Speaker 1: Mmmmmm, all right. Welcome to Stay to the Lakers presented
Speaker 1: by DASS Radio. Happy Saturday, everybody. I am glad to
Speaker 1: be back. I missed your rogs. We haven't talked since Sunday,
Speaker 1: played a little podcast version of phone Tag for various reasons.
Speaker 1: But I'm excited to get to the bottom of a
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff with you tonight because the Lakers uh
Speaker 1: did something that I think we're not entirely shocked by,
Speaker 1: but continues to stick with a bunch of the themes
Speaker 1: that I've been meaning to talk with you about since Sunday,
Speaker 1: which is good because we have a lot of topics
Speaker 1: to get to. But first of all, how are you doing, buddy?
Speaker 1: How is your week? It's going well. The Lakers obviously
Speaker 1: aren't helping any of it, but you know, I'm having
Speaker 1: a nice little get together at my house here. Friends
Speaker 1: brought over some flukin stuff, so it's nice. I'm enjoying myself,
Speaker 1: if you know. The Lakers don't want me to, so
Speaker 1: I'm joining mouth. How are you though, man? How is
Speaker 1: your ski trip? How was the vacation? I'm doing good.
Speaker 1: Skiing was fun. Um that family trip that I do
Speaker 1: with my wife's family we go in a couple of
Speaker 1: ski trips every year, but the one with my wife's
Speaker 1: family is always a ton of fun um, not too
Speaker 1: much travel, not too much drama traveling, which is something
Speaker 1: I'm thankful for because I know that a lot of
Speaker 1: people are dealing with a bunch of uh inconveniences on
Speaker 1: that front. But the snow conditions are amazing. Skiing is
Speaker 1: my second favorite thing to do in the world, behind basketball,
Speaker 1: and I had a good time doing it. But anyway,
Speaker 1: let's get to the game, because you know this team
Speaker 1: is fundamentally broken. This is you know, there's a thing
Speaker 1: that you keep tweeting that you've tweeted throughout the season,
Speaker 1: something that I've reiterated on the podcast. I'm not calling
Speaker 1: you out by any stretch of the imagination, but you
Speaker 1: say there's a good team in there, somewhere somewhere there is.
Speaker 1: I think you're right. But the good team that's in
Speaker 1: there is Lebron and they d it's not anything else.
Speaker 1: And one of the themes of my podcast that I
Speaker 1: did on Thursday was this idea that the Lakers made
Speaker 1: an identity change through personnel that has backfired and is
Speaker 1: backfired miserably and the Lakers have had a couple of
Speaker 1: different options moving forward. They can either say, hey, Kendrick
Speaker 1: Nunn was out, Hey Anthony Davis has been out of one,
Speaker 1: Lebron has missed time, we're integrating new pieces. You know,
Speaker 1: this guy has been hurt. That guy has been hurt.
Speaker 1: We can blame it on all these issues, or we
Speaker 1: can acknowledge the reality of the situation, which is, we
Speaker 1: brought in a bunch of guys who may be on
Speaker 1: their own volition, bring a certain amount of stuff to
Speaker 1: the table as basketball players. But this concoction of basketball players,
Speaker 1: all these guys put together, they can't win in this league.
Speaker 1: It's a problem. And so I wonder if the Lakers
Speaker 1: are going to ever come to terms with that fact.
Speaker 1: But it's like, I mean, here's the thing, Rogers, and
Speaker 1: is the last thing I'll say for kick it over
Speaker 1: to you. They had a spirited film session after getting
Speaker 1: lit on fire by a terrible Sacramento Kings team. All
Speaker 1: the things they did wrong, all the missed opportunities, all
Speaker 1: the mistakes, the defensive mistakes, and the little details that
Speaker 1: they dropped, and then from the opening tip tonight, none
Speaker 1: of that stuff was put into practice. None of it right,
Speaker 1: and so they don't like, don't burden yourself with caring
Speaker 1: more than they do, because for whatever reason, this group
Speaker 1: of guys doesn't care, you know. But that's where I'm at. Yeah,
Speaker 1: none of that's wrong. And I also got killed at halftime.
Speaker 1: You know, I said, I thought they played hard to
Speaker 1: an extent, and I would have loved to be a
Speaker 1: fly on the wall right in that film session. I
Speaker 1: would of love too went down, I would of love
Speaker 1: because we all watched the same tape. You know, the
Speaker 1: film is the same weather I watch it here, you
Speaker 1: watch it in a you know, a fancy film room.
Speaker 1: Like the tape. The tape is the same. We gave
Speaker 1: up points tonight Denver. You know, hit everything. They were
Speaker 1: super hot from three I think they were fifteen ours.
Speaker 1: You know, Jameson, I know how to like. Our schemes
Speaker 1: don't really have any rhyme or reason right Like, there's
Speaker 1: there's no like, there's no end goal to what we're doing.
Speaker 1: I feel like, and we just double team for no reason.
Speaker 1: I thought early on, I thought Dwight on your kitch
Speaker 1: was good. I thought that was a smart way to
Speaker 1: start the game. And I thought Dwight was good. He
Speaker 1: had a bunch of offensive rebounds. Russell Westbrook for the
Speaker 1: first five minutes the game was getting to the basket.
Speaker 1: I think they had Will Barton on him, or they
Speaker 1: had another guard on him. And then immediately that what
Speaker 1: we've talked about all season, Teams are going to eventually
Speaker 1: just switch their big wing onto him or break forward.
Speaker 1: They switched Aaron Gordon onto him, and Russell Westbrook just
Speaker 1: continue to drive through him, right and Eron Gordon is
Speaker 1: not a guy you can drive through him. And you
Speaker 1: know that if you want to look at glass alf fool,
Speaker 1: maybe Aaron Gordon has to take Anthony Davis when they're playing.
Speaker 1: But most good teams might have three, you know, big
Speaker 1: wing guys they can throw on Lebron Russe and a
Speaker 1: d And that's what they did tonight. And again Russ
Speaker 1: put his head down, went to the basket, missed a
Speaker 1: bunch of layups at the rim, Aaron Gordon was on
Speaker 1: and decided to take some you know, questionable jump shots.
Speaker 1: This this is not on Russ. I think our problem
Speaker 1: tonight was defensively, but it's a team wide issue that
Speaker 1: we're seeing. And my point on there's a good team
Speaker 1: in here. There's a ladder, and I keep saying there's
Speaker 1: like a step by step process. We have to go
Speaker 1: through that, but we can't go there if we quit
Speaker 1: along the way, right, And that's kind of what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: There's a like, there's a breaking point. I think also
Speaker 1: the small ball. I think when you start Malik Monk
Speaker 1: and Avery Bradley like and there, it's not their fault
Speaker 1: in terms of like personally and it's not personal for them,
Speaker 1: it's just you spart two guys who are like six
Speaker 1: one Like, there's a breaking point to that. And then
Speaker 1: Lebron James is not going to be you know, the
Speaker 1: engaged Draymond while also having the offensive load that he is.
Speaker 1: Like that's and you said tonight he has to be better, absolutely,
Speaker 1: but that's just the Lebron that we're getting. I thought
Speaker 1: White again starting helped with that, but there was a
Speaker 1: quit there. Denver went up like ten to twelve points,
Speaker 1: and the body language just shifted between the whole team.
