me wrong. Bronny is a solid player. He has
08:00outperformed every expectation. Yeah. But the reason why he's a Laker is clear because of
08:05his father, like that is about as, and I never want to knock on someone's talent. Right. And
08:12he's had, he's been, he's been through it. You remember his time at USC. I mean, he had
08:17that heart situation, like as scary as it gets wild. So he is on the Lakers because of his
08:23father, LeBron James. Sure. That's just, that is what it is. Okay. If he leaves, is Bronny
08:30still having that same pole on the Lakers or is he going wherever his dad goes? And
08:35so would he take a lesser deal to keep his son here and play another season with his
08:42son? Or did he get all the moments, those iconic father son moments that he needed and
08:47wanted to on the court? And I guess the thing is now like, is he going to retire or is
08:53he
08:53going to come back for a farewell tour? If anyone deserves a farewell tour, it's LeBron James.
08:56I just don't know if it's going to go the way that he wants it to. You know, what really
09:02threw a wrench in all of this is Cleveland this season having this much success because
09:08you're not going to mess that up. And that's the thing. You can't mess that up. It was perfectly
09:13laid out. Cleveland was going to get bounced out of the first round. LeBron and Bronny were
09:18going to go to Cleveland, team up with James Harden and Donovan Mitchell. And they were going
09:24to give us Jared Allen or Evan Mobley. And they were going to go to Cleveland, have a
09:28farewell tour with your son next to you. And every stop you went to, you were going to get
09:33an honorary Jersey or some kind of montage or PowerPoint or video, whatever. They're in
09:38the Eastern Conference finals. And now you look at Cleveland and they're thinking, hey,
09:41maybe we don't need to trade Evan Mobley or Jared Allen. Hey, maybe we don't need to do
09:45anything. And maybe we actually aren't going to have 25 to $50 million for LeBron. Like
09:51Cleveland having this much success is really ruining the future that I had planned out in
09:55my head. But it's also a win now team, which is where LeBron wants to go. So it could make
10:01him also willing to take a pay cut there because they're a win now team. And he's got what one
10:06to two years left. And where the Lakers are at right now, as I said, like if they want to
10:11get back to dynasty stat, like status, they have, they have work to do. They need to get
10:18young. They need to get athletic. They need to, they need to do well in the draft. Um, okay.
10:25But we want to hear from you LA. We're going to head to the comment section right now. Producer
10:29Shay, what's LA thinking? What's the heartbeat of LA saying about this situation? Well, LA has
10:35given you guys some love actually dad horses. I love this show already. The Lakers need a big
10:41signing this off season. Dead horse. All right. So that's the thing too, is like, they have
10:45to win. I think all three, all three aspects, right? You got to do well in the draft. You
10:50got to crush the trade, which you could count Luca as the big trade. And then they need to
10:54do well in free agency. They have to hit all three of those things. If they want to get
10:59back to championship status, if you are going to complete compete with San Antonio or OKC,
11:05you can't hit one out of three. You can't hit two out of three, all three, because both
11:09of those teams, as we said, are constructed for the next decade. Yeah. Like they're not
11:14going anywhere. We are just, I know people are like, and again, like as Laker fans, like
11:19I get it. Like it's tough. Like we hit a brick wall every time we face OKC. That's just the
11:24reality of it right now. No, they built this team for success. They are currently in their
11:31championship window. I don't call a team a dynasty until you've won three championships.
11:38Don't even mess. Don't even mess with that word and that title yet. They're in their championship
11:45window. I won't even say they're on their way yet until they win three. If they win two,
11:52you could say they are on their way to a dynasty. But when you only have one, it's like, yeah,
11:58that's great. People have a lot of hopes. A lot of teams just win one championship.
12:02You got to be great for an extended period of time. So yeah, it's going to be interesting
12:10to really see what goes down with the Lakers this offseason. It is undeniable. The best
12:15version of the Lakers next year is with all three. It is with Austin Reeves making however
12:2248 point something million dollars. It is with Luka Doncic and it is with LeBron James playing
12:28that third role. The savior. All on the court at the same time with enough money or trade
12:34capital to bring in a big man who can start and do the dirty work. And I'm not even mad
12:39at Jackson Hayes, who is also one of Luka's best friends, being a reliable guy off the bench.
12:44Also Rui? What do you get from Rui? Like he had a historic, iconic postseason playoffs.
12:49Like, and, and you have to pay him. Rui is what he's around like the 20 ish mill.
12:57I think 20 is where it starts now. Like, yeah. Rui has, okay. So two, two things ruined
13:03the future that I had. I was like, let's go. Two, two, two things ruined the future that
13:10I envisioned for next season for the Lakers. It was Cleveland. It was Cleveland outperforming
13:17what was expected. And it was Rui becoming, etching his name in NBA playoff history and upping
13:25his price from 12 million to 20 something million dollars. Yeah. No, Lakers got work
13:31to do. This is why that's not our job. Our job is to just dissect it and talk about it.
13:36And that's what we're going to do here on Brock and Alex on 97.1.
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