Speaker 1: Welcome to the State of the Lakers, presented by DASH Radio.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys for coming to hang out on a
Speaker 1: Wednesday game night. Tonight, Roger and I hope will be
Speaker 1: covering the game of the postgame show as is usually
Speaker 1: the case. Today, we're doing part two of our top
Speaker 1: five Contenders list, and I also want to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the Lakers and Warriors and about some
Speaker 1: of the identity shifts that they've undergone over the last
Speaker 1: couple of days. But we will get to the top
Speaker 1: of our list as well. Thank you guys for hanging out.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and get started. Alright. So, one of
Speaker 1: my kind of favorite weird phenomena that I've noticed in
Speaker 1: the league over the last half decade has been the
Speaker 1: weird parallels and similarities between the Lakers and the Warriors,
Speaker 1: or more Lebron and staff. And they're incredibly different style
Speaker 1: of play, but the fact that they are so similar
Speaker 1: to each other in a lot of ways, which is
Speaker 1: exactly why they've been the two best players to play
Speaker 1: the game of basketball during this era in my opinion.
Speaker 1: And that weird phenomena extends to the Lakers and Warriors,
Speaker 1: because you know, the Warriors underwent a strange identity change
Speaker 1: last year. You know, even above and beyond the obvious
Speaker 1: departure of Kevin Durant and the injury to Clay Thompson,
Speaker 1: the team is built around Steph Curry and what he
Speaker 1: brings to the table with his nuclear shooting and the
Speaker 1: attention that defenses have to pay to him off the ball.
Speaker 1: And a secret little reality to the reason why they
Speaker 1: were so successful in the initial run from two thousand
Speaker 1: fifteen to two thousand nineteen has a lot to do
Speaker 1: with the types of role players that they put around Steph.
Speaker 1: We talked a lot about this a couple of pods ago.
Speaker 1: The reality is is, while Lebron needs guys that are
Speaker 1: really good off the ball, right, guys who can cut
Speaker 1: really well, guys who can shoot really well, guys who
Speaker 1: can defend really well. You know, Steph kind of needs
Speaker 1: guys that can do stuff with the basketball. It's very
Speaker 1: important to have guys around Steph who can make quick
Speaker 1: reads with the basketball in their hands. Why because the
Speaker 1: attention that he derives from the defense pulls defenders away
Speaker 1: from the basket. So it's actually a lot more important
Speaker 1: to have guys who can execute a really quick four
Speaker 1: on three and get a wide open layup or shot
Speaker 1: than it is for with Lebron, where all the attention
Speaker 1: is brought to the basket, where he needs guys that
Speaker 1: can just knock down shots or attack a close out.
Speaker 1: Those are the It's a different type of deal with
Speaker 1: Lebron than it is for Steph, and the Warriors got
Speaker 1: away from that last year because what you really need
Speaker 1: with that type of attention that Steph draws are smart
Speaker 1: basketball players, Guys who are maybe not the most athletic anymore,
Speaker 1: who maybe aren't even necessarily the best shooters, but guys
Speaker 1: that can make really good reads putting the ball on
Speaker 1: the floor. And a perfect example of this kind of
Speaker 1: shift is going from Kelly Ubre to Otto Porter Jr.
Speaker 1: Outo Porter Jr. Is not as talented as Kelly Ubre.
Speaker 1: Kelly Ubre is a freak athletic talent at the forward
Speaker 1: position in the league. But with the Warriors, with what
Speaker 1: Steph needed from that position, there was a massive diminishing
Speaker 1: return with his skill set, whereas you see these guys
Speaker 1: like be Elitza and Iguadala and Outo Porter thriving alongside
Speaker 1: Steph and unlocking a whole other element to this team
Speaker 1: because they are smart basketball players. That's that that thrive
Speaker 1: in that four on three type of environment that I'm describing.
