Speaker 1: M all right, welcome to the State of the Lakers
Speaker 1: show on dash Bready. I think you guys so much
Speaker 1: to come and hang out. I am very excited tonight.
Speaker 1: This is the most excited I've been about this team
Speaker 1: all season. I know that seems crazy coming off of
Speaker 1: a loss, um, but I think there was so much
Speaker 1: good out there tonight that I think, in general, um uh,
Speaker 1: that we can probably view this as an example of
Speaker 1: something that should give us a bunch of optimism. UM.
Speaker 1: I don't want to get too far into it right away,
Speaker 1: but I just wanted to kind of set that tone
Speaker 1: from the start. Um. I felt like this was a
Speaker 1: game that the Lakers played on the road against the
Speaker 1: defending champs in Milwaukee. I just I was super rest
Speaker 1: of the team. And we're gonna get into why. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, because obviously, with the scoreboard, may seem like
Speaker 1: they didn't really have much of a chance to win,
Speaker 1: but I thought, I thought that they missed a lot
Speaker 1: of really good shots for really good shooters tonight, which
Speaker 1: if even just a few of those go the other way,
Speaker 1: this could be an entirely different outcome. So and that's
Speaker 1: just one small part of it. But I was I
Speaker 1: was really really excited. Th h tu looks freaking incredible.
Speaker 1: There's a bunch of good that we're gonna get into tonight,
Speaker 1: which excites me because Roger and I have just had
Speaker 1: to sit here and bitch and moan basically the NonStop
Speaker 1: for the last for the last month. So Roger, whore's
Speaker 1: your head at right now? Are you as optimistic as
Speaker 1: I am? Yeah? This was a good game. Like we've
Speaker 1: been begging the team not just get blown out right
Speaker 1: and again tonight a game against the defending champs. They've
Speaker 1: been struggling, but there's still they still have. Be honest,
Speaker 1: they got Chris Milton back tonight. I'd expect the Lakers
Speaker 1: to win, but they have definitely had a chance, and
Speaker 1: there was a lot of good process stuff, like you
Speaker 1: said tonight, just a lot of marginal decisions. I thought,
Speaker 1: impact of the game, some of the lineup decisions that
Speaker 1: we can kind of get into that. But Lebron's coming
Speaker 1: back Friday at least, that's that's the hopes And that
Speaker 1: was kind of the pretense going into this game. I
Speaker 1: was just kind of just want to look at some
Speaker 1: good process stuff, and I thought we saw that tonight.
Speaker 1: Janice had a crazy first half, but he also had
Speaker 1: like three threes a couple of turnaround jumpers go in.
Speaker 1: So like I thought some of the physicality we didn't match,
Speaker 1: but yeah, just a lot of good stuff, like you said,
Speaker 1: And definitely I think Taylor Horton Tucker is leading that
Speaker 1: train of positivity because man, he looks absolutely incredible. He
Speaker 1: looks he looks ready to start on this team, and
Speaker 1: that might have some issues with spacing and stuff, but
Speaker 1: if his jump shots real, man, he he to me
Speaker 1: was the lead again of the story tonight. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I think we should start with TNC as well. You know,
Speaker 1: we have kind of been on a little roller coaster
Speaker 1: back and forth with this kid about whether or not
Speaker 1: it's been worth trading him for something to buy into
Speaker 1: the you know, a title window that that we that
Speaker 1: is limited because of the age of Lebron right. And
Speaker 1: my main concern was, like, hand, this kid contribute at
Speaker 1: the level you need him to contribute to be worth it,
Speaker 1: at least enough so that you don't feel like you're
Speaker 1: one ft in and one ft out. And what it
Speaker 1: had What has ended up happening here is he's taking
Speaker 1: a leap here on both ends of the floor, like
Speaker 1: I I called him in the last podcast, Mini Kauai,
Speaker 1: And there was this thing that used to happen with
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard, especially when he was younger, where if you
Speaker 1: dribbled in front of him, it was just a disaster
Speaker 1: every time because he was just going to take the
Speaker 1: ball away from you. He had these ridiculous arms. He
Speaker 1: was really good at reaching without fouling, and we saw
Speaker 1: a lot of that tonight. He was on my notes.
Speaker 1: You may you remember, you may remember the big play
Speaker 1: at the end of the game where he ripped Drew
Speaker 1: Holiday and year half board, But throughout the entire first
Speaker 1: half of the game, he was just getting his hands
Speaker 1: on balls all over the court, off ball, in passing lanes,
Speaker 1: on ball at the point of attack, guys, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to fight over the top of the screen and
Speaker 1: roll he's coming over from behind. He's just turned into
Speaker 1: an incredibly disruptive defender, which was something that we saw happening.
Speaker 1: But we worried about whether or not he'd be able
Speaker 1: to bring enough offensively to be playable in the best
Speaker 1: Laker lineups, you know, and whether or not they'd be
Speaker 1: able to rely on him in a playoffs setting, and
Speaker 1: he seems to be significantly ahead of where he was
Speaker 1: offensively last year. I know he had a career high
Speaker 1: last game. He had twenty plus again tonight. The dude,
Speaker 1: if he gets his first step on you, there's nothing
Speaker 1: anybody can do to stop him from getting all the
Speaker 1: way to the rim because of how long his arms
Speaker 1: are and how good he is with that little scoop
Speaker 1: shot on both sides of the rim, and he's shooting
Speaker 1: well enough from the perimeter right now that he's at
Speaker 1: least every bit as much of a threat as a
Speaker 1: bays Moore, you know, or in Avery Bradley. Right, So
Speaker 1: you can very much see that that th HD is
Speaker 1: trending in the direction of being a bona fide pillar
Speaker 1: of this team, and that absolutely, without a shadow of
Speaker 1: a doubt, raises their sailing. And whatever you want to
Speaker 1: say about Russ in the trade, and whatever you want
Speaker 1: to say about what this team could have about the
Speaker 1: process that this team has gone through in the way
Speaker 1: that it's taken shape over the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: the reality of the situation is, is th HT making
Speaker 1: a leap like this makes all of that not matter,
Speaker 1: because now it's lebron in a D and th h
Speaker 1: T as this huge pillar and even if things don't
Speaker 1: pan out with Russ, which we'll talk about him later,
Speaker 1: and I actually think he's starting to kind of find
Speaker 1: his groove a little bit, and he's starting to also
Speaker 1: look great physically. But the th h T rise completely
Speaker 1: changes the ceiling of this team and I think everyone
Speaker 1: should be very excited. Yeah. Man, his decision making is
Speaker 1: at a way different level than it was even last season.
Speaker 1: Like he's driving to the rim, he's doing all these
Speaker 1: like he drives, gets in the air and then kicks
Speaker 1: it out and our shooters weren't really making shots tonight,
Speaker 1: but just his shock curation is so needed. There are
Speaker 1: plays where like Russ does a kick ahead to th
Speaker 1: HT and he has just a one man it's not
Speaker 1: even advantage, it's like a two on two. He gets
Speaker 1: right to the basket and he gets fouled or gets
Speaker 1: a lay up. I thought there were a lot of
Speaker 1: place tonight where he got ACKed and just didn't get
Speaker 1: the call. But he's just really finding of a rhythm.
Speaker 1: And I think just his third game back, you could
Speaker 1: already see him start to get even more and more comfortable. Man,
Speaker 1: And once he starts drawing those foul calls, I think
Speaker 1: he's gonna even take the next step. But you're right,
Speaker 1: he's making that leap right in front of us, and
Speaker 1: I just think just having him, I wish we could
Speaker 1: have just staggered, you know, him and Russ, Like, I
Speaker 1: think he's showing us that he's like our second best
Speaker 1: ball handler right now. And again we're getting Lebron back,
Speaker 1: so obviously that would change. But just without Lebron tonight,
Speaker 1: I would have just loved to see him kind of
Speaker 1: get the ball with him. But I wrote down in
Speaker 1: my notes here there was a play where he had
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday on him, which I think both of us
Speaker 1: think is one of the best card defenders in the league.
Speaker 1: And like you said, he got one step on Drew
Speaker 1: Holiday and Drew had to kind of foul him as
Speaker 1: he got to the basket because he couldn't do anything
Speaker 1: his He's definitely got more skinny, but he's still super strong,
Speaker 1: so like and you combine that with his ball handling
Speaker 1: and it's just a really tough cover. And you're right, defensively,
Speaker 1: I thought he was probably our best guy on Chris
Speaker 1: Middleton tonight, like just chasing him over screens giving back
Speaker 1: pressure on his length, like you could see that. I
Speaker 1: thought Chris Milton got off a little bit when he
Speaker 1: was guarded by like Rondo and you had DeAndre Jordans
Speaker 1: kind of coming up on a drop coverage. But I
Speaker 1: thought t HD on Chris Milton was fantastic. I thought
Speaker 1: he competed against the honest honest obviously has the strength advantage.
