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Speaker 1: Welcome to the State of the Lakers podcast Today's Friday.

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Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for coming to hang out

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Speaker 1: with Roger and I this morning so that we can

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Speaker 1: finally kind of rehash the entire first half of the

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Speaker 1: Lakers season. At least that's the plan for today. We'll

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Speaker 1: see how much we get to Roger, how you doing

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Speaker 1: this morning? Man? Doing great? Man. I'm excited we're finally back.

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Speaker 1: I found out my life is pretty boring without any

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Speaker 1: games going on. So the I'll Star weekend was only

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Speaker 1: one one day pretty much, So it's been It's been

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Speaker 1: a long week, but I'm excited to finally get back

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Speaker 1: into it. Yeah, it was weird having time to like

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Speaker 1: watch other movies with my wife, and I watched a

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Speaker 1: little bit of that uh that what's it called Last

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Speaker 1: Chance You, which I was like super stoked to watch

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Speaker 1: because I played junior college basketball before I went to

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Speaker 1: four year school and I got to, uh, having the

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Speaker 1: time without the games to kind of dive into something

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Speaker 1: like that was cool. Um. I I am super interested

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Speaker 1: to see how this next a couple of months goes,

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Speaker 1: because it's gonna be super hectic. There's a ton of

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Speaker 1: interesting teams. I think you're gonna have a lot fewer

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Speaker 1: COVID interruptions just by virtue of vaccinations, which I would

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Speaker 1: imagine the players will get vaccinated by early May and

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Speaker 1: just and there's just a lot more immunity around the

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Speaker 1: teams now than what there was at the beginning of

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Speaker 1: the season. I'm super stoked about it. I'm also stoked

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Speaker 1: to announce that I have hardwired my computer so we

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Speaker 1: should no longer have any WiFi interruptions. If we do,

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Speaker 1: then I got a whole other different problem that we

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Speaker 1: got to deal with. But I appreciate you guys being

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Speaker 1: understanding of that over the course of the last couple

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Speaker 1: of weeks as I've gone through this move. But what

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Speaker 1: we're gonna start with today are our game plan is

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Speaker 1: we're gonna start by talking about whether or not we're

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Speaker 1: kind of impressed or underwhelmed with how the Lakers have

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Speaker 1: done this season, so are uh, And then we're gonna

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Speaker 1: go player by player through the roster, give our letter grades,

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Speaker 1: talk about what we liked about what we've seen from

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Speaker 1: said player, and what we've disliked. And then we're also

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Speaker 1: gonna kind of tie things off by talking about you

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Speaker 1: know what sort of roster changes we think can be

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Speaker 1: made over the course of the next month to really

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Speaker 1: maximize the potential of this team moving forward. So what

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Speaker 1: I what I want to start with for Raj is

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Speaker 1: are you impressed, are you satisfied or are you dissatisfied

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Speaker 1: with what you've seen from the Lakers so far to

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Speaker 1: this point in the season. Yeah, I mean I think

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Speaker 1: I'm I think I'm pretty satisfied. I mean it's kind

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Speaker 1: of incomplete, right because I look at the team and

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Speaker 1: I have to keep reminding myself that Anthony Davis missed

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Speaker 1: four team games, which is the season. So you have

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Speaker 1: your best defender, second best player on the team has

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Speaker 1: seen that many games. You're still first in defense. You're

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Speaker 1: still a game back of second in the list. I

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Speaker 1: think they're like four back of Utah. So I feel

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Speaker 1: like they're fine. They're in a good position. Lebron has

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Speaker 1: been great. He's been and we've talked about it a lot.

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Speaker 1: He's been better than better than last year, it feels like,

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Speaker 1: and I think that's the most important thing. The role

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Speaker 1: players are are kind of in a slum, but that's

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Speaker 1: kind of expected. They started out really hot, right, KCP

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Speaker 1: was shooting like from three. Alex Crusoe was around there

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Speaker 1: as well. I think they're kind of fitting into the role.

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Speaker 1: Shrewder has really found himself in the last few games,

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Speaker 1: and they're gonna pick it up. So it's I think

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Speaker 1: they're in a good spot. I think I don't know

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Speaker 1: if they met expectations, because I don't even think that's

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Speaker 1: fair in terms of the how many games a D

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Speaker 1: has missed. So I think they're in a good spot,

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Speaker 1: and there they look like they're ready to go to

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Speaker 1: the second half. I think you and myself and most

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Speaker 1: Laker fans out there had had pretty low expectations, you know,

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Speaker 1: under the circumstances, Like if you would have told me

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Speaker 1: once I knew the really quick turnaround was happening, like hey,

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Speaker 1: a D is gonna miss the games. You know, Denner

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Speaker 1: Shooter is gonna miss a significant chunky games. KCP is

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Speaker 1: gonna have an ankle injury. He's gonna miss some games,

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Speaker 1: like Caruso miss some games too with some back stuff.

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Speaker 1: Like if you told me like yeah, like they're gonna

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Speaker 1: be dealing with a bunch of missing pieces, I would

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Speaker 1: have been, Oh, well, there, I bet you they're gonna

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Speaker 1: struggle a lot because there were just there were a

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Speaker 1: lot of teams out there that hadn't played in a

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Speaker 1: very long time that were extremely motivated, chomping at the

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Speaker 1: bit to get back out there and play some basketball,

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Speaker 1: and the Lakers just weren't one of those teams. And

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Speaker 1: so for them to be where they're at, which is

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Speaker 1: like basically right there fighting for the second best record

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Speaker 1: in the league and within striking distance of getting that

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Speaker 1: number one overall seed, is really amazing, like under the circumstances,

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Speaker 1: And what I would I remember before the season saying

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Speaker 1: that I just hope that their defense would linger around

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Speaker 1: the top ten, because I never in a million years

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Speaker 1: would have thought that on this quick turnaround that they'd

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Speaker 1: be the only team really playing defense Like that blows

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Speaker 1: my mind, like and it really is impressive, And it

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Speaker 1: goes to show you that there is that there's something

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Speaker 1: hardwired into this team that is uh you know, they're

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Speaker 1: made of the right stuff, that is what I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to say. And it goes to show you that that uhum,

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Speaker 1: it goes to show you that there's a reason why

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Speaker 1: so many of us who are Lakers optimists believe in

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Speaker 1: this team the way that we do and as far

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Speaker 1: as you know, the Anthony Davis stuff goes like I

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Speaker 1: just have to We talked about this a little bit

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Speaker 1: in the last podcast. Regardless of how unimpressive they've looked

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Speaker 1: at certain stretches, you know, they've had a lot of

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Speaker 1: they've had some really embarrassing losses. They've also had some

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Speaker 1: impressive wins. But the most important thing is that when

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Speaker 1: Lebron and a D are on the floor, they're still

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Speaker 1: kicking everybody's ass. And when Lebron, A D and Dennis

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Speaker 1: Shrewder on the floor with either Caruso and k c

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Speaker 1: P or Kuzma and KCP, they still have, in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: the best five man lineup in basketball, both ways going

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Speaker 1: and defending and scoring on the other end of the floor.

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Speaker 1: That still presents a problem to teams because they have

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Speaker 1: a they can lean on the fact that they're a

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Speaker 1: known commodity. Some of these other teams are fighting to

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Speaker 1: figure out who they are, you know what I mean,

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Speaker 1: And it's a different type of battle that they're going

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Speaker 1: through the season. The Lakers know who they are. They

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Speaker 1: are already a formed product, they're finished product. What they're

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Speaker 1: doing right now is just getting through stuff and so

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Speaker 1: when you kind of factor all that in, I would

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Speaker 1: say that things have gone better than they could have. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And and it's funny, like we say eight has missed

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Speaker 1: fourteen games, but he's actually like only played well in

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Speaker 1: like a few of them, right, like a few the

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Speaker 1: first few games that he even played, and he was sleepwalking.

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Speaker 1: They didn't play really until the fourth quarter. Um, he's

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Speaker 1: like I think he only had like a few dunks

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Speaker 1: to start the season. Um, he wasn't even going to

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Speaker 1: the basket. So um, even though he's missed only fourteen,

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Speaker 1: which actually is a lot, um, he actually hasn't even

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Speaker 1: played well or wasn't even in condition really, um starting

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Speaker 1: the year. And then you look at the other teams

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Speaker 1: that were in the bubble, right, so Boston is hovering

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Speaker 1: at five hundred, they're like nineteen and eighteen. Miami I

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Speaker 1: think it's still around there. Um yeah, the Miami is

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Speaker 1: also nineteen and eighteen. Denver just started to pick it up,

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Speaker 1: but they're only one and fifteen. And then um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: so you look at those teams, they really started slow.

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Speaker 1: So the Lakers actually came out hot. I think that

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Speaker 1: because the final four teams, the final four teams in

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Speaker 1: the bubble, the Lakers have been by far the best

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Speaker 1: for sure, right, And I think I think that has

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Speaker 1: to do also with the additions. Right, they had Shrewd

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Speaker 1: or Harold, Marcusol, all these guys that were kind of

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Speaker 1: new blood to the team, and then Lebron for some

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Speaker 1: reason just decided I want the m v P. So

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Speaker 1: he went. He went kind of berserk. So, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think I think they're in a good spot. And uh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think you're right. They probably exceeded the expectations. They

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Speaker 1: were probably thought to start slow, but they didn't. They

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Speaker 1: came out hot. They got a nice cushion of leads

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Speaker 1: of winds, so they were able to kind of slow

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Speaker 1: their way into the break. Lebron took out the last

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Speaker 1: game as well, so and then Shrewder missed time with

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Speaker 1: COVID as well. With the COVID protocols. Marcosol is going

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Speaker 1: to be out still that still, because it's been seven

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Speaker 1: days since he was knocked out. Is there any intel

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Speaker 1: on that, like did he actually test positive that? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's no news on that, but he is ruled out

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Speaker 1: for tonight. So well, okay, well then I was then, yeah,

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Speaker 1: they we could just do math, because he would have

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Speaker 1: been back in seven days, correct, I would think, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think they're really strict with that. So I'm not

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Speaker 1: sure how the contact Tracy is gonna work. Like Joel

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Speaker 1: Embiid and Ben Simmons who got it from a guy

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Speaker 1: who tested positive because of the haircut, right, um, they're

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Speaker 1: still out till Saturday or something like that. So but

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Speaker 1: that so that that made sense though, because they tested

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Speaker 1: like from what I understand, like the guy tested positive

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Speaker 1: and they were exposed one day apart, but both that weekend.

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Speaker 1: So the the seven days would release them this weekend,

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Speaker 1: which makes sense. But becauseol missed before the Phoenix game, right,

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Speaker 1: so so so I think we can pretty safely assume

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Speaker 1: that he tested positive. It would be And I'm not

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Speaker 1: obviously don't have reporting on that or anything. I'm just

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Speaker 1: doing some math here, But you're right, that's another thing, um.

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Speaker 1: And and you know it's funny because like everything is relative.

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Speaker 1: I always talk about the regular season in the NBA

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Speaker 1: is all that motivational advantage, uh, not all about talents,

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Speaker 1: big part of it, coaching, all that good stuff, But

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Speaker 1: one of the big factors that constantly gets uh you know,

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Speaker 1: misrepresented his motivational advantage. Like even Tonight's game, you know,

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Speaker 1: Tonight's game is gonna be really interesting one. I think

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Speaker 1: I think that I think this Pacers Likeers game is

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Speaker 1: going to be a battle. You know, the Pacers have

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Speaker 1: a lot more to play for in that game. They

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Speaker 1: just do the a team that they're a team that

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Speaker 1: is very scrappy and they're a team that kind of

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Speaker 1: has a lot of guys that that don't get a

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Speaker 1: ton of national exposure. They're going into a team that's

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Speaker 1: basically the national darling of the of the league and

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Speaker 1: the and the Lakers. It looks like with them being

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Speaker 1: kind of out of the first place hunt Uh, they're

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Speaker 1: not entirely out, but they're kind of distance. It's like

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Speaker 1: they're gonna be the second or the third seed and

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Speaker 1: it's just not really gonna be a problem. So it's

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Speaker 1: it's one of those things where like that's gonna be

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Speaker 1: a big factor tonight, and that's a big factor in

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Speaker 1: every regular season game. If you happen to catch James

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Speaker 1: Harden in l A back to back, like he's probably

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Speaker 1: not going to be a stoke for that second game

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Speaker 1: because he's been in l A for a few days.

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Speaker 1: And he's kind of having fun, you know, in a

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Speaker 1: regular season. I mean, And so the point is is

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Speaker 1: like you always have the factor that in in the

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Speaker 1: Lakers by far had the least motivational advantage coming into

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Speaker 1: the season, with the quick turnaround, with them being defending champs,

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Speaker 1: with them getting better and knowing that they didn't necessarily

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Speaker 1: need to attack the regular season. So for them to

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Speaker 1: be where they are, I think speaks volumes about just

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Speaker 1: how how how how talented there and also how they're

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Speaker 1: just wired to overcome that lack of motivational advantage. Right,

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Speaker 1: And and it feels like, like we always say, um,

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Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is kind of overstated in their defense, right,

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Speaker 1: the defensive principles still stayed the same even though he's

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Speaker 1: not there, And I think that's what's kept them in it.

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Speaker 1: Um Vogels kind of trapping schemes and chaos and putting

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Speaker 1: guys in the right position. And he's kind of got

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Speaker 1: comfortable as well. He knows what buttons to click. Um.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes fans kind of get mad at like regular season decisions. Um.

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Speaker 1: I think he had a few few times where he

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Speaker 1: managed a few people, but um, yeah, I feel like

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Speaker 1: he kind of keeps them in as well, and he

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Speaker 1: gives them like a schematic advantage. I think he's a

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Speaker 1: really good coach. Um. I think he's helped help them

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Speaker 1: push through this. So yeah, I feel like just looking

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Speaker 1: big picture, big picture, looking at the forest, through the

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Speaker 1: trees and all that they're in a good position. Um,

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Speaker 1: Phoenix started hot, Utah started blazing Cord they lost like

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Speaker 1: three or four going into the break, So I feel

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Speaker 1: like teams are starting to settle down. So I was

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Speaker 1: looking last year. The Lakers UM through thirty seven games

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Speaker 1: this year are thirteen. They were thirty and seven seven

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Speaker 1: last year. Yeah, which again I mean six games sample

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Speaker 1: when you just put it into all the context, isn't

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Speaker 1: like crazy, right because again A D missed fourteen he

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Speaker 1: I think he only missed like three going up to

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Speaker 1: that time, um in last year, and he has playing

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Speaker 1: better last season, Like A D has not been one

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Speaker 1: of the ten best players in basketball this year, and

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Speaker 1: if you just looked at when he was playing, like

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Speaker 1: you know, we talked about this at length, like we're

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Speaker 1: both huge believers in A D. And I think we're

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Speaker 1: both super confident that he will be a very impactful

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Speaker 1: player in the playoffs. But make no mistake, he just

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Speaker 1: hasn't been a D this year. He's been a shell

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Speaker 1: of himself, you know, for lack of a better term. Right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And it's kind of funny that a D and Lebron

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Speaker 1: kind of switched the roles that we thought they would

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Speaker 1: be right without a D. The seven year old now

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Speaker 1: twenty eight. I think yesterday was his birthday. Type about

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Speaker 1: the A D. But we thought he would be the

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Speaker 1: one that's kind of coming out blazing, and he's the

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Speaker 1: one that's like, you know what, I'm gonna chill through

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Speaker 1: this first half. I'm gonna shoot my little mid range

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Speaker 1: jumpers and we're still gonna win. I'm not going to

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Speaker 1: tell the basket and and do all that. So I

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Speaker 1: feel like he's gonna come out. Um, I feel like

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Speaker 1: an injury sitting out a while, like us we play basketball.

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Speaker 1: When you sit out a while, you get you get

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Speaker 1: like am to play again, right, even even with COVID

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Speaker 1: taking away basketball, like you just want to go find

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Speaker 1: a park and hoop, and I think eighties the same.

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Speaker 1: He seems like a guy that loves basketball. So being

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Speaker 1: out for this long almost a month now, I think

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Speaker 1: before we yeah, yeah, exactly and he got the rest. Right,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of like a forced rest kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: So he got a whole month of just no basketball,

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Speaker 1: and I think he'll come back, um excited and uh

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Speaker 1: back to where he was and starting to amp it up.

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Speaker 1: I was watching the bubble kind of highlights um a

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Speaker 1: couple of games, like game Like just the fluidity that

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Speaker 1: he was playing with, it's just and then like the

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Speaker 1: the mix of speed and power and like dunking on

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Speaker 1: people at the rim and stuff like that we just

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Speaker 1: haven't seen this year. So hopefully he gets back to

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Speaker 1: that going forward. Do we know whether or not. So

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Speaker 1: the injury that he had in the Bubble was his heel, right,

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Speaker 1: I think it was his heel, But it was weird

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Speaker 1: because remember he reached down and grabbed his achilles. I

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Speaker 1: remember because in Game five of the Finals, remember creaking

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Speaker 1: out for a second. So like it's a calf injury,

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Speaker 1: and then there's this tendinosis thing, but then there's also

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Speaker 1: that the heel thing that he had. There's just a

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Speaker 1: I wonder if it was all kind of linked, like

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Speaker 1: in the sense that like he just had that nagging

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Speaker 1: problem down there for a while, and it's been something

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Speaker 1: that he's dealing with. UM, It'll just be interesting to

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Speaker 1: see because like my thing is, like, the only thing

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Speaker 1: that would do derail my confidence in this team would

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Speaker 1: be eighties health. I'm not concerned about the way he played.

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Speaker 1: I think you know, I shared the other uh two

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Speaker 1: days ago. I think Jamal Murray's numbers in his last

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Speaker 1: twelve games, which are just absolutely He's like seven and

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Speaker 1: seven on like fifty seven percent from the field for

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Speaker 1: I can't remember the exact numbers, but it's just bonkers,

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Speaker 1: Like he's just unbelievably good. And everybody wanted to discount

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Speaker 1: what he did in the bubble, and the reality is

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Speaker 1: is like if you look at the guys who all

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Speaker 1: went off in the bubble, Anthony Davis, Jamal Murray, Donovan Mitchell,

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Speaker 1: t J Warren, It's like t J Warren has been hurt,

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Speaker 1: Anthony Davis has been hurt, Jamal Murray started slow, but

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Speaker 1: now he's awesome. And Donovan Mitchell's team is so much

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Speaker 1: better this year because Mike Conley has been better that

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Speaker 1: his role is a little different. It's just not as

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Speaker 1: aggressive as he had to be on that team. You know,

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Speaker 1: when uh, when Bogdanovitch went down, So like if you

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Speaker 1: look at it like I I you. You brought this

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Speaker 1: up last week. You kept saying, like the ten foot hoops,

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Speaker 1: the ten foot hoops, you were just talking about how

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Speaker 1: you know, you're talking about legitimizing their success. And I

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Speaker 1: feel the same way, Like this is these were ten

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Speaker 1: foot hoops guys playing really competitive playoff basketball. That was

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Speaker 1: real playoff basketball. The physicality was there, the intensity was there.

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Speaker 1: The no fancing almost added a weird pressure, like I'll

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Speaker 1: never forget Oklahoma City in Houston all just collectively soiling

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Speaker 1: themselves at the end of Game seven. Chris Paul was

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Speaker 1: soiling himself, James Harden was swilling himself like an weird way.

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Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook was the only one who's playing well, you know,

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Speaker 1: like that was real playoff basketball. And really bothered me

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Speaker 1: that people tried to discount that. And I think it

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Speaker 1: bodes well for Anthony Davis because we were talking about

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Speaker 1: his jump shot. I really do think that that he

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Speaker 1: he went to another level as a jump shooter. I

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Speaker 1: talked about how like he was clearly working on that

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Speaker 1: shot a lot, but he was building the confidence to

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Speaker 1: be able to use it in games. And it's something

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Speaker 1: clicked for him at the end of March, and then

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Speaker 1: that last like five six games coming into the bubble

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Speaker 1: and then the entire bubble, and then he shot really

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Speaker 1: well to start this year, and then the injury kind

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Speaker 1: of knocked him off. But between the Jamal Murray thing,

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Speaker 1: I really I really do think a d S improvement

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Speaker 1: is real, and I really do think that when he

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Speaker 1: gets back out there and he gets his legs underneath him,

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Speaker 1: that he's going to be more or less the same

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Speaker 1: guy we saw in the bubble. That's what I believe,

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Speaker 1: as long as he's healthy and his legs are underneath him. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Like again, like I hear all this analysis like, well

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Speaker 1: if eight is not healthy, then this team has a chance. Well,

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Speaker 1: well yeah, of course, Like obviously, I mean there's there's

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Speaker 1: no real um doubting that he's obviously really important to

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Speaker 1: this team. And like you said, with the bubble, like

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Speaker 1: I like to say, Temple hooks, because like even if

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Speaker 1: you put Lebron in Kawaii and in l A Fitness

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Speaker 1: and be like, hey, this is we're having the championship,

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Speaker 1: Like this is where you're winning, it's gonna be good

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Speaker 1: basketball because they're gonna want it. That's what they that's

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Speaker 1: what they played for. So I don't think anyone who

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Speaker 1: was watching at the time, like it's easy to go

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Speaker 1: back now and be like, oh, yeah, Jamal Murray would

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Speaker 1: have hit step back threes um in a regular game, like, well,

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Speaker 1: that's what Jamal Murray does. Go watch his series from

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Speaker 1: last year, or like, you know, Harden didn't play well.

