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Speaker 1: Welcome to Lakers Tonight, presented by fan Duel. Here on
Speaker 1: the volume, I am Jason timp Happy Saturday, everybody. I
Speaker 1: hope you all had a great week. I hope you're
Speaker 1: about to have a great weekend. And I am very
Speaker 1: excited to talk some basketball. We finally got a Lakers
Speaker 1: win to talk about in a good Lakers win. We
Speaker 1: had one Lakers win and the previous five tries, and
Speaker 1: I think I was more irritated after that one than
Speaker 1: it had been after many of these losses. They played
Speaker 1: a nearly perfect defensive overtime, at least while the game
Speaker 1: was in question, and we're fantastic in that entire second half.
Speaker 1: Lots to be frustrated about. We're gonna get to all
Speaker 1: of that. These slows starts are a huge problem this team.
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook continues to be almost a completely nonsensical basketball fit.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get to all of that. But I wanted
Speaker 1: to start positive because this team gave us something to
Speaker 1: be positive about tonight. You know what did I say
Speaker 1: on Thursday? I said the Lakers need to go all
Speaker 1: in on this season. And by all in, all I
Speaker 1: meant was cash in your assets, don't hang on to
Speaker 1: first round pick, don't hang onto th ht, try to
Speaker 1: bring in other good players. Why, I said, because Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d are so good, and because they're this good,
Speaker 1: you have to bet on that, especially in the league
Speaker 1: like this, in this particular season, where there is no
Speaker 1: world beating team out there that Lebron and a D
Speaker 1: aren't capable of overcoming. But the simple reality is the
Speaker 1: formula for success for this team, the same formula for
Speaker 1: success that won them a title in and gave them
Speaker 1: a lot of success in the face of horrible injury
Speaker 1: luck last season was Ron and a D and three
Speaker 1: guys who will do the dirty work, three guys that
Speaker 1: can play off the ball, three guys that can play defense,
Speaker 1: three guys that can attack, close out, knock close out,
Speaker 1: knockdown shots and things along those lines. That's exactly what
Speaker 1: made the Russell Westbrook fits so nonsensical, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: get to that later. But the point is the reason
Speaker 1: why they were able to go on a run in
Speaker 1: that second half, the reason why when they went on
Speaker 1: that run, Russ seems not very much involved, the reason
Speaker 1: why he was off the floor entirely when they built
Speaker 1: the big lead in the fourth quarter, and the reason
Speaker 1: why they had so much success in overtime is that formula.
Speaker 1: You have to surround Lebron and Anthony Davis with guys
Speaker 1: who are willing to do the dirty work. And all
Speaker 1: season long, we've had issues with these slow starts, and
Speaker 1: when you have these slow starts, they kind of suck
Speaker 1: the life out of the team. And there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of different reasons for that, and we can beat around
Speaker 1: the bush and ask if it's Frank Vogel, and we
Speaker 1: can ask if it's Russell Westbrook. But for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: more often than not this season, they've come out to
Speaker 1: slow starts. And what you saw in that first quarter
Speaker 1: was eleven consecutive fast breakpoints for the New York Knicks.
Speaker 1: You saw dribble down the floor, Russell Westbrook, turnover, run out,
Speaker 1: wide open three, dribble up the floor, Malik Monk turnover
Speaker 1: what run down the floor, wide open three, And as
Speaker 1: as you saw in that sequence, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a cascading effect because every time they score in transition
Speaker 1: like that, you have to slowly walk the ball back
Speaker 1: up the floor and attack against their set defense, and
Speaker 1: it just becomes this. You know, it's just it. It's
Speaker 1: a domino effect that leads to the other team scoring
Speaker 1: forty one points in the quarter. Then you go into
Speaker 1: the third quarter after I'm presumably somebody lit a fire
Speaker 1: under someone's butt in the halftime at that halftime meeting,
Speaker 1: and you only give up thirteen points, which directly leads
Speaker 1: to someone like Malik Monk being able to go on
Speaker 1: a run. The reason why is, now you are getting stops.
Speaker 1: And now that you're getting stops, you are running the
Speaker 1: floor and you're getting open looks. And now that you
Speaker 1: are getting open looks for a great shooter like Malik Monk,
Speaker 1: he can catch literal fire the way that he did
Speaker 1: in that third quarter. And when a guy like Malik
Speaker 1: Monk gets hot like that, it's contagious. Now you're setting
Speaker 1: your defense. Now while you're setting your defense, are getting
Speaker 1: more stops. It's a There is a proven formula to
Speaker 1: winning basketball games, and this team has the pieces in
Speaker 1: order to execute that formula. But more often than not
Speaker 1: this year they've deviated from that for various reasons. But
Speaker 1: it was really exciting to see in that second half
Speaker 1: a good stretch of basketball. They're at the they're at
Speaker 1: the start of the third quarter and then at the
Speaker 1: start of the fourth quarter where the Lakers erased the
Speaker 1: big deficit and then built a big lead. And it
Speaker 1: was built on a very clear, basic formula, the same
Speaker 1: formula that won them the title. In get guys who
Speaker 1: defend next to Lebron and Anthony Davis and It's so
Speaker 1: funny because if you guys remember in after Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: signs with the Clippers, this barrage of signings comes through.
