Speaker 1: The volume NBA fans. The weight is over. Basketball is back.
Speaker 1: In DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA,
Speaker 1: is celebrating with an unbeatable offer. New customers can score
Speaker 1: two hundred dollars instantly in bonus bets for throwing down
Speaker 1: five dollars on the NBA. Win or lose, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: You'll start the season with an instant dub. And with
Speaker 1: DraftKings parlays, everyone's got a shot at an even bigger
Speaker 1: basketball win. Strain together multiple bets from the same game,
Speaker 1: or build your parlay across multiple games for a shot
Speaker 1: at making your payday even sweeter. Basketball is more fun
Speaker 1: when you're in on the action. Download the Draftking Sportsbook
Speaker 1: AP now and use code hoops. That's hops. New customers
Speaker 1: can get two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly for
Speaker 1: betting just five dollars only on Draftking Sportsbook with code hoops.
Speaker 1: The crown is yours gambling problem called one eight hundred
Speaker 1: gambler or visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot
Speaker 1: net in New York call eight seven seven eight hope
Speaker 1: and why or text hope and Why to four six
Speaker 1: seven three six ' nine. In Connecticut. Help is available
Speaker 1: for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine
Speaker 1: seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please
Speaker 1: play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas.
Speaker 1: License partner Golden Nugget, Lake Charles and Louisiana twenty one
Speaker 1: plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets
Speaker 1: expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See
Speaker 1: Sportsbook dot DraftKings dot com, slash Basketball terms for eligibility
Speaker 1: and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right,
Speaker 1: welcome to Who's tonight. You're at the volume half Thursday, everybody,
Speaker 1: hope all if you guys are having a great week
Speaker 1: so far, jampacks for you today. We had excellent games
Speaker 1: in our Wednesday night. Late last night, the Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: went on the road into Philly and the Philadelphia seventy
Speaker 1: six ers kind of took care of business against them.
Speaker 1: We're up fifteen to late before a late flurry from
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown and Christops Porzingas kind of made it look
Speaker 1: like it was a game, but it was a dominant
Speaker 1: effort from the Philadelphia seventy six Ers, and then we
Speaker 1: got kind of a weird version of the Nuggets Warriors
Speaker 1: matchup as Jamal Murray and Raymond Green missed the game.
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson kind of sort of had a chance at
Speaker 1: the end of the game to potentially type it fumble
Speaker 1: to pass away from Chris Paul. A lot of interesting
Speaker 1: stuff to get into, and then I want to complain
Speaker 1: about the Lakers a little bit more, but they are
Speaker 1: officially relegated to the end of the show. That's where
Speaker 1: the Lakers are going to be until they start playing
Speaker 1: good basketball. But I have some compliments that I want
Speaker 1: to pay to the Houston Rockets, who are, guess what,
Speaker 1: one of four teams in the NBA to be top
Speaker 1: ten in both offense and defense right now. Philadelphia seventy
Speaker 1: six Ers, Denver Nuggets, the Boston Celtics, and the Houston
Speaker 1: Rockets are your four teams that are top ten in both.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna lay a little bit of praise on
Speaker 1: the Rockets. I'm gonna complain about the Lakers, and then
Speaker 1: we'll be done for the day. You guys know the
Speaker 1: job for we get started. Subscribe to our brand new
Speaker 1: YouTube channel. Don't forget we're doing a giveaway for anybody
Speaker 1: who lives in Los Angeles. We're giving away tickets to
Speaker 1: a Lakers Blazers game here in less than a week,
Speaker 1: few days away, and all you gotta do is post
Speaker 1: a screenshot of you being subscribed to our new YouTube
Speaker 1: channel for you to get included in that drawing. So
Speaker 1: make sure you go to my Twitter feed and scroll
Speaker 1: down to where you see I've quoted the volumes tweet
Speaker 1: about that contest, and drop that screenshot in there. If
Speaker 1: you don't live in the LA area, it would still
Speaker 1: mean a lot to me if you, guys took a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes just to scroll down a couple seconds,
Speaker 1: I should say, just to scroll down and hit that
Speaker 1: subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast under Hoops Tonight, social media, TikTok, Instagram,
Speaker 1: and Twitters. Where I'm Twitter mainly is where I'm posting
Speaker 1: the vast majority of the visual representations of the things
Speaker 1: I talk about when I do my film sessions. I'm
Speaker 1: dropping clips there and then give us mail bag questions
Speaker 1: in the YouTube comments. We're not going to do any
Speaker 1: mail bad questions today, but we hit five yesterday. We
Speaker 1: kind of hit them periodically throughout the week, so make
Speaker 1: sure you drop those in the YouTube comments. All right, last,
Speaker 1: but not least, before we get started. Baseball is officially over,
Speaker 1: but everything else is in full swing. We've got college
Speaker 1: basketball kicking up, the NBA, we got college football in
Speaker 1: full swing, the NFL in the heart of their season.
Speaker 1: And there's still concerts and comedy shows touring around the country.
Speaker 1: And if you want to get a ticket to any
Speaker 1: of these, try game Time, the fastest growing ticketing app
Speaker 1: in the United States. If you want to go see
Speaker 1: your favorite football team, if you want to go see
Speaker 1: your favorite basketball team, they've got a deal for you.
Speaker 1: If there's a musician that's touring around that you want
Speaker 1: to hear, if there's a comedian that you want to hear,
Speaker 1: they've got a deal for you. No matter where you live,
Speaker 1: get out and have some fun this week. Download the
Speaker 1: game Time app, Enter your email and redeem code Hoops
Speaker 1: for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms apply again,
Speaker 1: Enter your email and code Hoops. That's Hops for twenty
Speaker 1: dollars off. Download game Time today, last minute take gets
Speaker 1: lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So again,
Speaker 1: weird game in Nuggets Warriors. Jamal Murray was out, and
Speaker 1: so you got a steady dose of Reggie Jackson, which
Speaker 1: just doesn't really bring the other half of that two
Speaker 1: man game gravity that Jamal Murray brings. So even though
Speaker 1: Draymond was out, which presented a bunch of other weird things,
Speaker 1: right Like, you got a lot of like Dario Sarich
Speaker 1: minutes with Nikole Jokic on the floor, which I don't
Speaker 1: think will ever happen in a playoff series as long
Speaker 1: as the Warriors are healthy. So like, obviously a weird
Speaker 1: game in terms of the matchups and some of the
Speaker 1: chess pieces that you would see in a playoff series,
Speaker 1: right Like, arguably the second or third best player for
Speaker 1: the Warriors and arguably or for sure the second best
Speaker 1: player on the Nuggets missing that game. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, it was a good opportunity to learn about
Speaker 1: some specific different things, right like down the stretch that game,
Speaker 1: the Warriors were really spamming pick and roll and I
Speaker 1: want to I want to give a special shout out
Speaker 1: to JJ Reddick here and Mark Jones for doing a
Speaker 1: really nice job during the broadcast of just calling out
Speaker 1: out this chess match as it was taking place. I
Speaker 1: think having JJ Reddick on ESPN to do these the
Speaker 1: color commentary on these games has been such a treat
Speaker 1: for basketball fans because, like he just brings so much
Speaker 1: of that basic insight to help fans understand the actual
Speaker 1: tactical things that are taking place on the floor. So
Speaker 1: shout out to JJ Reddick there. But he did a
Speaker 1: really nice job pointing out what was taking place down
Speaker 1: the stretch of this game, which was the Warriors were
Speaker 1: basically trying to pull Nicole Jokic away from the rim
Speaker 1: in pick and roll and essentially bring two on the
Speaker 1: ball to Steph Curry and then hit Kevon Looney with
Speaker 1: that pass into the pocket. And then JJ did a
Speaker 1: really nice job breaking down what are the big differences
Speaker 1: between what the Warriors do and a lot of other teams.
Speaker 1: Is they cut out of the weak side corner, which
Speaker 1: is just a higher percentage play. You gotta have an
Speaker 1: athlete there, but think of it, to put it simply,
Speaker 1: think of it like this. A lot of times in
Speaker 1: pick and roll you're making that kickout pass and it's
Speaker 1: a it's a wide open corner three right, and the
Speaker 1: Warriors still will occasionally get those corner threes. We saw
Speaker 1: those famously in the twenty fifteen NBA Finals, with Andrea
Speaker 1: Gudala getting the benefit of those off of Draymond Green
Speaker 1: passes right. One of the things the Warriors have done
Speaker 1: in recent years is there again, it requires the way
Speaker 1: Steph gets guarded for this to work, because in a
Speaker 1: normal pick and roll coverage, if the guard's working downhill
Speaker 1: and the big is in more of a little bit
Speaker 1: more of a drop than a high hedge or or
Speaker 1: a blitz if he's dropping back, then that lowman, the
Speaker 1: lowman is the guy guarding the guy in the weak
Speaker 1: side corner. He can kind of help without having to
Speaker 1: fully abandon his matchup and still kind of keep an
Speaker 1: eye on man and ball right. That's the difference. Whereas
Speaker 1: with Steph, because of the fact that he pulls that
Speaker 1: second defender so far away from the basket. Now the
Speaker 1: roleman in this case, Kavon Looney is catching with a
Speaker 1: clear run to the basket, and so as a result
Speaker 1: that Loman has to completely abandon that corner to step
Speaker 1: up and help. And so if you have the timing
Speaker 1: right and as long as it's a habit from that lineup,
Speaker 1: and it's a lot of their athletes, right, it's Andrew Wiggins,
Speaker 1: it's Jonathan Kaminga, it's Gary Payton. The second out of
Speaker 1: that week side corner, they will cut along the baseline
Speaker 1: and it's just an easy drop off for a basket.
