Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jason tim Podcast. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your day to come
Speaker 1: hang out and talk some hoops with me today. Um.
Speaker 1: I hope you all had a great holiday or holidays,
Speaker 1: and that you're ready for the new year. I know
Speaker 1: it's kind of unfortunate that we celebrate the new year
Speaker 1: and kind of life is more or less the same
Speaker 1: amount of trouble that we've been dealing with the past year,
Speaker 1: but I am cautiously optimistic that we will be headed
Speaker 1: out of this shortly. I had a good holiday. I
Speaker 1: hope you guys did too. I had to do some
Speaker 1: deliveries for my clients today that took me all over town,
Speaker 1: and I was able to parlay that into a trip
Speaker 1: to the Nike outlet, which is a solid forty eight
Speaker 1: minutes from my house according to the GPS, and I
Speaker 1: got some new basketball shoes and some other new stuff.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited. I have been fortunate enough to get
Speaker 1: invited to a consistent run that is on Monday, Wednesday
Speaker 1: Friday here in town at five am, which tests the
Speaker 1: sleep schedule that I already have enough trouble maintaining. But
Speaker 1: I've been super super happy to have consistent basketball in
Speaker 1: my life so I can shed some of this ridiculous
Speaker 1: weight that I'm carrying around and get back to what
Speaker 1: I'm used to being as a basketball player and just
Speaker 1: as a healthier person. I ate like absolute dogshit over
Speaker 1: the holidays and got as high as two and one pounds. Um.
Speaker 1: Not good, but that's just part of being an adult.
Speaker 1: And I grow up in a family that uh has
Speaker 1: My mom is just a really really good cook which
Speaker 1: cooks with a lot of butter and a lot of
Speaker 1: really unhealthy stuff, and and then I end up paying
Speaker 1: the price. So uh, that's a good time to make
Speaker 1: some New Year's resolutions and get back on the straight
Speaker 1: and narrow. Um. Today, I'm gonna be talking about the Lakers, Clippers, Warriors,
Speaker 1: and Nets. These are the four teams that I find
Speaker 1: most interesting right now at this point early in the season. Um.
Speaker 1: For the record, obviously, there are teams with better records
Speaker 1: in the league, and they're gonna get attention from various outlets.
Speaker 1: The bottom line is, if we're only three games in,
Speaker 1: I really don't think the Hawks are The Calves are
Speaker 1: gonna be relevant as we get further into the season,
Speaker 1: So I'm not gonna waste a ton of time talking
Speaker 1: about them today. Um, and then at the end I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be doing a mailbag. Uh. So I've got a
Speaker 1: couple of questions so far from my Twitter feed, but
Speaker 1: there's obviously plenty of time here in the next half
Speaker 1: hour or so for you guys to drop some more
Speaker 1: questions and the comments. Absolutely anything NBA related or whatever
Speaker 1: the heck you guys want to talk about, just drop
Speaker 1: him in the comments and we'll get to him after.
Speaker 1: So let's start with the Lakers. Um. You know, we're
Speaker 1: early on here, and the Lakers are two and two
Speaker 1: and they have two really impressive wins and two pretty
Speaker 1: ugly losses. Although the two ugly losses seemed to me
Speaker 1: to more be a product of their effort and focus
Speaker 1: rather than some sort of damning, damning condition of their
Speaker 1: roster or lacking area that that is in desperate need
Speaker 1: of repair. It's just to me the classic case of
Speaker 1: a team that's on a really short layoff that's trying to,
Speaker 1: you know, get their motor going when they don't really
Speaker 1: have a lot of motivation, Which is where I want
Speaker 1: to start, because I think it's important to understand that
Speaker 1: the Laker goal and focus for this season doesn't look
Speaker 1: the same that it does for the other teams in
Speaker 1: the league because they were a dominant championship team, and
Speaker 1: a dominant championship team doesn't have the same goal as
Speaker 1: you know, a less dominant championship team, like a team
Speaker 1: that barely won the title or a team that didn't
Speaker 1: win the title. The other twenty nine teams in the league,
Speaker 1: they're looking at this going, we have to get better.
Speaker 1: We have to prove or improve to the point where
Speaker 1: we can compete with and potentially beat this Laker team
Speaker 1: four times out of seven. So they have to attack
Speaker 1: the season with a different level of focus and intensity
Speaker 1: than the Lakers need to. The Lakers don't have that need.
Speaker 1: Their need is basically comes down to two things. One,
Speaker 1: they need to stay healthy. You need to make sure
Speaker 1: that they are more or less the same team when
Speaker 1: they get to the end of the season that they
Speaker 1: are now. And then two, they need to maintain their
Speaker 1: championship identity. Outside of those two things, as long as
Speaker 1: they are maintained, who cares what else happens. A loss
Speaker 1: like last night is not concerning at all. Where it
Speaker 1: does become concerning is if their identity fades away, and
Speaker 1: they lose the habits and the consistency that they had
Speaker 1: the previous year and a half, and then, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, when they need to rely on it later
Speaker 1: in the season, they let go of the rope and
Speaker 1: they don't have anything there for them to fall back
Speaker 1: on to regain control of the series when they get
Speaker 1: themselves in a situation where the back is against the wall. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, I'm less concerned about last night because exactly
Speaker 1: one night prior, they had an extremely dominant defensive performance
Speaker 1: and an extremely dominant offensive performance where they gotta win,
Speaker 1: and then the night before, two nights before that, they
Speaker 1: had an equally dominant performance against the Mavericks. So from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, I've got two really really good, you know,
Speaker 1: performances that looked like the Laker team that we knew
Speaker 1: of the They looked like the Laker team that was
Speaker 1: as dominant as they were last season. And then they
Speaker 1: had to let the foot off the gas night, second
Speaker 1: night of a back to back, Lebron on a bad ankle,
Speaker 1: you know, Anthony Davis on a bad calf, I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm not as worried about it where I would get
Speaker 1: worried didn't give a good example will be the two
Speaker 1: thousand and seventeen Calves. So the two thousand and sixteen
Speaker 1: Calves were a non dominant championship team. They had an
Speaker 1: imperfect regular season where they fired their coach. They were
Speaker 1: a fringe top ten defense. They're right at number ten,
Speaker 1: and they dropped a couple of games in the Eastern
Speaker 1: Conference finals, two pretty flawed Toronto Raptors team, although they
Speaker 1: did put them away in dominant fashion. And then they
Speaker 1: get to the finals and they barely scraped by against
Speaker 1: the Warriors, and for stretches of that series looked like
Speaker 1: they were kind of overmatched, especially at the beginning. So
Speaker 1: then they come into two thousand and seventeen and they
Speaker 1: completely let go of the rope defensively. They fell to
Speaker 1: twenty one in the league. The same team that won
Speaker 1: on the strength of their defense in Lebron and I
Speaker 1: Lebron and Kyrie's uh offensive prowess became a team that
Speaker 1: just tried to outscore people. So their identity completely faded away.
