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Speaker 1: to Hoops Tonight, presented by fan Duel here at the volume.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys have had a great
Speaker 1: week so far. I'm starting to get pretty excited because
Speaker 1: I'm going down to Mexico this weekend with some friends.
Speaker 1: Down to Rocky Point, although, as fate would have it,
Speaker 1: there is a massive hurricane that is climbing up the
Speaker 1: next coast that is going to pound Rocky Point with
Speaker 1: rain on Friday and Sunday, a place that if you've
Speaker 1: ever been there, you know doesn't get a whole lot
Speaker 1: of rain, So it should be a very interesting Mexico trip.
Speaker 1: That said, I'm still looking forward to some R and R.
Speaker 1: We are continuing with our power rankings today with number thirteen,
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers. I'll go ahead, and I'll go
Speaker 1: ahead and read the show announcements while you guys are
Speaker 1: freaking out for a minute. Um, don't forget to subscribe
Speaker 1: to the volumes YouTube channels. You guys don't miss any
Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
Speaker 1: Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements.
Speaker 1: And last, but not least, if you miss one of
Speaker 1: these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube
Speaker 1: to finish them, don't forget. You can find them in
Speaker 1: audio form wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight
Speaker 1: and then, once again, just like I told you guys yesterday,
Speaker 1: bear with me. I'm still I'm still my respiratory system
Speaker 1: is still completely messed up from what I had last week.
Speaker 1: So just bear with me a little low energy and
Speaker 1: some coughing. UM. So, if you guys remember when we
Speaker 1: started this process, I talked about the four tiers of
Speaker 1: the teams that we were going to cover now, and
Speaker 1: you also know that when it comes to this sort
Speaker 1: of thing, I value the playoffs. That's the same way
Speaker 1: that I've always been up and consistent with that ever
Speaker 1: since I started doing this show, I've always cared more
Speaker 1: about what a player accomplishes in the postseason, what a
Speaker 1: team can accomplish in the postseason. That's always been where
Speaker 1: I place the most value. Not that I don't place
Speaker 1: value in regular season or other types of accomplishments. That's
Speaker 1: just the primary source where I find the most valuable information,
Speaker 1: the most informative basketball is in the postseason. Um, when
Speaker 1: we were sorting the teams into tears, we had the
Speaker 1: bottom tier, which was the non contenders. Right like when
Speaker 1: I was talking about Minnesota and I was talking about
Speaker 1: Chicago and I was talking about New Orleans. Those teams
Speaker 1: are all interesting for one one reason or another. But
Speaker 1: I don't think any of those teams are capable of
Speaker 1: winning a championship. The types of like hell would literally
Speaker 1: have to freeze over for things to break right in
Speaker 1: a way for them to be able to eventually be
Speaker 1: holding the Larry O. Brian Trophy in this particular campaign.
Speaker 1: But if you remember the next year I had above,
Speaker 1: that was the Puncher's Chance Contenders, And this particular set
Speaker 1: of teams are are teams that don't have nearly as
Speaker 1: much talent top to bottom on the roster as the
Speaker 1: best teams in the league, but they have something about them,
Speaker 1: a player or a couple of players that make them
Speaker 1: exceptionally dangerous. And so for instance, with the Lakers, it's
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis. You know, Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis one nearly eighty percent of their games in
Speaker 1: the first two seasons when they were together, and they
Speaker 1: were both on the floor at the same time. Now,
Speaker 1: last year was a complete disaster, and I promise we're
Speaker 1: going to get into that when we get into the
Speaker 1: last year's section of this particular show, and we'll talk
Speaker 1: about all the reasons why, But one of the bigger
Speaker 1: reasons why was injuries. The reality of the situation is
Speaker 1: that Lebron James and Anthony Davis weren't available often enough
Speaker 1: for them to truly be a good basketball team. That
Speaker 1: doesn't change the other issues. The other issues needed to
Speaker 1: be addressed. Many of them weren't addressed. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk about those issues. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: if you end up in a playoff series and the
Speaker 1: Lakers are healthy and Lebron James is on the court,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis is on the court, and Patrick Beverley
Speaker 1: is on the court, and let's call it Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: is on the court as a fourth player, regardless of
Speaker 1: who that fifth guy is, they are dangerous. They can
Speaker 1: beat you because they have Lebron James and because they
Speaker 1: have Anthony Davis. That's the reality of who the Lakers are.
Speaker 1: And in a playoff series against any of the top
Speaker 1: tier teams in the league, if you're best players Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards and your second best shot creators Karl Anthony Towns,
Speaker 1: I don't think you have enough to be able to
Speaker 1: beat a Steph Curry or to be able to beat
Speaker 1: that Boston Celtics team or the Clippers if they're healthy.
Speaker 1: But if the Lakers happened to everything go right throughout
Speaker 1: the season, everyone's healthy, Anthony Davis gets back to what
Speaker 1: he was, They absolutely have a puncher's chance to beat
Speaker 1: those better teams in the league because of who Lebron
Speaker 1: James is and because of who Anthony Davis is. That's
Speaker 1: why they are puncher's chance contenders. Do I think the
Speaker 1: Lakers are most talented team in the league. No, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into all the reasons why. But I
Speaker 1: do think they have a legitimate chance to win the
Speaker 1: title if everything breaks right for them, and that is
Speaker 1: inherently going to push them up in my list because
Speaker 1: of the way that I value the postseason. Obviously, the
Speaker 1: far more likely outcome with this particular Lakers team is
Speaker 1: that they're dumpster fire. I know that Lakers fans know that,
Speaker 1: and all of you guys who are fans of the
Speaker 1: other twenty nine teams are of the league in general,
Speaker 1: know that the most likely outcome is that this is
Speaker 1: a disaster. Lebron James and Anthony Davis miss a bunch
Speaker 1: of games, they barely scrape into the playing tournament, or
Speaker 1: they don't make the playoffs and they end up losing
Speaker 1: in horrific fashion. That's the most likely scenario, but there
Speaker 1: is absolutely some in that pie graph. There's a piece
Speaker 1: of it that is everyone stays healthy, and you've got
Speaker 1: to beat Lebron James and Anthony Davis four times out
Speaker 1: of seven. And I miss you. Even if you guys
Speaker 1: aren't scared of them, I promise you, the other twenty
Speaker 1: nine gms in the league absolutely are um so last
Speaker 1: year they were twenty second in offense, twenty one in defense.
Speaker 1: Lebron only played fifty six games, Anthony Davis only played
Speaker 1: forty games. Kendrick Nunn, who is the player they invested
Speaker 1: in with the mid level exception, played zero games. Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook and Malik Malik Monk were the only players on
Speaker 1: the roster who were available for more than seventy games
Speaker 1: UH during that entire season. So injuries were a significant
Speaker 1: chunk of what happened. The rest of the problems come
Speaker 1: down to a couple of specific pieces, and I want
Speaker 1: to get into them really quick. Versus Russell Westbrook. Now,
Speaker 1: before we go any further on Russ, I wanted to
Speaker 1: tell you guys about my rule for Russell Westbrook this season.
Speaker 1: I there's this weird perception among some Lakers fans that
Speaker 1: I uh that I love to trash Russell Westbrooker, that
Speaker 1: I look forward to opportunities to talk badly about him.
