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Speaker 1: b ball. All right, welcome to tonight here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Thursday, everybody, Hope all of you guys are having
Speaker 1: a great week. Got a jampack show for you today.
Speaker 1: We got back to some NBA basketball last night as
Speaker 1: the Lakers put up a stinker against the Charlotte Hornets.
Speaker 1: Some brilliant basketball from Labelo Ball and Miles Bridges down
Speaker 1: the stretch.
Speaker 2: They steal that game.
Speaker 1: We're gonna break that game down from the perspective of
Speaker 1: both teams. Then at the tail end of the show,
Speaker 1: got a little bit about Shake gilds Us Alexander and
Speaker 1: his current MVP case. You guys know the drip before
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Speaker 1: And last not at least keep dropping mailbag question so
Speaker 1: we can get to them in our Friday mailbags throughout
Speaker 1: the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So I honestly thought this was a really sloppy game
Speaker 1: from both teams outside of a few short stretches, like
Speaker 1: the Lakers controlled the first two and a half quarters,
Speaker 1: but I didn't think they were playing particularly well, really sloppy,
Speaker 1: especially on the offensive ends. Still a lot of guys
Speaker 1: feeling each other out.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: When you trade Anthony Davis, who's one of the very
Speaker 1: best defensive players in the history of the sport, for
Speaker 1: a player who is an MVP level offensive player, and
Speaker 1: you get poor play on the offensive end from that player,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see some talent discrepancies start to show. And
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about it later. But there are also
Speaker 1: some issues that the Lakers are having with their small
Speaker 1: ball groups and spacing as they kind of try to
Speaker 1: figure out how to play a different brand of basketball
Speaker 1: than they've been playing the rest of this season. We'll
Speaker 1: get to that in a little bit, But just a
Speaker 1: lot of sloppiness right yet, somehow they're in control for
Speaker 1: the first two and a half quarters despite not playing well,
Speaker 1: and it's because despite everything I just said, the Hornets
Speaker 1: were playing even worse. JJ Reddick talked after the game
Speaker 1: about some of the realities of teams he's been on
Speaker 1: post All Star break and how they can run into
Speaker 1: just a little bit of funk because you're just not
Speaker 1: used to playing basketball is very much a rhythm sport,
Speaker 1: and like he's been on teams where they've come out
Speaker 1: of the break and they've looked great, and he's been
Speaker 1: on teams where they've come out of the break and
Speaker 1: looked terrible. It's kind of just part of the sport,
Speaker 1: right So they're playing some sloppy basketball. The Hornets come
Speaker 1: out in the late third quarter finally start playing what
Speaker 1: I thought was the first stretch of good basketball that
Speaker 1: either team played last night, and they promptly won and
Speaker 1: went on a twenty three to one run that really
Speaker 1: changed the dynamic of that game, and Charlie got going
Speaker 1: on offense in that stretch. I thought Nurkic was really
Speaker 1: the catalyst of this portion of the game getting a
Speaker 1: You know, Nurkic is a guy that got a bad
Speaker 1: rap for a lot of things in Phoenix, and he's
Speaker 1: a really flawed player. And I'm not trying to sit
Speaker 1: here and pretend like he's some sort of a savior
Speaker 1: for the Charlotte Hornets or anything like that. But Nurkic
Speaker 1: has some skills and he can play like I was
Speaker 1: impressed in years past in Phoenix at some of his
Speaker 1: drop coverage defense. He got a couple of big drop
Speaker 1: coverage stops, one on Lebron James where he stonewalled in
Speaker 1: the play where Austin Reeves got ejected. He stripped him
Speaker 1: down low and may or may not have been a foul,
Speaker 1: but like a lot of times, contact right around the basketball,
Speaker 1: refs are going to let that sort of thing go.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a fifty to fifty call, and
Speaker 1: he got a good strip there that led to that ejection.
Speaker 1: The free throw is also a stop. Like I've been,
Speaker 1: you know, generally keyed in on a couple of things
Speaker 1: that Nurkic can do well, and he did those things well.
Speaker 2: During this run.
