Speaker 1: Welcome to the State of the Lakers podcast Today's Friday.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for coming to hang out
Speaker 1: with Roger and I this morning so that we can
Speaker 1: finally kind of rehash the entire first half of the
Speaker 1: Lakers season. At least that's the plan for today. We'll
Speaker 1: see how much we get to Roger, how you doing
Speaker 1: this morning? Man? Doing great? Man. I'm excited we're finally back.
Speaker 1: I found out my life is pretty boring without any
Speaker 1: games going on. So the I'll Star weekend was only
Speaker 1: one one day pretty much, So it's been It's been
Speaker 1: a long week, but I'm excited to finally get back
Speaker 1: into it. Yeah, it was weird having time to like
Speaker 1: watch other movies with my wife, and I watched a
Speaker 1: little bit of that uh that what's it called Last
Speaker 1: Chance You, which I was like super stoked to watch
Speaker 1: because I played junior college basketball before I went to
Speaker 1: four year school and I got to, uh, having the
Speaker 1: time without the games to kind of dive into something
Speaker 1: like that was cool. Um. I I am super interested
Speaker 1: to see how this next a couple of months goes,
Speaker 1: because it's gonna be super hectic. There's a ton of
Speaker 1: interesting teams. I think you're gonna have a lot fewer
Speaker 1: COVID interruptions just by virtue of vaccinations, which I would
Speaker 1: imagine the players will get vaccinated by early May and
Speaker 1: just and there's just a lot more immunity around the
Speaker 1: teams now than what there was at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the season. I'm super stoked about it. I'm also stoked
Speaker 1: to announce that I have hardwired my computer so we
Speaker 1: should no longer have any WiFi interruptions. If we do,
Speaker 1: then I got a whole other different problem that we
Speaker 1: got to deal with. But I appreciate you guys being
Speaker 1: understanding of that over the course of the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks as I've gone through this move. But what
Speaker 1: we're gonna start with today are our game plan is
Speaker 1: we're gonna start by talking about whether or not we're
Speaker 1: kind of impressed or underwhelmed with how the Lakers have
Speaker 1: done this season, so are uh, And then we're gonna
Speaker 1: go player by player through the roster, give our letter grades,
Speaker 1: talk about what we liked about what we've seen from
Speaker 1: said player, and what we've disliked. And then we're also
Speaker 1: gonna kind of tie things off by talking about you
Speaker 1: know what sort of roster changes we think can be
Speaker 1: made over the course of the next month to really
Speaker 1: maximize the potential of this team moving forward. So what
Speaker 1: I what I want to start with for Raj is
Speaker 1: are you impressed, are you satisfied or are you dissatisfied
Speaker 1: with what you've seen from the Lakers so far to
Speaker 1: this point in the season. Yeah, I mean I think
Speaker 1: I'm I think I'm pretty satisfied. I mean it's kind
Speaker 1: of incomplete, right because I look at the team and
Speaker 1: I have to keep reminding myself that Anthony Davis missed
Speaker 1: four team games, which is the season. So you have
Speaker 1: your best defender, second best player on the team has
Speaker 1: seen that many games. You're still first in defense. You're
Speaker 1: still a game back of second in the list. I
Speaker 1: think they're like four back of Utah. So I feel
Speaker 1: like they're fine. They're in a good position. Lebron has
Speaker 1: been great. He's been and we've talked about it a lot.
Speaker 1: He's been better than better than last year, it feels like,
Speaker 1: and I think that's the most important thing. The role
Speaker 1: players are are kind of in a slum, but that's
Speaker 1: kind of expected. They started out really hot, right, KCP
Speaker 1: was shooting like from three. Alex Crusoe was around there
Speaker 1: as well. I think they're kind of fitting into the role.
Speaker 1: Shrewder has really found himself in the last few games,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna pick it up. So it's I think
Speaker 1: they're in a good spot. I think I don't know
Speaker 1: if they met expectations, because I don't even think that's
Speaker 1: fair in terms of the how many games a D
Speaker 1: has missed. So I think they're in a good spot,
Speaker 1: and there they look like they're ready to go to
Speaker 1: the second half. I think you and myself and most
Speaker 1: Laker fans out there had had pretty low expectations, you know,
Speaker 1: under the circumstances, Like if you would have told me
Speaker 1: once I knew the really quick turnaround was happening, like hey,
Speaker 1: a D is gonna miss the games. You know, Denner
Speaker 1: Shooter is gonna miss a significant chunky games. KCP is
Speaker 1: gonna have an ankle injury. He's gonna miss some games,
Speaker 1: like Caruso miss some games too with some back stuff.
Speaker 1: Like if you told me like yeah, like they're gonna
Speaker 1: be dealing with a bunch of missing pieces, I would
Speaker 1: have been, Oh, well, there, I bet you they're gonna
Speaker 1: struggle a lot because there were just there were a
Speaker 1: lot of teams out there that hadn't played in a
Speaker 1: very long time that were extremely motivated, chomping at the
Speaker 1: bit to get back out there and play some basketball,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers just weren't one of those teams. And
Speaker 1: so for them to be where they're at, which is
Speaker 1: like basically right there fighting for the second best record
Speaker 1: in the league and within striking distance of getting that
Speaker 1: number one overall seed, is really amazing, like under the circumstances,
Speaker 1: And what I would I remember before the season saying
Speaker 1: that I just hope that their defense would linger around
Speaker 1: the top ten, because I never in a million years
Speaker 1: would have thought that on this quick turnaround that they'd
Speaker 1: be the only team really playing defense Like that blows
Speaker 1: my mind, like and it really is impressive, And it
Speaker 1: goes to show you that there is that there's something
Speaker 1: hardwired into this team that is uh you know, they're
Speaker 1: made of the right stuff, that is what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say. And it goes to show you that that uhum,
Speaker 1: it goes to show you that there's a reason why
Speaker 1: so many of us who are Lakers optimists believe in
Speaker 1: this team the way that we do and as far
Speaker 1: as you know, the Anthony Davis stuff goes like I
Speaker 1: just have to We talked about this a little bit
Speaker 1: in the last podcast. Regardless of how unimpressive they've looked
Speaker 1: at certain stretches, you know, they've had a lot of
Speaker 1: they've had some really embarrassing losses. They've also had some
Speaker 1: impressive wins. But the most important thing is that when
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D are on the floor, they're still
Speaker 1: kicking everybody's ass. And when Lebron, A D and Dennis
Speaker 1: Shrewder on the floor with either Caruso and k c
Speaker 1: P or Kuzma and KCP, they still have, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: the best five man lineup in basketball, both ways going
Speaker 1: and defending and scoring on the other end of the floor.
Speaker 1: That still presents a problem to teams because they have
Speaker 1: a they can lean on the fact that they're a
Speaker 1: known commodity. Some of these other teams are fighting to
Speaker 1: figure out who they are, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: And it's a different type of battle that they're going
Speaker 1: through the season. The Lakers know who they are. They
Speaker 1: are already a formed product, they're finished product. What they're
Speaker 1: doing right now is just getting through stuff and so
Speaker 1: when you kind of factor all that in, I would
Speaker 1: say that things have gone better than they could have. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And and it's funny, like we say eight has missed
Speaker 1: fourteen games, but he's actually like only played well in
Speaker 1: like a few of them, right, like a few the
Speaker 1: first few games that he even played, and he was sleepwalking.
Speaker 1: They didn't play really until the fourth quarter. Um, he's
Speaker 1: like I think he only had like a few dunks
Speaker 1: to start the season. Um, he wasn't even going to
Speaker 1: the basket. So um, even though he's missed only fourteen,
Speaker 1: which actually is a lot, um, he actually hasn't even
Speaker 1: played well or wasn't even in condition really, um starting
Speaker 1: the year. And then you look at the other teams
Speaker 1: that were in the bubble, right, so Boston is hovering
Speaker 1: at five hundred, they're like nineteen and eighteen. Miami I
Speaker 1: think it's still around there. Um yeah, the Miami is
Speaker 1: also nineteen and eighteen. Denver just started to pick it up,
Speaker 1: but they're only one and fifteen. And then um, yeah,
Speaker 1: so you look at those teams, they really started slow.
Speaker 1: So the Lakers actually came out hot. I think that
Speaker 1: because the final four teams, the final four teams in
Speaker 1: the bubble, the Lakers have been by far the best
Speaker 1: for sure, right, And I think I think that has
Speaker 1: to do also with the additions. Right, they had Shrewd
Speaker 1: or Harold, Marcusol, all these guys that were kind of
Speaker 1: new blood to the team, and then Lebron for some
Speaker 1: reason just decided I want the m v P. So
Speaker 1: he went. He went kind of berserk. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think I think they're in a good spot. And uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you're right. They probably exceeded the expectations. They
Speaker 1: were probably thought to start slow, but they didn't. They
Speaker 1: came out hot. They got a nice cushion of leads
Speaker 1: of winds, so they were able to kind of slow
Speaker 1: their way into the break. Lebron took out the last
Speaker 1: game as well, so and then Shrewder missed time with
Speaker 1: COVID as well. With the COVID protocols. Marcosol is going
Speaker 1: to be out still that still, because it's been seven
Speaker 1: days since he was knocked out. Is there any intel
Speaker 1: on that, like did he actually test positive that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no news on that, but he is ruled out
Speaker 1: for tonight. So well, okay, well then I was then, yeah,
Speaker 1: they we could just do math, because he would have
Speaker 1: been back in seven days, correct, I would think, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they're really strict with that. So I'm not
Speaker 1: sure how the contact Tracy is gonna work. Like Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid and Ben Simmons who got it from a guy
Speaker 1: who tested positive because of the haircut, right, um, they're
Speaker 1: still out till Saturday or something like that. So but
Speaker 1: that so that that made sense though, because they tested
Speaker 1: like from what I understand, like the guy tested positive
Speaker 1: and they were exposed one day apart, but both that weekend.
Speaker 1: So the the seven days would release them this weekend,
Speaker 1: which makes sense. But becauseol missed before the Phoenix game, right,
Speaker 1: so so so I think we can pretty safely assume
Speaker 1: that he tested positive. It would be And I'm not
Speaker 1: obviously don't have reporting on that or anything. I'm just
Speaker 1: doing some math here, But you're right, that's another thing, um.
Speaker 1: And and you know it's funny because like everything is relative.
Speaker 1: I always talk about the regular season in the NBA
Speaker 1: is all that motivational advantage, uh, not all about talents,
Speaker 1: big part of it, coaching, all that good stuff, But
Speaker 1: one of the big factors that constantly gets uh you know,
Speaker 1: misrepresented his motivational advantage. Like even Tonight's game, you know,
Speaker 1: Tonight's game is gonna be really interesting one. I think
Speaker 1: I think that I think this Pacers Likeers game is
Speaker 1: going to be a battle. You know, the Pacers have
Speaker 1: a lot more to play for in that game. They
Speaker 1: just do the a team that they're a team that
Speaker 1: is very scrappy and they're a team that kind of
Speaker 1: has a lot of guys that that don't get a
Speaker 1: ton of national exposure. They're going into a team that's
Speaker 1: basically the national darling of the of the league and
Speaker 1: the and the Lakers. It looks like with them being
Speaker 1: kind of out of the first place hunt Uh, they're
Speaker 1: not entirely out, but they're kind of distance. It's like
Speaker 1: they're gonna be the second or the third seed and
Speaker 1: it's just not really gonna be a problem. So it's
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where like that's gonna be
Speaker 1: a big factor tonight, and that's a big factor in
Speaker 1: every regular season game. If you happen to catch James
Speaker 1: Harden in l A back to back, like he's probably
Speaker 1: not going to be a stoke for that second game
Speaker 1: because he's been in l A for a few days.
Speaker 1: And he's kind of having fun, you know, in a
Speaker 1: regular season. I mean, And so the point is is
Speaker 1: like you always have the factor that in in the
Speaker 1: Lakers by far had the least motivational advantage coming into
Speaker 1: the season, with the quick turnaround, with them being defending champs,
Speaker 1: with them getting better and knowing that they didn't necessarily
Speaker 1: need to attack the regular season. So for them to
Speaker 1: be where they are, I think speaks volumes about just
Speaker 1: how how how how talented there and also how they're
Speaker 1: just wired to overcome that lack of motivational advantage. Right,
Speaker 1: And and it feels like, like we always say, um,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is kind of overstated in their defense, right,
Speaker 1: the defensive principles still stayed the same even though he's
Speaker 1: not there, And I think that's what's kept them in it.
Speaker 1: Um Vogels kind of trapping schemes and chaos and putting
Speaker 1: guys in the right position. And he's kind of got
Speaker 1: comfortable as well. He knows what buttons to click. Um.
Speaker 1: Sometimes fans kind of get mad at like regular season decisions. Um.
