Speaker 1: Welcome to the State of the Lakers show on dash Radio.
Speaker 1: No ROJ today, just Jason Rogers working as we speak,
Speaker 1: fortunately with my job in flexible enough to make some
Speaker 1: time to get into the film from the weekend. A
Speaker 1: little bit of scheduling info for this week. We will
Speaker 1: have this show posted on our podcast feed shortly and
Speaker 1: we'll air on dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am.
Speaker 1: Then on Wednesday morning, we're recording a show that will
Speaker 1: cover Tuesday night's game, which will be very important because Lebron,
Speaker 1: Russ and a d will all play together for the
Speaker 1: first time, so we will, like I said, break that
Speaker 1: down on Wednesday. That will air on Thursday morning on
Speaker 1: dash Radio. And then Thursday night is the last preseason
Speaker 1: game for the Lakers, and that will be the last
Speaker 1: or that will be the first game this year where
Speaker 1: where rog and I will do one of our postgame shows,
Speaker 1: which will be fun because we'll give you guys a
Speaker 1: chance to hop on and talk some basketball with us
Speaker 1: rather than just rog and I droning on for forty
Speaker 1: five minutes, uh NonStop. So that'll be fun looking forward
Speaker 1: to it. And then from there, the vast majority of
Speaker 1: our shows during the regular season will be postgame shows, um,
Speaker 1: just like we did to end last year. Anyway, today
Speaker 1: I wanted to get into the nitty gritty of the
Speaker 1: last two preseason games and the stuff that I noticed
Speaker 1: on film, UM to kind of stay over arching to
Speaker 1: start again. I'm going to continue to harp on this
Speaker 1: for the for especially coming into this last week of
Speaker 1: the preseason. Don't pay attention to the final result. The
Speaker 1: Lakers are are not haven't even attempted to play their
Speaker 1: best lineups, which will include their three best players. And
Speaker 1: in addition to that, they're just testing a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff and there's a lot of feeling each other out
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the floor, which ironically has
Speaker 1: been the problem in the preseason. There's been a lot
Speaker 1: of talk um coming into this year that the the
Speaker 1: defensive end would be the problem for this team, and ironically,
Speaker 1: here in the early going, I'm actually pretty encouraged by
Speaker 1: the defense, and the offense just looks sloppy, which is
Speaker 1: a factor of a lot of different things. Stars not
Speaker 1: playing of Russ has been absolutely horrible so far. On
Speaker 1: the offensive end, which we'll talk about. Anthony Davis still
Speaker 1: can't make a jump shot, and Lebron James, who I
Speaker 1: believe is the best offensive force of this era, literally
Speaker 1: has only played in one game, so not too much
Speaker 1: to take away there. There have been enough pockets of dominance,
Speaker 1: enough little bits of of really good Laker basketball to
Speaker 1: keep me encouraged, like the run in the middle of
Speaker 1: the second quarter against Phoenix last night where they turned
Speaker 1: a forty to twenty eight deficit into a forty one
Speaker 1: to forty lead, including some fantastic defense and uh, running
Speaker 1: the floor and transition and getting high quality looks. And
Speaker 1: if you're looking for one last kind of overarching positive
Speaker 1: theme to uh to kind of give you a glass
Speaker 1: half full approach to the Lakers record so far in
Speaker 1: the preseason, it's the fact that they have a one
Speaker 1: oh five point seven defensive rating with Anthony Davis on
Speaker 1: the floor. Um, he's played in three games and I
Speaker 1: think he's played about twenty two minutes per game ish, uh,
Speaker 1: so call it sixty something minutes. And last year they
Speaker 1: had the best defensive writing in the league at one
Speaker 1: oh six point eight, and there one oh five point
Speaker 1: seven with Anthony Davis on the floor so far in
Speaker 1: the preseason. So translation, they can guard still so far,
Speaker 1: at least in the preseason, so that's something to take
Speaker 1: as just a little, a little a positive nugget moving
Speaker 1: forward again tomorrow night against i think gets Golden State
Speaker 1: at home with Lebron Russe and a d too play,
Speaker 1: that will be the first time that we can kind
Speaker 1: of get a real look at what some of the
Speaker 1: best Laker lineups will look like, which will include their
Speaker 1: best players. Anthony Davis has already said he plans on
Speaker 1: playing the five with that group, which is really good
Speaker 1: because that's going to allow the Lakers to have more
Speaker 1: space to operate, which is absolutely imperative with Russ. So
Speaker 1: on that note, let's get started with Russell Westbrook because
Speaker 1: that's kind of where all of the talk is after
Speaker 1: these first two games. You know, as is usually the case,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of good and bad, which has been
Speaker 1: the story with Russ throughout his entire career. To give
Speaker 1: and the take, you know, as as we like to
Speaker 1: call it, the let's start with some good on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the ball, with exception of a handful
Speaker 1: of possessions where he's fallen asleep and or died on screens,
Speaker 1: which is something he's done kind of periodically over this
Speaker 1: last half of his career, He's done a good job
Speaker 1: of being physical at the point of attack, especially on
Speaker 1: those screens when they end up switching. He does a
Speaker 1: really good job of getting into the big in boxing
Speaker 1: out things along those lines. I still think that when
Speaker 1: his job is simplified, when Lebron and Anthony Davis are
Speaker 1: on the floor, that he will have an easy enough
Speaker 1: defensive job that with his physical tools, he'll be able
Speaker 1: to be very impactful. That I tweeted about this earlier,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make a lot of references in this pod too,
Speaker 1: specific plays in the game, and if you go to
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed, which is at underscore Jason lt, you
Speaker 1: will see if you go to tweets and replies and
Speaker 1: just scroll down, you're gonna see dozens and dozens of
Speaker 1: little clips that I took out and put captions on
Speaker 1: so you can get a general idea of what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. But I'm gonna make a reference to a
Speaker 1: lot of those, so if you want to see them,
Speaker 1: just go to my Twitter feed in order to see them. Anyway,
Speaker 1: there was a specific play in particular where Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: I believe, was guarding Landry Shammitt, who had already made
Speaker 1: it three earlier in the game on the first possession,
Speaker 1: and there was a basic little dribble hand off with
Speaker 1: Jay Crowder on the right wing, and Russ just flat
Speaker 1: out did you didn't even get caught on the screen.
