Speaker 1: M all right, welcome to the State of the Lakers
Speaker 1: post game show on Dash Ready. I thank you guys
Speaker 1: so much for coming to hang out with us on
Speaker 1: a Sunday evening. Uh, and once again, the Lakers have
Speaker 1: given us way too much to talk about. You know.
Speaker 1: It's so funny. Someone tweeted at me underneath something I
Speaker 1: tweeted earlier and said, Remember, apparently at the end of
Speaker 1: last podcast, I said something along the lines of like, hey,
Speaker 1: come back on Sunday because it'll probably be uneventful and
Speaker 1: we'll have, you know, more time to take callers blah blah,
Speaker 1: blah blah, And he was rubbing it in my face
Speaker 1: because this ended up being arguably much more eventful than
Speaker 1: than the Friday night game. But anyway, ROJ, how are
Speaker 1: you doing. Man? How's your Sunday? Did you? Uh? I
Speaker 1: think you and I had a different idea of how
Speaker 1: to end of that game was gonna go, but a
Speaker 1: nice little, nice little positive ending. But I hope you
Speaker 1: had a good Sunday man. Yeah. I did these three
Speaker 1: o'clock games, or at least three o'clock. For me being
Speaker 1: in southern California, it means you can't really do anything
Speaker 1: for your other part of the day. Right, it's like
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the day. You can't plan
Speaker 1: anything before planning after it. Three hours just chunked right
Speaker 1: in the middle. This is a good, good game. Man.
Speaker 1: It was really sorrow and we were texting back and
Speaker 1: forth what to discussed. We're like, Frank Vogel, Lebron, James,
Speaker 1: just the nature of the team looking dejected, looking un
Speaker 1: uninterested for majority part of this game. And then that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter absolutely just turned around. I think it was
Speaker 1: like thirty seven fifteen or something like that they closed
Speaker 1: the quarter on where do you want to start with this?
Speaker 1: Because I I think we can start positive at least
Speaker 1: to start here. There's still a lot of problems with
Speaker 1: the teams. There's a lot of issues. Lebron, I guess
Speaker 1: might be ejected here for one game, But where where
Speaker 1: do you want to kind of start with this? So yeah,
Speaker 1: so like if I were to like make bullet points
Speaker 1: of the key stories of the game. It was funny
Speaker 1: because about their even in spore tip off, we found
Speaker 1: out that DeAndre Jordan was being reinserted into the starting
Speaker 1: lineup and that th h T was being moved to
Speaker 1: the bench, and there were two interesting things about that
Speaker 1: one reverting to them going big. And then also th
Speaker 1: Ht who you know, obviously had a bad game last game,
Speaker 1: but he certainly had a better case to be with
Speaker 1: the starters than Avery Bradley did. And so that was
Speaker 1: kind of like the interesting little wrinkle there now that
Speaker 1: seems like so far on the back burner tonight compared
Speaker 1: to the Lebron basically mailing in the game and then
Speaker 1: the Lebron ejection situation, which was its whole other interesting thing.
Speaker 1: And for the record, those two things I want to
Speaker 1: hit later on because quite frankly, it just it just
Speaker 1: doesn't deserve to be talked about first for a bunch
Speaker 1: of reasons. But then you have this, you know, clear
Speaker 1: and obvious stretch of the game that lasts that like
Speaker 1: basically three quarters where the where the Lakers just are
Speaker 1: giving absolute trash effort, operating in this funky zone and
Speaker 1: and and just getting absolutely beating everything. Everything got pumped
Speaker 1: in every physical matchup, ever, every everything. But then you
Speaker 1: have them wake up in the fourth quarter, largely driven
Speaker 1: by Russell Westbrook and then Anthony Davis at the end
Speaker 1: of the game, which I think is the perfect place
Speaker 1: to start because what you saw there was Russ and
Speaker 1: a d giving a ship, which is an expression, which
Speaker 1: is an expression I use a lot on the show
Speaker 1: because of the obviously like you can't judge scheme, you
Speaker 1: can't judge personnel, you can't judge lineups if guys aren't trying,
Speaker 1: and you couldn't tell me like, oh, this zone isn't
Speaker 1: gonna work when I when the guys are not even
Speaker 1: trying in the zone, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 1: it's hard to get a read on any of that
Speaker 1: stuff when the guys are mailing it in like that.
Speaker 1: And what you saw was two supreme talents, Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis go from coasting through a game aim
Speaker 1: to trying desperately to win, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the Detroit Pistons couldn't do anything to stop them. They
Speaker 1: couldn't stop him at the rim. They couldn't stop Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis on the offensive glass they could they literally they
Speaker 1: couldn't get to the rim and finish on Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: It was. It was masterful to see the two of
Speaker 1: them hit the gas, and so I guess that's where
Speaker 1: we could start. It's like, and I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's associated with Frank. I don't know if it's the
Speaker 1: Stars false themselves, but this team just looks better when
Speaker 1: it's best players play hard and when they try to
Speaker 1: when they try to win the game. And that's just
Speaker 1: with two of them, with one of them in the
Speaker 1: locker room. So I mean that that's kind of that
Speaker 1: that to me is the most interesting phenomenon that happened
Speaker 1: here tonight. Yeah, again, we don't have to go deep
Speaker 1: into the ejection or whatever happened with Lebron and Asia Steward,
Speaker 1: but I definitely think that was a turning point in
Speaker 1: the game. Like I totally saw Russ even if earlier
Speaker 1: early in the game it wasn't efficient if he wasn't
Speaker 1: scoring it, I when he saw his energy tick up,
Speaker 1: eighties energy tick up. And not to like move this
Speaker 1: into Frank Vogel, but like again, a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: Laker fans and everyone is calling for his job throughout
Speaker 1: the whole night tonight, honestly, and I know you felt
Speaker 1: you felt that way as well. To me, like firing
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel is very similar to like the take DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan out of the starting lineup, Like it solves some issues,
Speaker 1: but it opens up these these other problems on the
Speaker 1: team as well, where I'm just don't want to go
Speaker 1: there there, and look, his job is probably saved tonight.
Speaker 1: We'll see going forward. But a D and Russ turned
Speaker 1: into superstars in the fourth quarter of Who They Are.
Speaker 1: A D looked like the best defensive player in the world.
Speaker 1: And again, this is Detroit, one of the worst teams
Speaker 1: in the league. And all those caveats are fair. But
Speaker 1: we haven't been a good team either, like you've been saying, right,
Speaker 1: we've been a bad team for a very long time.
Speaker 1: Like all wins are important right now. And I thought
Speaker 1: they really turned it up. Russ's aggression to get to
Speaker 1: the rim. He got a charge on what he got
Speaker 1: a charge on one play, but I saw I was
Speaker 1: fine with that, like just him being aggressive, him attacking.
Speaker 1: I like th ht in that lineup, even if he
Speaker 1: had some questionable decisions. I just thought another guy that
Speaker 1: can kick out to the A D post stuffs were
Speaker 1: still there, but it was a lot better. They continue
Speaker 1: to double one pass away off us, but he cut.
Speaker 1: We saw Russ cutting like that was stuff, such a concept,
Speaker 1: but like we were that's what we were begging for right,
Speaker 1: Like Russ just cut to the rim and he did
Speaker 1: this night and he got like four layups off of that.
Speaker 1: And once they stopped doubling, a D was in single
Speaker 1: coverage with Jeremy Grant able to get to his spot,
Speaker 1: get to the basket, a little big gift out. It
Speaker 1: was just something that we need to see more, man,
Speaker 1: this type of effort. You talked about four we got
Speaker 1: punked in the earlier in the game by how many
Speaker 1: Diallo as well, and I think Russell Westbrook felt that
Speaker 1: as well. He's the one that he got dunked on
Speaker 1: and he saw him scream all loud, and I don't
Speaker 1: think it was an accident that was on Diallo a
Speaker 1: D with the big scream after blocking shots and after
Speaker 1: we sealed the game, like they could tell this game mattered, man,
Speaker 1: And they just need to see more of this. There's
Speaker 1: a good team in here somewhere, they just need to
Speaker 1: find it. To me, I think it wasn't a coincidence
Speaker 1: either that we started to go on a run with
Speaker 1: like we took out a lot of the bad defenders.