Speaker 1: It's Avery Bradley, who everybody in Memphis and Clippers fans
Speaker 1: were telling you that he was horrible, and Danny Green,
Speaker 1: who was their big money signing, who was okay. You know,
Speaker 1: Danny Green was Danny Greeny shot the ball well in
Speaker 1: Toronto the previous year. And it's JaVale McGee, and it's
Speaker 1: Region Rondo and it's k CP and you've got all
Speaker 1: these guys talking trash about Hey, look at all these
Speaker 1: bad basketball players that are gonna go play with Lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis. But it worked because those guys played hard.
Speaker 1: And the biggest problem this season is similar caliber players,
Speaker 1: players who are capable of doing that job, just weren't
Speaker 1: willing to do it for whatever reason. And I think
Speaker 1: a big part of that is the Russell Westbrook problem.
Speaker 1: So you know, Russell Westbrook makes extremely loud mistakes. You know,
Speaker 1: he doesn't just miss a jump shot, he'll miss two
Speaker 1: ft to the left of his target. He'll hit the
Speaker 1: corner of the backboard here, he'll airball it to the short,
Speaker 1: two short, and to the left. He'll have a wide
Speaker 1: open fast break and dribble the ball off his foot.
Speaker 1: You know, he'll have a pass that he throws directly
Speaker 1: to the other team or off one of his teammate's
Speaker 1: legs or something like that. He makes loud mistakes, but
Speaker 1: you know, I've never cared about the loud mistakes as
Speaker 1: long as you do the quiet job, your responsibilities that
Speaker 1: you're expected to fulfill on a possession by possession basis
Speaker 1: for the team. The problem with Russ is he's not
Speaker 1: willing to do that job. So you're getting the lack
Speaker 1: of responsibility fulfillment and you're getting the catastrophic mistakes. It's
Speaker 1: like the opposite of a Marcus Smart, because you guys
Speaker 1: know Marcus Smart. That dude takes crazy shots. Sometimes he
Speaker 1: has extremely sloppy turnovers. He makes mistakes, but the guy
Speaker 1: is an absolute bulldog on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: The dude die wives for every loose ball. The dude
Speaker 1: takes the most difficult defensive responsibility. The guy crashes the
Speaker 1: offensive glass relentlessly. He does all of those things, so
Speaker 1: Celtics fans do not care that he does some stupid
Speaker 1: stuff on offense sometimes. In fact, he's celebrated as one
Speaker 1: of the heroes of the team. He's the heart and
Speaker 1: soul of the team. Too many Celtic fans that because
Speaker 1: no one cares about the loud mistakes if you do
Speaker 1: your job. And the problem is is in that first half,
Speaker 1: in that second half, critically, at the at the end
Speaker 1: of the at the end of the game, pivotal possession,
Speaker 1: down by three, there's a turnover, or when misses a
Speaker 1: long jump shot and Russ jogs back on defense and
Speaker 1: leaves a wide open shooter to tie the game. Russ,
Speaker 1: I don't care if you miss a laya. I don't
Speaker 1: care if you hit the corner of the backboard. Just
Speaker 1: do your job. And that is why this fundamentally doesn't
Speaker 1: work with him on the floor, and that's why the
Speaker 1: team operates. It's at a much higher level when he's
Speaker 1: off the floor. You know, when he was playing against
Speaker 1: Charlotte the other night, he looked amazing, right, because Russ
Speaker 1: is still one of the best helio centric type of
Speaker 1: players that we have in the league. If you put
Speaker 1: him at the top of the key with shooters and
Speaker 1: guys that can attackle those outs and just let him
Speaker 1: make all the decisions and drive to the basket NonStop.
