Speaker 1: Hmm, what's up everybody. Welcome to the Jason timp Podcast.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for taking time out of
Speaker 1: your day to come hang out and talk some basketball
Speaker 1: with Roj and I. You guys may know Raj has
Speaker 1: unwritten rules on Twitter is one of my favorite Laker accounts.
Speaker 1: Rags how you doing? Man? Doing great? Man? Uh? We're
Speaker 1: up early here on the West Coast around just just
Speaker 1: past nine am. So wondering how many other people are
Speaker 1: awake this early, but yeah, here we are. I'm impressed.
Speaker 1: When you and I talked about doing this, I did
Speaker 1: not expect us to actually do what was necessary to
Speaker 1: get it done. But I'm glad we're gonna We're gonna
Speaker 1: knock it out early here this weekend and we can
Speaker 1: go back to relaxing. I really do think that, in
Speaker 1: spite of some unusual circumstances rounding these first what do
Speaker 1: we have now, uh ten games? Surrounding these first ten games,
Speaker 1: I really do think there's some interesting stuff that we
Speaker 1: could take away from it. We're gonna we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about how the Lakers schedule may have had some impact
Speaker 1: on the way that they've been playing. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about Anthony Davis and how he kind of seems to
Speaker 1: be I don't want to say unhappy, but he seems
Speaker 1: a little frustrated with the defensive end, and how some
Speaker 1: other stuff may have been impacting that. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about Montrese Harrold and how his fit has been a
Speaker 1: little weird. And then we're gonna talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about how the Lakers have changed their defensive scheme this
Speaker 1: year as a result of losing Dwight and Javail and
Speaker 1: how that has kind of impacted them, uh in particular
Speaker 1: as as they've played some of these bad teams in
Speaker 1: the last week. Uh. And then we're gonna take your
Speaker 1: guys his mail back questions. So while we're talking, feel
Speaker 1: free to drop any questions you have in the comments.
Speaker 1: We're gonna save some time there at the end to
Speaker 1: rapid fire through those. Um but you know, on that note,
Speaker 1: we'll get started the I do. So, the Lakers are
Speaker 1: seven and three. They are currently second in offense and
Speaker 1: or excuse me, third in offense, and they are eighth
Speaker 1: in defense, second in net rating. The defense has slipped
Speaker 1: particularly as of late. The thing that I think is
Speaker 1: interesting is that the it was hard enough to get
Speaker 1: these guys to turn around and come back and play basketball.
Speaker 1: We had these interviews from Danny Green and and Lebron
Speaker 1: and himself saying like that he was really really frustrated
Speaker 1: with the quick turnaround. You compound that with the situation
Speaker 1: with the fans where there's no adrenaline rush while they're playing,
Speaker 1: and then you add to that a weird schedule circumstance
Speaker 1: where all of a sudden, like Karl Anthony Towns gets
Speaker 1: hurt and LaMarcus Aldridge gets hurt and John Moran gets hurt,
Speaker 1: and now they're basically playing like a bunch of NBA
Speaker 1: role players every single every single day without any star
Speaker 1: talent on the floor that they're going against. And it's
Speaker 1: kind of like night after night after night, and it's
Speaker 1: like then again last night, it's like, here we go
Speaker 1: with the Bulls. This is a terrible team. How about
Speaker 1: let's let's see if we can try to find the
Speaker 1: energy in this empty, cavernous stadium to try to play
Speaker 1: hard again. And I really do think that, like it's
Speaker 1: it's been an immense challenge for these guys to find
Speaker 1: just the motivation to try to play hard. Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: And like I tweeted out the first quarter scores after
Speaker 1: the previous five games. Um, they gave up thirty points
Speaker 1: to San Antonio, Memphis, Memphis, San Antonio, m Chicago. UM,
Speaker 1: they're down in all these games and they're freaking out.
Speaker 1: They can just outscore them. And that's not a fun
Speaker 1: game to watch for the fans. That's not a fun
Speaker 1: game to see. UM. And then you can see Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis get frustrated. UM. I was looking at the Obviously
Speaker 1: strength of schedule was a funny joke last year, but
Speaker 1: Lakers are six team in strength and schedule. UM, they
Speaker 1: have the easiest schedule coming up. So I don't think
Speaker 1: you're gonna see a lot of a lot of flips
Speaker 1: coming UM, But was it's kind of funny. You look
Speaker 1: at Denver, who's had the easiest or the second easiest
Speaker 1: in the three and five. So this season is is
Speaker 1: kind of strange. But yeah, that if you're looking at
Speaker 1: these games, and UM, I take away ring night. They
Speaker 1: were down twenty in the first quarter. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not really sure what to do to do with that.
Speaker 1: After that, they blew out Minnesota, Dallas. UM tough game
Speaker 1: against Portland. They couldn't hit a shot. So it's kind
Speaker 1: of tough to really engauge where there are in terms
Speaker 1: of that. And I think the schedule they went on
Speaker 1: the road, Um, the road is different now, right. You
Speaker 1: can't leave your hotel room. It's not like, uh, it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a bubble in of itself, is what
Speaker 1: some of the people said. Um, you can't go anywhere.
Speaker 1: You can't even have dinner with your teammates in a way, so, um,
Speaker 1: it's just totally different. Um. Anthony Davis after the final
Speaker 1: road game was like, yes, let's get us home please, Like, um,
Speaker 1: we've been on the road too long. It was like
Speaker 1: a four game trip and then you got to come
Speaker 1: back and play a Spurs team you just played twice.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's kind of tough. The schedule makers. I
Speaker 1: think they did in my favorite giving them a little
Speaker 1: bit easier schedule. But yeah, when you said Evans in defense,
Speaker 1: that's a surprise to me because they have not looked
Speaker 1: at at all. I feel like they've played ten minutes
Speaker 1: with the defensive game and are somehow winning, somehowinning these games. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna talk more about that later. The reality is,
Speaker 1: I think their defense has been pretty bad. The bottom
Speaker 1: line is is that, like when you're playing inferior talent,
Speaker 1: you can kind of beg them or you can dare
Speaker 1: them to make shots. You can if they're if they're
Speaker 1: whatever their primary creator is, who's usually the fourth or
Speaker 1: fifth best guy on a on a normal playoff team
Speaker 1: is is trying to create shots against one of your
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders, He's just going to be inefficient. It's it's
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those things where like when we're
Speaker 1: talking about the defense later, we're gonna try to focus
Speaker 1: on xs and those, because the reality is is looking
Speaker 1: at actual results, even given what their circumstances are, you're
Speaker 1: just not going to get a lot from that um
Speaker 1: and and again, I just the last thing I'll say
Speaker 1: about the schedule is like I just I feel bad
Speaker 1: ad for them in a certain sense because you rushed
Speaker 1: them to come back after this super emotional, crazy draining
Speaker 1: bubble experience. Like you rushed them to come back, and
Speaker 1: then they come back and they're playing in these empty
Speaker 1: stadiums against bad teams. It just has to be like
Speaker 1: a really really challenging mental experience, you know. I just
Speaker 1: I don't I don't envy them in that regard. I
Speaker 1: there are some tough games coming up this before the
Speaker 1: end of this month. They play the Bucks, they play
Speaker 1: the Warriors, play the Rockets, they play some good teams.
Speaker 1: They're gonna they're gonna have a chance to to get
Speaker 1: a little bit more adrenaline because I think, I think
Speaker 1: that it's a class It's a classic case of you know,
Speaker 1: when you when you feel threatened, that's when you can
Speaker 1: you can dig deep and find your normal reserves of energy.
Speaker 1: And I do believe they'll be able to do that.
Speaker 1: Um So, the first thing that I want to talk about,
Speaker 1: uh in terms of just like a little bit more
Speaker 1: um uh focused topic. So Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis basically
Speaker 1: has been underwhelming on both ends of the floor. On
Speaker 1: the defensive end, he's just been a little bit on focus,
Speaker 1: a little bit, a little bit sloppy, a little bit
Speaker 1: in and out with his effort. And then on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor, he's been extremely perimeter oriented
Speaker 1: more than usual. And some of that is by design
Speaker 1: because Frank Vogel has been explicitly asking him to take
Speaker 1: more threes than he usually does, but some of it
Speaker 1: also is just it seems like he's kind of floating
Speaker 1: around and taking shots settling with the intent of saving
Speaker 1: his legs and saving his energy for later in the season. Um,
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts so far and what you've seen
Speaker 1: from Anthony Davis? Are you concerned at all? Are you
Speaker 1: just kind of like waiting for him to wake up?
Speaker 1: What are you? What are your what's your whole impression
Speaker 1: of that situation? Yeah, it all ties in right, like
Speaker 1: you were talking about you rushed him back. Um, the
Speaker 1: Lakers won the title ninety like two days ago. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you look at a regular offseason, you go from June,
Speaker 1: let's say even until June, you get like four months
Speaker 1: and by the time you're in this stage of the season,
Speaker 1: it's like six months passed by. So when I look
Speaker 1: at him, he's taking a lot of mid range pull ups,
Speaker 1: like he's settling, he's not trying to get to the rim,
Speaker 1: but he's hitting them. So I mean, like if he's
Speaker 1: hitting his uh, if he's hitting his pull up jump shots,
Speaker 1: then I mean go ahead, right, Why waste all that
Speaker 1: energy driving to the rim every time? Um, and he
Speaker 1: has took a lot more threes I'm fine with, Like
Speaker 1: the spot up three's, it's like the just dribble into
Speaker 1: like a three when it's a close game. Kind of
Speaker 1: those are the ones that are a little tough to take.
Speaker 1: But I think he's been He's been fine right there.
