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Speaker 1: Mmmm, welcome to the Stay of the Lakers Show and

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Speaker 1: DASH Radio. Thank you guys so much for coming to

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Speaker 1: hang out. Um, to be clear up front, we're not

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Speaker 1: going to spend too much time talking about this particular

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Speaker 1: game because there's just not a ton to learn. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there was a little stretch there in the second quarter

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Speaker 1: where you know, Reeves and Bradley and Baysmore were able

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Speaker 1: to get some stops and and and keep the game

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Speaker 1: looking somewhat interesting, but not really anything that's gonna translate

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Speaker 1: because uh, you know, Anthony Davis and Lebron will be

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Speaker 1: in the picture at some point and uh, and then

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Speaker 1: other than that, I mean, yeah, Sico Numboya looked a

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Speaker 1: little more active at the end. Sure, but he's not

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Speaker 1: going to fix these problems. So not really too much

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Speaker 1: to talk about from this particular game. But Roger and

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Speaker 1: I want to focus on two particular topics tonight having

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Speaker 1: to do with what ails this team, and that is injuries,

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Speaker 1: of course, and then also the conundrum surrounding Frank Vogel,

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Speaker 1: which we'll get to, But I wanted to start with

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Speaker 1: this injuryes thing. Roj you had told me that you

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Speaker 1: had something you wanted to say about just how depleted

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Speaker 1: this team is and what it means. So I'll give

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Speaker 1: you the floor for right now. Yeah, So I wanted

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Speaker 1: to start with the idea that this team is too

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Speaker 1: injured to compete, right, I've seen that a lot um.

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Speaker 1: We're both on Lakers Twitter, both active on it. You

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Speaker 1: can kind of take the pulse that's pretty much to

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Speaker 1: take that a lot of people have, and I think

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Speaker 1: like just me and a lot of people, not speaking

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Speaker 1: for everyone, but are kind of just tired of speaking

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Speaker 1: about a hypothetical team, right, or a team that's theoretical

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Speaker 1: in that way. So last year, just the season before

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Speaker 1: the Lakers won the title, and then they had a

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Speaker 1: whole new team to start the year. Eight wasn't himself,

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Speaker 1: but that is what it is. They went twenty one

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Speaker 1: and six, and then A d goes out, I believe,

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Speaker 1: on February February fourteen, with an achilles injury. Right a

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Speaker 1: month later, Lebron goes out March twenty with the ankle injury.

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Speaker 1: Since then, we've kind of been speaking about Since since then,

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Speaker 1: we've kind of been speaking about the team in hypothetical terms, right,

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Speaker 1: and like, oh, when Lebron gets back, Oh when a

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Speaker 1: D gets back, and then in the playoffs we've got

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Speaker 1: a few games of it, and then again a D

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Speaker 1: went down in Game four or something. I forgot which

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Speaker 1: exact game it was, but he went down, and then

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Speaker 1: from there again that the season was kind of over

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Speaker 1: from there. Again this year, again we start this season,

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Speaker 1: they start slow, and again people say, oh, wait for

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Speaker 1: Kendrick None to get back, wait for t H to

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Speaker 1: get back, way for a reason to get back. Now,

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Speaker 1: wait for Lebron to get back. And that might all

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Speaker 1: be true, like the team might be fine once they're healthy.

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Speaker 1: I just think like all we can do kind of

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Speaker 1: is analyzed the team now right now and analyze the

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Speaker 1: players that are on the floor, the lineups that Vogal

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Speaker 1: is putting out, the execution that the players are doing.

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Speaker 1: I think we can still talk about that without just

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Speaker 1: continuing saying like, Okay, yeah, the team is gonna be

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Speaker 1: fine once they become healthy. Do you do you canin

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Speaker 1: understand what I mean there? I just feel like there's

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Speaker 1: this like need to just push everything forward, and I

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Speaker 1: think there are things, there are issues right now. That's

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Speaker 1: that's where in the team, which is why we're going

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Speaker 1: to speak I guess on voco after this, But like,

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Speaker 1: do you see my point there? So there are separate

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Speaker 1: issues here. The there's an issue surrounding you know, um

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Speaker 1: injuries and the fact that just strictly from a personnel standpoint,

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Speaker 1: there's not a whole lot that the Lakers can do

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Speaker 1: that normal basketball teams are doing right now. That is fact. However,

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Speaker 1: the team also has no identity that they don't have

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Speaker 1: anything that doesn't rely on their talent. Does that make sense?

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Speaker 1: Like the reason why your team is a number one

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Speaker 1: defense when Lebron and a d are down is because,

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Speaker 1: aside from talent, there was an identity on the team

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Speaker 1: that manifested in focus and effort on the defensive end,

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Speaker 1: everybody doing their jobs. Okay, that doesn't rely on talent. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so you can We're gonna talk here in second about

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Speaker 1: how the absence of four words on this roster makes

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Speaker 1: kind of the the five man lineups, those concoctions that

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Speaker 1: they put out there and not make sense most of

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Speaker 1: the time because there's just nobody that's over six five

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Speaker 1: that's not either a center or Carmelo Anthony who's got

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Speaker 1: cement for shoes, you know. So there there's that's a

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Speaker 1: real problem. However, the lineups that are getting on the

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Speaker 1: floor are not competing. That is also a fact. So

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Speaker 1: you have to address those things separately. And so that's

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Speaker 1: kind of what's going to piggyback into the Frank Vogel

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Speaker 1: thing is you know, for whatever reason, this group is

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Speaker 1: not buying in the way that previous groups did. And

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Speaker 1: I want to save the Frank bit for later, But

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Speaker 1: to me, that is a separate problem from the personnel.

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Speaker 1: Now getting to the personnel, it's really simple because I

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Speaker 1: got an argument with somebody today about how you could

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Speaker 1: lose the Oklahoma City a second time, you know, right,

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Speaker 1: because the first time you might be able to look

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Speaker 1: at it and go, hey, efforts, right, this is an

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Speaker 1: effort problem. But that second half against Oklahoma City the

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Speaker 1: other night, you're only up four at halftime. I think

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Speaker 1: it's eight if I remember correctly. So there's no sneaking

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Speaker 1: up on you at that point. You know Oklahoma City

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Speaker 1: is good. You know it's going to be a battle.

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Speaker 1: So how do you go about winning that game. You're

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Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna approach it with urgency, You're gonna play hard,

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Speaker 1: You're gonna try not to get shown up on your

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Speaker 1: home floor or by by sl just Alexander, You're gonna try.

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Speaker 1: But for whatever reason, they still couldn't get it done.

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Speaker 1: And the reason why was personnel started to become a problem.

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Speaker 1: That's a real that that's that's worth bringing up here.

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Speaker 1: When they would play small with Anthony Davis at the five,

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Speaker 1: which is what they have to do with Ruts because Russ,

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Speaker 1: as you shot tonight, cannot play that. You know, let

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Speaker 1: me make all the decisions with a rim running big

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Speaker 1: thing anymore just doesn't work. He's not athletic enough anymore

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Speaker 1: in his decision making is nowhere near good enough to

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Speaker 1: succeed like that. So he has to play with a

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Speaker 1: D at the five. But the only way a D

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Speaker 1: at the five works is if you have somebody that

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Speaker 1: can play on the back line, that has some size

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Speaker 1: and athleticism and good defensive instincts. We saw a quote,

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Speaker 1: I think it was today from Frank where he said,

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Speaker 1: I like playing a D alongside another big because I

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Speaker 1: want him on the back line. That's what he's referring to.

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Speaker 1: If a D is the only five, the only big

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Speaker 1: man on the floor, and everyone else is six five

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Speaker 1: or shorter, and he's defending screen and roll actions against

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Speaker 1: people who can shoot like s g A, like Dame,

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Speaker 1: and he's out on the perimeter. All you have is

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Speaker 1: little six three six, four six, five guys running around

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Speaker 1: on the back line, trying to stop somebody rolling to rim,

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Speaker 1: trying to rotate and cover space and blow up stuff

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Speaker 1: in passing lanes and all that stuff. So there is

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Speaker 1: at the core of this a personnel problem. No matter

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Speaker 1: what they did the off season, whether they had signed

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Speaker 1: Rudy Gay instead of Kendrick Nunn, which was something I wanted,

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Speaker 1: or whether they had gotten Healed instead of Russ and

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Speaker 1: managed and managed to keep one of either k c

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Speaker 1: p or Kuzman. I think, if I remember correctly, had

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Speaker 1: they done the Healed trade, they would have kept one

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Speaker 1: of those guys. I can't remember which one, but it's irrelevant.

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Speaker 1: So the point is, even if all of that was right,

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Speaker 1: if three of those four words get hurt, the team

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Speaker 1: is not going to be good because at a certain

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Speaker 1: point you need you need personnel to play basketball, and

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Speaker 1: so I do That to me, is absolutely one of

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Speaker 1: the issues. But you are correct Raj and pointing out

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Speaker 1: that it's not the only issue and it can't be

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Speaker 1: solely blamed you have to confront the obvious, glaring stuff

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Speaker 1: that goes beyond personnel. Right. So I know you said

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Speaker 1: you didn't want to talk about tonight, but I mean,

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Speaker 1: we do these spaces after every game, uh, and we

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Speaker 1: take notes. I'd take we both take notes on it

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Speaker 1: and try to figure out what happened. So tonight, I

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Speaker 1: understand what Vogel saying he wants a D on the

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Speaker 1: back side, but that's just like tonight. I was pretty

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Speaker 1: sure a D was going to start at the five.

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Speaker 1: The Blazers start Robert Comington at the four right, which

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Speaker 1: means you have nerd K as the only big and

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Speaker 1: you have Damon c J running all around all these screens.

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Speaker 1: So what happens? They start DJ and he starts. He's

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Speaker 1: the only back line guy. A D is sitting next

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Speaker 1: to Robert Covington. They're just pulling up whoever DJ's is

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Speaker 1: guarding Dame. I wrote it down here. First play of

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Speaker 1: the game, Dame comes off a little breast screen. They

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Speaker 1: involved DJ's man wide open three switch. Next play again,

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Speaker 1: DJ comes, Dame comes off another wide open three switch.

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Speaker 1: I think he started three for three. Those are layups

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Speaker 1: for him. I don't care what his percentages are like,

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Speaker 1: those things are the type of stuff that has nothing

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Speaker 1: to do with Kendrick Nunn being out, th HT being out.

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Speaker 1: That's just stuff that's like that doesn't make sense for

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Speaker 1: the type of game we're playing. And I totally understand

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Speaker 1: this is a long play, but like I think the

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Speaker 1: l f R people said it as well, we're in

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Speaker 1: survival mode right now. We can't just blow games like

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Speaker 1: did I think they were gonna win tonight? No, But

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Speaker 1: the game shouldn't be older within five minutes to a

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Speaker 1: Blazers team, you know what I mean. I know that

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Speaker 1: a D went out with a D went out with

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Speaker 1: stomach pains, and that's a whole another issue. Um, I

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Speaker 1: don't know what happened their stomach illness or whatever. That

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Speaker 1: he was kind of fifty fifty two play anyway, but

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Speaker 1: we are already down. I think like twelve or thirteen

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Speaker 1: when he went out of the game. I don't remember

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Speaker 1: the amount they are already kicking our but I think

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Speaker 1: it was like nineteen to ten when he went out.

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Speaker 1: He had Robert coming up, Robert Covington on him taking

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Speaker 1: a way to fade away jumpers. Joan J. Jordan's health

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Speaker 1: defense is terrible staring at defensive rebounds like those just

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Speaker 1: type of stuff, like you can clean up the margins,

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Speaker 1: and then Russell Westbrook still just playing in an absolute

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Speaker 1: phone booth. And again like if your defense can do

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Speaker 1: enough to where you're playing two bigs and it matters,

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Speaker 1: then that makes sense. And we just can't score. Though.

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Speaker 1: That's why I thought like we should have just went

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Speaker 1: Russ a D three shooters, And then when a D

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Speaker 1: went out just to Russ with one center and three shooters,

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Speaker 1: and I thought we looked at least competent. We still

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Speaker 1: got kind of ran off the floor a ton with

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Speaker 1: Russ's decision making. But that's kind of our only chance here,

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Speaker 1: Like we had fifty points with I think the third

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Speaker 1: quarter almost ending with a team full of guys. We

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Speaker 1: supposedly switched defense for offense for right, and I think,

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Speaker 1: like that's my issue here, Like I understand we're missing

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Speaker 1: guys and all that, but like even I think you

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Speaker 1: still kind of have to look at things game by

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Speaker 1: game and just look at what's going on. Maybe it's

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Speaker 1: just the execution, maybe it's the game plan, maybe they've

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Speaker 1: tuned him out. I don't know. I don't really want

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Speaker 1: to go to that. Really, I know we'll talk about

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Speaker 1: that next, but like, that's where I'm kind of frustrated with,

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Speaker 1: is that, like this non adjustment that we're doing here.