Speaker 1: That's why last year, with Steph and Draymond playing unbelievable,
Speaker 1: they were a mediocre team. And this year, with Steph
Speaker 1: and Draymond playing unbelievable, Steps actually down a little bit
Speaker 1: this year than he was last year, and the team
Speaker 1: has been way better. It's been because the Warriors were
Speaker 1: able to identify that they made a strategic shift that
Speaker 1: was not smart. They went away from what was working
Speaker 1: for them, and they had to get back on that track.
Speaker 1: And as soon as they did, because Steph is still
Speaker 1: Steff and because Draymond is still Draymond boom immediate success,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers have to learn that same lesson because
Speaker 1: they got away from what made them then in what
Speaker 1: made the Lakers great was Lebron and a d being unbelievable,
Speaker 1: just like Stephan Draymond, but just having smart role players
Speaker 1: that like to do the dirty work around them. Guys
Speaker 1: like Danny Green, guys like Alex Cruzo, guys like Kyle Kuzma,
Speaker 1: guys like Can Tavia's Cobo Pope. That worked and the
Speaker 1: Lakers got away from that. They traded away a bunch
Speaker 1: of those guys went all in on Star Powder, which,
Speaker 1: like I talked about yesterday's pod, the problem with going
Speaker 1: all in on Russ is the whole reason why you
Speaker 1: cash in role players in depth for a star is
Speaker 1: in hopes that he will help you against the top
Speaker 1: tier teams. You're betting on the upside of having that
Speaker 1: extra star. But as we've seen this season, has been
Speaker 1: clearly demonstrated that Russ actually struggles against the really good
Speaker 1: defenses because there's so much better at exposing his limitations.
Speaker 1: That has been a problem throughout the season. It's been
Speaker 1: a problem for several seasons leading into this, which begs
Speaker 1: the question is to why they made that change to
Speaker 1: begin with. However, this is the situation we're in right now.
Speaker 1: Lebron is still very much Lebron, just like step was
Speaker 1: still Steff. So what are the Lakers gonna do. Are
Speaker 1: they going to understand and learn from their mistake the
Speaker 1: way the Warriors did last year and go back all
Speaker 1: in on finding guys that fit with that core of
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D or are they going to go
Speaker 1: down with the ship. And that's gonna be an interesting
Speaker 1: conundrum because I think Lebron's got another year left. So
Speaker 1: even if it's not with Russ this season, maybe it's
Speaker 1: this coming off season. But I'll be curious to see
Speaker 1: if the Lakers have that same type of ideology that
Speaker 1: the Warriors had. Hey, we messed up here, we went
Speaker 1: away from what we were good at. Let's go back
Speaker 1: in that direction, counting our stars to carry us and
Speaker 1: see if that will carry us to the finish line.
Speaker 1: It's very interesting to me the way these two teams
Speaker 1: have kind of delayed reaction here gone through a similar
Speaker 1: circumstance of having to learn that lesson, and so I'm
Speaker 1: interested to see if the Lakers are going to learn it. Alright,
Speaker 1: so let's get back to our contenders list. For those
Speaker 1: of you guys who missed yesterday's pod and you need
Speaker 1: to check it out. We had Phoenix set number five
Speaker 1: better than the rest because they have such amazing depth
Speaker 1: of talent. They have that defensive ceiling, and their top
Speaker 1: two guys are better, in my opinion, than some of
Speaker 1: the top two guys on the teams beneath them, the
Speaker 1: teams like Utah, the teams like Memphis. That time that
Speaker 1: tier of team I think is beneath them, um, but
Speaker 1: they were clearly beneath the other four teams ahead of them.