Speaker 1: That is not the case. Um, I don't do it opportunistically.
Speaker 1: You guys see the numbers are Russ videos don't do
Speaker 1: that well. The what this show is at its best
Speaker 1: and performs the best when we talk basketball. That's what
Speaker 1: I like to do. That's what actually leads to success here.
Speaker 1: I don't talk about Russ to try to get hits
Speaker 1: or to try to go viral. That's not what I do.
Speaker 1: It is authentic. He bothers me with the way he
Speaker 1: plays the game. And when I was covering the Lakers
Speaker 1: last year, I had to talk about him a lot.
Speaker 1: It was just the reality of the situation. But I
Speaker 1: was hopeful that the Lakers would trade Russ so that
Speaker 1: we would not have to do that this year. But
Speaker 1: it's looking as though he might be coming back. So
Speaker 1: I was talking with the guys on our team and
Speaker 1: we were trying to come up with some ideas, and
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna have a rule this year. After today,
Speaker 1: this is the last time that I'm going to talk
Speaker 1: about Russ in depth, and after today, we are going
Speaker 1: to have a clock, a limit, and anytime Russ comes
Speaker 1: up as a topic, we're going to limit it to
Speaker 1: one minute, and it will be one minute of a
Speaker 1: take on Russ and then we're moving on because it's
Speaker 1: it's not something I want to do. I have zero
Speaker 1: interest in this being a Russ show this season, and
Speaker 1: it's it's a shame that he's gonna that he's probably
Speaker 1: gonna be on the Lakers and we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: talk about him as much as we are. Um. First
Speaker 1: of all, it's important to differentiate the difference between the
Speaker 1: effects of the Russ trade versus the effects of Russ
Speaker 1: the basketball player. The Russ trade sent out Contagious Callbo Pope,
Speaker 1: a good starting shooting guard in this league, Kyle Kuzma,
Speaker 1: a good starting wing in this league, and Alex Cruso
Speaker 1: not directly through the trade, but in the trade they
Speaker 1: brought in a lot more salary than they sent out,
Speaker 1: and when the pennies got pinched at the end of
Speaker 1: the season, Crusoe ended up getting cut. So I consider
Speaker 1: that at least partially to be a side effect of
Speaker 1: the Russell Westbrook trade. Not to mention they lost the
Speaker 1: first round draft pick in that deal and during the
Speaker 1: summer when first round draft picks were you know, few
Speaker 1: and far between for the Lakers, and they're so concerned
Speaker 1: about losing you know, pick because of how handicaps them
Speaker 1: moving forward. Gosh, it sure would be nice to have
Speaker 1: that Russ pick right about now, wouldn't it. But when
Speaker 1: we look at Rust the basketball player, I want to
Speaker 1: get into the little things that he struggles with that
Speaker 1: hurt this particular team. But the reality was is in
Speaker 1: just in terms of scoring efficiency as a high volume
Speaker 1: guard in this league, he was one of the worst
Speaker 1: in the league. And that was one of the larger
Speaker 1: portions of the Lakers issues this year. One of their
Speaker 1: primary ball handlers was one of the worst primary ball
Speaker 1: handlers in the league. That in and of itself handicapped
Speaker 1: to the Lakers on a night in a night out basis.
Speaker 1: Some of these stats are insane. There were a hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy eight players in the league this year that
Speaker 1: attempted at least a hundred and fifty catch and shoot jumpers.
Speaker 1: Russ ranked one out of eight at when you waited
Speaker 1: for threes, it was actually worse, so seventy one. There
Speaker 1: were fifty one players who attempted at least three hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty pull up jumpers. Russ was dead last in
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage on those jumpers at thirty nine.
Speaker 1: Effective field goal percentage thirty nine on pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: There were a hundred and eleven players who attempted at
Speaker 1: least two hundred shots in the restricted area. Russ ranked
Speaker 1: one d out of a hundred and eleven in shooting
Speaker 1: percentage in the restricted area at fifty percent. He was
Speaker 1: terrible at finishing around the rim. He had six or
Speaker 1: more turnovers in the game seventeen times. There were sixty
Speaker 1: five players who posted up at least fifty times. Russ
Speaker 1: was sixty in points per possession at zero point eight.
Speaker 1: There were seventeen players who ran at least two hundred ISOs,
Speaker 1: and Russ ranked in points per possession. So, just in
Speaker 1: terms of what primary ball handlers do, which is shoot
Speaker 1: the basketball, shoot it off the dribil, drive the ball
Speaker 1: to the basket, take care of the basketball, post up isolations,
Speaker 1: isolate on mismatches, he was just one of the worst
Speaker 1: in the league. That high volume Russ primary ball handler
Speaker 1: thing cut the Lakers off at the knees on offense
Speaker 1: it's just the reality of what happened in that situation. Now,
Speaker 1: the one thing I'll say in Russ's defense there was
Speaker 1: it was intended that Lebron James would be around, and
Speaker 1: that Anthony Davis would be around, and that Kendrick Nunn
Speaker 1: would be around, and Russ could have a more limited
Speaker 1: on ball roll. So the one thing I'll say in
Speaker 1: his defense is that he shouldn't have been relied on
Speaker 1: to that capacity. But the one reason why I don't
Speaker 1: cut him a ton of slack in that department is
Speaker 1: when those guys were available, When Lebron and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: was on the floor, he played the same way. There
Speaker 1: was no change in approach with those two guys on
Speaker 1: the floor. He didn't suddenly embrace the role player things.
Speaker 1: He didn't suddenly lock in on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. He did the same old Russ stuff, regardless
Speaker 1: of whether he's playing by himself or he was playing
Speaker 1: with Lebron James and Anthony Davis. That it's the reality
Speaker 1: of the situation with you within the role on a
Speaker 1: basketball team of primary shot creator. He's just not good
Speaker 1: enough to do that anymore, at least not for a
Speaker 1: good team. He's bad at that even I would say
Speaker 1: by NBA standards. So the Rush trade essentially involved exchanging
Speaker 1: three solid role players. I'd argue excellent role players. Alex
Speaker 1: Cruzo and Cantavious called Pope are excellent role players. Kyle
Speaker 1: Kuzma turned himself into a good role player towards the end,
Speaker 1: and with the Lakers, they traded out three solid role
Speaker 1: players for a bad primary creator who also is bad
Speaker 1: at role players stuff. And then when we get into
Speaker 1: the role players stuff, he was a bad off ball defender.
Speaker 1: He lost shooters frequently. He would die on pin down screens,
Speaker 1: or he would just run into the screen and then
Speaker 1: point and ask for a switch from one of his teammates.
Speaker 1: He would miss box outs, He took possessions off. He
Speaker 1: would have entire possessions where he would just stand with
Speaker 1: his hands kind of dangling by his side while basketball
Speaker 1: was happening around him. He was freelancing a lot on defense,
Speaker 1: just like what instead of buying into what the scheme was,
Speaker 1: he would just randomly double or or randomly attempt to
Speaker 1: jump a passing lane and and get out of position
Speaker 1: when he was on ball. On defense, he actually was
Speaker 1: pretty solid in isolation. Ross has an ego and that's
Speaker 1: that's a focused play. Everyone staring at you. He takes
Speaker 1: it personally to get his stops. That's not surprising. His
Speaker 1: pride on the line, and he has great physical tools.
