Speaker 1: M all right, welcome to the State of the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Like dass Readio, thank you guys so much for coming
Speaker 1: to hang out on a Thursday. Oh my goodness, I
Speaker 1: I cannot even begin to describe how frustrated I am
Speaker 1: with this team. I thought for sure tonight would be
Speaker 1: the first of these. I sent out a video earlier
Speaker 1: today talking about you know these little championship checkpoints, these markers,
Speaker 1: these tendencies, these games, these moments that always are like
Speaker 1: the bell weathers of the indicators of a team that
Speaker 1: has championship aspirations, And we saw so many of those
Speaker 1: with the Lakers, right like they would very rarely lose
Speaker 1: two games in a row. They would very uh they
Speaker 1: would win all the games they were supposed to win.
Speaker 1: You know, there were be these you know that they
Speaker 1: took specific matchups personally, there were there were the day
Speaker 1: to day effort stuff was above and beyond, which you
Speaker 1: saw elsewhere in the league. They're all of those check
Speaker 1: points were met and were checked off by that team.
Speaker 1: And with this team, they've missed every single one of
Speaker 1: those checkpoints. And I thought tonight was a great opportunity
Speaker 1: for them to finally hit one of those checkpoints to
Speaker 1: get that boat rolling in the right direction. And what's
Speaker 1: funny is Memphis. We all knew coming into tonight that
Speaker 1: Memphis was a good team. You know, we knew, we
Speaker 1: knew that even without John Morant, they defended extremely high
Speaker 1: level that we knew that they were young, that they
Speaker 1: were athletic, that they played big. We knew, we know
Speaker 1: at home they're tough to be We knew this was
Speaker 1: gonna be a tough game. This is the kind of
Speaker 1: game that the championship teams go up into Memphis and
Speaker 1: they win, and once again, they just couldn't get it done.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get into details here in a second. Thank
Speaker 1: you guys so much for coming to hang out with us. Rose,
Speaker 1: how are you doing so far? How's your redrowing so far?
Speaker 1: It's going all right. You know, it felt really positive
Speaker 1: after the Boston win, and again we said those those
Speaker 1: words that you know, this could be the this could
Speaker 1: be the game that turns the season around, and there's
Speaker 1: a lot of positive energy around the team. We had
Speaker 1: a super positive podcast after it. Most of the Laker
Speaker 1: podcast I listened to was was pretty positive, and you
Speaker 1: can kind of throw a lot of that out right.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's still some good stuff you can take
Speaker 1: from it, but it's just this one just feels awful.
Speaker 1: The body language was awful. I'll just take people behind
Speaker 1: the curtains a little bit. So so after, you know,
Speaker 1: before every before we start these spaces every time, and
Speaker 1: Jason text back and forth and and uh, he said
Speaker 1: he's gonna keep this one a little bit shorter, and
Speaker 1: I said that's fine, And you said, I hate this team,
Speaker 1: and I feel like that's kind of that's kind of
Speaker 1: the energy I see from the timeline as well. Right
Speaker 1: this it's becoming a real hate relationship with this team.
Speaker 1: You know how you say love, Hey, it's becoming a
Speaker 1: real hate relationship with this team. And we can go
Speaker 1: into x's and o's and we can go into you know,
Speaker 1: all the spacing that's awful, even though Avery Bradley actually
Speaker 1: played well Frank teasing me with the Wayne Ellington lineup, like,
Speaker 1: but the body language I thought was just awful from tonight.
Speaker 1: So that was my main thing. I hated the energy
Speaker 1: that we came out with. Other than Lebron, we were
Speaker 1: super careless with the bat like just so many things
Speaker 1: where we beat ourselves and Memphis just punked us, Steven
Speaker 1: Adams punked us, like Desmond being punked, like everyone on
Speaker 1: the rebound, Like it was just an awful game to watch.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know where we go from here.
Speaker 1: Scorings with your whole team healthy besides Trevor Reason and
Speaker 1: Kendrick Nunn is inexcusable to me, Like that's just that
Speaker 1: can happen. So I don't know where do you want
Speaker 1: to take this, Jason, because I don't know where where
Speaker 1: do really go from here? Just just an awful game
Speaker 1: leaves an awful taste in your mouth, very little positive
Speaker 1: to take from him. So the first thing that sit
Speaker 1: out to me was, you know, when you go on
Speaker 1: the road and you're playing against the young basketball team,
Speaker 1: you can, especially at home, you can expect that that
Speaker 1: you're there's only so much effort you can bring to
Speaker 1: the game to meet and win the effort battle, right,
Speaker 1: because the young team playing at home in front of
Speaker 1: their home crowd is obviously going to bring a boatload
Speaker 1: of effort and with how with how big they are,
Speaker 1: they're obviously going to win a lot of physical altercations
Speaker 1: because of the young, big, strong team playing super hard
Speaker 1: at home. So how do you win that type of game.
Speaker 1: You have to be the smart basketball team. You have
Speaker 1: to be Your advantage going into that game is the
Speaker 1: veteran talent that you have on the team, the knowledge
Speaker 1: of how to win different types of basketball games and
Speaker 1: how to grind these kinds of games out. You can't
Speaker 1: go into a game like tonight and be the dumb team.
Speaker 1: You can't be the team that goes on the road
Speaker 1: when your advantages your basketball i Q and not take
Speaker 1: care of the basketball. You can't go on the road
Speaker 1: and and in this type of matchup in miss box house,
Speaker 1: the all of the the i Q stuff, all of
Speaker 1: those little details. That's where you have to be sharp
Speaker 1: in games like tonight, because you're not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to match their effort. Like we we're gonna dig into
Speaker 1: all the little details. And it blows my mind that
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis cannot win a rebounding altercation with Steven Adams.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna get into Anthony Davis because this was
Speaker 1: one of the most frustrating games that I've seen with him,
Speaker 1: but just foundationally from the top down, because Lebron was
Speaker 1: awesome tonight, but he wasn't even with as great as
Speaker 1: Lebron was, he didn't take care of the ball well enough.
Speaker 1: And the point being, you can't go on the road
Speaker 1: against the young team that's gonna play their ass off
Speaker 1: and be the dumb team. You have to be the
Speaker 1: smart team. And I mean, we're gonna get further into it,
Speaker 1: but that was the big thing that stood out to
Speaker 1: me over the course of this game, was just not
Speaker 1: taking care of the basketball and making dumb guy mistakes
Speaker 1: which you which you just can't make on the road
Speaker 1: against the young team. Yeah, it felt like a lot
Speaker 1: of effort mistakes and the turnovers are awful. It felt
Speaker 1: like we sleep blocked through a lot of this, a
Speaker 1: lot of just dumb passes, a lot of Coss corps
Speaker 1: passes that had no chance, a lot of pocket passes
Speaker 1: that made no sense. And give the Grizzlies credit like
Speaker 1: they lead the league in steels at ten a game.
Speaker 1: They had thirteen at halftime. A lot of that really
Speaker 1: felt like we just gave them the basketball. A lot
Speaker 1: just passed, We gave it, gave it to them, and
Speaker 1: they got on ran and they ran it down our throats.
Speaker 1: They had a bunch of transition points as well. It
Speaker 1: just I just hated the body language though. From tonight
Speaker 1: it felt like we beat Boston and then we came in.
