Speaker 1: M hmmm, all right, Welcome to the State of the
Speaker 1: Lakers show on DASH Radio. I am pissed off right now,
Speaker 1: deeply annoyed, deeply disappointed, and I can only imagine Ross
Speaker 1: you're feeling in a similar manner. How you doing, buddy, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm kind of tired of these type of games.
Speaker 1: I guess, uh, we keep thinking that one person coming back,
Speaker 1: and I guess Lebron was supposed to be ultimate. I
Speaker 1: think he played well tonight. It's just something's happening in
Speaker 1: the second half of these games. I'm just tired of
Speaker 1: talking about a team that seems to lose the rope
Speaker 1: every single time, just get blown out for some reason.
Speaker 1: But Happy Friday, Happy Friday. Everyone. We suck man. Um
Speaker 1: we we are a shitty basketball team for lack of
Speaker 1: a better term. Um. You know it's funny. Ross texted
Speaker 1: me I was actually watching the game at my parents
Speaker 1: house tonight because it was my niece's birthday. So I
Speaker 1: was driving back and Rogers texting me like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: what's the list of topics? What are we gonna go over?
Speaker 1: And I just texted it back. I'm like everything everybody,
Speaker 1: no one is safe, Like there's not a There's not
Speaker 1: a person on the roster that doesn't deserve to be
Speaker 1: burned down in some capacity tonight. There isn't that. There's
Speaker 1: no one on the coaching staff that is safe, no
Speaker 1: one in the front office. This has been a disaster
Speaker 1: and it needs to be characterized as such, because the
Speaker 1: truth of the matter is is it is hard to
Speaker 1: lose basketball games with some of the talent that's on
Speaker 1: this team. It's hard, and regardless of fit and regardless
Speaker 1: of you know, some of the things on the margins
Speaker 1: were criticized. If you've got Lebron James, even at capacity
Speaker 1: or whatever the heck he was tonight, because he definitely
Speaker 1: was rusty if you could tell he's struggling to handle
Speaker 1: the basketball even on his even on his dunk where
Speaker 1: he was cutting on that THHD post up early in
Speaker 1: the game, he didn't get nearly as high on that
Speaker 1: as he was getting when he was dunking all over
Speaker 1: Houston two weeks ago. So obviously Lebron wasn't the full
Speaker 1: version of himself. That goes without saying. However, even taking
Speaker 1: that as fact, Lebron just being a big forward who
Speaker 1: could make plays off the dribble, who could see the floor,
Speaker 1: create for others and defend on the back line, filled
Speaker 1: so many gaps that this team needed. And you saw
Speaker 1: that just in his first stretch there when the when
Speaker 1: the Lakers look fantastic in the first quarter. But with
Speaker 1: that and with Anthony Davis, we're gonna talk about and
Speaker 1: with Russell Westbrook, who even if you don't like him, like,
Speaker 1: that's a certain amount of talent that's on the floor.
Speaker 1: With Carmelo, Anthony and his ability to shoot, with th
Speaker 1: Ht who obviously had a real a rough night tonight,
Speaker 1: but a guy who is a certain amount of talent,
Speaker 1: it is hard to look as bad as the Lakers
Speaker 1: did tonight. And I think you know my theme for tonight,
Speaker 1: and we're going to keep circling back to this. And
Speaker 1: I know Roj that you disagree with me, and I
Speaker 1: think that's good because then it will help us to
Speaker 1: get to the bottom of some of this stuff. But
Speaker 1: I think this team is quit on Frank. They for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, the things that Frank asks them to do
Speaker 1: in the defensive scheme, they are unwilling to do, not
Speaker 1: just unwilling to attempt. It's not even just like a
Speaker 1: physical a physical shortcoming, right like we are not physically
Speaker 1: capable of carrying out this task. It goes beyond that.
Speaker 1: They are not even making the attempt. They are getting
Speaker 1: bullied on box outs where they're not even attempting to
Speaker 1: fight for the fort for a redounding position. They are
Speaker 1: giving absolutely no resistance at the point of attack. Not oh,
Speaker 1: I tried to slide my feet and I just got beat. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: They're giving no attempts to stop people at the point
Speaker 1: of attack. This team is not willing to do what
Speaker 1: the coach is asking them to do, which to me
Speaker 1: is indicative of a culture of a group that either
Speaker 1: doesn't like their coach or doesn't want to play for
Speaker 1: their coach, or for for whatever reason, they do not
Speaker 1: seem intent on doing the things that he asked them
Speaker 1: to do. And Frank has also done things on his
Speaker 1: side of like Frank has not allowed himself to be
Speaker 1: blameless because he does stupid things like Okay, we're gonna
Speaker 1: play th h T with the starters and then just
Speaker 1: bench everybody and go to a lineup centered around Rondo,
Speaker 1: Like that's just that, that's you putting yourself in the
Speaker 1: crosshairs their brother, I can't defend you when you're doing that,
Speaker 1: okay or or okay, here comes th HT back, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna bring it back with Russ. Oh and guess what,
Speaker 1: Russ he didn't get a lot of shots with the starters,
Speaker 1: so he's going to try to control things off the
Speaker 1: bounce and so th HD can't get his rhythm. Leads
Speaker 1: to one of his worst games as a pro. The
Speaker 1: point being like there every everyone deserves to get some
Speaker 1: sort of criticism tonight. But to me, the foundational problem
Speaker 1: is this group is not bought into Frank. And that
Speaker 1: could be because Frank is trying to run a scheme
Speaker 1: that doesn't match his personnel. It could be that Frank
Speaker 1: doesn't know what he's doing offensively. I'm not sure what
Speaker 1: it is ROJ, but these guys don't want to play
Speaker 1: for him. That's just a fact. The Boston Celtics are
Speaker 1: a team that has struggled with effort all season. It
Speaker 1: has been the story. Their coaches openly criticized them for
Speaker 1: their effort, and they completely outplayed the Lakers today in
Speaker 1: the effort and extra effort and in intensity and ball pressure,
Speaker 1: in defensive pressure areas of the game, rebounding pressure, everything.
Speaker 1: It was a completely they were out class tonight. It's depressing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just want to pressace that before I go into this.
Speaker 1: This was the first game where I watched and I
Speaker 1: was like, damn, I missed the title team, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like I really haven't felt that in
Speaker 1: terms of like just personnel and the way they play.
Speaker 1: But this is the first game where I'm like, damn,
Speaker 1: that team the father we get from that, I think
Speaker 1: the more special will remember that team to be just
Speaker 1: it's rare to have seasons like that, and this is
Speaker 1: the first game. To me, I don't disagree with you, Like,
Speaker 1: it's just if they quit on Frank is something that's
Speaker 1: hard for me to quantify, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: because I'm still just seeing lineups that just don't make sense,
Speaker 1: and I see Vogel trying to do these you know,
Speaker 1: trade offs where it's defense for offense, and look, if
Speaker 1: they quit on Frank, we have a bigger issue here,
Speaker 1: Like that's something that needs to be solved, a lot
Speaker 1: quicker than a lot of lineup issues, a lot quicker
Speaker 1: than the Rondo stuff. It's like, I don't even know
Speaker 1: what we're even to go with this. Like you said
Speaker 1: that they quit on Frank, but like, again, it's just
Speaker 1: this is Lebron's first game back after eight games. But
Speaker 1: I'm still do you remember when DeAndre Jordan was playing
Speaker 1: all those minutes and then everyone just said take DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan out, put a D at the five and that
Speaker 1: would solve everything. Do you remember that? And I was
Speaker 1: I kept saying, like, that's not a plug, that's not
Speaker 1: a button. You just pressed and it solves everything. And
Speaker 1: our guards are just absolutely awful at the point of attack.
Speaker 1: And look, that can be effort, that can be them
Speaker 1: just being terrible. But there's a mix there that's really
Speaker 1: troubling to me. Dennis Shrewder went off, and I don't
Speaker 1: think that's an accident. I remember when John Moran had
Speaker 1: forty Honest, I said, that's not an accident. Shay went
Speaker 1: off on us. That's not act like these guards are
Speaker 1: gonna just keep on killing us. But something is happening
Speaker 1: in the third quarter. This is where I can kind
Speaker 1: of agree with you. Doris Broke Tonight on the broadcast
Speaker 1: said we were We've been outscored by eighty points in
Speaker 1: the third quarter. That's extremely difficult to do. Just in like,
Speaker 1: that's that's a hundred percent coaching. That's adjustments not being made.
