Speaker 1: Mmmmm, all right. Welcome to the State of the Lakers,
Speaker 1: presented by Dash Freddy. I'll thank you guys so much
Speaker 1: for staying up super late talk to some really unfortunate
Speaker 1: Lakers basketball again with Rog and I Rog. How you doing, Buddy,
Speaker 1: I'm doing all right, you know, a little bit under
Speaker 1: the weather weather here, so I'm gonna trying to fight
Speaker 1: through it. But yeah, I know, the tough one, tough night.
Speaker 1: But how are you, man? Happy holidays to you. I
Speaker 1: hope you're having I hope your night was more enjoyable
Speaker 1: than whatever the hell we just watched there. Man, I
Speaker 1: I'm trying to you guys know, I'm trying to keep
Speaker 1: a positive attitude. But it's just it's tough. It's tough
Speaker 1: for a bunch of different reasons. Because, you know, I
Speaker 1: thought the Lakers have done a really nice job of
Speaker 1: building some good habits over the course of the previous
Speaker 1: habits that were a clear shortcoming of the team to
Speaker 1: start the season, and there was some positive results coming
Speaker 1: that added legitimacy to those habits. And we've gone over
Speaker 1: those at length over the course of the last two podcasts.
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to get into him, but the
Speaker 1: point is is, you know, as you and I have
Speaker 1: frequently said, there needs to be, you know, a result
Speaker 1: that makes what you're doing worth it. And unfortunately, under
Speaker 1: these circumstances, you've seen a lot of players like Russ,
Speaker 1: like even Lebron a little bit and some of his
Speaker 1: defensive attention stuff. Definitely with guys like Mellow and Wayne Ellington,
Speaker 1: you're seeing all of them massively regress. And I don't
Speaker 1: blame them in the sense that I understand the nature
Speaker 1: of the situation, and we're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: situation more here in a minute, but like, that's the
Speaker 1: most unfortunate side effect of this whole thing, is it
Speaker 1: kind of feels like progress is being undone. Does that
Speaker 1: make sense? Definitely, It's it's felt like two steps forward
Speaker 1: and then one step back, right, That's what it's felt
Speaker 1: like all season. Losing a reason though was deflating. Man.
Speaker 1: That's just tough. You know, like he missed the whole season, already,
Speaker 1: comes back, plays two games and then he's out again,
Speaker 1: this time for health and safety protocols, and it's just tough.
Speaker 1: We have guys coming in and out of the lineup,
Speaker 1: coming in and out of the rotation. You get a
Speaker 1: reason back. I mean, sorry, you lose a d and
Speaker 1: you get a reason back, and then you lose a
Speaker 1: reason Now you have all these kind of g leaguers.
Speaker 1: That was well mixed too into it, Isaiah Thomas playing
Speaker 1: a bunch of minutes. We just have no rhythm, and
Speaker 1: it's basically just watching Lebron still be Lebron while the
Speaker 1: rest of the team just trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1: And that's what we're kind of we're watching. I don't
Speaker 1: expect the team to be locked in defensively every single possession,
Speaker 1: but it definitely felt like they let go the rope
Speaker 1: in this one. It definitely felt like the body language dropped,
Speaker 1: especially in the third quarter, even the end of the
Speaker 1: first quarter. Honestly, once the Spurs started to just hit
Speaker 1: their shots, run, you know, a few actions that got
Speaker 1: a couple of basket uh, and that game felt over
Speaker 1: to me, Like, Jayson, did you ever felt like this
Speaker 1: game was close? Like I never really felt like the
Speaker 1: Lakers were that in this game, Like it felt like
Speaker 1: a twelve or thirteen point game the whole time, and
Speaker 1: I just never felt like we were coming back, even
Speaker 1: as well as Lebron was playing Lebron had like twenty
Speaker 1: three a half time, and I just never felt like
Speaker 1: we were into it, which is really disappointing. And Russ
Speaker 1: had his crazy third quarter, right yeah, like I think
Speaker 1: seventeen or eighteen points in the third quarter, But I
Speaker 1: just never felt like we were in it, which which
Speaker 1: makes me worried about the games coming up here. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we did play a lot of players who won't
Speaker 1: be playing in the rotation. But I think there's a
Speaker 1: thin line to walk here that I don't know, like
Speaker 1: does that make sense? Like I'm having a tough time
Speaker 1: bridging those two where you can't blame, you can't judge
Speaker 1: the team because they're not healthy, but there's also a
Speaker 1: baseline level that I expect from them as competitors, and
Speaker 1: that's like stuff that I'm battling back and forth here.
Speaker 1: You're seeing that baseline level of effort out of Lebron
Speaker 1: and Russ. I mean, Lebron throughout the game, continue to
Speaker 1: be aggressive to the rim and just take a beating
Speaker 1: driving to the basket. I didn't even think he got
Speaker 1: as many foul calls as he should have in that game.
Speaker 1: And then and then Russ in the third quarter. But
Speaker 1: you know, again, like we said, a lot of these
Speaker 1: guys these you know, there's an invigorating attitude to the
Speaker 1: way that Mellow will approach a spot up opportunity to
Speaker 1: elevate into a three point shot that's missing on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. And he had started to build that over
Speaker 1: the course of the season and he let go of
Speaker 1: that rope, and and Wayne Ellington was just barbecue chicken
Speaker 1: all over the floor tonight, defensively, constantly getting knocked off
Speaker 1: balanced by the bigger Spurs guards. And that was frustrating
Speaker 1: to watch. But you know, this kind of takes us
Speaker 1: into this this idea of weathering the storm. And I'm
Speaker 1: stealing that phrase. I'm stealing that phrase from our friend
Speaker 1: Pete from like a film room, because he tweeted it
Speaker 1: out before the game when the reason news came back
Speaker 1: came out. Because the reality of the situation is is
Speaker 1: that a lot of teams are dealing with this COVID
Speaker 1: situation right now. But the truth of the matter is
Speaker 1: is that, oh, some of my guess is that by
Speaker 1: middle January, most of this COVID stuff will be mostly
Speaker 1: behind the NBA, meaning it's burning through the league right now.
