Speaker 1: Mmmmm, it's all right. Welcome to the State of the
Speaker 1: Lakers postgame show on a Monday night after get another disaster,
Speaker 1: something that we've become accustomed to this season, honestly a
Speaker 1: lot over the last two seasons with all the injuries
Speaker 1: that we dealt with last year. Um, but thank you
Speaker 1: guys for all coming to hang out. This will be
Speaker 1: on DASH Radio tomorrow morning at seven am. UM. We're
Speaker 1: very excited to get to the bottom of what was.
Speaker 1: You know, I've predicted that the Bulls would win tonight.
Speaker 1: I just don't think we have the horses to hang
Speaker 1: with the best teams in the league right now. But
Speaker 1: once again, that really inconsistent competitive spirit and Frank looking
Speaker 1: like he's completely in over for his head. Offensively, a
Speaker 1: lot of those problems that we've been preaching about all
Speaker 1: year reared their ugly head tonight. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Where where are you at right now? Mentally? Raj, can
Speaker 1: we just like talk about th ht Like, is there
Speaker 1: anything else that went on tonight? Was there actual basketball
Speaker 1: like that went on? No? I mean, I feel like
Speaker 1: this has been a theme with the team all year.
Speaker 1: I mean, we have blamed it on you know, injuries,
Speaker 1: and fatigue, and those are all valid concerns and valid reasoning.
Speaker 1: It just feels like this has been happening in third
Speaker 1: quarters as well. Like I said, I was there for
Speaker 1: the Minnesota game, and again I'm sure fatigue was a
Speaker 1: factor there, but it just feels like, you know the
Speaker 1: term when the wheels come off, kind of when the
Speaker 1: wheels come offul It feels like for the team, it's
Speaker 1: not just when the wheels come off, like the whole
Speaker 1: car just sixplodes, like they just stopped playing. Chicago went
Speaker 1: on a couple nine oh runs tonight and then in
Speaker 1: the third quarter that one just balloom. You can see
Speaker 1: their spirit really die and we can kind of get
Speaker 1: into why that happened, but that's kind of how I felt.
Speaker 1: A D got ejected, I think with like three minutes left,
Speaker 1: so I think three minutes left in the third and
Speaker 1: after that the game was pretty much meaningless to me.
Speaker 1: Once a D went out, we really just didn't have
Speaker 1: a chance. But I thought this was a winnable game,
Speaker 1: Like I thought it was there. DeRozan and Lonzo Ball
Speaker 1: went nuclear in the second half, but I thought in
Speaker 1: the first half he played okay. I thought that was
Speaker 1: Russ's best half. Like that's I thought he looked really
Speaker 1: good and kind of saved us from from being down
Speaker 1: like twenty at halftime. And then obviously he when the
Speaker 1: Lakers play bad, it just kind of induces Russ to
Speaker 1: go into his bad Russ. I guess we kind of
Speaker 1: separated that. That's kind of where I'm at this with
Speaker 1: with this. Like, I know Lebron's coming back, and like tonight,
Speaker 1: it's another game where I just can't blame it on injuries.
Speaker 1: It's like and then fatigue's maybe in the case they
Speaker 1: played they played yesterday, but I just feel like you
Speaker 1: shouldn't be getting embarrassed consistently as they do. That's kind
Speaker 1: of where I'm at with this. How about you? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Roger always wants to would like
Speaker 1: for us to start positive. I just I just can't
Speaker 1: do that. Tonight. We are gonna. I wrote down two
Speaker 1: positive notes from this game, eighties jump shot and the
Speaker 1: fact that it seems to be continuing to trend in
Speaker 1: the right direction and then th h T on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor. But we're not going to
Speaker 1: talk about those up front. I'm not gonna I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna let Rods do it. This is just this is this,
Speaker 1: This is more of the same concerns that I've had
Speaker 1: throughout most of the season. And you know, I thought
Speaker 1: today came down to a difference in defensive pressure. Um.
Speaker 1: This is something that I've talked about a lot over
Speaker 1: the course of the last a few years, this idea
Speaker 1: about basketball players being comfortable on the court. It's something
Speaker 1: that I talked about on both sides of the ball.
Speaker 1: For the Lakers. Offensively, I've used, you know, the starting
Speaker 1: lineup and the idea of going small with a D
Speaker 1: at the five, because I believe that getting Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: comfortable offensively, and getting Russell Westbrook and Lebron James comfortable
Speaker 1: offensively leads them to be confident enough and in a
Speaker 1: rhythm enough to consistently make you pay throughout the game,
Speaker 1: even with whatever other shortcomings come from that lineup. Well,
Speaker 1: that same principle applies on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: There was a reason why all of the dribble attackers
Speaker 1: stood the aggressive pull up jump shooting guards that the
Speaker 1: Lakers would play in the previous seasons would generally struggle
Speaker 1: against us, and it was because from the opening tip,
Speaker 1: our defensive pressure would make them feel uncomfortable. And the
Speaker 1: best example I can give you is a matchup like
Speaker 1: th ht on de mar de Rosen because PhD kind
Speaker 1: of got lit on fire by DeMar dear Rosen tonight
Speaker 1: on a bunch of different occasions in isolation, and you
Speaker 1: might tell yourself while you're watching the game, like, oh,
Speaker 1: he contested that shot, but kind of like I said
Speaker 1: last week, there's a huge difference between contesting a shot
Speaker 1: up and actually making the offensive player feel uncomfortable. There's
Speaker 1: a difference between having a hand up while they're releasing
Speaker 1: and while they're in their rhythm dribbles, disrupting them and
Speaker 1: making them do something they don't want to do. Like
Speaker 1: if they're like James Harden and they like to step back,
Speaker 1: you want to advance on them. Put them in a
Speaker 1: position where they want to where they have to go
Speaker 1: past you and they have to rush their decision making.
Speaker 1: If they're a player that likes to bear down on you,
Speaker 1: put them in a position where you're giving up space
Speaker 1: so that they feel like that's what most teams due
Speaker 1: to RUSS, which puts them in a position where they're
Speaker 1: indecisive and more likely to settle for jump shots. But
Speaker 1: when you're playing these guys, these aggressive pull up jump shooters,
Speaker 1: these two Martera Rosen's and the z act Lavine types,
Speaker 1: you have to from the opening tip make them feel
Speaker 1: uncomfortable with defensive pressure. And if you do not, they
Speaker 1: will get comfortable, they will build a rhythm, and they
Speaker 1: will light you on fire. And that's what happened. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Lonzo ball stuff towards the end of the game,
Speaker 1: to me, was primarily just defensive brave downs. But early
Speaker 1: in the game, the reason why Chicago controlled throughout, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, was their stars were comfortable and our stars
Speaker 1: were not. Look at what Chicago did on the other end,
Speaker 1: it's all of this Alex Cruz alonzo ball ball pressure
Speaker 1: at the point of attack to make people feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: It's Anthony Davis getting double teamed on the catch every
Speaker 1: single time he touches the ball so that he never
Speaker 1: gets comfortable. That sort of that sort of gap and
Speaker 1: chasm between the way those two teams approached the game
Speaker 1: tonight directly led to the outcome. In my opinion, the
Speaker 1: Lakers had one of their worst three point shooting games
Speaker 1: of the season. Despite the fact that they have tons
Speaker 1: of three point shooting. I think it's directly tied to
Speaker 1: defensive pressure leading them to take lower quality three point shots,
Speaker 1: leading them to that that cascading into guys getting out
Speaker 1: of rhythm and guys missing and then the exact opposite
Speaker 1: effect on the other end, And that to me is
Speaker 1: an identity thing. You have to from the top down
Speaker 1: be willing to commit yourself to offensively, to put in
Speaker 1: the work, the dirty work it takes to make the
Speaker 1: offensive players feel uncomfortable. And so far to this point
Speaker 1: in the season, the Lakers haven't been willing to do that.
Speaker 1: And until that changes, Yeah, you'll be able to beat
Speaker 1: the Spurs, You'll be able to beat, you know, limited
Speaker 1: teams that don't have these high level dribble dribble creators
Speaker 1: who can pull off the dribble with the jump shop
Speaker 1: from anywhere on the floor. You'll be able to beat
Speaker 1: the teams that don't have those types of guys. But
Speaker 1: when you when you get into the like in order
Speaker 1: to get out of the West, you've got to beat
Speaker 1: Steph Curry and Jordan Pool and Clay Thompson. You've got
Speaker 1: to beat Devin Booker and Chris Paul you've got to
Speaker 1: beat you know, Donovan Mitchell and and Mike Pond, but
Speaker 1: you have to beat teams that have this archetype of player,
Speaker 1: guys that can shoot from all over the floor off
Speaker 1: the dribble, and so you have to be able to
Speaker 1: make them feel uncomfortable. And right now the Lakers just
Speaker 1: don't have that in their defensive identity, and until like
Speaker 1: it's fixed, I don't think they can win these types
Speaker 1: of matchups. Yeah, and I mean to me, like, I
Speaker 1: know you said th Hd got cooked, but I thought
Speaker 1: he was like our best chance defender on de Rosen
Speaker 1: at least early on. We started a v on him
Speaker 1: right and that worked for a little bit until they
Speaker 1: just started using screens. They had Zach Green doing these
Speaker 1: like ghost screen options where he just faked the screen
Speaker 1: and come out and he got he got loose. I
Speaker 1: think he had three threes. I don't know if it
Speaker 1: was in the first quarter, but he had three threes.
Speaker 1: I felt right away. Drowsen to me got cooking because
Speaker 1: they went at Carmelo like I thought that, and we
Speaker 1: can go and get into the Lakers offense as well,
Speaker 1: which is awful, but just the bulls. I want to
Speaker 1: give them credit. We'd like to just stay on the Lakers,
Speaker 1: but they're legit good team. I think Levine and de
Speaker 1: Rosen are an absolute handful, uh and at least in
Speaker 1: the regular season to stop and combine that with their
Speaker 1: ball pressure. But that's where I thought Rosen really got loose.
