Speaker 1: Mmmmm, all right, Welcome to the State of the Lakers
Speaker 1: post game show after yet another restorating game. Although they
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, man, I'm feeling weirdly positive
Speaker 1: after this one. I know that sounds insane to say, um,
Speaker 1: and it has nothing to do with the comeback, which
Speaker 1: I think you and I will get into. But first
Speaker 1: of all, I sincerely appreciate you on short notice coming
Speaker 1: to hop On tonight while ROJ is partying listening to
Speaker 1: E d M music doing god knows what else. I know.
Speaker 1: I think where is it. He's in Vegas right now,
Speaker 1: these dudes doing something some some some dim festival. I'm glad.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that I could fill uh Phil Roger's seat,
Speaker 1: and I'll i'll try to do my best to fill
Speaker 1: his role for for this episode, this post game. I
Speaker 1: appreciate it, man, um. So you know, obviously, as things
Speaker 1: were progressing in the game, it was extremely frustrating, but
Speaker 1: I kept trying to compartmentalize it by acknowledging you know
Speaker 1: where things went off the rails, and you actually did
Speaker 1: a good job of calling this out as well. But
Speaker 1: I feel like the Lakers lost their focus in the
Speaker 1: second quarter and when you do that against the team
Speaker 1: as good as Phoenix, with the continuity that they have
Speaker 1: and at the level that they're playing right now, things
Speaker 1: can get out of control pretty quickly. And I that
Speaker 1: my impression was that it kind of started with those
Speaker 1: bad three point shot fouls, and I genuinely believe they
Speaker 1: were bad calls that said, you can't let a bad
Speaker 1: call in the second quarter get that far into your head.
Speaker 1: And then you you brought up the fact that Chris
Speaker 1: Paul at that point kind of smell blood or you know,
Speaker 1: picked up on what was happening and just went to
Speaker 1: the kill. And during that stretch he was magnificent. So
Speaker 1: do you want to talk about what you noticed in
Speaker 1: that stretch? Yeah, So, I mean, I think the turning
Speaker 1: point of this game is when Chris Paul got into
Speaker 1: his generational troll bag and just started baiting the Lakers
Speaker 1: into just you know, like stupid fouls. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: he started doing a lot of stuff that he kind
Speaker 1: of does when and you know, it's it's one of
Speaker 1: the things that makes him the player that he is.
Speaker 1: Like he he always had a pretty good uh finger
Speaker 1: on like the pulse of the game and how the
Speaker 1: revs are calling the game and stuff I got, and
Speaker 1: I thought he was working really hard to get calls. Um.
Speaker 1: I was shocked at some of the calls that he
Speaker 1: was getting UM, but he was getting him and I
Speaker 1: think it completely took the Lakers out of it. And um,
Speaker 1: it's I think what you just described, like Crowder getting
Speaker 1: that flavrant foul onbron Um. I think Chris Paul drew
Speaker 1: another three point file just a little bit later. I
Speaker 1: think I'm mellow or something I got. Like it just
Speaker 1: that completely put the Lakers in a funk. And I
Speaker 1: don't think the Lakers ever kind of recovered from it
Speaker 1: because they probably thought there was a lot of fifty
Speaker 1: fifty calls they weren't getting UM on the opposite end.
Speaker 1: And I mean, you you played basketball. I haven't played
Speaker 1: same little basketball you have. I played a high school.
Speaker 1: But like that kind of stuff, when you're not getting
Speaker 1: calls in urine and then the other team it seems
Speaker 1: like they're getting all the calls that you kind of
Speaker 1: can seep in um to the psyche of your team
Speaker 1: for the game. And I thought the Lakers just pretty
Speaker 1: much completely lost focus at that point. And then you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's waited out like after a halftime. I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, either the Lakers are gonna cut
Speaker 1: this lead in half, like within the first six minutes
Speaker 1: of the game, where are they gonna get blown out?
Speaker 1: And that's you know, it went in the opposite direction, um,
Speaker 1: towards the blowout. So it's kind of what I expected
Speaker 1: to have. Yeah, you know, it was interesting because during
Speaker 1: that stretch simultaneous because you have to think, how could
Speaker 1: it go so bad so fast? Right because they were up.
Speaker 1: You despite all of the things that I complained about
Speaker 1: with the Laker offense, which we will get to and
Speaker 1: they are still legitimate concerns having to do with spacing,
Speaker 1: um and you. You and I were uh in a
Speaker 1: direct message kind of talking about what we were viewing
Speaker 1: as the main talking points from this game, and we
Speaker 1: will get into those. But the you know, during that
Speaker 1: stretch when the Lakers up, there was a lot of
Speaker 1: good for starters. I thought Russ looked fantastic with exception
Speaker 1: of a couple of bad jump shots. He did a
Speaker 1: really good job, in my opinion, defensively putting his physical
Speaker 1: imprint on the game. And and looks like what this
Speaker 1: version of Russ with this team could look like in
Speaker 1: a good capacity, and to Phoenix's credit, the way it
Speaker 1: went off the rail so fast. In addition to the
Speaker 1: Lakers losing their focus, they were extremely dialed in on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor, disrupting everything around the
Speaker 1: paint in terms of passes and drives and in rotations.
Speaker 1: And Michail Bridges had this stretch there in that quarter
Speaker 1: where defensively he was just like an octopus just getting
Speaker 1: his hands on everything. And so I wanted to start
Speaker 1: by just giving Phoenix credit during that stretch they just
Speaker 1: played magnificent basketball. And the Lakers right now are not
Speaker 1: playing good basketball. They haven't played good basketball through these
Speaker 1: through the entire preseason and really for most still these
Speaker 1: two regular season games. So inevitably, when you let your
Speaker 1: focus off, the team that is dialed in, the team
Speaker 1: that has the continuity, the team that's playing good basketball
Speaker 1: is going to put you out of your misery pretty quickly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's pretty consistent, right, And so like the
Speaker 1: opening game, uh, they play the Warriors, who have a
Speaker 1: decent amount of turnover themselves on their roster, and so
Speaker 1: we saw the Lakers kind of pretty much be in
Speaker 1: control of the game even though it kind of it
Speaker 1: was like a game of runs. I think Rogers that's
Speaker 1: the thing that he's called a while back. Like it's just, uh,
Speaker 1: the game was always like seven points eight points, seven
Speaker 1: points eight points, Warriors cut into the lead, Lakers extended out.
Speaker 1: It never really turned into like blowout territory or big
Speaker 1: double digit territory. And then eventually towards the end of
Speaker 1: the game, um, you know, Warriors went small and they
Speaker 1: kind of took the lead and then they never never
Speaker 1: gave it back up. So like you could see the Lakers,
Speaker 1: a team with no continuity matching up with another team's
Speaker 1: no continuity and just you know, talented scheme kind of
Speaker 1: working out and they lose it in the end. But
Speaker 1: then the Lakers this and they play against the team
Speaker 1: that has a lot of continuity from from you know,
Speaker 1: everything that they did last season. Most of that roster,
Speaker 1: the core of that roster is pretty intact, so they
Speaker 1: know what they have going. Um. But even then, you know,
Speaker 1: like it was kind of good to see Russ start
Speaker 1: this game off pretty well. Um despite the two big
Speaker 1: starting which I know that you mentioned we're gonna get
Speaker 1: into later, but and Braun again, you know, like I
Speaker 1: think I've mentioned this when I kind of jumped on
Speaker 1: just to offer some comments last time, when you rodg
Speaker 1: Rod Braunze, shot quality is so good, Like some of
Speaker 1: these threes he's taking ore like wide wide open. Some
Speaker 1: of the midrange shots he's taking their wide open. It's
Speaker 1: his quality. Shot quality is so good. So it's just
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that that continues to stay there and everybody
Speaker 1: else starts figuring things out. But you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's going to be a learning process. Like I don't
Speaker 1: know what the Lakers record is going to be. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm saving a lot of my thoughts to to see
Speaker 1: what Vogel does with these lineups. But he made some
Speaker 1: changes um in this game lineup wise that I thought
Speaker 1: were good compared to the last game, and and they
Speaker 1: looked pretty good to me. Yeah, he waited a lot
Speaker 1: longer to go to Rondo, who knows that his first
Speaker 1: stub off the bench was Molik monk Uh in general.
