Speaker 1: M all Ryan, Welcome to the State of the Lakers
Speaker 1: on DASH Radio. Thank you guys so much for making
Speaker 1: time for us on your Friday night. I I jinx
Speaker 1: to everybody. It's my fault, I said. I had a
Speaker 1: good feeling about tonight. I had a feeling that the
Speaker 1: Lakers were gonna build off of their positive momentum from
Speaker 1: the last couple of games. Not not the results, because
Speaker 1: obviously they played some bad teams, but I thought they
Speaker 1: had some better process in a lot of ways. And
Speaker 1: boy was I wrong. And I was super annoyed with
Speaker 1: the process most of the night. They started to get
Speaker 1: a little bit on track in some areas of the
Speaker 1: game as the game progressed. But you know, tonight, when
Speaker 1: guys are banking in threes, you know I'm a lot.
Speaker 1: I'm a firm believer that that's the basketball. Guys. When
Speaker 1: you play like you deserve to lose, things start to
Speaker 1: have and at the end of the game as if
Speaker 1: you deserve to lose. And that's kind of where my
Speaker 1: head's at right at this exact moment of time. I've
Speaker 1: got a ton of thoughts. But before we get too
Speaker 1: deep into it, Rogs, how you doing, man, how's your
Speaker 1: week bend so far? Are you as annoyed as I am? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, happy Friday to you and everyone in here,
Speaker 1: and appreciate everyone that comes out and hangs out after
Speaker 1: another just awful way. That's probably the worst way to lose, right,
Speaker 1: A close game, a game where you never could take
Speaker 1: the lead, which is very frustrating. So every time you
Speaker 1: get it within two, the Clippers hit like two threes,
Speaker 1: and then again it's eight, and then again it's ten.
Speaker 1: It felt like just an uphill battle all game. And yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, just a bunch of frustrating things. I thought
Speaker 1: Tyler coached a hell of a game. I thought after
Speaker 1: every time out the Clippers came out and got exactly
Speaker 1: what they wanted. I gay, so we can go chronological here,
Speaker 1: like I thought. The starting lineup, but I was annoyed
Speaker 1: by it. And it's not Taylor's fault. It's not th
Speaker 1: HD's fault, who, to be honest, did a nice job
Speaker 1: on Paul George, like I thought, he did his role,
Speaker 1: like he fought him in isolation, made him take tough
Speaker 1: shots over the top. The spacing again was just absolutely disgusting.
Speaker 1: To start the game, A d post ups with Dwight
Speaker 1: Howard th ht on the opposite wing just looked really bad.
Speaker 1: Our defense was okay to start. I thought the Clippers
Speaker 1: missed a lot open shots and then we just fouled
Speaker 1: them a ton of the second quarters. That was my
Speaker 1: biggest frustration. I thought we started off with bad process
Speaker 1: and then once Maleikue Monk, you just saw the energy
Speaker 1: of the game change. I thought when he came in
Speaker 1: and they hunted him defensively for sure, That's why we
Speaker 1: had to start trapping Paul George. But I think this
Speaker 1: team needs to hurry up and realize who they are
Speaker 1: because this you can't go to these lineups like I
Speaker 1: get it. Dwight Howard for DJ was was definitely the
Speaker 1: right move. But then when you put Taylan in there,
Speaker 1: you just again destroy your spacing and I thought Lebron
Speaker 1: Russ and a d all all kind of suffered for it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, just a frustrating game, Just a total opposite spectrum.
Speaker 1: How you watch the Clippers who just spread you out,
Speaker 1: it's pretty much a little bit of dribble penetration, kickout,
Speaker 1: kick out. They have three shooters that you have to
Speaker 1: close out hard to man the other side. It's a
Speaker 1: d lebron and Rush trying to pound the pound their
Speaker 1: way through like a bull in the China shop. It's
Speaker 1: just two totally teams under the opposite end of spectrum
Speaker 1: in terms of offense. But I was hell of frustrating
Speaker 1: to watch. Yeah, I'm glad you brought up that the
Speaker 1: Lakers need to figure out who they are, because that's
Speaker 1: the detail that gets lost in all of this. The
Speaker 1: Clippers are a team that know what they're good at.
Speaker 1: They know what they do well, and they lean into
Speaker 1: those things. They know what they're bad at, and they
Speaker 1: stay away from those things. The Lakers are a team
Speaker 1: that are clearly internally unaware of what they're good at. Um,
Speaker 1: you look at the Clippers, you're gonna see a lot
Speaker 1: of Paul George attacking with drible combinations leading into pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots because that's what he's best at. That
Speaker 1: is his best skill. When you're looking at the very
Speaker 1: best but Paul George game, it's all sorts of beautiful,
Speaker 1: drible combinations and jump shots from all over the floor.
Speaker 1: But nad what is their best game look like? Their
Speaker 1: best game looks like if you're Anthony Davis, it's bullying guys.
Speaker 1: And mismatches in the post. It's flying around on defense,
Speaker 1: making plays out of your area. It's Lebron getting downhill,
Speaker 1: creating for his teammates, generating high quality three point shots
Speaker 1: for his teammates, and then living at the rim when
Speaker 1: the other team ceases to help on his drives. And
Speaker 1: what you're seeing, with exception of a little stretch there
Speaker 1: at the end of the third quarter when Russ really
Speaker 1: started to put his head down, I saw a team
Speaker 1: that was settling all night long, and yes, spacing was
Speaker 1: part of it. We're gonna talk about the starting lineup there.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense. It's totally redundant and actively
Speaker 1: handcuffed handicaps the team on offense. So we're gonna get
Speaker 1: into that. But they didn't play with the line up
Speaker 1: the whole game. They played a large chunk of that
Speaker 1: game with a D at the five, with a lot
Speaker 1: of shooting, and I saw dozens and dozens of opportunities
Speaker 1: where Russ in the first half he was much better
Speaker 1: than the second half. But rust in the first half
Speaker 1: in Lebron all game saw driving lanes and just chose
Speaker 1: to not attack because it was easier on their body.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're lazy. Yeah, I get it. Lebron's rusty. He's
Speaker 1: been in and out of the lineup. But for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: we do not embrace the fact that we are a
Speaker 1: downhill basket attacking team that generates high quality three point
Speaker 1: shots for our best shooters on kickouts. And until we
Speaker 1: accept that and embrace that, we are going to continue
Speaker 1: to flounder and mediocrity. That's just the reality of our predicament. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Clippers, who have significantly less talent than us, because
Speaker 1: they're best player, because they're leaning into their strengths, they're
Speaker 1: a better basketball team than us. They've played a significantly
Speaker 1: better schedule, the tougher schedule than we have, and they've
Speaker 1: been better in every area of the game up to
Speaker 1: this point in the season. So are you surprised that
Speaker 1: things went the way they did? And so it was
Speaker 1: one of the more infuriating games that I've ever watched.
Speaker 1: And until the Lakers waked the hell up with these
Speaker 1: little details about their entity, they're going to continue to
Speaker 1: planner like this. Yeah, And I mean it wasn't all bad,
Speaker 1: I guess to me. We lost this game in the
Speaker 1: first quarter, and then in the fourth quarter. I thought
Speaker 1: the second and third. We played well enough to win.
Speaker 1: We just need to start with some shooting like that
Speaker 1: that nine up in the in the starting lineup, it's
Speaker 1: just begging for shooting next to them. And we saw
Speaker 1: Rust get going a little bit, he got downhill. But
Speaker 1: you're right, there was a lot of settling, and I
Speaker 1: think the spacing and them settling are all intertwined. To me,
Speaker 1: like that, that's all part of it. How can you
Speaker 1: attack when there's three people in the paint with driving
Speaker 1: waynes But I saw it all night long, for sure,
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I just think like when you
Speaker 1: started start the game with that, it sets up a tone.
Speaker 1: It's that it sets the tempo for the game. I
Speaker 1: thought that we played way too slow and the Clippers
Speaker 1: not turning the ball over. I was watching, I had
Speaker 1: the Clippers broadcast for some reason, was playing and they
Speaker 1: were talking about how the Clippers were, you know, holding
Speaker 1: onto the ball, they weren't turning the ball over, and
Speaker 1: some of that was true. But I just feel and
Speaker 1: you saw Lebron try to get a few steals, but
Speaker 1: we need to get out and run. We played way
Speaker 1: too slow. This game was played fully pretty much in
Speaker 1: the half corps and I think that leans to the Clippers.
Speaker 1: The Clippers are the better offensive team, especially in the
Speaker 1: half courp they execute better, and I thought that really
Speaker 1: just that's what made the game to me. They were
Speaker 1: the Clippers didn't turn the ball over, We couldn't get out.
Speaker 1: They hittent of the three tonight. That's with going I
Speaker 1: think four for for four for thirteen or something from
Speaker 1: three at the half. So they were absolutely on fire
Speaker 1: in the second half. We were putting the ball out
Speaker 1: of the net and we weren't getting turned over. So
Speaker 1: it was a slow game walking it up. And that's
Speaker 1: the lead to like you saw a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: actions that get Lebron or a D in the midpost,
Speaker 1: and it leads to these fade away jumpers. And I
Speaker 1: thought a D was aggressive. I thought he got a
Speaker 1: lot of offensive rebounds minus the you know, mis free throws.