Speaker 1: Like I thought that they went after Carmelo a lot
Speaker 1: every Bradley, this is just not a good matchup for him,
Speaker 1: and I thought he probably played too much, especially if
Speaker 1: his shots not going. He's just too small to stay
Speaker 1: with Levine um or de rose In and for that matter.
Speaker 1: So I thought that's kind of where we got cooked defensively,
Speaker 1: And you're right, the team just doesn't have the defensive
Speaker 1: identity right now, Like these guards just aren't there. A
Speaker 1: d has to do a ton and I thought tonight
Speaker 1: he looked kind of fatigued as well, trying to He
Speaker 1: was obviously annoyed by the way they defended him, doubling
Speaker 1: him right on the catch. We had defensively, man, I
Speaker 1: just thought we couldn't stop then de Rosen take shots
Speaker 1: where like like you said, you think it's good defense,
Speaker 1: but it's shots he's getting to and with the defensive
Speaker 1: coverage we do as well, especially if we're not switching everything.
Speaker 1: If it's a like a dropback coverage, that's shots that
Speaker 1: De Rosen wants, those mid range pull up lavine. Also,
Speaker 1: it's comfortable there. Alon's obviously got hot. But I thought
Speaker 1: that's where we kind of messed up defensively. Um is
Speaker 1: when they just went out Carmelo, they went out Avery Bradley.
Speaker 1: Those dudes are just too small, and the Bulls run
Speaker 1: a really nice offense. They have a lot of actions
Speaker 1: that that get their guys going downhill, and I thought
Speaker 1: that's where we lost that defensively tonight. The work is
Speaker 1: done before before, like the the way I look at it,
Speaker 1: because it's the way I look at it. There is
Speaker 1: a lot of those types of shots, of the types
Speaker 1: of shots that I like to take when I play basketball,
Speaker 1: and like, well, once I get to my footwork and
Speaker 1: get to my release, you're done. There's absolutely nothing you
Speaker 1: can do. It's it's it's in my hands at that point.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're making it or I'm missing the shot.
Speaker 1: But if you can do things to disrupt before I
Speaker 1: get up into my shot making, putting me off balance,
Speaker 1: getting me to the point where I lose control, of
Speaker 1: the basketball a little bit, anything, anything to disrupt the
Speaker 1: rhythm that leads into the release. That sort of thing
Speaker 1: is far more likely to disrupt those types of players,
Speaker 1: those off the dribble jump shooters, particularly guys like De
Speaker 1: Rosen that are going to operate in the midrange. Those
Speaker 1: kind of things are gonna do a lot more than
Speaker 1: the contest they That's just to me, it's just bad process.
Speaker 1: So to your point, like like there was there there
Speaker 1: were possessions in that game where Derosan got advantages against
Speaker 1: slicer defenders. I'm not I'm not glossing over that by
Speaker 1: any stretch of the imagination, but I do believe there's
Speaker 1: just bad process just in everywhere on the floor in
Speaker 1: terms of bumping and like, if he's gonna run, if
Speaker 1: he's gonna run through a specific action to get a
Speaker 1: switch that he wants, he needs to get clipped and
Speaker 1: bumped in and elbowed and made to feel uncomfortable in
Speaker 1: the process. And again, what bothers me is this is
Speaker 1: the kind of stuff that we used to be so
Speaker 1: good at. This used to be the we would be
Speaker 1: the team that would look up and be like, oh look,
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray Um Jamal Murray struggling again tonight, you know,
Speaker 1: after he lit everyone else on fire. And it's because
Speaker 1: our defense would make these these types of players feel
Speaker 1: uncomfortable and that is gone. And you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know what to make of it, to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: because personnel is certainly part of it. But there there's
Speaker 1: definitely a lesser buy in on that front from players
Speaker 1: that have been around guys like THHD for example, Guys
Speaker 1: like d You know, THHD used to be one of
Speaker 1: the most disruptive point of attack defenders and it's too
Speaker 1: early in his return to to really quantify how well
Speaker 1: he's done on that end. But the point is is
Speaker 1: down the roster, we're not doing a good enough job
Speaker 1: at the point of attack and off the ball of
Speaker 1: making guys feel uncomfortable when that used to be our identity.
Speaker 1: And so again, like you know, I used to advocate
Speaker 1: for not advocate, but say that I would get behind
Speaker 1: ditching Frank for someone like UM, for a coach that
Speaker 1: that that would get the guys to play more with
Speaker 1: a D at the five, or to you know, run
Speaker 1: more switching defense and blah blah blah blah. Now at
Speaker 1: this point, because Frank has adopted a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 1: We've done a lot more switching in the last two games.
Speaker 1: We've gone entirely to a D at the five. The
Speaker 1: problem now is purely buying for whatever reason, And I
Speaker 1: don't know why. And I don't know if it's because
Speaker 1: of Frank, or if it's because of personnel, or if
Speaker 1: it's because of Lebron and a D or what. But
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, this group of guys just isn't committed
Speaker 1: to the dirty work the way that previous iterations of
Speaker 1: this team did. And I honestly, God don't know what
Speaker 1: to make of it, Rush, but that that that, to me,
Speaker 1: is is bizarre, and I honestly I'm not sure how
Speaker 1: you fix it. Maybe it's as simple as Lebron coming back,
Speaker 1: but but I don't know, Man, I'm kind of at
Speaker 1: a loss for words at this point. Yeah, Like you know,
Speaker 1: I always like to say, like blaming um, blaming troubles
Speaker 1: all on effort isn't fair to the other team as well. Right,
Speaker 1: It's not like the Lakers just lie down tonight. They
Speaker 1: definitely didn't have full you know, buying in that third quarter.
Speaker 1: But I don't like to blame all of it on
Speaker 1: effort as well, because I do think it is some
Speaker 1: of the personnel issue. Now a personal issue, isn't getting
Speaker 1: down by forty And to your point on making DeRos
Speaker 1: In uncomfortable, I thought we gave up the switch way
Speaker 1: too easy, like he was just able to pick on
Speaker 1: Carmelo time after time, and it was basically just daring
Speaker 1: De Rozan to beat Melow one on one, which I
Speaker 1: thought just was like you said, bad process there, And
Speaker 1: again I thought THHD kind of did the best you
Speaker 1: could on him. All you can do really is trying
Speaker 1: to deny the ball, make him catch it, make him
Speaker 1: double pump, you know what I mean, double pump, fake
Speaker 1: pull up, mid contested mid range pull up two's like,
Speaker 1: that's that's a shot you want to give up as
Speaker 1: a defense. And I thought we did an okay part
Speaker 1: of that in the first quarter until he was able
Speaker 1: to kind of pick on our bad defenders. I think
Speaker 1: this is just a bad matchup as well, Avery Bradley. Um,
Speaker 1: just not a good matchup because this team against Levine
Speaker 1: and de Rosen and all these bigger guards, Lonzo is
Speaker 1: probably the smallest, the shortest guard on their starting backcourt.
Speaker 1: Caruso is not even an offensive option either, so putting
Speaker 1: Bradley on him doesn't make sense. So you basically have
Speaker 1: Bradley on one of their two hot scores. Like I
Speaker 1: thought that was the issue tonight defensively, and like to me,
Speaker 1: I'm not even that mad at the defense, like I'm
Speaker 1: more mad on the other end. Are you ready to
Speaker 1: move on to the offensive end here, because I feel
Speaker 1: like that's obviously the big issue from tonight, like it's
Speaker 1: the I'm not sure if this is on Vogel, like
Speaker 1: again you said replacing him with Fizbell or something like
Speaker 1: I I'm not there as well yet, Like I just
Speaker 1: can't get there until we see a healthy team, Like
Speaker 1: I just can't get there. Vogel is here to coach
Speaker 1: a specific roster, and this is not the roster he
Speaker 1: was set to coach, you know what I mean? Like
Speaker 1: I think Lebron might be as important defensively as offensively
Speaker 1: is for us, just as at four or five like
Speaker 1: we needed, like he would have been incredible tonight on
Speaker 1: both ends obviously when you have Lebron James. But I
Speaker 1: feel like that's where I'm at with Vogo coaching. But
Speaker 1: are you ready to kind of move on to the
Speaker 1: offensive end from the defense. Yeah, so I mean, so
Speaker 1: here's the thing, like, because it is, you know, the
Speaker 1: person who's been on this the most in the most
Speaker 1: sophisticated way, with a good combination of analytical analysis and
Speaker 1: you know, statistical analysis and digging into the film is
Speaker 1: our guy cranges Um. And the truth of the matter
Speaker 1: is is like so esc and Statson Info came out
Speaker 1: and said that a D got doubled fifteen times tonight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I saw that too, I thought, I was that
Speaker 1: seemed below, But but it's it's because it's it's it's
Speaker 1: more about the kind of the flow of the game, right,
Speaker 1: Like if you throw it, if you throw it into
Speaker 1: a D post ups four times in rapid secession and
Speaker 1: they quick double and you can't get anything good out
Speaker 1: of it, then you go away from it for a while.
Speaker 1: So that that that's what that's what ends up inevitably happening.
Speaker 1: But what Grantis was saying, and this is kind of
Speaker 1: my philosophy behind it too, is like when a team
Speaker 1: chooses to double your best player, that should only work
Speaker 1: to your advantage. Um. The only way it won't work
Speaker 1: to your advantage is if you have bad process in
Speaker 1: navigating the double team. And I put a lot of
Speaker 1: this on a D over the years, and I do
Speaker 1: think he shares a good amount of the blame for it,
Speaker 1: but Frank also does because you could, in theory, go
Speaker 1: to your post, stop out of the exact same set
Speaker 1: every time, right, so same players in same positions on
Speaker 1: the floor, so that you could identify where the double
Speaker 1: is coming. After you've done that once or twice and
Speaker 1: you failed to make them pay, you should be able
Speaker 1: to call the time out and rapidly address where the
Speaker 1: doubles coming from and how to counter it. And this
Speaker 1: is something that cranzis just talking about. He's like, he's like,
Speaker 1: rather than figuring out how to counter those doubles every
Speaker 1: time they would go to a D in the post
Speaker 1: a few times in in the double team would derail
Speaker 1: the play. They would just go away from a D
Speaker 1: post ups. Imagine, imagine that that that that is everything
Speaker 1: Chicago wants you to do. They're they're they're hoping that
Speaker 1: they can double team a D and that you won't
Speaker 1: be able to make them pay a couple of times,
Speaker 1: and that you'll just abandon it and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, your you know, six ft eleven, super freak talent,
Speaker 1: power forward becomes basically, uh, someone who's just a bystander,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And so some of this
Speaker 1: is on Frank. Now. The problem is is I don't
Speaker 1: know what you do because I don't think you can
Speaker 1: bring some This is something we've talked about a lot.