Speaker 1: I thought our only real, you know, fire that we
Speaker 1: showed was when Russ took it personal against Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 1: I think they got double technicals or something, and he
Speaker 1: had a little fire to him there, but there's a
Speaker 1: there's a human element to this team that's that's rough
Speaker 1: to watch every night. I think Anthony Davis fixes a
Speaker 1: lot of the basketball problems. I think Kendrick Nonna helps
Speaker 1: a lot of the basketball problems from the you know
Speaker 1: where the help is coming from. He can kind of
Speaker 1: take over stuff. But there's like an issue where we're
Speaker 1: not even making teams going to their second and third progression.
Speaker 1: I thought Denver was very easy. Uh Yoki post of
Speaker 1: double team one passed away open three? Uh one passed
Speaker 1: away as a cut Like it's just there's no rhyme
Speaker 1: of reason to we're doing so. I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: that I don't have answered. This was one of the
Speaker 1: most frustrating, one of the most like, uh, kill your
Speaker 1: spirit type of games. I guess uh to watch and
Speaker 1: the rust of Westwark fits going to be the conundrum
Speaker 1: we tried to solve throughout the season. But this defense
Speaker 1: has been getting worse and worse, and I think our
Speaker 1: small ball has hit up breaking point to where teams
Speaker 1: just know what to do. They go right to the
Speaker 1: rim every time, and eventually there's a breaking point to
Speaker 1: where the game collapses. We either give up an open
Speaker 1: corner three or layups at the basket. And that's again
Speaker 1: what happened to it is what happened against Sacramento is
Speaker 1: what happens against Memphis. Like this is a consistent theme
Speaker 1: and and I'm not sure when it really I'm glad
Speaker 1: you brought up the stuff with the scheme because this
Speaker 1: teame doesn't really match up with the personnel. That is
Speaker 1: certainly the case, but like what's what's funny is just
Speaker 1: in general, this team has departed from what made them
Speaker 1: good and this is a this is a concept. I
Speaker 1: feel bad for the listeners because I've been hammering this
Speaker 1: home for the last like two weeks. But like, again,
Speaker 1: think about the Lakers. We started KCP at point guard, five,
Speaker 1: We started Danny Green at the two, six, We started
Speaker 1: Lebron at the three, nine, Anthony Davis at at power forward,
Speaker 1: and Jamal McGee at center. And even when we went small,
Speaker 1: it was Alex Crusoe ripped six six freak athlete coming in,
Speaker 1: or it was Kyle Kuzma coming in. You know, we
Speaker 1: are the small guy we would play would be a
Speaker 1: Rondo or and Avery Bradley. We we were a huge
Speaker 1: basketball team that it was incredibly athletic up and down
Speaker 1: the roster, and we punished teams with our physicality. And
Speaker 1: when you watch those that playoff run. The interesting part
Speaker 1: about it, and this is a consistent theme that I've
Speaker 1: talked about. Why I think it's so important to build
Speaker 1: defense first and then to let the offense kind of
Speaker 1: come from that is because defense is the ultimate energy,
Speaker 1: effort focus, you know, behavior in all of sports. Right,
Speaker 1: it's not fun to play. Defense doesn't get you on
Speaker 1: highlights usually, right, So a lot of guys struggle with
Speaker 1: effort on that end. So if you're a defensive team
Speaker 1: and you get stops and you get out in transition
Speaker 1: like that Lakers team did, even limited offensive players, the
Speaker 1: same reason why we made all these trades this summer
Speaker 1: to get better offensive players. Even those limited offensive players
Speaker 1: had offensive success in that playoff run because they fed
Speaker 1: off their defense. We saw Mark Kith Morris make a
Speaker 1: ton of huge threes. We saw KCP attacking closeouts making threes.
Speaker 1: We saw all of these players Alex Crusoe started in
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals, had big moments. These guys they built
Speaker 1: their offense off of the strength of their defense, and
Speaker 1: it was a proven formula. And what was so funny
Speaker 1: is we saw, you know, the team really fall apart
Speaker 1: against Phoenix in the playoffs last year, and it kind
Speaker 1: of it changed the tone of this entire era, which
Speaker 1: is strange because what really happened in that Phoenix series
Speaker 1: was we didn't shoot the ball well. Yeah, but we
Speaker 1: didn't shoot the ball well even when we were winning.
Speaker 1: If you remember, guys, when we were doing the State
Speaker 1: of the Lakers postgame shows in the playoff run, we
Speaker 1: were up to one in the series, and Roger and
Speaker 1: I were talking about how we felt really good about
Speaker 1: our chances because we hadn't made any shots yet, you know,
Speaker 1: and like, and we knew from the team that KCP
Speaker 1: was a better shooter than he was showing that Kyle,
Speaker 1: BECAUSEMA was a better shooter than he was showing. Alex
Speaker 1: Cruso was a better shooter than he was showing. We
Speaker 1: knew that eventually shots would going and things would be fine.
Speaker 1: But instead, Anthony Davis goes down and so as a result,
Speaker 1: the offensive Britain becomes even greater. Guys continue to struggle,
Speaker 1: we lose, and then everybody in the front office and
Speaker 1: including Lebron and A D apparently look at each other
Speaker 1: and go, Nope, this whole thing is broken. We need
Speaker 1: to fundamentally change what made us who we were. And
Speaker 1: that's ridiculous to me because again, you had a proven
Speaker 1: method to win basketball games at this level. And now,
Speaker 1: even what's crazy about it is even when we have
Speaker 1: guys on the floor who have that identity, when we
Speaker 1: have Stanley Johnson out there, when we have Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: out there, the problem is is there always playing alongside
Speaker 1: guys like Malik Monk, guys like Carmelo Anthony, Avery Bradley,
Speaker 1: who's been struggling a little bit with his lack of
Speaker 1: size lately. The totality of the lineups just don't possess
Speaker 1: the same imposing physical nature that earlier versions of our
Speaker 1: team had. And so this is why, like I tweeted earlier,
Speaker 1: like this needs to be the two thousand eighteen Calves
Speaker 1: trade deadline. You can if this team this is you
Speaker 1: texted me after the pot on Thursday, you go, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about the concept of going down with
Speaker 1: the ship because I've seen a couple of people and
Speaker 1: not calling them out or anything, I'm just saying I disagree.
Speaker 1: I've seen people say like all we need is this
Speaker 1: little trade here and Kendrick Nunn coming back, and I
Speaker 1: thoroughly disagree with that. This is a team that needs
Speaker 1: wholesale changes. And to me, pretending is though Kendrick Nunn
Speaker 1: is going to fix the problem, pretending as though even
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is going to fix the problem. To me,
Speaker 1: that's not acknowledging the reality of the situation, which is
Speaker 1: that even when Lebron and Anthony Davis or hell me
Speaker 1: this season and on the floor together, they didn't win
Speaker 1: at the same pace, not even nearly the same pace
Speaker 1: that they did in previous seasons. So something is wrong
Speaker 1: here and at the deadline. I think everybody needs to
Speaker 1: be available, They need they need to do whatever they can,
Speaker 1: like the Warriors did this past offseason, to try to
Speaker 1: recreate what they had in season, bring back as much
Speaker 1: size and athleticism as they can't Guys who enjoy and
Speaker 1: appreciate and embrace the dirty work, because then you might
Speaker 1: be able to get and recapture some of that flame.