Speaker 1: I thought he was really good tonight. But you're right,
Speaker 1: a lot of settling. But I think that's all intertwined
Speaker 1: to me, Like, definitely Lebron and Russ were settling, but
Speaker 1: we need to put them with lineups that that makes sense. Uh.
Speaker 1: That was my main thing from tonight, like we need
Speaker 1: to put lineups. That makes sense. And I thought our
Speaker 1: defense was fine in the first quarter, and the zone
Speaker 1: made no sense to me. Did you see that, Jason, Like,
Speaker 1: why aren't we zoning against the Clippers who absolutely spaced
Speaker 1: you out? That made no sense. I thought our standard defense.
Speaker 1: But he's directly into their strengths exactly. Frank's hole double
Speaker 1: team thing was completely nonsensical. Paul, you get you. If
Speaker 1: you're gonna panic every time a superstar makes a contest
Speaker 1: to jump shot, then we're gonna double team every team,
Speaker 1: every star in the league. Like that's that's playing against
Speaker 1: Paul George. When you play against Paul George, he's going
Speaker 1: to make some tough shots. You cannot change your entire
Speaker 1: defensive scheme to something we basically haven't done all year
Speaker 1: just because he made a couple of tough shots. Like
Speaker 1: it was if Frank was all over the place tonight too.
Speaker 1: He was every bit as bad as he usually has
Speaker 1: been this season. Well to the like double team, like
Speaker 1: I understand because they don't want Malik Monk on Paul George. Right,
Speaker 1: So you had Malik Monk in the game and the
Speaker 1: Clippers and ty Lou, who's extremely good at what he
Speaker 1: does when I'm Milik Monk every single position, and that
Speaker 1: makes sense. He did that with Reggie Jackson too, and
Speaker 1: I was fine, if you're gonna trap Paul George, the
Speaker 1: guy you don't, you can't leave Luke Knar like that.
Speaker 1: Can't be the guy you don't close out on, make
Speaker 1: Sergi Baka Shoe or make whoever else you You can't
Speaker 1: leave Luke Arnar to mean, I thought they did that
Speaker 1: way too many times. I thought we overreacted on Reggie Jackson.
Speaker 1: I thought he got a bunch of just ball fakes,
Speaker 1: straight line layups, like I get the trapping Paul George.
Speaker 1: That makes sense, you know, don't leave Leak Monk on
Speaker 1: the island with him. I would have rather just switched,
Speaker 1: like you said, and trust your help behind them, and
Speaker 1: trust that and make Paul George hit those tough shots.
Speaker 1: But I understand the idea of trying to trap and
Speaker 1: get back to your man. But then they just completely
Speaker 1: fell apart. I thought we had no clue what we
Speaker 1: were doing. We double turgy back in the post for
Speaker 1: some reason late in the game. That's where Canard got
Speaker 1: his first three, and then he got a couple of
Speaker 1: wide open ones off of some miscommunications. I thought that's
Speaker 1: what lost the game. It was close enough to win
Speaker 1: even with how bad they played, but just the execution
Speaker 1: down the stretch was awful. We had no clue what
Speaker 1: we're doing defensively, and you're right, Vogl was all over
Speaker 1: the place. Yeah, So with the starting lineup m that
Speaker 1: you brought up, this is the one time, the one
Speaker 1: area of the game where I would cut the Lakers
Speaker 1: from slack their stars, at least for not driving the
Speaker 1: ball to the basket. You know there, Every time you
Speaker 1: put a lineup together, you're trying to accomplish a certain
Speaker 1: list of tasks that need to be done on the basket, correct,
Speaker 1: Like I need a certain amount of shot creation. I
Speaker 1: need a certain amount of finishers, whether that's a vertical
Speaker 1: spacer or a guy who can knock down threes or
Speaker 1: a slasher who can catch and rip through and get
Speaker 1: all the way to the rim. And then defensively, I
Speaker 1: need contain at guys, guys who can guard, guys who
Speaker 1: can dribble, guys who can chase shooters off the screens,
Speaker 1: and any guys who can guard on the back line
Speaker 1: do something to either tagger roller disrupt an interior pass
Speaker 1: and defend the rim with verticality. You need to check
Speaker 1: all those boxes in order for a lineup to have
Speaker 1: some amount of success. The starting lineup that Frank went
Speaker 1: with was so incredibly redundant. It was all dribble creators
Speaker 1: with all guys that are gonna First of all, they
Speaker 1: defended fine with that lineup that was obviously going to happen.
Speaker 1: But on the offensive end of the floor it was
Speaker 1: totally redundant. But nobody that is a knockdown shooter in
Speaker 1: the entire lineup. All guys that are trying to get
Speaker 1: downhill with everybody's defender in the lane stopping them from
Speaker 1: going downhill. And you know, there's a certain aggregate spacing
Speaker 1: like I I actually like using to Howard as a
Speaker 1: big man alongside Anthony Davis to try to bring a
Speaker 1: little bit of you know, a really like nuclear size
Speaker 1: wrinkle that confuses the other teams and really shuts off
Speaker 1: the paint. I like that, but it can't be with
Speaker 1: the starters, because it can't be with Russ. You need
Speaker 1: to have a certain aggregate shooting on the floor that
Speaker 1: makes that lineup function. That needs to be a either
Speaker 1: like a Russ off either three shooters or Lebron and
Speaker 1: two shooters with A D and Dwight, then you're gonna
Speaker 1: get a lot of of quality looks in that offense,
Speaker 1: and you'll be able to disrupt the other team with
Speaker 1: your overwhelming size. But going with the starters, with Russ
Speaker 1: and th HT, who's defender will inevitably have a foot
Speaker 1: in the paint every time they don't have the ball,
Speaker 1: and dwites man who's in the paint, and Lebron and
Speaker 1: a D who in and of themselves are not fantastic shooters.
Speaker 1: You're you're asking for failure that Our guy cran just
Speaker 1: pointed out a sequence where where th h T drove
Speaker 1: and kicked to Russ, who was unguarded because Russ's man
Speaker 1: was in the lane, at which point th HT relocated
Speaker 1: to the three point line and Russ drove right back
Speaker 1: into the paint into th h t s man and
Speaker 1: kicked out to th HT. And it's like, I'm literally
Speaker 1: on the couch trying to pull my hair out because
Speaker 1: I'm watching this team actively handicap itself. You have weapons there,
Speaker 1: but you you don't want to use all of them
Speaker 1: at the same time like that, because their skills become redundant,
Speaker 1: your offense gets crippled. And if there's one thing I'll
Speaker 1: toss you in terms of the rest of the game,
Speaker 1: it does set a tone. When you set a tone
Speaker 1: for settling that lingers and that sort of thing can
Speaker 1: be the reason why Lebron is content to continue to
Speaker 1: take jump shots later in the game. I'm not letting
Speaker 1: him off the hook for that, but I'm just saying
Speaker 1: the starting lineup certainly doesn't help with that. They commit
Speaker 1: push sure, and I think, you know, the Clippers are
Speaker 1: a good team. They're good solid team. We tend to
Speaker 1: talk about the Lakers, obviously, but they're good solid team.
Speaker 1: I think zoo Bach is one of the best, you know,
Speaker 1: rim protecting bigs and when you just combine that with
Speaker 1: the spacing, was is gonna be tough to score. The Clippers,
Speaker 1: I think are the second rank defense, and you put
Speaker 1: you put a lineup, you put an already offensive the
Speaker 1: challenge lineup against a really good defense. I think that's
Speaker 1: what it's gonna look like tonight. But I don't really
Speaker 1: like to And I think like plus minus sometimes is
Speaker 1: you know, low hanging analysis, and it's not always the
Speaker 1: best indicator of how a person played or how the
Speaker 1: impact of the game. But Wayne Ellington a plus fifteen
Speaker 1: in twenty minutes, and I thought that matched the eye
Speaker 1: test to me, like he takes shots that the Clippers
Speaker 1: were kind of begging you to take. Clippers zoned a
Speaker 1: lot tonight, and that makes sense with our lack of
Speaker 1: shooting and all our guys who just want to get
Speaker 1: to the rim. They played a lot of zone. It
Speaker 1: was a lot of ball kicks to th HT open
Speaker 1: to the corner. I think he was like, oh for
Speaker 1: three from three tonight and then just stopped shooting them.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like I thought Wayne Ellington was much needed.
Speaker 1: I thought he would start tonight, and even when he
Speaker 1: started playing well, I thought they would keep th HD
Speaker 1: in the in the starting lineup. In the second half,
Speaker 1: I was okay with starting Russ, Wayne and t h
Speaker 1: D if you want to keep th HD on Paul George,
Speaker 1: which isn't even what happened. They put th HD on
Speaker 1: Reggie Jackson, just our third, which is really confusing to me,
Speaker 1: which if you're not gonna put th HT on Paul George,
Speaker 1: and what's the point of playing him anyway. But that's
Speaker 1: the stuff that I would like them to move up
Speaker 1: to and look vocal took DeAndre Jordan out of the
Speaker 1: starting lineup. That's step one. I think step two is
Speaker 1: putting a shooter um in that lineup, and they're gonna
Speaker 1: get picked on. We saw tonight. Paul George isn't the greatest,
Speaker 1: uh comparison for that, because not everyone has a you know,
Speaker 1: six ten star wing like that, but they're gonna get
Speaker 1: picked on. I just think there's ways around that. And
Speaker 1: you need your offense to have taken away where we're
Speaker 1: not playing from behind every single game. The King's even
Speaker 1: the great win against the Kings, we were downten before
Speaker 1: the tip for the ball tipped up in the air.
