Speaker 1: Mmmm, Welcome to the Jason Tin Podcast. Thank you guys
Speaker 1: so much for taking time out of your Friday to
Speaker 1: hang out with Roger and I. Roger, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for taking time before work today to come hang
Speaker 1: out with me and talk about some Lakers. How you
Speaker 1: doing man? Oh? Well man? Uh so early on the
Speaker 1: California coast, but yeah, thank for having me. I know,
Speaker 1: it's it's so much easier for me to make this
Speaker 1: stuff work because I'm in Arizona some an hour behind you, guys,
Speaker 1: So every time I link up with somebody from California,
Speaker 1: it's a little bit easier for me. Um. I thought
Speaker 1: you were the perfect person to have on today because
Speaker 1: I think, honestly like anybody who's been watching the Lakers
Speaker 1: lately is gonna be frustrated with what they've seen, even
Speaker 1: even though I talked about before the game last night
Speaker 1: that I thought it was kind of a throw away, Um,
Speaker 1: just as a result of the obvious circumstances that both
Speaker 1: teams were going through. Uh, there are some lingering problems,
Speaker 1: and so we're gonna talk. We're gonna talk about that today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about the Laker offense. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about what this team looks like without Anthony Davis, what
Speaker 1: they need to do to succeed, and just kind of
Speaker 1: touch all the bases. But I wanted to start with
Speaker 1: the offense because last night, you know, obviously they made
Speaker 1: a Brooklyn Nets defense that's terrible of Brooklyn. Brooklyn Nets
Speaker 1: defense that since the Harden trade is dead last and
Speaker 1: points alloud in the paint, a team that and just
Speaker 1: about every other team in the league has been lighting
Speaker 1: it up against um A friend of mine on Twitter
Speaker 1: who post lines I want to say, like they were
Speaker 1: seventeen of their last twenty games they went over on
Speaker 1: the over under and uh, just for the game, like
Speaker 1: it's always a boat race with those guys. And then
Speaker 1: last night's game looked like an old Eastern Conference playoff games,
Speaker 1: so it was it was definitely really strange. But going
Speaker 1: into last night, even if you throw away that game,
Speaker 1: over the last fifteen games, they were twenty second in offense. Uh.
Speaker 1: So that's where I want to start today. It's just
Speaker 1: kind of talking about like the reasons why things have
Speaker 1: been kind of stagnant and ugly on that end of
Speaker 1: the ball, especially giving the level of talent that this
Speaker 1: team hass So what's your what what is your diagnosis
Speaker 1: for what's going on with the Laker offense. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: feels like the sum is less than the whole of
Speaker 1: the parts, right, Like they have a lot of great
Speaker 1: offensive talent, it's just not fitting correctly yet. I think
Speaker 1: that's a product mainly to Anthony Davis not being himself.
Speaker 1: I think Davis obviously, even before he went down, it
Speaker 1: felt like he wasn't at his top gear. He's not
Speaker 1: playing at his best, and really Shrewder relies on that.
Speaker 1: Lebron has been caring. Obviously, he's been great, he's been
Speaker 1: at he I think he had a great game last
Speaker 1: night too, But when you have him the only one going,
Speaker 1: k c P has been struggling, and the shock creation
Speaker 1: just isn't there, especially you see when he gets out
Speaker 1: of the game. I mean last night's a throwaway. Obviously
Speaker 1: there's not many people playing, but even before last night,
Speaker 1: when he comes out, the offense just creators, especially when
Speaker 1: there's no Shrewder. And then THHD obviously has taken a
Speaker 1: step back, which is expected. You weren't gonna expect him
Speaker 1: to be a high level NBA player the whole season,
Speaker 1: and but I think that's the main reason why this
Speaker 1: offense just looks slow. Marcusol started to hit his threes,
Speaker 1: but before that he's been almost a liability on offense
Speaker 1: pretty much people aren't guarding him, and now people are
Speaker 1: not guarding KCP, which is a little worrisome. For now.
Speaker 1: I think, I think this whole team just needs the
Speaker 1: All Star Break, which is a little worrisome because the
Speaker 1: All Star Break is still like eight games away. So, um,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of a long way. It's it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a trend here. But like you said, the offense
Speaker 1: has really been struggling. The defense somehow, it's still at first,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's um it's dropped a little bit
Speaker 1: for the last ten games, but um it's still ranked
Speaker 1: number one, which is surprising. So that's a good thing
Speaker 1: to see. But yeah, the offense has really has really
Speaker 1: been tough without without eighties production, and Shrewder has been
Speaker 1: up and down. He started to pick it up and
Speaker 1: I think he was out with the COVID protocols, so
Speaker 1: that really that really messed him up last night and
Speaker 1: against the team like Brooklyn, Man, they they're gonna give
Speaker 1: you open shots, and I felt like we missed a
Speaker 1: bunch of them. Casey, he missed a bunch of them. Um,
Speaker 1: and then Caruso couldn't hit it three as well. So
Speaker 1: Matthews also, I think went over on his shot last week.
Speaker 1: Do we have any news on the shoulder thing at
Speaker 1: all as to what happened? Was it a close contact,
Speaker 1: was it a positive test? We have no information on that.
Speaker 1: I don't believe we do. But if it was a
Speaker 1: positive test, I feel like he wouldn't be the only
Speaker 1: one that's out. And I was thinking too, Yeah, So
Speaker 1: I don't think we have any news on that. And
Speaker 1: you know how this goes. I mean, the NBA is
Speaker 1: going to take their time with this COVID protocol stuff,
Speaker 1: so we we're not sure. And Anthony Davis, I think
Speaker 1: I ruled out for another four for four weeks, which
Speaker 1: puts him, Yeah, but that puts him a little bit
Speaker 1: after the All Star break as well a couple of games.
Speaker 1: So hopefully we get him back back healthy to get
Speaker 1: this offense. How may again, So the main comparison that
Speaker 1: I've been making, uh, you know, to be clear, I
Speaker 1: always you you're aware of this. Everybody who follow follows
Speaker 1: me is aware of this. I'm a huge believer in
Speaker 1: this team, and I'm an optimist with them, and uh
Speaker 1: I even at the darkest points of last year, I
Speaker 1: maintained that optimism just because I really believed in the
Speaker 1: way that they were put together. And this stretch of
Speaker 1: games that they're going through right now reminds me so
Speaker 1: much of the seeding games in the Bubble. And I
Speaker 1: talked about this a lot last night, But like so,
Speaker 1: if you remember the seeding games in the Bubble, there
Speaker 1: was nobody in the crowd. It was the first time
Speaker 1: they were playing without fans. Um they had absolutely no
Speaker 1: stakes because they weren't really worried about seeding. Now, you
Speaker 1: could argue that there's a little bit more of that
Speaker 1: type of urgency in this in this season, but I
Speaker 1: don't think the Lakers are particularly scared of any sort
Speaker 1: of playoff path through the Western Conference. Um. And then
Speaker 1: in addition to that, they went unbelievably cold from three
Speaker 1: And I just want to read some of these numbers
Speaker 1: to you, because this is crazy. These are some shooting
Speaker 1: numbers from Lakers over the last fifteen games. Contabuous called
Speaker 1: well Pope, Kyle Kuzma, p Alex cruzoent Dennis Shroeder, Talent
Speaker 1: Horton Tucker, and a d You only played ten games
Speaker 1: in that fifteen game stretch eighteen percent from three. And
Speaker 1: you know, I I this kind of thing is like
Speaker 1: a cascading effect, Like it's one thing that kind of
Speaker 1: leads to another thing that leads to another thing. Like
Speaker 1: you know, the the lack of of shooting has caused
Speaker 1: teams to pack the paint, which has caused guys who
Speaker 1: attacked the basketball lot like talent Horton Tucker to start
Speaker 1: to struggle. You know, KCP has always been really good
Speaker 1: at attacking close outs. All of a sudden, guys aren't
Speaker 1: closing out his hard on him, so it starts to
Speaker 1: affect his game. You know, Anthony Davis, like his ability
Speaker 1: to shoot the ball is such an important part of
Speaker 1: his game, and and I really do think that it
Speaker 1: just kind of waterfalls into all of these different things.
Speaker 1: Even Lebron, who shop the ball really well to start
Speaker 1: the year, is down to thirty six over his last
Speaker 1: fifteen games, so which is okay, but it's not it's
Speaker 1: not great, but I think it's But if you remember
Speaker 1: in the seating games, even despite all of that stuff,
Speaker 1: their competitive nature kicked in in the form of them defending.
Speaker 1: Because even in the seating games, when there was nothing
Speaker 1: else going good for the Lakers, they were locking up
Speaker 1: and it was which was weird. And so I think
Speaker 1: that's kind of like the way this team is wired
Speaker 1: is like when the offense slips, they just lock up. Now,
Speaker 1: last night was a weird example, and that was the
Speaker 1: weird part to me because and this is the next
Speaker 1: thing I wanted to touch on, was, you know, I
Speaker 1: talk all the time about how I think the Laker
Speaker 1: defense is predicated on these guards pressuring on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: but they're they're comfortable in the chaos. You know, We've
Speaker 1: talked about it a hundred times. And I was really
Speaker 1: disappointed last night in Caruso and KCP and UH and
Speaker 1: West Matthews and and th h T for just just
Speaker 1: being a step slow in all those rotations and in
Speaker 1: all the chaos. It didn't it didn't look like them.
