Speaker 1: Hmmm, Hey, everybody, welcome to the State of the Lakers
Speaker 1: postgame Space. Our inaugural space is first time ever. We're
Speaker 1: gonna try to record it as best we can get
Speaker 1: it out for a podcast after the fact. But you know, Rogers,
Speaker 1: I've been doing this for a while and locker room.
Speaker 1: Our goal is just to basically hash out everything from
Speaker 1: the game as fresh as we can, give you guys
Speaker 1: a chance to come up here and uh and complain
Speaker 1: with us. We'll start with just Roger and I going
Speaker 1: back and forth, just talking about what we saw, and
Speaker 1: then we'll bring you guys up to talk. Rog what
Speaker 1: was your where? What where's your frame of mind right now?
Speaker 1: How are you feeling overall? Well? I guess the first
Speaker 1: thing was the news about Lebron leaving the game, right,
Speaker 1: I feel like it didn't seem too serious. I didn't
Speaker 1: see where he he kind of he got hurt at
Speaker 1: but that was probably the biggest thing. And then obviously
Speaker 1: the play of Anthony Davis man his uh. I understand
Speaker 1: he needs to ramp up, right, he needs time to
Speaker 1: kind of get going here, but we're getting kind of
Speaker 1: late and it's obvious that him and the team especially
Speaker 1: just does not care right now about these games. There's
Speaker 1: just so little intensity. It has a preseason type of
Speaker 1: intensity to me, especially on the defensive end. And I
Speaker 1: think they're really starting to play with fire here. Um.
Speaker 1: And again, they have a long leash because of what
Speaker 1: they did last year in the in the playoffs and
Speaker 1: uh and that gives you kind of a lot of
Speaker 1: rope to work with. But they need to start building
Speaker 1: some chemistry. I think Lebron and a d what only
Speaker 1: played like twenty suning games together before he got hurt
Speaker 1: this year, and then that trio with Drummond they're trying
Speaker 1: to work out, which well, we'll discuss Drumming later a
Speaker 1: little bit, but uh, yeah, that's kind of where I'm
Speaker 1: at right now. This team is not playing well. It's
Speaker 1: could they do not play They do not care about
Speaker 1: these games. Um, you can just tell the way that
Speaker 1: they're they're defending, but it's you can you can critique
Speaker 1: the process, but this is what the process is right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think they quite understand the gravity of the situation.
Speaker 1: They're not a good Historically in Lebron's career, he hasn't
Speaker 1: been a good game one type of player, not that
Speaker 1: he's not capable of being good in those types of games.
Speaker 1: He's just he's a guy who likes to kind of
Speaker 1: ease his way into playoff series, really test out of
Speaker 1: defense and kind of see where the openings are and
Speaker 1: he peeks later in series. That's just kind of been
Speaker 1: his m and that's what makes the play in so
Speaker 1: dangerous is it takes away one of Lebron's biggest strengths
Speaker 1: as a basketball player, which is his mental advantage, his
Speaker 1: ability to make adjustments that other superstars do not make.
Speaker 1: That's one of his strengths. And by putting yourself in
Speaker 1: a plane setting, you open yourself up to, uh, to
Speaker 1: that type of a risk. And then to couple that
Speaker 1: with the fact that their defense looks like absolute dogshit
Speaker 1: right now, which, by the way, it's not something that
Speaker 1: clicks on overnight. It's one of the big reasons why
Speaker 1: they've struggled in game ones is they bring crap effort
Speaker 1: to start the series and then they kind of start
Speaker 1: to feel like their backs against the wall a little bit,
Speaker 1: and then they step up and start playing defense. But
Speaker 1: like with those two things together, you put yourself at
Speaker 1: risk and they're playing what happens tonight in a vacuum,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. They are better team than the Raptors. It's
Speaker 1: not a matchup thing. It's literally just them not bringing
Speaker 1: the requisite effort like the like, especially without O g
Speaker 1: in and no. But it's not like they had a
Speaker 1: bunch of wings to force Lebron in THEYD to work
Speaker 1: harder than usual as an effort problem, which in a
Speaker 1: vacuum doesn't matter. But when you look at the situation,
Speaker 1: that's when it becomes scary. I don't understand why they
Speaker 1: don't see the gravity of the situation. They're literally now
Speaker 1: as of right the second tied for the seventh seed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it would potentially be in a plan, right. You
Speaker 1: make a good point about that, and even just even
Speaker 1: looking back, even larger than just Lebron being able to
Speaker 1: adjust to a team like usually in a seven game series,
Speaker 1: the better team wins, right, Like for the most part
Speaker 1: seven game series, a better team will win out four
Speaker 1: to seven, you know, playing game like, Look, the Lakers
Speaker 1: are gonna be favorite in any playing matchup, but you
Speaker 1: never know in a two game, one game, one game sample,
Speaker 1: anything can happen. But I mean, it's just like all
Speaker 1: of us here, I feel like everyone listening pretty much
Speaker 1: that nobody wants to play the Clippers in the first round, right,
Speaker 1: But this Laker team obviously is betting on their health,
Speaker 1: and I don't think they see any of these West
Speaker 1: teams in some different tiers, like I feel like they
Speaker 1: they feel like they can just come in and play
Speaker 1: anyone and it's a dangerous, dangerous game they're playing here,
Speaker 1: but they just want to get themselves healthy. And you
Speaker 1: saw Lebron leave the game early here, which means next
Speaker 1: game they're probably going to be even more cautious. Um,
Speaker 1: and I just don't see them. Maybe tomorrow Denver gets
Speaker 1: their attention, but you just watch this team defend and
Speaker 1: they're just not locked in at all. That there's still
Speaker 1: eight full games left and that looks like a long
Speaker 1: road for them. I don't think they'll start picking up
Speaker 1: to like three or four games, and if they're really
Speaker 1: getting like into dangerous playing tournament, right, I think there's
Speaker 1: still like a game ahead or other tied with with
Speaker 1: Portland and Dallas right now. But if that, if that
Speaker 1: gets and less, maybe they'll start start really taking this serious.
Speaker 1: But it's it's clear that they're just trying to get
Speaker 1: to these healthy, just like they did in the bubble
Speaker 1: seating games, even though the situation and the scenings are
Speaker 1: totally different well, and the seating is totally up in
Speaker 1: the air because everyone's tied, like there are so many
Speaker 1: different combinations of different playoff matchups that might end up
Speaker 1: happening here, because if how clustered everything is, like Dallas
Speaker 1: and the Clippers very well might end up excuse me not,
Speaker 1: Dallas Denver and the Clippers could finish three or four,
Speaker 1: like either one of those are in play, Phoenix and
Speaker 1: Utah one or two, either one of them in play.
Speaker 1: All Dallas, Dallas and and Portland's and and l A
Speaker 1: are all tied like it could be anything. So you
Speaker 1: think at that point, understanding that so much is up
Speaker 1: in the air, they would at least just try to
Speaker 1: get their fundamentals and their identity really dialed in, because
Speaker 1: identity is what you lean on when you can't make
Speaker 1: adjustments when you are in a play in type of setting.
Speaker 1: If that's what they end up and they're gonna need
Speaker 1: to adjust on the fly, they won't have you know,
Speaker 1: a seven aim or to get all that stuff dialed in.
Speaker 1: But I want to talk about a d for a second,
Speaker 1: because this is getting really bad because everything else, you know,
Speaker 1: you could theoretically say, like, you know, if things are
Speaker 1: healthy and have all the guys are gonna be fine,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. But Anthony Davis looked like somewhere
Speaker 1: between the second and fourth fifth most best best player
Speaker 1: in the world when he was in the bubble. He
Speaker 1: doesn't look like that at all this year. And if
Speaker 1: you got my Twitter feed, it took a couple of clips,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to look at my clips. If
Speaker 1: you just watch these games, you can tell like he's
Speaker 1: he genuinely isn't engaged on that end of the floor,
Speaker 1: and that used to be his identity, that used to
Speaker 1: be his thing that he did primarily in his offense
Speaker 1: was kind of a cherry. On top of that, it's like,
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, that whole, the whole like facet of
Speaker 1: his game has been put on the back burner this season.
Speaker 1: And I think it's a problem because they actually need him.
Speaker 1: Like the Lakers defend with their guards and with frank
Speaker 1: and with effort and all this stuff, but their defensive ceiling,
Speaker 1: which is what they actually need to win the title,
Speaker 1: the stuff that will allow them to shut down the
Speaker 1: very best offenses. That's all Anthony Davis and abroad, and
Speaker 1: they need to actually get back to that level. Or
Speaker 1: a lot of this is spoken mirrors, and they're going
Speaker 1: to be in big trouble if they run into a
Speaker 1: good offense, right And we can look at all these
Speaker 1: like xs and o's and look at film and all that,
Speaker 1: but I'm not sure what you can look at if
Speaker 1: the effort isn't there, Like the Lakers are trapping all
Speaker 1: these ball screens, they're having drum And come up high
Speaker 1: and a D is the help man. He's the one
Speaker 1: that has to stop the role and get out to
Speaker 1: the shooters and he's literally just standing there. I mean,
Speaker 1: last game against Sacramento, Rashaan Holmes got whatever he wanted
Speaker 1: in the paint. And I'm just not sure what you
Speaker 1: can take out of any of this um going forward,
Speaker 1: Like what can bold we even look at? Like a
Speaker 1: lot of us like to create critique Andre Drummond a lot,
Speaker 1: but how how can I even tell if Andrew Drummond
Speaker 1: a D parents gonna work in the eighties, not you know,
Speaker 1: going at his full strength, And you said a D
Speaker 1: hasn't been a top ten player this year. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's absolutely true. He came into this season and Laker
Speaker 1: fans of game and you know, a big benefit of
Speaker 1: the doubt, and I think he still has a lot
Speaker 1: of it. He came in he wanted to go slowly
Speaker 1: through this season, and it was understandable have any one
Speaker 1: day off season. But the time is here like this,
Speaker 1: like he cannot be still sleep walking through these games.
Speaker 1: And it's but maybe that's what he's been told to
Speaker 1: do by the coding staff, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know, maybe they're telling him just stay cautious.
