Speaker 1: M hm as a nice comfortable wing, like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was not expecting that, So that was good. When I
Speaker 1: saw the Lion, I was surprised, just because the Raptors
Speaker 1: have always played the Lakers really well, right, I think
Speaker 1: then when I know there was some Yeah, it's eleven
Speaker 1: straight losses, eleven straight losses to the Raptors before tonight,
Speaker 1: so I know I was spanning back to two four
Speaker 1: or something and saying like that, Yeah. I meanwhile, Lebron
Speaker 1: kind of owns them, which is kind of the hilarious
Speaker 1: hypocrisy in it. Well, yeah, even last year, they just
Speaker 1: gave him problems. And the big reason why it was
Speaker 1: they were just they were the kind of the same
Speaker 1: archetype as the Lakers, just really really athletic and really
Speaker 1: physical and just a lot of them made everything really difficult. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can see their defense still, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: it's like a zone kind of right, It's like a
Speaker 1: matchup zone that they play and it kind of forces
Speaker 1: you into top three pointers. The Lakers just made every
Speaker 1: single one tonight. But you and I have talked before
Speaker 1: about how like there, you know, the shooting is such
Speaker 1: a momentum thing and if you let a team make
Speaker 1: some shots early, they just ride that wave of confidence
Speaker 1: all the way through the end of the game and
Speaker 1: then it ends up being one of those situations where
Speaker 1: one start going in and uh and that that's that's
Speaker 1: the same reverse effect happens, And that's what happened to
Speaker 1: the Lakers. You know, for months and other stretches of
Speaker 1: the season, they just would miss a couple of shots
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the game, and then they start
Speaker 1: missing the easy ones and open ones, and so you know,
Speaker 1: this is what that positive aggression is that we've been
Speaker 1: waiting on for so long. Yeah, it's friendly, how contagiou
Speaker 1: as it is, right, like one person hits and another
Speaker 1: guy kind of feels himself to hit, and then from
Speaker 1: there it kind of just boils onto the whole team.
Speaker 1: Th HD came in and kind of just felt the
Speaker 1: like energy of we're making shots tonight, and he just
Speaker 1: pulled up from in like transition and made his first one.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of crazy how that how that works
Speaker 1: when you just get a few open looks to go,
Speaker 1: the whole team kind of the floodgates open, as as
Speaker 1: they say. From there, yeah, and then you know, you
Speaker 1: and I have talked a lot this season, and it's
Speaker 1: been something that I've said a lot, is that, um,
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron and a D gets so much credit
Speaker 1: for the Laker defense when not to say that they're
Speaker 1: they're not a part of it, because they are. But
Speaker 1: I always have said that the Lions share of the
Speaker 1: work and this defense falls to the guards with all
Speaker 1: of their effort on the perimeter, chasing guys off the
Speaker 1: three point line and defending at the point of attack.
Speaker 1: And then also um Frank Vogel and his schemes and
Speaker 1: the way that he the way he sets everything up
Speaker 1: in their defense on a night tonight base just to succeed.
Speaker 1: And I think it's actually been really cool to see
Speaker 1: over this stretch without Lebron and a D that even
Speaker 1: without Lebron and a D they defend extremely well. And
Speaker 1: and it's something that I predicted now Lebron and a
Speaker 1: D or the ceiling razors, because there, you know, when
Speaker 1: you get in the playoffs and you're dealing with matchups,
Speaker 1: it's so important that you don't give up, you know,
Speaker 1: significant match up advantages to the other team. And having
Speaker 1: two super versatile forwards like Lebron and a D, you know,
Speaker 1: are are so imperative to be able to do that. However,
Speaker 1: in the regular season, when so much of it is
Speaker 1: about effort and uh and just simple schemes that teams
Speaker 1: don't have enough time to adjust to. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: Frank and all of these guards who you know, work
Speaker 1: their ass off every day. It's easy to see how,
Speaker 1: how how that's been so important for how successful this
Speaker 1: defense has been. Right, Yeah, and the starter is kind
Speaker 1: of their plus minuses were kind of in the singles
Speaker 1: for the night it was de bench right with that,
Speaker 1: I called it the young core lineup. It was like Caruso,
Speaker 1: th h T and k Cock, Kuzma all just defending,
Speaker 1: switching everything. That kind of changed the game. That's the
Speaker 1: one that moved the game from like a ten point
Speaker 1: game to like a twenty point game. And that's what
Speaker 1: we talked about, Like the defense is all about their
Speaker 1: guards and how much ball pressure they can put in switch.
Speaker 1: They do a really nice job of like switching off
Speaker 1: off the ball, right, so like if they see a
Speaker 1: matchup that doesn't work, like the same mark is at
Speaker 1: the three point line, they'll just cross switch before the
Speaker 1: ball can even get to the guys. So it was
Speaker 1: it was cool to see them just fly around and
Speaker 1: just use their athleticism. I thought Shrewder kind of struggled
Speaker 1: for most of the night and you could see like
Speaker 1: when th HD crew, so all those young guys just
Speaker 1: fly up the court and Toronto was obviously undermanned, but still,
Speaker 1: I mean, to be up thirty on a team without
Speaker 1: Lebrono a d is still still really impressive and it
Speaker 1: just shows we can just make some shots. Man. The
Speaker 1: defense has been pretty consistent, like they got some open
Speaker 1: shots to go on. The flood gates open, so it's
Speaker 1: it's a good win. The THHD and and Alex Cruso
Speaker 1: struggled a lot at the beginning of this no lebron
Speaker 1: stretch with their playmaking duties, and that was to be
Speaker 1: expected because they went from being in kind of subsidiary
Speaker 1: roles to prominent roles. And you know, no one just
Speaker 1: picks that up immediately, uh, no matter how good your
Speaker 1: skill set is, because you've got to learn, you know,
Speaker 1: how your aggressiveness fits in with this new kind of
Speaker 1: role that you have. And I thought both Alex Cruso
Speaker 1: and talent Warron Tucker made a lot of really nice
Speaker 1: place tonight for their teammates h in primary creating roles.
Speaker 1: And then look at Dennis Shrewder, I mean, DENNI Dennis
Speaker 1: Shrewder was was had an adjustment period himself, you know,
Speaker 1: becoming the number one guy, and he had seven assists
Speaker 1: in like his first a few minutes of play like that.
