Speaker 1: Mmmm, Welcome to the State of the Lakers post game show.
Speaker 1: Happy Friday night, everybody. I hope you're all having UM,
Speaker 1: getting ready for a good, fun weekend. Lakers, sticking with
Speaker 1: the theme, decided to have another super bizarre, super strange game.
Speaker 1: Um My, guy raje is pulling a Draymond. He is
Speaker 1: calling from the parking lot after the loss. Um he is.
Speaker 1: He is making time for us after the game. He
Speaker 1: was there in the buildings that he'll be able to
Speaker 1: give us a little extra perspective on just how terrible
Speaker 1: the effort was. UM. Quick context here. The Lakers, you know, obviously,
Speaker 1: in addition to being down a bunch of bodies from injury,
Speaker 1: also had just had a couple of really, really tough games. Um.
Speaker 1: With Lebron out, it just takes so much more physically
Speaker 1: from this team to be able to win. And obviously
Speaker 1: with those two super competitive games with the overtimes, it's
Speaker 1: not entirely uncommon for a team to come out flat
Speaker 1: or to come out looking good but then to run
Speaker 1: out of gas. Um. However, that was borderline a quick
Speaker 1: job there in the second half. I thought there was
Speaker 1: such a large chasm in effort between the two teams.
Speaker 1: Our guy, uh Cranes, who's my favorite, Uh you know
Speaker 1: statistical analysts that that covers d NBA right now. He
Speaker 1: sent out a tweet a few games ago saying, like,
Speaker 1: it's amazing how quick people are to blame effort for
Speaker 1: the Lakers struggles, and that is true to a lot
Speaker 1: of to a large extent because of their personnel shortcomings,
Speaker 1: which we've talked about so much on the show, like, hey,
Speaker 1: it's really hard to run hottern NBA defensive coverages without forwards,
Speaker 1: Like that's it's not something you can play hard your
Speaker 1: way through in a lot in a lot of ways. However,
Speaker 1: I thought tonight it was just an effort thing, Like
Speaker 1: tonight was one of those nights where the effort was
Speaker 1: the primary driving force behind the wheels coming off. UM. So, rog,
Speaker 1: what was it like there in the building? What was
Speaker 1: what was your initial takeaway from um from just just
Speaker 1: how bad things went there in the second half. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: like being at the game, being at being at Stable Center,
Speaker 1: you can kind of feel all of the energy the
Speaker 1: crowd trying to give the energy to the team, And
Speaker 1: in the first half I thought it was working pretty well. Honestly,
Speaker 1: Like I thought Russ was just having an okay floor game.
Speaker 1: I thought A d was incredible, and I'm over here
Speaker 1: in my seat like taking notes, you know, I'm like
Speaker 1: call eight, you know, nice help there, switched on, switched off,
Speaker 1: and Carl Anthony Towns and still switched on Edwards. And
Speaker 1: then that third I went to go get a drink.
Speaker 1: I went back in my seat, and that third quarter
Speaker 1: it was just hell, like the whole and again like
Speaker 1: not just to blame it all on effort, but like
Speaker 1: you could definitely see the body language being up close
Speaker 1: of all the players. Once like those open three started
Speaker 1: to miss and then called Anthony Towns when kind of
Speaker 1: berserk with his shooting, and the defense really dropped off again.
Speaker 1: Like it's not all effort. I don't think you can
Speaker 1: lose a third quarter forty to twelve and just blame
Speaker 1: it all in effort, because at some point you're getting
Speaker 1: your ass kick and there's something has to change there.
Speaker 1: But Minnesota just kept pushing in. We just couldn't get
Speaker 1: any stops. We got really lethargic. All those fighting over
Speaker 1: ball stream stopped um. All that trying to fight through
Speaker 1: and try to contain guards all stopped. Anthony Edwards got
Speaker 1: wherever he wanted. It opened up shooters, Um Karl Anthony Towns,
Speaker 1: like I said, started hitting. He was going one on
Speaker 1: one and a d a lot, and I was fine
Speaker 1: with that. In the first half and the second half
Speaker 1: his jumper just started to go and you could tell
Speaker 1: it excited them. I'm not sure, like at least in person,
Speaker 1: just seeing Minnesota going on that run, it just felt
Speaker 1: like they just couldn't. They just could not stop them
Speaker 1: at all, no matter what happened. And then obviously effort
Speaker 1: kind of went into that. We missed open shots. Carmelo
Speaker 1: was super cold, his first kind of ice cold Staples game,
Speaker 1: I guess. I know, just being in the building, you
Speaker 1: could tell the fans get kind of tired of it.
Speaker 1: There's a little bit of a booing there in the
Speaker 1: third quarter, especially when the league got really league got
Speaker 1: really big. But that was the most initial take. My
Speaker 1: biggest take, I guess was being there and seeing all
Speaker 1: the guys who are injured on the bench, you know,
Speaker 1: seeing Lebron next to Thht, next to a reason, next
Speaker 1: to none, and then Austin Reeves behind them looking like
Speaker 1: assistant coach uh sitting on the back behind the players.
