Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: Get ready for a night full of big fights and
Speaker 2: big action. It's UFC three to ozho three and it
Speaker 2: can be even bigger. Jump in on all the action
Speaker 2: at DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sports betting partner of the UFC,
Speaker 2: it's super easy for first timers to get started. Try
Speaker 2: betting on something simple like picking a fighter to win.
Speaker 2: Go to the DraftKings Sportsbook app, select your fighter, and
Speaker 2: place your first bet. It's that simple. The light heavyweight
Speaker 2: title is on the line in the main event, but
Speaker 2: there are so many more amazing matchups happening in Vegas.
Speaker 2: And speaking of amazing, if you're new to DraftKings, listen up.
Speaker 2: New customers. Bet five dollars to get one fifty in
Speaker 2: bonus bets. Instantly download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and
Speaker 2: use code coops that's hoops. That's code hoops for new
Speaker 2: customers to get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets.
Speaker 2: When you bet just five bucks, get that big fight
Speaker 2: feel only on DraftKings. DraftKings the Crown is yours gambling
Speaker 2: problem called one eight hundred Gambler or in West Virginia,
Speaker 2: visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net. In
Speaker 2: New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why,
Speaker 2: or text hope and Why to four six seven three
Speaker 2: sixty nine. In Connecticut, help us available for problem gambling
Speaker 2: Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven
Speaker 2: seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on
Speaker 2: behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus.
Speaker 2: Age varies by jurisdiction. Bonus bets expire one hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty eight hours after issuance. Deposit and eligibility restrictions apply.
Speaker 2: See terms eligibility and responsible gaming resources at DKG dot
Speaker 2: co slash mma. All right, old, good to hoops today
Speaker 2: you're at the volume. Hope all of you guys have
Speaker 2: had an amazing week. Well, we had the JJ Redick
Speaker 2: news come down yesterday and we went for about ten
Speaker 2: minutes just giving my initial impressions on the hire. But
Speaker 2: I've had another day now to kind of sit down
Speaker 2: and think it all over, and I can think of
Speaker 2: nobody better for us to get into the weeds of
Speaker 2: the JJ Reddick higher than my friend Yovan Boja covers
Speaker 2: the Lakers for the Athletic and also has been doing
Speaker 2: some work for us over the course of the last year.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get into every single angle of this. We're
Speaker 2: gonna talk about the hiring process. We're gonna spend a
Speaker 2: good amount of time on the x's and o's side
Speaker 2: of things. I really tried to sit down today and
Speaker 2: think about all the different areas of improvement for this
Speaker 2: particular Lakers team and how JJ can help, and Yova
Speaker 2: and I are going to go back and forth about
Speaker 2: that for a little bit, and then at the tail
Speaker 2: end of the show, we are going to talk about
Speaker 2: the off season and what direction we think the Lakers
Speaker 2: at this point are going to be looking to go
Speaker 2: in terms of personnel, which my opinion is a way
Speaker 2: bigger deal than anything having to do with the coach. Anyway,
Speaker 2: real quickly, before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops
Speaker 2: and I YouTube channels so you don't miss any more
Speaker 2: of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS.
Speaker 2: You guys, don't miss announcements, don't forget about a podcast
Speaker 2: feed wherever you get your podcasts on our Hoops tonight,
Speaker 2: and then keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments,
Speaker 2: all right, without any further or do let's bring on Yova.
Speaker 2: So Yova, this has been kind of a wild couple
Speaker 2: weeks for you, I would imagine, why don't you just
Speaker 2: kind of let us under the hood a little bit.
Speaker 2: Tell us about what the last month or so has
Speaker 2: been like as you've been tracking this process. How did
Speaker 2: we land with JJ Reddick as the head coach the
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 1: Well, Jason, it's been a while seven weeks for me,
Speaker 1: dating back to May third, the Lakers fire Darvin Ham.
Speaker 1: I'm on my way to a wedding in Mexico, and
Speaker 1: I thankfully like I done my prep work of had
Speaker 1: the story ready, had my Youthtube video ready. But from
Speaker 1: that point, all of the chatter that I was hearing
Speaker 1: from talking to people within the Lakers and around the
Speaker 1: league was JJ Reddick, and that was all the buzz
Speaker 1: for basically all of May and the when you fire
Speaker 1: a coach, you do so with at least a couple
Speaker 1: candidates in mind. So for the Lakers that was JJ
Speaker 1: Reddick and tylu Now, the problem with Tyleru was he
Speaker 1: was still in a contract with the Clippers for another year.
Speaker 1: He also had the whole situation with the Lakers back
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen up that the Lakers were trying to make
Speaker 1: amends and if he somehow it was in a lame
Speaker 1: duck situation and could get out of his contract with
Speaker 1: the Clippers, the Lakers were going to pounce on that
Speaker 1: and make him a big offer to be their head coach.
Speaker 1: So through like early to mid May, the buzz was
Speaker 1: Tylu JJ Redick. Then it started to be the actual
Speaker 1: interview process with guys like Sam Consel, James Barrigo, Mike
Speaker 1: and Noriy David Adelman. Tylu ends up coming to an
Speaker 1: extension with the Clippers, and it's clear that maybe from
Speaker 1: his side there was a little bit of negotiating tactic
Speaker 1: where if you have interest from another team, now of
Speaker 1: a sudden, there's some onus on the Clippers to get
Speaker 1: something done a little bit quicker than they had initially wanted.
Speaker 3: So interview process starts. J. J.
Speaker 1: Redick meets with Rob Polinka for nearly two hours in
Speaker 1: Chicago at the pre draft comp and it is a
Speaker 1: sort of an informal meeting technically, but two hours is
Speaker 1: a long time to talk with someone, and I think
Speaker 1: you get a pretty good sense of someone and their
Speaker 1: their background and their philosophies, and you know, they did.
Speaker 3: Touch on some of those things.
Speaker 1: But so that that's about like mid May now and
Speaker 1: then rest of the month, it just continues to be
Speaker 1: the buzz growing of JJ Redick is going to be
Speaker 1: the guy. The one thing that is holding this process
Speaker 1: up is that he's set to call the NBA Finals
Speaker 1: for ESPN and ABC, And in the middle of the season,
Speaker 1: ESPN and ABC lost Doc Rivers, who is part of
Speaker 1: that top broadcast crew. So you then promote JJ Reddick
Speaker 1: to that spot and you don't want to lose him
Speaker 1: right before the pinnacle of the season. So that was
Speaker 1: a bit of a hold up, you know, according to
Speaker 1: multiple people. Just you know, JJ is going to have
Speaker 1: to ride this out through the finals, and if he
Speaker 1: ends up being the Lakers head coach, it's going to
Speaker 1: have to be after the finals. Then early June it
Speaker 1: starts to really be JJJJJJ, But then this Dan Hurley
Speaker 1: situation comes out of nowhere, seemingly and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you know that there's like he's flying to LA there's
Speaker 1: a meeting. The Lakers make him an offer. Now the
Speaker 1: offer people can quibble about how strong of an offer
Speaker 1: it actually was, clearly it was not strong enough to
Speaker 1: get him to leave Connecticut. And he even said, and
Speaker 1: you know, he did multiple interviews. In the Dan LeBatard interview,
Speaker 1: he says, like there was a number. I don't know
Speaker 1: exactly what it was, but I'm sure there was a
Speaker 1: number that would.
Speaker 3: Have got me to leave.
Speaker 1: Clearly that the six years, seventy million dollar deal was
Speaker 1: not that. So then the Lakers have to circle back
Speaker 1: with JJ Reddick and some of the other candidates and
Speaker 1: then do some damage control bring him in officially for
Speaker 1: an interview in between Game four and Game five of
Speaker 1: the finals on that Saturday. I was told by multiple
Speaker 1: people he crushed the interviews. Was incredibly impressive. One person
Speaker 1: told me that his personality was electric and it was
Speaker 1: just like unlike anything that compared to all the other candidates.
Speaker 1: It was just like ja We knew JJ was going
Speaker 1: to crush the interview. I don't think that's a surprise,
Speaker 1: but like he really stood out from just his communication
Speaker 1: and his personality and his ability to talk through different scenarios.
Speaker 1: So he crushes the interview on Saturday. On Monday, he
Speaker 1: has an important conversation with Anthony Davis. The two talk
Speaker 1: on the phone, and that was important because Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: had sort of been backing James Brago, who he overlapped
Speaker 1: with in New Orleans briefly after being drafted.
Speaker 3: So, you know, he talks to JJ.
Speaker 1: They get on, you know, the same page that they
Speaker 1: talked through the offense and sort of what the vision
Speaker 1: is for Ady being more involved in fourth quarters and
Speaker 1: crunch time, and then on you know, So then a
Speaker 1: couple of days, so the finals on Monday, JJ gets
Speaker 1: a couple of days to decompress, be with his family,
Speaker 1: think over the situation, and then Thursday morning he gets
Speaker 1: the contract offer and they agree to terms. So that
Speaker 1: is the sort of timeline of the last seven weeks.
