WEBVTT - Midseason Mailbag 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:18.640 Welcome to the State of the Lakers on DASH Radio. 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:20.480 Thank you guys so much for coming to hang out 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:24.840 on a Thursday. Um weird stretch of Lakers basketball. Obviously, 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:27.560 with the way the schedule worked out, they played on Tuesday, 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.440 and then before their game on Tuesday. Next week they 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:34.599 only play once and that's on Friday. And obviously Rog 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.960 and I have been in a groove of recording basically 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.680 every single every other day for the last couple of months, 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:44.440 and so obviously this break is kind of strange. So 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:46.559 we're gonna be getting away from some of the Twitter spaces. 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:48.720 I'm gonna be doing a mail bag pod today. A 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:50.600 bunch of you asked some really good questions and I 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.320 appreciate that. And then probably on either Saturday or Sunday, 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.400 Rog and I will get together again to do something 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.600 along those lines, whether it's mail bag, whether it's some 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:04.560 midseason awards stuff, whether it's some you know, trade ideas 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.720 for the Lakers or something along those lines. Not really 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.520 sure what we'll do. We'll figure something out to do 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:11.440 over the weekend, and then obviously we will have our 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:16.680 normal postgame show tomorrow night after the Lakers Clippers game, 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:20.160 and again on Tuesday. Um, but we're gonna We're gonna 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:22.760 dive straight into the mail back. We're only gonna go 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:24.400 for about thirty minutes today, so it'll be nice and 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:26.800 short and easy. The first question I got was from 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:32.080 Nicholas Quick. Uh did you hear cowherds take yesterday that 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:34.679 the Sons are the team for now in the next 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:38.920 five years? The Lakers are old and poorly constructed, chopped deliver. 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:42.760 What's your response? Um, you know, first of all, Laker 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.160 fans have to come to terms with the fact that 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:49.360 this team has opened themselves up to slander and that's 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:54.480 just part of the deal. Um, they've played themselves into 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:57.240 this situation. There are other teams that have done the 0:01:57.280 --> 0:01:59.760 same thing that Laker fans have taken advantage of in 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.240 sent years. A lot of you probably had a lot 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:04.280 to say about the Warriors over the last couple of 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.280 years and in their uh predicament that they were in. 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.240 But if you talk to somebody in the Warriors fan base, 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:13.960 I'm sure they would tell you, like, we believe that 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.400 when Clay gets back, and when we get some veterans 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:18.960 around step instead of some of these young players, we 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:21.239 believe it's going to get better. They have their optimism. 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:22.840 They see the light at the end of the tunnel, 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.200 just like we do. We see, you know, hey, Lebron 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.920 is gonna come back. The guys are starting to play harder. 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.040 Trevor Rees is coming back, which fills like a direct 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.160 need and the roster. This effort is the first time 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:39.360 we really are seeing consistent buy in this entire season. 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:41.800 We see the light at the end of the tunnel. 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.000 So we believe in what this team can be. But 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.040 people outside, people outside of our fan base, have every 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:50.600 right to look at us and kick us while we're down, 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:53.440 so to speak, in terms of Laker fans in the 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:55.800 Laker team in general, and we just kind of have 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:57.840 to live with that and understand that that's just how 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:01.799 this works. Um. As far as Cowherd particular take, he's 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.760 not wrong in the sense that if you're looking at 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.640 the picture right now, it appears that Phoenix is in 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:11.079 a much better position. You know. They He talks a 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:13.240 lot about how they do have They are built for 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:15.720 now and for the future. They do have a lot 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:19.280 of really exciting young pieces. Michail Bridges reminds me a 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:23.000 lot of Tashaun Prince, like a better offensive version of 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.240 Tashaun Prince, just in the sense that he's this incredibly 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:30.600 long wing that causes problems for basically every perimeter player 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:34.320 in the league. DeAndre Ayton projects to be an all 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.680 star level center in this league. We know what Devin 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:40.200 