Speaker 1: M. Welcome to the State of the Lakers post game
Speaker 1: show presented by DASH Radio. Jason is out tonight, but
Speaker 1: I'll be here. After the Lakers played the Dallas Mavericks. Wow,
Speaker 1: what a game. Still trying to come down from that
Speaker 1: emotional roller coaster. This team hates us right like that.
Speaker 1: What a what an up and town back and forth game.
Speaker 1: But the story tonight, I had a bunch of things
Speaker 1: I wanted to get to. I'm not gonna go too
Speaker 1: long tonight. I was gonna keep it kind of short.
Speaker 1: But this is the Austin Reeves game. I think I
Speaker 1: have to start there. And I'm gonna try some new
Speaker 1: things with this space. Uh and and might look a
Speaker 1: little weird. I'm gonna try to share some tweets in
Speaker 1: here and try to go over some place I saw.
Speaker 1: So if it looks kind of weird, I'm sorry, but
Speaker 1: I'm a kind of experiment a little bit. But Austin Reaves, Man,
Speaker 1: what a game from the kid. It's been building this
Speaker 1: way right And Marion Vader, who for the Ringer, just
Speaker 1: wrote an amazing piece and I recommend everyone to go
Speaker 1: read that kind of shows where Austin comes from and everything.
Speaker 1: But man, to step up like this to defend the
Speaker 1: way he did. Every Bradley got bent Frost and Reeves
Speaker 1: probably was getting cooked by Jillian Brunson. Tonight he went
Speaker 1: to Austin Reeves and Reeves stepped up. Brunson still was
Speaker 1: able to get to the basket a little bit, was
Speaker 1: still able to score, was still able to create, but
Speaker 1: his defense being at this level, and that's kind of
Speaker 1: where I'm gonna start with this in my notes, because
Speaker 1: it's just not normal. It's just not usual. And you know,
Speaker 1: he went undrafted, and I know the Pistons could have
Speaker 1: selected him, but he chose, but he still went undrafted.
Speaker 1: Right if the Pistons liked him so much, Austin Reaves
Speaker 1: would be a Detroit Piston. They still let him get
Speaker 1: past get let let him get past him and come
Speaker 1: to us. And his defense is just absolutely incredible to watch.
Speaker 1: He has verticality on drives. His physicality still is in there.
Speaker 1: That's his one weakness, right, but he's just ahead super
Speaker 1: high basketball I Q on both ends, and you really
Speaker 1: saw it tonight. I thought the Mavericks trying to go
Speaker 1: at him a little bit. Again, his body isn't there,
Speaker 1: but he's just in the right spots every single time,
Speaker 1: and it just looks like he connects with our big three, right.
Speaker 1: It just looks like it's a smooth transition. And his
Speaker 1: threes were going tonight. They said on the broadcast he's
Speaker 1: shooting like thirty one from three or something like that,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't feel that way just because of the
Speaker 1: type of shots he takes. We had like four threes
Speaker 1: I think in that first half really picked them up
Speaker 1: when they needed it. He fits along rust right, he
Speaker 1: runs to the corner, he says, little pin screens. He
Speaker 1: just does all this stuff that you want from a
Speaker 1: guy that's playing next to three superstars. And you saw
Speaker 1: it tonight and they missed Taylan definitely defensively, but you
Speaker 1: just see kind of where he fits around. And I
Speaker 1: don't want to make this in Austin versus tailing thing,
Speaker 1: but he just did an awesome job. He was great
Speaker 1: as a screen as right as well. Tonight he continued
Speaker 1: the let me see if I can kind of post
Speaker 1: this in here, but he continued his short role passing
Speaker 1: with with Lebron and let's see if I can get
Speaker 1: this video onto their Alright, we're gonna experiment this, uh,
Speaker 1: if you guys can see the tweet in the in
Speaker 1: the space es basically Austin working uh with Lebron in
Speaker 1: the short role as a screener and he's a great
Speaker 1: job rolling to the open space. And tonight he did
Speaker 1: a nice job in the first half phase. More ms
Speaker 1: to lay up off of it, a d missed to
Speaker 1: lay up off of it. But there's just stuff that
Speaker 1: Austin does that's super basketball, a cute stuff that you
Speaker 1: just you just can't teach. Um. And I'm not sure
Speaker 1: people in there put a fire emoji if you can
Speaker 1: see the posts that I've posted in the Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: I think I see it up there now. But if
Speaker 1: you see the play up there and people listening on
Speaker 1: dash radio tomorrow or on the podcast, um, the video
Speaker 1: up on the space is basically just Austin coming and
Speaker 1: setting screens for Broun and Austin rolling to the short role,
Speaker 1: which is where you don't roll all the way to
Speaker 1: the you roll to the open You rolled to the
Speaker 1: open spot and it just works really great with Lebron
Speaker 1: Lebron obviously the pastor, uh Rob being a great pastor.
Speaker 1: It just with okay, and then I'm gonna try to
Speaker 1: share one more thing in here one second. Alright, Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe that's not working, but yeah, Austin's chemistry with with
Speaker 1: those three is absolutely undeniable. And I think his minutes
Speaker 1: is are going to continue to go up. Let me
Speaker 1: see how many minutes he played tonight. Yeah, so it
Speaker 1: doesn't show here, but I think he played around thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: He played both overtime. He played the full overtime, right,
Speaker 1: and it's just awesome to see a guy this young, undrafted,
Speaker 1: uh play the role he did. Man, he's he's he
Speaker 1: beat out every Bradley tonight to close and it was
Speaker 1: just cool to see. Man. I'll talk more about Austin
Speaker 1: little bit, and I want to move to Wayne Ellington. Man,
Speaker 1: I've been hoping that he starts. I've been parading for
Speaker 1: him to start. And this is not the way that
Speaker 1: I wanted Wayne to start, right Like, this is not uh,
Speaker 1: this is not how I wanted. I wanted to be
Speaker 1: through a COVID situation right where he had to fill
Speaker 1: in because of guys out for for COVID. But he
Speaker 1: was again, I thought he didn't make a shot. I
Speaker 1: believe until the fourth quarter he was over four. But
Speaker 1: there was just a bunch of good process stuff, right
Speaker 1: this RUSS got off to a good start tonight. I
Speaker 1: thought something I thought a lot of it was because
Speaker 1: we had the spacing. We had Avery Bradley, who's still
Speaker 1: a guy they don't guard, but we had Wayne Ellington
Speaker 1: running to corners and Russell was able to you know,
Speaker 1: attack one on one the in and out he will
Speaker 1: get to the rim, and he had a good start.
Speaker 1: He was getting to the basket. And Wayne just allows
Speaker 1: us to run some actions that I think we just
Speaker 1: aren't able to do with anyone else. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try to share it in the in the space here
Speaker 1: really quickly. One of the players that I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: but just using a guy that has a type of
Speaker 1: gravity and it's why I've paint so much for him
Speaker 1: to start because I think and tonight I thought the
Speaker 1: reason we lost tonight was honestly offensively to me. And
Speaker 1: I'll get more into that a little bit later, but
Speaker 1: let me see if I can share this into that. Okay,
Speaker 1: So if you see this, uh this post that I
Speaker 1: shared in the space and again for people listening on
Speaker 1: dash radio or on Spotify or Apple Music tonight or tomorrow,
Speaker 1: it's basically Ellington and a D in the corner right,
Speaker 1: and so it's an empty side corner, which means there's
Speaker 1: no one there except the two players who are running
Speaker 1: the action. And it's why it's a wide pinned down
Speaker 1: for Wayne Ellington and then run this a lot for
Speaker 1: th ht UM. They're on a lot for th HD.