Speaker 1: They're changing the protocols they're making it so that if
Speaker 1: you're boosted, you don't have to get tested every day.
Speaker 1: So what you're gonna end up seeing is these teams
Speaker 1: are gonna end up being fully boosted, or most of
Speaker 1: them will be boosted, and then they just won't get
Speaker 1: tested anymore, and then you won't see any COVID positive tests.
Speaker 1: That's what's gonna actionably happen, and then the NBA will
Speaker 1: mostly restore back to normal. So there's like that point
Speaker 1: there in the middle of January where things will get
Speaker 1: back to normal. But over the course of this next
Speaker 1: week or two in particular, it's gonna be weird and
Speaker 1: we just kind of have to push through it, and
Speaker 1: a lot of teams are dealing with it. That said,
Speaker 1: I've disagreed with some of the strategy stuff here because
Speaker 1: Lebron has always loved playing with veterans. We know that
Speaker 1: there's always the joke that everyone tells about Lebron showing
Speaker 1: up to a team immediately discarding all of the young players,
Speaker 1: bringing in older guys and going on these short, you know,
Speaker 1: two or three year long championship hunts with a specific
Speaker 1: group of older guys. That's the way he's wired and
Speaker 1: I actually, I actually liked that concept when this roster
Speaker 1: is whole and healthy, Like I like the idea of
Speaker 1: having a core built around lebron A d Russ and
Speaker 1: having six or seven really savvy veteran players mixed in
Speaker 1: with like one Austin Reeves type or one th h
Speaker 1: t type. I like that formula. But over the course
Speaker 1: of this next couple of weeks, I'm really confused, like
Speaker 1: genuinely confused why the Lakers didn't try to load up
Speaker 1: on bigger athletic six eight six seven G League players
Speaker 1: that are obviously limited offensively, but then at the very
Speaker 1: least you can try to maintain some of the progress
Speaker 1: we've made over the course of the last month with
Speaker 1: our habits. And I was confused by that from a
Speaker 1: strategy standpoint, like I don't understand signing Isaiah Thomas, Like
Speaker 1: I just don't get that. And you know, I'm rooting
Speaker 1: for Isaiah Thomas. I'm hopeful that he gets an another
Speaker 1: opportunity when his contract runs out. But ideologically, what this
Speaker 1: team needs, especially in a situation, a situation like this,
Speaker 1: are guys who are fighting for their NBA lives, Guys
Speaker 1: who particularly guys that have the size and athleticism to
Speaker 1: where that you know, them selling their soul on the
Speaker 1: court on both ends of the floor in terms of
Speaker 1: their effort, just leads to this like tangible physical onslaught.
Speaker 1: It's it's the most amazing thing about the Memphis Grizzlies
Speaker 1: right now. They just had a stretch where they lost
Speaker 1: John Moran for the better part of a month and
Speaker 1: they won most of their games. And some of it
Speaker 1: is how good Desmond Baine is and some of it
Speaker 1: is how good Dylan Brooks is, but a lot of
Speaker 1: it it's just they're big and strong and athletic and
Speaker 1: they play hard. And the problem is is when we're
Speaker 1: missing Anthony Davis and you know, when lebron can only
Speaker 1: play thirty five minutes at night, it's there's a lot
Speaker 1: of times where we look at our lineups and it's like, well,
Speaker 1: that guy's small, well, that guy's skinny, Well, that guy
Speaker 1: doesn't move very well, well, that guy's lazy. And then
Speaker 1: you're growing away that they can't get a defensive rebound,
Speaker 1: or that they get beat down the floor in transition,
Speaker 1: or that they can't hold their own at the point
Speaker 1: of attack. And it's like, this is kind of what
Speaker 1: you sign up for when you don't have, when all
Speaker 1: your athleticism and size is tied up in your stars,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. Yeah, And I'm like Isaiah Thomas, like,
Speaker 1: I think it's fair that you know, the team has
Speaker 1: a lot of people out and stuff like that, But
Speaker 1: I mean, I just don't think we play a lot
Speaker 1: of lamps that are helpful to the players. Like Isaiah
Speaker 1: Thomas had two shots in ten minutes at halftime. If
Speaker 1: he's not shooting them, he's not Yeah, he's not helping you, right,
Speaker 1: And again, playing him next to Rondo and Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: to me, that just makes zero like that, and then
Speaker 1: playing it next to Mellow as well, next to Lebron, like,
Speaker 1: those are four guys I think half core Hoops also
Speaker 1: tweeted out those are four defensive liabilities next to Lebron
Speaker 1: and you're just gonna get cooked that way, and you're
Speaker 1: just putting a bunch of ball handling out there that
Speaker 1: with all these small guards makes no sense. Th HD
Speaker 1: as well, right, I still don't like his fit with
Speaker 1: the starters, even though he played well. I want to
Speaker 1: push back on this a little bit because I know
Speaker 1: you said weathering the storm and that all makes sense.