Speaker 1: He facilitated a backcut to Miles bridges On like a
Speaker 1: spurs cut, which is where the post player has the
Speaker 1: ball right around the elbow and the offensive player just
Speaker 1: cuts off his shoulder and Nurkis will pivot into his
Speaker 1: space and drop it over the top. Now, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you got dribble penetration. JJ Redick and the
Speaker 1: Lakers were double teaming use of Nurkic in the post
Speaker 1: against this centerless Lakers group, which, by the way, Nurkic
Speaker 1: had zero points last night, so I would have probably
Speaker 1: like made him score once or twice before I started
Speaker 1: reacting the way that they did. But he made really
Speaker 1: nice passes out of the double team, got a wide
Speaker 1: open three for Miles Bridges on the left wing that
Speaker 1: he knocked down. Got another wide open three to one
Speaker 1: pass away for Seth Curry on the right wing that
Speaker 1: he knocked down. I thought Nurkic was definitely the catalyst
Speaker 1: of that run, at least the initial part of the
Speaker 1: run as the Hornets took their initial lead. Shout out
Speaker 1: to Seth Curry too. He had a couple of huge
Speaker 1: plays in that strike, which kept two possessions alive. To
Speaker 1: stripped Jared Vanderbilt after a defensive rebound right underneath the basket.
Speaker 1: He beat Lebron to a loose ball that generated an
Speaker 1: extra offensive rebound. They go on this run. They take
Speaker 1: a three point lead going into the early part of
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. Then LaMelo comes into the game and
Speaker 1: immediately hits two threes and suddenly they're up by nine.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like this fancy screen and rescreen
Speaker 1: action with Seth Curry where LaMelo ball like screens down
Speaker 1: for Seth Curry who comes off the screen and then
Speaker 1: immediately turns around and screens for LaMelo again. It's just
Speaker 1: designed to confuse switching and Gabe Vincent and Dalton connect
Speaker 1: for the two players involved, and Gabe was kind of
Speaker 1: waiting for whoever went in towards the paint, and Dalton
Speaker 1: should have been waiting forever who came for whoever came out,
Speaker 1: But Dalton wasn't paying attention. LaMelo just flashed to the top,
Speaker 1: caught the ball, knocked down a three point shot, and
Speaker 1: then the other three he hit was just simple drop
Speaker 1: covered shot. Alex Lenz on the floor, he's sitting back
Speaker 1: in a drop just get that ball screen, gets a
Speaker 1: little bit of separation at the top of the key
Speaker 1: and knocks it down. Suddenly the Lakers are down by nine.
Speaker 1: That was how quickly things turned around. That whole run,
Speaker 1: That whole twenty three to one run took place in
Speaker 1: just a little bit over five minutes of game time.
Speaker 1: So that was like the first stretch of real serious
Speaker 1: basketball that either team played.
Speaker 2: Leads to an avalanche.
Speaker 1: Suddenly we got ourselves kind of like a Laker's back
Speaker 1: against the wall type of fourth quarter, and then we
Speaker 1: get this just completely absurd run from Lebron, who I
Speaker 1: think was really the only Laker who played well last night.
Speaker 1: Just an absolute freight train to the rim, a driving
Speaker 1: spinning floater against Seth Curry, a driving layup against the
Speaker 1: Jane Salon, and a driving layup through LaMelo Ball in transition,
Speaker 1: then a post up double of Luca. Lebron drives the
Speaker 1: close out instead of taking a three and throws down
Speaker 1: what I think was the dunk of the year against
Speaker 1: Mark Williams, just completely absurd. It actually reminded me of
Speaker 1: the dunk that he had back in twenty eighteen against Nurkic.
Speaker 1: Different dunk is on that dunk, Lebron is going down
Speaker 1: the left lane line and kind of dunked off to
Speaker 1: his right side, whereas this he's dunking over his body
Speaker 1: to the left. But it reminded me in the sense
Speaker 1: that he kind of went around the center and then
Speaker 1: just extended, Like Lebron is a very underrated wingspan, he
Speaker 1: just kind of extended over the top and finished just.
Speaker 2: A completely ridiculous dunk.
Speaker 1: If there's any sort of like encouragement or optimism that
Speaker 1: you want to take from the early returns of the
Speaker 1: Luka Doncic experience with the Lakers, it's that Lebron looks
Speaker 1: absolutely fantastic, and if Lebron's going to play at this level,
Speaker 1: and you eventually get MVP level Luca into this mix.
Speaker 1: It's just a lot of top end talent for teams
Speaker 1: to contend with. But he follows right up after the
Speaker 1: dunk on Mark Williams with a three against Mark Williams
Speaker 1: on a switch. He had another nice play later in
Speaker 1: the game in clutch time where he drove Mark Williams
Speaker 1: on a switch and got a foul hit the three
Speaker 1: that gave them a shot late in the game, although
Speaker 1: he ended up missing the shot that could have tied
Speaker 1: the game, but just an unbelievable run from Lebron James
Speaker 1: kind of reinstigates some control for the Lakers as it
Speaker 1: turns into a clutch battle. But then down the stretch
Speaker 1: Miles Bredge, Miles Ridges, and LaMelo Ball they just outdueled
Speaker 1: Lebron and Luca, in large part because the Lakers again
Speaker 1: not getting anything from Luca on the offensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor, at least by Luca's standards. Like Luca had
Speaker 1: a bunch of really nice plays and pick and roll
Speaker 1: and out of the post regenerated advantages. You know, that's
Speaker 1: the thing with players of his talent level, like we
Speaker 1: all think he played like garbage and here's the thing
Speaker 1: he did by his standards, but like he still did
Speaker 1: a lot, They still won his minutes. But there's a
Speaker 1: certain level of there's a certain level of pop that
Speaker 1: you're gonna get from Luca offensively that you just haven't
Speaker 1: seen yet in.
