Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jason timp Podcast. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your evening to come
Speaker 1: hang out and talk some basketball with us. I'm super
Speaker 1: excited tonight we have Rods as you guys know him
Speaker 1: as at Unwritten Rules on Twitter. He is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite guys to bring on to talk Lakers because
Speaker 1: he has a lot more time than I to do,
Speaker 1: or at least he's willing to devote a lot more
Speaker 1: time to watch a lot of the in depth film
Speaker 1: and you can bring a lot of perspective that most
Speaker 1: of us don't, you know, have the time to really
Speaker 1: build and uh so I'm really excited to have him
Speaker 1: on to bring his expertise. We're just going to dive
Speaker 1: into all things about the Laker off season today and
Speaker 1: uh you're gonna hear a lot of optimism from Raj
Speaker 1: and I I would imagine, because I think we're naturally
Speaker 1: optimistic people, but also there's a lot to be optimistic
Speaker 1: about with this Laker team. And I think before we
Speaker 1: get started, I want to talk real quick about why
Speaker 1: I think we should be so optimistic, and it starts
Speaker 1: with what happened with the Laker team last year because
Speaker 1: As I've said several times on Twitter over the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, Lakers were one of the most dominant
Speaker 1: basketball teams of this century. They started the season twenty
Speaker 1: four and three. Think about how crazy that is to
Speaker 1: start the season twenty four and three. At one point,
Speaker 1: they finished the season at a sixty four win pace.
Speaker 1: They were the fourth best offense in the league and
Speaker 1: the third best defense in the league going into the bubble.
Speaker 1: They finished the season with the best record among all
Speaker 1: NBA teams against winning teams against teams at five or better.
Speaker 1: And then they got into the into the playoffs and
Speaker 1: they only lost five games. They were never truly threatened.
Speaker 1: Even in the series where they got pushed to six,
Speaker 1: they just absolutely obliterated the Miami Heat. They were one
Speaker 1: of the most dominant teams not only in the history
Speaker 1: of the league, but in in this modern era with
Speaker 1: with as much depth of talent as there is from
Speaker 1: top to bottom. And I think one of the main
Speaker 1: reasons why there was so much pessimism surrounding the team
Speaker 1: basically stemmed from two things. They dropped an early game
Speaker 1: against the Clippers where they posted up a d every time,
Speaker 1: and then they dropped an early game or Christmas Day
Speaker 1: game against the Clippers where they had a pretty big
Speaker 1: fourth quarter lead that they blew at the end with
Speaker 1: some foul calls that went one way and and just
Speaker 1: missing a couple of shots. And then they lost that
Speaker 1: game at the end of the road trip against the Bucks.
Speaker 1: And then there was the seeding games, which were weird.
Speaker 1: They there were no fans, so there was no adrenaline
Speaker 1: for the players to feed off of. They had absolutely
Speaker 1: nothing to play for. They had locked down. Anything that
Speaker 1: they needed was seating. There was no legitimate reason for
Speaker 1: them to be the best version of themselves. And they
Speaker 1: went three and five, and most importantly, they couldn't score,
Speaker 1: which completely changed the whole, you know, perception of that
Speaker 1: team because it made everybody think they were a bad
Speaker 1: offensive team, even though they were the fourth best offense
Speaker 1: all season long and and and during that seating game
Speaker 1: they were the seating stretch. They were still defending. So
Speaker 1: I say all that to say this, the reason why
Speaker 1: we're going to be so excited in this podcast for
Speaker 1: how good this Laker team can be is because they
Speaker 1: already were one of the most dominant teams that we've
Speaker 1: seen in this modern era and they legitimately got better
Speaker 1: in my opinion, on both ends of the floor. And
Speaker 1: so I think that I think that that's the important thing,
Speaker 1: is to kind of confront some of that weird, illogical
Speaker 1: pessimism that surrounded last year's Laker team that was never
Speaker 1: really based in reality, because they were good from start
Speaker 1: to finish. I was tweeting pretty recklessly about them back
Speaker 1: in October, and I know you've felt the same way
Speaker 1: of out. But yeah, I mean, do do you agree
Speaker 1: with me? Do you think that do you think I'm
Speaker 1: overreacting a little bit? No, I think you're right. I
Speaker 1: think like there are times last year where you kind
Speaker 1: of had to convince me because there were times where
Speaker 1: like they would lose a game and would be like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, what's happening? And then you would go
Speaker 1: on like a rant like dude, they're okay, They're just
Speaker 1: one like ten in a row, Like it's okay to
Speaker 1: lose one game. So I think you're right, um, And
Speaker 1: the dominance level, I forget, like because you remember the
Speaker 1: losses way more than the wins in a weird way,
Speaker 1: Like I remember exactly losing that home game to Dallas
Speaker 1: that they lost. Luca went off at home. But then
Speaker 1: you forget like they won like fourteen in a row
Speaker 1: or some crazy amount and you have sixteen and five
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Is nothing to joke about. And they're
Speaker 1: like the first team to win without any home court
Speaker 1: right they want to. They won the championship with zero
Speaker 1: home court advantage. Now they didn't have to go on
Speaker 1: the road at all either, but that's a pretty big deal.
Speaker 1: So this year they get home court. UM. I think
Speaker 1: they've got a much better roster, more balanced roster around
Speaker 1: this team. Now, obviously chemistry was a big deal from
Speaker 1: last year. We'll see how that um kind of correlates
Speaker 1: to this year. But yeah, I think you're right. I
Speaker 1: think they were dominating last year and they've improved. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can't deny that they hadn't improved this team, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll see. I mean, obviously, when you win the championship,
Speaker 1: you have the right to be positively and you obviously
Speaker 1: going to next season with a lot of positive feelings
Speaker 1: on it. It's hard to do and I think I
Speaker 1: think one of the things that I always tell people
Speaker 1: when they're dealing when they're trying to cope with regular
Speaker 1: season losses, because especially I remember when I was younger,
Speaker 1: when I was in my teens, and I was watching
Speaker 1: a game where I had a rooting interest, whether it
Speaker 1: was the Arizona Wildcats or whether I was watching you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron when he's playing with the Cavs. They lose a
Speaker 1: game and I had to keep I would constantly just
Speaker 1: kind of just be devastated by it, even in like March,
Speaker 1: which never made any sense. And it's funny because you
Speaker 1: think about, like, if I told you that an NBA
Speaker 1: team was gonna win sixty games, you would think, oh,
Speaker 1: that's a dominant basketball team. That's a bona fide championship contender,
Speaker 1: you know, But if they like, just by a simple
Speaker 1: matter of math, if a basketball team loses or win
Speaker 1: sixty games in a regular season, that means they have
Speaker 1: to lose twenty two times. So I think about it like,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. You're losing at that rate. You're basically losing
Speaker 1: once a week like that, that's it. That's insane. So
Speaker 1: I think it's important to always kind of keep that
Speaker 1: perspective and understand that even the warts that popped up
Speaker 1: for the Lakers, the warts like dropping those couple games
Speaker 1: to the Clippers, dropping that game to the Bucks having
Speaker 1: some you know that. I think they lost four games
Speaker 1: in a row at one point where things got a
Speaker 1: little rough there. But you have to remind yourself and go, like,
Speaker 1: it's not like there's a team out there that's perfect.
Speaker 1: You know, there's into two thousands, seventeen Warriors, your outlier contender.
Speaker 1: That's so different from any traditional season. All these teams
Speaker 1: are struggling. And that was what so weird about it
Speaker 1: is the Lakers would have this pessimism surrounding them, and
Speaker 1: it's like have you watched the Clippers. They're getting their
Speaker 1: butts kicked by bad teams, and they don't like each other,
Speaker 1: and there's all this bad body language and all their
Speaker 1: guys are in and out of the lineup, and it's like,
Speaker 1: how is that getting you know, glossed over for their
Speaker 1: sake but being completely you know, like having this big
Speaker 1: flashlight shined on it for the sake of the Lakers.
Speaker 1: And I never really understood understood the watch behind that.
Speaker 1: Uh but yeah, so let's let's get started with what
Speaker 1: I think is the first really interesting you know that
Speaker 1: like structural things surrounding the Lakers, and it stems from
Speaker 1: that interview that we had with Dannis Shrewder and his
Speaker 1: inaugural press conference with the Lakers, where he basically kind
Speaker 1: of came out and publicly said, I plan on being
Speaker 1: the starter, okay, like and it wasn't like necessarily super
Speaker 1: uh kind of like, it wasn't very you know, uh, modest,
Speaker 1: it was very like intentional. It seemed wasn't low key
Speaker 1: at all, right exactly, And so so let's assume that
Speaker 1: that's that whole dynamic to me makes the starting lineup
Speaker 1: dynamic interesting for the Lakers because for starters, you can
Speaker 1: throw Alex Cruso out the window as a starter, which
Speaker 1: is crazy because arguably their most dominant performance last year
Speaker 1: was with Alex Caruso on the starting line up, so
Speaker 1: we set him aside. So there are seven names, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, that can be considered for a starting shot
Speaker 1: starting spot. There's Lebron and Anthony Davis. There's k C.
Speaker 1: P There's Wesley Matthews. There's Dennis Shrewder, who threw his
Speaker 1: name in the hat and I probably wouldn't have put
Speaker 1: it there before he said that. Uh, Marcusol and Montrese Harroll.
Speaker 1: So Lebron and A Dye have to write, you're thinking
Speaker 1: contagious call. Well, Pope probably has to why because he
Speaker 1: started a lot of last season and you just paid
Speaker 1: him a lot of money, you know. So the reality
Speaker 1: is is, like, it doesn't make necessary, It doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: make a ton of sense to have him coming off
Speaker 1: the edge. So that leaves West, Dennis Mark, and Shreds
Speaker 1: fighting for those last two spots. So my first question
Speaker 1: for you is what do you think the Laker starting
Speaker 1: lineup will look like? And then follow that up with
Speaker 1: whether or not you agree with that concept or if
Speaker 1: you wouldn't have if you would change anything about it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I just to speak on the like shrewder thing, Like,
Speaker 1: I think it's great that he wants to be a starter. Um,
Speaker 1: we obviously aren't in the room with his agent, with Polinka,
Speaker 1: with you know, Lebron and a d or whoever got
Speaker 1: to talk to him and promised the starting start, didn't.
