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Speaker 1: net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to the Lakers Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by fan Duel. Here on the volume, I am
Speaker 1: Jason Tim. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope you all had
Speaker 1: a great weekend. There's no Lakers basketball today, but we
Speaker 1: are going to talk some Lakers. This is a very
Speaker 1: important week for the Lakers. They go at home against
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow, which the Lakers have a couple
Speaker 1: of really good wins this year, but they don't have
Speaker 1: that bona fide, you know, signature win against a championship
Speaker 1: contender with all of their guys healthy, and that game
Speaker 1: against the Bucks is a great example of an opportunity
Speaker 1: to get that signature win. They have won their last
Speaker 1: two games against the Milwaukee Bucks. When Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis both play, I actually think it's a very
Speaker 1: good matchup for the Lakers because Lebron and a d
Speaker 1: person in a physical and mobile enough front court to
Speaker 1: be able to hang with your honest a little bit
Speaker 1: and give him some problems. So I like that matchup.
Speaker 1: It's a good opportunity. Then they go on the road
Speaker 1: to Portland. It's a back to back, which makes it
Speaker 1: a little bit weird, but that's a game they should
Speaker 1: be able to win. Then they have two days off
Speaker 1: before a game with the Warriors on Saturday, another great
Speaker 1: opportunity for a big signature win. Then they have one
Speaker 1: more game after that after three days off, against the
Speaker 1: Utah Jazz, and then it's the all too all Star Break.
Speaker 1: So this is a great opportunity for the Lakers to
Speaker 1: change the complexion of this season. You know, there's an
Speaker 1: old saying and everything every saying that's a saying is
Speaker 1: a saying for a reason, and winning cures everything is
Speaker 1: true in this case. If you're sitting at what's that,
Speaker 1: I think they're twenty eight and twenty six right now.
Speaker 1: So if you're sitting at thirty and twenty eight, and yeah,
Speaker 1: you're only two games over five hundred, but you're two
Speaker 1: games over five hundred with a bunch of signature wins
Speaker 1: coming off of the trade deadline, hopefully with some reinforcements
Speaker 1: on the way, and with a week off with the
Speaker 1: All Star break for guys to get healthy and make
Speaker 1: a real run at things to end the season. It's
Speaker 1: one of those things where as bad as this has been,
Speaker 1: and it's been really bad, because if you talk about
Speaker 1: the Lakers as a potential threat to win the Western Conference,
Speaker 1: someone's gonna laugh you out of the chat. That's the there.
Speaker 1: They've been a joke this season in that regard, But
Speaker 1: the potential has always been there. The potential has always been, Hey,
Speaker 1: we got Lebron and Anthony Davis. So if you get
Speaker 1: some signature wins. There a little bit of a win
Speaker 1: streak coming into tomorrow's game. They've won three consecutive games
Speaker 1: when Lebron James and Anthony Davis were actually able to finish. Again,
Speaker 1: not much, but something to build on. And if you
Speaker 1: build on that with some signature wins in the next
Speaker 1: week and a half, going into the All Star Break,
Speaker 1: completely changes the vibe of the season. That's how important
Speaker 1: this is, and that's what's at stake here. These are
Speaker 1: good teams. These are teams that are better than the Lakers,
Speaker 1: or have been better than the Lakers this season. But
Speaker 1: they are also teams that the Lakers are capable of beating,
Speaker 1: and I believe they have a chance to get that done.
Speaker 1: If you look at the standings, the Lakers are only
Speaker 1: three and a half games back of that sixth seed.
Speaker 1: I think the six seed is immensely important to the
Speaker 1: Lakers because of the fact that winning a playoff series
Speaker 1: against the Sons or the Warriors is going to be
Speaker 1: hard enough. We're gonna talk about that here in a
Speaker 1: little bit, but it's going to be hard enough if
Speaker 1: you can buy yourself an extra two weeks of playoff
Speaker 1: basketball against the team like Memphis or against the team
Speaker 1: like Utah, a team that the Lakers are very much
Speaker 1: capable of beating. Then you have a chance to go
Speaker 1: into that pivotal matchup against a team like the Warriors
Speaker 1: or against the team like the Suns and feel more
Speaker 1: confident in yourself and feel like you have a at
Speaker 1: least at least a better opportunity to throw your best punch.