Speaker 1: You can't bring in some young guy who who is
Speaker 1: an offensive mastermind, but that all the veterans in the
Speaker 1: locker room will roll their eyes at and uh, you
Speaker 1: you probably have to end and it's the middle of
Speaker 1: the season, so you can't go too crazy. You probably
Speaker 1: have to go from somebody on the current staff. And
Speaker 1: I hate to break it to you, there's nobody on
Speaker 1: the current staff who is an offensive mastermind. That's just
Speaker 1: not the reality of our current coaching staff. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of one of those situations where the best we
Speaker 1: can hope for is maybe Lebron coming back solves a
Speaker 1: lot of these problems. So you're right. I thought I
Speaker 1: thought as far as that that that's all I had
Speaker 1: to say as far as the A D doubles go.
Speaker 1: But I thought you hit the nail on the head
Speaker 1: in terms of just the flow of the game, like
Speaker 1: Russ kind of carried us with his aggression and his
Speaker 1: ability to create for himself. Um, and then you know
Speaker 1: when the wheels come off is when Russ becomes his
Speaker 1: worst because he's a he's just your textbook hero ball
Speaker 1: type of guy who wants to save the game with
Speaker 1: one shot, and he took three. I thought all three
Speaker 1: of the jump shots he took in the third quarter,
Speaker 1: we're bad. I'd have to go back and watch the
Speaker 1: film to be a percent sure, but in the moment
Speaker 1: they felt like add shots and you know those are
Speaker 1: that's just kind of, like you said, the order of
Speaker 1: operations of that kind of thing. Once the wheels start
Speaker 1: coming off, you hope that's where you really need Lebron
Speaker 1: because you need someone who can calm you down, not
Speaker 1: rile you up, you know what I mean. And so, yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought you hit the nail on the head on
Speaker 1: that front. Yeah, I mean, I think, like just in
Speaker 1: basketball sense, like it's tough to double team if you
Speaker 1: have Lebron on the floor, right, he's just too good.
Speaker 1: But that's besides the point here. I think the frustration
Speaker 1: with most people, like just watching tonight, it felt like
Speaker 1: we ran the same play thirty times and it had
Speaker 1: the same exact result every single time. And like you said,
Speaker 1: like the definition of insanity is just doing the same
Speaker 1: thing every time and expecting a different output. And I
Speaker 1: thought we just kept running that. Well, we started every
Speaker 1: badly in th h T right tonight next to Russ.
Speaker 1: Three guys that teams really don't respect as shooters, just
Speaker 1: in a general sense, every badly, like I said before,
Speaker 1: because you from three teams aren't going to guard him.
Speaker 1: Th HD hit a bunch of threes tonight, I think.
Speaker 1: But again another guy, they have no they have no
Speaker 1: care to help off of Russ. They are helping off
Speaker 1: the entry path. So like the cardinal sin in basketball, Jason,
Speaker 1: you know this, right, you don't help off a cutter, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's kind of like the cardinal sin. The Bulls did
Speaker 1: that every single time tonight. Russ would throw it into
Speaker 1: a D and they would double right off the catch.
Speaker 1: So like and then we ran like this rust a
Speaker 1: D screen and roll. No shooting on the floor. So
Speaker 1: you're during the rust a D screen and roll, they
Speaker 1: switch it because the matchup is irrelevant. You have lons
Speaker 1: of ball on a D. But that doesn't even matter
Speaker 1: because they're doubling right away, and there's just no shooting
Speaker 1: on the fold of spacing. I thought was terrible. And
Speaker 1: this is not like a fire Vobile point like I
Speaker 1: think we go to extremes too much. I think there's
Speaker 1: like gray areas here. But just like some of the
Speaker 1: lineup makes no sense to me. We talked abo how
Speaker 1: how when we're down, like it kind of induces this
Speaker 1: really bad rust ball. I feel the same with Rondo,
Speaker 1: right Like, I feel like you can tell when Rondo
Speaker 1: respects a game or not, like and I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's not just effort, it's just his respect for like
Speaker 1: the care of it. And that's you know, we can
Speaker 1: qualm with that's okay or not to happen, but that's
Speaker 1: just what happens. And I thought it was clear pretty
Speaker 1: early that Ronald did not respect this game at all.
Speaker 1: You could just tell the way he was playing. And
Speaker 1: I just didn't understand those lineups either, Like just to
Speaker 1: give us a chance, That's why I said, like, I
Speaker 1: hope we just played Monk and Ellington a ton at
Speaker 1: least we could have got some guys good shots like
Speaker 1: that was what I was most frustrated with. We went
Speaker 1: to eighty a million times in the post and it
Speaker 1: just kept having the same exact result. Eighty had two
Speaker 1: shot attempts I think by halftime or something, and you
Speaker 1: can double all you want, Like that should not happen,
Speaker 1: just in the general basketball sense, Like I don't care
Speaker 1: how many times you double Lebron. He's not having two
Speaker 1: shot attempts. I don't care how many all these other
Speaker 1: stars in the league like that's and I feel like
Speaker 1: they absolutely just took him out. And the mid range
Speaker 1: shots he made tonight, I feel like we were down
Speaker 1: like thirties or down twenty when he started hitting those.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much we can take from that,
Speaker 1: but that was my main frustration from tonight. And maybe
Speaker 1: Kendrick Nunn coming back, Lebron coming back fixes all these
Speaker 1: you know, weird lineups with no shooting on it. Like
Speaker 1: I don't think you can play a very badly Thht
Speaker 1: and Russ, Like I think that's really tough against like
Speaker 1: a team that's doubling this much. But like, is your
Speaker 1: frustration there as well, because that's kind of where I'm
Speaker 1: at this with this, Like I think like a lot
Speaker 1: of this gets fixed with Lebron, and it will probably
Speaker 1: hide a lot of this stuff anyway, Like, I don't
Speaker 1: know how relevant this stuff will become in two weeks
Speaker 1: when Lebron comes back, because the the flow of the
Speaker 1: game will change so much where you can't do stuff
Speaker 1: like this. But that I guess that's where I was tonight,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like you, I don't know
Speaker 1: what to take. Like we ran the same post stuff
Speaker 1: fifty million times. The Bulls defended it the same exact
Speaker 1: way fifty million times, Like what do you what do
Speaker 1: you take from that? That's that's precisely what what uh?
Speaker 1: You know implicates Vogel because again, when you're openly doubling
Speaker 1: on the catch every single time with the same player,
Speaker 1: there has to be a counter for that. And you know,
Speaker 1: and again I I need to go back and look
Speaker 1: at the tape to be percent sure, because a lot
Speaker 1: of times in the middle of the game, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll miss these these kinds of details. But you know,
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why the A d post ups
Speaker 1: at the end of the game against San Antonio last
Speaker 1: night we're working, was because they consistently went with Wayne
Speaker 1: Ellington and Carmelo Anthony on the week side. So it
Speaker 1: just it just made it so that the angle from
Speaker 1: which they were doubling at made you leave one of
Speaker 1: those two guys open. But you know, this is where
Speaker 1: it gets complicated because so Anthony Davis, we talked a
Speaker 1: lot about how he backs away from the double um
Speaker 1: with his kidd foot, you know, kind of like retreat away,
Speaker 1: hold the ball high over his head, and immediately look
Speaker 1: for an exit pass, usually behind him or to the perimeter.
Speaker 1: It was getting it was getting so bad tonight that
Speaker 1: he was dribbling away from the double like he would
Speaker 1: catch on the block. The double would come, and he
Speaker 1: would dribble back to the three point line to find
Speaker 1: his his outlet. And that's where you know that that
Speaker 1: goes to show you just how sheveled. That whole process was.
Speaker 1: You're the guy who's getting doubled is so uncomfortable under
Speaker 1: that level of ball pressure that he panics, which is
Speaker 1: problem number one. And then the head coach is not
Speaker 1: sophisticated enough offensively to identify where the double's coming from
Speaker 1: and come up with the counter. So, for instance, if
Speaker 1: you're doubling off of Russ every time, you could there
Speaker 1: could be as simple as having Russ just quick run
Speaker 1: and set a screen for Ellington's man or for mellows
Speaker 1: man to get mellow, you know, flashing up towards the
Speaker 1: wing where a D can make the pass. And then
Speaker 1: you pull a D aside in the in the huddle
Speaker 1: and you go, hey, listen, the doubles coming from this
Speaker 1: spot every time. This is what we're going to do.
Speaker 1: As soon as you catch the ball, immediately looked to
Speaker 1: this spot and throw it there. It will be open
Speaker 1: because we've identified where the double's coming from and this
Speaker 1: is our counter for it. There's none of that with
Speaker 1: this group, and to the point where they literally just
Speaker 1: went away from the A D post ups all to
Speaker 1: other and again that's an indictment of vogel Um. Now
Speaker 1: to your point with Lebron, this is the partnership with
Speaker 1: his team. The way it was designed, as we've discussed
Speaker 1: so many times, was that Lebron would kind of take
Speaker 1: a lot of these offensive intricacies into his own hands
Speaker 1: and then you know, and then Frank would just focus
Speaker 1: on the defense. And the truth is they countered the
Speaker 1: A D double teams a lot of times with Lebron
Speaker 1: being the entry pass. So Lebron would throw the entry
Speaker 1: pass and he'd go to the wing and he'd be
Speaker 1: the first pass away because that's where a D is
Speaker 1: most comfortable throwing the ball when he gets double team.