Speaker 1: He is a good isolation defender. That just wasn't enough
Speaker 1: to make up for some of the other things. He
Speaker 1: was a terrible pick and roll defender, dying on screens
Speaker 1: often off the ball on offense. His inability to remain
Speaker 1: a threatening when he didn't have a basketball was an issue. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we talked about him as a catch and shoot shooter
Speaker 1: and how bad he was this year hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: out of a hundred and seventy eight players who attempted
Speaker 1: at least a hundred and fifty catch and shoot jump shots.
Speaker 1: But also he was just willing to stand still when
Speaker 1: he didn't have the basketball. He didn't do He wasn't
Speaker 1: active off the ball as a cutter or screener, cutting
Speaker 1: when his defender wasn't looking to get open underneath the
Speaker 1: basket or hey, instead of just standing at the top
Speaker 1: of the key, maybe you run down and set a
Speaker 1: pin down screen on my Malik monks Man, and maybe
Speaker 1: Malik monk can get free literally anything other than just
Speaker 1: standing still. And then in late game situations was where
Speaker 1: it was the most frustrating. He would routinely make catastrophic
Speaker 1: mistakes when the game was on the line. He would
Speaker 1: lose a shooter like him losing Patty Meals on the
Speaker 1: biggest possession in the Christmas Day game when Patty Mills
Speaker 1: relocated to the weak side corner and Russ was just
Speaker 1: standing doing nothing watching the ball as his man got
Speaker 1: open and made the dagger freelancing uh that you may
Speaker 1: may or may not remember a game where Reggie Jackson
Speaker 1: made a game winning layup against the Lakers, where he
Speaker 1: drove to the left and then spun back to the
Speaker 1: middle and made a lay up off the glass. On
Speaker 1: that play, Russ was in help. Instead of positioning himself
Speaker 1: between Reggie and the rim, he lunged to try to
Speaker 1: get his steel completely missed, and then when he spun
Speaker 1: back there was no help and Reggie Jackson was by
Speaker 1: himself underneath the basket. That's a defensive mistake that cost
Speaker 1: his team a basketball game. I can't remember the specific game.
Speaker 1: I was trying to think of it this morning, but
Speaker 1: there was another one where it was close towards the end.
Speaker 1: They were playing a good team and he barreled down
Speaker 1: the lane on a late transition play and tried to
Speaker 1: dunk the basketball and missed it off the front of
Speaker 1: the rim. Just like he was. He he he could
Speaker 1: never see the bigger picture of the basketball game and
Speaker 1: how important specific possessions were or specific moments were. He
Speaker 1: just was Russ, kind of like unleashed, and in those
Speaker 1: moments he often did more damage than good. He missed
Speaker 1: key box outs, take bad shots on key possessions, turned
Speaker 1: the basketball over. He was the most frustrating player I
Speaker 1: have ever covered, and that is why he was talked
Speaker 1: about as much as he was, And that's why we're
Speaker 1: gonna have that rule again. The rule is this season
Speaker 1: from this is the last time I'm getting in depth
Speaker 1: into the Rust thing for the rest of the season.
Speaker 1: If we have to talk about Russ in any capacity,
Speaker 1: we're slapping a clock on it. It's gonna be quick
Speaker 1: and we're moving on because it's not something that I'm
Speaker 1: interested in doing. Okay, So, first it was the injuries.
Speaker 1: Second it was the Rush trade. Third, it was Russ
Speaker 1: the basketball player. Fourth it was Frank Vogel So, first
Speaker 1: of all, all you Lakers fans remember this, but there
Speaker 1: was specific line up data, not to mention just visually
Speaker 1: watching the games, especially in big wins like when they
Speaker 1: beat the Utah Jazz. A handful of times, the Lakers
Speaker 1: had a clear identity with the type of players that
Speaker 1: they had on that roster. There are big guys. The
Speaker 1: two bigs that they signed Dwight Howard and uh DeAndre Jordan's.
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan was awful. Dwight Howard had handfuls of good
Speaker 1: games mixed in, but it was the first year where
Speaker 1: he couldn't really be relied in, relied on night in
Speaker 1: and night out as a dependable backup center. So because
Speaker 1: of their weaknesses at the center position, it was clear
Speaker 1: that their best chance to win basketball games was to
Speaker 1: go really small with Lebron James at center and then
Speaker 1: have Dwight Howard play a small role coming off the
Speaker 1: bench and spelling Lebron in his center minutes, and then
Speaker 1: to basically go all in on their youth play guys
Speaker 1: like Stanley Johnson, Austin Reeves, you know um when in
Speaker 1: Gabriel after they brought him on board, Malik Monk in particular,
Speaker 1: and you saw that in the lineup data, the lineups
Speaker 1: that succeeded the most were lineups that included Malik Monk,
Speaker 1: lineups that included Austin Reeves. The that was where the
Speaker 1: team had to go with the personnel shortcomings they had
Speaker 1: as a result of the injuries. You know, and again,
Speaker 1: like I wanted to mention this earlier when we were
Speaker 1: talking about the Lakers as a contender this year, but
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to Lebron James and Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: their injuries are specifically impactful because of the types of
Speaker 1: players they are. You guys, remember me talking about the
Speaker 1: responsibilities that have to be fulfilled on a basketball court, right, Like,
Speaker 1: let's just say that there's a hundred responsibilities that these
Speaker 1: five players have to fill. And when you've got truly
Speaker 1: great players like Lebron James and Danny Davis, they can
Speaker 1: take huge chunks of those responsibilities away. So let's say
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis takest of the responsibilities and Lebron James takes
Speaker 1: the responsibilities. Well, then the other guys on the floor
Speaker 1: can split the rest of it and it's easier for
Speaker 1: them to fill because they're smaller roles. But let's just
Speaker 1: say we take one guy out, we take Anthony Davis out.
Speaker 1: Now there's a huge chunk of the responsibilities that have
Speaker 1: to be feel fulfilled by these lower level players. So
Speaker 1: the Lakers roster weaknesses, their bad role players became way
Speaker 1: more apparent with the injuries than they would have been
Speaker 1: under other circumstances. When you have like let's let's say,
Speaker 1: for instance, we're looking at the Toronto Raptors. They don't
Speaker 1: have anybody as good as Lebron, they don't have anybody
Speaker 1: as good as Anthony Davis. So yeah, their role players
Speaker 1: do looks uh significantly better because they're fulfilling all the
Speaker 1: response abilities on the floor, right, But in the case
Speaker 1: of the Lakers, they depend so much on Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis taking significant chunks of those responsibilities away,
Speaker 1: especially with what they can do as two way players.