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Speaker 1: Harden doesn't play well in the playoffs, like he just

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Speaker 1: he just doesn't. Then you're a guy who also believes

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Speaker 1: that as well. I think you're a harder naysayer as well.

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Speaker 1: But uh, but yeah, he doesn't play well in the playoffs.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't something shocking. Um. I think the only thing

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Speaker 1: that was Jamal Murray and Donovan Mitchell had kind of

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Speaker 1: like a crazy first round that might have been a

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Speaker 1: little bit extra due to the bubble, But other than that,

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Speaker 1: I feel like the basketball was the same. I mean,

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Speaker 1: the bubble didn't force Paul George and quite a dirty

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Speaker 1: straight jumpers in the fourth quarter. Is just when you're

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Speaker 1: jump shooting team. That's what happened. So it's easy to

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Speaker 1: really dissect it and go back that way. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: like I feel like anthy Davis will be fine. He's

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Speaker 1: he's gonna he's a superstar. He's a guy that levels

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Speaker 1: up in the playoffs. His numbers have leveled up in

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Speaker 1: the playoffs when he's there. Um, So he's a guy

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Speaker 1: that I feel like focuses more. He he has a

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Speaker 1: weird way of drifting in and out of games, right,

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Speaker 1: we saw that really early through the season last year,

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Speaker 1: and then the playoffs he was a lot better. He's

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Speaker 1: a lot more consistent, but he has he has a

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Speaker 1: habit of that. So so I think he'll be fine

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Speaker 1: once the playoffs start. Well, that's where he compliments Lebron

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Speaker 1: so well, is like Lebron is not a float in

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Speaker 1: and out of games guy. Like when he's on the floor,

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Speaker 1: he's he's just extremely involved in everything. That's just the

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Speaker 1: way that he is. And so that that that's why

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Speaker 1: they compliment each other so well. And you know, I

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Speaker 1: I I think you made a really good point a

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Speaker 1: minute ago, like him being away from the game for

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Speaker 1: a while his has to reinvigorate him. Yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: like you could see Lebron like super motivated going after

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Speaker 1: this VP award and even he was like there in

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Speaker 1: that last couple of weeks before they all start break.

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Speaker 1: You could just see it, like he was like, give me, like,

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Speaker 1: just give give me a break, man, Like you could

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Speaker 1: just see it. You could see it in his disposition.

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Speaker 1: And so I think, I think it'll be good for

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Speaker 1: a du to get some distance from the game. And

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Speaker 1: well he did already get the distance from the game.

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Speaker 1: I just it'll be interesting to see he's not he's

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Speaker 1: not playing tonight, is he No, he's not playing up,

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Speaker 1: but it will be evaluated tonight. So hopefully you'll play.

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00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:28,119
Speaker 1: I think they play on Sunday or something, so I

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Speaker 1: would imagine they'll ramp him up to play him limited

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Speaker 1: to start and all that good stuff. Um, So before

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Speaker 1: we get to our letter grades, let's talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit about roster changes. So yesterday was the stupidest day

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Speaker 1: that I can remember in Laker Twitter rumors. As there

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Speaker 1: were rumors about the Lakers wanting to vail McGee. There

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Speaker 1: were rumors about one of them came from the Athletic two,

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Speaker 1: which is crazy because they're not like they don't mess around.

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Speaker 1: And I think it Sam Ammick. I think it was

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Speaker 1: the guy who said that. What was his rumor was

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Speaker 1: that they wanted to to cut Marc Asol and they

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Speaker 1: were going to go after who was it was it? Uh?

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Speaker 1: What was the center that they wanted to you remember?

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Speaker 1: I feel like was that in the was was that

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Speaker 1: in the JaVale McGee story? I feel like was that

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Speaker 1: the same story where they I think I think Amaco

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Speaker 1: was the one who said JaVale McGee? But uh there

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Speaker 1: was Gosh it makes me mad, but no, it wasn't Trump,

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Speaker 1: it was Gosh, who was it? Okay? I feel really

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Speaker 1: really bad that there were a couple of crazy Lakers

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Speaker 1: center rumors flying around yesterday, And so I guess let's

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Speaker 1: start there, like, uh, obviously, if the Lakers can get

427
00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:43,560
Speaker 1: Andre Drummond, they're gonna get Andre Drummond. But let's talk

428
00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:45,919
Speaker 1: about just the principle of the thing. Do you think

429
00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:50,600
Speaker 1: the Lakers need to make an improvement at the center position?

430
00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:54,840
Speaker 1: So I feel like this is a regular season issue,

431
00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:56,480
Speaker 1: Like I feel like we we talked about this. This

432
00:19:56,560 --> 00:19:58,920
Speaker 1: is like a regular season innings eating kind of thing,

433
00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:00,919
Speaker 1: Like do you want to make a move for a

434
00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:04,080
Speaker 1: regular season kind of a decision, because if you do,

435
00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:06,160
Speaker 1: then you don't want to trade pretty much, you don't

436
00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:08,320
Speaker 1: want to trade anything, so you're pretty much left in

437
00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:10,800
Speaker 1: the buyout market. So like I feel like Andre Drummond,

438
00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:14,159
Speaker 1: I mean he's shooting like thirty seven percent on layups

439
00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:17,280
Speaker 1: or something like that, which is just hilarious. But yeah,

440
00:20:17,359 --> 00:20:19,879
Speaker 1: the other guys in the top five or small guys, Yeah,

441
00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:22,919
Speaker 1: it's impossible to be that close to the rim and

442
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:26,000
Speaker 1: to miss that many. I must don't understand it. I'm

443
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:28,680
Speaker 1: wondering if that's counting, like if that means like contested,

444
00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:32,479
Speaker 1: does that count contested uncontested or is that just everything? Okay,

445
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:34,760
Speaker 1: I think it's but lay ups. I mean they're not

446
00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:37,680
Speaker 1: counting hook shots there. That's like catching and finishing around

447
00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:41,040
Speaker 1: the rim. Yeah. Yeah, I don't watch I don't watch

448
00:20:41,119 --> 00:20:44,000
Speaker 1: enough Drummond, but yeah, that is that is pretty bad. Um.

449
00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:45,560
Speaker 1: It was funny because that like one of them is

450
00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:47,400
Speaker 1: like Fred van Fleet. I was like, oh, that's kind

451
00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:49,560
Speaker 1: of funny. That's see that as a guy that really

452
00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:52,320
Speaker 1: finishes at the rim. But uh yeah, Like I don't

453
00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:54,760
Speaker 1: know if they really need a center. I think they

454
00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:56,560
Speaker 1: have like a position to fill, which is like a

455
00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:58,960
Speaker 1: lab threat kind of guy. Just give them that thing.

456
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:01,040
Speaker 1: But eight is gonna feel that when the when the

457
00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:03,879
Speaker 1: playoffs starts. So um, I think you just want a

458
00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:06,119
Speaker 1: guy that will eat fouls. And I think Damien Jones

459
00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:07,960
Speaker 1: is fine for now. If you can upgrade that to

460
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:10,960
Speaker 1: a Drummond Um, that's good. Uh. I Like like the PJ.

461
00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 1: Tucker rumors came out. We talked about him last last

462
00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:15,800
Speaker 1: week and I said I wouldn't trade for him, but

463
00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:17,320
Speaker 1: I would buy out for him. And now it looks

464
00:21:17,359 --> 00:21:19,520
Speaker 1: like unless someone trades for him, but I think he's

465
00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:21,720
Speaker 1: gonna get bought out as well. Um. We talked about

466
00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:25,199
Speaker 1: Blake Griffith who went to the nets, but yeah, I

467
00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:27,320
Speaker 1: don't think they need one. If they can get one,

468
00:21:27,359 --> 00:21:30,800
Speaker 1: that would be great, the JaVale McGee one. Like, I

469
00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:32,800
Speaker 1: don't know. When I see rumors like that, I always think, like,

470
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:35,040
Speaker 1: where is it coming from? And I feel like that's

471
00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:37,760
Speaker 1: from Jamal's Jamal's camp because it said how to get

472
00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:39,919
Speaker 1: him that the Calves would have to trade him to

473
00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:42,200
Speaker 1: another team and then he would have to get bought

474
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:44,159
Speaker 1: out just for the Lakers to get him, because you

475
00:21:44,240 --> 00:21:46,480
Speaker 1: can't trade for a player that you traded already. So

476
00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:48,879
Speaker 1: I have no interest in watching JaVale McGee play basketball.

477
00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:52,320
Speaker 1: Oh no, Yeah, that Jamal is a champion, you know.

478
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,280
Speaker 1: That's that's as much as I'll say, you want to

479
00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:57,840
Speaker 1: ring with the Lakers, Uh, I won't. I won't share

480
00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:00,840
Speaker 1: on his name, but yeah, don't think I think they

481
00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:02,280
Speaker 1: needed but they can that would be great. I think

482
00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:04,720
Speaker 1: Damon Jones has been fine. Um, I think he plays

483
00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:07,320
Speaker 1: that role okay, but if they can get another one

484
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:10,000
Speaker 1: that that would be great. And for whatever it's worth,

485
00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:11,399
Speaker 1: and this, a lot of this had to do with

486
00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:13,480
Speaker 1: the fact that he played with the starters. But the

487
00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:16,480
Speaker 1: best lane, the best line up with the Lakers last

488
00:22:16,520 --> 00:22:18,479
Speaker 1: year had javan mcget center. But I think it had

489
00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:22,040
Speaker 1: to do with the starters. But someone uh asked me

490
00:22:22,119 --> 00:22:23,880
Speaker 1: that question yesterday on Twitter, and I did a little

491
00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:25,959
Speaker 1: bit of research in it, and it's like big minutes,

492
00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:29,000
Speaker 1: huge net rating. Best lineup for the Lakers last year

493
00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:32,879
Speaker 1: was JaVale mcgett center, But I mean that doesn't account

494
00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:34,720
Speaker 1: for the fact that in all the crucial moments he

495
00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:36,200
Speaker 1: wasn't on the floor, so they just had him playing

496
00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:39,159
Speaker 1: at the beginning of games. That was pretty uchit um.

497
00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:41,719
Speaker 1: So this actually is We're gonna continue to kind of

498
00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:44,000
Speaker 1: divert back to that type of question, but let's talk

499
00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:47,520
Speaker 1: about what we've been getting from the center position and

500
00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:50,920
Speaker 1: use that to frame my answer to that question. So,

501
00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:59,400
Speaker 1: like marcasol uh this season has been disappointing to start,

502
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:02,959
Speaker 1: but he's been very good as of late, and there

503
00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:04,920
Speaker 1: are a lot of things that he does really well

504
00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:07,919
Speaker 1: that I don't think are accounted for. He does not

505
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:10,359
Speaker 1: bring that athleticism around the rim that JaVale McGain and

506
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:13,000
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard it, that's for sure, but he adds a

507
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:16,040
Speaker 1: whole new dynamic to the offense and his shooting which

508
00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:19,000
Speaker 1: has been amazing. He's up over in his last nine

509
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:21,800
Speaker 1: games and he's it's actually forty three percent. I think

510
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:24,879
Speaker 1: it's forty two and a half percent, and uh On

511
00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:27,480
Speaker 1: like almost five attempts a game, So he's shooting the

512
00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:29,679
Speaker 1: heck out of the ball as of late. And he

513
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:32,880
Speaker 1: adds this whole like post entry, top of the key,

514
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:36,280
Speaker 1: back cutting, like crazy elements of their offense that never

515
00:23:36,359 --> 00:23:39,720
Speaker 1: existed before. That is a massive upgrade over what you

516
00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:43,800
Speaker 1: were getting from Javlan Dwhite. They don't. He's not blocking

517
00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:46,280
Speaker 1: shots the way that those guys did, but his positional

518
00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:50,320
Speaker 1: defense is way better. Both Javlan Dwhite had a tendency

519
00:23:50,359 --> 00:23:52,919
Speaker 1: to get out of position. There's a play that circulated

520
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:56,080
Speaker 1: yesterday on Twitter of the end of the Orlando Magic

521
00:23:56,119 --> 00:23:59,439
Speaker 1: game they lost in l A last year, where a

522
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:02,760
Speaker 1: swing path us was thrown to Aaron Gordon and Javail

523
00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:05,720
Speaker 1: just did this bizarro close out on the guy in

524
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:09,080
Speaker 1: the corner, even though Aaron Gordon had the ball wide

525
00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:11,600
Speaker 1: open at the at the three point line, and Aaron

526
00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:15,400
Speaker 1: Gordon just drove in and dunked, and Javel rotated back

527
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:17,840
Speaker 1: to Aaron Gordon to like shove him up higher in

528
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:20,160
Speaker 1: the air so that he would get an even crazier

529
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:22,760
Speaker 1: dunk and get the foul and the game was over.

530
00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:25,720
Speaker 1: And I remember I remember being super upset when that happened.

531
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:28,000
Speaker 1: But that was the thing with Javail and Dwight was

532
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:30,280
Speaker 1: a little better with this. With Dwight it was the fouls,

533
00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:34,639
Speaker 1: but with ja Javail was very frequently out of position,

534
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:38,359
Speaker 1: and that cannot be factored in enough when you're talking

535
00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:42,160
Speaker 1: about the cohesiveness of the overall defense. And Marc Gasol

536
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:45,119
Speaker 1: has been very good in that role. Now the downside

537
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:50,119
Speaker 1: is is it's been just him really instead of having

538
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:52,119
Speaker 1: both of the centers the way they did last year,

539
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:56,400
Speaker 1: because Montrez is very different and in my in my opinion,

540
00:24:56,480 --> 00:25:02,000
Speaker 1: Montrez has been a little bit more hot and cold,

541
00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:06,720
Speaker 1: and they've needed him more. Whereas last year in crunch time,

542
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:08,840
Speaker 1: they could either go to Dwight or no center at all,

543
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:11,120
Speaker 1: so you never had to worry about Javel. They've had

544
00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:13,439
Speaker 1: to lean on Montrez a lot this year because of

545
00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:16,720
Speaker 1: the A D injury, and that has exposed a little bit.

546
00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:20,080
Speaker 1: I think literally last year, if A D missed fourteen

547
00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:23,520
Speaker 1: games and they were closing every game with like a

548
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:26,640
Speaker 1: center on the floor, it would have looked uglier than

549
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:28,960
Speaker 1: it did a lot. A lot of the the A

550
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:31,960
Speaker 1: D Javail stuff, Excuse me, the Javail and Dwight stuff

551
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,119
Speaker 1: was sugar coated by the fact that Lebron and A

552
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:37,119
Speaker 1: D were out there with them. Um, So, what what

553
00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:39,600
Speaker 1: have you thought about Mark and Trez and and what

554
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:42,680
Speaker 1: we've gotten out of the center position so far this year? Yeah.

555
00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:44,280
Speaker 1: So again, like during this time, I went back and

556
00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:46,480
Speaker 1: watched a lot of the playoff games and then the

557
00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:49,440
Speaker 1: good playoff Rondo games, right, and then I was looking

558
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:52,680
Speaker 1: like Rondo is out, like his i Q was so high,

559
00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:54,919
Speaker 1: he was kind of outsmarting people on the court, and

560
00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:57,439
Speaker 1: that's how I kind of see Marcus soul. Like in

561
00:25:57,440 --> 00:25:59,000
Speaker 1: the regular season, it was kind of tough to kind

562
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:01,680
Speaker 1: of bear with him. He doesn't take his open shots.

563
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:04,000
Speaker 1: He's always in the right position though, so like I

564
00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:05,879
Speaker 1: like having a player I can just trust right and

565
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:08,280
Speaker 1: he's not gonna make the wrong play. Um, he's gonna

566
00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:11,520
Speaker 1: get out like athletics athletic size like a lot of

567
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:14,000
Speaker 1: the time. But he's always in the right place. His

568
00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:16,760
Speaker 1: mind is working. He's like faster than Lebron sometimes even

569
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 1: on these passes like he'll have he'll throw a pass

570
00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:21,360
Speaker 1: on Lebron, but like I haven't even cut yet, so

571
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:23,159
Speaker 1: that they have a lot of like those kind of

572
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:24,960
Speaker 1: moments there. But it's fine having a guy like that

573
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 1: on the floor, and he's kind of replaces Rondo in

574
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:30,680
Speaker 1: that like playmaker that's super smart, um, and he's always

575
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 1: in the right place. His defense, like his defense is

576
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:36,879
Speaker 1: a is a big question all the time. But like

577
00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:39,320
Speaker 1: when I rewatch the games, I'm never like, oh, it's

578
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:41,800
Speaker 1: Marcusol's fault that that guy scored there, you know, Like

579
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:44,080
Speaker 1: I never really say that, Like he's right there in

580
00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:46,480
Speaker 1: the right position. Sometimes they score over him, and that's fine.

581
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:49,880
Speaker 1: If they're gonna score over over a verticality at the rim,

582
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:51,320
Speaker 1: Like you're gonna live with that, and that's what makes

583
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:53,359
Speaker 1: the Lakers have the best defense in the league. He's

584
00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 1: a big part of that. So I think he's been fine. Treads.

585
00:26:57,040 --> 00:26:59,320
Speaker 1: Treads has been okay. There's been spots where it's been

586
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:02,480
Speaker 1: really struggling, like his defense wane sometimes. I feel like

587
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:05,920
Speaker 1: that also goes with like he has some bad habits, right,

588
00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:07,959
Speaker 1: like when when they put him in the wrong position,

589
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:10,120
Speaker 1: he'll go, he'll drop back to his drop coverage, He'll

590
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:12,719
Speaker 1: he'll point, he'll point fingers and stuff like that. So

591
00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:16,040
Speaker 1: but again, like when things matter, he's gonna be playing

592
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:17,960
Speaker 1: with a d Um, He's not gonna be playing the

593
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:21,359
Speaker 1: back the back line five and Marcusols. He's starting to

594
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:24,320
Speaker 1: hit his open shots. He's starting to take them. Raptors

595
00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 1: fans had a lot of more exactly, and Raptor fans

596
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:29,440
Speaker 1: had some complaints about that. They're like, go, watch out,

597
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:31,199
Speaker 1: he's not gonna shoot his threes. And you know he's

598
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:33,960
Speaker 1: shooting them now and he's being confident with it. Um,

599
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:36,200
Speaker 1: that's all you can ask. So I think he's been fine.

600
00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:38,200
Speaker 1: Him and a d are still a great combo. You

601
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:40,880
Speaker 1: see their net rating together is through the roof still,

602
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:43,679
Speaker 1: so um they I think he's been good and if

603
00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:45,240
Speaker 1: they want to get in on the center, it's fine.

604
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:47,639
Speaker 1: But I think he's been as advertised. I think that

605
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 1: the report was the report said like, oh, the Lakers

606
00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:54,159
Speaker 1: want to center because Marcusol has not expect That's what

607
00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:57,800
Speaker 1: it was. That was bad. And I was like yeah,

608
00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:00,960
Speaker 1: and I was like, no, he's been as advertising. He's

609
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 1: been what he was brought here to be. He was

610
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:04,359
Speaker 1: He didn't come here to be a lob threat or

611
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:06,680
Speaker 1: you know, catch dunks or be even like a high

612
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:09,720
Speaker 1: score or like throwing the post. And Marcusol is a

613
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:12,680
Speaker 1: you know, high high volume post player. He's done his job.

614
00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:15,640
Speaker 1: He's making good reads, making good passes. Him and Shrewder

615
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 1: have like a really nice chemistry which I like, like

616
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:19,960
Speaker 1: they play off each other really well. He back cuts

617
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,200
Speaker 1: off him and he gets his little mid range pull

618
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:24,880
Speaker 1: ups off that. So he's been fine to me. Yeah,

619
00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:29,720
Speaker 1: and they both are. Um. You can very clearly see

620
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:32,840
Speaker 1: the role in which they will excel. Uh. It's it's

621
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:36,000
Speaker 1: it's easy to see, like Montrez not as a primary

622
00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:40,280
Speaker 1: room protector, more flying in around rotations using his uh

623
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:44,680
Speaker 1: motor attacking specific mismatches on the block. You can see

624
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:47,800
Speaker 1: where his success will come. It makes sense, and that

625
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:49,840
Speaker 1: that that's all that I really expect from him, because

626
00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 1: he's not going to be a core guy and key

627
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:54,080
Speaker 1: lineups at the end of these playoff games. You just

628
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 1: need him to succeed in the small role that he'll have,

629
00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:59,800
Speaker 1: uh you know, in the in his minutes that he'll

630
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 1: play in an actual playoff series when the Lakers are

631
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 1: full strength. As far as so as far as after

632
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:09,160
Speaker 1: we've done that, as our as far as signing a

633
00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:12,880
Speaker 1: center goes, you take drum And if he's available, if

634
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:15,200
Speaker 1: he's willing to sign, I think he'll sign with Brooklyn.

635
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:19,720
Speaker 1: But you take drum And if he's available, because why

636
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:25,160
Speaker 1: the hell not for starters two In this crazy second

637
00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:29,200
Speaker 1: half of the season, with Marcosol being his age, with

638
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:34,720
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis's achilles thing that he's been dealing with, it's

639
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:39,880
Speaker 1: super realistic to expect that depth might be a concern.

