Speaker 1: All right, welcome to the State of the Lakers postgame
Speaker 1: show presented by Dash Radio. Jason is out tonight at
Speaker 1: a holiday party, um enjoying himself and he missed miss
Speaker 1: probably the Lakers not the best win, but at least
Speaker 1: it was a good win. But my brother Rene is
Speaker 1: here to fill in. I appreciate you coming on because,
Speaker 1: like you're the honorary member here when any of us
Speaker 1: need a night off. But how are you doing, man,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming up and filling in for for
Speaker 1: Jason here. I'm doing good, man. I'm excited, not excited,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna say I'm happy. Relieved. I think relieved
Speaker 1: is the right word. After Yeah, sitting at the edge
Speaker 1: of my seat against it. Okay, sheet thunder uh in
Speaker 1: the middle of December, after what happened the previous two games.
Speaker 1: I'm relieved that, you know, the scene came back. The
Speaker 1: Lakers came out and played well today and finished wish
Speaker 1: the game with with no major drama. Yeah. I don't
Speaker 1: know about you, but this lead never felt safe to me. Like,
Speaker 1: I just never felt comfortable. They were up twenty they
Speaker 1: were up twenty five, and I was like, and we
Speaker 1: were even texting like this lead was never safe. It
Speaker 1: went down to fifteen and you could see kind of
Speaker 1: the wheels coming off. But Lebron, you know, as he does,
Speaker 1: came back in and kind of sell things down. But yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: see we're lucky. Tonight it felt like Shay wasn't really
Speaker 1: as aggressive as he could have been. This is a
Speaker 1: bad team, right the preface before we get into all
Speaker 1: this stuff. Okay, so he's a bad team. I have
Speaker 1: no clue how we lost to them twice, one of
Speaker 1: them at home. I believe in over time or whatever
Speaker 1: it was. But yeah, it's good to get a win. Uh.
Speaker 1: They looked they looked serious tonight. Lebron looks serious and
Speaker 1: and we'll start with him. I want to ask you
Speaker 1: about him because I feel like it's been trending upward
Speaker 1: with Lebron, Like, he looks incredible. I can separate Lebron
Speaker 1: from the team. The team hasn't looked great, but Lebron,
Speaker 1: to me, has looked awesome. He has balanced, as ste
Speaker 1: says to him, the jumper looks on, it looks clean,
Speaker 1: the forum looks good. He just looks in rhythm, and
Speaker 1: I thought there was a seriousness to him. Tonight where
Speaker 1: he set the tone again. I thought he said the
Speaker 1: tone in Memphis as well, but but tonight it just
Speaker 1: seemed at a different level. I didn't see him smile once.
Speaker 1: I twoted that, like he's not always smiling during games,
Speaker 1: but usually you see him joyful. I didn't see him
Speaker 1: joyful at all tonight. No smiling, and there's not much
Speaker 1: to smile about, I guess, but what you see from him,
Speaker 1: because I thought Lebron looked looked pretty good tonight, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, aside from like his shooting splits
Speaker 1: and stuff like that and just the efficiency overall, I
Speaker 1: thought he was all business today is something that this
Speaker 1: team sorely, sorely needs because you know, the theme of
Speaker 1: like these past twenty six games or whatever, it's just
Speaker 1: been like just like this rag tag no consistent, Like
Speaker 1: they're consistently inconsistent, and um, you know, like obviously a
Speaker 1: lot of it has been without Braun. But I thought
Speaker 1: this game was it was a nice like full forty
Speaker 1: eight minutes or whatever many minutes um Braun actually played
Speaker 1: where like the execution was just kind of clean. Like
Speaker 1: there's probably a couple of moments in the game like
Speaker 1: towards the end of the first half, m maybe small
Speaker 1: pockets in the second half where the team looked like
Speaker 1: it was kind of going away from itself like that,
Speaker 1: the paces coming out of the control, they were like
Speaker 1: chasing guys around and and mind you, they gave up
Speaker 1: a crap ton of open threes that did not go
Speaker 1: down today, So I don't think that's gonna be um
Speaker 1: for for other teams. But I think, you know, just
Speaker 1: it seemed like he wanted to make sure that everybody
Speaker 1: was engaged and nobody was just kind of loafing around
Speaker 1: with their minutes that were on on the floor, and
Speaker 1: it seemed like the ball is being moved around with
Speaker 1: purpose like that. It felt like very purposeful offense for
Speaker 1: a lot of this game. Um, and I think that's
Speaker 1: a good thing because that's what you want, man, that's
Speaker 1: that's that's what good execution looks like. Yeah, definitely, he
Speaker 1: just looked determined tonight. There was it was all business,
Speaker 1: all serious news and again prefacing everything with okay senior
Speaker 1: right o because he missed a lot of open threes.
Speaker 1: We also got Avery Bradley turning into Ray Allen, which
Speaker 1: I don't think it was going to happen every night,
Speaker 1: but those are shots that he should be taking. I
Speaker 1: think at puck Up Poop also posted that after tonight
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley shooting like forty percent from three. I looked
Speaker 1: at the numbers. He was shooting like thirty four percent
Speaker 1: on wide open three, which which isn't great for your
Speaker 1: starting point or starting shooting guard. But yeah, Lebron just
Speaker 1: looked awesome tonight, and the line ups were a little
Speaker 1: bit better for him. Uh THHD starting still kind of
Speaker 1: makes things ugly, but he saw him getting to the basket,
Speaker 1: and he saw that dunk in the third quarter or
Speaker 1: fourth quarter or whatever where I think he dunked on
Speaker 1: like Trey Man or something like that, and I just
Speaker 1: walked away just again all business. It just looked good.
Speaker 1: I think Lebron being Lebron is Lebron being Lebron, and
Speaker 1: a d being himself is the biggest key to this season.
Speaker 1: Everything else doesn't really matter after that, like obviously the
Speaker 1: team building and the team chemistry and lineups and stuff,
Speaker 1: but Lebron being Lebron is at the top of that,
Speaker 1: and he looked like one of the best players in
Speaker 1: the world the last few games. It looks like he's
Speaker 1: getting rested. It looks healthier. It looks healthier, right, because
Speaker 1: last year we saw him, he saw him play in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, but that wasn't Lebron, right. That's like, even
Speaker 1: though a d got hurt and the Lakers probably still
Speaker 1: could have won that series, Lebron wasn't Lebron. I saw
Speaker 1: him going, you know, we saw him eating. Eating would
Speaker 1: switch on him and he wouldn't attack him. Like Lebron
Speaker 1: looks like he's getting his body right. Are you seeing
Speaker 1: that as well? Because I feel like he has a
Speaker 1: different level of bounds induced to him that I just
Speaker 1: didn't see last year when he came back from that
Speaker 1: ankle sprain. Yeah, you know, even aside from the ankle sprain,
Speaker 1: like having a core injury or just like the groin injury,
Speaker 1: like it does sap like some of your strength, uh
Speaker 1: to some degree, just because of the way that your
Speaker 1: body relies on that part of you know, like the
Speaker 1: overall body relies on explosion from that area. So it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, I even thought last year, um, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit of his his physical health, and it's a
Speaker 1: little bit of just the way that the league is
Speaker 1: calling some of these ways like Ron is not getting
Speaker 1: calls at the rim like they're some like obvious ones.
Speaker 1: He's just not getting called now because you know, whatever
Speaker 1: the new rule changes are. So like it's been good
Speaker 1: to see a little bit more spring in his step.
Speaker 1: Like teams are still doing this thing where they're like
Speaker 1: they choose they're either gonna put like a big body
Speaker 1: on him and then you know, does his hip check
Speaker 1: them and hope that the refs don't make you know,
Speaker 1: refs don't call anything, or they'll put a really small, shifty,
Speaker 1: fast guy on him, uh and try to cut off
Speaker 1: like all of his driving angles and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And so he's done a lot of good stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: like to counter stuff he he's you know, he's he's
Speaker 1: gone to the post up um Vogel and or the
Speaker 1: Lakers have started using him and cuts a little bit
Speaker 1: more to get him good quality looks from set action
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But like his athleticism at least
Speaker 1: kind of I don't know if we'll see the same
Speaker 1: super explosive athlete in one on one in one on
Speaker 1: one action that we um, you know, we saw it
Speaker 1: maybe two years ago or three years ago. Um, and
Speaker 1: that that's normal but it's nice to see that, like
Speaker 1: like the brain is still working right, like he could
Speaker 1: tell like alright, alright, this guy's this guy's back foot
Speaker 1: is you know, like his hips are open in a
Speaker 1: certain way where I know that if I attack him
Speaker 1: at this angle, he's not gonna be able to stop me,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, like that's that elite, super generational,
Speaker 1: top of the top style that that he's really good at.
Speaker 1: And so it's been nice to see him kind of
Speaker 1: take use of that, and like he's slowed down, you know,
Speaker 1: like he's not trying to beat guys to the rim
Speaker 1: the way that he used to. He's really methodical, Like
Speaker 1: a couple of plays that he had earlier, I think
Speaker 1: in the first half when he was deciding to attack
Speaker 1: the rim, like he'd wait for like the young guy
Speaker 1: to like overplay his drive and try to go for
Speaker 1: like a block or steal, and then he just like
Speaker 1: stops on a dime and he fishes with an easy layup,
Speaker 1: and like that kind of stuff is gonna be needed
Speaker 1: because it helps us keep pace and it helps us
Speaker 1: keep going. So it's been good to see him, Like
Speaker 1: I'm glad that he's he's getting back to a point.
Speaker 1: I hope he can get even better. Um, but but
Speaker 1: he does look much better than he did last season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's just he's just moving better. To me. And on
Speaker 1: the defensive end, a lot of the talk has been,
Speaker 1: you know, just Lebron load managing games. And for sure
Speaker 1: you're not gonna have Lebron be super engage every single
Speaker 1: nine defensively, but I feel like he does have to
Speaker 1: kind of be the vocal leader, especially where we're getting
Speaker 1: a lot of Lebron at center lineups two write like,
Speaker 1: and I think that's also helping him on the other
Speaker 1: end as well, where he doesn't have to play next
Speaker 1: to DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard for so many minutes, right,
Speaker 1: and he's not playing in such a phone booth with
Speaker 1: phone booth basketball. But I thought defensively again tonight, like
Speaker 1: I thought he was really good on the back line,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what they need for him. He was.
Speaker 1: He had some pretty disrespectful like where lou Dort would
Speaker 1: be like, yeah, I'm gonna shoot, He's like I don't care,
Speaker 1: like you know, like get a bunch of a bunch
Speaker 1: of those tonight, and okay, see's a team you can
Speaker 1: do that with because there's a lot of guys that
Speaker 1: you really don't mind them shooting, like Josh Giddy and
Speaker 1: and and lou Dort as well. But you know, I
Speaker 1: thought he was good on defense as well, and I
Speaker 1: think that's a point of contention that's been been for
Speaker 1: I see a lot of Timeline talking about as well.
Speaker 1: But in my opinion, like Lebron has to have a
Speaker 1: baseline level of agagement defensively just on this team at
Speaker 1: least until we get healthy, right, Like until at least
Speaker 1: at least the reason gets back or something, because some
Speaker 1: of these lineups when you have and where we're we've
Speaker 1: both been promote promoting the spacing lineups with Malik Monk,
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington, even Karmelo Anthony. But when you have that,
Speaker 1: you have to have at least one guy that can
Speaker 1: defend the rim at a serviceful way. And if it's
Speaker 1: Lebron at the five, he's going to have to be
Speaker 1: the one that UH is engaged on there because he's
Speaker 1: the back line help. And I think he's been doing
Speaker 1: that better, right. I mean, there are places where he
Speaker 1: takes off, and that's always gonna happen, but I feel
Speaker 1: like I do see an engagement level for him, and
Speaker 1: sometimes it's annoying where Lebron is the most energy, the
Speaker 1: guy who looks like he's most the most energized player
Speaker 1: out there, but I thought he's he's building that up.
