Speaker 1: M M all right, welcome to this day of the
Speaker 1: Lakers on Dad right now. I think you guys so
Speaker 1: much more, coming to hang out with Rod and Knight.
Speaker 1: Finally a relatively uneventful UM evening for Ler basketball. Um.
Speaker 1: I know some people are a little frustrated with, you know,
Speaker 1: the closeness of the margin, but I thought tonight was
Speaker 1: a pretty clear positive step. I mean, you never are
Speaker 1: gonna be able to become a good team overnight. Uh.
Speaker 1: There that was that there's just too many problems to
Speaker 1: fix with this team to you know, have a situation where,
Speaker 1: you know, just some guys have a good raw ros
Speaker 1: speech in the locker room, come out and give good
Speaker 1: effort and fix everything. It was always gonna be a process,
Speaker 1: but there had to be a clear, intentional um first step,
Speaker 1: and I thought that tonight very well could have been that. However, Rodge,
Speaker 1: it feels like something I've said a half dozen times
Speaker 1: this year. So where are you at today? Man? At
Speaker 1: first one? Has your weekend been? I hope you've had
Speaker 1: a chance to relax a little bit and to give
Speaker 1: me your thoughts on so far on tonight's game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had a good weekend. Um, enjoying with some family
Speaker 1: here as well, So I was kind of in and
Speaker 1: out on this one, but I did catch the main
Speaker 1: kind of things. I saw the ugly, obviously starting lineup
Speaker 1: that stayed this team has lost the benefit of the doubt, right,
Speaker 1: Like you would agree, like this team has lost the
Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt with the good game bad games
Speaker 1: that they've been hasn't they've been having, But I thought
Speaker 1: tonight it's one of It's probably the best game we've
Speaker 1: seen from a Big three as a collective. Uh. So
Speaker 1: we had I think I had the stats up here.
Speaker 1: We had Anthony Davis with Lebron with thirty three, Russ
Speaker 1: with twenty five. I thought the rim pressure was was
Speaker 1: great from all three of them really attacking the basket.
Speaker 1: Lebron took I think nine threes, but then that really
Speaker 1: got to the rim. And that's what we need to
Speaker 1: see from them. Uh And I'm hoping this is kind
Speaker 1: of something we can see going forward. But this team
Speaker 1: was lost in benefit of the doubt to me, like,
Speaker 1: I need to see this on a consistent basis. And
Speaker 1: I've seen people like you said, upset with the margin
Speaker 1: the margin that we won won by. But we're not
Speaker 1: a good team right now, at least so far, and
Speaker 1: people are gonna be mad at the DeAndre Jordan minutes.
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard was out tonight, I believe with rest, so
Speaker 1: it really just had him and Lebron and a G
Speaker 1: at the center. But yes, yes, yeah, I think Uh
Speaker 1: Mike Mike Trudell on the on the broadcast said he
Speaker 1: was resting and Vogel was going with more guards tonight
Speaker 1: going against this Detroit team. But yeah, man, I want
Speaker 1: to see this going forward. But we got a lot
Speaker 1: more Lebron, a d of the center at center lineups,
Speaker 1: and hopefully this is something we see going forward. But
Speaker 1: that's where I'm at since this is a good win. Again,
Speaker 1: the scoring margin isn't great. Detroit kind of made a
Speaker 1: run late, but we can't really be picky right now
Speaker 1: with with wins that we're getting. We didn't go to overtime,
Speaker 1: which is a positive, right like we beat them, we
Speaker 1: beat them in regulation. Uh, That's where I'm at this
Speaker 1: with this. It's a good win. Good hopefully we can
Speaker 1: build on it. But they've lost the benefit of the
Speaker 1: doubt to me for for saying that it's something we're
Speaker 1: gonna build one and you know, as I said at
Speaker 1: the very beginning, the Lakers have a laundry list of problems,
Speaker 1: you know, like they're you're never going to be able
Speaker 1: to get th h T at age twenty one now
Speaker 1: to be a really consistent offensive player. So he's, you know,
Speaker 1: gonna be a kind of on again, off again type
Speaker 1: of guy in our offense, you know, And the same
Speaker 1: thing goes with him on the defensive end. He's gonna
Speaker 1: have nights where he makes a ton of big plays,
Speaker 1: and then he's gonna have nights where he's getting lost
Speaker 1: off the ball a very Bradley. His offense very clearly
Speaker 1: comes and goes. His defense, you know, is very active.
Speaker 1: It's very active, but it doesn't accomplish a ton that
Speaker 1: There's nothing we can do to change that. The same
Speaker 1: goes for everybody on the roster. Wayne, Malik and Carmelo
Speaker 1: are kind of offensive engines that will get hot and
Speaker 1: then also go cold, and they're not gonna give us
Speaker 1: a ton offensively. That's not going to change. Frank isn't
Speaker 1: going to change unless he gets fired. As we've seen,
Speaker 1: he's very very reliant, he's very very set in his ways.
Speaker 1: You know, that's not something we can change without Frank
Speaker 1: getting fired. You know, uh, Russ is what Russ is.
Speaker 1: But there was one clear thing going on that absolutely
Speaker 1: was very very easy to change, and that was Lebron
Speaker 1: in a D's engagement level. And so tonight a lot
Speaker 1: of those things that I just listed off reared their
Speaker 1: ugly head, Frank's, Frank's insistent on using DJ, the terrible
Speaker 1: spacing offensive guards, mellow Monk and uh Ellington all had
Speaker 1: pretty offensive nights that all led to that close scoring margin.
Speaker 1: But the functionality of the team, meaning like the quality
Speaker 1: of shots they were giving up and the quality of
Speaker 1: shots they were generating for themselves, was all significantly better
Speaker 1: because at the very beginning of the game, while Braun
Speaker 1: and a D made a concerted effort to be engaged
Speaker 1: physically in the game, instead of taking a boatload of
Speaker 1: dumb jump shots, they both put their head down and
Speaker 1: got to the rim a lot. A D, when he
Speaker 1: screamed instead of popping, would roll hard to the rim.
Speaker 1: I talk a lot in the last part with at
Speaker 1: about out of area defensive place. You know, like a
Speaker 1: D and Lebron are so incredibly gifted that they'll make
Speaker 1: a play and you'd be like, oh, man, I can't believe,
Speaker 1: you know, he blew that play up, or he got
Speaker 1: this crazy block, or he did this, But usually it's
Speaker 1: because the offense kind of ran directly into him and
Speaker 1: his freak talent took over. There was very little extra
Speaker 1: effort to get out of their area to cover for
Speaker 1: their teammates. And you saw that tonight. You saw Lebron
Speaker 1: actually stepping in and taking charges instead of standing there
Speaker 1: and watching. There was a play early in the game,
Speaker 1: a d off ball, there's a guy posting up a mismatch.
Speaker 1: He went out of his area to come over and
Speaker 1: he raced the shot. Those are those are additional effort plays.
Speaker 1: That's covering for the fact that your teammates don't have
Speaker 1: the amount of talent that you have. And so, and
Speaker 1: even though all those other flaws that I talked about
Speaker 1: have to get fixed, we still need forwards. We need
Speaker 1: to find a way to be generate easier shots. We
Speaker 1: need uh Frank to give up on DeAndre Jordan's and
Speaker 1: use Avery Bradley a lot less. That's all true, but
Speaker 1: step one was getting Lebron and a D on board
Speaker 1: and for them to try this hard in a game
Speaker 1: against the Pistons, for them to come out into this
Speaker 1: game with that level of urgency on both ends, to me,
Speaker 1: it was a big step. And it's not about once.
Speaker 1: Like you said, they don't get the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1: We don't get to just assume this means problems are fixed.
Speaker 1: They have to show us over an extended stretch that
Speaker 1: they are. But this was a good first step in
Speaker 1: that direction. Yeah, I agree with that, and I've seen
Speaker 1: people you know, start to do that. You know, they
Speaker 1: miss k CP, they miss Kyle Kuzma, they miss Danny Green.
Speaker 1: Those aren't players that aren't on minimum deals though, right
Speaker 1: like those are players making eight to twelve to fifteen
Speaker 1: million dollars a year. When you have a team with
Speaker 1: three stars and a bunch of just minimum guys on
Speaker 1: the roster, your three stars pretty much have to show
Speaker 1: up every single night, or at least two of them
Speaker 1: have to be at an engagement level to match, and
Speaker 1: even a team like Detroit that's really bad. We're just
Speaker 1: not playing at the level right now where those two
Speaker 1: or three of them can be disengaged. And it's not
Speaker 1: fair to have Lebron with these kind of Lebron having
Speaker 1: this load a d I think he's the young one,
Speaker 1: he's twenty eight. He's the one that should be he
Speaker 1: should not be load managing through games, uh, in between games.
