Speaker 1: Mmmm. Welcome to the State of the Lakers show on
Speaker 1: DASH Radio. Today is Thursday, and we are coming to
Speaker 1: you after yet another Lakers preseason blowout. UM. So, of course,
Speaker 1: naturally there was a good amount of panic from people
Speaker 1: that were thinking that the Lakers were trying to win
Speaker 1: yesterday rather than just play some basketball. But that's the
Speaker 1: natural experience of being a fan, and Rog and I
Speaker 1: are here today to help sort that out. First of all, Rog,
Speaker 1: how you go, How you doing? How's your week going
Speaker 1: so far? Going great? Beautiful Thursday morning? Yeah? Trade everyone? Right?
Speaker 1: Is that the is that the vibe of of this Um,
Speaker 1: Lincoln made every mistake possible of this offseason, right, Let's
Speaker 1: just trade everyone. So that's a vibe at least. It's
Speaker 1: it's funny not watching a game live because everything just
Speaker 1: feels double, like on the timeline when you try to
Speaker 1: follow a game through tweets, Um, everything just feels double,
Speaker 1: you know, So it's it's crazy to rewatch it. But
Speaker 1: I'm good man, how are you on this morning? I'm
Speaker 1: doing well. I'm getting ready to go out of town
Speaker 1: tomorrow up to Press Scott, which is basically a place
Speaker 1: in northern Arizona where it's a little cooler, so it's
Speaker 1: a place where people go to escape the heats. I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to that. But yeah, dude, it's funny because
Speaker 1: I think it's just when you go back and look
Speaker 1: through tweets sometimes too, you can't, uh, you don't remember
Speaker 1: where in the game they were referencing. So sometimes, like
Speaker 1: it's just kind of funny to see the reactions. But
Speaker 1: you know, to me, I think you and I have
Speaker 1: harped on this like seventeen times in the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. But the point of the preseason is not
Speaker 1: to win basketball games. The point of the preseason is
Speaker 1: to get reps for specific guys, specific lineups, and things
Speaker 1: along those lines. Also, I do believe that some of
Speaker 1: this is just part of what the NBA makes these teams,
Speaker 1: do you know, Like I I bet you if it
Speaker 1: were up to Frank, knowing that he had no forwards
Speaker 1: available in the last week because of the Auresa injury
Speaker 1: and because of the fact that he didn't want Lebron
Speaker 1: to play, I I would imagine that, like, if it
Speaker 1: were up to him, he wouldn't even have played a game.
Speaker 1: He would have just had more practice reps for these guys.
Speaker 1: You know, so I wouldn't overthink it too much. Plus,
Speaker 1: you and I were clearly devastatingly wrong about DeAndre Jordan
Speaker 1: because of his ugly preseason performance yesterday. That we will
Speaker 1: discuss later. Anyway, today, we're going to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about last night's game, just kind of overarching what
Speaker 1: we thought. Then we're going to talk about the the
Speaker 1: Trevor Areasa injury, what it means, what we think the
Speaker 1: Lakers should do, how big of a deal it is, uh,
Speaker 1: And then we're gonna do a deep dive into a
Speaker 1: couple of the players that played in that game, specifically Carmelo,
Speaker 1: Anthony Taylor, Norton Tucker, and then uh, Malik Monk and
Speaker 1: a little bit of Anthony Davis is too. He deserves
Speaker 1: a shout out. We didn't talk much about him in
Speaker 1: the in the first game. Um, but you know too.
Speaker 1: Overarching about the preseason game yesterday, the first thing that
Speaker 1: stood out to me is something that you and I
Speaker 1: talked about in the Tuesday pod, which is when you
Speaker 1: you know the Lakers have some defensive liabilities at the
Speaker 1: guard position, that's to be you know that that's you
Speaker 1: can just jump to that conclusion. However, you know, they
Speaker 1: were never brought on board to all play together. That
Speaker 1: was never the point, you know, they they didn't bring
Speaker 1: on Ellington, Monk and and uh none to all play simultaneously.
Speaker 1: Yet by virtue of what's happened in the preseason, because
Speaker 1: Lebron isn't playing, because Russell Westbrook isn't playing, they've had
Speaker 1: to play them all. And so what you're seeing is,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say, not a real basketball team,
Speaker 1: just not what the Lakers are are intending to to
Speaker 1: put on the court this year, okay. And so from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, you know, it's it's kind of naturally gonna
Speaker 1: lead to some ugly I saar basketball. Okay, So you
Speaker 1: need to pay attention to what they do individually and
Speaker 1: not what the team accomplishes in those in its As
Speaker 1: things progress, a lot of these minutes are going to
Speaker 1: be taken up by Russ, A lot of these minutes
Speaker 1: are gonna be taken up by Lebron. Whoever they get
Speaker 1: to replace Ariza is gonna take a lot of these minutes.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't worry about it too much. And just in general,
Speaker 1: we talked about the you know, the the aggregate of
Speaker 1: athleticism on the floor. When you have this many small guys,
Speaker 1: when you have this many guys who are thin at
Speaker 1: the point, like all over the perimeter, it kind of
Speaker 1: makes the Lakers look like they're just not that imposing.
Speaker 1: But they're never gonna play lineups like that, so I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be too concerned. What were your overarching thoughts about
Speaker 1: that game yesterday? So we always like to kind of
Speaker 1: look at ourselves first, right, But there was another basketball
Speaker 1: team on the floor yesterday, Like there was another team
Speaker 1: that played the played against US. Phoenix is a well
Speaker 1: oiled machine, like even without even without having Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: they know exactly what they want to run, right, and
Speaker 1: they brought back I think their team of their seventeen
Speaker 1: players from last year or something like that. Um, Chris
Speaker 1: Paul knows everyone's tendencies. They just and they played most
Speaker 1: of their guy yes yesterday. Right, their starting lineup was
Speaker 1: pretty much the starting lineup without obviously Devin Booker. So
Speaker 1: first I want to start there. They look good, they
Speaker 1: look like they know what they're doing. Aiden looked dominant
Speaker 1: as well, and I was expected right, and the Lakers
Speaker 1: started They're starting lineup. This is not really gonna play, right,
Speaker 1: they don't have their star creation on there. So that
Speaker 1: was my overarching theme. Like to me, like judging any
Speaker 1: of these players, and we'll talk about later the individual guys,
Speaker 1: but judging without the two guys who are going to
Speaker 1: have the ball for the most of the time, it's
Speaker 1: really tough for me to look at these games. So
Speaker 1: I look at more kind of kind of in a
Speaker 1: team kind of sense, right, And I thought a D
Speaker 1: looked good in that first quarter, Like when you rewatch
Speaker 1: a game later you can kind of take notes a
Speaker 1: little bit better. Game was closed in that first quarter,
Speaker 1: like when you had our when we had our starting
Speaker 1: lineup against against their starters, like, it was pretty good.
Speaker 1: I thought the defense was okay. It was in that
Speaker 1: second quarter where like THHD and kind of a D
Speaker 1: came out and then the flood just opened. McCall bridges
Speaker 1: got what's got whatever he want on like Ellington and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But yeah, that was my overarching theme.
Speaker 1: Phoenix looks like a team that knows where they are.
Speaker 1: They look like they're just continuing on from last year. Honestly,
Speaker 1: they had that, like we went to the finals confidence
Speaker 1: and I really do believe in that. I believe in
Speaker 1: like a playoff, a playoff thing that improves kind of
Speaker 1: your play, even if it was in a year where
Speaker 1: they where they play played some teams with injuries. But
Speaker 1: I just think that they have a confidence to him.
Speaker 1: You could tell mckele Bridges is very comfortable in himself.
Speaker 1: You can see Cam Johnson is very comfortable, and so
Speaker 1: DeAndre and comfortable. Chris Paul super comfortable with this team now.
Speaker 1: So that's my kind of overacching team on this Phoenix
Speaker 1: is a step ahead in terms of continuity, and they
Speaker 1: look like a team that brought back a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of players, and the Lakers look like a team that
Speaker 1: has a whole new squad that's missing. It's the first
Speaker 1: and third best players on it. So that was kind
Speaker 1: of the overacting team on there. I thought Chris Paul
Speaker 1: looked fantastic. I I could I couldn't believe. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a you know the lebron famously if you if
Speaker 1: you've followed him over the years, he kind of has
Speaker 1: like a regimen that he goes into about a month
Speaker 1: before the season starts, where he kind of kicks into gear,
Speaker 1: but other than that, he kind of takes distance from
Speaker 1: the game because he needs too. It's for your own
Speaker 1: you know, mental health, especially with how much stress he
Speaker 1: puts on his body. You know, Chris paul Is has
Speaker 1: kind of been like that in his career too. He's
Speaker 1: had seasons where he comes in where he's out of
Speaker 1: shape or he kind of plays his way into shape.