Speaker 1: I just think it's I don't think it's like normal
Speaker 1: for a guard who's coming from another team to come
Speaker 1: to a championship team and demanded to be a starter.
Speaker 1: I think that's a little strange. I still would be
Speaker 1: surprised if he's starting on opening night. UM, Like, I
Speaker 1: think you can go as treads like do you want
Speaker 1: to be a starter? He's can be like, hell yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to be a starter? Like this, what kind
Speaker 1: of question is that? Like? So, I mean, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if he was asked directly, but I mean I'm
Speaker 1: sure he doesn't want to come off the bench anymore.
Speaker 1: And that's understandable. The dude's a competitor, right. He averaged
Speaker 1: eighteen points a game on a fifth seed last year.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he believes he can start. But I still
Speaker 1: think UM that starting lineup is going to go with
Speaker 1: a k C. P. I think he's earned it his
Speaker 1: playoffs performances, UM has gotten him in that lineup, and
Speaker 1: I just think you want to keep as much like
Speaker 1: chemistry as well as last year. UM, just to keep it,
Speaker 1: keep the continuity, right, Like I think Wes Matthews feels
Speaker 1: perfectly for Danny Green. They are very similar players. Um.
Speaker 1: I think West is a little bit of a defender
Speaker 1: on the ball, but anyways, they're they're both kind of
Speaker 1: three and D players. And then Mark saw if it's
Speaker 1: perfectly with Jabal and then you can keep that playoff
Speaker 1: bubble team together with k C. P Lebron and a
Speaker 1: D and then that bench unit can build their own continuity, right,
Speaker 1: because last year it was kind of aretic. You had
Speaker 1: a regular season Rondo trying to play with Kuzma who
Speaker 1: was doing his thing, and then you had Caruso coming
Speaker 1: in trying to get minutes. It was a little bit
Speaker 1: erratic and anyway through the season. So I think you're
Speaker 1: right thing, those are the spots. Obviously Lebron and a
Speaker 1: D are locked in. I would think trez is gonna
Speaker 1: come off the bench. Um, I think Shorter is going
Speaker 1: to eventually come off the bench to start. He's still
Speaker 1: gonna get his starter in minutes though, and his his
Speaker 1: minutes next to Lebron and a D. But that's kind
Speaker 1: of how I see it going, how about you. That's
Speaker 1: the that's the important detail. And so for the record,
Speaker 1: like I had, I've I know what this experience is like.
Speaker 1: When I was playing at Arizona Christian University, I started
Speaker 1: this season as a starter, so a totally different vibe
Speaker 1: than my junior college years. Like in junior college, I
Speaker 1: was an all conference player. I was had all these
Speaker 1: big scoring numbers. They were lying heavily on me to
Speaker 1: be an offensive creator. And then I was playing with
Speaker 1: two All American guards, you know, and the n A
Speaker 1: I A is all weird, like they have weird age rules.
Speaker 1: So our guards were twenty nine and thirty one years
Speaker 1: old playing college basketball, you know, and I was twenty
Speaker 1: two and you know, trying to fit in with these
Speaker 1: two like big alpha personalities that have been around the
Speaker 1: game forever. And I was like a Trevor Reasa type
Speaker 1: role on that team. All I did was guard the
Speaker 1: other team's best player and spot up in the in
Speaker 1: the corner and shoot threes while these guards took all
Speaker 1: these dribbles. And while it's one thing to buy into
Speaker 1: that role from the standpoint of, you know, being unselfish,
Speaker 1: it's another thing with the way that it can affect
Speaker 1: your rhythm. And I genuinely remember like that process. I
Speaker 1: was a starter my entire college career. I started every
Speaker 1: game in junior college. I started like the first twenty
Speaker 1: games of the season when I was at Arizona Christian University,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, they were like, we
Speaker 1: had a backup three. He was all he was an
Speaker 1: All conference player this season before, and he was older.
Speaker 1: He was I think he's like twenty eight years old,
Speaker 1: and the coach basically just came to me and he says, hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna start with Jordan's and we're gonna have you
Speaker 1: come in off the bench. That way you can be
Speaker 1: a bit more as bull of all all this stuff.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is like coming off the bench
Speaker 1: is hard. You go through this intense warm up before
Speaker 1: the game, you're going through layup lines, You're all jazzed up,
Speaker 1: there's a crowd, you're you know, jumping out of your
Speaker 1: out of the gym, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it's like I'm sitting and not only that, but it's
Speaker 1: like eating at you because you're just watching other guys
Speaker 1: play when you feel like you should be out there.
Speaker 1: And so I I sympathize with the with with the
Speaker 1: plight of what Dennis is talking about. The flip side
Speaker 1: of it is, though, is his role is different. His
Speaker 1: role on this team is to be aggressive with the basketball.
Speaker 1: So in the starting lineup, it's foolish to have Dennis
Speaker 1: be super aggressive with the basketball. It doesn't actually make
Speaker 1: a lot of sense from a basketball a Q standpoint
Speaker 1: for what they're trying to do in those minutes because
Speaker 1: in those minutes when Lebron and a D are on
Speaker 1: the floor, everything needs to be flowing through that as
Speaker 1: much as you can, because there are two of the
Speaker 1: top three or four players in the entire world. So
Speaker 1: that's just a smarter that's just a smarter basketball like
Speaker 1: you approach to the game. It's not we're not benching
Speaker 1: Dennis for the sake of of of trying to you know, uh,
Speaker 1: like Paris out who's the best player on the team.
Speaker 1: It's just actually, if we have you check in with
Speaker 1: five minutes to go in the first quarter, we can
Speaker 1: have you come in and be super aggressive and not
Speaker 1: have to worry about deferring to Lebron and Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: So that that's the reasoning why I didn't like that
Speaker 1: sort of approach. It shows me that Dennis is kind
Speaker 1: of worried about the wrong things. That's said, even if
Speaker 1: they do start Dennis, they can work it out just
Speaker 1: by quickly benching either Lebron or a D. And I
Speaker 1: think you'll see that a lot, especially as you're dealing
Speaker 1: with Lebron trying to load manage, because I think the
Speaker 1: clear obvious answer for the starting lineup is to go
Speaker 1: KCP and West because West is a perfect starter because
Speaker 1: he doesn't need touches, he locks up, he's a ball
Speaker 1: pressure guy. He can set the tone defensively. And then
Speaker 1: the same thing with Marcusol. Marcusol because he's just going
Speaker 1: to be a high you player who's not who's not
Speaker 1: overly aggressive. He's perfect in the starting lineup. And then
Speaker 1: you bring in Tres and Dennis and you say it's
Speaker 1: your time, just go get him. But if if they
Speaker 1: insist on starting Dennis, which I believe they will, which
Speaker 1: will lead to Dennis k CP, Lebron a d Marcusol,
Speaker 1: then you're gonna have to do some quirky stuff with
Speaker 1: your rotations to quickly get either Lebron and a d
Speaker 1: out or a d out to get UH to get
Speaker 1: Dennis the ball more because he's going to basically be
Speaker 1: spotting up in some of those minutes. That would be
Speaker 1: my one concern. Yeah, and the thing also, I think
Speaker 1: there's enough playmaking between Marcusol and Lebron in that starting
Speaker 1: lineup to where I don't think you need an extra
Speaker 1: pastor there. Um. I think Dennis is the best, as
Speaker 1: you said, on the ball, attacking off ball screens, um,
Speaker 1: getting downhill and that's a little more tougher when he's
Speaker 1: like standing on a week side corner waiting for you know,
Speaker 1: the help to come down from a Lebron drive or
Speaker 1: you know, a d um flashing to the room, things
Speaker 1: like that. So obviously they can work well together. I
Speaker 1: just think his skill set kind of matches more of
Speaker 1: that second unit. And it's still kind of strange to
Speaker 1: me like that that he would just come in and
Speaker 1: demand to be a starter and they would just like,
Speaker 1: you know, give him that. Like, I just think that's earned.
Speaker 1: That's earned on the court, right if he's averaging like
Speaker 1: twenty points a game and six assists up in his minutes,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it started. Like if he's demanding to start,
Speaker 1: then he started the basketball show. If he needs to
Speaker 1: start or not, he he doesn't need to demand it,
Speaker 1: you know, day one of training camp. I think it's
Speaker 1: kind of strange for a team that that just dominated
Speaker 1: their way, Like you said, an intro to a championship. Um,
Speaker 1: this guy coming off, you know, a five seat off
Speaker 1: the bench is just weird, you know, just you're right,
Speaker 1: it's about optics, like exactly, dude, Like I feel I'd
Speaker 1: have so much more respect for you if you felt
Speaker 1: that way, and you just kept it in the house.
Speaker 1: But I mean, it's the thing, and this is what
Speaker 1: is important that you're bringing to the table, Rodger, and
Speaker 1: what drives me nuts about so many fans. It's like,
Speaker 1: it's so you can be a Lakers optimist and be
Speaker 1: honest about the things that you're seeing. And like, as
Speaker 1: much as I love the Dennis acquisition, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk more about what he does for the offense and
Speaker 1: for the defense, but it's okay to acknowledge like that
Speaker 1: wasn't I didn't love what he said in the press conference,
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't ideal, you know, especially talking about a
Speaker 1: team that had such great, such great chemistry. And we
Speaker 1: just dealt with this with JaVale McGee, with all the
Speaker 1: reports we had about how much he cared about starting,
Speaker 1: and it's like and then now we're all of a
Speaker 1: sudden throwing him into the fire in the Western Conference
Speaker 1: finals to get absolutely cooked by you know. So I
Speaker 1: think that I'd prefer to see the egos checked at
Speaker 1: the door. But it's you can even if he is
Speaker 1: privately insisted on it, you can still make it work.
