WEBVTT - Episode 79: Lakers/Nets Breakdown 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:18.560 Mmmm. Welcome to the State of the Lakers show on 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:25.440 DASH Radio. Today is Tuesday, after our first preseason game, 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:30.120 first Lakers game of the two two season. Rog, how 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:32.239 you doing? Man? Did it feel good to be in 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.240 Staples Center in front of all those thousands of fans? 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:38.760 It felt amazing and it's great to be back after 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.920 an actual game. We get actual film. I know Jason 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.920 and I watched probably way too much of that of 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:47.440 that preseason game. But the first thing I want to 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:49.760 say is I have pushed the crow to the other 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:53.720 side of the table. It is on your side now, so, um, 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:55.320 it is not in front of me, at least for 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.280 the moment. Um, So I know that I know that 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.720 you were prepared. I like my apologies now, you know, 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:04.440 like DeAndre Jordan did start as I said he would 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.319 next to a d There are there's context to that, 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:10.399 of course, Um, but yeah, the crows on the other side, 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.640 how does that feel? You are absolutely correct. Our first 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:17.160 Lakers game involved Anthony Davis at the four, so technically, 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.840 technically for the moment, you are correct. Um, it was. 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.399 It was in general very weird preseason game for all 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:28.160 the reasons that preseason games are always weird. Like, for instance, 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:32.560 you had uh no, like literally no forwards playing for 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:36.600 the Lakers other than Anthony Davis, which inherently made it 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:38.560 so that the Lakers had to play small most of 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.920 the night, which we'll talk about led to uh, pretty 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:45.040 predictable rebounding problems. And that's the kind of thing you'll 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.280 only see in the preseason because any NBA team that 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.640 encounters that problem in the regular season, if you had 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:55.240 a decimated front court, would you know, sign a two 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:57.800 way to bring up a two way player, or you know, 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:00.640 have you know, a couple of veteran minimum signings to 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.400 try to fill in until guys could get healthy. But 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:07.160 that just wasn't gonna happen in a preseason situation. Then 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:11.600 you had the classic stuff like referees overdoing the points 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.120 of emphasis and getting you know, because they view the 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:17.840 preseason as an opportunity to establish new you know, protocols 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.000 and things like that, which I thought was super annoying 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:24.000 because like juxtaposed with the NBA Finals, you know, a 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.320 few months ago, and the stuff that they're letting go 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:29.720 all over the floor to suddenly like Anthony Davis reverse 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:33.600 pivot travel, like every single pick and roll, illegal screen 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:35.920 like I think Nick Claxton got called for four illegal 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:37.640 screens in the first half of that game. Like, it 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:42.480 was just incredibly sloppy, and you know, just in general, 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:47.000 both teams were playing really hard, I thought, which was 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:51.200 kind of refreshing to see. But like there's that classic 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:54.040 I think it's a John Wooden saying, but it's like 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.280 like activity with production. Don't confuse those two things. Like 0:02:57.480 --> 0:02:59.760 both teams are running around a lot, but like they're 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:02.000 at like in terms of what they were supposed to 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.880 do within their scheme. I thought everybody was sloppy, but anyway, 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:07.720 it was fun. What was it like in the arena 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:11.040 as a as a Laker fan to see the fans back, Yeah, 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:13.239 it was. It was really great. I've never really been 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.519 been that close up before, so it's really cool watching 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:18.800 the play players warm up, you know, getting to see 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:21.520 Kevin Durant, who didn't play, but just getting to watch 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:24.000 him shoot, Watching a guy who's so good at his 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:26.799 craft kind of work on it. Seeing Wayne Ellington work 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:28.800 on shots that he gets in games. You know, that 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.240 was really cool. Seeing all the players work with the trainers, 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:33.840 got to see Baysmore as well, all the fans. I 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.839 believe it was at full capacity. Um just we didn't 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:40.120 get a super cell out because of it being preseason. 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:41.920 But it was fun, man, just to be up close. 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.240 You get to hear things that you probably don't get 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:47.240 to hear if you're if you're far back, you get 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:49.800 to hear them screaming, like ice coverages and you know 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:51.560 you're by yourself, and you know all those kind of 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:53.760 things that are really cool here, the ball kind of 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:57.120 bouncing on the court. There's nothing like Staples Center to me. 0:03:57.200 --> 0:03:59.440 Have you been the Stable Center before? Seen the game 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.200 of Staples Not an NBA game, but I did see 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:04.560 an Elite eight game from the n C Double A Tournament. 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:07.520 There is like when you get in there and you 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.760 get underneath those banners, there's just like this feeling of 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:15.600 history that as a basketball fan, I've absolutely loved it. 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:18.040 I think there are some Clipper fans over the summer 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:20.160 that we're talking trash about Staples as an arena, and 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:21.960 I wanted to be like, man, you got a factor 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.560 in the historical elements here, Like even if it's dumpy 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.839 in some ways compared to the better arenas around the country, Like, 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.720 there's history here and that matters you know like that 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:34.800 has to factor into some extent. Yeah, not just that. 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.359 Staples is a stage right, Like while while I was 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:39.640 there watching the game, I was just thinking, like, this 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:41.720 is a perfect stage for a guy like Westbrook, for 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:43.480 a guy like Lebron. It's just a stage. When you're 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.760 watching the lighting all the it feels like a theater performance. 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:48.520 Even though it's a preseason game, you still kind of 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:50.839 get that excitement. Um. Yeah, it was just fun to 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.200 be to be in the building and uh we missed 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:55.320 that last year. Um, the crowd wasn't there for a 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.000 lot of the season, and I think that did have 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.520 an impact. You just see the guys excited and to 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:01.240 be up there close that was that was fun. So 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:03.080 it was a great experience. Hoped to be at a 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:06.120 bunch more games this year too, so yeah, it was fun. Man. 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:09.000 I hope everyone can go out to a game this year. 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:11.279 Um to be safe, but go out there and have 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:13.560 a good time at the game. Yeah. I was planning 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:17.680 on going to Wednesday's game in Phoenix because it was 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:19.360 at an interesting time in the day that I might 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:22.159 have been able to make it. But as as fate 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.000 would have it, I think I told you I was 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:26.760 considering coaching some high school basketball this year, while I 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:30.599 I ended up taking the gig with the varsity team 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.800 here in town. So I've got practice on Wednesday, So 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:37.400 that might occasionally cause some issues with our postgame shows, 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:39.279 but I'm hoping that it only will happen a couple 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:41.320 of times this year, just because for the most part, 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:43.960 because they're West Coast team, their games start so late 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:46.760 in the day anyway, So we're gonna get started to 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:49.719 our game plan today in terms of breaking down the 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.719 game is, we're going to each provide three things that 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:55.880 we were impressed by, and then three things that we 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:58.280 thought the Lakers really needed to work on. And then 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:00.520 obviously if we have some overlap Sham and I have 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:04.760 Roger and I have not discussed it at all. Uh, 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.120 if we have any overlap, we'll we'll just kind of 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:09.920 approach that as we get there. Anyway, Roger, why don't 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:11.800 you start us off with the first thing that you 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:15.760 were impressed by from the Lakers in their preseason opener. 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:19.839 So I'll just continue on from my like summer preachers, 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:22.839 like I loved Wayne Ellington on offense, Like obviously there's 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:24.919 defensive stuff to figure out, and again this is the 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.839 stuff we like. So on offense, he just a different 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.640 caliber of shooter that we've ever had, right, Like they 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.880 run sets for him, teams chase him, and like teams 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:36.479 don't just chase him. Teams are told like you don't 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:38.440 leave this guy, like you are not part of the 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.800 help responsibility, Like it's your job to stick with him. Um. 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:43.800 The Lakers used to run this play for k C 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:45.839 p a Ton where they would start him in the 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:49.039 corner right, he'd come off these two stigger screens, but 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:51.440 the second screen is becomes a dribble handoff with the 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.599 big and guys like KCP, Guys like Avery Bradley would 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:58.080 dribble into like the midrange. Ellenton is firing from three 0:06:58.160 --> 0:06:59.560 off the handoff. You know what I mean. It's just 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:02.760 a different caliber. Um. When guys go under, he's immediately 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:05.840 going up super technical shooter as well. His feet are 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:08.600 set again, Like being at the game watching him practice 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.240 these threes, like you could see why he's so comfortable 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.440 in game taking them. All these things are are part 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:16.880 of a bunch of reps that he's already done. Um, 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.440 coming off these little kind of flair screens as well, 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:22.240 firing right away it's just nice to have a shooter 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:24.120 of this caliber. He didn't shoot as well. I think 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:26.080 he was like two for seven or something from three, 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:28.240 but all the shots that like I loved him taking. 