Speaker 1: So big opportunity here before the All Star break. We
Speaker 1: will be going live after the Milwaukee Bucks game tomorrow,
Speaker 1: right after the final buzzer, so stay tuned for that
Speaker 1: for those of you who are just joining us. This
Speaker 1: is Lakers Tonight, presented by Fandel here on the volume.
Speaker 1: We were just talking a little bit about the situation
Speaker 1: in the standings, but then ainything I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about at the top of the show tonight was Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: In a more practical sense. I've been very critical of
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook over the course of this season for obvious reasons.
Speaker 1: He just hasn't panned out as a basketball fit with
Speaker 1: this group, and I'm hopeful, as I've said, that the
Speaker 1: leaguers will at least try to trade him before Thursday However,
Speaker 1: the far more likely scenario under the circumstances with Russ's contract,
Speaker 1: the far more likely scenario is that he is still
Speaker 1: a Laker, at least through the end of the season.
Speaker 1: So the question becomes can Russell Westbrook fit alongside Lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis because he's had some good games recently,
Speaker 1: but there are good games that existed within the context
Speaker 1: of him in an elevated role because of injuries. The
Speaker 1: truth of the matter is is we're wondering how Russ
Speaker 1: can fit as a fourth guy because Malik Monk, like
Speaker 1: it or not, is a better offensive option right now
Speaker 1: than Russ. So it's even more complicated than can rust
Speaker 1: be a number three? We're asking us to be a
Speaker 1: number four, at least on the offensive offensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. So from that standpoint, the question there's basically
Speaker 1: two schools of thought. You have the let Rusty Russ camp,
Speaker 1: which namely includes Lebron James. At this point, we saw
Speaker 1: Lebron after the game against the Nicks the other night,
Speaker 1: go out of his way to talk about how you
Speaker 1: know Russ is an instinctive basketball player and that he
Speaker 1: has to get out of his head and just play
Speaker 1: his game. So that's the Lebron school of thought. That's
Speaker 1: the Russ fans school of thought. All the people that
Speaker 1: have been defensive over us, that's their school of thought,
Speaker 1: Like the Lakers have not done a good enough job
Speaker 1: of letting rusby Russ. But then there's the other school
Speaker 1: of thought, which is Russ can't be Russ anymore. He's
Speaker 1: not capable of being Russ anymore. And that's where I land.
Speaker 1: I look at it, Like the Carmelo Anthony situation when
Speaker 1: he was out of the league for a couple of years.
Speaker 1: There were people that painted that situation as if it
Speaker 1: was some sort of arabistique. How dare they take one
Speaker 1: of the game's all time greats and kick him out
Speaker 1: of the league for a little while. But I looked
Speaker 1: at it from another perspective. Carmelo Anthony, from a talent perspective,
Speaker 1: very much belonged in the NBA even in those years. However,
Speaker 1: he was not willing to do the job that was
Speaker 1: associated with his lesser role alongside Paul George and Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: alongside James Harden and Chris Paul. He was unwilling to
Speaker 1: do that. If you remember, he had press conferences where
Speaker 1: he complained about the idea that he would never come
Speaker 1: off the bench. You know, he demanded post touches, and
Speaker 1: he was less just like when he was in his prime,
Speaker 1: he was less willing to do the other role player
Speaker 1: things that we ask. So he's out of the league
Speaker 1: for a little while and it's kind of a humbling experience.
Speaker 1: When he first came back to Portland, they used him
Speaker 1: a lot as a starter because they had two because
Speaker 1: of injuries. But the reality was is when Mellow came back,
Speaker 1: he was much more open to a bench role. He
Speaker 1: was much more open to his spot up role. He
Speaker 1: was much more open to giving up those post touches
Speaker 1: that he loved so much. And the main reason why
Speaker 1: is because Mellow acknowledged that while his game was declining,
Speaker 1: he still had elite skills that he brought to the table.
Speaker 1: He's an elite spot up shooter and he has been
Speaker 1: one of the best wide open jump shooters in the
Speaker 1: league this year. And while he's not slashing to the
Speaker 1: basket and dunking on people anymore, he can put the
Speaker 1: ball on the floor once or twice and get to
Speaker 1: a one or two dribble pull up and he can
Speaker 1: make that shot attacking a closeout. That's a valuable skill.
Speaker 1: He's a good rebounder. He's still big and tall and strong,
Speaker 1: so he can defend in the post, and he can
Speaker 1: he can box out and do things along those lines.