Speaker 1: And there was lots of swiss and turns with the
Speaker 1: Dan Hurley situation. James Brago was technically the first candidate
Speaker 1: to get an interview in person, so like, there's some
Speaker 1: detours along the way, but from the beginning, most of
Speaker 1: the buzz was JJ and this ended up playing out
Speaker 1: that way ultimately.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the timeline seemed pretty simple to me in the
Speaker 2: sense that like, yeah, you don't want I think JJ
Speaker 2: would have honored ESPN and gone and covered the finals
Speaker 2: even if he had taken the job. I mean, obviously
Speaker 2: we know behind the scenes he kind of thought it
Speaker 2: was his to have anyway, you know. But at the
Speaker 2: same time, I could see why ESPN wouldn't want the
Speaker 2: broadcast team like just naturally discussing JJ coaching the Lakers
Speaker 2: while they're trying to cover the finals. So like, it
Speaker 2: made some sense on that front. And then Dan Hurley's
Speaker 2: one of those guys too, where you know, if his
Speaker 2: name comes up as an option, you just have to
Speaker 2: explore it. You can't just be like, nope, we already
Speaker 2: have our guy, like go. You know, there's a certain
Speaker 2: diligence you have to do there. Even if it was
Speaker 2: a long shot, and it all seemed pretty standard in natural,
Speaker 2: there was definitely some drama on the reporting front. I
Speaker 2: thought it was bizarre how Adrian Moorganowski was just kind
Speaker 2: of covering it as though the JJ was never in
Speaker 2: the picture and it was always about Dan Hurley. It
Speaker 2: was kind of weird. It seemed pretty natural flowing to
Speaker 2: me that JJ was their guy. Another option came to
Speaker 2: the surface, they explored it, it didn't pan out. They
Speaker 2: were patiently waiting for the end of the Finals, and
Speaker 2: then JJ became the option. Now before we kind of
Speaker 2: get back into JJ, I was wondering, I have a
Speaker 2: couple of quick follow ups.
Speaker 3: First of all, was there.
Speaker 2: Any consideration for Monty Williams after he became available the
Speaker 2: other day?
Speaker 3: No, I've been told no.
Speaker 1: There had been some Monty buzz in May of it
Speaker 1: was trending toward him potentially being fired, and there was
Speaker 1: a sense of similar to Taylou, who Monty Williams was
Speaker 1: someone the Lakers previously pursued in twenty nineteen. He was
Speaker 1: the number two choice behind Lou, and had he become available,
Speaker 1: I think, like a month ago, I think he would
Speaker 1: have been interviewed and had a legitimate chance to win
Speaker 1: the job. But I think at that point they were
Speaker 1: too far along with Reddick to seriously consider that. And
Speaker 1: I mean if they had pivoted to well, let's stall,
Speaker 1: let's like I mean, first, they're running out of time
Speaker 1: that the draft is in, you know, five days, but
Speaker 1: also it's you know, I think at that point, had
Speaker 1: they spurned Reddick a second time for another candidate, that
Speaker 1: might have been a deal breaker.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I like I viewed Money Williams two as like the
Speaker 2: old guard of NBA coaches. It kind of fits into
Speaker 2: that like like Doc Rivers kind of mold where it's
Speaker 2: there's just it almost seems like they're disconnected from where
Speaker 2: modern basketball is going, and there their own personalities almost
Speaker 2: become bigger than the team. It almost just seems counterproductive.
Speaker 2: So I feel like they, you know, made the right
Speaker 2: decision to not look down in that direction. So just
Speaker 2: really quickly before we move on, how did you interpret
Speaker 2: the whole like woje Day and Hurly thing? Was that
Speaker 2: like do you think that there was some gamesmanship going
Speaker 2: on there or was there truth to what he was
Speaker 2: saying about early being the target the whole time?
Speaker 1: It's this part of the story is I will say,
Speaker 1: like I've been covering the NBA since twenty eleven, this
Speaker 1: is going to be my seventh season as a beat writer.
Speaker 3: This was the craziest like wrinkled to a.
Speaker 1: Story I can remember personally, because even coming like typically,
Speaker 1: I mean, there will be things that blindside you covering
Speaker 1: the MBA of be it trades, signings, firings, hirings, like
Speaker 1: there's an element of secrecy for sure, but this is
Speaker 1: still a situation where you talk to five different people
Speaker 1: with and around the team, and you will get five
Speaker 1: different answers, five different conspiracy theories, five different perspectives as
Speaker 1: to what actually happened with this situation. So for me,
Speaker 1: my best read on it, I would say is there
Speaker 1: was legitimate interest from the Lakers end for Dan Hurley.
Speaker 1: Like they made him, they flew him out, they interviewed him,
Speaker 1: They risked losing j because like there was a scenario
Speaker 1: in which this plays out and JJ just says, like,
Speaker 1: you know, peace, like I don't like you know, you guys,
Speaker 1: were you know, indicating one thing, then you flip that
Speaker 1: and now you're interviewing Hurley and like I'm out, and
Speaker 1: JJ could have and then all of a sudden, now
Speaker 1: there it's Jade Sprago or maybe it is Moni Williams
Speaker 1: now that he's available. But like, I think that the
Speaker 1: Lakers would have been on like Plan C or D
Speaker 1: at that point. So, h there was some real risk
Speaker 1: for the Lakers in terms of pursuing Dan Hurley and
Speaker 1: having this come out the way that it did and
Speaker 1: being this like spectacle like that, there was some real
Speaker 1: risk on their end. So I do believe that the
Speaker 1: Lakers had legitimate interest in Dan Hurley. Now was it
Speaker 1: the level of interest that they were willing to make
Speaker 1: a godfather offer that he couldn't refuse, and the type
Speaker 1: of you know, eight years one hundred million had been
Speaker 1: thrown out there, Like had they put that on the table,
Speaker 1: I think he's probably.
Speaker 3: The coach, and they clearly were not willing to do that.
Speaker 1: So there's an element of like, you could want something
Speaker 1: but not want it to the extent that you're going
Speaker 1: all in, So I don't it's still unclear to me
Speaker 1: if they were quite all in on Dan and Hurley. Like,
Speaker 1: they clearly were very interested and interested enough to make
Speaker 1: an offer, but it seems to me it might have
Speaker 1: been a situation where it was more like, we want you,
Speaker 1: and we're willing to give you this contract, but we're
Speaker 1: not going to go above this, and if you're not
Speaker 1: willing to accept this, we're fine with getting our first
Speaker 1: choice pretty much the whole way, which was JJ Reddick.
Speaker 1: So as for like the Hurly communication, you know, my
Speaker 1: sense was they reached out to him initially when they
Speaker 1: made the initial candidate pool and he was not interested
Speaker 1: at that time. Since then, ESPN and The La Times
Speaker 1: have reported that Hurley met with Polinka, apparently kind of
Speaker 1: secretly at the combine and they had some conversations there,
Speaker 1: so you know, if that's the case, then obviously you
Speaker 1: know that there was maybe something interest around then. But still,
Speaker 1: you know, in talking to a lot of people around,
Speaker 1: the Lakers was like this was something that was kept
Speaker 1: very internal of it, very tight lipped, like it might
Speaker 1: have only been three or four people who knew about it,
Speaker 1: including players not knowing about this. So they did a
Speaker 1: good job of like moving in secrecy with the move.
Speaker 1: And look, I think if Dan Hurley had been available
Speaker 1: from the beginning, I think he would have been the
Speaker 1: no brainer for choice, So it makes sense why the
Speaker 1: Lakers went after him. I think the thing that is
Speaker 1: less clear is how serious Dan Hurley was about this situation, right,
Speaker 1: because really, if you look at who had the most
Speaker 1: of the gain here, it was basically Dan Hurley.
Speaker 3: And now he got elevated. Like I don't follow.