Speaker 1: But he's just not where he needs to be. And
Speaker 1: it's just tough to really like look at any of
Speaker 1: the exits and doesn't look at like what players are
Speaker 1: working or not if he's not engaged. Because the Lakers
Speaker 1: defense needs him to be a top I think he
Speaker 1: can be the second best player in the league. Like
Speaker 1: that's his ceiling in the playoffs and reached it a
Speaker 1: few times and he's nowhere, nowhere near that. So that's
Speaker 1: that's someone's concerning thing with this team. All the other
Speaker 1: stuff are so Anselar like under Drummond, He's not gonna
Speaker 1: to me. He's not gonna decide the Lakers title chances,
Speaker 1: right Ben mc lamore, all these other guys, Like it's
Speaker 1: on the stars, it's on those guys to get it going.
Speaker 1: And it did. And now the pressure is on because
Speaker 1: these seeding games are you don't want to be in there,
Speaker 1: Like they can say what they want, but they don't
Speaker 1: want to be in that like play you know, one
Speaker 1: game to game elimination coming up here, exactly anything can happen.
Speaker 1: I mean, like like if John Muren could be the
Speaker 1: nine seed and just gets super hot and shoot you
Speaker 1: out of the playoffs, like anything happened, and and like again,
Speaker 1: and you made the great point. It's like it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter about those ancillary pieces. But when you actually, like
Speaker 1: look at the end of the first half, when you
Speaker 1: play your best lineup, which is KCP Alex Caruso, Kuzma,
Speaker 1: lebron A d Hey, maybe you can swap Crusoe for
Speaker 1: Schroeder if he's if he's healthy, depending on what your
Speaker 1: need is. But that's probably one of their two very
Speaker 1: best lineups that they can put together. And they were
Speaker 1: getting run off the floor that stretch at the end
Speaker 1: of the first half. It went from you know, eight
Speaker 1: to fifteen and a handful of possessions Like it was.
Speaker 1: It was really embarrassing. And you know, as as far
Speaker 1: as Anthony Davis goes with him kind of like getting
Speaker 1: it going, like it's still there. I know, you guys
Speaker 1: saw in the fourth quarter that was that possession. Kyle Lowry.
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry mixes Anthony Davis up crosses him over, which
Speaker 1: happens when you're a bigger player and you're going against
Speaker 1: a quick guard. But he trails behind Kyle Lowry bothers
Speaker 1: him enough where he has to do a drop off
Speaker 1: pass him. I can't remember if it was Ken Burge
Speaker 1: or someone else, but caught ball and went up with
Speaker 1: like a floater from like eight feet and a d
Speaker 1: just swallowed that thing, just keep flying in like completely
Speaker 1: changed direction from guarding Kyle Lowry on the drive, turned around,
Speaker 1: elevated his arm, literally goes to the top of Staples
Speaker 1: Center and and blocks the shot out. I think Utah
Speaker 1: watonob he ended up making a crazy floater off of
Speaker 1: the chaos that surrounded it. You know, you're like you're
Speaker 1: like whoa, Like that's Anthony Davis And then two possessions later,
Speaker 1: he's not paying attention to his man off the ball,
Speaker 1: uh and Pascal Siatum flares up to the wing, catches
Speaker 1: the ball. A D slow on his clothes out, gets
Speaker 1: beat middle and gives up a layup and probably should
Speaker 1: have been an A one because he recklessly swatted down
Speaker 1: at the ball at the end. Like that's like two possessions.
Speaker 1: After you see this flash of the old a D,
Speaker 1: he's back to like fundamental stuff that they teach you
Speaker 1: in AU or in youth basketball about playing defense. Like
Speaker 1: it's just I I My thing with this kind of
Speaker 1: stuff is like, don't overstretch yourself out about not caring
Speaker 1: as much as they do, because there's probably some reason
Speaker 1: they don't care. However, I think it's okay as fans, yeah,
Speaker 1: to give him some to give him some crap about it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like like they deserve to
Speaker 1: go on their phones tonight and see a fan base
Speaker 1: that's all really upset about their effort because it was
Speaker 1: pretty embarrassing. Yeah, And I think I think you hit
Speaker 1: on what's like the frustrating part of it is it
Speaker 1: feels like it's more mental mistakes right than like physical
Speaker 1: than him not being able to do something. It just
Speaker 1: feels like there are a lot of mental mistakes, Like
Speaker 1: the closeouts are awful, he jumps, He does stuff that's
Speaker 1: just not stuff that Anthony Davis does, Like I think
Speaker 1: somebody pump faked at the rim and he jumped and
Speaker 1: they got easy lay about it. It It just stuff that
Speaker 1: Ad doesn't do when he's locked in. And and we've
Speaker 1: seen it, right, not even a year ago. He saw
Speaker 1: in the playoffs last year. What he's capable of. He's
Speaker 1: capable of shutting down full on defenses pretty much by
Speaker 1: himself as a roller help man. And you know there's
Speaker 1: other things that can help him. Obviously he's playing the
Speaker 1: four here. I think he's better as a five on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor. But but yeah, he's just
Speaker 1: not really needs to be in. The mistakes feel like
Speaker 1: they're more just mental engagement mistakes, just walking through, um
Speaker 1: these games when you know this is time to get
Speaker 1: reps in. You see these other teams. We watched an
Speaker 1: awesome game today between the Bucks and the Nets. Um
Speaker 1: those two teams look ready to go, right like those
Speaker 1: these teams locked into a playoff, and the Lakers look
Speaker 1: like it's game ten of the regular season, like they're
Speaker 1: just they're just getting started. When when when we're going
Speaker 1: to get started pretty quickly here, So that that seems
Speaker 1: like the most The thing that's bothering a lot of
Speaker 1: people is that these feel like mental mistakes, not just physical.
Speaker 1: And you know, he has to get back in conditioning,
Speaker 1: like he missed like twenty sounding games. It's understandable, but
Speaker 1: it's just like the engagement has to be there now
Speaker 1: like that. That's where I think, that's right. I think
Speaker 1: most people are frustrating it. Yeah, I agree. I mean,
Speaker 1: if we want to add a silver line into this,
Speaker 1: like it does vaguely resemble what happened in the seeding games.
Speaker 1: There was I remember it's actually my my it was
Speaker 1: on my birthday last year. They were playing Indiana i think,
Speaker 1: and the Bubble and like, oh yeah, the fifth game
Speaker 1: of the Bubble and they had just lost the game
Speaker 1: to somebody who can remember was and it kind of
Speaker 1: felt like this, like it felt like, hey, like they
Speaker 1: don't need this game, but hey like they probably should
Speaker 1: start playing better soon. In Indiana. Just just beat them,
Speaker 1: just Indiana, just beat him. And yeah, I'm literally sitting there,
Speaker 1: I'm like I cannot believe how bad they look right now.
Speaker 1: And that was when the following day when all of
Speaker 1: the talk shows and stuff, we're talking about when the
Speaker 1: Lakers are in trouble and stuff. The one big difference
Speaker 1: between that though, is like like that Laker group was
Speaker 1: going to that billionaire's house wherever the heck it is
Speaker 1: and and blame pick up and and they were all
Speaker 1: kind of in a rhythm like Lebron is Lebron is
Speaker 1: not like, uh, his original self yet, so like that's
Speaker 1: gonna take some time, so that wrinkle in there, and
Speaker 1: then Anthony Davis sure as hell isn't. So that wrinkle
Speaker 1: is what makes it different. Like theoretically they've shown this
Speaker 1: kind of malaise before a playoff run, but Lebron and
Speaker 1: a D or Lebron and a D. So that's where
Speaker 1: that's where this gets tricky. Is you just hope, against
Speaker 1: all hope that that whatever is going on with Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D can be fixed, uh, because the effort
Speaker 1: and stuff will certainly be there when the time is right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And the and the thing we kept saying, right is
Speaker 1: that the Lakers had the number one defense and then
Speaker 1: we're adding Rodyn a D to it. Right, That was
Speaker 1: the whole thing that's what people were excited about. And
Speaker 1: it feels like what has happened is A D and
Speaker 1: Lebron came back into the whole team just backed into
Speaker 1: where they are right like they're trying to get through
Speaker 1: in rhythm, and the whole team just decided together to
Speaker 1: to drop their intensity. Um. And that's why I just
Speaker 1: keep going back to those bubble games, because the Lakers identity,
Speaker 1: even from last year, was that they played hard every night, right,
Speaker 1: they played hard every night up until the Bubble games,
Speaker 1: and that's where we were so surprised. And even this year,
Speaker 1: they played hard pretty much every night. When Lebron and
Speaker 1: a D went out, the team was competitive, played hard,
Speaker 1: defended hard. The guards were fighting over screens, being really
Speaker 1: being really tough, um, really tough to score on still,
Speaker 1: and people are shocked, like they, oh, wow, the Lakers
Speaker 1: have the fourth best defense without you know, Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: you know, or fourth best even about Lebron and a D.
Speaker 1: And and now this is where the team just looks
Speaker 1: like they've dropped back. Um, all the intensity, all the
Speaker 1: all the focus that they need. So that's that's kind
Speaker 1: of the frustrating part. But I understand it's not the
Speaker 1: same as the bubble. But it just feels like they
Speaker 1: they're comfortable wherever they end up in this seating and
Speaker 1: that's you can critique the process, but that's just where
Speaker 1: they that's just where they're sitting. So the silver lining
Speaker 1: is that this is not them going at their best right.
Speaker 1: I saw somebody I think tweeting me today they said, uh,
Speaker 1: this maybe just who they are, and I'm just like,
Speaker 1: that's not who they've been, Like, this is this is
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not that recent, but that's not who
Speaker 1: they've been. They've been a really good defensive team all
Speaker 1: year um up until a D and Lebron came back.
Speaker 1: This is kind of when the big drop has happened.
Speaker 1: So that's the silver lining to me. There's still a
Speaker 1: lot of there's still eight games left, still time to
Speaker 1: kind of fix this, but they need to start now.
