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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. Welcome to Lakers Tonight, presented by FanDuel
Speaker 1: Here at the Volume, I am Jason Tim. Happy Friday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope you all had a great week and that
Speaker 1: you have big plans for the weekend. We are going
Speaker 1: to talk a ton of Lakers tonight. That was, you know,
Speaker 1: probably the most frustrating basketball game that I can remember
Speaker 1: watching when you factor in all of the details surrounding
Speaker 1: the situation. This Lakers team has been super frustrating all season,
Speaker 1: but there have been varying reasons why it was livable
Speaker 1: for one reason or another, whether it was early in
Speaker 1: the season so you knew there was a long runway
Speaker 1: to try to figure things out, or you could point
Speaker 1: to a clear personnel issue like an injury or the
Speaker 1: need to play a player that you would never in
Speaker 1: a million years play unless you absolutely had to because
Speaker 1: you were back against was against the wall with a
Speaker 1: bunch of unforeseen circumstances. This was not any of that.
Speaker 1: This was as close to a must win as you
Speaker 1: could possibly imagine for this team. They had more than
Speaker 1: enough personnel available to win the game handily, and not
Speaker 1: only did they lose, but they actively sabotaged themselves, which
Speaker 1: is something that has been a very persistent problem throughout
Speaker 1: the entire season. It's like that coach from the Arizona
Speaker 1: Cardinals after that famous Monday night football loss. They are
Speaker 1: who we thought they were. When a team tells you
Speaker 1: everything they are about themselves over a massive, massive sample size,
Speaker 1: it's unrealistic to expect them to change. And a lot
Speaker 1: of that's on me. If you guys, remember, I last
Speaker 1: night laid out the case for how a Lakers playing
Speaker 1: birth could realistically happen and how they could use that
Speaker 1: birth to potentially make some noise in a playoff run.
Speaker 1: And I explained to you guys using one stat that
Speaker 1: they actually had a better punch than they've shown for
Speaker 1: most of the season. I pointed out that in a
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty four minutes this season, coming into tonight,
Speaker 1: with Lebron, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook on the floor
Speaker 1: with no center, they were plus eleven point for net,
Speaker 1: meaning they were outscoring teams by eleven and a half
Speaker 1: points per one possessions. But there was a very important
Speaker 1: stat that I threw out before that. If you guys
Speaker 1: remember I said there are some bad Lebron in a
Speaker 1: D stats, And I told you that this season, coming
Speaker 1: into tonight, when the Lakers had Lebron and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: on the floor together, they had a negative net rating
Speaker 1: and one that was worse than they were last year
Speaker 1: with Lebron and a D on the bench at the
Speaker 1: same time. So that's how they've been this season with
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D on the floor. So what's the
Speaker 1: difference between those two scenarios. Why are Lebron, a D
Speaker 1: and Russ with no center playing relatively well, And why
Speaker 1: are Lebron and a D in general and the totality
Speaker 1: of their minutes playing so poorly? And the obvious reason
Speaker 1: why was throughout the entire season the Lakers, either by
Speaker 1: either forced by injury at various points or simply because
Speaker 1: of malpractice from the coaching staff, they very frequently played
Speaker 1: their worst players alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Basketball,
Speaker 1: you know, coaches have, like there's coaches have a philosophy
Speaker 1: that they bring to a situation. Frank Vogel has a
Speaker 1: core philosophy, right, and it centers around controlling the interior
Speaker 1: as a defensive team, shutting off the paint, but also rebounding,
Speaker 1: controlling the glass. It's all about physical dominance and with
Speaker 1: the Kers that worked. That's why I've been so defensive
Speaker 1: of Frank Vogel over this entire span. But the league
Speaker 1: has changed a lot in the last two years, and
Speaker 1: that particular team was so skilled down the roster. When
Speaker 1: you really looked at all the players they had in
Speaker 1: their rotation, Alex Crusoe Contavious called, well, Pope Kyle Kuzma
Speaker 1: that was a better version of Dwight Howard. JaVale McGee
Speaker 1: is a much better backup center than anybody they had
Speaker 1: that season. He was actually started. That team was significantly
Speaker 1: more talented. This team is not so much, so you
Speaker 1: can't afford to play away from your strengths. And you know,
Speaker 1: there's it's the concept. It's it's like the concept of
Speaker 1: confirmation bias, confirmation biases, seeing something that that comes when
Speaker 1: you have a specific worldview, You're gonna gravitate towards data,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna gravitate towards evidence that confirms your belief.
Speaker 1: We have had so much evidence this year that this
Speaker 1: team is at their best when Danny Davis is at
Speaker 1: the center position and they play their younger players, when
Speaker 1: they play Austin Reeves, when they play Stanley Johnson, when
Speaker 1: they play Malik Monk alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: That is when this team has been at its best.
Speaker 1: And there's been significant data to back that up. But
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel has consistently ignored that data. I told you guys,
Speaker 1: after they beat the Jazz earlier this season, they beat
Speaker 1: the Jazz, they run him off the floor. It's that
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson, Lebron pick and roll at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, and there was an amazing lineup that finished
Speaker 1: the game as Austin Reeves, Malik Monks, Stanley Johnson, Lebron
Speaker 1: and I believe it might have been Tailing. I can't
Speaker 1: remember who the fourth fifth guy was, but they had
Speaker 1: a core lineup that controlled that game in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: Frank did not play that lineup a single minute the
Speaker 1: next game, not a single minute. So he had data
Speaker 1: right there in his face, proof that what he was
Speaker 1: doing was working with that group, and he completely ignored
Speaker 1: it and went back to what he was comfortable with
Speaker 1: and then next game. That's confirmation bias. That's seeing two
Speaker 1: sets of data, a data that goes against your worldview
Speaker 1: and data that goes towards your worldview, and ignoring the data,
Speaker 1: the clear and obvious data that goes against your worldview.