Speaker 1: So I just think it's tough to win that way
Speaker 1: when you're just battling uphill all night. And I thought
Speaker 1: you saw that. You saw the fatigue as well, um
Speaker 1: and and it's tough to play that way. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1: And and at a certain point, Frank needs to feel
Speaker 1: the urgency. We've we've noticed in the past that Frank
Speaker 1: is willing to make these sorts of adjustments as soon
Speaker 1: as he feels the gravity of the situation, which is
Speaker 1: what he did in the playoff run. In the bubble.
Speaker 1: But like man, like we were a five hundred basketball team.
Speaker 1: We have all our guys with exception of a reason,
Speaker 1: and we are we're we're getting beat by mediocre teams.
Speaker 1: The Clippers are good. They're good. They're good team. They're
Speaker 1: they're not a great team. We're gonna face a lot
Speaker 1: of better teams this year. That's a team at home
Speaker 1: with all our bodies that we have to beat. That's
Speaker 1: a that's a game we have to win. And so again,
Speaker 1: to your point, like spotting the other team ten points
Speaker 1: or or a proverbial, you know, mythical ten points. However
Speaker 1: you want to quantify all of the negative effects that
Speaker 1: come from that lineup, you're just setting yourself up for failure.
Speaker 1: They were just in general, like I said, keeping Dwight
Speaker 1: Howard in lineups that have a certain amount of spacing
Speaker 1: so that you don't have to play with the starters.
Speaker 1: You use that wrinkle with shooting, you know, keeping th
Speaker 1: ht and Russ staggered so that his his skill set
Speaker 1: isn't completely wasted with the starters. The lebron at the center.
Speaker 1: I she like that look, but it needs to be
Speaker 1: a little bit more switching and a little bit less
Speaker 1: traditional pick and roll coverage because Lebron is just not
Speaker 1: big enough to be a really effective drop coverage big.
Speaker 1: He's better if you can try to keep him, you know,
Speaker 1: rotating around in defense and communicating and flying around. Take
Speaker 1: advantage of the foot speed that that lineup has, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, that's the advantage of that lineup.
Speaker 1: I thought they did a lot of switching in the
Speaker 1: second quarter with that group, and it looked okay, But
Speaker 1: then in the fourth quarter there was no there was
Speaker 1: no switching, and Lebron is getting barbecued in drop coverage
Speaker 1: against Isaiah Hartenstein, and so there's just a lot of
Speaker 1: really really bad process tonight. But it's like I can't
Speaker 1: even man, I like, I can't even like stop finding
Speaker 1: places to point blame here, because it's like they went
Speaker 1: to Lebron at the five in the second quarter and
Speaker 1: he would not drive to the basket. He had like
Speaker 1: a five minute stretch at the center with all of
Speaker 1: this spacing and shooting, and I counted one basket attack
Speaker 1: and it was in transition when he got the and one.
Speaker 1: Every single half court set, he was completely unwilling to
Speaker 1: his head down to get to the rim. It's like
Speaker 1: the whole purpose of sacrificing all of our size and
Speaker 1: athleticism to put you at the five is to create
Speaker 1: space for you as a driver and as a rollman.
Speaker 1: Like you have to wise on that. And like, I know,
Speaker 1: I've been really critical of Lebron this year, but this
Speaker 1: team needs more out of him. They need him to
Speaker 1: be better. And there's only so much slack you can
Speaker 1: cut him on the on the in and out of
Speaker 1: the line up front. Yeah that okay, I'm gonna spot
Speaker 1: you that when you miss more jump shots and usually miss,
Speaker 1: or when you need to sub out more frequently than
Speaker 1: you usually do because you're tired, But dude, if you can't.
Speaker 1: There was a play where he had Isaiah Hartenstein in
Speaker 1: the corner with plenty time on the shock clock in
Speaker 1: the second quarter and Wayne Ellington is wide open on
Speaker 1: the opposite wing and Wayne Ellington's van is waiting under
Speaker 1: the basket. He could have either skipped at Wayne Ellington
Speaker 1: or done a rip through on Isaiah Hartenstein, gotten to
Speaker 1: the paint and done a little pass along the baseline
Speaker 1: to the corner, and he jacked up a stupid step
Speaker 1: back three that he missed, which as I've pointed out
Speaker 1: on Twitter if you look into the numbers, he's terrible
Speaker 1: with that shot. This season, he's he's money on catch
Speaker 1: and shoot wide open threes. He's right around fifty. I
Speaker 1: can't remember the exact numbers. That obviously changes every day,
Speaker 1: but he's shooting an incredible percentage on his wide open
Speaker 1: catch and shoot threes, and he's breaking the hell out
Speaker 1: of all these step back jump shots, and he just
Speaker 1: keeps going to him and like I, I, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's been extremely frustrating because this this is not the
Speaker 1: Cads where you can bs your way through the season
Speaker 1: and you know that you're facing the Raptors in the
Speaker 1: conference finals, so you'll be fine. No, the meanwhile, on ESPN,
Speaker 1: two teams that are fifty times better than us are
Speaker 1: battling out. We we have a lot of ground to
Speaker 1: make up. We are in a position of urgency. Lebron
Speaker 1: has to be better. He has to be better. He
Speaker 1: has to understand what this team needs for him to
Speaker 1: be lean into what he's good at and and this
Speaker 1: ship will right itself. I thought Anthony Davis was pretty
Speaker 1: damn good to Lebron has to catch up to that.
Speaker 1: He has to Yeah, I agree with that, and those
Speaker 1: you know Lebron at the center lineups is that are
Speaker 1: definitely new. Um, it's definitely stuff that they're trying. They
Speaker 1: need to get their defense in order and that as well.
Speaker 1: It was basically an Eric bledsoe um Harten signed pick
Speaker 1: and roll and they got whatever they wanted. Like I
Speaker 1: think it was like three straight and ones Hardenstein did
Speaker 1: like a triple handoff or he just faked the hand
Speaker 1: off and got right to the rim for a dunk.
Speaker 1: Just a lot of those plays that we need to
Speaker 1: kind of sort out, and I think that will work
Speaker 1: itself out. But you're right. You put Lebron at the
Speaker 1: five so he can drive in and find shooters, and
Speaker 1: I think it was Mellow Monk next to him in
Speaker 1: those and he took jump shots and that's a way
Speaker 1: for Lebron to kind of load manage two games. And
Speaker 1: I can't really speak to how much that impacts him.
Speaker 1: It's only what I think. This is game eleven with
Speaker 1: bron Adi and Rust Rust playing, so it will be
Speaker 1: a process. But yeah, right, he needs to be better
Speaker 1: for this team, I thought him and Rust needs to
Speaker 1: kind of match Um a D S level. I thought
Speaker 1: Adi was great tonight all night. His jumper is going
Speaker 1: as well. That looks like that's training up. Words aside
Speaker 1: from the three point, did he take a three toime?
Speaker 1: I'm not even sure if Aid took a three tonight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and again in those lineups who were no spacing a
Speaker 1: D or the off guard has to be a shooter
Speaker 1: because Lebron's gonna hit some threes Russ the other team,
Speaker 1: will you know, welcome Russ taking any type of three.
Speaker 1: So the a D and the off guard guy has
Speaker 1: to be a shooter if there's a traditional five out there.
Speaker 1: But I thought Aid was was great again tonight. It
Speaker 1: looks like he's he's really picking up. You talked about
Speaker 1: him playing all these games in a row. He looks
Speaker 1: like in a rhythm. His offensive rebounding was good. I
Speaker 1: thought he didn't get calls tonight, but I mean he
Speaker 1: was missing at the line anyway. The Clippers hit like
Speaker 1: the Clippers. I think took like twenty three throws or
Speaker 1: something in the in the second quarter. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: thought he was good. And Lebron's gonna ramp himself up.
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about him, but you're right, we're in
Speaker 1: an urgency situation here. We need to start winning, but
Speaker 1: I think we need line ups that are conducive to
Speaker 1: it too. I just don't think we can continue to
Speaker 1: start like I taking DJ out but then starting tailor
Speaker 1: just you don't I don't feel like you don't gain
Speaker 1: enough offensively, uh in that in that transaction, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Like you put in dwy who's actually
Speaker 1: less of a lob threat, it feels like, and then Taylor,
Speaker 1: who's a guy who's not going to shoot the three.
Speaker 1: We just have no spacing and it just created his
Speaker 1: tempo for the team that is so slow. I keep
Speaker 1: talking about it's so against the identity of Russ as well,
Speaker 1: a guy who wants to get up and down the floor.