Speaker 1: And I was just blown away by how polished and
Speaker 1: and uh like just just he looked like he was
Speaker 1: in a great basketball rhythm, which is not what you
Speaker 1: expect to see from players at this point in the season.
Speaker 1: As far as the you know, good Sons goes um.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a when you look at those lineups
Speaker 1: kind of juxtaposed against each other. You see Jay Crowder
Speaker 1: out there, you see Michael Bridges, You see these Cam
Speaker 1: Johnson minutes. These are big. You know, Jake Crowder is
Speaker 1: only six six, but these are He's super strong. Michaal
Speaker 1: Bridges and Cam Johnson are huge. They're going up against
Speaker 1: the six ft two pour uh like like kind of
Speaker 1: thin guards. It's it's a it's a mismatch physically all
Speaker 1: over the floor. And to your point, the fact that
Speaker 1: they even hung with him in the first quarter is impressive.
Speaker 1: In a big part of that I thought was Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: and you know, just in general. We didn't talk about
Speaker 1: him much on UH after the Sunday game, but I
Speaker 1: thought in both still in both games, especially early when
Speaker 1: he wasn't so much focused on what he was doing
Speaker 1: offensively but just kind of uh focused on the totality
Speaker 1: of what was happening in the game, I thought he
Speaker 1: was getting a ton of hands on basketball's the amount
Speaker 1: of basketball is that he deflects just by like kind
Speaker 1: of that three quarter front type of post defense and
Speaker 1: what he doesn't pick and roll coveragees what he does
Speaker 1: playing passing lanes. It was just a good reminder of
Speaker 1: the fact that Anthony Davis is the best defensive player
Speaker 1: in basketball when he's trying and when he's healthy. That's
Speaker 1: always been the case. And you know, there's a bunch
Speaker 1: two more to talk about with Anthony Davis, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna get to him more later in the show, because
Speaker 1: he does not look comfortable offensively at all. In fact,
Speaker 1: he hasn't really looked comfortable offensively since the bubble, UH
Speaker 1: in terms of a consistent like night in and night out,
Speaker 1: like just looks like he's got his feathery touch he's
Speaker 1: got his handle under control and he kind of is
Speaker 1: seeing and reading the floor. Well that's kind of gone
Speaker 1: and and it's gonna be a process for him to
Speaker 1: get that back. He needs to regain that mojo is
Speaker 1: what I what I was calling it yesterday while I
Speaker 1: was watching the game. But on the defensive end, that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. It's just so naturally gifted with his
Speaker 1: physical traits and with his instincts that like when he
Speaker 1: cares on that end, it just makes everything easier, and
Speaker 1: it makes all the jobs for all the players on
Speaker 1: the floor easier. The reason why the Lakers defense looks
Speaker 1: so terrible yesterday overall is what you were asking those
Speaker 1: guards to do was to hold their own at the
Speaker 1: point of attack all over the place. Because the totality
Speaker 1: of the Laker defense wasn't really all there. You know
Speaker 1: that because of the lineups they were forced to play,
Speaker 1: because of the guys that were resting. I made the
Speaker 1: joke if Dwight Howard and Lebron James and Trevor He'sa
Speaker 1: and Russell Westbrook are all out for the season, then
Speaker 1: you can count on the fact that the Lakers aren't
Speaker 1: winning the title. And that's the truth that's the that
Speaker 1: that is the reality of of any basketball team. If
Speaker 1: you're gonna play all or worst, you know, not your worst,
Speaker 1: but you're lesser players while all your better players are
Speaker 1: sitting on the bench, It's not gonna look great. Anthony.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to see what the Laker defense looks
Speaker 1: like with Anthony Davis healthy, healthy and trying with Lebron
Speaker 1: James as that back line communicator kind of plays that
Speaker 1: Draymond role, you know, just always kind of floating into
Speaker 1: the lane and and and just disrupting everything. When Trevories
Speaker 1: gets back healthy, which we'll talk about in a minute,
Speaker 1: and with Russell Westbrook's energy and just what he can
Speaker 1: do as a leader to bring that kind of verve
Speaker 1: and an intensity on the defense. Eve Ent, I'm very
Speaker 1: excited for that. And I thought it was funny to
Speaker 1: see everybody kind of panic and and lose their minds
Speaker 1: yesterday watching the game when the obvious truth was out
Speaker 1: there that that wasn't really what it was gonna look
Speaker 1: like when the time came. What did you like about
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis and what he did in the game yesterday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: highlighted a few players as well. Online he had you
Speaker 1: talked about him as the best defender in basketball, like
Speaker 1: he just he erases kind of mistakes right in a
Speaker 1: way he can really erase mistakes. So there was a
Speaker 1: bunch of times like the guard drove and he's able
Speaker 1: to take away the guard lay up at the ram
Speaker 1: while also defleecting like the past to eighton and like
Speaker 1: his I thought his energy kind of dropped after that
Speaker 1: first quarter that second quarter. And again it's a preseason game.
Speaker 1: You expect that, but I thought he was active early.
Speaker 1: His jumpers still isn't going, which I expect to go eventually.
Speaker 1: And again he takes really tough ones. He doesn't really
Speaker 1: make it easy on himself. He's taking like jab steps
Speaker 1: step back jumpers over DeAndre Ayden before he's any in
Speaker 1: any kind of offensive rhythm. Again, though, judging him without
Speaker 1: the two shot creators is really tough. Like I want
Speaker 1: to see him next to Russ, next to Lebron like
Speaker 1: eight was. It's never this guy you just throw the
Speaker 1: ball to and run your offense through, right, Like that's
Speaker 1: just it's just not an effective way to run offense
Speaker 1: in the modern NBA. Right now, he's a guy you
Speaker 1: want him with like some shock creation so he should
Speaker 1: be able to be a little bit better than he
Speaker 1: was offensively. But I liked him on defense though. He
Speaker 1: looked like he's getting back into the rhythm. And he
Speaker 1: talked about that um after the game, and Aiden's a
Speaker 1: tough matchup, right, like, and Chris Paul is a tough
Speaker 1: matchup as well. Um, Chris Paul really unted our guards,
Speaker 1: especially in that second quarter. I think I wrote down
Speaker 1: here like they put in they had none Ellington, Monk
Speaker 1: Mellow and I think DeAndre Jordan's at center, and that
Speaker 1: lineup got just ran off the floor and Melo hit
Speaker 1: some fun shots. Melo did some like Carmelow things, you know,
Speaker 1: little jab step, he did that like I got the
Speaker 1: rebound f out of here, and he uh, he had
Speaker 1: some like he had some post up moves on Jake
Speaker 1: Crowder and hit some of his his fadeaways. But that
Speaker 1: that lineup just got destroyed. Mccaull Bridges got whatever he wanted,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul got whatever he wanted, and that's when the
Speaker 1: game kind of went out. But it's good to see
Speaker 1: a d just he wanted to play in the second half,
Speaker 1: right and I think he would play in the second
Speaker 1: half he could tell he's just trying to get his
Speaker 1: foot on the gas a little bit. I think when
Speaker 1: he missed that MANI games last year, still trying to
Speaker 1: get himself in rhythm, trying to get his defensive defensive
Speaker 1: stuff in the rhythm as well. And Phoenix is a
Speaker 1: tough team to do that with. UM, But yeah, I
Speaker 1: liked I liked at least seeing him out there getting
Speaker 1: their cardio as well. UM, And this is the time
Speaker 1: to do it. They have four more preseason games that
Speaker 1: seems like a ton, and I think last year just
Speaker 1: kind of hid the fact that how many preseason games
Speaker 1: there are, and I'm expecting all of them to sit
Speaker 1: at least the last one. That's usually what coaches do.
Speaker 1: They want that last one to rest before the for
Speaker 1: the real things. So I expect Bron and Ad to play,
Speaker 1: Ron and Rust to playing maybe then the next one
Speaker 1: or on Sunday. But it's good to see a d
Speaker 1: at least want to be out there and getting rhythm
Speaker 1: with his teammates. I thought you made a really good
Speaker 1: point about Anthony Davis and the way in which he
Speaker 1: gets as a rhythm. It's one of the things that
Speaker 1: that I used to complain about with Kyle Kuzma a
Speaker 1: lot last year. A lot of guys that are you know,
Speaker 1: that are capable of being really good aggressive jump shooters
Speaker 1: will take tough jump shots to try to build their
Speaker 1: rhythm instead of trying to build the rhythm through easy shots.
Speaker 1: It's honestly, it's one of the things that has made
Speaker 1: Lebron so efficient in his career. You're not Lebron doesn't
Speaker 1: come out in the first quarter taking step back threes.
