Speaker 1: Mmmmm, welcome to the state of the Lakers. First came
Speaker 1: to tell and Dad's ready. I thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for coming to hang out with us on a Sunday.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna go too long today. UM. I actually
Speaker 1: have a dinner I gotta get to and you guys
Speaker 1: have some football to watch, and god knows what else
Speaker 1: you guys are up to on a Sunday. But we're
Speaker 1: only gonna go for about thirty thirty minutes tonight. Um.
Speaker 1: But an interesting game to say the least. But taking
Speaker 1: care of business, beating a team they were supposed to be. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I thought this was one of those games
Speaker 1: too where if you really kind of bottled up the
Speaker 1: moments in the game where they were you know, focused
Speaker 1: and not. Um, you know, screw it off. They played
Speaker 1: well enough to beat the team by thirty. UM. But
Speaker 1: you know this team has a tendency to let their
Speaker 1: foot off the gas every time they get a fifteen
Speaker 1: point lead. Um. They've done all year long with every
Speaker 1: bad team they played. So it wasn't entirely unpredictable that
Speaker 1: San Antonio would make a run, and they did. But
Speaker 1: after the time out, they came out and closed the
Speaker 1: deal and actually Ransom good offense. Um. You know, I
Speaker 1: was really hard on a D on Twitter for not
Speaker 1: handling double team as well, but then he did a
Speaker 1: really good job of handling a double team in that
Speaker 1: sequence to kick out to Mellow for a three on
Speaker 1: the wing that was wide open. And you know, it's easy.
Speaker 1: It's really that easy when you have players as good
Speaker 1: as a D and Russ. It's just about class in
Speaker 1: the defense and not turning the ball over. Just get
Speaker 1: get the ball to somebody. You've got all these people
Speaker 1: on the floor that can shoot, all these people on
Speaker 1: the floor that can make plays off of your attention.
Speaker 1: You just have to value the possession of the ball
Speaker 1: and not panic when the double team comes. Just handle it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And so it was good
Speaker 1: to see that kind of come together and that last
Speaker 1: little string of possessions as they put san Antonio away.
Speaker 1: What was your initial takeaway, rug, Well, I think this
Speaker 1: is the THHD game, right, Like that has to be
Speaker 1: where we start with It is definitely where we should
Speaker 1: start with this. I kept saying, like putting all your
Speaker 1: prayers into a twenty year old is probably misplaced. But
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe THC is just
Speaker 1: this good. His three wasn't even going tonight. I think
Speaker 1: he was like one for five from three, but just
Speaker 1: having another shot creator next to Rus, next to a D.
Speaker 1: A guy when the ball swings knows exactly what he
Speaker 1: wants to do with it, and he's another guy that
Speaker 1: really seeks the rim. I thought he was just fantastic.
Speaker 1: His game looks like it's matured. And it's kind of
Speaker 1: crazy because he's in year three at twenty, which doesn't
Speaker 1: really happen, but just because of the COVID seasons. But
Speaker 1: his game definitely looks more mature. He looks like he's
Speaker 1: manipulating defenses more than just reading them uh and his
Speaker 1: drives to kick out passes, his uh skip passes were
Speaker 1: great pocket passes. Finding a D on Lobs late in
Speaker 1: the game. There they gave the ball to him. They
Speaker 1: were like, here, you run our late game offense, and
Speaker 1: he did a pretty nice job. Found the a D
Speaker 1: on the lab. Like that's I guess we're gonna start
Speaker 1: with this. We'll go to his defense later. But what
Speaker 1: did you see fro him? Because I thought his offense
Speaker 1: was just something they desperately needed and we knew that
Speaker 1: it was missed, it's just when you see it on
Speaker 1: the floor, like like comparing him like League Monk is
Speaker 1: a score like a pier score, but he's not the
Speaker 1: level I guess like shock creator type that th HD is.
Speaker 1: Like t HC. Just looks way more comfortable with the
Speaker 1: basketball in his hands, and that was just really awesome
Speaker 1: to see him not even looked like he missed a
Speaker 1: beat the first game of the season, I believe, but
Speaker 1: first regular season game, they start him right away. It
Speaker 1: looks comfortable. What did you see from him to name?
Speaker 1: He looks super comfortable. That was actually the first thing
Speaker 1: that stood out to me, which is interesting because if
Speaker 1: you really think about it, he basically hasn't played NBA basketball,
Speaker 1: real real NBA basketball since the Phoenix series, which was
Speaker 1: one way back in early June. So it's been a
Speaker 1: very long time since th HD has played this level
Speaker 1: of NBA basketball. So you almost expect Jetters, You almost
Speaker 1: expect him to kind of, especially at his age, to
Speaker 1: run around like a chicken with his head cut off.
Speaker 1: But you looked very cold home and kind of was
Speaker 1: taking the game and stride at his speed instead of
Speaker 1: getting rushed and getting out of control. He looked really
Speaker 1: good in that regard. You're right, they went to him
Speaker 1: down the stretch. He was the one who scored out
Speaker 1: of the time out found a d he um kind
Speaker 1: of turned into a better option there, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: just because Russ again Russ's decision making, which is a
Speaker 1: separate thing we're gonna get to. It's just it's it's
Speaker 1: a little bit uh, you know, feast or famine, and
Speaker 1: at least with th HT, they were getting something a
Speaker 1: little bit um, you know, a little bit more under control. Um,
Speaker 1: you know. He I'm really curious to see how he
Speaker 1: shoots in spot up situations. He didn't get a ton
Speaker 1: of spot up situations today. He had a few, um
Speaker 1: I think a couple of the threes that he made, Um,
Speaker 1: I think he actually only made one three. But he
Speaker 1: the three that he made early in the game was
Speaker 1: off the dribble. And that's cool and you'd like to
Speaker 1: see that. But I'm interested to see, especially when Lebron
Speaker 1: comes back, which you and I both suspect he'll come
Speaker 1: back tomorrow, which remains to be seen. Um, but Rag
Speaker 1: and I have a theory that Lebron's coming back tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We're going to see him more in a situation where
Speaker 1: he's attacking an already compromise defense, which is something that
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see. But you're right. I mean, a
Speaker 1: lot of people pointed this out on Twitter, and it
Speaker 1: was smart. This idea that having a second dribble drive
Speaker 1: creator next to us is so important because it allows
Speaker 1: Russ to not feel the burden of having to create
Speaker 1: everything from the perimeter. Now today it happened to not
Speaker 1: help us take care of the ball, which we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about, but the idea is put Russ in a
Speaker 1: position where he knows, if he doesn't have a matchup
Speaker 1: or if he doesn't have you know, the rhythm that
Speaker 1: he needs to do whatever he's doing, he can swing
Speaker 1: the ball around and it'll find its way to Lebron
Speaker 1: and he'll do it, you know. Or in this case,
Speaker 1: in this case today it was HT having that second option,
Speaker 1: that second excuse me, that second dribble drive creator next
Speaker 1: to us is so important for that just making it
Speaker 1: so that that burden doesn't solely fall on us, I
Speaker 1: think that's so important. But again, it's more of what
Speaker 1: we've always seen with th HD that's so impressive. It's
Speaker 1: like when he scores, it's almost in like the in
Speaker 1: terms of the eye tests, in terms of what you're
Speaker 1: visually seeing, it looks like an All Star. It's one
Speaker 1: like fade Away. It's it's super dynamic finishing around the rim.
Speaker 1: It's that that one that led to the time out
Speaker 1: where he comes along the right side in the second
Speaker 1: half and goes into two bodies and just elevates over
Speaker 1: the top and shoots a float or high off the glasses.
