Speaker 1: Welcome to the State of the Lakers on DASH Radio.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for coming to hang out
Speaker 1: on a Wednesday. This is being recorded on a Wednesday. Anyway.
Speaker 1: I'm working on trying to do on off days for
Speaker 1: the Lakers, doing a little bit more league wide stuff,
Speaker 1: and what I'd like to do is do a little
Speaker 1: bit of deep dive stuff into Laker film as well.
Speaker 1: So these will be shorter. There will be roughly half
Speaker 1: the length of our post game shows that we do,
Speaker 1: and I'll hit on a couple of topics around the league,
Speaker 1: and then I'll touch on something that's a deep dive
Speaker 1: thing that I've been noticing when I watched the tape
Speaker 1: on the Laker games, and then we'll call it a day.
Speaker 1: Um Today, I'm gonna focus on the Luca Zion conversation
Speaker 1: surrounding their weight issues and what I think it means
Speaker 1: for them as players in the long run as well
Speaker 1: as in the in the immediate future. Talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about that nets Mavericks games last night, and then
Speaker 1: our deep dive issue tonight with the Lakers is going
Speaker 1: to center around the concept of active defense versus passive defense,
Speaker 1: the ball pressure, making people feel uncomfortable and why I
Speaker 1: think it's such an important part of this Laker team
Speaker 1: getting back to where they were defensively in previous seasons.
Speaker 1: But let's start with the Lucas Iron thing. So obviously
Speaker 1: we've heard, you know, we've seen pictures, we haven't heard
Speaker 1: much talk. We've heard, We've seen pictures of Zion Williamson
Speaker 1: looking very big, and then we see this video of
Speaker 1: him at Duke looking like a completely different kind of
Speaker 1: basketball player, looking thin and wiry and super super athletic
Speaker 1: as opposed to this kind of big bulldozing moderately athletic
Speaker 1: version compared to his you know, college self that we've
Speaker 1: seen in the league. And then obviously it's led to
Speaker 1: these foot issues and he's had a meniscus tear already.
Speaker 1: And then we go on with with Luca and we
Speaker 1: see for back to back training camps, he's shown up
Speaker 1: to training camp over two hundred and sixty pounds according
Speaker 1: to report words, while they prefer him to be around
Speaker 1: two or thirty pounds. So, you know, I don't really
Speaker 1: think this means anything as it pertains to who they
Speaker 1: are as people for starters. There's a lot of people
Speaker 1: saying that this should just be off limits as a
Speaker 1: topic as if it's you know, body shaming or fat
Speaker 1: shaming or whatever you wanna call it. To me, professional athletes,
Speaker 1: it's an entirely different circumstances. These guys are judged based
Speaker 1: on their performance and showing up consistently out of shape
Speaker 1: or not being able to take care of your body.
Speaker 1: To me, that's part of being a professional athlete. That's
Speaker 1: no different than me criticizing, you know, Dwyane Wade or
Speaker 1: Lebron for jogging back on defense too much. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: coming at their work ethic in a position where you
Speaker 1: know the team needs more out of them. That's to me.
Speaker 1: That to me is fair game in terms of in
Speaker 1: terms of sports analysis. But I don't think it has
Speaker 1: anything to do with who they are as competitors. We
Speaker 1: all know Luca is a freak competitor, Zion. There's no
Speaker 1: way he'd be as good as he is at basketball
Speaker 1: if he didn't care, so he obviously does care. To me,
Speaker 1: this is just immaturity. This is normal. When I was
Speaker 1: in college, I was playing college basketball, and there was
Speaker 1: a year where I probably had five hundred thirstbusters from
Speaker 1: circle K full of coca Cola. Okay, So like literally
Speaker 1: college athlete trying to get the most out of my
Speaker 1: body in my early twenties, drinking fifty ounces of pure
Speaker 1: sugary crap literally every single day. I just didn't know
Speaker 1: any better. I was a kid. I didn't mean I
Speaker 1: didn't love love the game, or that I didn't understand
Speaker 1: or try hard on a day to day basis in
Speaker 1: practice to try to become a better basketball player. I
Speaker 1: just didn't know any better. I didn't know body maintenance.