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.000 He takes these transition threes, like I think Rondo hit 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:32.880 him in stride on one of them, were like he 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.120 was coming up in transition one. Drib will pull up 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:37.400 from three and that's just a different type of shooter 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.000 that we have. Um, yeah, that's my first one. I 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:43.080 loved Allington offense. I love what he's gonna open up. 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:45.920 I think him and Baysmore were probably most effective by 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.520 not having our star creators out there, right they I 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:50.840 think Allington played best when it was Rondo next to him, 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:52.720 just a guy that finds him. But I would love 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.440 to see him with our stars. But yeah, there's defensive concerns, 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:57.280 but I love what he brings as a shooter to 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.560 our team. Yeah. I think everything thing that we saw 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.200 from that game needs to be viewed through the lens 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:05.320 of what it would look like with either Russell Westbrook 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.440 or Lebron James on the floor, because that's just the 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:09.520 reality of how this is going to actually shape out 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:13.960 in the season, you know, Uh, in general, with Ellington, 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:16.840 I look more at the way he affects the defense 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:19.480 than I do the result. The result is what it is. 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:21.679 You know, like he's gonna take four or five threes 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:23.720 every game and he's gonna make two or three of them. 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:26.120 That's that, that's the reality. But on the scoreboard, that's 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.000 only gonna manifest as you know, six points, nine points, 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:31.360 you know, whatever it is. So the things that I 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:34.600 look more with Ellington are what does he cause the 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:36.839 help defenders to do, because that's the kind of thing 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:40.360 that's going to impact Lebron and Russell Westbrook's ability, Anthony 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:43.640 Davis's ability to pressure the rim. And then secondly, what 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.160 can he do when he's attacking close outs because the 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:48.679 reality is as any good defense is going to run 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:50.520 him off the line at least most of the time. 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.280 So there was one play in particular, and I posted 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:56.200 it on my Twitter feed. You guys can find it there. 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:58.800 But it's that exact play you're talking about, that k 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.360 c P play where he comes out of the corner 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.480 off of a double screen and you know, the second 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:08.040 screen is being set by DeAndre Jordan's man and the 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.520 reason why DeAndre Jordan is being set by DeAndre Jordan's 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.360 Deandre's Jordan's man has to be up at that screen. 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:16.800 The reason why is he's there to deter a curl. 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:19.520 When you have a shooter as good as Ellington, if 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:22.040 he curls around that screen and the guy has to 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:24.920 be chasing him over the top, it's going to allow 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:28.520 him just to to continue around the screen into the 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.439 lane and get a wide open fifteen footer or force. 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.080 That's another help defender to step up so you can 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:35.800 either drop it off or kick it to the corner. 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:39.319 So you have that other big up at the screen 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.240 to deter the curl. And if you look at the play, 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:44.679 I even took a freeze frame of it, DeAndre Jordan 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:47.280 and DeAndre Jordan's man are out of the paint. That's 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:51.840 an example of gravity from Ellington that literally impacts two 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.760 defensive players, the guy who's guarding Yellington and the guy 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.320 who's guarding his screener. And on that particular play, Kendrick 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.559 Nunn kind of ran into the pain. It was a 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:04.400 little bit out of position and it caused uh, it 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.560 caused the bays Moore who was the ball handler not 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:09.960 to really have much of a driving lane. But they're 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:11.640 going to figure out that kind of stuff. If he 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:15.040 goes to the other corner in Lebron James has the 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:18.280 ball or Russell Westbrook has the ball, there are clear 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:20.839 driving lanes both to the strong side and to the 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:22.600 week side, which is the kind of thing that just 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.680 didn't exist last year. So I I and that's just 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:30.080 one example one play, but in general, Ellington's ability to 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.120 force defenders to panic chase him all over the place 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:35.920 is going to open things up for the offense. There's 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:38.920 another one where he attacked a close out where all 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:40.840 he did was just kind of lean to the left 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.760 and DeAndre Benbury like completely panic closed out to that 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:47.079 side and gave up a straight line drive and he 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:49.080 kicked at the Kendrick Nunn in the corner for a 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:51.920 wide open three. Those are the kinds of things that 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:56.440 Neither of those plays ended in a made three for Ellington, However, 0:10:56.480 --> 0:11:00.640 they led to quality offense for the team. Um, the 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:03.719 first good thing that I put. All right, technically it's 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.000 the second good thing that I put. But I'm gonna 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.960 piggyback off of your point. Uh is I thought that 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:13.000 Baisemore Ellington Monk and none just added a whole other 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:17.160 layer of sophistication to the offense, and and just in 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.320 just in general, we saw a lot of things that 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:25.199 we did not see in the previous two seasons. From Baysmore, I, 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:29.600 I was really really impressed by his slashing. And we're 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.080 gonna talk at the end of this, uh, this segment 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:35.040 of the pod, we're gonna do a little bit more 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.560 of a deep dive into Baysmore and Ellington and Monk 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:39.880 and None, just to talk about more of the intricacy 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.679 intricacies of what they do. But I was impressed by 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:46.800 Baysmore slashing Ellington. We just talked about Malik Monks off 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.520 the dribble shooting I thought was a really really interesting 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:51.800 wrinkle in there, in the pick and roll actions that 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:57.079 they ran, and then uh, Kendrick Nunn transition threes, the 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.679 the floaters and little scoop shots that he had around 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:02.600 the bass get that's like comprehensive type of finishing that 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.640 we haven't had from guards in the past. Just in general, 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.120 I was really impressed by the way that those four 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:13.760 guys made offense look easy, breezy in a way that 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.320 it hasn't looked for the Lakers in the last couple 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:18.520 of years, and when you add Lebron and Russ to that, 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:22.160 it's just gonna get even better. Yeah, that's something I 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:23.880 had kind of looked at as well. It's just a 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:26.080 lot of ball handling that can score. Right. They're not 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.000 really great passers in a sense, but all those guys 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:32.319 look to score. They all take it as like disrespectful 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:34.680 almost if you close out under the three point line, 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.800 like just watching the person watching, like Malige Monk dribble up. 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:39.400 I think I forgot who the guard was, but he 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:41.040 was kind of behind the three point line. He just 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.560 pulled up and he nailed three. Kendrick Nunn as well 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.000 in transition guy was behind the three point line, just 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:48.400 pulled up Ellington as well. He he feels that same way. 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:50.880 So it's just cool to have off the dribble shooters 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:53.560 creators and none of those guys are gonna have to 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.200 be primary creators. Like that's the way I was watching 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:58.560 this game, Like th HD was kind of put in 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:00.760 like the Lebron and Russ roll, right, and like to 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:03.640 judge th HT off of the Lebron and Rust roll 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:06.560 is probably kind of unfair as well. Um, And to 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:08.520 judge any of those as like primary creators. So I 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:10.520 agree with you just watching all of them be able 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:13.080 to score. Just I'm not used to having this many 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.720 off the dribbles shot makers. You know, it's interesting to 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:17.520 watch as well. I'm not really used to this many 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:20.120 pull up jump shooters, UM, guys who come off screens 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:22.480 and just firing. I like what you talked about with 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:24.640 Kendrick Nunn. I thought he got more comfortable as the 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:26.720 game went on, he got more aggressive as a score. 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:28.880 He was pulling up as well. So I agree with you. 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:31.320 I think all those guys are gonna have a big 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.440 gonna have a big year, especially scoring off the bench. UM. 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.960 So I guess my like second one, Um, you talked 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:40.040 about it a little bit. Was just you talked about 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.760 Monk being off the dribble. I thought I didn't know 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:44.480 he was. He had this much I guess off the 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:46.199 dribble game. I don't know if you did, but like, 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:48.640 I didn't know he had this much creation and it 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:51.520 really opened stuff up. They run like double double screens 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:53.840 for him coming off with Dwight and Basemore. They had 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:55.680 one play where he had one coming off and he 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:57.800 hit the jumper off that. Um, he can run pick 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:00.320 a role as well, hit a nice passage white houred 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:02.360 in the in the pick and roll. So that was 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:04.000 my second one. I didn't know that he had this 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:05.800 off the dribble game, and I think it really opens 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.319 things up. You're gonna have a big battle there for him. 