Speaker 2: A Lakers jersey.
Speaker 1: A simple way to put it is their offensive rating
Speaker 1: right now as a unit in three games is like one.
Speaker 2: Hundred and eleven and change.
Speaker 1: Like That's that's obviously just a tiny fraction of the
Speaker 1: type of offensive impact that you should get from that
Speaker 1: group in the big picture. But on the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor, LaMelo was picking on Luca and switches
Speaker 1: something that we need to get used to seeing as
Speaker 1: we watch the Lakers. That's definitely going to be a
Speaker 1: huge part of the way teams attack, and the Lakers
Speaker 1: were just struggling on the back to handle that. He
Speaker 1: got downhill and drew a foul against Jackson Hayes. Another
Speaker 1: one where he dropped it off to Mark Williams for
Speaker 1: an easy two under the rim. Miles Bridges hit a
Speaker 1: bunch of big stretch of shots in this stretch. I
Speaker 1: always talked about the idea Derek White is the best
Speaker 1: in the league at this in my opinion, but the
Speaker 1: idea of like switch interchange and the gap that takes
Speaker 1: place there. So like basically, if if Miles Bridges is
Speaker 1: dribbling against one player and a hornet comes up and
Speaker 1: sets a screen, and that player is going to be
Speaker 1: the guy who's guarding the screener is going to be
Speaker 1: switching out to Miles Bridges. But there's like an interchange, right,
Speaker 1: There's a gap as the on ball defender disengages and
Speaker 1: the new switching defender engages. Now, really good switching defense there.
Speaker 1: You're usually closing out in those situations and switching with aggression.
Speaker 1: You're switching with ball pressure to close that interchange gap
Speaker 1: as quickly as you can.
Speaker 2: But the Lakers were really sloppy on that.
Speaker 1: By the way, some of this stuff like I want
Speaker 1: to cut the Lakers some slack on in terms of
Speaker 1: the game plan because like LaMelo ball, a jump shot
Speaker 1: for LaMelo Ball has been worth less and a point
Speaker 1: this year. A jump shot for Miles Bridges has been
Speaker 1: worth less than a point this year. So like some
Speaker 1: of this is like I can imagine the game plan
Speaker 1: was close out a bit shorter on some of these
Speaker 1: types of shots, but it doesn't matter in the moment
Speaker 1: when LaMelo is hitting and has been hitting all night,
Speaker 1: and Miles Bridges is hitting and has been hitting all night, like,
Speaker 1: you kind of have to make that adjustment. And there
Speaker 1: were three times in the second half where Miles Bridges
Speaker 1: hit threes against those switch interchanges, particularly Jared Vanderbilt and
Speaker 1: Jackson Hayes on those switches were slow to get out
Speaker 1: to the perimeter and knock those shots down. Those were
Speaker 1: all huge shots for Miles Bridges that really kind of
Speaker 1: helped Charlotte maintain control of the game. Then the two
Speaker 1: biggest plays of the game, so again Lebron draws a
Speaker 1: foul against Mark Williams and then Luca gets an offensive
Speaker 1: rebound put back. Suddenly the Lakers are up by one
Speaker 1: in the final minute just because of a couple of
Speaker 1: plays made by Lebron and Luca. But the Lakers just
Speaker 1: couldn't contain LaMelo. Two times in a row, he generates
Speaker 1: a bucket. The first one gets Luca on a switch,
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith doubles. When Dorian Phinney Smith doubles, he
Speaker 1: waves Luca out of the switch. Now when he waves
Speaker 1: Luca out of the double, Luca's got to rotate.
Speaker 2: Everyone's got to rotate.
Speaker 1: So on this particular possession, Lebron is hugged up to
Speaker 1: Miles Bridges in the left corner. You've got Gabe Vincent
Speaker 1: on Mark Williams right underneath the basket, and you've got
Speaker 1: Ruy Hachimura on Josh Green on the left wing, and
Speaker 1: Nick Smith Junior is wide open in the left corner.
Speaker 1: So when Dorian Phinney Smith waves Luca out, if everyone's
Speaker 1: on a string and they're connected, it's an easy rotation.
