Speaker 1: M m all right. Welcome to the State of the Lakers,
Speaker 1: presented by Dash Radio. Thank you guys so much for
Speaker 1: coming to hang out on a Sunday consecutive Laker wins,
Speaker 1: which is something that has happened only six times this season.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna need you guys to bear with me a
Speaker 1: little bit. I'm currently in my truck hurdling on the
Speaker 1: road down towards Tucson from a weekend of skiing with
Speaker 1: my wife and some friends up in Flagstaff. But I
Speaker 1: was fortunately able to catch the game and its entirety. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm a little more optimistic than most, but we'll get
Speaker 1: into that rog. How you doing, buddy, how's your weekend been.
Speaker 1: It's good, It's good. I appreciate you know you coming
Speaker 1: for me and Jason Maple is coming on on Friday.
Speaker 1: Although it did get cut short. I saw there with
Speaker 1: some technical difficulties. But yeah, man, two days of partying, dancing,
Speaker 1: you know, and to music and stuff will get you exhausted.
Speaker 1: So I'm back though, ready to talk to some Lakers
Speaker 1: basketball here. Yeah, you do sound like you're in a
Speaker 1: truck or some pink so I was gonna let you know,
Speaker 1: I hear some background noise there. Okay, I'll do I'll
Speaker 1: do the best I can to keep when I'm not
Speaker 1: talking for that effect. Um, knew, your buddy, It's good
Speaker 1: to have you back. So again, I'm I'm a little
Speaker 1: more optimistic than most. You know, Minnesota's young and athletic,
Speaker 1: and they played really good defense tonight, playoff style defense
Speaker 1: with really a lot of like adjustments that have been
Speaker 1: made from previous matchups between these two teams. You saw
Speaker 1: a lot of packing the paint, ignoring Russell Westbrook, putting
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on Lebron both on the ball
Speaker 1: and off the ball. I thought that was a big
Speaker 1: part of why his shot attempts were down, um relative
Speaker 1: to the way he's been shooting the ball throughout the game,
Speaker 1: making Lebron into a passer, and little stretches of impressive
Speaker 1: shot making from Minnesota at various points in the game.
Speaker 1: And you know, to get a bad game out of
Speaker 1: Russ like a just horrendous, terrific, horrible I saw of
Speaker 1: a basketball game from Russell westbrooken to get a win
Speaker 1: with no Anthony Davis, I'm gonna go positive here. How
Speaker 1: are you feeling right now? Yeah, I do feel a
Speaker 1: little bit more positive. I think, you know, we're not
Speaker 1: in any position to be picky about wins right now.
Speaker 1: It's a team that's under five, a game under five
Speaker 1: or something, no position to be picky. Man, A win
Speaker 1: is a win. We're starting to get guys back at least.
Speaker 1: I thought the wing rotation is a lot better. I
Speaker 1: would still like to see Dwight Howard play the backup
Speaker 1: center role, especially with a guy like nas Ree just
Speaker 1: killing us. I would like the rotation to be a
Speaker 1: little less rigid, but again that's kind of nitpicking. Um.
Speaker 1: I feel like they're going to the small ball thing
Speaker 1: and going to try to make it work. I thought
Speaker 1: Russell was really bad in the first half. There's a
Speaker 1: lot better than the second half. You have five three
Speaker 1: point attempts in the first half, it was over five,
Speaker 1: didn't take one in the second half. Um, I think
Speaker 1: only two turn I think he had nine turnovers on
Speaker 1: the game or something, but I think only like two
Speaker 1: or three were in the second half. So he did
Speaker 1: pick his spot a little bit better. And Lebron just
Speaker 1: continues to be incredible. He didn't score thirty tonight, ending
Speaker 1: his seventh straight I believe it, seven straight thirty point games. Um.
Speaker 1: He ended that street tonight, finishing I think with twenty
Speaker 1: six or something. But he was incredible in the fourth
Speaker 1: on defense as well. He looked tired to uh just
Speaker 1: be having to cover all that ground at the five,
Speaker 1: but had a lot of strip balls away. And then
Speaker 1: tonight lake Mont Carmelo. We'll get into it, but those
Speaker 1: guys kind of saved us. Every Bradley as well, who
Speaker 1: I think we could talk about who's been kind of consistent,
Speaker 1: who's been consistent, um, a little bit low key, but
Speaker 1: has been consistently playing well. So that's kind of what
Speaker 1: I thought from tonight. Man, two straight wins, uh, two
Speaker 1: teams that aren't very good right Portland I think is
Speaker 1: on a slide, even though they have a bunch of
Speaker 1: players back. And then tonight Minnesota obviously missing call Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns and D'Angelo Russell. But now you get a win.
Speaker 1: I thought the So ESPN came out with the spread
Speaker 1: today the Lakers were eight points favorites tonight, I thought
Speaker 1: that was insanity, even with the people that even with
Speaker 1: the people that Minnesota was getting back. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought was a good win. Man, we can we
Speaker 1: can kind of pick pick up on this one, but
Speaker 1: at least it's something to build off. T straight wins
Speaker 1: is at least something to kind of get the thing
Speaker 1: rolling here because we're getting guys bad again. You can't
Speaker 1: ever take a game at face value. You know, it's
Speaker 1: easy to look at it from the surface and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns didn't play. You know, D'Angel Russell didn't play. No,
Speaker 1: that was a big athletic basketball team that has seen
Speaker 1: the Lakers play a couple of times this year. That
Speaker 1: has made into adjustments. Like I said, the game resembled
Speaker 1: the playoff game in a lot of ways. That's what
Speaker 1: playoff basketball feels like when they take away everything that
Speaker 1: you want to do and force you to adapt. And
Speaker 1: that's important because you know, we look at these games recently,
Speaker 1: like beating the heck out of Portland's two nights ago
Speaker 1: or winning that game in Houston, like that game important,
Speaker 1: that's not real basketball. Did you see some of the
Speaker 1: defensive breakdowns that Portland was having in that game. That's
Speaker 1: not what playoff defenses look like. So as much, yeah,
Speaker 1: they were awful. So as much as it feels good,
Speaker 1: as much as it's exciting and fun to watch, and
Speaker 1: you're watching Lebron dunk on everybody, and yeah, that's fun
Speaker 1: and that's cool, but that doesn't translate to what they
Speaker 1: need in order to succeed when they get to the
Speaker 1: end of the season, when they're playing against playoff quality
Speaker 1: teams time after time, when they can make adjustments. And
Speaker 1: what you saw tonight was a playoff type of defensive strategy.
Speaker 1: And again, I know that seems laughable to say about
Speaker 1: that specific team, but watch the games. If you watch
Speaker 1: the games and you see what they're doing, the type
Speaker 1: of athletes they have on the floor, the way their
Speaker 1: help defense was set up, the way they were packing
Speaker 1: the paint, that's what playoff basketball looks like. And you
Speaker 1: know what happens in situations like that, You have to adapt,
Speaker 1: and I thought, you know, some guys didn't do a
Speaker 1: good job of that, Like Russ really struggled with it tonight.
