Speaker 1: Mmmm, that sounds funny. Man. It's nice to do this after,
Speaker 1: you know, not have bringing an emotional game to talk about,
Speaker 1: or you know, going right after a loss and have
Speaker 1: to break it down. So it's a little nicer this time.
Speaker 1: We can kind of ease into ease into this one. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I the foundation for this pod. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be something that you and I kind of we're bouncing
Speaker 1: back and forth on in yesterday's pod, which was are
Speaker 1: the Lakers going to attempt to shore up the center
Speaker 1: position or are they going to go all in on
Speaker 1: small ball? And I thought, and again, this isn't obviously
Speaker 1: set in stone, and a lot can change over the
Speaker 1: course of the next couple of weeks. But I thought
Speaker 1: that the two signings that took place today were big
Speaker 1: indicators of you being right that they're probably gonna go
Speaker 1: all in on small ball. We Jaundy Brown is actually
Speaker 1: played in the rotation yesterday, but Jay Huff did not,
Speaker 1: and we did and we did sign this new guard.
Speaker 1: I believe Mason Jones was the one who's on the
Speaker 1: two way. That that two way deal kind of heavily
Speaker 1: implicated implies that Jhoff is probably gonna get released. Um,
Speaker 1: so we're looking at h Jones coming in and then
Speaker 1: Jamario Jones, who's someone that Laker fans are pretty familiar with,
Speaker 1: and uh, and both of those guys are middle size.
Speaker 1: I think Mason Jones is pretty big for guard. He's
Speaker 1: like six ft four. Jamario Jones is undersize, is like
Speaker 1: six ft five. But it's just a bowling of China
Speaker 1: who does all the dirty work stuff well. But most importantly,
Speaker 1: I think it just was a big indicator that they're
Speaker 1: they're primarily going to try to play small in this stretch.
Speaker 1: What did you think about that? Oh? Yeah, this was
Speaker 1: a Lebron get ready for center, right, like like Lebron
Speaker 1: get ready to play a lot of center. Because I
Speaker 1: feel like that's what these two signings pretty much signified.
Speaker 1: I want to I want to start with Jamara Jones though,
Speaker 1: because we have good tape on him as a Laker
Speaker 1: and he's kind of bounced around after he left here,
Speaker 1: but he's a cult hero U for us as well.
Speaker 1: He's not as known as Ox Screw so obviously and
Speaker 1: didn't get the success he's had a similar type of player,
Speaker 1: a player that you just whatever he gives you offensively
Speaker 1: is a bonus I think he's a I compare him
Speaker 1: a lot to g P two out in Golden State,
Speaker 1: where like, if you have a perfect set of players
Speaker 1: around him, he can be really successful. He just played
Speaker 1: on a lot of really bad Laker teams, so it
Speaker 1: was tough too. It was tough to gauge the impact
Speaker 1: that he does. But he is a really good defensive player.
Speaker 1: Like he's a smart defensive player, gets steals, leads deflections
Speaker 1: all the time, big time rebounder, right, And I think
Speaker 1: it's something we've needed. High motor guy, and I think
Speaker 1: it's nice to throw these high motor guys in. We'll
Speaker 1: see how how he plays. But I think, like Jamon Johns,
Speaker 1: just a nice player to have, you know, I think
Speaker 1: he's on the hardship exception and all that, but yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a high rebounding garden. I think that's something this
Speaker 1: team misses. But you're right, they're about to lean super
Speaker 1: into small ball, super into lebron as center lineups because
Speaker 1: I don't think DeAndre Jordan's gonna seems like his minutes
Speaker 1: are gonna kind of till down here as as we
Speaker 1: as we go on and hopefully when dy how it
Speaker 1: comes back. But yeah, I feel like they're about to
Speaker 1: lean fully into this small ball. Do you agree with that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So I think there's a base like ideology behind going
Speaker 1: small that I think is really interesting. And it's something
Speaker 1: that I've harped on a lot over the course of
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. And actually the LFR guys
Speaker 1: hit on today having to do with you know I,
Speaker 1: You and I both talked about last night that it's
Speaker 1: it's a lot to ask Lebron to be Draymond Green
Speaker 1: on defense and you think about all of the physical
Speaker 1: wear and tear that comes with that, and all of
Speaker 1: that is relevant here. How verbs one of the things
Speaker 1: that we failed to account with this kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And I specifically was hammering this home with Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: but Pete from like a Film Room was talking about
Speaker 1: it as it pertains to Lebron. Asking Lebron to break
Speaker 1: down an offense when the paint is packed and when
Speaker 1: everything he does offensively is difficult, that's also taxing on it.