Speaker 1: It's the defense that, like you can tell he was
Speaker 1: super frustrating that Spurs game. And then I feel like
Speaker 1: it's a combination, like when you have a lack of effort,
Speaker 1: you also have a lack of awareness, you know, like
Speaker 1: a communication, all those things go together. It's not just
Speaker 1: that people aren't trying. I think that's like a really
Speaker 1: easy way to just put that on, like, oh, they're
Speaker 1: not trying yet, Like I don't think that was the
Speaker 1: case in like the second half. I feel like they
Speaker 1: did want to win that Spurs game, but it's really
Speaker 1: tough to turn it on and you have guys hot already,
Speaker 1: like Marcus Adders was on fire by the time that
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis trying to actually do something about it. Um
Speaker 1: Deante Murray was hitting pull up shots over him. So
Speaker 1: when you get a team and a rhythm like that
Speaker 1: the way the Lakers are starting games, Like I know
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis after the game was like, no, we were
Speaker 1: terrible on defense, but I mean, you can't start games,
Speaker 1: like going fifty percent effort by the time teams are hot.
Speaker 1: You saw with the Bulls last night. I think um
Speaker 1: Zach Lavine started nine for nine or something like some
Speaker 1: crazy amount. Um Anthony Davids didn't play that night, but
Speaker 1: still you can just see the effort effort, Wayne, and
Speaker 1: I think he'll be fine. We saw in the Bubble
Speaker 1: last year people are kind of worried those regular Bubble
Speaker 1: games before the playoffs. Um, I think his jumper was
Speaker 1: kind of off, and then all of a sudden the playoffs,
Speaker 1: it just turned on. And we know the stealing of
Speaker 1: this team. So I'm not worried about him yet. Ten
Speaker 1: games in, Um, I think it's gonna take a few weeks.
Speaker 1: You can see his conditioning still try to get up there.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if he's still hurt. He sat out
Speaker 1: last night, but yeah, I mean, I think he'll be okay.
Speaker 1: He just his aggression will pick up. I'm sure nobody
Speaker 1: wants to lose games. I see you say this a lot.
Speaker 1: Competitors will eventually like, I want to get their asky
Speaker 1: every night, like even though they're seven and three somehow,
Speaker 1: but it feels like they've been down most most of
Speaker 1: these games. Well, I think the I think their record,
Speaker 1: as a result of the inferior competition they've been playing,
Speaker 1: has kind of lulled them to sleep. And I think
Speaker 1: that's what actually did hurt them against the Spurs, and
Speaker 1: it's the reason why they barely beat the Bulls last
Speaker 1: night even without a D. That was a team that
Speaker 1: should have been able to handle a little bit more comfortably.
Speaker 1: But I mean, the reality is is, like I agree
Speaker 1: with you, Like, you can't just blame it on effort.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's a lot of different factors. I do
Speaker 1: think efforts part of it, especially from a consistency perspective,
Speaker 1: because like basketball's game of runs, and you're gonna blow
Speaker 1: leads and or you know, get yourself behind when you
Speaker 1: go through a five ten minute period where you're floating around.
Speaker 1: That's just kind of how it goes. The specifically, Like,
Speaker 1: I think that you made a great point as it
Speaker 1: pertains to confidence with these guys, you know basketball, particularly
Speaker 1: with jump shooting, you that you there is you're you're
Speaker 1: constantly like building into your rhythm, you know. I I
Speaker 1: feel like most jump shooters you'll talk to will say
Speaker 1: this to you. They'll say early in the game, They're
Speaker 1: not necessarily concerned about a couple of misses because they're
Speaker 1: dialing things in. You know, they're they're feeling okay, like
Speaker 1: I'm a little bit left to right here, I'm a
Speaker 1: little bit longer short. They make those little slight adjustments,
Speaker 1: and then when they get confident, once they get into
Speaker 1: their rhythm, it doesn't matter really how close you are
Speaker 1: to them. If they can get up into their shooting motion,
Speaker 1: it's gonna go in. And I thought that was a
Speaker 1: classic case of what happened against the Spurs. Early in
Speaker 1: the game. The Lakers let them get comfortable, and as
Speaker 1: the game progressed, even when the Lakers dialed up their
Speaker 1: defensive intensity, they were just so comfortable and in their
Speaker 1: rhythm that that extra space that was taken away by
Speaker 1: the Lakers increased defensive intensity didn't bother them at all,
Speaker 1: and they were able to just get what you know,
Speaker 1: they were able to make. They like the Spurs beat
Speaker 1: the Lakers that night with jump shots, which was pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: That's it's a it's not a common thing to see
Speaker 1: over great defense, but that's that's something to keep an
Speaker 1: eye out. So I think that Anthony Davis struggles all
Speaker 1: a product of two things, and we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about them each year individually. Um, I think it has
Speaker 1: to do with a little bit with Dennis Shrewder, and
Speaker 1: just not the Dennis Shreuder is a problem, but just
Speaker 1: that he's a new circumstance that is requiring this Laker
Speaker 1: team to play a little bit differently on the offensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. Right. And then the second thing
Speaker 1: has to do with their pick and roll coverage, which
Speaker 1: we'll get to in a minute. But with Dennis Shrewder,
Speaker 1: you know, I was pushing and and talking about this
Speaker 1: all like NonStop before the season. You and I talked
Speaker 1: about it on a couple of occasions. You know, a
Speaker 1: Dennis Shudder was worried about his starting role as a
Speaker 1: result of the UH as a result of his ego
Speaker 1: for lack of a better term, Okay, and Shroders and
Speaker 1: shoulder has been great this season. For the record, He's
Speaker 1: been excellent on the defensive end for the most part,
Speaker 1: with the exception of Anthony Davis ripping him a new
Speaker 1: one over that Spurs game. But and then on offense,
Speaker 1: he's been pretty good. He's shooting right around thirty four
Speaker 1: and a half percent from three, So it's not quite
Speaker 1: as good as last year, but it's okay, and feel
Speaker 1: like he's had a lot of really good offensive games.
Speaker 1: The problem is is I think you could also draw
Speaker 1: a line between that and Anthony Davis's offensive rhythm. So,
Speaker 1: for the record, as Zach Globe pointed out in his
Speaker 1: podcast yesterday, the Lakers starting lineup with either KCP or
Speaker 1: Cou's with Schroeder, Lebron, a D and Uh and Marcusol
Speaker 1: is doing really well. So the starting lineup is doing well.
Speaker 1: Where they're losing these first quarters is in the second
Speaker 1: half of the first quarter when Lebron goes to the bench.
Speaker 1: But I really do think that you have to look
Speaker 1: beyond just that specific focused window and understand that even
Speaker 1: though the team is performing well and on the scoreboard
Speaker 1: in those minutes, Anthony Davis isn't really getting a lot
Speaker 1: of touches in those minutes, and so as a result
Speaker 1: of that, it's kind of warping the rhythm of the
Speaker 1: game a little bit, so that when Lebron goes to
Speaker 1: the bench and suddenly they start feeding a d at
Speaker 1: the end of the first quarter, he's not really in
Speaker 1: any sort of rhythm. And now he's you know, just
Speaker 1: taking ump shots and and and you know, and the
Speaker 1: bottom line is is that I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: the tinkering with their lineups has to be involved with
Speaker 1: understanding the rhythm of every player on the floor and
Speaker 1: not just you know, not just how Dennis is feeling
Speaker 1: about his particular ego situation and even if he wants
Speaker 1: to start. Maybe it's as simple as instead of having
Speaker 1: Lebron go to the bench first at the five minute mark,
Speaker 1: having Dennis go to the bench first at the five
Speaker 1: minute mark or something along those lines. I just think
Speaker 1: there's some tinkering that needs to be done there because
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis needs to be getting more attempts early in
Speaker 1: the game instead of worrying so much about Dennis and
Speaker 1: how he's feeling with the ball in his hands. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you made a great point there, because Lebron is playing
Speaker 1: a lot with that second unit um with like Harold,
Speaker 1: and it's also Shrewder on the floor as well, so
Speaker 1: there's a lot of there's a lot of guys to
Speaker 1: feed there. I feel like a d is also trying
Speaker 1: to find his place next to Marcus Saul. It feels
Speaker 1: like when he's next to Mark he's still a jump shooter,
Speaker 1: Like he turns even more into a jump shooters. So, um,
Speaker 1: it's kind of it's kind of strange just see that.
Speaker 1: And I would like him to get more reps with Shooter. Um,
Speaker 1: they can obviously run pick and roll. Um, they do
Speaker 1: it pretty well, especially when when it's no Lebron on
Speaker 1: the floor and it's just him in a D running
Speaker 1: uh running ball screen actions. Um, but you would like
Speaker 1: to see that a little bit more in the second unit.
Speaker 1: I feel like, um, you should stagger a Shooter and
Speaker 1: Lebron seman, it's a little more so than a D
Speaker 1: can kind of play with him. And I think that's
Speaker 1: a good point that he's not getting his touches early.
Speaker 1: But again, when he's like you know, walking through first
Speaker 1: quarters and just standing on the side while Shooter and
Speaker 1: Mark play pick and roller, Lebron is attacking like it's
Speaker 1: hard to get a rhythm for him. And like I
Speaker 1: think I said this before, Um, he's a guy that
Speaker 1: hasn't played with a low motor before. Like he's a
Speaker 1: he's a guy that likes to go a hundred miles
Speaker 1: prower second. So he's a guy that's learning how to
Speaker 1: like you know, go six for the first three quarters
Speaker 1: and then bump it up in the final in the
Speaker 1: final quarter of the game, And I think that comes
Speaker 1: with experience. And I feel like the lineups are still
Speaker 1: I don't think Vogel is really putting out lineups to
Speaker 1: just win that game. He's doing a lot of like experimenting.