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:11.439 None Ellington and PhD for minutes, but I think he 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:13.000 has to play. Do you think he's like in the 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:14.880 lead right now with all those cards, because like that 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:16.360 was my second one. To me, I didn't know a 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.320 monk had this much kind of off the dribble game 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:20.560 and being in person as well, I didn't know he 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:22.840 was just vocal, Like he was a very vocal on 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:26.040 defense as well, talking to the guys and saying telling 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.000 them to communicate. I didn't know he was that type 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:29.880 of player. So he was my second one there. I 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.480 love the leak monk on offense. Um. I think that's 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:35.120 something we can take from the preseason. It's stuff to 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:36.760 really take a bunch of things. You don't really care 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.720 about the score, just look at things that can translate, right, 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:42.440 And I think monks jumpers just looks clean. Some dudes 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:44.000 who go off the dribble, you can tell they're not 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.720 really off the dribble players, they can dribble. Link Monk 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.240 looks like a guy who's very comfortable um putting the 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:51.480 ball on the floor, who looks looks very comfortable coming 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.960 off screens and firing, really comfortable just pulling up off 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:56.480 the dribble. So what do you think about link Monk. 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:57.960 He talked about it a little bit, but I think 0:14:58.000 --> 0:14:59.880 his dribble game is just kind of open things up 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.760 the team. The part you were mentioning about him being 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.640 vocals super interesting to me because that's to me, demonstrates care. 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.840 We're gonna talk probably at the end actually it's one 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:11.480 of the things I have for the three things to 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:13.240 work on, But we're gonna talk about the defense from 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:15.880 the guards and what It wasn't pretty for the most part, 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:18.400 but at the end of the day, I think that 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:20.120 that's the kind of thing that's going to take time 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:24.160 through training camp to really establish. And uh, it all 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:26.840 starts with, you know, giving a ship, which is something 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.360 we talked about a lot on this podcast. And and 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:35.200 to be honest, I'm not terribly concerned about about them caring. 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:37.240 And that's a good sign that Malik Monk was being 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.040 very vocal on defense that's a good sign as far 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:44.320 as his ball handling and shooting. You know, guard guarding 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:48.920 pick and rolls are become infinitely more complicated through versatility. 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:51.440 So for instance, like how many times did we see 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:53.880 Dennis Shrewder last year because he's not a good shooter 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:56.680 when he would run a side pick and roll, they'd 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.520 ice him and basically allow him to take that you know, 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.200 pull up fifteen footer, which he made maybe thirty percent 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:05.400 of the time, and then from up top exact same thing. 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:09.200 They're they're in a drop coverage and and he's he's 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:12.840 coming over the screen and the defenders going under and 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:16.560 there's just not really a whole lot there. Well, the 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:20.240 guarding that it becomes infinitely more complicated with the off 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:23.000 the dribble shooter who's comfortable just in general when you're 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.840 playing individual defense, Like when I when I think about 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:31.280 guarding a guy, always the toughest matchup for any defensive 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.040 player is a player that is capable of driving to 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:36.600 the basket but also capable of pulling off the dribble 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:40.440 from deep because you, as a defender, are constantly off 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:43.280 balance because you're prepared to have to leave your feet 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:47.200 to contest a shot, and that that little bit of hesitation, 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.040 a little bit of off balance, opens up all of 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:53.320 their dribble moves. And whereas if a player can't shoot, 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:55.880 I can kind of camp on my heels, so to speak, 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:59.000 being prepared, just basically deciding whether or not I need 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:01.440 to go left or right in a defensive slide and 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:03.360 not have to worry about closing out because if he 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:05.520 takes a shot, that's a win for me because I 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.320 want him to shoot. See that difference there psychologically as 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:12.360 a huge impact throw in a ball screen, and now 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.720 it's even more complicated because I literally have to chase 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:18.040 you over the top. And if I literally have to 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.480 chase you over the top, if they set a good screen, 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:24.400 that's automatic separation in an automatic ahead of steam going 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:28.120 towards the rim. There was a sequence there with Malik Monk, 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:30.359 I believe it was in the second quarter where he 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.840 ran a pick and roll with Dwight Howard and uh 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:36.399 Dwight sets a really good screen, hits the point of 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:40.439 attack defender and LaMarcus Aldridge is way too low and 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.240 and Monk just settles into it like a twenty five 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:47.520 ft three, really balanced and just just nails it. So 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:50.720 then on the very next possession, the guard does a 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:54.240 much better job of chasing over the top, and because 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:56.440 he has to chase over the top, Monk gets ahead 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.800 of Steam into the lane, gets into the lane, easy 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.520 hocket passed to Dwight Howard who gets fouled. And then 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.440 there was a couple possessions later, another pick and roll, 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.840 same exact thing. The big hangs a little bit too 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.040 far back, the guard does chase over the top, but 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:15.520 Dwight does get a good screen on him, and Monk 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.000 pulls up from I think seventeen feet on the left 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:20.760 elbow and just nails it. Those are the kinds of 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:24.280 things were like. That is high quality offense that does 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.720 it require Lebron or Russ to initiate, and it's all 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:29.320 set up by the fact that you have a good 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:31.720 screen and roll guy and a guy who can pull 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:35.440 off the dribble comfortably out to That sort of thing 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:38.720 just is extremely difficult to guard at the NBA level, 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:43.480 And I was in general really really impressed by what 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:46.000 Molik Monk brought to the table. We're gonna talk more 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:47.960 about their defense later. I don't want to focus on 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:51.199 that right now, but strictly on the offensive end. Uh 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:54.800 that that type of uh initiation, and I think I 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:58.080 think Kendrick Nunn has some of that as well in 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:00.399 his game that he didn't really have an opportunity to 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:04.600 show yesterday yet excuse me, Sunday yet. But I was 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.119 really impressed by that with Malik Monk. Did you have 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:08.760 anything else you wanted to add with Milik Monk before 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.960 we move on? Now? I thought I thought he was good. Um, 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:13.600 I thought it was great to just he seems like 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:17.040 another like a fan favorite already, right and also like 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:19.800 his his wingspan. I was looking at it's only six four, 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.200 but just in person, it just feels longer. I guess 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:24.439 his arms feel like they go down longer than than 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:28.800 it seems. He's very active as well, I think of that. Yeah, yeah, 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:31.080 that might be what it is. But but yeah, just 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.840 in person, he just seems like a very active player. Um, 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:35.960 and it was cool to watch him just be super 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.400 vocal with you just don't see usually from young guys 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:40.800 like that on this kind of veteran team. So yeah, 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:42.680 I'm excited from Link Monk. I thought he had a nice, 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:46.640 nice showing in that first game. So the second good 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:49.840 thing that I put down was. I just labeled it 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.240 as good th HD because I have on the bad side, 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:54.760 I have bad THHD. But we'll get to YEA. So 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:57.600 the things that I really appreciated from th HD last 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.360 on Sunday was his point of tack defense. Um. He's 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:05.080 still extremely disruptive on the ball, especially when guys are indecisive, 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:07.840 like when guys want to try to mix him up. 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:11.080 He's really good at getting his hands in there. Um. 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:13.520 And then the other thing I put was relentless rim pressure. 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:18.000 You know, a lot of it was over penetration. And 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:20.320 there are some things that we're going to talk about 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:23.400 in the UH later on that have to do with 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:26.639 him making easy reads. This is something that was a 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:30.000 concern for him coming into the season. Um. But at 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:32.680 the end of the day, there are times against really 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:36.880 good defenses in particular where the easy reads aren't there, 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.400 and sometimes you just need somebody and Lebron is really 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:43.840 good at this. In particular, Anthony Davis does it more 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:46.440 as a rebounder than he does as a as an initiator. 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:49.359 But sometimes you just need to put your head down 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:52.719 and just get to the damn rim somehow, like like 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.160 you just need to plow through guys and hopefully get 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:58.919 enough pressure on the rim that it can generate some 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:01.760 quality shots when the really elite defenses are taking away 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:05.840 the easy reads and th h T still cannot be 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:11.520 stopped like at that initial drive position, Like his problems 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:13.920 never had anything to do with beating that first guy. 