Speaker 1: M M all right, welcome to to stay the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Is that about Dad's Radio? Four consecutive Laker wins for
Speaker 1: the first time this season. That was one of the
Speaker 1: uglier basketball games I've seen. I mean it was. I
Speaker 1: suppose it was aesthetically pleasing with all the highlights, but
Speaker 1: it was ugly if you're a Laker fan, because you
Speaker 1: want more in some specific areas of the game. But
Speaker 1: we'll get into that in a minute. Rog. How you doing, buddy,
Speaker 1: how's your week gone so far? I'm doing great, man.
Speaker 1: This is a big win to me. I know it
Speaker 1: didn't come pretty the whole night. You know, we didn't.
Speaker 1: We had a couple of leads that we were blown.
Speaker 1: But this is a This was a big game to me.
Speaker 1: This this showed a lot. I'm higher on Atlanta than
Speaker 1: a lot of people. I think. I think they're better
Speaker 1: than their record, for sure. They've had guys in and out.
Speaker 1: I'm high on tre Young as well. It's a big one.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm excited, man, I'm excited to get into
Speaker 1: some one. How are you, man, I'm doing good, so
Speaker 1: you know I'm with you. I believe in the talent
Speaker 1: on that roster, you know, It kind of reminds me
Speaker 1: of a lot of what we saw from the Lakers
Speaker 1: early in the season when Lebron and they d were healthy,
Speaker 1: where you know, even though you could argue they needed
Speaker 1: an improvement here there on the roster, they also just
Speaker 1: weren't doing what they were supposed to be doing within
Speaker 1: their defensive scheme and there, and you could you could
Speaker 1: tell tonight with Atlanta they just were kind of unorganized
Speaker 1: all over the floor. Um. One of the biggest indicators
Speaker 1: of that is is transition defense. And I thought the
Speaker 1: Lakers played poor transition defense tonight for long stretches as well.
Speaker 1: But it was a really interesting, really interesting game because
Speaker 1: whenever one team would start taking bad shots and and
Speaker 1: give up any sort of long rebound or where the
Speaker 1: floor balance was off the you just have guys run
Speaker 1: into the rim on the other end, and rule number
Speaker 1: one of transition defenses take away the rim. And you know,
Speaker 1: for both teams, there would be these kind of like
Speaker 1: really quick runs like you know, where you'd have a
Speaker 1: minute or two minutes of game clock and you see
Speaker 1: the see the lead completely dwindle, or see the lead
Speaker 1: build way back up. And it was because of this
Speaker 1: kind of consistent theme that the team that ran more
Speaker 1: high quality offense seemed to keep the game playing at
Speaker 1: a pace that was comfortable for them um and forced
Speaker 1: the other team to have to score in the half court,
Speaker 1: where they would be capable of getting enough stops. It was.
Speaker 1: It was kind of interesting in that regard because it
Speaker 1: seemed like every time the Lakers got control of the game,
Speaker 1: they got a little bit mismatch happy in terms of
Speaker 1: trying to hunt tray and kind of get out of
Speaker 1: the flow of their offense and start giving up those
Speaker 1: fast opportunities I was talking about. But it was. It
Speaker 1: was definitely an interesting game with some really ugly stretches,
Speaker 1: and I thought both teams were loose and sloppy in
Speaker 1: a lot of the little details. But it was exciting.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of cool shot making, a
Speaker 1: lot of ducks. But I mean the in the Lakers
Speaker 1: were able to tighten things up more frequently and when
Speaker 1: they needed to to put Atlanta away. But the Lakers
Speaker 1: definitely are gonna have to sharpen some things up in
Speaker 1: order to beat some of the good teams that are
Speaker 1: actually playing good. I'm like Atlanta, who's a good team
Speaker 1: that's playing poorly right now, for sure, And we're on
Speaker 1: a ladder getting up to that, right And I heard
Speaker 1: the broadcast talk about that a lot tonight as well.
Speaker 1: This is not going to beat Phoenix or the Warriors, sure,
Speaker 1: but we are We're not in position to really like
Speaker 1: to look at that, right. I feel like that's skipping steps.
Speaker 1: We're on a we're on a ladder up to those teams.
Speaker 1: And I think beating a team like Atlanta is a
Speaker 1: part of that. Atlanta came in tonight second in offense,
Speaker 1: and offense is not their issue. It's defense obviously, and
Speaker 1: they've had quotes coming about about how they've got kind
Speaker 1: of complacent the regular season and all that. But they're
Speaker 1: a good offensive team. Trey Young is an offense of himself.
Speaker 1: And that you know screen roll game that they run
Speaker 1: that is tough. That is a pick your poison, tough cover.
Speaker 1: They run that with Capella. They have you know a
Speaker 1: lot of Spain actions where Kevin Herder or down the
Speaker 1: little Gallinari sets the back screen and it's a tough cover.
Speaker 1: And I thought it was impressive to kind of keep
Speaker 1: their offense. You know, they scored a lot of points still,
Speaker 1: but we had a lot of big runs on them,
Speaker 1: even with Tray on the floor, And I thought that
Speaker 1: was impressive to me to to to get a win
Speaker 1: on Atlanta like this. We're going small and new identity,
Speaker 1: a bunch of small guards that you know, Tray can
Speaker 1: kind of pick on. I thought he did a good
Speaker 1: job kind of getting to the basket. His floater game
Speaker 1: was there as well, but just to slow him down
Speaker 1: a bit. And I thought, to me, because this is
Speaker 1: one of the points I wanted to get on, was
Speaker 1: the Stanley Johnson Lebron four or five kind of that
Speaker 1: back line at least to start the game. To me,
Speaker 1: that kind of set the tone. They had a lot
Speaker 1: of deflections that we were trapping Tray a lot on
Speaker 1: his ball screens, and Lebron or Stanley were on the
Speaker 1: back line getting deflections, and we got out and ran.
Speaker 1: We had like a thirteen two fast break point. I
Speaker 1: just like tonight was impressive to me. And there's stuff
Speaker 1: that they have to clean up as well defensively, but
Speaker 1: I just stopt getting a win out on a team
Speaker 1: like Atlanta. It's obviously trying to turn their season around.
Speaker 1: They got all their guys back tonight, right which of
Speaker 1: course they got all their guys back tonight, but they
Speaker 1: got all their dudes back, and I thought most of
Speaker 1: them played well. They get some tough shots too, right
Speaker 1: in Atlanta is a tricky team because you talked about,
Speaker 1: you know, how you run to the Raymond transition, but
Speaker 1: you know, guys like Bogdanovich, they you know, they fire
Speaker 1: away from three in transition as well. Trade Young shoot
Speaker 1: from like thirty five ft. Gallinari, I don't think he
Speaker 1: missed tonight. I'm not sure what he went, but it
Speaker 1: felt like he hit every contested three he got. But
Speaker 1: I thought this was a fun one man. And obviously
Speaker 1: Liek Monk and Avery Bradley went went nuts in that
Speaker 1: first half. But and to have a game where Lebron
Speaker 1: really didn't start picking up offensively to the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: That we'll get into that, but I just thought this
Speaker 1: was this is a really nice win to kind of
Speaker 1: build off of. I think we're starting to see the
Speaker 1: fruits of playing small. This is the third straight, you know,
Speaker 1: game that we played with the starting lineup their four
Speaker 1: and no now. Our fourth straight started their four no
Speaker 1: now with this starting lineup with the Malik and h
Speaker 1: Stanley and the starting lineup there so we're starting to
Speaker 1: build some chemistry and you're seeing how other teams are
Speaker 1: going to struggle to defend us when we're small, right,
Speaker 1: they have to have their center on Lebron, and we
Speaker 1: were able to kind of an advantage of that. Russ
Speaker 1: was running ball screens where you know, Lebron was a
Speaker 1: screener a lot more tonight than usually. So, yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff to kind of get into, but
Speaker 1: I think this was a good win to build up
Speaker 1: the Yeah, I want to get into the offense. I
Speaker 1: want to get into Lebron and his kind of demeanor
Speaker 1: over the last couple of games, because I think that's
Speaker 1: interesting too. But you have mentioned something about the back line,
Speaker 1: and I think it presents a really interesting conundrum when
Speaker 1: you're playing small because for starters both you know, there
Speaker 1: were times when Lebron was at center in the lineup,
Speaker 1: but Mellow was with him, and just because just because
Speaker 1: of the way the floor was balanced, Mellow ended up
Speaker 1: being the guy dealing with the roleman or dealing with
Speaker 1: the pick and roll coverage like he was effectively in
Speaker 1: the center position on any given play, and Melo really
Speaker 1: really struggles in that spot, especially when there's a good
Speaker 1: vertical lab threat. But there were a lot of plays
Speaker 1: tonight when Stanley and Lebron were in that spot where
Speaker 1: they were able to blow things up. And the interesting
Speaker 1: thing that they had figured out that is so morton
Speaker 1: for small ball. It's like, you know, when you have
Speaker 1: a real center, you can kind of play in between
Speaker 1: the ball handler and the guy rolling to the rim, right,
Speaker 1: Like think about that famous honest play in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: That's like the perfect example of what I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: where you're guarding the guy going to the rim. I
Speaker 1: think it was Devin Booker on that play, and you're
Speaker 1: able to dissuade him from shooting, but then turn and
Speaker 1: block a guy way above the rim. But we don't
Speaker 1: when we're playing small like when we don't have Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: we don't have that guy, right. So I tend to
Speaker 1: look at it from the standpoint of you have to
Speaker 1: sell out to the ball handler and and try to
Speaker 1: disrupt that because if that pass gets through, you're not
Speaker 1: You're not doing anything with it anyway. And and if
Speaker 1: you're playing in between a no man's land, and this
Speaker 1: is something that DeAndre Jordan has been got has gotten
Speaker 1: killed on all season long is if you're in that
Speaker 1: no man's land, you're you're not bothering the guy with
Speaker 1: the ball. He just throws it up and now you're
Speaker 1: jumping and just getting dunked up right, And so you know,
Speaker 1: there was this very specific play there in the third
Speaker 1: quarter that kind of illustrates what I'm talking about, where
Speaker 1: Trey got into the lane and Stanley just abandoned John
Speaker 1: Collins and sprinted up on Trey and jumped and he
Speaker 1: deflected the Lab pass. Now again, if that gets through,
Speaker 1: it's a dunk. But if he doesn't, if he just
Speaker 1: stands there, it's a dunk too. It ended up leading
Speaker 1: to a runout where russ I actually ended up smoking
Speaker 1: a layup and then Lebron like tapped it in. So
Speaker 1: it's actually an important sequence there in the third quarter
Speaker 1: to build the lead. But it kind of indicative of
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about with our small ball defense. Like
Speaker 1: you've seen a lot of like Lebron running a drop coverage, right,
Speaker 1: And while I like the idea of that because he
Speaker 1: can communicate and kind of stay back around the rim,
Speaker 1: it's also important for those guys on that back line
Speaker 1: to almost ignore the lab threat or if they're gonna
Speaker 1: guard the lab threat, it needs to be below the rim,
Speaker 1: meaning like boxing him out and and not so much
Speaker 1: like just jumping towards the rim because they're just gonna
Speaker 1: give up a ton of lobs and they've given up
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff and taking a role in situations
Speaker 1: like that this season. But it's something to keep in mind.
