Speaker 1: Mmmmm, all right, welcome to the State of the Likers
Speaker 1: on DASH Radio. Thank you guys so much for coming
Speaker 1: to hang out on a Tuesday. Man. Uh, it's so
Speaker 1: frustrating to watch this team in a situation where they're
Speaker 1: really competing in a way that they haven't really done
Speaker 1: so the season. But now they're in the awkward situation
Speaker 1: where they don't have the talent, when earlier in the
Speaker 1: season it was the exact opposite. They had the talent,
Speaker 1: but they weren't competing. And there's a lot of interesting
Speaker 1: stuff to dive into tonight. Uh. First of all, ROJ,
Speaker 1: how you doing, man? How's your week on so far?
Speaker 1: Doing well? Yeah, another frustrating one. I went I went
Speaker 1: into this kind of expecting a loss, and I guess
Speaker 1: it doesn't make it any easier. It's still little frustrating.
Speaker 1: They played hard. I still annoyed a lot of the
Speaker 1: lineups and stuff like that. But I'm doing all right. Man.
Speaker 1: How are you? How are you doing this week? I'm
Speaker 1: doing good. You know a lot of our guys, like,
Speaker 1: for instance, I'm sure a lot of people are frustrated
Speaker 1: that Dwight was not playing, but Delandre was h th
Speaker 1: HD looked horrible, which is gonna be one of the
Speaker 1: things that we're going to discuss at length today. But
Speaker 1: something to keep in mind is these guys have been
Speaker 1: locked into hotel room for the last what like week
Speaker 1: at least, I think, I don't know, do you do?
Speaker 1: You happen to know off the top of your head
Speaker 1: which day Dwight and HD went into protocols. I don't,
Speaker 1: But it's strange to me that, like THHD came back
Speaker 1: and well, I guess he's the younger guy. That makes
Speaker 1: some sense because he can come right in. I guess
Speaker 1: his conditioning can be better. I think it's weird that
Speaker 1: we didn't get Dwight Howard at all. Like, I think
Speaker 1: that is a little strange. I feel like that moved
Speaker 1: more towards something that they intended to do as a
Speaker 1: game before the game, in terms of just rotate in lineup.
Speaker 1: I don't think it was all just him coming back
Speaker 1: from from just the one game, but yeah, I'm not
Speaker 1: I don't remember exactly. I think they were outed the
Speaker 1: full ten days though, right, yeah, I think it was
Speaker 1: at least a week and a half probably, right, you know,
Speaker 1: And and I'll give you guys, I know I know
Speaker 1: these examples don't hit home super well because I'm not
Speaker 1: an NBA player, but I was. I was trending really
Speaker 1: well in terms of the way I was feeling physically,
Speaker 1: and I was hitting a peak athletically that I hadn't
Speaker 1: hitting a long time a couple of weeks ago, and
Speaker 1: they got a bone bruise in my knee and I
Speaker 1: had to take like a week off. You know, it
Speaker 1: took like a solid week off, and when I came back,
Speaker 1: just the sheer amount of conditioning and touch and feel
Speaker 1: for the game that I had lost in just seven days.
Speaker 1: It was crazy to me. And it took took me
Speaker 1: a solid week or two to get it back. And
Speaker 1: I remember I tweeted out when it happened. I said,
Speaker 1: I I feel so bad for these COVID guys because
Speaker 1: they're not allowed to go to the practice facility. They're
Speaker 1: not allowed to leave and go to an l A
Speaker 1: fitness like. Yeah, I suppose they can try to do
Speaker 1: some sort of cardio in their hotel room to maintain
Speaker 1: some some semblance of basketball conditioning. But and they might
Speaker 1: be able to dribble a ball around, but they're not
Speaker 1: able to play the game. And so I I feel
Speaker 1: for them and in the complicated nature of coming in
Speaker 1: and out of the lineup and having to to step
Speaker 1: into an NBA game, and not just any NBA game,
Speaker 1: but an NBA game against arguably a top four or
Speaker 1: five team in the league. And so you know, we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about THD and is fit and there's a
Speaker 1: serious conversation to have there, but they're the The important underlying,
Speaker 1: you know, context here is that th HD has been
Speaker 1: locked in a hotel room for a week and a
Speaker 1: half and he stepped into that game, and so it's
Speaker 1: hard to be super judgmental, especially considering right before he
Speaker 1: tested positive he was actually playing pretty well in a
Speaker 1: lot of different ways. And I I don't think it
Speaker 1: changes the larger theme of th h T s fit
Speaker 1: with this team, but it wasn't It's not going to
Speaker 1: be this bad, you know, Like if they decide to
Speaker 1: stay committed to th HT, not trade and keep them
Speaker 1: on board for the long term, it won't be this bad,
Speaker 1: you know. Like that there's a lot there's a lot
Speaker 1: of context here, and and the the the n b
Speaker 1: A is not a normal operating sports league right now.
Speaker 1: There are a ton of guys in and out dealing
Speaker 1: with issues that are going to make the basketball suffer,
Speaker 1: and especially in a night like tonight where you see
Speaker 1: a Son's team that's largely been the whole going against
Speaker 1: this Lakers team that's playing a bunch of guys that
Speaker 1: aren't normally in their rotation and guys who had to
Speaker 1: be in and in and out. Like, there's a great
Speaker 1: deal of of differing circumstances at play here. Uh, And
Speaker 1: so I think that needs to be the very first
Speaker 1: thing that we point out is, yes, we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about fit, Yes we're gonna talk about rotation decisions. Yes
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about the style that the Lakers are
Speaker 1: trying to lead into now. But they're a team that's
Speaker 1: been absolutely decimated by the protocols in the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, and the Suns were not, and that was
Speaker 1: inevitably going to play a role tonight. Yeah, this definitely
Speaker 1: feels like two teams on two totally opposite spectrums. Right.
Speaker 1: Phoenix is pretty much the face of consistency. They know
Speaker 1: what they're doing. There, a well oiled machine. I think
Speaker 1: DeAndre Aden has missed a few games, but other than that,
Speaker 1: they filled in Jamaal McGee and they just kept on winning.
Speaker 1: They had like an eighteen game win streak. You can
Speaker 1: move that on from last year as well. Just the
Speaker 1: same core all pretty much came back. I believe Landry
Speaker 1: Shamman or something was the was the new edition. But yeah,
Speaker 1: they're a team that's been healthy, and they're probably the
Speaker 1: worst team to play when you're going through flex right
Speaker 1: when you're going through change. I think tonight was another
Speaker 1: starting lineup that we've never seen before. This was the
Speaker 1: first game for that starting lineup as well, and against
Speaker 1: Phoenix that's just too tough. Phoenix was like two for
Speaker 1: twenty two from three a half time. That was never
Speaker 1: gonna stick, right, and they were only up to as
Speaker 1: well during that time, so I knew they'd kind of
Speaker 1: run away with it. Um And yeah, Phoenix is just
Speaker 1: really good. They know what they're doing. Uh, Chris Paul,
Speaker 1: Devon Brooker all come off screens. I'll know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: DeAndre and I think was like eight for eight in
Speaker 1: this game. I totally get the context with you know,
Speaker 1: the COVID and stuff, but it still doesn't answer a
Speaker 1: lot of the lineup decisions, right, Like, I think that's
Speaker 1: where I kind of started with this, and that kind
Speaker 1: of leans into th h T as well. Again in
Speaker 1: context like this, you know, a bad game is gonna happen,
Speaker 1: bad shooting is gonna happen. I still kind of feel like,
Speaker 1: and I want to ask you about this. We put
Speaker 1: him in the worst line up for him, like the
Speaker 1: verse optimization for him, and we throw him on the
Speaker 1: other team's best player, which is fine, young guy, and
Speaker 1: I thought he did a nice job on Devon Brooker.
Speaker 1: He's gonna hit some threes. You know that's going to happen.
Speaker 1: But we start him next to russ lebron Uh and
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan, and I think that's just asking, you know,
Speaker 1: for failure, that's asking him to be a jump shooter.
Speaker 1: And again with coming back from COVID all that stuff,
Speaker 1: I understand. I just think that plays into the worst
Speaker 1: part of his game, especially when our bench fine I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I t Rondo and Russ, which those are really confusing
Speaker 1: to me, even with the people out, even with the
Speaker 1: people we don't have available. I just that's where I'm
Speaker 1: kind of confused with. So I'm gonna start there because
Speaker 1: I guess we can kind of go into th HD
Speaker 1: as well. Leaning into that. But do you agree with that?
