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Speaker 1: to him tonight here at the volume heavy Tuesday. Everybody
Speaker 1: ovove you guys are having a great week so far.
Speaker 1: Just got a quick show for you today. We're just
Speaker 1: gonna do a deep dive into the Los Angeles Lakers, who,
Speaker 1: after their ten and four start, are just two and
Speaker 1: five in their last seven games as they're tumbling down
Speaker 1: the Western Conference standings. Lebron James is playing the worst
Speaker 1: stretch of basketball that he's played in over two decades.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be a deep dive into all of the
Speaker 1: issues that are going wrong for the Lakers and some
Speaker 1: specific things to keep an eye on moving forward this season.
Speaker 1: How much of this is circumstantial and how much of
Speaker 1: this is the reality of their roster. You guys know
Speaker 1: the joke before we get started to subscribe to the
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you miss it. So you
Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at underscore JCNLT so you guys don't miss you announcements.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your
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Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight channel where we're releasing more content, So make
Speaker 1: sure you guys follow there, and then keep dropping mail
Speaker 1: bag questions in the YouTube comments. We're gonna keep recording
Speaker 1: a mail bag in the Friday Show later this week.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So before we get
Speaker 1: into the Lakers, two things. First of all, if you're
Speaker 1: expecting me to come on here and talk about how
Speaker 1: I was wrong about the Lakers, that's not going to happen.
Speaker 1: All I said before the year is that I thought
Speaker 1: they were a good team, but that they were not
Speaker 1: a top tier championship contender that they needed a trade
Speaker 1: if they wanted to contend for a championship. But I
Speaker 1: said that I thought they'd win fifty games or so,
Speaker 1: assuming relative good health for Lebron and av So, if
Speaker 1: you're expecting me to come on here because they're one
Speaker 1: fourth of the way through the season and they have
Speaker 1: a forty seven win pace instead of a fifty win
Speaker 1: pace and just admit that I was wrong, I'm just
Speaker 1: not going to do that. I'll freely admit when I'm
Speaker 1: wrong about the Lakers. I'm just not there yet. I
Speaker 1: would even agree with some of the Lakers detractors out
Speaker 1: there who say that they're not as good as their record.
Speaker 1: I agree they're not as good as their record. But
Speaker 1: I still feel more or less the same way about
Speaker 1: this team as I did before the season. We'll talk
Speaker 1: more about why here in a bit. Secondly, if you're
Speaker 1: expecting me to come on here and say Lebron is finally.
Speaker 2: Washed, just not going to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's playing the worst extended stretch of basketball since
Speaker 1: his rookie year, which is over twenty years ago. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's actively hurting the Lakers, and we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about why. But I still don't think he's done. And
Speaker 1: the funniest thing about it is most of the people
Speaker 1: that are out there saying stuff about Lebron finally being
Speaker 1: done are the same people who were wrong last year
Speaker 1: and the year before, in the year before that, in
Speaker 1: the year before that, in the year before that. Those
Speaker 1: people are shameless. They're just you don't get to just
Speaker 1: say a guy's washed every single year, be wrong for
Speaker 1: a half decade, and then finally take a victory lap
Speaker 1: when you're right. So when that does happen, keep an
Speaker 1: eye out for that sort of thing. But I'm not
Speaker 1: here to bury the Lakers. I'm not here to bury Lebron.
Speaker 1: I'm here to talk some basketball. If you guys want
Speaker 1: to get into some basketball some of the specific reasons
Speaker 1: why the Lakers are struggling, you've come to the right place.
Speaker 2: Let's go ahead and get into it.
Speaker 1: So, first of all, the numbers, the Lakers started ten
Speaker 1: to four, they were fourth in offense, twenty fifth in defense,
Speaker 1: twenty fourth in rebounding, twenty ninth in opponent fast break
Speaker 1: points scored per game. Since then, they're two and five.