640
00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:42,720
Speaker 1: So having someone like Drummond is a huge asset. You

641
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:45,600
Speaker 1: take him in a heartbeat. He's there. I don't think

642
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: he's their biggest need. And this is what we're going

643
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:49,960
Speaker 1: to transition to here and right now, I think their

644
00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:56,800
Speaker 1: biggest need is shooting. And uh, this to be clear,

645
00:29:56,840 --> 00:30:00,120
Speaker 1: I don't think they need shooting. I think they have

646
00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:03,960
Speaker 1: enough right now. But if you're gonna sign somebody, to me,

647
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:07,200
Speaker 1: that is the opportunity. Uh. The main reason being is

648
00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: you have you have a depth in the in the

649
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:12,440
Speaker 1: garden wing corps to where you're kind of playing who's

650
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:15,440
Speaker 1: hot on any given night. Anyway, like th h T

651
00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:17,720
Speaker 1: checks in at some point in the first quarter, end

652
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:19,960
Speaker 1: of the first quarter. If he's got it going, they

653
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:21,680
Speaker 1: lean on him a lot during the game. If not,

654
00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:23,840
Speaker 1: they kind of go another direction. That's kind of the

655
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,960
Speaker 1: whole design of this Laker rotation. If West gets in

656
00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:29,520
Speaker 1: and West is playing well, he plays heavy minutes. If

657
00:30:29,520 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 1: he doesn't, he's out. They kind of just did did

658
00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:34,400
Speaker 1: They kind of just go with who's hot on any

659
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 1: given night as far as their rotation goes. And so

660
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:41,640
Speaker 1: adding another shooter to that list, somebody that you can

661
00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:44,360
Speaker 1: go to when another guy's confidence isn't really there, I

662
00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:47,320
Speaker 1: think is an asset. Now really quickly to frame this

663
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:50,640
Speaker 1: topic about the Lakers shooting. You know, I was actually

664
00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:53,480
Speaker 1: having a conversation this morning with a friend of mine Uh.

665
00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:56,800
Speaker 1: When I was playing pickup and you brought up an

666
00:30:56,840 --> 00:30:59,120
Speaker 1: old coach here in Tucson, a guy from a high

667
00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:00,959
Speaker 1: school here in town. The coach one of the AU

668
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 1: programs here in town. And one of his things that

669
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,160
Speaker 1: one of his like go to quotes was like, you

670
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 1: always shoot your percentage, Like, don't worry so much about

671
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:12,760
Speaker 1: makes and mrs. You always shoot your percentage. And I

672
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:17,680
Speaker 1: actually disagree with that. I disagree because if I told you,

673
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:21,120
Speaker 1: like rage, hey, you've you've been shooting thirty four percent

674
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:23,960
Speaker 1: on threes. How do we get that percentage up? The

675
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:25,960
Speaker 1: part part of it is working on your shot, but

676
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 1: a big, a big part of it is shot quality.

677
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:33,120
Speaker 1: You increase your percentages by increasing the quality of shots

678
00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 1: that you get. If you like I know that if

679
00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:38,440
Speaker 1: I'm not getting into a rhythm, the answer is not

680
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:41,480
Speaker 1: to take tougher threes until they start going in. Because

681
00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:45,000
Speaker 1: I'm counting on my percentage. I'm going to try to

682
00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 1: seek out higher quality threes that are going to inherently

683
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 1: have a higher percentage chance of going in. That's how

684
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,080
Speaker 1: you get this kind of thing going. Now, we talked

685
00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:55,640
Speaker 1: about at length that the Lakers have been one of

686
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:57,480
Speaker 1: the worst shooting teams in the league over the last

687
00:31:57,480 --> 00:32:01,000
Speaker 1: couple of months. So how do you fix that? To me, like,

688
00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:04,000
Speaker 1: that's not them shooting their percentage. They're not a thirty

689
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:06,360
Speaker 1: percent three point shooting team, They're like a thirty six

690
00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: percent three point shooting team. Usually you do that by

691
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: increasing your shot quality, and you do that by generating

692
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:16,040
Speaker 1: higher quality shots, by putting more pressure on the rim,

693
00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 1: by getting Lebron and a D healthy and getting them

694
00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 1: playing the way that they will in the playoffs. That's

695
00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:24,320
Speaker 1: how you really fix that problem. However, if you had

696
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:27,640
Speaker 1: to gun to my head, pick something that actually might

697
00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:30,040
Speaker 1: help them in a playoff series, to me, it would

698
00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:33,120
Speaker 1: be somebody like a a JJ Reddick if he happens

699
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 1: to get bought out. I actually like p J. Tucker

700
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:40,360
Speaker 1: because he's a specialist at Corner Three's, even though he's

701
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 1: been terrible this year. But we've talked about that at

702
00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:44,920
Speaker 1: length in another podcast. But that that, to me is

703
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:48,800
Speaker 1: the area of opportunity. Is just some kind of specialist

704
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 1: shot maker that you can go to when things really

705
00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 1: bogged down, when guys aren't hitting shots, to try to

706
00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:58,240
Speaker 1: open things up, to get Lebron in a D going. Yeah,

707
00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:00,840
Speaker 1: I think is probably the perfect mix of that where

708
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 1: he's like the big and the shooter right and again,

709
00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:05,160
Speaker 1: if he gets bought out, I think that would be great.

710
00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:07,719
Speaker 1: I don't think he's done yet. Um. He showed way

711
00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:10,120
Speaker 1: too much last year for me to feel like he's done.

712
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 1: I guess this comes down to because the Lakers are

713
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:14,600
Speaker 1: deep already, right, so when you're when you're going after

714
00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:17,000
Speaker 1: these biot guys there, I mean, some of them just

715
00:33:17,040 --> 00:33:18,520
Speaker 1: want to ring someone also want to be a part

716
00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:20,080
Speaker 1: of it. They want to be a part of the rotation.

717
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 1: And it's really hard to sell that. Um and to me, like,

718
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:25,520
Speaker 1: I'm still a West Matthews believer. I don't know if

719
00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:28,280
Speaker 1: you if you think he'll ever Yeah, so a lot

720
00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:30,280
Speaker 1: of people are down on him, but I think he's

721
00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:32,440
Speaker 1: gonna like I don't think like like you said, Um,

722
00:33:32,480 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 1: it comes down to your shot quality. He's getting good looks.

723
00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think he's a thirty three percent

724
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:39,920
Speaker 1: three point shooter. I just don't think he's that low.

725
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:42,000
Speaker 1: He's not. I don't think he's a forty two percent.

726
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 1: But he's gonna. I feel like he'll average out, just

727
00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 1: like k CP wasn't the fifty percent shooter that he

728
00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:49,080
Speaker 1: showed to start the year. I don't think West was

729
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:50,720
Speaker 1: like the eight. I think he started to pick it

730
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:53,200
Speaker 1: up a little bit and his shot quality really did

731
00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 1: because he got moved to like the third unit, right,

732
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:58,760
Speaker 1: so he was playing almost with all bench guys, like

733
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 1: he was playing with Tailor and Tucker as his main

734
00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:05,120
Speaker 1: primary creator from going from Lebron. So I think he'll

735
00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:07,480
Speaker 1: he'll also be in the rotation again. Like you you

736
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:10,120
Speaker 1: just you just can't play eleven guys, you know, in

737
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 1: the playoffs. So even when you're going after these buyout guys,

738
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:15,120
Speaker 1: it's it's tough to sell them on minutes. And like,

739
00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:17,000
Speaker 1: I don't think J. J. Reddick's getting bought out. I

740
00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:19,440
Speaker 1: feel like shooting is out of premium right now. And

741
00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:22,279
Speaker 1: I don't think I don't think you'll. I don't think

742
00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 1: you'll get bought out. I think the Pelicans want to

743
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:28,160
Speaker 1: try to make the ten seed, which is kind of crazy.

744
00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:29,880
Speaker 1: They seem like they're ready out of it. They're like

745
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 1: six games back of the ten seeds, so between ten

746
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:35,759
Speaker 1: and eleven is insane. Yeah, the NBA made it so

747
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:38,080
Speaker 1: you have ten spots and they still can't even make one,

748
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,160
Speaker 1: which is just I know it's driving our friend Jason crazy,

749
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:45,399
Speaker 1: but every night, right, yeah, so I don't I don't

750
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:48,520
Speaker 1: think he'll get bought out. Um and to me like that,

751
00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:51,680
Speaker 1: your your officers are p J. Tucker. Um, I don't

752
00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:53,800
Speaker 1: think all rig is getting bought out, So he's probably

753
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:56,320
Speaker 1: get traded. But it's like PJ. Tucker and Andre Drummond

754
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 1: and Tucker is probably the perfect mix of shooting. But again,

755
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:00,920
Speaker 1: he's a corner three special this so he's not like

756
00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:03,239
Speaker 1: a shooter. You can't run him up pin downs, like

757
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:05,000
Speaker 1: you can't run him off screens. And I think that

758
00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:08,800
Speaker 1: I don't think personally, I feel like, yeah, well, I

759
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:10,520
Speaker 1: feel like that would be a nice option to have, right,

760
00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 1: Like a guy that can come off a screen um

761
00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:14,840
Speaker 1: and shoot like West was supposed to be there, Like

762
00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:17,200
Speaker 1: he was sold as a shooter that could move right,

763
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:19,840
Speaker 1: like they could come off handoffs to take threes. He

764
00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 1: hasn't done that yet. KCP has been a little bit

765
00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:23,759
Speaker 1: of that, So would be nice to have that kind

766
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:25,440
Speaker 1: of wrinkle to come in. But yeah, they don't need it,

767
00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:27,800
Speaker 1: but'd be nice if you have a shooter, get a

768
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:30,120
Speaker 1: shooter that can kind of shoot off the move and

769
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:32,200
Speaker 1: things like that. But yeah, I don't know if they'll

770
00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:35,280
Speaker 1: need one. But it's kind of tough because the rotation

771
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:37,160
Speaker 1: is so long already, it's it's tough to kind of

772
00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:40,759
Speaker 1: fit another guy into it um going forward. And then

773
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,839
Speaker 1: there's also there's a lot of these teams that are

774
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:46,040
Speaker 1: also going to be competing for those guys have these

775
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:48,680
Speaker 1: like weird exceptions and stuff that allow them to offer

776
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:51,280
Speaker 1: more money. Like that's the thing like p J Tucker

777
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:53,479
Speaker 1: if he gets spot out, Like that's a guy who

778
00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:57,000
Speaker 1: it's well known that he's upset about a lack of money.

779
00:35:57,719 --> 00:36:01,239
Speaker 1: Uh so that what what in world would convince him

780
00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:03,520
Speaker 1: to take you know, seven hundred thousand or whatever he'd

781
00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:06,520
Speaker 1: make on the tiny pro rated veterans minimum to come

782
00:36:06,520 --> 00:36:08,799
Speaker 1: play for the Lakers? You know what I mean. A

783
00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:11,880
Speaker 1: couple of interesting stats for you. Uh, the Lakers are

784
00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:15,480
Speaker 1: shooting thirty seven point five percent from three with Lebron

785
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:19,799
Speaker 1: and a D on the floor. That's pretty good. Just

786
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:24,040
Speaker 1: Lebron on the floor. They are shooting thirty five point

787
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:28,960
Speaker 1: eight percent from three, mm hmm. Lebron is off the

788
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,799
Speaker 1: floor this year, they're shooting thirty two point from three.

789
00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:34,440
Speaker 1: So that kind of goes to what I was talking about, like,

790
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:39,160
Speaker 1: when they have their good players on the floor that

791
00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:42,200
Speaker 1: are putting pressure on the rim and helping them to

792
00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:45,440
Speaker 1: generate higher quality looks, they're just they're going in at

793
00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:48,600
Speaker 1: a higher clip. And with a d being out and

794
00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:52,240
Speaker 1: with Dennis Shooter being out, it was this perfect storm

795
00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:55,799
Speaker 1: of of just uh, you know, teams being able to

796
00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:57,879
Speaker 1: load up on Lebron, but at the same time, like

797
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:01,359
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron not having the ability to get into

798
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:06,000
Speaker 1: the paint to to help draw to develop these open looks.

799
00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:08,439
Speaker 1: It just was a perfect storm of things that then

800
00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:12,799
Speaker 1: coincided with a massive slump. Uh. So I don't necessarily

801
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:17,839
Speaker 1: blame the Laker shooters for kind of succumbing to that,

802
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:20,200
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. I'm a firm believer that when

803
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:23,719
Speaker 1: push comes to shove, KCP is gonna make shots. And

804
00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:26,200
Speaker 1: I think Wesley Matthew is gonna make shots. Kyle Kuzma,

805
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:27,840
Speaker 1: I think is gonna make shots. I'm not I'm not

806
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:31,880
Speaker 1: worried about that. So let's let's go player by player

807
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:38,640
Speaker 1: down this list, and let's talk about, uh, whether or

808
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:41,799
Speaker 1: not we we they have exceeded expectations or been disappointing.

809
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:44,040
Speaker 1: So let's start with Alex Caruso. How have you been

810
00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:47,319
Speaker 1: Have you felt about Alex Caruso so far this year? Yeah,

811
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:50,560
Speaker 1: I feel like he really exceeded expectations to start the year. Um,

812
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:52,719
Speaker 1: and then his role kind of got pushed up. And

813
00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:55,000
Speaker 1: we talked about this a lot, right, Um, when he

814
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:58,319
Speaker 1: got like thirty minutes thirty minutes a game, but it

815
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:00,759
Speaker 1: was a it was an out eyes role, so he

816
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 1: was doing more than he was supposed to be, Like

817
00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:05,040
Speaker 1: he was playmaking and stuff like that. Um. I think

818
00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:07,680
Speaker 1: he's been as expected though, he's been himself when he's

819
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:10,400
Speaker 1: got those like I just have to focus on defense

820
00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:13,480
Speaker 1: and hit some spot up jumpers and make the right play. Um,

821
00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:15,799
Speaker 1: he's been himself. I think he's better shooter than he

822
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:18,279
Speaker 1: was last year. Um. Like I don't know if the

823
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:19,960
Speaker 1: numbers kind of bear that out now he's kind of

824
00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:22,400
Speaker 1: gone cold, but yeah, I think he's been as expected.

825
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:24,719
Speaker 1: He's been himself, and we know exactly who he is, right,

826
00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:27,160
Speaker 1: Bogo knows who he is. He knows how he's going

827
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:29,120
Speaker 1: to play in the playoffs, and he can trust him

828
00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:31,400
Speaker 1: on the floor and I think that's the most important thing.

829
00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:33,880
Speaker 1: And he's he hasn't regressed, which I think is the

830
00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:36,160
Speaker 1: important part. He he hasn't shown that he could do

831
00:38:36,239 --> 00:38:39,080
Speaker 1: more than what he was, but um, he hasn't. He

832
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:41,840
Speaker 1: hasn't shown that he's gone backwards. So I think that's

833
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:46,279
Speaker 1: that's a good thing. He's from three on the season, okay,

834
00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:49,600
Speaker 1: on two point four attempts. He's playing right at about

835
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:53,319
Speaker 1: twenty minutes per game. Yeah, Um, a couple other things

836
00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:55,680
Speaker 1: to see. I'm looking at assist to turn over here,

837
00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:59,640
Speaker 1: he's averaging two point four assists in one point one turnover,

838
00:38:59,719 --> 00:39:02,280
Speaker 1: so he's over a two to one assist to turnover ratio.

839
00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:07,920
Speaker 1: I think he's exceeded expectations. Um. He is shooting the

840
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:10,120
Speaker 1: ball at a much higher level than he was last year.

841
00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:12,759
Speaker 1: He's been every bit as good defensively when he's been

842
00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:15,879
Speaker 1: in the smaller role, and for what you're expecting from

843
00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:18,239
Speaker 1: that position, I think he's knocking it out of the park.

844
00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:20,080
Speaker 1: He's one of the few guys this season that I

845
00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 1: think has been a resounding, uh, you know, a resounding

846
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:28,160
Speaker 1: success compared to what we expected on the quicker turnaround.

847
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:33,759
Speaker 1: What about Dennis Shrewder, He's exceeded my expectations. Um, I

848
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:36,400
Speaker 1: didn't think he was this good of a defender coming

849
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:39,320
Speaker 1: into the year. Um, he's he's a lot more dynamic

850
00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:41,040
Speaker 1: as a score as well than I thought. I think

851
00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:42,839
Speaker 1: he was more of just like a straight pick and roll.

852
00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:45,000
Speaker 1: But he's a really he can isolate. He loves to

853
00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:48,040
Speaker 1: attack switches. Um, he'll go, he'll go buy you. He's

854
00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:50,319
Speaker 1: good in transition as well. He'll get to the ram

855
00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:53,080
Speaker 1: and he can draw vowels, which is just awesome to

856
00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:54,960
Speaker 1: have at the guard spot. The Lakers haven't had a

857
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:57,799
Speaker 1: guard that can draw foals and forever. So he gets

858
00:39:57,800 --> 00:39:59,359
Speaker 1: to the rim, he gets to the line, he puts

859
00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:02,279
Speaker 1: teams in the pen. Know the he's exceeded my expectations.

860
00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:05,000
Speaker 1: His three point shooting, though, isn't um as good as

861
00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:09,200
Speaker 1: I thought it was. Um, it was a yeah. But again,

862
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:11,480
Speaker 1: he just has to hit like a minimal base amount, right,

863
00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:13,279
Speaker 1: so they can respect his three pointers so he can

864
00:40:13,320 --> 00:40:18,200
Speaker 1: do what he wants to hit that mid range as Yeah.

865
00:40:18,239 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 1: And again I don't think he's that bad of a shooter,

866
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 1: so I think that will raise as well. Um, he

867
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:24,520
Speaker 1: takes a lot of uh tough threes as well. He

868
00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:28,319
Speaker 1: takes a lot of like jab step pull up threes. Um,

869
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:30,440
Speaker 1: especially when the Lakers are up, He'll He'll take some

870
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:32,160
Speaker 1: bad shots, so I think that kind of plays into

871
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:35,160
Speaker 1: his percentage as well. But I loved what I've seen

872
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:38,000
Speaker 1: from him. I think he'll get extended here soon. Um

873
00:40:38,040 --> 00:40:40,640
Speaker 1: the Lakers can extend him four years or something like that,

874
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:43,239
Speaker 1: and I expect that to get done soon. So he's

875
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:46,000
Speaker 1: exceeded mine. He's been He's been great. I think he's

876
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:49,000
Speaker 1: been awesome. I've been super super impressed. I did not

877
00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:52,080
Speaker 1: have super high expectations for him. I was actually to

878
00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:54,600
Speaker 1: be clear, this is me admitting I was wrong. I

879
00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:56,000
Speaker 1: was one of the guys who was a little bit

880
00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:59,520
Speaker 1: higher on like a Spencer Dinwoody type of guy, a

881
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:01,360
Speaker 1: guy who a little bit more of an elite shot

882
00:41:01,440 --> 00:41:05,560
Speaker 1: creator for himself. I think he's been awesome and the

883
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:09,000
Speaker 1: the the number one contribution that Dennis Tutor has brought

884
00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:11,920
Speaker 1: to this team as his defense, He in my opinion,

885
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:14,719
Speaker 1: has been the best defensive player on this team. He

886
00:41:14,800 --> 00:41:19,360
Speaker 1: has been the lynchpin to that entire UH defensive scheme

887
00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:22,120
Speaker 1: working because of his ball pressure at the point of attack.

888
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:24,800
Speaker 1: And I think it'll be an absolute travesty if he

889
00:41:24,840 --> 00:41:26,879
Speaker 1: doesn't make one of the All Defense Teams We'll see

890
00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:28,920
Speaker 1: what ends up happening, but I think it'll be an

891
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:33,480
Speaker 1: absolute travesty. I think I think his point of attack, ball, pressure, defense,

892
00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:40,600
Speaker 1: and competitiveness every single night defensively has been easily the

893
00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:42,920
Speaker 1: most pleasant surprise of the season. We all knew he

894
00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:45,960
Speaker 1: could defend, we all knew he was good, we all

895
00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:49,200
Speaker 1: knew he was a competitor. But I didn't expect this

896
00:41:49,239 --> 00:41:51,919
Speaker 1: out of him. And I firmly believe that if he

897
00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:54,640
Speaker 1: if he had not been the move this summer, that

898
00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:58,280
Speaker 1: the defense would have slipped him coming in and bringing

899
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:00,520
Speaker 1: that effort and energy to that because asition has been

900
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:04,920
Speaker 1: amazing offensively. I read some of the numbers a minute ago.

901
00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:09,359
Speaker 1: He's you know, from three fifteen points a game, four

902
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:11,320
Speaker 1: and a half assist per game, two and two and

903
00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:13,239
Speaker 1: a half turnover, So just a little bit worse than

904
00:42:13,239 --> 00:42:15,279
Speaker 1: a two to one assist turnover ratio. But that's better

905
00:42:15,320 --> 00:42:17,760
Speaker 1: than what we were hoping for in terms of him

906
00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:20,800
Speaker 1: creating shots for his teammates. Really good free throw shooter.

