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Speaker 1: welcome to tonight here at the volume, Happy Tuesday, everybody.
Speaker 1: Hope all of you guys are having a great week
Speaker 1: so far. Well, James Harden finally got traded to his
Speaker 1: preferred destination and what was a shocking turn of events.
Speaker 1: I had a feeling that Daryl Moriy would go to
Speaker 1: great lengths to make that not happen, but Sham Sarai
Speaker 1: reported this morning that the owners of both teams got
Speaker 1: involved and got the deal done, and James Harden and PJ.
Speaker 1: Tucker are heading to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange
Speaker 1: for Nick Batoom, Marcus Morris, and Robert Covington as well
Speaker 1: as kJ Martin so a hal including two first round
Speaker 1: draft picks and two second round draft picks and a
Speaker 1: pick swap for the Sixers in return. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: breaking that trade down from the perspective of both teams,
Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna break down Lakers Magic from last night.
Speaker 1: This is the first of two shows today. We're gonna
Speaker 1: hit hard in trade Lakers Magic here off the top.
Speaker 1: This afternoon, we're going to hit Warriors Pelicans as well
Speaker 1: as Timberwolves Hawks. As the Hawks notched another impressive come
Speaker 1: from behind win. They're playing some really impressive defense right now,
Speaker 1: two impressive defensive teams from the Eastern Conference that we're
Speaker 1: going to be breaking down in today's show. You guys
Speaker 1: are the job. Before we get started, subscribe to our
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Speaker 1: them at the end of our shows, periodically throughout the year,
Speaker 1: and the last minut least before we get started. Now
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Speaker 1: price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball, So a
Speaker 1: little breakdown of the details of the trade. The Clippers
Speaker 1: get James Harden and PJ Tucker. The Sixers get Nick
Speaker 1: with too, Marcus Morris, Robert Covington kJ Martin an unprotected
Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight first from the Clippers. It's a very
Speaker 1: high quality pick, considering they've got a lot tied up
Speaker 1: in some older, injury prone guys right now, so that
Speaker 1: could very well end up being a lottery pick by
Speaker 1: the time we get to twenty twenty eight some other
Speaker 1: undetermined first round pick that's being re routed from another team.
Speaker 1: From what I read, there's like three different picks are
Speaker 1: considering there, and it's going to be the best of
Speaker 1: those three two second round picks in a pick swap,
Speaker 1: so a draft compensation hall for Darryl Moriy and the Sixers,
Speaker 1: which makes sense because you know, Nick Patum, Marcus Morris,
Speaker 1: and Robert Covington kJ Martin, those are all bench players,
Speaker 1: right that did not get a quality starter in return
Speaker 1: for this trade. So we're going to talk about that
Speaker 1: in a in a little bit, so uh. Like I
Speaker 1: said at the beginning of the show, Sham's reported that
Speaker 1: ownership got involved last night, made the deal. Again, like
Speaker 1: I was under the impression that Darryl Mory would probably
Speaker 1: take a sweet time to find the best possible deal
Speaker 1: and try to not send James Hard into his preferred destination.
Speaker 1: But sometimes you overpay and it gets done. And I
Speaker 1: think when all those draft picks were on the table
Speaker 1: it got really hard for Daryl Moray to say no.
Speaker 1: I would imagine that Steve Balmer probably got involved and
Speaker 1: was like, let's get this damn deal done so we
Speaker 1: could see what this team looks like, because like that
Speaker 1: is uh, it just it was hard to imagine again
Speaker 1: if you're not going to do it at the start
Speaker 1: of camp and you're not going to drag it out
Speaker 1: to the deadline and try to get something significant in return,
Speaker 1: especially since again like Nick Patum started for the Clippers,
Speaker 1: but he's not what I would consider to be above
Speaker 1: average starter quality player in the NBA. None of those
Speaker 1: guys are. And so the only way to get Darryl
Speaker 1: Moore to pull the trigger on this kind of in
Speaker 1: this weird no man's land post camp, but well before
Speaker 1: the trade deadline, is if you throw the entire kitchen
Speaker 1: cupboard full of draft picks at the situation and that
Speaker 1: appears to have been the case, and that's value because
Speaker 1: as we get to the sixers here in a minute,
Speaker 1: two draft picks, including a highly valued one from the Clippers,
Speaker 1: as well as two second round picks and a swap.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of stuff that they can use to
Speaker 1: throw at a star or a high quality starter down
Speaker 1: the line, which we'll talk about in a little bit.
Speaker 1: Now on the Clippers front, let's start with just what
Speaker 1: is James Harden at this point in his career. Well,
Speaker 1: as I've said all summer, he is an excellent regular
Speaker 1: season innings eeter. We're gonna talk about his postseason shortcomings,
Speaker 1: but I still believe that James Harden is one of
Speaker 1: the twenty best regular season players in the NBA. Twenty
Speaker 1: one points, six rebounds and eleven assists last year led
Speaker 1: the league in assists, sixty one percent true shooting one
Speaker 1: point zero eight points per pick and roll on huge
Speaker 1: volume one tho ninety four possessions. He was the fourth
Speaker 1: most efficient pick and roll player out of the fifteen
Speaker 1: guys to run at least one thousand last year, one
Speaker 1: point one to one points per isolation possession, fourth out
Speaker 1: of twenty five players to run at least two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty. He even scored twenty eight points on eighteen
Speaker 1: post ups, which is basically over a point and a
Speaker 1: half per possession. So within the context of the regular
Speaker 1: season half court shot creation, he's one of the very
Speaker 1: best players in the league still still to this day,
Speaker 1: and again, that is what James Harden does. He is
Speaker 1: a floor general that can get your defense into the
Speaker 1: other team's defense into rotation, and you guys can make
Speaker 1: plays out of that. He can feed guys in two
Speaker 1: man game. He can beat switches with step back threes,
Speaker 1: beating people off the dribble. He is still very, very
Speaker 1: good in that regard, and I kind of had a
Speaker 1: feeling that James Harden would have a bounce back season
Speaker 1: last year, and he certainly did. Within the regular season context.
