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Welcome to the BasketBuds edition of the Athletic NBA Show podcast here on the Athletic Podcast Network. I'm Zach Harper. We got Jay King. We got Kelly Eco. We got Dave DeFour producing. We got a good show for you as we prepare you for Wednesday night's NBA draft. We got coaching higher news. We got a trade to get into. Kelly is the only one working. I'm in Palm Springs taking as much time before the draft that I can. Jay is on paternity leave and yet still doing this. So Kelly's- Yeah, why is Jay working? That's what I do, man. He's just trying to get away from the kid.

That's all it is.

He's just trying to not change diapers for an hour.

Come on, man. Don't call me a debby.

Don't call me a dead.

No, no, you're a great dad. But everyone's got to get a break every once in a while. You know, that's what happens. before we get into the draft, which

worst draft ever, we don't know. We don't know yet.

But before we get into it, and reminder,

it is Wednesday night for the first round, Thursday night for the second round, we have a split day draft for the first time. I don't know. I don't know if an NBA history, they used to have like 30 rounds. I don't know how long those rounds took back then. But before we get into that, we do have confirmation since last time we talked.

JJ Redick is your Lakers coach, as Sean Serrani has told you for like a month now that that was going to happen.

And it happened.

I was trying to figure this out, guys like, Kelly, what do you think the expectations are for the Lakers?

And granted, we have to get through the draft. We have to get through free agency. We have to see what trades they make. But I was trying to think a best case scenario. I wondered, all right, if they don't face Denver, because I still don't think that they would have an answer for Denver. But if they don't face Denver in the playoffs, could they make a Mavericks like run? Like, is it that far-fetched? Or is this team just like they also might miss the play in tournament because we're going to be like 13 teams deep in the West next year?

Yeah, I think just looking at the Western Conference as a whole,

it's going to be hard for a team like the Lakers as talented as they are to really break

in that upper tier of teams just because

you look at the roster and you see kind of the deficiencies they have across the board.

...