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Speaker 1: to Lakers Tonight, presented by Fan duel Here on the volume,
Speaker 1: I am Jason Timp Happy Thursday, everybody. I hope all
Speaker 1: of you are having a good start to your week.
Speaker 1: I should say a good end to your week. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny. I took some notes from the
Speaker 1: game tonight, you know, talked about how Dwight had a
Speaker 1: really good game against the Clippers last week, but he
Speaker 1: was struggling this week. And I talked about you know,
Speaker 1: Monk and Reeves and their chemistry and had all these
Speaker 1: notes and I decided that they don't deserve it. They don't.
Speaker 1: They don't deserve for me to dive into the weeds,
Speaker 1: the basketball weeds of this team. When this team doesn't
Speaker 1: care enough about their own fate and their own situation
Speaker 1: to fight, and when they fight, when they do, they
Speaker 1: go on Saturday against Golden State, they put up a fight.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to get into the nitty gritty of the basketball,
Speaker 1: but the basketball is are relevant if this team is
Speaker 1: not gonna play hard. The basketball is are relevant if
Speaker 1: this team is gonna fight to get back within three
Speaker 1: and then completely roll over in the third quarter, which
Speaker 1: represents two entirely differ aren't personas and that mix doesn't
Speaker 1: make any sense. You know, it's funny. I have this
Speaker 1: longstanding theory with the way that I value at basketball teams.
Speaker 1: I look at their defensive rating not just because of
Speaker 1: a indicator of defense, but I look at defensive rating
Speaker 1: as a general indicator of effort and more often, like
Speaker 1: the Lakers, who were the number one defense in the
Speaker 1: league last year and the number three defense in the
Speaker 1: league the year they won the title, they would have
Speaker 1: nights where the defense didn't look good. They would have
Speaker 1: nights where their effort was poor, but they were the exception,
Speaker 1: and more often than not, they were engaged and they cared,
Speaker 1: and they were extremely difficult to score on. And it
Speaker 1: manifested in those numbers. This team is the exact opposite
Speaker 1: of that that run you saw at the end of
Speaker 1: the second quarter. That's the exception. That's not who this
Speaker 1: team is. That's when this team gets out of character.
Speaker 1: The character of this team is what you saw in
Speaker 1: the third quarter. The character of this team is knowing well,
Speaker 1: having a firm understanding of what works for them and
Speaker 1: still not doing it because it's hard and for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: they don't want to. And it's funny because I was
Speaker 1: thinking about this earlier today when DeAndre Jordans got signed
Speaker 1: by the Philadelphia seventy sixers. When DeAndre Jordan's was signed
Speaker 1: by the Lakers, I kind of liked the signing. Not
Speaker 1: not because I wanted him to start. That was way
Speaker 1: way way different than what I saw from that signing.
Speaker 1: But my ideology was, this Laker team has the best
Speaker 1: defensive culture in the league. This Laker team cares and
Speaker 1: and and DJ was playing on a Nets team that
Speaker 1: did not care on the defensive end, and so what
Speaker 1: my thought was is you're gonna play Dwight and you're
Speaker 1: gonna play a D. And maybe when DJ has to
Speaker 1: play because of injuries or whatever, the load management or
Speaker 1: whatever it might be, he'll get swept up in that
Speaker 1: defensive culture and he'll look a little bit more like
Speaker 1: the old DJ than he did when he was in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: And that was completely wrong, because the Lakers defensive culture
Speaker 1: utterly disappeared in the last six months. And I think
Speaker 1: it's a couple of different things. Some of it's frank,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get to that in just a second.
Speaker 1: A lot of it is the fact that we as
Speaker 1: fans massively underestimated how important Alex Crusoe was, how important
Speaker 1: Contavious called Well Pope was, how important Danny Green was,
Speaker 1: how important even Dennis Schroeder was toe Lakers holding down
Speaker 1: that team when Lebron and Anthony Davis went down. They
Speaker 1: were a huge part of what made this team what
Speaker 1: they were in their identity on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor and just in general with their effort, and
Speaker 1: we none of us gave them enough credit in that
Speaker 1: season when they won the title, it was all about
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D And I'm not I'm not shirking
Speaker 1: any of that blame because it was me too, and
Speaker 1: we massively underestimated how much those guys and their willingness
Speaker 1: to fight on a possession by possession basis made that
Speaker 1: team work, and that was evidenced by the fact that
Speaker 1: the following season, with Lebron and a D both went down,
Speaker 1: they were still the best defense in the league without
Speaker 1: those guys, and for whatever reason, the people in that room,
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna give them too much of a
Speaker 1: hard time about it, because we made the same mistake
Speaker 1: as fans. We massively, massively underestimated how important that was.