Speaker 1: Frank doesn't like to play this way. Frank doesn't want
Speaker 1: to play Anthony Davis at center. He loves having two
Speaker 1: bigs on the floor. He wants to play traditional old
Speaker 1: school plotting basketball. That's what he wants to do. He
Speaker 1: wants to live in the half court and play like
Speaker 1: he did with Roy Hibbert in the Indiana Pacers, which
Speaker 1: worked back in the day. This is a completely different
Speaker 1: league now. His worldview is inherently flawed for this NBA
Speaker 1: in the year two. So here we go fast forward
Speaker 1: to today, Like I point out three minutes Lebron a
Speaker 1: D no center plus eleven point four Lebron a D
Speaker 1: in totality negative. So is Lee, that's the way they
Speaker 1: need to play Lebron and a D at center. But
Speaker 1: he in that first half tonight, you played twenty four
Speaker 1: minutes of basketball. By my count, they played about three
Speaker 1: minutes and fourteen seconds with Lebron and a D and
Speaker 1: no center, with ross three minutes and fourteen seconds out
Speaker 1: of twenty eight available. So all of the data in
Speaker 1: the world, all of the success in the world screaming
Speaker 1: that you need to play this way, but Frank wants
Speaker 1: to play his way. And you know, obviously towards the
Speaker 1: end of the game, there was a there was a
Speaker 1: point about seven and a half minutes left in the
Speaker 1: third quarter where Frank did finally go. He took Dwight
Speaker 1: out of the game. He he he played Lebron, a D
Speaker 1: and Russ without a center, Bingo bengo. They went on
Speaker 1: a run right away. Lebron is just getting to the
Speaker 1: basket every single time down the floor. He actually, I
Speaker 1: have a big feeling that Lebron, like you know, Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d are are They look like themselves for
Speaker 1: the most part tonight right. But the context here is
Speaker 1: is neither of them has played consistently of late, so
Speaker 1: they're conditioning wasn't there. This was a game you had
Speaker 1: to win early. This was a game you had to
Speaker 1: avoid crunch time at all costs, because you knew that
Speaker 1: the longer the game dragged on, the longer it was competitive,
Speaker 1: the more likely Lebron and a d S rust and
Speaker 1: conditioning would become a problem. And it did. Lebron fired
Speaker 1: off everything he had in the tank in that third quarter,
Speaker 1: had absolutely no lift in the fourth. Don't think it
Speaker 1: was the ankle. I think it was fatigue. It's It's
Speaker 1: completely unrealistic to expect him to take a bunch of
Speaker 1: time off like that and then to just walk back
Speaker 1: onto a basketball court and be able to play forty
Speaker 1: minutes of high level NBA basketball. That's unrealistic. This was
Speaker 1: a game where you had to come in and play
Speaker 1: to your strengths and close the deal early. But instead
Speaker 1: it was close. And what do I always tell you, guys,
Speaker 1: if a game is close at the end, literally anything
Speaker 1: can happen. I remember watching a game in the bubble
Speaker 1: in and I watched Dj Augustine of the Orlando Magic
Speaker 1: personally execute the Milwaukee Bucks with a couple of big
Speaker 1: shots at the end of the game because they played
Speaker 1: with their food all night. They ended up winning the
Speaker 1: next four games and won the series. But I can't
Speaker 1: tell you how many times in my time watching basketball
Speaker 1: I've seen a team play with their food for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: Usually it's just effort related. The Lakers actively sabotaged themselves
Speaker 1: with strategy. But you find yourself in a close game,
Speaker 1: there's eight minutes left and anything can happen, So guess
Speaker 1: what happens. Jonas Valanciinas makes a weird lurching three from
Speaker 1: the top of the key, because that's the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that can happen in a close game. There's a
Speaker 1: player where Jonas Valancionas post up Anthony Davis and uses
Speaker 1: his off arm to clear space for the shot and
Speaker 1: gets a foul call. I thought it was a really
Speaker 1: bad call, but guess what happens in really close games,
Speaker 1: Sometimes really bad calls. It's part of the deal. There
Speaker 1: were some really good looks that people missed at the
Speaker 1: end of the game for the Lakers. What happens when
Speaker 1: you're in a close game, sometimes you missed shots. This
Speaker 1: just happened last week. It might have been a week ago,
Speaker 1: it might have been two weeks ago against Washington, played
Speaker 1: with their food blue lead. It was close. Next thing
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron was missing a wide open three. At
Speaker 1: the end, Russ missed a wide open three and they
Speaker 1: got killed by Kris STAPs. Porzingis making contested jump shots
Speaker 1: because that's what happens when you mess around with the
Speaker 1: team and get into a close game. This was This
Speaker 1: is a team I I told you guys yesterday if
Speaker 1: Lebron and a d really were engaged, which I thought
Speaker 1: they were tonight, but there was no reason in the
Speaker 1: world why they shouldn't go five and one down the
Speaker 1: stretch because they are. Even with all of the issues
Speaker 1: surrounding the two of them on the roster this year,
Speaker 1: they're good enough to win these games. They're good enough
Speaker 1: to beat the Nuggets. They're good enough to beat Golden
Speaker 1: State if Steph Curry's her. They're good enough to beat
Speaker 1: everybody remaining on their schedule. But the Suns. That's how
Speaker 1: good they are. They're good enough to go out tonight
Speaker 1: and have the Pelicans down to going into the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter to where Lebron and a D could run out
Speaker 1: of gas and be fatigued and it could not be
Speaker 1: a problem. But instead they played with their food and
Speaker 1: instead Frank went right, this, this is ridiculous. So, first
Speaker 1: of all, the starters, I've told you guys all season.
Speaker 1: I've done videos on it, I've done breakdowns, I've shown
Speaker 1: you guys numbers. I've shown you everything that I can
Speaker 1: to show that the best players on the roster where
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves, Stanley Johnson, Malik Monk, and Taylor Horton Tucker
Speaker 1: alongside Lebron and a D. Austin Reeves didn't play tonight.
Speaker 1: I I get it, he hadn't played super well in
Speaker 1: the previous few games. But if you know anything about
Speaker 1: the game of basketball, you know guys like Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: glue guys, guys who are fifth then in lineups. They
Speaker 1: require talent alongside them to get them the easy opportunities
Speaker 1: that they capitalize on. Austin Reeves was always gonna look
Speaker 1: worse with Lebron and a D off the floor. He's
Speaker 1: not a guy that can create a ton of things
Speaker 1: for himself against that defense. He's not as a guy
Speaker 1: who's gonna thrive if he's being guarded all the time.
Speaker 1: He was going to play a lot better with Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d coming back. There was no reason in
Speaker 1: the world to playoffs, to play Avery Bradley over him tonight.
Speaker 1: That isn't a completely inconscionable decision. That is, there is
Speaker 1: no defense for it. I cannot even fathom a reason
Speaker 1: why he would do so. And guess what. Guess who
Speaker 1: was cooking like crazy to start the game. C J McCollum.
Speaker 1: Why can c J. McCollum is bigger than Avery Bradley,
Speaker 1: He's smarter than Avery Bradley, and Avery Bradley is not
Speaker 1: good enough on ball anymore to really disrupt players like that,
Speaker 1: and he's a terrible off ball defender. He freelances like crazy.