Speaker 1: And and for the record, I'm I'm of the opinion
Speaker 1: that that blame should be placed at the feet of
Speaker 1: Lebron and it D because if you're defending and your
Speaker 1: stars come back and the effort tails off, I think
Speaker 1: it's because your stars have come back and they personally
Speaker 1: are not approaching it with the same intensity that everyone
Speaker 1: else was. And then I think it's you know, I
Speaker 1: was talking about like a waterfall act. It just kind
Speaker 1: of like percolates to everybody, and then everybody just kind
Speaker 1: of plays with a little less intensity and everybody plays
Speaker 1: a little less focus. UM. So I that that that,
Speaker 1: to me is like one of the biggest compliments I
Speaker 1: can play pay. Steph Curry is Like Steph Curry may
Speaker 1: not be the defensive force that Anthony Davis is, but
Speaker 1: because he plays his ass off on defense, it percolates
Speaker 1: down to his teammates. And I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: coincidence that Steph Curry has been on elite defenses every
Speaker 1: year even though he's not an elite defensive player. I
Speaker 1: think it's just because he sets the tone. And I
Speaker 1: think it's okay too to give the leaders of the
Speaker 1: team some some criticism for for kind of slipping that responsibility.
Speaker 1: UM as far as rotations, but I thought it was
Speaker 1: interesting because a lot of criticism about a lot of
Speaker 1: rotation stuff for good reason, like too much drumm in
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis closed the game with Drummond and th
Speaker 1: h T. I don't know what that was about. They
Speaker 1: had um like Ben McLamore, who's like a seamless perfect
Speaker 1: Lebron teammate. You know, this guy who's just like an
Speaker 1: absolute gun slinger with a super fast release that if
Speaker 1: you even shade a little bit too far into the paint,
Speaker 1: Lebron just can throw one of his baseball passes and
Speaker 1: he can have catch and shoot threes all day. Vogel
Speaker 1: wasn't really pairing them for whatever reason like that just
Speaker 1: there's a lot of rotation stuff that doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: But if you remember those quotes from Vogel, especially with Drummond,
Speaker 1: he goes, you know, we're a believer in this trio,
Speaker 1: and that reminds me a lot of what he used
Speaker 1: to say about Rondo. If you remember he used to
Speaker 1: say the same thing about Rondo. We believe in Rondo.
Speaker 1: We know we know that because yeah, because I think
Speaker 1: somebody asked him in a postgame pressor if had all
Speaker 1: the net rating stuff with Rondo, and he's like, we
Speaker 1: believe in Rondo, Like we we believe in this this, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, this pairing. And if there's one thing you
Speaker 1: can maybe lean back on is that maybe when Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d start trying and everything really comes together
Speaker 1: in the postseason. Maybe there is some value there next
Speaker 1: to an engaged Lebron in an engaged a d where
Speaker 1: Drying looks where he looks like a valuable piece knows
Speaker 1: Like you said, how can you know when out? It's
Speaker 1: like literally catting in these games. It's just it's just ridiculous, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And the things that Drummond is good at, we're just
Speaker 1: not playing to them, right, Like he's trapping every ball screen.
Speaker 1: I thought, like I thought Drummond and Adie would switch
Speaker 1: a lot more, and they're not. Um EIGHTI has been
Speaker 1: pretty much just the help guy with Drummond has to
Speaker 1: like trap and then also get back. That's why we're
Speaker 1: giving up so many lobs and like guys catch it
Speaker 1: in the dunker spot and they just get easy layups
Speaker 1: time after time because Drummond he just doesn't have the
Speaker 1: ability to like stop the ball handler and then still
Speaker 1: get up and like take away that law pass, which
Speaker 1: again eighties the help guy there, But yeah, that's he's
Speaker 1: just not be put in the bed and look he
Speaker 1: struggled as well. I just and they keep in my
Speaker 1: notes here, I put like they kept ground Hill put
Speaker 1: it nicely. They said they're trying to establish drumming in
Speaker 1: the post which I thought it was just a really
Speaker 1: nice way to put it. But it's just way too many,
Speaker 1: way too many drumm and post ups. Like I think
Speaker 1: like the first ten possessions were like four Drummond post
Speaker 1: ups and he just it either goes in or it's
Speaker 1: like an awful air ball off the rim, and it's
Speaker 1: just weird what they're None of this like pertains to
Speaker 1: the playoffs, right, like at least we think exactly you
Speaker 1: don't get anything out of it. And and to me,
Speaker 1: I said this a live I feel like Drummond is
Speaker 1: the devail replacement, like we saw him as the Dwight
Speaker 1: Howard replacement, but just watching him, I just I see
Speaker 1: him as the debail replacement. Like he's gonna play the
Speaker 1: five right now, He's gonna he's gonna bang banglow, so
Speaker 1: a d doesn't have to. But once the playoffs comes, hopefully, um,
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking positively here, Gasol will be that you know,
Speaker 1: defense of the Player of the year, former defensive player
Speaker 1: of the Year like Dwight was. And again he's not
Speaker 1: the same type of player Dwight is, but just that
Speaker 1: experience I think will be leaned on more of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Drummond is getting these minutes now and Vogol, You know,
Speaker 1: Vogo is a smart guy. He understands, like he he
Speaker 1: knows that there's no way you can just keep drumming
Speaker 1: out here this long against really good playoff teams, let alone,
Speaker 1: what what's going on against teams like Sacramento, Toronto all
Speaker 1: those stuff. But again, you don't know, because like you said,
Speaker 1: we need to engage Lebonn and a Dy to really
Speaker 1: understand what's what's going on, and we're not getting that,
Speaker 1: and I don't know when when we're gonna get it, honestly, Flow,
Speaker 1: we might just walk into the playoffs kind of blindfolded,
Speaker 1: um and and hope, hope things work. I just want
Speaker 1: to see it look good once. I just want to
Speaker 1: know that it's still in there somewhere. And if there
Speaker 1: is one silver lining, like the one team that you'd
Speaker 1: be potentially worried about playing in the first round would
Speaker 1: be the Clippers, right just because there are a bad
Speaker 1: matchup for the Lakers in a vacuum and so throwing
Speaker 1: in the circumstances and it gets even more scary. But
Speaker 1: the silver lining there is that the clippers are all
Speaker 1: banged up, and Kauai's basically on a minute restriction because
Speaker 1: he's the only with I think it's stuff with his foot,
Speaker 1: and it's like they kind of had had they've had
Speaker 1: some similar problems. Uh, So that would that would kind
Speaker 1: of make it so that both teams are probably wary
Speaker 1: of each other. Uh. But yeah, I would just I
Speaker 1: would just like to see it look good once and
Speaker 1: then one last note on Drummond and then hey, everybody
Speaker 1: who's here, if you would like to hop in and
Speaker 1: talk with Roger and I send out a request and
Speaker 1: we'll start taking guests here in a second. Um. But
Speaker 1: the one thing with Drummond that I think is is
Speaker 1: troublesome as far as his defensive his defense translating to
Speaker 1: the postse and is this his reaction time? Um, you know,
Speaker 1: like when he can stand still, like when he's in
Speaker 1: a coverage where he's already in the paint and he
Speaker 1: can just kind of wave around with his hands. He's
Speaker 1: good with his hands. The problem is that he's got
Speaker 1: he's slow. Um, he's slow with like his first step
Speaker 1: and that affects him on defense when he needs to
Speaker 1: be kind of you know defending in space. And the
Speaker 1: example I give is that one it's on my Twitter
Speaker 1: feed where Kyle Lowry is coming off of basically a
Speaker 1: pin down um that hasn't coming up to the top
Speaker 1: of the key and Drummond like sees it coming and
Speaker 1: like right as the pin down is happening, like I think,
Speaker 1: what Nabi or someone cuts across the floor and he
Speaker 1: kind of gets there and he body checks him and
Speaker 1: then he goes up to the screen. Because you know,
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry's good shooter, you have to be there. Uh
Speaker 1: you know if if the guy who's trailing is a
Speaker 1: step behind but he's not actually there, like he reacts
Speaker 1: and he's slow, he's not Kyle, but he still completely
Speaker 1: leaves the role man and Kyle Lowry drops it off
Speaker 1: to the role man who goes down to the layup
Speaker 1: and scores over a d because he apparently can't protect
Speaker 1: the rim anymore. But the point being is that drumming
Speaker 1: like he's reading the plays, like he knows where he's
Speaker 1: supposed to be, but he just he's slow with his feet,
Speaker 1: he's not mobile. What makes Tread's even functional in the
Speaker 1: Laker defense even though he can't protect the rim, is
Speaker 1: he's mobile, and he plays hard and he can be
Speaker 1: in these rotations and fly around and and and help
Speaker 1: cover for some of his size mistakes just as a
Speaker 1: mobile defender. But like Drumming, it's just kind of this
Speaker 1: like counterintuitive fit with the rest of their defense because
Speaker 1: he can't move his feet uh in open space as
Speaker 1: well as they need him to in order to be
Speaker 1: of any sort of value. Yeah, and then I just
Speaker 1: wanted to like, before we open this up, I think
Speaker 1: you said that the Lakers were closing with a strange lineup, right,
Speaker 1: We have like THHD and and Drummond and a lot
Speaker 1: of the part of that is that Lebron didn't come
Speaker 1: back in the game. But that's another thing. It's just
Speaker 1: like the unsious nous of like the rotations, right, it's
Speaker 1: a lot of experimenting. And again, like they did this
Speaker 1: in the Bubble Games as well. We put a lot
Speaker 1: of j R. Smith, a lot of Dion Waiters, So
Speaker 1: maybe he can work. But this is the whole new team. Man.
Speaker 1: Something I had in my notes here was like, these
Speaker 1: are the unintended consequences of like just tricking off a
Speaker 1: lot of these games, right, is that like you get
Speaker 1: you get really lackluster effort on a lot of plays
Speaker 1: and like we're playing Ben mclimore a bunch of minutes,
Speaker 1: like I just don't know if he's playable, and a
Speaker 1: lot of playoff rotations because of his of his defense right,
Speaker 1: like unless he's scorching hot from three, he's an unconscious shooter,
Speaker 1: which I think is a is a good thing and
Speaker 1: a bad thing at times, like he doesn't know what
Speaker 1: they or he doesn't really have to be wide open
Speaker 1: to shoot, which I think this team kind of needed.
Speaker 1: But when you're like when you're missing, you're going like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what he shot tonight. Um, I don't
Speaker 1: think he he made it three if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: But did you get a bunch of great looks? Though?
Speaker 1: Where were his good looks? You're not playing him with
Speaker 1: one of the best three point generators in league history.
