Podcast: Where do the Lakers stand compared to other title hopefuls?

Don’t look now, but things might be starting to look up for the Lakers.

After losing out on Kawhi Leonard to the Clippers of all teams, the organization rebounded nicely with their signings in free-agency, inked one of the most respected player-development coaches in the league and recently officially presented Anthony Davis with his uniform. Feels good.

Silver Screen & Roll Podcast

The Alex’s spend the majority of the episode discussing Rob Pelinka and Anthony Davis’ comments on their championship aspirations this season before questioning if reaching — and competing — for playoff seeding may be more taxing than what is being currently believed. They also discussed why the exact seeding Lakers ultimately end up slotted may not matter all that much.

Also touched upon this week is a Space Jam 2 update, Alex Padilla working the courage up to talk to Kawhi and the encouraging steps taken by the team’s front office this summer.

You can listen to the latest episode below, and for more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.

Locked On Lakers

On today’s show, Pete and I kick off our player preview series. Just like last year, we start the show by looking back at the season that was given the context of the situation and the expectations the player had going in. Then, we look at what the player could focus on this offseason to improve individually in the second segment and finally fit that into the team construct in the third.

The focus of today’s preview: LeBron James.

So, analyzing James is always complicated under the best circumstances and last year came nowhere near the best of circumstances — though that was partially his fault. We tried contextualize everything for what it was and decided that, well, he has plenty to prove. And that’s where we found the theme of the show.

Frankly, it’s legitimately thrilling to think of what he might be capable of given how rested he is, how much better a team surrounds him and how much doubt is swirling around him both as a player and a teammate. James is backed into a corner and the idea of watching him fight his way out might be the most fascinating storyline to watch next year — not just with the Lakers, but league-wide.

You can listen to the entire episode below, and make sure to subscribe on iTunes, where you can also leave questions in the form of a five-star review to guarantee your topic makes the show.