Speaker 1: Mmmmmm for the statement like his post gifts so Dad's radio. Um,
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, what in the world did we just watched?
Speaker 1: I am completely and totally exhausted, annoyed, yet not the
Speaker 1: least bit surprised. I remember tweeting in the middle of
Speaker 1: one of their last handful of games that this team
Speaker 1: has been trying so hard to tell us exactly what
Speaker 1: who they are and exactly what they're made of, um,
Speaker 1: this entire season, and all we've done, for the most
Speaker 1: part is make excuses for them and talk about all
Speaker 1: the things that are that have been working against them.
Speaker 1: And here they are tonight, not completely healthy, but a
Speaker 1: lot more healthy than they've been in a long time.
Speaker 1: And all of those same character traits that you saw
Speaker 1: when they when they were struggling, when they had good
Speaker 1: reasons to struggle, all those character flaws are still there. Um,
Speaker 1: And I think that that's not a coincidence. And uh,
Speaker 1: obviously Rogers is dealing with He's with some buddies. He's
Speaker 1: having the friends givingything tonight, so he's gonna hang out
Speaker 1: with us for a minute. But our good friend and
Speaker 1: they has agreed to help us all try to come
Speaker 1: to terms with what we've been seeing, and so I
Speaker 1: really really appreciate you guys. Roger, I suppose we should
Speaker 1: start with you first of all. Buddy, um, we're able
Speaker 1: to watch my much of that game. Where's your head
Speaker 1: at right now? Yeah? So I'm hosting a little friends
Speaker 1: giving here, and uh, I told them that the game
Speaker 1: would be over pretty soon. And we went to the
Speaker 1: first overtime, and then the second overtime, and then a
Speaker 1: third overtime. And it's super frustrating to watch this, um
Speaker 1: as you're trying to have a good time. I don't
Speaker 1: know what the hell was going on. We played the
Speaker 1: big line up again. We started DeAndre Jordan, which to
Speaker 1: me is insanity. This felt like another game where Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel just might be gone after this one. His first
Speaker 1: sub in the overtime, I believe was Avery Bradley Darren
Speaker 1: Darren Fox got whatever he wanted. I thought in the
Speaker 1: late game, just easy pick and rolls, little fade away jumpers.
Speaker 1: I thought, Buddy, Heels got to open a lot. I
Speaker 1: don't know. This was super frustrating and watch as you're
Speaker 1: trying to just have a good time with other people.
Speaker 1: But yeah, man, this is frustrating. We're just not a
Speaker 1: good team right now. It's a lot of jump shooting.
Speaker 1: We're playing way too slow. We went up twelve and
Speaker 1: then just continue to walk the ball up the floor.
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, Lebron a D just a lot of slow basketball,
Speaker 1: no sense of urgency, right and I feel like that's
Speaker 1: been the identity of this team. It's been just a
Speaker 1: no sense of originy type of team. And that's what
Speaker 1: I felt happened in the late came offense went up
Speaker 1: twelve and just started walking the ball up the floor.
Speaker 1: These these off the offense has just come to Lebron
Speaker 1: post ups a D. You post ups, no no offside
Speaker 1: actions there on the action we run as a little
Speaker 1: pin screen. But when you just throw us in the
Speaker 1: corner and you're running Lebron adies screen and roll, there's
Speaker 1: no space for them. That's what I thought really happened tonight.
Speaker 1: So I won't be on here too long. I appreciate
Speaker 1: youven A for coming up here. Jason will appreciate you
Speaker 1: holding it down, But I just want to come up
Speaker 1: and say those that those few things, because I thought
Speaker 1: that was super frustrating just watching the whole game kind
Speaker 1: of play out. You could tell that Sacramento never thought
Speaker 1: they were out of it. Um, Terris Halliburton, Buddy Heal,
Speaker 1: Darren Fox felt like they can get it whatever they
Speaker 1: want on the floor. That's why. That's what I felt.
Speaker 1: What happened in A in overtime and the fourth quarter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought the theme of the game was settling UM,
Speaker 1: and this is what I wanted to kick to Uve
Speaker 1: and A just to get to get your thoughts, because,
Speaker 1: like you know, there's been a lot of talking about
Speaker 1: effort and focus with this group, right, and you know,
Speaker 1: effort and focus manifests in a bunch of different ways.
Speaker 1: And it's not just defense, and it's not just rebounding,
Speaker 1: and it's not just running the floor and transition. One
Speaker 1: of the biggest ways that effort will manifest itself is
Speaker 1: rim pressure, especially with this group, this particular core group
Speaker 1: of Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis and Lebron And we've made
Speaker 1: so many excuses for them based on spacing, and a
Speaker 1: lot of them have been legitimate, And to be clear,
Speaker 1: I do absolutely think that's starting DeAndre Jordan's factors in
Speaker 1: to that to setting the tone of settling. However, even
Speaker 1: when they did have the space to operate. I thought
Speaker 1: all three players, not really Russ, I'm gonna get I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let Russ off the hook here. But I thought,
Speaker 1: particularly a D and Braun, we're so so, so so
Speaker 1: so quick to settle instead of using the taking the
Speaker 1: energy that it takes, the effort that it takes to
Speaker 1: use your physical tools to beat your man to the
Speaker 1: basket even if it's not for you, and least just
Speaker 1: to collapse the defense, and to try to generate higher
Speaker 1: shot quality, um than they What was your impression of
Speaker 1: just the general rim pressure that we were getting from
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D or the lack there of. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: before I answered the question, I was just gonna say,
Speaker 1: I'm not disappointed at the results of this game. And
Speaker 1: I think when I answer your question, it'll it'll explain
Speaker 1: why I'm not disappointed. Um So, I think what you
Speaker 1: mentioned about the spacing and DeAndre, like, that's obviously an issue, right, um,
Speaker 1: but this game was a game even when a D
Speaker 1: went to the five, or when they had one big
Speaker 1: man like Dwight, when Dwight was like the only big
Speaker 1: on the floor, there was a lot of moments where
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, like even Braun probably had some
Speaker 1: opportunities to just kind of go to the rim and
Speaker 1: and get himself easy buckets, and um, it wasn't there,
Speaker 1: you know, like it was a lot of settling for
Speaker 1: jump shots, like you said. And one of my concerns
Speaker 1: not concerns, but it's just like one of my observations
Speaker 1: has been that when we play a D at the
Speaker 1: you know, all the rage has been you know, our
Speaker 1: defense isn't very good, our rotations aren't very good. But
Speaker 1: it's been so surprising to see how much a D
Speaker 1: doesn't go to the rim when he's at the file.
Speaker 1: And if you watch these these three overtimes, and you
Speaker 1: watch every single time a D went to the rim,
Speaker 1: whether it was Russ running the pick and roll with
Speaker 1: him or if Braun running the pick and roll with him,
Speaker 1: what happened. It was usually a layup or it was
Speaker 1: like an and one opportunity or something like that. And
Speaker 1: it has been very, very fascinating, And you know, I
Speaker 1: have my own personal conspiracy theory, but it has been
Speaker 1: fascinating to see this team do the exact opposite of
Speaker 1: whatever the lineup that's on the floor is meant to do,
Speaker 1: you know, like you space the floor so now everybody
Speaker 1: should be attacking the rim, but then they all just
Speaker 1: start shooting jump shots, and then when the floor is packed,
Speaker 1: we're trying to attack the rim instead of just finding shooters.
Speaker 1: So I think I think if you look at rim
Speaker 1: pressure throughout the course of just this game alone and
Speaker 1: you see how the Lakers were kind of playing in
Speaker 1: the opposite direction of whatever that line it was, I
Speaker 1: think that should tell you something about just kind of
Speaker 1: where some of these players are at as it relates
Speaker 1: to whatever offense vote was running. Yeah, this last thing
Speaker 1: and I'll kind of go off here. Um, I was
Speaker 1: hoping they went to more Lebron Russ pick and roll late.
Speaker 1: I thought it was just way too much that Lebron
Speaker 1: a D pick and roll with Russ in the corner.
Speaker 1: There's just no space even when Lebron even when a
Speaker 1: D s at the five, you have Mellow at the
Speaker 1: four with Malik Monk, you throw Russ in the corner.
Speaker 1: There there's just no space. Um, there's they zoned right
Speaker 1: up and it just led to a lot of switching
Speaker 1: right you. They had a little bit of a Lebron
Speaker 1: a D pick and roll, the King switched that and
Speaker 1: you had Lebron attacking Marvin Bagley, which I think is
Speaker 1: a matchup he likes. But it led to a lot
Speaker 1: of just step back jumpers. He had a lot of
Speaker 1: faded way jumpers in the third quarter, in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: But I thought that was just bad process because eventually
Speaker 1: those shots didn't go a d as well, right, a
Speaker 1: lot of jobs, a lot of jabs type jumpers. And
Speaker 1: don't know if the offense was totally issue tonight, I
Speaker 1: thought defensively as well, Darren Fox again got to the rim.
Speaker 1: Halliburton got what he wanted. Buddy Hield was able to
Speaker 1: get free. He had a bad shooting night, but late
Speaker 1: I thought he got shots he wanted. There's just something
Speaker 1: missing here. And to me, like DeAndre Jordan played the
Speaker 1: first eight minutes of the of the game that went out, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know how he got extend that. I was
Speaker 1: I was like, wait a second, it's past six minutes.