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant famously, you know, he says that it wasn't
Speaker 1: until he broke his foot in two thousand fifteen. I
Speaker 1: believe it was It wasn't until he broke his foot
Speaker 1: that he really understood how important it was for him
Speaker 1: to cut back on drinking during the season. He said
Speaker 1: he used to have a couple of beers every night
Speaker 1: and that had a big impact on his diet and
Speaker 1: how well he took care of his body. He was young,
Speaker 1: He didn't know any better. This is all part of
Speaker 1: that process. What concerns me with both Luca and Zion
Speaker 1: moving forward is injuries bea is These things, Yeah, they heal,
Speaker 1: but most of the time they leave a little bit
Speaker 1: of residual effect. You do lose a little bit of mobility.
Speaker 1: You know, Zion's already had a meniscus tear, he has
Speaker 1: he has a broken foot now, or he's been rehabbing
Speaker 1: a broken foot and the pain is lingering. These kinds
Speaker 1: of things. When you're moving that kind of weight, it
Speaker 1: sets up higher. It's it's higher probability that you'll suffer
Speaker 1: injuries to your lower body. I remember when I was
Speaker 1: after I was in college, my wife and I moved
Speaker 1: to Charlotte, and I went to a wedding the weekend
Speaker 1: before I moved, and then I immediately took a five
Speaker 1: day trip across the country with my brother helping us move,
Speaker 1: and we stopped and kind of bar hopped everywhere we
Speaker 1: went along the way, including Nashville and including in Fort
Speaker 1: Worth and a bunch of places on our way to Charlotte.
Speaker 1: I put on like twenty pounds in like two weeks,
Speaker 1: and then I went to go play and pick up
Speaker 1: on one of my first days in Charlotte, and I
Speaker 1: didn't step on anybody's foot, I didn't come down awkwardly.
Speaker 1: I was literally just trying to stop myself on a
Speaker 1: drive and my my ankle rolled over under my own weight.
Speaker 1: When you're harrying extra weight, all of those fast twitch movements,
Speaker 1: all of that deceleration, all of that landing from jumping,
Speaker 1: the math is thrown off with your body and how
Speaker 1: you're absorbing that shock, and you raise the risk for
Speaker 1: serious injury. That's where I worry about. It's not Luca
Speaker 1: a long term Luca is gonna have some phase in
Speaker 1: his mid light twenties where he's just an absolute like
Speaker 1: Adonis of a physical presence, and he's gonna be a
Speaker 1: much better athlete in that regard. He's just young, he
Speaker 1: doesn't know any better yet. I just hope he doesn't
Speaker 1: suffer a serious injury in the meantime. Same goes with Zion.
Speaker 1: I think we're going to see a phase of Zion's
Speaker 1: career where he looks fantastic athletically. I just worry about
Speaker 1: him getting seriously hurt before then. And that's where this
Speaker 1: becomes a matter of urgency for me. If Luca is
Speaker 1: playing with thirty extra pounds on his body, that's high
Speaker 1: risk for injury. That that to me is scary. So
Speaker 1: I hope for the sake of both of those fan
Speaker 1: bases and for the sake of both of those players
Speaker 1: and their law term health and security in this league.
Speaker 1: I hope they get those weight issues figured out sooner
Speaker 1: than later before something bad happens. As long as they
Speaker 1: get through this and they get to the point where
Speaker 1: they mature as athletes, I think both of them will
Speaker 1: have long, productive athletic careers in that regard. Moving on
Speaker 1: to that that uh NETS game in Dallas last night,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't really think too much about it
Speaker 1: in terms of the the outcome. It was somewhat predictable
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, Like at the end of
Speaker 1: the game when it was close, it was all what
Speaker 1: can Luca generate, while on the other end, it was
Speaker 1: what can James Harden generate? What can Kevin Durant generate?
Speaker 1: Fatigue would inevitably play a role because there's just more
Speaker 1: dispersion of responsibilities with Brooklyn than there is with with Dallas.