Speaker 1: You could tell he just didn't really understand when he
Speaker 1: would get into the paint what to do because they
Speaker 1: were taking away his easy reads. And then you know,
Speaker 1: as the game progressed, you saw Lebron kind of make adjustments,
Speaker 1: right because they're at the end of the game, especially
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter, he was magnificent defensively, and he
Speaker 1: saw that even though Lebron wasn't able to score at
Speaker 1: the rate that he's been scoring in recent weeks, he
Speaker 1: impacted the game all over the floor as a defensive player.
Speaker 1: And then, yeah, I don't know if you noticed this too.
Speaker 1: We had a lot of hockey assists in that fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: plays where he would generate an advantage, collapse the defense,
Speaker 1: kick out to a guy, but because Minnesota was so
Speaker 1: good in their health rotation, they would take away that
Speaker 1: first option with the rotation. With the rotation, but there'd
Speaker 1: be swing swing or cutter here, cutter there, and they
Speaker 1: get a really good shot. And that, to me is
Speaker 1: the kind of stuff that does translate to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: And in games like that against teams that are really
Speaker 1: really good in their health defense and against teams that
Speaker 1: take away what you like to do easily, that's more
Speaker 1: supreme talent becomes such a factor, and that's why you
Speaker 1: need guys like Anthony Davis on the floor with you
Speaker 1: with Lebron to succeed in that environment. But I could
Speaker 1: take this another direction, and this is where I get
Speaker 1: concerned with Russ because one of the things I fear
Speaker 1: with Russ is against teams that do this to him,
Speaker 1: completely ignore him off the ball and then pack the
Speaker 1: paint on him when he has the ball and try
Speaker 1: to turn him into a jump shooter. It could look
Speaker 1: like this a lot in that setting, and that concerns
Speaker 1: me and I'd like to see you know, he used
Speaker 1: to watch some Avery Bradley tape and look at the
Speaker 1: way that Avery Bradley is stayed a threat even when
Speaker 1: he's not at the three point line. But you know,
Speaker 1: so I look at it. There's pros and cons, and
Speaker 1: you look at it and you say, Okay, they solved
Speaker 1: the puzzle. Lebron played great, but I'm concerned about the
Speaker 1: rust thing, and I'm I'm tonight. It was just another
Speaker 1: example of how that fit gets clunky when you play
Speaker 1: against teams that take away all of the easy things
Speaker 1: that you like to do on the basketball court. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, Russ definitely struggled, and again I thought he
Speaker 1: played a lot better um in the second half than
Speaker 1: that first half. Rust to me, though, what he does
Speaker 1: is he likes to pass to areas right instead of players,
Speaker 1: So that's kind of what he does. He'll drive and
Speaker 1: like look for the corner, look for the wing or
Speaker 1: look for the top of the key, and when players
Speaker 1: aren't there, that's when he gets in trouble. Right, he
Speaker 1: gets in the air and he'll do passively like what
Speaker 1: are you looking for? But I think that's where he's
Speaker 1: going for And he's always going like a step faster
Speaker 1: than I think what his body and his mind aren't
Speaker 1: like connected in a way where he's going faster than
Speaker 1: his mind lots to go, where his mind is going
Speaker 1: faster than his body wants to go, and he's in
Speaker 1: transition and players aren't catching up with him. But again,
Speaker 1: second half, I thought it was a lot better. Was
Speaker 1: seeing some stuff kind of progress now where he's become
Speaker 1: a screener for for Lebron, or he's really the only
Speaker 1: non shooter because since we've gone small full time, he's
Speaker 1: pretty much the only non shooter on the floor, And
Speaker 1: I like that th HD now comes in for him
Speaker 1: as the first sub where again now th h T
Speaker 1: is the only non shooter on the floor. But yeah, man,
Speaker 1: then I've always said with with Russ and this is
Speaker 1: something that we've talked about all season and we're probably
Speaker 1: going to continue to talk about, like this is just
Speaker 1: what you're gonna get when you up his ships like this,
Speaker 1: like you have a d now off the floor, which
Speaker 1: means he's the full second time offensive possession guy who's
Speaker 1: taking up all these possessions, and your turnovers are going
Speaker 1: to go up. Nine turnovers, of course is way too much,
Speaker 1: but again, you're gonna put the ball in his hands
Speaker 1: this much like that's what you're gonna get. You're just
Speaker 1: gonna have him have super high turnover games. I think
Speaker 1: it's great that they were able to win in a
Speaker 1: game where he couldn't hit a shot at all, again
Speaker 1: over five from three but didn't take one in the
Speaker 1: second half. Those mid range full ups are what they are.
Speaker 1: Hit a few of them him get a big one,
Speaker 1: lad to get an an one and uh to me, like,
Speaker 1: you can't temper down Russ. You just lower his uses
Speaker 1: and possessions. And you talked about that's where Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: comes in. And I think that second unit is super
Speaker 1: interesting too. We have like Russ Reeves, a Resa Mellow
Speaker 1: and THHT and I think a d can kind of
Speaker 1: subb in for Mellow or th HT whoever. And I
Speaker 1: think that's an interesting second unit. There Reeves and Reeves
Speaker 1: and a reason. I like that combination. But yeah, man,
Speaker 1: that's just what you're gonna get with Russ right now.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have up and down games. I think he's,
Speaker 1: you know, starting to find his rhythm a little bit more.
Speaker 1: He's still getting into the basket a ton, even though
Speaker 1: even if he's not finishing all that well and he's
Speaker 1: getting to the line. He hit his free throws tonight.
Speaker 1: To turnovers were too much, but again only like I
Speaker 1: think two or three turnovers in the second half really
Speaker 1: improved his game. Minnesota a team again that packs the paint.
Speaker 1: They're super athletic. Vanderbilt as well. Um, Vanderbilt is a
Speaker 1: guy who defends Lebron really well. I feel like, but yeah, man,
Speaker 1: Russ is gonna be like this all season. We're just
Speaker 1: kind to kind of live with that until a d
Speaker 1: gets back. But I think having all our wings back
Speaker 1: has really helped, especially helped him as well. But that's
Speaker 1: where we gonna see it from now. I think it's
Speaker 1: been interesting to see the way that Frank has stayed
Speaker 1: away from Dwight with the second unit, because this is
Speaker 1: something that I personally have disagreed with leading into this,
Speaker 1: because Dwight is a quality NBA center, especially as a
Speaker 1: bench center, and so it doesn't make sense to leave
Speaker 1: a quality NBA player on the bench when as a
Speaker 1: team you've kind of struggled with talent throughout the season.
Speaker 1: But I think there's an interesting strategy that Frank is
Speaker 1: going with there. I think he's leaning into this five
Speaker 1: out concept and trying to make it so that all
Speaker 1: of his lineups are playing that style and so that
Speaker 1: they can get good at it. Now, there's a flip
Speaker 1: side to that, like versatility is part of the game.