Speaker 1: And you know what I thought was really interesting? Did you?
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering if you noticed this too. Lebron has
Speaker 1: been jumping to try to block shots more than I've
Speaker 1: seen him do in years. Have you noticed that, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he loves it right, Like he's trying to He's not
Speaker 1: just trying to block it. He's trying to swatt it
Speaker 1: out of bounds to like the third row. Right, He's
Speaker 1: not even he's not just trying to block it. He's
Speaker 1: going for highlight dunks. And I don't think that's a coincidence.
Speaker 1: I think that is directly related to the fact that
Speaker 1: he's been having a ten game over his last night games.
Speaker 1: I tweeted this out today. I think he's right around
Speaker 1: like and seven on like sixty true shooting, and he's
Speaker 1: averaging over a block of game. That's crazy. And I
Speaker 1: think those two things are related. I think Lebron's offensive
Speaker 1: job is easier than it's ever been, and there's an
Speaker 1: interesting psychology to it. It's human nature, but it's easier
Speaker 1: to ask a guy to do the dirty job when
Speaker 1: the fun part is easy, and he's deriving confidence from
Speaker 1: the fun part. So when the when the Lakers are
Speaker 1: getting down on themselves because their offense sucks and the
Speaker 1: pain is clogged, and Lebron's having a rough night and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is having a rough night, it's hard to
Speaker 1: then go back and really dial it up on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. But you're seeing Lebron put in uncharacteristic defensive
Speaker 1: effort for the regular season. We know he does it
Speaker 1: in the postseason. We saw him do it in the
Speaker 1: whole bubble. You know, high real blocks and net playoff
Speaker 1: from that was outrageous. But you're seeing him dial it
Speaker 1: up on that end, and I think it's directly related
Speaker 1: to the fact that the offensive end is coming easier
Speaker 1: to him, and that is the core ideology behind going small.
Speaker 1: And what's super fascinating about this. Yes, we're asking Lebron
Speaker 1: to do a lot, but his offensive job is easier. However,
Speaker 1: they needed to have with those small lineups. That's so
Speaker 1: imperative that you have these tweeners that can get the
Speaker 1: rebounding job done. And obviously a reason coming back helps that.
Speaker 1: But Jerry Jamario Jones in particular, I think is a
Speaker 1: guy that will be interesting to watch in some of
Speaker 1: these small ball lineups. Kind of like I'm blanking on
Speaker 1: his name now, of course his fate would have it.
Speaker 1: But that kid who's playing for the that set center
Speaker 1: a lot um. What's his name? Do you remember? Bruce Brown? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown a similar concept to Bruce Brown, like just
Speaker 1: just a basketball player, not not even really a position,
Speaker 1: just a guy who's doing the job of of all
Speaker 1: of those dirty work things that are needed to be
Speaker 1: done on the basketball court. And I'm interested to see
Speaker 1: how Jamario Jones fits into that in the short term. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think the spacing definitely has helped. You see
Speaker 1: Lebron at the five a lot, and I think that
Speaker 1: uses his role offensively. I'm just like the LPR guys
Speaker 1: talked about it, how he can kind of rest a
Speaker 1: little bit more offensively because he's not breaking down, you know,
Speaker 1: a paint that's all clogged. I still think, like I
Speaker 1: think we talked about it last night, I still still
Speaker 1: think it's a lot for him to, you know, anchor
Speaker 1: defense as he has to. Um, we'll see how these
Speaker 1: two way guys are in these guys on the hardship
Speaker 1: exception play. But it's an interesting kind of concept to
Speaker 1: look at it because it looks like Lebron has been
Speaker 1: pretty engaged on that end. I mean the Minnesota game,
Speaker 1: I thought he was bad for a lot of it,
Speaker 1: but last night he turned it on and I think
Speaker 1: that's kind of how we'll see it he'll he'll turn
Speaker 1: on for games here and there. I'll see how how
Speaker 1: it looks when a d's out right eighties been out
Speaker 1: for a while. But yeah, it's an interesting kind of
Speaker 1: concept where because we're gonna need him to be that
Speaker 1: and it looks like they're about to lean heavily, heavily
Speaker 1: into it. Mason Jones, that is an interesting guy to
Speaker 1: kind of bring up as well. He's like a two
Speaker 1: pounds six four guard, a lot of skills. I was
Speaker 1: kind of reading up reading up on him a little bit.
