Podcast: What to look for as LeBron James and the Lakers make their preseason debuts

We made it. We have recorded our very last Locked on Lakers episode before we get to see the Los Angeles Lakers on a basketball court again.

Wherever you are, stand up and pat yourself on the back obnoxiously. Even better if you can give yourself a round of applause, and I’m talking about the kind we used to do back in elementary school where you clap but also move your hands in a circle. Do this. You deserve it.

To celebrate the occasion, I brought on Pete (who was celebrating his birthday at the time, by the way) to just talk. It’s been a while since we had the opportunity to just talk about basketball for a while. No player previews. No rumors or personnel speculation. Just basketball.

We start by discussing what to look for in the Lakers’ first preseason game. Remember, the Lakers will be playing a Denver Nuggets team that has almost completely carried over from last year, so expectations should be pretty low. But there are things we can hope to see.

For starters, defensively, it’ll be interesting to see what the Lakers are trying to do. They are a very different team from last year but apparently want to maintain a few things tactically on that end. We’ll see how the new personnel are able to attempt that or if the coaching staff decided to go in a different direction.

Execution will almost definitely leave a lot to be desired, but it’s fair to hope to see what they’re merely trying to do. As the preseason rolls along, that picture will become clearer, but to watch that development from the ground up will be fascinating.

Oh, and did I mention LeBron James will be playing in his first (albeit unofficial) game as a Laker? So there’s that.

Congrats, everyone. We made it.

As always, this is just a tidbit of the full context given in the show. Listen to the full discussion below and please check out old episodes, or guarantee you won’t miss any ever again by subscribing on iTunes.