Speaker 1: If he will take threes when they're in the flow,
Speaker 1: when he's catching and shooting wide open, but for the
Speaker 1: most part, in the first quarter, well, Ron will take
Speaker 1: easier shots and then as he gets his rhythm, you'll
Speaker 1: see him start to take more difficult shots as things go.
Speaker 1: It's something that I think Anthony Davis can kind of
Speaker 1: kind of learn from a little bit because he is
Speaker 1: so physically capable of being dominant around the basket. He
Speaker 1: could build his rhythm that way and then kind of
Speaker 1: work his way out with confidence to make shots. And
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, he doesn't kind of go about it
Speaker 1: that way. Um. But that said, if you look at
Speaker 1: from Anthony Davis's perspective, the way he sees it is
Speaker 1: like man, I was making all of these shots in
Speaker 1: the bubble, and so I know they're gonna go in eventually,
Speaker 1: so I just need to keep shooting them. Eventually they'll
Speaker 1: go in. I'll get my confidence, and then we'll hit
Speaker 1: the ground running, you know what I mean. And I
Speaker 1: think that's the reason why he stayed in the game
Speaker 1: so long. I think he was just in his head thinking,
Speaker 1: let me stay out there, let me get four or
Speaker 1: five more jump shots up, and let me see if
Speaker 1: I can try to build this rhythm a little bit
Speaker 1: more as as time goes. Jump shooting is one of
Speaker 1: the weirdest things in the game of basketball because there's
Speaker 1: it's such an inexact science, like you can work so
Speaker 1: incredibly hard on your jump shot and sometimes they just
Speaker 1: don't go in, you know, like like that. I would
Speaker 1: it would happen to me all the time. I would
Speaker 1: have a week where I put in excellent work and
Speaker 1: I would work on my I'd go extra to the
Speaker 1: gun and at the gym, and I'd shoot a thousand shots,
Speaker 1: you know, three days during the week to get that
Speaker 1: extra work in, and then for whatever reason, in a random,
Speaker 1: you know, Thursday game, I just wouldn't be able to
Speaker 1: make a shot, you know, but then there would be
Speaker 1: another week where I wouldn't put his in as much
Speaker 1: work in and for whatever reason, they just kind of
Speaker 1: go in. Like jump shooting is, it's such a it's
Speaker 1: such a a mind f for lack of of a
Speaker 1: better term, that it can it can really get in
Speaker 1: your head. And I think that's what what Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is going through a little bit. I think he knows
Speaker 1: he's a good shooter, he knows he puts the work
Speaker 1: in he had. There's no reason why these shots should
Speaker 1: not be going in except for the fact that they
Speaker 1: just aren't. And I and you could tell that he's
Speaker 1: just trying to work through that. And I'm not worried
Speaker 1: about it at all. Eventually, the eventually the work connects
Speaker 1: with the result and it will it will come together
Speaker 1: and he'll start making shots. And like I said, my
Speaker 1: only criticism is I think that he should probably try
Speaker 1: to build his rhythm on the interior and kind of
Speaker 1: work his way out because it is a confidence game,
Speaker 1: and I do think that that would kind of help
Speaker 1: him in that regard, if that makes sense. And I
Speaker 1: think both of us are like a big believer in
Speaker 1: process over results. Right, Like even if even if those
Speaker 1: step back midrange kind of jumpers are going in early,
Speaker 1: like that's to me, that's still not like great process.
Speaker 1: And the guards that he's playing with aren't really conductive
Speaker 1: to that either. There's a lot of times I don't
Speaker 1: know if you know this as well, but like he'd
Speaker 1: run a pick him up with Kendrick Nunn and that
Speaker 1: pocket passes just a little off right, and the suns
Speaker 1: are really good, like they'll they'll tap that away and
Speaker 1: they got a bunch of kind deflections on that as well.
Speaker 1: Even th ht try to run some ball screens with him.
Speaker 1: I don't think I want to see base more run
Speaker 1: anymore our ball screens, but you try to run a
Speaker 1: few with him as well, Uh, Monk, I thought it
Speaker 1: did a pretty nice job. Again, these are all guys
Speaker 1: that are looking for the shot off of that right,
Speaker 1: So like when Monk comes off his queen and role,
Speaker 1: he's reading where the big is so he can attack him. Um,
Speaker 1: he's not reading kind of where a d is, but
Speaker 1: hit him with a few nice vaka passes as well.
Speaker 1: But I just think the guards that he's playing with,
Speaker 1: and again, like it's so tough to judge any of
Speaker 1: this because the ball handling is about to move to
Speaker 1: two players who we're in street clothes yesterday, so it's
Speaker 1: kind of and we'll get who will get Anthony David's
Speaker 1: easy shots early in the game exactly, and guys who
Speaker 1: look for him right, like, just watch him when he
Speaker 1: plays with Rondo. And again he aid didn't have a
Speaker 1: great offensive game yesterday, but Rondo checks in, pushes the pace,
Speaker 1: gives a little like further to the game, right Rondo
Speaker 1: is like even if Rondo is kind of more in
Speaker 1: this like uh, pointing instead of doing you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like he's more like, hey do this, and
Speaker 1: he's not himself kind of doing it, but still it
Speaker 1: kind of gives his team kind of a pickup. And
Speaker 1: he comes in right away. A D has his eighties
Speaker 1: man is fronting, and Ronald just immediately throws it up.
Speaker 1: And I don't think any other player on the team
Speaker 1: who played yesterday were to throw that pass, but it
Speaker 1: got to a D. He caught it. It was kind
Speaker 1: of contested, he laid it in. I don't remember if
Speaker 1: he got fouled. But again, like those are the kind
Speaker 1: of players that kind of get him. Plays that kind
Speaker 1: of get him going, so I want, I want to
Speaker 1: see him next to our stars, but just good to
Speaker 1: see him out there too. But I don't judging him
Speaker 1: without the two shot creators that we're gonna see. I
Speaker 1: keep saying this, we were like we're seeing thht in
Speaker 1: the Lebron and rest book role. Like this is what
Speaker 1: a game is gonna look like, twenty year old running
Speaker 1: your offense exactically, or even like Kendrick nunn you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, giving Kendrick Nunne the full ball handling duties.
Speaker 1: You know, this is kind of what it's gonna look like.
Speaker 1: Like he's a good player, he can score off a
Speaker 1: pick and roll a little bit, but you know, you
Speaker 1: don't want him as your full time shot creator. And
Speaker 1: Russell Lebron are probably are first and second best rebounders
Speaker 1: or I guess he isn't there somewhere. But again, like
Speaker 1: that's that's why it's it's so different to me watching
Speaker 1: you know, Ellington and Monk try to sandwich Ayton on
Speaker 1: rebounds and I'm like, yeah, I mean, I guess, but
Speaker 1: yeah they got killed on the boards. And that's not
Speaker 1: an excuse, it's just it's kind of how the game
Speaker 1: game way Yesterdame. Isn't it kind of funny how like Rondo,
Speaker 1: the Rondo experience was so frustrating for me at least.
Speaker 1: I I know there are some guys who are higher
Speaker 1: on Rondo, but the Rondo experience was so frustrating when
Speaker 1: Lebron was on the floor or when Lebron was an option.
Speaker 1: But like, it's weird how he's kind of super refreshing
Speaker 1: when Lebron and and Russ aren't playing, because it's just
Speaker 1: a guy who at least kind of thinks the game
Speaker 1: the way that those guys do. I I agree with
Speaker 1: you that the decision making of was a big part
Speaker 1: of it. Like I, you know, Kendrick Nunn, I thought
Speaker 1: he had a pretty rough game as a decision maker.
Speaker 1: I thought he was consistently kind of forcing things, and
Speaker 1: I think that it was part of the reason why
Speaker 1: he uh couldn't get into rhythm with with his shot,
Speaker 1: and it's just kind of everything seemed forced and out
Speaker 1: of the flow. Um. There was a play with Malik Monk,
Speaker 1: and for the record, I thought Malik Monk was awesome
Speaker 1: and we're gonna talk more about him later, but that
Speaker 1: kind of captures exactly what you're talking about he uh
Speaker 1: was running a side pick and roll in the first
Speaker 1: half with Anthony Davis. Is one of his first possessions.
Speaker 1: When he checked in the game and Anthony Davis sets
Speaker 1: the screen and then he pops to the three point line.
Speaker 1: And when he pops to the three point line, Monk
Speaker 1: comes off the screen, and the big and the guard
Speaker 1: both stay with Monk and he kind of takes like
Speaker 1: a contested, like seventeen foot elevating jump shot along the baseline.
Speaker 1: And immediately, what I thought to myself was Monk came
Speaker 1: into that pick and roll thinking I'm shooting a jump
Speaker 1: shot off the dribble going left, like he telegraphed the
Speaker 1: hell out of it, because he certainly wasn't making a
Speaker 1: read because it wasn't open, And if you actually watched
Speaker 1: the play, all he had to do was kind of
Speaker 1: pick up his dribble, reverse pivot drop it back to
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis for a wide open three point shot. That
Speaker 1: that's what you would do if you were making a read,
Speaker 1: rather than uh kind of preconceiving what you were gonna do.
