Speaker 1: The volume. It's Hoops and I presented by FanDuel. The
Speaker 1: NBA season is kicking into gear and there's no better
Speaker 1: place to get in on the action than with FanDuel.
Speaker 1: The app is safe and secure, getting your money out
Speaker 1: is super easy. You can jump into the action at
Speaker 1: any time during the game with live betting and I
Speaker 1: love building those same game parlays and Fanduels now live
Speaker 1: in Ohio, so use promo code Jason T and download
Speaker 1: the fandel app today to start making every moment more
Speaker 1: twenty one plus In select states, gambling problem called one
Speaker 1: hundred gambler or visit FanDuel dot com. Slash r g
Speaker 1: in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Virginia,
Speaker 1: and Ohio called one hundred next step or text next
Speaker 1: step to five three three four two in Arizona called
Speaker 1: one eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or
Speaker 1: visit CCPG dot org. Slash chat in Connecticut called one
Speaker 1: hundred Mine with it in Indiana, visit k S Gambling
Speaker 1: help dot com. In Kansas call one eight seven seven
Speaker 1: seven seven zero stop. In l A visit www dot
Speaker 1: m D gambling help dot org in Maryland dial one
Speaker 1: eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope
Speaker 1: and Why to four six seven three six nine in
Speaker 1: New York, called one five to two four seven zero
Speaker 1: zero in Wyoming, or visit www Dot one gambler dot
Speaker 1: net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight,
Speaker 1: forsented my Fanuel here at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a great
Speaker 1: start to your week. We are live on and don't
Speaker 1: forget if you're watching on YouTube for the podcast feeds
Speaker 1: there anywhere else. That amp is the very first place
Speaker 1: that you guys can get these shows, these postgame uh
Speaker 1: instant reactions. Today we're gonna be talking about that another
Speaker 1: crazy Lakers game, because that's just the way all of
Speaker 1: them are this season. Uh. That entire organization is kind
Speaker 1: of sloppy from the top down, So you're gonna get
Speaker 1: a lot of sloppy basketball because process usually leads to
Speaker 1: results that you deserve with that type of process. We're
Speaker 1: also going to talk just a tiny bit about the
Speaker 1: Warriors recent windstreak. I'm not gonna dive too long into
Speaker 1: it because provided all their starters play, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: hitting them tomorrow when they play the Minnesota Timberwolves. And
Speaker 1: then I've been holding off for too long, guys, I
Speaker 1: have a solid I have a lot of thoughts about
Speaker 1: officiating in the NBA that I'm going to be saving
Speaker 1: for the end of the show. Before we get started.
Speaker 1: You guys have heard me talking about game Time, the
Speaker 1: fastest growing ticketing app in the US. If you're looking
Speaker 1: to get out to any NBA, NHL, NFL playoff games,
Speaker 1: or even a concert or comedy show, game Time has
Speaker 1: amazing last minute deals on tickets to all of these.
Speaker 1: Uh two nights from now, I'm going to see in
Speaker 1: the Chale Center the organ Ducks play against Arizona Wildcats,
Speaker 1: a little chance for the Wildcats to get some revenge.
Speaker 1: Got the tickets on game Time. It was super easy
Speaker 1: to use. I knew exactly where the seats were gonna be.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of cool features, like the ability
Speaker 1: even just to move your phone around to get an
Speaker 1: idea allay of the land as it pertains to the stadium.
Speaker 1: I really want you guys to check it out. No
Speaker 1: matter where you live, get out and have some fun
Speaker 1: this week. Download the game Time app and to your
Speaker 1: email and redeem code Hoops for twenty dollars off your
Speaker 1: first purchase terms apply again and to your email and
Speaker 1: the code Hoops that's h o O p s for
Speaker 1: twenty dollars off. Download game time today, last minute tickets,
Speaker 1: lowest price guaranteed. Okay, like I said, another wild Lakers game, Um,
Speaker 1: the Lakers had no idea how to guard. Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: absolutely towards them all game long. A couple of the
Speaker 1: specific things that Jalen Brunson did that I thought were
Speaker 1: super interesting for young guards to pay attention to. He
Speaker 1: started with the head of steam, started his attack either
Speaker 1: in semi transition or would back away to get a
Speaker 1: head of steam before he go into these pick and rolls.
Speaker 1: It puts the defender in a situation where they're on
Speaker 1: their heels. It makes it so they can't be aggressive
Speaker 1: towards the basketball. And then another thing he did is
Speaker 1: he did a really nice job of flipping screen angles.