Speaker 1: You're you're asking Luca to do so much more. But
Speaker 1: one of the topics after the game that came out
Speaker 1: that I thought was really interesting is this idea that
Speaker 1: the honeymoon phases over with Luca. You know that people
Speaker 1: are starting to be a lot more critical of of
Speaker 1: the way he takes care of his body like I
Speaker 1: just talked about, or you know, his bald dominant nature
Speaker 1: as opposed to being you know, more of like an
Speaker 1: equal opportunity ball mover, a kind of player. There's a
Speaker 1: criticism based on the results the team just not performing
Speaker 1: as well as some of the other teams in the
Speaker 1: league that have players that are considered in the same
Speaker 1: tier as Luca. And you know, this is kind of
Speaker 1: part of the natural process of the way we evaluate players.
Speaker 1: We become enamored with them early on, and then after
Speaker 1: two or three years where they under underachieved relative to
Speaker 1: the top players in the league, we instantly turn on
Speaker 1: them and we become hypercritical of them and borderline unfair
Speaker 1: in our analysis of them. This is all just part
Speaker 1: of that process. I don't like any of it because
Speaker 1: to me, Luca and Luca kind of falls into that
Speaker 1: same campus Trey Young to me, where it makes no
Speaker 1: sense to truly evaluate them compared to the best players
Speaker 1: in the league, given the fact that they're not playing
Speaker 1: next to a legitimate, serious, very good secondary creator. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it's something to this has been looking for a while.
Speaker 1: Who knows if they'll be able to bring it uh
Speaker 1: during the next few years. But how can I say,
Speaker 1: you know, oh, k d outplayed Luca last night, when
Speaker 1: Kadi had James Harden to help share those responsibilities with.
Speaker 1: How can I say the same thing about James Harden.
Speaker 1: How can I compare Luca to Janice when Janice has
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday and Chris Middleton to help share those responsibilities with.
Speaker 1: How can I pare Luca, compare Luca to Lebron when
Speaker 1: he's sharing those responsibilities with Russell Westbrook and with Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's fair to sit here in Monday
Speaker 1: Morning Quarterback all of Luca don Cheus's results on the
Speaker 1: floor when he's playing with the team that is doomed
Speaker 1: to failure under the current you know, under the current
Speaker 1: landscape of the NBA. We all know in the modern NBA,
Speaker 1: you are not winning a championship unless you're a super
Speaker 1: duperstar who has another at least high level star next
Speaker 1: to them that can help generate offense. And usually that
Speaker 1: second player has to be some kind of perimeter initiator,
Speaker 1: unless you're the best to the best, unless you're you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron like he did in That's or Steph Curry, for instance.
Speaker 1: You need to have that super super high level star
Speaker 1: level perimeter initiator next to you to help share those responsibilities.
Speaker 1: Right now. For Luca, it's a whole lot of of
Speaker 1: of Chris apps Porzingis. You know, it's not you're You're
Speaker 1: You're not gonna get that level of of shared responsibility
Speaker 1: with Chris aps Porzingis. He's a lot closer to Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: He needs to be set up in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: Obviously he's not anywhere near as good as Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: but you can't. It's unfair to say Luca's got a
Speaker 1: co star and now he does he does. He doesn't
Speaker 1: have a co star relative to what the other guys
Speaker 1: in the league have. So yeah, I get it. We
Speaker 1: were reaching a point where we're gonna be critical of Luca.
Speaker 1: That's part of the process. You know. I don't love
Speaker 1: every single thing he does on a basketball court. That's normal,
Speaker 1: but a lot of this he's doing out of necessity.
Speaker 1: I saw him take, you know, a turnaround on kind
Speaker 1: of one legged fade away against James Johnson towards the
Speaker 1: end of the game last night, and when he did,
Speaker 1: you could tell fatigue played a role. If he could
Speaker 1: hand the ball off to three times in crunch time
Speaker 1: to another high level creator, maybe he has the legs
Speaker 1: to knock that shot down, and maybe you have a
Speaker 1: different outcome in this game. So I'm gonna cut Luca Slack.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's fair at all to compare him,
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of his play style and get
Speaker 1: super hypercritical of him until he gets a chance to
Speaker 1: have the same thing all the other best players in
Speaker 1: the league have. When I'm ranking the top tier players
Speaker 1: in the league, I've got Lebron really good secondary creator.