Speaker 1: College basket, Like I knew who he was, but I
Speaker 1: don't follow college basketball that much. I know Yukon had
Speaker 1: won back to back, but it's like now I know
Speaker 1: a lot more about Dan Hurley over the last few
Speaker 1: weeks than I had previously known, and like he's been
Speaker 1: elevated to a certain status that you know, he probably
Speaker 1: deserves because of his accolades. But like, I don't think
Speaker 1: he I mean, you've clearly talked about way more now
Speaker 1: and he just did a giant press tour after this
Speaker 1: Jury five interviews. It's like, I don't know, there's like
Speaker 1: so that that part of the doesn't necessarily pass the
Speaker 1: smell testomy. But I know from the Lakers, Like I'm
Speaker 1: not as plugged in on the college basketball side or
Speaker 1: the Hurley side, but I can't say from the Lakers
Speaker 1: side there was legitimate interest. It's just there's also degrees
Speaker 1: of interest, and clearly they weren't willing to go past
Speaker 1: that six seventy and that to me, in the case,
Speaker 1: they were fine with JJ if he didn't work out
Speaker 1: with early, they were fine you know picking JJ.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that JJ didn't take it personally too. Like again,
Speaker 2: like I'm excited about what JJ can be as a coach,
Speaker 2: but he doesn't have any coaching experience. Dan Hurley is
Speaker 2: one of the most respected and accomplished coaches in the
Speaker 2: country right now, you know what I mean? And like,
Speaker 2: if the volume was looking for an NBA analyst and
Speaker 2: they had been talking to me and then suddenly JJ
Speaker 2: Reddick came available. It'd be stupid for me to be
Speaker 2: offended that they would consider JJ, or probably higher JJ
Speaker 2: over me. He's JJ Reddick, He's arguably the best in
Speaker 2: the world at what he does, you know, right now
Speaker 2: in the sports media space. And so, like, I appreciate
Speaker 2: to your point there's some risk, but like I appreciate
Speaker 2: that JJ didn't take it personally, because again, that's just
Speaker 2: an avenue you have to explore if it becomes available,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So I want to I
Speaker 2: want to move more to the basketball side of this,
Speaker 2: which is, to me, the far more, the far more
Speaker 2: fascinating side. Just tell me a little bit about the interview,
Speaker 2: the formal interview when JJ came to LA. What if
Speaker 2: you were to kind of like explain, like if you
Speaker 2: had to just just kind of like translate JJ Reddick's
Speaker 2: pitch for how to take the Lakers to the next level,
Speaker 2: how would you word that for us?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So JJ met on Saturday with you.
Speaker 1: You previously met with Rob Polinka, spoken with him multiple
Speaker 1: times over the course of multiple weeks, but this was
Speaker 1: his first chance to meet with Genie Buss Joey Buss,
Speaker 1: Jesse Buss and the real stakeholders in the Lakers and.
Speaker 3: Have conversations with them.
Speaker 1: So, you know, my understanding was he he met individually
Speaker 1: with each person and then there was also some some
Speaker 1: group conversations, but you know, each person had their own
Speaker 1: set of questions and different parts of the organization and
Speaker 1: just you know, basketball philosophy that they wanted to break
Speaker 1: down with him. And again I was told he was
Speaker 1: incredibly impressive, the most impressive of I mean, they only
Speaker 1: met with three different candidates Barrego, Hurley, and Reddick in person.
Speaker 1: All of the other interviews were done remotely, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: primarily with Rob Polinka. So I guess among those three candidates,
Speaker 1: I was told JJ was the most personable. Uh. It
Speaker 1: was just the most detailed and he had, you know,
Speaker 1: multiple answers for any hypothetical that they were throwing at him.
Speaker 1: So one thing that he really pitched himself on was like,
Speaker 1: I know, I don't have any coaching experience at the
Speaker 1: professional level, but I'm going to be adaptable. I'm going
Speaker 1: to come in with an open mind, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not coming from a certain coaching tree or a
Speaker 1: certain coaching philosophy like I'm going to be establishing this
Speaker 1: in this position, and I'm going to adapt to the
Speaker 1: roster and the season and how things are going. And
Speaker 1: I think coming from you know, the situation with Darvin
Speaker 1: Ham and how that unfolded, there was an element of
Speaker 1: stubbornness with a lot of his mistakes, and that was
Speaker 1: really the biggest gripe with Darvin Ham was, you know,
Speaker 1: just the lack of adaptability with the rotation with lineups,
Speaker 1: with his coaching philosophies, be it pick and roll schemes
Speaker 1: or how the offense was being run. That Darvin Ham
Speaker 1: was married to his philosophies. And JJ Redick came in
Speaker 1: and they had basically the exact opposite approach of I'm
Speaker 1: willing to adapt and continue to adapt and continue to
Speaker 1: tinker and try different things. And then the other thing,
Speaker 1: which I think is arguably like it's not Ex's and O's,
Speaker 1: it's not basketball strategy, but his communication skills and the
Speaker 1: ability to effectively communicate with players and command the locker
Speaker 1: room and get a level of buy in was something
Speaker 1: that really appealed to them, especially coming off of Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel lost the locker room in his final season. Darvin
Speaker 1: Ham lost the locker room in his final season, and
Speaker 1: part of it was with Frank. I think he's on
Speaker 1: the nicer side, he's a bit soft spoken.
Speaker 3: With Darvin, there's.
Speaker 1: Elements of that, but there was also some elements of
Speaker 1: disorganization in terms of game plan and strategy.
Speaker 3: So I think JJ not only having.
Speaker 1: A certain level of adaptability and coming in with an
Speaker 1: open mind of like I want to collaborate with the
Speaker 1: from office, collaborate with the players, and really make sure
Speaker 1: everyone is buying into the same vision of how we
Speaker 1: are running this team. There's that element, but it's also
Speaker 1: the element of effectively communicating with players and making sure
Speaker 1: you know that the plan is going to be the plan,
Speaker 1: and you're going to know where you are in the
Speaker 1: pecking order, where you are in the hierarchy, and if
Speaker 1: that changes, we will have an open and honest conversation
Speaker 1: about that instead of because I would hear like and
Speaker 1: stuff starts to trickle out, but you would hear stuff
Speaker 1: of like you know, with Darvin, this isn't the PYLO
Speaker 1: on Darvin. This is just to kind of contrast it.
Speaker 1: But like with Darvin, there might be like a certain
Speaker 1: plan at shoot around, and then in the pregame meeting
Speaker 1: that plan changes and guys would feel like, I don't
Speaker 1: really know like why this is changing, or I'm not
Speaker 1: given a reason. I'm just kind of told like, hey,
Speaker 1: you're out of the starting lineup tonight, or hey we're
Speaker 1: going with this look tonight. And with JJ, I think like,
Speaker 1: and he certainly, I'm sure knew some of this stuff
Speaker 1: and was able to properly cater to the audience, and
Speaker 1: that's part of his skill, you know, clearly, But I
Speaker 1: also think like, if we're looking at his strengths coming
Speaker 1: in from day one, I think it is his adaptable mindset,
Speaker 1: and that's based on just listening to his podcast, listening
Speaker 1: to his basketball philosophy, but also his communication skills, and
Speaker 1: he is far and away a better communicator than Darvin
Speaker 1: Ham or Frank Vogel, and I think that that's going
Speaker 1: to be an asset that from day one he's able
Speaker 1: to communicate with the players in a direct way and
Speaker 1: even a confrontational way, but I think a way that's
Speaker 1: going to benefit them where they're going to have the
Speaker 1: hard conversations early and it's not always going to be pretty,
Speaker 1: but I think that's one of his clear skills from
Speaker 1: day one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think specifically with the younger roster too, Like
Speaker 2: if we look back last year now, I think will
Speaker 2: I think they will bring in a vet or two
Speaker 2: this year to try to kind of balance that, because
Speaker 2: I would venture to guess if you asked Lebron on
Speaker 2: some truth serum, like what were your thoughts on the
Speaker 2: roster last year, one of the things he would say
Speaker 2: is he'd probably say we were a bit too young,
Speaker 2: and that I think it reflects in some of just
Speaker 2: the lack of attention to detail that you saw on
Speaker 2: a possession by possession basis. You know, JJ, I think
Speaker 2: is going to have a relatively easy time bringing the
Speaker 2: certain amount of you know, uh presence or aura to
Speaker 2: communicate with a young player and get him to kind
Speaker 2: of like listen to what he has to say. But
Speaker 2: I think it will be contingent on Lebron kind of
Speaker 2: backing all of that, in AD backing all of that,
Speaker 2: And so as long as Lebron and Ad kind of
Speaker 2: stand behind JJ early on to help add you know,
Speaker 2: legitimacy to the things that he's saying, I think that
Speaker 2: a lot of JJ's communication will resonate you know when
Speaker 2: I think about it, Bear with me here for a minute,
Speaker 2: because I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of go through my
Speaker 2: thought process on this.
Speaker 3: But like.
Speaker 2: His love for the game and his competitiveness, I give
Speaker 2: him like an a plus. You just don't make it
Speaker 2: to the NBA as JJ Reddick if you're not just
Speaker 2: a crazy, a crazy m effort for lack of a
Speaker 2: better word. And like, I actually think that JJ. We
Speaker 2: see this JJ that we see in the media, but
Speaker 2: I think he's got a nasty side, which I think
Speaker 2: will serve him well as a coach because I think
Speaker 2: there's a I think there needs to be an element
Speaker 2: of that you were talking about Frank Vogel being a
Speaker 2: little soft spoken. Like, I think JJ's is going to
Speaker 2: be an animated coach, and I think that's going to
Speaker 2: be a good thing. I mean, when I look around
Speaker 2: the NBA and I think about the best coaches, Spolstra, Popovich,
Speaker 2: you know, occur tylu, you know, Michael Malone, like those
Speaker 2: guys are pretty animated and active and involved with what
Speaker 2: they're doing. Right the experience side, to me, experience is
Speaker 2: like one of the more overrated things, you know, when
Speaker 2: it comes to this sort of thing like, I'd rather
Speaker 2: have a talented, inexperienced person over a mediocre experience person
Speaker 2: any day of the week, especially when it comes to
Speaker 2: these kinds of overly competitive professions. So the real thing
Speaker 2: that I think is fascinating is the actual basketball organization piece.