Speaker 1: You'd like to have an opportunity to change your game
Speaker 1: plan if something is not working, But then you can
Speaker 1: look at it from the other side and look at
Speaker 1: the end of the game, they ended up taking nas
Speaker 1: Read out, So as much as nos Read was punishing
Speaker 1: them in those smaller lineups, they went away from him late.
Speaker 1: It was like it was waiting to see who would blink,
Speaker 1: and the Timberwolves blinked first, if that makes sense. They
Speaker 1: came down to our style and played five out at
Speaker 1: the end. And you know, early on in the game,
Speaker 1: you know that tug of war was happening, and Frank
Speaker 1: did not blink. And I think part of the reason
Speaker 1: why what I thought was interesting, especially as we got
Speaker 1: to the fourth quarter. I thought we were a bad
Speaker 1: help team to start this game. There were a lot
Speaker 1: of plays where we could give up dribble penetration or
Speaker 1: a cunt or something and there would either be no
Speaker 1: help at all, or if the first helper would come over,
Speaker 1: we'd do a really poor job of helping the helper
Speaker 1: and then everyone would be kind of standing around staring
Speaker 1: at each other. And they really they really turned that
Speaker 1: up in that fourth quarter to take away all of
Speaker 1: those easy reads that that Minnesota was attacking early in
Speaker 1: the game. And that was where, you know, I saw
Speaker 1: a lot of people on Twitter because I'm kind of
Speaker 1: coming around to this five out concept as you know,
Speaker 1: just from you know, following the show. But like I
Speaker 1: thought it was I thought it was really interesting to
Speaker 1: see as that game progressed, people Laker fans getting a
Speaker 1: little upset that Dwight wasn't out there because they don't
Speaker 1: see the overall picture. They just see one thing. They'll
Speaker 1: see an offensive rebound put back, or they'll see Nasri
Speaker 1: doing a power dribble into a guard in him bouncing
Speaker 1: off and laying the ball up and they think, oh,
Speaker 1: we're getting killed by size, but they don't see all
Speaker 1: of the other benefits that come from being small. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, if a team like Minnesota is utterly packing
Speaker 1: the pain and completely ignoring Russell Westbrook, having Dwhite out
Speaker 1: there in that lineup only compounds that problem. So even
Speaker 1: if you do keep nas Read off the glass, even
Speaker 1: if you do secure a few more defensive rebounds, you
Speaker 1: suffer in a lot of the other areas of the game.
Speaker 1: And so that that's what I thought was really interesting
Speaker 1: about that idea ideology is when you go small, you
Speaker 1: understand that you're giving up something to get something. And
Speaker 1: I'm coming around to that ideology. And I was impressed
Speaker 1: by Frank tonight because he had an easy trigger he
Speaker 1: could pull at any point in that game. He could
Speaker 1: have gone to Dwight, put him on nas Read and
Speaker 1: tried to fight him off the glass a little bit more.
Speaker 1: But he's stuck with the game plan. And at the
Speaker 1: end of that game, you had two teams playing five out,
Speaker 1: nas Read on the bench, and one of the teams
Speaker 1: playing five out had Lebron freaking James at the top
Speaker 1: of the key, calling for screens from guards and making
Speaker 1: reads and and and generating quality shots, while on the
Speaker 1: other end, you had lesser basketball players trying to do
Speaker 1: the same thing. So I think I think it's interesting
Speaker 1: to see where that that direction, that the direction this
Speaker 1: takes the team moving forward, and especially with Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: coming back kind of you know, I've seen a couple
Speaker 1: of people say this, like, that's why it's so important
Speaker 1: when Anthony Davis comes back, that we don't just start
Speaker 1: force feeding him in the post NonStop, because we need
Speaker 1: to try to maintain this style of play, almost using
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis as a wing, you know that, and posting
Speaker 1: him when it makes sense, but not getting out of
Speaker 1: this style of basketball, because I am a believer in
Speaker 1: this style, and I think it could work, especially now
Speaker 1: that we have some of our wings back, because it's
Speaker 1: easy to look at the schedule and say, Okay, you
Speaker 1: played Portland's, Okay, you played Minnesota without their you know,
Speaker 1: two of their better three players. But the flip side
Speaker 1: of that is we also got Trevor Rees back and
Speaker 1: Austin Reaves back, and we're much more functional small ball
Speaker 1: basketball team now because we have more wings. So I'm
Speaker 1: curious to see over the next few weeks if this
Speaker 1: translates to wins against better teams. That will be a
Speaker 1: good indicator of whether or not the style will work.
Speaker 1: Um moving forward with me, he was coming back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think the Dwight thing is super interesting because
Speaker 1: obviously they lean fully into the small ball, and you'd
Speaker 1: rather have it be this way right, rather than be
Speaker 1: fully into the small ball. And maybe they don't, or
Speaker 1: they do go into a few bigs rather than on
Speaker 1: their way around that. It was when we started the season,
Speaker 1: when we were starting with two bigs. The Dwight thing
Speaker 1: to me is only I would like him out there
Speaker 1: just when it's like Carmelo at the five and we're
Speaker 1: kind of filling out Carmelo with Stanley Johnson or Carmelo
Speaker 1: with Trevor Reza. Trevor's only played twelve minutes tonight, Carmelo
Speaker 1: getting hit a bunch of huge shots. I still think
Speaker 1: thirty minutes though it's too much for him, but I
Speaker 1: just don't think he doesn't have it doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be as rigid. I think Dwight can still play ten
Speaker 1: to twelve minutes just to give them a break, because
Speaker 1: you can tell having Lebron be the guy who has
Speaker 1: to pick up nas Read full time and then we've
Speaker 1: gone into the you know how it's easier for him
Speaker 1: to play more physical rather than being on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: All that's true, he still look kind of tired to
Speaker 1: me at the end there. You could see him kind
Speaker 1: of hands on his knees. Having to be the guy
Speaker 1: who rotates every time, also be the physical matchup guy
Speaker 1: who wins the physical battles right on the boards, have
Speaker 1: to box out nas Read. All that stuff is tough
Speaker 1: for him to do, especially when he's playing forty minutes tonight,
Speaker 1: forty minutes like he did tonight. And that's where I
Speaker 1: think just sprinkling in Dwight for a little bit, let
Speaker 1: him kind of battle, let him kind of battle, uh windows,
Speaker 1: physical battles against guys Black Nosfreed, who was having a
Speaker 1: career game. He had like twenty one and seven. I think,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if it was the middle of the
Speaker 1: third or by halftime something like that. He was having
Speaker 1: a crazy battle. They were winning the points in opinion
Speaker 1: as well, fifty two to thirty eight or fifty two
Speaker 1: to twenty eight at one point. That's the only thing
Speaker 1: I would like to see Dwight put a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I understand it, Like, again, this is nitpicking to me.
