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Speaker 1: dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by FanDuel. Here on the volume, I am Jason Timp.
Speaker 1: Happy Friday, everybody. I hope you all had a great week.
Speaker 1: I sincerely apologize for those of you who are listening
Speaker 1: a little bit earlier. We had some technical difficulties, but
Speaker 1: we got those resolved. I appreciate you sticking around and
Speaker 1: or coming back. You may also have noticed that we
Speaker 1: titled the show Hoops Tonight Tonight instead of Lakers Tonight.
Speaker 1: All that is is a different brand that we are
Speaker 1: going to use for nights where we don't go immediately
Speaker 1: after Lakers games, which is obviously going to be more
Speaker 1: relevant as we head into the postseason. Just a new
Speaker 1: brand doesn't change anything about the show or where you
Speaker 1: get um. But ironically, the Lakers were the most interesting
Speaker 1: game tonight, so we will be leading with them. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about Russ's big shot and all the chaos
Speaker 1: surrounding that. We're gonna talk about Lebron's vintage fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get into a little bit of the
Speaker 1: things that the Lakers did in that game that they
Speaker 1: can take forward, lessons that they might have learned that
Speaker 1: they can apply as they move forward. And then later
Speaker 1: in the show, we are going to talk about the
Speaker 1: Mavericks finally losing one of these huge road games in
Speaker 1: Philly tonight, talk about this recent stretch from them and
Speaker 1: what it means. And then for those of you stick
Speaker 1: around at the end, we're going to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit of the Chicago Bulls, the team I have not
Speaker 1: done a deep dive on of late, so let's start
Speaker 1: with the Lakers. This was a very important win for
Speaker 1: a bunch of different reasons. Obviously, in the standings, it
Speaker 1: was important they now have a three game advantage over
Speaker 1: the San Antonio Spurs for that eleven spot. So if
Speaker 1: within that locker room, if they are interested in trying
Speaker 1: to make a run at this thing, they need to
Speaker 1: get a certain amount of wins the rest of the
Speaker 1: season to even stay in that spot. This idea of
Speaker 1: them just going out every night, rolling over and losing
Speaker 1: by twenty had this obvious consequence that was gonna involve
Speaker 1: them just missing the play in altogether. And then also
Speaker 1: it has to do with just, you know, some sort
Speaker 1: of building block, something you can take into the next
Speaker 1: season regardless of what happens this season, if they missed
Speaker 1: the play in, if they make the plan but lose
Speaker 1: in the playing tournament, or if they make it to
Speaker 1: the first round and get destroyed by Phoenix. Regardless of
Speaker 1: what happens, basketball has to be played next year, and
Speaker 1: they need to have something that they can build on.
Speaker 1: And so this win is important for all of those
Speaker 1: reasons that I just laid out. First of all, Toronto
Speaker 1: is really, really good. I didn't think the Lakers were
Speaker 1: physically capable of getting this win tonight on the road
Speaker 1: in Toronto. If you watched that game at the Crypto
Speaker 1: dot Com Arena the other night, they looked physically outclassed
Speaker 1: at almost every position. It was one of those things
Speaker 1: where you when you try to fathom how they could
Speaker 1: go into Toronto play that same basketball team with the
Speaker 1: same pieces at their disposal, for them to fight the
Speaker 1: way they did was really impressive. And it goes to
Speaker 1: that the same concept that I talked about in after
Speaker 1: that game. I talked about the difference between being big
Speaker 1: and playing big. The Lakers were a small team that
Speaker 1: also played small. They backed away and shied away from
Speaker 1: all of the physical confrontations. They weren't actually trying to
Speaker 1: win those confrontations. They were conceding those confrontations. That's not
Speaker 1: what happened tonight. They went in and they were the
Speaker 1: physical aggressors. Some of that was Toronto pulling back, probably
Speaker 1: because they expected the Lakers to roll over, but a
Speaker 1: lot of it was the Lakers coming out swinging and
Speaker 1: punching and trying to win those physical battles. And they did.