Speaker 1: The there are two teams that we mentioned yesterday were
Speaker 1: Mi Milwaukee at number four. We just saw Janice is
Speaker 1: just too good for guys like Booker and Chris Paul
Speaker 1: to keep up with. And then I had the Lakers
Speaker 1: at number three, same exact issue, and we saw that
Speaker 1: in the first round last year. A limited version of
Speaker 1: lebron in, a limited version of Anthony Davis with no continuity,
Speaker 1: just because the two of them are so freaking good
Speaker 1: in a playoff setting. They were up to one on
Speaker 1: the Suns and having a lot of success in that
Speaker 1: first half of Game four before Anthony Davis got hurt.
Speaker 1: That was just a reality. So that's why I had
Speaker 1: Phoenix at five, Milwaukee at four, in the Lakers at three.
Speaker 1: But the number two team on my list is the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets. They are twelve in offense to this point,
Speaker 1: tenth and defense, and ninth in NET rating. They've had
Speaker 1: kind of like a weird, defensively focused season and it's
Speaker 1: been by necessity because of the Kyrie Irving situation and
Speaker 1: him being out and James Harden came into season way
Speaker 1: out of shape and really struggling with some of the
Speaker 1: officiating changes. He struggled to start this season, and so
Speaker 1: it became a situation and where they had to play
Speaker 1: more defensive minded players and Kevin Durant and this is
Speaker 1: his m v P case. Kevin Durant has just played
Speaker 1: unbelievable two way basketball to carry this team to being
Speaker 1: where they're at at this point in the season. That's
Speaker 1: where that that is Katie's m v P case, and
Speaker 1: he deserves a ton of credit for what I've said
Speaker 1: this on the pod before. Kevin Durant had a lot
Speaker 1: of reasons to kind of do to just kind of
Speaker 1: chill and and be the middle of the pack team
Speaker 1: and make a run for the playoffs later on with
Speaker 1: all of the stuff that was going on in all
Speaker 1: of the distractions, and instead he just decided to play
Speaker 1: some of the best basketball of his career and to
Speaker 1: carry the team to where they're at in the standings.
Speaker 1: They've got a lot of guys coming back. You know,
Speaker 1: Kyrie is back for road games now. I anticipate that
Speaker 1: ke Kyrie is going to be around the team and
Speaker 1: have so much fun and buy back in emotionally and
Speaker 1: mentally to this team. I think he's gonna end upeting vaccinated,
Speaker 1: So I think you're gonna see Kyrie Irving eventually come
Speaker 1: back in a hundred percent capacity. James Harden is started
Speaker 1: to look healthy and starting to look more like himself,
Speaker 1: and Joe Harris will eventually be coming back. The only
Speaker 1: real downside to Brooklyn, the big reason why they could
Speaker 1: get beat by any of the other teams in this
Speaker 1: list is their lack of a defensive ceiling. You know,
Speaker 1: it's one thing in the dregs of the regular season,
Speaker 1: with your scheme and with you know, one player like
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant playing really really well to get enough stops.
Speaker 1: But there's a difference between that and what your team
Speaker 1: can actually hit as a defensive ceiling in a playoff setting.
Speaker 1: This big thing I talked about with Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: the Lakers last year. The Lakers were getting a lot
Speaker 1: of stops without Anthony Davis and Lebron credits to Frank Vogel.
Speaker 1: But doing that in the regular season is different than
Speaker 1: doing it at the highest level. What Anthony Davis did
Speaker 1: in Game six against Miami in the finals, that's just
Speaker 1: a ceiling defensively that a lot of teams can't reach.
Speaker 1: Right well, when we're looking at that list, Phoenix can
Speaker 1: reach that ceiling with Aton and with with mchaial bridges
Speaker 1: and with what Chris Paul does at the point of attack.