Speaker 1: I mean last night we saw like th ht Crusoe
Speaker 1: and Shooter playing playing playing lineups and it was just
Speaker 1: a lot of strange experiments going on. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: he said on the Zach Lopot, I think he said,
Speaker 1: the starters are doing really well. Um, even the starters
Speaker 1: with Wes Matthews Kusuma all have really great minutes. It's
Speaker 1: just that bench with Harold Um and a d which
Speaker 1: is still struggling to kind of find offense when it's
Speaker 1: when it's Lebron out there running it. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: like him to play a little bit more Shooter if
Speaker 1: he can in that bench shoot it well. The thing
Speaker 1: was Shooter that you gotta keep your mind too, is
Speaker 1: like he's not a traditional point guard, Like he's not
Speaker 1: like now, for the record, and there's a much larger
Speaker 1: conversation to be had here and about the way basketball
Speaker 1: has changed in the sense that there's just not a
Speaker 1: lot of natural point guards out there. I was talking
Speaker 1: about this with some guys this morning as it pertains
Speaker 1: to the Clippers, because they desperately need a point guard,
Speaker 1: like a guy who can set up their main guys.
Speaker 1: But there's just not that many guys around the league
Speaker 1: because the natural guard that's being raised in our basketball
Speaker 1: system in America right now is being raised to be
Speaker 1: a scoring guard. And so the and and it's interesting
Speaker 1: how that's kind of changed a leak. But Shruder is
Speaker 1: wired that way. What Shrewder is wired to go, you're
Speaker 1: is to just be an effort for a guy. Well,
Speaker 1: so Shrewder su Shreuder is a weapon. He's like a
Speaker 1: better analogy be he's a bullet. You aim and you
Speaker 1: shoot him, and he just goes like he knows how
Speaker 1: to do one thing, and he's had to do it
Speaker 1: extremely aggressively in one style. In way he's gonna put
Speaker 1: a ball pressure defensively and be a pest and then
Speaker 1: on the offensive end, he's just gonna go. He's gonna
Speaker 1: go to the rim as many times as relentlessly as
Speaker 1: he can. He's not a guy who's gonna feel the
Speaker 1: flow of a game and be really attentive to the
Speaker 1: rhythm of the players around him. He's gonna be primarily
Speaker 1: focused on what he does best. That doesn't make him
Speaker 1: in value or unvaluable. It just means that if he's
Speaker 1: being used in that starting lineup, you're not gonna be
Speaker 1: able to convince him to play a more passive role
Speaker 1: because it goes against his basketball identity. And so the
Speaker 1: key there is like that, it's not even so much
Speaker 1: about um, it's not even so much about like, uh,
Speaker 1: understanding that that Dennis Shutter's ego is at risk. It's
Speaker 1: all what's also at risk is his own specific talent
Speaker 1: that he brings to the table. By allowing him to
Speaker 1: come in later or to go out quicker and then
Speaker 1: come back in with the bench line ups, you can
Speaker 1: allow him to be that super aggressive you know, bowling
Speaker 1: a China shop and it and it plays directly into
Speaker 1: his strengths. And then Anthony Davis when he comes in
Speaker 1: at that point, he'd be in a better rhythm because
Speaker 1: he had more shot attempts and was more aggressive early
Speaker 1: in the game. It's just it's just something to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on. Like I said, it has become abundantly
Speaker 1: clear that they have no intention of removing him from
Speaker 1: the starting lineup. So it just it just appears that
Speaker 1: the collateral damage from this is Anthony Davis struggling to
Speaker 1: get into a rhythm early in the games. And it's
Speaker 1: something and even Lebron's touches and usage and stuff our
Speaker 1: way down from last year. Uh uh. Everyone everyone's sacrificing
Speaker 1: in that regards and and maybe that's part of their
Speaker 1: long term vision of this like three star kind of
Speaker 1: of construct. Um. But but yeah, I mean I hope
Speaker 1: that Anthony Davis's frustrations are purely based on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: and then he's not harboring something that has to do
Speaker 1: with this, this situation with his touches. Yeah, really quickly
Speaker 1: on Anthony Davis. Um, he had a quote after one
Speaker 1: of the games and are like, I think Vogo had
Speaker 1: a quote. He's like, we didn't get Anthony Davis involved
Speaker 1: enough in the offense, right, And my whole thing is like,
Speaker 1: you're Anthony F. And Davis, like no one gets you.
Speaker 1: Go get yourself involved in the offense. Go demand like
Speaker 1: a post touch, you know, go get dug in. But
Speaker 1: that's just not what he's doing right now, and he
Speaker 1: looks more than Happy's just sit and wait and then
Speaker 1: you know, and then watch as other players were in
Speaker 1: the offense. So and I was looking at the numbers.
Speaker 1: His free throw ray is way down, you know, his
Speaker 1: shots in the paint are way down. He's shooting all
Speaker 1: his mid range like long shots, and that just shows
Speaker 1: that he's settling. I mean against the Spurs, he had
Speaker 1: a play where, um, he went into the post against Aldridge,
Speaker 1: spinned and dunked it, and I just thought, like, you
Speaker 1: can do that any time you want, Like it's it's
Speaker 1: right there. Marcus Aldris is a great player. He has
Speaker 1: no business guarding Anthony Davis, like you know in isolation.
Speaker 1: So I was just looking at that he can do
Speaker 1: that kind of many time he wants. But yeah, you
Speaker 1: look at the free throw rate um shots in the paint.
Speaker 1: That tells me all I really need to know with him.
Speaker 1: And I think he's taken more shots out of the
Speaker 1: paint than he has inside, which is just strange considering
Speaker 1: the Marcus all was supposed to kind of open that
Speaker 1: up for him to be the one of the paint,
Speaker 1: but it seems like Mark is kind of in the
Speaker 1: dunker spot for some reason, it's kind of like flipped.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if that's just scheme or if that's
Speaker 1: just because Anthony Davis is kind of walking around during
Speaker 1: the start a game. So yeah, but like to your point,
Speaker 1: I think he'll be fine, He'll get in a better
Speaker 1: rhythm as we go here. Well, I think you're absolutely
Speaker 1: right like that, And that particular that particular game where
Speaker 1: Vogel had that quote was one of the worst games
Speaker 1: I've ever seen Anthony Davis play like. He was absolutely
Speaker 1: b sing the entire night, and I was. I was
Speaker 1: really annoyed by that comment, and I remember tweeting some
Speaker 1: stuff out about it that night. But I was frustrated
Speaker 1: because I wanted to be like, like, look, does Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis need to get more touches? Yeah, but dude, now
Speaker 1: is not the time to be saying that. He had
Speaker 1: literally one of the most passive games on both both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor that I've ever seen. And the
Speaker 1: reality of the Anthony Davis experiences is you're right. He
Speaker 1: is an alpha. He can demand that. You know. I
Speaker 1: was watching Bulls Lakers last night and at the end
Speaker 1: of the game, Lebron just kept looking at Schroeder and saying,
Speaker 1: give me the ball, and he did. It was funny
Speaker 1: that they kept in bounding to Schroeder and Schroeder bring
Speaker 1: the ball up the floor and Lebron would just come
Speaker 1: up and get it from him. And it's like the
Speaker 1: point is is like, like Lebron and a d are
Speaker 1: at a status in this league that there's not a
Speaker 1: player in the league that they can look at and
Speaker 1: say give me the ball and they won't give it
Speaker 1: to him. Anthony Davis does command that kind of respect.
Speaker 1: It's it's absolutely something that he can that he can
Speaker 1: bring to the table and and you're absolutely like it's
Speaker 1: not just the it's not just the rhythm and the
Speaker 1: shot attempts in his defense, like some of these shot
Speaker 1: charts that he's putting up are laughable. There was one
Speaker 1: two nights ago in Memphis where he had one shot
Speaker 1: attempt in the paint. It took like twenty four shots,
Speaker 1: Like that's that's just inexcusable, Like you even if you're
Speaker 1: trying to save yourself, and there's just no way in
Speaker 1: the world that a guy is physically talented as as
Speaker 1: he is can't be getting more attempts closer to the
Speaker 1: rim and but what we'll keep an eye on it.
Speaker 1: It's I don't I'm I'm with you. I don't think
Speaker 1: there's any reason to be concerned. It's just frustrating. It's
Speaker 1: frustrating that, like, coming into this season, you might have
Speaker 1: told yourself, like, hey, like Lebron is probably gonna coast
Speaker 1: and they're really gonna lean on Anthony Davis because he's
Speaker 1: or eight or whatever he is. And and the reality
Speaker 1: is is like he's primed to go on an m
Speaker 1: v P type of run on a really good team
Speaker 1: and and and be the guy who kind of takes
Speaker 1: that mantle, and the exact opposite has happened. Lebron's like,
Speaker 1: like squarely in the MVP conversation, Anthony Davis is taking
Speaker 1: nights off and Lebron is carried like like Lebron, Lebron
Speaker 1: is approaching this season with a lot more gency than
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis has been. And I and it's it's not
Speaker 1: a problem because I know Anthony Davis is gonna be
Speaker 1: ready when the time comes. It's just weird, Like it's
Speaker 1: just it's just a strange. It's a strange outcome that
Speaker 1: you would not have expected under the circumstances. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And like you've watched Lebron, like obviously through
Speaker 1: his all Cleveland days as well, is he just better
Speaker 1: at looking more engaged? Like I'm wondering because I watched
Speaker 1: Lebron and I know he's coasting, but I don't see
Speaker 1: it because he's still like putting his head down and
Speaker 1: just getting to the rim. Like it's not like he's
Speaker 1: taking all these jump jump shots. He's still getting to
Speaker 1: the room, So maybe he's Is he just better at
Speaker 1: looking like he's not coasting because I know he is.
Speaker 1: Obviously he's not going a full Lebron, but just like
Speaker 1: when you're watching a game, just like through a forty
Speaker 1: eight minutes, you I don't watch the game and like,
Speaker 1: oh Lebron is like taking this position off, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Like he's still attacking the room from
Speaker 1: the get go. He's getting to the line um when
Speaker 1: it matters. So I'm I'm just wanting, like, as as
Speaker 1: you you've watched Lebron for a long time, is he
Speaker 1: like just better at looking like he's not? Because when
Speaker 1: I watch Think Davis, I can clearly see like, oh,
Speaker 1: this dude does not care about these three minutes of
Speaker 1: basketball that I just watched, but I watched Lebron. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't get that on the rewatch I see it,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, he was resting here. He was like
Speaker 1: he wasn't caring about this position, but just live you
Speaker 1: don't you don't catch that from him. So maybe that's
Speaker 1: just that's just him. Some of it has to do
Speaker 1: with him, uh having an easier defensive set of responsibilities,
Speaker 1: So that's part of it. They're putting him on a
Speaker 1: lesser defense, lesser offensive player. That's that's that's definitely part
Speaker 1: of it. So like he you know, if they were
Speaker 1: constantly attacking Lebron James and pick and roll, like, he
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to to coast as much as he
Speaker 1: does on the defensive ent. So that's definitely part of it.