Speaker 1: And that's what's so frustrating about this team, because they
Speaker 1: have a punch that they have access to that has
Speaker 1: the capability of beating any of these teams in the
Speaker 1: league on any given night. Are they good enough to
Speaker 1: win the championship? Probably not. I don't think so. Even
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis coming back. They're just too thin at
Speaker 1: almost every other position group on the floor outside of
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis. But they're nowhere near as bad
Speaker 1: as the results from this last month would tell you.
Speaker 1: If you looked at the results they you would think
Speaker 1: this is one of the very worst teams in the league,
Speaker 1: and the same tier as like an Orlando Magic, for instance.
Speaker 1: But that's not how bad this team actually is. They
Speaker 1: they may not be a bona fide championship contender, but
Speaker 1: they are a healthy playoff team that should absolutely be
Speaker 1: competitive in every single NBA game, and they were disrespecting
Speaker 1: the game and poisoning their own situation by playing the
Speaker 1: way that they were playing over the course of this
Speaker 1: last month. It's annoying that we know that they can
Speaker 1: do what they did tonight, maybe not win a couple
Speaker 1: of bounces go different. They lose tonight, but they were
Speaker 1: competitive throughout the game. I would argue they controlled that
Speaker 1: game for the most part. That's what that team is
Speaker 1: capable of against any of those non contenders. They No,
Speaker 1: I don't think they can go beat Phoenix, but against
Speaker 1: the vast majority of the teams in the league. They
Speaker 1: should be competitive on any given night, and if Lebron
Speaker 1: is able to give you what he gave you in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter tonight, you should be able to win
Speaker 1: with this group. And so that's what's been so frustrating
Speaker 1: about this team this season. I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: Russ's shot for a second because I thought it was
Speaker 1: genuinely fascinating at so many different levels. You know, Russ
Speaker 1: is having a really bad season by any stretch of
Speaker 1: the imagination, and I would argue it's the vast majority
Speaker 1: of it is his fault. Some of it is circumstances.
Speaker 1: You know, Frank Vogel hasn't done the best job. He's
Speaker 1: been elevated to bigger roles because of injury. There are
Speaker 1: circumstances that are outside of his control that didn't go well.
Speaker 1: But the vast majority of this season going poorly was
Speaker 1: Russ's fault, him not embracing what he needed to do.
Speaker 1: And I've talked a lot on the show in recent
Speaker 1: weeks about how he needs to adapt and learn a
Speaker 1: lesson from this season. Well, that last sequence of possessions
Speaker 1: at the end of this game taught you everything you
Speaker 1: need to know about how us has interpreted what has
Speaker 1: happened to this season. If you thought he was humbled,
Speaker 1: if you thought maybe he was thinking about changing some
Speaker 1: of the aspects of his game, Hell no, that was
Speaker 1: answered in a resounding fashion. Let's let me just lay
Speaker 1: this out for you, just so you guys understand exactly
Speaker 1: how crazy easy those last two shots where from Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: He is shooting less than fourteen percent from three in
Speaker 1: the fifteen games coming into tonight, Lebron had sixteen points
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. He had just made a three.
Speaker 1: Because Toronto was ball pressuring the three point line with
Speaker 1: size and length, the only guy that was getting quality
Speaker 1: three point shots was Lebron unless Stanley Johnson wanted to
Speaker 1: shoot something, but he was moving the ball as he
Speaker 1: shoot up in that situation, So Lebron comes off of
Speaker 1: the screen and misses a step back that would have
Speaker 1: tied the game. Their Lakers get an offensive rebound. It
Speaker 1: ends up back in Russ His hands. Here comes Lebron
Speaker 1: off of another screen, coming back towards Russ, and Precious
Speaker 1: a Chua dies on the screen. Lebron is open at
Speaker 1: the top of the key and on top of that
Speaker 1: Pascal Seacom's guarding Russ and he's up on the jump shot.