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:16.400 It was all like he would drive into too much 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:19.400 traffic and he would get stripped by the second defender 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:21.320 or the third defender. That kind of thing. We can 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.119 work on the the ability for th h T to 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:26.639 beat every single point of attack defender and to to 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.240 get a step and get headed towards the paint. That 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:34.280 is something that can translate to good offense. Especially. I 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:36.760 think you'll see him a lot more as a closeout 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:38.960 attacker this year, which is something we talked about early 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:41.960 in the season last year. But that th HD still 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:45.159 with his low center of gravity, his good strength and 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:49.960 his athleticism is still just a huge problem for teams 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:51.640 keeping him out of the paint. What did you see 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:54.440 from th h T on the good side of things? Yeah, 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:57.199 so again, just being there like T exudes is like 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:00.359 confidence is like veteran kind of feel already, and you 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:02.560 forget that he's twenty years old, just the way he 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:04.720 kind of carries himself. So I just want to start 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:06.640 with that. It's really cool to watch him grow and 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:09.480 his body is definitely different, like you could totally tell, 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:12.480 and it's totally impacted everything you talked about the point 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:15.119 of attack defense. I thought him going around screens was 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:17.720 much better in this game. I know it's only preseason, 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:20.040 but like the term is called like getting skinny, right, 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:21.960 so when you're going on when you're going on a screen, 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:23.919 you want to kind of get skinny. And uh, I 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:25.520 know the rests are kind of calling a lot of things, 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:28.159 but he drew three offensive fouls on movie screens just 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:30.040 because he was fighting over it. I thought that was 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.000 a big step for him on offense. Like again, I 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:35.720 talked about this earlier and you said this, everything needs 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:37.880 to be kind of seen through this lens of next 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:40.600 to Lebron and Russell Westbrook, right, because all those three 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:42.600 will be those two will be playing most of the game, 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:45.560 so the ball handling duties will be on them. And 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:48.320 I thought thhd's best moments last night where when he 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:51.600 was the guy attacking and already collapsed defense, right, like 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:54.720 his dunk. His dunk was on a play where Baysmore 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:57.280 drove collapse of defense kicked it out to him, and 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:00.199 then he attacked the defense that was already rotating um 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:02.480 A couple of possessions later, he got a layup where 0:23:02.600 --> 0:23:04.760 I think it was goaltender or something that was where 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:06.680 a D pushed it right and he got a hand 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:08.719 off of a D in drove and again the defense 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:10.760 was kind of worried about a D. A thought. His 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:12.480 third nice player was like where he got a spin 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:14.760 and got fouled. But that was when Rondo pushed it 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:16.840 up to I believe it was Monk who hit th 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:18.920 HD as the trailer there and he did like a 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:22.040 behind I don't know, it's a spin behind the back whatever. 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:23.720 I don't know what he whatever he was doing, but 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:25.720 he got fouled on that. So that's what I want 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:28.040 to see with him. I liked him as uh an 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:31.320 attacker of an already compromised defense where he doesn't have 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:33.159 to be the first attack, right because when you're the 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:36.000 first attack, it's your it's your job to make the 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:38.639 right decision right to where the pass to who's open. 0:23:39.280 --> 0:23:42.120 But if he's already attacking already compromised defense, he could 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:44.480 just attack the rim. You have to stop him after 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:47.159 already trying to rotate to a shooter or trying to 0:23:47.280 --> 0:23:50.280 rotate to a d rolling or rotate to Lebron whatever, 0:23:50.560 --> 0:23:52.239 and then he's coming down the lane with his kind 0:23:52.240 --> 0:23:55.560 of herky jerky game. You know, he does those weird layups. Um, 0:23:55.680 --> 0:23:57.760 he protects the ball really nicely when he when he 0:23:57.760 --> 0:23:59.919 gets to the basket and draws files that way. So 0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:02.320 I like him scoring that way. And again I thought 0:24:02.320 --> 0:24:04.639 the defense was good, So I agree with you. I 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:07.600 like what I saw from from PhD there. That's a yeah, 0:24:07.600 --> 0:24:09.679 that that's a really good point as it pertains to 0:24:10.320 --> 0:24:13.760 taking away the decision making process essentially at this stage 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:16.440 of his career. It's kind of a delicate balance because 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:20.240 you know he needs reps in order to learn how 0:24:20.240 --> 0:24:23.800 to make those decisions, but at the same time, you 0:24:24.320 --> 0:24:26.040 kind of need him to learn how to play off 0:24:26.080 --> 0:24:29.560 of the stars. So my guess is that what you'll 0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:31.760 end up seeing is kind of what you saw in 0:24:31.800 --> 0:24:34.640 that game, which is in the games where stars sit 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:38.560 because of load management or injuries or whatever it may be. 0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:41.480 I think you'll lean heavily on him as a decision 0:24:41.520 --> 0:24:44.480 maker just so he can get reps and then obviously 0:24:44.720 --> 0:24:47.480 when the guys are healthy, he'll play more, you know, 0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:51.080 as a guy who attacks the already compromise defense. You 0:24:51.119 --> 0:24:53.400 mentioned one other thing that I did not actually put 0:24:53.400 --> 0:24:56.000 on my list, but I wanted to bring up that 0:24:56.040 --> 0:24:59.760 you reminded me, is just in general, the pushing the 0:24:59.800 --> 0:25:04.800 ball transition. Every time, almost every time that they advanced 0:25:04.800 --> 0:25:07.960 to the ball, like the whoever would get the ball 0:25:08.000 --> 0:25:10.400 out of bounds on a maid shot or whoever would 0:25:10.400 --> 0:25:12.800 get the rebound and kick to the guard, they would 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:15.720 make that push ahead pass that like Lonzo ball pass 0:25:15.840 --> 0:25:18.040 that that we used to see a lot when he 0:25:18.080 --> 0:25:21.560 was a Laker. That kind of thing, just it causes 0:25:21.800 --> 0:25:25.159 chaos and then you can capitalize on the chaos. The 0:25:25.200 --> 0:25:29.200 one example I'll give is there was a play. I 0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:31.360 don't remember who the push ahead guard was, but there 0:25:31.440 --> 0:25:35.640 was Baysmore in the left corner, and uh that push 0:25:35.680 --> 0:25:39.080 ahead to bays Moore in the left corner forced LaMarcus 0:25:39.080 --> 0:25:42.560 Aldridge to close out because Baysmore's man was not back. 0:25:43.240 --> 0:25:46.840 And when LaMarcus Aldridge closed out, Baysmore saw DeAndre Jordan 0:25:46.960 --> 0:25:49.080 running down the lane and just threw it up and 0:25:49.119 --> 0:25:52.440 he dunked it for an hand one, and that's an 0:25:52.440 --> 0:25:55.840 example of of of generating easy shots. This is a 0:25:55.880 --> 0:25:57.800 theme that we're going to talk about when we talk 0:25:57.840 --> 0:26:02.800 about bad th HT But like, uh, good offense isn't 0:26:02.800 --> 0:26:07.280 about making one good play. It's about understanding that over 0:26:07.320 --> 0:26:10.000 the course of a game, you need to generate eight 0:26:10.160 --> 0:26:12.920 to nine potentially more depending on the pace of the game, 0:26:13.280 --> 0:26:17.840 but eight to nine high quality possessions. And so there 0:26:17.840 --> 0:26:21.240 are going to be possessions in that set where the 0:26:21.320 --> 0:26:23.440 defense is really locked in and you're in the half 0:26:23.440 --> 0:26:27.040 court and nothing's easy, and you really need to manufacture 0:26:27.720 --> 0:26:31.399 something easy. So what that means is when they do 0:26:31.480 --> 0:26:33.760 make mistakes, when you can beat them down the floor, 0:26:33.800 --> 0:26:36.720 when you can make an easy read, you absolutely have 0:26:36.840 --> 0:26:39.080 to capitalize on it because those are the ones that 0:26:39.119 --> 0:26:42.120 you need to buffer and cancel out the tougher possessions 0:26:42.480 --> 0:26:44.919 or you're dragged down into the half court and and 0:26:45.080 --> 0:26:47.600 that pushing in transition is the easiest way to do that. 0:26:47.840 --> 0:26:49.760 And I thought the Lakers just in general did a 0:26:49.800 --> 0:26:52.600 really good job yesterday of pushing the ball in transition. 0:26:52.680 --> 0:26:55.119 And it helps to have so many guys who can 0:26:55.160 --> 0:26:57.440 handle the ball because what you did it was harder 0:26:57.480 --> 0:26:59.480 when you push the ball up the floor and it'd 0:26:59.480 --> 0:27:02.000 be West Matthews, or you push the ball up the 0:27:02.000 --> 0:27:05.240 floor and it would be you know, uh an inferior 0:27:05.280 --> 0:27:08.120 ball handle or someone like you know, even Kyle Kuzma 0:27:08.359 --> 0:27:11.680 like struggled with that a lot. Having these guards who 0:27:11.680 --> 0:27:13.399 can all make decisions and put the ball on the 0:27:13.440 --> 0:27:15.720 floor make it easier to push the ball up the 0:27:15.760 --> 0:27:17.960 floor because the guy running the wing is capable of 0:27:18.320 --> 0:27:20.920 making a complicated dribble move and making a complicated read 0:27:20.960 --> 0:27:23.240 If that makes sense, Yeah, for sure. And we kind 0:27:23.240 --> 0:27:26.159 of saw Rondo in that Westbrook role right where he 0:27:26.240 --> 0:27:27.960 was the one kind of pushing it up. And you 0:27:28.000 --> 0:27:30.400 see remnants of like what Vogel was talking about where 0:27:30.400 --> 0:27:32.879 they want to be like a full time transition team, right, 0:27:32.880 --> 0:27:34.680 they want to get most of their points in transition. 0:27:34.720 --> 0:27:36.640 And and again I think the stats that you get 0:27:36.800 --> 0:27:39.280 at most dirty percent of your if you can if 0:27:39.280 --> 0:27:41.600 you're running on every play, which Westbrook does, but still 0:27:41.640 --> 0:27:44.320 you get like your buckets in transition. But you kind 0:27:44.320 --> 0:27:46.480 of see that the remnants of it. You saw Ellington 0:27:46.680 --> 0:27:49.159 and a base more sprinting to corners, and I think 0:27:49.200 --> 0:27:51.280 you talked about as well, like DeAndre Jordan's sprinting to 0:27:51.280 --> 0:27:53.000 the lane and getting the lob dunk as e d 0:27:53.119 --> 0:27:55.159 as the trailers, So you see a little bit of it. 0:27:55.160 --> 0:27:57.080 I think you'll see it more on Lebron and Rust play, 0:27:57.160 --> 0:27:59.080 but yeah, you're right. I love seeing them push the 0:27:59.080 --> 0:28:01.439 ball a little bit kind see what they're trying to 0:28:01.440 --> 0:28:03.480 do with that. UM. I guess my final kind of 0:28:03.880 --> 0:28:06.600 what I liked um about the about the game was 0:28:07.000 --> 0:28:10.439 seeing Dwight Howard back. Um. His energy is still super 0:28:10.480 --> 0:28:13.000 infectious and even comes off even more when you're there. 0:28:13.320 --> 0:28:15.360 You see him kind of screaming and running and all 0:28:15.359 --> 0:28:18.320 the stuff they don't show on TV, where like he 0:28:18.600 --> 0:28:21.080 he hits uh, he makes a layub of offensive rebound 0:28:21.080 --> 0:28:23.480 and he's screaming for the next five to ten seconds 0:28:23.480 --> 0:28:26.280 you know, of that play, UM, and he's really in 0:28:26.359 --> 0:28:28.320 with his teammates, and you see it in the timeouts 0:28:28.359 --> 0:28:30.440 as well, going out to every single player kind of 0:28:30.480 --> 0:28:32.520 giving them acourageman. So it was cool to see him. 0:28:32.560 --> 0:28:34.920 It was funny because the game started obviously with LaMarcus 0:28:34.920 --> 0:28:38.280 Aldridge right and DeAndre Jordan's and both of them looked 0:28:38.400 --> 0:28:41.840 very comfortable with like both of you, like they both 0:28:41.840 --> 0:28:43.560 told each other. Hey, like, let's chill, you know what 0:28:43.560 --> 0:28:45.720 I mean, Like, let's both of us kind of we know, 0:28:45.920 --> 0:28:48.080 we know what the deal is. It's preseason, like we're 0:28:48.120 --> 0:28:50.680 both going to kind of chill. LaMarcus Aldrids look comfortable 0:28:50.680 --> 0:28:52.600 as hell. He was hitting his jumpers in the mid range, 0:28:52.680 --> 0:28:55.239 kind of getting to where he wants. DeAndre Jordan's you know, 0:28:55.520 --> 0:28:57.960 he didn't look great and he's getting the flag as 0:28:57.960 --> 0:29:00.160 he I guess he should, but he didn't look he 0:29:00.240 --> 0:29:02.920 was going at any kind of energy level. And then 0:29:03.000 --> 0:29:06.080 Dwight Howard checks in and then, uh, you can see 0:29:06.080 --> 0:29:08.520 the look on LaMarcus Audrey's face just being there. Dwight 0:29:08.560 --> 0:29:11.000 Howard is like sprinting right from one end to the other, 0:29:11.040 --> 0:29:13.400 and I could see Aldres just looking at Dwight like 0:29:14.240 --> 0:29:16.280 what are you doing? You know kind of thing like 0:29:16.360 --> 0:29:18.320 it's it's pretty season. Um. So it's cool to see 0:29:18.360 --> 0:29:21.400 his energy back. I like him as like when you 0:29:21.400 --> 0:29:23.840 have these bucket getters, having like a good screen setter 0:29:23.920 --> 0:29:26.240 I think really helps Dwight. I think we talked about 0:29:26.280 --> 0:29:28.560 earlier the screens he was sending from League Monk, screens 0:29:28.600 --> 0:29:31.520 he sets for Wayne Llaton just he's he's really smart 0:29:31.560 --> 0:29:33.640 with it too, Like he'll set the screen and then roll, 0:29:33.760 --> 0:29:35.720 so it kind of takes both the fenders with him. 0:29:35.720 --> 0:29:38.080 You know, he's just very smart with those kind of things. 