Speaker 1: That was kind of the thing that kind of popped out.
Speaker 1: How many players are out, But that's no excuse to
Speaker 1: get you know, almost forty piece tonight by Minnesota. But
Speaker 1: that was the takeaways being there, I guess being in
Speaker 1: the building, Um, the fans were kind of tired of it.
Speaker 1: They were tired of the energy in that third and
Speaker 1: I thought you could really feel them. Uh the booze
Speaker 1: weren't loud enough. There were definitely people starting to boom
Speaker 1: that third, you know, fans. I was actually talking about
Speaker 1: this with one of my friends on Twitter earlier today,
Speaker 1: this idea that you know, the most unlikable trade in
Speaker 1: all of sports is inconsistent effort, you know, like that's why,
Speaker 1: that's why we always get naturally drawn to guys like
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves or like Alex Caruso. It's you know, it's
Speaker 1: not because they're the the white guy that can jump
Speaker 1: a little bit. It's because they play really hard all
Speaker 1: the time. It's the most likable trade in all of sports.
Speaker 1: It's no same reason why Gary Payton Jr. Is Is
Speaker 1: building such a cult following with Golden State fans. It's
Speaker 1: this this guy checks in the game and you can
Speaker 1: depend on him to just sell his soul on every
Speaker 1: play to try to make something happen for his team.
Speaker 1: And so I don't necessarily blame the fans for getting upset. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I don't like the idea of booing necessarily, uh, in
Speaker 1: the middle of a random regular season game. But you
Speaker 1: know where I thought, where I thought things got off
Speaker 1: the rail got off the rails has to do with
Speaker 1: this concept of comfort in basketball. It's actually something that
Speaker 1: I'm trying to sell it to the high school kids
Speaker 1: and I'm coaching right now. This this idea that if
Speaker 1: you from the opening tip in a game really really
Speaker 1: apply ball pressure, like intense ball pressure, then even the
Speaker 1: best of players in the world, even if they are
Speaker 1: capable of getting to their spots and making some shots
Speaker 1: here and there, they're gonna be largely uncomfortable during the game.
Speaker 1: And uh, there's a reason why Karl Anthony Towns gets going.
Speaker 1: It starts making a bunch of threes. And there's a
Speaker 1: reason why D'angela Russell gets going and starts hitting. Every
Speaker 1: time they go, you know, under a pick and roll
Speaker 1: or get caught on the screen, it's because they get comfortable.
Speaker 1: And when you allow good basketball players to be comfortable,
Speaker 1: especially ones that are as talented as these guys are.
Speaker 1: They're just going to get hot eventually. It's like guaranteed
Speaker 1: to happen, you know, when you when you pull a
Speaker 1: random Steph Curry game and you organize all the field
Speaker 1: goal percentages from the highest the lowest, chances are if
Speaker 1: you watch the tape, the ones where he's lower are
Speaker 1: going to be the ones where the teams do a
Speaker 1: better job of making him feel uncomfortable, and the ones
Speaker 1: where he's higher are going to be the ones where
Speaker 1: the teams didn't apply a lot of ball pressure, didn't
Speaker 1: apply a lot of physical, you know, pressure off the
Speaker 1: ball that to make him feel uncomfortable as the game
Speaker 1: is progressing. And that's not just a Steph thing. That's
Speaker 1: with every star, And I thought that's what happens to night.
Speaker 1: And the reason why it got so out of hand
Speaker 1: is on the other end of the floor, the Wolves
Speaker 1: did a fantastic job applying ball pressure. Even Anthony Davis's
Speaker 1: jump shots that he was taking were far more contested
Speaker 1: than the ones Karl Anthony Towns was taken, which is
Speaker 1: wild when you consider the gap between the two of
Speaker 1: them as shooters. They were up in up in russ
Speaker 1: you know, Pat Beverley was applying ball pressure as the
Speaker 1: ball was being brought up the floor. You know, on
Speaker 1: every catch they were bumping you off balance. There were
Speaker 1: a bunch of players where Anthony Davis would start on
Speaker 1: the block and come off of like a pin down
Speaker 1: or something to try to catch at the elbow. And
Speaker 1: when you would catch at the elbow, you'd have to
Speaker 1: like extend to the ball and quick twist and get
Speaker 1: his hips around to shield the defender, because the defenders
Speaker 1: just right there, like right in his shorts, trying to
Speaker 1: make him feel uncomfortable. And so you know, that sort
Speaker 1: of thing I thought manifested in that third quarter to
Speaker 1: the Lakers feeling deeply uncomfortable, which caused them to because
Speaker 1: they were lazy and out of you know, because their
Speaker 1: legs weren't there because they were fatigued from what's spent
Speaker 1: a long week. They then resorted to settling for jump shots.
Speaker 1: And that's that can't happen with that a D at
Speaker 1: the five lineup, But the d s at the five
Speaker 1: that needs to be a dribble drive attack type of offense.