Speaker 1: I think his defense also has been has been fined
Speaker 1: these last few games. Yeah, so I would say, I
Speaker 1: think everything you said is really on points. Uh, wonderful observation.
Speaker 1: So you know, I'm I'm probably um, I've actively kind
Speaker 1: of vocalized that I don't like the idea of Lebron
Speaker 1: at center only because I think it's taxing on his
Speaker 1: body and it's it's not something that I like to
Speaker 1: see in the regular season. It's something I would rather see, like,
Speaker 1: you know, like if if the opposing team is like
Speaker 1: trying to throw the kitchen sink at the Lakers, that
Speaker 1: Vogel goes to that. Um, you know, I think I
Speaker 1: think this game he Vogol went to it as a
Speaker 1: counter strategy. He didn't go to it as part of
Speaker 1: the set rotation. So I've when I rewatched the game,
Speaker 1: I'll probably be able to tell what it is. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously eighties out and we don't we already
Speaker 1: don't have to a reason. So there's no there's no
Speaker 1: opportunity for us to like we're really shorthanded in the
Speaker 1: front court. So Braun was bounting the plays like Melo
Speaker 1: got a ton of minutes, and he was not you know,
Speaker 1: he's Fili Mignon like a defensively on a lot of
Speaker 1: these plays. So um again, like Mellow is not somebody
Speaker 1: that we would want to expect to rely on for
Speaker 1: point of attack defense. You know, like he's supposed to
Speaker 1: be playing this role where he's facing the floor for
Speaker 1: everybody else and just grabbing redounds, not not the primary
Speaker 1: gown on a premier wing or something like that. So
Speaker 1: I'm against it, but I'm glad that it worked out
Speaker 1: well because that first half when they went to it,
Speaker 1: I was like, holy sh it, like we're gonna be
Speaker 1: in trouble, Like if this, if if ou goes on
Speaker 1: a run with this lineup, like things are gonna get bad.
Speaker 1: But you know, like they did go on a run,
Speaker 1: but the Lakers held it together. And you know that's
Speaker 1: that's the part um even to to the very first
Speaker 1: first part of this conversation, that that's importantly important. Like
Speaker 1: Braun was all business. I would say that Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: probably was all business too as well, Like there was
Speaker 1: almost no wasted effort from Avery Bradley. He almost took
Speaker 1: that matchup with s G a like personally like he
Speaker 1: had disrespected his family or something like that, because yeah,
Speaker 1: and he was attacked him. He was doing that stuff
Speaker 1: that you know, like he was doing two years ago
Speaker 1: stuff that we had Alex Caruso, and you know, it
Speaker 1: did visibly frustrate uh Shae Bill just um Alexander for
Speaker 1: a little bit. And and it you know, it affects
Speaker 1: the team's rhythm because other ok S players may look
Speaker 1: at SJ and say, well, if he's not you know,
Speaker 1: I'm used to seeing him get his shots off and
Speaker 1: get into a rhythm. Then I can work off of that.
Speaker 1: So like that was something that was clearly missing from
Speaker 1: the Memphis game. Like we were just letting Desmond Beane
Speaker 1: just just just run down the floor, pick whatever matchup
Speaker 1: you wanted and attack the rim. Nobody picked him up.
Speaker 1: And I feel like a guy like Bradley obviously we
Speaker 1: want other guys to do it. And I know we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about Reeves. Reeves is another guy like pick
Speaker 1: up your guy at half court, Like if your team
Speaker 1: isn't getting back in transition, stop the ball, like put
Speaker 1: pressure on the ball as soon as they get the
Speaker 1: rebounds so that they can't just force it up the
Speaker 1: floor without passing the ball or something like that. And um,
Speaker 1: I thought, Bronze kind of all around, um Broun's all
Speaker 1: around effort, plus like every Bradley's like defensive acumen, like
Speaker 1: like his defensive intensity, that thing that Will keeps talking about.
Speaker 1: That was huge. And and dude, there was I don't
Speaker 1: know if you show this spat in the first quarter. Um,
Speaker 1: there was two specific possessions in a row where I
Speaker 1: think Avery Bradley had Josh Gatty out of and Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook was staying on the wing. Braun was on the
Speaker 1: top of the three and Avery Bradley was in the corner.
Speaker 1: Braun didn't even swing the ball to Russ. He passed
Speaker 1: it directly to Avery Bradley twice in a row as
Speaker 1: if my sound just like why is he doing that?
Speaker 1: Like give it a Russ. And I realized that, oh,
Speaker 1: he's probably looking at He's probably looking at Bradley saying, dude,
Speaker 1: you're faster than this guy, Like you can get to
Speaker 1: the rim before this guy can get to you, can
Speaker 1: do anything to you, like get your ship together, like
Speaker 1: they're leaving you open for a reason. And like I
Speaker 1: think that like something something click with Avery and he
Speaker 1: just looked like super focused. So I mean that stuff matters, man,
Speaker 1: that's energy that that gets transferred to the team. So
Speaker 1: it's good to see Braun just kind of being that mode. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, Avery gets a lot of crap from
Speaker 1: all of us and it's not his fault that to me,
Speaker 1: I think like Bogo and Avery is like a match
Speaker 1: made in heaven, right, Like Bogo just loves these tough, smaller,
Speaker 1: little undersized guards that really get into you. He's a
Speaker 1: guy that really fits what Vogo wants in the scheme
Speaker 1: right when he fights over and Okay, So he's just
Speaker 1: a really tough matchup for that with Avery Bradley because
Speaker 1: they have guards like Shay and that's what that just
Speaker 1: plays right into what Avery wants to do, right. He
Speaker 1: loves to get into guys, okay, So he doesn't have
Speaker 1: the big man or the screen the guys that can
Speaker 1: screen for Shae in a way that can free him up.
Speaker 1: And if it's just Shay and isolation, every Bradley is
Speaker 1: still an incredible point of attack defender, right, And that's why, Like,
Speaker 1: to me, when we play Avery Bradley with a D
Speaker 1: at the five lineup, that's where it's like there's just
Speaker 1: a stark difference there because I think a D at
Speaker 1: the five, and we've talked about this a lot a lot,
Speaker 1: it just it lands to more switching, right, and I
Speaker 1: think that's against what goes into every Brady everybody is
Speaker 1: a fight over the top kind of drop coverage guard
Speaker 1: that you know attaches to people. But when he's able
Speaker 1: to just be in isolation against the guard, he's great.
Speaker 1: You're right. He stripped Shay a bunch of times, and
Speaker 1: he definitely took the Josh Giddy matchup personal. Like there
Speaker 1: was a play where there's another player where he caught
Speaker 1: in the corner and he drove by Josh Giddy and
Speaker 1: he just got a reverse layup and uh and they
Speaker 1: looked at Giddy like, how dare you? You know? Like
Speaker 1: it was just it was just like it was cool
Speaker 1: to see him open up and you could see why
Speaker 1: Vogel starts him right. Avery Bradley is a professional. He's
Speaker 1: never you know, he's not always going to be the
Speaker 1: best player, but you know, he plays hard. And I
Speaker 1: think and just to transition this a little bit, I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a coincidence that Reeves was the first
Speaker 1: sub tonight, right. I think that snow cases from the
Speaker 1: Memphis game, all those guards, they weren't playing hard, like
Speaker 1: there was an effort. There was an effort missing there.
Speaker 1: And and Reeves. Man, they they paid players like fifteen
Speaker 1: million dollars a year to do what Reeves did tonight,
Speaker 1: you know, like they pay very have money for two
Speaker 1: way type of wing type of players. And I two tonight,
Speaker 1: Reeves is a vet in a rookies body, Like he
Speaker 1: just doesn't play like a rookie at all. He has
Speaker 1: just a rookie body, right, And that's his limitation is
Speaker 1: his body, and that's that's the That's the case for
Speaker 1: a lot of players. If Molenk Monk was like six seven,
Speaker 1: he's not on a minimum deal to me, right, Like
Speaker 1: it's just there's limitations with everyone's by but Reaves is
Speaker 1: just a physical limitation. What do you see from him though?
Speaker 1: Because I feel like he I don't know why he
Speaker 1: was clicking DMPs. Maybe he just wasn't healthy yet he
Speaker 1: did he is moving better. He looks like he's moving better.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, we just think of Reeves because I
Speaker 1: think he's a big part of this rotation and he's
Speaker 1: definitely a glue, a glue guy for this team. You
Speaker 1: could tell how lineups just fit together. And when he
Speaker 1: goes in right, he's like like he plugs things together. Reeves. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I think you hit it on the head. Like he plays,
Speaker 1: he understands pace, He understands spacing, He understands making the
Speaker 1: right play. Like I never see him catch a ball
Speaker 1: and a catching like if he knows that somebody's closing
Speaker 1: out on him. And he did this a couple of
Speaker 1: times this game. Like one of my favorite things, favorite
Speaker 1: things to to see like young players do um uh
Speaker 1: when they receive a ball and somebody's trying to close
Speaker 1: out on him. Is to like attack that close out right.
Speaker 1: So like players who understand that that if that if
Speaker 1: you're get not like a triple threat, but if you
Speaker 1: attack a close out um correctly and you play the angles,
Speaker 1: whether you go left, whether you go right, whether you
Speaker 1: use it like a very subtle pump bake shooting bait
Speaker 1: to get the guy, just like for a half second
Speaker 1: to hesitate. Like those kind of things give you enough
Speaker 1: avenue to be successful with whatever your next decision is,
Speaker 1: whether you actually shoot it, whether you you know, attack
Speaker 1: the rim and they want to make a pass like
Speaker 1: it causes this chain reaction, and Reeves is so good
Speaker 1: at that, Like there were so many plays today and
Speaker 1: I think there's a corner three that he hit where
Speaker 1: he just does like a subtle pump thing and the
Speaker 1: oky see guy just goes flying by him like it's
Speaker 1: not as if like he had been lighting it up
Speaker 1: from three, like at that point it was like maybe
Speaker 1: a second three of the game or something like that,
Speaker 1: and he just does a subtle pump gets the guy
Speaker 1: up in the air. Because good players vets whatever. Experienced
Speaker 1: players understand that the threat of giving up an open
Speaker 1: three is like panic to a guy who's closing out
Speaker 1: on defense. Like if I'm already late to rotate on
Speaker 1: you and I gotta close out on you and you
Speaker 1: look like you're about to shoot this ball, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: jump like I'm gonna jump full speed and it's gonna
Speaker 1: end up being a fly by. And the fact that
Speaker 1: he can make those reads quickly and and you know,
Speaker 1: take advantage of them, like he had another player I
Speaker 1: think that in the second half and at the end
Speaker 1: of the second quarter where like he faked like he
Speaker 1: was gonna go out, but then he went base sine
Speaker 1: and he hit like a soft floater off of pass
Speaker 1: from Braun. Like these are small things that happened in
Speaker 1: the course of the game that like keeps the flow
Speaker 1: of the offense going. And it's crazy, you know again
Speaker 1: like Lakers draft uh you know, Jesse Bus, Joey Buss,
Speaker 1: the guys that are scouting these guys out. This is
Speaker 1: an undrafted kid making this like veteran decisions on this
Speaker 1: team and as as crazy, you know, like the other
Speaker 1: side of the equation, people maybe like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are relying on this undrafted kid to like
Speaker 1: be good to win a championship. We're not relying on him.
Speaker 1: But this kid is fucking great. Like he's doing such
Speaker 1: a good job just making the right play, knowing, playing
Speaker 1: within himself, being unselfish, dropping dimes to his teammates and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, creating advantages that it's hard not to play.
Speaker 1: And I think the reason is probably because of protective um.
Speaker 1: He's a young guy that they don't want to, you know,
Speaker 1: they don't want a bad situation for him. So it's
Speaker 1: just he's he's good man. He's a good connective tissue player,
Speaker 1: you know, like that. That's the only way I can
Speaker 1: describe what he is. And we've got guys that can
Speaker 1: do that on this team, and that's what we need.