Booker and Chris Paul are capable of, and it's easy 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:42.840 to kind of draw a line between this is Chris 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:46.880 Paul's potential decline and this is DeAndre Ayton and Michael 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.840 bridges potential ascent. So it's easy to see like this 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:52.119 team is gonna be relevant for a really long time, 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:56.400 and they are. I would argue that because he said that, 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:58.200 you know, in his take, he said that the Lakers 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:00.560 had zero of their ten top ten players that are 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:02.800 in their prime. I would disagree with that. Anthony Davis 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:05.200 is very much in his prime. Th h t is 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:07.160 not in his prime now, but he will be sometime 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:09.480 in the next five years. The Lakers do have a 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:13.080 lot more flexibility and a lot more potential for the 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.159 future than people think. Um. The other thing too is 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:20.600 payroll flexibility. The Lakers don't have any long contracts tying 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.719 them up, so they have a lot of flexibility moving forward. Yes, 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.400 next season, You've got Russ on the books. That makes 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.680 some things complicated for the next season, but after that, 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:32.200 other than Lebron and a d it's pretty much wide 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:34.800 open outside of th h T. So this team is 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.240 built in a way that they can retool year after year. 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:41.680 That said, yes, they're very much invested in this two 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:45.200 year window, so it's easy to get discouraged with how 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.520 it looks here because they don't have a ton of 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:52.160 flexibility strictly within these next two years. That's fair. What 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:54.000 I would say is all the things that I've been 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:57.279 saying in recent pods about them trending in the right direction, 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.240 the effort is better. Help is on the way. In 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.440 terms of the role players, Kendrick Nunn, it would be 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:05.480 better than most of the guards that the Lakers are 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.720 playing right now. Trevor Reasa is a forward that just 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.680 doesn't exist on the roster in terms of a role player, 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.719 those things will absolutely help. The Lakers do have a 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.960 little bit of trade flexibility, which we'll talk about later. 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.400 But the point is is there there Things aren't as 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:23.400 dire as they appear. But from the outside looking in, 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:26.359 wouldn't you rather be the Suns right at this exact 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:28.920 moment in time with the way things look. That's that's 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:33.080 that's not exactly the most outlandish take. Now where where 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:36.120 I would personally choose the Lakers over the Suns has 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.040 to do with the idea of a ceiling, And this 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:42.080 is a concept that is kind of convoluted because it's 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:47.320 hard to It's hard to justify using a ceiling as 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:49.240 the as the silver lining or as the light at 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:51.000 the end of the tunnel when so much of this 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:53.800 is regular season basketball and playoff basketball. Before you get 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.520 to that point, the Suns look fantastic all year. Last 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.880 year they look fantastic. In the first round, they look fantastic, 0:05:59.880 --> 0:06:01.560 and second round they look fantastic. In the third round, 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:03.880 they look fantastic for two games in the NBA Finals, 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.960 and then guess what happened? Milwaukee, because of their elite 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.400 high end talent and Janice, We're able to hit a 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:16.680 ceiling as a team that Phoenix could not touch and 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.280 they lost four straight times. And during that time there 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:21.599 were some really good punches from Phoenix Game four, really 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:23.800 good punch. Devin Booker got really hot a couple of 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.840 times in that stretch and showed some shot making that 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:29.240 could have gotten them over the top, but it just 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.400 wasn't enough. The ceiling for Milwaukee is higher than the 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:37.480 ceiling for Phoenix considerably, and it costs them a championship. 