Speaker 1: You know, So this is something you said to me
Speaker 1: in the direct message, which I thought was super fascinating
Speaker 1: because it's something that I've been harping on this entire
Speaker 1: suming this idea. I was it was the one article
Speaker 1: I wrote on the on the blog that I started
Speaker 1: that I said I was going to write occasionally, and
Speaker 1: occasionally it has turned out to do once. So the
Speaker 1: article I wrote was about just modern basketball, and you know,
Speaker 1: the way that the smartest minds in the NBA right
Speaker 1: now approached the game and looking past all the scheme stuff,
Speaker 1: because you can get convoluted into all sorts of stuff
Speaker 1: having to do with specific actions and the things they
Speaker 1: do off the ball and the things that you want
Speaker 1: the ball and blah blah blah blah blah. But the
Speaker 1: gist of it is what Phoenix is doing. You've got
Speaker 1: your primary creators. There's three of them on the team.
Speaker 1: They run everything through campaign, Chris Paul and Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: and every single one of their actions involves getting one
Speaker 1: of them in advantage, usually involving some sort of either
Speaker 1: off ball screen or on ball screen, and then from
Speaker 1: there they space the floor and and because of that,
Speaker 1: everything they get is easy. And what's frustrating for me
Speaker 1: watching this Laker team, especially, you know, with the lineups
Speaker 1: that Frank has opted to go with in these first
Speaker 1: two games, is the Stars are not getting those same
Speaker 1: opportunities you know, uh Pete from like a film room,
Speaker 1: you know, as obsessive as he is, which is such
Speaker 1: a blessing because he does a lot of the dirty
Speaker 1: work for us. He charts all these possessions out and
Speaker 1: he charted and realized that in the first game, the
Speaker 1: starting lineup in the half court attempted fourteen shots and
Speaker 1: attempted two shots at the rim. And fortunately, um we
Speaker 1: can interpret from that that the spacing leads them to
Speaker 1: become jump shooters, and that happened again tonight by my account,
Speaker 1: that russ drive to the basket where he got free throws,
Speaker 1: which was on like their seventh or eighth possession of
Speaker 1: the game, was their first attempt in the paint. Everything
Speaker 1: else was a jump shot. That's just what you're going
Speaker 1: to get when you put those guys in a position
Speaker 1: where they can't get an advantage because of the way
Speaker 1: the defense is loading up on them. And so what
Speaker 1: I'd like to see is, like what you saw there
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter, you space the floor and everything
Speaker 1: just starts with getting the ball in your best players
Speaker 1: hands with an advantage. From there, everything will be easier.
Speaker 1: Guys will be in a better rhythm. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's a coincidence that Anthony Davis in two of his
Speaker 1: last three games, including that preseason game against the Kings,
Speaker 1: looked awful because he's not getting easy looks at the ring.
Speaker 1: I do think those things are related, and I think
Speaker 1: that that's all part of the living organism of a
Speaker 1: basketball game, and it's the part that's getting ignored as
Speaker 1: Frank heavily favor size and heavily favors you know that
Speaker 1: that defensive mentality at the expense of the of the
Speaker 1: rhythm and focus, the rhythm and confidence of his stars. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm on board with you. Um So, So there's actually
Speaker 1: one thing that I just kind of I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about, and um you know, a lot of the
Speaker 1: conversation that's been going on by by very very smart folks,
Speaker 1: Laker fans and non Laker fans, just very smart folks
Speaker 1: around basketball has been around that this idea that you
Speaker 1: present that you're mentioning right now, right like spacing the
Speaker 1: floor out giving giving your best players in the advantage
Speaker 1: to play, is important. Um But but I think as
Speaker 1: it relates to like the Lakers, one of the things
Speaker 1: that I'm seeing a lot on the timeline is well, well,
Speaker 1: you've got to do it for Russ. You've got to
Speaker 1: do it for Russ. You've gotta do it for Russ.
Speaker 1: And the thing that I think folks are the only
Speaker 1: thing I want to like suggest to folks is it's
Speaker 1: not about just Russ. This is the direction, like if
Speaker 1: we had Dennis Schroder, or if we had like I
Speaker 1: don't know, even if we had like Chris Paul in
Speaker 1: Russ's position. This is the direction that NBA offenses are
Speaker 1: going in. This is this is separate from Russ all together.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter whether he's on a roster or not.
Speaker 1: Spacing the floor is absolutely necessary. And so the reason
Speaker 1: why I'm saying this is because we've what maybe about
Speaker 1: three three days where the games come through, right, And
Speaker 1: I watched a couple. I watched the Nets games because
Speaker 1: they were they were the early game before the Laker games. Um.
Speaker 1: I watched the Atlanta game. I watched that Clippers Warriors
Speaker 1: game last night, and I was absolutely fascinated at the
Speaker 1: fact that both teams at one point we're running almost
Speaker 1: four guards, like four maybe like six five or shorter
Speaker 1: kind of guards ball handlers, and they'd run like a
Speaker 1: like a single you know, high motor, rebounding wing and
Speaker 1: when I saw that, and you know, obviously some of
Speaker 1: that's playing the game of chess Tyrone Lou playing chess
Speaker 1: um against Steve Kerr and just trying to match up
Speaker 1: and stuff I got. But what was happening is those
Speaker 1: teams were trying to match up like not just space,
Speaker 1: but they're trying to match up like the speed that's
Speaker 1: on the floor. Like if you watched the Laker game,
Speaker 1: you saw a couple of you saw a couple of
Speaker 1: possessions where the Sun's just got out faster than the
Speaker 1: Lakers could, you know, in transition, and they got to
Speaker 1: eat like I think I want to want to. I
Speaker 1: think Michael uh, Michael Bridge has probably had like what
Speaker 1: two or three just kind of wide open dunk's just
Speaker 1: kind of running the outlet or something. My gut so
Speaker 1: that that there's there's a um. The thing with the
Speaker 1: two bigs is not just a Vogel thing or or
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook thing. This is a this is the direction
Speaker 1: the NBA is going in, And I just don't know
Speaker 1: what Vogeo is sort of thinking the trade off here
Speaker 1: is because it's not making any sense to keep playing
Speaker 1: two big, So I'm just I'm just waiting to see
Speaker 1: when he adjusts. You know, I thought he played the
Speaker 1: single big with a d um after that first shift
Speaker 1: happened when they brought him link Monk and I think
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley next to Russ and the ad went to
Speaker 1: the five, and that looked really good. Uh that you
Speaker 1: know that the ball was moving, there was good shots
Speaker 1: coming out. Um, but you know they need more reps.
Speaker 1: I just I don't know about the two bigs things,
Speaker 1: Like I'm not seeing in any game that I've seen
Speaker 1: so far this season, I have not seen any team
Speaker 1: run two bigs successfully, like just dominating another team with
Speaker 1: two bigs, And you know, it's it's just interesting to see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: even if you're like, as a Laker fan, when you
Speaker 1: see the Keevan Moone starting, aren't you thrilled? You're excited?
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, thank god they're playing Keevan Like it's
Speaker 1: an advantage that you're that they're basically playing into your hands.
Speaker 1: And I love what you brought up about the speed
Speaker 1: thing because it reminds me a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: what's happening in the NFL. You know, like, for instance,
Speaker 1: a linebacker fifteen years ago was Brian or Lacker, you know,
Speaker 1: this giant mountain of a human being who stopped everything
Speaker 1: inside that that that came his way. And now the
Speaker 1: successful linebacker in the NFL is Micah Parsons. You know,
Speaker 1: this smaller six one six two ish type of speedy
Speaker 1: like range e. It's almost like a hybrid between a
Speaker 1: cornerback and the linebacker. That that is the evolution of
Speaker 1: the game that the Cowboys you know, read in advance
Speaker 1: and made a really smart draft pick and it's helping
Speaker 1: them win games. And that that to me is like
Speaker 1: you're either going to be on the right side of
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, but you're gonna be on the
Speaker 1: wrong side of that kind of stuff. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of discouraging because do you guys remember uh
Speaker 1: Frank's first interview when he was like, we're going to
Speaker 1: take an analytical outside in approach and he said all
Speaker 1: he said all the right. He sounded like that modern
Speaker 1: basketball mind that we desperately wanted after the Luke Walton experience, right,
Speaker 1: And it's been kind of discouraging because at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, the way the way that Frank looks
Speaker 1: at it, it seems to me at least that at
Speaker 1: the he's obsessed with a certain amount of of that
Speaker 1: rim deterrence right and then. But the point is is
Speaker 1: it only worked in because he had these guards that
Speaker 1: were really willing to put in the work to get
Speaker 1: over the top of screens, chase guys off the three
Speaker 1: point line and close out, rotate in that chaos and
Speaker 1: funnel everybody inside. But this year right now, so far,
Speaker 1: at least the guard corps hasn't been able to hold
Speaker 1: up there and of the bargain, so now we just
Speaker 1: look slow. So at a certain point you have to
Speaker 1: adapt and and and call an audible here. And I'm
Speaker 1: with you, like just and one of my biggest beefs
Speaker 1: with the whole thing is all these people that say, hey,
Speaker 1: when you ditch DeAndre Jordan or you ditch Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: as the center, you have rebounding problems, you have size problems. Bullshit.