Speaker 1: I feel like we put him in the worst kind
Speaker 1: of optimization and he played awful tonight. I'm not hiding away,
Speaker 1: I'm not shying away from that. I'm just saying, like,
Speaker 1: I do think that we don't do them any favors
Speaker 1: as well. Do you kind of do fit in that
Speaker 1: as well? Yeah, there's no there's no doubt that playing
Speaker 1: th HD alongside DeAndre Jordan doesn't play into his strengths,
Speaker 1: but the and and of course it turns him into
Speaker 1: a jump shooter in off the dribble situations. But what
Speaker 1: you saw tonight with Phoenix is is an important detail
Speaker 1: that translates to the playoffs. And this is something that
Speaker 1: we have some concern about with RUSS, but it also
Speaker 1: applies to th HD as well. When you're playing the
Speaker 1: very best defenses, especially in high leverage situations at the
Speaker 1: end of the season, when they don't take possessions off,
Speaker 1: they are so good at help and recover, and when
Speaker 1: you overdo the help and recover thing to shade towards Stars,
Speaker 1: you inevitably, you inevitably have to have some sort of
Speaker 1: concession on the back end, and in this case, in
Speaker 1: this case, it's usually going to be the wars shooter
Speaker 1: in your lineup. And you saw th HT tonight get
Speaker 1: a ton of stand still, wide open threes to take.
Speaker 1: Agree with you, But here's the situation. Th HT, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, projects to be a really good shooter one day.
Speaker 1: Why because he checks the boxes that are usually that
Speaker 1: usually need to be checked for a young player that
Speaker 1: will one day be a good shooter, Like is he
Speaker 1: good at the free throw line? How is his touch
Speaker 1: around the rim? That kind of stuff typically translates to
Speaker 1: in the future as he gets really familiar with how
Speaker 1: his jump shots play into his offense, that touch will
Speaker 1: translate eventually, but at his age, it's not there yet.
Speaker 1: And this is the situa wation. Over the course of
Speaker 1: the regular season, especially in the in the next couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, because we do have some inferior opponents on
Speaker 1: this schedule, t h T is going to have some
Speaker 1: nights where he looks really good because we're gonna be
Speaker 1: playing some lesser defenses, some defenses that give him some
Speaker 1: easier opportunities, and his perimeter shooting is not going to
Speaker 1: be as much of a factor. But the reality of
Speaker 1: the situation is is when push comes to shove like,
Speaker 1: let's get forward here. Let's let's pretend Anthony Davis comes
Speaker 1: back and we get the four seed. Let's say the
Speaker 1: best case scenario, we get the four seed. This is great.
Speaker 1: A d looks healthy, Lebron looks great. We have the
Speaker 1: four seed. We end up in a second round series
Speaker 1: against Golden State or against Phoenix. They're going to ignore
Speaker 1: th HD and leave him open on the way. That's
Speaker 1: gonna happen, that is guaranteed happen, and most importantly, on
Speaker 1: most offensive possessions, that's gonna be the read. And we
Speaker 1: have a team with players who like to make the
Speaker 1: right play, like guys like Lebron, guys like Rondo, guys
Speaker 1: like Isaiah Thoms. They're gonna make reads out of those plays.
Speaker 1: Isaiah Thom's probably won't be around at that point, but
Speaker 1: you get the point. We're gonna be making reads, and
Speaker 1: the read is gonna be hitting that guy on the
Speaker 1: week side, and it's usually gonna be th HT if
Speaker 1: he's playing. And this is where the timeline gets tricky,
Speaker 1: because I genuinely believe that th h T, and I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people disagree with me. I saw
Speaker 1: a lot of people taking victory lapse on th HT tonight,
Speaker 1: which is completely unfair given the fact that he's been
Speaker 1: locked in the hotel room for the last two weeks.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is that even though I think
Speaker 1: he will one day be a good stand still shooter,
Speaker 1: a guy who will be able to be a functional
Speaker 1: to guard on a championship level team that will make
Speaker 1: teams pay for not guarding him and bring everything that
Speaker 1: we're seeing from him now, elite perimeter defense, using his
Speaker 1: length to disrupt things off the ball, his ability to
Speaker 1: get to the basket, his low center of gravity, the
Speaker 1: way that bumps defenders off of him, all of that
Speaker 1: will be there, But that lack of perimeter shooting right
Speaker 1: now is borderline lethal. He was over eight tonight. It's
Speaker 1: not it heard a lot of possessions for us, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Yeah, it's not just that you
Speaker 1: know he can't shoot that he plays with non shooters, right,
Speaker 1: he plays next to Like, I'm fine with getting him
Speaker 1: reps next to Rus, getting him next to Lebron, and
Speaker 1: he's our defensive stopper right quote in quotation marks like
Speaker 1: that's who the guy they want, that's his role that
Speaker 1: they want him to be in the playoffs, right, you know,
Speaker 1: if you play against the Paul George, you would play
Speaker 1: against Kuilon or whatever whoever the other wing is. You
Speaker 1: could just throw th HD on him for a few minutes.
Speaker 1: I totally get that. I just don't think all his
Speaker 1: minutes should be next to them only right. I think
Speaker 1: it's just a disservice to him because you could tell
Speaker 1: he's in zero rhythm just in the game in general,
Speaker 1: and he gets the ball and he just says like,
Speaker 1: oh I can finally like do something, you know, And
Speaker 1: that's why you see the you know, one leg step back,
Speaker 1: you know, fade away jumpers that get that got blocked tonight,
Speaker 1: or he's him getting the lane and try to do
Speaker 1: these super crazy reverse because it's like the only time
Speaker 1: he kind of touches the ball there because he's with
Speaker 1: all these other shock creators. And I thought it was crazy.
Speaker 1: He played next to russ I T and Lebron, I think,
Speaker 1: and he was like the other guard and it's like
Speaker 1: he's never gonna touch the ball, right, He's gonna just
Speaker 1: be a spacer and that's just not what he is.
Speaker 1: Right now, I'm fine again him getting minutes next to
Speaker 1: our starters. I just think you have to kind of
Speaker 1: I would like them to stagger a little bit. Like again,
Speaker 1: I don't think that three guard lineup should ever play.
Speaker 1: I thought that ROHNDO I t it was ROHNDO, I,
Speaker 1: t Russ and th HD, Sorry not Lebron. It was
Speaker 1: a RHNDO, I, t Russ and THHD. Was just just
Speaker 1: insane to me to play that. And I think he
Speaker 1: needs some kind of on ball reps here because it
Speaker 1: just it just looks like a struggle and he's he goes,
Speaker 1: he goes up and down. And you were right, he
Speaker 1: was playing better before he got into COVID protocols that
Speaker 1: think he was like I think someone told me he
Speaker 1: was five for nine from three, but I think before
Speaker 1: that he was like two from three, you know. So
Speaker 1: it's like a it's a really up and down ceiling
Speaker 1: thing for him, and I just would like to see
Speaker 1: him a little bit more spacing lineups. And again, the
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan's stuff is really confusing to me. Even if
Speaker 1: do I how or is not in great shape. I
Speaker 1: thought he could have been on like a minister restriction
Speaker 1: or something to where it's not just Lebron at center
Speaker 1: or Trevor Reasett Center. But yeah, on th HD, we
Speaker 1: just don't put him in great lineups, and we run
Speaker 1: a lot of Lebron post ups, right, and the whole
Speaker 1: point of going small with Lebron at the five is
Speaker 1: to give him space. We had one place we run
Speaker 1: a we run a post up for him and it
Speaker 1: was th HT, Russ and Rondo on the week side,
Speaker 1: and they played hot Potato and it got to th
Speaker 1: HD and he I think he like got close to
Speaker 1: air balling. And to me, that's the stuff that we
Speaker 1: can clean up. Those stuff that's really confusing to me.
Speaker 1: And it's not Taylor's Paul, You're right, a lot of people,
Speaker 1: you're right taking victory labs going, you know, finding my
Speaker 1: old th HD tweets as well and dunking on them
Speaker 1: now for but he's just not put in the position
Speaker 1: to me, like he's not playing well either. It's just
Speaker 1: I would like to see us put him in a
Speaker 1: little bit more position. Let him run a couple of
Speaker 1: high screening roles, you know, just to get him going.