Speaker 1: He's taking away his airspace and Russ shot it anyway,
Speaker 1: and it was one of the worst misses I have
Speaker 1: ever seen in an NBA game from a player that's
Speaker 1: allegedly as talented as wells of Westbrook Is. He damn
Speaker 1: near hits the corner of the backboard and he one
Speaker 1: ups himself because on the very next possession, completely unfazed,
Speaker 1: he goes down the floor and he makes the shot
Speaker 1: horribly like the Scotty Barnes was draped all over him,
Speaker 1: barely had any space, and he knocks down that shot,
Speaker 1: and it was an amazing shot, and it was the
Speaker 1: only reason the Lakers had an opportunity to win that
Speaker 1: game in overtime. So I want to credit that as
Speaker 1: best as I possibly can. It was an unbelievable shot
Speaker 1: saved the night for the Lakers. But that shot tells
Speaker 1: you everything you need to know about Russ and what
Speaker 1: he's learned from this season after this catastrophe of a season.
Speaker 1: His takeaway was, oh, Lebron's got it going tonight, but
Speaker 1: but I gotta go, oh Lebron just made a three
Speaker 1: has sixteen points in the fourth corner. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: this is my turn. Oh I just hit the corner
Speaker 1: of a backboard and all those other things are true. No,
Speaker 1: it's still my turn. That tells you everything you need
Speaker 1: to know about Russ. That supreme confidence has carried him
Speaker 1: throughout his career, but it's become a detriment to him
Speaker 1: at this phase of his career, and that tells you
Speaker 1: everything you need to know about whether or not he's
Speaker 1: willing to adapt at some point soon. Maybe that will
Speaker 1: still happen at some point, but it's clear mentally that
Speaker 1: he's not there yet. After the game, Dan Woiki asks
Speaker 1: him how he prevents those ugly, ugly misses from getting
Speaker 1: in his head, and he's simply answered, I have twenty
Speaker 1: three thousand points. And again I admire the confidence. It
Speaker 1: is Russell Westbrook personified, but the truth of the man.
Speaker 1: And look here, I don't know. Maybe he gives the
Speaker 1: ball to Lebron on both of those possessions, and maybe
Speaker 1: Lebron misses both threes. You know, I can't say that
Speaker 1: for certain. Russ made the shot, that's all that matters.
Speaker 1: But in the moment, those were very poor decisions, very
Speaker 1: very astonishingly poor decisions. With the rhythm that Lebron had,
Speaker 1: the fact that he's six ft nine, the fact that
Speaker 1: he can shoot over the top about just about anybody,
Speaker 1: and the fact that he had the rhythm that he had,
Speaker 1: they were confusing decisions, but again, big shot for us
Speaker 1: saved the game. It just as an interesting dynamic that
Speaker 1: reveals so much about who Russ is as a basketball player,
Speaker 1: what his his basketball character is made up. So moving
Speaker 1: on to Lebron, I was there were a handful of
Speaker 1: really really ugly defensive breakdowns at the end of that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, getting Gary Trent wide open threes that ended
Speaker 1: up nearly costing the Lakers the game. And it's funny
Speaker 1: because I'm not surprised that the sloppy basketball team that's
Speaker 1: been sloppy all year long made sloppy mistakes in a
Speaker 1: pivotal moment. That's you know, you are who you are
Speaker 1: in those ways, and the Lakers are going to continue
Speaker 1: to be who they are in those situations. But what
Speaker 1: was interesting was it was those mistakes were going to
Speaker 1: ruin a vintage masterpiece of a fourth quarter performance from Lebron.
Speaker 1: I tweeted out earlier that Lebron has these like five
Speaker 1: minute stretches that he'll go on where he literally is
Speaker 1: everywhere on the floor. It's almost like there's five Lebrons
Speaker 1: out there and he's making every play and it's confusing,
Speaker 1: and it's like a tidal wave that just takes over
Speaker 1: the game. You know, when I'm ranking, when I'm ranking
Speaker 1: players in the league, you guys, for those of you
Speaker 1: have been following me for a while, you know, I
Speaker 1: always prioritize three things. Isolation scoring, the ability to create
Speaker 1: your own shot, playmaking, the ability to create shots for
Speaker 1: your teammates, and defensive versatility the ability to impact the
Speaker 1: game defensively in a bunch of different ways. Well, Lebron
Speaker 1: is really the only guy in this era that's been
Speaker 1: unbelievably elite at all three things. If you look at
Speaker 1: other guys around the league, like Kevin Durant can be
Speaker 1: laite defensively, but he's not the best playmaker in the world.