Speaker 1: But there was a play I think where THHD kind
Speaker 1: of almost drew a drum ball. They didn't really call it.
Speaker 1: It's got the ball back and dunked. But you're right,
Speaker 1: he's definitely taking another step and it changes everything for
Speaker 1: this season, to be honest, Like th HD taking a
Speaker 1: leap is and he was kind of paid in that way,
Speaker 1: but it was kind of hard to predict for a
Speaker 1: twenty year old returning one I think next week. But
Speaker 1: you're right, him taking a leap changes everything for this team.
Speaker 1: You're adding a I think he can average. I'd say
Speaker 1: he can average fifteen a game. Maybe I kind of
Speaker 1: shorten him a little bit. You add like a seventeen
Speaker 1: point in game score who can create with a rock
Speaker 1: in his hands, Like that's such a big boost to
Speaker 1: a team that lacks that on so many levels outside
Speaker 1: of Russ and Lebron, So it's it's used to see
Speaker 1: him really play well. And I think he's not just
Speaker 1: putting up points. I think it's impacting winning as well.
Speaker 1: Like I thought he was a big part of why
Speaker 1: the game was close to name. Yeah, agree, Like it
Speaker 1: changes everything about the team. It changes their ceiling, it
Speaker 1: changes their timeline. Th HT taking a leap like this
Speaker 1: this early in his career, you know, it makes it
Speaker 1: so that Lebron can age gracefully. It makes it so
Speaker 1: that you don't find yourself in this awkward situation where
Speaker 1: you're watching some ancient old Lebron and Anthony Davis looking
Speaker 1: like he's in over his skis because there's not enough
Speaker 1: talent on the team. And and then here comes the
Speaker 1: debates about whether or not he wants out to go
Speaker 1: to Chicago. No, like if th H, his skill set
Speaker 1: obviously compliments Anthony Davis in a lot of ways. Two
Speaker 1: way guard, a guy who could be a primary ball
Speaker 1: handler can get guys into position like that. It's I
Speaker 1: don't see. And again we're two we're two games in,
Speaker 1: so I don't want to get too over the top here,
Speaker 1: but This is absolutely something to get excited about. And
Speaker 1: in addition to that, even within the context of Lebron returning,
Speaker 1: you know, there's been so much offense run through Monks,
Speaker 1: so much offense run through Rondo, so much offense run
Speaker 1: through this theoretical position there. You know, even Kendrick Nunn
Speaker 1: is someone that's talked about is being usable in that
Speaker 1: in that type of situation, HD's gonna slot right into
Speaker 1: that position, that second side creator. He's probably gonna be
Speaker 1: on the floor with Russ or with Lebron at all times.
Speaker 1: But if you if you put him on that second
Speaker 1: side and have him create on you know, when Lebron
Speaker 1: comes down the floor runs in action for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: it doesn't work, the ball gets swung around. Then th
Speaker 1: h D is an awesome option to run that second
Speaker 1: action and to take some of that you know, workload
Speaker 1: off of the off of the Lebron A D pairing.
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, again, I don't want to get tooated,
Speaker 1: but like this is, this is far far beyond what
Speaker 1: I expected to see from him at this point in
Speaker 1: the season, and so I absolutely reason to be excited.
Speaker 1: Now I want to move on to the to the
Speaker 1: shot quality that the Lakers got in this game, because
Speaker 1: what's so amazing about a core built around th Ht, Lebron,
Speaker 1: Russ and Anthony Davis is, ironically, Anthony Davis is the
Speaker 1: more perimeter oriented player in that group. All those other
Speaker 1: three are head down, get to the rim guys and
Speaker 1: constantly collapse the defense guys. And even without Lebron tonight,
Speaker 1: the Lakers did an amazing job generating high quality three
Speaker 1: point looks. Now in the past, when you're watching you know,
Speaker 1: when you're watching the two thousand twenty Lakers or the
Speaker 1: two thousand twenty one Lakers and they shoot in from three,
Speaker 1: I think they were. I can't remember exactly what they
Speaker 1: were tonight, but it was something like from three in
Speaker 1: the past. When you see that, you go, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is just what you get when it's way when it's
Speaker 1: you know, Wes Matthews taking the threes, and it's Region
Speaker 1: Rondo taking the threes, and it's Avery Bradley taking the threes,
Speaker 1: and it's Danny Green and it's k CP. You know,
Speaker 1: those guys had a certain tendons to not shoot well,
Speaker 1: but tonight those were great looks for great shooters. I
Speaker 1: think I think, uh, the uh, Mellows two for eight,
Speaker 1: was one for seven, Ellington was one for seven, and
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, they took some some deeper threes, some
Speaker 1: late clock threes that weren't quite as good as some
Speaker 1: of the others, but there were a lot of really
Speaker 1: high quality misses in there. And so if you look
Speaker 1: at the process, like we always talked about process and results,
Speaker 1: like we lose a game, you know, to Minnesota, we
Speaker 1: lose a game to Portland's, and you'd be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're supposed to win, but our process stucked. We weren't
Speaker 1: getting good stuff. We weren't We weren't running inside out basketball,
Speaker 1: putting pressure on the rim, generating quality shots, playing defense
Speaker 1: like crazy. Tonight, they competed against the team that is
Speaker 1: extremely talented on both ends of the floor. They generated
Speaker 1: high quality shots and they just didn't go in. And yeah,
Speaker 1: on the roads, you're gonna get some bad calls. There were.
Speaker 1: There were two, in my opinion at three, absolutely atrocious calls.
Speaker 1: Janice off Arm and the Tommy Davis. That's an atrocious call.
Speaker 1: That hook shot that he shot over th HD. That's
Speaker 1: not a foul. That Chris Middleton play where t HD jump,
Speaker 1: that's not a fount that that kind of stuff happens
Speaker 1: on the roads. If you're sitting in the locker room tonight,
Speaker 1: you can look back at this and say, we had
Speaker 1: good process. The result wasn't what we wanted, but we
Speaker 1: went into the defending Chaps house without our best player
Speaker 1: and we played really good basketball and we lost the
Speaker 1: game we could have won, and we did all the
Speaker 1: right stuff, and so I think there's really good reasons
Speaker 1: to be optimistic coming out of that. Yeah, and you
Speaker 1: talked about the threes tonight. Uh, not to just pour
Speaker 1: more fire on the th h D hype train, but
Speaker 1: it was three for six from three tonight as well.
Speaker 1: A lot of those spot up opportunities and if he
Speaker 1: can hit those, man like, we're talking about a totally
Speaker 1: different player. But you're right, they shot twelve or forty
Speaker 1: three from three. Wayne Ellington m League monk going to
Speaker 1: for fourteen really hurts you. Adding Carmelos two for eight
Speaker 1: bunch of threes that would have just shifted the tide
Speaker 1: of the game there. So, yeah, a lot of good stuff.
Speaker 1: I still think our offense is still very ugly. A
Speaker 1: lot of you know, a D post ups, and we
Speaker 1: talked about eighties jumper getting better and it looks the
Speaker 1: best it did I thought tonight as well. It just
Speaker 1: looks super smooth, looks like that bubble a d in
Speaker 1: terms of mid range rhythm. Uh, that pick and pop
Speaker 1: jumper looks really clean. His balance is there. Hopefully that
Speaker 1: continues when Lebron gets back. But we had a lot
Speaker 1: of open shots that didn't go in. I thought we
Speaker 1: competed pretty hard the whole night. Say for like the
Speaker 1: end of the end of the second quarter. We talked
Speaker 1: about all the fouls that went against us. Um Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis didn't take a free throw tonight, which is fascinating
Speaker 1: to think about it. Um. A lot of that is
Speaker 1: him not going to the rim either. I would liked
Speaker 1: him to be a little bit more aggressive, just the
Speaker 1: way that they were defending. But we did create some
Speaker 1: good shots, man, and I really wanted us to start. Uh.
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley I think played like the first three minutes
Speaker 1: of the set of the third quarter, and then he
Speaker 1: didn't come into the game again. We just stuck with
Speaker 1: Monk and Ellington, and I really wished they started with that.
