The Lakers Just Got EXACTLY What They Deserved...

The Lakers just got exactly what they deserved as the truth was just revealed about what this team looks like right now and perhaps what they can look like to begin the start of the regular season. And welcome to Lakers Digest here. My name is Hunter Pitkoff and we cover everything surrounding your Los Angeles Lakers, whether it be different rumors, reports, breaking news, as well as different trade signings and of course, game recaps here. This is the place to be for your purple and gold. Just hit the subscribe button so you don't miss a thing here on this channel. As the Lakers, actually, let me check the score real quick. As they lose this game, 121-106 to the Denver Nuggets, the last of the preseason for the Lakers. And also was the most amount of action we saw from the starters and guys that are going to be playing in the rotation. An interesting starting five. And, of course, some interesting stuff to go over in this game. So we will definitely do that for you. But the biggest takeaway that I took from this game, personally, was a new team with new problems. And I'm not necessarily going to blame the Lakers themselves here. It's just kind of the fact of the situation, especially going up against a team like the Denver Nuggets. The Denver Nuggets, a lot of those guys that play it have all played with each other, right? Jokic, Murray, Christian Brown, Cam Johnson, like these guys have been in the program. This Laker team, with about 9 to 10 new guys, absolutely did not look like a team that was connected in this one, really at all from the start. As you see right here, we'll bring up the numbers for you right now. A lot of turnovers. I mean, can you see it here? Hold on. I might be able to see it in the bigger one. Yeah, they only finished with 14, but I think they had like five in the first five minutes. and it is nice to see that turnover number went down. It was a lot more in the first half and that's when the full arsenal played. I did think there was a bit of a rhythm going there as well, but ultimately just felt like a team that felt a little bit disconnected. Guys like even Luka Doncic and Walker Kessler, these guys haven't played basketball in months. I mean, Walker Kessler, it's been like almost a full calendar year since he's played basketball and it's kind of showed a little bit while he has made an impact. I still feel like he's kind of working his way back. Did a good job though as a passer. who had a team high with four assists with Mamu, who we'll get into a little bit later in this as well. But overall, this was not the Lakers' best effort. They just, to me, seemed a bit out of sorts. Certain guys didn't play. Duteiro didn't play. No Colin Sexton at all. It does seem like that Colin Sexton, like you see down there in our scroll, that he is expected to hopefully play opening night, and he has been putting in the work to ramp himself up back to play as well. And so the Lakers right now, as it currently looks, you know, a team that is looking to build off of what they did last year. This was a team that won 50 plus games each of the past season. If you go to our today's sponsor, Calci, they only have them forecasted at 48 wins on the market. And so if you're interested in perhaps, you know, putting in some cash, if you think the Lakers can win more than 48 games and win 50 plus like JJ's done each of the first two seasons, you can certainly do that. And on Calci, you can trade directly against other users and not the house like traditional sportsbooks. In other words, you're buying yes or no contracts on the outcome of events. It can be sports, politics, weather, and, of course, your Los Angeles Lakers here. And I think that despite all the new players coming in, that they are going to win more than 50 games this season. So if you think so as well, you go on Calci. Let's say you put down $100. The Lakers do it. You're going to get a max payout of over $224. If you're interested in trying out Cal State, it's super easy. This is all you have to do. Just use the link down below in our description or in our pinned comment section. Use that promo code on your screen. Be sure to do that. Digest NBA to get $55 added to your account instantly when playing your first five bucks. But looking also here, again, at what the Lakers were able to do. I think the turnovers were an issue. To me, that was the biggest one. Guys just kind of getting a feel from each other. But there was some positive takeaways, in my opinion, from this one as well. So we'll be a bit positive here. We'll talk about some of the good. I really like Zaire Williams. I am sold on the type of defender he can be for this team. Right away, Denver was getting him off of Jamal Murray because they did not like that matchup at all with Zaire being that go-to point-of-attack defender. He seems very comfortable doing that. This was somebody who was one of the better players in the NBA generating steals last season as well. and so the Lakers to have that threat. I thought it was an interesting starting lineup with Zaire and Matisse-Thibault. We'll see if that holds up come opening night. But J.J. also saying the fact that Collin Sexton didn't play was a reason why Quentin Grimes, who had started in every single game this preseason, was coming off of the bench. But again, that also could be a thing too as well. I thought Thibault defensively was good. Offensively was fine. I think he missed out on some opportunities and probably should have had more than seven points, but here we are. But Zaire Williams, I mean, the guy's been knocking down threes. He's only played in two preseason games, but he looks confident shooting that three. It looks good leaving his hand. He looks like more of a natural shooter than I was expecting him to look like. And he's got the athletic tools as well. It can be a slasher. We saw Walker Kessler throw him a lob. I mean, Walker in that short roll situation was giving some good passes out there. That's something that you want to see, and the Lakers haven't really had a big man that can do that since, like, an Anthony Davis, per se. So, it's exciting to see what Walker can do. I really like what I saw from Zaire Williams. And I think it's safe to say that Mamu is going to be the fan favorite for the Lakers this season as well. Mamu was great in this game, especially in the second half. 15 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 50% from the field, knocked down 3-7. And he missed, like, his first 4 threes, too. So, he hit his last 3. And was one of the only players on this team that had a plus-minus. I think it was him and Jake, I think, were pretty much the only guys. And Zaire was