Speaker 1: That that guy you can tell is finally starting to
Speaker 1: get comfortable in what he's being asked to do. And uh,
Speaker 1: and and obviously you know, when you defend as well
Speaker 1: as they do, if you can get anything going offensively,
Speaker 1: you're gonna steal some of these games. And as as
Speaker 1: our our buddy Pete tweeted out, you know, uh from
Speaker 1: Laker film room, the Lakers are four and five since
Speaker 1: Lebron wind, which is insane because I thought absolutely best
Speaker 1: case scenario. I thought we were looking at maybe three
Speaker 1: wins and that it could potentially get worse. And now
Speaker 1: with James Harden being out ten days, you've got a
Speaker 1: reasonable opportunity to be Brooklyn here um soon. And then
Speaker 1: there's that New York Knicks game as well, like they
Speaker 1: if they somehow come out of this near five hundred
Speaker 1: without Lebron and a D that would be like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I know Frank Vogels not getting Coach of the Year,
Speaker 1: but that's some coach of the year level stuff there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a massive win. And even just their defense, Like
Speaker 1: I feel like Lebron and a d are probably the
Speaker 1: best let off wall kind of defenders in the league,
Speaker 1: and you take that out. Treads is not a room protector.
Speaker 1: Markis Morris is neither Andre Drummond goes out right already,
Speaker 1: so they have really no real room protection besides Gasol.
Speaker 1: And there's still number one. They were number one before tonight.
Speaker 1: I don't know after tonight, but they were number one
Speaker 1: in opponent's field goals percentage in the paint, which just
Speaker 1: shows how much they're flying around on on defense. So
Speaker 1: hopefully that picks up and we have a few more
Speaker 1: winnable games here. They've won every game that they were
Speaker 1: supposed to win, right the right They beat the Orlando Magic,
Speaker 1: to beat the Calves, you know, and then tonight as well.
Speaker 1: So um, that's all you can ask. Really, they're not
Speaker 1: supposed to be the Clippers of the Bucks. I mean,
Speaker 1: those are just those are those are really good teams?
Speaker 1: Are they're going to come out and play well? But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they've done their job, and Lebron's out of
Speaker 1: a boot right, so that's that's kind of awesome. He's
Speaker 1: already he's already out eight looks and eight is already
Speaker 1: doing like on court work, he's like shooting pregame and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. So I mean not that far away. Um,
Speaker 1: they play the MAVs pretty soon, which I think will
Speaker 1: be pretty big for seeding. But um, other than that,
Speaker 1: they've stayed pretty much at the at the five spot.
Speaker 1: It's not like any of the people up tops I've
Speaker 1: really made that much separation. Denver is really on fire.
Speaker 1: But other than that, um, all the West teams are
Speaker 1: kind of still in that range. So if they can
Speaker 1: come back and maybe they can still steal like a
Speaker 1: top four or five seed if if possible, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: then all you have to do is put yourself in
Speaker 1: a position where you can go on and run with
Speaker 1: Lebron and a because so many, so many teams at
Speaker 1: the end of the season don't have anything to play for.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at the Lakers and the seeding games.
Speaker 1: They're in the bubble. They just had nothing to play for,
Speaker 1: and so they go out there and hang a three
Speaker 1: and five spot and it literally is like completely forgotten
Speaker 1: because they had already locked up the one seed and
Speaker 1: then they go off and beat everybody in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But in this case, they do have something to play
Speaker 1: for and that last month of the season with Lebron
Speaker 1: and maybe kind of getting their groove back and getting
Speaker 1: their their rhythm back, and and with the seating, because
Speaker 1: you know, the difference between them being a six seed
Speaker 1: in a four seed is a huge deal. When you
Speaker 1: have fans in the stadiums. If you can take your
Speaker 1: first round matchup with Denver, the Clippers or wherever it
Speaker 1: is and play it with you know, four games at home,
Speaker 1: that's a huge deal. So they just have to stay
Speaker 1: within striking distance of being able to go on a run.
Speaker 1: And already, even if they lose every other game the
Speaker 1: rest of this no Lebron and they d stretch. They've
Speaker 1: done a little better than we thought they would um
Speaker 1: as far as the defense goes. And this I think
Speaker 1: is a nice little segue into the uh into the
Speaker 1: benmac a more discussion. Ben McLamore, immediately the second he
Speaker 1: comes in the door of the Laker locker room is
Speaker 1: already their most athletic guard, in their best shooting guard,
Speaker 1: now you can have a conversation about him on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. It's been the number one, uh negative thing
Speaker 1: you've heard about him today. But what I think is
Speaker 1: so important to keep in mind with that is, like
Speaker 1: we just talked about with Frank Vogel. You know, the
Speaker 1: Lakers are defending at an extremely high level right now
Speaker 1: without a whole lot of defensive talent. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of guys that are playing minutes for the Lakers
Speaker 1: right now that and just about any other situation would
Speaker 1: be considered an average to below average defensive player. And
Speaker 1: they're having success because of what the Lakers ask from
Speaker 1: their guards, the scheming, and just an organizational wide like
Speaker 1: the like the announcers are saying today. They demand it.
Speaker 1: The organization demands defense. And so with the athletic tools
Speaker 1: that Ben McLamore has, there's no reason to leave that
Speaker 1: he shouldn't be able to slot in uh into this
Speaker 1: defense now with the with the rockets, because they switched everything.
Speaker 1: He was primarily on an island and isolation. That's not
Speaker 1: the way it's going to be for him here. He's
Speaker 1: gonna be asked to chase guys off the three point line,
Speaker 1: fly around in rotations. Anytime he gets in a mismatch,
Speaker 1: they're gonna send aggressive help because they're so good at rotating.
Speaker 1: I actually think he'll be a nice fit defensively here.
Speaker 1: What do you think? Yeah? I think so too. He's
Speaker 1: listed at what he's listened at, like six three, so
Speaker 1: he's going to play the off guard pretty much. That
Speaker 1: is still a little smaller, but he's an athletic guard.
Speaker 1: I think they can get more out of him. I
Speaker 1: know for Houston, like he've been and pretty well for
Speaker 1: their they played a lot of a switching defense as well,
Speaker 1: and I thought he fit pretty well. He got a
Speaker 1: lot of minutes on that team. Um, we talked a
Speaker 1: lot about Andre Drummond, like how we should kind of
Speaker 1: temper expectations right without Lebron in a D and I
Speaker 1: kind of feel the same with Ben McLamore as well. UM,
Speaker 1: he's he can do a lot more, but he is
Speaker 1: still kind of like a specialist, right, Like he's a shooter,
Speaker 1: like that's what he does. UM, and on this team
Speaker 1: he won't get as good of looks like. I still
Speaker 1: think he'll help, UM, But I mean players come to
Speaker 1: the Lakers and just forget how to shoot for some reason,
Speaker 1: but I still think something. I still think he's gonna help.