Speaker 1: And hopefully again when Lebron comes back, you changed the
Speaker 1: whole kind of floor balance. But you're right, just a
Speaker 1: really good game, good process game, and uh, I think
Speaker 1: we can kind of move into Russell web Brooke because
Speaker 1: I thought Russ again tonight just looked he had I
Speaker 1: think three turnovers right away in the first quarter, and
Speaker 1: he finished with three turnovers tonight. Just a good floor game,
Speaker 1: nineteen points, fifteen assists, put his head down, like you said,
Speaker 1: go into the basket. I think I think you're right.
Speaker 1: He's starting to get comfortable. His athleticism looked the best tonight,
Speaker 1: Like he had one play where he drove and just
Speaker 1: burst with control up and under layup, and I just
Speaker 1: haven't seen stuff like that. He's finishing getting a little
Speaker 1: bit better. The decision making isn't going to be great
Speaker 1: every night, but I just thought he's getting more and
Speaker 1: more comfortable and just having another ball handler and Thhd
Speaker 1: out there, you could see how it just opens things
Speaker 1: up for him. He doesn't have to be the one
Speaker 1: that makes every decision. Does have another guy that swing
Speaker 1: to what do you see it from Russ tonight? Because
Speaker 1: I thought he's trending upward at least is what it
Speaker 1: feels like. And again getting Lebron back, hopefully it kind
Speaker 1: of stays this way, But what do you see from
Speaker 1: rest to name so he is There's been stories that
Speaker 1: have been told about Russ from every previous fan base
Speaker 1: that he's encountered that he tends to kind of like
Speaker 1: get his legs underneath them as the season progresses. Now,
Speaker 1: he's never going to be the same guy that he
Speaker 1: was in his prime in Oklahoma City. Whatever that dream is,
Speaker 1: Laker fans need to get that out of their head.
Speaker 1: You know, he is starting to look a lot more
Speaker 1: athletic than he did at the beginning of the season,
Speaker 1: which is enough when you factor in what they need
Speaker 1: from this position, which is something I've talked about throughout
Speaker 1: this entire season. You know, right now, Russ is being
Speaker 1: a primary ball handler, the like the number one guy
Speaker 1: on the team in terms of decision making and and
Speaker 1: uh and is going to draw the best perimeter defender
Speaker 1: every single night. That's what he's That's what he's dealing
Speaker 1: with right now. But that's only going to get easier
Speaker 1: for him when Lebron comes back. He's going to be
Speaker 1: attacking lesser perimeter defenders. He's going to be attacking in lineups,
Speaker 1: you know, against bench groups because primarily with the starters,
Speaker 1: it will be Lebron making, you know, the majority of
Speaker 1: the decisions. In the closing groups, it will be Lebron
Speaker 1: making the majority of the decisions. He will be focused
Speaker 1: the same rim pressure that we're seeing, because what we're
Speaker 1: seeing from Russ makes sense on paper. It's just they're
Speaker 1: surrounding him with a ton of shooting and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: or Dwight Howard. I guess Dwight got hurt or something
Speaker 1: because they went with DeAndre Jordan in the second half.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what ended up coming out about that,
Speaker 1: but they're basically putting him with one big and three shooters,
Speaker 1: and they're saying, put your head down, get to the
Speaker 1: damn rim, and if you run into trouble, just throw
Speaker 1: the ball out. And even if you throw it to
Speaker 1: the wrong guy, we can swing it around and find
Speaker 1: a shooter. That all that that makes basketball sense. That
Speaker 1: is something that fits with this group. That is something
Speaker 1: that this team actually needs to help carry it in
Speaker 1: the non Lebron minutes. And so for it to look,
Speaker 1: you know, like this, in the role where he's the
Speaker 1: number one. In my opinion, it's only need to get
Speaker 1: better when he's the number two, and the main reason
Speaker 1: why is because he still is taking some absolutely bone
Speaker 1: headed jump shots off the dribble. There was one today
Speaker 1: where he was it was almost like he was trying
Speaker 1: to end up on House of Highlights. He was like
Speaker 1: the ball was like rolling around in front of him
Speaker 1: and he was kind of like tapping down at it,
Speaker 1: trying to get the dribble to come back alive, and
Speaker 1: then he just said screw it. He picked it up
Speaker 1: and shot a turnaround fade away. That shot is not
Speaker 1: going to happen when Lebron is back in the lineup.
Speaker 1: It's just not going to happen, or shouldn't at least,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know what that remains to be seen,
Speaker 1: but the point being like, there's going to be a
Speaker 1: more like think of it, like on this steak, and
Speaker 1: when Lebron comes back, Russ can finally trim a bunch
Speaker 1: of that off, and it should be a little bit more,
Speaker 1: you know, it should be a little bit more catered
Speaker 1: to what this team actually needs from that position. I
Speaker 1: actually really like the fit of having this like secondary
Speaker 1: Baal like rim pressure type of guard. It worked. It
Speaker 1: really made sense with Dennis Shugar, you know, in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways. I think Dennis was better defensively than Russ,
Speaker 1: and hopefully Russ kind of comes around on that end
Speaker 1: of the floor. He is trending in the right direction,
Speaker 1: making incremental improvements on that end. But I I there
Speaker 1: is a universe where this fit can work. It just
Speaker 1: requires taking primary decision making responsibilities out of his hands.
Speaker 1: And the key moments of the game at the beginning,
Speaker 1: when you're setting the tone, at the end, when you're
Speaker 1: closing the deal, those are the times when the ball
Speaker 1: will be out of his hands. So this could, in
Speaker 1: theory make a lot of sense. It's not entirely unprecedented
Speaker 1: to have your secondary creator be kind of a bowl
Speaker 1: in the china shop. It's no different than Jordan Clarkson
Speaker 1: with the Utah Jazz, or even like a Jordan Pool
Speaker 1: with the Golden State Warriors. A guy that's like, you're
Speaker 1: kind of like, I don't care if you make some mistakes.
Speaker 1: You're attacking lesser defenders, You're doing it in smaller portions
Speaker 1: of the game. That that makes sense, That role makes
Speaker 1: sense for us. It just right now he's kind of
Speaker 1: miscast as a lead man. So but even in that
Speaker 1: miscastle lead man role. He was pretty good tonight, So
Speaker 1: I'm I'm starting to see the light at the end
Speaker 1: of the tunnel with Russ. Yeah, And I thought th
Speaker 1: HD kind of did a pretty good job ton I
Speaker 1: have playing that Lebron role next to him right THHD
Speaker 1: points twelve rebounds tonight, But like it just it just
Speaker 1: seemed like Russ is starting to get comfortable with another
Speaker 1: super Shock creator and th HD kind of played that
Speaker 1: role tonight next to him. We'll see I want to
Speaker 1: see it when Lebron gets back, But it does seem
Speaker 1: like he's he took a lot of those really bad
Speaker 1: mid range shots. And then when you talked about where
Speaker 1: you try to keep the dribble alive, like that stuff's
Speaker 1: gonna happen. And I always said, like Russ isn't gonna change,
Speaker 1: like his turnovers and his shot selection is gonna go
Speaker 1: down more of a function of getting more superior ball
Speaker 1: handy next to him. It's like playing next to Lebron.
Speaker 1: I really I really hope they can kind of stagger
Speaker 1: them a little bit better than they did tonight. And
Speaker 1: I thought that was a difference in the game for me.
Speaker 1: Like Russ was a plus three, th HD a plus
Speaker 1: three a D plus five, Like our bench was just atrocious,
Speaker 1: like those Rondo minutes. Rondo was a minus ten and
Speaker 1: twelve minutes, which is kind of impressive. And I think
Speaker 1: like putting them both off in the middle of the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, I thought it was a huge strategic mistake. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then I think Vogo try to buy a few
Speaker 1: minutes with the DeAndre Jordan's lineup, and I thought he
Speaker 1: didn't know, kay job. We went up one and I
Speaker 1: was just expecting a time out or a D to
Speaker 1: come in, and then Chris Middleton knocked off six straight
Speaker 1: points to put us down five. I thought that really
Speaker 1: changed the game. But again, good process, Like we kind
Speaker 1: of hung with the Bucks when the best players were
Speaker 1: on the floor, and I think that's what's important. Yannest again,
Speaker 1: insane first half. There's a lot of scheme stuff I
Speaker 1: was confused by. We kept switching the Middleton Janice pick
Speaker 1: and roll late in that game, and it just led
Speaker 1: to Janice having like th ht on him with you know,
Speaker 1: Carmelo as the low man, as the bottom man trying
Speaker 1: to help. I thought that was really plum mixing. To me,
Speaker 1: the pick and roll the pocket pass was too easy
Speaker 1: for you honest on some of those. I mean, he
Speaker 1: went eighteen for twenty two tonight. I'm just thinking that's
Speaker 1: just even with the three for four from three, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: eighteen three for four from three, it's that's still an
Speaker 1: insane efficient night. I thought we made a little too
Speaker 1: easy for him on some place, But he's honest, He's
Speaker 1: special in that way. But Yeah, this is a good game,
Speaker 1: and this was a This was a winning type of game.