Speaker 1: And again I'm not I I don't want to harp on
Speaker 1: Monk because he did so much good in that game,
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk more about it, but that's
Speaker 1: kind of exactly what I'm talking about. And when Lebron
Speaker 1: and Russ are in the game, they both think the
Speaker 1: game at least through the perspective of of constantly being
Speaker 1: a air of of what kind of easy reads are available,
Speaker 1: and I do think that that's going to make everything
Speaker 1: look better around the floor. Now with Malik Monk, I
Speaker 1: think he's separating himself offensively from the other guys in
Speaker 1: the group. Um. I do think Kendrick Nunn is gonna
Speaker 1: have his moments, Like he hasn't really found his jump
Speaker 1: shot yet since he came UH to the Lakers, and
Speaker 1: he had a really good jump shooting season last year
Speaker 1: on a pretty difficult shot profile. So I do think
Speaker 1: that he's going to have his moments. But it's very
Speaker 1: clear that like Kendrick Nunn is more of a guy
Speaker 1: who can make shots, and Malik Monk is more in
Speaker 1: that like Ellington tier of like he's a shooter, like
Speaker 1: like when he's open, it's it's easy for him, and
Speaker 1: you could tell that that next level of touch is there.
Speaker 1: And I also think he's a better ball handler UH
Speaker 1: than Kendrick Nunn. There was a move in the second
Speaker 1: half where he kind of hesitated off after coming off
Speaker 1: a pick and roll, kind of looked up at the rim,
Speaker 1: got the big head that I think it was JaVale
Speaker 1: McGee kind of just kind of just barely got out
Speaker 1: of his defensive stance and then he squeaked right by
Speaker 1: him and put it high off the glass and made it.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, man, that is a super advanced dribble
Speaker 1: combination that he put together to get into the rim.
Speaker 1: And like I think his combination of athleticism. He's actually
Speaker 1: a tiny bit taller than Kendrick Gunn. It looks like
Speaker 1: about an inch taller, and that that high level ball
Speaker 1: handling and that elite shooting really translates to being a
Speaker 1: significantly better offensive player than some of these other options. Now,
Speaker 1: the defensive end is a whole other side of this.
Speaker 1: But I think early on here, kind of like Frank
Speaker 1: was talking about, camp Baysmore separated himself as a defensive player.
Speaker 1: I think Malik Monk has separated himself from the pack
Speaker 1: as an offensive player. Does that make sense, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: And it's funny how like one game can kind of
Speaker 1: just change a whole view on a player, Like I
Speaker 1: love that play that you talked about with the where
Speaker 1: he's running a screen world with a D right and
Speaker 1: like he didn't kick it out to him. He was
Speaker 1: feeling himself, right, this was his first touch of the game,
Speaker 1: like first touch of the game, screen world a D
Speaker 1: step back jumper, And while watching it, I'm just like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course he should shoot that. Of course he shoot
Speaker 1: it's because of just the one game in preseason. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I forgot like when he came out of college.
Speaker 1: I believe he came in as a shooter, right, I
Speaker 1: think like he came into the league as a shooter
Speaker 1: and then he showed a little bit more off the
Speaker 1: dribble stuff. But yeah, like him coming off that he
Speaker 1: had he had one player I think it was his
Speaker 1: first three came off like I think a little bit
Speaker 1: of a down screen or something curled, smooth, looked absolutely smooth,
Speaker 1: went up really smooth and hit the three. And then
Speaker 1: like he used that threat to kind of get to
Speaker 1: the rim. You talked about the off the off the
Speaker 1: glass shot that he had, Um, he had one where
Speaker 1: he was in transition, just a little bit of in
Speaker 1: and out dribble right by Cam Johnson right to the
Speaker 1: rim as well. He's just just a score man. Like
Speaker 1: he reminds me a little bit of like Lou Williams,
Speaker 1: like a little bit of that kind of type. Maybe
Speaker 1: not the veteraness of Lou Williams, but like just that
Speaker 1: game where he can shoot off the dribble, get to
Speaker 1: the basket, and like his ball handling I think opens
Speaker 1: things up as well. Um, it's just cool to see
Speaker 1: him get more and more comfortable. And you're right, he's
Speaker 1: probably in the lead right now. Honestly, how Wayne Ellington
Speaker 1: would be a little bit better, But again, I think
Speaker 1: he suffers the most along with bays Moore, of not
Speaker 1: playing with these stars shock treators, because I think that's
Speaker 1: where he's at his best. Uh and playing with Rondo
Speaker 1: as well. But I'm excited to see him leak next
Speaker 1: to Lebron and Russ if he can still have that
Speaker 1: kind of same uh impact. And this spot up threes
Speaker 1: are good too, Like he's running to the corners one
Speaker 1: derable step up three. I think he's like I forgot
Speaker 1: what the number said, but he's shooting like a super
Speaker 1: crazy percentage from three in the first two games and
Speaker 1: oh yeah, six for ten or something like that. His
Speaker 1: jumber looks clean, though, You're right. When you watch him
Speaker 1: shoots some guys, you're like, yeah, he, like Kendrick Nunn,
Speaker 1: seems like such a streaky shooter right the way he shoots,
Speaker 1: it just feels like it's all rhythm. Like it's kind
Speaker 1: of like if he's going that night, it's going in.
Speaker 1: If not, then it's gonna be ugly. Linke Mud looks
Speaker 1: like I have a really pretty shot. I know it's
Speaker 1: going in every time. So you're right, Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: He he looks like in the league right now in
Speaker 1: the guard rotation, and it'll be interesting because uh, I
Speaker 1: think he fits best coming off the bench. I don't
Speaker 1: expect him to start like what but but you gotta
Speaker 1: kind of again, like when you're building a closing lineup,
Speaker 1: you need it to be your best five guys because
Speaker 1: that's what you're trying to win the game with. Um. However,
Speaker 1: over the course of a full basketball game, it's kind
Speaker 1: of like a you need a factor in the diminishing returns, right,
Speaker 1: Like if I put Molik Monk out there with Russ
Speaker 1: and Lebron all the time, that's a diminishing return because
Speaker 1: his ball handling is less valuable when he doesn't have
Speaker 1: the ball in his hands. Right, So like a guy
Speaker 1: like Ellington, in my opinion, through through the through the
Speaker 1: run of the regular season, in all of these random
Speaker 1: shifts at random points in the game, I like Ellington
Speaker 1: with the three stars, and I like Monk when stars
Speaker 1: are are being spelled for stretches on the bench, if
Speaker 1: that makes sense. As a matter of fact, with the
Speaker 1: Areza injury, I think Ellington is almost a shoe in
Speaker 1: to start, and I think you're gonna end up seeing Baysmore,
Speaker 1: the guy everybody wanted to start instead of Ellington. I
Speaker 1: think you're gonna see him in the games where a
Speaker 1: starts at the five, which may not and we'll get
Speaker 1: to that in a second. But if a d starts
Speaker 1: at five, I think you're gonna see a lot of
Speaker 1: bays More at the three in Ellington at the two.
Speaker 1: But you bring in Monk with those bench lineups, and
Speaker 1: now his ball handling becomes all that more valuable. Um,
Speaker 1: let's talk about Mellow for a second, because I thought
Speaker 1: I thought it was an interesting game from him in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. First of all, he actually defended
Speaker 1: okay in the in the first stint that he had.
Speaker 1: There was one transition play I think it was in
Speaker 1: his second stint where he had a really bad clothes
Speaker 1: It was a mismatch for Rondo I don't think got
Speaker 1: back to his man properly, and then Mellow got confused
Speaker 1: and then he closed out. But then he did this
Speaker 1: super Jankee close out to Chase mcail bridges off the
Speaker 1: line where he basically reached at a ball that wasn't
Speaker 1: even there and just gave him a lay up. That's
Speaker 1: classic Mellow type stuff that he's gonna have to cut out.