Speaker 1: I think he's like a forty something percent shooter from
Speaker 1: the corners, you know, and he hits his wide open threes.
Speaker 1: I think you posted the stat today, right, he's shooting
Speaker 1: like thirty or something on his wide open shots. And
Speaker 1: that's really all we're asking for is guys to hit
Speaker 1: their open shots, not even hit like the little contested ones, like,
Speaker 1: just just hit their open threes. And I think he
Speaker 1: can do that. Um. And now the Lakers have a
Speaker 1: nice little guard rotation, like whoever is hot, they can
Speaker 1: kind of play with Wes Matthews, Ben Mcamar and KCP right,
Speaker 1: all three guys, at least one of them should be
Speaker 1: making the shots from from game to game. So that's
Speaker 1: a big pick up again to get him for free,
Speaker 1: um off the buyout market. I think he's a really
Speaker 1: nice guard to add to the rotation and add to
Speaker 1: the shooting. Yeah, and it adds pressure on the guards
Speaker 1: who have been struggling to get it together. And uh,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's one thing, you know, you and
Speaker 1: I have extensively talked over the last two years about
Speaker 1: how you know, defensively, the UH they can put up
Speaker 1: with a lot of mistakes on the off its event
Speaker 1: from their guards as long as they defend. And when
Speaker 1: there's a lack of when there's a lack of depth,
Speaker 1: you can get the worst of both worlds. You can
Speaker 1: get you know, KCP who's not making shots and is
Speaker 1: slacking around on the defensive end. But when you have
Speaker 1: six cards in your guard corps, there's pressure on everybody
Speaker 1: to make sure that they don't take a night off
Speaker 1: with their defensive focus and things along those lines. Um.
Speaker 1: You mentioned some of the shooting numbers for those you
Speaker 1: guys who didn't see him on Twitter earlier today, he's
Speaker 1: shooting about forty on catching shoot threes. Last year when
Speaker 1: he was with James Harden, you gotta kind of throw
Speaker 1: out the stuff this year because he's just playing in
Speaker 1: a garbage situation altogether. It's not like he magically forgot
Speaker 1: how to shoot. It's just a question of being in
Speaker 1: arguably the worst situation basketball wise that that we've seen
Speaker 1: in the last few years, like as bad as the
Speaker 1: um you know since Harden trade, as bad as some
Speaker 1: of the old you know, Sam Hanky uh Philadelphia seventy
Speaker 1: sixers teams that invented tanking like they I mean, they
Speaker 1: think they lost over twenty games in a row at
Speaker 1: one point. So it's hard to really take any of
Speaker 1: that is real basketball. Um. At the previous season, with
Speaker 1: James Harden's fort on catching shoot threes UM, he was
Speaker 1: fort on wide open threes, and he led the Rockets
Speaker 1: with over a hundred and fifty catch and shoot threes.
Speaker 1: Excuse me with over Yeah, Well that's that's what it was.
Speaker 1: Catching shoot threes UM more than James Harden, more than
Speaker 1: p J. Tucker, more than any of those other guys
Speaker 1: on the roster. He was their best spot up shooter.
Speaker 1: And I watched I watched a whole lot of film
Speaker 1: of him today, um, and the vast majority of it
Speaker 1: was attacking closeouts because of the really simple role that
Speaker 1: he had in that Houston offense. If you watching Houston offense,
Speaker 1: it's all James Harden, dribble, dribble, dribble, draw attention. These
Speaker 1: guys gotta play four on three, these guys gonna attack closeouts. Well,
Speaker 1: Ben McLamore, you know, he's actually very good at that,
Speaker 1: at that very specific thing. He's not a guy who's
Speaker 1: gonna run pick and roll for you, he's not gonna
Speaker 1: a guy who's gonna create shots for others off the dribble.
Speaker 1: But what he can do is he can do what
Speaker 1: you asked Casey p to do to his knocked down
Speaker 1: open threes when he's uh when the team, when the
Speaker 1: defense leaves him, and then when they chase him off
Speaker 1: the line, you can put the ball on the floor,
Speaker 1: make really basic plays after that. And so I actually
Speaker 1: think for what the Lakers will ask him to do,
Speaker 1: he's an excellent fit. And like I said, right away
Speaker 1: best athlete in the back court and right away best
Speaker 1: shooter in the back court. So I don't I don't
Speaker 1: understand any situation where it's not an immediate improvement over
Speaker 1: their current guard situation. Yeah, and then he got him
Speaker 1: for free, right, They don't have to give up anything
Speaker 1: to get him another guy to add to the rotation.
Speaker 1: He's a rotate. He's an NBA level player, right. I
Speaker 1: think he showed that last year. Um, like you said,
Speaker 1: a lot of people talked about his numbers in Houston
Speaker 1: this year. I think it's kind of tough, like you said,
Speaker 1: to kind of go off that that's a really tough situation.
Speaker 1: That's a weird kind of situation going on there. They
Speaker 1: lost like twenty sounding games in the road. Right, It's
Speaker 1: really tough to judge his shootings, but I was looking
Speaker 1: like his playoffs. His playoff shooting hims are good as well.
Speaker 1: Last year. He shot from three UM in the playoffs
Speaker 1: on in eleven games for the Rockets last year, so
Speaker 1: shows like he can shoot in pressure situations. Um. I
Speaker 1: remember against the Lakers he had a few games where
Speaker 1: he hit uh, he hit multiple threes. So yeah, he
Speaker 1: says it's a good signing. I think. Uh. I think
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks were also interested in signing him, but
Speaker 1: I saw like the support. But he's gonna be able
Speaker 1: to spot up. He's not as much of a movement shooter, right,
Speaker 1: He's not the guy's gonna fly off screens, but he
Speaker 1: can spot up. It's hard to help off him, especially
Speaker 1: when they get Lebron and Adie back. He's just another
Speaker 1: guy you can sit in the corner that you can't
Speaker 1: help off of, right, Like he's used to it with
Speaker 1: the James Harden basketball from last year. That's kind of
Speaker 1: how he got his new role in the league, right,
Speaker 1: Like he was kind of a fringe player until he
Speaker 1: kind of got into that role and he saw that
Speaker 1: he's kind of a spot up shooter and he's gonna
Speaker 1: fit perfect. Um, he's gonna get a lot of open looks.
Speaker 1: I mean, the guys right now are getting open looks,
Speaker 1: so imagining Ben Malcamore kind of feel right into there,
Speaker 1: and he's a he's a nice shooter to put on
Speaker 1: the team, but again he's a specialist with his shooting.