Speaker 1: Like you could have won this game if shooting went
Speaker 1: your way, a few calls went your way, and that's
Speaker 1: all you can really ask. With the team shorthanded without Lebron,
Speaker 1: hopefully we get none in the reason back soon. But
Speaker 1: this is a good process game. Still a lot of
Speaker 1: ugly offense, Still a lot of post of for a
Speaker 1: D that I think get minimized when Lebron's back, just
Speaker 1: to control the offense. But this was this was a
Speaker 1: good process man, Like this is this is a positive
Speaker 1: game to take from. Yeah. Agree. I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about Joannice for a second because I think it was
Speaker 1: a very interesting Joannice game in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: with the first half with the Lakers, the way that
Speaker 1: the Lakers decided to defend him. And then the second
Speaker 1: in the second half with the officiating. So first of all,
Speaker 1: you know, I wrote down in my notes that in
Speaker 1: the first half the Lakers were scared of your honest contact.
Speaker 1: It seemed like when Janice would attempt to bully his
Speaker 1: way to the rim, people had a tendency to just
Speaker 1: get out of his way. You know, I talk a
Speaker 1: lot of I talk a lot with Austin Reeves about
Speaker 1: how he's not afraid to take the contact and the ugly,
Speaker 1: the ugly jobs on the court, chasing guys over the
Speaker 1: top of the screens, putting his body in harm's way.
Speaker 1: He's gonna get a blood, he knows he's gonna get
Speaker 1: hit in the mouth, he's gonna get that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't care because he's willing to do the
Speaker 1: dirty work. That's the way you have to guard Janice
Speaker 1: in the pain. You have to be willing to put
Speaker 1: your body on the line. And then through that entire
Speaker 1: first half, it was like they tried to stop the action,
Speaker 1: but once Janic's got his catch within five ft of
Speaker 1: the ram or within seven or eight feet of the rim,
Speaker 1: they kind of just conceded the basket. You know and
Speaker 1: for starters, that's not gonna happen in a playoff series.
Speaker 1: That was I thought just some bad I thought that
Speaker 1: was just like some regular season hey, let's cut our
Speaker 1: losses here type of behavior from the Lakers. In the
Speaker 1: second half, they did a much better job of making
Speaker 1: him take tough shots, of making him his life more
Speaker 1: difficult around the rim, and that's the reason why he
Speaker 1: didn't have twenty eight again in the second half. Now,
Speaker 1: I also want to come clear, officiating is not the
Speaker 1: reason the Lakers lost this game. It is kind of
Speaker 1: an expectation that when you go on the road in
Speaker 1: a hostile environment, the home team is gonna get some
Speaker 1: calls in their favor. Right, talked about him earlier. To me,
Speaker 1: that's not that's not out of the ordinary and NBA basketball, however,
Speaker 1: there's this thing that happens with Lebron in his career
Speaker 1: where over the course of the last twenty years, the
Speaker 1: refs understood, especially in the last six, seven, eight years,
Speaker 1: where like, hey, Lebron is initiating a lot of contact here.
Speaker 1: So you know, Laker fans incessantly bitch and moan about
Speaker 1: the fact that Lebron doesn't get calls and I tend
Speaker 1: to think that Lebron is officiated pretty fair, you know,
Speaker 1: Like there are a lot of plays where Lebron will
Speaker 1: get into someone's chest, off arm the hell out of him,
Speaker 1: bullyball the hell out of him, and get hacked at
Speaker 1: the end, and they won't call it in the way
Speaker 1: I see it. It's like, you know, you're given someone
Speaker 1: you're getting some you know what I mean that that's
Speaker 1: the ref understanding. This is the way Lebron plays, so
Speaker 1: this is the way it's gonna go at the end,
Speaker 1: and we kind of have to give the defender some leeway. Well,
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, that same leeway does not exist with
Speaker 1: your honest and it drives me insaying, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if it's because it's early in his career. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if it's because maybe he's just a touch more athletic,
Speaker 1: you know, in the sense that like he's getting a
Speaker 1: little bit more of an advantage on those plays. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's just that simple. But what bothers me is Janice
Speaker 1: has given a great deal of leeway to initiate contact,
Speaker 1: and the defenders are not given that same amount of leeway.
Speaker 1: And so some of these plays where like where like
Speaker 1: like the honest play that got challenged, Like when you're
Speaker 1: extending your off arm into the guy's chest. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: ad shouldn't have to abide by verticality. Okay, he should
Speaker 1: be able to take a little bit of your position
Speaker 1: away since he's coming into your position. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean. It's it's it's It's just the same thing
Speaker 1: with that th HT post up where he got called
Speaker 1: the foul on the hook shot with Janice. It's like, dude,
Speaker 1: Janice is literally trying to bully this kid. You gotta
Speaker 1: give him some leeway in return. It's the same way
Speaker 1: that Lebron is officiated now and again, I I'm not
Speaker 1: insulting Janice. I think Janice is a bona fide top
Speaker 1: tier superstar. I thought he was incredible tonight. I think
Speaker 1: he's better than Anthony Davis. I thought it was still
Speaker 1: brought up. But there it bothers me the way that
Speaker 1: he's officiated because we have a similar archetype in Lebron,
Speaker 1: who does the same thing initiate you know, a ship
Speaker 1: ton of contact and then guys hack him at the
Speaker 1: end of plays and we let that stuff go. That
Speaker 1: kind of thing has to eventually take shape with your
Speaker 1: honest or no one's ever going to be able to
Speaker 1: stop the guy. Yeah, I mean I thought tonight we
Speaker 1: just didn't matter. The honest comes with a certain level
Speaker 1: of physicality that you have to at least match right
Speaker 1: and again the physical stuff, the calls like he shot,
Speaker 1: I think what for. I don't know how many free
Speaker 1: those he shot tonight. I didn't feel like you went
Speaker 1: to the line a bunch. Uh oh, yeah, eleven free
Speaker 1: throws okay, But yeah, like I just thought we didn't
Speaker 1: match his physicality in the first half. And it's tough.
Speaker 1: I agree with you, he probably gets a couple more
Speaker 1: calls in that way. I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: superstars where you kind of see that Paul George gets
Speaker 1: away with that like push off a lot and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. But again, like tonight, I thought it was
Speaker 1: just a physicality thing that we didn't match him in
Speaker 1: that first half. It was too easy. Um, he really
Speaker 1: gets up when he plays a D for some reason,
Speaker 1: like he definitely takes that match a personal and uh,
Speaker 1: A D definitely doesn't see it this way for whatever
Speaker 1: reason that is, that is what it is. But I
Speaker 1: thought Joanna's definitely like there was a lot of plays
Speaker 1: in transition where he's just like, I'm going through your chest.
Speaker 1: And I thought there was a lot of that where um,
Speaker 1: a D picked it up in the second half, but
Speaker 1: in that first half it was just too easy. Um
Speaker 1: just straight line one one move, drives right to the basket,
Speaker 1: just and a lot of that is is be honest,
Speaker 1: and he's just a super physical dude. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: I just thought that there was a lot of just
Speaker 1: not matching his physicality in that first half. He's gonna
Speaker 1: hit those. I thought we made him take some tough shots,
Speaker 1: those turnaround fadeaways like you've lived with those. He made
Speaker 1: a few of those three threes, Like if he wants
Speaker 1: to take those, he can take those all day. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought a lot of a lot of his stuff
Speaker 1: in that first half to me was sub scheme. Some
Speaker 1: of the defense just too easy on the pick and roll,
Speaker 1: and then just not matching his physicality. And that's a
Speaker 1: level like that's a generational skill to me from Jhanna,
Speaker 1: is his motor to just play like that on a
Speaker 1: nightly basis. Again, I think against a D it's it's
Speaker 1: even more. But just like that's a general rational skill
Speaker 1: to me that he has that he has a motor
Speaker 1: that's unmatched for a lot of players in the league,
Speaker 1: and you combine that with his work ethic and his
Speaker 1: his skill level, that's definitely increased. UM, And he had
Speaker 1: a special first half. But again I thought a lot
Speaker 1: of that was a D and the whole team not
Speaker 1: matching his physicality. And maybe that's just because you know
Speaker 1: when you have like like you said, on those plays
Speaker 1: where like a D would defend Drew and they would
Speaker 1: get to the honest at the rim and they just
Speaker 1: kind of give up. A lot of that was mellow
Speaker 1: who was who's kind of the back line guy. Expecting
Speaker 1: him to do that is tough, UM. And again, like
Speaker 1: you said, those probably won't happen in the playoffs. You
Speaker 1: probably won't get situations definitely like that. But I thought
Speaker 1: a lot of it was just us not matching their
Speaker 1: physicality until probably the third quarter where where things really
Speaker 1: turn in, and they did a lot better job on him.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is a very physical defensive player, and he
Speaker 1: has the ability to use his physicality to impact the
Speaker 1: game on that end. But the truth of the matter
Speaker 1: is is even the best version of Anthony Davis has
Speaker 1: physical limitations at the highest level of basketball, off it's okay.
