Speaker 1: Mmmmm, all right, welcome to the State of the Lakers podcast.
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday, everybody. As Roger and I were just saying, uh,
Speaker 1: the Lakers somehow build their whole team in like two days.
Speaker 1: That was a pretty wild sequence of events. ROJ, how
Speaker 1: you doing on this Wednesday morning? How's your week going
Speaker 1: so far? Doing great? Doing great? A busy weekend. Um,
Speaker 1: I went to like a musical festival, got burned. Um,
Speaker 1: it's weird. I don't know about it. Before we get
Speaker 1: to basketball. Do you get sunburned easily? Because like, when
Speaker 1: I get sunburned, it doesn't hurt though, And I feel
Speaker 1: like most people they tell me when they get sunburned,
Speaker 1: air hurts, but like I got kind of burned on
Speaker 1: my face, Um, I didn't really feel it. I was
Speaker 1: gonna ask you, do you get sunburned pretty easily? Well?
Speaker 1: For us white folk, there are there are two different
Speaker 1: types of of skin. There are the ones that tan
Speaker 1: and the ones that burn. I'm lucky. I tan, um,
Speaker 1: but I would say that I'm probably too tan to
Speaker 1: the point where I get even made fun of by
Speaker 1: a lot of my friends. Um, but yeah, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm lucky. But for for most of us. It can be,
Speaker 1: it can be trouble. Um, So really quickly, before we
Speaker 1: get started, I wanted to vent about something for just
Speaker 1: a second, because you and I are going to be
Speaker 1: overwhelmingly positive today, because because the Lakers had a great
Speaker 1: off season and they've had they've I agree with the
Speaker 1: vast majority of the signings they made, and I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna be really good, and we have lots of
Speaker 1: reasons to be very positive. Um. However, they're gonna be
Speaker 1: handful of things today that I'm gonna tell you that
Speaker 1: I disagree with or that I would have done differently.
Speaker 1: And uh, for some reason, that has become such a
Speaker 1: big fat, hairy deal on on Twitter in the last
Speaker 1: couple of days, which is insane to me, because like
Speaker 1: I feel like you and I have always done this
Speaker 1: were objective observers. We're not. We're not yes men. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, our willingness to criticize when we disagree with
Speaker 1: something is what makes it meaningful. When we tell you
Speaker 1: that we like a free agent signing or that we
Speaker 1: like the way a player is playing in in his
Speaker 1: specific role, you know, we give ourselves credibility by doing that.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're if you're if you're a yes
Speaker 1: man and you go and say yes again, then everyone
Speaker 1: around you is gonna dismiss it out of hand because
Speaker 1: they know what you're doing. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And so today when you and I are occasionally being negative,
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean we're being haters. It just means we're
Speaker 1: being honest. So that's one thing I wanted to to
Speaker 1: frame everything with. But that said, overall, just overarching, I
Speaker 1: thought it was a really good couple of days for
Speaker 1: the Lakers. Um. I still think they need like one
Speaker 1: more forward. We'll talk more about that. And I didn't
Speaker 1: love the Alex Crusoe thing, which we'll dive into in
Speaker 1: a little bit. But overall, I thought it was a
Speaker 1: great couple of days. How are you feeling, kind of
Speaker 1: looking from the thirty feet Yeah, that didn't love. The
Speaker 1: Alex cruser thing felt like an actual moment in like history, right.
Speaker 1: It felt like the whole world kind of just stopped
Speaker 1: once he signed with the Chicago Bulls. I felt like, um,
Speaker 1: Twitter kind of just um shut down. I was in
Speaker 1: this kind of same vein just looking at the roster.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like they that was their backup
Speaker 1: plan and get a bunch of guards that can kind
Speaker 1: of shoot off the dribble, can kind of create that's
Speaker 1: like my world, kind of like outside view of this.
Speaker 1: A lot of guards with a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of handle that can shoot, take it to the basket, um,
Speaker 1: can get hot, can really kind of play make can
Speaker 1: dribble um. That's really what they've kind of done. I
Speaker 1: don't ask you this because this is kind of interesting
Speaker 1: to me. I always said that I didn't really believe
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis when he said he would play the five more.
Speaker 1: But you look at this roster. It's thirty six year
Speaker 1: old Marcasol and it's thirty five year old Dwight Howard.
Speaker 1: He's one of the he's in his mid thirties at least.
Speaker 1: So that's basically your two centers on the roster with
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. Everyone else is a forward. I mean Carmelo
Speaker 1: can play. There is probably a four in this situation.
Speaker 1: I don't think Melos a five. So that's an interesting
Speaker 1: thing to me. It's like they've really built this kind
Speaker 1: of around um the idea because he's gonna have to
Speaker 1: play more five. I don't see Dwight and Mark kind
Speaker 1: of taking the full center rotation in the regular season. Um,
Speaker 1: those were kind of my big views. What else did
Speaker 1: you kind of see from the roster makeup as a whole?
Speaker 1: I guess before we kind of break this down in
Speaker 1: individual parts, Um, what do you see as like the
Speaker 1: ethos of this roster? So let's talk about the total
Speaker 1: identity change that the Lakers have undergone in the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, because there are two primary identity changes
Speaker 1: that I believe they underwent. First of all, it's very
Speaker 1: clear that a D is going to play at least
Speaker 1: half of his minutes at the five. Otherwise they would
Speaker 1: have devoted more resources to bigger, bruising, rebounding type of
Speaker 1: forwards that can play small ball five and things along
Speaker 1: those lines. They would have kept Mark Keith Morris probably
Speaker 1: if they intended to play a D at the four lots.
Speaker 1: So it's it's very clear that a D fully intends
Speaker 1: to play at least half of his minutes at the five,
Speaker 1: which is very good if we were if we remember
Speaker 1: in the championship season he played about of his minutes
Speaker 1: at the five, and then last season he only played
Speaker 1: about ten of his minutes at the five, So they
Speaker 1: clearly are planning on shifting back to that um. The
Speaker 1: other big identity change that I noticed, as I felt,
Speaker 1: and you and I talked a lot about this right
Speaker 1: after the Sun series, I thought the Lakers were a
Speaker 1: little too heavy on on on really simplified offensive role players,
Speaker 1: guys who could hit an open shot occasionally and maybe
Speaker 1: rip through and get to the rim, but that was
Speaker 1: about it. Like their best close out guy was probably
Speaker 1: k C. P And like you said, like he could
Speaker 1: do that one dribble pull up, he could hit an
Speaker 1: open three, and he could get all the way to
Speaker 1: the rim. But there wasn't really a whole lot else,
Speaker 1: while the Phoenix Suns had all these guys like Cam
Speaker 1: Johnson and Michael Bridges and and campaign, these guys that
Speaker 1: could make these really complex reads out of closeouts, Like
Speaker 1: they could rip through the right, do a counter move,
Speaker 1: you know, hit of ten foot, you know, leaning face,
Speaker 1: eating shot, floaters, all this this these these this more
Speaker 1: intricate shot making from the role players. Well, it seems
Speaker 1: like the Lakers very clearly addressed to that need in
Speaker 1: this offseason because guys like Malik Monk, guys like Kendrick Nunn,
Speaker 1: these are guys that are capable of far more complex, uh,
Speaker 1: read and react type of clothes out attacking and when
Speaker 1: you've got guys like Russ and Lebron and a d
Speaker 1: they're gonna put so much pressure on the rim and
Speaker 1: draw so much attention. Having guys that can do that
Speaker 1: more complex decision making is a huge advantage. And we
Speaker 1: saw that with Devin Booker and Chris Paul drawing attention
Speaker 1: and the Son's young role players making reads off of that.
