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Speaker 1: Lakers tonight you presented by FanDuel Here on the volume.

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Speaker 1: I am Jason Tamp. Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope you

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Speaker 1: all had a great weekend. I am very happy to

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Speaker 1: be back. I love skiing. It's my second favorite thing

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Speaker 1: to do in the world, behind basketball, and I think

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Speaker 1: Breckinridge might be my favorite place to do it. It's

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Speaker 1: got the best combination of a cool little town to

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Speaker 1: hang out with your friends when you're not skiing, and

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Speaker 1: a great mountain that's got everything that you could want

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Speaker 1: as a skier. And most importantly, they're both right next

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Speaker 1: to each other so you don't have to travel from

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Speaker 1: the town to the skier's order back or whatever. But

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Speaker 1: you know, I had a good time. I'm excited to

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Speaker 1: be back, and I came back to the house being

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Speaker 1: on fire. And I'm talking about my house. I'm talking

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Speaker 1: about the Lakers House. As this incredible saga of drama continues,

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Speaker 1: the latest drama is a story from Mark Stein that

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Speaker 1: appears to be yet the latest, yet another mouthpiece for

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Speaker 1: one of the parties involved in all of this drama.

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Speaker 1: We had a couple of very interesting quote and I'll

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Speaker 1: read them to you guys really quickly. Here, Rob Polinka,

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Speaker 1: this is from Mark Stein has the unwavering support of

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Speaker 1: Lakers owner Genie Buss and is firmly entrenched as a

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Speaker 1: pillar of the club's four pronged brain trust, alongside Bus

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Speaker 1: and the power couple of Kurt and Linda Rambis end quote.

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Speaker 1: Not only does that confirm the suspicions we discussed on

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Speaker 1: the pod last week about the fact that Genie is

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Speaker 1: leaning on Rob and on Kurt Rambis and on Magic

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Speaker 1: Johnson as she navigates her way through this. That's a

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Speaker 1: vote of confidence. That's her saying that she's on Rob's

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Speaker 1: side in all of this, which I thought was really interesting.

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Speaker 1: Mark Stein went on to say, this is an organization

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Speaker 1: that has cut ties completely with Lakers icon Jerry West,

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Speaker 1: who has a legit claim to the to be the

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Speaker 1: greatest Laker ever. When you combine his playing achievements with

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Speaker 1: his front office work, James and Agent, it's Paul. For

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Speaker 1: all of the perceived control they wield, are still outsiders

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Speaker 1: when it comes to the Lakers power dynamics. If West

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Speaker 1: can be cut off, rest assured, Lebron can too, if

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Speaker 1: he can no longer lift the Lakers out of mediocrity.

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Speaker 1: End quote. Yet another very very pointed statement, basically saying, Hey, listen, buddy,

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Speaker 1: if I'm choosing between the Lakers and you, I'm choosing

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Speaker 1: the Lakers. That's the message that Genie is sending to

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Speaker 1: Lebron there. And I think it's very interesting because, you know,

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Speaker 1: as we've discussed a lot over the course of the

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Speaker 1: last couple of weeks, this is an incredible disaster. I

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Speaker 1: tweeted this morning, this is one of the worst examples

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Speaker 1: of roster building in the history of the NBA. The

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Speaker 1: stat that I used to demonstrate that is that this

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Speaker 1: year's Lakers team with Lebron and Anthony Davis on the

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Speaker 1: floor together by net rating, has underperformed relative to last

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Speaker 1: year's Lakers team with Lebron and a D off the floor.

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Speaker 1: So last year's Lakers no Lebron and a D better

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Speaker 1: than this year's Lakers with Lebron in a D. Think

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Speaker 1: about how difficult that would be to pull off. Think

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Speaker 1: about how bad you have to be around those two

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Speaker 1: for that to be the result. And like we've said,

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Speaker 1: everyone's guilty. It requires dozens of things to go wrong

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Speaker 1: for that to be the case, and everyone's to blame.

