Speaker 1: M all right, Welcome to the State of the Lakers
Speaker 1: on DASS Radio. Thank you guys so much for coming
Speaker 1: to hang out. Out of Tuesday, we finally have, uh,
Speaker 1: not just the convincing Laker win, but a convincing Laker
Speaker 1: win against a good team. The Celtics are coming off
Speaker 1: a stretch where they just won three out of four games.
Speaker 1: They were competitive on the road in Utah, they beat
Speaker 1: the living crap out of the Blazers the other night. Um,
Speaker 1: this is a this is a decent basketball team that
Speaker 1: came to town, and we just looked way better than them.
Speaker 1: Um why because we are way better than them? And
Speaker 1: obviously we've been off to a very frustrating start to
Speaker 1: the season. Um. I thought Lebron set the tone from
Speaker 1: the start tonight, which is something I've been begging for
Speaker 1: him to do all season, and I thought everyone else followed.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of one of the big formulas for
Speaker 1: succes tonight. There's a lot of other details we're gonna
Speaker 1: get into, but before we get too far into it, Roge,
Speaker 1: how are you, my guy? Are you feeling as good
Speaker 1: as I am right now? Man? That has to be
Speaker 1: game of the year, win of the year. That was fun.
Speaker 1: It was it was. It was great to finally get
Speaker 1: a fun game, right, and we had three days off
Speaker 1: in between. It was nice for us as well to
Speaker 1: get a break from Lakers basketball. The Lakers looked like
Speaker 1: they needed it. Um. Lebron especially came out with more
Speaker 1: energy than I've seen from him, and he just set
Speaker 1: the tone. Like you said, in this game was just
Speaker 1: it felt it wasn't wire to wire. But the Celtics
Speaker 1: never to me, felt like they were gonna win tonight,
Speaker 1: which which is really just a stark contrast from what
Speaker 1: we've been seeing from all these games, and that second
Speaker 1: half they took over. I don't think the final score
Speaker 1: really indicates, um, how big a game this was for them.
Speaker 1: Just a fun game, man. Finally Laker fans and all
Speaker 1: of us kind of get a good game to enjoy,
Speaker 1: Like it was. It was nice to have one of
Speaker 1: these for a change. Yeah, you know, Lebron really set
Speaker 1: the tone from the beginning of this game, and it
Speaker 1: reminded me of a Die dnamic that used to happen
Speaker 1: back with the Lakers year they won the title, where
Speaker 1: you would see Anthony Davis kind of sleepwalk his way
Speaker 1: through the beginning of a game, but Lebron would kind
Speaker 1: of carry him over that stretch. And one of the
Speaker 1: things that told me a lot about who Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is as a competitor, as he would inevitably in the
Speaker 1: second half of those games really turn it up, come
Speaker 1: out like gangbusters, and put his physical imprint on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor. And when he did, the team
Speaker 1: was borderline unbeatable, especially with Lebron already in a rhythm
Speaker 1: like he was at the beginning of the game. And
Speaker 1: that's one of the big reasons why I've been so
Speaker 1: critical of Lebron this season. I've probably been more critical
Speaker 1: of him than any other Lakers player, and more so
Speaker 1: than most Laker fans have been. But it's just because
Speaker 1: I hold him to such a high standard and I
Speaker 1: know what he's capable of. And you know, yes, he
Speaker 1: took a lot of jump shots early in the game,
Speaker 1: but they were they were high quality jump shots, they
Speaker 1: were in rhythm. The ones that were contested were closer
Speaker 1: to the rim. If you look at his shot chart,
Speaker 1: these weren't stepped back threes from These were interior jump
Speaker 1: shots closer to the basket, where he has shown a
Speaker 1: propensity in his career to be a high percentage jump shooter.
Speaker 1: There's lots of good process from him. And then he
Speaker 1: was also putting his head down and getting to the
Speaker 1: rim a lot more than we've seen him try to
Speaker 1: do this season, um, And it was inevitable to me
Speaker 1: that eventually Anthony Davis and Russ would find a time
Speaker 1: in the game where they would put their imprint and
Speaker 1: a d kind of started end of the second quarter
Speaker 1: and continued for most of the second half, and then
Speaker 1: Russ was just unbelievable at the end of that third quarter,
Speaker 1: just putting his head down and getting to the rim again,
Speaker 1: something we've talked about a lot. Russ kind of slowly
Speaker 1: breaking through that that wall, constantly putting physical pressure at
Speaker 1: the point of attack on guys, and they might hold
Speaker 1: up for a quarter some nights, they'll hold up for
Speaker 1: two quarters, but eventually he just wears on people to
Speaker 1: the point where he starts to get that rim pressure,
Speaker 1: and from there it's about kicking out the shooters. And
Speaker 1: I have to look at the numbers because but from
Speaker 1: the eye test the scenes that we didn't shoot amazingly
Speaker 1: well tonight, So there's even another level we can get to.
Speaker 1: But we were living in the paint it was. It
Speaker 1: was much more. It was much closer to our identity. Uh.
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel's lineups made a lot more sensible. Get more
Speaker 1: into that later, but they made a lot more basketball
Speaker 1: sense with what this team is good at. But at
Speaker 1: the beginning, it was all about Lebron doing what I
Speaker 1: expect him to do every night, which has come out
Speaker 1: and set the tone and be a leader. You know
Speaker 1: that be the guy that the other guys will inevitably
Speaker 1: get swept up in everything that you bring to the table.
Speaker 1: And that's where this team is going to be capable
Speaker 1: of beating quality teams, which is the next step and
Speaker 1: then you know, progressing this season. But did you did
Speaker 1: you see what I was talking about there? Just Lebron
Speaker 1: kind of setting the tone and uh and the rest
Speaker 1: of the guys following. Yeah, he not only set the
Speaker 1: tone offensively, but I thought defensively as well. Right, and
Speaker 1: the starting lineup, you know, it's still kind of frustrating
Speaker 1: at times. When we got the news that you know,
Speaker 1: Blight Howard's is being taken out, we were gonna have
Speaker 1: eighty at the five, but it was Taylor and Avery
Speaker 1: Bradley so your spacing was still going to be bad,
Speaker 1: but the floor balance is better. And with Lebron and
Speaker 1: a Dy as your back line, that's still a super
Speaker 1: great catalyst for a great defense right when you have
Speaker 1: both of them engaged. And I thought you saw that
Speaker 1: all night. Tatum had sixteen points. I think right away
Speaker 1: Um in the first quarter with like five minutes gone
Speaker 1: or something, he already had sixteen. But I thought they
Speaker 1: didn't overreact to that. But Lebron Andy were engaged. Lebron
Speaker 1: on that back line was engaged almost every single play,
Speaker 1: taking out pretting out orders of where to switch and
Speaker 1: telling people where to go. We need that every single night,
Speaker 1: like you talked about. And this is game twelve of
Speaker 1: the Big three. I believe I have my numbers right.
Speaker 1: I think there were six and five before tonight with Lebron,
Speaker 1: and tonight I put them. I believe the seven and five.
Speaker 1: And this is kind of the way that the ceiling
Speaker 1: of this team is gonna work. To me, I feel
Speaker 1: like Russ has pushed his weight, Like I'm looking at Russ.
Speaker 1: The lacks. The last six games, all Um pretty much
Speaker 1: all over twenty points. Other than the Clipper game. Four
Speaker 1: of those games are of at least nine assists. Two
Speaker 1: of them are with the eleven assists, and in this
Speaker 1: is tonight game from him. Tonight, he got to pick
Speaker 1: his spots because Lebron was able to take over in
Speaker 1: that first quarter, was taking jump shots, but I thought
Speaker 1: they were good jumpers, that they were in rhythm. I
Speaker 1: thought they were aggressive a D in that third quarter
Speaker 1: going to the basket, I thought he was really settling
Speaker 1: in that first half. Only four shots for a D.
Speaker 1: To me, it's just not enough. But pulling this back
Speaker 1: with Lebron, him and a D started to get to going,
Speaker 1: started getting it going, and Russ was able to pick
Speaker 1: his spots. Russ got really going in that third quarter,
Speaker 1: and I thought, that's what the ceiling of this team is,
Speaker 1: where you have Ron and a D going and then
Speaker 1: it's just Russ at Russ as like a volcano earthquake
Speaker 1: coming at you, where where you have to try to
Speaker 1: stop him while Lebron and a D are going. And
Speaker 1: I thought that's what we saw tonight. This was the
Speaker 1: best game the Big three I've played on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. He saw Russ take the Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: matchup and I thought that got him engaged defensively as well. Um,
Speaker 1: I thought Taylor would be the guy on Tatum, but
Speaker 1: Russ looked like he wanted that matchup, and I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, he did. He did the best that he could,
Speaker 1: but he was engaged, he fought, and that really all
Speaker 1: started from Lebron in that first quarter. It kind of
Speaker 1: led to both of them get going, and this is
Speaker 1: how you have to win. The three stars all played well,
Speaker 1: and when they do, I feel like we're gonna beat
Speaker 1: teams like this. Yeah. One of the things I've been
Speaker 1: harping on all season is the Lakers leaning into what
Speaker 1: they're good at. It's been very frustrating to me to
Speaker 1: see Frank Vogel kind of cater his philosophy, both with
Speaker 1: the rotation and with the scheme, more towards like his
Speaker 1: personal basketball philosophies rather than what his personnel is good at,
Speaker 1: what the team's you know, basketball character is made of.
