What do you think about the Laker team now?

You follow the box scores of the games every day?

Just the Lakers.

You're kidding.

That is really a compliment.

I was pleased to see you smile at the top bar show

because once the game starts, you have a game face.

You don't smile much out there.

I don't think you have to do things for money anymore. Correct. What's up, Laker fans? Welcome to the Laker Film Room podcast. I'm Pete, joined by Darius and Mike. And guys, we had a couple of preseason games since the last time we talked, and we lost both of them. And yet, I'm super optimistic about this team after we've got one game left in preseason. And coming into the preseason, I kind of want to revisit my anxieties a little bit on, you know, what we were and what might happen. And there were two main things. One was, I thought it was important that we switched to a five-out style look. I thought that was most conducive to the talent on the team. And I think whenever you assume a coach is going to do something different than he had done in the past, even if it was just one year before. But Garvin was also a long-time assistant of Mike Boodenholzer who'd been running this style of offense for a very long time, assuming that they're going to change. That's not always how it happens, right?

And then the same is true about lineups. I came out of the Denver series feeling distinctly that

they were in a different weight class than us. And I was concerned over the course of the summer

that we didn't acquire anybody that was kind of that strong guy on the ground, right? Like that

Burley Five was kind of an archetype that we talked about.

And yet, in watching both of these games, the first one LeBron played, most of the Lakers players,

although Gabe Vincent, Vando is still out, a couple guys out, right?

But their main crew played and they scored 70 points again,

part of which was a really big physically overwhelming group that just kind of overwhelmed

the Warriors main guys. And then again, in this Milwaukee game that were a lot of arms, a lot

of long arms, contested jumpers, even without LeBron, without Gabe Vincent. The Lakers were so low on ball handlers that Scotty Pippin Jr. was in the rotation. And I've come away from this preseason, Mike, just feeling like, okay, they're not the strongest team, but they've got long arms. They can get defensive rebounds. I haven't looked at the squad once and been like, oh, that's a small team out there. And this goes along with like the lineups that Darbin's playing, right? Like does Darbin have this proclivity to go small? This preseason, a lot of two big lineups and just big positional size. We had like a back court of Austin Reeves and Tori and Prince. Let's freaking go, man. Like not not even talking about the front court, just the positional size, Mike. And so you were there for the game against Milwaukee. It is so good to have you back, my man. I'm curious, your thoughts on the games this weekend and just this whole idea that I'm seeing a Lakers team that's really tall and skilled, and I'm excited about that. Well, I appreciate the kind of words, Pete. It was good to be back. I did miss a couple of games and there's no mystery to it. I had to get my gallbladder taken out. So it took a little time. We're brothers in that, man. We're bonded now. Yeah. We're the the no G.B squad. That's right. I heard. Yep.

Yep.

Wait, Harrison is a no? I believe so. Here I'm disclosing, you know, Harrison's health information on the pod, I believe. That's exciting. I heard goldfarb is a no goldbladder guy? You and goldfarb, man. We've got to get to the bottom. Cold farm. That's right. Well, Darius was talking about chess on one of the episodes I wasn't on, so I didn't get to get a chance to drop a cold farm.

Rep. got to get to the bottom. Cold Farb. That's right. Well, Darius was talking about chess on one of the episodes I wasn't on so I didn't get

...