Speaker 1: They rent it and they rent it tonight for Wayne.
Speaker 1: And the difference with Wayne is he's such a shooter
Speaker 1: that the big has to kind of step up on it, right,
Speaker 1: And when the big steps up, he hits it with
Speaker 1: a little pocket past to a D. And that's just
Speaker 1: the kind of actions I'd like to see them run more,
Speaker 1: and as Wayne gets more comfortable with the team, and
Speaker 1: I hope you guys can see the tweet in the space,
Speaker 1: but it's just a little wide pinned down. It's not
Speaker 1: something too complicated. It's just actions I would like them
Speaker 1: to run. Because in that second quarter we scored ten points,
Speaker 1: and that's we scored ten points with bron a D
Speaker 1: and Russ healthy, and that's just stuff that can happen.
Speaker 1: I think the reason we get on these offensive lolls
Speaker 1: as we go into isolation basketball, we go to non
Speaker 1: screen basketball, we try to post up a D post
Speaker 1: like we have offensive weapons that we can use. You
Speaker 1: can even throw Malik Monk into those kind of actions.
Speaker 1: But it's why I've been pleading for Wayne to start
Speaker 1: for so long because I just think good shooters will
Speaker 1: eventually well, good shooters will eventually get going. We saw
Speaker 1: that tonight, right, Wayne was over four to start, He
Speaker 1: had a he had his first three and the fourth
Speaker 1: I believe he airballed one lay, but then he hit
Speaker 1: the hit the one to tie, like good shooters are
Speaker 1: eventually gonna hit yuh. And it's why I've kind of
Speaker 1: been uh begging for that is defense is never gonna
Speaker 1: be great. They try to pick on him again tonight,
Speaker 1: but he fights right, And that's the that's the missing
Speaker 1: thing I think a lot a lot of times that
Speaker 1: we see is that guys like that are never really great.
Speaker 1: Because if Wayne Anton was a good defender, he's not
Speaker 1: on the minimum and he's not on the Lakers, right,
Speaker 1: And we look a lot at what a guy can't do,
Speaker 1: but this guy can legit shoot the ball. And I've
Speaker 1: always said this, go look around the league what shooters cost. Right,
Speaker 1: And we joke Luke Arnard is a really good player.
Speaker 1: He's come into his own. He's at sixty four million
Speaker 1: for four years. Like that's what shooters with a little
Speaker 1: bit of a handle of costs. Well, Ellington doesn't have
Speaker 1: the handle of Luke Nard. But I believe you give
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington enough movement shots like he can produce, that
Speaker 1: he can put up those kind of numbers. Four shots
Speaker 1: to me in three quarters of play wasn't enough. And
Speaker 1: you saw him when he started to get jumpers up,
Speaker 1: when he started to get shots up. He saw him
Speaker 1: getting a rhythm again, hitting pocket passes and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: He's never gonna be great, but I just thought tonight
Speaker 1: it was something, uh, this team desperately needed. And he
Speaker 1: came up big, came up big, and overtime and he
Speaker 1: just fits again. That Reeves, Uh, the Reeves Ellington kind
Speaker 1: of combo one us this game in my opinion, And
Speaker 1: the last thing on Ellington here, Sorry if I'm kind
Speaker 1: of rambling, but we won this game with the Ellington
Speaker 1: Lebron two man game like, that's what won this game.
Speaker 1: And I'm trying. I would try to get some more
Speaker 1: place here. It's kind of hard during the game to
Speaker 1: get them, but working this, working the kinks out of
Speaker 1: trying to share tweets and break it down at the
Speaker 1: same time. But we won this game with an Allington
Speaker 1: Lebron two man game, and that's been a staple of
Speaker 1: Lebron James basketball for many, many years. We saw with
Speaker 1: k CP, right, we saw it with to a greater
Speaker 1: version with Kyrie. Like small small guards who are defended
Speaker 1: by smaller players, teams don't want to switch it, right,
Speaker 1: That's why Dallas kept trapping. So they had Trey Berg
Speaker 1: trying to hide on Wayne Allington. He comes and sets
Speaker 1: the screen. Wayne Allington rolls out nicely. Wayne Alan has
Speaker 1: been setting these screens his whole career, right, because this
Speaker 1: is kind of what people do with shooters, said him
Speaker 1: as screeners, and he rolled off. They had to rotate
Speaker 1: ball moves, a d dunk, ball moves. Lebron comes down
Speaker 1: and gets a gets an animal that he misses. But
Speaker 1: when you just have shooters that you can put in,
Speaker 1: that situation changes it, right, because if that's Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: sitting the screen, Dallas can trap and they're not going
Speaker 1: to rotate out to Avery Bradley, right because they don't
Speaker 1: mind him shooting or even when it's Russ sometimes and
Speaker 1: I would like to see more Russ Lebron pick and roll.
Speaker 1: They still don't rotate um, they don't rotate out to
Speaker 1: Russ in that same way and putting Russ. Russ had
Speaker 1: a big three tonight as well. I want to give
Speaker 1: him credit for that kind of get into Russ a
Speaker 1: little more. But that's why I've been so big on
Speaker 1: Ellington starting. And it's not about Ellington, I guess, because
Speaker 1: Ellington is not a championship saving guy, right. And again
Speaker 1: the caveat tonight obviously is Luca Donches didn't play for
Speaker 1: the Dallas Maverick. So I'm not getting too excited about
Speaker 1: this win. But we're not really in position to be
Speaker 1: like picky about wins either. And Jalen Brunson, I mean,
Speaker 1: if I just started watching basketball today, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: you could have told me there's another guy better than
Speaker 1: this guy. You know, Jalen Branton absolutely came through and
Speaker 1: and delivered for his team. He looked, he looked awesome.
Speaker 1: I think he was ten out of he was ten
Speaker 1: for twelve or something like that. Uh for until like
Speaker 1: the late third or the way that Chilean Brnson killed
Speaker 1: us off pick and roll, but that's neither hard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I I like the Wayne Allenton starting man,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if this is will stay. This
Speaker 1: is what we were sold at Media day though, right
Speaker 1: we were sold Wayne Ellington starting with Trevor Reza and
Speaker 1: Brown and a d at the four or five. And
Speaker 1: I think that just open things up for us so much.
Speaker 1: And we saw it late how Lebron was able to
Speaker 1: play two man game with the shooter and you know,
Speaker 1: and that just looks so seamless. And then when you
Speaker 1: have Austin Reeves as well, being such a being such
Speaker 1: a great guy who can attack close out, it just
Speaker 1: fits so well. Austin makes passes that fit when you
Speaker 1: have a good offensive system around them. And again not
Speaker 1: to go back into Austin, but these are all kind
Speaker 1: of connected. And that's why I just want a shooter
Speaker 1: in there. I don't think Lie Monk is gonna be
Speaker 1: that guy, which is why I've never really paid for that,
Speaker 1: uh six one guard who's not known for defense is
Speaker 1: just there's no way on a vocal team he was
Speaker 1: ever getting the starting nod. But Wayne Allenton I thought
Speaker 1: could have a chance. And again tonight I didn't want
Speaker 1: this to be the situation where he starts just because
Speaker 1: of uh, COVID and hopefully those guys three people in
Speaker 1: in COVID protocols and all the all the people on
Speaker 1: the staff as well, Um, Phil Handy, I believe it's
Speaker 1: one of them. I hope they're all Okay, I hope
Speaker 1: they all you know, get get treatment or whatever they
Speaker 1: need to to come back healthy. But but yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was great to finally see Ellington with the starters,
Speaker 1: and it's just a identity shift. Ellington is not this
Speaker 1: representation of a championship, you know, changing player. He just
Speaker 1: represents what this team I think needs in that starting lineup. Okay,
Speaker 1: So the next thing I kind of uh after when
Speaker 1: after Allington, the next thing I kind of want to
Speaker 1: get into is Russ because I wanted to bridge those
Speaker 1: kind of together. Russ started the game I thought really well, Um,
Speaker 1: I thought his athleticism jumped off the page. You could
Speaker 1: just see it, right, you could see his burst there.