Speaker 1: He just didn't try to fight over the top and
Speaker 1: get to Shammon. Shammon got his feet set and made
Speaker 1: a wide open three at the top of the key.
Speaker 1: You know, in the past, when he had tons of
Speaker 1: offensive responsibility, that was something you could live with because
Speaker 1: at least in that regard, you understood that he had
Speaker 1: so many responsibilities that it was kind of a fatigue thing.
Speaker 1: It was a saving energy kind of thing, like give
Speaker 1: up a handful of open shots on one end so
Speaker 1: that he has the energy to run the offense on
Speaker 1: this team with what you're asking him to do, with
Speaker 1: all of the talents surrounding him, and with two of
Speaker 1: the top six or seven players in the entire game
Speaker 1: of basketball that are in front of you. In those responsibilities,
Speaker 1: Russ needs to be more dialed in on the little things.
Speaker 1: The same goes for Lebron, who is also in the
Speaker 1: past had a history of taking possessions off defensively. You
Speaker 1: can't do that on this team, for one, you're not
Speaker 1: gaining anything. On the other end, they don't need enough
Speaker 1: out of you offensively to justify that type of trade
Speaker 1: off and fatigue. So that kind of thing is that
Speaker 1: is the type of stuff from the past few years
Speaker 1: that Russ is gonna need to knock out. And my
Speaker 1: guess is that with the level of accountability he'll be
Speaker 1: under here with Anthony Davis and with Frank Vogel, that
Speaker 1: that's something that he'll be able to work on. And
Speaker 1: in general, you know, lasadaisical type of basketball percolates down
Speaker 1: the roster and you'll see that in games where the
Speaker 1: energy is low, but then you see in the second
Speaker 1: quarter when the energy picks up, Russ was fantastic on defense.
Speaker 1: So the point is is, like I think, in general,
Speaker 1: in the regular season, in front of packed houses, with
Speaker 1: the stakes that the Lakers will bring to the table
Speaker 1: every game is one of the best teams in the league.
Speaker 1: My guess is he'll be able to knock some of
Speaker 1: that out, which will be something as a silver lining,
Speaker 1: like I said, on the defensive end, from something that
Speaker 1: you can take from Russ. Early here in the season,
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk for a second about his turnovers.
Speaker 1: So obviously that's been the hot topic. He had a
Speaker 1: little quote that was taken out of context last night
Speaker 1: where he said, you know, keep that same energy in
Speaker 1: the regular season, and he was joking that was something
Speaker 1: that was missing in the tweet that went viral um.
Speaker 1: But in general with Russ, the turnovers to me are
Speaker 1: quite simply a product of his lack of aggression at
Speaker 1: the rim. If you look at a shot chart from
Speaker 1: last night, I believe there are five of his twelve
Speaker 1: attempts where at the rim, and seven of them were
Speaker 1: from the perimeter. In some way, shape or form. That's
Speaker 1: just a bad balance for a guy like Russ. And
Speaker 1: what ended up happening is throughout the last two games
Speaker 1: he was passing out of single coverage. The whole point
Speaker 1: of of playmaking anything in basketball, you have to break
Speaker 1: down the defense at some level, because no one's just
Speaker 1: going to give you an open shot for no particular
Speaker 1: reason at all whatsoever. You either need to beat your
Speaker 1: man in one on one coverage to create a good
Speaker 1: shot for yourself, or you need to beat your man
Speaker 1: in one on one coverage to an extent that warps
Speaker 1: the defense so that you can to an open shooter
Speaker 1: or an open guy in the dunker spot. What Russ
Speaker 1: was doing a lot in the last two games was
Speaker 1: beating his man in one on one coverage, getting a
Speaker 1: step to the point where he could continue all the
Speaker 1: way to the rim or take some type of shot,
Speaker 1: but then, after not seeing any help defense, kicking to
Speaker 1: somebody who was not open, which would either force him
Speaker 1: to throw away from the defender, which would cause him
Speaker 1: to throw it out of bounds, or he'd throw directly
Speaker 1: to the defender. Just by virtue of being more aggressive
Speaker 1: at the rim, even if you get your shot blocked,
Speaker 1: even if you miss some layups or miss some floaters,
Speaker 1: being aggressive to the rim and taking shots there is
Speaker 1: what's going to cause the defense to warp in so
Speaker 1: that those same passes that he's turning over are now
Speaker 1: available now. To Russ his credit, he did in the
Speaker 1: postgame interview specifically mentioned that he specifically said that he
Speaker 1: was passing out of single coverage and that that was
Speaker 1: something he needed to uh to address moving forward. That
Speaker 1: kind of overpassing is kind of a natural side effect
Speaker 1: of coming to a team as a star player. When
Speaker 1: there's this kind of vibe over the whole group like,
Speaker 1: we need to sacrifice, we need to all give into
Speaker 1: the larger goals. So I'm gonna take less shots, so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna overpass. I'm gonna overpass. What they really need
Speaker 1: Russ to do when he does have the ball is
Speaker 1: to be Russell Westbrook, because otherwise he's not helping anything.