Speaker 1: So it basically puts you in a position kind of
Speaker 1: like what they did this a little bit Marcosol last
Speaker 1: year too, but they would basically have a D quick
Speaker 1: kick it out and then Lebron or Marcusol would be
Speaker 1: the one who made the complicated read at the top
Speaker 1: of the key, you know, the past fake to get
Speaker 1: the guy to commit one way, to go the other
Speaker 1: way to hit the open shooter or to find a
Speaker 1: cutter or whatever it may be. They're basically taking that
Speaker 1: responsibility out of a D hands and putting it into
Speaker 1: Lebron or putting it into Marcosol because he's not comfortable
Speaker 1: handling those double teams, and so that that's where that's
Speaker 1: where it gets tricky. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like at this level of basketball, you know, not just
Speaker 1: in the NBA, but an NBA franchise that is coming
Speaker 1: into the season was the second biggest favorite in Vegas
Speaker 1: to hold the trophy. At the end, at this level
Speaker 1: of basketball, you shouldn't be able to just outright double
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis five or six times and have the team
Speaker 1: just go away from the play. It's just it just
Speaker 1: can't happen. And you said yourself, You're like, oh, how
Speaker 1: does a D end up with only two shot attempts?
Speaker 1: Lebron would never only end up with two shot attempts.
Speaker 1: You're right, Raj, But you know why, because Raj would
Speaker 1: make you pay for the double team to three times
Speaker 1: in a row. You stopped double teaming him, and then
Speaker 1: he'd start working you from the block. That's why the
Speaker 1: Lebron James post up has been one of the most
Speaker 1: efficient point per possession plays of the last decade out
Speaker 1: of any NBA action in the entire league. That that
Speaker 1: that's the difference there is this shoot be easier than
Speaker 1: it is. It should be easier to make the team
Speaker 1: pay for compromising themselves by double teaming a D, and
Speaker 1: then a D should be able to feast out of
Speaker 1: single coverage out of that, But we just can't get
Speaker 1: to that point. And I and it's kind of a
Speaker 1: split in my opinion between Frank and a D and
Speaker 1: his unwillingness thing of the ball pressure. Yeah, like that
Speaker 1: That's kind of where I'm at with it, too, Like
Speaker 1: a D is never going to be this amazing pastor
Speaker 1: out of the post, and I don't think he needs to.
Speaker 1: Like I think the like we talked about last game,
Speaker 1: like make the reads a little bit more simple, and
Speaker 1: I think just putting so much non shooting around it,
Speaker 1: it's just it kind of exacerbates the issue, especially a
Speaker 1: team as good as the Bulls are. And again give
Speaker 1: them credit. I think Lonzo and Crusoe are a top
Speaker 1: you know five defensive just backcourting themselves. They're one of
Speaker 1: the best at being able to dig in and get
Speaker 1: back to their man. So like even when they're trapping
Speaker 1: the ball comes out, they're flying at their guy. So
Speaker 1: where the shot. It looks open to us, but like
Speaker 1: a badly catches it and he has a kind of
Speaker 1: slow release already and they're already they're already at the
Speaker 1: at the ball. So just give them credit there as well.
Speaker 1: I don't want to make this all just the Lakers.
Speaker 1: I think the Bulls had a really great game plan.
Speaker 1: They stuck with it and ran us out the building.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like I think the line of combinations with
Speaker 1: the bad spacing, like we have cutters cutting at the
Speaker 1: same time, like just watching like I was even watching
Speaker 1: off the ball a lot because the game kind of
Speaker 1: got out of hand. We throw it to a D
Speaker 1: and Russ is like right next to him, you know.
Speaker 1: So you saw this turnover where Russ is trying to
Speaker 1: get a D the ball at like the high post,
Speaker 1: but they're like they're ball denying at the top of
Speaker 1: the key, and so like Russ throws it too far.
Speaker 1: It's like a turnover. You see a lot of this
Speaker 1: just really awful spacing where like Avery Badley is cutting
Speaker 1: through and like no one respects and Avery Badly cut through,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like he's like six one
Speaker 1: at the rim. So it's just a lot of this
Speaker 1: really ugly basketball. Then again, I think Lebron clears up
Speaker 1: a lot of this um when he comes back, which
Speaker 1: is why I just have a tough time like I
Speaker 1: think this. I think the the issue of a D
Speaker 1: against double teams is separate from like the ceiling of
Speaker 1: this team, I guess, because I don't think you can
Speaker 1: double eight this way. But you're right, it's like bad
Speaker 1: process though, like this this kind of stuff shouldn't happen.
Speaker 1: Let's just you know, it's with the lineups that we're
Speaker 1: running these Rondo Westbrook lineups these and then you have
Speaker 1: PhD out there every bad like there's just no shooting,
Speaker 1: and the Bulls just continue to double team. They did
Speaker 1: not respect any of our shooters when in Ellentine was
Speaker 1: the only really guy out there that got any type
Speaker 1: of gravity. So I don't know it was a It
Speaker 1: was a terrible offensive night from the whole team. And
Speaker 1: that's where I'm more upset than even the defense. Like
Speaker 1: De Rosen is gonna hit those shots, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: Zach Lavine's a crazy nuclear three point shooter. The offense
Speaker 1: is where I thought we could have really made this game,
Speaker 1: had a chance in this game even without Lebron, and
Speaker 1: obviously the offense made sure we didn't. Everybody gets your requests,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna take some callers here. I want you
Speaker 1: guys to give your two cents on on on what
Speaker 1: you guys are seeing. The one last note on the
Speaker 1: A D post up thing, and it's something up really
Speaker 1: early in the season. A D really doesn't like when
Speaker 1: the double comes from behind him. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: it's kind of like his blind side. So the Lakers
Speaker 1: always clear the strong side corner on its post ups. Um.
Speaker 1: The problem with it is he also likes to post
Speaker 1: up closer to the elbow than he does to the block.
Speaker 1: So what that does is it shrinks the floor on
Speaker 1: himself because the strong side corner is effectively empty, including himself,
Speaker 1: because he's not posting on the block, he's posting poser
Speaker 1: to the elbow. And so now you're trying to cram
Speaker 1: four shooters and cutters basically into the space from from
Speaker 1: the lane line all the way through the lane to
Speaker 1: the opposite sideline. Does that make sense? So like you're
Speaker 1: basically you're asking four shooters and cutters to fill two
Speaker 1: thirds of the floor, And so inevitably when what ends
Speaker 1: up happening is the just in the way that traditional
Speaker 1: spacing goes, you'll have a guy who kind of hangs
Speaker 1: out on the opposite lane line extended, and then a
Speaker 1: guy that's kind of like at the coaches line on
Speaker 1: the wing, and then you'll have a guy in the
Speaker 1: opposite corner. But then there's this fourth guy and he
Speaker 1: doesn't really know what to do, and all season long,
Speaker 1: it's been a guard in all season long, that guard
Speaker 1: is kind of like hovered into the dunker spot off
Speaker 1: the ball and then like set like a pin screen
Speaker 1: for the shooter in the opposite corner, trying to find
Speaker 1: some way to be productive. But the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is is by a d S fear of help
Speaker 1: coming from the backside, it's basically caused the entire operation
Speaker 1: to shift to just two thirds of the floor and
Speaker 1: really closed off space on it. And so I think
Speaker 1: a lot could come from literally just having him post
Speaker 1: up closer to the baseline on the block. You don't
Speaker 1: have to go all the way to the baseline to
Speaker 1: where you can't spin back, but having your your moving that,
Speaker 1: just moving that a couple of feet down closer to
Speaker 1: the baseline changes the spacing. It's something we talked about
Speaker 1: all the time in our high school practices, like you
Speaker 1: ever want to cross the midline with an action, because
Speaker 1: if you cross the midline, you are making it way
Speaker 1: easier for the week's i'd help to get involved. If
Speaker 1: you keep your action on your side of the midline,
Speaker 1: it forces those helpers to further leave their defense their
Speaker 1: assignments in order to be of assistance. Shutting down your action,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's floor balance, it's basic floor balance stuff.
Speaker 1: And so I it's been something that's bothered me with
Speaker 1: the process of a D post up. The post ups
Speaker 1: all season, he just he insists on catching close to
Speaker 1: the elbow, but he also doesn't want anybody behind him,
Speaker 1: so he clears out his strong side corner. And now
Speaker 1: it's just part of my language. It's a cluster f
Speaker 1: on the on the on the other side of the floor,
Speaker 1: and it's just difficult for him to make. He already
Speaker 1: has enough of a hard time making reads in a
Speaker 1: in a static situation, let alone when it's when it's
Speaker 1: like that. But anyway, I don't know about you, Rosa,
Speaker 1: but I'm at the point where I'm ready to get
Speaker 1: some callers up here and let them kind of dictate
Speaker 1: what we talked about from here on out. Well, before
Speaker 1: we do that, let's stick into the one positive from tonight.
Speaker 1: I know you had to you had the a D jumper,
Speaker 1: but I think th HD he's gonna be a legit
Speaker 1: contributor on this team. Like it's it's pretty clear. I
Speaker 1: know it's only been two games. He looked like the
Speaker 1: third best player on the floor tonight. Honestly, like after
Speaker 1: Levine and Alonzo, I thought TCT probably had the best
Speaker 1: kind of flour game. Um, he just looks super impressive
Speaker 1: ball handling, and again the game got about out of hand,
Speaker 1: but his shot making be able to take threes getting
Speaker 1: to the bass kid. I thought he was impressive again
Speaker 1: again only his second game back. I think he had
Speaker 1: twenty eight tonight, eight points um and again a lot
Speaker 1: of some of that was in garbage time, but just
Speaker 1: looks like a legit guy who's gonna a legit rotation
Speaker 1: piece that we've been missing. I think he could average
Speaker 1: fifteen to night on this team, just the way he
Speaker 1: gets his baskets like. He looks very mature as a score.
