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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jason Tip Podcast. Thank you guys so

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Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your Friday to come

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Speaker 1: hang out with myself and with Vine. How are you

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Speaker 1: doing man, Thanks for jumping on today, Jason. I'm very

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Speaker 1: honored to be part of your show yet again, talk

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Speaker 1: some Lakers talk about this m v P stuff. I

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Speaker 1: hope you're doing well. I've seen you very active on

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Speaker 1: the timeline this week, uh, you know, having conversations about

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Speaker 1: the MVP stuff. But I'm doing good looking forward to

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Speaker 1: the weekend. Yeah, I was venting to you a little

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Speaker 1: bit before we got started about how I need to

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Speaker 1: do a better job of showing a little more self

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Speaker 1: control because I get I'm I'm easily riled up with

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Speaker 1: this kind of stuff. Um, But like like I told

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Speaker 1: you earlier, I'm going to turn thirty this year. Maybe

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Speaker 1: this is the year that I finally, uh learn how

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Speaker 1: to how to stop myself. But we're gonna talk about

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Speaker 1: the MVP for a little bit. Uh. We have a

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Speaker 1: three or four like interesting Laker topics that I've been

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Speaker 1: wanting to bounce off of you and uh kind of

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Speaker 1: get your opinions on. And then if we have some

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Speaker 1: time at the end we're gonna bounce around to some

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Speaker 1: other teams and as usual, guys, if you have any questions,

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Speaker 1: drop them in the comments and if we have some

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Speaker 1: time at the end, we'll take them. But so, uh,

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Speaker 1: to kind of frame the the MVP debate, you know,

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Speaker 1: really quickly, I just want to lay out what I

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Speaker 1: think is the basketball on court case for Lebron to

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Speaker 1: be where he is in the MVP debate right now.

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Speaker 1: And uh, I think that's important because once again, just

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Speaker 1: like last year, they're all these people coming out of

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Speaker 1: the woodwork and you know, trying to make the case

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Speaker 1: that this is a narrative type of conversation or that

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Speaker 1: is to some sort of you know, lifetime achievement award

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Speaker 1: and make it not about basketball with Lebron, which is

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Speaker 1: exactly what happened last year when he got into the conversation.

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Speaker 1: And of course I think that's completely dishonest. So I

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Speaker 1: want to lay out the basketball case and to make

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Speaker 1: it really simple. The one seed in the Western for

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Speaker 1: is immensely important this year. Why because the Utah Jazz

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Speaker 1: turned out to be so good. There's like two bona

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Speaker 1: fide contenders beneath the Lakers that that they're gonna have

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Speaker 1: to deal with in the West, and so getting the

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Speaker 1: one seed is the difference between having to beat two

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Speaker 1: of those guys in the playoff run and having to

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Speaker 1: beat one of those guys in the playoffs. And then

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Speaker 1: the second part of that is the fact that Anthony

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Speaker 1: Davis has been hurt. Because of Anthony davis Is injury

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Speaker 1: and because some of the cold shooting that the Lakers

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Speaker 1: have been dealing with after Lebron on the roster, they

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Speaker 1: haven't been a very good team this year overall in

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Speaker 1: terms of their talent. Now that's not Anthony Davis's fault,

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Speaker 1: he's just dealing with an injury. He'll eventually come back

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Speaker 1: to form. I think we all agree with that, but

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Speaker 1: this isn't some jugger not roster that we expected coming

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Speaker 1: into the season because of some of those issues. And

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Speaker 1: Lebron is taking that challenge personally because he knows how

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Speaker 1: important that one seed is. When he's on the floor,

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Speaker 1: their plus thirteen per one hundred possessions. When he's off

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Speaker 1: the floor, their minus three per one hundred possessions. And

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Speaker 1: even when a d and Dennis Shrewterre on the floor,

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Speaker 1: their minus three per one hundred possessions. So Lebron knows

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Speaker 1: I have to be out there in order for us

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Speaker 1: to win these games, and he knows if he sits out,

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Speaker 1: it could potentially put them in a situation where they

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Speaker 1: have to beat both the Jazz and the Clippers. That's

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Speaker 1: why his availability matters, and it is something that he

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Speaker 1: has taken personally, and it is something that absolutely factors

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Speaker 1: into is a case for m v P. As far

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Speaker 1: as the numbers goes, that's the most common thing you'll

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Speaker 1: hear is you know, Kauai has got more points per game,

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Speaker 1: or Joel and Bead has more points per game. And

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Speaker 1: what I would say is like, it's very important for

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Speaker 1: us all as a basketball community to kind of understand

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Speaker 1: the fact that that the counting stats aren't necessarily what

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Speaker 1: they used to be because of some of the crazy

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Speaker 1: stuff going on with the way offenses are run these days.

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Speaker 1: Sixteen players in the NBA right now are averaging over

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Speaker 1: fifteen points per game. In two thousand and fifteen, that

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Speaker 1: was four, okay, So it's very clear that the averaging

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Speaker 1: somewhere between twenty five and thirty points per game doesn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily mean the same thing that it used to. A

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Speaker 1: lot of that has to do with pace, A lot

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Speaker 1: of that has to do with just the way that

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Speaker 1: these offenses are structured. But the question is are you scoring. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: all Lebron, Kauai and e beat are all scoring the basketball,

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Speaker 1: and they're all doing it efficiently, and a handful of

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Speaker 1: points per game here, they're a handful of percentages in

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Speaker 1: the field goal percentage isn't going to make up that

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Speaker 1: much of a difference, especially when you factor in the

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Speaker 1: fact that Lebron is five times the pastor that both

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Speaker 1: of those guys are right. I just I just think

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Speaker 1: it's important to remember that, you know, because of how

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Speaker 1: important this regular season is for the standings if the

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Speaker 1: Lakers happen to hoist the trophy at some point, what

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Speaker 1: Lebron is doing right now, trying to float this thing

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Speaker 1: while guys get healthy, trying to float this thing while

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Speaker 1: they try to find their legs and get their rotations

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Speaker 1: figured out, it's immensely valuable to what they're doing. And

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Speaker 1: it's a real on court basketball case. He's scoring the ball,

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Speaker 1: he's playing point guard like he's CP three, and he's

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Speaker 1: defending at an extremely high level, and and and it's

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Speaker 1: been completely glossed over as a as a dishonest attempt

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Speaker 1: to try to pretend like he doesn't belong in this conversation. Yeah, so,

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Speaker 1: so I think, UM, I think the m v P

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Speaker 1: conversation is I think what you said at the very

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Speaker 1: beginning is is very similar to what's going on this season.

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Speaker 1: There's you know, a very clear cut candidate um on

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Speaker 1: on one side of the spectrum, with Joel Embid who

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Speaker 1: certainly has probably one of the best uh so far

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Speaker 1: through this season candidacies for an m v P, especially

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Speaker 1: with them leading with you know, with the Nets being

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Speaker 1: like the super team basically, and you know, with the

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Speaker 1: Bucks also loading up for the Sixers to be at

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Speaker 1: the very top. UM, that is definitely something that that

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Speaker 1: warrants that conversations. Having a great season UM, scoring, rebounding,

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Speaker 1: assisting the team looks better, the roster construction around the

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Speaker 1: team looks better, a lot of good things that come

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Speaker 1: out of the six Ers. UM. But I think that

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Speaker 1: the I think a pattern that I saw last season,

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Speaker 1: which is a pattern that I see this season, is

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Speaker 1: that it seems as though national media coverage keeps pitting

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Speaker 1: these m VP conversations into the lebron and then the

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Speaker 1: anti Lebron candidate, it's never it's you know, I I

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Speaker 1: know that the NBA does like the the m v

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Speaker 1: P ladder, and they do all this stuff and then

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Speaker 1: they have crazy swings on those ladders. Your cage for

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Speaker 1: was like a number seven ranking and then after one

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Speaker 1: week he's skyrocketed to like the very second spot or

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Speaker 1: something outrageous. And for the Warriors fans, because I know

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Speaker 1: you do have Warrior fans who listening in on this,

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Speaker 1: they're doing that intentionally with step by keeping them at

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Speaker 1: the very bottom of that because they know that you're

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Speaker 1: gonna get mad about it, and so like my advice

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Speaker 1: to them is don't get mad about it. Like, if

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Speaker 1: you're looking at national media conversations about m v P stuff,

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Speaker 1: their goal is engagement. Their goal is not a real

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Speaker 1: basketball conversation. And you know, I tweeted tweeted this the

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Speaker 1: other day. Um, I'm just I don't like getting in

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Speaker 1: the conversations anymore about m v P STA because it's

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Speaker 1: not about basketball anymore. There's a basketball case for Joel

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Speaker 1: Embi to be the m v P. There's a basketball

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Speaker 1: case for Lebron James to be the m v P.

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Speaker 1: Last season it was the same thing. Jianna has had

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Speaker 1: a great case to be the m v P and

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Speaker 1: Lebron had a great case to be the m v P.

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Speaker 1: Forget the narrative stuff, forget Kobe's tragedy, forget all that stuff.

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Speaker 1: There was a basketball case for Lebron to be an

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Speaker 1: MVP last year. He didn't win it, but he got

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Speaker 1: some votes. Cool, whatever, it's the same thing now. And

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Speaker 1: the part that that's frustrating and the reason why I

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Speaker 1: don't get into these conversations, and I know that you

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Speaker 1: get frustrated by this too. We talked about this off offline. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's because people just want to They're like, oh god,

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Speaker 1: this is a narrative based thing. But then they use

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Speaker 1: the narrative based stuff in their arguments when they're arguing,

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Speaker 1: Like if you're going to make if you're gonna say

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Speaker 1: that there's basketball cases on both sides, at least argue that,

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Speaker 1: you know, I mean, like talk about the plus minuses.

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Speaker 1: Talk about the fact that Lebron is shooting over which

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Speaker 1: is something I don't think he's ever done in the

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Speaker 1: regular season like before, Like his shooting percentages are looking

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Speaker 1: really crazy. The Lakers are winning even with Antie Davis.

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Speaker 1: As a Laker fan, I can objectively tell you Anti

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Speaker 1: Davis has not been good this year, Like he's not

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Speaker 1: even good to his own level. And I know that,

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Speaker 1: you know, injuries are a part of that um and

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Speaker 1: he has student Laker family is going to tell you

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Speaker 1: that he hasn't looked like he's like in shape, he

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Speaker 1: hasn't looked like his conditioning is right. But learn looks

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Speaker 1: like a finally you know, fine tuned machine. And he's

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Speaker 1: still rolling the same way he always does. And that's

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Speaker 1: his m v P case right there. The Clippers are better.

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Speaker 1: The Jazz like better as compared to last season. Their

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Speaker 1: roster is better and there coaching better. The Jazz are healthy,

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Speaker 1: they look great. Denver started off a little bit slow,

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Speaker 1: they lost Jeremy Grant, but now they look really great.

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Speaker 1: Yoki's just playing really great. There's a lot of great

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Speaker 1: teams in the Western Conference and we can see that

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Speaker 1: in the disparity when we look at like I think

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Speaker 1: like the eighth seed or the in in the Western

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Speaker 1: Conference would be like the third seed in the Eastern

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Speaker 1: Conference or something like that. It's very competitive. So your

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Speaker 1: case of your example of like the Lakers are still

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Speaker 1: the number two seed right now, that's a big deal,

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Speaker 1: like yeah, and and and that right and then so

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Speaker 1: that's not something that you can just excuse. And Um,

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Speaker 1: I think the problem with these m v P cases

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Speaker 1: or these conversations is it's always turns into a this

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Speaker 1: guy and then anti this guy, or turns into this

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Speaker 1: fan base and anti this fan base as opposed to

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Speaker 1: just talking about the field of play. And I think

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Speaker 1: that's the part that I don't like it, the part

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Speaker 1: that's the reason why I don't get those conversations. But

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Speaker 1: you're right, I think there is a basketball case for

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Speaker 1: Labron to be um an m v P candy. Does

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Speaker 1: it mean that he get he earned it over Joel

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Speaker 1: Embiid No, because we're only like we're lessing thirty games

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Speaker 1: into the season. Let the entire season play out. Right,

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Speaker 1: last season, when we got about to the to the

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Speaker 1: midway of mark, before the Lakers got a chance to

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Speaker 1: play a second game against the Bucks, people had already

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Speaker 1: decided that Giannice was going to win the m v P.

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Speaker 1: It was it was a foregone conclusion right that he

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Speaker 1: was gonna win. And and one of the biggest things

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Speaker 1: that I kept hearing UM when it came to both

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Speaker 1: his MVP candidacy and his defensive player candidacy, the Player

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Speaker 1: of the Year Candiday, because Anthony Davis was the guy

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Speaker 1: who was supposed to be competing for that award with him.

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Speaker 1: Was all the advanced metrics that were attached to Giannice

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Speaker 1: and how good they were. And when people tried to

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Speaker 1: make that, including myself, tried to make a basketball case

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Speaker 1: that the teams that he and I think you actually

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Speaker 1: said this, that the very bad teams in the East

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Speaker 1: are really really bad compared to the very a teams

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Speaker 1: in the West not being as bad as the teams

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Speaker 1: that he's inflating some of those advanced mets. And their

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Speaker 1: division was terrible. So they were basically, in particular, they

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Speaker 1: were playing every team in their division four times and

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Speaker 1: beating them by twenty to thirty points. Everything. It was

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Speaker 1: like it was like a chipper shredder that just messed

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Speaker 1: up all their advanced metrics, right, and and so you

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Speaker 1: know my argument. So I had the same argument, and

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Speaker 1: I understand folks saying, look, it's not our fault that

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Speaker 1: other teams. You know, I I completely agreed with Bucks

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Speaker 1: fans saying, look, it's not your fault. That other teams

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Speaker 1: can't get their you know, get their crap together and

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Speaker 1: then put competitives. That's not Geonice's fault, but that's like,

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Speaker 1: but but the argument that I think we were trying

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Speaker 1: to make was at least level like, at least take

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Speaker 1: that advanced metrics part of the conversation out. If you

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Speaker 1: can acknowledge that the teams that that that that he's

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Speaker 1: beating up on are much worse than the ones that

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Speaker 1: the Lakers are beating up on, then at least it

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Speaker 1: levels a conversation out. And I think like for me,

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Speaker 1: like towards the end of the season, my thing was

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Speaker 1: just like, um, my thing was, if Lebron is not

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Speaker 1: gonna win it, it should be a closer vote than

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Speaker 1: the way people are making it sound. And I think

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Speaker 1: that's the same thing that I'm trying to say now

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Speaker 1: that Joel embiid. If I had to pick an award

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Speaker 1: right now, like if I had to pick, I wouldn't

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Speaker 1: mind giving it the Joel. I'd have no problem if

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Speaker 1: you want, if he wins it, Lakers don't have a

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Speaker 1: one seed. Um Lebron, there's voter fatigue behind him. I

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Speaker 1: understand if he's not if he doesn't win it, and

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Speaker 1: Joel's carrying a team that wasn't expected to be as

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Speaker 1: great as the Nets, or as the Bucks or or

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Speaker 1: the even the Heat, you know, um, and so I

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Speaker 1: understand him getting it. But the way that folks talk

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Speaker 1: about it is like there's this vast chasm of difference

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Speaker 1: between these two guys, and it's just not that way.

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Speaker 1: If you watch the game, le Braun has strengths, he

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Speaker 1: has weaknesses. Joel Embiad has strengths. Joel Embiad has weaknesses.

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Speaker 1: We just watched them lose last night to the Portland

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Speaker 1: Trailer Blazers. Some of that stuff was in Joel's hands,

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Speaker 1: some of that stuff was in you know, his teammates

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Speaker 1: hands and stuff like that. But that's just how the

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Speaker 1: game of basketball works, and people have to start, you know,

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Speaker 1: if you're gonna have these m VP conversations, make a

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Speaker 1: basketball case for it. Don't give me a metric base case,

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Speaker 1: because metric don't necessarily um what's it called that they

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Speaker 1: don't necessarily display or accurately represent exactly what's happening. Because

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Speaker 1: if you're going to use a metric base case, then

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Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I can make a solid case for

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Speaker 1: Steph Curry. I can make a solid case for Bradley Field.