Speaker 1: You need to aggressively attack the rim, aggressively try to
Speaker 1: finish there. Even if you miss layups, are are are
Speaker 1: or are blocked. Just by bringing the shot blocker over,
Speaker 1: you're giving Anthony Davis or Dwight Howard a chance at
Speaker 1: the offensive rebound. Or if you make they start making
Speaker 1: stuff there, guys are gonna start sucking into help and
Speaker 1: then you can start spreading out to your shooters. So
Speaker 1: I'm not concerned about the turnovers in that regard. It
Speaker 1: kind of struck me as just a byproduct of trying
Speaker 1: to be too un selfish, which I don't think will
Speaker 1: be a problem with Russ in the long run. The
Speaker 1: next thing I wanted to talk about with Russ was
Speaker 1: his shot selection. And you know, this is something that
Speaker 1: I have a feeling like your fans are gonna be
Speaker 1: dealing with all season long, and It's gonna take some
Speaker 1: getting used to, and I think there are gonna be
Speaker 1: moments where it's infuriating. The hope would be that in
Speaker 1: the long run, because of the accountability of Lebron in
Speaker 1: a D and because of the fact that the team
Speaker 1: is so good that he doesn't need to take some
Speaker 1: of the shots that he took when he was in
Speaker 1: Houston and when he was in Washington or in Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City after Kevin Durant left, Hopefully he'll be able to
Speaker 1: rein this in a little bit. What was kind of
Speaker 1: bizarre about the shot selection was similar to what I
Speaker 1: complained about with a D how he tries to find
Speaker 1: his rhythm by taking difficult shots. Russ does the same thing,
Speaker 1: but he's not a good shooter. Like Russ is never
Speaker 1: going to be a good shooter. But if he controlled
Speaker 1: and reined in his shot selection, he could be a
Speaker 1: He could be effective enough in that jump shooting role
Speaker 1: that it could not hurt the team, which is what
Speaker 1: you need. But what he's trying to do is what
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is doing, gain his rhythm as a jump
Speaker 1: shooter despite not being a jump shooter. And there were
Speaker 1: a bunch of times in the first half where early
Speaker 1: in the shot clock he would take difficult jump shots
Speaker 1: that even great shooters would struggle to make. If Steph
Speaker 1: took this shot, it would be a tougher shot for him.
Speaker 1: If Dame took the shot, it would be a tougher
Speaker 1: shot for him. Here's Russ, a proven bad shooter who's
Speaker 1: not in a rhythm, who doesn't really have anything going
Speaker 1: with his jump shot, taking early clock tough jump shots
Speaker 1: to try to build his rhythm. For a player like that,
Speaker 1: that's akin to throwing away a possession. And that's the
Speaker 1: kind of thing that the Lakers are gonna have to
Speaker 1: at some point try to address with him because it's
Speaker 1: just not necessary with this level of talent on the roster.
Speaker 1: I'll give you some examples. There was a play early
Speaker 1: in the game, kind of post up on Jay Crowder.
Speaker 1: I think it was either Jay Crowder Mchal Bridges on
Speaker 1: the right block just not an advantage for him to
Speaker 1: begin with it. But it's early in the clock and
Speaker 1: he takes a one legged fade away and leaves it short.
Speaker 1: That's a tough shot for the best shooters in the game. Again,
Speaker 1: later on same thing, kind of uh runs a pick
Speaker 1: and roll with Anthony Davis at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: the defenders fighting over the top of the screen, and
Speaker 1: the big man is kind of showing it's just not open,
Speaker 1: and he ends up trying to draw foul kicking his
Speaker 1: leg out and he actually makes the three, which is
Speaker 1: the crazy part. But it was early clock and a
Speaker 1: contested pull up three off the dribble off of a
Speaker 1: ball screen when Anthony Davis kind of had an opportunity
Speaker 1: to slip it and make something happen again that is
Speaker 1: a throwaway possession. It ended up adding up to three points,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't a good shot by any stretch of
Speaker 1: the imagination. He took another. He took a couple of
Speaker 1: uh post up type of uh turnaround shots that he
Speaker 1: missed that he tried to bake. And then late in
Speaker 1: the second quarter there was one where in transition, after
Speaker 1: getting a stop while the team is on a run,
Speaker 1: he drove along the left side of the floor, got
Speaker 1: DeAndre Eton on a switch and took a one legged
Speaker 1: fade away, tried to bank it in off the glass
Speaker 1: and wasn't even close. Again, a super difficult shot for
Speaker 1: a great shooter, let alone Russell Westbrook, and those are
Speaker 1: the kinds of things where when you look at Russ's efficiency,
Speaker 1: it's not just a product of him missing shots, it's
Speaker 1: him taking bad shots. The way that there are two
Speaker 1: ways to improve your efficiency, become better at the shots
Speaker 1: you take and take better shots. And so those are
Speaker 1: the kinds of things that that Russ is going to
Speaker 1: have to clean up in the long run with his team. Again,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm going to work really hard and I'm
Speaker 1: going to continue to press this idea to the Laker
Speaker 1: fan base. Let's not really evaluate the Russell Westbrook situation
Speaker 1: until a couple of months into the season. For starters,
Speaker 1: they have a really easy schedule to start the year,
Speaker 1: which will allow them to rack up wins despite playing
Speaker 1: flawed basketball, which will be important in the long run
Speaker 1: because as things get tougher, they will have more repetition
Speaker 1: to to lean back on and and use to hopefully
Speaker 1: elevate their game to match the increasing difficulty of their
Speaker 1: schedule at the In the long run, Lebron James, you know,
Speaker 1: as a problem solver, is going to find a way
Speaker 1: to use Russ in a better way than what he
Speaker 1: has been used in the previous season. So I'm not
Speaker 1: too concerned about it. All right, We're gonna move on
Speaker 1: to Anthony Davis. The main thing I want to talk
Speaker 1: about with Anthony Davis was his defense throughout that game
Speaker 1: against Phoenix last night. He was incredibly vocal and incredibly
Speaker 1: active with his hands, and his length is such a
Speaker 1: problem that he presents. Uh, he can disrupt plays in
Speaker 1: a position that usually doesn't disrupt plays. So I this
Speaker 1: is another clip you can find on my Twitter feed.