Speaker 1: So I would like, really temper expectations again until you
Speaker 1: get the full team back for sure. Yeah, he's not
Speaker 1: the kind of guy that's gonna have a ton of
Speaker 1: success with this current UH wine up at the running
Speaker 1: out there, just because of the lack of talent, lack
Speaker 1: of shock creation. Um. However, you know when we're when
Speaker 1: we're looking at the UH the overall roster now it
Speaker 1: fills a hole in the sense that there's this there's
Speaker 1: this sudden field with the roster that they have versatility
Speaker 1: that they didn't have last year. Like you can go
Speaker 1: crazy all in on defense in the backcourt with like
Speaker 1: a Dennis Shrewder and Alex Caruso. You can go crazy
Speaker 1: all in on shooting in the backcourt with like a
Speaker 1: k c P KCPM. Ben McLamore. You know guys that
Speaker 1: are you know, kind of more flamethrower type of guys.
Speaker 1: You can go in the front court. You can go big,
Speaker 1: bruising centers all game long, like like Andre Drummond and
Speaker 1: and Uh in Montrese Harrold, or you can go versatile,
Speaker 1: perimeter oriented, more skilled centers that stretched the floor like
Speaker 1: Marcusol and Markis Morris. You can you can see them
Speaker 1: going huge. You can see them obviously going back to
Speaker 1: Lebron in a D at the five um And what's
Speaker 1: great about having a six guard core that works this
Speaker 1: well is now all of a sudden, you have so
Speaker 1: much more depth for the A D at the five
Speaker 1: lineups because at that point you need you need to
Speaker 1: have three guards on the floor at any given time,
Speaker 1: you know, and if Kuzma is a bad matchup, or
Speaker 1: if Mark Kieth, if Mark Keith can't stay out there
Speaker 1: in a specific matchup, you can go with you know,
Speaker 1: Wes and Uh and Ben McLamore and Dennis Shrewder or
Speaker 1: you know Dennis Shrewder Alex Cruso in Western Anto. You
Speaker 1: have all these different guard lineups that you can go to.
Speaker 1: Now with Lebron and a D at the five the
Speaker 1: roster for lack of you know, just a simp file
Speaker 1: that just feels like really well rounded out now, right,
Speaker 1: And and just to bring this back to like the
Speaker 1: game tonight, like Marca Saul was shooting his open threes
Speaker 1: right whether they went in or not, like he was
Speaker 1: taking his open shots. Um, he was kind of I
Speaker 1: think he kind of took a personal that the Raptors
Speaker 1: would just leave them open. But um, he was hitting
Speaker 1: them in threes. And when that, when that happens, like
Speaker 1: the ball can pop, it can move around, and Ben
Speaker 1: mclemar can fit right into that. Right, they would drive
Speaker 1: hit kick and you have to you have to close
Speaker 1: out to every single person. You Mark keep is hitting
Speaker 1: his open threes. Mark just taking them, Um just feels
Speaker 1: for a better flow to the offense. Um, guys don't
Speaker 1: have to really force it one on one where you
Speaker 1: can just move the ball and without running a D.
Speaker 1: They really have to do that. So I have Mark
Speaker 1: keep shooting it, and I think Ben Malcalimore can kind
Speaker 1: of fit into that. Right. Get the shots that k
Speaker 1: CP is getting, Um, get those open looks that Alex
Speaker 1: Crusoe gets, who'sma, who'sma gets a bunch of corner threes
Speaker 1: and um as well, I think you hit a few tonight.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I would just love to see Ben malcolmart
Speaker 1: kind of in that in that kind of role. It's
Speaker 1: a really simple offense right now. It's very high pick
Speaker 1: and roll or Marcusol at the top, and I think
Speaker 1: I think he can fit into that. We'll see when drumming.
Speaker 1: I think Drummings should be back soon as well. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's just like seeing Marcusol take those threes
Speaker 1: with a really good sign because when you have five
Speaker 1: guys who are a threat, that's obviously kind of similar
Speaker 1: to the a d F five lineup right where you
Speaker 1: have to depend everybody everyone's a threat. So I'm excited
Speaker 1: to see uh malcolmore kind of uh fit into that.
Speaker 1: Um So Roser just made you the host of the
Speaker 1: room because you have a little bit more experienced with this.
Speaker 1: Uh do you want to get some other people involved? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so if anyone like, if you want to put things
Speaker 1: in the chat, I'll go to the chat right now
Speaker 1: and then Uh, okay, Joseph, I would like to speak
Speaker 1: what's up yourself? How's it going? Hey, what's up guys?
Speaker 1: Appreciate you know what you guys do as far as
Speaker 1: bringing us Lakers content daily in a weekly But yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I just think, you know, like you know, everybody's basically
Speaker 1: waiting on hopefully E. D is able to come back
Speaker 1: and be at least and obviously Lebron coming back. And
Speaker 1: I think, like you guys talk about, everybody will just
Speaker 1: slot in the place, and I just think from there,
Speaker 1: man Um, as long as I would say, as long
Speaker 1: as we can stay in that sixth seed, I think
Speaker 1: we'll be okay, man, And I think the Lakers can
Speaker 1: truly repeat if Lebron and a D or anywhere from eight.
Speaker 1: Thanks guys, Thank you. Jo's appreciated, man Um. I agree
Speaker 1: with you. Everything comes down to Slott and everybody in
Speaker 1: the proper roles. It really is that simple. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know everything everything gets colored by recency bias, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, there wasn't a whole lot of Laker optimism
Speaker 1: after the seeding games last year because you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: they can't shoot, there's no offense, like they missed Rondo.
Speaker 1: Everything is, the wheels are coming off. Lebron and a
Speaker 1: D look sloppy. There was all this stuff because you
Speaker 1: just get caught up in the way basketball looks as
Speaker 1: of late. However, the bottom line is is you still
Speaker 1: have to be Lebron and a D. With this backcourt
Speaker 1: and with this front court, with these role players and
Speaker 1: and with every all of the pieces that they have,
Speaker 1: it's easy to see how this could be very, very successful.