907
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:23,439
Speaker 1: Two he's getting uh he's eighty three percent and getting

908
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:27,719
Speaker 1: there four times a game. The I he's been, you know,

909
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:30,600
Speaker 1: a little a little better than I expected. On that end,

910
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:33,120
Speaker 1: but when you combine those two together, him being the

911
00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:35,400
Speaker 1: productive offensive player that he has been. He's had a

912
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:38,320
Speaker 1: lot of pivotal moments in games too, where he's gotten

913
00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:40,279
Speaker 1: a key switch at the end of a game and

914
00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:42,799
Speaker 1: made a key shot, you know, a key beating a

915
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:44,960
Speaker 1: big man off the jibble fern and one knocking down

916
00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:49,320
Speaker 1: a big time three he has. He's been everything they've

917
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:53,360
Speaker 1: needed on offense and way more than they've needed on defense.

918
00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:58,040
Speaker 1: And I think he's been you know, Rob Blink, I

919
00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:03,120
Speaker 1: think made a few catastrophic mistakes early on that I

920
00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:08,080
Speaker 1: believe partially may have been Madgin's fault. Losing Brook Lopez

921
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:12,239
Speaker 1: was a huge mistake. You know, Letting Julius Randall walk

922
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:14,960
Speaker 1: for nothing was a huge mistake. There were a lot

923
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:16,960
Speaker 1: of mistakes that were made there, and I cannot a

924
00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:20,960
Speaker 1: percent blame Rob because it might have been Magic. That said,

925
00:43:21,040 --> 00:43:25,960
Speaker 1: since then, he's been incredible. Pretty much. The only signing

926
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:31,120
Speaker 1: I've disagreed with, why uh Dwight letting Dwight Howard go.

927
00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:33,919
Speaker 1: I would have brought him back. You and you talked

928
00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:35,600
Speaker 1: about this on Twitter all the time. Every time there's

929
00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:37,719
Speaker 1: a Sixers game. I can count on Rods tweeting out

930
00:43:37,719 --> 00:43:40,200
Speaker 1: that Dwight belongs in the Lakers, which I can't argue

931
00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:44,640
Speaker 1: with you. I would agree, but I I think the

932
00:43:44,640 --> 00:43:47,200
Speaker 1: the addition of Dennis Shooter was has been such a

933
00:43:47,239 --> 00:43:49,719
Speaker 1: seamless fit, and then he was proven to be so

934
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:53,880
Speaker 1: incredibly important when he was out there a couple of

935
00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:56,319
Speaker 1: weeks ago. I think Rob blacoln just deserves a lot

936
00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:58,759
Speaker 1: of credit. And I've been super the stokes to watch

937
00:43:58,840 --> 00:44:00,560
Speaker 1: Dennis Shooter, and I think he's gonna be a really

938
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:03,319
Speaker 1: really good playoff player. He's it'll be a little bit

939
00:44:03,360 --> 00:44:05,760
Speaker 1: tricky to have him on the floor and specific matchups

940
00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:09,520
Speaker 1: because guys can attack him and switches specifically like a Kauai.

941
00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:12,520
Speaker 1: But I trust the Lakers in a double and recover

942
00:44:12,719 --> 00:44:15,320
Speaker 1: more than I trust any other team in the league

943
00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:17,920
Speaker 1: really quickly. On I'm sure he used to use the

944
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:20,840
Speaker 1: word um that, like he's a competitor and his like

945
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:23,680
Speaker 1: fighting and like I love like against the really like

946
00:44:23,719 --> 00:44:26,239
Speaker 1: all star guards like Steph Curry, Like he'll score on

947
00:44:26,360 --> 00:44:28,040
Speaker 1: him and then he'll pick him up full core just

948
00:44:28,080 --> 00:44:30,279
Speaker 1: to be like, yeah, we're we're doing this all game,

949
00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:31,919
Speaker 1: Like this is how the game's gonna go. I'm gonna

950
00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:34,040
Speaker 1: be on you all game, like why don Rice and

951
00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:35,359
Speaker 1: I'm gonna score on you on the other day. And

952
00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:37,000
Speaker 1: I just think that's one of the Lakers a few

953
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:39,440
Speaker 1: games where they've come out lack of days ago, without energy,

954
00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:41,279
Speaker 1: and Shooter would just be like, no, I want to

955
00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:43,399
Speaker 1: take it to Steph Curry tonight, like I'm I'm going out,

956
00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:45,719
Speaker 1: Chris Paul, I'm going out. Whoever the guard is on

957
00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:48,279
Speaker 1: the other team, he sees as some like disrespect, like

958
00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:50,719
Speaker 1: he's not in that kind of tears. So I love

959
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:55,200
Speaker 1: what he's brunning in that respect as well for the

960
00:44:55,280 --> 00:44:57,279
Speaker 1: his My one of my favorite games this season was

961
00:44:57,320 --> 00:45:01,920
Speaker 1: his game against shay uh yeah s g a um

962
00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:05,240
Speaker 1: Say was whooping his ass all night long, just eating

963
00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:10,160
Speaker 1: him alive and such an unbelievable Arsenal moves and we

964
00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:13,000
Speaker 1: I think you and I both are really impressed with

965
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:16,440
Speaker 1: him as a player. But to your point, Dennis was like,

966
00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:18,840
Speaker 1: I'm here all night like you're gonna have to keep

967
00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:21,200
Speaker 1: making them. That's the problem is You're gonna have to

968
00:45:21,360 --> 00:45:23,600
Speaker 1: keep making them. It's it's one of the biggest things

969
00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:26,399
Speaker 1: that I always count on when I'm defending in any

970
00:45:26,440 --> 00:45:29,759
Speaker 1: sort of full length game. Yeah, here in town is like,

971
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:32,000
Speaker 1: guy makes a couple of tough shots on me. I

972
00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:34,279
Speaker 1: just stick to my principles, and I understand, like there's

973
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:36,279
Speaker 1: gonna be this. This game is a long game. It's

974
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:38,279
Speaker 1: gonna drag on, and there's gonna be a moment later

975
00:45:38,320 --> 00:45:40,320
Speaker 1: on where he has to keep making those shots. And

976
00:45:40,320 --> 00:45:43,960
Speaker 1: and that's what happened. He made two huge defensive plays

977
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:46,359
Speaker 1: at the end of the game where he forced SJ

978
00:45:46,520 --> 00:45:49,200
Speaker 1: into a tough floater and they blocked him from behind

979
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:53,360
Speaker 1: on that crazy recovery play, which was like freakish, and

980
00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:56,640
Speaker 1: and that won the game because you have to understand

981
00:45:56,640 --> 00:45:59,719
Speaker 1: it sometimes like dudes are gonna make shots, you know,

982
00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:01,920
Speaker 1: And and it's just about getting the pivotal stops at

983
00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:04,440
Speaker 1: the end of the game's wearing them out over time

984
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:07,000
Speaker 1: so that he doesn't quite get as much lift on

985
00:46:07,040 --> 00:46:09,000
Speaker 1: that floater, so that he misses it at the end

986
00:46:09,040 --> 00:46:11,520
Speaker 1: of the game. That's where you're gonna you know, that's

987
00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:13,239
Speaker 1: gonna be the difference between winning and losing in a

988
00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:18,840
Speaker 1: lot of nights. Um, we're back. I think he's he

989
00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:22,640
Speaker 1: exceeded expectations again to start, and then he's really dropped back. Um,

990
00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:25,799
Speaker 1: he's gone he's had some really bad games going. I mean,

991
00:46:26,080 --> 00:46:28,359
Speaker 1: I feel like it's all fatigue, but I think it's

992
00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:30,560
Speaker 1: more than that. Um, it got mental for him as well.

993
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:32,640
Speaker 1: He could tell his legs just weren't there. Um, there

994
00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:34,600
Speaker 1: are a few moments in that I think that King's

995
00:46:34,600 --> 00:46:36,759
Speaker 1: game or you could just tell he was like, get

996
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:39,000
Speaker 1: me on a flight, get me to you know, get

997
00:46:39,040 --> 00:46:41,520
Speaker 1: me to Cancun, get me to somewhere else. Um, I

998
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:44,839
Speaker 1: just can't play right now. So I think spiral for him.

999
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:46,840
Speaker 1: He could tell when he misses a shot, it messes

1000
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:49,719
Speaker 1: up his defense, his rotations, he does bad fowls. And

1001
00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:51,759
Speaker 1: I think the break, he's the guy that probably needed

1002
00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:54,000
Speaker 1: to break the most. To me, Um, he's a guy

1003
00:46:54,040 --> 00:46:56,719
Speaker 1: that doesn't really miss games and he's the iron man

1004
00:46:56,719 --> 00:46:59,279
Speaker 1: in that way, and you could tell it really affected him. So, um,

1005
00:46:59,280 --> 00:47:01,840
Speaker 1: he's income like he's been fine to me, He's been himself.

1006
00:47:01,880 --> 00:47:04,560
Speaker 1: I think he has the largest like benefit of the doubt.

1007
00:47:04,719 --> 00:47:06,600
Speaker 1: I see a lot of people like putting him in trades,

1008
00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:09,320
Speaker 1: which is just just crazy to me. Yeah, trying to

1009
00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:14,719
Speaker 1: trade him like I trust him entirely in Yeah, I mean,

1010
00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:17,359
Speaker 1: you don't go four rounds playing well too, you know,

1011
00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:19,759
Speaker 1: like you get you get some kind of benefit from that.

1012
00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:21,520
Speaker 1: So he was the third best player I thought in

1013
00:47:21,520 --> 00:47:23,200
Speaker 1: the playoffs last year. Yeah, and I don't think it

1014
00:47:23,239 --> 00:47:25,480
Speaker 1: was close. People say it was Rondo, but people forget

1015
00:47:25,480 --> 00:47:29,960
Speaker 1: how many bad games Rondo had him. But I will

1016
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:32,680
Speaker 1: forever die on the hill. Yeah, Atlanta is absolutely dead

1017
00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:36,560
Speaker 1: on that hill right now. But but yeah, Casey, if

1018
00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:38,759
Speaker 1: he has been great, it's gonna be great. He's gonna

1019
00:47:38,760 --> 00:47:41,880
Speaker 1: be fine. People like throwing him for Victor Hill a deepo,

1020
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:43,880
Speaker 1: but it's just not even playing well right now, so

1021
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:46,879
Speaker 1: it doesn't really make sense. Um, he's he's been fine.

1022
00:47:46,920 --> 00:47:48,959
Speaker 1: He's he's been I expect he's been himself. He's taking

1023
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:50,879
Speaker 1: his shots. I think he's been a little better even

1024
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:53,799
Speaker 1: as like a defender. He's been faster. Um, he knows

1025
00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:56,360
Speaker 1: where to be, he knows the schemes. Now, he's comfortable.

1026
00:47:56,840 --> 00:48:00,120
Speaker 1: I think he's fine, he'll be okay going everything. For

1027
00:48:00,360 --> 00:48:03,640
Speaker 1: everything that frames KCP season is how good he was

1028
00:48:03,719 --> 00:48:05,840
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and that there's good and bad to

1029
00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:07,720
Speaker 1: that that. The good is the benefit of the doubt

1030
00:48:07,719 --> 00:48:09,600
Speaker 1: and the amount of trust that the fan base hasn't

1031
00:48:09,640 --> 00:48:12,200
Speaker 1: in what he can do. The downsize is it is.

1032
00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:14,600
Speaker 1: It makes him look so bad right now because he was, like,

1033
00:48:15,280 --> 00:48:18,000
Speaker 1: you know, I could not say enough good things about

1034
00:48:18,040 --> 00:48:20,319
Speaker 1: KCP last year. You know, he had a couple of

1035
00:48:20,320 --> 00:48:23,840
Speaker 1: bad games defensively where the entire team kind of dropped

1036
00:48:23,880 --> 00:48:25,960
Speaker 1: the ball on defense. Like he was definitely on some

1037
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:28,799
Speaker 1: of those highlight reels against Miami, losing Duncan Robinson and

1038
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:32,400
Speaker 1: losing Tyler Harrow. But the for the most part in

1039
00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:35,640
Speaker 1: that playoff run, he was extremely dependable in rotations and

1040
00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:38,000
Speaker 1: at the point of attack as just a ball pressure guy,

1041
00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:41,000
Speaker 1: a guy chasing people off the three point line. And then,

1042
00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:44,719
Speaker 1: as I've said so many times on this podcast, I

1043
00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:48,600
Speaker 1: think he's one of the best like traditional close out

1044
00:48:48,600 --> 00:48:51,600
Speaker 1: attack guys in the league because he's an extremely good

1045
00:48:51,600 --> 00:48:54,080
Speaker 1: one leg jumper, which is great for attacking closeouts because

1046
00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:57,000
Speaker 1: it's usually just a like a tiny sliver of space

1047
00:48:57,040 --> 00:49:00,319
Speaker 1: that you're attacking uh in the defense and then UH

1048
00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:02,680
Speaker 1: and then he can knock down shots and he can

1049
00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:04,799
Speaker 1: if if the help comes over, he can make that

1050
00:49:04,840 --> 00:49:07,879
Speaker 1: one to dribble easy kick out to the next guy.

1051
00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:11,279
Speaker 1: So it's an unbelievable asset. Like I don't know what

1052
00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:13,799
Speaker 1: the closing lineup is gonna look like. But I know

1053
00:49:13,880 --> 00:49:15,879
Speaker 1: one thing for sure, KCP is gonna be in there.

1054
00:49:16,080 --> 00:49:19,680
Speaker 1: It's gonna be Dennis KCP, lebron A D and whoever's

1055
00:49:19,680 --> 00:49:22,200
Speaker 1: playing best as that other guy. I think it'll be

1056
00:49:22,200 --> 00:49:24,759
Speaker 1: Cruiso some nights of the Kuzma others. You know, if

1057
00:49:24,760 --> 00:49:26,440
Speaker 1: they need more size, he might you know, might have

1058
00:49:26,560 --> 00:49:28,959
Speaker 1: Mark Kis out there. But that that's that that's gonna

1059
00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:31,640
Speaker 1: be what they end up depending on. And KCP has

1060
00:49:31,800 --> 00:49:34,840
Speaker 1: earned he can miss his next thirty threes, and I

1061
00:49:34,880 --> 00:49:37,239
Speaker 1: wouldn't be worried. If anything, I'd probably be like, is

1062
00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:39,880
Speaker 1: he healthy? You know, that would be my first at

1063
00:49:39,920 --> 00:49:42,160
Speaker 1: that point. He's one of the fastest players too, right,

1064
00:49:42,200 --> 00:49:43,920
Speaker 1: he's super quick. We don't think of him as a

1065
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:45,960
Speaker 1: speed guy, but him and Sure were like one of

1066
00:49:45,960 --> 00:49:48,640
Speaker 1: the fastest guards combos in the league. So and you

1067
00:49:48,719 --> 00:49:50,840
Speaker 1: saw that really get effected. So hopefully he had a

1068
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:53,200
Speaker 1: nice break here at some my ties on a beach

1069
00:49:53,239 --> 00:49:55,680
Speaker 1: or something, and then uh is okay to is okay

1070
00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:58,319
Speaker 1: to be back? Now? It's that's the scary thing with

1071
00:49:58,360 --> 00:50:00,640
Speaker 1: the Lakers, is like there's this lebron A D combo,

1072
00:50:00,680 --> 00:50:03,560
Speaker 1: which we talked about a lot at length in the

1073
00:50:03,640 --> 00:50:05,360
Speaker 1: last podcast having to do with the way that that

1074
00:50:05,360 --> 00:50:07,279
Speaker 1: can neutralize a lot of the best picking roles in

1075
00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:09,680
Speaker 1: the league, because if you put them on your first

1076
00:50:10,120 --> 00:50:12,279
Speaker 1: on your best player and your second best player, and

1077
00:50:12,360 --> 00:50:14,359
Speaker 1: you want to run that action with your second best

1078
00:50:14,360 --> 00:50:16,319
Speaker 1: player so that you can get him on the short roll,

1079
00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:18,239
Speaker 1: if you're trapping like a staff or trapping like a

1080
00:50:18,320 --> 00:50:20,960
Speaker 1: Dame Lebron, and a D can just switch that and

1081
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:23,600
Speaker 1: effectively neutralize your best action. And all that's so scared

1082
00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:25,719
Speaker 1: we talked. And then offensively, all the pressure they put

1083
00:50:25,719 --> 00:50:27,600
Speaker 1: on the rim. We've talked at length about how good

1084
00:50:27,640 --> 00:50:30,319
Speaker 1: looking a D are. The differences is last year they

1085
00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:33,719
Speaker 1: had an average to below average backcourt, and this year

1086
00:50:33,760 --> 00:50:36,320
Speaker 1: they have an above average backcourt. And that's one of

1087
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:38,400
Speaker 1: the biggest reasons why I'm so confident in then like

1088
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:42,640
Speaker 1: to put a guy the caliber of Shrewder and a solid,

1089
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:46,640
Speaker 1: solid three and D guy like k CP in that backcourt,

1090
00:50:46,719 --> 00:50:51,200
Speaker 1: to me, just makes them extremely difficult to be four

1091
00:50:51,239 --> 00:50:55,640
Speaker 1: times out and seven. What about Kyle Kuzma, I think

1092
00:50:55,680 --> 00:50:59,120
Speaker 1: he's exceeding UM. I feel like he's he's really fit

1093
00:50:59,160 --> 00:51:01,320
Speaker 1: into a role. UM. Some people are mad at the

1094
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:03,040
Speaker 1: extension I was one of the ones that loved it.

1095
00:51:03,360 --> 00:51:05,200
Speaker 1: I was really happy to see a guy that's you know,

1096
00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:07,400
Speaker 1: I got to watch from summer league to you know,

1097
00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:10,560
Speaker 1: build and finally find a role that he's really fitting.

1098
00:51:10,880 --> 00:51:13,480
Speaker 1: His defense has been great. He's been, uh, the most

1099
00:51:13,480 --> 00:51:17,120
Speaker 1: surprising guy. He's He's played the hardest every game. I

1100
00:51:17,160 --> 00:51:18,680
Speaker 1: feel like, I feel like you would agree with that. Like,

1101
00:51:18,760 --> 00:51:21,720
Speaker 1: his energy has been the most than any player, um,

1102
00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:24,640
Speaker 1: maybe besides Lebron. Even when the team is slipping effort wise,

1103
00:51:24,680 --> 00:51:26,680
Speaker 1: you'll see him like running and get a crazy offensive

1104
00:51:26,680 --> 00:51:29,560
Speaker 1: rebound tap out or something like yeah, just hard. Oh,

1105
00:51:29,560 --> 00:51:31,280
Speaker 1: he plays super It's funny. There was a few players

1106
00:51:31,280 --> 00:51:32,880
Speaker 1: where a d would like go up for a rebound

1107
00:51:32,880 --> 00:51:35,840
Speaker 1: and Couzma comes flying in and like tries to steal it,

1108
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:37,520
Speaker 1: ball goes out of bounds. Eight. He looks at him

1109
00:51:37,560 --> 00:51:40,520
Speaker 1: like it's the first quarter, like what are you? What

1110
00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:42,839
Speaker 1: are you doing? But it's fun to watch him grow

1111
00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:45,319
Speaker 1: and he's really fit into a defensive role. His three

1112
00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:47,680
Speaker 1: pointers are they're up and down. But you know, he

1113
00:51:47,719 --> 00:51:50,160
Speaker 1: knows his role, his his roles to play hard. He

1114
00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:53,680
Speaker 1: really crashes the offensive boards like a madman. Um Because

1115
00:51:53,719 --> 00:51:56,239
Speaker 1: players and people don't really box out those corners and

1116
00:51:56,320 --> 00:51:58,399
Speaker 1: he would really take advantage of that and gets He's

1117
00:51:58,440 --> 00:51:59,719
Speaker 1: one of the Lakers some games with that. I think

1118
00:51:59,760 --> 00:52:01,800
Speaker 1: again the Pistons or something, he got a big offensive

1119
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:04,640
Speaker 1: rebound sun. He's exceeded, to my expustations. I never thought

1120
00:52:04,680 --> 00:52:06,880
Speaker 1: he'd be this level of defender. Um. I thought the

1121
00:52:06,880 --> 00:52:10,520
Speaker 1: playoffs he was good. Um, he's become a really reliable

1122
00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:12,680
Speaker 1: guy that like they put on people and be like, hey,

1123
00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:15,239
Speaker 1: this guy scoring, slow him down. It was just an

1124
00:52:15,239 --> 00:52:18,400
Speaker 1: insane thought from his rookie year who he was like

1125
00:52:18,480 --> 00:52:21,040
Speaker 1: just the score guy who he would help him to

1126
00:52:21,080 --> 00:52:23,400
Speaker 1: be like a Jordan Clarkson level. And now he's like

1127
00:52:23,440 --> 00:52:26,440
Speaker 1: this defenders spot up three pointer who makes the right

1128
00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:29,160
Speaker 1: read on rotations and knows where to be. It's it's

1129
00:52:29,160 --> 00:52:31,919
Speaker 1: cool to see where he's gone from here. We talked

1130
00:52:32,160 --> 00:52:34,600
Speaker 1: about this a few weeks back on one of our pods.

