Speaker 1: Welcome to the State of the Lakers podcast. It is
Speaker 1: Friday morning. Thank you guys so much for taking time
Speaker 1: out of your early weekend to come hang out with
Speaker 1: Roger and I on the livestream. We're competing with a
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant spaces with the Banski this morning, So for
Speaker 1: those of you who are choosing us, we sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you and and your loyalty. Rock. How are you doing
Speaker 1: this morning? Man doing great? Man doing great? It's a
Speaker 1: beautiful Friday morning. I got my work out in in
Speaker 1: the morning, and yeah, it's it's nice, nice out here.
Speaker 1: How about you? It was good. I played some basketball
Speaker 1: this morning. I'm super lucky to have access to a
Speaker 1: gym now, and no one has the gym after we play,
Speaker 1: So I go and I play, and then I stick
Speaker 1: around and I get shots up. It allows me to
Speaker 1: work on my game in a in a way that
Speaker 1: I have been able to do for the most part
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. Um Uh and I love. We were
Speaker 1: just talking, Roger and I were just talking before the pod,
Speaker 1: like how awesome it feels to get a workout in
Speaker 1: in the morning to start your day. It just gets
Speaker 1: your whole body, you know, woken up and and and
Speaker 1: just it just sets the tone for the rest of
Speaker 1: the day and helps you get going. Um. Uh, So
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about a bunch of stuff today. The
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about last night's uh my heat game.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about Ben Nacklamore's debut. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about Andre Drummond and how he looks so far. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about Dennis Shrewder and how he's been struggling
Speaker 1: a little bit as of late. Um. And then uh,
Speaker 1: Roger and I both want to talk for a little
Speaker 1: while about the most recent podcast uh that Banski did
Speaker 1: with with Kevin Durant and Draymond Green. I thought there
Speaker 1: was a bunch of super interesting stuff in there that
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to at the end. Um. But let's
Speaker 1: start with the Lakers. So you know, uh, if you
Speaker 1: were to look back a week or so ago, UM,
Speaker 1: you would have marked this one as a loss, not
Speaker 1: just a loss, but a game that the Lakers would
Speaker 1: have just got absolutely destroyed. And uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: actually went into the last night's game with a little
Speaker 1: bit optimism thinking they could win. And the reason why
Speaker 1: is they've kind of figured out a formula without Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D. We're defending our ass off for the record.
Speaker 1: In the ten games since Lebron went down. Without Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D, there's third in the league in defense.
Speaker 1: So there's still guard like crazy starting to make some
Speaker 1: in a way that they weren't king earlier. They just
Speaker 1: they have a little bit of a formula. They're rocking
Speaker 1: with that formula, and they're winning some basketball games four
Speaker 1: and six, which is a hell of a lot better
Speaker 1: than we all inspect expected beforehand. Um, what were you
Speaker 1: what were your early impressions after watching last night's game. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: like I like to go back and watch because it's
Speaker 1: hard to kind of catch everything you want to see live.
Speaker 1: And I was looking at Andre Drummond and to me,
Speaker 1: he's like, he's like Wes Matthews in a big body, right.
Speaker 1: He matches all their guards physicality, except at the big
Speaker 1: so he's really nice. He can switch. He was in
Speaker 1: a defensive stance and both of us kind of were
Speaker 1: on the Andre him in train right. We were saying
Speaker 1: that he's gonna be better than he looked in that
Speaker 1: Bucks game after he kind of hurt his toe, And
Speaker 1: that's the main thing that stood out to me. I
Speaker 1: think he had like fifteen points tend to rebounds or
Speaker 1: something like that, but his steals. He got a lot
Speaker 1: of hands on the ball um he was able to
Speaker 1: trap and kind of help and recover, and that's the
Speaker 1: main thing to me to see him fit in. I
Speaker 1: feel like last night was like house money, right like,
Speaker 1: after they beat all the teams they were supposed to
Speaker 1: last night, it was just kind of like, hey, go
Speaker 1: play free and try to get a win. And that
Speaker 1: Miami team is a lot better, probably than their record
Speaker 1: would dictate right there, twenty six and twenty four or something,
Speaker 1: and they're still like the fourth seed, which shows kind
Speaker 1: of the difference in the conference. But they're a lot
Speaker 1: better than they show. And they're very switch heavy. They
Speaker 1: have a lot of big wings. And Sproulstra, who's one
Speaker 1: of the best coaches in the league, trapped every single
Speaker 1: time our ball handlers because he knew we had no
Speaker 1: one who can dribble beside Shrewder, who couldn't dribble last
Speaker 1: night either, but he had to get a tough time.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's supposed to trapped every single time, and
Speaker 1: that kind of really messed up our offensive flow. But
Speaker 1: I thought the defense, like you said, it's just consistent,
Speaker 1: played really well. At They held Miami to like ninety
Speaker 1: eight with like five minutes left or something, four minutes left,
Speaker 1: So the defense was good. Jimmy Butler took over late.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that was a really good I mean, you
Speaker 1: don't want moral moral losses are moral wins? How are
Speaker 1: they say it? But that was a good game. I
Speaker 1: mean that's a good Miami team that can beat a
Speaker 1: lot of really good teams. So yeah, I'm happy. I
Speaker 1: thought Drum played well. We'll speak on mac lamore a
Speaker 1: little later, but what else did you see from last night?
Speaker 1: Going going into the game. I actually thought the Lakers
Speaker 1: had a legitimate chance to win. And they hung around
Speaker 1: and you know, as like you said, Jimmy Butler took
Speaker 1: over l there were big moments where the Lakers got close.
Speaker 1: Think like you know, end of the second quarter. There
Speaker 1: was a moment even middle of the fourth quarter where
Speaker 1: they got within three, I believe, and just at that point,
Speaker 1: you know, the talent advantage for Miami took over. But
Speaker 1: it was something that I thought they had a chance
Speaker 1: to win. And here's the deal, if you know, in
Speaker 1: this next four games that we're looking at most likely.
Speaker 1: You know, Mark Stein hinted that Anthony Davis is gonna
Speaker 1: try to come back on the seventeenth, that's exactly four
Speaker 1: weeks to the day since Lebron hurt his uh ankle,
Speaker 1: So there's a realistic chance that Lebron could be coming
Speaker 1: back to So we're looking at, basically best case scenario,
Speaker 1: another four games, and in these four games, with exception
Speaker 1: of the Brooklyn one with Kevin Durant, they have a
Speaker 1: legitimate chance to win. And I think I think it's
Speaker 1: been really cool to see. I think Frank Vogel he's
Speaker 1: not gonna get Coach of the Year just because there's
Speaker 1: better options, but he's he has proven, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: to be the best defensive coach in basketball. Uh. The
Speaker 1: fact that you can he could plug in play basically
Speaker 1: inferior defensive talent and put together a defense that competes
Speaker 1: like this, I think goes to show you where his
Speaker 1: area of expertise is. He gets a lot of flak
Speaker 1: for what he does on the offensive end um, but
Speaker 1: what he's done with his defense, I think is is
Speaker 1: truly remarkable. Now, I think the Shrewder thing was interesting
Speaker 1: you mentioned, you know, how he was kind of sloppy
Speaker 1: with his handle. I think people, all basketball fans, have
Speaker 1: to kind of reframe the way that we analyze what
Speaker 1: an offensive basketball player in his role. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: like that's what makes these superstars so amazing. Like Dennis,
Speaker 1: Shrewder is struggling because he's getting all the defensive attention.
Speaker 1: He's coming off the pick and roll, Miami's trapping them
Speaker 1: when he drives into the lane. Everybody's collapsing on him,
Speaker 1: everybody's reaching on Dennis. Everything is geared towards stopping Dennis
Speaker 1: because they know the rest of the roster isn't great
Speaker 1: at creating their own shot. And that's what makes the
Speaker 1: Lebrons and the KDIs and the Steps and all these
Speaker 1: guys so amazing is they've been getting that their entire career. Literally,
Speaker 1: that's what they deal with. And you know, to Shrewder's credit,
Speaker 1: even though he struggled in a lot of ways turning
Speaker 1: the ball over creating his own shot, he did like
Speaker 1: draw enough attention that the other guys around him on
Speaker 1: the floor were able to get going. And I think
Speaker 1: that that is to his credit. He had a specific
Speaker 1: job and he's not a superstar, so he's not gonna
Speaker 1: have a ton of success as the number one option.
Speaker 1: But he did draw attention. He did help get Wesley
Speaker 1: Matthews going, He helped get k CP going, He helped
Speaker 1: get everybody going just by eating up the primary defensive attention.
Speaker 1: And I think that there's value in that. And then
Speaker 1: to his credit, he's still defended on the other end. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like where he went with that with the superstars, because
Speaker 1: what do they do? They break down a defense, right,
Speaker 1: That's what superstars do. Now. The best ones like Lebron
Speaker 1: can manipulate a defense to do what he wants, but
Speaker 1: most of the superstars, they can break down defense. Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: Qui Leonard, any of those. Dennis Shrewder isn't that And
Speaker 1: also his height kind of makes makes up for that
Speaker 1: as well. So like last night, but there were some
Speaker 1: passes men like you knew that they were going to
Speaker 1: trap every single time, and he kept trying to throw
Speaker 1: that like jump pass out and it got stolen at
Speaker 1: least five times by Iguadala. Trevor Rea's a name another
Speaker 1: wing that you know just picked him off. But yeah,
Speaker 1: he's not He's no more attacking an already collapse defense,
Speaker 1: because that's that's where I think he's best, right when
Speaker 1: Lebron breaks down, takes to the shoulder and now you
Speaker 1: have to stop his speed attacking the rim and that
Speaker 1: he can find like treads and he found treads a
Speaker 1: few times in the dunker spot last night. He did
Speaker 1: a nice job trying to control all the offense, tell
Speaker 1: KCP where to go, come off screens, and try to
Speaker 1: run and keep things under control. But yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: tough without those two. And you saw last night, like
Speaker 1: he he kept driving in the room trying to get contact.
Speaker 1: Miami got like eighteen three dolls in the first and
Speaker 1: I think he thought that he can kind of manipulate
Speaker 1: that as well. But yeah, it was it was nice
Speaker 1: to see that he kind of got it going late,
Speaker 1: like he was able to kind of control the offense
Speaker 1: later than early because early he had a lot of turnovers.
Speaker 1: But he got it going a little bit. He had
Speaker 1: like a layup driving on BAM late. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: tough without them, and it's kind of I don't think
Speaker 1: you should expect Shorter to really, you know, be able
Speaker 1: to replace those two. But still I think we can
Speaker 1: expect better from him. I mean, like he had a
Speaker 1: nice he had a nice amount of assists, but still
Speaker 1: I feel like he could have played a little bit better.
Speaker 1: Like those turnovers were just someone We're just giving them away.
Speaker 1: Like I think that was the worst Where's probably ball
Speaker 1: handling game he's had as a Laker. But again that
Speaker 1: coincides with not having Lebron, so it's not not too unexpected.
Speaker 1: But you're right, like superstars, they've been a defense and
Speaker 1: he's not that yet. He's a really nice player, but
Speaker 1: expecting him to like fit that role. I thought Alice
Speaker 1: Cruiso did a nice job when he came in, but
Speaker 1: again he's kind of making the more simple place. So
Speaker 1: we're just trying to drive in and get his floaters
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and nothing was going, which which happens sometimes.
Speaker 1: He was He was absolutely sloppy with the ball. That
Speaker 1: goes without saying there was a play to start. He
Speaker 1: had a sequence to start the second half where he
Speaker 1: like brought the ball up the floor and dribbled off
Speaker 1: his foot out of bounds, and then on the very
Speaker 1: next play like drove to the left and like through
Speaker 1: a swing pass right as the dude was cutting away
Speaker 1: from him and throw it out of bounds and then
Speaker 1: like two possessions later, he drives baseline and steps on
Speaker 1: the baseline. Like you could tell he was flat out
Speaker 1: struggling with all that defensive attention. And you're right, like
Speaker 1: we we should expect him to be better than that.
Speaker 1: All I'm saying is that, like, you know, his job
Speaker 1: is hard right now, and and I think I think
Speaker 1: we all need to gain a new appreciation for uh,
Speaker 1: for the way that these stars have to deal with
Speaker 1: that type of defensive attention night in and night out.
