Speaker 1: Mmmmm, all right, welcome to the state of the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Does that if I dash? Reddio? Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for coming to hang out on a Tuesday. The
Speaker 1: Lakers used to be a team that would come out
Speaker 1: and play a bad game of basketball, where their effort
Speaker 1: would be poor and their stars would look lethargic and
Speaker 1: they would lose. And so for them to have a
Speaker 1: similar type of game tonight and to get a win,
Speaker 1: I'm going to take as a huge positive. Rods. First
Speaker 1: of all, how you doing, buddy. How's your week going
Speaker 1: so far? It's going good. Yeah. Three games in a row,
Speaker 1: three wins in a row, I think for the third
Speaker 1: time this season. I think we won four in a
Speaker 1: row one time. But man, it's good to stack a
Speaker 1: couple of these together. It looked a little shaky early
Speaker 1: in the fourth. I thing we went about we went
Speaker 1: down seven. Oh yeah, man, this is a good one.
Speaker 1: This is a fun one. A lot of threes back
Speaker 1: and forth. But I'm well, man, how are you? I'm
Speaker 1: doing good? Um, It's been a day full of basketball
Speaker 1: for me. I played a little bit this morning. I
Speaker 1: coached my high school kids. They gotta win tonight as well.
Speaker 1: And then the Lakers gotta win. So it's been a
Speaker 1: good day of basketball. But I'm excited to break this
Speaker 1: one down with you. It was an interesting game because
Speaker 1: the Lakers clearly came out lethargic. In my opinion, their
Speaker 1: health defense was horrible. They were missing a lot of
Speaker 1: box outs. The Kings looked more energetic. Lebron in particular,
Speaker 1: looked a little bit apathetic, and then he drove into
Speaker 1: Alex lenn and what need a knee with him? And
Speaker 1: you could tell, like for the next long stretch of
Speaker 1: the game that that really bothered him physically. You could
Speaker 1: see him favoring it. You could see him kind of
Speaker 1: continuing to miss box outs and rotations, just trying. It
Speaker 1: seemed like he was just trying to make it to
Speaker 1: the final buzzer. Lakers had a little bit of a
Speaker 1: stretch there at the start of the second quarter where
Speaker 1: they looked amazing, and we'll get into the reasons why later.
Speaker 1: Hin and th h teams white, but it was nice
Speaker 1: to see that even though for the most part they
Speaker 1: look lethargic and pour on both ends of the floor,
Speaker 1: they hit the gas at the end of the game.
Speaker 1: And when they hit the gas, they were better, and
Speaker 1: that is what good teams do. And I know people
Speaker 1: want to undersell and and try to undercut beating bad teams.
Speaker 1: But the Laker team, this Laker team has lost too
Speaker 1: bad teams a lot this season early on, and so
Speaker 1: I look at it more as taking care of business.
Speaker 1: The Lakers took care of business tonight in a funky game,
Speaker 1: made plays on both ends of the floor down the stretch,
Speaker 1: and they deserve to win. Yeah. Man, we are in
Speaker 1: no position I keep saying to be picky about wins,
Speaker 1: especially where we are in the standings. Memphis just keeps winning.
Speaker 1: They don't look like they're gonna slow down. They look
Speaker 1: like they might lock up that fourth seed pretty soon. Here. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a good win, and you have to
Speaker 1: kind of stack some of these wins together, and they
Speaker 1: were able to do that tonight. I thought Sacramento hit
Speaker 1: a bunch of tough shots as well. We lost Buddy
Speaker 1: healed a few times off screens. That's gonna happen, But
Speaker 1: I thought you hit a few tough ones. Deer and Fox,
Speaker 1: I think they said, I don't know if they have
Speaker 1: if this number is correct, If I heard it right,
Speaker 1: he sho from three. I'm not sure if that if
Speaker 1: I heard that correct. Yeah, yeah, and he hit a
Speaker 1: bunch of them to night. He had a bunch of
Speaker 1: step back threes. I thought the Tyrese Haliburton one over
Speaker 1: Mellow was a tough one. We had a four point.
Speaker 1: We missed a lot of layups where like it could
Speaker 1: have changed the tide of the game. Right, Like, we're
Speaker 1: on a big run, we're up like six, and we
Speaker 1: get like a turnover. I think Russ had a block
Speaker 1: and he went the other way and miss the Mr
Speaker 1: Russ no turnovers tonight, I believe he finished with no turnovers, right,
Speaker 1: and again you texted me like he had some bad shots,
Speaker 1: and that's that's true. There are a bunch of bad
Speaker 1: shots that you can kind of convert over to turnovers.
Speaker 1: But it's nice to see him have just a good
Speaker 1: no turnover floor game, even if the shot selection a
Speaker 1: few times wasn't great. But I mean it was a
Speaker 1: it was a win. That's nice to stack them together
Speaker 1: and hopefully we can win the next one as well
Speaker 1: to to make it four. But yeah, we're in no
Speaker 1: position to be picky. Uh. This team is still trying
Speaker 1: to figure each other out. We lost a starter tonight
Speaker 1: due to contractual reasons that help. We'll get back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll get back on Friday. Um, So it was nice
Speaker 1: to kind of get gut this one out. I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, I thought Frank pushed a lot of the
Speaker 1: correct buttons tonight. Like every lineup decision, I thought it
Speaker 1: was correct. I thought he made, you know, a bunch
Speaker 1: of good tactical decisions. He wasn't rigid with his lineups
Speaker 1: like he was in the last game. I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: mirroring Dwight minutes, and we'll get to Dwight obviously later
Speaker 1: mirroring his minutes with Alex Land. I thought that really
Speaker 1: changed kind of the course of the game as well.
Speaker 1: But this was a good way. It was a good,
Speaker 1: good game to get a win. Went on. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: let's let's start with Dwight, because we had an interesting
Speaker 1: discussion after the last game going over this idea that
Speaker 1: Frank refused to fold under pressure to go bigger. Um,
Speaker 1: and I talked about how I personally disagreed with that
Speaker 1: right and I had mentioned that Dwight is a quality
Speaker 1: NBA player. He is a good backup center in this league,
Speaker 1: and so I disagreed with the philosophy of leaving him
Speaker 1: on the bench for the sake of your i've out identity,
Speaker 1: when talent has been somewhat of an issue so far
Speaker 1: this season. However, in in the last part, I explained
Speaker 1: that I understood Frank's rationale in that it seemed like
Speaker 1: his I hit the goal was to train yourself to
Speaker 1: stay small and have that be the permanent identity. And
Speaker 1: so that's why I was genuinely confused when they went
Speaker 1: to Dwight tonight, because the same rationale for going to
Speaker 1: Dwight tonight was the rationale they needed last game, and
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, he couldn't get their last game mentally
Speaker 1: as the coach, but tonight he could. And you know,
Speaker 1: I tend to think the reason why I was there's
Speaker 1: two parts to it. Yes, it's Dwight being a good
Speaker 1: NBA player, but it's also a versatility Raj like I
Speaker 1: like the ability to be able to play multiple styles
Speaker 1: of basketball, and leaning one thousand percent into playing five
Speaker 1: out ball is just as detrimental, in my opinion, to
Speaker 1: leaning one thousand percent to playing two big ball the
Speaker 1: way they did last year, which I thought was a
Speaker 1: departure from the previous season. And it was a problem
Speaker 1: for many reasons because then when they went to a
Speaker 1: d at the five in the very rare stretches where
Speaker 1: they did, it felt unusual, and there were some struggles,
Speaker 1: namely Game one against Phoenix, where things didn't go super well.