Speaker 1: And so I think that the Lakers clearly shifted their
Speaker 1: identity in that direction on both of those fronts. And
Speaker 1: and I actually like the idea, and I believe that
Speaker 1: the ceiling of this team is considerably higher than it
Speaker 1: was in the last couple of years. What about you, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And I think they really just it's just
Speaker 1: like which from defense to offense, right, these these kind
Speaker 1: of role players that are really defensive minded, um Alex
Speaker 1: Alex Crusoe being the kind of main one of this,
Speaker 1: and they went towards this like now we're gonna score
Speaker 1: a bunch of points. You know, the second unit is
Speaker 1: gonna come in have a lot of firepower. Watching Kendrick Nunn,
Speaker 1: He's a really explosive guard, Like we don't really even
Speaker 1: have that. Last year, Dennis Shrewder I was kind of
Speaker 1: saying that, like we lost. We only had like one
Speaker 1: guy who could dribble as a guard last year and
Speaker 1: kind of shoot off the dribble, and that's Dennis Shrewder.
Speaker 1: And still he doesn't get the kind of separation that
Speaker 1: you kind of need. You saw it in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Kendrick Dunna is the guy that explodes off pick and
Speaker 1: rolls Mollek Monk comes off and can fire from three
Speaker 1: very easily, has a quick release. Um, it's kind of
Speaker 1: hard to get to. So those are kind of kind
Speaker 1: of interesting things that they've they've kind of done with this.
Speaker 1: One guy that's kind of getting hidden because he got
Speaker 1: down the first he went on the first day was
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington. I love the Wayne Ellton siding. A guy
Speaker 1: who could shoot off the move. He's not Buddy Healed obviously,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a Buddy Healed light as as
Speaker 1: a shooter. Um, he's not as dynamic as a playmaker
Speaker 1: and all that, but he can really shoot off the move,
Speaker 1: come off screens. Um. I'm excited to see that kind
Speaker 1: of wrinkle in the offense. We haven't really had a
Speaker 1: guy that could run like from the paint outside office
Speaker 1: screen and shoot. So those are kind of interesting things
Speaker 1: to me. Um and the non Lebron minutes are so
Speaker 1: interesting and fascinating to me because you also have Carmelo
Speaker 1: Anthony on this team. And I totally get he's study seven.
Speaker 1: I totally did. Yeah, he's adjusted his game in Portland's
Speaker 1: I totally get. He stood in the corner and took
Speaker 1: a bunch of threes. Still Carmelo freaking Anthony, Like that's
Speaker 1: that's a guy on this team. Um So I'm so
Speaker 1: interested to see how that will work. I guess him
Speaker 1: and a D kind of play four and five backup, Like,
Speaker 1: how do you think that kind of bench unit works there?
Speaker 1: What kind of kind of lineups do you think they
Speaker 1: kind of go with? Because I'm that's where I'm fascinated with.
Speaker 1: Is it Russell, Westbrook, Mellow and a D manning second units?
Speaker 1: Like what? How does? How does? How do you think
Speaker 1: this kind of shapes out? So there are a million
Speaker 1: different directions this thing can go, and I think that's
Speaker 1: the most exciting part. There's a versatility, particularly on the
Speaker 1: offensive end with this team that ever existed over the
Speaker 1: last couple of years. You know, Uh, Carmelo Anthony uh
Speaker 1: is you know, he he diminished his role in the
Speaker 1: last couple of seasons as a spot up shooter and
Speaker 1: kind of a stretch for type of deal. But you know,
Speaker 1: he still is actually super adept at attacking mismatches um
Speaker 1: particularly against smaller players in the post. And so I
Speaker 1: think he's capable of a little bit more than people realize.
Speaker 1: I think that whether or not he ends up being
Speaker 1: that big of a of a contributor is going to
Speaker 1: come down to what he does defensively in Frank's system.
Speaker 1: But he's gonna be asked to do more defensively than
Speaker 1: he has in the last and probably in his entire career.
Speaker 1: He'll be asked to do more defensively this year in
Speaker 1: terms of what is expected from him from the coaching staff,
Speaker 1: because even when he was in his physical athletic prime,
Speaker 1: you know, he kind of coasted on that end to
Speaker 1: devote his energy on the offensive end. But just in general,
Speaker 1: there are so many different directions they can go. They
Speaker 1: can go, you know, uh, they can go really athletic
Speaker 1: with lineups like you know Russ and Kent, Baysmore and
Speaker 1: Lebron a D and uh, or they can go really
Speaker 1: heavy on shot making and go with lineups like Malik
Speaker 1: Monk and and Wayne Ellington next to you know, lebron
Speaker 1: at the four and Dwight Howard at the five and
Speaker 1: run screen and roll and have all the shooting on
Speaker 1: the floor. They have all these different directions that they
Speaker 1: can go and honestly, like we we need to marinate
Speaker 1: on this for for months to really kind of come
Speaker 1: to two grips with all of the different options that
Speaker 1: they have. What I would like to do, if it's
Speaker 1: okay with you, is just kind of go down the list,
Speaker 1: player by player and just talk about what excites us
Speaker 1: the most about them. Um So, from from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: let's talk about Uh, Let's let's start with Malik Monk
Speaker 1: because I think he's the one that has everybody the
Speaker 1: most excited over the last couple of days. Malik Monk
Speaker 1: to me, you had mentioned Wayne Ellington is kind of
Speaker 1: like a poor man's buddy healed. I kind of think
Speaker 1: of Molik Monk as the poor man's buddy held for
Speaker 1: a couple of reasons. First of all, I think he'll
Speaker 1: get more minutes Ellington and two, Uh, Molik Monk is
Speaker 1: just better off the dribble. He's better at creating things. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know when things break, you know, when when he
Speaker 1: has to break down the defense rather than when he's
Speaker 1: waiting on someone else to break down the defense the
Speaker 1: way that Wayne Ellington will need to. For the most part,
Speaker 1: a lot of the stuff we talked about with Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis off ball and having Buddy Healed setting down screens,
Speaker 1: having Buddy Healed fly off of pin downs, having Buddy
Speaker 1: Healed us a screen and roll and force the defender
Speaker 1: to go over the top. Molik Monk accomplishes a lot
Speaker 1: of that. Uh. He's underrated as a passer. He got
Speaker 1: off to a rough start in his career as a shooter,
Speaker 1: but his three point shot has come along in the
Speaker 1: last season. I'm really excited about Malik Monk as a
Speaker 1: player that can be kind of what we wanted Buddy
Speaker 1: Healed to be. What did you think of the Malik
Speaker 1: Monk acquisition? Yeah, I love I also love like a
Speaker 1: day pushed towards a little bit younger as well. I
Speaker 1: think he's what twenty three years old. I believe Link
Speaker 1: Monk getting him for the minimum is kind of crazy.
Speaker 1: Those guys don't come from the minimum. Here's what top
Speaker 1: He's like the eleven pick and a couple of drafts ago.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, I love his game. I love that he
Speaker 1: can kind of come off the dribble. He's a guy
Speaker 1: that can get hot very easily. Right. He's a guy
Speaker 1: that's streaky, like if he gits won three, um, he'll
Speaker 1: kind of pull up and take a couple more. He's
Speaker 1: nicely sized as well. Just a lot of athleticism. Um.
Speaker 1: I love the like explosiveness of him. Thht none. All
Speaker 1: those guys are really fast and really power throw it
Speaker 1: down on you. Um yeah. It's just like this team
Speaker 1: is really big, really old, kind of in the front court, right,
Speaker 1: other than a D it's kind of a resa. Um.
Speaker 1: All these other guys a little bit in their thirties.