Speaker 1: I mean, did you agree with what what I'm talking
Speaker 1: about from last night? Yeah, So, like this team without
Speaker 1: the rim protection is really reliant on like having chemistry
Speaker 1: and being on the same page defensively, speed beating guy's position.
Speaker 1: And last night, like like you said they were just
Speaker 1: not on the same page. And also they had a
Speaker 1: lot of lineups that just never played together. Um, you
Speaker 1: had Quinn cooking in the second quarter. Um th HD
Speaker 1: I thought was horrible off ball last night he was
Speaker 1: ball watching. Um he left Joe Harris like five straight
Speaker 1: times to go to go help on a on a
Speaker 1: drive that just was not necessary. And uh yeah, k
Speaker 1: CP looked really a step slow, especially on Kyrie. Um
Speaker 1: he tried to chase him around. So yeah, like all
Speaker 1: the guards just do not play well. I thought Crusoe
Speaker 1: did okay on Hardened like I thought he did his
Speaker 1: job in isolation, but um for the most part. But
Speaker 1: other than that, Yeah, the Cards just really struggled. And
Speaker 1: for this team, like they're not gonna stop guys at
Speaker 1: the rim, like marcusol is just not gonna stop. Even
Speaker 1: Jeff Green put him, put him in the paint like
Speaker 1: a shot over him. But uh yeah, for this team,
Speaker 1: they really need the guards. Like on the same page,
Speaker 1: when you have line up said just have not played together,
Speaker 1: and they just they just do not They just can't
Speaker 1: defend the same way. Um without without those guys on
Speaker 1: the same page. M hmm, you know, I agree and
Speaker 1: and like there's a you know, there's there's a there's
Speaker 1: a math equation here. It's interesting with the Brooklyn nets
Speaker 1: h you know, having to do with their defense. So
Speaker 1: people will say things like uh. People will say things like, oh, well, uh,
Speaker 1: who cares as long as they outscore the other team.
Speaker 1: And there's some truth to that, because it's a basic
Speaker 1: scoreboard math equation, like your defense only needs to be
Speaker 1: as good as what it takes for your point differential
Speaker 1: to be good enough to beat these teams. That's what
Speaker 1: that's what you're like, common sense would tell you. But
Speaker 1: there's a reason why defense matters so much. There's a
Speaker 1: reason why, you know, there's that crazy top ten defense
Speaker 1: stat that everyone throws out every year. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: because Brian Windhorse had a podcast and Ramona Shelburn and
Speaker 1: and someone else was on I can't remember the other day,
Speaker 1: and they were basically confronted this issue, like what like,
Speaker 1: are we entering an era where defense no longer matters?
Speaker 1: And I thoroughly, I thoroughly disagree, because defense translates to
Speaker 1: the playoffs better than offense does because defense only depends
Speaker 1: on effort, offense depends on rhythm and feel and confidence
Speaker 1: and all of these other things, and defense only depends
Speaker 1: on effort. That's why that defense stat exists. That's why
Speaker 1: the Steve Nash sons were unable to win in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: That's that's why that sort of thing doesn't translate it.
Speaker 1: And so when I see the Lakers go out and
Speaker 1: dog it the way they did last night, I'm never
Speaker 1: overly concerned. I'm disappointed because as a fan, I want
Speaker 1: them to play better, but like I'm never concerned because
Speaker 1: when the chips are down, that team just dials it
Speaker 1: up and and the best example is that game five,
Speaker 1: in Game six against Miami last year, they come out
Speaker 1: and they're really lazy. In game five. I'm tweeting about
Speaker 1: it all games just complaining, like pulling my hair out,
Speaker 1: you know. Uh. Laker Film room goes in and and
Speaker 1: and post that thread of all those video clips of
Speaker 1: them just losing shooters in all game long. And then
Speaker 1: they come out the next game and it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: we're dialing this up, and all of a sudden they
Speaker 1: were getting stops. And so that's why I'm not worried
Speaker 1: about it. But I was definitely frustrated, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, it's crazy. I thought they actually defended enough
Speaker 1: last night where like if they made some shots, that
Speaker 1: would have been a game still, which is kind of
Speaker 1: insane because the math. The math problem was just I
Speaker 1: think someone tweeted like Joe Harris had like eight threes
Speaker 1: and the Lakers only attempted eleven or something like crazy
Speaker 1: number like that, where they were just getting destroyed in
Speaker 1: the math problem. Also the free throws. I thought, I
Speaker 1: think the next shot more free throws as well. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought they defended still enough to where if they
Speaker 1: made a couple of shots, um, that would go in.
Speaker 1: I agree with you on the defense part. My thing is,
Speaker 1: like the only pushback I have is that, um yeah,
Speaker 1: defense obviously matters on teams in the playoffs. It's just
Speaker 1: I think super teams like this are the exception. Like
Speaker 1: that's the point of having the three best isolation scorers
Speaker 1: or whatever in the history of the game, Hardened, Katie
Speaker 1: and uh Kyrie is just it's a level offense. I
Speaker 1: just think we haven't seen that kind of matches maybe
Speaker 1: the Golden State years, and that still wasn't isolation scoring.
Speaker 1: So I think they'll need defense. I just think like
Speaker 1: their defensive rating is needs to be taken into context,
Speaker 1: like will bring it up like they have a wet
Speaker 1: they have like the twenty seven defense or something some
Speaker 1: low defensiveount and to me that that number needs to
Speaker 1: be skewed in terms of context of like can you
Speaker 1: score one twenty with them? Like I look at the
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Bucks, who are actually really struggling right now. They're
Speaker 1: like in a five game losing streak. Can they keep up?
Speaker 1: Like can they score with Katie Harden and Kyrie in
Speaker 1: a consistent possession? Like will will they go cold? Because
Speaker 1: if you go cold like the Lakers last night, I
Speaker 1: went cold for four minutes, you can't do that against Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: You're gonna lose. Like they couldn't score for four straight
Speaker 1: minutures is unacceptable with the talent on this roster, even
Speaker 1: without the guys. But and that game was over. The
Speaker 1: Nets went up fifteen in that stretch. It was a
Speaker 1: close game, and then they went up fifteen and from
Speaker 1: there they were trying to fight back. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: that's where I only pushed back with this NETS team,
Speaker 1: Like I think they're like now eleven and one against
Speaker 1: teams above five hundred, which is kind of ridiculous that.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that means they're just dogging on
Speaker 1: on the bad teams. I don't watch enough of them,
Speaker 1: but yeah, like that, That's where I'm at with them, Like, obviously,
Speaker 1: do you need defense, They're gonna need to defend at
Speaker 1: a certain base point level. But this team is gonna
Speaker 1: just score the hell out of boll I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't trust Philly discover with the Milwaukee and then from
Speaker 1: there the East kind of drops down from there. I
Speaker 1: I am a believer in Brooklyn. Um. I've been a
Speaker 1: roller coaster with them this year because to start the
Speaker 1: season I picked them when they had Jaren Allen, Katie
Speaker 1: and Irie, and then after the Harden trade, I kind
Speaker 1: of got off of that train and now I'm back
Speaker 1: on and and the main reason why I and when
Speaker 1: I say back on, I mean I think they'll get
Speaker 1: out of the wet or the East. I still believe
Speaker 1: that the Lakers at full strength can beat that team
Speaker 1: for the record. Though, when Lebron was on the floor
Speaker 1: last night without Showder and a D it looked pretty
Speaker 1: good like they were competing with that team. And I
Speaker 1: know Katie wasn't playing either, but but that that they
Speaker 1: can compete with that team when Lebron's on the floor,
Speaker 1: and as long as they have shoulder in a D
Speaker 1: to lean on, I think it should be more competitive.
Speaker 1: But the reason why I believe in that team is,
Speaker 1: you know, say what you want about Kyrie and James Harden,
Speaker 1: they've both had stretches in their career where they have
Speaker 1: defended Jay Is in particular in two thousand eighteen, Pyrie
Speaker 1: in particular in two thousand sixteen, and all it took
Speaker 1: was all of them to kind of reach that level.