Speaker 1: But when Anthony Davis was pulled out, a bright light
Speaker 1: was shined on their lack of role players, and that's
Speaker 1: when those things became an issue. But regardless, and this
Speaker 1: team wasn't good enough. But if their best case, if
Speaker 1: the intention was to just float the ship until you
Speaker 1: could get into a play in game, and maybe Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis comes back and maybe Lebron comes back and you
Speaker 1: can make a run. If that was the goal, their
Speaker 1: best way to do it was to lean into smaller
Speaker 1: lineups that favored their youth, and they did not do
Speaker 1: so in spite of great data that was available because
Speaker 1: of Frank Vogel's stubbornness. Frank Vogel has always been the
Speaker 1: type of guy that tries to bend the roster to
Speaker 1: his basketball identity rather than bending basketball identity to fit
Speaker 1: his roster. That was the biggest mistake he made in
Speaker 1: that particular season, and that's why they didn't perform as
Speaker 1: well as they could have. Even though he was dealt
Speaker 1: a bad hand of cards. That season was a disaster.
Speaker 1: It was gonna end poorly anyway. But there was a
Speaker 1: better version of that story where they were a seven
Speaker 1: or eight seed or maybe a playing team had they
Speaker 1: played to their strengths, and they just did not do so.
Speaker 1: Offensive organization was a huge weakness for Frank Vogel. For
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel, his he ran very few sets. The sets
Speaker 1: that he would run were rudimentary and predictable. Like every
Speaker 1: team in the league knew they wanted to run that
Speaker 1: horn set where they'd have a very Bradley come off
Speaker 1: of the the dribble handoff and then the second screen
Speaker 1: right like. That was one of the few sets that
Speaker 1: they ran frequently. They would run a handful of specific actions,
Speaker 1: like they'd run um like screen and pop actions with
Speaker 1: like Malik Monk and stuff like that. But the truth
Speaker 1: of the matter was is their offensive organization is way
Speaker 1: below what the rest of the league, especially the better
Speaker 1: teams around the league. We're doing. So Frank Vogel, and
Speaker 1: I'll go to my grave saying that Frank Vogel was
Speaker 1: a fantastic coach for the Lakers. That roster fit his
Speaker 1: specific skill set perfectly. He had them all bought in.
Speaker 1: They had one of the best defenses I've ever seen,
Speaker 1: and they dominated on the way to the title. Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel deserves a lot of credit for that, but his
Speaker 1: stubbornness in this particular season when the team changed around him,
Speaker 1: was one of the factors that led to their demise.
Speaker 1: So then, uh so we have the injuries, we have
Speaker 1: the rush trade, we have Russ, we have Vogel. Fifth,
Speaker 1: I had Lebron his lack of commitment to defense early
Speaker 1: in the year that trickled down the roster and caused problems.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis his rapid decline his I don't know. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's like a work ethic, maybe it's just injuries. I
Speaker 1: don't know what it is. He used to be a
Speaker 1: top five player. Now he's barely a top twenty player.
Speaker 1: That's what happened to Anthony Davis. And then just in
Speaker 1: general in terms of a philosophy, rob Olinka and Clutched Sports,
Speaker 1: who obviously is influential in their decision making, those two
Speaker 1: parties massively undervaluing the importance of role players, and they
Speaker 1: I think there was some pride there. I think they
Speaker 1: looked at it as Lebron James and Anthony Davis won
Speaker 1: the NBA Championship, which they did. Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: they were the most important part, but they attributed too
Speaker 1: much of the credits to those guys and not enough
Speaker 1: to a great group of role players that did their
Speaker 1: jobs to the best of their ability and at a
Speaker 1: very high level, and as a result, they were able
Speaker 1: to win on the biggest stage and take home the
Speaker 1: trophy the best. The best example of that specific decision
Speaker 1: process was them choosing Taylor Horton Tucker over Alex Cruso. Now,
Speaker 1: I believe this is another one of Clutch's big blunders.
Speaker 1: The two big blunders from Clutch was pushing for the
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook trade and then this particular one. And essentially Taylor,
Speaker 1: who I like, We've talked about him. He's got a
Speaker 1: lot of potential. He's not ready yet, but he's got
Speaker 1: a lot of potential. But Alex Cruso clearly was a
Speaker 1: better and more impactful player within this timeline then Taylan was.
Speaker 1: He should have been prioritized or hell, Genie Buss had
Speaker 1: the money to pay him both, she chose not to,
Speaker 1: but them favoring when they decided they had to cut
Speaker 1: one of them. When they decided to cut Caruso instead
Speaker 1: of Taylor, Norton Tucker, that was the best example of
Speaker 1: them not prioritizing the role players enough and not valuing
Speaker 1: what they did for them enough. So again, how do
Speaker 1: you miss the playoffs entirely in a league that allows
Speaker 1: twenty of the thirty teams in and you have Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis on the roster. The only way
Speaker 1: is if everything goes wrong, and that's what happened. So
Speaker 1: guess what. You can't just blame Vogel. You can't just
Speaker 1: blame Russ, you can't just blame Lebron. You can't just
Speaker 1: blame injuries. It's all of those things. But every single
Speaker 1: one of those problems still exists, and every one of
Speaker 1: them have to be a rest in order for the
Speaker 1: team to succeed. They have to stay healthy in a
Speaker 1: way they did not last year. They have to fix
Speaker 1: the Russ problem, either by Russ improving as a role
Speaker 1: player or getting him off the team. They had to
Speaker 1: fix the coaching situation. They did. Applause to Genie and Rob.
Speaker 1: They picked the right guy. I thought Darvin Hamm was
Speaker 1: the perfect choice. Okay, they need Lebron rededicated on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor, and they need Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: to regain his status as a top ten player in
Speaker 1: this league. They have to fix all of those things
Speaker 1: that went wrong for them last year in order for
Speaker 1: them to truly contend again. Now for the record injuries,
Speaker 1: who the hell knows what's gonna happen. I think they
Speaker 1: will fix the rust problem. I expect him to trade him,
Speaker 1: hopefully sooner than later. I expect Lebron to have a
Speaker 1: great season this year. I think Darvin Ham will do
Speaker 1: a much better job with this group than Frank Vogel did,
Speaker 1: and I think Anthony Davis will have a bounce back season.
Speaker 1: Bam right there. That's a significant improvement over what they
Speaker 1: were last year. But if they don't solve the Russ
Speaker 1: problem and they don't stay, hell of the none of
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Speaker 1: sports betting partner of the NFL. Alright, so now that
Speaker 1: I've gotten off my soapbox about last season, we can
Speaker 1: look forward to this season. Um So, in the draft,
Speaker 1: they picked up Max Christie, who's a lanky defensive wing.
Speaker 1: I watched him a little bit in Summer League. Uh,
Speaker 1: interesting player, but I don't think he's NBA ready yet.
Speaker 1: Cole Swider really good shooter of Once again, I don't
Speaker 1: think he's necessarily ready to contribute this year, but with
Speaker 1: their lack of shooting, they might actually need him. But
Speaker 1: my gut says that neither of them will play much
Speaker 1: this year. They traded Taylor Horton Tucker, and Stanley Johnson
Speaker 1: for Patrick Beverley. We did a full breakdown of that,
Speaker 1: um I believe last week or the week before, so
Speaker 1: you guys can check that out deeper down in our feed.
Speaker 1: They signed Lonnie Walker with the mid level exception, which
Speaker 1: is the big move I didn't like from this summer.