Speaker 1: You have Lebron James and Anthony Davis in the front court.
Speaker 1: But maybe maybe Brook, Lopez and Janice are the only
Speaker 1: other front court in the league that's bigger like they,
Speaker 1: and Russell Westbrook is like a center version of a guard.
Speaker 1: So they absolutely can handle the physical responsibilities of a
Speaker 1: five man lineup with those three on the floor without
Speaker 1: a center, and so it's actively handicapping them. And by
Speaker 1: the way, DeAndre Jordan plus four again tonight. So yeah,
Speaker 1: on Opening night in plus four, what would that have
Speaker 1: been if it was not anybody else? Okay, So that
Speaker 1: I saw somebody tweet that, so I thought that was Larrius, right,
Speaker 1: So I get I get that, right, I understand why
Speaker 1: it's plus two and plus four. But if we if
Speaker 1: you rewatch the starts of those games, right, and you
Speaker 1: look at how how both those games started. Lebron starts
Speaker 1: off super hot against the Warriors at the beginning of
Speaker 1: that first game, right, so that first ship that DeAndre
Speaker 1: is part of, before he leaves the floor, the Lakers
Speaker 1: are up like ten or something, I forgot what they
Speaker 1: were up against the Warriors, something like that. They had
Speaker 1: a pretty decent lead, and then he'll he doesn't come
Speaker 1: back into the game until way, you know, basically the
Speaker 1: second half. So that number is always misleading because it's
Speaker 1: really big because of the first shift, and then the
Speaker 1: first shift to the second half, it gets you know,
Speaker 1: slightly cut into because you know, eventually Vogan will be
Speaker 1: a little bit quick with the rotation change, so it's
Speaker 1: a plus two and then and then this game, this
Speaker 1: game is like literally the same thing, right, Like Russ
Speaker 1: starts off really well, Um, Phoenix doesn't start off very well.
Speaker 1: And this is a separate conversation, but our separate topic.
Speaker 1: But Phoenix had very very good looks at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the game and in the mid range, especially Booker.
Speaker 1: He just missed them. That's all. It was. Like DeAndre
Speaker 1: was DeAndre wasn't challenging him, Nobody was getting in front
Speaker 1: of him. Him and Chris Paul had really good looks
Speaker 1: and they were just really not to not to cut
Speaker 1: you off. Remember how good the look Step got in
Speaker 1: the first quarter of the opening night game. Those were
Speaker 1: fantastic looks that he just missed right exactly, and so
Speaker 1: and so it's it's misleading because you're if you're just
Speaker 1: looking at the box score at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: you're like, well, well, hold on the second why DeAndre
Speaker 1: looks so good? Or if Frank Vogo is doing this,
Speaker 1: which I hope he's not doing, if he's looking at
Speaker 1: the box score and saying that DeAndre looked good, like
Speaker 1: you have to look at the film and see that
Speaker 1: the shot quality that the opposing team was getting was
Speaker 1: really good. They just weren't making him. So then that's
Speaker 1: how I knew, Like towards in the second half of
Speaker 1: the game, I was like, at some point, Chris Paul
Speaker 1: is just going to start making all these been range
Speaker 1: shots because he's gonna know that DeAndre is not going
Speaker 1: to challenge his shot, and um, that's basically what happened
Speaker 1: right in the second half, just Chris Paul kind of
Speaker 1: gets into this mode where he just goes to wherever
Speaker 1: his favorite spots are on the court. And then by
Speaker 1: the time the Leakers switched Anthony Davidson the five, Chris
Speaker 1: Paul has already got it going right, so he can't
Speaker 1: do anything. Chris Paul is gonna shoot rainbow shots, and
Speaker 1: so that's that's kind of my my concern. You're jamming
Speaker 1: up the spacing, you're jamming up the natural flow of
Speaker 1: your offense, and at the same time, the analytics are
Speaker 1: probably telling you. Even though they may be telling you
Speaker 1: that DJ is playing well, or line ups with DJ
Speaker 1: and e D are playing well, they're not because if
Speaker 1: you're watching the tape, the shot quality for the opposing
Speaker 1: team is amazing. They're just not making their shots and
Speaker 1: eventually they will. And that's basically what's happened in both
Speaker 1: of these games. So I just don't, you know, I
Speaker 1: think last year I was a little bit more lenient
Speaker 1: with Vocal when it came to this entire process, and
Speaker 1: I was just like, you know, I'm sorry. Not last year,
Speaker 1: the very very first year that he was he was hired.
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, this doesn't make sense, but
Speaker 1: I understand where he's coming from. And obviously, the Lakers
Speaker 1: won a championship last season. Because the Lakers are out
Speaker 1: of the playoffs early, I spent you know, I watched
Speaker 1: a lot of the games that the other teams are playing.
Speaker 1: I just the way the refs called the game. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, I think Laker fans were pretty pissed today
Speaker 1: that Braun wasn't getting calls at the rim, and he
Speaker 1: wasn't getting calls at the rim, especially against like smaller guys,
Speaker 1: like folks. You need to understand the direction that this
Speaker 1: the league is going in. This is what refs are
Speaker 1: going to do. If you are a smaller defender against
Speaker 1: a bigger, bigger offensive player, they're going to give you leniency.
Speaker 1: It's almost a guarantee. Now, there should be no confusion
Speaker 1: about it. So aside from the spacing stuff in the
Speaker 1: direction of the league, league is going in. The refs
Speaker 1: are not going to give you those calls anymore. Braun
Speaker 1: is not going to get collision calls anymore. They're just
Speaker 1: not gonna give it to him. And so you might
Speaker 1: as well size down and match up with a guy
Speaker 1: like Jake Powder because maybe he has a better chance
Speaker 1: than than being matched up against like a Michael Bridges
Speaker 1: or you know, whoever they whoever else they decided to
Speaker 1: play that's smaller Lebron. Yeah, it's a it's a really
Speaker 1: interesting point because you gotta like it's funny, you gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta read the tea leaves here. You gotta see
Speaker 1: what the are favoring and what they're not favoring in
Speaker 1: the death like for instance, like Lebron was really frustrated
Speaker 1: because he wasn't calls at the rim and then he
Speaker 1: tried one of those jankie three point shot fouls and
Speaker 1: it's like, dude, like they are they are actively being
Speaker 1: coached to not call that, So you're you're you're not
Speaker 1: going to get it you've got to kind of adapt
Speaker 1: in that regard these It's weird how with the and
Speaker 1: like and here's the other part two, Like, I'm frustrated
Speaker 1: with the landing space stuff, right, we all are that
Speaker 1: that was It was really annoying that Lebron closed out
Speaker 1: on Jay Crowder with the exact same close out that
Speaker 1: abdel Nader used on Russell Westbrook at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, and rust gets called for an offensive foul
Speaker 1: and and Jay Crowder gets two free throws and the
Speaker 1: ball because of a flavorant Like, it's really frustrating that
Speaker 1: that happened. But at the end of the day, to
Speaker 1: your point, from the beginning, they let that get into
Speaker 1: their head. And you can't let a call in the
Speaker 1: second quarter of a game throw you off as much
Speaker 1: as they did. But so let's let's let's try to
Speaker 1: get to some positive stuff here, because I do think,
Speaker 1: like like I said at the beginning, I am optimistic
Speaker 1: about this team in the long run. I think that
Speaker 1: basketball is a game of habits. I've always felt this way,
Speaker 1: and they are impossible to reverse overnight. And I do
Speaker 1: think it's I don't think it's a coincidence that you
Speaker 1: lose your preseason games, all six of them. Because what
Speaker 1: that means is down the roster, including your G League guys,
Speaker 1: there's a a level of accountability and a level of
Speaker 1: effort that is lacking compared to the other team. Your point,
Speaker 1: because you know, Austin Reeves is every bit as good
Speaker 1: as the G League guy on the other team, and
Speaker 1: so as Chaundy Brown and all these other guys. The
Speaker 1: differences is that team culturally in their training camp was
Speaker 1: more dialed in on that end, and it it became
Speaker 1: abundantly clear that the Lakers in those games, and it
Speaker 1: manifested into these two regular season games, just worn't as sharp.