Speaker 1: And then I don't know how you counter that with
Speaker 1: Mellow when he gets into that spot. But they've got
Speaker 1: to figure something out with Mellow too, especially against these
Speaker 1: good teams, to get him in a position where when
Speaker 1: he's on that back line, he can he can be
Speaker 1: out of that spot so that either Stanley or Lebron
Speaker 1: is the one who has to to disrupt that action.
Speaker 1: But it's it's interesting because, like you know, the the
Speaker 1: Lakers after the Anthony Davis injury, coming into tonight, we're
Speaker 1: in defense, I think, so you know, so let's let's
Speaker 1: looking forward, you know, assuming Anthony Davis comes back eventually,
Speaker 1: you're still getting probably fourteen the sixteen minutes a night
Speaker 1: with Lebron at center. So they're they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: figure out something that works because I think the Lebron
Speaker 1: at center lineups right now are doing about a hundred
Speaker 1: nine points per a hundred possessions on on defense, which
Speaker 1: isn't quite good enough. So they're gonna have to figure
Speaker 1: some details there with those small ball lineups just to
Speaker 1: get more stops. But I do like that formula if
Speaker 1: they can figure out how to get more stops. You
Speaker 1: saw the offensive end tonight, I thought was as crisp
Speaker 1: and as comfortable and as slowy. Somebody pointed out on
Speaker 1: Twitter it was our season for assists, so we're moving
Speaker 1: them all a lot like there are. The offensive end
Speaker 1: is coming along so well for these small ball lineups.
Speaker 1: If we can figure out how to get some stops
Speaker 1: in those lineups, we could be really dangerous. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you brought up Carmelo like he's always gonna be a
Speaker 1: give and take right, like you're not going to get
Speaker 1: the defensive with him, but you see what he does offensively,
Speaker 1: Like we look like a juggernaut offensively. And you talked
Speaker 1: about the defense last five games. You know, last five
Speaker 1: isn't you know, the greatest barometer, But we're about the
Speaker 1: middle of the pack defensively in the last five games.
Speaker 1: I think it's like one on nine, Like you talked
Speaker 1: about but our offense has pretty much jumped up right
Speaker 1: to our offensive number two in the league in the
Speaker 1: last five games, and that's not including I don't think
Speaker 1: NBA dot Com has tonight's numbers. Tonight's numbers yet yeah,
Speaker 1: at like one twenty point five, and I think that
Speaker 1: jumped up even more after tonight. But yeah, man like
Speaker 1: and I also think Vogel is pushing the right buttons
Speaker 1: as well. I want to give him credit to I
Speaker 1: like that, you know, he put in Dwight, I believe
Speaker 1: for Capella. Uh he put Dwight in when Capella was
Speaker 1: in and kind of matching their minutes. I just think
Speaker 1: he's finding the right buttons. And I think our defense
Speaker 1: is getting better. I like that we're switching more. I
Speaker 1: love the Austin reeves with it, and we're just kind
Speaker 1: of building, like this feels like a brand new team.
Speaker 1: And tonight, You're right, it looked like the most flow
Speaker 1: that I've seen. Taylor was a part of that too,
Speaker 1: his jumper stills and there. But I thought he got
Speaker 1: to the rim. He had that nasty one hand, uh
Speaker 1: skin and out dribble dunk. I forgot who that was over,
Speaker 1: but he had a nasty dunk tonight, he got to
Speaker 1: the rim, his layup were going. The ball was moving
Speaker 1: when we were when we had uh, we had Lebron
Speaker 1: at the five, it was just nice, man. The offense flowing.
Speaker 1: When Malik Monk has a jumper going, Avery Bradley looks
Speaker 1: like he's knocking it down. He's at his contract was guaranteed.
Speaker 1: The ball was just moving nicely, and we looked unstoppable
Speaker 1: for a lot of that. The Hawks had no answer
Speaker 1: for us. They didn't know who to put on. Lebron
Speaker 1: didn't know out of guard, our screen coverages. We were
Speaker 1: just moving the ball right to left, left or right.
Speaker 1: It was just like it was a nice game to watch, man,
Speaker 1: And I think it's something we're definitely can continue to
Speaker 1: build on. And that guy talked about I'm super high
Speaker 1: on Atlanta, Like, I think they're a really good offensive team.
Speaker 1: I think they're really I think they're a lot better
Speaker 1: than they've shown. And you got to get a win
Speaker 1: to to get our fourth win. It's gonna be a
Speaker 1: tough test against Memphis. I believe. On on Sunday, I believe,
Speaker 1: but yeah, this is but this was the phone when
Speaker 1: I think our small ball liners were seeing the fruit
Speaker 1: of that and Fogels understanding kind of what buttons to push.
Speaker 1: You know, we don't like the mellow at the five,
Speaker 1: but like those lineups kill offensively and if you can
Speaker 1: you know, just the average defensively, even those you can
Speaker 1: kind of see the lead push and you saw him
Speaker 1: when he's wide open. He's been pretty much money. And
Speaker 1: the Hawks kind of how to make a lot of
Speaker 1: decisions when it's Malik Monk and Carmelo on the two
Speaker 1: week side corners, Like that's a tough decision for a defense,
Speaker 1: and then it's like Russ and Lebron putting pressure on
Speaker 1: the rim. It's just we're seeing some of the fruits
Speaker 1: of the of us playing small. Now. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: one of the things that I had taken specific notice
Speaker 1: of during the game, Like there's a good a good
Speaker 1: amount of defensive breakdowns that we were seeing from Atlanta
Speaker 1: that needs that needs to be pointed out. However, this
Speaker 1: style of play is really hard to guard. You know,
Speaker 1: this is something this is something I've been preaching NonStop
Speaker 1: since the playoffs last year. It was kind of like
Speaker 1: such an awakening for me to watch the Clippers and
Speaker 1: it's something that I've said many times on the pots.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna spend too much time on it, but
Speaker 1: for them to, you know, with Paul George and with
Speaker 1: Reggie Jackson basically and a bunch of guys who are
Speaker 1: you know, mid level close out attackers on the wings,
Speaker 1: they were able to light the Utah Jazz on fire.
Speaker 1: And and they had a lot of success during that
Speaker 1: whole playoff run. They came within two wins of making
Speaker 1: it to the NBA Finals. They even had a great
Speaker 1: deal of offensive success against that Phoenix Suns team. And
Speaker 1: and there's, yes, there's talent at play there. Paul George
Speaker 1: is obviously an extremely gifted wing, and Reggie Jackson shot
Speaker 1: the ball really well in that series, and he's a shifty,
Speaker 1: athletic guard that can get into the lane. But a
Speaker 1: big part of that is don't make yourself easy to guard.
Speaker 1: Like That's that's what drove me insane to start this season,
Speaker 1: and it was something I preached NonStop because I thought
Speaker 1: it was directly impacting our defense. Like we said earlier,
Speaker 1: you know the transition, right, the teams would get off
Speaker 1: the rails tonight, Both teams would get off the rails
Speaker 1: tonight defensively when their offensive execution would fall apart and
Speaker 1: they live in transition, right, And that was kind of
Speaker 1: what was happening to us to start the season. We
Speaker 1: were making ourselves so easy to guard with those DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan's lineups that we were just missing jump sho you
Speaker 1: like Pete from micro Film would chart thees and he
Speaker 1: would talk about it in the in the in that pod,
Speaker 1: they would say like, you know, oh, well we have
Speaker 1: thirteen possessions with this group and we took you know,
Speaker 1: eleven jump shots to start. You know, we were making
Speaker 1: ourselves easy to guard and it was leading to runouts.