Speaker 1: Luca drops to Miles Bridges, Lebron drops to Mark Williams,
Speaker 1: Gabe drops to the corner to Nick Smith, and if
Speaker 1: they're on I call him windshield wiper rotations. When they're connected,
Speaker 1: when guys are rotating at the same time, those openings
Speaker 1: close up immediately.
Speaker 2: But when there's a.
Speaker 1: Delay, that's when things fall apart. Both Lebron and Gabe
Speaker 1: just seems completely aloof and weren't paying attention. They stayed
Speaker 1: hugged up. Gabe had this crazy like twenty foot close
Speaker 1: out to the left corner, and Nick Smith made the shot.
Speaker 1: You made them pay for that defensive breakdown again, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that in a minute. But the Lakers
Speaker 1: are gonna have to have a plan for how to
Speaker 1: handle these Luca situations and they're gonna have to execute better.
Speaker 1: And then the second one, you put Vanderbilt in as
Speaker 1: a defense offense sub so that you can get a stop,
Speaker 1: and Vando just gets cooked by LaMelo. It just gets
Speaker 1: completely cooked. On a little left to right crossover. The
Speaker 1: Lakers were offering a lot of nail help where they
Speaker 1: were like digging down from the wing, but guys were
Speaker 1: just swiping instead of actually like containing the drive.
Speaker 2: Ruy and Gabe had really bad examples of this.
Speaker 1: In crunch time, and LaMelo just cut right through the
Speaker 1: lane and just shot that little scoop shot and that
Speaker 1: put the Lakers in a bind. And yeah, Lebron hit
Speaker 1: a three that gave them a chance late, but that
Speaker 1: ended up more or less being the play that did
Speaker 1: them in. And I just thought LaMelo and Miles made
Speaker 1: more place then Lebron and Luca did down the stretch
Speaker 1: and it was enough to get a win on the road.
Speaker 1: My only thought on the Hornets that I wanted to
Speaker 1: share after this one. LaMelo is such a polarizing player
Speaker 1: for me when I watch him, because he does a
Speaker 1: lot of things that drive me crazy.
Speaker 2: Dribbles the air out of the basketball.
Speaker 1: He kind of has like a I just did, like
Speaker 1: a general air of honey like unseriousness, Like he's just
Speaker 1: kind of he's just kind of floating around. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of like unorthodox footwork, there's a lot of like
Speaker 1: it kind of just seems like he's playing around a
Speaker 1: lot of the times. But the talent level is completely absurd.
Speaker 1: Just has a ridiculous handle. He might sit there and
Speaker 1: make thirty five fakes before he actually tries to drive
Speaker 1: past you, but he's probably gonna drive past you once
Speaker 1: he gets past you. He's just such a great finisher.
Speaker 1: He's such a great playmaker, and if you sit back
Speaker 1: and contain the drive. Again, he hasn't been shooting super well,
Speaker 1: but when he has this jump shot going, he can
Speaker 1: make you pay for sitting back off of him. Right,
Speaker 1: and last night he was hitting and he consistently made
Speaker 1: the Lakers pay. Just a really tantalizing prospect strictly from
Speaker 1: a talent perspective, even if he can drive me crazy
Speaker 1: sometimes Lakers front, I'm gonna say the same thing I
Speaker 1: said after the Utah loss. The loss itself doesn't mean anything. Like,
Speaker 1: we all know that the Lakers could easily dispatch of
Speaker 1: the Charlotte Hornets if they were in a more urgent.
Speaker 2: Type of situation.
Speaker 1: The Lakers traded for Anthony, traded Anthony Davis for Luca,
Speaker 1: and they haven't really gotten Luca yet.
Speaker 2: I'm not worried about it at all.
Speaker 1: I see a lot of people trying to bury Luca
Speaker 1: after these first couple of games. I think that would
Speaker 1: be a huge mistake. Like he's just going to play
Speaker 1: much better in the big picture. And honestly, aside from
Speaker 1: a couple of small things that we'll get into involving
Speaker 1: spacing and some stuff with Jared Vanderbilt, I'm actually super
Speaker 1: encouraged by what I've seen from this group on offense
Speaker 1: so far. You know, this just it all makes sense
Speaker 1: to me in terms of the advantage creation, the play finishing.
Speaker 1: Other than Jared Vanderbilt, it seems like everyone is kind
Speaker 1: of like a perfect fit on the offensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor.
Speaker 2: So like, I'm not worried about that at all.