Speaker 1: And you know, Bron Lebron is such an amazing job
Speaker 1: of this. Like Lebron is like he's like, I'm literally
Speaker 1: going to manipulate the defense through passing, through finding openings
Speaker 1: so that I create openings for myself. You know, you
Speaker 1: see Dennis Shorter driving into the paint and there's just
Speaker 1: six set of arms around him, and and he's and
Speaker 1: he's The guys who are reaching in or knocking the
Speaker 1: ball lose with Lebron because he's able to to keep
Speaker 1: the defense spread with his passing ability. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: those driving lanes are there. Lebron is frequently called, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the best drivers of the basketball that that
Speaker 1: we see in the league right now, and it has
Speaker 1: it has a lot to do with his physical tools,
Speaker 1: but to me, the majority of it comes from his
Speaker 1: ability to pass the basketball. And that's the kind of
Speaker 1: stuff where you know, Dennis uh, he needs to uh.
Speaker 1: He's he came create places. He had a bunch of
Speaker 1: assists last night. He needs to see how that sort
Speaker 1: of thing well, then open things up for him. But
Speaker 1: when Lebron and n D come back, you can see
Speaker 1: where he fits in the offense. It's gonna be attacking
Speaker 1: bigs on switches when there's more space, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: you know, he gets the screen and roll, they're gonna
Speaker 1: switch it. They're not gonna trap because if they trap
Speaker 1: Dennis and let Lebron and a D play four on three,
Speaker 1: they're gonna get absolutely destroyed. Things are just gonna open
Speaker 1: up more for him. And the same goes for Drummond.
Speaker 1: We talk this is a good time to move over
Speaker 1: to drum and you know, he's not a good ball handler,
Speaker 1: and every time he puts the ball on the floor,
Speaker 1: I feel like he's gonna turn it over. He's just
Speaker 1: clumsy and he's sloppy, and he's the definition of a
Speaker 1: guy who has all sorts of natural ability, but just
Speaker 1: all of the fine detail type stuff in his game
Speaker 1: is off and it throws everything off for him. Um.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is they're not going to ask
Speaker 1: him to do that ever. Uh, it's just not gonna
Speaker 1: be his role. And like when they do throw it
Speaker 1: to him on the block, it's going to be because
Speaker 1: he has a specific mismatch, you know. And when he
Speaker 1: when he does put the ball on the floor, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be because he caught it in a pick and
Speaker 1: roll at the free throw line and the lane is cleared,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna be dribbling once and going into his
Speaker 1: statue of liberty dunk. Like that's that's gonna be the
Speaker 1: way his role is defined when he gets to that point.
Speaker 1: And I just you know, I think they have a
Speaker 1: chance to win some of these games, and they do
Speaker 1: it through Dennis creating, creating everything and dumping the ball
Speaker 1: to Andre Drummond on the block. But that's not going
Speaker 1: to be their formula when Lebron and they d come back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I said before, like those Drummond post ups are never
Speaker 1: going to be efficient. Like that's never gonna be a
Speaker 1: good shot right or something that analytics kind of proposes
Speaker 1: as a shot, but you know it can eat a possession.
Speaker 1: And I think that's important because the lake, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's better than a turnover, right, and someone needs to shoot.
Speaker 1: I mean, in that starting lineup. To be fair to
Speaker 1: to Dennis, he's the only guy that can create a
Speaker 1: shot really, right, You're not gonna have KCP run ball
Speaker 1: screens and then the next the next only option is
Speaker 1: to give it to Drummond and let him try to post.
Speaker 1: He drew some fouls on bam Um, he had some
Speaker 1: flip shots. He can get his own offensive rebound. He
Speaker 1: had a few nice putback dunks um early in the game.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and I thought he played well. I mean obviously,
Speaker 1: like I think people are more upset that Mark didn't
Speaker 1: get any minutes. But I think we discussed that, like
Speaker 1: this is just how it's gonna go. They want to
Speaker 1: see what they have, how drum is gonna play, fit
Speaker 1: him in and again fair to Dennis, like they were
Speaker 1: running some line up plus night they had McKinney malcolmore
Speaker 1: out there with Dennis Drummond. Like it was just a
Speaker 1: weird line of people don't know when to cut when
Speaker 1: to stay there um malcolmore cut I think one time
Speaker 1: and Dennis threw it out of bounds or McKinney did
Speaker 1: the same thing late in the game. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it was a really nice game and drum is
Speaker 1: gonna help a lot. You could see his physicality. He
Speaker 1: was able to move Bam off his spot. He was
Speaker 1: able to um kind of stay there in the post
Speaker 1: Bam was Bam hit a few mid range jumpers, but
Speaker 1: I think you live with that. So I think him
Speaker 1: and A d like that's where I was looking. I
Speaker 1: want to get your kind of thought on this, because
Speaker 1: when I was watching Drummond last night, I just kept
Speaker 1: imagining him next to Anthony Davis, another really leaping guy.
Speaker 1: When he's healthy, you can jump, double jump, triple jump,
Speaker 1: and then kind of like you know, stay grounded, get rebounds,
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds. So what do you think about when those
Speaker 1: two kind of play together, how how they'll be able
Speaker 1: to fit on the floor. Well, it's a natural fit.
Speaker 1: I mean the reality is is like you know, uh,
Speaker 1: A Drummond is good at kind of patrolling around the paint,
Speaker 1: which gives Anthony Davis the ability to roam a little
Speaker 1: bit because Anthony Davis is Anthony Davis was so good
Speaker 1: last year on switches when they would you know, he
Speaker 1: gets switched on to Jamal Murray, he gets switched on
Speaker 1: to quiet and he'd be able to play defense out
Speaker 1: in space, but the Lakers would typically get hurt on
Speaker 1: the back end on the offensive glass. And and a
Speaker 1: lot of that had to do with the fact that
Speaker 1: they couldn't play Dwight er Javail for various reasons. And
Speaker 1: if if Drummond proves to be, you know, talented enough
Speaker 1: to continue to play, then he kind of resolves that problem.
Speaker 1: You know, I thought he was good holding his ground
Speaker 1: against Bam as well. When he did lose him for
Speaker 1: those midrange jump shots, it was typically because he was helping,
Speaker 1: Like they were wide open jump shots for Bam, because
Speaker 1: Andre was in rotation, he was he was helping elsewhere
Speaker 1: on the floor. That's his job, that's what he's doing
Speaker 1: in the defense, and you prefer to give up that
Speaker 1: type of shot to Bam. Um with Anthony Davis, it's
Speaker 1: more or less, like I said, the ability to have
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis defend force and by allowing Anthony Davis to
Speaker 1: defend fours, you have this like crazy, freaky lanky dude
Speaker 1: flying around, chasing dudes off the line, and and and
Speaker 1: guarding the other team's perimeter player. Because you have Andre Drummond,
Speaker 1: you can play or traditional defensive center. It's just a
Speaker 1: flexibility thing. And and with Marcusol, who has been okay
Speaker 1: as a defensive five this year, and and with Montrese Harold,
Speaker 1: they just didn't have that piece who could kind of
Speaker 1: really like kind of re established that same defensive identity
Speaker 1: they had last year with Dwight Um. The other thing
Speaker 1: with Drummond that I thought was interesting is like I
Speaker 1: don't know how you weaponize this, because I feel like
Speaker 1: throwing the ball to Drummond in the post when with
Speaker 1: Lebron and a d is kind of a waste. But
Speaker 1: man like like guys can't guard him, but like he misses,
Speaker 1: he misses shots, but like like guys can't guys can't
Speaker 1: guard him, Like he's he's he's got enough speed and
Speaker 1: enough strength that he gets to his shot, Like he
Speaker 1: gets to his his little sweeping hook and like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's gonna miss it a lot, and like Miami fouled
Speaker 1: him a lot yesterday. And it was just one of
Speaker 1: those things where I remember sitting there thinking like, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know that you ever go to this,
Speaker 1: But like, I don't feel like it's a complete waste
Speaker 1: to dump it down to him on the block, because
Speaker 1: I do feel like there's a high percentage chance that
Speaker 1: he's going to either get to the rim or get fouled.
Speaker 1: I just I just don't necessarily think it's a it's
Speaker 1: a It should be anything more than just a bail out.
Speaker 1: Like Lebron's running the bench lineup eighties on the bench.
Speaker 1: Lebron is is kind of fatigued because he's been really
Speaker 1: aggressive over the last three possessions. It's not the end
Speaker 1: of the world to throw it into drum and for
Speaker 1: something like that, whereas with Dwight, I never felt like
Speaker 1: he was as successful at drawing fouls and getting to
Speaker 1: his spots offensively. Yeah, it's kind of like last year
Speaker 1: and they would just throw it into jabail and be like,
Speaker 1: hey go crazy, you know, like, hey go have a
Speaker 1: possession like this is yours, and where if Lebron was
Speaker 1: tired or a d didn't feel like doing it, you know,
Speaker 1: and he would he would get a look at the rim,
Speaker 1: he choots some skyhook and then it wouldn't really go
Speaker 1: in very many times. But I think drums a little
Speaker 1: better than Jabel in terms of like posting up. He
Speaker 1: does a good job of like Duckins right, he gets
Speaker 1: really low and he has a really nice wide basse
Speaker 1: that he gives the ball handler a nice target. I
Speaker 1: thought he got a really nice he got a he
Speaker 1: got a couple of really nice baskets download doing that
Speaker 1: he got fouled. He had like four straight free throws
Speaker 1: last night, which was nice seeing him hit his free
Speaker 1: throws as well. But yeah, like I don't think the
Speaker 1: post is gonna be anything that they use when it matters.
Speaker 1: But again, right now, with no really offensive options Kuzma
Speaker 1: also we don't know if he's back um tomorrow as well,
Speaker 1: so that's the only real option here. It's either shrewder
Speaker 1: high screen or roll um if KCP has a going
Speaker 1: coming off screens, and then it's Drummond in the post
Speaker 1: trying to get fouled um. He has some nice passes
Speaker 1: as well. Um last night I was seeing he had
Speaker 1: a nice pass to Crusoe on the cut. He found
Speaker 1: West Matthew for a few threes. So it's not like
Speaker 1: a black hole when it goes down there, right, Like Treads,
Speaker 1: if he Treads gets the ball in the post, he's
Speaker 1: shooting every time. Now that's an efficient shot, but he's
Speaker 1: gonna shoot it every time. I think Treads is like
Speaker 1: I think Tim cran just ms mcbasketball. He uh said
Speaker 1: that Tread's had like five times he kicked out in
Speaker 1: like a hundred post possessions. So when he gets it,
Speaker 1: when he gets the ball download, he's shooting it. I
Speaker 1: think Drummonds a little bit more. He'll kick it out,
Speaker 1: he'll find shooters, um, So it's not like he's just
Speaker 1: gonna get there and shoot every time. But like for
Speaker 1: some reason he pulls out the Kyrie handles, he tries
Speaker 1: to in and out dribble reverse when he's at the
Speaker 1: rim when he could just dunk it. Those are the
Speaker 1: kind of frustrating things, but I think you'll live with
Speaker 1: that for now. His defense was great. I thought he
Speaker 1: played really well, So I think that was really nice.
Speaker 1: I feel like last night was his debut and like
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee game kind of. I mean, after that first quarter,
Speaker 1: it was pretty much he was playing on one leg
Speaker 1: or one toe or nine toes, however you want to
Speaker 1: say it. But Yeah, I think last night was his debut,
Speaker 1: and I thought he played really well. Yeah, and like
Speaker 1: the passing out of the post was interesting, Like he
Speaker 1: he's a rocket thrower, Like he's here, like he's got
Speaker 1: big hands you can pull on the ball and you
Speaker 1: can tell like his favorite thing to do is just
Speaker 1: kind of like back him down and wait for one
Speaker 1: of the help defenders to just give like a little
Speaker 1: bit of like a strike zone for him to just
Speaker 1: launch a past two um and then that passed to
Speaker 1: Alex Caruso was actually really not so it was one
Speaker 1: of the few times where he handled the ball pretty well,
Speaker 1: like didn't lose control of the ball, ball right, and
Speaker 1: then uh, just overall, like I think, I think, I
Speaker 1: think you and I talked before his first game that
Speaker 1: we kind of expected this first stage of the Drummond
Speaker 1: experience to be a little sloppy, and and it has.