Speaker 1: But it's something that we've just seen. The effort level
Speaker 1: hasn't been there, and we've seen guys kind of breakdown
Speaker 1: why that's happening. And the spacing issues, to me, are
Speaker 1: still gonna be there. Frank Vogel looks like he's gonna
Speaker 1: go down. He's gonna go down with the ship his way.
Speaker 1: Like people expected DeAndre Tron and Avery Bradley not to
Speaker 1: start tonight and they did again. Uh, and I think
Speaker 1: we were down seven to one or something like that
Speaker 1: when the game started, uh, and it was really bad.
Speaker 1: It looked ugly. But he's gonna go down with the
Speaker 1: ship his way. And maybe that changed when we get healthy.
Speaker 1: But you're right, Lebron and a D. Being engaged is
Speaker 1: the first step. Those other guys an't going to change
Speaker 1: the way that those those guys can Molik Monk to me,
Speaker 1: is not going to get better defensively. Wayne Ellington probably
Speaker 1: isn't gonna be is not gonna be better. Carmelo Anthony
Speaker 1: is what he is. Lemon and eighties engagement level have
Speaker 1: to be have to be to a baseline level. Right.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be great. Lebron doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be a percent defensive Player of the Year. But like you,
Speaker 1: like you said, defense defending out of his area, Lebron
Speaker 1: defending a d defending out of this area. It's just
Speaker 1: stuff that we need we net Like in that Indiana game,
Speaker 1: I thought Lebron showed what he can be, and then
Speaker 1: the next in the next few games are just he
Speaker 1: just stopped trying again, like it was just his effort.
Speaker 1: Can't wane that much for this team. Uh, they really
Speaker 1: need him, And I thought tonight it was great. I
Speaker 1: thought the engagement was really there from from the opening tips.
Speaker 1: So hopefully it's something we can build on. But you're right,
Speaker 1: I just thought it was an engagement level that we
Speaker 1: need to see. And they're the leaders of the team.
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel, people are asking for his head on on
Speaker 1: a stick. We'll see if that comes to fruition. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is another game that he survived, he got the win.
Speaker 1: I don't think they want to make that change right now,
Speaker 1: and again I've been very clear on my stance on it,
Speaker 1: but it's starts with them too. At the top. No
Speaker 1: scheme matters until your stars are engaged. And I thought
Speaker 1: we saw that tonight. Even if there's a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff, we still have to fix a
Speaker 1: lot of the lineup that still have to be fixed.
Speaker 1: That's the top of the that's the top of the
Speaker 1: key for me, is is Lebron and a D engaged
Speaker 1: at a level that brings everyone else. You can build
Speaker 1: on that, right, like like, like you know, turning activity
Speaker 1: into production on defense is a process, but the first
Speaker 1: step is that activity. You've got to get guys actually
Speaker 1: willing to put in put their bodies on the line
Speaker 1: to do the job. From there, you can get to
Speaker 1: the point where guys start to build that on a
Speaker 1: string type of continuity defensively, right, that's them, Like, there
Speaker 1: were a lot of place tonight where guys were trying
Speaker 1: hard but got out of position. But that's to be
Speaker 1: expected because they haven't really really tried to attempt to
Speaker 1: make their defensive scheme work, you know, up to this point.
Speaker 1: But like at a certain point you had to you
Speaker 1: had to at least start the process of everybody giving
Speaker 1: ship so that they can start to build that continuity
Speaker 1: and understanding, Like hey, like Avery tends the funnel guys,
Speaker 1: this way a D s now going out of his
Speaker 1: area to help here. So I it is worth it
Speaker 1: for me to rotate over to that week side corner,
Speaker 1: whereas in the past it was already a layup. So
Speaker 1: I I would just quit on the play myself too,
Speaker 1: because I don't even my faults. Somebody else quit like
Speaker 1: it's all part of building that chain. And then then
Speaker 1: that's when you're you'll start to see the multiple efforts
Speaker 1: start to come into play, and that's when you'll start
Speaker 1: to see that invigorate the offense. Because again, like I said,
Speaker 1: our role players weren't good tonight. None of our offensive
Speaker 1: you know, firepower pieces off the bench really got going.
Speaker 1: Everybody made a handful of plays, but nobody really got going,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And so from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: it goes back to something that you and I have
Speaker 1: said NonStop over the last three years. When the Laker
Speaker 1: role players are bad, but Lebron and a D are engaged,
Speaker 1: we win by a little And Lebron and Nadi are
Speaker 1: engaged and our role players are okay, we win by
Speaker 1: like fifteen And when Lebron and n D are engaged
Speaker 1: and our role players play really well. We blow teams out.
Speaker 1: So tonight kind of fit back into that mold for
Speaker 1: me of Lebron and A D leaving a physical imprint
Speaker 1: on the game, no one else really being able to
Speaker 1: match them. But it not mattering because Lebron and A
Speaker 1: D are that good, you know. And and I think
Speaker 1: we can move this to us a little bit because um,
Speaker 1: he's been the most consistently engaged player that we that
Speaker 1: from the Big three over the course of the last
Speaker 1: you know, almost a month, And I think I think
Speaker 1: he deserves to get a lot of credit because you know,
Speaker 1: that's what kind of made the Lebron and A D
Speaker 1: stuff so embarrassing. Is meanwhile, Russ, you know, while he's
Speaker 1: getting all the blame on Twitter from people outside of
Speaker 1: the Laker fan base, you haven't watched him night in
Speaker 1: and night out, and people inside the Laker fan base
Speaker 1: that including myself, who had just been hard on him,
Speaker 1: especially at the beginning of the season. I think people
Speaker 1: like you and I who actually have been watching have
Speaker 1: taken it a lot easier on Russ says, he's gotten
Speaker 1: better because we have no we have no we have
Speaker 1: no personal against him, you know, what I mean. But
Speaker 1: like again, Russ. Russ has been good for a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks now, so it's nice to see Lebron in
Speaker 1: a d medium at that level, and we're seeing two
Speaker 1: Russ start to find comfort and where to be aggressive.
Speaker 1: It's hard for me to watch him with DJ still
Speaker 1: because you can tell there's just no there's no real
Speaker 1: opportunity for him to go. But he had a lot
Speaker 1: of opportunity tonight with a d Or. He'd go five
Speaker 1: out and and there'll be nobodies in the paint and
Speaker 1: he could put his head down and get to the rim.
Speaker 1: He had some bullyball post up type of touches. It's
Speaker 1: good to see Russ just starting to look comfortable in
Speaker 1: the Laker offense. Yeah, he's definitely starting to pick his spots,
Speaker 1: and anyone who's in the past he's watched US and
Speaker 1: Washington and Houston has said he kind of picks it
Speaker 1: up as a season goes along, and hopefully that's something
Speaker 1: that's happening here. Is engagement level has been there. Offensively,
Speaker 1: I think defensively still, he gets lost a lot of
Speaker 1: times on shooters or when he's the help man. He's
Speaker 1: really he really likes to go up go help on
Speaker 1: the boards, and that's something that really hurts the team.
Speaker 1: But you're right, he has pushed the pace. We've talked
Speaker 1: about it all year. Though. This team needs to choose
Speaker 1: an identity, and I think that one has to be
Speaker 1: one that fits Russ. The DJ and Avery Bradley lineups
Speaker 1: are so against what Russ is good at, what what
Speaker 1: gets Russ comfortable, and I think that's been the biggest frustration.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if Vogel is going to go
Speaker 1: away from that. But I thought again tonight his room
Speaker 1: pressure was great, and it's what we thought the formula
Speaker 1: would be for this team, right. It's Lebron and Aidy
Speaker 1: going off and then you have Russ as well doing
Speaker 1: his thing, putting up the numbers. And the numbers aren't
Speaker 1: always great like they you can, you know, argue whether
Speaker 1: they impact winning or whatever you want to say, but
Speaker 1: I mean twenty five points, nine rebounds, six assists, three turnovers,
Speaker 1: only three threes tonight, really getting to the basket, like,
Speaker 1: that's what that's the formula for this team winning, right,
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D being themselves and then Russ adding
Speaker 1: his production to that. And I think That's how you
Speaker 1: have to win here when you have a team full
Speaker 1: of guys on minimum deals, like the three stars have
Speaker 1: to be themselves, like, especially against good teams Detroit. Maybe
Speaker 1: you can get away with if one of them are
Speaker 1: playing well, but you need all three of them, all
Speaker 1: three of them going. I thought today was a sign
Speaker 1: of that of what it can look like. I guess
Speaker 1: when it's going, it's going well. But yeah, Russ starting
Speaker 1: to get more comfortable, starting to find his spots. Uh,
Speaker 1: the ad at the five lineups are obviously where he's
Speaker 1: most comfortable. Eighties still can't He's not shooting great, but
Speaker 1: his gravity is still there. I think I saw you
Speaker 1: treat that as well. Like eighties gravity as a shooter
Speaker 1: at the five still exists even if he's not shooting.