Speaker 1: And they remedied two of their biggest problems back when
Speaker 1: they were healthy, which was they need a little bit
Speaker 1: more front court depth and they needed more shooting, and
Speaker 1: especially with as well as Alex Cruz has been shooting
Speaker 1: the ball as of late, and with Mark Keith getting
Speaker 1: going and with Marcusol getting going, like I tend to
Speaker 1: think that if Lebron and helped you were healthy right now,
Speaker 1: the Lakers would be looking just like as dominated as
Speaker 1: Brooklyn has been as of white. Yeah, and like the
Speaker 1: thing that people a lot of people like compare this
Speaker 1: to like the Clippers last year, right like they only
Speaker 1: played a few games, or even the nets this year
Speaker 1: they've only played a few games together. I guess like
Speaker 1: the only counter to that was, like lebronon a D
Speaker 1: built all their chemistry last year, right like, they got
Speaker 1: a pretty much a full season last year, a full
Speaker 1: playoffs so they're not coming in like still trying to
Speaker 1: learn each other's games. Um, they haven't really blend with
Speaker 1: the team as fully, but I mean at least those
Speaker 1: two together have kind of built a camaraderie in and
Speaker 1: from in the playoffs. Is gonna be those two together
Speaker 1: for like thirty minutes a game, right, Like that's really
Speaker 1: what it's gonna be. So I think it right, we
Speaker 1: have Lebron in a D back, and I don't think
Speaker 1: they care what seed they are. I don't think they
Speaker 1: want to play four straight games on the road, if
Speaker 1: especially if fans are back. But I don't think they
Speaker 1: have a problem with it either. So I think the
Speaker 1: Calves w went to the finals as the four seed
Speaker 1: Lebron's left room. Yeah, so I don't think. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't think they're worried about that. And then obviously a
Speaker 1: Clippers matchup would be a home game anyway, so from
Speaker 1: there it's not really not a big issue. So I
Speaker 1: think you're right, Joseph, appreciate, appreciate you coming on here.
Speaker 1: But Jazz to her hand, Uh, yeah, I think I
Speaker 1: think he's right that if if you have to run
Speaker 1: an a D back on the seating doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1: You just want to stay out of that seven h
Speaker 1: that's seventh seed. Yeah, And at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: so much of it just depends about the playoff path,
Speaker 1: like it was one thing. It was one thing last
Speaker 1: year when I was like, oh man, you want to
Speaker 1: have the one seed because you don't want to play
Speaker 1: the Clippers in the second round. I mean that happened
Speaker 1: to Houston in two thousand nineteen if you remember, Uh,
Speaker 1: Houston slacked off during the regular season, ended up dropping two.
Speaker 1: I want to say, I can I think it was
Speaker 1: a three seed. I think they dropped to the three seed,
Speaker 1: and then the Warriors ended up dropping to two, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, the
Speaker 1: Rockets dropped four. That's what it was. And then they
Speaker 1: played Golden State in the second round and they got
Speaker 1: beatn and then that shows up as a second round exit. Well,
Speaker 1: this year, everybody's good. So yeah, I mean, like, who
Speaker 1: are you who really are you avoiding here? Because I mean, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the Warriors when when they're healthy or probably
Speaker 1: the worst of the top eight teams in the West,
Speaker 1: and I don't I wouldn't want to play Steph Curry
Speaker 1: in the playoff series, Like he's a complete nightmare in
Speaker 1: the playoff series. And you know, Luca with with is
Speaker 1: coming into form, and the Mavericks look really good. They
Speaker 1: beat the Jazz the other night. Uh, and they're probably
Speaker 1: gonna end up being like the seven seed, and then
Speaker 1: the Nuggets there and Gordon look like better than the Clippers,
Speaker 1: and then the Utah Jazz are like a bona fide
Speaker 1: number one overall seed. It's just there's no there's no
Speaker 1: easy path, so like you're really not um, You're you're
Speaker 1: really not getting Like even if the Lakers had some
Speaker 1: killer crazy comeback and they got the number two seed,
Speaker 1: it's like you're still gonna play Luca in the first round,
Speaker 1: probably the Clippers in the second round, in the Jazz
Speaker 1: in the third round. That's literally what it's gonna be.
Speaker 1: So there's just no advantage to straining yourself to get
Speaker 1: a higher in the standings. Yeah, exactly. And if everyone
Speaker 1: anyone else wants to speak, they can request or just
Speaker 1: typed in the chat as well. Um April says, Malcolmar
Speaker 1: is a good ad when you think we are solid
Speaker 1: on defense, and that's true, like talked about earlier, defense
Speaker 1: has been pretty consistent. They just need to hit some
Speaker 1: open shots. That's what happened against Sacramento, That's what happened tonight. Um,
Speaker 1: it just sets that they hit none of the shots
Speaker 1: against the good teams, which I think. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's a coincidence totally, but they did miss a bunch
Speaker 1: of open looks. Um, I'll honesk you this one. Jason
Speaker 1: is Aramo Saley Sorrify. But your name says Who's is
Speaker 1: taking a lot of bad shots? What do you think
Speaker 1: about his comment there? What do you think do you
Speaker 1: think Who's is taking a lot of bad shots? It's
Speaker 1: in his personality. He's like, he reminds me he's a
Speaker 1: little bit of like a J. R. Smith kind of
Speaker 1: guy in the sense that lighten he he insists on
Speaker 1: trying to get his rhythm by taking crazy shots, which
Speaker 1: is insane to me because you know, like you know,
Speaker 1: for me personally, like one of the biggest areas of
Speaker 1: growth that I experienced as I got older was understanding
Speaker 1: that the best way to get going in a basketball
Speaker 1: game is to take easier shots so that you approached
Speaker 1: the rest of the game with confidence because you've made
Speaker 1: easier shots, and you know, some of that gets more
Speaker 1: complicated when you're playing with out Lebron in NAD because
Speaker 1: there just aren't a lot of easy shots. But he
Speaker 1: played the same way with Lebron and Nad, where it's
Speaker 1: like a lot of times like who's his first shot,
Speaker 1: Like first shot of the game Lebron and Nadi are playing,
Speaker 1: He's flying off the screen contested, it's not even open.
Speaker 1: He's fading, he's kicking his legs and it's off the
Speaker 1: back room and it's like, Okay, here we go. We're
Speaker 1: starting the game with the miss and I certainly would
Speaker 1: like to see him try to um, try to get
Speaker 1: going in a more under control manner. But the flip
Speaker 1: side of that is he's your stereotypical irrational confidence guy.
