Speaker 1: Welcome to the State of the Lakers, brought to you
Speaker 1: by Dash Radio. It is good to be back, everybody.
Speaker 1: A quick trip up to Iowa, but I'm I'm glad
Speaker 1: to be back. I sincerely appreciate RAJ covering for me
Speaker 1: last night Big Laker win. I'm not gonna dict too
Speaker 1: much into that today because of the fact that I'm
Speaker 1: only about halfway through my rewatch and most of the
Speaker 1: important stuff happened in the second happen in overtime. Anyway,
Speaker 1: So tomorrow night or Friday night, I should say, because
Speaker 1: this is actually gonna be releasing on Friday morning. Friday
Speaker 1: night they go to Minnesota to take play the Timberwolves,
Speaker 1: but i have one of my bigger Christmas events of
Speaker 1: the year with my wife's family, so I'm actually gonna
Speaker 1: be missing that game. Again. Thankful for Rage that he's
Speaker 1: available to cover for me. But on Saturday morning, I
Speaker 1: plan on doing a podcast and I'm really gonna do
Speaker 1: deep dive on the film from both Wednesday night in
Speaker 1: Dallas and Friday night in Minnesota today, as is usually
Speaker 1: the case on an off day, I'm gonna hit on
Speaker 1: a couple of league wide topics, and then I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do a deep dive on the Lakers concept. You know,
Speaker 1: the two league topics I'm gonna hit on are gonna
Speaker 1: Beyokich in his m v P case, something that's being
Speaker 1: pushed by Zach Low and Ben Taylor. And I'm also
Speaker 1: gonna be hitting on Kevin Durant choosing Brooklyn over New
Speaker 1: York and why I don't think it's that crazy, what
Speaker 1: we're that big of a deal, and why I actually
Speaker 1: think Kevin Durant made the right decision. Um but uh,
Speaker 1: And then the Laker topic is going to center around
Speaker 1: their defense and doing more switching and why I think
Speaker 1: that's so important. So let's let's start with Yokis now again.
Speaker 1: Like I said this, this movement is being pushed by
Speaker 1: Ben Taylor and Zach Loow, two guys that I really
Speaker 1: really respect to my favorite people in this business. If
Speaker 1: you've never listened to Ben Taylor's YouTube videos, A highly
Speaker 1: recommend you check them out. And I don't need to
Speaker 1: tell you anything about Zach Low. He's one of the
Speaker 1: best in the business. Um. That said, I vehemently disagree
Speaker 1: with them in this approach that they're taking here. They're
Speaker 1: basically to make a long story short, their take is
Speaker 1: Yokich absolutely should be very much in consideration for winning
Speaker 1: the MVP Award because not only is he having a
Speaker 1: fantastic individual season by any statistical measure, by any advanced
Speaker 1: metric measure, but also the Nuggets kill everybody when he's
Speaker 1: on the floor, and when he's off the floor, they
Speaker 1: get killed, and that, by its very literal definition, is
Speaker 1: what an m v P is, and that's why he
Speaker 1: should win the award. That's kind of the little cliff
Speaker 1: notes version of what their take is. And obviously, I
Speaker 1: respectfully vehemently disagree, and the main reason why is that,
Speaker 1: you know, the MVP Award is what it is, and
Speaker 1: I'm kind of getting sick of, you know, having this
Speaker 1: exact same conversation every single year as it pertains to
Speaker 1: that fringe candidate that's on a team that's not near
Speaker 1: the top of the standings. Because look again, yes, I
Speaker 1: understand that Most Valuable Player by its very literal, semantic definition,
Speaker 1: has a certain meaning, but this award throughout the entirety
Speaker 1: of modern NBA history has meant something different. It has
Speaker 1: almost always involved who's having the best individuals season in
Speaker 1: conjunction with whose team is having the most success. That
Speaker 1: has always been the case, and there's always been a
Speaker 1: threshold there to where we don't even consider guys that
Speaker 1: are unlimited teams unless there just isn't candidates at the top.