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Speaker 1: Like tonight, I thought it was clear eight should have

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Speaker 1: started at the five, even though he came out in

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Speaker 1: the first quarter. But he didn't, and the game wasn't

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Speaker 1: exactly how it thought it would. Dame got three wide

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Speaker 1: open looks, put himself in rhythm, and then he was

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Speaker 1: starting to take those fu three's and the game was

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Speaker 1: gone by the first quarter. Really, like, do you know

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Speaker 1: what I'm meaning there? Like, it's just I feel like

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Speaker 1: we're not seeing I get the roster has its issues,

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Speaker 1: it's just we're not maximizing the talent that we have.

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Speaker 1: And I don't know if that's just a long play

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Speaker 1: of keeping these two bigs together. This is just another

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Speaker 1: larger issue. So this is a perfect segue into into

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Speaker 1: the Frank stuff, because you know, I think you and

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Speaker 1: I are both big Frank apologists. Um, you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: one of the biggest problems that I bring up to

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Speaker 1: people who advocate for firing Frank is they don't understand

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Speaker 1: that you're not going to find somebody better than Frank

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Speaker 1: right now, you might be able to find some young

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Speaker 1: coach with a lot of potential who's got you know,

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Speaker 1: good uh, you know, brilliant, offensive mind or something like that,

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Speaker 1: somebody who could one day potentially be that guy. But

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Speaker 1: with this situation, with his veteran locker room with Lebron

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Speaker 1: and maybe there's just no better option than Frank in

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Speaker 1: terms of the totality of what he brings to the

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Speaker 1: table in a vacuum. However, what Frank is doing right

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Speaker 1: now that is undercutting this to some extent and putting

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Speaker 1: himself in danger in terms of his job security, is

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Speaker 1: he's being stubborn. You know what, what Frank has tried

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Speaker 1: to do with this group is more or less the

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Speaker 1: same than what he's done with previous groups. And the

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Speaker 1: bottom line is that he doesn't have that personnel anymore.

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Speaker 1: And and that that to me is one of the

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Speaker 1: biggest indicators of of stubbornness, is trying to force your

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Speaker 1: system on players instead of choosing a system based on

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Speaker 1: your players. If that makes sense, and so you're absolutely right,

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Speaker 1: you cannot do anything with Russ on the floor with

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Speaker 1: two bigs. It's hard enough with Anthony Davis, with how

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Speaker 1: poorly he's shooting. We talked a lot in the last

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Speaker 1: pot about how he's nowhere near as good as he

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Speaker 1: was in the bubble, so that already has an impact

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Speaker 1: on spacing. We talked about that baseline spacing that you

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Speaker 1: need for dribble creators to operate, and it's already hard

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Speaker 1: enough with how poor Ad is shooting. Guys are leaving

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Speaker 1: him open on the perimeter. So when you couple that

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Speaker 1: with the second big it's just to poleet disaster. You

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Speaker 1: look at the Rondo situation, and then even forget about

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Speaker 1: second Day for a second, DeAndre Jordan's just should not

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Speaker 1: be that guy that's there with Dwight Howard and Anthony

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Speaker 1: Davis healthy. There's absolutely no excuse in the entire world

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Speaker 1: to let DeAndre Jordan see the floor, which is what

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Speaker 1: we talked about all damn summer. The same thing goes

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Speaker 1: with Rondo. With this group, you went bigger on offensive creation.

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Speaker 1: You brought in Russell Westbrook, you brought in Malik Monk,

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Speaker 1: you brought in guys like Wayne Ellington that you can

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Speaker 1: run off of screens as a mix up in your offense.

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Speaker 1: You don't need Rondo like you did in when nobody

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Speaker 1: could put the ball on the floor other than Lebron.

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Speaker 1: That was a different need with that group. And so

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Speaker 1: continuing to force Rondo into these lineups and continuing to

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Speaker 1: force DeAndre Jordan in the into these lineups is an

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Speaker 1: indication that he's too stubborn and that he's not willing

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Speaker 1: to adapt to what his current circumstances are. So that's

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Speaker 1: a legitimate criticism. And then secondly, a team not buying

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Speaker 1: into what he's doing, a team not attempting to run

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Speaker 1: his scheme full bore, with energy and with focus, is

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Speaker 1: evidence that there's possibly and I'm not saying this is happening,

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Speaker 1: but there's possibly a little bit of a mental checking

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Speaker 1: out sort of thing going on here. And to be clear,

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Speaker 1: it is once that train gets off the tracks, it's

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Speaker 1: almost impossible to get it back on the tracks. If

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Speaker 1: these guys, these veteran guys in that locker room have

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Speaker 1: quit on Frank, it's over. There is no version of

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Speaker 1: this where it all just comes back together and it's

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Speaker 1: hunky dory. If Anthony Davis has decided Frank is the

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Speaker 1: bad coach for this team and it doesn't work, and

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Speaker 1: he prefers David Fizdale. Then even if David Fizdale is

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Speaker 1: a lesser coach in totality of what he brings to

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Speaker 1: the table, he would be better for this team because

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Speaker 1: as the guys would play for him. That's where it

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Speaker 1: gets really delicate, because Frank is the best coach for

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Speaker 1: this team, But it seems like the guys don't want it.

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Speaker 1: That's just what I'm picking up too early. I think

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Speaker 1: they'll wait several more games before they make that call.

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Speaker 1: But that's kind of the vibe I'm picking up. So

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Speaker 1: I guess my question for you, Rogers, am I coming

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Speaker 1: way out of left field here? Or does that seem

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Speaker 1: like something that you're picking up as well. I don't

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Speaker 1: think you're way out of left field. I just am

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Speaker 1: not there yet. Like there's just too many things going

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Speaker 1: wrong on the basketball floor, too many line up situations

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Speaker 1: that are wrong for to me to even judge if

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Speaker 1: they're buying in or not, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: Like again, like when you have guards who don't stick

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Speaker 1: with Dame coming off these screens and then you have

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Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan's in a dropback coverage, Like, I don't know

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Speaker 1: what them buying into it more is gonna do like c. J.

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Speaker 1: McCollum is gonna eat off that Damion Litter is gonna

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Speaker 1: eat off that nurked uh nurked scoring on like Malik

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Speaker 1: Monk because the help guy. Like to me, that's where

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Speaker 1: I don't really understand it. And and know people calling

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Speaker 1: for you know, Frank, some people calling for Frank's job,

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Speaker 1: Like I was. I remember when you fire a coach,

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Speaker 1: like in between a season, that's really tough, like to

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Speaker 1: to go there is a line that I'm not there

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Speaker 1: to cross yet like to go there it means like

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Speaker 1: everything you did in training camp, you don't have to

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Speaker 1: cross all of it out. But I mean you have

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Speaker 1: a head coach that was running his system, that putting

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Speaker 1: putting his philosophies, not just this year the last few years, right,

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Speaker 1: I know the roster has turned over, but the core

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Speaker 1: has been the same. I mean, Vogel's won a title

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Speaker 1: with the team, went through this couple of training camps.

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Speaker 1: Now with the team, Like if you let him go

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Speaker 1: in the middle of the season, you better make damn

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Speaker 1: sure you're right of that because that's a huge kind

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Speaker 1: of decision to do. You put a whole new coach.

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Speaker 1: I know he has assistance that probably share some of

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Speaker 1: the same kind of values, Like I said, philosophies, you know,

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Speaker 1: play structures, all that stuff. But once you just once

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Speaker 1: you release a coach your mid season, it's a brand

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Speaker 1: new kind of system now, and again you can have

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Speaker 1: that excuse as well that oh, now they have to

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Speaker 1: adjust to a new system. I think I think Vogel

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Speaker 1: can say here. I think there are decisions and lineups

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Speaker 1: and tweaks he can do that are on the basketball

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Speaker 1: court that he can still switch. And again the mentally

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Speaker 1: checked out thing, that's something that I just can't get

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Speaker 1: to yet, Like there's just not enough. Like again, like

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Speaker 1: the lineups that we're pushing out here. I understand injuries,

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Speaker 1: but still like the roster, the Westbrook RHNDO lineups to

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Speaker 1: me just makes zero sense at all. And I thought

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Speaker 1: the Blazers, So I don't know, were you listening on

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Speaker 1: Spectrum or did you hear the Blazers kind of broadcast?

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Speaker 1: I had the Blazers broadcast, Okay, So I thought they

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Speaker 1: were actually really great, actually kind of explaining a lot

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Speaker 1: of stuff, and they made that I almost tweeted it out.

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Speaker 1: They they were very fair to not like jump on

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Speaker 1: the Lakers because they understood the injuries right, and I

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Speaker 1: thought they made something that's pretty clear. And it's not

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Speaker 1: like they said something that you know was attacked in

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Speaker 1: the Lakers, but they said that the Lakers don't run

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Speaker 1: a complicated system right there, They're gonna beat you with

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Speaker 1: brute force and they can. They They kind of use

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Speaker 1: the example of like a lebron A d pick and

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Speaker 1: roll right, like you kind of know what's going to happen.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's the way vol kind of plays.

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Speaker 1: He has a small set of stuff that wants to

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Speaker 1: run and I think for that to work, the lineups

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Speaker 1: have to fit kind of what you want to do there.

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Speaker 1: And the Blazer of broadcast is saying, if they're going

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Speaker 1: to keep having Russ, you know, be screened by DeAndre Jordan's,

364
00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:13,040
Speaker 1: then the Blazer players are just gonna keep flying into

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Speaker 1: the paint. Rust is going downhill. There's zero help that's come.

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Speaker 1: You saw all these people. I think it was one

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Speaker 1: for thirteen tonight. I don't know exactly what he finished

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Speaker 1: with a bunch of turnovers, but again, like that's this

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff that I just don't understand that I

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Speaker 1: think it's still fixable. So no, I'm not there yet

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Speaker 1: on that has the team tune, you know, Frank vocal out.

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Speaker 1: I just can't get there yet, but I can see

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Speaker 1: how you how other people have, so you're You're right.

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Speaker 1: It's it's a very dark path because it does get ugly,

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Speaker 1: and for there are examples of it working. I mean,

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Speaker 1: no different than Lebron in two thousand and sixteen. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I my the first time I paid to go see

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Speaker 1: Lebron in person was in two thousand sixteen, in December

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Speaker 1: in Phoenix, and I spent there money on good seats

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Speaker 1: and I was sitting in the tenth row and for

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Speaker 1: whatever reason, he never came out of the locker room

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Speaker 1: and warm ups, and I'm like, what in the world

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Speaker 1: is going on? And he ends up running out like

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Speaker 1: right before the opening tip and just kind of bs

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Speaker 1: is his way through. The game ends with like fourteen points.

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Speaker 1: Kyrie ends up having a big game and they win,

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Speaker 1: and I remember sitting there thinking like that was really weird,

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Speaker 1: not just the fact that he didn't come out for warmups,

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Speaker 1: but the fact that he didn't play particularly well and

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Speaker 1: didn't seem to care much. And I read in Brian

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Speaker 1: Windhor's book after the fact that he had gotten in

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Speaker 1: an argument with David Blatt and was basically pouting in

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Speaker 1: the locker room. And and that's how that all played

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Speaker 1: out on that night. And it was really ugly there,

395
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Speaker 1: and it seemed like everything was off the rails. But

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Speaker 1: for whatever reason, when they fired David Blatt, everybody bought

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Speaker 1: into what Tyler wanted to do. And when they did,

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Speaker 1: the team took off and they won the championship. And

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Speaker 1: so I'm gonna what I'm gonna do right now is

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna make the case for what that would look

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Speaker 1: like and why it could work. But to be clear,

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Speaker 1: if it didn't go exactly like this, I think it

403
00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:17,440
Speaker 1: would be a disastrous mistake. If Fizdale could do three things. One,

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Speaker 1: get the guys to buy in, meaning they commit on

405
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Speaker 1: both ends of the floor, night in and night out

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Speaker 1: in a way that they haven't done for Frank, if

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Speaker 1: you can do that, And then too, if he can

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Speaker 1: play a d at the five only and spell him

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Speaker 1: with Dwight Howard in the minutes where he's off the floor,

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Speaker 1: and play DeAndre Jordan only when either Anthony Davis or

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Speaker 1: d White Howard misses a game. And then three, if

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Speaker 1: they implemented some more modern defensive tactics, a lot more switching,

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Speaker 1: particularly with lineups like the starters, like if you have

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Speaker 1: russ In Baysmore and a Reza and Lebron and a

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Speaker 1: d do some switching forced team to do a lot

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Speaker 1: more isolation attack things along those lines. Be One of

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Speaker 1: the problems with Frank here is he's trying to run

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Speaker 1: this like you know, drop coverage, with guys tagging in

419
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Speaker 1: from the outside and covering and rotating for each other.

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Speaker 1: But the problem is none of these guys want to

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Speaker 1: rotate and recover. So what Brooklyn did, that's so smart

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Speaker 1: as they understood they had lazy defenders, and so they

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Speaker 1: put a defensive scheme in that kind of caters to laziness.

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Speaker 1: Switching kind of caters to laziness. In some ways. You

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Speaker 1: don't have to fight through screens. You can actually make

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Speaker 1: up for physical effort with mental effort. If you communicate

427
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Speaker 1: every switch just by talking and paying attention, the physical

428
00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:45,520
Speaker 1: where of the defense is lighter and easier, And it

429
00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:49,919
Speaker 1: bizarrely works really well in the playoffs because it stagnates teams.