Speaker 1: And and maybe that's what it is is trying to
Speaker 1: make him happy long terms so that he's you know,
Speaker 1: more committed to the franchise. But it's all gonna work out.
Speaker 1: So let's dig into some of the fun stuff that
Speaker 1: I think you in particular, can be super helpful for
Speaker 1: so UM. As I mentioned earlier in the show, the
Speaker 1: Laker offense was one of the best offenses in the
Speaker 1: league last year that got completely glossed over because of
Speaker 1: the bubble games. And Zach Lobe presented some data and
Speaker 1: he was including data from the bubble games for the record,
Speaker 1: but he basically pointed out that most of the Laker
Speaker 1: offensive success came in transition and that that they struggled
Speaker 1: a little bit in the half court now. But like
Speaker 1: I said, he was including games from the bubble So
Speaker 1: it's difficult to manage that, uh, that kind of expectation
Speaker 1: from what we saw and when they were more engaged. Um,
Speaker 1: And the realities is scoring in transition is still offense.
Speaker 1: It's not like like the Lakers scored a lot in
Speaker 1: transition in the playoffs. Game six of the NBA Finals
Speaker 1: was a track meet. They were strangling the heat and
Speaker 1: then running out for layups and dunks on the other end.
Speaker 1: So it's not like that's not real offense. That said,
Speaker 1: I understand some of the concern there, and I think
Speaker 1: a lot of it stemmed from spacing issues. And the
Speaker 1: spacing issues stemmed from a lot of Rondo minutes and
Speaker 1: a lot of JaVale McGee and a lot of Dwight Howard.
Speaker 1: So what I want to start with is, let's talk
Speaker 1: about specifically with the starting lineup to start how does
Speaker 1: how does having Mark Garsol out there instead of a
Speaker 1: JaVale McGee Dwight Howard completely change the way that the
Speaker 1: Lakers play offense to start games. Yeah, it's everything, man,
Speaker 1: because like you can see, when the Lakers started games, um,
Speaker 1: it would be really clunky, clunky, even though they have
Speaker 1: Lebron and a d um. You just have two bigs
Speaker 1: in the paint right away, um starting your offense on
Speaker 1: and you'll have Javal in the dunker spot usually and
Speaker 1: teams just can just sit there and wait for Lebron
Speaker 1: to drive, a d to drive and just dare the
Speaker 1: shooters to kind of hit a little bit concessis shots.
Speaker 1: But now Marcusol, he operates on the top of the key. Um,
Speaker 1: he'll never hit them, He'll never miss a guy that's
Speaker 1: going off a backcut. They'll never miss, like a good
Speaker 1: back screen or he'll always hit you right in the
Speaker 1: right in the place. And like he can really play
Speaker 1: make um and help and even find Lebron on back cuts,
Speaker 1: and it can it can allow Lebron and a D,
Speaker 1: a D and Lebron to kind of work off each
Speaker 1: other as well. Um they can screen for each other,
Speaker 1: and uh, Marcosol can find him and just have another
Speaker 1: playmaker out there so that you're not just running Lebron
Speaker 1: is OS two or a D i OS or a
Speaker 1: D post ups. You can Lebron. You can learn Lebron
Speaker 1: Marcosol action. And they have to respect him out there.
Speaker 1: I know his three point shooting kind of collapsed in
Speaker 1: the bubble. I think it was like a thtent or
Speaker 1: something like that. But I think he's still shot like
Speaker 1: thirty as a whole before the bubble. Um. He's respected
Speaker 1: out there. Even though he's a little bit slower foot.
Speaker 1: He's not the same guy he was, but he's still
Speaker 1: the amazing pastor. He still has the i q um
Speaker 1: and he's it's going to open up everything. Having a
Speaker 1: spacer along with a D out there. We saw it
Speaker 1: with like Marky Morris. Right, when you have Markis Morris
Speaker 1: and a D out there, how much space that just
Speaker 1: gives a D to work down low. Now imagine like
Speaker 1: that guy is now seven foot, that guy's now a
Speaker 1: great passer, and you don't really lose much in terms
Speaker 1: of room protection, and you could still go big and
Speaker 1: keep that identity. I know you talked about that a
Speaker 1: lot of the Lakers identity last year. You can still
Speaker 1: kind of keep that big identity while also also opening
Speaker 1: up the offensive floor. Yeah, so I agree, Like I think,
Speaker 1: I think spacing as part of it, Like obviously having
Speaker 1: a center who can shoot opens up a lot of things.
Speaker 1: First of all, Anthony Davis spent half of the season
Speaker 1: last year posting up with a big in the dunker spot,
Speaker 1: which is just gremely difficult to do because when it
Speaker 1: big is in the dunker spot, just natural shell spacing
Speaker 1: allows the opponents at the opponents center to sit right
Speaker 1: under the basket and to not get a defensive three
Speaker 1: second calls. So it completely messes up your spacing at
Speaker 1: four st. Anthony Davis to be hesitant and a lot
Speaker 1: of those positions and take a whole lot of turnaround
Speaker 1: jump shots and things that were a little bit more
Speaker 1: finesse and less power, which, for the record, fine when
Speaker 1: you're Anthony Davis because he's so good, but you can
Speaker 1: see him potentially have a lot more success as a
Speaker 1: to the basket post up score when you've got Marcosol
Speaker 1: spacing from the three point line, specifically with his three
Speaker 1: point shooting. I know that there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: talk about his postseason performance, but I think it's important
Speaker 1: to remember that, you know, he only played what he played.
Speaker 1: The Raptors Celtics series went to Game seven A, but
Speaker 1: they swept the first round, so he played the leven
Speaker 1: playoff games, and and he was really good in a
Speaker 1: larger sample size in the regular season. So theoretically and
Speaker 1: with the Lakers, with the with the probability of him
Speaker 1: making a deep playoff run, and honestly just because of
Speaker 1: the Toronto never had the level of offensive creators to
Speaker 1: generate the quality of looks that Marcosol is gonna get.
Speaker 1: Playing alongside Lebron and Anthony Davis is going to be
Speaker 1: a different level in that regard. So I think, like
Speaker 1: just strictly from a spacing standpoint, it opens things up
Speaker 1: from Lebron driving. It opens up things for Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: as a post up threat, and most importantly, uh, just
Speaker 1: quality of looks are gonna help Marcosol generating points for himself.
Speaker 1: But then there's a second element to that, and it's
Speaker 1: it's just the basketball, like Q is so much more
Speaker 1: complicated than people realize. It's not just about like, uh,
Speaker 1: it's not just about like learning how to channel your
Speaker 1: aggression or being in the right spot at the right
Speaker 1: time on the defense. Like a lot of spacing is
Speaker 1: about like being in the right spot, like shifting your
Speaker 1: body when you need to, kind of naturally by instinct
Speaker 1: to help create openings. It's like kind of just on
Speaker 1: a whim setting a screen at the right time. It's
Speaker 1: cutting instinctually at the right time. Was something that Alex
Speaker 1: Crusoe is so good at. Like Alex Cruso had so
Speaker 1: many offensive limitations, but he was a high i Q
Speaker 1: basketball player, which just makes it a lot easier in
Speaker 1: the half court generate like these little tiny openings that
Speaker 1: can help you over the course of the game, generate baskets.
Speaker 1: And that's a huge part of the Marcosol experience. Dwight
Speaker 1: Howard and JaVale McGee I I specifically with Dwight Howard.
Speaker 1: I thought he was a big impact player for the
Speaker 1: Lakers last year. I thought they should have found a
Speaker 1: way to bring it back. And that's an entirely different
Speaker 1: topic that we've all discussed. But Dwight Howard is not
Speaker 1: a high i Q offensive basketball player. So he's a
Speaker 1: high i Q defensive basketball player, but he's not a
Speaker 1: high i Q offensive basketball player. He struggled a little
Speaker 1: bit with what I'm talking about as it pertains to
Speaker 1: Marcusol being in the right spot at the right time,
Speaker 1: cutting at the right time, flaring at the right time,
Speaker 1: finding that open spot on the perimeter where you think
Speaker 1: Lebron will find you or where the opening will be.
Speaker 1: All that stuff I think is important. And then you
Speaker 1: talk about with his there's this whole other elements to
Speaker 1: the offense that they can run um in the possessions
Speaker 1: where Lebron and a d are either resting while on
Speaker 1: the court or off the court, and that's just his
Speaker 1: basketball que as a passer, getting them the ball high post,
Speaker 1: getting the ball in a position where when you have
Speaker 1: guys like Crusoe, Montrez Harrold on the floor, you can
Speaker 1: get them cutting into into specific spots on the floor
Speaker 1: where Marcusol can find them. I think he completely opens
Speaker 1: things up on that end, right. And it's no accident
Speaker 1: that Alex Caruso like is one of the best guys
Speaker 1: to play next to Lebron James, right. It's because it
Speaker 1: was really high i Q. And then you pair that
Speaker 1: now with Marcusol, who's another just super high i Q guy.
Speaker 1: Imagine those two guys now working together. I think that's
Speaker 1: the best. I don't know you could. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think it's debatable, but it's probably the best passing front
Speaker 1: court in the league if you kind of put the
Speaker 1: song in Lebron together. Just imagine those two finding each other,
Speaker 1: finding Lebron going on it back. How many times with
Speaker 1: Lebron cut and like no one would throw in the
Speaker 1: law when he would like have the lab and you
Speaker 1: know he would go back to the corner or something
Speaker 1: like that with his hands back and try to catch
Speaker 1: and isolate again. So Marcusol will never miss you on
Speaker 1: those kind of cuts. Toronto kind of lived off that
Speaker 1: Toronto wasn't as talented either, but they'll lift all those
Speaker 1: cuts and those back back door screens. I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna help Kuzma and Cruiso a lot on there. He's
Speaker 1: a massive improvement to the collective basketball i Q of
Speaker 1: the Lakers, right, And I don't think that can be overstated,
Speaker 1: especially when, like I don't know how many times we
Speaker 1: have to see an NBA history basketball i Q win
Speaker 1: games at the highest levels of playoff basketball, whether it
Speaker 1: was watching the Spurs for years or watching watching teams
Speaker 1: that have famously been called old all year long suddenly
Speaker 1: become the best teams when when the when the you know,
Speaker 1: late round playoff series, uh, you know are being fought.