Speaker 1: It's been good and bad. But I think we I
Speaker 1: think we all expect more from him in a specific
Speaker 1: role in Lebron and Nindy come back. What did you
Speaker 1: think of Ben McLamore's debut. Yeah, so I feel like
Speaker 1: he was trying to force it at least I thought
Speaker 1: the whole team was trying to kind of get him shots, right.
Speaker 1: I think his first one was like a step back three.
Speaker 1: He hit one. He took a really quick one in
Speaker 1: the corner. But like I saw, he had one where
Speaker 1: he was fouled by Duncan Robinson coming off the screen,
Speaker 1: And we don't have any other shooter who shoots like that,
Speaker 1: who can square up. He caught it squared on the curl,
Speaker 1: got right up into a shot, he got fouled. Um,
Speaker 1: And I think he's gonna be great at Like, I
Speaker 1: think it's funny. I don't think Casey p played well
Speaker 1: last night because of Ben Malckamore. I don't think it
Speaker 1: hurt though, to like have another shooter to like play
Speaker 1: your role right, like, oh now my legs are feeling
Speaker 1: a little bit better now I can now I'm gonna
Speaker 1: run a little bit more, you know. So Um, I
Speaker 1: thought he kind of impacted that. But yeah, it was
Speaker 1: cool to see a guy that's in the corner that
Speaker 1: teams have to respect, Like teams have to fight over
Speaker 1: the screen over him. He's not a great guy coming
Speaker 1: on screens, but they can't cheat, they can't go under.
Speaker 1: I could do one. Alice Crusoe like they do on
Speaker 1: you know, other shooters. Cruso shooting forty one from three,
Speaker 1: but he's still not respected as a shooter like Ben
Speaker 1: Malcolmore is. He's stick him in the corner. It's hard
Speaker 1: to help off of. Um. But I thought he kind
Speaker 1: of forced it last night, which is expected. But he
Speaker 1: had one I think he's only made field goal was
Speaker 1: like a one where he's coming off the screen out
Speaker 1: of bounds and he hit like a fading jumper in
Speaker 1: the third. But I thought he was good. I thought
Speaker 1: his defense was fine. Um, I didn't think. I didn't
Speaker 1: see anything wrong, Like I didn't. I didn't think he
Speaker 1: was a liability or anything last night. Like, I thought
Speaker 1: he'd fit in to the scheme pretty well. Um, how
Speaker 1: about you, what do you see from him? Yeah, Defensively,
Speaker 1: I thought he fit into the scheme perfectly, which is
Speaker 1: what I predicted, just because it's like his skill set
Speaker 1: is perfect for what Frank Vogel asks from the guards. Um. Offensively,
Speaker 1: I thought he was forcing some things. I mean, it
Speaker 1: was kind of exactly what I expected in the sense
Speaker 1: that like, and didn't get any good looks last night.
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't like Ben was out there missing open shots,
Speaker 1: like he was forcing things because nothing was open. And
Speaker 1: that's gonna change dramatically when he's playing with Lebron and
Speaker 1: a D. There were a couple of plays KCP when
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D are out, his his whole focus
Speaker 1: on offensively shifts to like I'm gonna get mine, you know,
Speaker 1: and he's a little bit more aggressive off the bounce.
Speaker 1: And for the record, he was great last night shooting
Speaker 1: the basketball, so I'm not trying to say that he
Speaker 1: shouldn't be. But I thought there were there were a
Speaker 1: handful of plays where if KCP would have made an
Speaker 1: extra pass or if he was in his more traditional
Speaker 1: clothes out make a quick decision type of mind frame,
Speaker 1: that he would have hit Ben in the corner. There
Speaker 1: were two in the second half where I thought he
Speaker 1: had wide open shots that k CP missed him. Um
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, the thing I think is gonna
Speaker 1: come back in time. But you're right. I mean, he
Speaker 1: gives you that weapon. The guy that can fly off
Speaker 1: the screens and is is a little bit more a
Speaker 1: dept at drawing fouls, kind of like Terence Ross type
Speaker 1: of vibe. Back up the shooting guard who can just
Speaker 1: fly off the screens and pull from anywhere. Um. I
Speaker 1: tend to think that his his extremely quick release is
Speaker 1: perfect for the Laker offense because one of Lebron's favorite
Speaker 1: things to do, it's like an energy saving thing, is
Speaker 1: out of the post or from the top of the
Speaker 1: key and kind of like the Marcos al spot. He'll
Speaker 1: just kind of survey the floor and just catch that
Speaker 1: one help defender that's just a step too close to
Speaker 1: the paint, and he'll just launch like a rocket pass.
Speaker 1: And like Lebron basically pre communicates whether it's before the
Speaker 1: game or before the play, like hey, if I hit
Speaker 1: you with this type of pass, I need you to
Speaker 1: shoot right away, because it's almost like an energy saving
Speaker 1: play used to do with j R. Smith all the time.
Speaker 1: He does it with KCP still now, but it's like
Speaker 1: Ben McLamore's really quick release is perfect for that. And
Speaker 1: I tend to think, like, I wasn't an amazing, you know,
Speaker 1: starry debut by any stretch of the imagination, but I
Speaker 1: have a feeling that he's actually going to be one
Speaker 1: of their crunch time eyes when it comes to it, uh,
Speaker 1: like even more than maybe a KCP, just because of
Speaker 1: the fact that I don't know if you noticed, but
Speaker 1: kcp's defense hasn't been great lately. And and uh, I
Speaker 1: think I think Ben mclimore is a little bit more
Speaker 1: consistent shooting and a little bit better of an athlete.
Speaker 1: I think it gives him a chance to earn some
Speaker 1: of those minutes, particularly with the closing group. I remained
Speaker 1: very bullish on on Ben mcamore. Yeah, you're really high
Speaker 1: on him. I I don't know if he'll be in
Speaker 1: the closing lineup. I think that's gonna be tough. We have.
Speaker 1: You know, he's got to beat out Carusoe, KCP, all
Speaker 1: those other guards. But yeah, it's just cool. I mean,
Speaker 1: if he's hitting shots, he's gonna play. And um, I
Speaker 1: thought last night it kind of showed. He also hit
Speaker 1: all his free throws right, he was like four or
Speaker 1: four from the line. He's a good free throw shooter
Speaker 1: as well, just to add into that. And he's really athletic.
Speaker 1: You don't think of him as like some athletic guard,
Speaker 1: but I mean he does run up the floor, he
Speaker 1: runs to those corners, he gets to his spots. Um again,
Speaker 1: I thought he was pressing last night. And he's another
Speaker 1: guy that I would just temper expectations until Lebron andy
Speaker 1: d you get back because those shots are gonna be
Speaker 1: even more wide open. But um, he had like all
Speaker 1: those passes that like, you can't trap that way that
Speaker 1: Miami did. If Lebron's on the court, right, you just
Speaker 1: can There's no way you can trap like that. So
Speaker 1: last time his shots were a lot more contested. I
Speaker 1: thought all his threes were pretty contested. I think maybe
Speaker 1: one was open, but I remember that first one went
Speaker 1: in and out, and he took another really contested one
Speaker 1: at the corner was also contested. So he'll get open
Speaker 1: looks of the Lakers, and uh, he hit his only
Speaker 1: real open shot, I thought, But yeah, he was. He
Speaker 1: was good. He's I think it's nice to have someone
Speaker 1: like we all all played like you don't you don't
Speaker 1: want someone right behind you, right Ksep knows that, hey,
Speaker 1: that's his spot, like Casey knows what Ben Malcolmore is
Speaker 1: there to do, Like he knows that he's a shooter
Speaker 1: and if he's not playing well, your minutes will be taken.
Speaker 1: So I think it's nice to have that little healthy
Speaker 1: competition there because Malcolmore is gonna want minutes and it's
Speaker 1: it's cool to have another shooter that you can rely
Speaker 1: on as insurance in case we don't have one going. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mentioned in the in the locker room pot uh,
Speaker 1: and I really do feel this way right now already
Speaker 1: Ben McLamore is the best athlete in the back court
Speaker 1: and he's the best shooter in the back work and
Speaker 1: I think that gives him a realistic chance if he
Speaker 1: embraces the defensive end and if his shot selection kind
Speaker 1: of matches with what the Lakers ask of him, and
Speaker 1: quite frankly, if you make shots, I see him potentially
Speaker 1: being an extremely valuable piece there. Like I mentioned, he
Speaker 1: was actually on that Houston Rockets team, their very best
Speaker 1: catching shoot shooter. And the bottom line is if you
Speaker 1: leave him open, if you leave him open, he's going
Speaker 1: to be in that mid forties forty four percent type
Speaker 1: of dude when he's wide open and uh and just
Speaker 1: catching shoot scenarios, he's gonna be around that mark as well.
Speaker 1: If he if he defends anywhere near what his athleticism
Speaker 1: is capable of in this Laker defense, I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna be really valuable. And so I I think it
Speaker 1: was a fantastic signing a no brainer fit and uh
Speaker 1: I I mentioned this on Twitter yesterday. I think that, uh,
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, one of the problems last year,
Speaker 1: and it was an organizational down thing, was that they
Speaker 1: would occasionally have some inferior defensive performances where and it
Speaker 1: started with Lebron and a D they'd be a sloppy
Speaker 1: and then all everybody would be really sloppy. And having
Speaker 1: the depth that Ben McLamore brings, having six like bona
Speaker 1: fide guards that can play in your rotation and uh,
Speaker 1: it just adds an accountability to the defensive effort type
Speaker 1: of stuff and makes it so that you're you really
Speaker 1: can't afford to slack off because there's just gonna be
Speaker 1: a better option than you if you're if you're slacking
Speaker 1: on the other end. Um. But yeah, is there anything
Speaker 1: I'm missing from last night's game in particular that was interesting?
Speaker 1: Uh No, I mean I thought it was a really
Speaker 1: fun game. I think Miami is just like better equipped
Speaker 1: than most to kind of switch everything really trapped and
Speaker 1: again without it's funny th HD, I'm a little higher
Speaker 1: I think on TSD than you, But I think he
Speaker 1: would have helped last night another ball handler right. Also
Speaker 1: Kuzma was out. Kuzma was not a ball handler, but
Speaker 1: another guy you can throw it to. Uh, to kind
Speaker 1: of mitigate those Allphonso MCKINNI, Malcolm Moore minutes where it's
Speaker 1: just really tough to kind of stay upfloat and then
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler took over. What she's gonna do. I thought
Speaker 1: it was funny, like Andre Drummond switched on him. Jim
Speaker 1: Butler take a contested midrange jumper. I thought that was
Speaker 1: the defense, but they just hit it and he said like,
Speaker 1: don't do that or something like that, don't switch. So
Speaker 1: that was kind of fun those I see them stay competitive.
Speaker 1: They could have They could have folded a few times, right,
Speaker 1: Miami went up like ten or eleven. Oladipo looked like fine,
Speaker 1: I guess before he got hurt. Sadly he got hurt late.
Speaker 1: But I thought they defended really well. Um and they
Speaker 1: kind of I mean, they kind of held Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: bam too. A little bit of their averages, which all
Speaker 1: which is all you can ask in in that kind
Speaker 1: of game. And uh, no one really went went too
Speaker 1: crazy on them. So they had a shot, which is
Speaker 1: all you can ask and that kind of I thought
Speaker 1: the fouls though, I mean, it was just weird. When
Speaker 1: you give up eighteen three Tholles in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: it's kind of tough to catch up to that, Like
Speaker 1: it's the game is just that's that's really tough to
Speaker 1: kind of mitigate as the game goes on. So, uh,
Speaker 1: if they can not do that against Brooklyn, they're not
Speaker 1: gonna be favorite at all against Brooklyn, But um, they
Speaker 1: if they can just keep it close, why not give
Speaker 1: him a chance. Yeah. I liked their chances against Brooklyn
Speaker 1: a lot more when Katie wasn't playing right. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the competition has been the most impro us a thing
Speaker 1: to me as well. Like, you know, after their first
Speaker 1: couple of games without Lebron and A d Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: in one of our pods, we talked about how the
Speaker 1: team just didn't really feel like they could win. There
Speaker 1: wasn't like that aura that surrounded the team for them
Speaker 1: to go in there last night down basically four of
Speaker 1: their top five offensive shock Craders literally Lebron and A. D.