Speaker 1: But right but right now, man, like, I'm sorry, but
Speaker 1: you can't have a film session about all your defensive
Speaker 1: breakdowns and then come back and give seventy seventy three
Speaker 1: up and a half and then tell me, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: Kendrick None will do a better job chasing over that
Speaker 1: screen and everything will be fine. You know. I just
Speaker 1: I just think that that's delusional in my opinions. You
Speaker 1: might right, like this time, this team might need wholesale changes.
Speaker 1: I just don't see them coming right in. And you
Speaker 1: said going down with the ship. You know you've heard
Speaker 1: the term like you made your bed, you laid and
Speaker 1: you've heard that right before, Like, and I feel like
Speaker 1: that's kind of what this is. Except this bed is
Speaker 1: like tied to the floor and right now there's like
Speaker 1: springs coming out of it, right And like for a
Speaker 1: lot of the season we had none of our wings,
Speaker 1: and then once our wings came back, Andy Davis went
Speaker 1: out like and again, like Jason, we've already seen wholesale changes.
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson is starting like it's starting basketball games. Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves was undrafted. He was not. You can tell me
Speaker 1: the Lakers loved Austin Reeves, and I would believe you.
Speaker 1: Obviously they went and made sure they got him. There
Speaker 1: was no way they thought he would be a sixth
Speaker 1: seventh man, which is what he is. His talent level
Speaker 1: is showing that he's a sixth seventh man on this team.
Speaker 1: We've already seen that. Kept Baysmore, who was slotted probably
Speaker 1: by a lot of fans to be the starter, right,
Speaker 1: to be that to guard who defends at the point
Speaker 1: of the tech. He can't even play. He's playing garbage
Speaker 1: time minutes and he's still struggling in those type of
Speaker 1: in those type of environments. DeAndre Jordan's started for twenty
Speaker 1: three games this season. He's now out of the rotation.
Speaker 1: We've already seen these small wholesale changes here. I just like,
Speaker 1: I think the trade stuff is, you know, up pie
Speaker 1: in the sky type of dream. Right, are our guys
Speaker 1: who can move our THHD Kendrew Donne and at first
Speaker 1: whatever that can get you? Fine, but this is the
Speaker 1: team to me, Russell Westbrook's not going anywhere it makes
Speaker 1: I don't like to bring up the contract. I think
Speaker 1: that's been you know, talked to at nausea. But like
Speaker 1: he makes forty four million dollars, you're not moving him
Speaker 1: for anything tangible that's gonna help you this season, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, So that fit has to be figured out.
Speaker 1: You can bring a Jeremy Grant in, but there's basketball stuff,
Speaker 1: Jason that's that's wrong, and there's human elements stuff that's
Speaker 1: been wrong. Anthony Davis and Lebron and Russell Westbrook played
Speaker 1: fifteen games together this year, and in those games, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis took off a lot of those you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Lebron was a game offensively, but I think
Speaker 1: the defense still wasn't there. Russell Westbrook was still lost
Speaker 1: on a lot of possessions. We started them next to
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan's. I twoted the staff the other day, Russ,
Speaker 1: Lebron and A D have played a hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: minutes together where eighties at center, that's close to nothing.
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson has already played. Now be leave if you
Speaker 1: clue tonight, like a hundred minutes next to Braun and
Speaker 1: a D. Just think about that, like he's already played
Speaker 1: almost as much as you know those three have played.
Speaker 1: Where eighties at is optimal lineup. Like, there's basketball stuff
Speaker 1: I think we have to get to and I think
Speaker 1: we're now at the point where we have to find
Speaker 1: solutions that are in house before we bring anyone else.
Speaker 1: And you can bring Jeremy Grant in, Jason, and if
Speaker 1: the rest fits still isn't pretty. If Russ still isn't
Speaker 1: aligned to I believe the role that he needs to
Speaker 1: be to where his skill level is, this team's gonna fail.
Speaker 1: Like it's that's just what it is. If Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: comes back and isn't the defensive monster two way guy,
Speaker 1: this team is going to fail. There's no outside force
Speaker 1: that can come in. And I see tonight the fire
Speaker 1: frame Vogel stuff is back, you know, on the on
Speaker 1: the timeline, and I've I've I've said my piece on that.
Speaker 1: Who knows the locker room kind of politics there, But
Speaker 1: I just think there's inside stuff we have to fix. Man,
Speaker 1: Lebron's body language. We can get into that as well.
Speaker 1: I thought that was pretty poor tonight, like from from
Speaker 1: the get go. Uh And that's I don't know how
Speaker 1: where to place blame on that, because when you're down
Speaker 1: twenty and the other teams sating everything again, the human
Speaker 1: element like he's not gonna be all engaged. It's just
Speaker 1: stuff I'm seeing. Man. I think Malik Monks are real
Speaker 1: bright spot. I think that's something we found. I think
Speaker 1: there's defensive issues though. You start Milik Monk and Avery
Speaker 1: Badley with a small ball lineup, and tonight we started
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard. But there's a breaking point to that. Too
Speaker 1: many teams to have over six six guys are just
Speaker 1: gonna take advantage. And we've been seeing that in the past,
Speaker 1: and that, you know, small ball thing was fun. I
Speaker 1: think it's something we can go to in ten twelve
Speaker 1: minutes for it's playing that thirty five minutes to night.
Speaker 1: It's probably not feasible against teams with competent UH competition
Speaker 1: on the other side, but you're not wrong. Wholesale changes
Speaker 1: might be needed. I just don't think that's happening mid season.
Speaker 1: I think that's a that's a dream. I don't think
Speaker 1: they have the pieces to move like the eighteen. You
Speaker 1: know how people compare Lebron throwing, you know, Dwyane Wade
Speaker 1: to UH trading Dwyane Wade. I think that was that year, right,
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, But let me like how Dwyane Wade
Speaker 1: Lebron are closed. But I mean Dwyane Wade was on
Speaker 1: a minimum deal and he sent it back to Miami,
Speaker 1: So like there's I think that totally different circumsense here.
Speaker 1: I think Russell Westborok's here to stay and we have
Speaker 1: to kind of uh try to work. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: here's the thing, rog if they're not going to make
Speaker 1: any changes, let's just call it what it is, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm here to tell you. If they don't make any changes,
Speaker 1: this team is losing in the first round guarantee. Like
Speaker 1: that's just going to happen, because we're probably going to
Speaker 1: catch either Utah or Memphis in the first round and
Speaker 1: both of the if we slip even further, and every
Speaker 1: single one of those teams is beating us like they're
Speaker 1: they're beating us, like even if Lebron, like even with
Speaker 1: Lebron playing as well as he is, unless Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: literally gets back to the top five player that he
Speaker 1: was in the bubble, and who knows, let's let's even
Speaker 1: in that circumstance. If Lebron and they d are playing that, well,
Speaker 1: are we good enough anywhere else on the floor? Like
Speaker 1: I personally, here's my question, Jason, if they're playing forty
Speaker 1: minutes a game against Phoenix, in them Lebron, you get
Speaker 1: Bubble a D and you get Lebron at this level,
Speaker 1: it's that's right that I would I would like our chance,
Speaker 1: I would like our chances A little bit better if
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis looked like that. But I haven't seen Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis looked like that since the bubble, even when he's
Speaker 1: been healthy. The reality, you're right, and so the reality
Speaker 1: is is he's declined for whatever reason and confidence and
Speaker 1: skill set whatever you wanna call it, motor, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: he's declined to the extent that, like the whole Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d are going to trump everything hard just
Speaker 1: isn't the same that it that it was now now
Speaker 1: Frank is a separate thing. Like you know me, guys,
Speaker 1: Like my whole thing with Frank from the beginning has
Speaker 1: not been what he brings to the table schematically or
Speaker 1: with the rotation, although I have bones to pick there.