Speaker 1: He's gonna do a pretty good job because that's pretty
Speaker 1: much the one thing that he's still okay at. And
Speaker 1: you know, after the game, Lebron and Anthony Davis run
Speaker 1: out on the floor and they talked to Russ about
Speaker 1: how how can we take this and recreate it when
Speaker 1: we're playing, And there was all this talk about how
Speaker 1: maybe we can make this work. But any sort of
Speaker 1: critical thinking would tell you, hey, actually the job that
Speaker 1: you need from the third guy is a lot different
Speaker 1: than the job from the first guy, because you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron James takes defensive possessions off too. Lebron had a
Speaker 1: couple of really sloppy defensive possessions early in this game,
Speaker 1: especially in transition, where he lost shooters or was sloppy
Speaker 1: on a switch or didn't run back in transition. But
Speaker 1: you know, even though those plays bother me, because you know,
Speaker 1: as a basketball fan, I get I'm not I don't
Speaker 1: like watching guys be lazy or make a mistake. But
Speaker 1: the reason why we put up with it with Lebron
Speaker 1: is because we know in pivotal moments he turns it
Speaker 1: on in all those areas, and he does so much
Speaker 1: offensively for the team that you understand the trade off.
Speaker 1: Like with Lebron, You're like, he's just saving his legs,
Speaker 1: he's resting while he's on the floor, He's managing his
Speaker 1: turbometer whatever it is that you want to call it,
Speaker 1: to save his energy for the big moments of the game,
Speaker 1: or to do what he's doing on the offensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. With Russet's it's the exact opposite. You know,
Speaker 1: he his responsibilities tonight were the lowest that he's had
Speaker 1: all season because this is the most healthy the team
Speaker 1: has been. You know, the Lakers finally started Malik Monk
Speaker 1: and Stanley Johnson alongside the big three, and I was
Speaker 1: thrilled about that. That's their best line up. You know,
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson does a lot of dirty work and Malik
Speaker 1: Monk brings enough shooting that it offsets some of the
Speaker 1: Russell West for problem. That's their best line up and
Speaker 1: Russ came out flat with that lineup. Russ came out
Speaker 1: flat in in the one position role wise this season
Speaker 1: where he's had the least to do in terms of
Speaker 1: offensive responsibilities. Literally, if he just embraced those things that
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. So many people would let him off
Speaker 1: the hook. You don't have to get booed for missing
Speaker 1: a shot. They don't boom mark as smart when he
Speaker 1: misses a shot. You would not get booed if you
Speaker 1: did all of those things that help win basketball games.
Speaker 1: You even if you were missing and hitting the corner
Speaker 1: of the backboard, and if you couldn't dribble to save
Speaker 1: your life, you would be playing and crunched time with
Speaker 1: this group. If they could count on you to do
Speaker 1: the dirty work, if they could count on you to
Speaker 1: keep your man in front, if they could count on
Speaker 1: you to box out, and if they could count on
Speaker 1: you to sprint back and transition. It's literally that simple.
Speaker 1: It's not any more complicated than that. And you know,
Speaker 1: we haven't seen any postgame quotes yet. I'm sure we'll
Speaker 1: see what comes out. But the last time this happened,
Speaker 1: when Russ was mentioned a pivotal moment, we had another
Speaker 1: issue where you know, he ran off the floor, Frank
Speaker 1: had to say stuff in the postgame presser. You know
Speaker 1: at some point that that's the other side of this
Speaker 1: that has to be factored in. If you're gonna keep
Speaker 1: him around, then when things go south, you have to
Speaker 1: deal with all the negative that comes with benching your
Speaker 1: forty four million dollar player or whatever it is that
Speaker 1: he does. Now, Russ has been playing better of late.
Speaker 1: He's been making more of his layups, he's been taking
Speaker 1: smarter shots, but they were all within the context of
Speaker 1: the Big Three not being there. It was all with
Speaker 1: Lebron on out or with Anthony Davis out. The truth
Speaker 1: of the matter is is his role when the team
Speaker 1: is healthy is different than the role it is when
Speaker 1: people are hurt and when the people when the team
Speaker 1: is healthy, they need a very specific set of responsibilities
Speaker 1: to be filled, and Russ is just another redundancy. He's
Speaker 1: just another guy that does the things that Lebron does
Speaker 1: at a much lower level than the level that Lebron
Speaker 1: does them. And that that's why I advocated for trading
Speaker 1: for trading him this season. That's why I advocated for
Speaker 1: trading him even if you don't get better players in return,
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, if the team
Speaker 1: is better without him and there's attitude at play, then
Speaker 1: what are you really trying to prove here by keeping
Speaker 1: him around? And so I again the options are limited.
Speaker 1: You know, might have to be John Wall, might have
Speaker 1: to be you know, some arsenal of contracts from a
Speaker 1: team like the New York Knicks or a team like
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City Thunder. But at least guys that come
Speaker 1: back might be able to be serviceable in this group.