0:29:38.080 --> 0:29:40.120 He has all the tricks up the sleeve. Um, he's 0:29:40.120 --> 0:29:42.080 still got a bunch of offense rebounds because he just 0:29:42.160 --> 0:29:44.320 knows how to kind of push players what to get 0:29:44.320 --> 0:29:46.640 away with. And Uh, I just missed having him on 0:29:46.680 --> 0:29:49.040 the team, and I'm glad he's back. He looks he 0:29:49.040 --> 0:29:51.160 looks pretty close for the player he was that year. 0:29:51.360 --> 0:29:53.080 He had a lot of fouls that I know people 0:29:53.080 --> 0:29:54.800 are kind of on him on his six fouls, but 0:29:54.960 --> 0:29:57.040 just being there, a lot of those fouls felt like 0:29:57.080 --> 0:29:59.040 they could have gone either way. Honestly, a lot of 0:29:59.240 --> 0:30:01.640 contact at the ref was kind of I don't know, 0:30:02.320 --> 0:30:04.480 trying to show that that context is not allowed for 0:30:04.520 --> 0:30:06.720 some reason or whatever. But I just like what I 0:30:06.760 --> 0:30:08.960 saw from him. Um, I thought he was I thought 0:30:09.080 --> 0:30:12.320 the gap between him and DeAndre is kind of sizeable 0:30:12.360 --> 0:30:14.440 at least for right now, Like you could tell his impact, 0:30:14.720 --> 0:30:16.840 uh is still there. So what do you think of Dwight? 0:30:16.840 --> 0:30:18.320 Because I thought he had a I thought he had 0:30:18.320 --> 0:30:21.160 a really nice for his showing. Yeah, the third good 0:30:21.160 --> 0:30:23.200 thing that I put down was that our vertical presence 0:30:23.280 --> 0:30:29.520 was back. Um. I I was impressed by both guys 0:30:29.560 --> 0:30:32.160 in a lot of ways because I was going to 0:30:32.200 --> 0:30:35.239 cut them slack for the obvious things that people were 0:30:35.240 --> 0:30:37.960 gonna pick apart. Like I didn't watch the game live 0:30:38.080 --> 0:30:39.760 because I had a Men's League game that I had 0:30:39.800 --> 0:30:41.720 to go to that was all the way across towns. 0:30:41.720 --> 0:30:44.720 It was like a two hour adventure, and uh when 0:30:44.760 --> 0:30:46.520 I got back, I didn't get a chance to watch 0:30:46.560 --> 0:30:50.200 it until the following morning, and so all I saw 0:30:50.360 --> 0:30:52.840 was what was what was on Twitter. And on Twitter, 0:30:52.880 --> 0:30:55.560 I saw people complaining about DeAndre Jordan and and and 0:30:55.640 --> 0:30:58.240 Dwight Howard as well, and I wanted to be like, Okay, 0:30:58.800 --> 0:31:01.640 you know what are you asked King Dwight Howard and 0:31:01.640 --> 0:31:04.680 and uh DeAndre Jordan to do be back line defenders 0:31:04.800 --> 0:31:08.160 right and then also be kind of rim spacers. And 0:31:08.200 --> 0:31:11.560 they're out there playing with absolutely no passing. And I 0:31:11.560 --> 0:31:14.280 think you know, when Rondo got out there, you immediately 0:31:14.320 --> 0:31:16.840 saw Dwight get a deep seal in a layup. That 0:31:16.920 --> 0:31:18.600 those are the kinds of things where like you need 0:31:18.720 --> 0:31:22.160 i Q surrounding those guys to bring the best out 0:31:22.160 --> 0:31:25.560 of them, and then just in general, like you know, 0:31:25.920 --> 0:31:30.880 it's there's such an obvious better fit for this team's identity. 0:31:31.360 --> 0:31:34.720 You know, a guy like Montrese Harrold is obviously going 0:31:34.800 --> 0:31:38.240 to be better as like an active offensive rebounder. He's 0:31:38.280 --> 0:31:40.680 obviously going to be better if in the event that 0:31:40.720 --> 0:31:44.080 you need to attack mismatches right switching defense, you know, 0:31:44.120 --> 0:31:46.520 guard gets on him. Treas as a guy you can 0:31:46.520 --> 0:31:49.840 throw the ball down to. Dwight's probably not you know, uh, 0:31:49.880 --> 0:31:53.160 DeAndre Jordan's probably not. There are obvious advantages there. Marcusol 0:31:53.640 --> 0:31:56.200 better shooter, the guy who's a much better passers. So 0:31:56.200 --> 0:31:57.840 if you're running the offense out of the top of 0:31:57.840 --> 0:32:00.440 the key from you know, dribble handoffs and stuff, like 0:32:00.480 --> 0:32:02.600 a guy like Marcus sul is gonna look better with 0:32:02.640 --> 0:32:04.920 the Golden State Warriors when you're running a million dribble 0:32:05.000 --> 0:32:08.120 handoffs with the Stephen and uh and Clay than it 0:32:08.200 --> 0:32:10.959 is with you know, uh an offense the way that 0:32:11.000 --> 0:32:13.520 this Laker team is built. At the end of the day, though, 0:32:13.640 --> 0:32:17.239 what what the Lakers need out of that position is 0:32:17.320 --> 0:32:21.560 that that vertical spacing, in that vertical presence defensively, because 0:32:21.600 --> 0:32:24.040 you're funneling guys into the pain, So you need guys 0:32:24.080 --> 0:32:26.600 who can jump into tur guys at the rim, and 0:32:26.640 --> 0:32:29.920 then offensively, you've got all these passers who are looking 0:32:29.960 --> 0:32:32.040 for an option when they get into the lane to 0:32:32.120 --> 0:32:35.000 either drop off to somebody or throw it up around 0:32:35.040 --> 0:32:37.400 the rim. So it was just refreshing for me in 0:32:37.440 --> 0:32:40.400 general to see that DeAndre Jordan needs to do a 0:32:40.400 --> 0:32:43.080 better job of running the floor. That's just that's I 0:32:43.600 --> 0:32:45.720 called that out this morning. One of the biggest things 0:32:45.720 --> 0:32:48.400 I noticed is like when he was in the half court, 0:32:48.440 --> 0:32:50.880 I actually thought he was pretty good defensively. Uh, he 0:32:50.960 --> 0:32:54.000 blocked a couple of shots and deterred several others. There 0:32:54.000 --> 0:32:56.240 were a bunch of plays where guys would cut to 0:32:56.280 --> 0:32:58.360 the basket and beat someone back door or something, but 0:32:58.440 --> 0:33:00.600 DeAndre Jordan will be waiting there and so they dribble 0:33:00.640 --> 0:33:02.400 it back out Like that's something that doesn't show up 0:33:02.400 --> 0:33:04.840 in the box score, but that actually matters because it's 0:33:04.880 --> 0:33:07.800 saved a defensive breakdown. So I actually thought he was 0:33:07.800 --> 0:33:10.600 good in the half court. He struggled in transition because 0:33:10.600 --> 0:33:13.000 he just wasn't running hard enough. That's something that's probably 0:33:13.280 --> 0:33:18.200 part of its conditioning. There was um Mike Trudell specifically 0:33:18.200 --> 0:33:22.840 mentioned that on the LFR pod that his uh that 0:33:23.040 --> 0:33:26.480 traditionally guys have a light day before a game, and 0:33:26.560 --> 0:33:29.560 DeAndre Jordan's been in a rough week of practice, and 0:33:29.600 --> 0:33:32.360 they practiced the previous day, so he's not like his 0:33:32.480 --> 0:33:34.920 legs aren't underneath him. So there's some stuff to to 0:33:35.480 --> 0:33:38.240 to like kind of to factor in there, if that 0:33:38.320 --> 0:33:41.680 makes sense. Dwight Howard, same old Dwight stuff, like, you know, 0:33:42.040 --> 0:33:45.600 silly fouls, things along those lines, a little bit, a 0:33:45.600 --> 0:33:48.120 little bit too over zealous offensively, a couple of plays 0:33:48.120 --> 0:33:50.240 where like he tried to make something out of nothing 0:33:50.240 --> 0:33:51.959 on a post up where he probably should just kick 0:33:52.000 --> 0:33:53.880 it out to the guards and said another screen. You know, 0:33:54.160 --> 0:33:57.000 but I am like, I saw the DeAndre Jordan and 0:33:57.080 --> 0:33:59.240 Dwight thing and I was super happy with it, because 0:33:59.240 --> 0:34:02.600 one Dre is not gonna play that much. So whatever 0:34:02.640 --> 0:34:05.640 you get out of him is is gravy. Uh and too. 0:34:06.480 --> 0:34:09.359 I still absolutely love Dwight Howard for twenty minutes a game, 0:34:09.400 --> 0:34:12.160 playing alongside a Lebron and Anthony Davis. I just think 0:34:12.200 --> 0:34:16.000 he's a seamless fit who is who, who brings mostly 0:34:16.080 --> 0:34:18.480 good to the table, and it is an awesome Like 0:34:19.280 --> 0:34:23.560 he's just he's just he's just the perfect guy to 0:34:23.680 --> 0:34:26.600 have that curveball for we're gonna go big, you know, 0:34:26.640 --> 0:34:28.200 if if a d is gonna be at the four, 0:34:28.320 --> 0:34:30.160 Dwight's the guy that I want there next to him. 0:34:30.200 --> 0:34:32.520 I just think I think he's a natural fit in 0:34:32.520 --> 0:34:36.479 that position. So, um, did you have any other good things? 0:34:36.480 --> 0:34:39.480 Are we moving on to the bad things? Yeah? I 0:34:39.520 --> 0:34:41.000 think that was most of the good things. And you 0:34:41.000 --> 0:34:43.319 talked about DeAndre not running the floor like he was 0:34:43.400 --> 0:34:46.400 definitely in that like let me give the last amount 0:34:46.400 --> 0:34:50.160 of energy, you know, possible, while still to look kind 0:34:50.160 --> 0:34:52.279 of like I'm on the floor. Like both of those 0:34:52.280 --> 0:34:54.399 blocks were him, just like because the coverage, I mean, 0:34:54.560 --> 0:34:56.600 they're gonna be in this kind of dropback coverage right 0:34:56.600 --> 0:34:58.960 where like he's trying to protect from the lab while 0:34:59.000 --> 0:35:00.960 also just making sure of the guard doesn't get to 0:35:01.000 --> 0:35:04.040 the rim, Like that's his defensive coverage. Like expecting DeAndre 0:35:04.120 --> 0:35:06.719 Jordan to go out and switch, it's just not feasible, right, 0:35:07.000 --> 0:35:08.800 that's a position he's going to be in, And I 0:35:08.880 --> 0:35:10.680 thought he did his job, Like his job is to 0:35:10.719 --> 0:35:12.719 make sure that law is taken away and make sure 0:35:12.719 --> 0:35:14.400 the guard doesn't just get to the rim, and if 0:35:14.400 --> 0:35:16.480 they're gonna get they're gonna shoot a floater. I think 0:35:16.480 --> 0:35:19.000 Basemore talked about this at his press conference, but he's like, 0:35:19.320 --> 0:35:21.640 those guards are gonna shoot floaters over DeAndre, Jordan, A 0:35:21.719 --> 0:35:23.920 D and Dwight all night. You live with those results 0:35:23.960 --> 0:35:26.160 because they're not gonna make a good enough percentage of them. 0:35:26.280 --> 0:35:28.400 I thought the nets hit some tough ones. There's one 0:35:28.440 --> 0:35:31.760 where like DeAndre Bembrey banked in this floater over Dwight Howard. 0:35:31.800 --> 0:35:34.040 I don't know if you remember that one. I remember 0:35:34.080 --> 0:35:35.960 seeing that one in presson. I'm like, what the hell? 0:35:36.040 --> 0:35:38.160 But but yeah, so like if they make those, then 0:35:38.160 --> 0:35:39.839 they make those. But I thought he kind of did 0:35:39.880 --> 0:35:42.960 his job. He's not this big, like switchable kind of 0:35:43.000 --> 0:35:45.960 big defender. We oh there five ten minutes, give a 0:35:46.040 --> 0:35:47.839 D a break from being the center. That's his job, 0:35:47.840 --> 0:35:50.240 and I think he'll do that um in real games. 0:35:50.239 --> 0:35:52.160 So I think we saw a good showing that we 0:35:52.160 --> 0:35:54.760 can kind of move on to the road really quickly, 0:35:54.800 --> 0:35:59.160 just piggyback on that. Like like when you play Portland, 0:35:59.239 --> 0:36:03.480 for instance, you expect some shot making, like there's you 0:36:03.520 --> 0:36:05.759 play solid defense and they're gonna make some shots with 0:36:05.800 --> 0:36:07.840 hands in their face, like you know, Brooklyn's kind of 0:36:07.880 --> 0:36:10.040 the same way, you know, even with their bench guys 0:36:10.080 --> 0:36:13.200 like that. I think his name is Cam Johnson. I 0:36:13.239 --> 0:36:14.919 could be wrong about that, but what he was lighting 0:36:14.960 --> 0:36:17.319 up Ellington in the first half, making all these like 0:36:17.360 --> 0:36:19.560 off the dribble jump shots, and it's like at the 0:36:19.640 --> 0:36:22.200 end of the day, you know, yeah, you can pressure 0:36:22.239 --> 0:36:24.080 him a little bit more, make him feel uncomfortable. Don't 0:36:24.080 --> 0:36:26.480 get me wrong, but like part of the deal with 0:36:26.520 --> 0:36:28.839 teams like that is that you you make them take 0:36:28.880 --> 0:36:30.719 a ton of contested jump shots and you live with 0:36:30.719 --> 0:36:33.840 the results. Are gonna make some The reason why they lost, 0:36:34.080 --> 0:36:35.960 you know, the reason why they kind of trailed most 0:36:35.960 --> 0:36:38.200 of the game was the physical dominance, which we'll get 0:36:38.239 --> 0:36:40.640 to in a minute. Like they were just really small 0:36:40.680 --> 0:36:42.520 because they were missing all their forwards and so they 0:36:42.520 --> 0:36:45.480 gave up a million offensive rebounds and and just in general, 0:36:45.520 --> 0:36:48.160 they struggled with the physicality of the nets because they 0:36:48.200 --> 0:36:51.200 were less athletic and smaller. That's to be expected. And 0:36:51.200 --> 0:36:53.480 when you're when all of your athleticism is sitting on 0:36:53.480 --> 0:36:56.160 the bench, you know what I mean. But just in general, 0:36:56.239 --> 0:36:59.280 like I I think you gotta live with a certain 0:36:59.280 --> 0:37:01.879 amount of shot making. But anyway, go ahead and give 0:37:01.960 --> 0:37:04.719 us your first three things. First of the three things 0:37:04.719 --> 0:37:07.880 that the Lakers needed to work on, uh yeah, well, 0:37:07.880 --> 0:37:10.760 I mean just as close out. That last part is crazy. 0:37:10.840 --> 0:37:13.760 We went through a whole like first game preseason recap 0:37:13.800 --> 0:37:16.239 and we didn't even talk about Anthony Davis, which is 0:37:16.719 --> 0:37:18.520 is kind of which is kind of funny. We both 0:37:18.680 --> 0:37:20.799 ringed up like six things that didn't include him, So 0:37:21.560 --> 0:37:23.239 I guess energy A D was still like kind of 0:37:23.239 --> 0:37:25.799 like a seventy energy level, so I don't really have 0:37:25.880 --> 0:37:28.000 much on him. He was settling. He was against Paul 0:37:28.040 --> 0:37:30.839 millsap and taking jumpers and stuff like that, but I guess, 0:37:30.880 --> 0:37:33.560 like they're defensively, I thought he was good on defense. Yeah, 0:37:33.840 --> 0:37:35.600 he also was kind of in this like let me 0:37:35.640 --> 0:37:38.520 give as much energy the least amount of energy possible. 0:37:38.560 --> 0:37:41.120 But but like yeah, also like when he got on 0:37:41.200 --> 0:37:42.840 some switches, he shut them down, you know, when the 0:37:42.840 --> 0:37:45.360 guards were against him and made them take tough shots. 0:37:45.360 --> 0:37:47.080 So again, like A D is tough to kind of 0:37:47.160 --> 0:37:48.839 judge him on there. It's just nice to see him 0:37:48.840 --> 0:37:51.160 out there. But I guess, like my first one that 0:37:51.160 --> 0:37:53.319 they need to work on. They definitely need to, Like 0:37:53.520 --> 0:37:55.400 they did a lot of switching early on if he 0:37:55.440 --> 0:37:56.919 saw that, but it was a lot of like where 0:37:56.920 --> 0:37:59.440 the guard would end up on LaMarcus Aldridge, and then 0:37:59.440 --> 0:38:02.840 they did this unnecessary doubling uh right away, and it 0:38:02.920 --> 0:38:04.640 led to a bunch of open shots early. So I 0:38:04.640 --> 0:38:06.160 just think they need to kind of work on what 0:38:06.200 --> 0:38:08.520 they want to do defensively. Um. I think it's pretty 0:38:08.520 --> 0:38:11.280 clear they didn't want to leave the guard on Aldridge 0:38:11.280 --> 0:38:12.960 by themselves, but I thought it was just way too 0:38:13.040 --> 0:38:14.600 much double team. So what do you kind of see 0:38:14.600 --> 0:38:16.920 from the Demons, because I thought in the first quarter 0:38:17.000 --> 0:38:18.600 at least they were kind of confused on what they 0:38:18.600 --> 0:38:20.600 wanted to do. It was a lot of unnecessary kind 0:38:20.600 --> 0:38:23.400 of switches and Brooklyn basically went to this like mismatch 0:38:23.480 --> 0:38:25.759 hunting and again this preseason hard to tell, but I 0:38:25.760 --> 0:38:27.960 think that's the first thing there. Even with the starting lineup, 0:38:27.960 --> 0:38:29.880 even with a D and DJ there, I thought it 0:38:29.920 --> 0:38:32.120 was a lot of times where like th HD would 0:38:32.160 --> 0:38:34.279 end up on LaMarcus Aldridge or you know, like things 0:38:34.280 --> 0:38:36.239 like that would happen. So I just need to clean 0:38:36.280 --> 0:38:38.000 that up, I guess, And I know vote will will 0:38:38.120 --> 0:38:40.879 Um after looking at this film, he probably hasn't turned 0:38:40.880 --> 0:38:43.319 this game off since then, so I'm sure. I'm sure 0:38:43.320 --> 0:38:44.560 he'll get into that. But what do you see, I 0:38:44.600 --> 0:38:48.319 guess from the defense overall, So the Lakers will do 0:38:48.400 --> 0:38:51.640 some switching this year by design. Um that that's kind 0:38:51.640 --> 0:38:55.240 of the way that the roster has shaped up. UM. 0:38:55.280 --> 0:38:59.480 I see lineups like Russ Space more Areasa Lebron a 0:38:59.560 --> 0:39:04.560 D that could theoretically switch every screen. Um. But I 0:39:04.600 --> 0:39:07.360 don't think they were switching by design in that game 0:39:07.400 --> 0:39:10.160 in the first quarter. I think what happened was is 0:39:10.160 --> 0:39:13.239 they were in a drop