Speaker 1: And it's disappointing because I think that's the guy that
Speaker 1: has to be the entire goal this offseason is trying
Speaker 1: to figure out how to recreate that culture because it's
Speaker 1: not gonna be Lebron in a D. Lebron and a
Speaker 1: D are both having massive issues staying available. Lebron is
Speaker 1: literally playing through a knee injury right now. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, can't stay on the court, and even
Speaker 1: when they were on the court this season, they weren't
Speaker 1: fueling that. So you can't depend on them, and you
Speaker 1: can't just count on a coach coming in to do
Speaker 1: it because Frank Vogel preaches defense every waking second of
Speaker 1: every minute he's in that building, and even that didn't work.
Speaker 1: So you have to find a way to recreate that
Speaker 1: identity this offseason by finding guys that naturally at their
Speaker 1: core their DNA as basketball players, want to do that stuff.
Speaker 1: That has to be the goal. Not offensive players, not
Speaker 1: guys who can shoot next to Lebron. No, it needs
Speaker 1: to be guys who are willing to set the tone
Speaker 1: in all of the effort and energy areas of the game.
Speaker 1: For those of you who are just joining us, this
Speaker 1: is Lakers Tonight, presented by Fandel here on the volume.
Speaker 1: I was just talking about how frustrated I am with
Speaker 1: the guys around Lebron and a d this season and
Speaker 1: how poor their effort and focus has been relative to
Speaker 1: what the previous guys were. I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel and Tyler for a second because they represent
Speaker 1: a super interesting dynamic that took place with the Lakers
Speaker 1: over the course of the last couple of years. In
Speaker 1: many ways, the Tylu situation was the original sin of
Speaker 1: this Lakers era, the first indicator of where things were
Speaker 1: going off the Rails. I liked Tyler in Cleveland. I
Speaker 1: watched every game he coached there, at least before Lebron left.
Speaker 1: And you know, in two thousands sixteen, I thought he
Speaker 1: did an excellent job. I didn't agree with everything he did.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and seventeen, I thought he was preaching
Speaker 1: transition too much. I think it was part of why
Speaker 1: their defense fell apart. But that's normal for a new
Speaker 1: coach to to to try to inflict his philosophy on
Speaker 1: somebody before on a team, before really taking the time
Speaker 1: to realize what works best for that team. But Tyler
Speaker 1: in the years since then has become one of the
Speaker 1: best coaches in the league. And the job that he's
Speaker 1: done with the Clippers is one of the best jobs
Speaker 1: that we've seen a coach do in this league. And
Speaker 1: I think it's a credit to Tyler for adapting. That
Speaker 1: is the job. The job of a coach in basketball
Speaker 1: is to adapt. The reason why is you are a
Speaker 1: constant and everything around you is not. Your personnel changes
Speaker 1: on a year by year basis. Your personnel changes on
Speaker 1: a game by game basis because of injuries and COVID
Speaker 1: and load management and in trades and any any of
Speaker 1: the number of things that can happen in a regular season.
Speaker 1: It's a constantly shifting dynamic. Then there's the league. It
Speaker 1: has to do with the way that the league is playing,
Speaker 1: the way the best teams in the league are playing,
Speaker 1: the strategies that they're using, has to do with matchups
Speaker 1: in a postseason series. That was a huge deal for
Speaker 1: Mike Budenholzer before he won a championship was his stubbornness
Speaker 1: and his unwillingness to adapt, and that has turned into
Speaker 1: Tyler strength because the way Tyler coaches this Clippers team
Speaker 1: is way ahead of the curve. He is on top
Speaker 1: of the things that work best in this era. And
Speaker 1: he could have been had by the Lakers he wanted
Speaker 1: to sign. There there's famous photo was going on uh
Speaker 1: social media earlier today of Tyler having a Laker's birthday cake.
Speaker 1: The truth of the matter is is that was on
Speaker 1: the table and could have been had. But Tyler wanted
Speaker 1: to be paid as a championship coach. Why why why
Speaker 1: do you guys think Tyler wanted to be paid as
Speaker 1: a championship coach? Oh, it's because he won a championship.
Speaker 1: But then the Lakers offered him standard NBA coach money
Speaker 1: and standard NBA coach length of the deal, and Tyler
Speaker 1: was insulted, and he walked away, as he should have,
Speaker 1: because that was insulting, and so they went with the
Speaker 1: discount coach. And I don't want to be super hard
Speaker 1: on Frank here because the reality is with Frank, because
Speaker 1: he did a really good job in that season. But
Speaker 1: it was a perfect storm of events that went right
Speaker 1: for him. It was an archaic style of roster. For
Speaker 1: sixty of the minutes in the regular season, they played
Speaker 1: a d at the four. They were playing traditional centers.
Speaker 1: They were not playing five out bass ketball. They were
Speaker 1: playing traditional you know, uh, the four out one in
Speaker 1: offensive basketball. On the defensive end of the floor, they
Speaker 1: were screening, playing screening roll coverages that were very traditional,
Speaker 1: chasing and and and funneling guys into your size underneath
Speaker 1: the basket. But as the league has evolved, as guards
Speaker 1: have gotten extremely good at shooting off the dribble at
Speaker 1: any spot on the floor, drop coverages have become less effective.