Speaker 1: I've got Kevin Durant, really good secondary creator. I've got
Speaker 1: Stephan Curry. He doesn't have that really really good secondary creator,
Speaker 1: but he's got Clay Thompson was a heal of a
Speaker 1: lot better. At least he's going to be a hell
Speaker 1: of a lot better than Christaps Porzingis is. And about
Speaker 1: Steph really quickly, you know, with Steph, when he hasn't
Speaker 1: had Kevin Durant, the playoff ceiling has been lower than
Speaker 1: it has been, you know, relative to others because of
Speaker 1: the fact that he doesn't have that big, you know,
Speaker 1: physical rim pressuring wing to take some of that responsibility
Speaker 1: off of him. That's not an insult to Steph, It's
Speaker 1: just the reality. All of those top tier guys look
Speaker 1: a hell of a lot less impactful when they don't
Speaker 1: have that guy, especially when like an injury comes in
Speaker 1: and knocks one of those guys out. You see them struggle,
Speaker 1: and so it's not a coincidence. I don't think that
Speaker 1: Steff had a sixty seven win season in two thousand
Speaker 1: fifteen and found himself kind of back against the wall
Speaker 1: twice in that playoff run, or seventy three win season
Speaker 1: in two thousand sixteen and back against the wall twice
Speaker 1: in that playoff run and actually lost. That's an example
Speaker 1: of what I'm talking about. That's, to me is a
Speaker 1: credit to how good stuff is that he got that
Speaker 1: close despite the fact that he didn't have that really
Speaker 1: elite secondary creator. Again, just instammation. Let's cool it, Let's
Speaker 1: cool the jets on the Lucas slander. He's at a
Speaker 1: phase in his career right now that so many young
Speaker 1: players go through. We want them to vault into that
Speaker 1: top tier, we want them to play like those best guys,
Speaker 1: But the reality is that he's not going to have
Speaker 1: the same outcomes as those best guys until he has
Speaker 1: the same tools at his disposal that those best guys have.
Speaker 1: So moving on to the uh our Laker deep dive.
Speaker 1: So you know, I was watching the film again this
Speaker 1: morning and you could really really see things pick up
Speaker 1: after that first time out. Frank takes the time out
Speaker 1: because uh. In the first few possessions of the game,
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum, on a broken play with an offensive rebound,
Speaker 1: gets a wide open three on the left wing, super
Speaker 1: super easy look. He swishes it. To me, that's always
Speaker 1: a dead ringer for getting a star off to a
Speaker 1: really hot start, feeding his confidence and helping him have
Speaker 1: a big night if his first couple looks are really
Speaker 1: really good. Second one, same thing, late contest. I think
Speaker 1: it was from Russ late contest on the right wing,
Speaker 1: but it's mostly open, pretty comfortable shot. Tatum actually missed
Speaker 1: it long but it happened to Bank. In next shot,
Speaker 1: left corner, there is a defender on him, but the
Speaker 1: defender is not really pressing up. Easy, little through the legs,
Speaker 1: step back and that's a short range three in the corner.
Speaker 1: It's only nails it. And then lastly he's going against
Speaker 1: Russ on the left wing, there's again soft defense. There's
Speaker 1: he's there, but he's not really really uh, you know,
Speaker 1: bothering Tatum nails it. Frankester called time out. There down
Speaker 1: fourteen eight. Almost immediately coming out of that time out,
Speaker 1: the ball pressure picks way up. Russ is up in
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatums airspace, and he immediately has a turnover. He
Speaker 1: immediately has a near turnover, and then has another turnover
Speaker 1: on the following possession with Avery Bradley applying ball pressure.