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:39.960 And so the way I would look at it, you know, 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.160 I was talking about the Laker championship odds the other day, 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:44.719 I remember, and one of the things I pointed out 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:46.960 was like, you know, yeah, it's easy to say, why 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:49.320 would the Lakers have Some sports books have them at 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:51.480 fourth and some sports books have them closer to six 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.120 or seventh, depending on where you look. But like, the 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:57.560 reason why it's still a reasonably decent bet to bet 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:01.600 on the Lakers is because Lebron and a d can 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:05.520 reach a ceiling that these other teams can't reach. Most 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.520 of these teams can't reach. Brooklyn can reach that ceiling potentially, 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:11.559 you know, Milwaukee can reach that ceiling potentially. Golden State 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:14.240 if Steph gets going, can can reach that ceiling. But 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.240 a lot of these teams, like Phoenix and like Utah, 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:19.960 they just don't have that super super high end talent 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:24.400 that can match those peak peak guys in those biggest 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.600 moments That significantly limits their ceiling. So where I would 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:30.680 disagree with Colin is. I would say, if you're the Lakers, 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:35.200 you have the two best players in that series, like 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.440 absolutely no question. So even if the Suns have the 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.240 best system ever, and even if the Suns have really 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:43.960 good habits that they've established all season long, and even 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:46.640 if Chris Paul and Devin Booker played to their best, 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:50.080 ability if Lebron and A D played to their best, 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.200 you might lose. As a matter of fact, we saw 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.600 that last year. We saw a limited version of Lebron 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.960 coming off of an ankle injury. We saw Anthony Davis 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.720 a few games removed um achilles tend to tend to 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:03.720 tend to noses or tending to pathi or whatever the 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:07.520 heck they called it, and Anthony Davis still couldn't make 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:11.080 a jump shot. Um The entire Laker corps of role 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:13.720 players went ice cold from three. They had absolutely no 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:17.000 space to operate. And guess what happened. Lebron and A 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:21.480 D physically overwhelmed Phoenix, and they won back to back games, 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:23.680 and they were up two games to one, and they 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.200 were clowning the Suns in the first half of Game four, 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:29.880 throwing lobs off the backboard and stuff, until Anthony Davis 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:32.160 pulled his growing and then at that point, because the 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.600 team has all of their talent tied up in those 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.680 two players, the wheels came off, and that was to 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:39.440 be expected. But at the end of the day, if 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:41.440 I'm looking at this situation as long as I have, 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:46.000 even even with them declining apparently with Anthony Davis trending 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.760 down into the bottom half of that top ten and 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:53.400 Lebron as well, it's still is of higher ceiling potential 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.160 than what you get with the Phoenix or with the 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.360 Utah or teams teams in that tier or like Miami 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:01.360 is another good example of that. Um So, from that standpoint, 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:03.600 if you're a Laker fan like it always could be 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:05.959 a heck of a lot worse. But again, like I 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.160 said at the beginning, let's not let's not discount the 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.600 feelings of those outside of our fan base, because they're 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.920 well warranted. This Laker team has played an incredibly weak 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.040 schedule to start the season in their twelve and eleven So, 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:21.959 I mean, are is anybody really wrong in in the 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:23.959 in the stuff that they're saying that was that that 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:32.920 would be my little caveat there alright? How many days 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.760 this is from Dre Dave how many days before DeAndre 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.439 Jordan gets removed from this roster. Strategy of hiding DeAndre 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:44.160 Jordan behind first unit players was understood DJ is unplayable 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:46.200 with the second unit players because they lacked the skills 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.760 to hide DJ. So the DeAndre Jordan thing I talked 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:51.040 a lot about this in the last part is one 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:54.440 of the more interesting phenomena that I've seen in recent 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:59.640 history in the NBA. Because you know, like I, I've 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:04.120 been slandered relentlessly for this specific take because of the 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:08.200 fact that I said that I actually liked the DJ 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:10.640 signing over the summer. Now, I've tried to explain that 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:13.480 as best as possible, Like I saw him as an 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:15.320 end of the bench center, a guy who would only 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:18.280 play when Dwight Navy rested, not as a guy who 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:22.600 would be the starter for this group. I saw him 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:26.600 as a guy who would be able to maintain scheme consistency. 