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Speaker 1: I can make a solid case for Zach Lavine. There's

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Speaker 1: I can make a solid case right now for Jimmy

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Speaker 1: Butler that Jimmy Butler should be the m v P

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Speaker 1: because the heat looked terrible without him, and when he plays,

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Speaker 1: they can't they just keep winning. So that that's my thing,

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Speaker 1: Like people gotta start like, let's talk basketball, man, like

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Speaker 1: we we gotta stop doing this thing where it's just

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Speaker 1: like we're arbitrarily picking stuff to to fluff up our

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Speaker 1: guy and stuff like that. And so that's my thing. Um,

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Speaker 1: but I do you know that's my long rent, But

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Speaker 1: I do agree with you. I think Lebron has a

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Speaker 1: great case for an MVP this season, especially considering all

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Speaker 1: the factors, you know, Anty Davis not playing or not

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Speaker 1: playing well at all, him having to integrate this roster

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Speaker 1: of new guys in um and they're still winning games

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Speaker 1: and um, Look, there was a lot conversation the national

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Speaker 1: media about the Lakers defense not being good because they

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Speaker 1: lost Dwight Haward and JaVale McGhee, who are somewhat successful

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Speaker 1: in their new new stops and stuff. I got and

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Speaker 1: the Lakers are still winning. We did the same exercise

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Speaker 1: last season when everybody told us all Lakers are playing

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Speaker 1: two bigs in enough spacing, there's no way that they're

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Speaker 1: gonna win games, and then they they were ripping off

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Speaker 1: like seven ten game win streaks and stuff. I got

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Speaker 1: at some point we have to stop with the with

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Speaker 1: the nonsense, right, like, enough with the Lebron anti Lebron stuff,

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Speaker 1: enough with the like Lakers anti Lakers stuff. Let's talk

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Speaker 1: about basketball. Or what's going to end up happening is

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Speaker 1: that all the same people last season that spent the

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Speaker 1: whole season picking the Clippers, then picking the Blazers, then

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Speaker 1: picking the Rockets, then picking the Heat, all the people

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Speaker 1: who kept trying to pick different teams every single time,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna end up doing it two years in a row.

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Speaker 1: Because if the Lakers, you know, beat the expectations like

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Speaker 1: they did last season, they have a solid shot at

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Speaker 1: another championship. And if they win another championship, that's two

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Speaker 1: years of your life you've wasted arguing something that you

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Speaker 1: already knew was disingenuous from the beginning. And so that's

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Speaker 1: my thing, Like, if we want better basketball conversations, on Twitter, man, like,

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Speaker 1: let's talk basketball. Enough enough with this stuff. You're a

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Speaker 1: basketball guy. I'm a basketball guy, Like, let's talk about basketball.

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Speaker 1: I don't I don't win, you know, I'm not interested

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Speaker 1: in winning arguments over a technicality because you use the

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Speaker 1: word clutch and you didn't use the word fourth quarter.

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Speaker 1: That's my thing, and um, it's it's It's just that's

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Speaker 1: my stance. I think Lebron has a really good case.

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Speaker 1: And um, look, if they keep winning and Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: is out longer and longer, it's gonna get hard for

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Speaker 1: you to say that that he doesn't that that he

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Speaker 1: doesn't have a case. And um, yeah, that's it, man.

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Speaker 1: That that that's that's my like biggest stance in regards

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Speaker 1: to like the m v P stuff. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of great, great players in the league. This is a

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Speaker 1: great season, outrageous shooting. It's crazy how many scores are.

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Speaker 1: There are a lot of m VP candidates, But in

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Speaker 1: the end of differentiators, who's winning games. Um, you can't

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Speaker 1: put Nicola Yoki above Steph Curry if they have the

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Speaker 1: same record. It it doesn't work. The one guy doesn't

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Speaker 1: have a better case than the other. You gotta look

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Speaker 1: at like the top three teams, figure out who the

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Speaker 1: best player on that team is, and give that guy

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Speaker 1: MVP looks. That's how the way the ward is supposed

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Speaker 1: to work, in my opinion, And that was one of

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Speaker 1: the big things that I was pointing out when I

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Speaker 1: would talk about it with people's you know, when I

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Speaker 1: when I would make a case, I would and I

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Speaker 1: did this last year when I made Lebron's case, I

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Speaker 1: pointed to clear obvious, you know, a precedent for how

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Speaker 1: we used to choose the award. We used to always

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Speaker 1: choose award based on three things, kind of like a

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Speaker 1: combination of who's the best player in the league, who's

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Speaker 1: the best player on the best team, and who's been

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Speaker 1: the most valuable, meaning like how much of a drop

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Speaker 1: off is there when they're when they're not on the floor.

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Speaker 1: That's always been the way that we've done it. And

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Speaker 1: there have been years where certain categories were weighed a

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Speaker 1: little bit heavier than the other, but it's always all

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Speaker 1: of those things. And and then there are other things

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Speaker 1: we value. We value, you know, like what your availability was,

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Speaker 1: and it's always been factored in Almost every MVP debate

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Speaker 1: has been like you know, there's been a year I

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Speaker 1: think it was two thousand seventeen or uh two, that's

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Speaker 1: a sixth team. We're like, uh, lebron mised eight games

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Speaker 1: and the Calves went oh and eight and it it

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Speaker 1: hurt him in the MVP debate, not because they were

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Speaker 1: bad without him, but because he wasn't available during those

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Speaker 1: games and there were players who played more. And it's

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Speaker 1: it's always been part of that. But you know, it

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Speaker 1: bothered me because we we checked in on the debate.

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Speaker 1: That was what we did. We did the same thing

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Speaker 1: we do every single year, you know, about the fourth

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Speaker 1: quarter of fourth four season, a third, a way through

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Speaker 1: the season, halfway through the season, we always just kind of, hey,

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Speaker 1: how does the MVP debate look? You know, and it

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Speaker 1: was like we looked in and it was like, you know,

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Speaker 1: we have three guys at the top, you know, Kawhile,

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Speaker 1: lebron In and Joel Embiad and then there are a

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Speaker 1: couple of guys that are that are on their heels.

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Speaker 1: Like it was never this is over right now kind

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Speaker 1: of thing. It was. We were just we were just

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Speaker 1: we were just checking in on it and all that,

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Speaker 1: you know, and this has been the frustrating part about it,

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Speaker 1: like no one, no one ever even considered the idea

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Speaker 1: that Kauai or Joe l Embiad were in the debate

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Speaker 1: for any reason other than basketball. But for whatever reason,

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Speaker 1: when it comes to Lebron, when his name gets brought

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Speaker 1: up in these conversations, there's always this massive push that

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Speaker 1: it's like that, it's like that, it's like a fake case,

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Speaker 1: that it's this this strictly propaganda fueld case, And it's

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Speaker 1: ridiculous because if you look back, there's never been a

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Speaker 1: time that Lebron won the MVP when he shouldn't have.

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Speaker 1: In fact, there it's far more likely that you might

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Speaker 1: be able to make the case that he should have

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Speaker 1: won it in a particular season and he didn't than

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Speaker 1: the other way around. So whatever you think there is

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Speaker 1: in terms of media bias, that is that is putting

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Speaker 1: Lebron into conversations he doesn't belong in. That hasn't happened.

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Speaker 1: So it's it's dishonest from the start, and that's what's

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Speaker 1: so unfortunate because Lebron, you know, literally jokes before the

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Speaker 1: season that he's going to to not even show up

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Speaker 1: to the first month of the season, he's joking, but

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Speaker 1: he says he's not even gonna show up because he

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Speaker 1: needs some rest. And instead he shows up and completely

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Speaker 1: attacks both sides of the ball and leads a damage

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Speaker 1: like injured roster to within a half game of the

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Speaker 1: best record in the league. And then his name gets

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Speaker 1: brought up in an MVP debate, and here come all

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Speaker 1: these people trying to say that it that it's there,

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Speaker 1: that it's there for the some sort of propaganda, a

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Speaker 1: base reason, and that that was the only thing that

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Speaker 1: was frustrating to me, because like, you know, uh, I

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Speaker 1: feel like when I approached these kinds of things, and

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Speaker 1: you and I talked about this before we went live,

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Speaker 1: and I feel like when I talk about these kinds

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Speaker 1: of things, I try to take a moderate approach, you know,

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Speaker 1: Like I'll be like, you know, I think Lebron is

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Speaker 1: better than Steph Curry. I don't think Steph Curry has

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Speaker 1: ever really had a claim to best player in the world. However,

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Speaker 1: I think he I think he's been top five consistently

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Speaker 1: since two thousand thirteen, and as of right now, I

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Speaker 1: think he's the second best player in the world. Like

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Speaker 1: that would be like my completely reasonable, moderate opinion for

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Speaker 1: for why I think Lebron is better than Steph, but

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Speaker 1: the what I get back in return, Like I heard

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Speaker 1: from people yesterday yesterday that Lebron hasn't even been in

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Speaker 1: the top five of performers of performers this year, and

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Speaker 1: it's like, like, what can I even you know, what,

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Speaker 1: what common ground are we gonna find when I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to approach this from a position of reason and you know, rational,

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Speaker 1: like kind of like uh like to try to find

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Speaker 1: common ground, and you're over here telling me the guy sucks.

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Speaker 1: Like I just I can't find common ground with you

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Speaker 1: in that regard, and and I just im frustrated for

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Speaker 1: for Lebron's sake, because like this is literally the first

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Speaker 1: time since two thousand thirteen that he's had a bona

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Speaker 1: fide pole position on the MVP Award through a third

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Speaker 1: of the way through the season, because he's usually a

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Speaker 1: late season guy. He's the guy who makes a late run,

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Speaker 1: and this is the first time he's had a real

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Speaker 1: opportunity to to to to say that he's in first

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Speaker 1: place at this point in the season, and it's literally

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Speaker 1: just caused the basketball world to descend into chaos, and

429
00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:34,400
Speaker 1: it's ridiculous, right, and and I and I get it right,

430
00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:38,719
Speaker 1: Like I understand that, Like let's separate out NBA Twitter,

431
00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:42,920
Speaker 1: which is crazy in itself, and national media. I understand

432
00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:45,600
Speaker 1: why national media does it. Okay, like they're not going

433
00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:48,360
Speaker 1: to do a real basketball and house Nick Write, Skip Bayless,

434
00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:54,160
Speaker 1: Shannon Sharp, uh Rachel Nichols, whoever, like you know, uh

435
00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:57,400
Speaker 1: Nick Friedell, whoever else that they have, even the basketball guys,

436
00:19:57,400 --> 00:19:59,720
Speaker 1: the Channing Fries, those guys. Those guys are not on

437
00:19:59,880 --> 00:20:04,200
Speaker 1: the shows to do basketball analysis. They're not interested in that.

438
00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:07,879
Speaker 1: What they're interested in doing is maximizing engagement and the

439
00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:12,600
Speaker 1: responsors from Yes, they're interested in entertainment. There's a reason

440
00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:15,919
Speaker 1: why Zach Lowe gets on there. It sounds boring sometimes

441
00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:17,800
Speaker 1: when he says it, and then he's off. It's a

442
00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:20,639
Speaker 1: reason why certain guys are always constantly invited over and

443
00:20:20,680 --> 00:20:22,960
Speaker 1: over again because they will take They're willing to take

444
00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:27,720
Speaker 1: extreme positions in order to and and extreme positions and

445
00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:30,120
Speaker 1: and criticism from NBA Twitter because they know they're gonna

446
00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:32,119
Speaker 1: get retweeted. They know they're gonna get Quoe tweeted with

447
00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:34,679
Speaker 1: people calling him a dumbass or calling him whatever it is,

448
00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:37,159
Speaker 1: The reason why they do all that sort of stuff

449
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:40,560
Speaker 1: is so that they get the engagement that ESPN needs.

450
00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:43,119
Speaker 1: And what ends up happening is the quality content like

451
00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:46,359
Speaker 1: Zach Lowe will get moved behind the paywall because the

452
00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:50,879
Speaker 1: people who are generally interested, sorry, genuinely interested in basketball

453
00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:54,080
Speaker 1: will pay money to ESPN to go read his articles,

454
00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:57,600
Speaker 1: whereas all the extremists, clickbait people are the ones that

455
00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:00,320
Speaker 1: are out there for free because they're monetizing and agent

456
00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:02,560
Speaker 1: and and and my last thing that I have to

457
00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:05,879
Speaker 1: say about this is what what's you know? When I

458
00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:08,960
Speaker 1: first joined Twitter, I came into the conversation, like I

459
00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:12,480
Speaker 1: joined hoping to have productive conversations. And what I learned

460
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:16,800
Speaker 1: is that the productive conversations only come from certain folks. Okay,

461
00:21:17,119 --> 00:21:19,680
Speaker 1: and um, this is what I was telling you offline,

462
00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:23,040
Speaker 1: that you have to find the people who have productive

463
00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:28,080
Speaker 1: conversations about basketball, who talk about basketball stuff, and you

464
00:21:28,119 --> 00:21:30,639
Speaker 1: have to just you have to accept that not everybody's

465
00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:33,640
Speaker 1: on Twitter for that. Some people are on there to argue, man,

466
00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:36,600
Speaker 1: some people like to argue about hoops. And I'm not

467
00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:39,320
Speaker 1: talking about barbershop guys, because even I like doing barbershop

468
00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:42,200
Speaker 1: nonsense and stuff like that too. But there's people who

469
00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:44,760
Speaker 1: genuinely just get on there. They love their players, you know,

470
00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:47,639
Speaker 1: they love their favorite player and whatever it is, and

471
00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:49,240
Speaker 1: and they're gonna root from them no matter what. They're

472
00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:51,560
Speaker 1: gonna write for them no matter what. And that's fine,

473
00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:54,119
Speaker 1: Like I don't have any problem with that. That's what

474
00:21:54,119 --> 00:21:56,359
Speaker 1: you're on Twitter for. That's you're on Twitter for. That's cool.

475
00:21:57,240 --> 00:21:59,040
Speaker 1: But I'm just gonna mute you because you should keep

476
00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:00,879
Speaker 1: showing up all my time because people keep trying to

477
00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:03,240
Speaker 1: dunk on you because you're taking extreme positions over the

478
00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:05,760
Speaker 1: player that you like. Whether it's Lebron or whether it's

479
00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:07,960
Speaker 1: somebody else, it doesn't matter. So I just mute you

480
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:11,320
Speaker 1: and I continue. But the people who have real basketball conversations,

481
00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:14,399
Speaker 1: those are the people I'm gonna engage with. And I

482
00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,359
Speaker 1: think I've noticed this also in your case. There is

483
00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:18,960
Speaker 1: another thing to tell you. Off one, I think you

484
00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:22,040
Speaker 1: genuinely want to have good basketball conversations with folks, and

485
00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:25,840
Speaker 1: you keep getting looped into the extremist positions at times.

486
00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:28,239
Speaker 1: And that's the exercise if you want to tell if

487
00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:31,479
Speaker 1: you want to engage with NBA Twitter in a productive manner,

488
00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:33,679
Speaker 1: you have to stop engaging with extreme folks. I'm not

489
00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:35,280
Speaker 1: saying you're doing that. I just think that, like people

490
00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:38,600
Speaker 1: take positions and stuff like that, and so that that's

491
00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:41,520
Speaker 1: a hard thing to co and look, Skip Bayliss is

492
00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:44,280
Speaker 1: cashing checks off of this action, Nick right is cashing

493
00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:46,560
Speaker 1: checks off with this action. As long as they can

494
00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:49,720
Speaker 1: keep taking extreme positions, and people on NBA Twitter keep

495
00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:53,000
Speaker 1: responding in extreme manners. They make money and we don't.

496
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:56,359
Speaker 1: And that's the problem. And uh, you know, I've always

497
00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:58,760
Speaker 1: seen people say that NFL Twitter is better than NBA Twitter.

