Speaker 1: Mmmm, hey, what's up man? Not much happy to be here, guys.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, dude, thanks for taking time out of your
Speaker 1: night to hang out. Absolutely, that was quite the roller
Speaker 1: coaster the game. It's it's extremely hard for a bunch
Speaker 1: of gifted basketball players to play hard against a bunch
Speaker 1: of guys who are at any given moment they're capable
Speaker 1: of just strangling and putting an end to things. It's
Speaker 1: just gonna be like that. Fortunately. You know, I watched
Speaker 1: I was a big a broad fan when he was
Speaker 1: in Cleveland, and uh he played in the Eastern Conference,
Speaker 1: so literally like two out of every three, if not
Speaker 1: three out of every four games was like this. Literally,
Speaker 1: it's awful every year. And now in the West, for
Speaker 1: the most part, they have enough decent competition to kind
Speaker 1: of keep them focused. It makes it a lot more
Speaker 1: fun to watch him. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, me too. I
Speaker 1: I remember watching those games in Cleveland and they were
Speaker 1: just a slugfest. Oh yeah, there was. There was a
Speaker 1: funny stretch at two thou eighteen. Uh. You know, it's funny.
Speaker 1: I make a lot of comparisons between the two thousand
Speaker 1: eighteen uh Calves in the two thousand one Warriors and
Speaker 1: It's funny to me because like that two eighteen Calves team,
Speaker 1: they were just it was like they were so like
Speaker 1: old and veteran, and they were playing all these bad teams.
Speaker 1: They were losing often to bad teams. Whereas like with Steph,
Speaker 1: it's like he's absolutely had to be amazing every night
Speaker 1: because they've just been playing these unbelievably good teams and
Speaker 1: it's been funny kind of see the difference between the two.
Speaker 1: But I mean that Orlando team, they're deliberately just like, um,
Speaker 1: what's his name, the little guard I'm linking Brandy co Anthony. Yeah,
Speaker 1: co Anthony is okay, I guess, but he they're basically
Speaker 1: just letting him do stuff to see if he can play.
Speaker 1: That's basically what's happening. Right. They play hard though, man,
Speaker 1: they play really hard. Uh. It feels like every night
Speaker 1: and the Lakers went up big, they went up like sixteen,
Speaker 1: but when they put it, when they took the foot
Speaker 1: off the gas, but like Orlando really took advantage. Um,
Speaker 1: So because we can kind of get into the game
Speaker 1: if you want to let a couple more people I
Speaker 1: guess get in here. Um, so, what are you guys
Speaker 1: like first, thoughts on the game. I guess just as
Speaker 1: a whole. Um, I guess I can start with with you, Omar,
Speaker 1: would you what do you think of the game today? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, like I said earlier, it was a total uh.
Speaker 1: Like we saw we saw them come out right after
Speaker 1: that disappointing loss with the maps. They came out, the
Speaker 1: Lakers came out, played really well. Uh. Then we kind
Speaker 1: of let the foot off our gap, foot off the gas. Uh.
Speaker 1: And you know, one thing is that we couldn't it
Speaker 1: seemed like we couldn't hold onto the ball. We went
Speaker 1: from the first quarter we had one turnover and then
Speaker 1: the second quarter we had seven uh. And that led
Speaker 1: to I think like thirteen and fourteen easy transition buckets
Speaker 1: for Orlando, and it really got them in a rhythm,
Speaker 1: like like they had a nice looking jumper like moving
Speaker 1: forward in the game. Um. And then you know talent
Speaker 1: kind of you know talent and then trying hard, putting
Speaker 1: an effort, and then along with you know, in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, putting in Tread's that was a nice boost
Speaker 1: of energy between treads and t ht uh and going
Speaker 1: a bit smaller right with kind of went away from
Speaker 1: the A D two A d lineups and went smaller
Speaker 1: and just switched everything instead of getting burned and basic
Speaker 1: pick and roll action. Um, we kinda we saw that
Speaker 1: and then and then we kind of just took over
Speaker 1: the game. Dennis kind of just went berserk with that
Speaker 1: and just hit like a bunch of nice you know,
Speaker 1: skip passes and lands and jumpers. So what was really
Speaker 1: interesting to me about that closing stretch there is they
Speaker 1: basically just ran drum and Schroeder pick and roll from
Speaker 1: the top of the key and had Anthony Davis go
Speaker 1: to the opposite corner. And it's it's funny because I
Speaker 1: was talking with somebody from Warriors Twitter during the game
Speaker 1: about spacing that that this particular team has, and he
Speaker 1: was talking about how he thought the Lakers needed shooting
Speaker 1: instead of drum and I actually disagree with him because
Speaker 1: in a weird way, you know, McLamore gives them flexibility
Speaker 1: with their lineups to go with more shooting. And you watch,
Speaker 1: even without Lebron they use as long as you use
Speaker 1: Drummond as the screener against teams that aren't switching, they
Speaker 1: can literally space the floor. With the best teams in
Speaker 1: the league, you just put KCP in one corner and
Speaker 1: you put Anthony Davis in the other corner than whatever
Speaker 1: third guard or or forward in the other corner. And
Speaker 1: like when Lebron comes back, they're gonna have lineups with
Speaker 1: Lebron at the four, eight at the five, Kuzma k
Speaker 1: C P Schroeder or Kuzma KCP Ben mackelmore, or they
Speaker 1: can go bigger and put you know, Drumming at the
Speaker 1: five and a half, him be the screener, Marcus all
Speaker 1: at the five and b a screener. This is a
Speaker 1: team that suddenly can make a lot of space. And
Speaker 1: I think if you watch down the stretch of that game,
Speaker 1: Shrouder was getting wherever he wanted. Now, part of that
Speaker 1: is because Orlando is not a great defensive team, but
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, like that's what you
Speaker 1: You want to make the game easy for your players,
Speaker 1: and you make the game easy by creating space, and
Speaker 1: you create space by having really skilled players on the
Speaker 1: court and just throwing Anthony Davis into the mix there
Speaker 1: totally changed, like the geometry of the court. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it was nice to see a d get his mid
Speaker 1: range jumpers going right. He had a few early um
Speaker 1: he finished like eight for fourteen, I think something like that. So,
Speaker 1: and he seemed to be moving really well. He went
Speaker 1: off the minis minutes restriction as well tonight, so like
Speaker 1: it was good to see him moving, hitting jumpers and
Speaker 1: kind of yeah, finally hit the three off that play
Speaker 1: that Jason you were talking about, right, Shooter drove off
Speaker 1: a drum and pick and roll and I then kicked
Speaker 1: it out to a d in the corner for three
Speaker 1: to kind of, um, I iced the game. And I'm
Speaker 1: not worried about Anthony Davis. I mean, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things to worry about about this team. I feel
Speaker 1: like Anthony Davis is not one of them. Like I
Speaker 1: think he'll be he'll be there when it's already. But
Speaker 1: I want to ask you guys this because it was
Speaker 1: kind of strange. Uh, Like it's when I'm sixteen, and
Speaker 1: they had all these defensive mistakes, right and Orlando was
Speaker 1: running like a lot of four or five action and
Speaker 1: they were still trapping that I think with a D
Speaker 1: and Drummond and uh. And then at the end, I
Speaker 1: think they just started switching it, especially when Traz came
Speaker 1: in and then Drummon kind of did the same thing.
Speaker 1: Did you see that as well. Drummond and a D
Speaker 1: still kind of trapping a lot of actions when I
Speaker 1: feel like those two should be just switching the whole
Speaker 1: point of like A D squared. I feel like, like,
Speaker 1: why are they trapping four or five ball handlers? That
Speaker 1: was kind of confusing to me. Did you guys see
Speaker 1: that during the name as well? Go ahead? Uh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I saw that as well, and I was kind of confused.
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe um, if there was some you know,
Speaker 1: miscommunication or misunderstanding of the game plan, but um, I'm
Speaker 1: glad we went away from it pretty quickly. But uh,
Speaker 1: it definitely led to like easy dunks and easy lanness
Speaker 1: for Window Card Jr. Whatnot. Um, but yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, I saw some of that.
Speaker 1: Was just kind of confused, But why not just switch it?
Speaker 1: Especially when you have Drummond. It was pretty nimble, and
Speaker 1: that's not like you know, there's like great superstars with
Speaker 1: the magic just kind of you know, whatever team right now.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, no, that that's that's it. I refused
Speaker 1: to believe that that was actually schemed in there, So
Speaker 1: I would I would I would go with that was
Speaker 1: just sloppy US against a bad team. You know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's important for us to, you know, acknowledge the
Speaker 1: reality of the fact that they haven't been defending super
Speaker 1: great as of late. I thought Dallas kind of picked
Speaker 1: him apart the last couple of games. And and I
Speaker 1: do think a lot of it was focused, Like a
Speaker 1: lot of it was when they would trapped Luca and
Speaker 1: there would have and they have that roll or going
Speaker 1: down the paint, whether it's Dwight Powell or Christops wherever
Speaker 1: it was, they would uh like kind of be stuck
Speaker 1: in no man's land on the back side and either
Speaker 1: leave the opposite corner three open or they leave the
Speaker 1: roller right down the lane for a dunk. They were
Speaker 1: just really sloppy. They weren't rotating on the back end,
Speaker 1: and the worst thing to do when you desperately need
Speaker 1: to get your defense back on track. Because by the way,
Speaker 1: Frank came out and said that Franks like, our defense
Speaker 1: doesn't look like it's what it's supposed to right now,
Speaker 1: and uh, coming into tonight, it's like, you're what you
Speaker 1: really need is a good team um that the Lakers
Speaker 1: can wake up against. But unfortunately it just kind of
Speaker 1: compounds the problem when you're playing against a bunch of
Speaker 1: fringe level NBA players, UH that are just trying really
Speaker 1: hard and and uh and the other teams not even
Speaker 1: necessarily trying to win, at least from the perspective of
Speaker 1: the front office, And it just leads to an extension
Speaker 1: of those sloppy habits. And I thought there was a
Speaker 1: lot of that. There was a lot of giving up
Speaker 1: driving lane, second effort, plays things along those lines that
Speaker 1: they go right, And it kind of feels like when
Speaker 1: you play a team like the Orlando Magic, you're not
Speaker 1: really playing them, you're playing yourselves right pretty much, because
Speaker 1: you're pretty much just working on what you wanted. We
Speaker 1: think of like the Lakers without Lebron and a D
Speaker 1: and playing all hard with this defense, and you think
Speaker 1: you just plug a D back and all that effort
Speaker 1: will be the same, But it's not really how like
Speaker 1: basketball works, right, Like, now they know they have Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis back, they can kind of still kind of relax
Speaker 1: to the game. You saw the intensity was like, especially
Speaker 1: when they went up big, it really relaxed there. Um
Speaker 1: after they went up I think sixteen Orlanto went on
Speaker 1: a on a huge run and then I think they
Speaker 1: outscore the Lakers, like what forty to twenty two in
Speaker 1: the second quarter, and like Orlando just doesn't have the
Speaker 1: talent that should be able to do that. That was
Speaker 1: a lot of just lack of days ago effort, really
Speaker 1: lazy turnovers right, just throwing the ball away. I think
Speaker 1: they have four teen points off seven seven turnovers, which
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't really do much more than that. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So like I was, I was thinking what you guys
Speaker 1: think was No, Gasol didn't play tonight, right, so obviously
Speaker 1: they're going through the It's like big man kind of rotation,
Speaker 1: I guess, just rotating big um in and out. Do
Speaker 1: you see that like next game, maybe Gasol plays or
Speaker 1: do you think like Tred's kind of will stay Because
Speaker 1: I thought Tres played really well tonight. I think this
Speaker 1: is a good game for him. He kind of kept
Speaker 1: he kind of kept us in. I think when the lead,
Speaker 1: when the Orlando started taking a lead, do you think
Speaker 1: like next game it will be uh probably Gasol back
Speaker 1: in there. How do you think Vogo kind of plays
Speaker 1: this go forward you go ahead over more so, I
Speaker 1: think Tred's getting a break a game break was pretty
Speaker 1: good for him. Uh, super super energetic and and Uh,
Speaker 1: like last few games, he seemed a little out of it.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it was like. I didn't see
Speaker 1: the same amount of bounce from him like last few games.
