Anthony—love the show as always. In my view, the Max-trashing has gone too far. He’s clearly struggling, but he’s a second round pick that is 21 years old, spent 1 year in college, was misused or unused by Ham, and is being misused by Redick’s playing him at the 3 with the second unit instead of at the 2 where he belongs. Yet he is outperforming Gabe Vincent in every counting stat except steals, where there’s a .1 difference in favor of Gabe. And he is doing it in fewer minutes. He’s also outperforming Dalton, who is 2 or 3 years older and played 5 years in college, in rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals, again in fewer minutes. And unlike Max, JJ runs plays for Dalton and puts him in better position to succeed. So I think the Max-bashing has gone too far. I agree with you that he should be played at the 2, with better players, to unlock his potential. Between the 2 of them, Dalton is the better choice at the 3 because he’s a bit taller and his body is more mature and can withstand the physicality of that position better. You can never have a true evaluation of a prospect if you misuse him. Thanks again for your outstanding work. Lakers Exceptionalism

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

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

It took me a minute because I’m a longtime listener and I really wanted to hold out but compared to guys like Trevor Lane and the Kam bros you’re just a bit too whiney and negative about our team, front office, our stars, our young guys, our coach lol you don’t like anything and I’m realizing you’re just married to an old view of the team and haven’t embraced the new era we’re moving toward. I’m not the happiest either with some of the decisions that the FO has made but I don’t think I come off as gloomy and hater like as you do when I’m talking about the team with my other California natives. Good luck man! You should start covering the Clippers they could use you!

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

Best rant ever! Anthony dismantles the sheer stupidity of all the anti-Laker and anti-LeBron trolls who complain about the bubble season. I watched every playoff game and the level of play was insane: Denver came back from down 3-1 against both Utah and the Clippers. The Boston-Toronto 7-game series. Miami upsetting the Bucks, then out-toughing the Celtics.

How is JJ going to manage the locker room ? Seems like past coaches lost the players during the season

LA Olympic Slam Dunk Contest 2028?

Really ruins the flow of your show.

The worst place to be in the NBA is middle of the pack. Best we could do was the 8 seed with the healthiest possible years out of AD and Bron. Yeah, Vando and Gabe COULD be more healthy next year but that doesn’t make us contenders. Bron and AD coming off a summer of no rest I doubt they play as many games this year. IMO there’s no move that puts us in contention with the already younger AND more talented west. SAC, NOP, and Memphis all going to be better this year. PLUS Wemby is coming. We have the 5th highest salary in the NBA and no ways to significantly improve the roster. Per spoctrac this works…AD and Brown for Jalen Johnson, Okongwu, Bufkin, Bogdanovic, our 2025 FRP and 3-4 more FRP. Flip Bogdanovic at the deadline for more assets. Revisit talks with GSW for Bron. The reason 14-18 was so bad is we started our rebuild with no assets and the longer we wait for Rob to pull a rabbit out of his hat, the closer we get to another doomsday rebuild with zero assets. Brons gone in 1-2 years anyway and why would AD stick around after that.

The front office are giving out player options because of the year that Monk had. Lakers know people will go there to rehab their stock. If Reddish and Hayes would’ve popped last year we would’ve been praising Rob for negotiating another year of control. Let him cook

Hey Anthony, appreciate all that you do. Quick rant. The organization’s ineptitude is embarrassingly evident. Describing Rob as a used car salesman is perfect, he speaks to everyone as if we are all complete idiots and can’t see through his doublespeak. In my opinion, someone who is confident in their decisions and process is willing to describe that process. Someone who is not confident and more focused on self preservation makes excuses for their inaction.

Draft day trade or trade before July 1 while salaries are same as 23 season. LA: DJM, DFS - NETS: DLo, Vincent, 17 - HAWKS: JHS, Schroeder, LA 29’, 2nds from Nets. This would serve as the base of a 3 way trade give or take draft capital and a few min contract players — not sure if possible, but would then try to dump Wood and/or another minimum guy (Reddish) in Utah, lift restrictions on the 27’ pick and send some additional seconds to them and try to get Kessler to round out the rotation.

18 hours since your announcement. Can you please provide clarity to anxiety riddled Lakers fans.

This podcast hardly touches on the Lakers, except for Anthony’s relationship to them. I’ve never seen such a grotesque display of Main Character Syndrome. The narcissism is simply astonishing. I went to listen to this JJ episode with Harrison — 5 minutes in and it’s all about Anthony and his reporting. I’m so thankful for the transcript feature because I was able to scroll through and found that, still, 20 minutes in, and it was all “I, I, I,” and “me, me, me” with references to his being an insider and his time at an old job. NO SUBSTANTIVE LAKERS TALK. It’s embarrassing. And apparently this is always the case. Rename to Anthony Lounge or perhaps pivot to actually talking Lakers? Just a little advice.