Speaker 1: I think he had a few few times where he
Speaker 1: managed a few people, but um, yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: he kind of keeps them in as well, and he
Speaker 1: gives them like a schematic advantage. I think he's a
Speaker 1: really good coach. Um. I think he's helped help them
Speaker 1: push through this. So yeah, I feel like just looking
Speaker 1: big picture, big picture, looking at the forest, through the
Speaker 1: trees and all that they're in a good position. Um,
Speaker 1: Phoenix started hot, Utah started blazing Cord they lost like
Speaker 1: three or four going into the break, So I feel
Speaker 1: like teams are starting to settle down. So I was
Speaker 1: looking last year. The Lakers UM through thirty seven games
Speaker 1: this year are thirteen. They were thirty and seven seven
Speaker 1: last year. Yeah, which again I mean six games sample
Speaker 1: when you just put it into all the context, isn't
Speaker 1: like crazy, right because again A D missed fourteen he
Speaker 1: I think he only missed like three going up to
Speaker 1: that time, um in last year, and he has playing
Speaker 1: better last season, Like A D has not been one
Speaker 1: of the ten best players in basketball this year, and
Speaker 1: if you just looked at when he was playing, like
Speaker 1: you know, we talked about this at length, like we're
Speaker 1: both huge believers in A D. And I think we're
Speaker 1: both super confident that he will be a very impactful
Speaker 1: player in the playoffs. But make no mistake, he just
Speaker 1: hasn't been a D this year. He's been a shell
Speaker 1: of himself, you know, for lack of a better term. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's kind of funny that a D and Lebron
Speaker 1: kind of switched the roles that we thought they would
Speaker 1: be right without a D. The seven year old now
Speaker 1: twenty eight. I think yesterday was his birthday. Type about
Speaker 1: the A D. But we thought he would be the
Speaker 1: one that's kind of coming out blazing, and he's the
Speaker 1: one that's like, you know what, I'm gonna chill through
Speaker 1: this first half. I'm gonna shoot my little mid range
Speaker 1: jumpers and we're still gonna win. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: tell the basket and and do all that. So I
Speaker 1: feel like he's gonna come out. Um, I feel like
Speaker 1: an injury sitting out a while, like us we play basketball.
Speaker 1: When you sit out a while, you get you get
Speaker 1: like am to play again, right, even even with COVID
Speaker 1: taking away basketball, like you just want to go find
Speaker 1: a park and hoop, and I think eighties the same.
Speaker 1: He seems like a guy that loves basketball. So being
Speaker 1: out for this long almost a month now, I think
Speaker 1: before we yeah, yeah, exactly and he got the rest. Right,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a forced rest kind of thing.
Speaker 1: So he got a whole month of just no basketball,
Speaker 1: and I think he'll come back, um excited and uh
Speaker 1: back to where he was and starting to amp it up.
Speaker 1: I was watching the bubble kind of highlights um a
Speaker 1: couple of games, like game Like just the fluidity that
Speaker 1: he was playing with, it's just and then like the
Speaker 1: the mix of speed and power and like dunking on
Speaker 1: people at the rim and stuff like that we just
Speaker 1: haven't seen this year. So hopefully he gets back to
Speaker 1: that going forward. Do we know whether or not. So
Speaker 1: the injury that he had in the Bubble was his heel, right,
Speaker 1: I think it was his heel, But it was weird
Speaker 1: because remember he reached down and grabbed his achilles. I
Speaker 1: remember because in Game five of the Finals, remember creaking
Speaker 1: out for a second. So like it's a calf injury,
Speaker 1: and then there's this tendinosis thing, but then there's also
Speaker 1: that the heel thing that he had. There's just a
Speaker 1: I wonder if it was all kind of linked, like
Speaker 1: in the sense that like he just had that nagging
Speaker 1: problem down there for a while, and it's been something
Speaker 1: that he's dealing with. UM, It'll just be interesting to
Speaker 1: see because like my thing is, like, the only thing
Speaker 1: that would do derail my confidence in this team would
Speaker 1: be eighties health. I'm not concerned about the way he played.
Speaker 1: I think you know, I shared the other uh two
Speaker 1: days ago. I think Jamal Murray's numbers in his last
Speaker 1: twelve games, which are just absolutely He's like seven and
Speaker 1: seven on like fifty seven percent from the field for
Speaker 1: I can't remember the exact numbers, but it's just bonkers,
Speaker 1: Like he's just unbelievably good. And everybody wanted to discount
Speaker 1: what he did in the bubble, and the reality is
Speaker 1: is like if you look at the guys who all
Speaker 1: went off in the bubble, Anthony Davis, Jamal Murray, Donovan Mitchell,
Speaker 1: t J Warren, It's like t J Warren has been hurt,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis has been hurt, Jamal Murray started slow, but
Speaker 1: now he's awesome. And Donovan Mitchell's team is so much
Speaker 1: better this year because Mike Conley has been better that
Speaker 1: his role is a little different. It's just not as
Speaker 1: aggressive as he had to be on that team. You know,
Speaker 1: when uh, when Bogdanovitch went down, So like if you
Speaker 1: look at it like I I you. You brought this
Speaker 1: up last week. You kept saying, like the ten foot hoops,
Speaker 1: the ten foot hoops, you were just talking about how
Speaker 1: you know, you're talking about legitimizing their success. And I
Speaker 1: feel the same way, Like this is these were ten
Speaker 1: foot hoops guys playing really competitive playoff basketball. That was
Speaker 1: real playoff basketball. The physicality was there, the intensity was there.
Speaker 1: The no fancing almost added a weird pressure, like I'll
Speaker 1: never forget Oklahoma City in Houston all just collectively soiling
Speaker 1: themselves at the end of Game seven. Chris Paul was
Speaker 1: soiling himself, James Harden was swilling himself like an weird way.
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook was the only one who's playing well, you know,
Speaker 1: like that was real playoff basketball. And really bothered me
Speaker 1: that people tried to discount that. And I think it
Speaker 1: bodes well for Anthony Davis because we were talking about
Speaker 1: his jump shot. I really do think that that he
Speaker 1: he went to another level as a jump shooter. I
Speaker 1: talked about how like he was clearly working on that
Speaker 1: shot a lot, but he was building the confidence to
Speaker 1: be able to use it in games. And it's something
Speaker 1: clicked for him at the end of March, and then
Speaker 1: that last like five six games coming into the bubble
Speaker 1: and then the entire bubble, and then he shot really
Speaker 1: well to start this year, and then the injury kind
Speaker 1: of knocked him off. But between the Jamal Murray thing,
Speaker 1: I really I really do think a d S improvement
Speaker 1: is real, and I really do think that when he
Speaker 1: gets back out there and he gets his legs underneath him,
Speaker 1: that he's going to be more or less the same
Speaker 1: guy we saw in the bubble. That's what I believe,
Speaker 1: as long as he's healthy and his legs are underneath him. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like again, like I hear all this analysis like, well
Speaker 1: if eight is not healthy, then this team has a chance. Well,
Speaker 1: well yeah, of course, Like obviously, I mean there's there's
Speaker 1: no real um doubting that he's obviously really important to
Speaker 1: this team. And like you said, with the bubble, like
Speaker 1: I like to say, Temple hooks, because like even if
Speaker 1: you put Lebron in Kawaii and in l A Fitness
Speaker 1: and be like, hey, this is we're having the championship,
Speaker 1: Like this is where you're winning, it's gonna be good
Speaker 1: basketball because they're gonna want it. That's what they that's
Speaker 1: what they played for. So I don't think anyone who
Speaker 1: was watching at the time, like it's easy to go
Speaker 1: back now and be like, oh, yeah, Jamal Murray would
Speaker 1: have hit step back threes um in a regular game, like, well,
Speaker 1: that's what Jamal Murray does. Go watch his series from
Speaker 1: last year, or like, you know, Harden didn't play well.
Speaker 1: Harden doesn't play well in the playoffs, like he just
Speaker 1: he just doesn't. Then you're a guy who also believes
Speaker 1: that as well. I think you're a harder naysayer as well.
Speaker 1: But uh, but yeah, he doesn't play well in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: It wasn't something shocking. Um. I think the only thing
Speaker 1: that was Jamal Murray and Donovan Mitchell had kind of
Speaker 1: like a crazy first round that might have been a
Speaker 1: little bit extra due to the bubble, But other than that,
Speaker 1: I feel like the basketball was the same. I mean,
Speaker 1: the bubble didn't force Paul George and quite a dirty
Speaker 1: straight jumpers in the fourth quarter. Is just when you're
Speaker 1: jump shooting team. That's what happened. So it's easy to
Speaker 1: really dissect it and go back that way. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like I feel like anthy Davis will be fine. He's
Speaker 1: he's gonna he's a superstar. He's a guy that levels
Speaker 1: up in the playoffs. His numbers have leveled up in
Speaker 1: the playoffs when he's there. Um, So he's a guy
Speaker 1: that I feel like focuses more. He he has a
Speaker 1: weird way of drifting in and out of games, right,
Speaker 1: we saw that really early through the season last year,
Speaker 1: and then the playoffs he was a lot better. He's
Speaker 1: a lot more consistent, but he has he has a
Speaker 1: habit of that. So so I think he'll be fine
Speaker 1: once the playoffs start. Well, that's where he compliments Lebron
Speaker 1: so well, is like Lebron is not a float in
Speaker 1: and out of games guy. Like when he's on the floor,
Speaker 1: he's he's just extremely involved in everything. That's just the
Speaker 1: way that he is. And so that that that's why
Speaker 1: they compliment each other so well. And you know, I
Speaker 1: I I think you made a really good point a
Speaker 1: minute ago, like him being away from the game for
Speaker 1: a while his has to reinvigorate him. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: like you could see Lebron like super motivated going after
Speaker 1: this VP award and even he was like there in
Speaker 1: that last couple of weeks before they all start break.
Speaker 1: You could just see it, like he was like, give me, like,
Speaker 1: just give give me a break, man, Like you could
Speaker 1: just see it. You could see it in his disposition.
Speaker 1: And so I think, I think it'll be good for
Speaker 1: a du to get some distance from the game. And
Speaker 1: well he did already get the distance from the game.
Speaker 1: I just it'll be interesting to see he's not he's
Speaker 1: not playing tonight, is he No, he's not playing up,
Speaker 1: but it will be evaluated tonight. So hopefully you'll play.
Speaker 1: I think they play on Sunday or something, so I
Speaker 1: would imagine they'll ramp him up to play him limited
Speaker 1: to start and all that good stuff. Um, So before
Speaker 1: we get to our letter grades, let's talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about roster changes. So yesterday was the stupidest day
Speaker 1: that I can remember in Laker Twitter rumors. As there
Speaker 1: were rumors about the Lakers wanting to vail McGee. There
Speaker 1: were rumors about one of them came from the Athletic two,
Speaker 1: which is crazy because they're not like they don't mess around.
Speaker 1: And I think it Sam Ammick. I think it was
Speaker 1: the guy who said that. What was his rumor was
Speaker 1: that they wanted to to cut Marc Asol and they
Speaker 1: were going to go after who was it was it? Uh?
Speaker 1: What was the center that they wanted to you remember?
Speaker 1: I feel like was that in the was was that
Speaker 1: in the JaVale McGee story? I feel like was that
Speaker 1: the same story where they I think I think Amaco
Speaker 1: was the one who said JaVale McGee? But uh there
Speaker 1: was Gosh it makes me mad, but no, it wasn't Trump,
Speaker 1: it was Gosh, who was it? Okay? I feel really
Speaker 1: really bad that there were a couple of crazy Lakers
Speaker 1: center rumors flying around yesterday, And so I guess let's
Speaker 1: start there, like, uh, obviously, if the Lakers can get
Speaker 1: Andre Drummond, they're gonna get Andre Drummond. But let's talk
Speaker 1: about just the principle of the thing. Do you think
Speaker 1: the Lakers need to make an improvement at the center position?
Speaker 1: So I feel like this is a regular season issue,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like we we talked about this. This
Speaker 1: is like a regular season innings eating kind of thing,
Speaker 1: Like do you want to make a move for a
Speaker 1: regular season kind of a decision, because if you do,
Speaker 1: then you don't want to trade pretty much, you don't
Speaker 1: want to trade anything, so you're pretty much left in
Speaker 1: the buyout market. So like I feel like Andre Drummond,
Speaker 1: I mean he's shooting like thirty seven percent on layups
Speaker 1: or something like that, which is just hilarious. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the other guys in the top five or small guys, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's impossible to be that close to the rim and
Speaker 1: to miss that many. I must don't understand it. I'm
Speaker 1: wondering if that's counting, like if that means like contested,
Speaker 1: does that count contested uncontested or is that just everything? Okay,
Speaker 1: I think it's but lay ups. I mean they're not
Speaker 1: counting hook shots there. That's like catching and finishing around
Speaker 1: the rim. Yeah. Yeah, I don't watch I don't watch
Speaker 1: enough Drummond, but yeah, that is that is pretty bad. Um.
Speaker 1: It was funny because that like one of them is
Speaker 1: like Fred van Fleet. I was like, oh, that's kind
Speaker 1: of funny. That's see that as a guy that really
Speaker 1: finishes at the rim. But uh yeah, Like I don't
Speaker 1: know if they really need a center. I think they
Speaker 1: have like a position to fill, which is like a
Speaker 1: lab threat kind of guy. Just give them that thing.
Speaker 1: But eight is gonna feel that when the when the
Speaker 1: playoffs starts. So um, I think you just want a
Speaker 1: guy that will eat fouls. And I think Damien Jones
Speaker 1: is fine for now. If you can upgrade that to
Speaker 1: a Drummond Um, that's good. Uh. I Like like the PJ.
Speaker 1: Tucker rumors came out. We talked about him last last
Speaker 1: week and I said I wouldn't trade for him, but
Speaker 1: I would buy out for him. And now it looks
Speaker 1: like unless someone trades for him, but I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna get bought out as well. Um. We talked about
Speaker 1: Blake Griffith who went to the nets, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't think they need one. If they can get one,
Speaker 1: that would be great, the JaVale McGee one. Like, I
Speaker 1: don't know. When I see rumors like that, I always think, like,
Speaker 1: where is it coming from? And I feel like that's
Speaker 1: from Jamal's Jamal's camp because it said how to get
Speaker 1: him that the Calves would have to trade him to
Speaker 1: another team and then he would have to get bought
Speaker 1: out just for the Lakers to get him, because you
Speaker 1: can't trade for a player that you traded already. So
Speaker 1: I have no interest in watching JaVale McGee play basketball.
Speaker 1: Oh no, Yeah, that Jamal is a champion, you know.