Speaker 1: And you know, we've seen a lot over the course
Speaker 1: of the last few weeks, not just with Frank, but
Speaker 1: with Lebron and a D. This this idea that they
Speaker 1: didn't really understand what they were good at. Both Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D were leaning way too heavily into their
Speaker 1: off the dribble jump shooting game, which while it's something
Speaker 1: that has helped make both of them versatile in their careers,
Speaker 1: it's not been their bread and butter. Their bread and
Speaker 1: butter in their career has been physical, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: leaving a physical imprint on the game, generating a ton
Speaker 1: of brim pressure all the good stuff that comes from that.
Speaker 1: And then with Frank, it's you know, I was blown
Speaker 1: away by how poorly we defended with the starting lineup
Speaker 1: against the Clippers. But a lot of that has to
Speaker 1: do with, you know, Frank not seeing the forest for
Speaker 1: the trees, leaning way too heavily into size and defensive personnel,
Speaker 1: and not understanding that if you run crappy offense all
Speaker 1: the time and you're constantly missing contested lake clock jump shots,
Speaker 1: that your defense has never said that, your guys are
Speaker 1: always jogging back in transition, and your defense isn't gonna
Speaker 1: look good anyway. It was. It was a whole lot
Speaker 1: of of of of guys up and down the organization
Speaker 1: that needed to wake up and understand what they needed
Speaker 1: to do for this team to succeed. Frank from the
Speaker 1: beginning of the game, you know, the everything made way
Speaker 1: more sense, Like you don't need to play Lebron at center.
Speaker 1: That can be a matchup thing, but you have Dwight Howard.
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard's a really good backup center. He's the perfect
Speaker 1: guy to bring in when Anthony Davis goes to the bench.
Speaker 1: That makes way more sense than starting huge with a
Speaker 1: D and Dwight and Russ and then going super tiny
Speaker 1: with Lebron at center and at the start of the
Speaker 1: second quarter. None of that ever made any sense. And
Speaker 1: so this was a way more functional rotation. Like you said,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't go with Avery Bradley, I'd go with more
Speaker 1: shooting in the starting lineup. But those are nitpicky things,
Speaker 1: the things that we can go at the guys for tonight.
Speaker 1: We're nitpicky things. All these things in the previous weeks
Speaker 1: that we've been pointing out, these have been glaring, obvious
Speaker 1: basketball malpractice that had to be pointed out. These weren't
Speaker 1: money Monday morning quarterbacking from our couches when we have
Speaker 1: no idea what we're talking about. This was every basketball
Speaker 1: mind in the world was looking at this, like, what
Speaker 1: in the world were you guys doing? Your two best
Speaker 1: players are leaning into the weakest part of their offensive
Speaker 1: skill and the coaches playing personnel that actively sabotages the team.
Speaker 1: We were we were all in the right to be
Speaker 1: upset about what we were seeing, and it was such
Speaker 1: a breath of fresh air to see that tonight go
Speaker 1: the opposite direction, everyone kind of leaning into their strengths.
Speaker 1: I tweeted out at the end of the first quarter,
Speaker 1: but I've out of run was coming, and the reason
Speaker 1: why it was kind of ironic. I I went into
Speaker 1: the Clippers game feeling good about what was going to happen,
Speaker 1: and then as soon as the game started, I immediately
Speaker 1: was shaking my head NonStop on the couch, incredibly frustrated.
Speaker 1: Tonight was kind of the opposite. I came into Tonight's
Speaker 1: game having no idea what to think, Like is tonight
Speaker 1: the night that the Lakers just kind of roll over
Speaker 1: and quit? Or is tonight the night that they wake up?
Speaker 1: You know? Like I didn't know, but almost immediately when
Speaker 1: I saw how engaged Lebron was, and I knew Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis was going to follow him eventually, and I knew,
Speaker 1: like always Russ, it's been to come a theme for
Speaker 1: him in third quarters that's kind of when he starts
Speaker 1: to break through that physical wall and start to impose
Speaker 1: his will. I knew those I knew those things were coming.
Speaker 1: Our defense was dialed in and engaged. You could tell,
Speaker 1: even though Tatum made some shots earlier. Tatum's incredible, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, but you could tell that both Russ
Speaker 1: and Phdre were being disruptive with their with their length
Speaker 1: and athleticism. You could see the good process. You knew
Speaker 1: the run was coming. That's why I felt good throughout
Speaker 1: most of this game. This is a of the fresh
Speaker 1: air Rod. I gotta say, man, like this was I
Speaker 1: could the Clippers game was a low point for me
Speaker 1: as a fan of this team. Without frustrated, I was,
Speaker 1: and tonight was as encourages that Ben and and it's
Speaker 1: always been in there. They just needed to play into
Speaker 1: their strengths. Yeah, we look like a functional basketball team.
Speaker 1: Like we look like a basketball team that made sense.
Speaker 1: And I was thinking about that that other starting lineup
Speaker 1: with like two centers and all that. That starting line
Speaker 1: up is like a broken clock, right, it's right twice
Speaker 1: a day, like sometimes those you know, jumpers go in.
Speaker 1: But it's ugly basketball. It's not conductive, it's not good process.
Speaker 1: I thought tonight was good process. Even with Avery Bradley starting.
Speaker 1: You can kind of see the reins of what we're
Speaker 1: gonna be, right And I was thinking, like, maybe Trevor
Speaker 1: Reason is in that spot. I see why Kalen is
Speaker 1: in there, and Taylor's defense will get into that later,
Speaker 1: but I thought he was. I thought he was pretty good.
Speaker 1: Like you throw him on Jayson Tatum, you throw him
Speaker 1: on Paul George the last game. I thought he did
Speaker 1: his job for the for the most part, we helped
Speaker 1: a little bit too much. But this is kind of
Speaker 1: what the team needs to be going forward. And I
Speaker 1: think we have some Winnabo games, Winnabo games coming up
Speaker 1: here after the Boston one from tonight. But yeah, man,
Speaker 1: the big three played well. Um a d was aggressive
Speaker 1: and that they're I thought Aides defense as well. He was.
Speaker 1: He was getting killed at halftime by the TNT guys
Speaker 1: and everybody, but I thought his defense in that second
Speaker 1: half was great. He was shutting everything off. And this
Speaker 1: is kind of what I would like the lineups to be.
Speaker 1: Um Leak monk Wayne Ellington. I thought we saw more
Speaker 1: good process with them as well. We saw Lebron ball. Right,
Speaker 1: they had Peyton Pitcher tried to try to hide on
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington and he came and said a bunch of
Speaker 1: like ghost screens. That was just good offense. Russ as
Speaker 1: well with driving lanes. Right, we saw Russ with driving
Speaker 1: lanes and he had like a hammer dunk on somebody
Speaker 1: I don't remember who it was. He got a big
Speaker 1: time hammer dunk and he saw him kind of being excited,
Speaker 1: and this is this the way to play, man, This
Speaker 1: is how we have to be going forward. I hope
Speaker 1: David Bradley is not the one starting every night, but
Speaker 1: if that's what's gonna be, that's at least we have
Speaker 1: the good process of a d S starting at center,
Speaker 1: Lebron at the power forward, and those two engraged defensively
Speaker 1: can can have a good defensive team. Boston's a solid
Speaker 1: team I think there. They have a good record in
Speaker 1: the last fifteen games or something. They've picked it up
Speaker 1: since they're slow start even with out Jalen Brown, and
Speaker 1: just there a solid team with good NBA players. Um.
Speaker 1: I thought tonight was a really big win, big biggest
Speaker 1: one of the year to me. Uh, and just good
Speaker 1: process stuff that we saw. Um all night. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: even at the end of the game, you know, in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter when the Celtics were you know, attempting
Speaker 1: at least to try to make a run, you saw
Speaker 1: Lebron's process better. You know, he wasn't he wasn't just
Speaker 1: navigating switches and uh and jacking up stupid threes. He was,
Speaker 1: you know, working the ball around, trying to When he
Speaker 1: would get the switch on Peyton Pritchard, he would you know,
Speaker 1: try to back him down almost like a three point
Speaker 1: line post up. And there was a play where got
Speaker 1: into the lane and kicked out to Carmelo Anthony. It
Speaker 1: was nice. It was like a lot of the lot.
Speaker 1: That was another one of those things that's been kind
Speaker 1: of irritating through this season. You know, poor poor, poor management,
Speaker 1: lead management. That's what I'm calling poor lead management. That
Speaker 1: was an issue all season long. And and and that
Speaker 1: wasn't an issue tonight. Our process remained good. Again, Like
Speaker 1: every every issue that I had tonight was nitpicky like.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't blow my mind that Frank Vogel thinks
Speaker 1: it's a good idea to chase Dennis Shrewder over the
Speaker 1: top of screens. Yes, that blows my freaking mind. Like that,
Speaker 1: just that continues to hammer home my philosophy that Frank
Speaker 1: is obsessed with his own basketball philosophies rather than actually
Speaker 1: catering to what his guys are good at. But like
Speaker 1: that's a nitpicky thing, like the flip side is. I'm
Speaker 1: sure Frank the way Frank sees it, like if we
Speaker 1: press up on Dennis and chase him over the top
Speaker 1: of screens will make him feel uncomfortable over the course
Speaker 1: of the game, and maybe that will you know, manifest
Speaker 1: in the long run. And but yeah, but again these
Speaker 1: are all nipicky thing. I thought we found too much.