Speaker 1: We need effort, we need connectors that that that's what
Speaker 1: that's what's gonna kind of give us some continuity on
Speaker 1: the offense and defensive end. Yeah, you talked about how
Speaker 1: like you know, we're playing you know, we're relying on
Speaker 1: an undrafted kid. He's earned every minute that he's got.
Speaker 1: Right again, when you're on a team full of you know,
Speaker 1: minimum contract type of player, you can earn those type
Speaker 1: of minutes. And he's earned every minute that he's got,
Speaker 1: and he's beat out players, He's beat out vets that
Speaker 1: have been in the league for a while. It's no
Speaker 1: coincidence to me that he connects with Lebron James right,
Speaker 1: and the and the Crusoe calms are a candy, right
Speaker 1: like they're they appear very often. I don't think that's
Speaker 1: a fair like defensive you know, ceiling Caruso's one of
Speaker 1: the best you know, defensive guards in the league to me,
Speaker 1: But he's definitely ahead of him offensively, And we've talked
Speaker 1: about that before, Like he's definitely ahead of him offensively
Speaker 1: just from like a already skill level. He's the way
Speaker 1: he's able to attack closeouts, it's just advanced for a
Speaker 1: person in year one of You're You're one of his career,
Speaker 1: it's just it's super advanced. The ball never sticks with him, right,
Speaker 1: It's like they always talk about you, you make a
Speaker 1: three second decision, right it's shoot, pass or dribble. He
Speaker 1: always really makes the right play on that decision. And
Speaker 1: you see that he when an advantage just created, he
Speaker 1: keeps that advantage, right, Like when when Russ blows by,
Speaker 1: When Russ blows by his guy and someone comes and
Speaker 1: helps on rust, they kick out to the Reeves. Even
Speaker 1: if Reeves doesn't have the shot, he'll kick it out
Speaker 1: to where the defense is still in rotation. And Lebron
Speaker 1: connects with super high i i Q players and not
Speaker 1: saying other players aren't high i Q. But there was
Speaker 1: no coincidence why he connected with Crusoe. It's no coincidence
Speaker 1: why he connected with Reeves. Reeves is playing too well. Again,
Speaker 1: I don't think tonight is an aberration, like he's been
Speaker 1: playing well before. He I forgot what his injury was,
Speaker 1: but he got hurt and was out because hamstring injuries
Speaker 1: him out, Okay, hamsing, Yeah, those are those can be tricky.
Speaker 1: So I think he was out a cute a few weeks.
Speaker 1: But yeah, man, he just connects and his ability. You
Speaker 1: talked about the pump a side step three like his
Speaker 1: shot looks clean too. I think he's a legit shooter.
Speaker 1: I don't know he's shooting for three this year. I
Speaker 1: think it's around or something. But yeah, just a legit
Speaker 1: player that we have and hopefully can add to this
Speaker 1: rotation with a bunch of guys if they're not on tonight.
Speaker 1: I think he'll play, and I think he can even
Speaker 1: start on this team. I don't. I think he just connects,
Speaker 1: which I know we've discussed as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And look, it's clear he has skills that
Speaker 1: fit around our starts, right, Like that's very easy to see.
Speaker 1: Like and again it doesn't I'm not saying like these
Speaker 1: these decisions are easy, but you can tell the skill
Speaker 1: sets that fit around three guys who need to attack
Speaker 1: the rim who aren't jump shooters, like you need jump
Speaker 1: shooting around them, and preferably two way guys who are
Speaker 1: jump shooters around them. And if they can attack close
Speaker 1: out that they can pump they get to the line,
Speaker 1: if they can get offensive rebounds. You know, he seems
Speaker 1: to have a knack for offensive rebounding at the free
Speaker 1: throw line, which is a really strange skill to to have. Like,
Speaker 1: that's not just that's just a strange skill, right, that's
Speaker 1: not something you bring up in person's list of skills.
Speaker 1: That's something he does. He loves that, he gets tap
Speaker 1: outs a lot. It's just little stuff that he doesn't. Again,
Speaker 1: the cruise upcoms are unfair, but it's tough not to
Speaker 1: go to that, right, it's tough not to compare because
Speaker 1: that's the last player we've had kind of who did
Speaker 1: those little things that stand out. It jumps out on
Speaker 1: a team with a bunch of players who don't do
Speaker 1: those little things right. And as much as I pay
Speaker 1: for White Ellington, he's not a guy that does the
Speaker 1: little things. He's just not. He's a shooter. That's what
Speaker 1: he's been paid in to his old career. That's why
Speaker 1: I hope he keeps shooting. Keeps shooting, Wayne, please fire
Speaker 1: those up. But but yeah, that's that's my point on Reefs.
Speaker 1: But go ahead, I kind of know the question and
Speaker 1: ask go ahead. Yeah. So so the question, so this
Speaker 1: was that was that was a very nice announced. You know,
Speaker 1: you mentioned Caruso. Obviously, the reason why we're making the
Speaker 1: irony of the situation is they're both white guys. Uh,
Speaker 1: they both look like that they in appearance looked like
Speaker 1: they shouldn't belong in the league. Um. You know, that
Speaker 1: was the usual joke that just some random ball white
Speaker 1: guy that was on this Lakers scene that the Leakers
Speaker 1: fans are casting up. Um, and you know, but now
Speaker 1: everybody's talking about him being an all defensive player. Anyways. UM,
Speaker 1: so you said something interesting and one of the things
Speaker 1: you said, Um, of the many things you said about Reeves,
Speaker 1: is that Braun connects with high i Q guys. And
Speaker 1: that is a very fascinating, very fascinating observation because, um,
Speaker 1: that it is something that I've at least seen like
Speaker 1: when I played in high school, like even when I
Speaker 1: played directly, even if you play a pickup basketball, when
Speaker 1: you play with like smart guys, guys who know how
Speaker 1: to space the floor, Guys who kind of recognize what's
Speaker 1: happening on offensive defense and know who's who's on a
Speaker 1: roll and stuff like that. And you play with them,
Speaker 1: even if it's just pick up at your local gym
Speaker 1: or something like that, it changes the enjoyment that you
Speaker 1: have with the game, right, And when you're playing with
Speaker 1: people like that, UM, you just have fun even if
Speaker 1: you're not doing anything. You know, like even if you're
Speaker 1: just making outlet passes or playing some defense and getting
Speaker 1: a couple of shots up. UM. And that's the part
Speaker 1: that's so fascinating with with this dynamic that Ostar Reaves
Speaker 1: has with I mean it's not only Braun. He has
Speaker 1: the same dynamic with Russ. He has the same dynamic
Speaker 1: with with Anthony Davis to some degree to as well.
Speaker 1: That he just fits right and and it's very clear
Speaker 1: he has a high i Q as a mature understanding.
Speaker 1: But right now, Rog, we've been watching another young Laker player. Um.
Speaker 1: He asked to play that role UM in the starting
Speaker 1: in the starting uh, well, you know, with the starters
Speaker 1: and next to our big three, and it has been
Speaker 1: very painful to watch. And so I'm gonna say my
Speaker 1: part because I don't want to put words in your mouth,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I I'm a little more opinionated
Speaker 1: about this. I think th HC absolutely does not fit
Speaker 1: with our Big three, at least not right. And it
Speaker 1: has been really, really difficult, uh to watch him play
Speaker 1: next to him, even even at the start of this game.
Speaker 1: I know he had a three, uh you know, and
Speaker 1: I think Bradley had two threes. He hit won three.
Speaker 1: It is really difficult to watch him, um fit with
Speaker 1: those guys because I always make the joke certain players,
Speaker 1: young players, you can see when they have the ball
Speaker 1: in their hands. You can see like when you're watching them,
Speaker 1: you could tell like their brain is trying to process
Speaker 1: what's happening around them. And when I watched th HD
Speaker 1: playing next to the Big three, I feel like that
Speaker 1: happens too much, like he doesn't know like his his
Speaker 1: if he had to do it on instinct, he's attacking
Speaker 1: the room immediately. But the fact that he's playing next
Speaker 1: to braun a D and Russ, it almost feels like
Speaker 1: it puts pressure on him as a player that oh shit,
Speaker 1: if I don't make this, if I don't make the
Speaker 1: right decision, like we could waste his possession. Or if
Speaker 1: I don't make the right decision and it's not a
Speaker 1: set action, maybe I should have given it to Russ.
Speaker 1: Maybe I should have given it to Maybe I should
Speaker 1: give it to he did I make the right play.
Speaker 1: And a perfect example of this is um Teach comes
Speaker 1: down the floor in the first quarter. He tried to
Speaker 1: throw two entry passes I think to Braun. One may
Speaker 1: have been Braun, one may have been somebody else I
Speaker 1: don't remember. Both of them got picked off and he's
Speaker 1: the one making the entry pass. So like I was, like,
Speaker 1: I can fire off a tweet right now. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna do it, but I'm just watching it. You know.
Speaker 1: Obviously we won the game. He played better, that's fine.
Speaker 1: But my thing is like if a guy struggles to
Speaker 1: make reads like that, right, like to make an entry
Speaker 1: pass after Braun is stealed the smaller guy behind him, like,
Speaker 1: maybe it's just not for him yet. He's not ready
Speaker 1: to be in that position yet. And know a lot
Speaker 1: of people are saying, you know, well, we're paying a
Speaker 1: ten million dollars. He's been with with the Lakers for
Speaker 1: two years now, Um, we have to develop them. But
Speaker 1: when you have if you don't look at them in
Speaker 1: terms of like Austin Reaves requires development. You just look
Speaker 1: at it based on what fits what fits with this team.
Speaker 1: Like it almost if somebody came to me and say, hey,
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe we should try Austin Reaves and
Speaker 1: said th ht and play him next to every Bradley, like,
Speaker 1: I would be like, you know what, why not? You know,
Speaker 1: we're still shorthanded. Why not see see what that looks like? What?
Speaker 1: What do you think about that idea that like, maybe
Speaker 1: it's not it's not development, it's not mine. Let's just
Speaker 1: take the development part out of it. Let's take the
Speaker 1: money part out of it. How much do they make
Speaker 1: if you just have to take those two guys? Um,
Speaker 1: what do you think about the idea of Reeves getting
Speaker 1: more minutes over t T or maybe even being in
Speaker 1: the starting spot next time. So I'm gonna say, like,
Speaker 1: just to give th HD a little credit here, I
Speaker 1: think he has gone very defensively right, and I think
Speaker 1: that's why he starts, even though it's a little confusing
Speaker 1: because sometimes he'll start and it will be Russ still
Speaker 1: taking the main deep signment or you know, like that
Speaker 1: doesn't really make sense to me, Like again, rusted a
Speaker 1: great job on Jayson Tatum the last time they played.