Speaker 1: We were up twenty seven to nineteen or something. We
Speaker 1: had like a nine or eight point lead, A couple
Speaker 1: of misfree throws from a D, a couple of misfre
Speaker 1: throws from Russ, all of a sudden, it's like a
Speaker 1: four point game, Desmond Bean, I thought cooked us for
Speaker 1: a lot of the night, a lot of defensive possessions
Speaker 1: where we were off. It was just a gamhere. We
Speaker 1: didn't have focus. And the lineups kind of add into
Speaker 1: that as well. And that's when I want to ask
Speaker 1: you about to start with this, because the starting lineup
Speaker 1: still isn't great. I still don't understand it. I still
Speaker 1: don't understand Avery Bradley being you know, thrown into this.
Speaker 1: The spacing is still awful, and the body language I
Speaker 1: think goes into that as well. A D just did
Speaker 1: not look engaged in this game at all. Like I
Speaker 1: think he's the story up tonight, even with the turnovers
Speaker 1: being awful, even with the you know, the dumb plays,
Speaker 1: like you said we were the dumpty tonight, I thought
Speaker 1: A D was the story, Like you could just tell
Speaker 1: the body language difference. He didn't look like he wanted
Speaker 1: to play tonight and that stuff that I don't really
Speaker 1: like to get into because I can't really measure that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. It just he just did not look
Speaker 1: right to me, and I thought that was kind of
Speaker 1: the story. Jaren Jackson Jr. Got whatever he wanted. I
Speaker 1: thought Jaren Jackson Jr. Was great. Stu kept pointing out
Speaker 1: how he was gonna he was gonna shoot every time
Speaker 1: he touches it, and he did. He took eighteen shots
Speaker 1: at fell and uh, he he hit nine of them,
Speaker 1: but he was like, he was awesome and he outworked us.
Speaker 1: But what you see from that, because I thought our
Speaker 1: body ling, which is awful other than Lebron and Rush
Speaker 1: try to pick it up as well. Um, I just
Speaker 1: thought Ad looked. You know, you just did not look
Speaker 1: into this game for whatever reason it was. And I
Speaker 1: thought that was the story to me, even with the turnovers,
Speaker 1: even with the dumb plays like that, that was to
Speaker 1: me the story from tonight. I think India Davis is
Speaker 1: struggling a little bit with his confidence. You could tell
Speaker 1: that he just doesn't trust certain areas of his game,
Speaker 1: which is what causes him to go through these extended
Speaker 1: stretches where he's not overly aggressive. The part that's frustrating
Speaker 1: about that is, like, if you were a basketball player
Speaker 1: that has physical tools, So if you happen to be
Speaker 1: very athletic, if you happen to be tall, if you
Speaker 1: have length, if you have strength, whatever it is. If
Speaker 1: you've got physical tools and you're a basketball player and
Speaker 1: you're struggling in some of the areas of offense, you
Speaker 1: can devote all your energy towards the effort and energy
Speaker 1: areas of the game and build your confidence through that. Okay, Like,
Speaker 1: so you're having a hard time getting touches within the offense, Okay,
Speaker 1: your jump shots not falling, Okay, you're having a hard
Speaker 1: time reading the floor and postops. I get all of that.
Speaker 1: But find a way to get your confidence. And one
Speaker 1: of the easiest ways to do that is, instead of
Speaker 1: do what Steven Adams is doing, devote all your energy
Speaker 1: to crashing the offensive glass and just physically imposing your
Speaker 1: will on the other team. Put all of that effort
Speaker 1: and energy into defense, into shutting everything down around the
Speaker 1: rim and just flying around and being super disruptive. From there,
Speaker 1: you'll make plays and you'll be able to build your confidence.
Speaker 1: But for whatever reason, and this has been something that's
Speaker 1: been a problem with Anthony Davis since the start. He's
Speaker 1: just not much of a self starter. He doesn't you know,
Speaker 1: he almost needs to get swept up in the energy
Speaker 1: of the rest of the team. So in a game
Speaker 1: like tonight, when pretty much everybody not named Lebron James
Speaker 1: had a bad had a bad game. When when that
Speaker 1: kind of thing happens, there's just no energy surrounding the
Speaker 1: team and there's nothing for him to get swept up in.
Speaker 1: Like even if I mean Russ had I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: get hard on be super hard on Russ because Russ
Speaker 1: has had just a phenomenal stretch of basketball for basically
Speaker 1: a month leading into this, So I'm gonna I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna go after Russ too much tonight. But him having
Speaker 1: a bad game too, I think that partially kind of
Speaker 1: feeds into the bad Anthony Davis thing. Like he's just
Speaker 1: he is the biggest reason why he's always going to
Speaker 1: be a number two. And this is something that I
Speaker 1: talked about in a pod last week, like Laker fans
Speaker 1: need to adjust their expectations of what Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: gonna be like after Lebron is gone, because he just fundamentally,
Speaker 1: as as his basketball character is that of a number two,
Speaker 1: he is a follower, not a leader. He gets wrapped
Speaker 1: up in what's happening around him. He's not a self starter. Now,
Speaker 1: if he's surround him with the right group of guys,
Speaker 1: he's such a peak alpha talent that he's going to
Speaker 1: impact the games so much that he's gonna look like
Speaker 1: the best player in the world some nights. But he's
Speaker 1: just not a self starter. And so it blows in
Speaker 1: my mind because again, with with his physical tools, even
Speaker 1: if you're even if you're incredibly frustrated with everything else
Speaker 1: going on the floor, you should be able to impose
Speaker 1: your will just by playing hard. Like no matter how
Speaker 1: those are out of those are those are not result
Speaker 1: based sequences. It's not like you can do like you
Speaker 1: have a really nice move and get to your shot
Speaker 1: and getting really good lift and and the result is
Speaker 1: out of your control because it happens to miss or
Speaker 1: it happens to go in. No, if you play hard,
Speaker 1: you can have a guaranteed result whatever it is that
Speaker 1: you're trying to do. Over the course of the game.
Speaker 1: If you're crashing the glass like crazy, flying around on defense,
Speaker 1: I can guarantee that will impact the game every single night.
Speaker 1: And and for whatever reason, that fire just isn't there,
Speaker 1: and and it's frustrating. And again, like like I, we've
Speaker 1: been on this roller coaster with a d for the
Speaker 1: last couple of years. But you told us in the
Speaker 1: press conference that you wanted to win ten games in
Speaker 1: a row. I won't even say you said you wanted that.
Speaker 1: You nonchalantly said that we're gonna all we have to
Speaker 1: do is win ten games in a row and then
Speaker 1: everything will be fine. And you're neglecting the fact that
Speaker 1: in order for this team to win ten games in
Speaker 1: a row, both you and Lebron James have to play
Speaker 1: like top five players in the league. And right now,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is playing more like the fifteen best player
Speaker 1: in the league, if we're being nice. So that he
Speaker 1: just has so far to go to get to where
Speaker 1: he needs to be for this team to take off.
Speaker 1: And I hope at some point, either himself or somebody
Speaker 1: close to him wakes him the hell up, because this
Speaker 1: is the kind of game on the road in Memphis,
Speaker 1: or they needed a big night out of Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: that he could not be physically bullied by Steven Adams tonight,
Speaker 1: and that's what what ended up happening. Yeah, And to
Speaker 1: be fair to Adie, like the lineup still aren't conductive
Speaker 1: to him right there. They're not great. There's still no
Speaker 1: spacing and stuff. There's just mentality stuff that I would
Speaker 1: I would like him to change. And you could tell
Speaker 1: he's a guy that's just trying to fit around, right.
Speaker 1: He picks his spots kind of like Russ picks his spots, right,
Speaker 1: Russ picks his spots. He likes to sometimes he attacks
Speaker 1: in the third or he attacked early in the fourth.