498
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:02,400
Speaker 1: NFL Twitter's because they talk about football, right, They don't

499
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:04,520
Speaker 1: talk about other stuff, you know, like they talk about

500
00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:06,040
Speaker 1: m VP and stuff like that, but they talk about

501
00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:08,879
Speaker 1: football majority of the time, not about not about who's

502
00:23:08,840 --> 00:23:11,080
Speaker 1: going to win this award and all that sert of stuff. So,

503
00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:13,000
Speaker 1: you know, and obviously football is a little bit of

504
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:16,679
Speaker 1: a different sport. What helps is that it that that

505
00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:20,359
Speaker 1: it's so a team oriented. Um, but yeah, I agree

506
00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:22,120
Speaker 1: with you, And I mean, I think we can put

507
00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:24,000
Speaker 1: the m v P debate to rest for at least

508
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:26,479
Speaker 1: a couple more weeks. Yeah, then let's just just let it,

509
00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:29,040
Speaker 1: let it breathe, let it, let it breathe and let

510
00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:30,479
Speaker 1: us get through. At least, we don't even know what

511
00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:32,960
Speaker 1: the second the second half of the schedule of freaking

512
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,840
Speaker 1: looks like after the next six seven games. So but

513
00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:38,399
Speaker 1: if it's Jazz lose tonight and the Lakers win, I

514
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 1: will absolutely be going out of my way to to

515
00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:43,959
Speaker 1: point out the very simple fact that this this team

516
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:46,480
Speaker 1: is that the in the pole position. But we're gonna

517
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:48,560
Speaker 1: talk some Lakers, and we're gonna talk some actual basketball,

518
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:51,400
Speaker 1: and we're gonna start by by talking about the Laker

519
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:55,880
Speaker 1: offense because one of the interesting phenomenon that's phenomenon that's

520
00:23:55,920 --> 00:24:00,080
Speaker 1: happened this year is that the Laker defense has has

521
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:02,879
Speaker 1: gotten better than it was last year, and yet with

522
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:07,360
Speaker 1: the influx of offensive talent, their offense is actually regrets.

523
00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:09,600
Speaker 1: For the season, I believe they're either seventh or eighth,

524
00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:12,840
Speaker 1: but in their last fifteen games, they're eighteenth in the

525
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:18,399
Speaker 1: league in offensive efficiency. Um. Now, I have a theory

526
00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 1: about this, but I want to get your point of

527
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:23,399
Speaker 1: view first. Why do you think the Lakers have been

528
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:28,280
Speaker 1: struggling to score so far this season? So? Um, I

529
00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:30,520
Speaker 1: think some of it has to do with integrating the

530
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:34,920
Speaker 1: new guys. Um. There are all of the most important

531
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:38,600
Speaker 1: offensive role players, which is then Schroeder's position with him

532
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:43,719
Speaker 1: replacing Rondo, um Wes, Matthews up and down play uh Montrez,

533
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,000
Speaker 1: Harold playing the playing the center position at times, and

534
00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:49,680
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I think that has the learning process

535
00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:54,280
Speaker 1: with that has been less than UM, less than smooth.

536
00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:56,359
Speaker 1: But now it's starting to smooth out a little bit

537
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:59,680
Speaker 1: more UM and and that's what it is. The other

538
00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:05,000
Speaker 1: thing is, from what I've noticed is UM Lebron's impact

539
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:08,800
Speaker 1: in certain lineups has changed, and and specifically what I

540
00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:13,280
Speaker 1: mean is UM. The the idea was that if we

541
00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:16,200
Speaker 1: put Dennis Shoulder in the starting lineup that his scoring

542
00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:18,960
Speaker 1: and playmaking would help offload some of the scoring burden

543
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:21,800
Speaker 1: for the Lakers at the startup games. And for some

544
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:24,800
Speaker 1: games it has and so for some games it hasn't.

545
00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:27,120
Speaker 1: And so what I've noticed, at least over the past

546
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:29,920
Speaker 1: the course of the past fifteen or so games where

547
00:25:29,920 --> 00:25:32,560
Speaker 1: they've had like the eighteen Frank offense, is that when

548
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:37,160
Speaker 1: the Lakers don't start off well offensively, it's usually Lebron

549
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:41,520
Speaker 1: who's who's kind of saving that offense, which is normal UM,

550
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:43,320
Speaker 1: especially with Anti Davis not playing as well you know,

551
00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:44,720
Speaker 1: shooting as well as he did in the bubble. He

552
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:47,359
Speaker 1: started out, hotten out, and then before he got injured

553
00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:49,240
Speaker 1: and sat out, he wasn't shooting that great from three

554
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:50,920
Speaker 1: and all that sort of stuff. So Lebron has been

555
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:52,919
Speaker 1: exerting a little bit more energy. That doesn't mean that

556
00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:56,320
Speaker 1: like shoulder isn't making plays or anything like that. It

557
00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:58,119
Speaker 1: just means that, like he's still having to kind of

558
00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:00,560
Speaker 1: score at the same sort of workload, attacked the rim,

559
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:03,600
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. Um, And I think what's

560
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,520
Speaker 1: happening is that last season the Lakers would go to

561
00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:08,520
Speaker 1: this lineup in the second half where Lebron would kind

562
00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 1: of run the floor and he'd set guys up and

563
00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:12,920
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff. And what's happened is that, Um,

564
00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:15,040
Speaker 1: he used to have a little bit more energy in

565
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:16,840
Speaker 1: the sense that because he didn't have to do too

566
00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:19,359
Speaker 1: much and he was just you know, with the starting

567
00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:22,719
Speaker 1: line up, the starting line was okay. Um, when he

568
00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:26,720
Speaker 1: goes into his second shift, he's gassed. So one of

569
00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:29,280
Speaker 1: the lineups that the Lakers have run, which they stopped running,

570
00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:30,680
Speaker 1: which I don't know if they're gonna bring back, is

571
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:34,000
Speaker 1: the all forwards lineup that all forwards lineup literally runs

572
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,159
Speaker 1: outside of Montrese, three, three and D guys. So the

573
00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:39,119
Speaker 1: idea is that Lebron is either going to get to

574
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:40,879
Speaker 1: the rim or he's gonna run pick and roll, or

575
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:43,119
Speaker 1: somebody's going to attack the rim and create for these

576
00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:46,200
Speaker 1: other three guys. And that lineup has been terrible. It's

577
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:48,240
Speaker 1: been super bad. And I think the reason why it's

578
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:51,399
Speaker 1: been really bad is because Lebron is not tired, but

579
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 1: like he's kind of like not attacking the rim as

580
00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:56,679
Speaker 1: much with that lineup. And so what's ended up happening

581
00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:00,360
Speaker 1: is um defensively too, and yeah, and they've been too. Yeah,

582
00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:03,080
Speaker 1: Markief has not been good rebounding and stuff. I got um,

583
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:05,240
Speaker 1: which he was really great at last season, but apparently

584
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:07,880
Speaker 1: this season. Last game was the first time Markief looked

585
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:10,679
Speaker 1: like the Marquis from last time. Yeah, so that that

586
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:12,800
Speaker 1: lineup has looked bad, so that I think the offensive

587
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:16,199
Speaker 1: has dropped down. But what's been interesting is after that

588
00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 1: Mark Kief West Matthews switched, they got switched out for

589
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:22,520
Speaker 1: like Caruso and th ht. We noticed that the Lakers

590
00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:23,800
Speaker 1: are getting to the rim a little bit more, the

591
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:25,640
Speaker 1: offensive a little bit better, the defense look a little

592
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 1: bit better. That the energy was better because they weren't

593
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 1: you know, being stifled on offense. Lebron was still kind

594
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:33,560
Speaker 1: of still facilitating picking his spots and stuff I got

595
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:35,600
Speaker 1: with that second shift line up. So I think what's

596
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:39,560
Speaker 1: happening with the Lakers offense specifically is that they're still

597
00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:42,119
Speaker 1: trying to figure out the correct combinations of players to

598
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 1: keep a sustainable offense on the floor, and that is

599
00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:48,160
Speaker 1: going to be a season long process. What doesn't help

600
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:50,720
Speaker 1: is when Anthony Davis gets hurt, uh and he misses games,

601
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:53,320
Speaker 1: because that's an important, you know, volume score for this team.

602
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,119
Speaker 1: When they try to stagger broad in and out, and

603
00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:58,720
Speaker 1: I think that's why their offense hasn't been good. They're

604
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:02,200
Speaker 1: still trying to figure out the line ups and um,

605
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:04,679
Speaker 1: some players not being you know as good as we

606
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,560
Speaker 1: expected to be, some guys playing really well, uh in

607
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:10,640
Speaker 1: for these stretches, it's kind of convoluted things a little

608
00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 1: bit more. And I think moving forward, it's going to

609
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:15,560
Speaker 1: be really important for Frank Vogel to find the right

610
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:18,639
Speaker 1: combinations of players on a nightly basis to win games.

611
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:21,320
Speaker 1: And that that's really what I think it comes down to.

612
00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:23,600
Speaker 1: I don't think they're a worse offensive team. I think

613
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:25,720
Speaker 1: it's just they need to work out their kings. Lakers

614
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:27,720
Speaker 1: don't run a five out offense. It's not a simplified

615
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:31,480
Speaker 1: offense where everybody just stands in their designated positions or

616
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:34,399
Speaker 1: fills this fine the in the designated positions. UM. I

617
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 1: actually compare this situation to what like what Warrior fans

618
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 1: have been complaining about when it comes to Steve Kerk's

619
00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:42,360
Speaker 1: rotation and and like the up and down play of

620
00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:44,840
Speaker 1: Kelly Huber and stuff like that they do. The Warriors

621
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 1: do not run a simplified offense. Nothing about what they

622
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:51,400
Speaker 1: do is simplified. Uh. It requires motion, It requires very

623
00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:54,880
Speaker 1: very smart cutting. And when they lost Clay Thompson, Uh,

624
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:58,280
Speaker 1: they lost one of the smartest off ball cutter screen

625
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 1: users in the NBA. What makes the Warriors so difficult

626
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:04,160
Speaker 1: to defend is not the split cut action, not the

627
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:07,920
Speaker 1: elevator screens, not the relocation. That's that's all great, But

628
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 1: what makes them elite like unguardable, is that Steph and

629
00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:13,680
Speaker 1: Clay knew how to run off of screens which every

630
00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:16,480
Speaker 1: way they wanted. There was no set curl or you know,

631
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:19,080
Speaker 1: no down screen pop out. It wasn't set. They get

632
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:21,280
Speaker 1: to make that decision, and Draymond would always hit those

633
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:23,000
Speaker 1: guys on time. And the reason why the Warriors are

634
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,560
Speaker 1: having some difficulty because Kelly Hubert doesn't know how to

635
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:28,640
Speaker 1: do that. Uh, Andrew Wiggins doesn't know how to do that,

636
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,280
Speaker 1: and and that's why they're getting these games where they're

637
00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:33,240
Speaker 1: up and down and because it because it messes with

638
00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:35,440
Speaker 1: their senergy. And I think for the Lakers, we're seeing

639
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:37,520
Speaker 1: that same issue. We get some line ups that look great,

640
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:39,600
Speaker 1: some lives that don't look great, all of a sudden,

641
00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:41,000
Speaker 1: the line if that didn't look great, all of a

642
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,280
Speaker 1: sudden looks good against a certain team. So those sort

643
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 1: of things are all things you have to work out

644
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:48,000
Speaker 1: during the course of the regular season. But I would

645
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:51,320
Speaker 1: bet money that a Steph led team and the Lebron

646
00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:53,959
Speaker 1: lead team will eventually figure it out as the season

647
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:56,120
Speaker 1: goes on to a point where they can be competitive.

648
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:57,680
Speaker 1: And so that's that's why I think is happening with

649
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:02,600
Speaker 1: their offense. Yeah, is of like there's no reason to worry, yeah,

650
00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 1: for for any reason. I mean, when you have a

651
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: roster that's got Lebron and Anthony Davis, you know, two

652
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:11,040
Speaker 1: of the you know, the best offensive weapons that we

653
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:13,920
Speaker 1: have in this league, and you have the number one

654
00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:16,840
Speaker 1: overall defense. You know, I'd rather be in that position

655
00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:18,800
Speaker 1: than the option, you know, in a position where they're

656
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:20,840
Speaker 1: scoring really easily, but you're trying to, you know, pick

657
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:22,960
Speaker 1: some of the effort problems that they have. It's like,

658
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,200
Speaker 1: the effort stuff is there with exception of a handful

659
00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:28,040
Speaker 1: of knights against bad teams. They are defending in an

660
00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 1: extremely high level and they just need to figure out

661
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:32,080
Speaker 1: some stuff on the defensive ent. That's a much better

662
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:34,200
Speaker 1: predicament to be in. I agree with you that the

663
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,240
Speaker 1: lineups play a role. Um, I'm a big believer in

664
00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 1: you know, uh. You and I are gonna talk here

665
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:42,440
Speaker 1: in a few minutes about the Laker rotation. But to

666
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:46,480
Speaker 1: share a little anecdote, you know, when I uh, when

667
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:48,560
Speaker 1: I was playing at Arizona Christian University, I was picking

668
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:51,920
Speaker 1: between three schools. I was an all conference selection out

669
00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:54,400
Speaker 1: of my junior college, and I only had one year

670
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:58,040
Speaker 1: of eligibility left, so I was picking from only uh

671
00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:01,280
Speaker 1: an ai A schools basically as Division ones wouldn't touch

672
00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 1: me as a result of my eligibility situation, and I

673
00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 1: kind of got my pick of the litter um to

674
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:07,880
Speaker 1: try to to pick a team, and and so I

675
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:10,000
Speaker 1: went for the team that was the best team. There

676
00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 1: was this team that had just made a deep postseason

677
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:15,280
Speaker 1: run the previous year and was bringing all their guys back.

678
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:17,800
Speaker 1: And it was a team called a Christian University. They

679
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 1: had really really good backcourt. I joined the team. I'm excited.

680
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:24,240
Speaker 1: I showed up to practice. He recruits another guy who

681
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 1: I played with in junior college who was an awesome center.

682
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 1: He recruits this guy from a D two out in Texas.

683
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 1: That was awesome. All of a sudden, we had eleven

684
00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:35,680
Speaker 1: really good basketball players right and in a weird way,

685
00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 1: Like you know, it actually caused a lot of problems

686
00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:42,720
Speaker 1: throughout the season with everybody's rhythm because it was so

687
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:45,440
Speaker 1: hard to figure out, like where your role was in

688
00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:48,880
Speaker 1: the offense. Considering the fact that no one was paying

689
00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 1: playing over like twenty two minutes a game. You know,

690
00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:53,840
Speaker 1: I was starting and playing like twenty two minutes a game.

691
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:55,600
Speaker 1: You know, so fro eighteen minutes of the game, I'm

692
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:57,160
Speaker 1: coming in and out of the bench. You know, like

693
00:31:57,440 --> 00:31:59,200
Speaker 1: there might be a game where you know, the guy

694
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:01,440
Speaker 1: that the guy who arting spot I took was literally

695
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:04,920
Speaker 1: an all conference player the previous season at the same school,

696
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,200
Speaker 1: like and and so there would be games when he

697
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:09,160
Speaker 1: had it going and I just didn't play as much.

698
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 1: And and you you'll see that, like Wesley Matthews was

699
00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 1: a starting to guard for the best team in the

700
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 1: league last year in the regular season, and now he's

701
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:18,520
Speaker 1: borderline out of the rotation. So that sort of thing

702
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:22,320
Speaker 1: definitely disrupts things. However, like, I really don't think it's

703
00:32:22,360 --> 00:32:24,480
Speaker 1: that complicated. I think there are two things that are

704
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:28,800
Speaker 1: primarily leading to this to this problem. For starters, they're

705
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:32,280
Speaker 1: defending like crazy, which is hard, and it takes a

706
00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:36,080
Speaker 1: lot of energy. Historically, when you look at it, it

707
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:38,560
Speaker 1: just go to any players basketball reference page and the

708
00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:41,760
Speaker 1: seasons where they're playing more defense. Lebron is a great

709
00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:44,200
Speaker 1: example of this. In the season where they're playing more defense,

710
00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:47,200
Speaker 1: their efficiency tends to lower. In seasons where they're coasting

711
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:50,720
Speaker 1: on the defensive end, their efficiency efficiency seems to skyrocket.

712
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:52,560
Speaker 1: This is a big part of the fact that it

713
00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:54,920
Speaker 1: just takes a lot out of your legs when you're

714
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:58,160
Speaker 1: consistently defending at at the level you are. And I

715
00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:00,880
Speaker 1: really do think that the Lakers, because the Lakers have

716
00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:03,880
Speaker 1: actually they started amazing on defense. They were the best

717
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:06,000
Speaker 1: defense in the league for the first month of the season.