Speaker 1: Now it may not have mattered because of how good
Speaker 1: that Warrior's team was, maybe they win anyway, But the
Speaker 1: point is is that the two thousand seventeen Warriors had
Speaker 1: basically two goals going into that season, be more or
Speaker 1: less the same team. Maintain your identity. They made it
Speaker 1: to the end healthy, but they had let go of
Speaker 1: their identity. And when the Warriors were just you know,
Speaker 1: getting wide open layups and dunks and threes, because the
Speaker 1: Calves are making no attempt to slow things down for them,
Speaker 1: they were unable to put themselves in a position, even
Speaker 1: if it would have been a long shot for Lebron
Speaker 1: Inquyrie's offensive prowess to take over. So I'm not worried
Speaker 1: at all about what happened last night with the Lakers. However,
Speaker 1: something to keep an eye on moving forward is that
Speaker 1: defensive rating. That's the thing that I talked I talked
Speaker 1: about all the time on this podcast, I talked about
Speaker 1: with Tommy the last time. If you guys remember that,
Speaker 1: if you go back to the beginning of this century,
Speaker 1: the last twenty one champions, fourteen of the twenty one
Speaker 1: were top five defenses, and then twenty of nineteen of
Speaker 1: the twenty one were top ten. And the ones that
Speaker 1: were outside of the top twenty excuse me, outside of
Speaker 1: the top ten, those ones were teams that had been
Speaker 1: top five defenses previously, so they were able to fall
Speaker 1: back on it and and generally speaking, you want to
Speaker 1: be in that top five range. So the point being
Speaker 1: that that indicator is a real indicator, there's real data
Speaker 1: there that that is data that projects who will inevitably
Speaker 1: win the NBA Championship. And so the reason why I
Speaker 1: want to track that this year, it's not because it's
Speaker 1: an indicator of their like strictly of their ability to defend.
Speaker 1: It's an indicator of their effort level. It's an indicator
Speaker 1: that they understand that they have to maintain these habits
Speaker 1: over the course of the seventy two game season to
Speaker 1: fall back on it when they need it. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be tracking the Laker defensive rating all year, not
Speaker 1: because I'm picking their individual mess ups, but just to
Speaker 1: say just so that I can be sure that more
Speaker 1: often than not they can dial it up and get
Speaker 1: to that level, so that at the end of the
Speaker 1: season they've maintained enough of that identity so that when
Speaker 1: they have something to play for, because right now they
Speaker 1: don't have anything to play for. Eight, he is not
Speaker 1: getting Defensive Player of the Year. He's been coasting too
Speaker 1: much to start the season. He's already built up a
Speaker 1: reputation this season as someone who doesn't care Lebron is
Speaker 1: not winning, m VP hasn't been playing well enough. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe that all turns around, but chances are that's not
Speaker 1: gonna happen. Chances are they're gonna kind of slowly coast
Speaker 1: their way through the season. So the reality is is
Speaker 1: they have nothing to play for in this regular season,
Speaker 1: so they don't have that motivation. But the motivation will
Speaker 1: be there when they get to the playoffs as soon
Speaker 1: as they check ball in the first round. Especially with
Speaker 1: how deep the Western Conference is, it's gonna be two
Speaker 1: straight months of them needing to bring and so at
Speaker 1: that point they can fall back on their identity and
Speaker 1: fall back on their habits as long as they maintain
Speaker 1: them well enough through this season. So let's keep an
Speaker 1: eye on the defensive rating. Right now, they're eleven. Let's
Speaker 1: keep an eye on the defensive rating. See if they
Speaker 1: can't get it closer to that, you know, in the
Speaker 1: right around that five to seven range. As long as
Speaker 1: they can hover in that range, who cares if they
Speaker 1: have a clunker now? And then who cares if they
Speaker 1: drop a game? To a bad team, it's not gonna
Speaker 1: matter as long as they maintain the general gist of
Speaker 1: their identity. Other a couple a couple of quick Laker notes.
Speaker 1: I am super happy with the fact that the Lakers
Speaker 1: have finally decided to make Marcus al a spot up shooter.
Speaker 1: UM at this age and with his fading physical advantages,
Speaker 1: he's just not He's just not the type of player
Speaker 1: that really brings much to the table sitting in the
Speaker 1: dunker spot. And so from that standpoint, if he's not
Speaker 1: gonna be pounding the glass and getting a ton of
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds, and and if a d is not gonna
Speaker 1: be able to find him down there, there's no real
Speaker 1: reason to put him there. And so, as you can
Speaker 1: see in the last couple of games, they've been putting
Speaker 1: Marcusol at the top of the key. He's been a
Speaker 1: post entry guy, he's been a spot up shooter, and
Speaker 1: it's really helped space things out for them. And that's
Speaker 1: that's just a little excess. And note those things that
Speaker 1: are the excess, And note thing that I really like.
Speaker 1: UM a lot of heat on Montrese Harold last night
Speaker 1: for his defense. The clips aren't good. Kevin O'Connor put
Speaker 1: out a little highlight video of of the Blazers attacking
Speaker 1: Montres at the end of the game. It doesn't look good.
Speaker 1: That's set and I will harp on this all season long.
Speaker 1: Defense is a team endeavor. It is not an individual endeavor.
Speaker 1: No matter how dialed in one person is, the defense
Speaker 1: doesn't work unless all players are on the same page.
Speaker 1: For instance, if you're hoping that Montrese Harold shows a
Speaker 1: little higher on those screening rolls and tries to I
Speaker 1: don't know, Trapper double, it's still gonna be layups all
Speaker 1: day long if the back line of the defense isn't
Speaker 1: ready and and and focused and in the right position
Speaker 1: to do their job, to keep everybody on a string
Speaker 1: and get the job done. So as as poor as
Speaker 1: Montrese Harold looked last night, almost everybody on the Laker
Speaker 1: roster looked bad. Anthony Davis, in my opinion, is the
Speaker 1: best defensive player in the entire world, and he had
Speaker 1: one of the worst defensive performances I've ever seen watching
Speaker 1: him play last night. So I'm not gonna really get
Speaker 1: hard on, be really really hard on Montrese Harold when
Speaker 1: the alleged leader of this defense just completely no show
Speaker 1: the game. I would much rather really dissect and and
Speaker 1: dive into montrese Harold's defensive ability in a game where
Speaker 1: they're really trying, in a game where he's playing in
Speaker 1: a more traditional lineup against lineups that he will normally
Speaker 1: play against, and then he's making mistakes that are breaking
Speaker 1: down their defense. That's when I'll be paying closer attention.