Speaker 1: But I thought it was a really interesting game from
Speaker 1: Mellow in the sense that it captured the good and
Speaker 1: the bad because he had a couple of plays where
Speaker 1: he got post ups against um smaller guards and got
Speaker 1: really good looks. There was one where he kind of
Speaker 1: did a drop step on on Chris Paul and got
Speaker 1: that layup, and then there was another one I can't
Speaker 1: remember who. I think it might have been Campaign that
Speaker 1: he got on a switch but he shot like a
Speaker 1: little turnaround jumper jumper and it looked really easy. But
Speaker 1: then when he tried to post up the wings, like
Speaker 1: when he tried to post up Jay Crowder or Michael
Speaker 1: Bridges or Cam Johnson. You could tell there was that
Speaker 1: he kept trying to take that fade away and he
Speaker 1: tried to shoot that little bank shot and it was
Speaker 1: like way off. And I think it's a really interesting
Speaker 1: thing to kind of keep an eye on this season
Speaker 1: because I love Carmelo Anthony attacking smaller guards in these
Speaker 1: post ups because it just his size is such a
Speaker 1: problem that that he gets great lift and the guys
Speaker 1: bounce off of him and he gets a great look
Speaker 1: at the rim. But these other these wings at this
Speaker 1: stage in his career, they bump him off of his
Speaker 1: spot when he when he tries to do that power
Speaker 1: dribble before he goes into his fade away, he loses
Speaker 1: all of his balance because they win that physical matchup,
Speaker 1: and now he's taking a fade away where he's off
Speaker 1: balance and it's not close. And so that's the kind
Speaker 1: of thing that i'd be Now. The last night's game
Speaker 1: is different because they needed him to shoot more because
Speaker 1: of the guys that we're playing, So obviously I don't
Speaker 1: want to judge him in that respect, but it's something
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on in the regular season when
Speaker 1: the guys are healthy, Mellow's shot selection in specific matchups
Speaker 1: and remembering that at this stage in his career, he's
Speaker 1: not going to be able to win, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of an even matchup in terms of size on the block,
Speaker 1: If that makes sense. Yeah, for sure. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: you're doing this, but I've seen this a lot online,
Speaker 1: like people um saying, like, you know, who's Mellow gonna defend? Like, uh,
Speaker 1: is Mellow gonna be able to stay in front of
Speaker 1: these young guards? And to me, it's like if I
Speaker 1: are if I hire a chef and I tell that
Speaker 1: chef to like fix my air conditioning, Like the hell,
Speaker 1: like what are you? What are you talking about? Like
Speaker 1: not here to fixture regie a chef, melows there to
Speaker 1: cook and score like that. That's what Melos in the
Speaker 1: game for. Like expecting him to be like some huge
Speaker 1: defensive kind of huge defensive impact players just not realist.
Speaker 1: To me, he's at a score and I think he
Speaker 1: still can do that. We saw some like where eight
Speaker 1: s at the top right, because to me, I think
Speaker 1: Melo is gonna play a lot where eights at the five.
Speaker 1: Like to me, that's where he's gonna play, and I
Speaker 1: thought that lineup looked actually okay, even like defensively it
Speaker 1: looked fine to me. With Melow at the four, he
Speaker 1: saw eight kind of feed Mellow in the post, right,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of harder double off that, and that
Speaker 1: they were doing some cool stuff um off the ball
Speaker 1: as well sending some pin screens which he missed a couple.
Speaker 1: He's Karmelo Anthony like once once you give him the ball,
Speaker 1: it's like that's a license for me to do what
Speaker 1: I what I do, Uh, his license for me to
Speaker 1: do what I do. So I think he can still
Speaker 1: get buckets in that way, and so on the Blazers.
Speaker 1: First year on the Blazers, he played thirty three minutes
Speaker 1: a game, which is high, right, Second year twenty five
Speaker 1: minutes a game, which I mean, Karmelo Anthony, twenty five
Speaker 1: minutes still seems a little high. I want to see
Speaker 1: what Mellow looks like in like a fifteen to like
Speaker 1: e t minute role, right, like where it's just pure buckets,
Speaker 1: Like there's not that's my job. I don't have to
Speaker 1: do all these help responsibly. Like my job is to
Speaker 1: come in and get buckets. And he's a guy that
Speaker 1: gets you a shot, right, I think we undervalue how
Speaker 1: tough it is to even just get a shot in
Speaker 1: the NBA. You know what I'm like, just be able
Speaker 1: to create your own shot, Like have a guy you
Speaker 1: can give the ball to him, be like, hey, get
Speaker 1: us a get us a look that has a chance
Speaker 1: to go in. And I think that's a skill that's
Speaker 1: necessary on at least second unit. So I liked him
Speaker 1: with a D. I think that's where we'll see him.
Speaker 1: I don't really want to see him next to like
Speaker 1: Jandre Jordan's where they're the only two back line players
Speaker 1: that that line I've got killed last night. And we'll
Speaker 1: talk about DJ later, I'm sure, but but yeah, that
Speaker 1: lineup got killed as it should. Like those are two
Speaker 1: dudes who know exactly how many stakes are on preseason.
Speaker 1: I'll give you a secret, there are zero steaks and
Speaker 1: pree season. So and they both know that they've been
Speaker 1: a league a very long time. So I liked what
Speaker 1: I saw from Mellow And again you talked about it earlier,
Speaker 1: like you're not looking at the scoreboard in these preseason games,
Speaker 1: just kind of looking at what players can do and
Speaker 1: what skill sets they can kind of bring to different lineups.
Speaker 1: They'll have the star players that can kind of take
Speaker 1: take care of the other stuff. So I thought Mellow looked, fine, Um,
Speaker 1: he's not going to have a huge minute role, I
Speaker 1: don't think this year. But I want to see him
Speaker 1: in that fifteen minute role. Man, can he be two thousand,
Speaker 1: fifteen Melow in fourteen minutes? He can't do that. In
Speaker 1: thirty minutes, he can't. I'm not even sure he can
Speaker 1: do that. But fifteen minutes a game, five or six
Speaker 1: minutes at five or six minutes every half, I think
Speaker 1: he can do that. I don't think you're you need
Speaker 1: to ask him to do much defensively, as long as
Speaker 1: the lineup around him is is kind of built, you know,
Speaker 1: built in a way that makes his responsibilities easy. Like
Speaker 1: you said, don't play him with DJ, don't play with
Speaker 1: Dwight playing with a D. You know, make it so
Speaker 1: that the aggregate defensive talent around him is good so
Speaker 1: that his job is easy. I'll give you an example
Speaker 1: on that transition play where he where he reached on
Speaker 1: Michael Bridges and Michael got the easy layup. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like I'm sure Frank did say this to him,
Speaker 1: but it's like, Okay, that's a breakdown. It is a
Speaker 1: defensive breakdown in transition that you guys weren't matched up
Speaker 1: so you had to do this crazy clothes out. But
Speaker 1: you have one job at that point. Just make him
Speaker 1: take a jumper. I don't care if it's even a
Speaker 1: wide open three. Uh, just anything other than this wide open,
Speaker 1: easy right at the rim lay up with nobody around.
Speaker 1: It was that that was where he messed up. He
Speaker 1: did a good job of kind of chasing him off
Speaker 1: the three point line, but then he reached. And if
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have reached, and if he would have just
Speaker 1: kind of done a more conservative closed out to take
Speaker 1: away the paint, you make Michail Bridges take you know,
Speaker 1: a pull up fifteen footer or make him maybe he
Speaker 1: just pulls it back out and then you reset into
Speaker 1: a half court possession. That's kind of a much easier
Speaker 1: responsibility than saying, hey, you know, your job is to
Speaker 1: you know, be this like super stout isolation defender or
Speaker 1: whatever it is that you're asking him to do. You
Speaker 1: make it easy for him with the totality of the lineup.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm with you as far as mellow goes.
Speaker 1: I want him to cook. I want him to be aggressive.
Speaker 1: I really like him as an isolation score. Just locate
Speaker 1: the matchups, like make it a thing where it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: we want to get Mellow a look, Maybe run a
Speaker 1: Mellow a d pick and roll and see if you can't,
Speaker 1: uh get a big, big, slow guy on him, or
Speaker 1: or the opposite, like run a pick and roll with
Speaker 1: Russ and get a switch so that he's on a
Speaker 1: smaller guard, and then look for him in the post,
Speaker 1: because I really like him as a post up score,
Speaker 1: specifically against the smaller defenders and then really quickly lasting
Speaker 1: on Mellow. I really like his spot up shooting in
Speaker 1: the sense that he's tall, and he's got a really
Speaker 1: quick release, and he's he's got this. It's actually it's
Speaker 1: actually something that I copied from him a lot when
Speaker 1: I was in college. He does a really good job
Speaker 1: of hesitating right before his pull up, right before his
Speaker 1: spot up threes to kind of lull the defender to sleep.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you see this, but like he'll
Speaker 1: catch the ball and he'll kind of hold it for
Speaker 1: a split second and he'll act like he's not gonna
Speaker 1: do anything, and then suddenly he'll elevate into his shot.