Speaker 1: It's something that just opens driving lanes for him. Uh
Speaker 1: and Lebron. It's something I think we need to lean into.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, Vogel will eventually lean into that,
Speaker 1: hopefully when we get the full team healthy here. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, I thought, I think Russ is progressing upwards. Um,
Speaker 1: and he's not hurting the team, right. I I think
Speaker 1: that hasn't heard the team in a long time exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think there's a line there. I think we've
Speaker 1: become uh. I think the conversation has come really close
Speaker 1: to if he's just not hurting the team, then it's great.
Speaker 1: He needs to be a positive though, right for the
Speaker 1: team we get to where it needs to go. He
Speaker 1: needs to be a positive every single nine and and
Speaker 1: it's trying to do it. And and to your to
Speaker 1: your point about like the specific um like offensive approach
Speaker 1: to the team and leaning into identities. This is where
Speaker 1: I really really struggle with the Avery Bradley and DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan's minutes because I, you know, will you and I both,
Speaker 1: but primarily me because of that clip that was just
Speaker 1: taken out of our podcast, has gotten a lot of
Speaker 1: crap for the DeAndre Jordan's and you know, my, my
Speaker 1: whole approach to DeAndre Jordan's signing wasn't really all that complicated.
Speaker 1: Like he's a drop coverage big who is playing in
Speaker 1: a switching system in Brooklyn, and it was just very
Speaker 1: clear that he was never going to succeed up there. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Lakers were coming off of back to back seasons
Speaker 1: being like the very best, if not second best, behind
Speaker 1: Utah drop coverage team in the league. That was what
Speaker 1: we did extremely well. So I'm sitting here thinking, like, hey,
Speaker 1: we'll get dj in here. He'll slot right into that
Speaker 1: Javil McGee, Dwight Anthony Davis role on our defense and
Speaker 1: it'll be nice is he won't play, But if Lebron
Speaker 1: or if Anthony Davis has to take a night off,
Speaker 1: or or Dwight Howard has to take on night off,
Speaker 1: you can slide DeAndre Jordan in there and he'll be
Speaker 1: able to run a rudimentary drop drop coverage with our
Speaker 1: scheme and it'll work. And all of that went to
Speaker 1: hell because not only did our guards not do their
Speaker 1: job in that scheme, Lebron and a D just completely
Speaker 1: mentally checked out on the season defensively compared to the
Speaker 1: way they were the previous two years. So all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, we're when we do run drop coverage, it
Speaker 1: looks like trash. Even if it's a D or Dwight.
Speaker 1: We're doing a lot more switching, We're running a jankie zone.
Speaker 1: And then you're like, why isn't DeAndre Jordan looking good?
Speaker 1: And it's like, because it was obvious that when he
Speaker 1: came in here it would be more of the same
Speaker 1: with the way that this team was playing. And then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, tonight DJ looks like a functional
Speaker 1: center again because Lebron and they D are engaged, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And look, I still don't like that,
Speaker 1: and I'm about to explain why. But the point is is,
Speaker 1: like none of this was It wasn't fair to judge Malik,
Speaker 1: to judge Mellow the way we did in the first
Speaker 1: few games of the season, to judge DJ, to judge
Speaker 1: any of these guys with the way that Lebron and
Speaker 1: they D were playing, because at that point they might
Speaker 1: as well be the Houston Rockets, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: in terms of just the what what they're going to
Speaker 1: look like on the television screenplaying basketball. So it wasn't
Speaker 1: really fair. But so to your point about the identity,
Speaker 1: this is where I would like to see a lot
Speaker 1: more Malik Monk, a lot more Lebron at the five,
Speaker 1: a D at the five, a lot more favoring than
Speaker 1: shooting over guys like Avery Bradley over DeAndre Jordan's you know,
Speaker 1: Baysmore's out of the rotation. Now. The reason why it's
Speaker 1: because I think with Lebron and a D try, you'll
Speaker 1: actually see functional, workable defense from the league Monk, from
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington, from Carmelo Anthony, from these guys, because again,
Speaker 1: it's just easier for them to do their jobs when
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D are flying around out of their
Speaker 1: area and making plays. And so from there, that's how
Speaker 1: we turned this from a team that only scores a
Speaker 1: hundred nine points or whatever it was against the Pistons
Speaker 1: into a team that could put up thirty while also
Speaker 1: getting a bunch of stops. It's by leaning into that
Speaker 1: offensive identity a little more while while still expecting Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D to engage on the defensive end. I
Speaker 1: think we need to kind of re evaluate some of
Speaker 1: that with Lebron and a D checked in. Does that
Speaker 1: make sense? Yeah, and for sure doesn't. And I think
Speaker 1: I was more on the like, I'm fine, like I
Speaker 1: was wrong about this. I was kind of fine with
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan's starting in place of like just taking that
Speaker 1: JaVale McGee role, and JaVale McGee's motor is a lot
Speaker 1: higher and all that stuff of it is true. Jandre
Speaker 1: Jordan's obviously has highlight clips or low light clips if
Speaker 1: you want to call it where he just absolutely doesn't
Speaker 1: try it, right he I've said it before. He takes
Speaker 1: the path of least resistance on pretty much any play
Speaker 1: that he does. And and maybe that's just something that
Speaker 1: that passes down when Lebron and a D aren't engaged
Speaker 1: and it just goes on to him. But that's something
Speaker 1: that he's done a lot of this season. He takes
Speaker 1: the path of leasse resistance, right, if he has to go,
Speaker 1: if he has to go out to a shooter and
Speaker 1: there's a big standing in the lane, even though a
Speaker 1: D s in the lane with him, he just he
Speaker 1: just ties himself to that big man, even though it's
Speaker 1: his help rotation, right, And that's something that he'll do.
Speaker 1: But you're right, this team needs Lebron and a D
Speaker 1: engaged on defense to go anywhere. We're just playing too
Speaker 1: many offensive minded guys, too many guys where our coverage
Speaker 1: doesn't match the personnel. A D at the five again
Speaker 1: is I've always talked about it. I think it's the
Speaker 1: right play for this team. I also don't think it's
Speaker 1: the magic Alick, sir, that you press one button and
Speaker 1: it solves other issues. You can't play you can't play
Speaker 1: a D at the five, Lebron at the four, and
Speaker 1: then have both of them checked out on defense. Right,
Speaker 1: it doesn't work like that. Like those two have to
Speaker 1: be the help man rotation, have to be engaged on
Speaker 1: a lot of the plays. Lebron has to be the
Speaker 1: back line guy calling out things that are happening. He
Speaker 1: has to be that guy, the guy that can help
Speaker 1: and recover, and he's more than capable of doing that.
Speaker 1: Maybe again, that's not fair for him to do in
Speaker 1: year nineteen, but that's just where the roster is. That's
Speaker 1: how it's constructed. It's it's built around those two guys talents,
Speaker 1: and it looks a lot better. DeAndre Jordan does look
Speaker 1: a lot more serviceable when you're having a D and
Speaker 1: Lebron engaged in this way. But you're right, DeAndre Jordan
Speaker 1: should not play, and maybe hopefully that's just a that's
Speaker 1: just a factor of Dwight not playing tonight and not
Speaker 1: have any any centers. I just feel like Vogel is
Speaker 1: going to continue this, uh, this starting lineup until until
Speaker 1: we get the team kind of fully back healthy here.
Speaker 1: Do you see that going forward? Because I don't think
Speaker 1: vote is changing, Like I just I feel like he's
Speaker 1: going to continue this. Uh, like next time, would you
Speaker 1: predict that DeAndre Jordan every Brady don't start because I
Speaker 1: don't like, I think they're is going to continue to
Speaker 1: go to this even though the numbers say that it's awful.
Speaker 1: I think coming in tonight into tonight, we had a
Speaker 1: eighty seven point zero offensive rating with our with our
Speaker 1: starting lineup with those two in with Avery Bradley and
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan on the floor, it's seven offensive rating and
Speaker 1: that's with Lebron or A D and Russ on the floor. Like,
Speaker 1: do you see that? Because I feel like we're going
Speaker 1: to continue to see these lineups. We're going to continue
Speaker 1: to see the same starting lineup going forward. I think
Speaker 1: we'll continue to see DeAndre in the starting lineup until
Speaker 1: Trevor reas it comes back. I think at that point,
Speaker 1: even even Frank's flawed reasoning for going that route, will
Speaker 1: you know, point him in the in the direction of
Speaker 1: going with the reason. I mean, this is the part
Speaker 1: where it gets tricky because, like I said, uh, Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D. If this is the start of them
Speaker 1: truly investing in the season, which we don't know. Like
Speaker 1: I said, there's been a half dozen moments like this
Speaker 1: where we wonder, hey, is this the turning point? Like
Speaker 1: I still remember sitting here talking with you about whether
Speaker 1: or not come back after the Isaiah Stewart fight was
Speaker 1: gonna be the magical comeback. Um, but I guess what
Speaker 1: it wasn't. So so that that's that's that's the point.