Speaker 1: So they got the Nuggets I think three or four
Speaker 1: times with that in the fourth quarter as they started
Speaker 1: to get going, and you know, it kind of like
Speaker 1: it starts slow, right, Like there was a play in
Speaker 1: the second quarter where Steph got Kidtavious called a Pope
Speaker 1: cat on a screen because KCP was doing a really
Speaker 1: nice job guarding Steph for the majority of the game.
Speaker 1: But it's just a really really difficult job to do
Speaker 1: to stay glued to a player that that's gifted moving
Speaker 1: without the basketball. Steph is incredibly gifted. It's setting his
Speaker 1: man up for screens because he's got such a good
Speaker 1: handle and he's always a threat to reject the screen
Speaker 1: and go the other way. Right, KCP just constantly stayed attached.
Speaker 1: But towards the end of the game, the Warriors finally
Speaker 1: started to generate just tiny bits of separation. You saw
Speaker 1: in that second quarter. He finally got I clipped this place.
Speaker 1: You can see it on my Twitter feed, but you
Speaker 1: see he finally gets kcpcot on the screen and Yokich
Speaker 1: is in more of a high drop than a blitz,
Speaker 1: and so he's up at the level, but he's still
Speaker 1: giving Steph a little bit of space. He hits him
Speaker 1: with it between the legs, step back and hits a
Speaker 1: pull up three. Right. That's kind of the progression. He
Speaker 1: burns you a couple times, then you start just basically
Speaker 1: blitzing and coming way out higher above the level of
Speaker 1: the screen to try to contain that, which is then
Speaker 1: what opens up the short role. Well, what Mike Malone
Speaker 1: did with a few minutes left to counter that, and
Speaker 1: it completely changed the dynamic of the Warriors offense down
Speaker 1: the stretches. They moved Aaron Gordon on onto Kevon Looney,
Speaker 1: which allows them to switch that Steph Looney pick and
Speaker 1: roll right. Now, what was interesting there is that ended
Speaker 1: up leading to the next phase of the chess match,
Speaker 1: which is, okay, where do you put jokicch in this case, well,
Speaker 1: there were several possessions down the stretch and he ended
Speaker 1: up on Chris Paul for two of them, and then
Speaker 1: he ended up on Klay Thompson for another. And so
Speaker 1: then the Warriors. What was kind of cool about it
Speaker 1: from the same point of the Nuggets is the Warriors
Speaker 1: did what you would kind of expect, right, so they
Speaker 1: immediately just went to attacking Jokic through those other two matchups. Right, So,
Speaker 1: like Chris Paul starts trying to iso Nikola Jokic on
Speaker 1: the right wing and he just can't shake him free. Right,
Speaker 1: then there's Klay Thompson. Klay Thompson gets Jokic on the
Speaker 1: next possession and he actually manages to beat him off
Speaker 1: the dribble, but like Jokic kind of flattens the drive out,
Speaker 1: so he's not really going aggressively towards the basket. But
Speaker 1: I think it was Reggie Jackson out of the left
Speaker 1: side corner, reaches in and just rakes down on Klay
Speaker 1: Thompson as he's driving, which gives him two free throws. Right.
Speaker 1: But then there was another possession where Chris Paul got
Speaker 1: Nikola jokicen pick and roll. They ended up setting a
Speaker 1: ball screen and he missed a pull up three. A
Speaker 1: decent look at a pull up three, but he missed it,
Speaker 1: and then there was one possession where because of the
Speaker 1: way things went in transition, Jokic did end up on
Speaker 1: Looney again, and when he was on Loony, Chris Paul
Speaker 1: ran a ball screen with Jokic and got Loony on
Speaker 1: the slip for the into the basket. But notice whose
Speaker 1: name I didn't say in any of that that little
Speaker 1: die dribe there, Steph Kurt. He was basically completely removed
Speaker 1: from the offense until that transition pull up three he
Speaker 1: made late that kind of gave him a chance right
Speaker 1: before it turned into a foul shooting contest. And that's
Speaker 1: the beauty of it. Like by virtue of the by
Speaker 1: virtue of that chess match move, by moving Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: onto Kevon Looney, they effectively tricked or Jedi mind trick,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, the Warriors into going
Speaker 1: away from Steph. Whereas what they should have done in
Speaker 1: that case is like, just bring Chris Paul back up
Speaker 1: into the ball screen if he's got Yokic on it, it,
Speaker 1: run a Steph Chris Paul pick and roll, or have
Speaker 1: Steph set the ball screen on Nikola Jokic. Well, Chris
Speaker 1: has the ball because Jokic might not navigate the screen
Speaker 1: really well, maybe you end up getting a switch with
Speaker 1: Steph onto Jokic and then he can isolate there and
Speaker 1: make a play. But that's kind of the beauty of
Speaker 1: it is like Steph was spamming this action and he
Speaker 1: was killing you. You made a smart adjustment in a
Speaker 1: kind of Jedi mind, tricked the Warriors into going away
Speaker 1: from their best player. Then down on the end the
Speaker 1: other end of the floor, they got a couple of
Speaker 1: really good looks out of Jokic actions that iced the game.
Speaker 1: They ran an inverted ball screen with Reggie Jackson on
Speaker 1: the right wing, and one of the things that the
Speaker 1: Warriors will do whenever they run guard screens, meaning like
Speaker 1: guards setting the screen with Steph Curry's man, they'll do
Speaker 1: a classic hedge and recover. So they'll have Steph essentially
Speaker 1: show high on whoever it is that's the ball handler,
Speaker 1: and then as soon as whoever the ball handler's man recovers,
Speaker 1: Steph will sprint back to whoever the guard is who
Speaker 1: set the screen and play defense. Well, Jokicic caught him
Speaker 1: hanging around just a second too long, and Reggie Jackson
Speaker 1: set the screen. He popped to the top of the
Speaker 1: key and Steph stage just a second two long on
Speaker 1: that hedge, and when he recovered, Reggie Jackson just ripped
Speaker 1: right to the basket and made a right handed layup.
Speaker 1: And then on the final kind of post up from
Speaker 1: Jokic on the right block, he had Looney, Conavious Cabbo
Speaker 1: Pope made the post entry, and on the post entry,
Speaker 1: KCP just makes a basic cut to the rim just
Speaker 1: right off of Jokic's inside side, and Clay just on
Speaker 1: that cut is with KCP. But I don't know if
Speaker 1: it was from Steve Kerr from the standpoint of a
Speaker 1: game plan, a piece that came out of the huddle,
Speaker 1: or if it was just kind of an impromptu sort
Speaker 1: of thing from Clay. But Clay kind of like, as
Speaker 1: he was passing Jokic was like, maybe I'm gonna help here,
Speaker 1: or maybe I'm gonna double, and so he lingered just
Speaker 1: a second too long right as he was passing Jokic
Speaker 1: on that cut, and Can Davis called the Pope was
Speaker 1: wide open for the layup that basically ice the game.
Speaker 1: Now late we still got a Steph Curry left handed
Speaker 1: layup off of a drive on KCP that he missed
Speaker 1: and obviously we had the jump ball and the Klay
Speaker 1: Thompson kind of fumbled bad bounce pass from Chris Paul.
Speaker 1: But a lot of that was because a miss free throws,
Speaker 1: like Nicola Jokic just inexplicably missed two free throws that
Speaker 1: never happens. I think Reggie Jackson missed one as well.
Speaker 1: So like they missed three free throws at the game
Speaker 1: that gave the Warriors some late chances that otherwise they
Speaker 1: would not have had. But it was an interesting kind
Speaker 1: of little chess match there, and I think, like in general,
Speaker 1: you know, I just lived through this chess match as
Speaker 1: a fan. I mean, obviously I covered all the series
Speaker 1: last year, but as a fan rooting for a team.
Speaker 1: I was rooting for the Lakers in that Lakers Warriors
Speaker 1: series last year, and I lived through all of this.
Speaker 1: I lived through the experience of trying to navigate how
Speaker 1: difficult it is to guard Steph Curry and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: And one of the things they did in the one
Speaker 1: of the things they did in the Lakers series, which
Speaker 1: was smart, was they just kept bringing Anthony Davis's man
Speaker 1: up into the ball screen, regardless of who he was guarding.
Speaker 1: So if like if it ended up being Gary Payton,
Speaker 1: they just bring Gary Payton up into the screen, right,
Speaker 1: Like whoever it was, they brought them up. And so
Speaker 1: that's the thing that the Warriors didn't do in this
Speaker 1: one game regular season sample size. But that's the thing
Speaker 1: that that would be the inevitable adjustment, right as you
Speaker 1: just start bringing Jokic up into the ball screen, regardless
Speaker 1: of whether he's guarding Chris Paul or he's guarding Kavan Looni. Right.
Speaker 1: But that said, like I thought, like in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways, it demonstrated the types of advantages that Denver
Speaker 1: is gonna have regardless, Like they the transition pushes. I
Speaker 1: think they're the I think they're the best at this
Speaker 1: in the league, just whenever they have an opportunity. You know,
Speaker 1: it's funny because they're not a particularly fast team. Like
Speaker 1: I'd say, Contavious cab of Pope is a really is
Speaker 1: an elite straight line athlete, and Aaron Gordon is an
Speaker 1: elite straight line athlete. But Michael Porter, Junior, Nicola Jokis,
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray, these are average to below average athletes. Right.