1131
00:52:34,640 --> 00:52:36,719
Speaker 1: He's been one of the coolest stories that from this

1132
00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:40,400
Speaker 1: season for the Lakers because his whole like if you

1133
00:52:40,440 --> 00:52:42,879
Speaker 1: were to kind of like try to, you know, summarize

1134
00:52:42,920 --> 00:52:45,759
Speaker 1: his personality after his first couple of years in the league.

1135
00:52:45,800 --> 00:52:48,360
Speaker 1: He's very Hollywood. He's very into the showy stuff. He

1136
00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:51,480
Speaker 1: wasn't very into the winning stuff, and that is completely

1137
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:54,960
Speaker 1: flipped on his head, like he is a bona fide

1138
00:52:55,560 --> 00:52:59,640
Speaker 1: winning basketball player. Now everything that he does is within

1139
00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:03,080
Speaker 1: the team concept and not within his own individual concept.

1140
00:53:03,400 --> 00:53:06,839
Speaker 1: A couple of things that are super fascinating. Uh, you know,

1141
00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:09,719
Speaker 1: he shot thirty thirty six point six percent from three

1142
00:53:09,760 --> 00:53:12,560
Speaker 1: when he was a rookie on about five and a

1143
00:53:12,560 --> 00:53:15,360
Speaker 1: half attempts per game, and then he was terrible the

1144
00:53:15,400 --> 00:53:17,000
Speaker 1: next two years, and there was a lot of talk

1145
00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:20,640
Speaker 1: about whether or not that was an outlier performance, especially

1146
00:53:20,680 --> 00:53:22,960
Speaker 1: since he did not shoot the three well in high

1147
00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:27,319
Speaker 1: school or in college. Um, well, he's at thirty six

1148
00:53:27,320 --> 00:53:29,960
Speaker 1: and a half percent this year on five attempts per game,

1149
00:53:31,239 --> 00:53:34,959
Speaker 1: So there is evidence that there is a significant improvement there,

1150
00:53:35,440 --> 00:53:38,560
Speaker 1: because once you don't have multiple outlier seasons in that

1151
00:53:38,640 --> 00:53:41,719
Speaker 1: regard shooting a career high and effective field goal percentage.

1152
00:53:41,719 --> 00:53:43,440
Speaker 1: Just scoring is down, but it's not way down. He's

1153
00:53:43,440 --> 00:53:46,440
Speaker 1: still had like twelve points per game, um and and

1154
00:53:46,560 --> 00:53:49,719
Speaker 1: he's averaging a career high six point seven rebounds, way

1155
00:53:49,800 --> 00:53:52,719
Speaker 1: career high offensive rebounds two point one offensive rebounds per game.

1156
00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:56,000
Speaker 1: His previous career high was one point one career him

1157
00:53:56,040 --> 00:53:59,520
Speaker 1: blocks the the guy he's just what. You know. One

1158
00:53:59,520 --> 00:54:01,759
Speaker 1: of the biggest things that always projected well for Kyle

1159
00:54:01,840 --> 00:54:04,160
Speaker 1: Kuzma as a defensive player was his size. And it's

1160
00:54:04,200 --> 00:54:05,839
Speaker 1: something that it's something that I say a lot about,

1161
00:54:05,840 --> 00:54:07,960
Speaker 1: like the difference between like a Trey Young and Luca

1162
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:11,160
Speaker 1: don Chich. You know, like Trey Young does not ever

1163
00:54:11,280 --> 00:54:14,080
Speaker 1: project to be a serviceable defensive player because he's just

1164
00:54:14,200 --> 00:54:18,080
Speaker 1: too small. You know. Steph Curry always projected to be

1165
00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:21,160
Speaker 1: a decent defensive player because he's six ft three, which

1166
00:54:21,200 --> 00:54:23,680
Speaker 1: is bigger than Dame. It's bigger than Trey. He's he's

1167
00:54:23,719 --> 00:54:26,960
Speaker 1: like a bigger guard than he ever gets credit for. Well,

1168
00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:30,080
Speaker 1: Luca is a big body, and he just he eventually

1169
00:54:30,120 --> 00:54:32,520
Speaker 1: will learn how to use that to be good. He was.

1170
00:54:32,760 --> 00:54:35,600
Speaker 1: Kuzma was a poor defensive player early in his career,

1171
00:54:35,960 --> 00:54:39,279
Speaker 1: and he has figured out through positional defense because there's

1172
00:54:39,360 --> 00:54:42,520
Speaker 1: there's multiple kinds of of individual defense. Some of it

1173
00:54:42,600 --> 00:54:46,640
Speaker 1: is like Alu alue Dor like strength and lateral quickness,

1174
00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:48,799
Speaker 1: like kind of like what Wesley Matthews was before he

1175
00:54:48,840 --> 00:54:51,560
Speaker 1: got hurt, and you know, and when he was in Dallas,

1176
00:54:51,600 --> 00:54:56,520
Speaker 1: like just absurd lateral quickness and anticipation in physicality at

1177
00:54:56,520 --> 00:54:58,160
Speaker 1: the point attack to keep guys in front of it.

1178
00:54:58,239 --> 00:55:01,000
Speaker 1: That's not what Kyle Kuzma does. Kyle Kuzma is more

1179
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:03,960
Speaker 1: of like a give space and and and try to

1180
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:06,239
Speaker 1: beat guys to a spot and use his length to

1181
00:55:06,360 --> 00:55:08,239
Speaker 1: make up for the fact that he has to give

1182
00:55:08,239 --> 00:55:10,400
Speaker 1: space because he's not very latter really quick. But he

1183
00:55:10,480 --> 00:55:12,760
Speaker 1: learned how to do that, and then he's also figured

1184
00:55:12,760 --> 00:55:14,879
Speaker 1: out like, hey, I can be a really good help

1185
00:55:14,920 --> 00:55:19,800
Speaker 1: defender if I if I use my side to eventually

1186
00:55:19,840 --> 00:55:23,239
Speaker 1: figure it out as long as he did, I drop out?

1187
00:55:23,880 --> 00:55:32,120
Speaker 1: Now you did? And now you dropped out? M M

1188
00:55:42,560 --> 00:55:45,200
Speaker 1: can you hear me? Now? Yeah? I can hear you now. Okay,

1189
00:55:45,680 --> 00:55:47,879
Speaker 1: So I guess the hard wire is not gonna work.

1190
00:55:47,880 --> 00:55:50,200
Speaker 1: I have to figure out what's going on with my

1191
00:55:50,719 --> 00:55:54,160
Speaker 1: I s P. Anyway, I apologize guys for the dropout.

1192
00:55:54,760 --> 00:55:58,760
Speaker 1: Um anyway. So, uh, it's just been cool to see

1193
00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:04,080
Speaker 1: as he's kind of made that maturity leap to finally

1194
00:56:04,160 --> 00:56:06,919
Speaker 1: figuring out how he can turn himself into a really

1195
00:56:06,920 --> 00:56:09,480
Speaker 1: good pro And that was the difference between him flaming

1196
00:56:09,520 --> 00:56:12,200
Speaker 1: out being overseas and him being like a guy who's

1197
00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:14,480
Speaker 1: gonna be in the league for twenty years, and so

1198
00:56:14,760 --> 00:56:17,319
Speaker 1: I've been really impressed. I credit the coaching staff on

1199
00:56:17,360 --> 00:56:20,280
Speaker 1: that too, because I feel like the previous seasons his

1200
00:56:20,280 --> 00:56:22,640
Speaker 1: his defensive stance. Even I used to watch, it would

1201
00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:25,480
Speaker 1: be awful. He would get beat off the dribbles so easily. Um,

1202
00:56:25,520 --> 00:56:27,360
Speaker 1: And now you know he's really good. He knows how

1203
00:56:27,440 --> 00:56:30,360
Speaker 1: to stay in front be people to the spot you

1204
00:56:30,400 --> 00:56:33,200
Speaker 1: weren't watching. I don't think the Lakers in eighteen before

1205
00:56:33,200 --> 00:56:35,520
Speaker 1: they got Lebron the year before they got a little

1206
00:56:35,520 --> 00:56:37,719
Speaker 1: bit you watch a little bit. Okay, Yeah, but I

1207
00:56:37,800 --> 00:56:39,960
Speaker 1: was talking about Rookie year Couse. I'll tell my grandkids

1208
00:56:39,960 --> 00:56:42,120
Speaker 1: about Rookie year cuse because that guy was. That guy

1209
00:56:42,200 --> 00:56:44,160
Speaker 1: was a different level of score. Like people joked about

1210
00:56:44,160 --> 00:56:46,600
Speaker 1: the Lakers comparing him to Jayson Tatum that year or whatever.

1211
00:56:46,640 --> 00:56:49,440
Speaker 1: But I dude was like hitting floaters off the balance

1212
00:56:49,480 --> 00:56:51,759
Speaker 1: where he would come off screen roles and score and

1213
00:56:51,960 --> 00:56:54,000
Speaker 1: look like an eighteen to twenty point score. And I

1214
00:56:54,040 --> 00:56:56,080
Speaker 1: think he could still probably do that on a bad team.

1215
00:56:56,120 --> 00:56:57,920
Speaker 1: But like you said, it's it's great to see his

1216
00:56:58,200 --> 00:57:00,480
Speaker 1: him just accepting and enjoying. Right. He looks like he's

1217
00:57:00,480 --> 00:57:03,399
Speaker 1: having fun, like he's He's having a blast doing his role,

1218
00:57:03,400 --> 00:57:06,960
Speaker 1: and I think that's that's important. So let's move on

1219
00:57:07,040 --> 00:57:10,600
Speaker 1: to Wesley Matthews. Have you felt about himself this year? Man,

1220
00:57:10,680 --> 00:57:14,160
Speaker 1: he's probably been the biggest disappointment um on this on

1221
00:57:14,200 --> 00:57:16,320
Speaker 1: the on the team. Like I know he's a little older,

1222
00:57:16,360 --> 00:57:19,920
Speaker 1: but uh, like people were placing him as a Danny

1223
00:57:19,960 --> 00:57:22,200
Speaker 1: Green replacement, right like, as like he'll just come in

1224
00:57:22,240 --> 00:57:24,320
Speaker 1: and fill the Danny Green roll, which I think we

1225
00:57:24,440 --> 00:57:29,560
Speaker 1: really underrated Danny Green. Like I can't believe, I mean,

1226
00:57:29,640 --> 00:57:32,800
Speaker 1: Danny Danny Green is making fifteen million, you know a year.

1227
00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:34,880
Speaker 1: I mean it's a little bit different as well. West

1228
00:57:34,960 --> 00:57:36,720
Speaker 1: is on a minimum deal and there's a reason why

1229
00:57:37,040 --> 00:57:39,800
Speaker 1: he's on a minimum deal, right like this that doesn't

1230
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:42,960
Speaker 1: happen by accidents. So but yeah, like he's obviously not

1231
00:57:43,040 --> 00:57:45,040
Speaker 1: Danny Green, and he doesn't have to be for this team.

1232
00:57:45,040 --> 00:57:47,280
Speaker 1: He just really needs to hit a few open threes.

1233
00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:49,560
Speaker 1: I feel like his defense has been fine though, Like

1234
00:57:49,600 --> 00:57:52,320
Speaker 1: when he's out there, he plays hard, Um, he makes

1235
00:57:52,440 --> 00:57:55,040
Speaker 1: he he gets beat. Sometimes he makes some wrong decisions.

1236
00:57:55,040 --> 00:57:57,240
Speaker 1: I think that's like a chemistry kind of thing. He

1237
00:57:57,240 --> 00:57:59,040
Speaker 1: doesn't know where people are going to be. But yeah,

1238
00:57:59,080 --> 00:58:01,920
Speaker 1: he's probably been the most disappointing him. But again, I'm

1239
00:58:01,960 --> 00:58:03,960
Speaker 1: one of the big believers in him. I believe in Vets.

1240
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:06,280
Speaker 1: I believe they will eventually figure it out. He's been

1241
00:58:06,320 --> 00:58:09,040
Speaker 1: being playing basketball in his life. He was starting for

1242
00:58:09,080 --> 00:58:11,240
Speaker 1: a sixty seven win team last year. I mean, it's

1243
00:58:11,320 --> 00:58:13,880
Speaker 1: just it's just crazy what what has happened to him?

1244
00:58:13,880 --> 00:58:16,320
Speaker 1: So hopefully hopefully he gets a going, but he's been

1245
00:58:16,360 --> 00:58:19,560
Speaker 1: he's been pretty disappointing. So he had a stretch a

1246
00:58:20,040 --> 00:58:23,840
Speaker 1: let's see a fifteen game stretch that from December to

1247
00:58:24,040 --> 00:58:28,960
Speaker 1: February tenth. Um February tenth was a couple of games

1248
00:58:29,000 --> 00:58:31,560
Speaker 1: before a D got hurt. So he's playing for the

1249
00:58:31,600 --> 00:58:33,760
Speaker 1: most part with Lebron in a D. And he was

1250
00:58:33,760 --> 00:58:37,800
Speaker 1: shooting from three in that span on four four attempts

1251
00:58:37,800 --> 00:58:40,120
Speaker 1: per game. So he had a significant chunk of the

1252
00:58:40,160 --> 00:58:42,400
Speaker 1: season when the rest of the team was healthy where

1253
00:58:42,400 --> 00:58:45,680
Speaker 1: he shot really well, for whatever that's worth. But I

1254
00:58:45,720 --> 00:58:47,960
Speaker 1: agree with you, I think you know a lot of

1255
00:58:47,960 --> 00:58:49,680
Speaker 1: times like this is one of the biggest reasons why

1256
00:58:49,680 --> 00:58:51,320
Speaker 1: I think th Ht, who we're going to talk about

1257
00:58:51,320 --> 00:58:53,280
Speaker 1: in a second, is going to eventually fall out of

1258
00:58:53,280 --> 00:58:57,240
Speaker 1: the rotation. You know, the in the playoffs when le

1259
00:58:57,240 --> 00:58:59,320
Speaker 1: Bron and or when the Bronze playing forty minutes a

1260
00:58:59,360 --> 00:59:01,080
Speaker 1: night and eighties play in thirty six minutes a night

1261
00:59:01,080 --> 00:59:02,840
Speaker 1: and Dennis Shooter is playing thirty five minutes and a

1262
00:59:02,960 --> 00:59:07,200
Speaker 1: night or whatever it is, Like you the the the

1263
00:59:07,320 --> 00:59:10,160
Speaker 1: role for these guys is gonna get even more simple

1264
00:59:10,160 --> 00:59:13,160
Speaker 1: than it is now. And you just need guys who

1265
00:59:13,160 --> 00:59:17,040
Speaker 1: don't make mistakes, who don't have silly turnovers, and their

1266
00:59:17,120 --> 00:59:20,320
Speaker 1: shot selection is really good, Like you know, there's gonna

1267
00:59:20,320 --> 00:59:22,840
Speaker 1: always be that worry, like is th ht gonna go

1268
00:59:22,960 --> 00:59:24,840
Speaker 1: rogue and take a bad shot in the pivotal part

1269
00:59:24,840 --> 00:59:26,440
Speaker 1: of the game, like when he just doesn't kind of

1270
00:59:26,440 --> 00:59:28,800
Speaker 1: feel the moment enough, and and those sorts of things

1271
00:59:28,800 --> 00:59:33,880
Speaker 1: like you can't you can't uh possible over value having

1272
00:59:33,920 --> 00:59:36,560
Speaker 1: a guy like West on the roster as an option

1273
00:59:36,960 --> 00:59:39,160
Speaker 1: to put in that as that fifth guy in that lineup.

1274
00:59:39,160 --> 00:59:40,960
Speaker 1: Like that, it may very well be the case that

1275
00:59:41,480 --> 00:59:44,320
Speaker 1: you know, in their closing lineup with Dennis Shooter, k CP,

1276
00:59:44,520 --> 00:59:48,280
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D that against the Clippers, they might

1277
00:59:48,320 --> 00:59:51,280
Speaker 1: send West out there and put West on Kauai and

1278
00:59:51,320 --> 00:59:53,320
Speaker 1: just have Lebron and a D digging and helping on

1279
00:59:53,400 --> 00:59:55,640
Speaker 1: Kauai like that. That that that could be scary, you know,

1280
00:59:55,760 --> 00:59:58,880
Speaker 1: especially that West has a track record of defending Kauai. Well.

1281
00:59:59,240 --> 01:00:03,480
Speaker 1: I he's definitely been underwhelming. He's definitely been less good

1282
01:00:03,480 --> 01:00:05,840
Speaker 1: than we all hoped. He definitely has been nowhere near

1283
01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:07,480
Speaker 1: as good as Danny Grant. I want to be clear

1284
01:00:07,480 --> 01:00:11,160
Speaker 1: about all of that. However, I remain optimistic that he

1285
01:00:11,200 --> 01:00:14,760
Speaker 1: will be a serviceable guard in that rotation by the

1286
01:00:14,760 --> 01:00:17,600
Speaker 1: time that the Lakers get to the playoffs. Yeah. Same,

1287
01:00:17,640 --> 01:00:19,920
Speaker 1: He's he's a veteran, he knows what he's doing. He's

1288
01:00:19,920 --> 01:00:21,800
Speaker 1: not gonna make like like you said, mistakes. He's a

1289
01:00:21,880 --> 01:00:24,560
Speaker 1: high i Q basketball player, so he's not gonna hurt

1290
01:00:24,640 --> 01:00:26,920
Speaker 1: you in terms of like his own dumb mistakes. He

1291
01:00:27,000 --> 01:00:29,200
Speaker 1: might miss shots and all that, but um but I

1292
01:00:29,200 --> 01:00:31,320
Speaker 1: can live in miss shots, you know, he that will happen.

1293
01:00:31,360 --> 01:00:34,080
Speaker 1: So that he's been playing fine defensively, he fits in.

1294
01:00:34,160 --> 01:00:36,840
Speaker 1: I think, like the net ratings with him on the

1295
01:00:36,880 --> 01:00:39,040
Speaker 1: floor is still fine, So I think he'll pick it

1296
01:00:39,120 --> 01:00:42,200
Speaker 1: up as as we go on here. So let's move

1297
01:00:42,200 --> 01:00:44,520
Speaker 1: on to HT. Have you felt about himself far this year?

1298
01:00:46,040 --> 01:00:48,600
Speaker 1: I think he's exceeded my expectations. I didn't think he

1299
01:00:48,640 --> 01:00:50,560
Speaker 1: would be this good as an on ball kind of

1300
01:00:50,600 --> 01:00:54,320
Speaker 1: score um so fast that the kind of blew people

1301
01:00:54,320 --> 01:00:56,880
Speaker 1: away in the preseason, right hit and insane. He had

1302
01:00:56,920 --> 01:00:59,800
Speaker 1: like national people talking about him in the preseason, and uh,

1303
01:01:00,200 --> 01:01:02,720
Speaker 1: he was really good for the first beginning of the the season.

1304
01:01:02,760 --> 01:01:04,960
Speaker 1: And I think teams have caught up to what he is,

1305
01:01:05,040 --> 01:01:06,280
Speaker 1: which is the guy who wants to get to the

1306
01:01:06,360 --> 01:01:09,640
Speaker 1: rim consistently. He doesn't really trust his jump shot yet.

1307
01:01:10,000 --> 01:01:12,920
Speaker 1: But again, he's twenty years old, so it's hard for

1308
01:01:12,960 --> 01:01:15,560
Speaker 1: me to say like, oh, he's disappointed, you know, as

1309
01:01:15,560 --> 01:01:18,560
Speaker 1: a twenty year old guy in the on a championship team.

1310
01:01:18,600 --> 01:01:20,240
Speaker 1: And I think he's been good. But you're right. I

1311
01:01:20,240 --> 01:01:23,439
Speaker 1: think he'll start to follow up the rotation, Uh what's

1312
01:01:23,440 --> 01:01:25,840
Speaker 1: the roles will really get to find right, And he's

1313
01:01:25,840 --> 01:01:28,120
Speaker 1: a guy that's just not good defensively right now. He

1314
01:01:28,160 --> 01:01:30,360
Speaker 1: just isn't. He doesn't know where to be. He gets lost.

1315
01:01:30,680 --> 01:01:32,640
Speaker 1: He comes off shooters that have hit five threes in

1316
01:01:32,640 --> 01:01:34,880
Speaker 1: a row, like he just it's it's stuff like that

1317
01:01:34,880 --> 01:01:36,600
Speaker 1: that you just can't live within the playoffs. So I

1318
01:01:36,600 --> 01:01:38,360
Speaker 1: think he'll be he'll be out of the rotation there

1319
01:01:38,400 --> 01:01:40,760
Speaker 1: but he's shown that he's really good. He's not gonna

1320
01:01:40,800 --> 01:01:42,680
Speaker 1: get some max contract this summer. I think that has

1321
01:01:42,760 --> 01:01:45,120
Speaker 1: kind of wayne. People are worried about that that some

1322
01:01:45,160 --> 01:01:47,000
Speaker 1: team would come and pay him like twenty million a

1323
01:01:47,080 --> 01:01:49,320
Speaker 1: year or something like that. I think that's I think

1324
01:01:49,360 --> 01:01:52,440
Speaker 1: that's over with. But he's been fine. He's exceeded my

1325
01:01:52,480 --> 01:01:54,400
Speaker 1: expectations for what I thought because I didn't think he'd

1326
01:01:54,400 --> 01:01:56,720
Speaker 1: be in the rotation this year. So he's he's in

1327
01:01:56,760 --> 01:01:59,800
Speaker 1: the rotation. He's fully getting like fifteen twenty minutes a

1328
01:01:59,800 --> 01:02:04,040
Speaker 1: game almost. So, yeah, seventeen minutes a game on a

1329
01:02:04,080 --> 01:02:06,400
Speaker 1: team that's third in the West. I mean, that's that's

1330
01:02:06,400 --> 01:02:08,960
Speaker 1: a big time for twenty year old second round pick.