Speaker 1: Play in the first quarter, Dwight Howard's got Brandon Ingram
Speaker 1: on a switch. There are two Pelican bigs under the basket.
Speaker 1: Uh Lebron James is waiting under the basket. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is waiting under the basket. Who cares if Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: gets beat off the dribble. Avery Bradley just randomly runs
Speaker 1: over and double teams. Brandon Ingram gives up a wide
Speaker 1: open three to see J McCollum, and you can guess
Speaker 1: how that went. Austin Reeves doesn't make that kind of mistake.
Speaker 1: He's a low He's a high floor, low ceiling guy.
Speaker 1: He's the perfect guy to be the fifth man in
Speaker 1: the lineup. He doesn't freelance, he doesn't make mistakes. He
Speaker 1: simply does his job. He never forces a bad shot,
Speaker 1: he attacks close outs and makes great reads. He is
Speaker 1: the ideal player to put alongside Rustle, Lebron and Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: And he did not play tonight. It's completely indefensible. First
Speaker 1: run someb of the game, they put Monk in for us.
Speaker 1: That's fine. Then they bring in DJ Augustine for Dwight Howard.
Speaker 1: So you go small and your response is to have
Speaker 1: Malik Monkey DJ Augustine on the floor. DJ Augustine needed
Speaker 1: to play earlier when this team was decimated by injuries.
Speaker 1: There was no reason in the world for him to
Speaker 1: be in the rotation tonight, not a single reason in
Speaker 1: the world. And then we go into the second quarter.
Speaker 1: You have Lebron, James and Anthony Davis on your team,
Speaker 1: and you started the second quarter with DJ Augustine, Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: Malik Monks, Stanley Johnson, and when you in Gabriel, that's
Speaker 1: an indefensible decision. And then as soon as you brought
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis back in the middle of the second quarter,
Speaker 1: here came d White Howard with him. I just it's
Speaker 1: been like this all season. You can't afford as a
Speaker 1: basketball team to have this many factors working against you.
Speaker 1: We just saw it with the Memphis Grizzlies, who beat
Speaker 1: the ship out of the Phoenix Suns tonight. It was
Speaker 1: that relatively close and competitive with Memphis controlled that game.
Speaker 1: They did it without their players, their best players. They
Speaker 1: did it without Jaren Jackson Jr. Without Steven Adams, without
Speaker 1: John Morant, without Desmond Baine, because that's the only thing
Speaker 1: that was working against them tonight, missing players. They don't
Speaker 1: have a scheme that actively goes against their strengths. They
Speaker 1: don't have a coach that is stubbornly entrenched in his
Speaker 1: in his outdated approach to the game of basketball. They
Speaker 1: don't have a front office in ownership group that is
Speaker 1: is just steeped in in in like weird familial dynamics
Speaker 1: and inability to empower the proper people in the job.
Speaker 1: They don't have those issues, so they can overcome one
Speaker 1: issue this Laker team can afford to have with all
Speaker 1: of the issues they have with the rust mistake and
Speaker 1: everything that's surrounded that. Letting Alex Cruso go having these
Speaker 1: inferior role players, you can't afford to then have a
Speaker 1: coach that also doesn't play the good players you have.
Speaker 1: I've done so much to defend Frank Vogel over the
Speaker 1: course of this season because I have the utmost respect
Speaker 1: for what he's capable of as a defensive coach when
Speaker 1: he's given the tools. But this is just look, dude,
Speaker 1: you've got to adapt, and the Lakers have a handful
Speaker 1: of guys on their roster that are completely unwilling to
Speaker 1: do so. Anthony Davis thinks he's Kevin Durant and his
Speaker 1: insistent on taking really difficult midrange jump shots for a
Speaker 1: lot of his offense. It wasn't so bad tonight, but
Speaker 1: that's been an issue over the course of the last
Speaker 1: two years. You've got Russell Westbrook, who literally went on
Speaker 1: yet another interview yesterday sobs story. I'm just pushing through
Speaker 1: a really tough season, not a single word out of
Speaker 1: his mouth about how he's one of the least skilled
Speaker 1: guards in the entire NBA. Not a single word out
Speaker 1: of his mouth about how, you know, hey, maybe this
Speaker 1: season has shown me that I need to make some
Speaker 1: improvements this offseason in the skill areas of my game.
Speaker 1: And then you've got Frank Vogel who thinks it's two
Speaker 1: thousand their team with Roy Hibbert. Still there's way too
Speaker 1: much stubbornness on this roster. There's way too much stubbornness
Speaker 1: in this system. Now, they're not completely dead. They can
Speaker 1: overcome this. I said they'd go five and one. Maybe
Speaker 1: they go four and two and they still get into
Speaker 1: the playing spot. But my optimism was centered around them
Speaker 1: playing into their strengths. I did that whole video yesterday,
Speaker 1: and they went out and tossed it all in the garbage.
Speaker 1: Everything they learned over the course of the season they
Speaker 1: tossed in the garbage. And so now do I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna make the playing game. No, because they gotta
Speaker 1: go beat Denver on Sunday, And if they continue to
Speaker 1: do the same thing they did tonight, they're gonna lose
Speaker 1: to Denver on Sunday. So they're not going to make
Speaker 1: the playing tournament and they're gonna get eliminated. They're gonna
Speaker 1: go home early, and next thing you know, at the
Speaker 1: blame aim will start and Franco get fired and Russell
Speaker 1: get traded away, and they'll they'll pretend everything's fine. But
Speaker 1: if this team doesn't start getting smarter, they're not going
Speaker 1: to be able to overcome some of the restrictions they
Speaker 1: have with their cap sheet. When you're operating on the
Speaker 1: fringes like this, when you've got Lebron and Anton Davis
Speaker 1: making a ton of money and you've got this albatross
Speaker 1: of a RUSS contract that you have to deal with,
Speaker 1: you have to be smart. You have to be the
Speaker 1: smarter team. You can't be the dumb team. I talked
Speaker 1: a lot about this yesterday with the Clippers. Right down
Speaker 1: the hall in Crypto dot com arena. There is a
Speaker 1: team that has been dealing with significantly lesser talent this
Speaker 1: season who has been significantly better. Why Because they don't
Speaker 1: have nepotism in their front office, because they hire smart
Speaker 1: people to do the job. Because they have a coach
Speaker 1: that literally just in the last four or five years,
Speaker 1: has completely changed his approach and philosophy of the game.
Speaker 1: When he was in Cleveland, he was basically Doc Rivers Light.
