Speaker 1: All right, what could you lass any boy? Dash Radio?
Speaker 1: Happy Friday, everybody. I hope you all had a great week. Ros.
Speaker 1: How are you doing, buddy, I hope you had a
Speaker 1: good week as well. I'm getting well. We're bad championship right,
Speaker 1: I'm getting little man. I'm packing for my you know,
Speaker 1: trip out to Vegas tomorrow. Um see, getting ready for that.
Speaker 1: How are you, man? How are you doing? I'm doing good.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty annoyed to be honest with you, man, like this,
Speaker 1: this was like probably one of the worst thing. This
Speaker 1: is the this is the worst team you could see
Speaker 1: on the schedule after a night like Wednesday for a
Speaker 1: lot of reasons. One of the biggest reasons is, you know,
Speaker 1: success against a bad team is not the same as
Speaker 1: success against a good team. This is one of the
Speaker 1: biggest things that I talked about with the high school
Speaker 1: players that I coach. You know, like, I have a
Speaker 1: young athlete on my team who frequently when we play
Speaker 1: against bad teams, will make a lot of plays by
Speaker 1: gambling and getting out of position. But because he's a
Speaker 1: better athlete than some of the guys on a bad team,
Speaker 1: he'll have some success. But then we'll play against a
Speaker 1: good team and you do that same gamble and the
Speaker 1: guy just behind the Bactora ble and he leaves you
Speaker 1: in the dust and he's going all the way to
Speaker 1: the rim, you know, And I was worried coming into
Speaker 1: this game. I'm like, Okay, Frank's going with the same strategy,
Speaker 1: and this is kind of what I was hoping wouldn't happen.
Speaker 1: The starters actually did pretty well, you know. The bench
Speaker 1: player lineups didn't do as well. And I thought a
Speaker 1: huge part of that was just because it's the Orlando
Speaker 1: freaking Magic, because that was one of our worst efforts
Speaker 1: of the season. So that part was frustrating. And then
Speaker 1: it's about habits, right, like it's it it becomes very sloppy,
Speaker 1: like we're about to play a team on Sunday that
Speaker 1: is a bona fide championship contender. And so what's unfortunate
Speaker 1: is you that some of the things that you do
Speaker 1: against the Orlando Magic in a sloppy game like that,
Speaker 1: like just the sheer number of botched switches and mistrotations,
Speaker 1: lazy passes, lazy full court passes, lazy cross court passes,
Speaker 1: all that sort of just unsound owned fundamentally sloppy basketball.
Speaker 1: That we played tonight in a win. Um, it's going
Speaker 1: to be the thing that gets us killed by on Sunday.
Speaker 1: So that part was really concerning. We're not going to
Speaker 1: talk too much about this game tonight for that very reason,
Speaker 1: but we we'll talk about it for a second, of course,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna talk a little bit about um some
Speaker 1: Frank rotations and ideologies, and then we're gonna talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about this trade, this potential John Wall for
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook trade marks. Sein reported today. But what's your
Speaker 1: what's your quick overhead taking from this game? Where you
Speaker 1: as irritated by the sloppiness as I was, Well, you
Speaker 1: know you're texting me and we're texting back about topics
Speaker 1: of was like your Land of Magic are just terrible, right,
Speaker 1: They're just a really bad team. And you know you
Speaker 1: said bad, that's probably putting it nice. Uh. They's just
Speaker 1: a really struggle of an offense. Though I think they
Speaker 1: have the worst offense in the league. We gave up
Speaker 1: sixty two to them in the first half. Just a
Speaker 1: lot of weird coverages against Thing and that you know,
Speaker 1: drop coverage. Even when we went small, I thought they
Speaker 1: got going with that, leaving shooters wide open. I thought
Speaker 1: we got lucky on some of those as well. We
Speaker 1: came back and won this one, Like this is not something.
Speaker 1: You know, we're not really in position to be picky
Speaker 1: about wins either, but I just didn't have any feel
Speaker 1: about this one. I told you as well, this felt like,
Speaker 1: you know, it just delayed the inevitable, which is like
Speaker 1: another kind of fire type of game, another super chaotic
Speaker 1: game where we lose by thirty or something to a
Speaker 1: good team. This is just felt like a layover game,
Speaker 1: like it's just over. Yeah, yeah, you did your job here,
Speaker 1: you came back on your Orlando Magic are just bad.
Speaker 1: They're eighting like thirty eight, which, like I think you
Speaker 1: have to try to be that bad like, and they
Speaker 1: have some talent like like I like friends what Wagner Like,
Speaker 1: I think he's a nice player, but um yeah, they're
Speaker 1: just a struggle of an offense. They went over the
Speaker 1: top on Russell Westbrook screens, which you know almost no
Speaker 1: other team does. Like this is a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: that you know Orlandos does that's just not replatable to
Speaker 1: other squads. So that's the main point. I think in
Speaker 1: this Orlando game, they did their job Lebron and thought
Speaker 1: again came through offensively. Super lazy start though, and that's
Speaker 1: why I wanted to see man. I was hoping to
Speaker 1: see some emergency after all the articles we got about,
Speaker 1: like you know, the three straight articles that off, the
Speaker 1: quotes that came out, YadA YadA, the Frank Voglar, Russell
Speaker 1: Westborok stub. I was expecting some urgency in that first quarter,
Speaker 1: and I just didn't see it. I saw guys going
Speaker 1: through the motions, and maybe that's just because you're playing
Speaker 1: the Orlando Magic, Orlando Magic, but we're what like five
Speaker 1: hundred I think now, or maybe a game under above it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I was hoping for some emergency and I
Speaker 1: didn't see it. But there are some some things we started.