Speaker 1: So uh, in the modern n b A, when you're
Speaker 1: a guard and you have to defend all these pull
Speaker 1: up jumpsters, you gotta chase guys over the top of screens,
Speaker 1: and what ends up happening is you have to prep
Speaker 1: for that by taking specific steps or positioning yourself to
Speaker 1: get over that screen. Jalen Brunson did a real good
Speaker 1: job of waiting for his defender to get out of
Speaker 1: balance or to get prepped for the screen just to
Speaker 1: go the other way, and was getting all sorts of
Speaker 1: downhill penetration. Anthony Davis is still not moving the way
Speaker 1: that he did before his injury, so they were having
Speaker 1: a nightmare of a time trying to contain Jalen brunts
Speaker 1: and then if they happened to get over the top
Speaker 1: of the screen and stay stay with Jalen. He does
Speaker 1: such a good job of putting you in jail, trapping
Speaker 1: you on his shoulder, and just kind of work into
Speaker 1: his spots and then using that physicality to quickly get
Speaker 1: a little bit of separation to take his little floaters
Speaker 1: and pop shots. Julius Randall was given Ruby Hatcher Mura
Speaker 1: a nightmare of a time with his foul grifting. And
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk a lot about that leader in the show,
Speaker 1: because I have a huge bone to pick with where
Speaker 1: the NBA has been going in recent weeks and really
Speaker 1: for the last several seasons, as it pertains to foul drifting.
Speaker 1: But Julius keeping that left hand off the basketball, gathering
Speaker 1: with his right hand, looping Ruby's arm with his left
Speaker 1: hand to then put it on the basketball and try
Speaker 1: to shoot, was getting a bunch of foul calls like that.
Speaker 1: I think he shot double digit free throws if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly. And the Lakers are having a bunch of trouble,
Speaker 1: especially in the lineups when Uh with Lebron and Russ
Speaker 1: were excuse me, when Lebron and Anthony Davis were both
Speaker 1: off the floor. But this is a must win game
Speaker 1: for the Lakers because of their predicament in the standings.
Speaker 1: They brought good effort for the most part. And we
Speaker 1: were sitting at one fourteen, one oh eight, Lebron hitting
Speaker 1: a pull up three at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: Lakers in great shape, and you think the game is
Speaker 1: over and we had to overtime, and so how do
Speaker 1: you blow a six point lead in just a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes. Well, Lebron goes down the floor and uh
Speaker 1: and and hits the three. But I'm out of the
Speaker 1: time out the Knicks, they run a quick set for
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson, a bunch of quick interchanges. He gets downhill,
Speaker 1: he makes a layup. Then Lebron goes down takes another
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot on Julius Randall misses this one.
Speaker 1: The Lakers get an offensive rebound and it's right in
Speaker 1: front of Ruey hot Chamura and he looks back to
Speaker 1: check on Emmanuel quickly before he secures the basketball, and
Speaker 1: basically volleyball sets it out of bounds. Um. So the
Speaker 1: Nicks get the ball back, they force a miss, and
Speaker 1: Ruey hot Chamura again another big time mistake is guarding
Speaker 1: Isaiah Hartenstein in the left corner and forgets to box
Speaker 1: out Um. You know, I think Ruey should inevitably in
Speaker 1: the long run be in the Lakers closing lineup. But
Speaker 1: the Lakers, you know, when we're talking closing lineups, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk a little bit more about that later,
Speaker 1: it's not just about skill set. It's not just about like, hey,
Speaker 1: can you knock down an open shot or can you
Speaker 1: guard this guy in ISO? Late games are all about execution,
Speaker 1: and that means that you can't make mistakes. And so
Speaker 1: one of the things Ruey's gonna have to watch out
Speaker 1: for is they're gonna go back on tape and they're
Speaker 1: gonna see that offensive rebound and they're gonna be like
Speaker 1: the next time route uh. Darvin Ham's trying to put
Speaker 1: together a closing line up. He's gonna be thinking to himself,
Speaker 1: Can I trust Ruey to box out? Can I trust
Speaker 1: Ruey to make that extra defensive rotation? Can I trust
Speaker 1: him to do these little things that I need in
Speaker 1: that closing group? And kind of a little bit of
Speaker 1: a rough end of this game between that fumble and
Speaker 1: that miss box out of basically a four point swing
Speaker 1: depending on what the Lakers get out of that offensive rebound.
Speaker 1: But on that offensive rebound gets tapped around, ends up
Speaker 1: in Jalen Brunson's hands. He finds Quentin Grimes run into
Speaker 1: the basket for a layup. Now it's a two point game.
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook runs a picking pop with Lebron. Lebron gets
Speaker 1: a wide open three, and he misses it, because that's
Speaker 1: how it goes sometimes. And then Jalen Brunson once again
Speaker 1: and pick and roll gets down hill and makes a
Speaker 1: little pop shot and we're talking hide and then you
Speaker 1: know we're in We're in Madison Square Garden, clocks ticking down.