Speaker 1: My my, my concerns with Frank were always buy in.
Speaker 1: And guess what if you look at everybody in your
Speaker 1: team and have a spirited film session and then they
Speaker 1: all go out on the court and give you the finger,
Speaker 1: that's buying, okay. And so sometimes, and this is a
Speaker 1: phenomenon that happens in sports, sometimes players just get sick
Speaker 1: of listening to a coach. It happens, it's it is
Speaker 1: a consistent thing to happen now I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: there yet with with with Frank, like I said, Like
Speaker 1: I said, my whole thing with Frank is buy in.
Speaker 1: Like I get worried when Lebron James, after looking like
Speaker 1: Draymond freaking Green for two weeks all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: is just not offering help on drives. That concerns me.
Speaker 1: But but can you expect can you expect him to that?
Speaker 1: We'll get into that, but before we move on to
Speaker 1: the Lebron thing, because like I want to look at
Speaker 1: this trade deadline thing for just a second longer, because
Speaker 1: the Russ thing, in my opinion, is separate from the
Speaker 1: rest of the roster thing. Okay, because like the Russ
Speaker 1: question for me, as you know, Raj has always been
Speaker 1: about the playoffs in the ceiling. Because I knew going
Speaker 1: into this trade Russ wasn't the guy everybody thought he was.
Speaker 1: I knew why because I've watched basketball over the last
Speaker 1: five years, and apparently I'm not the only one. Because
Speaker 1: I read a story the other day that there was
Speaker 1: a bunch of internal conflicts surrounding the Rush trade within
Speaker 1: the Lakers front office at the time. And then I
Speaker 1: guess Rob Polinka decided to pull the trigger. But regardless,
Speaker 1: my concerns with Russ are not about this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: My concerns with Russ entirely center around this team. This
Speaker 1: team figures it out. Lebron looks great, a D looks great,
Speaker 1: they make a trade, everything's great, huge key moment. Rust
Speaker 1: becomes a matchup issue on both ends of the floor,
Speaker 1: losing his man and actually, actually it turns out he
Speaker 1: can't score against good basketball defenses anymore. That's where I
Speaker 1: worry about Russ going down the roster though. That's where
Speaker 1: I look at it as like something has to be
Speaker 1: done to try to replicate what happened in This is
Speaker 1: where it gets a little more complicated because it could
Speaker 1: be the buyout market, It could be swapping a veteran minimum.
Speaker 1: This would cause an absolute, you know, freak out from
Speaker 1: the Laker fan base. But Malik Monk probably can't play
Speaker 1: for us in key moments. He is horrible defensively in
Speaker 1: the sect. I could make a highlight reel from the
Speaker 1: Sacramento and Nuggets game that would freak people out with
Speaker 1: how bad he was defensively, like like in both of
Speaker 1: those games, he cannot hold his own against bigger players.
Speaker 1: Offensively frequently gets lost. He's high energy. It's not even
Speaker 1: really an energy problem. He's just he's just all over
Speaker 1: the place. Yeah, he tries, he tries, and says he
Speaker 1: has really bad defensive discipline and really bad defensive instincts.
Speaker 1: So he's bad at sticking to his responsibility in the scheme,
Speaker 1: and then he doesn't anticipate things very well. So his
Speaker 1: defensive problems will continue to be a problem throughout the
Speaker 1: end of the season in my opinion. So what the
Speaker 1: question becomes, like, what if you could flock a flip
Speaker 1: Molik Monk for a six eight try hard guy buried
Speaker 1: in the rotation somewhere else in the league that's not
Speaker 1: playing hard or that's not in enough minutes. I mean
Speaker 1: like that that that's the kind of trade that the
Speaker 1: Lakers are going to have to consider at this deadline.
Speaker 1: And again, you would have complete freak gap because everyone
Speaker 1: be like, oh, Malik has been so good offensively, But
Speaker 1: that shift going from a Crusoe type to a Malik
Speaker 1: Monk type, as that first guard off the bench or
Speaker 1: starting guard, whatever you wanna call it, going from even
Speaker 1: if you just want to call it Casey p to
Speaker 1: Malik Monk making that shift from a guy who does
Speaker 1: his job defensively on every possession two a gunner off
Speaker 1: the bench who probably hemorrhages as much defensively as he
Speaker 1: brings offensively. That shift is why we are where we
Speaker 1: are because dirty little secret guys. The Laker team last
Speaker 1: year that had no Lebron and Anthony Davis was probably
Speaker 1: every bit as good as this one right now with
Speaker 1: no Anthony Davis because they competed because they were just
Speaker 1: a continuation of that lake or identity. We remember, remember
Speaker 1: last year how nobody made the all the defense team
Speaker 1: for the Lakers because that was the whole team. That's
Speaker 1: what the entire team did. It was baked into the roster,
Speaker 1: it was baked into their character. That's no longer the case,
Speaker 1: and so down the roster. Those are the kinds of
Speaker 1: shifts that the Lakers are gonna have to consider making.
Speaker 1: Would you flip Molik Monk for a good veteran forward
Speaker 1: that solves a lot of your defensive and hustle problems,
Speaker 1: you know, would you be willing to cut a guy
Speaker 1: and sign you know, cut a Wayne Ellington for instance,
Speaker 1: and sign an like a buyout candidate guy who's six
Speaker 1: eight and can guard multiple positions, you know, like but
Speaker 1: has some offensive limitations, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 1: would are the Lakers willing to go down that road?
Speaker 1: Because that's gonna be the interesting question because again, and
Speaker 1: this is the lasting I'll say, kick it over you Rush,
Speaker 1: that's that core question that you texted me about after
Speaker 1: that Thursday Pod. Do they go down with the ship
Speaker 1: or do they acknowledge where they screwed up that? And
Speaker 1: and and I'm curious to see. This deadline is gonna
Speaker 1: be very indicative of where everyone at, where the front
Speaker 1: office is at with that because they have the ability
Speaker 1: to make some changes and make this work again. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I think they do have an ability to
Speaker 1: shift a little bit. And it's funny. We got the
Speaker 1: breaking news right I think it was from Brian win
Speaker 1: Horse said the Lakers are looking to move DeAnda Gtroitdan
Speaker 1: and a camp bays Moore. I'm like, yeah, breaking these
Speaker 1: two guys who don't play at all right there, they're
Speaker 1: looking to move him. I think it's gonna be tough.
Speaker 1: And you brought up trading monk, Like, isn't that kind
Speaker 1: of Stanley Johnson? Right, Like that's kind of who he
Speaker 1: is and Lake Monk is out playing his contract and
Speaker 1: he makes like very little money, So you have to
Speaker 1: find a wing that doesn't make much. You know that
Speaker 1: you're trading all the offensive stuff that you're getting from
Speaker 1: League mon because I think believe you know, he's played well,
Speaker 1: like he's played up to what he's going to be.