Speaker 1: And this season there are candidates at the top, bona
Speaker 1: fide traditional MVP candidates, Kevin Durant, Steph one seed in
Speaker 1: the East, one seed in the West. The two of
Speaker 1: them are having traditional dominant NBA seasons MVP seasons. You
Speaker 1: can't gloss over that to then start bending the rules
Speaker 1: to try to include someone else. For instance, I I
Speaker 1: pushed back on the concept of Yokih struggling his team
Speaker 1: struggling when he's off the floor, when Kevin Durant is
Speaker 1: basically having that same problem in Brooklyn. The differences Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant is is expanding his role to cover for that.
Speaker 1: Kevin Durand has played over two hundred more minutes the
Speaker 1: Nicolo Yokich this year. He plays about five minutes more
Speaker 1: per game. That inherently allows his team to win more
Speaker 1: games because he's not allowing himself to be off the floor.
Speaker 1: Now there's a whole other conversation to have about his
Speaker 1: health and whether or not that's smart. But in terms
Speaker 1: of that same definition of most valuable player, that's Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant's telling you that I'm willing to do more two,
Speaker 1: you know, make up for my team shortcomings. Yokich is
Speaker 1: only playing like thirty two and some change minutes per game.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that. That
Speaker 1: may very well be the smartest strategy with the superstar,
Speaker 1: but you don't get to do that and then complain
Speaker 1: that you're getting killed in the other third of the
Speaker 1: game that you're sitting out. So I don't really necessarily
Speaker 1: think that's that's relevant here. And then the case everyone
Speaker 1: uses to try to shoehorn Yokich in is Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: In two thousand seventeen. Russell Westbrook was on a limited team.
Speaker 1: There were obviously better players in the league that season,
Speaker 1: but he did a ton to carry his team to
Speaker 1: get to that uh, you know, middle of the pack
Speaker 1: playoff Burthen So he ended up getting the award. But
Speaker 1: there are a bunch of differing a bunch of things
Speaker 1: about that season that are very different than this season.
Speaker 1: In that season, russ was twelve games over five hundred.
Speaker 1: Yokich is five hundreds, so even within that threshold, which
Speaker 1: so many people think was a mistake looking back. I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily think it was a mistake, but so many
Speaker 1: people think it was a mistake looking back. Even that
Speaker 1: team had significantly more success than Nicola Yoki's team is
Speaker 1: having now with an equally limited roster in terms of
Speaker 1: what he had flanking him on the wings and trying
Speaker 1: to help him go about the process of winning basketball
Speaker 1: games in that same season, and this is a big
Speaker 1: part of why russ one we didn't have a traditional
Speaker 1: MVP candidate Lebron in two thousand seven team. That was
Speaker 1: the season in Cleveland that he completely took his foot
Speaker 1: off the gas defensively, So it was hard to make
Speaker 1: the case for him because he wasn't trying on one
Speaker 1: end of the floor and his team was under performing.
Speaker 1: They were They only had I think fifty seven wins
Speaker 1: that season, so he kind of took himself out of
Speaker 1: that traditional bona fide m VP candidate phase hardened in Kauai.
Speaker 1: They both were very very good on good teams, but
Speaker 1: hard and only one fifty five games, so it wasn't
Speaker 1: like some clear, you know, top of the league type
Speaker 1: of juggernaut Kauai. You know, he was the Spurs won
Speaker 1: over sixty games that year, but he was considered more
Speaker 1: of like a cog in a system, not a very
Speaker 1: important cog. But he wasn't the same level of offensive
Speaker 1: engine that you were getting with Lebron or James Harden
Speaker 1: or any of those guys, So he wasn't a traditional candidate.
Speaker 1: And then Katie and staff basically canceled each other out,
Speaker 1: which is something that's happened throughout m v P history.
Speaker 1: Happened to Lebron in two thousand eleven. When you leave
Speaker 1: your team to go play alongside another top tier NBA
Speaker 1: superstar in both of you are playing at an m
Speaker 1: VP level, neither of you get credit for the award.