Speaker 1: So him sitting out that last House game definitely helped
Speaker 1: us out today because he was really instrumental in that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. Um, I don't know what we see in
Speaker 1: the next So this next matchup is pretty interesting because
Speaker 1: it's the Wizards, and yeah, they're really they're really hot
Speaker 1: right now. I think they've won like their last like
Speaker 1: nine or ten game. UM, and I know you know,
Speaker 1: you know Westbrook and feel that they love attacking the rim.
Speaker 1: So it will be interesting to see how Vogo game
Speaker 1: plans against that team. And um, I don't know who
Speaker 1: or which center that he's gonna go with, but it
Speaker 1: will be interesting interesting to see you for sure. At
Speaker 1: times I was thinking that gasol may have been needed tonight,
Speaker 1: But I'm glad. Uh. You know, has uh played his
Speaker 1: played his game today? Well, I mean we can safely
Speaker 1: assume that there's certainly a chance that he'll play Marcus
Speaker 1: or Mark after what he said. What was it, I
Speaker 1: think it was the last game might have been two
Speaker 1: games ago, when when they when he benched one tracks
Speaker 1: and basically said like, hey, we're gonna keep Mark fresh,
Speaker 1: you know, And and I don't know, I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's something they're going to do consistently. I don't
Speaker 1: know if they did that one time and hated it,
Speaker 1: but it's certainly something that you could see them doing.
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting tonight that he kind of
Speaker 1: went back to Drummond, but he waited until pretty late
Speaker 1: in the game, and it's because it's because try As
Speaker 1: was playing so well. And it kind of reminds me
Speaker 1: a little bit last year, where it was like we
Speaker 1: got this rotation. You know, Javanil eventually fell out of
Speaker 1: it entirely, but there at the end, you know, you
Speaker 1: still had Mark Keith, you still had White, you still
Speaker 1: had a d and Lebron and Kuzma all playing four
Speaker 1: or five minutes and uh and basically they just rolled
Speaker 1: with who had it going and you know, we're gonna
Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll touch a little bit more on Kuzma later,
Speaker 1: but like it it's something that Kuzma talked about after
Speaker 1: that last game, Like it's just kind of an understanding
Speaker 1: in the locker room that you know, we're super deep
Speaker 1: and they are going to be games where we don't
Speaker 1: get to play and it's just kind of part of
Speaker 1: the deal. And we all got to be professionals about it.
Speaker 1: There's no soul in the world that's going to have
Speaker 1: that happen to them and not be you know, pussy
Speaker 1: about it. But the but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like it's it's it's part of it's part of the
Speaker 1: problem that comes with their depth. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I I thought, you know, I think we all agree
Speaker 1: that Drummond was not the best option tonight, but I
Speaker 1: do think it was interesting that that Frank went to
Speaker 1: him at the end, And I think part of the
Speaker 1: reason for that is just like you've got to you've
Speaker 1: got to kind of keep him confident and stuff, because
Speaker 1: you're not gonna you're not gonna mail it in on
Speaker 1: Drumming and give up before Lebron comes back, right like,
Speaker 1: you're gonna at least see what that looks like. And
Speaker 1: so from that standpoint, like you just keep going to Drumming,
Speaker 1: you live through the mistakes, and then you see if
Speaker 1: it works with Lebron, and if it doesn't, then you
Speaker 1: start considering other you know, rotation options. But I think
Speaker 1: they just have all these options and they just gotta
Speaker 1: figure out how to use them. Yeah, and I said
Speaker 1: last game that like you should kind of treat Drumming
Speaker 1: as Jabail from last year. I said that with our
Speaker 1: part with Maples, Um people saw him as a Dwight replacement,
Speaker 1: but I see him more as the the Jabail replacement
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the game. See if he has
Speaker 1: it um. He's a little bit more mobile than Javel.
Speaker 1: He's just not the shop bucker that at Jabel is obviously,
Speaker 1: But again, like tonight, I saw the timeline kind of
Speaker 1: being mad at him. He was six or eight tonight,
Speaker 1: Like those two mrs just feel really loud though right
Speaker 1: like it feels like he had it feels like he
Speaker 1: had a worse game than he did, but he was
Speaker 1: actually he was for eight to night eleven rebounds, Like
Speaker 1: he just produces um even when he's not playing well.
Speaker 1: He at thirteen points, so um, yeah, I would see
Speaker 1: him as like the Javail guy, and then Mark would
Speaker 1: be the Dwight. I know he's not the same type
Speaker 1: of player, but I mean just that defensive player of
Speaker 1: the year before. Um guy just really smart on the
Speaker 1: defensive end and then can help you on offense as well.
Speaker 1: So that's how I would like, you know, people to
Speaker 1: see Drummond. But you know, you see him starting and
Speaker 1: getting the start of minutes, it's very easy to kind
Speaker 1: of just assume that he's locked in to the rotation
Speaker 1: um going into the playoffs. So I think and I
Speaker 1: think that would be good. And then Kuzma, you kind
Speaker 1: of touched on him. I think he was the game
Speaker 1: leading plus minus. Yeah, he was, he was, he was
Speaker 1: the second he was Yeah, Shooter was leading with a
Speaker 1: plus twenty three, and that kind of matches the tape
Speaker 1: to me. Both of them played really well. Kuzma four threes,
Speaker 1: I mean that's four or six from three, had a
Speaker 1: he had a great night. But I thought he was
Speaker 1: really good on defense too. He was moving to speed,
Speaker 1: especially on switches. Um. But but we got a lot
Speaker 1: from him and the backcourt. Uh, shooters kind of taking
Speaker 1: it on himself right, Like I think even with eight
Speaker 1: back um, would you guys agree, Like you can see
Speaker 1: he's still a resting I think that was the best
Speaker 1: thing for me that I see from him. Do you
Speaker 1: guys see that as well as shooters staying aggressive even
Speaker 1: with a D back, it feels like he still feels
Speaker 1: like he has the mantle to the offense, like he's
Speaker 1: still kind of taken over. Yeah. Yeah, I definitely liked
Speaker 1: seeing that that. He was just aggressive and and he
Speaker 1: kind of kind of like the way he was playing
Speaker 1: was kind of evident of the way he played while
Speaker 1: a D and Brown were out, and I like that
Speaker 1: he's sticking to that, especially when especially since a D
Speaker 1: is still getting his legs underneath him clearly, like his
Speaker 1: jumper is still going to be, you know, here and there,
Speaker 1: and he's still like getting in game shape. And I know,
Speaker 1: I liked ad is getting his jumper back tonight. That
Speaker 1: was I liked seeing that. But I really like that,
Speaker 1: you know, Dennis is consistently applying pressure to there in
Speaker 1: and it's just going to continue to open up so
Speaker 1: many opportunities for all all our guys, even though we
Speaker 1: weren't hitting our shots tonight. Um, you know, it's still
Speaker 1: gonna be super helpful for for us, and and Dennis
Speaker 1: doing that is really helpful. Denni is flat out awesome,
Speaker 1: and he's been awesome for a while now. He really
Speaker 1: struggled at the beginning of the stretch and like, but
Speaker 1: like he continues to just uh really kind of figure
Speaker 1: out how to generate quality offense with this specific group
Speaker 1: of supporting players, and obviously throwing a D into the
Speaker 1: mix just adds all this this additional space for him
Speaker 1: to work with UM. But like, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 1: I was listening to a podcast today. Actually it was
Speaker 1: Kevin O'Connor and Chris Vernon, and he was talking about
Speaker 1: Philly and how they had just dropped two Um, they
Speaker 1: had just dropped two games to Milwaukee without Ben Simmons,
Speaker 1: but he was like, I'm actually more confident in the UH.
Speaker 1: I'm actually more confident in the sixers because of how
Speaker 1: well Mattista Ibel was playing, and there was one other
Speaker 1: guy I can't remember, but he's basically saying like, I'm
Speaker 1: just really happy with how well they're playing. So even
Speaker 1: though they lost, I'm actually more confident. That's kind of
Speaker 1: the way I feel about UH, Dennis in particular, UM
Speaker 1: and KCP and I kind of talked about this a
Speaker 1: little bit with with Naples and Raj in our last spot.
Speaker 1: But like, even though they dropped those two games against
Speaker 1: Dallas and here's another sloppy win and this gaming in
Speaker 1: Washington is gonna be a tough one. Like, I'm super
Speaker 1: confident in the team moving forward because Dennis is just
Speaker 1: a better player now than he was to start the season.
Speaker 1: He's really really confident in this offensive system. He's still
Speaker 1: an incredible defensive player. And KCP is now every bit
Speaker 1: as good as he was in the bubble, and which
Speaker 1: was you know, just what the third best player on
Speaker 1: the team with how well they were playing. So like
Speaker 1: I I think like regardless of results here, and trust me,
Speaker 1: I actually think results do matter now as now that
Speaker 1: they're trying to fight for that five seed, which will
Speaker 1: give them a significantly easier path through the playoffs. But
Speaker 1: having Dennis playing so well, having KCP playing so well
Speaker 1: has to just give you a ton of confidence watching
Speaker 1: this team. Yeah, and I thought we really missed KCP
Speaker 1: in the last game, Like you could see the gap
Speaker 1: between him and like benckmar right on the defensive end especially,
Speaker 1: I thought that was really evident tonight. And then just
Speaker 1: his shot making. Um, I think he went one for
Speaker 1: four from three tonight if I'm right, But he played
Speaker 1: really well. He had a good game. And again his defense,
Speaker 1: like the way he can chase off guards, and he's
Speaker 1: much better off the ball as well. The Ban Macklamore,
Speaker 1: who I think also struggled. Yeah, he was two for
Speaker 1: five from three. So but yeah, I thought I thought
Speaker 1: they really missed his offense. I think we scored like
Speaker 1: thirty points in the second half against Dallas or something
Speaker 1: like that. It was something terrible. Um yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then's just I mean, a team with Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: Dennistrutor should not be scoring thirty points in the second half,
Speaker 1: even though I know Ad was on a ministerstriction and
Speaker 1: all that. But yeah, it was nice to see the
Speaker 1: team get to get back on the winning ways and
Speaker 1: they play a really hot team, the Wizards, who I
Speaker 1: don't know if do the Wizards play again until we
Speaker 1: play them, I'm not I'm not sure, but yeah, they're playing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be an interesting challenging there. They've actually defended
Speaker 1: a little bit better as of late. Um, so they're
Speaker 1: they're not going to be anything like what we've seen
Speaker 1: early in the season, and they're going to present a
Speaker 1: legitimate challenge for the Laker defense. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: like I'm I'll be Omar mentioned this earlier, I'm interested
Speaker 1: to see how they attack them defensively, because they're the
Speaker 1: type they're a type of team um that we could
Speaker 1: potentially see later on in the playoffs just with this
Speaker 1: like really good ball, dominant guard who um, Who's gonna
Speaker 1: use a lot of screen and roll two of them
Speaker 1: actually and there they may end up having to do
Speaker 1: some trapping and recovering. And I'm just interested to see
Speaker 1: if they're up for that challenge, which as of late,
Speaker 1: they haven't really been that focused, so it'll be a
Speaker 1: good challenge for him. So I just I just checked
Speaker 1: the score. They just lost the spursion over time. There
Speaker 1: was a hundred. They I saw something they were like
Speaker 1: in their last it was the last decent chunky games.