at zero, which makes sense because they were kind of losing a lot in this game. And I think Kevon Looney also, I actually thought Looney had a solid game. I thought it was one of his better games as well for Looney. I thought he did a good job on the glass there as he ended up finishing with, he only had two rebounds. But his activity on the glass and boxing out, I thought he did a pretty respectable job there in my personal opinion. That's going to bring us to our next point here. Of course, we want to talk about this. It's back to business now for the Lakers because now we are seeing that it is going to be the start of the regular season. No more preseasons. Their first game, of course, is going to be Wednesday night against the Golden State Warriors. The first time the Lakers are not playing an opening night in quite some time. But they're still going to get a primetime game right after the Miami Heat and Giannis' debut for the Heat. So, also a couple other takeaways. I thought Grimes had a good game as well. Austin, a bit up and down. The turnovers, he had six of them. Luka had five. They were blitzing them right off the gate. That's going to be something I think the Lakers are going to have to see and figure out. Guys like Walker Kessler, I want to see him being more aggressive as well. I mean, he did shoot eight times, but I thought he could have established himself. I think he had a few mismatches that I wish he would have taken a bit more advantage of. I don't know if it's because he's the new guy trying to learn. Maybe he just doesn't have that in him. I'm not quite sure, but that's something I want to see Kessler as well. Like, be a real weapon on offense. I know defensively, he clearly made an impact. You can see him bothering a lot of contests and shots and things like that. But at the same time, though, you know, I want to see Walker kind of just serve himself a little bit more. I didn't think he did a good enough job in this game like he did in the first one where, I mean, the last game that he played, I mean, he absolutely served himself and showed up for him. But I thought defensively, he still was pretty good. I just want to see offensively him be a bit more aggressive. But looking at the schedule that the Lakers have coming up here, as I kind of just referred to. So here is the month of October. Again, Wednesday night, Golden State. Then they got the Clippers, the Jazz, the Blazers, the Clippers, and the Warriors again. Not a super daunting start to the schedule. I mean, none of these teams may be outside the Clippers or an absolute slouch. I think the Jazz are going to be better. The Blazers made the playoffs last year. The Warriors, again, a team with a lot of continuity. So that is going to be curious how the Lakers kind of stack up against them. And this is their schedule. The first, I believe, 10 games of the season here as they are going to be, I believe, yellow is home. Yes. So their first six of 10 games are going to be home against the Raptors and the Heat. So that's not going to be games they travel. Again, Utah, Clippers, Warriors, Kings. I mean, three of those games are in the same state. And of course, Utah is also a Western Conference team as well. So, not too much travel so far for the Lakers to start off the year. I would like to see them stack up some good wins here, but I want to see the chemistry keep building. We never really got to see the full rotation for the Lakers here. So, if everybody is healthy for that game coming up here against Golden State, I do wonder what this roster and the rotation is going to look like. So, on Digest Media, they have Jake LaRavia listed as a starter. I think he's going to be coming off the bench. Not a knock on him. And I think LaRavia is going to definitely be in the rotation. The Lakers also have a roster decision to make. In my personal opinion, I think we have seen the last of Dalton Knecht in a Laker uniform. I think he's going to be gone after this game. And I think they have until the 19th to make that decision. So I expect us to make a video in the next couple of days probably talking about Dalton no longer being a Laker, if I had to guess. but I think some things we have learned is that Matisse Thybulle has a legit chance to perhaps actually start on this team night one which is pretty interesting based on the decision Redick made today but I think it looks like Luka, Austin, Walker I'd be shocked if it's not Zaire Williams, it seems like they're pretty dedicated to have him in there and I still think it's going to be Quentin Grimes and I think the guys coming off the bench will be Mamou who's definitely asserted himself as being one of the key guys on this team I think Collin Sexton, they could definitely use a guy like that in the lineup Matisse Thybulle, I think, has earned his role. I think LaRavia has earned his role. And then I think, I guess, as those other guys, Kevon Looney, depending on the matchup, maybe they want to go big and put him in if they don't want to sub out Kessler. Have Mamu play the five. I still think they need to get another five. There's a rumor out there that perhaps they want Jericho Sims from the Bucks, but I don't think that's a full-on solves-your-problem sort of situation. Cameron Carr, we'll see what kind of impact he has. I don't expect it early, but you never know. Maybe he will get some burn in there. Uh, Jayden Hardy, I think he's established himself to make this team, uh, unless they make, pull off some sort of trade, but, uh, I thought he actually had a really good game in the preseason, uh, did a good job scoring the ball, and at least he can do that at an NBA level. I don't expect Bronny again. I'm just not seeing enough from him to feel confident with him being in the rotation. Uh, I mean, Jared Vanderbilt, JJ's gonna look everywhere but Vando's way, uh, so I don't expect him to be in the rotation, and Duthiero, uh, they are very, very high on him. I can tell you that right now. The Lakers are very high on Duthiero, so do not be shocked if maybe he does play a night one. But I don't know if he's necessarily solidified himself in the rotation as a mainstay just yet. But that's just my two cents. Again, the Lakers, they're going to have to, by default, make a move this preseason or before the season starts. They have 16 players, full-time players. Someone's got to go. So someone's not going to be on this team, guaranteed. but we'll see how that happens whether it's a trade or it is going to be a flat out cut but to keep up with that and everything's shining your Lakers as we are now just days away from the start of the regular season just hit that subscribe button so you don't miss a thing here on Lakers Digest