Speaker 1: I like that the cards are pretty young. So I
Speaker 1: haven't watched too much from Leak Monk. I watched them
Speaker 1: like his tape um yesterday. Um, just a really fun player,
Speaker 1: it looks like, and um yeah, getting him on the
Speaker 1: minimum is kind of it's kind of crazy. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: with you that if you're if you're looking at uh,
Speaker 1: the biggest weakness and what Rob put together it's in
Speaker 1: my opinion front court depth and age. I'd like to
Speaker 1: see one more four word in there, preferably one that's
Speaker 1: a little more athletic. Um, just because of what you're
Speaker 1: gonna be asking from. From the way I look at
Speaker 1: it is like, imagine a back to back in Utah
Speaker 1: and Denver and you have like just an absolute crazy
Speaker 1: game in Denver that goes, you know, where Lebron is
Speaker 1: to play forty two minutes and Trevor Reason plays forty
Speaker 1: minutes and Carmelo plays thirty four minutes or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: You know, you're asking those old forwards to play again
Speaker 1: the next night in Utah. You know, you'd like to
Speaker 1: have a little bit more depth there for that specific need.
Speaker 1: But again we're kind of nitpicking here because every team
Speaker 1: has flaws and I really like what they put together. Um. Anyway,
Speaker 1: let's move on to to Kendrick Nunn. So Kendrick Nunn
Speaker 1: is an interesting case because you know, one of the
Speaker 1: first things I do when the Lakers sign anybody is
Speaker 1: I reach out to somebody that I'm friendly with on
Speaker 1: Twitter who's a fan of that team that he was
Speaker 1: previously on, and I asked them for their honest opinion.
Speaker 1: And so I talked to a couple of Heat fans
Speaker 1: yesterday and the big thing that stood out to me
Speaker 1: as uh. They said that he's a little bit frustrating
Speaker 1: from time to time, but that overall he was one
Speaker 1: of their most talented offensive players. And it shows in
Speaker 1: the numbers. He scored at a rate of eighteen points
Speaker 1: per thirty six minutes last year. Incredibly efficient. He had
Speaker 1: a sixty true shooting percentage. Like for a guard to
Speaker 1: have that type of efficiency in the NBA right now,
Speaker 1: you're in a rare class there. Now he's doing it
Speaker 1: on lower volume than those top tier guys, but that
Speaker 1: just goes to show you that higher end shot making,
Speaker 1: that higher end offensive ability to react to what kind
Speaker 1: of attention Lebron and a d are drawing. That's the
Speaker 1: kind of exciting stuff that Kendrick Nunn brings. The table
Speaker 1: you brought up that he's explosive off the dribble, that's
Speaker 1: another big one. He's more, he's built well, he's built
Speaker 1: like a tank. He's got a lot going for him
Speaker 1: physically and adds a different element to that backcourt that
Speaker 1: we hadn't had offensively in the last couple of years
Speaker 1: and that's something that I think is really exciting. Are
Speaker 1: you excited about Kendrick Gunn as well? Oh yeah, And
Speaker 1: he kind of fits the like Russell Westbrook style of play.
Speaker 1: He's obviously not as good as Russell Westbrook, but he's
Speaker 1: not the guy that kind of goes through you. Right
Speaker 1: with his athleticism. Um, he can pull up from three,
Speaker 1: He's very comfortable with that. He takes long threes to
Speaker 1: like even on his spot ups, he's comfortable pulling from long.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like I love how he goes through guys
Speaker 1: really athletic, just a different type of guard than we
Speaker 1: have and we've had, you know, Dennis shooters and is
Speaker 1: it like a quick point guard. But he's not like athletic.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna go through. He's not gonna jump over you,
Speaker 1: Kendry gun If you give him a lane, he'll dunk
Speaker 1: on you. Like that's the type of guard. He is
Speaker 1: very similar to Westbrook. Um, I think that's a perfect
Speaker 1: guy from him to learn from, just how to get
Speaker 1: to the rim, um, how to attack and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So um, I'm I'm I'm really excited for him as well.
Speaker 1: I've again, like I remember he had like get a
Speaker 1: good finals against US. If I remember the finals correctly,
Speaker 1: he had like a pretty good game, wonder game to
Speaker 1: a guy that we had we had trouble stopping. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I get another younger. I think he's twenty six,
Speaker 1: a little bit older than I thought, but but still
Speaker 1: just again a guy his mid twenties. I think it's
Speaker 1: good to have those guys mixed in with the vets
Speaker 1: and our guards and the really quick, really quick, really fast,
Speaker 1: um explosive guards that we heard that that we've signed.
Speaker 1: He's got a good arsenal of little floaters and midrange
Speaker 1: shots too. Uh that I think gives him that versatility
Speaker 1: and punch offensively. He's your textbook late bloomer type of
Speaker 1: guard who ended up going to a small school and
Speaker 1: was an alpha dog. Um, and you know that kind
Speaker 1: of that kind of guy is the kind of guy
Speaker 1: that you know, uh, NBA teams typically stay away from
Speaker 1: because they view him as guys that succeed on bad teams,
Speaker 1: that type of vibe. Um. But the truth is is
Speaker 1: like that alpha dog mentality is what has turned him
Speaker 1: into such a confident offensive player in the NBA. Like
Speaker 1: and again, I'm gonna hammer this home a lot over
Speaker 1: the next couple few weeks. But it's not easy to
Speaker 1: be that efficient as a guard score and that is
Speaker 1: something that I'm really excited to see if it translates
Speaker 1: in this specific offensive system. Um okay, so next, let's
Speaker 1: talk about camp bays Moore. So I reached out to
Speaker 1: some people that I trust to follow the Warriors, and
Speaker 1: they basically said that the uh that he was asked
Speaker 1: to do too much in their system, that that was
Speaker 1: the primary, uh you know, reasoning behind some of his
Speaker 1: struggles because he did have, uh, you know, a season
Speaker 1: that was full of ups and downs. And you know,
Speaker 1: from a distance from our perspective, we watched them complain
Speaker 1: and we watched him struggle, and we're very quickly, we're
Speaker 1: very we're very quick to just be like, oh, Kempaysmore
Speaker 1: sucks or Kemp Besmore had a rough season. Well, the
Speaker 1: people within the Warriors fan base who were watching objectively
Speaker 1: would tell you that he was asked to do too much.
Speaker 1: He was he was basically their second best perimeter initiator.
Speaker 1: That's that's a lot to ask for a player with
Speaker 1: his specific talent. The big, huge, glaring positive with Golden
Speaker 1: State was he shot the seams off the basketball. I
Speaker 1: tweeted it out after he signed. He was forty six
Speaker 1: on wide open threes. That's something you know, the Warriors
Speaker 1: fans will tell you that he's likely to come back
Speaker 1: to Earth in that regard. However, if there is some
Speaker 1: sort of hot streak that he's on, he's going to
Speaker 1: continue to get very good shot quality on this team. Uh.
Speaker 1: They said that he was good at ball pressure, he
Speaker 1: was good at the point of attack, but that he
Speaker 1: could be hands he sometimes commit some silly fouls, get
Speaker 1: a little bit out of control, but that in general,
Speaker 1: they liked to pick up for the Lakers. And you know,
Speaker 1: that was kind of my initial thought as well, and
Speaker 1: it felt good to hear that from Warriors fans as well.
Speaker 1: What was your take on the Baysmore pickup? So, Bisimore,
Speaker 1: he's another one of those guys that's a returning Laker, right,
Speaker 1: You've seen the memes and jokes that, um, we're kind
Speaker 1: of only high, We're only getting guys for retraining Lakers.
Speaker 1: He's the guy I wanted them to keep back then.
Speaker 1: Back then, obviously the Lakers were terrible. Um, they were
Speaker 1: in the beginning of the rebuild, I think, and he
Speaker 1: left to the Hawks where he signed. He's one of
Speaker 1: those guys that kind of went through this. He was underrated,
Speaker 1: then overrated, and underrated again. I feel like he went
Speaker 1: to the Hawks for like the minimum and then they
Speaker 1: paid him I think four years eighty or some thing
Speaker 1: like that to either starting to guard on a team
Speaker 1: that was winning sixty, you know, sixty games a year. Um.