Speaker 1: Aid needs to be a consistent kind of score for us,
Speaker 1: at least for tonight. And there were plays that I
Speaker 1: wrote down in my notes here like he would have
Speaker 1: Steven Adams at the top and Steven Adams would like
Speaker 1: give him like five ft of space or something like.
Speaker 1: He should be able to score on Steven Adams at
Speaker 1: least in isolation, right like that, that's to me, he
Speaker 1: should be able to score on him in those kind
Speaker 1: of actions. And again, the spacing isn't great for him.
Speaker 1: He's still leading the league in points in the pain
Speaker 1: and all that's true, And I think some of this
Speaker 1: stuff is a little unfair on him, Like I think
Speaker 1: Charles Rodley blaming all the Lakers problems on him like
Speaker 1: probably isn't fair like that. There's a lot of issues
Speaker 1: with this team. Blame me on one person. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's the right way to go. But I thought
Speaker 1: just tonight his body language just did not look great.
Speaker 1: And I don't like to blame stuff on that, that
Speaker 1: stuff that we can't really define. I just thought like
Speaker 1: his aggression level just wasn't there. He tried to pick
Speaker 1: his spots and this just wasn't a game for that.
Speaker 1: Memphis is missing like four starters, right, They're a good team.
Speaker 1: No Dylan Brooks tonight, no John Rant obviously, but no
Speaker 1: Brandon Clark as well. Like, this is a game you
Speaker 1: should be able to take. And after that Boston game,
Speaker 1: I thought I would see a sense of urgency that
Speaker 1: I just didn't see from him tonight. I saw it
Speaker 1: from Lebron. I thought Stu made the best point here.
Speaker 1: Lebron had bounced to him, and I thought that was
Speaker 1: like the best description of it. I thought Lebron had
Speaker 1: a lot of bounds other than him. I thought Rush
Speaker 1: tried to get going. Rad A d just needed to
Speaker 1: be better. He didn't, just was not aggressive enough, didn't
Speaker 1: pick his spots, wasn't aggressive early, a lot of selling
Speaker 1: for jumpers, and I thought that was mostly the game tonight,
Speaker 1: And I don't know where this changes. It looks like
Speaker 1: Voge was going to be pretty hard held on Avery Bradley.
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley played I'm not sure the minutes tonight, but
Speaker 1: it felt like he played a ton He had a
Speaker 1: good game as well. Th HD. I thought was THHD
Speaker 1: had some good cutting moments and stuff like that, but
Speaker 1: the spacing still isn't great. I don't know where they
Speaker 1: go from here though, Like the Boston game felt like enough,
Speaker 1: but it feels like we're just gonna go on this
Speaker 1: up and down roller coaster, maybe until Trevor Reesa gets back.
Speaker 1: I just don't find that the solution to the questions
Speaker 1: of this team, Like Trevor Reasa helps on your present,
Speaker 1: he helps? Does he helped me? You know? Is he
Speaker 1: helped not get blown out to a Memphis team missing
Speaker 1: four starters. I don't know, Like that's a tough question
Speaker 1: for me to answer. Yeah, well, with the reason again,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter unless the basketball character of the team changes.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm glad you brought up the Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis thon because, like I'm really thankful that Vane took
Speaker 1: the time to really go after that today in his spaces,
Speaker 1: because like, to me, the Charles Barkley thing was just
Speaker 1: like nonsensical meandering and character assassination. Like really it wasn't
Speaker 1: really any legitimate basketball analysis, like where I'm coming out
Speaker 1: with the Anthony Davis and the and the thing that
Speaker 1: is frustrating to me is like, you know, like Molik
Speaker 1: Monk had a rough night tonight. You know, like he
Speaker 1: really he was really sloppy with the basketball. He lost
Speaker 1: the handle multiple times in transition, just gifted the gameboy possessions.
Speaker 1: Figure's the thing. Malik Monk is a young player, he's
Speaker 1: a role player, he's a minimum contract and he's not
Speaker 1: one of the foundational pieces on the team. Is where
Speaker 1: his role changes from a night to night basis Inconsistency
Speaker 1: is part of the deal with that, I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: under like expect Molik Monk to have an off night.
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, He's in a tier of star that's below
Speaker 1: Lebron in a d so I should expect that he
Speaker 1: can have an off night here there, you as Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: as the foundational star of the team, as the guy
Speaker 1: that everyone in the in the Laker fan base views
Speaker 1: as the pillar that this team will be built on
Speaker 1: for the next at least half decade. You can't be
Speaker 1: the inconsistent guy. You have to be the consistent guy.
Speaker 1: And again it's it's like with Lebron. One of the
Speaker 1: things you'll learn with Lebron over the course of his career,
Speaker 1: like when you're watching him, is like he'll have inconsistent
Speaker 1: parts of his game, right, Like his jumper can be
Speaker 1: hot and cold depending on the night. He has nights
Speaker 1: where he's turns the ball over too much. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he has a tendency early in playoff series is when
Speaker 1: he's really feeling out the situation to have a rough
Speaker 1: game here there. But on a night tonight basis, you
Speaker 1: could depend on Lebron to at least be enough of
Speaker 1: himself in all of the other areas of his game
Speaker 1: that that he can impact winning even when he has
Speaker 1: a bad game. I've done. I did a pot a
Speaker 1: while back, like Lebron and Steph are the two players
Speaker 1: in the league that they're bad. Games still involved them
Speaker 1: usually being the best player on the floor. His Steph
Speaker 1: with his gravity and Lebron with all of the things
Speaker 1: he does on the on the floor to to impact
Speaker 1: winning A d has the tools to do that. He
Speaker 1: has to do that. Anthony Davis has has to find
Speaker 1: a way to find some consistency within himself, and to me,
Speaker 1: the easiest way is leaving his physical imprint on the game.
Speaker 1: Now here's what's frustrating about that. We've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about how Anthony Davis doesn't look the same in terms
Speaker 1: of his mobility. He looks slower, he doesn't have that
Speaker 1: same pop, and we also talked about how he looks
Speaker 1: huge right like he's just completely jacked up top. If
Speaker 1: he's what was the point of doing that if not
Speaker 1: to be able to keep Steven Adams off the glass.
Speaker 1: You know, I saw somebody tweets today during the game,
Speaker 1: and this is massively exaggerated. I disagree with it, but
Speaker 1: there's a kernel of truth. I can't remember who was,
Speaker 1: but they said Anthony Davis actually can't play center, and
Speaker 1: obviously I disagree. I think Anthony Davis is arguably the
Speaker 1: best small ball center you could play outside of maybe honest,
Speaker 1: But the point is is, like a center has dirty
Speaker 1: work responsibilities that Anthony Davis is definitely capable of, but
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, he struggles with them. I mean, I
Speaker 1: literally watched Isaiah Stewart can Anthony Davis under the basket
Speaker 1: for offensive rebounds like a half dozen times in those
Speaker 1: two matchups. Like, I like, it's for whatever reason, in
Speaker 1: those altercations, even though he has all of the tools
Speaker 1: to be the guy who wins that altercation, he doesn't
Speaker 1: win the altercation. Meanwhile, you look at Lebron and it's
Speaker 1: like he's fighting guys bigger than him all the time
Speaker 1: because he he like revels in those engagements. He loves
Speaker 1: the idea of winning that type of engagement, snatching the
Speaker 1: ball out of the air and just like it's like
Speaker 1: a momentum regound and just looks around everybody like get
Speaker 1: the hell off of me, you know, like that we
Speaker 1: need to see more of that from Anthony Davis, that
Speaker 1: that sort of like physical aggression, if that makes sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and again, I don't want to blame this all onto
Speaker 1: eight because I think he's had a better season than it.