430
00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:52,879
Speaker 1: It forces teams to isolate you and pick somebody on

431
00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:55,400
Speaker 1: the court to try to attack one on one, which,

432
00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:58,520
Speaker 1: by the way, you're choosing between Russ Bays more lebron

433
00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:02,160
Speaker 1: Aresa in a d good luck like, there's no good

434
00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:04,680
Speaker 1: option there for you to isolate. So if they would

435
00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,919
Speaker 1: do that, if they would run some more modern defensive principles,

436
00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:11,359
Speaker 1: if they only played single big lineups, and if they

437
00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:14,400
Speaker 1: bought in all of a sudden, the Fizdale think could work,

438
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:16,480
Speaker 1: even though Fizzdale is not as good as a coach

439
00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:19,560
Speaker 1: as Frank. But if it's not going to be those things,

440
00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:22,639
Speaker 1: if they're gonna go to Fizzdale and do more of

441
00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:26,320
Speaker 1: the same crap tons of Rondo more DJ next day

442
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,440
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, it will be the move that torpedoes the

443
00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:33,040
Speaker 1: season because at least with Frank, you know there's a

444
00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:35,840
Speaker 1: method to his madness, and I'm not sure the same

445
00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:39,560
Speaker 1: could be said with Fizzdale. And and so that's kind

446
00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:42,639
Speaker 1: of the delicate rope there. It could torpedo this season

447
00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:45,199
Speaker 1: with chemistry. It could cause a ton of drama, and

448
00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:48,480
Speaker 1: if it doesn't break perfectly right, it could go ugly.

449
00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:51,520
Speaker 1: It's no, there's no guarantee. It could be the Tiler situation.

450
00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:55,119
Speaker 1: If that makes sense, Yeah, for sure. Look it's been

451
00:22:55,160 --> 00:22:57,679
Speaker 1: what ten games, they're what five and five now? Like

452
00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:00,320
Speaker 1: just to give a little break here, for we don't

453
00:23:00,359 --> 00:23:03,119
Speaker 1: even know if it's fisteal right, who who the hell knows?

454
00:23:03,119 --> 00:23:04,679
Speaker 1: Like they can go on their own kind of thing

455
00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 1: and hide whoever they want. Bobel descerns some like benefit

456
00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:09,919
Speaker 1: of the doubt when you win a title, when you

457
00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:11,919
Speaker 1: have a proven kind of thing that works. And I

458
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:14,760
Speaker 1: got I talked about this a whole bunch, like Frank

459
00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:17,639
Speaker 1: Vogel has his philosophy. He ran it, it won him

460
00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:21,200
Speaker 1: a championship. But a year ago, like less barely a year,

461
00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:24,480
Speaker 1: a calendar year ago, Like who's gonna go Like why

462
00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:26,480
Speaker 1: why should it be him that has to change? You know,

463
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:29,920
Speaker 1: like you should be able to It's probably personnel that's

464
00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:33,720
Speaker 1: the key here. He's trying to run the same system

465
00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:37,240
Speaker 1: with personnel that doesn't cater to it. I totally get that,

466
00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:39,840
Speaker 1: but I'm just saying from his mind, like he's thinking, no,

467
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:43,480
Speaker 1: these players like your Malik Monk, you're athletic, you know,

468
00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:45,959
Speaker 1: camp Baysmore, your athletic Gavey Bradley. You know you can

469
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:48,520
Speaker 1: stick on to players. We're gonna run this system. DeAndre

470
00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:51,280
Speaker 1: Jordan you're gonna fit the archetype until we get you know,

471
00:23:51,359 --> 00:23:54,000
Speaker 1: fully healthy here. Maybe when the reason starts are like

472
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:56,640
Speaker 1: that's something like I can kind of given the benefit

473
00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:58,640
Speaker 1: of the doubt. I still think it's the wrong move.

474
00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:00,600
Speaker 1: I think right now we are in again, like I

475
00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:04,040
Speaker 1: said before survival, just need to win games here. Lebron

476
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:07,040
Speaker 1: said he's gonna be out a week. We'll see. I

477
00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:09,560
Speaker 1: think there were some quotes today that like THHT and

478
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:12,040
Speaker 1: none aren't really that close, right, I think, I don't

479
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:13,600
Speaker 1: know if you saw that as well. I think there

480
00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:15,720
Speaker 1: are clothes that they said like, yeah, they were hoping

481
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:18,080
Speaker 1: they come back soon, but they're not really that close

482
00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:19,760
Speaker 1: as we thought they would be. Like this is gonna

483
00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:22,160
Speaker 1: be the team for a little while. Like I think

484
00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:24,040
Speaker 1: there's adjustments that have to be made. It we're gonna

485
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:25,679
Speaker 1: play a whole bunch more good teams if you think

486
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:28,240
Speaker 1: Portland's good, Like wait till we play in Miami, you know,

487
00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:31,040
Speaker 1: on Tuesday, or you know all these other better teams

488
00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:33,359
Speaker 1: that are coming up here. Yeah, just to give Vogel,

489
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:35,040
Speaker 1: like I think there's a little bit of benefit of

490
00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:36,760
Speaker 1: the doubt you have to give. Like, I don't think

491
00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:39,560
Speaker 1: it's fair for his first like hit of adversity to

492
00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:41,240
Speaker 1: where you let him go, do you know what I mean,

493
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:45,159
Speaker 1: Like the first hit of like not winning, you just

494
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:47,080
Speaker 1: you just right away just put him to the side

495
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:50,080
Speaker 1: in place his replacement. That's what like bad organizations do.

496
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:54,439
Speaker 1: Right there in constant flux Lakers Lakers before they switched

497
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:56,960
Speaker 1: to this, you know, Polinka management, they went through a

498
00:24:56,960 --> 00:25:00,399
Speaker 1: bunch of coaches, Mike Brown, Mike D'Antoni, uh whoever, the

499
00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 1: other coaches where they went through a roll a deck

500
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:04,719
Speaker 1: of coaches before kind of settling on Vogel and he's

501
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:06,480
Speaker 1: been the coach for a while. Like, but that's what

502
00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:09,640
Speaker 1: bad organizations do. They react really quickly. They I react

503
00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:13,920
Speaker 1: emotionally to you know, records or outside noise or all

504
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:15,399
Speaker 1: that stuff, and they let go of stuff. So if

505
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:16,879
Speaker 1: you're gonna let go of Frank, what would better be

506
00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:19,439
Speaker 1: a damn good reason, Because I think he's still a

507
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:21,680
Speaker 1: really good coach even if the line up stuff isn't good.

508
00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 1: Right now, Like that's where I'm at with this. I'm

509
00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:26,200
Speaker 1: not ready to kind of pull the plug on him.

510
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:28,440
Speaker 1: And again, like we're outside the locker room, we don't

511
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:30,119
Speaker 1: know if they're boughtened or not. All we can do

512
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:32,359
Speaker 1: is look at on the floor. It hasn't been great,

513
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:33,720
Speaker 1: But I want to give him more than ten games

514
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:35,480
Speaker 1: before I, you know, pull the plug on the on

515
00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:37,439
Speaker 1: the head coach. I want to see some more fighting

516
00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:39,200
Speaker 1: the players. I want to see a little bit more

517
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:42,080
Speaker 1: lineup changes as well. Like I don't want to just

518
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:44,800
Speaker 1: you know, cut the head off and then you just

519
00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:47,680
Speaker 1: pretty much pulled the fire alarm if you if that happens.

520
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:51,160
Speaker 1: So what worries me with Frank in particular is that

521
00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:54,800
Speaker 1: that he's not saying the right things, which makes him

522
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:58,639
Speaker 1: sound more like an insane person than than than someone

523
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:02,040
Speaker 1: who's dealing with some trouble. Like so for instance, like

524
00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:03,800
Speaker 1: like if he was coming out after these games and

525
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:07,760
Speaker 1: he's like, look, guys, like I have no forwards, so

526
00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:13,120
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to Jerry rig Yeah I know. But

527
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:16,120
Speaker 1: like my my point is is like him coming out

528
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:21,040
Speaker 1: and saying, uh, you know, him coming out and saying like, yeah,

529
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 1: I know, I know eighty at the five. You know,

530
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:28,119
Speaker 1: is comes with its benefits, but I I just prefer

531
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:30,760
Speaker 1: having him on the back line as a defender. So

532
00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:33,119
Speaker 1: I I want to play with him with another big.

533
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:35,920
Speaker 1: That to me is the equivalent of being like, yeah,

534
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,040
Speaker 1: I know she sliced my tires and egged my car,

535
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:41,880
Speaker 1: but she's super hot. Like it's like, dude, you literally

536
00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:46,360
Speaker 1: sound like you literally sound like you're trying to rationalize

537
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:49,480
Speaker 1: a really bad decision. And the in the bottom line

538
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:53,800
Speaker 1: is is with the with Russ, when you made the

539
00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:58,000
Speaker 1: decision to go the route of Russ, you had to

540
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:03,400
Speaker 1: immediately understand that the give and take with taking spacing

541
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:07,200
Speaker 1: away from him and to try to compensate for defensive

542
00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:10,919
Speaker 1: shortcomings was gonna come with such a huge downgrade on

543
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:13,840
Speaker 1: the offensive side of the ball that it was gonna

544
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:15,800
Speaker 1: be an issue. And and that that, to me, is

545
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:19,520
Speaker 1: the the insanity here. Like the insanity is like how

546
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:21,800
Speaker 1: like this dude watches a lot of tape. We know

547
00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:25,520
Speaker 1: he does. We know preparation is not a Frank weakness.

548
00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 1: He's not lazy. That's not his thing. Now he's watching

549
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:32,159
Speaker 1: this film and he has to see like there was

550
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 1: another one of those places tonight where Russ got a

551
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:35,359
Speaker 1: head of scheme going to the rim is in the

552
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 1: first half. I don't know if you remember, but he

553
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:41,320
Speaker 1: took off his left leg tried to you know, go

554
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:43,960
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and fourteen, he'd still be hanging

555
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: on the rim, but he was like way short and

556
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:48,920
Speaker 1: tried to do a finger roll and left it short

557
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:52,960
Speaker 1: and missed. It's like Russ is not the level of

558
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 1: explosive finisher that can finish in traffic anymore. That's that

559
00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: is gone. It's it's not going to be here anymore.

560
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:02,600
Speaker 1: He needs he needs to. When you decided to go

561
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:05,600
Speaker 1: this route, you had to understand the fact that the

562
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:07,879
Speaker 1: most you can hope for from him is that he

563
00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:11,240
Speaker 1: can beat his point of attack defender and from there,

564
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:14,000
Speaker 1: from that point, you have to make the game easy

565
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:17,240
Speaker 1: for him. You have to either make it simple. Reads

566
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:19,639
Speaker 1: like I either have a layup or I'm passing to

567
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 1: this guy at the three point line, or I have

568
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:24,199
Speaker 1: a layup or I'm throwing this lob. He's he's not

569
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:26,200
Speaker 1: even seeing the floor well enough to hit the lot

570
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:28,639
Speaker 1: passes anymore. Like tonight, he was out of control with

571
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:30,640
Speaker 1: his lot passes. It's like for every dunk because there's

572
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:34,200
Speaker 1: two turnovers, and so I guess, I guess. What I'm

573
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:37,359
Speaker 1: trying to say here is like, what's bothering me with

574
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:41,760
Speaker 1: Frank is he doesn't seem to get it like it's see,

575
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:44,600
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem to me like he's guys stuck in

576
00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:47,520
Speaker 1: a tough position who's forced to do things he doesn't

577
00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:51,400
Speaker 1: want to do. To me, it's it strikes says, I'm uncomfortable.

578
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:54,560
Speaker 1: This situation isn't really working for me. So I'm just

579
00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:59,440
Speaker 1: gonna fall back on my habits, which are this specific system,

580
00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:03,280
Speaker 1: with this pacific type of personnel choice, and I'm just

581
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:05,120
Speaker 1: gonna hope for the best. That's what it kind of

582
00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:07,239
Speaker 1: feels like to me. And and and that to me

583
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:11,520
Speaker 1: is is concerning. And I mean and and to be clear,

584
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:14,360
Speaker 1: I'm not saying yet, I'm not saying this should happen yet.

585
00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:17,320
Speaker 1: But what I am saying is like, only the guys

586
00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: in that locker room, no right, My My guess is

587
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 1: Lebron and A D and Russ probably have a group

588
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:26,800
Speaker 1: chat going, and they are they're either're either talking in

589
00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 1: a hotel room or they've exchanged a few text messages

590
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 1: and they're either saying we're fine, just need to get

591
00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 1: guys healthy, or those three guys are looking at each

592
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,520
Speaker 1: other like Frank's not the one, and I don't I

593
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:42,040
Speaker 1: don't know what that is but if it's option too,

594
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 1: if it's Frank's not the one, then make the move.

595
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:47,440
Speaker 1: What's the point in waiting, you know what I mean?

596
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:49,960
Speaker 1: And so that's that's where it gets tricky. Is I'm

597
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:52,640
Speaker 1: really curious, and we'll never know until the move is made.

598
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 1: This is gonna come as a Organowski tweet, you know.

599
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:58,440
Speaker 1: But but we'll never know until the decision is made.