Speaker 1: Players are out, Anthony Davison is out, Trevor Reza's out,
Speaker 1: Kendrick Dunn, whatever. But the starting lineup, Jason is players
Speaker 1: that are going to be in the rotation when it matters, right,
Speaker 1: Like are starting Laft and I was Russ, Ellington, who
Speaker 1: Blank and Lebron Lebron, yes, yes, So the all five
Speaker 1: of those guys are gonna be in the rotation when
Speaker 1: games matter, right, And the Spurs still just cooked us
Speaker 1: in that first quarter. It was simple actions. It was
Speaker 1: a picked a role Deante Murray and No. One Taggs
Speaker 1: so Yako, Yaco Purle and I don't know if I'm
Speaker 1: saying his name right, but just hit little floaters back
Speaker 1: to back to back, and there was just we weren't
Speaker 1: competitive enough, even with the players I believe who are
Speaker 1: going to be on the floor when it matters. Which
Speaker 1: that's again to my part that I have a tough
Speaker 1: time bridging of the Yeah, let's not judge this team now,
Speaker 1: but there's also a level of competitiveness that I expect. Again,
Speaker 1: Lebron played well. I thought Russ had a really struggling
Speaker 1: first quarter. I think his turnover has really hurt us.
Speaker 1: And I don't think we're in position to have many
Speaker 1: bad RUSS games like and again, I understand he went
Speaker 1: off from the third. I thought san Antonio had the
Speaker 1: game pretty much locked up during that time. They kind
Speaker 1: of kept us at arms distance. We were kind of
Speaker 1: down ten to twelve that whole time. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: that's kind of Do you understand my pushback there, I
Speaker 1: guess because the starters are players that are going to
Speaker 1: be in the rotation. And I still feel like san
Speaker 1: Antonio outplayed us for a lot of that first quarter,
Speaker 1: and THHD played well. I not played well, but he
Speaker 1: played a lot better than he did in that first game.
Speaker 1: Lebron again played well, but I'm just seeing like there's
Speaker 1: not enough execution there with the players that are going
Speaker 1: to play, which makes it hard for me to just
Speaker 1: blame us on having the league lineups. And again, lineups
Speaker 1: aren't great. I hate the I T Russ and Rondo lamps,
Speaker 1: like does make no sense. DeAndre Jordan played the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: God knows why. Um I thought d why Howard was
Speaker 1: a lot better than him for for the most part tonight.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of frustrating fouls as well. But
Speaker 1: you do you understand my point there, I guess in
Speaker 1: where like I still think there's a baseline level they
Speaker 1: have to reach, because we played players that are going
Speaker 1: to play when it matters, and the Spurs still kicked
Speaker 1: her as we were down nine to end the first
Speaker 1: it was like thirty three to twenty four or something.
Speaker 1: So you're you're right that the Lakers normal rotation players
Speaker 1: also didn't play nearly well enough. You're correct about that. However,
Speaker 1: the vast majority of the Lakers normal rotation players that
Speaker 1: were active tonight, we're old guys, and old guys. They
Speaker 1: it's it's it's a it's like a it's like a
Speaker 1: risk reward occasion of equation for them. I don't think
Speaker 1: they believed they could win the game. And and you know,
Speaker 1: you're right, You're right, But what I'm saying is is,
Speaker 1: and this is a problem, but this is a problem
Speaker 1: that comes with older guys. This is why I advocate
Speaker 1: trying at least over the course of this funky stretch
Speaker 1: of games here to end the year. This is why
Speaker 1: I would have gone with the younger players, because even
Speaker 1: if you can't win the game, at least a younger
Speaker 1: player is playing for his NBA career, his his his
Speaker 1: livelihood is on the line, and so there there's an
Speaker 1: effort that comes with that with the older guys, like
Speaker 1: they're looking at it like, well, this sucks, like that,
Speaker 1: we we don't have any of our bodies. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be damn or impossible to win this game. Why the
Speaker 1: hell am I gonna put my body on the line
Speaker 1: to try to win this game when we can just
Speaker 1: go on and run and at the start of the year,
Speaker 1: when everyone's healthy again. Like that, That's why I would
Speaker 1: imagine that's their rationale. Now you're right, like this goes
Speaker 1: back to the conversation we've been having about basketball character.
Speaker 1: That's bad basketball character in my opinion, And that's why
Speaker 1: you're seeing guys like Lebron, who has good basketball character,
Speaker 1: who's a winner, who's accustomed to winning, putting it on
Speaker 1: the line tonight. You know, that's why you're seeing I mean,
Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't love Russ's game tonight, and I
Speaker 1: think Russ has actually been slumping for a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks now out of nowhere. But but you're you're seeing
Speaker 1: the competitiveness of Lebron and Russ and their basketball character
Speaker 1: coming to the surface. But with a lot of these
Speaker 1: other guys that don't have that character, they're struggling with
Speaker 1: this and that's unfortunate. But that's to me where it's like,
Speaker 1: at least I could look at Lebron and I could
Speaker 1: be like, hey, man, like, you're not gonna have a
Speaker 1: lot of shooting, You're not gonna have guys who can
Speaker 1: make plays off of you. But these three young guys
Speaker 1: I'm putting out with you for these four these three
Speaker 1: or four bs basketball games that don't even resemble normal
Speaker 1: NBA games. At the very least, I promised these guys
Speaker 1: and put out there with you are going to sell
Speaker 1: their soul on both ends of the floor with effort
Speaker 1: in physicality because they're fighting for their NBA careers. That
Speaker 1: that's again, this is this is really all moot, because
Speaker 1: I think they'd probably lose this game in that situation anyway.
