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00:00As all the major sports leads look to move forward following this COVID-19 pandemic or
00:07we should say during basketball, of course, has had a ton of fallout with players opting
00:11out of the proposed schedule, including Avery Bradley of the Los Angeles Lakers. TBD on
00:17Dwight Howard, but for more on the Lakers, Melissa Rowland joins us at SI.com. Melissa,
00:23we know Bradley is out, so just staying there, what will the Lakers miss without him on the
00:28floor? They're going to miss a lot. He started in 44 games for the Lakers this season. He's
00:33an excellent perimeter defender. He's a great spot of shooter. He's somebody who all the
00:39guys like, who all the guys depend on. So that's going to be a huge loss. Magic Johnson
00:43even tweeted today that that's going to be a huge hit for the Lakers in their championship
00:48hopes for this season. They're looking at a bunch of different players as potential options
00:53to fill that roster spot, and one of them is potentially J.R. Smith, who LeBron James
00:58won a championship alongside in 2016. J.R. Smith has a lot of playoff experience, but
01:05you know, he hasn't played since the top of the 2018-2019 season when he mutually parted
01:10ways with the Cavs. So there's a lot of questions there around whether he'll be rusty or what
01:15will be what will be going on with him. Yeah, LeBron has that come out of retirement impact
01:20effect on many players. So J.R. Smith's a potential option. I saw Nick Young throw his
01:26name in the hat via social media. Swaggy P looking to come back. Do you have a hunch
01:30on the replacement in terms of the position? Is it just we lose a guard, we gain a guard,
01:35or could it just be best available?
01:38They want a defender and they want somebody who's going to clear up the floor. They want
01:41somebody who's a good spot of shooter who's going to create space for guys like LeBron
01:45for guys like A.D. Obviously, they're looking for somebody who will be able to plug right
01:50in. There's not going to be a lot of time to develop this guy. So that's why J.R. Smith
01:54is a very good option, because he has a lot of experience playing alongside LeBron.
02:00Certainly makes sense. We know you'll have it covered for us, Melissa. Thanks so much
02:02for being with us.