Speaker 1: Point being, you know, having versatility, being able to play
Speaker 1: multiple styles of basketball is is one of the one
Speaker 1: of the hallmarks of a championship team. And Dwight is
Speaker 1: a good basketball player that can make plays on the
Speaker 1: offensive glass. He can make plays defensively in pick and
Speaker 1: roll coverage. He can finish lobs and drop off passes
Speaker 1: from guys who can make plays off the past, even
Speaker 1: guys who aren't great and making plays off the past,
Speaker 1: like Moleague Monk for instance, who hit Dwight for a
Speaker 1: couple of dunks tonight. Point, being Dwight's a good player,
Speaker 1: it made sense to play him, even if it goes
Speaker 1: against the style of play that you have in your
Speaker 1: other lineups, because you need that versatility. You need to
Speaker 1: have the ability to call an audible in a playoff series,
Speaker 1: and Dwight's a really good audible. And so I thought
Speaker 1: that was impressive, and I heard a lot of people
Speaker 1: bringing up like, Okay, Dwight looked springy because he had
Speaker 1: some time off, and I'm not debating that, Like, I
Speaker 1: definitely don't think Dwight should be a big minute guy. However,
Speaker 1: a lot of the bad games Dwight had recently were
Speaker 1: more related, in my opinion, to the COVID suspension and
Speaker 1: him losing his conditioning. So I tend to think as
Speaker 1: long as Dwight is in a small role, maybe a
Speaker 1: two shift player or one shift player, then he can
Speaker 1: play every night for us if we need him to.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's physically incapable of doing that, right,
Speaker 1: And you know, I thought even I just like I
Speaker 1: used the word ridgid a lot with it because I
Speaker 1: just don't think we're in position like we had a
Speaker 1: nice lead, or we were up in the standings, or
Speaker 1: even if a d was healthy. And yeah, you can
Speaker 1: go to this full no center as they call it,
Speaker 1: right because Local used to wear no center and when
Speaker 1: he includes Aunt Davis in that as well, you could
Speaker 1: do that. You can experiment, But I think we are
Speaker 1: in still win collection mode here and we can't give
Speaker 1: up nights and we can't have what nas redid the
Speaker 1: other night. And I thought this game was kind of
Speaker 1: tilting towards that, because the whole point of going small
Speaker 1: right is to get an offensive advantage, Like that's what
Speaker 1: we're doing when we go small, and I thought tonight
Speaker 1: we were getting killed on the boards while also not
Speaker 1: getting the offensive punch. I think we had Russ and
Speaker 1: tailing in. I don't remember if Lebron was also on
Speaker 1: the floor when Dwight Howard checked any might or might
Speaker 1: have not, but I thought that kind of changed the
Speaker 1: flow of the game. Sacrament And went up nine to two,
Speaker 1: I believe, and then we caught them at four teen.
Speaker 1: But then Alex Lann came in and I thought he
Speaker 1: again took control of the game for Sacramento. He was
Speaker 1: getting offensive rebounds. You talked about our health defense early
Speaker 1: it was really bad. I thought Lebron wasn't wasn't there
Speaker 1: on the help early. I'm not sure if that's just
Speaker 1: him kind of load managing through or just didn't want
Speaker 1: to whatever it was, or the physical battles download that
Speaker 1: you don't want him doing all game. I thought all
Speaker 1: of that was part of it. And I love just
Speaker 1: putting Dwight in there to kind of nullify the Alex
Speaker 1: land matchup, and I thought that changed the whole floor
Speaker 1: of the game. He came in like the middle of
Speaker 1: the first and know we kind of took back. I
Speaker 1: think we were up thirty to twenty seven or something
Speaker 1: after the first quarter. But yeah, do I can play
Speaker 1: here and there. I'm fine. He doesn't have to play
Speaker 1: every night. I would like him to be like ten
Speaker 1: or fifteen minutes. I don't think you're gonna get fourteen
Speaker 1: and fourteen as he put up tonight in twenty two
Speaker 1: minutes every single time that you play him. But it's
Speaker 1: just a nice switch up, Like you talked about the versatility,
Speaker 1: and I don't think we're in the mode to be
Speaker 1: able to give games away. And I feel like that
Speaker 1: was it was kind of going there with the with
Speaker 1: alex Lyn starting to dominating a similar fashion than nos READD.
Speaker 1: But Dwight still you talked about a good NBA player.
Speaker 1: He's not DeAndre Jordan, and you don't need to cut
Speaker 1: him out the rotation. He can still move his feet,
Speaker 1: he can still jump to block shots, he knows how
Speaker 1: to roll correctly. I thought him and Malik Monk had
Speaker 1: a good chemistry earlier in the year. I thought you
Speaker 1: saw that again tonight. Their screen role game was nice.
Speaker 1: Um leaked through him some lobs. It's just a solid
Speaker 1: NBA player that we can he can be our backup center.
Speaker 1: But thought again, Frank, I thought he just pushed the
Speaker 1: right buttons. He uh, Alex Lann came in, I believe
Speaker 1: in the fourth. Then he put Dwight Howard in as well,
Speaker 1: Like he mirrored their minutes really nicely, and I think
Speaker 1: that's what you have to do right now. But yeah,
Speaker 1: Dwight was really good tonight. Man. I thought he kind
Speaker 1: of say our first quarter and that kind of energized
Speaker 1: us to the rest of the game. Mm hmmm. I
Speaker 1: wanted to move on to Russ for a second because
Speaker 1: I've been pretty hard on Russ recently, and I think
Speaker 1: I've done a good job. I hope if I'm wrong,
Speaker 1: you guys can let me know. But I think I've
Speaker 1: gonna done a good job of explaining exactly what worries
Speaker 1: me about Russ. It's not so much the day to
Speaker 1: day stuff, because he's been good for some stretches of
Speaker 1: the season and he's been bad for some stretches of
Speaker 1: the season. He was bad to start, then he had
Speaker 1: a stretch there for about a month or so where
Speaker 1: he actually was really good and only some uninformed people
Speaker 1: outside of the Laker fan base were particularly negative towards Russ,
Speaker 1: and then he kind of went back into a slump
Speaker 1: here recently where he hasn't been shooting the ball well,
Speaker 1: he's make more defensive mistakes, he's been missing everything around
Speaker 1: the rim um, and so that that to me, is
Speaker 1: separate from my concerns with Russ, which have always been
Speaker 1: late game decision making, particularly in a playoff setting. You
Speaker 1: know what I mean, That's what I've I've said, but
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, like I do think Russ
Speaker 1: dos a ton to help this team. He's the definition
Speaker 1: of a good play, bad play, got type of guy,
Speaker 1: and there are a lot of nights, especially during the
Speaker 1: regular season, where he brings a lot of good and
Speaker 1: very little bad, and today was one of those games.
Speaker 1: He had some pull up midrange shots that I thought
Speaker 1: were ill advised early in the game, but other than that,
Speaker 1: other than that, he did a really good job. I
Speaker 1: thought he carried the team in the third quarter when
Speaker 1: Lebron was in that funk um that we described earlier,
Speaker 1: and that was an example of a basketball game where
Speaker 1: if Russ isn't there, you probably lose, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, because that's what you need for various stretches
Speaker 1: of the game. You need somebody that can carry you
Speaker 1: when things aren't working. And Molikue Monk, if you remember,
Speaker 1: was hot to start the game, but then kind of
Speaker 1: went cold there for the second and third quarter. So
Speaker 1: you had Lebron and Monk, the two guys who brought
Speaker 1: the game home. Those two guys were mostly cold and
Speaker 1: off during the middle portion of the game, and Russ
Speaker 1: carry then. And so that's an example of some of
Speaker 1: the good that that Russ springs to the table. But
Speaker 1: above that, I wanted to because you actually brought this Upfrage. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting late game how they basically
Speaker 1: started spamming the Lebron Monk pick and pop there on
Speaker 1: the right wing, which I think is a good play.
Speaker 1: But it was interesting how Russ basically got relegated to
Speaker 1: being in the dunker spot. Now, there was a play
Speaker 1: where he did get an offensive rebound at one point,
Speaker 1: but that kind of thing does concern me potentially in
Speaker 1: the long run, and you may feel differently about it,
Speaker 1: but you know, for a player of Russ's caliber, in
Speaker 1: terms of reputation to basically be relegated to being Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons at the end of the basketball game, there's a
Speaker 1: huge diminishing return there offensively, um, and that scares me
Speaker 1: for a playoff series because then you start to look
Speaker 1: at the situation and go, Okay, would we be better
Speaker 1: off with another guy there who can shoot, so that
Speaker 1: maybe Lebron and Monk are running that with a true
Speaker 1: five out, or maybe Anthony Davis isn't that dunker spot instead,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like that, that's kind of
Speaker 1: the It was an interesting end of the game there,
Speaker 1: because again, if if Russ can't have the ball in
Speaker 1: his hands, what is he really doing aside from grabbing
Speaker 1: the occasional offensive rebound. But I wanted to hear I
Speaker 1: wanted to hear your opinion on that sequence, Yeah, because
Speaker 1: I know because you and not It's not just you,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of people who have, you know, expressed
Speaker 1: concern for the late game offense with Russ right with
Speaker 1: his decision making throughout the game. Kind of lends to
Speaker 1: your thoughts on him in high level situations. And I've
Speaker 1: always thought that he's, like you said, what are you
Speaker 1: gonna do? What's the point of having Russ on the
Speaker 1: floor if you can't have the ball in his hands.
Speaker 1: But you don't want the ball in his hands, right,
Speaker 1: you want the ball on Lebron James hands in those situations.