Speaker 1: Remember what the exact chunk was when you felt when
Speaker 1: you filter out garbage time. They were like six in
Speaker 1: the league or something like that, which is crazy, but
Speaker 1: U And one part of that too is like Russ.
Speaker 1: Russ always does like offseason junk with his knees and
Speaker 1: always comes into the year just like completely cooked and
Speaker 1: then just peeks at this time. I mean, he did
Speaker 1: it last year before I got hurt, and now he's
Speaker 1: you know, every bit as good as usually is. It
Speaker 1: that's you know, a loose cannon, but he still has
Speaker 1: the capability of being really good. Um. What did you
Speaker 1: guys think of the Lebron announcement from Frank Vogel that
Speaker 1: he's still out indefinitely. Yeah, I mean I guess I
Speaker 1: was kind of expected. I mean, like, I think Welsh
Speaker 1: came out and said he'd be ready by like next week.
Speaker 1: I think it's someone said but uh yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: I think Vogel is going to try to keep it,
Speaker 1: you know, as low expectation as possible. I think that's
Speaker 1: his job as a coach, is trying to not to
Speaker 1: try not to put some timetable on Lebron, but hopefully
Speaker 1: can come back next week. I mean, Lebron posted like
Speaker 1: a video of himself I think doing a suicide or
Speaker 1: running back and forth or something like. So I think
Speaker 1: he's kind of like he's you could see him itching
Speaker 1: to play. I think there was also a video of
Speaker 1: like him shooting around without the ball or something like that,
Speaker 1: pretending to like shoot around. So, um, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's Vogo's kind of job there is to make it
Speaker 1: kind of low expectation. Let let Lebron kind of come
Speaker 1: out or let the medical staff say when when he'll
Speaker 1: be ready, but hopefully he'll be here soon. It's super
Speaker 1: strange to me that we'll go ahead, go ahead. No,
Speaker 1: I was just gonna, I was just gonna what you're
Speaker 1: saying about that. And and also to add to that, Um,
Speaker 1: Vogel is super transparent with this, you know, with his
Speaker 1: players and this staff, and UM, you know, I appreciate
Speaker 1: that Vogel also steps up, you know, for his players,
Speaker 1: and he's not applying pressure to you know, Lebron or
Speaker 1: a Dye, whoever's out and injured whatnot. Um could come
Speaker 1: back sooner than later. So that's that's all I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, so, you know, but it's interesting to me
Speaker 1: that like, uh, this whole process for him coming back
Speaker 1: from this ankle has been weirdly not transparent. Um. Lebron
Speaker 1: is usually very showy and very um you know, uh
Speaker 1: like forthcoming with his workouts and all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: and like he's not even posting as many workout videos
Speaker 1: and stuff. And I I haven't seen any video of
Speaker 1: him doing anything with the basketball. I've heard reports of
Speaker 1: him doing like shooting, and I've seen the video of
Speaker 1: him jogging up and down the floor, but it is
Speaker 1: like weirdly kept close to the chest, and I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on with that. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's for theatrical purposes or if that means
Speaker 1: that he's a little bit further behind. And we all
Speaker 1: thought I saw people micro analyzing the jogging thing. I
Speaker 1: didn't think. I didn't think that was released to be
Speaker 1: the jogging. I thought it was like because there was
Speaker 1: like a prayer going on in the background. I thought
Speaker 1: it was like kind of all of the theatrical stuff.
Speaker 1: But it's also a lot of trainers use jogging as
Speaker 1: a warm up because it really gets your calves and
Speaker 1: your achilles loose, because it's like a little bit more
Speaker 1: intense than running. It's less on your heels and more
Speaker 1: on your toes. UM. But yeah, I tend to think
Speaker 1: that if if we've heard from somebody that he's gonna
Speaker 1: come back during um these next you know, three or
Speaker 1: four games, that that's probably what we'll see. My thing, too,
Speaker 1: is if you look at the schedule, it's relatively easy
Speaker 1: in this next three or four games and the game
Speaker 1: the games are there's no back to backs, at least,
Speaker 1: I don't think in the next three. Um. So from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, like that kind of seems like a perfect
Speaker 1: time to do it. But at the end of the day, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I think, like as it was during this
Speaker 1: whole stretch, will come down to the standings. It's very,
Speaker 1: very important if the Lakers get the five seed in
Speaker 1: my opinion, because the five seed is what gives them
Speaker 1: the easiest path to the finals to go through that
Speaker 1: injured Denver team and then to go through either Phoenix
Speaker 1: or Utah, and then to go through the Clippers in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference finals. So my guess is, you know,
Speaker 1: Dallas has a game tonight in Sacramento. If if Dallas
Speaker 1: drops a game the Sacramento tonight, um, you know, there's
Speaker 1: a decent chance that Lebron might be even taking an
Speaker 1: extra game or two because then at that point you're
Speaker 1: two and a half games up and it just gets
Speaker 1: a little bit more comfortable with the seating, right and
Speaker 1: and when he when he comes back, Like, did you
Speaker 1: guys watch that. I don't know if you guys heard
Speaker 1: the Boars the kind of interview on the Ringer podcast,
Speaker 1: have you heard that? I know this hasn't really do
Speaker 1: with the game. I heard it was really good that
Speaker 1: I haven't I heard. It was really good at playing.
Speaker 1: I'm listening to it, I just haven't heard it yet.
Speaker 1: It was good. But like my favorite part was bores
Speaker 1: House saying like it was easier to guard Lebron then,
Speaker 1: which is Miami eat Lebron, you know, like in peak
Speaker 1: Lebron and his peak physical form than today, which is
Speaker 1: Lebron at what thirty five years old? So I thought
Speaker 1: that was kind of funny and it kind of shows
Speaker 1: again like what the Lakers are missing right this This
Speaker 1: whole team is still built around Lebron James. Like I know,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is a huge part of it, but still
Speaker 1: the whole identity is still built around Lebron and his
Speaker 1: shock creation ability, and it's really easy to try kind
Speaker 1: of lose that. I think a shoutout pick up Whop
Speaker 1: on Twitter said, um that Lebron's already missed more games
Speaker 1: this year than you did in with the growing which
Speaker 1: is because it feels like it hasn't been that because
Speaker 1: I remember that season at such a health scope, especially
Speaker 1: after Christmas Day. I just remember Lebron injury and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden it passed forward to like the
Speaker 1: free agency so that that season kind of blurred out.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he's already missed more games than that, which
Speaker 1: is which again I think is why they're going to
Speaker 1: be really careful with this with this high ankle's brain
Speaker 1: and and uh and I think as long as Dallas
Speaker 1: still stays a game behind, I think they'll still take
Speaker 1: it slow. That's why that loss was so huge the
Speaker 1: other day. But yeah, we'll see if Dallas. Dallas has
Speaker 1: been playing up and down as well, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: they beat the Lakers twice, but they haven't been They
Speaker 1: have some bad losses recently. Yeah, exactly, so you can
Speaker 1: see how that can, I guess, persuade them to continue
Speaker 1: to keep kind of Lebron in a in a rest
Speaker 1: mode here going forward. You know, it's interesting with with
Speaker 1: what you were saying about Lebron, we we get so
Speaker 1: caught up because we've been watching this team for so long,
Speaker 1: this version of the team with Dennis Shruder being the
Speaker 1: primary ball handler, that we forget that, like this entire
Speaker 1: roster design was predicated on Lebron James setting up dudes
Speaker 1: for shots. And you know, it's the one thing that
Speaker 1: gives me a little bit of peace of mind as
Speaker 1: it pertains to his athleticism, Like if you go watch
Speaker 1: Lebron in the bubble, he was absolute peeking, Like if
Speaker 1: you watch him against Denver creating shots, like he's just
Speaker 1: a step ahead everybody and and peaking athletically, And obviously
Speaker 1: we prefer that. But he's he's smart enough, and he's
Speaker 1: big enough, and he's strong enough that like he can
Speaker 1: still kind of ease his way into things and almost
Speaker 1: like a the backdel point guard type of role where
Speaker 1: he can put his back to the basket and use
Speaker 1: a lot of screens to just try to get the
Speaker 1: defense to commit one way or the other and just
Speaker 1: create open shots first teammates that way. So I think
Speaker 1: it will actually be a pretty easy transition getting back
Speaker 1: in and like you said, like I don't think I
Speaker 1: think people are going to be kind of jarred by
Speaker 1: how how much how much the shot quality for the
Speaker 1: entire team improves when they go back to the way
Speaker 1: they were originally structured and to play right and then
Speaker 1: like I just want to see him get at least
Speaker 1: seeding game and like I think we got what eight
Speaker 1: seeding games right before before the playoffs started. Um, I
Speaker 1: just want him to get back for at least eight games,
Speaker 1: which would give at least I think tonight was their
Speaker 1: thirteenth game, but left, if I'm remembering correctly, I think
Speaker 1: they have. I think I think I think it's eleven
Speaker 1: after tonight, so I think it is. I think I
Speaker 1: think I heard that in the broadcast. Okay, eleven games,
Speaker 1: so I guess three more games. I guess he can
Speaker 1: take off. For me, I would like him to get
Speaker 1: at least the amount he got for the seeding games
Speaker 1: where he was able to ramp up. And remember how
Speaker 1: terrible the Lakers looked during that time and everyone was saying, oh,
Speaker 1: man Ken, Lebron turn it back on during the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and then he obviously did, so that's that's where I
Speaker 1: would like to see him get back. I'm not really
Speaker 1: too worried, um. I think the seating will take care
Speaker 1: of itself. They should win enough now that Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is off the minutes restriction, and you can see him
Speaker 1: get like more and more rhythm as the game goes on. Right,
Speaker 1: every game goes on, it felt like his defensive kind
Speaker 1: of communication and all that with his teammates really picked up.
Speaker 1: But the one with Drummond will He's gonna have to
Speaker 1: work on that because the ad squared like defensive coverage
Speaker 1: are really confusing. It's I can see a d being lost,
Speaker 1: like on the phone, like what are we doing here?
Speaker 1: Like why is he here? And why are you not?
Speaker 1: You know, like I could see those communications, and I
Speaker 1: think that's where they should build uh as as we
Speaker 1: move on here. Yeah, and I think that's go ahead.
Speaker 1: I was just saying, I think that's the point of
Speaker 1: of Drummond getting so many minutes, Like I think we
Speaker 1: just got to kind of see how he fits and
Speaker 1: and how fits and then eventually when Leron gets back,
Speaker 1: hopefully it is soon, because I'd like to see from
Speaker 1: my own sanity too to see how they look before
Speaker 1: the playoffs, but how they all look and how you know,
Speaker 1: the entire team will integrate together. We joked about in
Speaker 1: the last pot about like how how crappy the Laker
Speaker 1: passing has been out of pick and roll and Dennis
Speaker 1: is Dennis, through his credit, has been has had some
Speaker 1: flashes where he's looked pretty good, but it's just like
Speaker 1: stops a little off target. It, you know, it's nothing's
Speaker 1: in a shooting pocket. Everything's a little sloppy, Like we're
Speaker 1: just used to watching Lebron just put those on the
Speaker 1: on a dime to the right spot every single time.
Speaker 1: And and I think it's like, you know, I I
Speaker 1: actually expected Ben McLamore shot quality to get a little
Speaker 1: bit better with Anthony Davis, but it really hasn't. Like
Speaker 1: he's still not getting great looks, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And I think I think that will get better in time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feels like part of that, part of that is
Speaker 1: like he's part of that. For Ben McLamore, he's still
Speaker 1: not getting a lot of spot up opportunities, Like it's
Speaker 1: still handoffs and um, I mean, he takes tough shots,
Speaker 1: but I think it's like a good and a bad
Speaker 1: thing for him, Like I like that he's an unconscious shooter,
Speaker 1: like he doesn't need to be wide open to take
Speaker 1: the shot. But I think that also creates more variance
Speaker 1: like when he makes them so and it's still like
Speaker 1: it's it's a lot of looks that aren't He's not
Speaker 1: like standing in the corner after someone cheats on him, right,
Speaker 1: Like it's it's a lot of like he's because that's
Speaker 1: the one shooter that they're not going to help off of.