Hands down my favorite Laker insider podcast! Anthony Irwin keeps it 1000% as a journalist & a true Laker fan. With all the Laker trade options (or lack there of) could you see the Lakers being forced to deal with Chicago in search of a bargain steal with their remaining assets? As recent reports indicate the Bulls being more open to attach a pick with Lavine to off load his contract. Could you see the Bulls/Lakers being interested in 2 (Laker) 1sts for Lavine+Caruso+Drummond? (For DLo, Rui, & Gabe or JHS)

Hey Anthony, An idea similar to Harrison’s “tank the play in to avoid the Nuggets.” It would benefit the Lakers for the Celtics to win #18 this year, as much as I’d hate it. The Lakers org is so unstable & mediocre that reportedly cheap Jeanie having a fire under her to catch the Celtics helps her stay motivated to keep trying to win titles and spend $. I’ve lived my whole life with the Celtics having more rings than the Lakers, yet enjoyed watching 6 Lakers titles and amazing fandom. What are your thoughts?

Considering the first years of the last 2 Lakers head coaching hires have led to a championship and a WCF appearance, do you feel LBJ and AD show up extra hard for whomever the new head coach is? (Coughs in JJ Reddick)

The Nuggets thought they were the 2015 warriors, and they were the 2021 Bucks all along! Go all in Lakers, eff them picks. Thanks Anthony!!!

What’s more likely to happen, the Clippers win a ring or Raj understands a movie reference? This is the burning question that needs answering.

Love the show, Anthony! I was wondering if is there a way where we can trade for Dejounte Murray & Alex Caruso. I think that solves our backcourt problems. imagine if we were able to keep Austin I doubt it tho. What's your opinion on Lavine & Caruso I know it will cost everybody but Vando, Bron & AD! Might have to trade Vando because DLo might walk

Resign Bron Trade Dlo, Rui and Gabe for Dejounte and Mikal Bridges Get Ty Lue and Rondo on the staff Build out the rest of the roster with guys 6’5 and above Get another center or two Fire the Medical staff and get a new one Thoughts? Also put Jokic in more pickle rolls

I’ve been following your podcasts since 2020 and I love your podcasts. I think it’s awesome how honest you are and share your emotions through your words well. The sarcastic Harrison, raj, and Aaron are all have different takes and I think it’s great getting different perspectives. Keep it going

Hi Anthony, I am glad that your passion has turned into a career that you are able to support your family. I really appreciate that you are now giving us the options to listen to the podcast in full or in parts. Is it possible to denote in the title which episodes are a breakdown of a larger pod? As much as I love your unique style/personality, I do prefer only listening once to the long form podcast. Also, what restrictions do you face as a Laker’s Insider? Is it similar to the restrictions on what can be said that Pete/Mike Trudell face on the Lakers Film Room podcast?

I enjoy this show. They consistently upload, share their opinion on games, etc Anthony’s rebranding as a “Laker Insider” can feel cringe for long time viewers that know him as a super fan. Especially because it’s so forward and consistently mentioned, like he has some contractural agreement to mention it on every show. He pushed some pretty poorly researched breaking news regarding injuries that almost immediately got debunked. I understand his employment probably stipulated this, and I’m not about to fault a dude for trying to get his money. But it does degrade the quality of the show, which in all other elements brand itself as a show from fans for fans.

I understand yours and Harrison’s take about tanking the 7-8 play in game but it’s good that the Lakers won it because you can see that AD’s back was still bothering him and he wasn’t himself mobility wise and them winning the game vs the Pels bought him extra days to rest up. He would’ve only had a couple days to heal up the back and then be playing on Friday. Same for LeBron, he was getting gassed midway through the 4th. Another reason why you want Denver early is that is when you’ll have both LBJ & AD rested and at their max and not beat up after going already a round or two.

Way to negative are you trying to get views from laker other haters

Could you see the Lakers sign-and-trading DLo for Mikal Bridges. Could be a win for everyone, Lakers get a “third star” without sacrificing wing depth, Nets get picks, DLo gets paid, and Jeanie gets us hard capped at the first apron. Also Raj wouldn’t lose JHS

Can you explain to me what Darvin ham does that a three day old ham sandwich couldn’t do for this team? Also does cam reddish have the worst hands in nba history? He can’t hold the ball and is always fumbling passes.

*NBA Insider Ace-man

Been a follower of you for years, seems like you have been one of the few who always keep it real on the Lakers. My question is, am i wrong to not even be excited about big Lakers wins anymore. This whole era has been annoying lol and I just don't see a scenario where this FO puts the pieces around Bron and AD to compete.

Congrats on moving to a new platform. Quick question, what do you think of Rondo as a potential coach for the Lakers? Thanks Rehan

Hey Anthony! My name is Alex and I’ve been listening to your podcast for a while now and you and Aaron really are my favorite laker media out there. I love the banter and that you guys don’t take yourself so seriously. I work a pretty stressful job and it’s always a treat when I get to listen to you guys on the way to work or leaving work. I met Aaron at the Palm Springs game last night and he let me sport the championship ring. Thanks again for that! It made my night! To end on the mail bag question I saw a guy wearing a Westbrook jersey at that game last night. I think I almost vomit in my mouth. What former laker jerseys immediately get your respect and what would make you cringe? Thanks Anthony!