Speaker 1: As NBA teams have gone smaller and played more guards
Speaker 1: and more wings, and and gone positionless and gone in
Speaker 1: many cases no bigs. All of a sudden when you
Speaker 1: got a Dwight Howard on the floor, you can run
Speaker 1: them off the floor because your overall foot speed is
Speaker 1: too high. And in that season there was a perfect storm.
Speaker 1: The league wasn't quite ready to get out of that
Speaker 1: era in the sense that the Lakers were too much
Speaker 1: to handle, and the roster was perfectly catered to what
Speaker 1: to what Frank Vogel did, and so we had that
Speaker 1: moment and it went well for him. Ever since then,
Speaker 1: it's been a complete disaster. The Lakers had spacing issues
Speaker 1: all year last year, as they played a D at
Speaker 1: the four for only for only uh if they played
Speaker 1: a D at the five for only ten percent of
Speaker 1: the minute, so nine out of ten possessions a D
Speaker 1: was at the four alongside another big and it didn't work.
Speaker 1: Got into the postseason, their offense was really struggling, and
Speaker 1: the spacing was horrible and ended up being one of
Speaker 1: the many things that crippled the Lakers towards the end
Speaker 1: of the season. And then this season. We don't have
Speaker 1: to get into the weeds, but it's been an absolute
Speaker 1: disaster on almost every front. Because Frank Vogel was a
Speaker 1: vintage coach from a bygone era, and the style of
Speaker 1: basketball that he wants to play doesn't work anymore. It
Speaker 1: might not work even if the Lakers were a hundred
Speaker 1: percent healthy. It might not work even if the Lakers
Speaker 1: were playing today. It's possible that that style might not
Speaker 1: function anymore. Tyler. Meanwhile, look at what he's done with
Speaker 1: the Clippers. He doesn't even he doesn't even want to
Speaker 1: play a traditional center. He just does it now because
Speaker 1: of what their roster forces them to do. But he
Speaker 1: plays four guys that can guard multiple positions, that can
Speaker 1: move their feet on the perimeter. It's all drible drive attack.
Speaker 1: He's got an advanced zone. He's got like a matchup
Speaker 1: zone that he used a lot on the Lakers tonight.
Speaker 1: That's a that's a wrinkle that you didn't see a
Speaker 1: ton in the NBA in recent years. But a lot
Speaker 1: of the really good coaches around the league are starting
Speaker 1: to do now. A lot of the really good coaches
Speaker 1: around the league are starting to experiment a little bit.
Speaker 1: It's not just here's my drop coverage, here's my five
Speaker 1: on five defense. It's here's this nifty zone. Here's a
Speaker 1: lot of aggressive trapping, here's a boxing one. You're seeing
Speaker 1: all kinds of nifty crazy stuff from the the forward
Speaker 1: thinking coaches in the league. So Tyler could have been
Speaker 1: had if Jennie was willing to spend, but Genie wanted
Speaker 1: to be cheap, and instead she got Frank Vogel. Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel did really well when the circumstances were perfect for him,
Speaker 1: and since then the circumstances haven't been and it's been
Speaker 1: a disaster. So in many ways, the Taylu situation was
Speaker 1: the original sin of this era. It was the first
Speaker 1: mistake in a long line of mistakes that came from
Speaker 1: the top that led to the disintegration of one of
Speaker 1: the best pairings in NBA history. That's how much of
Speaker 1: a catastrophe this has been. But the longest short of
Speaker 1: it is is that he's got to go right now.
Speaker 1: What are you gaining by keeping him around? You know,
Speaker 1: my friend Pete Zais from Laker Film Room said this
Speaker 1: the other day on his podcast, and I thought it
Speaker 1: was really really important in this circumstance. He said, you
Speaker 1: can't grow anything in poison soil, And what he was
Speaker 1: talking about is that the Lakers are doing irreparable damage
Speaker 1: right now by not audible ng from this think about it.
Speaker 1: Months ago, we knew the Lakers were like this. Months ago,
Speaker 1: we knew this was a disaster. And for months we
Speaker 1: talked about how they needed to make personnel moves, We
Speaker 1: talked about how they had to shake up the roster,
Speaker 1: we talked about how they had to make a coaching change.
Speaker 1: But instead they made no changes to the roster at
Speaker 1: the trade deadline, and then they're big shake up buy out.