Speaker 1: You know, before we even saw the game tonight, I'm
Speaker 1: looking at that starting lineup and I'm like, man, if
Speaker 1: you could swap out Russ for Austin Reeves, a guy
Speaker 1: that is killer at those fifth man responsibilities, a guy
Speaker 1: that literally leaves his heart and soul on the floor
Speaker 1: for those key responsibilities for the team, that that guy
Speaker 1: slotting into that lineup makes you better. Not because he's
Speaker 1: a better player than Russ. He's not a better player
Speaker 1: than Russ. They played one on one and probably be embarrassing.
Speaker 1: But the point is is the basketball is not fantasy.
Speaker 1: Basketball is not NBA two K. You're not building an
Speaker 1: overall rating. What you're doing is you're feeling responsibilities on
Speaker 1: the floor, and Lebron and Anthony Davis feels so many
Speaker 1: responsibilities and do so much to help the team that
Speaker 1: it doesn't actually benefit anybody to have a guy out
Speaker 1: there who's not interested in doing other things at that point.
Speaker 1: It's that diminishing return. At that point, it's a waste.
Speaker 1: But Lebron Lebron looks fantastic. This is nineteen consecutive game
Speaker 1: with twenty points. Anthony Davis. He's moving around in a
Speaker 1: way that I have not seen him move around since
Speaker 1: the bubble in Malik Monk. You know, I talked a
Speaker 1: lot about the shifting offensive identity in the last podcast.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember, I talked about how the Lakers
Speaker 1: wanted to go into offense and they were hopeful that
Speaker 1: that would open things up for their best, their stars,
Speaker 1: and the problem was is health derailed them, Age derailed them.
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel's not a great offensive coach, blah blah, blah blah.
Speaker 1: But what you saw tonight is something that is exciting
Speaker 1: about that potential formula. I wish they would have just
Speaker 1: kept the original team and signed Malik Monk, because that's
Speaker 1: when you can have that exciting blend of awesome role
Speaker 1: players who do the dirty work and these two super
Speaker 1: duperstars and this flamethrower score. That's kind of like what
Speaker 1: the Buddy Healed thing would have looked like had they
Speaker 1: gone for Buddy Healed instead of Russell Westbrook. Malik Monk,
Speaker 1: as good of a season as he's having, he's not
Speaker 1: as good as Buddy Healed. That's the reason why US
Speaker 1: Laker fans were so excited about that potential Buddy Healed
Speaker 1: trade is this is what we envisioned. We envisioned like, hey,
Speaker 1: they're switching every Lebron A D pick and roll and
Speaker 1: when they switched those pick and rolls, it just turns
Speaker 1: into an isolation contest. If we can get Buddy Healed
Speaker 1: in the screen, they can't switch that. It's probably a
Speaker 1: small guy. We're gonna get lots of open stuff. And
Speaker 1: what you saw NonStop in that second half is Malik Monk,
Speaker 1: Lebron James two man game, Malik Monk Anthony Davis two
Speaker 1: man game. And they were getting great stuff every single time.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad that even though the Buddy Healed opportunity
Speaker 1: was completely botched and completely missed, that at least we
Speaker 1: have this Malik Monk fit, which is you know, call
Speaker 1: it eight said of what that other fit would have been,
Speaker 1: and having that high end shooting is so important when
Speaker 1: the paint is packed, you know, when you have when
Speaker 1: everyone is you know what you saw tonight a lot
Speaker 1: was whenever Stanley Johnson was on the floor in particular,
Speaker 1: or Russell Westbrook was on the floor, they were kind
Speaker 1: of just ignoring those guys and sitting in the paint.
Speaker 1: You even saw it a little bit with Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: and with Trevor Reason. And when the paint is packed,
Speaker 1: there's actually more room to operate on the perimeter. And
Speaker 1: so having a guy like Malik Monk who can succeed
Speaker 1: from the perimeter consistently, like you actually are hunting opportunities
Speaker 1: from the perimeter. Guys like Anthony Davis and Lebron James,
Speaker 1: they kind of used the perimeter as a counter. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm resting, so I'm gonna take a jump shot, or
Speaker 1: this guy's playing off me, I'm gonna take a jump shot.
Speaker 1: Guys like Malik Monk, that's when they're at their best.
Speaker 1: That's their comfort zone. That's where he loves to operate.
Speaker 1: So it's a great counter to spacing concerns. I think
Speaker 1: you can compensate for his defensive shortcomings by putting him
Speaker 1: a round all of those other players that play so
Speaker 1: hard together that can cover for some of his mistakes.
Speaker 1: But Malik Monk is a very, very exciting player to
Speaker 1: have in this mix. He had twenty nine points again tonight,
Speaker 1: four of eight from three, eleven from twenty from the
Speaker 1: eleven for twenty from the field, he was a plus eight.