Speaker 1: And I think that that I think that that sort
Speaker 1: of thing is like again, you know, the Lakers, because
Speaker 1: they had so much youth and athleticism with some of
Speaker 1: the other moves that they made, Marcosol infusion is a
Speaker 1: super good, a super you know, worthwhile risk in my opinion,
Speaker 1: because you're not sacrificing your overall athleticism and age of
Speaker 1: the team. You're bringing in a savvy, veteran player that
Speaker 1: into a situation where his strengths can be emphasized instead
Speaker 1: of his weaknesses. Right, So let's let's uh shift forward
Speaker 1: in the game now to end of the first quarter,
Speaker 1: early second quarter type of stretch where now you have
Speaker 1: Mantrez and uh Dennis Shrowder on the floor. In this case,
Speaker 1: you're looking at a line up where it's probably going
Speaker 1: to be some combination of Montrese Harold, Anthony Davis, Um,
Speaker 1: Dennis Shroder, Wes Matthews, maybe a Kyle Kuzma in there.
Speaker 1: But that's gonna be the type of lineup that you're
Speaker 1: working with offensively. How do you see that, uh, that
Speaker 1: line up working to find baskets? Yeah, then it's exciting.
Speaker 1: I mean after watching you know, regular season Rondo Um
Speaker 1: trying to isolate or run ball screens that go nowhere
Speaker 1: that create no advantage as you would say a lot Um.
Speaker 1: Now you get Schroeder and Montrez Harrold with I'm assuming
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis will play in the second unit next to
Speaker 1: Harold to kind of take take off his defensive deficiencies,
Speaker 1: and you can have those two run screen and roll.
Speaker 1: You can have a d and Um Shooder run pick
Speaker 1: and roll and have like Kusma in the corner or
Speaker 1: MARKI Morris and Caruso cutting. I think it's just gonna
Speaker 1: be beautiful. Those two that you need to kind of
Speaker 1: play their own basketball. I think it will be a
Speaker 1: lot faster than the starting lineup. This all obviously isn't
Speaker 1: gonna try to get out and run too much, so UM,
Speaker 1: I expect that you need to just run up and down.
Speaker 1: Shooter is one of the fastest cards in the league.
Speaker 1: I think, UM, just having the basketball, I'm being able
Speaker 1: to speed up and down. And Harold likes to run.
Speaker 1: He has a huge motor UM, so he's gonna just
Speaker 1: keep driving to the rim. And I think those two
Speaker 1: are gonna score a lot. They those were two eighteen
Speaker 1: points of game scores UM off the bench last year.
Speaker 1: I think I think they can do the same thing
Speaker 1: here um playing next to Lebron or a D depending
Speaker 1: on how Vocal wants to play it. But I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna get a lot of baskets UM. And yet
Speaker 1: you can see last year, like when the bench would
Speaker 1: come in, we would kind of struggle, right those numbers.
Speaker 1: People would attack a D a lot because they would
Speaker 1: say the numbers when Lebron sits, UM, we're still a negative, right.
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers were like negative point something with
Speaker 1: Lebron off the bench last year. That kind of flipped
Speaker 1: in the bubble. But I think this will help a lot.
Speaker 1: Somehow Rob got the two six Man the Year candidates
Speaker 1: to join this championship team, UM, filling both of the holes.
Speaker 1: I thought backup point guard was like the number one
Speaker 1: hole to fill. He filled that in before free agency
Speaker 1: even began. So yeah, I think this bench is gonna
Speaker 1: have a no, no trouble getting points of UM going forward. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree. So I think I think the first thing
Speaker 1: that's interesting from the standpoint of what Dennis Shrewder had
Speaker 1: to deal with in Oklahoma City, he was spending a
Speaker 1: lot of time with you know Darius Basically you're spending
Speaker 1: a lot of time with you know, Steven Adams. He
Speaker 1: was dealing with some spacing issues that he won't necessarily
Speaker 1: have to deal with with the bench lineup of the Lakers.
Speaker 1: So theoretically, let's pretend it's Dennis Shrewder, West Matthews, Kyle Kuzma,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, and Montrese Harroll. First of all, you can
Speaker 1: run pick and roll with Anthony Davis. Forget about Tres
Speaker 1: for a second. You can literally run pick and roll
Speaker 1: with Anthony, which is gonna generate more opening for him
Speaker 1: than he's ever experienced in his career. As a as
Speaker 1: a pick and roll ball handler. Then in the scenario
Speaker 1: where you're running pick and roll with Montrese harroll, you've
Speaker 1: got Anthony Davis, Kyle Kuzma, and West Matthews on the perimeters.
Speaker 1: You can't help anywhere in that mix, and you're you're
Speaker 1: just giving him a little bit more flexibility to uh
Speaker 1: to turn what is one of the more gifted role
Speaker 1: men in the NBA's just because you know, I think
Speaker 1: he was. I can't remember who was. I was tweeting
Speaker 1: out Montrese's measurables the other day. But one of the
Speaker 1: big reasons at his height that he's so effective around
Speaker 1: the basket is he has super super long arms, and
Speaker 1: he's a super high standing reach. If I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 1: his standing reach in his wingspan are both higher and
Speaker 1: longer than Bamata bios if I remember correctly. So, Montrese
Speaker 1: brings a lot of length around around the basket. Offensively,
Speaker 1: big hands, he can catch everything. I had a Brett
Speaker 1: Dawson was a friend of mine who who has been
Speaker 1: covering the Oklahoma City Thunder for a long time. He
Speaker 1: said that when he was watching Dennis play in Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: he was frequently frustrated with how with the stone hands
Speaker 1: that the Biggs had there, and it made him it
Speaker 1: made him less of a willing cats in the sense
Speaker 1: that he just was a little bit hesitant to throw
Speaker 1: the ball to guys who didn't know what to do
Speaker 1: with it when they got it, or maybe they couldn't
Speaker 1: catch it to begin with. That's the problem you're gonna
Speaker 1: have with Anthony Davis and with Montrez Harrold. So I
Speaker 1: think it definitely brings out, you know, what could be
Speaker 1: the best out of Dennis shooter. And then the other
Speaker 1: thing with him, you know, he's a more aggressive jump shooter,
Speaker 1: which I think is important because the Rondo jump shooting
Speaker 1: experience was such a roller coaster. There were days where
Speaker 1: he was confident, he was firing away and it really
Speaker 1: opened things up for their offense. But for every night
Speaker 1: like that, there was a night where he was either
Speaker 1: completely unwilling to take them or he was bizarrely super
Speaker 1: aggressive and not making anything. And so it was it
Speaker 1: was such a roller coaster in that regard the Shrewder.
Speaker 1: You know, there's been some talk about how before last
Speaker 1: season he wasn't a great jump shooter, and whether or
Speaker 1: not last season was an outlier. But the reality the
Speaker 1: situation is is even like the worst case scenario for
Speaker 1: Shrewder as a jump shooter UH this season would be
Speaker 1: better than what they were dealing with with Rondo. So
Speaker 1: I think I think that I think the Dennis Shrewder
Speaker 1: of jump shooting is not really concerned me. And most importantly,
Speaker 1: his aggressiveness will open things up in that regard. And
Speaker 1: the other thing with tread that I think is interesting
Speaker 1: is it brings he brings an interesting wrinkle against switching defenses.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people have talked to death
Speaker 1: his ability to uh to victimize post Mitch mattch mismatches.
Speaker 1: So you run some sort of screen and roll, you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron's tired or Shrewder's tired. They've been aggressive in previous
Speaker 1: possessions and they get the switch, but they don't really
Speaker 1: have the legs to blow at the center. Well, you
Speaker 1: can dump it down to Tres and he can get
Speaker 1: you a basket against an undersized defender. That that's been
Speaker 1: talked to death. But one of the big ones, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, that hasn't been talked about enough is the
Speaker 1: pressure that Montrese can put on the basket. As an
Speaker 1: offensive rebounder against switching defenses. So you have Dennis Shooter
Speaker 1: come up the floor, montrese is being guarded by you
Speaker 1: know Bach or some something like that, and gets the screen,
Speaker 1: gets Dennis switched on to him, and Dennis is feeling feisteed,
Speaker 1: just giving him all sorts of space, and he settles
Speaker 1: for a jump shot and he and he misses it. Well.
Speaker 1: In that scenario, you can pretty much count on Montrese
Speaker 1: Harold like diving to the rim if he's got Lou
Speaker 1: Williams on him in this case, or some Red Jaccon
Speaker 1: or whoever the guard was that was guarding uh Shrewder
Speaker 1: diving to the basket, pushing them underneath the rim, getting
Speaker 1: an offensive rebound and putting it back up in That
Speaker 1: was one of the things that I noticed the most
Speaker 1: with Montrese Harold. That's kind of glost over last year
Speaker 1: is that three points that's free points, because that's that
Speaker 1: is in the scenario where Dennis Shooter or Lebron are
Speaker 1: making those jump shots, you're getting made jump shots, and
Speaker 1: then there's certain percentage of them that are not being
Speaker 1: uh that the jumps are the jumpers are being missed.
Speaker 1: Montrez is converting those into a certain amount of points
Speaker 1: per possession as well. So I thought that those are
Speaker 1: the things that make me the most excited about about
Speaker 1: him in that regard. And we always look at it
Speaker 1: like what could the free agent do for us? Right,
Speaker 1: we look at who we had add like what can
Speaker 1: Truoder do for us? Hair? Or do it for us?