Speaker 1: Once again, prioritizing a clutch client over the needs of
Speaker 1: the team. He's a small guard that is an inconsistent
Speaker 1: shooter and doesn't defend. Not a not a great player
Speaker 1: that I'm super excited about. They signed Damien Jones, Troy
Speaker 1: Brown Jr. Thomas Bryant, and Juan to Sconell Anderson, all
Speaker 1: two veteran minimums, and then theoretically Kendrick Nunn should find
Speaker 1: only play in the second year of his contract, so
Speaker 1: looking forward at the Rush trades. So before we go
Speaker 1: any further on this, I just wanted to say I
Speaker 1: am not a reporter. I do not have the types
Speaker 1: of sources that the people who have earned that right have.
Speaker 1: I have no intention in being a fake reporter of
Speaker 1: any or anything like that, So take everything I say
Speaker 1: with a grain of salt. But I do have friends
Speaker 1: who work in the league, and I do hear things,
Speaker 1: and I will talk about them as potential scenarios, but
Speaker 1: do not take them as reporting. That is not what
Speaker 1: this is, Okay. I just wanted to say that up front.
Speaker 1: So what I've heard on that note, um, I've heard
Speaker 1: that the Lakers are considering holding out trading Russ because
Speaker 1: they seem to believe that the net situation could go
Speaker 1: south and that Kyrie Irving could be available at the deadline. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm frustrated by that if it's true, because I don't
Speaker 1: understand putting your cards in that ask it when there
Speaker 1: are more feasible and realistic options at hand right now
Speaker 1: that aren't that much worse than a potential Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: type of deal. But it would explain some of their
Speaker 1: reasoning over the course of the summer. So that's one
Speaker 1: of the things I've heard with Utah. The most realistic
Speaker 1: deal that's on the table is Bogdanovitch Boy Boy Bogdanovitch,
Speaker 1: Rudy Gay, and Mike Conley for Russell Westbrook in one
Speaker 1: first Now, what I've heard is that Utah is like
Speaker 1: totally down to do that deal and the Lakers are not.
Speaker 1: Um Again, take that with a grain of salt. I'm
Speaker 1: not a reporter. This is just the things that I'm hearing.
Speaker 1: If that's the case, I think that's insane. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about it a little bit further down the line.
Speaker 1: But Bogdanovich and Rudy Gay in particular are our solid
Speaker 1: role players that fit a specific need on this team.
Speaker 1: Wings that can competently play offense. The Lakers have a
Speaker 1: lot of young wings that are athletes that are going
Speaker 1: to be inconsistent and downright frustrating at times on offense.
Speaker 1: Rudy Gay and Boy and Bogdanovitch are a little bit
Speaker 1: more reliable and at least would offer you a different
Speaker 1: punch on that side of the floor. I like Mike
Speaker 1: Conley fine. Um. I don't think he fits a specific
Speaker 1: need on this roster, especially with the Patrick Beverley deal,
Speaker 1: and it's a team that's already pretty small in the
Speaker 1: back court. But hey, you could do something with him,
Speaker 1: and maybe you could flip Kendrick Non or something like
Speaker 1: that if you get Conley and he's and he's a
Speaker 1: nice fit. Um. So it looks like the Lakers are
Speaker 1: trying to weigh the prospect of keeping Russ to get
Speaker 1: something better during the season versus taking this Utah deal
Speaker 1: that's here right now or something else. But it looks
Speaker 1: like they're leaning towards keeping Russ, which I think is insane,
Speaker 1: but it is what it is. The other thing is
Speaker 1: Lebron's mini camp. He does a mini camp before each season.
Speaker 1: Presumably that's gonna happen any day now. And I just
Speaker 1: have a hard time believing that Lebron would host that
Speaker 1: camp and take Russ to it, and then they would
Speaker 1: trade Russ afterwards. But between that and training camp, it
Speaker 1: just seems pretty confusing. So here's how we're going to
Speaker 1: proceed on this show. I'm gonna proceed as though Russ
Speaker 1: is a Laker this year, and if they do flip him,
Speaker 1: we will address it at that point, but for now,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna move forward as though Russ is on
Speaker 1: the team. So the depth chart at the guard position,
Speaker 1: they have Russell Westbrook, Patrick Beverley, Lonnie Walker, Kendrick Nunn,
Speaker 1: and Austin Reeves. On the wing, they're pretty thin Lebron James,
Speaker 1: Troy Brown Jr. Juantaskano Anderson, and Max Christie. And then
Speaker 1: their bigs are Anthony Davis when you and Gabriel, Thomas
Speaker 1: Bryant and Damian Jones. So on offense, I talked about
Speaker 1: this earlier when we're talking about Frank Vogel, but because
Speaker 1: they don't have a ton of offensive organization, they were
Speaker 1: just a brute force offense. They ran the third most
Speaker 1: isolations and the fourth most post ups in the league
Speaker 1: last year. They were thirteen in isolation efficiency, in ninth
Speaker 1: in isolation and post up efficiency, so they weren't as
Speaker 1: impactful doing that, but that was the type of offense
Speaker 1: they ran. They were finding the guy that had the
Speaker 1: best matchup, whether it was Lebron or Russ, and they
Speaker 1: were just attacking in isolation or post up time after
Speaker 1: time after time after time. That was the that's textbook
Speaker 1: brute force offense. And for the record, it is a
Speaker 1: little bit more reliable in the postseason as long as
Speaker 1: you can do it well. But that particular Laker team
Speaker 1: did not do it well. They did not run very
Speaker 1: much pick and roll. They were a bottom bottom ten
Speaker 1: pick and roll team in the league. The main reason
Speaker 1: why is, and we've talked about this, Lebron James in
Speaker 1: in Anthony Davis both dictate that you put a big
Speaker 1: forward on them, and so if you've got two big
Speaker 1: forwards into screening action, what's the smartest thing to do?
Speaker 1: Switch it. So every time Lebron James and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: frant pick and roll, they would just switch it. That's
Speaker 1: why the Lebron James Anthony Davis pick and roll that
Speaker 1: we all dreamed about when they made that trade never
Speaker 1: really materialized. Russell Westbrook uh is not a bad basketball player.
Speaker 1: He played bad in the role that he had this year,
Speaker 1: but he's not a basketball player. And if you play
Speaker 1: small guards on him, he can get them to the rim,
Speaker 1: but he can't shoot. So teams started putting forwards on
Speaker 1: Russ big awards and having them play way off, knowing
Speaker 1: that he could take all the jumpers he wants. He's
Speaker 1: gonna shoot him as inefficiently as anybody in the league.
Speaker 1: And if they drive in, he can't bully them because
Speaker 1: they're bigger than Russ. And so once again, if I've
Speaker 1: got Russ being guarded by a forward and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: being guarded by Ford or Lebron being guarded by forward,
Speaker 1: even pick and rolls with Russ as the ball handler
Speaker 1: would struggle because of teams willingness to switch. And then
Speaker 1: even when they ran pick and roll with the bigs
Speaker 1: like DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard, teams were going so
Speaker 1: far underneath the pick and roll with Russ and the
Speaker 1: drop was so deep that they weren't getting good stuff
Speaker 1: out of that. Either. Russ could walk into a pull
Speaker 1: up fifteen foot or anytime he wanted. He just wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna make them. The one kind of on ball screen
Speaker 1: action they ran that had some success was a pick
Speaker 1: and pop with Monk Lebron. James built some good uh
Speaker 1: chemistry with Malick over the course of the season doing this. Essentially,
Speaker 1: if Malik is being guarded by a small quick guard,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna want to switch. And so as long
Speaker 1: as Malik sets a pretty solid screen and forces Malik's
Speaker 1: man to hedge or to show or to switch onto Lebron,
Speaker 1: Malik could pop and at least have an advantage to
Speaker 1: attack from going uh going downhill. They don't have a
Speaker 1: shooter like that on the roster anymore. So that's gonna
Speaker 1: be an interesting looking forward this year. And you know,
Speaker 1: and essentially the downside to brute force offense is it
Speaker 1: wears on you and you need to spread the love evenly.