Speaker 1: So one of the one of the problems I had
Speaker 1: with Rondo last year. There would be games where four
Speaker 1: of the five guys on the floor really dialed in
Speaker 1: and rotating and in the right spot, and Rondo would
Speaker 1: be gambling and getting out of position, and it would
Speaker 1: hurt the defense. Those are the kinds of times when
Speaker 1: I want to pay attention games like last night throw
Speaker 1: it away. It was very clear from the opening tip
Speaker 1: that when the Lakers actually try, they can beat the
Speaker 1: hell out of anybody in this league. Uh, there's just
Speaker 1: not a lot to take away. And I don't think
Speaker 1: it's fair to Montrez to pick last night as the
Speaker 1: night to make sweeping declarations on what kind of defensive
Speaker 1: player he is. Um I thought Jason Maples on his
Speaker 1: podcast I listened to it this morning while I was
Speaker 1: doing my deliveries. I thought he made a really really
Speaker 1: interesting point about Dennis Shrewder and and what he brings
Speaker 1: to the table in terms of alleviating Lebron of some
Speaker 1: of his creation responsibilities and allowing him to rest while
Speaker 1: he's on the court, and the example will give his
Speaker 1: the two thousand sixteen Finals, I watched every almost every
Speaker 1: game that Lebron played with Kyrie, and it took me
Speaker 1: until the end of the two thousand sixteen Finals to
Speaker 1: really understand what they were doing because I used to
Speaker 1: always be so frustrated with Kyrie shot selection. He was
Speaker 1: never looking for his teammates. He was never really kind
Speaker 1: of like understanding and feeling the flow of the game.
Speaker 1: He was always just kind of being shot out of
Speaker 1: a cannon and being super super aggressive with no real
Speaker 1: you know, understanding of of of the flow of the game.
Speaker 1: And it dawned on me and at the end of
Speaker 1: the two thousand sixteen Finals that there was a there
Speaker 1: was a reason to why they were doing that. It
Speaker 1: was by design. Lebron on those possessions would effectively become
Speaker 1: a spot up shooter. He'd go to one of the
Speaker 1: one of the extended wings just a couple of feet
Speaker 1: behind the three point line, staying with his hands on
Speaker 1: his hips like Kyrie go to work. If the ball
Speaker 1: got worked around to him, he shoot a spot up three.
Speaker 1: But for the most part he was resting while he
Speaker 1: was on the court. It allowed him to extend his minutes,
Speaker 1: It allowed him to be more focused on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. It made it so that, you know,
Speaker 1: in comparison to last year, when Lebron was, you know,
Speaker 1: more or less the only creator on the floor. Whenever
Speaker 1: he was out there, he had to do everything, you know,
Speaker 1: especially in the games, Rondo was no showing. So from
Speaker 1: that stand point, and he was out with injury half
Speaker 1: the time Rondo was, So from that standpoint, I understand
Speaker 1: now that as much as I've complained about Schroeder's shot
Speaker 1: selection here early in the season, there's kind of an
Speaker 1: added benefit to the fact that Schroeder's aggressiveness allows Lebron
Speaker 1: to rest so that he can be more efficient when
Speaker 1: he does have the ball. And I really think when
Speaker 1: Lebron finds his groove again, when he get ditches some
Speaker 1: of this rust, when when Anthony Davis shows up and
Speaker 1: starts trying this season, I really think Lebron and a
Speaker 1: d are going to benefit from that because then when
Speaker 1: they do get the ball, it's gonna be that they
Speaker 1: can be aggressive when they want to be, and not
Speaker 1: because they have to be as a result of a
Speaker 1: lack of creation on the floor. I think there's a
Speaker 1: fine line there. I think Schroeder could potentially cross the
Speaker 1: line to where it would hurt the team, but I
Speaker 1: don't think he's there yet, and I'm kind of okay
Speaker 1: with that balance to this point. One last tiny note
Speaker 1: on the Lakers, I I think I think it's uh my.
Speaker 1: My feelings about Anthony Davis as a defensive player are
Speaker 1: very similar to my feelings about Lebron is a player.
Speaker 1: I think Anthony Davis is the best defensive player in
Speaker 1: the league, but that he can never win a Defensive
Speaker 1: Player of the Year while he's in this situation where
Speaker 1: he's not really giving it his all every single night.
Speaker 1: That award deserves to go to someone who's trying on
Speaker 1: a nightly basis for all seventy two for all eighty
Speaker 1: two games. The same way I feel about Lebron when
Speaker 1: it comes to the MVP. Last year, Lebron from start
Speaker 1: to finish completely attacked the season. It feels to me
Speaker 1: now that Lebron is gonna be a little bit more,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, conscious of of coasting and taking care
Speaker 1: of his body this season. So even though I think
Speaker 1: he's the best player in the league, I don't think
Speaker 1: he's a candidate for the Most Valuable Player award as
Speaker 1: a result of at something to keep in mind with
Speaker 1: both Lebron and a d best defender in the league,
Speaker 1: best player in the league, both of them are kind
Speaker 1: of taking it easy this season. Chances are they're not
Speaker 1: going to be involved in award conversations, and I think
Speaker 1: that's okay anyway, Just some tiny note there. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna move on to the Clippers. So the Clippers are
Speaker 1: off to another rough start. They're catching all of the
Speaker 1: jokes as a result of what happened to the to
Speaker 1: the against the Mavericks the other day, as they should.
Speaker 1: And the Clippers are more or less the same team
Speaker 1: in my opinion, that they were last year. They have
Speaker 1: the same two fatal flaws. One they have they lack
Speaker 1: collective basketball i Q basketball games have a flow to them.
Speaker 1: There is they're they're like a play with several acts.
Speaker 1: For example, last night's Laker Blazer game is a great example.
Speaker 1: Act one, Lakers come out, dialed in and just beat
Speaker 1: the living hell out of the Blazers jump out to
Speaker 1: a need to seven lead. They're getting steals all over
Speaker 1: the floor, they're flying around in the rotations, they're getting
Speaker 1: out in transition, they're getting easy shots, they're dunking it
Speaker 1: down their throat. It's just a ridiculous performance to start
Speaker 1: the game. Portland calls the time out. They come out,
Speaker 1: Lakers think the games over, take their foot off the gas.