Speaker 1: Expecting him to be good defensively, like isn't fair. And
Speaker 1: we have a lot of guys like that, And that's
Speaker 1: probably the issue, right we have you have to cover
Speaker 1: for Meliks, a guy you have to cover for defensively,
Speaker 1: Carmelo Anthony another guy you have to cover for defensively,
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington, another guy you have to cover for defensively,
Speaker 1: and eventually there's a breaking point because you can't cover
Speaker 1: for three guys on the floor. Right, And I think
Speaker 1: that's the stuff you saw with a D as well, right,
Speaker 1: he got uh A D was very frustrated. You could
Speaker 1: see the beginning of this year where he has to
Speaker 1: cover for a lot. He has to switch and somehow
Speaker 1: get back to the role man. Even tonight, I'm watching
Speaker 1: you know Denver run simple screen role where it's like
Speaker 1: Jeff Green going down the lane and it's like Malik
Speaker 1: Monk or Avery Bradley tagging Jeff Green and he's just
Speaker 1: dunking all over them. Like that's that's what I mean
Speaker 1: by breaking point. And for sure they have to try
Speaker 1: to add wing dev And that's why I think I
Speaker 1: think Austin Reeves should start just to give some size,
Speaker 1: get some you know, hustle on that end and and
Speaker 1: try to trying to bridge that gap. But I don't
Speaker 1: think that trade is out there, Jason, Like, I honestly don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think you can move minimums for other minimums
Speaker 1: and then get the type of players you're looking for.
Speaker 1: Cam Reddish was a guy we were kind of thinking of, right,
Speaker 1: and he went for a protected first and Kevin Knox
Speaker 1: and the Lakers off for two seconds reportedly like that's
Speaker 1: the type of players you would, I guess wanted to
Speaker 1: have upside, But like to me, Jeremy Grants the like
Speaker 1: the only real guy available to me that you could help.
Speaker 1: But this team has inner issues that it has to fix.
Speaker 1: You talked about the identity not there and last year
Speaker 1: being there, they had the players to match it, you know,
Speaker 1: and they had a core from returning from right, So
Speaker 1: you had Caruser coming back, PCP coming back, Kyle Kuzman
Speaker 1: coming back. All those guys that were your core guys
Speaker 1: in the championship run came back and played when Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d you were out and held up the
Speaker 1: defensive ant. Dennis shrewder All, for all his faults, is
Speaker 1: a good point of attack defensive guard. I think that's
Speaker 1: you know, been lost in kind of his conversation, Like
Speaker 1: I thought he was good defensively last year and he
Speaker 1: traded that obviously for offensive pole and for the hope
Speaker 1: that Russell Westbrook can kind of pushed the ball a
Speaker 1: little bit more and get Lebron off the ball, which
Speaker 1: Lebron has been more off the ball. I guess it
Speaker 1: just hasn't been in the way that we'd hope. It's
Speaker 1: kind of been through the hands of th HD, the
Speaker 1: hands of Leak Monk and all those guys. So it's
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I just don't see a move coming. I
Speaker 1: think this is more has to be inner development. This
Speaker 1: team has to kind of push through the the ceiling
Speaker 1: that Anthony Davis and Lebron James can get to, and
Speaker 1: that's where it is. You're gonna play Lebron James, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davids forty some minutes. You hope that rust And can
Speaker 1: fit in that and then fit some three D guys
Speaker 1: around that. We've already seen that a three and D
Speaker 1: kind of combination around those two is a successful formula.
Speaker 1: We're gonna learn if you can fit Russ into that.
Speaker 1: That's a calling new combination. And you know, maybe we've
Speaker 1: already seen that it won't work, but that's what we
Speaker 1: have to do, man. And I think you know, Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook starting getting no turnover games and stuff like that
Speaker 1: is a push towards that. That's this process was never
Speaker 1: gonna look pretty, and it shouldn't look this ugly maybe,
Speaker 1: but it's never gonna look pretty. Russell Westbrook already pushing back, right,
Speaker 1: And I think both of us talked about it on
Speaker 1: the pods the I'm a point guard laughing when Davi
Speaker 1: mcmanimum asked him about that, right, Because you can see
Speaker 1: the push to push him more and more off fall.
Speaker 1: We're lowering him even when he's on the floor. We're
Speaker 1: lowering his usage. We're putting the ball in th HD's
Speaker 1: hands when he's on the ball throwing and putting him
Speaker 1: in the dunker spot, putting him in on the weak
Speaker 1: side corner to just stand while where it's harder to
Speaker 1: help from. We are starting to move towards basketball that's
Speaker 1: away from where Russell Westbrook has been in his career.
Speaker 1: And if you want to put in the forty four
Speaker 1: million dollars, does that make sense. No, you don't want
Speaker 1: to be you don't have a role player in that position,
Speaker 1: in that contract spot. But it's what we have. And
Speaker 1: I don't think he's going anywhere. And I think you know,
Speaker 1: expecting us to trade it for wings, like, I just
Speaker 1: don't see it happening. Man. Wings are the most valued
Speaker 1: position in the league. And you know, teams like Phoenix
Speaker 1: have a bunch of Utah has a bunch, like the
Speaker 1: Warriors have a ship ton like it's gonna be tough
Speaker 1: to kind of to grab that. I guess this trade landline,
Speaker 1: but I don't know, man, I don't I don't see
Speaker 1: a player that brings you back that you trade a
Speaker 1: minimum guy for and you get that back. I just
Speaker 1: don't see it. That's why I think Jeremy Grant is
Speaker 1: the you know, hope here and who knows that the
Speaker 1: Lakers want to trade PhD for him? So that's that's
Speaker 1: where we're at and if this team is gonna This
Speaker 1: is why I appreciate the having you as a partner, Rogs,
Speaker 1: because you and I have such conflicting viewpoints on this stuff,
Speaker 1: and it's I think it's it's it's informative because I
Speaker 1: think you are way too high in the sky to
Speaker 1: think they're going to make internal changes. And you think
Speaker 1: I'm too pie in this guy to think that they're
Speaker 1: going to be able to find somebody to come in
Speaker 1: and fix the problem. So I I get that. It's
Speaker 1: just and that's that's just the reality of the predicament
Speaker 1: that we're in, right, like every right, right, It's just
Speaker 1: the team has a boatload of issues and any available
Speaker 1: solution seems unrealistic. That's just that that's the reality that
Speaker 1: we're in now. I mean, as far as the trade goes,
Speaker 1: like remember what I'm saying here, Like the guys you
Speaker 1: get are flawed. When you're talking about veteran minimums, buyouts,
Speaker 1: trades where teams are dumping guys, you're gonna get flawed players, right.