Speaker 1: You need to have lots of matchups that you can
Speaker 1: attack with lots of players so you don't become predictable
Speaker 1: and so you don't wear down. But when Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: went down and when Lebron was banged up as much
Speaker 1: as he was during the season, and they tried to
Speaker 1: run a brute force offense without the manpower to do so,
Speaker 1: and that was a huge part of why it didn't work.
Speaker 1: Um So, what do I think they should do this season?
Speaker 1: So last year they were they ran the twenty five
Speaker 1: most off screen actions in the league. These are actions
Speaker 1: like I was talking about with Chicago in with um uh,
Speaker 1: with New Orleans, where you have your your perimeter star
Speaker 1: whoever it is, started the week side corner and kind
Speaker 1: of work his man down to the short corner and
Speaker 1: then come off of a screen and basically curl around.
Speaker 1: If he's open, he could shoot, but curl around so
Speaker 1: that he's attacking in isolation, but with an advantage either
Speaker 1: the defender trailing him on his backside or him going
Speaker 1: under this under the screen and you're meeting him with
Speaker 1: the head of steam. The Lakers didn't do that nearly
Speaker 1: enough this year. Now, they don't have movement shooters, so
Speaker 1: you're not gonna have guys flying off the screen shooting.
Speaker 1: But I'd like to see them do a little bit
Speaker 1: more of that to try to get Lebron and Russ
Speaker 1: attacking downhill with an advantage. Milwaukee did do this quite
Speaker 1: a bit, so I'm hoping that Darvin Hamm brings some
Speaker 1: of that over uh from Milwaukee. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: crazy to think that you could do that with Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis as well. Imagine like a horn set where you
Speaker 1: have Anthony Davis on the left elbow and you know
Speaker 1: Lebron or one of the big Thomas Priyant, someone like that,
Speaker 1: on the right elbow cross screen. Have Anthony Davis come
Speaker 1: over the top of that screen, catch and just go
Speaker 1: so that he's attacking with a little bit more of
Speaker 1: an advantage, especially since Anthony Davis doesn't have the quickest
Speaker 1: feet in the world. UM, Kendrick Nunn coming back should
Speaker 1: be an interesting pick and roll threat for them because
Speaker 1: he'll have a small defender on them, so teams won't switch.
Speaker 1: The thing is is it's better in theory than it
Speaker 1: isn't result. He was only thirty eight percent on off
Speaker 1: the dribble shooting and UH two thousand one when he
Speaker 1: was with the Miami Heat only on pull up threes.
Speaker 1: That's not good enough. Uh. He was zero point eight
Speaker 1: three points per possession on pick and roll. That's not
Speaker 1: good either. So hopefully that's just the Miami Heat situation
Speaker 1: and he's got more talent than that and he'll flash
Speaker 1: that this year, but the Lakers could absolutely use uh
Speaker 1: Kendrick Nunn being a better pick and roll shot creator.
Speaker 1: I think that you'll get to see Patrick Beverley do
Speaker 1: some stuff off on second sides as well, but you
Speaker 1: don't want him as a primary creator. Spacing is going
Speaker 1: to be the biggest concern with this particular team. So
Speaker 1: Kendrick Nunn is an outstanding catching shoot player. He shot
Speaker 1: from three. Patrick Beverley is solid thirty nine percent last
Speaker 1: year on catching shoot threes. Bron James is solident of
Speaker 1: catching shoot threes, but Lebron can't shoot when he has
Speaker 1: the basketball as a spot up shooter. Right. So the
Speaker 1: reality is is everyone else on the roster is a
Speaker 1: player that other teams will play way off of. They're
Speaker 1: not gonna care if Troy Brown Jr. Takes threes, They're
Speaker 1: not gonna care. If Wantascano Anderson takes threes, they're not
Speaker 1: gonna care. If Thomas Bryant takes threes, they're not gonna care.
Speaker 1: If Anthony Davis takes threes. They're not gonna care if
Speaker 1: any of these guys take threes, except for maybe Kendrick
Speaker 1: Nunn and a little bit of Patrick Beverley and Lebron
Speaker 1: when he doesn't have the basketball. So spacing is gonna
Speaker 1: be a severe problem on this particular team. There are
Speaker 1: a couple of things that could help. They desperately need
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves to take a leap as a jump shooter.
Speaker 1: You actually wasn't as bad as you think last year,
Speaker 1: and catch and shoot situations will get to that um
Speaker 1: when we get to the X factor UM. But the
Speaker 1: other thing too is Thomas Bryant, in theory, should be
Speaker 1: a stretch big that should allow the Lakers to have
Speaker 1: a little bit better spacing when he's on the floor.
Speaker 1: But once again, there's a huge difference between shot result
Speaker 1: and the way teams that actually guard the way teams
Speaker 1: actually decide to guard. You. My guess is that even
Speaker 1: if Thomas Bryant shoots from three, that other teams are
Speaker 1: gonna happily dare him to shoot, and so spacing is
Speaker 1: going to be a significant issue for this team. And
Speaker 1: this is this is probably the biggest reason why a
Speaker 1: Rush trade is so important and why holding onto Russ
Speaker 1: would be so catastrophic. Most of the Lakers role players,
Speaker 1: like we talked about earlier on the wing, are athletic,
Speaker 1: play hard, defensive minded guys. All of them have severe
Speaker 1: offensive limitations right now. Um, Austin Reeves, who's not a
Speaker 1: very good shooter at this point, although he was in college,
Speaker 1: so I'm hopeful that he'll figure that out. Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: attacking closeouts is good. But outside of that, a lot
Speaker 1: of those other players are not going to shoot the
Speaker 1: ball well, are not going to be good into driving
Speaker 1: kick type of system. They're gonna struggle there. They don't
Speaker 1: have competent role players on the wing. And so if
Speaker 1: you could flip Russ and bring back someone like boy
Speaker 1: On Magdanovich who not only can attack mismatches and post
Speaker 1: in the post as a as like a big mismatch
Speaker 1: attacking four that I always talked about, but can shoot
Speaker 1: the basketball. Is a high i Q player that can
Speaker 1: attack close outs and make reads. Rudy Gay can do
Speaker 1: all of that stuff as well. Both of them have
Speaker 1: some defensive limitations, but at least you'd have some versatility
Speaker 1: and decisions that you can make where hey, if the
Speaker 1: young players are playing out of their mind and playing
Speaker 1: well in offense, hey we lean into that. But hey,
Speaker 1: all of them are are are have completely lost their
Speaker 1: confidence on offense. We need to go with Rudy and
Speaker 1: boy On tonight because they're just more confident on that
Speaker 1: side of the floor. The Lakers just don't have that
Speaker 1: punch right now. And so one of the biggest reasons
Speaker 1: why I think they have to make that trade is
Speaker 1: to just bring in competent offensive wings, just to make
Speaker 1: things easier for them on the offensive side of the floor,
Speaker 1: you know, and in general, this is there's so much
Speaker 1: that comes we We were talking about this earlier when
Speaker 1: I was talking about the Lakers, but having competent role
Speaker 1: players is extremely important. They are confident when they shoot
Speaker 1: the basketball. They are willing to relocate and move without
Speaker 1: the basketball. They'll cut to the basket, they'll screen for
Speaker 1: each other. Rudy Gay and boy and Bedonovitch offer you
Speaker 1: match up hunting. So if Lebron's tired on a possession
Speaker 1: and he doesn't feel like doing anything, but Boyon's being
Speaker 1: guarded by six five wing, he can go down to
Speaker 1: the block and post up. That's an option for you,
Speaker 1: same thing for Rudy gay Um basketball like you, So
Speaker 1: avoiding taking stupid shots or not understanding time and score,
Speaker 1: or making a silly mistake or turning the basketball over.