Speaker 1: You know, we got we got way to reach in
Speaker 1: happy underneath the basket after we get beat instead of
Speaker 1: just walling up and making guys make shots over the
Speaker 1: top of us. But again, just all nitpicky. I want
Speaker 1: to stay mostly positive tonight. I thought, th ht uh,
Speaker 1: we can kind of move on to him here, but
Speaker 1: before before you move, before you move on a t
Speaker 1: h D really quickly. Um. Lebron has had thirty in
Speaker 1: the last in four of the last five games that
Speaker 1: he's played. Um, which it doesn't feel that way just
Speaker 1: because he's been on and off so much but it's
Speaker 1: kind of crazy to think about it, even with him,
Speaker 1: you know, load managing through games. I think it was
Speaker 1: Tony who covers the Utah Jazz. Tony jones Um, who
Speaker 1: covers the Utah Jazz, said Lebron has had thirty and
Speaker 1: four the last four games, four of the last five games.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't feel that way. But I just want
Speaker 1: to end with that. Lebron is still putting up you
Speaker 1: know Lebron. Now, it's just he's held to a higher standard,
Speaker 1: which makes sense, it's Lebron, but yeah, go ahead on
Speaker 1: a t HD. I just want to throw that in
Speaker 1: there because it just doesn't feel that way. It hasn't
Speaker 1: felt like Lebron's had thirty in the last for the
Speaker 1: last five he's played, but I guess that's what it is. Well,
Speaker 1: really quickly on Lebron, like this is this is something
Speaker 1: that's frustrating to me. It just as someone who's watched
Speaker 1: him through his whole career. He's so good. This is
Speaker 1: the Anthony Davis thing too. Lebron and a d half
Speaker 1: the time, you you you you're you're like, yeah, they
Speaker 1: didn't really play all that great, and then you look
Speaker 1: at box score and it's like damn from seven, eight
Speaker 1: and seven or Anthony Davis. It's textbook. It's the way
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis had thirty two and fourteen. I thought he
Speaker 1: was bad. Like that's that's just kind of the nature
Speaker 1: of the way those two guys are because they're so talented.
Speaker 1: But the point is is, like we do know that
Speaker 1: there's a difference between a really impactful thirty points and uh,
Speaker 1: thirty points, you know what I mean, Like Lebron's Lebron's
Speaker 1: thirty points in the game against Sacramento and the triple
Speaker 1: overtime game, you're like, like, really bad shot selection, really
Speaker 1: bad game management. You probably were one of the main
Speaker 1: reasons why they lost that game. That's not the same
Speaker 1: as tonight, where from the opening tip you were setting
Speaker 1: a tone. All of your baskets carried a great deal
Speaker 1: of impact on the game, and as a result, it
Speaker 1: gave time for for a D and Russ to find
Speaker 1: their groove in the second half to help you get
Speaker 1: that massively. Like to me, that's different, but again that's
Speaker 1: just that to me, is the difference, like the difference
Speaker 1: between the guy who averages twenty five and the guy
Speaker 1: who's won of a super duperstar is impact within the stats,
Speaker 1: but you know, like like timely baskets, like within a
Speaker 1: winning concept, like all of those different things are are
Speaker 1: where what separates, you know, because you're gonna find lots
Speaker 1: of guys in the league at average around twenty points
Speaker 1: a game, you know what I mean. That's that's where
Speaker 1: you see that difference. But moving moving on to th
Speaker 1: h T. I've been infuriated with his offense that goes
Speaker 1: without saying I think he's he's just he's and I
Speaker 1: say infuriated, I understand it, Like to me, it's just
Speaker 1: young basketball player, Like that's it's just it's just he's
Speaker 1: entered the phase of the young basketball player slump where
Speaker 1: he's just not even seeing the floor, like he's making
Speaker 1: he's making reads off of what's happening two inches in
Speaker 1: front of his face. Not kind of seeing like I
Speaker 1: said earlier, like seeing the forest for the trees, like
Speaker 1: understanding the dynamic of the five man offense, like you
Speaker 1: could tell right now he's in such a jump shooting
Speaker 1: slump that he's just taking every jump shot he can
Speaker 1: see the rim on like there was one there. And
Speaker 1: towards the end of the game where he just jacked
Speaker 1: up a three in transition and could cause Frank to
Speaker 1: call time out. There was one, and there was one
Speaker 1: of the first half where was the catch and shoot.
Speaker 1: He was kind of open, but it was early in
Speaker 1: the shot clock, and you're kind of thinking, like, you know,
Speaker 1: you maybe work for something better first, get yourself going
Speaker 1: at the rim before you know. There are little things
Speaker 1: like that that he has to to work out, and
Speaker 1: they're going to somewhat handicap our offense in the meantime, however,
Speaker 1: Uh well, after being kind of reckless and undisciplined against
Speaker 1: the Clippers with a lot of reaching in and bowling
Speaker 1: and getting out of position, I thought tonight was one
Speaker 1: of his best defensive games as a Lakers, and and
Speaker 1: his defensive ceiling is so much higher than everyone else
Speaker 1: in the rotation that he kind of presents an interesting
Speaker 1: ceiling raising kind of option here because because if he
Speaker 1: does rein it in offensively enough by the end of
Speaker 1: the season, and he's gonna get a lot of reps.
Speaker 1: So I hope one of the biggest reasons why I
Speaker 1: hope Lebron and a d stay healthy all season is
Speaker 1: that th h t s role can stay more consistent
Speaker 1: This is something I complained about a lot with him
Speaker 1: early on, you know, just about every one of his
Speaker 1: first you know, five six games when he came back
Speaker 1: involved like really really strange, uh changing circumstances like could
Speaker 1: be in the in the starting lineup, out of the
Speaker 1: starting lineup with Russ with you know, with Lebron, without Lebron,
Speaker 1: it is just kind of like really really inconsistent. If
Speaker 1: he can get to the point where he even if
Speaker 1: he's starting, which I don't like the idea of him starting,
Speaker 1: if he can just get into that role, get that
Speaker 1: same kind of minute structure for the rest of the season.
Speaker 1: In Lebron and a d stay healthy, he's gonna find
Speaker 1: an offensive role. And when he does, that will make
Speaker 1: him a huge plus because right now you could argue
Speaker 1: he's still a plus because of what he's bringing defensively.
Speaker 1: And to me, that's that's just exciting. The love the
Speaker 1: way you put it with THHD because you always say
Speaker 1: he has one All Star play a game, right, pretty
Speaker 1: much one All Star Player game. I thought he had
Speaker 1: like three or four tonight, Um, he had one play
Speaker 1: where I think Dennis Shrewder tried to attack him, and
Speaker 1: like Dennis did like a move, got a little bit
Speaker 1: of space and t Hd just blocked it straight up
Speaker 1: like blocks Dennis Shrewder jumper. And then on Tatum as well,
Speaker 1: there were a few players where Tatum came around the screen,
Speaker 1: he gave him back pressure, gave enough time. I think
Speaker 1: it was Dwight Howard was the big to get back
Speaker 1: to his man. He got back in front and may
Speaker 1: Tatum kick it out Like those are plays and Tatum
Speaker 1: is a superstar Paul George supers are you never gonna
Speaker 1: stop them? But I thought his defense, just isolation defense
Speaker 1: was really good. I thought we overhelped at times as well,
Speaker 1: where um where Thd kind of had him in control
Speaker 1: and Ellington or someone else would help one pass away.
Speaker 1: And You're right, these are all gonna be growing pains
Speaker 1: that you have to live with to get the result
Speaker 1: you want in about four or five months, right, Like
Speaker 1: that's where you're looking for. Can you produced at the
Speaker 1: playoff level? And his offense doesn't have to be superstar level, right,
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be star double shot crane ability.
Speaker 1: It just has to be enough because I think his
Speaker 1: defense is already to the point now where he can
Speaker 1: you can throw him on a good wing for like
Speaker 1: minutes a game and not get killed. And I thought
Speaker 1: that was huge. I thought being able to throw him
Speaker 1: out there. I'm not sure if he'll stay in the
Speaker 1: starting lineup when we're all healthy, but I think he
Speaker 1: needs to play. And you saw at the end of
Speaker 1: the game there people were killing him. You talked about
Speaker 1: that three. I thought that was him just being happy
Speaker 1: to have the ball in his hands, just to happy
Speaker 1: to be the guy at the top of the key
Speaker 1: that has it, that can play around it. But I
Speaker 1: thought his cutting was so much better tonight. Did you
Speaker 1: see that as well? Like I thought everyone cut better
Speaker 1: tonight cutting, the cutting and interior passing was amazing. But
Speaker 1: PhD was also good. Yeah, And I thought he really
Speaker 1: picked his spots and he had again those all star
Speaker 1: type of plays where he cut catches it gather like
Speaker 1: double reverse layup on the other side and it floats
Speaker 1: nicely into the basket. Like those are the star type
Speaker 1: of players that I see, Like he has these. It's
Speaker 1: it's weird because you'll have the crazy super finishes on
Speaker 1: the wrong side with the right hand. He haste to
Speaker 1: use his left hand obviously, so finishes with the right hand.
Speaker 1: But he'll miss like the easy lay up where he
Speaker 1: drives right by someone. So other stuff he has to
Speaker 1: work on. But I think there's stuff there to work on.
Speaker 1: And the talk for the last few days obviously has
Speaker 1: been the you know, the Indiana Pacers are kind of
Speaker 1: open and trading Miles Turner and Sabonis, and I think
Speaker 1: the best trades are the one where both teams hate it,
Speaker 1: because I've seen the Indian Ana Pacers feel just the
Speaker 1: Pacer fans feel disrespected by it. But like, this is
Speaker 1: like the type of talent I think that he has
Speaker 1: and we have a twenty one year old You talked
Speaker 1: about it. These are young basketball plays like he hasn't
Speaker 1: He hasn't been in situations a million times to know
Speaker 1: what to do on every single read. You're right, he's
Speaker 1: driving in when they're closing out shore. That's just stuff
Speaker 1: to me you have to live with because I think
Speaker 1: you're right. His defense is too good, like it's they
Speaker 1: needed on this team. And I thought you saw some
Speaker 1: of those runs would team would go on these defensive runs,
Speaker 1: And I thought we kind of saw some of that
Speaker 1: tonight where it was like th hd Bron and a
Speaker 1: D and even Russ engaged. It's just a bunch of length,
Speaker 1: a bunch of athleticism on the floor. So I thought
Speaker 1: it was a nice game. I thought tonight was his
Speaker 1: best game, even if it wasn't his best offensive game.