Speaker 1: I like the camp Baisemore signing. He's a like traditional
Speaker 1: three and d um. I'm not sure if he's as
Speaker 1: good a shooter as he showed last year, like as that,
Speaker 1: but he's a good shooter. He's a smart basketball player
Speaker 1: who knows like what he's doing. He knows how to
Speaker 1: play on a winning team. I don't think he's that
Speaker 1: old either. I think he's like thirty two if I
Speaker 1: remember right for Kemp Baisemore, um and can he's probably
Speaker 1: our best like other than the Reza guy we can
Speaker 1: throw on wings. I think he's a good defender, um,
Speaker 1: smart defender and yeah the word Warriors fans were obviously
Speaker 1: tough on a lot of players last year, but I
Speaker 1: thought Baisemore was a good player fit next to steph Um.
Speaker 1: I think he'll fit right next to Lebron too, So
Speaker 1: just another solid signing for for the minimum. I agree
Speaker 1: they went from you know, they went from a obvious
Speaker 1: lack of guard depth after the West Book Trade West
Speaker 1: Book Trade. That concerned people because we knew, we knew
Speaker 1: only the veteran minimum was available, and we just were
Speaker 1: concerned about whether or not to be able to put
Speaker 1: together some decent that the guard position. And you know,
Speaker 1: routinely in Lebron's career, and this is something that is
Speaker 1: a testament to uh, you know, the reputation he's built
Speaker 1: amongst his peers, but consistently in Lebron's career, he's been
Speaker 1: able to convince players to take discounts to come play
Speaker 1: with him, and uh, because of the fact that they
Speaker 1: know they're going to get good shots, and they know
Speaker 1: they're gonna have a chance to compete for a championship
Speaker 1: and all that good stuff. And I'm sure the Laker
Speaker 1: brand also plays a significant role. But I wanted the
Speaker 1: ability to get Kendrick Nunn, bays More and uh, Molik
Speaker 1: Monk and every one of those guys could have made
Speaker 1: more elsewhere, but Kendrick Nunn had a deal bigger than
Speaker 1: the mid level exception offered to him by the Knicks
Speaker 1: that he turned down. Bays Moore had more, more years,
Speaker 1: more money from the Warriors that he turned down, and
Speaker 1: we all know Molik Monk probably could have got a
Speaker 1: mid level exception somewhere out there. So very clearly, you know,
Speaker 1: the Lakers were able to take advantage of their their
Speaker 1: the perks of of of being the lay Kers and
Speaker 1: parlay that into guard depth that they desperately needed, and
Speaker 1: so that that was exciting. Um. So the next guy
Speaker 1: that I wanted to talk about was Trevor Reza because
Speaker 1: he's a really interesting case because he's your textbook like
Speaker 1: outside of Lakers Twitter, there's a lot of pessimism like
Speaker 1: about that that pick, like ha ha, they had to
Speaker 1: settle for Trevor Reza. They're old, Trevor Reas is washed,
Speaker 1: he hasn't mattered in two years, blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: So again I reached out to some Miami he people
Speaker 1: that that were watching him last year and they said, look,
Speaker 1: he didn't shoot particularly well, but he's still every bit
Speaker 1: as good defensively as he's been in the last few years.
Speaker 1: They said he was the one that they would stick
Speaker 1: on all the big tough defensive matchups. Then Tim Cranches
Speaker 1: from UH from I can't remember the name of his
Speaker 1: site all of a sudden at the second, but anyway,
Speaker 1: Crane just came out with his statistical model of his
Speaker 1: UH perimeter defense and he was one of the best
Speaker 1: perimeter defensive players in the league last year. And I
Speaker 1: remember him most vividly in two thousand eight team doing
Speaker 1: such an incredible job on Kevin Durant in the Western
Speaker 1: Conference finals. And I hadn't watched too much of him
Speaker 1: in the year since, mainly because he had been on
Speaker 1: mainly irrelevant teams. But I'm really excited about Trevor Reasa.
Speaker 1: He's a wing defender that the Lakers haven't had in
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. And for the most part,
Speaker 1: what I think about is half court NBA playoff basketball,
Speaker 1: you know, against the team like Phoenix, against the team
Speaker 1: like the Clippers, against the team like the Warriors, and
Speaker 1: having your front court be Trevor reason Lebron and Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: To me, that's very exciting that the prospect of that
Speaker 1: level of athleticism and length and savvy veteran savvy defensive
Speaker 1: ability from those guys, and then when you couple that
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis, full bore, full health, it's it's really
Speaker 1: exciting to me. So I actually really liked the Areasa pickup.
Speaker 1: I would have preferred him as a bench a guy.
Speaker 1: I would have preferred somebody younger in front of but
Speaker 1: I actually think he might end up starting. But either way,
Speaker 1: regardless of what his role as, I really liked to
Speaker 1: pick up. What did you think about A reason? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I like him too. It's funny he kind of has
Speaker 1: the uh in O eight. He helped the Lakers kind
Speaker 1: of win the oh nine. Sorry, he helped the Lakers
Speaker 1: win the title, and he left for kind of for
Speaker 1: money reasons, and the fan base was kind of upsets,
Speaker 1: very eerily similar to how Carusoe kind of walked. Very
Speaker 1: similar to that. Um similar type of player. He wasn't
Speaker 1: a good shooter when he was younger, but he's really
Speaker 1: made himself into like a really nice spot up shooter.
Speaker 1: Um that's kind of shots he'll get here. I don't
Speaker 1: know if he'll play big minutes. He might start, but
Speaker 1: I mean at thirty six or whatever he is, I
Speaker 1: don't think they want to have him, you know, in
Speaker 1: the thirty minute range. But yeah, just another smart player,
Speaker 1: another dude who's been on a bunch of winning teams. Um,
Speaker 1: that Houston team just let him walk, which I thought
Speaker 1: was a mistake when at the time it happened. I
Speaker 1: think he went to Sacramento for uh yeah, I think
Speaker 1: he went to like the Kings or something. Obviously Sacramento
Speaker 1: was irrelevant at the time. Um, but but yeah, Like,
Speaker 1: I love his game. I've always had. I wish he
Speaker 1: was back here at a little younger age. But but
Speaker 1: even at this age, UM, he's still, like you said,
Speaker 1: a really great perimeter defender and he's gonna get wide
Speaker 1: open shots here. And he's been a knockdown three point
Speaker 1: shooter for a long time. Um, he's been a spot
Speaker 1: up shooter for the last few years as well, next
Speaker 1: to James harden Um, especially on those Rocket teams. So
Speaker 1: I'm excited about him as well. I worry about his
Speaker 1: age and all that, and his durability at that age
Speaker 1: being a wing defender on this team. But in front
Speaker 1: of a d I'm interested to see how Vogel kind
Speaker 1: of puts the scheme out. They were very heavy in
Speaker 1: terms of ball pressure last year. I don't think it
Speaker 1: will be that this year. I think it'll be more physical,
Speaker 1: a little bit more switching, maybe a little more dropback defense.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the reason is a smart dude and he's
Speaker 1: a good player on the on the minimum. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it'll be really that that part you just brought up
Speaker 1: about the defense is super interesting. It'll be I would
Speaker 1: imagine in training camp he's going to gauge the guard corps.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be the key because you know, there's actually
Speaker 1: they actually had a quite a bit of athleticism in
Speaker 1: the guard core. When you think about Russell Westbrook, Camp
Speaker 1: bays Moore, Malik Monk and uh Kendrick Nunn, like there's
Speaker 1: quite a bit a shifty athleticism and strength. Uh they
Speaker 1: can go. They can throw out lineups like None and
Speaker 1: Westbrook next to each other. Like you've got two stocky
Speaker 1: six three guards there that that are going to be
Speaker 1: difficult to bully physically and that are very athletic. So
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see, I'm with you. It'll be
Speaker 1: a question of whether or not they're capable of applying
Speaker 1: the level of ball pressure that guys like k CP
Speaker 1: and Dennis Shrewder were able to. But it'll it'll be
Speaker 1: interesting to see, but we know Frank, like, Frank's gonna adjust,
Speaker 1: He's gonna figure out what works with that guard corps
Speaker 1: and and build everything around that. They do have a
Speaker 1: switchier set of forwards than they've ever had. Uh, that's
Speaker 1: gonna be the most exciting part is that idea that
Speaker 1: you can throw out. You could throw out a lineup
Speaker 1: of Westbrook, Bays More a Reason, Lebron a d and
Speaker 1: or let's say they bring in westmath Us, which is
Speaker 1: something we're gonna talk about later. He's a guy I'd
Speaker 1: like to see them add as just like a low
Speaker 1: like a low ceiling, high floor type of option to
Speaker 1: throw out. There is a fifth man, but lineups like
Speaker 1: that where every player has some girth to them, you know,
Speaker 1: some strength, and none of them are are easy to
Speaker 1: physically bully, and they can kind of switch everything. So
Speaker 1: I'm excited to kind of see what they build around there.