Speaker 1: And and last night you could see that they adopt
Speaker 1: a really basic switching scheme. They switch everything. They're willing
Speaker 1: to give up offensive rebounds, they're willing to give up
Speaker 1: enough stuff around the paint as long as they keep
Speaker 1: you in isolation so that there's no flow to your offense,
Speaker 1: so that there's no rhythm to your offense, and so
Speaker 1: that everyone's just a little uncomfortable. It's what the two
Speaker 1: eighteen Rockets did so well. And Kyrie and James Harden
Speaker 1: both are bought into that. Now. It took them getting
Speaker 1: their butts kicked by some bad teams, but they're both
Speaker 1: bought into that now. And and and you know Katie
Speaker 1: is not going to be less less bought in on
Speaker 1: that in them they are, so there's reason to believe
Speaker 1: that this could work. And so you know, I've come
Speaker 1: back around on them. I still think there's a pathway
Speaker 1: for Philly in l a the Lakers in particular, to
Speaker 1: beat them by by by not playing their game. You
Speaker 1: never want to play their game by just getting into
Speaker 1: an ISO contest, but rather by just bullying them around
Speaker 1: the rim they do. A guy like Ben Simmons and embiid,
Speaker 1: a guy like Lebron and a D are gonna that
Speaker 1: that kind of duo is gonna be able to put
Speaker 1: relentless pressure on the rim and kind of potentially swing
Speaker 1: that matchup. But yeah, I'm I'm a believer. I'm a
Speaker 1: believer in Brooklyn. Yeah. Um, so let's talk, Uh, let's
Speaker 1: talk about what this Laker team has to look like
Speaker 1: without a D because you know I talked about with
Speaker 1: Tommy on Wednesday's pod. You know, I'm a I'm a
Speaker 1: big I'm a big believer in uh, in the fact
Speaker 1: that this team isn't entirely a D dependent. I think
Speaker 1: that's been something that's been overstated over the years. You know,
Speaker 1: like Oh, Anthony Davis is here. They are a great defense.
Speaker 1: Oh Anthony Davis is here. That that kind of unlocks everything.
Speaker 1: That's not to say a D is not great. He
Speaker 1: absolutely is great. But this team is constructed around Lebron's
Speaker 1: playmaking and around elite defense, and their elite defense is
Speaker 1: structured around stuff that that a D helps a great deal,
Speaker 1: but they don't necessarily need. And they have a lot
Speaker 1: of NBA starter level players, like k c. P is
Speaker 1: an NBA starter level player, so is Dennis Well. Dennis
Speaker 1: is a really good starter. You know, Marcus Stolt is
Speaker 1: a starter level player. Kyle Kuzma as a starter level player.
Speaker 1: Wesley Matthews started last year for the best team in
Speaker 1: the NBA in the regular season. You know markiefmore not Markief.
Speaker 1: Montrese Harrold is a starter level player, so is Alex Cruzo.
Speaker 1: There is a lot of of talent on this roster.
Speaker 1: They didn't look like it last night. They played poorly,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of talent on this roster. So
Speaker 1: I'm a believer in the fact that they can not
Speaker 1: only float the ship without a D but that they
Speaker 1: can be really good. Uh So, so my question for
Speaker 1: you is like, you know, what is there, what is
Speaker 1: their pathway to like to competing for that one seed
Speaker 1: with a D out over this next month. Yeah, to me,
Speaker 1: it's mainly on the offensive end. Like obviously a D
Speaker 1: fixes the defense a lot. I thought last night, Like,
Speaker 1: obviously their effort wasn't there on defense, but when they
Speaker 1: want to. I think this is a guard oriented defensive
Speaker 1: team for the most part, and then a D kind
Speaker 1: of fixes things around that. A D is obviously the
Speaker 1: to me, is the best defensive player in the league,
Speaker 1: but this this thing is credic exactly. Yeah, and their
Speaker 1: defense is predicated on the guards flying around, creating turnovers,
Speaker 1: being aggressive. Um. I like when this team is aggressive.
Speaker 1: Treads last night for some reason, they had him again
Speaker 1: dropping back and it just doesn't help anything when he
Speaker 1: does that. UM I like him when he's aggressive up
Speaker 1: in a defensive stance, and you could tell. I think
Speaker 1: Treads really feeds off like the whole team, when the
Speaker 1: team is really locked in aggressive, he gets into that mode.
Speaker 1: And last night, also, they're gonna need Lebron to be
Speaker 1: a defender for pretty much the whole game, Like he
Speaker 1: needs to be locked in. It's really tough when you
Speaker 1: have all these guys switching and trying to um create turnovers,
Speaker 1: and you have a few guys just not on the
Speaker 1: same page with that. UM, I think they're gonna need them.
Speaker 1: And then on offense, they're gonna need Shrewter back. I
Speaker 1: think they just don't have enough um playmaking without him, um,
Speaker 1: they needed another playmaker. Lebron can't be making every single
Speaker 1: play when he goes When he goes out of the game,
Speaker 1: it just creators unless we get th HD playing back
Speaker 1: at his level. UM. So I think you're right. I
Speaker 1: think they have the talent to kind of a afloat
Speaker 1: um without a d I just think his offense is
Speaker 1: really needed here. Like this team just they just can't
Speaker 1: score enough right now, especially with the shooters going through
Speaker 1: the slumps they are and West Matthew's KCP. They got
Speaker 1: hit open shots or this team is going to really
Speaker 1: go down in the standings. They're kind of lucky because
Speaker 1: the Clippers also, I think are just out with Kauai
Speaker 1: PG as well, so they're kind of staying above them,
Speaker 1: above water, above water here. And I think what people
Speaker 1: forget it is like last year in Milwaukee had like
Speaker 1: I think like a six game lead in the standings
Speaker 1: um in like January February, and by the time the
Speaker 1: season ended, I think the Lakers caught him. So like
Speaker 1: people are saying, Utah has the one seed locked up,
Speaker 1: I just don't agree with that. It's a two game
Speaker 1: lead with like thirty games left. Um so yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I think they have time still and there's just
Speaker 1: no urgency. Like you said, there's no urgency, there's nothing
Speaker 1: to play for, there's no fans in the arena. It's
Speaker 1: really tough for them to have anything to jump up for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, Like the Jazz are playing above their above
Speaker 1: their weight. They're they're you know, they're they're overachieving right now.
Speaker 1: Like if you if you were to you know, the
Speaker 1: Jazz are better than we all thought they were, but
Speaker 1: if you were to rank the teams in the West,
Speaker 1: you're putting them third behind the two l a team.
Speaker 1: So it's it's very clear that they're overachieving. So theoretically,
Speaker 1: over the course of the season they'll kind of snap
Speaker 1: back to reality a little bit. There's also they remind
Speaker 1: me a little bit of the Bucks last year in
Speaker 1: the sense that they're kind of scheme dependent and uh,
Speaker 1: and they're kind of like a, uh yeah, exactly. So theoretically,
Speaker 1: over the course of the season, some teams will unlock
Speaker 1: some success against them, it will get spread around the
Speaker 1: league and teams will guard them better. No different than
Speaker 1: what happened in Milwaukee last year, who not only struggled
Speaker 1: in the bubble in the seeding games and in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: but they also struggled in the um. They also struggled
Speaker 1: in the things, like they also struggled in the in
Speaker 1: the the last like half dozen games, last dozen games
Speaker 1: heading into the COVID stoppage, like that was a team
Speaker 1: that I don't want to say the league figured them out,
Speaker 1: but but there was there was an obvious path to
Speaker 1: where things were kind of getting off the rails for them.
Speaker 1: And so you know, as far as far as you know,
Speaker 1: between the Paul George injury, the Anthony Davis injury, and
Speaker 1: the Jazz potentially kind of coming back to reality, things
Speaker 1: are very much still open there. But I agree, like
Speaker 1: as far as the shooting goes, you know, we have
Speaker 1: experience with this, Like they went cold for stretches at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the season last year and then they
Speaker 1: got hot. They all got hot in March, you know,
Speaker 1: like Avery Bradley, we would go cold for a while.
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley was scorching hot going into the end of
Speaker 1: the season. K CP struggled to start the year, was
Speaker 1: really getting slandered by Lakers Twitter. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: he was the most consistent player at the end of
Speaker 1: the year. You know that this is how it goes.
Speaker 1: It's just an awkward situation where everyone's going cold. And
Speaker 1: the funny part is like Marcus al starting to make
Speaker 1: shots like this, this thing is it's all gonna just
Speaker 1: kind of turn around at some point. And you know,
Speaker 1: if you remember after Game four against the Nuggets, Game
Speaker 1: five against No, Game four gets the Nuggets last year,
Speaker 1: you and I did a pod and I was freaking
Speaker 1: out about lebron jump shot and I was saying, like
Speaker 1: I was like, man, like he's losing his confidence. This
Speaker 1: reminds me of the Spurs in two thousand thirteen. This
Speaker 1: might not be good, blah blah blah blah. And then
Speaker 1: he just came out in games Game five and just
Speaker 1: lit them on fire and executed them. Like this is
Speaker 1: a team that is mentally tough. They understand what they're
Speaker 1: going through with they're shooting. It's gonna turn around. It's
Speaker 1: only a matter of time. I'm not concerned about that
Speaker 1: at all. Yeah, and the seventy one day offseason, right
Speaker 1: is also like the elephant in the room here. Like
Speaker 1: I saw a stat the other day. I looked up
Speaker 1: a stat the other day all the other three contenders.