Speaker 1: Signing was a tiny thirty four year old guard, as
Speaker 1: if that was going to solve their problems, and a
Speaker 1: really interesting athletic forward that Frank Vogel has no interest
Speaker 1: in playing for whatever reason. So Frank is still here,
Speaker 1: and all the guys that are the culprits of this
Speaker 1: disaster are still here, and because they're still playing this way,
Speaker 1: they're doing irreparable damage, not just to the culture of
Speaker 1: this team, but to their reputation around the league. Let's
Speaker 1: say this summer comes around and Rob Polinka calls you
Speaker 1: and your player in the market for a vetter and
Speaker 1: minimum to a mid level exception. And Rob Bolink goes, hey, buddy,
Speaker 1: you should come and play with the Lakers. You can
Speaker 1: play alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Do you not
Speaker 1: think they're gonna think about nights like tonight. Do you
Speaker 1: not think they're gonna think about this disaster. You don't
Speaker 1: think that's going to influence their decision making. After the
Speaker 1: Lakers won the title, they had access to a great
Speaker 1: deal of discounted talent. Mantras Harrold was expected to make
Speaker 1: more in the open market. He chose the Lakers. Marcusol
Speaker 1: could have made more in the open market. He chose
Speaker 1: the Lakers. They were able to get these good players
Speaker 1: because the culture of the team was attractive. Two people
Speaker 1: out there, and then last year you could throw it
Speaker 1: all away to injuries, and they still competed. They still
Speaker 1: like good culture, so they were able to get who
Speaker 1: they wanted. They just picked the wrong guys. But that's
Speaker 1: the that's gonna be one of the big roadblocks this summer.
Speaker 1: Now Lebron's older, the attractiveness of playing alongside him is
Speaker 1: not the same. Anthony Davis is injury prone, the attractiveness
Speaker 1: of playing alongside him is not the same. And the
Speaker 1: front office and ownership group is literally as incompetent as
Speaker 1: you'll find in the league. That's not attractive to people
Speaker 1: who would consider signing with the Lakers. So that's why
Speaker 1: it's so important to do something to blow this up. Now,
Speaker 1: fire Frank Vogel, get a look at Phil Handy, see
Speaker 1: if he can coach in the NBA. Start your process. Now,
Speaker 1: moving on to Lebron, this is in the same vein.
Speaker 1: He's out here chasing Kareem and again. And I said
Speaker 1: this on the pod the other day. I don't want
Speaker 1: to hear any sort of referendum on Lebron's career because
Speaker 1: he's stat patting in a losing effort. This dude has
Speaker 1: one more basketball games and one more NBA championships than
Speaker 1: any franchise in the NBA since he came into the
Speaker 1: league in two thousand three. So you're full of ship
Speaker 1: if you want to go down that route. But it's
Speaker 1: not pretty and I don't like it. I don't like
Speaker 1: the way it risks his body as he's playing through
Speaker 1: an injury. And I don't like the way it poisons
Speaker 1: the soil. I don't like the way that it continues
Speaker 1: to lend itself to this negative culture of poor effort
Speaker 1: and the wrong priorities. I understand it's a difficult conversation
Speaker 1: to have with Lebron because he's going after Kareem. But
Speaker 1: something somebody's got to say something as like at a
Speaker 1: certain point like mellow Lebron, Dwight Howard, Can Bays Moore,
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley, Trevor Reesa. All these guys need to stop
Speaker 1: playing and they need to lean as much as they
Speaker 1: can on the youth, so at least the product on
Speaker 1: the floor for the rest of the season plays hard.
Speaker 1: Think about this guy's If the Lakers fall out of
Speaker 1: the plane, they lose their first round pick this summer,
Speaker 1: So oh, there's legitimate steaks. Even if even if you
Speaker 1: throw away the postseason and just think about it as
Speaker 1: getting to the ten seed, there's steaks. And they still
Speaker 1: don't care. They don't care. They are actively sabotaging this
Speaker 1: environment by not caring. And that goes from the top down.
Speaker 1: That goes from Genie with everything she's done. That goes
Speaker 1: with Rob with not making any changes to this roster
Speaker 1: and just saying, here, you guys, fend for yourselves. It
Speaker 1: goes with Frank Vogel and his incredible stubbornness. It goes
Speaker 1: with Lebron in his unwillingness to fight through circumstances like this,
Speaker 1: and it goes down the roster with the guys not
Speaker 1: willing to do the job. And so if there's gonna
Speaker 1: be something to salvage here down the stretch, it has
Speaker 1: to be done in the in the way of effort.
Speaker 1: And the easiest way to do that get rid of
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel. Get a young coach in there, like a
Speaker 1: new coach like Phil Handy in there to try he'll
Speaker 1: bring some enthusiasm at least it's his first coaching gig,
Speaker 1: and give the younger players a chance to play, because
Speaker 1: at least they'll go out there for the Lakers faithful
Speaker 1: and play hard. One of my co workers here at
Speaker 1: the volume, Draymond Green, did a whole bit the other
Speaker 1: day about the Laker fans booing Lebron and the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and for the record, there's a part of his point
Speaker 1: that I agree with, the idea that the Lakers are
Speaker 1: the most successful franchise in NBA history. The idea that
Speaker 1: for the previous two seasons, not only did the Lakers
Speaker 1: bring you a championship, but they brought you a great
Speaker 1: deal of effort and respect for the game. So there
Speaker 1: is a certain amount of respect that has to be
Speaker 1: paid towards them for what they've accomplished in this era. However,
Speaker 1: on Sunday Night, when the season was very much salvageable,
Speaker 1: where Lebron and where Lebron and Russ had they tried,
Speaker 1: could have won the game, they came out and mailed
Speaker 1: it in. And mailing it in is probably underselling just
Speaker 1: how poor their effort was. And one of the things
Speaker 1: I pointed out on the show was as a fan,
Speaker 1: when you've worked your tail off all week, and in
Speaker 1: the back of your head when you're at dealing with
Speaker 1: the grind of work and you're thinking about your favorite
Speaker 1: team and the big game they have tonight and how
Speaker 1: important it is, and how much you hope they come through.