Speaker 1: I thought, you know what I mean, Monk stopped lane,
Speaker 1: Ellenton stopped playing the only guy out. There was Carmelo
Speaker 1: who was on fire again tonight and his spot up
Speaker 1: shooting was huge. Just a good fourth quarter win, and
Speaker 1: that we talked about after after they at Miami game,
Speaker 1: where that could have been a spark plug. But tonight
Speaker 1: they just looked so dejected early, and I thought, this,
Speaker 1: maybe this is the turning point. I'm not there to
Speaker 1: say that yet, but this is an important win. I
Speaker 1: thought it was really big that they got together and
Speaker 1: came together to get this one. Because even though I
Speaker 1: wasn't for the firing or like Frank Vogel, I honestly thought,
Speaker 1: if they lost this game, to me, if Lebron didn't
Speaker 1: get ejected tonight, they were lost by twenty. Like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, do you agree with that? Like that's that's
Speaker 1: how I saw this game kind of going. If Lebron
Speaker 1: didn't get out, if they didn't have any kind of
Speaker 1: spark to them, the game was going towards where Jeremy
Speaker 1: Grant was just getting whatever he wanted and we were
Speaker 1: gonna lose by twenty. But that fourth quarter, man he
Speaker 1: started switching. Jeremy Grant wasn't able to get to his
Speaker 1: spots easier. I thought again, THHD was big on both ends.
Speaker 1: I thought he bothered Grant enough. Uh, and he's gonna
Speaker 1: be a big part of this team. But yeah, that
Speaker 1: was a good fourth quarter. That was a good fourth
Speaker 1: quarter to kind of build off off if they can.
Speaker 1: So the reason why I don't think they would have
Speaker 1: I don't think Lebron was related to the outcome was
Speaker 1: things got a lot worse after the ejection. They got worse.
Speaker 1: And then basically what happened was in the start of
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, Mello made a couple of threes off
Speaker 1: of driving kicks rim pressure that Russ created, and then
Speaker 1: it cascaded into hey, why don't we try to win
Speaker 1: this game? You know what I mean? And so like
Speaker 1: that that that's more my interpretation. That's not that's not
Speaker 1: to say like Lebron, you know, Uh, Lebron deserved a
Speaker 1: lot of blame, as did everyone else on the roster
Speaker 1: for finding themselves in the predicament that they were in. However,
Speaker 1: I tend to think that that was more an example
Speaker 1: of holy coward, we're really going to lose to the
Speaker 1: Pistons tonight. Not ah, Okay, Lebron and Isaiah two had
Speaker 1: almost gotten a fist fight, So now let's start trying.
Speaker 1: I didn't think those two events were tied to each
Speaker 1: other at all, you know. Um and again, just to
Speaker 1: put a bow on the positive parts of it, that's
Speaker 1: kind of the the order of operations. Russ put his
Speaker 1: head down and got to the room to start the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. When he did, when he did, uh, Mello
Speaker 1: made a couple of threes and uh. Then at that
Speaker 1: point Anthony Davis engaged defensively, and then they rode that
Speaker 1: talent wave and that competitiveness wave to beat an inferior
Speaker 1: basketball team that severely lacked offensive creation at the end
Speaker 1: of the game and was leaning on Jeremy Grant and
Speaker 1: and Kate Cunningham to create everything. So I think, in
Speaker 1: a weird way, as much as I'm happy about the
Speaker 1: win and as much as it is an indicator of
Speaker 1: their competitive spirit, I'm not sitting here and saying like, Okay,
Speaker 1: everything's good. Now we came back and beat the Pistons
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. No, those problems still exists. So
Speaker 1: moving to the Frank piece, because like I texted Roger
Speaker 1: to be in the middle of the game and I said,
Speaker 1: frantastic go and and I joked with him that if
Speaker 1: they won, it would be bad because because it would
Speaker 1: just delay that inevitable outcome. And I told him I
Speaker 1: was joking, but there's some truth to that concept, because
Speaker 1: the reality the situation is is Frank going back to
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan represents everything that's wrong with this situation. Frank
Speaker 1: has justified that by saying we need defense and we
Speaker 1: need rebounding. But as we know, throughout this whole season
Speaker 1: with DeAndrea on the floor, they've been killed on defense
Speaker 1: and they've been killed on the glass. So that was
Speaker 1: never a solution based in reality. That was a that
Speaker 1: was a fantasy that existed in Frank's head. And then
Speaker 1: in addition to that, the heavily leaning on a zone,
Speaker 1: which you and I talked about a lot in the
Speaker 1: last pot. You can use a zone two throw a
Speaker 1: team off out of rhythm by just mixing up looks.
Speaker 1: The Dallas Mavericks did a fantastic job of this in
Speaker 1: the two thousand and eleven finals, as we all know.
Speaker 1: But you can't just run a zone NonStop, especially against
Speaker 1: good teams, because they'll just figure it out. And there
Speaker 1: were stretches, especially in the in the third quarter tonight,
Speaker 1: where Kay Cunningham just completely solved our zone, kicking out
Speaker 1: the shooters and making us pay. The point being like,
Speaker 1: there were just some strategies from Frank tonight that that
Speaker 1: we're glaringly. You know, they just struck me as a
Speaker 1: person who was like, things are getting bad. I'm going
Speaker 1: to revert to everything that makes me feel comfortable as
Speaker 1: opposed to trying to adapt and solve this situation, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And then and then when you
Speaker 1: couple in the effort and focus stuff, which we talked
Speaker 1: a lot about, like you can't blame everything on effort,
Speaker 1: but dude, like efforts a real problem here, Like, it's
Speaker 1: actually a real problem here. This is not like, Okay,
Speaker 1: if they run the right sets and we put another
Speaker 1: big forward out there, everything is going to be fixed. No,
Speaker 1: guys aren't doing their jobs either. That's the real problem.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis early in the game was getting destroyed on
Speaker 1: box outs by Isaiah Stewart. Lebron James was getting caught
Speaker 1: ball watching get backcut all the time, making no attempt
Speaker 1: to help around the basket. Mellow in particular, after having
Speaker 1: a pretty good stretch of defense there a few games ago,
Speaker 1: has really tailed off in recent games as a defensive player.
Speaker 1: The guys aren't bought in, and so this is where
Speaker 1: I come back to the Frank problem. I don't like
Speaker 1: the idea of firing Frank either. Everything you say makes
Speaker 1: perfect sense. Firing a coach in the middle of the
Speaker 1: season is asking for chaos, you know, having having a uh,
Speaker 1: tricking yourself into thinking that David Fizdale or some other
Speaker 1: random guy is going to fix all your problems. You're right,
Speaker 1: that's that that that's that's that's completely irrational thinking. However,
Speaker 1: if anybody gets into the chair and the guys buy
Speaker 1: back in, meaning they actually commit to doing the job
Speaker 1: that is asked of them by the coaching staff, it's
Speaker 1: better than what we have with Frank. That's just the
Speaker 1: reality of this situation. It doesn't matter. I have you
Speaker 1: and I again for everybody who's just joining us in
Speaker 1: the last few weeks, Roger and I have been doing this.