Speaker 1: Like that's the part that bothers me. I can't give
Speaker 1: up on Macimore until he plays with Lebron Right. But
Speaker 1: I'm just talking from his defense though, Like I feel
Speaker 1: like he gets like he gets back to a lot
Speaker 1: and yeah, no, for sure he should be playing solely
Speaker 1: with Lebron Right, like he she should not be playing
Speaker 1: with especially when there's no shock creators. And then again
Speaker 1: another thing that like whither we're running just so much
Speaker 1: th H T S screen and roll, which I just
Speaker 1: don't like. And look, she's awesome, I'm super high on him,
Speaker 1: but like again, I just don't think that stuff will
Speaker 1: happen in the playoffs, which again just first is the
Speaker 1: point here? What's the point of this when we're like
Speaker 1: eight games away from when these games start really mattering.
Speaker 1: So that's that's my thing with the with the game tonight.
Speaker 1: Like you said, it doesn't matter in the in the vacuum,
Speaker 1: like it's a loss to Toronto or tied for the
Speaker 1: seating or whatever. No, this really matters in the in
Speaker 1: the grant scheme. But it's time to start getting rotations
Speaker 1: that are going to play. This is still a brand
Speaker 1: new team. Dennis Shrewder's out with COVID protocols. We don't
Speaker 1: know when he'll come back. Him and A d have
Speaker 1: barely got to play together, and Ron and we have
Speaker 1: barely cut to play together. And he's supposed to be
Speaker 1: the starting point guard creating a lot of shots in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. So that's that's a nasure here, is that
Speaker 1: we're I don't know how much of this you can
Speaker 1: translate or Bogo can even look on film and be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is where I need to change things because the
Speaker 1: effort just isn't there. They're just trying to get healthy
Speaker 1: and get through these games. And maybe that works out.
Speaker 1: Maybe the healthiest team wins this year. Maybe that's maybe
Speaker 1: that's the number one thing. But I guess we'll see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, this is the last thing I'll say before
Speaker 1: we bring our first guest on. But like it reminds like,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, when when things are not going as planned,
Speaker 1: you shouldn't be more experimental. You should go back to
Speaker 1: what's tried and true. The two thousand eighteen Calves did this.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember, they got into a big They
Speaker 1: basically got by an eight ball against Indiana, and they
Speaker 1: went into Indiana in game six in the first round,
Speaker 1: got absolutely blitzed. That was the game that Victor Ladipo
Speaker 1: dunked all over Lebron. And what did they do in
Speaker 1: game seven? They went back to Trisan Thompson. It was
Speaker 1: less Larry Nance, was less Rodney Hood. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of Lebron, Derrick Smith, Kyle Korver, Kevin Love and
Speaker 1: Trisan Thompson. They went back to something that was tried
Speaker 1: and true because they knew that, you know what, all
Speaker 1: the experimenting trying to get something to to work with
Speaker 1: what was new wasn't working. So they went back to
Speaker 1: lineups that they had had success with. And so I
Speaker 1: just wish that they would, you know, at least to
Speaker 1: try to gain regain some rhythm going into the postseason,
Speaker 1: that you'd see more, you know, traditional lineups with you
Speaker 1: at the five, you know, Lebron surrounded by shooting any
Speaker 1: anything that has historically worked, rather than like, hey, maybe
Speaker 1: this will work, you know what I mean? Like that,
Speaker 1: I just don't understand that the strategy there. But I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and um, let's see, Alex. I'm gonna try,
Speaker 1: you man, let me know if this works. Yeah, that's tough, Alex.
Speaker 1: Can you hear us Man? All right? No, Alex, let's
Speaker 1: try Trevor. Yeah, Trevor, what's up, Trevor? You got anything
Speaker 1: for us? Man? All right? There's no, Trevor. Maybe on
Speaker 1: the settings or something. Do we have to I should
Speaker 1: be working. I think there's just some people that requested
Speaker 1: a while back. They are still active Maples, look at this.
Speaker 1: What's up? Man? Can you hear us? What's going on? Man?
Speaker 1: Talk us off the cliff? Man. Uh, well, I just
Speaker 1: saw Vogels quote seven minutes ago. We're not trying to
Speaker 1: accept speriment anyway. Right now, we're trying to win games.
Speaker 1: And that is the scariest thing I've heard all season.
Speaker 1: I really used to believe that. I just want to
Speaker 1: tap in and said, that's the scariest shit I heard
Speaker 1: all season. Him saying that they are legitally trying to
Speaker 1: wear right now, he's not serious going out there with
Speaker 1: Drummond and th ht with six misutes in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I can't who's believed it. I don't understand
Speaker 1: how he could say that. Uh, and he's not even
Speaker 1: playing shooting with Lebron. If you're trying to win games,
Speaker 1: you gotta play shooting with Lebron in a d so
Speaker 1: that he can get going. But I, oh, man, that's
Speaker 1: from okay, So I thought, I'm not being crazy. I
Speaker 1: understand you're trying to get drumming going, but Gasaw going
Speaker 1: from starting center to d MP, is that not ridiculous? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is getting kind of ridiculous. I mean I hope
Speaker 1: they they're having like some pre pre pregame talks on this, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you're gonna play tonight, You're gonna play tomorrow night, not tonight,
Speaker 1: kind of like give him a game game off here. Um.
Speaker 1: That that's what I hope is happening, just so he's
Speaker 1: ready and he's he's okay with it. Obviously, his quotes
Speaker 1: weren't that great either when them when the drum and
Speaker 1: signing happened, but but then after that his quotes got
Speaker 1: a little bit better. But yeah, that's what I hope
Speaker 1: is happening. And I mean everyone's professional here. I think
Speaker 1: Vogo is pretty um, pretty good. I kind of explained
Speaker 1: these things, so yeah, but it is weird that he
Speaker 1: got zero minutes to night, but it's just grout patient
Speaker 1: is too much. They have treads Drummond and then also
Speaker 1: eight either trying to get into So I guess they're
Speaker 1: just telling the soul hopefully play tomorrow because that's not
Speaker 1: gonna be trouble. Yeah. I was looking at this back
Speaker 1: to back because if I recall, his best game of
Speaker 1: the season was against the Raptors. If I were calls
Speaker 1: of like fifteen four blocks, U was a couple of threes, right,
Speaker 1: and I am I right, and believe I think that's right.
Speaker 1: And then the first Duggets game they play in Staples,
Speaker 1: that's the best defense I've seen on Yokich all year.
Speaker 1: So I'm hoping that tomorrow he gets at least a
Speaker 1: good time of fifteen minutes. Yeah, for sure. Hopefully you
Speaker 1: gotta try something again. You gotta try something to try
Speaker 1: to open things up. And and for the record, he's
Speaker 1: kind of turned into a little bit of a Crusoe
Speaker 1: effect from last year, where you know, the BA is
Speaker 1: begging into play and then every time he does, it's like, oh, look,
Speaker 1: mircosols plus eleven again. That that's kind of the Marcus
Speaker 1: All experience. And for the record, basketball isn't that complicated.
Speaker 1: Like when you watch him play, like go watch that
Speaker 1: second quarter against Sacramento, just everything opens up when he's
Speaker 1: a spacing every position. Yeah, and then on your Vogel
Speaker 1: quote quote, there's just no way because a D demon
Speaker 1: play any minutes at the five tonight. He played a couple.
Speaker 1: There was one they were just right, okay, yeah, I
Speaker 1: must most of but most of it was drezz and
Speaker 1: a D Yeah, well, yeah, is not is not playing.
Speaker 1: It's shenanigans. Fellas. I'm calling Vogels quote, I'm calling shenanigans
Speaker 1: on everything that we're hearing about the Lakers right now,
Speaker 1: because it just does not make sense. What's that mean?
Speaker 1: What's the fellas? I just I just wanted to you know,
Speaker 1: usually I just sit in the background and lurk, but
Speaker 1: then this conversation was very productive. So I just want
Speaker 1: to say a good evening to you guys. Wonderful job
Speaker 1: with the space. I always enjoy listening to people's races
Speaker 1: and just kind of hearing what everybody has to think about. UM.
Speaker 1: My only two cents on on what's going on right
Speaker 1: now is um. I do think it's a conditioning thing.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of fans are panicking because we
Speaker 1: are at risk of going into the play in and stuff.
Speaker 1: I got um, so I definitely understand that. But just
Speaker 1: I think Jason you made it. Um. You made a
Speaker 1: good point earlier when you guys started the space where
Speaker 1: and I think Roger you followed up that the drop
Speaker 1: off on the defensive end it's so bad that it's
Speaker 1: almost unbelood like it's almost by design that they're not trying,
Speaker 1: you know, what I mean, Like it's I don't know
Speaker 1: how you go from a team, Okay, we just lots
Speaker 1: to the Raptors. Right. This team had I think O
Speaker 1: g I don't know. I can't remember Pascal played in
Speaker 1: the game in Toronto, but I know Garry Trent Junior
Speaker 1: played in that game. They had a few other guys.
Speaker 1: I know they didn't have Lowry, but like we blew
Speaker 1: them out without Brown and a D and then to
Speaker 1: magically lose the game in the fashion that we did today,
Speaker 1: at least on the defensive end, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like it's so bad that it has to be by design.
Speaker 1: And so that's why I'm just calling Shenanigans. You know.
Speaker 1: Obviously I'm more optimistic, um, but the other folks um.
Speaker 1: So that that's all I have to say about that.
Speaker 1: And I'll just say this, it doesn't make sense that
Speaker 1: Vogel magically, you know, you have two guys in Wes
Speaker 1: Matthews and Gasol who have been consistent, consistently good on
Speaker 1: the defensive end, and you're a defensive minded coach. And
Speaker 1: then we add Andre Drummond, which is like basically adding
Speaker 1: like a j R. Smith, you know, at the center,
Speaker 1: like man, like we're adding guys and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden we're like, yeah, we're committed to this guy.