Speaker 1: Or like Steph Curry, he's actually a very good playmaker
Speaker 1: as he draws attention, but he's not the best defensive
Speaker 1: player in the world. So when those guys hit the Jets,
Speaker 1: when those guys really try to put their stamp on
Speaker 1: the game. It comes the same way. It's their scoring
Speaker 1: out firsts or creating shots with the team. It's things
Speaker 1: along those lines when Lebron really pushes the turbo button
Speaker 1: and takes over a game because he's so versatile and
Speaker 1: all of those areas of the game. Like I talked about,
Speaker 1: it's that crazy effect that Lebron has where he's all
Speaker 1: over the floor making every single play and nobody on
Speaker 1: the on the other team can do anything about it.
Speaker 1: My favorite example of this in his career was the
Speaker 1: two thousand thirteen Finals against the Spurs, and there were
Speaker 1: two spurts where he did this in Game two in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter and in Game six and the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: And in both of those games the Spurs had leads
Speaker 1: and were and had control of the game, but Lebron
Speaker 1: kind of reached that moment of desperation where he had
Speaker 1: to empty the tank, empty the clip, do whatever he
Speaker 1: could to impact the game. And he was flying around
Speaker 1: up a Denzil for You'd see him step up and
Speaker 1: blocked Thiago, splitter block Tim Duncan at the rim, then
Speaker 1: get his own rebound and split all the way up
Speaker 1: the floor and like pass fake to a guy in
Speaker 1: the corner and then pump fake and finish at the basket,
Speaker 1: or to drive into the lane and draw four bodies
Speaker 1: and kick it out to Shane Dattier in the corner
Speaker 1: for for a huge street like that was what made
Speaker 1: those moments for Lebron so iconic, and what made those
Speaker 1: moments for Lebron so like become the fuel for his
Speaker 1: goat case and everybody who says that they think that
Speaker 1: he's the best player they've ever seen, it's because of that,
Speaker 1: and we got to see that tonight. In that fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: Lebron was everywhere on the back line, making defensive place,
Speaker 1: getting into the paint, collapsing bodies and kicking out to
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley, finishing at the rim, using his brain, beating
Speaker 1: people on back cuts. That shot that he hit, the
Speaker 1: three point shot that he banked in, was eerily reminiscent
Speaker 1: of the one that he hit to send the game
Speaker 1: to overtime in Washington back in two thousand seventeen. He
Speaker 1: had a hundred different impact plays in that fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: It's the thing that I'm gonna miss the most when
Speaker 1: Lebron is gone, because I don't think there's a player
Speaker 1: in the league who has that type of burst because
Speaker 1: all of the players in the league right now have
Speaker 1: big strengths, but they also have weaknesses. Lebron has always
Speaker 1: been the Swiss Army Knife of the NBA, and when
Speaker 1: he gets going like that, it's always been such a
Speaker 1: site to behold. One last note on the Lakers before
Speaker 1: we move on. That was really interesting that they started big.
Speaker 1: We've seen so many times this season where Frank Vogel
Speaker 1: has in a point of desperation, gone super small right,
Speaker 1: gone to multiple guards, gone to four guards, even sometimes
Speaker 1: gone to mellow at Center with four guards, And what
Speaker 1: we haven't seen is him just say screw it, I'm
Speaker 1: going huge. And it was an interesting reaction to the
Speaker 1: way that Toronto physically dominated their first matchup. He started
Speaker 1: Lebron and when you in Gabriel and Dwight Howard, and
Speaker 1: I think that was part of what set that physical
Speaker 1: tone that allowed the Lakers to be the aggressor throughout
Speaker 1: the game. When you in Gabriel was incredible. Tonight you go.
Speaker 1: I've done video breakdowns on him and a bunch of
Speaker 1: stuff about him on the show. This is just what
Speaker 1: happens when you have size and athleticism and you play hard.