718
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:10,160
Speaker 1: They've been better since then. Like they're literally continually getting

719
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:11,920
Speaker 1: better at defense. In the last couple of weeks, they've

720
00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:14,440
Speaker 1: held the Atlanta Hawks, the Boston Celtics, and the Denver

721
00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:17,240
Speaker 1: Nuggets all below a hundred points. That's insane. You know,

722
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:20,200
Speaker 1: they're an extremely good defense, and it's wearing them out

723
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:22,520
Speaker 1: physically to the point where they're struggling a bit on

724
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:25,440
Speaker 1: the offensive ent. The other part of it, in my opinion,

725
00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:28,560
Speaker 1: is they're just randomly going through a pretty cold shooting stretch.

726
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:32,720
Speaker 1: I looked at the numbers earlier today, but in the

727
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:36,240
Speaker 1: last fifteen games, I think they're twenty seven in total

728
00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 1: three pointers made. Uh yeah, they're pretty Yeah, it wouldn't

729
00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:42,000
Speaker 1: hurt them. The only reason and I think somebody somebody

730
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:45,120
Speaker 1: messaged me to this. Um they're like, oh, somebody had

731
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 1: a Laker fan of message me saying, oh, should we

732
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:49,720
Speaker 1: be concerned that their numbers are so they're shooting so

733
00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:51,760
Speaker 1: poorly over like the past ten games or something like that.

734
00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:55,800
Speaker 1: They it averages out to obviously with everybody's insane shooting precentages.

735
00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:59,120
Speaker 1: That's really low, that's near the bottom. Um. The only

736
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:00,760
Speaker 1: thing I have to say to that is we just

737
00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 1: we're also like almost dead last in amounts of amount

738
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:06,400
Speaker 1: of threes attempted. Like the Lakers just don't take threes,

739
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:09,359
Speaker 1: similar to like Miami. Miami was a really good three

740
00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:13,160
Speaker 1: point shooting team, but the the their identity, their DNA

741
00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:15,080
Speaker 1: was not to take threes. Their DNA was to get

742
00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:17,360
Speaker 1: to the rim and then if they get wide open threes,

743
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:19,040
Speaker 1: then make sure it gets into the hands of their

744
00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:21,320
Speaker 1: best three point shooters. And that's kind of what the Lakers.

745
00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:24,520
Speaker 1: Lakers offense has been. But you're right, their three point

746
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:27,959
Speaker 1: they're wide open shots. I think, especially against like these

747
00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:30,600
Speaker 1: the overtime games that we went to, like it's been bad.

748
00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:33,120
Speaker 1: That's how Lebron I don't think anybody's and West, you know,

749
00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:36,160
Speaker 1: not too many guys have been hitting open threes, but

750
00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:38,920
Speaker 1: that but that's the issue is is like Lebron is

751
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:40,840
Speaker 1: the only guy on the roster who has been shooting

752
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 1: well as of and so you know, even when you

753
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 1: look at those numbers, like I think I think there

754
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:47,360
Speaker 1: were twenty six then total made, but they're still I

755
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:50,359
Speaker 1: think they're somewhere right around like fifteen and three point

756
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:53,439
Speaker 1: percentage that came umber exactly. But they're not shooting particularly well.

757
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:56,439
Speaker 1: And if you take Lebrons shooting percentage shooting numbers out

758
00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:59,279
Speaker 1: of that, it looks even uglier. And you know something

759
00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:01,560
Speaker 1: that I talked about at length last year and mentioned

760
00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:03,920
Speaker 1: to you several times is you know, this Laker roster

761
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:06,239
Speaker 1: because they defend so well, and because Lebron and a

762
00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:08,759
Speaker 1: D are so good, and because Lebron is such a

763
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:12,080
Speaker 1: good closer. There's pretty much like three scenarios for the

764
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:14,600
Speaker 1: way that Laker games play out. If the role players

765
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:18,640
Speaker 1: play poorly, they barely win. If their role players played

766
00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:21,440
Speaker 1: pretty well, they win by like ten fifteen points. And

767
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:24,200
Speaker 1: if their role players play extremely well, they beat the

768
00:35:24,239 --> 00:35:26,080
Speaker 1: ship out of you. Like that's the that's the way

769
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:28,719
Speaker 1: that this team has been put together. And and as

770
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:30,719
Speaker 1: far as like a glass half full way of looking

771
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:33,560
Speaker 1: at it, last year, they had several stretches where they

772
00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:38,120
Speaker 1: didn't shoot particularly well, including like a catastrophically bad stretch

773
00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:40,719
Speaker 1: of shooting in the bubble in the seeding games, and

774
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 1: they were in like the below at one point for

775
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:45,400
Speaker 1: for several games in a row, like it was in

776
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:47,840
Speaker 1: their heads they couldn't shoot, and then all of a sudden,

777
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 1: they literally shot everybody's eyes out in the playoffs. So

778
00:35:51,239 --> 00:35:53,600
Speaker 1: like that's an important part of it. And then Anthony

779
00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:55,520
Speaker 1: Davis's struggles is a big part of it as well,

780
00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:57,960
Speaker 1: because he's the key to unlocking their defense and their

781
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:01,640
Speaker 1: their offense and their spacing and up particularly, Like you know,

782
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:04,240
Speaker 1: it's funny when you watch the film of Anthony Davis

783
00:36:04,239 --> 00:36:07,480
Speaker 1: shooting three point shots in the bubble, everything is more compact,

784
00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:11,239
Speaker 1: everything is more balanced, everything is more confident looking in

785
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:13,319
Speaker 1: the way that he shot, Like if you watch it,

786
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:15,920
Speaker 1: it's kind of actually jarring the look because his release

787
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,680
Speaker 1: looks a little slower this year, and he just looks

788
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:21,040
Speaker 1: like he's struggling a bit with his confidence, particularly at

789
00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:24,560
Speaker 1: the three point line. And I believe that will eventually

790
00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:29,160
Speaker 1: work out in the positive direction for the Lakers, but

791
00:36:29,239 --> 00:36:31,720
Speaker 1: that's a big part of why their their offenses struggled

792
00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:35,360
Speaker 1: a little bit. And but bottom line, like as you

793
00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:38,640
Speaker 1: and I discussed earlier, you know, when you're projecting this

794
00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:42,319
Speaker 1: team offense isn't anything I worry about because as they've

795
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:45,319
Speaker 1: just as they've shown throughout the last couple of years,

796
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:47,640
Speaker 1: they have a clear identity, and when it comes to

797
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:51,080
Speaker 1: the playoffs, like there's always a drop off in offensive

798
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:54,400
Speaker 1: production from regular season to playoff pretty much for every team,

799
00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:56,880
Speaker 1: but for jump shooting teams, that's more of a drop

800
00:36:56,920 --> 00:36:59,239
Speaker 1: off than it is for teams that don't rely on

801
00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 1: that as much, like Utah Jazz for instance. I'm a

802
00:37:01,600 --> 00:37:04,080
Speaker 1: little more worried about that translating to the playoffs. I'm

803
00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:06,960
Speaker 1: taking forty something three three is a game and shooting

804
00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:10,360
Speaker 1: over that's less likely to happen because in the playoffs,

805
00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:13,000
Speaker 1: your legs get worn out, it's harder to make jump shots.

806
00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:15,360
Speaker 1: You tend to go cold for extended stretches, is what

807
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:17,800
Speaker 1: we see happen to Houston every single year. And and

808
00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:21,560
Speaker 1: the Lakers, because they are a physically imposing offensive team

809
00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:24,040
Speaker 1: that puts a lot of pressure on the rim, that

810
00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:27,440
Speaker 1: is something that is less likely to experience the playoff

811
00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:29,440
Speaker 1: drop off. And that's why it's not something that I

812
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:31,680
Speaker 1: worry about. But yeah, the reason why they've been struggling

813
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:34,279
Speaker 1: combination of just how hard they've been playing defensively and

814
00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:36,680
Speaker 1: how poorly they've been shooting from the three point one. Yeah,

815
00:37:36,680 --> 00:37:38,360
Speaker 1: and I would say that even if even if the

816
00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:41,319
Speaker 1: ipothsis is that they're getting worn out on the defensive party,

817
00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:43,560
Speaker 1: it kind of makes sense considering the blueprint of our

818
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:46,200
Speaker 1: coaching staff and what our head coach kind of pre preaches.

819
00:37:46,239 --> 00:37:48,880
Speaker 1: They're getting gassed out from all the defensive conditioning drills

820
00:37:49,040 --> 00:37:52,680
Speaker 1: they're basically having to do in these live games. And eventually,

821
00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:56,480
Speaker 1: once you're conditioned, defensive conditioning and timeliness and and reaction

822
00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:58,440
Speaker 1: time and all that sort of stuff, which has gotten

823
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:01,080
Speaker 1: better because we can use like Treads as an example

824
00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:04,360
Speaker 1: of somebody who's gradually gotten better and better on his

825
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:07,880
Speaker 1: defensive effort and as well as his defensive reads. From

826
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:10,200
Speaker 1: the beginning of the season, he was completely lost and

827
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:12,399
Speaker 1: now like even like he's playing crunched my mits, which

828
00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:13,960
Speaker 1: I know a lot of Laquer fans don't like. I

829
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:17,080
Speaker 1: personally don't like it um either, But you know, obviously

830
00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:18,839
Speaker 1: we don't have Anthony Davis and just solds a little

831
00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:21,640
Speaker 1: bit slow, a little bit more slow footed, um against speed,

832
00:38:21,719 --> 00:38:26,359
Speaker 1: you guys have to point now, yeah, yeah, but he's

833
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:28,920
Speaker 1: he's been better, like he's had He's had moments in

834
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:32,000
Speaker 1: games where he's you know, just completely stone walled a

835
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:34,400
Speaker 1: guy trying to get to the rim, or defending a

836
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:36,560
Speaker 1: lot better in the last like three or four games

837
00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 1: than he was the rest of the season. Yeah, or

838
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 1: he's getting like strips on smaller ball ball handlers and

839
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:43,880
Speaker 1: stuff like that. So there's stuff that's happening. Um, But

840
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:46,560
Speaker 1: this is defensive conditioning time and that sort of thing.

841
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:49,040
Speaker 1: And I'm on the same page as you. I think

842
00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:53,400
Speaker 1: there are very Um, there are hallmarks to a contending

843
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:55,839
Speaker 1: team which you can kind of rely on, and I'm

844
00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:58,720
Speaker 1: not sure three point shooting is one of those hallmarks because,

845
00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:01,480
Speaker 1: like you said, in the playoffs, once teams know that

846
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:03,480
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to play up to seven games, they

847
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:06,040
Speaker 1: scout out all your stuff. They scout out what sets

848
00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:09,239
Speaker 1: you like to use. Um, good defensive teams, those scout

849
00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:11,279
Speaker 1: out everything you like to do. So you're not gonna

850
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:13,040
Speaker 1: be able to get the stuff that you normally like

851
00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:16,120
Speaker 1: outside of maybe small stretches of basketball where teams have

852
00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:19,480
Speaker 1: lapses defensively, for the most part, it's gonna come off

853
00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:22,000
Speaker 1: of base you know, based off like transition play. Do

854
00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:25,680
Speaker 1: you cause turnovers to defensive rebound well, that kind of stuff. Um,

855
00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:27,920
Speaker 1: is there any variance to your offense or are you

856
00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:30,440
Speaker 1: always relying on the three ball the corner three to

857
00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:33,120
Speaker 1: save you throughout games and stuff like that. So and

858
00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:35,880
Speaker 1: and and so that's you know, I wouldn't stress it

859
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:38,200
Speaker 1: now either, Um, but I think you definitely have a

860
00:39:38,239 --> 00:39:40,680
Speaker 1: case there that it maybe just all the defensive condition

861
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 1: that they're trying to do. Um, that's that's causing some

862
00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:46,640
Speaker 1: of the offensive slip. Yeah. And when I look at

863
00:39:46,719 --> 00:39:50,000
Speaker 1: when I look at explicitly like the kind of things

864
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:51,840
Speaker 1: that are going to be important in a playoff series,

865
00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:55,800
Speaker 1: that the ability to attack particular matchups. I actually really

866
00:39:55,840 --> 00:40:00,400
Speaker 1: really like how Dennis Shrewder and Montrez Harroll have added

867
00:40:00,480 --> 00:40:02,960
Speaker 1: some wrinkles to the way that the offense looks in

868
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:05,839
Speaker 1: these games, because if you look at the playoffs last year,

869
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:08,600
Speaker 1: almost everything ran through Lebron in a d down the

870
00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:12,160
Speaker 1: stretch of these games. And and ironically, like you know, uh,

871
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:15,080
Speaker 1: if they did both have a bad game, they would lose.

872
00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:16,959
Speaker 1: You know, that was that was kind of like the idea.

873
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:19,279
Speaker 1: And thankfully, because they're both so damn good, it didn't

874
00:40:19,280 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 1: happen very often. But that was always the risk of

875
00:40:21,719 --> 00:40:24,000
Speaker 1: playing the way that they played. Now when you look

876
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:27,080
Speaker 1: at it this year, you know, Mantrez and and Dennis

877
00:40:27,160 --> 00:40:30,000
Speaker 1: kind of throw some wrinkles in there because Anthony Davis

878
00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:32,880
Speaker 1: has been struggling. Like it used to be, throw the

879
00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:34,520
Speaker 1: ball down to Anthony Davis in the post and he

880
00:40:34,560 --> 00:40:37,959
Speaker 1: was getting a basket, And there's some there's some point

881
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,560
Speaker 1: per possession data that would tell you Anthony Davis is

882
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:42,640
Speaker 1: having a great season in post ups, but that doesn't

883
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:45,080
Speaker 1: match up with the eye test, particularly the fact that

884
00:40:45,120 --> 00:40:46,400
Speaker 1: it seems like a lot of times he has to

885
00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:48,480
Speaker 1: give the ball up because he's not particularly seen or

886
00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:50,840
Speaker 1: very well and some other things along the lines. But

887
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,400
Speaker 1: the bottom line is he hasn't been able to be

888
00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:57,360
Speaker 1: especially productive in terms of overall um you know, overall

889
00:40:57,400 --> 00:41:00,520
Speaker 1: output in that role. So what's been ice is like

890
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:03,080
Speaker 1: they have these guys who are gifted an attacking matchups,

891
00:41:03,080 --> 00:41:05,600
Speaker 1: like Dennis Shooter in particular, I love him when he

892
00:41:05,640 --> 00:41:07,719
Speaker 1: gets a switch on to a center, he seems to

893
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:10,440
Speaker 1: have the ability to get that shoulder past him his

894
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:12,359
Speaker 1: hip and get all the way the basket. And then

895
00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:20,080
Speaker 1: with Montrez I, you know, I specifically in in certain matchups,

896
00:41:20,239 --> 00:41:23,280
Speaker 1: he's kind of like an automatic basket in the locmos,

897
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:25,360
Speaker 1: like you know, when he would when he would be

898
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:27,600
Speaker 1: isolating against Al Horford. I didn't love it. There was

899
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:29,719
Speaker 1: some stuff there. I'd be like him, maybe that's not

900
00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:32,040
Speaker 1: the best matchup for us to attack. But there was

901
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:33,880
Speaker 1: a play. And you know, there was a play in

902
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:36,080
Speaker 1: that last game against Okay see where it's like he

903
00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 1: gets isolated on Mike Mscala and just crosses him out

904
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:41,439
Speaker 1: of his shoes and goes and dunks, dunks the dunk

905
00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:44,160
Speaker 1: in overtime, there was a play where they threw the

906
00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:46,880
Speaker 1: ball in the post in a mismatch to Darius Basley.