Speaker 1: Puts it in like you see, that high end scoring potential.
Speaker 1: That is exactly what has liquor fans so excited about him,
Speaker 1: you know, because if he can find a way to
Speaker 1: manufacture easy stuff as well, which he will as he
Speaker 1: gets smarter, there's gonna be this whole other phase of
Speaker 1: th HD's career where he can be a high usage,
Speaker 1: twenty plus point per game type of score to play
Speaker 1: alongside a D when e d s in his early thirties.
Speaker 1: That what we were always looking for in that regard
Speaker 1: is that high end potential, and he continues to flash
Speaker 1: that every single game he plays. We got talked about
Speaker 1: that a lot last year. It's like every game with HD,
Speaker 1: there's one or two moments where there's this standout play
Speaker 1: that was that just has you sit back and think
Speaker 1: about what he could be. And again it's just one game,
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about his defense in a
Speaker 1: minute here too, But like it's if he keeps incrementally
Speaker 1: improving at this rate, there's a lot to be excited about. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: like I think in the second quarter, something I wrote
Speaker 1: down the game, it's it's a cliche, but you see
Speaker 1: it with a lot of young players that start to
Speaker 1: take somewhat of a leap, and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: him taking a leap changes a lot of things for
Speaker 1: the season, including the players we've lost. Like I think
Speaker 1: THHD making that jump is huge. But I said, the
Speaker 1: game has really slowed down for him, like even last year,
Speaker 1: even at his high points, there's a lot of reckless drives. There,
Speaker 1: a lot of like driving into three people and then
Speaker 1: trying to decide where to go. Like I said before,
Speaker 1: it seems like more of like him manipulating the defense
Speaker 1: knowing exactly what's going on. I thought he was probably
Speaker 1: our best like driving kid guy today just in terms
Speaker 1: of finding shooters. He only had one assist tonight, but
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, players missed a lot of shots
Speaker 1: that that he passed to. But but you're right, and
Speaker 1: he just looks comfortable and his jumper. He's definitely more
Speaker 1: comfortable shooting off the dribble, which makes sense for a
Speaker 1: guy that's had the ball I feel like all his life. Um,
Speaker 1: he's still trying to get used to being a spot
Speaker 1: up guy. Hopefully that comes when you know he plays
Speaker 1: more next to us and more next to Lebron. But
Speaker 1: you talked about him attacking a compromise defense, like I'm
Speaker 1: really excited to see him playing next to Bron and Russ,
Speaker 1: just you know, him being the third guy that tries
Speaker 1: to break down your defense after the rotations already hit.
Speaker 1: But we can kind of move on to his defense
Speaker 1: man that that Lanth is definitely a factor. His on
Speaker 1: ball defense I thought on Deonta Murray was huge, Like,
Speaker 1: especially down the stretch, he shut him down a few
Speaker 1: times players think they can get shots over him and
Speaker 1: he's able to just contest it. And his team defense
Speaker 1: as well, it was a lot better. He fits like
Speaker 1: the Vogel scheme. We always said that, you know when
Speaker 1: when guards trying to have to fight over those ball screens,
Speaker 1: and he did a really nice job of that giving
Speaker 1: back pressure, giving eighty enough time to play both. What
Speaker 1: do you see kind of from his defense? So I
Speaker 1: thought he was he was huge. He actually led the
Speaker 1: team at night. He was a plus four team that
Speaker 1: was the best on the night took with his seventeen points.
Speaker 1: But defensively, we talked about how much of an impact
Speaker 1: that would have just not playing negative defenders. And I'm
Speaker 1: really interested in this, like th HT in Monk Combo,
Speaker 1: because THHD gives enough defense as a wing to let
Speaker 1: Monk play that one or two guard. What do you
Speaker 1: see from him defensively? He looks great. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: there there's different archetypes of defenders, right, Like there's position
Speaker 1: of positional defenders, guys that do a really good job
Speaker 1: of moving their feet making up for their um you know,
Speaker 1: physical disadvantages by just anticipating moves well and just trying
Speaker 1: to position their body in the way so the guys
Speaker 1: have to shoot over the top. Well, th HD is
Speaker 1: more of like a disruptive defender. He's all about. He's
Speaker 1: all about like kind of sacrificing a little bit of
Speaker 1: position for the sake of making the ball handler feel discomfort.
Speaker 1: That's naturally naturally gonna lead to him giving up some
Speaker 1: dribble drives, and he did tonight, especially in the first half.
Speaker 1: There were a handful of place where he gave up
Speaker 1: straight line drives. And you live with that because that's
Speaker 1: kind of, like you said, part of the scheme with
Speaker 1: Frank or you know, you can. You don't want to
Speaker 1: have too many positional defenders on the floor, guys that
Speaker 1: can't disrupt ball handlers, because if everybody is just feeling
Speaker 1: super comfortable on the perimeter all game, they're just gonna
Speaker 1: shoot your eyes out. Especially in the modern NBA, you
Speaker 1: can only have so much of that. So having having
Speaker 1: that's what I like about the complementary type of pieces
Speaker 1: with Ellington out there alongside those guys. You know, like
Speaker 1: if you put Ellington out there with Avery Bradley and
Speaker 1: with th HT like they did with the starters, you
Speaker 1: can ask th h T and Avery Bradley to guard
Speaker 1: the more you know, dribble intensive guards, and then you
Speaker 1: can ask Wayne Ellington to chase guys off the screens,
Speaker 1: you know. And obviously that gets more complicated when teams
Speaker 1: end up having to switch because they get lost in
Speaker 1: transition or because the team's attacking somebody in particular, they
Speaker 1: can get more complicated. But this is just another guy
Speaker 1: to have in the rotation that fits that Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: type of archetype of defender, a disruptive defender that's gonna
Speaker 1: give up some straight line drives, but in a way
Speaker 1: that kind of works with this defensive scheme because of
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis on the back end. Um, So yeah, he
Speaker 1: he looks rate in that regard and he's gonna look better,
Speaker 1: I think. I think here's the thing that Spurs didn't have.
Speaker 1: They shot the ball well tonight, especially in the second half.
Speaker 1: But the truth of the matter is they're gonna play
Speaker 1: pretty much starting tomorrow. Um, you know with a Lonzo
Speaker 1: who has been a really high, high volume, high efficiency
Speaker 1: three point shooters Zac Lavine, really good three point shooter,
Speaker 1: you're there. They're heading into a situation tomorrow where you
Speaker 1: know he's gonna be tested more off the ball, and
Speaker 1: that'll be the thing to watch with him. That was
Speaker 1: always his weakness, Like from pretty much from day one,
Speaker 1: TSD was fantastic on the perimeter as a point of
Speaker 1: attack defenders relative to what you'd expect for for a
Speaker 1: player that young, but his weakness has always been, you know,
Speaker 1: struggling off the ball, paying attention to shooters, and so
Speaker 1: he's gonna get tested a lot. And uh, it's particularly
Speaker 1: on Monday. And then I can't remember if it's the
Speaker 1: Wines there in the Friday game, but the milk the
Speaker 1: Milkwaukee game, there's another one where a lot of eyes
Speaker 1: are gonna be on the honest and it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of attention paid to one guy, which is
Speaker 1: going to test the focus of off ball defenders. So
Speaker 1: we'll see, you know, obviously it's early. It's too early
Speaker 1: to say, you know, whether or not this projects well
Speaker 1: to him being a guy who can be in the
Speaker 1: starting lineup in the playoffs, a guy who can play
Speaker 1: five minutes of game in the playoffs. That remains to
Speaker 1: be seen. But it was definitely a really good first
Speaker 1: step today. Yeah for sure, And like I thought, just
Speaker 1: watching the game after we watch it, but he seemed
Speaker 1: like a lot more focused on the defensive end, just
Speaker 1: as a team defender, and they're gonna need him, Like
Speaker 1: like League Moong, all those dudes, like they can try
Speaker 1: their best, but they're just really small. They don't have
Speaker 1: the length and thhu with his seven one winkspan, like
Speaker 1: that just made a difference tonight. Him fighting inside. We
Speaker 1: do a lot of these four guard lineups where he's
Speaker 1: kind of like the power forward, sometimes even next to
Speaker 1: a D and they're gonna need him to be really active,
Speaker 1: and I thought he was tonight. And again on Deante Murray,
Speaker 1: I thought he was great. And just having guy like
Speaker 1: Ellen team that can chase off like I like these
Speaker 1: bench units that we can kind of build off of,
Speaker 1: and like you said, where Lebron is gonna be hopefully
Speaker 1: coming back tomorrow. If it's not tomorrow, he'll come back
Speaker 1: hopefully this week. Just start to get the team healthy here.