Speaker 1: They've gone all into the small ball. I think once
Speaker 1: the reasons minutes come up a little bit, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, twelve minutes because he was out for COVID,
Speaker 1: so maybe that's maybe that's why they're still kind of
Speaker 1: uh sprinkling his minutes down for now. But I just
Speaker 1: would like to see Dwight maybe play a little bit.
Speaker 1: But you're right leaning all the way into the small ball.
Speaker 1: I think it's great. I think it's helped the offense
Speaker 1: as well. We have a bunch of shooters out there,
Speaker 1: we're really only playing like one non shooter at the time.
Speaker 1: I've talked about Russ is the nonshooter really in the
Speaker 1: starting lineup, and then you have THHC coming in for
Speaker 1: him as a non shooter there, and then I think
Speaker 1: Dwight and kind of come in for maybe tich He
Speaker 1: or something, just keeping that as one non shooter on
Speaker 1: the floor. But yeah, they've leave it to it. I
Speaker 1: love the randomly they went to both HD at Russ
Speaker 1: at the same time in the middle of the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter in the offense completely fell apart almost immediately right right.
Speaker 1: But I like him not playing with all three right,
Speaker 1: all three of Lebron. Uh, well it's not Lebron rust
Speaker 1: uh and t HD on the floor. I think that
Speaker 1: does help Tylon and Taylan still kind of in his head.
Speaker 1: I was happy he was able to see a step
Speaker 1: back jumper go. He get some nice defensive plays as
Speaker 1: well in the fourth. I think he'll eventually get his
Speaker 1: rhythm going. But yeah, man, that's where I'm at with
Speaker 1: the Dwight thing. I would like him to play at
Speaker 1: least like maybe if it's not like it doesn't have
Speaker 1: to play twenty minutes of game, ten minutes a game,
Speaker 1: just to give a little bit break on the physical
Speaker 1: battle rare Carmelo or Lebron don't have to be the
Speaker 1: only one down there. But you know, going to small ball,
Speaker 1: I think it's great. I think it's something we're gonna
Speaker 1: do until a d gets back in February. Yeah. Again,
Speaker 1: there's a good argument for it. It's the same argument
Speaker 1: I've been making over the course of the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks on here. I just I'm coming around to
Speaker 1: see what Frank's ideology is. You can see how if
Speaker 1: you played five out for forty eight minutes, but then
Speaker 1: randomly turned eight of those minutes into Dwight Howard springing
Speaker 1: roll basketball with you know, totally different vibe guy in
Speaker 1: the dunker spot, that kind of thing that you can
Speaker 1: see how that could disrupt the rhythm and flow of
Speaker 1: a five out attack over the course of the game.
Speaker 1: So I all I'm saying is because I tend to
Speaker 1: be with you, especially since I would imagine that you'll
Speaker 1: replicate some of the defensive schemes that you'll use with
Speaker 1: a D with Dwight, so you want to continue to
Speaker 1: practice those, So I get it. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I see where Frank is coming from, so that that's
Speaker 1: kind of my perspective with it. I think th HD
Speaker 1: s trending in the right direction. I thought you saw
Speaker 1: a different vibe out of him in terms of his
Speaker 1: confidence tonight. You know, we talked a lot about how
Speaker 1: in recent weeks he hasn't been trying to bully people
Speaker 1: as often as he used to, and early in the
Speaker 1: end just just drove I can't remember who was guarding him,
Speaker 1: and just drove it in cave someone's chest in and
Speaker 1: it had that little extension right handed layup. He has
Speaker 1: had quite a few defensive moments in recent games as well.
Speaker 1: I'm coming around on the th HT thing now that
Speaker 1: he's back in the lineup and he's not dealing with
Speaker 1: the COVID has mentioned. He's getting his rhythm back, he's
Speaker 1: getting his legs back. The jump shot, I mean, it
Speaker 1: is what it is at this point. He's going to
Speaker 1: to to make some eventually. Um, he's not this bad
Speaker 1: of a shooter, but it could forever be a problem
Speaker 1: again with these kind of guys, with t h T
Speaker 1: and Russ, there's a fine line between what will work
Speaker 1: on the day to day basis of the regular season
Speaker 1: and how this could change come playoff time. And I
Speaker 1: do think it's a legitimate concern and it's something to
Speaker 1: keep in mind, Like what works against the Houston's and
Speaker 1: the Portland's of the world doesn't necessarily work against teams
Speaker 1: that are game planning for you, that have seen you
Speaker 1: multiple times, that have seen what makes you comfortable. Like
Speaker 1: you said earlier, Russ likes to pass the spaces. That's
Speaker 1: exactly what something that's exactly the type of thing that
Speaker 1: can be game planned for. There's a reason why Russ
Speaker 1: likes to pass to the week side corner or the
Speaker 1: strong side corner when he's driving to the basket. It's
Speaker 1: because it's the easiest past to make when you have
Speaker 1: had his team going to the rim, It's very difficult
Speaker 1: to make passes across your body. So as a defense,
Speaker 1: if you can game plan for that and you can
Speaker 1: pre rotate to the corners, that's gonna take away. He's
Speaker 1: easy to read and put Russ in a position where
Speaker 1: he's throwing the ball over the court and turning the
Speaker 1: ball over. So those are the kinds of things that
Speaker 1: are just are worth keeping an eye on as far
Speaker 1: as things that could rear their ugly head at some
Speaker 1: point in the future this season. But I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about Malik Monk for a second because he has
Speaker 1: become he started tonight right, I wasn't hallucinating that, so okay,
Speaker 1: So he uh, in a weird way, he's become our
Speaker 1: green light guy off the bench as a guy that
Speaker 1: I mean, Melo kind of has a green light too,
Speaker 1: but it's more of like in a closeout attacking kind
Speaker 1: of way, like we give him the green light on
Speaker 1: catch and shoot situations. But both Malik Monk is playing
Speaker 1: with a ton of confidence right now, and even when
Speaker 1: he's taken some of these tougher step back shots and
Speaker 1: things along those lines. I just feel like they're going
Speaker 1: in and so especially getting in with Frank back from
Speaker 1: COVID and getting him back on the right track defensively,
Speaker 1: I think he's trending in a way that really makes
Speaker 1: me excited from and he's another guy who's really thriving
Speaker 1: in this five out attack too. By the way. It
Speaker 1: just consistently driving and kicking and creating an advantage or
Speaker 1: attacking when he already has an advantage. But I'm really
Speaker 1: excited about how good the week looks, and I think
Speaker 1: it is a potential ceiling Razor. Yeah, for sure. Him
Speaker 1: and Lebron definitely have a chemistry that just pops off
Speaker 1: the screen right, and that's been pretty much since the
Speaker 1: season started. I think we really missed him when he
Speaker 1: was out. I believe in COVID protocols as well. Him
Speaker 1: and Reeves together. I like them as well. Just both
Speaker 1: guys who cut really nicely, and there were kind of
Speaker 1: two guys that looks like they were born to play
Speaker 1: next to Lebron James. Just guys you know how to cut,
Speaker 1: you know how to relocate on threes as well. I
Speaker 1: feel like when he gets because he when he takes
Speaker 1: when he like takes his spot up threes, he gets
Speaker 1: into a dip before he shoot him. Every time he
Speaker 1: gets into that, I feel like the shots going in.