Speaker 1: But I think the point of tech she's starting is
Speaker 1: his defense because it's very clearly offense isn't there. I
Speaker 1: thought you made it. That's why I wanted to have
Speaker 1: you on, because it's tough for to have these conversations,
Speaker 1: you know, over just uh messages. But I thought you
Speaker 1: made a great point on your space that you did
Speaker 1: in the afternoon. I don't remember what day it was,
Speaker 1: but you said that Carusoe knew who he was, right,
Speaker 1: Like Crusoe had no qualms of who he was going
Speaker 1: to be in the league, right, Crusoe came in and
Speaker 1: exactly the player he is. Austin Reeves knows exactly who
Speaker 1: he is. Right, Austin Reeves has no like not to
Speaker 1: put a ceiling on Austin Reeves. You know Austin you know,
Speaker 1: shoot for the stars kid. But like I'm saying, like
Speaker 1: Austin knows exactly like his role on this team th
Speaker 1: H you talked about th H T missed the post
Speaker 1: up to Lebron right, like he couldn't find t HD
Speaker 1: wants to be Lebron in that situation. Right, Like th
Speaker 1: HD still sees himself as a player who wants to
Speaker 1: be Russ who swe Lebron, So his mindset is still
Speaker 1: in there. So that's like to me, his decisions all
Speaker 1: still go back to that, which is why the fit
Speaker 1: looks so ugly because he's not His mindset isn't of
Speaker 1: a three n D player, which is what that's starting
Speaker 1: lineup is begging for. His mindset is of a I'm
Speaker 1: a star to right, and he just got paid as one,
Speaker 1: Like the Lakers obviously supported supported that mindset. I guess
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like they paid him ten
Speaker 1: million dollars a year with very little I mean, he's
Speaker 1: showing flashes obviously of super star potential, but they've supported
Speaker 1: into that idea and starting him as another a kid
Speaker 1: like this is gonna be yours one day, you know,
Speaker 1: like kind of in that in that kind of manner here,
Speaker 1: And I think that's why it looks so stark. And
Speaker 1: this team definitely has goals that don't match th HD's
Speaker 1: development line. You know, it's kind of like we're doing
Speaker 1: two things at once. And I do think there is
Speaker 1: like I think there's an argument for it, where like
Speaker 1: the ceiling of this team is higher probably with if
Speaker 1: th HD hits his ceiling at years old. But he's
Speaker 1: a twenty one year old gard who still believes that
Speaker 1: he can be in the Lebron or Russ role, which
Speaker 1: is makes it so starting and I would love to
Speaker 1: start Austin. Like I think, you know, that might be
Speaker 1: the right move here. I think th needs possessions where
Speaker 1: he needs better spacing around him. I think it's it's
Speaker 1: such a disgrace that he plays with the worst spacing lineup,
Speaker 1: like just just you know what I mean, like just
Speaker 1: in a in terms of of how like think about
Speaker 1: it for him where he starts the game where he's
Speaker 1: the guy that needs to hit outside shots and that's
Speaker 1: just not his skill levels. So like, I think that's
Speaker 1: where it is. THHD still has a belief that he's
Speaker 1: gonna be Lebron or Russ or whatever. And you know
Speaker 1: that's fine, you don't. He should have, you know, aspirations
Speaker 1: as high as he wants to. But when you play
Speaker 1: a kid like Reeves, it just fits. It's why it
Speaker 1: jumps off the page. Right, Reeves does all the small
Speaker 1: things that things players like him need to do stay
Speaker 1: in this league. Right like players like TCD have the
Speaker 1: ball in the hands there the shot the shock traders
Speaker 1: and you see that when he gets the ball right,
Speaker 1: So he'll like get the ball and he'll like stare
Speaker 1: and he'll stop as if he's the main guy. Like
Speaker 1: he'll just be like, Okay, it's my turn. Now. He
Speaker 1: does too sometimes he does too much of the let
Speaker 1: me set up my isolate, let me read set up
Speaker 1: my isolation, because you know, I'm about to take this
Speaker 1: guy to the rim or whatever it is. And um no, no,
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I think that you know, this
Speaker 1: is that that human element, the human nature part that
Speaker 1: that I think is a huge thing that like, I
Speaker 1: think it's a blind spot in Vogel And I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna get into voga bashing and do that enough myself
Speaker 1: on the timeline, but it is. I genuinely think it's
Speaker 1: a gap. And you know, it may not have it.
Speaker 1: Maybe Volgo does want to play reads. Maybe there's some
Speaker 1: um collectual related politics on the back end. Maybe there's
Speaker 1: some financial politics on the back end, whatever it may be.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe he got promised a starting spot with
Speaker 1: this team. Um if he agreed, you know, like and
Speaker 1: and they want the expecting to get better whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But I agree with you, like the development. We don't
Speaker 1: have time to develop PHT not in the not with
Speaker 1: the starters UM. And even aside, if we take the
Speaker 1: development part out, like you're putting him in a position
Speaker 1: where the very thing he needs the most the ball
Speaker 1: in his hands and to dribble around a little bit.
Speaker 1: You're asking him to try and figure that out between
Speaker 1: three other ball dominant guys UM, regardless of how elite
Speaker 1: passers you know, like Russ Russe and Braun Uh maybe,
Speaker 1: And I think it jacks up his rhythm. I think
Speaker 1: it jacks up everybody else's rhythm. And that's you know,
Speaker 1: just something that's been going on UM for a while now,
Speaker 1: and hopefully it kind of figures itself out. But you know, like, um,
Speaker 1: I think it was pick up Pete. He's the one
Speaker 1: who posted that tweet saying that like he's shooting or
Speaker 1: some extraordinarily bad number like outside of the restricted area.
Speaker 1: I just tweeted. I said, look, I can't even be
Speaker 1: mad at Tailor. Yea, these numbers are readily available to
Speaker 1: our coaching staff. Like what is their coaching staff doing?
Speaker 1: Like why would you put him in a position to
Speaker 1: be a three in D guy when he's not hitting
Speaker 1: any shots outside of the restricted area, like you're you're
Speaker 1: literally asking him to fail and then you know you'll
Speaker 1: get people on the time and I say, oh, guy sucks.
Speaker 1: You know, like, why don't we give this guy ten
Speaker 1: million dollars? And why don't we give it to Alex Cruz.
Speaker 1: We might as well, you know, who is competing for
Speaker 1: the market for d H D. We should have just
Speaker 1: given Like it's unfair to tailor, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: because he's being point in a position that's not successful
Speaker 1: for him. So, you know, I hope that the situation
Speaker 1: resolves itself, but it feels like it's going in that direction,
Speaker 1: especially with like if they if Frank contin Tin used
Speaker 1: to play Anthony David's at the five um and that
Speaker 1: makes up his minutes at the four and the five
Speaker 1: and not play Dwight, that sort of thing, Like they're
Speaker 1: going to have to figure that part out because no
Speaker 1: matter what he's doing on the defense too much, all
Speaker 1: the easy layups because Memphis doesn't get back on defense
Speaker 1: and we build a lead and Braun is brilliant yet again,
Speaker 1: just like the Boston game to start that game, but
Speaker 1: then everything kinds that falls apart after that. But at
Speaker 1: the corner he puts Dwight in, and now things kind
Speaker 1: of now the guy who's cutting is brought the guy
Speaker 1: who's taking the jumpers m off of Russ's moves and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, or it's a d or is Dwight
Speaker 1: for the dump off? So like that's the part that
Speaker 1: you know, I hope the Lakers, But that's really what
Speaker 1: my thoughts in regards him. I'm hoping that he I
Speaker 1: want him to be successful because I think that's important
Speaker 1: for him, but it's I don't think it's gonna happen
Speaker 1: the way that they're currently trying to do. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: the idea of fitting like a square peg into a
Speaker 1: round hole, right, like they're trying to force th HD
Speaker 1: into a three D role. But also no, no, you're good,
Speaker 1: I hear you. Um, yeah, they're trying to fit th
Speaker 1: HD into like, uh, they're trying to do a square
Speaker 1: peg into a round hole right with t HD trying
Speaker 1: to force him into this U three and D roll
Speaker 1: And that's just not what he wants to be as well.
Speaker 1: And you can just tell as a player, he's a
Speaker 1: guy that wants to ball in his hands, and we're
Speaker 1: trying to develop him into that while also playing him
Speaker 1: next to Lebron and Russ, which is just a really
Speaker 1: frustrating thing to watch. And like you said, it's not
Speaker 1: something that you know, you can blame Tailing on, like
Speaker 1: it's not his fault. That's just kind of where we
Speaker 1: are with the situation right now. And I think he's
Speaker 1: going to continue to start until Ariza's back, Like he's
Speaker 1: our he's our wing defender, I guess for right now,
Speaker 1: and they're just gonna keep going with that until until
Speaker 1: Ariza or maybe Kendrick Nunn gets back. But he's the
Speaker 1: guy that they're gonna throw on wing defenders. They don't
Speaker 1: want Russ, they don'tant Lebron to be the guy as
Speaker 1: the main guy on defense against the other big time
Speaker 1: perimeter players. So yeah, I think it's a it's a
Speaker 1: tough conversation. I think Reeves has a case though, to
Speaker 1: be made if he continues to play like this, he
Speaker 1: continues to shoot like this on a championship team. To me,
Speaker 1: you have to earn every minute you get, and I
Speaker 1: feel like there shouldn't be any given minutes other than
Speaker 1: the Big three other than the stars. Every other minute
Speaker 1: should be earned, and we saw that. It's kind of
Speaker 1: funny because we saw that Taylor last year. If you remember,
Speaker 1: he beat out West Matthews. West Matthews, you know, a
Speaker 1: veteran player, a good player, signed probably for less money
Speaker 1: than he could have gotten other places. And THHD beat
Speaker 1: him out on the rotation because he was playing that
Speaker 1: three and D role. His jumper was going during that time, right,
Speaker 1: And and we know we had fascinations about, oh man,
Speaker 1: if Taylor has his jumper, you know, like we have
Speaker 1: a crazy we have a crazy player here. And the
Speaker 1: jumper just has not entered this season. And that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's something that just happens. But yeah, like if Reeves
Speaker 1: is the better player, then the better players should play
Speaker 1: on the team that's trying to win. That's just how
Speaker 1: how it should be. But you know, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a thin line to walk here, I guess is it
Speaker 1: when you play pay a guy ten million dollars a year.
Speaker 1: You talked about the politics of it, like that's definitely involved,
Speaker 1: Like that's it's tough to bench a guy making that
Speaker 1: much money, you know, So it's a tough conversation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And um, you know, that's one of the things that like, um,
Speaker 1: I've been trying to kind of wrap my head around
Speaker 1: you know, Vogel. Vogel is a very diplomatic guy. Sure
Speaker 1: he and I was listening to uh the Liquor Film
Speaker 1: podcast earlier today, and um, I thought Pete on LA
Speaker 1: pod he made a really nice point like outside of
Speaker 1: like the top four guys, nobody is making so much money.
Speaker 1: Nobody is making so much money that like they can't
Speaker 1: be benched, you know what I mean, Like, uh, that
Speaker 1: km Beigemore got benched at some point and he's been
Speaker 1: sitting on the bench the entire time. I don't think
Speaker 1: I agree with him being benched for the way that
Speaker 1: he has, Like he does bone headed stuff, but not
Speaker 1: like not to deliberately shorthand or so I was like,
Speaker 1: Deander was objectively bad and so he got bench, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, And he's back in rotation. Man,
Speaker 1: I don't look bad. I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: we're gonna play. I was hoping we played bass a
Speaker 1: little bit more, you know, but eating at minutes whatever,
Speaker 1: that's fine. Rondo being out the rotation objectively bad. So
Speaker 1: he's been out the rotation whatever, that's fine. But my
Speaker 1: thing is like we have a very diplomatic coach who
Speaker 1: is trying to you know, manage of the not the egos,
Speaker 1: but just manage everybody's expectations. Um, and you know, whether
Speaker 1: he's being empowered by our front office to do so,
Speaker 1: Like it is very clear that there are certain moves
Speaker 1: that he has to make or just certain certain adjustments
Speaker 1: he has to make that can allow this team to
Speaker 1: be to be successful. And I don't know if he's
Speaker 1: not being allowed to do it or if he's just
Speaker 1: apprehensive because he's a very diplomatic guy. Um that that
Speaker 1: you know, we have to see what happens. But look, man,
Speaker 1: like I want Taylor to be successful. Like at some
Speaker 1: point Frank has got to go to Taylor or has
Speaker 1: to go Like can you imagine what the film sessions
Speaker 1: are like? Like I made this joke on answer when
Speaker 1: I sat there with Jason, like what would you when
Speaker 1: there's bad games like bad bad games like the Memphis game,
Speaker 1: and you see like like Taylor's had some place, he's
Speaker 1: had some possessions where like he just does something, I'll
Speaker 1: be like, oh, like I had like this lookout my face,
Speaker 1: like just like I had like some bad milk or
Speaker 1: something like that. I would be like, oh God, like
Speaker 1: I wish you hadn't driven because you just got stripped
Speaker 1: or you took it, you know, like you're not gonna
Speaker 1: take it with your left hand, so the team knew
Speaker 1: you're gonna take it with your right and they stripped it,
Speaker 1: or or the challenges shot you fell down. Now I
Speaker 1: got a five on four going the other way, Like
Speaker 1: they're just some plays that stuff like that that happens,
Speaker 1: And I think to myself, it's like, what what are
Speaker 1: they saying to each other in the film room, Like
Speaker 1: when this happens? Are they asking Candon when he thought
Speaker 1: was gonna happen? Or is somebody looking at Frank and saying, dude,
Speaker 1: this guy is being put in a really tough position
Speaker 1: to have to score between like three nonshooters, Like what
Speaker 1: are we doing here? But we guys stop doing that,
Speaker 1: And you know, I don't know is the politics? Is
Speaker 1: it that? Who knows? Whatever it is. But like these
Speaker 1: lineup combinations have to eventually get figured out. We can't
Speaker 1: be like in like this weird data collection mode of
Speaker 1: just seeing which lineups are asked and which ones are
Speaker 1: good to try and figure out what's going on because
Speaker 1: it's affecting the guy that did not play today. Anthony Davis. Um,
Speaker 1: he has been up and down all season. I know
Speaker 1: you wanted to talk about him, like he has struggled,
Speaker 1: like with this, playing the four, sometimes playing the starting
Speaker 1: the game at five, what the rotation is gonna end
Speaker 1: up being? And it's junking up a lot of stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: and he didn't play today. So I'm sure we're gonna
Speaker 1: see a lot of you know, obviously, I'm sure some
Speaker 1: folks are joking. Some people are not joking. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be in the trade machine with that coming around. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't even get into those. Like I
Speaker 1: even hate when hey, hey, when people come at me
Speaker 1: and ask, you know, Russ trades like that's not happening,
Speaker 1: Like just you know, throw that, throw that away. Russ
Speaker 1: is on this team and and Russ is gonna be
Speaker 1: on this team when the playoffs start, you know next year.