Speaker 1: And irrational confidence guys they're always like they succeed based
Speaker 1: on the fact that they think they're a lot better
Speaker 1: than they actually are, and part of that manifests as
Speaker 1: a desire to take really difficult shots. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: I just kind of take it as it is what
Speaker 1: Kuzma is um and you you got, you kind of
Speaker 1: gotta live with it. I mean, he's one of the
Speaker 1: biggest hot and cold players that I've ever rooted for
Speaker 1: my time as a basketball fan, Like when he gotta
Speaker 1: go in, he looks like Jayson Tatum. But when when
Speaker 1: he doesn't have a going I mean, he looks like
Speaker 1: a bump. And that's just that's just kind of how
Speaker 1: it goes. And I feel like there'd be a little
Speaker 1: more consistency if he reined in his shot selection, but
Speaker 1: it's just not in his basketball identity. Yeah, I always
Speaker 1: say I'll tell him, like like my grandkids about rookie
Speaker 1: Couz right, that was like it was like an offensive
Speaker 1: Monsters rookie year, but really just just a finish up
Speaker 1: on him. I think I agree with your points on him,
Speaker 1: like Lebron and a d r out Right, guys are
Speaker 1: gonna try to do more and whoever they think is
Speaker 1: more right, shooters gonna drive more. Um Kuzin was gonna
Speaker 1: take a lot more tougher shots. He's gonna run a
Speaker 1: lot of more picking roles, even though his handle is
Speaker 1: still really chompy. Right, he gets stripped a lot, But yeah,
Speaker 1: that like him do more. But his defense to me,
Speaker 1: like if you watched last year, not not last year, yeah,
Speaker 1: last year early in the year, Um Sam really picked
Speaker 1: on him, right, I think that was one of their
Speaker 1: losses to the Raptors was at home, uh and it
Speaker 1: ended their eight game win straight if I remember correctly.
Speaker 1: It was a home game and Sam really picked on
Speaker 1: him like they would call STOs out just for him,
Speaker 1: and he got to the rim, got layups scored this year,
Speaker 1: you could really see his defense like st Sa wasn't
Speaker 1: pretty much hell all night. That's not all Kuzma. The
Speaker 1: Lakers health defense is obviously great, like we talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: but um, like he was able to stay in front
Speaker 1: of him. Sam got a few like mid range contested
Speaker 1: pull ups, but I think you live with that. He's
Speaker 1: really took away his drive to the basket and it
Speaker 1: was just cool to see him still. Like his defense
Speaker 1: is still um really top tier for a for a wing.
Speaker 1: So that's what the Lakers need. He's able to switch.
Speaker 1: He was able to switch on a lot of guards.
Speaker 1: You got a few blocks to night as well at
Speaker 1: the rim. So his defense is playing well enough that
Speaker 1: I'm not really worried about the offense. Like I think
Speaker 1: his offense will come and go as it is. Like
Speaker 1: he's a he's a streaky shooter, right, He's a score
Speaker 1: he's a guy that can score thirty or you can
Speaker 1: be like two P ten right. That's that's his offense
Speaker 1: right now, and I think it's fine on this team.
Speaker 1: His spot up shoot numbers are okay, and he's sitting
Speaker 1: his shots from the corners at least, so I think
Speaker 1: we'll live. We'll live with that. Um uh, you live,
Speaker 1: you live with the offensive inconsistency if he's consistent in
Speaker 1: all the other parts of his game exactly. Uh t
Speaker 1: O G, what's up? T he says. Bogil says that
Speaker 1: drummon will continue to start. I'll give this one to you, Jason. Uh.
Speaker 1: He says that, Yeah, what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1: The Bogos says a drumming will continia start even though
Speaker 1: Mark played so well tonight. Well, I mean, similar to
Speaker 1: what happened with Javel last year. I think it was
Speaker 1: probably some sort of commitment before the fact. But there's
Speaker 1: a there's a basketball rationalization to that, and it has
Speaker 1: to do with the fact that Marcusol makes way more
Speaker 1: sense to play alongside Montrese harrold Um. Playing Montrese hele
Speaker 1: Andre Drummond next to each other would be like basketball blasphemy,
Speaker 1: would be horrible. It would ruin everything offensively for them. Um,
Speaker 1: So you can explain it away that way. But as
Speaker 1: I said earlier today, if you guys were following on Twitter,
Speaker 1: like if Mark Keith is gonna keep shooting this, well,
Speaker 1: I mean they can start drumming all they want, but
Speaker 1: it's gonna be kind of like Javel last year, where
Speaker 1: they're just gonna go away from him after that first
Speaker 1: stint and they're gonna end up going with their more
Speaker 1: skilled in verse little lineups. Um, because they have so
Speaker 1: many options to go there. And Mark Kis Morris literally
Speaker 1: right now looks like one of the best stretch fives
Speaker 1: in the league because he's guarding so well, he's defending
Speaker 1: post a players so well, and he's shooting from three
Speaker 1: on like five attempts per game. So I mean, they
Speaker 1: just have all sorts of options. But yeah, I mean, uh,
Speaker 1: they I would imagine they promised it to Drummond, but
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, like it actually does
Speaker 1: make sense to play Drummond with a d and to
Speaker 1: play with MARKIV. Yeah, Mark got a lot of minutes
Speaker 1: next to that young Lakers corps, right, all the young
Speaker 1: players that were like flying around and he was the
Speaker 1: one at the top kind of like Yo kitch light
Speaker 1: kind of where he was just kind of directing and
Speaker 1: guys were cutting off him and playing. Well. It's funny
Speaker 1: because I was really looking forward to him playing with
Speaker 1: Tres because they don't have a minute together still. I
Speaker 1: don't think this season Blo said he wouldn't do it
Speaker 1: against Milwaukee and then this game Treads gets ejected. I
Speaker 1: believe was that in the first quarter? Um so when
Speaker 1: the first I believe in the first coutter? Yeah so, um,
Speaker 1: Tred's gets ejected. So Mark still does not have a
Speaker 1: minute with Tread's. Hopefully in the next game. In the
Speaker 1: next game they can they can play together and see
Speaker 1: how that works. But yeah, I'm really looking forward to
Speaker 1: because I think Mark and played the four on offense
Speaker 1: and the five on defense and just give a really
Speaker 1: nice dynamic off the bench, and how much he wants
Speaker 1: to do that. It's obviously he's he shared how he
Speaker 1: feels about it. But uh, yeah, I think Drummond fits
Speaker 1: better with the starters as well. Give give Shooter a
Speaker 1: nice pick and roll target um option and that starting
Speaker 1: lineup and have Mark off the bench and hopefully he
Speaker 1: can he I know he'll eventually accept in that role
Speaker 1: market just he's a professional, he's a competitor and you
Speaker 1: expect him to kind of to speak on that and
Speaker 1: uh Andy again, if anyone wants to speak, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1: Drummond is such a physical presence to that when the
Speaker 1: Lakers have those games where they really attack early on
Speaker 1: by just bullying the hell out of you physically. Uh gosh,
Speaker 1: like having Drummond out there with those guys, who is
Speaker 1: going to be a nightmare for the opponent when they
Speaker 1: really get that going. So I mean, you know, like, yes,
Speaker 1: what the Lakers have, they've been playing really well, but
Speaker 1: Drummond is also good and he's also going to be good, right, Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: And if anyone wants to speak or anything, or again,
Speaker 1: or you can put stuff in the chat as well. Again,
Speaker 1: t O G says, a great th HD game. What's
Speaker 1: his ceiling? I'm not sure, honestly, I think it's pretty high.