Speaker 1: But if Lebron and a D used this as a
Speaker 1: turning point and they continue to invest night in the
Speaker 1: Night Out, the DJ minutes are gonna be okay, They're
Speaker 1: gonna win those minutes because, like I said, with those
Speaker 1: two engaged, it's just too much talent on the floor
Speaker 1: for really any line up to to to to struggle
Speaker 1: night in and night out. They're going to have some
Speaker 1: success there. So the hope there is that when a
Speaker 1: reason gets in, hopefully by that point he'll just have
Speaker 1: no choice but to lean heavier into it. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to you know, you had mentioned, you know, like
Speaker 1: maybe it's not fair to ask Lebron in year nineteen
Speaker 1: to do this, And this is something I've been to
Speaker 1: a little bit about this with Ben the other night.
Speaker 1: But this is a huge pet peeve of mine in
Speaker 1: this season because again, we are not talking about you
Speaker 1: know Lebron when he was with the Calves, and it's like, hey, dude,
Speaker 1: you've made the final seven straight seasons or six straight seasons,
Speaker 1: and you know, and you know in the easter A
Speaker 1: Conference that when you hit the gas, no one can
Speaker 1: really mess with you. So you have the ability to
Speaker 1: to to coast through here. This isn't We're the defending
Speaker 1: champs and we just finished seventy one days ago, so
Speaker 1: like we we probably need to to favor taking work
Speaker 1: off of these guys. Oh and by the way, we're
Speaker 1: twenty one and six, so like we we can afford
Speaker 1: to No. No, you are a bad team who is
Speaker 1: below five hundred, who just lost in the first round,
Speaker 1: who already has eleven losses, which is a lot if
Speaker 1: you really think about it, a fourth the way through
Speaker 1: the season, like the playing tournament or getting into a
Speaker 1: position where you're fighting to the last minute of the
Speaker 1: regular season to maybe get home court advantage in the
Speaker 1: first round. That's a real possibility now, even if Lebron
Speaker 1: in a d dial in. So there's like real urgency here.
Speaker 1: So what bothers me is that people can't see that,
Speaker 1: Like you don't get to say Lebron's in year nineteen,
Speaker 1: so we gotta take it easy on him, or we
Speaker 1: can't ask a D to do all this work defending
Speaker 1: big guys all season because you know his body might
Speaker 1: wear down. Okay, if you want to take those responsibilities
Speaker 1: away from them, we're just going to be a bad team.
Speaker 1: That's the reality of it. This is we have real
Speaker 1: urgency here. If we don't ask Lebron and a D
Speaker 1: to do this stuff. If Lebron and a D aren't
Speaker 1: willing to buy in on both ends of the floor,
Speaker 1: this is a five or below basketball team. That's just
Speaker 1: That's a fact. That's a literal fact. So once they
Speaker 1: embrace that and understand that they the team needs them
Speaker 1: to be good, that they were literally losing the first round.
Speaker 1: If they don't get back to the level, hopefully that
Speaker 1: urgency kicks in with them and then we'll start to
Speaker 1: see a better investment in that. But you know, I
Speaker 1: thought I saw you know, I thought Lebron rarely shows
Speaker 1: that contrid and I thought we saw that for the
Speaker 1: first time after that loss the other night. Um uh,
Speaker 1: after those bad shots and ot against Sacramento. You could
Speaker 1: tell when he said, like I have to be better
Speaker 1: for this team. It seemed like the first time that
Speaker 1: I could tell this season that it dawned on him
Speaker 1: that what he was giving wasn't enough, even beyond what
Speaker 1: he did in Indiana. Just I think he was aware
Speaker 1: suddenly that, like I think the urgency finally dawned with him.
Speaker 1: And that's just my theory and that's why I think
Speaker 1: maybe this will turn around from here. But like the
Speaker 1: this team does not have the luxury of trying to
Speaker 1: cut Lebron in a D slack. They are not talented enough.
Speaker 1: They are too far they're too far behind the eight
Speaker 1: ball with their continuity, and they're too far behind the
Speaker 1: eight ball with their habits to allow Lebron in a
Speaker 1: D to coast. We actually need them to hit playoff
Speaker 1: intensity now until this thing gets right. If they go
Speaker 1: on a massive win streak and they're in a comfortable
Speaker 1: spy in the one, two or three seed and they're
Speaker 1: in an easy part of their schedule, have been fine.
Speaker 1: You can do things to eat innings and try to
Speaker 1: take something off their plate. But right now we can't.
Speaker 1: We have to ask Lebron in ad to do more. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And when I say it's unfair to ask Lebron, you know,
Speaker 1: in your nineteen Like to me, I mean in like
Speaker 1: in a perfect world, in a perfect like roster construction way,
Speaker 1: you don't want your guy in your nine, your superstar
Speaker 1: in your nineteen have to be the guy defensively every night. Like,
Speaker 1: that's not something you just want to have, right, Even
Speaker 1: the Clippers with Kawai and Paul George, Kauai doesn't take
Speaker 1: the best offensive player every single night. Even Paul George
Speaker 1: sometimes doesn't take the best offensive player every night, even
Speaker 1: when both of the guys on the floor, sometimes it's
Speaker 1: Marcus you know Morris who takes the best defensive. God,
Speaker 1: that's just the way to load manage during a season.
Speaker 1: That's what I mean by it's like like in a
Speaker 1: perfect world, you wouldn't want Lebron to be the guy
Speaker 1: having to carry your you know, defensive be one of
Speaker 1: the defensive back lines in the season that he's in.
Speaker 1: And he's one. Look, he's probably the best ever in
Speaker 1: terms of load managing, in terms of knowing how to
Speaker 1: get his body ready for a playoff run. Right. You
Speaker 1: don't go to whatever it was, ten or nine finals
Speaker 1: in a row, uh by nine finals in row without
Speaker 1: having the experience and knowing what it takes to get there,
Speaker 1: and and to me, this team just doesn't have that
Speaker 1: luxury like you said, where he can kind of just
Speaker 1: coast through, go up and down with this effort on defense,
Speaker 1: and just try to walk through these games. Because we're
Speaker 1: just gonna keep losing, We're gonna be a bad team.
Speaker 1: We have to start building habits. We have to start
Speaker 1: building good habits, winning habits. I thought it was funny
Speaker 1: the quote with Anthony Davis that came out where he said,
Speaker 1: we just need to win ten games in a row. Right,
Speaker 1: He's like, just when just win tens again in games
Speaker 1: in a row and solve any solve everything. The title
Speaker 1: team in one ten one ten games in a row
Speaker 1: once they had another nine game winning streak as well.
Speaker 1: But my point there, it's very difficult. It's very difficult.