Speaker 1: That's that's as much as I'll say, you want to
Speaker 1: ring with the Lakers, Uh, I won't. I won't share
Speaker 1: on his name, but yeah, don't think I think they
Speaker 1: needed but they can that would be great. I think
Speaker 1: Damon Jones has been fine. Um, I think he plays
Speaker 1: that role okay, but if they can get another one
Speaker 1: that that would be great. And for whatever it's worth,
Speaker 1: and this, a lot of this had to do with
Speaker 1: the fact that he played with the starters. But the
Speaker 1: best lane, the best line up with the Lakers last
Speaker 1: year had javan mcget center. But I think it had
Speaker 1: to do with the starters. But someone uh asked me
Speaker 1: that question yesterday on Twitter, and I did a little
Speaker 1: bit of research in it, and it's like big minutes,
Speaker 1: huge net rating. Best lineup for the Lakers last year
Speaker 1: was JaVale mcgett center, But I mean that doesn't account
Speaker 1: for the fact that in all the crucial moments he
Speaker 1: wasn't on the floor, so they just had him playing
Speaker 1: at the beginning of games. That was pretty uchit um.
Speaker 1: So this actually is We're gonna continue to kind of
Speaker 1: divert back to that type of question, but let's talk
Speaker 1: about what we've been getting from the center position and
Speaker 1: use that to frame my answer to that question. So,
Speaker 1: like marcasol uh this season has been disappointing to start,
Speaker 1: but he's been very good as of late, and there
Speaker 1: are a lot of things that he does really well
Speaker 1: that I don't think are accounted for. He does not
Speaker 1: bring that athleticism around the rim that JaVale McGain and
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard it, that's for sure, but he adds a
Speaker 1: whole new dynamic to the offense and his shooting which
Speaker 1: has been amazing. He's up over in his last nine
Speaker 1: games and he's it's actually forty three percent. I think
Speaker 1: it's forty two and a half percent, and uh On
Speaker 1: like almost five attempts a game, So he's shooting the
Speaker 1: heck out of the ball as of late. And he
Speaker 1: adds this whole like post entry, top of the key,
Speaker 1: back cutting, like crazy elements of their offense that never
Speaker 1: existed before. That is a massive upgrade over what you
Speaker 1: were getting from Javlan Dwhite. They don't. He's not blocking
Speaker 1: shots the way that those guys did, but his positional
Speaker 1: defense is way better. Both Javlan Dwhite had a tendency
Speaker 1: to get out of position. There's a play that circulated
Speaker 1: yesterday on Twitter of the end of the Orlando Magic
Speaker 1: game they lost in l A last year, where a
Speaker 1: swing path us was thrown to Aaron Gordon and Javail
Speaker 1: just did this bizarro close out on the guy in
Speaker 1: the corner, even though Aaron Gordon had the ball wide
Speaker 1: open at the at the three point line, and Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon just drove in and dunked, and Javel rotated back
Speaker 1: to Aaron Gordon to like shove him up higher in
Speaker 1: the air so that he would get an even crazier
Speaker 1: dunk and get the foul and the game was over.
Speaker 1: And I remember I remember being super upset when that happened.
Speaker 1: But that was the thing with Javail and Dwight was
Speaker 1: a little better with this. With Dwight it was the fouls,
Speaker 1: but with ja Javail was very frequently out of position,
Speaker 1: and that cannot be factored in enough when you're talking
Speaker 1: about the cohesiveness of the overall defense. And Marc Gasol
Speaker 1: has been very good in that role. Now the downside
Speaker 1: is is it's been just him really instead of having
Speaker 1: both of the centers the way they did last year,
Speaker 1: because Montrez is very different and in my in my opinion,
Speaker 1: Montrez has been a little bit more hot and cold,
Speaker 1: and they've needed him more. Whereas last year in crunch time,
Speaker 1: they could either go to Dwight or no center at all,
Speaker 1: so you never had to worry about Javel. They've had
Speaker 1: to lean on Montrez a lot this year because of
Speaker 1: the A D injury, and that has exposed a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think literally last year, if A D missed fourteen
Speaker 1: games and they were closing every game with like a
Speaker 1: center on the floor, it would have looked uglier than
Speaker 1: it did a lot. A lot of the the A
Speaker 1: D Javail stuff, Excuse me, the Javail and Dwight stuff
Speaker 1: was sugar coated by the fact that Lebron and A
Speaker 1: D were out there with them. Um, So, what what
Speaker 1: have you thought about Mark and Trez and and what
Speaker 1: we've gotten out of the center position so far this year? Yeah.
Speaker 1: So again, like during this time, I went back and
Speaker 1: watched a lot of the playoff games and then the
Speaker 1: good playoff Rondo games, right, and then I was looking
Speaker 1: like Rondo is out, like his i Q was so high,
Speaker 1: he was kind of outsmarting people on the court, and
Speaker 1: that's how I kind of see Marcus soul. Like in
Speaker 1: the regular season, it was kind of tough to kind
Speaker 1: of bear with him. He doesn't take his open shots.
Speaker 1: He's always in the right position though, so like I
Speaker 1: like having a player I can just trust right and
Speaker 1: he's not gonna make the wrong play. Um, he's gonna
Speaker 1: get out like athletics athletic size like a lot of
Speaker 1: the time. But he's always in the right place. His
Speaker 1: mind is working. He's like faster than Lebron sometimes even
Speaker 1: on these passes like he'll have he'll throw a pass
Speaker 1: on Lebron, but like I haven't even cut yet, so
Speaker 1: that they have a lot of like those kind of
Speaker 1: moments there. But it's fine having a guy like that
Speaker 1: on the floor, and he's kind of replaces Rondo in
Speaker 1: that like playmaker that's super smart, um, and he's always
Speaker 1: in the right place. His defense, like his defense is
Speaker 1: a is a big question all the time. But like
Speaker 1: when I rewatch the games, I'm never like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: Marcusol's fault that that guy scored there, you know, Like
Speaker 1: I never really say that, Like he's right there in
Speaker 1: the right position. Sometimes they score over him, and that's fine.
Speaker 1: If they're gonna score over over a verticality at the rim,
Speaker 1: Like you're gonna live with that, and that's what makes
Speaker 1: the Lakers have the best defense in the league. He's
Speaker 1: a big part of that. So I think he's been fine. Treads.
Speaker 1: Treads has been okay. There's been spots where it's been
Speaker 1: really struggling, like his defense wane sometimes. I feel like
Speaker 1: that also goes with like he has some bad habits, right,
Speaker 1: like when when they put him in the wrong position,
Speaker 1: he'll go, he'll drop back to his drop coverage, He'll
Speaker 1: he'll point, he'll point fingers and stuff like that. So
Speaker 1: but again, like when things matter, he's gonna be playing
Speaker 1: with a d Um, He's not gonna be playing the
Speaker 1: back the back line five and Marcusols. He's starting to
Speaker 1: hit his open shots. He's starting to take them. Raptors
Speaker 1: fans had a lot of more exactly, and Raptor fans
Speaker 1: had some complaints about that. They're like, go, watch out,
Speaker 1: he's not gonna shoot his threes. And you know he's
Speaker 1: shooting them now and he's being confident with it. Um,
Speaker 1: that's all you can ask. So I think he's been fine.
Speaker 1: Him and a d are still a great combo. You
Speaker 1: see their net rating together is through the roof still,
Speaker 1: so um they I think he's been good and if
Speaker 1: they want to get in on the center, it's fine.
Speaker 1: But I think he's been as advertised. I think that
Speaker 1: the report was the report said like, oh, the Lakers
Speaker 1: want to center because Marcusol has not expect That's what
Speaker 1: it was. That was bad. And I was like yeah,
Speaker 1: and I was like, no, he's been as advertising. He's
Speaker 1: been what he was brought here to be. He was
Speaker 1: He didn't come here to be a lob threat or
Speaker 1: you know, catch dunks or be even like a high
Speaker 1: score or like throwing the post. And Marcusol is a
Speaker 1: you know, high high volume post player. He's done his job.
Speaker 1: He's making good reads, making good passes. Him and Shrewder
Speaker 1: have like a really nice chemistry which I like, like
Speaker 1: they play off each other really well. He back cuts
Speaker 1: off him and he gets his little mid range pull
Speaker 1: ups off that. So he's been fine to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they both are. Um. You can very clearly see
Speaker 1: the role in which they will excel. Uh. It's it's
Speaker 1: it's easy to see, like Montrez not as a primary
Speaker 1: room protector, more flying in around rotations using his uh
Speaker 1: motor attacking specific mismatches on the block. You can see
Speaker 1: where his success will come. It makes sense, and that
Speaker 1: that that's all that I really expect from him, because
Speaker 1: he's not going to be a core guy and key
Speaker 1: lineups at the end of these playoff games. You just
Speaker 1: need him to succeed in the small role that he'll have,
Speaker 1: uh you know, in the in his minutes that he'll
Speaker 1: play in an actual playoff series when the Lakers are
Speaker 1: full strength. As far as so as far as after
Speaker 1: we've done that, as our as far as signing a
Speaker 1: center goes, you take drum And if he's available, if
Speaker 1: he's willing to sign, I think he'll sign with Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: But you take drum And if he's available, because why
Speaker 1: the hell not for starters two In this crazy second
Speaker 1: half of the season, with Marcosol being his age, with
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis's achilles thing that he's been dealing with, it's
Speaker 1: super realistic to expect that depth might be a concern.
Speaker 1: So having someone like Drummond is a huge asset. You
Speaker 1: take him in a heartbeat. He's there. I don't think
Speaker 1: he's their biggest need. And this is what we're going
Speaker 1: to transition to here and right now, I think their
Speaker 1: biggest need is shooting. And uh, this to be clear,
Speaker 1: I don't think they need shooting. I think they have
Speaker 1: enough right now. But if you're gonna sign somebody, to me,
Speaker 1: that is the opportunity. Uh. The main reason being is
Speaker 1: you have you have a depth in the in the
Speaker 1: garden wing corps to where you're kind of playing who's
Speaker 1: hot on any given night. Anyway, like th h T
Speaker 1: checks in at some point in the first quarter, end
Speaker 1: of the first quarter. If he's got it going, they
Speaker 1: lean on him a lot during the game. If not,
Speaker 1: they kind of go another direction. That's kind of the
Speaker 1: whole design of this Laker rotation. If West gets in
Speaker 1: and West is playing well, he plays heavy minutes. If
Speaker 1: he doesn't, he's out. They kind of just did did
Speaker 1: They kind of just go with who's hot on any
Speaker 1: given night as far as their rotation goes. And so
Speaker 1: adding another shooter to that list, somebody that you can
Speaker 1: go to when another guy's confidence isn't really there, I
Speaker 1: think is an asset. Now really quickly to frame this
Speaker 1: topic about the Lakers shooting. You know, I was actually
Speaker 1: having a conversation this morning with a friend of mine Uh.
Speaker 1: When I was playing pickup and you brought up an
Speaker 1: old coach here in Tucson, a guy from a high
Speaker 1: school here in town. The coach one of the AU
Speaker 1: programs here in town. And one of his things that
Speaker 1: one of his like go to quotes was like, you
Speaker 1: always shoot your percentage, Like, don't worry so much about
Speaker 1: makes and mrs. You always shoot your percentage. And I
Speaker 1: actually disagree with that. I disagree because if I told you,
Speaker 1: like rage, hey, you've you've been shooting thirty four percent
Speaker 1: on threes. How do we get that percentage up? The
Speaker 1: part part of it is working on your shot, but
Speaker 1: a big, a big part of it is shot quality.
Speaker 1: You increase your percentages by increasing the quality of shots
Speaker 1: that you get. If you like I know that if
Speaker 1: I'm not getting into a rhythm, the answer is not
Speaker 1: to take tougher threes until they start going in. Because
Speaker 1: I'm counting on my percentage. I'm going to try to
Speaker 1: seek out higher quality threes that are going to inherently
Speaker 1: have a higher percentage chance of going in. That's how
Speaker 1: you get this kind of thing going. Now, we talked
Speaker 1: about at length that the Lakers have been one of
Speaker 1: the worst shooting teams in the league over the last
Speaker 1: couple of months. So how do you fix that? To me, like,
Speaker 1: that's not them shooting their percentage. They're not a thirty
Speaker 1: percent three point shooting team, They're like a thirty six
Speaker 1: percent three point shooting team. Usually you do that by
Speaker 1: increasing your shot quality, and you do that by generating
Speaker 1: higher quality shots, by putting more pressure on the rim,
Speaker 1: by getting Lebron and a D healthy and getting them
Speaker 1: playing the way that they will in the playoffs. That's
Speaker 1: how you really fix that problem. However, if you had
Speaker 1: to gun to my head, pick something that actually might
Speaker 1: help them in a playoff series, to me, it would
Speaker 1: be somebody like a a JJ Reddick if he happens
Speaker 1: to get bought out. I actually like p J. Tucker
Speaker 1: because he's a specialist at Corner Three's, even though he's
Speaker 1: been terrible this year. But we've talked about that at
Speaker 1: length in another podcast. But that that, to me is
Speaker 1: the area of opportunity. Is just some kind of specialist
Speaker 1: shot maker that you can go to when things really
Speaker 1: bogged down, when guys aren't hitting shots, to try to
Speaker 1: open things up, to get Lebron in a D going. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think is probably the perfect mix of that where
Speaker 1: he's like the big and the shooter right and again,
Speaker 1: if he gets bought out, I think that would be great.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's done yet. Um. He showed way
Speaker 1: too much last year for me to feel like he's done.
Speaker 1: I guess this comes down to because the Lakers are
Speaker 1: deep already, right, so when you're when you're going after
Speaker 1: these biot guys there, I mean, some of them just
Speaker 1: want to ring someone also want to be a part
Speaker 1: of it. They want to be a part of the rotation.