Speaker 1: That's always been the way that it's worked. And guess what,
Speaker 1: Isaiah Thomas got or votes for m VP this season
Speaker 1: than either Stephan Katie for that reason. So that two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen season with Russ really isn't relevant here at
Speaker 1: all as it pertains to Yoki. Yoki isn't winning nearly
Speaker 1: as much, and Yokich is competing against significantly better traditional
Speaker 1: m v P cases. He doesn't have that same foundation
Speaker 1: that Russ had to lean back on. And so again
Speaker 1: this is the most important part here, because I've been
Speaker 1: on Yokich a lot. Here. You know, just because I
Speaker 1: say Yokich isn't the best player in the league, because
Speaker 1: I'm deferring to guys that have a more you know, uh,
Speaker 1: to have a more solid playoff resume, that have been
Speaker 1: there at the highest level, And just because I'm saying
Speaker 1: Yoki is not the m v P this year does
Speaker 1: not equate to me hating on Yoki does not equate
Speaker 1: to me not understanding how good Yokich is. I have
Speaker 1: every understanding of what Yoki is. I know that he's
Speaker 1: vastly improved as a defensive player. I know he is
Speaker 1: a great wingspan, and he really bothers people around the
Speaker 1: basket it and he's really good in his pick and
Speaker 1: roll coverages with Denver. I know what he brings offensively,
Speaker 1: scoring inside, being able to attack mismatches, his ability to
Speaker 1: score from the perimeter, his array of floaters and gnarly
Speaker 1: little crazy one legged jump shots all over the place.
Speaker 1: I know what he can do as a passer. I've
Speaker 1: frequently said that he is in a tier of passer
Speaker 1: that is super unique, with only four guys in the league.
Speaker 1: It's basically him in CB three and Luca and Lebron.
Speaker 1: I am all in on the Yoki's train as a player.
Speaker 1: I'm just pointing out the absurdity of saying he's better
Speaker 1: than Steph Curry, or he's better than Kevin Durant, or
Speaker 1: he has a better m v P case this season
Speaker 1: than Steph Curry Kevin Durant, who are both playing at
Speaker 1: the top of their games and both of their teams
Speaker 1: are vastly outperforming the other teams in their conference. He
Speaker 1: has absolutely no case for m v P in my opinion.
Speaker 1: He can be on the ballot, he can be a
Speaker 1: guy who finishes fourth or fifth or whatever, but he
Speaker 1: has absolutely no leg to stand on over the guy
Speaker 1: in front of him in my opinion. Moving on to
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant. So after Steph Curry breaks the record in
Speaker 1: Madison Square Garden the other night, and I'm not going
Speaker 1: to talk about Steph today. I've talked a lot about
Speaker 1: him recently. You guys know how much I respect Steph
Speaker 1: and and how much I appreciate that record and what
Speaker 1: it means for the league, and how much he's changed
Speaker 1: the game. But so Rich climbing comes out after and
Speaker 1: he basically complains that Kevin Durant, who on the same
Speaker 1: night with a bunch of really young players and only
Speaker 1: eight Brooklyn Nets who were available to play, won a
Speaker 1: game against the Toronto Raptors in which he played incredible,
Speaker 1: he didn't get nearly as much attention or credit or
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it to Steph breaking the
Speaker 1: record in Madison Square Garden. And you know, I think
Speaker 1: he was being critical of the media and just the
Speaker 1: way that we give attention to this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But you know, the far more interesting thing to me
Speaker 1: there was the response to rich Climate, which was a
Speaker 1: lot of people coming out saying like, if that's what
Speaker 1: you wanted, why didn't you go to the Knicks? And
Speaker 1: you know what's funny to me is I I think
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant made the right decision to out to Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: And the main reason why is because he's not Lebron.