Speaker 1: He honed in on what he was still good at
Speaker 1: and he trimmed the fat the stuff that he was
Speaker 1: no longer good at, and as a result, he carved
Speaker 1: out a very interesting role in this league because he's
Speaker 1: one of the Laker players this year that outperformed his
Speaker 1: veteran minimum contract. That's the phase that Russell Westbrook is
Speaker 1: in right now. He is in the phase that Melo
Speaker 1: was in while he was in Okay, see in Houston.
Speaker 1: He is still thinking he's the old Russ without acknowledging
Speaker 1: the changes and understanding that his place in the league
Speaker 1: is dependent on him adapting. You know, Lebron called like
Speaker 1: I said earlier, Lebron called Russ an instinctive basketball player.
Speaker 1: Instinctive is just a really nice way of saying he
Speaker 1: does things without thinking. It's a really nice way of
Speaker 1: saying he doesn't make reads. Because when you're talking about
Speaker 1: the best players in playmaking in the league, the top tier,
Speaker 1: I think is Lebron and Luka, don Chich, Nicola Yokich
Speaker 1: and Chris Paul. Those guys are never playing off of
Speaker 1: instinct there. There's some muscle memory there. They've seen some
Speaker 1: defenses so many times that they have muscle memory with
Speaker 1: the way they react. But they're making reads. They look
Speaker 1: at what the defense is doing and they make the
Speaker 1: play that counters what the defense is doing. That is
Speaker 1: not instinctive. That is muscle memory in basketball. I you,
Speaker 1: the calling Russ instinctive is just a really nice way
Speaker 1: of saying he's not a very smart basketball player. Now.
Speaker 1: When he was in his absolute physical prime, he was
Speaker 1: so unbelievably athletic that when he played with instinct he
Speaker 1: was still a huge net positive. But as that has
Speaker 1: faded in his game, that is no longer the case now.
Speaker 1: Instinctive Russ comes with downsides, especially when you look at
Speaker 1: it through the lens of what I was talking about,
Speaker 1: where Malik Monk is now coming into the picture as
Speaker 1: a bona fide ball handling option for this team. With
Speaker 1: Malik Monk and Lebron James and Anthony Davis, it is
Speaker 1: even more important for us to be willing to accept
Speaker 1: a lesser role. The other way to look at it
Speaker 1: is kind of like statistical output, right, Like, if Russ
Speaker 1: is being Russ, you might get twelve assists, but you're
Speaker 1: also gonna get like seven turnovers, right or six turnover
Speaker 1: You're gonna get the aggression that leads to the bad
Speaker 1: you know. So the question becomes, would you rather have
Speaker 1: twelve assists seven turnover US or four assist one turnover US?
Speaker 1: And I think it's obviously the latter. We need Russ
Speaker 1: to adapt to that lesser role, especially with Malik Monk's
Speaker 1: emergence as a guy who no longer goes off of
Speaker 1: instinct but a guy who makes reads. You know, there's
Speaker 1: this funny moment that happened in a game. Gosh, it
Speaker 1: was a couple of weeks back. I can't even remember
Speaker 1: which game it was, but Shaquille O'Neil sit sit in
Speaker 1: courtside and Check is kind of bantering back and forth
Speaker 1: with Russ on the court, and he goes, you need
Speaker 1: to slow down. And it's kind of hilarious because Shaquille
Speaker 1: O'Neil is a center, you know, very much, not a
Speaker 1: you know, a initiating perimeter player. He's the last guy
Speaker 1: in the world, you would think would be able to
Speaker 1: offer real advice to Russell Westbrook. But the funny part
Speaker 1: is is he was dead on and ironically Russ actually
Speaker 1: admitted it and some of his press conferences that he's
Speaker 1: been taking advice from Shack about playing slower. It to me,
Speaker 1: to playing slower is not about like Russ not being
Speaker 1: athletic or literally playing slow. To me, it's playing slower mentally.
Speaker 1: It's slowing the game down and making reads rather than
Speaker 1: playing on instinct. You understand that when you make that adjustment,
Speaker 1: if you're Russ, you're gonna lose some of the top end.