Speaker 1: He's had several games like this this year where he
Speaker 1: got going, and I think you're gonna see more games
Speaker 1: like that where he gets going now that the team
Speaker 1: is healthy and they can defend better, because the key
Speaker 1: to their defense is having Lebron and Anthony Davis healthy
Speaker 1: in the front court to clean things up and to
Speaker 1: clean up mistakes and to make them feel more comfortable.
Speaker 1: You know, there was a lineup that went out in
Speaker 1: the middle of the second quarter. It was I want
Speaker 1: to say it was Austin Reeves, Russell Westbrook, Trevor Reza
Speaker 1: and DeAndre Jordan's And this is exactly why the trade
Speaker 1: deadline is so important for the Lakers, because when things
Speaker 1: when things go south on uh, you know, with the
Speaker 1: injury rees or COVID or whatever it is that happens,
Speaker 1: you have to dip deeper into your rotation. Right like Carmelo,
Speaker 1: Anthony pulls a hamstring, so now you have to play
Speaker 1: Trevor Reisa, Dwight Howard's dealing with whatever it is that
Speaker 1: he's dealing with, and and so now you have to
Speaker 1: play DeAndre Jordan's. This is why bringing in two or
Speaker 1: three or four solid role players is so important in
Speaker 1: this next week so that you don't have to dip
Speaker 1: into those guys. Because, yes, when the team is fully healthy,
Speaker 1: I think they do have enough. You can play with
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook and Malik Monk,
Speaker 1: Austin Reef, Stanley Johnson, Trevor Reas, Carmelo, Anthony. That's enough
Speaker 1: to run a playoff series, to to be functional in
Speaker 1: a playoff series, and at least put the outcome in
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis hands. But the problem is is
Speaker 1: guys get hurt, you know, like Carmelo's hamstring. That that's
Speaker 1: that's some other version of that is going to happen
Speaker 1: down the line. And what we can't have happen is
Speaker 1: have to lean heavily on a very Bradley in a
Speaker 1: playoff series. We can't lean heavily on Uh. We can't
Speaker 1: have to play DeAndre Jordan's in a pivotal playoff game
Speaker 1: because as I always say, when you get to those moments,
Speaker 1: in the biggest moments at the end of these playoffs series,
Speaker 1: the margins are so small. It's all about, you know,
Speaker 1: like you have to beat them by an inch, and
Speaker 1: so if you gift them an inch in the second
Speaker 1: quarter with a bad lineup, you can get yourself knocked
Speaker 1: out of the playoffs. And so that's why they have
Speaker 1: to go after that depth. Speaking of those end of
Speaker 1: the game situations again, it's like, this is the issue.
Speaker 1: This is the issue with Russell Westbrook. You know, he
Speaker 1: can even if he has a great game, he's just
Speaker 1: as liable to miss two important free throws in jog
Speaker 1: back in transition and lose a shooter, which is what
Speaker 1: he did tonight. And look at that. The Lakers controlled
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter. I think at one point they were
Speaker 1: up by as much as eight if I'm remembering correctly,
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter, and it went to ot And
Speaker 1: the reason why I went TOTI was a handful of
Speaker 1: mistakes at the end of the game. And two of
Speaker 1: those mistakes were made by Russell Westbrook. That's how thin
Speaker 1: these margins are, guys. And if it's not the New
Speaker 1: York Knicks, maybe it's a team like Phoenix, and it's
Speaker 1: a pivotal playoff game and they push you to overtime
Speaker 1: when you should have won the game. Maybe now you
Speaker 1: lose in overtime, and maybe that costs you this series.
Speaker 1: This is why I harp on this stuff so often
Speaker 1: that you're you're talking about only one team gets to
Speaker 1: win the title, guys, only one team gets to hoist
Speaker 1: up the trophy that you're and all of these extremely
Speaker 1: flaw like Phoenix is flawless outside of the lack of
Speaker 1: a superstar. They're not going to make mistakes. They are
Speaker 1: not going to throw a line up at you in
Speaker 1: a second quarter that's going to be give you a
Speaker 1: huge advantage. So I hope, I'm hopeful that the Lakers
Speaker 1: will go out of their way to try to remedy
Speaker 1: that situation. Here In this next week, we had a
Speaker 1: quote from Anthony Davis on Laker fans booing Russell Westbrook quote.
Speaker 1: The fans obviously want to see him play better. He's
Speaker 1: got to stay out of his own head, continue to
Speaker 1: play and do the little things, you know. And it's
Speaker 1: funny because I don't think it's Anthony Davis and Lebron's
Speaker 1: responsibility to cater to Russ his emotions. This is professional
Speaker 1: sports and if you do that kind of thing, it
Speaker 1: can cost your team. But the reality is is that's
Speaker 1: some hard there's some harsh honesty from Anthony Davis there.