Speaker 1: They're still twenty second in defense, they're still twenty seventh
Speaker 1: in rebounding. They're still twenty third in opponent fast break
Speaker 1: points scored over that span, but they've dropped from fourth
Speaker 1: in offense during the ten and four start to twenty
Speaker 1: eighth in offense during the two and five stretch. Since
Speaker 1: those of you guys who remember my season preview with
Speaker 1: the Lakers and just in general have watched me talk
Speaker 1: about the Lakers of the last couple of years, my
Speaker 1: main point of optimism with this team is that they
Speaker 1: are an elite offense, and with exception of this two
Speaker 1: to five stretch, since January, they have been a top
Speaker 1: five offense. Their top five offense to end the year
Speaker 1: last year over the second half of the season, their
Speaker 1: top five offense to start this year over the first
Speaker 1: fourteen games. The offensive end is where things have fallen apart. Now,
Speaker 1: before we get into the offense, I do want to
Speaker 1: bring just a slight silver lining here those of you
Speaker 1: guys who listened to the postgame presser with Lebron James
Speaker 1: yesterday after the Lakers got blown out by the Timberwolves.
Speaker 1: He talked about how the Lakers have been working really
Speaker 1: hard behind the scenes on their defense, specifically a lot
Speaker 1: of film sessions, a lot of discussion changes in scheme,
Speaker 1: changes and roles, things along those lines, and it has
Speaker 1: had some positive returns. Lebron talked about that. One of
Speaker 1: the things he said in the postgame presser is like,
Speaker 1: we spent some time working on our defense. We kind
Speaker 1: of rectified it a bit. Now we need to work
Speaker 1: on our offense.
Speaker 2: And he's right.
Speaker 1: In the first seventeen games for the Lakers this year,
Speaker 1: they were twenty seventh in defensive rating, twenty sixth and
Speaker 1: defensive rebound percentage, and the Lakers line four games against
Speaker 1: San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Utah, and Minnesota, they're tenth in
Speaker 1: defensive rating and sixth in defensive rebounding and it matches
Speaker 1: up with the eye test. I don't think there are
Speaker 1: top ten defense. They also played some limited offenses during
Speaker 1: that stretch, but overall, I thought the San Antonio and
Speaker 1: OKAC games were the best stretch of defense this team
Speaker 1: has played all year. And I thought they were pretty
Speaker 1: good in the first half against Minnesota, and in general,
Speaker 1: they're competing a lot better on the defensive class, which
Speaker 1: is such an important part of the scheme that they're playing.
Speaker 1: You saw it a lot against Minnesota again last night,
Speaker 1: Like when the Lakers are solving their problems by allowing
Speaker 1: AD to switch ball screens, that puts AD on the
Speaker 1: perimeter guarding ball handlers. When those guys miss shots, or
Speaker 1: when they move away and somebody else misses a shot,
Speaker 1: suddenly the guy AD was guarding underneath the basket is
Speaker 1: pinned against a smaller guard and able to get a
Speaker 1: bunch offensive rebounds, which puts a lot of pressure on
Speaker 1: the team to crash around to get defensive rebounds. They
Speaker 1: have been doing better. So again, there's a tiny little
Speaker 1: silver lining in the two to five start, which is
Speaker 1: that the Lakers looked like a pretty unseious defense and
Speaker 1: defensive rebounding team to start the year. They look much
Speaker 1: more like a at least a serious defense and a
Speaker 1: serious defensive rebounding team in the last week or so. Dude,
Speaker 1: I think they're going to be an elite defense. No,
Speaker 1: but again, this is not the pathway for this team.
Speaker 1: The pathway for this team is top five offense, right
Speaker 1: around fifteenth in defense. That's where they need to get,
Speaker 1: and the only way you're gonna get there is through
Speaker 1: playing serious defense. And they've been playing some serious defense.