Speaker 1: And I've always said, uh, to kind of have Russ
Speaker 1: in those situations. It's not to like control him or
Speaker 1: try to bring him down, it's just to lower the usage.
Speaker 1: And I thought, this is what it's gonna look like
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. He saw this when they played Cleveland
Speaker 1: earlier and it was a close game. Anthony Davis was
Speaker 1: also on the floor. He was kind of the screener.
Speaker 1: This is kind of how I see Russ in those
Speaker 1: kind of moments in the dunker spot. And to me,
Speaker 1: it's not relegating relegating him there in a bad way
Speaker 1: because it kind of puts what he's good at into
Speaker 1: the forefront. Right. He is a good offensive rebound or,
Speaker 1: and you talked about him getting one tonight, and putting
Speaker 1: him there kind of puts those in. It puts him
Speaker 1: in those situations. He also gotta I think he also
Speaker 1: got a basket off the cut. He's a good cutter
Speaker 1: in those spots, and he doesn't always have to be
Speaker 1: in the dunker spot as well. He can be a
Speaker 1: little bit more on the weak side where it's not
Speaker 1: all the way to the three point line, it's right,
Speaker 1: it's right about halfway and that's usually where players cut
Speaker 1: from the baseline on. And we saw that again tonight
Speaker 1: and it was Lebron and Monk too man game screen
Speaker 1: roll late, right, And that's to me what our late
Speaker 1: game offense is going to be. Even when we had
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis on the floor in the playoffs, are late
Speaker 1: game offense was a guard screen action. It was k
Speaker 1: CP and Monk is a lot more versatile than Cap
Speaker 1: is a better shooter, better off ball handler. It reminded
Speaker 1: me a little bit and I hope this isn't like terrible,
Speaker 1: but it reminded me a little bit of like Kyrie Irving,
Speaker 1: and of course Monks not the talent of Kyrie Irving,
Speaker 1: had just me and the archetype of a three level
Speaker 1: score right where you have to guard a monk off
Speaker 1: the dribble. You have to guard him as a spot
Speaker 1: up guy and he can float, and he has a
Speaker 1: floater game like he has the whole offensive package. And
Speaker 1: it's not always on every night, but I just think
Speaker 1: that's what we're gonna see. And that's why I'm not
Speaker 1: too worried about Russ in those kind of situations. If
Speaker 1: a d is on the floor, to me, he's probably
Speaker 1: the screener or he's in the dunker spot, and maybe
Speaker 1: Russ is a screen and there's things that you can do.
Speaker 1: I just don't think Russ would have the ball in
Speaker 1: his hands in those situations. So I was gonna ask
Speaker 1: you that does that seeing that like late game offense.
Speaker 1: I guess does that kind of temper your your worries
Speaker 1: a little bit? Because it did, at least for me.
Speaker 1: I've seen this a couple of times now late game offense,
Speaker 1: but Russ just does not have the ball at the
Speaker 1: top of the key in late game situations, Like that's
Speaker 1: just not what we run. It's Lebron James with the ball,
Speaker 1: screen action whatever, whoever he wants to come set the screen,
Speaker 1: whether it's Wayne Ellington to be Dallas, right to be Dallas.
Speaker 1: We went Wayne Ellington straight screen roll tonight. It was
Speaker 1: Malik Monk against the Calves. It was Anthony Davis to
Speaker 1: get mobile on him, like it's gonna be whoever he
Speaker 1: wants to mismatch hunt and it's not going to be
Speaker 1: rusted with the basketball, which is why I'm not as worried.
Speaker 1: And I think putting him in the dunkers again, stretch
Speaker 1: weak side, not all the way to the corner, but
Speaker 1: on the baseline where he can cut through. I just
Speaker 1: that's how I see us playing late game offense. So
Speaker 1: I see that side of it. I do, And I
Speaker 1: want to be clear like I I do. I try,
Speaker 1: like I said from the beginning, with this rust thing,
Speaker 1: I go out of my way to try to see
Speaker 1: the positive. I really do. Where where I concern myself
Speaker 1: primarily has to do with a situation where that's not
Speaker 1: Damien Jones and Buddy Healed guarding the Malik monk Lebron action.
Speaker 1: So so let's say we're playing Phoenix or playing Golden State.
Speaker 1: If it's if it's Phoenix in all likelihood, if that's
Speaker 1: a Malik Monk, it's Devin Booker guarding him, right, and
Speaker 1: probably Michael Bridges on Lebron. That's just they're they're gonna
Speaker 1: switch that every time. And yes, Steven Booker is is
Speaker 1: someone Lebron can attack. But the point is is that's
Speaker 1: gonna be Lebron having to beat Devin Booker off the dribble,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be DeAndre Ayton and you know, probably
Speaker 1: Cam Johnson or Ja Crowder on the on the week
Speaker 1: side and CP three. It's just all those windows get
Speaker 1: way tighter against a really, really good defense. And the
Speaker 1: same goes with Golden State. That's probably gonna be someone
Speaker 1: like Andrew Wiggins on Lebron and someone like Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: on Malik Monk, and they're just gonna switch that action
Speaker 1: and forced Lebron to either post up or drive to
Speaker 1: the basket. And again, like having a guy like Russ
Speaker 1: in the dunker spot doesn't show some of the downsides
Speaker 1: of that diminishing return I'm speaking of against a bad team,
Speaker 1: but it will against the top tier teams, especially on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: like what I visualized. They're like, Okay, would we be
Speaker 1: better off, you know, not having to occupy that spot
Speaker 1: to give Lebron a better chance to come to consistently
Speaker 1: beat someone like Clay Thompson off the dribble or Devin
Speaker 1: Booker off the dribble. The playoff series with enough of
Speaker 1: an advantage to where he can finish over the inevitable
Speaker 1: rotating defender that's going to be someone like Draymond Green
Speaker 1: or Deandret like, it's just everything I look at it
Speaker 1: is through with Russ, is through the lens of what
Speaker 1: it's gonna look like on the biggest stage, and that stuff.
Speaker 1: That stuff does worry me a little bit. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying it's not gonna work, because it might, but that's
Speaker 1: where it gets concerning. That's why I prefer the idea.
Speaker 1: As great as the Monk Lebron screening actions are, I
Speaker 1: prefer the idea of getting Russ involved in the action
Speaker 1: because you know, in all likelihood there you're more likely
Speaker 1: to have them double Lebron than to switch, because they
Speaker 1: probably would prefer to not have Lebron um you know,
Speaker 1: go against your point guard, which is in this case
Speaker 1: to be Step or CP three. And then also Russ
Speaker 1: is so quick off the dribble, you know, and more athletic,
Speaker 1: better athlete than Monk, that he has a better chance
Speaker 1: to punish a bigger defender off the dribble. So that
Speaker 1: probably ends up being some sort of trap which puts
Speaker 1: Russ in a situation where he can attack four on three,
Speaker 1: and I almost like our chances better there, so, accepting
Speaker 1: the reality that Russ is going to be in this picture,
Speaker 1: I tend to like him more as a screen and
Speaker 1: screener than in the dunker spot because I think the
Speaker 1: dunker spot thing works better against bad teams than it
Speaker 1: would against good teams. But that's just me kind of
Speaker 1: like in the moment, trying to visualize what it might
Speaker 1: look like against the very best teams. If that makes sense, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, And it doesn't have to be like he
Speaker 1: doesn't always have to be there, and it doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be Malik Monk as well. And if it's against Phoenix,
Speaker 1: they probably want to involve Eighten in the matchup, right.
Speaker 1: I think Lebron actually kind of likes the aiden matchup
Speaker 1: able to attack him. It's how they're defending. If if
Speaker 1: a team is switching everything, then Lebron can kind of
Speaker 1: miss much miss mismatch hunt that way. And yeah, like
Speaker 1: I think Russ can be the screen in a lot
Speaker 1: of these situations as well. I think he's still a
Speaker 1: good four on three attacker. If Lebron is getting trapped,
Speaker 1: there's just other places on the or you can put him.