Speaker 1: Now he's Mr five out, Mr embraced all of the
Speaker 1: modern trends in basketball. That that team is from the
Speaker 1: top down so incredibly smart. And in this Laker team,
Speaker 1: it basically has Lebron James going for it once again tonight.
Speaker 1: Just this could have been even worse if Lebron didn't
Speaker 1: go crazy like he did in the third quarter. And
Speaker 1: it's unfore and again he had to do that in
Speaker 1: the third quarter to keep that game competitive and they
Speaker 1: were only up by one going into the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: and he was out of gas. That's you can't ask
Speaker 1: that of Lebron at this point of it in his career.
Speaker 1: He can't be get fifty every night. Guy. No one's
Speaker 1: ever been that guy, not since Wilt and that was
Speaker 1: a completely different sport. I just it's as discouraging as
Speaker 1: anything that I can remember watching as a fan. You know,
Speaker 1: I am not your traditional Lakers fan. I grew up
Speaker 1: in Tucson, Arizona. But in twenty nineteen I started covering
Speaker 1: the team. I fell in love with the team because
Speaker 1: that team was so much fun. They had they played
Speaker 1: directly into their strengths. The coach was perfect for the
Speaker 1: roster they had. Lebron and Nade were completely dialed in.
Speaker 1: They tried harder than everybody every single night, and they
Speaker 1: were winners. Those dudes were winners, and it was a
Speaker 1: fun team to cover. And literally this season has been
Speaker 1: such a departure from that, it's like it's hardly even recognizable,
Speaker 1: and and it is. It is what it is. You know,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, he looked fine, but this dude hasn't been
Speaker 1: able to stay on the court for more than a
Speaker 1: handful of games at a time, literally since the bubble.
Speaker 1: It's gonna take a while for him to get back
Speaker 1: to where he's at. Lebron is dealing with an injury himself.
Speaker 1: He's not in shape yet, he doesn't have his rhythm yet.
Speaker 1: You you can't afford right now to not bring your
Speaker 1: best to the table every night, and this team willingly,
Speaker 1: deliberately does not bring their best. The last thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to hit on with the Lakers before we move
Speaker 1: on was Russ. You know he. I thought it was
Speaker 1: a classic Russ game in the sense that he had
Speaker 1: a lot of bad that he brought to the table,
Speaker 1: but he also had a lot of good that he
Speaker 1: brought to the table. When he was guarding brandon Ingram
Speaker 1: in isolation, he did a really nice job but holding
Speaker 1: his ground with physicality, making brandon Ingram shoot over the top.
Speaker 1: He did something that I've always thought was really smart.
Speaker 1: When you're a shorter defender, don't try to block the shot,
Speaker 1: don't try to contest the shot, contest the face. He's
Speaker 1: doing a really nice job of just getting his hand
Speaker 1: right there in in brandon Ingram's face, and he made
Speaker 1: him miss some shots. It was good defense. But then
Speaker 1: when he would getting pick and roll coverage, he kept
Speaker 1: dying on the screens. When he would get matched up
Speaker 1: with c. J. McCollum, he did a really bad job
Speaker 1: because it's a little bit more labor intensive. And then
Speaker 1: you know, this is the classic thing that happens with
Speaker 1: Russ all the time. Makes two huge threes early fourth
Speaker 1: quarter to put the team up eight. But the problem
Speaker 1: is is this season he's been shooting twenty eight point
Speaker 1: five percent on catch and shoot threes coming into tonight
Speaker 1: point five percent. And what did he do? A few
Speaker 1: possessions later? He took an off the dribble three on
Speaker 1: the left wing and air balled. Sandwiching those two threes
Speaker 1: was two air balls mixed in with a ton of
Speaker 1: trash talk, and the team gave up sixty four points
Speaker 1: in the second half with Lebron and a D on
Speaker 1: the floor. It's just not good enough. I I think
Speaker 1: Russ has to Russ has to come to terms with
Speaker 1: the fact that he needs to completely adjust the way
Speaker 1: he plays basketball. He's got to go into this offseason
Speaker 1: and massively improve the skill areas of this game. I
Speaker 1: don't understand how he doesn't look across the way and
Speaker 1: see c Jim McCollum and think I need to be
Speaker 1: able to do that stuff. All these NBA guards are
Speaker 1: incredible with what they can do with the basketball, and
Speaker 1: Russ just has not made an attempt to build that
Speaker 1: out in his game. Just simply has not put the
Speaker 1: work in and like and that's what I'm That's what
Speaker 1: I'm sick of their talking trash to you, Russ, when
Speaker 1: you airball that shot because you actually can't shoot, and
Speaker 1: the two threes you made are two of the few
Speaker 1: that you've made, because when you've cotton shot threes this year,
Speaker 1: you've made less than of them. That's why they're talking trash.
Speaker 1: So you rubbing it in their face doesn't actually accomplish anything.
Speaker 1: The only thing that's going to accomplish anything is you
Speaker 1: getting in the gym this summer. Man, work on your game.
Speaker 1: You can't be six three lebron every more anymore. That
Speaker 1: just runs people over. You've got to get more skilled.
Speaker 1: But an insummation to put a bow on this whole
Speaker 1: thing with the Lakers, I'm annoyed, I'm frustrated. I I
Speaker 1: this season just needs to be put in the review mirror,
Speaker 1: and that that that there's so much self reflection that
Speaker 1: needs to be done within that franchise. And it figures
Speaker 1: that the final nail in the coffin would be Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel dipping right back into every mistake he made at
Speaker 1: the start of the season, with all of the evidence
Speaker 1: laid out in front of him. All Right, we're gonna
Speaker 1: bring my guy Carson to play some games. How's it going, man,
Speaker 1: I'm great, Jason, how are you? I'm annoyed? Man? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I actually could pick up on that. All right, well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna pick the mood up here because we've got
Speaker 1: the five biggest questions from around the NBA for you tonight.
Speaker 1: And the first one is related to a game that
Speaker 1: you already mentioned, and that was the Grizzlies going out
Speaker 1: and beating the healthy Sons without four of their top guys.
Speaker 1: And they're now twenty and two without Jaw this season.
Speaker 1: So is that a big deal to you? You know,
Speaker 1: it's funny because I I remember when the Nets lost
Speaker 1: in Memphis without Job. The other night, I did this
Speaker 1: whole thing about how young athletic teams at home in
Speaker 1: front of a raucous crowd or like a buzz saw
Speaker 1: when they really really want to win a game. And
Speaker 1: I watched the first few minutes of that game, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, textbook buzz saw. Because you know, and
Speaker 1: this is this is the twenty and two thing means nothing.