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Speaker 1: Genie Busses to blame for constantly, constantly relying on what's

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Speaker 1: familiar to her familiar to her instead of putting people

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Speaker 1: in charge and seeking out people who are qualified for

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Speaker 1: the job. She's also not as rich as other owners

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Speaker 1: and certainly not as willing to spend, which for this

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Speaker 1: particular Lakers team is a big problem. We went step

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Speaker 1: by step through everything Rob Polinka has done wrong in

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Speaker 1: the last couple of years to short change what this

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Speaker 1: team was capable of, and then Lebron and Clutch they

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Speaker 1: flat out missed on Russell Westbrook. They were the ones

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Speaker 1: who pushed for him. It was a disaster before it happened,

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Speaker 1: it was a disaster as it was happening. It's still

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Speaker 1: a disaster now. Everybody knew that going in, They pushed

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Speaker 1: for it. They are responsible for that. So everyone's guilty.

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Speaker 1: And so what you're seeing now is a classic case

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Speaker 1: of trying to control the narrative, which is one of

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Speaker 1: the most important aspects to sports history. As stupid as

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Speaker 1: that is, because for whatever reason, we allow the narrative

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Speaker 1: to change the way we remember things in sports history.

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Speaker 1: Lebron wants you to look back at this season as

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Speaker 1: Genie and Rob's fault. Robin, Genie, I want you guys

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Speaker 1: to look back at this season and think of it

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Speaker 1: as Lebron and Clutch sports fault, and they are trying

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Speaker 1: to control that, and it works. Look at the two

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Speaker 1: thousand seventeen finals. You're probably in one of two camps.

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Speaker 1: You either think Kevin Durant outplayed Lebron James head to head,

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Speaker 1: or you think two basketball teams played each other. One

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Speaker 1: team had way more talent, and the one team that

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Speaker 1: had way more talent easily one. That's the way you

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Speaker 1: would look at it, right if you watched those games,

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Speaker 1: and you saw what happened. There was an attempt to

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Speaker 1: establish a narrative that Kevin Durant Lebron were playing one

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Speaker 1: on one in that series. And so if you buy

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Speaker 1: into that, that's the way you remember the two thousand

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Speaker 1: seventeen finals. That's how powerful these narratives can be. That's

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Speaker 1: why Lebron's playing this game. That's why Rich Paul called

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Speaker 1: Stephen A. Smith the other day to say, hey, go

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Speaker 1: on first take and tell, tell, tell everybody that Rob

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Speaker 1: Plinka was lying. That's why Genie Buss is going to

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Speaker 1: Mark Stein and attempting to change the way that we

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Speaker 1: view about the view this season. Now, the question becomes,

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Speaker 1: is this all posh suring or we headed towards some

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Speaker 1: kind of blow up here? Because I like to think

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Speaker 1: that Lebron has no intention of leaving the Lakers. That's

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Speaker 1: just what anybody's paying attention to this to the situation

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Speaker 1: would tell you, right. Lebron loves it there. He loves

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Speaker 1: being in l a, He loves being around all the

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Speaker 1: other celebrities. He loves rolling up to Sierra Canyon games

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Speaker 1: to watch his kids play and doing all of the

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Speaker 1: things that he does when he shows up to those games.

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Speaker 1: He loves everything about Los Angeles. He loves being a Laker,

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Speaker 1: he loves the history, he loves putting on that jersey,

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Speaker 1: he loves playing in Staples Center. And when I was

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Speaker 1: recording that video, when I was on the trip, that

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Speaker 1: was where my brain first went. There's no way Lebron

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Speaker 1: wants to leave. There's no way. But things are getting nastier,

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Speaker 1: and that makes me wonder. It makes me wonder if

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Speaker 1: this is heading to some sort of breakup. Because the

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Speaker 1: truth of the matter is is I think Genie and

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Speaker 1: Robber a little bit sick of Lebron and Clutch, and

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Speaker 1: Lebron has made it very clear that he's sick of them.