Speaker 1: He's just not going to be the spacer or the
Speaker 1: guy doing the main attack really, and that's your worry, right,
Speaker 1: you don't want him as the main isolation attack. He's
Speaker 1: it's not gonna like I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: before the season started thought it would be kind of
Speaker 1: turn base, right, where Lebron and Russ kind of take
Speaker 1: turns running ball screen actions. That's just not how it's
Speaker 1: been this season, and nor do I think how it's
Speaker 1: going to be in the playoffs. It's gonna be Lebron,
Speaker 1: James controlling, and Anthony Davis is another guy who's gonna
Speaker 1: be thrown into the picture who's going to be involved,
Speaker 1: and almost all these actions as well, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: you can have a d space as well to corners,
Speaker 1: but there's just stuff you can do. Why I'm not
Speaker 1: too worried about it, And you're right, Russ as a
Speaker 1: screener I think works really well as well. Most most
Speaker 1: teams like to put a big onto Russ because he's
Speaker 1: not a spacer, and if you can involve another big,
Speaker 1: their teams don't usually want to switch their center onto Lebron,
Speaker 1: and you have a four on three in that way.
Speaker 1: And again that's how we got the Austin Reeves game winner.
Speaker 1: Kind of it was Ellington's screen role. Russ was able
Speaker 1: to attack a compromise defense and found Austin reads for
Speaker 1: the game winner. So I'm not worried about that. I
Speaker 1: just think like our worries about Russ having to make
Speaker 1: the high leverage kind of decision making lays just it's
Speaker 1: just not what we have to worry about in my opinion,
Speaker 1: Like it's going to be Lebron James playing his style
Speaker 1: of basketball, which is card screens or uh in the
Speaker 1: post if he wants, or you know, screen with a
Speaker 1: d or whatever, and the places on the floor we
Speaker 1: can put Russ, And that's what the rest of the
Speaker 1: season is therefore, to kind of find situations to put
Speaker 1: him and I think the dunker spot, it's just one
Speaker 1: kind of uh, one kind of variety of different places
Speaker 1: we can place them on the floor. Yeah, And again,
Speaker 1: like this is where I've had issues with this fit
Speaker 1: is even though my basketball brain tells me that your
Speaker 1: best chance to develop driving lanes is to use Russ
Speaker 1: as the screener, that then puts him back in a
Speaker 1: position where he's making decisions, which is exactly what I
Speaker 1: don't want him doing at the end of game. So
Speaker 1: it's just tough. It's just tough like And again, this
Speaker 1: is why it's so important that I have people like
Speaker 1: you that are more optimistic about it. And then there
Speaker 1: are a bunch of people in Laker Twitter that I
Speaker 1: follow who are more optimistic about this fit because they
Speaker 1: helped me see the other side. I'm just presenting to
Speaker 1: you guys, my my view on this. My view on
Speaker 1: this is I just see this inevitably coming to a
Speaker 1: head where in a playoff series against an elite defense
Speaker 1: late game situations, Russ is going to become a liability um,
Speaker 1: either as a decision maker or off the ball. That's
Speaker 1: that that to me continues to be a concern and
Speaker 1: I haven't seen anything this season that has dissuaded me
Speaker 1: from that other than success against some limited teams and
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of a couple of late game
Speaker 1: situations where happened to work out well, but there have
Speaker 1: also been like a late game situations where it hasn't.
Speaker 1: So it's just been tough. But anyway, we've talked a
Speaker 1: lot of us recently. We can move on. But the
Speaker 1: uh I wanted to talk about, I suppose because Taylor
Speaker 1: Talan deserves some attention, but I think we got to
Speaker 1: go to the Lake Monk first here because he's just
Speaker 1: been so incredible. But there's been a lot of people
Speaker 1: talking about, um the long term conundrum here, which is
Speaker 1: that a league monk has vastly outperformed his contract, But
Speaker 1: we can get to that in a minute. UM. Basically,
Speaker 1: what I had pointed out in the last part was
Speaker 1: that sometime in recent weeks, Molik Monk seems to have
Speaker 1: either been given a green light or he just snatched
Speaker 1: the green light, because for whatever reason, in recent weeks
Speaker 1: he has been gunning and it's been very good for
Speaker 1: our offense because we don't really have anybody because as
Speaker 1: good as Mellow is, he's more of a like we
Speaker 1: talked about. He's more like if you give him an advantage,
Speaker 1: he can score. So if you get him a really
Speaker 1: good matchup in the post, or if you get him
Speaker 1: with the defender closing out at him, he can score.
Speaker 1: But Molik Monk is basically our only non lebron player
Speaker 1: who from all three levels is lethal. Um. Even if
Speaker 1: he doesn't necessarily have an advantage, he can beat you
Speaker 1: with three point shot. He's got an arsenal of shots
Speaker 1: he can go to in the mid range, in short range,
Speaker 1: he's got floaters and scoops, and then he's a vertical
Speaker 1: athlete above the rim. And so combining that with his
Speaker 1: youthful exuberance in his like outrageous confidence in a green light,
Speaker 1: he's really taking off for us and it's giving our
Speaker 1: offense a new dynamic that we haven't had all season.
Speaker 1: And then again in this five out attack, it's just
Speaker 1: built for him. But I mean more of the same
Speaker 1: that we were talking about in the last part. But
Speaker 1: he's just he's just something else man like that. It's
Speaker 1: like he got absolutely scorching hot in that fourth quarter
Speaker 1: to save us tonight. Yeah. I love the way that
Speaker 1: used youthful and was it what you say, exuberance, Yes,
Speaker 1: he is. It's funny because this team was, you know,
Speaker 1: and they're still old, you know, because their best player
Speaker 1: obviously is it's thirty seven, just turned thirty seven, but
Speaker 1: in Russell Westbrooks thirty four. But it's funny kind of
Speaker 1: looking at the rotation, now, how many kind of youthful
Speaker 1: guys there are? Right? You have? You obviously have my
Speaker 1: league Monk. I think he's twenty three or twenty four,
Speaker 1: I don't remember. Austin Reeves is around twenty three, Stanley
Speaker 1: Johnson is is twenty five. Th h T obviously the
Speaker 1: rotation at twenty two. So you do have a mix,
Speaker 1: a nice mix of young guys, I guess, and that
Speaker 1: kind of pops off the screen as well. To me.
Speaker 1: You kind of see them move at a little bit
Speaker 1: of a different pace. I think the reason is still
Speaker 1: moving at his age, which you know makes sense. He
Speaker 1: just kind of came back. Carmelo Anthony obviously is who
Speaker 1: he is. Yeah, man, Malik has been awesome. He is
Speaker 1: fearless to me, like that's kind of the word I
Speaker 1: used for him. He's just not scared of the moment.
Speaker 1: He'll take any shot. He doesn't have to be wide
Speaker 1: open to shoot, which I think is a big thing
Speaker 1: for this team, and it was kind of the trouble
Speaker 1: for a lot of our shooters in the past. Um
Speaker 1: a lot of them had to be wide open to
Speaker 1: kind of shoot. And Malik Monk, he's able to get
Speaker 1: in his shot quickly. Again, that's kind of why I
Speaker 1: think the Lebron Malik Monk game works so well. Uh,
Speaker 1: even you add his ball handling, but able to pop
Speaker 1: from three really quickly when we were down like four,
Speaker 1: and I think, uh, he had two threes that were
Speaker 1: kind of tying along with Buddy. He'll too continued to
Speaker 1: come back and drain threes on us. But yeah, he's
Speaker 1: been awesome. I think he has better passing ability than
Speaker 1: you know, I thought over the summer, and he's kind
Speaker 1: of showing the ability to run scoremen actions to make
Speaker 1: re it's off of it. He's a nice law passer.
Speaker 1: We saw something to Dwight like I talked about earlier.
Speaker 1: I just think, you know, he's a really nice player,
Speaker 1: and I think him and we got some news that
Speaker 1: Kendrick Nunn is close. I'm not sure exactly what that means,
Speaker 1: but hopefully he'll come back pretty soon. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: None and Monk is a really interesting combo. We have
Speaker 1: a bunch of guards now playing every badly. Obviously starts
Speaker 1: th HD again comes off the bench. Now it's gonna
Speaker 1: be interesting how the rotation looks. But I don't think
Speaker 1: Milik Monk is going anywhere. Also, I'm not sure he
Speaker 1: starts when everyone's healthy as well. But he's been awesome
Speaker 1: and him and Lebron obviously have something there. There's there's
Speaker 1: something uh tangible there with their connection, and it's not
Speaker 1: just tonight, it's just it's not just these last few games.