Speaker 2: And so bear with me, I'm just kind of going
Speaker 2: to kind of go through some of my thoughts on
Speaker 2: where I think JJ can really help. So I want
Speaker 2: to start with offensive organization. So one of the things
Speaker 2: that frustrated me last year was the Lakers took some
Speaker 2: massive leaps in their five out offense and just seem
Speaker 2: to have awesome ball in player movement for extensive stretches
Speaker 2: and got a lot of really high quality looks that
Speaker 2: manifested in them being one of the best offenses over
Speaker 2: the tail end of the season. But I thought that
Speaker 2: there was a lack of value on individual possessions in
Speaker 2: a kind of a tendency to get away from that
Speaker 2: from time to time. You know, one of the guys
Speaker 2: that I think did a really good job of breaking
Speaker 2: this down this year is Tim Kranews. Tim kranis who
Speaker 2: does stuff just a lot of x's and O stuff,
Speaker 2: but he focuses a lot on the Lakers, and he
Speaker 2: was crazy enough to sit and chart like every single
Speaker 2: damn possession that the Lakers had this entire season, and
Speaker 2: he did a really nice job of kind of demonstrating
Speaker 2: the difference between when the Lakers ran set offense versus
Speaker 2: when they ran freelance offense. And freelance offense has a
Speaker 2: very important part in the game of basketball, and it
Speaker 2: needs to be to think of it as like five
Speaker 2: out motion. It's just kind of like read and react
Speaker 2: basketball that you lean back on after you've run a
Speaker 2: set action or after you end up in the half court.
Speaker 2: But I think the Lakers could be served well by
Speaker 2: being more deliberate about getting to a set early in
Speaker 2: the possession and then playing in the flow out of that.
Speaker 2: And there are too many possessions where like they would
Speaker 2: try to push in transition to run early offense, which
Speaker 2: is good. You want to push up the floor when
Speaker 2: you can, because if you can get the defense in
Speaker 2: rotation without having to run a set, that's great. But
Speaker 2: there were too many of those possessions that when the
Speaker 2: transition push was kind of cut off, that they would
Speaker 2: flow into just like some basic ballscreen or ISO or
Speaker 2: dribble drive and the possession would fall apart early instead
Speaker 2: of pulling out running a set and then getting into
Speaker 2: action from there, getting into your five out motion from there,
Speaker 2: and so just simply increasing the percentage of possessions when
Speaker 2: the Lakers actually run a set play versus and kind
Speaker 2: of cutting down on the possessions where they push and
Speaker 2: transition and then just kind of get into the flow
Speaker 2: before getting any sort of advantage. I think the attention
Speaker 2: to detail, valuing each individual possession more will help, as
Speaker 2: cran just pointed out so well, all over the course
Speaker 2: of the season, and as you can tell just by
Speaker 2: watching the film when the Lakers would run their sets,
Speaker 2: they got great stuff all the time. There's just too
Speaker 2: much talent on the floor. There's too much basketball IQ
Speaker 2: in terms of the ability to read and react out
Speaker 2: of it. The weaklink was Ruey at the start of
Speaker 2: the season, and by the end of the season he
Speaker 2: started to feel when he was supposed to cut along
Speaker 2: the baseline, when he was supposed to flow into the
Speaker 2: next action. They have the talent to be a truly
Speaker 2: great offense as long as they value each individual possession.
Speaker 2: A couple individual things too, like cutting down on pull
Speaker 2: up twos. They took twelve per game last year and
Speaker 2: shot just forty percent on him that was zero point
Speaker 2: eight points per shot. D LO took a ton of
Speaker 2: them that were really bad shots that he was barely hitting,
Speaker 2: like thirty nine percent of Austin Reeves was the only
Speaker 2: player on the team that actually got more than one
Speaker 2: point per pull up jump shot. And so I think
Speaker 2: like just cutting back on some of those, especially the
Speaker 2: ones early in the clock. The getting Anthony Davis more
Speaker 2: involved piece is really interesting to me, and we can
Speaker 2: get let's just let's bounce back and forth on this
Speaker 2: for a minute and then we'll come back, because I
Speaker 2: do have some thoughts on JJ on the defensive end
Speaker 2: of the floor, but with getting Ad more involved, I
Speaker 2: one hundred percent agree as it pertains to the overarching
Speaker 2: forty eight minute game, Like there were way too many
Speaker 2: stretches where it'd be like a big third quarter run
Speaker 2: for the other team and AD hasn't touched the damn
Speaker 2: ball for two and a half minutes, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, Like that sort of thing happened way too often. However,
Speaker 2: crunch time. You know, AD has his own issues in
Speaker 2: those situations. You know, he has. He can struggle to
Speaker 2: read the floor from time to time. His inability to
Speaker 2: hit a jump shot can be an issue from time
Speaker 2: to time. The crunch time offense wasn't an issue for
Speaker 2: the Lakers last year. They were top ten in the league.
Speaker 2: They had a one nineteen offensive rating in the clutch,
Speaker 2: and they had a one twenty one off offensive rating
Speaker 2: in the clutch in the three postseason games where they
Speaker 2: ended up in clutch situations. So, like, again, I'm not
Speaker 2: necessarily opposed to it. I just don't necessarily think that's
Speaker 2: the strong suit of AD's game. I think the bigger
Speaker 2: thing is just sticking with the the uh. Like JJ's
Speaker 2: a big believer in three man action, making sure that
Speaker 2: if Lebron has the ball in these clutch time situations,
Speaker 2: that Ads not just standing in the corner spacing or
Speaker 2: just setting a basic ball screen. Because if Ad just
Speaker 2: sets a basic ball screen, most teams are gonna switch that,
Speaker 2: and then AD is just gonna go stand in the
Speaker 2: corner or stand in the dunker spot. Three man action
Speaker 2: makes it so much harder to switch. And there were moments,
Speaker 2: especially in the Nuggets series, where the Lakers run a
Speaker 2: bunch of stack pick and roll down the stretch of
Speaker 2: the game with d Lo backscreening for Ad in those
Speaker 2: ball screens, and they got great stuff out of it,
Speaker 2: and they can that I think is great. Keeping Ad
Speaker 2: involved in three man action at the end of games
Speaker 2: is great, But I don't think just force feeding Ad
Speaker 2: in the clutch is gonna solve the problem. And then
Speaker 2: the last thing I'll say before I bounce it back
Speaker 2: to you, They've got to invest more at the start
Speaker 2: of the season and throughout games in Anthony Davis's jump shot.
Speaker 2: I think, especially as Jared Vanderbilt gets reintegrated next year,
Speaker 2: especially if they end up having some sort of big
Speaker 2: look where AD's at the four, I think they're gonna
Speaker 2: need Ad to take at least five to six jump
Speaker 2: shots a game and be willing to take three point shots,
Speaker 2: especially out of the corner. And then if I shouldn't
Speaker 2: even say just out of the corner too, like he's
Speaker 2: got to take picking pop jump shots too, because those
Speaker 2: are open in the offense. But like there is way
Speaker 2: too often during the regular season where that just disappeared
Speaker 2: from AD's game and he'd take one or two jump
Speaker 2: shots a game for a month and it's like no
Speaker 2: matter how good he is as a jump shooter if
Speaker 2: you don't invest in it so that he can build
Speaker 2: rhythm that won't reap rewards down the end. And so
Speaker 2: I really want to see him just be more invested
Speaker 2: in over the course of the season as a jump
Speaker 2: shooter as well. But in general, I agree with getting
Speaker 2: Ad more involved in the offense. I just don't necessarily
Speaker 2: think force feeding him in the clutch is going to
Speaker 2: solve all their problems. Do you agree?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, I do.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned the three man actions, So that's something
Speaker 1: that we heard during this process of reporting was the
Speaker 1: Lakers and now JJ Reddick are looking forward to these
Speaker 1: three man actions with Lebron Ady and Austin Reeves. I
Speaker 1: think you are going to see some stack pick and
Speaker 1: rolls in span pick and with those three and a
Speaker 1: lot more three man actions. And I think the framing
Speaker 1: has been interesting where it's been. You know, obviously, you
Speaker 1: know at some point Lebron is going to retire and
Speaker 1: it's going to be Anthony Davis's team. So there has
Speaker 1: been a focus and an onus on how can we
Speaker 1: get Ad more involved, how can we continue to funnel
Speaker 1: things through him a bit more? But the three names
Speaker 1: that we've heard over the last few weeks as like,
Speaker 1: you know, focuses for the Lakers in terms of player
Speaker 1: development and how they fit with the roster is Austin Reeves, Ruey, Hutchimora,
Speaker 1: and Max Christy. And I think that's kind of interesting
Speaker 1: with you. I mean, you still have Jared Vanderbilt there,
Speaker 1: you still have Gave Vincent, you have Jalen Hood Schafino,
Speaker 1: Maxwell Lewis so like some younger players, but like those
Speaker 1: have been the three names that the Lakers have been
Speaker 1: sort of treating as the foundation of the team in
Speaker 1: addition to Lebron and Ad. So I think elevating Max
Speaker 1: Christy will also, you know, that's a whole other conversation
Speaker 1: that we've had I'd at various points, but like, I
Speaker 1: think he can step in and potentially be like a
Speaker 1: top eight guy next season for them Ruey, either as
Speaker 1: a starter or as like a six man type like
Speaker 1: microwave forward off the bench.