Speaker 1: But that's why I point to the Warriors because Namania
Speaker 1: be Elitesa is a is a small ball center who
Speaker 1: can't guard, you know, he can't guard. That's why he's
Speaker 1: not highly desired around the league. Andre Guddala is really old,
Speaker 1: struggles to shoot, misses a lot of games because he
Speaker 1: has to maintain his body, you know, he so he
Speaker 1: ends up becoming a I who doesn't bring a ton
Speaker 1: of value to teams except for teams that can use
Speaker 1: him the way that the Warriors using right and then
Speaker 1: out of Porter Jr. Like really really uh, but again
Speaker 1: on a Porter Jr. Injury issues, buried on a bad
Speaker 1: team for a few years, questions about his motor and
Speaker 1: ship like that. Like there's a bunch of those kinds
Speaker 1: of questions with veteran minimum guys. But why are all
Speaker 1: those guys knocking it out of the park in Golden
Speaker 1: State Because on that team with Stephan Draymond doing what
Speaker 1: they do, there's a very small ask for the role
Speaker 1: players and those guys, they're small skill sets fit into
Speaker 1: those small asks. And that's what I'm talking about here,
Speaker 1: because we're only going to get squad players back. We're
Speaker 1: gonna like I don't know if we'll have time to
Speaker 1: get to it tonight. Maybe we can make some time
Speaker 1: for tomorrow, ROJ. But like we do need to dive
Speaker 1: deeper into this rust thing. And my case for trading
Speaker 1: Russ is you're gonna get crap back. You're gonna get crap,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get salary filler, You're gonna get a whole
Speaker 1: lot of crap back. But if Russ is objectively a
Speaker 1: bad fit for the Lebron and a D core, but
Speaker 1: some limited basketball players that you get in return are
Speaker 1: a better fit just strictly with what you need from
Speaker 1: a player playing off of Lebron and a D at
Speaker 1: the top of their powers, then it could end up
Speaker 1: becoming in that positive. Now we're not going to dive
Speaker 1: into that because we'll get into it later, but that's
Speaker 1: kind of the kind of concept that wants you to
Speaker 1: transmit to the betteran minimum thing. Because Molik Monk, even
Speaker 1: though he's vastly outperformed as veteran minimum, let's call him
Speaker 1: a five to ten million dollar a year type of
Speaker 1: player in terms of value right if he's if he's at,
Speaker 1: but his defensive issues are part of a cultural problem
Speaker 1: that is holding the team back, and they limited veteran
Speaker 1: minimum forward who somewhat replicates what Danny Green did or
Speaker 1: what Casey p did, or Kyle Kuzman did. Even if
Speaker 1: it's just of what those guys did, they could theoretically
Speaker 1: be part of that value shift. Now, the one other
Speaker 1: concern I have about that, and this is something you
Speaker 1: brought up, and it's something that I think is super
Speaker 1: interesting here and it points us back to Frank, is
Speaker 1: we do have some of these guys on the roster
Speaker 1: and they're just not on the floor enough. Why aren't
Speaker 1: Stanley and Austin playing high twenties a game, you know,
Speaker 1: when we desperately need what they bring to the table.
Speaker 1: You know, I've heard concerns about the reasons conditioning. Well
Speaker 1: maybe you know, maybe because the reason has been really
Speaker 1: bad too lately, especially on the defensive end. And it's like, well,
Speaker 1: if a reason is gonna when a reason gets to
Speaker 1: the point where he can play more minutes than maybe
Speaker 1: that's the way we need to go rotationally. But you're right, like,
Speaker 1: we can't play too six three guards or below six three.
Speaker 1: We can't play three of them. Actually a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of times we're playing Bradley, Monk and Russ.
Speaker 1: We can't play three tiny guards and expect to be
Speaker 1: able to compete in the modern NBA where everybody's position
Speaker 1: list and every wing that the other team is thrown
Speaker 1: out is freaky athletic and six six, you know, like that,
Speaker 1: they're just fundamentally, either through the trades or through the rotation,
Speaker 1: the Lakers need to lean back into what they know
Speaker 1: works with their core, and that has to happen soon.
Speaker 1: That that, to me, is a realistic change. Like suddenly
Speaker 1: convincing mo Leakue Monk and Carmelo Anthony to start playing
Speaker 1: defense isn't gonna happen. Suddenly convincing Lebron and Russ to
Speaker 1: buy back in on the defensive end after both of
Speaker 1: them have let go of that rope. I don't know
Speaker 1: that that's going to happen, but maybe it maybe through
Speaker 1: personnel around those guys, by shifting back to the Lakers
Speaker 1: type of identity, you might be able to reinvigorate that
Speaker 1: a little bit. That's what I'm saying. So you brought
Speaker 1: you brought up to get eight percent of I believe
Speaker 1: you brought up Danny Green, Kyle Kuzman, KCP. I believe
Speaker 1: you wrought those three those three may fifteen millions a
Speaker 1: year pretty much, right, you know what? Like that's my
Speaker 1: point here, like, there's those guys aren't coming to save
Speaker 1: and you said bringing in guys to kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: push Rust and Lebron to defend better. It starts at
Speaker 1: the top, Jason, what did we here twenty before the
Speaker 1: season started, right, I'll quotes Anthony Davis. I want to
Speaker 1: get Lebron James to become And again, this is off
Speaker 1: the court stuff. This is stuff that's hard to you know,
Speaker 1: translate in terms of you know, to quantify, but and
Speaker 1: this is stuff that came out. Anthony Davis is like,
Speaker 1: I want to Lebron to be first team All Defense. Right.
Speaker 1: He's like, that's when I'm here. I want to push
Speaker 1: the guy to be first team All defense when in
Speaker 1: past seasons Lebron has it been right and his calvs teams,
Speaker 1: he was a guy that wasn't playing, you know, to
Speaker 1: the defensive uh skill that he could, but Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: kind of pushed that out of him. He had a
Speaker 1: defensive player, he had all defense type of year. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis had a defensive player the your type of year.
Speaker 1: And that's it starts from the top, you know, and
Speaker 1: it goes down. And that's where I think you have
Speaker 1: to see Russell Westbrook is a different type of defender.
Speaker 1: He's a turnover, try to creating. He's a chaos ball
Speaker 1: watching type a defender and another guy you have to
Speaker 1: you know, kind of look out for on that end.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that's going to try to get steals
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. And it's not gonna work to
Speaker 1: me in a scheme type of effort. But I just
Speaker 1: don't see a savior coming here. Like the savior to
Speaker 1: me is Anthony Davis coming back and being world beater.
Speaker 1: Anthony David was being the top five two way guy
Speaker 1: that you can get. You can get a bunch of
Speaker 1: offense from in terms of isolation, scoring and get the
Speaker 1: all world switch ability. Um putting out fires defender, because
Speaker 1: we're gonna have a lot of fires to put out.
Speaker 1: You put all these guards out there, You're gonna have
Speaker 1: fires to put out. The Carmelo Anthony Mo League Monk.
Speaker 1: I think they try defensively right there, just limited. Karl
Speaker 1: Anthy is old and slow. He can't move his feet.
Speaker 1: Link Monk is six one and skinny with zero physical
Speaker 1: kind of he's he's super athletic, but he's not physical.
Speaker 1: Teams can attack him on the offensive boards. They can
Speaker 1: attack him in isolation. He's a guy that we have
Speaker 1: to help on and so there's a lot of issues here,
Speaker 1: but like that's the only way for me. I don't
Speaker 1: see Wings coming in and giving eighty percent of those
Speaker 1: three guys. Those two guys were paid as you know,
Speaker 1: their production. BCP was a guy who made who got
Speaker 1: his you know, four years sixty months or something or
Speaker 1: whatever contrary he got, Kuzma got the four year extension,
Speaker 1: um Danny Green got two years thirty from us. Like,
Speaker 1: these are wings that are valued around around the league.