Speaker 1: This is our hundred and first episode. We've been doing
Speaker 1: this for a long time. We are the biggest Frank
Speaker 1: supporters you'll find out there. I think he's by far
Speaker 1: the best coach for this team. If they actually were
Speaker 1: bought in to what they want him to do or
Speaker 1: what he wants them to do. But the buy in
Speaker 1: is gone, and I'm not sure why that's a whole
Speaker 1: other topic, but the buying is gone. These guys don't
Speaker 1: listen to Frank anymore for whatever reason, and so as
Speaker 1: a result, it's untenable. That's just my opinion. It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter if David Fizdel is a lesser coach. If he
Speaker 1: gets in there and then when he says, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I need you to freaking box out and they actually
Speaker 1: do it, then he's better than Frank for this job
Speaker 1: simply because of the buying. And it's unfair, but that's
Speaker 1: just the reality of the situation. You know, there's everyone
Speaker 1: points of the two thousand sixteen situation with David Blatt
Speaker 1: and Tyler. Is Tyler a better coach than David Blatt?
Speaker 1: Probably Yeah, as a matter of fact, yes, he absolutely is.
Speaker 1: But a good a good percentage of that turnaround that
Speaker 1: season was associated with changing the voice. When David talked,
Speaker 1: they looked at him as an arrogant dude from the EuroLeague,
Speaker 1: who thought he was who thought he was a lot
Speaker 1: better than he actually was, who thought he was more
Speaker 1: accomplished than he actually was, and all the NBA pros
Speaker 1: Net locker room didn't listen to him, But when Tyler
Speaker 1: got in the chair, they all bought back in and
Speaker 1: they all started carrying again and it turned around their season.
Speaker 1: And that that's kind of the way that I look
Speaker 1: at this. The chaos, to me, is part of the
Speaker 1: process to leading towards making that change, to get the
Speaker 1: group to buy back in. And I know that scares
Speaker 1: the heck out of people, but that's just kind of
Speaker 1: where my brain is at right now. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: had a whole bunch of notes ready for like the
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel is probably fired and this is why it
Speaker 1: probably should have happen, and we can kind of save
Speaker 1: the is going forward. And I touched on earlier, like
Speaker 1: to me, it's the same issue that we're just trying
Speaker 1: to like plug plug one button in and solve everything.
Speaker 1: And again, like Frank Vogel hasn't been great some of
Speaker 1: the rotations, but like what we were playing was not
Speaker 1: his team, you know what I mean, Like tonight the
Speaker 1: two big stuff, like DeAndre Jordan is not the best
Speaker 1: guy for it. He's fitting an archetype that Frank Vogel
Speaker 1: wants to play. But Frank Vogel was never a coach
Speaker 1: that wanted to play guards that can't defend at the
Speaker 1: point of at tech, that can't do any kind of
Speaker 1: that can't help on the boards, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And again, like putting effort into a scheme, it's really
Speaker 1: tough to judge that. But when your stars aren't bought in,
Speaker 1: like that's a to me, that's a star issue, right, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you can bring someone else in, maybe they'll buy in
Speaker 1: for a little bit, But to me, that doesn't solve
Speaker 1: your problem. Like tonight we saw Russ and a D
Speaker 1: bought in. Is a makes this a really good basketball team?
Speaker 1: Like we kicked the Pistons as in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: it was thirty seven to fifteen, Like this game that
Speaker 1: we were blowing out all game, Russ and a D
Speaker 1: just bought in like that, Like that's a huge turning
Speaker 1: point to me, And it just shows that that's in there,
Speaker 1: that's in them. Like Malik Monk is not going to
Speaker 1: be able to defend, Like it's just that's who he
Speaker 1: is as a player. He's this park plug offensive guy.
Speaker 1: I think that's been pretty clear. Carmelo Anthony, what you
Speaker 1: get out of him defensively, to me is a bonus
Speaker 1: just with his shooting that's coming. But like the boden
Speaker 1: has to come from RUSS, A D and Lebron And
Speaker 1: again we can you can't fire them. You're you're a
Speaker 1: thousand percent right. It is not Frank's fault. It is
Speaker 1: lebron a Navy's fault. But you can't fire lebron a Navy.
Speaker 1: It's unfair, but it's a reality. Sure. But I like,
Speaker 1: just my opinion, I don't think firing Frank all of
Speaker 1: a sudden gets that Like to me, that's an inner
Speaker 1: problem within them that they have to get to. Like
Speaker 1: to me, that's not a fire. The coach's like the
Speaker 1: Sacramento King just fired Lukewald right, seventeen games in, just
Speaker 1: fired their coach. To me, their season is done. Alvin
Speaker 1: gentr is probably a good coach. Alvin Gentry is gonna
Speaker 1: come in. It's just gonna try to instill whatever new
Speaker 1: philosophy he has. But that season is kind of done
Speaker 1: for them. They're onto the next one. They're gonna try.
Speaker 1: They have little things in the contract. While Avan Gentry
Speaker 1: can become their you know, future coach for a longer time,
Speaker 1: but they're probably going to a deeper coaching search in
Speaker 1: there to me, firing Frank Vogo mid season just that's
Speaker 1: not the solution for this team. This team has Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook fit issues. This team has we have guards who
Speaker 1: can't defend, who we need to space the floor? Issues?
Speaker 1: We have who is our two centers that can play,
Speaker 1: that can protect the rim and rebound enough? Like those
Speaker 1: are not firing your coach issues to me, And like
Speaker 1: Frank Vogo has a ton of problems himself, he has
Speaker 1: line of issues. Tonight, I thought it was a step
Speaker 1: forward though, no Rondo tonight, Like we got what we wanted.
Speaker 1: We got the th ht Russ stagger tssue Russ and Lebron.
Speaker 1: We got Rondo a little bit. Once Lebron went out.
Speaker 1: I tweeted that. I tweeted that when Lebron goes out,
Speaker 1: it's a license for Frank to play Rondo. It's just
Speaker 1: like that he gets, he gets like a card and
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, Lebron's gone, O, let me play in
Speaker 1: my Rondo card, Like I can play Rondo now. Great.
Speaker 1: But like but again, like we got we got those
Speaker 1: staggered and I'm seeing process that's going forward here. But
Speaker 1: like to me, Fryan Frank Vogo is the same thing
Speaker 1: I've been talking about with the DeAndre Jordan's stuff. Everyone
Speaker 1: came at us and like, hey, just you know, stop
Speaker 1: playing Jandre Jordan's and we'll be fine. Play a d
Speaker 1: at the Five, And that solved some issues. That solved
Speaker 1: the rust not playing a phone booth playing in a
Speaker 1: phone booth issues, but opened up these other problems that
Speaker 1: like now the eighties the five now the help man,
Speaker 1: the low Man's monk to help Man's Carmelo Anthony to
Speaker 1: help Man's, the guy who's tagging the rollers, Wayne Ellington, like,
Speaker 1: those are other issues that comes up. And maybe it's
Speaker 1: not fair that Lebron has to be bought in from
Speaker 1: you know, tip off to end of tip off defensively,
Speaker 1: but that's what this roster has built, has been built
Speaker 1: upon at least until Trevor Reason comes back, list until
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves shockingly comes back like we need his defense, uh,
Speaker 1: and he needs to be bought in. And then hopefully,
Speaker 1: I'm hopeful and maybe again I'm a optimist. I'm a
Speaker 1: hopeful optimist in the wrong way, but I'm hopeful this
Speaker 1: can kind of build towards that. But like firing Frank
Speaker 1: to me, is like pushing a button and hoping it
Speaker 1: solves everything. And there's all these other unintended consequences that
Speaker 1: probably come from that. And I'm a big believer in
Speaker 1: a team needs a training camp, but team needs, you know,
Speaker 1: to have voices that they've been they've been with they
Speaker 1: went to war and won a title of the thirteen
Speaker 1: months ago. Like, if Frank Vogel's voice is lost, imagine
Speaker 1: a guy that they haven't been to war with. Imagine
Speaker 1: a guy that they don't know if his stuff works.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? You know what I mean
Speaker 1: by that, Jason, like that, You're right, You're a thousand
Speaker 1: percent right. I do not again, I do not think
Speaker 1: Frank is anything but a scapegoat in this situation. But like,
Speaker 1: but I'll give you an example. You know who the
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen has at the trade deadline. So you know,
Speaker 1: Jay Crowder is pretty good. I would say he's a
Speaker 1: better player than Rodney Hood. Okay, you know they made
Speaker 1: the trade for Larry Nance, but he didn't really play
Speaker 1: much in the playoff run. They really primarily went with
Speaker 1: Tristan Thompson to turn things around in that playoff run.