Speaker 1: Let him run some you know, one five just space
Speaker 1: house screen roles to get him in rhythm, because I
Speaker 1: don't I think he just looks lost out there. It's
Speaker 1: lost too strong of a word to use, because that's
Speaker 1: kind of what I see him on offense at least,
Speaker 1: kind of confused where to screen or to go. And
Speaker 1: I think that's all from just starting with three nonspacers
Speaker 1: and Lebron being the best shooter in that lineup. Well,
Speaker 1: t th HT represents a redundancy. That's why he looks lost.
Speaker 1: He's trying to find a place to get his skill
Speaker 1: set to fit in with the group. You know, it's
Speaker 1: like it's like the concept of diminishing returns. So th HT.
Speaker 1: If he's playing with the Houston Rockets right now and
Speaker 1: he's running screen and roll with Christian Wood and three
Speaker 1: other guards or guys who can shoot, you know, his
Speaker 1: skill set is infinitely more valuable than it is when
Speaker 1: on this team. He's kind of relegated to being a
Speaker 1: spot up shooter in a lot of situations because you're
Speaker 1: you're right, like Roger, you hit the nail on the head,
Speaker 1: like he's he's on the floor with Isaiah Thomas and
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Russell Westbrook like and Rondo and Rondo like.
Speaker 1: There were there were several lineups. There were lineups tonight
Speaker 1: to have Rondo and Isaiah to is there there? There is.
Speaker 1: His skill set on this team is wasted in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways. At least I shouldn't even say a
Speaker 1: skill set. His ceiling, the areas of his skill set,
Speaker 1: they will inevitably be what allows him to compete for
Speaker 1: All Star spots in the future. That skill set is
Speaker 1: wasted here on this team. All that is really relevant
Speaker 1: is what he brings defensively, which I think is highly underrated.
Speaker 1: People massively underrate what THHT can do defensively. It's it's
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that gets glossed over when we're having
Speaker 1: this discussion. But on the offensive end on this team,
Speaker 1: he's in a spot up role and his value that's
Speaker 1: where that diminishing return comes in. And this is the
Speaker 1: huge downside of playing one foot on either side of
Speaker 1: the line, of having one foot in the moment and
Speaker 1: one ft in the future. Is there's this tantalizing potential
Speaker 1: with th h T. As I keep calling him Mini
Speaker 1: Kauai and people think I'm crazy, but I really think,
Speaker 1: I really think he could be an All star level
Speaker 1: two way guard, a guy who can average an efficient
Speaker 1: eighteen to twenty points a game and being all defense
Speaker 1: guy he's drew Holiday in my opinion. In the future,
Speaker 1: that's what I think he could be. But on this team,
Speaker 1: he's gonna look bad because of all of the things
Speaker 1: you just described garage, the lineups that he's playing with,
Speaker 1: what his skill set actually brings in terms of the redundancy,
Speaker 1: and what he's being relegated to do off the ball.
Speaker 1: And so this is where you ask yourself, like, is
Speaker 1: it worth holding the asset to keep him on the
Speaker 1: roster because of that potential that could come a few
Speaker 1: years down at the expense of the moment. And that's
Speaker 1: where you have to weigh those two factors, because I
Speaker 1: would tell you because I'm I, I think winning an
Speaker 1: NBA championship is super hard. I think you have to
Speaker 1: be willing to give up some of that tantalizing future
Speaker 1: for whatever you can get in the moment. And I know,
Speaker 1: I know that, I know this is why you and
Speaker 1: I make a good para rise Like you're so much
Speaker 1: more reserved and you're so much more conservative with this stuff.
Speaker 1: And it's good because I need your perspective to keep me, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of grounded. But like every time I
Speaker 1: see a game like tonight. I just think th HD
Speaker 1: is more valuable elsewhere in the league than he is here,
Speaker 1: so he has to be cashed in. And I don't
Speaker 1: think it's any more complicated than that. Well, it's not
Speaker 1: just I'm reserved, it's just that bridge is four weeks away,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like you can't even get
Speaker 1: to that bridge. And you said doing both, having one
Speaker 1: foot in potential one foot out. I mean when you
Speaker 1: pay like not to bring this about contract because you
Speaker 1: know that's that's other stuff. But you know, they invested
Speaker 1: him three years thirty million. He makes ten million a year,
Speaker 1: Like he's not making rookie money anymore, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. He's not on like a rookie deal where
Speaker 1: it's like a save for another team when they get him.
Speaker 1: He's on like a short team deal or you can
Speaker 1: kind of you can still outplay his contract obviously, but
Speaker 1: he makes you know, he makes good money. Now, he
Speaker 1: makes ten million dollars a year, Like that's not nothing
Speaker 1: to me. Like that's where I'm at with the THHD
Speaker 1: conversation because I can't even have this conversation yet. Everyone's saying,
Speaker 1: you know, trade him, ship him off. To Indiana. You
Speaker 1: can't ship him off, like you can't ship him off
Speaker 1: for four more weeks. You know, how much can change
Speaker 1: in four weeks, you know what I mean? Like that's
Speaker 1: a long time. Who knows, you know, and you knock
Speaker 1: on wood that they're not you know, they don't go
Speaker 1: off a cliff here in terms of how many games
Speaker 1: they lose, But four weeks, I mean, you want to
Speaker 1: reassess the situation, right, and JHD being wasted on this
Speaker 1: team is that's a strong kind of way to put
Speaker 1: it to me because I feel like we can we
Speaker 1: can replicate some of the stuff that he would do
Speaker 1: on other teams, you know, like why does he have
Speaker 1: to be pigeonholed into the like it would be great
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, obviously that's gonna be his role, Like
Speaker 1: it's gonna be thrown for twenty minutes on a wing defender.
Speaker 1: If you can hit a spot up three is great.
Speaker 1: If not, he's not gonna be getting you know, a
Speaker 1: hundred pick and roll possessions a game on this team.
Speaker 1: It's just never gonna happen. Russell Lebron are gonna play
Speaker 1: full time. But I think right now, as shorthanded as
Speaker 1: we are without the you know, shock creation that a
Speaker 1: D takes up in terms of like possessions, Like give
Speaker 1: him some you know, ball screen action, give him some
Speaker 1: moments where you know he's out there. Maybe he's out
Speaker 1: there with Isaiah Thomas, and he's out there with Carmelo
Speaker 1: and Trevor Reza and maybe it's Lebron, And just give
Speaker 1: him some space to work with a little bit, because
Speaker 1: he's playing in a phone booth and it's very similar
Speaker 1: to us as well. Right, he teams leave him just
Speaker 1: like they leave us. And you put those two together
Speaker 1: and it's a very cramped flour already makes what Lebron
Speaker 1: is doing absolutely even more impressive. We can go to
Speaker 1: him too. But that's my final thing on th h
Speaker 1: D is not that I'm just so reserved. It's just
Speaker 1: that bridge is four weeks away. You can't even walk
Speaker 1: there for another month, So like, I can't get myself
Speaker 1: to buy into that yet. At least um, I don't
Speaker 1: think changes. That's why I've been on this. I don't
Speaker 1: think huge reinforcements are coming. Minimum guys. Two way guys.
Speaker 1: We were wrong yesterday we did our little free agency pod.
Speaker 1: They cut Johndrey Brown, which I thought was very shocking.
Speaker 1: Um and Jay Huff still couldn't get a minute tonight
Speaker 1: when when the when the game mattered. Obviously he came
Speaker 1: in when it's like two minutes left down twenty, but yeah,
Speaker 1: that was very confusing as well. But that's my thing
Speaker 1: on THHD Man. That conversation is so far and I
Speaker 1: still think there's stuff we can do. Put him in
Speaker 1: like screen action with Wayne Ellington, whereas he's the screener
Speaker 1: like we do with Russ. Like put him in some
Speaker 1: you know, movement actions where he's not just standing on
Speaker 1: the other side waiting for the ball and now he's
Speaker 1: like job stepping waiting and now the defense were covers
Speaker 1: to where like lebron Chris step of penetration and then
Speaker 1: he kicks it out his THD holds it a second.
Speaker 1: And Phoenix is such a good team where they rotate
Speaker 1: really quickly. But yeah, that's my thing on Taylor Man.