600
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:00,960
Speaker 1: But I just I'm cure you SA at this point

601
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:04,960
Speaker 1: as too, as to what they are thinking. And you

602
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:08,560
Speaker 1: you said, like this is you mentioned, this is really sketchy,

603
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,560
Speaker 1: This is really uncomfortable, right, But this is kind of

604
00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:16,320
Speaker 1: this is kind of the Lebron experience. Like Lebron Is

605
00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:21,560
Speaker 1: thrives in this kind of drama. He thrives it. Like

606
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:25,560
Speaker 1: almost every good season of his career comes with all

607
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 1: this weird old drama. Two thousand eighteen, it's like, weirdly

608
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:32,640
Speaker 1: quits in January and has like an awful stretch where

609
00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:35,040
Speaker 1: he barely averages like twenty two points a game on

610
00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:37,719
Speaker 1: horrible shooting, and then all of a sudden, as soon

611
00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:40,080
Speaker 1: as the trades happened, he just starts playing hard again,

612
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:41,840
Speaker 1: you know, And then they go all the way to

613
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:43,840
Speaker 1: the finals. Or two thousand and sixteen, you've got a

614
00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:47,920
Speaker 1: coach fired. There's you know, uh in Miami in two

615
00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:50,520
Speaker 1: thousand eleven, there was drama. There was drama in two

616
00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:53,120
Speaker 1: thousand fourteen about how he had beef with pat Riley

617
00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:57,360
Speaker 1: for being cheap on on on the luxury tax. Like

618
00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:00,800
Speaker 1: the Lebron thrives in drama. So like, I promise you

619
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 1: they're not going to hold off on that decision because

620
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:07,240
Speaker 1: they think it's uncomfortable. Lebron is like, we're gonna be

621
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:09,760
Speaker 1: uncomfortable because it's gonna make us better. That's the way

622
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:12,760
Speaker 1: he looks at it, you know what I mean. Yeah,

623
00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:16,680
Speaker 1: for sure, look like I'm not saying it shouldn't get uncomfortable.

624
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 1: If the losses start to pile up here, it's gonna

625
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:21,040
Speaker 1: get uncomfortable anyway, right, Like that's just what's gonna happen.

626
00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:24,680
Speaker 1: Like a team that was uncomfortable, Yeah tonight, oh man

627
00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:27,920
Speaker 1: down the game was over within five minutes. But yeah,

628
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:30,440
Speaker 1: like if they're like five and nine, it's gonna get uncomfortable.

629
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:32,640
Speaker 1: We're gonna start, you know you like these holes are

630
00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:34,520
Speaker 1: tough to get out of, Like the Pelicans are one

631
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:36,960
Speaker 1: and nine, and that's probably the end of the season, right,

632
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:39,680
Speaker 1: Like just realistically, if you look at like the schedule,

633
00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:41,480
Speaker 1: you're not gonna roll off enough wins to kind of

634
00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:43,760
Speaker 1: catch up there. I mean you could Washington did it,

635
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:45,640
Speaker 1: but like I'm just saying last year, but like still

636
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:47,600
Speaker 1: like if the loss of Pilo up here is gonna

637
00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:49,680
Speaker 1: get uncomfortable. But for me, like you were talking about

638
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:52,360
Speaker 1: like Frank Vogel's post game kind of quotes and stuff

639
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:55,360
Speaker 1: to me that like coaches know what to say in

640
00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 1: the media. To me, it's like for coaches it's more

641
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:00,880
Speaker 1: actions over their words. I've seen an enough from Vogel

642
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:03,360
Speaker 1: like this is not like I said earlier in a

643
00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:05,920
Speaker 1: pod with us, like this is offering Vogels first radio,

644
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:07,720
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like with the Lakers and

645
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:09,920
Speaker 1: with the media, and he knows how things they construed

646
00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:13,320
Speaker 1: all the time. But like in the playoffs, I saw

647
00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:16,320
Speaker 1: enough there where like I know he'll make the adjustments

648
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:18,880
Speaker 1: when they matter, and maybe he believes right now it

649
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:21,440
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, and I disagree with that. I think this

650
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:24,440
Speaker 1: is a time, like this season matters. Like we traded

651
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:26,720
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff for us, We've gone in, We've

652
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:29,320
Speaker 1: gone all in into this year and as you should.

653
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:32,360
Speaker 1: When you have the superstars that you have, you're supposed

654
00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 1: to go all in. And I've seen him make enough

655
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 1: of the adjustments. A D started at the five for

656
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:38,280
Speaker 1: a lot of the playoffs. He played the five for

657
00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:40,280
Speaker 1: a lot of the playoffs. That's not I guess what

658
00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:43,200
Speaker 1: I'm worried about here. It's just like the game to

659
00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:46,680
Speaker 1: game adjustments aren't there, And maybe the team just isn't worried,

660
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:48,520
Speaker 1: like you said. Maybe Russ, A D and Lebron are

661
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 1: in these group chats are like, yeah, we're cool, like

662
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:52,400
Speaker 1: this is the beginning of the season. We won't get

663
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:54,959
Speaker 1: our footing until January. Maybe that's what they feel, and

664
00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:57,360
Speaker 1: us fans just kind of have to go through this, uh,

665
00:32:57,640 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 1: go through this roller coaster season in that way while

666
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,160
Speaker 1: they're all chill on the other side. I don't really know,

667
00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:04,680
Speaker 1: but I don't think. I don't think the losing, if

668
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:06,320
Speaker 1: it catches up, it's gonna be okay with the team.

669
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:08,520
Speaker 1: I don't think if they're five and nine after these

670
00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 1: next four games, because they very well could. Charlotte's good

671
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:13,760
Speaker 1: that we play on Monday. The Miami Heat are good.

672
00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:16,600
Speaker 1: I think we play Milwaukee soon. We play these good teams.

673
00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:19,440
Speaker 1: We could be like six and eleven and it's gonna

674
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:21,880
Speaker 1: get uncomfortable. Of these conversations are gonna be had. I

675
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:23,920
Speaker 1: don't want to talk about the Vogel being let go,

676
00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:26,520
Speaker 1: but that stuff is gonna be run on ESPN, on

677
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:29,320
Speaker 1: Sports Center. All that stuff is gonna start if these

678
00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:31,720
Speaker 1: games to game adjustments don't happen. But I see enough

679
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:33,880
Speaker 1: there where there can be adjustments to where you can

680
00:33:33,880 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 1: start at least being more competitive in these games. The

681
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:39,000
Speaker 1: Lakers don't have a great roster out of their big three,

682
00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:41,240
Speaker 1: but it's not enough to where you should be. You know,

683
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:44,080
Speaker 1: thirty five piece by Portland. They could have beat us

684
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:46,200
Speaker 1: by fifty tonight, to be honest, if they wanted to.

685
00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:48,800
Speaker 1: Um if if game and c J kind of wanted

686
00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:51,080
Speaker 1: to play tonight to the extent that they could have,

687
00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:53,280
Speaker 1: But that shouldn't happen. We don't have a roster where

688
00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:55,800
Speaker 1: that should happen. Even if eighties out. You shouldn't be

689
00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:59,600
Speaker 1: losing by potentially fifty two like a Blazer team, or

690
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:02,600
Speaker 1: lose leaves consistingly. Okay, see or you know all those

691
00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:05,520
Speaker 1: things that wrapped up not just tonight, the games before

692
00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:07,360
Speaker 1: this as well, I'm just not seeing enough game to

693
00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:10,479
Speaker 1: game adjustments. But like you said, maybe maybe the team's lost.

694
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,600
Speaker 1: I'm just not there yet. And you know, there's a

695
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 1: great way to circle back to your original point, which

696
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:19,680
Speaker 1: is like you can only blame personnel for so much

697
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:24,200
Speaker 1: if if like to your point there, No, I didn't

698
00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:26,080
Speaker 1: think they could come up to Portland and win tonight.

699
00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 1: I think that I didn't. I tweeted that yesterday. I

700
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 1: thought it was pointless to even have Anthony Davis stress.

701
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:34,960
Speaker 1: You know, if this thumb is hurting, like why why

702
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:37,640
Speaker 1: give ner gets a chance to slap down on it

703
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:40,640
Speaker 1: and potentially make it worse? Like this game they can't win,

704
00:34:40,880 --> 00:34:42,759
Speaker 1: Just just wave the white flag. That's what I would

705
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:46,759
Speaker 1: have done. However, they should have been able to be

706
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:51,239
Speaker 1: at least slightly more competitive than than we were, right Like,

707
00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:55,680
Speaker 1: for instance, like what what do underdogs usually do in

708
00:34:55,719 --> 00:34:58,360
Speaker 1: a game like that on the road, which the Lakers

709
00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:01,399
Speaker 1: were an underdog, you know, without Anthony Davis. Usually they'll

710
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:03,520
Speaker 1: go in there and no compete, you know, like you're

711
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:05,480
Speaker 1: gonna win, but you're gonna have to beat us, you know,

712
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,520
Speaker 1: like we're gonna linger around ten fifteen points, and you're

713
00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:10,680
Speaker 1: gonna have to put us away at some point. And

714
00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:12,960
Speaker 1: that just wasn't the way this was. It just looked

715
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:16,239
Speaker 1: it was laughable. And so you know that that that's

716
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 1: that's where it gets tricky. But I mean, you know,

717
00:35:18,239 --> 00:35:21,400
Speaker 1: to the one one other note about the personnel and everybody,

718
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:23,759
Speaker 1: if you have a request, get a man. We're gonna um.

719
00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:25,880
Speaker 1: As soon as I'm done with this, I'll let Rod's

720
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:29,160
Speaker 1: quick respond and then we'll start taking callers. But like

721
00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:32,920
Speaker 1: you know, so you're one of the most common little

722
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:35,400
Speaker 1: one liners I've heard in the last week is this

723
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:39,239
Speaker 1: idea like, hey, how is none th hd and aresa

724
00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:43,600
Speaker 1: gonna make this better? And it kind of to me

725
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:49,440
Speaker 1: that statement shows a lack of understanding of of the

726
00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:53,640
Speaker 1: way basketball works. Like there when you when you actually

727
00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:56,319
Speaker 1: break down the responsibilities that need to take place on

728
00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:59,040
Speaker 1: the court. There's a certain amount of shock creation, there's

729
00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 1: a certain amount of isole lation scoring. There's a certain

730
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:04,680
Speaker 1: amount of perimeter defensive responsibility. There's a certain amount of

731
00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:08,759
Speaker 1: rotational defensive responsibility, there's defensive rebounding responsibility. There's a bunch

732
00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,360
Speaker 1: of jobs that need to get done on the floor.

733
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 1: And you know, the whole point of the Lebron and

734
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:16,600
Speaker 1: a d experiment is that when the two of them

735
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:20,480
Speaker 1: are on the floor, those jobs actually become relatively easily easy.

736
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:23,759
Speaker 1: That's why going into the first season, everyone was like, oh,

737
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:27,759
Speaker 1: Danny Green, good he's watched David Bradley has washed Like cool,

738
00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:30,359
Speaker 1: k CP, you know, he took this bad shot when

739
00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:33,000
Speaker 1: Kobe was sitting courtside, like that was the way it

740
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:34,719
Speaker 1: was discussed. But then all of a sudden they got

741
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:39,279
Speaker 1: into the simplified roles playing alongside two stars, and they

742
00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:42,920
Speaker 1: all became stars in those roles, and the and the

743
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:48,200
Speaker 1: team succeeded, and so you know that right now everything

744
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:51,239
Speaker 1: is massively compounded by the fact that Lebron's out because

745
00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:53,759
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, those jobs on the periphery have

746
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:58,440
Speaker 1: become big jobs. Okay, but when Lebron comes back, everything

747
00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:01,279
Speaker 1: goes back to being small jobs. And so then at

748
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:06,200
Speaker 1: that point, you know, upgrading from Wayne Ellington to th

749
00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:09,520
Speaker 1: HT a guy who's actually kind of problematic at the

750
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,000
Speaker 1: point of attack, like good luck trying to dribble in

751
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:13,959
Speaker 1: front of him. You know, yeah, he can get lost

752
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:16,319
Speaker 1: off the ball, but he's gotten better at that as

753
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:18,920
Speaker 1: of late, and and he can provide point of attack

754
00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:23,080
Speaker 1: defense like Trevor Reason like one of the better wing

755
00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:26,360
Speaker 1: veteran savvy wing defensive players that we have in the league,

756
00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:28,520
Speaker 1: as evidenced by the fact that everywhere he goes, he

757
00:37:28,520 --> 00:37:31,200
Speaker 1: plays like twenty eight minutes a game because coaches just

758
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 1: trust him to be in the right spot and to

759
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:36,919
Speaker 1: do the right things. That's a significant upgrade. Kendrick Nunn.

760
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 1: Good luck ever seeing Rason Rondo on a court again,

761
00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:43,360
Speaker 1: because Kendrick Nunn is getting all of those minutes. Molik

762
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:47,040
Speaker 1: Monk has really struggled offensively because he's kind of a gunner.