Speaker 1: They have great size, Like Jamal Murray is huge and
Speaker 1: strong for a guard Michael Porter Junior is tall, has
Speaker 1: long arms and can move well. Michael's actually moving really
Speaker 1: well right now, but he's not as athletic as your
Speaker 1: typical wings that we have in the league. Right and
Speaker 1: then Jokic is a is a is a big body that's,
Speaker 1: you know, theoretically not a top tier linear athlete. Their
Speaker 1: bench is super athletic, like the Nuggets bench has all
Speaker 1: sorts of straight line athletes, but like somehow the Nuggets
Speaker 1: still kill everybody in transition. And to me, it's a habit.
Speaker 1: They just have really good habits of identifying when there
Speaker 1: are opportunities to push the pace. It's almost like they
Speaker 1: identify whenever Aaron Gordon's man or Nikole Yokich's man like
Speaker 1: misses a layup or crashes the offensive glass on their
Speaker 1: end of the floor, they will identify that and sprint.
Speaker 1: And then they get these quick mismatches in transition and
Speaker 1: it's a bucket damn near every time they got Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon on Steph Curry switched a bunch of times in
Speaker 1: this game. Jokic has been killing people all season long
Speaker 1: with that type of transition push that I think is
Speaker 1: super just. It's funny we talk about, you know, half
Speaker 1: court offense and half court offense in and of itself
Speaker 1: is the bread and butter of what determines the outcomes
Speaker 1: of playoff series, but it isn't the entire thing. Like,
Speaker 1: let's just throw an arbitrary number, Like, let's pretend that
Speaker 1: half court offense piece is seventy percent of it. What's
Speaker 1: the other thirty percent? The other thirty percent of it
Speaker 1: is everything on the margins. So like being a good
Speaker 1: transition defense, being a good transition offense, good on the glass,
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor, execution out of timeouts,
Speaker 1: execution at the end of games, Like your defensive versatility,
Speaker 1: your ability to switch up schemes depending on what's going on. Like,
Speaker 1: it's a huge advantage that Aaron Gordon is both strong
Speaker 1: enough to hang with an imposing post player but quick
Speaker 1: enough to hang on the perimeter and a switch against
Speaker 1: someone like Steph Curry credibly right, Like, obviously he's not
Speaker 1: gonna lock up Steph Curry, but he can do as
Speaker 1: well on Steph Curry as what you'd expect from other
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders. Right, That sort of versatility is a huge
Speaker 1: advantage there. So they have defensive versatility they are a
Speaker 1: great transition offense. They're elite on the glass on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor, and all that does is make
Speaker 1: it so that you can't It's not just oh, you
Speaker 1: have to beat the Nuggets in the half court, You've
Speaker 1: got to beat them everywhere in every facet of the
Speaker 1: game because they're good everywhere, and that just kind of
Speaker 1: increases their margin for air. It makes it so that
Speaker 1: they can be without Jamal Murray and win games against
Speaker 1: elite teams. Right. You know, Jokic kind of has this
Speaker 1: ability I talked about yesterday on our show, But like Nicole,
Speaker 1: Jokic going into last night's game was shooting damn near
Speaker 1: ninety percent on floaters and push shots. And he struggled
Speaker 1: a little bit with Looney in the first part of
Speaker 1: this game, but then I thought he kind of figured
Speaker 1: him out towards the end. The accuracy he has on
Speaker 1: those shots, the shot making ability that he has, puts
Speaker 1: him in a position where when Jamal Murray's out, he
Speaker 1: can just push up his usage and then make things
Speaker 1: happen like that. So he I think he missed eleven
Speaker 1: shots last night, and that's uncharacteristic for Jokic, But because
Speaker 1: he's so damn efficient. He was still fourteen for twenty
Speaker 1: five or whatever it is that he was, and he
Speaker 1: still got, you know, generated more than enough offense to
Speaker 1: win the game. This team just has a massive margin
Speaker 1: for air and they're getting you know, solid production out
Speaker 1: of specific key role players off the bench. That's kind
Speaker 1: of maintaining that kind of flexibility as they navigate the
Speaker 1: ebbs and flows of the regular season. They's just a
Speaker 1: really good spot. And you know, Michael Porter Junior is
Speaker 1: the last guy I wanted to shout out. He has
Speaker 1: been so good in so many ways, especially over the
Speaker 1: course of the last two weeks. He's making such better
Speaker 1: help and recover decisions. Defensively, he's leveraging his length and athleticism. Again,
Speaker 1: like I don't think he moves as well as some
Speaker 1: of the other wings in the league, but when you
Speaker 1: combine how well he moves with him being six '
Speaker 1: ten with super long arms, he can still be really impactful.
Speaker 1: He had another tip dunk last night off of an
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon post up. He caught Chris Paul not paying
Speaker 1: attention in help side, and that was his eighth offensive
Speaker 1: rebound put back of the season so far. He has
Speaker 1: the tenth most offensive rebound put backs in the entire NBA. Like,
Speaker 1: that's how active Michael Porter Junior has been on the
Speaker 1: offensive glass, and now his shots starting to come around.
Speaker 1: He was thirty one percent from three in six attempts
Speaker 1: in his first five games of the season, and now
Speaker 1: he's up to forty four percent on eight attempts in
Speaker 1: his last four games. So that's a really a good sign.
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray apparently is going to be out the rest
Speaker 1: of the month with his hamstring injuries, so it'll be
Speaker 1: all that concept that I'm talking about in terms of malleability,
Speaker 1: variety and margin for error is going to be put
Speaker 1: to the test in a big way over the course
Speaker 1: of the rest of this month and especially as it
Speaker 1: pertains to the Plan tournament. But that's the thing, like,
Speaker 1: if if Denver ends up, you know, running off a
Speaker 1: bunch of games without Jamal Murray, to me, that's a
Speaker 1: pretty strong indicator that this team is on track to
Speaker 1: be in a really good spot to repeat Golden State.
Speaker 1: A couple of specific things I wanted to hit jonathanaminga
Speaker 1: hit another left shoulder fade away in the post. He's
Speaker 1: up to twenty five points on twenty one post ups
Speaker 1: this year, including passes, that's one point one to nine
Speaker 1: points per possession. He's now tied with Lebron and Tobias
Speaker 1: Harris for the twenty first most post points in the NBA.
Speaker 1: So like he's become like a legitimate matchup attacking wing
Speaker 1: for them. I was talking with Adam Marris about this
Speaker 1: a little bit this morning, you know, because he thinks
Speaker 1: that it's a little bit more hot and cold, and
Speaker 1: I agree. There's a lot of bad with Kamina in
Speaker 1: the post, like turnovers, you know, forcing extremely difficult shots
Speaker 1: against smaller defenders when he could be going more aggressively
Speaker 1: to the rim. But he's making enough shots and he's
Speaker 1: getting to the foul line and it's producing the points.
Speaker 1: And so at the end of the day, like young guys,
Speaker 1: you expect highs and lows. You expect highlights and you
Speaker 1: expect mistakes, whereas like as players get better, there's fewer highlights,
Speaker 1: but there's more consistent, boring success and then there's way
Speaker 1: fewer mistakes. Right, So, like obviously, like the young player
Speaker 1: experience kind of comes with that sort of thing, But
Speaker 1: in general I find that to be an encouraging early
Speaker 1: season trend that Kaming has been so good attacking matchups
Speaker 1: in the post and then don't forget in the long
Speaker 1: term like this, dude's gonna have another seventy plus games
Speaker 1: or reps like this, So it's very possible that he
Speaker 1: ties off a lot of the mistake making tendencies as
Speaker 1: he moves along. Again. Another game that came down to
Speaker 1: a late game pick and roll chess match, like we
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, one of the things that would like
Speaker 1: kind of stood out to me is like you had
Speaker 1: CP three with really favorable matchups as Jokic moved over
Speaker 1: to him, and he couldn't produce a bucket aside from
Speaker 1: the one time that Jokic was back on Looney when
Speaker 1: he could run his traditional pick and roll, and like
Speaker 1: that's one of the things is like, like Chris is
Speaker 1: going to have to be able to occasionally pitch in
Speaker 1: with a with a bucket against the switch, particularly against
Speaker 1: the center when things kind of go that way. And
Speaker 1: there's been a handful of games this year when Chris
Speaker 1: has had some scoring pop, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: he's really struggled to put the ball in the basket.