Speaker 1: So I want to at least shine a little bit
Speaker 1: of a light on that, but the offense has completely
Speaker 1: fallen off of a cliff. So let's get into the
Speaker 1: reasons why. First of all, the Lakers shifted from playing
Speaker 1: more through Ad to playing more through Lebron. Here's some
Speaker 1: crazy stats for you. During the ten and four start,
Speaker 1: when the Lakers were fourth in offense, AD had a
Speaker 1: thirty one point two percent usage rate and Lebron James
Speaker 1: had a twenty six point four percent usage rate. During
Speaker 1: the two to five stretch, since when they're twenty eighth
Speaker 1: in offense, AD's usage rate has dropped to twenty six
Speaker 1: point four percent and Lebron's has risen to thirty point
Speaker 1: five five percent. So they went from Ad having the
Speaker 1: usage of a typical lead superstar and Lebron having the
Speaker 1: eight usage of a typical secondary star to swapping those
Speaker 1: roles and Lebron's doing more of the offensive lift.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Here's the problem though, During the stretch where Ad was
Speaker 1: kind of the primary superstar, he averaged thirty one points
Speaker 1: on sixty five percent through shooting during this stretch, the
Speaker 1: seven game stretch where Lebron is more involved, nineteen points
Speaker 1: per game, five turnovers per game just forty eight percent
Speaker 1: in true shooting in the last six games, just seventeen
Speaker 1: points per game forty four percent true shooting. Now, before
Speaker 1: we get into the details with Lebron, it is a
Speaker 1: little more complicated than that. Part of that shift back
Speaker 1: towards fixing the defensive end has caused Anthony Davis to
Speaker 1: spend more energy on the defensive end. They've also faced
Speaker 1: some teams with really athletic guards, and Austin and Dilo
Speaker 1: have missed a couple of games three I think between
Speaker 1: the two of them. So if you're facing matchups that
Speaker 1: kind of make life harder for Austin and Di Loo
Speaker 1: and Austin and Dilo missed time, and Ad is shifting
Speaker 1: more of his energy towards the defensive end. Who's the
Speaker 1: natural guy who's gonna step in and handle more ball
Speaker 1: handling in that situation. Lebron James, and he's been bad,
Speaker 1: and so the offense has fallen apart. So let's dig
Speaker 1: into how Lebron has been bad. Physically, I don't think
Speaker 1: he looks that different than he did last year. I'd
Speaker 1: argue he's a little less spry, not as like engaged
Speaker 1: in the half court, not as many possessions where it
Speaker 1: feels like he really gets ahead of steam, right, but
Speaker 1: not so much that he should be this spat. So
Speaker 1: let's look at the shooting percentages and Lebron's last six games.
Speaker 1: He's got seventeen points per game on forty four percent
Speaker 1: through shooting. Where have the misses been. He's three for
Speaker 1: thirty on threes, and he even lights out on those
Speaker 1: for over a year. And he's just ice cold right now.
Speaker 1: The Minnesota game in particular, most of his misses from
Speaker 1: three are on the outside of the rim. That's always
Speaker 1: a dead giveaway. Like Dalton Connect, for instance, had a
Speaker 1: rough shooting night last night. The Dalton Connect misses, they
Speaker 1: were like rattling in the rim and popping out. Lebron
Speaker 1: was like, it's like wide left and just just carroning
Speaker 1: off the side of the rim. He's missing bad right now.
Speaker 1: He's in one of the worst shooting sums I've seen
Speaker 1: him be in.
Speaker 2: It's not pretty.
Speaker 1: I think he's missed like nineteen consecutive threes, right, And
Speaker 1: to be clear, that generally affects other parts of your game.
Speaker 1: But we'll get into that in a minute. He's eleven
Speaker 1: for twenty three from the mid range, which is actually
Speaker 1: pretty good. That's forty eight percent. That's pretty far above
Speaker 1: league average. He's fine there right, seven for twenty on
Speaker 1: shots in the paint, but outside the restricted area, these
Speaker 1: are your short range touch shots. He was forty two
Speaker 1: percent on those last year, so down a little bit.
Speaker 1: But he makes eight for twenty instead of seven for twenty,
Speaker 1: and suddenly he's at forty percent, so not really much
Speaker 1: of a factor there. He's twenty two for thirty five
Speaker 1: in the restricted area at sixty three percent on six
Speaker 1: attempts per game. Now, last year he was at eight
Speaker 1: attempts per game in the restricted area seventy three percent,
Speaker 1: so ten percent better, and about twenty five about thirty
Speaker 1: three percent more volume increase. Right, So he's down a
Speaker 1: good amount at the rim. But I actually do think
Speaker 1: that has more to do with his jump shot than
Speaker 1: it does with his age. When you go through a
Speaker 1: shooting slump like Lebron is in, it makes the game
Speaker 1: so much harder. Guys don't close out on you as
Speaker 1: hard as they usually do, they don't pressure you as much.