Speaker 1: You're right, he has a freedom, he has a green light.
Speaker 1: He's a guy who knows who he is, right like,
Speaker 1: he knows exactly what he does. He's there to score.
Speaker 1: There's no you know, there's no qualms about what he's
Speaker 1: gonna do on the floor. He's not really looking to
Speaker 1: create as well. He's just going to the basket. He
Speaker 1: has all these moves at the rim too, but his
Speaker 1: jumper is just on. I think he started like six
Speaker 1: for six tonight or something like that. But he looks good,
Speaker 1: looks in the rhythm, looks confident as well. It doesn't
Speaker 1: look you know, shy ors here at the moment at all.
Speaker 1: Um even a big time situations has big shots for
Speaker 1: this team. He's been awesome. Man, he's been starting. I
Speaker 1: think it's been great. I think putting him in for
Speaker 1: th h T and the starters has been really nice.
Speaker 1: Just it just gives the offense a little bit more flow.
Speaker 1: Has has enough ball handling as well, can attack close
Speaker 1: out He's just been really good at their stunning run
Speaker 1: actions for him as well, comes off screens. He's aggressive
Speaker 1: off screens, So he's been just good man. I love
Speaker 1: the chemistry him and Lebron have. I think human reeves
Speaker 1: like I talked about, are really interesting combination. Even if
Speaker 1: those two don't start when the team is fully healthy.
Speaker 1: I think off the bench too, just two guys who
Speaker 1: know how to play, who cut really nice, to relocate
Speaker 1: really nicely all over the floor, just can play off
Speaker 1: each other. But he's been great, man, He's been a savior.
Speaker 1: Him and Melow as well. Mellow hit a bunch of
Speaker 1: big leak as well, hit a big three tonight to
Speaker 1: get to get us a lead, I believe. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it was good, and him and Lebron are definitely kind
Speaker 1: of growing, and we're starting to see a lot more
Speaker 1: like Malik screening for Lebron as well. Lee goes in
Speaker 1: the short role and he's able to score off that.
Speaker 1: Those two really like to play with each other, it
Speaker 1: looks like. And he's been good. Yeah. The last guy
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about that I had on my
Speaker 1: list was Stanley Johnson because I think he presents an
Speaker 1: interesting alternative to Carmelo, and I know they're totally different archetypes,
Speaker 1: so I get that, but just the type of damage
Speaker 1: that he can cause with his eyes and athleticism, and
Speaker 1: we we haven't really had a chance to see him
Speaker 1: aside from the Christmas Day game. Get to do it
Speaker 1: in crunch time, where where I think that kind of
Speaker 1: thing can be very valuable because of how how physical
Speaker 1: the refs allowed the games be played at that point.
Speaker 1: Like that dude just makes plays like they're in that
Speaker 1: first quarter. There was just he had a big offensive
Speaker 1: rebound that led to Lebron's first three. There was a
Speaker 1: play where Malik Monk got to run out dunk where
Speaker 1: Stanley John some kind of trapped screen and roll with
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards on the opposite wing and just jumped and
Speaker 1: put some ball pressure as Anthony Edwards was throwing the
Speaker 1: cross court pass, so it forced Anthony Edwards thrown higher
Speaker 1: in the air and Nasri fumbled the pass and Lickmunk
Speaker 1: got a dunk. And then he had another play that
Speaker 1: led to a Lebron run out where he got to
Speaker 1: steal on the other wing. Like he just is so
Speaker 1: physically gifted and specifically in environments where physicality is allowed,
Speaker 1: that becomes so much more valuable. And mellow Melos shot
Speaker 1: the ball well over the last couple of games, but
Speaker 1: over the course of the last month he hasn't shot
Speaker 1: the ball well. And I think it's an interesting thing
Speaker 1: to and if we talked about it earlier, you did
Speaker 1: in relation to his minutes and whether or not those
Speaker 1: two things are directly related, and I'm pretty sure they are,
Speaker 1: but that it's an interesting idea to consider potentially going
Speaker 1: with someone like Stanley a little bit more and someone
Speaker 1: like Carmelo a little bit less, understanding that it does
Speaker 1: impact your offense slightly, but he does a lot of
Speaker 1: impact plays, like Stanley Johnson was over three tonight, so
Speaker 1: it's not like he was impacting the game offensively, but
Speaker 1: he directly led to offense for us with plays he
Speaker 1: was making with the size and athleticism. And to your point,
Speaker 1: to take a little bit more off on Carmelo's plate,
Speaker 1: maybe he goes back to shooting the way he did
Speaker 1: to start the season, and that, you know, carries a
Speaker 1: certain amount of value there. But I I'd like to
Speaker 1: see just a little bit more Stanley and I there
Speaker 1: was that weird comment from Frank Vogel before last night's
Speaker 1: or before the Portland's game on Ear's Eve, where he
Speaker 1: basically was like, all, we're gonna evaluate him for the
Speaker 1: entirety of the ten days and then we'll make the decision.
Speaker 1: And you know, Frank is very keep things to the chest.
Speaker 1: That's very his ideology. He's he's very very professional in
Speaker 1: that way, and I respect that. But I'm hoping that
Speaker 1: they see what I see and what all of you
Speaker 1: guys see with Stanley because he's like like a drink
Speaker 1: of water in the middle of the desert. He's something
Speaker 1: this team has desperately needed um and lacked this entire season,
Speaker 1: and I'm hoping that he'll stick around and the big role. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like the Rondo you know, the Rondo trade
Speaker 1: that I don't think he's officially but that kind of
Speaker 1: uh stood out to me as they're gonna keep Stanley
Speaker 1: Johnson and Darren Collinson. I think this was the last
Speaker 1: day of his ten day and he was inactive for
Speaker 1: the last two games, so that can kind of tell
Speaker 1: you where this is going. But yeah, Stanley Johnson started tonight.
Speaker 1: I mean players don't usually go from starting to our cut,
Speaker 1: So like I think he's gonna stay on the team.
Speaker 1: He's been great, big physical wing, right, big defensive wing.
Speaker 1: Just feels a need that this that this team desperately
Speaker 1: needed on the defensive ent as well. And he just
Speaker 1: plays super hard falls minutes. And that's a skill to me.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, playing hard is just seemed like
Speaker 1: as something that every player can do, and I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't really believe in that. I think guys who
Speaker 1: play super hard all the time, that's a skill to me.
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson is on this team because of his offensive deficiencies.