Speaker 1: But yeah, t HD, that was a huge boost. And
Speaker 1: if none can give them a boost like this as well,
Speaker 1: maybe not at this type of level. And again THD
Speaker 1: doesn't have to score seventeen points every single night, But
Speaker 1: like we said, just his shock creation kind of puts
Speaker 1: guys in the correct roles, right, Like Malik Monk didn't
Speaker 1: have to be the full time secondary or backup point guard.
Speaker 1: He could just be the score and you saw him
Speaker 1: get to be able to get in his bag in
Speaker 1: that way. I still think it's a lot of Rondo
Speaker 1: minutes that are unnecessary. But again, Rondo also allows other
Speaker 1: guys to kind of do what they do in a sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought, I thought, Taylor, this was a big boost
Speaker 1: of the team. And hopefully we when we get healthy
Speaker 1: here with Lebron back, we'll get to see more of
Speaker 1: these kind of different five man lineups, more of these,
Speaker 1: just not as many below average defenders on the floor here. Um,
Speaker 1: did you want to go into a d next from Taylor? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so first of all, just kind of to put a
Speaker 1: bow on the t h D. Think we're gonna see
Speaker 1: a lot of him, I think personally in this next
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, just by virtue of the Aresa injury,
Speaker 1: the Lakers just need to have another real physical presence
Speaker 1: on the floor, a guy who can guard up a position.
Speaker 1: There was a play today where he was defending t
Speaker 1: He was defending um daddy is young on the low
Speaker 1: block and enforced him into a missed jump hook and
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. That same type of matchup attacking
Speaker 1: against an Ellington or a Monk or Rondo just is
Speaker 1: going to end in a basket every time. Um, So,
Speaker 1: getting that level of you know, defending up a position
Speaker 1: from th h D is going to make him, you know,
Speaker 1: hugely valuable in the next couple of weeks, and so
Speaker 1: I expect to see a lot of him and we're
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna learn a lot about what th HD
Speaker 1: can do with this team in the next couple of
Speaker 1: weeks moving on to a D. So I want this
Speaker 1: to be mostly good, to be clear, because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, you know, I think, especially with
Speaker 1: the nature of of the injuries and this team struggles
Speaker 1: early on, we're almost a little too nitpicky with a D.
Speaker 1: But the truth of the matter is, like he he
Speaker 1: still is the most ridiculous matchup advantage in all of
Speaker 1: basketball um and early in that game, there was just
Speaker 1: nothing that Spurs could do with him. U there was
Speaker 1: a there was a random game I watched ages ago.
Speaker 1: I can't remember who this is, back when he was
Speaker 1: in New Orleans. I think they were playing Portland, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure, but I was watching him and he ended
Speaker 1: up with like forty something in the mid forties and
Speaker 1: won an overtime game, and it was like a cheet code.
Speaker 1: It was like every time they threw to him, there
Speaker 1: was just even even in the crunch time, even in
Speaker 1: the serious moments of the game. There was just nothing
Speaker 1: anybody could do with him unless you have a specific
Speaker 1: archetype of player like that. Young did an okay job
Speaker 1: today in a post mismatch and poached post matchups and
Speaker 1: forcing him to be a jump shooter. But like anybody
Speaker 1: else on the roster, if he got it, it was
Speaker 1: a bucket or a foul every single time. And and
Speaker 1: that that to me is something I think like your
Speaker 1: fans take for granted from time to time, including myself,
Speaker 1: But it's just such a huge, you know, advantage to
Speaker 1: have because the truth is is with all the injuries
Speaker 1: and with Rush struggling so much taking care of the basketball,
Speaker 1: this team doesn't have a ton of talent right now,
Speaker 1: you know, relative to a lot of the teams they're playing.
Speaker 1: But a D just levels that playing field. You can
Speaker 1: go into these games, like a game against the Spurs today,
Speaker 1: and it's like, hey, like we can just dump the
Speaker 1: ball into a D a lot and good stuff is
Speaker 1: gonna happen and we're gonna win, you know, And and
Speaker 1: it's kind of a it's it's kind of like I said,
Speaker 1: a luxury that that that doesn't need that we need
Speaker 1: to do a better job of acknowledging, and obviously there
Speaker 1: was a little stretch there in the third quarter where
Speaker 1: he struggled with double teams. And you know, it's fascinating
Speaker 1: because he tends to when he catches the ball on
Speaker 1: the block and he turns and faces and the double
Speaker 1: team comes, he has a tendency to lean back away
Speaker 1: from the pressure. And when he leans back away from
Speaker 1: the pressure, he immediately looks behind him and tries to
Speaker 1: find somebody really close on the three point line to
Speaker 1: just get out of his hands, because at that point
Speaker 1: he's just trying to not turn it over. This is
Speaker 1: something you and I've talked about forever. But the play,
Speaker 1: the biggest play of the game, in my opinion, was
Speaker 1: I think there were a four in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: and he was posting up on the left block, and
Speaker 1: what they do, what they've been doing with the das
Speaker 1: doing late doubles, that was the one thing they mixed
Speaker 1: up instead of just out outright doubling him as as
Speaker 1: soon as he puts the ball on the floor, they
Speaker 1: would send the double and kind of like testing his
Speaker 1: handle and testing his ability to make quick decisions. And
Speaker 1: they're on that pivotal play of the game. Instead of
Speaker 1: leaning backwards from the ball pressure and kind of fading
Speaker 1: from the ball pressure, he just continued to go into
Speaker 1: the lane and split the double, like just kind of
Speaker 1: steps through the double and kicked too mellow for a
Speaker 1: wide open three. And that's and and that's something I've
Speaker 1: been begging for him to do for years because doubling
Speaker 1: is a good thing. Like Lebron loves when you double
Speaker 1: team him. He knows that's you giving up an advantage,
Speaker 1: and he knows that that's you somewhere on the floor.
Speaker 1: You have an opportunity to make the other team pay.
Speaker 1: You just have to execute and not fear. And and
Speaker 1: it's funny because it's something that people struggle with at
Speaker 1: all levels of basketball. It's amazing how much the high
Speaker 1: schoolers that I coach struggle with ball pressure like they have.
Speaker 1: Everybody has a tendency with ball pressure to try to
Speaker 1: protect the ball, so they lean back, like I was saying,
Speaker 1: But the truth is is if you're strong with the
Speaker 1: ball and you stay low and you actually advanced positions,
Speaker 1: step into the defender and clear out space, you have
Speaker 1: a much better chance of seeing the floor, finding where
Speaker 1: the opening is in making teams pay, and so obviously
Speaker 1: it remains to be seen over the course of his
Speaker 1: Lakers career if he ever develops into someone who can
Speaker 1: consistently do that. But he won the game with it
Speaker 1: tonight with that big play to Mellow, and I'd like
Speaker 1: to see more of that. But just just another awesome game.