Speaker 1: He's not going anywhere for four weeks, so he needs
Speaker 1: we need to know how to replicate him and put
Speaker 1: him into lineups that are successful for him because he's
Speaker 1: the big part of this team and he needs to
Speaker 1: play like benching him. I don't think is the answer either.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's that's my thing on him, and hopefully
Speaker 1: he shoots better too. I think it's a better shooter
Speaker 1: than he shoved. He absolutely and and and again, like
Speaker 1: when you have the touch that he has, it's just
Speaker 1: about building a functional spot up three points and getting
Speaker 1: him to the point where he trusts his muscle memory
Speaker 1: and he can get it off at game speed. Because
Speaker 1: that's the biggest adjustment you'll see, especially young players, is
Speaker 1: you get them, you get them in a gym by themselves,
Speaker 1: and they'll knock them down all day long. But there's
Speaker 1: something about the transition between that and game speed that
Speaker 1: throws them up. It's it's the biggest thing that I
Speaker 1: think Kevin Durant has nailed on the head. That nailed
Speaker 1: on the head with training is he always talks about
Speaker 1: how he practices at game speed, and that's I don't
Speaker 1: think enough players do that, um And that's what you'll
Speaker 1: see because PhD. What I've noticed a lot, especially when
Speaker 1: he first came back from the thumb injury, is he
Speaker 1: was leaving a lot of stuff short. And to me,
Speaker 1: that's like trying to that's trying to slow yourself down.
Speaker 1: While you're shooting instead of just going with the same
Speaker 1: speed that you were in practice, because you were already
Speaker 1: practicing at a game speed. But I digress. The I
Speaker 1: agree with you about waiting until January in the sense that, yes,
Speaker 1: you have to read the cards at that point. The
Speaker 1: point is like, to me, all signs are pointing in
Speaker 1: that direction. For in my opinion, like there, he looked
Speaker 1: so good in that first couple of games back that
Speaker 1: I think I think we all, like I said, tantalized,
Speaker 1: that we were tantalized by that, that potential future. But
Speaker 1: what you're so, you're talking about like getting th HD
Speaker 1: in in these situations where he has an advantage, And
Speaker 1: I totally get that. In a perfect world, right, Like
Speaker 1: in a perfect world where we could afford to throw
Speaker 1: a bunch of possessions in th hd S direction to
Speaker 1: try to get him development opportunities, I'd agree with you.
Speaker 1: But this is this goes back to the concept of
Speaker 1: diminishing returns. Like it's one thing when Russ is running action,
Speaker 1: Lebron's running action. Russ is running action, Lebron's running action. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's hit th HT curling out of the week side corner.
Speaker 1: Once and then go back to Lebron and Russ. That's
Speaker 1: one thing, But you can't just throw a bunch of
Speaker 1: possessions at th HT where he has action run for
Speaker 1: him without taking a way from your primary initiators. And
Speaker 1: and that's where we get into the diminishing returns concept.
Speaker 1: The idea of what th HD can be keeps us
Speaker 1: from acknowledging the reality of what this situation is, which
Speaker 1: is that he's a very young player who's very volatile offensively.
Speaker 1: Even when you do run stuff for him, there are
Speaker 1: nights where it looks great and knights where it doesn't.
Speaker 1: And so within the confines of this season, his value
Speaker 1: to this team and their ultimate goal is lower than
Speaker 1: what his value is elsewhere in the league. And strictly
Speaker 1: analytical thinkers would tell you your best chance to win
Speaker 1: a championship as the trader that that that, and so
Speaker 1: obviously you have to factor in some some other aspects
Speaker 1: to that, like, yes, Lebron is getting older, who's going
Speaker 1: to be the perimeter initiator when he's gone, Like all
Speaker 1: of that stuff still as a factor here. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to diminish that by any stretch of the imagination,
Speaker 1: but foundationally, right now, he is less valuable to us
Speaker 1: than he is elsewhere, which is is the ideal time
Speaker 1: to trade a player. And so when we get to
Speaker 1: that point, when we get to January, if he still
Speaker 1: if he still looks like he does now, which is lost.
Speaker 1: I love that word you used. Loss is the right
Speaker 1: word in the sense that his skill set, particularly on
Speaker 1: the offensive end, doesn't appear to fit with our system. Now,
Speaker 1: you made some good points about this system and the
Speaker 1: fact that the system is not is not really utilized
Speaker 1: properly for him, but it's utilized for who We do
Speaker 1: have guys that are ready right now, our system is
Speaker 1: set up for like right now, we're leaning heavily into
Speaker 1: small ball, and it's a tunnel Lebron, it's a ton
Speaker 1: of rus and we're seeing a little bit of Isai
Speaker 1: Toomas to Rondo around that our system is set up
Speaker 1: for those guys we can't afford to set things up
Speaker 1: for th ht you know what I mean. And so
Speaker 1: from that standpoint, like it's it's a little bit unrealistic,
Speaker 1: like it made it made more sense last year when
Speaker 1: Lebron and a d both were hurt to be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's let's get th ht a ton of reps, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. But I just I struggle with
Speaker 1: it within the confines of this season, and I think
Speaker 1: it will be end up being the And again, if
Speaker 1: if we have a month and he just got out
Speaker 1: of a hotel room for a week and a half,
Speaker 1: so if over the course of the next month, if
Speaker 1: he seems to kind of start knocking down more of
Speaker 1: those spot up opportunities, succeed in his limited sets that
Speaker 1: are run his direction, and do a better job of
Speaker 1: attacking closeouts while also bringing everything that he does defensively.
Speaker 1: Now we're talking about something different. Now, we're talking about
Speaker 1: a player that's every bit as good as we could
Speaker 1: hope for Jeremy Grant to be anyway, And at that point,
Speaker 1: you're right now we're getting Jeremy Grant now and potentially
Speaker 1: an All Star guard in the future. Like that, then
Speaker 1: I'm all in on that, and I get it. All
Speaker 1: I'm saying is like, if it more or less looks
Speaker 1: like this in January, I think you have to trade
Speaker 1: him at that point. Yeah, Now that that's totally fair.
Speaker 1: And I met more with the like Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: out right, so we need like offensive options in our
Speaker 1: second unit, and I honestly rather see a T h
Speaker 1: D kind of run some kind of actions than just
Speaker 1: and when Isaiah Thomas is on obviously, and we both
Speaker 1: think he's not really long for this team, especially with
Speaker 1: Kendrick Nunn coming back. But just instead of you know,
Speaker 1: the rondo th H rondo Isaiah Thomas lineups, just throw
Speaker 1: th HD maybe in there, give him a few possessions
Speaker 1: to take the load off of Lebron or Russ. I
Speaker 1: just think there's stuff we can do. And I'm just
Speaker 1: looking at, you know, his game before he went out
Speaker 1: with COVID, so he missed three games. He missed the Dallas,
Speaker 1: Minnesota and Chicago game, but he was seven for fourteen,
Speaker 1: four for seven both of those against the Magic and
Speaker 1: the Thunder. So he was kind of building building up.
Speaker 1: And again he's not the player he was tonight, and
Speaker 1: he's not the first three games he came back averaging
Speaker 1: twenty or something. He's somewhere in between there. And I
Speaker 1: just think there's things we can kind of open and
Speaker 1: open up for him. You're right, we're going small. I
Speaker 1: thought tonight we played with some pace in the first quarter.
Speaker 1: Phoenix again wasn't shooting well, but we ran the round
Speaker 1: the ball down the floor for him and that stuff
Speaker 1: that I think he can also get into. Get the ball,
Speaker 1: push the push the ball in transition. I think his
Speaker 1: one basket tonight, yeah, he was one for nine was
Speaker 1: on a layoup right where he liked Yeah, yeah, you
Speaker 1: vadded Devin Booker and you talk about the one star
Speaker 1: play he makes every game. That was kind of it, right,
Speaker 1: It was just like super be able to move in
Speaker 1: transition in air and finish around Devin Booker. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the stuff we can do, and I understand we don't
Speaker 1: have time to develop him, it's not really what I'm
Speaker 1: kind of I guess asking for. I just feel like
Speaker 1: there's ways to get him involved. Like we run actions
Speaker 1: specifically for Wayne Allington, right, we run specific ones for
Speaker 1: him to come off pin downs. We run like picking
Speaker 1: rolls where he's the he comes off trible handoffs, and
Speaker 1: I think there's stuff with T h T. You can
Speaker 1: tell he's not a spot up guy. I just think
Speaker 1: him seeing like a layup going early would be so
Speaker 1: big for him because you can tell he just thinks
Speaker 1: about it all games. He's just trying to get his
Speaker 1: first basket and it's like third quarter and you see
Speaker 1: him start to create. But yeah, I guess that's enough
Speaker 1: on tailing. He had a rough night and I don't
Speaker 1: think he's as bad as he was tonight. And his
Speaker 1: defense is you know, it's good, it's important for this team.