Speaker 1: The other part of it, honestly, is just he is
Speaker 1: so smart now at this phase of his career that
Speaker 1: he under he understands how to efficiently efficiently use his energy.
Speaker 1: And I think, like I think that it's it's it's
Speaker 1: one of the most underrated parts when we're evaluating players,
Speaker 1: were so obsessed with like, oh, he looks like he
Speaker 1: lost his step or you know, Kauai is looking a
Speaker 1: little slow right now, or you know Steph Curry's not
Speaker 1: getting as much separation as he used to, and you're like, well,
Speaker 1: actually all of these guys are better than they used
Speaker 1: to be because they're just seeing an understanding the game
Speaker 1: at a higher level than they used to. And and
Speaker 1: that's what's crazy, is like Lebron, Lebron hasn't really had
Speaker 1: a lot of like explosive athletic plays this year, but
Speaker 1: he but I would argue that he's that he's scoring
Speaker 1: in a in a in an easier looking fashion than
Speaker 1: I can remember in a long time. And I think
Speaker 1: a lot of that has to do with just just
Speaker 1: he is. He's anticipating things and and just like he's one.
Speaker 1: He's like one or two steps ahead of the defense
Speaker 1: at every single moment. And he's just he's I tweeted
Speaker 1: the other day, he's playing basketball offensively at a higher
Speaker 1: plane mentally than any other player in the league right now.
Speaker 1: And as a result of that, he can, like if
Speaker 1: you watch him sometimes on a pick and roll, like
Speaker 1: he'll slow down and get the defender on his hip
Speaker 1: and he'll take like four or five dribbles to kind
Speaker 1: of just inch his way towards the basket and then
Speaker 1: wait for righte at that exact moment when the shot
Speaker 1: blocker kind of drops back to the dunker for a second,
Speaker 1: and then he'll shoot his little floaters hook shotter will
Speaker 1: pump bike to get him off his feet, and you'll
Speaker 1: go up like that's just old man, veteran savvy stuff
Speaker 1: that just uses very little energy. But his damned defective
Speaker 1: And that's the That to me has been the funnest
Speaker 1: part of watching him this year, and and and for
Speaker 1: the record, like it's one of the reasons why I
Speaker 1: do think he deserves to be in the m v
Speaker 1: P conversation is the Lakers have been, for lack of
Speaker 1: a better term, shit in a lot of these games.
Speaker 1: But he's been he's been very fine tuned and when
Speaker 1: he's aggressive and understanding when the game is slipping one
Speaker 1: way or the other and just grabbing control of it.
Speaker 1: And that's why they're seven and three. There're seven and
Speaker 1: three because Lebron has has been very deliberate about when
Speaker 1: he's aggressive and he's been able to close a lot
Speaker 1: of these games. And and now I I for the record,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about this more later. But like the
Speaker 1: Lebron to win the MVP, the Lakers would have to
Speaker 1: just have a ridiculous record. I don't act like think
Speaker 1: he'll win it. But the reason why he's even in
Speaker 1: that conversation, which you never in a million years would
Speaker 1: have thought would have been the case given the circumstances,
Speaker 1: it's just because he's discovered away to be a really
Speaker 1: effective basketball player without using a lot of energy. It
Speaker 1: really is that simple. Um, So I want to move
Speaker 1: on to this this uh defense, uh, this defensive scheme
Speaker 1: that the Lakers have been using. So for the record,
Speaker 1: I was really really impressed by this video that I saw.
Speaker 1: Uh he. I tried to find out what his real
Speaker 1: name is. I think it's Tim cran Just, but he
Speaker 1: goes by cran Just Nick Basketball. A lot of you
Speaker 1: guys follow him. He's a he does NBA agent player
Speaker 1: and team consulting. He's like an analytics guy and and
Speaker 1: he's just really he's really really smart with the XS
Speaker 1: and os. And it was my first time watching one
Speaker 1: of his videos yesterday, and I was really really impressed.
Speaker 1: So shout out to Tim. If you guys don't follow him,
Speaker 1: you need to follow him and watch his videos, it's
Speaker 1: really really good stuff. So um, he did this video
Speaker 1: yesterday and it was really interesting. Had to do with
Speaker 1: the Lakers pick and roll coverage. So last year when
Speaker 1: they had White Howard and JaVale McGee, because they were
Speaker 1: better shot blockers and better presences around the rim, they
Speaker 1: used like a modified version of drop coverage, where that basically,
Speaker 1: whenever the rollman or the drive the ball handler were
Speaker 1: getting into the lane, the Dwight or Javeail or Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis would drop to whichever the lowest man was and
Speaker 1: if if the ball handler handler became the lowest man,
Speaker 1: he would shift over to the ball handler, or if
Speaker 1: the if the ball handler was hanging back and the
Speaker 1: rollman was going to the rim, he dropped to the rollman.
Speaker 1: And it worked because they were so long and athletic
Speaker 1: around the basket with Javail and Dwight that they were
Speaker 1: able to just kind of funnel guys into the length
Speaker 1: and block a lot of shots, and the Lakers led
Speaker 1: the league in block shots last year, and then the
Speaker 1: ball handler would chase the guy over the top. So
Speaker 1: what they're doing this year, Um is what's called a
Speaker 1: catch hedge, which essentially involves a soft trap. It's not
Speaker 1: really a trap, but basically they're doubling the ball handler
Speaker 1: off the ball screen, but loosely. And when they do that,
Speaker 1: the other three guys have to be in rotation in
Speaker 1: the drop coverage. They could play it too on two,
Speaker 1: so the other guys on the floor were in a
Speaker 1: more traditional like man to man situation. But at the
Speaker 1: result of this trapping strategy that they're using on these
Speaker 1: pick and rolls, it immediately is leading to a rotation
Speaker 1: on the back end where guys are playing four on three. Now,
Speaker 1: where that that's a problem in in two for two reasons.
Speaker 1: And when I say a problem, I don't mean a
Speaker 1: problem with the defensive scheme. Just it's presented problems for
Speaker 1: the Lakers early on because of the fact that they've
Speaker 1: been a little sloppy and lazy and unfocused, and as
Speaker 1: a result, they're not able to execute the rotations properly.
Speaker 1: Because rotations on the back end it's a scramble, and
Speaker 1: it's all about instinct and knowing where guys are gonna go,
Speaker 1: and it's all about effort and focus. So if you're
Speaker 1: bringing effort and focusing able, you're gonna lose guys in
Speaker 1: these rotations all the time. So that's been the first
Speaker 1: problem with it. And then the second problem with it
Speaker 1: is that guy who's doing the catch hedge, so the
Speaker 1: the big man, whether it's Montrez Herald or it's Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis or Marcosol, when they're coming over and hedging on
Speaker 1: the ball handler, there being a little bit too unaggressive
Speaker 1: and and and and passive in the sense that they're
Speaker 1: they're doubling, they're leaving the rollman, but they're not really
Speaker 1: bothering the ball handler. So as a result, the Dames
Speaker 1: of the World or any of these primary demard Rose
Speaker 1: and whoever it is, these primary ball handlers for these
Speaker 1: other teams are able to throw really efficient and quick
Speaker 1: like bounce passes or chests passes to the roleman and
Speaker 1: it's putting the Laker rotations and a step behind, whereas
Speaker 1: if they were a little more aggressive and active with
Speaker 1: that hedge, they could force them to throw a looping
Speaker 1: pass over the top or maybe like tip a pass
Speaker 1: or two that that's getting that's getting thrown through, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, in the pocket pass to try to slow
Speaker 1: down that first pass to let the rotations catch up.
Speaker 1: And and the last thing I'll say about it is, uh,
Speaker 1: the the whole point of the catch hedge is it's
Speaker 1: better for the playoffs. And Tim does a really good
Speaker 1: job of explaining this in his video, because in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: you're constantly playing super elite um primary ball handlers, and
Speaker 1: if this forces the ball out of their hands, and
Speaker 1: it's a much better defensive scheme in the playoffs, even
Speaker 1: though it can hurt you from time to time in
Speaker 1: the regular season. And it's supposed to not only get
Speaker 1: the ball there out of their hands, but it's a
Speaker 1: more aggressive defense that is supposed to force turnovers. And
Speaker 1: the Lakers are twenty eight in turnovers forced this year,
Speaker 1: so they're they're getting all of the bad that comes
Speaker 1: with this defensive scheme without any of the good because
Speaker 1: they haven't quite been aggressive enough on that primarily primary
Speaker 1: ball handler to prevent them from just immediately having an
Speaker 1: aggressive four on three opportunity when guys are wide open.
Speaker 1: If that makes sense, Yeah, yeah, for sure. And like
Speaker 1: obviously you don't have the rim protection of last year,
Speaker 1: so this team is kind of relying on those turnovers, right,
Speaker 1: Like when you watch against Minnesota Dallas and they blew
Speaker 1: them out, they just created a lot of turnovers on
Speaker 1: their aggression. UM, and I like when they're more aggressive,
Speaker 1: like I tweeted this out, like, I like when Mark
Speaker 1: is trapping hard like I don't like him. I think
Speaker 1: they tried out some drop coverages early on, and it's
Speaker 1: just too easy for the guard to just get right
Speaker 1: to the rim and finish over. Mark is in the
Speaker 1: right position, it's just that he's just not at that
Speaker 1: level anymore where you can change the shot at the rim.