Speaker 1: So I believe the Celtics, the Heat, and the Nuggets
Speaker 1: are combined forty and forty three, which I think is
Speaker 1: like a forty six percent one percentage. And then you
Speaker 1: compare that to the Lakers, who are around twenty two
Speaker 1: and eight now, but um, they're on like a seventy
Speaker 1: one percentage. So just to compare like those teams, which
Speaker 1: are good franchises, it's not like the Heat going to
Speaker 1: the summer and we're like, oh yeah, we're gonna rest,
Speaker 1: like you know, they they proclaimed this heat culture and
Speaker 1: all that, and obviously like they had some injuries. But
Speaker 1: you know, all these teams Denver as well, this is
Speaker 1: a good team that went into the season with zero practice,
Speaker 1: and Boston as well. I think they're they're underperforming, so um,
Speaker 1: you gotta look at from there. I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: aren't a lot of better position. I mean, it could
Speaker 1: be that I feel like if they ran the same
Speaker 1: team back, it might be in that position. To be honest,
Speaker 1: all that new blood kind of helps with um that
Speaker 1: short offseason. So that that's another thing that I think
Speaker 1: people got taken account is that they really had no summer.
Speaker 1: I think I saw that they're having their ninth practice
Speaker 1: of the year tomorrow, which is just insane. Usually you
Speaker 1: you know, you practice a lot more than that. So
Speaker 1: all those teams are are kind of going through it,
Speaker 1: and you're kind of we're kind of lucky to at
Speaker 1: least be in this spot still second in the West,
Speaker 1: second best record in the league right now. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: there are landmarks that you look forward repeating champion UM
Speaker 1: or champion attempting to repeat, like you know, uh, have
Speaker 1: they completely let go of the rope defensively the way
Speaker 1: like the you know, the shot Kobe Lakers did no completely,
Speaker 1: or like the way the fourteen heat did no, Like
Speaker 1: they haven't let go the rope defensively. You know, Uh,
Speaker 1: there's injuries, but they're all manageable. I mean, knock on
Speaker 1: wood with this a d thing, Like I hope it's
Speaker 1: not something that becomes a chronic problem for him. UM.
Speaker 1: But but like the There there are no like giant
Speaker 1: red flags that would concern you and make you think
Speaker 1: like did they lose a bunch of talent to try
Speaker 1: to avoid the luxury tax? No, they actually added talent.
Speaker 1: Like you know, does does Lebron look like he's aging? No,
Speaker 1: he actually looks a little better than he did last year.
Speaker 1: So there's no major red flag that would have you
Speaker 1: be concerned about this team. You know, I was talking
Speaker 1: about this with Jeremiah on Twitter this morning. He's he's
Speaker 1: saying that he doesn't think the Lakers would get out
Speaker 1: the out of the West, and I said, you know, well,
Speaker 1: what has changed? Like, yeah, Utahon, Phoenix are an interesting
Speaker 1: wrinkle that that are in there, you know, but like
Speaker 1: Denver was one of those types of teams last year
Speaker 1: and they got worse because they lost their defensive wings.
Speaker 1: You know, Like, so they're not gonna be that much
Speaker 1: of a factor. You know, the Clippers are a little
Speaker 1: better than they were last year, but so are the
Speaker 1: Lakers and so, and my my question would be like
Speaker 1: what what has changed, like, you know, materially that would
Speaker 1: make you think that that that that that that this
Speaker 1: is some sort of different outlook than last year And
Speaker 1: and I don't see that. I do think you brought
Speaker 1: an interesting point up about Tres because you know, uh I,
Speaker 1: I keep saying, like, you can't, you can't set him
Speaker 1: up to fail by putting in a position where his
Speaker 1: flaws can get exposed. And when you put him in
Speaker 1: a drop coverage or when he's in that catch hedge
Speaker 1: catch hedge coverage, but that he's sitting too low to
Speaker 1: the basket where he's not really bothering the ball handler,
Speaker 1: like you're he's just gonna look like one of the
Speaker 1: worst players on the floor. And whereas like when when
Speaker 1: in the last couple of weeks he's been really good defensively,
Speaker 1: and I think it's been because he's been extremely active
Speaker 1: running around, not around the basket, more in rotations, using
Speaker 1: his length and his quickness and his effort, like his
Speaker 1: motor to be effective on the defensive end of the ball.
Speaker 1: And then suddenly last night it was like like the
Speaker 1: worst possible Montrese scenario, constantly in drop coverage around the basket,
Speaker 1: getting absolutely bullied on the offensive glass by by DeAndre Jordan's,
Speaker 1: making DeAndre Jordan literally look like like vintage DeAndre Jordan's,
Speaker 1: like all all of those sorts of things are are
Speaker 1: avoidable in my opinion. And and you you made a
Speaker 1: great point to you said, like he tends to feed
Speaker 1: off of the overall defensive energy of the team. And
Speaker 1: it's so true, like this team has a tendency to
Speaker 1: I don't want to say, let go of the rope,
Speaker 1: uh like, but when a couple of guys aren't bringing it,
Speaker 1: like the whole team seems to just kind of be
Speaker 1: out of sink on that end of the ball and
Speaker 1: and it's it's frustrating to watch because I feel like
Speaker 1: that's like that's avoidable. Yeah, Darius at Form Balloon Gold,
Speaker 1: he has a great expression like you know, there's like
Speaker 1: the let the foot off the gas statement, you know,
Speaker 1: like that you're foot off the gas. The Lakers just
Speaker 1: get out of the car Like there's no get lit
Speaker 1: the foot of the gas. They just get the whole car.
Speaker 1: And with treads. He's a guy like, um, you'll see
Speaker 1: a lot when when someone scores, he does a lot
Speaker 1: like hey, you're supposed to be there, Like you know,
Speaker 1: he does a lot of pointing and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And I think he's a guy that really needs like
Speaker 1: chemistry with lineups. Um, when he starts to play with
Speaker 1: a bunch of people, he knows their tendency where to help.
Speaker 1: He played a lot with He played with th h
Speaker 1: T last night, Quinn Cook with that second unit and
Speaker 1: they just really um struggled to have any kind of
Speaker 1: rhythm on the defensive end. And Steve Nash did a
Speaker 1: smart thing. He kind of Mirrord Deandre's minutes with Tress
Speaker 1: and they had Jeff Green mirror and Mark Um it
Speaker 1: looked like he really coached for last night and Vogel
Speaker 1: and he even said this that he was not coaching
Speaker 1: for last night. Um, he really had zero game plan,
Speaker 1: especially for the nets specifically. Um, so he's still experimenting
Speaker 1: with stuff. So um yeah, that was smart by the
Speaker 1: smart by Steve Nash. And uh yeah, treads just man
Speaker 1: when he's when he's not like in a defensive stance
Speaker 1: and not actually defending, it's just it's just not helping
Speaker 1: anything him And a drop coverage doesn't stop anybody. He's
Speaker 1: not protecting the rim. His hands aren't up, his hands
Speaker 1: aren't active. He's he's a guy that can create turnovers
Speaker 1: and um, you can see when he's really lively, like
Speaker 1: even on offense. Um, he had a few buckets, but
Speaker 1: like you said, the Nets kind of push you into
Speaker 1: their style, right this isolation heavy basketball and a tread
Speaker 1: even fell into that. He was taking you know, iso
Speaker 1: jab step jumpers over DeAndre Jordan, which just again it's
Speaker 1: just plays right into right into into their hands. I agree, Uh, well,
Speaker 1: are you worried about KCP at all? I feel like
Speaker 1: he's earned the benefit of the doubt, right, Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: he's a guy that um, he's he's an iron man.
Speaker 1: He plays every game for the most part, and he's
Speaker 1: uh he struggled to in this stretch, but he had
Speaker 1: a really nice starts of the year, and guys go
Speaker 1: through slumps, like you know, as a as a player,
Speaker 1: as a shooter, guys struggle sometimes with their shot. He's
Speaker 1: obviously in his head right now, but I think he's
Speaker 1: earned the benefit of doubt when he played that well
Speaker 1: in a playoff series and high level intensity games that
Speaker 1: consistently you you get to benefit out in like these
Speaker 1: uh dog days of the NBA season. So I think
Speaker 1: I think he'll be fine. He's a guy that needs
Speaker 1: the All Star break. Um, I'm kind of fine if
Speaker 1: he wants to take a few games off like, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe you can't say rest anymore as a as a term,
Speaker 1: but you know you could say sore whatever, a calf
Speaker 1: or something and give him a few days just to
Speaker 1: just to rest it. I think I think he deserves it.