Speaker 1: Kuzma and talent Norton Tucker and basically Ride with a
Speaker 1: bunch of defenders and and Dennis Shrewder and to compete
Speaker 1: like that and don't forget like that was a I
Speaker 1: don't want to say a must win for Miami, but
Speaker 1: it was a really important game for Miami because they're
Speaker 1: in the middle of a big standings battle and they
Speaker 1: just tricked off a game to Memphis at home. We're
Speaker 1: Memphis basically just took it to him and beat him
Speaker 1: by like twelve I think so like it was one
Speaker 1: of those games where I guarantee you Eric Spoils Strew,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler and all the guys in that locker room
Speaker 1: were like, we gotta get this one. And the Lakers
Speaker 1: came in their severely undermanned and and we're within three
Speaker 1: points halfway through the third quarter, halfway through the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: So I agree with you. I've been I've been super
Speaker 1: impressed with this team. I was looking at the schedule
Speaker 1: yesterday and uh, correct me if I'm wrong. But the
Speaker 1: remaining games, it was Miami, and then it was like Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: and then it was like the New York Knicks, and
Speaker 1: then the Boston Celtics, and then there was one more
Speaker 1: in there. I can't remember exactly what it was, but
Speaker 1: they were all relatively winnable games. Do you remember, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they play the Hornets before they play the Celtics.
Speaker 1: I think that sounds But like, so basically this five
Speaker 1: game stretch before Lebron and Adie hopefully come back on
Speaker 1: the seventeen, Like I was like like two weeks. God
Speaker 1: never would have thought they could win these games, but
Speaker 1: all of them are possible. I mean, I think Brooklyn
Speaker 1: beat him, but I mean they can absolutely beat Charlotte.
Speaker 1: Charlotte without Gordon Hayward and without LaMelo Ball Um, Boston
Speaker 1: is basically regress to a five hundred basketball team, which
Speaker 1: is which is ridiculous. And and then the New York
Speaker 1: Knicks are basically more or less the same team as
Speaker 1: the Lakers. They're just an extremely well coached, extremely physical,
Speaker 1: defensive oriented team that doesn't have a lot of shot creations.
Speaker 1: So it'll be kind of a battle of of matching archetypes. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so I think you know, there are four and six,
Speaker 1: there's four games left potentially in this stretch. If they
Speaker 1: somehow get to you know, six and six and eight
Speaker 1: in that stretch, that would be such a huge win.
Speaker 1: Um to have Lebron and Nadi come back. UM. And
Speaker 1: then obviously LEBRONI a D back will They'll probably come
Speaker 1: with some sort of limited minutes type of deal. And
Speaker 1: having having the the the ability to play basketball without
Speaker 1: them these two that they've built up over the stretch
Speaker 1: gives them the ability to kind of ease Lebron and
Speaker 1: a D back into it, and I think that sets
Speaker 1: them up for success. Yeah, if they can just at
Speaker 1: least get one of them back, Like if a D
Speaker 1: comes back in that Celtics game, it would kind of
Speaker 1: level the talent gap that's been that's been going on
Speaker 1: right because a lot of these teams are just in
Speaker 1: Miami just has way more talent. It's kind of going
Speaker 1: down the line. I think they can kind of match
Speaker 1: challenge with New York and probably the Hornets as well.
Speaker 1: But like you know, if you just get one of
Speaker 1: them back, you kind of mitigated And yeah, six and
Speaker 1: eight is great. People were asking if they were gonna
Speaker 1: win lose twelve and row and I think we talked
Speaker 1: about it. That was never gonna happen. They were never
Speaker 1: gonna go on some crazy losing straight. The team's defense
Speaker 1: is too good, um, But yeah, I'd be exciting if
Speaker 1: you get one in the back. A lot of people
Speaker 1: are going off Lebron's Instagram post where he's like, you know,
Speaker 1: I think he said something really corny about the rain
Speaker 1: He's coming soon or something like that where he said
Speaker 1: they'll they'll bull will be back soon. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: I think they'll be great and a d I think
Speaker 1: really came into the season we talked about a lot,
Speaker 1: like he really like slowly walked himself through what you
Speaker 1: could tell he was not excited to come back that soon.
Speaker 1: So I think a nice break will give him some rush,
Speaker 1: some like urgency into it, even if it's on a
Speaker 1: minute restriction, you know. But I think he'll come back
Speaker 1: playing hard and kind of show who he is. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's been passed up in the media by every big
Speaker 1: you know, they have your kitchen beat all those dudes
Speaker 1: above them, and we talked about this, he's talented enough
Speaker 1: to be number one on that kind of list. So um,
Speaker 1: I think he'll come back with some urgency and just
Speaker 1: give take some of the pressure off of Dennis Shrewder,
Speaker 1: off of you know, all those other guys that are
Speaker 1: creating shots when they shouldn't be. So um. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: they get him back by by the fifteen, and we'll
Speaker 1: have fans back by then as well. Hopefully that kind
Speaker 1: of changes the home court as Staples as well, So
Speaker 1: all that kind of goes into it. And uh, it'd
Speaker 1: be cool if if he comes back soon. If they
Speaker 1: can get at least I think they can get the
Speaker 1: Knicks and Hornets game. I don't think they'll get the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn game. I mean that's not really fair, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the Hornets and the the Knicks game is
Speaker 1: definitely winnable. Yeah, if and that would be that would
Speaker 1: get enough to make this entire operation of success. And
Speaker 1: then if you somehow managed because the Cellist game is
Speaker 1: on the fifteenth and Mark Steins of the a D
Speaker 1: might come back on the seventeenth. Now who knows when
Speaker 1: they're coming back. I mean it might even be further
Speaker 1: than that. But yeah, like stealing a couple more is
Speaker 1: enough to make this a resounding success. Before we moved
Speaker 1: to the Katie Podcast, I wanted to get your thoughts
Speaker 1: on just a couple of league wide things, so I
Speaker 1: U I had a take from earlier in the season
Speaker 1: about how I thought that Phoenix was better than Utah.
Speaker 1: I mean, the main reason was just because of the
Speaker 1: fact that I thought that their roster made more sense
Speaker 1: for what I usually think is going to become a
Speaker 1: successful playoff team, right because they've got a bunch of
Speaker 1: these switchable wings. Like they didn't even play Michael Bridges
Speaker 1: much at the end of the uh at the end
Speaker 1: of the the Utah game because they favored the shooting
Speaker 1: with Cam Johnson. But Michael Bridges is not a bad option,
Speaker 1: and he can shoot the ball, and uh, Cam Johnson
Speaker 1: has just been defending so well that they've been opting
Speaker 1: for him instead of Michale and their crunch time lineups.
Speaker 1: But their crunch time line ups they're basically playing like
Speaker 1: Jay Crowder big switching forward. They're playing DeAndre Ayton, who
Speaker 1: who actually has defended pretty well. Uh. He took a
Speaker 1: couple of bad shots at the end of that overtime game,
Speaker 1: but like more or less he's developed into what like
Speaker 1: at least a serviceable center that they can play in
Speaker 1: that lineup. And then they just took turns with Chris
Speaker 1: Paul and Devin Booker, these two alpha dog superstars, and
Speaker 1: and they just got I thought they got better shots
Speaker 1: than Utah. Donovan Mitchell, as great as he is, went
Speaker 1: full West broken that game. And it's like there were
Speaker 1: there were times where it actually made more sense to
Speaker 1: go to Bugdanovitch because he had a better matchup or
Speaker 1: whatever it was. And you know, I think, I think
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the death of Utah as they just
Speaker 1: leaned too heavily on Donovan Mitchell. But I thought that
Speaker 1: you Phoenix lost to the Clippers last night. It was
Speaker 1: textbook tail end of a back to back. They shot
Speaker 1: like crap from three. Their defense wasn't quite where it was.
Speaker 1: The Clippers shot the lights out. It wasn't as much
Speaker 1: of a meaningful matchup. In my opinion, I thought it
Speaker 1: was really impressive what they did to Utah. Um, they
Speaker 1: really won that game in regulation if it wasn't for
Speaker 1: a crazy little spurt from Donovan Mitchell at the end,
Speaker 1: and then they out executed them in overtime pretty convincingly.
Speaker 1: Their roster just makes sense to me as a playoff roster.
Speaker 1: They got the alpha dogs, that got all the switching wings,
Speaker 1: They've got a physical presence inside they they they have
Speaker 1: everything they need. I would say that they are like
Speaker 1: right up there with Denver as like this second and
Speaker 1: third best teams in the West went healthy. I'd go
Speaker 1: Lakers one I'd go Phoenix in Denver. I'd have the
Speaker 1: Clippers right below them, although I do think there's still
Speaker 1: a good match up for the Lakers. What did you
Speaker 1: What did you think? Did you watch that Son's Jazz
Speaker 1: game at all? I did? Yeah, it's really it's really
Speaker 1: fascinating because, like we talked about, a lot of the
Speaker 1: playoffs are all matchup kind of dependent, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: Utah was blowing through the regular season. They're on a
Speaker 1: back to back as well the other night and they
Speaker 1: blew out Portland's because I think it's a bad matchup
Speaker 1: for them, but the shots that Utah gives up is
Speaker 1: like what Chris Paul wants, right, Like I follow some
Speaker 1: Clipper fans that they are like Chris Paul is love
Speaker 1: playing Utah since you know two thousand and fourteen. Remember
Speaker 1: Gobert was drafted because they played this drop coverage Goberts
Speaker 1: in the back. Now back, Gobert can switch a little
Speaker 1: bit more than he used to, but still he's giving
Speaker 1: up that mid range jumper, and that's exactly what Chris
Speaker 1: Paul wants. That's exactly what Devin Booker wants. And those
Speaker 1: two come off little screens from Eton and he gets
Speaker 1: a little mid range jumper and he hit a few
Speaker 1: to kind of ice the game, I think against against Utah.
Speaker 1: So that's a fascinating matchup. I think they're really close together.
Speaker 1: Like I don't think there's a a gap between Phoenix
Speaker 1: and Utah. I think Denver is like a little bit
Speaker 1: right above them, and I put the Clippers right there
Speaker 1: as well. So that's a hell of the top three
Speaker 1: or four in the West. Um and all those teams.
Speaker 1: My only issue with Phoenix, I don't know about what
Speaker 1: you think, is like they play a lot of young guys. Like,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of young guys on that team. DeAndre
Speaker 1: Aden is what in his second or third year. Devin
Speaker 1: Brooker is about his first playoffs, um, and Den brook
Speaker 1: is awesome, but again his first playoffs. UM, Michael Bridges
Speaker 1: as a young dude. Cam Johnson looks eighteen like out there,
Speaker 1: like he looks absolutely he looks for really young out there.
Speaker 1: So that's the only issue with Phoenix is that they
Speaker 1: play a lot of really young guys. I think, sorry,
Speaker 1: h at the five is kind of is an interesting
Speaker 1: thing for them that they run a lot UM. I
Speaker 1: thought that the Clippers really attack that, So yeah, I
Speaker 1: like the Phoenix team. I like Utah. I think that's
Speaker 1: a toss up series honestly, Like, I think that's pretty close.
Speaker 1: Um Denver as well. So that's the only issue. What
Speaker 1: do you do you think that's an issue of Phoenix,
Speaker 1: Like I see them playing a lot of really young
Speaker 1: young guys, which I mean it should be fine. They're
Speaker 1: very switchable and on defense there they can shoot, but
Speaker 1: definitely issue when I go into a seven game like
Speaker 1: playoff series with them. The reason why I'm not necessarily
Speaker 1: worried about it is I think that, um, I think
Speaker 1: that the Chris Paul element kind of outweighs that. You know,
Speaker 1: I'll give you an example, like they weren't young players,
Speaker 1: but the Lakers picked up a lot of players last
Speaker 1: year that people just didn't think we're gonna amount too much.