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson in the second half, I think that's like,
Speaker 1: you know, a point in the good process direction. He
Speaker 1: played fourteen minutes at first half, only six minutes in
Speaker 1: the second. I think that was more towards because Carmelo
Speaker 1: was just on fire. You got an Inferno Carmelo game again.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to take from that. You got
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley hitting step back jumpers to start the third quarter.
Speaker 1: Don't know what to take from that just a game
Speaker 1: that I'm not really sure much you can take from
Speaker 1: from this one. Ye. The two things that I broke
Speaker 1: down as meaningful takeaways were Stanley Johnson shooting. There was
Speaker 1: a really interesting point I think it was by a friend,
Speaker 1: Alex Regula, who was who was tweeting out some details
Speaker 1: from a player's tribute article that Stanley Johnson when he
Speaker 1: was a rookie talking about how difficult the n b
Speaker 1: A is and that kind of he kind of connected
Speaker 1: that to a recent interview where Stanley Johnson basically was
Speaker 1: talking about how MASSI U. Jerry looked him in the
Speaker 1: face and was like you suck man, Like yeah, and
Speaker 1: like how that was just kind of like a wake
Speaker 1: up call for him. And you know, we've seen video
Speaker 1: footage of him working hard with Phil Handy, and you know,
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is is like a lot
Speaker 1: of every every I think every player that's gifted with
Speaker 1: a certain amount of athletic ability reaches that point at
Speaker 1: some point in their career where they're like, hey, I
Speaker 1: gotta take the skill development a little more seriously. And
Speaker 1: it seems like Stanley's there. Obviously, It's one game, a
Speaker 1: long way to go. But the way he's handling the basketball,
Speaker 1: the way he's making decisions, the way he's shooting, I
Speaker 1: think is absolutely a positive we could take. And then
Speaker 1: the other thing was Mellow you know, like, you know,
Speaker 1: I thought it was really stupid that they played him
Speaker 1: for thirty minutes the other night. That goes without saying,
Speaker 1: but if there was one positive in that, it was
Speaker 1: the reason why I should say the motivation for it
Speaker 1: is like, hey, Melow is one of the best spot
Speaker 1: of shooters in the league, So we gotta get him
Speaker 1: back out there. We gotta get him reps because when
Speaker 1: he does get it going, he can help you win
Speaker 1: basketball games. Now, that doesn't change you and I, in
Speaker 1: our opinion, how he should be used. He should be
Speaker 1: used in limited quantities. It should be maybe one or
Speaker 1: two ships a half short. First, make it so that
Speaker 1: he's playing around defensive pit players that are capable of
Speaker 1: covering for his defensive shortcomings, like stop putting him at center.
Speaker 1: Like there's a bunch of that kind of stuff that
Speaker 1: we could talk about. But I'm happy with the fact
Speaker 1: that Mellow shooting better. That's definitely a positive step in
Speaker 1: that direction. But I wanted to so really quickly because
Speaker 1: you know, um, I think what happened to Orlando tonight
Speaker 1: is another interesting example as we as we get to
Speaker 1: this first idea of of scheming. You know, Orlando, the
Speaker 1: announcers for the Lakers were really talking trash about how
Speaker 1: unorganized the Magic offense was. But a huge part of
Speaker 1: that was the switching, which is the thing that we've
Speaker 1: been talking so much about. When you switch screens, it
Speaker 1: basically renders any defense or any offense defunct. And you'd
Speaker 1: see it like they would. You know, Jalen Suggs would
Speaker 1: come up a pin down and then there's somebody already
Speaker 1: waiting for him because of the switch, And then Jalen
Speaker 1: Suggs would have to flare out the half court to
Speaker 1: catch the ball, and he'd kind of turn and take
Speaker 1: two dribbles. And then here comes Mobamba, but in set
Speaker 1: of screen, and he come off the screen from Obamba,
Speaker 1: but they're Stanley Johnson. He just switched on to him,
Speaker 1: and you could tell Jalen Suggs is like, what do
Speaker 1: I do? And so then they kind of like throw
Speaker 1: it around, and Franz Vogger was like the only one
Speaker 1: big enough and athletic enough to try to create his
Speaker 1: own shots, so you'd usually see him and try to
Speaker 1: put the ball on the floor and make something happen. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously against a bad team, it's gonna look way more
Speaker 1: effective than it would against a good team, but that
Speaker 1: same concept does translate against good teams. That I that
Speaker 1: ability to make teams shoot over the top of contests
Speaker 1: rather than funneling them to the paint. It's a huge
Speaker 1: difference between those two defensive schemes. And I'm such a
Speaker 1: huge believer in and I have no idea why Frank
Speaker 1: is so hesitant to accept it. Now, they can get sloppy,
Speaker 1: Like you guys saw tonight, there was there's a big
Speaker 1: play the first half on the on the three that
Speaker 1: I think put Orlando up that put them up ten
Speaker 1: where Stanley Johnson, Austin Reeves and th h t were
Speaker 1: all in a cluster and they had almost like a
Speaker 1: flex action with like three offensive players in the same screen,
Speaker 1: and they miscommunicated and someone got left wide open. That
Speaker 1: kind of thing can happen from time to time, but
Speaker 1: if we practice it, if we lean into it and
Speaker 1: we use it more often, and we give our guys
Speaker 1: a chance to perfect it, it can be something that
Speaker 1: we can depend on in the postseason. So I want
Speaker 1: to see I just want to see Frank lean into
Speaker 1: that more, if that makes sense. Yeah, and I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, someone brought a good point. I forgot who
Speaker 1: it was that said that, you know, we run these
Speaker 1: like drop coverage kind of schemes because it might be
Speaker 1: what we run in Anthony Davis is back, right, and
Speaker 1: so we want to kind of keep that structure together.