Speaker 1: That's also some kind of lack of daisical effort coming
Speaker 1: out of the half. Like there's some nonsense of for
Speaker 1: lack of a better word, like nonsense of urgency when
Speaker 1: they come out of the half, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like it just feels like they come out and they
Speaker 1: start walking. Boston went up seven, and to be honest, Jason,
Speaker 1: I thought the game was over. I don't know about
Speaker 1: you how you felt that. Oh, I thought the game
Speaker 1: was a over. Tatum hit like an open three, and again,
Speaker 1: like some coverages made no sense. Dwight is like in
Speaker 1: a drop coverage when Jayson Tatum comes off a three,
Speaker 1: like that's Jayson Tatum. Like there's some kind of have
Speaker 1: to be some personnel decisions going on. But you're right,
Speaker 1: there was an absolute like quit in the third quarter,
Speaker 1: which is just something we talked about identity all the time.
Speaker 1: And again, I don't really like to go into those
Speaker 1: kind of things because that's stuff that's kind of off
Speaker 1: the basketball floor. But there was definitely some quit. There's
Speaker 1: definitely some like putting your head down eighties body language,
Speaker 1: which some of it is, you know, I understand, like
Speaker 1: I wanted to I texted you and I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about the negatives of like a d at the five.
Speaker 1: And again this is separate from the quitting on Vogel,
Speaker 1: but there's just stuff that, like people say, just I'll
Speaker 1: put eight at the five, but defensively man, when we
Speaker 1: have four guards around him, even when it's Lebron, there
Speaker 1: eighties switches and it's like Malik Monk or Wayne Ellington
Speaker 1: or Avery Bradley or and everybody got a lot of
Speaker 1: crap tonight, and you know he wasn't great. I just
Speaker 1: think this doesn't fit Avery Bradley's play style. Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: is a good point of attack, funneling guard like when
Speaker 1: you can when he could funnel players into like if
Speaker 1: you want a player to go left, Avery Bradley is
Speaker 1: really good at just staying on them, making them go
Speaker 1: there and making them go into a big eight at
Speaker 1: the five. Induces a lot of switching, unless you go zone,
Speaker 1: which we can talk about later, but it just induces
Speaker 1: a ton of switching. And you have all these matchups
Speaker 1: all over the floor. But you're right, that third quarter
Speaker 1: was awful. There was some quit there was some hanging
Speaker 1: of their heads. There was there's just something going wrong
Speaker 1: third and I'm not really sure where to quantify it.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's line up. I hated the
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley starting tonight. I said that we had to
Speaker 1: start a shooter in that spot. And I thought both
Speaker 1: th HD and Russ and Lebron all suffered from. Lebron
Speaker 1: hit a lot of jumpers early that I thought masked
Speaker 1: a lot of ugly offense. A d hit a lot
Speaker 1: of midrange jumpers. Are that massed a lot early offense?
Speaker 1: But what do you, like, do you attribute these third
Speaker 1: quarters just to quitting on Frank? Like is there anything else?
Speaker 1: Is there? Just there's their basketball adjustment is not being made,
Speaker 1: Like what do you attribute these? Because I think the
Speaker 1: third quarter issues are huge. It was at one point
Speaker 1: game I have time, and then Celtics went up seven,
Speaker 1: and I thought the game was over. What are you
Speaker 1: attributing these third quarters too? So fact, the title team
Speaker 1: UM in two thousand and twenty had a really good
Speaker 1: net rating in first quarters. I can't remember exactly what
Speaker 1: it was off the top of my head that I
Speaker 1: was looking at up the other day, something around like
Speaker 1: seven or eight plus seven or eight points per one prosessions,
Speaker 1: which is pretty decent um, you know, for for a
Speaker 1: quarter of play. They were plus zero point four in
Speaker 1: the third quarters that year, and that was an excellent
Speaker 1: effort team that was very much bought into Frank and
Speaker 1: everything that he was doing. So there are absolutely so
Speaker 1: of course, I'm not going to go back and dive
Speaker 1: into a bunch of third quarter film from so I
Speaker 1: couldn't tell yet schematically off the top of my head
Speaker 1: where things went wrong. But the bottom line is teams
Speaker 1: were able to make adjustments and limit the effectiveness of
Speaker 1: the Lakers in fourth quarters or in third quarters in
Speaker 1: that season. That's a problem. That's something that points to
Speaker 1: the coaching staff. You know, I tweeted something out in
Speaker 1: the in the middle of that huge Boston run. I
Speaker 1: said that I didn't like this team's basketball character, that
Speaker 1: they at an unlikable basketball character. The things to me
Speaker 1: that manifest basketball character are the things that are controllable. Okay,
Speaker 1: when you have good process. If you run a good
Speaker 1: action and uh, you know, like a rust gets all
Speaker 1: the way to the rim and he just happens to
Speaker 1: miss a laya can't get too upset. That's a physically
Speaker 1: aggressive play. That's what you brought him to do, did
Speaker 1: all the right thing, the result just wasn't there. However,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of things that you absolutely can
Speaker 1: control on a basketball court. Most of them are physical
Speaker 1: in nature. Winning battles on the defensive glass, winning battles
Speaker 1: for rebounding position, putting an extra effort as a guard
Speaker 1: on the weak side to crash when other people are
Speaker 1: boxing out. Those kinds of things are absolutely in your control.
Speaker 1: They do not depend on whether or not your shot
Speaker 1: is falling. They do not depend on your talent level.
Speaker 1: Just asked Austin Reeves, Okay, doing things like sitting in
Speaker 1: a freaking stance and trying to offer some resistance at
Speaker 1: the point of its app that is something that is
Speaker 1: in your control. That is not a thing that depends
Speaker 1: on on on scheme or any anything along. That's not
Speaker 1: a thing that depends on your shot being with you
Speaker 1: that day. That is just a matter of giving a
Speaker 1: ship and for whatever reason, every single one of those
Speaker 1: checkboxes Anthony did. There was a play in the third
Speaker 1: quarter in the middle of their run where Malik Monk
Speaker 1: ran a pick and roll with Anthony Davis and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis instead of rolling hard to the rim just kind
Speaker 1: of floating attention. I could think, is what in the
Speaker 1: world are you doing, Like, this is a team that's
Speaker 1: desperate for some rim pressure to get something going to
Speaker 1: the basket, and you're and you're continuing to just do
Speaker 1: more of the same and continuing to defer to things
Speaker 1: that are outside of your control, like is this jump
Speaker 1: shot going to go in? And it's just frustrating to
Speaker 1: me because all of the high character teams in the league,
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors, hell, the Boston Celtics, who are
Speaker 1: not a high character team tonight displayed a lot of
Speaker 1: those behaviors, and probably because they smell blood in the
Speaker 1: water with the Lakers. But the bottom line is all
Speaker 1: of the controllables the Lakers mail it in on they
Speaker 1: mail it in so so then if all of your
Speaker 1: jump shots aren't falling, then guess what you lose, and
Speaker 1: you lose big. This is the thing that this is
Speaker 1: the point that I kept getting back to when I
Speaker 1: was saying that it's hard to lose with this much talent.
Speaker 1: Boston without Jalen Brown is a middle of the pack
Speaker 1: team at best in this league. I would argue that
Speaker 1: there they could very well be in that bottom bottom
Speaker 1: third without Jalen Brown. That's how limited they are. And
Speaker 1: they beat the ship out of us tonight because they
Speaker 1: applied defensive pressure that we were unwilling to apply. They
Speaker 1: applied rim pressure that we were unwilling to apply. They
Speaker 1: applied rebounding pressure that we were unwilling to apply. And
Speaker 1: until that stuff gets fixed, it doesn't matter what en
Speaker 1: Up Frank plays. It doesn't matter, you know, whether or
Speaker 1: not Lebron comes back into MVP form. None of that
Speaker 1: stuff matters until this team takes on championship character, a
Speaker 1: willingness to do the things that you have to do
Speaker 1: to win basketball games. It blows my mind how far
Speaker 1: back on the burn on their stove, the Laker stove.
Speaker 1: It's on like the back burner. They don't give a
Speaker 1: damn about that stuff. They didn't even play a big
Speaker 1: in the second half. They were obsessed with creating space
Speaker 1: for us to drive, and he spent the entire third
Speaker 1: quarter taking pull up jump shots while they played a
Speaker 1: Lebron at center lineup. Because they continue to be because
Speaker 1: they're they're trying to cater to this guy. And it's
Speaker 1: not just Russ's fault. I'm not just coming on him
Speaker 1: and the only person that you could kind of offer
Speaker 1: an excuse for his Lebron because he's a little bit rusty.
Speaker 1: But just everybody just got completely pulverized in every physical
Speaker 1: matchup on the floor tonight. And you're just gonna get
Speaker 1: your ask take if you let that happen and you
Speaker 1: did that third quarter stuff you're talking about. It's not
Speaker 1: just on the coach. It comes down to those things
Speaker 1: they did. They get into the locker room and they go, hey,
Speaker 1: we gotta tighten up this, we gotta tighten up that.
