Speaker 1: Mmmmmm, all right, welcome to you to stage of like
Speaker 1: this as that my dad for readio. Thank you guys
Speaker 1: for coming to hang out on a Sunday disappointing loss.
Speaker 1: I get it. We're gonna break it down. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get to the bottom of it. Rods. Has your weekend
Speaker 1: been so far, buddy? I've been pretty good at least
Speaker 1: before tonight at least, but we got to enjoy a
Speaker 1: nice four game win streak. Um, this one was a
Speaker 1: little bit rough. I might be a little bit more
Speaker 1: on the positive side. I can already tell from your
Speaker 1: tweets from the energy it's gonna be a little bit more,
Speaker 1: probably on the doctor's side. But I'm doing a little man.
Speaker 1: How's your weekend. It's good, man. I'm getting ready to
Speaker 1: go skiing again on Tuesday, so it's been a little
Speaker 1: crazy prepping for that. But I I'm annoyed because I mean, look, man,
Speaker 1: I'm with you in in the sense that there is
Speaker 1: a silver lining because the Grizzlies are really good and
Speaker 1: a lot of our guys played poorly tonight, and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis has to be factored in here to some extent.
Speaker 1: Like I get the fact that like through adjusted expectations.
Speaker 1: There's a little bit of a silver lining here. I
Speaker 1: also get that the scoreboard wasn't really indicative, and I
Speaker 1: should say the scoreboard before the late Austin Reaves fueled
Speaker 1: run and Wayne Ellington field run, the scoreboard was not
Speaker 1: as indicative of the of the gap between the two teams.
Speaker 1: I think the Laker I think the Lakers employed a
Speaker 1: trapping strategy with John Murant succeeded in holding his scoring
Speaker 1: down basically to everything at the free throw line. But
Speaker 1: you know, when you do that sort of thing, you
Speaker 1: open up holes in the defense. And I think you
Speaker 1: know it's a it's a very basic basketball concept when
Speaker 1: you I mean, I even take it to the high
Speaker 1: school level. When you're teaching a high school team some
Speaker 1: sort of trap or anything where you sent two guys
Speaker 1: of the ball, it is utterly important that you disrupt
Speaker 1: the guy with the ball enough that his pass out
Speaker 1: of the trap is either looping or slow, or requires
Speaker 1: a pass fake, or that it's deflected. Because if you
Speaker 1: do those things, you give your defense on the back
Speaker 1: line a chance to recover and a chance to cover
Speaker 1: the ground necessary to plug the holes that inevitably are
Speaker 1: opened up by you trapping a guy, But when you
Speaker 1: let a guy just casually jump over the trap and
Speaker 1: throw passes either across the court or like look look
Speaker 1: like you'd see throughout the game, even when Jaw wasn't um,
Speaker 1: even when Jaw wasn't in the game, you'd see the
Speaker 1: ball handler just kinda wait for the two guys to come,
Speaker 1: and then as soon as they came, he would comfortably
Speaker 1: make a pass across the court to that week side corner.
Speaker 1: And those guys are just so open and so comfortable
Speaker 1: in that weak side corner that yeah, I mean, we
Speaker 1: can say they shot really well, and definitely they did,
Speaker 1: but those are easy shots. And if you give pros
Speaker 1: easy shots all night long, they're gonna make them. And
Speaker 1: so there's fundamentally when you adopt that strategy of of
Speaker 1: trapping like you do, especially against the player the caliber
Speaker 1: of John Moran, you just have to do a better
Speaker 1: job at the start of making those guys struggle to
Speaker 1: beat the trapping um. Otherwise you're just gonna get feasted
Speaker 1: on like you did all night. And then I think
Speaker 1: it cascaded into guys all getting confident, and then in
Speaker 1: the second half guys were making tougher shots. But hey man,
Speaker 1: we talked about that all the time. That's the story
Speaker 1: of basketball. Do you let a team get comfortable with
Speaker 1: wide open looks and get confident to the point where
Speaker 1: they're talking trash after every foul and they're you know,
Speaker 1: you know, having a ton of fun, you know, hitting
Speaker 1: each other on the chest and cheering and just looking
Speaker 1: like they're having the time of their lives. And guess what,
Speaker 1: they're gonna keep shooting tough shots over the top of
Speaker 1: you and making them because it's their night, now, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And I thought it was I'm
Speaker 1: not necessarily disagreeing with the strategy because you and I
Speaker 1: have talked a lot about how trapping is a good
Speaker 1: idea for this team as they play small. But tonight
Speaker 1: he was poorly executed in a really good team just
Speaker 1: completely you know, demoralized this on national on television. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: like you know, I tried to break down the Atlanta
Speaker 1: game and how we trapped a lot against them, and
Speaker 1: we trapped against Trey Young, and I thought we're a
Speaker 1: lot more active Memphis obviously, and I kind of want
Speaker 1: to labor this point. Members is a damn good team,
Speaker 1: Like they came in tonight with an eight game win streak.
Speaker 1: I believe in some of those games. I think we're
Speaker 1: even without John morand they won without John morand their
Speaker 1: last game. They're just good. They execute at a high level.
Speaker 1: They make things really difficult on both ends. Um their
Speaker 1: discipline as well on both ends. They're just a tough
Speaker 1: team that you can't just give one cover too. And
Speaker 1: you're right, Look, I thought trapping John makes sense. I
Speaker 1: would like to see them at least let Josh show
Speaker 1: that he can, you know, kill your team one on
Speaker 1: one scoring first, like I thought, we just showed him
Speaker 1: that coverage right away, and we gave you know, Desmond
Speaker 1: Vain wide open corner threes. I forgot who the other
Speaker 1: shooters were. I think John Conchard, I think that's his name.
Speaker 1: He had like three these in the first quarter as well.
Speaker 1: This was one of the first games Like That's why
Speaker 1: it doesn't kill me too much, but it just felt like,
Speaker 1: you know, the belief was lost really early, like it
Speaker 1: was pretty clear Memphis was the better team, and you're right,
Speaker 1: the scoreboard doesn't indicate, at least with the not the
Speaker 1: final score, because you know, we made a little nice
Speaker 1: run in the fourth quarter there but you know, the
Speaker 1: score of the game being down thirty isn't really indicative
Speaker 1: of the difference of these teams. But I thought there
Speaker 1: was some kind of like, yeah, Memphis is the better team,
Speaker 1: and the kind of effort they would have needed to
Speaker 1: win tonight, it just wasn't there. You combound that with
Speaker 1: all our guards not playing well, Russell Westbrook, Malik mon
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley all had games from hell to be honest,
Speaker 1: miss layups, miss open threes, um at the beast, miss
Speaker 1: shots at the basket. No one was really helping. Lebron
Speaker 1: had twenty of our forty three early. You're just not
Speaker 1: gonna win that way. And deepensily men, Memphis shot for
Speaker 1: the game, I believe when the game was you know,
Speaker 1: when the game mattered, they shot like sev in the
Speaker 1: second quarter. You're just not gonna win that way. And
Speaker 1: the Lakers weren't playing great defense either. They were also
Speaker 1: making some pretty big big shots. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: what the story of the game is to me. I
Speaker 1: know that Russell Westbrooks kind of going to be the
Speaker 1: headline I think for a lot of this, but I
Speaker 1: think Memphis is just a damn good team who came
Speaker 1: in and kicked ours and they had fun. They reminded
Speaker 1: me of the team where like we would just run
Speaker 1: up and down have a blast beating teams physically. They
Speaker 1: thought they physically outmauwed us for a lot of this game.