Speaker 1: We just play way too slow. That's why Malik Monk
Speaker 1: pops off the screen. He gets in and it looks
Speaker 1: like he's playing at a speed like that. You know,
Speaker 1: on a podcast you can put like two point five
Speaker 1: speed and stuff like that looks like when it looks
Speaker 1: like when Malik Monk comes in the game, the game
Speaker 1: just goes to two point five speed and we're in
Speaker 1: like one point five or whatever, slower than the or
Speaker 1: point five speed that's lower than a regular speed. But yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I don't know. This is a tough laws. It looked
Speaker 1: like we could really build off that that King's come back.
Speaker 1: But again just a little step back here again as
Speaker 1: we play Boston, I believe on on Tuesday or something,
Speaker 1: another tough game and another team that's going that knows
Speaker 1: what they're good at. They have guys that just put
Speaker 1: their head down and go to the rim. And and
Speaker 1: you know, like, did you notice that the game find
Speaker 1: like we the Clippers basically stiff armed us most of
Speaker 1: the game, kind of holding us in that five to
Speaker 1: ten point range, and and Russ turned the game around
Speaker 1: at the end of the third quarter. He turned the
Speaker 1: game around started with one play he uh in transition.
Speaker 1: Carmelo Anthony relocated to the week side corner and he
Speaker 1: just put his head down, did kind of like that
Speaker 1: d Wade like kind of rip over the top dribble
Speaker 1: kind of did didn't there was no space there, there
Speaker 1: was a big man under the rim. The defender was
Speaker 1: backing up and giving him a jump shot. He just
Speaker 1: plowed into his chest, did that kind of rip over
Speaker 1: the top and kicked it to Carmelo Anthony. He made
Speaker 1: it three and then two additional times before the end
Speaker 1: of the quarter, Russ put his head down and got
Speaker 1: to the rim. It changed the tone of the way
Speaker 1: we were playing offensively. Are this team has a clear
Speaker 1: pathway towards success and it's lebron A d and Russ
Speaker 1: applying rim pressure that will either create layups for them
Speaker 1: or high quality three point shots for their great three
Speaker 1: point shooters. And then on defense less jankie, defense less,
Speaker 1: zone less pick and roll coverages that our guys are
Speaker 1: just simply incapable of carrying out, just switch everything, stagnate them.
Speaker 1: And if you lose the occasional battle in isolation because
Speaker 1: of a mismatch a guy gets to the rim or
Speaker 1: Paul George makes a pull up jump shot, you'll live
Speaker 1: with that. It's it's when they compromise themselves by making
Speaker 1: guys chase over the top of screens, which they're just
Speaker 1: bad at, and making the big guys defended drop coverage,
Speaker 1: which they just haven't done a good job of this year.
Speaker 1: And then all this like kind of random indiscriminate doubling,
Speaker 1: which is getting our defense out of uh, you know,
Speaker 1: getting it out of organization. We're we're and then on
Speaker 1: the offensive and settling for so many jump shots when
Speaker 1: the opportunities are there. We are playing away from our
Speaker 1: strengths and and to me, as long as we continue
Speaker 1: to do that, we're going to continue to underperform. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, Frank has recently taught about how they're
Speaker 1: only going to one center lineups now, right, so not
Speaker 1: including a D as a center, which is funny, but
Speaker 1: going to only Dwight Howard. I think where this is
Speaker 1: moving and where the trend is going, and maybe we're
Speaker 1: just gonna wait till, you know, until it gets bad
Speaker 1: enough where we just get here. But the trend we're
Speaker 1: going to is just putting Lebron and a D at
Speaker 1: the four or five, right, Like, that's where this needs
Speaker 1: to go to. Like we can mess around, we can
Speaker 1: try to uh you know, walk around the walk around
Speaker 1: the issue here, but I think that's the main thing.
Speaker 1: We need to eventually get to Lebron, a D at
Speaker 1: the four or five, r us at the one. And
Speaker 1: if you want to put th h D out there, fine,
Speaker 1: but get a shooter in there and then that's how
Speaker 1: you have to play. To me, because this starting lineup
Speaker 1: starting uh getting getting leads at are ten points, eleven points.
Speaker 1: Trying to come back from downhill every game is just
Speaker 1: not gonna work. It's not inducive to this team. It's
Speaker 1: not the identity of this team. Russ comes out and
Speaker 1: plays like it's like a different player every single game
Speaker 1: that we get from the first quarter to the third quarter. Right,
Speaker 1: It's like you talked about how he changed the game around.
Speaker 1: That was when we went small. It was one center
Speaker 1: on the floor. I believe when when when when Rest
Speaker 1: turned the game around. It's just a different player, and
Speaker 1: we need him to be the you know, again, we
Speaker 1: people clumb about the stats, the ten and ten or whatever,
Speaker 1: but he needs to be at least producing. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure what Russ had tonight, but still like we need
Speaker 1: his production man to to play. I think we had
Speaker 1: like fourteen points in the first quarter with like two
Speaker 1: minutes left or something like like. That's just not enough
Speaker 1: for a team with this much offensive firepower to be
Speaker 1: scoring four teen fifty points, even though I know the
Speaker 1: Clippers are a good defense, But still like, I think
Speaker 1: that's the issue that we're walking around here. I think
Speaker 1: taking out DJ for Howard, that's like a step, that's
Speaker 1: like half a step in the direction, but the main
Speaker 1: direction to me is going with the lebron at the four, eight,
Speaker 1: at the five. And maybe we only see that when
Speaker 1: Tevor Reason gets back. We saw a Reason kind of
Speaker 1: shooting around today, Uh, doing some shooting around work. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's when we get to it. But I feel like
Speaker 1: that's where this team is trending to all this other stuff.
Speaker 1: I feel like we're just kind of wasting our time
Speaker 1: until we get get to that final point here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I hear you. I think like there's obviously help on
Speaker 1: the way, but we're not getting the most out of
Speaker 1: this group. And that's what's so infuriating about that, is
Speaker 1: like to your point, Like like you, Frank, I know
Speaker 1: you like to play Dwight are a center. I know
Speaker 1: you like to play a traditional center. It does not
Speaker 1: have to be with at the opening tip. It's just
Speaker 1: a terrible time to do it. Like you, I get
Speaker 1: that you want to get th ht an opportunity to
Speaker 1: be aggressive with the basketball. It does not have to
Speaker 1: be with the starting group, you know, even even with
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley. It's like I get that you want to
Speaker 1: have this ball containment guard that sets a tone and
Speaker 1: and and and inspires the other players on the floor
Speaker 1: to play better defense. It does not have to be
Speaker 1: with the starting group all the time in NBA history,
Speaker 1: guys have come in off the bench and brought defensive
Speaker 1: momentum with them that carries throughout the team. That was
Speaker 1: literally Alex Carusoe for US last year. It's just it's
Speaker 1: it's so frustrating to me to see just blatant bad
Speaker 1: process undercutting this team, because like with Lebron healthy, as
Speaker 1: much as I can't wait for a reason to get back,
Speaker 1: we don't need him to be a good basketball team
Speaker 1: right now, and and and it's just I just don't
Speaker 1: even know where else the guy. Let's let's move on
Speaker 1: to th h D because I wanted to UH to
Speaker 1: get into this with you for a minute. So as
Speaker 1: we saw again tonight, UM he kind of fell apart
Speaker 1: with typical young guy mistakes. UM. Uh taking bad shots,
Speaker 1: committing fouls that made no sense within our defensive scheme.
Speaker 1: UM obviously all the spacing concerns that come with the
Speaker 1: UH with him with the starters. I'm at the point
Speaker 1: with th HD, and you can tell me if you disagree.
Speaker 1: I'm at the point with th HT where I think
Speaker 1: you need to ride him out the same way you
Speaker 1: do Molique Monk or or Ellington or any of these
Speaker 1: other guards. Like, if he's got it, going ride it
Speaker 1: out with him, But if he doesn't, there almost needs
Speaker 1: to be a quick hook with him because phts a
Speaker 1: young player, and one of the things with young players
Speaker 1: is man when it rains, it pours, like when they
Speaker 1: start making mistakes, they lose their head and it's just like, now, okay,
Speaker 1: I I took a bad shot, so now I'm going
Speaker 1: to while Paul George is in a triple threat on
Speaker 1: the wing, just stick my long ass arm right into
Speaker 1: his shooting pockets so that PG just has to raise
Speaker 1: his arms to drop out like that's just an unintelligent
Speaker 1: basketball play. Or catching the ball in the middle of
Speaker 1: the zone and instead of turning and looking just panics
Speaker 1: shooting a one like fade away even though you're completely
Speaker 1: wide open. Those are young guy mistakes, and young guy
Speaker 1: mistakes will come and go. That's kind of typical for
Speaker 1: a player in that age group. But when you're seeing
Speaker 1: those nights where the mistakes are coming in bunches, young
Speaker 1: players don't have the mental fortitude to push through that
Speaker 1: and suddenly rein it in and start playing fundamentally sound,
Speaker 1: calm basketball. It's just impossible for them at that age.