Speaker 3: So I think the.
Speaker 1: Lakers, I mean, like it seems to be an acknowledgement
Speaker 1: of like who the best players on the roster are
Speaker 1: or who the better players on the roster are and
Speaker 1: the different ways to empower them.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think like the Lakers would.
Speaker 1: I remember with Frank Vogel, they'd run those pin down
Speaker 1: actions for ad that where he could curl or he
Speaker 1: could pop from the left side of the floor, and
Speaker 1: like they would occasionally do that with Darvin, but they
Speaker 1: didn't do it consistently enough. And I think that's the
Speaker 1: other thing is like, you know, and this was something
Speaker 1: that we reported out during this process, was like JJ's
Speaker 1: meticulousness and his attention to detail. And he's a guy
Speaker 1: who's very i mean honestly borderline OCD and in some way,
Speaker 1: like you talked about doing his three hundred and forty
Speaker 1: two shots from the same spots on the floor every
Speaker 1: day during the offseason, and like he's very routine based
Speaker 1: to to you know, is.
Speaker 3: Everything he does.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure, like I'd love to pick his brain
Speaker 1: on the podcasting side as to like how he improved
Speaker 1: as a podcaster, because I'm sure he was very routine
Speaker 1: oriented with that and probably would watch back to film
Speaker 1: and take notes and like break it down almost like
Speaker 1: breaking down basketball. So like that's just how he's wired,
Speaker 1: that's his personality. And that was not and again it's
Speaker 1: not to keep bringing up Darvin Ham, but like that
Speaker 1: was something that the Lakers struggled with last year. And
Speaker 1: I think JJ coming in and I think he is
Speaker 1: going to be tracking some of these things. And that's
Speaker 1: another thing that JJ is much more pro analytics than
Speaker 1: any coach the Lakers have had, like ever, and the
Speaker 1: Lakers are kind of always like, you know, they were
Speaker 1: one of the last teams to send an analytics group
Speaker 1: to the Sloan Mit Sports Conference, and they're one of
Speaker 1: the last organizations to beef up their analytics staff. So
Speaker 1: like the Lakers have always kind of been behind the
Speaker 1: curve with analytics and modern basketball even I mean even
Speaker 1: the last few years, like they've been among the league,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, among the last place of three
Speaker 1: point attempts, and like last year they shot the ball
Speaker 1: much better, but they were still twenty eighth in attempts.
Speaker 1: So it's like they have to modernize their offense as well.
Speaker 1: And I think one of the things that JJ has
Speaker 1: constantly talked about is like he has a good relationship
Speaker 1: with Joe Miszula, And you know, I don't think Laker
Speaker 1: fans do love this, Like his son's favorite team is
Speaker 1: the Celtics, and like so he consumes the Celtics a lot.
Speaker 3: And what did the Celtics do?
Speaker 1: They take forty plus threes a night, And there's obviously
Speaker 1: ways you generate those threes. You're not just taking threes
Speaker 1: to take them necessarily. But I think for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: like modernizing the offense and actually like and everything was
Speaker 1: rim based, and I think there is an element of like, yes,
Speaker 1: you have Lebron, you have Ad.
Speaker 3: You should be living in the rim.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't be making those guys take like, you know,
Speaker 1: ten plus threes a night.
Speaker 3: But there's also.
Speaker 1: A balance to it where I just think in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four and beyond, you can't be twenty eighth and
Speaker 1: three point attempts per game and expect to actually contend
Speaker 1: for a championship.
Speaker 3: So I think unless you, you know, have your dominating all.
Speaker 1: The other category, which the Lakers weren't necessarily doing either.
Speaker 1: So I think for them, part of it's going to be,
Speaker 1: you know, to your point with Ad, like getting ads
Speaker 1: jump shot going and potentially more threes, and that's that's
Speaker 1: been a talking point every preseason for like the last
Speaker 1: three years. So it remains to be seen if he'll
Speaker 1: actually do that. But even if eighty isn't taking more threes.
Speaker 1: If they can find ways to just generate five to
Speaker 1: seven more threes a game and shift that away from
Speaker 1: some of the pull up jumpers, some of the mid
Speaker 1: range stuff, and just modernize their offense, I think that
Speaker 1: could go a long ways. I mean, they were again
Speaker 1: second in the league, you know, from February on, that
Speaker 1: could be first by a bit right over the course
Speaker 1: of a full season, potentially depending on how they reshape
Speaker 1: the roster. So I think JJ is going to come
Speaker 1: in with a very organized, very analytically driven and I
Speaker 1: think he's going to bring an element to the Lakers
Speaker 1: offense that they have not had really ever, you know,
Speaker 1: since the league has shifted over like the last decade.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you hit that, you hit the nail. Ned Like
Speaker 2: if you could turn those twelve pull up twos into
Speaker 2: seven pull up twos and those five all become either
Speaker 2: rim attempts or three point attempts, like, that's the thing.
Speaker 2: It's not. It's not so much the number of threes,
Speaker 2: because you know, it's more efficient than threes rim attempts.
Speaker 2: So it's like, as long as you're just trying to
Speaker 2: tilt your offense towards those two types of attempts in
Speaker 2: a way from the lower value attempts in the middle. Now,
Speaker 2: some of it's unavoidable, like Lebron James is forty next year,
Speaker 2: so like he's not gonna stop taking pull up twos,
Speaker 2: at least not to some sort of dramatic extent. But
Speaker 2: like if you can get it, like if Austin's taking
Speaker 2: them in Lebron or taking them, but no one else
Speaker 2: is taking them, and they're primarily in rescue possession situations,
Speaker 2: meaning like late clock, need to get something going, you know,
Speaker 2: just to kind of get something up on the rim
Speaker 2: before the end of the clock. I liked your mention
Speaker 2: of kind of JJ's focus on analytics, Like I like
Speaker 2: that he specifically mentioned in the reporting that I saw
Speaker 2: the focus on empirical evidence, which is basically like being
Speaker 2: able to Again, there's always there's there always two sides
Speaker 2: to this, because you don't want to overreact to evidence,
Speaker 2: especially in a small sample size if you have an
Speaker 2: overarching basketball philosophy that you're trying to build out. So
Speaker 2: for instance, like the Laker early five out results were bad,
Speaker 2: and so if you actually just listen to the evidence,
Speaker 2: you'd be like we were a better offense last year
Speaker 2: when we were running these spread pick and roll, cleared
Speaker 2: side pick and roll, just kind of like old fashioned
Speaker 2: four out brute force type of offense. If you bail
Speaker 2: on five out, you don't get the results that we
Speaker 2: got in the tail end of the season when everything clicks.
Speaker 2: So it's always a delicate balance. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: it's like there was abundantly clear evidence that the Torrian
Speaker 2: Princes at the three stuff wasn't working for the majority
Speaker 2: of the first part of the season, and they never
Speaker 2: bailed on that until it was too late, and then
Speaker 2: they were in some massive hole in the standings. And
Speaker 2: so I think just a better relationship with the data,
Speaker 2: better understanding of how it works, in a better like
Speaker 2: willingness to listen to it will go a long way
Speaker 2: toward towards helping the Lakers kind of avoid some of
Speaker 2: those pitfalls. Defensive end is where that can be really useful. So,
Speaker 2: like I was looking through the numbers today, the Laker
Speaker 2: defense was pretty bad, especially bad in the regular season
Speaker 2: after their offense started clicking. Now they had some moments
Speaker 2: in the playoffs where they defended really well. I thought
Speaker 2: they defended the Nuggets pretty well for large stretches, but
Speaker 2: then they really struggled in crunch time. But I thought
Speaker 2: that was more personnel related. And there's this I want
Speaker 2: to be clear before I go any further on this,
Speaker 2: there's a personnel element to this that has to be
Speaker 2: factored in. The Lakers do not have a starting caliber
Speaker 2: player that is an excellent perimeter defender and a plus
Speaker 2: offensive player doesn't exist on the roster, and that's something
Speaker 2: that they absolutely have to address going into this postseason,
Speaker 2: which we're going to talk about here in just a minute.