Speaker 1: He has a very analytically sound scoring approach, takes a
Speaker 1: lot of threes, especially off the dribble, to boost his
Speaker 1: true shooting percentage. He had a fifty three percent effective
Speaker 1: field goal percentage on pullup jumpers. That's one point zero
Speaker 1: six points per possession, which is awesome. Did a nice
Speaker 1: job of mixing in more mid range jump shots last year,
Speaker 1: just kind of keep the defense off balance, not as
Speaker 1: many as I'd like to see him take, but he
Speaker 1: did take more than he used to, and he was
Speaker 1: outstanding off the ball in catch and shoot situations sixty
Speaker 1: five percent effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot
Speaker 1: jump shots seventy two percent when he's unguarded. Like I
Speaker 1: said before, still one of the best floor generals in
Speaker 1: the league. Led the league and assists in large part
Speaker 1: by setting up Joel Embiid for a shit ton of
Speaker 1: easy jump shots and close out opportunities in pick and
Speaker 1: rolls and picking pops. And that's kind of an interesting
Speaker 1: thing to potentially see, especially with Kawhi Leonard, someone who's
Speaker 1: capable of being a very good screener. You can imagine
Speaker 1: a lot of ghost screens or just picking pops, picking
Speaker 1: soft rolls for Kawhi Leonard with James Harden to try
Speaker 1: to just set him up with easier close out opportunities.
Speaker 1: But the playoff struggles were real. Outside of the two
Speaker 1: fantastic games in the Celtics series is where he had
Speaker 1: forty plus point nights and hit two game winners, he
Speaker 1: shot below thirty percent, and six of the eleven playoff
Speaker 1: games in total, he had a two for fourteen game,
Speaker 1: three for fourteen game, a four for eighteen game, a
Speaker 1: three for thirteen game, a four for sixteen game, and
Speaker 1: a three for eleven game. That's pretty rough. So for
Speaker 1: the two games he was awesome, he had six games
Speaker 1: where he was absolutely terrible. He shot just thirty five
Speaker 1: percent at the rim in the playoff run. That was
Speaker 1: where the majority of his efficiency tank. He just could
Speaker 1: not finish in traffic. He had four games with at
Speaker 1: least five turnovers as well. The Sixers were twenty four
Speaker 1: point four points better per one hundred possessions when James
Speaker 1: was off the floor versus when he was on. For
Speaker 1: the whole playoff runt, including the good games. When he
Speaker 1: was on the floor, they were minus five per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions, a one oh nine offensive rating, a one
Speaker 1: fourteen defensive rating in eight hundred and thirteen possessions, And
Speaker 1: when he was off the floor, the Sixers were plus
Speaker 1: twenty per one hundred possessions, a one to twenty four
Speaker 1: offensive rating in a one zho five defensive rating in
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty four possession. So he was like
Speaker 1: borderline and net negative within that context. Now, obviously he
Speaker 1: played huge minutes those are bench groups that were doing
Speaker 1: really well, but they were a pretty ad They were
Speaker 1: a below average offense and a below average defense when
Speaker 1: he was on the floor in the postseason, and he
Speaker 1: was directly responsible for that in a lot of ways
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor. So here's how I
Speaker 1: viewed the trade from the Clippers perspective. PJ. Tucker is
Speaker 1: a better perimeter defender than Nick Batoom, than Robert Covington
Speaker 1: and Marcus Morris. He's a really good option to throw
Speaker 1: out guys like Lebron and KD who at this phase
Speaker 1: in the career aren't his latter really quick and easier
Speaker 1: to kind of physically contain at the point of attack.
Speaker 1: But there's a trade off with PJ Tucker. He typically
Speaker 1: goes unguarded on the other end of the floor. You
Speaker 1: just know the Lakers are going to do something like
Speaker 1: put Anthony Davis on PJ Tucker and have him just
Speaker 1: park his ass in the paint. Make everything more complicated, right,
Speaker 1: same thing goes for any of the teams that have
Speaker 1: a legitimate rim protector, even for like Phoenix. You're going
Speaker 1: to see them put on Nick on PJ Tucker and
Speaker 1: he's just gonna park his ass underneath the basket, blocking
Speaker 1: shots and grabbing rebounds. So, like PJ. Tucker, very good
Speaker 1: option in that regard on the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: but still comes with offensive limitations. I do think that
Speaker 1: James Harden now on the PJ. Tucker front. To be clear,
Speaker 1: Nick Patoum has his own issues. Robert Covington was borderline
Speaker 1: unplayable and Marcus Morris's borderline unplayable. So, like again PJ. Tucker,
Speaker 1: for all his shortcomings, I believe is out of a
Speaker 1: deal that has four forwards in it. I think he's
Speaker 1: clearly the best forward. So they got the best forward
Speaker 1: back in the deal, right, and then James Harden will
Speaker 1: make the Clippers a much better regular season team. I
Speaker 1: genuinely believe he will. He's going to get them much higher,
Speaker 1: higher quality shots in the half court. He's gonna shut
Speaker 1: up the shut set up their stars for higher quality
Speaker 1: isolation and close out attacking opportunities. He's going to be
Speaker 1: able to control pace, He's going to be able to
Speaker 1: be really effective off the ball. All of that makes
Speaker 1: sense to me, But I do think that he could
Speaker 1: potentially end up being a net negative in the playoffs
Speaker 1: if he doesn't reverse that trend that's been going throughout
Speaker 1: his career, especially compared to more athletic groupings that they
Speaker 1: could throw out. There got groups like Westbrook, Man, Kawhi
Speaker 1: PG and you know Zubak or something along those lines.