Speaker 1: That makes it harder for you to get downhill. Not
Speaker 1: to mention the mental aspect, like when you're not making shots,
Speaker 1: you start to lose confidence. That causes you to try
Speaker 1: to force the issue a little bit. I saw a
Speaker 1: lot of that last night he gets Minnesota or it
Speaker 1: felt like Lebron was trying to force his way into
Speaker 1: a rhythm. I would actually argue his jumper being off
Speaker 1: is playing a much bigger role in this struggle for
Speaker 1: Lebron than his age is. Then there's the issue that
Speaker 1: with the turnovers, right, some of that's related to his
Speaker 1: shooting too. Just to put it really simply, the less
Speaker 1: effective Lebron is as a jump shooter, the hard it
Speaker 1: is for him to get to the rim. The harder
Speaker 1: it is for Lebron to get to the rim when
Speaker 1: he's also in a shooting slump, The less effective overall
Speaker 1: he is as a scorer. The less effective Lebron is
Speaker 1: overall as a scorer, the less the defense is going
Speaker 1: to overplay him, the less the defense is going to
Speaker 1: overplay him, The harder it's going to be for him
Speaker 1: to find those passing windows, right, those windows get tighter.
Speaker 1: Some of it's also general focus. Lebron has been having
Speaker 1: two or three, like really head scratching turnovers per game
Speaker 1: where he's just clearly not as focused as he needs
Speaker 1: to be. And then, as I mentioned earlier, it's the
Speaker 1: mental aspect too. As you lose your confidence, you start
Speaker 1: to try to force things a little bit. You probably
Speaker 1: have heard Lebron talk a lot in his postgame pressers
Speaker 1: in the last week about rhythm. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: a mythological basketball concept, but it's real. Talk to any
Speaker 1: basketball player, anybody who played at a real level, they
Speaker 1: will tell you it's real, and like when you have
Speaker 1: There's a bunch of different ways that people refer to it,
Speaker 1: right Like, I've heard rhythm, I've heard like, I've heard confidence,
Speaker 1: I've heard verve, I've heard flow. You know, it's like
Speaker 1: your mojo as a basketball player. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways to refer to it, but all it is
Speaker 1: basically is that whenever you're playing good basket cake ball,
Speaker 1: it tends to feed on itself and make you play
Speaker 1: even more good basketball. When you play bad basketball, it
Speaker 1: has a tendency to feed on itself and you play
Speaker 1: worse basketball. I'll give you an example. If you're playing
Speaker 1: good basketball, like if Lebron comes out in the game
Speaker 1: tomorrow and I think it's in Miami or Atlanta, I
Speaker 1: can't remember exactly where it is. But when he goes
Speaker 1: out on the road in his next game, if he
Speaker 1: comes out and he hits a couple of above the
Speaker 1: break threes early in the game, suddenly he's gonna feel
Speaker 1: more confident. Right Let's say that he catches on the
Speaker 1: wing after that, and he pump fakes and the dude
Speaker 1: chases him off the line because he just made too
Speaker 1: and he drives, and when he drives, he drops it
Speaker 1: off to Anthony Davis and Anthony Davis gets a dunk. Now,
Speaker 1: Lebron's starting to feel himself a little bit, starting to
Speaker 1: feel good. Let's say he goes out on the other end,
Speaker 1: then he like a low man rotation, where maybe if
Speaker 1: he's not in as much of a groove, he's less
Speaker 1: willing to make that rotation. But when he's feeling good
Speaker 1: about himself and he's feeling like I'm having a great
Speaker 1: game right now, he might make a much greater effort
Speaker 1: on a low man rotation and block like bam Adebayo
Speaker 1: on a rim finish or something. And then suddenly he's
Speaker 1: bringing the ball to the floor. In transition, he's spraying
Speaker 1: it out to a shooter and it's like it just
Speaker 1: kind of gains this momentum and it just turns into this,
Speaker 1: like it just turns into this runaway train. In a
Speaker 1: good way, the exact same thing can happen in a
Speaker 1: negative way when things are not going your way like
Speaker 1: a lot of times, like when your SHOT's not falling.