Speaker 1: Offensive rebounding, Jaw took it to our chest, um and
Speaker 1: and really beat us and Jaws a superstar, he can
Speaker 1: do that. Jaren Jacksons junior at the five. I think
Speaker 1: that's a tough cover. We trapped screens Jaren Jackson junior roles,
Speaker 1: and that's where a lot of our you know, issues were.
Speaker 1: I thought we should have switched a lot of more actions.
Speaker 1: I thought Carmelo at this game was tied after the
Speaker 1: first quarter. Jason seven, Uh, then I believe we went
Speaker 1: to mellow at the five lineups and you know, those
Speaker 1: are just it's not Carmelo's fault. It's not you know,
Speaker 1: the guys were in those line as fault. It's just
Speaker 1: that's that's a really tough thing that to play. A
Speaker 1: thought him and Theresa looks slow against this this Memphis team,
Speaker 1: and I thought that's what that's why we lost the game.
Speaker 1: I think Memphis went up like fifteen or something during
Speaker 1: that run. So you pointed out that the Grizzlies were
Speaker 1: way more physical than us, right, and that they beat
Speaker 1: us in a out of those areas of the game.
Speaker 1: You mentioned specifically that you hoped that we would do
Speaker 1: some more switching, and I think that those two, especially
Speaker 1: in the screen and roll actions, to force Jaw to
Speaker 1: beat somebody as opposed to just making easy reads. Right,
Speaker 1: So he didn't even need to be a jump shooter tonight,
Speaker 1: like none that need to at all, which is ironic
Speaker 1: because like he did that to us once, it would
Speaker 1: have been nice to see if he could shoot six
Speaker 1: for six again, because I think I believe it was
Speaker 1: Darius Story I know from La Fire pointed this out,
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure outside of the Laker games, John More,
Speaker 1: it has been pretty mediocre as a jump shooter. It's
Speaker 1: been the Laker games that have have flucked up his
Speaker 1: numbers a ton. But anyway, those two specific concepts, the
Speaker 1: idea of switching more and the idea of getting physically mauled,
Speaker 1: have a lot to do with something that I I
Speaker 1: have been worried about a lot during this stretch. And
Speaker 1: this is kind of a Frank ideology because he's such
Speaker 1: a huge believer in ball pressure. So you know, Frank
Speaker 1: likes guys that get up into guys on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: and typically the route the world basketball throughout all levels,
Speaker 1: defenders who are bigger are more positional defenders. They don't
Speaker 1: need to sacrifice position to uh to slow an offensive
Speaker 1: player down because they have the physical tools to cover ground. Right,
Speaker 1: So most bigger defenders measure up, they play a little
Speaker 1: bit further off of a ball handler, which Frank doesn't like.
Speaker 1: And so what you're seeing is Frank playing a lot
Speaker 1: of these small ball groups that have a ton of
Speaker 1: these six three and under guards that are ball pressure guards,
Speaker 1: Guys like Russ guys like Malik Monk, guys like Avery Bradley.
Speaker 1: And what's ending what's ending up happening is they're getting
Speaker 1: caught on screens. They're not actually causing any sort of
Speaker 1: disruption at the point of attack. And now we're just
Speaker 1: a small team that's in rotation, small in stature, small
Speaker 1: and athleticism. We're struggling in that regard. So what bothered
Speaker 1: me is guys like Stanley, guys like Austin Reeves, guys
Speaker 1: like Trevor Reza didn't really play much tonight and and
Speaker 1: am my innion if you play bigger yeah, Okay, Frank,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to understand that a guy's like Trevor
Speaker 1: Rees aren't gonna be amazing ball pressure point of attack guys,
Speaker 1: Guys like Stanley Johnson and there. Although he's shown good
Speaker 1: ball pressure this season, I get that he doesn't do
Speaker 1: exactly what Avery Bradley does. But when you're going up
Speaker 1: against a team like that Memphis team that's playing huge,
Speaker 1: massive athletic forwards all over the court, where their point
Speaker 1: guard is arguably the most athletic point guard we've ever seen,
Speaker 1: and their to guard literally looks like a w W
Speaker 1: E fighter, you know, like the in Desmond Baine. Like,
Speaker 1: you can't go out there with all these little guys.
Speaker 1: It has to be more Reeves, it has to be
Speaker 1: more Trevories, that has to be more Stanley Johnson, because
Speaker 1: you need to have that physical versatility, the ability to
Speaker 1: cause more havoc and to hold your own in some
Speaker 1: of those physical matchups, especially when you're trapping, because that's
Speaker 1: the dirty little secret of why Jaw was able to
Speaker 1: pick them apart in those traps. He can just jump
Speaker 1: over those guys. They're too small that need if if
Speaker 1: it's a bigger lineup with more versatility, if maybe Russ
Speaker 1: is the small guy in the group, then you know
Speaker 1: you're doing you're you're offering more physical resistance in all
Speaker 1: of those battles. Now when you're trapping, maybe that's Stanley
Speaker 1: Johnson that's contesting the past and forcing you to make
Speaker 1: a much more difficult pass across the court, which we
Speaker 1: was for stretches of the start of the game when
Speaker 1: we were more competitive. So again, I just think in
Speaker 1: terms of a scale when you're playing this style, I
Speaker 1: don't think you can play all guards, which we complained
Speaker 1: about early in the season when we had to do that.
Speaker 1: We don't have to do that now we have forwards.
Speaker 1: It needs to be a better balance, more athletics and
Speaker 1: more sized. I think it gives us a better chance
Speaker 1: of actually succeeding with these smaller groups, unlike tonight. And
Speaker 1: again it's fool's gold against the bad teams. These are
Speaker 1: the good teams, and I'm gonna talk more about how
Speaker 1: we've been against good teams lately here in a minute.
Speaker 1: But you know, against teams like this, the same stuff
Speaker 1: that worked against Houston isn't gonna work. You know what,
Speaker 1: I mean, and I think we need to play some
Speaker 1: of our bigger players, not counting centers obviously. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: agree with that. In our guards, you know, didn't play
Speaker 1: well and we're really not in the position like if
Speaker 1: Malik Monk and Aven Bradley and Carmel and Anthy, like,
Speaker 1: if all those dudes are making shots, we probably probably
Speaker 1: don't have a shot either. I a little bit disagree
Speaker 1: on that. It's fools gold. I guess against bad like
Speaker 1: I get against a team like Orlando. You know, that's
Speaker 1: like probably one of the bottom tier ones. But you know,
Speaker 1: I'm higher on Atlanta than most teams. Like I think
Speaker 1: Malik Monk, what he did against them is replicable against
Speaker 1: other teams. I think Malik Monk, like Russell Westbrook said,
Speaker 1: you're allowed to have a bad game, right, I think
Speaker 1: Malik Monk is, you know, allowed to have a bad game.
Speaker 1: I wish they went bigger. Frank Vogel talked about a
Speaker 1: lot they want to kind of move on to the
Speaker 1: small ball, which you know we both kind of agree with,
Speaker 1: as we both agree with as well. I just wish
Speaker 1: it wasn't as rigid, like I would have loved to
Speaker 1: see Dwight in before we were down twenty, Like, I
Speaker 1: just think there's ways where you can insert him and
Speaker 1: kind of swim. It's the flow of the game. I
Speaker 1: think when we're small teams kind of understand how to
Speaker 1: beat us. They were getting layups, are open, corner three
Speaker 1: is like it was. It was one of the other.