Speaker 1: That's why I think the Sun's winning fourteen in a
Speaker 1: row should be a bigger deal deal to me. And
Speaker 1: people come at me with the teams that they played,
Speaker 1: I don't care you. People teams lead lose the teams
Speaker 1: they're not supposed to lose to all the time. We
Speaker 1: can attest to that just with the games that we've
Speaker 1: seen like it's very tough to win that many games
Speaker 1: in a row. They've won four teen best neither here
Speaker 1: and there. But yeah, eight is saying we just need
Speaker 1: to win, Like that's difficult. You need to And again
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a step by step process. This team
Speaker 1: has in the quotes have said that it's a long game,
Speaker 1: it's a process. But I mean, we're like, what done
Speaker 1: with the season now? Like it's it's getting late early
Speaker 1: as they'll say, and you know, and we hear this
Speaker 1: quarter a lot, right, it's a it's a first quarter
Speaker 1: league as much as it's a fourth quarter league. Like
Speaker 1: these are all habits that you have to build, uh,
Speaker 1: to get to where we want to and to me,
Speaker 1: Lebron have to be engaged at a baseline level. Doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be a percent they don't, you know, they
Speaker 1: can do. I thought the third quarter tonight the ergy
Speaker 1: was the best I've seen. I think they have like
Speaker 1: a sixteen o run or something like that. But but
Speaker 1: like it doesn't have to be to that level, but
Speaker 1: it has to be at a baseline level. And I
Speaker 1: think the players feed off of that as well. I
Speaker 1: think you go out of how your stars go and
Speaker 1: and they need to set the tone here and all
Speaker 1: the Frank Vogel noise all that's fair. The lineups aren't
Speaker 1: conducive to this roster, that's fair, And those are all
Speaker 1: criticisms that totally believe in. But for Lebron and eighty
Speaker 1: not to be bought and that that's the number one
Speaker 1: thing for this team, because everything else doesn't matter. Like
Speaker 1: we said, you can't even get to scheme without first
Speaker 1: passing by effort, and I think that's the first kind
Speaker 1: of ship bridge we have to pass. And hopefully tonight's
Speaker 1: a way to get past there. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 1: this is the last thing I'll say about the Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d thing, and then we can move back
Speaker 1: into a couple more you know, details from tonight. But
Speaker 1: like you know, I was really really hard on the
Speaker 1: two of them over the course of the last couple
Speaker 1: of days. And you know, I've had a lot of
Speaker 1: people in my mentions, you know, getting on me about
Speaker 1: being too negative and and you know, obviously I have
Speaker 1: I have, for whatever reason, a good amount of clinically
Speaker 1: insane Lebron fans that fall me that make it a
Speaker 1: little bit toxic. And I mentions from time to from
Speaker 1: time to time. But the truth of the matter is
Speaker 1: is that like like it. It is because of how
Speaker 1: much I respect those two and what they're capable of,
Speaker 1: that I am this hard on them, Like it's infuriating
Speaker 1: for me competitively to watch these guys leave in reserve
Speaker 1: a good chunk of what they're capable of when the
Speaker 1: team is is floundering like this, It like irks me
Speaker 1: to my core as just as as a competitor in
Speaker 1: my own right, as a fan of the team, as
Speaker 1: a fan of them as players. It's it's something that
Speaker 1: it's like, it's like nails on a chalkboard to me
Speaker 1: watching them go just kind of go through the motions
Speaker 1: like this. And you know, if you want to say
Speaker 1: Lebron's in his nineteenth season, he's thirty seven, it's unfair
Speaker 1: for us to ask him to do this stuff. Then
Speaker 1: I don't want to. I don't want to hear his
Speaker 1: damn name mentioned by that same group of people in
Speaker 1: the top list of players in the league. Ever. Again,
Speaker 1: if that's the kind of standards you're going to hold
Speaker 1: him too, I'm sorry because as the way the way
Speaker 1: I look at it, this team is custom built to
Speaker 1: take workload off of him, you know, arguably too much.
Speaker 1: This is this team has been custom built for him
Speaker 1: to be able to focus his talents in a way
Speaker 1: that doesn't fatigue him yet also allows him to raise
Speaker 1: the ceiling significantly. And Anthony Davis, we can go into that,
Speaker 1: and we were going to talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: and a little bit about just the way he's kind
Speaker 1: of rebuilt his body and whether that slowed him down.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is Man is, like we have
Speaker 1: seen too often what he's capable of. Like just in
Speaker 1: this crap stretch of games to start this season, how
Speaker 1: many times at the end of a close game has
Speaker 1: he hit the Jets on the defensive end, and just
Speaker 1: it literally looked like Batman was swooping down from the
Speaker 1: ceiling to a race shots like it literally. Out of
Speaker 1: respect for what they're capable of, that I hold them
Speaker 1: to that standard. And I rail on Lebron for two
Speaker 1: days for being a lazy asshole and leaving his team
Speaker 1: hung out to dry because I think he can be
Speaker 1: the best player in the world. That's the standard I'm
Speaker 1: holding him too. I was the one advocating that he
Speaker 1: was the undisputed best player in the world after the
Speaker 1: after the the bubble. I'm the one who said he
Speaker 1: deserved to win m v P before he got injured
Speaker 1: last year. So I'm also the guy singing his praises
Speaker 1: when he's doing what he's supposed to be doing. But
Speaker 1: I'm not going to apologize for asking him and holding
Speaker 1: him to that same standard when he's mailing it in.
Speaker 1: And if that means that, I have guys and I
Speaker 1: mentions ripping me a new one every day, and I
Speaker 1: have guys telling me that I'm pandering to the anti
Speaker 1: lebron crowd or whatever the hell it is they're saying,
Speaker 1: so be it. But because like as a competitor, I'm
Speaker 1: not capable of sitting there and patting him on the
Speaker 1: back and babying him right now, not when the team's floundering,
Speaker 1: not when they're tending eleven, and not when he's one
Speaker 1: of the main reasons for it because he's coasting every night.
Speaker 1: So I and I don't think you should apologize either
Speaker 1: for being that. That's just you and I being honest fans,
Speaker 1: and I think that's the way it should be, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, And and we want the team to do well,
Speaker 1: like there's there's no world where we want this team
Speaker 1: not playing well or we want Lauren to be bad defense,
Speaker 1: like we've we set our expectations, I think to the
Speaker 1: right point. And this team needs him, needs him to
Speaker 1: be engaged defensively. It's just what it is. It's not
Speaker 1: the team that it was before. You're right, he has
Speaker 1: more you know, leeway offensively where you know, Russ can
Speaker 1: take more control Molik Munk a little more offensive minded players,
Speaker 1: more ball handling that he doesn't have to do where
Speaker 1: he can kind of put time an effort on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. But it's clear he hasn't Like we're gonna
Speaker 1: be real, We're gonna be honest. We watched these games
Speaker 1: usually we watched them twice for the most part, like
Speaker 1: they have not brought the defensive effort. And Lebron even
Speaker 1: talked about it even after the twenties season. A d
Speaker 1: brought it up how he wanted Lebron you know, to
Speaker 1: make all defense and you know, talked about the identity
Speaker 1: and you know, Avery Bradley was part of it, calling
Speaker 1: calling it the Avery Bradley Challenge. All that stuff was
Speaker 1: part of it, right, and we had Lebron engaged from
Speaker 1: day one. Lebron was engaged in a way that they
Speaker 1: haven't seen for a while. You talked to Cleveland Cavalier
Speaker 1: people and say, he's never engaged from day one defensively,
Speaker 1: and he was that season and we need that again
Speaker 1: this year. And like you talked about this, by the way,
Speaker 1: really quick, their bodies held up. People didn't get hurt
Speaker 1: like Lebron, A d gave incredible effort and their bodies
Speaker 1: held up and they got the trophy. Like that is
Speaker 1: the proven method to winning a championship is dialing it
Speaker 1: up from day one. Yeah, and that's how you build
Speaker 1: habits and and how it's led to you know, the
Speaker 1: team having I believe the one seed going into the
Speaker 1: bubble and all that, and we know how everything went
Speaker 1: from there. But this team needs both of those two
Speaker 1: to set the tone, you know, and I really believe
Speaker 1: in that. I believe your stars set the tone for
Speaker 1: your other players, especially defensively. To me, Like again, like
Speaker 1: I know you said you hold Lebron to that standard.
Speaker 1: I think the standard for Lebron is when you need
Speaker 1: to win a series, who are you taking? You know,
Speaker 1: you can call him about Steph Curry, Joanna Kade, like
Speaker 1: I probably you know, I feel like the answer is
Speaker 1: still Lebron there, Like, I think that's the standard that
Speaker 1: most people hold him to. I think the night Tonight
Speaker 1: stuff is tough for a guy at the age. That's
Speaker 1: just my opinion there. But to me, a D is
Speaker 1: the guy. There's no excuses and we'll talk later. Like
Speaker 1: you said about you know, the shift in his body,
Speaker 1: you know, putting on more masks. All that stuff is
Speaker 1: fair and you know that exists. But eight is the
Speaker 1: guy that has to be the I'm taking over every
Speaker 1: single night. This is my team. I'm twenty years years old,
Speaker 1: in the prime of my prime, you know, like this
Speaker 1: this is my time to kind of take over. And
Speaker 1: you know, the numbers are great, the numbers are still there.
Speaker 1: He's dominating in the paint. It's still like to me,
Speaker 1: when you watch the game, there's still need, there's still
Speaker 1: an impact that I'm not seeing, like in terms of
Speaker 1: night tonight that I felt I saw more. But that's
Speaker 1: to me is the guy that that we need to
Speaker 1: expect more from. And I think it's fair to expect
Speaker 1: more from. We threw We all threw a D in
Speaker 1: the top five, you know, top three, top two, even
Speaker 1: in some circles you know after the playoff runt, if
Speaker 1: those are the places you have him, it has to
Speaker 1: be a night to night thing with him. It can't
Speaker 1: be the taking off load managing just because Lebron and
Speaker 1: Russ are so I get to take I get to
Speaker 1: take places off. No, like a D has to be
Speaker 1: the guy night tonight that takes over. And I think
Speaker 1: that's the shift that this team has to go to,
Speaker 1: no matter who the coaches, no matter what the scheme is,
Speaker 1: no matter how ugly the offense is, it's it's a
Speaker 1: D who has to take over to me. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: and and quite frankly, like he is the one most capable.
Speaker 1: Like you said, it's you know, Russ is gonna run
Speaker 1: hot and cold because he's at a point in his
Speaker 1: career where his body isn't consistently there behind him. The
Speaker 1: same goes with Lebron. You know, Um, I think Lebron,
Speaker 1: like I said, there's a fine line between what you're
Speaker 1: pointing out, like Lebron be the guy who is the
Speaker 1: guy in the final that can run you for a
Speaker 1: playoff series, but at the same time, isn't that shouldn't
Speaker 1: be expected to do at night in the night out.