Speaker 1: And again with the starters, they weren't hitting shots great.
Speaker 1: It was still kind of it was still kind of
Speaker 1: ugly offense with Avery Bradley in the corners. But getting
Speaker 1: Russ off the good stars I think is important. I
Speaker 1: think him getting to the rim. I think him being
Speaker 1: able to attack early right, not playing a phone booth
Speaker 1: is so key for him. It gets him engaged as well.
Speaker 1: And there's questionable shot selection and that's gonna stay with
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook throughout this whole season. That's not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: But I think there's we saw we saw tonight. Just
Speaker 1: again it's it's all about process stuff for me, and
Speaker 1: we saw tonight what Russ works well with right, And
Speaker 1: I thought putting Russ next to Reeves and Allington, Rust
Speaker 1: does a lot of this where you'll just drive into
Speaker 1: the paint like that's his only goal. Really, it's just
Speaker 1: to get in the paint because he knows two defenders
Speaker 1: are eventually going to show up, right, and once once
Speaker 1: he gets in the paint, he's able to kick it
Speaker 1: out and he wants to kick it out right. And
Speaker 1: you'll see this a lot and sometimes you'll get stuck.
Speaker 1: And I hated the Rust DeAndre Jordan minutes. Honestly, that's
Speaker 1: just I don't like that fit. I don't like that pairing.
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan fits an archetype and I get it. He's
Speaker 1: a screen real big. I just don't like where he stands,
Speaker 1: like they'll rust, they'll run a Russ um a d
Speaker 1: pick and roll and sorry Russ DeAndre Jordan's pick and
Speaker 1: roll and DeAndre would just flash try to get you know,
Speaker 1: try to get a post touch or just stand in
Speaker 1: the way, and it just went. It just doesn't mean anything.
Speaker 1: Um So I just want to show this this next
Speaker 1: clip here in the in the space and so this
Speaker 1: is with Austin Reeves, and this is why I think
Speaker 1: Reeves and and Russ as well works so well. So
Speaker 1: this play start and if you can't see it again
Speaker 1: people listening at home on the podcast, I'll kind of
Speaker 1: try to explain to play the best I can. So
Speaker 1: basically this is just Russ, you know, this is off
Speaker 1: the screen roll. It's with DJ, but he's trying to
Speaker 1: get in the pain. And Austin Reeves starts this play
Speaker 1: setting a pin screen and that's that's what the Lakers
Speaker 1: usually do um on a lot of players, but Austin
Speaker 1: Reefs does this instinctually. He does it without it being called.
Speaker 1: So he's he's setting a pin screen in the corner
Speaker 1: there for Baysmore. But he realizes that Russ needs a
Speaker 1: passing lane, right, and this is stuff that you know
Speaker 1: you need around. You need guys who can kind of
Speaker 1: notice this stuff. A lot of players, what will happen
Speaker 1: is Russell get in the paint and he'll try to
Speaker 1: kick it out and there's two guys, there are three
Speaker 1: guys there like this is. But Reeves able is able
Speaker 1: to rotate right, like he rotates to give Russ a
Speaker 1: passing angle. You can even see his arm kind of
Speaker 1: pull out there to kind of show Russ like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going I'm going out here to get a three.
Speaker 1: He gets to open three and hits it right. And
Speaker 1: that's just stuff that is instinctual with Austin Reeves and
Speaker 1: it fits around a guy like Russ who's main objective
Speaker 1: again on offense is just to put uh two ft
Speaker 1: in the paint. And that kind of stuff, to me,
Speaker 1: is is so key to open things up for him,
Speaker 1: to get him going right too, to play into his style.
Speaker 1: And I think that's kind of what we have to
Speaker 1: lean to here. And again, sorry if I'm I'm rambling
Speaker 1: where just feels like I'm talking to myself, But that's
Speaker 1: just stuff we need to lean into to me this
Speaker 1: season and Reeves and Allington both represent that um in
Speaker 1: a way that a lot of players don't, and Reeves
Speaker 1: obviously the defense makes it otherworldly. It's like this is
Speaker 1: a coming out party, honestly, Like this is just tonight
Speaker 1: was a coming out party. Four three is plus the
Speaker 1: game winning three Like there's no hiding anymore. There's too
Speaker 1: much tape on it now, like there's too much film room.
Speaker 1: You can go back and and watch and just show
Speaker 1: all the plays. And again it's hard to get plays
Speaker 1: while you're watching the game, So I'll try to do.
Speaker 1: It's better in future pods, but there's just too much
Speaker 1: film where he helps, recovers, helps multiple efforts on the
Speaker 1: same play. And that's what this team desperately needs around
Speaker 1: around his superstars when it doesn't have that. And again,
Speaker 1: moving this on, because I think the main topic, at
Speaker 1: least from my mentions, and I think most people mentioned
Speaker 1: tonight was Anthony Davis right and eighty to me didn't
Speaker 1: look like himself. Um, it was again some lack of
Speaker 1: engagement stuff. And I talked about this with Van at
Speaker 1: a lot where when he's at the center position, it
Speaker 1: looks like he holds himself back. Um, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, trying to save himself, and he picked
Speaker 1: up two quick files, which I think, which I think
Speaker 1: hearted as well. It's tough to kind of say because
Speaker 1: the broadcast also was talking about something that I've I've
Speaker 1: kind of discussed, which you know, the numbers are all
Speaker 1: great for a D but there's just too many quarters.
Speaker 1: I guess where it goes. And he's just too talented
Speaker 1: to me to not have an aggression that I would
Speaker 1: like to see. But there's also stuff we can do
Speaker 1: better for him. But let me I'll guess. I'll start
Speaker 1: with like what I wanna see from a D because
Speaker 1: I thought tonight, defensively, I thought he was still fine.
Speaker 1: Plus minus obviously isn't an amazing status flawed in its
Speaker 1: ways in which every stat is. I think David's finished
Speaker 1: plus twenty one tonight, which if you told someone they
Speaker 1: would not have believed that, right, I think it was
Speaker 1: plus twenty one, Like that just doesn't match the film
Speaker 1: that you're watching. I think he does impact the games
Speaker 1: in ways that it's not as noticeable. Right, he had
Speaker 1: twelve rebounds tonight, um no offensive rebound, but the twelve
Speaker 1: defensive rebounds tonight. He fought on the board six turnovers,
Speaker 1: which is gonna get you know, plastered on on every
Speaker 1: on every wall if they lost, especially tonight, I thought
Speaker 1: a lot of them were just out of rust, turnover rust,
Speaker 1: not rust, having rust from not playing the last few games. Um,
Speaker 1: I thought that's what it turnovers are. There's still a
Speaker 1: lack of aggression that I that I that I I
Speaker 1: don't like because I think a d is just too talented.