Speaker 1: But just in general, with the reason, and one last
Speaker 1: note on the reason with his shooting, you know, you
Speaker 1: and I talked a lot about how Russell Westbrook, even
Speaker 1: if he went out next year and shot in the
Speaker 1: first month of the season, teams still aren't gonna guard
Speaker 1: him because just there's a huge difference between three point
Speaker 1: percentage and three point gravity. Three point gravity more has
Speaker 1: to do with how scared teams are of you, And
Speaker 1: it really takes a large sample size of doing something
Speaker 1: different for you to start adjusting your your your strategy
Speaker 1: with something like that. Trevor Reasa, even if he shoots
Speaker 1: again from three next year, teams are gonna at least
Speaker 1: guard him, you know what I mean. There's a at
Speaker 1: the very least, if you're guarding Trevor Reesa, you're scared
Speaker 1: that he's gonna make you pay if you leave him open.
Speaker 1: So I I do like, I do like his fit
Speaker 1: in terms of the natural spacing of everything. Um so
Speaker 1: I guess let's see the I guess the last guy
Speaker 1: that we should touch on his Mellow because I don't
Speaker 1: I don't think Ellington's gonna play all that much. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then you know the center's Mark and Dwight. You
Speaker 1: and I have talked about at length over the last
Speaker 1: two years. So you know, I'll let you start on
Speaker 1: this one. What are you are you expecting Mellow to
Speaker 1: play that much of a role this year? Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: so tough. Like I understand car mellows here on a minimum,
Speaker 1: but he played for Portland's It's it's not like he
Speaker 1: was an end of the bench guy on Portland play.
Speaker 1: I don't know if how much he started, I really
Speaker 1: don't remember. I think he did start a few games,
Speaker 1: but it's a big part of the rotation. Um he
Speaker 1: was the or on that team. UM. I still like
Speaker 1: him as a shock creator for the second unit. He's
Speaker 1: started seven though, so like, can you defend well enough
Speaker 1: to play that? Those are the questions to me. UM.
Speaker 1: I think Frank Vogel does have a like he doesn't
Speaker 1: like to play his vets, does like to play the Vets.
Speaker 1: We saw Rondo play a bunch um in the regular
Speaker 1: seven season, even though he was bad um that first year.
Speaker 1: I see similar things with Carmelo. Um. I reached out
Speaker 1: to my Portland Travelers a friend and I was like, hey, like,
Speaker 1: what do you think of Karmelo on the Lakers? And
Speaker 1: he's like, uh, Carmelo, Uh. He can be frustrating at
Speaker 1: times because he's gonna, you know, I want to say,
Speaker 1: hijack the offense. But I mean when you have Carmelo Anthony,
Speaker 1: give him the ball, that possession is his, Like that's
Speaker 1: just just what happens when you give Carmelo the ball
Speaker 1: in the post, that possession is his now like he's
Speaker 1: I'm gonna bully ball my way into the post. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take a mid range fade away jumper. You know.
Speaker 1: If it goes in, I'm gonna, you know, talk my ship,
Speaker 1: or if it doesn't go in, I'm just going with
Speaker 1: the other way. But but but yeah, that's that's the
Speaker 1: kind of thing with Karmelo Anthony is the talents there
Speaker 1: obviously in him and Lebron wanted to play together. I
Speaker 1: think that's a big part of this. I do see
Speaker 1: him buying in Um. I think this is a maybe
Speaker 1: his first like championship kind of chance, you know, in
Speaker 1: a long time, maybe since those Denver teams. Um, I
Speaker 1: don't think those next teams were really close to a title,
Speaker 1: and those Portland's teams are are what they are. So
Speaker 1: I can see him buying him behind him as well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that he's the most like question mark to
Speaker 1: me in terms of minutes UM him and and th
Speaker 1: h T. I guess if if you want to touch
Speaker 1: on him, but like Carmelo's minutes are the ones I'm
Speaker 1: most interested to see how that goes. Is he just
Speaker 1: a spot kind of play here and there? I see
Speaker 1: him fully in the rotation, though I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: like I think he's not. He's not gonna come here
Speaker 1: and stay on the bench for a bunch of games.
Speaker 1: What about you? What do you think about Karmelo? So,
Speaker 1: I think the easiest way to contextualize Carmelo Anthony's fit
Speaker 1: minutes role. You know what they asked him to do,
Speaker 1: whatever you wanna call it, is just an upgrade of
Speaker 1: Mark Kith Morris. If you remember, like I asked you
Speaker 1: to describe what Mark Keith Morris was to the Lakers,
Speaker 1: you would say he was a spot off show er
Speaker 1: and they would occasionally, especially late in the season, try
Speaker 1: to go to him in the post because they lacked
Speaker 1: offensive creation without Lebron and a D, so they feed
Speaker 1: him to try to score in the post. And then
Speaker 1: he was a below average perimeter defensive player who was
Speaker 1: below average in rotations, but he was good as a
Speaker 1: post up defender. That was what we remember about Marquis Well.
Speaker 1: That's pretty much exactly what they're gonna need from Carmelo.
Speaker 1: Like Carmelo is going to be a below average perimeter
Speaker 1: defensive player, he's going to be below below average covering
Speaker 1: ground in rotations, but he's gonna be above average as
Speaker 1: a post up defender. Teams aren't teams aren't gonna be
Speaker 1: able to physically dominate him underneath the basket. And then
Speaker 1: he's gonna be a guy who's gonna be a spot
Speaker 1: up shooter at a higher level than Markief. And he's
Speaker 1: gonna be a guy you can throw it to the
Speaker 1: post against inferior defenders and you're gonna get more out
Speaker 1: of him than you did out of Markief. So just
Speaker 1: simply that's that's how I see the role shaking out.
Speaker 1: As far as minutes go, if you think about it
Speaker 1: as like a there's kind of two ways to look
Speaker 1: at it. There's the depth chart approach, which is if
Speaker 1: a d s you're five and Lebron's you're four, and
Speaker 1: you can get them to do uh, you know, thirty
Speaker 1: two minutes a night, you know, if you're trying to
Speaker 1: keep their minutes down because the age that means there's
Speaker 1: sixteen minutes there for Dwight at the center position, and
Speaker 1: there's sixteen minutes there for Mellow at the four uh.