Speaker 1: And so fortunately they are going to run into a
Speaker 1: stretch here where they're gonna get some winnable games. So
Speaker 1: they're gonna have it, They're gonna have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: try to reverse some of these habits against competition that
Speaker 1: they can still afford to make some mistakes, because again,
Speaker 1: and it's not going to happen overnight, and God willing,
Speaker 1: they'll be somewhere in that seven to two, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: six and three range when they head back into a
Speaker 1: tougher part of their schedule, so that that this is
Speaker 1: what I've been preaching about all preseason. They look terrible
Speaker 1: and that's continued here to the start. But they have
Speaker 1: time to figure this out. They're not going to get
Speaker 1: into the tough part of their schedule until you know,
Speaker 1: another couple of weeks from now. They just eventually their
Speaker 1: competitive fire has to kick in a little bit, and
Speaker 1: they did there in that fourth quarter, although Phoenix let
Speaker 1: their foot off the gas. But they need to ride
Speaker 1: that competitive way into better basketball. Yeah, Oh, it's that
Speaker 1: that competitive wave is coming sooner or later. Like I
Speaker 1: think one of one of the things that I kind
Speaker 1: of took I've been watching as opposing teams play against
Speaker 1: play against Lakers is you know, like I've seen a
Speaker 1: lot of basketball, Like in my lifetime, Lakers basketball, love
Speaker 1: a lot of basketball in general. As guys get older,
Speaker 1: like the superstar players and the star players get all there,
Speaker 1: there's always a point, you know, uh, in their career
Speaker 1: where younger players kind of come in and they and
Speaker 1: they're very disconnected from the aura and and the the
Speaker 1: like amazing nous of the player that they're playing against. Right, So,
Speaker 1: Braun maybe five years ago, seven years ago. You anybody
Speaker 1: who played against Braun always was like, wow, you know,
Speaker 1: I've I've always had a young guy playing against would
Speaker 1: be like, oh wow, you know, like I'm always wanted
Speaker 1: to bron has been my idol. I've always wanted to
Speaker 1: play against him. And there there are players that are
Speaker 1: still like that right now. But you are also going
Speaker 1: to get players like Jay Crowder. You are also going
Speaker 1: to get players like, you know, like a Jordan Pool
Speaker 1: who really don't care about who they're playing against, and
Speaker 1: they're going to bring like you know, the the the
Speaker 1: what what's this? What's the same? You know, like when
Speaker 1: you play against like a Juggernaut team and you just
Speaker 1: know you're probably not gonna win, or they've got a
Speaker 1: guy on the other team that nobody can stop, and
Speaker 1: so you're walking into that game thinking to yourself like,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe halfway like all right, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna We're probably not gonna win this game. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try my best. Like, I don't think teams look
Speaker 1: at the Lakers like that this this season, Does that
Speaker 1: make sense? Like I think this fear, Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: people look at Anthony Davis say said, all right, you
Speaker 1: know what if I if I try to bullieve this
Speaker 1: guy a little bit, maybe maybe I can win this game,
Speaker 1: you know, where they look at Braun and they say, Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe if I give him a hard file here or there,
Speaker 1: if I or if I really kind of get into
Speaker 1: space or something I got, I can make it difficult. Front.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that that these guys, you know, the
Speaker 1: Lakers just gonna fold. But I genuinely think that there's
Speaker 1: enough young players amongst all these contending teams across the
Speaker 1: league that the Lakers are going to have to run
Speaker 1: into where they're going to give the Lakers, you know,
Speaker 1: and they're not going to be afraid. You know, even
Speaker 1: if they go down ten, ten points, twelve points, it
Speaker 1: means nothing in the modern NBA. So it's like the
Speaker 1: reason I'm saying that is because we're playing who Lakers
Speaker 1: are playing Memphis the next game, Like Memphis, I think
Speaker 1: he's winning their game. Yeah, exactly. Like none of these
Speaker 1: teams that the Lakers. I know that you mentioned that
Speaker 1: there's a soft schedule, but none of these teams are
Speaker 1: looking at the Lakers, outside of maybe like the bottom
Speaker 1: five teams, Like they're not looking at the Lakers as like,
Speaker 1: oh you know what, you know, we're just gonna lose,
Speaker 1: so I'm not gonna try. Like every single one of
Speaker 1: these teams probably believes that they can be the Lakers
Speaker 1: um and they want to make a name for themselves
Speaker 1: doing it. So I think it's good because I would
Speaker 1: love to see more opposing players talk trash Lebron and
Speaker 1: talk trash d D because if they think that they're
Speaker 1: going to coast through the regular season, I don't think
Speaker 1: that's going to happen. And so that's that's that's what
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated to see how they respond. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: really good point, and and that's kind of what I
Speaker 1: like about it, is like these games are going to
Speaker 1: be close, and that's good because if you look in
Speaker 1: previous seasons, they run into these stretches of their schedule
Speaker 1: and they developed bad habits, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: These would be the parts of the schedule where they
Speaker 1: get worse, and then they'd run into a good team
Speaker 1: and they'd be like running into a freight train. Um.
Speaker 1: You know. It's funny because earlier tonight so many people
Speaker 1: were talking about how bad Brooklyn looked, and I noticed
Speaker 1: in that first game against Milwaukee that it seemed really
Speaker 1: clear to me right up front that Milwaukee was attacking
Speaker 1: that game with a playoff intensity. Meanwhile, if you watched
Speaker 1: um Brooklyn, they looked like they were kind of easing
Speaker 1: their way into it, you know, and then they got
Speaker 1: the butts kicked and they fought back and tried to
Speaker 1: get back into it, just wasn't one enough. And then
Speaker 1: again tonight, same kind of deal on the road in Philly.
Speaker 1: You know, Brooklyn, still kind of easing their way into things,
Speaker 1: and then like they get that there, find themselves down,
Speaker 1: you know, ten fifteen points throughout the game. Finally they're
Speaker 1: competitive nature kicked in, you know, right around that, I
Speaker 1: think it was that first time out of the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and they locked in and they were talented enough to
Speaker 1: overcome it because they weren't in that big of a deficit.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what happened for the Lakers tonight. They
Speaker 1: were just down by thirty. You know, it was just
Speaker 1: it was just too much for them to overcome. But
Speaker 1: the point is is like there was a clear difference
Speaker 1: in the overall intensity and focus and competitiveness and willingness
Speaker 1: to do what it takes to win between what the
Speaker 1: Warriors were doing and what the Suns were doing and
Speaker 1: what the Lakers were doing, and that gap needed to
Speaker 1: be bridged. And and even though it didn't amount to
Speaker 1: win tonight, like as we're always going to talk about
Speaker 1: with these regular season games and you play eighty two,
Speaker 1: of them were more concerned about process, were more concerned
Speaker 1: about what translates to the playoffs. The Lakers if they're
Speaker 1: if they're seven in two after this stretch and they
Speaker 1: go into Milwaukee and they are going to Portland I
Speaker 1: think is the one after that, and they go into
Speaker 1: Portland and they beat Portland's and they're eight and two,
Speaker 1: they will completely erase what happened in this week. No
Speaker 1: one will care. No one's going to care about them.
Speaker 1: Jay Crowder clowning them, No one's gonna care about you know,
Speaker 1: CP three literally turning Anthony Davis into a barbecue chicken legs, Like,
Speaker 1: no one's gonna care because they'll be eight and two
Speaker 1: and they will have just won a big game on
Speaker 1: the road. That's the way the NBA regular season works.
Speaker 1: They just need to kick that like they're like a
Speaker 1: rusty engine right now that's trying to get going to
Speaker 1: get you know what I mean? Yeah, no, that that
Speaker 1: makes sense. So I'm with you I think process. I
Speaker 1: think the regular season, especially when you have this many people, uh,
Speaker 1: new faces to the roster and stuff like that, that's
Speaker 1: that it is a process to get them integrated, figure
Speaker 1: things out and whatnot. And so obviously most of the
Speaker 1: conversation and the thought process has been around how Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook's going to integrate with the Lakers. Um. He wasn't
Speaker 1: that great the first game. He was much better this game.