Speaker 1: It's been since the beginning of the season to me,
Speaker 1: and Lebron plays well with you know, scoring guards, and
Speaker 1: I think milink Bunk fits right into that, especially scoring
Speaker 1: guards that can shoot the ship out of the basketball,
Speaker 1: which which moves us to the contract connundrum because it's
Speaker 1: it's it's you know, I've been an advocate all season
Speaker 1: for moving from th HD to try to get a
Speaker 1: good starter, like a guy like Jeremy Grant, which we
Speaker 1: talked about, and obviously that type of deal would require
Speaker 1: you to include Kendrick Nunn. And you know, this brings
Speaker 1: up an interesting conversation about asset management because the reality
Speaker 1: of the situation is as Malik Monk is not a
Speaker 1: minimum contract player. He's probably not a he's definitely not
Speaker 1: like a twenty million dollar a year guy, but he's
Speaker 1: not a minimum contract player. So the reality is is
Speaker 1: after this season, someone's going to offer him either a
Speaker 1: mid level exception or something even more if they're a
Speaker 1: team that's operating like they have cap space. So you know,
Speaker 1: the interesting rules about the way the CVA works, and
Speaker 1: Roger you can correct me if I'm wrong, But as
Speaker 1: long as Kendrick Nunn is on the roster, which could
Speaker 1: be this year and next year depending on whether or
Speaker 1: not he uses his player option, he technically occupies the
Speaker 1: mid level exception spot, which means the the Lakers would
Speaker 1: not be able to offer uh Kendrick excuse me, Malik
Speaker 1: Monk anything other than a very slight phrase over the
Speaker 1: minimum contract. So that's another positive angle to look at
Speaker 1: when you talk about potentially moving th HD and Kendrick Nunn,
Speaker 1: because if you move th HD and Kendrick Nunn in
Speaker 1: a trade for a player like Jeremy Grant, you open
Speaker 1: up an exception slot to use to retain a player
Speaker 1: like Molik Monk. So you got to now look at
Speaker 1: that potential trade as it's not just trading Kendrick Nunn
Speaker 1: and th h T for a wing. It's trading Kendrick
Speaker 1: Nunn and th h T for a wing and possibly
Speaker 1: keeping Malik Monk when you probably wouldn't be able to
Speaker 1: keep him otherwise. So that's another Molik Monk's recent play
Speaker 1: is now adding another interesting wrinkle to the decision making process.
Speaker 1: This coming off season, you know, like I understand us
Speaker 1: kind of discussing this and I see, you know, not
Speaker 1: just you and everyone on the time and talking about,
Speaker 1: Oh man, I hope we can keep the League Monk
Speaker 1: next year. I can't even like get entertained with that,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like I can't even like
Speaker 1: get into emotionally there. I'm so much into this in
Speaker 1: but I understanding League Monks played really well, Jason. This
Speaker 1: roster has turned over like three times. I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, emotionally, attaching ourselves to a guy who's not
Speaker 1: named Lebron James or Anthony Davis to me is kind
Speaker 1: of kind of like fool's goal, just with just with
Speaker 1: how the roster has turned over, how the you know,
Speaker 1: GM has operated the last few years, Like if this
Speaker 1: team doesn't win a title, even even when winning a title,
Speaker 1: they still flipped all the roster like, so that's kind
Speaker 1: of where I can't really get to invested in that.
Speaker 1: I think the you know, trading Kendrick Nunn thing is
Speaker 1: an interesting conversation. I think they do want to see
Speaker 1: him play first before moving on from him. Uh. I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people you know and like yourself
Speaker 1: want to move him for move Taylor as well in
Speaker 1: combination with none. I think that's interesting. But Leek's playing
Speaker 1: so well, man, I can't even really move on to
Speaker 1: next year. I hope they can keep him. I don't
Speaker 1: think he's gonna make the minimum next season. Like you
Speaker 1: talked about, he has definitely outplayed his contract, and that's
Speaker 1: what you need to do. When you have a team
Speaker 1: full of minimum guys, you need a few of them
Speaker 1: to outplay the other contract I think Carmelo has outplayed
Speaker 1: his contract. I think you know, I think the league
Speaker 1: Monk has definitely outplay as contract um and you need
Speaker 1: that when you have a team full of guys um
Speaker 1: making when you only have minimums to give out, and
Speaker 1: our other guy who makes who makes like who makes
Speaker 1: money that's not the minimum has not played a single
Speaker 1: second this year in Kendrick not so it'd be interesting.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Molaksen's been awesome. I hope he stays. But
Speaker 1: I can't even get entertained, honestly, with that conversation you
Speaker 1: were asking me about the c b A. I am
Speaker 1: probably one of the last people to ask about that
Speaker 1: as as well. I'm so just into this season. People like, oh,
Speaker 1: can we keep Lake Monk, I have no idea. Other
Speaker 1: people do a great job with that. Eric Pink is
Speaker 1: one of the best. Um, definitely, not for sure. I
Speaker 1: don't forget trying to be a part of that wheelhouse either,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I hope lake Monk is back. I just
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, getting emotionally attached to a
Speaker 1: player not named Lebron or Anthony Davis. It seems kind
Speaker 1: of foolish to me, with how the roster has turned
Speaker 1: over the last few years. Yeah, it's it's funny because
Speaker 1: I'm actually very thankful that there are people in our
Speaker 1: business who takes time to learn that stuff, because, like
Speaker 1: you know, I live and breathe the game of basketball
Speaker 1: every day of my life as a player, as a
Speaker 1: coach and as a guy who covers the Lakers and
Speaker 1: just as a fan. And I may or may not
Speaker 1: be able to offer something of value in that department,
Speaker 1: But when it comes to something that literally lawyers drafted,
Speaker 1: yeah that's that's that's hirely above my pay grade. Um,
Speaker 1: So let's let's get th h D really quick and
Speaker 1: then I want to rant about Stanley Johnson for a
Speaker 1: second and then we'll call it a night. So so
Speaker 1: I've been heavy behind th HT this year, which is weird.
Speaker 1: You and I've kind of flip flopped because last year
Speaker 1: I was the one that was down on him, and
Speaker 1: now I'm the one to tie on him. But like
Speaker 1: the I I pointed out all season that you know,
Speaker 1: he's been in an unfortunate circumstance surrounding his role. You know,
Speaker 1: get go through training camp and then break your thumb,
Speaker 1: then you come back and play, and it's roster volatility
Speaker 1: between you know, wings and guards dropping with injury to
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis missing time, him going in and
Speaker 1: out of the starting lineup, and then Bamy gets COVID,
Speaker 1: and so he's just been in a really inconsistent role.
Speaker 1: And I predicted that he would play better as he
Speaker 1: got just more consistency in the lineup, and it seems
Speaker 1: now that he's going to consistently be coming off the bench.
Speaker 1: And also they're the Lakers are leaning into a style
Speaker 1: and sticking with it, the style that is more conducive
Speaker 1: to th hts skill set. And you know, obviously it's
Speaker 1: just one game, but I think he's been trending in
Speaker 1: this direction over the last few games, starting to show
Speaker 1: some signs of confidence on the offensive end and starting
Speaker 1: to make some plays on defense. And tonight I thought
Speaker 1: he played one of his best games as a prom
Speaker 1: because even though he had a couple of twenty point
Speaker 1: games early in this season, they were in losses if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, um and kind of I won't say
Speaker 1: garbage time because they were't garbage time, but they weren't
Speaker 1: as impactful a statistical performances as his was tonight. The
Speaker 1: shots he made were all huge and important to the game.
Speaker 1: That little one leg a fadeaway he made tonight in
Speaker 1: e lane was monumental superstar playing yep, and he had
Speaker 1: a handful of those plays today. Rose that that weird
Speaker 1: scoop shot he had in the first half going around
Speaker 1: Damien Jones like literally like like caught on his pivot
Speaker 1: foot underneath the basket with the massive human towering over him,
Speaker 1: and he just kind of like chicken winged them and
Speaker 1: stuck his arm out and and made that little scoop shot.
Speaker 1: But tonight he was all over the place defensively as well,
Speaker 1: blowing stuff up and causing problems. Did I thought he
Speaker 1: did a pretty good job chasing, but he healed around
Speaker 1: when he had to and I know open he shot amazing,
Speaker 1: but he healed. His game was more of like I
Speaker 1: made a couple of easy ones early and then I
Speaker 1: got crazy hot started making the tough ones, which is
Speaker 1: something we talked about a lot. But point being th HD,
Speaker 1: he's not gonna be like this every night because he's
Speaker 1: a young player, and consistency is the number one thing
Speaker 1: that young players struggle with because they're bad at replicating
Speaker 1: what they're good at and minimizing what they're bad at.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna see some more bad th HD in
Speaker 1: the near future, I'm sure. But this is a lot
Speaker 1: of what you saw tonight. Translates. This wasn't just oh
Speaker 1: he made shots tonight, No, that's not what this was.
Speaker 1: Stuff that he did is stuff that's easy to replicate.