Speaker 1: And then when you factor in load management, and things
Speaker 1: along those lines. During the season, there will be even
Speaker 1: more minutes available for marcusol or for Dwight to play more,
Speaker 1: or for Carmelo Anthony to to play more. So from
Speaker 1: that perspective, like, that's how I look at it. From
Speaker 1: as far as his role goes, Like whether or not
Speaker 1: Lebron is willing to play more three and to have
Speaker 1: Mellow play more fork, that's all about fit and whether
Speaker 1: or not Melo really pans out as a defensive player. Look,
Speaker 1: if Mello comes in and he shoots from three and
Speaker 1: is killing it on the block and defending pretty well,
Speaker 1: then yeah, you're gonna shift up and play lab On
Speaker 1: at the threesome and and and and put Carmelo at
Speaker 1: the floor. But again, this is about flexibility and versatility,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers have options. Uh, they're in this regard
Speaker 1: and so I think I think it's uh something to
Speaker 1: be excited about. I love the market. Market Moore's kind
Speaker 1: of like comparison there. But Carmelo was an excellent shooter
Speaker 1: last year too. Yeah, I think he shot forty percent
Speaker 1: from three from the corners too. He's a guy. Also,
Speaker 1: like when you compared to Mark Morris teams double Carmelo
Speaker 1: Anthony still like they send help. Like even if the
Speaker 1: numbers say whatever they are, the spreadsheet, basketball still says
Speaker 1: whatever that that's a bad shot to you know, take
Speaker 1: teams still come and send doubles on Carmelo Anthony with
Speaker 1: Damian Little on the floor like that. That's something that
Speaker 1: really happens in Portland's. Um, so it's funny. So that's
Speaker 1: a that's another wrinkled thing that I like. And Markey
Speaker 1: Moore's another guy that likes to post up, take and
Speaker 1: manage mismatches. I think Carmelo's a little bit better at
Speaker 1: that too. Um He's a guy can create more help
Speaker 1: better pastor I think than Markey Morris as well. I'm
Speaker 1: really interested in those like Mellow with the other star lineups,
Speaker 1: Like I'm really fascinated by that Melo really. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: Dame and c J are what they are, but like
Speaker 1: the type of paint presence that like run a d
Speaker 1: could provide. I'm just curious how Mellow can kind of
Speaker 1: fit his way into that. I think you get Carmelo
Speaker 1: in a bunch of one on one matchups. I think
Speaker 1: that's favorable even at his age. He's a guy that
Speaker 1: really knows how to score. He's a professional score one
Speaker 1: of the best ever. UM. So that's why I'm interested
Speaker 1: to him. Just that kind of interesting linkol to it. Um.
Speaker 1: That kind of talent is what it is, and I
Speaker 1: think the coaching staff will try to try to work
Speaker 1: with that. But yeah, I love the Marquis Moore is
Speaker 1: kind of comparison there. Yeah. Well, and if you think
Speaker 1: about it, like he gives you a matchup attacking option
Speaker 1: at the end of your lineup. So if you run
Speaker 1: a lineup that has a d at the five, Mellow
Speaker 1: at the four, Lebron at the three, you know, th
Speaker 1: h T at the two, and Russ at the one,
Speaker 1: every single one of those guys can destroy a week matchup.
Speaker 1: If you get th h T on a skinny guard
Speaker 1: that can't really defend, he's just gonna bully him all
Speaker 1: the way to the basket. Same goes for us Lebron
Speaker 1: on a weaker wing, Carmelo Anthony had a weaker wing
Speaker 1: or a slow forward, and then Anthony Davis. That is
Speaker 1: a nightmare lineup for attacking mismatches. And and that's like,
Speaker 1: that's something that that could be really really exciting. UM.
Speaker 1: So we got about ten more minutes before you gotta
Speaker 1: get out of here, and we're gonna dive even more
Speaker 1: into a lot of this stuff as the summer progresses. Um,
Speaker 1: But I wanted to talk about Caruso for a second.
Speaker 1: So you know, first of all, I think that, uh,
Speaker 1: there are two separate topics with this Crusoe thing. There's
Speaker 1: the topic did the Lakers need Caruso? Obviously not that
Speaker 1: that that goes without saying they're gonna be fine without him.
Speaker 1: That that that that was that The negativity that I
Speaker 1: have about this topic isn't dedicated to my optimism about
Speaker 1: the Lakers as a whole. Okay, However, it's important to
Speaker 1: say that with respect to that roster spot, there was
Speaker 1: no reason to let Alex go except for money. It
Speaker 1: only had to do with the amount of money that
Speaker 1: Jennie would have to pay. So in general, I don't
Speaker 1: I don't. In general, I don't love the idea of
Speaker 1: protecting the wallet of a hundred millionaire or a billionaire.
Speaker 1: That's one of the first opinions that I have about it.
Speaker 1: But secondly, there was the opportunity lost that comes with
Speaker 1: Alex Crusoe's contract. So this summer you have added some
Speaker 1: legitimate assets that teams are gonna want. Malik Monk on
Speaker 1: a minimum contract, that's a great deal. Kendrick Nunne at
Speaker 1: five point seven million a year or whatever, that's a
Speaker 1: great deal. But adding those salaries up is useless to
Speaker 1: amount to anything. However, if I've got Caruso at nine
Speaker 1: million and there's a player out there that I really
Speaker 1: want that's a seventeen million dollar salary, I can go bam,
Speaker 1: you know, Monk, none at Crusoe for this guard that's
Speaker 1: out there, whoever it is. And I'm just providing an example.
Speaker 1: They they they and I'm not even saying they would
Speaker 1: make a trade this year. I'm just saying if you
Speaker 1: wanted that flexibility, having that intermediate salary and that nine
Speaker 1: million dollar range attached to a player like Cruso that
Speaker 1: teams want makes your minimum contracts more valuable because they
Speaker 1: can actually amount to more salary. The point being is
Speaker 1: that whether it's guard depth, or whether you think Alex
Speaker 1: Cruso should be in your closing lineup, or whether you
Speaker 1: want to use him as a trade piece, there were
Speaker 1: so many positives that come with Alex Crusoe on the
Speaker 1: team and letting him slip purely as a result of
Speaker 1: counting Genie Busses money. In my opinion, was a mistake. Uh,
Speaker 1: that was just how I felt about it. Doesn't mean
Speaker 1: I dislike the offseason. Doesn't mean I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: are gonna suck. That was just one of my complaints
Speaker 1: from the last couple of days. What was your opinion
Speaker 1: on the Alex cruise? I think Okay, So like first, Uh, well,
Speaker 1: I guess, like it's no secret I love Alex Cruso.
Speaker 1: Like you can type my Twitter name out screw, so
Speaker 1: you'll find a bunch of videos, You'll find a bunch
Speaker 1: of stats that you know, people are like, you're you know,
Speaker 1: you're kind of nit nitpicking stats whatever. But there's no
Speaker 1: secret I love al Scruso that I knew what he
Speaker 1: meant to this team. Um, I think this team went
Speaker 1: with the identity shift they wanted on ball shot creation.
Speaker 1: Go look at what THHC just got three years, thirty
Speaker 1: two million dollars for th h T. However you feel
Speaker 1: about THHC, they obviously feel a way about him. My
Speaker 1: only wish issue with this, I'm not keeping for Genie
Speaker 1: buzz I have no reason to, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know her personally at all, like what they do. I
Speaker 1: think there's a difference between being cheap, right, because I
Speaker 1: see saw that word thrown a lot, a lot thrown
Speaker 1: around a lot pretty way too loosely called the Lakers cheap.
Speaker 1: That's totally different than not wanting to you know, payout
Speaker 1: screwso whatever it costs fifty whatever man in luxury tax.
Speaker 1: Those are two different things. Being cheap is not is
Speaker 1: trading James Harden before he hits his max players spot, Like,
Speaker 1: that's that's being cheap to me. This is this is
Speaker 1: a little bit different. So that's the kind of like
Speaker 1: difference that I want to make with this. Like to me, logically,
Speaker 1: how I was kind of explained this, you don't make
Speaker 1: the trade for Russell Westbrook and then think you're gonna
Speaker 1: be cheap, right, Like, those things can't coincide. To me,
Speaker 1: you can't trade for the second highest paid player in
Speaker 1: the game while also having two max guys, while also
Speaker 1: being a franchise that's going to be cheap on the margins.