Speaker 1: And so I think Frank needs to be quicker with
Speaker 1: his hook with th HD, Like, Okay, does THHD have
Speaker 1: it tonight? Is he making his perimeter shot? Is he
Speaker 1: making smart decisions? Is he focused on defense? If he's
Speaker 1: If he's doing those things, ride him out, because then
Speaker 1: he's a ten million dollar player, maybe even more. But
Speaker 1: when he's not those things, he can actively hurt the team.
Speaker 1: And he was I think on minus eight in the
Speaker 1: first half of a game that we only trail by
Speaker 1: three UM. And it's just it's one of those things
Speaker 1: where the th HD experiment is reaching a point where
Speaker 1: we're in an extended enough slump that we have to
Speaker 1: shorten the leash. In my opinion, where are you at
Speaker 1: with t HD? Yeah, And we went into this a
Speaker 1: lot in the last part as well. I think it's
Speaker 1: a tough conundrum for for Vogelo as well, because I
Speaker 1: think THHD is one of our better, you know, isolation defenders.
Speaker 1: Just to stick on a positive note, I thought he
Speaker 1: did do a good job on Paul George tonight as
Speaker 1: well as you can on All Star like that like
Speaker 1: he made him work. I thought we double teamed a
Speaker 1: little bit unnecessarily as well, Like when when he had
Speaker 1: Paul George on the wing, I thought it was fun
Speaker 1: to leave t HD on him. He was taking tough,
Speaker 1: contested jumpers. He had a few fouls like you talked
Speaker 1: about reached in. But it's tough to like put th
Speaker 1: HD in the you know Benja movie. He's not playing
Speaker 1: or if he's not, like this is a they're trying
Speaker 1: to develop him. And you know, when you play a
Speaker 1: pay a player ten million dollars a year. T HD
Speaker 1: is the fourth highest paid up player on this team.
Speaker 1: You need to get your investment from that. You need
Speaker 1: to build him up. And I think that's the tough
Speaker 1: role that they're gonna walk here. I think if you're
Speaker 1: not playing t HD, then who do you kind of
Speaker 1: go to. I guess like they put it off. Yeah
Speaker 1: that's true, and I would like that. But obviously, like
Speaker 1: v was not gonna play on Inton thirty five minutes
Speaker 1: a game, Like it's clear like he's just not going
Speaker 1: to play him that much because of the defensive issues.
Speaker 1: Like I think t HD again, I keep saying this,
Speaker 1: he has the highest ceiling of any of the players
Speaker 1: on the team right now in terms of like what
Speaker 1: he can be versus what he is right now, and
Speaker 1: that's a tough kind of game to play there. I
Speaker 1: agree with you, um, I would like to tend more shooting.
Speaker 1: I would like to see th HT in lineups that
Speaker 1: don't have both Russ and Lebron on the floor. I
Speaker 1: think that's, like you said, very redundant. Like it just
Speaker 1: all his skills become everything that he's not good at
Speaker 1: is what he has to be good at for for
Speaker 1: for lack of better better term there, like when you
Speaker 1: put him next to Russ and Lebron, he's the third
Speaker 1: guy who needs to be a shooter, and that's just
Speaker 1: not what he is. I would love to see him
Speaker 1: maybe just next just next to Lebron on second units
Speaker 1: or where he can lead a team where he can
Speaker 1: have some ball screen, you know, responsibilities. But it's a tough,
Speaker 1: tough decision. Man. He's not shooting well, he's not confident
Speaker 1: in his shot. He was left wide open town again.
Speaker 1: He's driving into lanes that are not open, trying to
Speaker 1: kick out. Uh those The screening with Lebron isn't as
Speaker 1: clear as isn't as smooth as it was before. So
Speaker 1: it's it's tough that he's gonna have to work through. Man,
Speaker 1: it feels like he's a staple of this rotation, and
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna be taken out because of they
Speaker 1: need him on the defensive end as well. He just
Speaker 1: needs to shoot, He needs to shoot more. I think
Speaker 1: he's too good a shooter to be to be to
Speaker 1: be this bad, to be this not confident in his shots.
Speaker 1: So I don't know where to go from here, though.
Speaker 1: I don't think that he's gonna I don't think he's
Speaker 1: gonna lose minutes. I just don't think the guards behind
Speaker 1: them are they're enough defensively to where their kid they're
Speaker 1: going to play over him. Yeah, you know, did you
Speaker 1: see that? Note the numbers that I shared the other
Speaker 1: day about how basically all of the Laker's best lineups
Speaker 1: include at least two of their top three shooters. Yeah,
Speaker 1: did you see that? By any chance? Like? I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's a coincidence, And I think it's
Speaker 1: because of the fact that you know, like Molik Monk
Speaker 1: for instance, Um, he got attacked tonight in isolation against
Speaker 1: Paul George and there's a tendency to overreact to that
Speaker 1: kind of thing because I'm sorry, but like again, I
Speaker 1: think I think Paul George finished the game like seven
Speaker 1: for twenty, like dude, Like good players are gonna make
Speaker 1: tough shots, like that's just that's just part of the game.
Speaker 1: You can't overreact to that court this sort of thing.
Speaker 1: Is Molik Monk getting barbecue to the basket for layups
Speaker 1: every time. If so that it's another conversation. But if
Speaker 1: he's if Paul George is taking uh, you know, his
Speaker 1: normal diet of off the dribble jump shots that he's
Speaker 1: gonna get against almost every player, but you're getting so
Speaker 1: much more at a Malik Monk offensively then, as as
Speaker 1: opposed to going the direction of a guy like t.
Speaker 1: H T who might be able to make Paul George
Speaker 1: feel a little less comfortable and maybe he goes, you know,
Speaker 1: seven for twenty instead of eleven for twenty or nine
Speaker 1: for twenty or whatever it is, but the entire free
Speaker 1: flowing nature of the offense disappears. I think that's what
Speaker 1: you're seeing manufact man manifest in those numbers. What what
Speaker 1: what you're seeing is that, in my opinion, when the
Speaker 1: Lakers play at least two of their three best shooters.
Speaker 1: Then obviously I'm referring to Ellington, Monk and Mellow. The
Speaker 1: Lakers start to make some shots, and when they do,
Speaker 1: you know, lebron A D. Russ are more comfortable getting downhill,
Speaker 1: getting to the rim, and when the ball is going
Speaker 1: in the basket, it invigorates their defense. First of all,
Speaker 1: stops transition opportunity of these gives them an opportunity to
Speaker 1: get back and set their defense. And then when they
Speaker 1: get their defense set, they're feeling good, they're feeling confident
Speaker 1: because they're scoring. It just allows for a higher level
Speaker 1: of defensive output from a group that in theory would
Speaker 1: have lesser defensive output because of their talent. And that
Speaker 1: that I think that's what you're seeing in those numbers,
Speaker 1: because as we've seen this entire season, all of the
Speaker 1: Laker lineups that go heavy towards defense are getting run
Speaker 1: off the floor, whether it's when they go big, they're
Speaker 1: getting run off the floor in transition or with their
Speaker 1: you know, smaller lineups that are prioritizing the thht bays
Speaker 1: more Russ types, they're just not having enough opportunity on
Speaker 1: the offensive end. To get easy looks to invigorate their defense,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And so that's that's where
Speaker 1: I'm at with this stuff. That that that I think.
Speaker 1: I think that we should never have a lineup with
Speaker 1: none of those guys on the floor, which is why Ellington,
Speaker 1: I think is a is a shoe in start, right.
Speaker 1: But we need to do a better job of almost
Speaker 1: staggering the shooters so that we always have two of
Speaker 1: them on the floor because that's just when we play
Speaker 1: at our best. That's out identity. And I don't know
Speaker 1: what's taking Frank so long to embrace that. Let's stick
Speaker 1: on Milik Monk because I thought he was again just
Speaker 1: incredible tonight, and not just the shot making the way
Speaker 1: he played off Lebron. They really went to the Malik
Speaker 1: Monk kind of coming up to set a screen and
Speaker 1: the Clippers like to switch, and the way you kind
Speaker 1: of beat us switches, you slip it. And he did
Speaker 1: great jobs slipping those screens. He got into the open floor,
Speaker 1: his drive game, his athleticism game to the basket. He
Speaker 1: only played twenty nine He played twenty nine mins tonight,
Speaker 1: and I felt like that wasn't enough. Still, like I
Speaker 1: wanted to see him out there for like thirty five,
Speaker 1: thirty six tonight he was here too. Yeah, it's minutes.
Speaker 1: I've definitely picked up his defense. I thought is getting
Speaker 1: better other than that Lebron at the center lineup where
Speaker 1: they really picked on him and with the Paul George
Speaker 1: at the end, but I thought he fought. He did
Speaker 1: a nice job in Reggie Jackson to me, he has
Speaker 1: to play like I don't. I'm not sure if he'll start.