Speaker 1: And then lastly, every time, every time the team needs
Speaker 1: a big defensive play, he just makes it happen. There
Speaker 1: was also right after th hts a little way up
Speaker 1: out of the time now he swallowed up. I think
Speaker 1: it was def insal I can remember who it was,
Speaker 1: and someone drove into the lane and he got switched
Speaker 1: on him and the person tried to body him and
Speaker 1: take a little ten foot fade away and Ad blocked
Speaker 1: it and Kepta Short's like, man like, that's a huge
Speaker 1: defensive play. And so again just luxuries that I think
Speaker 1: all of us have Laker fans, as Laker fans have,
Speaker 1: you know, I've got to take for granted a lot
Speaker 1: of the times and something I would like to be
Speaker 1: better about. Well, on that play that you were talking about,
Speaker 1: the one that won them the game. The reason I
Speaker 1: think that he was able to hit that is because
Speaker 1: we had Carmelo and Ellington at on the weak side,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like that's a really tough
Speaker 1: place to double off of, and I'd like to see
Speaker 1: more of that, and we'll see defensively those lineups can
Speaker 1: kind of stick. But that's a tough cover. Like that's
Speaker 1: not Avery Bradley or like camp Baysmore, who actually didn't
Speaker 1: play tonight, which is fascinating considering it was starting every game.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we had Ellington and Mellow on on the
Speaker 1: week side, and that's an easier read. A D kind
Speaker 1: of got in the air and he just had to
Speaker 1: pick one. Whoever they helped off of. They decided to,
Speaker 1: I believe, leave Mellow and he was able to drain
Speaker 1: the three. Um, I don't think posting like I think
Speaker 1: a D got a lot of buckets tonight off of
Speaker 1: like pick and roll off of like law passes, dominating
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds. I just think posting him up with uh
Speaker 1: with so much non shooting around, like when Rondo is
Speaker 1: the post entry passer, like they're just they're gonna send
Speaker 1: help right away, and that's like a tough decision. That's
Speaker 1: like a lot of tough decision making for a D.
Speaker 1: But you're right. In that first half, he dominated twenty
Speaker 1: seven points. I believe in the first half it was
Speaker 1: like ten of thirteen or some ridiculous number. Um and
Speaker 1: the second half the Spurs just decided to take him
Speaker 1: out of the game. They said, anyone else is gonna
Speaker 1: beat us, sent three people at him on the boards
Speaker 1: as well. We had a lot of small guards and
Speaker 1: they took They took his offensive rebounding away as well.
Speaker 1: I'll but yeah, just another incredible game from him, who's
Speaker 1: absolutely carrying the team. Russ I thought had an okay
Speaker 1: game tonight minus the turnovers. Yeah, minus the turnovers. But
Speaker 1: a D is basically carrying a lot of this and
Speaker 1: hopefully Lebron comes back to kind of shoulder the road.
Speaker 1: But defensively, man, I think he's been incredible second taking
Speaker 1: out that Timberwolves second half, that first half against them.
Speaker 1: I thought he was great tonight again, just blowing up
Speaker 1: every action. The Spurs don't have very much inside presence
Speaker 1: like you Banks, and I think Pearl didn't even play tonight,
Speaker 1: but he blew up a lot of their action Deanti
Speaker 1: Murray coming off midrange screens. They switched a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff and he was basically matched up with a lot
Speaker 1: of guards, which is why we gave up. I think
Speaker 1: the ship ton of offensive rebounds couldn't kind of a
Speaker 1: rebound late, but he was. He was able to stay
Speaker 1: on those guards man, those those quick guards that the
Speaker 1: Spurs have basket as well as a really nice jump
Speaker 1: shooting guard. He was able to defend him. He was
Speaker 1: huge tonight. I thought he looked fatigued in the last game, right,
Speaker 1: I thought tonight it was pretty much a full, full,
Speaker 1: full game from him. And this is the cleanest his
Speaker 1: jumper has looked in a long time. Taking out whether
Speaker 1: the shot went in or not, it just felt more
Speaker 1: on balanced, like his threes looked more comfortable his off
Speaker 1: the dribble shooting as well. And hopefully maybe this is
Speaker 1: just him progressing to the mean here. The jumper has
Speaker 1: been absolutely off off the earth for a long time.
Speaker 1: This is just a great building building block for him.
Speaker 1: And I thought you said something interesting on Twitter. It's
Speaker 1: the first time he's played four teen games in a
Speaker 1: row or something, uh, since since the bubble um since ye,
Speaker 1: since since the playoffs, So he looks like he's at
Speaker 1: least staying healthy. And he talked about last year playing
Speaker 1: his way into shape, and I thought this year as well,
Speaker 1: he wasn't in the greatest condition to start, but it
Speaker 1: looks like he's getting his legs under him, and this
Speaker 1: is the bouncy as he's looked the most comfortable on
Speaker 1: his jump shot. He's looked and they're gonna need that
Speaker 1: and hopefully Lebron, like I said, comes back to shot
Speaker 1: shorten that load on him. But so another dominant game
Speaker 1: from him. The second half scoring is what it is.
Speaker 1: People are gonna focus on that, and I think that
Speaker 1: was more of a thing that the Spurs did to
Speaker 1: kind of dare our other shooters to to get looks
Speaker 1: rather than an a d lack of aggression. But I
Speaker 1: thought he was just awesome tonight as well. I thought
Speaker 1: you made a really good point about the Ellington Mellow
Speaker 1: weak side space. Yeah, there was every possession that's what
Speaker 1: they did down the stretch that that I noticed it
Speaker 1: again on the on the possession where THHD kind of
Speaker 1: lost his balance and turned it over. They're what they
Speaker 1: would do in both cases. So Mellow would be on
Speaker 1: the weak side wing and Ellington would be on the
Speaker 1: weak side corner, and Ellington's man would basically sink to
Speaker 1: the block and then mellows man would split the difference
Speaker 1: between Ellington and Mellow and basically kind of play soccer goalie,
Speaker 1: right like because when the when the past would come
Speaker 1: and you just jump one of the guys and hope
Speaker 1: for the best is what it kind of seemed like.
Speaker 1: And on the pivotal play of the one we're talking about,
Speaker 1: the the helper came over from Ellington and then Mellow's
Speaker 1: man jumped to Ellington on the on the on the
Speaker 1: step through from a D and a D just made
Speaker 1: an easy past. Like you said, make the reads easy,
Speaker 1: like he's he's never gonna be able to make the
Speaker 1: super advanced reads that Lebron can make out of out
Speaker 1: of the post, like Lebron can hit the dunker out
Speaker 1: of the post. Lebron can you know, hit these crazy
Speaker 1: you know kind of arms swing shot passes over the
Speaker 1: top to catch a shooter that's opened by and you're
Speaker 1: never gonna be able to get that from a D.
Speaker 1: But if you make it simple and easy, then then
Speaker 1: he's going to be like any basketball player can you know,
Speaker 1: step through and and make a kick to a wide
Speaker 1: open shooter on the wing. So, like you said, maybe
Speaker 1: going more to a d post stuffs. When you have
Speaker 1: that kind of shooting on the floor will make a
Speaker 1: big difference. And you know, moving on to his slump
Speaker 1: for a second, you know this is he did shoot
Speaker 1: the ball really well. Today's form looks good, he looks comfortable.