Speaker 1: And so that's something just to keep an eye on
Speaker 1: over the course of the rest of the season, but
Speaker 1: overall a really encouraging effort. Again, Draymond's out, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be totally different if if Jamal Murray's in there too,
Speaker 1: because like you're gonna slide Andrew Wiggins onto Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: in all likelihood. With Draymond in the lineup, you can
Speaker 1: do a lot more. Uh, you have a little bit
Speaker 1: more flexibility with the way you guard Jokic, Like Jokic
Speaker 1: was really targeting Sarag in this game. There's a game
Speaker 1: where or there's a play where he ran in inverted
Speaker 1: pick and roll where Sarge was on Gordon and he
Speaker 1: ran like a ball screen where he was the ball
Speaker 1: handler with Gordon at ten feet away from the basket,
Speaker 1: got the switch onto Sarag. Then Gordon cleared out and
Speaker 1: took Looney with him, and then he just kind of
Speaker 1: hit Sarge with a basic drop step and put it
Speaker 1: in the basket. Like every time Jokic saw Sorage, he
Speaker 1: saw food and his eyes lit up and he got
Speaker 1: an easy basket. So like, are we gonna see Sarge
Speaker 1: on the floor with Jokic at the same time at
Speaker 1: all during a playoff series? Probably not. It's probably gonna
Speaker 1: be a steady diet of Draymond and Looney with Sarge
Speaker 1: against their bench units running pick and pops with Chris
Speaker 1: Paul right. So, like, don't want to take too much
Speaker 1: away from this matchup, but I did think it was
Speaker 1: an encouraging effort. Not many teams have gone into I
Speaker 1: talked about this earlier, but that's the eighth win for
Speaker 1: the Nuggets, and I want to say that's just the
Speaker 1: third win of those eight that required a clutch situation,
Speaker 1: meaning the score was within five with less than five
Speaker 1: minutes left. So like they've been pretty much dominating people,
Speaker 1: and so for you to go into Denver and make
Speaker 1: a game of it and have a left handed layup
Speaker 1: from staff that could have tied the game late even
Speaker 1: with the miss free throws, that is a really encouraging outcome.
Speaker 1: I also thought it was you know, again, Looney is
Speaker 1: not a Jokic stopper. I think that's overstated. I do
Speaker 1: think you can get away with more single coverage stuff
Speaker 1: with Looney than you normally would in a playoff series,
Speaker 1: and that's an advantage. Again, Like that's the thing, like
Speaker 1: if you can get when it comes to superstars you're
Speaker 1: not trying to stop them, especially the best players in
Speaker 1: the league. You're not trying to stop them. You're just
Speaker 1: trying to make the game harder for them. And I
Speaker 1: think Looney is capable of at least making Jokic work harder.
Speaker 1: And it's a really interesting idea of like the matchup archetypes,
Speaker 1: because like I think Anthony Davis is the best and
Speaker 1: most versatile defender in the NBA, and like there's a
Speaker 1: couple other guys that are on that list, on that tier, right,
Speaker 1: like guys like bam at a Baio, guys like Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: guys like Giannis. But like the problem is is, like
Speaker 1: most of those guys are too skinny to really hang
Speaker 1: with Jokic in his back down situations. So it's interesting
Speaker 1: to me that you see guys like Joel Embiid, like
Speaker 1: Carl Town, even like Kevon Looney, like the more the
Speaker 1: for lack of a better word, like the kind of
Speaker 1: chunkier and I mean again, like they're professional athletes. That's
Speaker 1: not what I mean, but I just mean relative to
Speaker 1: the lean kind of like skinnier looking athlete versus more
Speaker 1: of the chunkier kind of like low center of gravity,
Speaker 1: heavy weight bigs. They tend to hold up better against
Speaker 1: Jokic because he's a backdown player, and if you can
Speaker 1: hold your ground, you can force him into tougher shots.
Speaker 1: And again, like that, that's not the same way saying
Speaker 1: Jokic stopper. It just it just is a is an
Speaker 1: example of a type of player that can make Yokic
Speaker 1: work harder, and the Warriors have one of those guys.
Speaker 1: And I think that that is a a legitimate point
Speaker 1: of optimism. And again, your offense had some real success
Speaker 1: against the Nugget defense in the fourth quarter up until
Speaker 1: that final adjustment with the Aaron Gordon switch, which the
Speaker 1: Warriors in a regular season see setting were unable to
Speaker 1: kind of keep up with. All right, moving on to
Speaker 1: sixer Celtics weird game. They start with Drew Holliday on
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid and which you know it was because it
Speaker 1: started with a Basically, what they were doing is theyd
Speaker 1: have Porzingis on Porzingis and Tatum on either Ubre or Harris,
Speaker 1: and they would bring those guys in help and basically
Speaker 1: just kind of like whenever Embiid kind of put Drew
Speaker 1: in a precarious position, that's what they would offer, right
Speaker 1: as that kind of backside help, especially when Drew was
Speaker 1: trying to front the post. And there was an early
Speaker 1: play where you embiid spun off on the baseline and
Speaker 1: like dunked easily along the baseline and everyone's like, uh oh,
Speaker 1: like I'm not sure this matchup is gonna work, and
Speaker 1: then Drew Holliday actually got a bunch of stops. In general,
Speaker 1: I thought their defensive strategy was sound. They held him
Speaker 1: Bead to twenty seven points on ten for twenty shooting
Speaker 1: with six turnovers. In general, I thought it was a
Speaker 1: good defensive game for the Celtics, but it was a
Speaker 1: dominant defensive game from Philly. There's again, there was a
Speaker 1: late flurry from Christops Porzingis and Jalen Brown that made
Speaker 1: it look closer than it was. Right Like Chrisops Porzingis
Speaker 1: got a wide open three on the left wing that
Speaker 1: could have tied the game, but it was just it
Speaker 1: was a kind of a flur of things. Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: hit two really tough threes in that stretch, and Porzingis
Speaker 1: got hot with his above the break three point shooting
Speaker 1: and it kind of came down to that. But This
Speaker 1: was a pretty dominant performance, Like they held the Celtics
Speaker 1: to just eighty seven points. They were right about forty
Speaker 1: five minutes of the game. It really comes down to
Speaker 1: that combination that I always talk about, Like, we're not
Speaker 1: gonna hit the Timberwolves today. Timberwolves fans, I know you're
Speaker 1: wanting to God knows, I love the Timberwolves and I'm
Speaker 1: super high on that team. I was high on them
Speaker 1: coming into the season. But I want to spend it.
Speaker 1: I want to do a deep dive on them. So
Speaker 1: we have a really small slate tonight and the Thursday
Speaker 1: night slate, So tomorrow we are going to hit a
Speaker 1: deep dive on the Minnesota Timberwolves and talk all about
Speaker 1: how good they've been to start this season. But what
Speaker 1: did I talk about with the Timberwolves, Like, it's that
Speaker 1: combination of perimeter defense with brim protection. If you can
Speaker 1: kind of put those two pieces together, you can be
Speaker 1: an excellent defense, especially if you can control the glass.
Speaker 1: And the Sixers are kind of high on perimeter defenders.
Speaker 1: Liked Anthony Melton is a very good perimeter defender. Patrick
Speaker 1: Beverly when he's actually guarding guards, is a good perimeter defender.
Speaker 1: They're getting really good perimeter defense right now out of
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris, Kelly Ubray and then Nick batoom I was
Speaker 1: impressed with him flying around screens and playing good physical defense.
Speaker 1: Has had several really good possessions on Jason Tatum. And
Speaker 1: so they're basically just hounding the Celtics perimeter players all
Speaker 1: game long because they can match up with their guards
Speaker 1: and with their wings and then embiids behind bothering shots
Speaker 1: in the paint, right. And that's the thing, Like, if
Speaker 1: if you can, if you can really contain on the
Speaker 1: perimeter at least to the best of the best that
Speaker 1: you're capable of against a team that's talented, you can
Speaker 1: actually start to bait the Celtics into their worst tendencies. Because,
Speaker 1: like when the Celtics really are operating freely and they're
Speaker 1: driving and kicking and they've got all their guys in rhythm,
Speaker 1: they're damn near impossible to guard. There's just too much
Speaker 1: ball handling and shooting on the floor, right. But like
Speaker 1: if you can kind of stagnate them a little bit
Speaker 1: and force them to like really have to work hard
Speaker 1: to generate quality shots, typically they won't do that. They
Speaker 1: won't patiently operate to generate quality shots. They'll usually just
Speaker 1: start settling for quick early threes. And that was what
Speaker 1: they were able to do in this game. They forced them,
Speaker 1: I think. I think the Celtics took forty seven threes
Speaker 1: and a lot of them were rushed early shots in
Speaker 1: the shot clock. Did they miss them open looks too, Yes,
Speaker 1: But that's part of kind of that process. Like you
Speaker 1: can throw a team out of rhythm and then they
Speaker 1: start to miss the open ones as well. And that
Speaker 1: kind of looked like again, like I don't care how
Speaker 1: good the Sixers played defense, I don't care how poorly
Speaker 1: they shot compared to their expected quality. The Celtics straight
Speaker 1: up should never have eighty seven points through forty five
Speaker 1: minutes of NBA basketball. They have too much talent on
Speaker 1: their roster for that to happen. And so that's the
Speaker 1: thing is, like it's kind of a two part effort
Speaker 1: when it comes to slowing down the Celtics as it
Speaker 1: pertains to their you know, talent advantage. You've got to
Speaker 1: you've got to do your part in terms of the
Speaker 1: defensive con painment on the perimeter. But then you have
Speaker 1: to essentially count on the Celtics to piss down their
Speaker 1: leg for the other half of it, right, And like
Speaker 1: that's kind of been a consistent theme over the course
Speaker 1: of the last few years. It's like the Celtics kind
Speaker 1: of have two modes. They have like their good basketball
Speaker 1: thought process approach offensively mode, and then they have there
Speaker 1: we're settling for bad early threes mode and making poor
Speaker 1: rim decisions and things like that like that, if you
Speaker 1: can bait them into that, you can cause real problems.