Speaker 1: So I like when he's more aggressive trapping and you're right, like,
Speaker 1: you can't be going and playing this trapping trapping scheme
Speaker 1: because you have to be in perfect rotations. The guy
Speaker 1: who's in the paint needs to know whether he's closing
Speaker 1: out to the corner or to the wing. So, and
Speaker 1: then you'll a lot of incidents you'll have, especially in
Speaker 1: the Spurs game, you had guys, two guys running to
Speaker 1: the corner and you had a wide open three and
Speaker 1: then two guys are into the wing a wide open
Speaker 1: corner shot. So and also Anthony Davis is chasing around
Speaker 1: a lot of guys UM this year. Um, they have
Speaker 1: him on like I think they have him on the
Speaker 1: rosen and guards like that where he's kind of moving
Speaker 1: around screens, which means he's not really near the paint
Speaker 1: as much as this year as I see as he
Speaker 1: was last year. That's kind of impacting it. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that will change going forward. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: that's most Lee why And the treads, Um, I like
Speaker 1: him when he's aggressive. I don't like treads in a
Speaker 1: back drop coverage at all. I think it just leads
Speaker 1: to really bad habits for him. Um, he has a
Speaker 1: bad habit of like when a screen comes, he just comes,
Speaker 1: he just sits all the way back, so he just
Speaker 1: sit in the paint and these dudes are walking into jumpers.
Speaker 1: You can't do that with Dean, say Murray, with margin
Speaker 1: Rose and that's exactly what they do. That's what they
Speaker 1: get paid to do to hit those little midrange pull ups.
Speaker 1: Needs to be up. And uh, I thought last night
Speaker 1: he was a lot better. He was a little bit
Speaker 1: more aggressive, especially with Zach Lavine late in the game. Um,
Speaker 1: they had him go all the way up and uh,
Speaker 1: I think he contest contested like two late shots, so
Speaker 1: I think you're right there. They Zack Lavine won the
Speaker 1: game winner that he missed. Yeah, exactly, and against like
Speaker 1: I think Houston the playoffs they did this as well.
Speaker 1: They had guys just trapping him. Um a lot against Dame.
Speaker 1: So like, like you said, it's a little bit more
Speaker 1: playoff ready kind of basketball. Um, getting guys trapping. But
Speaker 1: trapping is always tough because you're at a disadvantage. Right
Speaker 1: once you trap, you are at a disadvantage no matter
Speaker 1: what happens. Um. So you have guys running around trying
Speaker 1: to get two shooters, and it's all about communication. I
Speaker 1: think that's what Anthony Davis was piste off about at
Speaker 1: the end. He said, our schemes are communication was awful. So,
Speaker 1: but that's on him. He's on the he's on the
Speaker 1: back line. He needs to be talking. He needs to
Speaker 1: be talking back there. Um. I know he blamed Dennis Shooter,
Speaker 1: but you know that's he's he's in charge of the defense. UM. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think the scheme is different
Speaker 1: this year. Um. And it needs to be a turnover
Speaker 1: turnover based defense. They're very aggressive. If you're aggressive like that,
Speaker 1: you need to force the turnovers to two. Uh, offset
Speaker 1: the easy attacks at the room. H and and for
Speaker 1: for the record, they have the personnel to run this defense.
Speaker 1: It's just this is a brand of defense that will
Speaker 1: get exposed if you're not playing hard. That's just that's
Speaker 1: just the reality of the situation. NBA players now are
Speaker 1: too smart with the ball to to run a lazy
Speaker 1: trapping scheme against them, and and just let them play
Speaker 1: four and three all night. They're gonna kill you. Like
Speaker 1: and you made a great example like the in the
Speaker 1: game against Dame Mantres. This was and I was complaining
Speaker 1: about it that night before he even saw Tom video.
Speaker 1: Like Montrez was kind of in no man's land, like
Speaker 1: he was he was hedging over on Dame, but it
Speaker 1: was like such a soft hedge that Dame was just
Speaker 1: literally taking two dribbles over and throwing a pocket pass
Speaker 1: to the role man, and the role man was already
Speaker 1: like in the pocket pass was so perfect and dialed
Speaker 1: in and fast that the rollman was was already at
Speaker 1: the ring before the back line defender could get over
Speaker 1: and stop him. And and that's the problem. It's like
Speaker 1: if Montrese is aggressively hedging like with effort and and
Speaker 1: because he has super long arms too, just making Dame
Speaker 1: have to, like I don't know, do a pass fake
Speaker 1: before he throws the pocket pass or to have to
Speaker 1: loop it over the top because if he throws a
Speaker 1: bounce pass it will get stolen. That sort of thing
Speaker 1: just slows down the action and gives the back line
Speaker 1: of the defense the chance to recover. But yeah, bottom line,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be fine. They've got the personnel to do this.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be better for them in the playoffs. But
Speaker 1: right now they're going through some growing pains as a
Speaker 1: result of one. It's a new scheme, so they need
Speaker 1: to just get used to it. And too, they're just
Speaker 1: a little bit less styled in than than uh than
Speaker 1: they will be later in the season. But but it
Speaker 1: will inevitably work out. I think this is a perfect
Speaker 1: time to to segue into Tres because you know, um uh,
Speaker 1: so zach Loo actually talked about Trees yesterday. Is the
Speaker 1: one player on the Laker roster that didn't really make sense.
Speaker 1: And there's some truth to a couple of things he
Speaker 1: brought up. Montres is not playing with Lebron and a
Speaker 1: D much at all. He's specifically playing in line ups
Speaker 1: when they're staggering. Um uh, he is still I think
Speaker 1: he's doing a couple of things, particularly well, he's still offensive,
Speaker 1: rebounding extremely well. He's had a lot of of random
Speaker 1: key moment uh, you know, post mismatch attacks where we'll
Speaker 1: get an end water bully through someone and get a basket.
Speaker 1: But we are at a point though, where it is
Speaker 1: time to start acknowledging that he hasn't been great on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. And and and a
Speaker 1: lot of that has to do with, uh, his size limitations.
Speaker 1: A lot of that has to do with him, you know,
Speaker 1: caring more about the offensive end, and you can see
Speaker 1: it in his body language and in his effort um.
Speaker 1: But but a lot of it has to do with
Speaker 1: the fact that you know, you're you're literally requiring a
Speaker 1: six ft six inch tall guy to be your your
Speaker 1: primary pick and roll big defender. And it's just it's
Speaker 1: it's just it's causing some problems. So my question for
Speaker 1: you is is like, are you at all concerned with
Speaker 1: with the Tread's situation or do you view him as
Speaker 1: like a you know, the Lakers have such a huge
Speaker 1: margin for error, who cares? Yeah, No, I mean I'm
Speaker 1: sure there are concerns, Like I think Clipper friends are
Speaker 1: right a little bit that he's not obviously this back
Speaker 1: line defender. I think the problem for me is like
Speaker 1: Vocos playing him a lot with MARKI Morris, So it's
Speaker 1: it's like a Markis Morris mantras harrold Um uh forward
Speaker 1: center at the bench, And that's just a really tough
Speaker 1: thing for him to be the main cog as your
Speaker 1: defensive rim protector on that back line, and he's having
Speaker 1: to switch a lot more um and I kind of
Speaker 1: like him when he's switching, but you could just tell
Speaker 1: he's not comfortable out there yet, especially knowing where to
Speaker 1: be on defense. There's a lot of like when someone scores,
Speaker 1: he's like, where was my help? Like he does that.
Speaker 1: He does that a lot when someone scores. You could
Speaker 1: just tell he's still kind of confused on where the
Speaker 1: rotations are. And he plays with a lot of like
Speaker 1: experimental lineups like when why Night, He'll play with like
Speaker 1: THHT Matthews. He keep it's like just tough for him
Speaker 1: to get any kind of rhythm. Uh. And he's a
Speaker 1: guy that's like begging for screen role actions, like he
Speaker 1: just like he could tell any time a guard brings
Speaker 1: it up, he wants to run like screen roll action.
Speaker 1: And he's playing a lot of minutes next to Lebron
Speaker 1: without a d without shrewder So, and Lebron is really
Speaker 1: a screen roll action type player. He wants to go
Speaker 1: in the post and isolate, and that just leaves Harold
Speaker 1: the dunker spot and then they'll just have a big there.
Speaker 1: So Lebron is looking for that dump off dump off
Speaker 1: past him, but it's just blocked there right there. Um,
Speaker 1: it's causing a lot of turnovers, um, and he's finishing
Speaker 1: it seems like he's rushing. I don't know if he's
Speaker 1: like if you see that as well, Like when I
Speaker 1: see him catch it down low, he seems to rush
Speaker 1: the shot a lot, like he'll get the offensive rebound
Speaker 1: and put back and then do his like screen Man one,
Speaker 1: which which is awesome. I think that turns the team up. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it seems like he rushes a lot of
Speaker 1: shots down low and he doesn't get as many isolation
Speaker 1: to just that I thought he would like. It seems
Speaker 1: like when he gets when he uh, he kind of
Speaker 1: rushes still take like a step back jumper or um,
Speaker 1: like you'll drive in and try to finish over two guys.
Speaker 1: So I think he'll get his rhythm back again. I
Speaker 1: would like him to play with a little bit more
Speaker 1: pick and roll action like him and t HD looked good.
Speaker 1: She did a good job finding him, like he's just
Speaker 1: begging to run like scretal actions. And when he's playing
Speaker 1: with Lebron, he's just sitting in that dunker spot waiting
Speaker 1: for the ball because he's not spacing the floor. So
Speaker 1: he's the he's the center, and so that's that's his
Speaker 1: job there and it's hard for him. You could tell,
Speaker 1: right he's a rhythm player, like he's a rhythm player.
Speaker 1: Once he gets that first and one, it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: here we go. The game started. He starts to talk
Speaker 1: a little crap to the other backup center, like oh,
Speaker 1: you can't guard me, you know. Things like that just
Speaker 1: gets him, gets him going. And I think just getting
Speaker 1: him a couple of buckets early kind of keeps his
Speaker 1: energy up on on both ends. Well, and I agree.