Speaker 1: It feels like, like, that's that's kind of what I
Speaker 1: saw tonight. So most of his lips are coming off
Speaker 1: screens or getting off handoffs or you know, tough shots
Speaker 1: for him that are off the move. And he's still
Speaker 1: shot two for five tonight. But again, like it, it
Speaker 1: just felt like his shots are aren't coming easy. I
Speaker 1: agree with that you just said the most important thing
Speaker 1: a shooter, a shooter never being open is actually a
Speaker 1: good thing, even if he's not making shots. It's just
Speaker 1: it's just organic spacing. And again I touched on this
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the show, but like, it's crazy
Speaker 1: to see how the geometry of the floor has changed
Speaker 1: just with Lebron or excuse me, with a d coming back,
Speaker 1: and if if you watch it, just getting you know,
Speaker 1: seeing Dennis Shooter have all that space to navigate pick
Speaker 1: and roll with Drummond, You're gonna see Lebron be doing
Speaker 1: the same thing. And it's it's gonna be really cool
Speaker 1: to see. And uh again, like I think you know
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier that uh actually said it on Twitter
Speaker 1: that Anthony Davis was some crazy cold streak from three
Speaker 1: was like four out of thirty six dating back to
Speaker 1: January thirteen, UM, I think that that he's gonna start
Speaker 1: to see a little bit of teams leave him open
Speaker 1: a little bit, and I think that might help him
Speaker 1: get going, at which point things will continue to even
Speaker 1: further open up for everybody. Does anybody want to hop
Speaker 1: up on here and speak with us? Um, I'll be
Speaker 1: checking the speaker requests here in a minute, Rose, do
Speaker 1: you want to start going through the comments? Yeah? Sure,
Speaker 1: Uh let's see here, Um, Dennis only two Jeremiah Neyonda,
Speaker 1: But I said that right, Dennis with two turnovers in
Speaker 1: thirty eight minutes. It feels like he's really like got
Speaker 1: to turnovers down all right. As we have kind of
Speaker 1: moved moved over here, I forgot what game it was
Speaker 1: that he had like a whole bunch of turnovers, but
Speaker 1: it feels like he's really controlled that since then, and
Speaker 1: he's been like the real Like I love that he's
Speaker 1: shown as like the leader on offense still I talked
Speaker 1: about this earlier, or even with eight back, you can
Speaker 1: just see him kind of still controlling the game, picking
Speaker 1: his spots at the right time, staying aggressive the whole time.
Speaker 1: But like, do you guys see that as well? His
Speaker 1: turnovers have really dipped it feels like his passes are
Speaker 1: a lot smarter. Um, he doesn't really he doesn't really
Speaker 1: try all those like wild kind of pace to the
Speaker 1: rim and you're just throwing it out. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: it was the Miami game, which was kind of U
Speaker 1: they're like the perfect roster to trap. They're like the
Speaker 1: Lakers where they can just you know, they can throw
Speaker 1: like a kitchen sink at you and trapped especially smaller
Speaker 1: guards like Dennis Shooter uh and for so many turnovers,
Speaker 1: and that's what they did. And I think ever since then,
Speaker 1: you know, he's really ratcheted that up and you know,
Speaker 1: just been super smart with the ball um and not
Speaker 1: be careless. And at the same time, um, he's just
Speaker 1: kind of learned, you know, uh to be effective as
Speaker 1: as the games have gone by, so in a way,
Speaker 1: you know with Lebron and maybe been out like Dennis
Speaker 1: has been super super effective. Yeah, and he is exuding
Speaker 1: a confidence as of late that is ridiculous, Like he's
Speaker 1: he's trash talking these other guards to you. And that
Speaker 1: kind of started a little bit with the Kyrie game.
Speaker 1: But like you know, we we the intel on Sugar
Speaker 1: coming out and I actually was someone who was not
Speaker 1: anti shooter. I just preferred someone in the in the
Speaker 1: Spencer Dinuity type of role, because I thought the Lakers
Speaker 1: were missing a little bit of a kind of like
Speaker 1: a more like detailed shot creator, like someone who was
Speaker 1: a little bit more polished out on the wing. And
Speaker 1: they went for Dennis Shrewder. And you know, after I
Speaker 1: kind of got on board with that and you start talking,
Speaker 1: everybody rooted for him last year. It was like Dennis
Speaker 1: as a freak competitor. You know, Chris Paul loved this guy.
Speaker 1: He defends like crazy, like you can count on him
Speaker 1: to go to war with you, all that kind of
Speaker 1: like cliche stuff, and honestly, like it's been great, and
Speaker 1: that's every dada that has been true. And for the record,
Speaker 1: like you know, he really struggled with this first stretch
Speaker 1: when Leron and Ad got out and and rog and
Speaker 1: I from the beginning, we were saying to everybody, like
Speaker 1: this is normal. He's adjusting to new levels of defensive attention.
Speaker 1: He's still creating quality shots for his teammates just by
Speaker 1: diverting this attention. Don't pay too much attention to the stats.
Speaker 1: And ironically, like he's actually kind of superseded that even
Speaker 1: a little bit, and he's been very effective in his
Speaker 1: box score numbers while being the guy who has faced
Speaker 1: the lion's share of the defensive attention. And uh and
Speaker 1: you write rogs like he just even with a D back,
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, dude, you're you're one of the top
Speaker 1: five players in the world, but we're you know, I'm
Speaker 1: running this thing, which is kind of but he's but
Speaker 1: I mean like like he's been that good, Like he's
Speaker 1: been that good for for a while now. And and
Speaker 1: he's shown a willingness to pass that he didn't even
Speaker 1: really have last year. If you if you dove into
Speaker 1: a lot of his playmaking stuff with okay, see and
Speaker 1: know he was okay, wasn't necessarily a strength. Um he's
Speaker 1: been he's taken a leap as a pastor this year
Speaker 1: and that's been really cool to see and that that
Speaker 1: could be some Lebron's too, like just helping to learn
Speaker 1: how to see the pick and roll a little bit
Speaker 1: more as a passer as opposed to just a dribble
Speaker 1: drive attacker. Yeah, and and with even with a D
Speaker 1: back like that, the shock creation is still going to
Speaker 1: come from him, right, other than like giving the ball
Speaker 1: to a D in the post, it's pretty much gonna
Speaker 1: be ball screen action with him or in KCP off screens,
Speaker 1: and he got eighteen shots up tonight, which I think
Speaker 1: it's because when you run a screen roll with Drum
Speaker 1: and most big they're gonna drop coverage that right, because
Speaker 1: Drum is not a threat from the mid range. It's
Speaker 1: pretty much at the rim, so it kind of opens
Speaker 1: up to the shot he wants, which is that little
Speaker 1: dribble mid range pull up. And I like that he's
Speaker 1: starting to take that even more. I feel like that's
Speaker 1: been there for a while, he just wasn't taking it
Speaker 1: for some reason. So um, it's good to see him,
Speaker 1: uh stay aggressive and I hope this days went well.
Speaker 1: Obviously it can't be the same when Lebron comes back
Speaker 1: because Lebron is going to take the majority of that
Speaker 1: ball handler kind of responsibilities. But again, he's gonna be
Speaker 1: able to attack a already um compromise defense, which I
Speaker 1: think will make him even more dangerous. And it's why
Speaker 1: I like those lineups. SHREWD Lebron and a D line
Speaker 1: was We're killing in the beginning of the season even
Speaker 1: with a D kind of walking through the regular season,
Speaker 1: so yeah, if anyone wants to come up here, um,
Speaker 1: please don't be shy. Uh come up you don't. You
Speaker 1: can just bring give your opinion on the game, give
Speaker 1: an idea, anything that you're thinking of. You didn't ask
Speaker 1: literally anything about anything. That's the whole point of us
Speaker 1: doing this locker room thing. We want you guys to
Speaker 1: hop up here and talk with us. So, like Rod said,
Speaker 1: don't be shy. Okay, let's I'll keep going to the
Speaker 1: chat as uh as while we wait for that. Um.
Speaker 1: Evans says Lebron did a layoup at the end of
Speaker 1: the jogging video, which I guess I missed that far,
Speaker 1: but version of it out there somewhere. Alex says, uh,
Speaker 1: March should start and then Andre should play based on
Speaker 1: the matchup. Um yeah, I guess we kind of discussed this,
Speaker 1: but it feels like that's what it's going to be
Speaker 1: for the playoffs, right, Probably all three of those are
Speaker 1: gonna be matchup dependent. You guys agree, Like, going to
Speaker 1: the playoffs is probably gonna be a d at the five,
Speaker 1: and then whatever five they think matches up with the
Speaker 1: like if it's your kid is probably the sl or
Speaker 1: you know, Like, you guys agree, with that going to
Speaker 1: the playoffs there, yeah, like, uh, go ahead on pretty
Speaker 1: much match a dependent. I think Vocals pretty much confirmed
Speaker 1: that that they're going to use three of their centers
Speaker 1: depending on you know, matchups and and rotations and all that.
Speaker 1: Um go ahead. Just every team has their like go
Speaker 1: to playoff adjustment. I remember with the Warriors that used
Speaker 1: to always be Andrea Gudala is gonna start like they
Speaker 1: would always do it halfway through the series or whatever
Speaker 1: it was. It was kind of like they're ace in
Speaker 1: the hole. And the Lakers have kind of already had
Speaker 1: that with an a D at the five, But I
Speaker 1: think starting marcusol and or playing marcusol more is going
Speaker 1: to be one of their big ones to go to,
Speaker 1: just because you know, when you get into these playoffs series,
Speaker 1: they become such a chess match and for whatever it's worth,
Speaker 1: like Drummond, he brings value, but he's not really a
Speaker 1: chess match type of player, and uh uh, having marcusol
Speaker 1: as an option to throw in as a wrinkle into
Speaker 1: a playoff series when you need to get something going,
Speaker 1: whether you're down to one or you just lost Game
Speaker 1: three and you're up to one or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: and you just need to get a different look from
Speaker 1: a position that's been hurting you in a series like
Speaker 1: that's where Marcusol is just a huge weapon. And like
Speaker 1: I have to believe that even with him kind of
Speaker 1: mostly falling out of the rotation, that that's been the
Speaker 1: type of conversations that Lebron and frank An Idea have
Speaker 1: been having with him, just like, hey, dude, like we
Speaker 1: are literally going to need you. So I like, yes,
Speaker 1: you're getting the short end of the stick right now,
Speaker 1: but like we're gonna need you. Stay ready, Like where
Speaker 1: when we get this trophy, it's gonna be because you've
Speaker 1: stepped in and helped us big time in a big moment.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, right for sure? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was actually say more pointantly, we're gonna need you when
Speaker 1: it matters. Right right now, it's not as important. And
Speaker 1: I think for the most part, you know from what
Speaker 1: you're and Jason, I think Lebron and A d and
Speaker 1: the rest of the team kind of they know what
Speaker 1: we have in Gasol. You know, he's high in i Q.
Speaker 1: He's an excellent ceiling razor um for the team and
Speaker 1: he's just gonna, you know, go out there and play
Speaker 1: smart and that's what you want in the playoffs m
Speaker 1: for sure. And I really like this question. I want
Speaker 1: to hear what you guys have to thing. Shout out
Speaker 1: hermo Sally bows delay. I hope I didn't butcher that
Speaker 1: too bad? Which which have been which I'm kissing? It's
Speaker 1: McLamore th h T And West gets more playoff minutes
Speaker 1: because we know the backup guard in playoffs is going
Speaker 1: to be crusal. So would you guys think, I guess
Speaker 1: I'll start with you are Malcolm Moore, t h T
Speaker 1: or West? Who do you think gets more minutes in
Speaker 1: the playoffs? So? I think West would get more playoff minutes?