coverage and the guards were 0:39:13.400 --> 0:39:16.200 getting caught way too easily on the screen and taking 0:39:16.239 --> 0:39:17.920 way too long to get over the top, and it 0:39:18.000 --> 0:39:21.000 was forcing a switch. And the reason why you could 0:39:21.000 --> 0:39:23.919 tell is what would usually happen is the guard would 0:39:24.000 --> 0:39:27.120 chase over the top and eventually get back to the 0:39:27.239 --> 0:39:31.520 to the offensive player, and then DeAndre Jordan's or or 0:39:31.760 --> 0:39:34.719 Dwight or a d would point over to the to 0:39:34.840 --> 0:39:36.759 the other guy and ask for a switch because they 0:39:36.760 --> 0:39:39.640 thought it was too late at that point. And you know, 0:39:39.719 --> 0:39:42.360 there's there's two sides to that, because some of that 0:39:42.520 --> 0:39:45.120 is like the big needs to the big needs to 0:39:45.160 --> 0:39:47.600 recover back, and then the some of that is the 0:39:47.600 --> 0:39:49.400 the guard needs to fight better over the top. But 0:39:49.440 --> 0:39:52.480 the reality is, if you're playing Paul Millsap and LaMarcus Aldridge, 0:39:52.680 --> 0:39:55.520 you should never be switching small guys onto them because 0:39:55.560 --> 0:39:58.680 those are two specific power forwards that fit more into 0:39:58.719 --> 0:40:01.200 that Mantrese Harold type of mold that we talked about 0:40:01.200 --> 0:40:03.359 where they're not big defensive presence is they're not big 0:40:03.400 --> 0:40:08.160 rebounding presences. But what they are our guys offensively, if 0:40:08.160 --> 0:40:09.880 they get a small guy on them, they're almost a 0:40:09.880 --> 0:40:13.239 guaranteed basket. And so it's it's not the kind of 0:40:13.239 --> 0:40:14.960 thing that you would like to switch if you could 0:40:14.960 --> 0:40:18.000 avoid it. So uh, in general, I don't want to 0:40:18.040 --> 0:40:20.400 overthink it because I think some of this just takes time. 0:40:21.040 --> 0:40:23.520 But in like if you're in a drop coverage, it 0:40:23.600 --> 0:40:26.239 depends on the fact that the guard can fight over 0:40:26.280 --> 0:40:28.360 the top so that they don't have to switch. Because 0:40:28.400 --> 0:40:30.560 the the the big is going to kind of position 0:40:30.640 --> 0:40:33.480 himself between the rim and the offensive player, and then 0:40:33.560 --> 0:40:36.920 as soon as the point of attack defender recovers, he 0:40:36.960 --> 0:40:39.640 recovers to the big. That's the way that that coverage works, 0:40:40.040 --> 0:40:42.040 and it's not gonna work if the guard dies on 0:40:42.080 --> 0:40:45.440 every single screen. Now, some of this is these guys, 0:40:45.480 --> 0:40:49.040 these uh, these guards that we have like Ellington, like 0:40:49.320 --> 0:40:52.960 Monk in the past haven't really been held to that 0:40:53.040 --> 0:40:55.840 high of a standard defensively, So there's gonna be an 0:40:55.880 --> 0:41:00.280 adjustment period. Also, when you're thin like a Malik Punk, 0:41:00.480 --> 0:41:02.799 it's a little bit easier to get caught on a 0:41:02.960 --> 0:41:06.399 on that type of screen. But I do think that 0:41:06.520 --> 0:41:10.520 through effort and focus and through reps, they can eventually 0:41:10.560 --> 0:41:13.120 figure that out. I do think that that's something that 0:41:13.160 --> 0:41:15.799 they can get better at. The Other thing, too, is 0:41:16.800 --> 0:41:19.800 inevitably you're going to give up those kinds of switches 0:41:19.880 --> 0:41:22.640 occasionally during the game. Like even if you fight over 0:41:22.680 --> 0:41:25.279 three of the screens, on that fourth one, maybe they 0:41:25.320 --> 0:41:27.399 catch you good and they get you switched and down 0:41:27.400 --> 0:41:30.040 on the block, so you have to double. And when 0:41:30.080 --> 0:41:33.719 they did those doubles on Sunday, they were sloppy on 0:41:33.840 --> 0:41:37.359 that back side. There was one where, uh, they kicked 0:41:37.360 --> 0:41:40.439 out to Bruce Brown. Aldridge kicked out to Bruce Brown 0:41:40.760 --> 0:41:43.920 and Anthony Davis easily could have rotated over and swallowed 0:41:43.960 --> 0:41:46.680 up the shot, but he was kind of just an 0:41:46.760 --> 0:41:49.400 upright position. He wasn't in the defensive stance. He was 0:41:49.480 --> 0:41:52.359 slow to step over and Bruce Brown. Brown knocked down 0:41:52.360 --> 0:41:55.000 the three that that was always the strength of the 0:41:55.080 --> 0:41:58.040 Laker defense in the previous two years. Is Okay, we 0:41:58.120 --> 0:42:01.640 had a breakdown and so we had to double. Now 0:42:01.680 --> 0:42:03.640 what do we do? What do we do on the 0:42:03.680 --> 0:42:07.279 back end? And they were always very sharp at that. 0:42:07.400 --> 0:42:10.960 Rotate and recover, rotate and recover, talking making sure that 0:42:11.200 --> 0:42:13.759 everybody was just kind of on a string defensively. That 0:42:13.840 --> 0:42:16.319 comes in time. So I'm not terribly concerned about it 0:42:16.360 --> 0:42:18.960 in the preseason, but just in general, when you do 0:42:19.080 --> 0:42:21.520 give up those types of mismatches and you have to double, 0:42:21.680 --> 0:42:23.759 the Lakers got to really tighten things up on the 0:42:23.760 --> 0:42:28.040 back end as a rotating defense. No, yeah, I agree 0:42:28.080 --> 0:42:29.640 with that, and they will. I mean, it's tough to 0:42:29.719 --> 0:42:32.040 kind of judge with the guards that they played, right, 0:42:32.080 --> 0:42:34.520 Kendrick Nunn is. I thought Kendrick Nunn had a pretty 0:42:34.520 --> 0:42:36.799 good defensive game, just like overall, I think he's a 0:42:37.760 --> 0:42:39.200 I think he's a good defender. It's just he was 0:42:39.239 --> 0:42:42.160 too small sometimes, like again when he's on like Audrey 0:42:42.200 --> 0:42:44.239 jorm Mill, sap Um just too small to kind of 0:42:44.280 --> 0:42:46.759 deal with them. They gave up a lot offensive rebounds. Again, 0:42:46.800 --> 0:42:49.240 this goes back to my like, gave as much effort 0:42:49.280 --> 0:42:51.239 as you at least amount of effort as you can. 0:42:51.520 --> 0:42:53.279 Like DJ and A. Do you want to know part 0:42:53.280 --> 0:42:55.480 of like boxing out right, they weren't trying to box out, 0:42:55.480 --> 0:42:56.960 They were just trying to jump up and kind of 0:42:57.000 --> 0:42:58.719 get the rebounds, and they gave up a lot of 0:42:58.719 --> 0:43:00.960 offensive rebounds that way. One of them, I think, just 0:43:01.040 --> 0:43:02.560 like A do you try to jump on and get 0:43:02.600 --> 0:43:04.400 in and went to forgot the guy's name and he 0:43:04.440 --> 0:43:06.400 got filed shooting shooting the shot. So a lot of 0:43:06.400 --> 0:43:09.160 those kind of possessions happen. I expect those things to 0:43:09.239 --> 0:43:11.680 kind of clean up as we go here. And again, 0:43:11.719 --> 0:43:14.280 like it's hard to judge any of this without Russell 0:43:14.280 --> 0:43:16.040 Westbrook and Lebron on the floor, Like I need to 0:43:16.080 --> 0:43:18.640 see how the defense works with with them on the floor. 0:43:18.680 --> 0:43:21.040 So everything changes when those two get in there, and 0:43:21.080 --> 0:43:22.520 when a D is at the five as well. We 0:43:22.560 --> 0:43:24.960 saw some a D at the five right like when 0:43:25.160 --> 0:43:27.440 DJ was out, but uh and when D why Howard 0:43:27.440 --> 0:43:29.000 wasn't on the floor. But I just want to see 0:43:29.040 --> 0:43:31.000 all of that together and hopefully we do on Wednesday. 0:43:31.120 --> 0:43:34.239 What's your kind of first thing that you disliked? So 0:43:34.520 --> 0:43:36.959 really quickly, just following up on what you just said 0:43:37.040 --> 0:43:40.120 the in general when you're evaluating these preseason games, and 0:43:40.160 --> 0:43:42.000 that the LFR probably did a good job of of 0:43:42.080 --> 0:43:44.760 kind of describing this, but like, you're not really looking 0:43:44.800 --> 0:43:47.919 at the scoreboard because you're not fielding a real basketball team. 0:43:48.000 --> 0:43:50.680 So I look at two specific things. I look at 0:43:50.760 --> 0:43:52.920 individual skill sets, like what am I what am I 0:43:52.960 --> 0:43:55.680 seeing out of an individual basketball player? That translates to 0:43:55.719 --> 0:43:57.680 when you have the full team, which we'll talk about 0:43:57.680 --> 0:44:00.359 even more when we dive into the guards a little 0:44:00.360 --> 0:44:03.280 bit more. But the other thing is like specific lineups, 0:44:03.560 --> 0:44:06.279 and uh, like that starting lineup, for instance, is a 0:44:06.320 --> 0:44:09.000 lineup you might occasionally see this year a D with 0:44:09.080 --> 0:44:12.040 the center and three guards who can shoot and dribble. 0:44:12.320 --> 0:44:14.120 You know that that's that's an example of something you 0:44:14.160 --> 0:44:16.319 can watch. But watching the scoreboard in general is just 0:44:16.360 --> 0:44:18.799 kind of a fool's Errand in that kind of of 0:44:18.920 --> 0:44:21.760 environment when you're not fielding your real basketball team, Lebron 0:44:21.840 --> 0:44:25.359 and Russ just do so much, especially on the offensive end, 0:44:25.800 --> 0:44:28.240 to to kind of just put guys in the right spots, 0:44:28.239 --> 0:44:34.560 slotting them in the in the right spots. My um uh. Second, 0:44:35.360 --> 0:44:37.719 because I put guards fighting over screens, which kind of 0:44:37.760 --> 0:44:40.080 piggybacks of what you were saying. But the second thing 0:44:40.120 --> 0:44:41.560 I put for the three things to work on with 0:44:41.560 --> 0:44:44.920 guards missing box outs. I and you had mentioned this 0:44:44.960 --> 0:44:48.120 in in in your last segment, but like I I 0:44:48.200 --> 0:44:51.719 counted miss box outs from every single guard and that 0:44:51.840 --> 0:44:56.520 is just that is just little focused stuff that can't 0:44:56.560 --> 0:44:58.799 be let down. There was one where there was one 0:44:58.840 --> 0:45:01.960 where bays More uh was guarding a man in the 0:45:02.000 --> 0:45:04.479 corner and after the shot went up, he just turned 0:45:04.520 --> 0:45:09.319 towards the rim and started walking and uh as soon 0:45:09.360 --> 0:45:10.960 as you walked in, the guy crashed right out of 0:45:10.960 --> 0:45:12.840 the corner and got an offensive rebound. There was a 0:45:12.880 --> 0:45:15.760 possession from th h T really really well put together 0:45:15.840 --> 0:45:20.200 where he bothers the ball handler at the point of attack, 0:45:20.360 --> 0:45:22.360 gets caught on the screen. They have to switch. Anthony 0:45:22.400 --> 0:45:24.160 Davis is the one who switches, so it's actually not 0:45:24.200 --> 0:45:27.319 that bad of a switch. And th HD like squatted 0:45:27.360 --> 0:45:30.440 really low and and and prevented Paul Millsap from from 0:45:30.440 --> 0:45:33.000 getting position, but then he got switched again onto a 0:45:33.000 --> 0:45:34.839 guard in the corner and the shot went up and 0:45:34.920 --> 0:45:37.080 he didn't box out and gave up an offensive rebound. 0:45:37.120 --> 0:45:38.719 The ball got knocked out of bounds, and it's like 0:45:39.080 --> 0:45:43.440 you did of that possession like an all defensive level defender, 0:45:43.960 --> 0:45:47.560 and you just missed the last, arguably most important part, 0:45:48.040 --> 0:45:50.799 and that that that all is is stuff that just 0:45:50.840 --> 0:45:54.640 needs to be tightened up. Malik Monk in particular, was 0:45:54.719 --> 0:45:58.000 caught in a couple of physical mismatches. Or he'd be 0:45:58.040 --> 0:46:02.080 guarding I'm horrible remembering these, you know, G league level 0:46:02.080 --> 0:46:03.799 guys that are on the nets, but like he'd be 0:46:03.800 --> 0:46:08.160 guarding a six six super athletic guard and he's six three, 0:46:08.280 --> 0:46:10.680 and it's like it's not enough to run up and 0:46:10.680 --> 0:46:12.640 put a forearm on him, because if you run up 0:46:12.640 --> 0:46:14.400 and put a forum on him, he's just gonna bully 0:46:14.440 --> 0:46:17.440 you physically and get an offensive rebound. On those guys 0:46:17.480 --> 0:46:20.240 that have that distinct size advantage, you need to really 0:46:20.320 --> 0:46:23.759 technically sound box out. You need to squat into a 0:46:23.840 --> 0:46:27.239 defensive stance, spread your arms and make him literally go 0:46:27.360 --> 0:46:29.839 over your back so that what if he does get 0:46:29.840 --> 0:46:32.400 the offensive rebound, he gets called, you know, for the 0:46:32.480 --> 0:46:34.600 offensive foul. Those are the kinds of the kinds of 0:46:34.640 --> 0:46:39.160 things that uh that I noticed, and you know, just 0:46:39.200 --> 0:46:43.320 in general, uh uh, the effort I thought was there. 0:46:43.719 --> 0:46:45.920 It's just that little bit of focus. So I'm not 0:46:46.000 --> 0:46:48.720 concerned about it in the long run. It's just something 0:46:48.719 --> 0:46:50.920 that I noticed from the game that needs to be 0:46:51.000 --> 0:46:53.440 tightened up a little bit, Yeah, for sure. And I 0:46:53.480 --> 0:46:55.879 thought like, this is kind of the trade off, right, 0:46:55.880 --> 0:46:58.400 like when you trade for like these kind of offensive 0:46:59.360 --> 0:47:01.759 these offense to focus guards, Like the trade off is 0:47:01.840 --> 0:47:04.879 kind of the defensive. I don't know ever, but kind 0:47:04.880 --> 0:47:07.359 of the defensive focus I guess, and guards who are 0:47:07.440 --> 0:47:09.480 kind of make their name on offense is gonna take 0:47:09.520 --> 0:47:13.120 time for those guys to kind of adjust adjust their UM. 0:47:13.160 --> 0:47:14.640 I don't on what they can do. So I agree 0:47:14.640 --> 0:47:16.920 with that um and we'll see, Like I feel like 0:47:17.000 --> 0:47:18.880 Vogo will be able to help them. Malik Monk reminds 0:47:18.880 --> 0:47:21.560 me a lot of like I guess where Kuzma was 0:47:21.719 --> 0:47:24.279 when when he was before he got with Vogel as well, 0:47:24.280 --> 0:47:27.600 Like his's just his defensive kind of now his like 0:47:27.640 --> 0:47:29.480 how he how he defends. I guess it's just not 0:47:29.680 --> 0:47:32.000 technical like the way he tries it goes around screens, 0:47:32.160 --> 0:47:33.560 you talked about he gets caught a lot, and I 0:47:33.640 --> 0:47:35.920 think it will be help with Vogels, so I agree 0:47:35.920 --> 0:47:38.000 with that. I think they'll be better. Though my third one, 0:47:38.040 --> 0:47:40.520 I guess, like I think this is my third one 0:47:40.560 --> 0:47:42.080 that I want to see kind of worked on, is 0:47:42.480 --> 0:47:44.719 uh those like kind of I know that we said 0:47:44.760 --> 0:47:46.440 Rust and Lebron are gonna be on the floor a lot, 0:47:46.440 --> 0:47:47.959 but I do think we need to find a way 0:47:48.040 --> 0:47:50.400 to have some kind of shot creation when they're not 0:47:50.440 --> 0:47:53.040 on the floor, Like like I feel like I know 0:47:53.120 --> 0:47:55.239 PhD is probably not the right guy for that, but 0:47:55.280 --> 0:47:56.960 we just need to find a way, whether it's Kendrick 0:47:57.000 --> 0:47:59.040 Nunn being the ball handler, just need to find the 0:47:59.080 --> 0:48:01.719 lineup that can great. Um Russell Lebron again will be 0:48:01.719 --> 0:48:03.960 on the floor for most of the time, but I 0:48:04.000 --> 0:48:05.560 just want to find a way to get enough good 0:48:05.560 --> 0:48:07.680 shot creation when they're not there, like when it was 0:48:07.719 --> 0:48:10.120 a d at the starting lineup, and again DeAndre Jordan 0:48:10.160 --> 0:48:12.359 probably won't start a lot of games, but or maybe 0:48:12.360 --> 0:48:15.480 he will, who knows, but but but but still like that, 0:48:15.600 --> 0:48:17.399 I think we have like eight points or something through 0:48:17.440 --> 0:48:18.880 like a lot of the first quarter, you know, and 0:48:18.960 --> 0:48:21.120 just not getting good shots and a lot of this. Again, 0:48:21.280 --> 0:48:23.080 I talked about the A D was kind of settling, 0:48:23.320 --> 0:48:25.680 took a lot of midrange jumpers over Paul Millsapp. You 0:48:25.719 --> 0:48:28.000 should have Paul Millstapp, who should have no business guarding 0:48:28.040 --> 0:48:30.239 Anthony Davis in any kind of setting. I don't care 0:48:30.280 --> 0:48:32.719 what what season it is, but yeah, he took. But 0:48:32.800 --> 0:48:36.640 that's a A D likes to do that. It just 0:48:36.760 --> 0:48:39.759 it is what it is he does. But again, like 0:48:39.840 --> 0:48:42.040 just in that kind of setting, like it's Paul Millsap, 0:48:42.160 --> 0:48:43.480 like get to the rim, you know, like trying to 0:48:43.480 --> 0:48:45.879 get to the basket. Yeah, like we said go inside out, 0:48:45.920 --> 0:48:47.680 but but yeah, he he does like to settle for that. 0:48:47.760 --> 0:48:50.080 But yeah, like that's but I would like I would 0:48:50.080 --> 0:48:51.760 like to see some way to get better shot creation. 