Getting traded to the Lakers ‘FORCED’ Luka Doncic to GROW UP – Tim MacMahon | NBA Today

Getting traded to the Lakers ‘FORCED’ Luka Doncic to GROW UP – Tim MacMahon | NBA Today

What kind of gear do you expect out of Luca? MVP candidate. What a Luca Magic on display. Angry. [Music] [Applause] You know, he wants to make a statement. Destroyer. Donic steps back. He’s redot. Stop it. Stop it. Honestly, I think we have what we need to compete for the championship. You know, we’re going to go for it. But Dave, the Lakers, they showed their commitment back. Luca’s been showing it all summer. What exactly did that look like both in person and from afar? Well, in person, the Lakers had a group travel to Poland to see him before the start of Eurob Basket. And that was a 6,000mi trip. Rob Pelinka got in the plane. Genie bus got in the plane. The the Rami got in the plane. Ramby to make it clear to Luca, if something’s important to you, it’s also important to us. And this was really a chance to establish the first footing together after the whirlwind of the mid-season trade. Yeah. And that extended as the Lakers went back to the states. There was a group chat before and after every game between Laura Beth Seager, Luca’s manager, Javi Bario, his uh physiootherapist, and then Rob Pelinka, and Dr. Leroy Sims, who’s the head of medicine for the Lakers. And they just wanted to make sure that, hey, is your body right? Is there any tweaks that we saw in the game? Did we do anything? And then beyond that, they were so like forthcoming and and generous with with their resources. You know, Slovenia is a a country of two million people. They had their equipment manager in touch with the Slovenian national team. Like, if you need any gear, we can send air mail to you. And and really, it was about you are going to be the face of our franchise, and we want you to be as comfortable as possible in reaching that kind of stature. And if that includes playing for your national team, we’re okay with it. We endorse it. We want to see it because we want to see you in your full form. Take control of your career. If you do it, it’s going to get us where we want to go, too. And there’s really interesting details in this piece about Luca’s intermittent fasting, about the Lakers, what their commitment is here to Luca Donuch. But you two cover the Lakers very closely. You have covered Luca more closely than than anyone really in his career. And so I I want to really distill down what is important to know here because fans are seeing the pictures and there’s a lot of excitement but Luca has been the face of a franchise before, right? What is different right now, Tim, from your reporting? I I think the slap in the face of the trade and the the way it happened, the aftermath that has been a big- time wakeup call for Luca. I think it has forced him to grow up. And look, he there’s been flashes of commitment to conditioning for Luca in the past. This feels like something that is is the turning of a corner. You know, can he maintain it through the course of the season? We’ll see. But you’re seeing maturation Luca the way he interacted and led a a Slovenia team with, you know, Dave. Have you ever seen that before? Not to that degree. And he didn’t have to be the leader in Dallas. You know, Kyrie Irving was, you know, Jaylen Brunson was the vocal guy on that Slovenian national team. And, you know, in Eurobasket, they put the camera in the huddle, so you really saw it. But I I think that was evidence of maturation. The way that he has worked with the front office of the Lakers in a partnership recruited these are things this is different than it was in Dallas and certainly the relationship with the Mavericks front office completely broke down. But even in the good times this is a different approach by Luca. The media approach has been different. Now when you’re talking about maturation, what’s the other thing you talked about? Ranting at the referees. You know what though? a guy who coached him in Dallas was telling me he thinks that’s also tied to conditioning. I see that when there’s fatigue, there’s frustration and when Luca’s frustrated, the refs are going to hear about it. So maybe a better condition Luca, I’m not saying can totally cut that out, but cut that down. So Tim, I got a question. I mean, you literally wrote the book on Luca Dantage. How does this level of care and commitment and the way the Lakers front office and ownership are treating him compared to the way that Mark Cuban did? I felt like Mark Cuban had that sort of embrace of players and and we you know the Lakers take care of superstars almost like any other franchise. Is this is this back to the beginning? It’s back to the beginning but it’s a different Luca and and again early in Luca’s career his thing was based like hey I hope it’s not my job to be the general manager. It’s not my job to recruit players. He didn’t involve himself in personnel discussions at all until they botched the Brunson situation. look around saying, “Whoa, we’ve got no chance to contend here.” So, similar approach that Cuban had. Obviously, post Cuban not so much. Completely different Luca though. And maybe another growth area that we saw in Eurob. We know he’s going to score, right? And he scored his story. This was a great detail. 