Speaker 1: And they go out and they don't try, how do
Speaker 1: you not boo and so in defensive Laker fans, I
Speaker 1: totally understand where they're coming from. It's despicable what you're
Speaker 1: seeing over the course of the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: It's a disgrace to the game of basketball. The Lakers
Speaker 1: are worse than the Clippers, that's true. It's a tough
Speaker 1: match up for them in a lot of ways. That's true.
Speaker 1: The Lakers don't have the personnel to hang with some
Speaker 1: of the best teams in the league. That's true. They're
Speaker 1: not thirty points worse than the Clippers. They're not thirty
Speaker 1: points worse than them. That that that's a team that
Speaker 1: doesn't care and something has to be done to change
Speaker 1: things up or it's gonna be one of a complete
Speaker 1: disaster over the next month and a half and this
Speaker 1: team is going to have This team is gonna have
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing to build on going into the next season.
Speaker 1: I can't talk. I can't talk anymore Lakers tonight. Let's
Speaker 1: let's move on. So I wanted to touch on on
Speaker 1: two other games tonight. I wanted to touch on Grizzly
Speaker 1: Celtics and on the Heat Nets. This is like a
Speaker 1: sniper presented by vandel here on the volume. So the
Speaker 1: Grizzlies are a team that I have frequently talked about
Speaker 1: as a as a you know, long shot contender, not
Speaker 1: even really a long shot. I call him a dark
Speaker 1: horse third team that I think has the necessary pieces
Speaker 1: to win a championship because they have a great deal
Speaker 1: of size and athleticism. They have interior size and strength,
Speaker 1: They've got shooting, and they've got an all world superstar
Speaker 1: that nobody can guard. And I talked a lot about
Speaker 1: how the biggest thing that excites me about that team
Speaker 1: as a playoff threat is the fact that John Moran
Speaker 1: presents a two thousand six Dwayne Wade esque free throw conundrum.
Speaker 1: He comes flying into the lane and he elevates and
Speaker 1: nobody can stay in front of him. So as a result,
Speaker 1: people foul and when they found you know, he could
Speaker 1: shoot twenty three throws in a playoff game and it
Speaker 1: could swing a big playoff game. But this was an
Speaker 1: interesting test because the Celtics are the best defense in
Speaker 1: the league. They have some very specific things that they
Speaker 1: bring to the table in terms of their scheme that
Speaker 1: shut down a lot of what Memphis does. Switching defenses
Speaker 1: forced you to create in isolation, and so I was
Speaker 1: really curious to see how they fared tonight. Now, to
Speaker 1: be clear, John Moran the little context here. John Morand's
Speaker 1: only shooting from three in his last twenty three games,
Speaker 1: so he's going through a massive shooting slum when he's
Speaker 1: actually been a pretty good shooter over the course of
Speaker 1: the previous calendar year. So that's a weird context there.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about that in a second, shooting slumps
Speaker 1: can be weird and they can really get in players heads,
Speaker 1: especially young players heads. But as a result, you were
Speaker 1: gonna have to have other guys that can create their shots.
Speaker 1: And what was interesting, and this is the biggest flaw
Speaker 1: in this roster, and it's the main reason why they're
Speaker 1: not a top tier contender. They're clearly in that second
Speaker 1: tier when you need more than one guy that can
Speaker 1: create their own shot against the set elite defense. John
Speaker 1: Moran is gonna be just fine. I'm not worried about him.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get to him in a second. Desmond Bayane,
Speaker 1: who's their backcourt partner there for jaw, he is a
Speaker 1: a really good shooter and he's a really good slasher,
Speaker 1: meaning if he's attacking a close out so someone chases
Speaker 1: him off the line, he can rip through and he
Speaker 1: can get to the room and he can finish. He's
Speaker 1: big and strong and athletic. What Desmond Bane is not
Speaker 1: is a score. And so one of the things you
Speaker 1: saw tonight before garbage time, he made I think four
Speaker 1: shots and garbage time tonight. But you saw Desmond Bane
Speaker 1: really struggle tonight because in the Clippers switching scheme, you
Speaker 1: needed him to be able to create his own shot,
Speaker 1: and that's not a strength of his Jaren Jackson Jr.
Speaker 1: Who I think I've always called him like a D LIGHTD.
Speaker 1: He's a very similar to a D as a defensive
Speaker 1: player in terms of his versatility, but on the offensive end,
Speaker 1: he's actually a much better shooter than Anthony Davis is.