Speaker 1: Young basketball players do that veteran players typically don't, and
Speaker 1: so improving those role players to having more competent veteran
Speaker 1: presence to mix with some of the youth would go
Speaker 1: a long way towards making things easier for them on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor. So let's talk about
Speaker 1: us for a second. If they don't trade Russ and
Speaker 1: they have to keep him, how do you fit him in.
Speaker 1: He is good at a couple of things. He's big
Speaker 1: and strong, and he can get to the room. He
Speaker 1: doesn't finish well, but he can get to the rim.
Speaker 1: He can bully smaller guards on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. He's a great athlete. Still, He's not what
Speaker 1: he used to be. He's not a nuclear athlete anymore,
Speaker 1: but he's still a great athlete that all money, that,
Speaker 1: all you know can come together into a usable basketball role. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, if he went from being a primary creator
Speaker 1: to being a secondary creator, either off the bench or
Speaker 1: second side creation playing off of attention that is generated
Speaker 1: by other players on the team. He's not good enough
Speaker 1: for high volume creation, but he certainly is good enough
Speaker 1: to do it in small bursts and against specific matchups,
Speaker 1: like if he happens to to draw a weak defensive player,
Speaker 1: that can be some uh an opportunity there. And then
Speaker 1: just focusing his efforts on the defensive end of the
Speaker 1: floor and not just on ball like we talked about.
Speaker 1: But he's a big, strong athlete. He can be a
Speaker 1: good health defender if he can. There's enough he can
Speaker 1: be a dominant UH player within a defensive scheme if
Speaker 1: he commits to that end of the floor. He just
Speaker 1: has to be willing to do so. And then on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor, instead of just standing
Speaker 1: around when he doesn't have the ball, cut without the basketball,
Speaker 1: go screen for a teammate, crash the offensive glass, do
Speaker 1: something to be useful, knowing that you're not responsible for
Speaker 1: those primary shock creation responsibilities anymore. If he does those things,
Speaker 1: that could replace a role player that they can hunt
Speaker 1: somewhere else in a trade. If he became that, they
Speaker 1: wouldn't need to trade him. I just don't think it's
Speaker 1: a realistic thing for him to embrace those things, and
Speaker 1: that's why they I think they have to trade him.
Speaker 1: Moving on to the defensive end of the floor, so UH.
Speaker 1: In Frank Vogel's defense, they were severely limited last year.
Speaker 1: They had bad defensive players. Um. The good defensive players
Speaker 1: that they had were either hurt like Anthony Davis, or
Speaker 1: just weren't playing hard like Lebron James, who, again, as
Speaker 1: I've said, when he cares, is one of the best
Speaker 1: defensive players in the league, he just doesn't care, uh,
Speaker 1: at least not in this past season. So it's hard
Speaker 1: to say too much about what Frank did with that group. UM,
Speaker 1: but this is a completely different roster, a completely different coach.
Speaker 1: We have to look forward to what Darvin Hamm would do.
Speaker 1: So Darvin Hamm's defensive scheme in Milwaukee, because of brook
Speaker 1: Lopez and Janice together, it's essentially a two big scheme,
Speaker 1: and typically what they would do is, um, Joannice is
Speaker 1: so good off ball when he can load up and
Speaker 1: help around the rim. They would have brook Lopez run
Speaker 1: a traditional drop coverage as the screen defender, and then
Speaker 1: Janice is waiting underneath the basket. And you know, we
Speaker 1: talked about tagging rollers, So in a drop coverage, you
Speaker 1: can imagine if I've got a really good shooter coming
Speaker 1: off of that screen and the guard has to chase
Speaker 1: over the top and as a result, Brooke has to
Speaker 1: come up and help, so there's a pocket pass that's
Speaker 1: open to the roll man. A lot of teams will
Speaker 1: tag out of the week side corner, sending a player
Speaker 1: in over to to grab the roleman, or at least
Speaker 1: to stop him from rolling to the rim. Janice is
Speaker 1: devis dating in that role as the helper in the
Speaker 1: week side corner, coming into help and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: The Lakers could run very similar stuff like that with
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis, or with Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: Thomas Bryant, or Anthony Davis and Damian Jones, right, So,
Speaker 1: I'd like to see them kind of follow a similar
Speaker 1: type of idea. This is a team that has weak
Speaker 1: perimeter defensive players. That's just the reality of the situation
Speaker 1: right now. But they do have strong interior defensive players,
Speaker 1: especially when they're healthy. With Lebron James and Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: this can be a basketball team that mimics the Milwaukee
Speaker 1: goal of being willing to give up three point shots
Speaker 1: at the expense of completely erasing things around the rim.
Speaker 1: It's better to be truly great at one thing and
Speaker 1: to try to to manufacture success elsewhere than to be
Speaker 1: great at nothing and to be bad at everything, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And so from a schematic standpoint,
Speaker 1: I'd like to see Darvin ham lean into over help
Speaker 1: and taking away the rim. They do have some better
Speaker 1: athletes on the roster than last year, with the addition
Speaker 1: of Troy Brown Jr. Want Toscano Anderson and then again
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard were old and they swapped
Speaker 1: him out for younger, more athletic bigs and Thomas Bryan
Speaker 1: and Damien Jones. So would that increase in athleticism. They
Speaker 1: should be able to be potentially a little bit better
Speaker 1: on the defensive end, even on the perimeter. And then
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley with him at the point of attack, he'll
Speaker 1: be the best point of attack defender the Lakers have
Speaker 1: had since they got this core together, except for maybe
Speaker 1: Alex Caruso. With him there and with his tone setting,
Speaker 1: he's a He's a real try hard guy, not a
Speaker 1: fake try hard guy. He's not a yeller and a
Speaker 1: screamer you know that doesn't accomplish anything. He's a yeller
Speaker 1: and a screamer that also puts his money where his
Speaker 1: mouth is with the way he plays on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. I expect that to whip Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis and Lebron James into a frenzy on most nights
Speaker 1: to the point where they defend at a level that
Speaker 1: they're capable of. If Lebron James is dialed in on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor, and Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: healthy and Patrick Beverley is they're leading the charge, and
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves is in that fourth spot, they can be
Speaker 1: a great defense, not just a good defense, unbelievable defense.