Speaker 1: And they come out and they tighten those things up,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers come out and continue to do the
Speaker 1: same thing and get their asket, and it's frustrating. Yeah. Again,
Speaker 1: like I always don't like to just blame defense or
Speaker 1: losses on effort and look like that there was some
Speaker 1: quit and all that, and we discussed the third quarter,
Speaker 1: but there is like lineup stuff that I feel like
Speaker 1: you you just have to do with this team and look,
Speaker 1: accuacing to Russ is just what this season has become.
Speaker 1: Like I just didn't think you could start avery Bradley
Speaker 1: and look in the first quarter a d Lebron hit
Speaker 1: jumpers and that third quarter, they didn't like those jumpers
Speaker 1: started to miss, and then they continue to cheat off Bradley.
Speaker 1: Russ still couldn't get any space you talked about. In
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, they went to Lebron at the five
Speaker 1: and Russ started to finally get to the rim, finally
Speaker 1: get to the basket, but we couldn't defend like we're playing.
Speaker 1: I think Carmelo played thirty minutes again to night. I
Speaker 1: don't think he can play thirty minutes in terms of
Speaker 1: just being a guy out there defensively, we have like
Speaker 1: too many, too many players out there that just get
Speaker 1: picked on relentlessly, you know what I mean. And again,
Speaker 1: that's something where they're like, that's something they can compete
Speaker 1: and get a little better at. And look, I didn't
Speaker 1: like Milik Monk's rebounding tonight. I didn't like Wayne Ellington's rebounding.
Speaker 1: And again I said, A d was super frustrated with
Speaker 1: that tonight, and that kind of lead into his body language,
Speaker 1: and I thought he kind of just stopped I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say stopped trying, but stopped playing with the effort it
Speaker 1: took to keep up with Boston tonight. Once that just
Speaker 1: kept on happening, we just played too many players that
Speaker 1: get picked on. We had a line of like Monk,
Speaker 1: I think Monk and Mellow out there, and it was
Speaker 1: like Jayson Tatum at like the buffet, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like he could just like Jayson Tatum can
Speaker 1: literally just pick who he wants and any miss and
Speaker 1: those Russ jumpers man just again awful decision making and
Speaker 1: he's gonna have to adjust again, I guess to Lebron
Speaker 1: being back. I think that's an excuse and a reason
Speaker 1: in himself. But yeah, like any miss Tatum gets a
Speaker 1: rebound and it's like a one on one against Milike Monk,
Speaker 1: It's there one on one against Carmelo, and that's just again.
Speaker 1: Tatum is probably a bad example of this because he's
Speaker 1: like a superstar offensive player. But still, even Marcus Smart
Speaker 1: tonight I thought just destroyed us. Marcus Smart was like
Speaker 1: eight for thirteen or something like that. Some of them
Speaker 1: were jumpers, but a lot of them were just out rebounding,
Speaker 1: out hustling us. We just don't have the guards for that.
Speaker 1: And then you said that's an effort thing. That's true,
Speaker 1: but there's a reason why guys like Alex Cruso go
Speaker 1: and get paid nine million dollars a year, right, because
Speaker 1: that is a skill. It's an absolute skill to have
Speaker 1: guards who fight like that, who defend like that. And
Speaker 1: again bringing up Crusoe isn't really fair here, but I
Speaker 1: think there are lineups and stuff decisions that just have
Speaker 1: to happen. And I kept saying a D at the
Speaker 1: five is not just some you know, pretty answer that
Speaker 1: you pressed and everything gets solved. Like there's a ton
Speaker 1: of issues with that. There's a ton of stuff that
Speaker 1: teams just pick on us. Our guards get destroyed on screens,
Speaker 1: and Russell Westbrook is part of that. Russell Westbrook does
Speaker 1: a lot of this. He he fights really hard at
Speaker 1: the point of attack, then he just gets absolutely destroyed
Speaker 1: by a screen like he doesn't see it coming. I
Speaker 1: don't know if we don't call it out, but and
Speaker 1: we just get with a switch. Russ is on a
Speaker 1: big eighties on a guard, no rebounding download, just a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff. Again, like I kind of want to
Speaker 1: move this forward a little bit onto the court as well.
Speaker 1: Are you seeing that as well? Not figuring any I'm
Speaker 1: just saying like this is stuff that we can't control though,
Speaker 1: you know, like voge Bore being fired is something we're
Speaker 1: gonna find out, like you said by woes one day, right, Like,
Speaker 1: it's just I can't get there yet. Like and again
Speaker 1: I'm seeing Voge. I know a lot of people are there,
Speaker 1: and I don't blame them for being there. I've still
Speaker 1: like I put myself in Vogel shoes, right, Like I
Speaker 1: know I don't. I can't feel those shoes out. I'll
Speaker 1: never know. As much basketball as he'll have, he'll forget.
Speaker 1: But like, just like Vogo won a title less than
Speaker 1: thirteen months ago with a team that absolutely fit his
Speaker 1: philosophies and what he wants to do, and it got
Speaker 1: all traded away, and look, we can't play you know,
Speaker 1: do hind sight thing? Because rob Oblinka was applauded in
Speaker 1: the off season for the movies he made like he
Speaker 1: was not just by Laker people, by the national media
Speaker 1: acres were the one to seed whatever whether you thought
Speaker 1: they were the favorite for booking Brooklyn. So for now
Speaker 1: to go back and be like, oh, Rob Lincoln made
Speaker 1: a mist like the rest of Westbrook move was was
Speaker 1: a difference story that was a very polarizing move, but
Speaker 1: the rest of the roster was applauded, right like in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, but you see it just on
Speaker 1: the core. There's just a lot of stuff that I
Speaker 1: see that just isn't playable, Like these line ups where
Speaker 1: we trade off defense for offense is just I don't
Speaker 1: know where they kind of go from here. Maybe Kendrick Nunn,
Speaker 1: Austin Reaves and the reasons the answer I said, you know,
Speaker 1: THHD and those three as your prayers probably is a
Speaker 1: misguided place to praise prayers. But like, I still think
Speaker 1: there's stuff we can do. And maybe that's just me
Speaker 1: being a hopeless optimists, but like I'm just seeing way
Speaker 1: too much stuff like we can't play these mellow and
Speaker 1: maybe we just have to because we have injuries, but
Speaker 1: like you know what I mean by there, we just
Speaker 1: have too many bad defenders playing at the same time
Speaker 1: and we can't survive. We can't survive the Rondo minutes.
Speaker 1: Those were awful. I thought that turned the game around
Speaker 1: as well. It's just I can't just stick on the
Speaker 1: fire volgo because that's not going to go anywhere at
Speaker 1: least I don't think we're people say we're close of that.
Speaker 1: I just I'm not doing yet. So you're right, let's
Speaker 1: get let's get into some of the excess and notes,
Speaker 1: because there's a couple of there's two. There's two particular
Speaker 1: interesting phenomenon that I that I noticed in this game,
Speaker 1: and they both had to do with Anthony Davis at
Speaker 1: the five, which is something that you explicitly wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about. So, first of all, the Lakers do a
Speaker 1: lot more switching with a d at the five, and
Speaker 1: in general tonight, although not all the time, the Celtics
Speaker 1: did a lot of switching. And so what is the
Speaker 1: general thing that happens when both teams do a lot
Speaker 1: of switching? It generally turns into a game of who
Speaker 1: can beat their matchup? Right yet one on one basketball?
Speaker 1: So the Lakers have the cure for switching defenses because
Speaker 1: they have the capability to apply a ton of rim pressure. Right,
Speaker 1: That's just that's the way to win that type of matchup.
Speaker 1: Is like you're relying on jump shots, I'm getting to
Speaker 1: the rim every time. So just by playing the percentages,
Speaker 1: this is going to work out in my favor in
Speaker 1: the long run. That's the idea, right, Well, here's the problem.
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook spent the entire third quarter going as defenders
Speaker 1: went under screens, making no attempts to try to cave
Speaker 1: someone's chest in and make something happen. He was content
Speaker 1: to just settle for jump shots. Lebron James also content
Speaker 1: to settle for jump shots. When he did try to
Speaker 1: get to the rim, his handle was rusty because he
Speaker 1: hasn't been playing for two and a half weeks and
Speaker 1: so he wasn't able to gain any advantage there. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis still thinks he's Kevin Durant, so every single time
Speaker 1: they got a matchup that they wanted with a d
Speaker 1: in the post, there were a handful of times where
Speaker 1: he ripped through the baseline and every time he did,
Speaker 1: he either got foul or made a layup. But he
Speaker 1: insisted on taking that same jeb step jump shot or
Speaker 1: fadeaway jump shot that he always likes to take. And
Speaker 1: guess what, when you do that, you were playing directly
Speaker 1: into the hands of the switching defense and then th
Speaker 1: ht who was supposed to be another option to help
Speaker 1: attack this type of switching defense, was completely thrown out
Speaker 1: of rhythm because you basically didn't get him a legitimate
Speaker 1: basketball touch until late in the first half because you
Speaker 1: played him with the starters, which he didn't get a shot,
Speaker 1: which is fine, that happens. That's part of the thing
Speaker 1: that's gonna happen when you're playing with all that talent.