Speaker 1: I think it's underrated. Like you talked to, they need
Speaker 1: his defense and that's the reason he starts. But he
Speaker 1: needs to start hitting some outside jobs for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so let's let's talk about the small ball thing, because
Speaker 1: this is something we started a little bit last night
Speaker 1: as we were talking about the couple of free agent
Speaker 1: signings that they made with the hardship exceptions. You know,
Speaker 1: when you first of all, there are a couple of
Speaker 1: things that I keep an eye on when we go
Speaker 1: small that are important. For instance, rebounding. We we rebounded
Speaker 1: really well tonight relative to what our UH lineups that
Speaker 1: we were playing were, Like, I think we gave up
Speaker 1: single digit offensive rebounds. I'll pull up the numbers here
Speaker 1: in a second, but we we we competed on the glass,
Speaker 1: which is something that we've been begging for this team
Speaker 1: to do all season and is absolutely imperative with the
Speaker 1: small ball lineups. Yeah, we we were out really been
Speaker 1: rebounded fifty three to forty seven, which is totally manageable
Speaker 1: when you're going against Jamail McGee and DeAndre Aden, and
Speaker 1: we only gave up eight offensive rebounds, which is a
Speaker 1: manageable number under the circumstances. But what you have to
Speaker 1: do in those situations when you are playing small in
Speaker 1: my opinion, is you have to win all of the
Speaker 1: speed in finesse areas of the game. So for instance,
Speaker 1: we did not shoot the ball well tonight. Commelo Anthony
Speaker 1: and Wayne Ellington both won for four, so we were
Speaker 1: two for eight. As a team. We were only seven
Speaker 1: for thirty five from three. When we go small and
Speaker 1: we're playing driving kick basketball, we have to knock down shots.
Speaker 1: That's that's an important part of this kind of system working. Secondly,
Speaker 1: getting out in transition. We only had fifteen fast breakpoints tonight,
Speaker 1: so we gave up twenty to Phoenix. They actually had
Speaker 1: twenty two points off of our turnovers. So basically, when
Speaker 1: we turn the ball over, they ran it right down
Speaker 1: our throat. For a layout, when you play small ball,
Speaker 1: you understand that you're giving up at things in certain
Speaker 1: areas of the game. You understand you're probably going to
Speaker 1: be outrebounded to some extent. You need to try to
Speaker 1: minimize that as much as possible, and you understand you're
Speaker 1: gonna give up specific mismatches some places on the floor,
Speaker 1: particularly to pose players. You know, there were a lot
Speaker 1: of plays tonight where you know, in transition JaVale McGee
Speaker 1: or DeAndre would catch, it would be like Wayne Ellington
Speaker 1: underneath him and they would just shoot that little flot
Speaker 1: You expect that to a certain extent that comes with
Speaker 1: playing small ball. You have to understand that with that,
Speaker 1: you have to also take from the other team with
Speaker 1: your overall foot speed, with your additional shooting, with your
Speaker 1: additional skill on the floor, because typically if you're trading
Speaker 1: at seven foot or for some six five guy, the
Speaker 1: six five guys usually more skilled, he's faster, he's going
Speaker 1: to bring all those things to the game. So there
Speaker 1: there there's a foundation here that's starting to build. We
Speaker 1: we had a huge leap today in our rebounding. That's great.
Speaker 1: I thought Trevor Rizo was awesome in particular defensive rebound
Speaker 1: and that's the thing that that we were expecting with
Speaker 1: him coming back into the group. But we have to
Speaker 1: put it all together in order for this to function.
Speaker 1: In order for this to function, we have to shoot
Speaker 1: the ball well. We have to knock down the three
Speaker 1: point opportunities that come our way. We have to push
Speaker 1: the ball in transition and get easy shots with our
Speaker 1: foot speed because our total lineup foot speed should in
Speaker 1: theory be better than the other team because we're playing small,
Speaker 1: and we have to do the rebounding stuff that i
Speaker 1: was talking about. If all of that comes together, this
Speaker 1: can work. And you know the most important part about
Speaker 1: that is Anthony Davis is so versatile that you can
Speaker 1: more or less play the same style of basketball just
Speaker 1: by plugging him back in. I mean, technically he's a center,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna it's like bringing a center back into
Speaker 1: the game. But he can guard guards and wings and defense,
Speaker 1: and offensively, he can spot up and he can play
Speaker 1: on the he can attack close outs. He can do
Speaker 1: all that stuff. So you can build a small ball
Speaker 1: identity during this time where you polish up all those
Speaker 1: things I'm talking about, defensive, rebounding, pushing the ball in transition,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, driving kick basketball, generating super high quality threes,
Speaker 1: attacking clothes out. Well, you can do all of that
Speaker 1: and then just basically plug Anthony Davison as a fifth
Speaker 1: guard who happens to have all the physical capabilities of
Speaker 1: a center. And this could be a really dangerous playoff team,
Speaker 1: more in line with what we saw with the Clippers
Speaker 1: and Nets last year, as opposed to the brute force,
Speaker 1: physicality type of team that we were in previous year.
Speaker 1: So there is there is some silver lining stuff here,
Speaker 1: and and and this this is the last thing I'll
Speaker 1: say about it, because there was a lot of negativity
Speaker 1: surrounding the Lakers today on Twitter and in the podcast
Speaker 1: where I tweeted about how Zach Low and Kevin Pelton
Speaker 1: were extremely critical in the Lakers. Guys, this is this
Speaker 1: is this is really important to remember here. And I
Speaker 1: know it's hard to see the forest for the trees
Speaker 1: under the circumstances. We just got our butts kicked by
Speaker 1: the Sun's right after we lost a tough one on
Speaker 1: the road in Chicago, right after we got our butts
Speaker 1: kicked in Minnesota when a d sprained his knee and
Speaker 1: all these players are out with COVID. I get that
Speaker 1: it's really hard to see the forest for the trees.
Speaker 1: But this team was trending in the right direction. Clear lead.
Speaker 1: They had won seven of ten going into the Minnesota game,
Speaker 1: going into the a d injury. They were coming back
Speaker 1: on Minnesota that I thought they were gonna win that game.
Speaker 1: They had. They had taken massive leaps in terms of
Speaker 1: their lineup structure. DeAndre Jordan's was a distant memory. We
Speaker 1: weren't seeing any Rondo. It was a lot of shooting.
Speaker 1: We were running the floor and transition really well. Lebron
Speaker 1: was playing m v P level basketball. Really Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: was the only guy who wasn't quite hitting all hitting
Speaker 1: on all cylinders the way that we needed him to.
Speaker 1: This team was trending in the right direction and got
Speaker 1: derailed by by a nasty knee injury and COVID, And
Speaker 1: so COVID's gonna go away in terms of players missing time.
Speaker 1: Our players will come back and Anthony Davis is coming back.
Speaker 1: So this is this is not over. The tonight's game
Speaker 1: was almost unwinnable. So it is what it is. But
Speaker 1: reason there's a long term vision here and it's one
Speaker 1: that is attainable, and that is continue these habits that
Speaker 1: we built over the last month. In a small ball
Speaker 1: excuse me, in a small ball concept, let Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: get healthy, let him figure out whatever the hell was
Speaker 1: ailing his body. Hopefully he can fix his jump shot
Speaker 1: this time too, and then he can come back and
Speaker 1: his team can go on and run. This team, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, still has a championship ceiling. I know it's
Speaker 1: hard to see that, but I very much believe that
Speaker 1: that ceiling is still there. Yeah. And and to your
Speaker 1: point on the small ball, uh, for tonight, I mean
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan was a minus twenty six in fifteen minutes,
Speaker 1: which seems almost impossible, right, And and Rondo as well
Speaker 1: minus twenty six. That means when we went small, it
Speaker 1: was a pretty close game. And you talked about the
Speaker 1: three point shooting as well. I believe that Carmelo Isaiah
Speaker 1: Thomas in th HT where like two for nineteen combined
Speaker 1: or something like that from three. You're just not gonna
Speaker 1: win that way against against against Phoenix. I'm kind of like,
Speaker 1: I get the optimism with it. And you know, there's
Speaker 1: Tim Leger I think did a video as well where
Speaker 1: he said, even when the team's healthy, they're not a
Speaker 1: good defensive team. Right, but we haven't seen because we
Speaker 1: also haven't seen the team fully healthy, and they were
Speaker 1: up taking, you know, defensively, I think they were top
Speaker 1: ten the last like ten games or something. On defense,
Speaker 1: they moved into the top ten as well, And that's
Speaker 1: what makes it so frustrating. I think the reason coming
Speaker 1: back the day after a D goes down is what's
Speaker 1: really tough. I try to keep optimistic, but I mean, like,
Speaker 1: you know, a D coming back in February, what's the
Speaker 1: team gonna look like. Hopefully Kendrick Nunn comes back as well.