Speaker 1: We're gonna we're gonna run with him. And I think Roger,
Speaker 1: you hit it on the head. I think if you
Speaker 1: think of Drummond as the Javail role where it's very
Speaker 1: very situational with him, Um, we know what we get
Speaker 1: out of Gasol man the moment steps on the floor,
Speaker 1: it's all positive stuff. So I think you know he's
Speaker 1: just he's an ins eater. He's just gonna eat up
Speaker 1: a lot of minutes. Um, and we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: Think you just need to get healthy. Last thing before
Speaker 1: I get off and let 'all rock. Who's just said
Speaker 1: mcchannon just sweet tweeted COO's said the song should be played,
Speaker 1: So there you go to payers. I love that speaks
Speaker 1: his mind. So that man, thanks for having a man.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it. Appreciate it. Uh what do you what
Speaker 1: do you make of Drummond as is? Do you think
Speaker 1: he's completely useless or do you think there is a
Speaker 1: potencial for him to become useful if Lebron in a peaking.
Speaker 1: I think Drummond has very good feet on the defensive end. Um,
Speaker 1: when he gets he gets pulled out on switches. I
Speaker 1: think that's an advantage that he probably has over the soul,
Speaker 1: because the soul is a little bit uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he doesn't get into his stance. Drummond does try to
Speaker 1: get into a stands defensively. Um. So I don't think
Speaker 1: he's useless. I think he has some struggles. I think
Speaker 1: you described a player earlier where he kind of picked
Speaker 1: off a pass from Lowry off the floor where he
Speaker 1: kind of what's it called. I think it was like
Speaker 1: a pocket pass or something to action. He's good at
Speaker 1: picking them off the floor. But I think Drummond's largest
Speaker 1: issue is he tries to play the passing name like
Speaker 1: a hockey goalie does. Like he's trying to figure out
Speaker 1: where the ball is coming from so you can pick
Speaker 1: it off. And so when you run into a guy
Speaker 1: like Luca, like a guy who was a little bit bigger, Um,
Speaker 1: he can seal those passes right over him. And that
Speaker 1: that's a problem, especially if Ad is not playing weak
Speaker 1: side defense. So, um, I don't think he's useless. That
Speaker 1: was a long answer, But I don't think he's useless.
Speaker 1: But I think he's very situational. I have a saying
Speaker 1: that I like to say is that if you're not
Speaker 1: generational in the modern NBA, you're situational. And I think
Speaker 1: Drummond is a situational player, and Vogol have to be
Speaker 1: really good with his minutes. Yeah, And I just don't
Speaker 1: like the situation that they're also putting him in him
Speaker 1: like they're trying they're trapping every single ball screen with him,
Speaker 1: and they're making him have to like stop the ball
Speaker 1: handler and stop lob guy. Right, he just can't jump
Speaker 1: like that. He doesn't take away the lob. So I
Speaker 1: feel like they are you seeing that same kind of
Speaker 1: thing when you see like the like him trying to
Speaker 1: take away lobs, and it seems like we're giving up
Speaker 1: a ton of dunks um and even at the rim,
Speaker 1: like he's just not a guy that's pretecting the rim.
Speaker 1: And the way a D is helping right now is
Speaker 1: just it's compounding the problem to where like what me
Speaker 1: and Jason were talking about earlier is that it's tough
Speaker 1: for Bogo to even kind of gauge what's going on.
Speaker 1: I feel like he doesn't even know if it's working. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So you know, um uh that has that's been sort
Speaker 1: of one of those other things that like it's been
Speaker 1: so bad compared to what it's been all season, it's
Speaker 1: like this is not even it's I don't even know
Speaker 1: how you can possibly be this bad in this coverage
Speaker 1: that you guys have been running all season. So I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I think Vogel probably has certain principles. We
Speaker 1: know that he has containment principles that he likes to
Speaker 1: have his guards play, like if you can't stay in
Speaker 1: front of you guys, at least try to contain them,
Speaker 1: you know, like send him into into your bags and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I think one of the things that
Speaker 1: he's probably trying to get Drumming to be better at um,
Speaker 1: because he does have the hands is at least defensively. UM.
Speaker 1: I think he's trying to get him to do kind
Speaker 1: of what gasoldas like Cassoules an amazing trap, an amazing trapper.
Speaker 1: He knows where the passing angles are Drummonds. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: I think that's what he's trying to get to UM.
Speaker 1: But obviously, look, you know, if that pass makes it
Speaker 1: out of the trap, you have all the weeks that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the weeks I open and if a d is just
Speaker 1: gonna watch, people don't get I mean, look at the names.
Speaker 1: I've done it right, Alex lenn Rashaun Holmes, Dwight Powell. Um,
Speaker 1: it wasn't Bomba the or Magic Kid. It was the
Speaker 1: other guy that they were playing Uma. His name escapes me.
Speaker 1: But every single big man has just you know, kind
Speaker 1: of dominated the Lakers, and so you know, well we'll see.
Speaker 1: I wonder if it's a scheme thing, it's a coaching thing, um,
Speaker 1: but it's just been so bad that it's it's not believable.
Speaker 1: That's this is the way I have to say. And
Speaker 1: there's something to be said about Dennis suddenly being removed
Speaker 1: from the line up messing with their offense, not even
Speaker 1: because they're incapable of scoring without them, because they certainly are.
Speaker 1: I mean, they want a championship without him. But it's
Speaker 1: it's hard to go from a guy like Dennis who's
Speaker 1: has who has the ball in his hands so much,
Speaker 1: suddenly not having the ball at all. And then and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, all of these guards who
Speaker 1: have been getting the ball a lot less, they're not
Speaker 1: getting the ball a lot more. And you know, Lebron
Speaker 1: does a lot of playmaking, but he's not a give
Speaker 1: it to me every time type of guy the way
Speaker 1: that Luca or James Harden is so like it's one
Speaker 1: of those things where I think that kind of threw
Speaker 1: them for a loop a little bit, and a bunch
Speaker 1: of different things got got discombobulated, and uh, I tend
Speaker 1: to think that that the talent and stuff is still there.
Speaker 1: My main concern is just will Lebron and a D
Speaker 1: be Lebron and a D. Because if they aren't, there's
Speaker 1: there's there's no point in even doing this. There's just
Speaker 1: too much talent in the league right now. The teams
Speaker 1: they have to go through are too good. The only
Speaker 1: way any of this works is if Lebron is the
Speaker 1: best player in the world and a D is the
Speaker 1: fourth best player the world. That's the only way this works.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna be Proke, if you're gonna be the Clippers,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be Denver. Yeah. I would say if I
Speaker 1: could offer any sort of maybe silver lining for any
Speaker 1: of the folks that are listening that are Laker fans,
Speaker 1: um that that you know I've watched those Kobe and shatyears,
Speaker 1: Um that that year after they won their first championship,
Speaker 1: they were notoriously bad on like they were bad all
Speaker 1: season on defense, and this Laker team wasn't up until
Speaker 1: a D and Lebron came back. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: know if they think that they can just turn on
Speaker 1: and switch Lebron and eighties specifically um, but if they
Speaker 1: do think that they could do that, it seems like
Speaker 1: that's what they're trying to do, because there's you know,
Speaker 1: I think one of the easiest tells is the fact
Speaker 1: that on the offensive and Lebron was deferring a lot
Speaker 1: to Alex Cruso and we was, you know, they were
Speaker 1: running up like a two man game, like Crusoe's trying
Speaker 1: to set up drumming post plays, and I was just like,
Speaker 1: what is it? This office doesn't even make any sense,
Speaker 1: Like this is not even something that we've done all
Speaker 1: the season, you know, And so I think that's something
Speaker 1: It's been so different that it just doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: That play where Kyle Lowry finished um that lay up
Speaker 1: to close the half, the Brons about to jump to
Speaker 1: defend it, and then last week he decides not to,
Speaker 1: And I was like, Oh, that's interesting, because that's definitely
Speaker 1: a play that Lebron would have made, like in a
Speaker 1: real you know, real do or die sort of situations.
Speaker 1: So we make those players in the postseason NonStop. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And so it's just, you know, I think all this
Speaker 1: stuff you guys are mentioning is value. You know. Eight
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit tentive because of his injury, Braun,
Speaker 1: Maybe a little tentive because of his injury. Um, but hey,
Speaker 1: we we don't have the luxury of having like a
Speaker 1: five game lead over this over the two seeds like
Speaker 1: we did last time. So we'll see, we'll see how
Speaker 1: it checks out. Been hanging out as long as you want, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to get a couple more people in here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna call it for the night. I just
Speaker 1: want to, you know, jump in contribute and you know,
Speaker 1: you guys are doing a heck of a job. And
Speaker 1: I help everybody listening, and you guys have a wonderful evening.
Speaker 1: I'll be lurking in the background shore. Oh right, let's do.
Speaker 1: Let's get two people up here to ask questions and
Speaker 1: then we'll call it a night since it's super late.
Speaker 1: And then I'm sure Roger and I may even do
Speaker 1: another one of these tomorrow. Let's see. Let's try DJ YEO. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right. I think people people requested a while back
Speaker 1: and probably forgot. Oh goodness, let's try a J A J.
Speaker 1: What's up? What's going on? Yeah? How's it going? Man?
Speaker 1: Thanks very good man? Yeah, man, of course, man, you know,
Speaker 1: I got I'm I'm kind of stuck on that CU's quote. Man,
Speaker 1: He's like, you know, a lot of the fans on
Speaker 1: you are fifty ft Yankosol, he's too slow, unathletic. But
Speaker 1: then you see the other half is just like the assault.
Speaker 1: I actually might be the glue for this team. And
Speaker 1: then that Coups quote was telling because even them, even
Speaker 1: the players, are like, I think we might need Gasol
Speaker 1: out there, you know what I mean, Like it's obvious,
Speaker 1: you know, and at this point we need gasolve And
Speaker 1: there's plain and simple, that's it. So I'm just a
Speaker 1: double check. I wanted to see the actual quote. There
Speaker 1: isn't an actual quote? Is this an from vig Tennant?
Speaker 1: Says Kuzma, endorsed giving Marcusol playing time as one potential
Speaker 1: tweak the Lakers can do to get out of the funk.
Speaker 1: There and kind of a no brainer. Get a get
Speaker 1: a defender out of the pain. You might help Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d get going, which you know is arguably
Speaker 1: their most important thing right now, even more important than
Speaker 1: their defense because you can always audible back to that defense. Um,
Speaker 1: just like going a D at the five and playing three,
Speaker 1: you know, really good effort guards at the point of attack.