Speaker 1: I thought this was the best game he had in
Speaker 1: terms of like impacting the game in terms of winter loss. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was a really good game from him,
Speaker 1: which is ironic after you know, kind of the way
Speaker 1: you started the game offensively. It's interesting with young players
Speaker 1: because you know, there's two different kinds of young player
Speaker 1: development patterns, and they tend to be different for guards
Speaker 1: than they are for big So like for Biggs, for instance,
Speaker 1: it's usually about them adding stuff, right, like, okay, deandreton
Speaker 1: comes back shooting threes, or you know, the Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: comes back taking more left handed hooks off the glass,
Speaker 1: like they add things to their bag. But with guards
Speaker 1: in particular, it's more about cutting out the bad. Almost
Speaker 1: every guard when they come into the league has a
Speaker 1: really good handle and you know, reasonably good jump shot,
Speaker 1: and those things will improve over the years and years
Speaker 1: in the league, and but for the most part, their
Speaker 1: improvement is kind of like trimming the fat. It's trimming
Speaker 1: poor shot selection, it's trimming poor decision and making. It's
Speaker 1: trimming turnovers, it's it's trimming defensive lapses, it's taking the
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's the difference, you know, Like we
Speaker 1: look at th h t s offensive season. We have
Speaker 1: these three games at the beginning where he was amazing,
Speaker 1: right and he averaged twenty something, and then he's been
Speaker 1: horrible since for the most part offensively. But the truth
Speaker 1: is is like over the course of a season for
Speaker 1: a young player, it's kind of what it looks like,
Speaker 1: usually not all stacked up at a row, but usually
Speaker 1: it's like, dang, he had twenty five to night, and
Speaker 1: then he had four the next night, and then you know,
Speaker 1: then he had seventeen, and then he had six, and
Speaker 1: then he had twenty seven. You know, it's like that's
Speaker 1: kind of a young player experience. And then what happens
Speaker 1: is with those guards, as they get better and they
Speaker 1: learn how to replicate their success into into you know,
Speaker 1: trim the things that led to their failure, it becomes
Speaker 1: more replicable and now you're seeing you know, three and
Speaker 1: then a seven point night. You know, like it just
Speaker 1: happens more frequently as they trimmed the fat out, and
Speaker 1: so that's it's kind of cool. As we're watching th
Speaker 1: HT to develop, it's gonna be a lot more of
Speaker 1: just trimming out the bad stuff, you know, which will
Speaker 1: be interesting to watch. He is one of you know,
Speaker 1: this is he's one of the few defenders on our
Speaker 1: team that actively makes offensive players feel uncomfortable. This is
Speaker 1: a concept that I talked about a lot on this
Speaker 1: show because there's such a huge This is a this
Speaker 1: is a shortcoming of analytics. For instance, you know, if
Speaker 1: I'm you know, if RAGE is guarding me and I
Speaker 1: shoot a three and he sticks his hand up as
Speaker 1: I'm shooting, that's going to register as a contested shot.
Speaker 1: But if th HD is guarding me, no offense to you, Rage,
Speaker 1: You've got great physical tools. I'm just saying t HD
Speaker 1: is at another level. But if th HD is guarding
Speaker 1: me and he's really pressed up on me and he's
Speaker 1: disrupting my handle as I'm going and I elevate into
Speaker 1: the shot and he's like up in me, like with
Speaker 1: his his hand like up in between my hands in
Speaker 1: the face, that that is actually making me feel uncomfortable
Speaker 1: as a shooter. That is a huge that is going
Speaker 1: to also register as a contested shot. But the reality
Speaker 1: is is that th ht contest has a much bigger
Speaker 1: chance of making me miss than the than than the
Speaker 1: RAJ contest, you know what I mean. And you know
Speaker 1: that that's kind of like it's kind of like with
Speaker 1: It's It's kind of like with Jayson Tatum, you know tonight,
Speaker 1: you know, with some of the couple of the threes
Speaker 1: he made there at the beginning of the game were
Speaker 1: they were contested, but was he comfortable because he certainly
Speaker 1: looked comfortable, you know what I mean. And then over
Speaker 1: the course of the game, we did a better job
Speaker 1: of kind of tightening that up and he had to
Speaker 1: get more of his stuff at the RAM after multiple
Speaker 1: counter moves, and we took away some of his easier shots.
Speaker 1: But the point is is like there's just a huge
Speaker 1: difference between that Wayne Ellington. This season, you know, like
Speaker 1: most of the Lakers has contested some shots. Tonight, I
Speaker 1: saw Wayne Ellington actively making dudes uncomfortable, really kicking that
Speaker 1: to another gear to where it's not I'm sticking a
Speaker 1: hand up on the shot. It's no, I'm selling out
Speaker 1: to make this dude feel uncomfortable. On the contest. It's
Speaker 1: something we've seen from Austin Reeves all season long, you know,
Speaker 1: in that son's games, like second game of the season
Speaker 1: or whatever. Literally you saw, you know, Laker defender after
Speaker 1: Laker defender after Laker defender kind of throw up, you know,
Speaker 1: feeble little contests on Chris Paul. And then you saw
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves get in there and really really sell out
Speaker 1: to try to make him feeluncomfortable, and he started missing.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, that's the difference. That's the
Speaker 1: next level, and that that that's that kind of defensive momentum.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see this team build. There are guys
Speaker 1: like th HT that just what their physical tools can
Speaker 1: do whenever they want. But you're gonna see some more
Speaker 1: of that become part of our defensive culture. But again,
Speaker 1: I like th HD because if you have him in
Speaker 1: any lineup, he's an actually disruptive defender. I got a
Speaker 1: guy who you know, isolating him as kind of a
Speaker 1: fool's errand there are just much better options, and so
Speaker 1: that kind of is exciting. I want to eventually, I
Speaker 1: want to hear your response, but I want to eventually
Speaker 1: talk more about the trade ideas. That center around him,
Speaker 1: because a lot of that timeline that I'm discussing, a
Speaker 1: lot of that trimming of the fat directly relates to
Speaker 1: what his trade potential looks like. Because if he starts
Speaker 1: to trim the fat here in the next month a
Speaker 1: little bit and start to look like a functional member
Speaker 1: of our closing lineup, I don't think he can trade
Speaker 1: him because of his inevitable ceiling down the line. But
Speaker 1: you know there if there's that fine line there where
Speaker 1: you have to weigh those two concepts against each other.
Speaker 1: The urgency of the window with th HDS development, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And he's learning how to do winning habits right,
Speaker 1: and championship habits and that stuff you don't get on
Speaker 1: a bad team. He could easily be We always talked
Speaker 1: about it. He could be on another team, get all
Speaker 1: the on ball reps, get all the pick and roll reps,
Speaker 1: you know, average the eighteen five with you know, all
Speaker 1: the turnovers, but you know it solid, flashy. But he's
Speaker 1: on a team with better ball handlers than he is.
Speaker 1: He's on team where he's not the first, second, or
Speaker 1: even third option. He has to learn how to play
Speaker 1: off ball. And I think that that works in his
Speaker 1: favor to become a winning player in that situation, it's
Speaker 1: gonna take time. Players like that, players like THHD have
Speaker 1: had the ball in their hands their whole career, uh
Speaker 1: their whole basketball career before they got to the league.
Speaker 1: That's just who he is, and that's the reason to
Speaker 1: me why he is more comfortable taking threes off the
Speaker 1: dribble right. And you'll see him even when he's open,
Speaker 1: he'll like to dribble in, or he's more comfortable coming
Speaker 1: off a screen and pulling up or on a pull
Speaker 1: up jumper. His form looks even better, it looks more
Speaker 1: smooth that way. But he's trying to work into his
Speaker 1: spot up shooting. I still think he has to be
Speaker 1: somewhat of a respectable spot up shooter um to play
Speaker 1: when it when it really matters. But the defense already
Speaker 1: made as far ahead as it is, I think it's
Speaker 1: really huge and it just shows his development. And again,
Speaker 1: the offense doesn't have to be great, but I thought,
Speaker 1: tonw you saw semblances of what it can look like.
Speaker 1: You saw some other good process stuff. You saw him
Speaker 1: screening for Lebron and then slipping, and then you saw
Speaker 1: TC be able to attack like four on five when
Speaker 1: Boston with trap and it just plays into his strains, right,
Speaker 1: he gets to go downhill. He got to get some
Speaker 1: finishes over al Horford, I thought tonight, which were really smooth.