Speaker 1: But like Shooder last year, I was looking at the
Speaker 1: numbers he played of his minutes, Nick to a traditional
Speaker 1: five and Steven Adams or new Lands nowell miss that
Speaker 1: means like he had no space at the rent. Right,
Speaker 1: those guys are just lob lob dunk guys. Try you
Speaker 1: have to pass it right in the paint. Adams has
Speaker 1: a little bit of a postgame, but he's not a
Speaker 1: guy you're really throwing it download to um to get baskets.
Speaker 1: Now you have been playing with Anthony Davis and his
Speaker 1: jump shoot game. I know people like to talk about
Speaker 1: the three pointer. I'm more interested in the mid range
Speaker 1: pull up. Having a guy who can hit that shot
Speaker 1: next to a d just opens the world up. I mean,
Speaker 1: we saw Rondo would drive and people would just give
Speaker 1: him that little lane right that little oh Man's land
Speaker 1: where Biggs will come out too. But guards need to
Speaker 1: be able to hit that shot in today's today's game
Speaker 1: to open things up, and Shooter has that, um. And
Speaker 1: I think him playing Stade will open him up. Um.
Speaker 1: And obviously it will help a D as well. If
Speaker 1: a D shitting that mid range jumper, then I'm not
Speaker 1: sure how you really defend that at that point. And
Speaker 1: obviously Harold, he obviously he played the five a lot,
Speaker 1: which I thought was out of position a little bit
Speaker 1: last year, especially defensively. Um. I thought Doc had him
Speaker 1: on Bates. That just didn't make sense. Obviously the Denver series,
Speaker 1: he was on Yo kitch for probably way too long. Um.
Speaker 1: Now he gets to play on fours. I think he's
Speaker 1: he's quickness that he uses on offense, he can use
Speaker 1: that on defense. Right, He's a little bit more of
Speaker 1: a blitz player. He shouldn't be back down and drop
Speaker 1: coverages or things of that nature. So I think, um,
Speaker 1: we can help them as well. UM coming here, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna We're gonna get defense here in just
Speaker 1: a minute. And I am I I think there is
Speaker 1: a case for how the Montres Harold signing can work
Speaker 1: out on the defensive end. And we're gonna talk about that.
Speaker 1: The last thing I want to say about the offensive end, though,
Speaker 1: is something that I've talked with you about several times,
Speaker 1: because so we look at the uh the Montrese Harold
Speaker 1: and Dennis Shrewder signing as these two big six men
Speaker 1: that came in to join these two stars in l A.
Speaker 1: And I think it's important to remember that the Clippers
Speaker 1: kind of had a similar thing going on last year.
Speaker 1: They had Kawhi Leonard and they had Paul George, these
Speaker 1: two star ball handlers, and then they had these two
Speaker 1: six men and Lou Williams and Montrese Harrold. And one
Speaker 1: of the big reasons why that didn't work is they
Speaker 1: I thought that they m that the collective basketball i
Speaker 1: Q of the team was too low in the sense
Speaker 1: that too often Kauai and Paul George would become very
Speaker 1: passive as all of the role players were heavily involved
Speaker 1: in the game, and then when it came time for
Speaker 1: them to turn it on, they never really had much
Speaker 1: of a rhythm. Paul George in particular, really struggled with this,
Speaker 1: and I think it's one of the reasons why he
Speaker 1: was so hot and cold throughout the season. So while
Speaker 1: all of those things we just talked about our great
Speaker 1: on the offensive ent, and I'm a big believer and
Speaker 1: everything that we just said, I still think it's very
Speaker 1: important that while Lebron and Anthony Davis are on the floor,
Speaker 1: they remain heavily involved in the offense. Now there there,
Speaker 1: there's a way to do that. For instance, like, uh,
Speaker 1: when Dennis Shooter is on the floor with Montrese Harrold,
Speaker 1: the actions need to be run with Montrese, but they
Speaker 1: also need to run with be run with Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis needs to get his touches because Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: in a rhythm is still going to be a more
Speaker 1: dominant offensive force than anything Montrese Harrold and Dennis Shooter
Speaker 1: can hope to do. And the same thing goes for Lebron.
Speaker 1: So where the where one of the biggest things they'll
Speaker 1: bring is just depth, the ability for them over the
Speaker 1: course of the seventy two game season to generate offense,
Speaker 1: especially in nights where Lebron in a D arresting or
Speaker 1: if Lebron in a D stay in the low thirties
Speaker 1: in terms of their minutes per game, but at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, I still think it's very important
Speaker 1: to understand that this team will be at their best
Speaker 1: when Lebron and a d are very aggressive on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor, and then having Dennis Shooter
Speaker 1: and Montrese Harrold and all these guys kind of play
Speaker 1: off of that to the best of their ability. I
Speaker 1: think that's something to keep in mind. All right, So
Speaker 1: the defensive end, this is something that I have been
Speaker 1: confused by from not just Lakers Twitter, but from a
Speaker 1: lot of from one of the more common things that
Speaker 1: I've heard from Twitter, as people say things like, oh,
Speaker 1: our defense might have gotten a little bit worse, but
Speaker 1: our offense got way better, is one thing, or particularly
Speaker 1: from a lot of people in the basketball analytic uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and a basketball analysis that you'll see on
Speaker 1: Twitter from outside of the Laker community. You'll see a
Speaker 1: lot of things about how the loss of JaVale McGee
Speaker 1: and Dwight Howard are a loss of length and athleticism
Speaker 1: on the interior. You'll hear things like that, or you'll
Speaker 1: hear about the loss of Avery Bradley, or you'll hear about,
Speaker 1: you know, Danny Green's positional defense, Danny Green's helped defense.
Speaker 1: Things along those lines, and how losing those things actually hurt.
Speaker 1: They're uh there this team on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. So my question for you is relative of
Speaker 1: two last year's Laker team, which I've said was the
Speaker 1: best defensive team in the league because even though they
Speaker 1: didn't have a better defensive rating than Milwaukee, they were
Speaker 1: playing better offenses night in the night out. They finished
Speaker 1: with the third best defensive rating in the league and
Speaker 1: the absolutely dominant defensive performances against a bunch of really
Speaker 1: good offensive teams, right Houston, Denver, really good offensive teams.
Speaker 1: And then obviously when they played the worst offensive they played,
Speaker 1: which was Miami, they really strangled them from time to time.
Speaker 1: So relative to that team, how do you feel about
Speaker 1: this Laker defense? I think I think sometimes you try
Speaker 1: to complicate things. I mean, I feel like the reason
Speaker 1: that Laker team was so dominant is because they have
Speaker 1: an Anthony Davis on their team, Like that's the versatility
Speaker 1: of Anthony Davis allows you to have the kind of
Speaker 1: defense they did. Now, I think they do lose some
Speaker 1: with Dwight Howard. I think him and a d playing
Speaker 1: together as like a physical force was something that really
Speaker 1: helped the team last year. But looking at with Javel,
Speaker 1: he's a he's a room protector, but he's a different
Speaker 1: kind of room protecting the marketsol. So I don't think
Speaker 1: you kind of I don't think you lose that, and
Speaker 1: I think what you gain an i Q defensive i
Speaker 1: Q And also Marcus all is more of like a
Speaker 1: straight ahead, verticality defender. I think that's just as effective.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of times with Jabel would just
Speaker 1: try to block everything in sight. UM it would kind
Speaker 1: of lead to guards be able to bate him at
Speaker 1: the rim um and things and like things like that.
Speaker 1: So I think they can keep it up. I think
Speaker 1: Danny Green's um wing defense was good. I think it
Speaker 1: fell off in the bubble um. There's a lot worse
Speaker 1: going forward in the playoffs UM, and I think they've
Speaker 1: replaced that with Wes Matthews. I think he's a better
Speaker 1: um on ball defender. I think he's more similar to
Speaker 1: Avery Badley kind of they kind of replaced that. And
Speaker 1: then UM, I think k CP showed that he can
Speaker 1: fill in that Danny Green role. He chase guys off screens.
Speaker 1: He's not as tall as Danny Green is, but I
Speaker 1: think he can fill in and then off the bench.
Speaker 1: Shrewder has good defensive metrics, at least from looking at
Speaker 1: his numbers from last year. Harol. Obviously, I think was
Speaker 1: just played in the wrong position. Um, that's still going
Speaker 1: to be seen, but I think they can still play
Speaker 1: that way. I think a little bit their identity went
Speaker 1: out with Dwight Howard. I think that was a big
Speaker 1: part of the bench units. He would come in and
Speaker 1: we can see if Harrod kind of do that. He's
Speaker 1: in the same mold, right. He likes to dominate with physicality.
Speaker 1: He likes to dominate by attacking the rim. Um. He
Speaker 1: screams after a lot of dunks, similar to how Dwight
Speaker 1: Howard did, and uh, I know we laugh about that,
Speaker 1: but that was a part of the Lakers identity, right
Speaker 1: when Dwight comes in and he gets offensive rebound and
Speaker 1: dunks it and screams, Yeah, the bench screams and it
Speaker 1: gets the team going. Um. So I think that's kind
Speaker 1: of how they see that. Similarly, and obviously Harrold is
Speaker 1: a much better offensive player. You can, like you said,
Speaker 1: you can throw in the isolations, but looking at the defense, Um,
Speaker 1: he's more of a switchable player. I think he can
Speaker 1: switch a lot more than Dwight could on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: so it's gonna be interest. I think they can still
Speaker 1: keep their defense, um afloat. I'm not sure if we'll
Speaker 1: get another Lebron defensive year as we did last year,
Speaker 1: so I think that would be a part of it
Speaker 1: as well. I'm sure you'll speak to that, but um yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they can still they can continue it from
Speaker 1: the season before. Yeah, so I think, um so, to
Speaker 1: be clear when it comes to there's a reason why
Speaker 1: basketball analysts will be a little bit more pessimistic about
Speaker 1: the Laker defense as it pertains to what they lost
Speaker 1: at the center position. But as with any type of
Speaker 1: defense that you can bring to the table, as with
Speaker 1: any type of defender, there is a given a take. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, like if you're a high i Q low
Speaker 1: physical gift defender, you bring a lot of like uh,
Speaker 1: you bring a lot of like consistency in the sense
Speaker 1: that you're always in the right place at the wrong
Speaker 1: at the right place, at the right at the right time.