Speaker 1: But you would like to see our wings play more.
Speaker 1: It's just it's tough for me to be too nit
Speaker 1: picky here, like when you're down thirty, like, there's not
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff to me that switched to flow.
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson only getting one shift is a little frustrating,
Speaker 1: and that's happened a few times now. He played eight
Speaker 1: minutes in that first quarter. I thought he was everywhere.
Speaker 1: I thought he had a ton of deflections, he had
Speaker 1: a couple of I think he had a block as well,
Speaker 1: running around like it would have helped to maybe have
Speaker 1: him so we can switch more. But I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: Memphis is just good. They legit. They have pretty much
Speaker 1: all their main guys other than Dylan Brooks. I think
Speaker 1: Steven Adams as well was out tonight. But they're just
Speaker 1: really good. And we didn't shoot well, uh and they
Speaker 1: killed us. They you know, they executed nicely, Like maybe
Speaker 1: playing Reeves and a reason more would have helped a
Speaker 1: little bit. Like it's just tough for me to kind
Speaker 1: of get get there, I guess. So I still think,
Speaker 1: like I don't think the four game win streak get
Speaker 1: something that you throw away because you lose against Memphis,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Because I think like there
Speaker 1: was stuff we built. I think we did find some
Speaker 1: like things that work. I think Lebron and League Monk
Speaker 1: have found a two two man game that works. It's
Speaker 1: just Leak miss layups tonight at the rim. He missed
Speaker 1: his he missed his jump shots, he couldn't get to
Speaker 1: the basket. Part of that is also in Memphis being
Speaker 1: a good defensive team. I think you see that Memphis
Speaker 1: also switches more. They don't have a player you can
Speaker 1: pick on right like Trey Young you can kind of
Speaker 1: pick on, throw him in a bunch of actions. John
Speaker 1: Rant has gotten pretty good defensively to me, like where
Speaker 1: you can't find a guy to pick on. And Jaren
Speaker 1: Jackson Jr. Is one of the best. We're protecting bigs
Speaker 1: as well in the league. Like they're just a solid
Speaker 1: team and you know, we're just not at the level,
Speaker 1: I guess, uh, to beat a team like that right now,
Speaker 1: and we obviously we shouldn't be down thirty, but it
Speaker 1: just felt like our belief got lost in that in
Speaker 1: that second quarter. Are you with me there? At least?
Speaker 1: Like I feel like that second quarter we got down
Speaker 1: ten or fifteen and we kind of lost the belief.
Speaker 1: Lebron was really the only one that that took it personal. Honestly,
Speaker 1: he had a kind of personal vendetta there. But other
Speaker 1: than that, the rest of the team kind of, uh,
Speaker 1: the effort and body language was pretty awful after after
Speaker 1: that second quarter, well, every every non Lebron Lakers shot
Speaker 1: so poorly. We that we were living in transition and
Speaker 1: losing shooters in transition giving jaw ahead of steam in
Speaker 1: that semi transition, right, we committed a bunch of fouls
Speaker 1: in that semi transition uh moment where the defense just
Speaker 1: isn't quite set. And that's the thing. It becomes like
Speaker 1: the Lakers are gonna always be a team of runs
Speaker 1: when they play small because their their defense and offense
Speaker 1: depend on each other so much. Right, Like to in
Speaker 1: order to get out and run, you have to get
Speaker 1: stops and you have to get a rebound and push
Speaker 1: the ball up the floor in order to UH in
Speaker 1: order to get um um stops, we have to score
Speaker 1: so that we can set our defense. So we end
Speaker 1: up in this weird vicious cycle where we have these
Speaker 1: stretches of the game where guys not named Lebron are
Speaker 1: just not making shots. And then it turns into like,
Speaker 1: now we're living the entire game in transition. We're not
Speaker 1: getting any stops. I should say we're living in transition defensively,
Speaker 1: We're not getting any stops. We're walking the ball up
Speaker 1: into the half court, Lebron's making another read and another
Speaker 1: guy's missing a shot, and it just becomes this vicious cycle.
Speaker 1: And that's part of the downside of what happens when
Speaker 1: you don't have that other supreme talent. You know, having
Speaker 1: a guy like Anthony Davis there just makes it so
Speaker 1: that you can weather those kinds of storms a little better,
Speaker 1: you know, because having that other, other, that all world
Speaker 1: talent on the floor can change things. But you know,
Speaker 1: I want this is what this is what brings me
Speaker 1: to russ because you know, Malik Monk having an off night.
Speaker 1: I get that that's Molik Monk. You know, he's a
Speaker 1: betteran minimum guy. He's been way more consistent lately than
Speaker 1: we should be getting from him. That's gold what we've
Speaker 1: been getting out of Malik Monk saying goes for Avery
Speaker 1: Bradley non guaranteed contract until the other day he's out.
Speaker 1: He's outperforming that contract. We are getting a ton out
Speaker 1: of him. You know, those guys playing poorly that happens.
Speaker 1: What worries me is Russ because you can't just continue
Speaker 1: to have off nights and now he is who he is.
Speaker 1: But from a strated standpoint with team building, you can't
Speaker 1: have the guy that you paid this much for, not
Speaker 1: just in money but in assets, be this inconsistent and
Speaker 1: have these kinds of bad games where all of a
Speaker 1: sudden Lebron can be otherworldly good and it's just not enough.
Speaker 1: And this is where it gets concerning, because I told
Speaker 1: you after the last game, uh, when we played Memphis
Speaker 1: last time, I told you that I was worried about
Speaker 1: Russ's ability to succeed against good defenses that takeaway what
Speaker 1: he wants to do and force him to do what
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to do, and how that could potentially
Speaker 1: be catastrophic in a playoff setting. And I looked back. Now,
Speaker 1: I know you think Atlanta is good, but they haven't
Speaker 1: been playing good. So the last six good teams that
Speaker 1: we played that I wrote down, three of which were
Speaker 1: against Memphis. Ironically, Um, tonight we played Memphis, he goes
Speaker 1: to for twelve and looks largely ineffective on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. On the last time he played Memphis,
Speaker 1: he had that end of the third quarter fiasco. Lebron
Speaker 1: plays amazing, We're in commanding position to win the game,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the third quarter as an
Speaker 1: ugly turnover and takes a ridiculous one like step back
Speaker 1: that directly leads to the John Ranch shop that essentially
Speaker 1: turns the momentum of the game and we end up losing.
Speaker 1: Then on Christmas Day, losing Patty Mills in the corner
Speaker 1: and then blowing the dunk on the other end. So
Speaker 1: that's three straight games that we lost against good teams
Speaker 1: where Russ had significant struggles, either for the whole game
Speaker 1: or for key moments. Against Phoenix, uh, they literally lose
Speaker 1: the lawn the non Lebron minutes by eight team. In
Speaker 1: that game, Russ has more turnovers than assists Against Phoenix,
Speaker 1: a team that is going to have a ton of
Speaker 1: length on the floor, take away what he wants to do.