Speaker 1: He has a finishing game there, and it's just stuff
Speaker 1: that it's all gonna be growing pains, like he could
Speaker 1: easily the next few games and I'll play well again,
Speaker 1: not finished at the like, it's just it's gonna be
Speaker 1: up and down and there's and he's not the player
Speaker 1: that he was when he started. He's not a twenty
Speaker 1: point game player. He's not a player that gonna hit
Speaker 1: a shot for the last few games. Somewhere in between,
Speaker 1: we see him getting better. I thought. I thought tonight
Speaker 1: he was the most comfortable I've seen him. Uh, And
Speaker 1: he's just gonna continue to get reps next to Russ,
Speaker 1: next to Lebron. But I saw a good process stuff
Speaker 1: and I'd like to see I'd like to see it more.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see him with some shooting around him, right,
Speaker 1: I think it's just tough. When he there was some
Speaker 1: place tonight where it was like Russ drives and then
Speaker 1: he kicks it out to th HD THHD drives and
Speaker 1: kicks it out to Avery Bradley and then Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: like there's just it's just like it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: just going nowhere. And I just like a little bit
Speaker 1: of spacing line. You talked about Ellington's defense, um, and
Speaker 1: I've seen that to me all year, Like he's never
Speaker 1: going to be great, but I think he's solid enough,
Speaker 1: Like I don't think he's gonna kill you, Like I
Speaker 1: feel like he's in the right place. He's not you know,
Speaker 1: he's not gonna be ever quick enough to stay with
Speaker 1: guards and stuff like that, but I think he's just
Speaker 1: a solid guy. Um that I'd like to for him
Speaker 1: to get more minutes, but we'll see. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: thought t was again good Tonight. Defense was fantastic. This
Speaker 1: help defense is getting better. He had some steals in
Speaker 1: transition where like someone would try to cross left or
Speaker 1: right and he just pick it right away one on one.
Speaker 1: I think he had like two steals um in transition
Speaker 1: like that. And you're right, his length is his length
Speaker 1: is a problem. Is it's something that is bothering people.
Speaker 1: It bothered Paul George. It definitely bothered Jayson Tatum. Those
Speaker 1: twos are still gonna get buckets. They're superstars. But he
Speaker 1: did his job and that's that's all you can ask.
Speaker 1: And you can see that Vogo really likes him. It's
Speaker 1: why he continues to start even when his offense is
Speaker 1: is ugly. And I think he's gonna stay in the
Speaker 1: starting lineup at least until a reason gets back here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, I would expect him too as well. I would.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't think it's completely out of the realm of
Speaker 1: possibility that he would continue to start. Dirt becomes back term,
Speaker 1: but so so let's let's because this was something that
Speaker 1: popped across the timeline. I think I think it was
Speaker 1: today obviously with the news that the Pacers were going
Speaker 1: to be potentially entering into a rebuild phase that they
Speaker 1: probably should have entered in a few years ago. But
Speaker 1: the the let's obviously th hd like we just got.
Speaker 1: If he can trim the fat um and kind of
Speaker 1: find a functional offensive role on the team, he kind
Speaker 1: of fills the role of a forward because he's so strong,
Speaker 1: his center of gravity is so low you can't really
Speaker 1: push him off of his spot in physical size mismatches,
Speaker 1: and he's got so much length that he can really,
Speaker 1: really bother you at the when you're trying to shoot
Speaker 1: over the top of him. So let's obviously accepting the
Speaker 1: fact that if he kind of develops into what the
Speaker 1: Lakers need him to be, he is the best option
Speaker 1: while also having the long term ceiling, and they should
Speaker 1: keep him. But let's pretend we're sitting in January February
Speaker 1: and the THHD thing just isn't panning out still, you know,
Speaker 1: making mistakes off ball in the defense, complete liability, jump shooting, um,
Speaker 1: you know, struggling with decision making, blah blah blah. What
Speaker 1: did you think about the concept of flipping th h
Speaker 1: T and Kendrick Nunn for for Miles Turner demonus opponents. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's tough. Obviously I don't watch the Pacers enough,
Speaker 1: but I mean I followed. I mean, Kyln Cooper is
Speaker 1: a person who goes with him, and she thinks that
Speaker 1: trade is kind of crazy, and it would to me like,
Speaker 1: you're getting an all Star back if you get the bonus, right,
Speaker 1: I think the bonus has made an All Star team.
Speaker 1: Miles Turner is a really good player. I'd worry about
Speaker 1: the fit. I mean, it's a tough question to me,
Speaker 1: Like it's the same kind of conversation we had. Remember
Speaker 1: after the next game, I think we talked about Jeremy Grant,
Speaker 1: right because Jeremy Grant, I think rumors came up. And
Speaker 1: it's a similar kind of situation to that. If the
Speaker 1: team is rolling and you think that's the you know,
Speaker 1: that's the way to go, then then maybe you know,
Speaker 1: you go ahead and make that move. We'll see. I
Speaker 1: think Taylor would have to show more or to me
Speaker 1: for that to be the trade. I think there would
Speaker 1: be better just in my opinion, I think there's better
Speaker 1: offers out there for the Pacers to go and get.
Speaker 1: And then with Miles Turner, I would be worried a
Speaker 1: little bit about the fit. I feel like trading for
Speaker 1: another You know, Molestern is a good shooter. He's shooting
Speaker 1: I think thirty nine percent from three, like he's a
Speaker 1: legit three point shooter. But I feel like that kind
Speaker 1: of you know, handicaps you to kind of play big,
Speaker 1: right because you're gonna start a d and Miles it
Speaker 1: would kind of make a d uh play the five
Speaker 1: even less. I guess it would move him to the
Speaker 1: power forward and to me that the ceiling of this
Speaker 1: team is still brawn and a D at the four
Speaker 1: or five, Like, I think that's your main ceiling and
Speaker 1: you build around that. But Turner is an amazing player,
Speaker 1: He's him, and a D would be incredible as a
Speaker 1: defensive president. It's a it's a tough question to me
Speaker 1: because Taylor is really your only trade piece, right Like,
Speaker 1: once you move that, that's pretty much like you don't
Speaker 1: have anything behind that. Um if you move him, and
Speaker 1: we'll see what Kendrick Nunn, who hasn't played a minute tonight.
Speaker 1: But I feel like that it's such a tough thing
Speaker 1: for me to say yes right now, we're like two
Speaker 1: games over five hundred. Was see how the season goes.
Speaker 1: But it's something definitely they're gonna have to look at though.
Speaker 1: But I just I don't have a decision right now,
Speaker 1: Like that's a really tough thing to to go through
Speaker 1: and just trade tailing because I think there is enough there.
Speaker 1: It's not the ideal fit for him. He's obviously a
Speaker 1: guy who needs facing and a guy probably where you
Speaker 1: know his ceiling as a as if everything was in
Speaker 1: an ideal world, he's the ball handler on your team
Speaker 1: who's making the decisions. That's just not what it is
Speaker 1: right now, but I think there's something to build build
Speaker 1: around that that can be super useful for a championship
Speaker 1: team to have to have a guy with young legs,
Speaker 1: a guy with this type of potential I think is
Speaker 1: good to have on the team. But I understand the
Speaker 1: other side too. What what about you? What do you
Speaker 1: what did you think of those trades? What do you
Speaker 1: think of the the fake trades that were coming out
Speaker 1: for a turner in sabonus. So again, the idea of
Speaker 1: whether or not we should trade THHD is a separate
Speaker 1: topic of from who you trade him for. Okay, So
Speaker 1: like whether we should trade th HD, one has to
Speaker 1: do with is the team trending in the direction that
Speaker 1: you think they have a legitimate chance to win the championship?
Speaker 1: And is th HT not a big part of that?
Speaker 1: Because it's because if the team is trending towards an obvious,
Speaker 1: like legitimate run at the title, and th HD is
Speaker 1: a big part of that because he's defending extremely well
Speaker 1: and playing a role in our offense, then hell no,
Speaker 1: you don't trade them, you know, because whatever you're getting back,
Speaker 1: you have to factor in what you're losing with th HT.
Speaker 1: But if we are trending towards a clear run to
Speaker 1: the title, and th HT is struggling. That's when you
Speaker 1: have to make the philosophical decision, which is, don't have
Speaker 1: one ft straddling either end of the line, because that's
Speaker 1: when you end up unsatisfied now and unsatisfied later. So
Speaker 1: once we've accepted that, let's for the sake of accepting,
Speaker 1: you know, for the sake of argument, let's say we
Speaker 1: have decided to trade th HT. What what you know,
Speaker 1: archetype of players should we be looking for? Now you
Speaker 1: have we've discussed three completely different kinds. Right, we have
Speaker 1: jare Me Grant, the athletic, slashing wing. Then we have
Speaker 1: Miles Turner, who's more of a like kind of the
Speaker 1: modern form of a stretch rim protecting center who can
Speaker 1: shoot the three ball and as a great shot blocker.
Speaker 1: And then you have Demonic Sabonis, who's, you know, a
Speaker 1: low post scorer who has some capability to shoot from
Speaker 1: the perimeter, although this season he has a shot well
Speaker 1: from the perimeter. Um. But you know, one of the
Speaker 1: things with sa Bonus that I think is interesting is
Speaker 1: he kind of reminds me a little bit of Kevin
Speaker 1: Love in the sense that Kevin Love used to be
Speaker 1: a dominant post player as long as he had a
Speaker 1: clear physical advantage, you know, like if you could get
Speaker 1: him against skinny forwards, he would kill them. If you
Speaker 1: could get him on switches against guards, he would kill them.
Speaker 1: That was one of the things the Calves used to
Speaker 1: always do when they play the Raptors is really spam,
Speaker 1: you know, pick and roll with uh with Lebron and
Speaker 1: Kevin Loved to try to get switches and then they
Speaker 1: would go to Kevin Love in the pos. But then
Speaker 1: whenever Kevin Love would face like a really big, strong,
Speaker 1: athletic power forward, which would inevitably would be would would
Speaker 1: be who the Calves would face in late playoff rounds,
Speaker 1: think like a Draymond Green or you know any of
Speaker 1: the Celtics forwards, or like a you know, a Daddy
Speaker 1: s Young or something like that. He would really struggle
Speaker 1: because he wouldn't have the physical tools necessary to score.