Speaker 1: He knows what he's doing. And again, like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: I thought he was our best kind of matchup on
Speaker 1: on the other wings that they had. Levine and de
Speaker 1: Rosen a pretty nice job. And it's kind of why
Speaker 1: I would if you're going to start th HD, I
Speaker 1: would rather put a shooter in avery Bradley spot because
Speaker 1: I think you could just have t HD kind of
Speaker 1: guard that assignment and you I believe you need way
Speaker 1: more shooting around russ A D and how you put
Speaker 1: a non shooter and th HD in that lineup hopefully
Speaker 1: maybe going forward and may hopefully Lebron's back but you
Speaker 1: want to touch on th h really quick because I
Speaker 1: think that is a positive we can kind of go
Speaker 1: over before we get into some some colors here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. I mean once again, he had multiple like
Speaker 1: NBA All Star type of highlights. Yeah, knocked down a
Speaker 1: couple catch and shoot threes. That's something that I said
Speaker 1: that I wanted to see after after last night's game.
Speaker 1: He's still dynamic as a drible drive creator. Um, I
Speaker 1: think I to me, I kind of know what to
Speaker 1: expect from him on that front, and I'm a believer
Speaker 1: in the way that it fits with the core group
Speaker 1: when everyone's healthy. Actually really really like him as a
Speaker 1: match as a as a closeout attacker. I know it's
Speaker 1: something we haven't seen a lot of because he's literally
Speaker 1: only played with Lebron out for the not only but
Speaker 1: for the most part with Lebron out over the course
Speaker 1: of the last what games of his career because of
Speaker 1: the Lebron and Nab injuries last year. But you know,
Speaker 1: early in the season, we saw a lot of that
Speaker 1: last year, and I'm a big believer that he's going
Speaker 1: to be a killer in those situations. I the thing
Speaker 1: not to nitpick him, but like I think he can
Speaker 1: be even better defensively than he's showing. And that's the
Speaker 1: next level that I'd like to see from him. It's
Speaker 1: him be him because like because when you guys have
Speaker 1: all heard me compare him to Kauai, to me, he's
Speaker 1: mini Kauai. That that's what I see him as. I
Speaker 1: don't see him as Dwade Wade, I don't see him as.
Speaker 1: I see him as a miniature version of Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: And the difference between being a solid defensive wing and
Speaker 1: being Kawhi Leonard is a massive difference, and having to
Speaker 1: do with commitment to disruption, and I think he's capable
Speaker 1: of that and I'd like to see a little bit
Speaker 1: more of that out of him. But I mean, hey, man,
Speaker 1: like that was his career high. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: you know, poopoo on his game or anything. I'd like
Speaker 1: he looked incredible tonight. I I'm not going to get
Speaker 1: too pumped about him getting baskets and garbage time because
Speaker 1: his offensive fit on this team is primarily going to
Speaker 1: be playing off of advantages created by other people. Um
Speaker 1: with exception of you know, small like small opportunities here
Speaker 1: and there when Lebron and Russ rest while they're playing.
Speaker 1: But I I've come a long way on the th
Speaker 1: HT thing because you remember last year I was a
Speaker 1: big advocate for trading him, UM, just just primarily because
Speaker 1: of the timeline that the franchise was on. UM. But
Speaker 1: now I think this guy is gonna be an All star. UM.
Speaker 1: It's possible that you know, my my projection for what
Speaker 1: this kid could have been, I'd have been a little
Speaker 1: too low and that and that's something that I don't
Speaker 1: want to be on the wrong side of history on.
Speaker 1: So I'm here to tell you that I think I
Speaker 1: think he looks even better than I thought he could
Speaker 1: have been. UM. But I'd like to see him really
Speaker 1: really try to embrace that like peak level defensive disruptor
Speaker 1: role because I think that's what will bring him to
Speaker 1: that point where he's a bona vital star. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I thought you saw some of the more comfortability now
Speaker 1: him playing with another super ball handler in Russ. They
Speaker 1: had a couple of good action there where like Russ
Speaker 1: gave it to him, he was able to attack, and
Speaker 1: then Russ back and got a layup off of it.
Speaker 1: Like I'm really curious to see his fit necks too
Speaker 1: when he plays with both of them, because obviously that's
Speaker 1: I think that's the role he's gonna have. Um. I
Speaker 1: think he's a big time score and they invested a
Speaker 1: lot into him, and I think he's going to be
Speaker 1: a big part of this. But yeah, defensively, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you'll get to I know what you mean
Speaker 1: by Kauai even more like the archetype of a disruptor.
Speaker 1: I want him just like as a solid you know,
Speaker 1: don't make mistakes is more of what I like from THHD.
Speaker 1: And I think his ceiling is the like disruptor, can
Speaker 1: you know, get like three steals and and be a
Speaker 1: guy that you just be a lockdown guy. But from
Speaker 1: this team, for this title team, hopefully title contending team,
Speaker 1: I would like him just to kind of be saw
Speaker 1: and I think we're seeing one of maturity in his
Speaker 1: game on both ends. But yeah, I thought TSD another
Speaker 1: another good process game for him. That's kind of been
Speaker 1: the bright spot, uh for tonight. Really that's really the
Speaker 1: only bright spot I saw. Everything else was kind of
Speaker 1: Alonzo Ball and Demarita Rosen having a party in their homecoming.
Speaker 1: But yeah, THHD was the bright spot. Yeah, so why
Speaker 1: don't you go ahead and bring up the first caller
Speaker 1: really quickly. That The other good thing that I noticed
Speaker 1: was just, you know, something that I talked about with
Speaker 1: Raj a lot over the course of the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, having to do with Anthony Davis's jump shot
Speaker 1: and him continuing to trend in the right direction. You know,
Speaker 1: everyone was joking about how a Lonzo wasn't even hitting
Speaker 1: the rim on his threes. Well little stretch right before
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis got ejected, he wasn't even hitting the rim
Speaker 1: on his job shot um, which was exciting because him
Speaker 1: regaining that part of his game is the difference between
Speaker 1: him being the twelveth best player in the league and
Speaker 1: him being the fifth or fifth or sixth best player
Speaker 1: in the league. So that's that's such a gigantic, uh,
Speaker 1: part of this team's ceiling, and so seeing him continue
Speaker 1: to trend in that direction has to be a good thing.
Speaker 1: The bottom line is his teammates Lebron back. I'm hopeful
Speaker 1: he's back Wednesday, but things should all start to make
Speaker 1: more sense at that point. Yeah, and eight he got
Speaker 1: most of them off of like picking pops, I thought tonight,
Speaker 1: So but I think we got our first up here.
Speaker 1: It's fun. Are you there? Yeah? Hello, hello, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: look here um first time. I like uh um. Jason's
Speaker 1: point on the ball pressure. I think most of our guards,
Speaker 1: I mean, because of fear that they're going win Tom
Speaker 1: be passed on by the opponent. They they don't want
Speaker 1: the pressure the ball too much. I saw the HD mom.
Speaker 1: Even if Havington is not a good ball pressure guy anyway,
Speaker 1: he's a chaser, but they're not fronting the their opponent.
Speaker 1: So I agree on him on that on that part,
Speaker 1: the first the first part part of the spot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the ball pressure, like I said, it's it's you
Speaker 1: are driving line that you are driving, the straight line,
Speaker 1: drive that you give up to somebody that doesn't want
Speaker 1: to drive. Meaning like these types of these dribble jump shooters,
Speaker 1: these guys like the Rooms and these guys like Leavin,
Speaker 1: they're looking to get to their spot to take a
Speaker 1: jump shot. And so if you if you can find
Speaker 1: a way to make them feel uncomfortable and make them
Speaker 1: rush and make them drive to the rim, generally speaking,
Speaker 1: not only can your defense react to it, because it's predictable,
Speaker 1: right like if if Zach Wadine's trying to break down. Uh,
Speaker 1: let's say t h T on the left wing and
Speaker 1: th h T s up in his shorts and forces
Speaker 1: him to drive. All the other defensive players on the
Speaker 1: floor are looking at that situation and they it's a
Speaker 1: predictable outcome. Hey, th hts th ht s ball pressuring
Speaker 1: like crazy, He's probably gonna give up a drive here,
Speaker 1: and it makes it it makes it easier for your
Speaker 1: help defenders to rotate and be in the right spots.
Speaker 1: The flip side of that is like if you if uh,
Speaker 1: you know zach Lavine himself, when he's on the drive,
Speaker 1: he is now uncomfortable because he and he began that
Speaker 1: possession thinking I'm going to get to my spot and
Speaker 1: take a three. And now he's freelancing. And now that
Speaker 1: he's freelancing, he's far more likely to make a mistake.
Speaker 1: He's far more likely to get too deep, he's far too,
Speaker 1: far more likely to turn the ball over or to
Speaker 1: take some sort of funky, contested layup or or tougher shots.
Speaker 1: So that I'm I'm there's just a defensive philosophy that
Speaker 1: I believe in, Like you've gotta particularly when you're playing
Speaker 1: guys who can shoot really well off the dribble, and
Speaker 1: this is what you're going to face the highest levels
Speaker 1: of basketball. You you absolutely have to find a way
Speaker 1: to make them feel uncomfortable and forced them to do
Speaker 1: something they don't want to do, which is drive the
Speaker 1: ball to the rim every time they look floor. That
Speaker 1: That's kind of the way that I feel about it,
Speaker 1: which is also Vogel's philosophy because he wants them to
Speaker 1: you know, he wants the drive in because he knows
Speaker 1: where the help is coming from. It is Vogel's philosophy
Speaker 1: as well, let them drive and then the helper is
Speaker 1: going to don't be the one to stop it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so I get there. Not that they're not buying into
Speaker 1: this concept, maybe not out of laptof a billion team,
Speaker 1: but more on fear because it started on that they're
Speaker 1: not going to play if they don't defend something like
Speaker 1: But it's also post defense. It's not it's not the
Speaker 1: defense that this the types of the Rosa and um
Speaker 1: levin that can rebo and um pumping or pump shot
Speaker 1: or something like that doom. So yeah, that's the second
Speaker 1: one is um it is really not a good post
Speaker 1: up um um ball handler anyway, he's more on the
Speaker 1: offinest type of post up player, wherein he can beat
Speaker 1: Tom one on once, but when it comes to doubles
Speaker 1: is not good because he's passing is still not that high.