Speaker 1: And it's really hard to sell that. Um and to me, like,
Speaker 1: I'm still a West Matthews believer. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you if you think he'll ever Yeah, so a lot
Speaker 1: of people are down on him, but I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna like I don't think like like you said, Um,
Speaker 1: it comes down to your shot quality. He's getting good looks.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think he's a thirty three percent
Speaker 1: three point shooter. I just don't think he's that low.
Speaker 1: He's not. I don't think he's a forty two percent.
Speaker 1: But he's gonna. I feel like he'll average out, just
Speaker 1: like k CP wasn't the fifty percent shooter that he
Speaker 1: showed to start the year. I don't think West was
Speaker 1: like the eight. I think he started to pick it
Speaker 1: up a little bit and his shot quality really did
Speaker 1: because he got moved to like the third unit, right,
Speaker 1: so he was playing almost with all bench guys, like
Speaker 1: he was playing with Tailor and Tucker as his main
Speaker 1: primary creator from going from Lebron. So I think he'll
Speaker 1: he'll also be in the rotation again. Like you you
Speaker 1: just you just can't play eleven guys, you know, in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. So even when you're going after these buyout guys,
Speaker 1: it's it's tough to sell them on minutes. And like,
Speaker 1: I don't think J. J. Reddick's getting bought out. I
Speaker 1: feel like shooting is out of premium right now. And
Speaker 1: I don't think I don't think you'll. I don't think
Speaker 1: you'll get bought out. I think the Pelicans want to
Speaker 1: try to make the ten seed, which is kind of crazy.
Speaker 1: They seem like they're ready out of it. They're like
Speaker 1: six games back of the ten seeds, so between ten
Speaker 1: and eleven is insane. Yeah, the NBA made it so
Speaker 1: you have ten spots and they still can't even make one,
Speaker 1: which is just I know it's driving our friend Jason crazy,
Speaker 1: but every night, right, yeah, so I don't I don't
Speaker 1: think he'll get bought out. Um and to me like that,
Speaker 1: your your officers are p J. Tucker. Um, I don't
Speaker 1: think all rig is getting bought out, So he's probably
Speaker 1: get traded. But it's like PJ. Tucker and Andre Drummond
Speaker 1: and Tucker is probably the perfect mix of shooting. But again,
Speaker 1: he's a corner three special this so he's not like
Speaker 1: a shooter. You can't run him up pin downs, like
Speaker 1: you can't run him off screens. And I think that
Speaker 1: I don't think personally, I feel like, yeah, well, I
Speaker 1: feel like that would be a nice option to have, right,
Speaker 1: Like a guy that can come off a screen um
Speaker 1: and shoot like West was supposed to be there, Like
Speaker 1: he was sold as a shooter that could move right,
Speaker 1: like they could come off handoffs to take threes. He
Speaker 1: hasn't done that yet. KCP has been a little bit
Speaker 1: of that, So would be nice to have that kind
Speaker 1: of wrinkle to come in. But yeah, they don't need it,
Speaker 1: but'd be nice if you have a shooter, get a
Speaker 1: shooter that can kind of shoot off the move and
Speaker 1: things like that. But yeah, I don't know if they'll
Speaker 1: need one. But it's kind of tough because the rotation
Speaker 1: is so long already, it's it's tough to kind of
Speaker 1: fit another guy into it um going forward. And then
Speaker 1: there's also there's a lot of these teams that are
Speaker 1: also going to be competing for those guys have these
Speaker 1: like weird exceptions and stuff that allow them to offer
Speaker 1: more money. Like that's the thing like p J Tucker
Speaker 1: if he gets spot out, Like that's a guy who
Speaker 1: it's well known that he's upset about a lack of money.
Speaker 1: Uh so that what what in world would convince him
Speaker 1: to take you know, seven hundred thousand or whatever he'd
Speaker 1: make on the tiny pro rated veterans minimum to come
Speaker 1: play for the Lakers? You know what I mean. A
Speaker 1: couple of interesting stats for you. Uh, the Lakers are
Speaker 1: shooting thirty seven point five percent from three with Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D on the floor. That's pretty good. Just
Speaker 1: Lebron on the floor. They are shooting thirty five point
Speaker 1: eight percent from three, mm hmm. Lebron is off the
Speaker 1: floor this year, they're shooting thirty two point from three.
Speaker 1: So that kind of goes to what I was talking about, like,
Speaker 1: when they have their good players on the floor that
Speaker 1: are putting pressure on the rim and helping them to
Speaker 1: generate higher quality looks, they're just they're going in at
Speaker 1: a higher clip. And with a d being out and
Speaker 1: with Dennis Shooter being out, it was this perfect storm
Speaker 1: of of just uh, you know, teams being able to
Speaker 1: load up on Lebron, but at the same time, like
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron not having the ability to get into
Speaker 1: the paint to to help draw to develop these open looks.
Speaker 1: It just was a perfect storm of things that then
Speaker 1: coincided with a massive slump. Uh. So I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: blame the Laker shooters for kind of succumbing to that,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. I'm a firm believer that when
Speaker 1: push comes to shove, KCP is gonna make shots. And
Speaker 1: I think Wesley Matthew is gonna make shots. Kyle Kuzma,
Speaker 1: I think is gonna make shots. I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: worried about that. So let's let's go player by player
Speaker 1: down this list, and let's talk about, uh, whether or
Speaker 1: not we we they have exceeded expectations or been disappointing.
Speaker 1: So let's start with Alex Caruso. How have you been
Speaker 1: Have you felt about Alex Caruso so far this year? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like he really exceeded expectations to start the year. Um,
Speaker 1: and then his role kind of got pushed up. And
Speaker 1: we talked about this a lot, right, Um, when he
Speaker 1: got like thirty minutes thirty minutes a game, but it
Speaker 1: was a it was an out eyes role, so he
Speaker 1: was doing more than he was supposed to be, Like
Speaker 1: he was playmaking and stuff like that. Um. I think
Speaker 1: he's been as expected though, he's been himself when he's
Speaker 1: got those like I just have to focus on defense
Speaker 1: and hit some spot up jumpers and make the right play. Um,
Speaker 1: he's been himself. I think he's better shooter than he
Speaker 1: was last year. Um. Like I don't know if the
Speaker 1: numbers kind of bear that out now he's kind of
Speaker 1: gone cold, but yeah, I think he's been as expected.
Speaker 1: He's been himself, and we know exactly who he is, right,
Speaker 1: Bogo knows who he is. He knows how he's going
Speaker 1: to play in the playoffs, and he can trust him
Speaker 1: on the floor and I think that's the most important thing.
Speaker 1: And he's he hasn't regressed, which I think is the
Speaker 1: important part. He he hasn't shown that he could do
Speaker 1: more than what he was, but um, he hasn't. He
Speaker 1: hasn't shown that he's gone backwards. So I think that's
Speaker 1: that's a good thing. He's from three on the season, okay,
Speaker 1: on two point four attempts. He's playing right at about
Speaker 1: twenty minutes per game. Yeah, Um, a couple other things
Speaker 1: to see. I'm looking at assist to turn over here,
Speaker 1: he's averaging two point four assists in one point one turnover,
Speaker 1: so he's over a two to one assist to turnover ratio.
Speaker 1: I think he's exceeded expectations. Um. He is shooting the
Speaker 1: ball at a much higher level than he was last year.
Speaker 1: He's been every bit as good defensively when he's been
Speaker 1: in the smaller role, and for what you're expecting from
Speaker 1: that position, I think he's knocking it out of the park.
Speaker 1: He's one of the few guys this season that I
Speaker 1: think has been a resounding, uh, you know, a resounding
Speaker 1: success compared to what we expected on the quicker turnaround.
Speaker 1: What about Dennis Shrewder, He's exceeded my expectations. Um, I
Speaker 1: didn't think he was this good of a defender coming
Speaker 1: into the year. Um, he's he's a lot more dynamic
Speaker 1: as a score as well than I thought. I think
Speaker 1: he was more of just like a straight pick and roll.
Speaker 1: But he's a really he can isolate. He loves to
Speaker 1: attack switches. Um, he'll go, he'll go buy you. He's
Speaker 1: good in transition as well. He'll get to the ram
Speaker 1: and he can draw vowels, which is just awesome to
Speaker 1: have at the guard spot. The Lakers haven't had a
Speaker 1: guard that can draw foals and forever. So he gets
Speaker 1: to the rim, he gets to the line, he puts
Speaker 1: teams in the pen. Know the he's exceeded my expectations.
Speaker 1: His three point shooting, though, isn't um as good as
Speaker 1: I thought it was. Um, it was a yeah. But again,
Speaker 1: he just has to hit like a minimal base amount, right,
Speaker 1: so they can respect his three pointers so he can
Speaker 1: do what he wants to hit that mid range as Yeah.
Speaker 1: And again I don't think he's that bad of a shooter,
Speaker 1: so I think that will raise as well. Um, he
Speaker 1: takes a lot of uh tough threes as well. He
Speaker 1: takes a lot of like jab step pull up threes. Um,
Speaker 1: especially when the Lakers are up, He'll He'll take some
Speaker 1: bad shots, so I think that kind of plays into
Speaker 1: his percentage as well. But I loved what I've seen
Speaker 1: from him. I think he'll get extended here soon. Um
Speaker 1: the Lakers can extend him four years or something like that,
Speaker 1: and I expect that to get done soon. So he's
Speaker 1: exceeded mine. He's been He's been great. I think he's
Speaker 1: been awesome. I've been super super impressed. I did not
Speaker 1: have super high expectations for him. I was actually to
Speaker 1: be clear, this is me admitting I was wrong. I
Speaker 1: was one of the guys who was a little bit
Speaker 1: higher on like a Spencer Dinwoody type of guy, a
Speaker 1: guy who a little bit more of an elite shot
Speaker 1: creator for himself. I think he's been awesome and the
Speaker 1: the the number one contribution that Dennis Tutor has brought
Speaker 1: to this team as his defense, He in my opinion,
Speaker 1: has been the best defensive player on this team. He
Speaker 1: has been the lynchpin to that entire UH defensive scheme
Speaker 1: working because of his ball pressure at the point of attack.
Speaker 1: And I think it'll be an absolute travesty if he
Speaker 1: doesn't make one of the All Defense Teams We'll see
Speaker 1: what ends up happening, but I think it'll be an
Speaker 1: absolute travesty. I think I think his point of attack, ball, pressure, defense,
Speaker 1: and competitiveness every single night defensively has been easily the
Speaker 1: most pleasant surprise of the season. We all knew he
Speaker 1: could defend, we all knew he was good, we all
Speaker 1: knew he was a competitor. But I didn't expect this
Speaker 1: out of him. And I firmly believe that if he
Speaker 1: if he had not been the move this summer, that
Speaker 1: the defense would have slipped him coming in and bringing
Speaker 1: that effort and energy to that because asition has been
Speaker 1: amazing offensively. I read some of the numbers a minute ago.
Speaker 1: He's you know, from three fifteen points a game, four
Speaker 1: and a half assist per game, two and two and
Speaker 1: a half turnover, So just a little bit worse than
Speaker 1: a two to one assist turnover ratio. But that's better
Speaker 1: than what we were hoping for in terms of him
Speaker 1: creating shots for his teammates. Really good free throw shooter.
Speaker 1: Two he's getting uh he's eighty three percent and getting
Speaker 1: there four times a game. The I he's been, you know,
Speaker 1: a little a little better than I expected. On that end,
Speaker 1: but when you combine those two together, him being the
Speaker 1: productive offensive player that he has been. He's had a
Speaker 1: lot of pivotal moments in games too, where he's gotten
Speaker 1: a key switch at the end of a game and
Speaker 1: made a key shot, you know, a key beating a
Speaker 1: big man off the jibble fern and one knocking down
Speaker 1: a big time three he has. He's been everything they've
Speaker 1: needed on offense and way more than they've needed on defense.
Speaker 1: And I think he's been you know, Rob Blink, I
Speaker 1: think made a few catastrophic mistakes early on that I
Speaker 1: believe partially may have been Madgin's fault. Losing Brook Lopez
Speaker 1: was a huge mistake. You know, Letting Julius Randall walk
Speaker 1: for nothing was a huge mistake. There were a lot
Speaker 1: of mistakes that were made there, and I cannot a
Speaker 1: percent blame Rob because it might have been Magic. That said,
Speaker 1: since then, he's been incredible. Pretty much. The only signing
Speaker 1: I've disagreed with, why uh Dwight letting Dwight Howard go.
Speaker 1: I would have brought him back. You and you talked
Speaker 1: about this on Twitter all the time. Every time there's
Speaker 1: a Sixers game. I can count on Rods tweeting out
Speaker 1: that Dwight belongs in the Lakers, which I can't argue
Speaker 1: with you. I would agree, but I I think the
Speaker 1: the addition of Dennis Shooter was has been such a
Speaker 1: seamless fit, and then he was proven to be so
Speaker 1: incredibly important when he was out there a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago. I think Rob blacoln just deserves a lot
Speaker 1: of credit. And I've been super the stokes to watch
Speaker 1: Dennis Shooter, and I think he's gonna be a really
Speaker 1: really good playoff player. He's it'll be a little bit
Speaker 1: tricky to have him on the floor and specific matchups
Speaker 1: because guys can attack him and switches specifically like a Kauai.