Speaker 1: You know, Mainly the trade was about ditching Isaiah Thomas,
Speaker 1: who was a bad attitude and just getting some new
Speaker 1: faces in the locker room because it just helped to
Speaker 1: have some new faces because for whatever is in that
Speaker 1: particular concoction of basketball players wasn't working. And again, it's
Speaker 1: not Jay Crowder's fault that they sucks to start that season.
Speaker 1: It wasn't Dwyane Wade's fault that they suck to start
Speaker 1: that season. That wasn't it at all. It was one
Speaker 1: thousand percent about a scenery change. And it's completely just
Speaker 1: like it's a it's almost like a placebo effect, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, there's something about it for whatever
Speaker 1: reason with basketball that sometimes it's just guys tune a
Speaker 1: guy out that they used to listen to and you
Speaker 1: just need to change. And I don't think it's fair
Speaker 1: again to you to your point, it's not fair. It's
Speaker 1: a thousand percent not fair. This is Lebron and a
Speaker 1: d not buying in the way they did in it
Speaker 1: trickling down the roster. Couple that with personnel problems and
Speaker 1: like shortages at the forward position and guys having less
Speaker 1: of a natural defensive identity, and you get this disaster.
Speaker 1: To me, those are all all the things that are
Speaker 1: actually happening. But you can't get rid of Lebron in ade,
Speaker 1: nor should you want to. You just need them to
Speaker 1: wake up. What was the famous thing that Kobe Altman
Speaker 1: said after that trade deadline? Do you remember roj H
Speaker 1: I don't know. So he was interviewed, he was interviewed
Speaker 1: during a game at halftime, or it was actually during
Speaker 1: the broadcast and they were interviewing Kobe Altman, and Kobe
Speaker 1: Altman literally said this and I'm not exaggerating, he goes,
Speaker 1: I'm not making this up. He goes, He goes, the
Speaker 1: most important thing that we got in this trade is
Speaker 1: we got Lebron to re engage. That's what he's said.
Speaker 1: And that's literally a thing. And we're gonna talk more
Speaker 1: about this in a minute when we get to Lebron.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is Lebron is not engaged right
Speaker 1: now for whatever reason. And that's a whole other topic
Speaker 1: that we'll get to, but Lebron is not engaged right now.
Speaker 1: That is trickled down to Anthony Davis having his least
Speaker 1: engaged season as a Laker. Will probably not as bad
Speaker 1: as last year, but still pretty bad. And so now
Speaker 1: you're stuck in this like limbo where the two guys
Speaker 1: that are most capable of fixing this situation, Shian, are
Speaker 1: not intent on fixing it. So until that changes, nothing
Speaker 1: can really change and nothing can really start heading in
Speaker 1: the right direction. And so it's just kind of the
Speaker 1: harsh reality of the situation when your stars aren't bought in.
Speaker 1: But you're right, it's not Frank's fault. And for for
Speaker 1: the record, let's say tomorrow, you know, Rob Polinka comes
Speaker 1: out with like some sort of message where he says,
Speaker 1: we're not firing Frank. Frank's here for the long run.
Speaker 1: We want thousand percent supported. At that point, something else
Speaker 1: has to be done. And so I actually got into
Speaker 1: a discussion with Christian Rivas, who's another guy who covers
Speaker 1: the Lakers today, and the idea there is something that
Speaker 1: you and I talked about in our last pot. If
Speaker 1: you don't have a team identity that is focused on
Speaker 1: effort and focus on defense and all those things that
Speaker 1: the controllables that we talk about, then you need to
Speaker 1: start playing players that have that as an individual identity. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, if I can't count on the group to
Speaker 1: commit on the defense the end of the floor. Then
Speaker 1: I need to play players who will do it on
Speaker 1: their own volition, like Austin Reaves, who, by the way,
Speaker 1: is obviously hurt, but we'll be coming back soon. Frank
Speaker 1: said this morning that he's if it were up to him,
Speaker 1: he'd be playing, and so the medical stats just being
Speaker 1: safe with him. If that is bringing Stanley Johnson in
Speaker 1: on a somehow through waving another waving one of the
Speaker 1: other vets or whatever it is, if that means playing
Speaker 1: more John Dy Brown, that means more Dwight Howard, who,
Speaker 1: by the way, is a player who has a defensive
Speaker 1: identity as an individual, like playing big, even though I
Speaker 1: don't like that idea, if Dwight is one of the
Speaker 1: five on the floor and he's actually trying on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor, that it carries a certain
Speaker 1: amount of value. That's our beef, you and I are
Speaker 1: beef has always been with DJ, not with playing big.
Speaker 1: It's been with DJ. That's the problem. And so that
Speaker 1: would be the fix for Frank is like start to
Speaker 1: give some attempts to play the players who have an
Speaker 1: individual defensive identity, which do exist on this roster. They're
Speaker 1: absolutely here. So to me, that would be if Frank
Speaker 1: stays that's the way it has to go. But I
Speaker 1: tend to think that that ship is sailed and Frank
Speaker 1: needs to go to get that change of scenery that
Speaker 1: gets the stars to buy in. Even if that sounds
Speaker 1: completely irrational, it's just it's something that has happened many
Speaker 1: times in the history of the league. So it's funny.
Speaker 1: When we got the notification that Frank was going with
Speaker 1: the two big lineups, everyone started to freak out right,
Speaker 1: it was like, oh man, what's going on? But I
Speaker 1: think that was and I kind of respected. I think
Speaker 1: that's just Frank going down like on his in his
Speaker 1: own way, right, like I'm going down with this ship
Speaker 1: my way. And he started again Avery Bradley DeAndre Jordan's
Speaker 1: and that's this team needs a defensive identity. And I know,
Speaker 1: like I disagree with like the way it's gone gone about,
Speaker 1: Like I think we need to lean into the offense,
Speaker 1: but that's not the coach Frank is. Like, Frank is
Speaker 1: defensive minded coach, and to me, a GM, a coach
Speaker 1: and a star player should be moving in unison. And
Speaker 1: I feel like this roster was built somehow, some way,
Speaker 1: like in spite of freak somehow, like in a in
Speaker 1: a way it's built in a totally opposite way that
Speaker 1: he would like to play guards that can't defend. But tonight,
Speaker 1: like I put in my notes here, like we need
Speaker 1: a new rotation, you know what I mean, Like that's
Speaker 1: the way you fix this. To me, like blaming a
Speaker 1: d and russ Is and Lebron's lack of engagement on
Speaker 1: the them not buying into their coach, Like that's a
Speaker 1: bridge you have to jump to to me, and like
Speaker 1: to me, I can't get there, Like like losing the
Speaker 1: okay see is not a I'm not losing okay see
Speaker 1: earlier in the year. It is not a I'm not
Speaker 1: bought into frame right, Like like that's that has to
Speaker 1: be something within them. That's a lack of urgency within them,
Speaker 1: that's a lack of wanting to And then again, playing
Speaker 1: guards who don't do this anyway, like Malik Munk, Wayne Elton,
Speaker 1: our guards who fight and go box out, Like that's
Speaker 1: not stuff to me that gets fixed by changing the personnel,
Speaker 1: Like that's where I want to go with this, Like
Speaker 1: to me, we need a new rotation and that's where
Speaker 1: like the hope comes in for me and this team
Speaker 1: playing Austin Reeves, Kendrick Gun will see when he comes back,
Speaker 1: Trevor Reza that needs to replace kind of the Malik Monk,
Speaker 1: the other bad defenders that we play, and then you
Speaker 1: can start to build that because Frank's not gonna to me,
Speaker 1: he's not going to go back to a D at
Speaker 1: the five for a little while. Now, this is starting
Speaker 1: lineup we're gonna get. I think Avery Bradley is gonna
Speaker 1: stay in the starting lineup. And to me, this lineup
Speaker 1: fits more with Avery what Aby Bradley does. I thought
Speaker 1: he was a little bit more impactful tonight, Like he's
Speaker 1: not the switching guy but and his shot wasn't really
Speaker 1: falling either. But he's a guy that but he's not
Speaker 1: been the problem, right And I like, to me, this
Speaker 1: is the starting lineup that fits him. It doesn't fit Rus,
Speaker 1: but it fits Avery Bradley, Like this is his type
Speaker 1: of lineup. The fight over funnel you to one of
Speaker 1: the bigs. One of the bigs are going to be
Speaker 1: in the paint. I'll funnel you there and I can
Speaker 1: do my job doing that. That's that's an expectation thing, right,
Speaker 1: Frank Bogel knows what he's going to get out of
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley. That's why to me he starts him base
Speaker 1: more and Milak Monk. You don't know what you can get.