Speaker 1: How did he how did you play more? Right? And
Speaker 1: we we yeah, And there's just some negative energy that
Speaker 1: comes with that. It's so counterintuitive to how Russ wants
Speaker 1: to play. He doesn't get in rhythm. There's no speed
Speaker 1: to him, there's no there's no juice right, and that's
Speaker 1: how Russ wants to play. And I thought that kind
Speaker 1: of set the tone for the game there, and when
Speaker 1: DeAndre and when you have DeAndre Jordans just playing those minutes,
Speaker 1: I thought I just set a tone for the energy
Speaker 1: of the game. But I don't know, man, his team
Speaker 1: needs to figure things out. Like I know Kendrick Nuns out,
Speaker 1: I know Trevor reads out, Austin Reaves is out. They
Speaker 1: got to figure out how they want to play because
Speaker 1: this up and down five basketball is just not gonna
Speaker 1: work again. They got that big winning indeed, Anna Lebron
Speaker 1: had a lot of step back jumpers late, but again
Speaker 1: it felt like the offense just devout to that. So
Speaker 1: this is a tough game, man. But I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1: I'm a lot off here. I just want to say
Speaker 1: my two cents there, Jason. I appreciate you hosting is Bener.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you co hosting from me. I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: back to this friends giving. Appreciate everyone coming on listening
Speaker 1: uh to this one. I'm allowed off on this one, Juddy,
Speaker 1: and we will see you. We will see you on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Appreciate that I thought there was such an interesting dynamic
Speaker 1: and the different types of closing, right, and Lebron has
Speaker 1: been famous for for for both of these uh in
Speaker 1: large volume throughout his career. Like there's a difference between
Speaker 1: Lebron when he's closing as a guy who's running or
Speaker 1: spamming and action and making really high quality decisions out
Speaker 1: of it, and then the Lebron I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: eat the shot clock every single time, and then as
Speaker 1: soon as I get I'll just I'll call you get
Speaker 1: a switch on one of their big guys, and then
Speaker 1: I'm gonna run the clock down and I'm going to
Speaker 1: take some stupid you know, fade away or pull up three,
Speaker 1: you know, Like there's it's like aggressive closing versus passive closing,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. And to your point the A,
Speaker 1: because this is the interesting part here, I I genuinely believe,
Speaker 1: and I'm assuming this is your conspiracy theory, but I
Speaker 1: genuinely believe that Lebron and A D are both capable
Speaker 1: of attacking the room more than they have been. And
Speaker 1: if you read A sorry, that's where if you read
Speaker 1: this tape and before, if you recorded this game and before,
Speaker 1: and let's say I hadn't watched this game. This is
Speaker 1: just my opinion. Like, if you recorded this game and
Speaker 1: you sent it to me, said, nay, before you watch
Speaker 1: this game, I want to tell you something. A D
Speaker 1: and Braun are trying to get Vogle fired. That's all.
Speaker 1: I want you to have your mind when you're watching
Speaker 1: this game before you watch it. If you watch this game,
Speaker 1: how can you not walk away from this game thinking
Speaker 1: to yourself that Braun and A D have checked out
Speaker 1: on genuinely. Yeah, Like, there's nothing about this game or
Speaker 1: the effort that they played with in this game that
Speaker 1: makes me like, I know they did some flashy stuff
Speaker 1: and once and stuff like that, but there's nothing in
Speaker 1: this game that makes me think that they're committed to
Speaker 1: playing under Frank Mobile this season. Nothing at all, absolutely not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm on the same page with you. And it's funny
Speaker 1: because it's gonna be really annoying when this change does
Speaker 1: come down and then they both walk back in because
Speaker 1: this has not been Frank atall. Frank. Frank has not
Speaker 1: been perfect. As we've said so many times, Frank has
Speaker 1: not been perfect. However, a good a good portion of
Speaker 1: this is Lebron and A D in Cruise Control. Just chilling.
Speaker 1: They literally look like when the the D one level
Speaker 1: talent goes up to the wreck Jim to play pick up,
Speaker 1: and obviously he could get to the rim anytime he wants,
Speaker 1: but he's just taken stupid jump shots in fade Away,
Speaker 1: it's just because it's fun and he's not trying to
Speaker 1: get hurt, and he's just trying to get a sweat.
Speaker 1: And that's literally what it looks like when you're watching
Speaker 1: these guys. But I thought it was interesting because they
Speaker 1: got a huge lead at the start of the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter with a really interesting line up with Lebron and
Speaker 1: Dwight and then three shooters with Mellow and lak Monk
Speaker 1: and with Wayne Ellington, and then at the end of
Speaker 1: the game they got back into the game because of
Speaker 1: stagnant offense, a lot of bad shots and bad defense.
Speaker 1: Then you go to O T, same thing. Lebron actually
Speaker 1: makes a couple jump shots, they get up by seven,
Speaker 1: same thing goes back into that stagnant passive closing goes away.
Speaker 1: So then in double O T they go to Russ
Speaker 1: and Russ is at least running pick and roll with
Speaker 1: a D so they're starting to get downhill and uh,
Speaker 1: and there was one play where it broke down and
Speaker 1: he ended up in like the chaos and suing where
Speaker 1: he hit Lebron right under the basket for dunk. And
Speaker 1: then there was the other one where he hit a
Speaker 1: d for the layup and the foul. So they were
Speaker 1: getting better stuff. So then um, then at the end
Speaker 1: of o t when they're down, because I think they
Speaker 1: got down by three, Lebron gets the ball back in
Speaker 1: his hands and you could tell he's like, I'm not
Speaker 1: settling anymore, and back to times, back to back times,
Speaker 1: gets to the rim, it takes Alex lenn finishes and
Speaker 1: one with the left handed layup or the little floating
Speaker 1: or floater off the yeah, and then and then he
Speaker 1: drives on Marvin Bagley in the right corner and it's
Speaker 1: like you're literally watching the game, You're like, where is this? Then,
Speaker 1: like you literally have had those same matchups in this
Speaker 1: game and you've just been unwilling to do it. And
Speaker 1: and honestly, I thought it was a basketball god's kind
Speaker 1: of thing because the shot that he took at the
Speaker 1: end of it was either the first overtime or second overtime.
Speaker 1: That three from the top of the key at the buzzer,
Speaker 1: couldn't he He came about as close as you can
Speaker 1: come to making that shot without making it. It was
Speaker 1: dead on straight and he just left it a tiny
Speaker 1: bit short. But it's one of those things where it's like, no, dude,
Speaker 1: you're not getting that tonight. You don't get you don't
Speaker 1: get to be the hero after you just seem like
Speaker 1: he was okay with you? Is he like he was
Speaker 1: okay with being like in that position, like if it
Speaker 1: was a tie game, you know, like obviously we don't
Speaker 1: think that people game ahead like that, or bron games
Speaker 1: ahead that far and he just win the game. But
Speaker 1: it's just like, no, he lives for those kind of
Speaker 1: moments to to some degree, to be able to game
Speaker 1: winners um in front of a home crowd and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. But I just, you know, we we're talking
Speaker 1: about their offense and over time, but I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: they should not have even made it to the third overtime.
Speaker 1: They were giving, they were giving, but but they were giving.
Speaker 1: Buddy Healed like opened. So Sack was running like this
Speaker 1: three man weave with Alex Lenn Buddy Healed and Darren
Speaker 1: Fox trying to get like one of the three Lakers
Speaker 1: that was trying to defend it out of position, and
Speaker 1: the goal was to get Buddy healed the wide open three.
Speaker 1: So the play that I think Buddy ties the game up,
Speaker 1: I forgot which if it was the first overtime or
Speaker 1: second overtime. Um, Braun Buddies the time as Braun, and
Speaker 1: so Braun is on Buddy the entire time. But then
Speaker 1: like the final action of whatever set that they were running,
Speaker 1: like Braun just leaves Buddy just he doesn't even bother
Speaker 1: to get him, and Monk is on alex Lynn and
Speaker 1: then Braun just watch looks at the leak and Malik
Speaker 1: like trying to get past Alexland to defend that defend
Speaker 1: Buddy's three, and Buddy just drains it and just walks
Speaker 1: back to the other way. And I was in a
Speaker 1: group chat with somebody else, but I just messaged him.
Speaker 1: I was just like, oh, Bron just gave up on
Speaker 1: this play. He was just like, all right, I'm not
Speaker 1: chasing this guy anymore for the rest of this possession.
Speaker 1: So whoever makes it, if he makes it, he makes
Speaker 1: it whatever. But that mental process of doing that of
Speaker 1: like you know, like how he did close out on
Speaker 1: the alex Land three that tied up the game. Like
Speaker 1: I was just like, you know, we weren't doing that
Speaker 1: last game. We weren't doing that in the Indiana game.