Speaker 1: They're going to have groupings that I think are going
Speaker 1: to be more successful in the playoffs. I also don't
Speaker 1: understand the idea of bringing James Harden into the equation
Speaker 1: with your commitment to Russell Westbrook. You signed him last year,
Speaker 1: signed him again this year to a two year deal,
Speaker 1: and he's been playing really well to start this year.
Speaker 1: Eleven points, seven rebound, seven assists, sixty five percent true
Speaker 1: shooting from Russell Westbrook so far. He's shooting his jump
Speaker 1: shot well. He's five for eleven on jump shots. He's
Speaker 1: been an awesome matchup attacker in ISOs and in the
Speaker 1: post he just is so big and strong compared to
Speaker 1: other guards. He scored twenty nine points on twenty one
Speaker 1: post ups in ISOs, including passes. So like, if he's
Speaker 1: going to stay in the rotation, his role is going
Speaker 1: to change basically from what it has been, which has
Speaker 1: been a really natural fit with the Clippers pushing the
Speaker 1: pace controlling the flow of the offense, applying pressure, getting
Speaker 1: quality shots for his stars, and you know, doing some
Speaker 1: stuff off the ball right, crashing the offensive glass and
Speaker 1: stuff right. That's been his role, and the reason why
Speaker 1: it's working is because the Clippers need his rim pressure
Speaker 1: and his playmaking, right, that's what they've needed from him
Speaker 1: in that position. Now you're taking the ball out of
Speaker 1: his hands and giving it to James Harden to run
Speaker 1: the show. Now, Russell Westbrook's role looks very similar to
Speaker 1: the way it looked with the Lakers. Very rarely is
Speaker 1: he going to get to run the show, like when
Speaker 1: James is on the bench, Right, He's gonna have to
Speaker 1: be in break rhythm situations constantly. We're suddenly in a
Speaker 1: second quarter grouping. He's gonna be asked to run the
Speaker 1: show when he's out of rhythm because he's barely done
Speaker 1: anything before that. And he's going to have to be
Speaker 1: a deeply impactful off ball player on offense and on
Speaker 1: ball player on defense. That was his role when he
Speaker 1: was with the Lakers, and we all saw how that went.
Speaker 1: And so whatever sort of positive kind of like influx
Speaker 1: of winning impact you've been getting from Russ with the
Speaker 1: basketball fit. I do think the James Harden piece kind
Speaker 1: of directly counters that out, and I'm really curious in
Speaker 1: the big picture if they're gonna find a way to
Speaker 1: make that work. And again, like I've been saying since
Speaker 1: the minute Russell Westbrook put on a Lakers jersey, if
Speaker 1: he can be really selective with his off ball shot selection,
Speaker 1: meaning like taking the right type of stand still catch
Speaker 1: and shoot threes, if he crashes the offensive glass, if
Speaker 1: he operates as a ball screener, if he just works
Speaker 1: his ass off on the defensive end, on the ball,
Speaker 1: off the ball, crashing the defensive glass in switch situations
Speaker 1: against bigger players, if he does all that stuff, it's
Speaker 1: gonna go great. But keep an eye on that Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook situation taking a turn very similar to the Lakers,
Speaker 1: because that's a possibility now that you've brought in in
Speaker 1: the same way that Lebron James and Russell Westbrook were redundant,
Speaker 1: James Harden and Russell Westbrook are redundant. And James Harden's
Speaker 1: a better player than Russ right now. So at least
Speaker 1: in the regular season context, I'd argue Russ is a
Speaker 1: better playoff player. So I do you think that there's
Speaker 1: some potential downside there as well, so to kind of
Speaker 1: like tie a bow on it. From the Clippers' perspective,
Speaker 1: unless James Harden reverses his postseason trend of cratering and efficiency,
Speaker 1: the trade doesn't make the Clippers a better playoff team,
Speaker 1: but it will make them a better regular season team.
Speaker 1: The players are more the players involved in the deal
Speaker 1: are more or less irrelevant, Like, yeah, you gave up
Speaker 1: three forwards, but you got back the best forward in
Speaker 1: the deal in PJ Tucker. And I do think PJ.