Speaker 1: They can reach that ceiling defensively. The Bucks shure as
Speaker 1: hell can with Drew Holiday and Jana Santana Koompo. I
Speaker 1: know the Lakers can with Lebron and Anthony Davis, and
Speaker 1: I know the Warriors can. They're the best defense in
Speaker 1: the league by a country mile. This year. Can Brooklyn
Speaker 1: reach that defensive ceiling, I don't know. That's gonna be
Speaker 1: their big question mark. However, they have another angle up
Speaker 1: on the rest of the league. Their offensive talent is
Speaker 1: unmatched in the entire league. We've seen that in last
Speaker 1: season when the three of them were healthy and they're
Speaker 1: switching tack. They're they're switching attack. Their modern approach to basketball,
Speaker 1: in conjunction with their offensive talent, presents a devastating playoff
Speaker 1: weapon because they're gonna switch every screen and turn you
Speaker 1: into an isolation team. And they are an isolation team,
Speaker 1: and so you are probably gonna switch a lot as well.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna turn into an isolation contest, and your
Speaker 1: isolation contest is going to be trying to outscore and
Speaker 1: outperform Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and James Harden in that setting.
Speaker 1: And what we've seen over the course of last year
Speaker 1: in the playoffs before the injuries, and over the course
Speaker 1: of last year in the regular season, and you've seen
Speaker 1: a little bit this year, and you're gonna see it
Speaker 1: more now that they're getting their guys back. What they
Speaker 1: do is they put the ball in the basket, and
Speaker 1: when they do, they run back and they set their defense.
Speaker 1: And when they set their defense, it's hard to score
Speaker 1: in them too, even without their high ceiling, And so
Speaker 1: it becomes this kind of like compounding effect that you're
Speaker 1: you're living in the half court against them, trying to
Speaker 1: out execute just three unbelievable offensive basketball players. It worked
Speaker 1: last year and it very well could work again this year.
Speaker 1: That would make that's what makes them so dangerous. They
Speaker 1: would have beat the Bucks, probably swept them if it
Speaker 1: wasn't for the injuries. I genuinely believe that. So that
Speaker 1: that raises the question, can any of these four teams
Speaker 1: beat them? And I don't know, and that's why I
Speaker 1: have them as the second best team, their second most
Speaker 1: likely team to win the championship because of the wild
Speaker 1: card of their offensive attack and the fact that none
Speaker 1: of these teams can match them that it's hard to
Speaker 1: quantify styles make fights. A big part of it is
Speaker 1: if Brooklyn gets into a battle with one of these
Speaker 1: five teams, will they control things and turn the game
Speaker 1: into their style or will they devolve into your style,
Speaker 1: in which case I think you can beat them. But
Speaker 1: that wild card is something that makes them very dangerous.
Speaker 1: And like I said, I think they're the second most
Speaker 1: likely team to win the championship. All right, we have
Speaker 1: made it to number one on the list and you
Speaker 1: probably have guessed it by now. It is the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors. I think the Warriors are the team that
Speaker 1: is most likely to win the championship this season. They
Speaker 1: are eleventh in offense, first in defense, first and net rating.
Speaker 1: Think about how crazy that is to be eleventh in
Speaker 1: offense and to be first in net rating. How dominant
Speaker 1: you would have to be defensively to cover for that
Speaker 1: type of gap. And I'm not worried about the offense
Speaker 1: at all. Steph Curry's the best offensive player of this generation.
Speaker 1: He you know, with Clay coming back, that's the influx
Speaker 1: of offensive talent to take some attention off of Steph
Speaker 1: to let him get go. And he hasn't shot the
Speaker 1: ball overly well this year. Clay and Steff are going
Speaker 1: to feed off of each other so well there. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, they're a better version, more talented version than
Speaker 1: the two thousand sixteen Warriors. I think Steph is better
Speaker 1: now than he was in two thousand sixteen. I know
Speaker 1: some Warriors fans think I'm crazy, That's what I truly believe.
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson with the injury, it's a little weird. I
Speaker 1: don't think he'll be as good as he was in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen when he was incredible, especially in the postseason.
Speaker 1: But he is better than two thousands sixteen Clay Thompson.