Speaker 1: That was directly leading to our defense being comprom is
Speaker 1: all the time. Um, even with all the size and
Speaker 1: advantages that came with having DeAndre Jordan's there. And that's
Speaker 1: the thing here is like what you're seeing is, you know,
Speaker 1: especially if we can figure out how to refine this
Speaker 1: further and further as time goes on, because you're seeing
Speaker 1: our offense get a little better each game, which is
Speaker 1: something you can expect when you adopt a new style
Speaker 1: and you're you know, because it's a new style, you're
Speaker 1: far from your ceiling with it. As they get closer
Speaker 1: to that ceiling. A large part of their defensive success
Speaker 1: will come from constantly having the ability to set your
Speaker 1: defense and that you know, that's what Brooklyn did so
Speaker 1: well last year in the playoffs, and so you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm really excited to see where that goes long term.
Speaker 1: But it's so important for us to continue to bread
Speaker 1: this culture of offensive comfort and flow because that will
Speaker 1: inherently help us because you know, you know, Frank is
Speaker 1: obsessing over the defensive end, right Like, Frank's gonna watch
Speaker 1: this film tomorrow and he's gonna literally want to clause
Speaker 1: eyes out over some of the defensive mistakes were making.
Speaker 1: That that makes me feel good, because what if what
Speaker 1: did you and I say NonStop over the course the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, Lebron's the offensive coordinator here, Frank
Speaker 1: is the defensive coordinator. Well, Lebron seems to have this
Speaker 1: offense thing down from the center position right like we
Speaker 1: are humming right now in all cylinders, like you said,
Speaker 1: two second in the league in the last five games.
Speaker 1: So I can't wait to see what Frank has for
Speaker 1: this team defensively because I feel very confident that before
Speaker 1: a d gets back, we're gonna have a stretch of
Speaker 1: games or we're gonna get a lot of stops because
Speaker 1: that's just what his specialty is. And there is enough
Speaker 1: athletic talent on this team, you know, with Reeves, with
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson, with th Ht, with Trevor Reesa, with Avery Bradley,
Speaker 1: we have enough talent defensively to get stops. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I thought tonight it was a blueprint kind of for
Speaker 1: what they can be. And again the Hawks scored a
Speaker 1: bunch of points and it wasn't perfect, But I think
Speaker 1: we're going to be more of like a trappy trap team,
Speaker 1: like create turnovers, create k us, not so much like
Speaker 1: a standards set defense, more like great turnovers a bunch
Speaker 1: of players where like Russ gott Russe was like about
Speaker 1: to get a turnover, he got his like fingerprints on it,
Speaker 1: and you could see them kind of be able to
Speaker 1: react to that. And Trey Young's again a tough cover
Speaker 1: with that because he can get to the basket. He
Speaker 1: has a floater game. But I thought, like trapping and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, doubling on the ball like that kind
Speaker 1: of is more our flow, our system, and guys like
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson Lebron on the back line they're able to
Speaker 1: go and tag the rollman in that way. And it's
Speaker 1: a little different when you have a traditional center, right,
Speaker 1: even when dwights on the floor, it's still like a
Speaker 1: traditional drop coverage in that. But when you have just
Speaker 1: all wings, you can switch a lot more. And I
Speaker 1: thought we started to see that we gave up a
Speaker 1: bunch of open threes tonight on plays, so like where
Speaker 1: one guy thought he was switching and he wasn't, and
Speaker 1: it got like hurt her some open threes. Bagdanovich, Like
Speaker 1: I talked about about that later on the game, like
Speaker 1: we'd have like Reeves and like th Ht and those
Speaker 1: two can just switch actions. And we're like that throughout
Speaker 1: pretty much our starting five rust and kind of switched
Speaker 1: through most of those. Lebron and Stanley obviously I talked
Speaker 1: about on the back line and Stanley Johnson and like,
Speaker 1: I feel like his energy is infectious and it's not
Speaker 1: just energy because I think that would be fair to him.
Speaker 1: Like he's a legit defensive player, Like he had a
Speaker 1: I think he blocked a dunk tonight. To have that
Speaker 1: I was an outrageous Yeah, yeah, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: and he's he's a legit defensive player to me, and
Speaker 1: I think he's starting to find his nichees role. It's
Speaker 1: great we got him back on the team. I think
Speaker 1: he'll eventually be on the roster full time, just the
Speaker 1: way he's starting every game. And those two men were
Speaker 1: awesome against. Like I talked about a great offensive team
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, I think Atlanta had like twelve points to
Speaker 1: the first like six minutes of this game. If I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, I think we had a Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: really quickly. The Lakers definitely had so much success early
Speaker 1: in the game. You could tell they've never felt threatened,
Speaker 1: which I think is part is very releve It's very
Speaker 1: relevant here when we're talking about how their defense sucked
Speaker 1: for large. Yeah. Yeah, it was definitely up and down
Speaker 1: for sure. And again Lebron's going to Wax and Wayne
Speaker 1: kind of when he's the center, right because that's a
Speaker 1: lot of effort for him. We talked about being the
Speaker 1: center is less physically taxing, but still a team like
Speaker 1: Atlanta you have to run around because they have so
Speaker 1: much shooting around Trey Young and they run so many
Speaker 1: actions where where they're they're pick and roll action is
Speaker 1: such a tough cover where you have to kind of
Speaker 1: be in two places at once a little bit and
Speaker 1: that stuff that the effort is gonna wax in Wayne.
Speaker 1: But I saw enough tonight where Vogel can kind of
Speaker 1: build a group blueprint defensively, and again Dwight came off
Speaker 1: the bench. I love the buttons that Vogel was pushing.
Speaker 1: The mellow at the five. We saw some of it,
Speaker 1: but I thought, you know, he took it out when
Speaker 1: it wasn't needed. He took out Carmelo for Stanley for
Speaker 1: a little bit in the fourth and put it back
Speaker 1: in to kind of put the game away offensively. And
Speaker 1: I think he's pushing those buttons. But there's a successful
Speaker 1: team here, and obviously throwing Anthony Davis into it just
Speaker 1: makes it all that better. I think le Brond and
Speaker 1: a d are the two best you know, small ball
Speaker 1: in quotations, small uh small ball centers like in the world,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know you can get too other than
Speaker 1: obviously honest maybe, but like you put those two and
Speaker 1: this with this type of shooting with Milik Monk, like
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see it. And and Kendrick Nunn obviously
Speaker 1: is on the bench too, so we'll have a rotation
Speaker 1: kind of thing to figure out. But this is a
Speaker 1: blueprint that we can follow. Man just a fast team.
Speaker 1: Milik Monk is active. Uh we think about his athleticism offensively,
Speaker 1: but he jumps for in passing lanes like he's quick
Speaker 1: like you'll like he's starting to read plays more to
Speaker 1: like you'll see a crosscore pass and read it and
Speaker 1: pick it off. Like. I think he's improved defensively. There
Speaker 1: were times tonight where Tree Young trying to pick on
Speaker 1: Leak Monk and he did a nice job, like he
Speaker 1: stayed in front of him, used his quickness to kind
Speaker 1: of make them take like a tough step back. Three.
Speaker 1: We're seeing incremental improvements even if it hasn't shown up
Speaker 1: in like defensive rating and stuff. And that stuff is
Speaker 1: so tough for me to look at because this is
Speaker 1: a brand new team, Jason, right, Like this is like
Speaker 1: two starters are on the bench right now, DeAndre Jordan's
Speaker 1: camp baysmore who are who are littered through all our
Speaker 1: you know, big minutes lineup so far don't even play anymore.
Speaker 1: Like this is a totally different team, and I think
Speaker 1: it's tough to kind of look at, you know, how
Speaker 1: are ratings matchup for the rest of the league because
Speaker 1: we're a new team. We're starting pretty much from fresh year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like this is you I I said before every season,
Speaker 1: I say that you tracked defensive rating is just a
Speaker 1: general indicator of you know, effort level throughout the season.
Speaker 1: And like, yeah, I mean the Lakers were ninth in
Speaker 1: defensive rating before the Anthony Davis injury, you know, but
Speaker 1: it's like at the same time and that was a
Speaker 1: completely different group, right, so everything, everything is kind of irrelevant.
Speaker 1: It's a moving scale. Every everything about the way we
Speaker 1: evaluate this team now needs to be focused on this
Speaker 1: new identity with this new group of players that they're
Speaker 1: playing with. That goes without saying I wanted to uh
Speaker 1: to talk about t HD because you know, so for
Speaker 1: those of you who didn't listen to our last spot
Speaker 1: really quickly, Like you know, one of my big sticking
Speaker 1: points of t HT all season is the kid's just
Speaker 1: been put through the ringer with his rotation between the
Speaker 1: thumb injury and COVID and then just all of the
Speaker 1: other roster turnover, throwing him in and out of the
Speaker 1: starting lineup, and you know, changing him from being on
Speaker 1: the ball a lot to being off the ball a lot,
Speaker 1: and and he's a young player, and those sorts of
Speaker 1: things tend to have a greater impact on younger players
Speaker 1: and they do on veterans. And you know, I predicted
Speaker 1: that as he would get into a more consistent role,
Speaker 1: which is what this off the bench role is for
Speaker 1: him now, and as long as he stayed on the court,
Speaker 1: that he would start to trend in the right direction.
Speaker 1: And then you know, from there, because he's played a
Speaker 1: couple of good games in a row. Now from there,
Speaker 1: it's about like, Okay, what's replicable, right, Like, what what
Speaker 1: is he doing that will consistently work versus something he's
Speaker 1: doing that's you know, out of out of the ordinary.
