Speaker 1: M hmmm. Welcome to the State of the Lakers, presented
Speaker 1: by DASH Radio. Happy Thursday, everybody. It's been a very
Speaker 1: important week in Laker Land. We have somebody returning and
Speaker 1: that would be our friend and co host Raj. How
Speaker 1: you doing, buddy. How's your trip to Vegas? It was good.
Speaker 1: It was too long, Like I was telling you, five
Speaker 1: days in Vegas is way too long. After the third day,
Speaker 1: you're kind of ready to come back home. So, you know,
Speaker 1: a nice, nice sleep in your own bed, back to
Speaker 1: your own place, to be able to have, you know,
Speaker 1: your own breakfast and stuff like that. It was it
Speaker 1: was nice. But how are you, man, How are you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm doing very good. It is good to have you back.
Speaker 1: We have a lot to talk about. Um. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about this Anthony Davison be battle um because I
Speaker 1: thought it was super interesting and fascinating and as a
Speaker 1: basketball fan, it was kind of the type of matchup
Speaker 1: that you live for. Um. That said, I wanted to start,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of talking about the game in general.
Speaker 1: You know, I thought the Lakers should have been able
Speaker 1: to to to give this one a run for even
Speaker 1: without Lebron. I thought this was a winnable game. Why,
Speaker 1: Because the Sixers have overchead overachieved a bit. They don't
Speaker 1: have a ton of talent in their back court. They're
Speaker 1: leaning on their version of th HD and Tyrese Maxie,
Speaker 1: who was a better player than t HD right now,
Speaker 1: but another young, inconsistent type of guard. And Tobias Harris
Speaker 1: has not shot the ball well this year and has
Speaker 1: not been super consistent, and he's been in talks as
Speaker 1: a contract of the Sixers are trying to get off of.
Speaker 1: But there's this imbid factor and him obviously playing super well.
Speaker 1: But I thought that this was a winnable game. So
Speaker 1: I'm a little disappointed. You and I talked to in
Speaker 1: the text messages about how the Lakers didn't quite approach
Speaker 1: approach the game with the right amount of a belief,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, and just a handful of sequences
Speaker 1: in the game where you can tell they let go
Speaker 1: of the rope because they just didn't think they could win.
Speaker 1: And that became unfortunate because then when they tried to
Speaker 1: make runs later in the game, um, they weren't able
Speaker 1: to sustain anything enough. But I think the main driving
Speaker 1: force behind this, and this is something we've talked about
Speaker 1: a lot on the show is the Lakers are a
Speaker 1: brute force offense. They depend heavily on matchups. They depend
Speaker 1: on Lebron and Anthony Davis in their ability to compromise
Speaker 1: the defense, which then gets the defense and rotation, and
Speaker 1: then guys can capitalize off of that, right, That's kind
Speaker 1: of their formula. So they're not great with offensive sets.
Speaker 1: They don't run super sophisticated actions. They're not the team
Speaker 1: that's going to run down the floor and set fifteen
Speaker 1: screens and a bunch of flayers and hype, you know,
Speaker 1: like really complicated pick and rolls. It's it's pretty basic stuff.
Speaker 1: And so when you take a Lebron James out of
Speaker 1: the equation, all of a sudden, the basic stuff doesn't
Speaker 1: work as well, you know, because you just don't have
Speaker 1: that initial advantage creation. And I thought our offense struggled
Speaker 1: a lot tonight and led to a bunch of poor
Speaker 1: jump shots, which then led to runouts where the Sixers
Speaker 1: were so comfortable in transition, even in beat, it's just
Speaker 1: so comfortable bringing the ball up the floor and making moves.
Speaker 1: And I thought that's kind of where the wheels came
Speaker 1: off tonight. What was your take on that. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: like when you whenever Lebrons hits out, you kind of
Speaker 1: moved people up a position, you know, you bring Russell,
Speaker 1: you put Russell Westbrook more in a creation mode. I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, going to into this game, that Malik Monk
Speaker 1: and every Bradley starting was just too small. And I
Speaker 1: thought that kind of played out as the game went
Speaker 1: on to Bias Harris got comfortable even court Mas and
Speaker 1: then we and we doubled and beat on the catch
Speaker 1: a lot. I didn't really like that as a scheme,
Speaker 1: I understood it. I would have liked to see Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis get a little bit more of a one on
Speaker 1: one defense on him. I thought he did okay in
Speaker 1: that matchup and beat again. As a brute force, that's
Speaker 1: just a tough guy to stay off the rim. But
Speaker 1: I thought Anthony Davis did a pretty good job. But
Speaker 1: when Dwight was in the game, we just doubled on
Speaker 1: the catch, which I didn't really understand that. I didn't
Speaker 1: really understand if you're going to play Dwight Howard, at
Speaker 1: least you know, make Mbat work for some of those
Speaker 1: possess sessions, especially doubling one passed away. We just weren't
Speaker 1: connected tonight. And the belief again, I thought, wasn't there
Speaker 1: a lot of babbled passes thumb leak Monk really struggled early.
Speaker 1: I think he had like it was like one for
Speaker 1: five to start, a bunch of uh babbled balls in
Speaker 1: the in the lane when he tried to attack. So
Speaker 1: I thought there's a lot of disbelief lacking there. But
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis being the story, I thought he was amazing.
Speaker 1: But yeah, our scheme against it beat really didn't make
Speaker 1: a lot of sense to be got to the line.
Speaker 1: But Anthony Davis matched him like if you can get
Speaker 1: a D two match in bed, and I think he
Speaker 1: even outplayed him tonight. That should have probably been enough.
Speaker 1: I just thought we didn't defend well enough, we didn't
Speaker 1: get enough shooting. I think I tweated out Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: I think was like fourteen for thirteen for nineteen, and
Speaker 1: the rest of the team was like fourteen for forty six.
Speaker 1: At one point it was about which is about thirty percent.
Speaker 1: And then if you add Russ in there, I think
Speaker 1: Russ was like five for eleven. So if you take
Speaker 1: those two, the rest of the team really hit like
Speaker 1: six or seven shots in the game was pretty much
Speaker 1: over and uh Philly was able to take over. Man,
Speaker 1: this would have been a great one. I was so
Speaker 1: disappointed when I saw Lebron was out because I thought
Speaker 1: this is something this is a game we could have
Speaker 1: built on. And I feel like if Lebron play aid,
Speaker 1: you get this Anthony Davis type of production. I thought
Speaker 1: we could have one tonight, but we just weren't there,
Speaker 1: didn't defend well enough. You know. Still the Carmelo Dwight
Speaker 1: Howard lineups are still too wonky for me, especially defensively.
Speaker 1: Philly continued to attack Carmelo. He hit a cree jump shots,
Speaker 1: but I think that's just a tough thing to stay
Speaker 1: up on. And again, Malik Monk Avery Bradley played too
Speaker 1: many minutes together. Um, that lineup is just too small.
Speaker 1: It gets a team like Philly. Even when you talked
Speaker 1: about all the time how these contests aren't really contests,
Speaker 1: Danny Green was contested I guess four or five times.
Speaker 1: He still hit three threes because it's like every Bradley
Speaker 1: getting a hand out or two him and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So I thought that's where we lost the game. But
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis man incredible and credib will get into him.
Speaker 1: But the game I thought was lost by doubling and
Speaker 1: b too much and Philly hit shots and we didn't
Speaker 1: from tonight. Yeah, I'm so glad you brought up that
Speaker 1: having to do with uh, you know, Lebron coming out
Speaker 1: in the continuity, because that was one of my biggest takeaways.
Speaker 1: When I saw that today, I was like, Okay, so
Speaker 1: you're thinking about it back to back here, So is
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis gonna play both ends of the back to back?
Speaker 1: Because the continuity is the number one thing that's missing here.
Speaker 1: I don't need to see anymore of what a Lebron
Speaker 1: with a d off lineup might look like. I don't
Speaker 1: need to see any more of what an a d
Speaker 1: On with Lebron off lineup might look like. We just
Speaker 1: we've seen, we've seen so much of that this year.