Speaker 1: Lebron's got the ball, at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: very similar to the situation with the Celtics, and we
Speaker 1: get into the foul call, this time the right foul call,
Speaker 1: and his fate would have it, it goes against the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Lebron hits Anthony Davis with a little pocket pass in
Speaker 1: the lane. But the problem is is the Lakers consistently
Speaker 1: in that closing group have not had enough shooting. It's
Speaker 1: a big part of why I think the Lakers need
Speaker 1: to get a shooter at the deadline because in that
Speaker 1: closing group, there's a lot of Russell Westbrook, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of Dennis Schroeder, there's a lot of There's been
Speaker 1: a lot of Troy Brown Junior throughout this season, and
Speaker 1: those guys just aren't reliable spot up shooters. So what
Speaker 1: can Jalen Brunson do when he's guarding a non shooter
Speaker 1: in the left corner and Lebron and Anthony Davis are
Speaker 1: running pick and roll. He can abandon his man established
Speaker 1: position in front of the charge circle and take that
Speaker 1: charge on Anthony Davis as a third defender, which Anthony,
Speaker 1: it was, has no chance to see because his eyes
Speaker 1: are turned back towards Lebron being ready for the pocket pass,
Speaker 1: and that's how we ended up going to OT. Although
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis did some nice defensive work on
Speaker 1: Julius Randall before the buzzer in o t Laker landslide.
Speaker 1: They opened up with that set play for Lebron where
Speaker 1: they run a bunch of basically uh disguised actions off
Speaker 1: the ball, but Lebron's basically just deep ceiling Julius Randall
Speaker 1: under the basket rust throws a really nice feed over
Speaker 1: the top. Russ has been an absolute abject disaster and
Speaker 1: clutch time all season long, but this was one of
Speaker 1: his best clutch games. That overtime period was one of
Speaker 1: his best clutch periods, albeit with the ball in his hands.
Speaker 1: A whole lot to get into. We'll get to that later,
Speaker 1: but he had a really nice play on the left
Speaker 1: wing later in OT where he attacked the clothes out
Speaker 1: on the pass from Lebron and made a really nice
Speaker 1: drop off pass to Anthony Davis. And then he had
Speaker 1: another play where he ice swed and drove to the
Speaker 1: basket and through like a hook pass to Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: under the basket for a dunk, and then he hits
Speaker 1: effectively the dagger that pull up bank shop. So what
Speaker 1: do we get a must win game for the Lakers
Speaker 1: who came in at twenty three and twenty eight, three
Speaker 1: and a half games back of that six seed that
Speaker 1: I think most teams are targeting to get out of
Speaker 1: the play in on the road against the playoff team
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Conference, and the Lakers got it done.
Speaker 1: So tip of the cap to them. There's a lot
Speaker 1: to get into in terms of negatives with the Lakers
Speaker 1: that I'm going to here in just a minute, but
Speaker 1: I want to start with the positive of saying it
Speaker 1: was a must win game and a tough environment against
Speaker 1: a good basketball team, not a great basketball team, but
Speaker 1: a good basketball team on their home floor, and the
Speaker 1: Lakers gotta win. Um. So I want to frame all
Speaker 1: of that with that's all that matters, that they gotta win.
Speaker 1: But in order for the Lakers to accomplish the things
Speaker 1: that they need to accomplish, they're going to need to
Speaker 1: play very good basketball down the stretch of this season.
Speaker 1: Lakers are now three games back of Dallas for the
Speaker 1: six seed, and there's a bunch of teams in that
Speaker 1: whole log gym. Right once you get after Sacramento, there's
Speaker 1: a little bit of a drop off, and you've got
Speaker 1: Golden State, and you've got Utah, and you've got the Pelicans,
Speaker 1: and you've got you know, the Clippers and the Lakers
Speaker 1: and the Thunder and every and the Blazers and everybody
Speaker 1: that's in that mess, right, and so it's really easy
Speaker 1: to get discouraged and to look at it and be like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, not only are we three games back, but
Speaker 1: we have to outperform all of these teams are that
Speaker 1: are in front. But to be clear, and this is
Speaker 1: the very specific reason why I want to talk Warriors
Speaker 1: for just a second here in a little bit, the Warriors,
Speaker 1: in the Lakers in particular, have a distinct advantage over
Speaker 1: the other teams in that set. The Lakers are much
Speaker 1: more talented when healthy than all of those other teams.
Speaker 1: They've been above five hundred ever since they're to intend
Speaker 1: start significantly, I think like three games about five hundred,
Speaker 1: or four games about five hundred, despite Lebron missing the
Speaker 1: first chunk of those games and Anthony Davis missing the
Speaker 1: significant chunk of those games. When they are whole, when
Speaker 1: they have everybody, they are much more talented than the Jazz.