Speaker 1: So for instance, when he had those back to back
Speaker 1: twenty point games when he first came back from the thumb, Like,
Speaker 1: if you look at those, is like he was making
Speaker 1: a lot of threes, right, And we know that's not
Speaker 1: necessarily replicable for him yet at this point in his career.
Speaker 1: But over the course of these last two games, a
Speaker 1: lot of what he's doing is like, I don't see
Speaker 1: why that wouldn't work. He's bullying guys around the rim.
Speaker 1: You know, he's he's consistently attacking close outs and making
Speaker 1: good decisions, Like there are a bunch of plays today
Speaker 1: where he catched the ball at the three point line,
Speaker 1: beat the guy off the dribble, health defender would step
Speaker 1: up and he'd hit Mellow, or he'd you know, hit
Speaker 1: Monk coming off the you know, from the other side,
Speaker 1: Like he was just making consistent quality reads out of
Speaker 1: advantage situations. And then and also you know, you can
Speaker 1: tell the Lakers have made a concerted effort to get
Speaker 1: his intentional touches with an advantage. So if on place
Speaker 1: where he's not attacking close out but rather they're running
Speaker 1: a set for him, it almost always involves him coming
Speaker 1: off some sort of curl or in some sort of
Speaker 1: ball screen with a matchup with a shooter someone like Mellow,
Speaker 1: where they're going to be hesitant to leave Mellow, or
Speaker 1: on those curls where he has an advantage and he's
Speaker 1: just killing people when he has an advantage because he's
Speaker 1: got such a low center of gravity and he's so
Speaker 1: strong that when he gets a step on you, it's
Speaker 1: it's kind of just over. And the crazy part is,
Speaker 1: I thought he missed a couple of shots tonight that
Speaker 1: were really high percentage shots around the rim, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of scoop shots, and then that little uh
Speaker 1: play where he got Clint Capella off his feet and
Speaker 1: smoked that lay up right by the rim, like he
Speaker 1: I could. You know this is this is looking really good.
Speaker 1: And you know, again, like we said, it's all about
Speaker 1: consistency here. If this turns into a sort of thing
Speaker 1: where he doing it once out of every three games
Speaker 1: or once s out of every four games, then the
Speaker 1: conversation about whether or not you trade him gets a
Speaker 1: little more complicated, you know. But if he can get
Speaker 1: to the point where he plays this well two out
Speaker 1: of three games, like, that's when you start looking at
Speaker 1: this from the lens of he's helping us right now.
Speaker 1: Andy has this great upside that we can look to
Speaker 1: in the future. But I mean, this is I got
Speaker 1: a lot of crap for the other day for saying
Speaker 1: that th hd um kind of reminds me of Drew
Speaker 1: Holiday and and and again, it's way too soon to
Speaker 1: take a victory lap. I am not taking a victory lap.
Speaker 1: But what you're seeing from th HD in these last
Speaker 1: couple of games, this is what I envision when I
Speaker 1: think about his development as a player, just this power
Speaker 1: guard who should eventually become a guy who can knock
Speaker 1: down shots. Hence the high quality three throw shooting. You know,
Speaker 1: he's a power guard that punishes smaller, skinnier offensive defensive
Speaker 1: players at the guard position and then also on the
Speaker 1: other end, king guard, you know, basically one through four.
Speaker 1: There were a couple of plays today where he got
Speaker 1: switched onto a post, especially early in the game, where
Speaker 1: he got beat. But like, he does a really good
Speaker 1: job one through four defensively. So this is this is
Speaker 1: the what I envisioned from THHD. You, Like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to talk about trades. He's not tradeable for another
Speaker 1: eight days, so not you're not going into that at all.
Speaker 1: But he's such like a rhythm player, and I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a coincidence um that he's like these like
Speaker 1: good games are coming from him coming off the bench.
Speaker 1: And that was the first time he came in for
Speaker 1: Lebron instead of Russ. So the last three games he
Speaker 1: usually comes up with Russ. Yeah, yeah, he came in
Speaker 1: for Lebron. This time Lebron only came in for a
Speaker 1: little only went out for a little bit. I think
Speaker 1: I think he only sat for like two minutes and
Speaker 1: then he came in for Russ if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: But I think that's a coincidence. Nice he's not playing
Speaker 1: with all three of the ball handlers, and tonight there
Speaker 1: was definitely a concerted effort to give him the ball more,
Speaker 1: even when he was on the floor with Russ, Even
Speaker 1: when he was on the floor with Lebron, they let
Speaker 1: him run actions a little bit more, let him kind
Speaker 1: of ice so, let him attack the rim such a
Speaker 1: of them guy like I was talking about, and he
Speaker 1: got he got to the rim a little bit, he
Speaker 1: got to the line. I think that I think he
Speaker 1: shot like the first technical free through or something like that,
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, just seeing the ball go
Speaker 1: to the basket for him, and it was just cool
Speaker 1: to see him get going. In Atlanta kind of tried
Speaker 1: to hide players on him. There was a stretch in
Speaker 1: this game where we went to th HC Lebron screen
Speaker 1: and roll, but instead it was THHD as a screener.
Speaker 1: And I feel like that's just stuff you can do
Speaker 1: to just so he doesn't always have to be the
Speaker 1: guy that needs to shoot. And you know, all those
Speaker 1: plays we talked about earlier where the ball was moving
Speaker 1: like it was like three or four passes. Was a
Speaker 1: part of that. He was, He was a part of
Speaker 1: a lot of those possessions where like he was the
Speaker 1: glue guy. He drives ball, kicks, kicks, he moves it.
Speaker 1: He talked about the pick and pick and pops with Carmelo.
Speaker 1: He's another guy that it's similar to Russ where like
Speaker 1: he needs to slow down. He's either like I'm getting
Speaker 1: to the rim. You know, I'm either getting to the
Speaker 1: rim or I'm like shooting a weird jumper. Like he
Speaker 1: can slow down a little bit, read read the defense.
Speaker 1: And I saw a lot of that, a lot more
Speaker 1: of that tonight. He's a good ball handler, Like all
Speaker 1: the skills are there, it just needs to be compiled
Speaker 1: together correctly. Because he obviously has ball handling skills. He
Speaker 1: obviously can get to the rim. I think his first
Speaker 1: step is crazy, which is why I just you know,
Speaker 1: even a blow average jumper, which just changed his life.
Speaker 1: But you know, he's he's gonna get he did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And you know there's a few plays where like he
Speaker 1: almost dunked and then decided to lay it up. There's
Speaker 1: a few plays like that. But he can get to
Speaker 1: the rim and you see him use his body a
Speaker 1: little bit more, use his physicality. Maybe he's getting a
Speaker 1: little bit more comfortable after being out for a little
Speaker 1: bit from COVID protocols and stuff. But yeah, this tonight
Speaker 1: was another really good, you know, THHD game. He got
Speaker 1: lost a little bit off the ball, you know, on
Speaker 1: some shooters, I think on a Herd and Bugnonomous, a
Speaker 1: little bit that's gonna happen. I thought his on ball
Speaker 1: defense was pretty good though. I think he was on
Speaker 1: trade for a couple of positions. Did a fine job.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he was. He was good, man, and this
Speaker 1: is kind of what you want to see from him.
Speaker 1: He knocked down a few threes tonight. That's not really expected.
Speaker 1: But I want him to shoot when he's open, Like,
Speaker 1: I think that's important. I think, you know, passing up
Speaker 1: shots for him just has a domino effect of of
Speaker 1: affecting everything else in his game. But he was good
Speaker 1: and I like him as a screener. I like him
Speaker 1: having the ball a little bit more. You saw that,
Speaker 1: and I think that's something that they're definitely trying to
Speaker 1: do to build him up a little bit. And it's
Speaker 1: a second straight game that that's good for him. Memphis
Speaker 1: will be a test, but but it's a nice, nice
Speaker 1: little streak he's building as well. Yeah, exactly that. The
Speaker 1: consistency is everything with Like we said, like we we
Speaker 1: see all Star plays at a t HD every game.
Speaker 1: It's been, you know, one of our little talking points
Speaker 1: that we can like a super star playing tonight, a
Speaker 1: super super I'll star playing in and out dribble crossover
Speaker 1: to a dunk man and the huge hands like that,
Speaker 1: Like that's the thing too. It's everything with t's the
Speaker 1: physical tools, like the ability to gather it like that
Speaker 1: and hold it high and to have such long arms
Speaker 1: that off a short take off like that that you
Speaker 1: can get high enough. Because that's the thing. Like when
Speaker 1: you're a jumping vertical athlete but you don't have great
Speaker 1: physical tools, you really have to load up. I mean,
Speaker 1: look at Moldleague Monk. He's the best example of this.
Speaker 1: Like he's flying in transition all the time because he
Speaker 1: gets chances it gets a chance to load up. But
Speaker 1: he struggles, like he's not dunking on people in half
Speaker 1: court sets often because he doesn't have that you know,
Speaker 1: easy set of physical tools for to that have to jump.