1331
01:02:10,280 --> 01:02:13,200
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna say I've been disappointed with him, but

1332
01:02:13,240 --> 01:02:18,000
Speaker 1: I'm framing that within the the perspective of the fact

1333
01:02:18,120 --> 01:02:21,160
Speaker 1: that in the preseason there was talk of whether or

1334
01:02:21,160 --> 01:02:23,600
Speaker 1: not he was a rising star, and we talked a

1335
01:02:23,600 --> 01:02:25,840
Speaker 1: little bit about this last week. I do not think

1336
01:02:26,160 --> 01:02:28,960
Speaker 1: th HD is a future star. Um. I view him

1337
01:02:29,040 --> 01:02:32,320
Speaker 1: is like, you know, a guy that in the future

1338
01:02:32,400 --> 01:02:34,960
Speaker 1: can be an off the bench spark plug type of guy,

1339
01:02:35,120 --> 01:02:38,360
Speaker 1: just because he's a super aggressive scoring guard. Uh. The

1340
01:02:38,440 --> 01:02:41,160
Speaker 1: only potential he has, in my opinion, to eventually be

1341
01:02:41,240 --> 01:02:43,920
Speaker 1: like a really good, solid starting guard on a championship

1342
01:02:43,920 --> 01:02:47,560
Speaker 1: team is if he develops defensively, which he certainly can't. Uh.

1343
01:02:48,680 --> 01:02:51,360
Speaker 1: That's the tools. He's is more than enough tools. It's

1344
01:02:51,400 --> 01:02:54,480
Speaker 1: just gonna come down to him picking up the focused stuff.

1345
01:02:54,600 --> 01:02:56,880
Speaker 1: The reason why you can't play him is he can't shoot.

1346
01:02:58,240 --> 01:03:03,040
Speaker 1: He's a thirty one percent from three last year from

1347
01:03:03,040 --> 01:03:06,080
Speaker 1: three this year. UM in the playoffs last year he was,

1348
01:03:06,720 --> 01:03:09,680
Speaker 1: but that's in a very very very small volume. I

1349
01:03:09,920 --> 01:03:13,920
Speaker 1: I think that in a playoff series he's going to

1350
01:03:14,000 --> 01:03:15,960
Speaker 1: be left butt naked on the three point line every

1351
01:03:15,960 --> 01:03:18,600
Speaker 1: single time, and it's going to really hurt their offense.

1352
01:03:18,640 --> 01:03:22,400
Speaker 1: And so, you know, I still think the Lakers have

1353
01:03:22,440 --> 01:03:25,360
Speaker 1: an asset there. I still think that he's a great

1354
01:03:25,400 --> 01:03:28,800
Speaker 1: guy to kind of help bridge you know, the Lebron

1355
01:03:28,880 --> 01:03:31,960
Speaker 1: era to the post Lebron era. I absolutely view him

1356
01:03:32,000 --> 01:03:35,160
Speaker 1: as an asset in that regard. I just personally have

1357
01:03:35,280 --> 01:03:37,640
Speaker 1: been lower on him than other Laker fans, and I

1358
01:03:37,720 --> 01:03:40,080
Speaker 1: don't think he can play in the playoff rotation. And

1359
01:03:40,120 --> 01:03:43,720
Speaker 1: so just within that you know, you know, contextualization, I

1360
01:03:43,760 --> 01:03:47,360
Speaker 1: would say that I've been disappointed in him. Yeah, I

1361
01:03:47,360 --> 01:03:50,360
Speaker 1: mean it's kind of tough because because he's so young,

1362
01:03:50,440 --> 01:03:52,480
Speaker 1: Like I feel like, I feel like saying he's not

1363
01:03:52,520 --> 01:03:54,240
Speaker 1: going to be a star is really tough because I

1364
01:03:54,280 --> 01:03:56,360
Speaker 1: think he's shown enough on the ball to where like

1365
01:03:56,440 --> 01:03:58,240
Speaker 1: that's that's really needed. Like if you have a guy

1366
01:03:58,280 --> 01:04:00,520
Speaker 1: who can create off the dribble, and he said he

1367
01:04:00,560 --> 01:04:02,480
Speaker 1: can't shoot, I think he's learning to be a spot

1368
01:04:02,520 --> 01:04:04,680
Speaker 1: up shooter, right, Like that's just not who he was

1369
01:04:04,760 --> 01:04:07,920
Speaker 1: in college or anyway. Feels like the dribble ones more

1370
01:04:08,000 --> 01:04:11,680
Speaker 1: than yeah he's yeah, he's a rhythm shooter, right. He

1371
01:04:11,720 --> 01:04:14,439
Speaker 1: likes to like dribble through the legs, like step back

1372
01:04:14,560 --> 01:04:16,760
Speaker 1: and then hit hit his threes that way rather than

1373
01:04:16,800 --> 01:04:18,960
Speaker 1: just sitting waiting in the corner for the ball to

1374
01:04:19,000 --> 01:04:21,400
Speaker 1: come to him. I think that's really hurts him. But

1375
01:04:21,440 --> 01:04:23,680
Speaker 1: he's like a streaky shooter. He hold one, held like

1376
01:04:23,720 --> 01:04:25,680
Speaker 1: two more in the same game, but he'll go like

1377
01:04:25,720 --> 01:04:29,000
Speaker 1: over five and in another one. So I don't know

1378
01:04:29,080 --> 01:04:30,720
Speaker 1: what to make mom. I still think he's so young.

1379
01:04:30,760 --> 01:04:32,480
Speaker 1: There's a lot of Lakers Twitter that think like he's

1380
01:04:32,520 --> 01:04:35,160
Speaker 1: a for sure All Star. I'm not there, but I

1381
01:04:35,200 --> 01:04:38,400
Speaker 1: do think he'll be a starting level guard. Um. Jared

1382
01:04:38,440 --> 01:04:40,080
Speaker 1: Dudley was really high on him. He said he's like

1383
01:04:40,160 --> 01:04:43,320
Speaker 1: expecting him to start next year, which which I don't

1384
01:04:43,360 --> 01:04:49,360
Speaker 1: think that's happen exactly. Yeah, but yeah, he's a young kid.

1385
01:04:49,360 --> 01:04:51,600
Speaker 1: He's he'll be fine. He's he's learning to play with

1386
01:04:51,800 --> 01:04:56,440
Speaker 1: you know, championship level uh team, so he'll be Okay.

1387
01:04:57,040 --> 01:04:59,280
Speaker 1: I'm trying to pull up his shooting number serio real quick,

1388
01:04:59,280 --> 01:05:02,560
Speaker 1: one of you, uh. The last player we gotta get

1389
01:05:02,600 --> 01:05:06,200
Speaker 1: to his markis Morris, So why don't you tell us? Yeah,

1390
01:05:06,280 --> 01:05:08,960
Speaker 1: I've been upset or pleased with what you've seen from

1391
01:05:08,960 --> 01:05:12,640
Speaker 1: markets this year. Yeah, he's also been kind of underwhelming

1392
01:05:12,760 --> 01:05:15,360
Speaker 1: from what we expected from the bubble. From the bubble,

1393
01:05:15,360 --> 01:05:17,240
Speaker 1: he was really great. He was sending his open threes,

1394
01:05:17,320 --> 01:05:19,520
Speaker 1: and I feel like he's one another guy like k CP,

1395
01:05:19,880 --> 01:05:22,240
Speaker 1: Like he's he and he has been really open with it, right,

1396
01:05:22,240 --> 01:05:24,960
Speaker 1: Like his quotes have been really um my opening where

1397
01:05:24,960 --> 01:05:27,760
Speaker 1: he's saying like I'm exhausted, Like every game feels like

1398
01:05:27,800 --> 01:05:30,520
Speaker 1: I'm starting with like thirty minutes already, Like I've I'm

1399
01:05:30,760 --> 01:05:34,520
Speaker 1: tired as hell. So I mean I'm taking that into account.

1400
01:05:34,520 --> 01:05:37,000
Speaker 1: He's starting to play better like against Sacramento, he played

1401
01:05:37,080 --> 01:05:39,760
Speaker 1: really well. Against Phoenix, he played really well. Um, he's

1402
01:05:39,800 --> 01:05:41,280
Speaker 1: a guy that you know, they like to throw the

1403
01:05:41,320 --> 01:05:44,439
Speaker 1: ball into the post and score out of that. But yeah,

1404
01:05:44,520 --> 01:05:47,560
Speaker 1: I think he's been underwhelming just because of what we expected.

1405
01:05:47,600 --> 01:05:50,240
Speaker 1: But again, he's another veteran that I feel like, we'll

1406
01:05:50,280 --> 01:05:52,440
Speaker 1: pick it up when it matters, and uh, he's he's

1407
01:05:52,440 --> 01:05:54,800
Speaker 1: really started to pick it up lately, so hopefully that

1408
01:05:54,800 --> 01:05:58,919
Speaker 1: that picks up going forward. I so Markief has been

1409
01:05:59,440 --> 01:06:01,640
Speaker 1: interesting the sense that I see him as an easy,

1410
01:06:02,080 --> 01:06:05,400
Speaker 1: easily upgradeable player that would drop out of the rotation

1411
01:06:05,440 --> 01:06:08,760
Speaker 1: if they got anything resembling a decent forward. At this point,

1412
01:06:09,320 --> 01:06:11,200
Speaker 1: I don't want to say all negative things because that

1413
01:06:11,240 --> 01:06:12,640
Speaker 1: there have been a couple of things he's done well.

1414
01:06:12,680 --> 01:06:15,360
Speaker 1: I think he's been a good post defender there when

1415
01:06:15,400 --> 01:06:18,400
Speaker 1: you can if when he plays the center position and

1416
01:06:18,600 --> 01:06:21,240
Speaker 1: teams try to bully him on the block to take

1417
01:06:21,280 --> 01:06:23,240
Speaker 1: advantage of the lack of size, he holds his own

1418
01:06:23,280 --> 01:06:26,840
Speaker 1: pretty well down there. Uh. He also has had some

1419
01:06:27,000 --> 01:06:29,160
Speaker 1: games where he has shot the ball well. Overwhell on

1420
01:06:29,200 --> 01:06:32,040
Speaker 1: the season, he's not shooting the ball well, but he

1421
01:06:32,120 --> 01:06:33,920
Speaker 1: has had some games this season where he has shot

1422
01:06:33,920 --> 01:06:38,600
Speaker 1: the ball well. The problem with him is he is

1423
01:06:38,640 --> 01:06:41,920
Speaker 1: not mobile enough like the and he doesn't have the

1424
01:06:42,000 --> 01:06:45,400
Speaker 1: motor that Montrez does to make up for some of

1425
01:06:45,520 --> 01:06:49,760
Speaker 1: his uh, to make up for some of his athleticism deficiencies,

1426
01:06:49,800 --> 01:06:53,360
Speaker 1: and it hurts them in defensive rotations. And usually when

1427
01:06:53,360 --> 01:06:57,160
Speaker 1: you see, you know, a defensive rotation is like a

1428
01:06:57,160 --> 01:07:00,480
Speaker 1: A defensive rotation is kind of like a like a uh,

1429
01:07:00,520 --> 01:07:03,880
Speaker 1: like a ping pong rally that goes back and forth

1430
01:07:03,920 --> 01:07:06,080
Speaker 1: and then eventually the ball falls off. This falls off

1431
01:07:06,080 --> 01:07:08,840
Speaker 1: the table because someone messes up. It just feels like

1432
01:07:08,880 --> 01:07:12,760
Speaker 1: a lot of those end with Mark Kiff being slow

1433
01:07:12,800 --> 01:07:16,640
Speaker 1: on a rotation and something getting butchered. So, you know, I,

1434
01:07:16,840 --> 01:07:20,040
Speaker 1: you know, he's fine, he's serviceable. He does what he does.

1435
01:07:20,240 --> 01:07:22,800
Speaker 1: He's another one of those guys that had some big

1436
01:07:22,840 --> 01:07:26,440
Speaker 1: playoff moments feeding off of because he's kind of an

1437
01:07:26,440 --> 01:07:29,760
Speaker 1: a rational confidence guy, and he he fed off of

1438
01:07:29,880 --> 01:07:32,760
Speaker 1: some of the incredibly high quality shots that he got

1439
01:07:32,840 --> 01:07:36,120
Speaker 1: playing alongside Lebron and a d I just think he's

1440
01:07:36,200 --> 01:07:39,040
Speaker 1: he's an extremely likely candidate to fall out of the

1441
01:07:39,160 --> 01:07:44,040
Speaker 1: rotation uh come playoff time. And Frank has said as much, uh,

1442
01:07:44,120 --> 01:07:46,000
Speaker 1: you know, early in the year when they would shrink

1443
01:07:46,040 --> 01:07:49,000
Speaker 1: to nine, it'd be Wes and Mark Kief. Now I

1444
01:07:49,040 --> 01:07:50,840
Speaker 1: don't think Quest should be out of the rotation, but

1445
01:07:51,160 --> 01:07:53,200
Speaker 1: Mark Kief, he just he is what he is. He's

1446
01:07:53,240 --> 01:07:56,320
Speaker 1: your tenth or eleventh guy. He's their spots center when

1447
01:07:56,360 --> 01:07:59,080
Speaker 1: they don't have center minutes available or when they do

1448
01:07:59,120 --> 01:08:01,280
Speaker 1: have center minutes of a I should say. And he's

1449
01:08:01,400 --> 01:08:03,320
Speaker 1: very heat checky from three when he's got to go in,

1450
01:08:03,400 --> 01:08:05,200
Speaker 1: he can be really dangerous out there. But he's also

1451
01:08:05,240 --> 01:08:08,800
Speaker 1: had games where he doesn't have it going. So um,

1452
01:08:08,920 --> 01:08:11,040
Speaker 1: he is what he is. Yeah, And I think he

1453
01:08:11,400 --> 01:08:13,840
Speaker 1: wasn't he wasn't done any favors, but playing next to Montrez,

1454
01:08:14,120 --> 01:08:16,080
Speaker 1: they were doing that second unit where him and Tres

1455
01:08:16,080 --> 01:08:19,000
Speaker 1: were like the back line of the defense, especially especially

1456
01:08:19,040 --> 01:08:22,040
Speaker 1: without Anthony Davis. Like that's just that's just asking he

1457
01:08:22,080 --> 01:08:24,360
Speaker 1: had scored on he could tell and put a couple

1458
01:08:24,360 --> 01:08:26,759
Speaker 1: of that with him being tired and all that stuff.

1459
01:08:26,800 --> 01:08:29,400
Speaker 1: So and he's a specialist, right, He's like a guy

1460
01:08:29,400 --> 01:08:31,400
Speaker 1: that you can start at the four when when you

1461
01:08:31,439 --> 01:08:33,559
Speaker 1: want to next to a D And that really destroyed

1462
01:08:33,600 --> 01:08:35,840
Speaker 1: Houston in the second round. Him and him and a

1463
01:08:35,920 --> 01:08:38,200
Speaker 1: D starting, they're really really made tough for them. He's

1464
01:08:38,200 --> 01:08:40,120
Speaker 1: a guy that can switch. He doesn't want to be

1465
01:08:40,160 --> 01:08:42,160
Speaker 1: in rotation, like you said, he's a little slow for that,

1466
01:08:42,200 --> 01:08:44,280
Speaker 1: but he's a good switchy defender. He's not gonna get

1467
01:08:44,280 --> 01:08:46,720
Speaker 1: destroyed on those kind of things. So yeah, he's he's

1468
01:08:46,720 --> 01:08:49,120
Speaker 1: a specialist player. And again he signed for the minimum

1469
01:08:49,160 --> 01:08:52,160
Speaker 1: as well, so he's a minimum kind of minimum players.

1470
01:08:52,160 --> 01:08:54,519
Speaker 1: So that's that's what you'll get out of those guys.

1471
01:08:55,000 --> 01:08:58,639
Speaker 1: All the guys are are exceeding their contracts by yeah,

1472
01:08:59,360 --> 01:09:01,599
Speaker 1: enormous him ounts, which is what you need when you're

1473
01:09:01,600 --> 01:09:05,280
Speaker 1: trying to build the championship team. But yeah, I think

1474
01:09:05,320 --> 01:09:07,800
Speaker 1: I think more or less given the circumstances. To kind

1475
01:09:07,800 --> 01:09:09,960
Speaker 1: of wrap this up, like, I think more or less

1476
01:09:10,040 --> 01:09:13,720
Speaker 1: under the circumstances, you couldn't really can't really complain. The

1477
01:09:13,840 --> 01:09:17,160
Speaker 1: only thing is, like you know, they are just and

1478
01:09:17,200 --> 01:09:20,040
Speaker 1: again I'm not trying to speak this into existence. I'm

1479
01:09:20,080 --> 01:09:23,200
Speaker 1: literally just you know, sharing my concerns. There are a

1480
01:09:23,280 --> 01:09:26,240
Speaker 1: lot of examples of in NBA history of a guy

1481
01:09:26,280 --> 01:09:28,720
Speaker 1: who's got this nagging thing that's been kind of a

1482
01:09:28,720 --> 01:09:31,840
Speaker 1: problem and it leads to a severe injury. Uh, if

1483
01:09:31,840 --> 01:09:34,200
Speaker 1: you remember Derrick Rose, he was dealing with a lot

1484
01:09:34,280 --> 01:09:37,599
Speaker 1: of a foot and ankle stuff, and and that ended

1485
01:09:37,680 --> 01:09:41,559
Speaker 1: up leading to his knee being a problem. Uh you know,

1486
01:09:41,720 --> 01:09:45,320
Speaker 1: Iman Schumpert, I'll never forget was dealing with a a

1487
01:09:45,400 --> 01:09:48,080
Speaker 1: knee sprain throughout the year, and then the knee finally

1488
01:09:48,120 --> 01:09:51,519
Speaker 1: went in the in the playoffs. The point being is like,

1489
01:09:51,720 --> 01:09:55,799
Speaker 1: I just hope they take their sweet ass time getting

1490
01:09:55,840 --> 01:09:58,760
Speaker 1: a d back out there, because none of this is

1491
01:09:58,800 --> 01:10:02,240
Speaker 1: worth losing him for a whole a year. Uh, whatever

1492
01:10:02,280 --> 01:10:06,720
Speaker 1: it takes. Like, think of it like this, If he

1493
01:10:06,800 --> 01:10:10,720
Speaker 1: tears his achilles knock on wood, that'll take him out

1494
01:10:10,800 --> 01:10:15,280
Speaker 1: next year too. So it throws. It throws. It basically

1495
01:10:15,280 --> 01:10:20,120
Speaker 1: throws out the end of Lebron's prime. Whereas if for

1496
01:10:20,160 --> 01:10:22,240
Speaker 1: whatever reason, he can't finish this year, which I don't

1497
01:10:22,280 --> 01:10:24,880
Speaker 1: think will be the case, but for whatever reason, it's like, look,

1498
01:10:24,880 --> 01:10:27,320
Speaker 1: he just can't get healthy this year, at least then

1499
01:10:27,360 --> 01:10:29,639
Speaker 1: you can go at it next year with the same guys.

1500
01:10:30,160 --> 01:10:33,439
Speaker 1: You don't have everybody healthy, and so I really hope

1501
01:10:33,479 --> 01:10:37,280
Speaker 1: they take their sweet time. You've got thirty something games left.

1502
01:10:37,320 --> 01:10:40,000
Speaker 1: What if he sits out another twenty? Who cares set

1503
01:10:40,080 --> 01:10:42,639
Speaker 1: him two months? Whatever it takes. Get him healthy, because

1504
01:10:42,640 --> 01:10:45,479
Speaker 1: I just the last thing that they need is to

1505
01:10:45,840 --> 01:10:49,559
Speaker 1: overpursue some seating thing, especially when you know you can

1506
01:10:49,600 --> 01:10:52,320
Speaker 1: win with Dennis in Lebron as long as everyone else

1507
01:10:52,400 --> 01:10:54,559
Speaker 1: is healthy. So I just hope they take their time

1508
01:10:54,560 --> 01:10:57,240
Speaker 1: with add Yeah, and and just listen to him. I

1509
01:10:57,240 --> 01:11:00,760
Speaker 1: think he said, um before before they went All Star break,

1510
01:11:01,120 --> 01:11:03,120
Speaker 1: if he if this was the playoffs, he could, you know,

1511
01:11:03,240 --> 01:11:05,719
Speaker 1: muscle through it and play. So that's a good sign.

1512
01:11:05,720 --> 01:11:08,160
Speaker 1: And they said it has nothing, it won't affect the

1513
01:11:08,560 --> 01:11:12,280
Speaker 1: actual Achilles being, uh being, you know, being teared. And

1514
01:11:12,360 --> 01:11:13,920
Speaker 1: that's all you can do is listen to them. Yeah,

1515
01:11:14,040 --> 01:11:15,320
Speaker 1: that's all you can do is listen to them, right

1516
01:11:15,320 --> 01:11:17,360
Speaker 1: and how they say they know their bodies better than anybody.