Speaker 1: But again, like I said after the Utah game, I
Speaker 1: do think there's value in looking at how you lost
Speaker 1: the game and what in that mix you can take
Speaker 1: away as like a legitimate area of opportunity for you
Speaker 1: to improve as a basketball team. Jared Vanderbilt is the
Speaker 1: guy that's sticking out like a sore thumb so far
Speaker 1: in the Luca era. In the three games that he's
Speaker 1: played so far with Luca, they have a minus twenty
Speaker 1: one point four net rating with him on the floor,
Speaker 1: one zero three offensive rating, a one twenty four defensive rating.
Speaker 1: And that's the main thing I want to highlight right away,
Speaker 1: Like he's been really bad on defense, which is so
Speaker 1: unusual for it right Like a lot of dumb stuff
Speaker 1: last night, Like he had a play where he in
Speaker 1: the third quarter where he hard closed out on Dikwan
Speaker 1: Jefferies on the left wing, and it's like Dikwon Jefferies
Speaker 1: can't shoot. He's like thirty percent on catch and shoot
Speaker 1: jump shots this year, hard close out ends up giving
Speaker 1: up a drive and dikwe hits a little scoop shot
Speaker 1: over the top of him, or like on that final
Speaker 1: possession losing LaMelo Ball on a straight line drive. Or
Speaker 1: he several times over the first couple of games where
Speaker 1: he's got defensive rebounds, but he hasn't had good awareness
Speaker 1: of what's happening around him, and he gets stripped from
Speaker 1: behind or.
Speaker 2: Fumbles the ball away.
Speaker 1: A good chunk of Jared Vanderbilt's impact can be improved
Speaker 1: by him just doing what he gets paid to do,
Speaker 1: which is be one of the best defensive players in
Speaker 1: the league, which is what he hasn't been over the
Speaker 1: course of these few games.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But on offense, it's pretty simple. The teams are putting
Speaker 1: their centers on him, parking that center under the rim,
Speaker 1: and this is a real problem that isn't going away
Speaker 1: with these centreless groups. It's been so interesting thinking about
Speaker 1: the center position as much as we have over the
Speaker 1: course of the last couple of weeks since the Luca trade,
Speaker 1: because the centers have looked good with exception of Alex
Speaker 1: lenn in that Utah game. Like the Lakers were plus
Speaker 1: twelve last night with Jackson Hayes on the floor, they
Speaker 1: were plus eight with Alex lenn on the floor. So
Speaker 1: they were plus twenty with their centers on the floor.
Speaker 1: That's how bad their small ball groups got butchered. And
Speaker 1: this team has a lot of good small ball personnel.
Speaker 1: JJ believes in small ball it wouldn't matter if you
Speaker 1: had Mark Williams or if you had a better center.
Speaker 1: JJ's going to play a lot of small ball with
Speaker 1: this group and they're gonna have to figure that part out.
Speaker 1: There's a couple of different things I want to look
Speaker 1: at there, first of all, like Vando's got to find
Speaker 1: his space within this fit on the floor without a
Speaker 1: center on the offensive end of the floor. This extends
Speaker 1: beyond Vando, by the way, because there were small ball
Speaker 1: groups that have struggled even without Vando over the course
Speaker 1: of this stretch. One of the things that changes when
Speaker 1: you shift to this style of offense, which is again
Speaker 1: I've talked about this a lot on the show, but
Speaker 1: like in when you're running a motion and you at
Speaker 1: the ball constantly flowing from side to side, and you
Speaker 1: have your big operating as a screener, dribble handoff fulkrim
Speaker 1: at the top of the key, which was the right
Speaker 1: way to play with Austin, Dillo and Lebron and that's
Speaker 1: why it worked so well last year under Darvin Ham.
Speaker 1: When you have that five out motion concept, your dunker spot,
Speaker 1: your rollman type of stuff around the basket, it's always
Speaker 1: vacant until someone cuts into that space or rolls into
Speaker 1: that space. Once you start playing more like this style
Speaker 1: where it's like a lot more of like Lebron Louke
Speaker 1: spread the floor, ball screens, post ups, where it's more
Speaker 1: brute force, it becomes easier to space the floor in
Speaker 1: more of a four out one in context, meaning like
Speaker 1: if Lebron's going to be attacking a matchup like a
Speaker 1: one on one matchup on the left wing, if everyone
Speaker 1: standing around the three point line, the gaps get pretty shrunken,
Speaker 1: right and then suddenly people are helping in driving lanes
Speaker 1: and it gets.
Speaker 2: Pretty difficult to play.
Speaker 1: So you want to take one of those guys that's
Speaker 1: at the three point line and you want to tuck
Speaker 1: him underneath the basket right now. A way that a
Speaker 1: lot of small ball teams will confront this is instead
Speaker 1: of putting a big man down there, they'll put a
Speaker 1: guard down there. And it's a very simple reason why.