0:48:51.760 --> 0:48:54.280 Maybe it's Kendrick Nunn, Like Henry Nunn started to get comfortable, 0:48:54.440 --> 0:48:55.840 he started to pull up. But he's not like a 0:48:55.960 --> 0:48:58.760 shot creator. He's kind of creates for more for himself. 0:48:58.800 --> 0:49:01.040 THD as well. We talked about him just gonna find 0:49:01.040 --> 0:49:03.400 the lineup that can create without Russ and Braun at 0:49:03.480 --> 0:49:05.680 least for a few minutes there. I know they'll play 0:49:05.719 --> 0:49:07.839 a lot. So that was my kind of final if 0:49:07.880 --> 0:49:10.799 I want to nitpick Um in the preseason first game 0:49:10.800 --> 0:49:13.920 of the preseason Um, that would be like my final 0:49:14.000 --> 0:49:19.759 nitpick there. So I I I tend to agree that 0:49:19.800 --> 0:49:23.200 outside of Lebron, Russ and Rondo, who won't play that 0:49:23.239 --> 0:49:25.920 there's that you don't have high level passers on the roster. 0:49:26.200 --> 0:49:29.080 This is something that a lot of Laker outlets have 0:49:29.160 --> 0:49:31.759 been kind of harping on in the last few weeks. 0:49:31.760 --> 0:49:33.600 You have a bunch of kind of one track mind 0:49:33.760 --> 0:49:36.440 type of offensive players. So I think the way you 0:49:36.600 --> 0:49:40.120 counter that is won by staggering and try to have 0:49:40.239 --> 0:49:42.320 Lebron and Russ on the floor as much as possible. 0:49:42.760 --> 0:49:46.080 But two, if you can't through resting or whatever it 0:49:46.120 --> 0:49:50.040 may be, load management injuries, you've got to simplify their reads. 0:49:50.280 --> 0:49:52.880 And we're gonna talk a little bit more about this 0:49:52.920 --> 0:49:54.799 when we get to my last thing, which has has 0:49:54.800 --> 0:49:58.239 to do with th HT. But like if you so, 0:49:58.320 --> 0:50:01.440 for instance, put Ellington in the strong side corner, have 0:50:01.600 --> 0:50:04.000 Dwight set the screen and try to go four out 0:50:04.360 --> 0:50:07.800 with the other guys and get you know, either Kendrick 0:50:07.840 --> 0:50:10.120 Nun or Malik Monk with the ball in their hands 0:50:10.480 --> 0:50:13.439 and and make it really simple. Here comes the ball screen. 0:50:13.520 --> 0:50:15.600 If he goes under, you shoot it every single time. 0:50:15.840 --> 0:50:17.839 If he chases over the top, you continue to go 0:50:17.920 --> 0:50:20.279 down the lane and you either pass it into the 0:50:20.280 --> 0:50:22.160 pocket to Dwight, or if the guy helps out of 0:50:22.200 --> 0:50:25.000 the corner, you kick it back to Ellington. Like make 0:50:25.040 --> 0:50:29.439 it easy basketball, you know. Uh. One of the uh 0:50:29.560 --> 0:50:32.000 one of the biggest things that my last college coach 0:50:32.040 --> 0:50:34.279 that I played for used in order to try to 0:50:34.320 --> 0:50:37.200 help make help guys with easy reads is to play 0:50:37.200 --> 0:50:39.920 three on three. Uh. He would. He would even if 0:50:39.920 --> 0:50:41.680 he had enough guys to play five and five. He's 0:50:41.719 --> 0:50:45.040 set up three on three because mentally, the game is 0:50:45.040 --> 0:50:47.600 just a little bit easier to process in three on 0:50:47.719 --> 0:50:51.240 three because it's it's just it's you're you're taking away 0:50:51.320 --> 0:50:53.560 all of the complexities of ten guys on the floor, 0:50:53.640 --> 0:50:56.520 and it's like, here's my defender, here's the guy who's 0:50:56.560 --> 0:50:59.239 screening for me in his defender, and here's the spot 0:50:59.280 --> 0:51:02.080 up shooter on the weak side, and just making really 0:51:02.120 --> 0:51:06.560 really basic basketball decisions and repetitively making those decisions until 0:51:06.560 --> 0:51:08.160 you figure it out. I think that's the way you 0:51:08.160 --> 0:51:10.800 do it, as you Ellington is a real easy strong 0:51:10.840 --> 0:51:13.520 side corner option because the guys probably not gonna help, 0:51:13.760 --> 0:51:16.040 so it turns into a real true two man game 0:51:16.239 --> 0:51:18.600 with your screener. But if he does, it's a really 0:51:18.640 --> 0:51:20.759 easy kick out to a really, really good shooter. Those 0:51:20.760 --> 0:51:23.799 are the ways that you can simplify that. But I'm 0:51:23.800 --> 0:51:26.520 with you in general, like, in order in order for 0:51:26.560 --> 0:51:29.080 the non Lebron minutes to be positive, you either need 0:51:29.120 --> 0:51:31.840 to stagger like crazy and hope that Russ gives you 0:51:31.840 --> 0:51:34.799 an m v P caliber season out of that out 0:51:34.840 --> 0:51:37.560 of that type of role, or you need to make 0:51:37.600 --> 0:51:39.720 it so that when Russell Lebron are off the floor, 0:51:40.000 --> 0:51:42.919 your guards are set up to succeed by simplifying their 0:51:43.000 --> 0:51:46.839 their decision making. Um. The last thing that I put 0:51:46.840 --> 0:51:49.320 as a thing to work on was bad th h 0:51:49.440 --> 0:51:52.040 t um, and I'm not gonna spend too much time 0:51:52.080 --> 0:51:54.480 on it because it's things we've all mentioned, decision making, Like, 0:51:54.560 --> 0:51:58.240 he just had a tendency to force things and and 0:51:58.239 --> 0:52:01.279 and pass up on easy options that were there. You know, 0:52:01.920 --> 0:52:06.840 a basketball player that's that's forcing almost always leads to 0:52:06.880 --> 0:52:10.040 a bad outcome. And the reason why it's pretty simple. 0:52:10.800 --> 0:52:14.319 When a basketball player is forcing, he becomes predictable, and 0:52:14.400 --> 0:52:16.840 so the point of attack defender has a really easy 0:52:16.880 --> 0:52:20.680 time staying in front of him. Usually, Also, the refs 0:52:20.719 --> 0:52:23.680 can see when a player is forcing. If I if 0:52:23.719 --> 0:52:26.400 I don't have a driving lane and I forced the 0:52:26.400 --> 0:52:28.279 ball to the right and I just start plowing into 0:52:28.280 --> 0:52:31.680 the lane, the refs are naturally going to let a 0:52:31.680 --> 0:52:35.400 lot of contact go. The refs just kind of naturally 0:52:35.760 --> 0:52:40.080 benefit or excuse me, will reward good basketball and will 0:52:40.200 --> 0:52:43.200 naturally punish bad basketball. It's like the player control foul. 0:52:43.200 --> 0:52:45.920 It's like when you when you plow somebody over. Even 0:52:45.960 --> 0:52:47.759 if the guy's moving his feet a little bit and 0:52:47.760 --> 0:52:50.359 he's kind of out of position, the refs just gonna 0:52:50.440 --> 0:52:52.960 kind of naturally be like, like, you're out of control 0:52:53.000 --> 0:52:55.360 going into the lane. So this looks like an offensive 0:52:55.360 --> 0:52:57.319 foul to me. You know. That's kind of the thing 0:52:57.360 --> 0:52:59.520 that you notice a lot with THHD in that game, 0:52:59.600 --> 0:53:02.439 was just putting his head down and forcing his way 0:53:02.480 --> 0:53:05.879 into the lane and it leading to bad outcomes through 0:53:06.080 --> 0:53:09.440 revs letting contact go and defenders kind of being positioned 0:53:09.480 --> 0:53:11.160 between him and the rim. That's just something for him 0:53:11.200 --> 0:53:13.160 to work on. And then the last part I put 0:53:13.200 --> 0:53:16.920 there was failing to finish plays defensively, like lots of activity, 0:53:17.480 --> 0:53:20.480 really good disruption at the point of attack, switching and 0:53:20.520 --> 0:53:22.719 getting low and keeping the big from getting good post 0:53:22.800 --> 0:53:25.680 position and then missing a box out or you know, 0:53:25.840 --> 0:53:28.680 making two rotations but missing that third rotation. Those are 0:53:28.719 --> 0:53:30.080 the kinds of things that I'd like to see t 0:53:30.239 --> 0:53:33.320 HD get better at his understanding that the defensive possession 0:53:33.360 --> 0:53:37.360 doesn't end until your team possesses the basketball. So what 0:53:37.440 --> 0:53:39.000 were the things that you were critical of with th 0:53:39.200 --> 0:53:42.520 HD in that game? So like watching THHD, always think 0:53:42.560 --> 0:53:46.279 like there's another universe where like THHT is on some 0:53:46.360 --> 0:53:50.640 lottery team, right, and they're like, hey, you're our future, 0:53:50.800 --> 0:53:55.040 you know, and here's the ball, and here's thirty pick 0:53:55.080 --> 0:53:57.680 and roll as a game, get all the reps you want. 0:53:57.880 --> 0:54:00.960 You know, don't care about scoreboard, don't care about anything 0:54:01.000 --> 0:54:03.640 like this is built around you. You know, you choose 0:54:03.640 --> 0:54:06.279 where the passes go, and we're just gonna let you 0:54:06.320 --> 0:54:08.360 get all the reps in the world. And I related 0:54:08.680 --> 0:54:11.040 to this too, like I think it was eighteen before 0:54:11.160 --> 0:54:14.799 Lebron got here, obviously, and we did that with Brandon Ingram, right, 0:54:14.920 --> 0:54:17.919 like Luke Ballng said, here, Brandon Ingram, here's the ball. 0:54:18.880 --> 0:54:20.839 You have enough ball handling. We have lots of ball 0:54:20.960 --> 0:54:22.880 next to you, but you're gonna be the primary creator. 0:54:23.040 --> 0:54:24.480 Here's all the reps in the world. And it was 0:54:24.560 --> 0:54:27.480 ugly a lot of the times because it's brand Ingram 0:54:27.520 --> 0:54:30.400 and THD is actually ahead of Ingram in terms of 0:54:30.440 --> 0:54:33.080 like just the you know, ball handling and able to 0:54:33.080 --> 0:54:34.640 get to the rim and you know all that kind 0:54:34.680 --> 0:54:36.200 of stuff. He was ahead of Ingram. He just was. 0:54:36.440 --> 0:54:38.640 But now New Orleans is getting the fruit of that labor, 0:54:38.719 --> 0:54:40.919 right because now England, even though it's still not great, 0:54:41.000 --> 0:54:43.959 even though he's probably not a you know, top level 0:54:44.000 --> 0:54:46.400 playoff team type of creator, but he's a good shot creator. 0:54:46.440 --> 0:54:48.400 And so that's how I kind of see with THHT 0:54:48.560 --> 0:54:50.120 like he's not going to get the reps that these 0:54:50.120 --> 0:54:52.640 other players do, all these other lottery picks, and he 0:54:52.680 --> 0:54:54.239 wasn't a lottery pick, but you know that type of 0:54:54.320 --> 0:54:56.560 talented player would get. He's not gonna get those here. 0:54:56.600 --> 0:54:58.960 So again, like to me, he was in that Lebron 0:54:59.080 --> 0:55:00.839 Russ role last night, and then you put a twenty 0:55:00.880 --> 0:55:03.200 year old in a Lebron Russ roll, So it's gonna 0:55:03.200 --> 0:55:05.600 look like like that's that's the kind of basketball you're 0:55:05.600 --> 0:55:07.399 gonna get when you get those guys being the main 0:55:07.400 --> 0:55:09.200 shot creator. So I agree with you, yess to become 0:55:09.239 --> 0:55:11.560 a better pastor, you guess to make the easy reads 0:55:11.560 --> 0:55:13.200 a little bit better. Right, Like there was a there 0:55:13.239 --> 0:55:16.040 was one driver like he drove and Baisemore was open 0:55:16.080 --> 0:55:18.040 in the corner and he got fouled on it. Like 0:55:18.080 --> 0:55:20.440 he did get fouled, but Basemore was like having his 0:55:20.520 --> 0:55:22.120 hands up, you know, in the air and then like 0:55:22.160 --> 0:55:23.879 you know when you clap, like when you don't get 0:55:23.880 --> 0:55:25.719 the ball and you're standing in the corner. It was 0:55:25.760 --> 0:55:28.880 one of those, and so so so there was a 0:55:28.880 --> 0:55:31.040 lot of little moments like that the only team was open, 0:55:31.160 --> 0:55:33.200 he didn't find him, and I don't expect him to 0:55:33.239 --> 0:55:36.719 make those complicated like dry, where's the first help and 0:55:36.840 --> 0:55:39.439 second help coming from? So he it's a skip pass 0:55:39.480 --> 0:55:41.560 to the corner, like I don't make me expect him 0:55:41.600 --> 0:55:43.719 to make those. But just like those, I thought he 0:55:43.719 --> 0:55:45.759 had some nice dump off passes as well to DJ 0:55:45.880 --> 0:55:48.120 and stuff like that. But yeah, I agree with you, 0:55:48.200 --> 0:55:50.640 needs to work on his playmaking. I just don't know 0:55:50.680 --> 0:55:53.600 if we'll see like that those advanced reads or even 0:55:53.600 --> 0:55:55.200 the advanced reads this year, but I think he can 0:55:55.200 --> 0:55:57.400 get the simple ones down. You'll get enough minutes to 0:55:57.480 --> 0:56:00.200 at least get those um next to Russ and Ron 0:56:00.239 --> 0:56:02.280 and you can make those simple reads when you're attacking 0:56:02.520 --> 0:56:05.480 a compromised defense that the reeds are a little bit easier. 0:56:05.480 --> 0:56:08.320 Those like first drive, Okay, where's this help and where's 0:56:08.320 --> 0:56:11.160 the rotating rotation coming from? Those kind of things. I think, well, 0:56:11.200 --> 0:56:12.799 we will take time, but I agree with you, those 0:56:12.840 --> 0:56:15.080 are things he needs to work on. Yeah, Like the 0:56:15.120 --> 0:56:17.440 classic example is that Ellington kick out that I posted 0:56:17.480 --> 0:56:20.640 on Twitter, Like it's very simple basketball play, like guy 0:56:20.680 --> 0:56:23.279 closes out on me, and because he was kind of 0:56:23.360 --> 0:56:26.080 chasing over screen. Well, in this case, Ellington used a 0:56:26.120 --> 0:56:28.439 V cut to get open, but he caught and beat 0:56:28.520 --> 0:56:31.280 his man off the dribble because of his shooting ability. 0:56:31.400 --> 0:56:33.680 Then he just drove into the lane and as soon 0:56:33.719 --> 0:56:35.680 as he got into the lane, there was a man 0:56:35.680 --> 0:56:37.239 who helped off the Kendrick Nunn and it was an 0:56:37.280 --> 0:56:39.360 easy kick out to the corner. That kind of basketball 0:56:39.400 --> 0:56:42.400 is easy, whereas if Ellington's you know, coming off of 0:56:42.400 --> 0:56:44.000 a pick and roll. As a ball handler, it's just 0:56:44.000 --> 0:56:46.239 a little bit more complicated, you know, in terms of 0:56:46.280 --> 0:56:48.920 there are pros and cons to to th HDS development, 0:56:49.480 --> 0:56:51.200 he's not getting reps on a bad team to learn 0:56:51.200 --> 0:56:53.759 how to be an advanced ball creator, the on ball 0:56:53.800 --> 0:56:56.359 creator the way that uh, you know, Brandon Ingram did. 0:56:56.719 --> 0:56:59.840 But if you watch Brandon Ingram now, he struggles in 0:56:59.880 --> 0:57:03.560 a lot of the you know, kind of fundamental role 0:57:03.600 --> 0:57:06.720 player type things, like he's not very good defensively because 0:57:06.760 --> 0:57:09.160 he's been on team he's been on teams where he's 0:57:09.200 --> 0:57:11.799 been asked to just create everything offensively and kind of 0:57:11.840 --> 0:57:14.279 whatever you give us defensively he's good, you know. Or 0:57:15.280 --> 0:57:17.600 let's say, for instance, that the Pelicans had gotten Kyle 0:57:17.600 --> 0:57:21.200 Lowry and they were considered more of a championship type favorite, 0:57:21.240 --> 0:57:23.160 like Brandon Ingram would have been forced to do a 0:57:23.160 --> 0:57:25.840 lot more off the basketball. That's an element of his 0:57:25.880 --> 0:57:28.280 game that hasn't really been developed over the years. You know, 0:57:28.400 --> 0:57:30.920 th HT for what it's worth. With the reps that 0:57:30.920 --> 0:57:33.800 he's missing as an on ball creator, he's getting reps 0:57:34.280 --> 0:57:37.600 as an off ball type of role player. And in 0:57:37.640 --> 0:57:40.560 the future when he is on a team where he's 0:57:40.600 --> 0:57:43.840 the second or third best player on a championship level contender, 0:57:44.240 --> 0:57:47.080 it will benefit him that he knows how to play 0:57:47.080 --> 0:57:50.040 off the ball. And that he is dialed in defensively, 0:57:50.080 --> 0:57:53.080 those kinds of things there there are long term advantages 0:57:53.120 --> 0:57:55.720 to that, so I I do think that that's worth 0:57:55.760 --> 0:58:01.040 pointing out. Um So, we got about seven minutes I 0:58:01.120 --> 0:58:03.640 wanted to We may not have time to deep dive 0:58:03.680 --> 0:58:05.640 into each of these players, and we'll do it more 0:58:05.680 --> 0:58:08.480 as we go through the preseason. I had a specific 0:58:08.520 --> 0:58:12.120 topic that I wanted to talk about with you. Um So, 0:58:13.880 --> 0:58:15.280 there's been a lot of talk about how the point 0:58:15.320 --> 0:58:18.600 of attack defense this year is not as good, and 0:58:19.240 --> 0:58:21.840 you know, the the example that most people were using 0:58:22.120 --> 0:58:25.840 from Sunday's game was Ellington and the fact that that 0:58:26.000 --> 0:58:28.600 Cam Thomas or whatever his name was was was lighting 0:58:28.640 --> 0:58:31.960 him up and getting decent shots off the dribble and 0:58:31.960 --> 0:58:35.880 getting by him. I think I there's and I could 0:58:35.960 --> 0:58:38.520 just be overly optimistic here, but the reason why I'm 0:58:38.560 --> 0:58:42.040 not necessarily concerned about it is I care so much 0:58:42.120 --> 0:58:47.200 more about reactionary defense then point of attack defense because 0:58:47.240 --> 0:58:49.120 of the fact that when you get to the highest 0:58:49.240 --> 0:58:53.400 levels in the finals and in the conference finals, you're 0:58:53.440 --> 0:58:58.040 not keeping anybody at these superstars in front Like okay, yeah, 0:58:58.360 --> 0:59:02.280 like Ellington's struggle to stay in front of Cam Thomas, 0:59:02.320 --> 0:59:04.840 but like Lebron would struggle to stay in front of 0:59:04.880 --> 0:59:08.960 Kyrie Irving. So like, when you're in that series, the 0:59:09.000 --> 0:59:11.760 Brooklyn is gonna compromise you, like they're just going to 0:59:12.040 --> 0:59:14.120 if you're playing the Clippers, for instance, Let's say they 0:59:14.120 --> 0:59:16.160 play the Clippers in the conference finals. Like, you don't 0:59:16.200 --> 0:59:18.160 think Reggie Jackson and Paul George are gonna beat guys 0:59:18.200 --> 0:59:20.120 off the dribble, Like I don't care if you're playing 0:59:20.120 --> 0:59:22.480 bays Moore and Areza and Russ and you keep all 0:59:22.480 --> 0:59:25.160 your weak defenders on the bench, those they're you're gonna 0:59:25.160 --> 0:59:27.240 give up straight line drives. It's just kind of the 0:59:26.960 --> 0:59:31.320 the nature of it trying to guard these top tier teams. 