Speaker 1: Before that against the Bulls, that was the game where
Speaker 1: Lebron was incredible again and was in a role on
Speaker 1: a roll at the end of the game and Russ
Speaker 1: looked him off to drive Nikolavusevici into the paint and
Speaker 1: shoot that weird legated hook that he missed that went
Speaker 1: down to the Bulls scoring the game being over. And
Speaker 1: then before that against Memphis, another loss, nine points, six
Speaker 1: turnovers in a minus sixteen And from what I could
Speaker 1: tell looking at the schedule, unless you're counting teams like
Speaker 1: Atlanta or Boston who have struggled all season, our last
Speaker 1: six games against actually good teams that are actually good
Speaker 1: and have been good this whole year, Russ has been
Speaker 1: either flat out ineffectual for the entire game or been
Speaker 1: critically ineffectual in a key moment. And that is my
Speaker 1: greatest fear with this whole situation, because, yeah, it's great
Speaker 1: in theory to have somebody that can carry you through
Speaker 1: the dregs of the regular season against limited teams, But
Speaker 1: what's the ultimate goal here? The goal is to get
Speaker 1: the Larry O'Brian Trophy, and in order to get the
Speaker 1: Larry O'Brian Trophy, you have to go through teams that
Speaker 1: will do defensively what Memphis did, what Brooklyn does, what
Speaker 1: Phoenix does. The Brooklyn it might be more j K,
Speaker 1: might be more flat out ignoring and a lot of
Speaker 1: switching and weird stuff. But against the best of the
Speaker 1: best you have to date, you you get exposed. And
Speaker 1: I'm worried about that with Russ And again, I don't
Speaker 1: know what to make of it yet, but like this
Speaker 1: is becoming a recurring theme and and it's hard for
Speaker 1: me to stay positive in light of it. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: there's like there's no quick answer here. He's he's definitely struggled.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm tired of like the every time
Speaker 1: I tweet about us, I get the million dollar right,
Speaker 1: Like every single time people bring up how much he
Speaker 1: makes and I get it, you know, from like asset
Speaker 1: management and all that. But he's here now, Like I
Speaker 1: think that stuff is just for the summer, Like we
Speaker 1: need to kind of figure out his role. And you
Speaker 1: talked about comparing him having a bad game with Malik
Speaker 1: Bunk but act but it's like they're almost the same, right,
Speaker 1: now with how we're playing right just by what their
Speaker 1: roles are on this team, Leak Monk needs to be
Speaker 1: a score for this team. Like that's just like for
Speaker 1: us to win right now, how we're playing small ball,
Speaker 1: he needs to be a score coming anything. Needs to
Speaker 1: hit open shots. Every Bradley starting needs to hit open
Speaker 1: shots for us to run. Russ just needs to be
Speaker 1: able to. And he took a lot of bad shots tonight.
Speaker 1: And you know the I thought he started the game
Speaker 1: taking like five straight off of mid range pull ups.
Speaker 1: And that's more what it is to me. And I
Speaker 1: was looking at his shooting. I think the last five
Speaker 1: games he's shooting like thirty three percent from mid range.
Speaker 1: And if I look at all those, I think pretty
Speaker 1: much all those are just terrible shots. Like I don't
Speaker 1: mind the bank shot pull up. It's just I like
Speaker 1: it when like the players backing up. But like tonight,
Speaker 1: they were all contested, like it's a struggle man, like
Speaker 1: I think against those good teams when we're healthy. I've
Speaker 1: talked about this all season. It's just gonna his USA
Speaker 1: is gonna be lower, lowered, like we're gonna have the
Speaker 1: ball in Leek Monk's hands. We're gonna be have the
Speaker 1: ball in lebronze hands, We're gonna have the ball in
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis's hands, and he's probably he's probably being outstretched
Speaker 1: still right now with this role, and it isn't great.
Speaker 1: He has to play better. He has to have better
Speaker 1: decision making for sure. I just think like we have
Speaker 1: guys with roles that are defined now. So Rust's role
Speaker 1: is not to me have to be a score on
Speaker 1: this team. We've put guys in the starting lineup to
Speaker 1: help with that. That's what That's why I'm link Monk
Speaker 1: is starting so he can have a scoring role. If
Speaker 1: he doesn't shoot well, we're not going to win. Blaming
Speaker 1: that all so on Russ to me just doesn't like
Speaker 1: that doesn't really make sense. We've defined the roles for
Speaker 1: this team and putting like why we didn't win tonight
Speaker 1: because like, if all our guards don't pull it well,
Speaker 1: obviously you would like Russ to kind of contribute to there.
Speaker 1: But that's just not the role he's in right now.
Speaker 1: He's in a like he needs to create, he needs
Speaker 1: to shock create. I think this team needs to live
Speaker 1: in transition. I feel like we are not a half
Speaker 1: court scoring team. And putting Russ in the half court
Speaker 1: again just opens up all what he's deficients at right now.
Speaker 1: He's not a good half court scorer. Now, he's not
Speaker 1: a half court playmaker. He's a guy that pushes the
Speaker 1: ball in transition and when we don't get stops. That's
Speaker 1: why tonight's gonna look like what it is. And Russ
Speaker 1: has definitely struggled against the good teams. He's also he's
Speaker 1: had a few games where I feel like he saved
Speaker 1: us in a lot of those. I think the game
Speaker 1: against Indiana he played well. A few others he's played well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, man, he's struggling against good teams. I just
Speaker 1: don't like. I feel like his role is going to be,
Speaker 1: I don't know, put to the correct spot when we
Speaker 1: play the better teams. If does that make sense? So
Speaker 1: I get that and ida, in an ideal situation, that
Speaker 1: will be the case. And that's why if the Lakers
Speaker 1: do make a trade around the deadline and get someone
Speaker 1: like Jeremy Grant and have lineups out there that like
Speaker 1: Reeves or Monk with you know, Jeremy Grant, Lebron and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, like, I'll still believe in the team's chances,
Speaker 1: of course, but like what you just said to me
Speaker 1: is the scary part in all of this because you go,
Speaker 1: you know, he's he's a transition player, is not a
Speaker 1: half court player, Like he's actually not a great player
Speaker 1: in the half court offensively, and there there's truth to that.
Speaker 1: And here's the reason why rogs. Like when you're watching
Speaker 1: Lebron initiate a possession from the perimeter, you can feel
Speaker 1: all of these like good potential outcomes that are about
Speaker 1: to happen, Like they're like, oh, if if he goes
Speaker 1: under this ball screen, Lebron is gonna have a comfortable
Speaker 1: three point shot. He's just gonna make that thing. Or like, oh,
Speaker 1: if they switch that, he's got a good post, Mitch Matcher, Mismatcher,
Speaker 1: Oh if he you know, if they trap him, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be able to hit this part. Like you think
Speaker 1: and see all these obvious positive outcomes, And the same
Speaker 1: thing goes with a lot of players on the Laker roster,
Speaker 1: like Malik Monk. Same thing, like you give that dude
Speaker 1: a bit of breathing room, that things going up and
Speaker 1: it's probably going in. There's all these like positive outcomes.