Speaker 1: Act two is the Blazers getting back into the game.
Speaker 1: Act three they go in a halftime, The Lakers come
Speaker 1: out take control of the game again. In the third
Speaker 1: Acts four, the Blazers come back. You know, Gary Trent Jr.
Speaker 1: Gets super hot, absolutely lights up talent, Horton Tucker. You know,
Speaker 1: the game is tied again, and uh the game has
Speaker 1: shifted momentum again. You know. Then there's this fifth fifth act.
Speaker 1: Blazers take a big lead in the fourth quarter. I
Speaker 1: think they were up by seven, and Lebron all of
Speaker 1: a sudden is like I'm not letting his game slip away,
Speaker 1: goes on a crazy Lebron run. Rai's up where he's
Speaker 1: all over the place, ties the game up, and then
Speaker 1: the final act the Blazers put them away. There's always
Speaker 1: like this flow to the game from start to finish,
Speaker 1: and the really high i Q players can sense that
Speaker 1: flow and they can take control of the game in
Speaker 1: specific moments to drive that flow in one direction or
Speaker 1: the other. It's one of the It's one of the
Speaker 1: things that Lebron does better than anybody in the league
Speaker 1: in my opinion. It's the ability to sense the direction
Speaker 1: of the game and to channel your aggression. This is
Speaker 1: one of always been one of my biggest problems with
Speaker 1: James Harden comes out at the start of the game
Speaker 1: and just kind of immediately starts doing James Harden stuff.
Speaker 1: Doesn't understand the flow of the game, the impact that
Speaker 1: his teammates need to have on it for them to
Speaker 1: you know, feel confident at the right moments, and then
Speaker 1: inevitably by the end of the game, the defense is
Speaker 1: kind of sitting on a lot of his moves and
Speaker 1: it's harder for him to get his shots off. Doesn't
Speaker 1: mean James Harden is not great, doesn't mean Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: is not great. It's just that to me is one
Speaker 1: of the things that separates them from the best players
Speaker 1: in the league. It is just their inability to really
Speaker 1: feel the flow of the basketball game. So this year's
Speaker 1: Clippers team has that exact same flaw that they had
Speaker 1: last year, and it was evident evidence against the Mavericks.
Speaker 1: When the wheels start to come off, the high i
Speaker 1: Q players make the necessary reads, make the necessary offensive decisions,
Speaker 1: make the necessary extra effort plays to bring the train
Speaker 1: back onto the tracks. It's it's preventing an e oh
Speaker 1: run from becoming a twenty run, and you know, next
Speaker 1: thing you know, the train is off the tracks. For
Speaker 1: the Clippers, there's nobody on the roster that really knows
Speaker 1: how to take control of the game back and now
Speaker 1: you're losing in historic fashion. And which leads me to
Speaker 1: the second problem that I have with the Clippers. And
Speaker 1: it's the same reason why the same fly they had
Speaker 1: last year, and it's the same reason why I would
Speaker 1: imagine they'll have the same outcome this year that they
Speaker 1: did last year, which is the disappointing loss in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: And that's just their overall team vibe. It's the the
Speaker 1: idea that this team, you know, uh, collectively they're psyche,
Speaker 1: seems to be just off and and I don't. There's
Speaker 1: no real like, there's there's no real way to describe it.
Speaker 1: And you know, in a in a way that's semantically,
Speaker 1: you know, proficient. But the truth of the matter is
Speaker 1: is there's something off with this team. And the easiest
Speaker 1: way to tell when there's something off about a team
Speaker 1: is the difference between the way they act when things
Speaker 1: are going good and the way they act when things
Speaker 1: are going bad. You know, a team that is wired
Speaker 1: right when things go bad, they come together, and a
Speaker 1: team that is wired in in a in a in
Speaker 1: a in a damaging way falls apart when things get rough.
Speaker 1: The Clippers have a tendency when things get bad, to
Speaker 1: split up on each other, to get really to have
Speaker 1: really bad body language, to go their separate ways, and
Speaker 1: to fall apart mentally and for things to get significantly worse.
Speaker 1: We saw it in the playoffs last year, and you
Speaker 1: saw it a couple of days ago against the Mavericks.
Speaker 1: And it's something that concerns me because the only way
Speaker 1: to really change that is to bring in a bunch
Speaker 1: of you know, really good veteran personalities to kind of
Speaker 1: turn around the psyche of the team, and it's just
Speaker 1: at this point, with their lack of assets, it's difficult
Speaker 1: for them to do that. And Kawhi Leonard as a
Speaker 1: leader is not wired in a to be really outspoken
Speaker 1: and to try to grab control of that situation. And
Speaker 1: Paul George is like a like a pathological uh excuse maker.
Speaker 1: He has a tendency anytime anything happens to immediately just
Speaker 1: start blame shifting, you know. And so from that same point,
Speaker 1: I just you know, with that team, I think they
Speaker 1: have two catastrophic fatal flaws and I think inevitably they're
Speaker 1: gonna lead to them going down the same path. I
Speaker 1: still think they're good, They're there. I still think they're
Speaker 1: the biggest threat to the Lakers, but it's more a
Speaker 1: product of the fact that all of the other threats
Speaker 1: to the Lakers are flawed in one way or another,
Speaker 1: and their big flaw still is there. But they have
Speaker 1: the matchup advantages and they have the talent to go
Speaker 1: toe to toe with the Lakers, and that's where I
Speaker 1: think they would have the the ability to potentially take
Speaker 1: a couple of games off the Lakers and push them
Speaker 1: to the limit. But it's just something to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on with the Clippers, and I don't think it's fixable.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's a point guard out there
Speaker 1: that's achievable for the Clippers to turn around their collective
Speaker 1: i Q situation. I don't know that there are enough
Speaker 1: veterans that are readily available, either but at the veteran
Speaker 1: minimum salary or through some sort of achievable trade that
Speaker 1: can turn around the vibe of this team. I'm just
Speaker 1: not sure that those options are out there, and so
Speaker 1: that's something that would concern me about the Clippers. Alright,
Speaker 1: moving on to the Warriors. All Right, I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: the story here to defend Kelly U brad Jr. Because
Speaker 1: he's catching a lot of slander. I'm sure you guys
Speaker 1: have all seen the stat that's gone around like crazy,
Speaker 1: and it's that he's over thirty one or something like that,
Speaker 1: on over thirty three on on non dunk attempts this season. So,
Speaker 1: as Zachlow pointed out in his podcast yesterday, Kelly YU
Speaker 1: brad Jr. Is a league average three point shooter. He
Speaker 1: is not a guy who is incapable of making shots
Speaker 1: away from the basket. He just happens to be in
Speaker 1: a stretch where he's not making anything. And this is
Speaker 1: where I'm gonna share a personal story from my experience
Speaker 1: that is embarrassing on my part, but I think shed
Speaker 1: some light onto to what's going on with Kelly you
Speaker 1: bre So. I I in college was a good three
Speaker 1: point shooter, like a very good three point shooter at
Speaker 1: certain stretches in all three seasons that I played. I
Speaker 1: struggled early in the season as I was kind of
Speaker 1: finding my role on the team, but in conference play
Speaker 1: from the three seasons combined, I was from three point land.