Speaker 1: It relates to Jaw, has nothing to do with how
Speaker 1: valuable Jaws to the team, has nothing to do with
Speaker 1: this team's ceiling in terms of what it looks like
Speaker 1: when it has John the floor. What it does tell
Speaker 1: me is that this team, you know, I've said a
Speaker 1: lot about the Suns that they are the most talented
Speaker 1: team in the NBA from top to bottom. What Memphis
Speaker 1: is showing us by them going twenty in two without
Speaker 1: Jaw is that they are very much right up there
Speaker 1: with Phoenix, not quite there. I don't think they quite
Speaker 1: have the high end players, but I think I think
Speaker 1: Memphis has a lot more talent than we've given them
Speaker 1: credit for, and that's something we should probably factor in
Speaker 1: when we're talking about their ceiling. Yeah, I mean you
Speaker 1: mentioned the talent there, but I think the number to
Speaker 1: me that stands out most from when they haven't had
Speaker 1: Jaws that in those twenty two games, they have a
Speaker 1: defensive rating of one oh one point five, which would
Speaker 1: be like almost five points better than the best actual
Speaker 1: defense in the league. And I just think since Taylor
Speaker 1: Jenkins got there, he has done such a remarkable job
Speaker 1: of establishing a defensive culture with, like you said, a
Speaker 1: young group. That's abnormal to be one of the five
Speaker 1: six youngest teams in the league and be that great defensively.
Speaker 1: So do you think that he deserves more credit in
Speaker 1: like the Coach of the Year conversation? Is he under
Speaker 1: underappreciated in that way? Absolutely? I I would credit the
Speaker 1: front office as well, But like you know, you hit
Speaker 1: the word on the head. It's if you hit the
Speaker 1: nail on the head with that word culture, because you're right,
Speaker 1: it's super uncommon for young basketball teams to be really
Speaker 1: good on the defensive end of the floor. The main
Speaker 1: reason why is because defense is about so defense is
Speaker 1: so much more complicated than people think. Like Lebron came
Speaker 1: into the league as an absolute freak athlete. He was
Speaker 1: not a good defensive player the first three or four
Speaker 1: years that he was in the league because defense is
Speaker 1: so so much about focus, so that you it is
Speaker 1: such a brain game that people don't understand. And I
Speaker 1: remember this even when I was playing, Like the extent
Speaker 1: of time you have to spend memorizing plays so that
Speaker 1: you don't get surprised by screens. Like it's just it's
Speaker 1: such a silly thing to think about, but like how often,
Speaker 1: Like because if you're not paying attention and you don't
Speaker 1: know where the screen is coming from, teams disguise actions
Speaker 1: really well and you can run headlong into somebody in
Speaker 1: the whole defensive concept breaks down. It is so difficult
Speaker 1: to be a good defensive player, and it is so
Speaker 1: much It's so much more than just are you big,
Speaker 1: strong and fast and so to Taylor Jenkins is credit
Speaker 1: you know, because there's so many things in offense that
Speaker 1: you can't control making shots. You know, how the rhythm
Speaker 1: role players are role players are they gonna feel good
Speaker 1: one night or they're gonna feel bad one night. But
Speaker 1: there's one thing that you can always control, and it's
Speaker 1: what you do on the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: because it's all about effort and focus. And so to
Speaker 1: Taylor Jenkins credit, he's established a culture there and as
Speaker 1: long as it's like it's like keeping the main thing,
Speaker 1: the main thing, as long as that's always on the
Speaker 1: front burner, as long as that's always the thing at
Speaker 1: the top of the player's minds, and you established that early,
Speaker 1: it becomes almost like reactionary. It's almost like instinctual. You
Speaker 1: defend because that's just what you do. And that's what's
Speaker 1: so hard about this Laker team is like they they
Speaker 1: have the opposite of that instinct. They have to go
Speaker 1: out of their way to defend because it's not instinctual
Speaker 1: for them because it is not ingrained in their culture
Speaker 1: and it but to Taylor Jenkins credit, like, that's really
Speaker 1: difficult to do with young players, and he somehow managed
Speaker 1: to pull it off. So now that they are standing
Speaker 1: here and they're lapping the competition for the second best
Speaker 1: record in the league. What do you think is a
Speaker 1: successful season for them at this point when it comes
Speaker 1: to how far they can get in the playoffs. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's an interesting question. I mean, they're not gonna say
Speaker 1: this kind of thing in the locker room. In the
Speaker 1: locker room, they're talking title or bust, as they should,
Speaker 1: because when you when you have the second best, like
Speaker 1: people don't realize this, Like you know, we were just
Speaker 1: talking about home court and the buzz saw. They're going
Speaker 1: to have home court over anybody in the Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: if they make it to the finals. So Memphis basically
Speaker 1: has the home court locked up for the first round,
Speaker 1: the second round, and the finals. The only round that
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to go on the road is if
Speaker 1: they play Phoenix, So they they they are poised and
Speaker 1: set for a legitimate playoff run here. Now I expect
Speaker 1: that they would lose to Phoenix and possibly earlier because
Speaker 1: you know, the other the next and the next issue
Speaker 1: with youth is understanding how to win in a playoff environment.
Speaker 1: And you know, historically young teams have struggled there. There
Speaker 1: the thunder and two thousand twelve are a great example.
Speaker 1: They were favored going into that series. They were significantly
Speaker 1: more talented the the Heat were just smarter, and as
Speaker 1: that series progressed, they won five four games to one
Speaker 1: in a series that probably should have gone six or
Speaker 1: seven games. Because they won all of the basketball i
Speaker 1: Q areas of the game. That's gonna be their biggest shortcoming.
Speaker 1: But I would say if they made it to the
Speaker 1: Western Conference finals and went down admirably in like six games,
Speaker 1: that's a massive resounding success for the season. But I'm
Speaker 1: sure inside the locker room they're talking title or bust.
Speaker 1: All right, biggest question from around the league tonight number two.
Speaker 1: The Nuggets lost tonight. Yokich had thirty eight nineteen and eight.
Speaker 1: But still that m v P race is getting so
Speaker 1: tight right now with the way that Janice has been
Speaker 1: surging as of late. So does that loss hurt Yoki's
Speaker 1: MVP case? You know, I don't think Yokich is hurting
Speaker 1: his mv keep the m v P case as much
Speaker 1: as as Janice is helping it. So the real you know,
Speaker 1: Yoki just considered the MVP front runner for two reasons,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, One is he's been incredible. But two is,
Speaker 1: we don't have a traditional candidate in the sense that
Speaker 1: we don't we didn't have like one of the best
Speaker 1: records in the league that has like a bona fide
Speaker 1: like Titan of the NBA at the top. Right. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not like, you know, Steph Curry and the Warriors
Speaker 1: in two thousand sixteen. It's not like Lebron James and
Speaker 1: the Heat in two thousand thirteen. You don't have these
Speaker 1: this like best team in the league, clearly one of
Speaker 1: the best players. And so Yoki's kind of capitalized on that.