Speaker 1: Two thousand and sixteen Clay Thompson was far more prone
Speaker 1: to cold spells, struggle a lot in in in in
Speaker 1: playoff moments, you know, outside of obviously a handful of
Speaker 1: really big games. Um, but Clay I think is better
Speaker 1: than the two thousand sixteen version of himself. Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: is a better two way player than Harrison Barnes was.
Speaker 1: They have a ton of depth on the wing. They've
Speaker 1: done a good job replacing, you know, some of the
Speaker 1: depth that they had in that two thousand sixteen season
Speaker 1: with veteran minimums, bringing back Andreago Dolla, Guys like out
Speaker 1: of Porter Jr. Jordan Pool is a much better offense
Speaker 1: weapon coming off the bench than really anybody they've had
Speaker 1: in this era. I think they're better than the two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen Warriors. This is a very good team now.
Speaker 1: The whole league is a lot better now, so they're
Speaker 1: not going to run away with it in my opinion. Also,
Speaker 1: the two thousand sixteen Warriors benefited a lot from their
Speaker 1: unique style of play and teams not knowing how to
Speaker 1: guard them. There's a much more proven defensive method against
Speaker 1: the Warriors now than what existed back then. That's why
Speaker 1: they're not as dominant. That it's not easy to rip
Speaker 1: off seventy three wins in the NBA. A lot of
Speaker 1: that had to do with them catching the league off
Speaker 1: guard with their style. But in terms of the overall
Speaker 1: package of the team, in the total talent level and
Speaker 1: what they're capable of, I think this team is better
Speaker 1: than the two thousand sixteen Warriors. They are very very
Speaker 1: dangerous team. Like I talked about earlier, they went they
Speaker 1: went through an identity change, a really strange moment there
Speaker 1: where they were leaning on, you know, guys who were
Speaker 1: low i Q basketball players, guys like Kelly you Brad Jr.
Speaker 1: Who struggled to capitalize on the attention that Steph Curry
Speaker 1: was drawing. They fix that problem. They've brought in a
Speaker 1: bunch of really smart guys now and they are humming
Speaker 1: on all cylinders. They have one weakness, but every team
Speaker 1: on the list that I mentioned has a weakness. Brooklyn
Speaker 1: has a weakness, The Lakers have a weakness, The Bucks
Speaker 1: have a weakness, the Suns have a weakness. They all
Speaker 1: have weaknesses. The Lakers, the Warriors have a weakness as well.
Speaker 1: Their weaknesses. They don't have that big, physical, rim pressuring
Speaker 1: wing that the guy like Janice, the guy like Lebron.
Speaker 1: They don't have that guy on the roster. And in
Speaker 1: a playoff setting, that puts you in a situation where
Speaker 1: you're somewhat at the mercy of makes and mrs um.
Speaker 1: But that weakness is a lesser weakness in my opinion
Speaker 1: than any of the other weaknesses that some of these
Speaker 1: other teams have around the league. And that's why I
Speaker 1: think they're the most likely team to win the championship
Speaker 1: this year. Obviously, a lot can change, you know, teams
Speaker 1: can make trades, uh, teams can start to play better. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if they get into a matchup with Brooklyn and Brooklyn
Speaker 1: really controls the tempo, in the in the in the
Speaker 1: the of the flow of the game, then Brooklyn can
Speaker 1: beat them. Any of these teams can beat any of
Speaker 1: these teams. I wouldn't be shocked if Phoenix beat Golden State,
Speaker 1: or if Brooklyn beat Golden State, or if the Lakers
Speaker 1: beat anybody. I wouldn't be shocked by any of that.
Speaker 1: I just think the Warriors, as of right now, are
Speaker 1: the team most likely to win the championship this year.
Speaker 1: All right, that's all I have for today. We will
Speaker 1: be back for a postgame show tonight. I'm hoping to
Speaker 1: be there. We will find out. Um depends on how
Speaker 1: the day progresses up in Colorado. But I sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys support most see you for the postgame show tonight.