Speaker 1: But he can be such a bull in a china
Speaker 1: shop going to the basket. He's very much a tunnel vision.
Speaker 1: I'm putting my head down, I'm going through your chest,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get to the basket. And that thing
Speaker 1: just doesn't work against the best defenses unless you're an
Speaker 1: all world athlete. We're talking to Lebron's the jannice Is
Speaker 1: of the world, and Jared Jackson Jr. Is very much
Speaker 1: not that. So again, in a setting like this, he's
Speaker 1: less valuable because in a packed paint setting, in a
Speaker 1: switching defense setting where you need him to isolate, it's
Speaker 1: just not as good of an option. And so it
Speaker 1: came down to jaw and Jos started the game one
Speaker 1: for eight from three again, because what all these teams
Speaker 1: are gonna do, especially when they get to the postseason,
Speaker 1: is play way off of him and force him to
Speaker 1: make shots. Is he ready to do that right now? No?
Speaker 1: I don't think so, but I think he will be.
Speaker 1: My boss. Colin Cowhard had did a whole a bit
Speaker 1: the other day talking about John Murray and comparing him
Speaker 1: to Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook and too John Wall,
Speaker 1: and for the record, I totally see what he's getting at,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of truth to it that we
Speaker 1: have absolutely seen the super athletic point guard that's not
Speaker 1: a great shooter come through the league several times. And
Speaker 1: he's also right that there there is no success story
Speaker 1: on that front. All of them have flailed flamed out
Speaker 1: for various reasons. The biggest difference, though, I think, is
Speaker 1: all of those players had a fatal flaw. Okay, John
Speaker 1: Wall could not shoot, Derrick Rose could not shoot, Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook complete spas John Murray. It isn't a great shooter yet,
Speaker 1: But if you look at his form, and if you
Speaker 1: look at how well he shoots at the free throw line,
Speaker 1: and you look at the stretches where he shoots, well,
Speaker 1: he's going to be a good shooter. And he has
Speaker 1: all of the other boxes checked. He's a freak athlete
Speaker 1: that can get by anybody off the dribble, he can
Speaker 1: finish at the rim, but he has a floater package.
Speaker 1: John Russell Westbrook has been in the league for over
Speaker 1: a decade, has never added a floater package to his game.
Speaker 1: It's been a massive thing that has held him back.
Speaker 1: John Morant has that stuff. He has the midrange game,
Speaker 1: he has the floater stuff. He's got a great feel
Speaker 1: for the game as a passer, which will only improve
Speaker 1: as he gets older. His form on his jump shot
Speaker 1: looks great. If you looked at Derrick Rose when he
Speaker 1: was young, it was broke. If you look at John
Speaker 1: Wall when it was young. When he was young, it
Speaker 1: was broke. John Wall still to this day shoots like
Speaker 1: a set shot, like he's Jason Kidd. So like John
Speaker 1: Morant has a much much more you know, he has.
Speaker 1: He has a foundation on his shot that's going to
Speaker 1: work really well. So is it possible that he ends
Speaker 1: up being the new one of those guys. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I don't think it's super likely because I think he's
Speaker 1: clearly better than all of them, and so that will
Speaker 1: be the the The bell Weather moving forward is if
Speaker 1: jaw can add that shooting, which I believe he will.
Speaker 1: He instantly becomes a way better player than any of
Speaker 1: those guys ever were, and in a playoff setting that
Speaker 1: that that will be the big indicator for him this year.
Speaker 1: If they do end up going on a run, making
Speaker 1: it to the Western Conference Finals, winning a championship, it'll
Speaker 1: be because John makes shots. But yeah, if Jaw goes
Speaker 1: one for eight, you know every other night in the postseason,
Speaker 1: they might lose in the first round. That's how vulnerable
Speaker 1: they are in a postseason setting because they don't have
Speaker 1: that second shot creator. But again, this was I told
Speaker 1: you guys earlier in the season. The Grizzlies were very
Speaker 1: cocky and confident. They were talking a lot of trash
Speaker 1: to people. This is the hard part. This is where
Speaker 1: it gets hard. This is where you have to put
Speaker 1: your money where your mouth is. It wasn't good enough
Speaker 1: against the Celtics tonight. You're gonna have other opportunities, but
Speaker 1: it's really gonna come down to John making shots, and
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to get something offensively out of Baine
Speaker 1: and out of Jackson. All right, moving on to the
Speaker 1: heat and the nets. So Kevin Durant returns tonight. I
Speaker 1: I am always completely and utterly blown away by how
Speaker 1: easily Kevin Durant can step back out onto a basketball court.
Speaker 1: I had a buddy growing up who was so natural
Speaker 1: as a score in basketball that he could go six
Speaker 1: months without touching a basketball and walk into the gym
Speaker 1: and shoot amazingly well. And then for me still to
Speaker 1: this day, even though I literally trained like I'm a
Speaker 1: professional athlete, I I can go on a four day
Speaker 1: ski trip and come back and completely forgett how to
Speaker 1: dribble because I'm very based on my rhythm I have.