Speaker 1: You know, typically in a regular season like back in
Speaker 1: you might be like, oh, a d s off tonight,
Speaker 1: Lebron's off tomorrow. We've got a chance to win both
Speaker 1: games and we can kind of tinker with No, we
Speaker 1: don't need to tinker with lineups anymore. We need our
Speaker 1: guys out there that's what actually needs to happen, and
Speaker 1: so I hope a D goes tomorrow, and I hope
Speaker 1: Lebron goes tomorrow, because if it ends up being one
Speaker 1: of those things where Lebron's like, oh, my knee is fine,
Speaker 1: but then a D takes the night off, that's going
Speaker 1: to be frustrating because then we basically accomplished nothing in
Speaker 1: this back to back. But that remains to be seen.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad you pointed out that thing with doubling,
Speaker 1: because that's a super fascinating basketball concept that is, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, seems simple, but really isn't right. Like, it's
Speaker 1: seem simple, just send two guys to the ball and
Speaker 1: then you make the guy pass out of it, right,
Speaker 1: But if it's when it's done well, it's effective. When
Speaker 1: it's done in a sloppy way, teams will make you
Speaker 1: pay NonStop. And so, like what you were saying, I
Speaker 1: thought it was super interesting. They were doubling one pass away,
Speaker 1: but then they weren't recovering to that first pass, and
Speaker 1: so it was just a quick outlet to that first
Speaker 1: guy and then swing swaying shot or swinging attack, close
Speaker 1: out shot, and it wasn't they weren't making anything difficult
Speaker 1: on embeat the way you're supposed to do that kind
Speaker 1: of double as you immediately cover that first pass away.
Speaker 1: You understand when you double that you're going to give
Speaker 1: away a pass, but you need to give away the
Speaker 1: furthest pass. Why so that if you apply a ball
Speaker 1: pressure on Embiid and you can force him to throw
Speaker 1: something loopy like with a lot of arc on it,
Speaker 1: or God forbid you tip the pass. If you can
Speaker 1: do something along those lines to make that pass slow,
Speaker 1: then you can recover because it's all the way across
Speaker 1: the floor and it's easy to rotate out of it.
Speaker 1: But when you make it easy for them to pass out,
Speaker 1: it's just immediately just you know, pass past swing, swing, drive,
Speaker 1: and it's over, you know what I mean. And so
Speaker 1: that's an important deal, and I agree with you, like
Speaker 1: make it. Make Embiid earn it, earn the right to
Speaker 1: get those double teams, especially with matchups with a D
Speaker 1: and Dwight. Like I get it when it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: we got Stanley Johnson on a switch here. We need
Speaker 1: to scram them out of it. You know, I get that,
Speaker 1: But like Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard, they can at
Speaker 1: least make embiid earn his baskets. And this is the
Speaker 1: key here. Stagnation something we talked about all the time.
Speaker 1: Rods like a possession where Embied takes fourteen seconds to
Speaker 1: stare down Dwight Howard and score over the top of him.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a win for the defense. Yes, it
Speaker 1: results in points on the scoreboard, but it slows things down.
Speaker 1: All of the other defenders on the floor a standing
Speaker 1: still so they get to rest. If he does miss,
Speaker 1: it's usually leads to a run out because guys are
Speaker 1: loaded up and ready to run. Any sort of isolation
Speaker 1: possession that is usually the best possible possession that a
Speaker 1: defense can give up. So my thing is, I'm with you,
Speaker 1: I would have and if that matchup, like especially in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference, it's more like a Yokich kind of thing.
Speaker 1: But I don't think we'll see him beat in the finals.
Speaker 1: But same thing goes with you know, uh Janice type
Speaker 1: of matchup to like make a guy earn that. Then
Speaker 1: if it becomes if it gets to the point where
Speaker 1: he's in such a group where he's burning you every time,
Speaker 1: then yeah, then that's when you make that adjustment. But
Speaker 1: the hard doubles early in the game, unless you're dealing
Speaker 1: with someone like Anthony Davis is just such a bad
Speaker 1: passer that like you can throw him out of the
Speaker 1: game entirely. I just don't really like that strategy. But like,
Speaker 1: just in general, I seemed to me tonight that the
Speaker 1: Lakers at approach the game with the right amount of belief.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a winnable game, and so that
Speaker 1: was unfortunate. Yeah, I felt the same way. You could
Speaker 1: tell from the role players as well. I felt like
Speaker 1: once Lebron was out, the belief was gone. But going
Speaker 1: back to a doubles, we doubled one pass away right.
Speaker 1: It was just too easy. Philly eventually adjusted. They had
Speaker 1: Cork mods throwing the entry pass. So it's basically the
Speaker 1: entry pass goes in Taylor Horn, Tucker drops down, Carmelo
Speaker 1: Anthony is the guy that's supposed to rotate over. He's
Speaker 1: just too slow and it's open three for him. We
Speaker 1: had Motiste Tye will throw it in, and Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: was really bad at this tonight, Like he would double
Speaker 1: right away off the cutter, and that's like a cardinal sin,
Speaker 1: right in basketball, you don't double off the cutter Matisse
Speaker 1: Eize will throws it in, he cuts Westbrook just leaves
Speaker 1: him and he got to lay up a few times.
Speaker 1: So I didn't like the scheme. I think, like you know,
Speaker 1: in a seven game series, that type of stuff will
Speaker 1: be cleaned up, and those are things that you know,
Speaker 1: I think we need to be coaching game the game.
Speaker 1: I think we're like a game under five hundred now.
Speaker 1: And again, if Anthony Davis wasn't just incredible, I think
Speaker 1: you have like twenty five points or something. I have time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this game is probably over by the first quarter. Eighty
Speaker 1: was just amazing. And this is the e d that
Speaker 1: one that is the damn title, right. I guess we'll
Speaker 1: move on to him. But yeah, it just didn't like
Speaker 1: the schemes I guess against em Beat and you know,
Speaker 1: don't take anything away from em Beat and Beat is
Speaker 1: a freaking monster. He's playing like one of the best
Speaker 1: players in the world, maybe the best player in the
Speaker 1: game right now, carrying this Philly team. Philly also has
Speaker 1: a Max guy that's just decided not to play this season,
Speaker 1: so uh, and be doing what he's doing is super impressive.
Speaker 1: We we we came into this game deciding to double him,
Speaker 1: and I think that was unfortunately. I wish we kind
Speaker 1: of let the game decide that, Like you said, right,
Speaker 1: let the game decide that you double Joel Embiid, you know,
Speaker 1: just go in and you instantly double him every time.
Speaker 1: That's too easy. And joelan Bead is also not a
Speaker 1: great pastor. I think that's one of his you know,
Speaker 1: worst quote unquote skill sets is his playmaking. We just
Speaker 1: made it too easy for him tonight. And maybe that's
Speaker 1: just a function of what the game was that they
Speaker 1: wanted to do. Didn't want a D I guess having
Speaker 1: to you know, bang with Embiid for a full game,
Speaker 1: him just coming back from injury and all that. A
Speaker 1: D again went down with the risk. I'm glad he
Speaker 1: was able to finish, finish the game. It wasn't too serious,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I didn't like the scheme again against Joel Embiid.
Speaker 1: Could have could have mixed it up a little bit,
Speaker 1: but that's just why. And Philly again hit all their
Speaker 1: all their threes against us. Didn't take Anthony Davis long
Speaker 1: to have a run back to the locker room and
Speaker 1: his return to the Lakers. Did it, you know, not man?
Speaker 1: Has has us holding our heart every single game, and
Speaker 1: so the the actual matchup between Embad and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is super interesting to me because they're basically completely different players.
Speaker 1: I think that's a very important detail here. Like, I
Speaker 1: know it's being portrayed as like this classic battle between
Speaker 1: two dominant big men, and don't get me wrong, they are,
Speaker 1: but they both represent two completely different eras of NBA basketball,
Speaker 1: and you know, more or less, they're both completely ill
Speaker 1: equipped to guard each other, which I think is why
Speaker 1: they both had so much offensive success against each other.
Speaker 1: We saw this a lot in the season. Actually it
Speaker 1: might have been, Yeah, it was. It was last year
Speaker 1: in the game where they lost the Philly when Tobias
Speaker 1: Harris made the game winner. In that game, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: had the most success against them Beat when he stayed
Speaker 1: kind of a little bit disconnected from his body, like
Speaker 1: a little bit further off, you know, and made and
Speaker 1: bead tried to drive into his length where he was
Speaker 1: struggling to find angles to finish it. And in that
Speaker 1: game last season, when a d was attached to em
Speaker 1: Beat's body, it played into em beats physicality advantage. Because
Speaker 1: it's crazy when you watch and beat and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: staying next to each other, and he makes Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: looks small like a massive human being, and massive he
Speaker 1: is a massive human being. And so when you get
Speaker 1: physically attached to the guy who has the physical advantage,
Speaker 1: it's so easy for him to do a quick pivot
Speaker 1: or that little like imperceptible you know, chicken wing that
Speaker 1: never gets called. You know that little elbow that to
Speaker 1: throw the guy up. You can do so many more,
Speaker 1: you know, physical bullyball types of actions when you're connected.