Speaker 1: Tucker is a better playoff player than Nick Patum. So
Speaker 1: there's on the PJ Tucker spot I viewed as a
Speaker 1: slight upgrade for the postseason. On the James Harden spot,
Speaker 1: it entirely comes down to how he plays. And you
Speaker 1: guys know how that story has gone. Here's the reason
Speaker 1: why I wouldn't have made the trade. When you factor
Speaker 1: in James Harden's playoff limitations, when you factor in the
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook fit and how that complicates as a result
Speaker 1: of this trade, and then lastly, you poured in the
Speaker 1: rest of your draft compensation, so you've severely hindered your
Speaker 1: ability to make another deal at the deadline based on
Speaker 1: a specific need from a specific position group. So I
Speaker 1: would argue that it would have been better to wait
Speaker 1: for the deadline to see what kind of high level
Speaker 1: role players become available at that point. Then you throw
Speaker 1: the two picks, the two second round picks, the swap,
Speaker 1: and those salaries at whoever that player is. But to
Speaker 1: be clear, there is upside here. If James Harden plays
Speaker 1: better in the playoffs, this will be a trade that
Speaker 1: improves the Clippers. It's just you're effectively gambling on James
Speaker 1: Harden's playoff performance. Moving on to the Sixers, I like
Speaker 1: the deal again, like I didn't like the idea of
Speaker 1: sending him for nothing, you know, like I wanted a
Speaker 1: Daryl Morey to be patient for some sort of role
Speaker 1: player return, quality role players, because I didn't think the
Speaker 1: draft compensation was out there. But the Clippers showed you
Speaker 1: that they were desperate. They were willing to give two
Speaker 1: first round picks, a swap, and two seconds. You gotta
Speaker 1: take that deal because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's those salaries that you have now, whether it's Tobias
Speaker 1: Harris and some of these wings or just the wings again,
Speaker 1: whatever the salary combination you need to put together, you
Speaker 1: could theoretically just take the same three guys and package
Speaker 1: him with all the same picks and throw them at
Speaker 1: the right player at this year's deadline. And again, that
Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight Clippers first round pick is very likely
Speaker 1: to be a high value pick with the kind of
Speaker 1: up and down nature of the way the Clippers throw
Speaker 1: all their money in free agency at expensive you know,
Speaker 1: kind of injury prone stars, right, and so it's on
Speaker 1: the table that that could be a great pick. So
Speaker 1: who knows who it's going to be that comes available.
Speaker 1: We talked about the Bulls guys Tomar de rozan or
Speaker 1: zach Lavine og Ananobi from the Thunder, from the Raptors,
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam. These are Raptors guys that used to play
Speaker 1: with Nick Nurse. So don't be surprised if Nick Nurse
Speaker 1: pushes for one of those guys. Good Jeremy Grant from
Speaker 1: the Portland Trailblazers. Who knows, But the Sixers are in
Speaker 1: a position now where they can push their chips in
Speaker 1: the table and make some sort of bigger splash your
Speaker 1: deal at this year's deadline, and in the short term,
Speaker 1: Tyree Smaxy's literally been incredible. I'm not gonna into it
Speaker 1: right now because we just broke it down yesterday, but
Speaker 1: for the Sixers, fans did a whole deep dive on
Speaker 1: on Tyre's maxine how awesome he's been so far this
Speaker 1: season in our last video, but like, he's demonstrating that
Speaker 1: he can be the number one perimeter option for your
Speaker 1: team and do it at a high level. Marcus Morris
Speaker 1: and Robert Conington aren't going to play much in the
Speaker 1: short term. Maybe against you might see some Marcus Morris
Speaker 1: against like power power wing teams like the Orlando Magic,
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks, or the Toronto Raptors. Nick Batoum will
Speaker 1: play right away. He's a solid regular season wing and
Speaker 1: can shoot. Last season, he was fifty eight percent effective
Speaker 1: fiegal percentage on jump shots one point one to one
Speaker 1: points per spot up attempt, which is great, and he
Speaker 1: was an okay perimeter defender. Could make a shot in
Speaker 1: the playoffs though, but I don't expect him to play
Speaker 1: too much when they get to the postseason. Kelly Eubrey
Speaker 1: is playing really well for the Sixers right now too,
Speaker 1: so they're kind of looking good at forward. So I
Speaker 1: think they'll be fine for the regular season and they're
Speaker 1: ready to pounce on a potential star deal. Also, kJ Martin,
Speaker 1: you know they ended up going for Jalen McDaniels last
Speaker 1: year in hopes of just finding another athletic forward that
Speaker 1: could help him. There. kJ Martin's other guy who could
Speaker 1: see getting some of those minutes off the bench in
Speaker 1: the big picture. So I really like the deal for
Speaker 1: the Sixers. It feels like they are fine for the
Speaker 1: regular season and positioned to make a all end deal
Speaker 1: when they get towards the deadline. All right, let's move
Speaker 1: on to Lakers' magic the Christian would effect. So we
Speaker 1: talked about this after the loss to the Kings last
Speaker 1: or two nights ago, But the Lakers have a problem
Speaker 1: right now with defensive rebounding. Their backcourt is extremely unathletic,
Speaker 1: as I've been talking about all summer, and because Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt and Ruby Hachimura are both out with injuries right now,
Speaker 1: you're leaning heavily on Tory and Prints at the three,
Speaker 1: and he's thin and not a good rebounder. He's a
Speaker 1: okay perimeter defender and a very good spot up player,
Speaker 1: which brings advantages on the offensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: He's been one of the guys on offense that's actually
Speaker 1: played pretty well for the Lakers this season, but he
Speaker 1: doesn't help you in those physicality areas of the game.