Speaker 1: I thought he didn't try to force too much. But
Speaker 1: you know, he miss lamps and stuff like I that's
Speaker 1: the typical brick vick threes um that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: But he looked he looked good overall, kind of doing
Speaker 1: the Russ stuff that he does, setting up plays, putting
Speaker 1: pressure on the rim. But what what is the incremental thing?
Speaker 1: What is the thing that you need if you had
Speaker 1: to make a list of small things, right and just
Speaker 1: small things. Not not just change the lineup because that
Speaker 1: everybody's screaming for that already. You know that did not
Speaker 1: not play two bigs. But what is the small process
Speaker 1: thing that you want to see this Lakers team start
Speaker 1: doing that they have not done or or you know,
Speaker 1: maybe they did a little bit of at this time,
Speaker 1: but they need to carry it over into the next game.
Speaker 1: It's a really good question. Um, I would say pick
Speaker 1: and roll defense. So and in two on two fascetts, So,
Speaker 1: you know, you you kind of mentioned DeAndre Jordan earlier,
Speaker 1: like being uh, it might have been you who mentioned
Speaker 1: this on Twitter, but it might have been someone else.
Speaker 1: I apologize if I'm crediting the wrong person here, but
Speaker 1: there there's a difference between being in a drop coverage
Speaker 1: and being active in a drop coverage. And DeAndre Jordan
Speaker 1: has a tendency in those pick and roll coverages to
Speaker 1: just stand there with his hands out by his side
Speaker 1: and like, yeah, if you drive right into him like
Speaker 1: an idiot, that he's gonna he's gonna bother you. But
Speaker 1: but if you but like if you as far as
Speaker 1: where you're at there, in that little pocket of space
Speaker 1: there between the guy who's still caught on the screen
Speaker 1: and in the four or five ft between you and
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan's you're extremely comfortable as the ball handler. And
Speaker 1: you know, one of the things that I'd like to
Speaker 1: see is just more activity from that drop that drop
Speaker 1: coverage man to at least force him to uh force
Speaker 1: the guard to to continue to penetrate and and and
Speaker 1: possibly do something that he doesn't want to do instead
Speaker 1: of something that he's comfortable doing, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like Kawhi Leonard is one of the best in the
Speaker 1: world at this, Like he will not let you dribble
Speaker 1: comfortably outside of outside on the permiter. He's always going
Speaker 1: to be up in you trying to make you make
Speaker 1: a decision that you don't want to make, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And that's what that's what all of
Speaker 1: the pick and roll defenders on the Lakers need to
Speaker 1: do at the at the at the big position, and
Speaker 1: then the guards just need to do a better job
Speaker 1: of chasing over the top. Right now, Russ I thought
Speaker 1: did a pretty good job in the first half of
Speaker 1: this base has done a pretty good job all season
Speaker 1: so far of this. But almost everyone else on the roster,
Speaker 1: especially Rondo, especially in the league Monk, those guys are
Speaker 1: getting caught too much on that kind of thing, and
Speaker 1: that's something that they can get better at, even just
Speaker 1: incrementally over the course of the season to make that
Speaker 1: coverage work. If that makes sense. No, I think you're
Speaker 1: absolutely right. You know, the leaguers probably last season, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say last regular season with gasol Um and
Speaker 1: then eight in spots and then obviously the first season
Speaker 1: with Javail and Dwight in that in that position, Like
Speaker 1: they had very very consistent coverage I would say against
Speaker 1: the at least from the big from pick and roll,
Speaker 1: like JaVale was one of those guys where he would
Speaker 1: just straight up run up and and just basically hedge
Speaker 1: whoever was coming off of the screen because he knew
Speaker 1: he was so long. Even if you beat him off
Speaker 1: the hip, he would still try to get to your shot.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it would result in um I think he used
Speaker 1: to get called for goaltends a lot because of it,
Speaker 1: because he used to kind of miss time some of
Speaker 1: those blocks, or he'd be a little bit too late
Speaker 1: game into the blox. But he it was always consistent, right,
Speaker 1: so you always knew what javal was going to do.
Speaker 1: So the rest of his teammates knew that, all right,
Speaker 1: either JaVale is gonna, you know, make sure this guy
Speaker 1: doesn't turn in the corner, or if he does, he's
Speaker 1: gonna go for this block. So I I know where
Speaker 1: I need to be, um do I former Defensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Year. He know, like he's also much much better. Right,
Speaker 1: he can stay, he can stand in an open space
Speaker 1: against a lot of ball handlers and still you know,
Speaker 1: kind of hold his own as they're coming off off
Speaker 1: the pick and roll. I think you're absolutely right. I
Speaker 1: think DeAndre when he's put in this position, when he's
Speaker 1: put in that position, he does exactly what you're describing,
Speaker 1: which is he just kind of stands in the middle
Speaker 1: of no man's lines. So he's not in position to
Speaker 1: you know, reflecting out of you, and he's not in
Speaker 1: position to block a shot or challenge a shot with
Speaker 1: enough authority. So I agree with you. I think that
Speaker 1: should be a small process thing that that that should
Speaker 1: improve Um. One of the process things that I would
Speaker 1: like to see, uh short of improved, is um better
Speaker 1: better guard rebounding, like like Rust grabbed a couple of rebounds.
Speaker 1: But one of the things that I think I was
Speaker 1: a little happy about where I was happy to see
Speaker 1: is Um. You know, when they played League Monk today,
Speaker 1: like he was in jumping into traffic and grabbing some
Speaker 1: rebounds and then he would push it out on the break.
Speaker 1: Um when they did when he had his first shift
Speaker 1: after after at the very beginning of the game, and
Speaker 1: some of some of them. You know, like the shot
Speaker 1: quality was pretty good. Uh, you know, the guys that
Speaker 1: he was setting up. He has a little bit of
Speaker 1: an issue sometimes with like tunnel vision, like he kind
Speaker 1: of misses guys that are already standing and waiting. Um,
Speaker 1: but that's okay because he's kind of still learning, uh
Speaker 1: as the process goes. But like, um, if the Lakers
Speaker 1: are gonna play two big, so those two bigs aren't
Speaker 1: going to come out to like the mid range area
Speaker 1: to rebound the ball or the long too area to
Speaker 1: rebound the ball, and there needs to be better rebounding
Speaker 1: from that standpoint because you know, like if they're not.
Speaker 1: If if you're gonna scare teams away from taking shots
Speaker 1: at the rim, that's fine, but then you can't also
Speaker 1: let them get the long rebounds if you're forcing them
Speaker 1: into into you know, threes and jumpers. So that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff has to be cleaned up or else, like
Speaker 1: the second chance opportunities will eventually catch up to them. Um,
Speaker 1: what do you what do you what do you think
Speaker 1: about that? Do you think agree? You know who used
Speaker 1: to be really good at that was caseyp If you
Speaker 1: don't remember he used to do he always understood like
Speaker 1: the value of the defensive rebound. Uh, and understanding that
Speaker 1: the possession is worthless if you can't get insecure the
Speaker 1: rebound after it's way more valuable than the transition attempt.
Speaker 1: If that makes sense. Um, And I actually thought I'm
Speaker 1: glad you pointed out Molie because I actually thought Molie
Speaker 1: looked pretty good tonight. Um. He stopped a nub Or
Speaker 1: transition play where Chris Paul kind of had a steam
Speaker 1: had a scheme and he forced him into a fade away.
Speaker 1: He's actually blown up I think four fast breaks already
Speaker 1: this season, which is kind of wild for a thin,
Speaker 1: wiry six ft three guard. Another guy who used to
Speaker 1: do a really good job of what you're talking about
Speaker 1: is Kyle Kuzma. Kyle Kuzma used to do really good
Speaker 1: job of coming flying in from out of the play
Speaker 1: to help secure the defensive rebound. I'm with you, that's
Speaker 1: definitely something that can be incrementally approved improved. Um kind
Speaker 1: of along the same vein in terms of like something
Speaker 1: that is strategically kind of drives me insane. And I
Speaker 1: want to see if you agree with this, So like again,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul gets you on the screen, gets you on
Speaker 1: a switch. And so let's say it's you know, uh,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis for instance, because I think he made at
Speaker 1: least what three or four pull up long twos over
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. So on those plays, Anthony Davis is kind
Speaker 1: of like crawling him, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: like I kind of had him where I want him
Speaker 1: on the or I'm taking away the rim he's not
Speaker 1: getting by me, and so on the surface, it looks
Speaker 1: like good defense, right and then and then Chris Paul
Speaker 1: takes the fade away and you think, oh, like Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis did his job. He made he made Chris Paul
Speaker 1: take a tough fade away and his hand was right there,
Speaker 1: just just went in like I gotta shake the guy's hand.