Speaker 1: But at the but at the very least, it's about
Speaker 1: the habits. And that's the most important part because the
Speaker 1: really unfortunate side effect of all of this is there's
Speaker 1: a situation where these guys are all going to come
Speaker 1: back and be healthy and to December early January, and
Speaker 1: and they're gonna have to go through another ramp up
Speaker 1: period for another couple of weeks where they're gonna have
Speaker 1: nasty film sessions and coaching staff pointing out that they're
Speaker 1: making all these mistakes again, which is exactly what we
Speaker 1: just went through in November at the beginning of the month.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what we just went through. And we've built
Speaker 1: all these habits back up to a passable basketball character.
Speaker 1: And then we let go the road because of the circumstances, which, again,
Speaker 1: as you keep pointing out, they're legitimate circumstances, but it's
Speaker 1: bringing out an ugly side of the of the of
Speaker 1: this roster makeup, you know what I mean. And that's
Speaker 1: why I would have I would have been like, instead
Speaker 1: of I t let me go down to you know,
Speaker 1: some GE League team and find a six seven, two
Speaker 1: thirty pound athlete and just be like, look, man, you're
Speaker 1: up here for ten days, and I want you to
Speaker 1: grab every rebound. I want you to sprint the floor
Speaker 1: and transition on every possession. You know, set hard screens
Speaker 1: for Lebron and and and and maybe we'll be able
Speaker 1: to keep these games competitive. It's just and again, it's
Speaker 1: it might not all have been worth anything. But that's
Speaker 1: just how I would have approached this. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: think we saw one of those guys. I mean, Jamario
Speaker 1: Jones played twelve minutes tonight. He got run like early
Speaker 1: in the game as well. I thought he ran around,
Speaker 1: played hard. He had one rebound, but I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: he did things off the ball. It's fun. It was
Speaker 1: fun to just watch him for a little while, just
Speaker 1: trying to cut in and stuff. And I would like
Speaker 1: to see j Huff as well, Like he made the
Speaker 1: cut and I would like to see him at least
Speaker 1: get a chance here. But you're right, hopefully they can
Speaker 1: play a couple of younger players. It's just like it's
Speaker 1: very easy to just make excuses right now. And I
Speaker 1: talked about on the last part, how this can this
Speaker 1: can crumble? Right like this can you can break? We're
Speaker 1: a team that's under five hundred now and all that
Speaker 1: stuff you talked about how you know, maybe they didn't
Speaker 1: believe they can win tonight and all that stuff, And
Speaker 1: that's all on the human element. I mean, that's natural.
Speaker 1: I don't think the Spurs of the team that you
Speaker 1: do that with. You know, the Spurs are six game
Speaker 1: there were six games under five hundred coming in tonight.
Speaker 1: Even with the players the Lakers didn't have, You're still
Speaker 1: starting Russell Westbrook and Lebron James, and Lebron being the
Speaker 1: guy who continues to play the hardest out of anyone. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's really strange. And the Lakers went five for eighteen
Speaker 1: from three tonight or five seven from three actually, which
Speaker 1: is probably a historically bad that's but I thought they
Speaker 1: took a lot of bad ones as well. Carmelo took
Speaker 1: a couple of a whole bunch of contested ones. Then
Speaker 1: you need to flip this around, though, Like they gave
Speaker 1: up a hundred and thirty eight points to the Spurs.
Speaker 1: That's not missing Trevor Reason, that's not missing Kendrick Nunn.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a that's a whole different story. I'd say,
Speaker 1: I'm just not going to rotate anymore. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to close out anymore, or you know, that's that moves
Speaker 1: into that territory. Territory when you start going into that,
Speaker 1: I think Kate's Kate, Uh yeah, job was like yeah,
Speaker 1: he was like ten for ten tonight, and a lot
Speaker 1: of those were just catch up the rim, very little
Speaker 1: resistance at the basket and layups, like that's the stuff
Speaker 1: I feel like we can clean up because you're right,
Speaker 1: eight is gonna eventually come back, but you're hopeful this
Speaker 1: team's kind of going upward. Right when that happens, they're
Speaker 1: going in some kind of positive trajectory. Here. You can't
Speaker 1: just fall off the face of the earth because he's out.
Speaker 1: You can't fall in the face because Trevor Reads is out.
Speaker 1: Like you said, a lot of players are out. Um,
Speaker 1: and I still hate the lineups and all that stuff,
Speaker 1: But I just think there's there's something deeper here too
Speaker 1: that we can fix ourselves. Like we shoot ourselves in
Speaker 1: the foot a lot and just blame it all on
Speaker 1: people out I think. I think it's tough. I think
Speaker 1: there's actually basketball things that we can fix. I think
Speaker 1: starting Dwight was a positive to that. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: I just have a hard time going fully in one
Speaker 1: direction in terms of just wait and you know, whether
Speaker 1: the storm is great, I think that's something we have
Speaker 1: to do, but we also have to live The storm
Speaker 1: is gonna be here for a little while, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like we got to live in it
Speaker 1: and learn how to live in it. I guess, well,
Speaker 1: and I disagree with some of the like even even
Speaker 1: just accepting the fact that the Lakers opted to, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of go with the status quo in terms of
Speaker 1: our our roster construct, even even accepting that, I would
Speaker 1: not have gone with the rotation that Fitdale went with tonight.
Speaker 1: So for instance, like me, there are we limited, yes,
Speaker 1: but there were obvious decisions, staggering decisions that would have
Speaker 1: given us a better chance to win in my opinion.