Speaker 1: You know, they're much more talented in the Blazers, you know,
Speaker 1: so they're gonna have They're much more talented to the Pelicans,
Speaker 1: even with everybody out with injuries. So they're going to
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to gain ground. And when everybody picks
Speaker 1: up that urgency, they're gonna have the players to back
Speaker 1: it up. And that's a big reason why I haven't
Speaker 1: been out on the Lakers yet. A lot of their
Speaker 1: issues have been associated with injuries. Whereas when you're looking
Speaker 1: at like the Minnesota Timberwolves, it's like, this is just
Speaker 1: super clunky. Why do they have two centers? You know,
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell is um mess. You know, Anthony Edwards is
Speaker 1: a downhill guard and they're playing him in poor spacing schemes.
Speaker 1: And they're really only good when they have one center
Speaker 1: on the floor, especially when it's like Nasri who can
Speaker 1: really shoot. There's a lot of like clunky stuff there,
Speaker 1: and even when you put it all together, it's not
Speaker 1: as much talent right there that there. It's hard to
Speaker 1: like they will have to OutKick their coverage, so to speak,
Speaker 1: in order to be the person the team that wins
Speaker 1: this race down the stretch. And so I want to
Speaker 1: be clear that things do look on what precarious. But
Speaker 1: the Lakers have the horses, and a lot of teams
Speaker 1: don't have the horses. That's why you can't write them off,
Speaker 1: um completely. But before we move on from the Lakers,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Darvin Ham for a second,
Speaker 1: because margin for error here is going to be key.
Speaker 1: The Lakers do have more horses than those teams, but
Speaker 1: they don't have more horses than the top teams in
Speaker 1: the league, who also have a good amount of star
Speaker 1: power and deeper benches with more talent with the role
Speaker 1: players behind them. So what that means is that the
Speaker 1: Lakers can't afford to go seventeen and twelve. They gotta
Speaker 1: go like twenty and nine. You know, They've got to
Speaker 1: be not just good, they have to be great down
Speaker 1: the stretch of this and the difference between those two
Speaker 1: outcomes it's not very large. And so they can't afford
Speaker 1: to leave points on the table. They can't afford to
Speaker 1: uh to to engage in self sabotage. And there's one
Speaker 1: guy in particular that I haven't talked a lot about
Speaker 1: this season, um, and it's been I've been trying to
Speaker 1: familiarize myself with him, and also he's been dealt bad
Speaker 1: hand of cards with the rotation. Players have been available
Speaker 1: no forwards for the first chunk of the season and
Speaker 1: then Lebron and Anthony Davis missing time. But I've been
Speaker 1: I've been waiting for the team to get healthy to
Speaker 1: really take a look at Darvin Ham, because when you
Speaker 1: have a team that has all the pieces together, it's
Speaker 1: vitally important that you consistently play your best players together
Speaker 1: as much as possible, and that you stagger people appropriately
Speaker 1: so that you have conducive lineups during all the phases
Speaker 1: of the game. And Darvin has not done a good
Speaker 1: job of that as of late. There are three things
Speaker 1: in particular that I want to hit on with Darvin Ham. One,
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook should never ever play with Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis at the same time or by himself. Now.
Speaker 1: I understood early in the season, when everything was going
Speaker 1: wrong and Anthony Davis is out or Lebron is out,
Speaker 1: that you have to stagger and you need Russ out
Speaker 1: there by himself with a bunch of random NBA players
Speaker 1: trying to win those minutes. But that is no longer
Speaker 1: the case, the team is healthy now and Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: by himself in lineups. This season, those lineups have been
Speaker 1: getting obliterated and over nine possessions Russ on the floor.
Speaker 1: Without Lebron and Anthony Davis, the Lakers are getting outscored
Speaker 1: by seventeen points per one possessions. That is a complete
Speaker 1: abject disaster. And those lineups got rolled again tonight. Now,
Speaker 1: if you put Anthony Davison Russ together, they're about minus
Speaker 1: one point per one hundred possessions, much more palatable with
Speaker 1: everyone available. It's violently important to stagger the players in
Speaker 1: a way that actually is beneficial to the guys that
Speaker 1: are on the floor. Lebron can carry lineups by himself.
Speaker 1: Russ can't. So the way that I would structure the
Speaker 1: rotation is that start Lebron, James and Anthony Davis, and
Speaker 1: then from there it's pretty simple. Pole Lebron round halfway
Speaker 1: through the first quarter, bringing Russ, then Russ and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis run the end of the first quarter. When the
Speaker 1: first quarter ends, bring out Anthony Davis. Put in Lebron,
Speaker 1: then Lebron and Russ can run for a little bit.