Speaker 1: You're no longer gonna get the crazy scoring up. You
Speaker 1: know you're not gonna get the thirty two, fourteen, and
Speaker 1: twelve anymore. You understand that that's the trade off. But
Speaker 1: the other side of the trade off is you get
Speaker 1: a functional role player, just like what you're getting from
Speaker 1: Carmelo Anthony right now. Carmelo Anthony is a functional role
Speaker 1: player now when he was not when he was in Houston,
Speaker 1: and that literally cost him his spot in the league
Speaker 1: with Russ. I made the comparison yesterday, two days ago,
Speaker 1: actually that Marcus Smart was an example of a player
Speaker 1: who kind of had that chaotic attitude, but he brought
Speaker 1: so much to the floor defensively. I don't know that
Speaker 1: Russ is capable of doing both, but I'm very much
Speaker 1: sure that Russ is capable of doing those dirty work
Speaker 1: responsibilities that Marcus Smart does. Another cop that I've used
Speaker 1: in the past is dru Holiday, a player who primarily
Speaker 1: focuses his energy on the defensive end of the floor
Speaker 1: and then on offense. He's a power guard. It's about
Speaker 1: attacking matchups and playing off of two superior offensive players
Speaker 1: in Chris Middleton in Jana Santana Coompo. That's kind of
Speaker 1: like the vibe that Drew Holiday goes for it. There
Speaker 1: are games where he has the right matchup and he's
Speaker 1: super aggressive, but there are other games where he steps
Speaker 1: way back and he feels it out. So to me,
Speaker 1: that's the transition that Russ needs to make. Rust being
Speaker 1: Russ is no longer going to work. It needs to
Speaker 1: be rust being Carmelo. Obviously not in the literal sense,
Speaker 1: but in terms of that transition that he made. And
Speaker 1: then the last element there is the bench. The main
Speaker 1: reason why you have you know, you know it tradid
Speaker 1: any sort of like off the bench score I think
Speaker 1: give like your Jerry Stackhouse type or your Jordan Clarkson type.
Speaker 1: The main reason why guys like that come off the
Speaker 1: bench has to do with the fact that in the
Speaker 1: bench phase of the game, like end first quarter, early
Speaker 1: second quarter, when bench lineups are out there, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit easier for you to do the defensive job
Speaker 1: right because now you're guarding a bench player. You know,
Speaker 1: this is why Dwight Howard succeeds so much as a
Speaker 1: backup center. Dwight Howard is feasting on the lesser talented
Speaker 1: backup centers in the league. You know, you bring in
Speaker 1: a Jordan clark center Jerry Stackhouse to feast on the
Speaker 1: lower quality bench lineups. Now, I don't think you can
Speaker 1: ever literally Ben s Russ in the sense of taking
Speaker 1: him out of the starting lineup because of his ego,
Speaker 1: and that's unfortunate, but it's just the reality of the situation. However,
Speaker 1: you can try to line up his minutes in a
Speaker 1: way that he primarily plays with bench groups. And you've
Speaker 1: now established after this game against the Knicks and then
Speaker 1: much earlier this season, you have now established that you
Speaker 1: can bench Russell Westbrook in a pivotal moment, you have
Speaker 1: the ability to look him in the face and be like,
Speaker 1: we are closing this game without you. So he's kind
Speaker 1: of starting to take on that persona and some of
Speaker 1: the characteristics of a bench player. You know, So start
Speaker 1: him if you have to, but use him as a
Speaker 1: bench player. I think by doing that you have an
Speaker 1: ability to make the most of this next four months,
Speaker 1: because come in this summer, Russ is gone. I think
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers are aware enough of how much
Speaker 1: of a mistake this was that they're not going to
Speaker 1: sign up for an additional year of this, and moving
Speaker 1: off of his contract becomes infinitely easier this summer when
Speaker 1: it's just one year and now teams are basically effectively
Speaker 1: trading for cap space in the summer. But you gotta
Speaker 1: find a way to make this next three or four
Speaker 1: months work, depending on how long their playoff run is,
Speaker 1: and the easiest way to do that is to try
Speaker 1: to convince him to change his role and to try
Speaker 1: to utilize him more against the lesser players on other
Speaker 1: teams by having him attack against the bench. FanDuel Sports
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Speaker 1: I will be on the Rams. I think their defensive
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Speaker 1: and why or text hope and why to four six
Speaker 1: seven three six nine In New York, tennessee redline eight
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Speaker 1: gambler dot net in West Virginia. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: take some time really quickly to talk about matchups, playoff matchups.