Speaker 1: I'm glad he's not a Toronto Raptor tonight. So I
Speaker 1: guess I'll say that Jason was hoping you would be,
Speaker 1: but but no, But yeah, he looked really good. He
Speaker 1: just needs a service full jump. He needs a serviceable
Speaker 1: jumper just to get what he wants. He's already game
Speaker 1: to the rim. He pulled these guys at the basket. Um,
Speaker 1: he gets to the he gets to the line as well.
Speaker 1: For a Laker guard him and Shooter. Only Laker guards
Speaker 1: that really can get to the rim. And yeah, he
Speaker 1: played well. His his passing is already super creative. He
Speaker 1: does things that like, like once a game at least
Speaker 1: you'll do something where I'm like wow, Like tonight he
Speaker 1: split a double team the three sixty pass on on
Speaker 1: on point to the corner to Caruso. We get at three,
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, that's like the ceiling. That's like if
Speaker 1: everything comes together, his body, his you know, his control everything.
Speaker 1: By like four, he can be an on ball creator.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he gets there, but he'll have
Speaker 1: all the tools. What do you what do you think
Speaker 1: about th HDS game tonight and how do you think
Speaker 1: he'll he'll move on for going forward? He was great.
Speaker 1: He created open shots for his teammates. That's that's something
Speaker 1: you don't see often from someone in his age. I
Speaker 1: mean he came in first possession and he had to
Speaker 1: turn over and then uh and then after that almost
Speaker 1: immediately had that play where he had the ball at
Speaker 1: the elbow and dumped it off the kios going down
Speaker 1: the uh going down the lane for the layup. And
Speaker 1: then he and he had the play that you're talking
Speaker 1: about to Crusoe where he kind of palmed it with
Speaker 1: his hand and like flipped and flicked the wrist out there,
Speaker 1: and then he had another driving kick. I want to
Speaker 1: say it was a Kuzma, but I'm not hunder percent sure.
Speaker 1: But you know I've said this a hundred times in
Speaker 1: conversations with you, like he's always gonna look really good
Speaker 1: at times and and show these flashes. I just think,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, especially with McLamore now, like it's
Speaker 1: hard for me to believe he's gonna play much uh
Speaker 1: come to playoff time. I mean, I think Frank will
Speaker 1: give him a chance. But unless he all of a
Speaker 1: sudden develops into a defensive player that never makes mistakes.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about his peak, uh like athletically as
Speaker 1: a defender. I'm talking about one that doesn't make mistakes
Speaker 1: because mistakes cost you. If he develops into that, then
Speaker 1: I believe that that he can um become that type
Speaker 1: of player. But I just Yeah, I love the potential.
Speaker 1: I love all that, but there's I'm I'm fully mentally
Speaker 1: prepared for him to not be a factor in this postseason. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean most like a lot of twenty year olds
Speaker 1: don't get them any minutes, right unless you're like Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum or something like that, Donovan Mitchell. Those guys are
Speaker 1: lead guards or stars when they came into the league, right,
Speaker 1: those those guys PhDs role is kind of field by Lebron, right,
Speaker 1: Like he's kind of playing the the Lebron role right now,
Speaker 1: and obviously when Lebron comes back, Lebron is going to
Speaker 1: play the Lebron role. But that's basically what he is.
Speaker 1: He's just running high screen role in the ball in
Speaker 1: his hands, and he had a bunch of turnovers, which
Speaker 1: you know you can. I mean, Shooter is also having
Speaker 1: a bunch of tune numbers. So that's gonna happen when
Speaker 1: you have guys trying to play that superstar role. So
Speaker 1: I think you're right. In the playoffs is a little less.
Speaker 1: I do think he'll get spot minutes. Like he's a
Speaker 1: guy that can come in and just get a quick
Speaker 1: six points, right. The other team doesn't have good room protection.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that would really attack the basket, like
Speaker 1: Aaron Bains today he got some fouls on him. Aaron
Speaker 1: bad isn't really a shop blocker. He's more of a
Speaker 1: guy that wants to draw charges. And the THHD did
Speaker 1: a nice job kind of attacking him. Um uh. Joseph says,
Speaker 1: where they put the all clutch lineup? I mean the
Speaker 1: all clutch lineup includes the bron A D, so I
Speaker 1: think you can't really go wrong abother three are there.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I guess all clutch would be what bron
Speaker 1: A D, tres K t H. I think that's an absolute.
Speaker 1: I think that's absolutely a lineup you'll see at some point.
Speaker 1: It will be an Instagram post. Shortly after t says
Speaker 1: Ka cook the new tres next year. I want I
Speaker 1: want to ask you this because I watched Kake cog
Speaker 1: in Summer League. Obviously, summer League is not, you know,
Speaker 1: anything close to the league. But I thought he had
Speaker 1: Treads comparisons back then, before we even got dress or
Speaker 1: two summer leagues ago. Yeah, man, time is flown. I
Speaker 1: forgot whenever ended in started, but yeah, they summer League,
Speaker 1: I thought he looked like Treads back then what do
Speaker 1: you see from Can't Cook. I know there wasn't a
Speaker 1: lot tonight, but he seems like he has a good
Speaker 1: motor and like you can finish at the rim. Um
Speaker 1: do you think like he has a he has a
Speaker 1: role maybe not this year, but next shot on this
Speaker 1: team or anything that you saw it from him. There
Speaker 1: was a play in transition tonight where he had a
Speaker 1: block at the rim where he kind of almost jumped backwards,
Speaker 1: stuck his hands up and the guy kind of caved
Speaker 1: in his chest and then he blocked him on the
Speaker 1: way down and then he ran down the floor and
Speaker 1: got a lay up, and I almost the first name
Speaker 1: that came to my mind was Draymond. Now that's completely
Speaker 1: insane because Draymond is so skilled, it's such a good passer,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. But defensively, I saw some of that
Speaker 1: from him, because the difference between Draymond and UH and
Speaker 1: montrez is Montrese has all of this length. They're both short,
Speaker 1: but he has all of this length and he kind
Speaker 1: of is a little too thin. He doesn't really have
Speaker 1: much of a presence around the basket. K Cos just
Speaker 1: did a really good job of of of being disruptive
Speaker 1: around the rim with his hands without fouling, while also
Speaker 1: being kind of a pain in the ass, big strong
Speaker 1: dude that was difficult to bully. And that kind of
Speaker 1: reminded me a little bit of Draymond. So obviously I'm
Speaker 1: just speaking about the defensive end, but yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: he's good and he and he, for the record, is
Speaker 1: another great example of all the things that I've said
Speaker 1: to you about about these young centers. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of like Claxton with the nets, or or our
Speaker 1: Damian Jones that was here with the Lakers for a
Speaker 1: little bit. Like when you give guys who have athletic
Speaker 1: tools a really easy job, they can have some success.