Speaker 1: And I see that a lot with Sabonus when I
Speaker 1: watch him, you know, like when he when he has mismatches,
Speaker 1: he's the dominant post score. But I've seen him get
Speaker 1: physically mauled defensively by bigger stronger forwards that aren't easy
Speaker 1: to score on in the post. And so to me,
Speaker 1: Sabonis is like a massive cross off, like clear nonfit. Uh,
Speaker 1: not anywhere near a good enough floor space or to
Speaker 1: make any sense, not anywhere near to Dwight's probably a
Speaker 1: better defender than him right now. Like to me, the
Speaker 1: Sabonis is like, like, don't even bring that up. To me,
Speaker 1: that's a terrible, terrible, terrible basketball decision. Miles Turner and
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant, now we're talking philosophy here, because Miles Turner,
Speaker 1: we got a rim space, you know, a guy who
Speaker 1: can protect the rim, so basically the dream for Frank Vogel,
Speaker 1: but a guy who can space the floor. Right now,
Speaker 1: this is where it becomes like philosophically, what direction do
Speaker 1: we want the team to be going? And to me,
Speaker 1: this is a team that already has the two centers
Speaker 1: they need to play the style of basketball they need
Speaker 1: to play, which is lots and lots of shooting, lots
Speaker 1: and lots of foot speed and stagger a d and Dwight.
Speaker 1: That to me makes the most sense for what they
Speaker 1: can do on both ends of the floor. So adding
Speaker 1: Miles Turner into that makes really convolutes it, because now
Speaker 1: you're either kicking Dwight out of the rotation, who's a
Speaker 1: solid backup center, or you're going back to playing huge.
Speaker 1: And now we're getting back into the situation where it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: can Myles Turner run up and down the floor consistently
Speaker 1: against teams that try to really get after us in transition?
Speaker 1: You what I mean, that's where I am going to
Speaker 1: constantly point us back towards forwards, guys along the lines
Speaker 1: of Jeremy Grant. If we do decide to cash in
Speaker 1: the th HT non contracts for a good piece, to me,
Speaker 1: it has to be for a wing. That is our clear,
Speaker 1: our clear shortcoming on a roster. It's the main reason
Speaker 1: why a lot of our lineups don't make any sense,
Speaker 1: or at least up to this point in the season.
Speaker 1: That to me, philosophically needs to be the way we
Speaker 1: were looking. So what I was bothered to be bothered
Speaker 1: today when I saw the the Turner um, you know,
Speaker 1: Sabonis trade ideas getting bounced around, because to me, it
Speaker 1: was like, whoa, this should be a universal no from
Speaker 1: Laker fans. You know, this is this is this is
Speaker 1: just I get the talent add idea of it. But
Speaker 1: this is a clue, like, this is not a roster
Speaker 1: need for us. You know, we are issue is that
Speaker 1: we have too many yards and we have too many bigs.
Speaker 1: It's the last thing we need is another big. So
Speaker 1: I just just from a basketball philosophy standpoint, I didn't
Speaker 1: like either of those ideas. That's where I'm at too.
Speaker 1: I mean, Jeremy Grant, I'm not sure if he's a
Speaker 1: better player than you know, Turner, and but that's kind
Speaker 1: of that would be the ideal fit for me. And
Speaker 1: you know, Jeremy Grant went to uh went to Detroit.
Speaker 1: He wanted to be the guy there. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if he's available or not, but that'd be the kind
Speaker 1: of ideal player to me. I was thinking about something
Speaker 1: because when I saw these trades, I thought about Stan
Speaker 1: stand Gundy, who actually did the game tonight, but when
Speaker 1: the Celtics were playing the Bucks in the playoff series.
Speaker 1: I believe it was the playoff series with Kyrie and
Speaker 1: he was talking about the difference between Marcus Morris and
Speaker 1: like Al Horford right as three point shooters, and I
Speaker 1: believe Al Horford had the better three point percentage, right
Speaker 1: but he doesn't put up the volume. So he was
Speaker 1: talking about when he would tell his his players like
Speaker 1: they were closing. Now closed out to Marcus Morris because
Speaker 1: he'll actually shoot every time he's open, you know, Al
Speaker 1: Horford kind of he's kind of he'll shoot if he's
Speaker 1: like wide open, but he doesn't shoot every time he's open.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of how I see the Miles Turner fit.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis like, Miles Turner is a good three point shoter,
Speaker 1: but he's like he doesn't put up the volume to
Speaker 1: be defended as a three point shooter to me, And
Speaker 1: that's the way A d plays as well. Like I
Speaker 1: feel like you still have the same issue of the
Speaker 1: paint pack, but you know, Turner is a great player
Speaker 1: if you can get him for talent. I think the
Speaker 1: fit issues are there, but it's a talent lead like
Speaker 1: you would add talent, it's a bonus. I I see
Speaker 1: what you're saying with the fit, but I think he's
Speaker 1: just a super good passer. You know, he's a really
Speaker 1: good he has a really great feel for the game.
Speaker 1: Like again, he had one All Star appearance, but I
Speaker 1: think he's like a really it's another just you're adding
Speaker 1: just stacking talent on talent. The fit isn't great, but
Speaker 1: I think him and a D would be a force Offensively.
Speaker 1: We'll have to see defensively he's not great at switching
Speaker 1: and all that. But I think that's still a huge
Speaker 1: just talent upgrade if you're able to get that. But again,
Speaker 1: I have no clue how the Pacers feel about th
Speaker 1: HT and and and vice versa. But yeah, that's it's
Speaker 1: a very interesting conversation and I think those won't be
Speaker 1: the last two that we talked about this. As the
Speaker 1: season goes on, more teams will kind of fade into
Speaker 1: the let's rebuild and sell our parts kind of part
Speaker 1: of the season, and you'll see that continue. Um, I
Speaker 1: think Taylan is available, not even to be available to
Speaker 1: be traded until December fifteenth anyway, But yeah, you'll see
Speaker 1: more of this come up. But the bonus in China
Speaker 1: are definitely interesting, interesting guys to look at because those
Speaker 1: are definitely huge talent upgrades and the fit is still
Speaker 1: a little bit questionable too. Well. The problem is when
Speaker 1: we drop a forward, we were screwed, you know, like
Speaker 1: we like when you found out Lebron in COVID you're
Speaker 1: literally sitting on your couch as a Laker fan thinking like,
Speaker 1: oh no, like we we can't even feel the basketball
Speaker 1: team here, Like we're gonna have to do super j
Speaker 1: K stuff like play two bigs all the time and
Speaker 1: and just just hope that we could score enough points
Speaker 1: and and defend well enough to to stay competitive in
Speaker 1: these games. It's because we just don't have that kind
Speaker 1: of player on the roster. We literally don't like I Like,
Speaker 1: I've said a lot Carmelo Anthony is six ft eight,
Speaker 1: but he is not a He is not a wing.
Speaker 1: He's basically he's a lot more of like a Wayne
Speaker 1: Ellington who happens to be tall than he is a
Speaker 1: you know, like a Jeremy Grant, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 1: he is not a guy who he does not fulfill
Speaker 1: the defensive responsibilities of a wing. So because he doesn't
Speaker 1: fulfill the defensive responsibilities of a wing, he can't be
Speaker 1: considered once th HD. For instance, even though he's only
Speaker 1: six ft four, he can fulfill the defensive responsibilities of
Speaker 1: a wing. That's what kind of makes him so valuable.
Speaker 1: And that's why if he does trend towards becoming a
Speaker 1: functional part of our offense. You have to keep him
Speaker 1: because now he kind of fulfills that role in the
Speaker 1: immediate future with all the All Star potential down the line,
Speaker 1: but right now we're just thin at that position. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe your Reason comes back and and everyone stays healthy,
Speaker 1: and you're looking at it like, Bam, we've got three
Speaker 1: guys who can fulfill that job of that mobile, versatile
Speaker 1: wing with Lebron, with Trevor Reza in with with th
Speaker 1: h T, and maybe it all works out. But the
Speaker 1: problem is is one of those guys is twenty one,
Speaker 1: just turned twenty one years old and is completely you know,
Speaker 1: you know, like in the in the midst of a
Speaker 1: massive you know, young basketball player offensive slump. The other
Speaker 1: guy just had ankle surgery. And the third guy is
Speaker 1: thirty seven. So that's kind of our issue right now,
Speaker 1: right is in theory, Like and this is what Rob
Speaker 1: would probably tell you if you were picking his brain, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, do you have any regrets about the summer,
Speaker 1: Like he'd probably he'd probably tell you like, I thought
Speaker 1: we'd have th h T, Lebron and Trevor Reason the win,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, And we've had and we've
Speaker 1: lost Lebron for half the games. We lost th HD
Speaker 1: for a third of the games, and we've lost a
Speaker 1: reason for all the games. And for half of the
Speaker 1: games that th HD has played, he's been unplayable because
Speaker 1: of his youthful mistakes, and Lebron hasn't really been engaged.
Speaker 1: That's that's the reality of the situation. But that's why
Speaker 1: I keep looking towards that position group as the area
Speaker 1: of opportunity. If you get to the point where you
Speaker 1: gotta make trade, if you can turn the twenty one
Speaker 1: year old, you know, versatile forward who is unplayable on
Speaker 1: some nights, into a guy like Jeremy Grant who is,
Speaker 1: you know, not an All Star, but in that tier
Speaker 1: right below All Star in terms of like really really
Speaker 1: good NBA player, then I think you gotta do it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But that that's that's that's
Speaker 1: kind of the way that I look at this, because
Speaker 1: it's got to be you're gonna know when the time comes.