Speaker 1: His ability to finish around the basket when he's given
Speaker 1: space to operate, when he's confident and using his strength
Speaker 1: to his advantage, that will work as long as he's
Speaker 1: in the league. A lot of those little floaters and
Speaker 1: scoops and stuff around the basket, those are pretty high
Speaker 1: percentage shots for a guy like th HT. This isn't
Speaker 1: a guy that's going out there taking a ton of
Speaker 1: jump shots. That's not that's not his game. Uh. If
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, he only made one three tonight, so
Speaker 1: it's not like he was out there bombing away from three.
Speaker 1: And then obviously everything he does defensively that absolutely translates forward.
Speaker 1: So this is why I've been so optimistic about th ht.
Speaker 1: This stuff that you saw tonight, that's replicable, that can
Speaker 1: be done over and over again soon, and so that's
Speaker 1: why I've I've been such a believer in what he does.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. It's really this simple. If sometime
Speaker 1: before January, if he can consistently do this, meaning if
Speaker 1: he can, I won't even say January fifteenth, I'll just
Speaker 1: say the trade deadline, because the Lakers can obviously kick
Speaker 1: the can down the road if you're not ready to
Speaker 1: make that decision. But if he can get to a
Speaker 1: point where two out of three nights he's pretty impactful
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor, I don't want Jeremy Grant.
Speaker 1: I want th D because because because this is an
Speaker 1: impactful basketball player who projects to get better and better
Speaker 1: each year. But if it's clear that he's still a
Speaker 1: couple of years away from getting to the point where
Speaker 1: he can consistently have this type of two way impact,
Speaker 1: then you have to make the move, which, for the record,
Speaker 1: roads just exactly what I said a couple of months ago.
Speaker 1: Things just got complicated by the a D injury and now,
Speaker 1: like we talked about adding the leak monk thing in there.
Speaker 1: But you know, Teach, he's a really good basketball player
Speaker 1: and so that's gonna be an interesting decision the Lakers
Speaker 1: are gonna have they have to make now. My prediction
Speaker 1: is that tonight is somewhat of an outlier, that he
Speaker 1: will have more limited games than games like this, and
Speaker 1: the Lakers will end up moving him. But I'm glad
Speaker 1: she had a game like tonight where he put together
Speaker 1: a lot of those things that he does well into
Speaker 1: one night, so people can kind of see why I've
Speaker 1: been so optimistic about him. Yeah, and to your point,
Speaker 1: really quickly, um, leak monk, not note monk. I think.
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel said that he felt like both Dwight and
Speaker 1: Taylor looked like they broke out after struggling physically from COVID,
Speaker 1: so that could, you know, be a part of it
Speaker 1: as well. I thought, you know, Taylor, this is the
Speaker 1: third trade game where he came off the bench, and
Speaker 1: I think that really helped him. I always said that
Speaker 1: him playing with both Russ and Lebron was a little
Speaker 1: bit of a struggle. You pair that with how many
Speaker 1: minutes he played next to DeAndre Jordan's as well, like
Speaker 1: he was just never in lineup that kind of were
Speaker 1: conductive to him. But even with all that said, he
Speaker 1: needs a guy to have somewhat of a jumper to me, like,
Speaker 1: he doesn't have to have a good jump shot. It
Speaker 1: can be below average, but it has to be something
Speaker 1: the teams at least respect. And I thought, you know, tonight,
Speaker 1: he had a few he hit his He had like
Speaker 1: a mid range pull up or something like that and that,
Speaker 1: and he had a few layups at the rim. He
Speaker 1: was able to attack Alex Land off the dribble. I
Speaker 1: thought playing him with Dwight was a nice thing. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you've noticed that as well. I thought
Speaker 1: giving him a big screener was just nice. And the
Speaker 1: King's kind of run a drop back coverage because Alex
Speaker 1: Lan obviously yeah advantage, yeah exactly, And we got him,
Speaker 1: you know, getting downhill and he missed a layoup, a
Speaker 1: couple of layers, but he got to the rim, he
Speaker 1: got he got to be he was able to be
Speaker 1: physical at the basket, and that's just stuff he can do.
Speaker 1: He saw his footwork kind of come into play as well.
Speaker 1: And defensively, man, he was. I thought he was really good.
Speaker 1: I thought his health defense was nice. His wingsman came
Speaker 1: into play um on the pick and roll defense where
Speaker 1: he knocked away a bunch of balls where he was
Speaker 1: the help guy helping the helper on the roll. Man.
Speaker 1: He was good tonight. And again, you're not gonna see
Speaker 1: the point point level that it was tonight. You don't
Speaker 1: have to see that. You just need a little bit
Speaker 1: more finishing at the rim. I still want him to
Speaker 1: shoot his open threes. I think he's a better shooter,
Speaker 1: way better shot than he showed. I don't think he's
Speaker 1: like the worst shooter in the league, which is the
Speaker 1: percentages that he's kind of throwing up right now. He's
Speaker 1: been in his head and maybe the physical stuff is
Speaker 1: what it is. The trade stuff. Like again, I'm a
Speaker 1: guy who doesn't really like to get into that. That's
Speaker 1: gonna be an interesting topic for the next few weeks.
Speaker 1: We'll see if that that manifests into anything. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think thh is important for this team.
Speaker 1: He's the second he's the second only non minimum player.
Speaker 1: The other guy, obviously Kendrick Not hasn't played, and she's
Speaker 1: the guy they've invested in, put a lot of money
Speaker 1: into him as well. We'll see if that kind of
Speaker 1: bears out and he plays a lot and he plays better.
Speaker 1: But I thought him coming off the bench is huge, man.
Speaker 1: I think that just gives him a little bit more
Speaker 1: freedom to kind of run actions They let him is
Speaker 1: so as well we run on, we run him off
Speaker 1: a little pin downs to kind of get him, get
Speaker 1: him going downhill, um, just him catching and be able
Speaker 1: to go to the basket. I still wish he uses
Speaker 1: his left hand a little bit more. He still does
Speaker 1: a lot of flip shots that kind of missed all
Speaker 1: but he's a confident him and I think he'll he'll
Speaker 1: figure it out and this is kind of the blueprint
Speaker 1: for him. And obviously that turnaround jumper he had again tonight,
Speaker 1: that's kind of his go to shot. It's been airballing
Speaker 1: a lot recently, but that was the shot he was
Speaker 1: making I think last year, and we'll see if that continue.
Speaker 1: But it was a good game I don't expect this
Speaker 1: every night, like you talked about, but it's kind of
Speaker 1: the blueprint for him attack the basket, you know, when
Speaker 1: when he gets his minutes, I like his minutes not
Speaker 1: next to both Russ and Lebron. I think you're seeing
Speaker 1: the kind of fruit of that. Yeah, that's exactly what
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, is getting him where Lebron
Speaker 1: or Russ are off the floors that he can kind
Speaker 1: of actually feel free being aggressive, because that's that's really
Speaker 1: the hard part of it, right, is like how do
Speaker 1: you feel confident as a young offensive basketball player when
Speaker 1: that's Lebron and Russ standing off the ball? Like that's tough,
Speaker 1: you know. But if if one of them is off
Speaker 1: and then the other guy, Lebron is kind of like
Speaker 1: desperate for somebody other than him to make a play,
Speaker 1: then there you go. There's your opportunity. But I wanted
Speaker 1: to quickly before we call it a night here, I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about Stanley Johnson for a second because
Speaker 1: this has been somewhat of a uh a kind of
Speaker 1: a confusing situation for me. So first, starter's upfront. I
Speaker 1: understand the financial predicament that the Lakers are in, I
Speaker 1: understand that Jennie Buss doesn't have a ton of money.
Speaker 1: I understand the fact that saving a few hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars here or there because of the compounding effects of
Speaker 1: the luxury tax are pretty significant. But I also understand
Speaker 1: that the Lakers haven't had a huge problem with continuity
Speaker 1: this season. I understand that the Lakers have struggled all
Speaker 1: season with having somebody on the wing who does the
Speaker 1: dirty work, who has some good size and athleticism. Those
Speaker 1: two things, to me, are very very much relevant here,
Speaker 1: even as we consider the financial ramifications of potentially signing
Speaker 1: another basketball player on this team. And what bothers me is,
Speaker 1: given that lack of continuity, the fact that we were
Speaker 1: willing to let a player miss a practice, miss a game,
Speaker 1: even though he's been what raj our fourth or fifth
Speaker 1: best player over the course of the last ten days.