Speaker 1: I think Valley Valentine will be the next kind of
Speaker 1: starter in line. But I just love him. Lebron and
Speaker 1: Russ seemed to have this chemistry and again he just
Speaker 1: pops up off the screen like he's so energetic. He
Speaker 1: comes off and it just looks like the game moves
Speaker 1: in a faster speed when he plays. But I just
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of give him credit tonight because I
Speaker 1: thought he was awesome his shot making two where he
Speaker 1: can shoot where he's not open, which I think is
Speaker 1: very key for this team, Like he's not wide open,
Speaker 1: but he's still able to get shots up, and he
Speaker 1: has enough off the bounce stuff, way more off the
Speaker 1: bounce stuff than I thought he would. Um he cat
Speaker 1: just can attack off a close out behind the back
Speaker 1: stuff floaters Like, I thought he was just really good tonight,
Speaker 1: and uh he was a plus zero on the night,
Speaker 1: which I think a lot of that was in that
Speaker 1: first half. I thought he played well, but I just
Speaker 1: want to give him credit because I thought he was
Speaker 1: good again. You're right, we need to keep our scores
Speaker 1: on the floor. I thought we overreacted a little bit
Speaker 1: at the end. I'm fine trapping Paul George, Like, I
Speaker 1: think that's an okay, you know, like if you want
Speaker 1: to do that, that's fine, but there has to be
Speaker 1: some control out of that. Luke nar can't be the
Speaker 1: guy you leave. And I thought that's where we lost
Speaker 1: the game. We won the four thirty six thirty two,
Speaker 1: but it just wasn't enough because the defense at the end.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Malik Monk needs to play, man Like, he's
Speaker 1: been too good. He's shown way too much. He needs
Speaker 1: to play and needs to play a lot, at least
Speaker 1: until I guess the reason gets back where we can
Speaker 1: kind of fill the roster out. I guess, as Bogas says,
Speaker 1: but I would like him to keep playing more. Man.
Speaker 1: I thought he was awesome again tonight. The interesting game
Speaker 1: with Malik Monk because he's continuing to flash good dribble
Speaker 1: creation right. Um that stretched there in the second half.
Speaker 1: A lot of it was actually initiated by himself from
Speaker 1: the perimeter and then on the defensive end, and this
Speaker 1: is why they have to lean into switching, which is
Speaker 1: why I'm getting so annoyed by this. Over the course
Speaker 1: of the season. You know what, Malik did a pretty
Speaker 1: good job in isolation tonight. Yeah, we're there a couple
Speaker 1: of times where he let Paul George get a little
Speaker 1: too comfortable on those pull up jump shots, yes, but
Speaker 1: for the most part he's there, he's not getting beat
Speaker 1: to the rim. He's doing a good job of contesting shots.
Speaker 1: There were i ronically the ones where he was giving
Speaker 1: more uh shots at the rim was against Eric Bledstell,
Speaker 1: who did a really good job of just dropping his
Speaker 1: shoulder into Malik Monk and displacing him. And then every
Speaker 1: time you just pump fake and get one of them
Speaker 1: off their feet and then you just jump into him
Speaker 1: and get free throws. But the point is is like that,
Speaker 1: over the course of a game, the other team's gonna
Speaker 1: score a lot of points. So like it's it's if
Speaker 1: if if the majority of them come in isolation against
Speaker 1: defenders that maybe have a little bit of a disadvantage
Speaker 1: as opposed to up and down the floor and transition
Speaker 1: easy looks off of pocket passes looks off. That's kind
Speaker 1: of the way that got it. Like if you are
Speaker 1: forcing them to consistently isolation, he stagnate them and over
Speaker 1: the course of the game. That can manifest in a
Speaker 1: bunch of different ways. Malik Monk again, where I was
Speaker 1: seeing him getting killed on defense tonight was on screens
Speaker 1: when they would run a tick and roll and instead
Speaker 1: of switching it, Lebron would be in a drop and
Speaker 1: Malik would get caught on screen. He's a small guy,
Speaker 1: he's skinny, that that plays into his weaknesses and and
Speaker 1: so I just I'd like to see them kind of
Speaker 1: change up some of those, uh, some of the way
Speaker 1: that they try to utilize these guys defensively because I
Speaker 1: think you'll be able to get more out of him
Speaker 1: in that regard. But again on the offensive, and ma
Speaker 1: Leak is just incredible, Like he just it's ironic because
Speaker 1: this whole season he's been bad with wide open three's,
Speaker 1: but he's just making these tougher ones when the defenders
Speaker 1: closing out on him, and then he's continuing to flash
Speaker 1: that really high level close out attacking that like like
Speaker 1: we talked about on the last pot that you know,
Speaker 1: it's not just a ripped through layup or a wide
Speaker 1: open three, but rather, you know, I beat a guy
Speaker 1: off the ripple, there's help and I can kind of
Speaker 1: scoop around him for a nifty like left handed finish
Speaker 1: or like a floater or that extra move if the
Speaker 1: help defender meets him further out from the rim. Like
Speaker 1: He's just he's everything that we didn't have in the
Speaker 1: previous two seasons. And so I'm a huge moviek monk fan. Um,
Speaker 1: I just think Frank is setting him up to fail
Speaker 1: when he asks him to chase guys over screens and
Speaker 1: in defending pick and roll like that. Yeah, I agree
Speaker 1: with that, and I'm not sure if he's ever going
Speaker 1: to be a positive defender, but I see him trying.
Speaker 1: I see him fighting for rebounds as well more like
Speaker 1: and that's all you can really ask for him, like
Speaker 1: a six one guard. Um, I think he gives you
Speaker 1: enough offensively to where you can kind of live with
Speaker 1: the defensive shortcomings that he has. And again twenty nine minutes, Like,
Speaker 1: we'll see if you'll continue to play that. I just
Speaker 1: think we need scoring and he gives so much pop
Speaker 1: off the off the bench for us. The Russ and
Speaker 1: Monk lineups have been great. I think they're like plus
Speaker 1: ten in the lineups for the season, so that has
Speaker 1: that has some chemistry that they're building there. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I would hope he plays more man, but I just
Speaker 1: think if you're gonna go with this, you know, big
Speaker 1: lineup that you're gonna start with, you have to have
Speaker 1: some shooting in the off guard lineup. And I think
Speaker 1: the quickest pulled to me put Wayne A. Lincoln in there.
Speaker 1: He's a VET, he's a guy who he's not a flash.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have as high ceiling as Monk, but it's
Speaker 1: just a solid player and it gives you shooting. And
Speaker 1: I thought the game change when Ellington hit two threes.
Speaker 1: I thought that's when like the game kind of shifted.
Speaker 1: You saw the energy pick up. He was like again,
Speaker 1: he was a plus fifteen tonight in his and I
Speaker 1: think twenty minutes, twenty short minutes plus fifteen, And I
Speaker 1: thought the whole energy of the game change when we
Speaker 1: had shooting in there, but Russ Brown a d with
Speaker 1: shooting and it's not not too not too complicated to
Speaker 1: put out formula. I get what Vogo is trying to do,
Speaker 1: and I totally understand it. And I thought tonight defense
Speaker 1: was a big problem too in the second half. Clipper
Speaker 1: scored a bunch of points in the second half, But
Speaker 1: it's just not the identity of this of this particular team,
Speaker 1: like it just is. And this team feeds off his offense. Again,
Speaker 1: when you can't score and you were not craying turnovers
Speaker 1: on the other end, it's just a bad process. I
Speaker 1: thought we were lucky to be down three, honestly at
Speaker 1: halftime with all the free throws that we gave up,
Speaker 1: and I think we were like four for four for
Speaker 1: something from three as well. Uh so we were really
Speaker 1: lucky to only be down three. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: we need to we need to go into this identity,
Speaker 1: this offensive identity, because starting these games downtown, it's just
Speaker 1: not good process. You're not gonna win a lot of games.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna go on in ten game win streaks.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that. Uh what Anthony Davis kind of
Speaker 1: predicted the other day, You're not gonna go any ten
Speaker 1: game winning streaks playing like this, so hopefully you gotta
Speaker 1: win over Boston again. This is tonight's only game eleven
Speaker 1: of Lebron a d Russ trio. Did you know that
Speaker 1: it's only games game eleven? And this is what game
Speaker 1: twelve though? I think right because they were seven and
Speaker 1: four with Lebron before, I'm pretty sure. Okay, game twelve, okay, yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: but yeah either way either way wild yeah. Not not
Speaker 1: very many reps here, so hopefully that's that's kind of building.
Speaker 1: But you know, we're getting small, small adjustments. Vogel has
Speaker 1: had that Trevor Rees is going to come in and
Speaker 1: have a big role. We'll see if that just shifts
Speaker 1: the whole team, shifts everyone in their right positions. But
Speaker 1: that's still probably a week away. So and we have
Speaker 1: a couple of games here. But at least we got
Speaker 1: Lebron back. At least Lebron is not out, so that's
Speaker 1: a that's a good thing. That's a positive for this
Speaker 1: And he's going to continue to look rusty like this
Speaker 1: until he can stay in the damn lineup, like I mean,
Speaker 1: and I feel for like, there's that quote after the
Speaker 1: last game where Russ was like, I'm gonna call Lebron
Speaker 1: as soon as I get out of here, because I
Speaker 1: know how frustrating it can be to be in and
Speaker 1: out of the lineup, and like, I get it. I
Speaker 1: I sympathize with Lebron in that regard, but like, man,
Speaker 1: like this team needs him on the floor, and you
Speaker 1: know what, he needs to be on the floor for
Speaker 1: his own game, Like he there's a reason why he's
Speaker 1: leaving all those jump shots short at the end of
Speaker 1: the game and missing all these layups. It's because the
Speaker 1: dude has literally played like three times total in the
Speaker 1: last what three weeks, like like three or four weeks
Speaker 1: or whatever. Like, the guy just can't stay on the floor.