1517
01:11:17,400 --> 01:11:21,559
Speaker 1: So um A d obviously felt he wasn't ready and hopefully,

1518
01:11:21,680 --> 01:11:23,759
Speaker 1: you know, he'll sit out tonight and be ready to

1519
01:11:23,920 --> 01:11:26,000
Speaker 1: go soon. I'm hoping just to build some kind of

1520
01:11:26,240 --> 01:11:29,200
Speaker 1: rhythm with this team. I mean, um, I know it

1521
01:11:29,280 --> 01:11:31,760
Speaker 1: must be tough to kind of play with and without him,

1522
01:11:31,880 --> 01:11:34,760
Speaker 1: um going for especially for Shooter and Marcusol. All those

1523
01:11:34,760 --> 01:11:37,599
Speaker 1: guys need reps with him. Well, speed him in the post.

1524
01:11:37,640 --> 01:11:39,439
Speaker 1: That's the hard part is like with a D is

1525
01:11:39,479 --> 01:11:41,720
Speaker 1: Like he's such a significant chunk of their offense. Like

1526
01:11:42,000 --> 01:11:43,680
Speaker 1: last year in the playoffs. I was talking about this

1527
01:11:43,880 --> 01:11:46,479
Speaker 1: with another friend of mine named Paul on Twitter the

1528
01:11:46,520 --> 01:11:49,439
Speaker 1: other day, Like part of the Laker offense in the

1529
01:11:49,439 --> 01:11:52,400
Speaker 1: postseason was a D had turned into Kevin durant as

1530
01:11:52,400 --> 01:11:56,160
Speaker 1: a post up like midrange score and so just you know,

1531
01:11:56,560 --> 01:11:58,639
Speaker 1: ten times a game they would dump it down there

1532
01:11:58,680 --> 01:12:00,840
Speaker 1: to him and he'd make four or five of them,

1533
01:12:00,880 --> 01:12:02,960
Speaker 1: and that was a significant chunk of their offense. Like

1534
01:12:03,320 --> 01:12:06,280
Speaker 1: that's gonna if they don't get enough reps with it

1535
01:12:06,360 --> 01:12:11,160
Speaker 1: early and during this run, it'll stagnate them if they

1536
01:12:11,200 --> 01:12:13,799
Speaker 1: try to go to it, you know, without much practice

1537
01:12:13,840 --> 01:12:16,080
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, Like if you just start dumping it

1538
01:12:16,080 --> 01:12:17,840
Speaker 1: down to a D every time, and you saw that

1539
01:12:18,000 --> 01:12:20,360
Speaker 1: last year against the Clippers in the season opening game.

1540
01:12:20,439 --> 01:12:23,880
Speaker 1: Like you need to learn how to fit, you know,

1541
01:12:23,960 --> 01:12:26,840
Speaker 1: within the rhythm of the offense a high volume post

1542
01:12:26,920 --> 01:12:29,280
Speaker 1: up player because it just it just throws everything off

1543
01:12:29,680 --> 01:12:32,599
Speaker 1: in terms of the other guys touches. It's funny because

1544
01:12:32,600 --> 01:12:34,320
Speaker 1: I see that comparison a lot that he turned into

1545
01:12:34,360 --> 01:12:37,120
Speaker 1: Kevin durant um in the in the bubble um that

1546
01:12:37,160 --> 01:12:39,840
Speaker 1: was mostly against Houston. Like I went back and kind

1547
01:12:39,840 --> 01:12:41,679
Speaker 1: of watched them. He didn't have many of those against

1548
01:12:41,680 --> 01:12:43,960
Speaker 1: like Portland or even like Denver, but it was mostly

1549
01:12:43,960 --> 01:12:47,200
Speaker 1: against Houston shut him down. Yeah, and well he had

1550
01:12:47,240 --> 01:12:49,400
Speaker 1: a great Game one and game two and then three four,

1551
01:12:49,880 --> 01:12:51,600
Speaker 1: three four or five, But again those are off like

1552
01:12:51,640 --> 01:12:53,960
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds were at the rim. He was scoring at

1553
01:12:53,960 --> 01:12:56,040
Speaker 1: the rim and and offen. He wasn't scoring as a

1554
01:12:56,360 --> 01:12:59,280
Speaker 1: like they He wasn't bullying them on the block the

1555
01:12:59,400 --> 01:13:03,160
Speaker 1: way did earlier. Yeah, yeah, and again and again Houston

1556
01:13:03,200 --> 01:13:05,280
Speaker 1: put six six guys on him. They had Daniel House

1557
01:13:05,320 --> 01:13:07,160
Speaker 1: on him. I mean, what was he gonna do? So

1558
01:13:07,240 --> 01:13:10,360
Speaker 1: he was shooting practice mid range jumpers and you're gonna

1559
01:13:10,360 --> 01:13:13,040
Speaker 1: make those. Um he practices though, So that's that's what

1560
01:13:13,120 --> 01:13:15,000
Speaker 1: I mean. Kevin Durant is gonna hit it. Whether you

1561
01:13:15,120 --> 01:13:17,720
Speaker 1: double team and triple too does it doesn't matter. So

1562
01:13:18,160 --> 01:13:19,880
Speaker 1: but yeah, that that's compared this. It's funny to me

1563
01:13:19,920 --> 01:13:22,040
Speaker 1: because I feel like he was that for like one round.

1564
01:13:22,120 --> 01:13:24,559
Speaker 1: It wasn't really him. You know, that's not a hundred.

1565
01:13:24,920 --> 01:13:26,960
Speaker 1: The reason Blake is one is just because you know,

1566
01:13:26,960 --> 01:13:29,640
Speaker 1: he turned to Kevin Durant because that's I don't expect that.

1567
01:13:29,640 --> 01:13:31,960
Speaker 1: I don't expect him to be hitting mid drains jumpers

1568
01:13:32,000 --> 01:13:34,240
Speaker 1: at the level of Katie, who won't be the best

1569
01:13:34,320 --> 01:13:37,639
Speaker 1: you know madrains score. Ever, So a couple of questions

1570
01:13:37,800 --> 01:13:41,000
Speaker 1: before I get you out of here, Uh, where do

1571
01:13:41,000 --> 01:13:42,960
Speaker 1: you have the m v P rankings right now? Just

1572
01:13:42,960 --> 01:13:47,559
Speaker 1: give me your top three? I have Lebron and then

1573
01:13:47,640 --> 01:13:51,519
Speaker 1: be tied pretty much. And I think, um TI goes

1574
01:13:51,560 --> 01:13:53,120
Speaker 1: to the runner or some something. Is that how they

1575
01:13:53,120 --> 01:13:55,000
Speaker 1: say in baseball or something that I feel like Lebron

1576
01:13:55,120 --> 01:13:57,320
Speaker 1: is the runner here because he's been, you know, trying,

1577
01:13:57,360 --> 01:13:59,600
Speaker 1: He's been pushing this narrative, so I think he'll and

1578
01:13:59,640 --> 01:14:01,240
Speaker 1: he has a he has the case as well. I'm

1579
01:14:01,280 --> 01:14:03,439
Speaker 1: just saying it feels like he has the voters. And

1580
01:14:03,479 --> 01:14:05,680
Speaker 1: then I probably have YO kids right behind them. So

1581
01:14:05,720 --> 01:14:09,519
Speaker 1: I have Lebron, embiad and then y how about you

1582
01:14:09,800 --> 01:14:12,719
Speaker 1: Tigers to the runner. I like that. That's interesting. I

1583
01:14:12,720 --> 01:14:14,920
Speaker 1: I give him beat a very slight edge right now.

1584
01:14:15,000 --> 01:14:17,080
Speaker 1: I think Lebron's case has to be best record in

1585
01:14:17,080 --> 01:14:19,639
Speaker 1: the league. Uh, and the only and the only thing

1586
01:14:19,680 --> 01:14:23,320
Speaker 1: that would give him leeways if Utah finished with the

1587
01:14:23,320 --> 01:14:24,760
Speaker 1: best record in the league and he had the second

1588
01:14:24,800 --> 01:14:26,600
Speaker 1: best record in league just because Utah doesn't have a

1589
01:14:26,640 --> 01:14:30,120
Speaker 1: traditional MVP candidate. But I think Lebron's case because he

1590
01:14:30,160 --> 01:14:33,840
Speaker 1: does have a very talented team. Albeit the injuries have

1591
01:14:34,000 --> 01:14:36,360
Speaker 1: ravaged them, but they've ravaged a lot of the teams,

1592
01:14:36,479 --> 01:14:38,280
Speaker 1: and beat ironically has been one of the few guys

1593
01:14:38,280 --> 01:14:40,960
Speaker 1: who's been on a team that's mostly been healthy. M

1594
01:14:41,240 --> 01:14:44,040
Speaker 1: But I would say that if the Lakers end up

1595
01:14:44,040 --> 01:14:46,519
Speaker 1: with the two overall seed or the one overall seed,

1596
01:14:47,000 --> 01:14:50,320
Speaker 1: and and he continues to play almost every single night

1597
01:14:50,760 --> 01:14:52,920
Speaker 1: and put in the numbers that he has, I agree,

1598
01:14:53,360 --> 01:14:56,439
Speaker 1: there's just the with him being the best player on

1599
01:14:56,600 --> 01:14:58,840
Speaker 1: what should be recognized as the best team in the league.

1600
01:14:58,920 --> 01:15:01,120
Speaker 1: Is the defending champ with all the playoff pedigree to

1601
01:15:01,160 --> 01:15:03,719
Speaker 1: back everything up, I believe he should get it. However,

1602
01:15:03,840 --> 01:15:05,920
Speaker 1: right now, with with with the way the standings are

1603
01:15:05,920 --> 01:15:09,240
Speaker 1: breaking down, and with how well Joel Embiad is playing,

1604
01:15:09,280 --> 01:15:11,840
Speaker 1: I would give the slight edge to Joel Embiid. Then

1605
01:15:12,560 --> 01:15:14,439
Speaker 1: I think the Nuggets are gonna make a trade. I

1606
01:15:14,479 --> 01:15:17,760
Speaker 1: think they're gonna get significantly better, and Yokich has been

1607
01:15:17,800 --> 01:15:20,160
Speaker 1: so good that I do expect them to go on

1608
01:15:20,200 --> 01:15:23,360
Speaker 1: a run and they're basically only three. I think they're

1609
01:15:23,360 --> 01:15:25,560
Speaker 1: only three and a half games back of the Lakers,

1610
01:15:25,560 --> 01:15:28,200
Speaker 1: So they are very very very much in striking range

1611
01:15:28,240 --> 01:15:31,080
Speaker 1: here to make some noise, And Yokich has actually played

1612
01:15:31,120 --> 01:15:34,160
Speaker 1: better than both of them in terms of their overall

1613
01:15:34,800 --> 01:15:38,840
Speaker 1: effectiveness in terms of just straight up regular season impact. Um,

1614
01:15:38,880 --> 01:15:41,639
Speaker 1: So I would rank it and bead Lebron Yokis right now,

1615
01:15:42,080 --> 01:15:43,760
Speaker 1: but I think all three of them have a really

1616
01:15:43,760 --> 01:15:46,519
Speaker 1: good chance. Um And this is as open as I

1617
01:15:46,520 --> 01:15:49,960
Speaker 1: can remember it being at this point in the season. Yeah,

1618
01:15:50,080 --> 01:15:52,839
Speaker 1: it's funny because Janice obviously who won you know, two

1619
01:15:53,000 --> 01:15:55,040
Speaker 1: m vps in a row already, he's not gonna get votes,

1620
01:15:55,080 --> 01:15:58,519
Speaker 1: but he's still averaging like a crazy like twelve and

1621
01:15:58,560 --> 01:16:01,200
Speaker 1: seven and which of late he's and insane. Yeah, and

1622
01:16:01,200 --> 01:16:03,240
Speaker 1: it just doesn't matter anymore because people are like, we

1623
01:16:03,240 --> 01:16:04,720
Speaker 1: want to see in the playoffs. And again that's where

1624
01:16:04,720 --> 01:16:06,479
Speaker 1: I think Lebron has kind of the vote here because

1625
01:16:06,479 --> 01:16:08,160
Speaker 1: of the you know, people see that they gave it

1626
01:16:08,200 --> 01:16:11,160
Speaker 1: to me honest two years and they're like, you know what, Lebron,

1627
01:16:11,240 --> 01:16:13,320
Speaker 1: He's earned it as well. But also like he has

1628
01:16:13,360 --> 01:16:15,280
Speaker 1: the votes kind of I see him getting it this year.

1629
01:16:15,640 --> 01:16:17,920
Speaker 1: He's played too well, and I'm not sure if you'll

1630
01:16:17,920 --> 01:16:21,519
Speaker 1: get another MVP kind of chance here. Um, so I

1631
01:16:21,560 --> 01:16:22,920
Speaker 1: have that, but you know, I wouldn't be mad if

1632
01:16:22,920 --> 01:16:25,040
Speaker 1: in Beid got it. He's been playing amazing. We'll see

1633
01:16:25,040 --> 01:16:27,040
Speaker 1: if that keeps up. I mean, he's a he's a

1634
01:16:27,040 --> 01:16:28,960
Speaker 1: guy that's known that to like get tired at the

1635
01:16:29,040 --> 01:16:31,840
Speaker 1: end of seasons, especially in the playoffs. So we'll see

1636
01:16:31,880 --> 01:16:32,920
Speaker 1: if he can keep it up. But I have no

1637
01:16:32,960 --> 01:16:36,160
Speaker 1: problem with him bead winning it either that. That's how

1638
01:16:36,160 --> 01:16:38,000
Speaker 1: I goes to The runner thing is a super interesting

1639
01:16:38,040 --> 01:16:39,799
Speaker 1: point that I think will end up being a factor.

1640
01:16:40,160 --> 01:16:44,280
Speaker 1: Janese in his last thirteen games is averaging thirty thirteen

1641
01:16:44,400 --> 01:16:51,160
Speaker 1: and seven and uh and no one cares they've lost

1642
01:16:51,400 --> 01:16:53,479
Speaker 1: six of that. They're only seven and six in that stretch.

1643
01:16:54,080 --> 01:16:56,080
Speaker 1: For him, it's always going to be the team and

1644
01:16:56,080 --> 01:17:00,400
Speaker 1: and then the records not dominant enough and there's just

1645
01:17:00,439 --> 01:17:02,559
Speaker 1: still too much of a question mark kind of lingering

1646
01:17:02,600 --> 01:17:09,240
Speaker 1: over him from his playoffs stuff. Um. Lastly, just real quickly,

1647
01:17:09,880 --> 01:17:11,519
Speaker 1: do you still think the Lakers are gonna win it?

1648
01:17:11,720 --> 01:17:14,679
Speaker 1: Who do you think is their biggest threat? I still

1649
01:17:14,680 --> 01:17:16,760
Speaker 1: think they're gonna win it. I think the nets are

1650
01:17:16,800 --> 01:17:19,240
Speaker 1: their biggest threat. I mean, I watched that team, man,

1651
01:17:19,240 --> 01:17:22,639
Speaker 1: and that team is just an insane load of offensive talent.

1652
01:17:22,800 --> 01:17:25,880
Speaker 1: I know they have defensive issues, and we've discussed this before,

1653
01:17:26,000 --> 01:17:28,160
Speaker 1: but they just need a baseline level defense. I mean,

1654
01:17:28,160 --> 01:17:29,840
Speaker 1: if you can't put up one twenty on them, you're

1655
01:17:29,840 --> 01:17:32,160
Speaker 1: not beating them. And I don't see any East team

1656
01:17:32,200 --> 01:17:34,679
Speaker 1: able to keep up with that. They're they beat Boston

1657
01:17:34,760 --> 01:17:36,720
Speaker 1: last night. They even have Katie, and they just ran

1658
01:17:36,720 --> 01:17:39,240
Speaker 1: away with that in the fourth quarter because Kyrie and

1659
01:17:39,280 --> 01:17:42,640
Speaker 1: Harding can just hit whatever shots. Kyrie looks like you

1660
01:17:42,640 --> 01:17:46,080
Speaker 1: watched him, and Kyrie is insane, but like he wasn't.

1661
01:17:46,160 --> 01:17:48,920
Speaker 1: I don't remember him this like focus level, like you

1662
01:17:48,960 --> 01:17:51,639
Speaker 1: could tell like he knows exactly where his shots come

1663
01:17:51,680 --> 01:17:54,640
Speaker 1: from now and he's just like driving pull up. He

1664
01:17:54,720 --> 01:17:56,960
Speaker 1: knows no one's stopping this. I don't have to worry

1665
01:17:56,960 --> 01:17:59,680
Speaker 1: about getting trapped double team. And last night he just

1666
01:17:59,720 --> 01:18:02,320
Speaker 1: took over in that third quarters. So I think they're

1667
01:18:02,320 --> 01:18:06,240
Speaker 1: the toughest to me, them and the Clippers, um, those two,

1668
01:18:06,280 --> 01:18:09,240
Speaker 1: But I don't really I still think that when I

1669
01:18:09,240 --> 01:18:11,880
Speaker 1: think the Nets are closer than I feel like it

1670
01:18:12,000 --> 01:18:13,760
Speaker 1: was to start the year. I think the Lakers were

1671
01:18:13,760 --> 01:18:16,960
Speaker 1: the heavy favorite. I still think their favorite, well, I

1672
01:18:16,960 --> 01:18:20,920
Speaker 1: don't think their favorites anymore technically in terms of actually, yeah,

1673
01:18:21,400 --> 01:18:25,479
Speaker 1: because of Blake Griffin, which is we'll see, but yeah,

1674
01:18:25,800 --> 01:18:27,599
Speaker 1: I think the Nets are the biggest contender for them,

1675
01:18:27,600 --> 01:18:30,680
Speaker 1: how about you. So, first of all, on Kyrie, like,

1676
01:18:32,240 --> 01:18:35,800
Speaker 1: Kyrie maybe the best. He might be playing the best

1677
01:18:35,800 --> 01:18:37,479
Speaker 1: out of any point guard in the league right now.

1678
01:18:37,560 --> 01:18:40,559
Speaker 1: It's kind of insane now. He to be clear, he's

1679
01:18:40,640 --> 01:18:42,800
Speaker 1: very fortunate to be playing on a team where some

1680
01:18:42,880 --> 01:18:44,920
Speaker 1: of the like James Harden is it kind of like

1681
01:18:45,000 --> 01:18:48,360
Speaker 1: Lebron was, James Harden fills all of his deficiencies, So

1682
01:18:48,400 --> 01:18:51,439
Speaker 1: it's important to kind of acknowledge the circumstance. But I

1683
01:18:51,479 --> 01:18:54,679
Speaker 1: think he's reaching that thing that I always talk about

1684
01:18:54,760 --> 01:18:59,320
Speaker 1: where you're like your abilities catch up with your like basketball,

1685
01:18:59,360 --> 01:19:02,599
Speaker 1: I Q as he's gotten older, and you're right, like

1686
01:19:02,640 --> 01:19:05,240
Speaker 1: he just knows where his shots are coming from. He's

1687
01:19:05,360 --> 01:19:07,960
Speaker 1: he's very much in control of his game in a

1688
01:19:08,000 --> 01:19:11,120
Speaker 1: way that he didn't used to be. Um And and yeah,

1689
01:19:11,160 --> 01:19:12,800
Speaker 1: I think he's been super fun to watch. He was

1690
01:19:12,800 --> 01:19:14,840
Speaker 1: always one of my favorite players to watch. Like, I

1691
01:19:14,880 --> 01:19:17,000
Speaker 1: think Kyrie is a little bit of a crazy person.

1692
01:19:18,360 --> 01:19:21,960
Speaker 1: But but he's also a genuinely good person, and he

1693
01:19:22,080 --> 01:19:25,160
Speaker 1: also is one of my favorite basketball players to ever watched.

1694
01:19:25,200 --> 01:19:27,240
Speaker 1: And I thought he was an incredible compliment to Lebron

1695
01:19:27,280 --> 01:19:28,680
Speaker 1: and it was very, very fun to watch the two

1696
01:19:28,720 --> 01:19:31,040
Speaker 1: of them when they were together. As far as Brooklyn goes,

1697
01:19:31,360 --> 01:19:32,639
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna get This is what I think

1698
01:19:32,720 --> 01:19:34,320
Speaker 1: is gonna happen. It is just my prediction. We'll see

1699
01:19:34,320 --> 01:19:36,400
Speaker 1: how it goes. I think Bloy Griffin is gonna start

1700
01:19:36,400 --> 01:19:38,040
Speaker 1: playing for them, and he's not gonna look very good.