Speaker 1: And so Anthony Davis, I thought struggled early in the
Speaker 1: game with trying to figure out that right distance. But
Speaker 1: over the course of the game he had some success
Speaker 1: block in a few shots and things like that. But
Speaker 1: then on the other end of the floor and be
Speaker 1: just couldn't stay in front of Anthony davis foot speat,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis was able to get plenty of separation
Speaker 1: both going to the basket and getting to his jump shot.
Speaker 1: It really funky shot chart. If you look at Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis's shot chart, everything needs on the left side of
Speaker 1: the floor from fifty feet was money, and then everything
Speaker 1: he took in the middle of the floor on the
Speaker 1: right side was off, which is just one of those
Speaker 1: weird things with basketball. You'll never be able to understand it.
Speaker 1: That's why these analytics people that work for these teams
Speaker 1: have these sorts of shot charts handy so that they
Speaker 1: can look and go like, hey, like, let's try to
Speaker 1: get a d more touches over here, because this is
Speaker 1: where he's more comfortable. Over here, he seems to struggle more.
Speaker 1: But just in general, I really like to see that
Speaker 1: was the most confident I've seen Anthony Davis offensively and
Speaker 1: literally sense the bubble, I can't think of, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll take that back. There was one game against Phoenix
Speaker 1: at the end of the season last year, right before
Speaker 1: Lebron came back, where he looked this confident going to
Speaker 1: his jump shot. But it's been rare. It's been rare
Speaker 1: to see that since the bubble, and so one of
Speaker 1: my biggest wishes was hopefully over this time that he's rehabbing,
Speaker 1: he'll just be repping out jump shots by himself in
Speaker 1: a gym, and maybe he'll be able to read for
Speaker 1: some of that confidence. And he I think he went
Speaker 1: one for two on jump shots, uh the other night,
Speaker 1: and then he made a bunch more tonight, so we're
Speaker 1: obviously a small sample size still, but good progress for
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis in the sense that he seems to be
Speaker 1: regaining some of his perimeter form. Yeah, he's regaining his mobility.
Speaker 1: Like this is the best I've seen him move. He
Speaker 1: had to places tonight where like I think only him
Speaker 1: and maybe like, be honest, are you able to do it?
Speaker 1: Where like Joel Embie did a step back jumper and
Speaker 1: he blocked it, you know what I mean, and Beach
Speaker 1: shoots it from the top of his head and the
Speaker 1: beads already you know, seven foot tall, you put the
Speaker 1: ball over his head. Anthony Dave was blocked out one.
Speaker 1: I think he had another one and be tried to
Speaker 1: like a turnaround and he blocked out one. Just seeing
Speaker 1: you know, Anthony Davis moved like this. This is the
Speaker 1: defensive player we need. Back to back games with four blocks,
Speaker 1: so eight eight blocks in two games. Um, I think
Speaker 1: he's only had he had four blocks this whole season
Speaker 1: in terms of games. So it's just cool to see
Speaker 1: him kind of move his feed. He looks like he
Speaker 1: lost a little bit of weight to b Yeah, it
Speaker 1: looks like he's lighter. On his feet, and that means
Speaker 1: a lot for a player like him. And you know
Speaker 1: the gap from and you know, we do these, you
Speaker 1: do these player rankings and stuff like that. I'm not
Speaker 1: as much into those, but the gap from a D
Speaker 1: as a top ten to fifteen player to a top
Speaker 1: five player is wide right. That's a huge gap from
Speaker 1: what he was playing this from the regular season to
Speaker 1: start this year to what he looked like these last
Speaker 1: Even in that first game, I thought against the nets,
Speaker 1: his offense wasn't there, but his defense to me was incredible.
Speaker 1: He looked like the second best player on the floor
Speaker 1: with eight points for that whole game. So he looks
Speaker 1: good man, and tonight just looked like he's moving well.
Speaker 1: If they're jumper is real, I'm not sure if it's
Speaker 1: gonna hit like tonight, but it just looks smooth. He
Speaker 1: looked confident with it. Um. He had a step back
Speaker 1: game going as well. He had a few jumpers behind
Speaker 1: the backboard. They gave them some isolations and against him
Speaker 1: beat and you're right, he's able to attack and beat
Speaker 1: with his speed, with his handles, get by him. Step
Speaker 1: back jumpers. He just looked good. If this is the
Speaker 1: a D that we compare with Lebron. Man, we're cooking. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is the this I always say, there's a good
Speaker 1: team in here that revolves a lot around a D
Speaker 1: looking like this and Lebron coming back to where he
Speaker 1: was playing. But he looked. He looked incredible. That big
Speaker 1: man matchup was fun, I think and beat again. He
Speaker 1: was playing like one of the best players in the world,
Speaker 1: and I think a D out played him tonight. If
Speaker 1: you get this a D that should get you. That
Speaker 1: gets you some marginal error for the rest of the
Speaker 1: roster here, which I'm sure we'll get to you. But
Speaker 1: Adi looked great. Man. I hope you know this is
Speaker 1: a continuation. I hope there's no setbacks. I hope he's
Speaker 1: able to continue to play, and he plays tomorrow. We
Speaker 1: can finally get another game with the big three. They
Speaker 1: have sixteen games together on this season, I believe, and
Speaker 1: now they're like at two hundred something minutes where eighties
Speaker 1: at center. So we need to get those minutes up. Man.
Speaker 1: We need to get some more reps here and continue
Speaker 1: to build. This would have been a nice win if
Speaker 1: Lebron would have played, but Adi looked incredible. His movement
Speaker 1: was there you know he was. He was running a
Speaker 1: lot more pick a roll, a lot more dribble handoffs.
Speaker 1: He saw him running actors with Leak Monk and it
Speaker 1: looks like he's getting comfortable that second unit. Did you
Speaker 1: see that, Jason? I had that in my notes. I
Speaker 1: thought that was really fun. We had a D Stanley
Speaker 1: Reeves and Monk, and I think that's just a super
Speaker 1: like bouncy second unit. That. Yeah, and it looks like
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff rubs off, not on just Lebron
Speaker 1: but a D as well. You see him jump for
Speaker 1: lobs and stuff like that. Um, he got a bunch
Speaker 1: of like tip dunks. How many tip dunks does he
Speaker 1: have on this season? I think he had like three tonight.
Speaker 1: How'n tip dunks does he like have on the season?
Speaker 1: Two hands? Yeah, where he catches it above the above
Speaker 1: the rim. Like it's just cool to see him look
Speaker 1: like he gets his legs back rolling and crashing ros
Speaker 1: rolling and crashing something. You haven't seen a lot from him,
Speaker 1: not at all. So it's great to see again, especially
Speaker 1: against the guy that can be who I think we
Speaker 1: both agree is one of the best just post defenders.
Speaker 1: Just a guy who can you know, defend the rim
Speaker 1: and defend big So it's cool to see him have
Speaker 1: this type of game and hopefully picks it up in
Speaker 1: Charlotte tomorrow. Ye, no agree, And you know it's you
Speaker 1: and I were joking around in the text, right we
Speaker 1: were like, the Lakers don't have a ton of belief
Speaker 1: right now, but right rog and I, we have some
Speaker 1: belief right now. And and the reason why is because
Speaker 1: A d looks better than he had like tonight. Offensively,
Speaker 1: he's probably one of his better games of the season
Speaker 1: right in terms of just the not not necessarily the
Speaker 1: end result, but just the way he looked. In terms
Speaker 1: of his quickness, He's not quite as quick as he
Speaker 1: was in bubble, but he certainly looks quicker than he
Speaker 1: did the previous you know season. So there's that progress,
Speaker 1: and then you have this Lebron progress. And you know,
Speaker 1: one of the big things here is it's it's building blocks.
Speaker 1: It's no different than when you're building a roster in
Speaker 1: the off season and you're looking at your situation, You're going, Okay,
Speaker 1: I've got Lebron James here. That's a huge building block. Okay,
Speaker 1: how good is he still? Is he top five? Is
Speaker 1: he top ten. Like those are the kinds of questions
Speaker 1: we were asking ourselves after the title, right, it was like, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, what's it going to be like moving forward?