Speaker 1: Like in the India game, he was very crisp and
Speaker 1: stuff like that with his rotations. Everybody was. But it's
Speaker 1: just like that last if he closes out on that shot,
Speaker 1: maybe Alexland doesn't make that three, or maybe he changes
Speaker 1: and yeah, and the Lakers win that game. You know, um,
Speaker 1: And the reason why I give if you give the contrast,
Speaker 1: you know that the dearon Fox, they left time run
Speaker 1: out right, how did that second overtime? If you watch
Speaker 1: that play, He's got Ross on him, and they've been
Speaker 1: trying to get Malik Daron Fox on Malik because Aaron
Speaker 1: could get that jumper off in a one on one.
Speaker 1: So Russ actually fights through the screen so that Deeron
Speaker 1: doesn't get you know, he doesn't get the matchup that
Speaker 1: he wants late in the game, and then you know
Speaker 1: that Fox has like a brain fart and passed it
Speaker 1: away and then time expires, be going and triple over time.
Speaker 1: But it's like that kind of small effort, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Like it's it's just not there, um,
Speaker 1: especially on the defensive end. Um. And it it looked
Speaker 1: everybody's been complaining about Ellington Malik Us playing Avery Bradley, like,
Speaker 1: you know, the guys that are not offensively inclined. But
Speaker 1: if Broun and a d aren't going to be engaged
Speaker 1: on the defensive end unless somebody's literally shooting the ball
Speaker 1: in their face, who, like, who else can you blame?
Speaker 1: You know? And that's just my opinion that I don't.
Speaker 1: I can't get mad at any I can't get mad
Speaker 1: at Malik for not being able to defend Daron Fox,
Speaker 1: because that's not what he should be in there for
Speaker 1: to begin with, you know, like we shouldn't be allowing
Speaker 1: him to get switched off of him so easily. But
Speaker 1: you know that that's what happened. I thought talk about
Speaker 1: it dictated all all the all the overtime, second and
Speaker 1: third Yeah, oh no, it kind of felt like this
Speaker 1: pseudo inevitable outcome in a weird way, even though the
Speaker 1: Lakers had several big leads late. Um. You know, so
Speaker 1: I do want to get away from the crunch time
Speaker 1: offense because we really need to hammer home this point
Speaker 1: with Lebron and a D because it's really bad. Um,
Speaker 1: just in the regular flow of the game offense, there
Speaker 1: are these two outcomes that we're seeing a lot that
Speaker 1: are indicative of this mentality that Lebron and a D
Speaker 1: are both lacking right now, because it foundationally starts with
Speaker 1: this concept that we think that Lebron and a D
Speaker 1: when they are engaged and healthy, are both top five players.
Speaker 1: That's that's the that's the secret sauce of this entire
Speaker 1: Lakers experiment, right. Um. But whether now some people outside
Speaker 1: of Laker circles might tell you Lebron's old a D
Speaker 1: actually uh, you know, shot uncharacteristically well in the bubble,
Speaker 1: So you know, the reality is, is there not that anymore?
Speaker 1: I would argue that the truth is probably somewhere in
Speaker 1: the middle. But I still think that when they're healthy
Speaker 1: and actually engaged in making a concerted effort to use
Speaker 1: their physical tools, that they are top five players. And
Speaker 1: the read that you see most commonly with the two
Speaker 1: of them that is such a dead ringer for this
Speaker 1: concept is Anthony Davis post up, jab step jump shot.
Speaker 1: It's you're seeing that You're seeing that now almost every
Speaker 1: single post up and then with Lebron, it's the high
Speaker 1: screening role. Okay, he went under, I'm taking a three,
Speaker 1: but it's not I'm taking a balance three right at
Speaker 1: the three point line. It's I'm taking a twenty seven
Speaker 1: ft or after where it's like, yeah, the dude went
Speaker 1: under the screen, Lebron, but you went under the screen
Speaker 1: because you ran it at feet you know, like there's
Speaker 1: a reason why you're open there, man like, and and
Speaker 1: that's the You've seen that with Lebron this entire season
Speaker 1: is just high volume three point shots, almost as like
Speaker 1: a punt, Like it's almost like he's hunting the possession,
Speaker 1: like this isn't gonna use any of my energy. This
Speaker 1: is gonna I'm already halfway back on defense. Let me
Speaker 1: just like if you could see them, they're all clustered
Speaker 1: at the top of the key too. But that that
Speaker 1: Lebron three when the defender goes under, you know from
Speaker 1: twenty seven ft top of the key is his dad giveaway.
Speaker 1: And with Anthony Davis it's the jab step jump shot.
Speaker 1: But it's you can tell without a shadow of a
Speaker 1: doubt that Lebron and a d are withholding some of
Speaker 1: their physical imprint on the game, and not just some,
Speaker 1: but a lot of their physical imprint on the game
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor, both as rim pressuring
Speaker 1: offensive players and as hyper versatile defensive forwards that should,
Speaker 1: in theory be the cornerstone of the top five defense.
Speaker 1: And and so to your point, and it might be Frank,
Speaker 1: and we're not sure, and we'll find out, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna find out quickly, I think hopefully. But but whatever,
Speaker 1: they're not dialed in. Yeah, I was gonna say I
Speaker 1: told a couple of friends that Frank was gonna if
Speaker 1: I said that Frank would be let go before this
Speaker 1: game because of what happened on the road trip, um
Speaker 1: and then going down so big. So if I'm off
Speaker 1: by one game, if he gets let go after this game, um,
Speaker 1: which I think is very very possible for that to happen. Uh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call myself a profit because, like I feel
Speaker 1: like I saw this coming. I thought we see today.
Speaker 1: I thought they would hold off on Thanksgiving Day because
Speaker 1: I would be tacky, and then they would do it
Speaker 1: today Black Friday. Yeah, so let's talk about So you
Speaker 1: brought up something very interesting, right, Um, The idea that
Speaker 1: Lebron in an ad are holding back their talents, right,
Speaker 1: or holding back like sure, their full repertoire of of
Speaker 1: doing stuff. Um, for whatever reason that they're choosing to do. Um,
Speaker 1: let's let's split those two things. Split those two players
Speaker 1: apart for a second. Okay, because Bron Bron has been
Speaker 1: out for a certain amount of games obviously that I
Speaker 1: think that growing injury and stuff like that is still
Speaker 1: something he's trying to work himself through. Like in the
Speaker 1: first half of the game, I think he had a
Speaker 1: post up spin move or something like that, and then
Speaker 1: he grabbed his growing um and I saw Peop tweeting like, Oh,
Speaker 1: he's gonna get fine for that. I was just like, no,
Speaker 1: I think he's actually like like he may have tweaked
Speaker 1: his growing Like, I don't think he's like he's doing
Speaker 1: the celebration or something like that. But um, but let's
Speaker 1: talk about a D for a second. Okay. Um, When
Speaker 1: we added Russ to this team, I wrote this nice
Speaker 1: thousand word article with like gifts and all that sort
Speaker 1: of stuff, talking about how Russ's motor would be great
Speaker 1: for a guy like Anthony Davis because because he's always
Speaker 1: attacking the rim, it almost forces a d to happen
Speaker 1: like participate in that process with him, right, because eight
Speaker 1: is such a good finisher, and we've seen through stretches
Speaker 1: of certain games where they've been really really good when
Speaker 1: they're working with each other, like attacking the rim, picking
Speaker 1: their spots and stuff like that. But there have been
Speaker 1: way too many moments where eighties not like a partner
Speaker 1: in crime with him in those picking rolls, and so like,
Speaker 1: when I started seeing him sort of settled for jump shots,
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, that's fine, as long as
Speaker 1: eight is not trying to take these jump shots out
Speaker 1: of isolation, which he doesn't do very well to do
Speaker 1: out of the pick and roll, because Russ is gonna
Speaker 1: get you a wide open jumper anyways. Right, But then
Speaker 1: if you watch today's game, watch the pick and rolls
Speaker 1: that a D and Russ rant. There are some where
Speaker 1: a D is running with him. There are somewhere a
Speaker 1: D creates like the passing angle um for Russ to
Speaker 1: what's it called, like, uh, you know, for Russ to
Speaker 1: deliver pass them. And then the most the most fascinating
Speaker 1: ones um is probably not the adjective of other people use.
Speaker 1: They probably say it's frustrating, but there's ones where he
Speaker 1: delivers the screen and he just leaves the play like
Speaker 1: it's just Russ dribbling the ball with like a live dribble,
Speaker 1: waiting to see like all right, a d are you
Speaker 1: gonna are you gonna, you know, give me somebody to
Speaker 1: pass the ball? Are you gonna roll to the rim?
Speaker 1: Are you gonna pop out somewhere where I can give
Speaker 1: you the ball? Like you can watch Russ do it
Speaker 1: for one to two dribbles, like just waiting. And when
Speaker 1: point guards do stuff like that, that means that somebody
Speaker 1: abandoned whatever the play was supposed to be. Absolutely like that.
Speaker 1: That was the fresh off the bubble special was this
Speaker 1: screen and just exit the play? Yeah, yeah, and so
Speaker 1: and so you know, like the part that you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of Russ. I'm from l A,
Speaker 1: so like I always love like the LA guys and
Speaker 1: stuff I got, especially since they're playing for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: But like, the thing that's been the most jarring thing,
Speaker 1: the most contrasting thing for me as a theme through
Speaker 1: this season, because we haven't seen enough Braun is if
Speaker 1: we talk about how much how the high motor Russ has,
Speaker 1: Like at some point you have to have a conversation
Speaker 1: about like the lack or or the selective motor that
Speaker 1: Ad has. Like at some point, we can't as as fans.