Speaker 1: Matchups are what determined and in many cases who wins
Speaker 1: the title. You know, like the Calves very much beat
Speaker 1: the Warriors, but maybe the thunder team in two thousand
Speaker 1: and sixteen, if they get to the finals, maybe that's
Speaker 1: a different matchup. Maybe the athleticism is different, and maybe
Speaker 1: it swings the who wins the championship. These styles make fights,
Speaker 1: and these matchups are very important, and there the two
Speaker 1: matchups I want will look at tonight are the Lakers
Speaker 1: versus the Warriors or the Lakers versus Suns. Chances are,
Speaker 1: if things don't go really well over the course of
Speaker 1: the next month, they might have to face one of
Speaker 1: these teams in the first round, but in all likelihood
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to face at least one on the
Speaker 1: way to the title, if not both. Now, the interest
Speaker 1: thing is on the defensive end of the floor, Lakers
Speaker 1: on offense. Both teams match up really well with the
Speaker 1: Lakers and have multiple options. They both have a great
Speaker 1: option to throw at Anthony Davis. DeAndre Ayton straight up
Speaker 1: outplayed Anthony Davison game one of the first round series
Speaker 1: last year. Now, over the course of the series, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis showed that he was better. He had back to
Speaker 1: back thirty four point games after that, and the Lakers
Speaker 1: were in commanding position until he got hurt. However, if
Speaker 1: you're looking at that and you're like man our center,
Speaker 1: who's not remotely close to our bench, player outplayed Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis in a playoff game. That's a huge win. And
Speaker 1: he's a great defensive option to throw at Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: Draymond Green. Same thing for the Warriors in that playing game,
Speaker 1: the one where Lebron made the game winner, Draymond Green
Speaker 1: stonewalled Anthony Davison. Post up possessions in that game changed
Speaker 1: the complexion from the outset. They immediately started for force
Speaker 1: feeding Anthony Davis at the beginning and he could not
Speaker 1: score against Raymond Green. That's a huge matchup advantage for
Speaker 1: the Warriors. And then on the wing, they both have
Speaker 1: like that stock key, you know, veteran savvy defender to
Speaker 1: throw at Lebron for Andre Wodola for the Warriors or
Speaker 1: Jay Crowded for the Suns. And then they have like
Speaker 1: the wiry, more athletic option and Andrew Wiggins or Michael Bridges.
Speaker 1: So on the defensive end, they all match up the Saint.
Speaker 1: The main reason why I'm more scared or so to
Speaker 1: speaker that I think the Warriors have a better chance
Speaker 1: or or more likely to beat the Lakers has to
Speaker 1: do that overwhelming star power we watched in that series
Speaker 1: as the Lakers took a two one lead, they were
Speaker 1: able to make things very difficult for Chris Paul and
Speaker 1: Devin Booker. Steph Curry is a super duper star. Is
Speaker 1: probably the third best player in the world, if not higher.
Speaker 1: There is no game planning for that. There's no scheme
Speaker 1: in the world. There's nothing you can do to slow
Speaker 1: down Steph Curry. And if you do, we've seen teams
Speaker 1: outright trap him as far away from the basket as possible.
Speaker 1: And they have the best short roll big man in
Speaker 1: the league and dray mung Green to catch that ball
Speaker 1: and go down the lane and make reads and make
Speaker 1: you pay on the back end. That offensive element that
Speaker 1: Steph Curry brings to the table is gonna be the
Speaker 1: massive trump card in any case. Now, the Lakers are
Speaker 1: still capable of winning that matchup. They are capable of
Speaker 1: physically overwhelming the Warriors in the front court. Their weakness
Speaker 1: right now is their front court size. It's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why they've been connected to Sabonis and Turner
Speaker 1: so much here on the deadline. However, that's a good
Speaker 1: matchup for the Lakers. The differences defensively, the Lakers are
Speaker 1: gonna have a much harder time trying to contain Steph
Speaker 1: Curry than they will trying to contain that incessant high
Speaker 1: pick and roll from Devin Booker and Chris Paul, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, is kind of playing directly into Frank
Speaker 1: vogel strong suit. He's very very good at coming up
Speaker 1: with cool pick and roll coverages to try to shut
Speaker 1: those teams down. The other element to this is just
Speaker 1: veteran experience. No, Chris Paul has been in the league forever,
Speaker 1: but he has not one and everyone else on the
Speaker 1: team is very young. The Warriors, they've seen everything, man.