Speaker 1: And then about the late game offense from Philly was
Speaker 1: really interesting. Tyree Maxey really dominated the early portion of
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, Like basically from the beginning of the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter to about halfway through, he was really attacking Chrisops,
Speaker 1: Porzingis and pick and roll. So there was a play.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like a sequence and you could
Speaker 1: see the adjustments. So it started with a Porzingis in
Speaker 1: a deep drop coverage. Maxi gets a good screen I
Speaker 1: think Paul Reid was his screening partner at this point,
Speaker 1: gets downhill, makes a floater over the top of Porzingis right,
Speaker 1: So the next time they run it, Porzingis just switches
Speaker 1: right because he's got to come out higher. They said
Speaker 1: it a good screen and roll, Porzingis switches out to Maxi.
Speaker 1: Maxi takes his time, hits a dribble combination, beats Porzingis
Speaker 1: to the basket, and makes a floater to get another bucket.
Speaker 1: So then on the next switch, when when Maxi gets
Speaker 1: Porzingis switched on the left wing Derek White, it basically
Speaker 1: offers a soft double team from the right wing and
Speaker 1: basically comes over to the nail to basically help Porzingis
Speaker 1: contain Maxi on the switch, And so Tobias Harris just
Speaker 1: cuts out of the slot and Maxi hits him with
Speaker 1: the bounce pass, and Tobias hits like a little five
Speaker 1: foot jump shot in the lane. So like that's what's
Speaker 1: really impressive. It's impressive in a couple of different ways.
Speaker 1: First of all, it just goes to show you how
Speaker 1: dominant tyres Maxi can be in terms of his speed
Speaker 1: in beating people off the dribble. But secondly, that's a
Speaker 1: high level shot creation piece. Like if you need Maxi
Speaker 1: to be your best perimeter offensive option, and I don't
Speaker 1: know that he will be when the end of the
Speaker 1: season comes around, because I think the Sixers can make
Speaker 1: a trade which we'll talk about in a little bit,
Speaker 1: But like you want to see Maxi make high level reads,
Speaker 1: you want to see him be able to deal with adjustments,
Speaker 1: beating a drop, coverage, beating a switch, then beating a
Speaker 1: switch with soft help or soft double team. That's an
Speaker 1: example of a progression. And he hit three of them
Speaker 1: in a row, got three straight buckets, and that was
Speaker 1: a huge part of their offensive success in the fourth quarter. Right,
Speaker 1: So Joe Mizzoula responds by removing chrisops Porzingis from the game.
Speaker 1: So from there they run a ball screen and Embiid
Speaker 1: gets a switch. So Embiid goes down to the post,
Speaker 1: and when they throw the post entry to Embiid, Horford
Speaker 1: tries to scram them out of the switch. And when
Speaker 1: he SCRAMs them out of the switch, they're slow on
Speaker 1: the rotation and Tobias Harris gets a wide open three
Speaker 1: on the left wing. Then on the down the stretch,
Speaker 1: we had the left block post up from Embiid and again,
Speaker 1: like one of the things you want to do with
Speaker 1: Embiid is you want to double off the dribble instead
Speaker 1: of when he has a live dribble, excuse me, double
Speaker 1: when he's dribbling versus when he's in a triple threat.
Speaker 1: Because Embiid, when he kind of can hold onto the
Speaker 1: basketball and protect it with his body, he's actually a
Speaker 1: decent passer. It's when he puts the ball on the
Speaker 1: floor that he really struggles to transition out of dribbling
Speaker 1: into making a read. So but one of the things
Speaker 1: you can't do is make a really easy read for him,
Speaker 1: and the Celtics ended up doubling off of Tyree Maxi
Speaker 1: one pass away and in the process it was just
Speaker 1: like Embiid was dribbling, but it's not a hard read.
Speaker 1: It's like boop right there and easy left wing three
Speaker 1: from Tyree Maxis. So like they just basically picked the
Speaker 1: Celtics apart down the stretch of this game. On offense,
Speaker 1: did a really nice job containing them and forcing them
Speaker 1: into their worst tendencies on the defensive end of the floor. Again,
Speaker 1: we had that crazy run late, but then even then
Speaker 1: Embiid iced it effectively iced it. I shouldn't even say that,
Speaker 1: because porzing Get still let a chance to tie, but
Speaker 1: they were able to go down to Embiid against the
Speaker 1: switch against Jason Tatum, and he had a really nice
Speaker 1: right shoulder fade over the top. That was like an
Speaker 1: easy shot that he got great separation that he's probably
Speaker 1: going to hit five out of ten times. Right, So,
Speaker 1: like a lot of really encouraging stuff on the offensive
Speaker 1: end from the Sixers in that game as well. The
Speaker 1: Sixers have won six consecutive games since that regular season
Speaker 1: opener against Milwaukee, which, in my opinion, they got absolutely
Speaker 1: hosed by the officials in that game. And you guys
Speaker 1: know I almost never say that, so clearly they did
Speaker 1: get hosed. They are now fifth in defense, They look awesome,
Speaker 1: and again, like I mentioned earlier, they are very well
Speaker 1: positioned for a mid season trade which could end up
Speaker 1: pushing them over the top. Like we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: the Lakers and the potential mid season trade later, and
Speaker 1: like that's what's kind of exciting about the Sixers is
Speaker 1: like they're already good even if they don't make this
Speaker 1: type of trade. Can they win win the championship is
Speaker 1: currently constructed, No, not in my opinion, not unless Embiide
Speaker 1: just finally translates his offensive success to the postseason. But
Speaker 1: that feels like a gamble. My guess is they're going
Speaker 1: to try to bring in more firepower and if they do,
Speaker 1: they immediately vault into that top tier of contenders. For
Speaker 1: the Celtics late game execution, there was a Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: especially in the defensive end. Is when I'm referencing here.
Speaker 1: There was a Jason Tatum backcourt steel attempt where the
Speaker 1: Sixers were in transition and Tatum just like made this
Speaker 1: like half assed bullshit like like jump a passing lane
Speaker 1: thing in the back court, which ended up leaving them
Speaker 1: horribly undermanned on the in transition defense. And Tobias Harris
Speaker 1: just had an easy driving layup out of the right corner,
Speaker 1: the doubling off of Phillies' best three point shooter one
Speaker 1: pass away, that post up with embiid Off where they
Speaker 1: made the kickout pass to Tyres Maxey, Like that's not
Speaker 1: even just the best shooter on the Sixers, that's one
Speaker 1: of the best three point shooters in the entire NBA.
Speaker 1: That you're just doubling off of one pass away and
Speaker 1: to read that and bead it's gonna make every time
Speaker 1: like that needs to be. That needs to be a
Speaker 1: like literally like a windshield wiper rotation, where like as
Speaker 1: the doubles coming, Jalen Brown's already there at Tyres Maxie
Speaker 1: instead of like Horford goes and then Jalen Brown goes
Speaker 1: a second and in that second they end up getting
Speaker 1: a wide open look. I talked about the botched scram switch.
Speaker 1: This is the one where like Embiid catches on the
Speaker 1: on the right block and or Embiid posts up on
Speaker 1: the right block and Horford runs over to basically scram
Speaker 1: them out of the switch, but they don't rotate on
Speaker 1: the back end and it's a wide open three for
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris. So like again, down the stretch of the game,
Speaker 1: they just have to actually stick to their game plan
Speaker 1: and do their jobs. If they do that, that would
Speaker 1: go a long way towards giving them a better chance
Speaker 1: and then their offensive approach. This is something I've seen
Speaker 1: in general with the Celtics over the years, and it
Speaker 1: really comes down to this, like, like they're so damn
Speaker 1: good and they have so many talented players that like
Speaker 1: like they see shots that they like. Their bar for
Speaker 1: what they consider to be a shot that they like
Speaker 1: to take is very low. And it's not because they're
Speaker 1: not capable or wanting to find higher quality shots. It's
Speaker 1: just because that's what they're capable. Of like a semi
Speaker 1: contested Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, Derek White three is like
Speaker 1: an okay shot, and they'll win a lot of games
Speaker 1: making those shots, right, But they have so much ball
Speaker 1: handling in athleticism and quickness on the perimeter that they're
Speaker 1: actually capable of getting great shots, like truly great shots,
Speaker 1: and so they could tend to be a little impatient
Speaker 1: in their execution, especially in games against good perimeter defenses
Speaker 1: where it's not quite as easy and quick. And I
Speaker 1: thought that was a good example, Like they were fifteen
Speaker 1: for forty seven from three in this particular game, and
Speaker 1: I counted like a couple dozen threes where I'm like, eh,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of time left on the shot clock here,
Speaker 1: Like why are you taking that three? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Tatum had his worst game of the season
Speaker 1: in my opinion. Big part of that was the same
Speaker 1: type of thing. There were two players in particular, one
Speaker 1: on Nick Patoomb and one on Joel Embiid where he
Speaker 1: caught the ball in a cleared iso with plenty of
Speaker 1: space to operate in a with like twelve thirteen seconds
Speaker 1: on the shot clock, and one of them he just
Speaker 1: kind of like hit the tune with a series of
Speaker 1: jab steps and took a three, like a really tough three,
Speaker 1: and then another one he took. He ended up like
Speaker 1: just jabbing at him, beat a bunch of times in
Speaker 1: the right corner. I clipped this play and put it
Speaker 1: on my Twitter feed. He jabbed it and beat a
Speaker 1: few times just to try to see if maybe he
Speaker 1: could concede a three point shot to him, and then
Speaker 1: he swung the ball out of it. And I'm like, dude, like,
Speaker 1: you torched this guy in the playoffs last year when
Speaker 1: he was playing too far off of you by shooting,
Speaker 1: but he's pressing up on you, like, and you're way
Speaker 1: quicker than him. Beat him off the dribble and make
Speaker 1: a play that way, like they're just in general, I
Speaker 1: think that I think the Celtics just can be lulled
Speaker 1: to sleep in terms of their shot selection, and they
Speaker 1: can really fall into extended stretches of taking bad shots.