35 points per game, almost the most since the guy in 1989 in Euro Basket. He defended and and the Lakers assistant coach Greg St. Gene was on the Slovenian staff and one of the things he did was put together a video edit of all the the plays that he saw Luca committing to defense talking on defense being in the right proper spacing and he showed it to Slovenian national coach he said hey I want to show you who our best defender is and he’s expecting to see not Luca Donic and after watching the video evidence he’s like I I see it and if he can carry that over to the Lakers I mean obviously Lakers were one of the better defenders defending teams in the second half of the season if they can be that from the start of the season We’ll see where they can go. And Luca Donage is going to be a huge piece of everything that the Lakers do. The other sort of piece in all of this that we haven’t mentioned yet, of course, is LeBron James. And he sat down with Speedy Mormon on Complex. Just take a listen to what he had to say when the topic of his retirement came up. Listen guys, every time I pick up something new does not mean retirement. It’s like, oh with chopsticks. Oh, he’s retiring. Oh, I see you wear a t-shirt that’s too big. Oh, retirement. Oh, they picked up golf. Retirement. It’s like it’s just something I want to do. It’s just a little hobby. But retirement is coming. It is coming. It’s just not here just yet. Does just yet mean like today or tomorrow? What’s your takeaway here? Well, first of all, shout out to my brother Speedy Mormon. Great interview. Very compelling LeBron that you got in that sit down. But honestly, I’ve spokeen to I countless people close to LeBron over this summer after kind of the the murkiness of the statement from Rich Paul that was given to Sham Shirani after LeBron picked up his option for year 23. And most of them are telling me I think we’re pretty close to the end, but I don’t know if LeBron knows where he’s at. Does he know that this is from day one going to be the last year? Will he start to feel it? Will he start to feel otherwise and say, “You know what? this is a really good Lakers team and maybe we can do something special this year and extend it. Yep. You know, I one person close to him told me at one point if the Lakers win, is he going to walk away from the chance to defend it and get six rings versus five? I mean, so I mean obviously there are many peruta permutations out there and we have to see how it plays out. Yeah, I think that’s a really human approach to all of this, right? And we’ve seen players Kobe Bryant, they didn’t necessarily declare it at the beginning of the season. You you feel it out a little bit before that decision is made. I’m sure we will be talking a lot more as we approach the season on these Los Angeles Lakers. Dave McMinnon, thank you very much. Hey, let’s go coast to coast catch up with the latest hoops news around the NBA. Starting here, Ramona, did you see this clip? Tyresese Hallebertton during last night’s dramatic fever win. His fiance James posted this clip. He’s been courtside a lot for their game. He’s been courtside forever. He is an OG fan. He goes back to when they weren’t even at Gamebridge. He used to show up, they give him tickets, and then finally when Kaitlin Clark got there said, “Hey, you know, we’re going to need you to buy some season seats,” he said, “Oh, okay.” Yeah. Yesterday’s price is not today’s price. But what a win for the Indiana Fever. We’re going to have more on that game coming up a little later in our show. Moving on here to the beef that’s been squashed right between Giannis and Alper Shenon. They shared a collaborated joint post on social media that said, “We always remember sports are made to unite us, not divide us. If you missed this story line, both have made some comments that upset their national fans during FIA Euro Basket. Houston pays Milwaukee on November 9th. Tim, what are you expecting? Well, I think they’ve buried the hatchet, but you know what? Giannis, mild manner, generally a pleasant, even joyful guy. Underrated beefer. I mean, this guy, you got this, you know, you you’ve got the deal with Papa Hallebertton, the game ball with the versus the ladder in Philly back in the day with Harden. Giannis’s got some beef. Well, you know, yesterday, you know, it’s Giannis’s dad jokes, too. It’s it’s all good with him, right? Let’s go to to the Miami. ESPN Sham Shirana reported this morning that Tyler Herro getting surgery unfortunately on his left foot. He will be sidelined to start the season. He was hurt in an offseason workout. The Heat had a bottom 10 offense last season, Ramona. So, how concerning is this? Um, it’s it’s slightly concerning because I think this has been going on all summer. He didn’t really train with his longtime trainer, Drew Hanland, all summer. This has been bothering him and I think hope was that he could avoid surgery but got to get it done. Got to get him back on the court. So this opens up room for Norm Powell. Good thing they got him and maybe even Terry Rosier who was kind of buried on the bench the depth chart there start the season though for Tyler Hero. All right to the stalemate between restricted free agent Jonathan Kaminga and the Warriors. It continues. His agent Aaron Turner he told the Hoop Collective podcast that they’re prepared to take the $8 million one-year qualifying offer. So, the Warriors, remember, they’d reportedly offered a three-year $75 million deal, but the team is sticking with that team option