Speaker 1: So I think it can be answered by Lebron being
Speaker 1: on the game and also the problem with playing Rondo
Speaker 1: again us minutes. Um. I hope that None will come
Speaker 1: back soon because I think that will augment his minutes.
Speaker 1: That's the hope. Yeah, yeah, Well he's been saying that
Speaker 1: for a couple of years and I'll see it. Uh,
Speaker 1: I'll believe it when I see it with Rondo. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's what we were kind of that's what we're kind
Speaker 1: of solved during media day. But but we'll see. But
Speaker 1: I think you're right though, eighties not the type of
Speaker 1: player you just gave it to him in the post
Speaker 1: every single time. He's just not enough to do that.
Speaker 1: He's a moving He's a moving flip player. He's not
Speaker 1: a post top player. He's more on the move rather
Speaker 1: than posting him up and then let him create out
Speaker 1: of that. I think he's more on the he's more
Speaker 1: better when he's moving. That's why Rondo is Toronto and
Speaker 1: a D pairing is working because Rondo knows where he
Speaker 1: needs to move something like that. So I think that, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's that's his game, that's in this game.
Speaker 1: He's not Yi Honest or Lebron. He is more on
Speaker 1: the movement player. He's more like the Rent. Actually, if
Speaker 1: you're going yeah, I think I think you broke that
Speaker 1: down really really well. The Rondo the Rondo comp is
Speaker 1: super interesting. The reason why a D plays best with
Speaker 1: Rondo's Rondo gets him on the move, and you're right,
Speaker 1: like he's He's not like Katie in the sense that
Speaker 1: he's not that level of jump shooter, but he is
Speaker 1: like Katie in the sense that he seems to be
Speaker 1: peaking offensively when he's kind of like a movement player
Speaker 1: coming off the screens, catching him on the move too
Speaker 1: quick fit like to basically be the tip of the spear,
Speaker 1: the guy who finishes the play that the other four
Speaker 1: players kind of set up for him. I definitely agree
Speaker 1: with him in that. Yeah, I think that's the exact
Speaker 1: term for him, that as a finisher. He's a finisher.
Speaker 1: He's not he's not a creator, so posting him up
Speaker 1: his is not his you know, strong suit. Then I
Speaker 1: think also, um, what do you think of the before
Speaker 1: the before the the season, they released a possible line up.
Speaker 1: I think that was actually better because Roger says that,
Speaker 1: um a b um. You know, Bradie is not a shooter,
Speaker 1: so him being paired with um Ross at h D
Speaker 1: is is not working. It's not going to h D
Speaker 1: is also not going to be respected as a shooter
Speaker 1: as well. But I think the combo of if they're
Speaker 1: going if everyone's healthy again, but then if But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think Allington and Arisa are are the perfect combo
Speaker 1: for a D and Lebron and Ross. They have two
Speaker 1: shooters and on the defensive side, all of those four,
Speaker 1: even Allington can pressure the ball. Yeah, I actually agree
Speaker 1: with you that that Bradley doesn't make as much sense
Speaker 1: with the starters now as he did earlier and earlier
Speaker 1: in the season when um uh you know, when injuries
Speaker 1: kind of forced him to go that route. The other
Speaker 1: thing he was he was he was good tonight. But
Speaker 1: the other problem with a very Bradley over the course
Speaker 1: of the last couple of weeks has been he's a
Speaker 1: little bit too uh trigger happy with with his own offense, uh,
Speaker 1: which which again when you're in a situation where you
Speaker 1: need offense elsewhere on the floor. It makes It's one thing.
Speaker 1: But when when you've got th HD, Russ and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis all healthy and in the lineup, I just it's
Speaker 1: got to be more like tonight where every shot every
Speaker 1: Bradley takes is a three. That's that's relatively open. But
Speaker 1: I'm with you. I think I think I would go
Speaker 1: with Ellington, especially if you're gonna play th HD. Um,
Speaker 1: I'd either go with Ellington and t HD or Ellington
Speaker 1: and Theresa, just because with that particular starting lineup, spacing
Speaker 1: is so critical. Um. But hey, Bond, I really present
Speaker 1: coming on. We're gonna we're gonna get somebody else up here,
Speaker 1: but we'll be back on on Wednesday. But thank you
Speaker 1: for coming up. We appreciate it. Thank you, you appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Um live in Are you there? Oh yeah, I'm here,
Speaker 1: I'm here. You're can you can hear me? Right? Good? Good?
Speaker 1: Are you guys on doing all right? Yeah? Um? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So ah to me, like, it's been really frustrating to
Speaker 1: watch the Lakers this year, Like in terms of like
Speaker 1: I don't even think sometimes I feel like I know
Speaker 1: le Bron has been out for for a little minute now,
Speaker 1: like it's been seven eight games. But I feel like
Speaker 1: just like the effort level on some nights, like you know,
Speaker 1: like the Minnesota game and uh and then this game
Speaker 1: tonight in particular, like their effort level is just like
Speaker 1: it's just not there. And like I don't know what
Speaker 1: they I don't know what the Lakers think. I think
Speaker 1: like I don't know what they think. Teams are just
Speaker 1: gonna like roll over because they have Westbrook and eighty,
Speaker 1: but they're like they're doing literally the opposite. So and
Speaker 1: and also like what really frustrates me sometimes with Frank Vogel,
Speaker 1: like this quote that he had today he said he
Speaker 1: said basically he was like, oh, um, the way Chicago
Speaker 1: double team eighty. Like that's not something we haven't that's
Speaker 1: that's not something we've seen all year, and we're just
Speaker 1: not used to that with this group. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here, like, bro, you get like you're the coach, Bro,
Speaker 1: like you really like you get paid like to make
Speaker 1: these kind of adjustments. Like it's really frustrating sometimes. It's
Speaker 1: like and they were just running back the same play
Speaker 1: eighty eight posts up in the album eight post double team,
Speaker 1: double team, and then like five seconds left on the
Speaker 1: clock and we have like, you know, an ugly like
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley trying to beat someone off the dribble and
Speaker 1: falls down, or like Wayne Allanton has to force up
Speaker 1: a quick three, and it's like, yeah, it's it's kind
Speaker 1: of it's frustrating to watch. And and what I've noticed
Speaker 1: too about the but mellow is that teams have started
Speaker 1: to scout for him, and then the way that they have,
Speaker 1: they weren't earlier in the season. Like even when he
Speaker 1: like when he set screens now and he pops, like
Speaker 1: teams are literally like right there in his jersey and
Speaker 1: they're they're really not. Um, no one's really giving him
Speaker 1: that space anymore. So, but I think, you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of these problems will be will solve when the
Speaker 1: Bron comes back. Um, but even like when le Bron,
Speaker 1: even when le Bron comes back, I just feel like
Speaker 1: their effort level on a on the night to night
Speaker 1: basis needs to be a lot better so we can
Speaker 1: actually build some some continuity, like because it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: we say it's early, but bad habits, like you know,
Speaker 1: like habits take time to build, you know, so I
Speaker 1: just feel like, yeah, that's pretty much I thought will
Speaker 1: making so far. So yeah, the A D double team
Speaker 1: stuff is frustrating because you're right, the coach's job is
Speaker 1: not just to make adjustments before the game, it's to
Speaker 1: make adjustments during the game. I mean, hell, if you
Speaker 1: were playing a pickup game tomorrow and you had a
Speaker 1: guy on your team it was a good post player
Speaker 1: and the other teams started double teaming him and the
Speaker 1: game was slipping away as a result, you don't think
Speaker 1: you guys would kind of address like, hey, doubling off
Speaker 1: of this guy, so maybe this guy should do this.
Speaker 1: And obviously that's a real basic level at a very
Speaker 1: amateur level of basketball. But the point is, it's like
Speaker 1: that same thought process applies here. There's that they should
Speaker 1: have been able to address that in a time out. Hey,
Speaker 1: when when we throw it, when we throw to a
Speaker 1: D in this spot with this guy, they're helping off
Speaker 1: of this guy and they're helping from this angle, what
Speaker 1: should we do and they should have counter set up
Speaker 1: for that. That to me was the frustrating part, But
Speaker 1: it is what it is. At this point, it's it's,
Speaker 1: you know this the problem like a D Frank can
Speaker 1: pretend like this is some brand new doubling scheme that
Speaker 1: threw them off. But the point is is doubling an
Speaker 1: a D post up has been a smart strategy for
Speaker 1: two and a half years and uh, at least with
Speaker 1: me watching him this closely, and so I tend to
Speaker 1: I tend to think that a lot of this is
Speaker 1: just kind of the reality of the Frank and A
Speaker 1: D pairing as as offensive minds approaching those double teams,
Speaker 1: which is unfortunate, but it is what it is. Um.
Speaker 1: In terms of the Mellow stuff, this was inevitable that
Speaker 1: it was going to happen. Coming into tonight. He was
Speaker 1: shooting over sixty six on wide open threes, so it
Speaker 1: was only a matter of time before teams really started
Speaker 1: to scheme up on him and start to take away
Speaker 1: the easy ones. Um. The problem is is Mellow, In
Speaker 1: my opinion, it started to try to fire away anyway,
Speaker 1: which some of that is good because it continues that
Speaker 1: it continues to perpetuate that fear of closing out to
Speaker 1: him because you know he'll fire away. But with Mellow,
Speaker 1: what you gotta do is understand that the difficulty of
Speaker 1: the shots he's taking in the absence of his wide
Speaker 1: open ones suddenly are actually evidence of defensive attention, which
Speaker 1: is a good thing for our offense. The bottom line
Speaker 1: is is like this trend, the trend of a of
Speaker 1: Mellow getting u you know, chased all over the place
Speaker 1: and never being left open, will only help this offense,
Speaker 1: especially when Lebron comes back, because it really is this simple.
Speaker 1: You know, Lebron is going to handle those double teams well.