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.959 You could run drop coverage with Dwight and a D 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:34.199 and essentially when one of them is out, rather than 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.360 having to change your scheme the way you had to 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.920 sometimes with the Montrez Harrald, you could just do the 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.280 same thing with DeAndre Jordan's have that scheme consistency to 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:45.960 carry you for one or two nights in the regular 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:49.160 season and then subbing back out. I never saw him 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:53.079 as that type of player. Now, obviously, in my little 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:55.320 diet tribe over the summer, I said that I saw 0:10:55.400 --> 0:11:00.000 him as a athletic primarily defensive center in terms of 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.280 the archetype. And just for the record, guys, I've done 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:04.120 over a hundred episodes of this stuff. You don't think 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.000 occasionally I slip up with my words and use a 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.840 little bit of hyperbole and exaggerate a little bit and 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:11.400 maybe put my foot in my mouth. Sometimes that's happened 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:13.199 more than once. I promise you, if you go back 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:14.760 and listen to all that junk that I said over 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:16.920 the course of last year, you're gonna find stupid stuff 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:19.480 that I said. That's the nature of the of what 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:21.920 this is. That's the nature of podcasting. So if you 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:24.200 want to rub that in my face, be my guest. 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:28.320 I can take it. But essentially, what's been interesting about 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:35.280 this is I also anticipated that Brooklyn, in their poor 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:39.880 defensive identity and their tendency to switch rather than run 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.319 a drop coverage, would lead to DeAndre Jordan's looking better 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:48.000 with the Lakers. Why Because they're a drop coverage team 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.960 and for the last two seasons they've had an amazing 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:55.440 defensive identity and Frank, even with limited defensive players, people 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:59.280 forget Avery Bradley was trending way down defensively before he 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.120 signed with the Laker. Kyle Kuzma was viewed as a 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.760 bad defensive player before Frank got his hands on him. 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.320 K CP was viewed as an okay defensive player. A 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:12.640 lot of these guys were were has massively outperformed what 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:16.800 their defensive expectations were under Frick coming into this season. 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:21.280 So I allowed that to make me optimistic about plugging 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.920 DeAndre in with this group as opposed to that Brooklyn group, 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:27.960 running a scheme that actually makes sense with what he does, 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:32.120 and having a group of guys that would, you know, 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.760 commit to that with him, and that he would look 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.920 better than he did in Brooklyn. That's what I was 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:43.240 expecting and where I was obviously way wrong is this 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.960 team just completely punted their defensive identity from day one 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:50.560 of training camp and from the top down, including Lebron 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.480 and a b have mostly mailed that end of the 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:56.920 floor in So, of course DeAndre is gonna look terrible. 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.760 That's just the reality of the situation. So I mean, 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.280 that's that's just my two cents on that take from 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:04.800 the summer. And again, yeah, I was wrong about some 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:07.760 stuff with that. I failed to anticipate Frank and the 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:09.560 way he would use him in the rotation. I failed 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.360 to anticipate the way the team would fall apart defensively 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:14.960 outside of DeAndre. Guys, when they were in drop coverage 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:18.520 with Anthony Davis. This season, it has looks terrible outside 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:21.920 of specific stretches of games. That's that's just the reality 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:25.960 of this team. So it's not fair to put all 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.720 of that on DeAndre. That said, I get just as 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:32.160 annoyed as you guys when he's on the floor because 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:35.040 I don't think he should be unless a break class 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.320 in case of emergency, here's an injury, here's the rest day, 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:39.440 we need to use him. That was what I always 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.640 saw with DeAndre. Now, as far as cutting him, goes 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:47.640 back to the question. You know, DeAndre has to inevitably 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:49.400 over the course of the next few weeks if Frank 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:51.520 does what we hope you will do, which is bench 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:55.600 Jim Hays, who embraced the bench roll. You know, we 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:57.800 saw that little video of the altercation. I think it 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.520 was on Pickup Hoops Twitter page where they seem to 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:05.880 get into it Frank and DJ on the sideline if DJ, 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:08.760 if Frank opts to take DJ out of the rotation, 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:13.800 and that's DJ's behavior, that's the way he chooses to act. Yeah, 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:17.360 you gotta cut him. You can't have a a realistic 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.960 championship goal and have a really, really unhappy player in 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.800 the locker room that's constantly messing with your team chemistry. 