Speaker 1: He's a different type of person. He's a different type
Speaker 1: of human being. It has nothing to do with what
Speaker 1: they are as basketball players. It just has to do
Speaker 1: with their personalities. It's no different than like, you know,
Speaker 1: a guy like me not necessarily loving big cities and
Speaker 1: enjoying living in the in the desert here in Tucson
Speaker 1: with the mountains and kind of a peaceful, quiet type
Speaker 1: of lifestyle compared to living in a big city. And
Speaker 1: I've lived in big cities in my life. I've lived
Speaker 1: in Phoenix and in Charlotte, and I genuinely like it
Speaker 1: here better. But you know, there are people out there
Speaker 1: who love the hustle and bustle of being around those environments.
Speaker 1: You know, like Lebron went to the Lakers because he
Speaker 1: thrives in that attention. He loves being constantly in that
Speaker 1: swirling WorldWind of media pressure and fan pressure, in in
Speaker 1: all of the expectation. He enjoys that. You know, Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: he loves the basketball primarily, and he actually doesn't like
Speaker 1: it when things infringe on the basketball. You know, there
Speaker 1: was that moment a while back where Katie had that
Speaker 1: quote where he referred to the environment around Lebron as toxic.
Speaker 1: I never interpreted that as an insult to Lebron for
Speaker 1: being toxic. I think that had a lot more to
Speaker 1: do with just Katie prefers the environment that he cultivates
Speaker 1: around him, which is primarily based on basketball low drama.
Speaker 1: Doesn't like the attention. That's why he picked Brooklyn. If
Speaker 1: he wanted, if he was wired like Lebron, he would
Speaker 1: have picked the Knicks for Kevin Durrett. He cared more
Speaker 1: about the basketball situation, and I bet you he preferred
Speaker 1: the fact that Brooklyn would be on the back burner
Speaker 1: in their own city. Now, his his business partner, partner
Speaker 1: Rich Kleiman, he might have a different point of view
Speaker 1: on that, but that's kind of his job. His job
Speaker 1: is to help Katie with his brand or whatever the
Speaker 1: heck his list of responsibilities are. But his approach isn't
Speaker 1: the same as Katie's I would predict, and again I'm
Speaker 1: just guessing here, but I bet you Katie is extremely
Speaker 1: happy with his decision to stay in Brooklyn. I bet
Speaker 1: you he has no regrets about not going to New York. Hell,
Speaker 1: he damn near won the title in his first year
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn and in uh in this season, things are
Speaker 1: really starting to come together, so he's probably feeling fantastic
Speaker 1: right now. He probably doesn't care that he's not the
Speaker 1: center of attention, and you know, people might point to
Speaker 1: the Golden State thing and him not, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of getting the same amount of credit as step there
Speaker 1: as a reason why he left. But to me, credit
Speaker 1: and attention are two very different things. You know, I
Speaker 1: think Katie wants us to appreciate and acknowledge what he
Speaker 1: brings to the table. That's not the same as Katie
Speaker 1: wanting to be surrounded by paparazzi all the time, or
Speaker 1: like loving being the headline every day or loving being
Speaker 1: the center of attention. Those are two entirely different things.
Speaker 1: I think k d personally, just again just guessing. I
Speaker 1: think Kadi just genuinely wanted to go to a place
Speaker 1: where he would be appreciated, you know, in terms of
Speaker 1: his art and what he brought to the table as
Speaker 1: a basketball player, and leaving Golden State was part of
Speaker 1: that journey. And again when it came in time to
Speaker 1: choose between the necks of the Knicks and the Nets,
Speaker 1: I genuinely think he just thought Brooklyn was a better
Speaker 1: opportunity for basketball to be the focus for that whirlwind
Speaker 1: of of all of that drama and and attention, to
Speaker 1: be lesser than what it was in New York, and
Speaker 1: that that would be good for him. And you know, honestly,
Speaker 1: like like I came into the season, saying Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: was the best player in the world. I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of a toss up now between him and Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: But that said, I would argue that his decision to
Speaker 1: go to Brooklyn has worked out exactly the way he
Speaker 1: planned in the sense that he is starting to be
Speaker 1: finally appreciated for what he does on the court. And
Speaker 1: I think it's really really foolish for all of us to,
Speaker 1: you know, talk about what, for all of us to
Speaker 1: assume that he might want something else when he doesn't.