Speaker 1: And I think Phoenix, you know, in Golden State and
Speaker 1: Utah are kind of far ahead in terms of where
Speaker 1: they're at just where the season is. I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna be catching up to that and try to make
Speaker 1: a late push. You're right, there's still a chance that
Speaker 1: there's still, you know, a season to be played. Lebron
Speaker 1: has been great. He looked great again tonight. He was
Speaker 1: thirteen for nineteen tonight. I mean that's just insane to me. Uh,
Speaker 1: two for five from three as well. He was a
Speaker 1: plus zero on the night on a game where we
Speaker 1: lost by lost by eighteen and Lebron was a pleasant zero,
Speaker 1: which just kind of shows you, um, what happened tonight.
Speaker 1: And I want to ask you this because again, we
Speaker 1: saw a lot of Lebron at the five tonight and
Speaker 1: it is taxing on him, right, Like we can talk
Speaker 1: about how much easier the offensive load is, but that's
Speaker 1: still like tonight, Phoenix is a tough one to kind
Speaker 1: of judge it on because they're all ball screen. So
Speaker 1: you kind of have to either make a choice, right,
Speaker 1: you either tag in on eight and or you leave
Speaker 1: mckel bridges or Cam Johnson or whoever on the perimeter
Speaker 1: because you couldn't switch, Uh, you can't really switch that
Speaker 1: pick and roll of jefferent Book and Chris Paul get
Speaker 1: to the mid range. But what do you think about,
Speaker 1: like on Lebron in terms of his his load tonight,
Speaker 1: Like how he how tired he was, I guess trying
Speaker 1: to play that way against the Suns because we play
Speaker 1: a lot of him at center. DeAndre Jordan played fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes means which means the rest and Lebron played thirty
Speaker 1: four minutes and a lot of that I think was
Speaker 1: at center. I think like twenty minutes of it was
Speaker 1: at center. Um, he did look he looked fine though
Speaker 1: physically at least even after the ankle injury. It kind
Speaker 1: of frustrating Reggie Miller kept bringing up his ankle, and
Speaker 1: I thought Lebron looked fine, Like I thought he was
Speaker 1: okay after even after he went down. What do you
Speaker 1: think about like the tax on him? I guess because
Speaker 1: I think this is the I know Dwight Howard was
Speaker 1: out for colored protocols, but I feel like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I've heard Vogo kind of say they were going to
Speaker 1: center list lineups anyway, obviously that was before a d
Speaker 1: went down, but it still feels like they're going to
Speaker 1: try this like one's real center and put Trevor Reas
Speaker 1: at center, which again puts a lot of tax on Lebron.
Speaker 1: So what do you see from him? I guess at
Speaker 1: the center lineup tonight. So I'm not overly concerned about
Speaker 1: it in in the long term because because first of all,
Speaker 1: you know, offensively, the work is easier because he's operating
Speaker 1: in space now. Teams like Phoenix are so good at
Speaker 1: packing the paint that it does look hard. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I think we saw that tonight. I think you saw
Speaker 1: both Lebron and Russell Westbrook miss a couple of primarily Russ,
Speaker 1: but Lebron had a handful of himself where they missed
Speaker 1: right at the rim because there was you know, really
Speaker 1: good contests and and really good help offered by Phoenix
Speaker 1: at the at the rim. And so a game like
Speaker 1: tonight can look particularly physically exhausting for Lebron because he's
Speaker 1: doing everything he's doing defensively and on offense, he's kind
Speaker 1: of operating in a lot of traffic just because Phoenix
Speaker 1: is so good at what they do. But the truth
Speaker 1: of the matter is is the vast majority of the
Speaker 1: teams that we play over the course of the regular
Speaker 1: season are gonna be less disciplined defensively, and Lebron is
Speaker 1: gonna be operating in a ton of space offensively, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna be fine. I think. I think a big
Speaker 1: way to try to alleviate some of his defensive workload
Speaker 1: two is to do more switching. Don't have him play
Speaker 1: the Draymond role, have him be more of just like, yes,
Speaker 1: he can do it to help in specific mismatch situations
Speaker 1: in the post, but have the team switch more and
Speaker 1: be more willing to give up to give up the
Speaker 1: occasional basket around the rim because of a mismatch and
Speaker 1: understand that over the course of the game, the fatigued.
Speaker 1: Advantages of of doing more switching will pay off in
Speaker 1: better offense like that, like that, I'm a big believer
Speaker 1: in that. But the truth of the matter is, Roj
Speaker 1: and you and I both know this, Like, this team
Speaker 1: is not going anywhere that without Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: will come back. When Anthony Davis comes back and they're
Speaker 1: in a postseason series, let's say they let's say they
Speaker 1: get the sixth seed and we're on the road in
Speaker 1: Utah to start the playoffs, the truth of the matter
Speaker 1: is, is is Lebron and a d or playing forty minutes
Speaker 1: of game in that series? So so, yes, Lebron is
Speaker 1: at center is going to be something that might be
Speaker 1: able to eat some innings in the regular season, particularly
Speaker 1: against bad teams. Yes, it will look particularly exhausting against
Speaker 1: the handful of truly elite defenses that we play, But
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is he's not going to
Speaker 1: have to do that when push comes to shove. When
Speaker 1: push comes to shove, it'll be short bursts of that. Now,
Speaker 1: you're right, Over the course of the next month, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot to ask of him, But we're
Speaker 1: not gonna be playing Phoenix every time, and and I
Speaker 1: think I thought Chicago it was a great example of this.
Speaker 1: Like Chicago, that game, Lebron looked very lively on both ends,
Speaker 1: and I thought a big part of it was just
Speaker 1: he thrived. He'd like thrives in the energy of operating
Speaker 1: in space offensively. And we talked about last night, like
Speaker 1: he's he's going for more blocked shots than he has
Speaker 1: in years, just like elevating and trying to block shot.
Speaker 1: He's invigorated by by the opportunity he's having offensively to
Speaker 1: play in space. So I'm not overly concerned about it. Yes,
Speaker 1: the game like today is gonna beat him up. He's
Speaker 1: gonna wake up tomorrow be sore as all hell, as
Speaker 1: ankle is gonna hurt. But the truth of the truth
Speaker 1: of the matter is that he's not playing Phoenix every night,
Speaker 1: and by the time he does have to play Phoenix
Speaker 1: every night, if we do get to that point in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, it's gonna be Anthony Davis alongside him, and
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a little bit more manageable of
Speaker 1: of a physical experience, if that makes sense. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: then they play San Antonio next on Thursday, and then
Speaker 1: obviously the nets who are you know, ravaged by COVID
Speaker 1: on Christmas? There's some chance to get some wins here.
Speaker 1: But I just think it's a fascinating thing to kind
Speaker 1: of look at. And obviously I don't mean for the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I mean in these next for two six weeks, because
Speaker 1: I think both of us believe it's gonna be on
Speaker 1: the longer end of that. Um some other like good stuff.
Speaker 1: I guess I saw tonight like Russell Westbrook had some
Speaker 1: bad turnovers, right, like he had some awful kind of drive,
Speaker 1: but I thought, you know, the tempo and the pace
Speaker 1: is kind of what we're going for. Like even in
Speaker 1: that starting lineup, even with DeAndre Jordan playing, russ was
Speaker 1: still kind of pushing the ball, and I think that's
Speaker 1: something he needs to do. He was ten for twenty tonight.
Speaker 1: Again five turnovers, but you know, tender rebounds, priv's his
Speaker 1: three steals. I thought he played, you know, he pushed
Speaker 1: the pace, and I think that's what he needs to
Speaker 1: do on this team, and hopefully that kind of picks up.