Speaker 1: I keep thinking to myself, like we can't and we
Speaker 1: can't just sit there and just be like, all right,
Speaker 1: it's cool if Ad he doesn't do anything for two
Speaker 1: to three two to three quarters or like two quarters
Speaker 1: of a game, or if he's on the floor for
Speaker 1: eight minutes and then he's just kind of you know,
Speaker 1: floating around and doing what he's doing. Like at that
Speaker 1: point once Russ starts panicking and doing stuff that you
Speaker 1: don't want him to do and everybody starts getting mad
Speaker 1: at his turnover, is just like who's gonna help him out?
Speaker 1: And and and the reason I know that's true where
Speaker 1: I think it I'm making sense, it is because look
Speaker 1: at how good Malik Monk is. Look next to Russ. Oh,
Speaker 1: he's got a partner in crime to play with him.
Speaker 1: And then you look at the trio today th ht
Speaker 1: Malik Monk and Russ. Those three guys were great like today,
Speaker 1: like defensively, offensively in transition. So if you are a
Speaker 1: partner in crime when it comes to this kind of play,
Speaker 1: then you can be successful. But if our two stars
Speaker 1: don't want to be you know, if they don't want
Speaker 1: to participate, then what can we do? And you know,
Speaker 1: and it's dirty work to ask him to scream and
Speaker 1: roll to the basket every time, because yeah, you're gonna
Speaker 1: bump into people, You're gonna you're gonna occasionally have a dude,
Speaker 1: you know, try to undercut you, and you might, you
Speaker 1: might fall, and you might have sit in these ugly
Speaker 1: plays here and there. That's that I get it. It's
Speaker 1: no different than it's like, hey, a D, I need
Speaker 1: you to play center, which means you might need to
Speaker 1: cover you know, more ground defending pick and rolls, and
Speaker 1: you might have to bang bodies with alex Lain more
Speaker 1: often instead of just offloading that respond this ability to Dwight.
Speaker 1: Same thing goes for Lebron. It's like, yeah, man, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be hard to ask you to be the guy
Speaker 1: who's the back line helper when a D is involved
Speaker 1: in his screening role because you're gonna have to cover
Speaker 1: this amount of ground. You're gonna have to communicate, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to stay focused, you can't take as many
Speaker 1: possessions off and you know, we have all these people
Speaker 1: that come in and they always said the same thing.
Speaker 1: They go, it's, you know, it's too much to ask
Speaker 1: Lebron in his age, you know, thirty seven season to
Speaker 1: do this, this and this, And they'll say, you know,
Speaker 1: you know Anthony Davis, you know, if we haven't play
Speaker 1: center all season, he it's gonna be really hard on
Speaker 1: his body. And it's like, I hate to break it
Speaker 1: to you guys, but playing winning basketball is hard. It's hard.
Speaker 1: So we have to make a decision. Here are are
Speaker 1: we as you know, this team has to make a decision.
Speaker 1: Or do you want to take all of the dirty
Speaker 1: work away from Lebron in a d and make their
Speaker 1: jobs easy but the team sucks. Or do you want
Speaker 1: to try to be what Steph is doing with the Warriors,
Speaker 1: you know, engaging as a six three slight guard as
Speaker 1: who's in all defense conversation which may or may not
Speaker 1: be legitimate, But the point is is like around the league,
Speaker 1: when you look at these teams that are that are
Speaker 1: on that path, the straight and narrow path to contention,
Speaker 1: their stars are doing dirty work and and and what
Speaker 1: bothers me the most is like, go look at the Lakers.
Speaker 1: With the Lakers a D played a lot of center.
Speaker 1: He brought his motor night and then night out was significant.
Speaker 1: He was running significantly higher, same with Lebron and you
Speaker 1: know what their bodies held up that it did because
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, the dirty little secret
Speaker 1: is they probably got more wear and tear of bullshitting
Speaker 1: through tonight's game then they would have got if they
Speaker 1: would have focused up and gotten the job done into
Speaker 1: and a half quarters. And so I have a huge
Speaker 1: I have a huge problem with this idea of us
Speaker 1: babying Lebron in a D and acting like we can't
Speaker 1: ask them to be basketball players like all of the
Speaker 1: other top tier stars in the league are basketball players
Speaker 1: who have a job that they do on every possession.
Speaker 1: It blows my mind. So so, you know, like so far,
Speaker 1: like we we've been we've been talking a lot about
Speaker 1: like just broad in a D and just kind of
Speaker 1: they're the way that they've been in and out of
Speaker 1: sort of games, and this gaming a nice example of
Speaker 1: this kind of what they were doing, um to some degree,
Speaker 1: being being selected with their effort, whether it's offense or defense. UM.
Speaker 1: So one of the things I do want to say that, UM,
Speaker 1: because we mentioned vogo is that I think the league,
Speaker 1: um coaches around the league are adjusting too fast for
Speaker 1: him to be able to react to and like that
Speaker 1: over time, it was it was. There was no transition basketball.
Speaker 1: There's nothing like that. It was just slow it down.
Speaker 1: Everybody's walking the ball up for the possessions that were
Speaker 1: on there. And um, when he pulled, I want to
Speaker 1: say when he pulled, I think when he put Avery
Speaker 1: Bradley and I figure out what it was. But in
Speaker 1: like that third overtime, they basically, oh, sorry, when when
Speaker 1: Alex Lynn got pulled out the game because he fouled out,
Speaker 1: they put Tristan talksmen in the game, right And so
Speaker 1: Tristan was standing like in the corner right three like
Speaker 1: Alvin Gentry. All he did was he started instead of attacking, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, using Alex lend the space the floor and
Speaker 1: I have a D and drop coverage or whatever he
Speaker 1: whatever Vogel had him doing. Um like he just picked
Speaker 1: on Mellow. He just said, all right, whoever is Mellow,
Speaker 1: whoever Mellow is guarding, just coming screen and we'll put
Speaker 1: we'll put Mellow on an island. So it's just like
Speaker 1: and then we watched like three straight plays of Mellow
Speaker 1: get picked on before Frank actually like call the time
Speaker 1: out and subbed them out. By then it was already
Speaker 1: too late. But like that's an example of like what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say, Like if you watch other coaches
Speaker 1: around the league, it's like one possession, Like you'll see
Speaker 1: Erik Spolson do like watch that happened once and he'll
Speaker 1: he'll call it time. I'll be like, Okay, we're changing
Speaker 1: the coverage right now because we're not gonna let this
Speaker 1: happen again like immediately the next play, because it forces
Speaker 1: the offense on the other end um to have to adjust.
Speaker 1: I don't think Frank's cut out for it, and all
Speaker 1: honestly he has. I think he has base coverages. He
Speaker 1: has like set game plans, and then he adjusts based
Speaker 1: on what the other teams do. And what we're watching
Speaker 1: is in the regular season, teams are just gonna throw
Speaker 1: the kitchen sink at the Lakers um if they can't
Speaker 1: score at all, those just turning into ice of basketball,
Speaker 1: and they'll find the worst defender on the floor and
Speaker 1: they'll just attack that guy. And that's nothing nothing to
Speaker 1: do with Mellow. Mellow is who he is again, like
Speaker 1: we as Laker fans, should not expect a thirty six
Speaker 1: year old Mellow or nine year nineteen Mellow to be
Speaker 1: a lockdown defender, you know, like that's that's not why
Speaker 1: we brought him here, um, and that's what we brought
Speaker 1: him in for. And I just I don't think he
Speaker 1: can keep up with it, you know that That's been
Speaker 1: my think this This roster has too many offensively inclined
Speaker 1: guys and he can't get to whatever, you know, equilibrium
Speaker 1: he needs to get to to be confident with his lineups.
Speaker 1: And you know that it is what it is. You know,
Speaker 1: like that you can't really make an excuse for It's
Speaker 1: just it may be too much for somebody to add. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's an interesting phenomenon because the Laker identity
Speaker 1: from the beginning has been a brute force identity. At
Speaker 1: the best person I've seen explained this is Mike Trudell
Speaker 1: on the Laker film or podcast. The idea that like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, sets carry a certain amount of value. That
Speaker 1: value diminishes the closer you get to the end, because
Speaker 1: when you're against the highest level defenses that are likely
Speaker 1: going to be switching everything and that are likely going
Speaker 1: to know all of your actions, They're probably gonna be
Speaker 1: able to switch their way through anything, and it's gonna
Speaker 1: inevitably devolved into who can create an advantage in a
Speaker 1: one on one scenario? And do you really think of
Speaker 1: anybody better than Lebron and A D at that specific thing.