Speaker 1: So for instance, like when he's playing Denver and your
Speaker 1: front line is like literally Michael Porter Jr. Jeremy Grant
Speaker 1: and in Nicola, yokits. Yeah, he's gonna be able to
Speaker 1: be physically dominant in a lot of ways. When you're
Speaker 1: playing against Houston and they don't have a center and
Speaker 1: you're posting up PJ. Tucker every time, Yeah, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is going to have a certain amount of offensive physical presence.
Speaker 1: But look at what happened in that Miami Heat series
Speaker 1: when it became when it came down to bam out
Speaker 1: of Bio and you know, big, strong, physical forwards all
Speaker 1: over the floor, Anthony Davis turned into a jump shooter
Speaker 1: in that series. If you look, the vast majority of
Speaker 1: his around the basket finishes were either set up by
Speaker 1: other people or offensive rebound putbacks when Lebron would get
Speaker 1: to the rim and miss a lay up, or Rohndo
Speaker 1: would get to the rim missile lay up something along
Speaker 1: those lines. They in post up situations were able to
Speaker 1: turn him into a jump shooter. So when it comes
Speaker 1: to a game like this, you can try to match
Speaker 1: he can try to match Jannice with intensity, but the
Speaker 1: truth of the matter is is and when he's posting
Speaker 1: up Semio Jala or he's put post thing up you know,
Speaker 1: Jana Santana Coopo, he's gonna take fain aways. That's just
Speaker 1: that's just what he's gonna do. And then at that
Speaker 1: point it becomes a maker miss game, you know. And
Speaker 1: so that that to me is you know, the defining
Speaker 1: characteristic that separates the two of them. This is something
Speaker 1: we talked about on a pod a few weeks back.
Speaker 1: But Janice just has that ability to break you down
Speaker 1: off the dribble and get into the paint anytime he wants,
Speaker 1: and the only way you're gonna stop him is by
Speaker 1: putting multiple bodies in the way, in which case you're
Speaker 1: gonna have turned turned the team into a jump shooting
Speaker 1: team in that regard. But there is a a the
Speaker 1: defining difference between the two of them is that ability, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: a d against the best forward defenders in the league
Speaker 1: is probably going to be a jump shooter in isolation situations.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean he's not still deeply impactful offensively as
Speaker 1: a guy who can screen and roll to the rim.
Speaker 1: And screen and pop and do things as as a
Speaker 1: floor spacer, and his value in that regard is massive.
Speaker 1: But when you're comparing him to the very top tier
Speaker 1: of stars, that's that one differentiating factor. So that when
Speaker 1: people say, like, oh, Johannest took it to a D tonight,
Speaker 1: it's like, that's kind of what it's gonna look like
Speaker 1: because they're to me, they're totally different archetypes of players.
Speaker 1: But I thought Anthony Davis overall was fantastic tonight, and
Speaker 1: he was great defensively, especially in the second half. His
Speaker 1: jumper continues to trend in the right direction. What is
Speaker 1: this his fifteenth or sixteenth consecutive game that he's played
Speaker 1: this season, So he's starting to get his rhythm, he's
Speaker 1: starting to get his legs underneath him. Obviously he got
Speaker 1: a little banged ups and I looked like he looked
Speaker 1: like a dead leg is what it seemed like to me.
Speaker 1: It looked like he got need in the thigh somewhere.
Speaker 1: That that's what it seemed like he was favoring. Um.
Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll learn more in the post game, but
Speaker 1: I I I'm really really happy with the way Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is progressing. If you're looking at this from thirty
Speaker 1: thousand feet in the air, you can you can look
Speaker 1: at a couple of huge benchmarks here that should bring
Speaker 1: some optimism. One Lebron is coming back. Two Russ is
Speaker 1: starting to kind of figure out how he can help
Speaker 1: this particular team. Three Anthony Davis is starting to make
Speaker 1: jump shots again and physically looks as good as he's
Speaker 1: ever looked. And four th h T appears to be
Speaker 1: progressing to be a star. If you count all four
Speaker 1: of those things, that's a lot of reason to get
Speaker 1: very excited about this team ceiling. And I know that
Speaker 1: seems crazy to say, because um and it's been largely
Speaker 1: a disaster up to this point, but I mean weirdly,
Speaker 1: losing on the road in Milwaukee to drop the five
Speaker 1: you know, here in the middle of November is the
Speaker 1: point where I feel most optimistic about this team, which
Speaker 1: I can't believe I'm saying I did too. And I
Speaker 1: just the last point on the Johanna's first a D
Speaker 1: and again those comparisons to me, like I think you
Speaker 1: honest has kind of ended those especially as a number
Speaker 1: one option and honest just a different type of player
Speaker 1: than a D is, but I just think the Bucks
Speaker 1: do some things to put him in positions that like
Speaker 1: I'd love to see the Lakers do. Like the Lakers
Speaker 1: do a lot of this where they take half the
Speaker 1: shot clock running like Rondo sads a cross screen or
Speaker 1: something for a D to get a post up, and
Speaker 1: he eventually just post up another super strong power forward
Speaker 1: and it's like they're helping off a badly in the corner.
Speaker 1: But like I think a D like he's not I
Speaker 1: don't know. Janice probably is the better ball handler, I guess,
Speaker 1: but to me, like a D has some ball handling
Speaker 1: skills that like I'd love to see us put in use,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like we just try to force him
Speaker 1: to be this ISO post up big and the Bucks
Speaker 1: to this thing where like and they scored off off
Speaker 1: of it twice to night where Pat Contaton comes, they
Speaker 1: do like an inverted screen or your honest is at
Speaker 1: the top, and because you're playing off so far, they
Speaker 1: do an inverted s feen where Counting comes and sets
Speaker 1: his pick and so basically eight Janice gets to go
Speaker 1: downhill or you leave Pat Counting right, either the Guards
Speaker 1: shows on nice or Pat Conaton is open for three
Speaker 1: and it gets Johannice going downhill, It gets him in
Speaker 1: the rhythm in a way where it's not just throw
Speaker 1: a post entry to you honest, where he's still good
Speaker 1: at that. He can still bully players in the basket,
Speaker 1: but be honest, gets a lot of buckets in that
Speaker 1: way where I'd love to see a D kind of
Speaker 1: get a little bit more ball handling duties at the
Speaker 1: top of the key instead of just giving the ball
Speaker 1: like at the high post, where like it's Russ or
Speaker 1: Rondo giving him the post entry in the floor that's
Speaker 1: already super cramped where the paint is cramped. So just
Speaker 1: like again, I'm seeing good stuff, but I just would
Speaker 1: like us to kind of tap into more of what
Speaker 1: a D can do. I think I think he's still
Speaker 1: being put in a lot of situations where it's just
Speaker 1: one or two skills. It's either a step back jumper
Speaker 1: or you know, a drive to three people. Um, so
Speaker 1: like that those are kind of things I'd like to see.
Speaker 1: But you're right, this good process going. It's just when
Speaker 1: I watched the bucks and like your honest also gets
Speaker 1: a lot of like plays where like he gets the
Speaker 1: rebound and he just dribbles it up and he's able
Speaker 1: to kind of feel in rhythm and like a D
Speaker 1: you know, he gets the rebound, it's like right away,
Speaker 1: give it to a guard, and I'm like, I feel
Speaker 1: like he can push the ball as well. Like there's
Speaker 1: stuff that I'd love to see us open the floor
Speaker 1: for him because he is super skilled. I'd love for
Speaker 1: us to kind of use those skills more than just
Speaker 1: as opposed. Do you know what I mean by that? Like,
Speaker 1: obviously he's not your honest, he's not a give the
Speaker 1: ball to him every possession and run your offense through it.