Speaker 1: In this NBA, you can automatically have an impact just
Speaker 1: by going out and playing extremely hard and leaving your
Speaker 1: physical tools on the floor. Both him and Stanley Johnson
Speaker 1: had big impacts tonight in that way. I like the
Speaker 1: idea of going big, especially with Lebron being inconsistent with
Speaker 1: his defensive effort. If you have another guy at the
Speaker 1: center position who can take over all those back line responsibilities,
Speaker 1: then if Lebron is coasting on the defensive ent, it's
Speaker 1: less damaging. When Lebron's at center and it's four guards
Speaker 1: on the floor or four perimeter players on the floor
Speaker 1: and Lebron's coasting defensively, it's always gonna be a disaster
Speaker 1: because you have to have somebody on the back line
Speaker 1: who's willing to rotate around. I thought that was an
Speaker 1: interesting tactic from very Frank Vogel tonight, and I think
Speaker 1: it's an interesting approach to potentially try to move forward.
Speaker 1: They've had spacing issue and offensive issues all season anyway,
Speaker 1: why not just lean into that a little bit by
Speaker 1: having some size and athleticism on the floor. Start your
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Speaker 1: dot net in West Virginia. Moving on to the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 1: So they lost finally on the road tonight in Philly.
Speaker 1: They had a couple of huge wins. We broke those
Speaker 1: down in detail. I did a video on both of them,
Speaker 1: against the Brooklyn Nets and against the Boston Celtics. The
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks are trending in the direction looking like a
Speaker 1: bona fide championship contender, but they finally fell flat on
Speaker 1: their face tonight in Philly. I thought I didn't take
Speaker 1: too much from it. I thought it was related to fatigue.
Speaker 1: It's their fourth game on this road trip, Luca and
Speaker 1: and Spencer Dinwoodie. I think they went combined a two
Speaker 1: for fourteen from three. That's a big indicator of legs.
Speaker 1: That's fatigue starting to play a role. Also, the Sixers
Speaker 1: shot out of their minds. They had six players who
Speaker 1: made at least two threes. They shot four. Two from
Speaker 1: the game and for the game and the way to
Speaker 1: beat the Sixers, as we all know, as we've laid
Speaker 1: out on this show in detail over the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, you have to get out in transition. Dallas
Speaker 1: did not do that tonight. They only had seven fast breakpoints.
Speaker 1: You're if you're not gonna attack Philly's weakness, You're gonna
Speaker 1: struggle in a lot of different ways. I wouldn't take
Speaker 1: too much from that game. That said, I still I
Speaker 1: still like what I've seen from Dallas in this recent
Speaker 1: stretch of games and I wanted to provide some perspective
Speaker 1: here because people always expect these top tier contenders to
Speaker 1: just go in and roll over everybody they play, including
Speaker 1: the good teams, and that's never how it actually goes.
Speaker 1: For instance, last year the Milwaukee Bucks won the title,
Speaker 1: they were only nineteen and seventeen against teams that were
Speaker 1: over five five or above. That's pretty average, right, There's
Speaker 1: nothing to write home about. The previous season the Lakers,
Speaker 1: they were only twenty and fourteen against teams that were
Speaker 1: five and above. This season, the Mavericks are twenty one
Speaker 1: and seventeen. That's pretty solid they are. They have enough
Speaker 1: signature wins to add legitimacy to what they're doing. We've
Speaker 1: talked about it a lot on this show. I'm just
Speaker 1: a huge believer in what they do defensively. If you
Speaker 1: guys look at my Twitter feed today, or released a
Speaker 1: video talking about the way they mixed up their defensive
Speaker 1: coverages against against the Nets in that big win in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: Big credit to Jason Kidd, who's done an awesome job
Speaker 1: with that team. I don't think they I wouldn't put
Speaker 1: them in the top tier of contenders. I don't think
Speaker 1: they're as good as your you know, your Milwaukee's, your Phillies,
Speaker 1: r Phoenix is. But I do think they're in that
Speaker 1: second tier of contenders, meaning they absolutely could win if
Speaker 1: a handful of things break right for them. All right,
Speaker 1: moving on to the Bulls. So Sons chugging right along,
Speaker 1: no issues without Chris Paul, and I think a huge
Speaker 1: part of that is all of that talent on the
Speaker 1: roster that I keep telling you guys about that team.