Speaker 2: But the Lakers gave up the three the third most
Speaker 2: three point attempts in the league per game, They allowed
Speaker 2: the sixth highest opponent three point percentage, they allowed the
Speaker 2: the tenth most points in the paint per game, they
Speaker 2: allowed the fourth most second chance points, and they allowed
Speaker 2: the fourth most fast break points. So like they were
Speaker 2: there wasn't a phase of defense where they were great
Speaker 2: except for not fouling, so which probably had a lot
Speaker 2: to do with everyone getting easy buckets on them.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: So, like, I think there's an analytic approach to defense
Speaker 2: as well as it pertains to like you've got to
Speaker 2: find out what you can protect for sure, in this case,
Speaker 2: in all likelihood, protecting the paint is probably going to
Speaker 2: be the goal of this particular team, But we don't
Speaker 2: know what the roster looks like. But there are certain
Speaker 2: things that, regardless of your personnel, you can clean up
Speaker 2: through coaching in terms of preaching, attention to detail, and
Speaker 2: focus on fundamentals. So like, this team has to be
Speaker 2: a good defensive transition team. You can't be giving up
Speaker 2: as many points in fast break situations as they did
Speaker 2: last year. This team has to find a way to
Speaker 2: at least take away either the rim or the three
Speaker 2: point line. It can't be neither. If it's neither, you
Speaker 2: have no chance to be effective defense. So like, again,
Speaker 2: if we come out of this and Max Christie's the
Speaker 2: best perimeter defender on the roster going into training camp,
Speaker 2: then that probably needs to be a roster that loads
Speaker 2: up the strong side and shuts down the paint. That
Speaker 2: has to be like at least somewhat of the fundamental
Speaker 2: strong point. Or if they're more built around taking away
Speaker 2: the three point line, then there needs to be a
Speaker 2: focus on that in terms of not overhelping, staying home
Speaker 2: on shooters, giving up rim attempts at the expense of
Speaker 2: taking away those three point shots. What it can't be
Speaker 2: is what Darvin Ham built out last year, which is
Speaker 2: a defense that is good at nothing. And so again
Speaker 2: like just identifying whatever direction he wants to go with
Speaker 2: this with this roster when it's all built, and just
Speaker 2: kind of constructing a game plan that at least tightens
Speaker 2: up some of those areas, because at the very least
Speaker 2: you have to be like, if this is going to
Speaker 2: be an offensive oriented team, like, let's pretend they go
Speaker 2: in on an offensive minded you know, trade piece that
Speaker 2: they bring in and it's Austin lebron Ad and some
Speaker 2: other great offensive player, and we're the super high powered
Speaker 2: five out offense and we're top five in the league
Speaker 2: in offensive rating. Blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: That's great.
Speaker 2: You still have to be at least a mediocre defense.
Speaker 2: They have to be in that ten to fifteen range
Speaker 2: at a minimum if they're an elite offense to be
Speaker 2: a legitimate threat. And that can be done just like
Speaker 2: the Denver Nuggets did last year, as long as you
Speaker 2: polish up all of those details and you're great at
Speaker 2: least at some things. And so again, just paying attention
Speaker 2: to the data, the attention to detail holding players accountable.
Speaker 2: I think that's gonna go a long way all right,
Speaker 2: before we get into the offseason, I'm gonna have some
Speaker 2: rapid fire questions for you surrounding surrounding the JJ higher.
Speaker 2: What is Lebron's involvement been with on the JJ Reddick
Speaker 2: front in terms of him getting the job.
Speaker 3: Apparently it's not been involved.
Speaker 1: That's been what we reported at the Athletic that that's
Speaker 1: what we've heard from sources within the organization and also
Speaker 1: outside of the organization. I mean, Rich Paul came out
Speaker 1: and basically out statement to Sham's about Lebron not backing
Speaker 1: JJ and basically just because of our podcast partners doesn't
Speaker 1: mean he wants him to be his head coach. So
Speaker 1: I think really this traces back to the Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: situation and some of the fallout with that and the
Speaker 1: blame game from that. So I think ever since then,
Speaker 1: the front office and Lebron have not been.
Speaker 3: They've not been.
Speaker 1: Working as closely as they were up to that point.
Speaker 1: So I think that it's it's been a little bit
Speaker 1: more of a separation of church and state, so to speak.
Speaker 1: And I think with Lebron it was sort of like like,
Speaker 1: you're I'm probably gonna get the blame here.
Speaker 3: If JJ, if they hire JJ.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't work out, Like I'm going to get
Speaker 1: some level of blame here because we have this podcast together.
Speaker 1: So I'm just like, I don't have a say in this.
Speaker 1: I'm removing myself. So you know, to my knowledge zero,
Speaker 1: I mean, of course, on some level, like him having
Speaker 1: a podcast, we can't ignore him having a podcast with
Speaker 1: JJ and then seeing eye to eye on basically every everything,
Speaker 1: excuse me, everything basketball wise, Like there's some level of like, okay,
Speaker 1: well you got the co sign there, but from my
Speaker 1: you know, to my knowledge, he was not involved in
Speaker 1: this process.
Speaker 2: So what do you think the Lakers mean when they
Speaker 2: say they view him as pat Riley or Eric Spolstra.
Speaker 1: Well, pat Riley, I think there's a clear you know
Speaker 1: that one. It's not just like the way he dresses
Speaker 1: or or the hair. It's it's more so like making
Speaker 1: the jump from being a player to the broadcast booth
Speaker 1: to the coaching chair and a matter of just a
Speaker 1: few years now, pat Riley, did you know he was
Speaker 1: an assistant coach for a couple of years, so he
Speaker 1: at least had a little bit of experience before becoming
Speaker 1: a head coach, So that is one key difference. It's
Speaker 1: also in late seventies early eighties, like they had one
Speaker 1: assistant coach, so it was like a much different process,
Speaker 1: and it was probably like a slightly easier process, right
Speaker 1: or even very much easier.
Speaker 3: But so that's one thing. But they see like the charisma.
Speaker 1: The gravatas, like him having that tough, competitive.
Speaker 3: Spirit, and they see a lot of the traits that
Speaker 3: the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Saw in pat Riley that made them want to elevate
Speaker 1: him to being their head coach as traits that JJ
Speaker 1: Reddick has as well.
Speaker 3: So nothing like basketball exits.
Speaker 1: No's necessarily, but more so like just the the personality,
Speaker 1: the charisma, the competitiveness, the like the desire to win
Speaker 1: at all costs.
Speaker 3: They see that in JJ Reddick. So that that's and.
Speaker 1: The Lakers, of course, like they tend to, you know,
Speaker 1: compare things to their past and the glory days, so
Speaker 1: like it is, you know, it's kind of funny that
Speaker 1: like that was the comparison. Now the Eric Spolstra Steve
Speaker 1: Kerr is more so, like they want JJ to become
Speaker 1: a program builder, a culture setter, like those are the
Speaker 1: terms that they use and have a coach in place
Speaker 1: for the next ten fifteen years. And it is interesting
Speaker 1: to me that he only signed a four year deal
Speaker 1: compared to the six year deal that was offered to
Speaker 1: Dan Hurley. But they're viewing this as like Lebron and
Speaker 1: eighty probably have two more years maybe three MAX together,
Speaker 1: and then there's going to be the next era of
Speaker 1: Lakers basketball, and can you build something sustainable here and
Speaker 1: be a stalwart and be you know, an iconic coach
Speaker 1: that transcends this era of Lakers basketball, that transcends maybe
Speaker 1: multiple iterations of Lakers basketball. And you know, Steve Kerr
Speaker 1: obviously has been fortunate to have Steph and Draymond and
Speaker 1: Clay together for that whole time. But like looking at
Speaker 1: Eric Spolstra when he came in, I mean, he came
Speaker 1: in right before the Heatles, and then you know, see
Speaker 1: he had that version of like Dwayne Wade going out
Speaker 1: getting thirty and ten every night, but they were a
Speaker 1: pretty bad team. Then they get the Heatles, then they
Speaker 1: have that kind of down period and then they rebuild
Speaker 1: and get Jimmy Butler and Beam out of Bayo. Now
Speaker 1: they have this iteration and now they might be going
Speaker 1: in a different direction potentially this offseason. So, like Eric
Speaker 1: Spoltzo has been there for multiple generations of heat basketball,
Speaker 1: and I mean it's it's a very high bar for
Speaker 1: JJ tow be coming in it'd be compared to those guys.
Speaker 3: But he's about to turn forty next.
Speaker 1: Week, and he you know, he's incredibly young, and so
Speaker 1: like this is if he wants to, he could coach
Speaker 1: till he's sixty five seventy, and you know, whether that
Speaker 1: ends up being with the Lakers or multiple teams, like
Speaker 1: only time will tell. But they want that type of
Speaker 1: guy of like just a smart person who's going to
Speaker 1: adapt to how basketball is changing and year over year
Speaker 1: change their coaching philosophy, change like how they view things,
Speaker 1: and that is something that JJ's pitching that he's going
Speaker 1: to do. And so I think those comparisons are more
Speaker 1: like a modern version of that. But the pat Riley wanted,
Speaker 1: I think it's more just like the glory days and
Speaker 1: they're just the path that they follow to becoming coaches.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of pressure there, but I think
Speaker 2: that JJ will handle that kind of pressure well and
Speaker 2: use it to fuel him two more quick ones before
Speaker 2: we get to the offseason. Did the podcast get mentioned
Speaker 2: at all during the interview process?