Speaker 1: So for instance, like, there should never, ever, ever, ever
Speaker 1: be a situation, even with this roster, even under the
Speaker 1: current circumstances that Mason Jones, Rondo and Isaiah Thomas and
Speaker 1: Westbrooker all on the floor at the same time with
Speaker 1: Mellow at center, which is what we started I believe
Speaker 1: the second quarter with like that's just or end of
Speaker 1: the first I can't remember where it was, but at
Speaker 1: some point in the first half, that's just nonsensical. Like,
Speaker 1: given the the the players that we had available to
Speaker 1: start the game, decision one should have been, Okay, are
Speaker 1: we playing one center? Two? Okay, we're playing one center. Okay,
Speaker 1: the center's d White, Okay, well Lebron's are other centers,
Speaker 1: So we're staggering them. So guess what Lebron is starting
Speaker 1: the game at the five. That should have been decision
Speaker 1: number one. Decision number two is th h T should
Speaker 1: have been thrown in with the second unit. Not because
Speaker 1: he doesn't deserve to start in a normal world, of
Speaker 1: course he does. He deserves to start, you know, under
Speaker 1: an under normal circumstances. But we have a better chance
Speaker 1: of winning a game, especially against a bad team, if
Speaker 1: we go with a you know, Ellington, Russ, Lebron and
Speaker 1: in feerior role players to start and then bring in
Speaker 1: a lineup that's built around th HD and Dwights or
Speaker 1: at least there's a baseline level of athleticism and size,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like that to me, And
Speaker 1: again it might not have mattered, we might have lost anyway,
Speaker 1: But just from a strategy standpoint, I think you've got
Speaker 1: to try to run functional lineups. And what I thought
Speaker 1: was poor strategy was running all of our best players
Speaker 1: to start the game, our best available players, and then
Speaker 1: immediately just pulling them all and going with literally just
Speaker 1: a hodgepodge of non NBA players and Russell Westbrook and
Speaker 1: Carmelo Anthony. Like, to me, that just was poor strategy.
Speaker 1: But you know, the reality of the situation is is
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves and Malik Monk are both going to be
Speaker 1: coming back very soon. And you know, Trevor Reas is
Speaker 1: out right now, but you know he's vaccinated. I believe,
Speaker 1: I believe he's boosted as well. I can't remember exactly,
Speaker 1: but chances are we're only gonna lose the reason for
Speaker 1: like two or three games, so you know, hopefully, I
Speaker 1: think this won't last much longer. But that said, like
Speaker 1: going into the game on Saturday against Brooklyn, I think
Speaker 1: strategically they need to do a better job of staggering
Speaker 1: our talent. You have a better chance of pulling out
Speaker 1: a game that you have no business winning if you
Speaker 1: play a handful of good players with bad players rather
Speaker 1: than all your good players and then all your bad players.
Speaker 1: If that makes sense. Yeah, and I thought no, so
Speaker 1: I wrote in my notes here, like the first action
Speaker 1: of the game, I guess was they ran a high
Speaker 1: ball screen for th HD, right, so they said everyone's
Speaker 1: spaced out. Th HD got a screen for Lebron. He
Speaker 1: was able to get downhill and he got fouled, and
Speaker 1: that stuff I would like to see with the second
Speaker 1: unit and like we talked about, we can't just develop
Speaker 1: th HT, but we can put him in better positions
Speaker 1: to be successful. Throwing THD in the corner as if
Speaker 1: he's like Wayne Ellington or if he's a space or
Speaker 1: like Molik Monk like that. To me, that's just doesn't
Speaker 1: put him in positions needs. So I'm hopeful that they
Speaker 1: can kind of stagger a little bit better as well.
Speaker 1: To me, playing Rajon Rondo makes very little sense when
Speaker 1: both Isaiah Thomas um when Isaiah Thomas is in the rotation,
Speaker 1: like that feels like nonsense school to me. When you're
Speaker 1: having Russell Westbrook and Rondo at the floor, Rondo feels
Speaker 1: like a very worst version of Westbrook at this point
Speaker 1: in his career, right, another guy who is a non
Speaker 1: spacing shooter who needs the ball in his hands. Like
Speaker 1: those two together just make very little basketball sense to me.
Speaker 1: So I hope like they can kind of stagger those
Speaker 1: lineups a little bit better. I don't think it has
Speaker 1: to be so rigid. It feels like we try to
Speaker 1: keep these starting lineups together and keep these second in
Speaker 1: this together, and then we get these these like six
Speaker 1: to seven minutes of lineups that are gonna get actually
Speaker 1: destroyed um in their short time being. I wanna read
Speaker 1: this little quote quote here that came out just recently.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of put you on spot on this. So
Speaker 1: Lebron James tonight was asked Anna was asked what it
Speaker 1: will take for the Lakers to be a good defensive team,
Speaker 1: and his answer was, all our defensive guys are in
Speaker 1: health and safety protocols. So what do you think about
Speaker 1: his his kind of reply there. I don't think he's wrong.