Speaker 1: But I trust the Lakers in a double and recover
Speaker 1: more than I trust any other team in the league
Speaker 1: really quickly. On I'm sure he used to use the
Speaker 1: word um that, like he's a competitor and his like
Speaker 1: fighting and like I love like against the really like
Speaker 1: all star guards like Steph Curry, Like he'll score on
Speaker 1: him and then he'll pick him up full core just
Speaker 1: to be like, yeah, we're we're doing this all game,
Speaker 1: Like this is how the game's gonna go. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be on you all game, like why don Rice and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna score on you on the other day. And
Speaker 1: I just think that's one of the Lakers a few
Speaker 1: games where they've come out lack of days ago, without energy,
Speaker 1: and Shooter would just be like, no, I want to
Speaker 1: take it to Steph Curry tonight, like I'm I'm going out,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul, I'm going out. Whoever the guard is on
Speaker 1: the other team, he sees as some like disrespect, like
Speaker 1: he's not in that kind of tears. So I love
Speaker 1: what he's brunning in that respect as well for the
Speaker 1: his My one of my favorite games this season was
Speaker 1: his game against shay uh yeah s g a um
Speaker 1: Say was whooping his ass all night long, just eating
Speaker 1: him alive and such an unbelievable Arsenal moves and we
Speaker 1: I think you and I both are really impressed with
Speaker 1: him as a player. But to your point, Dennis was like,
Speaker 1: I'm here all night like you're gonna have to keep
Speaker 1: making them. That's the problem is You're gonna have to
Speaker 1: keep making them. It's it's one of the biggest things
Speaker 1: that I always count on when I'm defending in any
Speaker 1: sort of full length game. Yeah, here in town is like,
Speaker 1: guy makes a couple of tough shots on me. I
Speaker 1: just stick to my principles, and I understand, like there's
Speaker 1: gonna be this. This game is a long game. It's
Speaker 1: gonna drag on, and there's gonna be a moment later
Speaker 1: on where he has to keep making those shots. And
Speaker 1: and that's what happened. He made two huge defensive plays
Speaker 1: at the end of the game where he forced SJ
Speaker 1: into a tough floater and they blocked him from behind
Speaker 1: on that crazy recovery play, which was like freakish, and
Speaker 1: and that won the game because you have to understand
Speaker 1: it sometimes like dudes are gonna make shots, you know,
Speaker 1: And and it's just about getting the pivotal stops at
Speaker 1: the end of the game's wearing them out over time
Speaker 1: so that he doesn't quite get as much lift on
Speaker 1: that floater, so that he misses it at the end
Speaker 1: of the game. That's where you're gonna you know, that's
Speaker 1: gonna be the difference between winning and losing in a
Speaker 1: lot of nights. Um, we're back. I think he's he
Speaker 1: exceeded expectations again to start, and then he's really dropped back. Um,
Speaker 1: he's gone he's had some really bad games going. I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's all fatigue, but I think it's
Speaker 1: more than that. Um, it got mental for him as well.
Speaker 1: He could tell his legs just weren't there. Um, there
Speaker 1: are a few moments in that I think that King's
Speaker 1: game or you could just tell he was like, get
Speaker 1: me on a flight, get me to you know, get
Speaker 1: me to Cancun, get me to somewhere else. Um, I
Speaker 1: just can't play right now. So I think spiral for him.
Speaker 1: He could tell when he misses a shot, it messes
Speaker 1: up his defense, his rotations, he does bad fowls. And
Speaker 1: I think the break, he's the guy that probably needed
Speaker 1: to break the most. To me, Um, he's a guy
Speaker 1: that doesn't really miss games and he's the iron man
Speaker 1: in that way, and you could tell it really affected him. So, um,
Speaker 1: he's income like he's been fine to me, He's been himself.
Speaker 1: I think he has the largest like benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1: I see a lot of people like putting him in trades,
Speaker 1: which is just just crazy to me. Yeah, trying to
Speaker 1: trade him like I trust him entirely in Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't go four rounds playing well too, you know,
Speaker 1: like you get you get some kind of benefit from that.
Speaker 1: So he was the third best player I thought in
Speaker 1: the playoffs last year. Yeah, and I don't think it
Speaker 1: was close. People say it was Rondo, but people forget
Speaker 1: how many bad games Rondo had him. But I will
Speaker 1: forever die on the hill. Yeah, Atlanta is absolutely dead
Speaker 1: on that hill right now. But but yeah, Casey, if
Speaker 1: he has been great, it's gonna be great. He's gonna
Speaker 1: be fine. People like throwing him for Victor Hill a deepo,
Speaker 1: but it's just not even playing well right now, so
Speaker 1: it doesn't really make sense. Um, he's he's been fine.
Speaker 1: He's he's been I expect he's been himself. He's taking
Speaker 1: his shots. I think he's been a little better even
Speaker 1: as like a defender. He's been faster. Um, he knows
Speaker 1: where to be, he knows the schemes. Now, he's comfortable.
Speaker 1: I think he's fine, he'll be okay going everything. For
Speaker 1: everything that frames KCP season is how good he was
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and that there's good and bad to
Speaker 1: that that. The good is the benefit of the doubt
Speaker 1: and the amount of trust that the fan base hasn't
Speaker 1: in what he can do. The downsize is it is.
Speaker 1: It makes him look so bad right now because he was, like,
Speaker 1: you know, I could not say enough good things about
Speaker 1: KCP last year. You know, he had a couple of
Speaker 1: bad games defensively where the entire team kind of dropped
Speaker 1: the ball on defense. Like he was definitely on some
Speaker 1: of those highlight reels against Miami, losing Duncan Robinson and
Speaker 1: losing Tyler Harrow. But the for the most part in
Speaker 1: that playoff run, he was extremely dependable in rotations and
Speaker 1: at the point of attack as just a ball pressure guy,
Speaker 1: a guy chasing people off the three point line. And then,
Speaker 1: as I've said so many times on this podcast, I
Speaker 1: think he's one of the best like traditional close out
Speaker 1: attack guys in the league because he's an extremely good
Speaker 1: one leg jumper, which is great for attacking closeouts because
Speaker 1: it's usually just a like a tiny sliver of space
Speaker 1: that you're attacking uh in the defense and then UH
Speaker 1: and then he can knock down shots and he can
Speaker 1: if if the help comes over, he can make that
Speaker 1: one to dribble easy kick out to the next guy.
Speaker 1: So it's an unbelievable asset. Like I don't know what
Speaker 1: the closing lineup is gonna look like. But I know
Speaker 1: one thing for sure, KCP is gonna be in there.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be Dennis KCP, lebron A D and whoever's
Speaker 1: playing best as that other guy. I think it'll be
Speaker 1: Cruiso some nights of the Kuzma others. You know, if
Speaker 1: they need more size, he might you know, might have
Speaker 1: Mark Kis out there. But that that's that that's gonna
Speaker 1: be what they end up depending on. And KCP has
Speaker 1: earned he can miss his next thirty threes, and I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be worried. If anything, I'd probably be like, is
Speaker 1: he healthy? You know, that would be my first at
Speaker 1: that point. He's one of the fastest players too, right,
Speaker 1: he's super quick. We don't think of him as a
Speaker 1: speed guy, but him and Sure were like one of
Speaker 1: the fastest guards combos in the league. So and you
Speaker 1: saw that really get effected. So hopefully he had a
Speaker 1: nice break here at some my ties on a beach
Speaker 1: or something, and then uh is okay to is okay
Speaker 1: to be back? Now? It's that's the scary thing with
Speaker 1: the Lakers, is like there's this lebron A D combo,
Speaker 1: which we talked about a lot at length in the
Speaker 1: last podcast having to do with the way that that
Speaker 1: can neutralize a lot of the best picking roles in
Speaker 1: the league, because if you put them on your first
Speaker 1: on your best player and your second best player, and
Speaker 1: you want to run that action with your second best
Speaker 1: player so that you can get him on the short roll,
Speaker 1: if you're trapping like a staff or trapping like a
Speaker 1: Dame Lebron, and a D can just switch that and
Speaker 1: effectively neutralize your best action. And all that's so scared
Speaker 1: we talked. And then offensively, all the pressure they put
Speaker 1: on the rim. We've talked at length about how good
Speaker 1: looking a D are. The differences is last year they
Speaker 1: had an average to below average backcourt, and this year
Speaker 1: they have an above average backcourt. And that's one of
Speaker 1: the biggest reasons why I'm so confident in then like
Speaker 1: to put a guy the caliber of Shrewder and a solid,
Speaker 1: solid three and D guy like k CP in that backcourt,
Speaker 1: to me, just makes them extremely difficult to be four
Speaker 1: times out and seven. What about Kyle Kuzma, I think
Speaker 1: he's exceeding UM. I feel like he's he's really fit
Speaker 1: into a role. UM. Some people are mad at the
Speaker 1: extension I was one of the ones that loved it.
Speaker 1: I was really happy to see a guy that's you know,
Speaker 1: I got to watch from summer league to you know,
Speaker 1: build and finally find a role that he's really fitting.
Speaker 1: His defense has been great. He's been, uh, the most
Speaker 1: surprising guy. He's He's played the hardest every game. I
Speaker 1: feel like, I feel like you would agree with that. Like,
Speaker 1: his energy has been the most than any player, um,
Speaker 1: maybe besides Lebron. Even when the team is slipping effort wise,
Speaker 1: you'll see him like running and get a crazy offensive
Speaker 1: rebound tap out or something like yeah, just hard. Oh,
Speaker 1: he plays super It's funny. There was a few players
Speaker 1: where a d would like go up for a rebound
Speaker 1: and Couzma comes flying in and like tries to steal it,
Speaker 1: ball goes out of bounds. Eight. He looks at him
Speaker 1: like it's the first quarter, like what are you? What
Speaker 1: are you doing? But it's fun to watch him grow
Speaker 1: and he's really fit into a defensive role. His three
Speaker 1: pointers are they're up and down. But you know, he
Speaker 1: knows his role, his his roles to play hard. He
Speaker 1: really crashes the offensive boards like a madman. Um Because
Speaker 1: players and people don't really box out those corners and
Speaker 1: he would really take advantage of that and gets He's
Speaker 1: one of the Lakers some games with that. I think
Speaker 1: again the Pistons or something, he got a big offensive
Speaker 1: rebound sun. He's exceeded, to my expustations. I never thought
Speaker 1: he'd be this level of defender. Um. I thought the
Speaker 1: playoffs he was good. Um, he's become a really reliable
Speaker 1: guy that like they put on people and be like, hey,
Speaker 1: this guy scoring, slow him down. It was just an
Speaker 1: insane thought from his rookie year who he was like
Speaker 1: just the score guy who he would help him to
Speaker 1: be like a Jordan Clarkson level. And now he's like
Speaker 1: this defenders spot up three pointer who makes the right
Speaker 1: read on rotations and knows where to be. It's it's
Speaker 1: cool to see where he's gone from here. We talked
Speaker 1: about this a few weeks back on one of our pods.
Speaker 1: He's been one of the coolest stories that from this
Speaker 1: season for the Lakers because his whole like if you
Speaker 1: were to kind of like try to, you know, summarize
Speaker 1: his personality after his first couple of years in the league.
Speaker 1: He's very Hollywood. He's very into the showy stuff. He
Speaker 1: wasn't very into the winning stuff, and that is completely
Speaker 1: flipped on his head, like he is a bona fide
Speaker 1: winning basketball player. Now everything that he does is within
Speaker 1: the team concept and not within his own individual concept.
Speaker 1: A couple of things that are super fascinating. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he shot thirty thirty six point six percent from three
Speaker 1: when he was a rookie on about five and a
Speaker 1: half attempts per game, and then he was terrible the
Speaker 1: next two years, and there was a lot of talk
Speaker 1: about whether or not that was an outlier performance, especially
Speaker 1: since he did not shoot the three well in high
Speaker 1: school or in college. Um, well, he's at thirty six
Speaker 1: and a half percent this year on five attempts per game,
Speaker 1: So there is evidence that there is a significant improvement there,
Speaker 1: because once you don't have multiple outlier seasons in that
Speaker 1: regard shooting a career high and effective field goal percentage.
Speaker 1: Just scoring is down, but it's not way down. He's
Speaker 1: still had like twelve points per game, um and and
Speaker 1: he's averaging a career high six point seven rebounds, way
Speaker 1: career high offensive rebounds two point one offensive rebounds per game.
Speaker 1: His previous career high was one point one career him
Speaker 1: blocks the the guy he's just what. You know. One
Speaker 1: of the biggest things that always projected well for Kyle
Speaker 1: Kuzma as a defensive player was his size. And it's
Speaker 1: something that it's something that I say a lot about,
Speaker 1: like the difference between like a Trey Young and Luca
Speaker 1: don Chich. You know, like Trey Young does not ever
Speaker 1: project to be a serviceable defensive player because he's just
Speaker 1: too small. You know. Steph Curry always projected to be
Speaker 1: a decent defensive player because he's six ft three, which
Speaker 1: is bigger than Dame. It's bigger than Trey. He's he's
Speaker 1: like a bigger guard than he ever gets credit for. Well,
Speaker 1: Luca is a big body, and he just he eventually
Speaker 1: will learn how to use that to be good. He was.
Speaker 1: Kuzma was a poor defensive player early in his career,
Speaker 1: and he has figured out through positional defense because there's
Speaker 1: there's multiple kinds of of individual defense. Some of it
Speaker 1: is like Alu alue Dor like strength and lateral quickness,
Speaker 1: like kind of like what Wesley Matthews was before he
Speaker 1: got hurt, and you know, and when he was in Dallas,
Speaker 1: like just absurd lateral quickness and anticipation in physicality at
Speaker 1: the point attack to keep guys in front of it.
Speaker 1: That's not what Kyle Kuzma does. Kyle Kuzma is more
Speaker 1: of like a give space and and and try to
Speaker 1: beat guys to a spot and use his length to
Speaker 1: make up for the fact that he has to give
Speaker 1: space because he's not very latter really quick. But he
Speaker 1: learned how to do that, and then he's also figured
Speaker 1: out like, hey, I can be a really good help
Speaker 1: defender if I if I use my side to eventually
Speaker 1: figure it out as long as he did, I drop out?