Speaker 1: And my opinion on that is like Chris Paul wants that,
Speaker 1: he wants that shot. All he's doing on those weird
Speaker 1: corral dribbles is he's just getting his rhythm and getting
Speaker 1: to the point where he feels comfortable. And my thing,
Speaker 1: it kind of goes back to what I was talking
Speaker 1: about with Kawhi Leonard. There was a there was a
Speaker 1: famous game like years ago. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: guys remember I think it was Katie's last game in
Speaker 1: the last season in Golden State where he was in
Speaker 1: Toronto on the road and Golden State was down three
Speaker 1: coming out of the time out and Kevin Durant was
Speaker 1: bringing the ball up the floor and and kau I
Speaker 1: just jumped in and and made instead of letting him
Speaker 1: get comfortable, because you know, you always think of Katie
Speaker 1: taking that pull up three over Lebron, right, Like one
Speaker 1: of the critical mistakes Lebron made there is, yeah, you
Speaker 1: contested the shot, Yeah you made Katie take a pull
Speaker 1: up three, but that's the shot Katie wanted and he
Speaker 1: was comfortable, And so you have to at a certain
Speaker 1: point strategically, you gotta jump in and yeah, he might
Speaker 1: beat you off the dribble, but if he beats you
Speaker 1: off the dribble, first of all, he didn't want to
Speaker 1: do that on that play. He wanted his jump shots.
Speaker 1: So now he's he's adapting on the fly. Secondly, you
Speaker 1: put yourself in a position where your health defenders can
Speaker 1: be there and maybe you can rotate your way out
Speaker 1: of it. But just strategically, something I'd like to see teams,
Speaker 1: all teams do a better job of it is like
Speaker 1: when they get the switch and they're doing all those
Speaker 1: rhythm dribbles. You you can't just let them do that
Speaker 1: because they've won the possession at that point. At a
Speaker 1: certain point, you've got to jump the person and make
Speaker 1: them do something else, even if it's what seems like
Speaker 1: a high percentage play, just because it's not what they
Speaker 1: want to do and they're uncomfortable, it might give you
Speaker 1: a better chance of success, especially when they already have
Speaker 1: the rhythm. Like you said, Chris Paul got his rhythm
Speaker 1: at the free throw line and built his confidence and
Speaker 1: he rode that into making a bunch of contested jump shots.
Speaker 1: On the surface, it looks like good defense, but in reality,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul was comfortable and he was getting exactly what
Speaker 1: he wanted. Yeah, Chris Paul's old ass, that's what he
Speaker 1: wants to do, Like he wants to like he's old, Like, well,
Speaker 1: why do you think Lebron when he was like for
Speaker 1: the past couple of years, Like he keeps looking down
Speaker 1: at his hand, like there's a rhythm, there's a motion
Speaker 1: that these old guys get into because that's what they're
Speaker 1: most comfortable with. And Chris Paul's old ass was trying
Speaker 1: to do that all through the playoffs, and then once
Speaker 1: he ran into the box, Drew Holiday said all right,
Speaker 1: we're not doing this. We're not doing this anymore, and
Speaker 1: he started pressing him from like three quarters of the quarter.
Speaker 1: He had Chris Paul dribbling backwards for like six of
Speaker 1: those games, Like he said, I'm not gonna let you
Speaker 1: get into rhythm. So what it forced them to do
Speaker 1: was and you know, obviously this is this is the
Speaker 1: Buck series. This is different because you you game plan differently.
Speaker 1: Lakers may not game plan the same way because it's
Speaker 1: a regular season obviously, but it's when you when you
Speaker 1: press the ball handler, uh and from half court and
Speaker 1: you don't let him get comfortable and dictate which where
Speaker 1: are the screens coming up? Us like the screen the
Speaker 1: defense dictates where the screen comes from. So now deal
Speaker 1: and has to set that screen way above the three
Speaker 1: point line. So now, maybe DeAndre Jordan is not kind
Speaker 1: of confused as to what, you know, what he's supposed
Speaker 1: to do. He's not standing in no man's land or uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the a D or whoever whoever the guard is. Sorry,
Speaker 1: he can recover or switch or whatever that has to happen.
Speaker 1: But if you're just letting them dribble around and do
Speaker 1: whatever they want to do, like they're just gonna pick
Speaker 1: their spots, you know, like Devin Booker is just gonna
Speaker 1: dribble right to the free throw line like he likes to,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna pull up right and he doesn't like
Speaker 1: going left. Like Booker doesn't like going left, Chris Paul
Speaker 1: doesn't like going left, like neither of them like to
Speaker 1: go left. That's something that the Clippers scouted out in
Speaker 1: the playoffs last year, Like if you force them to
Speaker 1: go in a certain direction, you can dictate what they're
Speaker 1: you know, what decision that they're going to make. And again,
Speaker 1: like I said, it's just regular season, but you're right,
Speaker 1: like a d is the athlete, Like why are you
Speaker 1: watching this old dude just kind of tell you, you you know,
Speaker 1: dictate what kind of shot he's going to take, Like
Speaker 1: he knows that he's not going to get by you. Uh,
Speaker 1: and if he gets by you, he's probably just gonna
Speaker 1: stop short and try and draw a foul with you
Speaker 1: running into him from behind, because that's what Chris Paul does.
Speaker 1: So it's I think these kind of small things they
Speaker 1: probably get ironed out over the course of the season. Um,
Speaker 1: but you know, you bring up an interesting thing, you know, like,
Speaker 1: I'm sure that Chris Paul is shooting that jumper over
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. The highlight is going to be shared like
Speaker 1: on Twitter, right, and people are going all Adie that,
Speaker 1: you guys, sure he's the defense player here, blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff, And so what what is
Speaker 1: your thought on what a d has looked like? I
Speaker 1: let me as a specifically on the offensive end, but
Speaker 1: what do you think, what does Adie look like to
Speaker 1: you on the offensive end so far through these two games?
Speaker 1: So it's it's ironic, right, because he looked fantastic in
Speaker 1: the opening night game, but the two games sandwiching that
Speaker 1: were two of the worst games he's ever played. I
Speaker 1: think he is four for nineteen against Sacramento and then
Speaker 1: I don't remember his finals stat line from tonight. He
Speaker 1: was like, but it was bad. So the point so, uh,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis tries to build his rhythm in the same
Speaker 1: way that Kuzma tries to build his rhythm. And it's
Speaker 1: something that has always driven me nuts. It's this idea
Speaker 1: that like they go into the game, and they start
Speaker 1: by taking tough shots, and when they start going in,
Speaker 1: it's like it's like you're you're just your s O L.
Speaker 1: You're done. Like even Kyle Kuzma, he makes a couple
Speaker 1: of his tough ones to start the game, he might
Speaker 1: get you know what I mean. But but like with
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, it's like a nuclear version of that, right,
Speaker 1: Like he was just unstoppable against Golden State because he
Speaker 1: was making all of those tough, fading, leaning shots in
Speaker 1: the lane. But then when he misses him, when he
Speaker 1: misses him to start the game, there's no easy to
Speaker 1: bounce that balance that out, you know. And one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why Lebron has been so efficient throughout his
Speaker 1: entire rear, he always builds his rhythm with easy ones.
Speaker 1: They're one of the reasons why he's made a bunch
Speaker 1: of threes to start this season. Like you pointed out earlier,
Speaker 1: the shot quality is fantastic. The threes he takes are
Speaker 1: always in rhythm, in balance, uncontested, and then maybe the
Speaker 1: third or fourth one makes might be contested, but at
Speaker 1: that point he already has his rhythm. At that point.
Speaker 1: It's like Chris Paul on those little step back jump shots.
Speaker 1: He's exactly where he wants to be and he's comfortable
Speaker 1: and if that makes sense. So one of the things
Speaker 1: that I'd like to see Anthony Davis doo a better
Speaker 1: job because physically he looks great. I think that's good.