Speaker 1: I need lots of reps to get it going. And
Speaker 1: it's so funny because I see a similar dynamic between
Speaker 1: Lebron and Kevin Durant, like when Lebron takes time off,
Speaker 1: when Lebron has an injury. When Lebron gets out of
Speaker 1: basketball for a little bit and comes back, he looks
Speaker 1: super sloppy, can't handle the ball, his shot goes to heck,
Speaker 1: he struggles a lot seeing the floor. You see that
Speaker 1: a lot in playoff series. Early in playoff series, especially
Speaker 1: when he was in Cleveland, they'd get a sweep, they'd
Speaker 1: win four games in a row, and then like they'd
Speaker 1: have six days off and then he'd come back and
Speaker 1: look like crap in the next in the next game
Speaker 1: because he was just rusty. Kevin Durant is like my buddy,
Speaker 1: He's just this incredible natural basketball player. I don't I'm not.
Speaker 1: I want to be clear. He works his tail off.
Speaker 1: This guy doesn't go six this guy doesn't go days
Speaker 1: without touching a basketball. But it's also amazing to me
Speaker 1: how he's always in rhythm, and it makes him such
Speaker 1: a devastating weapon because you don't have to plan for
Speaker 1: him in your offense. This is what made him so good.
Speaker 1: In Golden State. You could play steph ball for six
Speaker 1: minutes and k D could go without touching the ball
Speaker 1: and just be running up and down the floor playing defense.
Speaker 1: But then suddenly you could go to him in an
Speaker 1: isolation possession and he'll score, Whereas if you did that
Speaker 1: with just about any other scorer in the league, they
Speaker 1: would miss on their first attempt and maybe their second
Speaker 1: attempt because they have to regain their rhythm when they're
Speaker 1: not involved in the offense. It's always been one of
Speaker 1: the most impressive things to me about Kevin Durant. Another
Speaker 1: thing that I thought was super interesting tonight, k D
Speaker 1: obviously is getting up there in years, and one of
Speaker 1: the things that he does to prevent himself from taking
Speaker 1: bumps and bruises around the basket to protect his body,
Speaker 1: he will drive two three to five feet from the
Speaker 1: basket and shooter jump shot, which in retrospect is kind
Speaker 1: of genius because what he's doing is he's saving himself
Speaker 1: wear and tear. Instead of flying into a shot blocker,
Speaker 1: taking a bunch of contact, trying to draw foul falling
Speaker 1: to the ground, he just raises up for that five
Speaker 1: foot or because that five footer for him might as
Speaker 1: well be a layup. He's remarkably proficient at it. Just
Speaker 1: little details in his game that I've loved. You know,
Speaker 1: I thought Kevin Durant should have one m v P
Speaker 1: this year if he didn't get hurt. We massively underrated,
Speaker 1: underrated how his effort early in the season floated that
Speaker 1: team when they were really struggling. And on the next
Speaker 1: team that had Joe Harris hurt, that had Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: not able to play, James Harden out of shape and
Speaker 1: actively looking at other situations, he just I think when
Speaker 1: he got hurt, they were the one or the two
Speaker 1: seats he just carried them to that point, and unfortunately
Speaker 1: is he got hurt and it derailed him. This poor
Speaker 1: guy has had an unbelievably poor set of injury luck
Speaker 1: over the course of the last half decade, and I'm
Speaker 1: hopeful that he'll get a chance to show us what
Speaker 1: he's capable of, because I think he very much is
Speaker 1: in the conversation for the best player in the league
Speaker 1: this season with Kevin Durant on the floor. Coming into tonight,
Speaker 1: they were plus one oh nine with Katie on the floor,
Speaker 1: minus one sixty six with him off. That's how much
Speaker 1: of a difference he's made for that completely talent void roster,
Speaker 1: at least for what he was dealing with earlier in
Speaker 1: the season. I actually do think they have a decent
Speaker 1: amoun talent after the trade. You know, people don't understand
Speaker 1: what he does and how much how hard he works
Speaker 1: to do what he does, and I just hope that
Speaker 1: people realize that, you know, the heat we're interesting in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways to bam ade Bio is getting
Speaker 1: a ton of attention right now. He's on a twelve
Speaker 1: game stretch, I believe, where he's averaging twenty two and
Speaker 1: eleven shooting he's doing. He's doing a lot of the
Speaker 1: stuff that Anthony Davis does, you know, without the jump
Speaker 1: shot obviously, although Anthony Davis can't shoot either. He's the
Speaker 1: the cornerstone of their defense and everything that they do
Speaker 1: he gives. His ability to set screens and roll to
Speaker 1: the rim is very similar to what Anthony Davis can do.