Speaker 1: But like when I watched Russ like initiate the offensive
Speaker 1: possession I'm looking and the defenders immediately giving ground and
Speaker 1: backpedaling to about ten feet from the rim, like putting
Speaker 1: Russ already from the start of the possession in that
Speaker 1: awkward position where he has to decide whether or not
Speaker 1: he wants to take a jump shot, which he has
Speaker 1: been taking lately, but like they're not going in and
Speaker 1: some other nights he just won't even take them, so
Speaker 1: it just turns into this awkward situation where get like
Speaker 1: turn and post them up like five ft from the rim,
Speaker 1: but he initiated the possession at thirty feet and there's
Speaker 1: no contact. It's like the most bizarre sequence there. And
Speaker 1: then like when he gets to the rim, he's finishing
Speaker 1: at such a low rate, Like that doesn't feel like
Speaker 1: a good outcome. Really, the only good outcomes we're getting
Speaker 1: from Russ offensively is like these bizarre plays where he
Speaker 1: just puts his head down and goes into like four
Speaker 1: bodies and just hurls the ball out somewhere and hopes
Speaker 1: that someone's there. And don't get me wrong, there are
Speaker 1: games where that has worked, but it's primarily been against
Speaker 1: bad teams, and that style of play, Like if are
Speaker 1: walking down a playoff level really good defense that is
Speaker 1: set in the half court, he just doesn't have a threat.
Speaker 1: He's not a threat. He can't shoot over the top,
Speaker 1: he can't beat people off the dribble because they play
Speaker 1: so far off of him. And then the really good
Speaker 1: teams take away his chaos ball, which is Russ's m
Speaker 1: O that I'm just putting my head down and going
Speaker 1: to the rim and hoping for the best. But the
Speaker 1: best teams just sit on all that stuff and it
Speaker 1: doesn't work. And so it's concerned, Like that's that's that's
Speaker 1: where the concern comes from. And again, like it is,
Speaker 1: it is what it is at this point. But like
Speaker 1: the reason why it's worth talking about and I get it,
Speaker 1: Like I know, particularly you Rog you get annoyed by
Speaker 1: this sometimes because we talked about it so much. But
Speaker 1: it's like the reason why it's relevant is because this
Speaker 1: is the ultimate test. The ultimate test is can this
Speaker 1: team get to the point where they can con peat
Speaker 1: with and defeat the top tier teams, And these problems
Speaker 1: that I'm discussing with Russ will inevitably rear their ugly
Speaker 1: head in those games. The same way they have in
Speaker 1: the previous six games that we've played against teams that
Speaker 1: belong on that tier. And so it's just I don't
Speaker 1: see how it doesn't ever cease being a topic as
Speaker 1: long as that's the situation. And you know, that's where,
Speaker 1: like like Rager, when I look at it, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, the all the chaos that would come from
Speaker 1: a russ trade and the idea of bringing back pointless
Speaker 1: salary filler and all the wasted assets and not to
Speaker 1: mention the burn bridges that come from that and how
Speaker 1: ugly it would be. But then I think, in terms
Speaker 1: of diminishing returns, what if I had Monk and Reeves
Speaker 1: out there with a really good with a really good wing,
Speaker 1: like like Jeremy Grant and Lebron and Anthony Davis, what
Speaker 1: I like my chances more? And you know what, raj
Speaker 1: I might, I might And that that that that's concerning
Speaker 1: to me, man, Like that's concerning to me. I don't
Speaker 1: know how that could not just be like like, I'm
Speaker 1: not just being a hater, I'm not being I'm trying
Speaker 1: to be objective here, but like that's where my brain goes,
Speaker 1: and I don't know how. I don't know how that
Speaker 1: can that can I can't be in the minority there
Speaker 1: there alone and that there's got to be people not
Speaker 1: at all. No, no no, no, of course, of course you're
Speaker 1: not alone in that. I mean both of us. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of people get you know, Russ
Speaker 1: Trader because that people send me, you know, they work
Speaker 1: on their trade machine and be like what do you
Speaker 1: think of this rush trade? And my response pretty much
Speaker 1: every time is like, he's not going anywhere like That's
Speaker 1: why it's hard for me to entertain it. Like I
Speaker 1: don't get annoyed at the conversation. It's just like I
Speaker 1: just know that's not changing. So I'm trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what can we do. I guess because he's here right,
Speaker 1: Like you would agree with that, right, Jason, Like he's
Speaker 1: not going anywhere like this, It's very be extremely unlikely
Speaker 1: that he would not even right and even if you
Speaker 1: saw really quick, real quick ross before you answer, pickup
Speaker 1: who have just tweeted out against the top four teams
Speaker 1: in both conferences. Twelve games total, fifteen point nine points,
Speaker 1: eight point three rebounds, nine point three assists, four point
Speaker 1: nine turnovers percent from the field twenty three from three
Speaker 1: sixty two from the line. Yeah, that's you know, that's
Speaker 1: not great, Like there's no way to like sugar you know,
Speaker 1: like there's no way to sugarcoat, Like how it is
Speaker 1: like that that just isn't great. And then I guess
Speaker 1: my only like caveat if you want to look at
Speaker 1: glass half full. Stuff is like some of that is
Speaker 1: without Lebron, some of that probably is without Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: Some of that is without any of our wings. Right.
Speaker 1: We just started to get We just started to get
Speaker 1: our wings back. Russ has had something like I don't
Speaker 1: think the zero turnover game you throw away because he
Speaker 1: had a bad game against Memphis, Like I think there
Speaker 1: are stuff that he just sometimes goes into, like a
Speaker 1: I need to make a shot right now, like tonight
Speaker 1: like he hit I think he took like four strade
Speaker 1: mid range pull ups just because he felt like I
Speaker 1: have to hit a shot right now. And he gets
Speaker 1: into this mode, and like, my hopeful thing is that
Speaker 1: this changes a little bit when the A D gets back,
Speaker 1: maybe like you put more of the ball in his hands,
Speaker 1: eighty can eat more possessions in that way. You brought
Speaker 1: up fifth, what do you what do you say? Fifteen?
Speaker 1: Oh you shared it in the thing. Okay, fifteen not
Speaker 1: eight and nine. That's kind of like sixteen eight and
Speaker 1: nine is like I would kind of live with that
Speaker 1: after percent if the efficiency was a little bit more
Speaker 1: up the turnovers were down, Like I would kind of
Speaker 1: live with that with a fully healthy team, right like
Speaker 1: if we have scores around that like that's but he
Speaker 1: hasn't been great like that. There's no way to sugarcoat it.
Speaker 1: Um he's not the you know, the shock trader that
Speaker 1: we probably need right now, and he just hasn't played well.
Speaker 1: And against those good teams, You're right, they scheme him out.
Speaker 1: They know exactly what they're gonna do. They don't they
Speaker 1: don't close out to him, right Like, he's not able
Speaker 1: to attack closeouts. We talked about last game Atlanta was
Speaker 1: going over screens on him, that stuff that Phoenix will
Speaker 1: never do, that stuff Lea Memphis will never do. Like,
Speaker 1: that's the stuff that won't happen. They'll go under and
Speaker 1: he has to be able to make the right decision.
Speaker 1: I think putting him in the Duncker spot is something
Speaker 1: we've built on these last four games, and that's something
Speaker 1: I think also that doesn't go away just because we
Speaker 1: lost to a really good team. Like I'm seeing little things,
Speaker 1: but like there's no sugar corny, there's no like pretty
Speaker 1: answered to be like, yeah, this is why they will
Speaker 1: work because we don't know. I've said that we are
Speaker 1: in no position to even compare to Phoenix and and
Speaker 1: and the Warriors right now, like the Warriors who got
Speaker 1: Clay back hilariously tonight, Like I think they're adding Clay
Speaker 1: freaking Thompson to that team. But that's another conversation. But
Speaker 1: like to me, we're like we're on a ladder up
Speaker 1: to those teams like we are, Like being in Atlanta
Speaker 1: to me was a stepping stone to getting up there,
Speaker 1: and Memphis to me, is showing more and more that
Speaker 1: they're closer to that Warriors Phoenix instead of like the
Speaker 1: Dallas US and all these other teams that are mixed
Speaker 1: in right now. Um, And that's kind of where we're at.