Speaker 1: I know because I've seen it with Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. When they have good role players alongside them,
Speaker 1: they are capable of being every bit and not every
Speaker 1: bit pretty damn near as good defensively as they were
Speaker 1: in that season. As long as all of this pans out,
Speaker 1: it's a long shot, but it is possible for it
Speaker 1: to pan out the best case scenario without a rush trade.
Speaker 1: So if Russ stays on the roster, if everyone stays healthy,
Speaker 1: they will be a top five defense because of Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis and Patrick Beverley's leadership on a night and night
Speaker 1: out basis. Like I said, that lineup of Lebron James
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, Patrick Beverley, Austin Reeves, either Russell Westbrook or
Speaker 1: one of the younger we Wings. That's four fantastic defensive players.
Speaker 1: If they get anything out of that fifth spot, they
Speaker 1: will be a great defensive team. But again it huge qualifier.
Speaker 1: They have to stay healthy. On offense, they will struggle.
Speaker 1: They have less shooting than they did last year. Yes,
Speaker 1: having Anthony Davis come back and getting back to what
Speaker 1: he was will help, but last year they were in
Speaker 1: the twenties on offense. I expect him to finish amount
Speaker 1: around if they keep Russ. If they keep Russ, this
Speaker 1: is a middle of the pack offense at best. So
Speaker 1: if they are a middle of the pack offense and
Speaker 1: they are a top five defense, that makes them a
Speaker 1: middle of the pack playoff team and they will struggle
Speaker 1: too much to score to be a team like the
Speaker 1: Clippers if they're healthy, or beat a team like the Warriors.
Speaker 1: So to be clear, if they don't trade Russ, I
Speaker 1: do not think they're a contender. I think they're a
Speaker 1: non contender. But if they make that Jazz trade, or
Speaker 1: if they make the Pacers trade, or any other trade
Speaker 1: that brings back competent offensive role players. You still have
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley, Austin Reads, Lebron James, and Anthony Davis. You
Speaker 1: still have top two or lineups on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor, except for your adding incompetent offense around them.
Speaker 1: In the former boy On Magdanovich or Rudy Gay or
Speaker 1: Mike con Ley or whoever it ends up being. Health
Speaker 1: would still be a major concern there because every player
Speaker 1: that's been mentioned to trades, whether it's Miles Turner or
Speaker 1: it's Boyan Magdanovich or it's Miken Lee's already Gay, those
Speaker 1: guys have all had health issues. So health is still
Speaker 1: a major concern there. But if healthy post a Westbrook trade,
Speaker 1: they could be a top five defense and a top
Speaker 1: ten offense and have a real puncher's chance to beat anyone,
Speaker 1: because again, if they happen to get there, it's going
Speaker 1: to be extremely hard to beat a healthy Lebron James,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis with a handful of good role players in
Speaker 1: a playoff series. So again it's a puncher's chance, the
Speaker 1: most likely chance. But I think the Lakers have that
Speaker 1: puncher's chance to win the title as long as everyone
Speaker 1: stays healthy and as long as they make a Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook trade to bring in more competent role players. Worst
Speaker 1: case scenario, don't have to go too deep into it.
Speaker 1: Injuries cause a bunch of problems, they keep us around,
Speaker 1: and there's a bunch of drama, so the locker room
Speaker 1: is toxic, and then you end up hunting the twentieth
Speaker 1: season of Lebron James career. To be clear, I think
Speaker 1: that's the most likely outcome. I would not be surprised
Speaker 1: if they held under Russ thinking that they can get Kyrie.
Speaker 1: The season gets off to a really ugly start, so
Speaker 1: by the time they get to the deadline, it doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense to trade Russ anyway, and then they end
Speaker 1: up just punting this whole thing. That is what I
Speaker 1: think will happen, to be clear, But I do think
Speaker 1: there's a possibility that it could go better. The biggest
Speaker 1: X factor for this particular team is Austin Reeves. He's
Speaker 1: already right now heading into a second season an above
Speaker 1: average defensive player. He's an excellent, excellent positional defender. We've
Speaker 1: talked about this before, the difference between forward, aggressive, trying
Speaker 1: to force turnover type of defenders and then positional defenders
Speaker 1: that give ground with the purpose of making you shoot
Speaker 1: over the top. Austin always did a really good job
Speaker 1: of sliding his feet, taking contact in the chest and
Speaker 1: forcing players to shoot over the top and they would miss.
Speaker 1: He has a decent amount of sizes six ft five
Speaker 1: with basketball shoes on UM, and he gives consistent effort
Speaker 1: on every possession. The biggest thing he's there is he's
Speaker 1: gonna have to put on some muscle. But from what
Speaker 1: we've heard, he has put on a lot of muscle
Speaker 1: this offseason. I think he's put on almost fifteen pounds
Speaker 1: of muscle. If that's the case, he could be a
Speaker 1: great defensive player next year. UM. The other thing with
Speaker 1: Auster is that he's really good at is attacking closeouts,
Speaker 1: and new Laker fans will know exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Austin reeves when he would beat someone off the dribble
Speaker 1: when attacking a closeout, would always make the right read.
Speaker 1: If there was an open shooter on the wing, he
Speaker 1: was going to hit them. If there was an open
Speaker 1: player cutting back door, he was going to hit them.
Speaker 1: If there was a big man in the dunker spot,
Speaker 1: he was going to hit them. He was very good
Speaker 1: attacking closeouts. His weakness was he wasn't good enough as
Speaker 1: a catch and shoot shooter. He had only an effective
Speaker 1: field goal percentage of fifty three, which is okay, but
Speaker 1: on only two point two attempts, he pump faked way
Speaker 1: too often if there was a contest anywhere near. He
Speaker 1: needs to get to the point where he can confidently
Speaker 1: and competently knock down three point shots at a higher clip,
Speaker 1: most importantly, higher volume. He needs to get that catch
Speaker 1: and shoot percentage or attempts up from two point two
Speaker 1: up to closer to four, a little bit quicker release
Speaker 1: and a little bit more confidence so he doesn't pump
Speaker 1: fake as much. Um. But if Austin Reeves can turn
Speaker 1: himself into a legitimate three and D player and replace
Speaker 1: one of those really good role players that they were
Speaker 1: missing from that season, that would go a long way
Speaker 1: towards improving their chances. So, yeah, a lot to unpack there.
Speaker 1: We got into a ton of stuff today. And we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about the Lakers a lot this year as
Speaker 1: long as they're relevant, and we'll talk about them again
Speaker 1: if they make a rush trade. But it's just they're
Speaker 1: a super wide range of outcomes they could miss. The
Speaker 1: playoffs entirely, and they can win the title, and I
Speaker 1: think they're the only team in the league that has
Speaker 1: that type of variants. Um. All right, that's all I
Speaker 1: have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys,
Speaker 1: and I'll be back tomorrow with number twelve, The Volume