Speaker 1: Then midway through the second quarter, you pull Russ and
Speaker 1: you close things with Lebron James and Anthony Davis. That way,
Speaker 1: you never have a moment on the floor with even
Speaker 1: just one of them on the floor. But if you
Speaker 1: absolutely have to because a minute, restrictions or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: leave one of them on the floor. It can't be Russ,
Speaker 1: not when the team is healthy, not when those lineups
Speaker 1: have been getting obliterated NonStop. By putting him out there
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis, you give them a higher defensive floor,
Speaker 1: which allows you larger margin for air on the offensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. Second, Russ with the closing group
Speaker 1: after winning tonight. The Lakers are nine and thirteen and
Speaker 1: games when Russ closes, but there are four no when
Speaker 1: he doesn't. And this goes back to that original point
Speaker 1: about never playing Russell Westbrook alongside Lebron James and Anthony
Speaker 1: ad Us. Why because the things that Russ does well
Speaker 1: don't actually contribute or or go well alongside the things
Speaker 1: that Lebron James and Anthony Davis do well. He is
Speaker 1: an on ball player who excels at pushing the pace,
Speaker 1: punishing smaller, weaker defensive guards in the middle portions of games.
Speaker 1: When things are loose. But in late game situations, you
Speaker 1: have two options with Russ. You can give him the
Speaker 1: basketball and just hope for the best, which tonight it worked,
Speaker 1: but that has not been the usual outcome. Usually it's
Speaker 1: been like what you saw against Boston. The inability to
Speaker 1: knock down spot up threes or make plays off the ball,
Speaker 1: and the poor decision making on ball, like trying to
Speaker 1: isolate Al Horford or trying to isolate Nick Claxton, or
Speaker 1: trying to isolate Joel Embiide when he doesn't have an
Speaker 1: advantage against those guys, and because he's not good off
Speaker 1: the basketball, you're better off going with a player that
Speaker 1: excels doing role player things, because that's what he does
Speaker 1: his entire NBA career. We have seen it time and
Speaker 1: time again, and again we went to ot but in
Speaker 1: regulation it wasn't good with Russ offensive rebound Lebron James
Speaker 1: cutting down the center of the lane wide open for
Speaker 1: a dunk, Russ looks him off and takes a pull
Speaker 1: up off the dribble three on the right wing, when
Speaker 1: he is one of the worst pull up shooters in
Speaker 1: the entire NBA at volume this year. With twelve seconds
Speaker 1: on the shot clock that's up here. That's a complete
Speaker 1: lack of self awareness. And even in a small sample size,
Speaker 1: it might work against the Knicks one time, but against
Speaker 1: the good teams, especially when you get to the postseason,
Speaker 1: you will lose. And the reason why I'm bringing these
Speaker 1: specific things up is because, again, the margin for air
Speaker 1: shrinks more and more as we approach the end of
Speaker 1: the season for the Lakers, specifically as it pertains to
Speaker 1: their playoff chase and where they are in the standings.
Speaker 1: And then when you get to the postseason, let's say
Speaker 1: you get this succeed, that means you might draw up
Speaker 1: the Sacramento Kings in the first round of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: If you play Sacramento Kings in the first round of
Speaker 1: the playoffs, they're gonna have home court advantage. So if
Speaker 1: it's Game five and the series is tied at two
Speaker 1: and you're on the road in Sacramento, if Darvin Ham
Speaker 1: plays Russ, based on what we've seen this season, it
Speaker 1: will go poorly. And the gap between the Lakers. If
Speaker 1: let's say the Lakers are this much better than the
Speaker 1: Kings when they're healthy, and I don't know, I think
Speaker 1: they're more than that. But let's say they're this much
Speaker 1: better than the Kings when they're healthy. A couple of
Speaker 1: poor decisions, as it pertains to the rotation or the
Speaker 1: closing group, can be the difference between you winning the
Speaker 1: series in six or you losing the series in six.
Speaker 1: The further you make get into the season, the margin
Speaker 1: for air shrinks more and more. And then the last
Speaker 1: thing with Darvin ham is just Dennis and Pat um.
Speaker 1: He's been obsessed with playing Dennis a shooter and Patrick
Speaker 1: Beverley together, these two really small ball pressure guards. And
Speaker 1: the main reason why he loves ball pressure Darvin hamm
Speaker 1: loves being disruptive. He thinks it sparks transition opportunities with
Speaker 1: the way that they get deflections and steels and things
Speaker 1: like that. But the problem is is it makes them
Speaker 1: too small in the aggregate. In an NBA game, if
Speaker 1: you play two players that are basically six ft tall,
Speaker 1: you're giving up a lot of size on the floor.
Speaker 1: And we have seen over twelve hundred possessions this year
Speaker 1: of Dennis and Pat together and their minus six per
Speaker 1: one possessions in those minutes. And these are things where
Speaker 1: we're seeing clear evidence throughout this season that clearly demonstrate
Speaker 1: that one thing should be done, and Darvin is going
Speaker 1: another way. And that's what makes That's why I've been
Speaker 1: discouraged specifically with Darvin Hamm's performance as of late, as
Speaker 1: the team has been getting healthy and if they're not.