Speaker 1: It's felt like and he has a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: defensive responsibilities on that end, like he has to cover
Speaker 1: for a lot, especially when he's the center as well. Right,
Speaker 1: And I thought him and Lebron looked good in that
Speaker 1: first quarter, like at least defensively. I think they went
Speaker 1: up like fourteen eight or something. They look active and
Speaker 1: all that. But again, it just feels like he's he
Speaker 1: goes through the motions a lot offensively. And again I
Speaker 1: don't know if that's just a product of the spacing
Speaker 1: as well, Like I think that could be it, Like
Speaker 1: he just doesn't like where he's getting the ball, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of post of actions and it's a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff that just wastes a lot of time.
Speaker 1: It's just like a cross screen to get eighty the
Speaker 1: ball four feet away from the free throw line, and
Speaker 1: it's just like what was the point of that? And
Speaker 1: at least to him taking step back jumpers. But it's
Speaker 1: just an aggression that I'd like to see from him
Speaker 1: every night, Like he doesn't need to be the one
Speaker 1: that has to pick his spots, right if it's Lebron,
Speaker 1: a d and Russ on the floor, like he can
Speaker 1: he can attack every single night, especially if they throw
Speaker 1: like Steven Adams on him. He has a quickness advantage
Speaker 1: to it. I'd just like to see him go at it.
Speaker 1: And tonight I just thought the body language was really bad.
Speaker 1: And again he's not the only one at fault. Tonight,
Speaker 1: I thought Leek really struggled Russell Westbrook a bunch of turnovers.
Speaker 1: Lebron brought it in that first quarter, but those he
Speaker 1: had a lot of turnovers as well. It's not just
Speaker 1: eighties fault. But I just thought like his body language
Speaker 1: really showed. Jaren Jackson Junior again, I thought just dominated
Speaker 1: this game went right to the rim. We had nothing
Speaker 1: for him, and it feels like every time we go
Speaker 1: up and we get punched, it's like there's no coming
Speaker 1: back from it. Like I don't know about you, but
Speaker 1: I thought this game was kind of over when we're
Speaker 1: going into the fourth, like we were down I think
Speaker 1: seven or eight going into the fourth, and I thought
Speaker 1: that was kind of it, Like I did not see
Speaker 1: them coming back and winning this one. And that's that's
Speaker 1: been kind of the theme of this season. And you
Speaker 1: could tell Vogelos trying to experiment. He went with Dwight
Speaker 1: Howard to start to start the second half, which helped.
Speaker 1: Like I thought, two bigs actually fakes sense. For tonight, right,
Speaker 1: the Grizzly start this two big line up with Jaren
Speaker 1: Jackson and step Steven Adams, Like tonight's to night where
Speaker 1: two bigs would actually make sense. It's just a lot
Speaker 1: of experimenting going around going on. I hated Wayne Allington
Speaker 1: got some minutes, but he would play next to like
Speaker 1: THHD and Avery Bradley, so he's the only shooters from Memphis.
Speaker 1: Throws two at him. So you see Wayne Ellington a
Speaker 1: lot tonight, like would jump to shoot, but like there's
Speaker 1: two guys on him, so he has to jump. He
Speaker 1: has to like shoot and jump past. You saw that
Speaker 1: like three times tonight. There's a lot of lineups that
Speaker 1: don't make sense. This team is in a really weird
Speaker 1: funk here, really weird moment. I thought the Boston game
Speaker 1: we got a lot of positives, and tonight we just
Speaker 1: kind of threw that away because there was super careless
Speaker 1: in the first half and Memphis came and took the
Speaker 1: game away. But I don't know where we go from here.
Speaker 1: They play I think Orlando to they put Orlanto tomorrow.
Speaker 1: O see okay, see tomorrow. So I mean, that's again
Speaker 1: a winnable game, but you just don't know what this team.
Speaker 1: They've lost all the benefit of the doubt. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like I don't, I don't really know where they go.
Speaker 1: We went back to the two bits to start the
Speaker 1: second happen, but just let's let's let's stay there because
Speaker 1: you because I I thought that was the microcosm of
Speaker 1: of everything that was wrong with the situation. Because our
Speaker 1: starters looked fantastic. Yea. We literally were defending and getting
Speaker 1: out in transition and scoring. And you say, okay, Memphis
Speaker 1: plays big. Well, okay, what what happens to the Lakers
Speaker 1: when they play big? Usually the other team inevitably just
Speaker 1: the paint waits for you to miss jump shots and
Speaker 1: tries to get in a foot race with you because
Speaker 1: they know that you're slow. You're playing too many big guys.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, even at as a power forward, is not
Speaker 1: super quick, especially when there's a wing across from him,
Speaker 1: and teams would just race us up and down the
Speaker 1: floor and get easy shots. And so why aren't we
Speaker 1: trying to do that to Memphis? That's literally what we
Speaker 1: did in the first quarter and it was working, and yes,
Speaker 1: did we get killed on the glass over the course
Speaker 1: of the rest of the half, yes, But that's not
Speaker 1: an adjustment you make with the starters. That's an adjustment
Speaker 1: you make with your other lineups. That was the part
Speaker 1: that was confusing to me. In the first half. Our
Speaker 1: starting lineup was our best group. Now we can, you know,
Speaker 1: go back and forth about Avery Bradley. To me, that's
Speaker 1: so so so far down on the list of problems.
Speaker 1: But like the starting line it was not the issue.
Speaker 1: So when I saw that, when I saw Frank make
Speaker 1: that adjustment, I immediately thought to myself, like, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and Frank just can't help themselves. Like I guarantee you
Speaker 1: somewhere in the halftime huddle or in the halftime locker
Speaker 1: room meeting, either Frank brought it up or Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: brought it up, but they're like, we we need to
Speaker 1: we need to go big because we're getting hurt on
Speaker 1: the glass. And it's and it's like, I bet you
Speaker 1: there's just this big breath of you know, fresh air
Speaker 1: for Anthony Davis to be like, all right, Dwight's gonna
Speaker 1: box out. Stephen. I don't have to. And it's like, man,
Speaker 1: that's your advantage. They're playing big. They're playing big because
Speaker 1: they lost another wing to COVID today with Dylan Brooks,
Speaker 1: like you you have. If they're gonna play big, we
Speaker 1: have to be the fast team then, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? And it just was I hated that that
Speaker 1: ideological shift there because like again like playing Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: alongside Russell Westbrook as a disaster offensively. Now, yes, the
Speaker 1: Lakers uh went down and got a couple of baskets
Speaker 1: to start the third quarter, but immediately after they took
Speaker 1: that two point leader, I think they were up. Immediately
Speaker 1: after that, we started losing shooters and transition while guys
Speaker 1: were jogging back. That was the inevitable outcome. Memphis was
Speaker 1: going to be able to push the pace on us.
Speaker 1: And you know, and and one of the problems too
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis when he goes to the four is
Speaker 1: we had actions where he's rolling to the ram or
Speaker 1: he'll crash the offensive glass. So usually when the shot
Speaker 1: has missed, both Dwight Nadine are under the rim and
Speaker 1: the other eight guys are sprinting the other way. It's
Speaker 1: like starting behind the eight ball. I just I just
Speaker 1: didn't like that ideologically, But again, like going down the
Speaker 1: roster like and this is where it's one of those
Speaker 1: things where if you looked at this game in a
Speaker 1: vacuum and the Lakers were playing awesome all season, you
Speaker 1: might look at this and you might say, hey, is
Speaker 1: a tough road game, young team, mellow had a bad night,
Speaker 1: Malik Monk had a bad night. Maybe we just you know,
Speaker 1: Lebron was awesome. A d had a rough night, Rough
Speaker 1: had a rough let's just throw it out. It's because
Speaker 1: of the larger picture that this is so upsetting when
Speaker 1: you're like, for instance, Golden State lost at home to
Speaker 1: San Antonio the other day, that you can totally forgive
Speaker 1: one of those every once in a while, when the
Speaker 1: character of the team has shown over the course of
Speaker 1: the season, that that doesn't happen often. But they knew
Speaker 1: coming into this game that it was gonna be tough.