Speaker 1: He has to jump much higher. You know, th h
Speaker 1: T is just so long that he's got the capability
Speaker 1: to finish like that in traffic because he doesn't actually
Speaker 1: have to jump that high in order to to finish them,
Speaker 1: you know. But you know, the key here is this
Speaker 1: brings us to an interesting concept of close out attacking,
Speaker 1: because this is something that you know, you and I
Speaker 1: have been on for a couple of years now. My
Speaker 1: favorite example of a team that has high level clothes
Speaker 1: that attacking is Phoenix. You know, when you look at
Speaker 1: guys like Cam Johnson and Michael Bridges, they just the
Speaker 1: types of moves they can make attacking closeouts are just
Speaker 1: a little bit more advanced, and especially in a playoff
Speaker 1: setting when scoring is so difficult, that sort of thing
Speaker 1: brings a lot of value. And what I saw a
Speaker 1: lot of tonight was you'd have a kind of like
Speaker 1: a core initiation action at the top right, whether that
Speaker 1: was a Molik Monk Lebron screening role or a Mellow
Speaker 1: Lebron screening roll or a russ ball handler screen with
Speaker 1: with Lebron as a screener. They it run this kind
Speaker 1: of action either at the top of the key or
Speaker 1: on the wing and it would cause the defense to
Speaker 1: shade towards them because you have to. That's just how
Speaker 1: it works. It's we have to do the same thing
Speaker 1: when we're guarding Tredy Young or when we're guarding anyone else.
Speaker 1: And so then comes the really quick swing pass right,
Speaker 1: the quick swing pass over to somebody who's got a
Speaker 1: little bit of an advantage, you know, And that's where
Speaker 1: you know, if that's Wayne Ellington, you know, I guess
Speaker 1: he can pump an take a sidestep and get a
Speaker 1: shot off. And I'm not hating on Moyne Ellington's game.
Speaker 1: I love the guy, but like that ability to make
Speaker 1: a complicated attack of a close out, to either create
Speaker 1: an open shot for someone else or to create something
Speaker 1: for yourself is so valuable. And th HD is just
Speaker 1: good at that already, which is crazy, and it actually brings,
Speaker 1: you know, on a larger scale, like that's an interesting
Speaker 1: conundrum with Stanley Johnson and Trevorresa because you know, there
Speaker 1: was a play Stanley actually stepped out of bounds on it,
Speaker 1: but he was able to beat to the baseline thinks
Speaker 1: the end of the first half. You know, that kind
Speaker 1: of that kind of play a reason it can't really
Speaker 1: make right now, A Reason is kind of like almost
Speaker 1: more more like Ellington in the sense that like he
Speaker 1: can shoot it and he might be able to pump
Speaker 1: faken sidestep, but he's not able to really beat guys
Speaker 1: off the dribble when he's given a little bit of
Speaker 1: an advantage. And Stanley can and that kind of makes
Speaker 1: him an interesting option. You know what I mean as
Speaker 1: as a guy to take minutes away from a reason
Speaker 1: when we're whole is you know, just you have to
Speaker 1: be able to beat that guy who's closing out at
Speaker 1: you unless you're just absolutely on the money from three
Speaker 1: every time, you know, which is a different story, but
Speaker 1: it's and that's obviously what keeps mellow in his value
Speaker 1: so high. But that that that concept is very interesting
Speaker 1: to me because especially when you get into a playoff setting,
Speaker 1: there's just not gonna be a lot of like two
Speaker 1: on two on one side of the floor. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a lot of shading, helping and packing the pain
Speaker 1: and things along those lines. This issue, and that's kind
Speaker 1: of where you talked about this a lot as well,
Speaker 1: where like Austin Reeves comes in as well and he
Speaker 1: just he just yeah, you know, he's just he's just
Speaker 1: good man. Like there's no there's no like qualms about,
Speaker 1: Like he's a reals good for a rookie like that.
Speaker 1: Dude is just good. He's not even shooting well, but
Speaker 1: the floor just connects. And you talked about the you know,
Speaker 1: being able to attack the close out. He does that
Speaker 1: really well to me. His decision making and that is
Speaker 1: split second and he usually makes the right decision every
Speaker 1: time catch, shoot pass, like he knows exactly where to go.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, we kind of move this
Speaker 1: as well. I'm not sure we didn't really get into
Speaker 1: League Monk that much. But man, Malik is kind of
Speaker 1: living off these right like league is in heaven right now.
Speaker 1: Like he's shooting threes. I pulled up the numbers here.
Speaker 1: Malik is seventeen for thirty two from three in the
Speaker 1: last three games. It's like and they're not and that's
Speaker 1: just not And I think he's a legit shooter, Like
Speaker 1: I don't think he I don't think this is a
Speaker 1: hot streak. Like his form looks good. I talked about
Speaker 1: when he gets into the dip of his jumper, it's
Speaker 1: just I feel like it's going in. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: he's able to attack off that he's getting to the
Speaker 1: rim a little a big game to aligne again, he
Speaker 1: had I think he had twenty one at halftime. He
Speaker 1: was like ten for twelve or some some ridiculous number.
Speaker 1: And he just keeps on thriving. You know, in this
Speaker 1: small ball universe that we've entered here, he feels like
Speaker 1: one of the biggest you know guys who's who's benefit
Speaker 1: off it? Honestly, And you talked again the closeout attacking
Speaker 1: be able to hit wide open threes at a super
Speaker 1: high rate. He doesn't need to be open to shoot,
Speaker 1: which I think is a really important thing for this team.
Speaker 1: Like he doesn't have to be wide open like Wayne
Speaker 1: Ellington to me, needs to be. I know, we don't
Speaker 1: want to attack Wayne Ellington. And he was one of
Speaker 1: my favorite signing. He's one of my favorite signings honestly,
Speaker 1: but he needs He's the guy that kind of needs
Speaker 1: to be open to shoot, right if it's contested, he's
Speaker 1: gonna just pass it off. Malik Monk, you know, he
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like he doesn't really even see the defender
Speaker 1: a lot of times. But just talk to me about
Speaker 1: Milik Monk because I thought again, another just monster game
Speaker 1: from him and really picked up the slack him and
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley honestly, who we should give some flowers to
Speaker 1: as well. But Malik Monk just picking up the offense.
Speaker 1: Sixty something points from us, he had twenty one of them.
Speaker 1: Would you would you kind of think of just this
Speaker 1: continuation of play from him. Well, I'm glad you pointed
Speaker 1: out that he's been shooting the ball well, because the
Speaker 1: truth is is to me, it's kind of a regression
Speaker 1: to normal. Because early in the season, if you guys remember,
Speaker 1: Ellington and Mellow and Lebron were all like up over
Speaker 1: on wide open threes. I know that was and and
Speaker 1: Lebron was struggling on off the dribble threes, but the
Speaker 1: everything wide open, Lebron, Mellow and Wayne Ellington were just
Speaker 1: good as money. But Molik Monk for whatever reason, was
Speaker 1: missing the open shots. To start the season. He had
Speaker 1: a few games where he shot the ball well, but
Speaker 1: Malik was struggling a little bit figuring out. But and now,
Speaker 1: in his defense, he at that point in the season,
Speaker 1: his role was inconsistent. This is actually I'm going to
Speaker 1: go on a little mini tangent here. You know, One
Speaker 1: of the big reasons why I think Wesley Matthews has
Speaker 1: been playing so well for the Bucks is he has
Speaker 1: a consistent role there. And if there's one little, tiny,
Speaker 1: itty bitty bit of criticism in might throw Frank Vogel's away,
Speaker 1: it's that he tweaks with the rotation a lot um,
Speaker 1: particularly at the guard position, and that was something he
Speaker 1: did a lot last year. Do you remember, like there'd
Speaker 1: be stretches of the season where way where West would
Speaker 1: be in the rotation, and they're being stretches of the
Speaker 1: season where West wouldn't be in the rotation, you know,
Speaker 1: and like you know, his minutes taken by THHD, Like
Speaker 1: THHD took his minutes, like he he ends. But my
Speaker 1: but my point is this throughout the season, though West's
Speaker 1: role was somewhat inconsistent, and I don't and I think
Speaker 1: specifically for guys who are you know, who have the
Speaker 1: ball in their hands, guys who you know that and
Speaker 1: it's a rhytham sport, it really is, and it can
Speaker 1: get disrupted. So my point is is, like coming back
Speaker 1: to the Leak Monk, one of the big reasons why
Speaker 1: I think the league Monk is playing so well right
Speaker 1: now is by virtue of necessity. The Lakers leaned heavily
Speaker 1: on him. Um, you know after a few games when
Speaker 1: things kind of started to go off the rails with
Speaker 1: injuries and stuff like that. And what you've seen is
Speaker 1: in this consistent role, he's just comfortable now. And we
Speaker 1: talked about this like three or four games ago, but
Speaker 1: he has a green light now, like a full blown,
Speaker 1: legitimate like no questions asked, You've got a green light,
Speaker 1: and that that works wonders for a player's confidence, you know,
Speaker 1: when you don't have to fear missing a shot, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like I mean even in that
Speaker 1: game where you know when remember the one after the
Speaker 1: game where they asked him what he changed, and he's like,
Speaker 1: I stopped taking stupid off the dribble step back through.
Speaker 1: Like it's it's funny because you know, maybe when he
Speaker 1: was in New Orleans, when he was in Charlotte, he
Speaker 1: might have taken a couple of tough step back threes
Speaker 1: and Brego might have benched his ass, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like like, but whereas here like he has
Speaker 1: freedom to fail, you know, and he missed all those
Speaker 1: shots in that particular game, and then he started taking
Speaker 1: easier shots and they started going in. He was given
Speaker 1: an opportunity to to find his confidence and to find
Speaker 1: his rhythm. But again, like having having him like this
Speaker 1: as an option to carry the offense for significant stretches
Speaker 1: of the games helps in a bunch of different ways.
Speaker 1: Not only does it unlock some of those two man
Speaker 1: game options like we were talking about with Lebron, but
Speaker 1: it's relieved some of what we need Russ to do.