Speaker 1: Is also when you start to force some bad passes.
Speaker 1: Is also when you start to get discouraged and not
Speaker 1: sprint back in transition. Is also when you start to
Speaker 1: lose that confidence and energy that drives you to make
Speaker 1: those extra efforts and extra intentional plays on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. It all kind of feeds into itself,
Speaker 1: and Lebron right now is just in a really really
Speaker 1: bad place as a basketball player. He's not doing anything
Speaker 1: really that well. He's been okay on the defensive end
Speaker 1: and rebounding over the course of the last week, like
Speaker 1: the rest of the team has been. But I even
Speaker 1: saw a lot of possessions last night where it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you're on on the island with Mike Conlay and he's
Speaker 1: just going right around you, like slide those feet.
Speaker 2: Man. I mean, I know you're old, but so is he.
Speaker 2: You know what?
Speaker 1: I mean like he can be better on that end too.
Speaker 1: It's just he's in a really bad place and so
Speaker 1: he's gonna have to find his way out of it.
Speaker 1: I do think his head is in the right place.
Speaker 1: I think it was Dave mcmanhamon last night asked him like, hey,
Speaker 1: when you're in a struggle like this, like what do
Speaker 1: you do? And Lebron had a lightning quick answer, and
Speaker 1: it's an answer that every young basketball player should pay
Speaker 1: attention to.
Speaker 2: Work. Just work.
Speaker 1: The best way for you to gain footing when you're
Speaker 1: in a shooting slump is to shoot the damn basketball
Speaker 1: behind the scenes as much as you possibly can and
Speaker 1: derive confidence from that process. Go into that next above,
Speaker 1: the break three that you take off of that Chicago
Speaker 1: action out of the right corner as you're rising up,
Speaker 1: thinking in the back of your head, I made this
Speaker 1: shot one hundred times this morning. I made it one
Speaker 1: hundred more times yesterday. I made five hundred other threes
Speaker 1: from other spots of the floor over the last couple
Speaker 1: of days. When you feel that confidence, it helps you
Speaker 1: think more about the fact that you've been making this
Speaker 1: shot NonStop for the last two days instead of the
Speaker 1: fact that you missed four of them two days earlier
Speaker 1: when you were playing in Minnesota, right, Like you need
Speaker 1: to gain confidence from your work. It's like that famous
Speaker 1: line from Carmelo Anthony and the commercial, why wouldn't I
Speaker 1: want the last shot when I know I've already taken it?
Speaker 2: And it shows him doing.
Speaker 1: The little drill with the where he's shooting the one
Speaker 1: dribble pull up at the elbow in a gym by himself,
Speaker 1: and that's the truth. That's like, I had a really,
Speaker 1: really bad shooting slump my third year in college. I
Speaker 1: was a very streaky shooter when I was in college
Speaker 1: because I had a lot of issues with my form
Speaker 1: that I hadn't worked out yet. And my second year
Speaker 1: in conference play, shot the ball super well, shot like
Speaker 1: just the shade under fifty percent. I'm pretty good volume
Speaker 1: for the entire conference play season in the spring. And
Speaker 1: then I went to an NAII school the next season
Speaker 1: and my role changed started getting some different shots, and
Speaker 1: I shot terribly and I had to stretch in the
Speaker 1: non conference play at the beginning of the season where
Speaker 1: I missed twenty two straight threes and I never got
Speaker 1: to the point where I shot the ball great that
Speaker 1: year but I did shoot the ball better in the
Speaker 1: second half of the season. I was in like the
Speaker 1: mid thirties during conference play, and a big part of
Speaker 1: that was I like was obsessively working behind the scenes
Speaker 1: because I fucking hated being a terrible shooter. I was like,
Speaker 1: I gotta fucking figure this shit out, you know, like
Speaker 1: it agonizes you and you've just you have to confront
Speaker 1: it with work. It's the only way to work through
Speaker 1: this kind of thing. The second thing that I would say,
Speaker 1: I also think a great strategy to get out of
Speaker 1: slumps is to focus on making winning plays to build confidence.