Speaker 1: I think he has too much talent to go. I
Speaker 1: think he was like one for five a half time
Speaker 1: and the and the four mrs doesn't bother me. It's
Speaker 1: the five shots right, and Dallas trapped him on the
Speaker 1: catch as most teams do. And I'm still frustrated with
Speaker 1: the way we give a D post touches. Uh, Like
Speaker 1: tonight it was, you know, Lebron giving a DA post
Speaker 1: touch and then Russell Westbrook and Lebron kind of standing
Speaker 1: on the same area. So it's basically they trapped one
Speaker 1: pass away Reggie Bullock or whoever the next guy can
Speaker 1: defend two. And I'll try to get a film of that,
Speaker 1: Uh next time we do spaces and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But there's still stuff we can do a little better
Speaker 1: for him. But Yeah, there's just a I don't know,
Speaker 1: there's a lack of like, watch Westbrook come off of
Speaker 1: pick and roll right, watch when running when Westbrook's right
Speaker 1: right now every game rest has been right, but the
Speaker 1: Restrook comes out. It's high velocity, it's would choose, it's
Speaker 1: even if the even if the result isn't great. There's
Speaker 1: a there's an aggressiveness. Aggressiveness to it. Um, it's what
Speaker 1: I'd like to see from a D as well. And
Speaker 1: he thinks he's getting fouled at the rim and he is.
Speaker 1: He's not getting calls. Um, that stuff that he kind
Speaker 1: of has to has to play through, and I think
Speaker 1: he will. A D is too good, you know, his
Speaker 1: career been he has, He has too long of a
Speaker 1: career history to show that he's eventually getting right. And
Speaker 1: again he can sleep walking into twenty and twelve. The
Speaker 1: numbers are what they are, the paint points are what
Speaker 1: they are. But there's just stuff I'd like to see.
Speaker 1: And I think putting him in space is part of
Speaker 1: this and him learning how to you know, manage his body,
Speaker 1: manage the fouls because you could tell he's frustrated, right
Speaker 1: and it makes sense he's the main defensive cog, especially
Speaker 1: when Lebron you know, there was a lot of place tonight.
Speaker 1: I've thought, you know, in that second when the second
Speaker 1: quarter started, that was my next kind of thing to
Speaker 1: move after a D well closing on a D because
Speaker 1: my mentions every time I tweeted tonight was what's wrong
Speaker 1: with a D? You know a lot of other um
Speaker 1: things that I won't say on the podcast that that
Speaker 1: people said, like eight is gonna find his rhythm eventually.
Speaker 1: But you know, blaming everything on him is not fair.
Speaker 1: I think there's okay to have a reasonable expectation of
Speaker 1: your superstar. I think that's fair. I think there's stuff
Speaker 1: that he should obviously do better. Um, I don't think
Speaker 1: everything has to be occus to where it needs to
Speaker 1: be a perfect situation, like there's a give and take there.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think eighties eventually going to figure
Speaker 1: it out. It's just gonna it's gonna take some time.
Speaker 1: And he came back from an injury. You could tell
Speaker 1: again he wasn't himself. That was a lot of rust,
Speaker 1: but he fought through it. Hit you know, hit a
Speaker 1: big shot late on parsoning is it was like a
Speaker 1: dribble through step back midrange pull up jumper, beautiful shot
Speaker 1: that you know it's in his bag. I guess, oh
Speaker 1: last thing on my note, Sorry if I'm sorry if
Speaker 1: I'm jumping around here. There's a play tonight where A
Speaker 1: D got the inbound. I wish I got the film
Speaker 1: of it. He was gonna give it to Russ, but
Speaker 1: I think Russ was like getting overplayed and he just
Speaker 1: dribbled it up the floor. And then Russ came in
Speaker 1: said a step up screen, which based just a screen
Speaker 1: when when the guys dribbling up and eighty was able to,
Speaker 1: the guard had to make a decision, and eighty got
Speaker 1: to the got to the mid range, pulled up. The
Speaker 1: guard was leaning on him and he got fouled and
Speaker 1: drew fout. That was the only play tonight I believe
Speaker 1: for a D brought the ball up, you know, and
Speaker 1: to me like that like represents to me again, it's
Speaker 1: not eighties fault. It's not the team's fault. It's just
Speaker 1: stuff that I see that I feel like we can adjust,
Speaker 1: like that stuff where A D is just too good,
Speaker 1: too talented to me to limit him into the role
Speaker 1: that we have him, which is into a straight up
Speaker 1: post up guy. Or straight he's a great screen role player,
Speaker 1: but just straight screen and roll like, there's stuff I
Speaker 1: would like to see more where let a D bring
Speaker 1: the ball up, let him come up, let him in
Speaker 1: and out, dribble a big who's who's backpelling like, let
Speaker 1: him free him up to do some of that stuff.
Speaker 1: And he's never gonna be honest, right he doesn't have
Speaker 1: the like the body or the you know, the body
Speaker 1: of the honest where he just or defenders, bump off
Speaker 1: and like that. But to me is handled like should
Speaker 1: be right there. Again, the thing about a D grew
Speaker 1: up as a guard right has all those guards skills,
Speaker 1: put them to use. There's no reason for a D
Speaker 1: to just be back to the basket big That plays
Speaker 1: right into his worst skills, right Like, it's just not
Speaker 1: into what he does well. So that's the last thing
Speaker 1: on a D. I think a D will um. I
Speaker 1: think a D will eventually figure it out as we
Speaker 1: go here. It's just we have to have some patience
Speaker 1: with him. I guess, um, I guess as as he
Speaker 1: tries to uh knock the rust off, and I think
Speaker 1: he eventually will. We just have to we have to
Speaker 1: give him some time, Okay, I think the let me
Speaker 1: see the last thing I wanted to I guess talk
Speaker 1: about here. The team has won three games in a row,
Speaker 1: and it's not it hasn't at all been pretty um
Speaker 1: this team is. This team has given us a lot
Speaker 1: of up and downs and it's been annoying. But I
Speaker 1: think I'm starting to see some good process stuff here
Speaker 1: that we can build off of. I think the Austin
Speaker 1: Reef stuff is real. I think him playing more minutes
Speaker 1: is going to happen, and I think that helps this team.
Speaker 1: And if we can get Trevor reesa backman. And I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to sound like some you know, just unrealistic
Speaker 1: optimists here because I watched I try to watch all
Speaker 1: these games. I try to look at it from you know, unbiased,
Speaker 1: which is impossible to look at it from unbiased opinion,
Speaker 1: but try to look at things that we're doing well man,
Speaker 1: And tonight, like to me, if you know, Russ and
Speaker 1: Braun are going out the way they were, and Lebron
Speaker 1: was great. I even I don't think I even got
Speaker 1: to Lebron really tonight. I think Lebron just been consistent.
Speaker 1: Most people who fall on their agnicle like that don't
Speaker 1: don't even walk for like, you know, a couple of hours.
Speaker 1: Let around, go back and do you know dunk Cotton
Speaker 1: tests while the ball is dead. But Lebron was. Lebron
Speaker 1: was awesome tonight. I just think there's process stuff and
Speaker 1: I want to give it some time. The trade request
Speaker 1: or you know, the trade rumors like those two those
Speaker 1: are two those two me are so far out of
Speaker 1: what this team is. And another just good process note
Speaker 1: tonight to me is like Austin Reeves needs to play
Speaker 1: like I love, you know, I think THHD is great.