Speaker 1: And the reason why I like that is like sometimes
Speaker 1: and I joke about this, talked about this all time
Speaker 1: in the pot. Sometimes there is no wide open three
Speaker 1: on a possession. Sometimes the defense is locked in. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they're rotating really well. Sometimes you're not gonna get the
Speaker 1: you know, the buttnake at three in the corner. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be it's gonna be something a little tougher. And
Speaker 1: sometimes it's mellows only a little bit open, but you
Speaker 1: can swing it to him and he can do that
Speaker 1: little hesitation that just barely lolls the closing out defender
Speaker 1: to sleep, and then he can just elevate into the
Speaker 1: shot and at least get a decent look at the rim.
Speaker 1: And so I really like him as as a floor
Speaker 1: spacer in that regard. So let's let's talk about this
Speaker 1: a reason thing, because this is a big deal. Um.
Speaker 1: I think you and I both had said multiple times
Speaker 1: over the summer that we thought that they needed another wing. Uh,
Speaker 1: not because they needed somebody in the rotation, but because
Speaker 1: of depth. During the regular season, someone's gonna get hurt.
Speaker 1: Maybe Lebron twist an ankle, maybe Mellow twists and ankle
Speaker 1: here you go, Trevor Reasa gets hurt. So all it
Speaker 1: really means, in my opinion, is that a reason is
Speaker 1: now your wing that you're gonna add during the middle
Speaker 1: of the season in the form of an injury recovery.
Speaker 1: But now you need somebody now, and I have a
Speaker 1: feel they're gonna look to sign somebody now. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's Wes Matthews or James Ennis, or if
Speaker 1: they have somebody else in mind, but I think they
Speaker 1: need to sign a wing now because that's now a
Speaker 1: legitimate problem. And what I'm really concerned about because it's
Speaker 1: I don't think the a D at center thing is
Speaker 1: just a D I think I think Frank Vogel has
Speaker 1: a has a role in that as well. I think
Speaker 1: he's so defensive minded that he's obsessed with size, he's
Speaker 1: obsessed with rim protection, he's obsessed with rebounding, and I
Speaker 1: don't even think he factors in as much the way
Speaker 1: that that can impact the the overall flow of things
Speaker 1: on the offensive end. I think this is gonna be
Speaker 1: something they use as an excuse to play a lot
Speaker 1: of DeAndre Jordan at the five next to Dwight, not
Speaker 1: next to dwighte but in conjunction with Dwight and put
Speaker 1: a lot of a d at the four because he's
Speaker 1: gonna be like, hey, well, we needed a reason at
Speaker 1: the three to make our overall totality or total physicality
Speaker 1: of the whole lineup. Uh, you know, usable, So we're
Speaker 1: gonna need to to play more centers. I'm really concerned
Speaker 1: about that because again, even though you and I get
Speaker 1: roasted for this all the time, like we liked DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan in a very small role, like you had him
Speaker 1: as like a two stint guy, kind of like Javail
Speaker 1: and I had him, isn't like doesn't play and the
Speaker 1: only time you would play is Dwight's resting tonight. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is resting tonight. So this allows us to use
Speaker 1: the same pick and roll coverages. This allows us to
Speaker 1: stay in the same identity rather than here comes Paul millsap.
Speaker 1: He can't protect the rim, so now we've got to
Speaker 1: completely change all of our coverages and do all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. That's why I liked DeAndre Jordan's None
Speaker 1: of us you and neither you or me anticipated that
Speaker 1: he would get used to the extent that I expect
Speaker 1: him to get used here in the next couple of
Speaker 1: weeks with the reason out, and that's concerning to me.
Speaker 1: Are you concerned at all? So first, I love that
Speaker 1: we're the face of DeAndre jordan propaganda, Like I just
Speaker 1: think that's absolutely hilarious, hilarious, even though we both said
Speaker 1: he won't play when it matters is probably like the
Speaker 1: twelve most important player on this team. Is there just
Speaker 1: to be an an easy eater. But I love that
Speaker 1: where the face of I'll rocket, that's cool. I don't
Speaker 1: I go the other way on this. So I've have
Speaker 1: heard I've heard this argument that like, oh, this just
Speaker 1: means more DeAndre Jordan's and I love that. That's just
Speaker 1: like a hell escape, right, any kind of issue comes up,
Speaker 1: let's just throw it on DeAndre Jordan's plate. You know
Speaker 1: he'll he'll be the he'll be the scapegoat for this season.
Speaker 1: I think this is an excuse to play more. The
Speaker 1: fourth highest played player on this team, which is Taylan
Speaker 1: Horn Tucker, I think he's gonna play a lot more.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna play at the three. He's played
Speaker 1: the most minutes in preseason. I'm pretty sure I know
Speaker 1: in the first game. It was the second game. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure he he played the most. Maybe eight he
Speaker 1: played a little bit more, but I feel like he
Speaker 1: played the most minutes. I think they're been playing about
Speaker 1: the three. I've liked what I've seen with him off
Speaker 1: ball too. I don't know what you saw as well,
Speaker 1: but he just seems he looks more comfortable with his
Speaker 1: jump shot as well. His jump shot looks more stable,
Speaker 1: it looks more repetitive. It looks like he can repeat
Speaker 1: that action a lot more than it was last year.
Speaker 1: His feet look a lot more. You could tell he
Speaker 1: put in work to get his feet in rhythm. His
Speaker 1: defense as well has looked fine to me, Like minutes.
Speaker 1: I think this is an excuse to play more Tailor
Speaker 1: Horn Tucker. Maybe DeAndre Jordan still starts. We'll see, but
Speaker 1: that's where I'm at this with this. I think this
Speaker 1: gives him an excuse to do even more THHD. He's
Speaker 1: a guy they paid, there's a guy they invested in.
Speaker 1: This guy who's shown some skills, some off ball skills,
Speaker 1: and again I love him. As this secondary kind of
Speaker 1: defense is broken down, give it to him, and he
Speaker 1: has more off the ball. He's not as smart obviously
Speaker 1: as a players forever reason yet he just don't have
Speaker 1: the experience. But he's a better off the drible player.
Speaker 1: He's a bigger threat attacking the rim. I thought his
Speaker 1: like basketball, overall decision making is better, even if his
Speaker 1: passings isn't great. He had a bunch of players where
Speaker 1: like he noticed Eton wasn't in the paint and he
Speaker 1: had Jay crowd on him. He just drove out to
Speaker 1: the basket and Jay Crowder couldn't do anything about it.
Speaker 1: He drew a foul I think on two of those.
Speaker 1: So to me, that's where they go with this. What
Speaker 1: do you think about that? Because that's where I went
Speaker 1: first when I saw it, and then I see online
Speaker 1: everyone jumping right to that Frank's gonna do what he
Speaker 1: wants now, and it's just like, well maybe, but I
Speaker 1: think I think this is more to uh more th
Speaker 1: team minutes. What do you think? I do think it
Speaker 1: leads to more th h T minutes. I don't think
Speaker 1: it will necessarily be at the three, but I think
Speaker 1: that's just semantics because you know it's wings, right, It's
Speaker 1: just it's just wings, Like it'll be. I think you'll
Speaker 1: see more th HD in bays more because you'll have
Speaker 1: to now. So we talked about how you've got these
Speaker 1: rust lebron A D minutes right, and they're all they're
Speaker 1: each gonna play probably thirty two thirty three minutes a game,
Speaker 1: So that kind of takes a huge chunk of the
Speaker 1: rotation now, and then you've got, you know, how many
Speaker 1: center minutes are going to be available and who's splitting them,
Speaker 1: And then you've got how many you know, wing slash
Speaker 1: guard minutes that are available and who's gonna take him. Well,
Speaker 1: I thought a reason it was gonna play twenty plus
Speaker 1: minutes a night. He was literally I was one of
Speaker 1: the most optimistic Laker fans about the reason signing. I
Speaker 1: thought he was such a clean fit. And if you
Speaker 1: look at his his history, he's one of the players
Speaker 1: that coaches lean on UH to play big minutes because
Speaker 1: of how reliable he is in so many different ways
Speaker 1: on the basketball team. Well, with him out of the picture,
Speaker 1: that twenty something and it's is now available for everyone else,
Speaker 1: So it's gonna naturally lead to more th h T minutes. Now.
Speaker 1: I agree with you in the sense that you kind
Speaker 1: of have to play th h T now and baysmore
Speaker 1: a lot because that overall physical presence of the lineup
Speaker 1: needs to hit a certain baseline. Uh Frank Frank Vogel.