Speaker 1: It's why you know you badly starts. Maybe, but I
Speaker 1: just don't think we're in a position to do that.
Speaker 1: And definitely, like, I don't know how high our ceiling is,
Speaker 1: I guess with this type of team, with these type
Speaker 1: of defenders, but I know the floor is pretty low, right,
Speaker 1: especially when we're not running the correct stuff and we
Speaker 1: don't have the correct lineups and you know, we got
Speaker 1: the a little rest stuff going back and forth, but
Speaker 1: you know, these lineups and stuff have to kind of
Speaker 1: make sense. And I would like to see more switching.
Speaker 1: I think Stanley needs to play like thirty minutes a
Speaker 1: game right now, and that's crazy for a guy on
Speaker 1: a ten day, but we just need an athletic dude.
Speaker 1: Nesta lebron I the Dwight can still you know, sit
Speaker 1: as the backup center, uh, in a lot of nights.
Speaker 1: But you're right, man, Like I would hope we would
Speaker 1: go to more switching. And I think it's really clear,
Speaker 1: right we were down ten. I think I have now
Speaker 1: down eight a half time. We go in the third quarter,
Speaker 1: but we start standing again. We go on a nineteen
Speaker 1: to two run, I believe. I think I wrote that
Speaker 1: down correctly. Two run just by going small against a
Speaker 1: team like Orland. Yeah, right, and because you know Orlando,
Speaker 1: and like this is I think the my bigger kind
Speaker 1: of point on this. We need to start coaching night
Speaker 1: to night. Like I get, we have seasonal goals to
Speaker 1: kind of you know, pick on, and we can do
Speaker 1: that when a d comes back. But we're in a
Speaker 1: situation where we need to rack up wins and we
Speaker 1: need to have a belief from the players to the
Speaker 1: you know, coaches that are walking in unison, that believe
Speaker 1: in the stuff they're doing. And I feel like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I wrote this down for my a few notes.
Speaker 1: I feel like our energy picked up when we started switching, right,
Speaker 1: There was like a tangible like energy shift, uh in
Speaker 1: all the players, And I think that just lends to
Speaker 1: the kind of personnel that we have. We have guys
Speaker 1: that are kind of better that way. You don't want
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook chasing all the time over the top of screens.
Speaker 1: He's just not that type of defender. He's not a
Speaker 1: good defender in that way. Um, maybe that's that works
Speaker 1: well when dwy Howard's playing, But yeah, man, I think
Speaker 1: we need to go more small, especially a team like
Speaker 1: Orlando that doesn't have a guard that's really gonna punish
Speaker 1: you on switches. They hunted Mellow a bit, but we
Speaker 1: talked about he was inferno and when he's when he's
Speaker 1: doing that, you can kind of play him in those lineups.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't not much really to take from
Speaker 1: this woman That Lebron was great. He torched a terrible
Speaker 1: Orlando defense r So Westbrook was good tonight, Like he
Speaker 1: had a really good floor game, got to the rim,
Speaker 1: took some questionable three point shots, which is going to happen,
Speaker 1: took some one leg fadeaways. Um that's just part of
Speaker 1: his you know, shot selection repertoire. But you know, a
Speaker 1: good floor game, got to the room, was able to
Speaker 1: They picked on Cole Anthony a lot tonight because the
Speaker 1: Orlando Magic did not want to switch Cole Anthony onto
Speaker 1: Lebron or Russ. Uh, so they kind of picked on
Speaker 1: that to get get to get open actions. But Russell
Speaker 1: was good tonight. I've got to see it against Miami
Speaker 1: of course, but like there's not really much take on
Speaker 1: this one man. Yeah, agree, So we wanted to, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Mark Stein reported today that the there was
Speaker 1: one team that would for sure be interested in a
Speaker 1: trade for Russell Westberg gift draft compensation was involved. Now,
Speaker 1: I tend to think that when push comes to shove
Speaker 1: and we get closer to the deadline, that there will
Speaker 1: actually be a couple of options there. They may not
Speaker 1: all be good options, and we'll talk about that here
Speaker 1: in a second. But this John Wall concept, I wanted
Speaker 1: to shoot this down immediately, and I'm gonna use my
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a little self deprecating here and use
Speaker 1: myself as an example. Have you guys seen some of
Speaker 1: these videos of John wallplay and pick up lately, and
Speaker 1: like you know, there's there's athleticism and then there's real athleticism.