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Speaker 1: But I think what Lebron would prefer, it's just to

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Speaker 1: regain the power in the situation. He's trying to a

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Speaker 1: lot of this aside from the narrative, is him trying

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Speaker 1: to take back power? You know, Lebron tried to manipulate

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Speaker 1: the Lakers into making a bunch of trades at the

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Speaker 1: deadline through the media. Yeah, it's straight up went to

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Speaker 1: a press conference and said, we're not good enough to

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Speaker 1: beat the Bucks, and we can't beat good enough to

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Speaker 1: beat the Milwaukee Bucks as currently constructed. He sent very

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Speaker 1: pointed messages and he got rejected, and that just doesn't

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Speaker 1: happen a lot in Lebron's career, and I think he

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Speaker 1: I think he immediately reactionary, in a very reactionary way,

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Speaker 1: tried to take back control. And so the way that

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Speaker 1: looks for Lebron is we get to this summer and

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Speaker 1: the Lakers have some assets, right, they have Tailor, and

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Speaker 1: they have these two first round picks. I think Lebron

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Speaker 1: wants all those sent out to retool the roster around

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Speaker 1: these guys and make another run at it. But it's

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Speaker 1: now in question whether or not Rob and Genie would

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Speaker 1: be willing to do so, and they wouldn't be the

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Speaker 1: first to do so. In the summer of two thousand seventeen,

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Speaker 1: after Kyrie demanded a trade, Lebron asked the entire Calves

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Speaker 1: organization in the front office to trade that first round pick.

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Speaker 1: The Colin set the Collin Sexton pick to try to

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Speaker 1: bring in Paul George or some star to come play

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Speaker 1: with it. And Dan Gilbert looked at him and said, okay, fine, resign,

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Speaker 1: resign with me, and I'll do this trade. And Lebron

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Speaker 1: said no because obviously he wanted to go to the

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Speaker 1: Lakers and he didn't get what he wanted, and that

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Speaker 1: could happen again this summer. Lebron is one year left

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Speaker 1: on his contract after the Sea is in and he

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Speaker 1: has no doesn't ever player option. I don't even think

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Speaker 1: he has a no trade clause in that contract. In

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Speaker 1: that contract, he doesn't have any real controller leverage here.

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Speaker 1: Actually Robin Genie do, And so what I think, if

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Speaker 1: there's one angle that Lebron needs to play here, it's

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Speaker 1: the fact that this team can't win without him right now.

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Speaker 1: They don't have They already mortgaged much of their future

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Speaker 1: for Anthony Davis, and in the years leading up to this,

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Speaker 1: they struggled. That's the angle Lebron needs to be playing.

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Speaker 1: The angle Lebron needs to be playing is you can't

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Speaker 1: win unless you have me, And we can't win with

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Speaker 1: the first and a twenty one year old guard who's

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Speaker 1: way behind in his development relative to what the Lakers

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Speaker 1: need from him in this moment. So I think the

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Speaker 1: most likely scenario is that Lebron leverages that and attempts

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Speaker 1: to get Robin Genie to put all the chips in

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Speaker 1: the middle to cash in, because that what are we

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Speaker 1: even trying to do here if we're not trying to

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Speaker 1: win a championship, especially if you're the Los Angeles Lakers.

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Speaker 1: You don't get participation trophies with the Lakers. Not when

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Speaker 1: there's seventeen banners on the wall. This is an entirely

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Speaker 1: different standard that they're operating under, and so clinging to assets,

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Speaker 1: having one foot in the moment and one foot in

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Speaker 1: the future, that's not the way to do it. That's

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Speaker 1: going to piss off a lot of Laker fans. That's

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Speaker 1: not up to the standard of the franchise. And I

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Speaker 1: don't know what the pathway out of this is because

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Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is is Genie, as you

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Speaker 1: can tell from this mark Stein story, she's son knowing.