Speaker 1: I think that's just a funny reply to to come
Speaker 1: out with. Well, there's a there's a little bit of
Speaker 1: irony there because I believe coming into tonight's game, the
Speaker 1: Lakers were top ten defense. I could I could be
Speaker 1: wrong about that, but the for the last couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: the Lakers have been hovering right around the top right
Speaker 1: around the top third, uh the you know, the right
Speaker 1: around that like border between the top third and second
Speaker 1: third defenses in the league. So the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is is we've actually been a pretty good defensive
Speaker 1: team under the circumstances, which is hilarious because I would
Speaker 1: argue that there's so much room for improvement on that
Speaker 1: end of the floor, even even when we're playing well,
Speaker 1: there's so much room for improvement. That said, like, you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron's just point like, you know, Lebron got a bunch
Speaker 1: of crap for uh pointing out that the Suns were
Speaker 1: at full strength and we were not. And I saw
Speaker 1: all over Twitter, I saw a bunch of people, a
Speaker 1: lot of Sun stands, a lot of Warriors fans, a
Speaker 1: lot of which just hilarious. I was thinking about this,
Speaker 1: the Warriors fans and Lebron and Lakers fans, or rather
Speaker 1: Steph fans and Lebron fans. All they do is just
Speaker 1: trade completely nonsensical insults at each other, and nothing's fair.
Speaker 1: Everything is just completely as It's hilarious. But anyway, like that,
Speaker 1: they were going at Lebron for that comment, and I
Speaker 1: thought it was funny because you know, the reality is
Speaker 1: is like the reporter asked him a question, what do
Speaker 1: you want him to say? You know, like there we
Speaker 1: was there was a handful of possessions there in that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter where I think it was Derek White and
Speaker 1: then I think the other guy with Murray. They just
Speaker 1: put their head down and went Isaiah Thomas and he's
Speaker 1: just physically incapable of stopping them. He's just too small,
Speaker 1: and it's like there's no yeah, but there's no scheme,
Speaker 1: there's no rotation that there's nothing you can do about
Speaker 1: that under their current circumstances. You're right, like the starting
Speaker 1: lineup could have defended a little better. And that's a
Speaker 1: whole other thing, and we already talked about that earlier
Speaker 1: in the pod. But the point is it's like Lebron's right,
Speaker 1: Like step one to fixing any of the problems that
Speaker 1: you're piste off about tonight's game, Step one is get
Speaker 1: guys back. It's it's really that simple, Like it doesn't
Speaker 1: get any more complicated than that. Like this team functionally,
Speaker 1: Like let's say, let's say you're down ten um, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to win a game against the Spurs, and and
Speaker 1: it's Lebron and Anthony Davis is out, but I've got Lebron, Trevor, Resa,
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves, th HT and Russ on the floor. Like
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna be gardened just fun, you know,
Speaker 1: Like I think that lineup, I actually tweeted about that
Speaker 1: line up earlier today. That's a very interesting switchy type
Speaker 1: of line up to use with uh, with Anthony Davis out,
Speaker 1: but like he's right, Like Trevor, A Reason and Oscar
Speaker 1: Reaves right now are probably our two best defensive forwards
Speaker 1: not named Lebron. That's probably true, right, so, and you
Speaker 1: know in Russ then A pointed this out, and I
Speaker 1: think he's correct, although I would argue that if you're
Speaker 1: gonna make defensive mistakes, make defensive mistakes. They give up jumpers,
Speaker 1: not layups. That said, um, Russ and Lebron both made
Speaker 1: a lot of defensive mistakes tonight as a result of fatigue,
Speaker 1: which is which is to be expected. Um. But like
Speaker 1: in theory bringing like as guys come back in as
Speaker 1: Molik Monk can run some offense, you know, as things
Speaker 1: kind of get back to normal, uh, in terms of
Speaker 1: our role distribution, I think guys will be able to
Speaker 1: click it back into gear. But it's that simple. Reeves
Speaker 1: and the Reason are two best defensive forwards not named Lebron,
Speaker 1: and they're both in They're both tracked in hotel rooms
Speaker 1: right now. I don't even know if they're back in
Speaker 1: l A yet. So like the reality is that it's
Speaker 1: just a really unfortunate situation. Actually, I think the Reason
Speaker 1: is back in l a thankfully hopefully get suspend some
Speaker 1: time with this family. But it's just it is the
Speaker 1: reality of the situation. And if people are going to
Speaker 1: be mad that Lebron asked questions answers questions honestly, then
Speaker 1: don't ask him questions. If you don't want to hear
Speaker 1: Lebron point out the obvious realities of their roster situation,
Speaker 1: save the question, please, right, Yeah, I just think it's
Speaker 1: interesting because you know, I don't think he's wrong that,
Speaker 1: you know, we have our defensive players out. I just
Speaker 1: think but we can still play better than we did tonight,
Speaker 1: you know, and those yeah, and the starters especially, I
Speaker 1: don't blame you know, those three guard lineups unable to defend.
Speaker 1: I just don't like that. You know, we have Lebron,
Speaker 1: Dwight th Ht out there and we couldn't stop you
Speaker 1: know what a pick and roll action that spurs went
Speaker 1: to three or four times. And that's effort stuff as well,
Speaker 1: like you said, And that's also players ball watching Russ.
Speaker 1: That's the reason another reason I don't like the Russ
Speaker 1: kind of rondo lineups that both of them are very uh,
Speaker 1: they like to ball watch a lot. They'll do that
Speaker 1: on defense and putting those two together, it breaks down
Speaker 1: any kind of defensive kind of cohesion that you have.
Speaker 1: But I think it's interesting. I think Lebron is gonna
Speaker 1: be blunt like this for the most of his questions.