Speaker 1: Who who knows? The NBA is a weird league. Things
Speaker 1: changed very rapidly. But Russ is on this team for
Speaker 1: good before we get into a d because I think
Speaker 1: that's the last thing I really want to discuss with you,
Speaker 1: because you know you have strong opinions on that. To me, like,
Speaker 1: I think I've been advocating for Wayne to start, and
Speaker 1: I sent you that, you know, in privately, I've sent
Speaker 1: you that athletic kind of post before the season started, right,
Speaker 1: we got this, uh, we were sold these bags of
Speaker 1: you know, this bag of dreams of like this was
Speaker 1: this is the starting lineup. And I don't think you know,
Speaker 1: people joke about shams and he does some weird stuff
Speaker 1: for sure, to be first, I think it's a weird.
Speaker 1: Some of the weird stuff that he does weird, but
Speaker 1: he you know, he reported that the Lakers were gonna
Speaker 1: start Russ, Wayne, Trevor, Reza, Lebron and A D. That
Speaker 1: was the five we were going to start, right, and
Speaker 1: that was the identity of this team. And to me,
Speaker 1: like a reason's injury, I get it like he's been out,
Speaker 1: but I feel like that shouldn't change your whole team's identity.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what we've done. I think that
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan's you know, him starting as many games. Did
Speaker 1: you talked about the film room with th h T.
Speaker 1: I kind of imagine the film room with DeAndre Jordan's like,
Speaker 1: what do you like? What do you say? Like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm no because we both rewatched these games, right, like
Speaker 1: we watched a lot of these games, like like you
Speaker 1: see that and there's just what do you do? They
Speaker 1: just moved the clip forward, you know, fast forward fifteen
Speaker 1: seconds like um no, I'm serious, like there's nothing you
Speaker 1: can even Yeah, okay, this is this is me being serious,
Speaker 1: Like I would love I would love to be Voyer
Speaker 1: or be a fly on the wall just to see.
Speaker 1: I don't even need to hear the conversation. Let me
Speaker 1: just look at the fate. Like I've been to lagers
Speaker 1: practice facility before it's I've seen like that little theater
Speaker 1: room where they sit down somewhere I want to be
Speaker 1: with the screen behind me, and I wanted them to
Speaker 1: run the film, and I want to look at the
Speaker 1: players faces and right into DeAndre Jordan's eyes when he
Speaker 1: when we see those plays where he's like guarding nobody,
Speaker 1: Like the guy comes off the screen, he doesn't go
Speaker 1: to contest it, but then he doesn't recover back. So
Speaker 1: then the guy who's you know, like Aby Bradley, He's like,
Speaker 1: holy sh it, dude, what am I supposed to do.
Speaker 1: Am I supposed to get the bowman? Or am I
Speaker 1: just want to see what his face looks like, because
Speaker 1: he has got to be smiling for all the all
Speaker 1: the the checks that he must be cashing, just floating around. It's,
Speaker 1: oh my god, it's got to be insane. But we
Speaker 1: did it for twenty games. Isn't that crazy? Man? I
Speaker 1: was I was wrong about DeAndre Jordan, like I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I guess watching enough nets games, like I thought he
Speaker 1: could have been. Uh. And me and Jason have talked
Speaker 1: about this a fact simile of JaVale McGee, right, And
Speaker 1: to me, like the drop, the gap between JaVale McGee
Speaker 1: and Jondre Jordan's shouldn't be this big, but it's this
Speaker 1: big because the motor gap is this big now, right,
Speaker 1: like the gap between DeAndre Jordan does the path of
Speaker 1: least resistance every single time, Like that's just what he does.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if it's conscious. I don't want
Speaker 1: to get into Deondre Jordan more. But this isn't even
Speaker 1: about DeAndre Jordan. I guess this is just about how long.
Speaker 1: I guess we're talking about adjustments take to get made right.
Speaker 1: And to me, like that's why I'm I'm so in
Speaker 1: for starting Wayne. And I said this with Jason yesterday,
Speaker 1: like shooters are so expensive in this league, Like it's
Speaker 1: expensive to get shooting, and I feel like we have
Speaker 1: one in Wayne. We're having a Monk as well. But
Speaker 1: I just I told you yesterday, like I don't think
Speaker 1: Monk has any chance of starting, like a six one
Speaker 1: guard that's not defensive, like defensive minded, like there's no
Speaker 1: chance to hew to me he starts. But Wayne, you know,
Speaker 1: Wayne's not good defender. He's his motor defensively isn't good
Speaker 1: as well. I just think like this is the bag
Speaker 1: we were sold. We have four of those guys. What
Speaker 1: we had for those guys healthy we'll see with a D.
Speaker 1: But that's who i'd like to start. What do you
Speaker 1: think about Wayne starting? Because I wanted to ask you
Speaker 1: about that because I think that's the middle line we
Speaker 1: can kind of go with here, because I think he's
Speaker 1: enough of a VET where like you can bence th
Speaker 1: HD for Wayne Ellington and no one bats an eye, right,
Speaker 1: that's just like, okay, that's something that happened. You start
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves over t HD and we can talk about
Speaker 1: how much. We'd like this to be in a perfect vacuum,
Speaker 1: in a perfect world. That text, that text are us coming?
Speaker 1: Like the moment that gets it out, there's a text,
Speaker 1: go he's right, and Rob pola as as he as
Speaker 1: he sees that hit the cry on for sure. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: like what do you think about Wayne starting? Because I've
Speaker 1: been a proponent of that, and I just I feel
Speaker 1: like that would be the perfect again, like I said,
Speaker 1: like if reefs could start, it would be in a
Speaker 1: perfect world. Maybe Reefs starts, But we don't live in
Speaker 1: a perfect world. We live in a place where all
Speaker 1: these you talked about the human element, that's just part
Speaker 1: of it. It's not bad that politics matter, like politics
Speaker 1: matter and everycentulation sometimes they matter in a good way,
Speaker 1: you know, like sometimes there are places where politics matter
Speaker 1: in a good way. But yeah, I just I want
Speaker 1: to ask you about that before we get into a
Speaker 1: d What do you think about Wayne starting or my
Speaker 1: proponent of that? Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's a
Speaker 1: good idea. So like if you if you take um
Speaker 1: like all the guards that we have, and then you
Speaker 1: just kind of cross even in your mind because you
Speaker 1: rewatch a lot of games. You can watch a lot
Speaker 1: of games, Like if you think about how teams try
Speaker 1: to attack the Lakers, like we get spammed with pick
Speaker 1: and roll like a lot, Like whether it's a D
Speaker 1: at the five or somebody else at the five, teams
Speaker 1: are trying to you know, pick and roll us to
Speaker 1: death to start games. They're not trying to go to
Speaker 1: the interior. They're not trying to kill us in transition,
Speaker 1: like unless it's off of like a miss or something
Speaker 1: like that, or turnover, they're not trying to do it.
Speaker 1: So why not play two guys who can you know,
Speaker 1: somewhat navigate a pick and roll? Like Ellington isn't the best,
Speaker 1: like he's not Avery Bradley level, um, as it relates
Speaker 1: to like shedding screens technique, but um what's it called?
Speaker 1: Ellington uses screens himself, so he understand ends how to
Speaker 1: navigate them because he knows how to use them. Um
Speaker 1: you know, like like in football, like uh, they always
Speaker 1: say like wide receivers turn into defensive backs or defensive
Speaker 1: backs can turn to wide receivers because it's the same
Speaker 1: core principles, same rounds, same same reads, the way that
Speaker 1: you read the key being stuff I got, So why
Speaker 1: not do that like, I wouldn't be against the idea
Speaker 1: even strictly from a data collection purpose, like let let
Speaker 1: Ellington play Next Day Bradley. See if it sucks, like
Speaker 1: he obviously provides the space thing that we need. And
Speaker 1: if it sucks, then all right, go back to what
Speaker 1: it is, like, what do you have to lose In
Speaker 1: the regular season, we already have enough of a sample
Speaker 1: size to know that th HD has a lot of
Speaker 1: struggle with the other guys when it comes to making
Speaker 1: his reads and just his shooting in general, which hasn't
Speaker 1: come around this season. So why not just play a
Speaker 1: guy who does really well shooting. The other part of
Speaker 1: th HD that people aren't talking about or maybe haven't
Speaker 1: talked about enough. I know you guys talked about he
Speaker 1: is getting hammered on screens, and he is struggling to
Speaker 1: get around screens. He's almost like two three steps behind
Speaker 1: the the ball handler when the screen comes and we're
Speaker 1: supposed to be thinking here like, Okay, you know, he's
Speaker 1: got long wingspan, stuff I got um you know, Dwight
Speaker 1: or a d is calling out the coverage or what
Speaker 1: he's supposed to do. But he you know, and and
Speaker 1: it's again I can't be mad at him because he's
Speaker 1: being put in that position, but he's having trouble getting
Speaker 1: around them. Like Desmond Bane. There was a three that
Speaker 1: he hit in the first quarter where there was nothing complex.
Speaker 1: Desmond Bane was just standing on the wing and he
Speaker 1: was waiting for the set to start. As soon as
Speaker 1: the set starts, he goes and he takes like a
Speaker 1: dribble handoff into an open three um And Desmond Bane
Speaker 1: has like the arms of a t rex, Like he's
Speaker 1: got super small arms. So you would think that even
Speaker 1: if t HD is coming late, he can get to
Speaker 1: that shot teaching like he can't get around that screen
Speaker 1: in time, Like he can't shed the screen quickly enough.
Speaker 1: So why don't just play a guy who's used to
Speaker 1: doing it and and see what happens. And and that's
Speaker 1: my thing, Like if you've seen people, if you've seen
Speaker 1: opposing teams use the same exact strategy over and over again.
