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Basketball
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The great David Aldridge at The Athletic has a review of the summer's activity around the NBA, ranking teams by how successful an offseason they had. That doesn't mean teams finishing higher are better overall, just that the offseason was relatively speaking more productive. The Lakers came in at 11th, which seems pretty fair, all things considered.
On the one hand, you can argue that in raw terms, they might not be quite as good as they were last season (this is, more or less, a referendum on the impact of losing LeBron James, because there are areas where the Lakers have definitely improved, like at starting center). On the other hand, if you're trying to envision what a long term vision for the squad might look like in the Luka Doncic era, that's a lot more clear now. The Lakers are also a lot younger, and seem to have hit on their first round pick in Cam Carr.
Overall, there's a lot to feel good about!
Does Aldridge get his evaluation right?
The answer does in some ways get to a fairly pervasive criticism of Rob Pelinka's work, hsitorically and this season, about a proclivity for player options. Sometimes, they've been mystifying. This year? Maybe not?
Finally, Luka finished in the top 10 for NBA2K's 3-point ratings. This is cearly not meant to be a reflection of raw percentages or efficiency, because Doncic doesn't measure up in that regard. But swag? Audaciousness? That he's got in excess. So what was 2K factoring in? And what do things look like when you dig a little deeper into his percentages?
HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky
SEGMENT 1: The Athletic looks at LA's offseason.
SEGMENT 2: Why the Lakers gave away the contracts they did.
SEGMENT 3: Luka and NBA2K.
Photo Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images
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"How Does Lakers' Offseason Stack Up Against the Rest of the NBA?" is an episode of Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers. Runtime 33 min. Published August 6, 2026. Hit play above to stream it here, or open the free Spot Sports app for background play and offline downloads.