Speaker 1: Now you did? And now you dropped out? M M
Speaker 1: can you hear me? Now? Yeah? I can hear you now. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I guess the hard wire is not gonna work.
Speaker 1: I have to figure out what's going on with my
Speaker 1: I s P. Anyway, I apologize guys for the dropout.
Speaker 1: Um anyway. So, uh, it's just been cool to see
Speaker 1: as he's kind of made that maturity leap to finally
Speaker 1: figuring out how he can turn himself into a really
Speaker 1: good pro And that was the difference between him flaming
Speaker 1: out being overseas and him being like a guy who's
Speaker 1: gonna be in the league for twenty years, and so
Speaker 1: I've been really impressed. I credit the coaching staff on
Speaker 1: that too, because I feel like the previous seasons his
Speaker 1: his defensive stance. Even I used to watch, it would
Speaker 1: be awful. He would get beat off the dribbles so easily. Um,
Speaker 1: And now you know he's really good. He knows how
Speaker 1: to stay in front be people to the spot you
Speaker 1: weren't watching. I don't think the Lakers in eighteen before
Speaker 1: they got Lebron the year before they got a little
Speaker 1: bit you watch a little bit. Okay, Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: was talking about Rookie year Couse. I'll tell my grandkids
Speaker 1: about Rookie year cuse because that guy was. That guy
Speaker 1: was a different level of score. Like people joked about
Speaker 1: the Lakers comparing him to Jayson Tatum that year or whatever.
Speaker 1: But I dude was like hitting floaters off the balance
Speaker 1: where he would come off screen roles and score and
Speaker 1: look like an eighteen to twenty point score. And I
Speaker 1: think he could still probably do that on a bad team.
Speaker 1: But like you said, it's it's great to see his
Speaker 1: him just accepting and enjoying. Right. He looks like he's
Speaker 1: having fun, like he's He's having a blast doing his role,
Speaker 1: and I think that's that's important. So let's move on
Speaker 1: to Wesley Matthews. Have you felt about himself this year? Man,
Speaker 1: he's probably been the biggest disappointment um on this on
Speaker 1: the on the team. Like I know he's a little older,
Speaker 1: but uh, like people were placing him as a Danny
Speaker 1: Green replacement, right like, as like he'll just come in
Speaker 1: and fill the Danny Green roll, which I think we
Speaker 1: really underrated Danny Green. Like I can't believe, I mean,
Speaker 1: Danny Danny Green is making fifteen million, you know a year.
Speaker 1: I mean it's a little bit different as well. West
Speaker 1: is on a minimum deal and there's a reason why
Speaker 1: he's on a minimum deal, right like this that doesn't
Speaker 1: happen by accidents. So but yeah, like he's obviously not
Speaker 1: Danny Green, and he doesn't have to be for this team.
Speaker 1: He just really needs to hit a few open threes.
Speaker 1: I feel like his defense has been fine though, Like
Speaker 1: when he's out there, he plays hard, Um, he makes
Speaker 1: he he gets beat. Sometimes he makes some wrong decisions.
Speaker 1: I think that's like a chemistry kind of thing. He
Speaker 1: doesn't know where people are going to be. But yeah,
Speaker 1: he's probably been the most disappointing him. But again, I'm
Speaker 1: one of the big believers in him. I believe in Vets.
Speaker 1: I believe they will eventually figure it out. He's been
Speaker 1: being playing basketball in his life. He was starting for
Speaker 1: a sixty seven win team last year. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just it's just crazy what what has happened to him?
Speaker 1: So hopefully hopefully he gets a going, but he's been
Speaker 1: he's been pretty disappointing. So he had a stretch a
Speaker 1: let's see a fifteen game stretch that from December to
Speaker 1: February tenth. Um February tenth was a couple of games
Speaker 1: before a D got hurt. So he's playing for the
Speaker 1: most part with Lebron in a D. And he was
Speaker 1: shooting from three in that span on four four attempts
Speaker 1: per game. So he had a significant chunk of the
Speaker 1: season when the rest of the team was healthy where
Speaker 1: he shot really well, for whatever that's worth. But I
Speaker 1: agree with you, I think you know a lot of
Speaker 1: times like this is one of the biggest reasons why
Speaker 1: I think th Ht, who we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: in a second, is going to eventually fall out of
Speaker 1: the rotation. You know, the in the playoffs when le
Speaker 1: Bron and or when the Bronze playing forty minutes a
Speaker 1: night and eighties play in thirty six minutes a night
Speaker 1: and Dennis Shooter is playing thirty five minutes and a
Speaker 1: night or whatever it is, Like you the the the
Speaker 1: role for these guys is gonna get even more simple
Speaker 1: than it is now. And you just need guys who
Speaker 1: don't make mistakes, who don't have silly turnovers, and their
Speaker 1: shot selection is really good, Like you know, there's gonna
Speaker 1: always be that worry, like is th ht gonna go
Speaker 1: rogue and take a bad shot in the pivotal part
Speaker 1: of the game, like when he just doesn't kind of
Speaker 1: feel the moment enough, and and those sorts of things
Speaker 1: like you can't you can't uh possible over value having
Speaker 1: a guy like West on the roster as an option
Speaker 1: to put in that as that fifth guy in that lineup.
Speaker 1: Like that, it may very well be the case that
Speaker 1: you know, in their closing lineup with Dennis Shooter, k CP,
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D that against the Clippers, they might
Speaker 1: send West out there and put West on Kauai and
Speaker 1: just have Lebron and a D digging and helping on
Speaker 1: Kauai like that. That that that could be scary, you know,
Speaker 1: especially that West has a track record of defending Kauai. Well.
Speaker 1: I he's definitely been underwhelming. He's definitely been less good
Speaker 1: than we all hoped. He definitely has been nowhere near
Speaker 1: as good as Danny Grant. I want to be clear
Speaker 1: about all of that. However, I remain optimistic that he
Speaker 1: will be a serviceable guard in that rotation by the
Speaker 1: time that the Lakers get to the playoffs. Yeah. Same,
Speaker 1: He's he's a veteran, he knows what he's doing. He's
Speaker 1: not gonna make like like you said, mistakes. He's a
Speaker 1: high i Q basketball player, so he's not gonna hurt
Speaker 1: you in terms of like his own dumb mistakes. He
Speaker 1: might miss shots and all that, but um but I
Speaker 1: can live in miss shots, you know, he that will happen.
Speaker 1: So that he's been playing fine defensively, he fits in.
Speaker 1: I think, like the net ratings with him on the
Speaker 1: floor is still fine, So I think he'll pick it
Speaker 1: up as as we go on here. So let's move
Speaker 1: on to HT. Have you felt about himself far this year?
Speaker 1: I think he's exceeded my expectations. I didn't think he
Speaker 1: would be this good as an on ball kind of
Speaker 1: score um so fast that the kind of blew people
Speaker 1: away in the preseason, right hit and insane. He had
Speaker 1: like national people talking about him in the preseason, and uh,
Speaker 1: he was really good for the first beginning of the the season.
Speaker 1: And I think teams have caught up to what he is,
Speaker 1: which is the guy who wants to get to the
Speaker 1: rim consistently. He doesn't really trust his jump shot yet.
Speaker 1: But again, he's twenty years old, so it's hard for
Speaker 1: me to say like, oh, he's disappointed, you know, as
Speaker 1: a twenty year old guy in the on a championship team.
Speaker 1: And I think he's been good. But you're right. I
Speaker 1: think he'll start to follow up the rotation, Uh what's
Speaker 1: the roles will really get to find right, And he's
Speaker 1: a guy that's just not good defensively right now. He
Speaker 1: just isn't. He doesn't know where to be. He gets lost.
Speaker 1: He comes off shooters that have hit five threes in
Speaker 1: a row, like he just it's it's stuff like that
Speaker 1: that you just can't live within the playoffs. So I
Speaker 1: think he'll be he'll be out of the rotation there
Speaker 1: but he's shown that he's really good. He's not gonna
Speaker 1: get some max contract this summer. I think that has
Speaker 1: kind of wayne. People are worried about that that some
Speaker 1: team would come and pay him like twenty million a
Speaker 1: year or something like that. I think that's I think
Speaker 1: that's over with. But he's been fine. He's exceeded my
Speaker 1: expectations for what I thought because I didn't think he'd
Speaker 1: be in the rotation this year. So he's he's in
Speaker 1: the rotation. He's fully getting like fifteen twenty minutes a
Speaker 1: game almost. So, yeah, seventeen minutes a game on a
Speaker 1: team that's third in the West. I mean, that's that's
Speaker 1: a big time for twenty year old second round pick.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna say I've been disappointed with him, but
Speaker 1: I'm framing that within the the perspective of the fact
Speaker 1: that in the preseason there was talk of whether or
Speaker 1: not he was a rising star, and we talked a
Speaker 1: little bit about this last week. I do not think
Speaker 1: th HD is a future star. Um. I view him
Speaker 1: is like, you know, a guy that in the future
Speaker 1: can be an off the bench spark plug type of guy,
Speaker 1: just because he's a super aggressive scoring guard. Uh. The
Speaker 1: only potential he has, in my opinion, to eventually be
Speaker 1: like a really good, solid starting guard on a championship
Speaker 1: team is if he develops defensively, which he certainly can't. Uh.
Speaker 1: That's the tools. He's is more than enough tools. It's
Speaker 1: just gonna come down to him picking up the focused stuff.
Speaker 1: The reason why you can't play him is he can't shoot.
Speaker 1: He's a thirty one percent from three last year from
Speaker 1: three this year. UM in the playoffs last year he was,
Speaker 1: but that's in a very very very small volume. I
Speaker 1: I think that in a playoff series he's going to
Speaker 1: be left butt naked on the three point line every
Speaker 1: single time, and it's going to really hurt their offense.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, I still think the Lakers have
Speaker 1: an asset there. I still think that he's a great
Speaker 1: guy to kind of help bridge you know, the Lebron
Speaker 1: era to the post Lebron era. I absolutely view him
Speaker 1: as an asset in that regard. I just personally have
Speaker 1: been lower on him than other Laker fans, and I
Speaker 1: don't think he can play in the playoff rotation. And
Speaker 1: so just within that you know, you know, contextualization, I
Speaker 1: would say that I've been disappointed in him. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's kind of tough because because he's so young,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like, I feel like saying he's not
Speaker 1: going to be a star is really tough because I
Speaker 1: think he's shown enough on the ball to where like
Speaker 1: that's that's really needed. Like if you have a guy
Speaker 1: who can create off the dribble, and he said he
Speaker 1: can't shoot, I think he's learning to be a spot
Speaker 1: up shooter, right, Like that's just not who he was
Speaker 1: in college or anyway. Feels like the dribble ones more
Speaker 1: than yeah he's yeah, he's a rhythm shooter, right. He
Speaker 1: likes to like dribble through the legs, like step back
Speaker 1: and then hit hit his threes that way rather than
Speaker 1: just sitting waiting in the corner for the ball to
Speaker 1: come to him. I think that's really hurts him. But
Speaker 1: he's like a streaky shooter. He hold one, held like
Speaker 1: two more in the same game, but he'll go like
Speaker 1: over five and in another one. So I don't know
Speaker 1: what to make mom. I still think he's so young.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of Lakers Twitter that think like he's
Speaker 1: a for sure All Star. I'm not there, but I
Speaker 1: do think he'll be a starting level guard. Um. Jared
Speaker 1: Dudley was really high on him. He said he's like
Speaker 1: expecting him to start next year, which which I don't
Speaker 1: think that's happen exactly. Yeah, but yeah, he's a young kid.
Speaker 1: He's he'll be fine. He's he's learning to play with
Speaker 1: you know, championship level uh team, so he'll be Okay.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to pull up his shooting number serio real quick,
Speaker 1: one of you, uh. The last player we gotta get
Speaker 1: to his markis Morris, So why don't you tell us? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've been upset or pleased with what you've seen from
Speaker 1: markets this year. Yeah, he's also been kind of underwhelming
Speaker 1: from what we expected from the bubble. From the bubble,
Speaker 1: he was really great. He was sending his open threes,
Speaker 1: and I feel like he's one another guy like k CP,
Speaker 1: Like he's he and he has been really open with it, right,
Speaker 1: Like his quotes have been really um my opening where
Speaker 1: he's saying like I'm exhausted, Like every game feels like
Speaker 1: I'm starting with like thirty minutes already, Like I've I'm
Speaker 1: tired as hell. So I mean I'm taking that into account.
Speaker 1: He's starting to play better like against Sacramento, he played
Speaker 1: really well. Against Phoenix, he played really well. Um, he's
Speaker 1: a guy that you know, they like to throw the
Speaker 1: ball into the post and score out of that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he's been underwhelming just because of what we expected.
Speaker 1: But again, he's another veteran that I feel like, we'll
Speaker 1: pick it up when it matters, and uh, he's he's
Speaker 1: really started to pick it up lately, so hopefully that
Speaker 1: that picks up going forward. I so Markief has been
Speaker 1: interesting the sense that I see him as an easy,
Speaker 1: easily upgradeable player that would drop out of the rotation
Speaker 1: if they got anything resembling a decent forward. At this point,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say all negative things because that
Speaker 1: there have been a couple of things he's done well.