Speaker 1: So when the crew something happened, I said, yes, this
Speaker 1: is terrible, but I'm gonna give them a little bit
Speaker 1: of a benefit of the doubt because It just makes
Speaker 1: no sense to me to go trade for a forty
Speaker 1: three million dollar player, have three guys make one thirty million,
Speaker 1: and then say we're gonna be cheaper on the margins.
Speaker 1: That makes zero sense. You could have just did the buddy,
Speaker 1: he'll trade and then filled the roster route, you know, evenly,
Speaker 1: and you know, paid a little bit of luxury whatever.
Speaker 1: They're still gonna have a huge tax bill. This is
Speaker 1: the highest tax billing Lakers history, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So that's that's the only thing I don't like about this.
Speaker 1: I hate that Crusoe has gone. I think he billed
Speaker 1: himself into a great player. He earned every penny of
Speaker 1: this new deal. Lakers obviously didn't feel that, you know,
Speaker 1: they wanted to go in a different direction, and I
Speaker 1: don't like it. I can understand it, but I think
Speaker 1: the word cheap is the one that I have the
Speaker 1: most kind of issue with because, like, that doesn't make
Speaker 1: logic sense to me that they went and dealt for
Speaker 1: a guy making that much money and then you know,
Speaker 1: call them cheap for this is that's the communiany part
Speaker 1: of me. What do you what do you think about that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like, I don't think Genie is being cheap, like
Speaker 1: you said they have, they're about to have a huge
Speaker 1: luxury tax bill. Um. The thing that I always thought
Speaker 1: about it was just like, you know, so let's say,
Speaker 1: first of all, blaming Alex crusoe salary for the big
Speaker 1: fat luxury tax bill is stupid because his salary is
Speaker 1: not the reason why there were be a giant luxury
Speaker 1: tax bill. That that would be unfair to Alex. Uh. Secondly,
Speaker 1: you know, the the way I look at it, Let's
Speaker 1: say you're you're you are paying Alex effectively thirty million
Speaker 1: or something because you're paying him nine and there's twenty
Speaker 1: one million in luxury tax or something like that. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a lot of money. But you're in a two
Speaker 1: year window here where you're contending for the title. You
Speaker 1: can regroup financially because all these are one year deals
Speaker 1: and th h T s the only long term deal
Speaker 1: they signed or or Kendrick Nunn and Kendrick Nunns is
Speaker 1: a player option that will probably opt out of if
Speaker 1: he has a good season. So the thing is is
Speaker 1: like you've got cat flexibility moving forward. Russ even only
Speaker 1: has one more year on his deal, and then you
Speaker 1: can kind of restructure everything. So the point is is
Speaker 1: why not pony up now for this one or two
Speaker 1: year window and understand that built continuing to build that
Speaker 1: Lakers brand of dominance is what allows you to charge
Speaker 1: what you do for tickets, and charge and sell as
Speaker 1: much merchandise as you do, and charge as much as
Speaker 1: you do for a TV deal and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: And you know, like I I use this example earlier,
Speaker 1: but let's say let's say Trevor Reasa doesn't pan out
Speaker 1: like he just has washed, and let's say Sam goes
Speaker 1: for Carmelo and the Lakers are playing small, and it's like, man,
Speaker 1: we really need a wing, and the buyout markets crap um.
Speaker 1: But you know, Jimmy Butler gets hurt and the Heat
Speaker 1: are tanking, and all of a sudden, p J. Tucker
Speaker 1: is available and his salary is ten million a year
Speaker 1: or whatever, and it's like, man, we call up Miami
Speaker 1: and they'll take Caruso and Monk for for p J. Tucker. Bam,
Speaker 1: Now we have our front court depth back. You know,
Speaker 1: that kind of flexibility is gone without those intermediate salaries.
Speaker 1: And I'm just that's just a complete fabrication that I
Speaker 1: came up with But I'm just giving you an example
Speaker 1: of It was never as cut and dry as we
Speaker 1: don't need Alex because we have guards already coming. It
Speaker 1: was never as cutting dry as that's too much money
Speaker 1: for Alex. It was it was always bring him back,
Speaker 1: keep the asset. Alex is a great player. Even if
Speaker 1: he doesn't fit, you can move him and improve the team.
Speaker 1: Oh and if you're concerned about Genie Buss's money, she
Speaker 1: just paid the luxury attacks for the first time in
Speaker 1: like a decade. Uh you know they are not a decade,
Speaker 1: but in in several years last year, and and and
Speaker 1: she's in a two year championship window here. You know
Speaker 1: she can do this, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: that that that kind of was was the part that
Speaker 1: I that got lost in it. And once again, you've
Speaker 1: got these yes men out there that are like, God
Speaker 1: forbid you say anything negative about Lebron or Rob Polinka
Speaker 1: or or Genie Buss. You're being a hater. You're being negative.
Speaker 1: And it's like, no, man, Like, we're just being objective,
Speaker 1: objective observers. And and that that the whole thing kind
Speaker 1: of bothered me. Did you, uh go ahead? I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, like Yeah, it's allfu to lose him for nothing,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. If it feels like a
Speaker 1: guy that's grown here, a guy that we've developed, like
Speaker 1: you know, from the G League to you know, being
Speaker 1: able to place Bob minutes to being a starter on
Speaker 1: the last game in the finals, I think they knew
Speaker 1: what he meant. Like, I like that you said it's
Speaker 1: not as cut as dry as either of those, because
Speaker 1: I think it's somewhere in the middle, right, Like they
Speaker 1: kind of they kind of looked at both sides here
Speaker 1: and they said that we can kind of they probably
Speaker 1: had these cards in their hand. You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: to get tampering rules or anything, but they probably had
Speaker 1: some idea of like what kind of players they would
Speaker 1: get and kind of weighed that against you know, what
Speaker 1: Crusoe is gonna get with with Chicago and kind of
Speaker 1: made their decision. I disagree with it, vmn A like
Speaker 1: I would have. I wanted Cruso back. Um. I think
Speaker 1: he would be the best defensive guard on the team
Speaker 1: right now, Like just that's just how it would be.
Speaker 1: He's been big in closing lineup. But that's just how
Speaker 1: they fell. And it sucks that that happened, but that
Speaker 1: that is what it is. I would love him back.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna I think he needs to be
Speaker 1: with other shot creators. I think him to Rosen and
Speaker 1: Levine is a really interesting kind of fit there. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, like that's that's the tough part of it.
Speaker 1: Doing the salary and the luxury tech stuff. It's all,
Speaker 1: you know, that's all outside of kind of what I
Speaker 1: can kind of comment on. I could just see that.
Speaker 1: I'm just going from the basketball fit and and just
Speaker 1: with the way they built their roster at the time,
Speaker 1: the kind of team they had. They went with these
Speaker 1: scoring guards, you know, and that's the fit that they
Speaker 1: want to do, and we'll see if it works. It
Speaker 1: remains to be seen. You know, Laker Sweeter is pretty
Speaker 1: high on all the moves here, but um, yeah, it
Speaker 1: was still remains to be seen if this was the
Speaker 1: right decision. For sure, I'll Cruso is gonna be great
Speaker 1: in Chicago because they're not going to need him to
Speaker 1: create because of all the offensive talent they have on
Speaker 1: the roster. He's basically going to be your fifth starter,
Speaker 1: kind of like he was on the Lakers in Game
Speaker 1: six of the Finals. Who's just asked to guard the
Speaker 1: other team's best player and do all of those things.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna he's gonna be great there. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know, this is the last thing I'll say
Speaker 1: about the Alex Cruzo thing, and then we could be done. Um.