Speaker 1: He's gonna end up finishing up with the sixth seed,
Speaker 1: and Janice is gonna end up probably is the one seed,
Speaker 1: averaging thirty thirty points per game and potentially winning the
Speaker 1: scoring title depending on how things go with Lebron here
Speaker 1: down the stretch. So, like I I think Janice is
Speaker 1: just starting to demonstrate to us a very traditional m
Speaker 1: v P case and that's why he should win. And
Speaker 1: for the record, I'm okay with it, Like I really
Speaker 1: like Yoki, but I think we've jumped the gun on
Speaker 1: him a little bit. You can run him off the
Speaker 1: floor and transition and he's and he's only good defensively
Speaker 1: and drop coverage, so there's a lot of different ways
Speaker 1: you can attack him. He has some glaring weaknesses, and
Speaker 1: we just have guys at the top of the league
Speaker 1: that don't have glaring weaknesses. And you know, you guys
Speaker 1: know me like, I'm always going to defer to the
Speaker 1: proven guys. And I would much rather see Yannice get
Speaker 1: the trophy than Yoki's for so many different reasons, not
Speaker 1: the least of which is he's just a better basketball
Speaker 1: player and in almost every facet of the game. Do
Speaker 1: you feel like that decision is kind of made for
Speaker 1: you at this point or is there something that can
Speaker 1: still happen down the stretch in these last five six games.
Speaker 1: You know, if for whatever reason, the Bucks don't get
Speaker 1: the one seed, Yokich will get it, just because of
Speaker 1: the fact that he's got such strong voter support. Vote
Speaker 1: A huge portion of the voter base relies on advanced
Speaker 1: metrics for their decision. I I I find catch all
Speaker 1: metrics to be almost offensive because basketball is such a
Speaker 1: beautiful and complicated sport. I don't understand the need to
Speaker 1: try to apply one number to a player's impact. I
Speaker 1: respect the people who try to figure that out. I
Speaker 1: just for me, it's like basketball blasphemy, so I avoid
Speaker 1: it with a ten foot poll. But like Yokich has
Speaker 1: the support of all the advanced metrics, and a lot
Speaker 1: of the voters rely on that kind of thing. They
Speaker 1: would love for a reason to vote for him. So
Speaker 1: if Jannest for whatever reason doesn't get the one seed,
Speaker 1: I think Yoki gets it easy. But I I think
Speaker 1: yok I think I think Janice sees that as an
Speaker 1: achievable a goal, and the team is good enough to
Speaker 1: get the wins to do it, so I would expect
Speaker 1: your honest to get it. Although that I think the
Speaker 1: mentioning players tonight had more to do with the back
Speaker 1: to back than them punting the one seed. I will
Speaker 1: say Yoki's winning it would be a really interesting rewriting
Speaker 1: of the president, just because even though the Nuggets have
Speaker 1: been statistically with him on the floor like on par
Speaker 1: even with the Bucks, they've been a great team. I
Speaker 1: think from eight until last year, Jordans won it as
Speaker 1: a three seed eight eight, and then Russ wanted as
Speaker 1: a six seed in every other winner was a top
Speaker 1: two seeds. If he were to do it in back
Speaker 1: to back years being a four and a six seed.
Speaker 1: That would certainly be as you talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: not having a traditional historical candidate, that would be kind
Speaker 1: of a rewriting of that precedent, which would be interesting.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned the Bucks sitting there guys tonight, and
Speaker 1: you know, not exactly sure on the motivations behind that,
Speaker 1: but do you think that teams out East should try
Speaker 1: and tank and avoid that one seed so they don't
Speaker 1: have to face Brooklyn or the two seed potentially as well.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny because this is a this is
Speaker 1: a conversation that comes up of a lot frequently because
Speaker 1: of the concept of load management, the way teams are
Speaker 1: very very careful with the way they take care of
Speaker 1: their stars and mostly keep their eye on the long
Speaker 1: term goals of the postseason. And you're seeing more and
Speaker 1: more frequently, really really good teams fall down in the
Speaker 1: standings for that reason, not not the least of which
Speaker 1: has been the Lakers the last couple of years. I
Speaker 1: have a very very firm policy on this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Don't screw with the basketball gods. Anytime you ever play
Speaker 1: basketball in a way that that that deliberately limits your potential.
Speaker 1: I view that as playing And you know, some people
Speaker 1: don't believe in this kind of thing. I always have.
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, there's there's a reason why some
Speaker 1: shots go in and some shots don't. Some people think
Speaker 1: it's just luck. For me, it's like, I'm a big
Speaker 1: believer in like confidence and flow and rhythm and and
Speaker 1: and I think that like the best example of this
Speaker 1: was the Bucks last year. They had an opportunity to
Speaker 1: take their way out of having to play the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat in the first round, the same Miami Heat that
Speaker 1: embarrassed them in the bubble, and instead they were like, no,
Speaker 1: we're gonna whoop your ass now, and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: whoop your ass in the playoffs. And and I that's
Speaker 1: just to me, I think that's just like the the
Speaker 1: appropriate way to go about something like that. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: with you all the way on that one. I would
Speaker 1: not be tempting the basketball gods because they are cruel
Speaker 1: and vicious, all right. So I mentioned yesterdays, we mentioned
Speaker 1: on yesterday's show that Draymond was having Jayson Tatum on
Speaker 1: his podcast, The Draymond Green Show, And one of the
Speaker 1: things that came out of that was Draymond told Tatum
Speaker 1: that he should be the m v P of the
Speaker 1: NBA next year, and he's sort of worked his way
Speaker 1: into the outskirts of that conversation this year, just with
Speaker 1: how phenomenal he's been the last couple of months in
Speaker 1: the Celtics, you know, having the best record in the
Speaker 1: league for the last games. But what do you think?
Speaker 1: Is he a future MVP candidate? Is he a guy
Speaker 1: you expect to win that award someday? I absolutely think
Speaker 1: that he's a He's gonna be a perennial MVP candidate
Speaker 1: moving forward. You know, actually winning the award is really difficult.