Speaker 1: This isn't like the Dame Lillard situation, where he's very
Speaker 1: clearly leaking all of this information out to the public
Speaker 1: and it's convolution being his own story. And there's a
Speaker 1: lot of like he said, she said stuff going. No, No,
Speaker 1: Katie's just over there playing basketball. He has no interest
Speaker 1: in leaving. He loves it there, and he's on the
Speaker 1: team that has are I mean, I think I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure they're in Vegas. They're still the favorites. So Katie
Speaker 1: is doing just fine. So let's talk some Lakers when
Speaker 1: we get out of here really quick. If you guys
Speaker 1: looked into my Twitter feed today, I was doing my
Speaker 1: little film breakdown let that I usually do, and uh,
Speaker 1: there's a play in there, a couple of plays actually
Speaker 1: in a conversation between me and Cranes and pizzas from
Speaker 1: like a film room having to do with something called
Speaker 1: a stack spain pick and roll, which is a variation
Speaker 1: of pick and roll in which there is already a
Speaker 1: man underneath the basket and when they run the highest
Speaker 1: screen and roll, you have the ball handler barreling down
Speaker 1: the lane, you have the role man barreling down the lane,
Speaker 1: and then you take the man under the basket and
Speaker 1: he just sprints up to the top of the key.
Speaker 1: And the reason why they do that is it pulls
Speaker 1: that help defender the man who's guarding that man out
Speaker 1: of the lane if he follows the shooter, or what
Speaker 1: is usually going to happen is that man will see
Speaker 1: the pick and roll coming at him and will offer help,
Speaker 1: in which case that guy under the basket is usually
Speaker 1: wide open at the top of the key. And the
Speaker 1: Lakers used a really really interesting wrinkle to try to
Speaker 1: cover it, something that caught my eye because of the
Speaker 1: fact that we've struggled with the role man all season.
Speaker 1: If if you're a Laker, fan, you have watched opponents
Speaker 1: hang on the rim NonStop this season because of our
Speaker 1: inability to guard and pick and roll. And this wrinkle
Speaker 1: stood out to me because I saw our big man,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis in this case just Steake glude to the
Speaker 1: role man the entire time, which took away the lob.
Speaker 1: But what the Lakers did to offer help on the
Speaker 1: pick and roll is they just had the guard help.
Speaker 1: And in this situation, when this person filled into the
Speaker 1: top of the key, the guy guarding the ball handler
Speaker 1: would just abandon the play and sprint back out and
Speaker 1: guard the guy in the perimeter. And there was an
Speaker 1: example of this play where the Lakers ran it perfectly
Speaker 1: and Avery Bradley and Wayne Ellington executed a switch and
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley was able to contest Reggie Bullock, who was
Speaker 1: the shooter in this case, and force a miss. But
Speaker 1: there was another version of this play where Reggie Bullock
Speaker 1: instead of running to the top of the key, Reggie
Speaker 1: Bullock is the guy who's under the basket. So in
Speaker 1: that stack Spain pick and roll, you would have you know,
Speaker 1: Powell at the top of the key with Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 1: They'd be running the action and Reggie Bullock would be
Speaker 1: the guy directly under the rim. The idea there is
Speaker 1: he's a great shooter, so if you have him being
Speaker 1: the guy running to the top of the key in
Speaker 1: the Lakers offer help from that guard, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: your best shooter a wide open three. Well, Reggie Bullock
Speaker 1: and the MAVs had a wrinkle on this, or they
Speaker 1: just had Reggie Bullock run out to the corner instead
Speaker 1: of to the top of the key. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington didn't want to switch the way he was
Speaker 1: supposed to in this action, and Jalen Brunson got a
Speaker 1: wide open layup. Why Because Anthony Davis was glued to