Speaker 1: And I tonight even Bradley might not be able to
Speaker 1: shoot as well as them every night from night tonight
Speaker 1: in terms of like a ceiling to floor level, but
Speaker 1: you know he plays at the level that you can
Speaker 1: predict um. And again, like with the zone stuff, like
Speaker 1: Jeff van Gundy when but when he used to when
Speaker 1: he used to at least analyze basketball. Now it's kind
Speaker 1: of like a Now it's kind of like a three
Speaker 1: hour podcast exactly. But Jeff Van Gundy a long time ago,
Speaker 1: he said it's harder to get players to buy into
Speaker 1: a zone, right, like it just naturally as a coach,
Speaker 1: and he was a coach for a while. And this
Speaker 1: is not newt to Frank Vogo as well, which is
Speaker 1: this is the reason why I don't like the zone.
Speaker 1: Looks like it works for a couple of possessions, but
Speaker 1: you just don't get players to buy into it. And
Speaker 1: that's that's something that Frank has talked about. But there's
Speaker 1: a defensive identity you can build here, I thought someone
Speaker 1: that's something someone brought up is a good point. Like,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna go with the two bigs, try Dwight
Speaker 1: Howard at least start him. I know we like him
Speaker 1: off the bench. There's still things to do. To me
Speaker 1: where like once you press the fire, Frank Vogel plug like,
Speaker 1: you better be damned right at the next guy that
Speaker 1: comes in, because we know Frank Vogel is a good
Speaker 1: coach in whatever situation. It is. The new guy that
Speaker 1: comes in, whoever it is, whether it's on the bench
Speaker 1: right now, whether it's an outside higher whoever comes in.
Speaker 1: Like to me, that doesn't solid issues we have. I
Speaker 1: keep relating it back to the just start eight at
Speaker 1: the five. That solve some problems. But then you open
Speaker 1: up all these other unintended consequences with that, and I'm
Speaker 1: not ready to go there. Yeah, I know a lot
Speaker 1: of I know all of la your nation pretty much is,
Speaker 1: but I'm I'm just not there at that point. You're
Speaker 1: you're the hold out, and it's good. We need all that.
Speaker 1: We need someone to talk us off the ledge. We
Speaker 1: need we need someone that is a little bit less reactionary.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you know how it is man
Speaker 1: like I've been kind of trending in this direction a
Speaker 1: little by a little with each passing with each passing game.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's just weird. I mean, it's like
Speaker 1: you have to watch, you have to compare yourself to
Speaker 1: the best, right, I mean, because the Lakers goal is
Speaker 1: not to beat the Pistons. The Lakers goal is to
Speaker 1: win the championship, right, And you know, it's like it's
Speaker 1: like I'm sick of going on the ESPN app and
Speaker 1: look and looking at the scores and being like, oh,
Speaker 1: Phoenix is beating the living ship out of Denver right
Speaker 1: now in the first quarter because they care and because
Speaker 1: they are actually committed to to to building that championship
Speaker 1: momentum and crossing those championship check marks, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, like checking all those boxes. And I'm sick
Speaker 1: of it. I'm sick. I'm sick of watching them just
Speaker 1: get out classed every single time they play. And and
Speaker 1: to and to me, you gott it's about the controllables,
Speaker 1: you know, And and and to me that ties to Frank,
Speaker 1: but I mean it is what it is. We we
Speaker 1: you know, I mentioned a couple of weeks back, we
Speaker 1: said there's probably a group chat that exists that has
Speaker 1: Lebron and Russ and Anthony Davis, and it maybe Rob's
Speaker 1: in there too, I don't know. But with this group chat,
Speaker 1: there's a sentiment that's being exchanged among the group, and
Speaker 1: that sentiment is either like, come on, guys, let's get
Speaker 1: our ship together, or it's I need Frank addat here,
Speaker 1: and then Rust being like, yeah, me too. I I
Speaker 1: don't know what it is, and I guess, like we say,
Speaker 1: we'll find out through some kind of of of WOJ bomb.
Speaker 1: But thought it was really interesting that you pointed out
Speaker 1: that he's going down his way, because that's what I
Speaker 1: ended up tweeting out when I saw in the starting
Speaker 1: lineup that's the last two nights ago, Frank said after
Speaker 1: they got killed by Boston, He's like, if you want
Speaker 1: to have a significant role in this rotation, you have
Speaker 1: to commit to plaint defense. He said that, which was
Speaker 1: very very abrasive ish, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: it was kind of like it was, it was kind
Speaker 1: of very off the cuff compared to the way Frank
Speaker 1: usually talks. And then a couple that with the starting
Speaker 1: lineup decision tonight, you can tell He's to that point,
Speaker 1: like I think Frank is sick of these guys. Like honestly, Like,
Speaker 1: can you imagine being Frank watching the film from these
Speaker 1: games compared compared to what he saw when he was
Speaker 1: coaching them the previous two seasons, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 1: it's got to just be he's got to just be
Speaker 1: pulling his hair out, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 1: it is what it is. We can move on from
Speaker 1: the Frank thing. I mean, look, look, I want to
Speaker 1: talk about Lebron for a minute, because this is something
Speaker 1: that I've been warning you know, I've been warning you
Speaker 1: guys about for a long time, and I just never
Speaker 1: thought it would apply to this team. But I used
Speaker 1: to always tell you, like, hey, like I think I
Speaker 1: said in the offseason, I was like, I could not
Speaker 1: imagine a better leader for this team. Why Because they
Speaker 1: have legitimate championship aspirations and a legitimate chance to win
Speaker 1: an NBA title. That's the best leader you want for
Speaker 1: that type of group. Right, Well, things have been so
Speaker 1: off the rails that it's brought into the equation this
Speaker 1: other element of the Lebron James experience that I frequently
Speaker 1: talked about, which is the chaos, the fact that he
Speaker 1: when things go south, has a tendency to power and
Speaker 1: to be passive aggressive, and to entirely check out of
Speaker 1: basketball games mentally, and to try to send a message
Speaker 1: to the team or to the front office or to
Speaker 1: the public through very, very melodrama attic means, as opposed
Speaker 1: to handling that kind of thing behind closed doors. He's
Speaker 1: not gonna go up to Kevin Love in his locker
Speaker 1: room and be like, dude, I need you to stop
Speaker 1: being so like like you know, alone to yourself, and
Speaker 1: I need you to start being a part of this
Speaker 1: team and try to find a way to win. No, no no, no,
Speaker 1: it's I'm gonna tweet it like like that's the Lebron experience.
Speaker 1: It's not. It's not. Hey, I'm gonna go to Rob
Speaker 1: and tell him we need to do this, this and this,
Speaker 1: and in the meantime, I'm gonna play really hard and
Speaker 1: try to maximize as much as this is. No, it's
Speaker 1: like I'm going to pout and not try until I
Speaker 1: get what I want. That's that's the way he is.