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Speaker 1: She's obstinate, she's stubborn, she's very, very under the impression

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Speaker 1: that they are in the right here, and so is Lebron.

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Speaker 1: So we're coming to a head, you know. And Lebron

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Speaker 1: can make comments like I might go back to Cleveland

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Speaker 1: one day, not for sure, but maybe I will. You know,

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Speaker 1: he can say that kind of stuff all he wants.

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Speaker 1: I'm not even sure. Clearly, move on him if Lebron

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Speaker 1: wanted to go back to Cleveland, he would have to

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Speaker 1: take on a different approach than he has with his

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Speaker 1: Lakers team. The Lebron process is chaotic. We've talked a

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Speaker 1: lot about that over the years on this spot. When

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Speaker 1: he when he shows up, you win, You're gonna get

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Speaker 1: a championship. But the process is unbelieve. You're gonna send

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Speaker 1: out a bunch of assets, You're gonna mortgage the future.

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Speaker 1: There's gonna be drama, there's gonna be conflict, there's gonna

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Speaker 1: be passive aggressiveness. That's all part of the journey. And

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Speaker 1: we're at that part of the journey right now with

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Speaker 1: the Lakers, and obviously, because they're not winning, it doesn't

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Speaker 1: seem like it's worth it. The Calves have a nice

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Speaker 1: organic core that they've built with really good young players,

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Speaker 1: and make no mistake, if they got Lebron, they'd be

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Speaker 1: a bona fide championship contender. If you could put Darius

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Speaker 1: Garland next to Lebron James with that incredible Alan Mobile

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Speaker 1: front court, they would be extremely difficult to beat, especially

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Speaker 1: if they got some veteran role players in there, especially

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Speaker 1: with Kevin Love coming off the bench. But what what

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Speaker 1: What in the world makes you think if you're a

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Speaker 1: Cass fan, that you want to take on that Lebron

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Speaker 1: chaos when everything with the team is going so smoothly

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Speaker 1: right now. So that's the one angle with this, that

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Speaker 1: Lebron has gotta be careful with your thirty seven. Now,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna be thirty eight next season. The Lakers are

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Speaker 1: willing to put up with you. I'm not sure that

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Speaker 1: some of these other young cores that you see out

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Speaker 1: there are willing to put up with you. So that's

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Speaker 1: the that's the other side of this that gets interesting.

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Speaker 1: My prediction is that Lebron stays in l A. My

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Speaker 1: prediction is that they ship off all the assets this

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Speaker 1: summer and that they try to retool around Lebron in

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Speaker 1: a d next year. But there's some bad blood in

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Speaker 1: the water, and if that continues, if this bad blood

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Speaker 1: gets worse, it can burn a bridge. Jerry West is

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Speaker 1: a hero to Laker fans for what he did in

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Speaker 1: his career. They're not even on speaking terms with Genie

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Speaker 1: Buss now. Lebron is a little more high profile right now,

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Speaker 1: so maybe that makes it a little more complicated from

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Speaker 1: Genie's perspective. But I wouldn't be shocked. That story from

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Speaker 1: with Mark sign is very pointed and very intentional. It's

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Speaker 1: clear that they're not happy with the way things are

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Speaker 1: going well. See, Like I said, I predict that they

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Speaker 1: send out the assets, but I wouldn't be surprised by anything.

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Speaker 1: At this point. I wanted to move on to the

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Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns for a minute. So Chris Paul has a

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Speaker 1: right right thumb evulsion fracture. If I'm saying that properly,

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Speaker 1: he's gonna be out sixt eight weeks. It's not necessarily

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Speaker 1: the end of the world. Hand injuries in particular are

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Speaker 1: easier to rehab from in terms of the timetable, because

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Speaker 1: you can do more to maintain your conditioning while you're out.