1701
01:19:38,360 --> 01:19:40,320
Speaker 1: Not he's gonna have moments, he's gonna make shots, he's

1702
01:19:40,320 --> 01:19:42,680
Speaker 1: gonna have some a few plays. I think they're I

1703
01:19:42,760 --> 01:19:45,400
Speaker 1: think the upper management and I think the coaching staff

1704
01:19:45,439 --> 01:19:47,679
Speaker 1: is gonna pretty quickly figure out that he's not gonna

1705
01:19:47,680 --> 01:19:49,599
Speaker 1: be able to fulfill the defensive things that they need

1706
01:19:49,640 --> 01:19:52,280
Speaker 1: from him. Kind of similar to what happened with Carmelo

1707
01:19:52,320 --> 01:19:55,120
Speaker 1: Anthony when he went to Houston. UH, they had a

1708
01:19:55,240 --> 01:19:57,519
Speaker 1: very in Portland. They had a very specific need for

1709
01:19:57,520 --> 01:20:01,240
Speaker 1: shot creation because of the c J. McCollum injury. UH,

1710
01:20:01,400 --> 01:20:04,519
Speaker 1: Whereas with Houston, the James Harnum was doing all the

1711
01:20:04,520 --> 01:20:06,639
Speaker 1: shot creation and they just needed a dude who can

1712
01:20:06,880 --> 01:20:09,120
Speaker 1: defend and make three. So they so they got rid

1713
01:20:09,120 --> 01:20:10,360
Speaker 1: of him. I don't think the Nets are gonna get

1714
01:20:10,439 --> 01:20:12,160
Speaker 1: rid of Blake by any means, but I think they're

1715
01:20:12,160 --> 01:20:14,959
Speaker 1: gonna pretty quickly figure out he doesn't solve their problems.

1716
01:20:15,240 --> 01:20:18,040
Speaker 1: And then what's gonna happen is Andre Drummond is gonna

1717
01:20:18,040 --> 01:20:20,280
Speaker 1: be this obvious and clear fix, and I think he's

1718
01:20:20,320 --> 01:20:22,559
Speaker 1: gonna end up signing in Brooklyn. I know there's competing

1719
01:20:22,600 --> 01:20:25,400
Speaker 1: reporting out there. There's some reports that say Hill consider

1720
01:20:25,400 --> 01:20:28,599
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and then there's another report from a football

1721
01:20:28,600 --> 01:20:30,879
Speaker 1: player I guess who says that he's gonna go into

1722
01:20:31,200 --> 01:20:33,679
Speaker 1: to the nets. But the nets are just a logical

1723
01:20:33,720 --> 01:20:36,840
Speaker 1: solution there. Um, they need a bigger body to throw

1724
01:20:36,880 --> 01:20:38,720
Speaker 1: it in. Bead and ombiad has had a ton of

1725
01:20:38,760 --> 01:20:41,360
Speaker 1: success against Drummond in the past, but it's a totally

1726
01:20:41,400 --> 01:20:43,600
Speaker 1: different animal when you play him four times in a

1727
01:20:43,680 --> 01:20:48,240
Speaker 1: row and uh, seven times in a in a playoff series,

1728
01:20:48,640 --> 01:20:50,360
Speaker 1: and and Drummond has a chance to kind of pick

1729
01:20:50,400 --> 01:20:52,479
Speaker 1: up on more of his tendencies. He's got the physical

1730
01:20:52,880 --> 01:20:55,000
Speaker 1: tools that he needs to to be able to to

1731
01:20:55,120 --> 01:20:57,519
Speaker 1: compete in that matchup. So I think they're gonna end

1732
01:20:57,600 --> 01:20:59,760
Speaker 1: up with Andre Drummond. I put them on the same

1733
01:21:00,080 --> 01:21:03,280
Speaker 1: or with the Lakers. I've seen enough. They're freaking good,

1734
01:21:03,720 --> 01:21:07,680
Speaker 1: and I I think the Lakers are equipped to beat them.

1735
01:21:07,720 --> 01:21:10,000
Speaker 1: I think it'll be a dog fight, and I think

1736
01:21:10,000 --> 01:21:12,599
Speaker 1: that I would pick the Lakers, But I think Brooklyn's

1737
01:21:12,640 --> 01:21:14,639
Speaker 1: every bit as good as them, and I think we're

1738
01:21:14,680 --> 01:21:17,880
Speaker 1: headed for one of the most incredible playoff runs on

1739
01:21:17,960 --> 01:21:21,080
Speaker 1: both ends of the on both conferences, that we've ever seen.

1740
01:21:21,200 --> 01:21:23,800
Speaker 1: I literally can't wait. It's gonna be amazing. So I

1741
01:21:23,840 --> 01:21:26,200
Speaker 1: saw a tweet yesterday, Um, just really cool. You don't

1742
01:21:26,200 --> 01:21:28,599
Speaker 1: have to go deep into it. But so Game one,

1743
01:21:28,840 --> 01:21:32,040
Speaker 1: Lakers Nets, what is your game plan defensively against the Nets?

1744
01:21:32,040 --> 01:21:33,640
Speaker 1: Because I have my thoughts. I'm just want of your

1745
01:21:33,680 --> 01:21:35,760
Speaker 1: quick like your philosophy, Like you don't have to go

1746
01:21:35,800 --> 01:21:38,400
Speaker 1: through it super deep, like you're defending the Nets. They

1747
01:21:38,400 --> 01:21:41,439
Speaker 1: have all their players have Kyrie, they're starting Kyrie Hardened,

1748
01:21:41,520 --> 01:21:44,680
Speaker 1: Joe Harris, Katie and some nominal center that doesn't really

1749
01:21:44,720 --> 01:21:48,880
Speaker 1: matter here. What's your like defensive game plan, like what

1750
01:21:48,920 --> 01:21:50,479
Speaker 1: do you what do you what do you want? Like

1751
01:21:50,880 --> 01:21:52,920
Speaker 1: what do you want the shot to come from? If

1752
01:21:52,920 --> 01:21:56,200
Speaker 1: you can decide like you can decide defensively what what

1753
01:21:56,280 --> 01:21:58,320
Speaker 1: they're gonna do. Where would you I'm pretty shrewter on

1754
01:21:58,400 --> 01:22:02,120
Speaker 1: Katie or excuse me, shooter on uh Kyrie, and I'm

1755
01:22:02,120 --> 01:22:06,640
Speaker 1: putting KCP on James Harden, and I'm putting Lebron on

1756
01:22:06,760 --> 01:22:09,519
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, and I'm having a d B a roaming

1757
01:22:09,600 --> 01:22:12,559
Speaker 1: helper a couple of things there. First, it's not as

1758
01:22:12,680 --> 01:22:15,360
Speaker 1: much of a fatigue thing for Lebron because I really

1759
01:22:15,400 --> 01:22:18,400
Speaker 1: do think that the multiple ball handlers that Brooklyn has

1760
01:22:18,800 --> 01:22:21,920
Speaker 1: makes it so that Katie's less aggressive, and it's what

1761
01:22:22,040 --> 01:22:24,880
Speaker 1: wears you down as a defensive players when they repeatedly

1762
01:22:24,880 --> 01:22:27,000
Speaker 1: go at you. And I just don't think they will. Uh.

1763
01:22:27,120 --> 01:22:29,439
Speaker 1: Kevin duran will be aggressive on Lebron at times, but

1764
01:22:29,560 --> 01:22:32,439
Speaker 1: I don't think it will be something that uh. I

1765
01:22:32,439 --> 01:22:34,360
Speaker 1: don't think it's gonna be something that's gonna wear Lebron

1766
01:22:34,400 --> 01:22:36,880
Speaker 1: out because there's gonna be so much Lebron, Kyrie and

1767
01:22:36,880 --> 01:22:40,240
Speaker 1: and James Harden action. Lebron is one of the best

1768
01:22:40,240 --> 01:22:42,639
Speaker 1: defenders you could ever build in a lab to guard Katie.

1769
01:22:43,000 --> 01:22:45,799
Speaker 1: He's extremely strong, and he's good at fouling within the rules.

1770
01:22:46,080 --> 01:22:48,720
Speaker 1: He's really good at using his physicality UH in a

1771
01:22:48,760 --> 01:22:51,000
Speaker 1: way that doesn't get the whistle blown, and for a

1772
01:22:51,040 --> 01:22:53,040
Speaker 1: skinny guy like Kevin Durant, it's something he can use

1773
01:22:53,080 --> 01:22:56,880
Speaker 1: to kind of keep him contained. My favorite game tape

1774
01:22:56,880 --> 01:22:59,599
Speaker 1: to watch is pretty much the last time Lebron tried

1775
01:22:59,640 --> 01:23:01,680
Speaker 1: on d fence against Kevin Durant, because he didn't try

1776
01:23:01,680 --> 01:23:03,479
Speaker 1: the rest of the series. Was Game one of the

1777
01:23:03,479 --> 01:23:05,519
Speaker 1: two Thousan NBA Finals, and if you watch the way

1778
01:23:05,600 --> 01:23:08,400
Speaker 1: Lebron played very physical at the point of attack, forced

1779
01:23:08,439 --> 01:23:10,200
Speaker 1: him into shooting over the top, did a good job

1780
01:23:10,200 --> 01:23:11,800
Speaker 1: of getting him off balance and made him miss a

1781
01:23:11,840 --> 01:23:14,840
Speaker 1: lot of shots. I think that's a good matchup. K

1782
01:23:15,000 --> 01:23:17,200
Speaker 1: CP on James Harden would probably be your weakest one.

1783
01:23:17,240 --> 01:23:19,599
Speaker 1: I think Denistriutor will at least make things tough on Kyrie,

1784
01:23:20,680 --> 01:23:23,160
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, what you end

1785
01:23:23,200 --> 01:23:28,280
Speaker 1: up doing is UH probably trapping any pick and roll

1786
01:23:28,320 --> 01:23:31,479
Speaker 1: action that involves Kyrie or James Harden and just getting

1787
01:23:31,520 --> 01:23:35,920
Speaker 1: into your crazy psycho rotations. The as the Lakers have

1788
01:23:35,960 --> 01:23:38,920
Speaker 1: shown in the past, they can get James Harden to

1789
01:23:38,960 --> 01:23:41,280
Speaker 1: give up the ball farther far enough away from the

1790
01:23:41,280 --> 01:23:43,840
Speaker 1: basket and rotate quick enough that they can be where

1791
01:23:43,840 --> 01:23:46,080
Speaker 1: they need to be. And then I don't think Kyrie

1792
01:23:46,200 --> 01:23:49,160
Speaker 1: is a good enough pass or to to hurt them

1793
01:23:49,280 --> 01:23:52,720
Speaker 1: enough in those in those trapp sequences. But most of

1794
01:23:52,760 --> 01:23:56,600
Speaker 1: it's gonna come down to, you know, uh, whether or

1795
01:23:56,640 --> 01:23:59,200
Speaker 1: not they can play a center and whether or not

1796
01:23:59,280 --> 01:24:01,080
Speaker 1: a D can be a factive as a as a

1797
01:24:01,160 --> 01:24:04,679
Speaker 1: help as a help defender. But they'll probably end up putting.

1798
01:24:05,680 --> 01:24:08,320
Speaker 1: You know. The thing that gets tricky is Joe Harris.

1799
01:24:08,640 --> 01:24:12,200
Speaker 1: But my guess is they'd end up gosh, yeah, that's true.

1800
01:24:12,240 --> 01:24:14,200
Speaker 1: It's tricky with the way that they do their lineups

1801
01:24:14,240 --> 01:24:17,320
Speaker 1: because Joe Harris has to be guarded too. Um. But

1802
01:24:17,400 --> 01:24:19,880
Speaker 1: I mean, I suppose I don't necessarily like the idea

1803
01:24:19,880 --> 01:24:23,120
Speaker 1: of a D on Katie. What about you? Yeah, I

1804
01:24:23,160 --> 01:24:25,200
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't do that either. Like my thing is like

1805
01:24:25,360 --> 01:24:28,679
Speaker 1: these to me, like the individual matchups don't even really

1806
01:24:29,280 --> 01:24:31,879
Speaker 1: like count here because there's gonna be so many screens

1807
01:24:31,920 --> 01:24:34,040
Speaker 1: and switching. So I would just have a philosophy like

1808
01:24:34,040 --> 01:24:36,599
Speaker 1: whoever's on Harden, I'm trapping that hard in the screen

1809
01:24:36,680 --> 01:24:38,639
Speaker 1: role for thinking give it up. Yeah, And I'm making

1810
01:24:38,640 --> 01:24:41,800
Speaker 1: Bruce Willen score thirty. I'm making Bruce Brown sorry score

1811
01:24:41,840 --> 01:24:44,320
Speaker 1: thirty or Andrew Drummond have to score thirty. Katie is

1812
01:24:44,360 --> 01:24:45,880
Speaker 1: gonna get his shots if he wants to eye so

1813
01:24:45,920 --> 01:24:48,160
Speaker 1: against Lebron, because I agree, I would put Lebron and

1814
01:24:48,200 --> 01:24:50,080
Speaker 1: go ahead. And you want to against Lebron three times

1815
01:24:50,080 --> 01:24:51,720
Speaker 1: a game, you could do that. I don't think that

1816
01:24:51,760 --> 01:24:54,280
Speaker 1: would be enough points per possession or whatever to win

1817
01:24:54,320 --> 01:24:56,479
Speaker 1: the game. Kyrie as well, I think I would. I

1818
01:24:56,479 --> 01:24:59,200
Speaker 1: would probably trap him as well, but just depending on situation,

1819
01:24:59,280 --> 01:25:02,160
Speaker 1: if you have to switch year or not. It's all tough.

1820
01:25:02,160 --> 01:25:04,680
Speaker 1: I mean, Joe Harrison is gonna be flying around screens, um,

1821
01:25:05,000 --> 01:25:07,080
Speaker 1: you have to be careful of that. I'd have a

1822
01:25:07,200 --> 01:25:09,639
Speaker 1: D guarding whoever the big man is, so like whoever,

1823
01:25:09,720 --> 01:25:12,080
Speaker 1: let's say Bruce Brown is their technical big man, I'd

1824
01:25:12,080 --> 01:25:14,439
Speaker 1: have a D on him and then covering up so

1825
01:25:14,479 --> 01:25:16,479
Speaker 1: he can defend the corner three and the role as

1826
01:25:16,479 --> 01:25:19,320
Speaker 1: he did against Miami. So it's tough. Though. There's no

1827
01:25:19,520 --> 01:25:22,240
Speaker 1: right answer here, right because you know they might score anyway.

1828
01:25:22,240 --> 01:25:25,280
Speaker 1: It doesn't they're that good offensively. It's just it's just

1829
01:25:25,280 --> 01:25:28,400
Speaker 1: a fun thought exercise to like go into like Vogel's head,

1830
01:25:28,439 --> 01:25:30,559
Speaker 1: I guess and see like what he would do, he's

1831
01:25:30,560 --> 01:25:34,120
Speaker 1: a guy I think that that like prioritizes protecting the

1832
01:25:34,200 --> 01:25:37,320
Speaker 1: rim right, and so it's kind of interesting to see

1833
01:25:37,360 --> 01:25:39,880
Speaker 1: him from that way. Houston. Brooklyn puts a lot more

1834
01:25:39,880 --> 01:25:42,240
Speaker 1: pressure on the limb than like the Clippers do that,

1835
01:25:42,400 --> 01:25:44,679
Speaker 1: like because Hardened and Katie will attack the basket. They'll

1836
01:25:44,760 --> 01:25:47,040
Speaker 1: dump on you if you don't protect it. So it's

1837
01:25:47,120 --> 01:25:49,120
Speaker 1: it's a tough cover either way. And I think you're right,

1838
01:25:49,160 --> 01:25:50,719
Speaker 1: it'll be a there'll be a hell of a series.

1839
01:25:50,760 --> 01:25:52,599
Speaker 1: It's a it's a toss up. I give the Lakers

1840
01:25:52,640 --> 01:25:54,519
Speaker 1: there just because they wanted last year, but it's a

1841
01:25:55,000 --> 01:25:57,360
Speaker 1: it's a hell of a series. I would I wouldn't

1842
01:25:57,360 --> 01:25:59,799
Speaker 1: be surprised by any outcome with Brooklyn, Like I wouldn't

1843
01:25:59,800 --> 01:26:01,800
Speaker 1: be prize that they lost to Miami or Philly or

1844
01:26:01,880 --> 01:26:04,599
Speaker 1: some crazy team that that schemed them into just becoming

1845
01:26:04,600 --> 01:26:06,240
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shooting team and they just didn't

1846
01:26:06,240 --> 01:26:09,240
Speaker 1: make ano shots. But I also wouldn't be surprised if

1847
01:26:09,240 --> 01:26:11,360
Speaker 1: they want it all. I think I think they're kind

1848
01:26:11,360 --> 01:26:16,880
Speaker 1: of like a such a new construct, you know, Superstar

1849
01:26:17,040 --> 01:26:19,599
Speaker 1: late in team that doesn't defend. There's such a new

1850
01:26:19,680 --> 01:26:23,000
Speaker 1: construct that it's kind of impossible to to to just

1851
01:26:23,320 --> 01:26:26,080
Speaker 1: like resolutely stand up and be like, I know these

1852
01:26:26,080 --> 01:26:28,120
Speaker 1: guys are gonna lose, because it's just you just don't know.

1853
01:26:28,400 --> 01:26:30,880
Speaker 1: But I do think I would put them on the

1854
01:26:30,920 --> 01:26:33,479
Speaker 1: top tier. There's too much evidence. I think. I do

1855
01:26:33,600 --> 01:26:35,400
Speaker 1: think they're not as good as they've looked, because they've

1856
01:26:35,400 --> 01:26:38,920
Speaker 1: looked like world beaters lately. I think that teams will

1857
01:26:38,960 --> 01:26:41,320
Speaker 1: have a much better time attacking their switching scheme in

1858
01:26:41,360 --> 01:26:43,599
Speaker 1: a seven game series. I think that teams are going

1859
01:26:43,640 --> 01:26:47,680
Speaker 1: to figure out how to attack their defense around the rim. Uh,

1860
01:26:47,720 --> 01:26:49,600
Speaker 1: just with their lack of size. I think teams are

1861
01:26:49,640 --> 01:26:52,360
Speaker 1: going to figure that out. Um. But at the end

1862
01:26:52,400 --> 01:26:55,599
Speaker 1: of the day, and the way to beat them would

1863
01:26:55,600 --> 01:26:58,200
Speaker 1: be to stagnate them and turn them into a jump

1864
01:26:58,200 --> 01:27:01,439
Speaker 1: shooting team and just hope that they go cold and

1865
01:27:01,600 --> 01:27:03,439
Speaker 1: count on the fact that if you wear them out

1866
01:27:03,479 --> 01:27:04,760
Speaker 1: on the other end, if you wear them out on

1867
01:27:04,880 --> 01:27:08,840
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor physically, they'll just start missing

1868
01:27:08,920 --> 01:27:10,679
Speaker 1: these pull up jump shots. There's a lot of history

1869
01:27:10,680 --> 01:27:14,439
Speaker 1: that Kyrie and Kevin Durant both have and James Harden

1870
01:27:14,680 --> 01:27:18,920
Speaker 1: have an extensive history Katie, particularly in Oklahoma City. You know, uh,

1871
01:27:19,120 --> 01:27:22,679
Speaker 1: Kyrie when he's not playing with Lebron and James Harden

1872
01:27:22,840 --> 01:27:25,600
Speaker 1: forever had they have a history in the wear and

1873
01:27:25,720 --> 01:27:29,960
Speaker 1: terror of the playoffs turning into inefficient jump shooters and

1874
01:27:30,040 --> 01:27:32,760
Speaker 1: so and that that would be the way to beat them.

1875
01:27:32,880 --> 01:27:35,559
Speaker 1: I still think Philly and the Lakers are the most

1876
01:27:35,640 --> 01:27:42,240
Speaker 1: equipped physically to to accomplish that goal. But I think

1877
01:27:42,280 --> 01:27:44,519
Speaker 1: I think people who are undercutting them still at this

1878
01:27:44,560 --> 01:27:46,960
Speaker 1: point are silly. I think they're the runaway favorites in

1879
01:27:46,960 --> 01:27:48,320
Speaker 1: the East, and I think they're every bit as good

1880
01:27:48,320 --> 01:27:51,880
Speaker 1: as the Lakers. Yeah, we'll see, well, we will see,

1881
01:27:52,200 --> 01:27:53,840
Speaker 1: all right, man, we've been going for almost an hour

1882
01:27:53,840 --> 01:27:55,760
Speaker 1: and a half. This was awesome. I really enjoyed this.

1883
01:27:55,800 --> 01:27:57,600
Speaker 1: I think this is the best part we've done. I

1884
01:27:57,600 --> 01:27:59,160
Speaker 1: think we touched on a lot of really good stuff.

1885
01:27:59,160 --> 01:28:01,080
Speaker 1: I think we did as much of a deep dive

1886
01:28:01,120 --> 01:28:04,280
Speaker 1: in the Lakers as you possibly could. I cannot believe

1887
01:28:04,400 --> 01:28:07,200
Speaker 1: that my little Ethernet cable thing didn't work, but at

1888
01:28:07,280 --> 01:28:09,639
Speaker 1: least now I know what's wrong, so I can attack

1889
01:28:09,720 --> 01:28:12,320
Speaker 1: that problem. Everyone, thank you so much for listening in.

1890
01:28:12,400 --> 01:28:14,560
Speaker 1: I'll have the pod version of this up probably in

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01:28:14,560 --> 01:28:17,599
Speaker 1: about thirty minutes. Roger, I hope you have a good day, man,

1892
01:28:17,640 --> 01:28:19,920
Speaker 1: and I will see you next week. Wait sure