Speaker 1: But when you when there's an organization down, you know,
Speaker 1: expectation of certain things that I think that I think
Speaker 1: that everybody just kind of lives up to that expectation
Speaker 1: out of necessity. And I think, like you know, if
Speaker 1: you think about the things that are translatable to the playoffs, right,
Speaker 1: like you, uh, you need to have something, you need
Speaker 1: to have a functioning defense, Well, the Suns have a
Speaker 1: great defense. They're that that's going to translate. Well, it's
Speaker 1: not like their youth is going to suddenly sap them
Speaker 1: of the ability to defend in a playoff series. And
Speaker 1: then your SuperStar's ability to create extremely high end shots
Speaker 1: also translates to the playoffs. And you know, we don't
Speaker 1: know about Booker right, Like we have no idea what
Speaker 1: he looks like in a playoff game. However, I've seen
Speaker 1: enough basketball to know, like, like, how I tell me
Speaker 1: he's not going to be better than Jamal Murray in
Speaker 1: a playoff series, Like the only thing Jamal Murray has
Speaker 1: over him his reps. And I would argue that that,
Speaker 1: I would argue that Booker is actually significantly better, Like
Speaker 1: he's just not significantly, but he's a better player. And
Speaker 1: I think I think that that gives him the ability
Speaker 1: to tap into the same type of of looks that
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray gets in a playoff series. And so I
Speaker 1: think they I think they make a ton of sense. Now.
Speaker 1: I do think it was interesting when they put Royce
Speaker 1: O'Neil on Devin Booker. He wasn't able to get separation
Speaker 1: as much, and uh, he did some work in overtime
Speaker 1: against Mitchell where he got to a shot from the
Speaker 1: free throw line and he got a couple of good
Speaker 1: looks um but Mitchell at the end of regulation forced
Speaker 1: him into that tough step back. The point being they
Speaker 1: forced him into really tough shots. I thought the higher
Speaker 1: quality shots that got down the stretch was actually Chris
Speaker 1: Paul and pick and roll and even then, like even then,
Speaker 1: like he there was one where Rudy Gobert like was
Speaker 1: kind of there and then dropped away on the baseline
Speaker 1: and Chris Paul made it. And then there were a
Speaker 1: couple that Rudy Gobert got really good contests on and
Speaker 1: he missed. And so when I think about the Lakers
Speaker 1: defending him, you know, chances are Booker is gonna be
Speaker 1: going up against someone along the lines of Wesley Matthews,
Speaker 1: a guy that he's not gonna be able to physically bully,
Speaker 1: and he's going to force him into tough shots. And
Speaker 1: then with Chris Paul, what the Lakers are gonna do
Speaker 1: is they're going to pound him from behind on those
Speaker 1: pick and rolls, so he'll he won't be able to
Speaker 1: get into his shot because Dennis Shooter is gonna chase
Speaker 1: him over the top and basically be reaching down over
Speaker 1: the top. The Lakers are really good at forcing guys
Speaker 1: out of any sort of shot attempt, a shot attempt
Speaker 1: in the pick and roll. It's actually one of the
Speaker 1: biggest strengths, at least from a guard. They have weaknesses
Speaker 1: when it comes to bigger wings guys that can take
Speaker 1: advantage of their smaller guards, But they're really good at
Speaker 1: taking the dames and the steps and and those kinds
Speaker 1: of guys out of their game with their picking roll
Speaker 1: coverage is being so aggressive over the top of the screen.
Speaker 1: And so I I think the Lakers are still a
Speaker 1: good matchup for them. Yeah. Uh, when you actually break
Speaker 1: it down to matchups, they're good against everybody, right, Like
Speaker 1: I mean, the Lakers can take Rudy Gobert out of
Speaker 1: the paint by just having Anthony Davis spot up shoot,
Speaker 1: and they can chase guys off the three point line
Speaker 1: with the best in the league. So that kind of
Speaker 1: cancels out a lot of what Utah does really well.
Speaker 1: And I think that in and from an i Q standpoint,
Speaker 1: I just trust Lebron to out execute Donovan Mitchell at
Speaker 1: the end of a playoff game, I just do. And
Speaker 1: then you look at Phoenix, like I just said, they
Speaker 1: can chase Chris Paul over the top of the screens,
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker doesn't quite have the size to really
Speaker 1: victimize the smaller Laker guards. And then you look at
Speaker 1: Denver Okay, Murray yokes picking Roll, Well, guess what you're
Speaker 1: gonna put Lebron in a D on that now they
Speaker 1: can just switch it. It will literally shut down the action.
Speaker 1: And then on the other end, it's like you want
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon to guard Lebron, Okay, cool, that means that
Speaker 1: Yokich is gonna guard a d which he can't. And
Speaker 1: then someone's gotta guard Drummond. So you're gonna put Yoki
Speaker 1: on Drummond, which means that you're gonna have to put
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Jr. Either On Lebron or on Aaron or
Speaker 1: or on Anthony Davis. So there's just they can't guard
Speaker 1: the Lakers. They the matchups that they give up on
Speaker 1: the on the defensive end are gonna be significantly worse
Speaker 1: than what the Lakers can do to cancel out a
Speaker 1: lot of what a lot of what Denver does on
Speaker 1: the other end. The Clippers are the only team where
Speaker 1: you look at the matchups and you go, the Lakers
Speaker 1: can force Kauai into fade aways, but he might make
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like he might. You can
Speaker 1: force Paul George to take a bunch of jumpers off
Speaker 1: the dribble, but he might make them. And the question
Speaker 1: just becomes, can the Clippers make enough off the dribble
Speaker 1: jump shots four games out of seven to be the Lakers?
Speaker 1: I don't think they can, but that is a risk.
Speaker 1: There is an actual potential there for them to get
Speaker 1: that done. And so that's why I like, it's easy
Speaker 1: for me to see the Lakers if they get healthy
Speaker 1: going on a run. They have them the requisite matchups
Speaker 1: to win the specific series along the way. And did
Speaker 1: you catch that Clippers um the Clippers Sons game last night?
Speaker 1: We would catch the whole thing, Okay, So it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I thought at the end, um, they really made a
Speaker 1: tough time for Chris Paul. They were switching a lot
Speaker 1: of their screens, so they had like Paul George and
Speaker 1: Kauai basically switching on them, and then Devin Booker as
Speaker 1: well had to be defending one of the big wings
Speaker 1: and it kind of looked like the Damon c J problem. Right,
Speaker 1: two guards that are a little bit smaller than normal
Speaker 1: than regular guards, and that's a tough time getting a
Speaker 1: shot off. So I thought that was kind of interesting.
Speaker 1: And obviously Aiden is not a guy that I don't
Speaker 1: think they want to throw it too in the clutch
Speaker 1: right now. But he had a good game. Um, he
Speaker 1: played well. I thought he made zoo box really work.
Speaker 1: Box really works. So I think I think that's their
Speaker 1: issue to me with the Phoenix is like he gets
Speaker 1: to play offf time. You have big wings, uh, big
Speaker 1: strong wings defending these guards, like can they get the
Speaker 1: shot off? Um, they had like Paul George Chase over
Speaker 1: the top and then they had their big kind of
Speaker 1: switch out and defend his jump shots and he couldn't
Speaker 1: really get a shot off at the end of that game.
Speaker 1: And now it's a back to back and I understand,
Speaker 1: like you probably didn't have his legs, but I thought
Speaker 1: that was kind of interesting. So I think they all
Speaker 1: have like interesting matchups together. I think your kids probably
Speaker 1: really beats up on Colbert. Um. He plays really well
Speaker 1: against him. So it's all these weird kind of match
Speaker 1: and then Jamal Murray and Donovan Mitchell turn into like
Speaker 1: the second coming of Michael Jordan's when they play each other,
Speaker 1: which is just really strange. But uh, but yeah, they
Speaker 1: both are like really streaky guards with like really strong
Speaker 1: pull up jumpers and when it's going, it's going. So
Speaker 1: those are two to match up there will be fun.
Speaker 1: But again, when you have Lebron and a d I
Speaker 1: think that's when that's the big matchup the Lakers have,
Speaker 1: and that's and they have guards that defend really well
Speaker 1: and I think they match up well. But the West
Speaker 1: is really good this year, so it's it's fun to
Speaker 1: see all these teams. It sucks because all these teams
Speaker 1: are pretty much hitting their stride right now, Like you
Speaker 1: could see like all the teams trying of figuring out
Speaker 1: what they want to do every night, and the Lakers
Speaker 1: kind of have to postpone that because they don't have
Speaker 1: their team yet. So you're seeing all these teams. Denver's
Speaker 1: playing well, Phoenix, Utah, all these teams are really starting
Speaker 1: to click and figure out their playoff kind of rotation
Speaker 1: and the Lakers kind of have to wait for that.
Speaker 1: But again, they built bit a lot of chemistry last
Speaker 1: year and hopefully that kind of continues. But it's cool
Speaker 1: seeing the West being this this good right now, it's
Speaker 1: so good. All these teams are like they're they're legitimately
Speaker 1: like uh five bona fide potential championship contenders in the
Speaker 1: West between Denver, Utah, Phoenix and then the two l
Speaker 1: A teams. Um. The the the Blazers are kind of
Speaker 1: faltering a bit, but I think they'll figure things out.
Speaker 1: I think Norman Powell makes them better. I just think
Speaker 1: they haven't really figured out how to integrate him yet.
Speaker 1: And then and then you know, Dallas is more or
Speaker 1: less interesting as well. But yeah, I think I think
Speaker 1: the most interesting thing to me with the Lakers is
Speaker 1: they always have these like aces in the whole that
Speaker 1: other teams can't go to, putting Lebron in a t
Speaker 1: a D on your two best players so that you
Speaker 1: can't run pick and roll. Um. I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: are by far the best trapping team in the league
Speaker 1: when it comes to trapping pick and roll. They're so
Speaker 1: good at making you pick up your dribble fet from
Speaker 1: the basket and then as soon as the butt dribbles
Speaker 1: picked up, recovering back and starting this chaotic rotation. So like,
Speaker 1: even if Chris Paul, who by the way, struggled in
Speaker 1: isolation against the bigger guards against the Clippers last night,
Speaker 1: even if Chris Paul starts lightening you up, the Lakers
Speaker 1: can start trapping and so like and and and they
Speaker 1: feel comfortable in that sort of situation. So in a
Speaker 1: playoff series, the Lakers have these aces in the whole
Speaker 1: E D at the five where they can create space
Speaker 1: offensively Lebron and a D on your two best players
Speaker 1: that you can't switch pick and rolls, and then them
Speaker 1: their ability to trap pick and rolls with their guards.
Speaker 1: I just like their ability to to kind of uh
Speaker 1: have a bunch of different options to attack you defensively.
Speaker 1: And then now I think they have more than enough shooting.
Speaker 1: I mean I do. I I cannot believe how good
Speaker 1: Mark Morris looks. And he didn't he wasn't shooting well
Speaker 1: from three last night, but like he he's become the
Speaker 1: guy kind of like Marcus Morris is for the Clippers,
Speaker 1: where like you can't just put a bum on him
Speaker 1: because he's score like, and I don't want him to
Speaker 1: shoot too much when Lebron and n A D come back,
Speaker 1: because that's what hurts the Clippers with Morris sometimes. But
Speaker 1: I do think that like he's he's just better than
Speaker 1: he was last year. I don't know if he was
Speaker 1: just in the gym with his brother all summer or
Speaker 1: what the deal is. He's better than he was last year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's another VET, kind of like Wes Matthews who started
Speaker 1: picking up late. You know, that short offseason I think
Speaker 1: really hurt him. Um and I talked to about it
Speaker 1: in the summer. I thought getting him for like the
Speaker 1: vet minimum was robbery, Like like, I don't know how
Speaker 1: you watch that playoffs and think like he's not a
Speaker 1: helpful player. I don't know how he didn't. Now maybe
Speaker 1: the Lakers have something for him this summer. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but like I was just surprised they were able to
Speaker 1: contain him. And what's amazing is, like you talked about
Speaker 1: that chaotic nous with the defense right when they trapped
Speaker 1: and they have people running around right now, that's Martie
Speaker 1: Morris on the back line, Like that's that's who is
Speaker 1: on the pack line. He's real protecting, he's getting out
Speaker 1: to shooters. He had Like did you see his defense
Speaker 1: on Jimmy Butler last night? He had like a really
Speaker 1: nice contest on Jimmy Butler made him air ball, I think,
Speaker 1: and uh, I'm just imagining, like that guy turns into
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, that guy turns into Lebron James eventually, but
Speaker 1: right now, it's West. It's a MARKI Morris, you know,
Speaker 1: fronting out the back line and protecting the rim. And
Speaker 1: he got ejected last night, and I thought it was funny.
Speaker 1: But and then his brother got ejected in the next game.