Speaker 1: He you know, I tweeted out that he hasn't played
Speaker 1: four teen games in a row since bubble and and
Speaker 1: the reason why I point that out is, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: such a huge believer in the way that rhythm effects
Speaker 1: of basketball player. You know. Uh. The story I would
Speaker 1: share is my second year playing in college. I was
Speaker 1: playing junior college up in Utah, and I broke my
Speaker 1: foot the summer before, and so when I showed up
Speaker 1: to campus, I had actually not touched the basketball in
Speaker 1: a several months. And I was so bad at the
Speaker 1: start of the season, not just in practice, but in
Speaker 1: the first few games of the season. And I was
Speaker 1: one of at this junior college. I was out. I
Speaker 1: was one of only two guys. I was on a
Speaker 1: full right scholarship, so there was a lot of expectation
Speaker 1: on me to fulfill the amount of money that the
Speaker 1: program had invested in me. And so my coach pulled
Speaker 1: me in the office and he actually took me out
Speaker 1: of the starting line up and benched me because I
Speaker 1: wasn't playing very well. And it had a lot to
Speaker 1: do with the fact that I was just everything that
Speaker 1: I used to do well on a basketball court. I
Speaker 1: wasn't doing well because I was so out of rhythm
Speaker 1: because I hadn't played, and everyone else that I was
Speaker 1: going up against in practice and everyone else that was
Speaker 1: buying for my position was in great rhythm. That season,
Speaker 1: I was an All Conference player because the second half
Speaker 1: of the season I finally regained my rhythm because I
Speaker 1: was able to stay committed to, you know, the work
Speaker 1: day in and day out and get consistent minutes that
Speaker 1: as the season progressed, especially when we got into conference play,
Speaker 1: I finally got it back. But the point is, it's like,
Speaker 1: it's really really hard to play basketball as a finesse player,
Speaker 1: meaning a guy who handles the ball a lot and
Speaker 1: the guy who shoots the ball a lot. If you don't,
Speaker 1: if you're constantly in and out of the lineup, if
Speaker 1: you're constantly going extended stretches without touching a ball. Do
Speaker 1: you think Anthony Davis was touching a basketball a lot
Speaker 1: when he had to kill these tendonosis. Do you think
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis was touching the basketball a lot when he's
Speaker 1: growing was pulled like that? Like? No, Like as the
Speaker 1: best case scenario, you can do some stand still shooting,
Speaker 1: but what is stand still shooting do for your rhythm
Speaker 1: when in games you're going at a certain speed and
Speaker 1: you're elevating and and you're dealing with contests and things
Speaker 1: like that. Like I you know, there's the biggest debate
Speaker 1: we have is whether or not a DS bubble shooting
Speaker 1: was real. And you know, is he ever gonna be uh,
Speaker 1: you know, sixteen ft to the three point line guy
Speaker 1: again or fifty or whatever it was that he was
Speaker 1: in the bubble? Maybe not. I'm not sure. It was
Speaker 1: a small sample size, so it's hard to say. But
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is is for about for
Speaker 1: about nineteen games going into the bubble, so before in
Speaker 1: February and March, before the shutdown, he was from three
Speaker 1: that he was over those nineteen games, and then in
Speaker 1: the bubble he shot outstanding lee well from long twos
Speaker 1: and I think he was right around thirty eight percent
Speaker 1: on threes. And then the first fifteen games of the
Speaker 1: following season when he was healthy, he was thirty eight
Speaker 1: percent from three and then as Achilles got mess stuck,
Speaker 1: and then it all fell apart because he was playing
Speaker 1: one or two games and then taking a day off.
Speaker 1: One or two games and taken a day off, then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it's so bad that we literally
Speaker 1: have to shut him down for all these months. And
Speaker 1: then he comes back and he gets back in the court,
Speaker 1: and and he starts playing and family pulls his growing.
Speaker 1: The point is is like the dudes just had a
Speaker 1: nightmare time trying to stay available. So is the truth
Speaker 1: probably somewhere in the middle. Yeah, he's probably somewhere between
Speaker 1: the jump shooter that he's been and the jump shooter
Speaker 1: that he was. But he certainly is a lot better
Speaker 1: than he's showing. And I'm really really opting is stick
Speaker 1: that if he continues to stay in the lineup and
Speaker 1: he continues to get his opportunity to play NBA basketball
Speaker 1: day in and day out for the for the majority
Speaker 1: of the season, I think he's going to recapture some
Speaker 1: of that shooting, which is why I think it's so
Speaker 1: important that he takes more threes, you know, particularly in
Speaker 1: the flow of the offense, because especially when it comes to,
Speaker 1: you know, when it comes to those high leverage moments
Speaker 1: against the Utah with Rudy Gobert, or against the Golden
Speaker 1: State with Draymond Green, or against you know, a Phoenix
Speaker 1: with DeAndre Ayton. We need driving lanes, especially with Russ
Speaker 1: on the floor. And so when team, especially when teams
Speaker 1: starts switching and you can't run pick and roll anymore,
Speaker 1: they need to find, uh, they need to find enough
Speaker 1: opportunity for Anthony Davis to shoot and to get comfortable
Speaker 1: shooting so that their offense even functions in the highest
Speaker 1: leverage moments. So that that's why I've been harping on
Speaker 1: that so much. But I'm a believer that a B
Speaker 1: is at least an average three point shooter, So that
Speaker 1: needs to be leaned into a little bit more, even
Speaker 1: though he hasn't shot nearly that well in the last year,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. Yeah, And he doesn't need to
Speaker 1: become bubble a D mid range Kevin Durant, King, the
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, um Lebron James as well, guys who want
Speaker 1: to get to the basket, Like you need a D
Speaker 1: to be somewhat of a threat out there. He can't
Speaker 1: shoot four from three, Like it has to be enough
Speaker 1: for the defense respects it. That's the whole point, right
Speaker 1: of having a D at the five spotes, so that
Speaker 1: teams have to kind of respect him outside of the paint.
Speaker 1: And I think he'll get to that, Like he's he's
Speaker 1: showed enough in his career that like there's enough of
Speaker 1: a sample there. Again we go to the bubble, but
Speaker 1: during that season he was starting to pick it up
Speaker 1: from the mid range. And then also last year as well,
Speaker 1: he started the season red hot from the mid range
Speaker 1: and then he got injured. So I don't think he
Speaker 1: needs to turn into that. He does enough defensively as well.
Speaker 1: That's my biggest thing though. He's back turning into this
Speaker 1: super dominant defensive player. And we didn't get to see
Speaker 1: that a lot last year. Whether you call it excuses
Speaker 1: or reasons, you can pick one of their probably you know,
Speaker 1: somewhere in the same line, but he just wasn't the
Speaker 1: defensive player last year. From effort to is conditioning to
Speaker 1: whatever it is, and I think he's getting back there
Speaker 1: this year. We're surrounding him out with like four small guards,
Speaker 1: you know, and the guards are playing hard and they're
Speaker 1: doing their thing. But eight is covering up for a
Speaker 1: lot um and again, like it's tough to throw a
Speaker 1: half out because it's not how basketball works. Um, the
Speaker 1: numbers are gonna stay there. But if you just take
Speaker 1: out that second half of Minnesota, which I was sadly
Speaker 1: there to watch um in the building for, if you
Speaker 1: take that out in the body language is a team
Speaker 1: from there, that Miami team, and they played hard and
Speaker 1: they defended well. And it's not again, I thought they
Speaker 1: defended pretty well. Keldeny Johnson hit a bunch of threes
Speaker 1: to to night. He was percent from three going into tonight.