Speaker 1: They saw a boxing one in the NBA Finals in
Speaker 1: two thousand nineteen. They've seen hardcore trapping, They've seen everything
Speaker 1: under the sun. They've seen teams completely ignored Draymond Green.
Speaker 1: They've seen it all, and they've been there and they've
Speaker 1: hoisted the trophy three times. The confidence that you gain
Speaker 1: from that is inevitably going to be something that allows
Speaker 1: you to feel comfortable in big moments. If you end
Speaker 1: up in a pivotal Game five with the Warriors, they're
Speaker 1: going into that game feeling comfortable. If it's to two
Speaker 1: and the Lakers are going to Phoenix, Phoenix is gonna
Speaker 1: feel a little less confident in that type of matchup.
Speaker 1: They don't have that experience to lean back on. So
Speaker 1: it's an interesting matchup I think. I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: are probably gonna have to go through both of these
Speaker 1: teams just with the way things break out with the standings.
Speaker 1: But it's interesting looking at the matchups, and I think
Speaker 1: the Warriors present, you know, just just with the power
Speaker 1: of Steph Curry, just that little extra ceiling that they
Speaker 1: can get to that Phoenix can't get to. Something that
Speaker 1: I've talked about a lot on the show. Phoenix just
Speaker 1: doesn't have at superstar power to lean on really quickly.
Speaker 1: Before we get out of here tonight, the last thing
Speaker 1: that I wanted to hit on was this a little
Speaker 1: bit more on the heart and trade. So Bill Simmons,
Speaker 1: who is very good friends with Daryl Morey, so he
Speaker 1: very well make Nelson might know something on this front.
Speaker 1: He reported that the Nets would be interested in the
Speaker 1: trade for for Ben Simmons as long as Seth Curry
Speaker 1: was included, which inevitably brought up this question like, is
Speaker 1: it worth it to send out one of your best
Speaker 1: offensive players alongside Ben Simmons to get a player like
Speaker 1: James Harden back. Now. In general, my philosophy with this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff is just get the star and figure
Speaker 1: out the rest later. It is much easier after the
Speaker 1: fact to fill in little holes on the periphery when
Speaker 1: you have that super duper star power. Now, that can backfire,
Speaker 1: but it usually backfires when you trade for the wrong
Speaker 1: star Allah Russell Westbrook, when you give up really good
Speaker 1: role players and the star you get back is not
Speaker 1: very good. Like the irony in that trade now is
Speaker 1: Kyle Kuzma might be a better player than Russ So
Speaker 1: that backfired because you went after the wrong star. Now.
Speaker 1: I know James Harden is having one of the worst
Speaker 1: seasons of his career. I'm aware of that. But he's
Speaker 1: a very finicky superstar. He's very moody, he's very dependent
Speaker 1: on things going his way, and he very easily can
Speaker 1: get thrown off mentally, and that can end up being
Speaker 1: a problem for him on the court. We've seen it
Speaker 1: many times throughout his career, even when he was in Houston,
Speaker 1: even when things were good, they had a random year
Speaker 1: and there where he was forty one and basically didn't
Speaker 1: play any defense the entire season. He's that kind of guy. Now,
Speaker 1: is he ever gonna be as good as he was
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eighteen? Again, maybe not, But I
Speaker 1: know one thing for sure, even right now, even with
Speaker 1: as poorly as he's playing, if he's reinvigorated in Houston,
Speaker 1: excuse me, if he's reinvigorated it in Philly, I know
Speaker 1: for a fact that he is still one of the
Speaker 1: top ten players in the NBA. That's how much of
Speaker 1: an offensive weapon he is. And yes, Seth Curry is
Speaker 1: a hugely important offensive player for the For the Sixers
Speaker 1: right now, they have a ton of dribble handoff stuff
Speaker 1: that they run with Joel Embiad. That's one of the
Speaker 1: pillars of their offense. However, James Harden, even in his
Speaker 1: lesson state, is a significantly better offensive engine than once
Speaker 1: you got with Seth Curry. Now, do you have to
Speaker 1: figure things out again? Are you gonna have to change
Speaker 1: your system? Sure, you gonna have to rebuild chemistry. Sure,
Speaker 1: but you're undoubtedly a better offensive team with a higher
Speaker 1: ceiling bringing in James Harden, even if you have to
Speaker 1: send out Seth Curry. And the most important detail here
Speaker 1: is that when you have the super duper stars, the
Speaker 1: reason why I believe in trading out role players for
Speaker 1: superstars is because superstars feel so many responsibilities on the floor.