Speaker 1: It's the way he's been pretty much ever since Miami.
Speaker 1: And so I've warned you guys, I warn you Laker
Speaker 1: Nation that this is kind of part of that experience.
Speaker 1: But there's two sides to that coin. ROJ. You said
Speaker 1: the King's season is over. They fired Luke Walton, their
Speaker 1: season is over. Lebron, in my opinion, yes, and you're
Speaker 1: not wrong about that, although the one little detail I'd
Speaker 1: say is that the king season might have been over
Speaker 1: before it even started. But the one flip side of
Speaker 1: that coin with Lebron is that with the chaos, there
Speaker 1: is no better person to have in that chair in
Speaker 1: terms of coming out the other side. There will be
Speaker 1: a point when Lebron buys back in this year. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's tomorrow. I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: after the suspension. I don't know if it's after the
Speaker 1: trade deadline. I don't know if it's after Frank gets fired.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's after another five game losing
Speaker 1: streak and nothing changes. I'm not sure. But there will
Speaker 1: be a point where he dials it back up, and
Speaker 1: what he does this team will be just fine. Lebron
Speaker 1: is very very good at taking the ugly after it's
Speaker 1: past and just moving on. It doesn't linger it doesn't
Speaker 1: stay on the team like a tumor. He just one,
Speaker 1: he gets what he wants, he cuts it out, and
Speaker 1: he moves forward. And so all I would say is
Speaker 1: this is gonna get ugly, and I don't know what's
Speaker 1: going to change. Something's gonna change, though, and when we
Speaker 1: come out the other side, you're going to see the
Speaker 1: real Lebron James and it's all gonna be fine. I
Speaker 1: genuinely feel that. I don't think you and I ever
Speaker 1: during the season have lost faith in the ultimate goal
Speaker 1: with this team. We've just been frustrated with the process.
Speaker 1: So does what I'm saying makes sense to you at all? No,
Speaker 1: it definitely does. Uh, Definitely, that definitely makes sense. Like
Speaker 1: Lebron has shown, I wasn't following the calves as closely,
Speaker 1: but obviously I've read the stories all the people have
Speaker 1: come out with it, Bryanoyd Horizon because the guy who's
Speaker 1: detailed it, uh, gone in detail on that. But like
Speaker 1: to me, I can't again, like I just can't jump
Speaker 1: that bridge to like because we've seen Lebron not trying
Speaker 1: on defense before in a Laker uniform, right like that,
Speaker 1: that's definitely happened, like it happened last year in Points
Speaker 1: as well. I don't know if that's to blame on
Speaker 1: him just coming back from injury. And again I keep saying,
Speaker 1: like it's unfair to me to have year nineteen Lebron
Speaker 1: have to be the first defense type of player that
Speaker 1: we need him to be. Uh tonight, again, a lot
Speaker 1: of really lack of engagement, lack of interest in the
Speaker 1: ball game, and that kind of goes out to the
Speaker 1: whole team. But I really can't jump that gun to
Speaker 1: go like, yeah, Lebron is not trying and that's because
Speaker 1: he's out on Frank Fogol. Like again, I said this
Speaker 1: when they when the King's let go of Luke Wall
Speaker 1: and like, if you let go of a coach seventeen
Speaker 1: games in, you know he's not your guy going into
Speaker 1: the season, right, Like the King's knew. I don't know
Speaker 1: why they wasted everyone's time doing the seventeen game, you know,
Speaker 1: the seventeen game trot out this fake like, oh maybe
Speaker 1: he could have won. Now they knew they were letting
Speaker 1: him go at some point, whether it was now, where
Speaker 1: it was later, it was gonna happen. That's the same
Speaker 1: thing to me with the Frank Vogl stuff. And we
Speaker 1: joke about how much power Lebron has Lebron asked for
Speaker 1: all of this, like let's let's be on his here,
Speaker 1: like this team was built with you know, him and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis in mind. Carmelo directly came out and said
Speaker 1: he was rooted by Lebron James, not Rob Polinka. He
Speaker 1: was recruited by Lebron, James, Russell Westbrook, Russell Westbrook. The
Speaker 1: whole story about going to their house, and you know
Speaker 1: Rob wasn't there. Rob wasn't at that fancy dinner wherever
Speaker 1: it was. It was. It was Russ, Lebron and a
Speaker 1: D deciding hey, we're gonna do this. Lebron as for
Speaker 1: all this, and he also had Frank Vogel as his
Speaker 1: coach four months ago. He had his coach three months ago. Like,
Speaker 1: this is not something that to me changes mid season.
Speaker 1: If you want to fire your coach, that's an off
Speaker 1: season thing. And that's the thing that you know, if
Speaker 1: if Lebron and a D really were you know, against
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel, that could have happened last last off the season. Instead,
Speaker 1: Frank Bogo got an extension. Like to me, like the
Speaker 1: Lebron not trying on defense equaling to uh equaling to
Speaker 1: them out on Frank Vogel. Like those two, those two
Speaker 1: things to me just don't connect yet. Like I can't
Speaker 1: get there yet. But I see your point there. I
Speaker 1: know that if things do go bad, like stuff like
Speaker 1: this can happen. First year Lebron, right, like we lost
Speaker 1: a lot of games and then all the all the
Speaker 1: dudes were traded. Like that's sure, and Jackie mcmullens the
Speaker 1: one who got really mad at that. I don't care
Speaker 1: about that. Lebron can drink whatever he wants on the sideline.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, like that's where I just can't get
Speaker 1: to that they haven't bought into Frank Vogel. Now, look,
Speaker 1: maybe Frank vogel scheme doesn't match the team, Like that's
Speaker 1: a fair conversation to have, Like these guards can't defend
Speaker 1: that way. I think that's something that we've been saying
Speaker 1: for a while now that you like, we probably need
Speaker 1: to do a little bit more of this switching again,
Speaker 1: he's gone to some zone. But like the drop coverage
Speaker 1: with DeAndre Jordan as the big probably is not gonna work.
Speaker 1: And and that's okay. That stuff that can be worked out,
Speaker 1: that can be tinkered with, that that stuff that can
Speaker 1: be worked out, and again the lineup stuff is super frustrating.
Speaker 1: I would like to get I would like Frank Vogel
Speaker 1: to have the full team though, have the media day
Speaker 1: starting lineup that we were, you know, sold the Russ ellington.
Speaker 1: I think it was a reason Lebron and a d
Speaker 1: like I'd like to see that lineup once. I'd like
Speaker 1: it to give a chance before we pull the plug,
Speaker 1: because again, to me, find a coach is pulling the
Speaker 1: plug and then the next only next thing bigger than
Speaker 1: that is trading Russ, which I compared to you know,
Speaker 1: so Frank Vogel was pulling the fire alarm trading Russ
Speaker 1: as the house burned down. I don't want to even
Speaker 1: get close to either of those two yet. So that's
Speaker 1: that's why I'm at with that. I know we're trying
Speaker 1: to move on and go on to Lebron, but they're
Speaker 1: all intertwined if you're connected here. But again, his objection
Speaker 1: to me didn't matter. I know we got we gotta
Speaker 1: ask kick early, but I thought Russ really changed his energy.
Speaker 1: He wasn't. He wasn't playing effectively right after the objection,
Speaker 1: after the tussle with Stewart. But I thought that his
Speaker 1: you know, his his energy really reflected onto the rest
Speaker 1: of the team. Obviously Carmelo getting going was a part
Speaker 1: of it too, But I do think that was a
Speaker 1: spark tonight and hopefully that that builds on. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't get to the Lebron's not playing hard because
Speaker 1: of he's not bought into Frank Vogel or he doesn't
Speaker 1: like the roster when I feel like his hands are
Speaker 1: his hands are tempered with all of it, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like, I can't, I can't get there yet.