Speaker 1: I think his defense is a big part. But Rous
Speaker 1: is not that far off defensively. He doesn't have the
Speaker 1: physical tools, but his defense is right there. I think
Speaker 1: when the reason gets back as well, I don't think.
Speaker 1: I don't think Avery Bradley will be the starter. Like
Speaker 1: there's good process stuff that I'm seeing. We got Russell
Speaker 1: Lebron to come through. I believe in these last few
Speaker 1: games if we can just get a d to add
Speaker 1: to that. We were up thirty three to twenty three
Speaker 1: in the first quarter and just let it all go.
Speaker 1: Lebron played the five in the second quarter. Lebron was
Speaker 1: not trying to rotate and I've always said, we can't
Speaker 1: play Lebron at the five if he's not if he's
Speaker 1: not engaged defensively, and I thought tonight he wasn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for a lot of this game, I thought that run
Speaker 1: they went on a fifteen run that second quarter. We
Speaker 1: had Lebron with all bad defenders that you know, to
Speaker 1: give him credit like we had I think Ellington. I
Speaker 1: think we had Carmelo as well out there, but like,
Speaker 1: we just can't play small if all those guys aren't engaged.
Speaker 1: And I thought that brought it back and we're not.
Speaker 1: This isn't like a super happy when you know, the
Speaker 1: MAVs didn't have a superstar player tonight, an m VP
Speaker 1: candidate type guy Luca Donchers was on the bench. But
Speaker 1: I'm still seeing good process stuff from the team, and
Speaker 1: that's basically what I kind of want to keep it
Speaker 1: at with this. It's been so negative, the talk around
Speaker 1: the team has been so negative, and I kind of
Speaker 1: wanted to, uh to lift the kind of spirit up,
Speaker 1: spirits up a little bit. I'm optimist in just my
Speaker 1: my general sense, but there's there's good process stuff here.
Speaker 1: So I think I've been going around half an hour.
Speaker 1: I'm going to try. I've been just rambling. It feels
Speaker 1: like I'm in front of like a class and talking.
Speaker 1: Let me, I'll bring some people up here. Um, if
Speaker 1: you want to come up request, I'll try to bring
Speaker 1: up people for the for the final half hour here
Speaker 1: trying to come up man, and just gonna see me Jonathan,
Speaker 1: what's up? Man? It was fucking hear me. I can
Speaker 1: hear you. What's up? Bro? Much? Man? How you doing? Brother?
Speaker 1: Doing all right? Emotional game right? So I'm cool, man.
Speaker 1: I just want to touch basis on some of the
Speaker 1: points you made. Man. Hey, I see you learn how
Speaker 1: to pin the top two man trying, But yeah, I
Speaker 1: think Wayne need more minutes. Man, that'll play. That stuck
Speaker 1: out to me. They had like a fast break two
Speaker 1: on one. He hustled back to like slap it out
Speaker 1: of bounce. Oh my, that right there, that's solidified. I
Speaker 1: don't know what Frank doing after that. Man, you gotta
Speaker 1: put him out there. Um, and the thing too. I
Speaker 1: want to took the A D thing. Man. I'm at
Speaker 1: the point where I think he don't want to play
Speaker 1: the five. We just need to scrape that, get him
Speaker 1: at the four and do what you were saying as
Speaker 1: far as like letting them bring it up, like play
Speaker 1: it to letting him, you know, if he wants to
Speaker 1: play like he thinks he's youngest or you know, a
Speaker 1: three guard or whatever. I've seen a quote and I
Speaker 1: don't know if it was true, but it was about
Speaker 1: him saying he want to play the three more or
Speaker 1: something like that. I don't know if that was the
Speaker 1: true quote, but that was I don't think that was.
Speaker 1: I kind of think he feels that way, bro, like
Speaker 1: we have to let him play like that, resident beating
Speaker 1: it to him in the post, because I don't you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know what that what's going on with that,
Speaker 1: Like you know what I mean, I don't think he
Speaker 1: wants to play the five like that. I think it's
Speaker 1: so he's saving himself or whatever. So we just gotta
Speaker 1: let a D B A D at this point, is
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Well, I mean, there's no
Speaker 1: think they're A D has been very clear about this,
Speaker 1: has been very clear that he doesn't want to play
Speaker 1: the five until it matters, right until the playoffs are
Speaker 1: in big games or whatever. But this team just can't
Speaker 1: survive that, Like they need him at center and they
Speaker 1: just don't need him at center. They need him engaged
Speaker 1: fully as the defensive Player of the Year candidate he is,
Speaker 1: and to his credit to me, he's been that on
Speaker 1: defense a lot. It just doesn't look pretty all the
Speaker 1: time because defense isn't pretty right when you're fighting or
Speaker 1: you know, fighting for rebounds download like that's not fun.
Speaker 1: I'm sure a D is tired, especially when you have
Speaker 1: guards that aren't don't do that instinctually like Reeves is.
Speaker 1: That's why Realves should play. To me, is he's a
Speaker 1: guy that instinctually goes down and fights for rebounds and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But our guards don't really do that.
Speaker 1: So it really leaves a D and and Lebron and
Speaker 1: Russ to kind of shoulder a lot of that. And
Speaker 1: you could tell it's getting him fatigued as well. He
Speaker 1: looks tired earlier in games. He looks like he's resting
Speaker 1: on offense a lot of times. So you just you
Speaker 1: just see stuff like that. And and man, I've been
Speaker 1: preaching the way now and stuff forever now. I've been
Speaker 1: preaching that he should start again. This is not the
Speaker 1: situation I wanted him to start, but this is, uh,
Speaker 1: this is kind of what I expected from it, just
Speaker 1: especially late game, right Lebron had someone who pass too,
Speaker 1: Like Lebron had a shooter to find um and I
Speaker 1: thought in a shooter to work two man game with
Speaker 1: and a shooter to just you know it was it
Speaker 1: was nice, man, It was. It was cool to see
Speaker 1: see uh, see him get minutes and see him come
Speaker 1: through as well. Yeah, I agree, man, real stuffed up
Speaker 1: big man man reads that was that's a steal man
Speaker 1: that that's crazy that dude. But here Wayne, he gotta
Speaker 1: get more minutes. Man, it ain't evitable now push with
Speaker 1: the way everything is going. But yeah, a d is
Speaker 1: gonna coach man. And then another point, I was making
Speaker 1: some people to um, you brought up the reason and
Speaker 1: returning right like I was telling somebody. I was telling them,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm not counting the reason to come say
Speaker 1: this season him or none, you know, come safe to see.