Speaker 1: He's more of like a shooter, and I think that's
Speaker 1: something that you can kind of feel in as well.
Speaker 1: And we're just gonna need bodies, right we talked about
Speaker 1: it yesterday. We're not not sure how the COVID situation
Speaker 1: is gonna kind of play out here, at least recent
Speaker 1: at least coming up in the short term. Just need
Speaker 1: players out there, and we need high motor guys. I
Speaker 1: think Johndrey Bound is a guy that's gonna stick. I
Speaker 1: think he's a high motor guy. I think Jamario jones
Speaker 1: Hole kind of game is high motor. That's like what
Speaker 1: how he plays. We'll see Mason Jones on the next
Speaker 1: level as well. We just need guys to play, man.
Speaker 1: I thought in that Bulls game a lot of guys
Speaker 1: looked tired as well, Uh, playing guys thirty thirty five minutes.
Speaker 1: So hopefully you can just throw a couple of bodies
Speaker 1: at these guys. And I think that's what these signings
Speaker 1: kind of signify. Who knows if they make the team
Speaker 1: long term, but I think that's what they are. And
Speaker 1: Jay Huff is probably cut, which is interesting because I
Speaker 1: think center is probably our biggest need on the team,
Speaker 1: Like just structurally how the rosters fit right now. Must
Speaker 1: have been bad. He must have been bad in some
Speaker 1: of their practice stuff. Sure, yeah, we're not behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: And he's a stretched center right which just fits the
Speaker 1: archetype you would think this team would like. But obviously
Speaker 1: they didn't. They didn't see enough from him to give
Speaker 1: him any real minutes on this team. So yeah, they're
Speaker 1: about to lean into this small ball and I think
Speaker 1: that's what these signings kind of signify. You already have
Speaker 1: Isaiah Thomas. Now you throw Mason Jones in their league.
Speaker 1: Monk looks like he's gonna come back pretty soon. So
Speaker 1: the super guard heavy kind of thing here but yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's a Janny Jamara Jones is a guy
Speaker 1: you can kind of throw out there, go get rebounds,
Speaker 1: just go play hard for twenty minutes, right, And I
Speaker 1: think that's what you need in small ball. Trevor Reesa
Speaker 1: obviously is going to fit a lot into that. But
Speaker 1: we'll see if these these new guys can fit in.
Speaker 1: But I'm excited to see it. Managamaro Jones is a
Speaker 1: cult hero in l A. Again, not as known as
Speaker 1: Carusoe obviously, but he's definitely in that kind of kind
Speaker 1: of field. He was, he was loved for his minutes here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, Mason Jones is probably not gonna stick around,
Speaker 1: Jamario Jones is probably not gonna stick around. Isaiah Thomas
Speaker 1: is probably not gonna stick around. Johnny Brown is not
Speaker 1: going to be in the rotation. But what the what
Speaker 1: this is? This is an opportunity to to kind of
Speaker 1: like spit all some ideas, right, and and so why
Speaker 1: not try to see what going all in on small
Speaker 1: ball looks like? Because you can fast forward and there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a version of this team where we're gonna
Speaker 1: be playing small ball without Anthony Davis. And it's gonna
Speaker 1: be Lebron, Trevor Reason, you know, Austin Reeves and Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook and a Malique Monk or Kendrick Nunnon or you know,
Speaker 1: or every Bradley or Can Pays more like, we have
Speaker 1: all of these, you know, different iterations of this team.
Speaker 1: And we never even thought coming into the season that
Speaker 1: we would be using Lebron at center. So it's kind
Speaker 1: of like a great chance to experiment a little bit
Speaker 1: and and and see because we've seen Lebron at center
Speaker 1: with a lot of shooting. What we haven't seen as
Speaker 1: Lebron at center with guys who are big and strong
Speaker 1: and athletic that can rebound and run the floor. And
Speaker 1: we were going to get that eventually with Trevor Reason
Speaker 1: coming back, and so now we can kind of test that.