Speaker 1: He had a bunch of contested ones. Like I thought,
Speaker 1: the rotations are getting there, and eight is a big
Speaker 1: part of this eight is we talked about it the
Speaker 1: whole time. A D is their defensive identity this year.
Speaker 1: They don't have all these defensive minded players, Like it's
Speaker 1: eighties job to kind of lead that charge. And I thought,
Speaker 1: you're starting to see it more and more. You see
Speaker 1: him getting more comfortable. Um, today's is I think tonight's
Speaker 1: is his fifth thirty point game of the season already,
Speaker 1: which it just doesn't feel that wayhen you're watching him,
Speaker 1: but he puts up the numbers in such in these
Speaker 1: bursts right like like tonight and the first half type
Speaker 1: of stuff he gets like fifteen in the first quarter
Speaker 1: and a lot of games. But again thirty points and
Speaker 1: his fifth game tonight, and I think those will those
Speaker 1: numbers should increase as Lebron gets back. But again the
Speaker 1: huge another huge, a D game been carrying the team
Speaker 1: for a lot of these stretches without Lebron and hopefully
Speaker 1: we'll get him back. I think th HD is a
Speaker 1: big parts as well. Another guy that can just give
Speaker 1: the ball to it. Looks comfortable shock trading where a
Speaker 1: D doesn't have to be in the post and get
Speaker 1: triple teamed the spacing on some of these. Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: is a respectable shooter in some ways, but teams don't
Speaker 1: treat him that way, you know what I mean. Like
Speaker 1: even if Avery Bradley from three teams still dig in
Speaker 1: right away Rondo again as the post entry pastor. We
Speaker 1: talked about that, but yeah, man Adie looks like he's
Speaker 1: he's scrowing it conformed here and that's that's good to see.
Speaker 1: So wild's that for you. The today was Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: his fifth thirty point game of the season. He had
Speaker 1: six all year last year, oh Man, six all year.
Speaker 1: So that's just that's just how much his rhythm was
Speaker 1: disrupted last season. That's that's how that that's what he
Speaker 1: was dealing with. And so, you know, again to put
Speaker 1: a bow on the Anthony Davis thing, just he I
Speaker 1: think we take him for granted a lot of the time,
Speaker 1: and it's unfortunate for him because he came off of
Speaker 1: this title you know, uh, title winning performance where he
Speaker 1: looked like a top tier superstar and his bounce back season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was he lazy to start the year. He's doing
Speaker 1: a lot of popping instead of rolling, and there were
Speaker 1: some issues there to start the year. But the truth,
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is this has mostly been
Speaker 1: associated with injuries, and I wanted to share that story
Speaker 1: just you know, from my personal experience, just to kind
Speaker 1: of help people understand that it's never as simple as
Speaker 1: just stepping out on the floor. It's never that simple,
Speaker 1: like you know, even for even for th HT, like
Speaker 1: you know, he looks great tonight, I don't think people
Speaker 1: realize just how hard it is for for for what
Speaker 1: t achieved did tonight, to step foot on an NBA
Speaker 1: floor and play NBA basketball. I don't care that it's
Speaker 1: the spurs like that that doing that after not playing
Speaker 1: at this level for as long as he hasn't played,
Speaker 1: it's complicated. And the same thing goes for Lebron. There's
Speaker 1: a difference between being available and being on the court
Speaker 1: and rounding into form and really really having the rhythm,
Speaker 1: the and the and that like confidence that comes when
Speaker 1: you're really playing your best basketball. So yeah, like I
Speaker 1: I would encourage more patients with a D especially with
Speaker 1: his jump shot. Um. So before we get out of
Speaker 1: here today, let let's talk a little bit about Russ.
Speaker 1: This would be our last topic and we'll call it
Speaker 1: a day. So, you know, Russ I really paid attention
Speaker 1: today to the types of turnovers that he had, and
Speaker 1: you know, there's there's kind of two there's two types
Speaker 1: of turnovers that Russ has. There's the I'm making a
Speaker 1: bad read of the floor and I'm just piling into
Speaker 1: bodies in the paint and I'm losing control of the
Speaker 1: basketball because it's impossible to control the basketball and that
Speaker 1: type of crowd and some of that is unavoidable. And
Speaker 1: what you get with Russ because Russ is very you know,
Speaker 1: bull in a China shop, and some of that chaos
Speaker 1: is good because he'll on the next possession, he'll drive
Speaker 1: into four bodies in the paint and just kind of
Speaker 1: throw the ball behind him and it'll end up in
Speaker 1: Carmelo Anthony's hands wide open. So there's a lot of
Speaker 1: good that comes from that, but a good a good
Speaker 1: percentage of his turnovers today, or like not doing basic
Speaker 1: fundamental stuff like pass s baking before you make an
Speaker 1: entry pass, or pass spaking before you make a swing pass,
Speaker 1: or not looking off a defender before you kick out
Speaker 1: to a shooter on the in. You know, when when
Speaker 1: when you're teaching defense, you know, with a live dribble,
Speaker 1: you're always arms length, but you're also mirroring the basketball
Speaker 1: with your hand. That's what that's what ball pressure is.
Speaker 1: At every level of the game. You're going to follow
Speaker 1: the ball around with your hand. So you have to
Speaker 1: make pass bakes, you have to look off defenders in
Speaker 1: order to open up passing lanes, especially at the NBA
Speaker 1: level when you're talking about how long and athletic these
Speaker 1: defensive players are. And so some of this is just
Speaker 1: fundamental sloppiness from Russ you know, just just not not
Speaker 1: doing the basic things that you teach guards at the
Speaker 1: earliest age to deal with ball pressure and to deal
Speaker 1: with defensive pressure, to run, to run an offense. This
Speaker 1: is stuff that he needs to cut out. And you
Speaker 1: know what's really concerning to me is he had eight
Speaker 1: turnovers last game, and he had seven the game before,
Speaker 1: and he had six the game before that. I think
Speaker 1: he only in the box score for six tonight. But
Speaker 1: there were several plays in the second half that were
Speaker 1: as good as turnovers. And there was one in particular
Speaker 1: that would have counted as a turnover if I was
Speaker 1: running the box score. There's play where he thought he
Speaker 1: got fouled and he was driving into the lane, lost control,
Speaker 1: but they gave him a shot at him. But like
Speaker 1: that that miss dunk in transition, that's every bit about
Speaker 1: it as bad as a turnover, because like, like, as
Speaker 1: he was going up to the rim, you knew he
Speaker 1: didn't have his steps right, and you knew he didn't
Speaker 1: have enough lift to make that dunk, and you're just like,
Speaker 1: what are you? Like as it's happening, you're like, what
Speaker 1: are you doing? That's not you anymore, man, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? And so I think my concern with it,
Speaker 1: you know, because again, like Russ does a lot to
Speaker 1: counteract as turnovers through activity, right, like securing a defensive
Speaker 1: rebound that no other guard would be able to secure,
Speaker 1: you know, because he comes flying in and snatches the
Speaker 1: ball away, or keeping a possession alive with an offensive rebound.
Speaker 1: He does a lot to add possessions too. But what's
Speaker 1: concerning me is like we're not really seeing any attempt
Speaker 1: on his part to try to limit the turnovers. And
Speaker 1: that's concerning to me. Like it's not like we're see
Speaker 1: him try to temper some of that back. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like he's just continuing to be himself and just
Speaker 1: hoping that it changes naturally, which is just not how
Speaker 1: it goes. Like you say all the time, the definition
Speaker 1: of insanity is seeing something that doesn't work and continuing
Speaker 1: to do it anyway, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: where are you at with Russ's decision making right now?