Speaker 1: Uh and of course it would depend on the match
Speaker 1: up two. But I think West just brings tremendous amount
Speaker 1: of impact to the defensive ent uh t HD. I
Speaker 1: think you know he can be sprinkled in here and
Speaker 1: there U depending on you know, if there's minutes to
Speaker 1: go by, um and then then it's definitely gonna be
Speaker 1: a special tool tool to use, like if we need,
Speaker 1: you know, additional spacing or if you know KCPS shooting
Speaker 1: is not going too well. But I could definitely see
Speaker 1: West being used more just because you know, he brings
Speaker 1: that unique skill set, especially if we're you know, defending
Speaker 1: those wings that we may be facing in the postseason. Um,
Speaker 1: so I'd go with West. Yeah, I think a big
Speaker 1: part of that's gonna be, uh, you know, how well
Speaker 1: Ben shooting and whether or not there's anything to be
Speaker 1: had with th ht because I mean, look like if
Speaker 1: he like t she had another like absolute superstar play
Speaker 1: at night, that one where he had it in the
Speaker 1: corner and he kind of did the in and out
Speaker 1: cross and then did the quick split and then finished
Speaker 1: the reverse layup on the other side like he if
Speaker 1: he continues to show this like flash kind of like
Speaker 1: star type potential, if he continues to show value as
Speaker 1: they get into higher leverage moments, he's gonna play. And
Speaker 1: if he does in that complicate everything. But my guess
Speaker 1: is that if if Ben's shooting is inconsistent, and if
Speaker 1: th ht uh continues to make a lot of mistakes
Speaker 1: kind of like young guy mistakes, I think you're just
Speaker 1: gonna see a whole lot of West and KCP and
Speaker 1: Dennis and Alex Caruso just because they're you know what
Speaker 1: they are, you know, they're they're dependable, they're predictable and
Speaker 1: and like Omar said, it's matchup specific, Like West just
Speaker 1: gives you another weapon to throw at the bigger, stronger
Speaker 1: wings that we have in the league right now, which
Speaker 1: they're very well might have to go through like like
Speaker 1: like two straight rounds at the end with the Western
Speaker 1: Conference finals in the finals, where that's going to be
Speaker 1: such an important piece. And so i'd like everything is
Speaker 1: about having these chess pieces, and we talked a lot
Speaker 1: about that in the last pot, But like the Lakers
Speaker 1: just have all these chess pieces that they can play,
Speaker 1: and they have all these different you know, attack angles
Speaker 1: they can go with, and they can audible a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff, and a lot of teams don't have that.
Speaker 1: A lot of teams it's like they are one trick pony,
Speaker 1: and if you solve that trick, they're in big trouble.
Speaker 1: If you figure out how to you know, make Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell make a ton of bad decisions and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden there's three point shot quality goes down. They
Speaker 1: don't really necessarily have another option. I mean, what are
Speaker 1: you gonna do? Four speed? Bogdanovitch in the post like
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but the other the other Wings in the
Speaker 1: West are just better than him at that. So it's
Speaker 1: like that there's just not as many options for some
Speaker 1: of these other teams in the West. The Lakers have
Speaker 1: all these wrinkles that they can throw at you and
Speaker 1: h and kind of keep you off balance. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be key to if like mclamarre can
Speaker 1: defend enough. I think he's a specialist as a shooter,
Speaker 1: but his off ball defense is really kind of troubling
Speaker 1: for right now. But with like th HD, I always
Speaker 1: say he's kind of playing Lebron's role right now, right
Speaker 1: like he's kind of being that backup kind of shot
Speaker 1: creator with the second unit or even like taking shooters role. Um.
Speaker 1: I think of the playoffs that we obviously a lot
Speaker 1: less with Lebron and shooter taking most of the ball
Speaker 1: handling responsibilities. So but his minutes a little, I mean,
Speaker 1: he he has he has the potential to to to
Speaker 1: play more. I mean, if he's if he has it going,
Speaker 1: he's able to attack the rim and his jumper is going.
Speaker 1: But I think he'll be the one with the most
Speaker 1: variants in minutes. I think Weston and Malcramar would definitely
Speaker 1: eat up the majority of those backup, backup guardments, and
Speaker 1: like you said, Jason, they just have a bunch of
Speaker 1: players they can pull in. UM. Everyone's kind of going
Speaker 1: to play their role, So whoever's going at that night,
Speaker 1: he both kind of pick, kind of choose the right
Speaker 1: buttons to play M on a nightly basis. You could
Speaker 1: you could choose a rotation that has no Kyle Kusma
Speaker 1: and they'd be every bit as good. You could choose
Speaker 1: the rotation that have no centers or doesn't play Markis
Speaker 1: and they'd be every bit as good. I mean, even
Speaker 1: if you took like Shrewder is probably the only one
Speaker 1: that like because of his ability to defend and create
Speaker 1: shots out of switches that like the Shrewder and a
Speaker 1: D and Lebron are the core three guys that need
Speaker 1: to be engaged in whatever rotation in order for the
Speaker 1: team to have the same ceiling. But everyone else is
Speaker 1: pretty interchangeable, and I think I think that's just a huge,
Speaker 1: a huge asset to have UM in the long run
Speaker 1: of a playoff run, for sure. Rob Jr. Says, do
Speaker 1: you guys think this injury for Lebron was a blessing
Speaker 1: in disguise since he didn he doesn't like to miss games,
Speaker 1: and he would have had to carry so much for
Speaker 1: two months while a D was out. He says, I
Speaker 1: know he's superman, but carrying a heavy load all regular
Speaker 1: season and trying to be what he is in the
Speaker 1: playoffs might not have been ideal. I've kind of started
Speaker 1: to feel that way. I mean, last year people are
Speaker 1: saying that it's been Lebron has never had the chance
Speaker 1: to get you know, that many months off, but that
Speaker 1: was due to kind of covid um that many months
Speaker 1: off and then be able to start the playoffs all fresh. Um,
Speaker 1: do you guys see that same kind of thing happening
Speaker 1: this year? I know, high ankle sprain is not the
Speaker 1: way you want to miss games, but kind of that
Speaker 1: forced off season, right the seventy one day off season
Speaker 1: that everyone brings up. Um, A D got his off season, Lebron,
Speaker 1: I guess, is getting his now. Um do you see
Speaker 1: that kind of being a blessing in disguise, um for
Speaker 1: for the team? Omar I start, Yeah, yeah, I kind
Speaker 1: of I kind of think that. I mean, he kind
Speaker 1: of brought up, you know, some positives. Right if you
Speaker 1: look at the flat past few weeks, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: the one true calling card that we've been able to
Speaker 1: hang our hats on has has our has been our
Speaker 1: defense and we've been like top five without Lebron and
Speaker 1: Needy and that's something that's credit to the players, uh
Speaker 1: in Bogo and the coaching staff. And then in addition,
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about the shooter, but I think
Speaker 1: he's really uh stepped up in this unique, you know
Speaker 1: situation where he's kind of um, you know, catapulted himself
Speaker 1: as a better playmaker. He's super confident, you know, because
Speaker 1: of that you know stretch that we're seeing that now.
Speaker 1: So in a way, it is and I think we
Speaker 1: will get a you know, pretty well rested Lebron because
Speaker 1: I think Jason, I think you might have said in
Speaker 1: the last locker room, I think you had some there's
Speaker 1: a guest or a theory of yours. But Lebron, if
Speaker 1: if it was like more of a desperate situation, I
Speaker 1: think he would have been back by now already. But um,
Speaker 1: and I think I kind of agree with that. I
Speaker 1: think if if it was if we needed, I think
Speaker 1: Lebron would have been back. But I think it's kind
Speaker 1: of beneficial that he's been just resting and and um,
Speaker 1: you know, that's definitely helpful. But I think we'll we'll
Speaker 1: see how he comes in with his rhythm, um and those,
Speaker 1: you know, when he joins an active team. You know,
Speaker 1: the only one who knows the answer to this question
Speaker 1: is Lebron. And yeah, like, I have my theories that
Speaker 1: that he's find more or less the high ankle sprain
Speaker 1: is is is a tricky injury in the sense that
Speaker 1: it's kind of a pain tolerance thing. And there are
Speaker 1: a lot of examples of guys coming back from high
Speaker 1: ankle sprain is pretty fast, although we don't necessarily know
Speaker 1: the way his severity compares to some of those. However,
Speaker 1: Lebron's Wanta knows. Lebron's either sitting on his couch right
Speaker 1: now literally thinking like like, you know, this is awesome.
Speaker 1: I get some time off, this is great. I feel
Speaker 1: confident that I'm gonna be you know, peaking. It's very
Speaker 1: possible that that's one of the reasons why he's been
Speaker 1: so behind the scenes with his recovery. Here is maybe
Speaker 1: he's athletically an amazing shape, and maybe he's trolling us
Speaker 1: by jogging up and down a basketball court, you know,
Speaker 1: and and then he plans on coming back, you know,
Speaker 1: rested and just ready to go, or maybe it's worse
Speaker 1: than it looks like. That's the tricky thing is we
Speaker 1: just don't know, and I think we'll know pretty quickly
Speaker 1: when he comes back. Not about the uh uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the way he looks in terms of his polish, because
Speaker 1: I expect him to be extremely unpolished, to start a
Speaker 1: lot of turnovers, a little bit funky with the hand,
Speaker 1: a little bit funky with the jumper, but I expect him. Uh.
Speaker 1: The biggest thing for us to keep an eye on,
Speaker 1: it's just the way he looks physically. You just know.
Speaker 1: It's like when we watched that Clippers game, the first
Speaker 1: game in the bubble, if you remember Lebrama sloppy. It
Speaker 1: was an absolute nightmare of a game in terms of
Speaker 1: the aesthetics. But he had that crazy driving dunk in
Speaker 1: the first half, or Kai just kind of ripped down
Speaker 1: on his arms and he just went up through it
Speaker 1: and dunked it. And then he beat everybody to a
Speaker 1: loose ball at the end of the game and made
Speaker 1: a game winner, and it was kind of like, okay,
Speaker 1: like Lebron Ron, Lebron still Lebron physically, which is all
Speaker 1: we needed to keep an eye on. So I have
Speaker 1: my theories. You know, we have all these different potential outcomes,
Speaker 1: but I think we're gonna find out pretty quick just
Speaker 1: based on how he looks athletically when he comes back,
Speaker 1: for sure. And I'm gonna I'm gonna bring Michael up
Speaker 1: uh here. I think you requested what's going on? Michael? Hey?
Speaker 1: What's going on? Guys? How y'all doing good? Hey Michael,
Speaker 1: thanks for hopping on with this man. No problem, no problem.