Speaker 1: You know, like if you had to assigned like a
Speaker 1: pie chart or pie graph or whatever you wanna call
Speaker 1: it that lays out the responsibilities that have to be
Speaker 1: filled on a basketball court. When the two superstars feel
Speaker 1: almost the entire chart with what they do, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, those little pieces that you have to fill
Speaker 1: in become way more manageable. You'll you're not gonna be
Speaker 1: able to find a guy as good as Seth Curry
Speaker 1: as a role player next to James Harden and Joel Embiid,
Speaker 1: but you can probably find somebody who's seventy eight is good,
Speaker 1: which without James Harden is a huge difference because you
Speaker 1: need Seth Curry to do everything he's been doing. But
Speaker 1: when James Harden is in there and all those responsibilities
Speaker 1: are filled, the job becomes easy. This is why the
Speaker 1: Lakers won the title. In all their role players looked good.
Speaker 1: All those guys that got slandered in the summer coming
Speaker 1: into the season did great. Why because Lebron and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis both played like m vps that year, and so
Speaker 1: what they expected and needed for them. The role players
Speaker 1: on the periphery was such a small and manageable goal
Speaker 1: that they all knocked it out of the park. Every
Speaker 1: single player panned out that season. Even Rondo, who struggled
Speaker 1: that whole season, was awesome in the playoffs, at least
Speaker 1: for stretches. So that's the kind of vibe you gotta
Speaker 1: look at it the way you gotta look at this.
Speaker 1: If you're a filling like, yeah, we're losing Seth Curry,
Speaker 1: Yeah we're losing Ben Simmons, but he wasn't playing anyway.
Speaker 1: But you're bringing in James Harden. And by having James
Speaker 1: Harden and Joe l embiid fill up so much that
Speaker 1: pie chart, you open the door for yourself to make
Speaker 1: easy roles available. And with those easy roles, you can
Speaker 1: slot in lesser players and they can knock those roles
Speaker 1: out of the park. So no matter what Philly asks,
Speaker 1: even if they ask for Tyres Maxie instead of Seth Curry,
Speaker 1: and in terms of what Brooklyn is asking for, I
Speaker 1: mean even if they ask for that, even if they
Speaker 1: ask for both, I don't care what they ask for.
Speaker 1: You just get the start, because this is not Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: This is not a player that's gonna come in and
Speaker 1: massively underperformed. He's gonna be reinvigorated. He's gonna be the
Speaker 1: go to perimeter score. He's gonna be playing alongside one
Speaker 1: of the best players in the league. He is going
Speaker 1: to love it there. He's going to be completely bought
Speaker 1: in and he's going to look great. I feel very
Speaker 1: confident in that. So you've gotta do what it takes
Speaker 1: to get him. Now. The question becomes, do you throw
Speaker 1: everything at him now or do you wait till the summer.
Speaker 1: And the reason why you go for it now is
Speaker 1: because nothing is guaranteed. The Lakers won the title in
Speaker 1: that's great, but look at how the two seasons since
Speaker 1: then have gone very easily. Could have gone the other way,
Speaker 1: could have been injuries, and maybe this is the year
Speaker 1: they're healthy. But you need shots at it, You need
Speaker 1: pulls at the slot machine because it is like it's
Speaker 1: like a slot machine winning the title. That's how hard
Speaker 1: it is to win. And you buy yourself an extra
Speaker 1: poll on the slot machine when you make the deal
Speaker 1: now instead of waiting to the summer. If you wait
Speaker 1: till the summer, there's no guarantee. Next year is going
Speaker 1: to be the year it all pans out anyway, and
Speaker 1: you double your chances if you do it now. So
Speaker 1: I hope, hope Philly puts all the chips on the
Speaker 1: table and gets James Harden because I think it will
Speaker 1: be the best for them. And we talked as we
Speaker 1: talked about on Saturday, I love the Ben Simmons fit
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn, filling in a lot of responsibilities that have
Speaker 1: never been filled in on that team. Alright, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for tonight. This will be in
Speaker 1: our podcast feed shortly. We will be back right after
Speaker 1: the Bucks game tomorrow night, right after the final buzzer.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate your support and we will see
Speaker 1: you tomorrow. The volume