Speaker 1: And so that's that, that's been their cop out, their
Speaker 1: excuse that they use um for their very rudimentary offensive
Speaker 1: concepts and the but the reality is is there's a
Speaker 1: there's a flip side to it, because yes, when we
Speaker 1: get to those moments, I feel comfortable that Lebron, A
Speaker 1: D and Ruts are going to be able to create
Speaker 1: advantages that as at as higher rate, if not a
Speaker 1: higher rate, than anybody in the league. That that goes
Speaker 1: without saying. But in the day to day dregs in
Speaker 1: the regular season, what we're seeing is you've got Lebron
Speaker 1: and Lebron and a D who has as jump shooters
Speaker 1: can be streaky. And then and then you've got Russ
Speaker 1: who's kind of like I like the way you describe
Speaker 1: him as an engine, like when he gets warmed up,
Speaker 1: that Russ has these stretches of the game where it's
Speaker 1: just drive after drive after drive, and just good stuff
Speaker 1: happens on every single one of them. The trick there
Speaker 1: is is we're not reaching the good. So when I
Speaker 1: say streaky, that means there's good and there's bad, but
Speaker 1: we're seeing a lot more bad than the good. And
Speaker 1: I think a lot of that has to do with
Speaker 1: the lack of easy opportunities to establish rhythm and to
Speaker 1: establish comfort having. This is my biggest problem with DJ
Speaker 1: being a starter. There's a half dozen problems with DJ
Speaker 1: being a starter, but the biggest problem is the way
Speaker 1: that it jinks up the offense to the point where
Speaker 1: every one of the three stars starts with two or
Speaker 1: three tough jump shots as their first shot attempts to
Speaker 1: the game, so they might make them sorry, I'll give you,
Speaker 1: I'll give you the perfect This is the This is
Speaker 1: the metaphor I like to use when when we play
Speaker 1: these DJ lineups at the beginning of the game and
Speaker 1: at the at the the beginning of the second half,
Speaker 1: it's like waking up in the morning, getting kicked in
Speaker 1: the balls and then starting it's literally what these games like?
Speaker 1: What these like? It's a tie game and we immediately
Speaker 1: go down six points, like within like three minutes of
Speaker 1: basketball through the seven points or some nonsense number, and
Speaker 1: it's just like every single time, it's just like I
Speaker 1: feel like liquor fans already know what's going to happen,
Speaker 1: like and as soon as the third quarter starts, are like,
Speaker 1: all right, let's wait to go down by like six seven,
Speaker 1: you know, to three points, to three possessions, and then
Speaker 1: Frank's and aft to pull them. And that's exactly what
Speaker 1: happened this game. It's just I don't know how many
Speaker 1: times we can get kicked in the balls, you know,
Speaker 1: before somebody has to make a change. So if Frank
Speaker 1: is not going to be the one that does it,
Speaker 1: that's why I think, you know, easy troll by run,
Speaker 1: you know. But it's it's a basic basketball concept, Like
Speaker 1: like for all of you out there who play consistent pickup,
Speaker 1: who's when you show up? Like each day kind of
Speaker 1: takes an identity. I have days when I go up
Speaker 1: there and my legs feel great and I'm living at
Speaker 1: the rim, and i have days when I go up
Speaker 1: there and I'm kind of just coasting around. My jump
Speaker 1: shot feels really good and I'm taking a lot of
Speaker 1: jump shots, and you you your day kind of is
Speaker 1: shaped by you know, how things go in the first
Speaker 1: few minutes that you're playing right, and then that kind
Speaker 1: of identity just shapes the rest of your debt. You know,
Speaker 1: you have a day where you're not giving a ship
Speaker 1: on defense. You have a day where you know, maybe
Speaker 1: you're with a good group of guys and everyone's playing hard,
Speaker 1: and so you're you're locked in and you're playing defense.
Speaker 1: Some of that stuff is translatable here, like if you
Speaker 1: make guys, if you set Lebron a D and Russ
Speaker 1: up early in the game to feel comfortable with advantages
Speaker 1: catching where it's not always against a set defense and
Speaker 1: a half court, but either with a defender closing out
Speaker 1: where they have an advantage, or in transition when the
Speaker 1: defense and set, or with space to where if you
Speaker 1: have a good matchup, you have the ability to make
Speaker 1: easy reads um after you beat your primary defender if
Speaker 1: they get enough of those early in the game. I'm
Speaker 1: a firm believer that it translates to the rest of
Speaker 1: the game. If Lebron is settling for jump shots early
Speaker 1: in the game, I don't think it's a coincidence that
Speaker 1: that becomes a theme throughout the game. You know, and ironically,
Speaker 1: that's almost become a theme for the season for him,
Speaker 1: which I think has a lot to do with the
Speaker 1: with these factors. Same goes for Anthony Davis. But the
Speaker 1: point being like some getting somebody in the door, whether
Speaker 1: whether it's a new coach or whether well, let's just
Speaker 1: put it this way, whether it's a new system or
Speaker 1: scheme that sets them up with easy shots, or a
Speaker 1: coach that puts them in a position where they are
Speaker 1: bought back into the season physically to the point where
Speaker 1: they're willing to put their physical imprints on the game.
Speaker 1: Speaking about Lebron and a d to the point where
Speaker 1: early in the game they're putting their head down and
Speaker 1: getting to the rim. More. I just think it would
Speaker 1: change the overall outlook for how these games go. And
Speaker 1: I know that seems confusing, and it's not. It's not
Speaker 1: a very you know, logical approach. But for those of
Speaker 1: you have played, you know what I'm talking about. You
Speaker 1: know there's there is such a thing as like the
Speaker 1: feel of a game and how you feel with the
Speaker 1: group that you're playing with, and whether or not you
Speaker 1: feel comfortable or you feel uncomfortable. And the bottom line is,
Speaker 1: as Frank has not put these guys in a position
Speaker 1: to where they feel comfortable in the offense. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think the last phase of what I was
Speaker 1: talking to Roger about it like that, I think that
Speaker 1: what you're describing is the impast that Frank is, Like,
Speaker 1: this is the I I try to determine as like
Speaker 1: the identity crisis. Like, I think this is the identity
Speaker 1: crisis that Frank is trying to figure out, and he's
Speaker 1: losing that battle because he's the way he is. So
Speaker 1: this was this was my logic. Let me take a
Speaker 1: step back when I think Frank Vogel is being evaluated
Speaker 1: by the front of this this season based on his
Speaker 1: ability to optimize all the offensive players and the offense
Speaker 1: that's on this team. Right. I don't think there's any
Speaker 1: question from this front office that if you got him
Speaker 1: defensive minded players like Alex Caruso and KCP Couza, whoever, Like,
Speaker 1: if you got him guys like that, he could put together,
Speaker 1: you know, a top three I think he's the best
Speaker 1: defensive coaching basketball, and I thought he proved it round
Speaker 1: after round in the bubble. Yeah fair, um, But I
Speaker 1: think I think this front office this season, um with
Speaker 1: some guidance from Braun and buy and you know, because
Speaker 1: Rob Polinkas said over and over again, this is a
Speaker 1: partnership with Braun and a d. This is not me
Speaker 1: just doing stuff on my own and not running stuff
Speaker 1: by him. UM. So I think there was a conversation
Speaker 1: about making a more offensively in client roster um and
Speaker 1: then working on the defense as the season goes on, right,
Speaker 1: And I think that's why this roster has built the
Speaker 1: way that it is built. I think that's why they
Speaker 1: made the trade for Russ because they wanted another guy
Speaker 1: that wasn't just Braun, that could set up the other
Speaker 1: players and set up Braun at the same time. Because
Speaker 1: we've definitely seen that where west you know, Westbrook and
Speaker 1: Braun UM, that tandem has worked out really well, especially
Speaker 1: in transition and stuff like that. UM. And I think
Speaker 1: that's what the front office wants to do with this roster.
Speaker 1: But I think Frank is evaluating his roster based on
Speaker 1: what his who who's going to play defense for me,
Speaker 1: regardless of how good they are offensively, Like Malik Monk
Speaker 1: wasn't Like there's a subsection of Lakers Twitter or Lakers
Speaker 1: Nation that that Malik Monk was good enough to start
Speaker 1: from the jump, you know, but a lot of people
Speaker 1: were saying, look, he's not he's not quite there defensively
Speaker 1: to be able to do that. And here we are
Speaker 1: in game twenty one. But it's like, you know, like
Speaker 1: he's he's playing these minutes and he's doing a good
Speaker 1: He's not like he's doing a terrible job. He's doing
Speaker 1: like at least like a baseline job of trying to
Speaker 1: stay in front of guys and stuff like that when
Speaker 1: he isn't getting picked on. But that that in itself,
Speaker 1: the fact that they're measuring each other, they're measuring the
Speaker 1: roster on two completely different wavelengths. That is why I
Speaker 1: think there's an impast there's an identity crisis. And when
Speaker 1: we look at Frankie, we say, look, man, we gotta
Speaker 1: let you go because we need we can't have both.
Speaker 1: We can't have a bottom five defense and they bottom
Speaker 1: five offense, like this roster is good enough to have
Speaker 1: a much better offense than a bottom five offense. And
Speaker 1: I think that's ultimately why he'll let go. He'll be
Speaker 1: let go um, And I think that's just what this
Speaker 1: season is. That's why you keep seeing games like this
Speaker 1: and we're a five hundred team agree. I think I
Speaker 1: think the I think the harsh reality though, and I
Speaker 1: think you'd probably agree here, is that there's not, you know,
Speaker 1: some magic coaching fix for the offense in the sense
Speaker 1: that there's no actual candidate out there that represents a
Speaker 1: um you know, a clear philosophy that would fix this.