Speaker 1: So I have a question. Um, Ellen Prefaces was saying
Speaker 1: that he's going to be important in both series, like
Speaker 1: highly important in my opinion, But um, I've been thinking
Speaker 1: on this. What do y'all? What is your you guys
Speaker 1: opinions on Shrewder is important? Do you think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be more important in a series against Brooklyn or against
Speaker 1: the Clippers? And I lean Brooklyn mainly because of, like,
Speaker 1: you know, defensively against Kyrie and attacking switches. But I
Speaker 1: can see a situation or you know, a scenario in
Speaker 1: which he is absolutely vital even offensively against the Clippers,
Speaker 1: especially in the non Lebron minutes, attacking you know, drop
Speaker 1: coverages with against Zoo Box and Uh Surge. So I
Speaker 1: just I was just wondering what y'all. Y'all's thoughts were
Speaker 1: on that. I think he I think he's making his
Speaker 1: paycheck against Brooklyn. That's not to say he's not gonna
Speaker 1: be important against the Clippers. Like I said earlier, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be, you know, the third most important piece in
Speaker 1: their rotation behind Lebron and na d. But the thing
Speaker 1: with Brooklyn is he's uniquely capable of making Kyrie work hard,
Speaker 1: and he's uniquely capable of attacking and switching defense against
Speaker 1: the Clippers. Yeah, like they have Zo Botch and they're
Speaker 1: gonna they're gonna play him to some extent. There's gonna
Speaker 1: be some drop coverage, there's gonna be some picking roll,
Speaker 1: but they're also gonna be doing a lot of switching,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna be doing a lot of switching with
Speaker 1: a lot of wings. And then there's also the problem
Speaker 1: with him getting attacked on the other end and switches
Speaker 1: against Paul George and Kauai, which is something that I've
Speaker 1: been you know, not complaining about, but being wary about
Speaker 1: all season long. Just how do you do uh and there.
Speaker 1: There have been some examples this year where teams have
Speaker 1: attacked Dennis in switches with bigger, stronger wings, and that's
Speaker 1: just a much bigger problem with the Clippers, and it
Speaker 1: is against Brooklyn, Like Brooklyn is going to be that
Speaker 1: series where if the Lakers win, Dennis is going to
Speaker 1: be incredible. In my opinion, yeah, I think the same
Speaker 1: thing Jason. I think in that in that series, and
Speaker 1: we saw it in the previous game this season. But
Speaker 1: he has that unique ability to with his foot speed
Speaker 1: to stay in front of Kyrie, be a constant pest,
Speaker 1: to come up full cork um and be a defensive menace.
Speaker 1: And at the same time, you know, they they run
Speaker 1: that Mike D'Antoni defensive switching uh scheme where he's just
Speaker 1: gonna the ball, bring up DeAndre Jordan or Clackson, and
Speaker 1: he has that foot speed to get to the basket
Speaker 1: and if they if the paint collapses, there's gonna be
Speaker 1: plenty of players to uh, you know, kick it or
Speaker 1: dup it off too. So I think he's gonna definitely
Speaker 1: make his money's worth in that in that series. So
Speaker 1: I think he'll be important in the next series. But
Speaker 1: the reason I would lean into the Clippers because we
Speaker 1: didn't get I don't even think we got one healthy
Speaker 1: matchup right this year, but I think it was that
Speaker 1: was Ring night and le Bron e d e kind of.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're really going that hard, but remember
Speaker 1: last year, the Clippers ball pressure a lot, and the
Speaker 1: ball pressure Lebron all game because they have the wings
Speaker 1: to do it, Kauai, Paul George, even Pat Beverley, and
Speaker 1: then last year exactly so and the end of the game,
Speaker 1: Lebron is tired, right, And that's where I think Shrewder
Speaker 1: will really help. You can't just ball pressure Dennis Shrewder
Speaker 1: for every night the whole time, right, So it kind
Speaker 1: of gives Lebron a break, and I think that would
Speaker 1: be huge for him. And then you add in the
Speaker 1: defense and what he could do on the offenses event
Speaker 1: against a big like uh Box on all that. But
Speaker 1: that's why I think he'll be more key against the
Speaker 1: Clippers in my opinion, because the Nets aren't going to
Speaker 1: do that. Nets are just gonna switch everything. They kind
Speaker 1: of play straight up defense. Kyrie is not going to
Speaker 1: be a ball pressuring Dennis shooter for ther feed all game.
Speaker 1: That's where I get, I get kind of the where
Speaker 1: I would think his biggest UM contribution will be is
Speaker 1: giving Lebron a break on the ball, right, because in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, you want Lebron kind of creating every shot,
Speaker 1: but he has to bring it up every time against
Speaker 1: ball pressure. That's that's really tiring against. Like you said, Jason,
Speaker 1: the wings that they have Um on the Clippers, that's
Speaker 1: a really good point. Rogers, Like they used Rondo as
Speaker 1: the pressure release valve last year, right, and he was
Speaker 1: just so inconsistent and kind of maddening to root for Um,
Speaker 1: but having having Dennis, which is just far more Uh.
Speaker 1: And I think it's I think it was Rondo's like
Speaker 1: unpredictability that made it hard. You know, because one day
Speaker 1: he was this ultra aggressive three point shooter who you know,
Speaker 1: would you know, take six or seven threes in the game,
Speaker 1: and then the next day he's like staring at him
Speaker 1: and just refusing to even take him and uh, and
Speaker 1: then you know they're the games where he was picking
Speaker 1: defense as apart like a high level point guard, and
Speaker 1: then another game where he's overdriving and overpassing and refusing
Speaker 1: to shoot at the rim and all of these other things, Well,
Speaker 1: Dennis just gives you a much more consistent, predictable option there.
Speaker 1: Uh and and then also like Rondo was arguably the
Speaker 1: worst defender on a lot of nights, and then there
Speaker 1: were other games where he was great. But uh, having
Speaker 1: Dennis there just a massive two way upgrade over Rondo
Speaker 1: as a pressure release valve. It's just it's just a
Speaker 1: huge asset to have. I think that was an interesting point. Yeah, sure, Michael.
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, I think the dynamic that's
Speaker 1: gonna if we get to that series between the two
Speaker 1: is just gonna be really interesting. Um, you know in
Speaker 1: terms of, you know, Rondo has been the guy that's
Speaker 1: been there and he's done that, and but Shrouders is
Speaker 1: just hyper competitive and gets under your skin. And um,
Speaker 1: I might be wrong, but didn't Rondo get thrown out
Speaker 1: of a game against the Lakers? Um he was on
Speaker 1: the whenever he got into it shrewder didn't he a right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So I just think the dynamic between them and that series,
Speaker 1: I think he's the Clippers are gonna, you know, really
Speaker 1: rely on Rondo for better or for worse, kind of
Speaker 1: like we did last year and let the Chips fall.
Speaker 1: They lie but you know, I just it's just an interesting,
Speaker 1: interesting dynamic I think, and I Shrewder is obviously the
Speaker 1: better player, but um, I think it'll be fun to
Speaker 1: watch just on the level. I gotta eat some crow
Speaker 1: on the Rondo stuff. He looks good with with the Clippers,
Speaker 1: And I think, I think it's just a simple, you know,
Speaker 1: age old basketball proposition having to do with meshing different
Speaker 1: skill sets. And and Rondo is just really redundant with Lebron.
Speaker 1: And part of that was Frank's vault fault because he
Speaker 1: never staggered them the way they were supposed to. Remember,
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the season, they would start Rondo
Speaker 1: and it was like Rondo and Lebron and everything was
Speaker 1: like super like clunky. Um. So there's some of that
Speaker 1: was Frank's fault for not staggering them, But it just
Speaker 1: he was never a great thing with Lebron because there
Speaker 1: was a redundancy there. And and Rondo is just a
Speaker 1: terrible off ball player, um. And so given although he
Speaker 1: had some moments in the playoffs as a cutter, and
Speaker 1: and and I'm not gonna you know, he's a smart player.
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not trying to undersell him. Too much here.
Speaker 1: But he very much has proven me wrong with the Clippers,
Speaker 1: just in the sense that he has been a nice
Speaker 1: slide and fit. That said, in a playoff series with
Speaker 1: the Lakers or really anybody for that matter, I'm not
Speaker 1: terribly concerned if the offense is being run through Ronda.
Speaker 1: I think he helps them a little bit. He's an
Speaker 1: upgrade over what they've had. It's better than Reggie Jackson.
Speaker 1: But like, I like my chances if Rondo at his
Speaker 1: age and with his inconsistency is the guy that's making
Speaker 1: all your decisions and they're getting playoff, They're getting playoff. Rondo, Man,
Speaker 1: this is ridiculous. I'm watching these He's like, he's like
Speaker 1: defending well and he's he's like paying attention off ball
Speaker 1: and getting steals. I'm like, bro, where was this last year?
Speaker 1: Like I know, Yeah, he was the most tradditing player
Speaker 1: I've ever rooted for my life. Like it was awful.
Speaker 1: It was it was. It was unbelievable having to watch
Speaker 1: a team with championship aspirations just willingly shoot themselves in
Speaker 1: the foot every night by playing him as much as
Speaker 1: they did. In the weirdest lineups. He ruined Kyle Kuzma
Speaker 1: last year, Troy or Trey Young and Lloyd Pierce are
Speaker 1: sitting on the couch at home wondering where where the
Speaker 1: hell this guy was. That's true too, That's true. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you, Michael. Probably I'll have a good one man.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate coming to hang out. Man, appreciate it. Alright,
Speaker 1: let's see, uh he hear me? Yes, what's going on? So, guys, um,
Speaker 1: I have a question as far as like, because it's roster,
Speaker 1: it's such a pretty big turnover from last year, and
Speaker 1: let's assume that was Lebron, nats healthy and everyone pretty healthy.
Speaker 1: What do you guys see his potential closing lineups? We're
Speaker 1: talking about like the lineup of death sort of like
Speaker 1: the go two's and then like the big version like
Speaker 1: where there we're going big with it, and the smaller version.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's the question. I think. I think you're
Speaker 1: going to see a lot of in high leverage moments,
Speaker 1: a lot of eighty at the five with Lebron and
Speaker 1: then Trigger and KCP, and then based on who's playing
Speaker 1: the best, you'll slide someone in there in that five spot.
Speaker 1: If Kuzma has been uh, he made a few more
Speaker 1: threes today. When he makes four threes tonight, like he's
Speaker 1: he's back, he's back up. I think he's around like
Speaker 1: thirty six from three with his release and with how
Speaker 1: tall he is, that's that's pretty consistent, are pretty valuable
Speaker 1: with their spacing, and so my guess is it would
Speaker 1: end up being Kuzma. But there are a bunch of
Speaker 1: different options you could throw in there. You could go
Speaker 1: crazy with shooting with Ben McLamore, you could go with
Speaker 1: a great wing defender and Wesley Matthews. They'll have options there.
Speaker 1: But with as well as Kuzma has been shooting the ball, uh,
Speaker 1: and just with the crazy length of that front line
Speaker 1: of having a six nine Kuzma, six nine Lebron and
Speaker 1: and then Anthony Davis at the five, I think I
Speaker 1: think that would be like their best closing line up
Speaker 1: in my opinion. How about you? Yeah, I kinda, I kinda,
Speaker 1: I kind of agree with that. Um, that's that was
Speaker 1: the only player I would probably toss in is maybe
Speaker 1: Mark Keith Morris. Uh. He's been playing pretty well this
Speaker 1: season and he was excellent in the bubble. UM, So
Speaker 1: I think I would just interchange possibly Mark Keith and Cruise,
Speaker 1: but I like Dennis and Cruise so as the guards,
Speaker 1: and then a D and Braun at the five and four. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would agree with that. I guess for me, like
Speaker 1: it's Lebron a D and maybe Caruso like and then
Speaker 1: from there, I feel like everyone else is kind of interchangeable,
Speaker 1: Like with the matchups and size of Dennis has it going,
Speaker 1: then he'll close, but lebron a D and like one
Speaker 1: really good defensive guard, whether that's Shoot or Crusoe, and
Speaker 1: then from you just plug and fill whatever you need. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't think this team will get like like a
Speaker 1: lot of teams have their closing five that have hundreds
Speaker 1: of minutes together. I don't think this team will have that.