Speaker 1: But that that quote is quite the quote is crazy
Speaker 1: because it means that we're not crazy. Uh. It legitimizes
Speaker 1: our concerns. It goes to show you that, you know,
Speaker 1: like it, like we're not being irrational fans here, Like
Speaker 1: the dudes, the dudes are in that locker room are
Speaker 1: looking at each other and thinking like like this doesn't
Speaker 1: make a whole lot of sense, you know, and and
Speaker 1: uh and hopefully having cus they're um kind of voicing
Speaker 1: that that that helps put the pressure on a little
Speaker 1: bit um and maybe even if Frank doesn't do anything,
Speaker 1: maybe that pressure helps drumming to play better. I'm starting
Speaker 1: to think that kind of internal pressure is a good thing.
Speaker 1: And we forget Like this team started I think what
Speaker 1: one and six, and I believe that was with Gasol
Speaker 1: at the starting lineup and all the numbers kind of
Speaker 1: bear out that he's playing well and and the team
Speaker 1: knows this. I mean, like like if we see it,
Speaker 1: they see it as well. So I'm, like I said before,
Speaker 1: I think Drummons in the Maybe this is just wishful thinking,
Speaker 1: but I feel like Drumms and devailable right like once
Speaker 1: the playoffs have we forget Javelle started every game last
Speaker 1: year and he drove us crazy at times, but then
Speaker 1: in the playoffs game, Dwight started a lot of the
Speaker 1: games or Jabelle was benched for a lot of series,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what happened. Now they're still kind
Speaker 1: of playing with fire here. Um, I don't know if
Speaker 1: Marcusol is okay with how that is. Playing time is
Speaker 1: going being being pushed up and down game in the game,
Speaker 1: but I still think he'll be a key part and
Speaker 1: the team knows this. I mean, it's pretty clear anyone
Speaker 1: who's watching can tell that Gasol helps his team tremendously
Speaker 1: on on both ends. The crazy thing with the Drummond
Speaker 1: thing is the Becassal thing is he's he's got another
Speaker 1: year on his deal and I'm pretty sure it's not
Speaker 1: a player option or anything punky like that, like, it's
Speaker 1: just just straight up additional year on his contract. So
Speaker 1: it's like if he needs to be a part of
Speaker 1: your plan in some in some way, shape or form,
Speaker 1: I mean, otherwise, what was the point of doing all
Speaker 1: of this? Yeah, I mean, honestly, I think it was
Speaker 1: to please a D and maybe even Lebron because I
Speaker 1: feel like they really wanted a name like drumming, or
Speaker 1: they just wanted drumming on the team, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: really what was best for the team, which for me,
Speaker 1: I think Gassoul is right now best for the team
Speaker 1: because he could spread, He could spread the floor. I mean,
Speaker 1: he could shoot from long distance. Drumming is kind of like,
Speaker 1: you know, he's he's just kind of download and he
Speaker 1: either gets a rebound and puts it back or he's
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron sets him up and he misses a dunk.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, there's there's no heavy medium and
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I mean, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: be it's not all on drumming. I mean, let's be real.
Speaker 1: I mean, there there's been there's been. I mean A
Speaker 1: D was awful. I mean, he was giving up his defense.
Speaker 1: He don't look like a d that let's be let's
Speaker 1: be real, so I can't put it all on drumming,
Speaker 1: but he's not the team just honestly, it's very Clippers
Speaker 1: right now. It's just kind of like they feel like
Speaker 1: they can turn it on at any time. But the
Speaker 1: difference is they're they're not healthy. That's I mean, that's
Speaker 1: get serious. They're not healthy. And the thought of them
Speaker 1: they think that, oh, yeah, we have a switch that
Speaker 1: we can flip on it anytime. That that's not gonna
Speaker 1: work this season, you know what I'm saying. Like Denver's tough,
Speaker 1: the Jazz are tough. I mean that's I mean, as
Speaker 1: hard as it is to say, the Clippers are right there,
Speaker 1: they're like the silent assassin is just they're just waiting.
Speaker 1: The weeds just kind of ready to pounce, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So it's like we got our work
Speaker 1: cut out for us big time. I just want to
Speaker 1: read the shout out. Chase Taylor thirty two sent me
Speaker 1: the Kuzma quote. Um Kusuma says, I'm not sure what
Speaker 1: to do. I wish we could get a little more
Speaker 1: time out there with Mark. That would be something that
Speaker 1: was pretty good for that would be pretty good for
Speaker 1: us for sure. So that's a full quote from Hovan
Speaker 1: Hovan boo hoo, just out. So, yeah, it was a
Speaker 1: nice little push for Gasol. But I think that's pretty
Speaker 1: clear and just to be fair, like just to be
Speaker 1: fair to a D like this was when it was
Speaker 1: reported both Lebron Andrew and a D wanted Audrey Drummond, right,
Speaker 1: I think that was the reports they both recruited him
Speaker 1: heavyan the theory of Andre Drummond is still there right
Speaker 1: like within engaged Anthony Davis, two people who should be
Speaker 1: dominating the offensive rebound who should be taken away the
Speaker 1: rim right be able to move their feet. Drummond can
Speaker 1: really move his feet when he knows which direction he's going,
Speaker 1: But like when you know Sich directs he's going, he
Speaker 1: can move his feet pretty quickly get out to the
Speaker 1: corners m two shooters when everyone is engaged. And we
Speaker 1: haven't seen that yet, so just still give him a
Speaker 1: little bit of the of the Banta doubt until that happens.
Speaker 1: But yeah, for sure, I think as all should be
Speaker 1: should be playing. I made the comparison earlier to Rondo
Speaker 1: and was saying that, like, you know, there was a
Speaker 1: similar phenomena with Rondo, where the coaching staff and everyone
Speaker 1: was pushing, pushing for him against the greater you know,
Speaker 1: knowledge of all the stats that we knew and what
Speaker 1: we were seeing with their eyes. The difference was is
Speaker 1: like Rondo was was Rondo was like actively shaving points
Speaker 1: when the Lakers were actually trying and Lebron and maybe
Speaker 1: you were good. So that was the huge difference. Like
Speaker 1: Drummond has been pretty bad, but he's been pretty bad
Speaker 1: for a team that also has been pretty bad just
Speaker 1: in general. Um, so that's the one thing that kind
Speaker 1: of if if you're gonna, if you're gonna make an
Speaker 1: excuse for him, the excuses that the team is bad
Speaker 1: right now, and so maybe that he's kind of just
Speaker 1: being brought down with the ship, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: And so I would, like I said before, I'd like
Speaker 1: to see and maybe this is what the coaching staff
Speaker 1: is hoping for is just you know, they want to
Speaker 1: they want to get into these postseason environments and they
Speaker 1: want to turn these games into total rock fights, and
Speaker 1: they're hoping that hey, if we're in a rock fight
Speaker 1: and it's just a super physical playoff series. But Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d are being Lebron in a D. Then
Speaker 1: we'll just win games one, O, two to ninety two,
Speaker 1: you know, and we'll just beat the hell out of
Speaker 1: teams physically, and Drummond will have some mislayups, but physically
Speaker 1: he'll just be a huge pain in the ask to
Speaker 1: deal with for other teams, and and it'll just be
Speaker 1: part of that physical on slaught of Lebron and NAD.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's what they're thinking, and well, I guess we'll
Speaker 1: find out. But what's funny is that's what they were
Speaker 1: doing when they didn't have Lebron and a D. They
Speaker 1: were just being super physical, and that's how they were
Speaker 1: beating teams, like beating teams with really good defense, their guards,
Speaker 1: being physical at the top at the point of the
Speaker 1: tech buying screens. And that's just all gone gone downhill recently.
Speaker 1: But we have maybe when that picks up, Drummond will
Speaker 1: we'll play better and and he can fit into more
Speaker 1: like a natural scheme with a D. And everyone engaged. Yeah,
Speaker 1: um a j thanks for having on, man. We really
Speaker 1: appreciated man. Yeah, man, thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you. All right, we'll take we'll take one more
Speaker 1: question before we get out of here. Since it's super late.
Speaker 1: Let's try. Let's try t and he bounced out. Let's
Speaker 1: try zach a ryo. Y is zachar right? What's that? Man?
Speaker 1: Can hear us? Nothing? All right? Let's try Will will
Speaker 1: be the one for us? Man? Will can you hear us? Will?
Speaker 1: All right? No? Will see for the podcast version, I'll
Speaker 1: try to edit this kind of stuff out for you guys.
Speaker 1: I appreciate everyone that's in here. By the way, is
Speaker 1: our first basis, so just working out, working out the gigs,
Speaker 1: working out the kings yet, Julian, Let's try Julian, what's up? Man?
Speaker 1: Thanks for hopping on. You know what, I don't really
Speaker 1: have a question per se. You guys covered a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff, But since a lot of people were coming
Speaker 1: on here and not speaking, I felt like I needed
Speaker 1: to jump on and say something. Um, this is the
Speaker 1: one thing I would say, Dude, I don't really have
Speaker 1: like um, I don't really have like the worst to
Speaker 1: express like what's going on? But um, I will say this.
Speaker 1: Lebron is a psychopath. He is a single path. This
Speaker 1: dude like he for some reason, he loves he thrives
Speaker 1: in chaos. And I don't know what it is, but
Speaker 1: like this reminds me so much of the last the
Speaker 1: Last year Bubble Games because there's a lot of similarities
Speaker 1: with the whole with the drumming, uh integration and Deon Waiders.
Speaker 1: Because if you would have gone back to the Bubble Games,
Speaker 1: you would have thought that Deon Waiters was about to
Speaker 1: be a big piece for the Lakers rotation. Just think
Speaker 1: about how many minutes they were playing him in the
Speaker 1: Bubble like they were playing him a lot of minutes
Speaker 1: in those seating gas He was playing twenty plus minutes
Speaker 1: a lot of nights. And there's something about the games
Speaker 1: leading up to the playoffs where Vogel and the coaching
Speaker 1: staff they like to use these games to figure out
Speaker 1: who they're going to put into the rotation and who
Speaker 1: they're gonna basically bench for the playoffs. So right now
Speaker 1: I get a big feeling at Treads is not gonna
Speaker 1: be a big part of the rotation if he if
Speaker 1: something doesn't change, because him and him and Drummond they
Speaker 1: play a similar role and Gasol brings something different. And
Speaker 1: even though the Gasol is not playing right now, I
Speaker 1: keep telling people to be patient because I think they
Speaker 1: already know what they get from Gasol. They already know
Speaker 1: what they get from him, so like they don't need
Speaker 1: to put him out there to kind of to find
Speaker 1: out what he's going to give them. So I think
Speaker 1: his spot is already kind of solidified. And you guys
Speaker 1: already kind of said something like that. I think Rods
Speaker 1: did um. But Lebron is a psychopath, dude, Like, I don't,
Speaker 1: I can't even I really don't know what's going on
Speaker 1: to the fullest, But I'm like, I don't not panicking
Speaker 1: because the more things start to go haywire, the more
Speaker 1: I know that Lebron is going to like kick into
Speaker 1: another gear, you know what I mean. Well, Julian, first
Speaker 1: of all, your optimism is exactly what we all needed
Speaker 1: on this to come in here and and just you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes it really is that simple. And let's let's pray.