Speaker 1: But he was so far past that threshold with his
Speaker 1: own laziness that I think it's still deserved to be
Speaker 1: called out. Like I don't I don't expect him to
Speaker 1: go world beater every night. We were just needing more
Speaker 1: from him than what we were getting. But like you
Speaker 1: when you're the way I'm looking at it here is
Speaker 1: because of the phase of the careers that Russell Lebron
Speaker 1: are in, Anthony Davis is, in theory, the guy that
Speaker 1: should be having seasons like we always talk about during
Speaker 1: the regular season, separate from the top tier guys. Like
Speaker 1: every season it's like Lebron is doing his thing, Katie
Speaker 1: is doing his thing, Steps doing his thing. But it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: look at Yokich. Yokich is unbelievable right now. Oh look
Speaker 1: at and beat and Beats unbelievable right now. That's what
Speaker 1: we should be saying about Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis, He's no,
Speaker 1: he's not in that like that like fraternity of that
Speaker 1: top tier, like iron clad resume guys that are gonna
Speaker 1: be always like if we're always taking Lebron step k
Speaker 1: D two for a playoff series like and then Joannice
Speaker 1: kind of just shoehorned his way into that conversation with
Speaker 1: his last playoff run, and now he's very much on
Speaker 1: that level with those guys, but everybody else, you have
Speaker 1: a ton to prove. Like a D, you were unbelievable
Speaker 1: in the bubble, don't get me wrong, but you still
Speaker 1: have more to prove in terms of being in that
Speaker 1: fraternity joining those four guys, because what you get from
Speaker 1: those four guys was Lebron came out of the bubble
Speaker 1: and for twenty seven games to start the season or
Speaker 1: whatever it was, was an MVP candidate. Lebron didn't let
Speaker 1: his foot off the gas. Now, obviously injury derailed that,
Speaker 1: but the point is is like a D. You know,
Speaker 1: I saw someone tweet out the other day they said
Speaker 1: A D got his championship in the bubble and stopped
Speaker 1: caring about basketball. Now that's low brown analysis and I
Speaker 1: don't agree with that. But hidden underneath that is a
Speaker 1: kernel of truth in the sense that after a D
Speaker 1: won his championship, he won thousand percent stepped way back
Speaker 1: off of his night to night intensity. That that is
Speaker 1: a that is an absolute fact. And last year, before
Speaker 1: his Achilles tentinosis, it was Lebron that was carrying the
Speaker 1: team and part of the reason why he was an
Speaker 1: MVP candidate was because A D was mailing it in
Speaker 1: most most nights. We talked about how a D already
Speaker 1: I think he already has more thirty point games and
Speaker 1: he had all last season or something like that. I
Speaker 1: can't remember exactly what the status and I'll quote me
Speaker 1: on it. But the point is is, like we we
Speaker 1: have seen him to disconnect himself from that group of
Speaker 1: players that's right below that top tier, the guys that
Speaker 1: get all the noise in the regular season. This should
Speaker 1: be his time to really really shoehorn himself into that conversation.
Speaker 1: So I agree with you, and he's the one who's
Speaker 1: most physically capable of it. Now. The interesting thing you
Speaker 1: brought up, so somebody pointed this out on Twitter today
Speaker 1: this morning. Um, A kind of transformed his body really
Speaker 1: really spent a lot of time in the weight room
Speaker 1: and is kind of jacked up top like he's his
Speaker 1: upper body frame is is extremely strong. Um. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, as we've talked about, he's become almost
Speaker 1: more of a finesse player than ever And so it's
Speaker 1: an interesting conundrum. So you know, it's counterintuitive because you
Speaker 1: might tell yourself. Oh, he's stronger, he should be able
Speaker 1: to play more physically imposing around the rim. But I
Speaker 1: think one of the trade offs there is he hasn't
Speaker 1: been as quick and his foot speed has always been
Speaker 1: an advantage for him against other bigs. And so I
Speaker 1: let's kick it to your rage. What's your what's your
Speaker 1: take on the whole Anthony Davis being too hot head
Speaker 1: due to top heavy thing. Yeah, as I texted you,
Speaker 1: like this something I kind of wanted to discuss because
Speaker 1: it is something I've definitely noticed, um And last year
Speaker 1: I kind of threw it away as a you know,
Speaker 1: as a you know, short season you had the short offseason.
Speaker 1: Came in, from his own words, out of shape and
Speaker 1: try to play through it. Then he got hurt in
Speaker 1: February and he was pretty much out and played a
Speaker 1: few games late in the year and in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But again this year, he just doesn't move. He's not
Speaker 1: as agile, I guess, and you can correct me if
Speaker 1: I'm wrong, You're Jason. Maybe it's just what I'm seeing,
Speaker 1: and maybe this is just him being reluctant to roll
Speaker 1: to the rim. But again I see just more he's
Speaker 1: become more of just like a big center, right. I
Speaker 1: think the whole point of a D is this agile
Speaker 1: kind of guy who can catch and finish and have
Speaker 1: a bunch of moves and and to me, like he
Speaker 1: just looks bigger and this is something he wanted to
Speaker 1: do to play this as a guy who's going to
Speaker 1: play the center position more. But he just seems bigger
Speaker 1: and it seems like something he's adjusting to as well
Speaker 1: with his body. Like he just seems slow. Like is
Speaker 1: it wrong for me to say he's playing slower? Like
Speaker 1: he just doesn't seem he's yeah, yeah, so he just does.
Speaker 1: Like it just feels like he's playing a lot more
Speaker 1: like a lot more slow, like like more grounded basketball.
Speaker 1: Not and again like he's he's getting lobs and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. I'm saying he's not, you know, up in
Speaker 1: the air. But it still seems like he's more of
Speaker 1: a grounded player than he was at least in that
Speaker 1: first year. It just it doesn't seem as fluid, and
Speaker 1: fluidity is probably the word that I would like that
Speaker 1: that I fit the most with. This just doesn't look fluid, right,
Speaker 1: Everything looks rigid, Everything looks tough. And it's another thing
Speaker 1: like I hate the eye test versus numbers conversations that
Speaker 1: we have because I think you know both sides, you
Speaker 1: use both of them, like the whole point of this,
Speaker 1: it's just information. He used both of them, and to me,
Speaker 1: like his numbers are still great. When I watched the games,
Speaker 1: everything still looks too difficult, and maybe that's him not
Speaker 1: playing you know, the center lineups, but I think that's
Speaker 1: an excuse. Like I feel like he's just he's not
Speaker 1: as agile, not as fluid. Am I wrong? They're like,
Speaker 1: tell me if I'm wrong there, But just when I'm
Speaker 1: watching the game, that's what I'm seeing. It's just not
Speaker 1: as fluid. And I think part of that is the
Speaker 1: new boy. I think he's definitely put on mass and
Speaker 1: it's something he's getting used to and we'll see how
Speaker 1: it goes looking forward. But that's kind of where I'm
Speaker 1: where I'm at with is that he just doesn't look
Speaker 1: as fluid as as I remember him, at least the
Speaker 1: first year. So I want to preface it by saying
Speaker 1: that I think he still is capable of playing a
Speaker 1: lot better than he has then, even with his current
Speaker 1: body type. That said, there's a reason why Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: doesn't spend a ton of time in the weight room,
Speaker 1: and it's because he understands his advantage is his quickness
Speaker 1: and mobility at his size right, and whereas like a
Speaker 1: guy like Lebron, Lebron, it always was advantageous for him
Speaker 1: to be in the weight room because he never was
Speaker 1: a side to side type of perimeter player. Lebron has
Speaker 1: always been a straight line, brute force, low center of gravity.
Speaker 1: You're not bumping me off my line, I'm bumping you
Speaker 1: off my line type of offensive player. So for him, ironically,
Speaker 1: at times in his career where he's out of the
Speaker 1: weight room, he's had less success. Famously in two thousand fifteen,
Speaker 1: he goes on that big Fish diet or whatever before
Speaker 1: his first season in Cleveland, and he sucks for the
Speaker 1: first like third of the season, has back issues, seemingly
Speaker 1: has lost a step, doesn't have as much success getting
Speaker 1: to the basket. Then he comes back the second half
Speaker 1: of the season, looks thicker, takes a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: off in Miami, looks like he bulkes up a little bit.
Speaker 1: He comes back and he looks like the old Lebron again.