Speaker 1: There was a play where DeAndre Jordan's was in a
Speaker 1: drop coverage and pick role and I can't remember who
Speaker 1: the guard was that was guarding the pick and roll,
Speaker 1: but Anthony Davis was guarding a shooter in the strong
Speaker 1: side corner, which I believe was Jake Crowder. At this point,
Speaker 1: the strong side quarner in a corner and every NBA
Speaker 1: defense does not help. The reason why the strong side
Speaker 1: corner doesn't help is NBA shooters are really good and
Speaker 1: it's such an easy pass that any ball handler in
Speaker 1: the NBA, when they see help coming from the strong
Speaker 1: side corner, can push the ball out there and get
Speaker 1: a good look. So the vast majority of NBA teams
Speaker 1: helped from the weak side corner and try to make
Speaker 1: teams make really difficult cross court passes. In this play,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis was able to close in and help and
Speaker 1: shut down Chris Paul in the pick and roll. Chris
Speaker 1: Paul made the easy, simple pass to the corner, and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis still closed out and completely swallowed up Jake
Speaker 1: Crowder in the corner, took away the shot and blew
Speaker 1: up the possession. That kind of thing just doesn't happen
Speaker 1: in the NBA. There's just there's only a handful of
Speaker 1: guy is on the on planet Earth that are capable
Speaker 1: of that type of covering ground on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: And it was an interesting thing because, you know, we
Speaker 1: harp on a lot with the pros and cons of
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis playing at the five right, and most of
Speaker 1: them have to do with the offensive end. Right on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor. With a D at
Speaker 1: the five, there's just more space to operate. Also, last year,
Speaker 1: in particular, we didn't have mobile centers. Marcus All was
Speaker 1: slow to Andre Drummond was capable, but was really inconsistent
Speaker 1: with his effort. Montrez Harold at moments was flat out
Speaker 1: bad as a pick and roll type of defender. He
Speaker 1: was better defending in space than he was defending in
Speaker 1: screen and roll, and so it made so much more
Speaker 1: sense to play as much a D at the five
Speaker 1: as you could because of those limitations. Now they didn't
Speaker 1: and that was something that infuriated me all year. But
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why this year I love the
Speaker 1: idea of shifting back to a ratio of meaning the
Speaker 1: ratio from season where a D spends about half his
Speaker 1: minutes at the four and half of his minutes at
Speaker 1: the five is these types of vertical threats, these DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan's and Dwight Howard types actually fit really well alongside
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis on the defensive end of the floor because
Speaker 1: they are so mobile and because they have that vertical presence,
Speaker 1: and it allows Anthony Davis to be a help defender
Speaker 1: where he can be absolutely disruptive, kind of kind of
Speaker 1: in a freakish way that that you could tell really
Speaker 1: through Phoenix out of rhythm with their offense, a team
Speaker 1: that had been absolutely humming so far in the preseason.
Speaker 1: And that's the kind of wrinkle that I like with
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis at the four. Again, everything should be prioritized
Speaker 1: around a D at the five because it's the only
Speaker 1: thing that's gonna make Russ usable. Okay, But as a curveball,
Speaker 1: I like a D at the four, particularly next to Dwight,
Speaker 1: but also next to DeAndre Jordan's because they can play
Speaker 1: basic drop coverage and if the guards do their job
Speaker 1: over the top and Anthony Davis isn't help, they're gonna
Speaker 1: overwhelm a lot of teams just with their length and size,
Speaker 1: especially when you throw Lebron into the picture there. So
Speaker 1: I I do. I do like it as a curveball,
Speaker 1: just in general in terms of strategy, when we're talking
Speaker 1: about you know, when to go with a D at
Speaker 1: the five, when to play Russ, and when to play
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan's, You've got to really think about the aggregate
Speaker 1: athleticism and the aggregate spacing. This is something that I
Speaker 1: talked about literally all the time on this pod. There
Speaker 1: is a fine line to where you dip so far
Speaker 1: down with your shooting that the spacing falls apart with
Speaker 1: your offense, Whereas if you're above that line, then your
Speaker 1: stars have enough room to operate. And the same thing
Speaker 1: goes with defense and athleticism. You know, you can hide
Speaker 1: Ellington with a really really gifted defensive group. Ellington was
Speaker 1: on the floor with that Laker group that defended at
Speaker 1: such a high level in the second quarter and went
Speaker 1: on a thirteen run. But if you put Ellington around
Speaker 1: other limited defenders, then you dip below that line of
Speaker 1: aggregate defensive talent aggregate athleticism, and suddenly it kind of
Speaker 1: seems like he's getting exposed. You guys, see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: That is the kind of thing that that kind of
Speaker 1: balance is something we're gonna have to watch all season.
Speaker 1: A couple really simple solutions as far as as far
Speaker 1: as spacing goes. I really like two big lineups when
Speaker 1: Russ isn't on the floor, because then at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, you could theoretically put a ball handler
Speaker 1: with the center and a D will space the floor.