Speaker 1: UM My guess is what will end up happening if
Speaker 1: that does happen, is they'll stay in house and they'll
Speaker 1: go with either Phil Handy or um Fizdale. And then
Speaker 1: what will happen is, and I can just kind of
Speaker 1: see this coming a mile away, what will happen is
Speaker 1: is they'll make the change. It'll be the big nuclear
Speaker 1: bomb that gets dropped on the season and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and Lebron will re engage, and then when they do,
Speaker 1: the offense will look better, but it will be primarily
Speaker 1: based on, ironically a frank concept which was which was
Speaker 1: paid too great, this idea, this idea that like, because
Speaker 1: when we when we see the Lakers look good offensively,
Speaker 1: it's a really basic concept. It's Lebron and a D
Speaker 1: putting their head down. Mainly with Lebron and Russ a
Speaker 1: D really hasn't had a stretch like this this season,
Speaker 1: and that goes to a whole other topic. But really
Speaker 1: it's Braun and Russ putting their heads down, getting into
Speaker 1: the paint in either finishing or spraying out to really
Speaker 1: good shooters because the Lakers now have really good shooting
Speaker 1: on the team. Um, you know they have they have
Speaker 1: three bona fide. Cannot leave them open shooters that are
Speaker 1: in their rotation. And so from that standpoint, you know,
Speaker 1: the offense kind of ebbs and flows based on rim pressure,
Speaker 1: and so you know, you can, you can you know
Speaker 1: talk about you know, scheme this, scheme that, coach this,
Speaker 1: coach that. But the reality is is when Lebron and
Speaker 1: a d re engage after the coaching change and they
Speaker 1: start pressuring the rim again, I think you're going to
Speaker 1: see this team take off offensively because because the reality
Speaker 1: is is like once that, once that ball gets rolling
Speaker 1: in that direction, they have the talent to be a
Speaker 1: top five offense. Yeah, no, I agree, and and um,
Speaker 1: you know, to change some of the energy of our conversation.
Speaker 1: But so so it doesn't seem so dreary. Um, there
Speaker 1: has been some good stuff that's happened, like even um
Speaker 1: in like the silver lining stuff that's happened since Braun
Speaker 1: has been sitting out. So you know, with us being
Speaker 1: so so shorthanded, you know, we've seen Austin Reaves kind
Speaker 1: of developed into like this role where he looks like
Speaker 1: you could be a real rotation player. UM. So that's
Speaker 1: been good. Um But I would say, like over the
Speaker 1: past couple of games and this game, especially um, the
Speaker 1: Russ and Malik tandem and then like the Russ Malik
Speaker 1: and Taylor Horton Tucker tandem has been slowly growing into
Speaker 1: something that like is a very interesting trio of players
Speaker 1: to watch because you have two guys who are uber
Speaker 1: rim attackers in Russ in th HT and then you
Speaker 1: have Malik Monk who can kind of score basically all
Speaker 1: three levels and he has like that irrational j R.
Speaker 1: Smith confidence, and so it's been really interesting to see
Speaker 1: how they compliment each other and who gets the ball.
Speaker 1: More Like this game, there was there was probably i
Speaker 1: want to say, in the second quarter there was a
Speaker 1: four possession or five possession sequence where Malik just ran
Speaker 1: the offense. He ran like two or three picking rolls
Speaker 1: with a d uh. They scored two like at least
Speaker 1: twice out of them. And then after they got a
Speaker 1: lead of like about six or seven points, like I
Speaker 1: think Malik had like two turnovers, and then they cut
Speaker 1: the lead to like four. So it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: having the right amount of balance and how much you
Speaker 1: haven't make the decisions and stuff like that. But Russe
Speaker 1: was on the floor too as well, like he was
Speaker 1: playing off ball. He wasn't getting in the way like
Speaker 1: so like there has been some good stuff that's happened.
Speaker 1: Like again, this was another game like the Cleveland game
Speaker 1: where you saw Russ working off of whatever Braun was doing.
Speaker 1: Rust cut. You know, teams load up. You know Rust's
Speaker 1: man goes to load up or double Braun. Rust immediately
Speaker 1: backcuts for La you know what I mean. Um, I
Speaker 1: think there was one where Rust cut and Braun missed
Speaker 1: him like right in front of the and then yeah,
Speaker 1: and that would have been you know that that would
Speaker 1: have been a momentum changing play too. But it's just
Speaker 1: like you're not. Um. I think going into the season,
Speaker 1: there was probably not a fan saying like, oh, how
Speaker 1: are you going to manage to keep Russ on the floor?
Speaker 1: Uh in the late game because he can't shoot the ball.
Speaker 1: And stuff like that. He's finding ways, you know, he's
Speaker 1: cutting to the rim. We saw that in the Detroit
Speaker 1: game and he set up Russ for cuts. Um and
Speaker 1: his rebounding like, um, you know a lot of people
Speaker 1: may have forgotten, but the guys that were grabbing the
Speaker 1: rebounds against Sibonis in the Indie game, it was Russ
Speaker 1: and Mellow like there. They didn't have a high advantage
Speaker 1: or size advantage. The guys that they were boxing out,
Speaker 1: they're just out. Yeah. Yeah, And he had a couple
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds at the end of you know, in over
Speaker 1: time to try and create some extra possessions for the
Speaker 1: Lakers too. Yeah. Yeah, And I'm sorry that was the
Speaker 1: other thing I was gonna say that trio is actually
Speaker 1: a pretty good it seems it feels like a good
Speaker 1: rebounding trio. Tucker and Malik will will crash the glass
Speaker 1: from their god guard spots to grab rebounds. So it's
Speaker 1: like there are some good things. Um. But you know,
Speaker 1: like I told Roger and anything, like the championship pieces
Speaker 1: are on the table, they're just so far apart from
Speaker 1: each other. We don't know what the whole picture looks like.
Speaker 1: And you can only look at it in pockets and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But I do think you know that
Speaker 1: the effort, consistent effort at least um from from Braun
Speaker 1: and a D that that's a pretty big piece of
Speaker 1: the puzzet. It's the biggest piece. And it's the biggest piece,
Speaker 1: Like it's it's that joke that that Darius Soriano from
Speaker 1: Lafar always tells, like, you can't judge scheme without effort.
Speaker 1: It's just a it's it's a basic concept. And you know,
Speaker 1: I could even take that step further with all the
Speaker 1: role players, man, and I'm sure you'd agree with me here,
Speaker 1: Like how can I really really judge Malik Monk's defensive
Speaker 1: bit with this team projecting it to the playoffs? If
Speaker 1: Lebron and Nadi are bullshitting? How could like even as
Speaker 1: a backup backup center, which is what I envisioned, DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan's someone who would only play when a d has
Speaker 1: to rest, or when Dwight has to rest, And how
Speaker 1: can I really even judge how he's contributed to this
Speaker 1: group when he's playing alongside a starting lineup that has
Speaker 1: two alleged top five players that are b ssing their
Speaker 1: way through these games, Like it's not fair. It's not
Speaker 1: fair to judge them in that regard, and and and
Speaker 1: and and I'm just saying like, and for the record,
Speaker 1: I I think a lot of what we're seeing is real.
Speaker 1: Malik Monk is gonna have some defensive struggles. He's not
Speaker 1: gonna be capable of the same thing that that the
Speaker 1: guards that we had in previous iterations of this team
Speaker 1: could do. DeAndre Jordan is probably our worst drop coverage
Speaker 1: big that we've had since we've started this hut. The
Speaker 1: truth this is we're We're a bad drop team with
Speaker 1: a D and dwite. So so how can I how
Speaker 1: can I really get out here and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, Dwight just just really bad signing. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: I we envisioned him as a third drop coverage center,
Speaker 1: and all of our drop coverages suck. And so from
Speaker 1: all I'm saying is like, none of this is easy
Speaker 1: to evaluate until Lebron and a D start carrying the
Speaker 1: way that Steph is caring right now, the way that
Speaker 1: Draymond is carrying right now, the way that Chris Paul
Speaker 1: is carrying right now, the way that any of these
Speaker 1: teams that are trending and hitting those championship checkpoints the
Speaker 1: way those teams are trending. Until until Lebron and a
Speaker 1: d start making a concerted effort to get that team
Speaker 1: on that track, we can't even really, like, if you
Speaker 1: were trying to plan for the trade deadline right now,
Speaker 1: how could you even how could you even conceptualize that
Speaker 1: with beyond seeing until you see what Lebron ind are
Speaker 1: capable of with this group, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: That's that's why I think, you know, because there's always
Speaker 1: rumors whenever your teams are doing well and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and obviously where the Lakers were, there's always some conversation
Speaker 1: about somebody getting traded at it trade. Even when we're
Speaker 1: winning championships, there's always a conversation about it. UM, So
Speaker 1: a lot of folks are probably looking in that direction
Speaker 1: that you know, there may be some personnelity changes, but
Speaker 1: I don't think personnelity changes are going to fix this team.