Speaker 1: Point being like, it's all about like your play style
Speaker 1: like a D. You know, it's very funny if you
Speaker 1: watch any basketball game and you watch there's basically like
Speaker 1: two different kind of athletic archetypes. There are guys that
Speaker 1: are like always down low in a defensive stands and
Speaker 1: knees are always been They're very like low and athletic
Speaker 1: type of players. And then they're kind of like upright
Speaker 1: type of players. And a D is very much an
Speaker 1: upright type of player. Even when he's in a defensive stance,
Speaker 1: he's not really sitting down low squatted, you know, coach
Speaker 1: fundamentally sound defensive stance. He's kind of like an upright
Speaker 1: type of dude. So when he puts on that weight,
Speaker 1: it just it raises his center of gravity, makes it
Speaker 1: easier for him to get pushed off his spot. And
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is is like the only
Speaker 1: place he really should be looking to add strength is
Speaker 1: in his lower body and and try to keep his
Speaker 1: weight down so that he can beat guys with his speed.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of my two cents on it. That said, like,
Speaker 1: like a D even with his current frame, even with
Speaker 1: his current mobility, is capable of making this work for himself. Um,
Speaker 1: But yeah, in in in theory like he was. He
Speaker 1: was never just this brute for straight line, low center
Speaker 1: of gravity type of big like Janice is. So the
Speaker 1: upper body strength I think is less relevant for him,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. Yeah, it's very similar. Like I
Speaker 1: think we talked about this earlier, like I see with
Speaker 1: Russ as well, and I know, like we kind of disagree.
Speaker 1: I felt like Russ was a little bit more finesse
Speaker 1: in his earlier years and he gets credit for like
Speaker 1: playing him twice in the playoffs. He wasn't just a
Speaker 1: guy that was all brute force, but just in my opinion,
Speaker 1: and but now he's like really bulked up, like he's
Speaker 1: you know, ripped now, and I feel like he's turned
Speaker 1: into a brute force type of player, less less reliant
Speaker 1: on skill. Right, He's more just a I'm gonna force
Speaker 1: my way to the rim. And that's why I think
Speaker 1: you see all the when you get the bad Russ,
Speaker 1: you see all these misslayups. He gets to the basket
Speaker 1: and it's all force, and once he gets the rim,
Speaker 1: the skill level has dropped off. And that's kind I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that that's a direct comparison with a D
Speaker 1: but I'm seeing some of that, like adjustment to the
Speaker 1: uh to the new body kind of has the weight
Speaker 1: that he's put on. It's that's a different player. Like
Speaker 1: if you go look at his games in New Orleans,
Speaker 1: he's just a like he's a very agile, fluid big
Speaker 1: that's that's rolling around, scrolling, screening and rolling to the basket,
Speaker 1: a lot of fluidity, being able to go by guys,
Speaker 1: you know, off the dribble, and right now it just
Speaker 1: feels very rigid. And I think the lineups are part
Speaker 1: of it. Don't get me wrong. The spacing is awful
Speaker 1: obviously DJ and every Bradley, But to me, that that
Speaker 1: does that's not the whole story. So I just wanted
Speaker 1: to be discussed that because I feel like I feel
Speaker 1: like he's adjusting to it and hopefully we see see
Speaker 1: it getting better going forward. But that's what I've seen,
Speaker 1: at least so far. He's not as quick as I
Speaker 1: remember him, I guess being, and I maybe that's just
Speaker 1: something we will have to he'll he'll he'll get adjusted
Speaker 1: to as we go forward here. Yeah, I agree, And
Speaker 1: and you know he's going to continue as he stays
Speaker 1: healthy and stays on the court. He's going to continue
Speaker 1: to look better and better. In my opinion, the big
Speaker 1: thing that was derailing him there, I thought was his
Speaker 1: shot selection, you know, and this is part of his
Speaker 1: physical engagement into the game. Like I think A D
Speaker 1: was hopeful that with all of this talent, he could
Speaker 1: bs his way, taking you know, roughly two thirds of
Speaker 1: his shots on uh, you know, off the dribble jump
Speaker 1: shots or jabs at jump shots, and he thought he
Speaker 1: could kind of coast his way through the season. But
Speaker 1: that's clearlyly it's clearly that that's not the case. He's
Speaker 1: not shooting those shots well enough, the team's generating enough
Speaker 1: rim pressure, and so by virtue, like one of the
Speaker 1: things I thought you saw tonight is A D didn't
Speaker 1: take any bad jump shots. Like I I'd have to
Speaker 1: go back and look at the tape, but I don't
Speaker 1: think he took a bad shot tonight. And so you
Speaker 1: have these two threes that he takes that are both
Speaker 1: wide open in rhythm catch and shoot shots that are
Speaker 1: spit a space out around these rim attacks, and they
Speaker 1: go in. And they're not always going to go in,
Speaker 1: but in general, you're gonna shoot a higher percentage when
Speaker 1: you build your offense inside out that way. You know,
Speaker 1: Maple's texted tweeted me after the or yesterday just because
Speaker 1: that the stat came out. I can't remember what account
Speaker 1: it was that tweeted out, but basically eighties, you know,
Speaker 1: just tweeted out basically just how bad Ap has been
Speaker 1: on jump shots, and basically for high volume jump shooters,
Speaker 1: he's lowest in the league and points per shots. So
Speaker 1: like that's how bad he's been, and he goes, you know,
Speaker 1: Maple has asked me, do you still want a d
Speaker 1: taken five threes per game? And I told him yes.
Speaker 1: The problem wasn't the threes, it was the crazy off
Speaker 1: the dribble mid range jump shots. That's where his efficiency
Speaker 1: is tanking now is he has he not been shooting
Speaker 1: well on threes yet, but part of that is because
Speaker 1: he's literally shooting himself out of rhythm every night with
Speaker 1: these terrible shots. And if anything, instead of taking twelve
Speaker 1: jump shots per game and three or four of them
Speaker 1: being three threes, I'd rather have him take six or
Speaker 1: seven jump shots a game and have four or five
Speaker 1: of them be three's, because at that point, chances are
Speaker 1: those six or seven jump shots are all going to
Speaker 1: be pretty high quality. They're all going to be balanced,
Speaker 1: the vast majority of them where they're gonna be picking
Speaker 1: pop threes that are in that eighteen to twenty foot
Speaker 1: range or at the three point light or spotting up
Speaker 1: and there. He's just gonna get the quality of shots
Speaker 1: that he needs to get himself out of a slump.
Speaker 1: Like I always preached on this show, the best way
Speaker 1: to get out of a shooting slump is to keep shooting,
Speaker 1: but to take high quality shots. The worst thing you
Speaker 1: can do in is shooting slump is keep pounding your
Speaker 1: head into the wall by taking tougher and tougher shots,
Speaker 1: because guess what, You're gonna keep missing, and then you're
Speaker 1: gonna trick yourself in your brain into thinking you don't
Speaker 1: have it when the reality is that you have bad process.
Speaker 1: And so that's that's where I'd like to see him
Speaker 1: kind of like a tweak his offense in that regard.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest ways we could tactically do that
Speaker 1: is in these Russ A D lineups, having him instead
Speaker 1: of being in a dunker spot or screening and rolling,
Speaker 1: giving Russ more isolation opportunities where a D is in
Speaker 1: a five out position Um, they did a lot of
Speaker 1: that in the second quarter tonight, or excuse me, at
Speaker 1: the end of the first quarter tonight, and then again
Speaker 1: in the second quarter, and I thought they were getting
Speaker 1: really good stuff out of it. And A D actually
Speaker 1: made his first three in the five outset. Yeah, to me,
Speaker 1: he has to be at least a respectable jump here
Speaker 1: for this team to get to wherever they want to go. Like,
Speaker 1: there's no way a D can be just a guy
Speaker 1: at the rim. He has to shoot the number two,
Speaker 1: make it at least respectable. And I think when when
Speaker 1: we play a D at the four and again it's
Speaker 1: the lineup that he likes, it induces him to take
Speaker 1: bad shots. You talk about the you know jab step,
Speaker 1: you know, settling mid range jumpers that really just kill
Speaker 1: his rhythm. It shots where he doesn't get to the rim.
Speaker 1: It doesn't it doesn't compromise the defense at all. But
Speaker 1: I think those picking pop you know russ E D
Speaker 1: screen roll where he pops like that's in rhythm jumpers.
Speaker 1: And he's too good like his form and his jumps.