Speaker 1: Like you guys see a video of me at it
Speaker 1: elic fitness, Like Duncan or running up and down the floor,
Speaker 1: and I look pretty athletic compared to those guys. I'm
Speaker 1: not anywhere remotely close to an NBA level lathlete. You
Speaker 1: guys have no idea what these guys can do. And
Speaker 1: when I see these John Wall videos, I look at
Speaker 1: that guy and I'm like, man, you look like you
Speaker 1: should be at an l A fitness like. He looks overweight,
Speaker 1: he looks slow. He still can't shoot. I think he
Speaker 1: was at like six attempts and thirty two last year
Speaker 1: in Houston. There's there's just the The idea of swapping
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook for John Wall, to me, is like the
Speaker 1: equivalent of cutting Russell Westbrook. Like there's just there's no
Speaker 1: advantage there. John Wall certainly doesn't fit into what we're
Speaker 1: trying to do. That would be like trading a really
Speaker 1: really big problem for another really really big problem. I
Speaker 1: just I just don't get that one. And we can
Speaker 1: get to in a minute what I would classify as
Speaker 1: a good Russell Westbrook trade in the platter of crap
Speaker 1: that we're gonna have to choose from. But I can
Speaker 1: say one thing for absolute certain, John Wall is not
Speaker 1: the move. What was your initial uh takeaway when you
Speaker 1: when you saw that, I mean, this team could use
Speaker 1: prime John wall like, like that's a that's a you know,
Speaker 1: that would be a viable thing. They could also use
Speaker 1: the prime Russell Westbrook. None of those two are on
Speaker 1: the table. None of those two are available. Um. I
Speaker 1: think Houston w also asked for a first round pickback.
Speaker 1: I just don't think that's realistic. I've been on the
Speaker 1: like these last few days have been the closest I've
Speaker 1: seen like, oh man, maybe you know, like a small
Speaker 1: short percentage chance that a Russell Westbrook trade could happen,
Speaker 1: But it looks like I don't know of that. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, like I still don't see it happening. I
Speaker 1: think Russell west is gonna be on the team. Look,
Speaker 1: tonight probably delayed the real type of conversations that you're
Speaker 1: gonna have with that. This type of stuff, it's much
Speaker 1: easier to ignore it after a win, no matter who
Speaker 1: the win is against. Uh, you know you have all
Speaker 1: these happy kind of quotes that are gonna come out tonight.
Speaker 1: Of course after a win. That just makes sense. Every
Speaker 1: gonna delay, um in an inevitable kind of thing that's
Speaker 1: going to happen. But yeah, I don't think john Wall.
Speaker 1: Uh that just to me, Like you said, it's like
Speaker 1: cutting Russell Westbrook. That's exactly what it is, right, That's
Speaker 1: just what it is. John Wall is the guy you
Speaker 1: don't have to play like. He wasn't here in the beginning.
Speaker 1: He wasn't part of the story of this team. Right,
Speaker 1: you want to trade Russell Westbrook for John Wall, maybe
Speaker 1: you get you know, some type of backup, productive guy.
Speaker 1: I don't know what John Wall has been doing these
Speaker 1: last you know, months without playing, But yeah, I just
Speaker 1: don't see that happening. Uh, they understand. I understand it
Speaker 1: from Houston's perspective, like, yeah, we'll get a free first
Speaker 1: round pick for a guy we're telling not even to
Speaker 1: come to game. I don't know if he's at games
Speaker 1: or not, for a guy pretty much sitting at home,
Speaker 1: Like we'll take a first round pick for that. That
Speaker 1: makes sense, as Houston sends. But yeah for the Lakers
Speaker 1: that and I just I wouldn't be able to sit
Speaker 1: with that, I mean, trading what we traded to trade
Speaker 1: that for John Wall four months later. It's just I
Speaker 1: know you said there's no you know, there's no winning
Speaker 1: and having a prideful kind of feel about this, but
Speaker 1: just would be a bad look. I don't. I think
Speaker 1: you gotta at least give this the chance it deserves,
Speaker 1: you know, even if it hasn't looked pretty so far.
Speaker 1: When I look at like a potential Russell Westbrook trade
Speaker 1: and look at it, is like kind of like a
Speaker 1: similar vibe to some of the moves that the Calves
Speaker 1: made in two thousand eighteen. Like you're you're acknowledging that
Speaker 1: this isn't working. You're giving the other guy an opportunity
Speaker 1: to go be happy elsewhere, right, Like, let's be, let's
Speaker 1: face it, like under all this pressure in l A
Speaker 1: with all of the you know, the the Laker fan base.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of like stuff about the
Speaker 1: Laker fan base and then being you know, kind of crazy.
Speaker 1: They're they're crazy in number, without a doubt, but every
Speaker 1: fan base can be crazy. But the Lakers are just
Speaker 1: an extremely loud fan base because of how many of
Speaker 1: them there are. And you know, Russ is under a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure. Every time he has a rough night,
Speaker 1: every time he has a bad highlight. It becomes a
Speaker 1: meme that gets shared thousands and thousands of times on
Speaker 1: the internet, like it's tough here and there's there's a
Speaker 1: case to be made that you know, he might be
Speaker 1: happier somewhere else, you know, And that's where you look
Speaker 1: at it from his perspective. Our friend Ruge came on
Speaker 1: the podcast last week with me and reported from his
Speaker 1: connections and when Russell was in Houston that Russ basically
Speaker 1: went to upper management and said, like, I care more
Speaker 1: about having the ball in my hands than winning. Like
Speaker 1: that's basically what he said. And I think you can
Speaker 1: kind of see that a little bit in his demeanor
Speaker 1: this year, with things like him talking about how he's
Speaker 1: been utilized in the offense um in press conferences, despite
Speaker 1: the fact that we all have eyes and we see,
Speaker 1: we see what Russ has been doing on the floor.