Speaker 1: The rewriting of history of what he was in a
Speaker 1: Laker jersey has been absurd, and that has been the
Speaker 1: worst part of this whole saga. You've got these people
Speaker 1: out there that are trying like it's like, now, now,
Speaker 1: he wasn't good, really like he wasn't he wasn't good,
Speaker 1: like it just it bothers me like that you'd kick
Speaker 1: someone like that out the door just as a fan,
Speaker 1: you know, in general, especially for a player like that
Speaker 1: who was so you know, immensely important, like the Lakers
Speaker 1: best lineups over the last two years or anything involving
Speaker 1: lebron A d and Alex Cruzo, Like it was literally
Speaker 1: that simple in terms of the way that, uh, they
Speaker 1: performed on the scoreboard in those minutes. Um. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I know, I know you need to get out of here.
Speaker 1: We're gonna we're gonna do another one of these here
Speaker 1: in a couple of days where we touch on a
Speaker 1: couple more Laker topics after we've kind of marinated on
Speaker 1: things a little bit longer, and then we're also going
Speaker 1: to touch on some league wide stuff and things that
Speaker 1: we liked, uh from the rest of free agency. Is
Speaker 1: there anything else you wanted to hit on today, ros Uh?
Speaker 1: I think like Dennis costing himself eighty million, that's a
Speaker 1: really weird one. Though the music is about to stop,
Speaker 1: man and he needs a chair like that, there's no
Speaker 1: seat yet for Dennis. We're just really fascinating. I'm interested
Speaker 1: to see where that kind of goes here. Is there
Speaker 1: any teams with caps face left? Nick signed up? Nobody,
Speaker 1: The Knicks took Kemba. I think the Spurs have cap space.
Speaker 1: But I don't know why they would want Dennis because
Speaker 1: they went all in on young guys Dallas maybe, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know. They're kind of getting go on tragic.
Speaker 1: I get like that. It's it's definitely weird. Would you
Speaker 1: want him back as a six man? I guess we'll
Speaker 1: close with that. Would you want to back as the
Speaker 1: sixth man? I think that's a bad look to lose Caruso.
Speaker 1: I guess I think I'm bringing Dennis back. But like,
Speaker 1: what do you think of Dennis coming back as a
Speaker 1: sixth man, which is probably probably awkward, probably really awkward,
Speaker 1: But um, what do you think of that as an option?
Speaker 1: Because the Lakers can we sign him, they have his
Speaker 1: I think bird rights correctly, so they can um go
Speaker 1: over the captain sign. What do you think of him
Speaker 1: as a backup point guard? I guess we can. We
Speaker 1: can close with that. If they bring him back, they'd
Speaker 1: have to trade him because there's gonna be some bitterness
Speaker 1: involved here because of the fact that he had this
Speaker 1: eight four million dollar offer that he turned down. Also,
Speaker 1: the Lakers do not need him anymore. They flat out
Speaker 1: do not need him playing Aulness. Yeah, exactly. But here's
Speaker 1: the thing Dennis shrewder on like a three year thirty
Speaker 1: million dollar contract is a huge asset. Or a two year,
Speaker 1: two year twenty million dollar contract to year twenty five
Speaker 1: million dollar contracts something along those lines. So you know,
Speaker 1: if you're Dennis, you have two options. You can sign
Speaker 1: with someone like the Warriors on a mid level exception
Speaker 1: on like basically a prove it deal and and hope
Speaker 1: that you just have a great season and that it
Speaker 1: allows you to recalibrate in a year where there's more
Speaker 1: cap space, or two you sign with the Lakers on
Speaker 1: some sort of three year, thirty million type of deal
Speaker 1: and then essentially have an under the table agreement that
Speaker 1: you're gonna get traded because the Lakers should not bring
Speaker 1: him back to use him. There's no real point there.
Speaker 1: It clashes with their current identity. And quite frankly, I
Speaker 1: want to see more Monk and and and none running
Speaker 1: those backup guard lineup. So I don't in talent Horton Tucker.
Speaker 1: We didn't talk too much about talent Horton Tucker today,
Speaker 1: but like I think he could end up starting uh
Speaker 1: and or being a sixth man. And so there's just
Speaker 1: no real purpose to Dennis on this team other than
Speaker 1: as an asset. And so there's a mutual relationship there
Speaker 1: where it's like, we'll give you some money to make
Speaker 1: up for this money that you lost, but we're gonna
Speaker 1: trade you too. Maybe we'll trade you to where you
Speaker 1: want to go, if that's the deal or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: but that that would be the only kind of real
Speaker 1: resolution here. For I don't think there's any chance he
Speaker 1: gets close to what he was originally asking for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: probably not. You talked about a lot about you talked
Speaker 1: about how like people were kind of not lying, but
Speaker 1: like saying what Crusoe wasn't I guess or was? I
Speaker 1: think Shooter is going through that as well, kind of
Speaker 1: this kick out the door. He was better than Like,
Speaker 1: he was not a bad player on the team this year. Like,
Speaker 1: we don't need to do that. Like he struggled in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, he had some the end of the year
Speaker 1: wasn't good, but he was a solid player on a
Speaker 1: team that was when they offered him eighty four. He
Speaker 1: deserved it at that time, exactly. Yeah, So that's the
Speaker 1: that's the part that we don't need to do. He
Speaker 1: had a better season than we thought. He's not a
Speaker 1: bad player at all. He's a serviceable point guard. He's
Speaker 1: probably a backup who's you know, underqualified starter. Like that's
Speaker 1: how I would say Dennis Shrewter is. And that's fine.
Speaker 1: That's a good player. That's a ten million dollar player,
Speaker 1: that's timm lead player that all of that, maybe even
Speaker 1: twenty million on a team that can you know, keep him,
Speaker 1: that can afford him. But um, yeah, that's where I'm
Speaker 1: kind of with him. It's interesting that this has played
Speaker 1: out kind of kind of this way. I forgot who
Speaker 1: else also is unsigned? Um, not the guy, but but yeah,
Speaker 1: an audio drama obviously went for the minimum. Kelly Kelly
Speaker 1: uber Is another guy was leaving left is basically looking
Speaker 1: for money and roll out there that none of the
Speaker 1: NBA teams are willing to offer him. But you brought
Speaker 1: up musical chairs, which is an interesting comparison because Bill
Speaker 1: Simmons said this on his podcast a few days ago.
Speaker 1: It's like there were five really good point guards I
Speaker 1: wanted to get paid this summer, and two teams looking
Speaker 1: for point guards at that price range, the Miami Heat
Speaker 1: and the Chicago Bulls. And so guess what, Lonzo Ball
Speaker 1: and Kyle Lowry got the money and everyone else is screwed.
Speaker 1: And that's just kind of how it goes. Like even
Speaker 1: Kemba Walker we can safely assume signed for like seven
Speaker 1: million because of the uh that's how much cap space
Speaker 1: the Knicks had. I don't know how. I haven't seen
Speaker 1: the details yet, but I'll be interested to see what
Speaker 1: it is. But anyway, I'm with you. I think Dennis
Speaker 1: it was a lot better than people remember, and I
Speaker 1: genuinely feel bad for him, but he got some bad
Speaker 1: advice when he got that eighty four million dollar contract.
Speaker 1: He should have jumped on that so fast. It wasn't
Speaker 1: even not even funny and uh, and I feel bad
Speaker 1: for him, but it is what it is. And and
Speaker 1: hopefully he goes out next year and has a great
Speaker 1: year and gets himself paid the next summer, just not
Speaker 1: as a Laker, because I don't think he makes any
Speaker 1: more sense there. But anyway, thank you guys so much
Speaker 1: for hanging out with us today. Um, Like I said, uh,
Speaker 1: Roger and I just wanted to give our kind of
Speaker 1: thirty foot view of all this stuff because there's still
Speaker 1: a lot of tape to watch and a lot of
Speaker 1: lineups to consider and a lot of details to really
Speaker 1: marinate on. Uh. And then we want to talk about
Speaker 1: some league wide stuff, so we'll touch base maybe either
Speaker 1: Friday or early next week. But thanks again guys for
Speaker 1: your support as always, and we will see you next time.
Speaker 1: Thanks everyone,