Speaker 1: Ever single one of those stars will have moments like
Speaker 1: that in the starting lineup. But then you immediately went
Speaker 1: to the bench and brought in a rageon Rondo lined
Speaker 1: up instead of giving th HD a chance to be
Speaker 1: aggressive when guys like Lebron and Russ went to the bench.
Speaker 1: So guess what, th HD has his worst game as
Speaker 1: a pro. So now you're trying to attack the switching
Speaker 1: defense with four guys who should just be living at
Speaker 1: the rim, and no one's getting to the rim. And
Speaker 1: and to be honest, it was their own damn fault.
Speaker 1: None of them made an actual intentional effort to get
Speaker 1: to the rim and when until it's too late, they
Speaker 1: were there. At the end of the game, there was
Speaker 1: a bunch of sequences where Russ and th HD really
Speaker 1: put their head down and tried to force their way
Speaker 1: in there, but at that point it was too late,
Speaker 1: and at that point it was it just was. It
Speaker 1: was super telegraphed and easy to read and react as
Speaker 1: the Celtics defense, and they were able to shut all
Speaker 1: of that down so and then moving to the defensive
Speaker 1: side of the ball. And I think this is something
Speaker 1: that you wanted to get at. When you play Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis at the five, even with Lebron James at the four,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of responsibility that falls on the guards
Speaker 1: and in order for it to work. You know, when
Speaker 1: you play a two big line up with Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and Dwight Howard or somebody along those lines, the what
Speaker 1: you're asking for the other three players to do it
Speaker 1: becomes easier because there's more rim protection. But when you
Speaker 1: play a d at the five, the job for those
Speaker 1: guys gets harder. So, like we talked about earlier, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna mail in all of the like all of
Speaker 1: the uh like physical intensity areas of the game, all
Speaker 1: of the things that are controllable, if you're gonna mail
Speaker 1: all those in and Anthony Davis is at the five,
Speaker 1: it's gonna look really ugly. And that's why it just
Speaker 1: became a layup line for for Dennis Schroder and for
Speaker 1: for Marguts Smart to get to the rim. And any
Speaker 1: time they offered any help, it was just an easy
Speaker 1: pocket pass. Nobody on the back end to help or
Speaker 1: if they did, they just committed a stupid foul and
Speaker 1: gave up an and one. But to your point, when
Speaker 1: you're gonna play Anthony Davis at the five, the job
Speaker 1: for everyone else around them gets more difficult. And and
Speaker 1: this is the last thing I'm gonna say about it,
Speaker 1: because this is the part that I think everyone is
Speaker 1: glossing over here in this whole situation. It's so easy
Speaker 1: to be like, this is what happens when you have Mellow,
Speaker 1: this is what happens when you have Ellington, this is
Speaker 1: what happens when you have this guy or this guy
Speaker 1: or this guy who can't defend I'm sorry, man, but
Speaker 1: they had defenders out there and they still weren't doing it.
Speaker 1: Th h T can defend. Avery Bradley was literally on
Speaker 1: that unbelievable Laker defense from in years prior. Like Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook is every bit physically capable of doing the job,
Speaker 1: he just doesn't want to do it. And so if
Speaker 1: you can't get the guys who are physically capable of
Speaker 1: doing it to actually do it, then what are we
Speaker 1: even talking about rob For what are we talking about
Speaker 1: Rob Ford? Because if you trade th h T, if
Speaker 1: you trade one of these guys for some defensive guard.
Speaker 1: If they come in and they don't do the job,
Speaker 1: it's still gonna look bad at a certain point. This
Speaker 1: comes down to personal accountability and these guys actually being
Speaker 1: willing to do the job. Yeah, it's a similar kind
Speaker 1: of issue. Again, Like I was trying to hammer this
Speaker 1: point the whole time when we were starting two bigs,
Speaker 1: and look, I was totally wrong that DeAndre Jordan could
Speaker 1: play a fact simile of JaVale McGee. He can't. But
Speaker 1: just the archetype of that starting lineup was a point
Speaker 1: of attack defensive guard playing a drop coverage where a
Speaker 1: D can be the romer, right, a D can stay
Speaker 1: on the corner shooter whoever that guy is, and that
Speaker 1: he can roam and play that kind of role. When
Speaker 1: you put a D at the five, your guards have
Speaker 1: to be able to either stay with the roleman box
Speaker 1: him out unless Lebron comes down and gets the rebound.
Speaker 1: But that's the that's the whole issue that I'm seeing here,
Speaker 1: is that a D s out top And I don't
Speaker 1: know this is a guard issue. If this is a
Speaker 1: personnel issue, it's hard for me to decide because, like
Speaker 1: you said, the guards aren't doing the things that Vogel
Speaker 1: is telling them to do. But that's been my whole
Speaker 1: issue this whole time. Look offensively, a D at the
Speaker 1: five should be the best lineup. It opens things for us.
Speaker 1: But defensively, man, we just played too many guys that
Speaker 1: just can't play the role that they need to. Carmelo
Speaker 1: Download like he's a fine rebounder, he just doesn't fight
Speaker 1: in the way I think you need to defensively, but
Speaker 1: you're right, these all they do is do one screen.
Speaker 1: I thought Dennis Shrewder was way too comfortable tonight. He
Speaker 1: felt like he wasn't even seeing a defender out there.
Speaker 1: But when they have when they have a screen that
Speaker 1: comes up eight over eighties an over helper just by
Speaker 1: his nature, Like that's just the way he plays. He
Speaker 1: likes to kind of overhelp. But they do do a
Speaker 1: lot of switching, and you leave it with these guards
Speaker 1: down low trying to face you know, whoever the big
Speaker 1: man is, Al Horford, Jayson Tatum, got a lot of them.
Speaker 1: Marcus Smart dominated us. Like those are the issues I see,
Speaker 1: And again, like I don't know, like the main solution
Speaker 1: for this, uh, maybe it is when a reason comes back,
Speaker 1: like that might be the perfect like three men, but
Speaker 1: again he's like thirty six. Like it's tough for me
Speaker 1: to put all our prayers um into that as a
Speaker 1: new starter. But like that's that's the kind of conundrum
Speaker 1: that I'm seeing Vogel play as well, and we can
Speaker 1: kind of move to like the zone that they're playing,
Speaker 1: which I know, must kill, must kill fring volgo to
Speaker 1: play a zone the type of defensive coach he is,
Speaker 1: that's been our best option because it kind of simplifies
Speaker 1: the roles. The guards know what they do. But I
Speaker 1: just think NBA teams are too good to play a
Speaker 1: zone for as long as you know you would have
Speaker 1: to for it to be effective as your main option.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like that's where I'm seeing here with the
Speaker 1: A D at the five stuff. Everyone said it would
Speaker 1: be the solution, and it is probably our best lineup
Speaker 1: in totality, but there's just a lot of problems with
Speaker 1: it when you don't have guards that can stick on
Speaker 1: stick on players at the point of attack, give any
Speaker 1: kind of back pressure. Maybe you know, I don't think
Speaker 1: they're gonna go back to the two bigs. I don't
Speaker 1: think DeAndre Jordan's gonna play again, But you gotta find
Speaker 1: some guards that can at least fight, and maybe just
Speaker 1: having Malik Monk or Wayne Ellington. I thought Wayne Ellington
Speaker 1: like looks fine defensively, again, he's not a good rebounder
Speaker 1: in that sense, but like you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: They're like, I just don't know what the solution is
Speaker 1: to this, Like a D of the five is probably
Speaker 1: the line of we're gonna go to. It's the conundrum, right,
Speaker 1: because you have to open things for us and you
Speaker 1: have to play scores next to him, but like the
Speaker 1: scores can't defend. And then like in the second half,
Speaker 1: we're trading offense for defense, but we scored forty one
Speaker 1: second forty one points in the second half with like
Speaker 1: three minutes left, So it's like a trade off where
Speaker 1: we're losing on both ends, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So like I don't know where to really go with that.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's just lineup stuff. All I
Speaker 1: know is like I don't think you can play two
Speaker 1: to three bad defenders at the same time. You're right,
Speaker 1: I'd like to see PhD get his own lineups. I
Speaker 1: thought we really put a lot of stuff in his way.