Speaker 1: I mean, I saw that article that came out yesterday
Speaker 1: talking about how like the Lakers went small ball to
Speaker 1: help Lebron and Russ is trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: to fit in. I wanted to be like, are you guys,
Speaker 1: are you guys kidding me? Like Russ is a big
Speaker 1: athletic point guard who puts his head down and goes
Speaker 1: to the rim, can't succeed in a small ball, five
Speaker 1: out attack, like, come on, man, Like, how can you
Speaker 1: possibly blame that on the situation and not on Russ.
Speaker 1: They literally did that in Houston for him, the exact
Speaker 1: same thing they did in Houston for him. The reason
Speaker 1: why Russ hasn't succeeded in this system is because Russ
Speaker 1: has declined as a basketball player. It is nothing other
Speaker 1: than that. Has nothing to do with touches, has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with the way he's been utilized. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: can argue some stuff with spacing, but the Lakers have,
Speaker 1: you know, leaned into shooting in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: and most of their spacing concerns have to do with Russ.
Speaker 1: And if you want to tell me, how is it
Speaker 1: that this system that's geared towards Lebron, you know, is
Speaker 1: hurting these other players? And why is Molik Monk looks
Speaker 1: so comfortable in offense? Like, I just don't buy any
Speaker 1: of that. So Russ isn't working out here. He'll be
Speaker 1: happier somewhere else. So from that angle, it's it's just
Speaker 1: about it's about accommodating him, similar to the way in
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen the Calves accommodated Dwayne Wade by sending
Speaker 1: him to Miami where maybe he wasn't gonna win as much,
Speaker 1: but he could be happier. That's kind of the way
Speaker 1: that I look at it from that perspective. Now looking
Speaker 1: at trade return, there are bad contracts in the league,
Speaker 1: not many as bad as Russ's. The John wall contract
Speaker 1: is on the short list. I'd probably put John Wallas
Speaker 1: contract as the worst in russ Is at second, but
Speaker 1: there are some others that are nearly as bad. Maybe
Speaker 1: not in terms in terms of how much they're paying
Speaker 1: and how bad the player is, but in length. This
Speaker 1: is where your contracts like Tobias Harris come in. And
Speaker 1: there are dozens of contracts like this around the league.
Speaker 1: But just think about it. What ends up happening with
Speaker 1: those types of players is franchises are put in a
Speaker 1: hard spot. Player plays pretty well, he's in a contract year,
Speaker 1: you have a problem. You can either pay for the
Speaker 1: guy over, pay for him for him to stay, or
Speaker 1: you can let him go and you lose him for nothing.
Speaker 1: This is like the J. R. Smith or the Tristan
Speaker 1: Thompson contracts when they were in Cleveland. When you when
Speaker 1: you're trying to contend, you end up having to over
Speaker 1: pay for guys just to keep the team together and there,
Speaker 1: and there are a bunch of contracts like that in
Speaker 1: the league. And so when push comes to shove, there
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a GM GM out there that's gonna
Speaker 1: look at their roster and be like, man, like, I
Speaker 1: don't like these guys. They're tied up for three or
Speaker 1: four years. Maybe I take on Russ, who I also
Speaker 1: don't like. But he can come in here and he
Speaker 1: can have fun and he can do his thing, and
Speaker 1: then I have flexibility in the next season. Maybe you
Speaker 1: could literally, if you had to, you could find some
Speaker 1: way to to move his contract the following season because
Speaker 1: now it's an expiring right so because Russ's contract becomes
Speaker 1: less complicated at that point. So my point is, what
Speaker 1: is what is j R? Smith? What is that type
Speaker 1: of deal? What is like Otto Porter Jr. When he
Speaker 1: was in Chicago, These kinds of big, bloated deals. What
Speaker 1: are they? They're overpaid players, but they're useful players. They're overpaid,
Speaker 1: they might be in a bad situation, but they're still
Speaker 1: good NBA players, where Russ may not be that anymore
Speaker 1: so in terms of improving the team, what I would
Speaker 1: look for is two or three bloated contracts and that
Speaker 1: million dollar range that can add up to what Russ
Speaker 1: is that in their current situation or flawed. But with
Speaker 1: the Lakers in a winning concept, they might be able
Speaker 1: to contribute again, at least more so than what Russ
Speaker 1: is doing. It's gonna be difficult to find. It may
Speaker 1: come down to the wire. There are going to be
Speaker 1: people out there looking for something better until that very moment.
Speaker 1: But that's the kind of trade that I would look
Speaker 1: at with Russell Westbrook as useful rather than here's John
Speaker 1: Wall you know what I mean? Does it does that
Speaker 1: make sense? Like? I just I think, like I think
Speaker 1: they're overpaid guys out there that still bring value and
Speaker 1: that that just maybe you're stuck a bad situation where
Speaker 1: their their GM doesn't believe in then their coach doesn't
Speaker 1: believe in them, and with the Lakers that could be
Speaker 1: reinvigorated a little bit. Yeah, No, I don't think you're
Speaker 1: wrong there. That's probably the way to go. I just
Speaker 1: think that's more like a dream scenario, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like trading Russ for you know, uh players
Speaker 1: that contribute, Like I think that would be really tough.