Speaker 1: They just didn't get the chance. Um. But like even
Speaker 1: last year though they didn't get very many minutes at
Speaker 1: the five right with a D and then that's pretty
Speaker 1: much what they went to with the closing lineups and
Speaker 1: even starting games with in the playoffs. So I think
Speaker 1: I think that's the main thing in Bolo again, he's
Speaker 1: gained like the trust to kind of pick and choose
Speaker 1: players from there and not have to stick with one
Speaker 1: closing lineups that a lot of teams will have to
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Like we said earlier, like we've been
Speaker 1: pounding all night long. The Lakers have a spacing uh
Speaker 1: you know, repertoire that they can go to that they
Speaker 1: just didn't used to have. That was the biggest flaw
Speaker 1: last year. UM, they had a lot of inconsistent shooters
Speaker 1: playing at the guard position and basically KCP was their
Speaker 1: only decent shooting guard. UM, and then they had two
Speaker 1: centers that couldn't shoot. This year, they just have all
Speaker 1: these options they can go to. And is a long
Speaker 1: long as you stick you know, someone of k CPS
Speaker 1: caliber in the opposite corner and KCP in the strong
Speaker 1: side corner or whatever it is, and as long as
Speaker 1: you can put someone on the other wing that can
Speaker 1: knock a shot down, that Lebron a D pick and
Speaker 1: roll or any sort of Lebron or a D isolation
Speaker 1: out of pick and roll and switches just becomes fifty
Speaker 1: times more effective. Spacing is the is the greatest weapon
Speaker 1: for a driving or any sort of basket attacking basketball player.
Speaker 1: And I think, like, you know, I like, I like
Speaker 1: that argument I had earlier with somebody on Twitter, uh
Speaker 1: talking about the drum and signing. It's like, I don't
Speaker 1: think this roster has a hole anymore. And they used
Speaker 1: to have a hole in wing defenders, but with Wesley
Speaker 1: Matthews and then Mark kief who's lost some weight, and
Speaker 1: it's just a lot more mobile and just a lot
Speaker 1: more serviceable as a wing defender now they have. They've
Speaker 1: got like five wings. You could throw up people Kuzma, Lebron, Wesley,
Speaker 1: Mark Keith, and Anthony Davis like that's that's that's not
Speaker 1: a weak point anymore on the roster. This roster is
Speaker 1: really really well put together, and Rock Poinken deserves a
Speaker 1: ton of credit for sure. There's the deepest Lakers roster
Speaker 1: like I've seen. I don't know if they'll win. I
Speaker 1: don't know if they had the chemistry and all that
Speaker 1: to do that, but there's just in terms of talent
Speaker 1: they have that That's why just getting healthy is so
Speaker 1: so key. But yeah, they're closing lineups. Will be probably
Speaker 1: a D at the five likely right, and then uh
Speaker 1: well maybe with Drummond, but I think most line will
Speaker 1: still probably carry eighty at the five when when things
Speaker 1: really go down, and then you have Lebron at the
Speaker 1: flour and then from there they can pick and pull,
Speaker 1: like like Jason was saying, yeah, did you guys see
Speaker 1: in the comments that they the Kings are blitzing the
Speaker 1: Mavericks to start the King By our love, they'll be
Speaker 1: like tied by halftime. So I'm not trying to check
Speaker 1: the store on that. I hate it. I hate it.
Speaker 1: You have to go and look for every especially when Lebron,
Speaker 1: any of you were out right, You're looking at almost
Speaker 1: every West team and having having to lose was no fun.
Speaker 1: I still cannot overstate how watching it the Lakers would
Speaker 1: be if they ended up in that five seed, Like you,
Speaker 1: if you would have told us before that a d
Speaker 1: would have waited this long to come back and that
Speaker 1: with eleven games left, Lebron still wouldn't be back. What
Speaker 1: are the odds that you would say that the Lakers
Speaker 1: would have an easy not an easy, but a relatively
Speaker 1: easy first round opponent and then get a way to
Speaker 1: play the Clippers to the West Finals. Like that's that's
Speaker 1: just like I cannot It's gonna be so uh such
Speaker 1: an ideal outcome for a terrible hand of cards if
Speaker 1: they end up getting five seed. And I'm just not
Speaker 1: worried about Lebron's an amazing road playoff player, and the
Speaker 1: Lakers have fans that travel, it's just not as much
Speaker 1: of a concern for them. Yeah, that's basically home court
Speaker 1: in the Western Conference finals, which is hilarious. Into the five.
Speaker 1: That'd be funny. I'm gonna bring up Mascelli here, can
Speaker 1: you hear me? Yeah? Also, what's going on? Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: as as um Kuzma, are be confident about Kuzma being
Speaker 1: at the primary defender like sies because I remember the
Speaker 1: first game. I think voge Will used him as like
Speaker 1: a primary option on PG a lot of times. So
Speaker 1: are you guys confident about like being a good defender
Speaker 1: and a cliple series? Oh my yeah, I mean I'm
Speaker 1: comfortable with Kuzma being a primary defender as long as
Speaker 1: you know, this team defensively is one of the best
Speaker 1: helping the cover teams. So um, you know, we do
Speaker 1: a really good job not leaving our players on an island.
Speaker 1: Uh So, if Kuzma is on a you know, one
Speaker 1: on one matchup with either Kauai or PG, um, I
Speaker 1: can see I can definitely see us you know, sending
Speaker 1: hard double with Crusoe or Dennis or whatnot. And then
Speaker 1: you know, we just rotate our asses off. So for sure,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, Kuzma has definitely stepped up like
Speaker 1: positionally and and the way he uses his length and body.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'd be fine with it. I'd be
Speaker 1: fine with about being there if that's you know, the
Speaker 1: given match him. I think he's his progression as a
Speaker 1: defender has been really interesting because like he used to
Speaker 1: be super susceptible to shifty players because he just had
Speaker 1: bad principles, like his feet were always popping off the ground,
Speaker 1: so he would be you know, any sort of crossover,
Speaker 1: any sort of shifty move would kind of catch him
Speaker 1: off balance. And he's what he's figured out is that
Speaker 1: his athleticism is not his strength on defense. It's his
Speaker 1: length and his size and his ability to be a
Speaker 1: positional defender. Like there's all these different types of defenders, right,
Speaker 1: Like Wesley Matthews is like this ball pressure, hands on,
Speaker 1: super physical defender, whereas like how Kuzma, if he's gonna
Speaker 1: be hands on and up in your business, he's gonna
Speaker 1: get toasted every time. He's just not laterally quick enough.
Speaker 1: And and Kuzma has identified away through trial and error
Speaker 1: by getting roasted and having Lakers Twitter talking a much
Speaker 1: trash about him, and and and all the you know,
Speaker 1: all of the growing pains of becoming a veteran basketball player.
Speaker 1: He's just turned into a guy that knows how to
Speaker 1: use his body to defend. And like Omar said, like
Speaker 1: everything is about trusting, you know, trusting the back line
Speaker 1: in your defense as well, and knowing that, hey, if
Speaker 1: you mess up and you give up a straight line drive,
Speaker 1: all you gotta do is stay focused and find an
Speaker 1: next rotation. Someone's gonna cover for you, but you do
Speaker 1: not have to cover for them. And that's been the
Speaker 1: Lakers m O all season. Yeah, I think, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you guys hit it on the head. Like he's
Speaker 1: become a much better one on one defender, especially all wings, right,
Speaker 1: And I think the Clippers are a good team for that. Um,
Speaker 1: they don't that many guards that will kind of take
Speaker 1: you off. It's mostly Paul George Kauai right or Rondo
Speaker 1: who shouldn't really be able to check you. But Kuzma
Speaker 1: has become a really good like team defender. He gets
Speaker 1: like blocks, weak side blocks. Um, he's in the right
Speaker 1: place when he's helping. He knows when to help and recover. Um,
Speaker 1: he's part of why the Lakers are able to trap
Speaker 1: right and then kind of get get back to shooters
Speaker 1: and at the right time because he's really improved to
Speaker 1: that and he's talked about that as well, becoming a
Speaker 1: better team defender. But yeah, I like him as a
Speaker 1: wing defender. Um, he's not much of a He still
Speaker 1: gets beat off the dribble a lot against guards without
Speaker 1: expected but his first and his first two years, Like
Speaker 1: I remember watching games back when we had Luke Walton
Speaker 1: as the coach, and I'm not saying it was Luke's fall,
Speaker 1: but who's like didn't have a defensive stance, Like it
Speaker 1: was just like he was just hopping around, skipping. And
Speaker 1: now he gets in like he gets low, he moves
Speaker 1: his feet, he decides to see, he knows how to
Speaker 1: kind of he knows how to cut people off. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm comfortable him as a weeking defender. Paul George is
Speaker 1: gonna cook a lot of people, same with Kauai, but
Speaker 1: he at least makes it tough. He doesn't get and
Speaker 1: beat to the rim makes him shoot over the top,
Speaker 1: So I'm comfortable with him as a defender. Uh. Sorry, Also,
Speaker 1: Marquis are concering about three points because I think he's
Speaker 1: been like really boxed slump for like past two weeks.
Speaker 1: Two weeks so that we comed about he shoots in
Speaker 1: the wall. I'm not worried about it. I think that,
Speaker 1: like I've always said, the shock quality is a big
Speaker 1: part of slumps, and you know, Mark, you've got it
Speaker 1: going for a while and he's become, you know, a
Speaker 1: guy that you have to be attached to, and I
Speaker 1: think I think when you look at scouting reports from
Speaker 1: last year compared to this year, I think teams are
Speaker 1: a lot more aware of Mark Keith's shooting and it's
Speaker 1: a matter of respect, and his shot quality is differently
Speaker 1: bit and it's caused him to, uh to go into
Speaker 1: a little bit of cold spell. But as I've always said, um,
Speaker 1: you know, at the end of the day, when Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d are engaged with an in shooter on
Speaker 1: offense in a playoff series, teams are gonna have to
Speaker 1: divert a ton of attention to them and everyone who's
Speaker 1: playing in those other two spots or other three spots,
Speaker 1: depending on the lineup, they're gonna have incredibly high quality shots.
Speaker 1: And that's where we learned from last year's playoffs, and
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be I trust markis to knockdown
Speaker 1: shots when it matters. He's not one of the guys
Speaker 1: I'm worried about. He's the one guy where his shot
Speaker 1: I think you touched on. His shot quality is going
Speaker 1: to go up so much next to Lebron and a
Speaker 1: d right like right now, a lot of his shots
Speaker 1: that I see are like late clock. They swing to
Speaker 1: him and he takes it with a hand in his face. Um.
Speaker 1: But man, he he really carried the team when they
Speaker 1: didn't have much offense like his like mid range game
Speaker 1: and being able to post him up. So I gave
Speaker 1: him a pass for right now. I think someone that
Speaker 1: he struggling since he missed that one game, but he
Speaker 1: played really well when they needed him to. And uh,
Speaker 1: I think right now he's going through a slump. But again,
Speaker 1: his shot collect sauce election and shot quality should should
Speaker 1: improve as as uh Lebron in eight he gets more
Speaker 1: comfortable here. It's a matter of spacing too. They have
Speaker 1: to guard him that and it's spacing and like everything is.
Speaker 1: Roger and I always talked about the waterfall effect, like
Speaker 1: there there is a a clear improvement in the way
Speaker 1: Dennis Shooter has been playing. And I think it's because
Speaker 1: there for a while, like he was, he was coming
Speaker 1: to defense attention that was thrown his way. And he's
Speaker 1: improved so much as a passer in the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks that he's kind of reversed the gravity away
Speaker 1: from him and it's allowed it's allowed him to get
Speaker 1: easier shots for himself. And it's all it's all relative, right,
Speaker 1: Like if you're either gonna take away Dennis and give
Speaker 1: up a bunch of shots, or you're gonna take away
Speaker 1: all the shots and Dennis is going to go off,
Speaker 1: that's just the trade it off with a leite defense
Speaker 1: when you've got a guy like Dennis who's capable of
Speaker 1: creating his own shop. Yep, I'll bring up I think
Speaker 1: the last three group question was Rob, so I'll bring
Speaker 1: him up. What's time about up? You guys? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: can hear you, Okay, ask my question. I just want
Speaker 1: to say, the Kings, who apparently have the worst defense
Speaker 1: of all time, have the Mavericks to seventeen points in
Speaker 1: the first quarter. But um, my question was, what did
Speaker 1: you guys think about Genie's top five most important Lakers
Speaker 1: because I've seen that was like a big topic um
Speaker 1: on Lakers Twitter. Know what you guys thought about it? Garage?