Speaker 1: And so right now they're struggling with getting stops and
Speaker 1: failing to secure defensive rebounds on the back end, especially
Speaker 1: a predicament where Anthony Davis. One of two things that
Speaker 1: is happening with Anthony Davis, he's either switching onto the
Speaker 1: perimeter and getting a stop, but they can't get a
Speaker 1: rebound on the backside after because he's pulled away from
Speaker 1: the basket, or in pick and roll Ads getting too
Speaker 1: consistently engaged on the ball because the perimeter defenders are
Speaker 1: dying on screens and not doing a good job fighting
Speaker 1: over the top. So AD's having to leave Wendell Carter Junior,
Speaker 1: whoever it is, on the back line, and he's giving
Speaker 1: up solid rebound position in the process. As long as
Speaker 1: they can get the shot over Ad, Wendell Carter Junior,
Speaker 1: whoever it is that's in the back line, depending on
Speaker 1: who they're playing, is getting easy offensive rebounds. And so
Speaker 1: one of the things that we pitched after what happened
Speaker 1: in the Phoenix Sun series is hey, just play christian
Speaker 1: Wood more, because christian Wood kind of brings to you
Speaker 1: the offensive potential of the ability to knock down an
Speaker 1: open shot and make a play attacking close outs. He
Speaker 1: had a really smart play down the stretch on d
Speaker 1: Lo's kind of soon to be game winner that put
Speaker 1: the Lakers up one four to one oh three, where
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis made a kickout pass to him out of
Speaker 1: a double team, and he pump faked and then did
Speaker 1: a wrap round pass to d Lo that hit him
Speaker 1: right in the shooting pocket for the shot that ended
Speaker 1: up winning the game. Was a really smart, kind of
Speaker 1: like offensive skill play from christian Wood. He's not hurting
Speaker 1: you on offense, and he's providing some key elements on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor, particularly defensive rebounding. So far,
Speaker 1: christian Wood when he's playing with Anthony Davis and Lebron
Speaker 1: in the front court, the Lakers are plus ten in
Speaker 1: seven minutes, a one to twenty seven offensive rating, a
Speaker 1: fifty defensive rating. That's a plus seventy seven net rating.
Speaker 1: They're grabbing fifty five percent of available rebounds and almost
Speaker 1: all of those are in crunch time minutes when the
Speaker 1: game slows down against the opposing team's best players, and
Speaker 1: in really physical, intense, playoff esque basketball. Now again, will
Speaker 1: they outscore teams by seventy seven points per one hundre
Speaker 1: posessions all season with that trio? Obviously not, But to me,
Speaker 1: that's a really encouraging example of a lineup they could
Speaker 1: use in late game situations to confront their rebounding issues,
Speaker 1: at least in the short term until Jared Vanderbilt and
Speaker 1: Ruey Hotcha Mura come back into the equation. Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: is kind of like the perfect guy theoretically in this
Speaker 1: position because he can provide a lot of that high
Speaker 1: end perimeter defense and help you with crashing in defensive
Speaker 1: rebound situations while at the same time just upping your
Speaker 1: overall athleticism. And again, that will come down to his
Speaker 1: offensive performance, and he made some strides in preseasons, so
Speaker 1: we'll see how it actually shows up in the regular season.
Speaker 1: But I think in the big picture Vanderbilt ends up
Speaker 1: being the guy, but in the short term while you're
Speaker 1: waiting for him, and then maybe in the big picture
Speaker 1: if he continues to play this well. Christian Wood's a
Speaker 1: really good option there at the three, and he's doing
Speaker 1: a lot. He's providing that defensive rebounding piece, right, he's
Speaker 1: also providing secondary rim protection. Talked about after the game,
Speaker 1: how he's waiting for Ad to go up to block shots,
Speaker 1: knowing that if they pump fake or if they get
Speaker 1: an offensive rebound, he's there on the back end to
Speaker 1: either I shouldn't say, get an offensive rimund. He's there
Speaker 1: after the shot over Ad to either get the defense
Speaker 1: rebound or if they pump fake Ad out of his shoes,
Speaker 1: he can step over and provide that second layer of
Speaker 1: rim protection. And then he's also been pretty solid on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. He guarded KD down the stretch of that
Speaker 1: game against the Suns, and then he also had a
Speaker 1: couple of key perimeter stops, including a big one against
Speaker 1: Pala Boncaro down the stretch of this game. He's just
Speaker 1: good at baiting guys into pull up jump shots and
Speaker 1: then using his deceptive length to contest shots. And basically
Speaker 1: what it amounts to is it's a big lineup right
Speaker 1: with a second big next to Ad, but one that
Speaker 1: can respectively respectably space the floor and attack close out,
Speaker 1: so you have the advantages rebounding and defensively that you
Speaker 1: get from more size on the floor with the offensive
Speaker 1: advantages you get from more perimeter skill. Late game execution
Speaker 1: was solid in this game. Remember we talked a lot
Speaker 1: after the Kings game about oh, they need to, you know,
Speaker 1: run more through Ad because these guards are missing these shots.
Speaker 1: And what did I say. I pushed back, and I said,
Speaker 1: Lebron's doing his job. He's drawing multiple defenders and getting
Speaker 1: the defense in rotation. And then the Lakers are generating
Speaker 1: wide open threes. Like against the Kings, it was like
Speaker 1: wide open. Gave Vincent threes, wide open Tory and Prince threes,
Speaker 1: wide open D'Angelo Russell threes. Those are wide open threes
Speaker 1: for great shooters, and they just missed them. And then
Speaker 1: everyone's like, you gotta go through a d more, You
Speaker 1: gotta go through a d more. And I said, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter even if he gets a bucket in the post.