Speaker 1: Although tonight was weirdly reminiscent of game Game one where
Speaker 1: he kind of got physically pushed around a lot by
Speaker 1: eighton Um. There was that the famous one where they
Speaker 1: both got the double technicals there I think it was
Speaker 1: early fourth quarter, but even late third quarter where where
Speaker 1: got the ball deep under the basket and Eton just
Speaker 1: kind of shoved him around and didn't get the no
Speaker 1: call obviously because the rest were letting a lot of
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff go. And next thing you know,
Speaker 1: it's fallen out of bound and the balls off of
Speaker 1: him and now he's screaming at eight and he's screaming
Speaker 1: at the rest and it's like, no, man, Like the
Speaker 1: rests are letting this be physical, and you just got
Speaker 1: out physical by the third year center, you know, the
Speaker 1: the you know, the same one that you were talking
Speaker 1: trash to the other night in the preseason. So like
Speaker 1: at a certain point, you know, and some of this
Speaker 1: is on the spacing stuff. It's kind of all tied
Speaker 1: together because I do think it'd be easier for Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis to get easier shots to start the game if
Speaker 1: he wasn't playing alongside the under Jordan's But but I
Speaker 1: do get frustrated watching his process of offense. And he's
Speaker 1: so damn talented that it doesn't really affect him that much.
Speaker 1: But I do think that the next level for him
Speaker 1: is consistency, right, Like, the next level for him is
Speaker 1: almost every night looks like that Golden State game, And
Speaker 1: the best way for that to happen is to consistently
Speaker 1: build his rhythm the right way by starting with easy
Speaker 1: stuff and working his way backwards from there. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I agree with you. Um, I was going to I
Speaker 1: was going to riff on the you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know if we're playing on bringing up guests, um, but
Speaker 1: if we don't have time tonight, well guys, we're going
Speaker 1: to do guests on Sunday night after that game. We
Speaker 1: have our we're just doing hard five minute outs for
Speaker 1: dash Radio. So obviously then a ven is a different
Speaker 1: guest and Rog and I've had for a long time,
Speaker 1: so we wanted to kind of give him an opportunity to, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of talk about some stuff that we
Speaker 1: haven't talked about before. But Rog and I will both
Speaker 1: be back Sunday and we'll do guests then. So tonight
Speaker 1: we're gonna just doven A. But I do appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys for for coming in, and I appreciate you understanding,
Speaker 1: and I hope you'll come back on Sunday and request
Speaker 1: to speak then anyway, go ahead. Yeah, so so you know,
Speaker 1: I I agree with you. You know, I think, um,
Speaker 1: he he's not doing himself any favors UM when it
Speaker 1: comes to having having the second big on the floor.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's ever going to get good touches
Speaker 1: or he's ever going to get good looks um with
Speaker 1: if IF as long as they continue to run UM
Speaker 1: two bigs to start games, because it's just really really
Speaker 1: hard between asking Russ to attack the rim to collapse
Speaker 1: the paint. Bron You know, Brons look great because he's
Speaker 1: making all these open threes, but it's just like where, now,
Speaker 1: where where do a d S shots come from? Right?
Speaker 1: He's not in the dunker spot. He's either standing in
Speaker 1: the corner. He's not the one who's making the screens
Speaker 1: for Russ, like he's not involved in the offense and
Speaker 1: the way you want, like maybe you run a couple
Speaker 1: of picking pop plays, because you can't run a pick
Speaker 1: and role play with DeAndre, there's going to be a
Speaker 1: second guy available. So it's just there's a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: I think his offense is suffering because of the two
Speaker 1: bigs and uh, you know, I know there's a tug
Speaker 1: of war on on Twitter about you know, is it Vogel,
Speaker 1: is it a d um, you know, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: I think his offense is suffering the most because of
Speaker 1: it because and and you know, one of the things
Speaker 1: I talked about in the off season, or I was
Speaker 1: kind of trying to mention the offseason, is that if
Speaker 1: the Lakers size down and he plays the five, there's
Speaker 1: more opportunity for him to get more picking pops and
Speaker 1: there's more opportunity for him to get like easy how
Speaker 1: you attempts or you know, one of those rusts collapses
Speaker 1: the paint and kind of drops it off to him
Speaker 1: and he has to kind of finish through somebody like
Speaker 1: something that to to help him get like sort of
Speaker 1: a lather as it relates to what it is maybe
Speaker 1: he gets a couple of quick early fouls so that
Speaker 1: he can get to the free throw line and find
Speaker 1: his jump shot a little bit earlier. Stuff I got.
Speaker 1: It's it's I think, the two big thing. More than
Speaker 1: it's hurting Russ, it's hurting a D because it's allowing
Speaker 1: him to do exactly what you're describing, which is he
Speaker 1: takes a bunch of jump shots which were probably low
Speaker 1: quality jump shots because you know that everybody on defense
Speaker 1: just standing around, everybody offense is just standing around, and
Speaker 1: they're not good quality jump shots. And if he makes him,
Speaker 1: that's great. You know, we get a start like the
Speaker 1: Warriors game where we're like, Wow, Anthony James is back,
Speaker 1: or we get games like or we get games like
Speaker 1: this one where it just doesn't look good, you know.
Speaker 1: And there was a point where I want to say,
Speaker 1: at the beginning game, they ran a pick and roll
Speaker 1: with a D and he did like a pick and
Speaker 1: pop jumper at the free throw line, which he made
Speaker 1: and it looked great. I was like, oh wow, it
Speaker 1: looks like DeAndre Atan is not going to step out
Speaker 1: on these. They should just keep running this over and
Speaker 1: over again. And then they like never ran any and
Speaker 1: I was just like, okay, like I don't understand, like
Speaker 1: what's going you know, So that that's what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say, Like it doesn't there's no consistency when you
Speaker 1: have two bigs on the floor, so it hurts your
Speaker 1: offensive players the most. So you're taking away Russell's ability
Speaker 1: to attack, uh you know, get the first step on
Speaker 1: his guy and attack the paint. And now you're also
Speaker 1: making it difficult for a D to do anything with
Speaker 1: the ball. And when it's in his hand, Braun can
Speaker 1: shoot the ship out of the ball. So it's not
Speaker 1: gonna matter. He'll be fine, it won't. It won't be
Speaker 1: a big deal at all. Um. So that I'm my
Speaker 1: concern with a D on the defensive end is not
Speaker 1: just that that big, because I think once his conditioning
Speaker 1: gets there and stuff, I got some of the some
Speaker 1: of the silly stuff that he's getting cooked for and
Speaker 1: it'll go away eventually. My concern is genuinely on the
Speaker 1: offensive end with him, like he has to be he
Speaker 1: has to be good, like we can't. These last two games,
Speaker 1: Lebron has been great, like great to his standard, and
Speaker 1: he's doing in a way that I did not expect
Speaker 1: him to do, which is was just with the three ball.
Speaker 1: Like I did not expect Braun to be taking as
Speaker 1: many threes to start games as he has, but he has,
Speaker 1: and he's been doing really well. I need a D
Speaker 1: to build some consistency. And uh, you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna lie. I know the Laker fans probably don't want
Speaker 1: to see the Lakers start off, you know, like oh
Speaker 1: and three on four and five. But if that's the
Speaker 1: way that we get an a D at the five lineup,
Speaker 1: like I'd rather they lose, because I honestly think that's
Speaker 1: the only way the Lakers are going to win. Like
Speaker 1: a D has to be committed to playing that five
Speaker 1: position at least to start the games. Like flip the rotation,
Speaker 1: start a D at the five and then go into
Speaker 1: the two bigs or whatever it is you want to
Speaker 1: do against opposing benches and end the first quarter. Because
Speaker 1: a D and Dwight actually have a weird defensive like
Speaker 1: like craziness to them. That's hard for other teams score on. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't don't. Don't start with the two biggs. Jump start
Speaker 1: your offense by playing a space lineup and then grind
Speaker 1: the game down to a halt against opposing benches, but
Speaker 1: don't don't do it the other way, because I think
Speaker 1: when they I think teams have already kind of scouted
Speaker 1: the Lakers out because Voco hasn't really changed very much
Speaker 1: of his philosophy, and they kind of know how they
Speaker 1: want to approach these games. So like, uh, who does
Speaker 1: Memphis having Memphis has Steven Adams right, like he's a trip. Now,
Speaker 1: this is three games now, folks, Like, for anybody's listening,
Speaker 1: we've had Kavan Looney, we have DeAndre, and we've had
Speaker 1: Steven Adams. If they go with two bigs again, you're
Speaker 1: going to see very very similar stuff. You're going to
Speaker 1: see the four guys space it out. So a D
Speaker 1: can't help help on defense for DeAndre. If DeAndre gets
Speaker 1: pulled away and you're going to see like the same
Speaker 1: sort of thing happened, Lebron will probably get really good shots.