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Speaker 1: It's not like a leg injury where you literally can't

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Speaker 1: run for six d eight weeks. Like Chris Paul is

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Speaker 1: gonna be able to stay in shape. He's gonna be

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Speaker 1: able to do basically everything other than shoot a basketball

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Speaker 1: for a little while, and then there will be some

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Speaker 1: ramp up in that department. But Chris Paul is gonna

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Speaker 1: be fine. I'm not worried about that in particular. Now,

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Speaker 1: there are two different ways to look at this in

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Speaker 1: terms of the Sun's prospects. How are they going to

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Speaker 1: do for the rest of regular season and what does

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Speaker 1: this mean for the playoffs. In the regular season, They're

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Speaker 1: gonna be fine. There's seven games up on the number

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Speaker 1: two overall seed in the lost column. Seven games. That

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Speaker 1: is a huge cushion. This season with Chris Paul off

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Speaker 1: the floor, the Suns are plus four point two points

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Speaker 1: per one possessions. That's in dominant basketball team. That plus

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Speaker 1: four point two net rating would rank seventh in the

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Speaker 1: league right now. Basically without Chris Paul, the Sons are

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Speaker 1: just as dominant as the Cleveland Cavaliers are right now.

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Speaker 1: The Calves currently sit at plus four point two for

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Speaker 1: the season. They're gonna be fine. And I've said this

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Speaker 1: a lot, but the reason why they have so much

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Speaker 1: success is this is the deepest talent from top to

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Speaker 1: bottom that I've ever seen on an NBA roster. They

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Speaker 1: don't have the top end talent. No one's gonna compete with,

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Speaker 1: like a two thousand seventeen Warriors. If you've got Kevin Durant,

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Speaker 1: Clay Thompson, Steph Curry, and Draymond Green on the floor,

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Speaker 1: that's just a level of top end talent that no

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Speaker 1: team can ever keep up with. But in terms of

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Speaker 1: the toll the whole roster from top to bottom, I

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Speaker 1: have never seen a team with this many good players

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Speaker 1: on it, and they've only done things to improve and

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Speaker 1: to plug in holes. They had issues with an undersized

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Speaker 1: guard coming off the bench in Campaign and that caused

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Speaker 1: problems for them in switching situations. So they got Alfred Payton,

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Speaker 1: a bigger, stronger, more athletic guard, to give them a

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Speaker 1: different option in that scenario they ended up against against

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Speaker 1: a team that was attacking Campaign. They had tons of

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Speaker 1: issues with DeAndre Ayton getting in foul trouble or every

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Speaker 1: time he went to the bench for arrest. The Frank

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Speaker 1: Kamitsky and Dario Sarge would get destroyed by the bench

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Speaker 1: bigs that they would face elsewhere in the league, especially honest.

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Speaker 1: So they got JaVale McGee and they got Bismack Bionmbo.

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Speaker 1: They've completely solved that problem. They're deep, they have an

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Speaker 1: incredible amount of talented role players. It's like the opposite

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Speaker 1: of what we see with the Lakers. The guys who

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Speaker 1: aren't the stars are just that team by itself might

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Speaker 1: be a playoff team. That's how good they are. My

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Speaker 1: favorite player on that team right now is Michael Bridges

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Speaker 1: are one of my friends. Jackson Frank on Twitter did

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Speaker 1: a profile on him today talking about his offensive development.

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Speaker 1: Michael Bridges is averaging nineteen points in his last eleven

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Speaker 1: games on seventy true shooting. I noticed this in the

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Speaker 1: playoff series last year against the Lakers. I noticed like

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Speaker 1: he was playing a role on that team, really kind

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Speaker 1: of confining his game to fit into what the Suns

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Speaker 1: needed him to do. But I kept seeing these little

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Speaker 1: flashes in that series where I'm like, there's a really

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Speaker 1: talented score like under the surface there that's waiting to

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Speaker 1: come out when given the opportunity. And we're starting to

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Speaker 1: see that. He's almost like Kevin Durant with his ability

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Speaker 1: to make these little one handed, like floating jump shots

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Speaker 1: in the lane, especially as he's coming off of screens,

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Speaker 1: and it just makes him really really difficult defend because

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Speaker 1: how tall he is and how long his arms are.