Speaker 1: Like the first thing for me I would if I
Speaker 1: was vocal, was like, all right, people are pick and
Speaker 1: rolling us to death. Let me just play my best
Speaker 1: two shooters that can defend a pick and roll. So
Speaker 1: if it's if it has to be Bradley has to
Speaker 1: be one of those guys who's the next guy is
Speaker 1: the monk uh or is it Russ And is it
Speaker 1: Russe and Bradley or is it Russe and Monk or
Speaker 1: you know what does it have to be? Um? And
Speaker 1: you know, like why not try it? Give it a
Speaker 1: chance to see what happens. So U I'm with you, Matt,
Speaker 1: like what do we have to lose? Like do it
Speaker 1: in the regular season so that we can figure out
Speaker 1: exactly what's going on with this team as opposed to
Speaker 1: doing exactly the same thing over and over again and
Speaker 1: then being upset that we didn't get the result that
Speaker 1: we wanted. Yeah, and just last thing on ely thing
Speaker 1: because again and only think is not a championship you know,
Speaker 1: changing player. I said that last night, Like it's not
Speaker 1: like I'm standing. You know, people have stand pages. I'm
Speaker 1: not standing. It's just you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: if he just fits in again, like doing these spaces
Speaker 1: after every game, you can sometimes you can lose the
Speaker 1: bigger picture, right because you know you're so emotional games
Speaker 1: every game just like okay, what happened tonight? Know what
Speaker 1: happened tonight? And then what happened tonight? And then like
Speaker 1: five games go by, you're like, oh shit, like I
Speaker 1: missed you know, the whole trend here, And I think
Speaker 1: it's just it fits into a larger picture to me,
Speaker 1: So what's the main The main thing about this team
Speaker 1: is their stars. Right, it's Lebron, Russ and a D
Speaker 1: and everything around that are stars together have a one
Speaker 1: point three net rating for the season, you know, like
Speaker 1: we're plus That means we're basically playing neutral basketball, which
Speaker 1: makes sense because we're five hundred, right, but we're five.
Speaker 1: But you your stars should be like what usually would
Speaker 1: happened would be like the stars would have like a
Speaker 1: plus eight, right, and then the rest of the teams
Speaker 1: like a plus one. Then you have like a good
Speaker 1: net rating. But our stars are plus one point three.
Speaker 1: Like that's an issue. That's a that's a process issue
Speaker 1: to me, Like every Bradley hitting six threes is you know,
Speaker 1: it's nice, it's just not something that's gonna happen nightly.
Speaker 1: And you're also not gonna play okay see nightly. Like
Speaker 1: that's where I'm thinking. That's why I advocate for Wayne
Speaker 1: because he just, to me, he's the face of an issue.
Speaker 1: He's not the it's not Wayne Ellington being the fix
Speaker 1: of the issue, or just like you said, Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: doesn't change you from a championship level team. He just
Speaker 1: changes your identity. Right, It's like a it's a move
Speaker 1: to an identity. So that's all I just want to
Speaker 1: say with Wayne, because that's my point, and I think
Speaker 1: you kind of agree with that as well. Right, It's
Speaker 1: not you're saying like Osto Reaves isn't so much better
Speaker 1: than th HD. Like it's not like that. It's just
Speaker 1: like he fits the team, and it's like and putting
Speaker 1: him in it fits in ideology that this team needs
Speaker 1: to win, Like it's not about who's better than the
Speaker 1: other player, right, And we both want th HD to
Speaker 1: succeed as well. So that's kind of a bigger picture here.
Speaker 1: Our stars are plus one point three net ready for
Speaker 1: the season, and that's awful for your superstars, Like you
Speaker 1: should be winning those out of much better place, especially
Speaker 1: with the schedule that we played and a lot of that.
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan too, But yeah, yeah, no, no, I was
Speaker 1: I was gonna say actually before because I knew that
Speaker 1: I was gonna gonna talk to you today, I actually
Speaker 1: looked up so I looked at the four man just
Speaker 1: plus minuses right for fore man lineups, and I didn't
Speaker 1: with excluding DeAndre Jordan's like so no no lineups. So
Speaker 1: I mean he would have been in the format land
Speaker 1: up anyways, But I just wanted to see, like, which
Speaker 1: which fourth player looks really good, uh, next to like
Speaker 1: our big three, right, regardless of whoever that fifth person is. Uh.
Speaker 1: And obviously the fifth person makes a huge difference to
Speaker 1: you know, it's not fair to say that the fifth
Speaker 1: person can't jump up in the entire lineup. Um. But
Speaker 1: it's like I was looking at it and there's like
Speaker 1: the Big three plus tent Baysmore have played like thirty
Speaker 1: minutes together or something like that, and it's like, a
Speaker 1: it's zero, it's a neutral zero. And then it's like
Speaker 1: every Bradley's the you other guy, it's a neutral zero.
Speaker 1: Th h, it's like a plus three or it was
Speaker 1: like or it may have been minus I can't remember
Speaker 1: exactly what it was. But it's just like all these
Speaker 1: different configurations, not including Wayne Ellington, not including like they're
Speaker 1: all like just neutral there. They're nothing is happening, like
Speaker 1: that's extraordinary with those lineups. So it's like if we're
Speaker 1: twenty six games in, thirty games in at this point,
Speaker 1: why not try something different, um, just to see what
Speaker 1: what what happens, and you know, maybe maybe that is
Speaker 1: what's eventually coming you know, um in the next set
Speaker 1: of ten games or something like that. Maybe maybe Vogo
Speaker 1: makes the lineup change, um and goes in that direction.
Speaker 1: But you know, like that that that's been my thing too.
Speaker 1: I'm on board with you, Like there's it seems like
Speaker 1: there's some opportunity there, um and there's just a small adjustments.
Speaker 1: Don't play this guy, play this guy instead. Don't play
Speaker 1: these two guys at the start of game, play them
Speaker 1: as the first shift that comes in, and that that
Speaker 1: can make all the difference um with those lineups in
Speaker 1: those net ratings. Yeah, for sure. And like my final thing,
Speaker 1: like I was wrong. I thought Wayne Ellington played zero
Speaker 1: minutes with the Big Three. He played nine total minutes
Speaker 1: I guess in five games, which you spread that out,
Speaker 1: it's like a minute a half or something per game,
Speaker 1: nine possessions with our Big three, you know, And that's
Speaker 1: where that's where the it's not matching to me. You know,
Speaker 1: like if if I was sold that this was our
Speaker 1: starting line up in the beginning of the year, and
Speaker 1: now that four of those guys are healthy and those
Speaker 1: four guys played nine minutes total through you know, however
Speaker 1: many games it is, it's not really matching to me,
Speaker 1: Like there's a disconnect there that I'm kind of struggling with.
Speaker 1: But I think that's enough about them. Like before we
Speaker 1: closes out here, I wanted to ask you about a
Speaker 1: d because I think, you know, we were talking about
Speaker 1: this as well, and I think it's fascinating because his
Speaker 1: numbers all match right, like they're all still superstar top
Speaker 1: whatever level player points of the pain he leaves, dunks,
Speaker 1: it leads, you know, and all that stuff. When I'm
Speaker 1: watching in the game, though he it does look like
Speaker 1: he's a little slower. It does look like he picks
Speaker 1: and chooses when he wants to put an imprint on
Speaker 1: the game. And I'm not saying he was always this
Speaker 1: aggressive score, because he wasn't like the eight hes a
Speaker 1: guy that's not an aggressive score. That's just not his mentality.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that picks his spots. Even when we
Speaker 1: got Dennis Shrewder, he had quotes like I'm trying to
Speaker 1: fit around Dennis Shrewder and we're like, you're Anthony freaking Davis.
Speaker 1: Everyone sits around and everyone fits around you, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. But but I think defensively is where
Speaker 1: I see it. Um, I see a lack of like
Speaker 1: a motor drop. That's that really shows in the film
Speaker 1: when you go from Anthony freaking Davis motor what it
Speaker 1: was to what I've seen this year and last year.
Speaker 1: I throw away because whatever last year was, but this
Speaker 1: year I've kind of seen that. So what do you
Speaker 1: see from a d I guess big picture obviously didn't
Speaker 1: play tonight. The Memphis game to me stood out from him,
Speaker 1: but like I wanted to you kind of get into it,
Speaker 1: because I mean you've you've kind of got into this
Speaker 1: as well. But I think it's it's really key to
Speaker 1: talk about. Yeah, you know. So the way that I
Speaker 1: kind of think of it is, um, you know, this
Speaker 1: season and this is probably a good way to just
Speaker 1: kind of zoom out before we jump into more before
Speaker 1: jumping into more detail, Like this Lakers team, regardless of
Speaker 1: how average it's been, it's had so many random swings
Speaker 1: even within games itself, like the goal of twenty and
Speaker 1: then they'll all of a sudden the opposing team of
Speaker 1: go on a eighteen four right, that the data behind
Speaker 1: everything that you're watching is almost completely unreliable. Like there's
Speaker 1: so much of the data that we're that we have
Speaker 1: from the twenty seven games that we played this season
Speaker 1: is unreliable because you know, there will be one specific
Speaker 1: lineup that only played in one specific game and never
Speaker 1: played in any other games that looks extraordinarily good, but
Speaker 1: there's no sample size of the day, so it looks crazy.
Speaker 1: So so my thing is this, like when the my
Speaker 1: biggest gripe is that you know, the national media is
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's a lazy business, right, NBA naturally
Speaker 1: is a very lazy business. That one of the worst
Speaker 1: things that's happened. And it's not because it's not the
Speaker 1: fault of the folks that are into analytics. One of
Speaker 1: the worst things that's happened is people are substituting at
Speaker 1: analytics too as a substitute to actually like watching the film,
Speaker 1: And this is not this. This is not the ship
Speaker 1: on that community. So I don't want anybody to who
Speaker 1: was listening to think that's what I'm doing. But because
Speaker 1: the data is so unreliable with what's going on, with
Speaker 1: the Lakers team this season, um with with the swings
Speaker 1: and stuff I got momentum swings game, the game that
Speaker 1: if you don't actually watch what Anthony Davis is doing
Speaker 1: on the floor when he's at the five versus when
Speaker 1: he's at the four, you won't understand like what I'm
Speaker 1: what my complaints are right like my The thing that
Speaker 1: I tried to tell people in the space was this,
Speaker 1: Charles Barkley can say whatever he wants, kenneed Perkins can
Speaker 1: say whatever he wants. They have their allegiances, they're doing
Speaker 1: their jobs. They get paid handsomely to give opinions, whether
Speaker 1: they're stupid or not like or or whether they're true
Speaker 1: or not um to give their opinions. But Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: as a player is who he is and he has
Speaker 1: always been that same exact person his entire career. If
Speaker 1: you ask Pelican fans that watch the watch him on
Speaker 1: the Lakers right now, they will tell you the stuff
Speaker 1: that he does, the selective motor that he has, the
Speaker 1: times where he kind of picks and chooses when he
Speaker 1: wants to kind of put his imprint on the game,
Speaker 1: Like that's something that he did in New Orleans and
Speaker 1: you won't hear that conversation between the Lakers fan and
Speaker 1: the Pelicans fan to some degree because you know, we've
Speaker 1: been at each other's throats after because yeah, exactly, social
Speaker 1: media does that. So anyway, this is not a referendum
Speaker 1: on that. But the thing that I'm trying to bring
Speaker 1: up is like people are complaining that Anthony Davis isn't
Speaker 1: doing enough. That's one end of the spectrum. That's not true, right,
Speaker 1: that's clearly false. And then you have another end of
Speaker 1: the spectrum that's saying, well, Anthony Davis, he's not impactful
Speaker 1: when he gets it's not an impactfu. That's also another
Speaker 1: extreme that's not true either. Like these are two extremes
Speaker 1: that the truth is always in the middle. Does a
Speaker 1: d have a selective motor? Absolutely, he picks and chooses
Speaker 1: when he wants to be uh involved in the offense.
Speaker 1: The thing is is that when we are watching as fans,
Speaker 1: when we're watching Anthony Davis be selective with his motor,
Speaker 1: even when he's playing at the five, even when he
Speaker 1: has a guy like Derek Jones Jr. Defending him uh
Speaker 1: in Chicago, or when he has you know, like Jaren
Speaker 1: Jackson Jr. I think he's Jaren Jackson, but Darren Jackson
Speaker 1: like from Memphis, and he's not punishing that matchup. Over
Speaker 1: and over again. We're screaming at the TV, what the
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis doing? But in reality, that's who he is.