Speaker 1: How good? Okay, well, Lebron still is very much in
Speaker 1: the conversation for the best basketball player alive. That's a
Speaker 1: very good building block to go with. Then we look
Speaker 1: at Anthony Davis and it was like, Okay, it used
Speaker 1: to be that Lebron in a d to the top
Speaker 1: four or five players in the world, we have this awesome,
Speaker 1: you know, formula that's guaranteed to win. But then we
Speaker 1: declined and was hovering in that different range. And again,
Speaker 1: regardless of what you want to say about player rankings,
Speaker 1: like forget about play rankings, he just wasn't as good
Speaker 1: like you just Anthony Davis was not as good as
Speaker 1: at basketball since the bubble, you know, as he was
Speaker 1: when he was in the bubble. It's that's not I
Speaker 1: don't even think that's up for debate rags like that
Speaker 1: was like like in in Game six of the Finals,
Speaker 1: he literally had one of the most dominant defensive performances
Speaker 1: we've ever seen in conjunction with him shooting like Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant and since then, he's declined defensively, mostly because the
Speaker 1: effort I think in health, but then he also just
Speaker 1: hasn't been able to shoot the ball, so he hasn't
Speaker 1: been the same guy. If he becomes a better basketball player,
Speaker 1: that's the same as trading for more talent. You're infusing
Speaker 1: talent into the rosters. So if Anthony Davis starts to
Speaker 1: come around, if what we're seeing from tonight is real
Speaker 1: and not just a blit but rather a trend, then
Speaker 1: that's when we start talking again about how the Lakers
Speaker 1: have a talent advantage in a lot of these matchups.
Speaker 1: Because now we're talking about Lebron James, you know, top
Speaker 1: four or five player in the world, and Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: top seven eight player in the world. That's just a
Speaker 1: lot to handle for anybody. And then from there, that's
Speaker 1: when we can start looking at the building blocks. And
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk a little bit more about that in
Speaker 1: a minute, but it's like that's where the Stanley Johnson
Speaker 1: and the Austin Reaves become important factors because when this
Speaker 1: team was struggling early in the season, those two guys
Speaker 1: just weren't playing. So, I mean, it's a different type
Speaker 1: you know, I hate using the work reset because you know,
Speaker 1: it's a famous Phil Parcels quote. You're you're you are
Speaker 1: what your record says you are. And I don't want
Speaker 1: to sit here and just undercut and pretend like none
Speaker 1: of that stuff never happened. That said, like, oh, just
Speaker 1: about everybody playing in the rotation now is different than
Speaker 1: what we were using early in the year. And the
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D we're getting now they're just better
Speaker 1: players than the Lebron in a D that started the season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, And that's the most important part of the season.
Speaker 1: And all this stuff, all the loudness about Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: and that's, you know, the stuff that still has to
Speaker 1: be figured out. I think he's starting to figure out
Speaker 1: his role. I think tonight it was uplifted obviously with Lebron.
Speaker 1: Now you're gonna put more possessions in his hands, a
Speaker 1: lot of responsibility on him. But you know, a D
Speaker 1: has to be this type of player for this team
Speaker 1: to go anywhere. I think Lebron has kind of showed
Speaker 1: that he's still that guy from the beginning of the season.
Speaker 1: The jumper looks get looks there. Lebron has turned into
Speaker 1: a full time screener, you know, ball mover kind of
Speaker 1: off the ball, uh, running screen actions with Malik Monk
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. And A d has talked about
Speaker 1: it too, how he wants to move less in isolation
Speaker 1: more in ball screen action as well. I think you're
Speaker 1: seeing that again, running trible hands off with Malik Monk
Speaker 1: and defensively when this team missed him like crazy. Like
Speaker 1: we talked a lot about offense, and that's mostly what
Speaker 1: we discussed with the Russell Westbrook fit, but we needed
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis to be there. Defensively, he takes away pick
Speaker 1: and rolls in a way none of our other bigs
Speaker 1: can do. And he did that again tonight on a
Speaker 1: lot of possessions. We ran a little bit of a
Speaker 1: drop coverage and he was able to guard like Tobias
Speaker 1: Harris and take away Joel and beat at the rim.
Speaker 1: And that's just stuff none of our bigs can do.
Speaker 1: And when you see him like Jux juxtaposed with like
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard, right, because Dwight Howard played some minutes and
Speaker 1: now you just see the difference. Like we were running.
Speaker 1: Our center lineup was Lebron James and Dwight Howard for
Speaker 1: so long and then you see Anthony Davis out there
Speaker 1: being able to move block shots. Yeah, it jumps off
Speaker 1: the page right now. You can take that for granted.
Speaker 1: And we just talked about how A D wasn't himself
Speaker 1: and he wasn't on both ends right offensively and defensively,
Speaker 1: the replace where you know, he wasn't as engaged for
Speaker 1: full games. And we can put whatever context we will
Speaker 1: into that COVID season, short offseason, not wanting to be
Speaker 1: injuryed yadi YadA. But it was just there. And you
Speaker 1: see these last two games, I thought he was engaged,
Speaker 1: and you know, Philly's a tough matchup with Himbiid having
Speaker 1: a bank against him. But I thought again against Brooklyn
Speaker 1: against tonight, I thought, you know, he gave them a
Speaker 1: chance to win. And that's all you can ask for
Speaker 1: Dowight Howard. You know, looks it looked a lot, looks
Speaker 1: a lot slower. When you're playing Anthony David's minutes, you
Speaker 1: don't notice it as much until A D gets back.
Speaker 1: You just see the mobility difference, and then DeAndre Jordan
Speaker 1: you can forget about it, right, So, so you just
Speaker 1: talked about you just talked about the rotation. Man, it's
Speaker 1: flipped so much. Right when a D went out, we
Speaker 1: still had DJ in the lineup. I think Wayne Ellington
Speaker 1: was really really quickly. Ro Rondo was playing, minutes bas
Speaker 1: was playing, minutes DeAndre Jordan was playing, minutes Wayne Ellington
Speaker 1: was consistently in the rotation. All of those guys are
Speaker 1: just completely not being played anymore different. It looks like,
Speaker 1: and the hook is a lot quicker, right. Trevor Reason
Speaker 1: got three games and we realized his legs are just
Speaker 1: not under him, and maybe, you know, we give him
Speaker 1: a few weeks off to go find them. We'll know
Speaker 1: who knows if he'll find them. But I think you
Speaker 1: know that's the better case than whatever we were getting
Speaker 1: from him. He just was moving in slow motion. So
Speaker 1: you're seeing the rotation kind of flip. Austin Reeves has
Speaker 1: jumped all those guys you just mentioned I treated before.
Speaker 1: Austin Reasons has jumped all those guys. Went from undrafted
Speaker 1: to jumping four guys we signed to think to be
Speaker 1: in the rotation at least a bit. Whatever you think
Speaker 1: of Wayne Ellington, whatever you think of Camp bays Moore,
Speaker 1: you know those guys are supposed to be NBA players
Speaker 1: for US, and Reeves has jumped all of them. Uh,
Speaker 1: Stanley Johnson, the tame gay guys starting now, we kind
Speaker 1: of moved into him. I think he did in more
Speaker 1: minutes tonight. He played twenty five minutes to me, which
Speaker 1: isn't enough for a team that just lacks athleticism and pop.
Speaker 1: When Lebron's out, we still have a shortness of wings,
Speaker 1: so I thought he should have played more. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a totally different team, man, and it looks
Speaker 1: like eight and Lebron kind of played better next to
Speaker 1: the young guys. It doesn't that's not really what it
Speaker 1: should be. And he's supposed it should have been more vetereman,
Speaker 1: I guess savvy next to them, but that's just not
Speaker 1: how the how the season has played out. So we'll
Speaker 1: see how it goes going forward. Getting this a D
Speaker 1: back I think is the most important thing for the season,
Speaker 1: and I'll lose something that continues going forward. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: funny throughout Lebron's career, he's always been dependent on this
Speaker 1: experience this. I would rather have a player who I
Speaker 1: can count on to, you know, understand what it takes
Speaker 1: to win big, pivotal basketball games. Rather than the young
Speaker 1: player who doesn't understand those things. But as it turned
Speaker 1: out as we got into this season, their biggest shortcoming
Speaker 1: had to do with consistent energy. So actually ironically it
Speaker 1: became we need youth and as a result of that,
Speaker 1: you know, there had to be this awkward transition of
Speaker 1: start starting to slowly move these older, unenthused players out
Speaker 1: of the rotation to these guys that were playing with desperation.