Speaker 1: Whoever the coaches is gonna start throwing the kitchen sink
Speaker 1: at Ad and you're gonna have to make shots on
Speaker 1: the weak side. Well, what happened? Anthony Davis posed up
Speaker 1: left block one oh three to one oh two. Or
Speaker 1: one of three to one oh one, the magic double
Speaker 1: along the baseline, ad has to get rid of the ball,
Speaker 1: swings the ball to christian Wood. Christian Wood makes the
Speaker 1: extra pass to D'Angelo Russell. Same wide open three that
Speaker 1: d Lo missed in overtime that would have put the
Speaker 1: Lakers up by two. Same one, wide open a little
Speaker 1: bit on the right wing, and he knocked it down
Speaker 1: this time. Again. Like I told you, guys, settling for
Speaker 1: jump shots off the bounce is totally different. Like when
Speaker 1: Lebron James takes those step back threes and by the way, too,
Speaker 1: two of them down the stretch and he made one
Speaker 1: of them. So that's three points and two possessions. Right.
Speaker 1: But like when Lebron James is settling, that's settling. Right. Technically,
Speaker 1: he could make a more aggressive downhill move to try
Speaker 1: to draw multiple defenders for a kickout three or try
Speaker 1: to get all the way to the rim. Right, that's settling.
Speaker 1: I'm one hundred percent with you, guys, And Lebron's going
Speaker 1: to have to shoot the way he's been shooting, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about it in a second, because he's
Speaker 1: shot really well in crunch time. He's going to have
Speaker 1: to shoot that well in order for that shot to
Speaker 1: make any sense. But if they're drawing multiple defenders, the
Speaker 1: right read is to kick to shooters. That's the team construct.
Speaker 1: Lebron Anthony Davis rim pressure. Teams are gonna pack the paint.
Speaker 1: Guys have to make shots. And again, like it's a
Speaker 1: make or miss league in a lot of ways. But
Speaker 1: like again, maker misses a lot about process and which
Speaker 1: players like. If you generate high quality shots for good
Speaker 1: shooters in the big picture, you're going to make them
Speaker 1: more frequently. And after I said after the Kings game,
Speaker 1: if the Lakers continue to generate wide open threes for
Speaker 1: D'Angel Russell gave, Vincent, Andorian Prince and Austin Reeves or
Speaker 1: whoever it is, if they keep generating wide open threes,
Speaker 1: they're going to win a lot of games because those
Speaker 1: are good shooters and they should eventually get to the
Speaker 1: point defensively where they can get enough stops on the
Speaker 1: other end of the floor. But Dilo made it, that's
Speaker 1: the difference. They won this game because of that. It's
Speaker 1: not about who initiates. As long as Lebron or ad
Speaker 1: are both drawing multiple defenders, it's going to be the
Speaker 1: same result, guys have to make shots. Lakers in the
Speaker 1: clutch so far the season two to one a ninety
Speaker 1: eight defensive rating, which is really excellent when you consider
Speaker 1: how bad they were in the King's game. They had
Speaker 1: like a one to twenty four defensive rating in the
Speaker 1: Kings game in clutch times, so they've been really good
Speaker 1: in the clutch when christian Wood's on the floor. The
Speaker 1: other two clutch games are the Suns game. In this
Speaker 1: magic game, christian Wood was out there for those ones.
Speaker 1: They were excellent defensively in the clutch, so basically really
Speaker 1: good defensively in the clutch in the games where christian
Speaker 1: Wood played not so much. In the game where he
Speaker 1: didn't offensively, that also coincided with the game where all
Speaker 1: the skilled players misshots. That's the perfect recipe for the
Speaker 1: Lakers to blow a four point fourth quarter lead as
Speaker 1: they lose to the Kings. Right, But the Lakers so
Speaker 1: far are have a plus twenty net rating in clutch
Speaker 1: situations through three games. Lebron in the clutch so far
Speaker 1: is twenty points when the game is within five with
Speaker 1: less than five minutes left. That is tied for Luka
Speaker 1: Doncic for the most in the league. He's eight for
Speaker 1: ten from the field, two for four from three, and
Speaker 1: two for four from the free throw line. And again,
Speaker 1: I thought he did his job against the Kings too,
Speaker 1: drawing multiple defenders and kicking to wide open shooters. This
Speaker 1: is big because last year Lebron was not a good
Speaker 1: clutch player. He had a rough season in that regard.
Speaker 1: This is a small sample size, but so far this season,
Speaker 1: Lebron has been much better making shots and making decisions
Speaker 1: at the end of games in clutch situations for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. I don't remember where I put him in
Speaker 1: my player rankings. It was either six or seven. I
Speaker 1: think I had him at six if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: But a lot of people will reacted and said, you
Speaker 1: have him too high. And what I keep trying to
Speaker 1: point out to everybody is like, you're pairing legitimate offensive
Speaker 1: production with top tier defensive production. But let's look at
Speaker 1: the offen production first. Anthony Davis so far the season
Speaker 1: twenty six points, fourteen rebounds, and three assists. He's third
Speaker 1: in rebounding in the league, third in blocks in the
Speaker 1: league at two point eight per game, and he has
Speaker 1: a sixty one percent screw shooting percentage. So he's been
Speaker 1: efficiently scoring twenty six points per game while also being
Speaker 1: one of the best rebounders top three rebounder in the league.