Speaker 1: But you could tell like he you could tell he
Speaker 1: cares right like he doesn't he like he doesn't care
Speaker 1: that A d and Lebron are out. He wanted to
Speaker 1: win last night and I thought he got fouled. But again,
Speaker 1: that was a tough time to get two technicals that
Speaker 1: kind of put the game away. It was I think
Speaker 1: it was like a six point game, and then Miami
Speaker 1: had two free throes and from there was over. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like his his passion, his fight, He's playing really well.
Speaker 1: He's another guy that can get his own shot right
Speaker 1: in that starting lineup. He's like, he can give the
Speaker 1: ball to in the post, doesn't matter who it is.
Speaker 1: If he has a little bit of a size advantage,
Speaker 1: she'll hit his little fade away, his pull up. He
Speaker 1: has a nice to dribble pull up that he goes to.
Speaker 1: So yeah, he's been playing great. Um. He had a
Speaker 1: few big threes to kind of stem the tide a
Speaker 1: little bit and keep the game closed. And it's cool
Speaker 1: to see him going. That's a good part about this stretch, right.
Speaker 1: It's gotten some guys going who who wouldn't have been
Speaker 1: able to because they wouldn't have got the shots. I
Speaker 1: think like West is able to take five threes a game.
Speaker 1: You know, Mark, he was able to hold the ball, dribble,
Speaker 1: kind of feel feel the rhythm and kind of get going.
Speaker 1: So hopefully that kind of keeps up. And if we
Speaker 1: had to take a loss to get KCP going, I
Speaker 1: think everyone would have took it. So if it gets
Speaker 1: all those three guys going, um, it'll be great when
Speaker 1: those two those two get back. Yeah, he Mark kif
Speaker 1: because of his growth defensively this year, I think he
Speaker 1: looks a little thinner than he did to start the season,
Speaker 1: a little thinner even than he was last year. He
Speaker 1: gives you just another wing option. Defensively, I don't like
Speaker 1: him defending in space. He's not good against quickness, but
Speaker 1: That's why he succeeded against Jimmy Butler. Is when it
Speaker 1: comes to the guards who play like physical offense, like
Speaker 1: getting beating a guy to a spot and then bumping
Speaker 1: him off to get to a spot, the uh markief
Speaker 1: just gives you another option there. And so now the
Speaker 1: Lakers when they get to get to a khil entered matchup,
Speaker 1: it's used to be like it's just Lebron and Kuzma,
Speaker 1: but now it's like, there's Lebron, there's Kyle Kuzma. You
Speaker 1: can always throw Anthony Davis at one of those guys.
Speaker 1: And then MARKI Morris has turned into more or less
Speaker 1: that type of option. And then Wesley Matthews, even though
Speaker 1: he's short, actually kind of has a gift for guarding bigger,
Speaker 1: physical forwards. Um. So, I wanted to talk about the
Speaker 1: the the podcast, the Kevin Durant podcast yesterday, so to
Speaker 1: frame this discussion, you and I talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about this before. Um, but I want to I want
Speaker 1: to pay Kevin Durant a compliment because you know, most
Speaker 1: people know I'm a Lebron fan. It's not something I
Speaker 1: try to hide. He's the guy that got me interested
Speaker 1: in basketball. So I have a little royalty there, I
Speaker 1: guess you could call it. But I also love Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: I know I don't. People think I hate him, but
Speaker 1: it's just I've had to root against him over the
Speaker 1: years and that's not paying the ask because he's really
Speaker 1: really good. Um, But I think I think he's kind
Speaker 1: of become the anti Lebron in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: in the sense that as much as I love Lebron
Speaker 1: as a basketball player, like the dude, I find him
Speaker 1: to be unlikable sometimes in terms of the way he
Speaker 1: portrays himself to the world because it's very you're meeting
Speaker 1: his representative, it's very I don't want to say fake,
Speaker 1: but it's just very like filtered and not genuine all
Speaker 1: the time. And ever since Kevin Durant had that incident
Speaker 1: with the Burner accounts, this dude is just like here,
Speaker 1: I here's who I am taking or leave it, And
Speaker 1: in that podcast, it felt like you were getting unfiltered
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Like you know, I think, like I think
Speaker 1: when it comes to human beings like that is by
Speaker 1: far far more or interesting approach. Not pretending like you're perfect,
Speaker 1: not pretending like you're you don't ever have struggles or
Speaker 1: that you don't have downsides to your personality. You can
Speaker 1: be a nice guy and also be an asshole one day.
Speaker 1: We all have our moments like that, and so I think,
Speaker 1: like Katie really embracing that genuine this is who I am.
Speaker 1: I don't care that you're not meeting like a very
Speaker 1: pitician type of personality. I don't care. This is how
Speaker 1: I prefer to portray myself. I think it makes him
Speaker 1: way more likable. And I think, like, honestly, like I think,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's been really really cool to see
Speaker 1: and it makes it makes it makes those sorts of
Speaker 1: podcasts and things like that way more fun to listen
Speaker 1: to because you feel like you're actually getting something out
Speaker 1: of it and all in all, I just I just
Speaker 1: thought it was a really entertaining podcast. Yeah. I like
Speaker 1: how you kind of frame that, because Lebron kind of
Speaker 1: feels like so far right, like like you can't reach
Speaker 1: Lebron right. You kind of think about he's like playing
Speaker 1: on the cord, he's doing movies, Like, he's not a
Speaker 1: guy that's like like you can talk to. I guess
Speaker 1: Katie is online a lot. He's a guy that I
Speaker 1: feel like you can feel like you can get a
Speaker 1: reply from if you reply to him in a certain way,
Speaker 1: if you come out and respectively or even I guess
Speaker 1: not respectively. A lot of people come at him really
Speaker 1: sideways and they get they get responses, but like he's
Speaker 1: just a guy that, like it feels like you can
Speaker 1: talk to And then that podcast was great. It felt
Speaker 1: like it felt like a guy you know at the
Speaker 1: twenty four right, like a guy that you know who
Speaker 1: plays really well and you can talk ship with after
Speaker 1: and you could talk about the game with and he's like,
Speaker 1: he'll be like, oh, yeah, you suck that game, and
Speaker 1: you know you could like you could talk to him
Speaker 1: in that way. That's what Kivin Durant came off of.
Speaker 1: For me, it felt very genuine. It felt like a
Speaker 1: guy who just wants to hoop. Like he did not
Speaker 1: sound like this huge guy who has you know, a
Speaker 1: marketing marketing agency and has you know, shows and you
Speaker 1: know it's a millionaire whatever. He didn't feel like any
Speaker 1: of that. I just felt like a normal dude who
Speaker 1: plays basketball who wants to talk hoops, who was like,
Speaker 1: who doesn't want to see a graph when he's talking hoops.
Speaker 1: You know, who doesn't want to see um field goal
Speaker 1: percentage when he's when we're having a hoop conversation, as
Speaker 1: he'll say, So it was just really cool to see
Speaker 1: him kind of talk about that, And I think that's important.
Speaker 1: I think we need guys like that in the media
Speaker 1: that are out out and because he's the best at
Speaker 1: what he does, he's a superstar and the stuff that
Speaker 1: we're talking about, so like it. He knows more than
Speaker 1: I'll ever forget about basketball. So it's kind of cool
Speaker 1: to see a guy like that come out in a
Speaker 1: podcast and be so genuine and have real conversations about
Speaker 1: what goes on on the court. Well, the fans have
Speaker 1: something to really gain from it that way. Like that
Speaker 1: that that's the interesting part to me is like you know,
Speaker 1: I I feel like like man, like I would love
Speaker 1: to just sit and talk basketball with him for like
Speaker 1: an hour and just pick his brain about Like to me,
Speaker 1: the very interesting thing to him is like, uh, his
Speaker 1: particularly you know, we jokingly call it the bag, but
Speaker 1: like his his specific scoring skill set, and like how
Speaker 1: you developed that over the years, Like what's how do
Speaker 1: you bridge the gap between like uh, working on something
Speaker 1: in the gym by yourself, to making it work in practice,
Speaker 1: to making it work in a game, like what what
Speaker 1: is what are the thresholds that you try to hit
Speaker 1: before you try to attempt to do something in a game?
Speaker 1: You know, all, I think there's so much that I
Speaker 1: think you can learn from somebody like that when they're
Speaker 1: actually being genuine. And you know, when Lebrons in a podcast,
Speaker 1: like when he's with r J and Shanning, like r
Speaker 1: J and Shanning try really hard to get into open up,
Speaker 1: but it's just you know, you'll get some jokes out
Speaker 1: of him. You know, it's just you're always meeting his representative.
Speaker 1: And I just think, I objectively think that the that
Speaker 1: the Kevin Durant approach is a more likable approach, even
Speaker 1: if it does expose you to people talking trash about
Speaker 1: what you might say on Twitter or things along those lines.
Speaker 1: When the funny part is is, like you know, the
Speaker 1: reality is is that's that's the way everybody is. We're
Speaker 1: just just some people filter it in a different way.
Speaker 1: And and I don't know, I just think it's likable.
Speaker 1: But I did want to talk about a couple of
Speaker 1: things that he specifically mentioned in the podcast so the
Speaker 1: second part that we'll get to is the analytics part.
Speaker 1: But the first thing that he said was interesting was
Speaker 1: he was talking about the Warriors and he was like
Speaker 1: the two seventeen Warriors and and uh, I think Banski
Speaker 1: asked him basically something more along the lines of, like,
Speaker 1: you know, what did it feel like, you know, walking
Speaker 1: into every gym and just feeling like you were better
Speaker 1: than everybody and that you were gonna win and and
Speaker 1: you know, be more or less said felt good, but
Speaker 1: you also said, like, you know, he also said, like
Speaker 1: we you know, we weren't uh like physically better than everybody.
Speaker 1: We outsmarted people and we actually had to play smart
Speaker 1: basketball to win these games. Now he's not wrong, but
Speaker 1: this is something This is a bone I've picked with
Speaker 1: Katie forever. The he always, he had a half dozen
Speaker 1: different occasions and different podcasts and different formats, has complained
Speaker 1: about this idea that uh that he approaches the game
Speaker 1: through a skill perspective and the Lebrons of the world
Speaker 1: approached the game through uh athleticism perspective and they're just
Speaker 1: physical brutes. And always that always has driven me nuts
Speaker 1: because it's like, dude, you're seven feet tall, Okay, like
Speaker 1: when you when you go to your shot, you are
Speaker 1: it is more or less the same as Lebron bouncing
Speaker 1: a dude off with his shoulder on his way to
Speaker 1: the rent. You are. You are leaning on your physical
Speaker 1: tools to get to your shot. Now. I do think
Speaker 1: that Kevin Durant has a more polished skill set than Lebron.
Speaker 1: I think that goes without say is saying we're not
Speaker 1: gonna sit up here and lie. But at the same
Speaker 1: time like it, it is his polished skill set in
Speaker 1: conjunction with what he does physically that allows him to
Speaker 1: do uh, to do what he does. And I just wish,
Speaker 1: I wish you'd get off of that hill because it's
Speaker 1: so frustrating to me to be like, yeah, dude, you're right. Like,
Speaker 1: you guys had two outsmart people in two thousand and
Speaker 1: sevent team, but you also were just way better and
Speaker 1: like and a big reason why you're way better is
Speaker 1: you had a seven foot tall guy who moves around
Speaker 1: like Anthony Davis, who can shoot from everywhere, and and
Speaker 1: that was a big reason why you guys were way
Speaker 1: better than everybody. In addition to what Stephen in the
Speaker 1: original Warriors crew could do but I just it bothers
Speaker 1: me when Kevin Durant like glosses over his physical tools
Speaker 1: and how he uses them to be a great basketball player. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was funny. He was like, yeah, we're not beating
Speaker 1: you with physicality, We're just smarter than you, which I
Speaker 1: thought it was kind of funny um that he said that,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it was. It was cool to see him
Speaker 1: kind of get into that Warrior's run because he was
Speaker 1: like teams were complaining like, oh, we're just more talented
Speaker 1: than you, which I mean, it's kind of true. You
Speaker 1: have Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Clay Thompson. I mean, you
Speaker 1: are kind of more talented than everybody. But I mean
Speaker 1: still like, I like the way he kind of framed
Speaker 1: it though, where he was kind of annoyed that all
Speaker 1: people took from that it was a three point shooting, right,
Speaker 1: because that's what the league took from it. They're like, oh,
Speaker 1: these are the point shooter, and he brought up He's like,
Speaker 1: I let the league in midrange pull ups. And then
Speaker 1: you know the counter to that is like, you're Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: you could shoot whatever shot you want. It's going to
Speaker 1: be an efficient shot. So um, he's like, yeah, but
Speaker 1: Sean Livingston took them, you know, and he was just
Speaker 1: he was just kind of going into it. But I
Speaker 1: think he really, like you could tell he gets annoyed
Speaker 1: at the like, um, the thought that it was easy, right,
Speaker 1: Like the thought that um, it just came to them naturally,
Speaker 1: like they just won the title without working for And
Speaker 1: you could tell that really bothers him, like it would
Speaker 1: bother anybody. So, um, that was cool. The way he
Speaker 1: kind of framed it was like, yeah, we I mean,
Speaker 1: we're probably more talented, but we're also smarter. We used
Speaker 1: their our basketball Q was higher, We made the right
Speaker 1: place right, and you could see today how the Warriors are.