907
00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:49,360
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, as I'm watching the game, like that

908
00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:52,319
Speaker 1: is an automatic basket. Like I was literally thinking like,

909
00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:54,160
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, like this is a great this is

910
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 1: a great uh look for us right here, and he

911
00:41:56,719 --> 00:41:59,600
Speaker 1: went right through him basically was too skinny to stay

912
00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:01,040
Speaker 1: in front of and me just more right throw into

913
00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:04,520
Speaker 1: the basket. Like it's hard to it's hard to quantify

914
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:10,360
Speaker 1: how valuable that is as especially if he can, especially

915
00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:12,560
Speaker 1: if he can be a net positive or a net

916
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:15,000
Speaker 1: even on the defensive end, which as you and I discuss,

917
00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 1: he's been so much better recently, mainly because they have

918
00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 1: him more operating in space instead of just hovering around

919
00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:23,759
Speaker 1: the basket and and it's uh the advantage with having much.

920
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:25,600
Speaker 1: So I think one of the lineups that we've seen

921
00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:28,839
Speaker 1: be somewhat successful um mainly because a D gets put

922
00:42:28,840 --> 00:42:30,879
Speaker 1: in the defensive role while Montrez is kind of carrying

923
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:32,640
Speaker 1: the offense, is when they pair those two together and

924
00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:34,080
Speaker 1: a D plays the center and he's just kind of

925
00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:36,240
Speaker 1: defending and stuff like that. But one of the reasons

926
00:42:36,280 --> 00:42:39,560
Speaker 1: why I like that that tandem a little bit better

927
00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:41,919
Speaker 1: is because what would happen last season is that when

928
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:44,080
Speaker 1: a D would get that left that left hand side

929
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:47,480
Speaker 1: block post, so the baseline guy would always be a

930
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:50,440
Speaker 1: speedy guy, right. And the only way that you can

931
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:54,520
Speaker 1: counter speed um is either you have more speed than

932
00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:56,640
Speaker 1: the person that's out there to kind of beat those

933
00:42:56,640 --> 00:42:59,000
Speaker 1: guys um, or you have to have a big, burly

934
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:01,879
Speaker 1: guy that's that the these small guys can't handle. And

935
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:03,279
Speaker 1: one of the things that I think the Lakers have

936
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:04,759
Speaker 1: done a good job, and I think you're right, I

937
00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:07,800
Speaker 1: think the wrinkles of schroder And and Montras, especially in

938
00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:11,880
Speaker 1: late game situations, has created UM is something that teams

939
00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:14,520
Speaker 1: are still a year behind. I think teams still expect

940
00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:16,680
Speaker 1: Lebron to be the guy, uh, to to play some

941
00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:18,560
Speaker 1: hero ball into some degree he has and the same

942
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:21,680
Speaker 1: thing with Anthony Davis to be to be the hero guys. UM.

943
00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:24,919
Speaker 1: But both Lebron, especially Lebron seems to be a little

944
00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:27,880
Speaker 1: bit more aware that he needs him he needs to. UM.

945
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:32,040
Speaker 1: What's what's encourage Dennis Shoulder to to abuse his matchups

946
00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:34,200
Speaker 1: or manches to abuse matchup. So so the play that

947
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:36,759
Speaker 1: you called, so there's two two examples that I tried

948
00:43:36,800 --> 00:43:39,080
Speaker 1: to share on the timeline. Uh, in the Boston matchup,

949
00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:42,920
Speaker 1: Shorter had Daniel Tyson him and UH, it was a

950
00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:47,120
Speaker 1: switch the Boston was switching everything and Lebron had semiosul

951
00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:49,359
Speaker 1: or somebody like that on him, and like he could

952
00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:50,799
Speaker 1: have tried it was it was a five out that

953
00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:53,040
Speaker 1: he could have tried to drive on on semiogulate. Lakers

954
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:54,399
Speaker 1: are up at like three or four something, My god,

955
00:43:54,520 --> 00:43:56,560
Speaker 1: but they definitely need a basket because Boston was kind

956
00:43:56,560 --> 00:43:58,120
Speaker 1: of coming back and stuff like that. Momentum was in

957
00:43:58,160 --> 00:44:00,680
Speaker 1: their side. Uh, Dennis Shoulder called to the ball back

958
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:03,440
Speaker 1: and beats and draws and one foul lay up on

959
00:44:03,680 --> 00:44:06,040
Speaker 1: Daniel Tis using a short hot floater, which is that

960
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:09,200
Speaker 1: Tony Parker special off the wrong foot, same same hand.

961
00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:11,279
Speaker 1: It's like you only do that when you know that

962
00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:13,399
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna get blocked from behind and you're trying

963
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:16,280
Speaker 1: to get that like small edge like on the blocker

964
00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:18,680
Speaker 1: to make it. He makes that. He does it um

965
00:44:18,719 --> 00:44:21,040
Speaker 1: against Okay, see he did the same exact thing. He

966
00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:23,080
Speaker 1: got a mismatch where he had his speed matchup, he

967
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:25,239
Speaker 1: had the speed advantage on his guy did the same

968
00:44:25,280 --> 00:44:27,840
Speaker 1: exact thing. Took drove right handed, took it off the

969
00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:31,080
Speaker 1: wrong foot, gotta lay up in over time that play

970
00:44:31,200 --> 00:44:34,560
Speaker 1: where Montraz scores over over Baisley, he was trying to

971
00:44:34,600 --> 00:44:37,600
Speaker 1: go to Lebron to the isolation on lu Dort, And

972
00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:40,680
Speaker 1: if you watch that overtime, Lebron takes one shot in

973
00:44:40,719 --> 00:44:43,680
Speaker 1: that entire overtime. The person everybody, it was, it was West,

974
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:46,959
Speaker 1: it was Mantras, it was should nobody. Lebron never shot

975
00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:49,279
Speaker 1: the ball until that isolation played. That I think made

976
00:44:49,360 --> 00:44:52,360
Speaker 1: rounds on Bleacher Report about lu Dort defending Lebron and

977
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:55,160
Speaker 1: him missing like the game dagger or whatever you want

978
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:58,240
Speaker 1: to call it. Um, but he tries to go to shoulder,

979
00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:00,359
Speaker 1: tries to go to Lebron for that I so, and

980
00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:02,399
Speaker 1: Lebron gives it back to him. He says, no, no,

981
00:45:03,120 --> 00:45:05,080
Speaker 1: you go to you go to Montrese because Mantrese has

982
00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:08,160
Speaker 1: a matchup there. So, like Lebron is encouraging these guys

983
00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:10,879
Speaker 1: to be to be like, you guys are more than

984
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:12,840
Speaker 1: capable of winning this game without me. You guys are

985
00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:15,080
Speaker 1: more than capable of winning your matchups without me. You

986
00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:17,040
Speaker 1: need to start doing that. And I think that bodes

987
00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:20,640
Speaker 1: well that he's trying to do that, whether it's happening

988
00:45:20,640 --> 00:45:23,080
Speaker 1: directly or you know, it's an active conversation, or if

989
00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:25,000
Speaker 1: he's doing it, you know, like kind of passively in

990
00:45:25,040 --> 00:45:27,520
Speaker 1: the in the course of the game, because that's going

991
00:45:27,560 --> 00:45:30,200
Speaker 1: to help build confidence for these guys when in the

992
00:45:30,239 --> 00:45:32,920
Speaker 1: playoffs teams sell out on them. Right when when we

993
00:45:32,920 --> 00:45:35,959
Speaker 1: see the situation like the Danny Green missed wide open three,

994
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:38,320
Speaker 1: like we got Danny Green because we were hoping that

995
00:45:38,320 --> 00:45:40,120
Speaker 1: he would hit that three. It's fine he didn't. We

996
00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:42,560
Speaker 1: still under winning the championship. But those are the moments

997
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:44,399
Speaker 1: that these guys need to be prepared for. There will

998
00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:46,880
Speaker 1: be times where Lebron will get matched up against like

999
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:49,960
Speaker 1: an all defensive caliber guy like Lou dort And and

1000
00:45:49,960 --> 00:45:52,640
Speaker 1: and oki SE's basically running a shell zone, that box

1001
00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:54,919
Speaker 1: zone behind them because they don't want Lebron to drive

1002
00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:56,479
Speaker 1: on him. They want him to shoot a jump shot.

1003
00:45:57,000 --> 00:45:59,520
Speaker 1: But a guy like Mantrese or a guy like Schroeder

1004
00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:02,799
Speaker 1: who's in all defensive caliber player himself, they'll have some

1005
00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:05,480
Speaker 1: sort of small advantage strength or speed that they have

1006
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:08,440
Speaker 1: to take advantage of that because you just have to

1007
00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:12,000
Speaker 1: have some sort of variants in these late games situations. It.

1008
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:15,239
Speaker 1: You know, as much as we like to um as

1009
00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:17,799
Speaker 1: much as we like to think about like basketball in

1010
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:19,880
Speaker 1: in the Kobe and Jordan's era where it's give it

1011
00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:21,720
Speaker 1: to your best player, he has to shoot this crazy

1012
00:46:21,719 --> 00:46:24,759
Speaker 1: contestant shot. That's not how I mean you you're a

1013
00:46:24,760 --> 00:46:28,280
Speaker 1: bron guy, like you know, that's not Lebron's like DNA.

1014
00:46:28,520 --> 00:46:31,040
Speaker 1: His DNA is to make the right play, find the

1015
00:46:31,160 --> 00:46:33,640
Speaker 1: right matchup, do the right thing. That he can't do

1016
00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:37,120
Speaker 1: it quickly. What's so funny about that too, is like, like, no,

1017
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:40,440
Speaker 1: there was not any talk of the past to Wesley

1018
00:46:40,480 --> 00:46:42,160
Speaker 1: Matthews for that huge three at the end of the

1019
00:46:42,239 --> 00:46:45,440
Speaker 1: game in overtime. That was a huge shot. If I'm

1020
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:47,680
Speaker 1: not mistaking. It was less than a minute left. He

1021
00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:51,120
Speaker 1: drove into the paint, drew help, and drew an easy

1022
00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:53,600
Speaker 1: pass out to Wesley Matthews for three. And I remember

1023
00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:55,960
Speaker 1: sitting there thinking right after, I was like, I was like,

1024
00:46:56,040 --> 00:46:58,239
Speaker 1: every single time he does something like that and the

1025
00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:01,080
Speaker 1: guy misses the shot, it's a story worry. And yet

1026
00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:03,560
Speaker 1: there are so many plays throughout his career that was

1027
00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:05,600
Speaker 1: just another one, a footnote. But he's done that in

1028
00:47:05,640 --> 00:47:07,640
Speaker 1: the playoffs too. There are so many games in Miami

1029
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:09,839
Speaker 1: were like, he beat the Brooklyn Nets, or he beat

1030
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:12,880
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics by drawing Kevin Garnett into the paint

1031
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:15,239
Speaker 1: and kicking the Chris Bosh in the corner for a

1032
00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:17,719
Speaker 1: pivotal shot at the end of the game. And and

1033
00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:20,399
Speaker 1: you know those those always get swept under the rug

1034
00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:23,359
Speaker 1: with Lebron because it's not as interesting as as as

1035
00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:25,680
Speaker 1: the fact that he failed doing the exact same thing.

1036
00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:27,640
Speaker 1: But I mean, you know, that was as I was

1037
00:47:27,680 --> 00:47:29,720
Speaker 1: watching the game, I was like, that is a huge

1038
00:47:29,800 --> 00:47:32,200
Speaker 1: play that most stars in the league don't make. That

1039
00:47:32,280 --> 00:47:34,400
Speaker 1: was that was a play that you know and West

1040
00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:37,800
Speaker 1: and it feeds through the whole roster, like these guys

1041
00:47:37,840 --> 00:47:40,880
Speaker 1: like Wesley Matthews and Kyle Kuzma and and all of

1042
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:43,719
Speaker 1: them are on the floor and they're thinking like I

1043
00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:47,000
Speaker 1: might get a shot here, and Lebron's gonna trust me,

1044
00:47:47,080 --> 00:47:48,719
Speaker 1: and so I need to knock it down, you know.

1045
00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:51,560
Speaker 1: And that that to me is it's you know, it's

1046
00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:56,040
Speaker 1: kind of like the uh, the dueling approaches to how

1047
00:47:56,040 --> 00:47:59,080
Speaker 1: to close basketball games. But I don't think that there's

1048
00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:02,640
Speaker 1: any argument, any evidence that that's less effective than you know,

1049
00:48:02,680 --> 00:48:04,920
Speaker 1: the traditional Michael Jordan's way. And there's an argument that

1050
00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:06,719
Speaker 1: we made that it's more effective, right, And I mean

1051
00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:09,680
Speaker 1: that that last game that we saw to kind of

1052
00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:13,080
Speaker 1: put put a you know, and Samon on this is

1053
00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:15,239
Speaker 1: there was also a play in that I think it

1054
00:48:15,280 --> 00:48:17,400
Speaker 1: was in the overtime where Lebron sets up, you know,

1055
00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:20,640
Speaker 1: he's basically telling Shorter like, back cut your guy. Like

1056
00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:23,920
Speaker 1: everybody's frozen defending their guy, and he's literally looking at

1057
00:48:23,920 --> 00:48:25,520
Speaker 1: Shorter saying back cut your guy, like I'll get you

1058
00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:30,120
Speaker 1: the ball bounds, and then uh like I think should

1059
00:48:30,200 --> 00:48:31,440
Speaker 1: got a Yeah, I think he got a lay up

1060
00:48:31,440 --> 00:48:33,759
Speaker 1: on one of them, right, Yeah, I remember there was

1061
00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:35,360
Speaker 1: a play in overtime we threw it backdoor cut to

1062
00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:37,600
Speaker 1: shoulder and it got barely knocked out of bounds with

1063
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:39,719
Speaker 1: the Lakers kept possession, and then Lebron after the play

1064
00:48:39,880 --> 00:48:41,880
Speaker 1: was like doing some body language stuff with the shoulder

1065
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:43,680
Speaker 1: to be like yeah, we almost got him, Like yeah,

1066
00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:45,080
Speaker 1: I know. There was a play earlier in the game

1067
00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:46,839
Speaker 1: where he did actually hit shoulder on the back cut

1068
00:48:46,920 --> 00:48:48,319
Speaker 1: for a lap, which is probably why. Okay, so he

1069
00:48:48,360 --> 00:48:49,799
Speaker 1: was a little bit on top of it, but that

1070
00:48:49,880 --> 00:48:52,200
Speaker 1: kind of stuff is important. We talk about the guys

1071
00:48:52,239 --> 00:48:54,239
Speaker 1: who are heroic and do all these game winners and

1072
00:48:54,239 --> 00:48:56,520
Speaker 1: stuff like that, but we should also and that it's

1073
00:48:56,520 --> 00:48:59,400
Speaker 1: not just specific to Lebron. There's many many Jimmy, but

1074
00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:01,160
Speaker 1: there's a great example of a guy who makes the

1075
00:49:01,239 --> 00:49:03,040
Speaker 1: right play at the end of the game to win

1076
00:49:03,080 --> 00:49:05,040
Speaker 1: a game, even if it means that he doesn't have

1077
00:49:05,080 --> 00:49:09,000
Speaker 1: to shoot um. But we have to start thinking about

1078
00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:10,680
Speaker 1: it in that manner. If you watch that play, the

1079
00:49:10,680 --> 00:49:13,600
Speaker 1: one that you're describing, anybody goes and rolls that game back.

1080
00:49:13,880 --> 00:49:17,360
Speaker 1: Watch Lebron's drive on that play. He has zero intention

1081
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:19,279
Speaker 1: to shoot the ball. He knows that all he's trying

1082
00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:21,239
Speaker 1: to do is sucking as many guys as he possibly can.

1083
00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:23,279
Speaker 1: So can you can find a wide open three. He's

1084
00:49:23,280 --> 00:49:25,280
Speaker 1: not even looking at the rim when he makes that play.

1085
00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:29,279
Speaker 1: Those things are are all important, And um, I think

1086
00:49:29,680 --> 00:49:31,920
Speaker 1: my original point was, I think that bodes well for

1087
00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:34,680
Speaker 1: the Lakers that he's trying to embolden his guys to

1088
00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:38,920
Speaker 1: be successful because he is an old man by basketball standards.