Speaker 1: He was starting. He was starting. He was starting a
Speaker 1: starter for us who was our fourth or fifth best player,
Speaker 1: legitimately gave us a chance to win on Christmas Day
Speaker 1: when I didn't think we did have a chance. This
Speaker 1: is a good basketball player that fills a very specific
Speaker 1: need for the Lakers, and the Lakers are playing a
Speaker 1: weird financial game with him right now. And quite frankly,
Speaker 1: this is where the basketball gods get involved here, because again,
Speaker 1: this might all be written in there where they're like, Hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna wake up tomorrow, it's January five, We're gonna
Speaker 1: sign Stanley. But I think this is just bad process.
Speaker 1: And if I was Stanley Johnson, I would feel insulted
Speaker 1: because given everything that he's brought to the table over
Speaker 1: the last ten days, to do something like this, to
Speaker 1: just try to pinch pennies, like if they signed him
Speaker 1: to another ten day contract, that that, to me is
Speaker 1: insulting to Stanley. Do you have used for Stanley? Yes? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: he's been your fourth or fifth best player over the
Speaker 1: course of the last ten days. Is Stanley an asset? No,
Speaker 1: not necessarily, but on a minimum contract. He's shown enough
Speaker 1: over the last ten days that if he did get
Speaker 1: thrown into a trade, there's gonna be someone out there
Speaker 1: who would want him. I guarantee you he's proved over
Speaker 1: the last ten days that he's an NBA player, Okay,
Speaker 1: like not a guy who should be on on his
Speaker 1: couch or playing in the G League. So I just
Speaker 1: don't see the I don't understand the rationale of pinching
Speaker 1: pennies to this extent, Like even with Alex Caruso, it
Speaker 1: made more sense to me, which I hated the Alex
Speaker 1: Crusoe decision, but at least you could tell me, like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're talking about thirty million dollars here right, Like that
Speaker 1: was an entirely different type of math equation. You're talking
Speaker 1: we're talking about a very small amount of money relatively
Speaker 1: right now that we are pinching and missing a player
Speaker 1: for for for a game, especially game like tonight where
Speaker 1: energy was an issue. Stanley would have been a big
Speaker 1: help tonight, And I just I just don't understand it,
Speaker 1: and it to me, it's it's it's a difficult process
Speaker 1: as a fan of the team to try to justify Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, that's the human human element of it. And obviously,
Speaker 1: for Stanley Johnson, you would like the full roster, but
Speaker 1: you know, I always go to other guys for this,
Speaker 1: and Eric Pinkins obviously, who does a great job with
Speaker 1: the cap stuff, and we're lucky to kind of have
Speaker 1: him be one of the Lakers, you know, be do
Speaker 1: so much for the Lakers in terms of letting us
Speaker 1: understand this stuff. He says, it's more for flexibility kind
Speaker 1: of concerns instead of tax. It's not really a tax thing.
Speaker 1: It's that, you know, if they want to have a trade,
Speaker 1: maybe a trade maybe won't go down by tomorrow, but
Speaker 1: just to have the roster roster spot. Me and you
Speaker 1: both thought that trading Rondo was the roster spot to
Speaker 1: get Stanley Johnson on the team. That's obviously wasn't correct. Um,
Speaker 1: they just opened up a roster spot and they can
Speaker 1: sign Stanley Johnson again tomorrow to another ten day which
Speaker 1: looks which looks like this is what's gonna happen. Um,
Speaker 1: hopefully Santy john I don't know. I don't think he'll
Speaker 1: get signed to a team before then, and I think
Speaker 1: David mcmaniman also said that they have mutual interest to
Speaker 1: come back, So this is probably all going to work out.
Speaker 1: But you're right, you know, this isn't great process. You'd like,
Speaker 1: you know, a guy who's kind of started for his
Speaker 1: tenure here. I think he started more games that he's
Speaker 1: come off the bench, if I have that correct. Um,
Speaker 1: he's I believe. So you would like a guy like
Speaker 1: that to you know, have earned a roster spot. But
Speaker 1: that's just not how it works. They obviously want the
Speaker 1: flexibility to be able to keep a roster proud open,
Speaker 1: and I think that's more what it is as well.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's saving money as much, which obviously
Speaker 1: they will. They also they also save money, I believe
Speaker 1: in the Rondo trade as well, but again that's neither
Speaker 1: here and there. I think this is more to key
Speaker 1: flexibility as well. Like Eric, Eric Pink has talked about,
Speaker 1: UM so we'll see, but hopefully he's back. He's definitely
Speaker 1: earned a spot. He's been great. He's been a power forward,
Speaker 1: a power wing that this team has desperately needed. You've
Speaker 1: talked about it's bad process. Probably you know, to just
Speaker 1: let him sit out there, miss practice, missed the game.
Speaker 1: You know, you start three games then you just miss.
Speaker 1: You just missed. To be resigned to another ten day.
Speaker 1: It's not great. You would like him to have earned
Speaker 1: that spot, but it just looks like what it's going
Speaker 1: to be. Hopefully after the second ten day they do
Speaker 1: eventually sign him. Hopefully they maybe they cut someone else
Speaker 1: will We'll see what happens. But I think that's more
Speaker 1: what it is as well. At least that's what Eric
Speaker 1: winkis believes it to be. But you're this isn't a
Speaker 1: great process. You want a guy who's who's played well
Speaker 1: to earn a spot on the team, for sure. So Roger,
Speaker 1: you're my guy, and I appreciate your perspective, but I'm
Speaker 1: gonna call BS on you, well, not on you, but
Speaker 1: on me, not even on Eric Pinkus, but just on
Speaker 1: the idea that the Lakers are valuing the roster spot
Speaker 1: because they could the rock. The Lakers could create a
Speaker 1: roster spot anytime they want. The the DeAndre Jordan contract
Speaker 1: because it was fully guaranteed. That money's lost, it's gone,
Speaker 1: it's into the ether of of of whatever NBA salary
Speaker 1: Captain Land is h If you have no intention of
Speaker 1: playing down to Jordan against the season, which appears to
Speaker 1: be the case, cut his ass, cut him, get him
Speaker 1: out of there, and if you do, bam open roster spot.
Speaker 1: That okay. I understand that you don't like the idea
Speaker 1: potentially of having a player that you invested in on
Speaker 1: the streets, but it's clear that he has. He barely
Speaker 1: made sense when we were trying to play big. He
Speaker 1: certainly doesn't make sense with our current style of play.
Speaker 1: So I think and just in general, man like, with
Speaker 1: this kind of stuff, you can you can find somebody
Speaker 1: out there to help you facilitate just about anything. I mean,
Speaker 1: look at the was it at the Wizards who helped
Speaker 1: us facilitate getting that third max slot when we were
Speaker 1: going after Kauai. It's like you know when when everybody
Speaker 1: in the league, when all those guys are like, oh,
Speaker 1: they can't do it, there's no way they're gonna get it,
Speaker 1: Well guess what they did. Like you, you can like
Speaker 1: kind of finagle this stuff if you're if you're diligent
Speaker 1: enough about it as a front office. And so the
Speaker 1: way I look at it as all of this is
Speaker 1: smoking mirrors to cover for yet another example of penny
Speaker 1: pinching from the Lakers recently. And again this to me,
Speaker 1: this specific instance is absolutely insane because again we're not
Speaker 1: talking about a thirty million dollar commitment like it would
Speaker 1: cost to retain Alex Caruso. We are literally talking about
Speaker 1: out I'm pretty sure for his years of service and
Speaker 1: for him being this far into the season, and for
Speaker 1: it being pro rated for a veteran minimum deal to
Speaker 1: guarantee Stanley Johnson to come back, I'm pretty sure it's
Speaker 1: a very small number, and I think it's under a million.
Speaker 1: So even with luxury tax, even with UH you know,
Speaker 1: factoring an extra couple of days to to bring him back.
Speaker 1: I think this is just to to literally get a
Speaker 1: guy to willingly subject yourself to another starting lineup, a
Speaker 1: flip over to another UH day where one of your
Speaker 1: important swing men is missing practice and missing a game.