Speaker 1: They knew coming into this game that they really had
Speaker 1: to win it in order to change the perception around
Speaker 1: the team. And they knew coming into this game and
Speaker 1: that they were going to have to bring a certain
Speaker 1: amount of effort, a certain amount of execution, like I
Speaker 1: got a conversation with Cranes about this the other day
Speaker 1: because we were talking about you know, there's there's like
Speaker 1: a there's like a spectrum of Laker fans blaming effort,
Speaker 1: and there's people on the left who are like, everything's
Speaker 1: effort related, which I disagree with, and then there's people
Speaker 1: like Cranes, who, respectfully I disagree with. He's kind of
Speaker 1: like everything's process, everything scheme, everything is blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: efforts playing little to no role here. I'm kind of
Speaker 1: in the middle, like, I absolutely see those issues, but
Speaker 1: effort is absolutely part of the issue here, and I
Speaker 1: can't I can't continue to gloss over that. You're again,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be able to match Memphis effort, but
Speaker 1: you're more talented than Memphis. You have the two best
Speaker 1: players on the floor, arguably the three best players on
Speaker 1: the floor. Actually, screw that, they had the three best
Speaker 1: players on the floor. No matter how you feel about
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, he's better than everybody on Memphis. And so
Speaker 1: if you you just had to bring a certain amount
Speaker 1: of thatfort and that effort also involves focus. Taking care
Speaker 1: of the basketball, to me, is an effort thing because
Speaker 1: it requires you to be alert and paying attention to
Speaker 1: what's happening around you and making sound decisions and being careful.
Speaker 1: That is an effort thing as well. To me, When
Speaker 1: the effort pulls back, the focus pulls back. When the
Speaker 1: focus pulls back, that's when mental errors start taking place.
Speaker 1: When the mental errors start taking place, that's when you
Speaker 1: start letting this young team get out on the run.
Speaker 1: And it was only a matter of time from there.
Speaker 1: It was like hemorrhaging possessions. But yeah, I don't know
Speaker 1: how you can gloss over the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm not saying you're doing this, but I mean,
Speaker 1: I I can't. I can't imagine how anybody could watch
Speaker 1: this team and not see the serious basketball character issue
Speaker 1: that they're not willing to do the work that you
Speaker 1: have to do to win these kinds of games. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it definitely felt like they came in tonight and thought
Speaker 1: this would be an easy one, especially when they went
Speaker 1: up nine. I just saw the total engagement drop off
Speaker 1: from everyone, and I think that's a team wide issue.
Speaker 1: But I guess we can kind of go more into
Speaker 1: the details here because I think there is process stuff
Speaker 1: that's going wrong, and and again like you said, is
Speaker 1: it you know, is an effort? Is it excell and
Speaker 1: knows and schemes. I think it's somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 1: I think. Then they talked about it in his space earlier,
Speaker 1: which he did a great job kind of explaining how
Speaker 1: there's a human element to all of this, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you can't mix bad scheme with you can mix the
Speaker 1: best scheme and if you have no effort, then it's
Speaker 1: not gonna work. And you can you can have the
Speaker 1: best scheme and no effort, it's not gonna work. Right,
Speaker 1: you need both to kind of intertwine here. And there's
Speaker 1: still stuff that is just really confusing me, really confusing
Speaker 1: to me, Like everything this whole night we were doing
Speaker 1: like offensive defense stubs, which which really made no sense
Speaker 1: to me. The th h t every badly coming in
Speaker 1: and out. I thought that really messed with our team.
Speaker 1: I thought the spacing again was awful. The two two
Speaker 1: big lineup, like you talked about, they did a great
Speaker 1: job early. I thought it messed with Memphis. I thought
Speaker 1: it was a nice switch up, a nice like curveball
Speaker 1: to throw at them. And then once they went a
Speaker 1: little bit small, I think they went with Jaren Jackson
Speaker 1: at the five and that just that just run us
Speaker 1: out of the gym. We were again down like six
Speaker 1: or seven. We're doing an awful job going around screens.
Speaker 1: But again, like tonight, I don't even know where to
Speaker 1: where to go with this, Like I think it's effort
Speaker 1: and scheme combined, and I don't know. I think Bogelo
Speaker 1: has to choose one, right, like there has to be
Speaker 1: a lineup that he has to He has to go
Speaker 1: with the lineup that makes sense. And I feel like
Speaker 1: the spacing in the starting lineup messes with the whole game.
Speaker 1: Russ plays in a phone booth. Russ place in a
Speaker 1: phone booth to start, and that just coincides with the
Speaker 1: whole game. And I feel like he didn't get going
Speaker 1: too late. Lebron Lebron was going early. But man, I'm
Speaker 1: getting lost in my words here. I don't even I
Speaker 1: don't even know where to go with this. It spicking
Speaker 1: in identity like that, that's the thing. Someone someone tweeted out,
Speaker 1: I think it was it was Michael Taylor if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, but someone tweeted out after that first run, man,
Speaker 1: this is like that, this looks like Lakers and and
Speaker 1: you know a certain amount of that you can expect
Speaker 1: to see when you play a line up that literally
Speaker 1: has four guys that were on the Lakers and you know,
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, you know, like if it's if it's Dwhite,
Speaker 1: A d Lebrono and and and Avery Bradley, that's a
Speaker 1: bunch of former Lakers, you know, so like that that
Speaker 1: that's to be expected. But the problem is is we
Speaker 1: don't really have the personnel to play that style for
Speaker 1: forty eight minutes. We just don't. We have. This is
Speaker 1: kind of to that versatility conversation we were having earlier
Speaker 1: in the summer. It's like, we have groups that can
Speaker 1: play like the Lakers, but the vast majority of our
Speaker 1: groups are gonna play like a kind of like a
Speaker 1: hybrid version of that mixed with like the Los Angeles Clippers,
Speaker 1: a really slow team, excuse me, a really small team
Speaker 1: that spaces the floor and thrives on dribble penetration, which
Speaker 1: is something that that that I've been harping on all
Speaker 1: season long. And so it's that that's kind of where fundamentally,
Speaker 1: like you were talking about, like Russ never got his rhythm. Well,
Speaker 1: does that is that related to the fact that Frank
Speaker 1: is kind of prioritizing kind of a structure that resembles
Speaker 1: Lakers probably to some extent. Although Russ has found enough openings,
Speaker 1: you know he I just kept waiting for him to
Speaker 1: have aventually kind of breakthrough tonight because that's kind of
Speaker 1: the way it's been with him all season. But for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, it didn't happen tonight. I can't dive too
Speaker 1: much into the to the to the Russ part of it, because,
Speaker 1: like I said, it's super lame. I think I think
Speaker 1: you're gonna probably see some national media and some people
Speaker 1: who don't know any better really really go after Russ
Speaker 1: in the next twenty four hours, and that's really unfortunate
Speaker 1: because he doesn't deserve that at all. He's been amazing
Speaker 1: as of late. Um. But again, like it's it's very
Speaker 1: possible that these things are all tied to each other,
Speaker 1: you know, Like for us, this last stretch of games
Speaker 1: has been really good in third quarters, so for you
Speaker 1: to randomly go big in the third quarter, it's very
Speaker 1: possible that that is partially responsible for disrupting things. But
Speaker 1: it felt like there were several stretches tonight where the
Speaker 1: Lakers tried to get kick started where they did a
Speaker 1: couple of stops and they get out and transition and
Speaker 1: try to get something going, but then they would turn
Speaker 1: the ball over like they just kept shooting themselves in
Speaker 1: the foot. And you know, you talked about the body language.