Speaker 1: And he's putting together one of the best defensive seasons
Speaker 1: so far against some small sample size that you'll see.
Speaker 1: And the reason why I say that is this Laker
Speaker 1: team has been absolutely atrocious on the perimeter Defensively. Lebron
Speaker 1: is still coast mode. Totally get why he's a million
Speaker 1: years old, right, but Torrian Prince and gave Vincent are
Speaker 1: helping you on. Torrian Prince, gave Vincent, D'Angelo Russell, and
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves are all getting cooked on the perimeter consistently.
Speaker 1: They're dying on screens, they're not boxing out, they're not
Speaker 1: paying attention to their man in the ball. A huge
Speaker 1: problem in this particular Magic game was guys like Markel
Speaker 1: Foltz and Jalen Suggs crashing from the perimeter, not just
Speaker 1: on offensive rebound situations, but also on cuts. Like a
Speaker 1: guy'd be driving the lane and Torrean Prince would just
Speaker 1: kind of be standing looking like this, and the dude
Speaker 1: would just cut right behind him for a layup. That's
Speaker 1: happening way too much. The perimeter defense is atrocious for
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and yet they still have been the thirteenth
Speaker 1: best defense by defensive rating in the regular season so far,
Speaker 1: in the seventh best defense in the clutch so far.
Speaker 1: Literally because of Anthony Davis and what he can do
Speaker 1: to clean up messes, to clean up the defensive glass.
Speaker 1: He's putting on the mother of all cleanup jobs on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the four while also putting up
Speaker 1: twenty six to fourteen twenty six points and fourteen rebounds,
Speaker 1: while also doing a really nice job creating his own shots.
Speaker 1: So far this season, he's rany. He's run thirty two
Speaker 1: post tops in ISOs so far, leading to forty one points.
Speaker 1: That's a point in the third per possession. That's excellent.
Speaker 1: He's finally starting to make his touch shots around the rim.
Speaker 1: Coming into last night, he was just six for twenty
Speaker 1: in the paint outside of the restricted area, so like
Speaker 1: short paint shots right, He's six for twenty going the
Speaker 1: last night. He was six for seven last night, starting
Speaker 1: to get his touch back there. I think he's the
Speaker 1: best defender in basketball. I think he's proving that he
Speaker 1: belongs in the conversation with the best players in the league.
Speaker 1: But in the big picture, the Lakers are still playing
Speaker 1: pretty bad basketball, and they're gonna be in trouble if
Speaker 1: they don't clean some things up before they see the
Speaker 1: Clippers on Wednesday. Austin Reeves is slumping hard. This is
Speaker 1: a guy who I thought was easily the third best
Speaker 1: player on the Lakers last year and was probably the
Speaker 1: second or third best player on Team USA this summer,
Speaker 1: and he's playing like shit. He doesn't look explosive off
Speaker 1: the bounce. I don't know if he's dealing with a
Speaker 1: nagging injury or if he's just a little fatigued from
Speaker 1: everything that went on this summer. D'Angelo Russell hinted in
Speaker 1: his postgame interview that Austin's kind of trying to get
Speaker 1: his legs back underneath him, but it's affected him in
Speaker 1: a bunch of other ways. Because he's been a much
Speaker 1: better defensive player in his career than he's been this season.
Speaker 1: He's really struggling on that end. His rhythm and confidence
Speaker 1: looks shot. He's really struggling to be impactful offensively with
Speaker 1: the ball, and he's missing all of his catch and
Speaker 1: shoot threes. It's been a rough season for ust now
Speaker 1: here's the thing. I don't think that players become bad overnight.
Speaker 1: I think Austin's gonna get it together and he's going
Speaker 1: to be fine. But until he does get it together,
Speaker 1: that's the Lakers' third best player playing like shit, and
Speaker 1: that's gonna hurt them in the big picture in terms
Speaker 1: of their night to night ceiling. Overall as a team.
Speaker 1: The perimeter defense is awful. I've talked about this. Navigating
Speaker 1: screens has been bad. Handling perimeter athleticism from guys cutting
Speaker 1: and crashing the glasses bad. The transition defense has been bad.
Speaker 1: Everything has been really bad on the perimeter. Defensively, D'Angelo
Speaker 1: Russell's the worst culprit. He had a really rough game
Speaker 1: last night. Jalen Suggs just took it to him. He
Speaker 1: made up for it by making a bunch of big
Speaker 1: plays in the fourth quarter on the offensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor, but he gave damn near just about all
Speaker 1: of it back on the defensive end. I mean, even
Speaker 1: his game winning shot came right after a play where
Speaker 1: he lost Jalen Suggs on a basic dribble handoff for
Speaker 1: a wide open three and so like d Loo is
Speaker 1: still all over the place. This is this a guy
Speaker 1: who said he wanted to be like Derek White on
Speaker 1: defense and he just hasn't put his money where his
Speaker 1: mouth is yet. And then lastly to shooting, this is
Speaker 1: a team. I don't think they're gonna be a great
Speaker 1: shooting team, but they also shouldn't be a bad shooting team.
Speaker 1: I mean, the three of the starters they've been using
Speaker 1: are all well above average catch and shoot three point
Speaker 1: shooters that are all just not shooting particularly well. So
Speaker 1: when Osin Reeves gets it together, when as a team
Speaker 1: they start defending better, and when they start knocking down shots,
Speaker 1: that's when things will go up a level from there.