Speaker 1: All the focus goes on Devin Booker and Chris Paul,
Speaker 1: but the real reason why they're winning is from top
Speaker 1: to bottom. No team in the NBA has more talent
Speaker 1: than them. Campaign is an awesome a backup guard. He
Speaker 1: arguably is a better option than Chris Paul and specific
Speaker 1: matchups because he's one of the best point of attack
Speaker 1: guards in the league. He beats his man off the
Speaker 1: dribble almost every time. He gets into the paint at will,
Speaker 1: which gets defenses to rotate. And when you get defenses
Speaker 1: to rotate and you have good players around him that
Speaker 1: can attack those closeouts, you're gonna get some good stuff.
Speaker 1: Michael Bridges looks like a star in the making. DeAndre
Speaker 1: Ayton is unbelievable. Just imagine if DeAndre Ayton got to
Speaker 1: come up the way that Joel Embiad did on a
Speaker 1: bad team, shooting twenty shots of game, getting to mix
Speaker 1: up and take step back jump shots and Hakimola Juan
Speaker 1: shoulder fakes and all of those things. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that DeAndre Ayton is Joel Embiid. We I can flat
Speaker 1: out and say he's not. But he is in a
Speaker 1: different type of development trajectory than Joel Embiid, and he
Speaker 1: is a really, really, really good player that is playing
Speaker 1: a smaller role on a team that doesn't need him
Speaker 1: to do as much. And what you're seeing in this
Speaker 1: recent stretch of games is he's got great footwork. He's
Speaker 1: got great he's got a great package of moves out
Speaker 1: of the post. He's got one of the best little
Speaker 1: short jump books in the league. He actually has a
Speaker 1: good jump shot as well. He's got a lot to
Speaker 1: him that he can that he's got in reserve. The
Speaker 1: same goes for Michail Bridges. Those are the guys that
Speaker 1: are gonna be the huge building blocks alongside Devin Booker
Speaker 1: in the future, and they're a really exciting team. But
Speaker 1: I wanted to take a couple of minutes to talk
Speaker 1: about the Chicago Bulls, their team I haven't talked about
Speaker 1: really since I started with the Volume, and there's a
Speaker 1: very specific reason for that. It's because they've been decimated
Speaker 1: by injuries. And I know that doesn't sound right because
Speaker 1: Demarda Rosen's playing every game and you're getting Nikola Vuseovic
Speaker 1: every game, You're getting zac Lavine every game, so it
Speaker 1: seems like everything's fine. But the arguably the most important
Speaker 1: players on this team are Alonzo Ball and Alex crusa
Speaker 1: which is interesting for a bunch of different reasons, and
Speaker 1: for the record, the numbers back it up. In four
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty nine minutes. By the way, these numbers
Speaker 1: were coming into tonight because NBA doesn't update their stats
Speaker 1: till later, But in four hundred and fifty nine minutes
Speaker 1: this season, with a Lonzo Ball and Alex Cruso on
Speaker 1: the floor together, the Bowls are plus nine point three
Speaker 1: points per one possessions. That's awesome. That is a awesome number.
Speaker 1: They are minus one point four when those two are
Speaker 1: off the floor per one hundred possessions, they are thirteen
Speaker 1: points six points worse on defense. With a Lonzo and
Speaker 1: Alex Cruso off the floor, then when those guys are
Speaker 1: on the floor, and it's interesting for a bunch of
Speaker 1: different reasons. I've talked a lot about the way the
Speaker 1: game of basketball has been changing over the course of
Speaker 1: the last five years, and a lot of it has
Speaker 1: to do with having tons of perimeter players on the
Speaker 1: floor that can all put the ball on the floor
Speaker 1: and get to the basket. And so if you can't
Speaker 1: contain on the perimeter, if you can't keep a guy
Speaker 1: in front or at least make it difficult for him
Speaker 1: to get to the basket, then your team is constantly
Speaker 1: existing in rotation. And NBA teams are too good to
Speaker 1: not make you pay for that kind of thing. Perimeter
Speaker 1: defense is more valuable now in the NBA than it
Speaker 1: ever has been, and Lonzo Ball and Alex Cruso are
Speaker 1: two of the best perimeter defensive guards that we have
Speaker 1: in the league. Having them on the floor to pick
Speaker 1: up those perimeter matchups of all the best guards that
Speaker 1: they play on any given night is what frees up
Speaker 1: Zach Lavine and DeMar de Rosen to focus on the
Speaker 1: offensive end limits their defensive shortcomings. Because both of those
Speaker 1: players have had tons of defensive issues throughout their career.