Speaker 1: I think I think, like, uh, you can you can
Speaker 1: see him visibly getting not annoyed, but just confused by
Speaker 1: what he's supposed to do while he's out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And what I like a out him is he doesn't
Speaker 1: pout if he found if he finds out, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to be involved in this action. He just
Speaker 1: bullies his way under the room and tries to get
Speaker 1: offensive rebound. So he there's been there has been a
Speaker 1: lot of good to come with the bad with Montrese.
Speaker 1: Harrold um I view him as a as a luxury
Speaker 1: and not a necessity. Um I thought that little framed
Speaker 1: it really well on his pod yesterday said he's in
Speaker 1: a regular season innings eater, and that's what he is.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that that raises your overall talent to
Speaker 1: the team to help carry you on the average nights
Speaker 1: in the in the regular season when you need just
Speaker 1: you just need somebody to step up. The bottom line
Speaker 1: is is the Lakers this season when they play Lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis in no center, so Lebron and a
Speaker 1: D and three perimeter players they're getting They've only done
Speaker 1: that for thirty one minutes, but they're outscoring teams by
Speaker 1: twenty five in those thirty one minutes, so that at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, the Lakers still have this
Speaker 1: ace in the hole, which is we're gonna put Lebron
Speaker 1: at the four, Anthony Davis at the five, then we're
Speaker 1: gonna go with some combination of perimeter players based on
Speaker 1: who's been playing well, who's been defending well, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to bully teams physically while at the
Speaker 1: same time having this ridiculous offensive versatility and offensive talent.
Speaker 1: So they're gonna be fine. It's not a necessity that
Speaker 1: Montrase Harold is basically who we thought he was. Um,
Speaker 1: And there's and there's no point in being, you know,
Speaker 1: Mr Captain hindsight and going back and being like, well,
Speaker 1: what if we did this instead, you know, as signing
Speaker 1: someone else, Like it is what it is, This is
Speaker 1: what he is. He's gonna he's gonna bring a lot
Speaker 1: of good and a lot of bad. That's pretty typical
Speaker 1: for a guy who comes off your bench. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not really overly concerned with it. All right, So
Speaker 1: let's go for the next eighteen minutes here. Before we're done,
Speaker 1: let's uh, let's hit some questions. So, um, first of all,
Speaker 1: we had one from Jason Maples, my guy. He says
Speaker 1: thoughts on Schroeder as a starter versus off the bench.
Speaker 1: We did talk about that earlier. So all you gotta
Speaker 1: do is hop on when I released the pod come
Speaker 1: back at the at the beginning, as we both said,
Speaker 1: like we're we're kind of concerned earned with how it
Speaker 1: might be impacting Anthony Davis's rhythm. I tend to think
Speaker 1: that he should be coming off the bench, should be
Speaker 1: better for literally everybody involved, But it seems pretty clear
Speaker 1: that his ego is going to dictate doing the opposite. Um,
Speaker 1: what adjustments should Frank make to improve the on off
Speaker 1: numbers when Braun is on the bench. As I showed
Speaker 1: the other day after getting off to a pretty pretty
Speaker 1: good start the season, the Lebron on off stuff is
Speaker 1: actually worse than it was last year. They're negative without
Speaker 1: him instead of just slightly about positive like they were
Speaker 1: last year, and they're massively positive with Lebron on the floor.
Speaker 1: So what do you think was a way to try
Speaker 1: to improve that? Yeah, I think I brought this up early,
Speaker 1: Like you have Shrewder and Lebron starting, which is fine.
Speaker 1: I think Shrewder has earned a starting spot. You want
Speaker 1: him coming up the bench still, but um, I think
Speaker 1: you know, he's kind of played well enough that you
Speaker 1: can kind of keep him there. But the problem is,
Speaker 1: like he's not playing with that second unit at all,
Speaker 1: so you really don't have like a like a main creator.
Speaker 1: It's like th HT, who's great, but you know he's
Speaker 1: twenty years old and still kind of finding his robes.
Speaker 1: And carus Oh. I think last night you are teaching
Speaker 1: Caruso trying to create shots and that's just really tough.
Speaker 1: And also like a D is kind of playing with
Speaker 1: Mantras Harrold and you know those lineups kind of uh
Speaker 1: and again his ten games, so you really don't know
Speaker 1: how loud those numbers are are yet, but yeah, it's
Speaker 1: really to see. I think that's the main thing I
Speaker 1: would do. I would like to create it. I would
Speaker 1: like to keep one of lebron inshooter on the on
Speaker 1: the floor at kind of all times to keep I know,
Speaker 1: teach she's getting there, but he's not the He can't
Speaker 1: be creating for NBA level offense right now, like a
Speaker 1: championship championship team level UM offense. So that's that's the
Speaker 1: main adjustment I would do, and kind of see how
Speaker 1: that goes with the numbers. UM. I think this also
Speaker 1: has to do with the effort level. As we talked earlier,
Speaker 1: UM A D is walking through these games UM at
Speaker 1: least in the first half, and that's gonna make these
Speaker 1: numbers even louder because he's the defensive He's the force
Speaker 1: on defense. That's that's his job. And uh so that's
Speaker 1: I think that's mostly what those numbers speak to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree. I think I think there's one really really obvious, easy,
Speaker 1: clear fix for this. It's to bring Shoulder off the bench.
Speaker 1: Have have have Braun and Adie start the game, Have
Speaker 1: Schroeder come in at the six minute mark when Lebron
Speaker 1: checks out, and literally shoot Schroder out of cannon and
Speaker 1: and then and then run. I'd run Caruso with him
Speaker 1: because then the two of them are such great ball
Speaker 1: pressure guards. Okay, so you run in that role as well.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is is then your defense is
Speaker 1: picking up and you've got, you know, Schroder being optimized
Speaker 1: in what he's bringing to the table. But it's clear
Speaker 1: that that's not gonna happen. So the realities, I'm with you.
Speaker 1: It's about effort. It's about, honestly, just getting Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: to understand that he's the fourth best player in the
Speaker 1: world or even better potentially, and that the only way
Speaker 1: that they're going to be positive in the Lebron off
Speaker 1: minutes is that if you start playing up to your potential. Um.
Speaker 1: I do think that that's going to correct over time.
Speaker 1: The bench is too talented. I think that. I think
Speaker 1: that most of that weird statistical anomaly has to do
Speaker 1: with with their scheduling and just guys not really playing
Speaker 1: particularly hard. All right, let's seem do you think Lebron
Speaker 1: could snag an m v P so as I As
Speaker 1: I said earlier in the show, I think there's an
Speaker 1: outside shot for it, and it's pretty much dependent on
Speaker 1: no rising star, meaning like guys like Luca, you know,
Speaker 1: continue to be floundering around the bottom of the standings,
Speaker 1: guys like Janice not getting votes because the NBA is
Speaker 1: kind of sick of him in his regular season stuff.
Speaker 1: And then the Lakers just kind of ending up at
Speaker 1: the top of the standings by a decent margin two
Speaker 1: or three games. And and part of that involves Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis struggling. Like if Anthony Davis is right there with him,
Speaker 1: I don't think he could get it either. So for me,
Speaker 1: it's like an outside shot. I don't I think he'll
Speaker 1: be right up in there in the voting, but I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily see it as a realistic outcome unless a
Speaker 1: lot of things break his way. Yeah, exactly. I just think,
Speaker 1: like Anthony, you can't. I don't know, Lebron can't win
Speaker 1: an MVP with Anthony Davis next to him, Like, I
Speaker 1: just don't see that happening. I don't see that getting
Speaker 1: voted for. And like you said, that means Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: had a really bad season, which again that means a
Speaker 1: lot worse than than Lebron just getting his his m
Speaker 1: v P. Exactly. Cous still doesn't have a designated role
Speaker 1: on this team. What is what is his best way
Speaker 1: to be effective on offense? What do you think? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's tough, Like he still looks like he doesn't know
Speaker 1: where to be where shots should come from. Um, he
Speaker 1: seems like a guy who takes a lot of like
Speaker 1: he checked shots before he's hit a shot. It's it's
Speaker 1: a funny kind of thing that he does take like
Speaker 1: a contested three. Um. Yeah, I feel like he just
Speaker 1: needs to be a little like you could tell he's
Speaker 1: thinking out there and he's playing with a lot of lineups. Um.
Speaker 1: Even when he started, he was playing well, but now
Speaker 1: he still seems kind of lost his defense, kind of
Speaker 1: stick step step back, Um, so I really don't know.
Speaker 1: I think it's all in his head, like he's he
Speaker 1: needs to just stay stay in spotting up, stay cutting
Speaker 1: off a Marcasol like that's where he should be getting
Speaker 1: his shots. He takes a lot of like like he's
Speaker 1: one of the few people on the team who catches
Speaker 1: the ball and holds it, and we're like jab step
Speaker 1: and try to like figure out what to do from there.
Speaker 1: They'll have like beautiful ball movement and the ball will
Speaker 1: get to him, you know, like hold it jab step,
Speaker 1: look like if he can do a one on one
Speaker 1: move and I just like him to get a little
Speaker 1: them on the flow. I think that will happen as
Speaker 1: he gets more committed to the lineups he's playing in.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think that just comes with time and
Speaker 1: hopefully his shot it's kind of it's still up and down,
Speaker 1: but he's he's been pretty well doing catch and shoot.
