Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers

On Wednesday's episode with Dan Woike of the LA Times, we covered the Russell Westbrook Experience. What it was like to cover him, and more importantly, what it was like for the players and coaches who had to work with him. From there, we turned to the question of accountability and transparency, and whether the Lakers are displaying either quality (and why it matters that, spoiler alert, they're not)...

The Lakers need a new coach. They also need to figure out what they think they can be next year.

Lakers beat writer Dan Woike joins the show, discussing the psychology of Russ, Pelinka, and the roots of a coaching search

The Lakers have a tremendous amount of stuff to figure out this offseason - what to do with Russell Westbrook, what coach to replace Frank Vogel with, are LeBron James and Anthony Davis still a championship foundation, etc. - and a lot of it depends on developing a sense of self-awareness around where stuff went wrong. Until that happens, Jeanie Buss Rob Pelinka, Kurt/Linda Rambis and everyone else making decisions will likely flail about. Maybe they get it right...

Is this really the year Lakers fans should take shots at the Clips for missing the postseason?

On Monday's show, we talked about ESPN's rankings of the 25 best players under 25 years old, based on production and potential. Our focus, vis-a-vis the Lakers centered on Austin Reaves and Talen Horton-Tucker. But as multiple people on the Locked On Lakers YouTube pointed out, that ignored Malik Monk, who at 24 is under the age threshold. So how close is he to making this list? Well... not very. And it's nothing personal, either...

The Lakers are in a precarious spot right now. For the time being, even with LeBron James and Anthony Davis as a foundation, they don't look particularly built to win now. But in the meantime, any future without those two seems equally problematic, and to illustrate the the latter issue, the Kamenetzkys dug into ESPN's new list of Top 25 players under 25, based on future potential (Insider account required). Seventeen of the 30 NBA teams had at one player on that list...

The Kamenetzkys discuss an ESPN List about the NBA's best young players, the Lakers' lack of direction, the playoffs and more.

During Vice President of Basketball Operations/General Manager Rob Pelinka's exit interview earlier this week, he presented himself as taking full-throated responsibility for all facets of arguably the worst season in Lakers franchise history. Except, of course, when he refused to offer details as to why exactly Frank Vogel was pretty much the only person taking the fall for this season, despite having the least say in the choices that went south...

The Kamenetzkys talk with The Athletic's Bill Oram about accountability for the Lakers' disastrous season