Speaker 1: You know it's funny because I played basketball in college,
Speaker 1: just like so many of you guys out there did,
Speaker 1: and you know I went through slumps. I had stretches
Speaker 1: where I wasn't making shots. I stretches where I was
Speaker 1: in my head. And you know, every coach I ever
Speaker 1: had to always tell me the same thing. You build
Speaker 1: your confidence through things you can control. You can't control
Speaker 1: making a jump shot you can't control. You know how
Speaker 1: many bodies of defense throws at you. You can't control
Speaker 1: if you accidentally dribble the ball off your foot, it's
Speaker 1: not like you did the purpose you made him stak.
Speaker 1: But what you can control is a box out. What
Speaker 1: you can control is sitting in a defensive stance and
Speaker 1: holding your man in front of you. What you can
Speaker 1: control is sprinting back on defense. There were a bunch
Speaker 1: of plays tonight where Russ missed around the rim and
Speaker 1: took a second to just feel bad about himself. You
Speaker 1: can't do that when you take a second to feel
Speaker 1: bad about yourself, you compound the mistake. Now you didn't
Speaker 1: just miss a layup, you blew a defensive responsibility. There
Speaker 1: was a play in the second half where he missed
Speaker 1: a left handed layup right at the front of the ring,
Speaker 1: and then he took a second, dejected around the rim
Speaker 1: and then jogged back. Stanley Johnson was guarding Evan Fournier
Speaker 1: and Russell Westbrook ran into Stanley Johnson basically screening for
Speaker 1: his own man. Evan Fournia gets into the lane, Russ
Speaker 1: turns around and just watches him shoot a floater. I'm like,
Speaker 1: you just made three mistakes when you could have been one.
Speaker 1: You miss a layup. Dude, you did your job, you
Speaker 1: put your head down, you went to the rid. You
Speaker 1: tried to make a play. It didn't work out. That happens,
Speaker 1: but you powdered, gave up a transition opportunity, then false
Speaker 1: hustled your way into the lane, screened your own teammate
Speaker 1: and gave up a wide open shot in the lane.
Speaker 1: This is where that opportunity is lost. Russell Westbrook had
Speaker 1: a quote about spending overtime on the bench quote. The
Speaker 1: best part about this game is you win. Guys competed,
Speaker 1: We won the game. That's all that matters. It's not
Speaker 1: about me. It's not about what I'm doing, And you
Speaker 1: know that's the right thing to say. I don't have
Speaker 1: any issue per se with with the attitude. Like as
Speaker 1: I've said often on the show, the Laker players this season,
Speaker 1: in a catastrophe of the season, have said all the
Speaker 1: right things. And in addition to that, I don't think
Speaker 1: there's chemistry problems with guys disliking each other. We get
Speaker 1: reports from like Washington and it's like the guys don't
Speaker 1: like Spencer Dinwitty. We get, you know, reports from Boston
Speaker 1: that you know, the star players are selfish. We get
Speaker 1: reports from Brooklyn that James Harden is unhappy with this situation.
Speaker 1: You're not getting any of that stuff with the Lakers.
Speaker 1: This is a strictly basketball chemistry problem. The guys like
Speaker 1: each other. It's just not working. The problem I have
Speaker 1: with it, Russ is you're right, the team one, but
Speaker 1: what are you doing as a player to address the situation.
Speaker 1: Because the situation here is the team is not achieving
Speaker 1: at the level they want and you are a part
Speaker 1: of that problem. What are you doing to address it. Guys,
Speaker 1: can you imagine if rus came out gang busters tonight
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor, just flying around trying
Speaker 1: to make plays with his athleticism. Do you think would
Speaker 1: be talking about him right now? Do you think I'd
Speaker 1: be talking about him right now? Do you think they'd
Speaker 1: be questioning them in the postgame presser about him getting
Speaker 1: benched if he just came out and played hard tonight?
Speaker 1: He didn't play hard. He also missed a bunch of shots.
Speaker 1: He also had four turnovers in the first half. He
Speaker 1: also smoked a bunch of layups at the rim. He
Speaker 1: also missed two clutch free throws. He also failed to
Speaker 1: run back on defense and left open a shooter. But
Speaker 1: you also just didn't play hard from the start of
Speaker 1: the game. That's one thousand percent in your control. And
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes you know, it's not about you and
Speaker 1: your individual success statistically with the team, but it is
Speaker 1: about you fulfilling your responsibilities. You do need to devote
Speaker 1: effort and focus in that area. But yeah, I'm glad
Speaker 1: the Lakers gotta win. You know, there is a lot
Speaker 1: to build on here. Like I said, Lebron and a
Speaker 1: d role players that play hard get yourself a perimeter
Speaker 1: score that can score around them. That's what Malik m
Speaker 1: has shown he can be. All the fundamental pieces are here.