Speaker 1: So I don't see a savior coming and just we
Speaker 1: won't get deep into the you know, trade Russ or
Speaker 1: just you know, uh, cut your losses with Russ conversation.
Speaker 1: But I just don't think that's a road we're going
Speaker 1: to go down. I think that's that burned the house
Speaker 1: down type of say. Like I think the house is
Speaker 1: like still waiting for the roof, Like Andy Davis is
Speaker 1: like the roof right, like where there's a bunch of
Speaker 1: rain and hail coming in and we're like, yeah, let's
Speaker 1: just wait, just wait till the roof gets on there.
Speaker 1: Let's see if the house can function. You know and
Speaker 1: before we just burn it all down. But you know,
Speaker 1: no one's wrong here, like they've all played poorly, way
Speaker 1: under expectation, definitely, and even with it's so tough because
Speaker 1: you you played both of these lines right, You played
Speaker 1: like the rust has employed next le Bron and e
Speaker 1: Dy so much. And you also play the like we
Speaker 1: got beat by Oklahoma City twice, and we got in Sacramento,
Speaker 1: we got our ask kick in Sacramento and Denver without
Speaker 1: you know, they're too out of their three best players
Speaker 1: kicked kicked our ask by forty tonight. Like those are
Speaker 1: the inexcusable stuff that I'm seeing. But I don't know. Man,
Speaker 1: the body language looks bad and we can't falter here either.
Speaker 1: I think the West is too good to just go
Speaker 1: through a nose dive. I think we played some even
Speaker 1: better teams going forward. I think we play Utah soon,
Speaker 1: so they have to switch it up. Man, Anthy Davison
Speaker 1: is going to come back. I don't think he's gonna
Speaker 1: be a d right away. That's gonna take time for
Speaker 1: him to get his conditioning. Kendrick Nunn, I have no
Speaker 1: clue on. We just keep hearing he's close. Um, But
Speaker 1: again looking as those guys as savers isn't fair either.
Speaker 1: There's the stuff that has to be better. Vogel has
Speaker 1: to be better. I'm a guy that's no not fire Vogo,
Speaker 1: but I think our line ups can't be as rigid.
Speaker 1: I don't think you can just decide to play small
Speaker 1: ball and then when it's getting you're asked kick like
Speaker 1: you have to adjust. We were not in position to
Speaker 1: pro games either. But I don't know, man, this was
Speaker 1: one of the most unspirited one that this is one
Speaker 1: of the most like kill your spirit game. Sacramento was
Speaker 1: close to it for me. This one was definitely like
Speaker 1: a man like this. This was tough to watch. You've
Speaker 1: gotten rolled in back to back nights by bad Western
Speaker 1: Conference teams, teams that are every bid is bad, if
Speaker 1: not worse than we are. We got rolled back to
Speaker 1: back nights, and you know and that you know, you
Speaker 1: brought up some of the limitations you know, with defensively
Speaker 1: with um with guys as it pertains to their physical tools.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad you got up because I did a
Speaker 1: bad job of emphasizing that with guys like Malik and Carmelo,
Speaker 1: it's not just effort. They lack, they lacked the physical
Speaker 1: tools to do the job. That goes without saying, um,
Speaker 1: I know, I know you had to get out of
Speaker 1: here soon because you got some friends over. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna hit one last really quick topic and then we'll
Speaker 1: get out of here. So Lebron, I get in trouble
Speaker 1: with this all the time because you know, I'm aware
Speaker 1: of all of the Lebron qualifiers. I know he's in
Speaker 1: a really tough spot right now. I know he's he's
Speaker 1: being asked to do a lot. I also know that
Speaker 1: he's old. I also know that he has a lot
Speaker 1: of mileage on his body. None of that changes the
Speaker 1: fact that I'm a huge fan of Lebron. As all
Speaker 1: of you guys know, I literally cover the Lakers because
Speaker 1: I followed him here. Now I've since then become attached
Speaker 1: to the team and attached to you, RGE, and I'm
Speaker 1: loving my time here and I'm loving covering the team.
Speaker 1: But I never shot away from the fact that Lebron
Speaker 1: is the reason why I originally started following this team,
Speaker 1: and I am I am. You are not going to
Speaker 1: get me to manufacture stuff to say negative about the
Speaker 1: guy that's not I'm not capable of that. I'm a
Speaker 1: fan of his. When I when I create, I'm just
Speaker 1: calling the things out that I see with my eyes.
Speaker 1: When I watched the television, which has been my which
Speaker 1: I've been doing in varying capacities at various levels of
Speaker 1: basketball for decades, it's it's just what I do. I
Speaker 1: watched the game, I followed the game, I coached the game,
Speaker 1: I teach the game. I do all of it. And
Speaker 1: when I'm watching the game, I see Lebron. After Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis goes down put together about him, like what three
Speaker 1: weeks or so, rog where where he looked like Draymond
Speaker 1: Green defensively just and guess what I was saying during
Speaker 1: that time, rog, I was saying, he looked like he
Speaker 1: might be the best player in the world. That's what
Speaker 1: I was saying, because because guess what, I'm a fan
Speaker 1: of Lebron, and when he does good stuff, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: call it out. But every single time this happens, for
Speaker 1: all the time, I get pushed back. My mentions are
Speaker 1: a total disaster area today because I'm pointing out the
Speaker 1: fact that basically right around the time of that Sacramento game,
Speaker 1: it was the two games the Sacramento game, and then
Speaker 1: I think it was at Lanta right after it those
Speaker 1: two games, which I think we're four or five games ago,
Speaker 1: he randomly after having remember when we were talking too
Speaker 1: how great his energy looked. It was like it was
Speaker 1: like the broadcasters were talking about it too, Like he
Speaker 1: was just flying around on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: And that was in a stretch where we had five
Speaker 1: games in eight dates, like and he was just bawling
Speaker 1: out on both ends of the floor. And then suddenly
Speaker 1: in that Sacramento game where you and I just after
Speaker 1: the show we're like, or after the game, we're talking
Speaker 1: to the show, We're like, yeah, Lebron kind of took
Speaker 1: this one off, ton't me. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: like we're watching the Atlanta game and we're like, huh,
Speaker 1: he's doing it again, you know, like he's not. He's
Speaker 1: kind of the textbook thing is like the instead of
Speaker 1: stepping over and either swiping down or or verticality trying
Speaker 1: to disrupt the guy at the ram, he just kind
Speaker 1: of stands there and watches, you know, and just lets
Speaker 1: the guy laid in. That's the tell tell sign that
Speaker 1: has been basically the story of Lebron defensively for the
Speaker 1: past four or five games. Now. Ever, since that Sacramento game,
Speaker 1: the one we won, um, Lebron has let go with
Speaker 1: the rope defensively, and in a stretch where we've played
Speaker 1: five games in thirteen nights. So I have all these
Speaker 1: people telling me, like, man, it's fatigue, he's got too
Speaker 1: much on his plate. And I'm watching him early first
Speaker 1: quarter after two nights off, just letting guys coast into
Speaker 1: the lane for layup. And so some point recently, probably
Speaker 1: right around the time of the Sacramento game, Lebron made
Speaker 1: a conscious decision to lay off the gas defensively. Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know why. It could be attitude, could be
Speaker 1: he's frustrated with the situation. Could be he doesn't believe
Speaker 1: the team could win. Could be he's tired. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's the tired thing, though, because I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the situation and I'm seeing a guy that
Speaker 1: will take a bunch of those defensive possessions off him
Speaker 1: and fly around like crazy on offense. And he's had
Speaker 1: multiple time, multiple days off, So I just I just
Speaker 1: don't buy into that excuse. And again, like every single time,
Speaker 1: I tweet this stuff out and I go, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: Lebron is not doing his job defensively, and yes, we're
Speaker 1: limited with personnel, and yes we don't have a ton
Speaker 1: of talent without Anthony Davis, but he's also not playing
Speaker 1: well enough on the defensive end. He's also not doing
Speaker 1: his part. And every time I do that, it's like,
Speaker 1: here comes the guy and my mentions again the seventeen
Speaker 1: guys and I mentions that are like, oh, he's thirty
Speaker 1: seven out of what how outrageous it is for you
Speaker 1: to expect him to do this kind of stuff. And
Speaker 1: all I could say is like, man, is he the
Speaker 1: best player in the world or not? Because you're the
Speaker 1: same guy that's always out there talking about how great
Speaker 1: he is and how he's still the best and how
Speaker 1: he's better than k D and how he's better than
Speaker 1: stef and how he's better than j Honice. But I
Speaker 1: can't hold him to that standard, the standard that comes
Speaker 1: associated with that status because Janice's garden like crazy. Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant's having one of his best defensive seasons and years,
Speaker 1: like the Steph Curry without any of the physical tools
Speaker 1: is everywhere defensively. I can't get by with the whole
Speaker 1: let's coddle Lebron. There's a guy. Our friend Joe, regular
Speaker 1: of the show, tweeted out he said it perfectly. You
Speaker 1: can't celebrate he's thirty seven when things are going well
Speaker 1: and then use it as an excuse when things are
Speaker 1: going poorly. Shout out to Joe, but that I'm calling
Speaker 1: it out man like, he's like part of the issue here.