Speaker 1: Lebron is going to be able to get to the
Speaker 1: rim at a much higher clip than than Russ and
Speaker 1: a D. So you will have two options. You're either
Speaker 1: going to help off of Mellow and and try to
Speaker 1: take away Lebron at the rim, or or in which
Speaker 1: case Lebron is just gonna kick to him all day long,
Speaker 1: or vice versa. You can stay home and let Lebron
Speaker 1: cooking single coverage. That's what you're gonna see a lot
Speaker 1: with these Lebron Ellington Mellow type of lineups. And so,
Speaker 1: I yes, this was bound to happen, but with Mellow,
Speaker 1: you gotta just trust the team concepts, Like, dude, if
Speaker 1: they're if they're blitzing you all over the place, that's
Speaker 1: only good for us. So that that that that's attention,
Speaker 1: that's not being devoted to your better players. He was
Speaker 1: He's the only shooter in the starting lineup to tonight, right,
Speaker 1: just to be fair to him, I mean it was
Speaker 1: it was Ruzz, Bradley, th HD, Mellow and a D
Speaker 1: and the actually just once you trap a D email
Speaker 1: was the only guy they really sticked on. So he
Speaker 1: didn't really get that many open looks and he forced
Speaker 1: it some. I thought some of the post stuffs were okay,
Speaker 1: Like I liked him, went out de Rozan some a
Speaker 1: little bit. Um. I thought he got fouled on a few.
Speaker 1: But you know, Mellow, I think he's gonna He's not
Speaker 1: gonna shoot and open threes, but I think he's gonna
Speaker 1: be like a three point shoot, Like he can be
Speaker 1: that type of shooter. I think I've seen enough volume,
Speaker 1: uh from from Mellow to where I think he'll be
Speaker 1: fine there. And again like the double team stuff, like
Speaker 1: it's annoying game the game. But I think this is
Speaker 1: why the reason you can't do this is because I hope,
Speaker 1: like fingers cross, Lebron is gonna be on the floor
Speaker 1: and so like that's where like this team is again
Speaker 1: going to go through another shift of Like, once you
Speaker 1: get Lebron, none areasa back, You're gonna get a whole
Speaker 1: new team again. So it's frustrating as how to watch.
Speaker 1: I agree with you, hasn't been fun. A lot of
Speaker 1: the games really haven't been fun. We've been blown out,
Speaker 1: We've been close games against bad teams. Hopefully now we
Speaker 1: finally get a good team we escaped. Go to DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan for a lot of this. He's gone now as well.
Speaker 1: It seems like from the rotation, Baysmores out of the rotation.
Speaker 1: So now hopefully when Lebron gets back, we have a
Speaker 1: better team here. And I think tonight this is something
Speaker 1: you can do when Lebron's on the floor. Doesn't mean
Speaker 1: it's not an issue. It's just something I don't see
Speaker 1: being a huge problem for the team going forward. Like
Speaker 1: eight has never been good out of double teams. It's
Speaker 1: just you couldn't double off him. You couldn't do that
Speaker 1: next to Lebron on the floor. But I'm with you,
Speaker 1: like this is super frustrating as hell to watch nightly
Speaker 1: and to talk about honestly every single night. And you
Speaker 1: can never you can never blame everything I effort. I
Speaker 1: would call it third, I put in third it's like
Speaker 1: equal part efforts, equal part personnel, because without Lebron, this
Speaker 1: team actually isn't all that talented. And then equal part coaching.
Speaker 1: I would say those those are the thirds, Like you
Speaker 1: can you can't blame Frank for everything that's happened, you
Speaker 1: can't blame the effort for everything that's happening. You can't
Speaker 1: blame the personnel for everything that's happening. But each of
Speaker 1: those three things play a big, big role in how
Speaker 1: bad this team is. Right now. Alright, guys, this is
Speaker 1: our last this is our last caller for the night.
Speaker 1: I'm getting very tired. I'm gon appreciate you coming up.
Speaker 1: Maniate it, Eric, what's going on? Man? Can you gars? Yep?
Speaker 1: Can you hear me? You can hear you? What's what's
Speaker 1: my dude? What's going on? Hey? You know what's interesting
Speaker 1: about this team, right is that when the roster was constructed,
Speaker 1: I think the construction and the prevailing thought was that
Speaker 1: this team was going to be able to survive the
Speaker 1: non Lebron minutes better than this. Right. So here we are,
Speaker 1: year nineteen, and this team still doesn't survive in Lebron minutes.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of concerning to me at this point
Speaker 1: because I felt like they would do a better job.
Speaker 1: But I think a lot of it is what I've
Speaker 1: been hearing tonight, is like, for example, um, you know,
Speaker 1: the decision making in some parts and then the talking
Speaker 1: and connecting the defense on the others. Like those little
Speaker 1: things that Lebron does that we you know, that we
Speaker 1: kind of take for granted because he's that good, But
Speaker 1: those are those little things that this team is missing
Speaker 1: drastically and it costs us huge runs. Right, And so
Speaker 1: I guess I'm concerned, not because you know, I mean, obviously,
Speaker 1: I know when the Browns on the court, the team
Speaker 1: is going to be much better. But his injuries kind
Speaker 1: of concerned me because, like I've watched him getting nicked
Speaker 1: up a lot over the last couple of years, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, what if he comes back and he doesn't,
Speaker 1: you know, like and he has to miss another chunk
Speaker 1: of games and another chunk of games. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we we gotta we gotta do a better job. I
Speaker 1: think it puts a lot of pressure on Vocal to
Speaker 1: play the right lineups, which he I'm convinced he's just
Speaker 1: not going to do consistently, right, So I think that's
Speaker 1: part of it, and it puts a lot of pressure
Speaker 1: on Russ to be a player he's probably not been. Now.
Speaker 1: I do have confidence he'll get better, right, I do. Um.
Speaker 1: I think he'll have just and over the last few games,
Speaker 1: I've seen him get better in the role at times, right.
Speaker 1: But it really puts the non Lebron minutes. It puts
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on him to be a player
Speaker 1: he's just not been. And so that's a little concerning
Speaker 1: to me. I don't know if you guys were the
Speaker 1: same way I do, But yeah, I mean it's really
Speaker 1: this simple. Russ isn't what everybody thought he was, and
Speaker 1: I'm everyone should have known that going in. But Russ
Speaker 1: is not a you know, massive floor raising superstar the
Speaker 1: way that he was in two thousand and seventeen. Those
Speaker 1: days are gone. They're never coming back. The best version
Speaker 1: of this experience is him being able to be, like
Speaker 1: I said, a better version of Dennis Hruder, a guy
Speaker 1: who can attack in specific matchups against inferior players for
Speaker 1: sure stretches, not a guy who can attack better players
Speaker 1: for long stretches. That's just just not what he's capable
Speaker 1: of to Anthony Davis is not Bubble Anthony Davis. He
Speaker 1: will be, I believe before the end of the season.
Speaker 1: I think he's trending in that direction. And before the
Speaker 1: end of the season he will be Bubble Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: top tier superstar Anthony Davis. But right now he's not.
Speaker 1: And then three, the defense is the defensive identity has gone.
Speaker 1: So with those three things gone, there was never any
Speaker 1: chance in hell that this team would would be able
Speaker 1: to compete without Lebron. That's just a reality. The flip
Speaker 1: side of it is just kind of you know, Lebron
Speaker 1: does so much to impact winning it's hard to quantify,
Speaker 1: Like just just look at the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: He basically plays the Draymond role for this team, and
Speaker 1: in terms of the back line communicator, the back line disruptor,
Speaker 1: the guy who blows up everything in the paint. Taking
Speaker 1: him out of that picture completely fundamentally changes the way
Speaker 1: our defense works. And so that that's just one small
Speaker 1: part of it, not to mention in big moments, he
Speaker 1: can be your best isolation defender. In Game four of
Speaker 1: last year's or Western Conference Finals, he literally shut down
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray in a pivotal playoff game, Like, that's just
Speaker 1: that's not a thing that you used to be able to.
Speaker 1: That's not a thing that you can replicate with team defense.
Speaker 1: That's just at the end of the day, of Lebron
Speaker 1: brings so much. And then that doesn't even get into
Speaker 1: what he does on the offensive end of the floor
Speaker 1: to calm guys down. It's not just about helping a
Speaker 1: d handle double teams. It's not just about taking decision
Speaker 1: making out of Russell Westbrook's hands. It's about you know, um,
Speaker 1: it's about the uh, the leadership on the floor. It's that, hey,
Speaker 1: the wheels are coming off here in the third quarter.
Speaker 1: It's okay, we got Lebron, Like he's going to make
Speaker 1: some plays and get us back into this game. There's
Speaker 1: it's just the list goes on and on. There's just
Speaker 1: so much that he brings to this specific team that
Speaker 1: it's too much to ask them to to be either
Speaker 1: same or a competitive to be an elite product without it.
Speaker 1: But they should be able to be competitive. And that's
Speaker 1: where it gets tricky, is like you think that at
Speaker 1: least they'd be like, hey, guys, we don't have Lebron.
Speaker 1: We should play harder you know, like like you think
Speaker 1: they'd at least be like, hey, Frank would be like, hey,
Speaker 1: we don't have Lebron, I need to take a bigger
Speaker 1: role in our offensive decision making, you know, like those
Speaker 1: kinds of things like those are those are the things
Speaker 1: that I personally would like to see fixed. One last,
Speaker 1: one last thing. There's real quick when you said something
Speaker 1: about bron and it kind of raised another point that
Speaker 1: I forgot about. So the Lakers are not as good
Speaker 1: a rebounding team as they were a year ago or
Speaker 1: even the title year. But Lebron also brings seventy rebounds
Speaker 1: a game, and ironically, the Lakers are losing most rebounding
Speaker 1: battles by about six. So when you add Bronze sevent
Speaker 1: eight rebounds in that swings depends on a lot of
Speaker 1: as more possessions so on, and so they're also upset
Speaker 1: some of these turnowners, right, And so I was thinking
Speaker 1: as I was watching these games, you know, like I
Speaker 1: just I kind of made a point over the last
Speaker 1: i'll say four games to kind of watch some of
Speaker 1: these rebounds, and I staid in myself, Okay, Brian would
Speaker 1: have got that one, right. He would have got that
Speaker 1: that one right, and you know all of us that
Speaker 1: hoop no like especially if you hooped in college and
Speaker 1: know that, like like you know, rebounds normally will dictate
Speaker 1: the winner of the game. Just want to share possession standpoint, Like,
Speaker 1: if you lose the rebounding battle, you're probably going to
Speaker 1: lose the game. And this game, this team loses the
Speaker 1: rebounding battle more often than not. It's not going to
Speaker 1: get killed, like right in the paint. It's those long rebounds.
