I was thinking about Bronny and Dalton situations in preseason then I reminded of Phil quote about how he handled Kukoc fragile ego. I mean, I'm not in any way comparing Bronny and Dalton to Kukoc as basketball players, but when I watch those kids playing one thing that catches my attention is that both are better than that, they are clearly playing afraid of the moment, they are thinking about what they can do to avoid failures not what they can do to succeed and Jake was looking like that in playoffs. I don't remember any JJ rant towards Jake, but he had extreme reactions to Bronny and Dalton mistakes in the past and getting a feel for the game, for the players, for momentum and things like that is what IMHO separates the good head coaches from the championship caliber coaches.

Phil's quote about handling Kukoc's fragile ego

"I also used Harper as a foil to get through to other players. Toni Kukoc, for example, didn’t respond well to harsh criticism. If I yelled at him, he would often shrink and lose confidence. Ron, on the other hand, was bulletproof. He could handle any amount of abuse. So when Toni made a mistake, I’d sometimes take it out on Ron, knowing that Toni would get the message without getting his feelings hurt."

I think about some guys that never won, Rick Adelman teams always played beautiful basketball, Mike Dantoni invented the modern NBA, Tex Winter was the genius behind the Tri and he was still the guy showing Phil the adjustments needed, but then why it was Phil and not Tex the basketball sicko that won 11 titles as a head coach? Because Phil had the intangibles.

I'm not bashing JJ here, he has done the transition from a podcaster basketball sicko cosplayed as head coach to a solid head coach in the second half of last season, but I still see a lot of room for improvement and one of them is finding ways to keep the confidence of his players high, no team is going to win with the players second guessing themselves. I don't think Bronny and Dalton can be rescued, but we can afford things like that happening to key players, to our "Toni Kukoc".

Another L.A. team the Dodgers are currently down 3-0, after winning the last two World Series. Only one time has a team come back from 3-0 in MLB history.

Yankees did it 98-2000, and then there was the Bulls who had two threepeats in the 90s.

**PTS / REB / AST | TS%**

Austin hasn’t gotten the chance to be primary ball handler much but has always popped off when LeBron and Luka are out. I think he’s got another leap in him. They have surprisingly similar trajectory so far

Just curious what everyone's favorite Lakers game you've watched. If I had to pick, for regular season, it would be the Luka game winner one, and the playoffs, it would be game 4 against the Grizzlies in the 2023 playoffs

I watch on the NBA app and subscribe to the spectrum SportsNet plan for 20 a month to stream the games, but the quality is often terrible and not good. Meanwhile, I’m watching the dodgers shit the bed on the Fox one app, and the quality is way way better than the NBA app. Does anyone get good quality streams? It could be that I am watching on a 100” tv so things are more stretched out, but I don’t know how MLB gets the quality higher.

I didnt know Mamu was chill like that, hopefully we get more vlogs in the future along with more Vando Vault.

Cant wait for the Turkey hair vlog lmao

Link 1

Link 2

A note on Tait-Jones

Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, who played at UC San Diego and was Big West Player of the Year in 2025, spent last year in Latvia where he was the Latvian–Estonian Basketball League Final MVP.

teams do this so that players end up on their G League teams. Expect Young to be there with Castro, Swider, Tait-Jones, Chase Ross, etc. ​

Lakers fans might want to see the roster at full strength but that likely won't happen this preseason.

Cameron Carr didn't participate during Thursday practice and Collin Sexton still isn't doing live play.

Ziaire Williams had a good perspective on this after Lakers practice:

“Health is key. If you can’t go, you just can’t. It’s not the end of the world. Like I said, going back to a championship identity, we’re looking ahead at the bigger picture. So, it’s not worth [it] to risk your body for a game that doesn’t count and then be out for the real games.”