Speaker 1: You know, having having Molik and th h T start
Speaker 1: to play this well puts Russ. It's you know, it
Speaker 1: slots for us proper, properly as someone that can kind
Speaker 1: of go back to what his offensive role was when
Speaker 1: a d was in the lineup, And that makes me
Speaker 1: feel a little better because you know, I was worried
Speaker 1: we were going to get a heavy dose of some
Speaker 1: of the uglier sides of Russ's game over this stretch
Speaker 1: without Anthony Davis and Malik. Monk is rectifying that, and
Speaker 1: so is th HT. And obviously, again consistency is going
Speaker 1: to be the key here. Now for t T, it's
Speaker 1: only been two games. Malik's been going like this for
Speaker 1: two and a half weeks now, so that's exciting. But
Speaker 1: it'll be it'll be key that he stays on this course.
Speaker 1: But I tend to think with a green light and
Speaker 1: with the opportunities he's getting and playing alongside Lebron James, Like,
Speaker 1: it's not like his shot quality's gonna dip. He's just
Speaker 1: gotta keep knocking there and you know what I mean. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And we're starting to like actually run actions. From the
Speaker 1: League two, we started running him off some curls and
Speaker 1: he's coming off and pulling up and just trying to
Speaker 1: get into some more you know, system stuff for him
Speaker 1: where in the half court, get him more shots. But
Speaker 1: that's a great point on like how it slots Russ
Speaker 1: to a little bit more of an easier position, right,
Speaker 1: because when we were starting Russ next to we already
Speaker 1: started next day Bradley who's not really a ball handler
Speaker 1: and sends more like a spot up guy. Um and
Speaker 1: I think it was also Thhd as well. But now
Speaker 1: you put Mileek Monk next to him, just a guy
Speaker 1: he can give the ball to, and it feels like
Speaker 1: Russ is able to kind of attack more on his terms. Right.
Speaker 1: It's it's not so much you have to have him
Speaker 1: run in the half court and and I think Russ
Speaker 1: has done a lot better job, you know, just controlling
Speaker 1: his his attacks to the rim. He had some finishes tonight, Jason.
Speaker 1: Do you see the one in Transition today where he
Speaker 1: was like up and under It was like with Finesse.
Speaker 1: It was super nice. And I'm like, man, he can
Speaker 1: do that all the time, like if he just slow
Speaker 1: if if he just slows down a little bit, like
Speaker 1: he can finish like that. But I think that's a
Speaker 1: good point with that, because like I've always said, with Russ,
Speaker 1: you're never going to I don't think tempering him is
Speaker 1: ever the solution. It's just you know, lowering the usage.
Speaker 1: And I think we're kind of seeing that where he's
Speaker 1: able to his usage goes down a little bit and
Speaker 1: he can attack on his terms, especially with Lebron on
Speaker 1: the floor again with Leek Monk as hot as he
Speaker 1: is able to be a bowl in the china shop.
Speaker 1: In transition, he's doing and Avery Bradley and him are
Speaker 1: starting to get a little connection here, right Like when
Speaker 1: Russ drives, Avery Bradley cuts and like that he's found
Speaker 1: if he found every badly a few times, not just
Speaker 1: denying the last few games, him and Bradley have a
Speaker 1: nice connection as a cutter passer kind of duo. But
Speaker 1: I think he's passing is getting better. Three and three
Speaker 1: turnovers tonight. Two of them were kind of like what
Speaker 1: were you doing? Stuff? But you know, the three turnovers
Speaker 1: is not bad for us for the night he had.
Speaker 1: I think if he had like twelve assists or something, uh,
Speaker 1: twelve assists on the night. But you know, he's starting
Speaker 1: to play a little bit better and the game is
Speaker 1: starting to be controlled a little bit better for him.
Speaker 1: I'm I feel like he's he's moving in the right direction,
Speaker 1: and when E comes back, obviously I will kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, shift him even more into the into the
Speaker 1: correct spots. But I think he's played well. Man, I
Speaker 1: don't and I think Lake Monk, you know, surgeons here
Speaker 1: is not you know, it's not coincidental that Russ is
Speaker 1: playing better along with that. So I think you're right
Speaker 1: with that with that assessment. I think Malik has definitely
Speaker 1: helped Russ kind of be more in his lane and
Speaker 1: be able to attack in situations that makes sense. And
Speaker 1: we kind of figured out a late game kind of
Speaker 1: thing with him where he can go stand in the
Speaker 1: Dunger spot he can be a screener. He's kind of
Speaker 1: more the secondary third attacker instead of having to be
Speaker 1: the primary guy. And I think that's something we've kind
Speaker 1: of figured out as as the season's gone on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, the Russ has actually started to plaint better,
Speaker 1: start a little more self control for all those reasons
Speaker 1: we just discussed, I think, you know, I think if
Speaker 1: I had to choose between him taking some of these
Speaker 1: fifteen footers that he's been taking or putting his head
Speaker 1: down and trying to get into the paint, especially early
Speaker 1: in the game the way that he did in the
Speaker 1: first quarter. You know, when Russ draws into the basket
Speaker 1: and misses a layoup. As much as it is a
Speaker 1: bad play because it is because it triggers a fast
Speaker 1: break out of the other direction, he's usually complaining to
Speaker 1: the rest or complains to the rest. But but the
Speaker 1: there's a there's a cumulative effect to rim pressure that
Speaker 1: is a it's a psychological effect on the defense because
Speaker 1: they start to naturally collapse when Russ starts bringing the
Speaker 1: ball up the floor. Um, but also there's a fatigue
Speaker 1: element to it, and guys start getting out of the way,
Speaker 1: you know, like there's there were several plays tonight where
Speaker 1: Russ drove to the basket and was in a crowd
Speaker 1: and threw up a crazy shot missed. But then there
Speaker 1: were a couple of plays there in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: where all of a sudden it was single coverage him
Speaker 1: around the rim and he bumped a guy off of
Speaker 1: him and laid it up. And that's cumulative fatigue. That's
Speaker 1: eventually guys just gets sick of getting in the way,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And and then obviously during
Speaker 1: the stretches when they are collapsing and trying to take
Speaker 1: that stuff away from him, there's a lot of good
Speaker 1: that comes from the rim pressure with him kicking out
Speaker 1: and spraying the shooters. So again, like my thing is, like,
Speaker 1: you know, there was a kind of a moment where
Speaker 1: he made that and one in the first quarter, second
Speaker 1: quarter might have been yeah, and he had kind of
Speaker 1: like a little moment where he threw his hands up
Speaker 1: kind of like off finally, And you know, I kind
Speaker 1: of want to be like man like, no, like those
Speaker 1: weren't the other ones missed because you're just not good
Speaker 1: at that. This wasn't the basketball gots finally paying you back.
Speaker 1: I think I think that dude might have fouled your
Speaker 1: shot into the basket like like like I'm just like
Speaker 1: I wish, I wish for his sake, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: especially now that Monk and th Ht are starting to
Speaker 1: kind of find their legs and play better, I almost
Speaker 1: want to be like man, like really really channel into
Speaker 1: what you're good at now, you know, which is just
Speaker 1: put your head down and go to the rim, Like
Speaker 1: those are those are the kinds of you know, like
Speaker 1: the place a place where he picks up his dribble
Speaker 1: along the second lane line and tries to throw some
Speaker 1: stupid like those are pointless turnovers, but the ones when
Speaker 1: he's like flying into the basket and trying to make
Speaker 1: something happen, those are at least a little more tolerable
Speaker 1: because of that cumulative effect of him putting rim pressure.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'd like to see him really really
Speaker 1: focus on now that we're clicking so well offensively. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and like those mid rain shots aren't great, you know,
Speaker 1: but I like, to me, I'd rather have those than
Speaker 1: the turnovers as well, Like if you can get a
Speaker 1: shot at the rim, we can get our defense back.
Speaker 1: And I think it's also a sign of aggression. That
Speaker 1: we need Russ to be aggressive, and to him, those
Speaker 1: shots are a part of his aggression, right. It just
Speaker 1: is like it's just those you know, size of you know,
Speaker 1: mid range pull up jumpers like those are that's just
Speaker 1: part of his game. Those aren't going anywhere. But I'd
Speaker 1: rather have that than the you know, the bad drives
Speaker 1: to the rim where like it's just a throw up
Speaker 1: there and hope and pray, like a foul gets called
Speaker 1: or he falls to the floor and all that, And
Speaker 1: I think that's your sign that you're kind of starting
Speaker 1: to see the progression of that. And he's played well
Speaker 1: these last few games, like he was the high I
Speaker 1: think he led the team in plus minus tonight as well,
Speaker 1: like with the plus twenty four or something. So he
Speaker 1: when he was on the floor, we were we were winning,
Speaker 1: and he was impacting winning in my opinion, And him
Speaker 1: and Lebron is starting to build a little bit of chemistry.
Speaker 1: I thought on the fourth quarters tonight, we went to
Speaker 1: Russell Lebron screen role really nice to I think Atlanta
Speaker 1: was going over the top of screens for some reason,
Speaker 1: and we were. He was able to hit Lebron on
Speaker 1: like pocket passes and stuff and no idea why they
Speaker 1: were doing that. Yeah, but like you know, just dying
Speaker 1: to see progressions um with the offense with him and
Speaker 1: and we're seeing him play better I thought defensively as well.