Speaker 1: Russ may look good too as well, But we don't
Speaker 1: know a version of a D we're gonna get because
Speaker 1: we're running two bigs. That's that's uh, that's that's probably
Speaker 1: the one thing that's on my mind more than anything
Speaker 1: at all. I'm so glad you did such a good
Speaker 1: job of breaking that down, and I sincerely appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I first of all, thank you again for hopping on here.
Speaker 1: I really enjoy having you on when you do have
Speaker 1: the time for it. You it's such a good job
Speaker 1: of breaking it down, because it's so you know, my
Speaker 1: biggest beef with the analytics community has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with analytics. It has to do with the fact that
Speaker 1: they kind of disconnect. They try to take away the
Speaker 1: organic elements of basketball, because there are organic elements of basketball.
Speaker 1: They're they're they're meaning like, it's not no two shots
Speaker 1: are the same. It's the easiest way that I could
Speaker 1: break it down, okay, And it's really the simple. Okay.
Speaker 1: So I've been playing basketball the vast majority of my life,
Speaker 1: and and some days when I play, I shoot well,
Speaker 1: and some days when I play, I don't. Now, you
Speaker 1: can try to associate that with just luck, but I
Speaker 1: don't see it that way. It's usually a culmination of
Speaker 1: a bunch of factors. Okay. Sometimes it's just somebody who
Speaker 1: does a really good job guarding me. Sometimes it's bad
Speaker 1: process on my part. Sometimes it's you know, some Jankee
Speaker 1: zone that just throws you out of your rhythm. Or
Speaker 1: whatever it is. But the bottom line is, there's like
Speaker 1: a there's a like a natural organic flow to a
Speaker 1: basketball game. And the way you start is the is
Speaker 1: the is always going to be that first step in
Speaker 1: whatever direction you're going in. You know, like the russ
Speaker 1: had a horrible, horrible game on on Tuesday night, but
Speaker 1: it started with a jankee you know, ugly offense type
Speaker 1: of flow in in in that first stint, with those starters,
Speaker 1: and I genuinely believe, even if it hurts you with
Speaker 1: your defensive rating, even if it hurts you in terms
Speaker 1: of uh rebounding, even if it hurts you in in
Speaker 1: in a handful of these different even if other teams
Speaker 1: had more points in the paint, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: Phoenix absolutely destroyed us in the paint in the first half,
Speaker 1: despite us playing Deandretan and Dwight Howard and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: for large portions of that. So you couldn't tell me
Speaker 1: that has anything to do with it. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, and you could sacrifice a bunch
Speaker 1: of those things, but you could tell me that Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis would be more confident after every one of his
Speaker 1: first stints. I would take it because At the end
Speaker 1: of the day, this team goes as far as Lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis take them, and the only way that
Speaker 1: they will consistently play well, Lebron is gonna be Lebron.
Speaker 1: Lebron is one of the most consistent players in NBA history.
Speaker 1: But for Anthony Davis to be consistent, I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna have to be with him being at the five
Speaker 1: because it's the only way for him to inevitably get
Speaker 1: that organic basketball game flow headed off on the right
Speaker 1: foot every night because he has, like you said, like
Speaker 1: you cannot run a pick and roll with Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: because of the dunker DeAndre Jordan in the dunker spot,
Speaker 1: So you have to have him spot up and you
Speaker 1: have to DeAndre Jordan clump and set the screen. What
Speaker 1: if every action to start the game was Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: it was either russan a D or Lebron and Nadi
Speaker 1: or Russ and a D or Lebron in a D.
Speaker 1: Chances are he's going to get off the better starts
Speaker 1: every night. It's and it will inherently lead to better
Speaker 1: free throw shooting because he feels more confident in himself.
Speaker 1: It will in early lead to better three point shooting.
Speaker 1: It will lead to better defense. His defense suffered tonight
Speaker 1: because he was struggling, and it manifested in other areas
Speaker 1: of his game. And and and you cannot tell me
Speaker 1: till that you could present the most amazing list metrics
Speaker 1: this world has ever seen that breaks down even the
Speaker 1: most intricate basketball possessions. And you will never be able
Speaker 1: to tell me that there isn't like a living organism
Speaker 1: to the way that a basketball game progresses. And that
Speaker 1: always gets lost in these kinds of things. No, I
Speaker 1: think you're absolutely right. I think all this stuff is
Speaker 1: like incremental stuff. Um, it's all. It all contributes in
Speaker 1: small ways, you know, more touches for Anthony Davis, more
Speaker 1: consistent touches in a role for Anthony Davis, like stuff
Speaker 1: like that, you know, allowing people to slot into the
Speaker 1: positions that they have. My thing is this, like, what
Speaker 1: do you have to lose in the regular season if
Speaker 1: if we're going to step back, if we're going to
Speaker 1: step back as Laker fans and say that, look, the
Speaker 1: regular season doesn't matter. It's a process. We have to
Speaker 1: learn to be the best team that we can and
Speaker 1: the good habits so that going into the playoffs, were
Speaker 1: locked in and we know what we are, just like
Speaker 1: we did two years ago, just like we did last year,
Speaker 1: which which is why we survived, you know, not having
Speaker 1: brought any of either. Then what is the harm in
Speaker 1: doing it now? There's no harm in trying it now.
Speaker 1: And if it if it fails, if it sucks, then okay,
Speaker 1: then you go back to the drawing board and you
Speaker 1: do it different. Yeah exactly, But now we also but
Speaker 1: now we have two years, two years and two games,
Speaker 1: you know, or not two full years obviously, but we
Speaker 1: have a lot of games of seeing this not work,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And I don't know what
Speaker 1: more Vocal needs to see or Anthony Davis needs to see,
Speaker 1: or if it's a wear and tear thing, like look,
Speaker 1: if Anthony Davis says, look, it's too much wear and
Speaker 1: tear on my body to play the five, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: miss possessions, I won't get the defense rebounds, all right,
Speaker 1: cool man, Like, let's give up more offensive rebounds. We
Speaker 1: can look at it in film and we can tell
Speaker 1: the rest of the guards, and we can tell Lebroun, like,
Speaker 1: hey help him out, help him rebound the ball and
Speaker 1: stuff like that because he can't do it himself. But
Speaker 1: how do we come to that conclusion if we don't
Speaker 1: actually see it happened, right, It can't all just be
Speaker 1: hyd pothetical conversations. And so I'm just curious to see
Speaker 1: this this this game on Sunday. Um, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: another traditional five, and I won't be surprised of Vogel
Speaker 1: plays two bigs yet again. I just I don't know
Speaker 1: what's going to happen, um, because I think it's a
Speaker 1: little bit of fool's gold some that those lineups kind
Speaker 1: of start off really well because we kind of see
Speaker 1: what happens after that. So you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: this you know conversation has been very critical, but they
Speaker 1: were definitely you know, small things that that were improving.
Speaker 1: I think the Monk plus Russ them being kind of
Speaker 1: active rebounderies in the guard position and pushing out in transition.
Speaker 1: I think that was really really good stuff and I
Speaker 1: think it's something that the leaders can build on. I
Speaker 1: hope that Austin Reeves kid gets more gets more burned,
Speaker 1: because I actually do like him and how he plays
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. He kind of fits in naturally.
Speaker 1: So you know, we'll see Uh, well, we'll eventually get there.
Speaker 1: There's you and I are both you and are both
Speaker 1: Laker optimists, and over the course of the season, it's
Speaker 1: there's a difference between frustration and like actual pessimism. Those
Speaker 1: are two completely different things, you know, And I would
Speaker 1: describe what we're feeling as frustration, which is warranted in
Speaker 1: this case. Um. But anyway, the day, I sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you taking the time to join me tonight, UM means
Speaker 1: a lot. I hope we will see you many times
Speaker 1: throughout this season when time permits. And for all of
Speaker 1: you guys who listen, thank you so much for hanging
Speaker 1: out over the course of the last hour. Roger will
Speaker 1: be back on Sunday, and hopefully we can do a
Speaker 1: show like this after a Lakers win and uh and
Speaker 1: get you guys up here to talk about something positive
Speaker 1: instead of something negative. All right, man, that I appreciate,
Speaker 1: appreciate Stubby and for ROJ hopefully he comes back sober
Speaker 1: and healthy. And you guys are good. You guys are
Speaker 1: good to go on Sunday, but you know, I appreciate it, uh,
Speaker 1: And you know, as as always, you guys continue to
Speaker 1: do great, great stuff. Where with these post games, so
Speaker 1: I always enjoy it. Thanks for n H right, everybody,
Speaker 1: have a good night.