Speaker 1: And this is where Lebron being such a big athlete
Speaker 1: is such an advantage. Like there was a play in
Speaker 1: the Minnesota game last night where he got inside position
Speaker 1: on a rebound against Nikile Alexander Walker, and he got
Speaker 1: an offensive rebound put back, and it's like, that's worth
Speaker 1: just as many points as him running a well executed
Speaker 1: Spain pick and roll where the threat of his shot
Speaker 1: forces the guy to chase over the top and he
Speaker 1: gets downhill and he dunks the ball right the same points.
Speaker 1: If anything, it's more valuable because you turned a miss
Speaker 1: in two points on an offensive rebound. You turn bad
Speaker 1: offense into good offense. When you make a good play
Speaker 1: like that, it feeds you a little bit of confidence.
Speaker 1: And so by focusing on the defensive end, grabbing key
Speaker 1: defensive rebounds, making key rotations, engagement in terms of your
Speaker 1: screening and crashing on the offensive end, to just try
Speaker 1: to squeeze out every little bit of winning basketball you
Speaker 1: can out of your natural gifts that are not dependent
Speaker 1: on making shots. That will build confidence and that will
Speaker 1: bring him out of this. For the record, I'm not
Speaker 1: saying this stuff is some sort of like tip for Lebron.
Speaker 2: He knows this shit.
Speaker 1: I was like thinking about this last night, like a
Speaker 1: lot of people are ready to be done with Lebron
Speaker 1: in terms of like him being washed right, And I
Speaker 1: just if I know anything about Lebron, I know that
Speaker 1: his actual is going to be He's gonna be profoundly
Speaker 1: irritated by how poorly he's playing, and he's going to
Speaker 1: work obsessively to try to fix it. Does that mean
Speaker 1: he's going to get back to the level that he
Speaker 1: was at at the tail end of last season. I
Speaker 1: don't know. That was a pretty damn high level. That
Speaker 1: might have been the last great chance that the Lakers
Speaker 1: had was when Lebron and AD were at the level
Speaker 1: they were last year. Maybe, but I do think Lebron
Speaker 1: is going to get much much better over the course
Speaker 1: of this season. I think he's going to find a
Speaker 1: way out of this stretch. So like to make a
Speaker 1: long story short with the Lebron stuff, though, as it
Speaker 1: pertains to what's wrong with the Lakers now, he took
Speaker 1: over a larger portion of the offensive load while playing
Speaker 1: the worst basketball he's played in over two decades, and
Speaker 1: that's gonna nuke just about any offense. But there are
Speaker 1: some others with the offense other than d Lo. Every
Speaker 1: other Laker offensive player is kind of in a little
Speaker 1: slump of their own. Like Delo's gain and steam, they
Speaker 1: would have gotten blown out in that first half last
Speaker 1: night if not for him. He had fifteen plus points
Speaker 1: in four straight games. He's twelve for twenty six from
Speaker 1: three in those games. That's forty six percent on six
Speaker 1: attempts per game. Delo's getting out of his slump that
Speaker 1: he was in to start the year. But here are
Speaker 1: some other guys in their stats over the two and
Speaker 1: five stretch. AD twenty two points per game, forty nine
Speaker 1: percent from the field, twenty three percent from three.
Speaker 2: That's just bad for ad.