Speaker 1: And and it's nice when you've got the rest of
Speaker 1: the scheme dialed in. You can be like, oh crap,
Speaker 1: Montrese got ejected. Uh you here you go, Davante, it's
Speaker 1: your turn. And and because he has the tools him,
Speaker 1: because there's a scheme in place, he can just step
Speaker 1: in and do his thing. Yeah, you could tell like
Speaker 1: the Raptors kind of players were kind of he's the
Speaker 1: kind of guy that's like playing super hard while the
Speaker 1: game is what up thirty right, And they're like what
Speaker 1: are you doing? Like, why are you who are you
Speaker 1: finding super hard Robin while the game is like super
Speaker 1: out of hands. So that's kind of what I saw tonight.
Speaker 1: And he hads a good finishing ability at the rim,
Speaker 1: I thought he has pretty good hands. Um, it's kind
Speaker 1: of telling that cost Costes couldn't get minutes tonight. Um,
Speaker 1: in a game where you know the Lakers have treads
Speaker 1: also out, I think kind of shows that Ki Cook
Speaker 1: pretty much passed him as well in the rotation. And
Speaker 1: so I don't think I don't think Coast this is
Speaker 1: getting minutes anytime soon. Um, since we're doing this live,
Speaker 1: we can kind of see the Marcus All had a
Speaker 1: quote today, um after the game from Harrison Fagan shout
Speaker 1: out Harrison. He says, I'm staying ready. I understand that
Speaker 1: we have to get Andre acclimated to what we're trying
Speaker 1: to do. I'll be ready whatever happens, whether it's five minutes,
Speaker 1: ten minutes, I'll stay ready no matter what. So, like
Speaker 1: we talked about that was, yeah, that's kind of expected, right,
Speaker 1: That's what we were expecting out of Mark eventually. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know initially he was kind of upset the situation
Speaker 1: but I think that's what we were expecting from Mark,
Speaker 1: Like he's a professional, he's competitor, but he's gonna he's
Speaker 1: gonna play his role. Alright, guys, I got time for
Speaker 1: one more question otherwise I'm gonna get in trouble with
Speaker 1: my wife. Alright, one last question here. Can we still
Speaker 1: cut McKinney for a roster spot? Auto Porter would be
Speaker 1: the cherry on top. I'm not sure, Honestly, I'm not
Speaker 1: really I think we could, um, but I don't think
Speaker 1: we'd be able to afford Auto Porter. I feel like
Speaker 1: you would be um, pretty coveted out there, unless he
Speaker 1: just wants to play in Los Angeles, So I have
Speaker 1: to check with the salary people on that. But I
Speaker 1: think that would be a smart move, right, Jason, I
Speaker 1: think you're high as well on auto Porter as a
Speaker 1: out reporter would be amazing, But like he's basically a
Speaker 1: taller a taller version of Ben McLamore in terms of
Speaker 1: what he'd be asked to do. The difference though, is like,
Speaker 1: so out of Porter is really good, Like we'd be
Speaker 1: really good and so uh And what I mean by
Speaker 1: that is like he's not a veteran minimum kind of
Speaker 1: guy like, he's a guy that next year is probably
Speaker 1: going to be in the hunt for a bid level
Speaker 1: exception somewhere, So he's gould be looking at like two
Speaker 1: years twenty million, and so from that standpoint, there's there's
Speaker 1: no real reason for him to take a buyout to
Speaker 1: go to some tiny role somewhere where he might be
Speaker 1: relegated to something that might hurt him. So I think
Speaker 1: that's why he's been because he actually has come out
Speaker 1: and leaked to the press. I should say, I don't
Speaker 1: think he's actually directly come out and said it, but
Speaker 1: he's leaked to the press. There is agent or whatever
Speaker 1: that he intends to stay in Orlando, and uh, my
Speaker 1: guess is that it's because he thinks he has a
Speaker 1: better chance of showing something that will get him paid
Speaker 1: next year, whereas like Benn mcilmore's probably a veteran minimum
Speaker 1: guy regardless next year, you know what I mean? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was always my thought too. On Auto Porter, He's
Speaker 1: he's a lot better than a buyout guy. He just
Speaker 1: But again, I think Andrew Drummond was in that situation
Speaker 1: as well. But I mean, he's free agent after this year,
Speaker 1: so I was looking to see if the Magic might
Speaker 1: keep on the trade him. But yeah, it's all on him,
Speaker 1: I guess, but I mean not' I'm not sure why
Speaker 1: they would buy him out right now. Um. They need
Speaker 1: they need players who think in Orlando. So I'm not
Speaker 1: sure I think he'd He'd be really coveted though if
Speaker 1: he does come out. So yeah, And it also gets
Speaker 1: complicated in the sense that, like I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 1: if Rob Polinka is already basically told Andre Drummond that
Speaker 1: he's getting the mid level exception next year. Um, and
Speaker 1: that's some sort of under the table thing. Um. Again,
Speaker 1: we don't know. We're always it's always conjecture with this
Speaker 1: kind of thing. You'd absolutely love to have, um to
Speaker 1: add another three and d wing like that that can
Speaker 1: that can be a dead eye shooter and give you
Speaker 1: another body to throw at a Kauai or another body
Speaker 1: to throw at a you know, um out of Paul George.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, like man, like
Speaker 1: I said earlier, this roster feels pretty complete to me.
Speaker 1: It was rose for a second there guess h Alright, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm leaving you in the capable hands of ras from here,
Speaker 1: I gotta run um, but thank you guys for turning in.
Speaker 1: This was fun. We gotta do this more often, especially
Speaker 1: when we have somebody like Lebron and n D back
Speaker 1: on the floor to make the games a little bit
Speaker 1: more exciting. I'm gonna sign off here as well, so
Speaker 1: this is a This is a lot of funny guys.
Speaker 1: Thanks to everyone who came and I asked questions. UM.
Speaker 1: This will be out in podcast for um UM pretty
Speaker 1: soon as well, so I appreciate everyone for listening. I'll
Speaker 1: touch you later, Jason, and I'll see you guys. Hi, everybody,