Speaker 1: Uh as we go forward. I think it's very easy
Speaker 1: to see that he was frustrated tonight as well. Right,
Speaker 1: you could tell just all night he was car ring
Speaker 1: most of the load, and you could tell it's it's
Speaker 1: frustrating on him. And I don't blame him. It just
Speaker 1: seems like he's trying to wild the team two wins here,
Speaker 1: and I thought he's played well in every single one
Speaker 1: of these losses, right in Chicago against Phoenix tonight again,
Speaker 1: like he's in Minnesota as well. Like he's played well
Speaker 1: in all these games, and all of them have resulted
Speaker 1: in losses. And like you talked about it, you'd like
Speaker 1: to see some of the hard work kind of result
Speaker 1: in wins. It just hasn't happened yet. But yeah, there's
Speaker 1: lineup stuff that we can fix here, there's xs and
Speaker 1: th stuff that we can kind of get into. I
Speaker 1: would like to run a couple more actions for Wayne Ellington,
Speaker 1: went some more ball screen actions for t ht but yeah,
Speaker 1: we're just short manned and hopefully they'll they can get
Speaker 1: a win on Christmas. I think Kevin Durant might be
Speaker 1: actually back for that one, so I'm not I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that's that's another tough one. That and it
Speaker 1: feels like this is kind of how the games are
Speaker 1: gonna be going forward, at least until we get Reeves
Speaker 1: and a reason back um in a couple of days. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and again like who it has already had covered a
Speaker 1: couple of times, and it's like and he's again probably
Speaker 1: dribbling a basketball in his hotel room, trying to do cardio,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna throw him out there against Lebron. Like
Speaker 1: it's just it's just such an unfortunate set of circumstances.
Speaker 1: But let's hit, let's hit one last thing and then
Speaker 1: we'll get out of here, because I know our guy
Speaker 1: Raj is just feeling a little under the weather and
Speaker 1: he could use some sleep and an hour ahead of you,
Speaker 1: so it's almost midnight where I'm at. But um, anyway,
Speaker 1: so this was something that I wanted to keep just
Speaker 1: as as one little kernel of positivity here because I
Speaker 1: think we could all agree that the Lakers have played
Speaker 1: beneath their capability right over the course of the season,
Speaker 1: Like this is okay, are they are they a sixty
Speaker 1: win team? I mean maybe if they're fully healthy and
Speaker 1: things go right, but with the way they started the
Speaker 1: season with their habits, like even if they stayed healthy,
Speaker 1: they're probably closer to team. But the true point is
Speaker 1: there they were not a five hundred team like we
Speaker 1: we we This is not a five hundred basketball team.
Speaker 1: This is a team that has played you know that
Speaker 1: is throw some poor play and some poor circumstances has
Speaker 1: resulted in a team that is sixteen and seventeen. But
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is if you look at
Speaker 1: the West standings, you have these three teams at the
Speaker 1: top that are way ahead of everybody, and then you
Speaker 1: have Memphis, who also lost tonights. I think there are
Speaker 1: only three games up on the Lakers, but Memphis is
Speaker 1: like in that second tier right like below those teams
Speaker 1: at the top. But then everyone else kind of is
Speaker 1: a five hundred basketball team. Like the Nuggets are not
Speaker 1: getting Michael Porter Jr. Back at all this season and
Speaker 1: uh and they're not probably not gonna get him all
Speaker 1: Murray back at all this season. So they're they're just
Speaker 1: a five basketball team, you know, the Clippers without Kauai
Speaker 1: in this stacked Western conference. In terms of you know,
Speaker 1: depth of talent, they're probably a five hundred basketball team,
Speaker 1: like they might be able to get up to, you know,
Speaker 1: somewhere in the in the you know, forty five and
Speaker 1: you know, thirty seven or whatever, but they're not. They're
Speaker 1: not like a you know, a team that's gonna end
Speaker 1: up with fifty something wins. So the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is is if you can just just like I said,
Speaker 1: get to the point where a D comes back and
Speaker 1: you're close to five hundred, if you're just close to
Speaker 1: five when a D comes back, you can go on
Speaker 1: a thirty game run where you go twenty and ten
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you're the four seed or
Speaker 1: the five right like that. That's the really, that's the
Speaker 1: reality of it. So the fortunate circumstance here is the
Speaker 1: Lakers are lumped in with a bunch of teams who
Speaker 1: are kind of playing the kind of basketball that they
Speaker 1: were supposed to play, and we're the outlier. We're the
Speaker 1: team that's underperforming massively to our talent level. Obviously, injuries
Speaker 1: played a huge role in that. So my point is
Speaker 1: is that, like, given the way the standings are shaking out,
Speaker 1: we don't have to worry about like last year, where
Speaker 1: we're sitting in a situation where there's like the sixth
Speaker 1: seed is completely unattainable. Like I don't think that's going
Speaker 1: to happen personally, Um, so there that we don't need
Speaker 1: to be world beaters over the next month. I think
Speaker 1: we just need to play five hundred basketball for the
Speaker 1: next month. If we can do that and there are
Speaker 1: some winnable games coming up. I think we play Sacramento
Speaker 1: twice again coming up, but like, we have some winnable
Speaker 1: games coming up, So if we can get right around
Speaker 1: that five mark, there's a legitimate chance to secure one
Speaker 1: of the four or five seeds, in which case it's
Speaker 1: just beat Memphis, which we absolutely can do and then
Speaker 1: go be Golden State. You know what I mean? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you know that's that's all sounds great, And
Speaker 1: again I don't want to be the one that sounds
Speaker 1: more down like I think they can they can catch up.
Speaker 1: Memphis is obviously playing probably the best basketball to the
Speaker 1: people above. The Clippers are seventeen and fifteen, but I
Speaker 1: mean right behind us is Dallas that's fifteen and sixteen,
Speaker 1: and I think they believe they're better than they are right.