Speaker 1: I thought that in the middle of this third quarter,
Speaker 1: the belief left the Lakers, the the idea that they
Speaker 1: thought they could win, exited the building and from there
Speaker 1: it was kind of like just going through the motions
Speaker 1: and and and that and that that's really unfortunate. But again,
Speaker 1: like what's frustrating is like how many times can this
Speaker 1: happen to you? How many times can you get pumped
Speaker 1: before something wakes up inside of you? And I really
Speaker 1: I really don't know who, don't know what what, like
Speaker 1: what it's going to take at this point, because we
Speaker 1: know what's in there. We literally saw them do it
Speaker 1: against Boston the other night. I mean, we've had what's
Speaker 1: so bizarre about this most recent stretches, it's like unbelievable
Speaker 1: performance on the road in Sacramento, beating the ship out
Speaker 1: of the Kings without Lebron awesome like like momentous way
Speaker 1: and coming right back home to to drop one of
Speaker 1: the Clippers, uh in a game that was extremely frustrating
Speaker 1: on a bunch of different levels, and the Lakers played
Speaker 1: huge starting lineups again and it was super confusing. And
Speaker 1: then you come back on Sunday, and you're on Tuesday
Speaker 1: and you man handle the Celtics and you look fantastic,
Speaker 1: and then you come back tonight. So I guess if
Speaker 1: you're looking for a silver lining, the good games have
Speaker 1: been coming more frequently, I guess, but they still can't
Speaker 1: string anything together. And to me, that's a basketball character thing.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I don't know how you fix that, Raj,
Speaker 1: Like I'd like you know, foundationally, this team requires Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D to both be top five players. Now
Speaker 1: we're coming off at two straight games where Lebron's at
Speaker 1: least in that conversation right where on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor, he's looking like himself, but for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: a D s lagging behind. And I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't know what it takes. Like remember do you remember
Speaker 1: beginning of the season when I said he has never
Speaker 1: played four team games in a row since since before
Speaker 1: the bubble, Well, yeah, he's been. He's played all but
Speaker 1: one game this season, man, Like like how much more
Speaker 1: time does he need to build his rhythm? How much
Speaker 1: more time does he need to get in shape? How
Speaker 1: much more time does he need to build up to
Speaker 1: where he was? I mean, I think we're reaching a
Speaker 1: point now where we can no longer make excuses for him.
Speaker 1: They played small for the vast majority of the time
Speaker 1: with him as of late too, So I mean, I
Speaker 1: look like to your point, I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: know where we go from here. I don't know where
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like what else can you throw at
Speaker 1: a d right now to try to get him going? Like?
Speaker 1: Is this is? Is it as simple as Lebron has
Speaker 1: to privately like confront him, Like honestly, what do you do?
Speaker 1: Like he's had the minutes, he's had the reps, he's
Speaker 1: had the rhythm, he's had the lineups, and it's just
Speaker 1: not materializing in my opinion. Yeah, and well, for first
Speaker 1: of all, like that stat you point out where he
Speaker 1: only missed one game game, that's the most important stat, Frady, right,
Speaker 1: Like if adis out of this team has no chance anyway,
Speaker 1: Like you can you can call him about how eighties
Speaker 1: played and you know him and even I have said
Speaker 1: he needs to be more aggressive. But if ads, you know,
Speaker 1: not playing, then this team is going nowhere. But I
Speaker 1: just bent about Wayne Allington really quick because I know
Speaker 1: we're going to close this and about in a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes here. Um, but yeah, my my issue with this.
Speaker 1: And then again Vinet hit about this in his space
Speaker 1: as well, like I feel like he's the perfect guy
Speaker 1: to kind of fit in that starting lineup to me,
Speaker 1: like he's a veteran, he knows his job. And I
Speaker 1: posted that clip or him and Lebron had that ghost
Speaker 1: screen right where, like that's just something that plays into
Speaker 1: what Lebron does and also it fits with Russ as well.
Speaker 1: And I'm just looking at Wayne Ellington's stats um here
Speaker 1: for the last few games against Boston twenty minutes six
Speaker 1: tonight twenty minutes, six shots, Boston fourteen minutes, four shots,
Speaker 1: Like to me, that's not enough. And I feel like
Speaker 1: he has more gravity than we're using with him. And
Speaker 1: again I don't Wayne Ellington is in a championship life
Speaker 1: saving player. I just think like the issue with him
Speaker 1: not playing kind of fits a larger issue with this
Speaker 1: team with an identity issues that they have with the
Speaker 1: offense issue that they have, Like there's a lot of
Speaker 1: times waynel Wayne elling to me, is a gunner, right, Like,
Speaker 1: he's a guy where if you get him enough, you
Speaker 1: get him the ball enough, he's gonna fire. And we
Speaker 1: use him as like an eighteen seventies arrow, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Like, we we use him as like
Speaker 1: an old fashioned arrow where we just throw him in
Speaker 1: the corner and we're like, you just stand there and
Speaker 1: wait till the hell comes and then we throw him
Speaker 1: the ball and he gets into a shet shot. But
Speaker 1: Wayne Ellington is a shooter, like a legit shooter. To me,
Speaker 1: he's one of the best. Would you agree He's one
Speaker 1: of the best shooters in the league, just pure shooters.
Speaker 1: He can't defend, obviously, and that's why he's on a
Speaker 1: minimum contract. Go look at the prices of shooters around
Speaker 1: the league. Go look at what Duncan Robinson just got
Speaker 1: from with the Miami Again, Dugcan Robbin's a taller player,
Speaker 1: probably a better defender. YadA, YadA, YadA. Go look at
Speaker 1: what real shooters cost in this league. We have a
Speaker 1: guy on the minimum deal, and to me, his defense
Speaker 1: is never gonna be great, but he plays enough. He
Speaker 1: plays hard, enough to me, he's in the right spots
Speaker 1: enough to me, like we just don't. We don't use
Speaker 1: the weapons that we have and to what they are,
Speaker 1: we turned them into these seventy arrows. Blake Monk, to me,
Speaker 1: shows a lot more than we we give him credit for.
Speaker 1: I think he's a better ball handler, better score than
Speaker 1: we need to like those guys need to play. And
Speaker 1: again tonight, I thought what summarized the game to me?
Speaker 1: When Allington came in and I was all excited even
Speaker 1: though we were down thirteen with five minutes left, we
Speaker 1: had a We had him with the big three, and
Speaker 1: I thought they haven't played any minutes. Tonight I was corrected.
Speaker 1: They played nine minutes for the season. I was wrong
Speaker 1: with Yeah, I was so wrong. They played nine total minutes,
Speaker 1: not nineteen total possessions. I was wrong tonight they played
Speaker 1: ten seconds together like that. I can't have your best
Speaker 1: shooter should be playing next to your big three, who
Speaker 1: are all guys who are non shooters, Like, I just
Speaker 1: don't understand why he can't, why we don't at least
Speaker 1: try this and again everybody they came in for defensive issues,
Speaker 1: for for defense, for offense, we got killed the Memphis.