Speaker 1: But I think you're seeing players all around the league
Speaker 1: that are able to make an impact that are you know,
Speaker 1: offensive liabilities, even at times like GP two as well
Speaker 1: as on the Warriors. You're seeing a lot of teams
Speaker 1: like that kind of pick up where you have stars
Speaker 1: who can handle the offensive load and you have guys
Speaker 1: like Stanley Johnson who can you know, just screen and
Speaker 1: cut and uh he takes he takes open shots. But
Speaker 1: I think, which I think is important, he's not a
Speaker 1: guy that passes up shots. Even if he's not gonna
Speaker 1: hit at a high percentage, he's at least shootsing up
Speaker 1: to where he's respected and he can attack closeouts and
Speaker 1: we saw a little bit of this during his tenure.
Speaker 1: He attacks clothes outs, he can find guys. He has
Speaker 1: a little bit of a passing skill as well. He
Speaker 1: has enough ball handling to where like in that starting lineup,
Speaker 1: you can rotate the ball to him and he can
Speaker 1: attack off the bounce or even take that spot up three.
Speaker 1: But he's been good man, he's been a breath of
Speaker 1: fresh shair, like you talked about, guy who just plays
Speaker 1: hard and he just looks huge on the floor. Him
Speaker 1: Lebron stands stand next to each other and they almost
Speaker 1: look like like size. And having those two guys where
Speaker 1: you can switch actions, he's pretty much the power forward
Speaker 1: in the starting lineup. We're playing him as pretty much
Speaker 1: the backup five next to Melow. Those two kind of
Speaker 1: switch off, switch off and on and again. I would
Speaker 1: like Dwight to kind of fill in a little bit
Speaker 1: on those lineus. But he's been good man. He's been
Speaker 1: a really nice fit on this team, and I think
Speaker 1: he's going to stay for a while. Now. Um I
Speaker 1: might ask you, do you think Darren Colinson stage after
Speaker 1: after these ten days, do you think he's gonna stay
Speaker 1: on the roster. I doubt it, just simply because of
Speaker 1: what we know about the Lakers and the way they
Speaker 1: manage their money. But now that Rondo's gone, I'd certainly
Speaker 1: like for them to keep him at least until they
Speaker 1: need someone else. But you know, us Laker fans, we
Speaker 1: think about this in a in a way that doesn't
Speaker 1: factor in what the ownership group is thinking. I think
Speaker 1: if I think if this was you know, Steve Ballmer,
Speaker 1: I think he'd be keeping Callison in a heartbeat. But
Speaker 1: it's it's the Lakers, and it's Junie Buss and I
Speaker 1: my guess is that he'll end up being like at
Speaker 1: the end of the the contract. What do you think? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I'm really not sure, because I do think
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan is probably gone sooner than later, just the
Speaker 1: way it's kind of matched up here. He's not getting
Speaker 1: any minutes, and we haven't We've gone to no bigs,
Speaker 1: and I think the next big is Dwight Howard, so
Speaker 1: I think he's gone. I would like to see Darren
Speaker 1: Colinson kind of get more than ten days. I think
Speaker 1: when you're off for three years, like ten days to
Speaker 1: kind of get your rhythm, to get back to you
Speaker 1: know basketball shape, a regular shape brother alone basketball NBA shape.
Speaker 1: I think that takes time, like we talked about, and
Speaker 1: I think he has enough basketball like you to where
Speaker 1: he's made somewhat of impact. His jumper hasn't been there.
Speaker 1: Just a smart, uh, grown up basketball player. I like
Speaker 1: like the term we hear from Wayne Allington as well.
Speaker 1: I think that kind of fits up Darren Coulson just
Speaker 1: in control point guard. But you know, his time might
Speaker 1: be up. I just would like to see it a
Speaker 1: little bit longer, at least until Kendrick Nunne at least
Speaker 1: gets back. And we really had no news on Kendrick Gunne,
Speaker 1: so I would like to have at least one more
Speaker 1: just you know, solid backup point guard where he can
Speaker 1: just go on the floor and kind of control things.
Speaker 1: But yeah, his time might be up. But yeah, Stanley
Speaker 1: Johnson I think isn't going anywhere. I don't think Avery
Speaker 1: Bradley is going anywhere either. I think the Lakers have
Speaker 1: until like until a couple more days to decide whether
Speaker 1: his contract is guaranteed for a full year. I think
Speaker 1: that is already done again. He's starting as well, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the Spectrum said he's should from three since
Speaker 1: December two or something. Um, and he's missed a few
Speaker 1: games within that. But yeah, he's been solid, plays his role,
Speaker 1: plays hard, hits his open threes. I don't know what
Speaker 1: more you can ask. Has been a good cutter as
Speaker 1: well on this team, so I think he gets guaranteed
Speaker 1: as well. Um, but yeah, I think Stanley Johnson and
Speaker 1: Enable badly as well. Stay on the team. Jarren Coulston,
Speaker 1: We'll see you for sure. So the I shared a
Speaker 1: tweet in the in the space, you guys should be
Speaker 1: able to look at it if I did it right,
Speaker 1: But who knows. Spaces can be a little jankie sometimes.
Speaker 1: But Frank Vogel, this is from Lakers Nation. Frank Vogel
Speaker 1: says he had to resist the urge to go big
Speaker 1: when they were getting killed on the glass. He feels
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves are a great perimeter crashing team, so going
Speaker 1: with a bigger lineup would it have changed much? Um?
Speaker 1: Super interesting because that's exactly what we were talking about
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the pod, and this idea that
Speaker 1: these teams come into these battles with differing styles and
Speaker 1: it's kind of about who blinks first. And this is
Speaker 1: really interesting when it when it comes playoff time, because
Speaker 1: you gotta keep in mind when you have two teams
Speaker 1: coming to play each other, especially when they play each
Speaker 1: other multiple times, each of them have a point of advantage.
Speaker 1: This is something you and I talked a lot about
Speaker 1: in the season, like, when you're looking at a team
Speaker 1: and playing them seven times, what are the clear and
Speaker 1: distinct advantages you have? And obviously Lebron and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: present two massive advantages that the Lakers have going into
Speaker 1: playoff series. Is and that's what we always used to
Speaker 1: derive confidence in the team and their ability to beat
Speaker 1: somebody four times out of seven is there's no adjustment
Speaker 1: for the fact that Lebron is probably a hell of
Speaker 1: a lot better than your small forward or your power forward,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis is a hell of a lot better
Speaker 1: than your big man. And and so what's interesting is
Speaker 1: you get into these situations. You know, this happened a
Speaker 1: lot at the beginning of the year, especially when we
Speaker 1: go big, and it's like, Okay, we have our advantage, right,
Speaker 1: We're huge all over the place. But they have their advantage.