Speaker 1: The huge thing that he can do, though, is pass
Speaker 1: out of the high post. And with how many guys
Speaker 1: that Miami has that can cut and shoot off of
Speaker 1: dribble handoffs and that are smart and can read defenses
Speaker 1: and make simple like you know, curls and cuts and
Speaker 1: reads and screens and things like that, he's a really
Speaker 1: dynamic player to have with the ball in his hands
Speaker 1: at the top of the key because of all the
Speaker 1: things he can do there. The one thing that concerns
Speaker 1: me with Bam, and this is the reason why I
Speaker 1: don't believe in the Miami Heat the way that other
Speaker 1: people do, is because it's it's because of something that
Speaker 1: I saw in the finals. When you have Bamata Baio
Speaker 1: on the court and you're playing against a really good
Speaker 1: defensive center, that defensive center can ignore Bam. Bam is
Speaker 1: basically not taking threes anymore. He's only shooting thirty seven
Speaker 1: point four from ten to sixteen feet. He's only shooting
Speaker 1: thirty four point seven percent from sixteen ft to the
Speaker 1: three point line, So he's basically a nonshooting threat. And
Speaker 1: in Game six of the Finals, which was one of
Speaker 1: the best defensive performances I've ever seen from a basketball team,
Speaker 1: the reason, the main reason why they were able to
Speaker 1: make that work, in addition to all of the guards
Speaker 1: doing their job, was Anthony Davis ignored Bam and just
Speaker 1: camped around the basket all game long and shut everything
Speaker 1: down that Miami tried to do. That will continue to happen,
Speaker 1: especially in specific matchups that team has to go through Janice,
Speaker 1: that team has to go through Joel and beat Joel
Speaker 1: em Beat will ignore Bamata Bio and hang out around
Speaker 1: the basket. Now is there downside to that? Yeah? Of course,
Speaker 1: Bam as a screener can help get guys open jump
Speaker 1: shots and things along those lines. But teams like Philly
Speaker 1: have so much length on the perimeter, that's gonna be
Speaker 1: Matisse Thybol chasing you over the top. That's gonna be
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris chasing you over top. That's gonna be Tyrese
Speaker 1: Maxi chasing you over the top. Those aren't gonna be
Speaker 1: easy shots, and you're gonna be driving right into Joel
Speaker 1: m beat who's one of the best defensive players in
Speaker 1: the league. So the bam at a bio thing I
Speaker 1: just don't think works right now for the championship level
Speaker 1: ceiling that they're shooting for. I definitely believe that at
Speaker 1: some point in the future, if he becomes a shooter,
Speaker 1: that he can alleviate some of that, but it's definitely
Speaker 1: a concern of mine right now. And then lastly, ty
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow's uh. I think he's on five straight games
Speaker 1: scoring over twenty points off the bench. He's having an
Speaker 1: amazing season after having kind of a slump last year.
Speaker 1: And the most fascinating thing to me about his game,
Speaker 1: just for all of you young basketball players out there,
Speaker 1: is how high he elevates on his jump shot. I
Speaker 1: always say you have to have one of two things
Speaker 1: in a jump shot. You have to either have a
Speaker 1: super quick release or you have to elevate and have
Speaker 1: a high release point. And if you're gonna do both,
Speaker 1: it needs to be adjusted. So like if you're standing
Speaker 1: still in the corner and you're shooting needs to be quick.
Speaker 1: But if you're attacking off the dribble and you're shooting
Speaker 1: off of movement at all, you have to elevate. And
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow's six ft seven is a freak athlete, and
Speaker 1: he comes flying off these screens, or he runs down
Speaker 1: the floor and transition and he elevates and his release
Speaker 1: point is damn near above the rim, and so as
Speaker 1: a result of that, he always gets super clean looks.
Speaker 1: So if you can attach that to shooting proficiency, which
Speaker 1: he absolutely has, he's a great three point shooter. It
Speaker 1: becomes a devastating offensive weapon because there's not a whole
Speaker 1: lot you can do when a six seven athlete is
Speaker 1: flying off a screen and turning and rising and fire,
Speaker 1: rising and firing at a release point higher than ten feet,
Speaker 1: it's just really difficult to guard, and it gives them
Speaker 1: an interesting weapon. Again, I don't believe in Miami this year.
Speaker 1: I don't think Jimmy and Kyle Lowry can generate the
Speaker 1: quality offense to beat the teams in the East that
Speaker 1: have just way better offensive players, But they do have
Speaker 1: some exciting pieces. Tyler Harrow is absolutely someone that I've
Speaker 1: really enjoyed watching this year. Al Right, guys, that is
Speaker 1: all I have for tonight. I apologize for the Lakers
Speaker 1: providing us with very little interesting basketball to talk about.
Speaker 1: On that front, we will be back for Saturday night
Speaker 1: against Golden State. I would hope that at that point
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel is gone. I mean, even if he is gone,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure anything is going to stop the Lakers
Speaker 1: from rolling over and letting Golden State beat them by thirty.
Speaker 1: But either way, I will be here right after the
Speaker 1: final buzzer for the show like usual as always. I
Speaker 1: appreciate your guys support, and I'll see you in a
Speaker 1: couple of days. U