Speaker 1: But to be two and two in spite of all
Speaker 1: of that not a bad place to be for playing
Speaker 1: really bad basketball. But they are going to drop to
Speaker 1: two and three on Wednesday if they don't fix a
Speaker 1: bunch of those issues quickly. Because the Clippers are playing
Speaker 1: some good basketball right now, moving under the Orlando magic.
Speaker 1: I love this team. They can't shoot right now. The
Speaker 1: twenty fourth and three is made per game in twenty
Speaker 1: second and three point percentage, and that's definitely hurt their
Speaker 1: half court offense. At times, it's a lot of Franz
Speaker 1: Wagner and Pala Bancaro, Wendell Carter and Markel Foltz missing
Speaker 1: jump shots right now, But that again, like that's kind
Speaker 1: of gonna be something they deal with throughout the season. However,
Speaker 1: They've got a lot of advantages, particularly with their size
Speaker 1: and athleticism. They are huge, they are athletic at every
Speaker 1: position group. They play hard, they play physical. These are
Speaker 1: some crazy stats about their defense right now. They're the
Speaker 1: best defense in the league in defensive rating and they're
Speaker 1: the only team in the league allowing fewer than one
Speaker 1: hundred points per one hundred possessions. They are third in
Speaker 1: rebounding percentage. They are sixth in offensive rebounds per one
Speaker 1: hundred possessions. They are fourth in opponents points in the
Speaker 1: paint per one hundred possessions. They are seventh in defending
Speaker 1: the three point line, both in three pointers made by
Speaker 1: opponents and opponent three point percentage. They are third in
Speaker 1: steals per one hundred possessions. And they are the second
Speaker 1: best transition defense in the league. So they are just
Speaker 1: cleaning house in all of the margins of the game,
Speaker 1: with all of their size and athleticism. Again, Wendell Carter
Speaker 1: is a good starting center in this league. Palo and
Speaker 1: Franz bring this huge rim pressure element to the team.
Speaker 1: Palo's a very good post player throughout his NBA career.
Speaker 1: Franz as this big playmaking forward right, and then Folts
Speaker 1: and Suggs bring real downhill athleticism. D'Angelo Russell and Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves got their asses kicked last night just by those
Speaker 1: two guys beating them off the dribble, beating them off
Speaker 1: of cuts, beating them on the offensive glass. Markel Folts
Speaker 1: was even just picking them apart in pick and roll.
Speaker 1: There was a sequence down the stretch where he actually
Speaker 1: played Austin Reeves off the floor where he basically gets
Speaker 1: downhill and makes an easy layup over Anthony Davis. Then
Speaker 1: he Anthony Davis steps up and they both go to
Speaker 1: the ball and he throws a lob to Wendell Carter
Speaker 1: Junior for the easy dunk right. Then then Markel Foltz
Speaker 1: just starts caving Austin's chest in for an easy hook
Speaker 1: shot in the lane. They were just getting bucket after
Speaker 1: bucket after bucket. They couldn't do anything with that Markel
Speaker 1: Folts Wendell Carter pick and roll and they actually played
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves off the floor. And that's the cool part
Speaker 1: is like Folts is your third best prim initiator and
Speaker 1: he took over the offense late and made a bunch
Speaker 1: of huge plays to get them back into this game.
Speaker 1: And they probably had a good chance to win that
Speaker 1: game if if Jalen Suggs just makes a better rim
Speaker 1: decision there down in that final possession, he just decided
Speaker 1: to challenge ad big mistake. There's an easy drop off
Speaker 1: pass to Wendell Carter right in the dunker spot. It's
Speaker 1: probably what he should have done. But this is a
Speaker 1: fun team. They are two to one right now despite
Speaker 1: both Franz Wagner and Paulo Bancaro playing poorly. They're both
Speaker 1: shooting below forty percent from the field, and they bring
Speaker 1: a bunch of athleticism and size off the bench as well,
Speaker 1: like Cole Anthony and Gary Harris are a pretty athletic backcourt,
Speaker 1: especially for a bench group. Gary Harris is seven for
Speaker 1: eleven on catch and shoot three so far this season
Speaker 1: catch shoot jumpers, I should say, and that lineup is
Speaker 1: tied off, so you got Cole Anthony and Gary Harris,
Speaker 1: but then you've got Mo Wagner at the center position
Speaker 1: who's playing well. And then you have Joe Ingles and
Speaker 1: Jonathan Isaac in there as like good lanky, rangey wings
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. So that lineup right now is plus
Speaker 1: twenty three points net in fifty three possessions, excellent on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor. They feel like a playoff
Speaker 1: team to me. I mean like they're gonna win a
Speaker 1: lot of games even if they don't shoot particularly well.
Speaker 1: And if those guys start to take steps up as
Speaker 1: jump shooters, especially as Franz and Palos start playing better offensively,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be even tougher to beat. Don't be surprised
Speaker 1: they play the Clippers tonight. Don't be surprised if they
Speaker 1: beat the Clippers tonight. That's on the table. That's something
Speaker 1: that team is capable of doing. All right, guys, That
Speaker 1: is all I have for this portion of the show.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I'm gonna be back later this afternoon
Speaker 1: breaking down Warriors, Pelicans and Wolves Hawks. I will see
Speaker 1: you guys. Then the volume