Speaker 1: Where do you take this one? First? Man? Okay, so
Speaker 1: did you guys listen to the you know, the full
Speaker 1: thing is two hours and it's really good. I'd recommend
Speaker 1: if you guys are able to hear that full thing.
Speaker 1: It's all the Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Nate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really good. Yeah, those two hours fly by. So
Speaker 1: they asked really good questions. But yeah, it was kind
Speaker 1: of interesting because I mean, the Lakers have such a
Speaker 1: long history, right, and then Genie Buss also has a
Speaker 1: long experience issue with the Lakers, so she was going
Speaker 1: to Lakers and then like I think she went like Lebron,
Speaker 1: Kareem and someone else, and then Matt Bonds was like magic.
Speaker 1: She's like, yeah, I'm magic too, So obviously I don't
Speaker 1: she said she wasn't prepared for that question. I don't
Speaker 1: think she thought too much into it. I think people
Speaker 1: are mostly mad that she put Lebron in there, but
Speaker 1: I think, you know, Lebron means a lot. If you
Speaker 1: listen to that podcast, you can see that Lebron means
Speaker 1: a lot to her that he came when they were down, right.
Speaker 1: It's very easy to it's very easy to join a
Speaker 1: franchise when they're at the top. That he joined when
Speaker 1: they were down that really meant a lot to her,
Speaker 1: So that that's kind of how I saw. I don't
Speaker 1: think she put too much thought into it. I think
Speaker 1: hers was like what Kobe Lebron, Phil Phil Jackson, Kareem
Speaker 1: and Phil Jackson was a weird one, and I thought,
Speaker 1: not that he's not valuable to the franchise, but like
Speaker 1: jack should be there instead, I would think, and just
Speaker 1: go ahead, I was gonna say Phil Jackson was said
Speaker 1: by Matt Barns. Actually he said Jackson and then yeah,
Speaker 1: She's like, is he does he count? And he said absolutely,
Speaker 1: So yeah, I feel like the questioning there was a
Speaker 1: little strange too. Contact is really important. These kinds of
Speaker 1: lists are really hard, and it's impossible not to kiss
Speaker 1: somebody off, so that that would be the thing that
Speaker 1: I'd frame it with. As far as Lebron, the case
Speaker 1: is really simple, and I'm not even saying Lebron is
Speaker 1: one of the five most impactful Lakers ever. I don't
Speaker 1: think that that can really be decided for a couple
Speaker 1: more years. But the case for Lebron is like, like,
Speaker 1: there's some truth to the fact that the franchise was
Speaker 1: a little bit off the rails there for a while,
Speaker 1: Like the Magic Johnson thing was really bad. It was
Speaker 1: really really bad. It was so bad in fact, that
Speaker 1: people were wondering why Lebron went there to begin with
Speaker 1: under the circumstances. Now, Jeanie deserves a lot of credit
Speaker 1: for the Rob Polinka pick, because Rob has proven to
Speaker 1: be very savvy and good at his job. But the
Speaker 1: the initial piece that turned all of this around and
Speaker 1: one of the lakers of Championship and had them as
Speaker 1: the favorite coming into the season was Lebron came to town.
Speaker 1: And there's something to be said about Lebron facilitating the
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis thing. It's a real thing that happened, and
Speaker 1: uh and then and then now Anthony Davis is under
Speaker 1: contract in the long term. Um, So there's something to
Speaker 1: be said about a franchise that was off the rails
Speaker 1: and is now very firmly on a positive trajectory for
Speaker 1: many years to come. And Lebron is kind of a
Speaker 1: linchpin of that. So I don't think even if you
Speaker 1: don't want to put him on that list, I think
Speaker 1: you have to acknowledge his importance to this franchise. Now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think, um, given that you know, this was
Speaker 1: basically her first like run as like the governor and
Speaker 1: owner of the Lakers, I think it's just speaks to
Speaker 1: the bond between her and Lebron James. I mean, they
Speaker 1: she speaks so highly of him, so I can only
Speaker 1: imagine that they have really close bond even though he's
Speaker 1: been here for only a few years. But um, those
Speaker 1: things matter, you know what I mean. So um, and
Speaker 1: I'm just happy that you know, she she's running the
Speaker 1: Lake show and and Rob's doing his thing and Lebron's players, right,
Speaker 1: and just to like piggyback off the question Rob at
Speaker 1: that interview was so awesome because you kind of got
Speaker 1: a look into some of the chaos, Like you remember
Speaker 1: when the Lakers fired Mike Brown, right, and then they
Speaker 1: hired Mac Mike D'Antoni, And then she was like, I
Speaker 1: don't really know basketball, but I know that like our
Speaker 1: roster was built for a defensive team and then we
Speaker 1: hired a fully offensive coach. That it's just funny to her.
Speaker 1: Hear her kind of speak about like those those kind
Speaker 1: of decisions in the front office that happened, and from
Speaker 1: us from the outside, we just see that chaos, like oh,
Speaker 1: they fired Mike Brown and then they hired mac Datoni.
Speaker 1: But she was confused as well in the in the
Speaker 1: front office. So it's it's a really good interview I had.
Speaker 1: I'd say that everyone should go listen to that. It's
Speaker 1: a little long, but it's worth it. Yeah, man, thanks guys,
Speaker 1: thank you. I think that's all the speakers. See if
Speaker 1: we miss any questions in the in the chat, we're
Speaker 1: going on over an hour fifteen here, so I guess
Speaker 1: we'll we'll wrap up. Why don't we do one more
Speaker 1: question to night? Sure, let's see here. I guess we
Speaker 1: can kind of close with this one. Um uh, he says,
Speaker 1: I hope he helps Andre Drummond shout out. Evan Reynolds says, uh.
Speaker 1: I think they're hoping they can coach Drummond to be
Speaker 1: a chess match type of player due to his mobility
Speaker 1: at his size on the perimeter when he choose it,
Speaker 1: so they can play small while technically staying big. Thoughts
Speaker 1: on that, I guess we I guess we did kind
Speaker 1: of touch on that. But, um, do you see Drummond
Speaker 1: as because I think his like, uh, I guess theoretically
Speaker 1: Drummond was a switching player right when I when I
Speaker 1: watched him on switches, it's not as again though, his
Speaker 1: mistakes are pretty loud, so I don't know, Like maybe
Speaker 1: when I'll rewatch it that it feels different. But do
Speaker 1: you feel like he's he's a good switchable player because
Speaker 1: it feels like they're still trapping a lot with him
Speaker 1: rather than switching on the perimeter. I guess, I guess
Speaker 1: look at Joe thoughts on that. I think that was
Speaker 1: the crux of the question there. If Drumming can kind
Speaker 1: of switch on the perimeter against you know, against playoff
Speaker 1: level players right like against throw out of Magic it
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter, but against they're really good teams that
Speaker 1: have good perimeter players that can and hunt those kind
Speaker 1: of things. Do you do you see him as a
Speaker 1: guy that can switch on the perimeter? Not particularly Um,
Speaker 1: he's he's I think he's every bit as capable of
Speaker 1: that type of role as a javeailor Dwight. I think
Speaker 1: of him, it's just a slight upgrade over Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: in my opinion, Like he's gonna have moments as a
Speaker 1: rim protector and as a guy who's got active hands
Speaker 1: in pick and roll pocket passes and things along those lines,
Speaker 1: and uh, and as a redounder, he's gonna have his moments.
Speaker 1: But like, at the end of the day, like I
Speaker 1: never was overly confident with Dwhite on the floor against
Speaker 1: teams that were, you know, really good dribble drive offenses
Speaker 1: that were attacking switches. And again like I like having
Speaker 1: him instead of not having him because I thought Dwighte
Speaker 1: had his moments um and I think I think Droman's
Speaker 1: gonna have moments in that first round series against Denver.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, like we we'd
Speaker 1: be lying if we thought that he was that we
Speaker 1: would be thrilled to watch drum And on an island
Speaker 1: against you know, really anybody. Uh that's a decent, drible
Speaker 1: drive guard. Yeah, I agree. And I think one more
Speaker 1: thing to add to that is I think I don't
Speaker 1: thing that I didn't really, I mean, I didn't watch
Speaker 1: too much tape on Drummond, but he bites on a
Speaker 1: lot of like pump fakes, which gets like these smaller guards,
Speaker 1: like just enough separation to kind of get like an
Speaker 1: easy shot or layup in and and um, you know
Speaker 1: those kinds of things that like kind of takes him
Speaker 1: away from using him as as a switchable type player. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good point. He does that at the rim
Speaker 1: a lot too. I feel like like, yeah, that's good,
Speaker 1: you go ahead. No, I was just thinking, I'm always
Speaker 1: just like why why do you do that? Just so large?
Speaker 1: You know that, I know he has his hands up
Speaker 1: and he still jumps and like man, and those are
Speaker 1: things that I don't really show up on a box score,
Speaker 1: but it's just like those are some of the frustrated
Speaker 1: things about him. But yeah, I felt like, obviously, Omar,
Speaker 1: you said you didn't watch too much tape. I don't
Speaker 1: really blame you for not watching all those Chatz games,
Speaker 1: but like I wasn't really watching them either. But just theoretically,
Speaker 1: I thought, like, because he's I mean, he named himself
Speaker 1: big Penguin, you know, and you can able to move,
Speaker 1: um have the agility, it just doesn't really translate onto
Speaker 1: switches at the perimeter. It feels like teams get him
Speaker 1: backing up too easily. And then they can shoot over him. So, UM, yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like I think that's a good place to
Speaker 1: kind of, uh kind of wrap it up. We went
Speaker 1: around an hour twenty. I appreciate everyone who came up
Speaker 1: and talked or put a question in the chat. Um,
Speaker 1: this is this is really fun. Uh, Omar, appreciate you
Speaker 1: taking the time here. Um everyone go follow Omar on Twitter.
Speaker 1: I believe it's O S I D. Is that correct? Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, it's just super fun. Oh you were awesome, man,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you coming on um question. Roger and
Speaker 1: I are planning on doing Roger is one of the
Speaker 1: super fancy famous people that has spaces on Twitter, So
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna try to do a spaces on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: We're kind of trouble shooting. My big issue with spaces
Speaker 1: is that there's no onboard natural option to record it.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna try to uh tinker with some things
Speaker 1: to do, like maybe a screen recording, because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like I don't know about you guys,
Speaker 1: but I I if I can't listen, I'd prefer to
Speaker 1: have a podcast that I can listen to, And so
Speaker 1: that's what we want to provide for you guys, um,
Speaker 1: but we'll do that on Wednesday, and then as soon
Speaker 1: as Locker Room emails me the link for this one,
Speaker 1: I'll have it up as a podcast as well. And
Speaker 1: Roger and I were just talking about some of the
Speaker 1: numbers the other day, and we're so impressed and so
Speaker 1: happy with all the support you guys have given us.
Speaker 1: And we're super stoked to see how this thing grows,
Speaker 1: and and we want feedback from you guys, and and
Speaker 1: we just hope you guys understand how much we appreciate
Speaker 1: all of you. Yeah, yeah, we really do. Thanks a lot.
Speaker 1: And then again, go follow Omar on Twitter. O s
Speaker 1: I d Um does great work with the Laker Central
Speaker 1: doing videos and everything. So yeah, thanks everyone for coming out. Um, Jason,
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you later. Omar, thanks again. Of first,
Speaker 1: thanks sad Alli. Everybody's you, guys,