Speaker 1: They can't run their same offense right did, no matter
Speaker 1: what what's going on. So it's kind of cool the
Speaker 1: way he kind of framed it. And he was talking
Speaker 1: about how like I think he just kept going into
Speaker 1: that and just he was saying that after after he
Speaker 1: left the Warriors, I think, and uh, he went to
Speaker 1: Brooklyn and they were talking about how Kyrie plays right
Speaker 1: and how Kyrie has this beautiful game and Pyrie's game
Speaker 1: isn't analytically kind of uh, isn't analytically put up, so
Speaker 1: it's just a beautiful art that he plays a game with.
Speaker 1: So I thought it was interesting just the way he
Speaker 1: kind of went kept going into that, and he was
Speaker 1: going into how, uh, where is that going with this?
Speaker 1: But he was going into how like I remember why
Speaker 1: I was going through this, but like how the analytics
Speaker 1: kind of don't support everything that's going on and all, oh, yeah.
Speaker 1: The way I wanted to go is was like he's saying, like,
Speaker 1: people who shouldn't be shooting like five three's a game
Speaker 1: are are pulling up like five times a game from three,
Speaker 1: right because it's a more analytically proven shot when those
Speaker 1: guys shouldn't be shooting that. So that's where I was
Speaker 1: kind of going with there, like he was going with
Speaker 1: the basketball is not played the same way the way
Speaker 1: it was like when he was going in I think
Speaker 1: I was rattling for a bit, But no, you're good.
Speaker 1: I mean they covered so much information in the pod that, like,
Speaker 1: I mean, like you mentioned like he talked about uh,
Speaker 1: they talked about analytics in the way that um, uh,
Speaker 1: like a guy that averages twenty and ten in one
Speaker 1: team is nowhere near as good as a guy who
Speaker 1: averages twenty and ten and other, which is all stuff
Speaker 1: I agree with. I mean, like I always bring up
Speaker 1: my Collin bastball experience, Like I averaged sixteen and ten
Speaker 1: as a freshman, and I was a way I was
Speaker 1: a way worse basketball player then than I was the
Speaker 1: following year when I averaged like twelve and seven and
Speaker 1: I made an All Conference team, because I just I
Speaker 1: was a better basketball player. Everything I did on the
Speaker 1: floor is more impactful than what I did when I
Speaker 1: was putting up bigger numbers, And so much has to
Speaker 1: do with whether or not the stuff is being run
Speaker 1: directly through you, or if it's being you know, or
Speaker 1: if you're in a more subsidiary role in all of
Speaker 1: these different things. I think the biggest thing that he
Speaker 1: mentioned in the pod that uh that was interesting is
Speaker 1: he basically said that, uh, that he was using John
Speaker 1: Hollinger as an example, but he basically said that that
Speaker 1: the numbers failed to capture the natural flow of a
Speaker 1: basketball game, and that to me is the most interesting part.
Speaker 1: Like you there, there's no way to quantify any two
Speaker 1: basketball possessions as the exact same. They aren't. It may
Speaker 1: be the same play, but you don't know what's been
Speaker 1: happening immediately before. Then, you don't know what's been happening
Speaker 1: happening immediately after that. You don't know what kind of
Speaker 1: coverage the defenses in. You don't know whether or not
Speaker 1: you've been touching the ball a lot leading into that
Speaker 1: moment so you've got a good rhythm, or if you're
Speaker 1: coming in cold off the bench, or if there's a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure, if there's not a lot of pressure,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, everything is different, and and you know,
Speaker 1: that's why I think it's so important to not be
Speaker 1: thinking about numbers while you're playing unless it comes naturally
Speaker 1: to you, you know, Like, for instance, I'll get like
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum has done a really good job of adding
Speaker 1: his side step three to his game as opposed to
Speaker 1: a traditional like pump fake ononderable pull up getting to
Speaker 1: like eighteen feet, and so because he's done it so
Speaker 1: many times, it feels natural for him, you know. But
Speaker 1: there are a lot of guys who do that where
Speaker 1: they'll over pursue a three at the expense of and
Speaker 1: easier shot, and it doesn't feel natural, and it takes
Speaker 1: them out of their flow. It takes him out of
Speaker 1: the rhythm and they'll miss, and you know that that's
Speaker 1: that's the thing we have to always factor in. There
Speaker 1: is is uh the way that each possession has to
Speaker 1: be kind of viewed within its own prism. And you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I think Kevin Durant kind
Speaker 1: of glosses over, and this is where it brings me
Speaker 1: back to the physical stuff that he's talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: being smarter and being more skilled versus being a physical brute. Well,
Speaker 1: the reality is is like if you ask Kevin Durant, like, dude,
Speaker 1: if you get to your spot, what's the difference between
Speaker 1: you making and missing? Usually it's how fatigued you are.
Speaker 1: Did you get into separation? Like is the defender bumping
Speaker 1: you as you're kind of going up into your shot,
Speaker 1: causing you to lose a little bit of balance. All
Speaker 1: of that is part of the physicality of basketball in
Speaker 1: the way that it plays out and jump shooting and
Speaker 1: in other skilled moves. You know, if you were to
Speaker 1: break down a Lakers net series, never in a million
Speaker 1: years or you're gonna get the Lakers a chance based
Speaker 1: on their art form and what they do as skilled
Speaker 1: basketball players. However, you know, the idea is is when
Speaker 1: push comes to shove and it's nine in the four
Speaker 1: worth quarter of Game two of the Finals. The idea
Speaker 1: is is that we've wear down Kevin and James and
Speaker 1: Kyrie at the point of attack on rebounds the other end,
Speaker 1: when they have to guard all of these things, we've
Speaker 1: been wearing them down so that when Kevin Durant hits
Speaker 1: Kyle Kuzma with a wicked spin move at the top
Speaker 1: of the key, game tied at ninety five minutes left,
Speaker 1: he just doesn't quite get the same amount of lift.
Speaker 1: He just isn't quite on balance. And it's not like
Speaker 1: when he's in the gym by himself working on the game.
Speaker 1: It's different. And that's what causes guys to miss those
Speaker 1: types of shots. And and that's where you gain the
Speaker 1: advantage back, is uh where on the other end, the
Speaker 1: Lakers are kind of more embracing that physicality and they're
Speaker 1: actually using that to their advantage by getting all the
Speaker 1: way to the rim and shots that aren't gonna miss
Speaker 1: when you're a little bit more physical. Uh. And so
Speaker 1: I think that I think that that was interesting, but
Speaker 1: I I I do think his larger point though that
Speaker 1: like uh that John Oliver coming into the league or
Speaker 1: John Holliger excuse me, coming into the league, and it
Speaker 1: kind of started that movement. And and this is the
Speaker 1: last thing I'll say about it, Like, you know, the
Speaker 1: problem is ego, because these guys that do all the numbers,
Speaker 1: they're smart. They're smart guys like these are guys that
Speaker 1: are really hard in school. They've worked really hard at school,
Speaker 1: they've studied. You know, a lot of these guys have like,
Speaker 1: you know, statistics degrees or you know, they're you know,
Speaker 1: computer scientists or whatever it is that they bring to
Speaker 1: the table. These dudes are you know, there they are
Speaker 1: amongst the nerds, they are the best of the nerds,
Speaker 1: and so they have egos, and so they don't handle
Speaker 1: well the idea of someone like me who has experienced
Speaker 1: these sorts of things or Kevin who has experienced at
Speaker 1: at a much higher level, looking at them in the
Speaker 1: face and being like, no, dude, you're wrong, Like this
Speaker 1: isn't how it goes, whereas super analytical thinker who has
Speaker 1: a giant ego is gonna be like, now you're you're
Speaker 1: lying in the face of data. And I think that's
Speaker 1: where the gap kind of rows is just that that
Speaker 1: ego that these guys have matching up with an ego
Speaker 1: that's not derived from athlete, from academics, but rather from athletics.
Speaker 1: And it's just a classic like jerks, a nerds versus
Speaker 1: jocks kind of kind of debate. Yeah, he put it
Speaker 1: pretty eloquently. He said, like, like those guys, obviously John
Speaker 1: Holliday get in the league opened it up, opened up
Speaker 1: careers for a lot of people, right, and that's a
Speaker 1: good thing. Like we have more people getting opportunities, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. But like he the way that
Speaker 1: he put it was like they don't they can't understand
Speaker 1: the encore game, so they can only understand it through
Speaker 1: the numbers, right, So that's the only way they can
Speaker 1: process the game. Right, Like we say, a lot of
Speaker 1: people are watching these games on Excel sheets, right, like
Speaker 1: because you can't watch thirty teams at once, it's impossible,
Speaker 1: but they have they have to have opinions on all
Speaker 1: thirty all thirty teams, so that when that happens, Uh,
Speaker 1: I have someone at my door, but once, but when
Speaker 1: but when that happens, that you have you have these
Speaker 1: guys that can only understand it through numbers, So it
Speaker 1: makes it tough for it makes it tough for that
Speaker 1: that to kind of blend together. But my favorite part
Speaker 1: of the pod was you brought up the you brought
Speaker 1: up the fatigue part of it, right. And so when
Speaker 1: when Katie talked about it, he said the game has
Speaker 1: changed because he was watching. He was watching the Nets
Speaker 1: play the Hawks, I think from the sidelines, and he
Speaker 1: was seeing how, um, they went ten straight possessions. Each
Speaker 1: team shot ten times or something without stopping, and he's like, man,
Speaker 1: I know these guys are tired, which I think is
Speaker 1: really fascinating because you think the game is slower now,
Speaker 1: a lot of fouls, a lot of replays. But he
Speaker 1: was saying he was watching and like he was seeing
Speaker 1: each team go like ten straight possessions of time out
Speaker 1: and shooting, and how he's like, man, I know that
Speaker 1: they're tired. I know that there's no way they have
Speaker 1: their legs in their shots. So I thought that was
Speaker 1: interesting that he was saying, like the game is actually
Speaker 1: a lot faster now. You have to process the game
Speaker 1: a lot quicker. Teams are shooting way quicker in the
Speaker 1: shot cloth. There's no more running the offense around and
Speaker 1: it's just whoever gets the open three pulls it up
Speaker 1: and you have to run back. So what do you
Speaker 1: think about that part? I thought that was really interesting
Speaker 1: when he said, like, the game is kind of really
Speaker 1: different now, it's so much faster than it was before. Well,
Speaker 1: he's right, he's right, and it's something that I've talked
Speaker 1: about at length on Twitter, just this idea that the
Speaker 1: game is far more athletic and mobile than it ever
Speaker 1: has been. He connected it to injuries, which I think
Speaker 1: is fascinating. I don't know that that are necessarily connected
Speaker 1: because I tend to think that injuries are more connected
Speaker 1: to UH managing wear and tear, and like the reality
Speaker 1: is is, you know, we should be able to as
Speaker 1: a as a league, we should be able to do
Speaker 1: a better job of monitoring wear and tear to prevent injuries.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, like but he but at
Speaker 1: the same time, like he's right, Like there there is
Speaker 1: something to be said about the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: you know, seven bodies in the paint on any given
Speaker 1: possession like it was in the eighties isn't going to
Speaker 1: resemble athletically, you know what what what what people have
Speaker 1: been dealing with UH in this era, And I do
Speaker 1: think there's some truth to that, but I mean more
Speaker 1: or less, like I tend to think these things will
Speaker 1: even out like uh, throughout NBA history if you just so,
Speaker 1: just if you google NBA league averages, it takes you
Speaker 1: to a basketball reference page that just kind of lays
Speaker 1: down statistical, uh, the landmarks from year to year. And
Speaker 1: if you look like paces, like pace kind of just
Speaker 1: goes up and down, and it goes up and down,
Speaker 1: and and what it usually reins it in is defense,
Speaker 1: Like defenses just get really like the pace is really
Speaker 1: heavy right now. But then just wait until teams completely
Speaker 1: forego offensive rebounding to get back in transition, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, it's going to make more sense to
Speaker 1: uh to uh uh to change your approach because all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, the transition opportunities aren't there, or vice versa.