Speaker 1: For instance, somebody asked him in an interview yesterday after
Speaker 1: practice or maybe it was before the game, I can't remember,
Speaker 1: but they said, you know, hey, like, what is the
Speaker 1: case for playing a D at the four? Basically, like,
Speaker 1: if you had to come up with a downside for
Speaker 1: playing a D at the five, what is it? And
Speaker 1: he said rebounding? And and I disagree with him because
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D are probably the second biggest front
Speaker 1: court in the league behind brook Lopez and Janice right,
Speaker 1: So like I don't think that that's and then Russ
Speaker 1: is the best rebounding guard probably of all time. So
Speaker 1: I disagree with that line of thinking. However, he's what
Speaker 1: he's getting at, even though I think he's wrong. What
Speaker 1: he's getting at is like, we need a certain baseline
Speaker 1: of physicality and athleticism and size in the lineup, and
Speaker 1: if we dip below that baseline, you're gonna have a
Speaker 1: lot of games like yesterday where the Phoenix Suns just
Speaker 1: physically mall you, or like the first game where even
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets, who are not a physically imposing team.
Speaker 1: Physically mall you you need to hit that baseline. So
Speaker 1: if a reasons out your six eight guy who can
Speaker 1: guard multiple positions and rebound really well, especially on the
Speaker 1: defensive end, and he uh can play five minutes a night,
Speaker 1: take that guy out. That we're moving closer to the baseline.
Speaker 1: So the way to counteract that is more th ht
Speaker 1: and more base more you're bigger of the guards, you know,
Speaker 1: like you're Whereas if a reason was playing twenty five
Speaker 1: minutes a night, you might lean more towards none in Ellington,
Speaker 1: in Monk because you can get away with playing a
Speaker 1: little bit less size, a little bit less athleticism. So
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the interesting thing to keep an eye.
Speaker 1: I agree with you that they're gonna have to play
Speaker 1: T H T more. I just think the obvious answer
Speaker 1: here is the guy I've been clamoring for all summer
Speaker 1: and a guy that you like to and that's Wesley Matthews.
Speaker 1: He's a little bit undersized, but he's so strong and
Speaker 1: he's so laterally quick that he defends guards pretty well.
Speaker 1: And then he's just the definition of a professional basketball player.
Speaker 1: Like the dude just every night, does his job, does
Speaker 1: the shot going all the time? Know, as a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, it's it's missed a lot of the time.
Speaker 1: But the point is is like he's kind of like
Speaker 1: a shorter version of a reason if you think about
Speaker 1: it in a lot of ways, and what you can
Speaker 1: expect him to do. And so I think that I
Speaker 1: think that's a route that they should go. I'm really
Speaker 1: interested to see what Rob does in the next couple
Speaker 1: of days. I would I would assume we'll hear something today.
Speaker 1: What do you think? Yeah, And like to me, I
Speaker 1: don't predict them to add another wing, Like I think
Speaker 1: they're just gonna try to. They have a roster, like
Speaker 1: their team, guys who they believe can play, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's what their belief is in this roster, other than
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves, who actually looks nice. Like I like Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves a lot. I don't think he will play obviously,
Speaker 1: but I think he had a couple of while plays yesterday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like his cootback Q teams there and he doesn't look
Speaker 1: scared on the floor, you know what I mean. He
Speaker 1: looks like, he looks comfortable. He looks like he belongs
Speaker 1: in the NBA, So that was cool to see. But also,
Speaker 1: like Chandre Brown, I think I think he's a nice
Speaker 1: like two way player. But yeah, Rob has been open
Speaker 1: that he wants to keep that final roster spot open,
Speaker 1: So I don't think they add someone. I think they
Speaker 1: expect the reason back in eight weeks um, which I
Speaker 1: think it probably puts him back. What it's October, somewhere
Speaker 1: in December probably. I think he'll be patient with him.
Speaker 1: I I think we'll see him mid January. I was
Speaker 1: thinking about that today, like like it's a two month evaluation,
Speaker 1: but theoretically they could evaluate him and then be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we need to rehab this another month, or maybe you
Speaker 1: need you know, we're playing great, we're winning a lot
Speaker 1: of games. No reason to rush you back. We need
Speaker 1: you for the postseason. I would expect to see a
Speaker 1: reason in January. That's just my guest. Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: and again to me a reason again he could have started,
Speaker 1: but that's a playoff signing. Like that's a guy who's
Speaker 1: gonna make his bones in the playoffs. Same with like
Speaker 1: Andrea Guadala in Golden State. Similar type of mold of player, right,
Speaker 1: guy who knows what he is doing we can put
Speaker 1: in sixteen game player versus eighty two game player. To me, right,
Speaker 1: he's the guy who's thirty six years old, Like, you
Speaker 1: shouldn't be your prime one of your primary wing defenders,
Speaker 1: even though he probably could have this year. Base Moore,
Speaker 1: I think we'll have to get more minutes. Like and again,
Speaker 1: like we talked about it, I just you just can't
Speaker 1: share the floor with Non Ellington, Uh Non Ellington, who
Speaker 1: else Bays Moore, Carmelo, Like that's just disaster defensive line
Speaker 1: And no matter how many buckets Monk is getting off
Speaker 1: the dribble, you know, like it's it's just a disaster
Speaker 1: defensive lineup that I don't think we'll see. And and
Speaker 1: I guess we can kind of move to DeAndre Jordan,
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to see DeAndre Jordan without Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis on the floor, even how ugly the spacing looks, Like,
Speaker 1: I just think that doesn't make any sense. And uh no,
Speaker 1: Dwight playing yesterday as well kind of exasperated that issue
Speaker 1: because we got we got a lot of it. I
Speaker 1: think that's been pretty clear. And we've never said that
Speaker 1: DeAndre should be the primary center on the floor. That
Speaker 1: was never what we were going to, so, like, what
Speaker 1: do you think of DeAndre Jordan? I guess, guys yesterday.
Speaker 1: So this has been one of my biggest pet peeves
Speaker 1: of the last uh a couple of years, kind of
Speaker 1: getting into the whole Twitter experience and covering covering the league.
Speaker 1: People take what you say out of context, you know, Like,
Speaker 1: and what what we said about DeAndre Jordan's was so
Speaker 1: was so clear to anybody who actually listened to the podcast.
Speaker 1: We were like, Hey, we don't really care about what
Speaker 1: what happened in Brooklyn because it's a completely different identity.
Speaker 1: Um that said, we know that the defensive front court
Speaker 1: is going to be built around Lebron, Anthony Davis, and
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard, So this is kind of just a depth signing.
Speaker 1: And and what I said was what he can do
Speaker 1: in their drop coverage, which they is what they run
Speaker 1: with Dwight Howard. What they ran with Dwight Howard and
Speaker 1: Jeva McGee in was a drop coverage strictly in the
Speaker 1: drop coverage around good defensive players that actually care about defending,
Speaker 1: which is not what he had in Brooklyn. I think
Speaker 1: he can be a reasonable fac simile of Dwight Howard.
Speaker 1: That's that's all we said. That's literally all we said.
Speaker 1: And it turned into this thing like you and I
Speaker 1: saying that DeAndre Jordan's gonna be rejuvenated as this like
Speaker 1: modern uh defensive center with the Lakers, which is not
Speaker 1: at all, not at all what we were trying to say.
Speaker 1: And so what's funny is like, you know, I had
Speaker 1: I had somebody come to me yesterday, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: you saw something as well, basically saying, you know, are
Speaker 1: you ready to admit you were wrong about Deandrew Jordan. No, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not ready to admit I'm wrong about DeAndre Jordans
Speaker 1: because even if I was flay writtenly wrong, like even
Speaker 1: if like even in the best defensive lineups with the
Speaker 1: Lakers this year, he was just an absolute disaster, it
Speaker 1: would be in the regular season that I would admit that.
Speaker 1: Never in a million years would you get me in
Speaker 1: a fake basketball game to come on here and be like, hay,
Speaker 1: you guys got me like DeAndre Jordan's with with three
Speaker 1: twigs at guard, couldn't couldn't defend the rim like I would.
Speaker 1: I would never say that, that's just that's that's what
Speaker 1: because it was so funny to me. But as far
Speaker 1: as DeAndre Jordans goes like like he is, he is
Speaker 1: a limited defensive player unless you can kind of focus
Speaker 1: what he does into one specific thing, which is strictly
Speaker 1: a drop coverage big around other good defensive players so
Speaker 1: that he doesn't have to cover a ton of ground,
Speaker 1: so that he does like like he was guarding picking
Speaker 1: rolls yesterday with guys who were dying on screens, like
Speaker 1: of course he's gonna get picked apart, Like of course
Speaker 1: he's going to get picked apart, you know, but within
Speaker 1: if it if that's Lebron on the back line, if
Speaker 1: it's a reason helping, if it's Russ chasing over the top,
Speaker 1: his job becomes easier. And I do think I don't
Speaker 1: think he's gonna be an all defense guy. I don't
Speaker 1: even think he's gonna necessarily be a positive defender. But
Speaker 1: I think he'll be able to hold his ground as
Speaker 1: a reasonable fac simile of Dwight. I don't think that's
Speaker 1: an outlandish prediction. Am I am I crazy now? And again,
Speaker 1: like last night watching the game, like he definitely was
Speaker 1: in this, like I know it's preseason, and again, DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan's in year fifteen or whatever he is. He knows
Speaker 1: how many stakes are in preseason, and it was there
Speaker 1: were some funny moments where Rondo was like, come on, man,
Speaker 1: like you gotta you gotta move and DJ look back
Speaker 1: at Rondo like what are you talking about? Like this
Speaker 1: is preseason game number two, So he's not gonna be
Speaker 1: a great defender. And to me, he's always just been
Speaker 1: this inning seater, right just to give a d upbreak
Speaker 1: at the five, when Dwight Howard is not playing, Like
Speaker 1: that's a specialized role to me, and maybe he's not
Speaker 1: even good at that, Like maybe I'm wrong in there,
Speaker 1: But that's that's the idea that Polinka hired him for.
