Good afternoon and welcome to Locked on NBA Daily. On today's show, LeBron James made his return to the Lakers last night, but are we buying his new role with the team?

Meanwhile, Steve Kerr is reigniting an old debate that we've had over the NBA schedule, and a new report indicates that more changes could be coming to Dallas. Let's jump in.

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Welcome back to Locked-on NBA Daily, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.

Now the number one sports podcast network. However, you're tuning in on YouTube or on your podcast app, thanks for making us your first listen every day. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandual. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Hit to fandal.com to get started. I'm West Goldberg today.

We're talking about how the NBA can make the schedule better for players and the latest drama out of Dallas, and we're doing it with the help of lockdown's local experts.

I have two of the best with me as always.

From the Lockdown Nuggets podcast, senior NBA writer for the Action Network, it's Matt.

Hey guys, what's up?

It should be a great sleigh of games.

I'm so excited for Cavs Rockets tonight. It's going to be a phenomenal game. From the Lockdown Bulls podcast, also Bears and Bulls creator for Bleach Report, it's Hayes. Hey, we're here talking basketball, the best thing to do in the world and one of the best seasons we've had in a long time.

So there you go.

I love the optimism to start today's show.

Let's start with the big story of the day.

LeBron James made his season debut last night for the Lakers. He finished with 11 points and 12 assists in 29 minutes as the Lakers beat the Jazz. A bit of a slow start for everybody involved on the Lakers side of things. And then we started to see how LeBron fits in with the Lakers and a team that was playing really well without him. Here's more from Lockdown Lakers. He looked more comfortable as the game went along. And there's a lot of not wanting to step on each other's toes, not looking like you're trying to do. No, no, no, no, no can do this. No, no, no, no, no. After you,

sir. And for about 30-ish minutes, it almost felt like tentative offense. And then Luca just

started letting it rip. And then from there, it felt like everyone began letting it rip, including

LeBron and everyone around LeBron. And for the last, I don't know,

10 or so minutes of this game were the guys who are in the rotation played, they looked

really good. The minutes that Luca isn't on the floor are going to get significantly easier

for the Lakers.

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