Speaker 1: I got again, like the teams don't play him as
Speaker 1: a shooter, and like he was. He was bad tonight,
Speaker 1: a lot of really bad decisions. But I'd like to
Speaker 1: see him get his own line up. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: where do you think the solution would go here? Because
Speaker 1: I really don't have one. I guess like, if you're
Speaker 1: gonna defend this way, you're not gonna beat a lot
Speaker 1: of teams. Like that's just that's just the way it's
Speaker 1: going to go. It's true. And it becomes like a
Speaker 1: it becomes like a cascading effect, which is something I
Speaker 1: talked about a lot on the show, the idea that, like,
Speaker 1: you know, any one factor might not be enough to
Speaker 1: submarine your team, but when all of them kind of
Speaker 1: come together and confluence, it'll it'll it'll destroy you. Like
Speaker 1: for instance, like like the when the Lakers it confronted
Speaker 1: the stagnation that Boston tried to inflict on them with
Speaker 1: the switching by settling for jump shots. It led to
Speaker 1: these kind of like semi transition runouts where all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, Marcus Martin, Dennis Shrewder have a head of
Speaker 1: steam and your defense isn't set, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: And it becomes one of those things where all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, they just scored again, and now you're even
Speaker 1: more discouraged, and they are completely set in their half
Speaker 1: court defense and they're switching everything, and they just uh
Speaker 1: put you in another situation where Anthony Davis is posting
Speaker 1: up and guess what, He's gonna take another jump shot,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's like it turns into
Speaker 1: this snowball effect and it's and you're right, like you
Speaker 1: can go to a zone for and it actually did
Speaker 1: work for a couple of possessions tonight. Like if you
Speaker 1: go to a zone just to to to disrupt somebody's rhythm,
Speaker 1: that's one thing you might be able to cause you
Speaker 1: you might be able to cause a really good basketball
Speaker 1: player to be confused for a few possessions. But you
Speaker 1: can't lean on that full time. And you know, I
Speaker 1: said at the beginning of the show that no one
Speaker 1: was blameless at the beginning of the show. At the
Speaker 1: beginning of the game, Anthony Davis and Lebron were way
Speaker 1: more active on the back end than they were in
Speaker 1: the second half. There were actually two there were two
Speaker 1: plays in the first half where where Tatum ended up
Speaker 1: beating somebody to the basket. I can't remember who it was,
Speaker 1: but where Lebron was able to cause him to miss layups.
Speaker 1: But with it with his uh verticality around the rim,
Speaker 1: and I remember sitting and thinking in the moment, like,
Speaker 1: this is what we've been waiting for. This is what
Speaker 1: we've been missing, instead of it being four guards in
Speaker 1: a D or three guards and mellow in a D.
Speaker 1: This is what it looks like when you have a
Speaker 1: real power forward that can rotate on the back end
Speaker 1: and disrupt stuff around the basket. But guess what. Both
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis, and I'm sure they were discouraged
Speaker 1: on account of the fact that every time they missed
Speaker 1: a jump shot before they could even get in a
Speaker 1: defensive stance on the other end of the floor, here
Speaker 1: comes Dennis Shrewder down the lane on a straight line
Speaker 1: drive with absolutely no resistance, and they have no momentum
Speaker 1: or willingness to to get in the way. I get
Speaker 1: why they would be frustrated, but you have to find
Speaker 1: a way to reverse the snowball. And the only way
Speaker 1: to reverse the snowball is like, hey, maybe, Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: when you get that post up and you're down by nine,
Speaker 1: in the middle of the third d you ripped through
Speaker 1: and you get to the damn rim because if you score,
Speaker 1: then you can set up your defense. If you set
Speaker 1: up your defense, maybe the guys can do a slightly
Speaker 1: better job at the point of attack. If they do
Speaker 1: a slightly better job at the point of attack, maybe
Speaker 1: Lebron and Nad will have a better opportunity to clean
Speaker 1: things up on the back end. And then maybe if
Speaker 1: you get a stop, you can score on the other
Speaker 1: end in transition, which is the foundation of your offense
Speaker 1: and what you wanted your identity to be at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the season, like the only that that's what
Speaker 1: what is so frustrating about this is as the Wheels
Speaker 1: go off with this team, it just continues to magnify
Speaker 1: their own problems and it becomes an issue where it's
Speaker 1: like now Russ, who has a tendency throughout his career
Speaker 1: to every time the team is in trouble to take
Speaker 1: a couple of bad jump shots. He shot a jump
Speaker 1: shot of three consecutive possessions there in the middle of
Speaker 1: the third quarter when the Wheels were coming off, like
Speaker 1: it just it's it's it's there was this team just
Speaker 1: desperately needs to have some good habits that they can
Speaker 1: start to rely on when things go bad, Because, as
Speaker 1: I've always said, your habits, your identity, is what you
Speaker 1: fall back on and what you rely on when things
Speaker 1: get bad. And so if you are a bad basketball
Speaker 1: team with bad habits, then when things start to go bad,
Speaker 1: you're going to continue to do bad things and it
Speaker 1: will compound the problem. If you establish yourself as a
Speaker 1: team with good habits, meaning Anthony Davis, a rim pressuring big,
Speaker 1: not a first like a perimeter versatility big. If you
Speaker 1: establish yourself as Russ as a guy who does not
Speaker 1: take jump shots but just puts his head down and
Speaker 1: goes to the rim, and that becomes your habit. If
Speaker 1: you establish yourself as Russ, as someone who tries to
Speaker 1: give resistance at the point of attack. If you establish
Speaker 1: yourself as lebron in a d as guys that want
Speaker 1: to make first team all defense and be a front
Speaker 1: court that smothers everything. If you turn that into your habits,
Speaker 1: then when things get bad, that's what you will fall
Speaker 1: back on, and it will become the thing that helps
Speaker 1: you right the ship instead of the thing that makes
Speaker 1: the wheels come off. That's how you end up with
Speaker 1: such an awful third quarter net rating because when things
Speaker 1: get bad for this team, they continue to fall back
Speaker 1: on their bad habits and it just becomes a compounding problem.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how you can fix that until fundamentally,
Speaker 1: from the top down, you start to to change that
Speaker 1: identity and I and it, you know, it does start
Speaker 1: with Lebron and a d um and so as even
Speaker 1: though it's not necessarily their fault in a vacuum that
Speaker 1: things are the way that they are the only person
Speaker 1: capable of changing it is then that they're they're the
Speaker 1: only ones that have the the ability to inspire the
Speaker 1: rest of these guys to try to fix some of
Speaker 1: these bad habits. Yeah, and I think it's a fair
Speaker 1: crushed question whether or not, like it's fair to ask
Speaker 1: Lebron because again, like we talked about a d at
Speaker 1: the five and the defensive issue that causes, but Lebron
Speaker 1: also at the four has to be a super defender,
Speaker 1: right like, just to cover up for all the cards
Speaker 1: that we have for the rest of Westbrook defense that
Speaker 1: we have, playing a lot of League Monk, playing a
Speaker 1: lot of Carmelo, he asked to be that super not
Speaker 1: defensive player of the year, but all defense type of player.
Speaker 1: And is that fair to ask of him in year nineteen?
Speaker 1: And I think we saw a lot of that as
Speaker 1: well in the second half, where you know, I thought
Speaker 1: on the first half his defense was pretty good. Second
Speaker 1: half it really kind of tailed off. Um those jumpers
Speaker 1: again didn't fall. But you talked about the habits. I
Speaker 1: don't think this team knows what it is right now,
Speaker 1: and it's battling and it's having an identity crisis to me,
Speaker 1: like they're trying to figure out who they are. And
Speaker 1: I think I think the Avery Bradley. Look, it's not
Speaker 1: even Bradley's fault, like it's not fair to blame him,
Speaker 1: but I think he kind of just represents this like, oh,
Speaker 1: to the other side, right. It's why I like, it's
Speaker 1: why I predicted he'd start tonight, because it's kind of
Speaker 1: like Vogel's way of being like, yeah, I still have
Speaker 1: a defensive first player out there, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: even though probably in totality he's kind of hurting you
Speaker 1: on both ends. The defense doesn't really match the style
Speaker 1: that he's really good for. Like I said before the eight,
Speaker 1: at the five induces a lot of switching. I don't
Speaker 1: think that's perfect for Bradley. That's not the type of player.
Speaker 1: That's the type of player he is. It's the reason
Speaker 1: he's on a minimum deal, right, It's the reason he
Speaker 1: was cut by the Warriors like that. There's a reason why.
Speaker 1: He has a specific skill set that's supposed to fit
Speaker 1: a specific style of play, and I don't think that
Speaker 1: fits it. But you have to find some players here.
Speaker 1: Maybe Baysmore comes back from the rotation. You just need
Speaker 1: more size, more different defensive size there. I don't want
Speaker 1: this to be all doom and gloom, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Like this is this is the bronze first
Speaker 1: game back. Hopefully we get some rotation pieces here, and
Speaker 1: that's where I kind of want to go next with this,
Speaker 1: I guess, because it's probably unfair. It's probably crazy that,
Speaker 1: you know, missing Austin Reeves, the undrafted rookie having the
Speaker 1: impact it is, but it does, right, Like Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: being out is actually a big impact. He's a guy
Speaker 1: who does fight for defensive boards. He's a guy that
Speaker 1: does rough it up inside. You talk about you talk
Speaker 1: a lot about how like fighting inside is dirty, right,
Speaker 1: it's ugly. You get elbowed in the face a lot,
Speaker 1: you gotta be willing to get elbowed and faced a lot.
Speaker 1: Austin Reads is a guy that does that. Trevor Reason
Speaker 1: hopefully coming back. Kendrick Nunn isn't even on this road trip.
Speaker 1: We'll see when he comes act. But that's where I
Speaker 1: guess want to end here. We did. There was there
Speaker 1: was a lot of doom and gloom in this in
Speaker 1: this show, but like putting three more rotation players I
Speaker 1: think does help. But this team has to figure out
Speaker 1: who they are, like you gotta pick one. And to me,
Speaker 1: this is a fit around Russ. Russ is not going anywhere,
Speaker 1: like we said, and this is a team that has
Speaker 1: to fit around his skill set. I thought again tonight,
Speaker 1: starting Avery Bradley just induces again. It's just one shooter,
Speaker 1: but when you put him next to th ht Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d it makes all of them jump shooters,
Speaker 1: like in a weird way, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like it turns all three of them into jump shooters,
Speaker 1: which is the worst, the worst outcome. So that's why
Speaker 1: I wanted at least one shooting in there. And maybe
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington still gets cooked. Maybe we still get blown
Speaker 1: out from the leak Monk starts. I just like, I
Speaker 1: think we have to go all in here and not
Speaker 1: try to play these both sides having an identity that
Speaker 1: the team doesn't really know who they are right now,
Speaker 1: and I think that's troubling. But getting three three rotation
Speaker 1: players back, I think, what hell would you agree with that?
Speaker 1: Getting like a Resa None whoever else without a reasback
Speaker 1: would kind of help some of the rotation here. That's
Speaker 1: all I can kind of think of to me. Carmel
Speaker 1: is playing too many minutes like and probably Malik Monk
Speaker 1: needs to be more of a spark plug rather than
Speaker 1: a guy you just throw out there. This long to
Speaker 1: be attacked defensively. Do you see what I'm going with that.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to get a little positivity on this
Speaker 1: Friday night here, for sure. So let's let's try to
Speaker 1: frame this from the from the discussion of how the
Speaker 1: Lakers can write this ship, because we you kind of
Speaker 1: you kind of have to accept things the way that
Speaker 1: they are. For instance, So I think I think Frank
Speaker 1: is weighing over his skis offensively. I don't think he
Speaker 1: has any idea how to maximize this specific set of
Speaker 1: players in terms of their skill sets. You could tell
Speaker 1: not only with the lineups that he throws out there,
Speaker 1: but just with the way that the offense functions in
Speaker 1: terms of the the amount of motion or lack of
Speaker 1: motion that exists. He's completely in over his head. He
Speaker 1: is he is incapable as a basketball coach of solving
Speaker 1: the offensive problem. But the reality is, no coach that
Speaker 1: is currently available is capable of fixing that problem. If
Speaker 1: you go if you go to Fisdale or somebody along
Speaker 1: the lines, you're gonna have the same problem. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, I think it was revealed today or
Speaker 1: the day before that Fizdale is technically the offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: of the team right now. So that tells you all
Speaker 1: you need to know in that regard. So yes, I
Speaker 1: think they need to fire Frank, but it strictly has
Speaker 1: to do with buy in. I think he's I think
Speaker 1: I think that the reality is is the team has
Speaker 1: quit on him. So if they were willing to put
Speaker 1: because I'll give you an example, defensive rebounding. Right, Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel has been preaching about defensive rebounding from the guards
Speaker 1: NonStop over the course of the last month. He knows
Speaker 1: it's one of their biggest weaknesses. With eighty at the five,
Speaker 1: it was one of the biggest reasons why he waited
Speaker 1: so long to go to eight at the five. That's
Speaker 1: something he preaches and still on almost every possession, someone
Speaker 1: like a Malique Monk or Rajon Rondo or rust or
Speaker 1: somebody on the wing misses a goddamn box out. It
Speaker 1: happens on almost every possession. Clearly, whatever he's putting out
Speaker 1: there in their coaches meetings, whatever he's putting out there
Speaker 1: in the film sessions, guys just aren't doing it, okay,
Speaker 1: So that that that that is step one, is they
Speaker 1: have to get this group bought into the concepts. Okay,
Speaker 1: whether that's just Lebron shoeing everybody out in the meeting
Speaker 1: or then just getting sick of losing or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: somebody that they have to at least buy into the scheme. Okay. Two,
Speaker 1: you pointed this out. Lebron and Nadie have to be
Speaker 1: all defensive caliber players. They can't be. They can't be okay,
Speaker 1: they can't compete for stretches. They can't have a quarter
Speaker 1: here there where they look like all defensive players. They
Speaker 1: have to have a two thousand, twenty level defensive commitment
Speaker 1: that absolutely has to happen. If that doesn't happen, this
Speaker 1: team is going nowhere and then three in terms of
Speaker 1: the rotation, and maybe time to start playing because there's
Speaker 1: an individual identity in a team identity, right. What makes
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves play the way he does despite the team
Speaker 1: lacking that identity is he has an individual identity as
Speaker 1: a guy who's willing to do the dirty work. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, when he's on the floor, that's
Speaker 1: all he's the king about. Okay, so you may have
Speaker 1: to start trying to find the guys on the roster
Speaker 1: and maybe that's why they're playing Bradley, which you know
Speaker 1: what's so frustrating is he was one of the guys
Speaker 1: giving up so many straight line drives tonight. I think
Speaker 1: Jason Maple sweeted out, Like, what's the point if he's
Speaker 1: if he's if he's such a he's so trigger happy
Speaker 1: on offense and never has seen a jump shot he
Speaker 1: doesn't like. But then on the other end, he's not
Speaker 1: doing his job. So it's frustrating. But they need to
Speaker 1: identify the players on the team that have somewhat of
Speaker 1: an idea individual identity that is catered to defense, even
Speaker 1: if that means Baysmore as crazy as all hell and
Speaker 1: he does stupid stuff all the time, But if he's
Speaker 1: at least focused on doing the job that is needed
Speaker 1: out of the position, you might it might be worth
Speaker 1: sacrificing the space and to try to recapture some of
Speaker 1: that because over the course of of of a couple
Speaker 1: of games, if you if you cater to those guys,
Speaker 1: it might cause some of these other guys to then
Speaker 1: buy into that identity because they'll have no choice otherwise
Speaker 1: they won't play. That would be the next thing I
Speaker 1: would do, and the next, the last thing, And this
Speaker 1: to me is absolutely critical. Lebron, A, d Russ, and
Speaker 1: th HT have to buy into the fact that they
Speaker 1: are rim pressuring players and not perimeter players. I love
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis and th h T and even
Speaker 1: Ross on occasion taking a balanced catch and shoot jump
Speaker 1: shot when someone else just got to the rim. But
Speaker 1: outside of that specific scenario, all four of those guys
Speaker 1: have to cut way back on their jump shot hunting
Speaker 1: and get back to becoming what they are when they're
Speaker 1: at their best. Which is guys who put relentless pressure
Speaker 1: on the rim. If those four guys put relentless pressure
Speaker 1: on the rim, it will turn around everything with the
Speaker 1: offense because it will cave everybody in and even guys
Speaker 1: like bays Moore and even guys like Avery Bradley will
Speaker 1: start to get better looks and everything will turn round offensively.
Speaker 1: But they you can't. It can't be Lebron's biggest three
Speaker 1: point volume season and Anthony Davis returning to you know,
Speaker 1: becoming Kevin Duran out of the high post, and th
Speaker 1: h t showing off all the stepbacks and oh russ
Speaker 1: is taking four jump shots every third quarter. It cannot
Speaker 1: be that. If it's that, this is gonna blow up.
Speaker 1: But I think if they can accomplish those things by
Speaker 1: into the coaches scheme, start to favor guys who have
Speaker 1: some sort of individual identity centered around effort and focus
Speaker 1: and all of the details of that that that effect winning,
Speaker 1: and if their starting their core four players embrace pressuring
Speaker 1: the rim, I do think this ship will turn around. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm just gonna like spoil something for you.
Speaker 1: The rust jumpers aren't going away like that's just not
Speaker 1: that's just not going away like he's going to continue
Speaker 1: to It's just we have we have too much of
Speaker 1: a sample size for him throughout his career, maybe other
Speaker 1: than that one, you know season in Houston when they
Speaker 1: really had no center and it was just p J.
Speaker 1: Tucker out there at the five where he really limited
Speaker 1: his three point attempts and I think he's still took
Speaker 1: almost three a game. But but yeah, those rust jumpers
Speaker 1: aren't going away. And again, like I think this season
Speaker 1: has just become like you have to actu as the
Speaker 1: talent to make to fit us. Like that's just what
Speaker 1: it's become is positive and negatives are too loud to me,
Speaker 1: Like like that's where I think this season has gone to.
Speaker 1: And there's stuff we can do, Like you said that
Speaker 1: Vogel's in over his head offensively, and look, Vogel is
Speaker 1: not an offensive late in coach, Like I think that's
Speaker 1: been clear. But we did used to run sets like
Speaker 1: it used it did not used to just be these
Speaker 1: like go down, you know, throwing the post a d
Speaker 1: like we used to have these sets for do you
Speaker 1: remember these sets we used to run for KCP where
Speaker 1: like he'd started in the corner and be like a
Speaker 1: double drag into a handoff, like where is that all gone? Like?
Speaker 1: Or like what happened to all the hornsets we were
Speaker 1: running when Lebron was out, you know, with Carmelo and
Speaker 1: a d Like what happened to all that? Like all
Speaker 1: that seems to be gone tonight was just a bunch
Speaker 1: of just isolation and maybe bosch everything, and sure, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's of it. And then like I noticed one play tonight,
Speaker 1: so like it was Taylan in that k CP spot
Speaker 1: where he was going to come off a drible handoff
Speaker 1: and then the Carmelo just decided I'm gonna go in
Speaker 1: the post and then it became just a Carmelo post up.
Speaker 1: So stuff like that happens. But I think there is
Speaker 1: some offensive stuff there and I think he is searching,
Speaker 1: Like we talked about good process all the time. I
Speaker 1: think that fourth quarter is something to look into, like
Speaker 1: putting Russ. Lebron was at the five, you had Russ
Speaker 1: and look didn't defend great. And I don't think this team,
Speaker 1: we talked about it before the season, could there be
Speaker 1: a top ten defense And I'd be happy with top
Speaker 1: probably fifteen right now, just the way I'm seeing them defend,
Speaker 1: but like, like this is an offensive minded team, Like
Speaker 1: I think that's where it's gonna have to lean to,
Speaker 1: and that goes against everything Vogel believes in. It's just
Speaker 1: a roster construction is made that way. And I think
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter was something to kind of lean into
Speaker 1: there or it was Russ Lebron and three shooters. I
Speaker 1: think it was Mellow, Ellington and Monk if I remember correctly.
Speaker 1: And Russ got to the rim every time on Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum and he got lay up after lay up and
Speaker 1: then they switched smart on him, and I think it
Speaker 1: changed a little bit it But that's where I think
Speaker 1: this season is kind of going into. You talked about
Speaker 1: Lebron has to be this realm seeker, Like he just
Speaker 1: can't be that in year nineteen though, Jason right, Like
Speaker 1: it's just it's too much where on his body to me,
Speaker 1: Like would he rather go the rim every time? I'm
Speaker 1: sure he would, But like the jumper is kind of
Speaker 1: the fallback, you know, like it's allows him to kind
Speaker 1: of load manage while he's in games. And maybe the
Speaker 1: Lakers aren't good enough for him to do that. That
Speaker 1: remains to be seen, but I think that's where the
Speaker 1: jumper is. I think a D is the one that
Speaker 1: falls back on that too much, Like he's the one
Speaker 1: that I would like attacking the rim more and again
Speaker 1: I swing against Al Horford. I don't think is the
Speaker 1: right idea by it. I have to go back and look,
Speaker 1: but I don't remember very many Russ a D pick
Speaker 1: and rolls tonight. I don't remember any Lebron. Do you
Speaker 1: remember any Lebron a D pick and rolls tonight? Like
Speaker 1: I really honestly don't remember any. But again, it's sure, yeah,
Speaker 1: the switching does just take that out. But I mean,
Speaker 1: like when Russ is defended by Dennis Shrewter, like they
Speaker 1: should not be able to switch a D onto onto
Speaker 1: shoot sorry shooter onto a D. Anyway, That's besides my point.
Speaker 1: It's just like I think there are actions, but we
Speaker 1: do get into this super isolation heavy basketball. But but
Speaker 1: what used to have like plays that at least pet plays.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a whole wasn't like like some complicated supermotion
Speaker 1: offense like the Warriors, like where the Warriors run where
Speaker 1: it's all these split action stuff, but like there was
Speaker 1: some more stuff there, but I'm just not seeing it again,
Speaker 1: maybe that's just buying stuff, but yeah, like I just
Speaker 1: don't think Lebron can be this super rim attacking guy
Speaker 1: and you're nineteen. Th HD definitely has to be better,
Speaker 1: but I think again, lineups have to work for him
Speaker 1: as well, like the Lebron russ uh th HD didn't
Speaker 1: have a great opening start, and again it's just one game,
Speaker 1: but I would like to see him have his own
Speaker 1: line up, Like there's things that can still be improved,
Speaker 1: which is why I can't just get to the whole
Speaker 1: other side. Like again, I kept saying, once you cross
Speaker 1: the line, once you fire a coach, your season pretty
Speaker 1: much resets. Like that's fair. I mean, that's fair. They
Speaker 1: could need a reset, But like to me, that's a
Speaker 1: that's like a panic button I'm not ready to push yet,
Speaker 1: Like it's just too much has happened, like to just
Speaker 1: fire Frank. I don't see a solution where someone comes
Speaker 1: in and can put in all their stuff and you know,
Speaker 1: the Lakers roll on and maybe they can. I just
Speaker 1: I'm not there yet. Did you just let Franco I
Speaker 1: hear you. I do. I mean there are a couple
Speaker 1: of things, like there's a couple of basic rotational concepts
Speaker 1: that I wish Frank would figure out. So for instance,
Speaker 1: like having two creators on the floor, there's there's no
Speaker 1: reason ever to have Lebron, th HD and Russ all
Speaker 1: on the bench at the same time. And there's also
Speaker 1: no reason to not have either one of Dwight or
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis on the floor. Um, just just in general,
Speaker 1: if you the way I would look at it is
Speaker 1: you need a rim Runner, and then you need your
Speaker 1: primary creator and you need a second side creator. So
Speaker 1: obviously th HT had been playing so well in the
Speaker 1: first three games that he needed to start, so I'm
Speaker 1: not advocating for ditching that, but what I would do is,
Speaker 1: you know, get a quick sub, get one of them
Speaker 1: out quickly. I don't know if that's th H, hear Russ,
Speaker 1: and then just really simplify things, it's Lebron and a
Speaker 1: d Lebron and either Russ or th h T on
Speaker 1: the other wing, with Anthony Davis as the rim Runner
Speaker 1: and as guys. Sub out. If Lebron comes out, bring
Speaker 1: Rust back in and it's Russ and t h D.
Speaker 1: If th HD comes out, it's Russ and Lebron, and
Speaker 1: so on and so forth, with a d comes out
Speaker 1: bringing Dwight. Keep it simple and with the rotation and
Speaker 1: build it around those creators. It will help them all
Speaker 1: with their rhythm. That's what I thought was so messed
Speaker 1: up about what Frank did the th HT tonight to
Speaker 1: disrupt his rhythm playing with the starters were inevitably it's
Speaker 1: a decent chance that he's not going to get a
Speaker 1: shot off, which which would be fine if, like with Dennis,
Speaker 1: he continued to get opportunities as the lead man and
Speaker 1: other lineups. PhD didn't really get that opportunity tonight. He
Speaker 1: was taken out of the game. And then here comes
Speaker 1: Rondo by himself, and then here comes th HT, but
Speaker 1: here comes Russ as well. Russ is gonna kind of
Speaker 1: dictate the vast majority of possessions in that regard. So
Speaker 1: it's like it's frustrating because I think I think Frank
Speaker 1: overthinks it with the rotation, and at think I think
Speaker 1: he views Rondo as someone that doesn't stagnate, someone that's
Speaker 1: more willing to try to move the ball around. But
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is that at this phase,
Speaker 1: with what he gives up defensively and with the fact
Speaker 1: that he can't like simply finished layups at the rim
Speaker 1: when the defense does play the pass and force him
Speaker 1: to be uh, you know someone who can score, it
Speaker 1: just isn't a good option anymore. And so that that
Speaker 1: needs to be simplified down to like I would I
Speaker 1: would lean more into Russ as a primary creator instead
Speaker 1: of into Rondo. Like the thing that's the for the
Speaker 1: record in one thing in defense of us here, like
Speaker 1: it was, it was entirely predictable that in Lebron's first
Speaker 1: game back he would have a hard time figuring out
Speaker 1: where his spots are. Right. That goes without saying so
Speaker 1: like if if I'm Russ and I just went from
Speaker 1: being the primary guy two now Lebron's that guy, there
Speaker 1: was obviously going to be a little bit of an
Speaker 1: adjustment period and uh like that. The reality is is
Speaker 1: like I felt like everybody, especially Russ and th HT,
Speaker 1: we're kind of like hesitant about when they were supposed
Speaker 1: to attack. I think th h t S first shot,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, was a step back three on
Speaker 1: the left wing in the second quarter. Point being like
Speaker 1: he's just trying to fit in with the group and
Speaker 1: try to figure out where he's going to be aggressive.