Speaker 1: They just need a little more depth so that they
Speaker 1: don't have to dip in DeAndre door did DeAndre Jordan's
Speaker 1: so that they don't have to play Avery Bradley and
Speaker 1: and Trevor Reis a big minutes and they and they'll
Speaker 1: be cooking with gas because Lebron literally just took two
Speaker 1: weeks off with a swollen knee and came out looking fantastic.
Speaker 1: And Anthony Davis looks as close to bubble a d
Speaker 1: as we've seen. So all of that stuff is there.
Speaker 1: They just have to figure out this Russ piece. And again,
Speaker 1: if you think that he can figure that stuff out,
Speaker 1: then keep him, because Russ figuring things out is a
Speaker 1: better option than anything they can get in return. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying I don't think he can figure it out.
Speaker 1: I've seen too much. I've seen I've seen too many
Speaker 1: examples of it this season. We've had too many rock bottoms,
Speaker 1: so to speak, for him to not get the message
Speaker 1: at this point. But that's all I had for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: that it's a really quickly just take about five minutes
Speaker 1: to talk about this. James Harden and Ben Simmons switch
Speaker 1: a switch because I think it's very interesting. So James
Speaker 1: Harden has mentally checked out on the season. I think
Speaker 1: we can all agree on that. If you dig into
Speaker 1: his scoring rate and his scoring efficiency, it's basically the
Speaker 1: worst season of his career outside of his rookie year.
Speaker 1: And while he's had some defensive success in recent seasons,
Speaker 1: namely like two thousand eighteen two thousand nineteen in Houston,
Speaker 1: he's regressed massively on the defensive end of the floor
Speaker 1: this year. He's giving up straight line drives, he's just
Speaker 1: swiping at guys, he's not hustling for anything. He's mentally
Speaker 1: checked out on the team. And then we get a
Speaker 1: report today basically confirming that, saying that he's not happy
Speaker 1: with the situation because he came here to be part
Speaker 1: of a three headed monster and now he's got a
Speaker 1: part time co star and a guy who's hurt, and
Speaker 1: now he's carrying the load again. So that was a
Speaker 1: somewhat predictable outcome on that front. And usually for a
Speaker 1: deal like this to make sense, you need two unhappy parties,
Speaker 1: and we have the complete disaster of a situation in
Speaker 1: Philly with everything going on with Ben Simmons, and I
Speaker 1: do not need to get into that, but I actually
Speaker 1: love this trade for both teams. You know, there is
Speaker 1: a redundancy in the Kyrie James Harden Kevin Durant thing.
Speaker 1: Now it worked. I think that formula worked and injuries
Speaker 1: derailed it. To be clear, I think if even if
Speaker 1: just James Harden had stayed healthy or just Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: had stayed healthy, I think they would have won the
Speaker 1: title last year. So I believe in the formula. However,
Speaker 1: there are lots of ways to win With Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: He's one of the best basketball players of all time.
Speaker 1: And the Ben Simmons angle is actually super interesting to
Speaker 1: me because Kevin Durant, even though he's never focused on
Speaker 1: the defensive end for an extended stretch of his career.
Speaker 1: There's a little bit in two thousand sixteen in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and a little bit when he was with the Warriors
Speaker 1: in two thousand seventeen, but a lot of him not
Speaker 1: caring too much about that end for the rest of
Speaker 1: his career. But when he turns it on, the dude's
Speaker 1: got Anthony Davis's physical tools, so of course he's capable
Speaker 1: of all of that. Ben Simmons is very much in
Speaker 1: the case for being the best defensive player in basketball.
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons was second and Defensive Player of the Year
Speaker 1: voting last year. Ben Simmons, I've seen the guy give
Speaker 1: major problems to Lebron James and completely shut down Damian Lillard.
Speaker 1: Completely different archetypes of players. He can guard every position.