Speaker 1: And just because if those other three, if a D
Speaker 1: does have the ball or is involved in the action,
Speaker 1: if your other three players are all really good shooters,
Speaker 1: then the aggregate spacing is good enough for Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: to be able to go to work. So with Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook on the floor, you kind of can't play a
Speaker 1: center because of the way that that aggregate spacing dips
Speaker 1: too far low and and the same thing goes with
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. DeAndre Jordan's. I don't
Speaker 1: think he can place enter unless Anthony Davis is out
Speaker 1: there with him because the totality of that defense, it
Speaker 1: just makes DeAndre Jordan covers so much more ground. It
Speaker 1: makes DeAndre Jordan's job tougher, and at this phase of
Speaker 1: his career, he's just not good enough to be able
Speaker 1: to do that. And so if you pair DeAndre Jordan
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis when you need to play DeAndre Jordan again,
Speaker 1: my preference would be he only plays when Dwight has
Speaker 1: to sit or when Anthony Davis has to sit. But
Speaker 1: if you're going to play him in the rotation, put
Speaker 1: him next to Anthony Davis, so he's set up to
Speaker 1: succeed because in that simplified role, his athleticism will be
Speaker 1: a problem. But those are the kinds of delicate balances
Speaker 1: that they're gonna have to kind of tow that line
Speaker 1: throughout this season. When can you play Russ to where
Speaker 1: the spacing isn't neutered? When can you play DeAndre Jordan's
Speaker 1: so that his defensive responsibilities don't become too complicated? And
Speaker 1: then he starts to struggle, But in general, I just
Speaker 1: wanted to give a little shout out to Anthony Davis's
Speaker 1: defense because he was extremely vocal, flying all over the floor,
Speaker 1: disrupting everything. His ball pressure was incredible. Um I tweeted
Speaker 1: about this in one of those clips. But one of
Speaker 1: the things that allows a rotating, chaotic defense to succeed
Speaker 1: is ball pressure. When you apply ball pressure, even if
Speaker 1: there is a wide open man, if you make the
Speaker 1: offensive player make a pass fake before he can throw
Speaker 1: the pass, or if he has to throw some crazy
Speaker 1: looping like hook pass to get over the top of
Speaker 1: your length, it allows your team enough time to recover
Speaker 1: and get back into the play and then reset your defense,
Speaker 1: and that that sort of thing. And if that type
Speaker 1: of rotation depends on all of those factors, you need
Speaker 1: ball pressure, and you need guys sprinting on the backside.
Speaker 1: If the guys don't spread on the back side, it
Speaker 1: won't work. If the guy doesn't apply ball pressure on
Speaker 1: the ball, it won't work. It's kind of all of
Speaker 1: that has to come together, and it did in that
Speaker 1: second quarter. If you watched in that second quarter run,
Speaker 1: they the Lakers did a fantastic job of pushing the
Speaker 1: ball out. There were so many suns possessions where there'd
Speaker 1: be four or five seconds on the shot clock and
Speaker 1: they're dribbling out at thirty ft or stuck with a
Speaker 1: stuck without their dribble, pivoting all over the place looking
Speaker 1: for an outlet pass because of ball pressure and because
Speaker 1: of that chaotic rotation. And it all started with Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: I wanted to give him that shout out. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna move on to Camp bays Moore. Camp bigs Moore,
Speaker 1: according to Frank Vogel, has been the guard that has
Speaker 1: separated himself defensively from the rest of the group in
Speaker 1: training camp. So far, that's just taking it from his words,
Speaker 1: not mine. But when you watch the film, it all
Speaker 1: backs that up. And one of the biggest problems for
Speaker 1: the Lakers defense in the early going in the preseason
Speaker 1: has been guards dying on screens. The Lakers have no
Speaker 1: intention of switching screens with guys like Molik Mount, Kendrick Non,
Speaker 1: Ragion Rondo, so on and so forth. That was never
Speaker 1: the idea. That was never the plan. However, dozens and
Speaker 1: dozens of times here in the first four games we've
Speaker 1: seen them have to do that. And the reason why
Speaker 1: is those guys are dying on the screens. They're getting caught,
Speaker 1: and then the big essentially has to switch out to
Speaker 1: guard the guard, and then Eton or whoever the big
Speaker 1: man is is diving down the lane. Now we have
Speaker 1: rebounding mismatches, Now we have posted up mismatches like we
Speaker 1: saw against Brooklyn. There's a lot of trouble that gets
Speaker 1: caused when those screens end up getting switched. Those all
Speaker 1: of those guards that I mentioned have to get better
Speaker 1: at that. Baysmore has done a fantastic job here in
Speaker 1: the preseason of fighting over the top of every screen
Speaker 1: and getting back into the play. You know, we complained
Speaker 1: about drop coverage drop coverage a lot, rog and I
Speaker 1: did in the postseason, especially when it came to team's
Speaker 1: guarding Phoenix and well, I should say Milwaukee. We complained
Speaker 1: a lot about Milwaukee because at the beginning of the
Speaker 1: Hawks series and at the beginning of the Phoenix series,
Speaker 1: they stayed in this drop coverage and got absolutely torched
Speaker 1: by Trey Young and by and by Chris Paul and
Speaker 1: pick and roll when there was an obvious and simple
Speaker 1: answer to that they needed to to to play a
Speaker 1: different pick and roll cut. But the reason why is
Speaker 1: because when that screen comes and it hits the on
Speaker 1: ball defender, if the on ball defender gets caught and
Speaker 1: the big is sitting under the basket all day long,
Speaker 1: you're going to have wide open fifteen footers and floaters
Speaker 1: all day long. For Chris Paul, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a step back three. For Trey Young, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a floater or trying to draw foul on the guy
Speaker 1: chasing behind, that kind of thing, right, But when you
Speaker 1: chase over the top successfully, which Drew Holiday started to
Speaker 1: do as that series progressed in both cases and you're
Speaker 1: able to bother the ball handler from behind, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, that floater and that jump shot are no
Speaker 1: longer an option, and so now you're only option is
Speaker 1: to drive into the center who's waiting for you at
Speaker 1: the rim. That's why drop coverage works. Drop coverage works
Speaker 1: when you can apply back pressure on the jump shooter
Speaker 1: and then you have a giant human waiting under the
Speaker 1: basket who's gonna make anything you attempt. They're difficult and
Speaker 1: takes away the law pass in that in that respect,
Speaker 1: so bays Moore has been the only defender perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: so far this preseason. That has allowed the Lakers to
Speaker 1: stay in their actual traditional drop coverage that plays right
Speaker 1: into Dwight howard strengths, that plays right into DeAndre Jordan's strengths.