Speaker 1: And desperation was the key there, right, because like guys
Speaker 1: like Austin Read Stanley Johnson, they're literally playing for their
Speaker 1: NBA careers, Like Stanley was going ten day to ten
Speaker 1: day and it was like, is this going to be
Speaker 1: the time? Am I gonna get to solidify by spot
Speaker 1: in the league or is it gonna be here we
Speaker 1: go to the G league again? And that that desperation
Speaker 1: fueled that consistent effort and that ironically, and like this
Speaker 1: is the thing, the Stars weren't playing hard RAJ Like
Speaker 1: like in the season, Lebron and a D had this
Speaker 1: mutual accountability with each other and they fed off of
Speaker 1: that with each other to push each other on a
Speaker 1: night tonight basis to play hard to start this season.
Speaker 1: And you can You can blame them, you can blame
Speaker 1: the scheming, you can blame spacing, you can blame Frank
Speaker 1: and then just getting sick of his voice. I don't
Speaker 1: know how you want to describe it, but they got
Speaker 1: to the point where they just weren't playing hard that consistently,
Speaker 1: and I think some of that energy from the younger
Speaker 1: players on the roster just became contagious. And I think that,
Speaker 1: in conjunction with the urgency of the situation and where
Speaker 1: they were in the standings, got them to finally start
Speaker 1: to dial it up and start to take things more seriously. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I agree, And it looks like that's what it's going
Speaker 1: to be. I think the young guys are just gonna
Speaker 1: get more and more minutes. I think a d playing
Speaker 1: thirty four minutes tonight is great, Like it looks like
Speaker 1: he got his legs under him. But lit, we're gonna
Speaker 1: go towards this youth movement, right, and I think that's
Speaker 1: the plan. Now. Ken Basemore can't even get minutes, man,
Speaker 1: I think that's absolutely insane. I would like to see
Speaker 1: him getting out of the chance. But all those guys
Speaker 1: we sign, it just looks like they're going to be
Speaker 1: taking out of the rotation. Wayne Allington, Trevor Reza. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure he'll be back. I think DeAndre Jordan is
Speaker 1: done for the team. I don't think he's gonna be
Speaker 1: in the rotation. Avery Bradley is like the last surviving
Speaker 1: the last survivor of that right Like it looks like
Speaker 1: every Radley just continues to start. I think that will
Speaker 1: eventually switch. I'm not sure when. I think Reeves will
Speaker 1: eventually take that over. But the main point here is
Speaker 1: like this is a brand new team that even we
Speaker 1: started and even when a D went out um a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago, so brand new team has to
Speaker 1: kind of get reps here. I think Russell Westbrook is
Speaker 1: getting a little bit more and more comfortable with his
Speaker 1: role every game. I think we've kind of decided that
Speaker 1: he's more. Even tonight, there wasn't much Was there much
Speaker 1: Russ ad pick and roll tonight? Jason? I didn't notice
Speaker 1: very much, did you. There hasn't been a ton of
Speaker 1: pick and roll with Russ this entire season, And you know,
Speaker 1: we Vene and I got into this a little bit
Speaker 1: the other night. I think they're there's a couple of
Speaker 1: different potential explanations. Part of it has to do I
Speaker 1: think with the fact that teams are starting to put
Speaker 1: bigger defenders on Russ and switches so they can just
Speaker 1: switch it, like and again, like there's just no point
Speaker 1: in running a pick and roll, you know, if it's
Speaker 1: not going to gain any advantage other than a switch,
Speaker 1: unless that switch is one that compromises the defense, you know.
Speaker 1: And so I think I think that's part of it.
Speaker 1: But some of it too is like they just I
Speaker 1: don't know, I I don't for whatever reason they have it, Rob,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, no, no, they've completely get more
Speaker 1: of a chance to do well. This isn't just well,
Speaker 1: this isn't and this just isn't tonight. It's been happening
Speaker 1: even when Lebron's on the floor, when Lebron is on
Speaker 1: or off the floor, like even tonight we did more
Speaker 1: just Horn's action and then run it off like Malik
Speaker 1: Munk coming off the screen and Russell Westbrook would kind
Speaker 1: of flow into the corner. So it's interesting. I think
Speaker 1: Russ is still attacking the rim. I thought he found
Speaker 1: guys were jump shots tonight that didn't work. He got
Speaker 1: some nice drive tonight, like they threw Matisse tyable on him,
Speaker 1: and that's not a guy you want rust really attacking
Speaker 1: in isolation, but that's on transition. He got to the
Speaker 1: rim on him and finished at the basket. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been it's been out to kind of watch them
Speaker 1: move more and more off of that uh in action
Speaker 1: we thought would be so you know, vital to our team.
Speaker 1: The Russ eighties screen roll just hasn't materialized at all,
Speaker 1: and a D has been out for a lot of that,
Speaker 1: but even these last two games, I haven't seen much
Speaker 1: of it. So it's interesting to watch kind of the
Speaker 1: team moved to more other ball handlers and even Lebron's
Speaker 1: on the floor, and the rust fits still will be
Speaker 1: something that hasn't get worked out as as the season goes,
Speaker 1: but hopefully, you know, we can kind of build on
Speaker 1: whatever we on the Brooklyn win and get Lebron back
Speaker 1: tomorrow and just get you know, some more reps. Man.
Speaker 1: Sixteen games between our big three just isn't enough, especially
Speaker 1: with these other teams coming in already with a super
Speaker 1: headstart and continuity. You go to Phoenix, you go to
Speaker 1: Golden State having their core um intact for all these years,
Speaker 1: so hopefully there's something we can build from here. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. We moved to a brand new kind of younger,
Speaker 1: more youth confused team th h T. I think twenty two,
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves two, Stanley Johnson um all just super young
Speaker 1: guyslak Monk three and that's just not what you thought
Speaker 1: to start the season. So hopefully they can kind of
Speaker 1: build a little rhythm here on this road trip. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it's it's funny because one of the things that
Speaker 1: I think is a more realistic outcome or goal from
Speaker 1: the trade deadline, because we've talked the trade deadline has
Speaker 1: been kind of a NonStop discussion among Laker fans over
Speaker 1: the course of the last week, whether it's surrounds for
Speaker 1: us or it surrounds Jeremy Grant and I've talked to
Speaker 1: Russ literally to death over the course of the last week.
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to go there again. I'm kind
Speaker 1: of I'm kind of coming to terms with the fact
Speaker 1: that he's going to be around I. I personally think
Speaker 1: it's a mistake. I've laid that out at like at
Speaker 1: length on this podcast, so I don't need to get
Speaker 1: into it again. But understanding that he's going to be here.
Speaker 1: You know, there are still opportunities to make these improvements.
Speaker 1: And we talked about slotting a lot having to do
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis and just how having him on the
Speaker 1: floor makes everybody's defensive responsibilities easier, which just makes everything
Speaker 1: more achievable. Right, Well, I think I think a lot
Speaker 1: could be gained there by accomplishing some better slotting at
Speaker 1: the two guard positions. So this is where like someone
Speaker 1: like an error like Eric Gordon or Terence Ross. These
Speaker 1: are our guy been They pointed these out on Twitter earlier,
Speaker 1: and these are two perfect examples of just what we're
Speaker 1: talking about. Guys that are like, they're just better two
Speaker 1: guards than Avery Bradley. Are they? Are they championship level starters?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Are they still capable of doing the
Speaker 1: things they could do, you know, at their absolute peaks
Speaker 1: at I don't know. But are they better than Avery Bradley? Yes,
Speaker 1: I think in a situation where we're upgrading that specific position,
Speaker 1: just slots everybody every a little better. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: now Avery Bradley is coming off the bench instead of
Speaker 1: running with all your most important lineups. All of a sudden, now,
Speaker 1: maybe th h T can take some of those Avery
Speaker 1: Bradley minutes away, and now we're just bigger in general.