Speaker 1: But I look at a couple of things. We were
Speaker 1: fourth in the West right now right for like come
Speaker 1: on there, like as bad as just being we're right there. Two,
Speaker 1: we don't need a reason to come back and do
Speaker 1: too much, you know what I mean, we need them
Speaker 1: to come back. It's allows us it's the lineups, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. It allows us to do what
Speaker 1: we need to do. So yeah, I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know they were shorthanded, no, Luca, but we were
Speaker 1: turning a corner kind of I see for me or
Speaker 1: that's the way I think. You know, three wins in
Speaker 1: a row. I don't think we went through in a
Speaker 1: row all year. We had a I think we had
Speaker 1: a four game win trigger in the year. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think so. Um, but yeah, you're right, we haven't been
Speaker 1: winning though. It's when we're five hundred teams. This is
Speaker 1: kind of what it what it looks like you just
Speaker 1: win loss, win, loss, um. But yeah, good. It could
Speaker 1: be a stepping stone up man hoping. I feel that, man,
Speaker 1: But I'm only get out of her ride. Man. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you letting me come up and speak. Man, you
Speaker 1: know I'm always here, y'all. Keep anything you and Jason
Speaker 1: Man appreciate, appreciate you. All right, Let's see Joe are
Speaker 1: you there? Joke? Hear me? All right? I don't think
Speaker 1: Joe Desmond? What's up about? How's it going? See A
Speaker 1: couple of things just golf. You know what you guys
Speaker 1: have been talking about um, yeah, you know you said
Speaker 1: we can't really you know, look at uglier are good
Speaker 1: winds are right now anymore? And I think I think
Speaker 1: that's good. You know, we just gotta it's good that
Speaker 1: we're beating the teams are supposed to be beating. And
Speaker 1: I think that's the first step. You know, it's starting
Speaker 1: off from the beginning of the year. You know, losing. Okay,
Speaker 1: see you losing to the Kings and you know, doing
Speaker 1: all that stuff. You know, we should beat a Dallas
Speaker 1: team with you know, without Luca, we should obviously you know,
Speaker 1: be close to being in the even with Luca. So
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm happy for this point. I'm happy for
Speaker 1: the three. Get whittis shriek at this point. I mean,
Speaker 1: just getting confident, um with winning, getting confidence with closing lineups,
Speaker 1: getting confidence with Wayne Allanton and you know Austin Reeve's
Speaker 1: confidence right now is I mean it's gonna be. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be, you know, out the roof right now. I
Speaker 1: mean he's making playing really good defense, making shots um
Speaker 1: making passes that passed to Russ when he dripple left
Speaker 1: in that one hand, left handed past, I mean that's
Speaker 1: a lebroad past that buzz routies wouldn't be making So
Speaker 1: I mean, he's doing really good. And then I guess
Speaker 1: my next comment on on Frank, I mean, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be interested what he does when th HT comes back.
Speaker 1: I mean that last game when he rolled out th
Speaker 1: HT Lebron russ a d and uh, I forgot who
Speaker 1: the other person was, Avery Bradley. I mean that's just
Speaker 1: setting up for failures because I mean, you're you can
Speaker 1: literally have every defender with the foot in the paint
Speaker 1: and they're they're they're okay with whatever happens. So I'm
Speaker 1: I think I'm with you guys being aids got to
Speaker 1: start or rings just gotta start. Somebody has to start
Speaker 1: to where we feel some type of confidence going into
Speaker 1: our half court offense, fast break offense, whatever we're I
Speaker 1: think everybody feels good about that, but we were going
Speaker 1: to have court. We can't just have those that that
Speaker 1: that offense out there. And I'm a, uh, let you
Speaker 1: guys talk about that. Yeah, man, No, I agree with
Speaker 1: everything you're kind of saying. Reeves just fits right, and
Speaker 1: it's passing is there is legit and it's not like
Speaker 1: passing where you just give him the ball and haven't
Speaker 1: run after actions. But he knows what to do when
Speaker 1: the defense is closing out right, and he did a
Speaker 1: lot of that late as well. He doesn't get you know,
Speaker 1: he doesn't get stifled by you know, late game pressure
Speaker 1: or anything. He just understands how to play and it
Speaker 1: fits so seamless with Lebron. And I said this, you know,
Speaker 1: if you pods ago, it's no coincidence to me that
Speaker 1: him and Lebron have instant chemistry. It was no coincidence
Speaker 1: that Crusoe and Lebron have instant chemistry. Lebron connects with
Speaker 1: super high basketball like you guys. And it's not saying
Speaker 1: that other guys don't have great basketball like you, but
Speaker 1: it's just it's just different. When you can see how
Speaker 1: those two kind of can play off each other. It's
Speaker 1: funny Lebron had to play tonight where you try to
Speaker 1: hit Austin in transition, so like it was a fast
Speaker 1: break and uh, he threw Austin a bounce pass where
Speaker 1: I think Austin, you know, didn't didn't expect it because
Speaker 1: it's Lebron James in a in a freight train right
Speaker 1: coming down with the one on one advantage and Lebron's like,
Speaker 1: why don't you expect the pass? You see Austin like, well,
Speaker 1: you're right at the rim. I thought you would shoot it.
Speaker 1: So it's just funny to see their kind of relationship
Speaker 1: grow and and with Vogel Man. Vogel's got a lot
Speaker 1: of craft for the season. Like, I get it, I
Speaker 1: understand it. The lineups have them been great. The avor
Speaker 1: Bradley starting is just it is a just a representation
Speaker 1: of Vogel values, right, and every badly shoots enough jumpers
Speaker 1: that the efficiencies and great, but he shoots enough threes
Speaker 1: where you can kind of sell it Thhd again, the
Speaker 1: defensive potential along with the offensive ceiling. You kind of
Speaker 1: get it. But this team has a strict identity. I
Speaker 1: think that it needs to kind of move to and
Speaker 1: I think Vogel is starting to do that. Again, there's
Speaker 1: no easy answers here. I don't think any of these
Speaker 1: decisions are, you know, easy. I've always said that, um,
Speaker 1: it's going to be trial and error, and maybe the
Speaker 1: trials take a little longer than you want. Right, the
Speaker 1: errors have been We've seen a lot of errors and
Speaker 1: the trials have been the same. But it's starting to
Speaker 1: go up in my opinion, wins over Okay, seeing the magic,
Speaker 1: you know, that's not great. This Dallas team was playing better.
Speaker 1: They came in I think with a two game win streak. Uh.
Speaker 1: They beat the Hornets, who are you know, a pretty
Speaker 1: pretty good team. They beat them on the road by
Speaker 1: a lot. They're a solid team to me, even without Luca,
Speaker 1: they just play a solid They're not a good team,
Speaker 1: but they play solid basketball. So it's good to get
Speaker 1: this win. And where we can't be picky, but Den
Speaker 1: and I appreciate you coming up my guy. Yeah and
Speaker 1: shout out to the getting back to the top ten
Speaker 1: and defense. Yeah, absolutely, Joe, it's going on. Yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 1: Sorry about the poor connection first time. Hey, um, one
Speaker 1: of the things I notice towards the end of that,
Speaker 1: you know, the fourth quarter and over time, I noticed
Speaker 1: where and I don't know if Dallas's defense dictated it,
Speaker 1: but you saw where when they would inbound the ball,
Speaker 1: I thought Braun would just bring it up, but he
Speaker 1: would you know, constantly give it, you know, handed off
Speaker 1: the russ Um. Do you see that as him just
Speaker 1: trying to get Russ going or was it just dallas
Speaker 1: Is defense that dictated Braun doing that because I got
Speaker 1: nervous once Russ got the ball in his hand late
Speaker 1: in the you know, late in the quarter. But to
Speaker 1: his credit, you know, he didn't jack up at three.
Speaker 1: He you know, penetrated the inside and keep that pass out.