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna more get into the other Albatroz
Speaker 1: contracts in the league. And that's why I don't even
Speaker 1: really like to even get into this because I don't
Speaker 1: think it's happening. But you know, a Tobias Harris is
Speaker 1: the one that's been floated around. I just, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't see Philly doing that. I don't understand that
Speaker 1: from them, And you go around the league, it's just tough,
Speaker 1: especially in the middle of the year, especially with the
Speaker 1: playing game. Now you have a bunch of teams who
Speaker 1: think they can, you know, have a shot at making
Speaker 1: the playoffs that aren't really going to be sellers, right,
Speaker 1: There's gonna be a lot more, I believe buyers on
Speaker 1: you know, in this t excuse me, in this like
Speaker 1: trade deadline. So you even have like a team like
Speaker 1: the Pelicans who started awful, who you know, think they
Speaker 1: have a you know, puncher's chance at the plane. So
Speaker 1: that's why I just don't see it. I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to try to fit rust in. And now
Speaker 1: the only my only caveat to this is like if
Speaker 1: this road trip goes you know, like really south, like
Speaker 1: there's a chance that you know, you get into that
Speaker 1: situation of like cutting bait, but and this Orlando game
Speaker 1: kind of delayed that, of course, but we're about to
Speaker 1: get into some really good teams. I think we can
Speaker 1: kind of come back to this during that time and
Speaker 1: kind of be like, Okay, is there time to cut Bay,
Speaker 1: is the coach, is the coaching staff gone? Like that stuff?
Speaker 1: Then that you can get into rush trades, but I
Speaker 1: think for now he's going to be here. Again, your
Speaker 1: scenario of trading him for other contracts of you know,
Speaker 1: overpaid players, but they're playable players, right, that's a difference.
Speaker 1: There's got a lot of guys who are overpaid and
Speaker 1: also you can't play. And I think that's more of
Speaker 1: the situation you get to with Russell Westbrook and not
Speaker 1: a cap guy at all and stuff like that. But
Speaker 1: four million dollars, it's a lot to get to. That's
Speaker 1: a lot of players, or that's one player that if
Speaker 1: he's going to be if he makes that much and
Speaker 1: he wants to be moved, then obviously there's an issue
Speaker 1: on that team. So I just I just don't see it,
Speaker 1: and hopefully you know Russ and kind of figure his
Speaker 1: lane out here. I've talked about before We're moving him
Speaker 1: so much more off the ball. He's getting way less
Speaker 1: you know, on ball touches. All his stuff is isolation.
Speaker 1: We've pretty much tooken away the pick and roll possessions
Speaker 1: that he has, so everything is a come up the
Speaker 1: left of the floor. Um, if you have a one
Speaker 1: on one, the whole other team's clear to the right side.
Speaker 1: He gets an isolation there. In Orlando, Magic is the
Speaker 1: team that doesn't have guards that can really you know,
Speaker 1: physically match up with him. You know, guys like Cole Anthony, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Just can't stop him from getting to the rim. And
Speaker 1: I thought that's why he had a know, a good
Speaker 1: game tonight. But yeah, we'll see with russ Many. I
Speaker 1: think this road trip will be very telling though. These
Speaker 1: next five games, they have five more on the road
Speaker 1: here against you know, I think they go to they
Speaker 1: play Brooklyn and then Miami and then uh and then
Speaker 1: Philly as well. I believe on this trip and I
Speaker 1: think there's one yeah, So I think, you know, this
Speaker 1: road trip will tell us a lot in terms of
Speaker 1: where the teams, where the team goes to goes from
Speaker 1: from here. So this Orlando Magic game, like I said,
Speaker 1: kind of delayed what I think is in an inevitable,
Speaker 1: very important conversation that this team is about it. But Jason,
Speaker 1: if they go five, five and oh like six, if
Speaker 1: they go six and o on this road trip, Uh,
Speaker 1: then we also have different conversations, right, Like, I think
Speaker 1: you know that that's probably unlikely, but I'm saying the first.
Speaker 1: But but that's the conversation we're gonna have here, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and like, and this has been my thing
Speaker 1: from the beginning with with Russ is you know, because
Speaker 1: I've seen a couple of people talk today about like, hey, like,
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers are gonna wait to see what
Speaker 1: this looks like with Anthony Davis before they make a move.
Speaker 1: Now they will by virtue of them having to because
Speaker 1: if I'm a team that's going to trade for Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook and get an asset in return, you know, like
Speaker 1: whether that's the first round pick or if it's the
Speaker 1: first round pick Anti HD or whatever it is that
Speaker 1: that that looks like in order to take on Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: chances are like that's way down on my list and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be looking for something else, and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be like a you know, midnight type of deal right
Speaker 1: when the deadline hits, Like, that's the kind of deal
Speaker 1: that this will be. Like Russ isn't gonna be moved tomorrow,
Speaker 1: It's gonna be He's gonna be moved at the deadline.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna get to see what he looks like
Speaker 1: with this anyway. But I am of the opinion that like,
Speaker 1: if you've been watching this team this year, and if
Speaker 1: you've been watching the way Russell Westbrook plays, and you've
Speaker 1: been watching what he brings to the table as a
Speaker 1: basketball player at this point in his career, and you
Speaker 1: think Anthony Davis coming back is going to be what
Speaker 1: puts him back on track, I don't. I don't know
Speaker 1: what to tell you, guys, Because yes, the lineups with Lebron,
Speaker 1: Russ and a D without a center have done okay
Speaker 1: this year. Um I say okay because typically a line
Speaker 1: up with Lebron and a D should utterly destroy teams.