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.720 You can't have that. But my guess is what will 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.960 happen is because you do need d Guys. We need 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:34.040 DJ as an end of the bench center. We need 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.480 him in case a D goes down for a couple 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:38.760 of weeks, because if a D goes down for a 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:41.080 couple of weeks, there's no guarantee that Dwight can handle 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:43.600 all of it. At the end of the day, DJ 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:48.560 is needed. He's just miscast in his role. Okay, I 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:50.840 know everyone says, let's play j Huff, but guys, there's 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:52.720 a reason why he wasn't on a roster coming into 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:55.720 this season. If J Huff was playing every single minute 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.920 that DJ was playing, you guys would be slandering him too, 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.200 because he's probably a fringe NBA player, and so if 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:05.360 you play a fringe NBA player against good NBA teams, 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:07.320 he's not gonna look great all the time. That's just 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:10.720 the reality of how this stuff works. So, yes, if 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:12.920 DJ becomes a problem for the chemistry, you have to 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.440 cut him and try to work around that sign someone else. 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.440 But hopefully you move him to the bench. He embraces that. 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:21.320 A lot of the guys in that locker room are 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:24.560 friends with him from Team USA and from other basketball 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.840 related engagements. You want him on the team, You just 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:31.360 need him to be in his proper role. Alright. Moving on, 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:38.360 who's a realistic target for the deadline slash buyout? So 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:41.440 the reality is of the Lakers are not very flexible 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:45.600 right now. Um, they basically have one trade piece and 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:49.160 that's Taylor Horton Tucker, and they have one other player 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:51.920 that they can use a salary filler, and that's Kendrick Nunn. 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:55.880 Those two players get you to right around sixteen million, okay, 0:15:55.920 --> 0:16:00.520 So realistically you're looking at players within within a couple 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:03.360 million of twenty million dollars is like your cap for 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:06.360 what you can trade for buyouts? Are tough. You never 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:09.640 really know what to expect in the buyout market. It's 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:13.120 a lot easier to get a feel for that sort 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.440 of thing as we get closer to that time in 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:18.360 the season, and quite frankly, guys like there are guys 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.880 out there that have the time to comb through every 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.720 single roster and make phone calls to exact and try 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:28.240 to get a feel for who might be a buyout candidate. 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:31.200 That's not what I have time for. With everything that 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:33.440 I have on my play as a coach and as 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.280 a real estate agent and doing this, I have time 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.720 to really really focus on Laker basketball games in a 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:41.800 handful of other big games around the league. But there 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:44.640 are better places for you to go for, you know, 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:48.440 checklists of different buyout guys that that might be available 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:50.400 that that come that time of year. As far as 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:52.560 the trade candidates go, the one that I have my 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.920 biggest eye on is Jeremy Grant. And I've talked about 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.120 this in previous podcasts, But the thing with Jeremy Grant is, 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:03.000 you know, I've seen him in the playoffs and what 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:06.320 he's capable of. Yeah, did Lebron have his way with 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:07.840 him in a lot of ways. Of course, Bill Lebron 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:09.960 has his way with the vast majority perimeter defenders in 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:12.879 the league. He did a pretty damn good job on 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:17.640 Kawhi Leonard in the bubble. He is a good shooter, 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:19.800 not a great shooter, but a good shooter and a 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:21.359 guy who can put the ball on the floor. He's 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:24.040 capable of that advanced closeout attacking that I always talked 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.600 about that, Okay, they rotate to the rim and they 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:30.160 chase you off the three point line off of a 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:33.840 skip pass. What can you do to create offense in 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:35.760 that situation. We're getting a lot of this from the 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.960 Leak Monk this year, that in between stuff that, Okay, 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:41.640 they chased him off the line, he ripped through the baseline, 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.520 ripped through the middle, and he makes a tough floater, 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:47.160 or he makes a pull up ten footer, or he 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:49.480 makes a layup, but it's a contested layup where he 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:51.639 contorts his body around the guy and finishes on the 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.080 other side of the rim. That's advanced close out attacking. 