Speaker 1: No one's making any trades right now, but when when
Speaker 1: you know, late January early February comes, you're gonna you're
Speaker 1: gonna have a set of circumstances we're gonna you know,
Speaker 1: right now, what are we thirteen and twelve or whatever
Speaker 1: it is that we are or when you know at
Speaker 1: that point where you know, we might be fifteen, you know,
Speaker 1: but and then we can all be sitting here thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, th HD is great, this is great. All
Speaker 1: we need to do is just continue this momentum. But
Speaker 1: all I'm saying is that if we get to that
Speaker 1: point and in the opportunities there, don't hold your chips
Speaker 1: to your chest, you know what I mean. And yeah,
Speaker 1: t hds are only trade piece now, but let's say
Speaker 1: you did trade him for Jeremy Grant. Jeremy Grant is
Speaker 1: a trade piece. You know that at that point he
Speaker 1: would still have one year on his contract, could be
Speaker 1: a really really good wing who makes twenty million, and
Speaker 1: that that makes him, you know, in that same class
Speaker 1: of the you know, the Harrison Barnes is of the
Speaker 1: league that that that everyone is always wanting to offer
Speaker 1: trades for at the trade that, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I again it's it's this is all high and
Speaker 1: this guy stuff. We're way down the line here, but
Speaker 1: but it's just I just wanted to bring it up
Speaker 1: because it was definitely something I was balancing around with
Speaker 1: with Laker fans earlier today. Oh yeah, for sure. It
Speaker 1: was a It was a big topic. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if he saw in the game today. I think
Speaker 1: like Tatum blew by Carmelo Anthony and stand standba gun,
Speaker 1: He's like, this is why you go out and get
Speaker 1: Trevor Reason. I was just thinking, like that's kind of
Speaker 1: a para to Trevor Reason, you know, thirty six year
Speaker 1: old Trevor Reason as the main stopper. But I'd like
Speaker 1: to see this team fully healthy, you know, before we
Speaker 1: just shuffle everything and and move everyone out or fire
Speaker 1: someone as as we've talked about things at lanes here,
Speaker 1: Like I'd like to see the team healthy. We got
Speaker 1: news that Kendrick Nunn is probably not gonna play until
Speaker 1: until yeah, until January. Trevor Reason is practicing with the
Speaker 1: team though, Like that's good news, so you should be
Speaker 1: maybe a week and maybe a week out. We'll see
Speaker 1: how they want to ramp him up. But I just
Speaker 1: like to seeing this team healthy. We just got DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan kicked out of the rotation like two or three
Speaker 1: games ago, you know, and like we just and tonight
Speaker 1: was the first time we got a d after five
Speaker 1: starting since the last It's not exactly I'd like to
Speaker 1: see it, you know, I'd like to see the team
Speaker 1: get a chance healthy before we break everything up. A
Speaker 1: D started the five for the first time or night
Speaker 1: since that Boston game. After that Boston game, I believe
Speaker 1: DJ started, or do I Howard started after every single
Speaker 1: one and the next few games here are all winnable.
Speaker 1: We played Memphis without I believe John morant Um. Then
Speaker 1: they play Okay, see the Orlando Magic, the Mavericks who
Speaker 1: haven't been playing well, the Timberwolves, who you know, that's
Speaker 1: a winnable game, and then he played Chicago. But the
Speaker 1: next five games are all winnable. This team has lost
Speaker 1: the benefit of a doubt obviously, um in that regard,
Speaker 1: but these games are winnable here. You can if you're
Speaker 1: sitting at you know, eighteen and thirteen after these games,
Speaker 1: like that's a good start of the season after what happened.
Speaker 1: So I just want to see the team at least
Speaker 1: get a chance because I think they are building up here.
Speaker 1: I think Russell Westbrook has gotten in an absolute groove,
Speaker 1: and I have a D eighty can join him. We're
Speaker 1: starting to get Lebron healthy. This is his second straight game.
Speaker 1: He hasn't played four straight games yet this season. Like
Speaker 1: there's stuff I want to see before we just you know, uh,
Speaker 1: throw everything everything in the trade machine. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: it seems like it's trending up here, and hopefully people
Speaker 1: get healthy Kendrick Nunn again in January. But Trevor rees
Speaker 1: is practicing like I'd like to see him play. Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves didn't even play tonight until garbage time. We'll see
Speaker 1: if he's in and now the rotation. But yeah, and
Speaker 1: hopefully this is a trend upwards because I think I
Speaker 1: saw a lot of good process stuff tonight. I love
Speaker 1: how we used Wayne Ellington in the second half next
Speaker 1: to Lebron Leek Munk continues to just be fantastic, Like
Speaker 1: there's things, there's little spots in here that have been
Speaker 1: growing as the team has been losing, Like the Milake
Speaker 1: Mudd thing I think is real. Right, would even discuss
Speaker 1: him tonight, but like he's been playing well even as
Speaker 1: the team was losing. And then you see it when
Speaker 1: the team starts to roll. How much how much more
Speaker 1: of that adds, how much his punch, his just energy,
Speaker 1: his juice gives to the team when he comes in
Speaker 1: the game. So it's just some stuff that I'm saying
Speaker 1: that's good process that I'd like to stick with as
Speaker 1: as we go forward here. Yeah, well, we're not going
Speaker 1: to commit to any sort of sweeping declaration that things
Speaker 1: have changed. We've been hurt too many times. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: swear that stupid that that road win over Sacramento. After
Speaker 1: the game against Detroit where Lebron and A d were
Speaker 1: both so good, I was all in on this concept, like, Hey,
Speaker 1: this is happening now. And then they came out and
Speaker 1: literally looked horrible against against the Clippers, and everyone was horrible.
Speaker 1: Lebron was horrible, Anthony Davis is horrible, like Frank Vogel
Speaker 1: was one arguably his worst game as a coach. Like
Speaker 1: it was just a just a really, really bad a
Speaker 1: night there to just kind of remind us that that's
Speaker 1: the kind of the kind of season that it was.
Speaker 1: It's always funny when I h you had mentioned that
Speaker 1: Russ has been really good. He has, He's been fantastic.
Speaker 1: It's always funny like when you listen to um, you know,
Speaker 1: people outside of the Laker fan base and I'm not
Speaker 1: judging them by any stretch of the imagination because you
Speaker 1: and I do the same thing. Like we're basketball fans,
Speaker 1: so guess what, Like we're going to comment on Demonis
Speaker 1: sa Bonis even though we haven't watched him as much
Speaker 1: as Indiana Pacers fans have, you know, And you know
Speaker 1: we're gonna have a We're gonna have a pot on
Speaker 1: an off day one of these days where we talk
Speaker 1: about the rest of the league and it's not obviously
Speaker 1: we don't pay as close attention to them as as Lakers.
Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna sit here and tell people you're
Speaker 1: not allowed to talk about him. But it's funny because
Speaker 1: I listened to Russillo and Simmons today and you know
Speaker 1: that the Lakers came up in the very first thing
Speaker 1: that Bill Simmons started ranting about was Russell Westbrook and
Speaker 1: the fit. And I'm just like, oh, you haven't watched
Speaker 1: the Lakers, like because they like the Lakers have a
Speaker 1: ton of problems and russ just isn't one of them,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like even the spacing stuff
Speaker 1: hasn't really reared its ugly head. I mean tonight, he
Speaker 1: had a stretch there in the beginning of the first
Speaker 1: quarter where he missed a couple of wide open threes
Speaker 1: in a row, but it's like this season he's been
Speaker 1: shooting those pretty well. So I mean, yeah, to the
Speaker 1: if you just turn on the game, you might sit
Speaker 1: there and go like, oh, look, they're ignoring Russ and
Speaker 1: he's hurting the team. But it's like we've been watching
Speaker 1: all season and he's made enough of those to where
Speaker 1: it hasn't been a problem, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we're not gonna We're not gonna get get
Speaker 1: too amped up or excited about anything until until they
Speaker 1: really ripped something a good long streak off. I mean
Speaker 1: to give you an idea. One of my big philosophies
Speaker 1: coming into the season, if you remember, was the idea
Speaker 1: that when Lebron in a D play, the Lakers went
Speaker 1: about seventy eight percent of their games. That was the
Speaker 1: case for the first two seasons of the Lebron in
Speaker 1: a D era, and tonight was just the twelve game
Speaker 1: the season step both Lebron and a D have played,
Speaker 1: and they went seven and five. Are they went seven
Speaker 1: and five in those twelve games, So what that means
Speaker 1: is the Lakers would have to win ten more in
Speaker 1: a row right now, uh, in order to get to
Speaker 1: that you know, seventy eight percent win percentage that they
Speaker 1: had in the previous seasons, which by the way, they're
Speaker 1: very capable of. I mean, their schedule is so tough
Speaker 1: the rest of the season that it's far more likely
Speaker 1: that if they do pull that off, it's more of
Speaker 1: like we went, you know, five and four over game
Speaker 1: stretch rather than actually ripping off a win street, because
Speaker 1: if the Lakers were going to do that, it would
Speaker 1: have been at the beginning of the season when they
Speaker 1: had the easy cupcake part of their schedule. But you know,
Speaker 1: the Lakers dug themselves a little bit of a hole
Speaker 1: because they went five hundred against their cupcake schedule and
Speaker 1: now they're and now they're heading into the Like you said,
Speaker 1: there's some winnable games here on the horizon, but they're
Speaker 1: they're heading into a pretty tough end of their end
Speaker 1: of their schedule. But the truth is is the Lakers
Speaker 1: can go on a run and they can kind of
Speaker 1: re establish that same formula that that carried them in
Speaker 1: previous years. It's all possible. Um, But you know, like
Speaker 1: we said, we're not gonna sit there and and and
Speaker 1: pretend like we know for sure it's going to happen,
Speaker 1: because this team has just proven to us too many
Speaker 1: times that that's not really what they're made of, at
Speaker 1: least to this point. That obviously can change. Did you
Speaker 1: have anything else you wanted to touch on tonight? Yeah,
Speaker 1: just last last few things. Russ's numbers, the lass like
Speaker 1: his games. I'm just looking at maybe we can equival
Speaker 1: about the numbers and how much they matter and how
Speaker 1: much you know they're impacted winning. But twenty nine, ten
Speaker 1: and eleven, twenty five, six and nine, five and six. Um,
Speaker 1: he had the one stinker against the Clippers, rose twenty
Speaker 1: ten points. But again tonight eleven and three. Like he's
Speaker 1: been there and it's not that he's not a problem
Speaker 1: or whatever. Like there's things you have to do to
Speaker 1: act us to Russ. I've been down that since the
Speaker 1: beginning of the season. Decision to me was about fitting
Speaker 1: Russ around a title core, and we just haven't had
Speaker 1: Lebron play enough. UM eight has been a d has
Speaker 1: played well. The numbers, the numbers have been really good.