Speaker 1: And this is an example of that. And that's why, like,
Speaker 1: no matter how good their net rating is, no matter
Speaker 1: how dominant they are in this regular season, like, I
Speaker 1: can't in my right mind pick the Celtics to win
Speaker 1: the title before the playoffs unless there is a significant
Speaker 1: injury to someone on the Nuggets or on the on
Speaker 1: the Bucks, right, because like, as far as I'm concerned,
Speaker 1: it is not a regular season issue. It is a
Speaker 1: postseason issue. They are they are capable of long, extended
Speaker 1: offensive lolls, and it starts with Tatum and Brown in
Speaker 1: their approach, and until that changes, it is it's just
Speaker 1: not a problem that's going away. And like it's very
Speaker 1: possible that this year ends up being the year where
Speaker 1: Tatum figures it all out and the Celtics kind of
Speaker 1: are pushed over the top by that. But I can
Speaker 1: tell you right now what it's going to be like
Speaker 1: from my perspective, I'm not going to pick the Celtics.
Speaker 1: I certainly know that they're capable of it, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to be one of those guys that's like, shit,
Speaker 1: I'm late to the party. Like Tatum's that guy. Now
Speaker 1: you know, he won the title, he got it all done.
Speaker 1: Like I can't. I can't in my right mind make
Speaker 1: that prediction because it's wishful thinking based on something that
Speaker 1: I haven't seen yet. If that makes sense, all right,
Speaker 1: Last night or last game before we get out of here,
Speaker 1: Rockets Lakers shout out to the Houston Rockets. Like I
Speaker 1: said earlier, there are four teams in the NBA that
Speaker 1: are top ten in both offense and defense, the Celtics,
Speaker 1: the Sixers, the Nuggets, and the Houston Rockets. Now they're
Speaker 1: on the fringes that they're ninth in defense and tenth
Speaker 1: in offense, but still really impressive. Nonetheless, very fun team.
Speaker 1: They're a very fun team. Hey, one sec a phone call.
Speaker 1: They're a very fun team. Jalen Green and again, this
Speaker 1: is a really good matchup for him against the unathletic
Speaker 1: Laker guards. But he just has this incredible combination of
Speaker 1: athleticism and quickness to beat people off the dribble mixed
Speaker 1: with like top tier vertical athleticism to finish at the rim.
Speaker 1: And he's got this jump shot piece of it. And
Speaker 1: it's a little inconsistent right now, but that's what you
Speaker 1: expect from younger guards. But he got that jump shot
Speaker 1: going last night, and you can kind of see how
Speaker 1: difficult it is to guard him when that happens. I'll
Speaker 1: prin Shangoon in my opinion as one of the top
Speaker 1: you know, i'd have to make a list, but he's
Speaker 1: certainly in that list of like elite offensive centers in
Speaker 1: the league. That just makes it incredibly difficult to guard
Speaker 1: the Rockets because you like you literally can't switch anything
Speaker 1: but a good post defender onto Shangun, like he even
Speaker 1: against bigger, stronger players like he buried he buried Ruby
Speaker 1: Hatchamura under the rim of a bunch of time times
Speaker 1: he was killing Christian Wood like they just couldn't guard
Speaker 1: him down there. And that this is it been a
Speaker 1: somewhat consistent theme throughout the season, like he may Udoka
Speaker 1: just really trusts Shangoon to kind of be somewhat of
Speaker 1: a folk rum in their offense because of his ability
Speaker 1: to operate in pick and roll and in the post.
Speaker 1: And then Dylan Brooks and Javaris Smith Junior just bring
Speaker 1: that perimeter defense element there their ninth in defensive rating.
Speaker 1: Javaris Smith is one of my favorite young players in
Speaker 1: the league. I was my friend Sam Aspondiari covers the
Speaker 1: Warriors with the Light Years podcast and he also run
Speaker 1: helps to run the Watch playback program. He tweeted this
Speaker 1: out last night. I thought it was a really interesting point.
Speaker 1: He's like, He's like, remember when Memphis basically blamed Dylan
Speaker 1: Brooks for all of their issues, which is another thing
Speaker 1: that we talked about after the season, like how they
Speaker 1: kind of scape go Toed Dylan for it, and like
Speaker 1: here we are now and the Grizzlies can't win a
Speaker 1: damn game and the Rockets are top ten in defense,
Speaker 1: and what you know, I said, I said in the summer,
Speaker 1: and I mean I meant this sincerely. Like Dylan Brooks
Speaker 1: is not my favorite players. It's specifically the there's a
Speaker 1: difference between talking trash and the court and talking trash
Speaker 1: in the media. Talking trash in the court to me
Speaker 1: is like natural competitiveness. Talking trash in the media to me,
Speaker 1: is performative for attention, and he leans really heavy on
Speaker 1: that and can be actually kind of flat out disrespectful
Speaker 1: to some of the to many of the great NBA
Speaker 1: players that have played in this league, Like Lebron's just
Speaker 1: one of many people that he's kind of talked like
Speaker 1: that too and about. And then secondly the injuries, like
Speaker 1: the what he's I've seen him, it's not just the
Speaker 1: Gary Payton play from the playoff series two years ago.
Speaker 1: Like Dylan Brooks is like kind of reckless with some
Speaker 1: of his overt physicality in a way that can hurt players,
Speaker 1: and that, to me, I have just a huge problem
Speaker 1: with because you're starting to mess with people's livelihood there, right,
Speaker 1: Like Gary Payton was a guy who now has kind
Speaker 1: of like an established place in the league, but at
Speaker 1: that point in time was very much kind of there,
Speaker 1: you know, just you know, hanging out, maybe maybe gets
Speaker 1: to make the roster next year, right, and like ended
Speaker 1: up being an injury he was able to return from,
Speaker 1: but what if it had been worse, It could have
Speaker 1: literally ended his NBA career. So, like, I have a
Speaker 1: huge problem with some of the things that Dylan Brooks does.
Speaker 1: But based purely on his defense, he is worth the
Speaker 1: contract that he signed. And when you combine that with
Speaker 1: the fact that he's actually starting to hit shots. We
Speaker 1: saw this a little bit in FOBA, and then we're
Speaker 1: seeing it so far this year. Like he's just been
Speaker 1: a more efficient and smarter offensive player than he was
Speaker 1: in earlier years in his career. And so he's actually
Speaker 1: a deeply impactful winner on that team. And then they
Speaker 1: just have a ton of athleticism off the bench. They
Speaker 1: had eleven offensive rebounds just from their bench group in
Speaker 1: that game. Guys like you know tari Eathan, Jeff Green,
Speaker 1: I think I had three or four offensive rebounds they did.
Speaker 1: They did a really nice job just punishing the Lakers
Speaker 1: for their lack of effort and intensity and athleticism. So
Speaker 1: what's wrong with the Lakers? I want to put down
Speaker 1: three key issues. And again, like I know, we've talked
Speaker 1: about this to death, but I'm a Laker fan and
Speaker 1: i want event for a little while. So just I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tuck this again. They're relegated to the end of
Speaker 1: the show, and they're going to be at the end
Speaker 1: of the show for the foreseeable future until they start
Speaker 1: playing better basketball. But Anthony Davis being hurt, obviously, that
Speaker 1: plays a role injuries in general, A big one here
Speaker 1: early on. Jared Vanderbilt is your best perimeter defender. He's out.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is your best player, he's out. Gabe is
Speaker 1: your best perimeter defender from the guard corps, he's out.
Speaker 1: Jackson Hayes is literally the backup center. You need to
Speaker 1: have two NBA level centers when Anthony Davis is out
Speaker 1: of the lineup. He's out, and two of those guys
Speaker 1: are you are among your most important rebounders, like Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt literally average seven rebounds a game last year. Again,
Speaker 1: like you have to understand the Lakers post deadline last
Speaker 1: year with the same core of players post deadline last year.
Speaker 1: The only difference is Dennis Schroeder, right, And Gabe Vincent
Speaker 1: is not as good as Dennis Schroeder, but he is
Speaker 1: a reasonable facsimile of him as a perimeter defender. Right,
Speaker 1: Dennis is an elite perimeter defender and Gabe Vincent is
Speaker 1: just good, but he's a reasonable fact simile of what
Speaker 1: he does, and he's a better offensive player. So they're like,
Speaker 1: even if you just take the one rotation piece out
Speaker 1: from last year, they replaced him with the guy who
Speaker 1: started for an NBA Finals team last year. Right, So
Speaker 1: same core guys post deadline last year were second in
Speaker 1: defensive rating and fourth and defensive rebounding percentage, So they
Speaker 1: are excuse me, fourth and rebounding percentage. I think they
Speaker 1: were sixth in defensive rebounding percentage. So this was an
Speaker 1: elite defense and an elite rebounding team last year with
Speaker 1: the same group of players. But what you're seeing is
Speaker 1: like Jared Vanderbilt is kind of vitally important there, and
Speaker 1: then when you take him and Anthony Davis out of
Speaker 1: the equation, they just become completely incapable of hanging with
Speaker 1: any sort of athletic team. And now here's the question, like,
Speaker 1: is that a problem in the big picture. No, if
Speaker 1: they're healthy, right, but because we literally saw they were
Speaker 1: elite in both categories when those guys are healthy. But
Speaker 1: it is a reality in the sense that, like, they
Speaker 1: don't have any margin for error there, So like if
Speaker 1: one of those guys goes down, they struggled too much
Speaker 1: to contend in those areas of the game. So that
Speaker 1: is a great example of how like bolstering the backcourt
Speaker 1: with athleticism, getting an athletic Garden there to play next
Speaker 1: to Austin Reeves would go a long way towards helping
Speaker 1: them in that situation. But make no mistake, injuries are
Speaker 1: playing a significant role here. Number two, the guards are
Speaker 1: not consistently scoring the basketball, which is what you pay
Speaker 1: them for. Austin and Dilo both signed long term deals
Speaker 1: with the Lakers this summer at big numbers. Literally because
Speaker 1: they are excellent offensive players. They are both excellent spot
Speaker 1: up players, They are both excellent pick and roll shot creators.