Speaker 1: But man, I'm I just I'm always watching Lebron and
Speaker 1: how he operates, and I'm just wondering if he saw
Speaker 1: that as a game to kind of build some trust
Speaker 1: and confidence in Russ with your with your idea on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, Dallas was definitely trapping Lebron on any kind
Speaker 1: of screen roll, and I think it's taxing for Lebron
Speaker 1: to be the guy who attacks every possession. You're right,
Speaker 1: he tried. He did try to give a couple of
Speaker 1: possessions to Russ. Russ are you know, frustrating at time player,
Speaker 1: But I mean I think when you kind of understand him,
Speaker 1: he's just trying to get to the rim and that's his,
Speaker 1: you know, main prerogative, and then try to find players
Speaker 1: outside of that. And sometimes in crunch time that looks
Speaker 1: ugly right field drive and it's like there's no help
Speaker 1: that was created and it's a turnover. But I thought
Speaker 1: Russ was pretty solid tonight, Like just overall, him and
Speaker 1: Lebron are starting to kind of build more and more
Speaker 1: chemistry upon transition. You see it a lot those two
Speaker 1: coming off the fast break, like that's that's what this
Speaker 1: team is supposed to do. Man, I thought we played
Speaker 1: way too slow as well. In the fourth quarter, those
Speaker 1: players are talking about where Lebron and Russ kind of
Speaker 1: take turns, like we're playing too slow. This team needs
Speaker 1: to run, and we're so different when we're running. But yeah,
Speaker 1: some of that, I'm not sure if Lebron is trying
Speaker 1: to just give the ball to Rust, but I think
Speaker 1: they try to share ball handling duties. They're both shock
Speaker 1: creator guys. But when it mattered, I thought Lebron took
Speaker 1: the reins like it was Ellington Lebron two man game.
Speaker 1: When this game mattered, when they needed baskets, it was
Speaker 1: him and Ellington's screen role. Uh, they played out of that,
Speaker 1: And I thought that's something again, another just tick on
Speaker 1: good process stuff that we can use because I think
Speaker 1: this team begs for it, especially with you know, a
Speaker 1: d at the struggling that he is, like just having
Speaker 1: a guy that creates an advantage in that way. And
Speaker 1: then again Austin reeves with the uh coming out party tonight,
Speaker 1: but his his game just overall fits that identity. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought I thought Russ was good though tonight I
Speaker 1: thought he I thought he created advantage. Um, I thought
Speaker 1: we missed a lot of open shots off his office
Speaker 1: advantage and he pushing in transition. I thought, is what
Speaker 1: got us up, you know, ten points in that first quarter.
Speaker 1: So I thought he was I thought he was good tonight.
Speaker 1: But he had some late turnovers for sure, But they're
Speaker 1: working it out. Like I think Lebron and Russ and
Speaker 1: a D. Stuff needs to needs time. And this is
Speaker 1: what Lebron's seventeenth game I think of the season. Um,
Speaker 1: eighties missed the last few, so the big three has
Speaker 1: probably played like fifteen or fourteen games together. So like this,
Speaker 1: it's gonna an time. But I thought we're seeing good
Speaker 1: process stuff in them. Yeah, and um, you know last thing,
Speaker 1: I'm just sitting here watching the Clippers in the in
Speaker 1: the Jazz and man, I'll tell you what. The Clippers
Speaker 1: small lineup is just carving up Utah and Utah. It
Speaker 1: looks like that full strength. So I just think we
Speaker 1: need to stay with what we're doing, man, But um,
Speaker 1: I'm starting to feel really good about the Lakers. Man.
Speaker 1: We just gotta get it together. Man. Yeah, they've lost
Speaker 1: the benefit doubt, right, So it's just like it's like
Speaker 1: game the game type of stuff. But yeah, you don't
Speaker 1: want to lose the bigger picture in that. Like again,
Speaker 1: they lost benefit the doubt to say that they're moving
Speaker 1: upwards and stuff, but that's just an optimist. I'm hoping
Speaker 1: they are. I see process stuff every game that kind
Speaker 1: of tells me that there's a good team in here.
Speaker 1: It's just gonna take a lot of trial and air
Speaker 1: to find it. Um, But you know, when you play
Speaker 1: Carmelo Anthony, I don't know how many minutes Carmelo Anthony
Speaker 1: played tonight. Um, let's see if I can try to
Speaker 1: check that, Uh yeah, twenty four minutes for comment Carmelo Anthony, Like,
Speaker 1: I'd probably like him in the in the fifteen minute range. Like,
Speaker 1: but it just that's just stuff with I hope when
Speaker 1: our team is healthy, like we have some better defenders
Speaker 1: and again Trevor Reasa putting our prayers and that it's
Speaker 1: probably unfair, but it's just kind of the stuff I'm
Speaker 1: seeing this that we can hopefully flip again when Kendrick
Speaker 1: Nun gets back as well, Austin Reaves being added to
Speaker 1: the rotation now as a legit two way a guy
Speaker 1: like that stuff. I'm hoping, uh lens for better success
Speaker 1: in the future. But Joe, I appreciate you man coming up. Hey, thanks, Rod,
Speaker 1: appreciate Uh. Penny Penny Are you there, Penny Penny Hardaway? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Can you hear me, I can hear you whatever. Hey, Hey, Roch,
Speaker 1: how you doing. I just want you to know I
Speaker 1: listen to you and Jason a lot. I appreciate the
Speaker 1: pot um listen to you guys like real glass half
Speaker 1: empty type of guys when it comes to the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of the opposite, you know, I'm kind
Speaker 1: of just believing in them just because of Lebron wanted anything.
Speaker 1: I kind of want to hear your opinion on just
Speaker 1: the end of game execution, like a d misses that
Speaker 1: three in the corner, and then in like um the
Speaker 1: two miss air balls by Bran then we live and
Speaker 1: die by Russell hitting that shot, then cleveblood history three
Speaker 1: because of a defensive breakdown. I just kind of want
Speaker 1: to hear your appearing on those situations and more of
Speaker 1: like when is it when is like we stopped kind
Speaker 1: of depending on what's gonna happen, and more of like
Speaker 1: the reality of the team, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know what to really expect because playoff times,
Speaker 1: you know, you talk about how bad spacing games and
Speaker 1: playoff comes and like it's a different game. The the
Speaker 1: um riffs, so I litter whistles the floor strings even
Speaker 1: more space and can get worse. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I really believe in rest when it comes playoff time.
Speaker 1: You see how he plays during the playoffs. I just
Speaker 1: kind of get your oppeion on all those things. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: those are all like million dollars questions, you know, like
Speaker 1: that's all stuff that a season is supposed to work out. Um.
Speaker 1: And I thought, you know, late game tonight, Lebron definitely
Speaker 1: took some like uh, you know, long threes or you know,
Speaker 1: like backbreaking threes where if it goes in, like it
Speaker 1: changes the whole momentum, but it misses it's it's like
Speaker 1: a bad shot, right, It's like one of those no, no,
Speaker 1: no yes type of shots. Took some of those. I
Speaker 1: thought we saw some late games stuff that we can
Speaker 1: go forward. Like I thought, the two man game between
Speaker 1: Ellington and Lebron is something that we'll see. It's stuff
Speaker 1: that Lebron. It's a staple right of Lebron's you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron's career. He loves those guard to guard to guard screens.
Speaker 1: It gets him the worst defender. It's mismatch hunting, which
Speaker 1: is what playoff basketball is all about. Lakers a run
Speaker 1: the playoffs fourteen months ago, it doesn't feel like you're
Speaker 1: fifteen months ago, and losing track of time doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like it. But go watch those games and again they're
Speaker 1: this roster is different, but the ideologies of the offense
Speaker 1: and the coaches the same, right, Like a lot of
Speaker 1: those are similar. Um to where you kind of look
Speaker 1: where we use we use ball screens with KCP. Now
Speaker 1: we're using ball screens for Wayne Ellington. Like that's all
Speaker 1: kind of stuff that I see late game, and I
Speaker 1: trust Lebron as well. Lebron is not the reason that
Speaker 1: I you know, I don't think I'm glass half empty,
Speaker 1: but but Lebron is not the reason that I kind
Speaker 1: of feel that way. I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff that this team has to build too. I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff where our coach and our
Speaker 1: actual identity is kind of still kind of a pull
Speaker 1: him uh, pulling away from each other at times. But
Speaker 1: I think they are going They're getting closer and closer
Speaker 1: every game. Like I thought tonight, again we went a
Speaker 1: D at the five, and I think that's what where
Speaker 1: we're best. And I think our defense was enough to
Speaker 1: win tonight. Honestly, I thought our offense was the issue.