Speaker 1: We can discuss if it's a mechanical issue or whatever,
Speaker 1: but his form to me still looks too good to
Speaker 1: not having at least to not at least have him
Speaker 1: shooting a somewhat good volume of threes every night. And
Speaker 1: they're gonna need it from this team. Even with the
Speaker 1: starting lineup you take out hopefully Avery Bradley and DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordans eventually get out of the starting lineup, you still
Speaker 1: when you have Russ and Drawn, like teams are gonna pack,
Speaker 1: the paint eight is gonna get a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: wide open jump shots. He has to take them. He
Speaker 1: has to take them confidently, and we need it to
Speaker 1: not to win this year, not just to make the playoffs,
Speaker 1: but to win when the whole goal of this A
Speaker 1: D has to be a respectable jump shooter, and I
Speaker 1: think he can't. He's not this bad of a jump
Speaker 1: shooter like that. I can't believe that. Like, there's just
Speaker 1: no way a D. I think he was like two
Speaker 1: for two for twenty or something on his last light
Speaker 1: on on his last few jumpers before this night. Uh
Speaker 1: So I don't think he's number out there, and you're
Speaker 1: probably close to correct, correct. Yeah. I remember seeing a
Speaker 1: styles like man and he's like last, like you talked
Speaker 1: about it, he's like last inefficiency for guys with some
Speaker 1: minimum amount of attempts. He's not that bad of a
Speaker 1: jump shooter, just to me, Like, there's just no way
Speaker 1: out to believe that there's some positive regression coming here, hopefully,
Speaker 1: But yeah, he needs to be a jump shot. Like.
Speaker 1: The solution isn't a D stop taking jumpers. It's like
Speaker 1: you said, taking better shots. I think off the catch
Speaker 1: off of screen roll where screening screen roll where he
Speaker 1: pops out, like that's that's good jump shots for him.
Speaker 1: And you're never gonna go away from those midrange jab
Speaker 1: step jump shots like that stuff he likes to do,
Speaker 1: and those aren't ever going way. But I think if
Speaker 1: you can start inside out, it's something that's positive for
Speaker 1: this team and they're gonna need it going forward. I'm
Speaker 1: glad you pointed that out because that's the important detail there.
Speaker 1: You have to try to find a way to continue
Speaker 1: to trend a D in the correct direction as a
Speaker 1: jump shooter, because without him uh in that it doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be the bubble. For the record, he doesn't
Speaker 1: need to be making all those isolation midrange jump shots
Speaker 1: what he did in the bubble those I think he
Speaker 1: was right around thirty eight percent on you know, three
Speaker 1: attempts from three every game, and it's something along those lines.
Speaker 1: Don't quote me on it, but the point is is
Speaker 1: that that in order for this team to reach its
Speaker 1: offensive ceiling in the playoffs, which they absolutely have to
Speaker 1: reach because of their lack of defensive personnel, you you
Speaker 1: need a D to be a stretch big. And obviously
Speaker 1: a D having success as a stretch big with everything
Speaker 1: else he does offensively and defensively, that is where he's
Speaker 1: in that tier two star, fringe, tier one star type
Speaker 1: of of category, which is where this team is going
Speaker 1: to be if he's not. If he's not, if we go, hey,
Speaker 1: we can't continue to cultivate a D as a jump shooter.
Speaker 1: Now we're talking about the fifteenth best player in the league.
Speaker 1: Now we're talking about a rich Man's Clint Capella, and
Speaker 1: and now we're completely redefining what this team's you know,
Speaker 1: championship aspirations are. So that all has to be uh
Speaker 1: dealt with. But at the end of the day, like
Speaker 1: you said, like a lot of this is just uh,
Speaker 1: you know, uh continuing to take positive steps in the
Speaker 1: right direction. I really really liked the process tonight. I
Speaker 1: liked the process of a d putting his head down
Speaker 1: getting to the rim early. I liked him making out
Speaker 1: of area defensive plays, which was something he wasn't doing
Speaker 1: in previous weeks. Again, you look at the scoring margin,
Speaker 1: it looks scary, looks like, oh, they barely beat the
Speaker 1: Pistons again. But the truth of the matter was, is
Speaker 1: your big three, we're all good on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor, and all of the role players had bad nights.
Speaker 1: And I don't care you know what time of the
Speaker 1: season it is is or how you know whether or
Speaker 1: not there in the middle of a ten game win
Speaker 1: streak or sitting at ten and eleven. You know, that's
Speaker 1: part of the NBA experience is your role players run
Speaker 1: hot and they run cold. And tonight the Lakers got
Speaker 1: to win when all of their role players ran cold
Speaker 1: because Lebron and a D and Russell Westbrook all played well.
Speaker 1: And so under these circumstances, we've got to take these
Speaker 1: wins where we can get him. And I'm not even
Speaker 1: just talking about wins in the standings. I'm talking about little,
Speaker 1: you know, many wins, little checkpoints in the process of
Speaker 1: getting this team back on the right track. And as
Speaker 1: crazy as it sounds, I thought tonight was a very
Speaker 1: clear positive step in that direction. Yep. And the final
Speaker 1: things that I had in my notes here monk Ellington
Speaker 1: and Carmelo, I believe we're three for sixteen from the field,
Speaker 1: so getting a win with like you said, your role
Speaker 1: players not playing well, not hitting shots, and with a
Speaker 1: d it's never like I talked about, it's never about
Speaker 1: the numbers. He's gonna put those up. He's good enough
Speaker 1: to where he can put up a big time numbers
Speaker 1: game and you watch the game and still feel like
Speaker 1: you want more and and some of that is he's
Speaker 1: just so tantalized, tantalizing you know as a as a
Speaker 1: talent that you want that. But the numbers I look
Speaker 1: for him are stocked. So steals, blocks, two steals, three blocks,
Speaker 1: and offensive rebounds is something I look like as well.
Speaker 1: And tonight zero offensive rebounds, but he did have ten boards.
Speaker 1: Go back and rewatch and see what happened there. But
Speaker 1: you know, three blocks, two steals is what I want
Speaker 1: to look for from him. I think that's pretty much
Speaker 1: the biggest show of what he is. He's too good,
Speaker 1: too talented to not have those kind of numbers and
Speaker 1: those kind of impacts and steals. Blocks aren't always the
Speaker 1: greatest uh translation for good defense, but I think for
Speaker 1: him when he's putting those up, it means he's he's
Speaker 1: really engaged, So that's what I want to see from him.
Speaker 1: But another you're right, good night from the Big three.
Speaker 1: I probably probably the best game from the Big Three,
Speaker 1: just as like as them playing together, like the numbers
Speaker 1: that they put up, and hopefully it's something we can build.
Speaker 1: But like we started the show, they've lost the benefit
Speaker 1: of the doubt for that. They absolutely have, just we'll
Speaker 1: have to see going forward. They play another bad team,
Speaker 1: the Kings, who after meeting us in triple over time,
Speaker 1: I believe did they lose to uh leave they lost
Speaker 1: to the the Grizzlies without Yeah, I think they were
Speaker 1: down like twenty a halftime. So that we played them
Speaker 1: on Tuesday, I think I saw the quotes on the
Speaker 1: timeline that A D and A D was saying, it's
Speaker 1: they can get some revenge on Tuesday. But we have
Speaker 1: to see it. This is a step, hopefully in the
Speaker 1: right direction, even if it's just a small half a step,
Speaker 1: it's a step, and that's that's what we need to
Speaker 1: see on the road down Tuesday. Is a really good test.
Speaker 1: It's a team that specifically attacks the weakness that the
Speaker 1: Lakers have, which is their point of attack, defense and
Speaker 1: their ability to contest shots on the perimeter. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if you saw that stat that was floating around,
Speaker 1: but I can't remember the exact number, but basically like
Speaker 1: something like thirty eight of the forty three jump shots
Speaker 1: that the teams to the other night were uncontested. So
Speaker 1: like that and that to me is just you know,
Speaker 1: the effort and focus. But anyway that going up to
Speaker 1: the Sacramento a team that specifically is kind of uh,
Speaker 1: you know, geared towards some of our weaknesses. Obviously a
Speaker 1: little bit of a revenge match for what happened the
Speaker 1: other night. It's also on the road, and as we
Speaker 1: saw all season, Lakers just can't put multiple good games together.
Speaker 1: This is a good chance to go up to Sacramento,
Speaker 1: whoop their ass, come home and say we have now
Speaker 1: put a couple of good games together. You know, and
Speaker 1: if you get and if you get Lebron and Adi engaged,
Speaker 1: and if you get anything out of melow, Ellington and
Speaker 1: Monk and get these guys going a little bit, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get a lot more offensive firepower than you shot
Speaker 1: tonight because they were generating rim pressure. Um so, but anyway,
Speaker 1: that's all we got for tonight. Guys. Uh, this is
Speaker 1: gonna air on dash rightI out tomorrow morning at seven am.
Speaker 1: This will be Pacific Standard time. This will be on
Speaker 1: our podcast feed, stated Lakers here in about twenty minutes
Speaker 1: as usual. We sincerely appreciate your support. It's been a
Speaker 1: crazy week, a lot of a lot of drama, but
Speaker 1: I'm happy that we were able to have a little
Speaker 1: bit more relaxed to discussion tonight and looking forward to
Speaker 1: Tuesday hopefully being another good step in the right direction
Speaker 1: for this team. I appreciate it. Thanks everyone,