Speaker 1: Um sample samples just too low, samples too low, And
Speaker 1: we played bad teams and so then I so as
Speaker 1: just you know, our job, BRAJ, you know, looking at
Speaker 1: this as analyst is like, hey, like, what what's what's
Speaker 1: he gonna do when that happens because you've been talking
Speaker 1: a lot about how they've been pulling Russ out of
Speaker 1: the offense a little bit right and kind of relegating
Speaker 1: him to support roles. So that's only gonna be further
Speaker 1: exacerbated by the Anthony Davis thing. So now now we're
Speaker 1: talking about like guys, like a lot of those bots
Speaker 1: switches tonight were Russ, you know, like too two days
Speaker 1: after one day after he told WoDES like, you know,
Speaker 1: willing to do whatever it takes to win, Like I
Speaker 1: see him a lot not standing in a defensive stance
Speaker 1: and watching switches and things along those lines, and and
Speaker 1: all the stuff that you see, the inability to finish
Speaker 1: around the rim, the inability to get a step on
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders, the way that these bigger forwards can shut
Speaker 1: him down when they switch, Like when these teams have
Speaker 1: figured out that they just put bigger defenders on him.
Speaker 1: All that's just going to be exacerbated against the good teams,
Speaker 1: teams like Miami and phil Like, Like, if I had
Speaker 1: to ask you what kind of game you expected Russ
Speaker 1: to have on Sunday against the Heat, what would you say? Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I mean it's more likely that he'd probably struggled. But
Speaker 1: you know, that's why I think that's why I think
Speaker 1: we've seen the move that we have and you're totally right,
Speaker 1: when Anthony Davis comes back is going to exacerbate, you know,
Speaker 1: the issues of Russ being more off ball. But I
Speaker 1: think that's where this team probably is at best, and
Speaker 1: you have to find a thin a gray area. Of course,
Speaker 1: you can't just you know, relegate Russ to a full
Speaker 1: off ball because he's not a shooter, so he's not
Speaker 1: a thread there. But I think you're kind of seeing
Speaker 1: what it will look like. Even when Orlando started, you
Speaker 1: know a little bit making the run tonight, it's just
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron at the top of the key and
Speaker 1: he's running off and so it's it's it's interesting to
Speaker 1: kind of think about. But I don't know, like we'll
Speaker 1: we'll see. I think you have to see all three
Speaker 1: together at least a little bit a little bit of
Speaker 1: a large example. I'd like to see what we can
Speaker 1: do to kind of make those three kind of work together.
Speaker 1: But but you're right, many it's been a struggle. So
Speaker 1: this is the last thing I'll say about it, because
Speaker 1: you know, part of the issue here is the egos involved, right,
Speaker 1: So the E bench Russ at the end of the
Speaker 1: game and he allegedly and there's been some conflicting reporting
Speaker 1: on this because Russ of course is upset that this
Speaker 1: is what was reported. But he tried to leave the
Speaker 1: floor and apparently DeAndre Jordan ran over there and tried
Speaker 1: to like herd him back to the bench or something like.
Speaker 1: Rust didn't take well to being benched. So this is
Speaker 1: the other part of it, because I've heard people say
Speaker 1: this like, oh, it'll be easier to move him in
Speaker 1: the summer. It'll be easier to move him in the summer.
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, I absolutely think it'll be
Speaker 1: easier to move him in the summer. Why the go
Speaker 1: is at that point teams are just more willing to
Speaker 1: make trades. That's just the fact in the NBA. And
Speaker 1: then also he's an expiring contract at that point, so
Speaker 1: now it's your training for cap space effectively, right. But
Speaker 1: the thing here is the attitude, right, because I think
Speaker 1: this year, when push comes to shove, when we're in
Speaker 1: our biggest moments, like we're in a first round playoff
Speaker 1: series against one of these top teams in the West,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis is healthy and Lebron James is healthy.
Speaker 1: Our best lineup will not include Russ in my opinion,
Speaker 1: because of his skill set, in his diminished athleticism, it
Speaker 1: will not include Russ. So Frank is going to have
Speaker 1: a really difficult decision. Am I gonna bench Russ and
Speaker 1: deal with whatever comes with that, with the attitude or whatever,
Speaker 1: or am I going to play him and actively handicapped
Speaker 1: the team. That's a tough decision to make. And so
Speaker 1: one of the advantages of trading him at this deadline
Speaker 1: is you get rid of any sort of angst or
Speaker 1: attitude or blowback from benching a super alleged superstar who
Speaker 1: makes forty four million, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: like that, that's kind of the thing. It's clearly Frank
Speaker 1: thinks his best chance to win is with somebody like
Speaker 1: in Austin Reeves in that role, right, somebody who's going
Speaker 1: to completely and thoroughly embrace the defensive responsibilities and on
Speaker 1: the offensive end just spot up an attack closeouts. That's
Speaker 1: what Frank actually wants out of that role, and he's
Speaker 1: clearly been frustrated with the way Russ has played. So
Speaker 1: my thing is like that's not going to change in
Speaker 1: a playoff series. So if you don't think Russ can
Speaker 1: fit that role in a playoff series, almost just purely
Speaker 1: based on the attitude, almost just purely based on the ego,
Speaker 1: in any ramifications from benching him, you have to consider
Speaker 1: moving him now, just just because of that. I think
Speaker 1: it's too risky to keep him around and have that
Speaker 1: that potentially be a wild card in the playoff series.