Speaker 1: But I just think like there's more that we can
Speaker 1: tap into with a D that and again, he's his
Speaker 1: numbers are still insane, he's still you know, he's been
Speaker 1: carrying us for a lot of this season. I just
Speaker 1: feel like there's more there than than we're seeing with
Speaker 1: a D. No. So I I percent agree. And the
Speaker 1: main reason that that what you're getting at here is
Speaker 1: so smart is post defense is the number one area
Speaker 1: in the NBA right now where defenders are allowed to
Speaker 1: be physical, and so in a weird way, it kind
Speaker 1: of is like the wrong It's just it's the wrong
Speaker 1: era almost to four speed post players you know they're
Speaker 1: there are handful of guys in the league who do really,
Speaker 1: really well there. But the truth of the matter is
Speaker 1: is like as a guy like Anthony Davis with a
Speaker 1: really high center of gravity that's easy to knock off balance,
Speaker 1: It's just it's it's not the best place for him
Speaker 1: to attack. I agree with you, like with all the
Speaker 1: shooting that you have on this team, getting him in
Speaker 1: the situations with a live dribble out by the three
Speaker 1: point line, or doing a lot more of like let's
Speaker 1: do quick pick and pops and hit him where the
Speaker 1: defenders kind of closing out at him so that he
Speaker 1: can just do quick rip throughs and things along those
Speaker 1: lines to give him a little bit of an advantage.
Speaker 1: I I really would like to see more of that.
Speaker 1: He's never going to be able to consistently break a
Speaker 1: team down the dribble from the perimeter because his like
Speaker 1: side to side quickness is not as good as a
Speaker 1: guy like Janice Right, So like Joannice can do these
Speaker 1: like rip throughs and jab steps and crossovers where he
Speaker 1: covers a lot of ground really fast and no one
Speaker 1: can really stay in front of him on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is a little bit more of like a uh.
Speaker 1: You know, what makes him such a versatile big is
Speaker 1: more his finesse in his length than it is his
Speaker 1: speed and quickness. You know, that's not necessarily his strong point,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like like Joannice literally moves
Speaker 1: like a guard. That's the huge difference there and what
Speaker 1: allows him to consistently attack off the dribble. But that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean he can't do it more of it, and
Speaker 1: especially in specific matchups to your point, when you like,
Speaker 1: I would love to see more Anthony Davis attacking off
Speaker 1: the dribble against a team like Denver, you know, where
Speaker 1: it's like he's going to be going against your kits
Speaker 1: where he does have a footspeed advantage. You know, even
Speaker 1: against Robert Williams on Friday Night, that'd be another interesting
Speaker 1: matchup to see him do a little bit more off
Speaker 1: the dr But I'm with you, just like force feeding
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis post ups. Uh, there was a stat that
Speaker 1: I saw the other day that his postops and in
Speaker 1: a in a fadeaway jump shot like that. That that's
Speaker 1: that that's just the and that I'm not even sure
Speaker 1: how they factor that in whether or not those count
Speaker 1: past attempts or shots towards the rim. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: what the exact map was there, but the point is is,
Speaker 1: like Anthony Davis post ups shouldn't be his only isolation attack.
Speaker 1: They should find varying ways to get him involved in
Speaker 1: that regard. Yeah, and like even the screen of roll actions,
Speaker 1: like to me, the rondo a D screen of roll
Speaker 1: has become almost pointless sometimes, like because the defender is
Speaker 1: so off, A D gets zero contact on the screen,
Speaker 1: like I'd like him to be more being like just
Speaker 1: how the Bucks used honest like as him as a
Speaker 1: screener so much like I would like to him to
Speaker 1: kind of play more with Leek Monk as a screen
Speaker 1: and screening roll big, Like I know this competent, right,
Speaker 1: and I'm not comparing the two players at all. It
Speaker 1: just feels like we're fitting a D be like Dirk,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like we're running actions as
Speaker 1: if he's Dirk and he's not the shooter Dirk is.
Speaker 1: And also he's not like he's a much quicker player
Speaker 1: than Dirk, and he has like more off the dribble
Speaker 1: game to me, And You're right, a D doesn't have
Speaker 1: like the strong one move that Janice can do left
Speaker 1: to right crossover. But to me, like his handle is strong,
Speaker 1: like he has the you know, he does all these
Speaker 1: like in and out dribble, in and out crossovers on biggs.
Speaker 1: But I would just like to see more of that.
Speaker 1: I just don't see it enough to me, And and
Speaker 1: the screens as well. I don't know if it's on
Speaker 1: a D or if it's the guard, but just there's
Speaker 1: no contact on him, so like the guards are fighting
Speaker 1: over and there's just no space traded. And like you
Speaker 1: see th ht Rondo Russ throw lobs into traffic basically
Speaker 1: right because no one has helped. You haven't caused anywhere,
Speaker 1: you haven't caused any help, so either just throwing a
Speaker 1: lab up and having a D play jump ball with
Speaker 1: like nice or whever the big is. So yeah, like
Speaker 1: I think a D is more skilled than we're seeing,
Speaker 1: I guess, And I just I don't know, again that's
Speaker 1: some on a D as well, just his aggression or
Speaker 1: lack there of it. But I just want to see
Speaker 1: him more in ball handling situations where it's not just
Speaker 1: you know, him with the back to his back when
Speaker 1: the with his back to the basket trying to make
Speaker 1: decisions because you could tell that's not where he's comfortable,
Speaker 1: Like like you saw him trying to read where the
Speaker 1: traps are going and it's like a second laye that
Speaker 1: it needs to be something on most times, and like
Speaker 1: that's just not where he's comfortable at. So I'd love
Speaker 1: to see just a little bit more of like ball
Speaker 1: handling responsibilities for him as a as an attacker. So
Speaker 1: to kind of put a bowl on tonight. Um with
Speaker 1: Lebron coming back on Friday, how do you see, like
Speaker 1: what what kind of rotation changes do you expect? Who
Speaker 1: do you expect to fall out of the rotation? What
Speaker 1: do you expect the starting lineup to look like? How
Speaker 1: do you expect the flow of the game to go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of questions, but I'll start, I'll
Speaker 1: I'll definitely start with the starting lineup. So I don't
Speaker 1: think THHD is going anywhere, Like I just can't see
Speaker 1: them taking him out of the starting lineup. He's shooting
Speaker 1: too well to me as well from three, So I
Speaker 1: definitely think it would be Russ probably th HD, ron
Speaker 1: A D and then I'm not really sure on the
Speaker 1: fourth spot. To be honest, I hope I'm guessing it's
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington. They're going to continue with a D at
Speaker 1: the five. But like to me, like there's no reason
Speaker 1: for Rondo to play right now, Like, I just don't
Speaker 1: think you need to. I don't think DeAndre Jordan needs
Speaker 1: to play either, And honestly, Baysmore, we'll see. I thought
Speaker 1: it was another rough night for him. He played hard,
Speaker 1: but he's probably out of the rotation as well. So
Speaker 1: I just want to I just want to see them
Speaker 1: stagger like Russ and Braun and maybe even th HD
Speaker 1: in there, because like that's probably give them their best
Speaker 1: chance to win. And obviously Lebron solves a lot of
Speaker 1: these issues. Lebron is not only the power forward, he's
Speaker 1: also the backup point guard, which also helps a lot
Speaker 1: of those line ups. But how about you, man, I
Speaker 1: like that's how I see the starting lineup going. I
Speaker 1: know that I feel like THD is gonna stand there
Speaker 1: next to Russ Brown and a D and then that
Speaker 1: fourth guy I think probably Wayne Ellington or Avery Bradley,
Speaker 1: one of those two Vogo. I still want to just
Speaker 1: go badly for defense, But how do you see that?