Speaker 1: Let's let's pray at you're right, because I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I mean, I had a guy, uh Joe is his name,
Speaker 1: was one of my friends here on Twitter. It was
Speaker 1: tweet me in the middle of the Sacramento Kings game,
Speaker 1: and he was, you know, complaining about Anthony Davis just
Speaker 1: like the rest of us, and he was saying something
Speaker 1: along the lines of telling the story of that time
Speaker 1: A D was playing video games with Dennis Shruder and
Speaker 1: then Lebron FaceTime in and Lebron was watching the Bucks
Speaker 1: game while A D was what was playing video games
Speaker 1: And he's like, I just don't think he takes it
Speaker 1: that seriously. And I don't think that that's necessarily fair
Speaker 1: criticism of Anthony Davis, because guess what, not everybody wants
Speaker 1: to completely surround themselves with basketball all the time. I
Speaker 1: don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. However, Lebron is
Speaker 1: a psychopath and he is completely obsessed with basketball, and
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people take the fact that
Speaker 1: he's not a super polished basketball player and they twist
Speaker 1: that into a like a lack of skill, lack of
Speaker 1: love of the game. Lebron, you know, shows his love
Speaker 1: of the game in different ways. I think. I think
Speaker 1: he his work ethic is primarily dedicated towards his body,
Speaker 1: and that he works on his skill set less than
Speaker 1: some of his peers. But he is completely in psychotically
Speaker 1: obsessed for the game, and that is something that I
Speaker 1: think will eventually snap into uh snap into a gear
Speaker 1: with the specific group to try to to to whip
Speaker 1: him into shape. Yeah, you know what about Lebron over
Speaker 1: the years, he is the guy that will step up
Speaker 1: in the locker room and to him out for destroying
Speaker 1: a for leaving of road locker room messy, like he's like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I think that might be the only
Speaker 1: reason why the guys are looking a little loss right
Speaker 1: now is because Lebron is not He's not bringing out
Speaker 1: the whip. He's not like he's not controlling every possession.
Speaker 1: He's giving it to Caruso and standing back. And sometimes
Speaker 1: this team, they they move at Lebron's beat a little
Speaker 1: too much. Ever, they think rely on him too much,
Speaker 1: especially a D. Like if a D doesn't see Lebron
Speaker 1: locked in, he kind of like lollygags or something. He
Speaker 1: tries to like just feel feel his way out. And
Speaker 1: when Lebron finally snaps, which is coming. Do you see
Speaker 1: his quote about the playing tournament, It's coming. He's going
Speaker 1: to snap eventually, He's gonna get tired of it. But
Speaker 1: in a roundabout way to do I think he don't
Speaker 1: like it easy. And I don't even know if he
Speaker 1: knows that he does this. It's like he waits for
Speaker 1: things to get so bad that he like he has
Speaker 1: no choice and he just said, he said, this is
Speaker 1: the worst we've been. There's no way to go but up.
Speaker 1: He just said that tonight. It's like he waits for
Speaker 1: it all, like all the wheels to fall off, bro,
Speaker 1: before he just like snaps, and when he does snap,
Speaker 1: they do have another gear. So like when that guy
Speaker 1: say they don't have another gear, they do have a gear.
Speaker 1: They do have a switch and it happens when Lebron snaps,
Speaker 1: and when they snap that they can turn on like
Speaker 1: this defense. That's just all worldly, Like they have another
Speaker 1: like the switch, another gear. Bro. You know when when
Speaker 1: when you call the Lebron the psychopath, what I thought
Speaker 1: it was like after that game went against Houston and
Speaker 1: then like they panned to Lebron sitting there on the
Speaker 1: stores table with a D and he's like, Okay, it's time. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's why I keep comparing this to the
Speaker 1: Bubble games, because this is the only other time I
Speaker 1: can remember like this iteration of the Lakers kind of
Speaker 1: just not playing hard. Like it's different between not playing
Speaker 1: well and not playing hard. Right, the defense usually just
Speaker 1: doesn't drop off to this level. And I was going
Speaker 1: back watching some of the seeding games, Like we forget
Speaker 1: they got blown out by Oklahoma City. They were they
Speaker 1: played all their guys that game. They got blown out
Speaker 1: by uh by Houston, that same Houston they destroyed in
Speaker 1: the second around. So so I think you're right, Lebron
Speaker 1: is a psychopath. Like it's the only difference here is
Speaker 1: like they still have to try to find some breaths.
Speaker 1: Like there's like like like we we made fund of
Speaker 1: the Clippers to do this a lot last year, right,
Speaker 1: but like there's a respect to like the continuity and
Speaker 1: a respect to like be the chemistry of the game
Speaker 1: that you have to put in a little bit, right,
Speaker 1: like just walking into the playoffs blindfolded and expecting Lebron
Speaker 1: to whip everyone in in like shape. It's just not
Speaker 1: the problem, yeah, to get a process to go. But
Speaker 1: but as me and Jason talked about a lot, this
Speaker 1: team is built around Lebron James like that that's the
Speaker 1: way this team is built. It's built around his shock creation.
Speaker 1: So when they don't have kiss shock creation, it it
Speaker 1: boils to other different issues, especially when Shrewder doesn't play,
Speaker 1: and that boils onto the defensive end, not getting back
Speaker 1: in transition, turnovers, all that stuff, all all compounds, but
Speaker 1: like expecting, I know Lebron will be there when it matters,
Speaker 1: Like I know he's gonna play hard when it matters.
Speaker 1: It to me, it's not about that, it's getting everyone
Speaker 1: on that same page. So when he does turn it on,
Speaker 1: everyone can run with him, right, Like he can't be
Speaker 1: going a hundred miles an hour while you know someone
Speaker 1: else is going eighties, someone else is going seventy because
Speaker 1: it's just it just worked. So that's where I want
Speaker 1: to I want to see the team going. But people,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's time to panic yet. But like,
Speaker 1: I think you're right, but all the games are close
Speaker 1: to that, you know. And Joe Jason, I'm glad Jason
Speaker 1: brought up that Indian looked dude, Like you go back
Speaker 1: and look at those bubble games from last year. Dude,
Speaker 1: they were getting smoked by Indiana, bro, Like, who is it?
Speaker 1: T J. Warren was smoking them like, he looked at
Speaker 1: like Jordan the third bro Like this dude was smoking
Speaker 1: them bro like, and they looked like they couldn't keep
Speaker 1: up with anybody, And like that's that's why it's like
Speaker 1: I look at this and I'm like, damn, it's just
Speaker 1: it just reminds me too much of that bro where
Speaker 1: it's like how Lyriach and I looked like t J.
Speaker 1: Warren looked last year during the bubble games, during the
Speaker 1: seeding games. And I really don't know why, But when
Speaker 1: you see somebody like um Handley, Phil Handley going on
Speaker 1: on Instagram and responding to people saying, you know, talking
Speaker 1: about we like, basically they some people value regular season
Speaker 1: games and we don't. Like I don't know why they
Speaker 1: do it, but they do it, and they are playing
Speaker 1: with fire. But like that's what I mean by Lebron
Speaker 1: being a psychopath. This dude love playing with fire. Dude
Speaker 1: like he loves playing with fire. Like I don't know
Speaker 1: if they want to see, like Lebron is using these
Speaker 1: games to be like let me see, let me see
Speaker 1: if drumming is going to be valuable for let me
Speaker 1: see if Caruso can set up drumming. Let me like,
Speaker 1: it's just these weird little things that he's doing, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And I don't know why. I mean,
Speaker 1: I joke, I joke all the time that you know,
Speaker 1: for people like us if you if you want to
Speaker 1: go play a pickup game tomorrow and there are a
Speaker 1: hundred people in the crowd and you're run through layup
Speaker 1: lines before the game or whatever, you literally be covered
Speaker 1: in adrenaline because he'd be like, Man, I'm playing in
Speaker 1: front of a hundred people, It's sweet. Lebron literally has
Speaker 1: played in so many high leverage moments in his career
Speaker 1: that like, he shows up in Sacramento in front of
Speaker 1: the crowd of twenty people and you can't really he
Speaker 1: doesn't feel it, know what I mean. He doesn't get
Speaker 1: stoked for that, And I think, like I think, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, like there is some truth
Speaker 1: to the fact that he thrives in adversity because it
Speaker 1: brings the best out of him. But that said, like
Speaker 1: my guess is with his competitive nature, that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: he actively seeks out adversity. I think it's just a symptom,
Speaker 1: a side effect of of him just kind of not
Speaker 1: taking every single moment super seriously, which is which is
Speaker 1: which is part of the deal. But do you really
Speaker 1: want to see what happens tomorrow? Bro? I really want
Speaker 1: to see what happens tomorrow, because it wouldn't be the
Speaker 1: first time this year where they laid down to I
Speaker 1: think it was this year where they they lost to
Speaker 1: a bad team on the backer back and then the
Speaker 1: next night they smoked. I think they did it with
Speaker 1: the Rockets, or was it or was it the Nuggets.
Speaker 1: Earlier this season they hid it somebody where they looked
Speaker 1: like they lost to a bad team and then the
Speaker 1: night after they smoked a good team. Yeah, I want something.