Speaker 1: Hopefully he kind of pick up some for Lebron here
Speaker 1: as as we go forward. But did you have anything else?
Speaker 1: I guess for tonight against the Suns. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I I get really frustrated with raised on Rondo. Man.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that kills me with
Speaker 1: Rondo is like, you know, it kind of goes back
Speaker 1: to the foundational concept of switching, Like, Okay, you gotta
Speaker 1: switch on Isaiah Thomas on the perimeter, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: try to score on him. Make him score on you, like,
Speaker 1: make him make a move and shoot over the top
Speaker 1: of you, move your feet, make him earn it. Rejon
Speaker 1: Rondo just so much pointless gambling off the ball that
Speaker 1: like half the time it's like he's he's not even
Speaker 1: making guys score over him. Half the time. It's like
Speaker 1: it's a gamble here, it's a it's an over help there,
Speaker 1: it's a it's it's reach around steal here, and guys
Speaker 1: are just getting right past him and getting him getting
Speaker 1: into the lane, and our defense is compromised, Like it's
Speaker 1: it's a concept of positional defense, like there's there's there's
Speaker 1: disruptive defense, and there's positional defense. Like if you're a
Speaker 1: disruptive defender, is so athletically gifted that he can afford
Speaker 1: to gamble without giving away position and over the course
Speaker 1: of the game, it's a huge net positive. But when
Speaker 1: a positional defense is like, I just I know that
Speaker 1: I can't necessarily disrupt this guy, but I'm just going
Speaker 1: to try as best as I can to anticipate where
Speaker 1: he's going. Move my feet, wall up, put my hands up,
Speaker 1: don't foul. Make the dude score over the top of me.
Speaker 1: The best guy we have on the roster with this
Speaker 1: right now is Austin Reeves. But it's like what Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves does a really good job is like, hey, if
Speaker 1: you can make a shot over the top of me,
Speaker 1: good for you. But like, I'm not gonna reach, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna gambled, I'm not gonna get myself out of position.
Speaker 1: You're gonna earn this basket. And he did. He did
Speaker 1: such a good job of that. And Rondo is like
Speaker 1: the antithesis of that. And I'm not Rondo is not
Speaker 1: at fault for us losing tonight, So I'm not blaming
Speaker 1: him by any stretch of the imagination. But as I
Speaker 1: was watching that game, like it's just is one of
Speaker 1: those things that's like a personal basketball pet peeve of mine.
Speaker 1: He just he he is such such a free lay
Speaker 1: and Russ does this a lot too, by the way,
Speaker 1: But but it's just it's such an he's such a
Speaker 1: freelancer that like, like there's the occasional sequence like yeah,
Speaker 1: game two against Denver, dude, he I think it was
Speaker 1: game three, actually game three against Denver. He goes crazy
Speaker 1: and gets like four consecutive steals and goes the other
Speaker 1: way for layups and dunks with Lebron and it's like, man,
Speaker 1: like Jon Rondo, this is incredible. Look at his defense,
Speaker 1: but it's like, in reality, those players were gambles. They
Speaker 1: just happened to pay off, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: like and and everything. This is why Rondo is so
Speaker 1: hot and cold, and this is why there are so
Speaker 1: many good Rondo games that are juxtaposed with bad Rondo games,
Speaker 1: because he has that same philosophy offensively. Offensively it's high risk,
Speaker 1: high reward passes and and it just I know he
Speaker 1: reins it in to a greater extent when he gets
Speaker 1: to the postseason. Not that he's gonna be, you know,
Speaker 1: playing that role this season, but like just it's like
Speaker 1: nails on a basketball chalkboard to me as a as
Speaker 1: a basketball fan, and I just had to I had
Speaker 1: to get that off my chest. I'm glad you brought
Speaker 1: Rono because something I was thinking about. That's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons I hate the Rondo Westbrook lineups. Both of
Speaker 1: them are like one rotation guys on defense, do you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Like once they rotate once, they're
Speaker 1: not like flying back to rotate again. So once they
Speaker 1: like touch the paint, they're both just stand there, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. There's a lot of like pointing,
Speaker 1: and you know Rondo does a lot of pointing as
Speaker 1: well on defense. But like Phoenix is a team that
Speaker 1: moves the ball really well. They moved from corner to corner,
Speaker 1: wing to wing. After like the second past, Rondo and
Speaker 1: Russ aren't moving and then you play DeAndre Jordan's with
Speaker 1: that as well. We just have a lot of like
Speaker 1: one rotation, one effort type guys on defense, and it's
Speaker 1: why also I don't think those guys can play, and
Speaker 1: so why guys like Austin Reeves, who I hope we
Speaker 1: get back you know pretty soon here kind of jumps
Speaker 1: off the page as well because he's a multi effort guy, right,
Speaker 1: He's a multi rotator. Like on defense, he'll rotate to
Speaker 1: the corner. If the ball swings to the wing, he wrote,
Speaker 1: to the wing, even if it's not his guy, right,
Speaker 1: the shot clock is going down to just fly and
Speaker 1: rotate even if like someone else is right there. That's
Speaker 1: just stuff that we need. And I saw a little
Speaker 1: bit of that from Jamario Jones. We saw him tonight
Speaker 1: as well. He got a couple of offensive rebounds. I
Speaker 1: thought his energy was nice. Maybe he's a guy we
Speaker 1: can throw into that. But yeah, it's like, I'm glad
Speaker 1: you brought up Rondo there because I feel like that's
Speaker 1: another reason why I hate the Rohndo Westbrook lineups. They
Speaker 1: both rotate once or twice maximum. If the ball swings
Speaker 1: three times, they're not routing to that third. Like if
Speaker 1: their their job is to close up to the wind,
Speaker 1: they'll close up to the wing. And then if the
Speaker 1: ball swings one one more, they won't close out or
Speaker 1: they just stand there and wait for the ball. Right.
Speaker 1: And I've talked about how Russ isn't a box out rebounder,
Speaker 1: so he's a stare, anticipate, and then jump type of rebounder.
Speaker 1: And we give up a lot of offensive rebounds that
Speaker 1: way as well. That's why I don't like those lineups,
Speaker 1: and I hope tonight was the last of the russ
Speaker 1: I t Rondo combination as well. I think we've seen
Speaker 1: enough of that. But yeah, hopefully we can kind of
Speaker 1: get a few more players, get Austin Reaves back for
Speaker 1: the Thursday game, and hopefully picked that one up because
Speaker 1: we need to pick up some wins here. We have
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a home schedule coming up,
Speaker 1: especially Santonio coming next, and then obviously then that's on Christmas.
Speaker 1: The San Antonio and Brooklyn games are almost must wins
Speaker 1: now under the circumstances, just in terms of trying to
Speaker 1: float in the standings. Um, what you brought up, this
Speaker 1: will be the last thing we hit on and we'll
Speaker 1: get out of here. Uh. Talking about those extra efforts
Speaker 1: and rotations. I thought there was a really interesting quote.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you saw it, but it was
Speaker 1: from David Fizdale from before the game, talking about trying
Speaker 1: to teach guys not that are not used to being
Speaker 1: devoted to the dirty work, to embrace the dirty work.
Speaker 1: Did you happen to see that quote? Yeah, yeah, about
Speaker 1: box outs and all that like you're talking about. So
Speaker 1: I thought it was really interesting because this is something
Speaker 1: that you and I have been hitting on all this
Speaker 1: idea that it all comes down to basketball character, and
Speaker 1: it's something that it's something that I think some of
Speaker 1: the guys have done a better job of embracing than others.