Speaker 1: I think Memphis scored like four strade times. And again,
Speaker 1: it's not every Bradley's fault. I'm not blaming him. Maybe
Speaker 1: proably had a good game tonight, it's just the process
Speaker 1: isn't right. Every badly hitting four threes. So the defense
Speaker 1: doesn't care like they're going to continue leave him, ok.
Speaker 1: And And I just think that's stuff that we can know.
Speaker 1: Those are fixes that we can do right. We can't
Speaker 1: change the roster. We're not trading Russ stuff. Police stop
Speaker 1: at police stop mentioning that to me, trade Russ or
Speaker 1: you know, again, the coach can be fired. I just
Speaker 1: I think that's a I think that's a band aid
Speaker 1: on a large issue, honestly. But but still like I
Speaker 1: think those are those are things that are fixable. And
Speaker 1: the way to Ellington kind of is the face of
Speaker 1: a lot of the kind of internal issues that I
Speaker 1: see with the team where we're not picking an identity,
Speaker 1: we're trying to do both. And Wayne Ellington playing with
Speaker 1: th Ht and Avery Bradley like, you're like, I don''t
Speaker 1: know how to I don't even know analogy for it,
Speaker 1: but it just doesn't make sense to me. So you
Speaker 1: have Wayne Ellington out there with Lebron. I believe it
Speaker 1: was Lebron. Uh, maybe it was a d Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: and th HD. So way, now that's the only shooter.
Speaker 1: They sent two at him, and you see him do
Speaker 1: these jump passes and that's not his game and we
Speaker 1: need to open the stuff up for him. Again, when
Speaker 1: is a minimum player is not going to change the world.
Speaker 1: It's just to me, he represents a bigger issue on
Speaker 1: that I'm seeing with the team. Well, and again it's
Speaker 1: about leaning industry um. Like like we talked about, like
Speaker 1: the minute you went the route of playing Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: you compromised your spacing to a certain extent that made
Speaker 1: it so that your past a breaking point with trying
Speaker 1: to play Vogel ball. So for for instance, in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: you literally saw a team that wasn't playing Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: playing guys who were actually okay shooters like k Cpu
Speaker 1: and like Kyle Kuzman and even out even Alex Crucer
Speaker 1: had a good three point shooting season last year. But
Speaker 1: you saw that tilt so far to where Dennis Shooter
Speaker 1: and Lebron had no ability to get to the basket.
Speaker 1: And I did like everyone was talking about how Lebron
Speaker 1: looked so bad in that series is one of the
Speaker 1: few times where you know, I just I couldn't blame him,
Speaker 1: Like I could get a touch on the wing and
Speaker 1: there were just the three bodies standing right in front
Speaker 1: of there was no opportunity to drive. When you decided
Speaker 1: to to take on Russell us Broad, you went even
Speaker 1: further in that, in that direction favoring your physical presence
Speaker 1: over the spacing of the team. So you went out
Speaker 1: and you found these shooters. That's great. You have to
Speaker 1: play at least one of them at all times, and
Speaker 1: preferably too. And that's where that's where with the starting
Speaker 1: lineup you just from an identity standpoint, playing Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: or th HD or both of them instead of at
Speaker 1: least one of those shooters doesn't make any sense because
Speaker 1: you're just you're you're keeping I would talking about having
Speaker 1: one ft in the moment one in the future when
Speaker 1: teams are building, and how stupid I think that is.
Speaker 1: It's the same concept with the identity, like Frank has
Speaker 1: one foot stuck in and then he's got this other
Speaker 1: foot or it's like like remember when remember when he
Speaker 1: like started just doing that Lebron at the center lineup,
Speaker 1: which was like, Okay, it was fun, it was gimmicky.
Speaker 1: You could do that to mix things up, or as
Speaker 1: a specific matchup tool against a team that doesn't have
Speaker 1: any size when you're going super small or whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that makes sense. But the idea that would become your
Speaker 1: consistent rotation like every beginning of every second and fourth
Speaker 1: quarter when you literally have Dwight Howard on the bench
Speaker 1: like that just made absolutely no sense. It was like,
Speaker 1: it's like half a franc is like super like cool
Speaker 1: and forward thinking and progressive basketball Frank, and then the
Speaker 1: other half of Frank is like retro nine eighties, we're
Speaker 1: packing the paint, Frank, you know what I mean. Like
Speaker 1: it just it just doesn't make any sense having those
Speaker 1: two separate identities. You, you know, picks one thing that
Speaker 1: you're really really good at and lean into it. You're
Speaker 1: gonna have enough curve balls just by virtue of how
Speaker 1: good your star players are, you know, play your shooters
Speaker 1: lean heavily into driving kick basketball, which is something that
Speaker 1: Lebron and Russ have been the best at their entire careers.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is always going to be able to find
Speaker 1: a way to fit in with that because of what
Speaker 1: he brings to the table. With the skill set leaning
Speaker 1: to that, you're inevitably your defense will be good enough.
Speaker 1: Like tonight the Lakers couldn't score, and like we always say,
Speaker 1: a point per possession defense in the half court is
Speaker 1: way more effective than they are in transition, and so
Speaker 1: it has to be factored in when you're choosing lineups.
Speaker 1: When you're it's like the concept you're talking about offense defense.
Speaker 1: The reason why you do offense defense stubs in crunch
Speaker 1: time is because you're expecting a stoppage after every play.
Speaker 1: The reason why you like like in in a game,
Speaker 1: when you choose to prioritize defensive personnel, you have to
Speaker 1: expect a great deal of missed shots that will lead
Speaker 1: to your defense being stuck in the backcourt or two
Speaker 1: or not being fully set as the other team attacks
Speaker 1: you in the other direction. By playing really good offense
Speaker 1: and scoring the basketball, you get to set up your defense.
Speaker 1: This was what made Brooklyn so genius Brooklyn last season.
Speaker 1: They ran incredible offense, They scored on you almost every time,
Speaker 1: and then they got back on defense. They set up
Speaker 1: and they switched everything and just waited for you to
Speaker 1: try to is so one of their lesser defenders while
Speaker 1: you have all these health defenders waiting. It was genius.
Speaker 1: It was genius because it understood modern basketball like that,
Speaker 1: that's what's killing you with Frank right now. Just like
Speaker 1: I thought in the start of the second started the
Speaker 1: second half, we got killed in transition mainly for three is.
Speaker 1: I think they got one lay up, but they mainly
Speaker 1: for threes. Guys just jogging back because you're playing a
Speaker 1: slow lineup and you can't score it. Just it like,
Speaker 1: I'll be preaching at this all season until they finally
Speaker 1: start doing it. But this team has to lean into
Speaker 1: what they're good at and what they're good at his offense,
Speaker 1: lean into that if you score the basketball, you have
Speaker 1: a much better chance of getting stops. It's really that simple.
Speaker 1: It's really that simple. And and that's why I like
Speaker 1: when Frank is looking at the data and everyone's like
Speaker 1: why is he still playing at swy Z when the
Speaker 1: defensive ratings sucks. Frank will tell you, oh, like, well,
Speaker 1: our process is good, so we know that this number
Speaker 1: will eventually come down. And it's like, yeah, but Frank,
Speaker 1: is it gonna come down? Is it gonna come down
Speaker 1: if you're missing jump shots every time on the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor, and your defense is never set
Speaker 1: because even if you believe in this concept as a defense,
Speaker 1: it only functions when everyone's in the right spot and
Speaker 1: no one's in the right spot in transition, and everyone
Speaker 1: in the modern NBA is in transition on every misshot.