Speaker 1: Just he's been he's picked it up, so hopefully this continues.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's interesting, man, Like the I trade in
Speaker 1: these shots for turnovers all day long, and there's different
Speaker 1: types of like you know, but there's different type of turnovers, right,
Speaker 1: there's the just the lack of days ago, you know,
Speaker 1: on ball turnovers like those like those you can't live with.
Speaker 1: But like the drive to the rim and then like
Speaker 1: expecting your guy to cut because I think there's kind
Speaker 1: of a they're kind of starting to know, like when
Speaker 1: Rush drives when I'm supposed to huh, and he's and
Speaker 1: you'll see it too, you'll throw it and there'll be
Speaker 1: a turnover. Be like, man, you're supposed to be there,
Speaker 1: like you know you're supposed to be there or something.
Speaker 1: You know, Like you're starting to see little progressions of that.
Speaker 1: And he passes to areas I always talked about, he
Speaker 1: passes to areas instead of players. So once he drives,
Speaker 1: he expects you to be in that corner and he
Speaker 1: found a few guys in the in the corner tonight.
Speaker 1: I know, we're starting to see the team kind of
Speaker 1: understand how Russ plays, and Russ understand the team. All
Speaker 1: that you get through a eighty two games season and
Speaker 1: hopefully a d can come back in a time where
Speaker 1: those two you can kind of build. But I think
Speaker 1: Russ is in the right direction for sure. So let's
Speaker 1: hit on Lebron and then let's get out of here
Speaker 1: for the night. So uh, an interesting stretch of games
Speaker 1: from Lebron because so three nights ago, you know, he
Speaker 1: basically coast for three and a half quarters against the
Speaker 1: Kings and then puts his foot on the gas and
Speaker 1: just goes absolutely nuclear and just blows their head off, basically.
Speaker 1: And we blame it on fatigue because they had played,
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, that was their fifth game and
Speaker 1: eight nights, and over the course of those five games,
Speaker 1: Lebron had to heavy workload, and in those first four
Speaker 1: games there was a considerable amount of energy that he
Speaker 1: was playing with, although that fifth game he was a
Speaker 1: little more law days ago. But it was interesting because
Speaker 1: then they had a couple of nights off, they didn't
Speaker 1: practice at all, I think on Wednesday, and then they
Speaker 1: did a practice yesterday where Lebron said he went light
Speaker 1: and primarily focused on his skill work. And then you
Speaker 1: come into a game tonight and he was lacks two
Speaker 1: days ago again, and it's it's it's interesting because you know,
Speaker 1: but then he has that blow up in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter where he fills up the statuet and has a
Speaker 1: dunk where you know, TCH kind of threw the lob
Speaker 1: a little too high and his head's near his head's
Speaker 1: near the rim. But it's like, it's funny. It's funny
Speaker 1: because like, okay, first of all, for any of you
Speaker 1: that are listening who have played basketball at any level,
Speaker 1: and like real organized basketball, when you play there, you
Speaker 1: don't feel the same every night. Like even like lab
Speaker 1: One has a whole other element, like he's played so
Speaker 1: many thousands of NBA games that like for him, he
Speaker 1: doesn't even probably get as excited as as normal people do.
Speaker 1: But like even when you are excited, like I was
Speaker 1: excited for every game I played when I was in college.
Speaker 1: But the truth of the matter is is like some
Speaker 1: it's like a brain. I don't know if it's a
Speaker 1: brain chemistry thing or if it's like just a natural
Speaker 1: evan flow of physiology. But like, there are games when
Speaker 1: you just don't feel good. You know, your head is
Speaker 1: not really in it, You're not seeing the floor super well,
Speaker 1: your energy levels low, whatever that reason maybe. And I
Speaker 1: thought it was interesting that Lebron came out with low
Speaker 1: energy tonight because it was you know, it was the
Speaker 1: type of game against Atlanta, the you know, a team
Speaker 1: that made it to the Eastern Conference Finals last year
Speaker 1: on national TV. Against another star player like Trey Young,
Speaker 1: you think he would have come out with a little
Speaker 1: bit more urgency. Um, they're not worried about it by
Speaker 1: any search of imagination. It just was weird, you know,
Speaker 1: and like and it also could have been you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron also has a tendency when when when his teammates
Speaker 1: are really going, he has a tendency to pull off
Speaker 1: the gas a little bit. That's you know, famously, if
Speaker 1: you guys remember you remember the game that Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: hit the game winner against the Calves in two seventeen
Speaker 1: UM in that series where the Calves were just beating
Speaker 1: the living ship out of them every game, and then
Speaker 1: game three back in Cleveland, they just had a clunker
Speaker 1: and Avery Bradley made a game winner. They were like
Speaker 1: hit the front of the rim and like bound stop
Speaker 1: and went in. In that game, everybody remembers Lebron being horrible,
Speaker 1: and he was, but both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love
Speaker 1: We're going off in that game. They both were efficient
Speaker 1: and through three quarters at twenty something points and both
Speaker 1: of them were killing it. Lebron has a tendency in
Speaker 1: his history like when guys are really going, and Avery
Speaker 1: Bradley and Malik Monk were on fire in that game.
Speaker 1: I think he might have just been kind of reading
Speaker 1: the tea leaves a little bit and being like, yeah, like,
Speaker 1: oh they gotta going, Like I might be able to
Speaker 1: chill tonight, you know, like if it might have been
Speaker 1: one those kinds of things. But I'm not sure what
Speaker 1: the reason was, but it definitely was unusual in my
Speaker 1: opinion that he came out with low energy after having
Speaker 1: that extra night off. Yeah, that's that's definitely what I
Speaker 1: saw more of it as I thought, you know, he
Speaker 1: saw that Leek Monk was going crazy, Avery Bradley was
Speaker 1: scoring at a was hitting his shots. Also, the Hawks
Speaker 1: kind of have They're not a great defense, but I
Speaker 1: think they do have bigger players where it's a little
Speaker 1: harder to attack them, just in transition, especially with his
Speaker 1: three pointer not going. I think it was like one
Speaker 1: for five from three and the upcoming bad threes too. Man,
Speaker 1: he was jacking some crappy three. Yeah, he was taking
Speaker 1: a little bit tougher shots coming off screen rolls and
Speaker 1: just and just firing. But you know, that's kind of
Speaker 1: how he can kind of load manage instead of having
Speaker 1: to attack the Rim at the rate that he needs to.
Speaker 1: That he could if you wanted to. But I thought
Speaker 1: that's more of what it was. I thought Capella and
Speaker 1: you know Collins as well, there's a kind of big,
Speaker 1: kind of dudes that are the kind of archetype that
Speaker 1: was theoretically put on Lebron. They're not going to stop him,
Speaker 1: but a little bit better. You know, Capella is a
Speaker 1: big guy who can also protect the rim. Just I
Speaker 1: don't think they wanted to attack but leron and the
Speaker 1: fourth seventeen points he looked unfazed to me, like like,
Speaker 1: I don't like, I don't think he feared this. Like
Speaker 1: nothing against the Hawgs. Again, I'm really high on them.
Speaker 1: I just don't think he feared this defense at all,
Speaker 1: like he knew what he knew. He can get to
Speaker 1: his spot at any time. And I was watching that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, I was like, man, he just does not care,
Speaker 1: like he does not fear this Hawgs defense at all.
Speaker 1: They threw him and he was asking for it. In
Speaker 1: the post. John Collins, you know, is all up for it,
Speaker 1: is like you know, in his stands and it's like
Speaker 1: ready to defend it. Lebron just you know, without a sweat,
Speaker 1: just two dribbles, back down, step back, fadeaway jumper. Switsch
Speaker 1: goes back the other way like like it's nothing like
Speaker 1: it was a preseason game. Like that's he's like, this
Speaker 1: is what I do. And that's kind of more what
Speaker 1: I saw it turned up late obviously had the dunk
Speaker 1: in transition, but the fadeaway jumpers to me, the jab
Speaker 1: step pull up jumpers, like that's he was just in
Speaker 1: a groove. I think he kind of understands that he
Speaker 1: can get to a spot. And that's more what I
Speaker 1: saw it. Now, he was able to kind of walk
Speaker 1: through this first half. I thought. Defensively though, he was good,
Speaker 1: Like I thought he was pretty engaged defensively through the
Speaker 1: full night. I just offensively and the fourth quarter. I
Speaker 1: think he had thirteen points or something for the first
Speaker 1: three quarters. In that fourth quarter, just giving the ball
Speaker 1: on the post, giving ball, you know, high post, let
Speaker 1: me just back down quick, two dribbles, fadeaway, jumper, jab
Speaker 1: step jumper. Games over. So that's kind of more what
Speaker 1: I saw, at least from him. I thought he closed
Speaker 1: it out again in the fourth. Yeah, I disagree with
Speaker 1: you on defense. I thought he mailed in a considerable number. Um.
Speaker 1: That said, like when he was dialed in defensively tonight,
Speaker 1: he made plays. Um. But you know, there's there's there's
Speaker 1: also a really positive way to look through this. Like,
Speaker 1: you know, you look back at Michael Jordan when he
Speaker 1: was with the Wizards. You know, do you think of
Speaker 1: a typical older player in the league, even Kobe and
Speaker 1: his you know, a farewell tour Usually for guys who
Speaker 1: were this late in their career, with this much mileage.
Speaker 1: It's more of like a oh, I really haven't tonight,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna get thirty, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So for for Lebron to basically try for all of
Speaker 1: about ten minutes of the last two games, literally, to
Speaker 1: have tried for all of about ten minutes and to
Speaker 1: be averaging over thirty on on efficient shooting like there's
Speaker 1: there's it's it's kind of wild that he can kind
Speaker 1: of coast his way through a game and put up
Speaker 1: the numbers that he does. But hey, that's that's lebron Man.