Speaker 1: I usually shot well beyond the three point line a
Speaker 1: line to and I had a game in college where
Speaker 1: I made six in a row, uh from beyond the ark.
Speaker 1: I was a good three point shooter in college. Not
Speaker 1: a great shooter, not a Clay Thompson or anything, but
Speaker 1: I was a I was a good two above average
Speaker 1: a three point shooter. But to start my third season,
Speaker 1: I went from being an all conference player in one
Speaker 1: situation to joining a team that had to all American guards.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, I was playing off the ball
Speaker 1: more than I had ever had. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I had more defensive defensive responsibilities than I had ever had,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, I was getting less shots
Speaker 1: than I had ever had. And I'm not necessarily saying
Speaker 1: that's exactly what Kelly Brad's going through, but it was
Speaker 1: similar in the sense that I was trying to learn
Speaker 1: how to play with a different group of guys and
Speaker 1: possibly the best player I'd ever played with. In this case,
Speaker 1: it was to leave Ukta, the All American guard that
Speaker 1: was on my team at a c U. And for
Speaker 1: Kelly Yubridge Jr. It's Steph Curry. I started that season,
Speaker 1: I made a couple of threes in the first couple
Speaker 1: of games of the year. Uh, But there was a
Speaker 1: stretch right around the you know, third or fourth game
Speaker 1: of the season. Were in a game in a week
Speaker 1: where I played four games, I missed twenty two consecutive threes.
Speaker 1: Think about that. Twenty two consecutive threes from a guy
Speaker 1: who had been, you know, roughly a three point shooter
Speaker 1: leading into that. That's not because I forgot how to shoot.
Speaker 1: It's not because I all of a sudden just you know,
Speaker 1: completely unraveled and forgot how to be a basketball player.
Speaker 1: It's because I was getting different shots than I was
Speaker 1: used to and and then honestly like shooting as a
Speaker 1: tendency to you know, it's when it rains, it pours effects.
Speaker 1: It's contagious, you know, and it and it's hard to
Speaker 1: find out playing in a different role than you had been,
Speaker 1: playing alongside better players than you have been when to shoot,
Speaker 1: when not to shoot, you know, when to be aggressive,
Speaker 1: when to defer to the better players on your team.
Speaker 1: It's hard to find that balance. And I can sympathize
Speaker 1: with that. It took me that whole that whole stretch
Speaker 1: was really really hard on my confidence, and it took
Speaker 1: until a conference play in the second half of the
Speaker 1: season for me to kind of feel out where my
Speaker 1: role was. You know, I was taking a lot of
Speaker 1: threes above the break, and all of a sudden, I
Speaker 1: realized that the higher quality shots I was getting in
Speaker 1: that offense were in the corner, you know, playing in
Speaker 1: a different spot at the offense. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: when I would get the above the break threes, I
Speaker 1: would swing it around a little bit. When I would
Speaker 1: catch it in the corner, I was more open, I
Speaker 1: was more balanced, you know, I was usually spotting up
Speaker 1: as opposed to coming on off the move. They were
Speaker 1: higher quality shots for me, and I made those ones
Speaker 1: at a much higher clip. I had to learn with
Speaker 1: that group of guys how to find how to get
Speaker 1: my skill set to fit. And that's what Kelly Ubrid Jr.
Speaker 1: Is going through through right right now. He is a
Speaker 1: league average three point shooter. He is a league average
Speaker 1: wing defender. He's going to be a good player, not
Speaker 1: a bad player. He's not gonna be a great player either,
Speaker 1: but he's not going to be a bad player. He's
Speaker 1: gonna find a spot on this team that makes sense
Speaker 1: for him. He's going to find a spot on this
Speaker 1: team where he can be, you know, a net positive
Speaker 1: to what they're trying to accomplish. So I don't think
Speaker 1: it's fair through four games to be super super hard
Speaker 1: on Kelly Bright for the way he's been playing. Um
Speaker 1: that said, for the team in general, so much has
Speaker 1: to change for them to become what everybody in Golden
Speaker 1: State Warrior, you know, in that fan base wanted them
Speaker 1: to be before this year, which is a middle tier
Speaker 1: playoff team in the West, someone in that three to
Speaker 1: six seed. For them to be that, they have to
Speaker 1: be so much better down the line. This is not
Speaker 1: a situation that Draymond Green coming back can fix. This
Speaker 1: is not a situation that Steph playing better can fix.
Speaker 1: This is a situation that requires Andrew Wiggins to play better,
Speaker 1: Kelly You're Brady to play better, Steph to play way better,
Speaker 1: Draymond Green to come back and play better, and they
Speaker 1: probably need to make a trade or two or find
Speaker 1: some sort of discounted piece out there in order to
Speaker 1: crawl up into that range, because right now they are bad.
Speaker 1: They aren't just it's They're not losing because Kelly Bray
Speaker 1: is missing shots. They're not losing because Andrew Wiggins has
Speaker 1: been inconsistent. They're not losing because Steph hasn't been aggressive enough.
Speaker 1: They're losing because all of those things are going wrong
Speaker 1: and all of them. And they're not losing by small amounts.
Speaker 1: They're losing. They're they're getting destroyed. They're not even competitive.
Speaker 1: That Chicago Bowls team is really really bad. And the
Speaker 1: Warriors it required a vintage Steph, you know, come from
Speaker 1: behind performance to lose by two had it not been
Speaker 1: for a supporting player on the team making it contested
Speaker 1: on the move, kind of like leaning fading three at
Speaker 1: the top of the key that won that game. And
Speaker 1: so the problem that I have with it is a
Speaker 1: lot of people are talking about Steve her and a
Speaker 1: lot of people are talking about step and a lot
Speaker 1: of people are talking about the supporting pieces. I don't
Speaker 1: even know if Klay Thompson fixes this. The truth of
Speaker 1: the matter is is that NBA defenses have learned how
Speaker 1: to better guard Steph Curry than they used to. Doesn't
Speaker 1: mean steps bad, doesn't mean steps worse. But in two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen, think about that famous shot where he dribbles
Speaker 1: in and makes the game winner over Uh over Robertson
Speaker 1: to win that regular season game, the famous shot her
Speaker 1: around the World or whatever they call it in Golden State.