Speaker 1: I expect Lebron to play. I mean, look if you
Speaker 1: look at the situation, and they were down sixteen when
Speaker 1: he checked out with six minutes left, and it was
Speaker 1: one of those deals where my my guess is he
Speaker 1: was again like I'm a little tight, I'm a little
Speaker 1: store tomorrow is a Muslin Like, let's just let's let's
Speaker 1: start treatment right now, because if I start treating it
Speaker 1: right now, I've got a better chance of my team tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't. I didn't take the sore ankle
Speaker 1: thing as a sign of concern. I mean, I could
Speaker 1: be wrong. I'm not Lebron. I don't know what he's thinking,
Speaker 1: but that's kind of that's kind of where I was
Speaker 1: at with that. Yeah, smart though, there there was no
Speaker 1: way they can really come back. I mean, so I
Speaker 1: think it was a smart move. So when people are
Speaker 1: panicking about him saying that the ankle was sword, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't pant it too much about that. I really just
Speaker 1: think that he started treatment early. Just like you said, Bro,
Speaker 1: they they've seen the game was out of reach. So
Speaker 1: he's like, you know what, let's get ready for tomorrow
Speaker 1: and as long as he plays tomorrow. I don't know, dude,
Speaker 1: I got this feeling about tomorrow, Bro, We'll see. I
Speaker 1: got a feeling at us feeling. They shocked a lot
Speaker 1: of people, Bro, because there's been a against a good team,
Speaker 1: against a good team, it's been so they've been a while.
Speaker 1: They played back to back to back to back games
Speaker 1: against like Washington. It was a good team. But they
Speaker 1: don't They're not significant in the NBA landscape, and I
Speaker 1: think the Lakers didn't take them that seriously. You had
Speaker 1: the Kings, you had this Raptors team, and then the
Speaker 1: there's one other game in there where they were playing
Speaker 1: against somebody who wasn't actively really relevant. But you know,
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is just like that, like
Speaker 1: tomorrow is. It's not a muslin, but it's one of
Speaker 1: those games where like you would certainly think that a
Speaker 1: desperation would kick in at some point. I mean it
Speaker 1: was desperation didn't kick in tonight, and you certainly hope
Speaker 1: that tomorrow would be tonight. Um, Julian, no problem. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just want to I just want to read this,
Speaker 1: uh this Lebron quote Lebron James on the planned tournament
Speaker 1: from Bill Aorum. Whoever came up with that sip needs
Speaker 1: to be fired. That's hilarious. For for whatever it's worth,
Speaker 1: I think complaining about the point in tournament is lame.
Speaker 1: I'm the opposite. I love it. I think it takes
Speaker 1: away this tanking stuff. I hate the Oklahoma City is
Speaker 1: I think it's complaining about the plane tournament. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: I thought you were talking about the place tournament. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I love it. It takes away all this tanking, this
Speaker 1: blamee taking even though Oklahoma City all these picks and
Speaker 1: they're still tanking doesn't make sense to me. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so I love it. And you know that's what they're
Speaker 1: facing here, like this is the consequence of not caring
Speaker 1: about any of these games, Like you, you might fall
Speaker 1: into this this plan tournament. So hopefully they win against Denver,
Speaker 1: and not just the plane tournament or not just the taking,
Speaker 1: it also gets all the teams that are in the playoff.
Speaker 1: I'm still trying, like like this where where Phoenix, Utah,
Speaker 1: Denver and the Clippers are all really good, Like finishing six,
Speaker 1: seven or eight isn't as big as a deal. Uh
Speaker 1: So literally, you know, look at you look at the standings.
Speaker 1: You might think, oh, like Lakers, Blazers, uh and and
Speaker 1: Mavericks are all going to finish somewhere in there. They
Speaker 1: might not care, but because of the playing tournament, it
Speaker 1: adds this extra urgency. So now it's not about finishing
Speaker 1: six or seven, it's about finishing six or playing and
Speaker 1: that's that just overcomplicates it to the point where teams
Speaker 1: have to try hard. But you know, Lebron, well, I'm
Speaker 1: a huge Lebron fan, but I'm not a fan of
Speaker 1: every little thing that he says. And that strikes me
Speaker 1: as pointless plaining, dude, like you just you guys literally
Speaker 1: just showed up against the team, um that was the
Speaker 1: twelve seed in the Eastern Conference and without a significant
Speaker 1: rotation players including you know, they're one of the best
Speaker 1: scoring guards and one of their best young prospects and
Speaker 1: and you literally just laid down and and gave up
Speaker 1: seventy in the first half. And there's no there's no
Speaker 1: there's no getting mad at Adam Silver about what happened
Speaker 1: just tonight, Like that's there's no one to look out
Speaker 1: there but in the mirror. Yeah, you make a good
Speaker 1: point about that, because a lot of the teams probably
Speaker 1: would be resting guys, like like the Clippers or even
Speaker 1: though it's probably be resting guys if if the playing
Speaker 1: tournament wasn't there, So now they're incentive to kind of
Speaker 1: stay stay in the good seeds. But but none of
Speaker 1: this like matters. If the Lakers aren't playing the way
Speaker 1: they need to write, it doesn't matter who they play
Speaker 1: in the first round. That's what's so fascinating to me
Speaker 1: about this is like I really think they don't care
Speaker 1: about who they play, Like all of us as fans
Speaker 1: probably don't want them to see the Clippers, but like
Speaker 1: I would love to know if they if they feel
Speaker 1: that way, if they like put the Clippers and some
Speaker 1: other tier than the than the Nuggets or the you know,
Speaker 1: the Jazz or the Suns, which it doesn't look like
Speaker 1: they do because they don't look like they care about
Speaker 1: winning these games in any time any type of official manner.
Speaker 1: So we'll see tomorrow. How they treat tomorrow's game will
Speaker 1: be really telling. To me. Um, A game tag against
Speaker 1: Toronto is kind of tough to gauge because they should
Speaker 1: have one tonight just based on their talent um, but
Speaker 1: they didn't because their their effort was so poor that
Speaker 1: they couldn't even bridge that gap. And then Kyle Lowry
Speaker 1: took tonight personal for some reason. But oh absolutely, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take this moment to take my personal Kyle Lowry
Speaker 1: victory lap, because if you ask yourself right now, if
Speaker 1: you'd rather have Kyle Lowry and Ben McLamore or KCP
Speaker 1: and and and THHD, oh that's right. They we would
Speaker 1: have had to give up Shrewder too, So maybe maybe
Speaker 1: maybe I'll just for all my victory lap. Um. Anyway, Uh,
Speaker 1: the point is is, I I do not take I
Speaker 1: do not feel any remorse for talking about how freaking
Speaker 1: good Kyle Lowry is because he's just really really good.
Speaker 1: But anyway, yeah, I do think I do think tomorrow
Speaker 1: will be it will be an interesting game to see
Speaker 1: how they approach it. Uh, mentally and and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you make a good point about the like trying to
Speaker 1: figure out what these teams think about each other, Like uh,
Speaker 1: like who knows, Like there there, it's all matchup based.
Speaker 1: Like the Clippers very clearly are terrified at Denver, like
Speaker 1: they cannot mentally aim that matchup. They just they just
Speaker 1: completely crumble under that matchup. And then you know, Phoenix
Speaker 1: just beats the living ship out of the Utah Jazz
Speaker 1: every time they put you know, and then and then
Speaker 1: the Lakers have had a lot of success with Denver.
Speaker 1: You know, they went one and one against them the season,
Speaker 1: but a d got hurt in the second one. And
Speaker 1: then uh, and like clearly like that when the Lakers
Speaker 1: really turned it on against Denver in that first matchup,
Speaker 1: like Denver really crumbled, And it's just everything's all that
Speaker 1: matchups And you know, it might literally be that simple.
Speaker 1: And the Lakers, for whatever it's worth, have a lot
Speaker 1: of flexibility to attack specific matchups. But I am interested
Speaker 1: to hear to see what what tomorrow one is it
Speaker 1: being like, yeah, I guess my my final point for
Speaker 1: it tonight would just be like I've been standing watching
Speaker 1: like I think a lot of the fans have been
Speaker 1: also standing watching, like watching the mass I think Dallas
Speaker 1: lost tonight if I'm to sacrament but like, but none
Speaker 1: of that matters that the Lakers aren't playing the way
Speaker 1: they need to be, right, there's no point of me
Speaker 1: watching Dallas lose. That the Lakers are gonna drop all
Speaker 1: these games. So they have to get themselves right, get
Speaker 1: get playing well, get lineups. That makes sense that they're
Speaker 1: gonna play going forward. And they have eight games left now,
Speaker 1: so I mean that's the same amount as the Bubble games,
Speaker 1: So I guess, I guess maybe maybe that would be
Speaker 1: their marker to start start really pushing for these games,
Speaker 1: to start to start trying and get get the effort going.
Speaker 1: Hopefully Lebron's plays tomorrow as well, but again you have
Speaker 1: tomorrow will be big for me to see how the
Speaker 1: rotations play out, how they defend Yokis, do they do it?
Speaker 1: Do they do anything like match of dependence, try to
Speaker 1: scheme amount double team And I'm just interested to see
Speaker 1: that if if BOTHO can't get any actual data for
Speaker 1: how to defend Denver, because if they just don't play
Speaker 1: with effort, then there will be no point. You won't
Speaker 1: learn anything from from tomorrow's game, as they didn't learn
Speaker 1: anything from tonight gave up seventy one points in the
Speaker 1: first half. You don't learn anything from a game tonight,
Speaker 1: am I exactly agree. Um, everyone who hopped in here
Speaker 1: and listened with us, I sincerely appreciate it. It looks like,
Speaker 1: judging from what I can tell from my wife's phone here,
Speaker 1: that my attempted screen capture from Jason tims Burner account
Speaker 1: appears to have worked. UM, so I should be able
Speaker 1: to give you guys a full podcast version of this
Speaker 1: on the State of the Lakers podcast feed. You can
Speaker 1: find it on my Twitter page. You can find it
Speaker 1: on Roger's Twitter page. We usually do two or three
Speaker 1: shows a week. We may even do another one tomorrow night. Uh,
Speaker 1: depending on whether or not Rog has time for it.
Speaker 1: We'll see. Um, I'm just kidding anyway. I thank you
Speaker 1: guys so much for listening to Roger. I apprecient you
Speaker 1: as always. Uh. We've obviously we're thankful to have all
Speaker 1: you guys hop on and give us some questions comments.
Speaker 1: Maples and Venet. We appreciate you guys as well, and
Speaker 1: we will see you guys tomorrow