Speaker 1: That's the idea of Ogels going for. That's the idea
Speaker 1: that a d he recruited him for. Like all these
Speaker 1: guys obviously believe that there's something there that he can do.
Speaker 1: And again, you're right, it's just a pure drop coverage.
Speaker 1: These guards that can can pull up off the dribble
Speaker 1: in mid range, they're gonna they're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: score on him, Like that's just that's just how it is.
Speaker 1: They were able to score on Javl. To go watch
Speaker 1: you know c J McCollum against US. Go watch Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard against US the last year. Go watch any of
Speaker 1: these guards who can pull off the dribble. They destroyed
Speaker 1: drop coverages. That's the point of these That's why these
Speaker 1: cars average twenty five or thirty points a game, because
Speaker 1: these biggs can't stop them. So like, to me, expecting
Speaker 1: DJ to stop guys is unrealistic. Like all I want
Speaker 1: him to do is box out, rebound, block a few
Speaker 1: shots here, catch a few values. That's it. That's it,
Speaker 1: in like ten minutes a game, I think he can
Speaker 1: reasonably do that. I'm not even acting. I'm not even
Speaker 1: asking him to be Dwight Howard. Why Howard comes in
Speaker 1: super energy guy, guy who lights up the whole team, energy,
Speaker 1: bunny officer and rebounding um, attacking the rim aggressively, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm not even asking him to do that. So if
Speaker 1: you can't do that, he won't play. Like that's that's
Speaker 1: all there is to it. And they've talked about more
Speaker 1: a D at the five. You have a D at
Speaker 1: the five, Dwight center minutes and whatever is left in there,
Speaker 1: throw them to DeAndre Jordan's uh in a forty a
Speaker 1: minute game. That's all I'm saying with that he didn't
Speaker 1: look great these first two Breezes games. We can be
Speaker 1: honest about that. He didn't look great like that, and
Speaker 1: that's fine. The whole team doesn't look the whole exactly.
Speaker 1: Whole team doesn't look like there's a lot of people
Speaker 1: getting their ask that's what's happening, very true, Yeah, a
Speaker 1: lot of people missing defensive assignments, you know, So just
Speaker 1: to just blame it on him as very's very strange
Speaker 1: to me. And and again, he's part of this whole
Speaker 1: totality of not looking great and that's fine, we can
Speaker 1: say that. But you know, there's still four more of
Speaker 1: these exhibition games left before we even touch an actual,
Speaker 1: real effect simily of a game. So I want to
Speaker 1: wait and see till then. Um, for now, we'll wait.
Speaker 1: And again, I want to see him with our primary
Speaker 1: shot creators, like playing with Kendrick Nunn, trying to feed
Speaker 1: him like while driving, trying to throw it to him
Speaker 1: on the bounce in traffic. Like it's just weird watching
Speaker 1: watching him play with those guys. So I want to
Speaker 1: see him with the real team, and I think he'll
Speaker 1: get his shot. The last thing I'll say about DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan's is that, you know, for the people who want
Speaker 1: to take a victory lap, if he ends up starting
Speaker 1: every game and playing eighteen nineteen minutes as a center
Speaker 1: every game and being one of the defensive anchors of
Speaker 1: the team, there's a chance that could get ugly because
Speaker 1: that's never what we thought he would end up being.
Speaker 1: And if you want to, I'll tell you what. If
Speaker 1: you want to circle around and take victory laps against
Speaker 1: us at that point ahead, we'll take it. But because
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna know deep down that's never what
Speaker 1: we intended, what we thought was intended for that specific signing. UM.
Speaker 1: The last thing I want to say we've got about
Speaker 1: three minutes. The last thing I wanted you and I
Speaker 1: too quickly talk about before we get out of here
Speaker 1: is one of the ramifications of the Aresa injury is
Speaker 1: just how how much more important it is early in
Speaker 1: the season for russ lebron in a d to be healthy. Um.
Speaker 1: That margin for error has shrunk considerably now with the
Speaker 1: Aresa injury, because in a lot of ways, with the
Speaker 1: signings that they made, the physical, you know, drive of
Speaker 1: the team is so much more tied up in the
Speaker 1: Stars than it was in previous years. In previous years
Speaker 1: because of what you know, k CP was as a stout,
Speaker 1: you know, extra perimeter defender because of Dennis Shorter, because
Speaker 1: Andre Drummond, all those things, the it was a little
Speaker 1: bit less dependent on Lebron and a D. So when
Speaker 1: they got hurt, they were able to continue to defend
Speaker 1: at a really high level this season, So much of
Speaker 1: that athleticism and strength and size is tied up in
Speaker 1: Lebron Russian a D. And now with the Reason out,
Speaker 1: it's so important early in the season for them to
Speaker 1: stay healthy and that's all about luck, and so it'll
Speaker 1: be really interesting to keep an eye on UM. But
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers would be more than fine getting
Speaker 1: through to January when I think a Reason will come back.
Speaker 1: As long as the core three guys stay healthy, I
Speaker 1: just think that will be something to keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: What do you think? Yeah? I feel the same way,
Speaker 1: and like this team is going to go as those
Speaker 1: three guys go, Like and we're missing two thirds of them,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Started watching this game with
Speaker 1: like thirty three of the players that probably really matter
Speaker 1: in all of this UM and again like this stuff.
Speaker 1: To judge any of this without Russ is like I
Speaker 1: was thinking about this, adding Russ and Lebron to your teams,
Speaker 1: like adding six new players right like just in the
Speaker 1: terms of like the way your team runs. It's like
Speaker 1: you're you're adding an entired new dimension to how the
Speaker 1: team looks. Right now. You're going from th Ht running
Speaker 1: everything a ball screen to Lebron James and Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: making all your decisions. Your whole team is gonna change.
Speaker 1: The whole way the floor looks, the way defensive guards you,
Speaker 1: the way UM teams have to scheme against you. Everything
Speaker 1: is different. Once those two guys are running the running
Speaker 1: the ball and you almost start over, which is kind
Speaker 1: of a funny way, which is kind of why I
Speaker 1: want them to play a little bit, and I wish
Speaker 1: they just played one quarter in that first game. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, like there're a whole new team when those
Speaker 1: two guys go around, And I think A d knows
Speaker 1: that too, Like you could tell just the way I
Speaker 1: know he's trying to get comfortable with these new guys
Speaker 1: and all that. But this team is gonna go through
Speaker 1: a toll new make makeover once Rust and Brown get
Speaker 1: on the floor. Everything changes, all the offense that they run,
Speaker 1: how much they're in transition. Right, we see Rondo pushed
Speaker 1: in the ball, Westbrook is like an super exaggerated version
Speaker 1: of that. You know what I mean. You're gonna see
Speaker 1: this team in transition even more, see his team run
Speaker 1: even more, shots come from different places. So, UM, I
Speaker 1: don't see those Thus get on the floor. Man. We
Speaker 1: have like four more games here, and I expect them
Speaker 1: to sit out that last one. But yeah, hopefully we
Speaker 1: get three games with them working on it and then
Speaker 1: we get the real thing. I think they'll play tomorrow
Speaker 1: night against Golden State. That will be an interesting one. Um.
Speaker 1: And and they've been absolutely destroyed on on the glass
Speaker 1: and so bringing Lebron and Russ in completely changes that equation. UM. Anyway,
Speaker 1: so I'm out of town this weekend. UH. We would
Speaker 1: like to get something recorded as a postgame show from
Speaker 1: the Warriors game, So maybe you and I could touch
Speaker 1: base about doing something on Sunday. We'll we'll figure that
Speaker 1: out after the show. But anyway, as always, we sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate all your guys support. I'm having so much fun
Speaker 1: with this. I'm so glad the season is starting back
Speaker 1: up a little bit of drama, not real drama, but
Speaker 1: a little bit of fake drama to kind of keep
Speaker 1: us held over until the season starts. But as always,
Speaker 1: like we said, we appreciate your guys support and we'll
Speaker 1: hope to have something recorded by Sunday. Thanks everyone,