Speaker 1: And and it's been another it's always been weird stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, like the Okay, guy lands and you're you're
Speaker 1: nervous about the pains. You're gonna take it slow for
Speaker 1: a couple of games. Okay, that's fine. Now you have
Speaker 1: this doma old thing. You know, you're nervous about having
Speaker 1: to play through pain for most of the seasons. You
Speaker 1: decide to give it a rest. Okay, that's cool, that
Speaker 1: makes sense. You get in the physical altercation with a
Speaker 1: with a nobody on the pistons and get yourself ejected
Speaker 1: for a game, and then here comes to the COVID thing.
Speaker 1: It's like, man, it's like he just can't catch a
Speaker 1: break in terms of staying on the floor and building
Speaker 1: his own rhythm. And I don't think we're gonna You know,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of people this past a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks who have gone out of their way to
Speaker 1: bring back the whole is Lebron washed card I'm sure
Speaker 1: you've seen seeing that stuff all over social media and like,
Speaker 1: look like he might be. But hell if I know,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen the dude on the court, like, I like, seriously, like,
Speaker 1: I mean, he might be washed. I don't know what
Speaker 1: to tell I don't think he is. I I think
Speaker 1: that he'll if he can manage to stay on the
Speaker 1: floor for a couple of weeks in a row, he'll
Speaker 1: look like an MVP candidate again. I just I just
Speaker 1: don't think he's reached the point physically where he can't
Speaker 1: do that anymore. I think this is a thousand percent
Speaker 1: related to conditioning and rhythm, because the damn, the damn
Speaker 1: a never ending list of roadblocks that have knocked him
Speaker 1: off the court here, you know, every other every other game.
Speaker 1: So it's it's just I'm not worried about Lebron and
Speaker 1: in any respect, but man like I just again, just
Speaker 1: when he's out there, he needs to understand what the
Speaker 1: team needs from him. And on this team, they the
Speaker 1: whole point of this offseason, the whole point of bringing
Speaker 1: in all those shooters, was trying to recreate braun ball, right,
Speaker 1: trying to recreate the spacing that guys like Russ and
Speaker 1: Lebron have thrived in over their whole careers. And until
Speaker 1: they lean into that identity instead of having the same
Speaker 1: shot profile that you that you have when you when
Speaker 1: you have no spacing, that's the part that's driving me insane.
Speaker 1: It's like you you went this route to try to
Speaker 1: make it easier for you to get to the rim.
Speaker 1: And I'm not even seeing him look at the ring
Speaker 1: in these games. Like it's like it's it's not all spacing,
Speaker 1: it's not all conditioning, it's not all rhythm. He's got
Speaker 1: matchups against the guys who cannot guard him with an
Speaker 1: opportunity to get into the paint, and he's just not
Speaker 1: looking there. And if you want to tell me, hey,
Speaker 1: he's ramping up. That's fine. I hear you, and I
Speaker 1: get that. That's probably what That's probably what his reasoning is. However,
Speaker 1: this team is not good enough for him to do that.
Speaker 1: This team is not good enough for him to kind
Speaker 1: of just trick trick his way through the season until
Speaker 1: late March and then be like, Okay, time to get
Speaker 1: This team is not good enough and the West is
Speaker 1: too hard and they're going to find themselves behind the
Speaker 1: eight ball if he doesn't start to understand what this
Speaker 1: team needs from him. I have seen in the last month.
Speaker 1: I have seen Russell Westbrook wake up. Russ looks fantastic.
Speaker 1: In the last week and a half or so, seeing
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis wake up. Anthony Davis looks fantastic. Lebron needs
Speaker 1: to join them. There he has to. He just has
Speaker 1: There's the I can't go into it any further than that.
Speaker 1: He just has to. Yeah, Lebron is not a guy.
Speaker 1: I guess I worry about that kind of stuff, Like
Speaker 1: I guess if Russ is going and if Lebron's your
Speaker 1: biggest worry, then I think you're doing fine. He was
Speaker 1: nine for twenty three tonight, which is just not a
Speaker 1: normal thing. You see from Lebron usually eight threes to
Speaker 1: for eight from three to me, I think the team
Speaker 1: needs his defense just as much, though, like you talked
Speaker 1: about the absolutely they brought on all these scores, all
Speaker 1: these shooters, brought in Russell Westbrook as well, right to
Speaker 1: take some of the offensive load. They need him defensively,
Speaker 1: especially we're gonna play these lebron As center lineups for
Speaker 1: only going once. Enter like he has to be engaged
Speaker 1: on that end, and sometimes you just don't see it.
Speaker 1: Again with the Hardenstein lineups got to the rim too,
Speaker 1: He's like he needs to be the back line guy
Speaker 1: and needs to be engaged on on that end for
Speaker 1: this team to have a chance. And I keep saying
Speaker 1: that might be unfair for a guy in year nineteen,
Speaker 1: but that's how the roster is well haveing three stars
Speaker 1: and a team full of minimum players. The other two
Speaker 1: minimum guys are Thhd who just turned twenty one a
Speaker 1: couple of days ago, and Kendrick Nunn, who hasn't played
Speaker 1: a minute on the floor. Everyone else is a minimum player,
Speaker 1: every single other player league Monk as great as he
Speaker 1: is a minimum guy. Carmelo Anthony in the late stage
Speaker 1: of his career minimum guy. You need your three stars
Speaker 1: had to carry the load on both ends. It's just
Speaker 1: how it is. I think a D like you talked about,
Speaker 1: has has met the moment as he should. He's the
Speaker 1: twenty eight year old in his prime, Like this is
Speaker 1: what he should be doing. I think Russ, Yeah, Adi
Speaker 1: looked awesome tonight. And I think that's the biggest positive
Speaker 1: to take from the team from the last few days.
Speaker 1: Is a D and Russ especially has picked it up.
Speaker 1: Russ only ten points to nine, only eight shots, um.
Speaker 1: I think that was just a factor of him again
Speaker 1: in the lineups, and I think some of that was
Speaker 1: just the Clippers are really good at taking away the
Speaker 1: rim uh and something I was settling. All that was
Speaker 1: kind of mixed in there. I would have but for
Speaker 1: the most part, Ustles looked good in the last few weeks.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Lebron, I think Lebron, I don't really worry
Speaker 1: about that kind of stuff. I worry about it more
Speaker 1: on the defensive end, because I don't think this is
Speaker 1: a team where he can coast on that end and
Speaker 1: they'll be fine. I'm not worried. I'm just annoyed. Like again,
Speaker 1: like dude, like like I I just hold this guy
Speaker 1: to a different standard, I guess than than like man
Speaker 1: like like I I know it's in there, like I
Speaker 1: I there's a version of tonight's game where Lebron is
Speaker 1: still rusty and where his conditioning is still poor and
Speaker 1: he still leaves some of his jump shots short, but
Speaker 1: he gets to the rim four or five additional times
Speaker 1: because the opportunities are there, and they score a certain
Speaker 1: amount of points on those possessions, maybe seven eight, seven
Speaker 1: eight points, and you win this basketball game. Like like,
Speaker 1: that's that's the way that I look at it. And
Speaker 1: that's the thing that I can't like, that's the thing
Speaker 1: that I can't ignore here, Like I can't. I I am.
Speaker 1: You guys know, I'm a Lebron fan. Like I. I
Speaker 1: think he's my favorite player. The dude got me into
Speaker 1: the game of basketball. I when he's at his best,
Speaker 1: I will be the guy singing his praises. But like
Speaker 1: they they just need more out of him than what
Speaker 1: he's giving. And and after that loss against the Kings
Speaker 1: a couple like a week and a half ago, he
Speaker 1: came out and said, I guess it was actually a
Speaker 1: week ago. I think it was last Friday night, but anyway,
Speaker 1: after the lost against the Kings, he goes, I have
Speaker 1: to find a way to be better for my team.
Speaker 1: And after that he came out against Detroit and he
Speaker 1: had exactly what I'm talking about, a game where he's
Speaker 1: still rusty, where he's still not in the rhythm, where
Speaker 1: his jump shot still wasn't really falling, but he was
Speaker 1: physically aggressive on both ends of the floor, and his
Speaker 1: team got to win, and they needed it from him because,
Speaker 1: as you remember, in that game, nobody on the damn
Speaker 1: team could shoot and we barely beat Detroit Um, but
Speaker 1: that was in large part because of Lebron and Nad
Speaker 1: and what they were doing on the on on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor, like they just and I had
Speaker 1: a good feeling about tonight because I thought we were
Speaker 1: trending in that direction, and and all night long up
Speaker 1: until the end of the third quarter, really bad process,
Speaker 1: a ton of settling, and that's that comes from the
Speaker 1: top down, that comes from Frank, and that comes from Lebron,
Speaker 1: you know. And and all of a sudden, you see
Speaker 1: Russ start putting his head down trying to get to
Speaker 1: the rim even when there's limited space, and voila all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, the Lakers look like a good basketball
Speaker 1: team again. It's like it's so not complicated to me.