Speaker 1: Not to my knowledge, but I was not in those conversations,
Speaker 1: so I can't. I'm I mean, I would guess probably,
Speaker 1: but not to my knowledge.
Speaker 2: If you had to quickly list off what you expect
Speaker 2: the assistant coaching staff to look like, what do you think? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So the four names we reported at the Athletic are
Speaker 1: Sam Cassell. The Lakers would love for him to be
Speaker 1: a lead assistant, Scott Brooks, Jon Rondo, and Jared Dudley.
Speaker 1: I don't expect all four of those names to be
Speaker 1: on the bench next season. I would expect maybe a
Speaker 1: couple of them. Uh, Sam could be in Land to
Speaker 1: be promoted in Boston with Charles Lee going over to
Speaker 1: Charlotte that Scott Brooks was recently let go by Portland,
Speaker 1: and then Rondo's dealing with some off court legal stuff,
Speaker 1: so that's that's the potential, you know, hold up there.
Speaker 1: And then Jared Dudley, I mean, he was on Dallas's
Speaker 1: bench and they just made the NBA Finals, so he
Speaker 1: could potentially be in Land for a promotion there or
Speaker 1: just staying there because of the state that that team
Speaker 1: is in right now, So I like Stanman. This is
Speaker 1: just pure speculation here, but Stanman Gutty is a name
Speaker 1: that to me, I think would be an interesting one
Speaker 1: of just you know, he's calling games for T and
Speaker 1: T right now. But JJ has said that that is
Speaker 1: the best coach he's ever played for, and I think
Speaker 1: he would make a lot of sense either as an
Speaker 1: offensive or probably more of a defensive coordinator, but like
Speaker 1: either way, kind of being that lead guy if the
Speaker 1: Lakers can't land Sam Cassel. So pure speculation there for
Speaker 1: those who are about to agree to that, but I
Speaker 1: think stanm Aan Gutty would make a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: So I've heard though they want at least one former
Speaker 1: head coach, if not two, on this current staff or
Speaker 1: on JJ's staff, as kind of a buffer with experience
Speaker 1: and just to help guide him through his first year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm I am most concerned about them giving him
Speaker 2: somebody to help with just like the personality dynamics and
Speaker 2: navigating just the flow of an eighty two game season
Speaker 2: and some of the postseason highs and lows that can
Speaker 2: take place after wins and losses. In terms of the tactics,
Speaker 2: I actually get really nervous about former head coaches because
Speaker 2: like some of them tend to be a little bit
Speaker 2: stuck in their ways. The NBA is very different than
Speaker 2: what it was when Stanman Gundi was last coaching at
Speaker 2: the NBA level. So like, but I don't worry about
Speaker 2: JJ with the tactics at all, because he's just he's crazy.
Speaker 2: He's crazy competitive, he loves the game. That dude will
Speaker 2: That dude will be buried in basketball ideologies for the
Speaker 2: next month, like for the next three four months prepping
Speaker 2: for this season. I have no concerns about his ability
Speaker 2: to handle the tactic side of things. It's just will
Speaker 2: he be able to handle the personality dynamics that are
Speaker 2: very different being a coach versus when you're just in
Speaker 2: the locker room as a player, And so like getting
Speaker 2: some head coaching experience just to help him navigate that
Speaker 2: I think would be really useful. All Right, we're just
Speaker 2: going to spend about five to ten minutes on this.
Speaker 2: But obviously it's been what seven eight weeks since you
Speaker 2: and I last chatted. What do you think the current
Speaker 2: ideology is at the front office in terms of the
Speaker 2: direction you think they'll go this summer in terms of
Speaker 2: player personnel.
Speaker 1: So what I've been hearing the last few weeks and
Speaker 1: what I've been reporting out has been the team leaning
Speaker 1: more toward small to medium upgrades to this roster, likely
Speaker 1: in the form of a couple separate deals with role players.
Speaker 1: So the mid sized contracts that they have are Austin Reeves,
Speaker 1: Ruy Hutchemora, Jared Vanderbilt, potentially the Angel Russell if he
Speaker 1: opts in, and Gabe Vincent. So of trading some combination
Speaker 1: of those guys, either packaging a couple of them together
Speaker 1: or doing a couple separate deals and then using your picks,
Speaker 1: maybe using a Jalen Hoodschafino to get a couple of
Speaker 1: upgrades Vietnam.
Speaker 3: Primarily like they need a wing.
Speaker 1: Upgrade that they need ideally, like Ruy Hutchimora and Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt have like a basketball baby, and like that is
Speaker 1: the starting small forward for the Lakers. That player is
Speaker 1: hard to find. But you know, I think not having
Speaker 1: to do sort of like offense defense with those two
Speaker 1: and having to pick and kind of give up one
Speaker 1: side of the ball. So that's going to be a
Speaker 1: point of emphasis for them, is trying to find that
Speaker 1: elusive three and d winning, which they had multiple of
Speaker 1: them a few years ago, if you remember KCP, Kyle
Speaker 1: Kuzma and Alex Caruso, and now that they've really struggled
Speaker 1: to find two way talent over the last few years, so.
Speaker 3: That that is like priority number one for them. Is
Speaker 3: figuring that out.
Speaker 1: Now if D'Angel Russell opts out and leaves or ops
Speaker 1: out and is signing trade it somewhere like all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you have that point guard hole and you
Speaker 1: only have the non taxpayer mL to replace him with.
Speaker 1: So the Angel Russell really is the pivot point here,
Speaker 1: and I haven't got a great read on what he's
Speaker 1: likely going to do. I mean, I thought the Molik
Speaker 1: Monk contract was pretty interesting. It was a little bit
Speaker 1: lower than I was expecting for Molik Monk, and that
Speaker 1: could just be a sign of with the new second
Speaker 1: Apron rules and even the first Apron rules, teams are
Speaker 1: going to be more conservative with their spending on non
Speaker 1: all stars and superstars. So a guy like the Angel
Speaker 1: Russell in theory, you couldn't maybe make the case of,
Speaker 1: you know, could he get twenty million from a team
Speaker 1: or twenty five like maybe on paper that could be
Speaker 1: his value, but in actuality like it might not be
Speaker 1: the case. So a guy like the Delo has to
Speaker 1: pick between do I want eighteen million four one year
Speaker 1: and then test for agency the following season, or do
Speaker 1: I want maybe a smaller annual value.
Speaker 3: Deal for multiple years.
Speaker 1: So but my sense in all this is the Lakers
Speaker 1: have been leading more toward smaller moves in part just
Speaker 1: because it gets really difficult to build out a good
Speaker 1: roster in twenty twenty four when you have three guys
Speaker 1: making forty plus million dollars. I mean, look at the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns like that ultimately was I think what you
Speaker 1: know did them in was just and there was a
Speaker 1: limitation there. I think to how those guys fit, I
Speaker 1: think there'd be a more natural fit between a guard
Speaker 1: Lebron and ad Like I think positionally it kind of
Speaker 1: makes a bit more sense and like you could you
Speaker 1: could see the vision there. But after the Russell Westbrook situation,
Speaker 1: with the new second apron rules and the limitations with
Speaker 1: building out the roster and the limitations that come with
Speaker 1: just even crossing the first apron, I think they're leaning
Speaker 1: that way now.
Speaker 3: I will say, like the Dan.
Speaker 1: Early thing, it shook me a little bit in terms
Speaker 1: of like their ability to sort of misdirect. So I
Speaker 1: want to add the caveat of like, there's certainly the
Speaker 1: possibility that, like the buzz coming out has been supporting
Speaker 1: cast upgrades and you know, more minimal to margin all upgrades.
Speaker 1: But maybe there is a something that are working. But
Speaker 1: the problem with that, though is we just don't even
Speaker 1: know who's available. Like right now, Atlanta has not clarified
Speaker 1: who's going to be available between Trey Young and de
Speaker 1: Chantey Murray.
Speaker 3: It could be both, could be, neither could be one.
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell has not signed his extension yet with Cleveland,
Speaker 1: so like that's a big one. Darius Garland is going
Speaker 1: to be kind of like the fallout guy with Die
Speaker 1: if Donovan stays versus if Donovan asks out. So like
Speaker 1: there's still a lot of uncertainty as far as like
Speaker 1: which stars are even available right now. But I would
Speaker 1: not be surprised if like that the Lakers kind of
Speaker 1: pull a smoke screen and all of a sudden, it's like,
Speaker 1: well they trade for star X that we were not expecting.
Speaker 1: But as of now, everything I've been hearing has been
Speaker 1: more let's upgrade, like the starting small forward spot, may
Speaker 1: maybe the point guard spot if Dlo is gone, and
Speaker 1: then let's go into next season with some measure of
Speaker 1: continuity and then a couple of upgrades.