Speaker 1: If you have a guard in the dunker spot, the
Speaker 1: guy guarding him is probably a guard. So if you
Speaker 1: beat your man off the dribble and get into the paint,
Speaker 1: the first line of defense you're going to run into
Speaker 1: is most likely a smaller player. And so one of
Speaker 1: the things the Lakers are having issues with is Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt in many cases isn't even in the dunker spot,
Speaker 1: like he's kind of floating around, not even as screener
Speaker 1: is kind of floating around. So part of it is
Speaker 1: like getting Vando into the dunker spot, or get Vando
Speaker 1: out of the dunker spot, have him operate out of
Speaker 1: the corner as a crasher, as an off ball screener,
Speaker 1: and try to have more situations where you have a
Speaker 1: guard right underneath the basket where you can quickly catch
Speaker 1: and finish. Have a Ruiyacha Murrow who's been drawing smaller
Speaker 1: defenders and did a lot of damage in the post
Speaker 1: last night. Have they gave Vincent down there in that spot?
Speaker 1: But Vando's going to be the issue. There will be
Speaker 1: a lot of sequences where Vando is in the dunker spot,
Speaker 1: but he has a center on him, and that center
Speaker 1: feels comfortable splitting the difference between helping and contesting Vando
Speaker 1: at the rim. So what do you do in that
Speaker 1: situation when Vando is your issue underneath the basket. That
Speaker 1: is where having Luca at MVP level makes such a
Speaker 1: huge difference. Luca is one of the very best shot
Speaker 1: makers in this league, Luca can be impervious to spacing
Speaker 1: at times because of his ability to score in the
Speaker 1: short to mid range right and so again, just by
Speaker 1: having and play much better on defense and by having
Speaker 1: Luca play much better on offense, these lineups can work
Speaker 1: a lot better than they have. However, I do think
Speaker 1: it's important to at least factor in that Vando could
Speaker 1: be an issue there. It's something that against the best
Speaker 1: teams in the league that have elite rim protection. It's
Speaker 1: a problem that the Lakers might have to face and
Speaker 1: that they might have to deal with. And again, what
Speaker 1: you can do there is if vand do's off the floor,
Speaker 1: you can try to make up for that by having
Speaker 1: guards in the dunker spot to create spacing, like we
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, That's what the Celtics do so incredibly well.
Speaker 1: But again, just having Luca play better, having Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: play better on defense will go a long way. Austin too,
Speaker 1: Like I talked about this after the Utah game, like
Speaker 1: Austin's one of the most reliable big game players in
Speaker 1: the NBA. I trust that dude so much when it's
Speaker 1: an important game against a good team. But he can
Speaker 1: throw out some stinkers against some bad teams, and like
Speaker 1: I thought, Austin was really bad last night, and then
Speaker 1: he compounded it by complaining about a foul call, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, like I talked about earlier, was a
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty call. It wasn't like a rake on
Speaker 1: the arms. It was a rake kind of right around
Speaker 1: the wrist ball area. And when it's a bang bang
Speaker 1: sequence in a basketball game, that's a call that refs
Speaker 1: will miss. Like I talked about earlier, I view that
Speaker 1: as like a fifty to fifty call. Sometimes you're going
Speaker 1: to get it. Sometimes it's going to be called a strip,
Speaker 1: and for you to lose control, run up on the
Speaker 1: ref say whatever you said he said, He said it
Speaker 1: three times. He bumped him on the elbow, Like you
Speaker 1: made it so that you had to get ejected. And
Speaker 1: now all of a sudden you're in a situation where
Speaker 1: you have less talent on the floor down the stretch
Speaker 1: of the game.
Speaker 2: So like again, it is what it is.
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about Austin. Austin's always going to be
Speaker 1: there as a fox hole guy when the shit's hitting
Speaker 1: the fan against a good team. But Austin didn't do
Speaker 1: his team any favors last night by getting himself kicked
Speaker 1: out of that game. I want to move to the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the foor for just a second, though,
Speaker 1: because this is gonna be something.
Speaker 2: That is a big talking point for the Lakers moving forward.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned earlier, I'm not worried about the Lakers
Speaker 1: offense at all. I just they're gonna work, They're gonna
Speaker 1: figure it out. They have a one to eleven point
Speaker 1: five offensive ratings so far. That's gonna be turned around
Speaker 1: at some point over the course of the next couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. But on the defensive end of the four,
Speaker 1: the idea of teams attacking Luka Doncic in space is
Speaker 1: going to be a problem that they're gonna have to address.
Speaker 1: So first of all, before we get into any like
Speaker 1: schematic stuff, you just have to do better, Like you
Speaker 1: just have to do a better job of containing the ball.