Speaker 1: I still feel like there's games where he blacking and
Speaker 1: waynes his effort. But I think Russ is a weapon
Speaker 1: that you have to deploy in a correct way, and
Speaker 1: I think we're kind of seeing that process start to work.
Speaker 1: I think Vogel starting to figure out. I think the
Speaker 1: A D at the five stuff is extremely key for us,
Speaker 1: even when it's nonshooters. The spacing of the floor just
Speaker 1: make more sense for him, and I think we're starting
Speaker 1: to see that payoff. And the last thing, Carmelo Anthony
Speaker 1: tonight twenty one minutes, I think that's where his minute
Speaker 1: load should be. I thought you saw him kind of
Speaker 1: pop off the screen a little bit more. He could
Speaker 1: pick his spots a little bit better. That's just a
Speaker 1: spot up guy or a post up guy. It's like
Speaker 1: ten minutes a half instead, Like I was looking, he
Speaker 1: played forty three minutes against the King's six games ago.
Speaker 1: Like if Carmelo had, he's playing forty three minutes for
Speaker 1: your team, you're a good basketball team. And that kind
Speaker 1: of goes into the that kind of goes into the
Speaker 1: forward issue that we have and all that. But I
Speaker 1: thought tonight, it just it looks so much better when
Speaker 1: he can just pick his spots as a score for
Speaker 1: ten minutes a game, and the defense is never gonna
Speaker 1: be great, it's gonna get picked on a few times.
Speaker 1: I thought he's in the right spots and all that.
Speaker 1: But I thought, like, we're seeing kind of the evolution
Speaker 1: of the team of what it will be when when
Speaker 1: everything is kind of finalized, and I think Carmelo at
Speaker 1: like sixteen to twenty minutes a game as part of that,
Speaker 1: and I thought he it was another good game for him.
Speaker 1: He didn't make a three tonight, but four for eleven,
Speaker 1: I die his offense was was fine. I thought he'd
Speaker 1: fit into the scheme of what we want to do.
Speaker 1: So there was the last three things. Goodwin man a
Speaker 1: lot of positives I know from us tonight, but I thought,
Speaker 1: I think that's important. I think it was a finally
Speaker 1: a fun one for us and everyone else didn't enjoy here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you actually just reminded me of one last thing
Speaker 1: that we'll touch on and then we'll call you tonight.
Speaker 1: Did you happen to see Anthony Irwin's like, uh like
Speaker 1: lineup rules thing that he sent out a couple days
Speaker 1: ago rules? No, I didn't see that, So it was
Speaker 1: kind of an interesting concept. I wanted to make sure
Speaker 1: Anthony got credit for it, because this is I mean,
Speaker 1: these are kind of ideas that I think all of
Speaker 1: us have had. But it's just like a like, if
Speaker 1: if Frank could just and he followed most of these
Speaker 1: rules tonight, not all of them, but most of these rules,
Speaker 1: but this, uh, you know. Basically, the idea was, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, just a couple of checklist items that if
Speaker 1: the lineups fit into these rules, then things would make
Speaker 1: a lot of more sense. And the ideas were like, hey, like,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna play two bigs, can't be with RUSS, right,
Speaker 1: So never ever ever start a center alongside a D
Speaker 1: because you should ever ever have the impact of RUSS
Speaker 1: is spacing and the impact of a traditional center spacing, right.
Speaker 1: So like, if they're going to play in a D
Speaker 1: DWIGHT lineup, it should be you know, with either three
Speaker 1: shooters or with lebron and two shooters or something along
Speaker 1: something along those lines where you know, not only can
Speaker 1: you functionally run a defense by having those two big
Speaker 1: guys in the background of background to kind of cover
Speaker 1: for other guys mistakes, but it's just there's a lot
Speaker 1: more space to operate. And then the other rules were
Speaker 1: like staggered T H T and RUSS, which obviously I
Speaker 1: T is gonna play the big minutes, you can't fully
Speaker 1: stagger them. But yeah, I would stagger t h T
Speaker 1: and Russ. I don't. It's one of the big reasons
Speaker 1: why I don't like starting th h T. It's the
Speaker 1: idea that our best opportunity, to our best opportunity to
Speaker 1: set th HT up for success with his rhythm is
Speaker 1: to kind of do what what I've always talked about,
Speaker 1: like let him come in off the bench and come
Speaker 1: in gunning and being aggressive offensively, rather than putting him
Speaker 1: alongside a bunch of guys who are going to shoot
Speaker 1: every time they touch the ball, where he kind of
Speaker 1: struggles figuring out where he's gonna fit, you get you
Speaker 1: get a diminishing return on the t h T thing.
Speaker 1: In that regard. I like t she staggered with Russ.
Speaker 1: There will be some overlap. But and then the and
Speaker 1: then the last one was play our shooters. So essentially
Speaker 1: we have we have three dead eye shooters and Wayne
Speaker 1: Ellington Carmelo Anthony in the league month. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: with exception of the starters, we should have, we should
Speaker 1: try to have two of those guys on the court
Speaker 1: as much as possible, but we should never we should
Speaker 1: never have fewer than one of those guys on the
Speaker 1: court because of you know, just foundationally, it's easier to
Speaker 1: play in in poor spacing if it's like a four
Speaker 1: on four construct, then if it's a five on five constructs.
Speaker 1: But even if the rest of the lineup doesn't have
Speaker 1: great spacing, if that's Wayne Ellington in the corner and
Speaker 1: the guys glued to him, then even your jan Kie
Speaker 1: spacing will work better in a four in that four
Speaker 1: on four construct off of Ellington, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: So not to mention, you can use him as a
Speaker 1: screener and do all those kinds of things. But shout
Speaker 1: out to Anthony. I thought it was an interesting concept.
Speaker 1: Just again, three basic rules play shooter, staggered t and
Speaker 1: Russ never play Russ with the traditional center and a
Speaker 1: D obviously the two big one I should say. But
Speaker 1: it was an interesting concept because those those are really
Speaker 1: really basic basketball rules that you think that that every
Speaker 1: you know, coach should be able to kind of put together.
Speaker 1: But for whatever reason, it's been something that that was
Speaker 1: a slow development for Frank this year. Yeah, and Frank
Speaker 1: definitely leads into defense. I think Lebron even talked about
Speaker 1: that as well when I think he was asked about
Speaker 1: the starting lineup and said, our coach is gonna lean
Speaker 1: heavily onto the defensive end. But thought, you know, just
Speaker 1: you going through those rules we went. We went with
Speaker 1: a lot of those tonight. Actually, like I saw a
Speaker 1: lot of that, um tonight. Russ was the first sub
Speaker 1: I believe, and it was Milink Monk who came in. Uh,
Speaker 1: and you had the shooter in there, um and Uh.
Speaker 1: I think Russ and Lebron were staggered tonight. I don't
Speaker 1: think there was any point where one of them wasn't
Speaker 1: on the floor. So it was never it was never
Speaker 1: THHD by himself, or it was never a d without
Speaker 1: one of those two. Um. So I thought, like, you know,
Speaker 1: the staggering is getting better. So why Howard was the
Speaker 1: backup center? And I thought he played well and he
Speaker 1: was on the floor to me when it was Russ
Speaker 1: with no other big So it wasn't Rusted and played
Speaker 1: next to E. D and Dwight at all tonight. I don't,
Speaker 1: at least from my memory, I don't think they played
Speaker 1: that played that way. So the stuff that's going up,
Speaker 1: but those rules, those rules make sense. Um, I think
Speaker 1: we're getting closer and closer to that, and again I
Speaker 1: think a reason is like the perfect middle ground for that.
Speaker 1: I guess where he can space the floor and be
Speaker 1: the defender that Vogel wants. Hopefully we're getting closer to that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, those are those are funny. Those those are
Speaker 1: pretty true, true rules I guess to follow by all right, everybody,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming hang out on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: This will be on Dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven
Speaker 1: am Pacific Standard time. UM. This will also be on
Speaker 1: our podcast feed here in about thirty minutes. We sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate all of you guys for your support. We will
Speaker 1: be back on Thursday night. UM. I think that one's
Speaker 1: on the road at Memphis, correct, but I remember correctly. UM,
Speaker 1: Friday night, Friday night, Okay, see game I. You have
Speaker 1: a Christmas party, so I will be leaving you to
Speaker 1: ride solo for that one if you're available. Um, but
Speaker 1: we will be back on Thursday. We will talk more
Speaker 1: about playing for Friday later. But again, we appreciate your
Speaker 1: support and we'll see you guys in a couple of days.
Speaker 1: Thanks everyone,