Speaker 1: Now we can do more switching and a little bit
Speaker 1: less of our chase over the top rank. Vogel had
Speaker 1: a pregame interview i think before the game earlier this
Speaker 1: week having to do with, uh, like, hey, I've come
Speaker 1: to terms with the fact that with our personnel, we're
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a switch team than we
Speaker 1: are what I've been, which is something that like literally
Speaker 1: Rogers to hear that. It was like like, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: we're we're damn damn near game fifty year and we're
Speaker 1: finally coming to terms with what kind of basketball team
Speaker 1: we are, you know. But the bottom line is is
Speaker 1: that bringing in a reasonably like because if you look
Speaker 1: at our starting group now and you're looking at Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: which you know by like, you know, very uh you know,
Speaker 1: he's a he's a very like polarizing person, but he's
Speaker 1: there like it or not. And then you have Lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis Well Stanley Johnson slots into that three
Speaker 1: spot and it works, like it just works. He plays
Speaker 1: so hard to start the game. He takes the most
Speaker 1: difficult defensive matchup. He it brings this level of athleticism
Speaker 1: that I've been pleading for with the Jeremy Grant trade,
Speaker 1: where it's like, oh man, you have Jeremy Grant, Lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis in the front court. That's just the
Speaker 1: devastating athletic defensive front court. Well, Stanley Johnson kind of
Speaker 1: accomplishes the same thing. I I don't I don't think
Speaker 1: he's quite the defender that Jeremy Grant is, but he's
Speaker 1: in that same archetype, right. So but then then there's
Speaker 1: this two guard spot, and our to guard is not
Speaker 1: Seth Curry. You know, it's not like a league average
Speaker 1: to slightly above league average starting to guard. He's probably
Speaker 1: one of the worst starting two guards in the league.
Speaker 1: Doesn't mean he's not an NBA player, doesn't mean he
Speaker 1: doesn't belong in the rotation. It's just he's underqualified for
Speaker 1: that position. So bringing in somebody like a Terence Ross,
Speaker 1: like a Eric Gordon, somebody in that vein just a
Speaker 1: bona fide like NBA two guard that can do the
Speaker 1: things that this team needs that from that position, I
Speaker 1: think would go a long way towards and as much
Speaker 1: as I like, because Kendrick Nunn is where a lot
Speaker 1: of people are going to go there and why I
Speaker 1: don't While I don't disagree with the fact that Kendrick
Speaker 1: Nunn is a viable option at that position, this just
Speaker 1: kind of goes back to a small ball concept garage,
Speaker 1: like I don't think we need to places six two
Speaker 1: guys with a six two guy like I think I
Speaker 1: think we need to try to to to have that
Speaker 1: aggregate size and the lineup be big, because that's where
Speaker 1: you get that. You know, if it's if it's Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: Eric Gordon, Stanley Johnson, Lebron, Anthony Davis, you can switch
Speaker 1: every screen screen in that line up because both russ
Speaker 1: and Eric Gordon are so strong that they can hold
Speaker 1: their own in post mismatches. So I just would like
Speaker 1: to see them upgrade that position. I think that's super achievable.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's a pie in this guy idea.
Speaker 1: It's not like, oh, it's Jeremy Grantmer arguing about trade value. No,
Speaker 1: this is a realistic, on the table option to upgrade
Speaker 1: the roster that very clearly makes us better, fixes our
Speaker 1: greatest weakness in the starting lineup, slats everybody a little
Speaker 1: bit better, and I think just makes us a better team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and look, I think that players on the team Jason,
Speaker 1: like I would just and probably maybe yes, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe because he's a rookie, you know that that they
Speaker 1: don't want to go there yet. I understand that. But
Speaker 1: and the Crusoe arc is just hilarious to watch in
Speaker 1: I've hated you know, comparing those two, but just the
Speaker 1: arc in terms of how they kind of came up,
Speaker 1: I guess in the rotation is almost like deja vu.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think we have a better to guard
Speaker 1: currently sitting on the team. Like I think Austin Reaves
Speaker 1: is already closing games. He's already like leading our fourth
Speaker 1: quarter minutes. Again, that's a Cruso thing that was following
Speaker 1: before Cruso eventually took over, that you know rotation in
Speaker 1: the fourth in the bubble and all that stuff. But yeah,
Speaker 1: Austin res is already kind of you know, winning the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter minutes. He's already closing games. Like, I think
Speaker 1: that's the eventual lead here. If you can't get a trade,
Speaker 1: obviously there are trade you know partners out there. I'm
Speaker 1: not a guy that really likes to go in the
Speaker 1: trade machine. But and Jeremy Grant would be my wish.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, you see Stanley Johnson do this.
Speaker 1: Imagine a guy you know, like Jeremy Grant who has
Speaker 1: all the uh, all the physical tools, who has all
Speaker 1: the skills to match with that. I think that would
Speaker 1: be amazing. But I think that guy's on the team already.
Speaker 1: I think that's the last kind of piece to kind
Speaker 1: of the piece of the puzzle here to you know,
Speaker 1: fulfill the starting line up full potential there. Everybody's not
Speaker 1: everybody's not just undersized. He's undersiged for the he's undersized
Speaker 1: for the point guard positions. He's under comed to point guards. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let alone the to guard position. And we've kind of got,
Speaker 1: you know, in nauseum of like why Frank Voga starts him.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it also is the roster
Speaker 1: has flip three times, you know, like it's nice to
Speaker 1: have a guy that was there through the through the
Speaker 1: trenches with you, even though he didn't go in the bubble,
Speaker 1: but he was there for that full season, that successful season.
Speaker 1: He does a you know, a good point of attack
Speaker 1: defense on drop coverage YadA, YadA YadA, But yeah, I
Speaker 1: understand why. But I think that's the eventual lead here.
Speaker 1: And maybe, you know, Frank Voga doesn't really care who starts,
Speaker 1: is about who finishes to him, maybe that really hasn't
Speaker 1: matched up with the numbers, but you know, reason is
Speaker 1: starting to pick up in the fourth quarter, and I
Speaker 1: think that's that's where you can go. Justin Holiday, I
Speaker 1: think I think that's his name on the pacers has
Speaker 1: been rumored as well, that would the pacers would go,
Speaker 1: would let him go for like two seconds or something
Speaker 1: like that. There's players out there to kind of upgrade
Speaker 1: our athleticism, But yeah, that would be the eventual kind
Speaker 1: of in house moved to me. He just fits so well, Jason,
Speaker 1: Like you watched these games and like he doesn't play
Speaker 1: like a rookie. You know, he jels so well. He's
Speaker 1: kind of a connector with both of those guys. He's
Speaker 1: played so well next to Lebron. I've already seen him
Speaker 1: kind of gain camistry with a D. I think he's
Speaker 1: thrown a D like five logs in the last two games.
Speaker 1: Like just in the last two games, he's already hit
Speaker 1: eighty with like five lots, which is you know, it's
Speaker 1: nice to see a rookie be able to read the
Speaker 1: floor like he does. So that's my eventual move here.
Speaker 1: Reeves isn't tall either. I think he's like six four
Speaker 1: six five, but just and he and he's a legit
Speaker 1: good defender. He's not a good defender for a rookie,
Speaker 1: like he's a legit good defender. He knows angles. I
Speaker 1: think he leaves. He's a leader in the league and
Speaker 1: charges and stuff like that. So just a guy, I
Speaker 1: think I would kind of fill in. I understand why
Speaker 1: he's not starting, but that's my eventual kind of role
Speaker 1: here to kind of pick for the pieces together in
Speaker 1: that starting lineup. I think everybody is the final kind
Speaker 1: of older veteran guy that eventually kind of move out
Speaker 1: from there. But we'll see if that happens. So the
Speaker 1: last item on our list was Sammy Johnson, and we
Speaker 1: Roger and I both wanted to to talk about them
Speaker 1: for a minute because he's earned something that is really cool. Um,
Speaker 1: he was out of the league and he scratched and
Speaker 1: clawed his way back in and found an opportunity. Now
Speaker 1: I've told a shorter version of this story on the show,
Speaker 1: but I grew up in Tucson, and Stanley was recruited
Speaker 1: to University of Arizona, and um, I got to compete
Speaker 1: with him a lot while he was here, and I
Speaker 1: remember just liking the guy. It was just a nice
Speaker 1: guy and like he was very enthusiastic and energetic. He
Speaker 1: was thrown into a very difficult situation. Sean Miller is
Speaker 1: a is a very demanding coach, and Sean Miller was
Speaker 1: very hard on Stanley while he was there and did
Speaker 1: a lot to try to, you know, because Stanley was
Speaker 1: a he was a high school star. You know, he
Speaker 1: was literally one of those YouTube stars as we've talked
Speaker 1: about here on the show, and and you know, I
Speaker 1: just to see his development from you know, getting into
Speaker 1: like having some struggles at Arizona, not quite performing to
Speaker 1: the level that he thought he would, but then still
Speaker 1: being a lottery pick because of his athletic potential, but
Speaker 1: then having some struggles as things didn't quite work out,
Speaker 1: to the Massiyu Jerry thing where he allegedly looks Stanley
Speaker 1: in the face and said you're bad at basketball, to
Speaker 1: him becoming like you know, I think I think just
Speaker 1: from I've watched him throughout his career because I've always
Speaker 1: been a fan of him just as a person, and
Speaker 1: he's better at ball handling and shooting now than he
Speaker 1: used to be. You know, he just looks more he
Speaker 1: looks more comfortable, he's more committed to the dirty work.