Speaker 1: But it'd be fun to see a line up with
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron, Trevor Reza, and Jamario Jones all playing
Speaker 1: in the front court just like just flying around, grabbing rebounds,
Speaker 1: running up and down the floor. It'll be fun to
Speaker 1: see and so you can kind of test out, like
Speaker 1: you know, you know that this is fake basketball, I
Speaker 1: use that's the phrase that I use. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Pete called it that that he said that it's the
Speaker 1: NBA is not a functional basketball league right now. We
Speaker 1: all have different ways of describing it. It is unrealistic
Speaker 1: to judge anything. But what a great time to be experimental,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like, what what a great
Speaker 1: time to to throw some stuff at the wall and
Speaker 1: see what sticks. See some concepts, and with the concepts
Speaker 1: we've seen by virtue of injuries, is like, oh, ship,
Speaker 1: Labron can play center like you know, and ideally you
Speaker 1: don't want to lean on that as much as we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to. I know, our guy ven A has
Speaker 1: been a big, you know, believer in you know, leaving
Speaker 1: that for specific matchups, and to be clear, I a
Speaker 1: thousand percent agree with him, but we we don't have
Speaker 1: the luxury of that anymore because of our situation, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, and especially especially at the center position,
Speaker 1: uh considering Dwight is really going to be our only
Speaker 1: functional center when he comes back. So you know, this
Speaker 1: is a it's an interesting revelation to see that Lebron
Speaker 1: can fly around and do what he does. Obviously we
Speaker 1: have to tighten up some stuff defensive rebounding around that,
Speaker 1: but I'm excited to see guys. You know, I'm bringing
Speaker 1: some optimism. This is very glass half ald, this is
Speaker 1: very silverwhelming, but like, hey, this is gonna be fun.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get to watch some really interesting Lebron James
Speaker 1: led basketball that we've really never seen before over the
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks. And I'm curious to see what
Speaker 1: it looks like. And you brought up Austin Reeves, and
Speaker 1: I think he's already kind of shown. Like you look
Speaker 1: at the Lebron at center lineups and I think Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves kind of sticks out. That's where like the lineups
Speaker 1: are really great and the numbers look good. He's another
Speaker 1: guy that just plays hard and again plays his role,
Speaker 1: just does role players stuff that I think you need
Speaker 1: in those kind of lineups. I said, uh, Carmelo, and
Speaker 1: I think he has played a lot while Lebron's at
Speaker 1: the five, whereas he's at the four. And I think
Speaker 1: that's where Trevor Reza comes in as well. Just can
Speaker 1: do that dirty work. Can move Carmelo to kind of
Speaker 1: the three, doesn't have to have power forward responsibilities Defensively, again,
Speaker 1: maybe you can throw Jamary Jones, Jamario Jones in there.
Speaker 1: Throw all these other guards in there that just play hard,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what you need. Any guys who
Speaker 1: come in and rebound, right. I think that's where it
Speaker 1: gets taxing. They talked about as well on the LFR pod, right,
Speaker 1: guys jumping over your back, Lebron having to box out.
Speaker 1: I kind of pointed out that play where Lebron was
Speaker 1: the only one boxing out. But we need guys that
Speaker 1: go to the rebound, go to the boards, right, because
Speaker 1: that's a weakness when you go small like that, especially
Speaker 1: when you go with scoring guards. Uh. I believe leave
Speaker 1: Monk will be a big part of those lineups as well.
Speaker 1: Just you need defensive rebounding. You need guys who are
Speaker 1: who aren't afraid to get hit in the paint, aren't
Speaker 1: afraid to get elbowed and stuff like that, just to
Speaker 1: do the dirty work a little bit too. Take that
Speaker 1: pressure off Lebron to do it, because he's gonna have
Speaker 1: to do a lot. He's gonna have to anchor it
Speaker 1: being the right places, be the rim protector, also be
Speaker 1: able to switch like that's a lot to ask on him.