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Speaker 1: That's a that is a gitimate all Star level prospect

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Speaker 1: that is not even one of their top two players.

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Speaker 1: That's the type of talent that's on this team. That's

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Speaker 1: why there plus four point two per one possessions without

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Speaker 1: CP three. That's why they have a seven game lead

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Speaker 1: on the number two overall seat. And I don't even

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Speaker 1: get to Camp Johnson or j Crowder and their arsenal

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Speaker 1: of wings that can shoot. This is an incredibly talented

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Speaker 1: basketball team. So they're gonna be fine without Chris Paul.

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Speaker 1: But this is the latest reminder of Chris Paul's fragility.

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Speaker 1: He is throughout his career showing a propensity to get hurt,

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Speaker 1: like he did with the Rockets in two thousand eighteen

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Speaker 1: that costs them the Warriors series, like he did in

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Speaker 1: two thousands sixteen in that first round series against the Blazers.

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Speaker 1: He has shown a propensity to break down under a workload.

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Speaker 1: And so even though this was just a Haynd injury,

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Speaker 1: it's just a fluke. But it if something like this

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Speaker 1: happens in the playoffs, he turns an ankle, he pulls

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Speaker 1: a hamstring, that does significantly change the math for this

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Speaker 1: Son's team. The reason why is because, like I always

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Speaker 1: tell you, guys, they are very specific things that championship

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Speaker 1: contenders always have. They always have high level defense, they

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Speaker 1: always have defensive versatility, They always have a guy that

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Speaker 1: can create their own shot, like an isolation score, like

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Speaker 1: Devin Booker is for the Suns. But most importantly, they

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Speaker 1: always have a guy who's a very talented, high end playmaker,

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Speaker 1: a guy who can make reads, a guy who can

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Speaker 1: interpret the defensive scheming of the opponent and be one

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Speaker 1: step ahead of him. It's like the chess match of

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Speaker 1: a playoff series. Chris Paul is a very very important

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Speaker 1: part of the Son's ability to win a chess match

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Speaker 1: against the top tier teams in the league, and if

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Speaker 1: he does break down, if he does get hurt, it

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Speaker 1: severely limits them in that specific scenario. You can be

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Speaker 1: a dominant team, you can have an incredible depth of talent,

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Speaker 1: You can be plus four point two per one hundred

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Speaker 1: possessions without Chris Paul in the regular season, but then

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Speaker 1: run into a matchup where teams just schemes really well

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Speaker 1: around Devin Booker and around Deandretan, and you just don't

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Speaker 1: have a counter for it. Having that really high level

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Speaker 1: basketball like you, that high end playmaker, gives you the

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Speaker 1: ability to be one step ahead of the adjustments that

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Speaker 1: the opponents are making. So point being the Sons are

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Speaker 1: gonna be fine. This Chris Paul injury does not disrupt

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Speaker 1: their ability to win the championship. But he's the most

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Speaker 1: important piece and if he does go down in some

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Speaker 1: capacity that affects them in a playoff series, it could

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Speaker 1: cost them and they could lose. They are beatable without

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Speaker 1: Chris Paul. They might beat able with Chris Paul, but

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Speaker 1: they're definitely beatle beatable without Chris Paul. So that's the

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Speaker 1: thing they're gonna have to watch out for, is Chris

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Speaker 1: Paul's body breaking down. All right, that's all I have

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Speaker 1: for you guys today. We will be back for a

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Speaker 1: Thursday night show when the NBA re kicks up after

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Speaker 1: the All Star break. I appreciate you guys support as always,

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Speaker 1: and we will see you on Thursday. The volume