Speaker 1: Memphis is a damn good team. They scheme the hell
Speaker 1: out of us. They also played harder. They also kicked
Speaker 1: our ass physically outremounded us, um. And they just beat
Speaker 1: us in all levels. So that's kind of the rest conversation. Man,
Speaker 1: It's interesting, that's not going away for sure. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying it should go away. I just think like we're
Speaker 1: in a position now where he's on the team, so
Speaker 1: we have to kind of find tangible solutions to that.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's going anywhere, Like, no trade is
Speaker 1: happening for me. I got one last question about Russell
Speaker 1: and then we'll move on. If the Lakers were to
Speaker 1: remove us from the roster and do absolutely nothing else,
Speaker 1: so now thing in return, no nothing, Like if they
Speaker 1: were to literally waive him and distribute his minutes amongst
Speaker 1: the guards and wings that we have on the roster,
Speaker 1: would the Lakers? Would the Lakers be significantly worse, slightly worse,
Speaker 1: the same, slightly better, or significantly better. If you just
Speaker 1: removed Russ from the roster and just and just distributed
Speaker 1: his minutes among shooters and guards and forwards better on
Speaker 1: the roster, I think we'd be worse. So how much worse,
Speaker 1: slightly worse, or significantly worse. I'm going to lead more significantly,
Speaker 1: Like I think that what Russ does is something we
Speaker 1: do need, Like he's our only other ball handler in
Speaker 1: that starting lineup, even though the like I also Malik Monk,
Speaker 1: I guesses are scoring ball handler. But I do think
Speaker 1: he does stuff that we need. I think him pushing
Speaker 1: in the base and stuff like, I think he adds
Speaker 1: stuff to the team that we can't just throw away.
Speaker 1: You know, if you just took him off the team,
Speaker 1: I feel like that's not a solution here at all.
Speaker 1: Like you're losing, that would hurt that, you would limit
Speaker 1: the roster, You would again have to you know, reach
Speaker 1: out into the four fift Like, I don't think that's
Speaker 1: a social How about you? What do you think about So? Okay,
Speaker 1: so that's fair And I thought you would say that,
Speaker 1: and I don't. I'm not saying you're wrong. However, my
Speaker 1: opinion is, with as well as th HD has been
Speaker 1: creating over the last couple of games, and has as
Speaker 1: well as Molique Monk has been playing with, how inconsistent
Speaker 1: Russ is with the amount of bad that he brings
Speaker 1: with as good and with as well as Lebron has
Speaker 1: been playing, I think they would be somewhere between the
Speaker 1: same two, very slightly worse. That's and to me, that's
Speaker 1: the freaky part of all of this when you really
Speaker 1: really think about what all went into that. But we
Speaker 1: can move on from Russ. That was just that was
Speaker 1: just my Like I I told you after the last
Speaker 1: game that I had just a little bit of a
Speaker 1: weird feeling, like it seemed as though he was playing
Speaker 1: poorly against the good teams. And I said he needed
Speaker 1: to research it and and kind of dig into that
Speaker 1: and kind of see. And so I did that tonight,
Speaker 1: and it was concerning what I found, you know, But
Speaker 1: I mean, look, lebron A D plus you know, shooting
Speaker 1: is a successful formula, Like that's we we know that.
Speaker 1: So this rustling is new, like it's a new process.
Speaker 1: Like you could probably put leron a d um Leak
Speaker 1: monk and you know, Austin Reeves and Trevor reason this
Speaker 1: two would probably still win a ship ton of games
Speaker 1: if Ad was healthy. Like it's just like that's a
Speaker 1: successful formula. To me, this is Brandon. You're throwing a
Speaker 1: full shot creator into this that needs the ball in
Speaker 1: his hands. Uh. And it's interesting. I think it's similar
Speaker 1: to y th h D has its tough time in
Speaker 1: those lineups two because he couldn't space the floor. So
Speaker 1: I don't think you're like off there, Like I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's a right, right I guess
Speaker 1: answer to that to that question. Yeah, um, but you know,
Speaker 1: as far as as far as like the totality of
Speaker 1: the game, like, I do want to give a lot
Speaker 1: of credit to Memphis. They and just played a fantastic game.
Speaker 1: They handled Now here's the thing, they're they're World coach
Speaker 1: team and um Jaw has faced traps on occasion this season,
Speaker 1: not from l A, but from other teams this season.
Speaker 1: He's all the face traps that have been far more
Speaker 1: well executed than ours, which begs which leads to the
Speaker 1: result that you saw tonight, the pointless gambling off the
Speaker 1: ball that the excuse me the uh um, well, it
Speaker 1: was kind of gambling in a lot of ways. That
Speaker 1: guy at that week side corner, which is kind of
Speaker 1: over help into the into that romance situation, and it
Speaker 1: just became a really really easy bread But anyway, I
Speaker 1: gotta give Memphis credit. They shot incredibly well and executed
Speaker 1: really well out of those traps. And then in the
Speaker 1: second half when the Lakers did try to tighten some
Speaker 1: of that stuff up, they had a swagger to them,
Speaker 1: they had a confidence to them, and they just walked
Speaker 1: us down a bunch of times. They made a bunch
Speaker 1: of shots. One of the recurring themes in the second
Speaker 1: half was k Anderson being able to just put his
Speaker 1: head down, take that long, lumbering dribble that like that
Speaker 1: that last dribble that initiates contact into the chest, and
Speaker 1: then shoot floaters over the top. And then you saw
Speaker 1: John Ranch to start putting his head down and ending
Speaker 1: and jumping and and you know, ripping to the rim
Speaker 1: and just drawing fouls every time. And that was it was.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like a four. It was like
Speaker 1: a force that we were incapable of stopping. And you know,
Speaker 1: I tweeted during the right around a half time, right
Speaker 1: around the beginning and second half, I tweeted that, you know,
Speaker 1: this might just be a team that we can't beat
Speaker 1: without Anthony Davis. That's that's that's very possible. Like if
Speaker 1: we were to play a series against them and A
Speaker 1: d was unavailable, I wouldn't like our chances. That's just
Speaker 1: the reality. However, like we're better than we showed tonight.
Speaker 1: The this to your point, we were on a four
Speaker 1: game winning streak. We're probably a few points worse than
Speaker 1: Memphis in a typical matchup. We had a nightmarish outcome
Speaker 1: where while Lebron had a good game offensively. Literally everyone
Speaker 1: else had a nightmarish game offensively, and that's just how
Speaker 1: it goes sometimes. And meanwhile, on the other end, the
Speaker 1: same looks that we were missing, Memphis was knocking down
Speaker 1: and that's all she wrote. Next thing. You know, you're down,
Speaker 1: but you have to you have to acknowledge that there
Speaker 1: there is some positive progress here. I don't agree with
Speaker 1: everything that we did strategically tonight, but we're not as
Speaker 1: bad as we look tonight as well. Yeah, and we're like,
Speaker 1: you know, moving to a new identity and you know,
Speaker 1: moving to this new small ball. Like we've been saying
Speaker 1: like we're a new team in like a good way, right.