Speaker 1: And then on the other end, I understand the offense
Speaker 1: is gonna be better it's gonna have a better space,
Speaker 1: You're gonna have more playmakers out there. But still, when
Speaker 1: it matters, it's gonna be in Lebron's hand, So you
Speaker 1: want to kind of put the pressure off him a
Speaker 1: little bit still defensively, so it's gonna be interesting to
Speaker 1: see if he can hold up. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I want to play thirty minutes of Lebron as center though,
Speaker 1: you know, for the next four to six weeks. I
Speaker 1: think that's a lot. Like I still think you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to have some kind of bigs in there, or
Speaker 1: even twenty five minutes a game at center. I think
Speaker 1: that's still a lot. But we'll see how he kind
Speaker 1: of handles it going forward. Hopefully Dwight Howard is back
Speaker 1: sooner than later, so you can at least spell some
Speaker 1: of those because the DeAndre Jordan minutes look like, uh,
Speaker 1: they're just losing points out there per minute. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be interesting, man. I think these signings, though, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, signify a move towards small ball that we've
Speaker 1: been kind of hoping for. We we were hoping forward
Speaker 1: to this with a D. I think we always thought
Speaker 1: Lebron could play center. We just always said that it
Speaker 1: was too taxing, and we're going to kind of see
Speaker 1: how that works out. But Lebron looks like he's enjoying it.
Speaker 1: He likes it. He'd like like you talked about, he's
Speaker 1: going after all these these block shots. You know, he
Speaker 1: he's taking the matchups personally when bigs trying to go
Speaker 1: at him. You saw like Bukovich try to go at
Speaker 1: him in the post. He really takes those matches like personally, right,
Speaker 1: He bodies up really nicely. He's they can't move him.
Speaker 1: He did it on towns as well, I thought in
Speaker 1: the second half where they would try to switch in
Speaker 1: towns or try to go at him and he just
Speaker 1: couldn't move them, and that stuff that Lebron can do.
Speaker 1: Lebron obviously can do anything on the basketball part, but
Speaker 1: especially at the center lineup. He has the body for it.
Speaker 1: So we'll see how how it looks. Like, Yeah, these
Speaker 1: all these signings kind of signify a move towards small.
Speaker 1: What you're talking about in his ability to do that
Speaker 1: stuff on the back line is exactly why I think
Speaker 1: he's become weirdly underrated in this era. You know, one
Speaker 1: of the big reasons why I think Lebron is a
Speaker 1: better defensive player than Kawhi Leonard in a playoff series
Speaker 1: is because I think what that specific ask is from
Speaker 1: Lebron on the back line to fly around, protect the rim,
Speaker 1: guard post, mismatches, all that kind of thing. I think,
Speaker 1: especially in a playoff environment, that's so much more valuable
Speaker 1: than isolation defense when if you know when I can,
Speaker 1: I can use certain actions to get you to switch,
Speaker 1: and most teams go to switching. And the defensive rebounding
Speaker 1: part is really interesting because I wanted to get to
Speaker 1: before we get out of here and thank you guys
Speaker 1: so much for coming to hang out. We're we're not
Speaker 1: gonna go super long tonight and probably only go another
Speaker 1: five ten minutes. But the I asked for some questions,
Speaker 1: and one of the questions that we got was from
Speaker 1: our friend George. He said, how does the team play
Speaker 1: game plan on rebounding. Do they have set player that
Speaker 1: will find a body to box out others grab the
Speaker 1: ball or is it all communication on the floor. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's all an order of operations. When the shot
Speaker 1: first goes up, you absolutely have to find your man.
Speaker 1: That's the first thing you do is you find your man.
Speaker 1: After you find your man, you make a read on
Speaker 1: the ball. If you see the ball come high off
Speaker 1: the rim and your man is out of the play,
Speaker 1: that's when you disengage and you sprint and you jump
Speaker 1: to grab the rebound if you see it coming at you.