Speaker 1: Like it's it's going to have to happen. It's gonna
Speaker 1: have to be something significant, like you know, like the
Speaker 1: coach getting fired, um and being replaced by somebody that
Speaker 1: the players actually like. And I think, you know, I
Speaker 1: I would agree with you that there's no baseline for
Speaker 1: us to look at because that effort has been so
Speaker 1: there's no consistent efforts. So there's no consistent baseline. There's
Speaker 1: nothing that I can look at and say, Okay, at
Speaker 1: least I know we can do get Yeah, like when
Speaker 1: we try as hard as we possibly can that this thing,
Speaker 1: it doesn't work. Like we don't have any of that, right,
Speaker 1: but I will say that DJ DJ is there is
Speaker 1: no version. Look, okay, they started this game right, and
Speaker 1: they were scoring on their um the basket that was
Speaker 1: in front of their bench, right, so the bench has
Speaker 1: the leaguer bench has full view, okay, crystal clear view
Speaker 1: of what DeAndre is doing when the ball is coming
Speaker 1: in his direction and they're watching him basically turn passes
Speaker 1: that should be catching dunks into fifty fifty catches. Like
Speaker 1: it's it's almost like, you know, like a running back
Speaker 1: that can't catch a pitch or something like that from
Speaker 1: grab a handoff. That's how bad he's missing these. And
Speaker 1: it's just like the part that you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna keep harping on, Frank, because I think we've we've
Speaker 1: done that enough. But it is crazy, crazy how many players.
Speaker 1: Go anybody, go, if you want to torture yourself a
Speaker 1: little bit more and you're into that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: go watch the first quarter and watch how many possessions
Speaker 1: where DeAndre either you know, he got bumped on the
Speaker 1: box out and he wasn't able to get the rebound,
Speaker 1: or the ball went to him and he got shipped.
Speaker 1: And then watch what he does after that. There are
Speaker 1: so many possessions at the beginning of the game, um
Speaker 1: where he just doesn't run back and he just throws
Speaker 1: his hands up in the air and he's whining and
Speaker 1: complaining like like a kid who didn't get his allowance
Speaker 1: for the week. And it's it's a five on four
Speaker 1: and I don't care whether we're playing the Kings or
Speaker 1: the Lakers. Are lucky they didn't go down by double
Speaker 1: digits at the end of the first quarter because the
Speaker 1: King couldn't make a wide open three, like we were
Speaker 1: fortunate that they couldn't make shots. But you can't do that.
Speaker 1: You can't have four to five possessions in a quarter
Speaker 1: or or even you know, close to six and seven
Speaker 1: possessions where you're playing five on four basketball because your
Speaker 1: centers pouting about not getting a call like it's not possible.
Speaker 1: You're not going to win a game by doing that,
Speaker 1: and teams I think today, um, I thought I saw
Speaker 1: it in the playoff series against the Sons. I think
Speaker 1: teams have gone in with the game plan against the Lakers,
Speaker 1: specifically Frank Rogos Lakers, and said, look, we're not even
Speaker 1: gonna try to go to the rim. We're not gonna
Speaker 1: bother because we know that we can't shoot over to
Speaker 1: seven footers. So we're just gonna find the open create
Speaker 1: the open three. And when these five on fours and
Speaker 1: just take open to this are trying it to shootout
Speaker 1: and they're getting their asses kicked, you know, like that
Speaker 1: that's what's happening to the Lakers every single time. Um
Speaker 1: to get lazy on defense and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you know, the team hit three threes in a row,
Speaker 1: and now whatever lead that we had is gone. So
Speaker 1: that's that's that's the best the best way I can
Speaker 1: there was. I actually thought about you earlier tonight because
Speaker 1: you've been on You've been one of the people that's
Speaker 1: been on this. You know, there there are a bunch
Speaker 1: of problems with the DJ lineups. There's you know, the
Speaker 1: offensive spacing problems that we've discussed because he doesn't even
Speaker 1: offer vertical spacing because like you said, he's got stone hands. Um,
Speaker 1: there's the uh, you know, the defensive part of it,
Speaker 1: like how how bad our drop coverages look in general,
Speaker 1: or any time you ask him to cover any sort
Speaker 1: of ground. There's a defensive rebounding problem for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: and DeAndre Jordan's on the floor, we just cannot secure
Speaker 1: a rebound, like I saw a staff the other day,
Speaker 1: Like more than one out of every three opponent misses
Speaker 1: our offensive rebounded against DJ, like which which would rank
Speaker 1: last in the league. Like, there's all these problems, but
Speaker 1: one of the big ones that you've been on all
Speaker 1: season is overall foot speed and the way that it
Speaker 1: hurts you in transition. And there was actually a play
Speaker 1: in tonight's game where uh it turned into a five
Speaker 1: on two um because DJ botched. I can't remember the
Speaker 1: exact circumstances of the play, but Lebron tried to make
Speaker 1: a play for DJ and it got botched. Okay, after
Speaker 1: it got botched, Lebron and DJ both were like, like
Speaker 1: DJ obviously just slow. Lebron obviously pouted And then a
Speaker 1: D is also slow, Like that's what we've talked about
Speaker 1: on this pot a lot a D. What makes a
Speaker 1: D is super duperstars definitely not straight line speed. That's
Speaker 1: not his his supreme talent. And so all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: like I literally screenshot it's the screen shot because all
Speaker 1: five Kings Jerseys or south of the three point line.
Speaker 1: So they were literally all the way on the other
Speaker 1: the far forth of the court with Avery Bradley and
Speaker 1: uh In Russell Westbrook trying to play two on five
Speaker 1: defense and they had all three of those Lakers had
Speaker 1: not even crossed half court. I'm not even kidding. It's
Speaker 1: like they are so slow in terms of their overall
Speaker 1: foot speed with that lineup, it is untenable. Yeah, what
Speaker 1: what do you what do you think? Just just humor
Speaker 1: me for a second. What do you think? What do
Speaker 1: you think Frank Mobile is probably telling these guys, like
Speaker 1: when when they pull up the film and they see
Speaker 1: that there's a five on two, what do you think
Speaker 1: he's saying? It's like, hey, guys, we just gotta be better.
Speaker 1: Like the film sessions have to be total ship shows.
Speaker 1: They have to be because there has to be private
Speaker 1: conversation among the coaching staff. That's like, well, we can't
Speaker 1: show them all the plays. Like if we show that
Speaker 1: they screwed up on all the place, how do we do? Yeah,
Speaker 1: because that's that's the part. You know. Like earlier this season,
Speaker 1: we were you know, Laker fans are upset that you know,
Speaker 1: like Mellow didn't look good, um defensively and he was
Speaker 1: putting an effort to some degree, and the link mount
Speaker 1: you know, and same thing with Russ, Like all these
Speaker 1: role players kept getting like their effort picked apart and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. And I was sitting there and I
Speaker 1: was just like, yeah, you know, some of this is fair,
Speaker 1: Like some of these guys should be, you know, um
Speaker 1: better on the defensive end, on the effort and stuff
Speaker 1: like that when they're not asked to carry the offensive load.
Speaker 1: But then like some of those guys have improved, you know,
Speaker 1: like Mellow has gotten a better like to the baseline
Speaker 1: where he's not like a complete see right, Like if
Speaker 1: he's not if he's defending a guy who's the same
Speaker 1: size as him, you know, the same kind of speed
Speaker 1: and as him and stuff like that, he's okay, he's not.
Speaker 1: He's not terrible. Yeah, Malik and even Russ they've all
Speaker 1: gotten better. But it's just like, I just keep thinking
Speaker 1: about myself. It's just like, how how do you when
Speaker 1: you see a d just kind of chill out on
Speaker 1: the offensive ent and not do anything, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? And then just watch this guys have to
Speaker 1: do everything by themselves. Or you see Braun not run
Speaker 1: back like I would. I can't imagine Frank saying anything.
Speaker 1: He probably just fast forwards right through that possession because
Speaker 1: he knows that he doesn't want to bring it up
Speaker 1: and um, but you know that's my thing, Like, I'm
Speaker 1: sure people are going to stay at the end of
Speaker 1: this game, Like Frank has got to go because look
Speaker 1: at the offense that they're running at the end of
Speaker 1: the game. But if Braun wants to run post upos
Speaker 1: because he's getting Terence Davis a small guy, um or
Speaker 1: Daron Fox a small guy and Sacramento isn't switching, Frank's
Speaker 1: not going to be able to override Lebron like and
Speaker 1: so it's like, how can I get mad at Frank
Speaker 1: for something like that? And they're like, oh, maybe we
Speaker 1: should run in with Russ a little bit more. Russ
Speaker 1: isn't going to override Lebron because we've been screaming, don't
Speaker 1: get in Lebron's way, you know, the entire time. And
Speaker 1: so it's just Frank. You know. Obviously we talked about
Speaker 1: how he looked, evaluates this roster and and gives a minutes,
Speaker 1: distributes mints and stuff. I got how the front office
Speaker 1: is doing it. I think the other thing that Frank
Speaker 1: has had some difficulty with um, which is something I've
Speaker 1: always praised, like a guy like uh Rik Spoelstra and
Speaker 1: Tylu because he intimately um that he he has a
Speaker 1: difficulty navigating the nature of his players. Like I don't
Speaker 1: think he looks at Anthony Davis when he's playing and
Speaker 1: when we're all screaming wise Anthony Davis being so passive,
Speaker 1: I don't think Frank does that. Like I don't think
Speaker 1: he goes, okay, you know what, maybe I need to
Speaker 1: change it up because Anthony is being really passive right
Speaker 1: now no matter what I call, Like, he's not running
Speaker 1: with Russ. So let me let me play A guy
Speaker 1: will run with Russ. So then that way, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, like our offense gets a little bit better,
Speaker 1: or you know, there's more defensive effort or Anthony's not
Speaker 1: coming to crash the glass after boxing out or something
Speaker 1: like that. So let me let me play a guy
Speaker 1: some of that. We don't have the people to do it.
