The Los Angeles Lakers promise to be more exciting than they’ve been in years, but there is still an elephant in the (locker) room. No, the team didn’t sign a pachyderm to play backup point guard. We are of course referring to Jim Buss’ infamous deadline to return the Lakers to Western Conference contention by the end of the year or step down.

Is the rebuild going well enough for Buss to be given at least another year? Will Mitch Kupchak leave with him if Buss does indeed step down? Hosts Harrison Faigen and Anthony Irwin discussed their thoughts on Buss’ timeline after questions about it were raised before the Lakers kicked off training camp in Santa Barbara on the latest episode of Locked on Lakers.

But before they got to that, the guys discussed the more fun aspects of the Lakers training camp, including Julius Randle and Brandon Ingram standing out, the team’s music, and the defensive focus of the first official practice of the year. Finally, Harrison and Anthony wrapped up with the latest installment of 50 Shades of Shade.

As always, if you enjoy the show, you can find our iTunes channel here (and give us a nice rating if you’re so inclined), or you can listen to the podcast directly through Audioboom below. Lastly, don’t forget to follow Harrison and Anthony on Twitter at @hmfaigen and @AnthonyIrwinLA: