WEBVTT - Spurs/Lakers Postgame Spaces 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:18.280 Mmmmm, all right. Welcome to the State of the Lakers, 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:20.599 presented by Dash Freddy. I'll thank you guys so much 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:25.360 for staying up super late talk to some really unfortunate 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.680 Lakers basketball again with Rog and I Rog. How you doing, Buddy, 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:31.600 I'm doing all right, you know, a little bit under 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:33.520 the weather weather here, so I'm gonna trying to fight 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:35.919 through it. But yeah, I know, the tough one, tough night. 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:38.240 But how are you, man? Happy holidays to you. I 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:40.599 hope you're having I hope your night was more enjoyable 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:44.960 than whatever the hell we just watched there. Man, I 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:47.680 I'm trying to you guys know, I'm trying to keep 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.720 a positive attitude. But it's just it's tough. It's tough 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:54.080 for a bunch of different reasons. Because, you know, I 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:56.120 thought the Lakers have done a really nice job of 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:59.640 building some good habits over the course of the previous 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.120 habits that were a clear shortcoming of the team to 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:09.319 start the season, and there was some positive results coming 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:13.000 that added legitimacy to those habits. And we've gone over 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:16.320 those at length over the course of the last two podcasts. 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:18.319 So I'm not going to get into him, but the 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:20.440 point is is, you know, as you and I have 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:24.920 frequently said, there needs to be, you know, a result 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:30.240 that makes what you're doing worth it. And unfortunately, under 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:34.199 these circumstances, you've seen a lot of players like Russ, 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:36.160 like even Lebron a little bit and some of his 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:40.800 defensive attention stuff. Definitely with guys like Mellow and Wayne Ellington, 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:44.160 you're seeing all of them massively regress. And I don't 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.960 blame them in the sense that I understand the nature 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:49.840 of the situation, and we're going to talk about the 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:53.400 situation more here in a minute, but like, that's the 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:56.760 most unfortunate side effect of this whole thing, is it 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:00.200 kind of feels like progress is being undone. Does that 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:04.600 make sense? Definitely, It's it's felt like two steps forward 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:06.760 and then one step back, right, That's what it's felt 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:10.359 like all season. Losing a reason though was deflating. Man. 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.280 That's just tough. You know, like he missed the whole season, already, 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:16.600 comes back, plays two games and then he's out again, 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.000 this time for health and safety protocols, and it's just tough. 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:22.240 We have guys coming in and out of the lineup, 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:24.720 coming in and out of the rotation. You get a 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:26.720 reason back. I mean, sorry, you lose a d and 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:28.240 you get a reason back, and then you lose a 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.600 reason Now you have all these kind of g leaguers. 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.040 That was well mixed too into it, Isaiah Thomas playing 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:35.440 a bunch of minutes. We just have no rhythm, and 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.640 it's basically just watching Lebron still be Lebron while the 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.040 rest of the team just trying to figure it out. 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.160 And that's what we're kind of we're watching. I don't 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.040 expect the team to be locked in defensively every single possession, 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:48.320 but it definitely felt like they let go the rope 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.120 in this one. It definitely felt like the body language dropped, 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:53.440 especially in the third quarter, even the end of the 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:56.639 first quarter. Honestly, once the Spurs started to just hit 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.160 their shots, run, you know, a few actions that got 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:01.959 a couple of basket uh, and that game felt over 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:03.800 to me, Like, Jayson, did you ever felt like this 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.560 game was close? Like I never really felt like the 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.480 Lakers were that in this game, Like it felt like 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.560 a twelve or thirteen point game the whole time, and 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:14.519 I just never felt like we were coming back, even 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:16.959 as well as Lebron was playing Lebron had like twenty 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:18.600 three a half time, and I just never felt like 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.480 we were into it, which is really disappointing. And Russ 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:23.519 had his crazy third quarter, right yeah, like I think 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.240 seventeen or eighteen points in the third quarter, But I 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.040 just never felt like we were in it, which which 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:31.800 makes me worried about the games coming up here. Uh. 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:33.560 And we did play a lot of players who won't 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:35.600 be playing in the rotation. But I think there's a 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:37.280 thin line to walk here that I don't know, like 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:39.520 does that make sense? Like I'm having a tough time 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:42.920 bridging those two where you can't blame, you can't judge 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:45.160 the team because they're not healthy, but there's also a 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:48.160 baseline level that I expect from them as competitors, and 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:50.760 that's like stuff that I'm battling back and forth here. 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:55.440 You're seeing that baseline level of effort out of Lebron 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:59.200 and Russ. I mean, Lebron throughout the game, continue to 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.160 be aggressive to the rim and just take a beating 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:04.240 driving to the basket. I didn't even think he got 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:06.400 as many foul calls as he should have in that game. 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:09.520 And then and then Russ in the third quarter. But 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:11.680 you know, again, like we said, a lot of these 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:16.159 guys these you know, there's an invigorating attitude to the 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.880 way that Mellow will approach a spot up opportunity to 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.800 elevate into a three point shot that's missing on the 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.960 defensive end. And he had started to build that over 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.080 the course of the season and he let go of 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.200 that rope, and and Wayne Ellington was just barbecue chicken 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:37.719 all over the floor tonight, defensively, constantly getting knocked off 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:41.200 balanced by the bigger Spurs guards. And that was frustrating 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:42.840 to watch. But you know, this kind of takes us 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:46.160 into this this idea of weathering the storm. And I'm 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:48.400 stealing that phrase. I'm stealing that phrase from our friend 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:50.240 Pete from like a film room, because he tweeted it 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.040 out before the game when the reason news came back 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.280 came out. Because the reality of the situation is is 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.240 that a lot of teams are dealing with this COVID 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:01.880 situation right now. But the truth of the matter is 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.800 is that, oh, some of my guess is that by 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:08.360 middle January, most of this COVID stuff will be mostly 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:13.200 behind the NBA, meaning it's burning through the league right now. 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.560 They're changing the protocols they're making it so that if 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.160 you're boosted, you don't have to get tested every day. 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:21.280 So what you're gonna end up seeing is these teams 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:24.080 are gonna end up being fully boosted, or most of 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:26.240 them will be boosted, and then they just won't get 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.280 tested anymore, and then you won't see any COVID positive tests. 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.360 That's what's gonna actionably happen, and then the NBA will 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:38.320 mostly restore back to normal. So there's like that point 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:40.800 there in the middle of January where things will get 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:43.520 back to normal. But over the course of this next 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.839 week or two in particular, it's gonna be weird and 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.120 we just kind of have to push through it, and 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.240 a lot of teams are dealing with it. That said, 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:56.320 I've disagreed with some of the strategy stuff here because 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.480 Lebron has always loved playing with veterans. We know that 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:03.640 there's always the joke that everyone tells about Lebron showing 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:07.840 up to a team immediately discarding all of the young players, 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.719 bringing in older guys and going on these short, you know, 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:15.479 two or three year long championship hunts with a specific 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:18.359 group of older guys. That's the way he's wired and 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:21.880 I actually, I actually liked that concept when this roster 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:25.239 is whole and healthy, Like I like the idea of 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.880 having a core built around lebron A d Russ and 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:32.960 having six or seven really savvy veteran players mixed in 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.000 with like one Austin Reeves type or one th h 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.760 t type. I like that formula. But over the course 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.440 of this next couple of weeks, I'm really confused, like 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:46.120 genuinely confused why the Lakers didn't try to load up 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:51.920 on bigger athletic six eight six seven G League players 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:55.960 that are obviously limited offensively, but then at the very 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.400 least you can try to maintain some of the progress 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.360 we've made over the course of the last month with 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:06.240 our habits. And I was confused by that from a 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:10.600 strategy standpoint, like I don't understand signing Isaiah Thomas, Like 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:13.160 I just don't get that. And you know, I'm rooting 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:16.600 for Isaiah Thomas. I'm hopeful that he gets an another 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:21.120 opportunity when his contract runs out. But ideologically, what this 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:24.600 team needs, especially in a situation, a situation like this, 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:29.560 are guys who are fighting for their NBA lives, Guys 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:34.360 who particularly guys that have the size and athleticism to 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:38.640 where that you know, them selling their soul on the 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:40.600 court on both ends of the floor in terms of 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:45.280 their effort, just leads to this like tangible physical onslaught. 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.080 It's it's the most amazing thing about the Memphis Grizzlies 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:51.600 right now. They just had a stretch where they lost 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.360 John Moran for the better part of a month and 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:57.160 they won most of their games. And some of it 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:59.160 is how good Desmond Baine is and some of it 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:01.800 is how good Dylan Brooks is, but a lot of 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:05.640 it it's just they're big and strong and athletic and 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:08.880 they play hard. And the problem is is when we're 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:12.720 missing Anthony Davis and you know, when lebron can only 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.560 play thirty five minutes at night, it's there's a lot 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:19.720 of times where we look at our lineups and it's like, well, 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:23.200 that guy's small, well, that guy's skinny, Well, that guy 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:27.200 doesn't move very well, well, that guy's lazy. And then 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:29.800 you're growing away that they can't get a defensive rebound, 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:32.120 or that they get beat down the floor in transition, 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:34.440 or that they can't hold their own at the point 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:37.440 of attack. And it's like, this is kind of what 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.959 you sign up for when you don't have, when all 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.480 your athleticism and size is tied up in your stars, 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:48.080 if that makes sense. Yeah, And I'm like Isaiah Thomas, like, 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:50.640 I think it's fair that you know, the team has 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:52.280 a lot of people out and stuff like that, But 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:54.160 I mean, I just don't think we play a lot 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:57.040 of lamps that are helpful to the players. Like Isaiah 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:00.160 Thomas had two shots in ten minutes at halftime. If 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:04.400 he's not shooting them, he's not Yeah, he's not helping you, right, 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.880 And again, playing him next to Rondo and Russell Westbrook, 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:10.640 to me, that just makes zero like that, and then 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:12.840 playing it next to Mellow as well, next to Lebron, like, 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:15.160 those are four guys I think half core Hoops also 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.800 tweeted out those are four defensive liabilities next to Lebron 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:20.839 and you're just gonna get cooked that way, and you're 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:22.720 just putting a bunch of ball handling out there that 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.240 with all these small guards makes no sense. Th HD 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:27.920 as well, right, I still don't like his fit with 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:30.839 the starters, even though he played well. I want to 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:32.400 push back on this a little bit because I know 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:34.800 you said weathering the storm and that all makes sense. 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:37.680 Players are out, Anthony Davison is out, Trevor Reza's out, 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.840 Kendrick Dunn, whatever. But the starting lineup, Jason is players 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:44.320 that are going to be in the rotation when it matters, right, 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.520 Like are starting Laft and I was Russ, Ellington, who 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:56.880 Blank and Lebron Lebron, yes, yes, So the all five 0:09:56.920 --> 0:09:59.880 of those guys are gonna be in the rotation when 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:03.080 games matter, right, And the Spurs still just cooked us 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:05.520 in that first quarter. It was simple actions. It was 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:08.360 a picked a role Deante Murray and No. One Taggs 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.079 so Yako, Yaco Purle and I don't know if I'm 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.120 saying his name right, but just hit little floaters back 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.439 to back to back, and there was just we weren't 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:18.920 competitive enough, even with the players I believe who are 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.240 going to be on the floor when it matters. Which 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:23.720 that's again to my part that I have a tough 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.679 time bridging of the Yeah, let's not judge this team now, 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:31.400 but there's also a level of competitiveness that I expect. Again, 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:34.239 Lebron played well. I thought Russ had a really struggling 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.760 first quarter. I think his turnover has really hurt us. 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:38.560 And I don't think we're in position to have many 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.080 bad RUSS games like and again, I understand he went 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.560 off from the third. I thought san Antonio had the 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.520 game pretty much locked up during that time. They kind 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:48.959 of kept us at arms distance. We were kind of 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:51.920 down ten to twelve that whole time. But yeah, like 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:54.040 that's kind of Do you understand my pushback there, I 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:56.040 guess because the starters are players that are going to 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.000 be in the rotation. And I still feel like san 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:00.760 Antonio outplayed us for a lot of that first quarter, 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:03.400 and THHD played well. I not played well, but he 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:05.000 played a lot better than he did in that first game. 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.160 Lebron again played well, but I'm just seeing like there's 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:11.880 not enough execution there with the players that are going 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:13.520 to play, which makes it hard for me to just 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.520 blame us on having the league lineups. And again, lineups 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.840 aren't great. I hate the I T Russ and Rondo lamps, 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:22.280 like does make no sense. DeAndre Jordan played the fourth quarter, 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:24.959 God knows why. Um I thought d why Howard was 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.440 a lot better than him for for the most part tonight. 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:29.800 I had a lot of frustrating fouls as well. But 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:31.719 you do you understand my point there, I guess in 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.360 where like I still think there's a baseline level they 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.000 have to reach, because we played players that are going 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.600 to play when it matters, and the Spurs still kicked 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:41.520 her as we were down nine to end the first 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:43.560 it was like thirty three to twenty four or something. 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:48.319 So you're you're right that the Lakers normal rotation players 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:52.840 also didn't play nearly well enough. You're correct about that. However, 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:57.160 the vast majority of the Lakers normal rotation players that 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:02.400 were active tonight, we're old guys, and old guys. They 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:05.280 it's it's it's a it's like a it's like a 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:09.200 risk reward occasion of equation for them. I don't think 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:14.200 they believed they could win the game. And and you know, 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:17.640 you're right, You're right, But what I'm saying is is, 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:19.360 and this is a problem, but this is a problem 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:21.680 that comes with older guys. This is why I advocate 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:25.560 trying at least over the course of this funky stretch 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:28.640 of games here to end the year. This is why 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:31.200 I would have gone with the younger players, because even 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:34.720 if you can't win the game, at least a younger 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:40.280 player is playing for his NBA career, his his his 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.600 livelihood is on the line, and so there there's an 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:47.079 effort that comes with that with the older guys, like 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.760 they're looking at it like, well, this sucks, like that, 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:53.600 we we don't have any of our bodies. It's gonna 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.440 be damn or impossible to win this game. Why the 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:58.559 hell am I gonna put my body on the line 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.600 to try to win this game when we can just 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.040 go on and run and at the start of the year, 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:07.120 when everyone's healthy again. Like that, That's why I would 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.600 imagine that's their rationale. Now you're right, like this goes 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:13.400 back to the conversation we've been having about basketball character. 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.120 That's bad basketball character in my opinion, And that's why 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:21.000 you're seeing guys like Lebron, who has good basketball character, 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:24.960 who's a winner, who's accustomed to winning, putting it on 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:28.800 the line tonight. You know, that's why you're seeing I mean, 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.320 I didn't I didn't love Russ's game tonight, and I 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:33.319 think Russ has actually been slumping for a couple of 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.640 weeks now out of nowhere. But but you're you're seeing 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.520 the competitiveness of Lebron and Russ and their basketball character 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:43.520 coming to the surface. But with a lot of these 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:46.520 other guys that don't have that character, they're struggling with 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:49.480 this and that's unfortunate. But that's to me where it's like, 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:51.760 at least I could look at Lebron and I could 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:53.880 be like, hey, man, like, you're not gonna have a 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:56.040 lot of shooting, You're not gonna have guys who can 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:58.960 make plays off of you. But these three young guys 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:01.760 I'm putting out with you for these four these three 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:05.640 or four bs basketball games that don't even resemble normal 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:08.440 NBA games. At the very least, I promised these guys 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.600 and put out there with you are going to sell 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:12.760 their soul on both ends of the floor with effort 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:17.920 in physicality because they're fighting for their NBA careers. That 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:21.640 that's again, this is this is really all moot, because 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:25.520 I think they'd probably lose this game in that situation anyway. 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:28.360 But at the but at the very least, it's about 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:31.120 the habits. And that's the most important part because the 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:34.200 really unfortunate side effect of all of this is there's 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:36.600 a situation where these guys are all going to come 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:41.360 back and be healthy and to December early January, and 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:43.800 and they're gonna have to go through another ramp up 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.360 period for another couple of weeks where they're gonna have 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.960 nasty film sessions and coaching staff pointing out that they're 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.680 making all these mistakes again, which is exactly what we 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.080 just went through in November at the beginning of the month. 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:01.080 That's exactly what we just went through. And we've built 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:05.320 all these habits back up to a passable basketball character. 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:10.600 And then we let go the road because of the circumstances, which, again, 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:15.640 as you keep pointing out, they're legitimate circumstances, but it's 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.600 bringing out an ugly side of the of the of 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:21.600 this roster makeup, you know what I mean. And that's 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:23.480 why I would have I would have been like, instead 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.200 of I t let me go down to you know, 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:28.800 some GE League team and find a six seven, two 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:32.960 thirty pound athlete and just be like, look, man, you're 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:34.960 up here for ten days, and I want you to 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:37.640 grab every rebound. I want you to sprint the floor 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:41.120 and transition on every possession. You know, set hard screens 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.800 for Lebron and and and and maybe we'll be able 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:47.000 to keep these games competitive. It's just and again, it's 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:48.920 it might not all have been worth anything. But that's 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:51.600 just how I would have approached this. Yeah, and I 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:53.640 think we saw one of those guys. I mean, Jamario 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.960 Jones played twelve minutes tonight. He got run like early 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:58.960 in the game as well. I thought he ran around, 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:01.400 played hard. He had one rebound, but I thought, you know, 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:03.760 he did things off the ball. It's fun. It was 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:05.760 fun to just watch him for a little while, just 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:07.560 trying to cut in and stuff. And I would like 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:09.840 to see j Huff as well, Like he made the 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:11.920 cut and I would like to see him at least 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.120 get a chance here. But you're right, hopefully they can 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:17.400 play a couple of younger players. It's just like it's 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:19.840 very easy to just make excuses right now. And I 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.080 talked about on the last part, how this can this 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:25.120 can crumble? Right like this can you can break? We're 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:27.400 a team that's under five hundred now and all that 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:30.040 stuff you talked about how you know, maybe they didn't 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:31.880 believe they can win tonight and all that stuff, And 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.120 that's all on the human element. I mean, that's natural. 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:36.160 I don't think the Spurs of the team that you 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:38.040 do that with. You know, the Spurs are six game 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:40.600 there were six games under five hundred coming in tonight. 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:42.960 Even with the players the Lakers didn't have, You're still 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.160 starting Russell Westbrook and Lebron James, and Lebron being the 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:49.000 guy who continues to play the hardest out of anyone. Uh, 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.080 it's really strange. And the Lakers went five for eighteen 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:55.160 from three tonight or five seven from three actually, which 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:58.720 is probably a historically bad that's but I thought they 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.080 took a lot of bad ones as well. Carmelo took 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:03.520 a couple of a whole bunch of contested ones. Then 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:05.760 you need to flip this around, though, Like they gave 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.400 up a hundred and thirty eight points to the Spurs. 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.200 That's not missing Trevor Reason, that's not missing Kendrick Nunn. 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:15.879 You know, that's a that's a whole different story. I'd say, 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.320 I'm just not going to rotate anymore. I'm not going 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:21.200 to close out anymore, or you know, that's that moves 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.040 into that territory. Territory when you start going into that, 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:29.359 I think Kate's Kate, Uh yeah, job was like yeah, 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.159 he was like ten for ten tonight, and a lot 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:33.840 of those were just catch up the rim, very little 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:36.280 resistance at the basket and layups, like that's the stuff 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:38.600 I feel like we can clean up because you're right, 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:41.119 eight is gonna eventually come back, but you're hopeful this 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:44.200 team's kind of going upward. Right when that happens, they're 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.680 going in some kind of positive trajectory. Here. You can't 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:50.679 just fall off the face of the earth because he's out. 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:52.880 You can't fall in the face because Trevor Reads is out. 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:54.840 Like you said, a lot of players are out. Um, 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.000 and I still hate the lineups and all that stuff, 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.440 But I just think there's there's something deeper here too 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:02.359 that we can fix ourselves. Like we shoot ourselves in 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:04.640 the foot a lot and just blame it all on 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:06.639 people out I think. I think it's tough. I think 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.440 there's actually basketball things that we can fix. I think 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.119 starting Dwight was a positive to that. But yeah, like 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:15.600 I just have a hard time going fully in one 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.160 direction in terms of just wait and you know, whether 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:19.919 the storm is great, I think that's something we have 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:22.200 to do, but we also have to live The storm 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:23.520 is gonna be here for a little while, you know 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:24.760 what I mean, Like we got to live in it 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:27.320 and learn how to live in it. I guess, well, 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.760 and I disagree with some of the like even even 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:35.399 just accepting the fact that the Lakers opted to, you know, 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:38.159 kind of go with the status quo in terms of 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:42.320 our our roster construct, even even accepting that, I would 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.159 not have gone with the rotation that Fitdale went with tonight. 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:49.639 So for instance, like me, there are we limited, yes, 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:53.600 but there were obvious decisions, staggering decisions that would have 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:55.840 given us a better chance to win in my opinion. 0:18:56.240 --> 0:19:00.720 So for instance, like, there should never, ever, ever, ever 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:04.119 be a situation, even with this roster, even under the 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:08.359 current circumstances that Mason Jones, Rondo and Isaiah Thomas and 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.080 Westbrooker all on the floor at the same time with 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.520 Mellow at center, which is what we started I believe 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:15.840 the second quarter with like that's just or end of 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:17.400 the first I can't remember where it was, but at 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.040 some point in the first half, that's just nonsensical. Like, 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:24.159 given the the the players that we had available to 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:27.280 start the game, decision one should have been, Okay, are 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.160 we playing one center? Two? Okay, we're playing one center. Okay, 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:32.760 the center's d White, Okay, well Lebron's are other centers, 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.159 So we're staggering them. So guess what Lebron is starting 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:37.200 the game at the five. That should have been decision 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:40.480 number one. Decision number two is th h T should 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:42.680 have been thrown in with the second unit. Not because 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:44.480 he doesn't deserve to start in a normal world, of 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.080 course he does. He deserves to start, you know, under 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:51.080 an under normal circumstances. But we have a better chance 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:54.760 of winning a game, especially against a bad team, if 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:59.000 we go with a you know, Ellington, Russ, Lebron and 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:04.959 in feerior role players to start and then bring in 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:07.480 a lineup that's built around th HD and Dwights or 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:11.000 at least there's a baseline level of athleticism and size, 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:13.159 you know what I mean. Like that to me, And 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:17.159 again it might not have mattered, we might have lost anyway, 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.880 But just from a strategy standpoint, I think you've got 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:23.240