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:56.560 We're not gonna get any of that from Trevor Ariza. 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:59.040 What we're gonna get from Trevor Easa is really really 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:03.240 solid individual defense and really really solid team defense at 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:07.120 the wing position with some size versatility. That's true. But 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.040 Jeremy Graham as an athlete and what he's capable of 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.280 on the defensive end is another level or another tier 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.199 above that. And then offensively, he's a guy that in 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:18.719 the playoffs can have games re scores twenty points. And 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.200 so I like him as a as the ideal target 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:23.199 because he's at a healthier salary. We're not looking at 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.720 trying to go after a Harrison Barnes that's up around 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.000 twenty five million or whatever. We're looking at a guy 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:31.080 who's right at twenty million. We can flip Kendrick Nunn 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:34.359 and th h T for him and bring him in. 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:39.400 And it's this obvious, clear ceiling raising move with our 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:43.119 core five man line up. Our core five man lineup, 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:44.720 which is another question that we're gonna get to in 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:47.480 a minute, which will address, you know, in a in 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:50.000 a world where we don't have Jeremy Grant, but our 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:51.880 core five man line up is gonna send around Lebron, 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:55.719 a d and Russ some kind of forward in some 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.440 kind of guard. And so that forward right now is 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:02.720 probably gonn be Trevor a Resa. But if you upgrade 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:07.120 that to Jeremy Grant. That's a huge upgrade. Not to mention, 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:09.119 Jeremy Grant can defend up and down a position, so 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:11.919 you can even go wild and play Jeremy Grant and 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.840 Trevor a Resa in that lineup and have a ton 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:18.159 of length of versatility. There's a lot of potential for 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.960 ceiling raising lineups if you add Jeremy Grant to the mix. 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:26.080 And I also just think it's a very realistic trade, uh, 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.560 in terms of both sides being interested. Detroit through a 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:32.800 bunch of money at Jeremy Grant. They threw it because 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:35.040 they were in a situation where they didn't really have 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:40.199 any sort of obvious pending contending season in the future, 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.600 right because they're just basically a perennial lottery team. They've 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:45.199 got killing in Hayes that they just picked up in 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:48.400 the lottery, they just got Kid Cunningham. They're they're they're 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.800 not really in a position where throwing twenty million dollars 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.000 a year or two player cap straps them. So it 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:56.160 was like an easy little money investment for them. It's 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:58.480 money they had to spend, doesn't hurt the team, doesn't 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:00.600 hurt their future, flexibility, gives a guy that they can 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.440 run the offense through while these young guys are developing. 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:05.879 It was an easy move for them. But that said, 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:10.439 Detroit is not invested in Jeremy Grant in their future. 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:13.159 He's not part of their long term vision for what 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:17.040 they're doing with the team. So Jeremy Grant is there 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:19.440 to be had, and he only has one more year 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:23.800 on that deal. So th HT that is an obvious 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:26.200 fit as a guy that a team could use to 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:31.760 project forward with their their development window, with their rebuilding window. 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.400 Not to mention, Kay Cunningham projects to be a guy 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:38.359 who can eventually guard twos and threes, and th h T, 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:40.720 as we've seen, can guard threes and fours because of 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.200 how strong he is. And again, when you're when you're 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:46.240 talking about position, it's all about who you can guard, 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.960 not what you do offensively. Th h T projects within 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:52.119 the next five years to be able to be a 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:54.680