Speaker 1: He has to be coached, regardless of the fact that
Speaker 1: he's a superstar. He has to be coached to be aggressive,
Speaker 1: he has to be forced into sets. And so when
Speaker 1: people go Alvin Gentry unlocked, Anthony Davis, no ship because
Speaker 1: Alvin Gentry was running the same exact principles that Mike
Speaker 1: D'Antoni was running. Play fast, go early in the shot clock,
Speaker 1: Anthony comme and screen the ball handler, and go to
Speaker 1: the rim every single time. Don't worry about jump shots.
Speaker 1: Just go to the rim. And Drew Holiday or a
Speaker 1: Geon Rondo or who or you know each on More
Speaker 1: or whoever it is, he's gonna get you the ball.
Speaker 1: But just keep going to the rim. What about Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel makes and what you've seen what Frank you know
Speaker 1: the way Frank Vogel coaches. Again we said earlier, he's
Speaker 1: a diplomatic coach. What makes anybody think Frank Vogel is
Speaker 1: doing that? What makes anybody think that Frank Vogel is
Speaker 1: going to Lebron and Russ and Adi is saying, Yo,
Speaker 1: I need you to run ten straight pick and rolls
Speaker 1: to start this game. This team has no interior defense.
Speaker 1: Let's pulverize him inside. It just doesn't happen, right, like,
Speaker 1: And so that that's the point that I'm trying to, like, like,
Speaker 1: I've been trying to bring like with as it relates
Speaker 1: to Davis. His nature, right, his nature as a player,
Speaker 1: his human nature is what needs to be looked at
Speaker 1: and it has to be worked around. And the reason
Speaker 1: why I think this is, like, I don't even think
Speaker 1: it's a contentious argument. I think it's just something that
Speaker 1: people are having a hard time understanding because he won
Speaker 1: a championship and he puts up this super awesome numbers
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But just look at the guy
Speaker 1: he's playing next to Russ. The first thing that we
Speaker 1: said when he got Russ, when Russ was trained to Lakers,
Speaker 1: Russ has to reign back his nature. He can't just
Speaker 1: play go go go, go, go high motor. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: attack the it doesn't matter who's with me. Every single time,
Speaker 1: that same level, that same expectation in a different way,
Speaker 1: that same microscope that we're using. We have to do
Speaker 1: that with Anthony Davis or else. What's gonna end up
Speaker 1: happening is that we're gonna sit here and say, oh, man,
Speaker 1: he's got like half of the crowd he's gonna say, oh,
Speaker 1: you know what he's got like he's leading the points
Speaker 1: in the pain. And then the other half is gonna
Speaker 1: be like, well, he's playing soft, and nobody will ever
Speaker 1: come to an agreement as so what's actually happening. And
Speaker 1: you know, like like I've said I tweeted about a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier, like when he plays a five, he's
Speaker 1: worried about hurting himself. Like if you guys watch him,
Speaker 1: watch Crusoe even last season or KCP. When you play defense,
Speaker 1: you get hurt. People elbow you in the face, you
Speaker 1: get need as you're going for rebounds. You can potentially
Speaker 1: turn your ankle if you're trying to block somebody and
Speaker 1: and they land and you know, like they land before you.
Speaker 1: These are all basketball things that happen, and it's not intentional.
Speaker 1: It just happens. And this dude doesn't want to get hurt.
Speaker 1: And look, Roger, I'll be very honest. I don't want
Speaker 1: him to get hurt either. So if he if he's
Speaker 1: gonna play the five, great, but I'm not gonna get
Speaker 1: mad at him if he's not blocking every freaking shot
Speaker 1: every time somebody, you know, the defense gets compromised because
Speaker 1: I don't need this dude getting hurt, like yesterday he
Speaker 1: got blocked or Memphis he got blocked. He's grabbing his hand.
Speaker 1: That's not the first time he's done that this season, right,
Speaker 1: and like and so and and and that's my thing,
Speaker 1: Like we have to understand that if you're expecting him
Speaker 1: to play a certain way and you want him to
Speaker 1: do this NonStop, then they're has to be a given take.
Speaker 1: You can't be like, you know, Anthony Davis, like I
Speaker 1: need you to block every shot that comes into the paint,
Speaker 1: and then I also need you to go and drop
Speaker 1: her shoulder into the other guy every single play. He's
Speaker 1: not built like that. He's just not He's not Joel
Speaker 1: and Bead, He's not Nicola Yoki. Even those guys don't
Speaker 1: do that every single time. And Bead said that he
Speaker 1: likes to face up and shoot jumpers, So it's like
Speaker 1: Yoki shoots jumpers, but We're like, oh no, why don't
Speaker 1: you just go in there and just you know, you know,
Speaker 1: like like a mosh bit, like just going and bang
Speaker 1: heads with everybody. It's like, that's not reasonable to expect
Speaker 1: something like that, and he goes against his nature. And
Speaker 1: and that's why I'm always hard Yeah, my long monologue,
Speaker 1: that's why I'm always hard on Uh, I'm always always
Speaker 1: hard on Vogol because I was like, dude, Vogo has
Speaker 1: to see this. He has to recognize when he's disengaged
Speaker 1: and work around it. Either get him involved through set
Speaker 1: actions or or go away from him. Run something with
Speaker 1: Broad and Russ, run something with your shooters, do something else.
Speaker 1: And and I think that's gonna be something that he
Speaker 1: has to figure out or else. I do think his
Speaker 1: job would be in jeopardy. Uh, Frank Vogols if if
Speaker 1: you can't figure that part out. Yeah, like you know,
Speaker 1: that was that was great. There's a lot of good
Speaker 1: stuff in there. And I like I always thought I
Speaker 1: always said this with the A D at the five
Speaker 1: stuff because that's the point of contention with Laker fans
Speaker 1: all the time, right, It's like, yeah, just go play
Speaker 1: the five eighty, Like like how could you not see
Speaker 1: that's your best position. You know, you you hear that
Speaker 1: a lot from people like how could you not see
Speaker 1: that's your best position? And my always thing is, first
Speaker 1: of all, when a player tells you something like I
Speaker 1: believe it. A D has been very clear about not
Speaker 1: wanting to play the center, and I think the guy
Speaker 1: that actually goes out there and plays thirty five minutes
Speaker 1: a night, like we should listen to what he says,
Speaker 1: you know, like that there's a reason why he doesn't
Speaker 1: want to do something. It's not just him being you know,
Speaker 1: we throw around the words soft way too easily to me,
Speaker 1: Like I like calling a D soft. To me, it's
Speaker 1: just really dumb, low hanging fruit analysis. And that's basically
Speaker 1: what Charles Barkli was getting at, right, Like if you
Speaker 1: read between the lines, he was basically calling a D
Speaker 1: soft in a way, you know, like if you just
Speaker 1: read between those lines, And I think that's always been
Speaker 1: the wrong way to look at it. A D doesn't
Speaker 1: want to be the center, and there's reasons for that.
Speaker 1: And you saw that in the Memphis game, and you
Speaker 1: talked about how he tries not to he tries not
Speaker 1: to get hurt, and I think that's a very clear
Speaker 1: thing that's been going on. I think that that seems
Speaker 1: like to be a reason as well. And when he's
Speaker 1: the five, he has to be the main engaged defensive guy,
Speaker 1: he's the main rim protector. I think he likes to
Speaker 1: having another big next to him. As much as we
Speaker 1: hate the DeAndre Jordan's stuff. Was also clear that he
Speaker 1: was big in recruiting DeAndre Jordan, Right, that's no secret
Speaker 1: like that he came out with that. There's no secret
Speaker 1: he recruited Andre Drummond right like someone that we've been
Speaker 1: frustrated with. Dwight Howard obviously is the guy he likes
Speaker 1: to play next too. And and you're right when we
Speaker 1: went to when we started Dwight in the second half
Speaker 1: of that Memphis game, it felt like eighties energy. He
Speaker 1: picked up a little bit. That is That is specifically
Speaker 1: why I posted that clip. A couple nobody actually responded
Speaker 1: to that tweet, saying that I was waiting to see
Speaker 1: if anybody would say that, because that was the one
Speaker 1: thing I noticed when they started Dwight in the second half,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, eighties got some pep in his step, right,
Speaker 1: jumper looks really nice like he's like even the passes
Speaker 1: he was making the cutters like they look on time, Chris,
Speaker 1: his head is up. I was like, dude, this is
Speaker 1: completely different person. That's probably right now and and and
Speaker 1: that's my thing, Like I'll let you if it's not.
Speaker 1: It's just like you have to find that balance. And
Speaker 1: Bogol has to figure that out because if you just
Speaker 1: blanketly do one thing and run that as a set
Speaker 1: rotation every single game, you are going to get mixed
Speaker 1: results and you are going to get a disengaged Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis because he's going to go into self preservation mode
Speaker 1: and he's gonna be like, dude, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: risk my health because people already call me street clothes
Speaker 1: and Charles Barkley's on NBA t you know, NBA on TNT,
Speaker 1: on national television basically calling me saft. So why would
Speaker 1: I why would I just risk hurting myself and not
Speaker 1: make myself available with the playoffs. And he's right, like
Speaker 1: I can't get mad at him for something like that,
Speaker 1: but go ahead, you know, like no, no, no, you're
Speaker 1: you're good and that's all kind of involved in it, right,
Speaker 1: And I think you're you're lower on Vogel than I am,
Speaker 1: like I've been clear that I don't think not that
Speaker 1: I'm stand again now that I'm standing Vogel. I just
Speaker 1: think the solution isn't taking him out right, because I
Speaker 1: feel like the replacement for Vogel isn't here, Like it
Speaker 1: just isn't. People have named, you know, Phil Handy as
Speaker 1: someone they've liked. Phil Handy, you know, he's great. I
Speaker 1: love Phil Handy. I hope he's here forever. Zero head
Speaker 1: coaching experience, right, or you know Fisdell, we've seen him
Speaker 1: in other place. Like those are names to me that
Speaker 1: just don't get me. Or even the darker names like
Speaker 1: Mark Jackson. I've heard people bring up like that, stuff
Speaker 1: like that exactly. No, it's not that you want those guys.
Speaker 1: It's just like, look at the landfield. You look at
Speaker 1: the you know, field of coaches that are available and
Speaker 1: all that. Do you expect that the Lakers left Frank Googol.
Speaker 1: Will they go into some super deep, you know, unknown
Speaker 1: higher like I don't see that happening like that. You know,
Speaker 1: they hire in house usually like vocals kind of the
Speaker 1: rare exception to that, but they do kind of higher
Speaker 1: And how that's not even the point of this. I
Speaker 1: think there are things that we don't do for a D.
Speaker 1: Like it's very clear, like we watched these games, the
Speaker 1: starting lineups, they have very little belief in their actions
Speaker 1: that they want run right. It's very little belief that
Speaker 1: anything they're doing is opening anything up right. So their
Speaker 1: first play of every game, every game is the first
Speaker 1: play without usually fail. It's a fifteen second cross screen
Speaker 1: to get a D a post up on the other
Speaker 1: side or the other team usually switches it, so a
Speaker 1: D really doesn't get any advantage against any player. It's
Speaker 1: a post up for a D. Usually free the line extended.
