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Lakers Nation Podcast

Lakers' Defense NEEDS Next Level Jarred Vanderbilt, Bronny James' Growth, Dalton Knecht's Struggles

Lakers Nation Podcast

Medium Large LLC

Sports, Basketball

4.81K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Lakers' roster is clearly in need of some improvements on the defensive side of the floor, can they get that from within? Is Jarred Vanderbilt's offensive growth enough to keep him in the mix? Plus, Bronny James continues to impress while Dalton Knecht gets more concerning by the day...

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, Lakers Nation. Welcome in to the Lakers Nation.com podcast. My name's Trevor Lane and it's game day. Lakers Nuggets tonight, 7 p.m. Pacific time. Hope you come join me right here on the Lakers Nation.com YouTube channel over at playback.tv slash Lakers Nation. We'll be live breaking down the game, taking your questions, comments, talking hoops while we watch the Lakers in action. So come hang out 7 p.m. Pacific time. Lakers Nuggets, it's like a party. Come hang out with us. So on today's show, I want to talk a little bit about the Lakers, the Nuggets game tonight. Of course, I'll close out the show with that. But I also want to talk a little bit about this Lakers roster, how things are being constructed, specifically on the defensive side of the ball. Let's talk a little bit about that and how one specific player is going to be a real key for the Lakers this coming season. Before I dive into it, a quick reminder, do subscribe right here to the Lakers Nation.com YouTube channel. Give us a follow over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts,

0:56.4

and a five-star rating and review if you don't mind.

0:59.9

So let's talk a little bit about this, the Lakers defense.

1:04.0

You know, defensively, when you look at this Lakers roster,

1:05.8

that is where the real question marks are.

1:08.3

I mean, assuming now that LeBron James is a Laker moving forward and we

1:12.4

have no indication that he's not, then looking at this roster on paper, where do they come up short?

1:18.6

It's the defensive side of the ball. You know, I'm pretty confident that overall, we talked about

1:22.9

a bit last season that LeBron James, Luca Donchich and Austin Reeves, at least those three combined

1:28.6

are going to find their way offensively. Frankly, I didn't think they ever really hit their ceiling

1:33.5

offensively. They never really hit their stride as an offensive unit as I think that they can. And I

1:39.6

think some of that simply comes with experience with time together on the floor, chemistry,

1:43.9

cohesiveness and everything else in between. It's just going to take a bit of time i think for

1:48.3

those three to really figure each other out add ruby hutchamara into the mix who was uh fantastic

1:54.7

you know and you know what i i do think that we maybe undersell ruy Hachamara to a degree.

2:01.0

He does have defensive concerns, and we'll certainly talk about that in just a

2:05.0

moment.

2:05.3

But offensively, this is a player who has been better than 50% from the field and 40% from

2:10.3

three for two consecutive seasons.

2:13.6

I mean, on the offensive end, that's exactly what you're looking for next to Luca Donchish, next to

2:19.4

to LeBron James, next to Austin Reeves is somebody who can consistently punish teams for getting

2:25.0

sucked into the paint, paying too much attention to the other players on the floor. Well, guess what?

...

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