Speaker 1: the role man as it was his role in that coverage,
Speaker 1: and there was no help at the rim. So that's
Speaker 1: pretty convoluted. That's pretty in the weeds. Why do I
Speaker 1: bring it up? I bring it because this is the
Speaker 1: problem with trying to run variations of traditional coverage is
Speaker 1: against a modern spread, pick and roll attack. We I'm
Speaker 1: a huge believer in switching. That's something that I've talked
Speaker 1: about a lot on this pod, and I'm gonna explain
Speaker 1: a little bit more today why I'm such a big
Speaker 1: believer in that. You know, NBA teams, they're really really,
Speaker 1: really really good at after they've attacked the same thing
Speaker 1: at jazillion times, at figuring out counters in different ways
Speaker 1: to attack something, in ways to to expand their advantage. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, drop coverage, we have seen over the course
Speaker 1: of the last five years drop coverage become borderline obsolete. Now,
Speaker 1: at the beginning, it was only the really really good
Speaker 1: guards that would give us problems, right, we would have
Speaker 1: the Chris Paul's of the world, the Jamal Murray's of
Speaker 1: the world. You know, the really really high level midrange
Speaker 1: you know Steph Curry types. Anybody who was really really
Speaker 1: good at shooting off the dribble and making those floaters
Speaker 1: and things along those lines. They would kill us in
Speaker 1: drop coverage because the drop coverage big would have to
Speaker 1: step up to help on the guard at some point,
Speaker 1: which would open up the lab. What's interesting, though, and
Speaker 1: this is where this is where it gets. It makes
Speaker 1: me concerned in terms of this coverage that we use
Speaker 1: so much being viable in the future. All as is
Speaker 1: the case, if you give anybody enough reps, all of
Speaker 1: the guards in the NBA now are good at attacking
Speaker 1: drop coverage. Jalen Brunson really good at attacking drop coverage.
Speaker 1: Deer and Fox and Tyrese Haliburton really good at attacking
Speaker 1: drop coverage. They're all so good at it now. And
Speaker 1: we've seen every single team we've gone against give us
Speaker 1: hell in those pick and roll coverages with our big
Speaker 1: dropping into the paint. That what you're seeing now is
Speaker 1: it's no longer a situational thing. It's no longer a
Speaker 1: deal where Okay, we can run drop against everybody, but
Speaker 1: then when we get to the playoffs and we run
Speaker 1: to Phoenix, now we have to do something a little
Speaker 1: bit different. Okay, we ran into Golden State, now we
Speaker 1: have to do something different. No, we're reaching the point
Speaker 1: now where it's always gonna have to be different, and
Speaker 1: that's just part of the evolution of basketball. Like when
Speaker 1: I was in an ai A, every single guard was
Speaker 1: because they're all older. Every single guard was incredible shooting.
Speaker 1: Every single guard was incredible with their floaters and things
Speaker 1: like that. We used to run a variation of drop
Speaker 1: coverage that we called level where the big was basically
Speaker 1: in a drop but the guard would still go underneath.
Speaker 1: And it worked because we had a six ft ten
Speaker 1: Brazilian guy in the middle. It was great with verticality
Speaker 1: and was great at disrupting and bothering people around the rim.
Speaker 1: And even those really really good guards at the at
Speaker 1: the n A I A level weren't good enough to
Speaker 1: consistently make us pay in the mid range. That same
Speaker 1: coverage might not work even in college at this point.
Speaker 1: Over time, these things change. The reason why I think
Speaker 1: witching is the best modern coverage to use is because
Speaker 1: it's the definition ng. It's the definition of giving an
Speaker 1: inch but taking several inches. The idea that you are.
Speaker 1: You know that if you just switch every action, you're
Speaker 1: going to give up some kind of mismatch, but in
Speaker 1: that mismatch in the aggregate, you're generating more good than bad.