Speaker 1: And this goes deeper than just Luca. This goes down
Speaker 1: the roster to a bunch of different guys like Ruey
Speaker 1: got back cut a bunch of times last night, Like
Speaker 1: that's a way of giving up dribble penetration just by
Speaker 1: not paying attention, right, Like you're one of your top
Speaker 1: tier defenders, and Jared Vanderbilt gives up a.
Speaker 2: Key drive late in the game.
Speaker 1: But even Luca himself by virtue of getting into better shape,
Speaker 1: by virtue of just competing more on the ball, if
Speaker 1: he can flatten out some of those drives. Again, like
Speaker 1: think of it on the very basic level, a straight
Speaker 1: line drive is gonna be very difficult to react to
Speaker 1: as a helper. But if you can flatten out the
Speaker 1: drive so that it's more of a banana route out
Speaker 1: to the side, that's what delays that enough for you
Speaker 1: to have easier rotations on the backside. But when you're
Speaker 1: giving up dribble penetration, you have to be prepared. There
Speaker 1: were large portions of this game where I thought they
Speaker 1: looked great in this regard.
Speaker 2: The Lakers were throwing a lot of lowman help.
Speaker 1: And again in the lowman all that means is when
Speaker 1: the ball screen defender is stepping up, the guy who's
Speaker 1: guarding the weakside corner slides up underneath the basket to
Speaker 1: help guard that action. Three on two, the guy on
Speaker 1: the wing for the Lakers was doing a good job
Speaker 1: dropping down and guarding the corner to cover for the lowman.
Speaker 1: They were missing some of that extra rotation though, the
Speaker 1: rotation to the man up the wing. They were missing
Speaker 1: some of those extra rotations. And then simple stuff like
Speaker 1: that double team or Dorian Finney Smith waved Luca out.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna scram Luca out of switches, and that's
Speaker 1: basically what that is. So like if Luca gets picked
Speaker 1: on on a switch and you just run a team
Speaker 1: over and get Luca out of there, you're scramming him
Speaker 1: out of a mismatch. You need to be prepared for
Speaker 1: that scram and in crunch time they had a sequence
Speaker 1: where they just weren't ready for it. And so again
Speaker 1: different team. You're not used to having a guy like
Speaker 1: Luke on the floor that you have to cover for,
Speaker 1: but now you do. So you just got to figure
Speaker 1: out the back end of that. And so that's the thing,
Speaker 1: like when we talk about the Lakers, they're not gonna
Speaker 1: be some world beating.
Speaker 2: Top five defense. It's just they don't have the personnel
Speaker 2: for it.
Speaker 1: Even before this when they were defending extremely well, like
Speaker 1: a lot of it was playing really hard in the
Speaker 1: month of January and February, right, So, like I want
Speaker 1: to be clear, like I never thought this team was elite,
Speaker 1: but they should be better defensively than they have been,
Speaker 1: and again, that's all they have to do. They have
Speaker 1: so much margin for error on the offensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. They just need to get to the point
Speaker 1: where they get enough stops or they get enough defensive
Speaker 1: rebounds to allow their offense to push them over the top.
Speaker 1: And a lot of that will come down to everyone
Speaker 1: competing better on the ball well, getting actual high level
Speaker 1: defensive impact out of your high level defensive players, and
Speaker 1: having a plan for Luca. Got to have a plan
Speaker 1: for how to react to those situations when they start
Speaker 1: picking on picking on Luca in space. The one last
Speaker 1: thing that stood out to me the much of this
Speaker 1: team and their potential success this year will come down
Speaker 1: to the play of younger players like Ruy Hachimura. Ruy's
Speaker 1: played great for the most part as of late, but
Speaker 1: he's a young player and he can make a lot
Speaker 1: of mistakes. I talked about him losing laur Markinen as
Speaker 1: a shooter a lot in the game right before the
Speaker 1: All Star break. He was lost a lot in this game.
Speaker 1: There's a play with Nurkic where he was on the
Speaker 1: right wing close entry to Nurkic and his man just
Speaker 1: cuts right off of him, and he's just like he's
Speaker 1: not double teaming, he's not guarding any anybody. All of
Speaker 1: a sudden, his man catches the ball in the back cut,
Speaker 1: it gets sprayed out to Miles Bridges. Then he just
Speaker 1: throws this crazy, reckless close out Miles and Miles Bridges,
Speaker 1: who just kind of shows the ball, Ruby goes flying
Speaker 1: by and then Miles hits the three. A lot of
Speaker 1: possessions like that where Rui's just kind of like all
Speaker 1: over the place on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing.