Speaker 1: On that play, Steph Curry is dribbling across half court unguarded.
Speaker 1: That doesn't happen anymore now you're in steps shirt amnity
Speaker 1: crosses half court Now every single time Steph calls for
Speaker 1: a pick and roll, he's getting trapped or there's some
Speaker 1: super heavy show that's forcing him to give up the ball.
Speaker 1: The bottom line is NBA defenses have learned to better
Speaker 1: guards Steph Curry, so they're not going to be that
Speaker 1: same seventy three win dominant type of team. They're a
Speaker 1: step below that. If he has all of the pieces
Speaker 1: in place, he doesn't have the same high i Q
Speaker 1: players who can make plays off of his attention that
Speaker 1: he draws. You're playing with average to below average i
Speaker 1: Q s. Now, there's not enough going on there. There's
Speaker 1: not enough that that Steph Curry can carry this over
Speaker 1: the top into being that middle tier playoff team that
Speaker 1: they need to be. Everything needs to be fixed. And
Speaker 1: so from that same point, I'm at the point where
Speaker 1: I legitimately and expecting this team to miss the playoffs.
Speaker 1: At this point, I think it's gonna get really ugly.
Speaker 1: I think there's gonna be a whole lot that goes
Speaker 1: off the rails. And uh, I feel bad for step
Speaker 1: because it's gonna get ugly for him because a lot
Speaker 1: of his fans were talking reckless for so long that
Speaker 1: a lot of the people that are against stuff, a
Speaker 1: lot of people that aren't in his corner, are going
Speaker 1: to be coming for revenge at this point. And it
Speaker 1: is what it is now if you ask me, those
Speaker 1: are all people that aren't really talking basketball series to
Speaker 1: begin with. I don't think we should stoop to that level.
Speaker 1: I think we should acknowledge what it is. Basketball is
Speaker 1: a team sport. Steph Curry plays on a bad basketball team.
Speaker 1: If anything, it just kind of proves what I've always
Speaker 1: been saying, which is Steph's not the best player in
Speaker 1: the league. He's somewhere in the top five. You know,
Speaker 1: at his very best, he can get close. But he
Speaker 1: never was that guy to me. And this shows because
Speaker 1: you know, make no mistake, if you're gonna, if you're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to call yourself that guy the very
Speaker 1: best basketball player in the world, I would imagine that
Speaker 1: we should be able to hold you to a standard
Speaker 1: that Kelly bray stef uh and and Andrew Wiggins and
Speaker 1: and just you know, league average veterans in the league
Speaker 1: should be enough for you to be at least competitive.
Speaker 1: I mean, they look like a like they look like
Speaker 1: a G League affiliate. They don't look like a real
Speaker 1: NBA basketball team. And I don't I don't know if
Speaker 1: there's an option out there to fix him at this point. Last,
Speaker 1: but not least before we get to the mail bad
Speaker 1: questions is the Brooklyn Nets. And I'm just gonna stay
Speaker 1: on this for a couple of seconds because there's not
Speaker 1: too much to take from it. They look really good
Speaker 1: so far as I meant and earlier when we were
Speaker 1: talking about the James Harden trade, their offense is already
Speaker 1: peeking in a way that it doesn't really it can't
Speaker 1: really improve anymore above what of what what it already is.
Speaker 1: Even the Spencer didn't what he lost, which is a
Speaker 1: legitimate loss, they had such a redundancy of of ball handling.
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily think they're gonna have too much trouble
Speaker 1: maintaining where they were offensively. And the big story is
Speaker 1: that early on in the season they're defending. There are
Speaker 1: top five defense at this point and uh number one
Speaker 1: actually if I'm not mistaken on double check um. But
Speaker 1: the key is can they maintain that, because, like I
Speaker 1: said before, they have to prove that they can defend
Speaker 1: at that level to be able to compete with that
Speaker 1: Laker team. And to me, the key is Kade. So
Speaker 1: I've talked at length about how Kevin Durant has the
Speaker 1: same physical gifts that Anthony Davis has, and that he
Speaker 1: is capable physically of impacting the defensive end of the
Speaker 1: ball just as much as Anthony Davis does. It's always
Speaker 1: been a matter of choice for him. Now three games
Speaker 1: into this season or two games technically because he sat
Speaker 1: out one, he has shown the three games. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: they lost last night, but that was their fourth game.
Speaker 1: They were two and one before that point. Being through
Speaker 1: those first three games that Kevin Durant played, he was
Speaker 1: a wrecking ball on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: He looked like a first team All Defense type of defender.
Speaker 1: Problem is, that's not the first time in Kevin Durant's
Speaker 1: career that he's had a three game stretch where he
Speaker 1: looks like Anthony Davis or where he looks like a
Speaker 1: wrecking ball on the defensive end of the floor. This
Speaker 1: is the first time this season. The key is that
Speaker 1: he has to maintain that. If Kevin Durant maintains that,
Speaker 1: and he should be able to given the amount of
Speaker 1: offensive talent they have, he can divert some of his
Speaker 1: energy to that side. If Kevin Durant maintains that, my
Speaker 1: entire prospect for what this team is changes because Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: who is an elite top five defense of player in
Speaker 1: the league, is maybe the best player in the league.
Speaker 1: So that that's what's at stake here. In terms of
Speaker 1: Katie finally committing to that side of the ball the
Speaker 1: way he has for these first three games and continuing
Speaker 1: it forward. If he does that, he becomes the best
Speaker 1: or second best player in the league, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, that team becomes an extremely different you know
Speaker 1: animal will come playoff time. So that's something to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on. All right, let's get to the mail bag.
Speaker 1: Hang on one second, for those of you are still here. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's still time to drop another question or two if
Speaker 1: you want to in the comments. All right, let's see
Speaker 1: first question. Should we be This is from Chenny Britt.
Speaker 1: Should we be looking to get th h T more minutes?