763
00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:48,960
Speaker 1: Kendrick Nunn is a little bit more of a guy

764
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:50,880
Speaker 1: who can make reads out of pick and roll, and

765
00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:52,920
Speaker 1: he's a little bit more savvy with his offense. That's

766
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:55,080
Speaker 1: a bit of an upgrade. So when you take all

767
00:37:55,120 --> 00:37:58,239
Speaker 1: those jobs on the periphery and you put guys who

768
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:01,000
Speaker 1: are better in those spots, even if they're just a

769
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:03,000
Speaker 1: little bit better, Yeah, the reason is not an all star.

770
00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:05,520
Speaker 1: T HD is not an All star. Nun's not an

771
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:08,640
Speaker 1: All star. But when Lebron comes back and those roles

772
00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:10,479
Speaker 1: need to be filled and those jobs need to be done,

773
00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:14,000
Speaker 1: and you get competent players in those spots. I really

774
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 1: do think this can look a lot better. So the

775
00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:18,480
Speaker 1: question if the question is whether none, th, H, T

776
00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:21,400
Speaker 1: and or reason can fix this team. Yeah, if Lebron

777
00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:23,200
Speaker 1: and a D are back, if Lebron and a D

778
00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:25,759
Speaker 1: are playing like Lebron and a D, I absolutely think

779
00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:28,800
Speaker 1: those guys are enough to make this team a championship contender.

780
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:32,719
Speaker 1: I really do think it's that simple. Yeah, I mean

781
00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:34,480
Speaker 1: I would agree with that. And again, like I think

782
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:37,640
Speaker 1: there's just it doesn't have to be two extremes right,

783
00:38:37,680 --> 00:38:39,360
Speaker 1: Like it's not like they don't have to come and

784
00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:41,799
Speaker 1: fix everything. And then also it's also like that's not

785
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:43,920
Speaker 1: the total issue right now as well, they definitely can

786
00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:46,600
Speaker 1: fix a lot, Like it's not just those three coming back.

787
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:49,040
Speaker 1: It's also like you said, they're going to be replacing

788
00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:51,359
Speaker 1: a lot of kind of negative players right now, right

789
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:53,600
Speaker 1: so you're not just kind of lose, You're not just

790
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:56,319
Speaker 1: adding three players also losing three other players, which kind

791
00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:58,000
Speaker 1: of add that too much, you know what I mean

792
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:01,120
Speaker 1: in my mother, But again, like there's just a limit

793
00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:03,200
Speaker 1: to here where there has to be a baseline level

794
00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:05,360
Speaker 1: where you could be at least competitive, Like I'm not

795
00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:07,960
Speaker 1: asking to win on the road in Portland, like you said,

796
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:10,279
Speaker 1: but I'm asking like to not get blown out by

797
00:39:10,320 --> 00:39:13,600
Speaker 1: the first quarter. Like that's where like none th HD, none,

798
00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:15,880
Speaker 1: th h D and a reason make a big difference

799
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:18,160
Speaker 1: in terms of rotation, Like I talked about, we're gonna

800
00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:20,480
Speaker 1: get a whole new five man lineups. We're gonna get

801
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:23,239
Speaker 1: a bunch of new rotations coming, and a bunch of

802
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:26,960
Speaker 1: lineups data we're gonna get. But that that's a separate

803
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:28,959
Speaker 1: kind of issue to me than like just getting blown

804
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:32,000
Speaker 1: out by thirty in the first quarter. Like that's that's different.

805
00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:34,239
Speaker 1: Those two are two separate kind of I guess they

806
00:39:34,239 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 1: can be connected connected in some way, but there's still

807
00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:38,120
Speaker 1: kind of different to me in a where like there

808
00:39:38,120 --> 00:39:40,879
Speaker 1: has to be a competitiveness game night, game by game,

809
00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:44,600
Speaker 1: situation by situation where you can still compete even until

810
00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 1: those guys get back because like I said, a reason,

811
00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:50,560
Speaker 1: I'm not sure probably December um none in th HD,

812
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:53,919
Speaker 1: they haven't really put a concrete timetable on that. Maybe

813
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:55,680
Speaker 1: another couple of weeks, and we're gonna play a bunch

814
00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:57,920
Speaker 1: of good teams here where you can't just lay down

815
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:01,560
Speaker 1: and get dog walked just because you know you're waiting

816
00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:04,879
Speaker 1: for your rotation to settle in. So like that's where

817
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:06,480
Speaker 1: I'm at here, Like, I totally agree with you. Though

818
00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:08,319
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a better team with those guys, I'm

819
00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:10,200
Speaker 1: still not down on the team. I don't think either

820
00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 1: of us are in terms of like what they're end

821
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 1: kind of situation can be. What they're end goal is

822
00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:16,960
Speaker 1: when Lebron and a d come back. Definitely this team

823
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:19,000
Speaker 1: can still kind of win at the high level we

824
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:20,799
Speaker 1: thought it could. It's just that, like I need to

825
00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:23,279
Speaker 1: see a little bit more competitiveness here. There's like not

826
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:26,359
Speaker 1: this extreme where okay, until none THHD and the Reason

827
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:28,880
Speaker 1: get back, we're just gonna get destroyed by thirty against

828
00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:30,439
Speaker 1: every team like that. There has to be a middle

829
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:33,560
Speaker 1: ground there. Yeah, I know, I totally agree. Get the

830
00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:36,279
Speaker 1: first color on. I'm gonna make a football analogy. Like

831
00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:39,240
Speaker 1: the way I look at it, the injuries right now

832
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:43,880
Speaker 1: are like being down in the entire position group. And

833
00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:47,839
Speaker 1: you know, with football, you have these skill players right

834
00:40:47,880 --> 00:40:49,960
Speaker 1: like you've got your quarterback, you've got your receivers, and

835
00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:51,799
Speaker 1: you've got your running back. They're the ones that make

836
00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:55,320
Speaker 1: all the flashy stuff happen, but none of it works.

837
00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:58,840
Speaker 1: If the offensive line can't block and so like, for instance,

838
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:01,440
Speaker 1: the Cowboys this weekend without Tyrone Smith, he's their best

839
00:41:01,480 --> 00:41:06,960
Speaker 1: left tackle, and that's a huge deal. It changes everything

840
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,600
Speaker 1: about the way their offense works because their blind side

841
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:11,880
Speaker 1: isn't going to be protected as well. That's kind of

842
00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:13,799
Speaker 1: the way I look at it for the Lakers being

843
00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:15,839
Speaker 1: down all their forwards, It's like they have all their

844
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:19,560
Speaker 1: skill players, but all the guys that do the little things,

845
00:41:19,640 --> 00:41:23,480
Speaker 1: the dirty work that make this whole thing function, are

846
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:27,520
Speaker 1: wearing suits, and so now instead you're relying on these

847
00:41:27,840 --> 00:41:32,080
Speaker 1: players that aren't as particularly good at those things. And

848
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:35,640
Speaker 1: so it's kind of predictable that that, you know, the

849
00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:38,160
Speaker 1: even though you have these talented players on the floor,

850
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:41,160
Speaker 1: people ask me today, how, how like, how is okay

851
00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:44,440
Speaker 1: See more talented than the Lakers when they have Anthony

852
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:47,520
Speaker 1: Davis and Russell Westburg, And I say, people for starters,

853
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:50,400
Speaker 1: Russ isn't very good and too, you know, there's just

854
00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:54,000
Speaker 1: not anybody around them that's capable of doing all the

855
00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:56,680
Speaker 1: things that they need to do in order for this

856
00:41:56,719 --> 00:41:58,279
Speaker 1: whole thing to work, you know what I mean. But

857
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:02,239
Speaker 1: let's get let's let's get a caller for sure, there.

858
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:05,320
Speaker 1: I'm here, man, I don't even know where to begin.

859
00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:12,000
Speaker 1: I'll start with I'll start with I'll start with vogo

860
00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:17,640
Speaker 1: um injuries. Obviously I played a big part, right, I mean,

861
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:20,600
Speaker 1: I mean we know that. And obviously they would be

862
00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:24,319
Speaker 1: better if we had the entire squad somewhat healthy. They're

863
00:42:24,320 --> 00:42:27,360
Speaker 1: not even somewhat healthy. They're just they're just not healthy.

864
00:42:28,480 --> 00:42:31,440
Speaker 1: My problem is with with Vogel is he's not putting

865
00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:36,440
Speaker 1: players in their best positions or their best position to succeed,

866
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 1: like Westbrook was absolute trash tonight. He's been to me,

867
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:49,520
Speaker 1: he's he's been okay um this season, but he's not

868
00:42:49,640 --> 00:42:53,720
Speaker 1: being put in his and the best position to succeed.

869
00:42:54,200 --> 00:42:59,720
Speaker 1: And why to me is DeAndre Jordan's The dude is cooked.

870
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:02,839
Speaker 1: Like the dude should be selling steaks in the back

871
00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:07,239
Speaker 1: of this trunk at Costco. Like he's cooked. He should

872
00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:09,360
Speaker 1: be done in the league. If he was cut today,

873
00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:12,959
Speaker 1: nobody would pick him up. Like he's done. Alright, lob

874
00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:15,279
Speaker 1: City was a great time for him. I'm glad, but

875
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:20,839
Speaker 1: he's done. Um and right now, I guess you know.

876
00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:24,279
Speaker 1: Vogeo is hell bent on going big, right, He's going.

877
00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:28,000
Speaker 1: He's just that's what he wants, but it's not working.

878
00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:34,080
Speaker 1: It is not working at all. And you know, unfortunately

879
00:43:34,200 --> 00:43:37,640
Speaker 1: brons out, We're just kind of he's just trying to

880
00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:42,440
Speaker 1: make things work. But eighty after five is the answer,

881
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:49,239
Speaker 1: period And as far as we know, that was the

882
00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:52,719
Speaker 1: plan up until now and and this is what we

883
00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:57,200
Speaker 1: get DeAndre Jordians starting up to five and it's been

884
00:43:57,640 --> 00:44:02,319
Speaker 1: an absolute trend wreck. Um. You know, another thing on

885
00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:05,000
Speaker 1: Westbrook tonight, if you go to my timeline, I was

886
00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:10,320
Speaker 1: pretty rough on him. I was really rough on him. Actually, Um,

887
00:44:10,480 --> 00:44:12,880
Speaker 1: what I'm disappointed in the most is the fact that

888
00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:17,120
Speaker 1: he tonight was an opportunity for him with a d

889
00:44:17,239 --> 00:44:20,440
Speaker 1: out most of the game and Lebron out to show

890
00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:24,840
Speaker 1: why this you know, the famous thing on on Lakers

891
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:27,560
Speaker 1: Twitter is that this is why they brought rust in, right,

892
00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:30,120
Speaker 1: this is why they brought him in here. Mm hmm.

893
00:44:31,600 --> 00:44:37,400
Speaker 1: He was awful tonight. I mean, there's no there's no

894
00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:40,880
Speaker 1: excuses for how he plays. And he was disengaged. It

895
00:44:40,960 --> 00:44:46,040
Speaker 1: looked like he just didn't care. And tonight was disappointing

896
00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:48,280
Speaker 1: because this is the night even if we lost, right,

897
00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:53,640
Speaker 1: I mean whatever, it wasn't even competitive. Um, he he

898
00:44:53,680 --> 00:44:58,680
Speaker 1: could have showed up tonight and and really got the

899
00:44:58,719 --> 00:45:01,000
Speaker 1: team together, put some for it out there, you know

900
00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:05,160
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Instead, he regretsed he he did. He

901
00:45:05,239 --> 00:45:10,279
Speaker 1: did what a normal Russell Westbrook game. He did what

902
00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:12,080
Speaker 1: he did. He he is who he is, you know

903
00:45:12,120 --> 00:45:14,040
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like, I don't think he'll ever change.

904
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:16,320
Speaker 1: And I made a point to some of the homies earlier,

905
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:19,960
Speaker 1: I don't think there's been a coach that he's been

906
00:45:20,040 --> 00:45:22,719
Speaker 1: under who's been able to actually get the best out

907
00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:27,520
Speaker 1: of him. Maybe Dan Tony if if I'm being honest,

908
00:45:27,520 --> 00:45:29,520
Speaker 1: I don't know who else has has been able to

909
00:45:29,560 --> 00:45:33,480
Speaker 1: actually get the best out of rest Um. And I

910
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:36,359
Speaker 1: don't think Vogel is that guy either, And so we're

911
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:40,480
Speaker 1: kind of just stuck with Westbrook. This is this is

912
00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:44,160
Speaker 1: who he is. He'll never change. And I'm really hoping

913
00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:48,960
Speaker 1: once Braun gets back, you know, obviously Bronze are closer.

914
00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:54,000
Speaker 1: He's going to have the ball when it matters Um.

915
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:58,120
Speaker 1: But at this point, you know, all we can all

916
00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:00,200
Speaker 1: we can hope for now is just every but he

917
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:03,319
Speaker 1: gets healthy and see what we can do. But and

918
00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:06,200
Speaker 1: the looking great, guys, It's all I gotta say. And

919
00:46:06,280 --> 00:46:11,560
Speaker 1: we need some wings desperately, desperately, they're on the way.