Speaker 1: So like the turnovers aren't going away, Like that's where
Speaker 1: I'm at with Russ, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 1: especially when Lebron's out, that's going to compound the issues.
Speaker 1: Tailor coming back I think really did help. But like
Speaker 1: I said, last game, when even when the Lakers were
Speaker 1: up five at halftime, like they need his counting stats,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like just in terms of production,
Speaker 1: even with tailing out with Lebron out and again fifteen
Speaker 1: points um five or seven from three, which no, sorry,
Speaker 1: that's Ellington three from five from three from russ Um tonight,
Speaker 1: ten eleven rebounds, seven assists. Like the turnovers are just
Speaker 1: gonna be there, Like he has to be himself in
Speaker 1: order for this thing to work, and that's the turnovers
Speaker 1: are part of it, Like marginal changes I'm hoping for,
Speaker 1: and I think that's more that's going to be more
Speaker 1: of a byproduct of getting more ball handlers that he
Speaker 1: has to give it to, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like that's where I think the turnovers will limit. But look, man,
Speaker 1: these aren't gonna stay. Like it's just throughout a game,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see a lot of these plays where you
Speaker 1: go like, man, what was that? And I think the
Speaker 1: LFR pod did a really nice job of like comparing
Speaker 1: a little bit of that to Baysmore, who obviously doesn't
Speaker 1: have even close to the usage, but it has similar
Speaker 1: kind of like just these you know, forays to the
Speaker 1: rim where there's no real plan there. It's kind of
Speaker 1: just let me break down and kick it out. A
Speaker 1: lot of turnovers like that I can kind of live with.
Speaker 1: Like the aggression turnovers, it's still like lazy, you know,
Speaker 1: kick ahead past to rondo, um that gets picked off.
Speaker 1: Like those are the ones that I think they really
Speaker 1: need to clean up. But those turnovers aren't going away, man,
Speaker 1: Like that's that's kind of how I see arrusted enough
Speaker 1: to not I think, to get to win. I think
Speaker 1: on defense, he was a little bit more focused than
Speaker 1: than in other games. Um he did a better job
Speaker 1: tonight of kind of cracking down on the boards, uh,
Speaker 1: coming to help out on the smaller guards and getting
Speaker 1: boards there. But like the genarmers are what they are.
Speaker 1: I don't think those are going away. I need to
Speaker 1: rewatch the game to see all of them. Watching the
Speaker 1: game live, it didn't feel as they did as though
Speaker 1: they were super damaging. Like it didn't feel like they
Speaker 1: were the like turnover and then the Spurs get out
Speaker 1: and run. Am I wrong in that? But like, like
Speaker 1: that's at least it didn't feel that way watching the game.
Speaker 1: And again plus minus isn't a perfect stat It was
Speaker 1: a plus eleven tonight. Uh, I think that's second. That
Speaker 1: was third to Wayne and th HT. But yeah, like overall,
Speaker 1: like that's I think this is the rush you're gonna
Speaker 1: get until Lebron gets back. And do you really feel
Speaker 1: the like rust decision making when it's like half court
Speaker 1: tight game, right, especially when the Spurs time like this,
Speaker 1: When the Spurs started making the run in the fourth there,
Speaker 1: I was just like, man, this is just a perfect
Speaker 1: time to just give give Lebron the ball and just
Speaker 1: have everyone else kind of stand. And that's what they
Speaker 1: kind of did with THHD. Funny enough late in the
Speaker 1: game there, they just you know, out of the time out,
Speaker 1: I think they just gave PhD the ball, and uh,
Speaker 1: he kind of ran everything. He ran the show. He
Speaker 1: became Lebron in a which which isn't the perfect way
Speaker 1: to say it, but like he kind of took Lebron's
Speaker 1: role there. Yeah, like Rust is gonna have the turnovers, man,
Speaker 1: but I think they need his counting stats and the
Speaker 1: seven assists is part of that. And you know he
Speaker 1: had to take seven turnovers to do it, but they
Speaker 1: need that production at least until Lebron gets back. That's
Speaker 1: where I'm at. With rust Man. I need to see
Speaker 1: it with Lebron back and the whole team together before
Speaker 1: I kind of judge it. But I feel like this
Speaker 1: is what he's gonna be, and he's trying to fit
Speaker 1: his game into the team and that's that's kind of
Speaker 1: what they need to do, I guess to win this season.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he's not changing like who he is, Like
Speaker 1: the turnovers are part of the package with him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this is the This is last thing I'll say
Speaker 1: about it, because you're right, like he has been trending
Speaker 1: in the right direction for what his final fit is
Speaker 1: with this team. Right. Um, he still takes a few
Speaker 1: too many defensive possessions often. I'd like to see that
Speaker 1: get better, but he he has a half dozen reps
Speaker 1: per game aim now where he just does a fantastic
Speaker 1: job defending the screen and roll at the point of attack. Um,
Speaker 1: that's not the way it was at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the season. He's had some he's had twice in the
Speaker 1: past week where he's fought so hard over the top
Speaker 1: of the screen and applies so much back pressure that
Speaker 1: he was able to poke the ball free and just
Speaker 1: start and just start heading the other way. That's that's
Speaker 1: stuff we weren't seeing from Russ earlier in the season.
Speaker 1: So he's he's trending, trending in the right direction in
Speaker 1: that regard. You know, the reason why I've been harping
Speaker 1: on the turnovers is because you have to value the
Speaker 1: possession of the basketball, like the way I look at it.
Speaker 1: You know, if you look at the later offensive rating
Speaker 1: at the end of the season with Lebron and everything,
Speaker 1: it's probably gonna hover right around somewhere between one fifteen
Speaker 1: and in one twenty with Lebron on the floor, right,
Speaker 1: So what that means is right right around. Just call it,
Speaker 1: for the sake of making the math easier, call it
Speaker 1: like one point per possession. But that's with factoring in
Speaker 1: everything else. That's factoring in possessions where somebody else has
Speaker 1: the ball and does something stupid with it. That's factoring
Speaker 1: in possessions where you turn the ball over. That's factoring
Speaker 1: all that. The truth is is on a good possession
Speaker 1: where Lebron has the ball and he makes a good decision,
Speaker 1: or Russ has the ball and he makes a good decision,
Speaker 1: you're probably getting about one and a half points per possession. Right.
Speaker 1: So that so the way, the way I look at
Speaker 1: it is like Russ has seventy five turnovers this year.
Speaker 1: The Lakers on the season have been outscored by two
Speaker 1: total in the entire season. So if you ask yourself,
Speaker 1: that means, you know, literally eight possessions, nine, ten possessions
Speaker 1: here or there where he stops hemorrhaging an opportunity for
Speaker 1: the team to score. Could be the difference between them
Speaker 1: having their current eight and six record or being ten
Speaker 1: and four, you know what I mean. And and and
Speaker 1: so that that's kind of the way that I looked
Speaker 1: at it, is like it's these these these hemorrhage possessions
Speaker 1: are blown opportunities to run good offense and score. It's
Speaker 1: so different than on defense if you give up offensive rebounds,
Speaker 1: Like if you really sit down in the half court
Speaker 1: and you are dialed in on defense, you might only
Speaker 1: give up if you're the Akers and you have Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis on the floor, you might only give up point
Speaker 1: eight points per possession. But every time you don't get
Speaker 1: back in transition and give up an easy layup in
Speaker 1: transition or an easy three in transition, or you give
Speaker 1: up an offensive rebound, you're distorting that math and you're
Speaker 1: giving the other team more opportunities to score. Does that
Speaker 1: make sense? So, like the way I look at it
Speaker 1: is like over the course of the season, it's not
Speaker 1: as big of a deal because there's some margin for error,
Speaker 1: Like you can still get the top four seed and
Speaker 1: have home court advantage in the first round and if
Speaker 1: you lose twenty five games, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But there's a fine line. There's a fine line in
Speaker 1: the postseason at the highest leverage moments where you know,
Speaker 1: five or six possessions here or there could swing the
Speaker 1: outcome of a series. It's something I've said to a
Speaker 1: dozen times on this spot, and it's something and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna keep harping on it with Russ's decision making because
Speaker 1: it could be a problem. So the way I look
Speaker 1: at it, like you said, with Lebron coming back, it's
Speaker 1: just so important for Russ in his opportunities to be
Speaker 1: more conservative because they don't need him to create everything,
Speaker 1: especially with pht you know what I mean, coming back,
Speaker 1: and and with Moe kind of rounding into form as well.