Speaker 1: He blew a few assignments, mostly on Trent Jr. That
Speaker 1: really hurt, But his offensive talent is undeniable. He's got
Speaker 1: the tools to be a great defender, and he needs
Speaker 1: reps to get better. I still think he should take
Speaker 1: Wes's minutes. So what happened last night for th HD
Speaker 1: was your stereotypical welcome to the NBA moment, and it's
Speaker 1: a great example of why defense is not about physical
Speaker 1: tools as much as it's about effort and focus. There's
Speaker 1: a reason why players like Steph Curry, who basically have
Speaker 1: no physical tools relative to the rest of the league.
Speaker 1: Can be a league average defender. But a guy like
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving is much quicker and faster and has all
Speaker 1: these other physical tools that Step doesn't has. Step doesn't
Speaker 1: have that he can't be a top tier defensive player.
Speaker 1: It's all about that effort and focus. Real quick story
Speaker 1: to give you an example, this run that I've been
Speaker 1: playing in on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. There's a guy here
Speaker 1: in town that I that is overweight, kind of short.
Speaker 1: He's a good shooter, but doesn't bring a lot else
Speaker 1: to the table offensively. But he plays in a in
Speaker 1: the local seene. He's been playing forever. I pick him
Speaker 1: up every time I get a chance. Why because I
Speaker 1: always can count on him to not miss an assignment defensively.
Speaker 1: If there's a rotation that's within his athletic ability, he'll
Speaker 1: be there. If there's he's never gonna leave his shooter open.
Speaker 1: If there's an opportunity for him to give help, he's
Speaker 1: going to give help. He is the classic case of
Speaker 1: a guy who's the least physically gifted player on the floor.
Speaker 1: But when I have him on my team in conjunction
Speaker 1: with other players who are like that. I feel confident
Speaker 1: that we can lock down the other team. We're not
Speaker 1: going to give up easy shots. Now. Can I leave
Speaker 1: him on an island. No, If he's getting isolated by
Speaker 1: a good player, we gotta send help. But for the
Speaker 1: for the for the majority of the game, when he's
Speaker 1: in a support role defensively, I can count on him
Speaker 1: to be in the same spot. That is literally what's
Speaker 1: missing from th hd s game right now, and he'll
Speaker 1: pick it up with time. Right now. In terms of
Speaker 1: his physical gifts, he has all defense potential, super long arms,
Speaker 1: he's very strong, He's really good on the ball all defensively.
Speaker 1: Where his struggle is is focus and attention to detail
Speaker 1: off the ball. For instance, Gary Trend Jr. The last
Speaker 1: one before they made the time out, the last year
Speaker 1: he made going into the time out, where he's one
Speaker 1: pass away. Damian Lillard has the ball to top key,
Speaker 1: he's one pass away. Gary tren Jr. Is on fire,
Speaker 1: literally has not missed in a couple of minutes, and
Speaker 1: he's standing on the wing, wide open, simple swing pass.
Speaker 1: Th HD is not paying attention quick easy swing. Uh
Speaker 1: doesn't even touch the rim Lakers. Epps called time out.
Speaker 1: That's an example of a play where th HT is
Speaker 1: he's kind of just floating around mentally and he's not
Speaker 1: paying attention to what his specific responsibility is. That comes
Speaker 1: in time and to the point about the rotation that
Speaker 1: you have to find that delicate balance because the truth
Speaker 1: of the matter is you have to keep West involved too,
Speaker 1: because if th HT doesn't develop into a dependable, focused
Speaker 1: defender that doesn't make those kinds of mistakes, you have
Speaker 1: to lean on West Matthews in the playoffs. If th
Speaker 1: H doesn't become that guy at that time in time
Speaker 1: for that, so you need to keep West engaged. You
Speaker 1: need to keep West as part of the of the
Speaker 1: flow of the rotation for that for that very reason.
Speaker 1: But the flip side of that is the only way
Speaker 1: to get th HT to that point is reps. You
Speaker 1: need to get him out there. You need to allow
Speaker 1: him to make mistakes. You need to allow him to
Speaker 1: take a bad shot every once in a while. You
Speaker 1: need to allow him to be super aggressive and kind
Speaker 1: of see where the game goes offensively and for him
Speaker 1: to learn his role in the defense and to learn
Speaker 1: that defensive focus and effort. But there there's that balance.
Speaker 1: You just gotta figure it out. So it's really it's
Speaker 1: really hard decision, you know. Like the bottom line is,
Speaker 1: Frank has the toughest job as a as a head
Speaker 1: basketball coach right now. He has too many good players
Speaker 1: and so he has to figure out how to balance
Speaker 1: their rotation and to get all of these guys to
Speaker 1: feel comfortable and in a rhythm while at the same
Speaker 1: time understanding that there's only so many minutes that are available.
Speaker 1: So it's a really hard decision. Um right now, I
Speaker 1: kind of think where they're at is good. Uh. And
Speaker 1: it's the one thing that they that they could potentially
Speaker 1: end up trying is instead of splitting minutes evenly between games,
Speaker 1: you know, as more of a load managing thing, give
Speaker 1: guys nights off and then play the rotation heavier minutes
Speaker 1: uh in those nights. So for instance, Alex Cruso sits
Speaker 1: out a lot more th HT you know, West Matthew
Speaker 1: sits out a lot more th HT because he's younger.
Speaker 1: Give those guys like kind of a rotating rest schedule
Speaker 1: and see if that helps. But at the bottom line
Speaker 1: is there's no good answer. You take West out, that's
Speaker 1: that's a really really good defensive player that you're losing
Speaker 1: and experienced defensive player who's really good on wings. There's
Speaker 1: lots of playoff experience. You know, if you if you
Speaker 1: take th HT out of the rotation because you want
Speaker 1: to lean on veterans, you're losing out on th h
Speaker 1: t s potential ceiling. You know, there's there's so there.
Speaker 1: It's just it's really it's they're really tough decisions to make.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a version of this playoff rotation where
Speaker 1: Markief Morris completely falls out as they lean heavily and Marcusol,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis and and uh In Montrese Harrald that that
Speaker 1: would mean that the guy who who played a lot
Speaker 1: of center for the Lakers in the NBA Finals would
Speaker 1: literally not be playing. So it's just these are really
Speaker 1: hard decisions. I think. I think there is no such
Speaker 1: thing as a perfect answer, and the reality is is
Speaker 1: I think I think Frank's just gonna kind of feel
Speaker 1: things out as they go, and Knights where th HD
Speaker 1: has it going, I think he'll go heavy on th
Speaker 1: h D and on nights where he does it, I
Speaker 1: think he'll get a quick hook. I think that's just
Speaker 1: the way it's gonna work. I did really like th
Speaker 1: hd s finishing ability around the basket yesterday though. Alright,
Speaker 1: let's see here discuss what you think the Lakers record
Speaker 1: and seed will be. Uh. This is from Barry, So
Speaker 1: to put it simply, the entire Western Conference is talented,
Speaker 1: but the entire Western Conference is flawed. So the reason
Speaker 1: why I think the Lakers will still inevitably be the
Speaker 1: one seed stems simply from the fact that their losses
Speaker 1: are gonna are gonna come from effort um effort related
Speaker 1: problems and not actual xs and those related or talent
Speaker 1: related problems. So the real question is if the Lakers
Speaker 1: are definitively better than everybody in the league, which I
Speaker 1: believe they are. Every single night where they go out
Speaker 1: and give a eighty percent plus effort, they're gonna win.