Speaker 1: And this is the last thing I'll say, because we're
Speaker 1: getting here to the end, and I want to hear
Speaker 1: your you know, your two cents on this as well.
Speaker 1: But this is gonna bring it back to that initial point.
Speaker 1: Like the Clippers know what they're good at, they know
Speaker 1: who they are, and they lean into it. There's always
Speaker 1: Lukenard Marcus Morris in each corner. And here is Heartensteineryboka
Speaker 1: set high, scream or just spacing, and here comes Reggie Jackson,
Speaker 1: Paul George, Eric Bloodsoe trying to get downhill to the rim.
Speaker 1: And you know, maybe they give Paul George a little
Speaker 1: more leeway in terms of off the dribble shooting, but
Speaker 1: they just lean into their strains. And those guys like
Speaker 1: Canard Marcus Moore's they are gunning like they catch it's
Speaker 1: they're just shooting, shooting, shooting, And for whatever reason, we
Speaker 1: can't figure out that same formula. We can't figure out
Speaker 1: play our shooters. Get Lebron and a d and Russ
Speaker 1: going downhill, have them either finished at the rim or
Speaker 1: kicked to the shooters. That's our offense. Our offense is
Speaker 1: not playing a bunch of non shooters having Lebron and
Speaker 1: a d take step back jump shots, because if they
Speaker 1: do that, we will get out shot by other teams
Speaker 1: that are good at step back jump shots because that's
Speaker 1: what they're good at, that's their strength. Our guys are
Speaker 1: six ft nine, two hundred sixty pounds downhill basket attacker
Speaker 1: and six whatever pounds downhill basket attacker and the guy
Speaker 1: that everyone compares to the greatest power forwards of all time,
Speaker 1: that's our guys. We don't have James Harden on our team.
Speaker 1: We don't have Paul George on our team. We don't
Speaker 1: have finesse shooters on our team, so we cannot afford
Speaker 1: to play with the packed paint. When we do that,
Speaker 1: we are specifically undercutting what our our stars are good at,
Speaker 1: and we have to understand that concept. Yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: kind of where I'm at. Two. I'll think about this
Speaker 1: because when I was the game I believe was tied
Speaker 1: with six minutes left in the game. It was like
Speaker 1: six minutes left in the game. The game was tied,
Speaker 1: and we had all our guys out there. They had
Speaker 1: get their guys out there, and that's usually when Lebron decides,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to the basket, right, I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take who I want. I'm gonna get the matchup
Speaker 1: I want. I'm a matchup on I thought back to
Speaker 1: that Clipper game that we played right before the bubble.
Speaker 1: We're he pretty much just took Marcus Morris to the
Speaker 1: rim whenever he wanted. That's not really what we've been tonight, right,
Speaker 1: Maybe this is just this is an urgent game for
Speaker 1: us and not an urgent game from them. Maybe that's
Speaker 1: kind of how I'm trying to look at it as well.
Speaker 1: This is a ramp up time, and there were quotes
Speaker 1: coming out today Lebron said it's extremely frustrating that he
Speaker 1: hasn't been able to play four straight games. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's something as well to get him ramped up. But
Speaker 1: you're right, I would like to see them go with
Speaker 1: more facing. But I mean, to be fair, we kind
Speaker 1: of did at the end of the game, right. I
Speaker 1: believe they went to Carmelo and Malik Monk next to
Speaker 1: Russ Lebron and a D and I think the defensive
Speaker 1: issues were kind of and then we undercut that by
Speaker 1: double exactly exactly, and I would like to switch more there. Again,
Speaker 1: though I understand what Vo was trying to do. He
Speaker 1: doesn't want Paul George getting leaked monk on a one
Speaker 1: on one situation. And then Tyler and then really took
Speaker 1: advantage of that. They made Luke Anard the screener there.
Speaker 1: So if you trap As Lucarnard on ah that design
Speaker 1: out of the time, that was genius. It caught the
Speaker 1: Lakers with their pants down, which again is absolutely and
Speaker 1: then also the zone just made no sense to me
Speaker 1: zoning up with them having Marcus Morris, Lucas Lucarnard on
Speaker 1: the floor. Just going in the zone made no sense
Speaker 1: as well. Just a lot of stuff that That's the
Speaker 1: I guess the most frustrating part, and I guess we
Speaker 1: can close with this is these are all fixable stuff, right,
Speaker 1: It's none of this is like, none of this is
Speaker 1: stuff that they can't fix or again, there are roster
Speaker 1: roster issues to the to this team, there are deficiencies
Speaker 1: at every on every level from every player. But a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff is fixable. A lot of stuff is
Speaker 1: stuff that they can control um and a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff that should trend upwards that the season goes here,
Speaker 1: Lebron is eventually going to get into rhythm. That's just
Speaker 1: what we've seen the last twenty years or whatever. Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook seems to have picked up. Anthony Davis looks like
Speaker 1: the top five guy that we've been begging for all years.
Speaker 1: That's stuff that is looking up. There are just marginal
Speaker 1: things that we need to change to get some of
Speaker 1: these losses into wins here. But tonight it was a
Speaker 1: close game, like you throw away, how frustrating it was
Speaker 1: Marcus Moore's banked in the three to put them up six,
Speaker 1: doubling off Lucarnard. But it was a close game against
Speaker 1: the team that's pretty actually solid, Like that's the that's
Speaker 1: the thirty thousand view. You always asked me the thirty
Speaker 1: thousand ft of view view of this. That's the thirty
Speaker 1: ft view right take away how we lost. It was
Speaker 1: a close game against a good team. There's a lot
Speaker 1: and with a lot of bad process mixed into it.
Speaker 1: So that's where I'm kind of with this. If you
Speaker 1: can win against Boston that kind of maybe it can
Speaker 1: help with this. Boston is another good team. I think
Speaker 1: they played a good game against Utah tonight. But that's
Speaker 1: where I guess this team moves on to is continuing
Speaker 1: to find who they are, and I think it's playing
Speaker 1: the shooters. I don't think again, I don't think plus
Speaker 1: minuses everything. But Wayne Ellington me in a plus twenty
Speaker 1: in a game we lost by you know, six or seven.
Speaker 1: I think that that tends towards something that tells you
Speaker 1: something with how the game went. So hopefully we put
Speaker 1: in some different lineups in the next game. But there's
Speaker 1: no one fix here, but there are fixes to be done.
Speaker 1: I guess it's my final saying on that. Well, this
Speaker 1: is why I need Rog. I need Rog because he
Speaker 1: is capable of bringing the positivity. Um. You know it's
Speaker 1: ironic because I feel like I used to be like
Speaker 1: or a Laker optimist, but this team has This team
Speaker 1: has stressed me out more than any basketball team that
Speaker 1: I've ever watched, because I have never seen a team
Speaker 1: this is like, this is you know what, this is not.
Speaker 1: This is not the two thousand thirteen Lakers. This is
Speaker 1: not Steve Nash is actually washed, Dwight Howard has a
Speaker 1: bad back, and Kobe is stuck with the entire workload.
Speaker 1: That's not what this is a this this is Lebron obviously,
Speaker 1: the only wrinkle that I'll really toss you, even aside
Speaker 1: from all the other line up stuff, Even aside from
Speaker 1: all the guards swapping, of all the you know, Trevor
Speaker 1: rees that injury, everything, Lebron's inability to stay in the
Speaker 1: lineup has been the only excuse I would toss this
Speaker 1: team that would actually justify how poorly they've played, and
Speaker 1: when he's played there seven and five against the dogshit schedule.
Speaker 1: The point is is that this team has a player
Speaker 1: in Lebron who is very much, even in his limited state,
Speaker 1: a top ten player, and Anthony Davis who is trending
Speaker 1: up towards being in the conversation as a top five player,
Speaker 1: and Russ looks great. We can't be this bad. We
Speaker 1: can't be this bad. It's it is confounding to me.
Speaker 1: But anyway, guys, I'll get off my soapbox again. I
Speaker 1: I'm thankful for Raj because I need him to counterbalance
Speaker 1: some of the negativity that I've been bringing to the
Speaker 1: pod lately. Um. But so we're heading into a funky
Speaker 1: stretch here because we have three straight days off. The
Speaker 1: Lakers don't play again until Tuesday. UM, I'm thinking so
Speaker 1: I'm golfing in a charity golf tournament tomorrow, So Rog,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking maybe Sunday morning we'll get together and do something.
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll touch on the we got large at that
Speaker 1: point because we've been talking Lakers endlessly. UM, and then
Speaker 1: we will be back for our normal uh post game
Speaker 1: show on Tuesday. No dash radio for this one since
Speaker 1: it's a Friday, but this will be on our podcast
Speaker 1: feed here in about twenty minutes. As always, I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate your guys in support. I know Roger just too.
Speaker 1: We haven't blown away by how many of you guys
Speaker 1: have been hanging out with us after these games and
Speaker 1: and and rocking with the pods. So I just want
Speaker 1: to extend my gratitude to all of you guys, and
Speaker 1: I look forward to being able to record again with
Speaker 1: Roj on Sunday. Thanks everyone appreciate coming out on a
Speaker 1: Friday night.