Speaker 1: They're smaller and they're quicker. But each team is giving
Speaker 1: up something, and both coaching stabs are looking at the
Speaker 1: game and they're like, man, this is frustrating. We keep
Speaker 1: giving up this, or this is frustrating, we keep giving
Speaker 1: up that. But at the same time, they have to
Speaker 1: stink advantages from those same lineups, and it's all about
Speaker 1: who blinks first, because whoever blinks first the other team
Speaker 1: is going to be the team that controls the style
Speaker 1: of the game. And you saw that tonight. The Lakers
Speaker 1: stayed small when Minnesota played big for much of the night,
Speaker 1: and then Minnesota blinked and they went small, and then
Speaker 1: we got to play our style. And even though we're
Speaker 1: not perfect at this style yet and we're probably far
Speaker 1: from what we're going to be at the end of
Speaker 1: the season, it's cool to see that Frank is committed
Speaker 1: to it enough to look at all the bad things
Speaker 1: that come with that style but appreciate the good things
Speaker 1: that come with the style and stick with it so
Speaker 1: that we can use that to our advantage in specific matchups.
Speaker 1: And so I thought I thought that quote was interesting.
Speaker 1: It means that what we're seeing is what Frank is seeing,
Speaker 1: and I think I think it's an interesting thing to
Speaker 1: watch moving forward. Yeah, and just adding on to that,
Speaker 1: Kyle Doon, who also um covers the Lakers. Uh. He
Speaker 1: had a quote today from Frank as well on the
Speaker 1: small bond and staying staying small, not playing Dwight Howard. Uh.
Speaker 1: He said, the Lakers want to adapt to competing on
Speaker 1: the boards in their small units. If we're gonna explore
Speaker 1: this style player, we're gonna have to learn how to
Speaker 1: deal with this. So again, what you talked about as
Speaker 1: well staying small, you gotta learn how to rebound. I
Speaker 1: guess without bigs on the floor wanting the guards to
Speaker 1: come crash. I thought a lot of times as well
Speaker 1: tonight our guards kind of stayed out on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: leaving you know, lebron Or or Carmelo or whatever to
Speaker 1: battle naz Reid whoever was going down, who was crashing
Speaker 1: to get offensive rebounds. He talked about in Minnesota's the
Speaker 1: athletic you know rebounding team Patrick Beverley as well as
Speaker 1: a guy who crashed his offensive rebounds. Vanderbil I talked
Speaker 1: about he's an athletic big wing. Uh and the nozz
Speaker 1: Red as well as the center for them did a
Speaker 1: really nice job crashing down. So I'm with Frank there again,
Speaker 1: I don't think it has to be so rigid, but
Speaker 1: I understand what he's going for. He's trying to If
Speaker 1: they're gonna lean into small ball, they're gonna lean into
Speaker 1: it all the way, right, And I think that's the
Speaker 1: correct identity of this team, even though I think we
Speaker 1: can kind of fill out a little bit more with
Speaker 1: a couple of bigs with just one big plane. But
Speaker 1: I understand what he's going for, and it makes sense,
Speaker 1: especially with a d out for so long, we have
Speaker 1: to kind of stick to the style of play and
Speaker 1: we have to see if it works against the better team.
Speaker 1: But I think getting our wings back is great. Having
Speaker 1: a Resa Reeves all in the rotation now, I think
Speaker 1: in the reason only twelve minutes tonight, but I think
Speaker 1: that will pick up with his conditioning kind of coming
Speaker 1: back from from the COVID protocols. But having our wings back,
Speaker 1: it just looks so much better. Man, We're not just
Speaker 1: playing these super small guards. Having a wing rotation has
Speaker 1: been nice. Karl Mello played thirty minutes tonight, but you
Speaker 1: got to play next to other wings as Stanley Johnson
Speaker 1: as well. It feels like we added three players to
Speaker 1: the team. Honestly with with Stanley and the Resa coming back,
Speaker 1: and then Reeves as well, who we missed. Like, that's
Speaker 1: three full rotation players that we've kind of added, and
Speaker 1: it just looks a lot better. The rotation looks a
Speaker 1: lot more clean. Minnesota had a couple of big runs tonight,
Speaker 1: you expect that with how how we played, and Lebron
Speaker 1: again just played great in that fourth quarter defense as well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, man's it looks like we're kind of hopefully
Speaker 1: going in a better direction here. I think we have
Speaker 1: four more home games to kind of pick up some
Speaker 1: steam in the standings. Well, you know, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like we're in the old new season right Like we
Speaker 1: were starting the season with Kent Baysmore and DeAndre Jordan
Speaker 1: in the starting lineup. Those guys are both still on
Speaker 1: the roster, but completely out of the rotation now and
Speaker 1: and and we've added Stanley Johnson and Austin Reeves has
Speaker 1: come out of nowhere to be a bona fide rotation piece.
Speaker 1: You know, Avery Bradley was added literally on the last
Speaker 1: day of training camp. So in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: the team is completely different than what we expected. And
Speaker 1: now we're playing a completely different style than we expected.
Speaker 1: So a lot, a lot of the stuff that happened
Speaker 1: early in the season now is utterly and completely irrelevant.
Speaker 1: And then I like that Frank used the word explore
Speaker 1: because that's kind of what it is when you don't
Speaker 1: have a training camp to implement a system and now
Speaker 1: on the fly, in the middle of a pretty crazy
Speaker 1: NBA schedule, like they just played their fourth game in
Speaker 1: six nights, in the middle of this wild schedule, we're
Speaker 1: trying to learn to play a new a new style
Speaker 1: of basketball. And so there's going like you said, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be runs, there's gonna be stretches where it looks bad.
Speaker 1: But the exciting part about that is that means that
Speaker 1: there's a lot more room for improvement. When you look
Speaker 1: at teams like Phoenix and teams like Utah who have
Speaker 1: been playing the same style for a while, what you
Speaker 1: see right now is what you get. There's not an
Speaker 1: extra gear that they can get to in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: because what you're seeing right now is the peak. It's
Speaker 1: the peak iteration of what they do on a basketball court.
Speaker 1: What you're seeing from the Lakers right now is explore it.
Speaker 1: It's exploration. They're learning how to play a new style
Speaker 1: with new players, And the exciting part is they're gonna
Speaker 1: be playing, even when Anthony Davis comes back, a completely
Speaker 1: different style of basketball than they did in previous years.
Speaker 1: So even the Lakers in the playoffs that went to
Speaker 1: primarily Anthony Davis at center, that style of basketball with
Speaker 1: Lebron and Nady at the four and five is gonna
Speaker 1: look very different than what we're gonna see this year
Speaker 1: with Lebron and Navy at the four and five when
Speaker 1: we head into the postseason. So the exciting part there
Speaker 1: is there's just a ton of room for improvement. As
Speaker 1: long as health remains solid, as as long as you know,
Speaker 1: you don't see any unforeseen circumstances, and as long as
Speaker 1: the team kind of stays bought in, there's a very
Speaker 1: good chance that they're gonna be a heck of a
Speaker 1: lot better come April or May than they are now,
Speaker 1: which is not something that can be said about their
Speaker 1: competitors in the West. And so that that that to
Speaker 1: me is something to get really excited about and and
Speaker 1: it's cool to see them really really buy into that
Speaker 1: identity shift so much so that in a game like tonight,
Speaker 1: when it started to go south. They just stuck with it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, And to be fair like Phoenix, like I understand,
Speaker 1: they're probably not going to peak a lot higher than
Speaker 1: they are, but it's they're still at a very high
Speaker 1: level that we have to at least still get to write.