Speaker 1: So there's a couple of things to take away from that. One,
Speaker 1: it goes to show you where the area of improvement
Speaker 1: is for the other guards. But two, it goes to
Speaker 1: show you that Baysmore is the clear early shoe in
Speaker 1: for the closing five. We're gonna talk a lot this
Speaker 1: year about what the best line of the Lakers can
Speaker 1: throw out to win games is, and it's gonna start
Speaker 1: around Rustle Lebron in a D. But then there's gonna
Speaker 1: be two additional spots. I believe it's gonna be bays
Speaker 1: Moore and and Aresa. Areasa is just your rock solid
Speaker 1: defensive forward who has the ability to knock down and
Speaker 1: open shot, which is all you can ask for. It's
Speaker 1: the same reason why teams pay p J. Tucker. It's
Speaker 1: the same reason teams play pay Roger Robert Covington' that's
Speaker 1: what you're asking from from Trevor Aresa. He's a reliable
Speaker 1: piece in that regard. But bays More because of his
Speaker 1: ability to fight over the top of these screens and
Speaker 1: to and to provide good point of attack defense. His
Speaker 1: effort level has been outstanding through through the beginning of
Speaker 1: the preseason. That makes him an easy shoe in for
Speaker 1: that fifth spot here early on. He has shot the
Speaker 1: ball thirty eight percent from three so far in preseason.
Speaker 1: He shot better from three last year with Golden State, UM,
Speaker 1: so I'm not worried about him in that regard. There
Speaker 1: is a possibility that over the course of the season
Speaker 1: you might see somebody like Malik Monk progress enough on
Speaker 1: the defensive end to be a better option. You might
Speaker 1: see Wayne Ellington progress enough on the defensive end that
Speaker 1: he could be a better option given what they bring offensively.
Speaker 1: But here in the early going, I think there's a
Speaker 1: pretty comfortable gap in what you can expect and of
Speaker 1: what you can expect from that specific position as a
Speaker 1: fifth starter, and that's the that's the not a fifth starter,
Speaker 1: but as a fifth closing lineup guy. But that's the
Speaker 1: key difference here. When you're talking about that lineup, you
Speaker 1: don't need anything out of that fourth and fifth closer
Speaker 1: other than a guy who can lock up defensively and
Speaker 1: knock down an open shot and do basic stuff attacking closeouts.
Speaker 1: That's all you need. You don't need him to run
Speaker 1: pick and roll Lebron and Ruscott. That covered. You don't
Speaker 1: need him to post up mismatches Anthony Davis and Lebron
Speaker 1: and Ruscot. That covered. There's no need for anything out
Speaker 1: of that position other than defense and some enough shooting
Speaker 1: to be able to keep the defense honest. That's really
Speaker 1: all you need, and so far bays Moore is the
Speaker 1: clear leader in that regard. So let's talk about Austin Reeves.
Speaker 1: This has uh been an interesting kind of surprise so
Speaker 1: far here in the preseason for starters. He he's a
Speaker 1: lot bigger than the other options that the Lakers have
Speaker 1: at guard, not counting bays Moore. All of these guys
Speaker 1: like Ellington is six ft four, but he's not very mobile.
Speaker 1: Molikue Monk is six ft three, but he's very thin,
Speaker 1: you know. Kendrick Nunn is stocky and strong, but he's
Speaker 1: only six ft two and he's not overly laterally quick.
Speaker 1: So there's kind of a little bit of an opportunity
Speaker 1: for when Frank gets frustrated with the lack of physical
Speaker 1: tools of his guards. There's a little bit of an
Speaker 1: opportunity to be an option, an option for Frank to
Speaker 1: lean on, especially with the Areasa injury and the th
Speaker 1: Ht injury, and Austin Reeves seems to be kind of
Speaker 1: like forcing his way into that spot, being that other
Speaker 1: option for Frank to have a bigger, more athletic defender
Speaker 1: when the other guys are getting bullied and there's a
Speaker 1: lot to take away from him. That's good for starters.
Speaker 1: He's been shooting the ball really well. He's been shooting
Speaker 1: from three in the preseason, but he just his effort
Speaker 1: and focus on the defensive end has been excellent so far.
Speaker 1: He's been really good locking and trailing around guys and
Speaker 1: avoiding getting screened. He's done his help responsibilities well in
Speaker 1: pick and roll. He's done a good job when he
Speaker 1: does get caught on the screen of getting back to
Speaker 1: the big and boxing out of the paint, which is
Speaker 1: something a smaller guy like a Malik Monk is going
Speaker 1: to struggle with. Again, he's young, He's probably not gonna
Speaker 1: get a ton of playing time. He's not likely to
Speaker 1: have anywhere near the explosive ability that you're gonna get
Speaker 1: from a Malik Monk or Kendrick Nunn. However, he's just
Speaker 1: another option. It's a group like nobody was expecting Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves to be somebody that the Lakers would have playing
Speaker 1: meaningful minutes this year. I don't think any of us
Speaker 1: expected that. We all expected he'd be on a two
Speaker 1: way contract. Now he's on a real contract, and so
Speaker 1: far in the preseason he's looked good enough to me
Speaker 1: that if you put him out there with good players
Speaker 1: like Lebron and a D and Russ, I think he's usable.
Speaker 1: And that's just another depth piece for the Lakers, a
Speaker 1: team that kind of needs it. And after the th
Speaker 1: HT injury and the a Reason injury, so it's something
Speaker 1: to be excited about for sure. So uh kind of
Speaker 1: too uh piggyback off the injury thing that I was
Speaker 1: talking about. There's been a lot of concern about the
Speaker 1: th HT injury, and particular I have said that a
Speaker 1: Reason probably won't come back until January because it's two
Speaker 1: month injury, and my guess is they'll be extra caution
Speaker 1: cautious with him, So give it another month. U Molik
Speaker 1: Monk has a groin issue that's going to take him
Speaker 1: out a week. I'd assume he'll be ready for the
Speaker 1: season opener, which is a week from tomorrow. But be
Speaker 1: careful with him. There's just no point rushing rushing him back,
Speaker 1: especially with a groin injury. Um and we all know
Speaker 1: how that can affect the mobility of a player. But
Speaker 1: th HT in particular was one of the reasons you
Speaker 1: guys remember Raj earlier this week or last week. Raj
Speaker 1: was big on the fact that th Ht would be
Speaker 1: able to slot into the reason minutes because of his
Speaker 1: big um body, strong body and his ability to guard wings.