Awesome show

Hey Anthony, Been following you for years and wanted to say thanks! Been saving a question until I had a good one. Told my 9 year old son Jonathan today that playoff rotations are usual just 7-8 guys and he wants to know which team wins. Team 1: Magic, Luca, Kobe, KD, Lakers Lebron, AD, Shaq and Bill Russell or Team 2: Steph, West, Tatum, Cavs Lebron, Bird, Duncan, Kareem, and Wilt. I have no idea where to start lol please help. Thanks again! -Nabil (and Jonathan) from Guam

Love the pod, keep up the great work. Question for you, have you heard any whispers of the lakers making a trade before the season starts to fill the backup big/ possible starting center position? Trudell mentioned on a recent pod that it’s unlikely we can fill this role with the remaining min spot. Any ideas for trade targets, and who is even trade eligible on our roster given we resigned almost everyone this summer? Thanks!

Anthony is tremendous and love his infectious laugh! I’m thankful for the great Lakers information and perspectives all throughout the year. Thanks so much!

The Lizzo of Lakers twitter. Please never do the Mitch Kip Jak thing again

First off, I love the show and when the Vox layoffs happened, I kept telling my wife about your potential comeback updates because I was so excited for you to come back. Now for my question: what is one of your worst/ignorant takes that you can remember? For me it was when the Lakers got Nash and Dwight, and I thought we were gonna be dominant. Now I look back and see that we added old/injured stars with a coach that runs a system counterproductive to our best player’s strengths.

Hey Anthony, have a question regarding our starting and closing lineups. It’s widely believed that Rui will start after his playoffs and big contract however I still believe Vando should start. If Rui starts, I worry about having poor point of attack defense. I believe DLo, Reaves, Lebron, Vando, AD should start with Vincent, Reaves, Lebron, Rui, AD as closers. Also, dare I say Christie could make a run at the closing spot over Vincent?? This creates some balance and ensures the closing lineup consists of two way players. What’s your thoughts on our best starting and closing lineups? Thanks for all the hard work you put in!

Last year, Austin Reaves had a phenomenal season, especially after the trades. My question is, what do you think his ceiling is? He was 4th in TS% among qualified players last year, is a three-level scorer, and is elite at getting to the line. With similar efficiency and an increase in volume, I think Reaves could have an all star game or two in his future. Curious to know what you think. Thanks as always for the great content. =)

How many games do you see AD playing? Do you think he should be load manages? Also what’s your predicted win total?

Sup Anthony I feel like the Lakers have been hiring all of Lakers Twitter and making them state sponsored media Pete, Darius, Aaron what’s the deal with that lol? Aaron literally disagrees with 95% of what you say to back the team/NBA at large. Oh and uhh how are you feeling about JHS after summer league?

Show caters to the lowest common denominator at times especially when Anthony is on. Guests like Harrison and Aaron are its saving grace. Some lower brow humor at times from Harrison but admittedly hilarious without being annoying. Otherwise Anthony can be cringeworthy like insisting Reinsdorf is a **** owner even as Aaron tries to give him some perspective. Incessantly harps on the front office not being able to turn Mo and Malik into gold on draft day. Joe Harris was traded with two second round picks and he was far better last season than Malik. But when Aaron brings up that Joe Harris was also an expiring deal just glosses over that fact to push his agenda. When you are starved for content during the dog days of the offseason or maybe after a big transaction might be worth browsing his playlist. Otherwise there’s better out there.

I can rely on Anthony for some of the worst Lakers takes in a heavily diluted podcast world. You better believe I listen to every episode just to laugh at the madness. Keep it rolling.

This guy has been carried his whole career. He is a buffoon, and that works when paired with someone smart (like Vernon paired with KOC) how it was on Locked on Lakers, but on his own it is just an absolute joke and you will become more stupid from listening to him. This is the podcast for the dumbest Laker fans out there.

Anthony brings a lot of thoughtfulness into covering Lakers and basketball. He has a lot of variety of guests. I like his balance of fandom along with cold, hard look at the realities. This show will provide you good entertainment and some laughs! Thank you for the show Anthony and friends

Hey Anthony! My names Connor and just wanted to reflect on how I’ve been listening to you since my early high school days and am now going to the Walter Cronkite School in ASU for my masters degree. Just wanted to let you know that you’ve been a formative role model for my aspirations in sports media and you’ll always be one of my favorite journalists throughout my journey! Love the show, will never stop consuming your Lakers coverage!

Must listen. Anthony is so knowledgeable and fun to listen to. Thanks for always being real with us Lakers fans. His guests are great too. Keep doing what you do man.

Really enjoy this show covering the Lakers!