920
00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:13,759
Speaker 1: First of all, the most important thing that the most

921
00:46:13,760 --> 00:46:16,440
Speaker 1: interesting thing you said is the guy who's selling steaks

922
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:19,360
Speaker 1: out of his trunk at Costco. That's genius. This is

923
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:21,680
Speaker 1: all I'm saying. To sell them in five packs, and

924
00:46:21,719 --> 00:46:23,439
Speaker 1: no one wants to spend you know, no one wants

925
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:25,320
Speaker 1: to spend like eighty bucks on a pack of steaks.

926
00:46:25,360 --> 00:46:27,560
Speaker 1: But what if the dude out front was selling single

927
00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:30,520
Speaker 1: stakes for like four team bucks. Now now we're talking,

928
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:34,360
Speaker 1: So this is this is a genius idea anyway, you know,

929
00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:36,400
Speaker 1: as far as the rust thing goes, this is what

930
00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:38,960
Speaker 1: I was talking about earlier. Make the game easy for him.

931
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:41,040
Speaker 1: You know, he he was kind of as bad as

932
00:46:41,080 --> 00:46:45,040
Speaker 1: he looked tonight, and he was utterly horrible. Um, putting

933
00:46:45,120 --> 00:46:48,600
Speaker 1: Russ out there with bad basketball players is just gonna

934
00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:51,680
Speaker 1: look ugly. So you know, we talked earlier in the

935
00:46:51,680 --> 00:46:57,960
Speaker 1: show about simplifying Russ's job. So Russ offensively can't finish

936
00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:01,840
Speaker 1: in traffic anymore. He's not a good enough passer because

937
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:05,920
Speaker 1: he's too reckless to allow him to make thirty forty

938
00:47:06,120 --> 00:47:09,080
Speaker 1: of those type of you know, driving kick type of passes.

939
00:47:09,120 --> 00:47:11,000
Speaker 1: Per games, you need to try to simplify the game form.

940
00:47:11,000 --> 00:47:12,520
Speaker 1: If you put a D at the five and you

941
00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:15,560
Speaker 1: try to play him along a D alongside a D

942
00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:18,400
Speaker 1: the whole game, like mirror his minutes all minutes almost,

943
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:21,560
Speaker 1: and you put him in a situation where he's playing

944
00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:25,480
Speaker 1: with a devastating rim roller and three shooters all the time,

945
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:28,279
Speaker 1: then his job can be simplified down to all I

946
00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:29,759
Speaker 1: have to do is beat this guy at the point

947
00:47:29,760 --> 00:47:32,040
Speaker 1: of attack, and I can either lay the ball in

948
00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:34,440
Speaker 1: or kick to a shooter, like make his job easy.

949
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:36,760
Speaker 1: If you do that, I do think he can succeed,

950
00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:40,640
Speaker 1: especially over the course of the season when he starts

951
00:47:40,680 --> 00:47:43,359
Speaker 1: to understand what this team needs from him defensively. But

952
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:46,160
Speaker 1: it's just, you know, as much as I don't like

953
00:47:46,239 --> 00:47:48,799
Speaker 1: the Russ move, which I've talked about ad nauseum on

954
00:47:48,840 --> 00:47:54,120
Speaker 1: this platform, it's this isn't exactly the situation that would

955
00:47:54,160 --> 00:47:56,680
Speaker 1: show us what he could do anyway. Um. I know

956
00:47:56,760 --> 00:47:58,920
Speaker 1: people say like, oh, like, you get Russ to carry

957
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:02,239
Speaker 1: you and Lebron's out. There's some truth to that, but

958
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:06,360
Speaker 1: the reality is is Russ just isn't that good anymore.

959
00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:10,880
Speaker 1: But in there is value in being the third best

960
00:48:10,920 --> 00:48:13,839
Speaker 1: offensive player on the floor being guarded by the third

961
00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:17,200
Speaker 1: best defensive player and having the ability to beat that

962
00:48:17,239 --> 00:48:21,960
Speaker 1: guy off the dribble and have your team make easy

963
00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:24,839
Speaker 1: plays out of that. That's you know, It's what Eric

964
00:48:24,840 --> 00:48:27,200
Speaker 1: Gordon did for the Rockets for a long time. It's

965
00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:29,640
Speaker 1: what Dennis Shrewder did for this team last year. Hell,

966
00:48:29,719 --> 00:48:31,879
Speaker 1: it's what Rondo did for this team last or two

967
00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:36,200
Speaker 1: years ago and did actually decently well, not because Rondo

968
00:48:36,320 --> 00:48:39,920
Speaker 1: is very good, but just because that team was healthy

969
00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:43,400
Speaker 1: and made sense on paper with their personnel, and so

970
00:48:43,480 --> 00:48:46,000
Speaker 1: when you put Rondo in there in high leverage moments,

971
00:48:46,080 --> 00:48:47,840
Speaker 1: he didn't have to do anything too crazy. He was

972
00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:50,759
Speaker 1: attacking bench lineups. All he had to do was beat

973
00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:54,040
Speaker 1: some bench guard off the dribble. And there was Danny Green,

974
00:48:54,160 --> 00:48:57,400
Speaker 1: or there was Kyle Kuzmer, there was you know, Dwight Howard, whoever.

975
00:48:57,440 --> 00:49:00,200
Speaker 1: It was like, again, that's the way you gotta look

976
00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:03,640
Speaker 1: at Russ is not the third star, but rather the

977
00:49:03,719 --> 00:49:06,879
Speaker 1: best role player, the guy that that that you don't

978
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:09,839
Speaker 1: lean on as this like heavy, heavy, heavy workload guy,

979
00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:13,120
Speaker 1: but rather somebody that can succeed alongside really good players.

980
00:49:13,160 --> 00:49:16,280
Speaker 1: That's the way. That's the way I see Russ actually

981
00:49:16,320 --> 00:49:19,120
Speaker 1: working out in the long run. Yeah, and and A

982
00:49:19,239 --> 00:49:22,520
Speaker 1: j you said tonight was an opportunity for Like, Russ

983
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:24,759
Speaker 1: has been in the league a pretty long time, and

984
00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:27,440
Speaker 1: when we traded for us, we knew what we were getting, right,

985
00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:29,759
Speaker 1: and this is part of the experience with it. It's

986
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:32,439
Speaker 1: going to be some bad shot selection. This is why

987
00:49:32,719 --> 00:49:35,319
Speaker 1: I think last game, after the space in the last one,

988
00:49:35,320 --> 00:49:38,360
Speaker 1: I said to just lean into the rust ball. And

989
00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:40,200
Speaker 1: you know, Jason, you were saying people are saying that,

990
00:49:40,239 --> 00:49:42,320
Speaker 1: you know you get Russ to carry the Lebron minutes,

991
00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:44,640
Speaker 1: Well it's supposed to be Russ and a D carrying

992
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:47,920
Speaker 1: the non Lebron minutes, right, Russ by himself, Like tonight

993
00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:50,880
Speaker 1: was probably the worst of it. Six turnovers, one for thirteen,

994
00:49:51,520 --> 00:49:53,680
Speaker 1: I tweeted tonight he took thirteen shots, and I feel

995
00:49:53,680 --> 00:49:55,360
Speaker 1: like two of them were like ones I would like

996
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:58,400
Speaker 1: him taking. It was a lot of just reckless forays

997
00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:01,400
Speaker 1: to the rim um there flying under the screen so

998
00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:04,200
Speaker 1: disrespectfully where I kind of understand it in a way

999
00:50:04,320 --> 00:50:07,040
Speaker 1: right where it's like so disrespectfully how they go under

1000
00:50:07,040 --> 00:50:09,520
Speaker 1: that pick and he's like, I'm wide open. I kind

1001
00:50:09,520 --> 00:50:11,600
Speaker 1: of have to shoot those stuff. That's just gonna happen

1002
00:50:11,600 --> 00:50:14,040
Speaker 1: when it's rust by himself as a shock creator. But again,

1003
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:16,160
Speaker 1: that's why I want to just lean into this, Like

1004
00:50:16,239 --> 00:50:18,680
Speaker 1: he can't play in a phone booth. He's already so

1005
00:50:18,840 --> 00:50:21,719
Speaker 1: already limited in terms of like his strengths and weaknesses.

1006
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:24,040
Speaker 1: Like putting him in a phone booth with two centers

1007
00:50:24,120 --> 00:50:27,160
Speaker 1: is it just exasperates the issue with him. And you

1008
00:50:27,239 --> 00:50:29,160
Speaker 1: get and you're gonna get nights like tonight the way

1009
00:50:29,200 --> 00:50:32,000
Speaker 1: he started. Um and if it's jumpers going some nights, great,

1010
00:50:32,040 --> 00:50:34,120
Speaker 1: but like that's not going to be the norm. That's

1011
00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:36,520
Speaker 1: the exception with Russell Westbrook. That's just how it is.

1012
00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:39,319
Speaker 1: So hopefully, Like I thought with Lebron, it was they

1013
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:41,400
Speaker 1: were starting to grow this little chemistry and which is

1014
00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:43,000
Speaker 1: why I said the Lebron kind of injury was so

1015
00:50:43,080 --> 00:50:45,759
Speaker 1: unfortunate that I thought they were kind of building a

1016
00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:48,480
Speaker 1: little bit to where he was kind of understanding his role,

1017
00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:51,000
Speaker 1: especially in late game situations where like he's like, Okay,

1018
00:50:51,040 --> 00:50:52,800
Speaker 1: I don't have the ball. You know, the balls in

1019
00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:55,160
Speaker 1: Lebron's hands, But once Lebron's out, it's all free flowing,

1020
00:50:55,239 --> 00:50:58,319
Speaker 1: like it's it's Russell Westbrooks kind of. I know he's

1021
00:50:58,360 --> 00:51:00,360
Speaker 1: the third best player, but you know he has the

1022
00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:02,759
Speaker 1: ball in his hands, he's gonna be the first option, uh,

1023
00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:05,000
Speaker 1: when Lebron's out. So that's kind of how I saw

1024
00:51:05,120 --> 00:51:08,400
Speaker 1: tonight going. I wasn't really expecting him to play, you know,

1025
00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:10,839
Speaker 1: a crazy great game tonight. Once went out and it's

1026
00:51:10,840 --> 00:51:13,000
Speaker 1: just what you're gonna get with Lebron. It does look

1027
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:17,040
Speaker 1: different and hopefully that's what we see. Thanks for coming

1028
00:51:17,040 --> 00:51:19,680
Speaker 1: on and we really appreciate it, man, Yeah, man, thank

1029
00:51:19,719 --> 00:51:24,040
Speaker 1: you appreciate it. Appreciate it. Man. We've got a bunch

1030
00:51:24,040 --> 00:51:26,319
Speaker 1: of requests here, so we try to go through these

1031
00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:35,960
Speaker 1: ones a little a little quicker. All right, Alan is connecting.

1032
00:51:36,960 --> 00:51:38,880
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get a few people up here so

1033
00:51:38,920 --> 00:51:42,000
Speaker 1: that we don't have to wait. Appreciate everyone coming out

1034
00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:45,120
Speaker 1: on a on a Saturday night to hang out after

1035
00:51:45,200 --> 00:51:52,799
Speaker 1: that game. I'm disgusted. Are you there? Yo? What's up?

1036
00:51:53,640 --> 00:52:00,680
Speaker 1: What's going on? Man? I'm chilling. I'm chilling. Um. Basically, Jason,

1037
00:52:00,840 --> 00:52:03,920
Speaker 1: everything you said about Westbrook is like he's just a

1038
00:52:03,960 --> 00:52:10,160
Speaker 1: tough watch man. Like It's like, to me, the way

1039
00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:15,640
Speaker 1: I look at basketball is, at some point your guards

1040
00:52:16,080 --> 00:52:21,839
Speaker 1: have to have a base line of shop making ability, right,

1041
00:52:22,640 --> 00:52:27,040
Speaker 1: mm hmm, that's outside of the restricted area because like

1042
00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:31,279
Speaker 1: Westbrook is a power guard, but he's six three, right,

1043
00:52:31,719 --> 00:52:34,160
Speaker 1: Like Janice he's six and eleven. He could get away

1044
00:52:34,200 --> 00:52:37,839
Speaker 1: with that Lebron six nine, he could get away with that,

1045
00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:43,080
Speaker 1: like wings could get away with being subpar shooters. But

1046
00:52:43,200 --> 00:52:47,840
Speaker 1: I don't think guards can. And that's why I'm down

1047
00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:53,400
Speaker 1: on Westbrook and his game, and I feel like his

1048
00:52:53,560 --> 00:53:00,319
Speaker 1: contract doesn't match the impact, and I'm worried that that

1049
00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:07,480
Speaker 1: would make it harder for us to build a contending team.

1050
00:53:07,680 --> 00:53:10,680
Speaker 1: That's it. That's all I gotta say. You know, it's

1051
00:53:11,480 --> 00:53:14,880
Speaker 1: you're not wrong about anything, especially the stuff about guards

1052
00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:17,600
Speaker 1: being able to make stuff outside of the pain, at

1053
00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:20,880
Speaker 1: least as it pertains to being considered a start. This

1054
00:53:20,960 --> 00:53:22,560
Speaker 1: is why I look at Rus as a role player.