Speaker 1: If we're lucky, it's a little closer to freak the
Speaker 1: line right like, but it's usually like it's free the
Speaker 1: line extended. It's a DY with the back to his baskets,
Speaker 1: three people in the paint already with one ready to
Speaker 1: double right, and usually the post entry passer. Sometimes it's Lebron,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's th Ht, sometimes it's Avery Bradley, you know,
Speaker 1: like it's players that teams really don't care. So a
Speaker 1: D catches the ball in the post. Three guys come
Speaker 1: at him, and people are like, why didn't he power
Speaker 1: to the rim. It's like, what you know, he's not
Speaker 1: getting calls either. Yeah, that's a that's yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: separate part of it. But yeah, and we run post
Speaker 1: ups and are really our only counter out of post ups,
Speaker 1: right is the pin screen on the other side, But
Speaker 1: it's like Avery Bradley setting a pin screen for ht
Speaker 1: who's open anyway, Like there's no, there's not even need
Speaker 1: for that. So like that's the stuff I see you
Speaker 1: where we don't put him in positions as well, But
Speaker 1: some of the stuff I think it's okay to also
Speaker 1: hold eighty accountable. Like to me, some of the stuff
Speaker 1: he does where he like some of the screens he
Speaker 1: sets are very lighthearted and again maybe that's part of
Speaker 1: him not wanting to get hurt, But do you see
Speaker 1: that as well, Like I see a lot of lighthearted
Speaker 1: screens where it's like a let me just get a
Speaker 1: little bit of contact and then roll. Like where if him,
Speaker 1: if he's setting that screen and he rolls, that's a problem,
Speaker 1: that's something you have to deal with. But eight is
Speaker 1: setting a half hardest screen and rolling for the big
Speaker 1: kind of guard him and guard Russ at the same time,
Speaker 1: because Russ isn't a mid range score. Like those are
Speaker 1: things I'm seeing. And it's why I think both of
Speaker 1: us promote spacing so much now because you need it.
Speaker 1: You have three guys in the pain eighties jumpers not
Speaker 1: in this has not entered this season, yet it's getting better.
Speaker 1: His midrange jumper, I think is better than people think
Speaker 1: it is. But you know, we have three guys in
Speaker 1: the main And that's why I'm such a promoent from
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellenton starting because I just think it opens up
Speaker 1: everything for everyone else. Like if everybody is having a
Speaker 1: good game, that's fine, Like that's not inductive to the
Speaker 1: process that we need, Like we need Russ having how
Speaker 1: many times does Russ start a game? Well, season, people
Speaker 1: have been saying like that that Boston game, like, oh,
Speaker 1: rustock over the third, Rust just help power thirds. But
Speaker 1: it's like the reason why Russ got off against Boston
Speaker 1: in the third quarter. And you know you had that
Speaker 1: three play sequence where it's a layoup layup dunk on
Speaker 1: Josh Richardson or whatever. A d is connecting on the
Speaker 1: screen and then he's slipping quickly. So Robert Williams can't
Speaker 1: just you know, Rob Willigue, he can he can't just
Speaker 1: like stand in between both of them, and Russ immediately
Speaker 1: attacks the rim and he sees that rob makes the
Speaker 1: choice of of closing out on a D backing up
Speaker 1: to him and ruscats layups. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: But where is the commitment? Where is the execution? Where
Speaker 1: is the conviction in that plate that I'm going to
Speaker 1: roll to the rim or or I'm gonna pop out
Speaker 1: to the free throw line? That that is like, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Russ had six turnovers that last game. Um,
Speaker 1: And so I went, I like every game I do this.
Speaker 1: Apparently Russ doesn't exercise to as well. Um. And you
Speaker 1: know I did that right up a long time ago
Speaker 1: about Russ and how he looks turnovers, Like I watched
Speaker 1: those turnovers from the Memphis game. Four of those turnovers
Speaker 1: are strictly out of pick and roll, like Russ trying
Speaker 1: like two of them are him. He makes a bounced
Speaker 1: pass the a D because a D like he doesn't
Speaker 1: know whether he wants a rim run or pop and
Speaker 1: Russ makes it pass thinking that e D is going
Speaker 1: to rim run. AD doesn't do anything. He just stands
Speaker 1: in one spot and it really goes to nobody. And
Speaker 1: then there's another one where Russ gets all the way
Speaker 1: to the paint eight is coming baseline off the rim
Speaker 1: run and there's like that week side tagger or whatever.
Speaker 1: But ad he never seals him. He never gives Russ
Speaker 1: a good angle to to drop it to him, because
Speaker 1: if he does, it's a dune. And so then we
Speaker 1: turn around and we go, dude, Russ, you're an idiot,
Speaker 1: Like what are you doing? But it's just like it's
Speaker 1: a dance, right, Like you have to do it together.
Speaker 1: It has the execution has to be great, and that
Speaker 1: I think that is fair if if people look at
Speaker 1: a d like you know, like how you're described right now,
Speaker 1: like is he doing it with conviction? Is he doing
Speaker 1: it with effort? Right? You could? I think it's very
Speaker 1: valid to criticize him about stuff like that. My I've
Speaker 1: actually been a proponent of Like, dude, if you don't
Speaker 1: want to go to the rim because you're not getting
Speaker 1: calls and you know, like you just don't feel like
Speaker 1: colliding all day today, just demonstrably go to the free
Speaker 1: throw line and Russell give you the ball for a jumper, Like,
Speaker 1: just just make a choice. Don't waffle around in between
Speaker 1: two areas because you're just making it more difficult for
Speaker 1: everybody else. And that's aside from the floor balance and
Speaker 1: the lack of shooting and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: Like he has to play with conviction, and I think
Speaker 1: that's kind of like what you're trying to get at,
Speaker 1: like as it comes to like his his consistent effort. Yeah,
Speaker 1: conviction is a good way to put it. It's just
Speaker 1: but it's a passiveness that I don't like, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like it's like a like against Memphis.
Speaker 1: And again, look, Steven Adams is you know, he's a
Speaker 1: good he's a good I guess he's a good defender.
Speaker 1: But Stephen House was giving me a D like six
Speaker 1: ft of space, right, and usually you do that too, guys.
Speaker 1: You don't fear that jumper. But usually you can't do
Speaker 1: that to guys like a D because they can make
Speaker 1: up that space with enough momentum right where they get
Speaker 1: to the basket, they can your step gets fouled or whatever,
Speaker 1: and a D is just looking for the trible handoff,
Speaker 1: like there is no there is zero level of aggression.
Speaker 1: Like I have Steven Adams on me. This guy should
Speaker 1: be in no way be able to guard me at all.
Speaker 1: But it was It was none of that. It was
Speaker 1: like here, let me just run this, you know, fake
Speaker 1: play this trible handoff of the Rust that creates very
Speaker 1: little advantage because teams aren't scared of Russ coming off
Speaker 1: a screen roll with me because they're just they'll trap
Speaker 1: us and have me open for a jumper. But it's
Speaker 1: that kind of like you said, conviction. I think that's
Speaker 1: the way right way to put it. And blaming all
Speaker 1: our problems on a D obviously is unfair. Like that's
Speaker 1: just not right. He is putting up crazy numbers, and
Speaker 1: I always hate the you know, the numbers aren't real
Speaker 1: crowd like numbers. Yeah, numbers are numbers, right, But I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna make fun of right, Like you know, Russ
Speaker 1: putting up ten and ten is Rust putting up ten
Speaker 1: and ten Like that's those you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like the numbers are what they are. It's just there's
Speaker 1: there's some lack of there's some passive that passive us
Speaker 1: there that I think, you know, can be brought up.
Speaker 1: But I think blaming everything on him isn't right. But
Speaker 1: I think there are stuff we can help hold our
Speaker 1: hold our superstar accountable for. Like I think that that's
Speaker 1: also fair. Is he putting Is he being put in
Speaker 1: the perfect situations? No, I'm obviously not that spacing obviously
Speaker 1: is not conductive, but him, it's not conductive to russ either.
Speaker 1: It's not even conductive to Lebron. He's just drilling jumpers,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's our imagin imaginive. Braun doesn't come
Speaker 1: out shooting jumpers the way he was against Boston, or
Speaker 1: or scoring the way that he did against Memphis, Like
Speaker 1: those first quarters, we would have been down double digits
Speaker 1: for sure, Like uh with with without his scoring and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. And I think that's the part, like
Speaker 1: folks don't realize that we're not that we're staying afloat,
Speaker 1: but like Braun has been so good that we haven't
Speaker 1: realized how the other guys have not been good in
Speaker 1: those first quarters. And that's a good side, you know,
Speaker 1: that's something that we can carry on as the season
Speaker 1: goes on. That he looks so good and jumpers looks
Speaker 1: so good. But now we need all the other guys
Speaker 1: to kind of fall into place. And I'm hoping that
Speaker 1: that that starts happening, um, you know, with him back, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And to me, like the ceiling of this
Speaker 1: team was Lebron and A D kind of being themselves
Speaker 1: and Russ picking his spots and that, to me, that's
Speaker 1: not really how the season has played out. So like
Speaker 1: we've been carried by Russ for a lot of this season.
Speaker 1: Like that's why it's hard for me to kind of criticize,
Speaker 1: you know, the turnovers and all that. But yeah, the
Speaker 1: A D discussion is fascinating because the numbers are what
Speaker 1: they are. You know, it's tough to argue with those,
Speaker 1: but we watch all these games and we understand there's
Speaker 1: places where he picks his spots and he's always going
Speaker 1: to do that. But it's just a tough kind of
Speaker 1: conundrum there because you don't want him for right he
Speaker 1: has some knee soreness, and I think there were some
Speaker 1: quotes today like he's they want to make sure that's
Speaker 1: before moving forward, and that's definitely the right decision, but
Speaker 1: it just sucks that you know he's getting hurt. Now
Speaker 1: there should be a time the team kind of revs up,
Speaker 1: But we're over an hour here, so bad. I kind
Speaker 1: of taken more of your time than I promised. But
Speaker 1: any final thoughts here, either this game or a big
Speaker 1: picture or anything. Yeah. So, because I know you don't
Speaker 1: want to do this, I'm gonna say this. I don't
Speaker 1: think Uh, I'm not gonna say that this is a
Speaker 1: hopefully a turning point, because that's crazy. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: say this is a turning point. But um, I think
Speaker 1: the one thing that we can kind of take away,
Speaker 1: um from from this game, granted it was okay see,
Speaker 1: uh so I'm not gonna take it too crazy. There
Speaker 1: is a version of this team that executes well, like
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be expact Gaby Radley to be uh
Speaker 1: a t t to be great shooters and stuff. I
Speaker 1: got all of the fun. But that you can tell that,
Speaker 1: you know, with Reeves, with Ellington, with monk Um, with
Speaker 1: spacing stuff like that, there's an there's a well oiled
Speaker 1: executing machine that that's that's somewhere in this team. And
Speaker 1: and the other thing is, um Braun has looked great.
Speaker 1: Nothing else like Braun has looked really good. Um Boston,
Speaker 1: Memphis and now okay see and uh it is great
Speaker 1: to see that even at his year nineteen, at his age,
Speaker 1: he can basically have his fingerprints, um on the personality
Speaker 1: of every single person on this roster, just by the
Speaker 1: way he starts the game off and conducts himself on
Speaker 1: the court. So that's great to see that he still
Speaker 1: has that kind of impact and that everybody kind of
Speaker 1: falls in and um, you know, just I'm hoping we
Speaker 1: can string together some wins and stuff. I got looking
Speaker 1: forward to it. Um. And you know, as I always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate subbing in for you guys whenever you guys
Speaker 1: need to. I hope everybody enjoyed. And just remember the
Speaker 1: basketball guys are always watching so so so we gotta
Speaker 1: we gotta be nice to our own players, uh, so
Speaker 1: that we can collect this good karma on our way
Speaker 1: to the championship. Yeah, hopefully the basketball guy is shining
Speaker 1: some positive light. You know that's going forward. Uh N.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you, appreciate everyone who came and listen on
Speaker 1: a Friday night the Lakers finally got a good win.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to use that tea where that Venete used, um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, thank you everyone again for listening. This will
Speaker 1: this will be up on the podcast feed uh in
Speaker 1: about an hour or so, I'll get this up. This
Speaker 1: one won't be on dash Radio because we'll have another
Speaker 1: show on Sunday. But again thanks everyone, Thank you again
Speaker 1: Rene for subbing in, and everyone have a great night
Speaker 1: and I'm happy Holidays. H