Speaker 2: I like that strategy within the context of Lebron and
Speaker 2: Ad being healthy, Like if I just knew they were
Speaker 2: gonna have another season like they did last year. I
Speaker 2: like that strategy just simply because, like I thought, Lebron
Speaker 2: and Ad both played at a top ten level through
Speaker 2: the entire season, and especially in that first round. I
Speaker 2: thought both of I thought both Lebron and Ad. I
Speaker 2: thought Lebron and Ady just they straight up out played
Speaker 2: Yo Kitchen Murray head to head. I thought Ad kind
Speaker 2: of more or less met Yo Kitchen's level, and Lebron
Speaker 2: was better than Jamal Murray outside of a few clutch
Speaker 2: jump shots. But down the roster, Aaron Gordon, KCP, Michael
Speaker 2: Porter Junior, those dudes just absolutely dusted the D'Angelo, Russell,
Speaker 2: Ruy Hatchi Mura group, like they really struggled and so like,
Speaker 2: Austin Reeves was pretty good once again, shot fifty five
Speaker 2: percent on pull of jump shots. He's at twenty one
Speaker 2: playoff games now, seventeen points per game on sixty one
Speaker 2: percent for shooting, which is awesome, and so like, I
Speaker 2: kind of liked that idea within the context of what
Speaker 2: we've seen in recent NBA history too, because like Dallas
Speaker 2: misses the playoffs last year, make a couple of personnel tweaks,
Speaker 2: like here's a good point of attack defender and Derek
Speaker 2: Jones junior. Here a Ford in PJ. Washington, here's two
Speaker 2: vertical spacing threats, and Lively and Gafford bam, all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, they're in the finals. So like, if your
Speaker 2: top two is as good as Lebron and ad Are
Speaker 2: and your third best player is as good as Austin
Speaker 2: Reeves is, then subtle tweaks can go a long way.
Speaker 2: Golden State twenty twenty one, their mediocre missed the playoffs.
Speaker 2: You know, bring in a you know, an Auto Porter junior,
Speaker 2: Bring in you know, Gary Payton, bring in the you know,
Speaker 2: Andrew Wiggins kind of buys into his role. Klay Thompson
Speaker 2: comes back, all of a sudden, they end up winning
Speaker 2: the championship. So like, again, I don't I think it's
Speaker 2: a little bit more complicated just with how talented the
Speaker 2: top of the league is. But if the reality is
Speaker 2: is the de Lo Ruey piece was the weak point
Speaker 2: last year. I was actually this morning watching a bunch
Speaker 2: of film, just kind of getting just reminding myself what
Speaker 2: the Laker offense looked like, because it's been so long
Speaker 2: since I've watched it, And like Ruy, Ruy turned out
Speaker 2: to be the weak point on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 2: Too many possessions were ending with him getting wide open
Speaker 2: corner threes that he couldn't make, too many driving closeouts
Speaker 2: into the lane where he'd smoke a layup or take
Speaker 2: some sort of bad mid range pull up jump shot,
Speaker 2: not tracking Michael Porter Junior on the other end of
Speaker 2: the floor, losing track of him, not battling enough physically
Speaker 2: underneath the basket. Like Ruy just had a bad series.
Speaker 2: But Ruy to me is a bench player who's masquerading
Speaker 2: as a starter for the Lakers. D'Angelo Russell is a
Speaker 2: redundancy next to Austin Reeves. And so if I believe,
Speaker 2: I genuinely believe this, if the Lakers could get two
Speaker 2: high quality starters, not stars, just starters that play at
Speaker 2: the two and the three between Austin Reeves, Lebron James
Speaker 2: and Anthony Davis, that just automatically puts them into a
Speaker 2: different tier as a basketball team. I think that would
Speaker 2: put them up in that group with the teams that
Speaker 2: are out of the play in that are towards the
Speaker 2: top end of the of the Western Conference. But it's hard,
Speaker 2: it's those are the two most desired positional archetypes around
Speaker 2: the league in terms of role players are the two
Speaker 2: and the three guys that guard opposing perimeter players and
Speaker 2: that are offensive threats off the ball when teams throw
Speaker 2: extra attention towards your stars. So it's a lot to
Speaker 2: ask to go out and find that type of player.
Speaker 2: But like, as long as Lebron and Ad are healthy,
Speaker 2: I like that strategy. My main concern is what do
Speaker 2: you do if AD misses thirty games? What do you
Speaker 2: do if Lebron misses thirty games? If Ad misses thirty games,
Speaker 2: you absolutely have to have some kind of legitimate center
Speaker 2: that can play and defend the rim and win contested
Speaker 2: rebound battles. Jackson, Hayes and Christian woodren't those guys, So
Speaker 2: they have to find a legitimate backup center option because
Speaker 2: chances are Ad will have to miss some chunk of
Speaker 2: games this year and then on the Lebron James front.
Speaker 2: If he misses time, the Lakers ball handling takes And
Speaker 2: that's where it could be an issue where if you
Speaker 2: did have just role players and you didn't bring back
Speaker 2: let's just for the sake of argument at Dejonte Murray,
Speaker 2: if you add a Dejontay Murray in a legitimate backup center,
Speaker 2: you just have more fortitude to deal with Lebron and
Speaker 2: AD injuries. But then the flip side of that is like,
Speaker 2: you're not winning the title unless Lebron and Ad are
Speaker 2: healthy anyway. So like, I understand that perspective in the
Speaker 2: sense that you're basically betting like our best version of
Speaker 2: ourselves is healthy Lebron Ad playing at a top ten level,
Speaker 2: Austin being the MAINO genobili of the team, and two
Speaker 2: starting quality two and three that all come together for
Speaker 2: a postseason run. So like, again, there's just a certain
Speaker 2: amount of risk when you're building around a forty year
Speaker 2: old Lebron James and an Anthony Davis who's had a
Speaker 2: propensity to be you know, deal with injuries from time
Speaker 2: to time. But I am curious to see and to
Speaker 2: your point about like them coming out of the woodwork
Speaker 2: with some sort of you know, random deal. It really
Speaker 2: just matters what's available, Like that's really what matters. Like
Speaker 2: if you have a phone call with somebody and that's like,
Speaker 2: oh shit, we can get this guy or that guy,
Speaker 2: then yeah, you got to explore it. But like if
Speaker 2: those aren't available and these high quality role players available,
Speaker 2: you got to go that way. It's not worth it
Speaker 2: to just invest in two low quality starters either, right, So,
Speaker 2: like again it's it's really hard to make a call
Speaker 2: on these things just because we're so disconnected from it.
Speaker 2: But anyway, Yovan, we've already taken too much of your time.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate you making this work on short notice.
Speaker 2: It's good to see you again. It's been too long.
Speaker 2: I would imagine you and I are gonna have a
Speaker 2: lot to talk about over the course of the next month.
Speaker 2: Isn't it funny how the NBA season works where it's
Speaker 2: like it's just it's like, oh, here's the trophy. On Monday,
Speaker 2: it's the Celtics are are champions, and then it's like
Speaker 2: JJ Redicket's hired, the draft is on Wednesday, free agency
Speaker 2: starts that weekend or whatever, like it just never freaking ends. Man,
Speaker 2: before we get out here, why don't you tell us
Speaker 2: about what you're working on over at the Athletic right
Speaker 2: now and on your YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I will be reporting out the JJ Redick
Speaker 1: press conference whenever. That likely Monday or Tuesday. He actually
Speaker 1: turns forty on Mondays, so I wonder if he gets
Speaker 1: the day off from doing the buzzsaw of media that
Speaker 1: that's gonna be fitting for him asking about podcasting and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. But uh, yeah, so we'll be reporting
Speaker 1: all that out at the Athletics, So make sure to
Speaker 1: subscribe and then also make sure to check out my
Speaker 1: YouTube channel. You can just search you govom booha or
Speaker 1: Booja's block. That is my video podcast on there. So
Speaker 1: we'll be also reacting and uncovering everything that we're reporting out,
Speaker 1: so be on the lookout for that.
Speaker 2: Thanks again, Yovan. Everybody get over there and subscribe to
Speaker 2: Yovon's YouTube channel as well as supporting his workover at
Speaker 2: the Athletic. We are going to take the rest of
Speaker 2: the weekend off. On Monday, we have Sam Vassini, also
Speaker 2: from the Athletic, coming on the show. We're going to
Speaker 2: break down the NBA draft everything I talked about at
Speaker 2: the end of this week in terms of the five
Speaker 2: biggest takeaways from the postseason and the mail bag. Thanks
Speaker 2: to the JJ redick Hier, we are pushing that to
Speaker 2: Tuesday Wednesday next week and then we will be reacting
Speaker 2: to the NBA Draft on Thursday morning. As always, I
Speaker 2: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show and we
Speaker 2: will be back after the weekend on Monday.
Speaker 1: The volume