Speaker 1: A lot of the times, like these last four games
Speaker 1: are like we're a whole new team and that's all
Speaker 1: that's mostly been in like a positive connotation. But then
Speaker 1: you can kind of see the bat of that tonight
Speaker 1: as well. Memphis looks like a team that's been executing,
Speaker 1: you know, for the whole season, as a squad that
Speaker 1: knows exactly what they're gonna do. And tonight we met
Speaker 1: a team that you know, just beat us in in
Speaker 1: every way, and like Russ has to be better not
Speaker 1: to move back to him, but like he has to
Speaker 1: be able to finish layups and all that, Like that's
Speaker 1: all true. I just don't know how much that's like
Speaker 1: because Memphis are just just Russ missing layups, you know.
Speaker 1: Like that's where like I have a hard time like
Speaker 1: putting those I guess together. But Memphis is good. They
Speaker 1: definitely you know, they have good shot shot blocking at
Speaker 1: the RAM. But like we're a new team, we're trying
Speaker 1: to figure stuff out. The camalo about the five stuff.
Speaker 1: I feel like I've seen enough film to where that
Speaker 1: should probably no longer be a thing, but we're obviously
Speaker 1: still going to that um and I talked about. I
Speaker 1: hope Dwight Howard kind of plays a little bit more
Speaker 1: both of us. I think want Dwight Howard at least
Speaker 1: to be in the rotation and somewhat in some form.
Speaker 1: Just want yeah, yeah, yeah, a b Our backup center.
Speaker 1: I think that's something that you know that we can do.
Speaker 1: But we're obviously trying to lean all the way into
Speaker 1: the small ball and you're gonna see stuff like tonight,
Speaker 1: Frank has talked about he wants to get data on
Speaker 1: some lineups and even if you know we're getting killed
Speaker 1: on some stuff. He'll stick with it. I think tracking
Speaker 1: job probably was some part of that as well, just
Speaker 1: trapping him every single time, even though we got the
Speaker 1: same wide open corner three. They just wanted to see
Speaker 1: what that looked like a little bit. But I don't
Speaker 1: like to me, I just agree with just the approach
Speaker 1: in terms of I think we're in win collection mode
Speaker 1: right now, like we can't give up, you know, games
Speaker 1: that you know, should at least like we should have
Speaker 1: had at least somewhat of a chance tonight, but obviously
Speaker 1: Memphis ended that. But it Yeah, so I was tough.
Speaker 1: I just don't think that throws away everything we did
Speaker 1: the last four games as well. You obviously this is
Speaker 1: obviously a barometer game and and we didn't, you know,
Speaker 1: we didn't come close to reaching their measure. But I
Speaker 1: don't think that throws everything away from from what we've
Speaker 1: at least somewhat built these last few games. Getting guys
Speaker 1: back a d and Kendrick Nun should be back in
Speaker 1: the next few weeks here. So that that's why I'm
Speaker 1: like a little bit more positive. But you know, it's
Speaker 1: never great to get your butt kicked by thirty at home.
Speaker 1: For sure. Yeah, and there's it's not a let's pack
Speaker 1: everything in and and and surrender the season. It's just okay,
Speaker 1: you know, we're not as good as we looked over
Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks. There's a lot still to
Speaker 1: get better at, but you know we've made progress. We
Speaker 1: do there. I had one last thing on my list
Speaker 1: that's a mini just a miniature soapbox having to do
Speaker 1: with officiating. And for the record, when it comes to
Speaker 1: when it comes to uh uh free throw attenpts, what
Speaker 1: do I always say? Ros I say, the team that's
Speaker 1: more physically aggressive actually gets to the figure line more.
Speaker 1: That's just a basic basketball philosophy that everyone should be
Speaker 1: aware of. But I just I wanted to nip pick
Speaker 1: a handful of calls tonight. There were two or three
Speaker 1: with John Morant floating around the lane, and then there
Speaker 1: was um the one where Desmond Bank kicked out his foot,
Speaker 1: and on all three of them they were calls that
Speaker 1: went against the Lakers, two of which went went against Lebron.
Speaker 1: The one on Bane was against Lebron. One of the
Speaker 1: floating John Morant ones um uh jaw jumped into Lebron's airspace.
Speaker 1: Lebron basically turned intod a textbook box out where he
Speaker 1: didn't even shove jaw. He just was defending his own
Speaker 1: position and jah, nothing happened. Basically, he just screamed and
Speaker 1: yelled and the ref called a foul. And then there
Speaker 1: was the one at the end of the game when
Speaker 1: the Lakers made their run to get within seven where
Speaker 1: uh um got to uh you drove along the left
Speaker 1: side he was going against sucerries, but it was Baysmore
Speaker 1: was guarding in and Baysmore just didn't even touch him,
Speaker 1: and that really didn't even touch him, and and the
Speaker 1: guy just screamed and yelled at and and and flopped
Speaker 1: and threw shut up and got a foul. So again,
Speaker 1: not I'm not talking about the game itself being poorly officiated,
Speaker 1: because that kind of thing is just an epidemic around
Speaker 1: the entire league. But like it bothers me because like
Speaker 1: if you were with fifteen guys, your buddies at the court,
Speaker 1: you know, playing some pickup, or if you walked into
Speaker 1: a high school practice, or if you walked into a
Speaker 1: college practice, or if you walked into an NBA game
Speaker 1: and you pulled all of the players and you said, hey,
Speaker 1: if you wanted the rest to error on the side
Speaker 1: of calling fouls just because they think one might have happened,
Speaker 1: or erring on the side of only calling a foul
Speaker 1: when they're absolutely certain that it happened. What would you want?
Speaker 1: Every single one of them would say they want the ladder.
Speaker 1: Every single one of them would say that, except for
Speaker 1: maybe day Lillard, who complained about how the officiating was
Speaker 1: bad this year but at the beginning, But for the
Speaker 1: vast majority of basketball players want to play on They
Speaker 1: want flow to the game. They want you to error
Speaker 1: on this out of not calling stuff. They're okay, they'd
Speaker 1: rather be in a game like that where they're complaining
Speaker 1: to the refs about not getting calls, then being in
Speaker 1: a game like that where they are complaining about constantly
Speaker 1: getting called for fouls. That's just the basketball character of
Speaker 1: every single person. And it drives me nuts how many
Speaker 1: of these NBA officials are literally bated by this crap.