Speaker 1: They've had they've missed Luca a lot of this year already,
Speaker 1: and I think they still have Luca out and a
Speaker 1: bunch of people the colored protocols Denver's fifteen and sixteen.
Speaker 1: I don't believe they think they're under five team even
Speaker 1: with mp J Allen and Murray at with Yogurt, So
Speaker 1: I think there are still teams under us. And to me,
Speaker 1: like I can't even look at the standings yet, like
Speaker 1: we're playing ourselves, Like we need to play at a
Speaker 1: baseline level before I can even look at that stuff.
Speaker 1: And you're right, if we can stay five, I've said
Speaker 1: that too when a d comes back. But to me,
Speaker 1: like we need to start building up to that, Like
Speaker 1: we've lost four in a row. Eight is gonna be
Speaker 1: out for another four weeks. We're gonna get a few
Speaker 1: guys back, uh, And I like the positivity there, But
Speaker 1: I still have a hard time even looking at other
Speaker 1: teams I guess are trying to figure out standings. Like
Speaker 1: to me, if we're playing well and we go into
Speaker 1: the playoffs at the sixth seed, Like I'm fine with
Speaker 1: that as well. Like how we're playing going into the
Speaker 1: playoffs or how we're playing when a D gets back
Speaker 1: is more important to me. I guess in the actual seating.
Speaker 1: Just stay out of the seven, eight, nine, right, I
Speaker 1: believe that's the play in seventy nine, So like, just
Speaker 1: stay out of that range. And I think we're fine
Speaker 1: if you can stay at the sixth seed or if
Speaker 1: you can go up, great, Um, I would kind of
Speaker 1: live with that as well. But yeah, like to me,
Speaker 1: we're playing ourselves like we're trying to build habits, build
Speaker 1: winning habits, like you talk about build our basketball you know, uh,
Speaker 1: culture and identity and and and all that stuff. And
Speaker 1: to me, that's separate from looking at wins and losses,
Speaker 1: like we need to be playing out a level to
Speaker 1: where we can be like, Okay, we win our next four,
Speaker 1: then you know we can jump the standings here, But
Speaker 1: we haven't proven we can do any of that. We
Speaker 1: were in a triple overtime you know game with Sacramento
Speaker 1: like three or four weeks ago, like so that then
Speaker 1: we immediately won seven out and we're really good. That's
Speaker 1: that's true. Yeah, I'll give them that, but like it's
Speaker 1: just like I need to see a little bit more
Speaker 1: consistent consistency, you know what I mean, before I can
Speaker 1: kind of get into that. But I hope, so, I
Speaker 1: hope you're right, Like I'm I still believe that there's
Speaker 1: a good team in here when they're healthy, and I
Speaker 1: just want to see it at least once. I think
Speaker 1: it's so tragical our guys have been in and out.
Speaker 1: But yeah, hopefully they can get to win in Brooklyn
Speaker 1: because I think, you know, going two games under five
Speaker 1: would be tough even with the amount of games left. Yeah, again,
Speaker 1: all I'm saying is in terms of the silver because
Speaker 1: I agree with you, like none of this matters if
Speaker 1: it will play better, But like I don't think. I
Speaker 1: don't like everyone keeps saying like, are the Lakers gonna
Speaker 1: be in the plane or the Lakers gonna be in
Speaker 1: the plant rain? I I don't think so, and and
Speaker 1: and it's because of what I just said, Like, if
Speaker 1: the Lakers were in the play in um come April,
Speaker 1: I think that would be a direct result of them
Speaker 1: not playing well after a d came back, Like it
Speaker 1: it would require them not ever reaching a stretch of
Speaker 1: good basketball. But when when the center of the conference
Speaker 1: is all hodgepodged around five hundred, then if you then
Speaker 1: if you can go twenty and ten and thirty games
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis, which is totally achievable to end the season,
Speaker 1: you're not going to be in the plan. Like that's
Speaker 1: just that's the reality of the situation, because they're not
Speaker 1: going to go ten games under five hundred over the
Speaker 1: next month. I don't think. I mean, crazier things can happen.
Speaker 1: Then I'll get ready for this clip to get taken
Speaker 1: out thrown in my face in a month. But yeah, again,
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just I'm just saying, like I don't
Speaker 1: think it's as dire as last year in terms of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: now we have to play Golden State in a playing game,
Speaker 1: Like I I don't think that will happen unless things
Speaker 1: get considerably worse, like Lebron gets hurt or a reason
Speaker 1: gets hurt again or something like that. Like I think
Speaker 1: it would require some more very unfortunate luck. But that's
Speaker 1: that's all we got for tonight. Guys, We're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna call it. We will be back. Roger, You're playing
Speaker 1: on doing the show of Christmas Day. Correct, absolutely, yes,
Speaker 1: we will be here after whoever decides to play basketball
Speaker 1: wearing a Brooklyn Nets jersey decides to play basketball against
Speaker 1: the team full of unknown players wearing Lakers jerseys on
Speaker 1: on Saturday night. Uh, this is gonna air on DASH
Speaker 1: Radio tomorrow morning at seventy and Pacific Standard time, and
Speaker 1: we'll be at our podcast feed here in about thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: As always, we appreciate your support. We hope you're enjoying
Speaker 1: the holidays and getting some time together with the family,
Speaker 1: and we will see you guys in a couple of days.
Speaker 1: I'd be all thanks everyone. Thanks m