Speaker 1: He's he's thoroughly embraced what his role is to succeed
Speaker 1: in the NBA, and it's manifested in him getting to
Speaker 1: your contract. And I just all I wanted to say
Speaker 1: was that I'm super stoked about it. I can just say,
Speaker 1: you know, as someone covering the Lakers just like you, Roge,
Speaker 1: I'm very excited that I get to cover him for
Speaker 1: the rest of the season, and I'm rooting for him
Speaker 1: and I'm happy he's on the team. Yeah, I mean too.
Speaker 1: He has a fearlessness about him, which I think is
Speaker 1: important when you play next to superstars like he, and
Speaker 1: he understands his role as well in that. But I
Speaker 1: think I just love like he'll get a rebound and
Speaker 1: even if it's like a d or Rust or Lebron
Speaker 1: looking for the outlet past, he would just be like,
Speaker 1: I'm a big six six nine dude with ball handling ability, Like,
Speaker 1: let me just go down the lane. You know, to gather,
Speaker 1: get up, get up a shot at the rim. I
Speaker 1: think he drew a foul on embeat. I guess I
Speaker 1: want play tonight. He just has to fearlessness that. I
Speaker 1: think it's important playing next to those guys and it's
Speaker 1: not like a direct competent. Reminds me a little bit
Speaker 1: of Kuzma as well, that, you know, irrational confidence. He's
Speaker 1: not you know, the shooter that couzes or whatever, but
Speaker 1: or the floor spacer, but just a guy that also
Speaker 1: takes shots. He doesn't pass up open threes, which I
Speaker 1: think there's another like domino effect that's important to me.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that takes the open corner three when
Speaker 1: it's there. I think he's hitting at a high percentage.
Speaker 1: But even if not, I think that's just important. Has
Speaker 1: a dominant effect on your game, on your confidence. At
Speaker 1: least him attack in the basket. He's had a bunch
Speaker 1: of shots, you know, in four quarters, big time plays. Um.
Speaker 1: I think he's important for this team. I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna be in closing lineups more than people realize. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you would agree with like even in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. I know that's crazy for a guy whose
Speaker 1: deal isn't even guaranteed for next year. It's a team option.
Speaker 1: But I just think that fits man. Just a super agile,
Speaker 1: athletic wing. He's like looking like a younger Trevor Reza
Speaker 1: who's a little bit more bulked up, Like just a
Speaker 1: guy that can run the floor. And I think he's
Speaker 1: I think he doesn't get credit for how smart of
Speaker 1: a defender is he is to Like, obviously he plays
Speaker 1: hard and that's a skill and all of that stuff,
Speaker 1: but I think he's also like a smart defender. He
Speaker 1: understands angles. You watch him against James Harden, and he
Speaker 1: knew like the scouting report, he knew like where to
Speaker 1: shade him, how to like if James Harden drives right,
Speaker 1: he's gonna go to the rim. He goes left. He
Speaker 1: likes to step back jumper like he liked. He knows
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff and he works that to
Speaker 1: his advantage. I actually liked him on switches against Joel
Speaker 1: and b Tonight, Like I like that a D and
Speaker 1: Stanley can kind of switch for five, and then if
Speaker 1: you have Stanley Lebron and a D, you can switch three,
Speaker 1: four or five you have Jeremy. Granted that you can
Speaker 1: switch two through five and Rust can handle some physical
Speaker 1: matchups as well. Like, I think that's the idea for
Speaker 1: this team to go back to winning the battle athletically,
Speaker 1: and I think Stanley is a huge part of that.
Speaker 1: And I know that again that sounds crazy for a
Speaker 1: guy who's guaranteed, who's not guaranteed, but still, I just
Speaker 1: think he fits this team. You add his ball handling
Speaker 1: ability really attacked the rim, the fearlessness to play. I
Speaker 1: think he's a big part of us going forward. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a handful of things that he does really really
Speaker 1: well that have given him a spot right like, because
Speaker 1: you know, it's not us that he's big an athletic,
Speaker 1: because as we've seen, there are guys who are big
Speaker 1: enough like do I like DeAndre Jordan for instance. DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan's is definitely declined massively athletically from where he is,
Speaker 1: but he is still physically capable of doing some of
Speaker 1: that job. He's just not willing to do it, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Yeah, Stanley has that, and there
Speaker 1: there are three important things that he does that I
Speaker 1: think translate really well at this level. First of all,
Speaker 1: he applies consistent ball pressure. Now this is something with
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley that, um, you know, it's the only thing
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley does. That's kind of one of my you know,
Speaker 1: criticisms of him is he applies ball pressure, but he
Speaker 1: can't really impact the defensive end anywhere else. Stanley can
Speaker 1: apply for ball pressure and do other things, but ball
Speaker 1: pressure is important because it makes the paul handler feel
Speaker 1: uncomfortable and makes them do something they don't want to do.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a it's a classic concept of the
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant has he pull up jump shot that he
Speaker 1: made over Lebron in the NBA Finals, Like, if you
Speaker 1: apply just a little bit of ball pressure as he's
Speaker 1: coming across half court, he just won't take that shot
Speaker 1: because that's not what the read is. That you're going
Speaker 1: to force him to all of a sudden drive into
Speaker 1: the teeth of a defense when he's not really necessarily
Speaker 1: wanting to do that. Like, you're just even for me
Speaker 1: as a basketball player, I met my most comfort playing
Speaker 1: pick up when I'm comfortably on the perimeter, just manipulating
Speaker 1: the basketball getting to where I want to go. If
Speaker 1: you applied ball pressure to me, it forces me to
Speaker 1: do something I don't want to do. That translates at
Speaker 1: every level of basketball, and that is it's like with
Speaker 1: James Harden. It's not that he stopped James Harden. Of course,
Speaker 1: he didn't stop James Harden. He didn't stop James Harden
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day either. But what he did is he
Speaker 1: made James Harden play faster than he wanted to play,
Speaker 1: which fatigued him over the course of the game and
Speaker 1: made things just more difficult than they needed to be.
Speaker 1: The second thing is just this ability with his low
Speaker 1: center of gravity to attack the basket even when he
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily have a size advantage. So from what we've heard,
Speaker 1: according to Stanley, this came from Lebron, So apparently Lebron
Speaker 1: has advocated for him with him privately, like, hey, dude,
Speaker 1: attack the basket. If you see an angle, put the
Speaker 1: ball in the ground, try to get to the rim.
Speaker 1: That's that will help our team. And you can tell
Speaker 1: over the course of this last four or five games
Speaker 1: like when he sees an opportunity, he goes, he tried,
Speaker 1: he tried, and he tries to get there. And then
Speaker 1: the last thing is he's actually a very good finisher.
Speaker 1: And this is an underrated difficult basketball ability. Because it's
Speaker 1: not easy to work on guys, Like when you go
Speaker 1: to the gym, it's hard to work on finishing because
Speaker 1: it's boring, Like who's gonna like just perpetually drive to
Speaker 1: the basket and take difficult layups? Like it's different. It's
Speaker 1: much easier to work on a jump shot, or to
Speaker 1: work on dunking, or to work on your handle, because
Speaker 1: all those things are just easy to work on in
Speaker 1: the flow of a workout. It's difficult to build the
Speaker 1: like Kiber Irving, for instance. I've always been so fascinated
Speaker 1: just with how long it must have taken for him
Speaker 1: to become so gifted finishing around the basket. And Stanley
Speaker 1: isn't above average finisher. When he gets around on the
Speaker 1: rim and he gets a little bit of an angle,
Speaker 1: he's probably gonna make it. And so that's another one
Speaker 1: of those really high end NBA skills that he has.