Speaker 1: Unless you make fewer mistakes, you give up fewer wide
Speaker 1: open shots. But with physical limitations comes the simple fact
Speaker 1: that really athletic offensive players can get high quality looks
Speaker 1: in isolation against you, or in the case of a
Speaker 1: center at the rim, like when you have a Marc
Speaker 1: Asol type or Montrez Harald type, a guy who an
Speaker 1: athlete who is slashing to the rim, experiences no hesitation
Speaker 1: in what he's thinking about when he's going to the basket,
Speaker 1: compared to the Javail McGee Dwight Howard mold, where it's
Speaker 1: there's like a little bit of a fear, there's a
Speaker 1: little bit of in the back of your head, this
Speaker 1: idea that you know, I can't get sloppy around the basket,
Speaker 1: They'll send it into the third row. And I do
Speaker 1: think that that matters, without a doubt. I don't want
Speaker 1: to gloss over that and just make it seem like
Speaker 1: it's an apples to apples comparison, because it's not. The
Speaker 1: matter is the downside of the JaVale McGee Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: experience is part of that equation as well, and that
Speaker 1: is that they had a little bit of a tendency
Speaker 1: to get out of position, to make silly foul. JaVale
Speaker 1: McGee is always falling all over the place, jumping out
Speaker 1: of his shoes, against a weak pump fake or things
Speaker 1: along those lines. That kind of stuff goes out of
Speaker 1: the window with the Marcusol experience. And so that's from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, like I'm a believer that with the athleticism
Speaker 1: that Anthony Davis brings to the table, with Lebron who's
Speaker 1: actually a highly underrated back line defender, and his ability
Speaker 1: to rotate to the basket, jump completely vertical, not commit
Speaker 1: a foul, and deter layups around the rim. When you
Speaker 1: have that kind of stuff around the basket, the it
Speaker 1: could be a little bit more flexibility with what you're
Speaker 1: doing with Marcusol and most importantly, the Lakers when they
Speaker 1: were at their best in the postseason, We're not playing
Speaker 1: dwighter debail in the in and uh at the end
Speaker 1: of these games when they were really strangling and putting
Speaker 1: these teams away, they weren't relying on those guys. So
Speaker 1: I'm looking at their defense. While they brought a certain
Speaker 1: element to the defense, it wasn't the only reason why
Speaker 1: they defended well. It was part of their entire scheme,
Speaker 1: chasing guys off three point line, forcing them into Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis and Lebron and just really good commitment and effort
Speaker 1: and habits that's what actually put their defense together. And
Speaker 1: then you said before I loved your comparison of of
Speaker 1: Wes Matthews to Avery Bradley, because West Matthews is like
Speaker 1: the wing version of Avery Bradley. He's a little bit undersized,
Speaker 1: but he's extremely latter, really quick, and he's very good
Speaker 1: at using his hands without getting called for fouls, which
Speaker 1: is like a it's like a gift. It's like a
Speaker 1: magic ability that he has where because I've on against
Speaker 1: guys like this in my time playing where it feels
Speaker 1: like they're fouling you, like you're trying to get around him,
Speaker 1: and it's like this dude's holding me in in my space.
Speaker 1: But it's a call because there's just a natural gift
Speaker 1: in the way that he hand checks you, in the
Speaker 1: way that he can kind of get his body in
Speaker 1: your way to where it just never gets called. Uh.
Speaker 1: Andrea Gudala has another great example of someone like that,
Speaker 1: but Wesley Matthews, because he's a little bit taller and
Speaker 1: because he's a lot stronger, he kind of had that
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley effect against bigger wing offensive threats. And that's
Speaker 1: what I what I like in that regard. But I
Speaker 1: think that while Danny Green was a little bit bigger
Speaker 1: and a little bit better off ball instinctually kind of
Speaker 1: being in the right spot as a help defender, Wesley
Speaker 1: Matthews just so much better on the ball that I
Speaker 1: think that it's kind of like, uh, it's something that
Speaker 1: the Lakers can still scheme around and make it work.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, all of the
Speaker 1: core pieces that made their defense great Alex Caruso Contavious
Speaker 1: called Will Pope, uh, someone in that Danny Green mold,
Speaker 1: which of Danny Green, West and Matthews, whatever you gonna
Speaker 1: call it, Lebron James, Anthony Davis, all of those pieces
Speaker 1: are there, and no matter what, as long as the
Speaker 1: habits are still instilled and as long as they care enough,
Speaker 1: they should defend better than they did last year's because,
Speaker 1: especially since Rajon Rondo was another kind of weak link
Speaker 1: in the defense last year in terms of his seen
Speaker 1: his effort. Dennis Shrewder is not a great defensive player,
Speaker 1: but he's a much better defensive player, especially in terms
Speaker 1: of what he brings athletically to the table. He's quicker,
Speaker 1: he's got long arms, and he can be disrupted, so
Speaker 1: it comes down to the lebron thing which you method,
Speaker 1: which you mentioned, So as someone who's cheered from his
Speaker 1: whole career, I am really interested in seeing what he's
Speaker 1: going to bring to the table this year. From an
Speaker 1: effort standpoint, I think we'll know pretty early on. I
Speaker 1: think I think we'll be able to be make a
Speaker 1: more informed decision after we see him play a few games.
Speaker 1: That set what makes me optimistic, because there are a
Speaker 1: lot of reasons to be pessimistic that they're on such
Speaker 1: a quick turnaround. He's in your he's coming already at
Speaker 1: the top of the mountain. There's a little bit less motivation.
Speaker 1: The optimism for me comes from Anthony Davis and the
Speaker 1: new players that they brought to the table. A lot
Speaker 1: of the times when the Lake, when the Cavalier teams
Speaker 1: in the Miami Heat teams faded, when the Miami faded
Speaker 1: defensively in two thousand and fourteen, when the Cavaliers team
Speaker 1: faded defensively in two thousand and seventeen, it was most
Speaker 1: the same players. They basically brought back the same guys,
Speaker 1: so there was complacency because it was the same group.
Speaker 1: This is very different Laker group. This Marcosol being in
Speaker 1: that locker room, Dennis Shooter being in the locker room,
Speaker 1: Montrose Harold being in the locker roo, Wesley Matthews being
Speaker 1: in the locker room, and West and Dennis and and
Speaker 1: Tres have never won a title. Right, You've got guys
Speaker 1: in that locker room, have every that have every reason
Speaker 1: to h to want to attack this season in terms
Speaker 1: of their effort. And then the reason why, say Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: is this is a player who takes pride on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. This is the player is one of the
Speaker 1: few examples of a player in the NBA who's a
Speaker 1: star in the NBA who's better defensively than he is offensively.
Speaker 1: And so from that standpoint, like Anthony Davis, I believe
Speaker 1: will have confrontations with Lebron as he fades at certain
Speaker 1: points in the season in terms of his defensive focus.
Speaker 1: And after right, gives me optimism that the Laker defense
Speaker 1: in terms of their effort, will be better than what
Speaker 1: it was. Right. And Montres Harrow is in a quiet
Speaker 1: duty either, Right, He's not going to just stand around
Speaker 1: and watch Lebron not trying offense on defense. And yeah,
Speaker 1: like you said, Anthony Davis kind of keeps him accountable, right,
Speaker 1: he keeps him going. And then, like the quotes coming
Speaker 1: out from Lebron, he doesn't sound like a guy who
Speaker 1: was trying to walk into this season. Like he sounds
Speaker 1: a good guy ready to go. UM And I think
Speaker 1: he knows the states, he knows the chance he has
Speaker 1: to repeat it is like fifth fifth ring here. So yeah,
Speaker 1: he looks ready to go. And I'm excited to see
Speaker 1: if feel continuous defensive effort. I'm not sure like he'll
Speaker 1: be every night like it was last season. Um, I
Speaker 1: don't think that's um as necessary this year. I think
Speaker 1: the talent that they have allows him to kind of
Speaker 1: ease into a little more than last year. I think
Speaker 1: last year is trying to prove a point um and
Speaker 1: things like that. But yeah, I think I think you're right.
Speaker 1: I think he'll be ready. You're ready to go. And
Speaker 1: and two and two really small things that I think
Speaker 1: will help too. Is one. I think at some point
Speaker 1: fans will rejoin the equation during the season. I think
Speaker 1: we'll see. But if fans rejoined the equation, that's going
Speaker 1: to bring back some nostalgia from Lebron because he hasn't
Speaker 1: played in front of fans in forever that will bring
Speaker 1: another competitive fire out of him and UH, and then secondly,
Speaker 1: the strengths of the team being able to limit his minutes.
Speaker 1: You know, if you look at the two thousand eighteen
Speaker 1: Calves for instance, he was in a situation where so
Speaker 1: much was on his play offensively, so much was on
Speaker 1: his plate and what he had to bring night tonight
Speaker 1: for that team to win that he couldn't really at
Speaker 1: least he thought that he couldn't really put that much
Speaker 1: energy and effort into the into the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. This is an entirely situation. This team could
Speaker 1: be a championship contender if Lebron took ten shots a game.