Speaker 1: As then t HD has to start, he's too he's
Speaker 1: too good, like I mean, like I he's looked so
Speaker 1: good in these last two games that it literally doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense to bring him off the bench. Now, you
Speaker 1: you might think, oh, traditional sixth man role, which is
Speaker 1: where my brain usually goes, because you've got, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: redundancies in the starting lineup when you got that many
Speaker 1: drivel drive guys. But you know, generically or like historically
Speaker 1: in the NBA, the sixth man type of off the
Speaker 1: bench scoring archetype. Your Lou Williams, your Jerry Stackhouse, your
Speaker 1: Jamal Crawford, that type of guy. They're almost always bad
Speaker 1: defensive players. And the dirty little secret to why they
Speaker 1: come off the bench is because they're bad defensive players
Speaker 1: like that. That's that's usually the rationale behind that kind
Speaker 1: of decision. T HD has been one of the best
Speaker 1: defenders on the team so far in the two games
Speaker 1: that he's played. Obviously, don't want to give too much
Speaker 1: credit in that regard, but anyway, point being like you
Speaker 1: have you have to start t HD. So you look
Speaker 1: at the if you look at the flow of the
Speaker 1: game and the way that they usually subs to the
Speaker 1: stars because of the way that Anthony Davis likes to
Speaker 1: play full quarters, and because of the fact that Russ
Speaker 1: likes to take quick short rests instead of longer drawn
Speaker 1: out rests, what ends up happening is Lebron Russ comes out,
Speaker 1: you know, like quick, like usually first. This year they're
Speaker 1: pushing Lebron sub a little bit later. He comes out
Speaker 1: like to like three quarters of the way through the
Speaker 1: first quarter. So it goes. It goes from like the
Speaker 1: starters to like a Lebron a D group to like
Speaker 1: an a D Russ group, and then a D and
Speaker 1: Rust both come out and it turns into like a
Speaker 1: Lebron with the bench guys group, and then Russ comes
Speaker 1: back in quick and it turns into like a Lebron
Speaker 1: Russ group, and then Lebron comes out. It goes to
Speaker 1: Lebron a D so you can kind of see how
Speaker 1: and then Russ comes back in and it's the starter,
Speaker 1: so you can kind of see how the staggering works.
Speaker 1: There to be two stars on the floor for the
Speaker 1: most part with Lebron as that extra guy. But now
Speaker 1: with th Ht thrown into that mix, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: like a high level dribble creator on both wings at
Speaker 1: all times, which is a super exciting prospect for you
Speaker 1: know what this team is supposed to be. This is
Speaker 1: something that the guys on at LFR have been preaching
Speaker 1: and it's something that I'm a big believer in. It's
Speaker 1: kind of this I've been talking a lot about modern
Speaker 1: basketball with the l a Clippers, right from the playoffs
Speaker 1: last year. This idea like we're just gonna spread you out,
Speaker 1: and it's all this trible drive attack penetration, getting you
Speaker 1: into rotation and then swinging the ball around the shooters right. Well,
Speaker 1: in order for that to work, you've got to have
Speaker 1: multiple guys that can break down the defense off the
Speaker 1: dribble at the point of attack, either through prick and
Speaker 1: roll or literally just beating a guy off the dribble
Speaker 1: from the perimeter. Well, having this many guys the way
Speaker 1: the Lakers have, it's starting to trend in that direction.
Speaker 1: They need to go away from postops. We talked a
Speaker 1: little bit about this earlier, instead of going really heavy
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis postops, really heavy Lebron postops, which by the way,
Speaker 1: you can still do in specific matchups and specific situations
Speaker 1: as a wrinkle to throw in there. But I'd like
Speaker 1: to see just a lot more get four guys out,
Speaker 1: have either a D or Dwight set of high screen
Speaker 1: and roll, or even go five out sometimes when a
Speaker 1: D s on the floor and just let th Ht,
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook and Lebron James beat guys off the dribble
Speaker 1: and just start getting the team into rotation because it's
Speaker 1: always going to be shooters around them. Now, that's what's
Speaker 1: so exciting about this formula is we have real bona
Speaker 1: fide knockdown three point shooters, although tonight they didn't show that,
Speaker 1: but the point being like that, this formula is starting
Speaker 1: to look a lot less like the where we're you know,
Speaker 1: Championship Lakers that were like a literally almost like a
Speaker 1: nineties team that just was trying to pulverize you with
Speaker 1: size and physicality too. Now we're doing this modern basketball space,
Speaker 1: the floor drive and kick offense that that makes a
Speaker 1: whole lot of sense and still have the physicality that
Speaker 1: comes from having Lebron and a d oh and guess
Speaker 1: what are other two dribble drive guards? Rust and and
Speaker 1: th HT are like physical specimens at the position sh
Speaker 1: and that are gonna have a whole other side of
Speaker 1: you know, physical impact on the opponent. Just in their
Speaker 1: own right, you know. So I I I'm really really
Speaker 1: excited to see everybody fall into the roles here. I
Speaker 1: think we'll see a lot less phase more. I don't think.
Speaker 1: I don't think you'll see DeAndre Jordan at all, except
Speaker 1: when Dwight Howard is resting like you did in the
Speaker 1: second half tonight. I think a reason complicates things even further.
Speaker 1: But I would not be surprised if it turn if
Speaker 1: Bradley falls entirely out, bays More falls entirely out, and
Speaker 1: they just play the shooters and it turns basically into
Speaker 1: Dwight A d lebron th HD Russ and then Ellington
Speaker 1: Monk Mellow, you know what I mean, And and maybe
Speaker 1: some a reason in there when he gets going. But
Speaker 1: it just with the with the physical imposing nature of
Speaker 1: those for those core four players, you can get away
Speaker 1: with playing less physical shooters around them. And so I
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of the way I see it going. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's why I was like, even tonight, I really
Speaker 1: wanted them to just put a shooter in where you
Speaker 1: Bradley is. And I understand Vogels, you know, love for
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley. It makes sense even going small. It's just
Speaker 1: like oh to his past team, right, every Bradley represents
Speaker 1: like a defensive minded first player who can't space the floor,
Speaker 1: but teams just don't guard him in a way. Like
Speaker 1: even Wayne Ellington, I who was one for seven, Like
Speaker 1: they still guard him like he has a certain level
Speaker 1: of gravity that I think is important. And I think
Speaker 1: that's important on Friday as well in Boston, Like, I
Speaker 1: just think you can't have a non shooter in that space,
Speaker 1: even with the shooting that th HD has shown. You
Speaker 1: start Russ Braun in a d like teams are going
Speaker 1: to pack the paint and then you add th HT
Speaker 1: into that as special as he's been, Like, the paint
Speaker 1: is gonna be packed, and I just need at least
Speaker 1: one shooter in that spot. Whether it's Monk, but I'm
Speaker 1: hoping it's Ellington. I think Ellington just has one of
Speaker 1: a mature game right now. Monk is more of like
Speaker 1: a hot and cold scorer type. And again Ellington and
Speaker 1: shoot well tonight. He just understands how to get open,
Speaker 1: how to relocate right when he throws a pass and
Speaker 1: his man helps off him. He understands how to get
Speaker 1: into like the correct, correct passing angle, and I just
Speaker 1: hope that he kind of starts, but I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised if we going with Bradley again just to kind
Speaker 1: of keep keep that defensive minded first player in there.
Speaker 1: But that's why I hope happens. I hope probably start
Speaker 1: why allence and go all into this, you know, a
Speaker 1: d at the five, Brown at the four, just rust ball. Um.
Speaker 1: That's what I hope happens on Friday. Man. But I
Speaker 1: think this team is kind of progressing. Like I think
Speaker 1: you just remove the Rondo minutes and uh and the
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan minutes, but the Rondo minutes especially, just to
Speaker 1: remove that from the rotation right now, it's just a
Speaker 1: big boost in and of itself. And then obviously getting
Speaker 1: Lebron back, um, and you know this is this is
Speaker 1: a big road trip to me, Like, like I understand
Speaker 1: Brons just coming back, but I think, like you gotta
Speaker 1: win some of these games going up here after Boston.
Speaker 1: I think it gets a little lighter. I think goes
Speaker 1: like Indiana, Detroit or something like that. But it's a
Speaker 1: big road trip. Man. They're a and eight right now.
Speaker 1: Like you get Lebron back now, Like I think this
Speaker 1: is the time to kind of go on go on
Speaker 1: a run here. I think so too. I think it
Speaker 1: starts tomorrow Friday against Boston. I think the Lakers are
Speaker 1: going to go on a run here. Um, We'll see
Speaker 1: a lot of things. Gotta go right, guys, gotta stay healthy. Um.
Speaker 1: But this suddenly, with pht back and looking the way
Speaker 1: he looks, and Lebron coming back, this suddenly becomes a
Speaker 1: team that's gonna have a demonstrable talent advantage every single night,
Speaker 1: like a big, big talent advantage. And when you couple
Speaker 1: that with the urgency associated with a record, and the
Speaker 1: fact that they have some ground to make up in
Speaker 1: the standings, and the fact that these guys got to
Speaker 1: be sick of losing. Um, I think I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna see a really solid stretch here of really good
Speaker 1: Laker basketball. And it sure would be great for them
Speaker 1: to beat the hell out of Brooklyn on Christmas Day
Speaker 1: to cap something like the stop that that would be.