Speaker 1: He does seem a little banged up. You made a
Speaker 1: good point about shooting, like it's basketball. I made the
Speaker 1: same thing about the made the same point about the
Speaker 1: Lakers as a whole earlier. But it's so everything has
Speaker 1: kind of like a a cascading effect, and you know,
Speaker 1: when you're not shooting well, it drastically affects everything else
Speaker 1: you do on the basketball court, Like I have noticed
Speaker 1: even with myself sometimes, like like if I if I
Speaker 1: missed some shots, all of a sudden, like you don't
Speaker 1: see the floor as well, because you know, maybe you're
Speaker 1: rushing a little bit, so instead of taking time to
Speaker 1: really read things now, all of a sudden, you're pressing.
Speaker 1: And you could see that with KCP yesterday, like there
Speaker 1: was when he missed his first couple of threes, he
Speaker 1: started pump faking a ghosts. There was one where he
Speaker 1: caught the ball at the top of the key with
Speaker 1: like fifteen feet of space and just didn't even he
Speaker 1: didn't pump fake. He just he just like I met
Speaker 1: immediately upon catching the ball, he's looking to swing it
Speaker 1: and and you're driving into traffic to where there were
Speaker 1: a bunch of hands where it wasn't really uh much
Speaker 1: space for him to operate. It was just you could
Speaker 1: tell like he psyched himself out. But I like he's
Speaker 1: been in worst slumps before and gotten out of him.
Speaker 1: And you know, KCP is at his best when the
Speaker 1: game is simple for him. You know, I've told you
Speaker 1: a million times. I think he's one of the best
Speaker 1: close out guys in the league. Like if you if
Speaker 1: you close out short, he's gonna shoot the ball, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna make a lot of him. He's gonna make
Speaker 1: of him when he's in a good groove. You know,
Speaker 1: when if you if you chase him off the line,
Speaker 1: he's a he's really good at just ripping through going
Speaker 1: up off one leg, either finishing or making that next read.
Speaker 1: And and that's gonna be when he snaps out of it,
Speaker 1: is he makes a couple of shots and just kind
Speaker 1: of gets back to KCP basketball and just and I'm
Speaker 1: just not worried about that. I still and he's uh
Speaker 1: one of the better you know, three and D type
Speaker 1: of guards that we have in the league right now. Yeah. Same,
Speaker 1: confidence is a hell of a drug. Like I say
Speaker 1: that with KCP. Like with confidence, he looks like a
Speaker 1: million dollar player. And then when when he's when he's
Speaker 1: in his head, he's obviously not at that level. So
Speaker 1: he just needs his confidence back. He'll be fine. What
Speaker 1: are you are you concerned about th h T at all?
Speaker 1: I mean he's a twenty year old, Uh, basically a rookie.
Speaker 1: I mean last year he played like five games and
Speaker 1: he got a few playoff games. To me, he's a rookie.
Speaker 1: Like Lakers didn't have a first round pick this year,
Speaker 1: they traded it for Dennis Shrewter, So to me, he's
Speaker 1: our first round pick. Um, he goes into the glore
Speaker 1: of a Lakers young cores that we see all around
Speaker 1: the league, um kind of driving. So I think he's
Speaker 1: another one of those. I mean, it's kind of hard
Speaker 1: to expect him to be the backup point guard, a
Speaker 1: twenty year old backup point guard on a championship level
Speaker 1: winning team. Maybe if this was like the New York
Speaker 1: Knicks or Knicks. Actually, I've been playing well, but whatever
Speaker 1: the terrible teams. If he was like the point guard there,
Speaker 1: he'd probably be getting a lot more touches, being able
Speaker 1: to get a rhythm and be able to average fifteen
Speaker 1: or something like that. On this team, he's just not
Speaker 1: gonna get the touches to do that. And you can
Speaker 1: see he's still trying to find his way. He he
Speaker 1: does a lot where like he'll drive and like he
Speaker 1: doesn't realize there's help coming, Like he'll get he'll like
Speaker 1: do his two steps and then he'd be like, oh,
Speaker 1: oh shoot, there's like a big right there, and he
Speaker 1: tries to kick it out. Then um, last night he
Speaker 1: drove and took like a fade away one leg jumper.
Speaker 1: I was like it was like man. But again, like
Speaker 1: as Laker fans, we can't, like I said before, we
Speaker 1: can't push for th h t minutes and then be
Speaker 1: mad at like the growing pains, right like we you
Speaker 1: can't have both. You can't want TSC to play and
Speaker 1: then also want him not to make the mistakes that
Speaker 1: come with it. And I think these are investments in
Speaker 1: the future. These are you know, these are these are
Speaker 1: not for this game. What t does for this the
Speaker 1: turnovers and all that is all building towards something. He's
Speaker 1: not a defined player, right, He's not a shrewder like
Speaker 1: where you're like, man, what are you doing. You've been
Speaker 1: in the league seven years. Why are you trying to
Speaker 1: behind the back? You know? No, look like so you
Speaker 1: gotta let the kid learn, and I'm fine with the
Speaker 1: bumps that are going to come with it. I think
Speaker 1: the talent will oversee what he's doing. Now. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to throw away last night's game in terms of evaluating
Speaker 1: him on the defensive end, because it reminds me of
Speaker 1: some of the Montrez problems earlier in the year, when
Speaker 1: you know, he would look really bad in a game
Speaker 1: where the entire team looked really bad defensively, and so
Speaker 1: you know, if you remember earlier in the year against Portland,
Speaker 1: he had that wake up call of a game guardian
Speaker 1: Gary Trent Jr. Where he kept leaving him open and
Speaker 1: giving up all those threes and it pretty much cost
Speaker 1: him a game. And uh, I thought he had made
Speaker 1: progress from that and gotten to the point where where
Speaker 1: he had kind of made some strides on understanding the
Speaker 1: defensive end and his just a focus in the in
Speaker 1: the incessant like you literally can't lose focus for a
Speaker 1: second or it could cost you. And I thought he
Speaker 1: had kind of figured that out. There was a lot
Speaker 1: of stretches there over the last month where he was
Speaker 1: dominant defensively, like part of some crazy defense, some sequences
Speaker 1: for the Lakers where they would go on crazy runs
Speaker 1: where he was just everywhere getting strips, getting steals, you know, disrupting,
Speaker 1: passing everything, and uh, and I was more concerned with
Speaker 1: his offensive inconsistency. Not concerned, but just that would be
Speaker 1: the thing that would be the difference between him being
Speaker 1: like a pivotal part of their playoff rotation and kind
Speaker 1: of being a microwave guy only played five ten minutes
Speaker 1: a game, you know, And last night was the first
Speaker 1: time in a long time where I kind of saw
Speaker 1: some slippage on the defensive end. And I'm hoping that
Speaker 1: it was just a throwaway from the standpoint of of
Speaker 1: the whole team's effort, because you know that's gonna be
Speaker 1: you know, if you look at the Lakers guard rotation,
Speaker 1: they have Dennis Strutter, KCP, Alex Caruso, Wesley Matthews, and
Speaker 1: th h T. So that's five guys in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: You're probably only going to see four of those guys
Speaker 1: play because Lebron and Kyle Kuzma and Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: Montrez Harrold and Marcus Saul are still gonna play, and
Speaker 1: you're you may even see some Marquis Moore's for specific
Speaker 1: matchups when then he's shooting from the five. So from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, like you know, in order for him to
Speaker 1: break into that top four and be playing in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: I think they can live with some of the offensive inconsistency,
Speaker 1: some of the him not seeing the floor super well.
Speaker 1: It's that it's games like last night where he's giving
Speaker 1: up an offensive rebound to Cole to Kyrie Irving, when
Speaker 1: he's giving up on a play, or or he's losing
Speaker 1: Joe Harrison rotation, Like those are the kinds of things
Speaker 1: where he's going to find himself out of the rotation.
Speaker 1: And and I, like I said, I just kind of
Speaker 1: hope last night was a throwaway. Yeah. Same, he's an
Speaker 1: over helper, right, He's the guy that really likes to help,
Speaker 1: so like he'll be in the paint even though his
Speaker 1: man is Joe Harris and the nets are really good
Speaker 1: at like if you're in rotation, it's over, Like they
Speaker 1: moved the ball three times, um, and it's too Joe Harris.