Speaker 1: Like I talk a lot about the Lakers as a
Speaker 1: potential championship contender, I am at the point now to
Speaker 1: be clear, I do not consider the Lakers to be
Speaker 1: a championship contender unless they trade Russ at the deadline,
Speaker 1: because Darvin ham has too much faith in him and
Speaker 1: when the time comes, when the chips are down in
Speaker 1: the pivotal moments of the NBA playoffs, I do not
Speaker 1: trust Darvin Ham to play the right closing groups, to
Speaker 1: play the right lineups. And the only way to save
Speaker 1: Darvin Ham from himself is to trade Russell Westbrook and
Speaker 1: literally take the option out entirely from Darvin Ham's decision making.
Speaker 1: All right, there's my little Lakers soapbox for you guys.
Speaker 1: Really quickly on the Warriors, and again, why I brought
Speaker 1: this up is is because I think the Warriors in
Speaker 1: in a similar position, obviously just in a much more competent,
Speaker 1: much more talented position. But they just got a quality
Speaker 1: road win in Oklahoma City last night for the third
Speaker 1: straight win. UH. They're starting to put some stuff together
Speaker 1: as they're getting healthy and getting into rhythm. UH. Staff
Speaker 1: was incredible last night, got super hot in the first
Speaker 1: quarter and then made the dagger late in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: He's averaging thirty in this two game stretch during this
Speaker 1: wind streak from the field, from three, from the line.
Speaker 1: Why do I think that's important. He's starting to move better.
Speaker 1: And even when he was putting up numbers before that,
Speaker 1: he just looked like a guy who wasn't in basketball
Speaker 1: shape yet. You're starting to see Steph put a bunch
Speaker 1: of games together. Now that rhythm is starting to click.
Speaker 1: Now he's starting to play more like an m v P.
Speaker 1: But lots of Warriors are playing well. Jordan Pool has
Speaker 1: been fantastic in this little stretch. Tied Jerome and Downto
Speaker 1: di Vincenzo are still giving you a great deal of
Speaker 1: backup ball handling, reliable backup ball handling and scoring. Jonathan
Speaker 1: Cominga is the big guy I want to talk about tonight.
Speaker 1: He's been He's been my he was my biggest misread
Speaker 1: on Golden State this summer. As we were talking about
Speaker 1: how with I never never was worried about James Wiseman
Speaker 1: because I knew when pushed came to shove at the
Speaker 1: end of the season, the Warriors would be going down
Speaker 1: with Kavan Looney and Draymond green Um. But they lost
Speaker 1: Gary Payton the second who was one of the most
Speaker 1: important players in the playoff run, and they lost um
Speaker 1: Otto Porter Jr. And so I was really concerned about
Speaker 1: how they would feel that specific position. And I thought that, uh,
Speaker 1: you see a little bit of you know, Dante DiVincenzo
Speaker 1: filling into that Gary Payton the second role, and I
Speaker 1: think he's done well. But the auto Porter junior spot
Speaker 1: has been the one that they've struggled to fill, at
Speaker 1: least for the most part of this season. And I
Speaker 1: thought it'd be Moses Smoodie, a little bit more reliable
Speaker 1: as a shooter, a little bit smarter basketball cute making decisions.
Speaker 1: Although compared to what Steve Kirk expects out of that position,
Speaker 1: it hasn't been good because that's been a big part
Speaker 1: of why Moody has been in and out of the lineup.
Speaker 1: But I thought he was the guy that was closest
Speaker 1: to being you know, eighty two games away from being
Speaker 1: a dependable bench playoff player. And I could not have
Speaker 1: been more wrong because I thought Jonathan Comingo was too
Speaker 1: raw and too limited offensively to be able to fill
Speaker 1: into that spot. And he's been literally fantastic. He's already
Speaker 1: one of Golden State's best defensive players. They're using him
Speaker 1: a lot like that. Um. You know, I've talked a
Speaker 1: lot about the difference between like that versatile scoring wing
Speaker 1: that's a little bit thinner, bit more quick, uh, and
Speaker 1: then that like big forward that's more of like a
Speaker 1: dirty work guy like and I used examples like Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon or Jared Vanderbilt, And ironically enough, Jared Vanderbilt has
Speaker 1: been mentioned a lot in Golden State trade rumors uh
Speaker 1: um as of late. But the way I look at it,
Speaker 1: like them slotting Cominga into essentially like a a modern
Speaker 1: version of a big man and turning him into like
Speaker 1: a vertical spacer that cuts out of the week side corner.
Speaker 1: And when gold Golden States running there four on threes
Speaker 1: and unleashing him on ball as a primary defender. It
Speaker 1: has been, you know, honestly, a really really uh you know,
Speaker 1: underrated move from Steve Kerr to take a player that
Speaker 1: is very flawed and young, but has a couple of
Speaker 1: other worldly natural gifts with his athleticism, in finding him
Speaker 1: a role on the team where he can point and shoot.