Speaker 1: So from that standpoint, what's important with the Lebron experience
Speaker 1: years keep his minutes down around thirty two thirty three
Speaker 1: at night, and then have your new guys UH be
Speaker 1: hard on him when he slacks, and then he should
Speaker 1: have every reason to bring it. And then most importantly,
Speaker 1: like a lot of this falls on Vogel than him
Speaker 1: being that intense authority figure that will demand a lot
Speaker 1: out of these guys. And I think that that makes
Speaker 1: me a little more optimistic. So yeah, definitely, definitely. So, uh,
Speaker 1: what do you make of the Kyle Kuzma conundrum? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I asked you about this. Sounds like I
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of discuss it. Um. Sorry, the Kyle
Speaker 1: Kuzma thing is interesting because sorry, I think he's seen
Speaker 1: like differently online than he is. He's viewed, like his
Speaker 1: perception on Twitter or like with fans is so different
Speaker 1: than I think how the front office views him the
Speaker 1: front house, like how we've um is just like, you know,
Speaker 1: a average role player who kind of hit some shots,
Speaker 1: sometimes defense here and there. I think the front office,
Speaker 1: the front office fused him as a player they've developed
Speaker 1: for four years, right, They put time and effort into
Speaker 1: developing into a winning player, and that's what he became
Speaker 1: last year. He became a winning player. Um, he wasn't great,
Speaker 1: he didn't shoot great from three, but you know, he
Speaker 1: defended well enough to play twenty three minutes a game
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, right, there were players who got Benchedjaville
Speaker 1: was unplayable in the playoffs. Dwight Howard played one series
Speaker 1: basically against Denver Calcus, averaging twenty three minutes a game.
Speaker 1: I think matters in the playoffs he's not perfect. He's
Speaker 1: obviously not worth the money. He thinks he's gonna get
Speaker 1: around twenty million dollars a year. But obviously his off
Speaker 1: court stuff is what it is. It's not defendable. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's nothing I can say about his stuff that he
Speaker 1: does off the court. He opens the door to all
Speaker 1: the criticism for that, but just looking on the he
Speaker 1: you know, he welcomes that. I think, Um, I think
Speaker 1: it's interesting how he goes about it. But you know
Speaker 1: that's heating neither here and they're just looking at on
Speaker 1: the court. He defends wings, and this team needs more
Speaker 1: wing defenders, right. It's kind of somehow it's more garden
Speaker 1: forward heavy. Um, So I think who's is going to
Speaker 1: play a role if he can hit his He shot
Speaker 1: like fifty from the corners, um. All everywhere else he
Speaker 1: kind of struggled. But even just doing that, stay in
Speaker 1: the corners hitting threes. UM. Looking back watching all the
Speaker 1: Bubble playoff games, I forgot how many like big shots
Speaker 1: he hit. He had a bunch of like run stopping shots,
Speaker 1: like the other team would go on like a fifteen
Speaker 1: four run and he hit like a huge three to
Speaker 1: kind of send the Tide and obviously those shots, um
Speaker 1: don't really get remembered. You remember, like the no look
Speaker 1: pass that he tries in a playoff game that just
Speaker 1: is nonsensible. There's no point of me. But yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: those are things that get glorified um online. But like
Speaker 1: that's where I think it is that he's obviously not
Speaker 1: a great player, but um, he's not terrible either. And
Speaker 1: I think that's how the Lakers see him. He he
Speaker 1: was drafted by this front office. He's the last player
Speaker 1: on this team that was that first draft e right,
Speaker 1: He's longest drafted player on the team, and I think
Speaker 1: that's how he's seen. I remember last year people wanted
Speaker 1: to trade him and Danny Greens to New York for
Speaker 1: Marcus Morris and I just thought that was crazy because
Speaker 1: I thought there was no way the Lakers were just
Speaker 1: gonna salary dump him. Like there was just no chance
Speaker 1: that was happening. Um, so one of those guys, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I was like, what are you doing? But um,
Speaker 1: and there's another one for like Bach I think in
Speaker 1: uh Sacramento not Bogdomabilly, and um, yeah, so I think
Speaker 1: that's where I think that's where the team stands, and
Speaker 1: obviously he's gonna want money in the next offseason, which
Speaker 1: makes sense. Um, I don't think the Laborers are gonna
Speaker 1: pay him anything other than maybe the five six million
Speaker 1: that he's paid right now, but obviously he wants more
Speaker 1: than that, and that's fine. I just think there's no
Speaker 1: reason to just throw him to another team, as a
Speaker 1: lot of Lakers Twitter seems very ready to do. Um
Speaker 1: at the first side of the deal. Well, I think
Speaker 1: for me and entirely comes down to what you can
Speaker 1: get back. I mean acknowledging the reality of the situation
Speaker 1: I think is important, which is that you're probably gonna
Speaker 1: lose Kyle Kuzma this summer because the reality is just
Speaker 1: look at what we saw this last offseason and teams
Speaker 1: throwing big fat contracts at players that are what you
Speaker 1: would consider to be average, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like I get like I was pretty excited about potentially
Speaker 1: bringing Dana Daniela Gallinari to the table this this summer.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is Danielle Gallinari is only marginally
Speaker 1: better than than Kyle Kuzma and is probably an inferior
Speaker 1: defensive player, and yet he's playing for all that money
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. So the reality is is like, you're gonna
Speaker 1: lose Kyle Kuzena this summer unless you want to completely
Speaker 1: hand handicap yourself in the salary cap moving forward. So
Speaker 1: then the question becomes, in the short term, just just
Speaker 1: this season, who do you have who can you get
Speaker 1: for Kyle Kuzma that could be potentially be better than
Speaker 1: Kyle Kuzma um within the scope of this season, because
Speaker 1: the reality is whoever you get back, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: similar contract problems. If you bring back a bigger salary
Speaker 1: than Kyle Kuzma and he has multiple years left on
Speaker 1: the deal, it handicaps moving forward. If you bring back
Speaker 1: a person who's an expiring deal, now you have the
Speaker 1: question mark about whether or not you lose that person
Speaker 1: for nothing. So all it's all relative to the deal.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is what is Kyle right now?
Speaker 1: He's an average NBA player. He is a below average
Speaker 1: ball handler, he's a below average shooter, and he's a
Speaker 1: below average basketball i Q. But what he does bring
Speaker 1: to the table is he's he's got a lot of size,
Speaker 1: and he's got a lot of confidence. So on any
Speaker 1: given night, it minds you there's more bad than good,
Speaker 1: But on any given night, he can give you a
Speaker 1: significant scoring pop. And then, like you said, he's capable
Speaker 1: of hitting big shots because he's not scared of the
Speaker 1: moment in that regard. So from from that same point, like,
Speaker 1: that's that's what he is right now. He's your the
Speaker 1: eighth or ninth best player, seventh or eighth or ninth
Speaker 1: best player on this team. So the question becomes if
Speaker 1: you can potentially find some front office around the league
Speaker 1: who values Kyle Kuzma enough to give you a legitimate asset,
Speaker 1: something that you can either quickly parlay into something else
Speaker 1: or something somebody that can help you more than Kyle
Speaker 1: Kuzma is in this particular season. I think you've got
Speaker 1: to pull the trigger on it, because I do. The
Speaker 1: reality is is like they can have as many conversations
Speaker 1: with Couza as they want, Rob Blincoln can tell him
Speaker 1: as many you know, weird mythological tales as he wants
Speaker 1: from books that he's read, eccentric whatevers. But the bottom
Speaker 1: line is is Kyle Kuzma is going to come to
Speaker 1: the table with an offer sheet next year that's signed
Speaker 1: from you know, Sacramento Kings or some some something stupid
Speaker 1: like that, that's gonna be a four year, eighty million
Speaker 1: dollar contract, And and the Lakers are not going to
Speaker 1: to sign that offer sheet unless they are a percent
Speaker 1: sure that no star in the next four years is
Speaker 1: coming to join Lebron in a D and L A,
Speaker 1: which I just don't think they would handicap themselves like that.
Speaker 1: So accept the reality of the situation. He's an average
Speaker 1: NBA player. You're gonna lose him for for a big
Speaker 1: fat offer sheet this summer. So just taking on a
Speaker 1: deal by deal basis, and if you see something that's worthwhile,
Speaker 1: jump on it. Yeah for sure. I mean I can
Speaker 1: also like see a scenario. I know this will kind
Speaker 1: of dry fans mad, I'm sure, but like, let's say
Speaker 1: just a scenario I'm throwing out. Let's say the Lakers
Speaker 1: went back to back. I see the Lakers giving him
Speaker 1: like a Jordan Clarkson deal, Like I don't know if
Speaker 1: you remember the Lake signed Jordan Clastion to like a
Speaker 1: four year, fifty million yeah, which I think was a
Speaker 1: good deal. At the time. People thought of it as
Speaker 1: kind of a little overpaid by I mean, it was
Speaker 1: it was a guy that they developed who they saw
Speaker 1: getting better and they just invested that. Now, I don't
Speaker 1: think who's would take that. I think he wants a
Speaker 1: lot more than that. But I can see like if
Speaker 1: he doesn't get any offers, like say he shoot he
Speaker 1: hasn't known the season where he shoots really poorly from three,
Speaker 1: or you know, he just doesn't get offer sheets from
Speaker 1: teams like that, because I think twenty million dollars is
Speaker 1: a lot of money from for any team to pay
Speaker 1: k Kuzmi year. I don't care how much they believe
Speaker 1: in him. I think that's a lot of money. So
Speaker 1: I could see that as well. But yeah, you're right,
Speaker 1: they're probably losing next year. I'm sure they'll shop him
Speaker 1: at the deadline. Um. I think he understands that. I
Speaker 1: think they try to get maybe Bugonovitch for him this
Speaker 1: summer and that kind of fell through as well. But
Speaker 1: I think you're right, that's that's that's just what he
Speaker 1: is right now. And I think there's like a line
Speaker 1: that he's seen as like a super trash player or
Speaker 1: like you know, there's some there's people who think he's
Speaker 1: he should be starting as well. There's like that section
Speaker 1: of people exist, so there's like a fine line where
Speaker 1: he fits, and obviously his social media kind of tears
Speaker 1: that line apart. But um yeah, just looking on the court, Um,
Speaker 1: he is who he is. Like you said, well, likability
Speaker 1: is a big part of what shapes are opinion on
Speaker 1: these players. I mean, like, when I'm trying to be
Speaker 1: a really unbiased, honest basketball analyst, I still think James
Speaker 1: Harden is like the seventh third best player in the world.