Speaker 1: He's still pretty automatic on the corners. So I don't
Speaker 1: know what else to ask ask for him right now,
Speaker 1: but he needs to be better for sure. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think I think that he's going through a similar thing
Speaker 1: that a lot of basketball players do. You're seeing Kelly
Speaker 1: Ubre go through it right now where he's he's really
Speaker 1: trying to find what his role is on the team,
Speaker 1: and the way he's coping with it is by being
Speaker 1: like kind of forcing the issue and by like, you
Speaker 1: brought up a great point. Kelly Ubre does this all
Speaker 1: the time for whatever reason. Kelly Ubre and Kyle Kuzma's
Speaker 1: first shot of the game tends to be an extremely
Speaker 1: difficult shot, and if it goes in, then the whole
Speaker 1: night changes for them and they feel great. But if
Speaker 1: they miss it, it like starts them off on a
Speaker 1: bad note and then it just can kind of spiral
Speaker 1: out of control from there. And it's crazy because, like,
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is if they actually let
Speaker 1: the game come to them and made sure that their
Speaker 1: first one or two shot attempts every game was an
Speaker 1: easy shot in the flow of the offense, balanced and open,
Speaker 1: it would actually trigger them into being in a better
Speaker 1: rhythm so that they could make them more difficult shots
Speaker 1: later on. But I've I've said this about seventeen times
Speaker 1: about Kyle Kuzma, and it's the truth. Kyle Kuzma is
Speaker 1: what he is an inconsistent basketball player. It's not just
Speaker 1: in his results, it's in his methods. He's inconsistent with
Speaker 1: his defensive effort, he's inconsistent with his form on his
Speaker 1: jump shots. So that's a natural side effect of that
Speaker 1: is gonna be he's gonna have night spare goes in
Speaker 1: and he's gonna have night sports. Not Sometimes he's kicking
Speaker 1: his legs, sometimes he's landing straight up and down. Sometimes
Speaker 1: he's fading, sometimes he's more balanced. Like every everything about
Speaker 1: what Kyle Kuzma does changes on a night tonight basis,
Speaker 1: and that inherently is going to lead to inconsistent results.
Speaker 1: This is just this is the Kyle Kuzma experience. I
Speaker 1: do think the glass half full thing is as he
Speaker 1: gets older, as he becomes a more savvy veteran, he's
Speaker 1: gonna learn how to replicate his good nights better just
Speaker 1: by by just learning and maturing as a basketball player
Speaker 1: and as a person. So I'm not overly overly concerned
Speaker 1: by it. All Right, let's see, do you expect Mark
Speaker 1: to be more involved in the offense by season's end.
Speaker 1: I've been a little disappointment disappointed in his utilization thus far.
Speaker 1: What do you think? Yeah, I hope so, Like his
Speaker 1: assists have been weighed down the last few games, I
Speaker 1: think he had like zero too, and like one assist. Um,
Speaker 1: you can tell they're trying to learn how to play
Speaker 1: off him. I think Lebron's got it pretty well, but
Speaker 1: the other guys are still trying to learn um, and
Speaker 1: he's got to take the jump shot. Like that's there.
Speaker 1: Like I feel like him passing up that jump shot
Speaker 1: kind of just leads to all the other bad things
Speaker 1: teams can drop in the paint, and then his passes
Speaker 1: aren't aren't as open um. He's had a few turnovers
Speaker 1: with that um. But yeah, like I think the more
Speaker 1: important thing is like him and a d need to
Speaker 1: learn like how to make advantages out of each other,
Speaker 1: Like how to bend defense is to where like you
Speaker 1: can't guard one or the other, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like that's where like the more important thing is. I
Speaker 1: think him a shooter a nice connection, but like that's
Speaker 1: where we important in the playoffs. Um, that's whole point
Speaker 1: of getting Marcosol, Right, You're trading in the like shop
Speaker 1: blocking for the offense. Like that's basically what the Lakers
Speaker 1: did this off season basically. So I think that's where
Speaker 1: I would like to see a little more. But he's
Speaker 1: you know, he's a thirty, he's in his mid thirties.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be um going slowly into this into this
Speaker 1: season as well. So I hope so, like I said
Speaker 1: this before, like I would like to see him get
Speaker 1: a touch every single time down the floor, like he's
Speaker 1: he's just too unselfish, not too It's not like he's
Speaker 1: gonna hold it, you know, jabs to drop drop hook
Speaker 1: like jump hook, like he's gonna make the right play
Speaker 1: every time. And I would like to see him get
Speaker 1: a touch every time. He goes way too long, like
Speaker 1: they'll just go up and down six times before he
Speaker 1: even gets to touch. In the post and against the Spurs,
Speaker 1: he was getting guarded by damarda Rosen, Like put him
Speaker 1: in the post, like, you know, give him a give
Speaker 1: him a shot. I would like him to see, see
Speaker 1: him more involved. Yeah, I agree. I think I think
Speaker 1: you can keep him involved with that at this serrupting
Speaker 1: the rhythm of the other guys on the floor. Um,
Speaker 1: some of this, some of this, as far as utilization goes,
Speaker 1: comes in time because you know marcosol is is this
Speaker 1: kind of goes back to what I was talking about
Speaker 1: with point guards. Later one of one of the there's
Speaker 1: there's been a good side and a bad side to
Speaker 1: what has happened in the NBA over the last several
Speaker 1: over the last decade. The good side is that every
Speaker 1: single higher end player in the league is more skilled individually.
Speaker 1: Everyone can dribble better than they used to be able
Speaker 1: to twenty years ago. Everyone has more variations of different
Speaker 1: shot attempts that they can get off against different types
Speaker 1: of defense at any at any given point. Where where
Speaker 1: there has been a decrease is there's been so much
Speaker 1: of this James Harden ball and pace in space and
Speaker 1: drive and kick that there's actually kind of like a
Speaker 1: limitation in the traditional forms of basketball like backdoor cuts
Speaker 1: and deep seals and high lows and and and different
Speaker 1: sort of off ball actions that that that that people
Speaker 1: used to rely on in older iterations of basketball, And
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that it needs to happen all the time,
Speaker 1: but means that when a guy like Marcosol gets involved
Speaker 1: in an offense, you're the guys on the floor aren't
Speaker 1: used to playing with a really really smart player that's
Speaker 1: gonna get them, that's gonna be able to hit them
Speaker 1: when they go on the back door cut you know,
Speaker 1: and it's funny because you know, it was kind of
Speaker 1: fun watching Lebron and Shrewder last night kind of have
Speaker 1: a little bit of an off ball thing going on,
Speaker 1: where on these Lebron post that Shrewder was cutting through,
Speaker 1: and sometimes Lebron hit him for a floater, sometimes he
Speaker 1: cut through the other end. Sometimes there are being over
Speaker 1: help and he'd pop out for three and and you
Speaker 1: can see that chemistry building. It just takes time. As
Speaker 1: long as Marcus All can stay on the floor defensively,
Speaker 1: which has a lot to do with just matchups, that
Speaker 1: these guys are gonna learn how to play with him
Speaker 1: better and they're gonna understand that it's gonna open everything
Speaker 1: up for them. Um, there's they they're still putting him
Speaker 1: at the dunker spot a little bit more than I like. Um,
Speaker 1: I think it makes way more sense to have him
Speaker 1: at the top of the key. Is a post entry guy,
Speaker 1: and like you said, a guy that you swing the
Speaker 1: ball to that every possession that's just gonna continue to
Speaker 1: move it and keep thinking that that keeps the defense
Speaker 1: shifting from one side of the floor to the other,
Speaker 1: while at the same time not disrupting the effort of
Speaker 1: the or the rhythm of the other players exactly. Alrighty uh,
Speaker 1: why do you think Vogel doesn't use a all switching defense,
Speaker 1: especially with having Montrez. I'll take this one first. So
Speaker 1: the switching defenses require a certain type of personnel. The Lakers,
Speaker 1: if you actually like wrote down all of their heights
Speaker 1: and what their specialties are, they have a lot of uh.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of players on the shorter end
Speaker 1: of the spectrum, and they have a lot of players
Speaker 1: on the taller end of the spectrum. They don't have
Speaker 1: a lot of big switchy wings. They just don't have
Speaker 1: many of them. There's basically two on the roster in
Speaker 1: uh in In Lebron and Kyle Kuzma. So the reality is,
Speaker 1: if you look at a team like the Warriors in
Speaker 1: two thousand nineteen or two thousand eighteen, they're running lineups
Speaker 1: with Kevin Durant, andre A Guadala, Clay Thompson, you know
Speaker 1: they're they're running a lot of these bigger, switchy wings.
Speaker 1: So it makes more sense within their personnel to run
Speaker 1: a switching the defensive scheme. The Lakers have one of
Speaker 1: the best defensive rim protectors in the history of basketball,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis and the Lakers have a bunch of
Speaker 1: these quick, high effort, you know, ball pressure guards, guys
Speaker 1: like Casey, guys like Alex Cruzo, guys like Dennis Shrewder
Speaker 1: that are up in everybody's shirt and forcing them to
Speaker 1: forcing them off the three point line, into their height
Speaker 1: and into their their shot blocking. So running a switching
Speaker 1: scheme for them doesn't necessarily lend itself to the personnel
Speaker 1: that they have, and it's one of the biggest reasons
Speaker 1: why I think that the Clippers have always been a
Speaker 1: bigger than usual threat to the Lakers, even though I
Speaker 1: still think the Lakers are a better team. They're kind
Speaker 1: of set up to attack some of the weaknesses in
Speaker 1: the Laker defense, But the Laker defense is specifically designed
Speaker 1: for their personnelity, something that I appreciate about Frank Vogel.
Speaker 1: They they they they they have built their scheme to
Speaker 1: their personnel, even to the extent of making a change
Speaker 1: in their pick and roll coverage based on the loss
Speaker 1: of Javailan Dwight. So I think it's I think you
Speaker 1: try us. These guys. They're pros, they know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: They've they've watched the tape. They've analyzed what their strengths
Speaker 1: and weaknesses are and they've built a scheme around that
Speaker 1: and it works. And and switching for these guys would
Speaker 1: actually be a negative, not a positive. What do you think, Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And like you said earlier, like the Lakers trump card
Speaker 1: RSE eight at the five, and like that's with Lebron
Speaker 1: eight at the five, and that's where you can kind
Speaker 1: of switch. That's what kind of makes a d the unicorn.