Speaker 1: And so him out of the picture kind of throws
Speaker 1: a wrinkle into things. But this is where all that
Speaker 1: depth is advantageous. This is where Austin reeves. Being someone
Speaker 1: who's capable of playing small forward kind of adds too,
Speaker 1: adds to the versatility that group and gives them the
Speaker 1: ability to weather the storm through these injuries. You guys know,
Speaker 1: I've been harpening on all summer. I wish they'd signed
Speaker 1: Wesley Matthews. I genuinely think he's the perfect fifteen man
Speaker 1: on this roster because of his professionalism and because his
Speaker 1: ability to guard guys who are bigger and because of
Speaker 1: the fact that he's just a smart basketball player, is
Speaker 1: not gonna make too many mistakes, even if he doesn't
Speaker 1: particularly shoot the ball that well. I hope they signed
Speaker 1: west but even if they don't, having Austin Reeves kind
Speaker 1: of fill into that role is a big deal if
Speaker 1: you look at it. Even with the monk in th
Speaker 1: HD injuries, You've still got Russell Westbrook, You've still got
Speaker 1: um um Kendrick Nunn, You've still got Austin Reeves, you
Speaker 1: still got Wayne Ellington, and you even have Rondo if
Speaker 1: you absolutely need him in that regard, and you've got
Speaker 1: baysmore So, I've got six cards that can still play
Speaker 1: NBA basketball with these guys even with the injuries to
Speaker 1: uh two monk in t HD. So that's something to
Speaker 1: just kind of as a glass half full type of
Speaker 1: attitude from those injuries. Um, alright, a couple more things.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about DeAndre Jordan's and then what I
Speaker 1: want you guys to look for in the last two
Speaker 1: games that we have with that Lebron plans I'm playing in.
Speaker 1: So DeAndre Jordan again, when he's with Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: his job is simplified, He's kind of a pain in
Speaker 1: the ask for other teams because of his size and athleticism,
Speaker 1: and because his simple that he's not asked to do much.
Speaker 1: If you let him float around the paint and you
Speaker 1: let him just be a presence around the rim, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be more effective than when he has to cover
Speaker 1: a ton of ground and when he doesn't have the
Speaker 1: shrunken floor brought by Anthony Davison in his length. You know,
Speaker 1: in general, yesterday I thought he looked pretty good, but
Speaker 1: he was played primarily in lineups that were advantageous to
Speaker 1: his strengths. You know, as as I've said multiple times
Speaker 1: in the podcast in the last few weeks, ideally I
Speaker 1: prefer him not to play at all. And then what's
Speaker 1: nice is you have a defensive scheme, and the defensive
Speaker 1: scheme is built around what White Howard and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: can do. So if you need to play a third
Speaker 1: center because a d has taken a night off, or
Speaker 1: because Dwight Howard's hurt, or because Dwight Howard's just resting,
Speaker 1: you can play the same scheme with DeAndre Jordan. That
Speaker 1: was the whole point of that signing. In my in
Speaker 1: my personal opinion, However, if he ends up playing significantly
Speaker 1: consistently throughout the season, I'd prefer to see him partnered
Speaker 1: up with a D because this year, when he's been
Speaker 1: next to a D, he's actually been pretty good, which
Speaker 1: is something I expected. Uh, even after his ugly moments
Speaker 1: in UM, even after his ugly moments in Brooklyn. Okay,
Speaker 1: So Lebron has said that he's gonna play in the
Speaker 1: last two preseason games, or rather, Frank has said that
Speaker 1: Lebron is going to play in the last two preseason games.
Speaker 1: Who means that Tomorrow night against Golden State is going
Speaker 1: to be the first time that we get to see Lebron,
Speaker 1: a D and Russ altogether at the same time on
Speaker 1: the floor. These are These are the couple of things
Speaker 1: that I want you guys to keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: First of all, what does Westbrook do when Lebron has
Speaker 1: the ball off ball? There There are a couch, a
Speaker 1: bunch of theories about and I've picked the brains of
Speaker 1: several basketball people that I trust about what would be
Speaker 1: your approach in this case. And I've heard a bunch
Speaker 1: of different things. Um, I've heard use him as a screener.
Speaker 1: This is one of the most common things that I
Speaker 1: do when I'm playing pick up and I happened to
Speaker 1: be on a team with the guy who's a non threat.
Speaker 1: If you put him off the ball, it just it
Speaker 1: doesn't help anything. So what I'll have him do is
Speaker 1: I'll have him come up and just repeatedly set ball screens,
Speaker 1: and I just tell him hit him, hit him, hit him,
Speaker 1: hit him. I don't know if he said an I
Speaker 1: legal screen. Just hit him, because at least at that
Speaker 1: point you're serving some purpose. You're deflecting one defender away
Speaker 1: from me, so I can do something with the other
Speaker 1: defender off ball. It's it's a it's a problem. That's
Speaker 1: an interesting way to potentially use Russ. Have him come
Speaker 1: up and set the ball screen and basically play the
Speaker 1: Draymond role. They're gonna ignore Russ on the ball screen,
Speaker 1: so when Lebron comes off the ball screen or when
Speaker 1: Malik Monk comes off the ball screen, they're probably gonna trap.
