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, Dee, we've both had Jared Vanderbilt on our mind quite a bit recently. You're writing a piece for Silver Screen and Roll right now on him. I released a video yesterday on YouTube

called The Vando Dilemma, which is about how can the Lakers find an offensive role for him

that keeps him on the court? This time year is for dreaming about what are the paths to a championship,

right? Like, what do we have to be? What are the things that need to go right? That's not the same thing as saying they will go right, but it's a matter of like,

where can you visualize, hey, this team can credibly be great at this aspect of basketball or

great at that aspect. I think that this Lakers team, in looking at it through that lens,

the ways that it can be consistently great

on defense heavily involved Jared Vanderbilt. I think there are other groups that can get

there, but I think that Vando is a cornerstone second to only Anthony Davis. And I was thinking

about this too. With the 2020 team, I think Vando individually is

probably a better defender than any individual talent on that team. It's a fun debate, right?

But just something to chew on, but just as an individual defender, I think you can make a case

for him. Now, the depth of that team, they had so many guys defensively, right? But Vando,

I just think so highly of him on the defensive end, that it becomes a necessity to me of like, yo, we got to figure out how to keep Vandal on the court as often as possible.

And so I would love to talk that out with you.

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