Speaker 1: Jonathan cominga at the things he's good at, while not
Speaker 1: asking him to do the things that he struggles at
Speaker 1: um But ironically, they've been able to throw it down
Speaker 1: to the post to him every once in a while
Speaker 1: and he can make a play. He's been shooting the
Speaker 1: three ball really well as of late, him excelling and
Speaker 1: and kind of taking that leap into that dependable modern
Speaker 1: forward in the NBA has got a long way to
Speaker 1: fixing some of the issues that Golden State has on
Speaker 1: the bench. And now it's not as vitally important that
Speaker 1: they find somebody, although I do believe that they will
Speaker 1: be aggressive at the deadline. But this is the chance
Speaker 1: for Golden State to make a run. And this is
Speaker 1: why I brought them in here, because you know, Golden
Speaker 1: State in particular, they're a little thin. Their biggest weaknesses depth. Ironically,
Speaker 1: the Lakers, it's not so much about depth because they
Speaker 1: have a lot of guys that aren't even in the
Speaker 1: rotation that are good NBA players, like Wayne and Gabriel
Speaker 1: has been one of the best Lakers. He's out of
Speaker 1: the rotation. You know, the Warriors don't really have uh
Speaker 1: that type of depth, But there's so much better on
Speaker 1: the top end, you know, one through six than the
Speaker 1: Lakers are, and so in in particular for the Warriors,
Speaker 1: I think it's more important for them to claw and
Speaker 1: fight for seeding. The more they can play at home,
Speaker 1: the better. The lesser opponents they can play in the
Speaker 1: early rounds the better. And the reason why is they
Speaker 1: fatigue will affect that team in a way that some
Speaker 1: of the other teams around the league it won't. But
Speaker 1: make no mistake, we're setting up for the stretch run.
Speaker 1: You got all those teams I'm talking about. You got Portland'
Speaker 1: you got Okay see, you got the Lakers, you got
Speaker 1: the Clippers, you got the Timberwolves, you got the Pelicans,
Speaker 1: you got the Sons, you got the Warriors. Got all
Speaker 1: these guys in this group, and they're all gonna be
Speaker 1: like having the same conversations in the locker room about
Speaker 1: how to have to hit the Jets. But the Warriors
Speaker 1: have the personnel still to this point, after all this time,
Speaker 1: after all this negativity, after all of the bad stuff
Speaker 1: with the Warriors during the season. Their top five guys
Speaker 1: come on Looney Draymond Grey, and Andrew Wiggins. Stephen Clay
Speaker 1: are by far still the best lineup in the NBA
Speaker 1: to pay to play at least two hundred minutes. Their
Speaker 1: outscoring teams by almost twenty points per one hundred possessions.
Speaker 1: So when they hit the jets the way everyone else does,
Speaker 1: they have a level they can get to that the
Speaker 1: other teams cannot. And so that's why I never wrote
Speaker 1: them off. The more they struggled, That's why I never
Speaker 1: gave up on them as my championship favorite. I expect
Speaker 1: the Warriors to go and run here over the course
Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks. All right, I just want
Speaker 1: to take a few minutes to talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about officiating, because this is something that's been driving crazy
Speaker 1: as of late. It's been kind of a big storyline
Speaker 1: in light of the Lebron James foul at the end
Speaker 1: of the Boston Celtics game. But really, to me, it's
Speaker 1: it's a larger problem at the direction the game is heading,
Speaker 1: and I want to I want to throw a couple
Speaker 1: of disclaimers out up front UM officials are necessary evil
Speaker 1: you absolutely have to have them, so we have to appreciate,
Speaker 1: you know, the position that they're in, but also that
Speaker 1: job is incredibly difficult. I don't have a lot of
Speaker 1: refereeing experiences, but the one one of the few times
Speaker 1: that I've been a ref and a basketball game was
Speaker 1: for an alumni UM. It was like a teachers versus
Speaker 1: students game. When I was playing in college at a
Speaker 1: c U and the campus pastor like cussed me out
Speaker 1: in the game. I was the only ref officiating by
Speaker 1: myself a game with ten people running around in a
Speaker 1: casual pickup game, and I was getting cussed out for
Speaker 1: missing calls because I opted to just basically step back
Speaker 1: and not calling anything unless it was egregious. Point being,
Speaker 1: I get that it's really hard. I get that everyone's
Speaker 1: you know, is screaming at you and yelling at you
Speaker 1: the whole time. I want to say that upfront that
Speaker 1: I understand the difficulty of the position. But to me,
Speaker 1: the role that the official plays in a basketball game
Speaker 1: is to manage the basketball game in a way that
Speaker 1: accentuates the players. What their job is not to do
Speaker 1: is to just simply enforce rules. Because as It's the
Speaker 1: case with everything in life. If you go by the book,
Speaker 1: you leave no room for discretion. If you leave no
Speaker 1: room for discretion, things slipped through the cracks and a
Speaker 1: lot of people get treated unfairly. I think it's important
Speaker 1: to have discretion, and in my opinion, the referees job
Speaker 1: is to be unnoticeable, and instead what we're having is
Speaker 1: the actual game itself, the actual basketball players playing basketball
Speaker 1: in a way that caters to what the refs are doing.