Speaker 1: Like I've actually been really impressed with Carmelo Anthony over
Speaker 1: the course of the season, just getting a lot better
Speaker 1: at that stuff than he used to be. He still
Speaker 1: has a long way to go. But the truth of
Speaker 1: the matter is, and basically what David Fizzel said is
Speaker 1: like a lot of these guys were stars in previous situations,
Speaker 1: and they were in situations where they were able to
Speaker 1: devote the lion's share of their energy towards the you know,
Speaker 1: offensive roles that they had, and they were typically surrounded
Speaker 1: by players that did that work for them. Isaiah Thomas
Speaker 1: is an example of that, Carmelo Anthony is an example
Speaker 1: of that. Even Region Rondo is an example of that
Speaker 1: to a certain extent. Russell Westbrook is definitely an example
Speaker 1: of that. All of these guys are are coming from
Speaker 1: situations where where they were not asked to do those things,
Speaker 1: and now they're feeling in roles that were previously occupied
Speaker 1: by players that had that at the top of their
Speaker 1: list of priorities, you know, namely guys like k C
Speaker 1: P and Alex Caruso. Kuzuma a little bit more towards
Speaker 1: the end, although he had his own priorities as we
Speaker 1: all know. But the truth of the matter is is
Speaker 1: a lot of these guys have have been dealing with
Speaker 1: a little bit of wake up call on that front,
Speaker 1: and I think it was something that we, you know,
Speaker 1: even underestimated how long that would take. Because I think
Speaker 1: I think they're clearly trending in the right direction, at
Speaker 1: least the guys that are going to be on the
Speaker 1: roster in the long run. I think those guys are
Speaker 1: trending in the in the right direction. But that's a
Speaker 1: great example of why this team is going to be
Speaker 1: a little bit easier to evaluate towards the end. If
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis comes back in let's say middle February, and
Speaker 1: he's healthy and usually typically post officer break, I think
Speaker 1: there's like about thirty games typically, So so let's say
Speaker 1: they go in a thirty game run, you know, and
Speaker 1: all these guys are you know, foundationally different players at
Speaker 1: that point, you know, like Carmelo Anthony going from being
Speaker 1: a star to being a role player on a Portland's
Speaker 1: team that didn't defend anyway. You know, like this team
Speaker 1: and like as wild as it is, I think I
Speaker 1: think they were a tenth and defense coming into ten game.
Speaker 1: Like that's crazy, Like that's that's that's in sane under
Speaker 1: the circumstances. So they are in a in a in
Speaker 1: a culture where they're being asked to do these things
Speaker 1: for real, under a coach that demands that of them,
Speaker 1: And there's a there is an opportunity here that come
Speaker 1: early April, there's some continuity and some health and some
Speaker 1: habits that are formed that could make this team very dangerous.
Speaker 1: The word that our guy Crantes has been using is frisky,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of the way I look at it.
Speaker 1: Like if you combine frisky with a legitimate playoff run
Speaker 1: from Lebron who clears it seems to be trending in
Speaker 1: that direction, and Anthony Davis potentially getting back to his
Speaker 1: bubble form, this suddenly becomes a team that could be
Speaker 1: very difficult to beat four times out of seven. And
Speaker 1: I know I've been trying to bring the optimism over
Speaker 1: the last couple of days but I genuinely believe that.
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not pulling that out of the there,
Speaker 1: no for sure on your point on the light and
Speaker 1: we have a lot of players that were stars before.
Speaker 1: That's I think Trevor rea'sa you know, fits so well
Speaker 1: because he's been a role player pretty much his old career.
Speaker 1: He's been a super role player and he just knows
Speaker 1: what to do. I agree with all that in a
Speaker 1: sense and not I'm not trying to be negative here.
Speaker 1: I just think this is a time where they can't fracture,
Speaker 1: right like, because this can I know you hit the
Speaker 1: optimist kind of point there, but I mean this can
Speaker 1: go bad. Like there's a there's a universe. There's a
Speaker 1: world where this goes bad, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a world where the Yeah, there's a world where
Speaker 1: losses pile up and four or six weeks is not nothing.
Speaker 1: You know, that's not just a sim sim those games
Speaker 1: like that's a there's a lot of games back, but
Speaker 1: I think that's twenty three games if I check there,
Speaker 1: and that's a lot of games to try to make up.
Speaker 1: Like even going five hundred in that time would keep
Speaker 1: us at five hundred, right, because we are five hundred
Speaker 1: right now. I think we're like six. Uh. I don't
Speaker 1: know our exact record, but I believe tonight I made
Speaker 1: us five hundred again. So we go five hundred in
Speaker 1: this stretch, we'll still be five hundred at that time.
Speaker 1: And obviously the West isn't as great as it was
Speaker 1: the last few years, but I still think there's going
Speaker 1: to be a lot to kind of push and you
Speaker 1: never want to be in the play in. Obviously the
Speaker 1: Warriors can kind of tell you that about last year.
Speaker 1: So I agree there's optimists and hopefully when a d
Speaker 1: comes back, he can fit right back in. I just
Speaker 1: think like this next few games and this next like
Speaker 1: week or so is very important because they need to
Speaker 1: pick up wins. You can't just fall on the face
Speaker 1: of year. They keep screaming process because they need wins
Speaker 1: right now, like they they've they've thrown all their banked
Speaker 1: wins away, like losing Okay, see earlier in the year,
Speaker 1: flowing twenty point leads eurn the year. That costs you
Speaker 1: this time with any kind of margin for error. I guess,
Speaker 1: like that's my thing here. There's no margin for error here,
Speaker 1: Like we can't just drop four or five games, uh,
Speaker 1: and drop back. So that's kind of I agree with you.
Speaker 1: That's still you know, positives. Lebron looking like Lebron, I
Speaker 1: think is the top of the key on all this,
Speaker 1: Like Lebron looking like himself uh and m VP candidate,
Speaker 1: all that stuff is important and hopefully a D can
Speaker 1: kind of come back on his time, come back healthy,
Speaker 1: come back rejuvenated right with a sense of urgency and
Speaker 1: energy and know more of this like lethargic kind of
Speaker 1: play that he's been at. And he still had the numbers.
Speaker 1: Obviously numbers are great. It's just on the floor doesn't
Speaker 1: look as a D as a D standards right for
Speaker 1: other players maybe, But but yeah, I just think like
Speaker 1: this is an important time here where it could fracture
Speaker 1: or they can kind of come together and get a
Speaker 1: few wins here, and I think it's important. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think it's going to be about winning the games that
Speaker 1: they're supposed to win most of them. Like you can
Speaker 1: you can go into the locker room tonight if you're
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and you can look each other in the
Speaker 1: face and be like, hey, like we competed. Those are
Speaker 1: the things. Those are the phoenix suns. That's what we're
Speaker 1: trying to get, and we know we can't get there
Speaker 1: until we're all healthy anyway. Hey, but we competed, you know,
Speaker 1: and you can even kind of do the same thing
Speaker 1: with Chicago because as decimated as they were, they weren't
Speaker 1: nearly as decimated as we were. And uh and even then,
Speaker 1: like you put it, could have very easily won that
Speaker 1: game if Tomato Rosen doesn't make every mid range jump
Speaker 1: shott he takes at the end of the game. So
Speaker 1: like there's some silver LIFs Thursday. If you lose the
Speaker 1: San Antonio You're right, that could be a fracture moment.
Speaker 1: So it's like, I hope it'll be really interesting to
Speaker 1: see in San Antonio. Like you said, it's been playing
Speaker 1: well lately, so so that's that game where it's like,
Speaker 1: that'll be an interesting read on the Walker room and
Speaker 1: them them coming out and beating San Antonio would tell
Speaker 1: us a lot about where this team is in their
Speaker 1: in their headspace. Um, but did you have anything else
Speaker 1: you want to hear on tonight? I think that was
Speaker 1: I think that was it. Yeah, Jamara, I think I
Speaker 1: got I went to Jamario Jones already. Hopefully he played
Speaker 1: the next game. Man, I think we need some just
Speaker 1: play hard rebounders. I thought he looked good in his
Speaker 1: minutes late, but it's tough for him to come in
Speaker 1: down down twenty and Jay Huff survived right, survived the cuts,
Speaker 1: so hopefully he can kind of show what he has.
Speaker 1: But yeah, if we would get a win, man, Santonio
Speaker 1: just blew out the Clippers. I think who got Paul
Speaker 1: George back on the road. They blew them out by
Speaker 1: twenty the other games, so they'll be they'll be ready. Man,
Speaker 1: They're good. Deante Murray I think is legit, so they
Speaker 1: have to be ready to kind of play for that one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a winnable game, but it's a challenge. It'll
Speaker 1: be a Sean al right, guys, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for coming to hang out. This is gonna be on
Speaker 1: Dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time
Speaker 1: and will be on our podcast feed here in about
Speaker 1: a half hour. As always, real appreciate your support. I'll
Speaker 1: have some something coming out tomorrow and then we'll have
Speaker 1: our typical post games show on Thursday. And enjoy the
Speaker 1: rest of your night and we'll see you guys in
Speaker 1: a couple of days, happy holidays, Thanks everyone,