1089
00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:43,800
Speaker 1: Uh be. It is still a long, consolidated season, and um,

1090
00:49:43,840 --> 00:49:45,400
Speaker 1: you know, I know we're gonna talk about his minutes,

1091
00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:48,640
Speaker 1: but like you do want to avoid those minutes stacking

1092
00:49:48,719 --> 00:49:50,960
Speaker 1: up too much. But the fact that these guys are

1093
00:49:51,040 --> 00:49:53,800
Speaker 1: hitting shots and clutch moments, obviously we would like to

1094
00:49:53,880 --> 00:49:55,640
Speaker 1: hit him. See them hit it in non clutch moments,

1095
00:49:55,640 --> 00:49:57,439
Speaker 1: so we don't have to run into these issues. But

1096
00:49:57,600 --> 00:49:59,839
Speaker 1: like the fact that they're able to hit it, there's

1097
00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:02,799
Speaker 1: a a positive feedback loop. There's a positive amount of

1098
00:50:02,840 --> 00:50:07,200
Speaker 1: confidence reinforcement that comes for these situations. Last season, we

1099
00:50:07,239 --> 00:50:08,440
Speaker 1: knew that we were going to give the ball to

1100
00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:10,520
Speaker 1: Danny Green and we brought the angrying on to hit

1101
00:50:10,520 --> 00:50:13,560
Speaker 1: these clutch jumpers. This season, we're hoping that k CP

1102
00:50:13,680 --> 00:50:15,920
Speaker 1: can keep it up. The new guy West West Matthews

1103
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:17,880
Speaker 1: can do it. We're hoping that Kuzman can also be

1104
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:19,480
Speaker 1: that guy to some degree with some of his shooting

1105
00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:22,000
Speaker 1: that he's been doing. Like and same thing with Denni Schroder.

1106
00:50:22,080 --> 00:50:25,120
Speaker 1: Schroeder was struggling with his scoring for a decent stretch

1107
00:50:25,160 --> 00:50:28,759
Speaker 1: of basketball so far through the games or whatever, and

1108
00:50:29,160 --> 00:50:31,440
Speaker 1: now he's starting to find his groove again. He was

1109
00:50:31,480 --> 00:50:33,960
Speaker 1: shorting all these threes that game, all of them, and

1110
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:36,800
Speaker 1: then what what happens? Pump fakes mong guy in overtime

1111
00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:39,440
Speaker 1: takes us or maybe in the fourth quarter takes one

1112
00:50:39,480 --> 00:50:41,200
Speaker 1: step in and it's like, all right, I'm not taking

1113
00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:43,440
Speaker 1: this three takes like a long too, and he makes it,

1114
00:50:43,760 --> 00:50:45,160
Speaker 1: and I was just like, thank god he did that,

1115
00:50:45,160 --> 00:50:47,120
Speaker 1: because I was just like, don't chase the three. Just

1116
00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:49,279
Speaker 1: taste the best shot, you know, because that's all we need.

1117
00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:51,680
Speaker 1: We don't need threes. So I think this stuff all

1118
00:50:51,719 --> 00:50:54,200
Speaker 1: bodes well in the long term. UM, and I think

1119
00:50:54,200 --> 00:50:56,920
Speaker 1: it will help this Lakers team as the season continues.

1120
00:50:56,960 --> 00:51:00,680
Speaker 1: On building confidence in these sort of situations, UH is important.

1121
00:51:00,840 --> 00:51:02,920
Speaker 1: I don't like ugly wins, but I like to call

1122
00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:05,040
Speaker 1: them character wins because you find out the character of

1123
00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:08,120
Speaker 1: your team, UH, if they're going to fight through UH

1124
00:51:08,160 --> 00:51:11,279
Speaker 1: these sort of these sort of like battles at the end. Yeah,

1125
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:15,160
Speaker 1: I agree, And uh, I'm I'm one of those I'm

1126
00:51:15,160 --> 00:51:17,080
Speaker 1: a big believer in the fact that, you know, if

1127
00:51:17,080 --> 00:51:18,919
Speaker 1: there's a silver lining to what happened in the last

1128
00:51:18,920 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 1: three games, it's the it's the the reps, the clutch

1129
00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:24,480
Speaker 1: reps that give you the confidence in those moments. Like

1130
00:51:24,560 --> 00:51:27,520
Speaker 1: Lebron having a really good clutch season to this point,

1131
00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:29,960
Speaker 1: to me makes me feel like when he gets into

1132
00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:32,160
Speaker 1: these moments in the playoffs, he's gonna have that confidence

1133
00:51:32,200 --> 00:51:34,640
Speaker 1: back to de feed to feed off on. It reminds

1134
00:51:34,640 --> 00:51:36,600
Speaker 1: me a lot of Kobe in the late two thousand's,

1135
00:51:36,640 --> 00:51:39,560
Speaker 1: where like he was always a good clutch player, but

1136
00:51:39,640 --> 00:51:42,279
Speaker 1: he was almost at another level in clutch situations in

1137
00:51:42,280 --> 00:51:44,440
Speaker 1: the late two thousand's just because of the sheer amount

1138
00:51:44,440 --> 00:51:45,920
Speaker 1: of success that he had had and what he could

1139
00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:49,239
Speaker 1: lean back on in terms of his confidence. Um. So,

1140
00:51:49,280 --> 00:51:51,000
Speaker 1: I think I'm probably gonna end up disagreeing with you

1141
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:53,279
Speaker 1: on this rotation stuff because so when we were talking

1142
00:51:53,320 --> 00:51:54,920
Speaker 1: about what we were gonna talk about today, you had

1143
00:51:54,920 --> 00:51:56,839
Speaker 1: said that you wanted to talk about how we can

1144
00:51:56,840 --> 00:52:00,040
Speaker 1: get Wes and Marquee back in the rotation. And you know,

1145
00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:02,239
Speaker 1: I'm kind of the persuasion that you shouldn't get them

1146
00:52:02,239 --> 00:52:06,120
Speaker 1: back in. And the reason why I feel that way is, uh,

1147
00:52:06,200 --> 00:52:07,840
Speaker 1: kind of like what I did the share earlier with

1148
00:52:07,880 --> 00:52:10,040
Speaker 1: the anecdote from when I was playing at Arizona Christian.

1149
00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:13,840
Speaker 1: You know, Uh, it makes it infinitely harder for the

1150
00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:16,160
Speaker 1: for the rest of the players and the roster to

1151
00:52:16,239 --> 00:52:19,440
Speaker 1: get into a rhythm. And I think, let's be honest,

1152
00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:22,760
Speaker 1: like you know, when it comes to the front court,

1153
00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:27,680
Speaker 1: between Kuzma and Lebron and uh and Marcusol and Anthony Davis,

1154
00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:30,160
Speaker 1: there's just not as much of a need from Mark

1155
00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:33,680
Speaker 1: kief Now with a d out you need him, um,

1156
00:52:33,719 --> 00:52:35,719
Speaker 1: but there are just better options in that regard. And

1157
00:52:35,800 --> 00:52:38,399
Speaker 1: I know he did play really well against Okay see

1158
00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:40,680
Speaker 1: the other night, particularly defensively, had a couple of really

1159
00:52:40,760 --> 00:52:43,160
Speaker 1: nice defensive plays against Horford at the end of the game.

1160
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:47,239
Speaker 1: But he hasn't been great overall this season. And then

1161
00:52:47,239 --> 00:52:50,040
Speaker 1: as far as Wesley Matthew Matthews goes, I actually love

1162
00:52:50,120 --> 00:52:54,320
Speaker 1: the way he plays and I think he's a great fit. However, Uh,

1163
00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:58,799
Speaker 1: he's a professional and you can handle it in a

1164
00:52:58,840 --> 00:53:00,839
Speaker 1: way that you know, Casey, he's a little bit more

1165
00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:02,919
Speaker 1: hot and cold with the way his confidence works. Plus

1166
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:05,960
Speaker 1: I think he's a better player. Uh, you know Crusoe,

1167
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:09,400
Speaker 1: you absolutely have to play him. You know, talent, Horton Tucker.

1168
00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:12,839
Speaker 1: There appears to be something there, something that could be

1169
00:53:12,960 --> 00:53:15,680
Speaker 1: dangerous in a good way in the playoffs, So you

1170
00:53:15,719 --> 00:53:18,799
Speaker 1: almost have to keep feeding that. And you can look

1171
00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:21,480
Speaker 1: Wesley Matthews in the face. And and to Frank's credit,

1172
00:53:21,560 --> 00:53:23,799
Speaker 1: he's been upfront with these guys. He didn't just show

1173
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:26,279
Speaker 1: up and say I'm not playing you like he told them.

1174
00:53:26,320 --> 00:53:28,640
Speaker 1: He sat them down and said, just so you guys know,

1175
00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:30,799
Speaker 1: I'm taking you out of the rotation so that we

1176
00:53:30,800 --> 00:53:33,560
Speaker 1: can get more minutes for our core nine guys. And

1177
00:53:33,560 --> 00:53:35,920
Speaker 1: and uh, Wesley Matthews has been on the record, like

1178
00:53:35,960 --> 00:53:38,600
Speaker 1: Franka handled it like a pro. And what I would

1179
00:53:38,680 --> 00:53:42,440
Speaker 1: say is, you know, knock on wood. You know, chances

1180
00:53:42,480 --> 00:53:45,920
Speaker 1: are they're gonna remain heavily involved as a result of

1181
00:53:46,120 --> 00:53:49,799
Speaker 1: load management for Anthony Davis and various injuries anyway, like

1182
00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:52,120
Speaker 1: Alex Caruso has showing a tendency to get banged up

1183
00:53:52,120 --> 00:53:54,760
Speaker 1: every once in a while, so they're gonna get to play.

1184
00:53:55,200 --> 00:53:57,040
Speaker 1: So I think it's better to just you know, like

1185
00:53:57,280 --> 00:53:58,640
Speaker 1: the only thing that made me a little nervous was

1186
00:53:58,680 --> 00:54:01,560
Speaker 1: Mark Keith and his comments about played in the playoffs,

1187
00:54:01,560 --> 00:54:04,160
Speaker 1: So why am I not playing now? It's like, well,

1188
00:54:04,840 --> 00:54:07,279
Speaker 1: Dwight and Javeil were bad, so they got taken out

1189
00:54:07,280 --> 00:54:09,720
Speaker 1: of the rotation, and now we have Montrez who's actually

1190
00:54:09,760 --> 00:54:12,200
Speaker 1: playing in these situations. There's not as much minutes available

1191
00:54:12,239 --> 00:54:15,719
Speaker 1: for you. Yet I'm sorry, Like that's harsh realities, and

1192
00:54:15,719 --> 00:54:19,600
Speaker 1: and and and and the biggest difference I think is

1193
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:23,200
Speaker 1: that Kuzma's improved rebounding is better than even Marquis rebounding. Like,

1194
00:54:23,239 --> 00:54:24,640
Speaker 1: one of the things that we could always count on

1195
00:54:24,719 --> 00:54:26,719
Speaker 1: was even if Markis was a hitting threes, he was

1196
00:54:26,760 --> 00:54:28,440
Speaker 1: like that bruiser, like he would be the guy that

1197
00:54:28,480 --> 00:54:30,920
Speaker 1: would fight for the tough defensive rebound even if you're

1198
00:54:31,000 --> 00:54:32,560
Speaker 1: underside and stuff like that. And what we've seen is

1199
00:54:32,600 --> 00:54:34,840
Speaker 1: Kuzma is the guy who's doing that this season. And

1200
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:37,279
Speaker 1: one of the most noticeable things for me has been

1201
00:54:37,320 --> 00:54:40,839
Speaker 1: that when you have an undersize center like Montrese when

1202
00:54:40,840 --> 00:54:42,640
Speaker 1: he has to when he has to box out guys

1203
00:54:42,640 --> 00:54:45,880
Speaker 1: slidder like becauzoo Watch and Nicolaeo Kits and all these

1204
00:54:45,880 --> 00:54:48,240
Speaker 1: sort of guys, it takes all of him to do that.

1205
00:54:48,239 --> 00:54:50,680
Speaker 1: That means that he can't box somebody out and grab

1206
00:54:50,719 --> 00:54:53,200
Speaker 1: the rebound at the same time. And last season, Markis

1207
00:54:53,239 --> 00:54:56,560
Speaker 1: was doing a good job of being that guy, of

1208
00:54:56,680 --> 00:54:59,759
Speaker 1: being the guy who um, if Anton Davis was occupied

1209
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:02,200
Speaker 1: trying to box somebody out, he would come in and

1210
00:55:02,200 --> 00:55:04,720
Speaker 1: he would grab that defensive rebound, make the quick outlet

1211
00:55:04,719 --> 00:55:06,680
Speaker 1: pass like you just get out in transition. He hasn't

1212
00:55:06,680 --> 00:55:09,040
Speaker 1: been doing that this season. He's been really lazy. Um

1213
00:55:09,160 --> 00:55:11,080
Speaker 1: when it comes to that part. I don't know if

1214
00:55:11,160 --> 00:55:13,680
Speaker 1: Vogels told him that, I would I would think that

1215
00:55:13,760 --> 00:55:16,200
Speaker 1: a smart basketball player, and I think Markie probably kind

1216
00:55:16,200 --> 00:55:17,960
Speaker 1: of knows this. He just took the opportunity to say

1217
00:55:17,960 --> 00:55:19,880
Speaker 1: what he did, like you would see on tape, like

1218
00:55:20,080 --> 00:55:22,399
Speaker 1: we're watching you not box guys out, you know, like

1219
00:55:22,640 --> 00:55:24,759
Speaker 1: that's like a bare minimum when we wasn't moving a

1220
00:55:25,200 --> 00:55:27,880
Speaker 1: rotating super well either, like mark was legitimately having a

1221
00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:32,440
Speaker 1: bad season before. Yeah, particularly well yeah, So I mean

1222
00:55:32,600 --> 00:55:34,560
Speaker 1: the way I see it is it's maybe this was

1223
00:55:34,640 --> 00:55:37,880
Speaker 1: sort of that moment um, you know, him actually getting

1224
00:55:37,880 --> 00:55:39,960
Speaker 1: bench or Vogel showing this is like a Nick Nurse thing.