Speaker 1: He's kind of like, you know, a lot of these
Speaker 1: bigger wing defenders are more like Kawhi Leonard, whether they're
Speaker 1: strong and they're they're athletic, but they're not really all
Speaker 1: that tall. You know. That's a p J. Tucker, that
Speaker 1: Jay Crowder type of vibe that you get from those big, stocky,
Speaker 1: strong perimeter defenders. Ben Simmons is huge. He does all
Speaker 1: of that at like six ten, and his biggest issue
Speaker 1: throughout his career has been he can't score the basketball,
Speaker 1: so you need to really spread things out for him
Speaker 1: so that he can get driving lanes to get into
Speaker 1: the lane. So it's imperative that he's around a lot
Speaker 1: of shooting well. I can think of no better option
Speaker 1: than having Ben Simmons grabbing the ball and running down
Speaker 1: the floor with Kyrie Irving running one wing and Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant running the other wing. And hopefully if Joe Harris
Speaker 1: can get healthy, you've got another great option there if
Speaker 1: you have. Ben Simmons is one of the best drive
Speaker 1: and kick to open three point shooter type of players
Speaker 1: that we have in the league. So that's a great
Speaker 1: fit in Brooklyn. Yes, it sucks to lose James Harden.
Speaker 1: James Harden if he if he's mentally engaged, absolutely gives
Speaker 1: you a good chance to win the title. But he's
Speaker 1: mentally checked out, his heart is down in Philly. He
Speaker 1: wants to be down there. Send him down there. You
Speaker 1: get a player and Ben Simmons coming back that still
Speaker 1: gives you a legitimate chance to win the championship. Then
Speaker 1: for Philly, you know, as we've seen so many times
Speaker 1: in playoff series, just look at last year when when
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis went down, how hard it became for Lebron.
Speaker 1: When Phoenix really started packing the pain and keying in
Speaker 1: on what Lebron was doing, it rendered him nearly ineffective.
Speaker 1: Because that's just the way modern basketball is. When you
Speaker 1: can really pack the paint and throw multiple bodies at
Speaker 1: a guy, especially when guys can't make people pay. That's
Speaker 1: very much a threat to Joel embath Joel Embiid. This year,
Speaker 1: they're one. They have one of the best records in
Speaker 1: the league. They have overachieved. They're a good basketball team.
Speaker 1: Tyrese Maxie looks great, but he stifles an awesome defensive player.
Speaker 1: You know, Tobias Harris is overpaid, but he's a good wing.
Speaker 1: They just don't have that other guy that can help
Speaker 1: you make things a lot more difficult for teams the
Speaker 1: defensive defensively game plan for you in a series. James
Speaker 1: Harden immediately solves that. Now a lot of people have
Speaker 1: been pointing out, including myself, that he's having one of
Speaker 1: the worst seasons of his career. Now, I do not
Speaker 1: think that he's this bad. I think a good chunk
Speaker 1: of how bad he has looked is directly tied to
Speaker 1: his mental state and the fact that his heart's not
Speaker 1: in it, just like when he was Houston last year.
Speaker 1: I think that when he gets down to Philly, he
Speaker 1: will re engage mentally and you'll immediately see a massive
Speaker 1: improvement in the way he's playing. There are a couple
Speaker 1: of fit things that gotta work out, right, Like Joel
Speaker 1: Embiad is not a great screen and roll big. He's
Speaker 1: he likes to do dribble handoffs and things like that,
Speaker 1: and he's not with exception of post ups, he doesn't
Speaker 1: really like operating around the basket. So you're not gonna
Speaker 1: get him to be Clint Capella for you. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna get him to be Nick Claxton for you, like
Speaker 1: the last two lob throwing bigs that James Harden played with.
Speaker 1: So there's gonna be adjustments for them to figure out.
Speaker 1: But this legitimately is something that can that could work.
Speaker 1: Imagine Seth Curry on the right wing, Imagine Tobias Harris
Speaker 1: on the left wing, James Harden dribbling down, going to work.
Speaker 1: There's a lot to be excited there. And I just
Speaker 1: think it makes sense for both sides, and I think
Speaker 1: it's going to happen because both sides have basically already
Speaker 1: come to terms with and accepted the fact that this
Speaker 1: is probably gonna happen, and there's no point in going
Speaker 1: back at this point. There's no point and trying to
Speaker 1: finish this season when all of the parties involved already
Speaker 1: have kind of mentally come to terms with the fact
Speaker 1: that a trade is happening. So I think the trade
Speaker 1: will happen pretty quick. I think it's good for both teams.
Speaker 1: I think it's good for both players. Ben Simmons needs
Speaker 1: to get back out on the basketball court, James Harden
Speaker 1: needs to be engaged and actually trying. It will make
Speaker 1: sense for both teams. I'm excited. I think it will
Speaker 1: happen here in the next couple of days. All right,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. Thank you guys
Speaker 1: so much for coming to hang out. This will be
Speaker 1: on our podcast feed first thing in the morning, and
Speaker 1: we will be back for a show on Monday night.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Have a good rest your weekend.
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys on Monday. The volume