Speaker 1: I think he's been a good post defender there when
Speaker 1: you can if when he plays the center position and
Speaker 1: teams try to bully him on the block to take
Speaker 1: advantage of the lack of size, he holds his own
Speaker 1: pretty well down there. Uh. He also has had some
Speaker 1: games where he has shot the ball well. Overwhell on
Speaker 1: the season, he's not shooting the ball well, but he
Speaker 1: has had some games this season where he has shot
Speaker 1: the ball well. The problem with him is he is
Speaker 1: not mobile enough like the and he doesn't have the
Speaker 1: motor that Montrez does to make up for some of
Speaker 1: his uh, to make up for some of his athleticism deficiencies,
Speaker 1: and it hurts them in defensive rotations. And usually when
Speaker 1: you see, you know, a defensive rotation is like a
Speaker 1: A defensive rotation is kind of like a like a uh,
Speaker 1: like a ping pong rally that goes back and forth
Speaker 1: and then eventually the ball falls off. This falls off
Speaker 1: the table because someone messes up. It just feels like
Speaker 1: a lot of those end with Mark Kiff being slow
Speaker 1: on a rotation and something getting butchered. So, you know, I,
Speaker 1: you know, he's fine, he's serviceable. He does what he does.
Speaker 1: He's another one of those guys that had some big
Speaker 1: playoff moments feeding off of because he's kind of an
Speaker 1: a rational confidence guy, and he he fed off of
Speaker 1: some of the incredibly high quality shots that he got
Speaker 1: playing alongside Lebron and a d I just think he's
Speaker 1: he's an extremely likely candidate to fall out of the
Speaker 1: rotation uh come playoff time. And Frank has said as much, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, early in the year when they would shrink
Speaker 1: to nine, it'd be Wes and Mark Kief. Now I
Speaker 1: don't think Quest should be out of the rotation, but
Speaker 1: Mark Kief, he just he is what he is. He's
Speaker 1: your tenth or eleventh guy. He's their spots center when
Speaker 1: they don't have center minutes available or when they do
Speaker 1: have center minutes of a I should say. And he's
Speaker 1: very heat checky from three when he's got to go in,
Speaker 1: he can be really dangerous out there. But he's also
Speaker 1: had games where he doesn't have it going. So um,
Speaker 1: he is what he is. Yeah, And I think he
Speaker 1: wasn't he wasn't done any favors, but playing next to Montrez,
Speaker 1: they were doing that second unit where him and Tres
Speaker 1: were like the back line of the defense, especially especially
Speaker 1: without Anthony Davis. Like that's just that's just asking he
Speaker 1: had scored on he could tell and put a couple
Speaker 1: of that with him being tired and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So and he's a specialist, right, He's like a guy
Speaker 1: that you can start at the four when when you
Speaker 1: want to next to a D And that really destroyed
Speaker 1: Houston in the second round. Him and him and a
Speaker 1: D starting, they're really really made tough for them. He's
Speaker 1: a guy that can switch. He doesn't want to be
Speaker 1: in rotation, like you said, he's a little slow for that,
Speaker 1: but he's a good switchy defender. He's not gonna get
Speaker 1: destroyed on those kind of things. So yeah, he's he's
Speaker 1: a specialist player. And again he signed for the minimum
Speaker 1: as well, so he's a minimum kind of minimum players.
Speaker 1: So that's that's what you'll get out of those guys.
Speaker 1: All the guys are are exceeding their contracts by yeah,
Speaker 1: enormous him ounts, which is what you need when you're
Speaker 1: trying to build the championship team. But yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I think more or less given the circumstances. To kind
Speaker 1: of wrap this up, like, I think more or less
Speaker 1: under the circumstances, you couldn't really can't really complain. The
Speaker 1: only thing is, like you know, they are just and
Speaker 1: again I'm not trying to speak this into existence. I'm
Speaker 1: literally just you know, sharing my concerns. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of examples of in NBA history of a guy
Speaker 1: who's got this nagging thing that's been kind of a
Speaker 1: problem and it leads to a severe injury. Uh, if
Speaker 1: you remember Derrick Rose, he was dealing with a lot
Speaker 1: of a foot and ankle stuff, and and that ended
Speaker 1: up leading to his knee being a problem. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: Iman Schumpert, I'll never forget was dealing with a a
Speaker 1: knee sprain throughout the year, and then the knee finally
Speaker 1: went in the in the playoffs. The point being is like,
Speaker 1: I just hope they take their sweet ass time getting
Speaker 1: a d back out there, because none of this is
Speaker 1: worth losing him for a whole a year. Uh, whatever
Speaker 1: it takes. Like, think of it like this, If he
Speaker 1: tears his achilles knock on wood, that'll take him out
Speaker 1: next year too. So it throws. It throws. It basically
Speaker 1: throws out the end of Lebron's prime. Whereas if for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, he can't finish this year, which I don't
Speaker 1: think will be the case, but for whatever reason, it's like, look,
Speaker 1: he just can't get healthy this year, at least then
Speaker 1: you can go at it next year with the same guys.
Speaker 1: You don't have everybody healthy, and so I really hope
Speaker 1: they take their sweet time. You've got thirty something games left.
Speaker 1: What if he sits out another twenty? Who cares set
Speaker 1: him two months? Whatever it takes. Get him healthy, because
Speaker 1: I just the last thing that they need is to
Speaker 1: overpursue some seating thing, especially when you know you can
Speaker 1: win with Dennis in Lebron as long as everyone else
Speaker 1: is healthy. So I just hope they take their time
Speaker 1: with add Yeah, and and just listen to him. I
Speaker 1: think he said, um before before they went All Star break,
Speaker 1: if he if this was the playoffs, he could, you know,
Speaker 1: muscle through it and play. So that's a good sign.
Speaker 1: And they said it has nothing, it won't affect the
Speaker 1: actual Achilles being, uh being, you know, being teared. And
Speaker 1: that's all you can do is listen to them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all you can do is listen to them, right
Speaker 1: and how they say they know their bodies better than anybody.
Speaker 1: So um A d obviously felt he wasn't ready and hopefully,
Speaker 1: you know, he'll sit out tonight and be ready to
Speaker 1: go soon. I'm hoping just to build some kind of
Speaker 1: rhythm with this team. I mean, um, I know it
Speaker 1: must be tough to kind of play with and without him,
Speaker 1: um going for especially for Shooter and Marcusol. All those
Speaker 1: guys need reps with him. Well, speed him in the post.
Speaker 1: That's the hard part is like with a D is
Speaker 1: Like he's such a significant chunk of their offense. Like
Speaker 1: last year in the playoffs. I was talking about this
Speaker 1: with another friend of mine named Paul on Twitter the
Speaker 1: other day, Like part of the Laker offense in the
Speaker 1: postseason was a D had turned into Kevin durant as
Speaker 1: a post up like midrange score and so just you know,
Speaker 1: ten times a game they would dump it down there
Speaker 1: to him and he'd make four or five of them,
Speaker 1: and that was a significant chunk of their offense. Like
Speaker 1: that's gonna if they don't get enough reps with it
Speaker 1: early and during this run, it'll stagnate them if they
Speaker 1: try to go to it, you know, without much practice
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, Like if you just start dumping it
Speaker 1: down to a D every time, and you saw that
Speaker 1: last year against the Clippers in the season opening game.
Speaker 1: Like you need to learn how to fit, you know,
Speaker 1: within the rhythm of the offense a high volume post
Speaker 1: up player because it just it just throws everything off
Speaker 1: in terms of the other guys touches. It's funny because
Speaker 1: I see that comparison a lot that he turned into
Speaker 1: Kevin durant um in the in the bubble um that
Speaker 1: was mostly against Houston. Like I went back and kind
Speaker 1: of watched them. He didn't have many of those against
Speaker 1: like Portland or even like Denver, but it was mostly
Speaker 1: against Houston shut him down. Yeah, and well he had
Speaker 1: a great Game one and game two and then three four,
Speaker 1: three four or five, But again those are off like
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds were at the rim. He was scoring at
Speaker 1: the rim and and offen. He wasn't scoring as a
Speaker 1: like they He wasn't bullying them on the block the
Speaker 1: way did earlier. Yeah, yeah, and again and again Houston
Speaker 1: put six six guys on him. They had Daniel House
Speaker 1: on him. I mean, what was he gonna do? So
Speaker 1: he was shooting practice mid range jumpers and you're gonna
Speaker 1: make those. Um he practices though, So that's that's what
Speaker 1: I mean. Kevin Durant is gonna hit it. Whether you
Speaker 1: double team and triple too does it doesn't matter. So
Speaker 1: but yeah, that that's compared this. It's funny to me
Speaker 1: because I feel like he was that for like one round.
Speaker 1: It wasn't really him. You know, that's not a hundred.
Speaker 1: The reason Blake is one is just because you know,
Speaker 1: he turned to Kevin Durant because that's I don't expect that.
Speaker 1: I don't expect him to be hitting mid drains jumpers
Speaker 1: at the level of Katie, who won't be the best
Speaker 1: you know madrains score. Ever, So a couple of questions
Speaker 1: before I get you out of here, Uh, where do
Speaker 1: you have the m v P rankings right now? Just
Speaker 1: give me your top three? I have Lebron and then
Speaker 1: be tied pretty much. And I think, um TI goes
Speaker 1: to the runner or some something. Is that how they
Speaker 1: say in baseball or something that I feel like Lebron
Speaker 1: is the runner here because he's been, you know, trying,
Speaker 1: He's been pushing this narrative, so I think he'll and
Speaker 1: he has a he has the case as well. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying it feels like he has the voters. And
Speaker 1: then I probably have YO kids right behind them. So
Speaker 1: I have Lebron, embiad and then y how about you
Speaker 1: Tigers to the runner. I like that. That's interesting. I
Speaker 1: I give him beat a very slight edge right now.
Speaker 1: I think Lebron's case has to be best record in
Speaker 1: the league. Uh, and the only and the only thing
Speaker 1: that would give him leeways if Utah finished with the
Speaker 1: best record in the league and he had the second
Speaker 1: best record in league just because Utah doesn't have a
Speaker 1: traditional MVP candidate. But I think Lebron's case because he
Speaker 1: does have a very talented team. Albeit the injuries have
Speaker 1: ravaged them, but they've ravaged a lot of the teams,
Speaker 1: and beat ironically has been one of the few guys
Speaker 1: who's been on a team that's mostly been healthy. M
Speaker 1: But I would say that if the Lakers end up
Speaker 1: with the two overall seed or the one overall seed,
Speaker 1: and and he continues to play almost every single night
Speaker 1: and put in the numbers that he has, I agree,
Speaker 1: there's just the with him being the best player on
Speaker 1: what should be recognized as the best team in the league.
Speaker 1: Is the defending champ with all the playoff pedigree to
Speaker 1: back everything up, I believe he should get it. However,
Speaker 1: right now, with with with the way the standings are
Speaker 1: breaking down, and with how well Joel Embiad is playing,
Speaker 1: I would give the slight edge to Joel Embiid. Then
Speaker 1: I think the Nuggets are gonna make a trade. I
Speaker 1: think they're gonna get significantly better, and Yokich has been
Speaker 1: so good that I do expect them to go on
Speaker 1: a run and they're basically only three. I think they're
Speaker 1: only three and a half games back of the Lakers,
Speaker 1: So they are very very very much in striking range
Speaker 1: here to make some noise, And Yokich has actually played
Speaker 1: better than both of them in terms of their overall
Speaker 1: effectiveness in terms of just straight up regular season impact. Um,
Speaker 1: So I would rank it and bead Lebron Yokis right now,
Speaker 1: but I think all three of them have a really
Speaker 1: good chance. Um And this is as open as I
Speaker 1: can remember it being at this point in the season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's funny because Janice obviously who won you know, two
Speaker 1: m vps in a row already, he's not gonna get votes,
Speaker 1: but he's still averaging like a crazy like twelve and
Speaker 1: seven and which of late he's and insane. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it just doesn't matter anymore because people are like, we
Speaker 1: want to see in the playoffs. And again that's where
Speaker 1: I think Lebron has kind of the vote here because
Speaker 1: of the you know, people see that they gave it
Speaker 1: to me honest two years and they're like, you know what, Lebron,
Speaker 1: He's earned it as well. But also like he has
Speaker 1: the votes kind of I see him getting it this year.
Speaker 1: He's played too well, and I'm not sure if you'll
Speaker 1: get another MVP kind of chance here. Um, so I
Speaker 1: have that, but you know, I wouldn't be mad if
Speaker 1: in Beid got it. He's been playing amazing. We'll see
Speaker 1: if that keeps up. I mean, he's a he's a
Speaker 1: guy that's known that to like get tired at the
Speaker 1: end of seasons, especially in the playoffs. So we'll see
Speaker 1: if he can keep it up. But I have no
Speaker 1: problem with him bead winning it either that. That's how
Speaker 1: I goes to The runner thing is a super interesting
Speaker 1: point that I think will end up being a factor.
Speaker 1: Janese in his last thirteen games is averaging thirty thirteen
Speaker 1: and seven and uh and no one cares they've lost
Speaker 1: six of that. They're only seven and six in that stretch.
Speaker 1: For him, it's always going to be the team and
Speaker 1: and then the records not dominant enough and there's just
Speaker 1: still too much of a question mark kind of lingering
Speaker 1: over him from his playoffs stuff. Um. Lastly, just real quickly,
Speaker 1: do you still think the Lakers are gonna win it?
Speaker 1: Who do you think is their biggest threat? I still
Speaker 1: think they're gonna win it. I think the nets are
Speaker 1: their biggest threat. I mean, I watched that team, man,
Speaker 1: and that team is just an insane load of offensive talent.
Speaker 1: I know they have defensive issues, and we've discussed this before,
Speaker 1: but they just need a baseline level defense. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you can't put up one twenty on them, you're
Speaker 1: not beating them. And I don't see any East team
Speaker 1: able to keep up with that. They're they beat Boston
Speaker 1: last night. They even have Katie, and they just ran
Speaker 1: away with that in the fourth quarter because Kyrie and
Speaker 1: Harding can just hit whatever shots. Kyrie looks like you
Speaker 1: watched him, and Kyrie is insane, but like he wasn't.