Speaker 1: At least within the context of the regular season. D'Angel
Speaker 1: Russell in the playoffs as a whole other thing. But
Speaker 1: even though he's matchup dependant, had some issues, like the
Speaker 1: Nuggets kicked him out, he had some big games and
Speaker 1: you know, hit a bunch of big shots in Game
Speaker 1: four against Memphis in that game that they want. He
Speaker 1: had a bunch of big moments in the Golden State
Speaker 1: Warrior series. So like, I don't see d'angela Russell on
Speaker 1: this roster post deadline. But strictly within the context of
Speaker 1: the regular season, he was supposed to be a guy
Speaker 1: that could score the basketball and set you up, and
Speaker 1: so was Austin and instead it's been super inconsistent. It's
Speaker 1: like this game, you get really solid production in the
Speaker 1: second half out of D'Angelo Russell, but you get an
Speaker 1: absolute dud out of Austin Reeves. You go back to
Speaker 1: the Miami game, you get a pretty damn good game
Speaker 1: out of Austin Reeves, which you get an absolute dud
Speaker 1: out of D'Angelo Russell, and it's like they just can't
Speaker 1: get consistent production out of those two. Here's where that's
Speaker 1: a problem. When those guys are playing great offensively, it
Speaker 1: makes it easier for you to deal with some of
Speaker 1: their limitations, right, and the whole team. When guys are
Speaker 1: making shots, the whole team plays harder, and it kind
Speaker 1: of manifests in a bunch of positives, right. But when
Speaker 1: they're not scoring the basketball and they're not making shots,
Speaker 1: then their defensive limitations and rebounding limitations like scream at
Speaker 1: you in the face when you're watching on the television, right,
Speaker 1: And so that's kind of the issue here is Like
Speaker 1: last year, I think what made the Austin Dilo backcourt
Speaker 1: work for the most part in most matchups was Jared Vanderbilt,
Speaker 1: because Jared Vanderbilt was essentially a guard on the defensive
Speaker 1: end because he guarded the other team's best perimeter player.
Speaker 1: And then he was also an excellent rebounder, and so
Speaker 1: that kind of like solved that issue, right, And then
Speaker 1: we found out like when you got into like the
Speaker 1: Nuggets series and you found a team that could like
Speaker 1: ignore Jared Vanderbilt and cause some problems for you on
Speaker 1: your offensive end of the floor while at the same
Speaker 1: time punishing your lack of athleticism on the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor. Suddenly D'Angelo Russell becomes completely unplayable and
Speaker 1: it's untenable, right, So like that, in my opinion, we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about it in a second, like there's going
Speaker 1: to be a D'angela Russell trade this season. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: I think it's like one of the safest bets to
Speaker 1: take place this year. But that can't happen until at
Speaker 1: a minimum January fifteenth. So what happens until then, Well,
Speaker 1: if the Lakers want to have any chance to float
Speaker 1: the ship until then, they need Austin and Dilo to
Speaker 1: score the damn basketball. Now, one of the concepts that
Speaker 1: is important here is the way that they're playing. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, the best team specific podcast out there, like
Speaker 1: a group of podcasters that strictly covers one team, is
Speaker 1: the Laker Film Room guys, and Pete Zais in particular,
Speaker 1: and Darius Oreanom and Mike as well, Mike Trudell. They
Speaker 1: do a really nice job covering the Lakers on a
Speaker 1: day to day basis. But one of the things that
Speaker 1: Pete Zas has been like heavily hammering on this season
Speaker 1: that we haven't talked about much is the overall offensive approach.
Speaker 1: So the Lakers are running more of a five out
Speaker 1: offense this year versus a four out one in offense?
Speaker 1: What does that mean? A five out offense is like
Speaker 1: what Golden State runs, right, And we've talked about this
Speaker 1: a ton in our Golden State coverage, right, the concept
Speaker 1: of their five out offense and the way that it works,
Speaker 1: and how everything kind of centers around inverted spacing and
Speaker 1: pulling defenders away from the basket, and it's like read
Speaker 1: and react, like dribble handoff flowing into another, dribble hand
Speaker 1: off flowing into a ball screen while off ball guys
Speaker 1: are interchanging as well. Like it's just it's a lot
Speaker 1: of ball and player movement centered around the perimeter. But
Speaker 1: it's more difficult to generate dribble penetration in those situations.
Speaker 1: And the main reason why is just think of it
Speaker 1: from the same point of geometry. If I were to
Speaker 1: take the three point line and stretch it out in
Speaker 1: a long, thin line and I put four dots on it,
Speaker 1: they'd be really far apart, right, But if I put
Speaker 1: five dots on it, they'd all be a little bit closer, right.
Speaker 1: And so as a result of that, like the actual
Speaker 1: gaps that you have to shoot through are smaller. Now
Speaker 1: if you can shoot through the gap. It's much harder
Speaker 1: to rotate on the backside because you don't have a
Speaker 1: rim protector waiting for you. Typically that protector has been
Speaker 1: pulled out to the perimeter. It's just harder to shoot
Speaker 1: through those gaps. And specifically you're seeing Austin Reeves and
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell struggled to break through those gaps, right. And
Speaker 1: Lebron James has been one of the best offensive players
Speaker 1: for the Lakers er in the season, and it's because
Speaker 1: he's a downhill threat. He's the guy that can actually
Speaker 1: like see a small gap and he doesn't really have
Speaker 1: to come through it clean because he's so damn big
Speaker 1: and strong that he can just power through that gap, right.
Speaker 1: And he can also generate rim pressure through post ups
Speaker 1: and in transition and things along those lines. Right. So,
Speaker 1: like one of the things that I would like to
Speaker 1: see the Lakers do more often just go back out
Speaker 1: to their traditional four out one in spacing. What does
Speaker 1: that look like? That looks like you put you know,
Speaker 1: shooter in the you want your you want to shooter
Speaker 1: in the strong side corners. They don't help out of
Speaker 1: the strong side corner. You have a shooter in the
Speaker 1: weakside corner, and then you have a shooter on the
Speaker 1: right wing right, and then basically you have Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: come up and set ball screens in a in a
Speaker 1: spaced out floor. For typically you want your ball handler
Speaker 1: in the in the position where they're most comfortable, so
Speaker 1: like for D'Angelo Russell and Ausin Ras it might be different.
Speaker 1: But then basically you're just bringing ad up to set
Speaker 1: a ball screen, and you're working off that ball screen
Speaker 1: trying to make something happen, and if it doesn't work,
Speaker 1: you kick it back out and you run another ball screen.