Speaker 1: He's such a good offensive player that usually he can
Speaker 1: start to minimize that by adding margin for error, right,
Speaker 1: but he goes one for eight from three, misses a
Speaker 1: couple of important free throws in the final minute that
Speaker 1: could have tied the game. That like shines the light
Speaker 1: on all that other stuff, and so another potential weakness
Speaker 1: we need to keep an eye on for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: And the big picture is just simply that ruy Hachamura
Speaker 1: is a young player. There's some guys in this rotation
Speaker 1: that are young players, and you know how I feel
Speaker 1: about young players. When you get to the postseason. It's
Speaker 1: something that could be an issue, but again, this team
Speaker 1: will demonstrate a much larger margin for error once they
Speaker 1: figure out things on offense. And again I expect them
Speaker 1: to be a team that when I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 1: if from now through the end of the season they
Speaker 1: were well north of a one to twenty offensive rating
Speaker 1: once they actually kind of get their sea legs underneath them.
Speaker 1: And I think it's only a matter of time, all right,
Speaker 1: before we get out of here tonight. Welcome to Course Correction,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Microsoft. Just like the star players
Speaker 1: and teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are
Speaker 1: under immense pressure to get things right. They must rise
Speaker 1: to the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these
Speaker 1: visionaries with AI solutions, simplified cloud and data management and
Speaker 1: trustworthy responsible AI. When you're in the NBA, you have
Speaker 1: your own hurdles to face. In this segment, we explore
Speaker 1: the challenges faced by teams or star players and how
Speaker 1: they can turn things around. Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft
Speaker 1: empowers you with the expertise to say bring it on.
Speaker 1: This week, we're discussing the challenge faced by current MVP
Speaker 1: favorite Shay Gilders Alexander. Two things happen this year that
Speaker 1: made life substantially tougher on Shae Gilders, Alexander and the Thunder. First,
Speaker 1: Jalen Williams really talented young player, He's been embroiled in
Speaker 1: a season long shooting slump. His true shooting percentage is
Speaker 1: a full six percent lower than it was last year,
Speaker 1: which is not entirely uncommon for a young player. Young
Speaker 1: players go through going pains. This team has a lot
Speaker 1: of young players on board. That's been a issue for
Speaker 1: the Thunder this year. Secondly, Shay loses his second or
Speaker 1: his most talented co star in Chet Holmgren broken hit.
Speaker 1: This is a huge chunk of the season, but it
Speaker 1: hasn't mattered at all. I saw this crazy stat that
Speaker 1: my friend Carson Breber from Nerd Sesh tweeted out yesterday.
Speaker 1: When shakeyil does Alexander is on the floor this year,
Speaker 1: when no Chet and no Jalen Williams. So just imagine
Speaker 1: shake yoes Alexander and a bunch of really young role players,
Speaker 1: good young role players, but young role players that have
Speaker 1: flaws that have offensive limitations. One thousand two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty eight possessions, a massive sample size, a plus twenty
Speaker 1: nine net rating, one thirty three offensive rating, a one
Speaker 1: to oh four defensive rating. Just unbelievable work from.
Speaker 2: Shay this season.
Speaker 1: His half court shot creation metrics have been off the charts.
Speaker 1: A pick and roll from Shay including passes has been
Speaker 1: worth one point one to two points per possession. That's
Speaker 1: in the ninetieth percentile. And ISO for Shay including passes
Speaker 1: has been worth one point zero eight points per possession.
Speaker 1: That's eight seven percentile. A post up for Shae including
Speaker 1: passes one point one to three points per possession including
Speaker 1: passes seventy fourth percentile. Just picking teams apart is shooting
Speaker 1: forty four percent on all pull up jumpers, fifty one
Speaker 1: percent on pull up jumpers if you wait them for threes,
Speaker 1: forty eight percent on floaters, sixty three percent on layups,
Speaker 1: which is insane for a guard. Some of the best
Speaker 1: athletic wings in the league hover in the high fifties
Speaker 1: at the rim on layups. Over a block and a
Speaker 1: steal per game. He's right around three stocks per game
Speaker 1: Right now. He's minus five hundred to win MVP on
Speaker 1: DraftKings and I think he absolutely deserves it for overcoming
Speaker 1: adversity this season to lead the most dominant team in
Speaker 1: the league this regular season. That's it for this week's
Speaker 1: course correction. Remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take
Speaker 1: bold steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to
Speaker 1: help drive your business forward. Microsoft as your trusted partner,
Speaker 1: you can navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions
Speaker 1: and reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com slash challengers
Speaker 1: to learn more. All right, guys, that's all I have
Speaker 1: for tonight. As always, a sincerely appreciate you guys for
Speaker 1: supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow
Speaker 1: with some breakdowns from another slate of NBA games and
Speaker 1: a mailbag.
Speaker 2: I will see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume.
Speaker 2: What's up guys?
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
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