Speaker 1: Like it's just Russ doesn't Russ can afford to take
Speaker 1: the extra time now to be more fundamentally sound. It's
Speaker 1: kind of the way I look at it. But anyway,
Speaker 1: that's that's all I had for Today's there anything else
Speaker 1: you wanted to get to before we call it a day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's just uh the last two things with Russ, Like
Speaker 1: I've liked that they found actions that really kind of
Speaker 1: work for him, like those little double screens with a
Speaker 1: D and mellow. I think that's something that's comfortable for him,
Speaker 1: Like it makes it an easy decision. He's done a
Speaker 1: nice job like reading it, like the help comes on him.
Speaker 1: He can find mellow spotting up or a D diving eight.
Speaker 1: He has got a lot of buckets off that. And
Speaker 1: then I wanted to kind of turn that into just
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington man like just I praised man. I praised
Speaker 1: him all summer and I was a little worried I
Speaker 1: said in the last few games about you know, his
Speaker 1: shot not coming to form or if his defense can
Speaker 1: be enough. They found a role for him defensively, was
Speaker 1: just which is a on this right? That's like a
Speaker 1: cherry on top to me? Like I wasn't expecting him
Speaker 1: to be like have a defensive role. I guess, um,
Speaker 1: But like you talked about, you were higher on him defensively,
Speaker 1: he's good as a law control defender on a shoot
Speaker 1: on the shooters, which makes sense. He's a shooter himself.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't all step. But that doesn't't always work,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. That's not always that's not
Speaker 1: always the case. You can't just throw a good shooter
Speaker 1: on another good shooter and be like, yeah, go lock
Speaker 1: him up. It's not always how it works. But Ellington
Speaker 1: is good at that. He has good foot speed, Like
Speaker 1: he's slow in like a like he's slow in like
Speaker 1: a lateral sense, but like on defense, he has good
Speaker 1: speed chasing around screens. He doesn't even screen as easily
Speaker 1: as I think he would with his body with his
Speaker 1: body type. But just having a legit shooter, man, Like
Speaker 1: the Spurs went to zone in a possession and it
Speaker 1: was just eight. He got the ball inside, give it
Speaker 1: out to Wayne Ellington. He hit the three and that
Speaker 1: was the end of the zone. Like that was that
Speaker 1: was it? That the end of the end of the
Speaker 1: Spurs playing zone. So just having a legit shooter on
Speaker 1: the team, He's not always gonna go five for seven
Speaker 1: and he doesn't need to. His gravity is real though,
Speaker 1: like that, like teams don't eve him, like I said
Speaker 1: at the end of the game, they're they rather you know,
Speaker 1: leave him, try to close out to him rather than
Speaker 1: Melow and Melo got the open three. Just cool to
Speaker 1: have a legit shooter around the team, a professional shooter,
Speaker 1: as some people say, a guy that the team is
Speaker 1: actually running actions for. It's just it's just cool to
Speaker 1: see him having some success. He played thirty minutes tonight,
Speaker 1: which you know, it is probably a little high for him,
Speaker 1: but you know, it's just it's just nice to see
Speaker 1: him starting to have success. Uh, you know, not gonna
Speaker 1: shoot seventy one percent like I said from three, but
Speaker 1: it looks like he's looks like he's gonna have a
Speaker 1: role man, and I like him. You need guys like
Speaker 1: that next to these you know, rim seeking ball handlers. Uh.
Speaker 1: And his shot just looks really pretty. It looks repetitible, repetible.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, so he looked good. I just want to
Speaker 1: give him a shout out before we sign off here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't agree. I mean, dude, Like, it's so funny because
Speaker 1: I've been kind of I had very optimistic opinions about
Speaker 1: the team this year because I saw a specific vision
Speaker 1: with the way all these pieces would fit, and so many,
Speaker 1: so many of my takes have been completely derailed by injuries.
Speaker 1: Like I was like, oh, DeAndre Jordan's is going to
Speaker 1: be a fantastic like end of the bench center to
Speaker 1: like step in when Dwight needs a night offer, a
Speaker 1: d needs a night off to just allow them to
Speaker 1: replicate their system and and just do the best they
Speaker 1: can to kind of cover for those random nights in
Speaker 1: the season when you lose somebody, it's like, nope, tons
Speaker 1: of injuries. DeAndre Jordan's starting, and every time he messes up,
Speaker 1: it's a tweet at me about how much of an
Speaker 1: idiot I, you know, like it's that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And then it's like, oh you, You and I both
Speaker 1: were super high on Ellington and we thought he was
Speaker 1: gonna be a great fit, and it's like nope, Like
Speaker 1: he's getting preseason reps with bad lineups because everyone's hurt
Speaker 1: and the team isn't trying at all, and so he
Speaker 1: looks bad and everyone says, Ellington, you know, can't play,
Speaker 1: Ellington should be out of the rotation. And then he
Speaker 1: got hurt. He got hurt, and then he got hurt,
Speaker 1: and then he got hurt, and it's like and so,
Speaker 1: and then the same thing goes with like I I
Speaker 1: believed that this team would be a top five defense
Speaker 1: again and all their defensive players got hurt. You know
Speaker 1: that that that we're supposed to slot in alongside a
Speaker 1: d at the five to make this all work. So
Speaker 1: the point being is, like I have been waiting for
Speaker 1: an opportunity to be like this is what I've been
Speaker 1: talking about, Like this is this is how this is
Speaker 1: supposed to work. And we're starting to see a little
Speaker 1: bit with Ellington. I'm hopeful that jo Jordan's stays out
Speaker 1: of the lineup so we'll get to see that too.
Speaker 1: And then I really think when Lebron comes back, it's
Speaker 1: gonna just get even better. And then Trevor Reza should
Speaker 1: be that final piece that solidifies the way this defense
Speaker 1: looks with Anthony Davis at the five. So I'm really
Speaker 1: excited in the long run just to see some of
Speaker 1: my predictions come to cruition. Uh in that regard, But anyway,
Speaker 1: thank you guys so much for coming to hang out today.
Speaker 1: This will air on DASH Radio tomorrow morning at seven
Speaker 1: and Pacific Standard time. It'll also be on our podcast
Speaker 1: feed here in about twenty minutes. We will be back
Speaker 1: tomorrow for hopefully I'll like you win against the Bulls.
Speaker 1: That one is gonna be a super interesting game. I
Speaker 1: cannot wait, and I promise you have my word, we
Speaker 1: will take some callers tomorrow. UM, so all of you
Speaker 1: who have put in requests today, we appreciate it. Sorry
Speaker 1: we didn't have time for today, but come back tomorrow,
Speaker 1: get your requests in and we will take some callers.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much, and we will see you
Speaker 1: tomorrow night