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves thirteen points per game, forty one percent from
Speaker 1: the field, thirty one percent from three, almost as many
Speaker 1: turnovers as assists. Austin's been down for the most part
Speaker 1: this year. I don't know if he's dealing with some
Speaker 1: stuff physically, but there have been some really big games
Speaker 1: for Austin, but he hasn't been playing like the Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves that we've grown accustomed to. Right Dalton connect twelve
Speaker 1: points per game, thirty three percent from three on seven
Speaker 1: attempts per game. During the two and five stretch, teams
Speaker 1: are starting to guard him more aggressively. I watched Minnesota
Speaker 1: do a lot of top blocking last night, denying face,
Speaker 1: guarding off the ball. These are the types of aggressive
Speaker 1: coverages that good shooters will get, and he's going to
Speaker 1: continue to see them. It's on JJ Reddick to try
Speaker 1: to turn that into opportunities to could get him free
Speaker 1: anyway and to weaponize that attention to help the rest
Speaker 1: of the offense. Getting him out in transition will help
Speaker 1: more like transition is where there's chaos and guys can
Speaker 1: get open and then two using him as a screener. More.
Speaker 1: JJ already knows that stuff. I don't have to teach him.
Speaker 1: He's going to be I'm sure he's working on that
Speaker 1: stuff with his staff as we speak. Riya Chimura eleven
Speaker 1: points per game, thirty two percent from three over the stretch.
Speaker 1: Max Christy twenty four percent from three over the stretch.
Speaker 1: That's the big one. Like the whole team is in
Speaker 1: a shooting slump. They're just thirty percent from three over
Speaker 1: the two and five stretch, just twenty ninth in the
Speaker 1: NBA over that span. It's also important to mention what
Speaker 1: I talked about after the Sun's Lakers game.
Speaker 2: If you guys, remember when.
Speaker 1: Your stars aren't playing well, it creates fewer advantages for
Speaker 1: your lesser players. When your lesser players are playing with
Speaker 1: less of an advantage, it exposes them for having lesser abilities.
Speaker 1: That's just the way basketball works, especially against good teams
Speaker 1: like a lot of Laker tractors. Detractors have rightfully pointed
Speaker 1: out that the Lakers are pretty bad splits against good
Speaker 1: and bad teams this year, and they do. They're seven
Speaker 1: and one against teams that are below five hundred five
Speaker 1: and eight against teams that are five hundred are better.
Speaker 1: But the thing is you're going to struggle to beat
Speaker 1: good teams in this league if your stars don't play well.
Speaker 1: Like that's less to me about like the Lakers roster.
Speaker 1: Like I think the Lakers won seventeen games against teams
Speaker 1: that were five hundred better last year, tied to Celtics
Speaker 1: for the most in the NBA. Or excuse me, they
Speaker 1: won seventeen games against teams that were in the top
Speaker 1: ten in point differential according to Cleaning the Glass, which
Speaker 1: was tied for the Celtics for the top of the league. Okay,
Speaker 1: the Lakers were fine against good teams last year, even
Speaker 1: with their roster limitations. Not good enough to win the
Speaker 1: title or anything.
Speaker 2: But they did well.
Speaker 1: The Lakers can beat good teams at a small rate
Speaker 1: above five hundred, but not when Lebron's playing this bad,
Speaker 1: and not when Ad is not contributing the way that
Speaker 1: he did to start the year. Now, one other thing
Speaker 1: I want to point out before we go big picture.
Speaker 1: This has been a tough stretch of schedule for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Last night was their fifth game and seven nights. Four
Speaker 1: of those five games were on the road, Both of
Speaker 1: their back to backs were on the road, which means
Speaker 1: they had to get on a plane that night. Four
Speaker 1: of the five teams they played were over five hundred
Speaker 1: and several guys for their important guys within their rotation
Speaker 1: of miss time, de Lo missed a game, Austin missed
Speaker 1: two games, Ruey missed a game. They'd play our meltroori
Speaker 1: or for four of those games. So what's wrong with
Speaker 1: the Lakers? It's a combination of factors. They refocused on defense,
Speaker 1: which led to Ad devoting more energy in that direction
Speaker 1: instead of offense, where he'd been amazing. The Ad shift
Speaker 1: came with some matchup and injury stuff with the guards
Speaker 1: that forced Lebron James to take more of an ultra
Speaker 1: high usage role, and Lebron has played the worst stretch
Speaker 1: of basketball he's played in over two decades. That poor
Speaker 1: play from Lebron has made life harder on every other
Speaker 1: Laker and they have collectively entered into a shooting slum.