Speaker 1: One of the common things that happened in the first
Speaker 1: quarter against the Mavericks was Avery Bradley. When they would
Speaker 1: switch would end and and the Lakers you switching as
Speaker 1: like an emergency fallback. They will try to run one
Speaker 1: of their drop coverages or their ice or whatever you
Speaker 1: wanna call it. But when if it fails, if the
Speaker 1: guard gets too caught on the screen, they'll just yell
Speaker 1: out switch. They're not preemptively switching. They're not deliberately switching
Speaker 1: all that often. It's usually a fallback. I'm a proponent
Speaker 1: of using it full time. And the reason why it's
Speaker 1: just like what we saw on that first corner, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna break down three plays for you
Speaker 1: really quickly and then we'll get out of here. So
Speaker 1: all three of them were I believe it was Lebron.
Speaker 1: I think they in each play Lebron was on Porzingis
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, and they ran screens that ended up
Speaker 1: with Avery Bradley on Porzingis. So on the first one,
Speaker 1: Porzingis gets a post touch on the right block, there's
Speaker 1: no movement on the possession. Every Dallas Maverick just goes
Speaker 1: and stands on the three point line and kristaps Porzingis,
Speaker 1: even though he has the six ft tall Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: on him or six ft two or whatever he is,
Speaker 1: he settles for a tough, contested fade away into the
Speaker 1: lane and he makes it tough shot, really nice shot.
Speaker 1: KP would probably tell you that that's a high percentage
Speaker 1: shot for him. Then on the very next possession, same
Speaker 1: exact action ends up in the switch again. KP's got
Speaker 1: it on the left wing against excuse me, at the
Speaker 1: top of the key against Avery Bradley, And on this
Speaker 1: play he ends up taking a similar fade away against
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley, but Lebron comes over just a little bit
Speaker 1: closer and stunts at him and actually comes over at
Speaker 1: the end and tries to contest. He doesn't actually block
Speaker 1: the shop, but KP makes another really tough contested fade away.
Speaker 1: Now again, you might tell yourself, like a person sitting
Speaker 1: on their couch might say, we have to stop leaving
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley. On KP, he's killing us. But as I
Speaker 1: was watching the tape, I'm like, this is exactly what
Speaker 1: I want to happen. Because on those possessions there was
Speaker 1: very little ball movement, there was very little player movement.
Speaker 1: All other four Lakers were saving their legs because they
Speaker 1: weren't having to chase guys around and do a ton
Speaker 1: of movement. They were sitting in a defensive stance, parked
Speaker 1: in their spot, ready to help. And on the third play,
Speaker 1: this is actually a little bit further down, as a
Speaker 1: few plays later in the first quarter, KP gets it
Speaker 1: on the wing on the opposite wing, going against Avery
Speaker 1: Bradley tries to post him up. Avery Bradley is fighting
Speaker 1: even harder now, really getting up underneath KP, disrupting his
Speaker 1: bass and on the On the play, Lebron and Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook are both helping further into the lane, because that's
Speaker 1: what you do if a guy is starting to have
Speaker 1: trouble with a mismatch, you offer a little bit more
Speaker 1: help each time. You're not trying to get them to
Speaker 1: stop going to that isolation, because that's what you want
Speaker 1: them to do, but at least then it might make
Speaker 1: KP feel a little more uncomfortable. So a KP raises
Speaker 1: up into a jump shot, but Lebron digs at the
Speaker 1: last second. Avery Bradly gets a good contest, so KP
Speaker 1: throws it across the court and hits. I think it
Speaker 1: was Tim Hardaway Jr. On the opposite wing and guarded
Speaker 1: by Russell Westbrook. Russ is in the lane. Russ sees
Speaker 1: it coming and closes out and chases uh Tim Hardaway
Speaker 1: off the line. Tim Hardaway right on the play, KP
Speaker 1: flashes back to the top of the key and Hardaway
Speaker 1: throws it to KP at the top of the key.
Speaker 1: There's only five seconds on the shot clock. Now, because
Speaker 1: KP wasted half of the shot clock sitting in the
Speaker 1: post up position on the opposite of the floor, he
Speaker 1: ends up driving to the basket on a b which
Speaker 1: is always a poor decision. If you're a big guy,
Speaker 1: you never want to try to dribble past small guys
Speaker 1: because are quicker than you and they're up underneath you.