Speaker 1: Then you just dump it or throw a quick pocket
Speaker 1: pass or quick release two Russ and let him barrel
Speaker 1: down the rain like Draymond Green, barrel down the lane
Speaker 1: like Draymond Green used to do with the Warriors, and
Speaker 1: make that kick out pass. Let him play four on
Speaker 1: three in that regard, that's one interesting way to use
Speaker 1: him too. I'm actually pro Russ taking wide open catch
Speaker 1: and shoot threes. One. You don't have to be that
Speaker 1: efficient in that regard for it to be a relatively
Speaker 1: efficient possession if he shoots. Think of it like this,
Speaker 1: If he shoots from from three on wide open catch
Speaker 1: and shoot threes, which is definitely achievable for even a
Speaker 1: shooter like him, that amounts to an effective field goal
Speaker 1: percentage of what's that forty eight percent uh if I
Speaker 1: if a math is correct, pretty sure that's right. So
Speaker 1: effective fielgal percentage. That's not the end of the world.
Speaker 1: In a possession where they're ignoring Russ on the wing
Speaker 1: and maybe if you're lucky through better shot selection, he
Speaker 1: shoots a little bit better, you know, on wide up
Speaker 1: and shots. Now we're taking into overt EFFECTI field goal percentage,
Speaker 1: and now we're talking about a really good possession. That's
Speaker 1: one way to do it. The last thing that I'd
Speaker 1: like to see Russ do off the ball when he's
Speaker 1: being ignored is just attack like crazy. You know. With
Speaker 1: that original example that I gave with pick up one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why I don't like having that guy
Speaker 1: off the ball is because he's literally not a threat.
Speaker 1: Russ is not a non threat. He's just a non
Speaker 1: shooting threat. So if he gets the ball at the
Speaker 1: three point line and no one's there, and he just
Speaker 1: screams down the lane as fast as he can, that
Speaker 1: type it's kind of like Russ and transition. That type
Speaker 1: of rim pressure will naturally collapse the defense, at which
Speaker 1: point he can make extra kickouts to extra shooters from there.
Speaker 1: It's just it's something i'd like to see them try
Speaker 1: over the course of the season. When Russ gets ignored,
Speaker 1: just catch it and go. You know, even if you
Speaker 1: barrel into the lane and and knock somebody over, you
Speaker 1: put the possession in the ref's hands and make him
Speaker 1: make a call potentially, you know, And just in general,
Speaker 1: it leads to that rim pressure that paint too great
Speaker 1: that Frank always talks about, that leads to open shots
Speaker 1: for other people. It's just another wrink called that I'd
Speaker 1: like to see them try. Um. The other thing I'm
Speaker 1: really curious to see is the defense of the Big Three.
Speaker 1: You know, we've already talked about how the defense with
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis on the floor has actually been pretty good,
Speaker 1: and we've already talked about how Westbrook has had moments
Speaker 1: where he's looked pretty good Defensively, Lebron continues to be
Speaker 1: one of the best back line defenders in the league
Speaker 1: as just a communicator and a guy who disrupts plays
Speaker 1: underneath the rim. It's also, as we're talking about aggregate athleticism,
Speaker 1: that's a great deal of athleticism. Having Russ, Lebron and
Speaker 1: a d on the floor at the same time should
Speaker 1: physically be something that no team in the league can match.
Speaker 1: And so I'm really curious to see what that looks like,
Speaker 1: just especially if they if they managed to out a
Speaker 1: certain amount of physicality and that in those three guys
Speaker 1: are just beating guys up all over the floor. I'm
Speaker 1: really curious to see what that looks like. It's something,
Speaker 1: um that'll be fun to watch tomorrow night. And then
Speaker 1: last but not least as Westbrook shot selection. So a
Speaker 1: certain amount of what Russ was doing in the first
Speaker 1: two games that he played had to do with the
Speaker 1: lack of the third star right Like Russ was making
Speaker 1: all the decisions against Phoenix last night because Lebron wasn't playing.
Speaker 1: You know, Russ was struggling a lot in the first
Speaker 1: game that he played, you know, maybe because Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: wasn't there. I would like to see what his shot
Speaker 1: selection looks like when he's playing with Lebron and a
Speaker 1: D because it should be more reserved, and it'll be
Speaker 1: interesting to see if he comes out with the same
Speaker 1: recklessness that I talked about earlier in the pod. That's
Speaker 1: a concern because you're playing with Lebron and a D
Speaker 1: your your game should be adjusted to what you're playing with.
Speaker 1: You know, you guys see on my Twitter feed, I'm
Speaker 1: always showing me making these crazy shots. Right when I
Speaker 1: go play pick up, I don't take those crazy shots
Speaker 1: as anywhere near as often when I'm playing with a
Speaker 1: good group of guys my men's league that I play
Speaker 1: with on Sundays, I might take one or two of
Speaker 1: those in an entire game. Because my men's league that
Speaker 1: I play with on Sundays has six dudes who used
Speaker 1: to play in college on my team, so we play
Speaker 1: real basketball. We look for quality shots. You know, I
Speaker 1: adjust my shot selection for the group of guys that
Speaker 1: I play with when I go play pick up. Later
Speaker 1: this afternoon or tomorrow, if I go there and I'm
Speaker 1: playing with a bunch of guys who can't shoot or
Speaker 1: can't do anything on tougher shots, it's it's an adjustment,
Speaker 1: but just in general, it'll be curious to see what
Speaker 1: Russ's shots selection looks like with that group of guys
Speaker 1: tomorrow night, whether or not he keeps it in reserve
Speaker 1: or whether he continues his craziness. All right, that's all
Speaker 1: we have for today, guys. On Wednesday morning will be
Speaker 1: recording a show that covers the Tuesday night game against
Speaker 1: Golden State, and then on Thursday night a postgame show,
Speaker 1: first postgame show of the season for Rog and I
Speaker 1: after their final preseason game. I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys support. This will be
Speaker 1: on the podcast feed shortly and we'll see you guys
Speaker 1: in a couple of days.