Speaker 1: That would be kind of like the target for a
Speaker 1: date that you'd like for them to kind of start
Speaker 1: to hit a real real ceiling in that regard. But
Speaker 1: I'm I am really excited to really quickly a note
Speaker 1: on Bradley both complained about Avery Bradley in recent days,
Speaker 1: and again I'm not I'm not a huge fan of
Speaker 1: the some of the things that he does when he's
Speaker 1: on the court. Like, I think he's way too much
Speaker 1: of a gunner for what their guys actually need out
Speaker 1: of that position. Um, the dude has never seen a
Speaker 1: shot he doesn't like. Uh, in his way too aggressive
Speaker 1: as a jump shooter early in the clock, and that
Speaker 1: can get irritating. Um. However, when you look at what
Speaker 1: he does in Frank's system, he's a predictable defensive option.
Speaker 1: You know. The mistakes he makes are mistakes that play
Speaker 1: into their scheme. The his ball pressure, in his ability
Speaker 1: to fight over screens is like absolutely necessary for the
Speaker 1: pick and roll coverages. So, like, would I prefer for
Speaker 1: Ellington to be in the starters, Yes, to be clear,
Speaker 1: I would go with Ellington. I think the spacing is
Speaker 1: better with him, and he's enough of a you know,
Speaker 1: a fundamentally sound positional defender that it works. However, it
Speaker 1: is also exciting to think about the ball pressure of
Speaker 1: that group with with Avery Bradley, right, I mean it's
Speaker 1: exciting to think about, like, hey, guess what you're you're playing,
Speaker 1: you know, you're going into to Boston and it's Marcus Smart,
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum and all these guys. It's like, guess what
Speaker 1: you're gonna have th HD, Avery Bradley and Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: Ball pressuring the living hell out of you from the
Speaker 1: opening tip like that that that's an exciting prospect in
Speaker 1: its own regard. My point is is, like I saw
Speaker 1: a couple of people compare him today to DeAndre Jordan's
Speaker 1: like the new DeAndre Jordan, meaning like the new guy
Speaker 1: that makes no sense in the lineup book. I think
Speaker 1: he's gonna fall out of the rotation I would start Allington's.
Speaker 1: So I'm not disagreeing with like some of the rationale there,
Speaker 1: but he's a hell of a lot better option than
Speaker 1: what could be, you know what I mean. Like it's
Speaker 1: he's not that bad in that position. No, Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I was a big fan of every badly you know,
Speaker 1: two years ago, I was hoping they resigned him. I
Speaker 1: wish he went to the bubble. He did not out
Speaker 1: of his own decisions. He's a player that like kind
Speaker 1: of fits what Vogel wants to do. And this is
Speaker 1: not against Avery Bradley, is just a function of the team.
Speaker 1: To me, it's just that you can't have a non
Speaker 1: shooter in that space Bradley can shoot. That's a difference
Speaker 1: between there's a difference between a guy who can't shoot
Speaker 1: in an app lute shooter, right like when Hilton is
Speaker 1: a shooter, they have to respect and I just don't
Speaker 1: like the floor balance on that. Every Bradley plays hard,
Speaker 1: I think defensively, Like he plays hard. He's too small
Speaker 1: sometimes in a lot of matchups, like that's his biggest
Speaker 1: scribe to me, his his height, Like you just can't
Speaker 1: match up. Sometimes he plays hard, he defends, he's a
Speaker 1: good point of attack defender, Like there's no there's no
Speaker 1: qualmy about that. But I'm just like saying, like, you
Speaker 1: just can't play a nonshooter to me, with these a
Speaker 1: d at the five line ups that we're trying to
Speaker 1: run out here, there's just no space, especially when a
Speaker 1: lot of the offense is posted up heavy. They're helping
Speaker 1: off the same guy every time. Like to me, the
Speaker 1: game changed to me in that third quarter when you
Speaker 1: when Avery Bradley came out and they put in I
Speaker 1: believe Wayne Allington, and then he never came back in
Speaker 1: the game. They kept Monk on there and the floor,
Speaker 1: the floor balance of the spacing just looks so much better.
Speaker 1: A d was able to get going a little bit.
Speaker 1: T HD got some driving lines open, Russ got some
Speaker 1: driving lines open. I think that's really important right now,
Speaker 1: and we'll see when the Bron comes back all that
Speaker 1: kind of changes. But yeah, nothing against Avery Bradley, Like
Speaker 1: I don't think he's DeAndre Jordan's level of of of
Speaker 1: effort or you know, or his impact on the game.
Speaker 1: It's just to me, it's a function of the roster
Speaker 1: right now. It's just I you can't play a non
Speaker 1: shooter in that lineup with just how our offense is running.
Speaker 1: But I mean that's different with Lebron out there. Like
Speaker 1: maybe you can play every badly if Lebron's out there,
Speaker 1: But to me, I'd rather just put a shooter in
Speaker 1: that spot. And I think Ballington has been defending well enough,
Speaker 1: Like like he's not great, he's not going to be
Speaker 1: a plus defender, but like I think he's trying hard
Speaker 1: and he fights, so I think that's all you can
Speaker 1: really ask him. Yeah, I'm with you. I think we're
Speaker 1: on the same page here. Like he's definitely not the
Speaker 1: best option. All I'm saying is like this, the rationale
Speaker 1: behind playing every badly makes more sense from the coaching
Speaker 1: staff than the DeAndre Jordan thing did. This is all
Speaker 1: I'm saying. But anyway, so that's all I had for tonight. Obviously, Rogers,
Speaker 1: there's anything else in your notes you wanted to hit? Obviously,
Speaker 1: with an East coast road trip like this, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take advantage of it to try to end the night
Speaker 1: a tiny bit early, to try to spend some time
Speaker 1: with my wife for what. But did you have any
Speaker 1: and you also wanted to hit tonight? The last thing
Speaker 1: in my notes was like you could tell the difference
Speaker 1: in chemistry been the Bucks and the Lakers, Right, Like,
Speaker 1: I thought that was pretty clear. I thought the Bucks
Speaker 1: knew exactly what they wanted to do, laid down the
Speaker 1: stretch of that game, it was straight up Milton, the
Speaker 1: honest picked and roll. They knew exactly where to be,
Speaker 1: and I just wrote down like that's where I hope
Speaker 1: the Lakers kind of get to this season where they
Speaker 1: know what they're doing. Late in the game, you could
Speaker 1: tell they were kind of experimenting with that. And then
Speaker 1: the last thing I think shout out UH pick up
Speaker 1: hoop who tweeted out th HT in three games this year,
Speaker 1: twenty three points, seven rebounds to assist UH six two
Speaker 1: percent true shooting, Like that's kind of insane. Third game back,
Speaker 1: twenty year old. So those numbers probably won't stay where
Speaker 1: they are at um his you should will probably go
Speaker 1: down with the brown going back. But I think that's
Speaker 1: been the kind of theme the last few games here
Speaker 1: is th HD is the real deal. So that's why
Speaker 1: I wanted to kind of close out with here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he can be what because I don't think Russ is
Speaker 1: long for the Lakers if this doesn't go well, like
Speaker 1: obviously if they win the title, then you know they'll
Speaker 1: keep him and this will all go well. But you know,
Speaker 1: the reality is is that that that that fit of
Speaker 1: having like the super high end playmaker i Q guy
Speaker 1: like Lebron with the big that needs someone to set
Speaker 1: him up like Anthony David that can create his own
Speaker 1: shot and apply a ton of rim pressure and also defend.
Speaker 1: That all makes a ton of sense. And so th
Speaker 1: h T can slot right into that in the post
Speaker 1: Russ era, you know what I mean, especially if he
Speaker 1: continues to progress at this right. I cannot. I'm so
Speaker 1: impressed by how fast he's come along again, only three games,
Speaker 1: but I've been really impressed. All right, guys, thank you
Speaker 1: guys so much for coming to hang out tonight with
Speaker 1: Roger and I. I'm glad that we were finally able
Speaker 1: even after a loss, to hit on some good positivity
Speaker 1: with this group. Um. This is going to arrow dash
Speaker 1: right out tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time
Speaker 1: and will be in our podcast feed hearing about fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1: As always, we sincerely appreciate your guys a support and
Speaker 1: you come and hang out with us up to these games,
Speaker 1: and we will see you for another early show on
Speaker 1: Friday night. If you're not out party and having a
Speaker 1: good time, you can come hang out with Roger and
Speaker 1: I talk some basketball. Appreciate it. Thanks everyone,