Speaker 1: Allah Andre Drummond against the Suns, that makes sense. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, like just I'm not saying I disagree, but
Speaker 1: like you know, Russ shouldn't be happy he got bench,
Speaker 1: like that's should have happened, Like Russ should be the
Speaker 1: one he should be want to be on the floor,
Speaker 1: even if and look against Orlando. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: think that was the reason. I don't think Russ was
Speaker 1: like or wherever we played and forgot we played where
Speaker 1: we got bench, but I believe it was Indiana. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like benching Russ, I don't think it was our issue.
Speaker 1: Our issue was defensively in that game, and Carmelo continued
Speaker 1: to get picked on defensively even when Russ took out.
Speaker 1: But understanding your point, Ron, like I can say lebron
Speaker 1: a D and three, you know, play three and D
Speaker 1: guys is probably a winning formula. No matter where you
Speaker 1: kind of go with that, that's been a winning, proven,
Speaker 1: winning formula. We have Russ in the rotation now, like
Speaker 1: he's going to play he got bench, you know against Indiana.
Speaker 1: I think that's gonna be very rare. I feel like
Speaker 1: that was more of a like Vogel trying to Senda
Speaker 1: like you need to play defense to be on the floor.
Speaker 1: I don't care that he was about to get fired. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe that too, And maybe this is just the Maybe
Speaker 1: this Orlando game is just delaying that. Who knows. But look,
Speaker 1: Russ is going to be on the floor, and these
Speaker 1: things we have to kind of work on. I think
Speaker 1: he can still push in transition. He's not going to
Speaker 1: play the full role player role. That's not gonna happen
Speaker 1: with Russell Westbrook at all. But can he take some
Speaker 1: ball handling duties out when eighties on the floor? Can
Speaker 1: we give him a Russell Westbrook has complained about and
Speaker 1: you know it's not it's obviously he has issues that
Speaker 1: are bigger than just lineups. But he's complained about like
Speaker 1: his offensive roles switching from line up to line up. Right,
Speaker 1: He's kind of complained about that in terms of, like,
Speaker 1: one time I'm playing with Dwight Howard, so like this,
Speaker 1: I have to run this way. Next time I'm playing
Speaker 1: with the Brown and center. Next time I'm saying with
Speaker 1: Stanley at center. My my offensive duties kind of shift
Speaker 1: in those places. Right, he's in the dunker spot, he's
Speaker 1: in the weak side, he's at the top, and I
Speaker 1: think we're moving more and more to where he's off
Speaker 1: the ball. But when he when A comes back, I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be Russ and a D running those
Speaker 1: you know, back those second unit options, and we have
Speaker 1: to try to find stuff that works there. I just
Speaker 1: don't see a trade coming, man, I just really don't.
Speaker 1: And the only way is if you want to cut
Speaker 1: that bait. But I think that's an awful place just
Speaker 1: from like asset management. I hate using the word asset,
Speaker 1: but it's just you. I just can't go that route yet,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like, we've we've seen fifteen
Speaker 1: games of a D, Brown and Russ playing together. Uh,
Speaker 1: we've seen fifteen into that. The rest are kind of
Speaker 1: sprinkled in with He's with a d or he's with
Speaker 1: Lebron becau Russe has missed what I think one game
Speaker 1: or has he not misced the game yet so or
Speaker 1: maybe he hasn't missed one. So that's I think what
Speaker 1: what we have to see first, and I think the
Speaker 1: team is gonna want to see that as well. We
Speaker 1: saw Kendrick Nunn as well tweet about, um, he's trying
Speaker 1: to get back and you know these aren't saviors. I
Speaker 1: think Trevor Reason come back, coming back has opened a
Speaker 1: lot of eyes as well. Uh, Trevor Reason is seen
Speaker 1: as like this wing savior and you know he looks
Speaker 1: like he's forty six and said thirty six sometimes. But
Speaker 1: it's gonna be interesting. I just don't see a rest
Speaker 1: deal on the horizon here. So I'm trying to I
Speaker 1: think the team as well, Vogel as well, trying to
Speaker 1: find things that we're trying to have Russ buying to
Speaker 1: a defensive like a defensive role in the next forty games.
Speaker 1: And that's gonna be this team's uh issue here. You
Speaker 1: have to kind of fit him into our defensive lineups
Speaker 1: and our defensive schemes and everything we're doing. And Vogel
Speaker 1: has some faults in that as well. There's been low consistency.
Speaker 1: There's lineups that make no sense. Austin Reeves didn't play
Speaker 1: in the third quarter and was again Carmelo was on fire,
Speaker 1: so I guess that makes sense. But I think Reeves
Speaker 1: needs to start up putting all these lands like there's
Speaker 1: stuff all around and Russ hasn't been great, but you know,
Speaker 1: that's just where we are. I don't see him going anywhere,
Speaker 1: and that's the that's the pivot to me where the
Speaker 1: team has to go. Team. Yeah, no, I hear you, man,
Speaker 1: And if you're not willing to go there, I'll go there. Alright, guys,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna call it short tonight. We appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys hanging out. This is gonna be on our podcast
Speaker 1: feed here in about a half hour. As always, we
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys support. Ross is going out of town,
Speaker 1: so for the next two games. I will try to
Speaker 1: find replacement, probably be someone like venet Um. So we'll
Speaker 1: be back for the my Heat game on Sunday, which
Speaker 1: I believe starts at three at three o'clock Pacific time,
Speaker 1: so early one. Alright, cool, sounds good, So we'll see.
Speaker 1: We'll see you guys on Sunday night, right after the
Speaker 1: final buzzer against Miami. Thanks everyone,