Speaker 1: And when it's it's it's one thing. When it's the
Speaker 1: James Harden thing and you're actually seeing contact, which is
Speaker 1: a different type of bait. This is like I heard
Speaker 1: someone yell, This is like he flailed, Like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of this kind of stuff, and it's just I
Speaker 1: swear it's just a horrible, horrible, horrible disease on the
Speaker 1: league because it it ruins games like this. Because John
Speaker 1: Marin was incredible tonight, absolutely incredible, but he one of
Speaker 1: the most unfortunate side effects of of his play tonight
Speaker 1: is he was moving so quick that the refs just
Speaker 1: didn't know what they were looking at. Is almost shock
Speaker 1: like a sense that they just didn't know how to
Speaker 1: officiate and he would just go flying into the lane
Speaker 1: and throw something up and they blow their whistle just
Speaker 1: because they didn't know what to do, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And that's that's unfortunately. I would rather have
Speaker 1: officials air on the side of calling what they concretely
Speaker 1: absolutely certainly see. Yeah, it's tough. John Rad's a tough
Speaker 1: guy to kind officiate, and he started he's kind of
Speaker 1: leveled into that superstar level as well, right, like he's
Speaker 1: kind of entered the superstar phase of like he gets
Speaker 1: he's gonna get some of the benefit of the doubt
Speaker 1: calls as well. He goes so fast and transition though,
Speaker 1: like it's hard to kind of know. He'll just jump
Speaker 1: into you and then they'll call the foul even if
Speaker 1: it's going back. I think Stanley Johnson was a little
Speaker 1: bit frustrated with that a few times I saw. But man,
Speaker 1: John's a tough cover with that. I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: the refereing didn't decide tonight, obviously, and you talked about
Speaker 1: guys like Jannice as well, get different, get get calls
Speaker 1: like this, but it's interesting. But yeah, Job is the
Speaker 1: guy that that's he's special man. He's gonna be a
Speaker 1: tough guy that you have to officiate. He's a tough
Speaker 1: guy to appreciate. He's a small guard who gets up
Speaker 1: in the air a lot, so it's easy to kind
Speaker 1: of mad content in that way. And I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna up his free throw attempts memoras as he as
Speaker 1: he goes here, as he gets more benefited. Doubt calls. Um,
Speaker 1: he's he's a superstar man, and he is a freaking
Speaker 1: superstar man. He is. He is so good, Like I
Speaker 1: think he should be on the All NBA team this year,
Speaker 1: and that for for a guy his age, he might
Speaker 1: start in the Austar. Yeah, dude, like he's he's outrageously good.
Speaker 1: But that's all I had on my list. Rodgers, there
Speaker 1: anything else you add that you wanted to get it
Speaker 1: on tonight before recalled it, really coockly just shout out
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves, Wayne Ellington, you know, for I think it's
Speaker 1: a nineteen oh run. Uh. You know it's crazy you
Speaker 1: want a nineteen o run and still can't. Uh, but
Speaker 1: you know he still can't win the game. But they
Speaker 1: cut into like eight just credits then Wayne Ellington stayed ready,
Speaker 1: played hard. Um. I've obviously been a proponent of Wayne Ellington.
Speaker 1: Hasn't worked out exactly, but you know, he let it
Speaker 1: come back. And I think Austin Reeves needs to play more.
Speaker 1: And I think you said twenty one miss tonight for
Speaker 1: aust And Reeves, Like that's just that's not enough to me,
Speaker 1: Like he needs to him read uh sorry, Austin Stanley Johnson.
Speaker 1: Those guys need more minutes and hopefully when we play
Speaker 1: these better teams they do. But I just want to
Speaker 1: give them a shout out, not you know, just laying
Speaker 1: the game away, making making Memphis put their starters back,
Speaker 1: Like that's a we don't really take. Um, you know
Speaker 1: what was that called? We don't really take those kind
Speaker 1: of wins. But that's something at least he forced Memphis
Speaker 1: to kind of put their starters back, don't quit on
Speaker 1: the game, and hopefully that leads to uh a win
Speaker 1: on who they don't even know where they played next honestly,
Speaker 1: but hopefully that at least today they plays Sacramento. I think,
Speaker 1: I believe. I think we played Sacramento and then Denver
Speaker 1: Wednesday this week. I'm not certain. On the road, I
Speaker 1: believe on a road trip now. But yeah, no, I'm
Speaker 1: with you. Like when it comes to the non Lebron
Speaker 1: Westbrook guys in this group, I mean, I go away
Speaker 1: from Westbrook too. If he's having these catastrophe nights, he
Speaker 1: just can't do it. But like the point is is
Speaker 1: he needs to, Like, we have options. We have a
Speaker 1: long enough list of options on the wing, with guys
Speaker 1: like Bays who are like bases a bona fide NBA
Speaker 1: players outside of our outside of our rotation right now,
Speaker 1: largely because he really struggled playing alongside DeAndre Jordan's, you know,
Speaker 1: But like we have Bays, who's an option. We have Reeves,
Speaker 1: we have Stanley Johnson. We have a reason we have
Speaker 1: these wings out there. It didn't have to be just
Speaker 1: incessantly leaning on Avery, Bradley in the league Monk, Like,
Speaker 1: if they don't have it like you, you probably stick
Speaker 1: with Monk because of what you need just in terms
Speaker 1: of him as an offensive threat um in terms of
Speaker 1: keeping the defense honest. But like you gotta Frank's gotta
Speaker 1: be more willing to be like, hey Avery doesn't have
Speaker 1: it tonight, let's go to Reeves. Or if Austin's having
Speaker 1: a rough night, Hey Austin doesn't have it tonight. This
Speaker 1: goes to a reason or vice versa, like it just
Speaker 1: needs to be like the minutes out, especially in a
Speaker 1: small ball concept where it's not really about positions. It's
Speaker 1: like five perimeter players basically, and in one guy who
Speaker 1: can run your pick and roll coverages at any given time,
Speaker 1: like on the back Lind. At that point, it needs
Speaker 1: to just be fair, game, interchangeable. Who has it tonight,
Speaker 1: Like Okay, Malik's got it tonight, you know, or Austin's
Speaker 1: got it tonight. These are the guys on riding with
Speaker 1: because that's that's how these kind of games go. Like
Speaker 1: the role players were just dead and energy tonight, and
Speaker 1: it's like, man, that that you gotta lean on your
Speaker 1: energy guys in a case like that. But anyway, that's
Speaker 1: that's all we have for tonight. Guys. We're going to uh,
Speaker 1: well before before, before you closefore you close out last,
Speaker 1: just to close this out because it's been kind of gloomy.
Speaker 1: Lebron says it's been a lot clear how we want
Speaker 1: to play basketball over the last few weeks and said
Speaker 1: despite the poor from poor performance tonight, he believes they've
Speaker 1: been playing good basketball. So just a little bit of
Speaker 1: a positivity there. We've they've been playing good basketball tonight.
Speaker 1: Doesn't ruin that. Just let's remember that for sure. And
Speaker 1: like the last thing really quick, like what is there
Speaker 1: are different types of teams in the league, right that
Speaker 1: if you're the kind of team that loses too bad teams,
Speaker 1: then you're probably a bad team, right But if you're
Speaker 1: the team that can beat the good teams, then you're
Speaker 1: probably not a good team. But if you're beating all
Speaker 1: the bad teams, which is what we're doing now, then
Speaker 1: you're not a bad team. So so like so like
Speaker 1: if they're like to start the season, the Lakers were bad,
Speaker 1: you know, and we've we've leveled up without Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: from being a bad basketball team to an extremely mediocre
Speaker 1: basketball team, which is something that we can take as
Speaker 1: a as a step forward in the right direction. But anyway,
Speaker 1: thank you guys so much for hanging out on a Sunday.
Speaker 1: I know that there's a lot going on, but I
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys hanging with us. This is going to
Speaker 1: air on DASH Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific
Speaker 1: Standard time, and will also be on our podcast feed
Speaker 1: here in about twenty minutes or so. Things as always
Speaker 1: for the support. We are back Wednesday, Raj. I am
Speaker 1: bringing all my stuff with me to the mountain and
Speaker 1: I'm I'm hoping to do a postgame show, but I
Speaker 1: cannot make any promises to you, my friend, but we
Speaker 1: will stay in touch as we get closer to game
Speaker 1: time that night, and I'll let you know how it goes. Okay,
Speaker 1: it sounds good. Alright, everybody, have a good night. I
Speaker 1: appreciate everyone. Thank you. M