1055
00:53:22,600 --> 00:53:25,319
Speaker 1: It's something Roger and I talked a lot about on

1056
00:53:25,440 --> 00:53:28,480
Speaker 1: the Thursday Show, This idea that like, you know, if

1057
00:53:28,640 --> 00:53:32,040
Speaker 1: if something has to be catered completely to somebody and

1058
00:53:32,080 --> 00:53:35,040
Speaker 1: their strengths and weaknesses, and they're probably not very good,

1059
00:53:35,400 --> 00:53:37,239
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like that I shouldn't say

1060
00:53:37,280 --> 00:53:39,840
Speaker 1: that very good, but that just means that's a huge

1061
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:42,759
Speaker 1: differentiator between them and those that are above them. The

1062
00:53:42,800 --> 00:53:44,879
Speaker 1: guys that are above them can succeed in different types

1063
00:53:44,880 --> 00:53:48,520
Speaker 1: of circumstances. So, for instance, in that Oklahoma City game,

1064
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:52,520
Speaker 1: you put Derek Favors on Anthony Davis, who Anthony Davis, uh,

1065
00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:56,200
Speaker 1: you know, has a tendency to rely on jump shooting

1066
00:53:56,200 --> 00:53:58,680
Speaker 1: at the end of games. Now maybe that was his thumb.

1067
00:53:58,920 --> 00:54:00,480
Speaker 1: I don't want to really dive in to it. But

1068
00:54:00,960 --> 00:54:03,719
Speaker 1: you put Lou Dort on Russell Westbrook, and a guy

1069
00:54:03,800 --> 00:54:05,799
Speaker 1: like lu Dort is so big and so strong, so

1070
00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:10,160
Speaker 1: athletic that Russ can't beat him one on one. And

1071
00:54:10,239 --> 00:54:12,920
Speaker 1: in addition to that, in screen and roll, even if

1072
00:54:12,960 --> 00:54:14,799
Speaker 1: you try to let him get ahead of team, he

1073
00:54:14,960 --> 00:54:17,920
Speaker 1: just goes underneath the screen because Russ has no ability

1074
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:20,200
Speaker 1: to threaten you from the perimeter, and all he has

1075
00:54:20,239 --> 00:54:21,840
Speaker 1: to do is just kind of beat Russ to the

1076
00:54:21,880 --> 00:54:24,600
Speaker 1: spot somewhere around the rim and he can shut him down.

1077
00:54:25,080 --> 00:54:29,279
Speaker 1: Now let's change that scenario. Let's say Lebron's plane and

1078
00:54:29,360 --> 00:54:32,320
Speaker 1: now all of a sudden, it's lu Dort on Lebron

1079
00:54:33,440 --> 00:54:36,520
Speaker 1: and Favors on Anthony Davis, and it's s g A

1080
00:54:37,120 --> 00:54:40,719
Speaker 1: guarding Russ s g A can't guard Russ in a

1081
00:54:40,880 --> 00:54:44,160
Speaker 1: one on one situation. Now he can guard him if

1082
00:54:44,160 --> 00:54:46,960
Speaker 1: there's six bodies in the paint, but he s A

1083
00:54:47,080 --> 00:54:49,520
Speaker 1: can't guard Russ one on one. That's a that's a

1084
00:54:49,520 --> 00:54:51,840
Speaker 1: bad matchup broke on the city. Because of how strong

1085
00:54:51,960 --> 00:54:54,520
Speaker 1: Russ is, he's gonna be able to basically just put

1086
00:54:54,520 --> 00:54:56,600
Speaker 1: his head down and go to the rim. That's the

1087
00:54:56,760 --> 00:55:00,880
Speaker 1: difference between being that guy who's like Gordon was to

1088
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:04,239
Speaker 1: James Harden and Chris Paul as opposed to here's one

1089
00:55:04,280 --> 00:55:06,359
Speaker 1: of our big three. The way you got to look

1090
00:55:06,400 --> 00:55:10,719
Speaker 1: at it is like your job is within the context

1091
00:55:10,800 --> 00:55:14,120
Speaker 1: of our whole team when it's put together and healthy,

1092
00:55:14,320 --> 00:55:18,799
Speaker 1: is to attack lesser defenders with great spacing. And he

1093
00:55:18,840 --> 00:55:22,719
Speaker 1: can do that no different than any of these, you know,

1094
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:27,080
Speaker 1: other tertiary offensive players do around the league, like Jordan Clarkson.

1095
00:55:27,560 --> 00:55:31,120
Speaker 1: You know, like Jordan Clarkson succeeds in Utah because he's

1096
00:55:31,200 --> 00:55:34,960
Speaker 1: primarily attacking bench players and because they set him up

1097
00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:38,960
Speaker 1: with fantastic spacing. Even though Jordan Clarkson is kind of

1098
00:55:38,960 --> 00:55:40,880
Speaker 1: a bowl in the china shop too, he's got a

1099
00:55:40,920 --> 00:55:43,600
Speaker 1: lot more perimeter shop making ability than Russ. But you

1100
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:46,839
Speaker 1: kind of get the comparison there. That's the way that

1101
00:55:46,840 --> 00:55:49,239
Speaker 1: that that to me is where Russ was miscast. As

1102
00:55:49,440 --> 00:55:52,840
Speaker 1: you know. To me, Russ is not this is another

1103
00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:56,040
Speaker 1: Lebron to have out there that's gonna just just be

1104
00:55:56,360 --> 00:55:58,919
Speaker 1: Mr do it all on every given night. I don't

1105
00:55:58,960 --> 00:56:01,839
Speaker 1: see it that way. I see him as this tertiary

1106
00:56:01,920 --> 00:56:07,680
Speaker 1: offensive player who has superstar traits like crazy motor, the

1107
00:56:07,719 --> 00:56:11,319
Speaker 1: ability to impact the game as a offensive rebounder, and

1108
00:56:11,360 --> 00:56:16,000
Speaker 1: just as a ball of fire and energy. But at

1109
00:56:16,120 --> 00:56:18,640
Speaker 1: at his core role on the team, he's only going

1110
00:56:18,680 --> 00:56:23,280
Speaker 1: to succeed when he's attacking lesser defensive players with great space.

1111
00:56:23,680 --> 00:56:25,719
Speaker 1: So the only way to do that is to have

1112
00:56:25,800 --> 00:56:28,680
Speaker 1: your team healthy and to play single big lineups. And

1113
00:56:28,760 --> 00:56:31,200
Speaker 1: so I do think if they do that, the routs

1114
00:56:31,239 --> 00:56:35,400
Speaker 1: experiment could work in the long run, right, Yeah, And

1115
00:56:35,520 --> 00:56:37,759
Speaker 1: I don't think I don't think he's wrong at all either.

1116
00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:41,120
Speaker 1: The contract thing is what it is, Like he's not

1117
00:56:41,160 --> 00:56:43,719
Speaker 1: a superstar anymore, or at least he if he if

1118
00:56:43,719 --> 00:56:46,319
Speaker 1: he was one, maybe in Oklahoma City, but yeah, he's

1119
00:56:46,320 --> 00:56:48,239
Speaker 1: definitely not that and the but the contract is what

1120
00:56:48,280 --> 00:56:50,719
Speaker 1: it is. I don't want to think about that for now.

1121
00:56:50,760 --> 00:56:52,839
Speaker 1: Like this is the thing that we had, this is

1122
00:56:52,880 --> 00:56:55,799
Speaker 1: the this is the team that we have. I still

1123
00:56:55,800 --> 00:56:58,480
Speaker 1: think there's things they can do, like like they did

1124
00:56:58,520 --> 00:57:00,279
Speaker 1: in Houston. I thought they did. They did lot of

1125
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:02,520
Speaker 1: like where they inverted the offense where p J. Tucker

1126
00:57:02,640 --> 00:57:05,520
Speaker 1: was the five to where like Rusking where p J.

1127
00:57:05,600 --> 00:57:07,680
Speaker 1: Tucker kind of switched Russ his position where Uss can

1128
00:57:07,680 --> 00:57:09,640
Speaker 1: be in the dunker spot and stuff like that and

1129
00:57:09,680 --> 00:57:11,919
Speaker 1: you can run. They did stuff in the Memphis game

1130
00:57:11,960 --> 00:57:13,759
Speaker 1: that I thought was good process or Russ was the

1131
00:57:13,760 --> 00:57:16,120
Speaker 1: screener for Lebron, Like, I think there's things that you

1132
00:57:16,160 --> 00:57:18,480
Speaker 1: can do. But you're right, he's no longer the superstar,

1133
00:57:18,760 --> 00:57:20,760
Speaker 1: you know, who makes the forty million dollars, who's supposed

1134
00:57:20,760 --> 00:57:22,920
Speaker 1: to carry the team. That's just not who he is anymore.

1135
00:57:23,160 --> 00:57:25,320
Speaker 1: You can't finish at the rims as he used to.

1136
00:57:25,480 --> 00:57:27,200
Speaker 1: He doesn't get the same type of lift he does

1137
00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:29,800
Speaker 1: on attacks. But there's more than I think we've seen,

1138
00:57:29,840 --> 00:57:32,320
Speaker 1: and I think there's stuff that look actus to Russ

1139
00:57:32,400 --> 00:57:34,560
Speaker 1: kind of is what this season is about to me now,

1140
00:57:34,680 --> 00:57:36,840
Speaker 1: like that you've traded for him, you have to have

1141
00:57:36,920 --> 00:57:39,840
Speaker 1: him fit, Like that's what this season revolves around. Like

1142
00:57:40,360 --> 00:57:42,840
Speaker 1: that's not the greatest. That's not ideal, like you want

1143
00:57:42,840 --> 00:57:44,680
Speaker 1: to kind of fit everything around Lebron in a D.

1144
00:57:45,000 --> 00:57:46,680
Speaker 1: But that's just what the season we have now is

1145
00:57:46,680 --> 00:57:48,480
Speaker 1: that we have to fit around him, and these two

1146
00:57:48,520 --> 00:57:50,240
Speaker 1: big lineups I think is the first thing that has

1147
00:57:50,280 --> 00:57:52,560
Speaker 1: to go fit playing him a lot of minutes next

1148
00:57:52,560 --> 00:57:54,120
Speaker 1: to a D like there shouldn't. I don't like these

1149
00:57:54,120 --> 00:57:56,400
Speaker 1: line ups either, where it's like Russ in one center

1150
00:57:56,440 --> 00:57:58,720
Speaker 1: that's not a D, like running our second units. I

1151
00:57:58,760 --> 00:58:01,160
Speaker 1: don't think that's enough either. But you're right, like Russ

1152
00:58:01,240 --> 00:58:03,600
Speaker 1: isn't this is what you're gonna get, especially when it's

1153
00:58:03,600 --> 00:58:06,200
Speaker 1: without Lebrons. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with you said there.

1154
00:58:06,360 --> 00:58:08,360
Speaker 1: I just still think there's ways it can work that

1155
00:58:08,400 --> 00:58:14,440
Speaker 1: we haven't seen yet. All Right, I appreciate y'all for

1156
00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:20,000
Speaker 1: letting me on podcast. Are we really appreciate you and

1157
00:58:20,000 --> 00:58:27,880
Speaker 1: your support man. We'll be back on Monday night. All right,

1158
00:58:27,960 --> 00:58:40,160
Speaker 1: let's see h D Are you there? Yes, sir? What's

1159
00:58:40,160 --> 00:58:44,080
Speaker 1: going on? From them? What's going on? So? My thing

1160
00:58:44,320 --> 00:58:47,520
Speaker 1: is basically we're like you know, looking at like basically

1161
00:58:47,520 --> 00:58:50,760
Speaker 1: every other like elite point guard in the league, like

1162
00:58:50,880 --> 00:58:53,880
Speaker 1: they like everybody has a floater and like that's like

1163
00:58:54,040 --> 00:58:58,040
Speaker 1: absent and was Bruce game like the whole like like

1164
00:58:58,120 --> 00:59:01,960
Speaker 1: the whole thing, And like, I mean obviously Was has

1165
00:59:02,000 --> 00:59:04,680
Speaker 1: been playing for a while and like he he knows

1166
00:59:04,680 --> 00:59:06,720
Speaker 1: he like he knows how to play, but like when

1167
00:59:06,760 --> 00:59:09,440
Speaker 1: he gets out there, it seems like he just forgets everything,

1168
00:59:09,520 --> 00:59:15,280
Speaker 1: like everything's out the window. Yeah, So it's just it's

1169
00:59:15,280 --> 00:59:18,560
Speaker 1: just kind of hard to watch, like just him just

1170
00:59:18,640 --> 00:59:23,560
Speaker 1: constantly getting outplayed by guards that he's basically paid to

1171
00:59:23,720 --> 00:59:26,919
Speaker 1: play better than, or ship or he's portrayed better there

1172
00:59:28,160 --> 00:59:32,520
Speaker 1: type of thing. So do you think Was stays for

1173
00:59:32,600 --> 00:59:37,640
Speaker 1: the season. Oh? Man, I don't think there's any chance

1174
00:59:37,760 --> 00:59:41,760
Speaker 1: he's gone. Uh. I mean, I like his trade value

1175
00:59:41,800 --> 00:59:44,000
Speaker 1: is lower right this moment than it's ever been. So

1176
00:59:44,120 --> 00:59:46,600
Speaker 1: your best your best case scenario would be finding some

1177
00:59:46,640 --> 00:59:49,000
Speaker 1: team in the off season that has a ton of

1178
00:59:49,040 --> 00:59:51,840
Speaker 1: cap space but can't get a free agent and would

1179
00:59:51,880 --> 00:59:54,160
Speaker 1: be willing to fill up their tax space or their

1180
00:59:54,280 --> 00:59:57,479
Speaker 1: cap space to throw you, like to just to throw

1181
00:59:57,520 --> 00:59:59,640
Speaker 1: you a bone, but you're you're probably not gonna get

1182
00:59:59,680 --> 01:00:02,360
Speaker 1: player is back. Like, why in the world would you

1183
01:00:02,400 --> 01:00:06,080
Speaker 1: want to trade you know, a bunch of movable contracts

1184
01:00:06,120 --> 01:00:08,760
Speaker 1: for one that's immovable unless you're literally you know, it's

1185
01:00:08,760 --> 01:00:11,680
Speaker 1: just there's no way like Russ is here for better

1186
01:00:11,760 --> 01:00:14,880
Speaker 1: or worse. That's the reality. That's the reality. And you know,

1187
01:00:14,920 --> 01:00:17,120
Speaker 1: I thought the part the point you made about him

1188
01:00:17,160 --> 01:00:19,760
Speaker 1: not really having a lot of the polish that his

1189
01:00:20,240 --> 01:00:23,000
Speaker 1: peers at the position have is really interesting because like,

1190
01:00:23,400 --> 01:00:26,959
Speaker 1: the bottom line with Russ is like he's always been this.