Speaker 1: He is um. You can switch on to Dame, switch
Speaker 1: on into these uh smaller cards. But like right now,
Speaker 1: when you're playing a traditional five, I know Harrow is
Speaker 1: a undersized, but he's still a traditional kind of big
Speaker 1: um when you're playing him in Marcasol. It just doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense to have guys just on an island like
Speaker 1: that switched onto these guards. It's just your defense is
Speaker 1: gonna give up a million points, you canna get a
Speaker 1: bunch of gibral penetration. So I think you're right. It
Speaker 1: is better to have a scheme that's uh goes with
Speaker 1: his players. So that's what we should be doing. That's
Speaker 1: what he does. And I think a lot of it's
Speaker 1: gonna change a lot of the fortunes defense, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna change when when KCP comes back. I mean, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, he's a star. KCP has
Speaker 1: been the biggest like kind of breath of fresh air
Speaker 1: for Laker fans in the last couple of years in
Speaker 1: the sense that he used to be kind of the
Speaker 1: butt of the joke because he was missed passed as
Speaker 1: like a not a primary ball handler, but like a
Speaker 1: secondary ball handler with those bad Laker teams. And like
Speaker 1: now now he's he's been kind of like focused into
Speaker 1: this like you know, intense ball pressure, perimeter defense role
Speaker 1: mixed with like just really simplified spot up offensive role
Speaker 1: where he's catching and shooting and catching and driving where
Speaker 1: he's just a ridiculous one like leaper that that that
Speaker 1: can finish around the rim and then and then getting
Speaker 1: out in transition. And like ECP is a really, really
Speaker 1: good player that the Lakers have been playing without for
Speaker 1: the last little while. And you know, it's it's like
Speaker 1: with th HD. You know, uh, you talked about this earlier.
Speaker 1: He's just not ready to really make primary decisions. He
Speaker 1: has all the talent in the world. He's gonna start
Speaker 1: seeing the floor better eventually, but that's gonna come in time.
Speaker 1: He's not a guy that the Lakers can depend on
Speaker 1: this season, and sou the reality is he's been playing
Speaker 1: a lot and asks to do a lot because the
Speaker 1: Cruizo being out, because the k CP being out, Like
Speaker 1: he's he's he's gonna kind of fade out of the
Speaker 1: rotation as as he should. He's gonna be guess what,
Speaker 1: He's gonna be a Laker for a long time that
Speaker 1: no one needs to worry about unless I trade him.
Speaker 1: But like he's gonna be involved. They don't need him
Speaker 1: this year. Anything they get from him is just absolutely
Speaker 1: like gravy they have. They have a lot of depth
Speaker 1: in the back court this year that they didn't really
Speaker 1: have last year. And and like I think, like, uh,
Speaker 1: my guess is that as the schedule picks up here
Speaker 1: before the end of the month, that you're going to
Speaker 1: see a lot of really dominant Laker performances because the
Speaker 1: talent really is there. And the biggest thing is that
Speaker 1: there is no other team in the league that is
Speaker 1: separating themselves like like the the the Philly has been
Speaker 1: the one team that's been that's been better than the
Speaker 1: Lakers with their record, and also just with with impression
Speaker 1: around the league, and the Lakers literally have Marcus al
Speaker 1: who's one of the best Joe LMB defenders in the
Speaker 1: entire league. Like, what a great UH like weapon to
Speaker 1: have for that specific matchup, Like if I if I
Speaker 1: was a Laker fan. Even with this crazy uh inconsistent
Speaker 1: and disappointing as the start has been, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of reasons to be really optimistic about what this
Speaker 1: could eventually look like as time goes on. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I have these notes here, have a Jason tim podcast notes.
Speaker 1: In my final note here is like does any of
Speaker 1: this matter? Because I looked at up like you said,
Speaker 1: that Trump card was lebron N d at the five.
Speaker 1: It's really just lebron and a D lebron N d
Speaker 1: R plus seventeen um net rating together this year, they're
Speaker 1: they have a hundred and two point five defensive rating.
Speaker 1: That would be the number one pretty clearly. Calves are
Speaker 1: number one right now, which just doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, so that's pretty much it. Like all
Speaker 1: these other things are obviously luxuries, like treads, the luxury
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Um, it's gonna come down to those
Speaker 1: two and I think they're still the best duo UM
Speaker 1: in the league. And you saw last night, like there's
Speaker 1: I mean, I watched the Clipper I don't know, you
Speaker 1: got to watch the Clipper game last night? Yeah, own it.
Speaker 1: And they don't ask you about that because they obviously
Speaker 1: have a new motion offense and everything right that's going on.
Speaker 1: But once it goes down to that like late game situation,
Speaker 1: it's still give the ball to your star player and
Speaker 1: get out the way. Like I saw that, and I'm
Speaker 1: just thinking, like, that's what the playoffs is about. It's
Speaker 1: about giving the ball to your best players. And I
Speaker 1: think the Lakers still have the top two UM top
Speaker 1: too going well. And I thought there was a lot
Speaker 1: of interesting stuff about that game last night, because, like
Speaker 1: you know, I I thought a lot before the season
Speaker 1: about how how I would rank the players in the league,
Speaker 1: and I thought that UM, even after everything that went
Speaker 1: wrong for the Warriors and for Steph last year, that
Speaker 1: I thought he was still the second best player in
Speaker 1: the league. And a lot of that had to do
Speaker 1: with the fact that Steph and Lebron are are the
Speaker 1: two best players in the world in my opinion, at
Speaker 1: generating easy shots for their teammates, and that is such
Speaker 1: an immensely valuable thing that constantly gets glossed over because
Speaker 1: the Clippers from top to bottom are filled with all
Speaker 1: of these players like Lou Williams, like Kawhi Leonard, like
Speaker 1: Paul George, like Reggie Jackson, like Marcus Morris, even guys
Speaker 1: who are who have developed a skill set that helps
Speaker 1: them make extremely difficult shots. But the problem is is
Speaker 1: that when deep at the end of these close games,
Speaker 1: when defenses really dial in, basketball has a tendency to
Speaker 1: degenerate into a lot of isolation because guys are grabbing
Speaker 1: and holding off the ball, they're switching screens, just nothing's
Speaker 1: open in your traditional actions, even within the trying offense
Speaker 1: that they're allegedly running, which uh my, guy Vene says
Speaker 1: that they're not actually running it at all whatsoever. So
Speaker 1: the point is is the Clippers, it's really easy to
Speaker 1: stagnate their offense, and when you stagnate their offense, they
Speaker 1: have a tendency to have these terrible runs where there
Speaker 1: you know, there was another one last night where they
Speaker 1: gave it was like four run or something like that
Speaker 1: against the Warriors. Whereas guys like Lebron and Steph when
Speaker 1: offenses stagnate, they actually can continue to generate open looks.
Speaker 1: Steph by getting double team far away from the basket
Speaker 1: and getting guys into position where they can play four
Speaker 1: on three or three on two and Lebron with the
Speaker 1: ability to basically back down to the basket until a
Speaker 1: second defender comes and start a three on two on
Speaker 1: the perimeter where it either is a one pass away
Speaker 1: three or two pass away three or something along those lines.
Speaker 1: Those two guys have a sense with the floor of
Speaker 1: how to continue to generate easy shots when basketball degenerates,
Speaker 1: while at the same time having the ability to make
Speaker 1: the difficult shots that you also need to be able
Speaker 1: to make. And that's why I think they're the two
Speaker 1: best players in the world. And I think last night
Speaker 1: was another great example of that. The game degenerated. Steph
Speaker 1: kept the floor open with his playing style while things
Speaker 1: really congested and slowed down for the Clippers, and they
Speaker 1: literally fell apart. And the problem for the Clippers is
Speaker 1: good luck finding a good discounted point guards somewhere on
Speaker 1: the market with them not having any assets, no draft picks,
Speaker 1: no players that anyone around the lead wants, except for
Speaker 1: their two stars. That that they don't They don't really
Speaker 1: have a lot of options, and it's one of the
Speaker 1: biggest reasons why I'm not particularly worried about them compared
Speaker 1: to some of the other teams in the league. Yeah. Right,
Speaker 1: and and we'll see they're trying to make Paul George
Speaker 1: the point guard, um the defective point card. And again
Speaker 1: their offense loves beautiful. Those first three quarters are running
Speaker 1: like seperactions, getting him like corner three. But once like
Speaker 1: the game slows down and I'm just watching it, just
Speaker 1: reminding me of the playoffs, running of the bubble, not
Speaker 1: just the you know, just them being blowing a lead,
Speaker 1: but like just looking at the offense, how it boils
Speaker 1: down into the playoffs. And like you said, you watch
Speaker 1: the rest of the league, Um, you know that other
Speaker 1: than Philly, who has two losses, like you talked about,
Speaker 1: it's pretty much just open season. Utah blew out the
Speaker 1: Bucks last night. I mean, it's just a weird season.
Speaker 1: So right now, it's just a time to stack up wins.
Speaker 1: However you can get them one point wins, twenty point wins.
Speaker 1: We just put them up and then from there you
Speaker 1: can get a rhythm in March and hopefully this team
Speaker 1: is hitting on cylinders. When when that happens, well, hopefully
Speaker 1: the fans are a lot in the stadium in time
Speaker 1: for the playoffs. That would be great because if fans
Speaker 1: were allowed in time for the playoffs, the Lakers seem
Speaker 1: to have a decent track to potentially get the number
Speaker 1: one overall seat, which would which would be interesting because um,
Speaker 1: you know, the Lakers were as dominant as they were
Speaker 1: last year without the Staples. Faithful they're behind them. Um. Anyway, Roger,
Speaker 1: thank you guys so much. Everybody for listening in. Roch
Speaker 1: thank you for taking time out of your weekend. I'm
Speaker 1: glad we got this knocked out early. Everybody can go
Speaker 1: back to relaxing again. I really appreciate all of your support. Roger.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you being a consistent guest. You know, I
Speaker 1: always love having you on UM. But I hope you
Speaker 1: have a good rest of your weekend and I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you guys later. Appreciate man, thank you for having
Speaker 1: me