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Hello and welcome to this free agency primer special edition of the group chat. I am Justin Barrier joining me Rob Mahoney, Big Wise, gentlemen. Are you ready for the real offseason to begin?

Only when we retake that again because we talked about this last year. It's Primmer, not Primer. Get it together.

Actually, it actually is Primmer, not Primer.

We'll figure that out in the meantime. But the draft is over with, which means that we are pivoting very quickly here to all the other offseason moves on the table here. Big trades for stars potentially, free agent signing, not a great class in free agency, but two or three or four major things always seem to happen at the most in opportune moments, especially when you're out and not expecting these type of things.

But first let's get to the thing that happened last night outside of the draft, the big one, Russell Westberg going to the Lakers.

I asked a couple people after this happened like what were your takes and it was generally like WTF in various forms, including with Rob. So what was your what was your take away from this one? Can you even make sense of what the Lakers are thinking here?

Yeah, I think the sense is that Russ, Florida player as he is, he is still immensely talented.

That's the one and two, he's really close with LeBron. They have a really great relationship by all accounts, their friends like actually genuinely friends.

And so, you know, that's the thinking there. I think people like me and I'm assuming the people that you talk to while we would be confused by it is like, look, ever since Miami, deemphasized D Wade's role on the team back when LeBron was over there, we figured out that the formula to optimize what LeBron does is to surround him with shooting.

And guys who can, you know, play credible defense, that's that's it. That's basically that's the long and the short of it, right? And so all the complimentary pieces, you know, going forward, whether it be getting guys like Channing Fry or even acquiring a J. R Smith or, you know, and I mentioned this last night on Green Room, but like even when Tai Lu was like we're taking out we're taking out Kevin Love.

Kevin Love in the finals in 2016 to play Richard Jefferson, because Jefferson was playing credible defense and could knock down an open jump shot.

The thinking was always the same thing like get guys who can knock down open looks and play some defense around this guy. And that's born so much freaking fruit in the last 10 years like we've all watched it happen.

You know, not even just the championships, just look at the improbable calves runs where these guys are going to the finals with it was just brawn in a bunch of guys in that second Cleveland iteration.

So to go out and get Russ, who is the antithesis of that he's been bad on defense for years now.

Can't shoot is ball dominant takes the ball out of LeBron 10 in order to optimize what he does the best it becomes a head scratcher.

It doesn't have to be this hard, you know, it really doesn't. And I think that's what's kind of confounding about the way the Lakers have navigated the last couple of years in general with some of the rosters they built some of the moves that they've made.

I just never thought we'd ever see LeBron play with anyone as ball dominant as Westbrook ever again. I thought those days were completely done and we would see different kinds of guards different kinds of combo guards and point guards rotated and out and it'd be fine.

This is just a whole different thing and the shooting and the defense that was nailed. I mean, those are big concerns and it'd be one thing if Westbrook could do one but not the other but he's bad at both.

But and to me it's so much about just the gravitational pull that Westbrook has on every team he plays for he forces everyone around him to change.

And he's I think you know in Houston, especially I think he was a menable to changing some himself. But in order to do that, the rocket's basically make this unprecedented jump to punting on the center position and basically playing Russ as your center.

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