Speaker 1: I I'm not. First of all, I'm thankful that your
Speaker 1: perspective is what it is because I think it makes
Speaker 1: for a little bit more balanced with my more radical approach,
Speaker 1: so that that's a good thing. So we got about
Speaker 1: fifteen more minitary. I wanted to touch about the touch
Speaker 1: on the Lebron flagrant foul thing because this I thought
Speaker 1: was super interesting to me. So, um, a couple of things.
Speaker 1: First of all, guys get hit in the face in
Speaker 1: basketball games. That happens, okay a lot. Actually, um, it's
Speaker 1: a contact sport and it's part of the game. Now
Speaker 1: they are kind of like three varying levels to that
Speaker 1: there's I accidentally get you in the face entirely, like
Speaker 1: maybe I was literally driving to the basket and my
Speaker 1: hand was on the ball, but my elbow that had
Speaker 1: the shot attempt happened to clip you in the face. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's entirely inadvertent. Then there's like the Okay, I literally
Speaker 1: punched you in the face on purpose, you know, like
Speaker 1: a like a you know, Malice at the Palace type
Speaker 1: of deal. But then there's like this other thing that happens,
Speaker 1: and it happens all the time. It's so thing Dwight
Speaker 1: Howard of the Lakers does like two or three times
Speaker 1: every single game, and that's the We're jostling for position,
Speaker 1: fighting for a rebound, and I thought you were a
Speaker 1: little too handsy, so I try to elbow your arms
Speaker 1: off of me. It's like just kind of like a
Speaker 1: flailing chuck of the arm. Dwight doesn't, Like I said,
Speaker 1: literally two or three times every single game. I see
Speaker 1: it every single NBA game that I watch, at least once.
Speaker 1: But almost of the time it happens the elbow catches
Speaker 1: the dude in the bicep and knock the dude's arm off.
Speaker 1: Most of the time they run back on defense. Some
Speaker 1: of the time, they might get a little bit angry
Speaker 1: at each other, they might jaw at each other a
Speaker 1: little bit, they might get attacked, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: we all just move on. And what happened on that
Speaker 1: play was Lebron was pinching on a on the top
Speaker 1: side on a free throw rebound, and Isaiah Stewart, who
Speaker 1: all night long has been physically bullying the Lakers on
Speaker 1: the offensive glass, especially Anthony Davis, got tangled up with
Speaker 1: Lebron and tangled up with his own arm, and Lebron,
Speaker 1: as he was falling away from him, ripped his arm
Speaker 1: through in the same way that I just described happens
Speaker 1: every single NBA game, and on the play, his hand
Speaker 1: followed through the elbow and hit Isaiah Stewart in the
Speaker 1: face and it opened up his eyeball, and then everything
Speaker 1: you saw happened to me that was such like such
Speaker 1: a typical example of that kind of middle ground that
Speaker 1: I was talking about, something that is kind of a
Speaker 1: typical basketball play that accidentally went south. And it's hilarious
Speaker 1: because every time anything involving Lebron happens, it always turns
Speaker 1: into this. It always turns into here, comes the Lebron's
Speaker 1: a dirty player crowd, Here comes the you know, all
Speaker 1: the Lebron stands go on the entire other direction where
Speaker 1: it's like the dude could never do anything wrong ever.
Speaker 1: And what bothers me the most about it is like, like, literally,
Speaker 1: had Isaiah Stewart not freaked out the way that he did,
Speaker 1: I don't think it would nearly have been the story
Speaker 1: that it was. And I don't think Isaiah Stewart even
Speaker 1: freaked out until he realized he was bleeding. He got
Speaker 1: in Lebron's face and there was a little bit of jawing,
Speaker 1: and then he started seeing the blood come down his
Speaker 1: face and then he just went absolutely psycho. And what's
Speaker 1: so it's such a non story to me. And the
Speaker 1: far more interesting topic, which we already talked about, which
Speaker 1: was Lebron's effort during the game, and obviously the Laker
Speaker 1: come back and the stuff with Frank and the stuff
Speaker 1: with the zone has all been glossed over because at
Speaker 1: this stupid angle of this video where Lebron is just
Speaker 1: trying to get a dude off of him who's jockeying
Speaker 1: for rebound position, and it's just so funny to me
Speaker 1: because it's I'm curious to hear your opinion, Rose, because
Speaker 1: I thought, and maybe this is just me as a
Speaker 1: basketball player, you know, because like to me, it was
Speaker 1: such a normal kind of thing that can happen in
Speaker 1: the game that just so happened to go south. It
Speaker 1: almost looked to me like Lebron went right up to
Speaker 1: him after like whoops my back like Lebron. I looked
Speaker 1: to me like Ron was saying, hey man, I was
Speaker 1: just trying to get your arm off of me, and
Speaker 1: I did not mean to hit you in the face.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but that's the di vibe I got. So
Speaker 1: what was your two cents on that play? So I
Speaker 1: remember in the finals when again I'm not comparing the
Speaker 1: two actions here because I'm a lot more on your
Speaker 1: side on this, but I remember when Draymond Green got
Speaker 1: suspended right for doing his kicking thing, and he tried
Speaker 1: to sell that, uh you know, that wasn't his intent.
Speaker 1: But on a replay, you can't judge intent, right Like
Speaker 1: a ref can't go and look at intent. They can
Speaker 1: only look at the actual action that happened. So Lebron,
Speaker 1: the action that actually happened was he did hit his face.
Speaker 1: He got ejected. He got the flagrant too, might get
Speaker 1: one game suspension just with how it looked, I guess,
Speaker 1: with how bloody is. But I thought that's a play,
Speaker 1: a routine play as well. Like, Look, I do I
Speaker 1: think Isaiah Stewart obviously, I do. I think he thinks
Speaker 1: that was super intentional. Oh yeah, like I obviously think
Speaker 1: that's why he reacted the way he did. So I
Speaker 1: was bleeding. He thought it was intentional thought, you know,
Speaker 1: as he was thought that Lebron was really trying to
Speaker 1: hit him. I thought it was the same thing. They
Speaker 1: were tied up. I think it was Dwight Howard on
Speaker 1: the other end. Look, Isaiah Stewart was kicking our ass too,
Speaker 1: Like it was. His offensive rebounding was insane, like early on,
Speaker 1: just with our lack of lack of days a goal
Speaker 1: effort combined with him going hard for every play that
Speaker 1: mixed he really killed us on that. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: like I thought that was a normal basketball play. We
Speaker 1: see that all the time. Dudes get tangled up and
Speaker 1: one guy is like trying to get the other guy
Speaker 1: off him. And I think Lebron might have just pulled
Speaker 1: the elbow a little bit harder than he thought, and
Speaker 1: and it caught Isaiah Stewart in the face. That's all
Speaker 1: I thought it was. And again I saw the same
Speaker 1: thing you did. I thought Lebron went up to him
Speaker 1: right after it to say, like my bad, but he
Speaker 1: immediately saw the energy that that Isaiah had and obviously
Speaker 1: that wasn't uh. He didn't feel he didn't feel it was.
Speaker 1: It was an accident, but that's all I kind of
Speaker 1: saw it was. I think Lebron gets one game, honestly,
Speaker 1: like I really do. I think that's how they're gonna
Speaker 1: they're gonna judge this. I don't know what Stewart gets.
Speaker 1: You know, he really tried to run at run at Lebron,
Speaker 1: which was Yeah, I don't know if I can blame him.
Speaker 1: He really did think it was intentional, But that's all
Speaker 1: I thought it was, too. I didn't think it was
Speaker 1: a big, super big deal, which is why I told
Speaker 1: you as well that we didn't really need to discuss
Speaker 1: it that much. Just throw it onto the end of
Speaker 1: this one, because I don't want that to be the
Speaker 1: story of this game. Yeah. Yeah, Now do I think
Speaker 1: that sparked the Lakers. I honestly did think that sparked them.