Speaker 1: But that's like, that's important, you know, those small and
Speaker 1: tangible things that are not counting stats have to matter,
Speaker 1: effort has to matter. And I think maybe he's missing,
Speaker 1: Um he has some difficulty gauging that, uh and working
Speaker 1: around it. So that that's that's there. There are there's
Speaker 1: some good stuff that malak thht Russ. This is another
Speaker 1: great rust game. He kept his turnovers down pretty significantly,
Speaker 1: like he's been really really good the past like two weeks. Um,
Speaker 1: we just need our starts to kind of you know,
Speaker 1: decide when they want to participate and stuff again. So
Speaker 1: I think it'll happen once Frank has gone. I do
Speaker 1: think we're headed in that direction because um basketball with
Speaker 1: with these three guys, Uh, it's I would say, it's
Speaker 1: you know, below expectations. Oh my goodness, that would be
Speaker 1: the very kindest way you could put it there. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, this is the last thing I'm gonna say,
Speaker 1: and then I want you to respond, and then we'll
Speaker 1: get out of here and we'll call it tonight. Um,
Speaker 1: so when Frank goes, which feels kind of inevitable, but
Speaker 1: I guess we'll find out. You know, I've been one
Speaker 1: of the people advocating for that. I'm not alone, but
Speaker 1: I do feel like it's important to drive home this
Speaker 1: final point. The main reason why I think he should
Speaker 1: be gone is lebron A D's buy. To me, that's
Speaker 1: literally that I could. I can even make a case
Speaker 1: that that's the only real reason, because the truth is
Speaker 1: is there is there is good that comes with Frank
Speaker 1: that outweighs some of his bad. He is he is
Speaker 1: he in Overski's offensively yes, is he did? Like like
Speaker 1: you said, does he struggle to see the the personality
Speaker 1: of his players in the way it's playing out on
Speaker 1: the floor, and how he can try to counter that
Speaker 1: by making things easier for them in those specific areas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right about that. However, he also brings so
Speaker 1: much to the table defensively. Um, he does preach effort
Speaker 1: in focus, and he does preach all the right things,
Speaker 1: And I genuinely think he probably is, you know, a
Speaker 1: coach who's deserving of this opportunity to coach this team
Speaker 1: through the end of the season. But that said, it's
Speaker 1: really this simple. To me, Lebron and maybe appeared to
Speaker 1: not want him, so therefore he has to go. And
Speaker 1: I know that seems crazy, but this team isn't going
Speaker 1: anywhere unless lebrono A D are are carrying the way
Speaker 1: they did two years ago, for two seasons ago, I
Speaker 1: should say, And it appears to me that the only
Speaker 1: way to kick start that is to fire the coach,
Speaker 1: and that's not fair to Frank. I hope that on
Speaker 1: the day he's fired, that myself and everyone else goes
Speaker 1: out there and sings his praises because they deserve to
Speaker 1: be some because the truth of the matter is he
Speaker 1: he has not put forth a fire able job here.
Speaker 1: What what what? What has it happened here? Is urgency
Speaker 1: requires that he's fired. The urgency and therefore the lack,
Speaker 1: I should say, the lack of urgency that we're seen
Speaker 1: from Lebron and a D has presented urgency with the
Speaker 1: coaching situation because it's the only available option to try
Speaker 1: to kick them, like you said, kick them the balls
Speaker 1: and try to get them going. So that's that's kind
Speaker 1: of where I'm at with it. Yeah, yeah, no, I'm
Speaker 1: in agree with you. I don't think it's a fair
Speaker 1: situation that Frank is in, but that's just this is
Speaker 1: sort of the nature or just kind of how the NBA.
Speaker 1: If you're superstars, superstars don't buy into the coach that
Speaker 1: that they have, regardless of whatever the previous accolades are.
Speaker 1: You have to make a change and being having that
Speaker 1: malleability or you know that flexibility in the front office
Speaker 1: is important. UM. You know, I don't know what direction
Speaker 1: the Lakers going if they do move Frank, but I
Speaker 1: do think that it will result in a more engaged UM,
Speaker 1: a more engaged Lebron and a D. And I do
Speaker 1: think that one of those metrics, specifically the offensive rating metric,
Speaker 1: will start moving in the direction that it should move in.
Speaker 1: UM And I think that's what these guys want. I
Speaker 1: honestly think A D and Braun want to spend the
Speaker 1: regular season, UM, not grinding every single game defensively. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, when they were saying that A D and
Speaker 1: Braun We're going to play the four and five, I
Speaker 1: was excited, but at the same time, I thought to myself,
Speaker 1: I was just like, are they really going to play defense?
Speaker 1: Like for the thirty five minutes at four and five
Speaker 1: because that's a lot of work um us in general,
Speaker 1: and that's why there's so many role players that played
Speaker 1: that spot. But they defended so well the previous two seasons.
Speaker 1: That's the part that's hard for me to like contextualize here,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Yeah, it could be. It
Speaker 1: could be just because the last season. You know, um,
Speaker 1: because I will say this, I think playing defense in
Speaker 1: the NBA is much more taxing on the body than
Speaker 1: probably fans realize. Um. You know, Crusoe would get all
Speaker 1: kinds of small injuries, like we've seen eight get hit
Speaker 1: in the face, like at least once a game now
Speaker 1: from an elbow from like a big man just trying
Speaker 1: to stop him from blocking one of his ships, or
Speaker 1: from a small guard doing it. So there are all
Speaker 1: kinds of small injuries that happened. Like people of people
Speaker 1: are like, yeah, we should play Bron. Not not that
Speaker 1: I'm completely the screen, but like people like, yeah, Bron
Speaker 1: should played more five. It's like, okay, if Bron starts
Speaker 1: contesting these junk these layoffs, you know, with verticality, all
Speaker 1: it's going to take is one guy to me him
Speaker 1: righting and writing in his growing area or his midsection
Speaker 1: and he's going to be out for like three weeks again.
Speaker 1: And just today a do you want to go block?
Speaker 1: Who was it? Marvin Bagley? And he got a need
Speaker 1: right in the growing like they called the defensive foul
Speaker 1: on But you know what I mean, Like it's just like, um,
Speaker 1: defense takes a lot out of you because you're always
Speaker 1: constantly throwing your body in harm's away to try to
Speaker 1: present to prevent you know, an offensive player for scoring.
Speaker 1: And I don't think it's reasonable to expect those two
Speaker 1: guys to do that. Um, so really really quil really quick.
Speaker 1: Not to cut you out, but this is I think
Speaker 1: there has to be happy medium here because, like I
Speaker 1: said earlier, yes, if you're stars aren't willing to do
Speaker 1: any dirty work, you're signing up to be a bad team.
Speaker 1: So there has to be a happy medium in there somewhere. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, um And yeah, before I went on a tangent,
Speaker 1: I agree with you, man. I I just don't I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't think it's frank, I don't think
Speaker 1: it's a coach like this. Everything about this team, um,
Speaker 1: from specifically our stars, makes me think that they're not
Speaker 1: committed to this coach and putting in the kind of
Speaker 1: effort that they need to with this coach. UM, and
Speaker 1: it's unfair. I agree. Um, there have been some really
Speaker 1: really good things that we've learned about this team, really
Speaker 1: really good things that we've seen out of this team, um,
Speaker 1: in small, short segments. But I don't think all the
Speaker 1: pieces will come together until there's a different person kind
Speaker 1: of manning the wheel, because player buying matters. It's a
Speaker 1: player's lead. That's just how it works. So you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a watch every single game and and not have
Speaker 1: extremely eye expectations because we can go up by twenty five.
Speaker 1: But I've already seen this below one of those leads.
Speaker 1: You know, Well, it's you know, it's it's a roller
Speaker 1: coaster season, but you know, you just you just gotta
Speaker 1: go through it. Yeah. That that that's what makes the
Speaker 1: team right, is all right? Everybody? I think I'm looking
Speaker 1: at twelve am here in Tucson, and I still have
Speaker 1: to get all this uploaded to the podcast speed, So
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna call it tonight. But I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you taking the time to have coming and coming
Speaker 1: Forage tonight. Everyone who tuned in to listen. Thank you
Speaker 1: guys so much for your support. As always, this is
Speaker 1: gonna air on Dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am
Speaker 1: pacifics and your time. It will be on our podcast
Speaker 1: feed here in about twenty minutes. Again, thank you as
Speaker 1: always for you guys and support. We will be back
Speaker 1: for this Sunday night game which I believe is an
Speaker 1: eight pm start, but I can't remember. Um. Either way,
Speaker 1: we'll be back on Sunday night. Thank you guys as usual,
Speaker 1: and we will see you in a couple of days.