Speaker 1: But those are the ones bron grabs and takes off
Speaker 1: and starts runs right, And so I think for all
Speaker 1: the things he does that right, there might be literally
Speaker 1: at the top like outside of the being the back
Speaker 1: line defensive connector, is catching those long rebounds. Five of
Speaker 1: those changes the game because now those are potentially points
Speaker 1: going the other way because he starts to break on those.
Speaker 1: That's a that's a good point. Like that's when we
Speaker 1: went to eight at the five, and I think we
Speaker 1: were getting outrebounded when we even had two bigs. But
Speaker 1: you have all these like four guards or you know
Speaker 1: guards in like one wing or just Carmelo finding down
Speaker 1: low when a d comes out and switches um and
Speaker 1: they just lose the rebounding battle every night. I thought
Speaker 1: Chicago got a bunch of them tonight as well. You're right,
Speaker 1: that's something that Lebron can bring as well. Lebron brings
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff, like you said, Jason, and the rebounding.
Speaker 1: I think him being the power forward is super important
Speaker 1: on this team and might even more, might be more
Speaker 1: important defensively than even offensively. Just what this team needs.
Speaker 1: But like they need to find lineups that are successful
Speaker 1: without him, to write like he's not gonna play forty
Speaker 1: eight minutes a game in the regular season or the playoffs. Russ,
Speaker 1: Like Russ is not going to be the floor raiser,
Speaker 1: but like you can see him and a D should
Speaker 1: still be able to man like second units and you know,
Speaker 1: win those lineups when when they're out there. And I
Speaker 1: think you have to kind of acqus lineups to Russ
Speaker 1: put shooting around him with a D at the five
Speaker 1: and that stuff. That's just it's happened here and there,
Speaker 1: that's been in spurts, but just haven't seen it enough.
Speaker 1: Like tonight again, I thought it was just too much
Speaker 1: non spacing around Russ and a D and that's just
Speaker 1: not gonna work for him. Like and with a D
Speaker 1: as well. You saw them able to double off them.
Speaker 1: But you're right, Lebron is gonna come back. The rebounds
Speaker 1: is huge. We've been losing the rebounding battle. A D
Speaker 1: has been having to having to do a ton out
Speaker 1: there defensively. He has to switch out to the guards
Speaker 1: and try to get back and defensive rebound and try
Speaker 1: to dominate dophins and boards. So there's a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff on his plate as well. But yeah, Lebron coming
Speaker 1: back picked is a lot of stuff. But I do
Speaker 1: think Russ and a D still have to find units
Speaker 1: where they're successful without him, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 1: because this team is not going to go very far
Speaker 1: if they're just they just get demolished in the non
Speaker 1: lebronminance the way they have been this season. The rebound
Speaker 1: the rebounding thing is not overly complicated. We're small. We're small.
Speaker 1: Uh is not enough size a D and Lebron as
Speaker 1: the four or five is plenty of size. That's where
Speaker 1: it gets That's where it gets tricky is taking Lebron
Speaker 1: out of the picture. It's basically four guards in a
Speaker 1: D or three guards mellow and a D at any
Speaker 1: given moment. That's that those are lineup rebounding is absolutely
Speaker 1: gonna be a problem with those groups. Um avage, I
Speaker 1: thought you brought up something super interesting and uh, it's
Speaker 1: the last thought I'd like to share tonight, is this
Speaker 1: idea that like asking you should be able to ask
Speaker 1: Russ and a D to carry you for these stretches.
Speaker 1: I agree with you, And that's the key difference between
Speaker 1: doing it in the context of Lebron available in the
Speaker 1: context of Lebron unavailable. We've had plenty of stretches over
Speaker 1: the course of this you know, five or six game
Speaker 1: stretch without Lebron where um, where the team has looked
Speaker 1: good for short periods of time. Um. It's but in
Speaker 1: the highest leverage moments they seem to struggle, right or
Speaker 1: against the best and the best lineups, they seem to struggle.
Speaker 1: And that's just the reality the situation. You can ask
Speaker 1: Russ and a D to carry you for the final
Speaker 1: three minutes of the first quarter, and for two minutes
Speaker 1: in the middle of the second quarter, and for another
Speaker 1: four minutes at the end of the third quarter, and
Speaker 1: for maybe a minute in the fourth quarter. You can't
Speaker 1: ask them to do it for whole games. They're just
Speaker 1: not good enough for all the reasons that I laid
Speaker 1: out earlier in the show. So the point is, Raj,
Speaker 1: what you brought up that makes it so that to
Speaker 1: have like a little bit more of a silver lining
Speaker 1: is like Russ and a D are showing you right
Speaker 1: now that they're not good enough to do this for
Speaker 1: whole games. But we don't need them to do it
Speaker 1: for whole games, and we don't need them against the
Speaker 1: best lineups, against starters for good teams, against closing groups
Speaker 1: for good teams. Lebron will be out there, so that
Speaker 1: that that should be the one thing to help us
Speaker 1: kind of exhale a little bit. Here is the idea
Speaker 1: that you know, it shouldn't We won't have to ask
Speaker 1: these guys to do this much when push comes to shove,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, when Lebron comes back. That's just the
Speaker 1: reality of the situation. Yep, that's that's fair. I just
Speaker 1: I still want to see a little bit more from
Speaker 1: those lineups, like we're in like the fights with bad
Speaker 1: teams still, and I feel like I think vote I
Speaker 1: think Vocal has a lot to do with that too, though,
Speaker 1: Like I think I think that's what I was saying,
Speaker 1: like when Lebron's and out there, it puts a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure on Vogo to play the right lineups, and
Speaker 1: I think Vogo has just shown he's just not going
Speaker 1: to do it. And I don't think it's that Vogos dumb.
Speaker 1: I think I have a theory that coaches are very
Speaker 1: stubborn and and the way the coaches, right, and the
Speaker 1: way coaches make their imprint on teams is either by
Speaker 1: the way of their system or their rootations, and that's
Speaker 1: their way of being able to say they did it
Speaker 1: their way, because the reality is the NBA is a
Speaker 1: players league, right, So I'm not gonna say coaches have
Speaker 1: no use. They do, but for the most part, the
Speaker 1: players are going to dictate how it goes. So either
Speaker 1: by way of system or by way of rotations, that's
Speaker 1: how coaches are gonna make their imprint on the game.
Speaker 1: Vocal sees all the stuff that we talk about, like
Speaker 1: the like there. He's a smart guy, like he knows
Speaker 1: all this stuff. But his way of making his imprint
Speaker 1: on this team is by way of his substitutions in
Speaker 1: his system, so like his two big line ups or
Speaker 1: his Rondo Russ or whatever, like when that's if that
Speaker 1: stuff ultimately works, Vocal gets credit like he did the
Speaker 1: title year, right, you know, we complained about the two
Speaker 1: bigs or a year, but they won because they you know,
Speaker 1: they led the league black shots into So that's what
Speaker 1: That's how Vocal makes his imprint. So I don't think
Speaker 1: it's that he's stupid. I think he's that he's stubborn
Speaker 1: and the problem is the way this team is constructed,
Speaker 1: it really and especially with brown out, it's really critical
Speaker 1: that he plays the right lineups. But stubborn and making
Speaker 1: his imprint is not going to allow him to do that.
Speaker 1: So I think we're just gonna take els in the
Speaker 1: in the non Bron moments, and I think that's just
Speaker 1: the way that's gonna be. And you know, once again
Speaker 1: Renness in his situation where Bron is gonna be the
Speaker 1: fixer in the end all be all, and I just
Speaker 1: hope he stays healthy enough long enough to be able
Speaker 1: to do that. That's my biggest concern, to man, that's
Speaker 1: my biggest concern to I mean, it's just this this
Speaker 1: add thing was really weird. Was the first is the
Speaker 1: first time in my time being a fan of him
Speaker 1: where I was like well, this is an old guy injury,
Speaker 1: but you know so, yeah it is. It is what
Speaker 1: it is. But um, you know, Eric, we appreciates you
Speaker 1: coming on in as always. I don't know about you guys,
Speaker 1: but I'm ready to call it to night. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be bad. Wednesday is an early one rights five thirty start.
Speaker 1: Thank four thirty for you, Rush, I remember correctly, I believe.
Speaker 1: So they play in Milwaukee, if I'm correct, Lakers are. Yes,
Speaker 1: they're in Milwaukee four thirty start here in southern California,
Speaker 1: Arizona time. But I'm looking forward to that one. That's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of fun. I had a feeling
Speaker 1: Lebron would come back tonight, and then I was let
Speaker 1: down when I saw Dave mcmanimon's report, and then I
Speaker 1: saw the Instagram story of him doing cardio, which you
Speaker 1: never do cardio on a game day. So I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's not playing to night, but I have a feeling
Speaker 1: he'll be coming back soon, hopefully for that Wednesday game.
Speaker 1: Milwaukee's a little banged up, so it's definitely a game
Speaker 1: that is, like you would say, RAJ winnable. Um, but
Speaker 1: if they come in there with the same crap they're
Speaker 1: gonna get beat, so it'll definitely definitely be a good one.
Speaker 1: But thank you guys so much for coming to hang out.
Speaker 1: This will aeron dash Radio tomorrow morning at seven am
Speaker 1: Pacific Standard time. It will be on our podcast feed
Speaker 1: here in about twenty minutes. As always, we sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys, and we will be back in a couple
Speaker 1: of days. Thank you.