0:59:31.680 --> 0:59:34.800 So what matters more to me is how you recover 0:59:34.880 --> 0:59:37.320 and react to that kind of stuff. So like, I 0:59:37.360 --> 0:59:40.240 don't care as much about Ellington's ability to keep somebody 0:59:40.240 --> 0:59:43.280 in front as long as he's dialed in in the rotations, 0:59:43.880 --> 0:59:46.080 because you will be able to double, you will be 0:59:46.120 --> 0:59:48.120 able to send help, and as long as once the 0:59:48.120 --> 0:59:50.520 ball has given up Ellington's sprints to the next shooter, 0:59:50.880 --> 0:59:53.360 it'll work, you know what I mean. That's that's the 0:59:53.440 --> 0:59:55.240 kind of thing that I think matters more. Does that 0:59:55.280 --> 0:59:57.040 make sense to me or to you? I should say 0:59:57.960 --> 1:00:00.400 yeah for sure. The playoffs become this like this match 1:00:00.480 --> 1:00:03.200 hunting kind of thing, right where it's like you're kind 1:00:03.200 --> 1:00:06.840 of as good as your weakest defender in that kind 1:00:06.840 --> 1:00:09.200 of way. So to me, it's all about health defense 1:00:09.240 --> 1:00:10.960 as well. Like how did how did the Clippers I 1:00:10.960 --> 1:00:13.800 guess be Utah right, Like they went into this like 1:00:13.840 --> 1:00:16.320 they knew that they would not switch with Gobert, right, 1:00:16.360 --> 1:00:18.640 so like Gobert just they just don't switch with him, 1:00:18.640 --> 1:00:21.480 so they would call his man up drive by kick, 1:00:21.600 --> 1:00:23.680 kick all the way and get gets three point shots 1:00:23.720 --> 1:00:26.440 off that. Ellenton and Monk are not gonna stay in 1:00:26.440 --> 1:00:28.520 front of defenders, Like I don't expect them to. I 1:00:28.520 --> 1:00:31.560 don't expect them to be like Alex Crusoe level defenders. 1:00:31.560 --> 1:00:34.000 Like that's not fair. Um, But like I think when 1:00:34.000 --> 1:00:36.800 you put guys in specialized roles, they can succeed. So 1:00:36.880 --> 1:00:39.800 like if they're gonna run this like drop ice coverage 1:00:39.840 --> 1:00:42.280 and they just run that, you know, just be very clear, Hey, 1:00:42.280 --> 1:00:44.840 you push your guy away from the screen and we'll 1:00:44.880 --> 1:00:46.320 handle the rest, you know what I mean, Like, just 1:00:46.400 --> 1:00:49.360 do your job. They're putting Ellenton on some guy and 1:00:49.360 --> 1:00:51.520 telling him to shut him down. That's just not feasible. 1:00:51.600 --> 1:00:54.080 Molik Monk as well, Kendrick Nunn as well, those guys, 1:00:54.120 --> 1:00:56.440 you just don't do that. Like, our starting lineup will 1:00:56.480 --> 1:00:59.439 be Russ Braun and a D right, and that's Brun 1:00:59.520 --> 1:01:01.640 and a D are good enough health defenders to me 1:01:01.760 --> 1:01:03.440 to be able to cover a lot of things like that, 1:01:03.480 --> 1:01:06.160 to cover gaps in that way, we had a small guarlt. 1:01:06.200 --> 1:01:08.120 I think Dennis Freuder is a good defender as a 1:01:08.200 --> 1:01:10.200 super small guard, right, He's a super small guard. The 1:01:10.240 --> 1:01:11.960 Lakes were able to kind of cover that have the 1:01:12.040 --> 1:01:15.120 number one defense last year's still so I agree with you. 1:01:15.120 --> 1:01:17.000 I think it is it is overstated, but I do 1:01:17.080 --> 1:01:19.120 think it still matters. I don't think you can have 1:01:19.200 --> 1:01:22.280 like four bad point of attack defenders together, right, like, 1:01:22.400 --> 1:01:25.240 especially in closing lineups, like we're not gonna see none 1:01:25.640 --> 1:01:28.760 and Ellington probably close games, right, you probably won't see that, 1:01:28.800 --> 1:01:30.400 Like it will be against second units where you kind 1:01:30.440 --> 1:01:32.600 of you kind of live with that. But I think 1:01:32.640 --> 1:01:34.480 you can't have like and then you can have like 1:01:34.560 --> 1:01:37.200 three or four bad point of attack defenders in your 1:01:37.240 --> 1:01:39.480 closing lineup to me, like I feel like that's where 1:01:39.520 --> 1:01:41.240 you kind of have to you have to make sure 1:01:41.280 --> 1:01:43.400 you have really great defenders there. But I think it's overstated. 1:01:43.440 --> 1:01:45.600 I think what they bring on offense more than mix 1:01:45.680 --> 1:01:49.320 up for the defensive drop. They're like their threats as 1:01:49.400 --> 1:01:51.640 offensive players makes up for them. And that's the trade 1:01:51.640 --> 1:01:54.600 off that the Lakers did this offseason, and uh, I 1:01:54.600 --> 1:01:56.080 think it is worth it. Like, I think that's what 1:01:56.120 --> 1:01:57.960 we'll see. There might be a little drop on defense 1:01:57.960 --> 1:02:00.360 in that point of attack, but I think lay some 1:02:00.440 --> 1:02:02.000 more than a players to cover up for it. So 1:02:02.120 --> 1:02:04.520 but will he that's a good point about not being 1:02:04.520 --> 1:02:06.840 able to or not not being a good idea to 1:02:06.840 --> 1:02:09.760 put multiple of them on the on the floor at 1:02:09.760 --> 1:02:12.160 the same time. I mean, I was actually planning on 1:02:12.200 --> 1:02:14.240 talking about this today, we didn't really have time. But like, 1:02:14.800 --> 1:02:19.240 aggregate athleticism and aggregate size matters to me because like so, 1:02:19.280 --> 1:02:23.360 for instance, like we got bullied physically by Brooklyn, who's 1:02:23.440 --> 1:02:26.480 not a physically dominating team because we had no forwards 1:02:26.520 --> 1:02:29.360 in the game, so we were playing basically either four 1:02:29.360 --> 1:02:32.280 guards in a center or three guards in and a 1:02:32.360 --> 1:02:34.320 D in a center. That's basically what we did all 1:02:34.360 --> 1:02:37.240 game long. And you know, Baysmore was probably the biggest 1:02:37.520 --> 1:02:40.640 UH guard that we would play in one of those positions. 1:02:40.680 --> 1:02:45.880 So the aggregate athleticism and physicality in that lineup is poor, 1:02:46.480 --> 1:02:50.040 you know, like but you know, the like Ellington getting 1:02:50.080 --> 1:02:52.280 physically bullied is going to be more noticeable in the 1:02:52.320 --> 1:02:54.960 lineup like that, whereas if he's in the starting lineup, 1:02:54.960 --> 1:02:57.400 the proposed starting lineup, where he's with Lebron and he's 1:02:57.400 --> 1:02:58.760 with Rus and he's with a D and he's with 1:02:58.760 --> 1:03:05.480 Trevor Reza, the excuse me, the aggregate athleticism of that 1:03:05.520 --> 1:03:08.200 group in totality makes up for it. It's like the 1:03:08.240 --> 1:03:10.120 Trey Young thing, you know. And we talked a little 1:03:10.120 --> 1:03:11.920 bit about this, I think in the last pot or 1:03:11.960 --> 1:03:16.160 the one before, But like there are you know, the defense. 1:03:16.280 --> 1:03:19.520 Defense is always evolved as well as offense in the NBA, 1:03:19.760 --> 1:03:22.160 you know, uh, you know, all this off the dribble 1:03:22.200 --> 1:03:27.320 shooting and all of these comprehensive offensive you know, evolutions 1:03:27.320 --> 1:03:30.040 over the last ten years come hand in hand with 1:03:30.080 --> 1:03:34.880 defensive evolutions, and switch attacking was inherently going to lead 1:03:34.920 --> 1:03:37.840 to a counter from defenses and they exist now. And 1:03:37.880 --> 1:03:40.200 we talked about that. You can do things to hide 1:03:40.200 --> 1:03:43.360 Trey Young that three or four years ago you couldn't do. 1:03:43.800 --> 1:03:46.600 And so again, it works as long as you have 1:03:46.680 --> 1:03:49.160 all those other small forwards like the Hawks have, and 1:03:49.240 --> 1:03:51.760 you have Clint Capella under the rim like you as 1:03:51.800 --> 1:03:56.080 a that the aggregate total physicality of that defense made 1:03:56.080 --> 1:03:59.400 it so that Trey Young wasn't as much of a liability. 1:03:59.440 --> 1:04:01.000 And and so that's the way you gotta make it. 1:04:01.200 --> 1:04:05.080 Make it work now. In general, what will be interesting 1:04:05.080 --> 1:04:07.400 to see is how often Frank plays two of those guards, 1:04:07.400 --> 1:04:09.640 because the three guards that I'm gonna be looking at 1:04:09.680 --> 1:04:11.959 as guys who are huge liabilities are gonna be Monk, 1:04:12.040 --> 1:04:14.880 None and Ellington. And I don't know that you can 1:04:14.920 --> 1:04:17.240 play two of them at the same time, but maybe 1:04:17.360 --> 1:04:20.280 maybe they do. And it's in the lineups with A 1:04:20.400 --> 1:04:22.920 D and Dwight. And then it's, like you said, you 1:04:23.000 --> 1:04:26.640 simplify what you're asking them to do. Okay. I don't 1:04:26.720 --> 1:04:31.320 need you to be like a shutdown isolation defender. I 1:04:31.400 --> 1:04:34.760 just need you to force guys away from ball screens 1:04:34.760 --> 1:04:36.760 so we can ice on the side, so that forces 1:04:36.800 --> 1:04:39.920 guys into the rim, and we need you to chase 1:04:39.960 --> 1:04:42.200 guys off the line when you're closing out like you 1:04:42.240 --> 1:04:45.480 can simplify their role and then basically make it so 1:04:45.520 --> 1:04:49.000 that as long as they do these very simple things 1:04:49.080 --> 1:04:52.600 really well, then the totality of the scheme works because 1:04:52.640 --> 1:04:54.920 you have Anthony Davison Dwight out there. Though that's the 1:04:54.960 --> 1:04:56.760 way that I would look at it in terms of 1:04:56.800 --> 1:04:59.520 like a way to play two of them at the 1:04:59.560 --> 1:05:01.200 same time. Honestly, I don't think you'll see two of 1:05:01.240 --> 1:05:03.320 him at the same time very often, especially since Frank 1:05:03.360 --> 1:05:05.760 said he plans I'm playing Mellow a lot, So you're 1:05:05.760 --> 1:05:08.240 gonna see a lot of Mellow, Mellow and Areza and 1:05:08.600 --> 1:05:11.120 in days more. That just means there's just not a 1:05:11.120 --> 1:05:14.120 ton of opportunity there for those guys to be out there, 1:05:14.160 --> 1:05:16.480 you know, in mass if that makes sense. And I 1:05:16.520 --> 1:05:19.320 love that you brought up Trey Young because like, yes, 1:05:19.440 --> 1:05:22.000 you can attack Trey Young like they put him in 1:05:22.040 --> 1:05:24.480 the corner right against some corner shooter. Usually that's what 1:05:24.480 --> 1:05:26.760 the Hawks do. You can try to attack Trey Young. 1:05:27.200 --> 1:05:29.480 It's gonna take like fifteen seconds of your shot clock. 1:05:29.600 --> 1:05:31.440 Just okay that the Hawks, you know, are able to 1:05:31.440 --> 1:05:33.400 switch and they know what they're doing. The same with 1:05:33.440 --> 1:05:35.240 the same thing with the Lakers. I remember in the playoffs, 1:05:35.280 --> 1:05:37.600 like you would play Rondo a bunch, you could try to, 1:05:38.000 --> 1:05:40.959 you know, mismatch attack Rondo. It's gonna take fifteen seconds 1:05:41.240 --> 1:05:43.919 shot clock. And then it's also Anthony Davis is gonna 1:05:43.920 --> 1:05:45.640 be waiting there. So like, yes, you can try to 1:05:45.680 --> 1:05:48.360 mismatch on against Rondo is a great example, by the way, 1:05:48.360 --> 1:05:50.240 I literally thought about that last night watching the game. 1:05:50.240 --> 1:05:52.400 I'm like, we did it with Rondo. Yeah, Like so 1:05:52.440 --> 1:05:54.000 if you have Rono on the floor, teams you can 1:05:54.040 --> 1:05:56.160 try to attack him. But like the Lakers, they know 1:05:56.240 --> 1:05:58.600 exactly what they do in that situation, right, It's not 1:05:58.640 --> 1:06:00.480 like they don't know they're gonna try too. So like 1:06:00.920 --> 1:06:03.240 Trey Young as well, is the example there Rondo as well, 1:06:03.280 --> 1:06:05.320 So like you can, it's gonna take. It's why teams 1:06:05.360 --> 1:06:08.120 like that are able to do it. Um, you go 1:06:08.160 --> 1:06:10.240 against schemes that aren't as good. I guess like it's 1:06:10.280 --> 1:06:13.680 it's tougher against good defenses right to mismatch hunt um. 1:06:13.880 --> 1:06:15.800 I think also the Hawks kind of play two teams 1:06:15.800 --> 1:06:19.320 that were probably the least equipped to attack mismatches in 1:06:19.360 --> 1:06:22.000 the Knicks and the Sixers. But still though, like Trey Young, 1:06:22.080 --> 1:06:23.760 is Trey Young is a short point guard was a 1:06:23.840 --> 1:06:25.840 huge offensive you know load, you should be able to 1:06:25.880 --> 1:06:28.000 attack him, but they just couldn't because the Hawks are 1:06:28.000 --> 1:06:30.400 extremely good and they surround him with a bunch of 1:06:30.440 --> 1:06:33.040 wings who can defend in a in a shop blocking 1:06:33.080 --> 1:06:35.080 center at the middle. So and I think the Lakers 1:06:35.120 --> 1:06:36.720 kind of can do that as well to an even 1:06:36.760 --> 1:06:38.800 better extent. So I agree with you it's hard to 1:06:38.800 --> 1:06:40.920 attack those and I don't. But I still think you 1:06:40.960 --> 1:06:43.880 can't have like three or four bad point of bad 1:06:43.920 --> 1:06:46.120 point of attack defenders who just get beat off the 1:06:46.200 --> 1:06:48.880 dribble time and time and time again. But you can 1:06:48.920 --> 1:06:51.320 simplify their roles. You can have a good defense, as 1:06:51.480 --> 1:06:52.960 I think we saw that last year. There was a 1:06:53.040 --> 1:06:54.880 musical chairs with the Lakers, like you don't know who 1:06:54.960 --> 1:06:57.480 was playing nine to nine, and they still kept um, 1:06:57.880 --> 1:07:00.600 they still kept their defensive identity. So I agree with 1:07:00.600 --> 1:07:04.800 you on that. Do you have anything else you wanna add? Uh? No, 1:07:04.960 --> 1:07:07.440 I think that's it. It's fun game. That first game 1:07:08.080 --> 1:07:12.240 Lakers play again tomorrow. I believe that like tomorrow three o'clock, 1:07:12.720 --> 1:07:15.120 Roger and I will most likely be recording on Thursday morning. 1:07:15.120 --> 1:07:18.280 I would assume possibly Friday, but we'll probably go for 1:07:18.400 --> 1:07:21.000 We'll probably shoot for Thursday so that we can get 1:07:21.040 --> 1:07:24.440 the guys at dash Radio another show on Friday. UM. 1:07:24.480 --> 1:07:26.320 Thank you guys so much for your support as always. 1:07:26.520 --> 1:07:29.360 Like I said, this will air on dash Radio tomorrow 1:07:29.400 --> 1:07:33.720 at seven am Pacific Standard time. Also, we will have 1:07:33.840 --> 1:07:36.560 the podcast version of this uploaded here within the next 1:07:36.600 --> 1:07:38.920 few minutes. Thank you, guys as always for your support. 1:07:38.920 --> 1:07:40.720 We're in the mix of things now. We're looking forward 1:07:40.760 --> 1:07:43.360 to a lot of la your basketball over the next 1:07:43.600 --> 1:07:47.760 hopefully nine months or so. UM. Alright, guys, everybody, enjoy 1:07:47.840 --> 1:07:49.040 the rest of your day and we will see you 1:07:49.080 --> 1:07:51.120 on Thursday. Thanks everyone,