Speaker 1: I think Lebron going out and not that like Lebron
Speaker 1: got ejected and we need the energy. It was more
Speaker 1: like Russ and a D being like, oh, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm the I'm the guy now, like I have to
Speaker 1: run this like Lebrons on the floor and anymore like
Speaker 1: it's my time. I got to run it. And maybe
Speaker 1: that's a separate issue. That's a we need to find
Speaker 1: a way to get Russ, Lebron in Ady to have
Speaker 1: that type of energy all game, even when all three
Speaker 1: are there. But that's what I thought happened. I didn't
Speaker 1: want this to be the story. You didn't either. I
Speaker 1: thought that was a play that it's a it's a
Speaker 1: player that happens, you know, routinely in basketball. Like you said, Dwight,
Speaker 1: how are you see it? A lot big man who
Speaker 1: tustled down low. We talked about how much contact they
Speaker 1: allow at the rim versus the perimeter. I think at
Speaker 1: the free throw line is the biggest space of that.
Speaker 1: Like on the free throw rebounds, you'll see all kinds
Speaker 1: of contact. Files just get the rest, just slaw all
Speaker 1: the whistles on that, and I think this was another
Speaker 1: part of that. But you know, Stuart, he was bleeding
Speaker 1: and he felt the type of way about it. But
Speaker 1: I didn't think Lebron was intentionally trying to elbow him
Speaker 1: in the faces as it looked as it can look
Speaker 1: on replay. When you slow things down, things can can
Speaker 1: sometimes look a lot worse than it would just play
Speaker 1: them in real time. That was my whole take on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting because, like I even think there's a big
Speaker 1: gap between like we're jocking for position and I deliberately
Speaker 1: elbow you in the ribs, like like trying to forcibly
Speaker 1: hit the elbow into somebody to me is so different
Speaker 1: than like ripping away, And to me, that's what that was.
Speaker 1: He was ripping away. Now he did it in a
Speaker 1: reckless way. He hit the dude in the face as
Speaker 1: a result, But like, I'm serious and this is gonna
Speaker 1: you know, obviously everyone knows I am a fan of Lebron,
Speaker 1: that's true, but I also try to call it like
Speaker 1: I see it with him, and like, to me, that
Speaker 1: was a flagrant one play on It just happened to
Speaker 1: be his knuckle must have just caught him in the
Speaker 1: wrong spot opened up his face. Then Isaiah Stewart proceeded
Speaker 1: to have one of the crazy that part where he
Speaker 1: ran through the tunnel of the announcers. We're talking about
Speaker 1: him potentially looping all the way around the hallway to
Speaker 1: reappear by the Lakers bench. That was crazy. I've never
Speaker 1: seen anything like that before. Like that was absolutely wild.
Speaker 1: But the point being is, like I I just it
Speaker 1: was a riff away again, Like, I can't tell you
Speaker 1: how many times I see that watching NBA basketball. That
Speaker 1: kind of thing happens. So there are so many like
Speaker 1: little things like that that happened in basketball all the time.
Speaker 1: It's no different than like there are a lot of
Speaker 1: guys that like when you're isolating in a triple threat
Speaker 1: and the dude sticks his arm out and like guards
Speaker 1: you from one from arm's length away. Sometimes the guy
Speaker 1: will slap down at the arm just to knock the
Speaker 1: arm away, you know, that kind of that kind of
Speaker 1: weird hand fighting and elbow fighting, you know, just with
Speaker 1: your limbs. That kind of thing happens all the time
Speaker 1: in basketball. I'd be willing to bet if I really tried,
Speaker 1: And no, I don't care enough to try, But if
Speaker 1: I really tried, I bet you I could find a
Speaker 1: half dozen examples this year of Isaiah tom or excuse me,
Speaker 1: Isaiah Stewart flailing his elbow at a guy while fighting
Speaker 1: for rebound position. I bet you I can find those clips.
Speaker 1: That's that's how common this play is to me, and
Speaker 1: just how straightforward it was. But but it is what
Speaker 1: it is. Like you said, it should never have been
Speaker 1: a big for those of you are who just tuned in.
Speaker 1: We're doing this at the end for a reason. This
Speaker 1: should not have been the story tonight. The story of
Speaker 1: this game was the Lakers mailing it in for three
Speaker 1: quarters again and the team looking like they had quit
Speaker 1: on Frank. And then suddenly in the fourth quarter, after
Speaker 1: a few Carmelo, Anthony Threes, Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: hit the gas in won a game on the road
Speaker 1: against the Pistons and pretty impressive fashion down at the
Speaker 1: down there at the end of the game. That's the
Speaker 1: story tonight. And then you could get into a story
Speaker 1: about Lebron's buy in and Frank Vogel and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: But this should not have been the story, and it's
Speaker 1: unfortunate that it was. Yeah, and it's going to be
Speaker 1: like this, It's gonna run on ESPN all that it's
Speaker 1: gonna be the number one story, but like we didn't,
Speaker 1: we didn't spend too much time on it, so I
Speaker 1: guess I don't know much how much time we have left.
Speaker 1: But again, yeah, I just wanted to give Thd again
Speaker 1: the shoutout. He was a plus thirteen to night, and
Speaker 1: again a lot of that was because he was in
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. But I think his defense is
Speaker 1: super important to this team. We didn't start him tonight
Speaker 1: and I kind of like that. I'm I'm fine with that,
Speaker 1: letting him kind of run his units. He's still really
Speaker 1: he's still really out of control going to the basket
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But his defense I thought was
Speaker 1: super important. Every Bradley plus eighteen and that wasn't directly
Speaker 1: just him, It's just I think he fits what the
Speaker 1: team wants to do when they go to these these
Speaker 1: lineups for Frank, and it's really consistent. What is what
Speaker 1: he's gonna do on the floor, And I think Frank
Speaker 1: really likes that. So I just want to give those
Speaker 1: two guys a shout out. And the Russell Westbrook ten
Speaker 1: and nine. We always talked about the numbers. We always
Speaker 1: talked about the production and how real the numbers kind
Speaker 1: of equate to winning. For his fourth quarter was just huge,
Speaker 1: and uh, I want to make that the story from tonight,
Speaker 1: like the ejection is what it is. But I thought
Speaker 1: those three really played played well. I thought Frank found
Speaker 1: the lineup that he could play. I like that. In
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter they went to Russ Bradley, Russ Bradley, Mellow,
Speaker 1: a D and I forgot who the other guy was
Speaker 1: on the floor there th HD, Sorry yeah, Russ Bradley,
Speaker 1: th HD, Mellow and a D. I thought that was
Speaker 1: the lineup that worked. It looked nice, something they can
Speaker 1: use in second units. They defended enough and then Russ
Speaker 1: a D going nuclear is something our second units can
Speaker 1: kind of build towards. So I always talk about process.
Speaker 1: Those are things I wanted to take take from this
Speaker 1: game before we close it up. Um So, everybody who requested,
Speaker 1: I know, I said that we were trying to get
Speaker 1: to some collars today, but this ended up just being
Speaker 1: way too eventful of a game. Um. I think they
Speaker 1: played the Pistons again soon, and then they also played
Speaker 1: two games against the Kings the King, so we're gonna
Speaker 1: have some games here soon that hopefully or less eventful.
Speaker 1: And then I promise we'll just like do like a
Speaker 1: little ten minute break down, and then we'll get into
Speaker 1: a bunch of callers because I am curious to hear
Speaker 1: where all your guys kids are at. But it is
Speaker 1: a Sunday night, and if I go over fifty five minutes,
Speaker 1: I get dirty looks from my wife, So it is
Speaker 1: time to call it. I appreciate you guys and your support. Um.
Speaker 1: This is gonna air on Dash Radio tomorrow morning at
Speaker 1: seven am. This will also be on our podcast feed
Speaker 1: here in about fifteen twenty minutes. We Roger and I
Speaker 1: continue to be blown away by your guys a support,
Speaker 1: and we appreciate it, and we hope you'll join us
Speaker 1: again for that back to back on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Appreciate everyone for coming out on a Sunday. Have a
Speaker 1: good night, Yeah,