Speaker 1: It just makes their job easier. And what's great is
Speaker 1: Lonzo Ball and Alex Cruso. We think guards who play
Speaker 1: defense right. They're both big. Alex Cruso six six and
Speaker 1: very strong. Alonzo Ball is taller, think he's about six five,
Speaker 1: So they have great size at the position. So when
Speaker 1: they go with those lineups with Crusoe and Ball, Levine
Speaker 1: de Rosen and Nikolavusevitch, they actually have a ton of
Speaker 1: size in that line up. So it's really difficult to
Speaker 1: evaluate the Bulls without those two on the court. That
Speaker 1: would be the That would be the Silver law Ning
Speaker 1: or the the what you try the little bit of
Speaker 1: positivity to cling to if you're a Bulls fan. After
Speaker 1: a pretty frustrating season, they get off to this awesome start.
Speaker 1: They're kicking everybody's but two of their most important players
Speaker 1: get hurt. The rest of the season has been kind
Speaker 1: of floundering in mediocrity. But these guys are coming back.
Speaker 1: You have an opportunity. The big question is is Tristan
Speaker 1: Thompson and Nicola Vusevich their front court. Are those guys
Speaker 1: gonna be able to bring enough athletically and physically to
Speaker 1: hang with these beast front courts that you see elsewhere
Speaker 1: in the East. Are they gonna be able to hang
Speaker 1: with Bam out of Bio, I don't know. Are they
Speaker 1: gonna be able to hang with Joe El Embiid? Are
Speaker 1: they gonna be able to hang with janas Antana Compo
Speaker 1: and brook Lopez? Are they gonna be able to hang
Speaker 1: with you know, Andre Drummond. Even with the team like
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets there, they are going to have a
Speaker 1: massive physical disadvantage in the front court and almost every
Speaker 1: matchup they can try to come that we've seen like
Speaker 1: with that list. Dallas doesn't have great front court presence either,
Speaker 1: but they've made up for it with scheme. Will Chicago
Speaker 1: be able to put together enough defensively around those guys
Speaker 1: to make up for it, I don't know. Patrick Williams
Speaker 1: is allegedly going to be coming back here in the
Speaker 1: next week or two. He's a big, strong athlete, so
Speaker 1: that helps a little bit on that front. That would
Speaker 1: be my biggest concern with the Bulls, And as is
Speaker 1: always the case when we're having these conversations, it's like
Speaker 1: with the Harden and Beat thing, It's not are these
Speaker 1: guys good. I know they're good. I know DeRozan and
Speaker 1: Levine are awesome, But are they gonna beat Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: in a duel four times out of seven? Are they
Speaker 1: gonna beat Janie Antennacumpo in a duel four times out
Speaker 1: of seven? I don't know. If they get out of
Speaker 1: the East, are they gonna be able to beat that
Speaker 1: awesome Son's team. That's what's so crazy about how deep
Speaker 1: the league is right now. When we're evaluating these teams,
Speaker 1: It's it's wild the standard we have to hold them
Speaker 1: too if they're gonna have any real success in the NBA.
Speaker 1: The Bulls being so far down on everybody's list of
Speaker 1: contenders with the type of lineups that they can throw
Speaker 1: out there, that Russo Ball, Levine, de rosen And and
Speaker 1: Voster Bitch lineup is one of the best lineups in
Speaker 1: the league. That lineup sounds incredible, but it's probably not
Speaker 1: good enough. And that just goes to show you how
Speaker 1: incredibly talented the NBA is right now. And that's why
Speaker 1: I love this job so much, and I love that
Speaker 1: I get to do this because the NBA is in
Speaker 1: an all time golden age of talent. And it just
Speaker 1: makes the product amazing. All right, guys, that is all
Speaker 1: I have for tonight. We will be back tomorrow after
Speaker 1: the Lakers game in Washington against the Wizards. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate your guys support and I will see
Speaker 1: you right after the final buzzard tomorrow. The volume