Speaker 1: Part of the reason why we're losing two teams were
Speaker 1: actually talented enough to beat, right know is Lebron isn't defended,
Speaker 1: So it's it's low on the list of issues. Obviously,
Speaker 1: there are a ton of other issues related to personnel
Speaker 1: and talent fit. But Lebron can control that. That's an
Speaker 1: easy fixed that can be fixed tomorrow now if he
Speaker 1: wanted to. If that makes sense, Yeah, I mean like stuff,
Speaker 1: I think you know, I'm not there. I guess like
Speaker 1: I try to. I think all those issues are convoluted, right.
Speaker 1: I think he's he might be a little bit tired.
Speaker 1: I think he's also very frustrated both of us. You know,
Speaker 1: go back and rewatch he's game. There's a bunch of
Speaker 1: times like on the on the on the time he
Speaker 1: will run back, you know, or or he'll both full
Speaker 1: hopfull speedback and transition. He'll do his job right, He'll
Speaker 1: he'll cover the rim and then like someone will run
Speaker 1: to the rim with him and the other team gets
Speaker 1: the open three and you can see him just put
Speaker 1: his hands on his head, or he'll look at the
Speaker 1: bench and he'll be frustrated. And you know, that's all
Speaker 1: human elements stuff, man, And to me, like Lebron best
Speaker 1: player in the world stuff is like you have to
Speaker 1: win for out of seven, you know, but like all
Speaker 1: those other guys are in their prime, man, I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know. I can't expect Lebron to be Draymond
Speaker 1: an average thirty Like I can't. Maybe you know, maybe
Speaker 1: that drops him down and whatever list, but I can't
Speaker 1: get there. And this team has issues of course that
Speaker 1: you know, and Lebron is definitely a part of them.
Speaker 1: If you're going to go small, I always say, then
Speaker 1: you have to have LEBRONI gates, like there's no line there,
Speaker 1: like you you can't go small and also not be
Speaker 1: engaged and also have small guards, like like that's such
Speaker 1: a that's a combination for failure, Like it's a combination
Speaker 1: for failure, and we've hit that breaking point. Teams I've
Speaker 1: understood how to play us. Now, teams are driving to
Speaker 1: the rim. You know, every single time we have zero
Speaker 1: point of attack defense that is able to stay up
Speaker 1: to a even baseline level. Go watch that Sacramento game
Speaker 1: man Darren Fox Halburn straight line drives every single time.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure should Lebron be coming over every single
Speaker 1: time like job in that spot? It? No, for sure,
Speaker 1: but I mean can you do that? And what do
Speaker 1: you still put up? I think what do you put
Speaker 1: up in that game thirty Can you still do that?
Speaker 1: I would never sure, but my question to you like,
Speaker 1: can you put up the thirty five and also cover
Speaker 1: you know, at the river? Can you do that for
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks? And then he just stopped. But
Speaker 1: maybe he doesn't need to be Raymond Green. Maybe he
Speaker 1: doesn't need to be Draymond Green. Yeah, but he and
Speaker 1: the scheme part is another part of this to Roge,
Speaker 1: because maybe schematically you can't have Lebron played Draymond Green.
Speaker 1: That maybe you need to do a ton more switching
Speaker 1: as opposed to traditionally helping helping recover heads and recover
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, like we might have to shift
Speaker 1: defensively to a defensive scheme more like what Brooklyn was
Speaker 1: using when they would go small, but then you can't stop.
Speaker 1: But then Jason, you can't start. You're gonna switch every
Speaker 1: so yeah, so that's why I'm on the restart. I
Speaker 1: think you have to switch more. I think it also
Speaker 1: induces to what Russell Westbrook better at as well. It
Speaker 1: keeps Russell Westbrook more in like a inline traditional switch
Speaker 1: instead of having to chase over or chase guys on
Speaker 1: screens or being a drop coverage, you know, like that's
Speaker 1: all stuff that's not And he said that like you
Speaker 1: want to do on the floor. So I'd rather way
Speaker 1: more go switching. I think that could help Lebron to
Speaker 1: I'm there, all right, rog, Well, we're gonna get you
Speaker 1: out of here. See you go hang out with your friends. Uh,
Speaker 1: we will do either we'll either squeeze one in tomorrow
Speaker 1: or we'll do it after the next game. I'm actually
Speaker 1: not sure when the next game is. Let me check
Speaker 1: really quick, but we will. We will definitely on the
Speaker 1: next show dive into the rusting because I said on
Speaker 1: the Thursday pod that I think the Lakers should trade him,
Speaker 1: and we haven't really had a chance to get to
Speaker 1: the bottom of that the two of us and I'm
Speaker 1: sure will continue. He's not going anywhere so at home
Speaker 1: against the Jazz on Monday night. So so yeah, so
Speaker 1: we'll depending on how that games go, that games goes,
Speaker 1: game goes, we'll try to get to it, but you
Speaker 1: go finish, finish, hanging out with your friends. Guys. This
Speaker 1: is gonna be on dash Radio on Monday morning at
Speaker 1: seven am Pacific Standard time, and we'll also be on
Speaker 1: our podcast feed here in about twenty minutes. As always,
Speaker 1: we appreciate your support and we'll either see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We're on Monday. Thanks to everyone. Have a great night.
Speaker 1: H