Speaker 1: The last thing you want to do is jump if
Speaker 1: you see it coming at you, to stay low and
Speaker 1: you have to push your man further and further out
Speaker 1: in your teammate to come get the ball. But that's
Speaker 1: the biggest issue. If you watch on that pivotal possession
Speaker 1: of the game last night, Lebron Brocks blocks to Marty Rose,
Speaker 1: and then there's a kick out. I think it's Kobe
Speaker 1: White or somebody I can't remember who it is. Someone
Speaker 1: shoots at three on the opposite wing and they miss,
Speaker 1: so they actually give up two offensive emails. On each
Speaker 1: of the plays, different guys are boxing out, like a
Speaker 1: Reason is boxing out on the first one, but you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron's out of the play because he falls down to
Speaker 1: block the shot. But like no one else bought, no
Speaker 1: one else is boxing out. Then on the next play,
Speaker 1: like Lebron's boxing out, but like Trevor Reas is kind
Speaker 1: of walking around, and so it's like it's one of
Speaker 1: those things where on those for those sequences to work,
Speaker 1: everybody has to do the job. It's it's it's a
Speaker 1: team effort, defensive, rebounding, and and you know, I think
Speaker 1: the group, the unit was heading in the right direction
Speaker 1: in terms of getting that polished up. But now we
Speaker 1: have all these new guys in and so it's hard
Speaker 1: to just kinda, um, you know, have that continuity of
Speaker 1: habit from someone who hasn't put on the Laker jersey,
Speaker 1: either ever before or in a very long time, you know,
Speaker 1: to come in and do that our other questions, let's see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: A couple of people asked, who do you think is
Speaker 1: gonna get dropped? I think we Roger and I both
Speaker 1: talked about earlier we expected to be Jay Huff just
Speaker 1: because if there was any chance he was gonna play
Speaker 1: or he was gonna stay, he would have played. Last night. Um,
Speaker 1: what do you think about trading DJ Nunn and bass
Speaker 1: for anyone? Roger and I hit that last night. I'm
Speaker 1: pro trading him for a center of rajs pro just
Speaker 1: holding on and waiting to see what things look like
Speaker 1: in January, which I actually agree with um. Let's see, well,
Speaker 1: there was there was one question that I think it's
Speaker 1: interesting because they said how to uh, I can't find
Speaker 1: who asked it. If I find it out, how can
Speaker 1: the Lakers cover for defense? Is that one? Yes? Yes? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that one? Yeah yeah yeah. I think that's really interesting
Speaker 1: because because we're watching the game yesterday, I thought I
Speaker 1: thought they did a nice job kind of trapping to
Speaker 1: Marja Rosen, right, and they did it pretty strategically, like
Speaker 1: they waited for him to go on a spin move.
Speaker 1: They wait until he like took two dribbles. I thought
Speaker 1: they really threw him off his game and then they
Speaker 1: just let him play isolation basketball I guess late late
Speaker 1: in that game. And I don't think that anything to
Speaker 1: do with Isaiah Thomas right, because I think he was
Speaker 1: on the floor for some of that is as well,
Speaker 1: and maybe they put in Rajon Rono. But I think
Speaker 1: that's an interesting thing. You're gonna have to cover for him.
Speaker 1: That's just the kind of game it goes with. I
Speaker 1: t like he's gonna be picked on. What do you
Speaker 1: think about that? Because I think you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: trap do different things going to zones as well. Lebron
Speaker 1: had center lineups. I think kind of go into more
Speaker 1: switching like they did with a D, but I could
Speaker 1: see them going more zone. Foco played with it a lot.
Speaker 1: I'm not I don't think we ran too much of
Speaker 1: it against Chicago. What do you think about that covering?
Speaker 1: I guess for I T. And I think that goes
Speaker 1: with a lot of our guards right in league Monk
Speaker 1: as well as a guy that gets picked on. I
Speaker 1: think it's something that we're gonna have to deal with,
Speaker 1: especially without a D anymore, to clean things up. Lebron
Speaker 1: is gonna have a lot of load on on him
Speaker 1: to do that. So what do you think about covering?