1225
00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:42,879
Speaker 1: This is Eric Spoelstra thing like, if you're not playing well,

1226
00:55:43,200 --> 00:55:46,359
Speaker 1: I gotta put you to the bench. Like to some degree,

1227
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:48,400
Speaker 1: this is a meritocracy. We're not just gonna keep playing

1228
00:55:48,400 --> 00:55:52,480
Speaker 1: you because you're terrible. Um. As a Laker fan, thinking

1229
00:55:52,520 --> 00:55:54,400
Speaker 1: about our coaching staff, I'm kind of glad that they

1230
00:55:54,400 --> 00:55:56,239
Speaker 1: did it because I don't want anybody feeling that they're

1231
00:55:56,239 --> 00:55:59,120
Speaker 1: comfortable in the positions they have that you know, in

1232
00:55:59,120 --> 00:56:02,480
Speaker 1: their roles and stuff. Got Um, there's an expectation that

1233
00:56:02,480 --> 00:56:05,479
Speaker 1: you should be a professional. I understand Anthony Davis taking

1234
00:56:05,480 --> 00:56:08,719
Speaker 1: time off. I understand Lebron taking time off. Nobody else

1235
00:56:08,719 --> 00:56:10,919
Speaker 1: needs to take time off unless you're unless you're injured

1236
00:56:11,040 --> 00:56:13,880
Speaker 1: or something like that, because there are guys like Taylor

1237
00:56:13,920 --> 00:56:16,399
Speaker 1: Hornon Tucker who would love to take your spot, even

1238
00:56:16,400 --> 00:56:17,719
Speaker 1: if it means that they only get to play six

1239
00:56:17,719 --> 00:56:22,680
Speaker 1: state minutes a game or whatever minutes they play. So UM,

1240
00:56:22,719 --> 00:56:24,600
Speaker 1: I think there was a basketball reason why he wasn't

1241
00:56:24,600 --> 00:56:27,600
Speaker 1: getting played. I understand his frustrations. I don't think he's

1242
00:56:27,600 --> 00:56:29,920
Speaker 1: going to rock the boat because I don't know how

1243
00:56:29,920 --> 00:56:32,960
Speaker 1: many teams will look into him. Um and giving seriously,

1244
00:56:33,239 --> 00:56:34,959
Speaker 1: I think they cut him pretty quick if that became

1245
00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:37,479
Speaker 1: an issue, but I doubt they'll become an issue. Yeah,

1246
00:56:37,600 --> 00:56:40,359
Speaker 1: So he didn't finish the statement saying that I'll do whatever,

1247
00:56:40,560 --> 00:56:42,560
Speaker 1: you know, whatever it takes to winning championships. I'm fine

1248
00:56:42,560 --> 00:56:44,759
Speaker 1: with it. So I think he was just he was

1249
00:56:44,800 --> 00:56:47,680
Speaker 1: being his normal self, being outspoken, but at the same

1250
00:56:47,719 --> 00:56:49,919
Speaker 1: time trying to be a professional at the end of it. Yeah,

1251
00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:52,239
Speaker 1: and I get it, Like I mean, like guys who

1252
00:56:52,239 --> 00:56:54,439
Speaker 1: are wired like that that are super competitive, it's hard

1253
00:56:54,480 --> 00:56:57,680
Speaker 1: to to handle that. But I mean the bottom line

1254
00:56:57,760 --> 00:57:00,960
Speaker 1: is is like they're going the I would imagine that

1255
00:57:01,080 --> 00:57:03,720
Speaker 1: even in the case where the Lakers are completely healthy,

1256
00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:06,880
Speaker 1: there will be matchups where you know marcasoul is not

1257
00:57:06,960 --> 00:57:10,400
Speaker 1: playing well, Montrez's lack of spacing is hurting the team,

1258
00:57:10,560 --> 00:57:13,120
Speaker 1: where you know Mark Keith is going to get his opportunity,

1259
00:57:13,160 --> 00:57:14,920
Speaker 1: and then Wesley Matthews, without a doubt, is going to

1260
00:57:14,960 --> 00:57:17,600
Speaker 1: get an opportunity. Plus, like Wesley Matthews is gonna be

1261
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:20,760
Speaker 1: a huge guy to play in a Clippers series because

1262
00:57:20,760 --> 00:57:22,920
Speaker 1: of his ability to guard to guard Kawhi Leonards. So

1263
00:57:23,000 --> 00:57:24,480
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not worried about that at all, and

1264
00:57:25,160 --> 00:57:27,439
Speaker 1: in particular, such a pro you know what would solve

1265
00:57:27,520 --> 00:57:30,080
Speaker 1: this issue if the Lakers stopped stopped playing down to

1266
00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:32,720
Speaker 1: their competition, if they actually played the kind of basketball

1267
00:57:32,720 --> 00:57:34,960
Speaker 1: that we expected to play, there would be enough minutes

1268
00:57:35,000 --> 00:57:37,120
Speaker 1: for everybody. The reason we're stuck with nine nine man

1269
00:57:37,200 --> 00:57:40,600
Speaker 1: rotations is because we get too many lapses in defense

1270
00:57:40,640 --> 00:57:43,280
Speaker 1: and stuff. I got our our offense when we stretch

1271
00:57:43,280 --> 00:57:45,600
Speaker 1: out to eleven. So if everybody does their job, there's

1272
00:57:45,640 --> 00:57:48,880
Speaker 1: there's minutes available for everybody. Um, but but or or

1273
00:57:48,920 --> 00:57:50,440
Speaker 1: if they make a shots, you know, if they make

1274
00:57:50,440 --> 00:57:52,680
Speaker 1: their threes. But if we're not, then this is the

1275
00:57:52,720 --> 00:57:54,760
Speaker 1: kind of stuff that happens for sure. And and so

1276
00:57:54,800 --> 00:57:58,120
Speaker 1: this is a perfect segue to, uh, to our our

1277
00:57:58,240 --> 00:58:00,720
Speaker 1: last topic. We a probably have time to touch on

1278
00:58:00,720 --> 00:58:04,360
Speaker 1: other teams today, but we'll get to that some other time. Um.

1279
00:58:04,400 --> 00:58:09,760
Speaker 1: You know, you had mentioned controlling Lebron's minutes, and you know, uh,

1280
00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:12,400
Speaker 1: his minutes are inflated by the fact that they just

1281
00:58:12,440 --> 00:58:15,440
Speaker 1: played four overtime periods over the last three games. So

1282
00:58:15,480 --> 00:58:19,040
Speaker 1: that's like, that's that's twenty twenty minutes that's been thrown

1283
00:58:19,080 --> 00:58:22,680
Speaker 1: into the mix. Now. His minutes were up, uh considerably

1284
00:58:22,720 --> 00:58:24,800
Speaker 1: from where they started this season. He was I think

1285
00:58:24,800 --> 00:58:27,160
Speaker 1: he was around like thirty three minutes per game at

1286
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:29,800
Speaker 1: thirty four minutes per game before this week, so he

1287
00:58:29,920 --> 00:58:33,560
Speaker 1: was playing a relatively heavy minutes. But I'm not I'm

1288
00:58:33,560 --> 00:58:36,800
Speaker 1: not necessarily concerned about his minutes as it pertains to

1289
00:58:37,560 --> 00:58:40,640
Speaker 1: wear and tear because of the lack of practice time,

1290
00:58:41,240 --> 00:58:43,200
Speaker 1: and I think Lebron takes care of his body in

1291
00:58:43,200 --> 00:58:45,400
Speaker 1: a way where as long as he doesn't do, you know,

1292
00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:48,120
Speaker 1: twenty extra minutes of overtimes every week, that that's not

1293
00:58:48,160 --> 00:58:50,520
Speaker 1: going to be a problem. I'm a huge believer though,

1294
00:58:51,120 --> 00:58:54,720
Speaker 1: in managing like the nagging pains and injuries and things

1295
00:58:54,800 --> 00:58:58,160
Speaker 1: like that. So for instance, like if Lebron started to

1296
00:58:58,240 --> 00:59:02,040
Speaker 1: feel knee tendonitis Lebron, Like if Lebron is going into

1297
00:59:02,080 --> 00:59:05,840
Speaker 1: a game and he's experiencing pain in one of his joints,

1298
00:59:06,600 --> 00:59:08,600
Speaker 1: that's where I think it's it's time to take him

1299
00:59:08,600 --> 00:59:10,160
Speaker 1: out of the lineup for a game or two to

1300
00:59:10,320 --> 00:59:13,640
Speaker 1: manage that. But as far as like going into a

1301
00:59:13,680 --> 00:59:16,680
Speaker 1: week and thinking, oh, we have four games, let's cut

1302
00:59:16,680 --> 00:59:19,280
Speaker 1: back on Lebron's minutes, I don't necessarily agree with that

1303
00:59:19,400 --> 00:59:21,760
Speaker 1: because of the fact that with the lack of practice

1304
00:59:21,760 --> 00:59:23,680
Speaker 1: time and with the way he takes care of his body,

1305
00:59:24,080 --> 00:59:27,800
Speaker 1: He's easily capable of managing that. But like nagging injuries,

1306
00:59:27,840 --> 00:59:30,720
Speaker 1: those are the things that I think matter more than

1307
00:59:30,880 --> 00:59:33,640
Speaker 1: than strictly minutes per game as a as a box

1308
00:59:33,680 --> 00:59:37,160
Speaker 1: score stat especially since they play at such a low pace. Yeah,

1309
00:59:37,480 --> 00:59:39,560
Speaker 1: that it's not as like frenetic and up and down,

1310
00:59:39,560 --> 00:59:42,000
Speaker 1: and even when the Lakers get out and transition, Lebron

1311
00:59:42,040 --> 00:59:45,640
Speaker 1: is primarily a passer, uh from the back court. Yeah,

1312
00:59:45,800 --> 00:59:49,920
Speaker 1: I would say after the experience last season of watching

1313
00:59:50,000 --> 00:59:54,360
Speaker 1: Lebron coast um or just kind of in game load

1314
00:59:54,360 --> 00:59:56,920
Speaker 1: manage as the season progresses. When I kind of started

1315
00:59:57,120 --> 00:59:58,880
Speaker 1: because I don't you know, obviously haven't watched him as

1316
00:59:58,920 --> 01:00:01,400
Speaker 1: intimately as some some other folks have, Like I started

1317
01:00:01,440 --> 01:00:04,080
Speaker 1: noticing where he would be not passive, but he's more

1318
01:00:04,160 --> 01:00:06,960
Speaker 1: facilitator Lebron, which is I'm not really gonna drive, I'm

1319
01:00:06,960 --> 01:00:09,320
Speaker 1: just gonna kind of move the ball, really pick my spots.

1320
01:00:09,360 --> 01:00:12,120
Speaker 1: Maybe if we're all running breaking out in transition and

1321
01:00:12,160 --> 01:00:14,400
Speaker 1: it's like an advantage number of situation or like a

1322
01:00:14,440 --> 01:00:16,440
Speaker 1: three on two, four on three, that sort of thing,

1323
01:00:16,840 --> 01:00:19,080
Speaker 1: um is where he would kind of do what he does,

1324
01:00:19,680 --> 01:00:22,000
Speaker 1: but he's been very selective of his spots. I would

1325
01:00:22,000 --> 01:00:24,480
Speaker 1: say this season more than I would say even last season,

1326
01:00:24,760 --> 01:00:27,080
Speaker 1: where even if it means that the Lakers are going

1327
01:00:27,120 --> 01:00:29,040
Speaker 1: to lose the game and he's gonna start shooting a

1328
01:00:29,040 --> 01:00:30,880
Speaker 1: bunch of home run threes, which then you know, the

1329
01:00:30,920 --> 01:00:32,800
Speaker 1: Lakers Twitter is gonna be very upset about and be

1330
01:00:32,920 --> 01:00:35,439
Speaker 1: like you knows a little wrong room that we're gonna

1331
01:00:35,480 --> 01:00:37,280
Speaker 1: take the loss, like we're not going to chase the

1332
01:00:37,320 --> 01:00:41,280
Speaker 1: wind like by by burning ourselves out and through the course.

1333
01:00:41,360 --> 01:00:45,800
Speaker 1: That's like that, that's sort of like super fit, like

1334
01:00:46,040 --> 01:00:50,120
Speaker 1: with dort in particular, like Lebron can handle the guy

1335
01:00:50,280 --> 01:00:52,720
Speaker 1: like dor in a in a playoff series. If he's

1336
01:00:52,720 --> 01:00:54,840
Speaker 1: going back him down and take him into the post,

1337
01:00:54,880 --> 01:00:56,720
Speaker 1: he just I think he just literally looks at the

1338
01:00:56,720 --> 01:00:59,360
Speaker 1: situation and goes like not worth it tonight. Yeah, I mean,

1339
01:00:59,720 --> 01:01:02,800
Speaker 1: And and look, you've played competitive basketball, if you've ever

1340
01:01:02,880 --> 01:01:05,720
Speaker 1: played any sort of competitive basketball, there's also a temperature

1341
01:01:05,800 --> 01:01:07,280
Speaker 1: check that you get as it relates to how the

1342
01:01:07,280 --> 01:01:09,920
Speaker 1: rest are calling the game. So if Lebron wants to

1343
01:01:09,960 --> 01:01:12,080
Speaker 1: attack the rim, but the temperature check that he's getting

1344
01:01:12,120 --> 01:01:14,439
Speaker 1: from the reps is they're not even making the calls

1345
01:01:14,480 --> 01:01:16,760
Speaker 1: in my favor, I'm not going to stress myself over it.

1346
01:01:16,800 --> 01:01:19,680
Speaker 1: This is not a meaningful win by any margins. Obviously,

1347
01:01:19,680 --> 01:01:21,640
Speaker 1: as a fan, you want to see these guys, but

1348
01:01:21,680 --> 01:01:24,920
Speaker 1: this is not NBA two K right, Like, there's actual fatigue,

1349
01:01:25,120 --> 01:01:27,640
Speaker 1: there's injury concerns, there's the worst things that can happen

1350
01:01:27,800 --> 01:01:30,120
Speaker 1: if you try to push yourself too hard. Um and

1351
01:01:30,120 --> 01:01:34,120
Speaker 1: and the perfect example of that is Alex Caruso. Everybody

1352
01:01:34,200 --> 01:01:36,360
Speaker 1: keeps saying Alex Cruiser should play like thirty two minutes,

1353
01:01:36,520 --> 01:01:38,920
Speaker 1: but if you see the style of defense he plays,

1354
01:01:39,160 --> 01:01:41,520
Speaker 1: he is always going to be prone to getting hurt.

1355
01:01:41,800 --> 01:01:45,240
Speaker 1: Like I keep jokingly tweeting after every game, almost every

1356
01:01:45,280 --> 01:01:47,480
Speaker 1: single game, there is a Laker who gets hit in

1357
01:01:47,480 --> 01:01:51,040
Speaker 1: the face every single game. And that happens when you're

1358
01:01:51,040 --> 01:01:54,120
Speaker 1: playing like crazy ass defense, like KCP keeps getting elbowed

1359
01:01:54,160 --> 01:01:56,400
Speaker 1: in the face last game. Mantras want to go defend

1360
01:01:56,440 --> 01:01:58,720
Speaker 1: somebody and the guy's elbow like you know, he got

1361
01:01:58,800 --> 01:02:00,760
Speaker 1: elbowed in the face trying to in the room. Like

1362
01:02:01,280 --> 01:02:05,000
Speaker 1: injuries happen to two really great defensive players because they

1363
01:02:05,080 --> 01:02:08,320
Speaker 1: go greatly the league. Guys, the ones that don't necessarily

1364
01:02:08,320 --> 01:02:10,640
Speaker 1: have all the physical intangibles, like a choir or somebody

1365
01:02:10,680 --> 01:02:14,600
Speaker 1: made may do those guys do technical stuff that can

1366
01:02:14,760 --> 01:02:17,760
Speaker 1: lead to injuries. And the reason why Caruso can't get

1367
01:02:17,760 --> 01:02:19,680
Speaker 1: thirty five minutes unless you know it's like a playoff

1368
01:02:19,720 --> 01:02:22,320
Speaker 1: situation or something, it's because he keeps getting hurt and

1369
01:02:22,360 --> 01:02:23,720
Speaker 1: we don't want to lose him for like weeks and

1370
01:02:23,760 --> 01:02:25,960
Speaker 1: weeks of time. So like, I don't necessarily want to

1371
01:02:26,080 --> 01:02:28,520
Speaker 1: crusively thirty five minutes. I don't want him to play

1372
01:02:28,560 --> 01:02:31,600
Speaker 1: seventeen minutes though, either. I think I think it's reasonable

1373
01:02:31,600 --> 01:02:33,680
Speaker 1: to be like, hey, let's play him half a game. No, No,

1374
01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:35,840
Speaker 1: for sure, for sure. I I just think the the

1375
01:02:35,920 --> 01:02:40,040
Speaker 1: analytics part of NBA, the data guys on on on

1376
01:02:40,160 --> 01:02:42,800
Speaker 1: NBA Twitter, I think you're right. I think like five

1377
01:02:42,840 --> 01:02:45,040
Speaker 1: minutes is like a really good number. He's a change

1378
01:02:45,120 --> 01:02:46,760
Speaker 1: base guy and that sort of thing. But I think

1379
01:02:46,760 --> 01:02:49,240
Speaker 1: people do this thing where they see that small number

1380
01:02:49,520 --> 01:02:50,920
Speaker 1: and they go, why would we just keep doing more

1381
01:02:50,920 --> 01:02:52,440
Speaker 1: of this, keep doing more of this, keep doing more

1382
01:02:52,480 --> 01:02:56,480
Speaker 1: of this without considering the human element of it. Flip

1383
01:02:56,520 --> 01:02:58,680
Speaker 1: if he if he took a big contract after this

1384
01:02:58,760 --> 01:03:00,640
Speaker 1: year and went to go be a pretty minute per

1385
01:03:00,640 --> 01:03:03,120
Speaker 1: game guy for like the Cleveland Cavaliers, like his his

1386
01:03:03,440 --> 01:03:06,880
Speaker 1: defensive production is going to slip, Like that's right. Yeah,

1387
01:03:06,880 --> 01:03:08,760
Speaker 1: So so I do agree when people say, hey, we

1388
01:03:08,760 --> 01:03:10,800
Speaker 1: should play Caruso in these situations a little bit more

1389
01:03:10,880 --> 01:03:13,280
Speaker 1: because we really need this kind of defense, when we

1390
01:03:13,320 --> 01:03:16,760
Speaker 1: need this kind of intangible stuff. But you know, um,

1391
01:03:16,840 --> 01:03:20,720
Speaker 1: with Lebron, I think this season and I that's why

1392
01:03:20,760 --> 01:03:22,760
Speaker 1: I don't complain about it so much this season is

1393
01:03:23,320 --> 01:03:25,959
Speaker 1: it seems like he's very, very aware that last game

1394
01:03:26,080 --> 01:03:29,040
Speaker 1: is a perfect example. In overtime, Lebron did not shoot

1395
01:03:29,080 --> 01:03:31,960
Speaker 1: the but there was like eight shots, nine shots before

1396
01:03:31,960 --> 01:03:34,600
Speaker 1: he even attempted a shot, the one over lu Door.