Speaker 1: That's just how they that's just how every offensive coach teaches.
Speaker 1: Push the ball, Push the ball, push the ball. They're
Speaker 1: gonna make you pay for that anyway. I'm done, then think, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess the last thing I Canna wrote down here
Speaker 1: is I think it's strange that our starting lineup is
Speaker 1: the one that has the least amount of spacing for
Speaker 1: our superstars, right, And I think that's just a process
Speaker 1: issue that I'm I'm kind of dealing with here. Like
Speaker 1: if you look at it, like our our second unit
Speaker 1: spacing isn't bad, Like we wanted to russ d why
Speaker 1: with like Mellow Monk, and I think like Elegant or
Speaker 1: someone else, like that's that's okay. But I feel like
Speaker 1: we're starting these games the first quarter and the third
Speaker 1: quarters there are really just killing us. We're down almost
Speaker 1: every time our defense is okay, but I feel like
Speaker 1: teams start to run on us, and that's just a
Speaker 1: process thing that I think has to be fixed. I
Speaker 1: think a D at the five is definitely a start
Speaker 1: to that. And again I've gotten into a D And
Speaker 1: I don't want to be unfair to him because I
Speaker 1: feel like he's had a pretty good season throughout. It's
Speaker 1: just I thought tonight his body language wasn't great. But
Speaker 1: I mean I thought throughout the season, you know, again
Speaker 1: he's leading in points of the paint, dunks and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. With spacing that's not conductive to him. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, like I feel like that's my biggest issue
Speaker 1: here is this Our starting lineup has the worst spacing
Speaker 1: of any of our line ups, which I think is
Speaker 1: an issue. Like I think that's it's fundamental problem that
Speaker 1: are superstars are not in their right places and our
Speaker 1: starting lineup having a negative net rating through the season,
Speaker 1: and I think it's gonna get worse from tonight. Like
Speaker 1: that's that's a problem that needs to be fixed. We're like,
Speaker 1: what twenties something games in now and our starting lineup
Speaker 1: doesn't have a positive net rating, Like I think that's
Speaker 1: again a lot of that is with DeAndre Jordan as well.
Speaker 1: But I think that's like the big issue that that
Speaker 1: surrounds all of this um and we'll see the season
Speaker 1: not over. Obviously tonight was a pretty healthscape type of game,
Speaker 1: but there's still a lot of games left. Tomorrow is
Speaker 1: another game against Okay. See, we have some bad teams
Speaker 1: coming up, so we'll see if they can rack up
Speaker 1: some wins. But I think until we change that, the
Speaker 1: process is kind of the process is all messed up,
Speaker 1: and maybe that's just how it's gonna be until Trevor Resa,
Speaker 1: like I said, gets back. But I feel like him
Speaker 1: as our saving grace at thirty six year old. It's
Speaker 1: it's also unfair to him. Like again I said last
Speaker 1: game when Jayson Tatum blew by Carmental and Anthony Staman
Speaker 1: gun and he's like, that's why you go get Trevor Reasa,
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's why you get That's why you go
Speaker 1: get two thousand nine Trevor Reason. That's not why you
Speaker 1: go get Trevor Resa. But but we'll see. I hope,
Speaker 1: I hope it wasn't too crazy events session tonight for
Speaker 1: everyone listening. Yeah, the Lakers have had plenty of opportunity
Speaker 1: to make excuses this season, whether it's you know, the
Speaker 1: just the piling up of games over the last couple
Speaker 1: of seasons because of COVID, or whether it's you know,
Speaker 1: both Anthony Davis and Lebron nursing injuries over the summer,
Speaker 1: or injuries derailing guys this season. We've had all sorts
Speaker 1: of excuses, and now the excuses are kind of gone,
Speaker 1: you know, like the reasons that last remaining excuse, the
Speaker 1: reason I guess and Kendrick Nunn and maybe just maybe
Speaker 1: all those excuses have have allowed some of the players
Speaker 1: to avoid some personal accountability. And I'm hopeful that that
Speaker 1: personal accountability starts to take shape eventually, because you know,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis at a certain point has to start getting
Speaker 1: kiste off about the fact that he's not playing the
Speaker 1: way he's supposed to be playing, you know, And I'm
Speaker 1: Lebron and Russ are both fine, But the same goes
Speaker 1: for these other guys on this team, Like at a
Speaker 1: certain point, at a certain point, like this team has
Speaker 1: to understand and that they're not going to win on
Speaker 1: any consistent basis until they embrace the dirty work, you know,
Speaker 1: And and for all of these guys that have had
Speaker 1: offensive careers elsewhere. Yeah, like Okay, Mellow, you got to
Speaker 1: shoot a bunch of shots on a bad Portland's team,
Speaker 1: Or Malik Monk, you got to shoot a bunch of
Speaker 1: shots on a bad Charlotte team. But on this team,
Speaker 1: we need you to do X y Z better, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like in Malik's getting better, but
Speaker 1: like he missed a couple of big box outs again tonight.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things where it's just not good
Speaker 1: enough what we're it's just not good enough and it
Speaker 1: has to get better. And the only way for that
Speaker 1: to take place is personal accountability. And I think too
Speaker 1: many excuses have been made for this team. I'm thinking
Speaker 1: like Genie Bust going, Genie bus going like well, I
Speaker 1: I don't think it's fair to judge Frank until we
Speaker 1: have the full team, And it's like, um, actually, you're
Speaker 1: just making another excuse there. We have more than enough
Speaker 1: to be much much better than we have been. Much
Speaker 1: I would have been. I would have much rather had
Speaker 1: Jeannie just say yeah, things have been rough, but we
Speaker 1: expect Frank to get it together like that. That that
Speaker 1: makes way more sense to me. And in putting your
Speaker 1: support behind the coach than than making yet another excuse.
Speaker 1: I'm sick of it. I'm just so sick of hearing
Speaker 1: about the injuries and in hearing about all the that,
Speaker 1: Like I can't blame lineups anymore. Frank only went with
Speaker 1: two bigs for a few minutes tonight at the start
Speaker 1: of the second half. Like we can't blame injuries anymore.
Speaker 1: We have the bodies. Th HD has been so good
Speaker 1: defensively on the wing that like, I can't even blame
Speaker 1: the lack of forwards anymore. Like th h T is
Speaker 1: a defensive forward. He's proven that That's not why we
Speaker 1: lost tonight. You know, it's just it's frustrating. But I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna go ahead and call it to night guys.
Speaker 1: Um we uh Raj. I believe is going up to
Speaker 1: talk with him after the pot. But I have a
Speaker 1: Christmas party tomorrow, so I won't be missing the game.
Speaker 1: But I think Rag is going to do a postgame
Speaker 1: space and yep, and then um and then obviously we'll
Speaker 1: have the Sunday game as well against Orlando. I think
Speaker 1: this would be a good one for rewatch Roger, so
Speaker 1: maybe maybe let's yeah, let's dive into this one again,
Speaker 1: uh and watch it and then sometime this weekend we'll
Speaker 1: record a pod where we get a little bit different too,
Speaker 1: but hopefully hopefully they avenge the two okay see losses
Speaker 1: tomorrow go down three to okay see. That would be
Speaker 1: quite will be quite the season. All right, everybody, have
Speaker 1: a good rest of your night. This will be on
Speaker 1: Dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am Pacific Standard time
Speaker 1: and on our podcast feed here in about a half hour.
Speaker 1: We appreciate your support and we'll see you tomorrow. Thanks everyone.
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