1191
01:00:27,640 --> 01:00:33,080
Speaker 1: The difference is he at one point was so unbelievably

1192
01:00:34,040 --> 01:00:38,920
Speaker 1: nuclearly athletic that all of the you know, it's always

1193
01:00:38,920 --> 01:00:41,040
Speaker 1: been a trade off of good and bad with Russ, right,

1194
01:00:41,080 --> 01:00:43,200
Speaker 1: like here's all the good place, here's all the bad place.

1195
01:00:43,760 --> 01:00:47,400
Speaker 1: But in the past he was so unbelievably athletic that

1196
01:00:47,480 --> 01:00:49,560
Speaker 1: there were more good plays than there were bad plays.

1197
01:00:49,560 --> 01:00:52,120
Speaker 1: But the bad was always there, even at his absolute peak.

1198
01:00:52,200 --> 01:00:54,760
Speaker 1: If you watch for us in the playoffs in two

1199
01:00:54,800 --> 01:00:57,400
Speaker 1: thousand thirteen and two thousand fourteen, even in two thousand twelve,

1200
01:00:57,880 --> 01:01:00,640
Speaker 1: it's all running around like a chicken with his head

1201
01:01:00,640 --> 01:01:05,080
Speaker 1: cut off. It's just pure, unrelenting ball of energy just

1202
01:01:05,120 --> 01:01:07,600
Speaker 1: being fired at the opponent, and sometimes it hurts your

1203
01:01:07,600 --> 01:01:09,920
Speaker 1: own team. That's always been the way he is. But

1204
01:01:10,040 --> 01:01:14,320
Speaker 1: now he's regressed so much as an athlete that when

1205
01:01:14,360 --> 01:01:17,720
Speaker 1: you have him as the focal point, the bad outweighs

1206
01:01:17,720 --> 01:01:20,680
Speaker 1: the good. But like that, all those things you're talking about,

1207
01:01:20,680 --> 01:01:23,480
Speaker 1: like floaters and in between game and slowing down and

1208
01:01:23,520 --> 01:01:26,560
Speaker 1: making reads and stuff like that, that was never his game.

1209
01:01:26,600 --> 01:01:29,160
Speaker 1: He's always been He's never been like a read and

1210
01:01:29,240 --> 01:01:32,919
Speaker 1: react guy. He's always been a just react guy. Yeah,

1211
01:01:33,000 --> 01:01:34,720
Speaker 1: that was never his game. But I thought there was

1212
01:01:34,800 --> 01:01:37,040
Speaker 1: more finesse in his game than I've seen, and maybe

1213
01:01:37,080 --> 01:01:39,960
Speaker 1: just wasn't watching Okay See or Houston as close enough.

1214
01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:41,640
Speaker 1: But he used to be a better jump shooter. But

1215
01:01:41,680 --> 01:01:43,840
Speaker 1: that's pretty much it. That's pretty much. There was no

1216
01:01:43,920 --> 01:01:46,640
Speaker 1: floater or anything like that. Yeah, and that mid range

1217
01:01:46,680 --> 01:01:48,520
Speaker 1: pull up used to be his shot. I remember when

1218
01:01:48,560 --> 01:01:50,760
Speaker 1: we played them in the playoffs that like transition, just

1219
01:01:51,000 --> 01:01:53,320
Speaker 1: pull up around the mid range, jump high as hell

1220
01:01:53,400 --> 01:01:55,800
Speaker 1: on that jump shot. Now it's all off. His form

1221
01:01:55,800 --> 01:01:58,080
Speaker 1: looks all weird. Um. But we talked earlier in the

1222
01:01:58,080 --> 01:02:00,560
Speaker 1: show about like how you know, firing Olga will be

1223
01:02:00,560 --> 01:02:03,800
Speaker 1: the fire alarm, right, Trading Russ would be the house

1224
01:02:03,840 --> 01:02:08,040
Speaker 1: burned down. Like that's that's what that's what Trading Russ

1225
01:02:08,040 --> 01:02:09,840
Speaker 1: would be for this season. And like I don't know

1226
01:02:09,840 --> 01:02:11,320
Speaker 1: if you get I don't know if you got to

1227
01:02:11,360 --> 01:02:14,800
Speaker 1: catch um Shanning Fry Before the game, he was on

1228
01:02:14,960 --> 01:02:18,360
Speaker 1: NBA TV and he was saying that in the playoffs,

1229
01:02:18,400 --> 01:02:20,240
Speaker 1: you know, they should, you know, have Russ come off

1230
01:02:20,240 --> 01:02:22,959
Speaker 1: the bench. I'm telling you right now that's not happening either.

1231
01:02:23,040 --> 01:02:25,919
Speaker 1: Like the rust is gonna be starting. Um, he's gonna

1232
01:02:25,920 --> 01:02:28,120
Speaker 1: starting all these playoffs, all the playoff games, like we

1233
01:02:28,200 --> 01:02:31,520
Speaker 1: have to make this work. There's no trading Russ. Maybe

1234
01:02:31,560 --> 01:02:33,200
Speaker 1: in the off season. Again, that's not something I want

1235
01:02:33,200 --> 01:02:35,360
Speaker 1: to even entertain right now, Like I kind of want

1236
01:02:35,360 --> 01:02:37,720
Speaker 1: to live in this season still. But yeah, that's that's

1237
01:02:37,720 --> 01:02:39,320
Speaker 1: why I don't see happening. But you're right, there's no

1238
01:02:39,400 --> 01:02:41,680
Speaker 1: mid range game. There's like it's either a mid range

1239
01:02:41,680 --> 01:02:44,800
Speaker 1: pull up or it's you know a three when it's

1240
01:02:44,840 --> 01:02:47,440
Speaker 1: a bad transition three, or it's like trying to get

1241
01:02:47,480 --> 01:02:51,000
Speaker 1: to the rim finish around three people with less finesse

1242
01:02:51,040 --> 01:02:52,560
Speaker 1: than I feel like he's had. I know, you said

1243
01:02:52,560 --> 01:02:53,800
Speaker 1: he didn't have a float or but he used to

1244
01:02:53,800 --> 01:02:56,000
Speaker 1: have these like finishes at the rim where you get

1245
01:02:56,040 --> 01:02:57,800
Speaker 1: to the basket, jump in the air, still be able

1246
01:02:57,800 --> 01:03:00,200
Speaker 1: to get contact finished at the basking in a way

1247
01:03:00,240 --> 01:03:02,960
Speaker 1: that was like efficient enough, and it's because he was

1248
01:03:02,960 --> 01:03:08,000
Speaker 1: getting higher Rod still Like I don't know, I just

1249
01:03:08,040 --> 01:03:09,560
Speaker 1: feel like when I was watching, when I would when

1250
01:03:09,560 --> 01:03:12,240
Speaker 1: the Lakers would play Russell Westbrook before, there was times

1251
01:03:12,240 --> 01:03:13,960
Speaker 1: where he would come out of our bigs and just

1252
01:03:14,000 --> 01:03:16,600
Speaker 1: score on us at will. And right now Nurs he

1253
01:03:16,720 --> 01:03:18,360
Speaker 1: had nothing for him. Like you try to finish the

1254
01:03:18,440 --> 01:03:21,320
Speaker 1: left it looked all ugly. He's he's staring, he's screaming

1255
01:03:21,320 --> 01:03:23,600
Speaker 1: at the ref every time like it just like it

1256
01:03:23,640 --> 01:03:26,960
Speaker 1: hasn't looked pretty there. Maybe the finishing gets better hopefully

1257
01:03:27,040 --> 01:03:29,240
Speaker 1: as we go on. Maybe that's just mean being an optimist,

1258
01:03:29,320 --> 01:03:32,560
Speaker 1: but yeah, Russ isn't going anywhere for sure, and it's

1259
01:03:32,720 --> 01:03:35,480
Speaker 1: really quickly. My theory with his poor jump shooting is

1260
01:03:35,520 --> 01:03:38,280
Speaker 1: like I he obviously doesn't work as hard at it

1261
01:03:38,280 --> 01:03:40,120
Speaker 1: as some of his peers. That goes without saying you

1262
01:03:40,200 --> 01:03:42,840
Speaker 1: just simply would be better. However, I think I think

1263
01:03:42,920 --> 01:03:46,280
Speaker 1: like jump shooting for anybody out there who who who

1264
01:03:46,320 --> 01:03:49,520
Speaker 1: has had some success in the past Nike making shots

1265
01:03:49,520 --> 01:03:53,000
Speaker 1: and basketball games, jump shooting is all about like taking

1266
01:03:53,000 --> 01:03:55,320
Speaker 1: the chaos and slowing it down for a second for

1267
01:03:55,360 --> 01:03:58,080
Speaker 1: you to get balanced and and try to repeat a

1268
01:03:58,120 --> 01:04:01,200
Speaker 1: muscle memory thing. And so that kind of thing just

1269
01:04:01,280 --> 01:04:04,160
Speaker 1: doesn't cater into a skill set because he's so bull

1270
01:04:04,240 --> 01:04:06,919
Speaker 1: in a China China shop. Everything is a hundred miles

1271
01:04:06,960 --> 01:04:09,000
Speaker 1: an hour all the time. That kind of thing just

1272
01:04:09,080 --> 01:04:12,080
Speaker 1: doesn't mesh well with jump shooting. Jump shooting is all

1273
01:04:12,120 --> 01:04:15,520
Speaker 1: about trying to control yourself. You're trying to go straight

1274
01:04:15,600 --> 01:04:18,360
Speaker 1: up and down, you're trying to be balanced, You're trying

1275
01:04:18,400 --> 01:04:21,720
Speaker 1: to slow yourself down in a lot of ways. And

1276
01:04:21,760 --> 01:04:24,520
Speaker 1: so I think that's that's my theory as to why

1277
01:04:24,560 --> 01:04:27,840
Speaker 1: he's never been a really good jump shooter at the

1278
01:04:27,880 --> 01:04:32,240
Speaker 1: guard position for sure. Yeah, and hopefully that that picks

1279
01:04:32,320 --> 01:04:33,880
Speaker 1: up here. And we haven't done him a lot of

1280
01:04:33,880 --> 01:04:36,560
Speaker 1: favors either, Like I keep talking about, like I don't

1281
01:04:36,600 --> 01:04:38,320
Speaker 1: think we can start these two bigs. He's playing in

1282
01:04:38,320 --> 01:04:41,600
Speaker 1: a phone booth, and that's tough for any player. It's

1283
01:04:41,640 --> 01:04:43,960
Speaker 1: tough for Lebron sometimes. Even right, we talked about how

1284
01:04:44,000 --> 01:04:46,040
Speaker 1: Lebron becomes a jump shooter when we start too big,

1285
01:04:46,320 --> 01:04:49,840
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, that just exasperates his issue. But d I

1286
01:04:49,880 --> 01:04:53,840
Speaker 1: appreciate you coming up man, Alright, everybody. That's the end

1287
01:04:53,840 --> 01:04:56,520
Speaker 1: of part one. Of this podcast again. This is gonna

1288
01:04:56,560 --> 01:04:59,320
Speaker 1: air on DASH Radio on Monday morning at seven am.

1289
01:04:59,480 --> 01:05:03,600
Speaker 1: Part two. You will be Mr Rouche from Houston Rockets Twitter.

1290
01:05:04,040 --> 01:05:05,560
Speaker 1: Come and hang out with Roger and I at the

1291
01:05:05,640 --> 01:05:07,160
Speaker 1: end of the show. Thank you guys so much for

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01:05:07,240 --> 01:05:09,960
Speaker 1: listening and we will see you on Monday