1397
01:03:34,920 --> 01:03:38,080
Speaker 1: He had specifically decided in his mind, I'm not going

1398
01:03:38,160 --> 01:03:40,520
Speaker 1: to try and go and score every single play down

1399
01:03:40,560 --> 01:03:42,680
Speaker 1: even though this is an overtime game. I'm gonna give

1400
01:03:42,720 --> 01:03:45,240
Speaker 1: it a should West trays if we make them, we

1401
01:03:45,320 --> 01:03:47,960
Speaker 1: make them. We don't make good before. Like I think

1402
01:03:48,000 --> 01:03:50,680
Speaker 1: that's part of it too, Like I think it's something

1403
01:03:50,720 --> 01:03:53,120
Speaker 1: that Dame could have done a little bit better last night.

1404
01:03:53,320 --> 01:03:56,560
Speaker 1: Is understanding that, Like, hey, I'm Dame Lillard, I'm one

1405
01:03:56,560 --> 01:03:58,600
Speaker 1: of the ten best players in the world. I know

1406
01:03:58,760 --> 01:04:00,800
Speaker 1: that if I really need two, I can get a

1407
01:04:00,840 --> 01:04:04,920
Speaker 1: decent shot off over Ben Simmons. But Ben's doing a

1408
01:04:04,960 --> 01:04:08,280
Speaker 1: good job on me. I'm fatigued a little bit right now.

1409
01:04:09,080 --> 01:04:11,800
Speaker 1: Carmelo has got a better matchup over to Bias, and

1410
01:04:11,800 --> 01:04:14,000
Speaker 1: he's got a rhythm going like maybe this is the

1411
01:04:14,040 --> 01:04:15,920
Speaker 1: move and look that that's I think that's Lebron's thing

1412
01:04:15,960 --> 01:04:18,640
Speaker 1: is like I can really try to bully door and

1413
01:04:18,680 --> 01:04:21,920
Speaker 1: get into the basket if I want to. However, Montres

1414
01:04:22,040 --> 01:04:24,960
Speaker 1: is being guarded by a six nine guy who pounds,

1415
01:04:25,080 --> 01:04:27,480
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna go to him, and I'm gonna and

1416
01:04:27,880 --> 01:04:30,320
Speaker 1: just because it's easier. And at the end of the day,

1417
01:04:30,320 --> 01:04:32,720
Speaker 1: he cares more about the win than he does about,

1418
01:04:32,800 --> 01:04:34,560
Speaker 1: you know, whether or not he put up ten points

1419
01:04:34,560 --> 01:04:37,440
Speaker 1: in overtime, you know, yeah, And I mean, we watched

1420
01:04:37,440 --> 01:04:39,360
Speaker 1: the game, so we can talk about shoulder and Montres

1421
01:04:39,400 --> 01:04:40,840
Speaker 1: and all that sort. So but look at what We'll

1422
01:04:40,840 --> 01:04:44,320
Speaker 1: look at what the general conversation was about on the

1423
01:04:44,360 --> 01:04:47,560
Speaker 1: timeline afterwards, right, the highlights for lud Doort's defense one

1424
01:04:47,680 --> 01:04:51,040
Speaker 1: on one play on the overtime, right exactly. But if

1425
01:04:51,040 --> 01:04:53,400
Speaker 1: you watch that game, Lebron was being very selective with

1426
01:04:53,440 --> 01:04:55,080
Speaker 1: his offense. He's trying to make sure that he got

1427
01:04:55,280 --> 01:04:58,720
Speaker 1: at the advantage matchups for his teammates, Um, and look,

1428
01:04:58,760 --> 01:05:00,360
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be bad at bleacher or. Their

1429
01:05:00,440 --> 01:05:02,760
Speaker 1: job is to get engagement, so they're gonna do stuff

1430
01:05:02,760 --> 01:05:06,200
Speaker 1: that gets engagement, and anti Lebron stuff gets tons of

1431
01:05:06,240 --> 01:05:09,960
Speaker 1: engagement on Twitter. So it's cool. Um. But as it

1432
01:05:09,960 --> 01:05:12,680
Speaker 1: relates to his load management, the minutes increased, I would

1433
01:05:12,680 --> 01:05:14,760
Speaker 1: like to see those numbers come down, but that means

1434
01:05:14,760 --> 01:05:16,000
Speaker 1: that the rest of the team has also got to

1435
01:05:16,000 --> 01:05:17,800
Speaker 1: step up. They've got to make their shots. We can't

1436
01:05:17,800 --> 01:05:20,320
Speaker 1: be going through these crappy offensive stretches and stuff like that.

1437
01:05:20,840 --> 01:05:24,080
Speaker 1: But at the same time, you're absolutely right, uh, Lebron.

1438
01:05:24,680 --> 01:05:28,080
Speaker 1: Nobody knows their body better than Lebron. And if it

1439
01:05:28,080 --> 01:05:30,280
Speaker 1: means that he looks bad in in in the national

1440
01:05:30,320 --> 01:05:32,840
Speaker 1: conversation because he's not giving the effort, and that means

1441
01:05:32,840 --> 01:05:35,560
Speaker 1: that he stays healthy, I'm alright with that because I

1442
01:05:35,600 --> 01:05:37,520
Speaker 1: know what's on the other side of this conversation, which

1443
01:05:37,560 --> 01:05:39,760
Speaker 1: is competing for a championship. So I don't mind the

1444
01:05:39,760 --> 01:05:42,480
Speaker 1: short term arguments and the short term complaining and the

1445
01:05:42,480 --> 01:05:45,040
Speaker 1: short term criticism if it means that he's healthy for

1446
01:05:45,080 --> 01:05:47,760
Speaker 1: the playoffs, because it's very tough to beat that guy

1447
01:05:47,840 --> 01:05:50,840
Speaker 1: in seven games when he's healthy. It reminds me of

1448
01:05:50,880 --> 01:05:53,040
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen, where you can almost like you can

1449
01:05:53,080 --> 01:05:58,800
Speaker 1: see he seems to have decided he's playing every game. Yeah,

1450
01:05:58,840 --> 01:06:01,439
Speaker 1: it's it's definitely like a thing now. And I think

1451
01:06:01,440 --> 01:06:03,440
Speaker 1: he understands, like we talked about at the beginning, how

1452
01:06:03,720 --> 01:06:06,840
Speaker 1: that impacts his uh you know, imprint on the m

1453
01:06:06,880 --> 01:06:08,840
Speaker 1: v P race. But yeah, like I said, it's just

1454
01:06:08,880 --> 01:06:12,280
Speaker 1: about it's just about kind of listening to your body,

1455
01:06:12,440 --> 01:06:14,640
Speaker 1: like you know, I, you know, I've been trying to

1456
01:06:14,680 --> 01:06:17,800
Speaker 1: get back in shape recently because I've found access to

1457
01:06:17,840 --> 01:06:20,320
Speaker 1: basketball that I didn't have, uh, you know, as as

1458
01:06:20,360 --> 01:06:22,800
Speaker 1: recently as two or three months ago. And you know,

1459
01:06:22,920 --> 01:06:25,880
Speaker 1: when I first got into it, I was every single

1460
01:06:25,960 --> 01:06:30,000
Speaker 1: day doing some sort of of of workout, playing basketball

1461
01:06:30,000 --> 01:06:32,080
Speaker 1: three times a week, and then even in the off

1462
01:06:32,160 --> 01:06:34,240
Speaker 1: days I would do cardio, would just keep it low impact,

1463
01:06:34,280 --> 01:06:36,120
Speaker 1: and like you know, this we I've been dealing with

1464
01:06:36,160 --> 01:06:38,440
Speaker 1: some nagging pains in my angling in my shoulder, So

1465
01:06:38,720 --> 01:06:41,200
Speaker 1: you know, this week, I've you know, I haven't done

1466
01:06:41,240 --> 01:06:43,040
Speaker 1: as much as those other things. I just try to listen.

1467
01:06:43,120 --> 01:06:45,080
Speaker 1: You just listen to your body and and and try

1468
01:06:45,120 --> 01:06:49,280
Speaker 1: to read it from that perspective, but you know, uh,

1469
01:06:49,320 --> 01:06:51,520
Speaker 1: you know he no one knows it better than him,

1470
01:06:51,720 --> 01:06:54,120
Speaker 1: and uh, at the end of the day, like like

1471
01:06:54,200 --> 01:06:58,280
Speaker 1: I we I think we all are aware that uh

1472
01:06:58,000 --> 01:07:00,560
Speaker 1: uh if it if push comes to shove and Lebron

1473
01:07:00,600 --> 01:07:02,480
Speaker 1: needs to go take a rest, he's going to, He's

1474
01:07:02,480 --> 01:07:04,280
Speaker 1: going to yet and it's just not going to be

1475
01:07:04,280 --> 01:07:08,280
Speaker 1: a problem. But anyway, Uh, thank you so much for

1476
01:07:08,400 --> 01:07:12,880
Speaker 1: taking longer for canadera little chat earlier, but to come

1477
01:07:12,880 --> 01:07:15,200
Speaker 1: and hang out today all of you listen, Thank you

1478
01:07:15,200 --> 01:07:18,000
Speaker 1: guys so much for your support. N let's hook up

1479
01:07:18,000 --> 01:07:20,680
Speaker 1: in another couple of weeks or so, and more Lakers

1480
01:07:20,680 --> 01:07:22,400
Speaker 1: trying to make trying to save some time for something else.

1481
01:07:22,400 --> 01:07:25,360
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, no, they look. I don't know why

1482
01:07:25,400 --> 01:07:28,439
Speaker 1: everybody's talking about MVP stuff because the milball looks really

1483
01:07:28,440 --> 01:07:31,520
Speaker 1: great in Charlotte. Houston's playing much better. Steven Silas, who

1484
01:07:31,560 --> 01:07:33,440
Speaker 1: was getting a lot of crap from the analytics guys

1485
01:07:34,120 --> 01:07:37,000
Speaker 1: on NBA Twitter, has got a pretty competent team, competitive

1486
01:07:37,000 --> 01:07:39,160
Speaker 1: team that's out there with a bunch of mishmashed parts.

1487
01:07:39,640 --> 01:07:42,240
Speaker 1: People keep talking about Bradley Beale's body language, but they're

1488
01:07:42,280 --> 01:07:45,360
Speaker 1: not talking about like the other basketball like the Warriors

1489
01:07:45,480 --> 01:07:48,280
Speaker 1: up and down, Like I know, Warriors families is big

1490
01:07:48,320 --> 01:07:51,560
Speaker 1: on Twitter. There are all there are markers where they're

1491
01:07:51,560 --> 01:07:53,840
Speaker 1: getting better and better. Like a lot of people yesterday

1492
01:07:53,880 --> 01:07:55,880
Speaker 1: we're complaining that like, oh, you don't know why Tuscano

1493
01:07:55,960 --> 01:07:59,440
Speaker 1: Anderson's name like that in the game added bleacher reports,

1494
01:07:59,480 --> 01:08:01,880
Speaker 1: like dude, talk more about him, talk about how he

1495
01:08:01,920 --> 01:08:05,400
Speaker 1: looks better than the fifteen million dollar guy that's come

1496
01:08:05,640 --> 01:08:07,360
Speaker 1: to you know, like come to play and stuff like that.

1497
01:08:07,800 --> 01:08:10,560
Speaker 1: Everything doesn't need to devolve into like whatever the national media.

1498
01:08:10,600 --> 01:08:12,320
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be about m v P stuff.

1499
01:08:12,360 --> 01:08:16,000
Speaker 1: There's so much great basketball happening and I think that, Um,

1500
01:08:16,040 --> 01:08:17,680
Speaker 1: the fact that we have so many guys that are

1501
01:08:17,680 --> 01:08:20,800
Speaker 1: shooting like out of their minds right now is nuts.

1502
01:08:20,840 --> 01:08:23,360
Speaker 1: This is the pure Hooper environment, right which is what

1503
01:08:23,400 --> 01:08:26,880
Speaker 1: everybody was saying last season. This is a pure Hooper environment,

1504
01:08:26,880 --> 01:08:29,400
Speaker 1: and we're seeing the guys that can really score, really score,

1505
01:08:29,400 --> 01:08:31,680
Speaker 1: and I think he's taking a level. Yeah, man, we

1506
01:08:31,800 --> 01:08:34,760
Speaker 1: it's we've as basketball fans, we have to enjoy it.

1507
01:08:34,920 --> 01:08:36,960
Speaker 1: We have to really admire because we may not see

1508
01:08:36,960 --> 01:08:39,080
Speaker 1: this ever again. If all these shooting percentages dropped when

1509
01:08:39,080 --> 01:08:41,920
Speaker 1: the fans come back. This was a very special time

1510
01:08:41,960 --> 01:08:44,440
Speaker 1: where we saw like the best of the best um

1511
01:08:44,640 --> 01:08:46,720
Speaker 1: really show out. So I don't necessarily think it'd be

1512
01:08:46,720 --> 01:08:48,559
Speaker 1: the fans. I think could be the other distractions that

1513
01:08:48,560 --> 01:08:51,479
Speaker 1: would come with them. Yeah, I mean yeah, there's no

1514
01:08:51,600 --> 01:08:56,280
Speaker 1: travel distractions either, so yeah, but anyway, yeah, we we

1515
01:08:56,320 --> 01:08:58,080
Speaker 1: will try to make more time for that next time.

1516
01:08:58,120 --> 01:09:01,400
Speaker 1: But as always, Man, I appreciate you hang out um

1517
01:09:01,439 --> 01:09:06,080
Speaker 1: And as for everybody else, uh, stick around next Tuesday

1518
01:09:06,160 --> 01:09:07,680
Speaker 1: or so. It's probably the next time we'll do one.

1519
01:09:07,720 --> 01:09:09,240
Speaker 1: But I'll just stay tuned on my Twitter page and

1520
01:09:09,280 --> 01:09:11,800
Speaker 1: I'll keep you guys updated. Also, Vane, you want to

1521
01:09:11,800 --> 01:09:14,600
Speaker 1: plug your guys podcast real quick? Oh yeah, So I

1522
01:09:14,720 --> 01:09:18,519
Speaker 1: co host Laker Central with the actual host and the

1523
01:09:18,560 --> 01:09:21,280
Speaker 1: owner of Laker Central, Alex Um. So you can find them.

1524
01:09:21,520 --> 01:09:24,000
Speaker 1: You can find his account at Laker Central. Uh. And

1525
01:09:24,000 --> 01:09:25,640
Speaker 1: then I'm only on Twitter. You can just find me

1526
01:09:25,680 --> 01:09:29,000
Speaker 1: at vi kill um Um. I do writing for my newsletter,

1527
01:09:29,040 --> 01:09:31,160
Speaker 1: which nobody needs to worry about, and I do writing

1528
01:09:31,160 --> 01:09:34,040
Speaker 1: for other guys. Elite media group guys. They let me

1529
01:09:34,080 --> 01:09:37,000
Speaker 1: write about other teams that are non Laker stuff. But yeah,

1530
01:09:37,240 --> 01:09:38,639
Speaker 1: it's about it. You can just find me on Twitter.

1531
01:09:38,720 --> 01:09:42,320
Speaker 1: That's about it alright, guys, the podcast will be up

1532
01:09:42,320 --> 01:09:45,320
Speaker 1: shortly about twenty minutes on my podcast feed as well. Everybody,

1533
01:09:45,400 --> 01:09:46,840
Speaker 1: enjoyed the rest of your weekend, and I'll see you

1534
01:09:46,920 --> 01:09:47,320
Speaker 1: next week.