Speaker 1: I think TLC Timothy Loo hit like four threes in
Speaker 1: three minutes because the Lakers lost him. So the nets
Speaker 1: will put you in. Then they're one of the the
Speaker 1: the best opments of the team, So you can't have
Speaker 1: guys getting lost falling asleep off the ball. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: like it was funny yesterday. You know, I tweeted this
Speaker 1: out yesterday. You sent me the d M about the
Speaker 1: guy that got upset that I said this, but which
Speaker 1: was funny. I had to reread that like six times,
Speaker 1: like some guy was like I was tweeting after the
Speaker 1: game and I basically was like did any Laker play
Speaker 1: well tonight? And it was kind of just presenting the
Speaker 1: topic that was pretty clear. Yeah, that was But anyway,
Speaker 1: the you know, like Lebron was fine, but he wasn't great,
Speaker 1: Like he didn't shoot the ball well, and I agree
Speaker 1: with you, like he wasn't great on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: There was a play at the start of the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter where he uh was kind of standing on the
Speaker 1: block and Jeff Green was guarding him and Joe Harris
Speaker 1: was there with it was either Crusoe or I can't
Speaker 1: remember who it was, and uh and Jeff Green and
Speaker 1: Joe Harris was in the corner and Jeff Green just
Speaker 1: kind of went and set a pin down and uh
Speaker 1: and Lebron stood on the block and uh, whatever guard
Speaker 1: was over there when it was Cruiser t HD or
Speaker 1: whatever gets caught on the pin down and Joe Harris
Speaker 1: breaks free for three and Lebron basically didn't move on
Speaker 1: the entire possession, and they're thinking, like, all right, like
Speaker 1: we can't do that, you know either, you know, and
Speaker 1: then uh, you know, Kuzmo was good, but I also
Speaker 1: felt like he had he missed some bunnies. He had
Speaker 1: a couple of players where he would like get steals
Speaker 1: but then like fumble the ball out of bounds. Like
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was his best game either, and
Speaker 1: he's still kind of struggling a little bit from the
Speaker 1: from the three point line. But every every other Laker
Speaker 1: had about their worst nightmare game, Like Caruso had his
Speaker 1: classic like driving into the lane and then just throwing
Speaker 1: the ball to the other team. Uh, missing floaters and layups.
Speaker 1: You know, th HD had one of his worst offensive
Speaker 1: games in a while. You know, Mark Kith Morris was bad. Uh,
Speaker 1: Westerley Matthey, like literally every single Laker played one of
Speaker 1: their worst games that I've seen them play, and and
Speaker 1: that was why it was like so crazy to see
Speaker 1: them even compete there where they were within ten or
Speaker 1: at the end of the third quarter. Uh, it was
Speaker 1: wild because like you just don't see that very often.
Speaker 1: But it goes to show you what we said and
Speaker 1: what you were pointing out, you know about like getting
Speaker 1: out of the car, Like the Lakers just have a
Speaker 1: tendency to really to really let things slip. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: thought Kuzma actually, like I thought he played pretty well.
Speaker 1: He brought the energy last night, right like, um, He's
Speaker 1: still went after his offense, rebounds, he had like a
Speaker 1: he had a bunch of big threes. I thought to
Speaker 1: keep him close for a little bit. So I thought
Speaker 1: him Lebron had like the best games last night. Kusma
Speaker 1: has been pretty consistent just bringing the effort, trying every night,
Speaker 1: so give him some some credit for that. I thought
Speaker 1: he played well. I thought he defended his role. I
Speaker 1: thought he played well. So that's that's the only ones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, though everyone else had a pretty much a
Speaker 1: bad game. And you're not gonna beat the nets with
Speaker 1: like your half, your over half, your roster just not
Speaker 1: not contributing at all. And and DeAndre Jordan played the
Speaker 1: best game I've seen him play this season in terms
Speaker 1: of his activity. I'm sure he's had better scoring nights,
Speaker 1: but his activity was great too. Cabereau was a brick
Speaker 1: in Philly and and now he's making everything in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: Joe Harris was great, like they Jeff Green never misses
Speaker 1: an open shot anymore. I'd sent out a staff the
Speaker 1: other day, like, you know, you always have to trust
Speaker 1: your eye to eyes sometimes because I remember sitting there thinking, like, man,
Speaker 1: Jeff Green is making all these shots when he's playing
Speaker 1: in Houston in the playoffs last year, and then this
Speaker 1: year in Brooklyn. It's like, man, every time I watch
Speaker 1: a Brooklyn game, like Jeff Green is not missing any shots,
Speaker 1: and you look it up and he's like forty three
Speaker 1: over over the last playoffs in this entire season. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you can't, uh, you're you can't expect to beat a
Speaker 1: team when you're just getting outplayed down the roster, Like
Speaker 1: if Montras is gonna get out by DeAndre Jordan's that's
Speaker 1: gonna be a problem. Uh rooking, before I get you
Speaker 1: out of here. What are you still confident? Are you wavering?
Speaker 1: How do you feel about them getting out of the West.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about them in a match up
Speaker 1: with Brooklyn? I'm pretty confident. I think Brooklyn and the
Speaker 1: Clippers are the toughest ones that. Like you said, I
Speaker 1: actually think Brooklyn is a little bit more tougher. I
Speaker 1: just think they're offensive, like firepower, has a little bit
Speaker 1: more of a juice that's able to kind of just
Speaker 1: outscore you for four games like as possible. Those two
Speaker 1: teams the only ones that I see. I think Utah
Speaker 1: is a great team. I just think the matchup for
Speaker 1: US is just awful. Um. I just think like go
Speaker 1: Berry gets played his strengths kind of get played off
Speaker 1: with and Anthony Davis at the five lineup, I think,
Speaker 1: and they have no one to guard Lebron as well
Speaker 1: when things matter. Davis just wants to completely emasculate Rudy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know why. I don't. I don't know what
Speaker 1: Rudy did to a d to make that matchup really personal.
Speaker 1: It feels like a lot of people really take Rudy's
Speaker 1: matchup personal for some reason, he just has that way
Speaker 1: about him, I guess. But yeah, like a D takes
Speaker 1: that matchic really personal. Um, Lebron plays well in Utah,
Speaker 1: I think. So yeah, those are those the only teams that, like,
Speaker 1: I think have have a real chance. I think this
Speaker 1: team is fine. You can't really judge them without a D.
Speaker 1: I mean I set a lot like I saw a
Speaker 1: lot of headlines this week like if Anthony Davis isn't
Speaker 1: there or isn't healthy, the Lakers you know, can't win.
Speaker 1: And that's like, well, obviously, I mean what kind of
Speaker 1: analysis that like analysis is that, Like it's obvious if
Speaker 1: the Lakers don't have a D, then then yeah, they're
Speaker 1: not gonna win the title. You can do that because
Speaker 1: you're like can win by losing a star, even Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: They're not winning without Katie or one of you know,
Speaker 1: one of them, or even the Clippers, and because everything
Speaker 1: is built around this idea that they need all three
Speaker 1: of them to overcome their their defensive deficiencies exactly. And
Speaker 1: so so with the Clippers, right, they need both Kauai
Speaker 1: and they don't just need PG, they need PG two
Speaker 1: be himself in the playoffs, which is still uh TV
Speaker 1: hit TV D. So yeah, I think the Lakers are fine,
Speaker 1: and Lebron is still shown that he's not just like
Speaker 1: he's not dropping, he's actually like to me, he's wide
Speaker 1: in the gap in a weird way, another ridiculous tone
Speaker 1: class night, like what is going on? So I want
Speaker 1: to I guess I want to ask you this because
Speaker 1: like you've been watching Lebron a lot more than me,
Speaker 1: and I feel like you probably think he's been the
Speaker 1: best player in the league since twenty twelve. You think, like,
Speaker 1: so Kobe's last Like to me, Kobe was at the
Speaker 1: top around two thousand ten, and then I think eleven
Speaker 1: was when Lebron lost in the finals. But like around
Speaker 1: that time, I'm thinking he was the best guy, kind
Speaker 1: of like a vacancy, like give it by honorary, give
Speaker 1: it to Kobe kind of thing. Yeah, but in twelve,
Speaker 1: by then Lebron was the best player in the league.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing so, and it was him and made me
Speaker 1: k d right at that time. And then Steph obviously
Speaker 1: came in, staff came in to me like the gap
Speaker 1: has widened. I guess I think it's him and Steph
Speaker 1: maybe like those two. I guess are the best stuff
Speaker 1: does in a different way. But like, I feel like
Speaker 1: the gap has widened between him and the best player
Speaker 1: in the league just with um how I mean, Steff
Speaker 1: is still coming back. Katie's not what he is what
Speaker 1: he was. So what do you think, Like, is that
Speaker 1: gap widening, is it around the same as it's been
Speaker 1: since he's been at the top, or what do you
Speaker 1: think about that? I don't think the gap is necessarily widened,
Speaker 1: but I think it's more a product of just how
Speaker 1: insanely talented the league is right now. Um, you know
Speaker 1: when I look at this kind of stuff, like you know,
Speaker 1: whoever wins the title this year? I was thinking about
Speaker 1: this literally on my on my drive home. I was
Speaker 1: playing basketball this morning and I was driving home and
Speaker 1: I was like, I, whoever get like if if if
Speaker 1: Kauai runs through Lebron and a D and then runs
Speaker 1: through this Katie team in Brooklyn, Like that's that's insane.