Speaker 1: And it all took place during one of the toughest
Speaker 1: stretches on the schedule that they will face all year
Speaker 1: that cause them to drop a bunch of games. So
Speaker 1: how do I feel about this team moving forward? More
Speaker 1: or less exactly how I felt before the season. I
Speaker 1: think Lebron will play much much better in the long run.
Speaker 1: I do think they'll get Ad back involved in the offense.
Speaker 1: The rest of the roster will benefit from Lebron and
Speaker 1: Ad playing better, which will allow them to play better,
Speaker 1: and they'll look like the Lakers they have looked like
Speaker 1: for the better part of a year now. In the
Speaker 1: big picture, I still think they're way too unathletic on
Speaker 1: the perimeter to win four playoff rounds. If they bring
Speaker 1: in that athleticism through the trade market, specifically at the
Speaker 1: two and three, it will make life easier on Lebron,
Speaker 1: Ad and Austin on the defensive end of the four,
Speaker 1: so that they can play at their best on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the four, which is their pathway to
Speaker 1: becoming a team with two elite units, which is what
Speaker 1: they need right now. They're an elite offense that's playing
Speaker 1: really poorly on offense. But that's what this roster is.
Speaker 1: It's an elite offensive roster in a bad defensive roster.
Speaker 1: But they've got some good defensive players, mainly Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: as an anchor to where if they can bring in
Speaker 1: a two and a three that are competent two way players.
Speaker 1: Suddenly they could be a team that is top ten
Speaker 1: in like top five in offense and top fifteen in defense.
Speaker 1: That's a pathway for them. But right now they don't
Speaker 1: have those players. It's all theoretical, So it's all about,
Speaker 1: like again, as I kind of process where I'm at
Speaker 1: with the Lakers. Overall, it's still exactly where I was
Speaker 1: before the season, which is if they make If they
Speaker 1: make the right trade, I think they'll be fun.
Speaker 2: I've talked about this before.
Speaker 1: With the with so many other teams around the league,
Speaker 1: but like sometimes as an NBA team in an eighty
Speaker 1: two game regular season, the job is to survive and
Speaker 1: to extend out your good stretches as long as possible,
Speaker 1: and to dig your way out of your bad stretches.
Speaker 2: As fast as possible.
Speaker 1: Every NBA team it's gonna have three or four stretches
Speaker 1: where they're just not playing very well for various reasons.
Speaker 1: Talked about it with the Lakers. Right one of your
Speaker 1: stars is playing really poorly, your other stars kind of
Speaker 1: playing poorly. Schedules, really tough role players all go into
Speaker 1: a shooting slump. You're drop some games, that's gonna happen
Speaker 1: to other teams around the league. Just about digging your
Speaker 1: way out of it. The Lakers schedule does lighten up
Speaker 1: a little bit from here. They have no back to
Speaker 1: backs until January, and their next six games are all
Speaker 1: against teams that are currently either five hundred or worse. Now,
Speaker 1: all of them are capable of beating the Lakers. The
Speaker 1: Hawks are capable of beating the Lakers. The Pistons are
Speaker 1: capable of beating the Lakers. The Heat are capable of
Speaker 1: beating the Lakers. The Pistons, or excuse me, the Kings
Speaker 1: are capable of beating the Lakers. So they could just
Speaker 1: as easily drop a bunch of these games. But if
Speaker 1: they play better basketball, if Lebron gets back to form,
Speaker 1: they should be able to get back on track. These
Speaker 1: are winnable games for them over the course of the
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, it's all I have for today.
Speaker 1: As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me
Speaker 1: and supporting the show. Got a jam packed slate tonight.
Speaker 1: We're gonna hit a bunch of teams and a bunch
Speaker 1: of games and some film.
Speaker 2: Tomorrow I will see you guys, then the volume What's
Speaker 2: so Guys?
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us.
Speaker 1: Would take a second and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
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