Speaker 1: The same cannot be said about the other teams in
Speaker 1: the league, all of the other Western Conference playoff teams,
Speaker 1: all the other Eastern Conference playoff teams. If they slack
Speaker 1: at all, they're going to lose. And there are going
Speaker 1: to be nights when they play as hard as they
Speaker 1: possibly can and they still lose. The problem here being
Speaker 1: that there's just so much talent in the league. That
Speaker 1: every one of these teams is gonna get beat up.
Speaker 1: There aren't going to be a lot of really really
Speaker 1: good records. You're not going to see a team that
Speaker 1: runs off forty and ten. That's just that's just not
Speaker 1: gonna happen this year. By virtue of the amount of
Speaker 1: talent that there is, I believe that the Lakers will
Speaker 1: hover around, you know, in this early part of the season,
Speaker 1: hover around that you know, sixty percent win percentage. You know,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be probably six and four after ten games
Speaker 1: or whatever. But eventually, just by virtue of getting sick
Speaker 1: and tired of losing in the sheer amount of talent
Speaker 1: that they have on this roster, they're gonna kick it
Speaker 1: into high gear and they're gonna start getting consistent wins.
Speaker 1: And you'll see the odd ball here and there, whether
Speaker 1: it's schedule related or whether it's effort related to focus related.
Speaker 1: You're gonna see some oddball losses in there. But for
Speaker 1: the most part, this Laker team is going to be,
Speaker 1: you know, just by sheer power of their talent and
Speaker 1: by sheer power of the competitive, competitive nature of their stars,
Speaker 1: They're just gonna win a lot of games. I expect
Speaker 1: them to be the number one seed, not not overall,
Speaker 1: because there's enough bad teams in the East that I
Speaker 1: actually predict Brooklyn. Uh, it could end up with the
Speaker 1: best record in the league when it's all said and done,
Speaker 1: but it's just gonna be a product of the conference. Alrighty,
Speaker 1: we're at forty two minutes here. Anybody else got any
Speaker 1: other questions? Could be a big post All Star break run? Yeah? Agree?
Speaker 1: I mean, like I said right now, there's a lack
Speaker 1: of effort, and there's a lack of conditioning. There's a
Speaker 1: lack of just general focus. But you can only It's
Speaker 1: like it's like when I go play pick up Like
Speaker 1: I played in college, and I played in front of
Speaker 1: big crowds, and I was a good college player. So
Speaker 1: when I go to the local pickup run, I don't
Speaker 1: get the same adrenaline kick that I that I normally don't.
Speaker 1: I don't have as much to play for. And Tucson
Speaker 1: is in a great place for basketball talent. When I
Speaker 1: lived in Charlotte, it was a different story. If you
Speaker 1: didn't bring it every day in Charlotte, you got your
Speaker 1: butt kicked. But in Tucson, it's just a different level
Speaker 1: of talent here. There are still good players here, there
Speaker 1: just aren't as many. And so in your typical pickup
Speaker 1: game that I find myself in, I'm not you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not as as playing as desperate as I usually do.
Speaker 1: But all it takes is you start losing and and
Speaker 1: something just clicks inside of you because you know you're
Speaker 1: better than everybody, and you start attacking the game in
Speaker 1: a different way than you used to. And I think
Speaker 1: that's what's inevitably, inevitably gonna happen to these Lakers. It's
Speaker 1: one thing to be in one, it's one thing to
Speaker 1: be two and two, But all of a sudden, if
Speaker 1: you're three and four and you've lost four of your
Speaker 1: last seven games, like something clicks mentally in a talented competitor.
Speaker 1: The way that this Laker roster is that will bring
Speaker 1: it out of them, because nobody who is good at
Speaker 1: what they do likes getting their butt kicked. And I
Speaker 1: think I think the Lakers will end up going on
Speaker 1: several super dominant you know, several week long runs where
Speaker 1: they just start beating the hell out of everybody, just
Speaker 1: by virtue of the fact that they're made up of
Speaker 1: the right type of competitors, and they have enough talent.
Speaker 1: They're they're they're gonna have something that they can fall
Speaker 1: back on and start beating people with. Alrighty um, I
Speaker 1: don't have any other questions at this point, so I
Speaker 1: think we'll call it a day. UM. I have both
Speaker 1: Jason Maples and raj who you guys remember his unwritten
Speaker 1: rules on Twitter, have agreed to come on uh in
Speaker 1: the next week or so, and uh, I'll bring them
Speaker 1: on to talk mostly Lakers. I'll have Maples come on
Speaker 1: to talk some Clippers as well, and he's a big
Speaker 1: Pelicans fan, so we'll have him on for that as well. UM,
Speaker 1: as is usually the case. I hope you guys will
Speaker 1: understand how much I appreciate and uh, you know this,
Speaker 1: this has been so much fun for me. And we're
Speaker 1: already fourteen episodes in, which is actually crazy, and that
Speaker 1: doesn't even factor in all of those periscope streams that
Speaker 1: I did before I launched the podcast. So uh, we're
Speaker 1: I think we're up over right around like podcast downloads
Speaker 1: and then the periscope feeds on average get over a
Speaker 1: thousand views and I just can't believe it. I can't
Speaker 1: believe you guys are supporting and listening to me. It
Speaker 1: means the world to me, and you know, I'm really
Speaker 1: excited to see what happens. Maybe it just stays something
Speaker 1: like this that we do for fun, or maybe it
Speaker 1: becomes something bigger. I don't know, but for those of
Speaker 1: you who have supported me throughout the process, I really
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. Alright, guys, enjoy the rest of your night.
Speaker 1: I would imagine that after the Spurs game on Friday,
Speaker 1: I'll probably do something uh and get something going before
Speaker 1: the weekend, but in because we'll have the New Year
Speaker 1: before then. I will y'all happy New Year, and I
Speaker 1: will talk to you guys soon