in the final year, and that has been a sticking point. So, whether it’s a team or a player option, that would guarantee Kaminga $48 million in the first two seasons. Since we’re talking money, we need to bring in Mr. Money Moves, Bobby Marks, our front office insider. Bobby, why would Kaminga take the qualifying offer instead of that guaranteed what, $40 million more? Yeah, first give credit to Brian Winhorse. I don’t think I’ve seen a agent come on a podcast and negotiate for his client like he did Aaron Turner did with Jonathan Kaminga here. I I think from his perspective, he’s looking at it first. The $8 million qualifying offer gets him to unrestricted free agency next year. It also gives him to right to um veto any trade coming forth. It was also mentioned and Anthony Slater has mentioned this that Kaminga has taken out a insurance policy in case he does get injured. So there is the mitigating cost as far as future um salary that could be coming in. But I do think Malik, I think there’s a compromise here when you’re looking at it. And I know we’ve talked about the 2-year uh the team option here. I think you could still do the team option. And I think what you can do if you’re Golden State, let Kaminga have the the right to veto any trade. But here’s a little wrinkle. If he was traded and Golden State exercised that team option, guess what happens? He no longer has the right to approve any trade any further. So, I think there is a common ground, at least from the Warriors pers perspective, to get a deal done because I think this is kind of the last resort both sides want to go through is have him play out on that one-year deal. Bobby, when I read that they the Warriors had offered him the three-year deal, the the three years with the team option on the sec on the third year, I felt like they were the ones who blinked. Like that to me was a significant development in these negoti that was a concession because all summer long it had been a one-in-one team option on the second year. Now they it gave him another guaranteed year. So that’s instead of being 24 million 2 years but only 12 that’s guarant now this is an extra 40 million guaranteed. That’s a lot of money and I felt like the Warriors already blinked by offering him that. And I know we’re hung up on this team option versus player option but Bobby you tell me if I’m wrong but that that felt like in the staredown that Kaminga has already got them to move. Well I don’t think they’re going to move any further. I think certainly when you talk to people close to the organization, I think we’re kind of we’re kind of here we are, right? It’s either going to be the qualifying offer or it’s going to be one of those offers that have already been uh on on the table here. Listen, we’ve got two weeks until October 1st. That’s the deadline when this qualifying offer goes off off the table unless Golden State wants to extend. Remember also there’s also that offer for three years. I think it was $54 million that was straight no options at all there. So there are different scenarios for Kaminga. But as as we heard on the podcast, they’re going to dig their heels in the ground here and they’re going to look at what’s best for Jonathan Kaminga. If it’s what’s best is one year and taking $16 million less, they’re going to go out and do that. And I think where people are maybe being confused is their perspective of what’s best for Jonathan Kaminga is not necessarily maximizing the value of the contract. They’re looking Jonathan Kaminga thinks he is a blossoming star. Right. Clearly, the Golden State Warriors do not agree with that. Steve Kerr does not agree with that. Jonathan Kaminga wants to be in a situation where he can thrive and he says, “Hey, if I’m leaving money on the table now, he’s betting if he gets in a situation where he’ll have the ball more, where he can thrive, that the money will come.” You can agree or disagree, but his perspective isn’t let me get paid as much as possible right now. Right. And you you heard that up close on the Hoop Collective podcast. Again, Brian Winhorse, you can listen to that interview. It is up now wherever you get your podcast. Tim, have you checked your mail? I have not. Well, you know, October 1st is still a couple of days away, but you might have missed an invitation from Anna Winter to fashion week. And in case you did, uh, it just wrapped up in New York, so you might want to open that a little late, but some NBA players, they were all locked in. And look at this. So cute. Josh Hart hitting the runway with his twins. I do have a good sweats collection. I could I could do great shoes. Look at working it. Look at these. Look at these youngans. Also, one of the perks of playing in New York for the Knicks. Absolutely. It works with the schedule maybe a little differently than Tim McMahon’s. [Music]

On NBA Today, Dave McMenamin joins to discuss how the Los Angeles Lakers are showing their commitment to Luka Doncic after he signed an extension with the team. Then, the panel goes Coast to Coast around the league to cover some of the NBA’s biggest topics. Finally, Bobby Marks stops by as they discuss Jonathan Kuminga’s agent saying he’s prepared to take the $8M qualifying offer from the Golden State Warriors.

0:00 Lakers’ commitment to Luka Doncic
7:13 Coast to Coast
9:08 Stalemate between Kuminga & Warriors

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