Speaker 1: And again that's what you're talking about with the late
Speaker 1: game offense and that stuff that has to get worked out.
Speaker 1: We have to find where. I think Russ is starting
Speaker 1: to find little places like you saw Russ finding out
Speaker 1: where to cut right, and he's starting to become better
Speaker 1: as a cutter. He's starting to find places where to
Speaker 1: where to find open lanes when Lebron's posted and they
Speaker 1: you know, they zone up on Lebron and he finds
Speaker 1: ways to kind of cut in and that stuff you
Speaker 1: will see build. But those are definitely in question marks,
Speaker 1: Like Russ is not a shooter, and you have to
Speaker 1: put him in places where it works. I think a
Speaker 1: D has to become at least some kind of shooter
Speaker 1: for this team to get to the ceiling and needs
Speaker 1: to um and right now he's just can't hit a
Speaker 1: jump shot. But that's all stuff. I think our legitimate
Speaker 1: questions that that they'll work out. But I think Lebron
Speaker 1: two man game with a guard that can shoot, like
Speaker 1: those are all stuff you can use. And I thought
Speaker 1: tonight that's something we saw. That's that's good process hopefully
Speaker 1: going forward, going forward after you play more games here,
Speaker 1: all right, thank you? All right, just get to a
Speaker 1: let see if I can get to a few more here, Caleb,
Speaker 1: are you there? Yeah, you can hear me. I can
Speaker 1: hear you. What's going on? Bro Um? I just kind
Speaker 1: of wanted to ask about, um, how to better utilize
Speaker 1: a D specifically when it comes to him offensively, like
Speaker 1: every time, like we saw this starting with like the
Speaker 1: Bulls game, and like other teams have done it afterwards,
Speaker 1: like he's getting doubled on the catch. So like I'm
Speaker 1: just wondering, like, what are better ways that we can
Speaker 1: like utilize them in the offense, because like like Um
Speaker 1: after the first quarter, they were like, yeah, we want
Speaker 1: to get any out of rhythm, which seems to be
Speaker 1: you know a point of a lot of these teams defenses,
Speaker 1: so like, what's the what's the good way that we
Speaker 1: can get it involved. Yeah, so the Lakers first play
Speaker 1: almost every game without fail, and again it was tonight
Speaker 1: that they just didn't run any action. They just went
Speaker 1: to a straight a D post up, and to me,
Speaker 1: like those are kind of not wasted possessions, but like
Speaker 1: they just don't put a D in any kind of situation.
Speaker 1: So again the MAVs, it was I think Lebron throwing
Speaker 1: the post entry and it's like Russ and Lebron standing
Speaker 1: next to each other, So two guys can guard one, right,
Speaker 1: you have like Reggie Bullet guarding both of them. Adie
Speaker 1: gets doubled right away, kicks it out. I think the ballstone.
Speaker 1: I think a Bradley hit a three, UM, but again
Speaker 1: they were closing out late because it's Avery Bradley, so
Speaker 1: like it broadly hits the three. The defense kind of
Speaker 1: feels like they did what they could. UM. I just
Speaker 1: think like a D has put in a lot of
Speaker 1: positions where we play him as he is a center,
Speaker 1: but we play him as if his skill set is
Speaker 1: only a center. And some of this is also on
Speaker 1: a D to be more aggressive, and I think the
Speaker 1: player you know, holds some kind of responsibility, but I
Speaker 1: think like high screen role is probably where he should
Speaker 1: use be used best. I'd like him though, and I
Speaker 1: said this earlier, I like, I'd like him to get
Speaker 1: more ball handling stuff. I think it's like because Adie
Speaker 1: gets to rebound and he just right away looks for
Speaker 1: a guard to give the to give the past two,
Speaker 1: and I feel like he's too skilled, Like if Adi
Speaker 1: gets rebound like I want him to, like, I want
Speaker 1: to open stuff up, get him more like eight. You
Speaker 1: can push the basketball, like you can dribble like you
Speaker 1: know you're not some you know, slow footed big, You're
Speaker 1: not Steven Adams. Steven Adams takes three dribbles and the
Speaker 1: ball is gone right some guard has stolen it. I
Speaker 1: feel like a D has more skills than that. We
Speaker 1: don't use him in that way, but that's one way
Speaker 1: I think more screen roll. I think russ adies. We
Speaker 1: do weird things where like we'll have a D at
Speaker 1: the five with all shooters, but then we'll put like
Speaker 1: I saw tonight, like bays Moore in the dunker spot
Speaker 1: where dunkers was like right under the rim, which is confusing.
Speaker 1: We do weird stuff like that. But yeah, I think
Speaker 1: just more screen and roll, getting him more touches on
Speaker 1: the move, getting him facing up more against Biggs, Like
Speaker 1: I think that works to his advantage, giving the ball
Speaker 1: with the with his back turned like that's just not
Speaker 1: playing into his hands. You can see when he gets doubled,
Speaker 1: he's he reads, he reads the floor like second slower.
Speaker 1: And that's fine. I mean, he's so great at other
Speaker 1: things that it's fine. He's not a great pastor out
Speaker 1: of double teams and stuff, but it's just stuff that
Speaker 1: I would like to see more. I'd like to see
Speaker 1: him catch more with the ball facing the basket. I'd
Speaker 1: like to see him get more touches as a guy
Speaker 1: who can bring the ball up with more ball handling
Speaker 1: duties and stuff like that. But you know, this is
Speaker 1: the offense kind of we run and it's not pretty,
Speaker 1: but that's kind of what they're doing right now. But
Speaker 1: I think there's just so much more to eighties game.
Speaker 1: And again, he sleep walking to like twenty and twelve,
Speaker 1: so the numbers have still been amazing. He's still dominating
Speaker 1: the pain all that stuff. I just think there's more
Speaker 1: to it. But yeah, that's kind of what I would
Speaker 1: do and these are not easy stuff. This is not
Speaker 1: like I'm sure Vogel has his as his points about
Speaker 1: what he does, and I'm sure Adie has a way
Speaker 1: that he likes to play as well. But I just
Speaker 1: think Ade is more talented than we use him for.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I'm gonna close this one out. I appreciate
Speaker 1: everyone coming out here on a Wednesday night. This was
Speaker 1: a big win. Not big win, but a fun win.
Speaker 1: At least we got an Austin Reaves game winner, Austin
Speaker 1: Reaves coming out party. Uh. Hopefully we get a couple
Speaker 1: more Fune ones. The Lakers play him in a to
Speaker 1: on Friday. I'll be back. I'll be back for that one.
Speaker 1: But again, thanks for everyone for coming in and tuning
Speaker 1: in to this one. This will be up on dash
Speaker 1: Radio tomorrow. This will be up on the podcast feeds
Speaker 1: pretty soon. I hope everyone has a great night and
Speaker 1: happy Holidays to everyone here.