Speaker 1: But I hate that guy, and like it's just everything
Speaker 1: that he does drives me nuts, and in my opinion,
Speaker 1: like when I'm ranking NBA players, I want so badly
Speaker 1: to put him lower. And it's a similar thing with
Speaker 1: the Kyle Kuzman thing. He does so many unlikable things
Speaker 1: that it causes a lot of Laker fans to kind
Speaker 1: of gloss over which and you you did a really
Speaker 1: good job of laying out all of the good that
Speaker 1: he brings the table. He is a good NBA role player.
Speaker 1: But the one thing that would make me nervous is
Speaker 1: even at that four years six million type of number
Speaker 1: four year fifty million, even if who's the brandies with
Speaker 1: Puma is a Puma, Even if Puma was like, hey,
Speaker 1: listen under the table, take his l a deal instead,
Speaker 1: and we'll give you an extra five million a year,
Speaker 1: you know, or something like that. Like, the reality is
Speaker 1: is like even at that number, even at four fIF
Speaker 1: four for fifteen a year, it's still kind of limits
Speaker 1: your flexibility when it comes to other stars. So from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, I would want if as a like, like
Speaker 1: as a Laker front office person analyzing that situation, I
Speaker 1: would want to see a little more out of Kyle
Speaker 1: Kuzma just understanding it's kind of similar to the Montrase
Speaker 1: Harald thing, the Montres Harald thing. At the numbers. Just
Speaker 1: being at the numbers makes amazing sense. Paying nine million
Speaker 1: a year for a guy who's gonna get you eighteen
Speaker 1: points a game and you know, brings a lot to
Speaker 1: the table offensively, it makes it's a no brainer. But
Speaker 1: if you actually look at the hardcat and the fact
Speaker 1: that you can draw a direct line that costing you
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley and costing you Dwight Howard, it's a little
Speaker 1: bit more complicated. And that's the way that I look
Speaker 1: at it with Kyle Kuzma is if you if you
Speaker 1: want to bring in a third star, then you have
Speaker 1: to understand that the rest of your roster is basically
Speaker 1: going to be veteran minimum contracts and maybe guys that
Speaker 1: you have bird rights on, like like a contiguous called
Speaker 1: a pope. So bringing Kyle Kuzma back kind of does
Speaker 1: affect the long term strategy of the Lakers. So it's
Speaker 1: something it's something to keep in mind. It's not just about, oh,
Speaker 1: he deserves fifteen million, It's about what you're potentially losing
Speaker 1: as the dominoes fall further from that deal. But no
Speaker 1: matter what, like, let's give him another chance, like as
Speaker 1: is the case with all this stuff, like this is
Speaker 1: going to be his second full season playing under this
Speaker 1: type of role, with this type of talent. Give him
Speaker 1: another chance to see what he can bring to the table.
Speaker 1: All right, lastly, real quickly before I get you out
Speaker 1: of here, what is your prediction for the Lakers this season,
Speaker 1: both in their regular season performance and what you expect
Speaker 1: from them in the playoffs. Uh So, I still think
Speaker 1: they come out pretty well. I don't think they're as
Speaker 1: dominant in the regular season as they're last year. I
Speaker 1: expect a lot of more resting, not as much rest
Speaker 1: as like games off, but I'm expecting the goal as
Speaker 1: hard as they did last year. Um, I still have
Speaker 1: to make it the one seed. I think their talent
Speaker 1: level is enough to get the one seed um in
Speaker 1: the regular season, and I still having them going back
Speaker 1: to back. I think when you have a title team
Speaker 1: that got better, I think it's only right you give
Speaker 1: them the benefit of the doubt, give them a chance
Speaker 1: to repeat. And I think they've gotten all the tools
Speaker 1: they have to repeat. Here, I'm not sure. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure what's stopping them. I mean, I think every contender
Speaker 1: is either got worse or stayed pretty marginally as they were,
Speaker 1: depending how good you think surgery Baka is. But I mean,
Speaker 1: other than that, like every contender kind of stayed the same. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think repeat they repeat here. Yeah, So I've gone
Speaker 1: back and forth as it pertains to the regular season
Speaker 1: because of the Lebron thing, because of the classic issues
Speaker 1: that repeating teams deal are the two teams defending the
Speaker 1: title deal with And I kind of fell back to
Speaker 1: kind of the two thousand one Lakers model, which for
Speaker 1: two thousand one, the infusion was Kobe's growth. He got
Speaker 1: so much better than he was in the year two thousand,
Speaker 1: But the reality was it wasn't so much about them
Speaker 1: having to deal with apathy on there, and it was
Speaker 1: the fact that the rest of the league just wasn't
Speaker 1: capable of hanging with them. And in my opinion, all
Speaker 1: of the contenders got worse. The Warriors, I mean, what
Speaker 1: we expected from the Warriors got worse. I think that
Speaker 1: got worse. I think Utah is more or less the
Speaker 1: same like the Clippers. It's hard to say, but I
Speaker 1: think they have the same fatal flaws that they had
Speaker 1: uh coming into last season. Dallas added stuff, but not
Speaker 1: enough to really be a difference maker in my opinion.
Speaker 1: So the reality is by making the moves the Lakers made,
Speaker 1: they massively increased their margin for error on a night
Speaker 1: tonight basis. Adding players as talented as Denistrator Montrez, harrald
Speaker 1: and and and Marcus al West and Matthews, those guys
Speaker 1: make it so it's a little bit harder for you
Speaker 1: to lose night tonight. And when I when I think
Speaker 1: the talent gap has now increased between what the Lakers had,
Speaker 1: Lakers had between them and any of their opponents on
Speaker 1: any given night, that gap has grown, and so in
Speaker 1: my opinion, it will be a little bit harder for
Speaker 1: them to lose. And then I think just in general,
Speaker 1: the the back in the stadiums thing, the infusion of
Speaker 1: players who haven't won a championship onto this roster, which
Speaker 1: is different from your stereotypical defending champion. I think all
Speaker 1: of those things will keep Lebron engaged. And I actually
Speaker 1: think the Lakers will end up with the one seed,
Speaker 1: which I think is something that a lot of analysts
Speaker 1: disagree with, and I think I really do think that
Speaker 1: it's it's shaping up for a season where the Lakers
Speaker 1: could win at about a sixty to sixty five win
Speaker 1: pace and uh and go into the right go into
Speaker 1: the postseason with with the number one overall seed, and
Speaker 1: so as far as the playoffs go, I more or
Speaker 1: less expect when I saw last year. I don't think
Speaker 1: there's a single team in the league that can take
Speaker 1: them the six outside of the Los Angeles Clippers. I've
Speaker 1: talked about this at length. I think they're the only
Speaker 1: team in the league that has really built for to
Speaker 1: to have some matchup advantages against the Lakers. What they
Speaker 1: bring to the table with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: as mid range scores is they attack a specific gap
Speaker 1: in the Laker defense and the way that it's structured
Speaker 1: and uh, and they have some size now with Tobaka
Speaker 1: and and Zoobach that can confront some of the size
Speaker 1: that the Lakers have. I really do think that they
Speaker 1: have the capability of at least making the Lakers sweat
Speaker 1: a little bit. But I predict something similar a you know,
Speaker 1: four or five game first round, four or five games
Speaker 1: second round, a little bit of a battle with the Clippers,
Speaker 1: and then a five game NBA Finals type of series.
Speaker 1: That's That's what I'm predicting at this point. Yeah. My
Speaker 1: main kind of thing to look at is um Athene
Speaker 1: davis jumper. His mid range jumper obviously was insane Katie
Speaker 1: level of in the playoffs. Um, I'm not expecting it
Speaker 1: to stay at that at that rate, but if he
Speaker 1: can even be close to that, I'm not sure how
Speaker 1: a team really beats his team. Um, they look pretty
Speaker 1: unguardable when a d has his jumper going. I think
Speaker 1: he was hitting like mid range bull ups and they
Speaker 1: were still winning at like a sixty five one pace
Speaker 1: in the regular season. So in the playoffs that jumped
Speaker 1: to like, um, he was hitting him off the dribble,
Speaker 1: And if that's real, then you to shut this season down,
Speaker 1: because I don't think it is, and he's really going
Speaker 1: to happen if if he's still hitting those um at
Speaker 1: that rate, him getting better as he's entering in his
Speaker 1: prime and dealing with better spacing than he's ever had
Speaker 1: continuity with with his core role players. There there's like
Speaker 1: this scenario where you could just see this, you know,
Speaker 1: nice from last year type of m v P campaign
Speaker 1: from Anthony Davis, which would be really fun to watch.
Speaker 1: Uh And because there were there were some legitimate things
Speaker 1: on that Laker roster last year that constrained some of
Speaker 1: his strengths, and so I think it'll be cool to
Speaker 1: see what he does. But anyway, so I've had you
Speaker 1: for over an hour now, so I appreciate you taking
Speaker 1: time after a long day of work to come hang
Speaker 1: out and offer your expertise. As always, I really really
Speaker 1: appreciate you doing this to all of you have turned
Speaker 1: in and listened. I would imagine that Roger will be
Speaker 1: kind enough to join me several more times over the
Speaker 1: course of the season, so you'll be seeing lots of this.
Speaker 1: But thanks again, man, I really appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 1: No thanks for having me man. It's funny to see
Speaker 1: you and like all Lakers out now, so it's like,
Speaker 1: what's funny as you can see a little Yeah, actually
Speaker 1: had for a while. I have a lot here. That's
Speaker 1: awesome man, that's great to be here. All right, man,
Speaker 1: have a good night. I'll talk to you later, all right,
Speaker 1: you too, Thank you, Bro,