Speaker 1: If Lebron does the same to Kauai in Brooklyn. If
Speaker 1: Brooklyn does it to Joel em Beat and then gets
Speaker 1: through one of the l A teams, if like like
Speaker 1: if if Philly runs through it, or if you like,
Speaker 1: whoever wins this title this year. You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: a big believer in diminishing titles, but I mean I
Speaker 1: also believe that summer are a little bit more impressive
Speaker 1: than others, like this year, borrowing massive injury implications, like
Speaker 1: this is gonna be an unbelievable accomplishment for whatever team
Speaker 1: hoisted that trophy. And and again, it's just a product
Speaker 1: of how insanely talented the league was. Like think of
Speaker 1: it this way, Like last year, Steph and Kadie missed
Speaker 1: the playoffs because of injuries, and yet the Lakers still
Speaker 1: had to go through Damian Lillard, who's unbelievable um, and
Speaker 1: they had to go through you know, James Harden and
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook. They had to go through Nicola Yo Kitchen,
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray, who was literally a thirty point it's like,
Speaker 1: sixty percent effective field goal percentage guy last year. And
Speaker 1: then they had to go through you know, Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 1: who is arguably one of the ten best players in
Speaker 1: the league when he's when he's dialed in like that
Speaker 1: in the playoffs and like, and so a down year
Speaker 1: for talent because of injury was still just this insane
Speaker 1: pathway and this year is gonna be even crazier, you know,
Speaker 1: as far as like his career path. Like, I'm really
Speaker 1: really hard when I evaluate the top players in the league,
Speaker 1: and I do put a huge, you know, extra amount
Speaker 1: of weight on on that that I Q and savvy
Speaker 1: for winning basketball games, because I think like that is
Speaker 1: one of the most underrated aspects when we're evaluating players.
Speaker 1: Is just like a player's ability to sense the teetering
Speaker 1: outcome of the game in specific moments, and that kind
Speaker 1: of thing is not evaluated by talent. That's evaluated with
Speaker 1: your brain. Because Lebron undoubtedly has been the most talented
Speaker 1: player in the world since two thousand seven, you know,
Speaker 1: and maybe at this point there might be players who
Speaker 1: are more talented than him in terms of just pure ability,
Speaker 1: but there's you know, from two thousand three to two
Speaker 1: thousand twelve, Lebron just he didn't quite have the same
Speaker 1: grasp of that ability to to take control of basketball game.
Speaker 1: That's why Dirk did what he did in two thousand eleven.
Speaker 1: Dirk was peaking mentally sense to those moments like in
Speaker 1: Game three against Miami when Miami's kind of falling apart
Speaker 1: and he's making that comeback. Like, that's Dirk. That's Dirk
Speaker 1: sensing and smelling blood in the water. That's you know, Dirk.
Speaker 1: In Game six was the best one. You know, Game six,
Speaker 1: Miami's coming home, they have two home games with a
Speaker 1: chance to win the series, and Dirk is just like, no, Like,
Speaker 1: I have an opportunity here to get this done and
Speaker 1: Chris Bosh can't guard me, you know, And and and
Speaker 1: that and that was that. That's where it teetered. And
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve was when Lebron figured that out, and
Speaker 1: since then it's been him. And as far as the
Speaker 1: gap though, like it's like, man, it's hard to say
Speaker 1: Lebron is way better than the other players in the
Speaker 1: league when Steph's playing the way he's playing, when Katie's
Speaker 1: playing the way he's playing, when kawais playing the way
Speaker 1: he's playing. You know, I I don't hold this against
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's because in fairness, you know, it's hard to
Speaker 1: push yourself to a certain level when there's not a
Speaker 1: carrot that's being dangled in front of you. I think
Speaker 1: that's why he retired twice like he did. But like
Speaker 1: Lebron cannot rest, there's a reason why he's improving. He
Speaker 1: cannot rest because the dudes on his heel on his
Speaker 1: heels in any other season would be the best player
Speaker 1: in the world. Like drops Steph Curry in any other
Speaker 1: era other than maybe Michael Jordan's era, he's the best
Speaker 1: player in the world. Drop Kuai and in the seventies
Speaker 1: and eighties, like he's right up there with Magic and
Speaker 1: Larry Like like Kevin Durant, Kevin freaking Durant is unbelievable,
Speaker 1: Like it's just it's it's just what a great time
Speaker 1: to be like that. I I keep getting bummed out
Speaker 1: by all these people complaining about watching basketball this year
Speaker 1: because dude, like, of course it's a little bit ugly
Speaker 1: from time to time. You know, we're all the threes,
Speaker 1: but the half court slog in the early two thousands,
Speaker 1: there's not as much talent on the floor is just
Speaker 1: as ugly. You just start romanticizing it, like I want
Speaker 1: fans back. Yes, the regular season has always been crappy
Speaker 1: because of the tons of games and the lack of urgency,
Speaker 1: but like, how can you not, Like literally two of
Speaker 1: the top four players who are the top three players
Speaker 1: missed last night's game, and the talent level was unbelievable
Speaker 1: on the floor. Yeah, yeah, it's insane. And as a guy,
Speaker 1: like I don't know when you brought up Georgian and
Speaker 1: I was just thinking, like, obviously, the Lakers haven't been
Speaker 1: in the playoffs for a long time before. Lebron obviously
Speaker 1: got back last year, and I just I guess I forgot.
Speaker 1: Like I think Kobe does in a different way, it's
Speaker 1: more of a scoring kind of dominance, but Lebron it's
Speaker 1: like in every possession kind of like I know, every
Speaker 1: possession matters, and like his mind is at like a
Speaker 1: different level than I've seen it. And just like when
Speaker 1: I saw that in the playoffs last year, this year
Speaker 1: I watched, I'm like, oh, this isn't even close. Like
Speaker 1: this has like this is nothing compared to like what
Speaker 1: he does when it matters, Like when it matters, Like
Speaker 1: his mind is on a different level. Every person is
Speaker 1: in the right place, he's controlling. He knows every play
Speaker 1: every every other playbook. So that's where it gives me
Speaker 1: like a calmness, like I guess, like that's how CAS
Speaker 1: fans must have felt, like obviously he didn't he didn't
Speaker 1: coast this much. He coasted a lot more I think
Speaker 1: in Cleveland, right, Like I'm guessing, uh, they were watching. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were like about a fourth seed that sometimes some
Speaker 1: years that they went in. And you know, those Atlanta
Speaker 1: Hawk teams really remind me of like this Jazz team
Speaker 1: this year, Like they won like sixty five games, just
Speaker 1: beautiful offense. Right Obviously they were coached by Mike Budenholzer,
Speaker 1: which is you know, another topic. But yeah, like but
Speaker 1: but Lebron obviously, just like in the playoffs, I remember
Speaker 1: watching and I was like, man, like this Hawks team
Speaker 1: isn't even on the same tier and they won like
Speaker 1: fifteen more games, and Lebron is like toying with him.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, Jeff T like are you serious? So
Speaker 1: like it's it's hilarious just to watch. And that's that's
Speaker 1: where I'm like, I'm thinking, that's where like the gap
Speaker 1: widened to me is when I watched the playoffs last year,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, there's no one else, maybe Steph because
Speaker 1: he hasn't been in there for a while or d.
Speaker 1: But they just do it in different ways. Like I
Speaker 1: just feel like Lebron's at a different level right now.
Speaker 1: He's at like this, which is weird in year eighteen,
Speaker 1: where like I feel like I've seen his like peak
Speaker 1: in terms of athleticism matching, the mind matching, you know,
Speaker 1: just the just the experience as well. So that's where
Speaker 1: I was questioning, like the gap widening between him and
Speaker 1: like a guy like Kauai. I guess it's all subjective,
Speaker 1: Like you know, all of these players are different, Like
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny because I'm a Lebron fan, uh
Speaker 1: and everyone, And the big difference between me and most
Speaker 1: Lebron fans that you'll meet is like I am a
Speaker 1: basketball junkie who who loves all of these guys, Like
Speaker 1: I'm a huge Michael Jordan's literally have a frame of
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's first Sports Illustrated cover. When I play basketball,
Speaker 1: I play, I mimic Michael Jordan in my game. Like
Speaker 1: the biggest thing I've been working on the last few
Speaker 1: years is like all this low post stuff that I
Speaker 1: literally have stolen from him. Like everyone associates my fanhood
Speaker 1: with Lebron as some sort of like oversimplification of my
Speaker 1: view on basketball, and it's ridiculous. And it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: the for MJ's birthday, the that video went viral again
Speaker 1: from the last dance. And it's so funny because you
Speaker 1: know that you could not pick two more different archetypes
Speaker 1: of basketball players to be competing for the goat title
Speaker 1: between Lebron and Michael Jordan's because you know, Michael Jordan's
Speaker 1: whole view of the game, his whole persona, his whole
Speaker 1: you know, uh, his leadership technique, the way the way
Speaker 1: he viewed basketball, like when when a game would be teetering,
Speaker 1: the way that he would perceive his pathway to grabbing
Speaker 1: control of the game again, versus the way Lebron views
Speaker 1: that identical scenario. Versus the way Lebron would behave in
Speaker 1: a documentary, versus the way Lebron would treat his teammates.