Speaker 1: It plays right into their advantage. May be heavily disrupts
Speaker 1: the dribble. Kp ends up having to take some crazy
Speaker 1: fade away running one legged shot and he bricks it
Speaker 1: off the glass, and the Lakers run the other way
Speaker 1: and get a layup. And all I could think is
Speaker 1: that is the perfect progression of switching basketball. Now, you
Speaker 1: might tell yourself they got four points in three possessions,
Speaker 1: and they did, but over the course of that game
Speaker 1: they that that sets the tone that the Mavericks are
Speaker 1: going to be stagnated by trying to attack switches. And
Speaker 1: on those switches, all four Lakers that are off the
Speaker 1: ball are not wasting their legs chasing guys around. There
Speaker 1: sitting in a defensive stance, ready to dig, ready to help,
Speaker 1: ready to box out. So it helps you with your
Speaker 1: defensive rebounding, ready to run the floor. So it helps
Speaker 1: you in transition, and I like my chances if I
Speaker 1: have the other guy isolating the all game long. Now
Speaker 1: there are variations. If you're playing Steth Curry, if you're
Speaker 1: playing Kevin Duran, if you're playing the players in the world,
Speaker 1: you don't want them to sit on an island all
Speaker 1: day long, so you might have to get creative out
Speaker 1: of that with doubling, with you know, heavy heavy help
Speaker 1: with blitzing and recovering, with having guys on the back
Speaker 1: end having to cover more ground to cover for each other.
Speaker 1: That's part of the deal. But it's always going to
Speaker 1: be difficult to guard the best players in the world.
Speaker 1: There's that a coverage in the world that successfully stops
Speaker 1: the best players in the world. Neither just drop coverage
Speaker 1: or any of these other coverages that we're talking about.
Speaker 1: But that was the genius. That was the simple genius
Speaker 1: of what Brooklyn did last year and the reason why
Speaker 1: I think they had so much success. They understood that defensively,
Speaker 1: they had guys they weren't going to be able to
Speaker 1: run traditional coverages. They didn't have the personnelity, didn't have
Speaker 1: the athleticism, they didn't have the willingness even so, they
Speaker 1: changed their scheme into a switching scheme, which offloads a
Speaker 1: lot of the physical responsibilities into mental responsibilities communication focus,
Speaker 1: paying attention, talking, letting people know who's got who and
Speaker 1: where to be. As a result, they were able to
Speaker 1: defend at plenty high enough level in order to win
Speaker 1: a championship. They stagnated. A lot of teams got into
Speaker 1: isolation contest with them, and they were isolating with Katie
Speaker 1: Kyrie and James Harden, not with Jason Tatum, or not
Speaker 1: with Drew Holiday or Jana Santana Coompo, And they were
Speaker 1: able to win those battles as a result, until injuries
Speaker 1: obviously just derailed them. I think this Laker team has
Speaker 1: the potential to be a better version of that Brooklyn
Speaker 1: switching team, and I am a big believer that this
Speaker 1: is the next phase, the next step in modern NBA
Speaker 1: defensive basketball. I think we are actively seeing right now
Speaker 1: drop coverage and all those variations and little little uh
Speaker 1: tweaks around it. We are seeing that becoming obsolete, and
Speaker 1: I think it's time for the Lakers to be the
Speaker 1: team that enters into this era. All right, That's all
Speaker 1: I got for today. Guys. This is gonna be on
Speaker 1: Dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time.
Speaker 1: This will be on my podcast feed here just in
Speaker 1: a few moments. We will be back tomorrow night with
Speaker 1: just Roj. I think he's actually gonna be getting a guest.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure who it is for the postgame show
Speaker 1: against Minnesota, and I will be back on Saturday morning.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys as always for our support, for your support,
Speaker 1: and we'll see you in a couple of days.