Speaker 1: I as much as we talk about m v P,
Speaker 1: we do it because it's just kind of part of
Speaker 1: being an NBA fan. It's probably my least favorite MBA
Speaker 1: award because if it were up to me, we would
Speaker 1: have an m v P that we give after the season,
Speaker 1: like after the finals, and it would just simply be
Speaker 1: who's the best player in the league. I would I. I
Speaker 1: I just I hate how frequently we play these stupid
Speaker 1: mind games to talk ourselves into one player being better
Speaker 1: than another because of regular season results. It's a huge
Speaker 1: pet peeve of mine, so I'm not a huge fan,
Speaker 1: and for that reason, Tatum might never win an m
Speaker 1: v P because the advanced analytics community gets behind a
Speaker 1: different guy each year, or you know, narratives can play
Speaker 1: a big role in that kind of a thing too,
Speaker 1: so he might not ever get one that I expect
Speaker 1: him to be near the top. I have him so
Speaker 1: right this year. I have the three big ones up top, Yokich,
Speaker 1: you know, Janis Embiid, then I have Luca kind of
Speaker 1: in another tier right down there at four, and then
Speaker 1: below that it's like John Moran, Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum,
Speaker 1: all fighting for that fifth spot, and you could make
Speaker 1: a realistic case for Tatum to finish fifth. There. The
Speaker 1: Celtics have been arguably the best team in the league
Speaker 1: here down the stretch. When you look at the way
Speaker 1: Tatum is played since January, it's really really high level stuff,
Speaker 1: like like peak small forward type of stuff. He's averaging
Speaker 1: thirty points extremely efficiently, especially in the last month. He's
Speaker 1: starting to shoot the three really really well. He's an
Speaker 1: amazing defensive player and he's taken massive leaps as a playmaker.
Speaker 1: When you watch the Celtics now, Jayson Tatum is basically
Speaker 1: getting doubled all over the floor and still giving you
Speaker 1: thirty every night. He is like so so so much
Speaker 1: better than I think people think. And a lot of
Speaker 1: this has to do with the fact that the Laker
Speaker 1: fan base is a very loud fan base. It's a
Speaker 1: large loud fan base, and they have made jokes at
Speaker 1: Tatum's expense for a long time. There's actually a lot
Speaker 1: of anti Celtic sentiment on Twitter, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of or in the the the general NBA fan base,
Speaker 1: and like, I think that has caused people to sleep
Speaker 1: on him a little bit. He's firmly a top ten
Speaker 1: player in the NBA in my opinion right now, Like
Speaker 1: I would take him hands down over a guy like
Speaker 1: James Harden right now. He's like creeping up to that.
Speaker 1: I kind of have that tier right below the big
Speaker 1: three guys, right below Janice, Lebron and Katie I kind
Speaker 1: of have like the Yokich mb Luca tier type of guys.
Speaker 1: I put Tatum right in that next tier right there,
Speaker 1: which is which is not an easy tier to make
Speaker 1: your way into. He is, on any given night, capable
Speaker 1: about playing any player in the league. I love his game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you talk about just his overall evolution, how much
Speaker 1: better do you think he can actually get from here?
Speaker 1: And is he just like the clear successor to the
Speaker 1: Kauai is the eighties as like, you know, maybe not
Speaker 1: on that level historically, but the top score first wing
Speaker 1: in basketball for however long. Absolutely, I would say that
Speaker 1: there's a case. Here's the thing, Since January, he's been
Speaker 1: that guy. Since January, he's been peak Kauai. But you
Speaker 1: guys know the way that we do this, We're not
Speaker 1: going to heap that praise on you for doing it January, February, March.
Speaker 1: You gotta do it in April, May, June, so like.
Speaker 1: But now, for the record, I expect him to do so.
Speaker 1: Hopefully the Robert Williams injury doesn't end up being too much.
Speaker 1: There's word that he could come back in the second round.
Speaker 1: I am hopeful that that Tatum gets a chance to
Speaker 1: show it this season. But like, I'm not gonna heat
Speaker 1: that praise early. But what I would I would compare
Speaker 1: this run that we're seeing from Tatum right now cut
Speaker 1: different player, archetype, different ceiling potentially set the Steph Curry
Speaker 1: is one of the best players to ever play the game,
Speaker 1: but it kind of reminds me of Steph in two
Speaker 1: thousand fourteen, two thousand thirteen, where you're like, holy cow,
Speaker 1: like this guy is like a legit star, like like
Speaker 1: super superstar. And that's kind of the way I've you
Speaker 1: take him like he's in the infant stages of his
Speaker 1: ascendancy into being one of the top five players in
Speaker 1: the NBA. Like I that that's how highly I view him.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to deliberately use hyperboboly like this dude
Speaker 1: is so incredibly good, Like people have no idea how
Speaker 1: good he's been playing this last couple of months. He's
Speaker 1: he's one of a handful of guys in the league
Speaker 1: that is just getting doubled every time down the floor.
Speaker 1: And you literally have to because if you leave him
Speaker 1: on an island, if you let him play pick and roll,
Speaker 1: he's gonna burn you shooting threes as guys die on screens.
Speaker 1: And he's actually like really good going to the basket now,
Speaker 1: which used to be a weakness of his He's added
Speaker 1: a little bit of strength. He's got an incredibly quick
Speaker 1: first steps, handles a lot better than it used to be.
Speaker 1: He's just a freaking monster right now. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: he's one of the most skilled scores of the basketball
Speaker 1: of my lifetime, which isn't that long, you know, but
Speaker 1: like the blend of footwork and balance and pure shaw
Speaker 1: making and handle it his size, like the guy was
Speaker 1: just built to score the basketball. So I'm all in
Speaker 1: with you on the Tatum praise. All right, last big
Speaker 1: question of the night. The Pelicans obviously went out and
Speaker 1: got the win tonight. They have really looked in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways like a different team since mccollan got there,
Speaker 1: and just over the past twentysomething games and now they're
Speaker 1: sitting up in the nine seed. But obviously the Zion
Speaker 1: question remains ever relevant. So just factoring in all of that,
Speaker 1: what do you make of their future as a team?