Speaker 1: Like it's all so different, but it's equally impactful or
Speaker 1: or close, you know. And so that that's what's so
Speaker 1: interesting to me, because like you talk to any of
Speaker 1: Lebron his teammates, it's like he's jokey, he's jovial, he's
Speaker 1: he's nice. In the media is all this stuff, but
Speaker 1: behind closed doors, it's like if you go out drinking
Speaker 1: and and you miss the workout in the morning, like
Speaker 1: he's on your ass. You don't keep the locker room clean,
Speaker 1: he's on your ass like if he's if you do all,
Speaker 1: like it's all this stuff that gets lost in the
Speaker 1: shuffle and and and you know, when you're watching a
Speaker 1: random Tuesday night against Memphis, there will be like an
Speaker 1: out of bounds call and Lebron will be like demonstrative
Speaker 1: freaking out, like yelling at the refs and doing all
Speaker 1: this stuff. And I'm always sitting there thinking, like, it's
Speaker 1: amazing to me that, you know, some of his detractors
Speaker 1: have painted him as someone who doesn't care as much
Speaker 1: and and but it's all it's all the aesthetics and
Speaker 1: the and the differences in the way these guys are
Speaker 1: and and honestly, I think it's cool. And it's because
Speaker 1: if all of them were the same, like if this
Speaker 1: was Nascar, it would just be a result based thing
Speaker 1: and'd be like, well, this guy won, and they're all
Speaker 1: in the same car and they're all driving the same way,
Speaker 1: and this guy won. But no, it's not like that,
Speaker 1: you know, like, how do you how do you differentiate
Speaker 1: between a Kareem and a Michael and a Michael Jordan's
Speaker 1: You can't, like it's all sub you know, and and
Speaker 1: and I think, like, I think it's okay to embrace
Speaker 1: some of the barbershop stuff and have some fun, you know,
Speaker 1: talking ship back and forth and and in exchanging opinions
Speaker 1: and arguing back and forth. But like the the way
Speaker 1: that it's it's portrayed is like this like clear cut,
Speaker 1: you know, lying in the sand, like this guy is
Speaker 1: better than this guy. Like that to me is frustrating
Speaker 1: because there's really there's absolutely no way to make that case,
Speaker 1: uh in definitive way, because of how different they're. I mean,
Speaker 1: Lebron literally is half as polished as as as a
Speaker 1: Kobe or as a Michael Jordan in terms of his
Speaker 1: like offensive skill set. Uh, yet yet is every bit
Speaker 1: as good as them, you know, And that's crazy. I
Speaker 1: don't know how you. I don't know how you differentiate that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's tough. I just love like they all have that
Speaker 1: same Like I know, Jordian, Lebron, even Curry. I'll do
Speaker 1: it differently, but I just like they all have that
Speaker 1: offidence about them, right, all that like like people see
Speaker 1: stuff as this humble dude, but that dude wants to
Speaker 1: like really kill you, Like he's gonna he's gonna hit
Speaker 1: us he's gonna hit it in and out, dribble three
Speaker 1: in your face and make you know about it, Like
Speaker 1: you know, he has his humble persona and staying with
Speaker 1: Lebron Like I saw it last year in the playoffs
Speaker 1: and he hit that logo three against Dame, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like he's like, and I think that
Speaker 1: was Game five or something. I'm like, oh wow, I
Speaker 1: did not see this coming, I guess. So it's cool
Speaker 1: that they all have that, and the last dance kind
Speaker 1: of obviously glorified Michael Jordan's and doing that. But I think, um,
Speaker 1: all the stars today kind of have that. You can't
Speaker 1: be a star today without having some kind of like
Speaker 1: confidence level um with that, And yeah, you're right, the
Speaker 1: talent in this league is insane. I think what Luca
Speaker 1: and Trey do at like twenty one years old is
Speaker 1: absolutely absurd. Um. I see people already asking can you
Speaker 1: win with Trey Young. I'm like, he's twenty one having
Speaker 1: the keys to like the best offense of the league
Speaker 1: when he's on the floor. Just like, appreciate the talent
Speaker 1: first before you start like going what was Atlanta doing
Speaker 1: with the trade? Like at least you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: at least, you know, I appreciate the talent person. Then
Speaker 1: you can go into sea defensive liability all that, of course,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I just think there's a lot of that
Speaker 1: going on today in the conversation. You show up on
Speaker 1: the road in Washington against a bad team, and it's like, oh, shift,
Speaker 1: I have to car Bradley Beale and Russell Westbork tonight
Speaker 1: you show up on the road in uh Minnesota, like
Speaker 1: you know, like I thought, like I thought the Lakers
Speaker 1: look really good in Minnesota the other night, and so
Speaker 1: many people would oversimplify that by saying they're the worst
Speaker 1: team in the league record wise, But I mean, Karl
Speaker 1: Anthony Towns has missed most of the season, and I
Speaker 1: want to sit there and be like, Karl Anthony Towns
Speaker 1: is really, really good. And and so you've got the
Speaker 1: number one pick from this last year's draft, who is
Speaker 1: just being shot out of a cannon because of Dangela
Speaker 1: Russell's injury, and Karl Anthony Towns, who like is just
Speaker 1: a dead eye three point shooter who could do all
Speaker 1: these other things offensively. It's like, that's the worst team
Speaker 1: in the league. Like that's who I'm playing on the
Speaker 1: worst team in the league. You know, I go to
Speaker 1: I go to Atlanta, It's it's Trey Young and John Collins.
Speaker 1: You know, you go to UH. You just pick any
Speaker 1: team in the league and it's the like Sacramento is
Speaker 1: a huge pain in the ass. You like, they're just
Speaker 1: paying the ass. It's just it's crazy. Like and I
Speaker 1: that's what I appreciate the most about this season, you know,
Speaker 1: is like that I you know, my wife has been
Speaker 1: doing a lot of homework at home lately because she's
Speaker 1: been doing some schooling on the side of her job. UH.
Speaker 1: And like I've had a lot more time to watch
Speaker 1: some of the other teams in the league, and I've
Speaker 1: just been having so much fun with it. And I
Speaker 1: that wait for fans to get back. Of course, all
Speaker 1: of those things go without saying, but like I just
Speaker 1: I've been having I've been having a lot of fun
Speaker 1: with it and and and like I talked a lot
Speaker 1: about this with UH the other day on Monday in
Speaker 1: a pot But like I'm I'm not worried about the
Speaker 1: playing styles because I think, like I think we've seen
Speaker 1: like the Lakers are a great example of this. Utah
Speaker 1: is a great example of this, Like the the their
Speaker 1: teams are already adapting and they're figuring out a way
Speaker 1: to make the teams that shoot a ton of threes pay, uh,
Speaker 1: making that kind of end up actually working to their detriment,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Yeah, we did this every year, right,
Speaker 1: We see a team that's hot from three and and
Speaker 1: then they get into a series where the defense tightens up.
Speaker 1: That space goes from like you know a little bit
Speaker 1: of space to like really tight. All the shooters get
Speaker 1: you know, uh, the game plan for them. You know,
Speaker 1: like I don't think anyone's game planning right now for
Speaker 1: Bogdanovitch or whoever whoever is hitting three's on Utah. They're
Speaker 1: all hitting like from three. But you know, in the
Speaker 1: playoffs that space gets tightened, you have nowhere to go
Speaker 1: go there all of a sudden, they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: make him be an office and threat the way he
Speaker 1: is in UM. And I just feel like in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: it gets it gets tighter. You see that. You see
Speaker 1: teams um just within the pressure of that. So we'll
Speaker 1: see how that goes by. Every year we see the
Speaker 1: team that can get to the rim, get to that
Speaker 1: can defend the rim, defend the paint and the defending
Speaker 1: the end. Uh score at the rim and the other end,
Speaker 1: they're the ones who wins. So that that's where I'm
Speaker 1: making on this season again, I'm interested in what Frank
Speaker 1: has for the Jazz because he has famously cared a
Speaker 1: little bit more about regular season game plans. Um. It's
Speaker 1: funny because I I've seen Lebron get mad at the
Speaker 1: coaching staff for the scouting report before. You saw that
Speaker 1: with Zeke Naji the other day in Denver, Like Seek
Speaker 1: was making these threes and Lebron was like looking over
Speaker 1: at the coaching staff almost as if the scouting report
Speaker 1: was like close out short on Zeke, Like there's like
Speaker 1: this weird accountability for that kind of stuff within that organization.
Speaker 1: So I'm really looking forward to that Jazz game which
Speaker 1: is next week. Sometime I can't because like, I think
Speaker 1: that's a game that I think that's a game that
Speaker 1: Frank is gonna try to win. And I let's fingers
Speaker 1: crossed that that that Dennis gets back. But hey, do
Speaker 1: I really really appreciate you taking an hour to come
Speaker 1: hang out and talk with me this week? Uh? I
Speaker 1: hope I'm getting you out of here in time. Everyone
Speaker 1: else who do joined. I really appreciate you guys for
Speaker 1: listening and supporting. I will have the podcast version of
Speaker 1: this up UH in about twenty minutes or so UH,
Speaker 1: and then I will speak to you guys next week.
Speaker 1: Thanks again, Roger, I appreciate you man, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Man M.