Speaker 1: Like a team might you know, uh heavily emphasized offensive
Speaker 1: rebounding and make it so that if you do run
Speaker 1: in transition, you give up offensive rebounds. Like there are
Speaker 1: a bunch of different aspects to it, but the league
Speaker 1: always finds a way to correct itself. And I do
Speaker 1: I do think it's fascinating that teams like Utah and
Speaker 1: the Lakers and teams that have had a lot of
Speaker 1: success this year defensively have done so by taking away
Speaker 1: the three point line and making it so that, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, teams have to take shots that they're not
Speaker 1: comfortable with, whether it's in the mid range or driving
Speaker 1: into all of their centers. And I I've always found
Speaker 1: that sort of that dynamic to be super interesting. And
Speaker 1: for the record, I think this is what's going to
Speaker 1: make the uh uh, the Lakers Nets Finals, if it happens,
Speaker 1: be so interesting because it is a super conflicting style
Speaker 1: type of thing. Because the Lakers do run when they
Speaker 1: have Lebron and Marcusol in the game, but they run
Speaker 1: from the standpoint and they have their wings run the
Speaker 1: floor and they'll just throw giant outlet passes that they'll
Speaker 1: they'll have Anthony Davis leak out for like quick post
Speaker 1: ups and things like that. Um, but you know, in
Speaker 1: relation to the rest of the league, they don't run
Speaker 1: all that much. And then Brooklyn's up and down and
Speaker 1: up and down, so like it'll be it'll be interesting.
Speaker 1: And then physicality versus skill and you know, supreme offensive
Speaker 1: talent versus a team that is, you know, arguably the
Speaker 1: best defensive team of this era and all of that
Speaker 1: just kind of like kind of matching into this like
Speaker 1: kind of an immovable object running into the unstoppable force
Speaker 1: kind of thing, right, and and like for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: I mean it was funny, like hearing hearing the players
Speaker 1: perspective is always awesome. Because Austin Rivers had played on
Speaker 1: the Rockets last year, right, so he was on the
Speaker 1: team with James Harden in the playoffs in the bubble,
Speaker 1: and he did a podcast and he was saying, like,
Speaker 1: h during the end of that Rocket series, like he
Speaker 1: was getting switched on a Dwight Howard right, Like he's
Speaker 1: in and Joy Howard's not a good post player, but
Speaker 1: he's like, dude, what am I doing? Like what am
Speaker 1: I doing on Dwight Howard? Like this makes no sense.
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard just catching just dumping in. So I thought
Speaker 1: it was funny, like we see these all these matchups
Speaker 1: and switching, and sometimes it's really just comes down to like, look,
Speaker 1: this guy is way bigger than me, Like why are
Speaker 1: we switching everything? So I think it's funny to see
Speaker 1: in like a Nets kind of Lakers matchup, like the
Speaker 1: Nets are gonna play small. I mean, they just have to.
Speaker 1: There's they can't really match up with a D Drummond,
Speaker 1: Marcusol all that, So it's gonna be like and like
Speaker 1: you said, like kind of wearing them down through a series.
Speaker 1: I mean, like if you watch Katie in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: you watch those guys when he was obviously not on
Speaker 1: the Warrior, but you know those Oklahoma City teams, Um,
Speaker 1: they struggled like down the stretch, and I think that's
Speaker 1: because those dudes are tired at the hand. Those midrange
Speaker 1: fadeaway jumpers aren't as clean in the fourth quarter with
Speaker 1: with uh with a little bit of time left, and
Speaker 1: I think all that kind of matters. It's why Lebron
Speaker 1: to get to the rim is probably the most important
Speaker 1: skill in basketball. You know, it's the most important thing
Speaker 1: that Lebron does. He's able to get to the basket
Speaker 1: and create from there, and I think that's where the
Speaker 1: battle would be. You know, the Nets have enough offensive
Speaker 1: firepower where it might not really matter who's tired because
Speaker 1: they have three mega superstars who can score the ball.
Speaker 1: But I think that's an interesting point. Like obviously basketball
Speaker 1: is not played as we say on an Excel spreadsheet,
Speaker 1: so it's it's kind of funny see Katie kind of
Speaker 1: talk about it, and Uh with Draymond Green, he was
Speaker 1: another guy. I love what Draymond said. He's like, they
Speaker 1: called me a tweener, and I wanted them to forever
Speaker 1: regret to ever use that term. And it's kind of
Speaker 1: cool because you don't go and you don't go play
Speaker 1: at fitness and like, I need a power forward, I
Speaker 1: need a center, I need a shooting guard. You don't
Speaker 1: do that. You just go and you pick five players
Speaker 1: to go play basketball with us to have a guy
Speaker 1: who's tall. But I mean, I like how Draymond kind
Speaker 1: of fit that. I was like, you know, these guys
Speaker 1: are just way too worried about shooting a percentages and
Speaker 1: stuff like that instead of just playing the game. So
Speaker 1: it was a cool podcast listen to. I thought he
Speaker 1: made a really interesting point about how the tweener is
Speaker 1: extinct now in the sense that like there's no such
Speaker 1: thing as a tweener because positionless basketball is kind of
Speaker 1: taken over. Um. One last thing I wanted to say
Speaker 1: before we get you out of here. Uh. This was
Speaker 1: from the little chat that they had run in this morning,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant and UH and on the on Twitter, and
Speaker 1: so someone asked basically like, are you worried about are
Speaker 1: you worried at all about the UM integrating everybody back
Speaker 1: in together when you guys haven't played together in so long?
Speaker 1: And how and how that might translate to the playoffs,
Speaker 1: And basically it was like we all got high basketball
Speaker 1: accues and and the bottom line is is that like
Speaker 1: like for really smart basketball players, it doesn't take long
Speaker 1: to figure things is out and and and you know,
Speaker 1: I think I thought that that was really interesting because
Speaker 1: I think it's something to keep in mind with the
Speaker 1: Lebron bringing Lebron back on board and bringing Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: back on board, having like a brain like Lebron involved
Speaker 1: with that process just makes it a lot a lot smoother.
Speaker 1: And you know, and uh, come to think of it, like,
Speaker 1: you know, the really interesting thing that this is actually
Speaker 1: something that popped up in a podcast yesterday they listened
Speaker 1: to is Ryan Rissilo, and he basically was talking about
Speaker 1: how he would rather have an average defense in a
Speaker 1: super elite offense than an average offense in a super
Speaker 1: elite defense, which I thoroughly disagree with. And the reason
Speaker 1: why I disagree with it is that it's not about
Speaker 1: because if you think of it from a math perspective,
Speaker 1: it's the same, right, Like, all you need to do
Speaker 1: is score more points than your opponent, So who cares
Speaker 1: if you're doing it by giving them up or by
Speaker 1: scoring them on the other end Like that, that shouldn't
Speaker 1: make a difference, right in theory. But when you're trying
Speaker 1: to take regular season data and translate it to the playoffs,
Speaker 1: you have to look at the stuff that usually translates
Speaker 1: well and historically in the NBA, in the n b A,
Speaker 1: the thing that translates best to the playoffs is elite
Speaker 1: high end defense, which is why the team that wins
Speaker 1: the championship is almost always an elite high end defense.
Speaker 1: The reality is is like you look at a James
Speaker 1: James Harden has a history of his offensive game tailing
Speaker 1: off in the postseason. You know, Kevin Durant outside of
Speaker 1: those years in Golden State, has a history of his
Speaker 1: efficiency tailing off in the postseason. These guys that it
Speaker 1: is much more difficult to do what you do offensively
Speaker 1: in a playoff environment. However, defensively, it's the same job.
Speaker 1: There's nothing that changes about it. The the other team
Speaker 1: might make or miss more based on your physicality and
Speaker 1: what the refs allow and things along those lines. But
Speaker 1: you are doing the same thing defensively in the defense
Speaker 1: in the postseason that you do in the regular season,
Speaker 1: it translates better. And then the other thing too, is uh,
Speaker 1: when you look at offense, the things that translate to
Speaker 1: the postseason offensive are things at the rim. You you
Speaker 1: never have to worry about, you know, a physical, aggressive
Speaker 1: offense at the rim becoming less effective in the postseason
Speaker 1: unless you are an absolute brute force offensive player that
Speaker 1: does nothing but go to the rim. Think of Janice
Speaker 1: guys along those lines, where then a defense can kind
Speaker 1: of scheme for it. But if you can get to
Speaker 1: the rim in addition to a well balanced offense, and
Speaker 1: if you can defend at an extremely high level, those
Speaker 1: things will translate more. Which is why I would rather
Speaker 1: have an elite defense with an average offense than the opposite,
Speaker 1: because I can count on that elite defense remaining elite
Speaker 1: in the postseason in a way that the offense might
Speaker 1: not necessarily. Yeah, exactly, I think that's the way to
Speaker 1: look at it too. And shots can fall or not fall,
Speaker 1: you know, in the playoffs, and I think defense kind
Speaker 1: of it doesn't change, but the intensity goes up. Right,
Speaker 1: you're more intense defensively. Those those shots that are open
Speaker 1: for like three seconds might be open for one second now, right,
Speaker 1: Like can you shoot in the playoffs? It's like why
Speaker 1: guy like Lou Williams always really struggles. He's one of
Speaker 1: the worst play off numbers um in league history because
Speaker 1: his jumpers just aren't as open when they get to
Speaker 1: the playoffs. And I think there's a playoff shooting and
Speaker 1: regular season shooting. I think that's true. I think that's
Speaker 1: when Milwaukee struggled as well. Now they've changed up their offense.
Speaker 1: They drew Holiday is a little bit more of an
Speaker 1: isolation score. But you know, in their past playoffs, be honest,
Speaker 1: would kick out and those those threes just aren't as
Speaker 1: open for those shooters, so they instead of shooting forty
Speaker 1: percent of the shoot like you know, thirty thirty three,
Speaker 1: thirty four percent from three, and that really impacts the
Speaker 1: whole game. So I feel like defense translates better. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's all these cliches, defense wins championships all that. Now
Speaker 1: those are, uh, the still cliches, but you know, the
Speaker 1: cliches for a reason. I think that doesn't matter. Um
Speaker 1: and again, in the playoffs, you kind of are going
Speaker 1: to lean on your stars, right, Your stars are gonna
Speaker 1: create every shot. I feel like the offensive ratings to
Speaker 1: the regular season kind of can be misleading, especially like
Speaker 1: teams that are beating up on bad teams and stuff
Speaker 1: like that can really can really hurt you. But if
Speaker 1: your defense is consistent, I think that can stick. I
Speaker 1: think that's a hundred percent more important. Um. Then obviously
Speaker 1: you need a good offense. Oh, but I think if
Speaker 1: your defense is like the teams don't usually win a
Speaker 1: championship without being top ten and defense at least, I believe.
Speaker 1: I think those were the numbers. The nets are going
Speaker 1: to test that this year for sure. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I think defense definitely is more more important going
Speaker 1: going to the playoffs. Yeah, we're on the same page,
Speaker 1: all right, man, Did you have anything more you wanted
Speaker 1: to add today? I think that's it, and I'll just
Speaker 1: say that we're planning to do locker room on Monday
Speaker 1: at uh yes, I think at seven. So make sure
Speaker 1: you download the locker Room app. I think it's only
Speaker 1: for iPhone users for right now, but yeah, make sure
Speaker 1: download that would be there on their round seven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1: I think that's when the NIXT game should end, so yeah,
Speaker 1: and then the game starts at four thirty. I'm sure
Speaker 1: Roger and I'll be tweeting through it, and then we'll
Speaker 1: do a locker room after. But thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for listening the podcast version. I'm literally gonna put
Speaker 1: it up right now, so give me like fifteen minutes, Roger,
Speaker 1: I always appreciate your time as usual. I hope everybody
Speaker 1: has a great weekend and we will see you guys
Speaker 1: on Monday, So you guys