Speaker 1: And what the thing is is like that's what the
Speaker 1: Lakers do for the most part last season, and Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves in particular really thrived with that. But even D'Angelo
Speaker 1: Russell as well operated well in that system. And so
Speaker 1: you know, one of the things I'd like to see
Speaker 1: the Lakers do is just kind of like go back
Speaker 1: to more spread pick and roll and let their guys
Speaker 1: operate with more space and with more opportunity to dribble
Speaker 1: and less of the read and react thing. I think
Speaker 1: that there's advantage to being able to play that way,
Speaker 1: and I don't want them to like discard it entirely,
Speaker 1: but like, to me, it's a pretty clear sign that, like,
Speaker 1: you played a certain type of offensive approach last year
Speaker 1: and it worked really well, and then you're playing a
Speaker 1: different type of offensive approach this year and it's struggling
Speaker 1: a little bit, right, And so like I'd like to
Speaker 1: see them kind of go back to to running more
Speaker 1: spread pick and roll for their best ball handlers, and
Speaker 1: then just in general, like I think, especially if your
Speaker 1: big picture plan is to potentially trade D'Angelo Russell, I
Speaker 1: would lean more on Lebron and Austin, And like, I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a coincidence that Lebron and Austin were
Speaker 1: the ones that kind of brought you back. Again it's
Speaker 1: the Miami heat. And again I'm not trying to let
Speaker 1: Austin off the hook. He didn't play well in that
Speaker 1: game last night, and he's been pretty inconsistent to start
Speaker 1: the season, right, But like we've just seen in the
Speaker 1: playoff context, like Austin is just a significantly better and
Speaker 1: more reliable playoff player than D'Angel Russell is. Like, that's
Speaker 1: your big picture offense, is Lebron and ad or Lebron
Speaker 1: and Austin kind of running things with Anthony Davis as
Speaker 1: a screener, with Lebron James as a screener, right, And
Speaker 1: so to me, like I would kind of lean on
Speaker 1: de Lo more in an off ball roll anyway. I
Speaker 1: think he's a very good off ball shooter. He's not
Speaker 1: shooting the ball well this year, but that's something that
Speaker 1: he can do at a high level, and so I
Speaker 1: think that that's something that I'd like to see them
Speaker 1: lean into a little bit more. The last major issue
Speaker 1: is just general defensive energy. I think that in general
Speaker 1: with this Laker team, I think they were fooled in
Speaker 1: the preseason by thinking they were a great offense because
Speaker 1: they were a great offense in the preseason and it
Speaker 1: was the same personnel that wasn't a great offense last year. Right,
Speaker 1: They were just a good offense last year, and they
Speaker 1: struggled in a half court. Right. So with that being
Speaker 1: the case, Like, the only way this team can win
Speaker 1: is by being a dominant defense and rebounding team. That's
Speaker 1: how they want. The same group of guys won by
Speaker 1: being top five in defense, top five and rebounding and
Speaker 1: just enough offense. Right, And this year it's been like
Speaker 1: you can just tell in terms of their allocation of
Speaker 1: resources in terms of energy and effort. They're just not
Speaker 1: playing hard enough on a defensively and on the glass,
Speaker 1: and so I think that that is just an attitude
Speaker 1: adjustment that the whole group needs. Right, So the question
Speaker 1: is what's fixable and what is it? So are the
Speaker 1: Lakers a bad defense and rebounding team in the big
Speaker 1: picture when they're healthy. No, we know that from the numbers,
Speaker 1: But they're very dependent on Jared Vanderbilt in this case
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis. So in general, I think I would
Speaker 1: view that as a roster need, like they need to
Speaker 1: improve their perimeter defense to give them the ability to
Speaker 1: have not just depth night in and night out, but
Speaker 1: a playoff option as a point of attack defender. If
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt can't make enough shots to stay on the floor, right,
Speaker 1: So that to me probably needs to be addressed in
Speaker 1: a trade. At some point. Our guys gonna keep missing shots.
Speaker 1: We talked about yesterday, like every key Lakers rotation player
Speaker 1: is shooting well below their career norms in terms of
Speaker 1: three point shooting. Now, again, there's two sides to this coin.
Speaker 1: What do I always say about shooting? I just talked
Speaker 1: about this with the Celtics, Like it's a it's a
Speaker 1: little bit of both, Like, are guys missing shots, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but also you're not generating enough rim pressure and so
Speaker 1: you're not getting the high quality three point shots that'll
Speaker 1: get these guys into a rhythm. Right. That kind of
Speaker 1: goes back to the five out versus spread pick and
Speaker 1: roll thing that we were talking about earlier. So in general,
Speaker 1: I'd like to see guys start making shots, but I
Speaker 1: don't think it's really gonna happen until they just start
Speaker 1: executing better offensively. That said, do I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: have a shooting problem, No, because Austin Reeves can really
Speaker 1: shoot it, D'Angelo Russell can really shoot it, even if
Speaker 1: they trade him, Gabe Vincent can really shoot it. Torrian
Speaker 1: Prince can really shoot it. Ruy Hacha Mura can really
Speaker 1: shoot it, even if he ends up getting traded. Like, like,
Speaker 1: they have enough backcourt and off balls shooting to be
Speaker 1: good enough, especially if they get a player back in
Speaker 1: a trade that can also shoot the basketball. I just
Speaker 1: don't think they'll shoot better in the short term until
Speaker 1: they start executing better offensively. And then lastly, like the
Speaker 1: Austin Dilo backcourt is that fixable. No. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: that's something they have to eventually address. And this is
Speaker 1: why I think Dangel Russell getting traded is like one
Speaker 1: of the safer bets of this NBA season. You can't
Speaker 1: have that kind of redundancy in your back court if
Speaker 1: you want to try to win a championship. It's the
Speaker 1: same reason why I think the Bucks will inevitably make
Speaker 1: some sort of move with Maliite Beasley and Pat connatt
Speaker 1: In at that two guard spot, like to upgrade that
Speaker 1: position in some way, shape or form. Like you just
Speaker 1: can't win when you have two players in your backcourt
Speaker 1: that struggle at the point, attack and on the glass.
Speaker 1: And so from there, Austin's clearly the better player. You
Speaker 1: actually have him tied up long term at a better number.
Speaker 1: He's your better playoff player as well. And Dangel Russell, like,
Speaker 1: to me, like was the one guy last year and
Speaker 1: in the playoff run that like struggled the most in
Speaker 1: terms of the night in, night in, night out consistency.
Speaker 1: So like to me, del doesn't fit with Austin. Ruey
Speaker 1: plays the same position as Lebron, So you pair those
Speaker 1: two together, you get to thirty something million in salary,
Speaker 1: you have two first round picks to use. That's a
Speaker 1: really good trade package. Ruey is a good starter level
Speaker 1: NBA player who can play for someone in the league.
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell is a good starter level NBA player that
Speaker 1: can start for a team as long as they're not
Speaker 1: trying to compete for a title. Right. So, like someone
Speaker 1: out there is going to see value in those two guys.
Speaker 1: And then the draft picks. Again, any Laker draft pick,
Speaker 1: especially with their tendency to go through long extended poor
Speaker 1: play and the Genie Bus era, those draft picks have
Speaker 1: real value, right, And so I think they're in a
Speaker 1: position where, like everything comes down to that trade deadline
Speaker 1: for the Lakers. If they can hit one really high
Speaker 1: quality trade with d Lo and RUI, I think that
Speaker 1: can kind of round out some of the other pieces
Speaker 1: of the roster. Now, the good news, and this is
Speaker 1: the upside from a bad start, because like three and
Speaker 1: five obviously is a disaster. But the good news is
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Christian Wood look great. Lebron's sixty three
Speaker 1: percent through shooting, his volume is down, his scoring numbers
Speaker 1: are down. He's at like twenty four and a half points,
Speaker 1: per game. But a huge part of that is usage, right,
Speaker 1: Like there's just a huge convoluted nature to their ball handling,
Speaker 1: and Lebron's usage is actually the lowest it's been since
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, which is like what six or seven years.
Speaker 1: So like, even though the box score numbers don't show it,
Speaker 1: I actually think Lebron looks better than he did at
Speaker 1: any point last year. His shot making looks much better.
Speaker 1: I think that's all really really good. So then one
Speaker 1: of the things we've learned is that Christian Wood is
Speaker 1: actually a very good defensive player for the Lakers as
Speaker 1: a help side defender versus as a pick and roll defender.
Speaker 1: And that was the thing. Is like, when they sign
Speaker 1: Christian Wood, everyone looked at all these defensive possessions of
Speaker 1: Christian Wood defending pick and roll with the MAVs, and
Speaker 1: he struggled with it, and it's like, that's not what
Speaker 1: he's good at. He's not good at kind of striking
Speaker 1: that balance between offering help on a ball handler and
Speaker 1: keeping track of a role man. He's not going to
Speaker 1: be that guy who can ride the yo yo up
Speaker 1: and down and pick and roll coverages. So what he
Speaker 1: can do is be the low man. So like if
Speaker 1: you can put him on a non shooter relatively less
Speaker 1: deadly shooter, and you have Anthony Davis run your ballscreen defense,
Speaker 1: and Christian Wood operates as that lowman, So like when
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis comes up, Christian Wood is the one that
Speaker 1: comes over and help. He's actually a very impactful defender
Speaker 1: there because he's got good instincts to go up for
Speaker 1: shot blocks and then secondly he's a good defensive rebounder.
Speaker 1: And so that to me, like with that combined with
Speaker 1: Christian Wood starting to hit threes and with what he
Speaker 1: can do offensively to maintain their spacing with two bigs
Speaker 1: on the floor, like that's a huge silver lining. And
Speaker 1: so it's weird because like I look back and I
Speaker 1: go like, did I think the Lakers would be able
Speaker 1: to get stops or rebounds without Jared Vanderbilt and Anthony Davis. No,
Speaker 1: I never thought they would, So that's not a shock.
Speaker 1: Did I think Austin and dil could be the backcourt
Speaker 1: for a championship team? No, I never thought that. I
Speaker 1: said before the season that I didn't think that would
Speaker 1: work and inevitably would end into trade. Right, So, like
Speaker 1: those problems were problems we already knew about. Here's what
Speaker 1: we didn't know. We didn't know that Lebron might look
Speaker 1: better than he did last year, which he does. And
Speaker 1: we didn't know that Christian Wood might be a viable
Speaker 1: option as to give the Lakers a legitimate big look,
Speaker 1: and so like, as crazy as it sounds like, there's
Speaker 1: actually a lot of reason for optimism for the Lakers
Speaker 1: in their three and five start, because there are little
Speaker 1: things that, like you weren't expecting, that are positives, and
Speaker 1: most of their struggles they're mostly due to injuries in
Speaker 1: a trade the inevitably they were inevitably going to have
Speaker 1: to make anyway, right, So, like, obviously it sucks. I
Speaker 1: kind of hate this basketball team early on because they
Speaker 1: don't play hard all the time. As a fan, they're
Speaker 1: not super fun to watch right now, But I think
Speaker 1: in the big picture there's still reason for optimism with
Speaker 1: that group. All right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for today. As always, I appreciate your support. We'll be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow. Might break down one of the Thursday night
Speaker 1: games for sure. Going to do a deep dive on
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Timberwolves. The volume