Jovan Buha
speaker
326 appearances
10 recordings
3 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 26 Jun
Jovan Buha’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Like, it's like, no, this dude is still putting up incredible numbers. They were fourth in the West when he got injured around Christmas time. They've since been under 500, but been slipping in the West standings. Like, I think there's pretty much proof that like Luca's still,
It's a good question. I think, again, as I said a little bit earlier, I think for this week, expectations should probably be a little tempered. And that, to me, potentially puts a bit of a ceiling on what they can accomplish this postseason. I think... I still think most teams are not going to want to face Luka Doncic and LeBron James in a playoff series in the first round like that.
And the Lakers have recently like JJ is a big fan of playing small ball centerless basketball, and they have looked a lot better with those types of lineups with Dorian Finney Smith and Jared Vanderbilt on the floor. So I do think that there's potentially a scenario where we get to April and the Lakers are kind of starting Jackson Hayes as a placeholder.
Or maybe they get like a smaller, you know, like a day around sharp or kind of still another backup level big who's maybe a little bit better than Jackson. And ultimately, their crunch time lineups are some combination of Vando, DFS, LeBron, Luka, and Austin. And you got four guys who are 6'7 to 6'9, and then Austin out there. And yes, defensively, there's certainly some holes in that lineup.
But with DFS and Vando switching and providing a certain level of versatility defensively, I think you can maybe... just get by as like average defensively and then elite offensively, you know, figuring out the fit with Luka and LeBron. So I think that's kind of the short term path. Longer term, of course. I mean, one, they're looking at a second star for the whatever LeBron retires.
They want to add a second star to put around Luka. It's always been that way. It's always been that way. And look, after this week, it's hard to dispute that it's going to happen, right? The Lakers just stay Lakering. The Lakers exceptionalism is alive and well, and they will probably find that second star based on how NBA history has gone.
I think to your point, it is going to be interesting to see how they build the roster specifically around Luka because I think you could go back to the beginning of the LeBron 80 era and it was, let's put defense and athletes and a bunch of high motor guys around LeBron and 80. And they progressively went away from that build throughout the rest of the LeBron 80 era.
So I do, I wonder like if they ultimately build the ideal Luca team in the next two to three years, Can they sustain it is its own question, and only time will tell with that. But my understanding is they've switched from the LeBron timeline to the Luka timeline, and this is all about Luka moving forward. How can we build the best roster and the most sustainable roster around Luka?
And that's why I think had they not traded AD, maybe you would have seen a more win-now move this week to try and add a supporting role player. I think now it's more about we're not trying to add... like a mid-30s player who doesn't really fit with Luka's timeline. It's like, if we could add a younger center or something like that that fits, let's go do that.
If not, we're going to stand pat and hold those assets till the summer or next season.
I think I've come around to Robert Williams. I do think in talking to the Lakers and the Portland side, I think there's a little bit of a gap there in terms of how they view him. I think the Lakers, it would probably ideally be like multiple second round picks. And maybe there's a way they could do a smaller trade to get back some seconds and do that for Robert Williams.
Whereas from the Portland side, I think they want like an unprotected first for Robert Williams, which... to me is a little bit too high, especially looking at the price of role players in this market has been two to three seconds. And I do like Robert Williams. I think the upside is clearly there.
And like on a per minute per possession basis, he remains one of the best rebounders and shop lockers and rim protectors in the league.
the problem is he's averaging fewer than six points and six rebounds a game he's playing 17 minutes a game and he's never played 61 games or never played more than 61 games in a season so like there are some clear injury concerns with him and he could be one more injury away from having his career drastically altered and potentially having just like a limitation there to just how much he could play period
So I think for the Lakers, like that's probably a little bit too rich of a price. But someone like that, because he's a lob threat, he can protect the rim. And maybe you can still kind of play that small ball basketball. But but have him be like a 20 to 24 minute a night starter. That's exactly the rest of the game. You go small.
Well, it seems like this was the rare trade going back to like old school NBA days where the two GMs just kept this between themselves and talking to people around the Lakers organization that I consistently talk to in different segments of the front office or the organization. Like
these people that legitimately did not know that this trade was coming and had no idea, uh, about the, just the inner workings of it. So I think that this was like the, the rare trade, like we've seen a few of these throughout, uh, recent NBA history, but I think nothing quite to this magnitude.
So the fact that they were able to keep this between them, not let it leak out, not let the agents know, not let the players know. Uh, I think that's pretty rare in 2025. Uh, I think there's a lot to get into with this. I still don't understand it. I mean, I listened to your reaction with Bill right after it happened, and it was like, I'm totally in agreement with you.
There's just so many parts of this I still don't quite understand. And I think for the Lakers, they now have a golden parachute into the next era of post-LeBron, and now it seems like they're far better positioned than they were looking to be as recently as a couple days ago.
Yeah, and it feels like they've always... You could go Luka, LeBron, Kobe, Shaq, Magic, Kareem, Baylor, West, Chamberlain. The Lakers have a history of... getting generational superstars and often trading for these guys in ways you wouldn't quite expect.
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