Speaker 1: Point being the Lakers switched from passive defense to start
Speaker 1: the game to what I would call active defense, aggressive defense,
Speaker 1: ball pressure defense. The key here, the reason why this
Speaker 1: is so important, and the reason why the thing that
Speaker 1: may Lakers so good, and the reason why I think
Speaker 1: this is such an important thing to watch with the
Speaker 1: Lakers is when you are playing active defense, when you
Speaker 1: are applying ball pressure, you make the offensive players decision
Speaker 1: for them. Yes, there are a handful of guys in
Speaker 1: the league, like a Steph Curry, like a Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: that can continue to generate jump shots against high level
Speaker 1: ball pressure, But those guys are unicorns against the vast
Speaker 1: majority of players in the league. When you apply good
Speaker 1: ball pressure, they have to drive to the basket. It
Speaker 1: takes the pull up jump shot out of the equation. Now,
Speaker 1: you might think dribl penetration compromises the defense, and it does.
Speaker 1: In a perfect world, you'd love to take away the
Speaker 1: jump shot and take away the driving lane. There are
Speaker 1: a handful of defenders in the world that can do
Speaker 1: that against the best players in the world. But for
Speaker 1: the most part, dribble penetration is part of what offenses
Speaker 1: are trying to do on every possession. So defenses are
Speaker 1: built withstand that to some extent. That's why we have
Speaker 1: help defense principles. That's why we have rotation patterns. That's
Speaker 1: why we talk so much about, you know, tagging rollers
Speaker 1: and helping off the weak side corner instead of the
Speaker 1: strong side corner. And that guy, if he gives up
Speaker 1: a trap at the top of the key, he's got
Speaker 1: to rotate back around to the weak side to help.
Speaker 1: Those kinds of concepts are all about. Defense is absorbing
Speaker 1: dribble penetration. Now, if I know dribble penetration, it's coming
Speaker 1: from the same spot every single time. If I know
Speaker 1: dribble penetration is being fed to the baseline instead of
Speaker 1: to the middle. If I if I know, going into
Speaker 1: a possession, we're applying ball pressure. This guy's get probably
Speaker 1: gonna get beat off the dribble into some capacity. We
Speaker 1: are now anticipating it. We are now already in our
Speaker 1: help helps side principles and prepared to absorb that drible
Speaker 1: penetration from there. If we rotate around, we can probably
Speaker 1: force them into a contested three, which is and it's
Speaker 1: probably going to be from a lesser player instead of
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum taking that. You pressure the ball and he
Speaker 1: drives to the basket and does a kick out, and
Speaker 1: you rotate around, you might be able to get a
Speaker 1: lesser shooter, someone like Al Horford to take the shot,
Speaker 1: someone like a Dennis Shrewder to take a shot, someone
Speaker 1: like Marcus Smart to take a shot. That's why I'm
Speaker 1: such a believer in that kind of uh, in that
Speaker 1: kind of defense. It is the best way to control
Speaker 1: the outcome. You know, especially when you get to the
Speaker 1: highest levels of basketball, games are are dominated by the
Speaker 1: best players on the floor, so it's so important to
Speaker 1: try to control their rhythm. You know. The Lakers were
Speaker 1: so good at this. This is why James Harden struggled
Speaker 1: so much with their double teams. This is why Dame
Speaker 1: Lillard struggled as that series progressed. This is why Yo
Speaker 1: Gets struggled as that series progressed. This is why Lebron
Speaker 1: had so much success on Jamal Murray as that series
Speaker 1: progress and then into the finals as well. Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: had those two huge games, but outside of those two
Speaker 1: huge games, he really struggled. You know, Kendrick Nunn was
Speaker 1: taken completely out of that series. You know, Bam obviously
Speaker 1: had an injury. There was a lot of other actors,
Speaker 1: but the stars that the Lakers went against in that
Speaker 1: series all played below their capabilities for the most part.
Speaker 1: And the reason why was from the opening tip in
Speaker 1: those games, they were made to feel uncomfortable, They were
Speaker 1: rushed in their decision making, and they were forced to
Speaker 1: do something they don't want to do. A guy like
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum, what does he want to do? He wants
Speaker 1: to bring the ball up the floor slowly. He wants
Speaker 1: to survey, he wants to get comfortable with his handle.