Speaker 1: I like their future. I don't think they're gonna do
Speaker 1: anything this year. They're gonna they're gonna get out of
Speaker 1: the They're gonna get out of the plane. They're gonna
Speaker 1: beat the Spurs. Actually, they'll lose to the they'll lose
Speaker 1: to the Clippers. So they're not even gonna get out
Speaker 1: of the plane this year. If they did, they'd lose
Speaker 1: to the Sun's and they get swept. So like, but
Speaker 1: what what I like about the way that they've gone is,
Speaker 1: you know, Brandon Ingram hasn't played great defense really since
Speaker 1: he left the Lakers until this season. Just in this
Speaker 1: last stretch of the season, he's starting to play a
Speaker 1: lot better defense. They they have had a massive issue
Speaker 1: with front court defense, and a lot of that has
Speaker 1: to do with the fact that Zion and this is
Speaker 1: a huge issue with NBA player um scouting over the
Speaker 1: course of the the last few years, every time anybody sees
Speaker 1: an undersized power forward, they instantly go, hey, it's the
Speaker 1: next Draymond Green. And then they realized that Draymond Green
Speaker 1: is a complete unicorn and no one else can actually
Speaker 1: do what he does well. Zion Williamson is not up
Speaker 1: to the defensive task and they're gonna have to probably
Speaker 1: play him alongside a center or alongside a ton of
Speaker 1: really range e, switchy athletic wings. And what do you know,
Speaker 1: they went out and they found a couple of them,
Speaker 1: and uh, Trey Murphy and and uh, I'm blanking on
Speaker 1: his name now all of a sudden, the guy that
Speaker 1: guarded Lebron all night tonight. But like, combined that with
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram, you know, there's basically the way I see.
Speaker 1: There's two approaches the defense. There's the Frank Vogel approach,
Speaker 1: which is which have have a dominant rim protector and
Speaker 1: then chase everybody off the three point line and funnel
Speaker 1: them into the paint. The A way to have an
Speaker 1: elite defense in the NBA these days is to have
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys that can guard on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: And so if you have a lineup that has a C. J. Mccollin,
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram too, freaky athletic wings and Zion, that's where
Speaker 1: you can contain ball handlers and wrote and your length
Speaker 1: and athleticism allows you to cover ground in rotations. It's
Speaker 1: like a it's like a much more modern approach to defense.
Speaker 1: That's something that I believe very strongly, and so like them.
Speaker 1: Uh to David Griffin's credit for how much he's screwed
Speaker 1: up since he got there. The finding the couple of
Speaker 1: wings that they found to put alongside Brandon Ingram has
Speaker 1: raised the athletic profile of those lineups, and so I'm
Speaker 1: excited about what they could potentially be. But they need
Speaker 1: Zion to get back, They need a fold. They need
Speaker 1: him to come in in shape, and they need him
Speaker 1: to be able to be a good at least a
Speaker 1: good perimeter defender that can contain ball handlers and at
Speaker 1: least rotate around on the backside since he can't be Draymond.
Speaker 1: If that makes sense. Yeah, shout out to the great
Speaker 1: Herb Jones there. The second win gigs sometimes too. That
Speaker 1: guy kind of does it all. I think he's a
Speaker 1: really fun rookie. He's been very impressive. All Right, I lied, Jason,
Speaker 1: that was not the last question. We have a bonus
Speaker 1: one here, and I think it's going to frustrate you
Speaker 1: because we have a couple of wild quotes from Lakers
Speaker 1: tonight to your favorite Lakers Frank Vogel on the choice
Speaker 1: to bench Austin Reeves and th ht tonight quote. This
Speaker 1: is a playoff game for us. Use the roster however
Speaker 1: you see fit in terms of that matchup. And I've
Speaker 1: got one more for you here you can react to both.
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook on how the Crypto dot Com arena crowd
Speaker 1: affects the team's performance. I don't pay attention to this crowd,
Speaker 1: to be honest. What are your thoughts? All right? I'm
Speaker 1: gonna start with uss I am so sick of his
Speaker 1: obstinence towards the Laker fan base. Dude, they don't like
Speaker 1: you because you suck. That's why they don't like you.
Speaker 1: They don't like you because you uck. And not only
Speaker 1: do you suck, you're obstinate about it. You're stubborn about it,
Speaker 1: and you think it's everyone else's fault except for your own.
Speaker 1: There hasn't been a single moment this season where Russ
Speaker 1: has come out and said, I'm not good enough at basketball.
Speaker 1: Now that I've lost my athleticism, I need to make
Speaker 1: an improvement. That lack of self awareness, that lack of
Speaker 1: accountability had, combined with his poor play, combined with his
Speaker 1: chip attitude, has turned this fan base against him. And
Speaker 1: I I did. I did a big video on this
Speaker 1: about a month ago, and I stand by it. I
Speaker 1: have no problem with the Laker fan base heckling Russ.
Speaker 1: I have no problem with the Laker fan base giving
Speaker 1: him a hard time. He has earned every bit of it.
Speaker 1: And I literally cannot wait for this experiment to be over.
Speaker 1: I cannot wait for I I cannot root for a
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook team ever. Again. I just can't do it.
Speaker 1: I just can't do it. As far as Frank Vogel goes.
Speaker 1: You know, again, like I said earlier, we have data
Speaker 1: sets here, man, I literally we we know that this
Speaker 1: team plays better with Austin, th h Team, Monk and
Speaker 1: Stanley than they do with a Reason Bradley, you know,
Speaker 1: bays More Dwight. They just do. They just simply do
Speaker 1: and so and and again, like the what who knows
Speaker 1: what's going on behind the scenes. It's possible that Lebron
Speaker 1: went to him and said, I want to go down
Speaker 1: with the Vets, but I doubt it. I think this
Speaker 1: is Frank. I think this is Frank leaning into his
Speaker 1: comfort zone. He literally d NP coaches decisioned Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: three of the last four games, and the one game
Speaker 1: he played, I think he only played like sixteen minutes.
Speaker 1: So he's played like literally four minutes per game over
Speaker 1: the previous four games, and you threw him into the
Speaker 1: fire tonight when we literally know that he plays that
Speaker 1: that that Lebron and a d played better with the
Speaker 1: young guy. Like, I wish you wouldn't have read those
Speaker 1: to me, Carson. I know, I'm sorry. I feel terrible.
Speaker 1: I got your blood boil and now you gotta go
Speaker 1: find a way to unwind and and sleep. After this,
Speaker 1: after the vibe started to get more positive. But you
Speaker 1: know it's entertaining. I gotta say, yeah, that is what
Speaker 1: it is, all right, Well, thank you us, and I
Speaker 1: appreciate the game. Man. These are fun alright, guys, that's
Speaker 1: all we have for tonight. I think we need to
Speaker 1: call it and then we can rejoin this roller coaster
Speaker 1: on Sunday as the attempt to get a win over
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys support.
Speaker 1: We will be back after the final buzzer on Sunday,
Speaker 1: when the Lakers probably lose to the Denver Nuggets. I
Speaker 1: will see you guys in a couple of days. Volume