Speaker 1: I guess for I T and just not I T
Speaker 1: because I don't want to just pick on him. But
Speaker 1: we have a lot of small guards that that can
Speaker 1: be picked This is super interesting and and well we'll
Speaker 1: hit this. This This will be our last one that we'll
Speaker 1: get out here, otherwise my wife will kill me. So
Speaker 1: I we are better as this is part of this
Speaker 1: is part of the way basketball evolves. We're better as
Speaker 1: a league now. The n b A is at covering
Speaker 1: for inferior defenders. We've we've talked a lot about this,
Speaker 1: about the different ways that we can scram guys out
Speaker 1: of mismatches or pre rotate or you know, you'll see
Speaker 1: it a lot in the post like well, if they
Speaker 1: as they're making the post entry pass, he's just like
Speaker 1: sprinting over and guarding the guy, or like it's I
Speaker 1: I ironically, towards the end of that game, I thought
Speaker 1: Isaiah Thomas was more of a problem in terms of
Speaker 1: defensive rebounding and covering ground in rotations, like someone else
Speaker 1: would get beat off the dribble, the ball would be
Speaker 1: swung around and I T would have to get from
Speaker 1: like the top of the key to the opposite corner,
Speaker 1: and he just can't cover that much ground that fast,
Speaker 1: you know, which which again is still a disadvantage, but
Speaker 1: nowhere near as much of a disadvantage as on ball
Speaker 1: issues that can come with him. So I, honically, I
Speaker 1: think the league and the Lakers in particular are more
Speaker 1: suited to to help and and recover in and scheme
Speaker 1: your way out of that mismatch in particular than it
Speaker 1: was in two thousand seventeen or two thousand eighteen when
Speaker 1: I T was in his prime and and it was
Speaker 1: a huge problem, you know, what I mean, So I
Speaker 1: I I'm less concerned about that particularly just and Isaiah
Speaker 1: Thomas is not really relevant. I think right now he's
Speaker 1: playing for a contract elsewhere. Uh that that's and and
Speaker 1: I think he looks great and I think he probably
Speaker 1: will get that contract, which is which makes me happy
Speaker 1: for his sake. Um. But yeah, in terms of like
Speaker 1: in the future in a playoff series like scramming Molik
Speaker 1: Monk out of specific situations like that that you can
Speaker 1: learn a lot from that over the course of the stretch,
Speaker 1: which is a great example of what I was just
Speaker 1: talking about, Like what a great time to kind of
Speaker 1: you know, game like to just kind of experiment with
Speaker 1: this kind of stuff and see what works. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: he brought up the scrambling. That's where I was going
Speaker 1: to go two next, because I think they've gotten pretty
Speaker 1: good at that, and that's something that again that was
Speaker 1: process that was building. I thought they were kind of
Speaker 1: moving in the right direction with that. You see mellow
Speaker 1: scram guys out all the time. You can hear it
Speaker 1: on the broadcast. Actually you'll hear them say get out
Speaker 1: of there, get out of there, so you'll like go
Speaker 1: and scram switch Lebron will do it really well too.
Speaker 1: That's just stuff I think they're improving on. And it
Speaker 1: sucks that we're about to get all these new five
Speaker 1: man lineups and all these new players that have never
Speaker 1: played together, because I thought they were kind of building
Speaker 1: some chemistry in that. But yeah, that's the way I
Speaker 1: guess the answer. I'm not sure if you find out
Speaker 1: who asked that, but to kind of cover fry T
Speaker 1: or cover for other players, scram switching, trapping, that's all
Speaker 1: stuff that Again, the league has kind of moved forward
Speaker 1: to where it's a lot tougher to pick on guys. Right,
Speaker 1: you saw on the playoffs as well, it's a lot
Speaker 1: tougher to just pick on guys like Trey Young because
Speaker 1: defenses are really good at making you have to work
Speaker 1: for that. The Knicks tried it, and it will take
Speaker 1: like eighteen seconds of your shot claw trying to pick
Speaker 1: on Trey Young, and it just becomes, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a fool's error to try to do that if you
Speaker 1: don't have the personnel especially, So, yeah, it's interesting. I
Speaker 1: think it's a fascinating thing. We're about to go see. Hopefully,
Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna get a lot a small wall
Speaker 1: hopefully it's some of it's fun, get some good basketball
Speaker 1: here and hopefully keep up and get some wins too.
Speaker 1: I don't want to. I hope they don't just you know,
Speaker 1: fall off a cliff here, even though you know you
Speaker 1: you're we're going to be shorthanded. Dude. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a really really interesting couple of weeks. I am.
Speaker 1: I'm very excited to see it. Hey, everybody's thank you
Speaker 1: so much for coming to hang out with us, like
Speaker 1: we're working on trying to do a little bit more
Speaker 1: of a daily type of deal. And uh, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys taking the time too quick hit on this.
Speaker 1: For those of you who joined in late, this will
Speaker 1: air on dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific
Speaker 1: Standard time. It will also be on our podcast feed here.
Speaker 1: In about twenty thirty minutes. We did talk about We
Speaker 1: talked a lot about the identity of this team moving
Speaker 1: forward and the strategy to cover ground over the course
Speaker 1: of this next couple of months without a d And
Speaker 1: we talked a lot about how they're gonna be going
Speaker 1: in on small ball rather than uh, trying to get
Speaker 1: centers back in the lineup. It was a good it was.
Speaker 1: It was a good, interesting one, so make sure you
Speaker 1: come check out the pot if you joined. Thank you
Speaker 1: guys as always and we will see tomorrow night for
Speaker 1: the game. Appreciate it. Thanks everyone. M.