Speaker 1: I don't remember him this like focus level, like you
Speaker 1: could tell like he knows exactly where his shots come
Speaker 1: from now and he's just like driving pull up. He
Speaker 1: knows no one's stopping this. I don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about getting trapped double team. And last night he just
Speaker 1: took over in that third quarters. So I think they're
Speaker 1: the toughest to me, them and the Clippers, um, those two,
Speaker 1: But I don't really I still think that when I
Speaker 1: think the Nets are closer than I feel like it
Speaker 1: was to start the year. I think the Lakers were
Speaker 1: the heavy favorite. I still think their favorite, well, I
Speaker 1: don't think their favorites anymore technically in terms of actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: because of Blake Griffin, which is we'll see, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the Nets are the biggest contender for them,
Speaker 1: how about you. So, first of all, on Kyrie, like,
Speaker 1: Kyrie maybe the best. He might be playing the best
Speaker 1: out of any point guard in the league right now.
Speaker 1: It's kind of insane now. He to be clear, he's
Speaker 1: very fortunate to be playing on a team where some
Speaker 1: of the like James Harden is it kind of like
Speaker 1: Lebron was, James Harden fills all of his deficiencies, So
Speaker 1: it's important to kind of acknowledge the circumstance. But I
Speaker 1: think he's reaching that thing that I always talk about
Speaker 1: where you're like your abilities catch up with your like basketball,
Speaker 1: I Q as he's gotten older, and you're right, like
Speaker 1: he just knows where his shots are coming from. He's
Speaker 1: he's very much in control of his game in a
Speaker 1: way that he didn't used to be. Um And and yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he's been super fun to watch. He was
Speaker 1: always one of my favorite players to watch. Like, I
Speaker 1: think Kyrie is a little bit of a crazy person.
Speaker 1: But but he's also a genuinely good person, and he
Speaker 1: also is one of my favorite basketball players to ever watched.
Speaker 1: And I thought he was an incredible compliment to Lebron
Speaker 1: and it was very, very fun to watch the two
Speaker 1: of them when they were together. As far as Brooklyn goes,
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna get This is what I think
Speaker 1: is gonna happen. It is just my prediction. We'll see
Speaker 1: how it goes. I think Bloy Griffin is gonna start
Speaker 1: playing for them, and he's not gonna look very good.
Speaker 1: Not he's gonna have moments, he's gonna make shots, he's
Speaker 1: gonna have some a few plays. I think they're I
Speaker 1: think the upper management and I think the coaching staff
Speaker 1: is gonna pretty quickly figure out that he's not gonna
Speaker 1: be able to fulfill the defensive things that they need
Speaker 1: from him. Kind of similar to what happened with Carmelo
Speaker 1: Anthony when he went to Houston. UH, they had a
Speaker 1: very in Portland. They had a very specific need for
Speaker 1: shot creation because of the c J. McCollum injury. UH,
Speaker 1: Whereas with Houston, the James Harnum was doing all the
Speaker 1: shot creation and they just needed a dude who can
Speaker 1: defend and make three. So they so they got rid
Speaker 1: of him. I don't think the Nets are gonna get
Speaker 1: rid of Blake by any means, but I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna pretty quickly figure out he doesn't solve their problems.
Speaker 1: And then what's gonna happen is Andre Drummond is gonna
Speaker 1: be this obvious and clear fix, and I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna end up signing in Brooklyn. I know there's competing
Speaker 1: reporting out there. There's some reports that say Hill consider
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and then there's another report from a football
Speaker 1: player I guess who says that he's gonna go into
Speaker 1: to the nets. But the nets are just a logical
Speaker 1: solution there. Um, they need a bigger body to throw
Speaker 1: it in. Bead and ombiad has had a ton of
Speaker 1: success against Drummond in the past, but it's a totally
Speaker 1: different animal when you play him four times in a
Speaker 1: row and uh, seven times in a in a playoff series,
Speaker 1: and and Drummond has a chance to kind of pick
Speaker 1: up on more of his tendencies. He's got the physical
Speaker 1: tools that he needs to to be able to to
Speaker 1: compete in that matchup. So I think they're gonna end
Speaker 1: up with Andre Drummond. I put them on the same
Speaker 1: or with the Lakers. I've seen enough. They're freaking good,
Speaker 1: and I I think the Lakers are equipped to beat them.
Speaker 1: I think it'll be a dog fight, and I think
Speaker 1: that I would pick the Lakers, But I think Brooklyn's
Speaker 1: every bit as good as them, and I think we're
Speaker 1: headed for one of the most incredible playoff runs on
Speaker 1: both ends of the on both conferences, that we've ever seen.
Speaker 1: I literally can't wait. It's gonna be amazing. So I
Speaker 1: saw a tweet yesterday, Um, just really cool. You don't
Speaker 1: have to go deep into it. But so Game one,
Speaker 1: Lakers Nets, what is your game plan defensively against the Nets?
Speaker 1: Because I have my thoughts. I'm just want of your
Speaker 1: quick like your philosophy, Like you don't have to go
Speaker 1: through it super deep, like you're defending the Nets. They
Speaker 1: have all their players have Kyrie, they're starting Kyrie Hardened,
Speaker 1: Joe Harris, Katie and some nominal center that doesn't really
Speaker 1: matter here. What's your like defensive game plan, like what
Speaker 1: do you what do you what do you want? Like
Speaker 1: what do you want the shot to come from? If
Speaker 1: you can decide like you can decide defensively what what
Speaker 1: they're gonna do. Where would you I'm pretty shrewter on
Speaker 1: Katie or excuse me, shooter on uh Kyrie, and I'm
Speaker 1: putting KCP on James Harden, and I'm putting Lebron on
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, and I'm having a d B a roaming
Speaker 1: helper a couple of things there. First, it's not as
Speaker 1: much of a fatigue thing for Lebron because I really
Speaker 1: do think that the multiple ball handlers that Brooklyn has
Speaker 1: makes it so that Katie's less aggressive, and it's what
Speaker 1: wears you down as a defensive players when they repeatedly
Speaker 1: go at you. And I just don't think they will. Uh.
Speaker 1: Kevin duran will be aggressive on Lebron at times, but
Speaker 1: I don't think it will be something that uh. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's gonna be something that's gonna wear Lebron
Speaker 1: out because there's gonna be so much Lebron, Kyrie and
Speaker 1: and James Harden action. Lebron is one of the best
Speaker 1: defenders you could ever build in a lab to guard Katie.
Speaker 1: He's extremely strong, and he's good at fouling within the rules.
Speaker 1: He's really good at using his physicality UH in a
Speaker 1: way that doesn't get the whistle blown, and for a
Speaker 1: skinny guy like Kevin Durant, it's something he can use
Speaker 1: to kind of keep him contained. My favorite game tape
Speaker 1: to watch is pretty much the last time Lebron tried
Speaker 1: on d fence against Kevin Durant, because he didn't try
Speaker 1: the rest of the series. Was Game one of the
Speaker 1: two Thousan NBA Finals, and if you watch the way
Speaker 1: Lebron played very physical at the point of attack, forced
Speaker 1: him into shooting over the top, did a good job
Speaker 1: of getting him off balance and made him miss a
Speaker 1: lot of shots. I think that's a good matchup. K
Speaker 1: CP on James Harden would probably be your weakest one.
Speaker 1: I think Denistriutor will at least make things tough on Kyrie,
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, what you end
Speaker 1: up doing is UH probably trapping any pick and roll
Speaker 1: action that involves Kyrie or James Harden and just getting
Speaker 1: into your crazy psycho rotations. The as the Lakers have
Speaker 1: shown in the past, they can get James Harden to
Speaker 1: give up the ball farther far enough away from the
Speaker 1: basket and rotate quick enough that they can be where
Speaker 1: they need to be. And then I don't think Kyrie
Speaker 1: is a good enough pass or to to hurt them
Speaker 1: enough in those in those trapp sequences. But most of
Speaker 1: it's gonna come down to, you know, uh, whether or
Speaker 1: not they can play a center and whether or not
Speaker 1: a D can be a factive as a as a
Speaker 1: help as a help defender. But they'll probably end up putting.
Speaker 1: You know. The thing that gets tricky is Joe Harris.
Speaker 1: But my guess is they'd end up gosh, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: It's tricky with the way that they do their lineups
Speaker 1: because Joe Harris has to be guarded too. Um. But
Speaker 1: I mean, I suppose I don't necessarily like the idea
Speaker 1: of a D on Katie. What about you? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't do that either. Like my thing is like
Speaker 1: these to me, like the individual matchups don't even really
Speaker 1: like count here because there's gonna be so many screens
Speaker 1: and switching. So I would just have a philosophy like
Speaker 1: whoever's on Harden, I'm trapping that hard in the screen
Speaker 1: role for thinking give it up. Yeah, And I'm making
Speaker 1: Bruce Willen score thirty. I'm making Bruce Brown sorry score
Speaker 1: thirty or Andrew Drummond have to score thirty. Katie is
Speaker 1: gonna get his shots if he wants to eye so
Speaker 1: against Lebron, because I agree, I would put Lebron and
Speaker 1: go ahead. And you want to against Lebron three times
Speaker 1: a game, you could do that. I don't think that
Speaker 1: would be enough points per possession or whatever to win
Speaker 1: the game. Kyrie as well, I think I would. I
Speaker 1: would probably trap him as well, but just depending on situation,
Speaker 1: if you have to switch year or not. It's all tough.
Speaker 1: I mean, Joe Harrison is gonna be flying around screens, um,
Speaker 1: you have to be careful of that. I'd have a
Speaker 1: D guarding whoever the big man is, so like whoever,
Speaker 1: let's say Bruce Brown is their technical big man, I'd
Speaker 1: have a D on him and then covering up so
Speaker 1: he can defend the corner three and the role as
Speaker 1: he did against Miami. So it's tough. Though. There's no
Speaker 1: right answer here, right because you know they might score anyway.
Speaker 1: It doesn't they're that good offensively. It's just it's just
Speaker 1: a fun thought exercise to like go into like Vogel's head,
Speaker 1: I guess and see like what he would do, he's
Speaker 1: a guy I think that that like prioritizes protecting the
Speaker 1: rim right, and so it's kind of interesting to see
Speaker 1: him from that way. Houston. Brooklyn puts a lot more
Speaker 1: pressure on the limb than like the Clippers do that,
Speaker 1: like because Hardened and Katie will attack the basket. They'll
Speaker 1: dump on you if you don't protect it. So it's
Speaker 1: it's a tough cover either way. And I think you're right,
Speaker 1: it'll be a there'll be a hell of a series.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a toss up. I give the Lakers
Speaker 1: there just because they wanted last year, but it's a
Speaker 1: it's a hell of a series. I would I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be surprised by any outcome with Brooklyn, Like I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be prize that they lost to Miami or Philly or
Speaker 1: some crazy team that that schemed them into just becoming
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shooting team and they just didn't
Speaker 1: make ano shots. But I also wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 1: they want it all. I think I think they're kind
Speaker 1: of like a such a new construct, you know, Superstar
Speaker 1: late in team that doesn't defend. There's such a new
Speaker 1: construct that it's kind of impossible to to to just
Speaker 1: like resolutely stand up and be like, I know these
Speaker 1: guys are gonna lose, because it's just you just don't know.
Speaker 1: But I do think I would put them on the
Speaker 1: top tier. There's too much evidence. I think. I do
Speaker 1: think they're not as good as they've looked, because they've
Speaker 1: looked like world beaters lately. I think that teams will
Speaker 1: have a much better time attacking their switching scheme in
Speaker 1: a seven game series. I think that teams are going
Speaker 1: to figure out how to attack their defense around the rim. Uh,
Speaker 1: just with their lack of size. I think teams are
Speaker 1: going to figure that out. Um. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, and the way to beat them would
Speaker 1: be to stagnate them and turn them into a jump
Speaker 1: shooting team and just hope that they go cold and
Speaker 1: count on the fact that if you wear them out
Speaker 1: on the other end, if you wear them out on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor physically, they'll just start missing
Speaker 1: these pull up jump shots. There's a lot of history
Speaker 1: that Kyrie and Kevin Durant both have and James Harden
Speaker 1: have an extensive history Katie, particularly in Oklahoma City. You know, uh,
Speaker 1: Kyrie when he's not playing with Lebron and James Harden
Speaker 1: forever had they have a history in the wear and
Speaker 1: terror of the playoffs turning into inefficient jump shooters and
Speaker 1: so and that that would be the way to beat them.
Speaker 1: I still think Philly and the Lakers are the most
Speaker 1: equipped physically to to accomplish that goal. But I think
Speaker 1: I think people who are undercutting them still at this
Speaker 1: point are silly. I think they're the runaway favorites in
Speaker 1: the East, and I think they're every bit as good
Speaker 1: as the Lakers. Yeah, we'll see, well, we will see,
Speaker 1: all right, man, we've been going for almost an hour
Speaker 1: and a half. This was awesome. I really enjoyed this.
Speaker 1: I think this is the best part we've done. I
Speaker 1: think we touched on a lot of really good stuff.
Speaker 1: I think we did as much of a deep dive
Speaker 1: in the Lakers as you possibly could. I cannot believe
Speaker 1: that my little Ethernet cable thing didn't work, but at
Speaker 1: least now I know what's wrong, so I can attack
Speaker 1: that problem. Everyone, thank you so much for listening in.
Speaker 1: I'll have the pod version of this up probably in
Speaker 1: about thirty minutes. Roger, I hope you have a good day, man,
Speaker 1: and I will see you next week. Wait sure