Speaker 1: So that ability to attack the rim, that ability to
Speaker 1: finish when he gets there, and that consistent ball pressure motor,
Speaker 1: those three things have made him kind of an indispensable
Speaker 1: part of this team. And I just I just think
Speaker 1: it's really impressive, And like I said, I'm just happy
Speaker 1: to have him on the team. Yeah, me too. He's
Speaker 1: earned that two year deal, you know, or one year
Speaker 1: plus the team option. Like he's earned every penny of
Speaker 1: that and hopefully he's on the team next year as well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, man, and you also like he gives that assignment,
Speaker 1: he can take the defensive assignment. That's what Trevor reason
Speaker 1: was supposed to be. And obviously Trevor doesn't look like
Speaker 1: you can even feel that. Stanley also like he picks
Speaker 1: up guy's full court and he can keep up that
Speaker 1: energy and I think that's just some of this team
Speaker 1: sorely needed. Um. He just has a physicality to him
Speaker 1: as well. That's important when you're playing next to Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d those three are just physically are guys
Speaker 1: that can just dominate physically, and I think that's important.
Speaker 1: I think that's the kind of identity that this team
Speaker 1: is going for. And it's crazy, man, a guy that
Speaker 1: wasn't on the roster, you know, like four weeks ago, Um,
Speaker 1: it is now such an important key cock. That's kind
Speaker 1: of what that's kind of what we figured out, and
Speaker 1: that's what a season is for. They're going to figure
Speaker 1: out where, you know, where to plug your holes. From
Speaker 1: and to find, you know, weaknesses that you have. This
Speaker 1: is kind of a godsend, right, he you know, flies
Speaker 1: into your G league and you're able to find him
Speaker 1: and bring him up that way. Um, and he's able
Speaker 1: to earn a spot. So it's good, it's great. I'm
Speaker 1: glad they didn't like wait till the trade deadline or
Speaker 1: something to keep him. Um. And so it's just good process. Man.
Speaker 1: This is what good organizations do. They find players like
Speaker 1: this and they keep them, They extend, you lock them down. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And so it's great for Stanley, great for the team,
Speaker 1: and I think both of us believe he's going to
Speaker 1: be a big part of this rotation. And he competes. Man,
Speaker 1: he's a competitive dude. Like again, like not even just
Speaker 1: against Harder on Christmas hard and you know the other
Speaker 1: night Joel and b Tonight just makes guys work. You
Speaker 1: talked about the low center of gravity. Guys can't like
Speaker 1: push him backwards. He gets a lot of steals where
Speaker 1: guys try to, you know, physically go into him and
Speaker 1: he just doesn't move and he just grabbed the ball
Speaker 1: and he's Okay, I'm to twenty six six and that's
Speaker 1: big for six six, Like most taller guys I meet
Speaker 1: are usually right around like two pounds. He is literally
Speaker 1: a refrigerator that move, that moves like a wide receiver
Speaker 1: like that. That is a massive human being. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And you put that next to Lebron and you and
Speaker 1: put that next to a d he looks small, right,
Speaker 1: you have them next to those, dude, you look small.
Speaker 1: But he's a huge dude. And I think that's you know,
Speaker 1: so key for this team. And and just a guy
Speaker 1: who plays freaking hard and can defend and it takes
Speaker 1: takes the right shots, doesn't you know, never will ask
Speaker 1: for a possession, We'll never try to, you know, break
Speaker 1: the offensive flow. He's a good closeout attacker as well.
Speaker 1: I think he has passing ability that we've you know,
Speaker 1: talked about on this podcast as well. He can find dudes.
Speaker 1: He can find dudes off the dribble. So it's just important, man,
Speaker 1: to have this kind of guy on the team. And
Speaker 1: it's a godsend to find it in the middle of
Speaker 1: the year you usually find guys like that. So I'm
Speaker 1: glad he's on the team. Man, I'm glad he's locked
Speaker 1: in for the full year. Team option is huge because
Speaker 1: like it gives us the flexibility. That's the thing is like, like,
Speaker 1: and from Stanley's the angle, it's easy, it's like I
Speaker 1: want to stay in the league, you know. But but
Speaker 1: from the Lakers angle, it's like, hey, like you have
Speaker 1: this guaranteed low salary player that can play a big role,
Speaker 1: possibly start for you coming in next year. That's huge.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's a huge deal exactly. I'm shocked that
Speaker 1: they were able to get, you know, a team option.
Speaker 1: I think he's played well enough where he could have
Speaker 1: probably just earned the full full next year, but you know,
Speaker 1: they're the lucky to get then. I think he's gonna
Speaker 1: be a big part of this team going forward, and
Speaker 1: he fits looks like Lebron has really you know, liked him.
Speaker 1: He got his first game next to eight last time,
Speaker 1: all right, Tonight was the second game next to eighties.
Speaker 1: So hopefully those dudes canna build a rhythm too as
Speaker 1: we go forward. I think the team option thing, because
Speaker 1: you're right, I think he played himself into a situation
Speaker 1: where he had the leverage to probably just keep it
Speaker 1: as a deal to the end of the season, or
Speaker 1: even a player option. Right. But the thing is, I
Speaker 1: think I think Stan wants to be a Laker, And
Speaker 1: that's the other that's the other really cool part about this.
Speaker 1: I think he's really happy here. I mean, he's an
Speaker 1: l a guy and and you know, I think he was.
Speaker 1: I think he was playing with the G League squad
Speaker 1: here before he even signed that deal. Like, I think
Speaker 1: he's just happy here. I think he loves his role.
Speaker 1: This is honestly, I think I think this. I've watched
Speaker 1: him a lot in Detroit and I watched him a
Speaker 1: lot in Toronto. This it feels like in Detroit he
Speaker 1: had moments where they leaned on him a lot and
Speaker 1: he got to be more aggressive. This, it seems to
Speaker 1: me where he's the most comfortable here in terms of
Speaker 1: just like at peace with his role, knows what the
Speaker 1: team needs from him every night. There's you know, even
Speaker 1: if he has a poor shooting night, like it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter because he has these other responsibilities. Like I just
Speaker 1: I'm happy with him. But anyway, is there anything else
Speaker 1: on your list that you wanted to hit before we
Speaker 1: call it tonight? Uh? No, I think that's it. Man.
Speaker 1: Hopefully Lebron place tomorrow. We'll be back at it tomorrow again.
Speaker 1: But yeah, hopefully we can kind of build something here, man,
Speaker 1: where we keep we keep building this house and then
Speaker 1: we have to stop for like a few days with
Speaker 1: like no roof on his head. You know, I've made
Speaker 1: that analogy before. So it's like raining and we're like, man,
Speaker 1: we have no clue what's happening in this house. So
Speaker 1: hopefully we can kind of build build a little bit
Speaker 1: more tomorrow. Dude, How incredible was it when you watched
Speaker 1: the film of that Miami game just to see Lebraun
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis on the floor, even though I didn't
Speaker 1: like the Avery Bradley piece, Like just just to have
Speaker 1: like Lebron, a d Stanley Johnson on the part, It's
Speaker 1: just like it's like physically imposing, just so when you
Speaker 1: see them out there and they're running around, you're like,
Speaker 1: WHOA like it had do? It felt good to see that? No,
Speaker 1: it felt amazing, man, watching that, watching that game over,
Speaker 1: watching the replay of it. Seeing a d on the floor, Man,
Speaker 1: it's just you take for granted what he does out there.
Speaker 1: Just having a guy who can move like that, who's athletic,
Speaker 1: you pray that next to Lebron who looked at his
Speaker 1: peak physically and then Russell Westbrook being able to attack
Speaker 1: the rim off of those two's. You know, attention. It
Speaker 1: just it looked like it was working, man. It looked right.
Speaker 1: It looked like what the team was supposed to be. Mhm, alright, guys,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be on Dash right down tomorrow morning
Speaker 1: at seven am Pacific Standard time. We will be going
Speaker 1: live for the postgame show tomorrow in Charlotte right after
Speaker 1: the final buzzer, hopefully with both Lebron and Anthony Davis playing,
Speaker 1: but regardless, Rog and I will be here as always.
Speaker 1: We appreciate your guys support and we will see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Thanks everyone,