Speaker 1: They're playing at a really high level. They execute really
Speaker 1: nice the Utah as well. They have some flaws that
Speaker 1: really show out in the postseason. But I think there's
Speaker 1: still a really good team there. But when teams go small,
Speaker 1: obviously then they should. Yeah, and that's the hope at
Speaker 1: least when a d comes back, he comes back to
Speaker 1: a team that's kind of in rhythm, that's going in
Speaker 1: an upward direction. Right. Hopefully, hopefully we can kind of
Speaker 1: move out of five hundred, out of the six h
Speaker 1: the seven spot, which I think is a plan. Maybe
Speaker 1: the four seed might be a little bit too high,
Speaker 1: but I think there's still a chance they can get there,
Speaker 1: and that's the hope. I wonder if Adie comes back,
Speaker 1: Lebron is still the center, I guess in a lot
Speaker 1: of line up because I think that's something they've talked about,
Speaker 1: which is something interesting and I think Vogel said the
Speaker 1: other day as well, that you know, even when Adie
Speaker 1: comes back, him and Lebron are going to be their
Speaker 1: primary centers and we'll see if they'll go pick out
Speaker 1: another big But that's what it seems like, kids looking like.
Speaker 1: That's what the roster's kind of geared towards. I think
Speaker 1: the Stanley Johnson signing is a representation of things something
Speaker 1: they obviously thought they needed on the team. And now
Speaker 1: we have a full We have a full rotation of
Speaker 1: wings now right we have the Johnson Orresa Reeves. I
Speaker 1: think that's a really good wing rotation to have, uh
Speaker 1: and with Carmelo who can sprinkle in as well come
Speaker 1: playoff time. But that's the hope man. Hopefully when Adi
Speaker 1: gets back, this team is on a upward trajectory and
Speaker 1: Kendrick Nunna if we can come back soon. Again, just
Speaker 1: no news on Kendrick nunn which is which is interesting.
Speaker 1: Hopefully he's able to come back pretty soon because I
Speaker 1: think we need his play, especially at the guard spot,
Speaker 1: and we need a guard kind of score off screen
Speaker 1: of roles and stuff like that. But it's been nice, man,
Speaker 1: Malik Monk has been saving us. Carmelo has hit some
Speaker 1: big shots, every Badley has been consistent. We're getting stuff
Speaker 1: out of a roll guys Russ and Lebron. If they
Speaker 1: can continue to kind of build chemistry, we can go
Speaker 1: into the playoffs with some positive energy with a d
Speaker 1: coming back as well. Yeah, Kendrick nun is going to
Speaker 1: be a breath of fresh air to try to take
Speaker 1: the ball out of Russ his hands a little bit more.
Speaker 1: That's definitely something that excites me. You know, we talk
Speaker 1: a lot about Lebron's versatility on both ends of the
Speaker 1: floor and his ability to play multiple positions, but we
Speaker 1: don't give enough credit to Anthony Davis for being able
Speaker 1: to do the same thing defensively, Like how many centers
Speaker 1: could you be? Like, Hey, we want to make our
Speaker 1: power forward play all of our you know, back line
Speaker 1: drop coverage, you know, communication type roles on the defense,
Speaker 1: and we want you to go guard that, to guard
Speaker 1: over there, like Anthony Davis can do that. That's that's
Speaker 1: what makes him so devastating and in a weird way,
Speaker 1: Like I said this to you, I think two games ago,
Speaker 1: but the Lakers have kind of tripped and fallen into
Speaker 1: modern basketball in a lot of ways by virtue of
Speaker 1: it was like Frank Vogel got dragged kicking and screaming
Speaker 1: by positive COVID tests and pulled, you know, MCLs into
Speaker 1: playing a style of basketball that he never in a
Speaker 1: million years would have And it's kind of cool to
Speaker 1: see that materialized. But Anthony Davis is going to be
Speaker 1: an easy plug and play into that, and I think
Speaker 1: it's it's gonna work really well. But that's that's all
Speaker 1: I had for tonight, Rogers or anything else you had
Speaker 1: on your list that you wanted to touch. Well, just
Speaker 1: last thing on the thing you said where you said
Speaker 1: we kind of fell backwards into it. And I keep
Speaker 1: bringing up the media the day thing, But I wonder,
Speaker 1: like the reason the injury is such an inflection point
Speaker 1: on the season, right because that that's the injury that
Speaker 1: everyone's brought up has switched the identity of this team
Speaker 1: from small ball eighty at the five to a redon
Speaker 1: Reason's injury to now then we went to DeAndre Jordan's
Speaker 1: starting for twenty games. Like that's a really interesting kind
Speaker 1: of look back on the season. And we obviously can't
Speaker 1: go back in time and switch to games and find out,
Speaker 1: but I would just love to know how this team starts.
Speaker 1: Maybe Westbrook gets talk to a better start if if
Speaker 1: we go straight to you know, instead of a reason,
Speaker 1: instead of going to DeAndre Jordan's, maybe you just fill
Speaker 1: in you know, baysmore for a reason and try to
Speaker 1: have a fast simile of him in that starting lineup.
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting. But we're here now, which I
Speaker 1: think is important. There's enough games to kind of build
Speaker 1: a rhythm for this team to build an identity. And again,
Speaker 1: I think getting to where Phoenix is is going to
Speaker 1: take a lot of work, is gonna take a lot
Speaker 1: of games, is gonna take all the team being healthy
Speaker 1: as well. But yeah, that's the that's the hope here
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to find out. So Westbrook, Lebron and
Speaker 1: a D have only played fifteen games together this season,
Speaker 1: which is kind of really interesting when you think about
Speaker 1: just how the other teams have continuity. You talked about Utah,
Speaker 1: they pretty much have the same lineup bringing in Rudy
Speaker 1: Gay from last season, and the Phoenix as well has
Speaker 1: had the same starting line up from last year. So
Speaker 1: we're already kind of behind in there and our stars
Speaker 1: kind of only fifteen games played by a Stars, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to pick it up. Yeah, man, that's
Speaker 1: the hope. Hopefully Kendry No can come back and we
Speaker 1: have our full team. We're getting close though everyone else's back,
Speaker 1: A D and none are the only ones left, and
Speaker 1: hopefully we can kind of build and when some wins
Speaker 1: here going into the All Star break. All right, everybody,
Speaker 1: that's all we have for tonight. This is gonna air
Speaker 1: on DASH Radio tomorrow morning at seven and Pacific Standard time.
Speaker 1: It will be on our podcast feed probably in about
Speaker 1: an hour and a half, but we appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1: Support is always. Happy New Year from Roger and Night
Speaker 1: and we will see you for the game on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Thanks everyone, Happy