Speaker 1: And for the reason why I'm so specifically passionate about
Speaker 1: this is I love this game so much and they
Speaker 1: are ruining it. When Julius Randall dribbles that Ruey hat
Speaker 1: Samura and gathers with this right hand is a left
Speaker 1: handed player, and keeps his shooting hand off the basketball
Speaker 1: to loop Ruby's arm and to grab the basketball and
Speaker 1: then go up into the shots for the sole purpose
Speaker 1: to drop out. That is not a basketball play. When
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, you know, falls down on a turnaround fade
Speaker 1: away when no one touches him, you don't do that
Speaker 1: when you go play at l A fitness when Joel
Speaker 1: Empiad does it, you don't do that when you play
Speaker 1: in your Men's league. You play basketball, and this game
Speaker 1: in particular tonight was a slog of foul grift ing
Speaker 1: from everybody on the floor. Jalen Brunson coming over the
Speaker 1: top of the screen, defender is right on his hip,
Speaker 1: just literally falls down to the right and just throws
Speaker 1: something up and gets a whistle. He does that because
Speaker 1: they blow the whistle. If you stop blowing the whistle.
Speaker 1: When Julie Randall does grifty stuff, Julius Randall will stop
Speaker 1: doing grifty stuff if you don't blow the whistle. When
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunston tries to flop and draw foul, he will
Speaker 1: stop trying to flop and draw fouls. When you stop
Speaker 1: giving calls to Anthony Davis and Joel Embiid every time
Speaker 1: they fall down, they will stop falling down every single
Speaker 1: time they take a shot, even when nobody touches them.
Speaker 1: They do it because it works. And that's the problem
Speaker 1: with where officials are in the NBA right now. They
Speaker 1: officiate in a way that it's up here for the players,
Speaker 1: and as they are playing the game, they are hunting
Speaker 1: opportunities to manipulate the officials, and that becomes the vibe
Speaker 1: of the basketball game. How many of you watching that
Speaker 1: Knick's Lakers games tonight were annoyed when every other trip
Speaker 1: down the floor we were seeing somebody go to the
Speaker 1: free throw line over some sort of garbage, non basketball play.
Speaker 1: You know. I was talking to a friend of mine,
Speaker 1: Ben DAWs to do uh that's done a bunch of
Speaker 1: deep dive articles and things like that, interviews with NBA officials,
Speaker 1: and him and I have talked a lot about this
Speaker 1: because he's on the other side of of this debate
Speaker 1: and we go back and forth about it. And he
Speaker 1: told me about this thing called the case book. So
Speaker 1: there's the rule book, and then the officials use something
Speaker 1: called the case book. And the case book is essentially
Speaker 1: their subjectivity outlined, you know, a year to year, their
Speaker 1: points of emphasis, the things that they tweak about the
Speaker 1: rule book. And that's what's so frustrating about this. The
Speaker 1: officials take it so seriously as it pertains to their
Speaker 1: job enforcing rules, that they are missing the fact that
Speaker 1: that's not why they're there. If it was possible to
Speaker 1: not have officials, they wouldn't be there. The game is
Speaker 1: about the players, and the game is basketball. When it
Speaker 1: becomes about the refs and the play doesn't resemble basketball.
Speaker 1: We've lost the plot. And the NBA already has a
Speaker 1: problem with the lack of urgency in the regular season
Speaker 1: because you know, stars are sitting every other night. No
Speaker 1: one cares because twenty teams get into the playoffs at
Speaker 1: a thirty. There is absolutely no urgency already, and that
Speaker 1: hurts the NBA. If you add in a bad television
Speaker 1: product driven by poor officiating, it only conserves to further
Speaker 1: that issue. And they've said all the right things, Oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna work on stopping non basketball moves, Well that
Speaker 1: went out the window. What was that two years ago?
Speaker 1: Like a show on this game tonight on both ends.
Speaker 1: And again, I'm just I'm annoyed and I'm passionate about
Speaker 1: it because this is my favorite thing in the world
Speaker 1: and I'm watching it suck and it's just it's just
Speaker 1: really annoying. Um. But yeah, I'm off my soapbox. Alright, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. We're gonna come
Speaker 1: back tomorrow night. We have we have net Celtics UM
Speaker 1: and then Warriors Timberwolves, depending on what happens with the
Speaker 1: with the starters, because the Warriors have a back to
Speaker 1: back play the Nuggets on Thursday night. Uh, whether or
Speaker 1: not we covered that on Thursday night remains to be seen.
Speaker 1: A lot of stuff has to go a certain way,
Speaker 1: but as always, I appreciate you guys to support and
Speaker 1: I'll see you tomorrow night. It's something right around the
Speaker 1: same time the volume