Speaker 1: He wants to get you off balance with rhythm dribbles,
Speaker 1: and he wants to take a pull up jump shot.
Speaker 1: That's what he wants to do. That's what saves his legs,
Speaker 1: that's what that's his bread and butter. That's where he
Speaker 1: feels most comfortable. Very similar to what we were dealing
Speaker 1: with with Paul George the other night. If you pressure
Speaker 1: him full court or not full courtport of the minute
Speaker 1: he crosses half court, you are now making him make
Speaker 1: a decision before he wants to. He doesn't want to
Speaker 1: beat ball, pressure at forty feet and drive into the
Speaker 1: teeth of the defense where help is waiting, where he
Speaker 1: has to consistently make read. He doesn't want to do that.
Speaker 1: He knows that. He knows that doesn't feed his personal
Speaker 1: you know, uh, statistical output. He know that does. He
Speaker 1: knows that doesn't help him build a rhythm so that
Speaker 1: he can make shots as the game progresses. If you
Speaker 1: force him to do that, you're gonna from the opening
Speaker 1: tip make him play the game away he doesn't want
Speaker 1: to play, Which gives you the best possible you know,
Speaker 1: the best. It gives you the best possibility of making
Speaker 1: sure the opposing star plays beneath their capability rather than
Speaker 1: two or above their capability. And so I thought that
Speaker 1: was a big part of why the Lakers look so
Speaker 1: good last night. I think there's a big part of
Speaker 1: why Dennis Shrewder had such a rough night. You know,
Speaker 1: I was critical of Frank after the game for chasing
Speaker 1: Dennis Shrewder over the top of ball screens. You know.
Speaker 1: One of the big reasons why the Lakers have had
Speaker 1: so much or so much trouble getting Lebron and Russ
Speaker 1: going to the basket isn't yeah, packing the paint off
Speaker 1: the ball, but also just going underneath all these ball
Speaker 1: screens you go up all When you go underneath ball screens,
Speaker 1: it turns, you know, basket attacking guards into guys that
Speaker 1: typically have to take jump shots. And as you've seen
Speaker 1: throughout most of the season, you know, Lebron and Russ
Speaker 1: have struggled shooting off the dribble. Both of them are shooting,
Speaker 1: you know, as as good as you can expect and
Speaker 1: catch and shoot situations. Lebron is actually doing amazing and
Speaker 1: catch and shoot situations, but off the dribble, both of
Speaker 1: them are struggling to shoot this year. So you go
Speaker 1: underneath screens, you make them, You make them, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: take those low percentage shots. That's kind of what I
Speaker 1: would hope that we would do. A guy like Shredder.
Speaker 1: But what Frank was doing is playing directly into this
Speaker 1: concept that I'm talking about. By chasing Dennis Shredder over
Speaker 1: the top of screens, you did something different than most
Speaker 1: teams are doing, and you forced him to make decisions
Speaker 1: before he wanted to do them, and you didn't allow
Speaker 1: him to get comfortable with his dribble from the perimeter
Speaker 1: so that he could build a rhythm. That to me
Speaker 1: was part of the reason why Dennis had a bad
Speaker 1: offensive night, and I was wrong about that. And so
Speaker 1: credit to Frank for kind of diving into that philosophy
Speaker 1: that I believe. So uchin active defense, you're taking control
Speaker 1: of the result. Passive defense, you're putting the result in
Speaker 1: the hand of a really, really good basketball player that
Speaker 1: on a lot of nights is gonna get hot and
Speaker 1: beat you. And then once they really get that rhythm going,
Speaker 1: you're screwed. Because if they have the rhythm going, they're
Speaker 1: gonna start to make the really tough ones when they're contested.
Speaker 1: That's why that's so important. Anyway, that's all I have
Speaker 1: for today. That's only twenty minutes, nice and easy. Um,
Speaker 1: this is gonna go uh live tonight at midnight, So
Speaker 1: It'll be available for you guys tomorrow morning on your
Speaker 1: drives to work. We will be back with our postgame
Speaker 1: show tomorrow night against Memphis. As always, we sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys to support and we will see you tomorrow night.