Speaker 1: This is just I think it's unacceptable personally, And I
Speaker 1: understand some people disagree with me and look man like like,
Speaker 1: I I appreciate your perspective, and I'm not saying you're
Speaker 1: wrong necessarily, I'm just saying I I I struggle to
Speaker 1: see that rationale. I you're know, you're right in like
Speaker 1: a vacuum, like in a right world, Stanley Johnson would
Speaker 1: be on the team. But you know, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: You're gonna aid me for this one as well. You
Speaker 1: can call BS on this one as well, but I
Speaker 1: believe you know. Eric Winton's pink is kind of talked
Speaker 1: about the deandr Dornan situation as well. He said, there's
Speaker 1: no need to cut him when you can kind of
Speaker 1: use him for salary filler. It's not much salary, but
Speaker 1: using for salary filler in the trade. And again if
Speaker 1: that time comes where you can then you can cut
Speaker 1: him later. And again it looks like it's going that direction,
Speaker 1: right Deandi Jordan has not played We're going to no
Speaker 1: center plus or one center lineups, and he's been so
Speaker 1: far out the rotation for this long. It looks like
Speaker 1: that's where and going where it's going. Uh it's funny
Speaker 1: because you keep you bring up the Carusoe stuff. To me,
Speaker 1: that is the more unacceptable thing. I don't care the
Speaker 1: luxury text, you know, savings and stuff like that. Ask Cruso.
Speaker 1: You you sign him and then you trade him later
Speaker 1: if you have to, or you do what you know,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, you don't let a guy
Speaker 1: that you've built up. And I've gone into Cruso too much.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna rent again on Caruso. To me, that's
Speaker 1: more of a uh an offense than this. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it looks like Stanley Johnson is going to get signed though,
Speaker 1: back with the team. So this looks like it will
Speaker 1: go go. You know, the process will work out, even
Speaker 1: if it is in great process. But you're entitled to that.
Speaker 1: You know. I'm not in the office. I don't know
Speaker 1: the inner workings the exact situation, but I believe that's
Speaker 1: eventually what's going to happen. Though Santay Johnson will be
Speaker 1: back on another ten day. Hopefully he gets resigned again.
Speaker 1: You would like him to have the roster spot now,
Speaker 1: but it looks like they're going to keep it open
Speaker 1: for now, so we'll see how it goes. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I can't change your mind on that.
Speaker 1: I'm just going by what you know, people who kind
Speaker 1: of who talk about this, what they kind of believe
Speaker 1: be You're allowed to believe that it's it's for savings
Speaker 1: as well well. But we'll see if Stanley Johnson doesn't
Speaker 1: make you know, it doesn't if he doesn't pass the
Speaker 1: second ten day, we can come back and have this
Speaker 1: conversation again. But but hopefully he does. For sure, I
Speaker 1: get I get the idea of retaining and for salary Ballace.
Speaker 1: My point is is like you could cut him if
Speaker 1: you needed to. So if you're in if you're in
Speaker 1: the trade market and your trade dictates that you need
Speaker 1: salary filler, Bam, there's DeAndre Jordan's and get what they're
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson. If you have no room for him on
Speaker 1: the wing, and maybe if the team is like, hey,
Speaker 1: I want him in the deal, then saying there you go,
Speaker 1: there's an asset, right, Or if you're in a situation
Speaker 1: where you're making a trade and you need roster spots,
Speaker 1: like let's say it's break class in case of emergency
Speaker 1: and we're trading in Russell Westbrook came from bringing back
Speaker 1: a twenty million dollar guy, AI million dollar guy and
Speaker 1: the twenty million dollar guy or whatever, then yeah, we
Speaker 1: would need to cut somebody, but you have you have
Speaker 1: that permanent flexibility. Like what I disagreed with was like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're we're not signing Stanley Johnson yet because we we
Speaker 1: might need this open roster spot. No, no, no, if
Speaker 1: you actually needed an open roster spot in a predicament,
Speaker 1: you can literally create when in a moment's notice, So
Speaker 1: that that's where I I juste But yeah, but like regardless,
Speaker 1: no matter what, Like I just don't like playing with
Speaker 1: fate on this kind of the stuff, on this kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, right, because if you look at this, if
Speaker 1: you look at this Laker predicament, like part of what
Speaker 1: happened this summer is we traded a lot of depth
Speaker 1: for Russell Westbrook. Right now, what happened by the grace
Speaker 1: of our scouting department and just some good luck. We've
Speaker 1: had some hits, right, like Austin Reeves bam, that fills
Speaker 1: in some of that depth that we lost, right, like
Speaker 1: Malik Monk being a betteran minimum guy who, by the way,
Speaker 1: somehow no one in the league offered a contract like
Speaker 1: what in the world, but like but like Malik Monk materializing,
Speaker 1: and then Stanley Johnson literally from your G league team
Speaker 1: to come up and be a very very important basketball
Speaker 1: player for you over the last two days, Like you've
Speaker 1: come into a stroke of luck here where now the
Speaker 1: only concerns about the rust thing are genuinely just fit,
Speaker 1: you know, like is this going to work in the playoffs?
Speaker 1: But the death thing really isn't a concern anymore. We
Speaker 1: have depth. We through Austin Reeves, through Malik Monk, through
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson, we've recreated at least a significant portion of
Speaker 1: what Kuzma and KCP brought to the table. Right we
Speaker 1: have now. Whether or not that one of those groups
Speaker 1: is better than the other, that can be argued by
Speaker 1: someone else. But my point is is you have somehow
Speaker 1: tripped and fallen into getting some of the best of
Speaker 1: both worlds here. If your desire was to have Russ,
Speaker 1: so why would you play with that by by playing
Speaker 1: this game with Stanley Johnson over a couple hundred thousand
Speaker 1: bucks Like that, to me is just foolishness, But it
Speaker 1: is what it is. That I that's all I had
Speaker 1: for the night, Roger, was there anything else you want
Speaker 1: to hit on before we get out of here? Uh? No,
Speaker 1: I think that was pretty much it. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if we did shout it out, I don't remember, but
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook no turnovers tonight. I think that's you know,
Speaker 1: I think that's great. I think we only have like
Speaker 1: five as a team. So again we talked about the
Speaker 1: misshots there, but no turnovers. That's a positive here. Uh
Speaker 1: and you know, the Kings play some pretty good premiery defenders.
Speaker 1: Davian Mitchell. To me, we didn't get to him either.
Speaker 1: He's he's special. I think he's gonna be an awesome,
Speaker 1: you know, defender player in this league. But yeah, no turnovers,
Speaker 1: prop Uss. Hopefully that kind of keeps up. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all I had as one man. Cool. Yeah, and look,
Speaker 1: Russ again, I'm glad he had no turnovers tonight, but
Speaker 1: let's I want to see him show a consistent commitment
Speaker 1: to that part of his game. I was. I did
Speaker 1: a little rant for on this for my Twitter page,
Speaker 1: but like you know, the idea of Russ being Russ,
Speaker 1: there's a limitation to that on this team, in his
Speaker 1: specific role. I actually think he needs to change in
Speaker 1: some ways. That doesn't mean, hey, Russ stop driving to
Speaker 1: the basket now, That's not it at all. That's not
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I'm not saying Russ stop being aggressive.
Speaker 1: It's just Russ does need to change in the sense
Speaker 1: that he does need to devote more attention and effort
Speaker 1: towards cleaning up some of the margins of his game.
Speaker 1: Because when he was younger and more athletic, you know,
Speaker 1: he had the ability to overcome a lot more of
Speaker 1: his mistakes than he does now. So he actually does
Speaker 1: actually need to change. And and so it's it's not
Speaker 1: a matter of of you know, trying to get out
Speaker 1: of Russ's way and let rusty Russ. It's about Russ
Speaker 1: does have to try to fit in a little bit more.
Speaker 1: I think. Um, But that's like, yes, tonight, big positive step.
Speaker 1: It's not easy to get zero turnovers the game, especially
Speaker 1: with Dave on Mitchell's up in your air space all
Speaker 1: night long. Yep, and I think it is his first
Speaker 1: zero I read him. Let me see if I can
Speaker 1: go to the tweet first turn first zero turnover games
Speaker 1: since the March fourteen, two thousand sixteen wow, which which
Speaker 1: is you know, quite a quite a while. So this
Speaker 1: is good to see. We probably most players don't get
Speaker 1: no turnovers with the ball handling that Russ has obviously
Speaker 1: gets more than most players. But yeah, it's a good
Speaker 1: good thing to kind of celebrate. Hopefully it's something we
Speaker 1: get going forward as well. All Right, everybody, thank you
Speaker 1: guys so much for coming to hang out. This is
Speaker 1: going to air on DASH Radio tomorrow morning at seven
Speaker 1: am Pacific Standard time, and we'll be on our podcast
Speaker 1: feed here in about twenty minutes or so. Thank you
Speaker 1: guys as always for your support for rocking with Roger,
Speaker 1: and I'm excited to see what we got for the
Speaker 1: rest of the season. I believe we play again on
Speaker 1: Friday night, if I'm not mistaken at eight I think, um,
Speaker 1: so we will see you guys for the postgame show
Speaker 1: then appreciate your own thanks,