Speaker 1: I would simplify it down and I get with both
Speaker 1: of them, both Russ and th HD, and I'd be like,
Speaker 1: I don't give a damn if Lebron's on the floor.
Speaker 1: I don't give a damn if Anthony Davis is on
Speaker 1: the floor. Get to the rim. If you catch the
Speaker 1: ball and you think you can rip through and get
Speaker 1: to the rim. If you see the backside of the
Speaker 1: defense and you think there's an opportunity, go Because even
Speaker 1: if you don't finish, it just opens things up. It
Speaker 1: gets the defense moving around, It collapses the defense and
Speaker 1: gets things going. I think that hesitancy has to be cured,
Speaker 1: you know. But but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like no one guy is to blame, Like I like,
Speaker 1: Lebron had a really bad defensive second half, and obviously
Speaker 1: he was very rusty tonight with his handle. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: settled for way too many jump shots. Russ was really
Speaker 1: passive in the first half and then suddenly got jumped
Speaker 1: shot happy in the third quarter. And I thought he
Speaker 1: was pretty bad defensively tonight, you know, a th HD
Speaker 1: struggled with hesitancy, and then most of the shots that
Speaker 1: he took when he was trying to find his rhythm.
Speaker 1: Were very difficult shots. And you know that I always
Speaker 1: preach that taking really difficult shots is a really bad
Speaker 1: way to form your rhythm. And it's almost guaranteed to
Speaker 1: start a bad night unless you get hot at the beginning,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So, like every everyone is
Speaker 1: is culpable. No one person is to blame. However, I
Speaker 1: think Lebron and a b are the ones that have
Speaker 1: the capability of of playing well enough to kind of
Speaker 1: inspire some change in the habits elsewhere on the roster. Sure,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers keep making sure that my notes mean
Speaker 1: nothing after the second half, But do you remember the
Speaker 1: player where a d got a dunk tonight? Like he
Speaker 1: I think he dribbled from like the top and got
Speaker 1: a dunk over was it? Al Horford? Do you remember
Speaker 1: that play? I don't know if you remember in the
Speaker 1: first half or not, but Ad got a dunk in
Speaker 1: this game where he dribbled in from the three pointer
Speaker 1: and it was off of a fake dribble handoff. He
Speaker 1: faked it dribble drive and went went down and dunked it.
Speaker 1: And I just think, like, there's again. I said this
Speaker 1: in the last spaces that we did, But we keep
Speaker 1: treating a D like he's We keep playing him as
Speaker 1: if he's the archetype of Dirk, and he's not Dirk,
Speaker 1: and we keep putting him in those type of situations
Speaker 1: instead of what he is, which is a big who
Speaker 1: has guard type of handles, who can really make plays
Speaker 1: and he can push it in transition if you let him.
Speaker 1: It's just too much like a D gets the rebound,
Speaker 1: immediately looks for a guard, immediately looks for Rondo, immediately
Speaker 1: looks for Russ, like let him push it, Like we
Speaker 1: we make things too difficult in my opinion, like we
Speaker 1: want to play fast, we want to play class. But
Speaker 1: that doesn't just mean Russ has to push the ball
Speaker 1: like a D. Should have some kind of leeway there
Speaker 1: where you can push it, run, run something, get get
Speaker 1: something early to the basket. And I'm still just not
Speaker 1: seeing enough of that, Like that dribble drive he did
Speaker 1: for a dunk I think was the only player where
Speaker 1: like he actually dribbled in. And the point of putting
Speaker 1: a D at the five is not just to give
Speaker 1: us space, but to give a D space to write,
Speaker 1: like that's the whole point of that, is to also
Speaker 1: give him space, not have a center in the lane
Speaker 1: for to mucket mucket up for him, and I just like, like,
Speaker 1: that's my kind of final thing I had. I guess
Speaker 1: is that, like I just want to see more A
Speaker 1: D is such a unique talent that like putting him
Speaker 1: as just as post up player. I think I saw
Speaker 1: someone tweet out tonight we had four team post ups
Speaker 1: and I think the league the lead. The lead in
Speaker 1: the league is like nine per game or something like.
Speaker 1: There's just no need to post up a D that much. First,
Speaker 1: he's not efficient enough at it. Second team's double way
Speaker 1: too easily because of the spacing we have. I just
Speaker 1: want to see A D a little bit more on
Speaker 1: the open floor, give him some more leeway there as
Speaker 1: a ball handler, because I think there's something there to
Speaker 1: open up. Like it's year three of a D and
Speaker 1: I feel like we're still just in this super rudimentary
Speaker 1: offense with him when he has so much more skills.
Speaker 1: The whole point, the whole thing about a D is
Speaker 1: he was a guard growing up as these hard skills
Speaker 1: and we just don't see it enough night tonight other
Speaker 1: than the mid range jumpers, the step back jumpers. Um,
Speaker 1: I just would like to see a little bit more
Speaker 1: of that, and yeah, that's I guess all I all
Speaker 1: I had for for this one. Yeah, so for for
Speaker 1: those of you guys who missed it two nights ago,
Speaker 1: Roger and I kind of got into this more in
Speaker 1: depth to just the philosophy that the Lakers are too
Speaker 1: reliant on post ups in a league that allows defenders
Speaker 1: the most leeway in post up defense, and that even
Speaker 1: though you can't ever count on Anthony Davis to be honest,
Speaker 1: a guy that can consistently break down a defense off
Speaker 1: the dribble because he doesn't quite have the quick first
Speaker 1: step that Janice has, you absolutely can use him as
Speaker 1: an isolation player or as a matchup attacking player and
Speaker 1: things other than post ups, whether that's getting in with
Speaker 1: a live dribble on the perimeter, starting him out with
Speaker 1: the triple threat at the three point line, doing quick
Speaker 1: pick and pops where he's almost attacking a close out,
Speaker 1: just some variety other than here's a high post touch
Speaker 1: or here's like kind of an extended low block touch.
Speaker 1: That's pretty much all he gets in the offense in
Speaker 1: terms of isolation attempts, and it just doesn't make sense
Speaker 1: because it plays into some of the downsides of those
Speaker 1: offensive strategies in this era. And you know, the best
Speaker 1: offenses that I see in the league right now are
Speaker 1: teams like Utah, are teams like the Clippers who just
Speaker 1: truly spaced the floor and count on guy's ability to
Speaker 1: beat people off the dribble and get into the paint
Speaker 1: and by doing that, start getting your defense and rotation
Speaker 1: and then swinging it around until there's a decent three
Speaker 1: point shot or until they screw up a rotation at
Speaker 1: the rim and you can get a layup. Those are
Speaker 1: the kinds of things that the best offenses in the
Speaker 1: league are doing right now. Yeah, there are some outliers.
Speaker 1: You've got your teams like the Suns that run a
Speaker 1: Jazilian pick and rolls a game. You've got your teams
Speaker 1: like the Um of Warriors that run they're super super unique,
Speaker 1: you know, star off ball, tons of cutting and screening offense,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. But with this group of players
Speaker 1: that we have, we have three guys who are extremely
Speaker 1: gifted at getting to the basket off the dribble, and
Speaker 1: we've got lots of shooting, and we have this unbelievable
Speaker 1: versatile big that presents all his problems that he presents
Speaker 1: to the defense. Why are we not running a more
Speaker 1: modern offensive scheme that that gets That gets frustrating. But anyway,
Speaker 1: we did go into more detail on that on the
Speaker 1: last pot um. We're going to call it tonight for
Speaker 1: right now, guys. On Sunday at I think three Pacific
Speaker 1: Standard time, the Lakers play the Pistons. Um. That should
Speaker 1: be a game that is a little bit less eventful,
Speaker 1: and we will take a bunch of collars. So all
Speaker 1: of you who called in, I sincerely appreciate it. I'm
Speaker 1: sorry we didn't get to you tonight. Please come back
Speaker 1: on Sunday and we will take a bunch of calls. Um.
Speaker 1: This will air on DASH Radio on Monday morning at
Speaker 1: seven am Pacific Standard time, and we'll be on our
Speaker 1: podcast feed here in about thirty minutes. As always, we
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate your guys support and you're coming to hang
Speaker 1: out with us and hopefully at some point we'll have
Speaker 1: some more positive stuff to talk about. But you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes it takes getting punched in the mouth and really
Speaker 1: really really hit and rock bottom before you can look
Speaker 1: in the mirror and take some accountability over what's wrong
Speaker 1: and hopefully, if we're lucky, this will be that moment
Speaker 1: for this team. Yeah, appreciate everyone that came out Friday night.
Speaker 1: On a Friday night, go enjoy the rest of your
Speaker 1: your Friday, and appreciate every everyone coming