Speaker 1: He's you know, the first second best player ever. I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe that's that's just what this looks like.
Speaker 1: He's that thirty three points per game or something for
Speaker 1: the last ten games out it's insane. It's insane. He's
Speaker 1: he's carried the team. So yeah, and in in a
Speaker 1: winning concept, I think over their last I want to say,
Speaker 1: in their last sixteen games, there um nine and seven
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, So I mean there and that's
Speaker 1: with just that's nine and seven over the last sixteen games.
Speaker 1: And you've got three and a half games out of
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis and you and you got all sorts of
Speaker 1: COVID suspensions that just completely railroaded this season. And I
Speaker 1: could point to Brooklyn as a game they very easily
Speaker 1: could have won. Memphis was a game they very easily
Speaker 1: could have won. There there were games in that stretch
Speaker 1: that they very easily could have won. And so I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's pretty it's pretty wild. I just I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I I as a fan, I get annoyed
Speaker 1: watching nights like tonight because I'm like, come on, man,
Speaker 1: like this team is hanging around, like let's just put
Speaker 1: him away. But at the same time, like you know,
Speaker 1: like I I get it, I get it in terms
Speaker 1: of the dregs of the regular season and keeping your energy,
Speaker 1: energy level up. But you know, I just hope especially
Speaker 1: the one thing that worried me a little bit is
Speaker 1: especially on those shots in the first quarter, he didn't
Speaker 1: seem to have great lift. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: noticed that, just like he was he was leaving the
Speaker 1: jumper short and he won't getting a great lift. That
Speaker 1: I hope he's not, like, you know, dealing with an
Speaker 1: ankle or something like that, because that because that could
Speaker 1: get a little nervous. But I'm hopeful that that he'll
Speaker 1: be all right. You know. You know how is with
Speaker 1: lebron to like it's always like he feeds off of
Speaker 1: the crowd a little bit. Like he you could tell
Speaker 1: he got his pep in his step when he had
Speaker 1: that alley you but it was after he had made
Speaker 1: a few shots, and I was like, okay, I'm here now.
Speaker 1: The same thing happened against Sacramento. He hit back to
Speaker 1: back threes, and when he hit back to back threees,
Speaker 1: he was pointing to the crowd mixing, you know, like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's completely engaged and completely checked into the game. So
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess we should keep it positive in
Speaker 1: that regard. I just, I just I just thought it
Speaker 1: was a little strange as all. Did you have anything
Speaker 1: else on your list that you wanted to do tonight? Uh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: last thing. I just want to give a Bradley his flaws.
Speaker 1: Man got his contract guaranteed tonight. He gets a lot
Speaker 1: of crap, I think from Laker fans. You know, he's
Speaker 1: he's putting different lineups and stuff. I thought he did
Speaker 1: a great job on Trey Young, like I thought when
Speaker 1: he picked up his third foul and he went out,
Speaker 1: I thought that really impacted the game. I thought Trey
Speaker 1: Young got freed up a little bit. But he's shooting
Speaker 1: like crazy. Like, I don't know what more you could
Speaker 1: ask of Badley, So I just want to give him
Speaker 1: his flowers. He's been playing really well these last few
Speaker 1: last few games. He's shooting I think from three now
Speaker 1: out for the season. Just a professional, right, I think
Speaker 1: that's what we call him a lot of times. Just
Speaker 1: a professional guy. Plays hard. You don't have to worry about,
Speaker 1: you know, his effort or how hard he plays. All
Speaker 1: that stuff is just you just you just know what
Speaker 1: you're getting from him. So I just want to give
Speaker 1: him a shout out there big time, you know, offensive game.
Speaker 1: He's picked it up. He's one of the guys that
Speaker 1: has continued to start. We have a plethora of guards
Speaker 1: and he continues to just you know, beat all of
Speaker 1: them out for starting lineup spots. So I just want
Speaker 1: to give him, give him some credit, ball ball ball, pressure,
Speaker 1: point of attack, high level guard, and I think that's
Speaker 1: he's a valuable member to this team. Yeah, he deserves
Speaker 1: that credit. Man. He was on the verge of being
Speaker 1: out of the league. There's a version of that. There's
Speaker 1: a version of that scenario where the Warriors society to
Speaker 1: cut him. There, you waive him and because they want
Speaker 1: to sign Garry Paane Jr. And the Lakers, maybe Kendrick
Speaker 1: Nunn doesn't get hurt, you know, and and he could
Speaker 1: be out of the league, and and he gets set
Speaker 1: up to absolutely fail because he gets thrown in and
Speaker 1: all these DeAndre Jordan's lineups, you know, like that. That
Speaker 1: was one of the weirdest little phenomena of the season,
Speaker 1: was looking looking at the line up data and be like, man,
Speaker 1: every time Avery Bradley's out there, we suck. And then
Speaker 1: like it's like wait, wait, wait, but what what about
Speaker 1: when DJ it's not out there, It's like, oh, we're awesome,
Speaker 1: you know, like you're like, okay, remember we had like
Speaker 1: remember we had like Rondo Westbrook Bradley forgotten was like
Speaker 1: Bradley was like the Bradley was like the power forward
Speaker 1: in one of those laps are some way. It's just
Speaker 1: it's funny what we've kind of and that's also because
Speaker 1: guys are out and stuff. But I think it's funny
Speaker 1: to kind of see but you see he's striving now
Speaker 1: for sure. Well that's back to your point, like this
Speaker 1: is a completely different team, Like I I don't know, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just it's just still to me and like I
Speaker 1: can't get over how many people at points during the
Speaker 1: season wanted to, you know, point out like there was
Speaker 1: someone on Twitter I can't remember who it was. It
Speaker 1: was like, oh, did Milik Monks save the season. And
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, Milik Monk's been awesome, but it's like, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: What happened is the Lakers have a functional basketball roster now, Like,
Speaker 1: instead up playing three to four guards with Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: by himself or with Lebron by himself, we are now
Speaker 1: playing two or three forwards alongside guards who can guard
Speaker 1: at the point of attack and shoot, and with Lebron
Speaker 1: at the helm like we we are running even without
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. We are running far more functional basketball lineup
Speaker 1: then we were to start the season. And that's directly
Speaker 1: related to us succeeding. And you know, I don't wanna
Speaker 1: look man like. The Lakers also didn't bring enough intensity
Speaker 1: to start the season. They were shitty and training camp
Speaker 1: they I think they lost every preseason game. In those
Speaker 1: preseason games, they look blacks of days ago, even when
Speaker 1: Kendrick numb is playing. So I like, I don't wanna
Speaker 1: undersell any of that. The Lakers did not approach this
Speaker 1: season with the right level of intensity. Frank was all
Speaker 1: over the place with his lineup decisions to start the year,
Speaker 1: even when we were healthy. So it wasn't perfect by
Speaker 1: any stretch, but you could just throw all that away
Speaker 1: because because we consistently play hard over the over the
Speaker 1: course of this last month, we've consistently played hard at
Speaker 1: a completely different level than we did to start the season,
Speaker 1: and we're just playing completely different guys. So I mean,
Speaker 1: and even when Anthony Davis comes back, I think we're
Speaker 1: going to play a completely different style with Lebron and
Speaker 1: Nad than we did in years past. So I think
Speaker 1: I think we all need to kind of like we
Speaker 1: almost need that Men in Black stick thing where you
Speaker 1: hit the button and you just see race your memory.
Speaker 1: We need to just kind of like forget any of
Speaker 1: that happened. Obviously there are ramifications with the standings, but this,
Speaker 1: this team needs to be kind of re evaluated from
Speaker 1: ground zero at this point. Yep, No, I agree with
Speaker 1: brand new team. I don't think you can throw all out.
Speaker 1: But at least I gave us, you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of data points to kind of point out what does
Speaker 1: and doesn't work, And obviously DeAndre is the big one
Speaker 1: that stood out, but I think there's other stuff from
Speaker 1: there as well that we kind of learned. Obviously, those
Speaker 1: three guard line ups, putting russ next to shooting, putting
Speaker 1: Lebron and Rush together, you know, more small bot line us.
Speaker 1: But yeah, man, brand new team. I don't want to
Speaker 1: say brand new season, but it feels like a brand
Speaker 1: new team. It feels like a brand new team for sure,
Speaker 1: and hopefully we can you know, Memphis, to me, it
Speaker 1: feels like what's it called? Like, if you can get
Speaker 1: that game, that's great. Just you know, if you can
Speaker 1: compete in that one out time we have Memphis is
Speaker 1: legit to me. They're really good team. So if you
Speaker 1: can get that one, that'd be great about just hoping
Speaker 1: kind of compete in that one. But yeah, this is
Speaker 1: a this is a good one, man. We can kind
Speaker 1: of build off of it. Yeah, it's a good it's
Speaker 1: a good building block for sure. Memphis will be a challenge,
Speaker 1: but we can beat them. We just have to play
Speaker 1: better than we did last time. Alright, guys, this is
Speaker 1: going This will not be on Desh right now because
Speaker 1: it's a weekend. This will be on our podcast feed
Speaker 1: here in about twenty minutes or so. Roger and I
Speaker 1: will be back for our normal postgame show on Sunday
Speaker 1: against Memphis. Thank you as always for the support, and
Speaker 1: we will see you guys in a couple of days. Thanks,
Speaker 1: everyone appreciate it.