Speaker 1: And there just was no rim pressure there was none
Speaker 1: of that because they were uncomfortable and because they were fatigued.
Speaker 1: But I want to give Minnesota a lot of credit
Speaker 1: because they simply outplayed the Lakers, particularly at the point
Speaker 1: of attack anytime anybody had the ball, in terms of
Speaker 1: just the level of discomfort they were afflicting on their opponent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like in person, you can really tell Minnesota was super
Speaker 1: physical to start this game, especially at the point of attack.
Speaker 1: We started Wayne Ellington, another non ball handler, Avery Bradley
Speaker 1: as well, right, not like a ball handler. Even Russ,
Speaker 1: they made it difficult for him. They were super physical early.
Speaker 1: I thought that's why we really couldn't score. It was
Speaker 1: a super low scoring first quarter, I believe. I think
Speaker 1: in the second quarter we picked it up a little bit.
Speaker 1: But yeah, they did a great job there. But I mean,
Speaker 1: like there's a difference between like what the other team
Speaker 1: does and what you yourself can do to control it. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: It's just that third quarter to me was more on
Speaker 1: the Lakers and than what anything Minnesota was doing to me.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you're right. To start that game, they did
Speaker 1: a great job being physical. I thought a d gets
Speaker 1: pushed out of his spots a lot um and they
Speaker 1: did that again tonight. Towns was super physical down though.
Speaker 1: I thought he had a great first quarter though. He
Speaker 1: was running the floor, catching lobs um, you know, dominating
Speaker 1: inside with the offensive rebounds. But like this offense where
Speaker 1: we're just doing these trible handoffs, like it looks super
Speaker 1: it looks even uglier in person, I just wish they
Speaker 1: went straight russ a D pick and roll. To ask
Speaker 1: you about rust because I thought tonight I looked at
Speaker 1: his you know, his box score at halftime wasn't great.
Speaker 1: It was like seven points I think three assists or
Speaker 1: something like that. He got a lot of it in
Speaker 1: garbage time tonight, which doesn't really afflict reflect his uh
Speaker 1: his stats from from tonight, but just how did it
Speaker 1: look on TV? I guess because in person, I thought
Speaker 1: he was playing a pretty good, uh floor game, like
Speaker 1: he wasn't forcing things. I think he took his first
Speaker 1: three like with like six minutes left in the third,
Speaker 1: if I'm correct, I think it was only like one
Speaker 1: or two threes um, but they were all late in
Speaker 1: the second half. I thought he was trying to find eighty,
Speaker 1: trying to force it into him. They had nice actions
Speaker 1: where they got Wayne Ellenking a bunch of looks. He
Speaker 1: wasn't mind positive for tonight. I guess we can save
Speaker 1: the positives for a little later. This is more of
Speaker 1: a negative kind of game. But what you kind of
Speaker 1: see from Russ because I feel like in that first
Speaker 1: half I thought he was doing okay um and then
Speaker 1: that third quarter he was a big part of the
Speaker 1: just let's just stop caring anymore. After Minnesota I think
Speaker 1: went up nine, and basically the Lakers just they decided
Speaker 1: to pack it in as pretty much as a team,
Speaker 1: as a group effort, the whole team kind of packed
Speaker 1: it in. But what did you see from rest of night?
Speaker 1: I thought Russ was fantastic. In the first half. He
Speaker 1: did an outstanding job of applying rim pressure and creating
Speaker 1: high qualitum shots, which is something that doesn't always show
Speaker 1: up on the box score, especially when you have multiple
Speaker 1: shooters on the floor and the defense will do a
Speaker 1: good job of rotating on the first pass, but fall
Speaker 1: apart on the second or third pass and you'll get
Speaker 1: a good shot out of it. You know, This is
Speaker 1: something that I talked a lot about in the last pod,
Speaker 1: This idea that if you allow it Russ to play
Speaker 1: in space to start the game with a D at
Speaker 1: the five, he'll get a couple of easy baskets early
Speaker 1: in the game that will give him the confidence to
Speaker 1: channel that throughout the rest of the game. And he
Speaker 1: really did for most of the first half, for really
Speaker 1: the entire first half, he was especially after that first stretch,
Speaker 1: after his first stint when he got in um in
Speaker 1: the second quarter, he was doing an outstanding job of
Speaker 1: just beating guys off the ribble and making that kickout
Speaker 1: pass to whether it was baysed More on the wing
Speaker 1: or whether it was Monk on the wing or whether
Speaker 1: it was Mellow on the wing, and then those guys
Speaker 1: would make simple little close out reads out of that,
Speaker 1: and it all looked really good. But for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: in the third quarter, he just wasn't getting to the rim.
Speaker 1: And it's hard to say what caused that. I'd have
Speaker 1: to go back and look at the film. Obviously, you
Speaker 1: know our you know, a friend from La far Darius Oriano,
Speaker 1: believes it's associated with fatigue and the fact that they've
Speaker 1: had a long week and the fact that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: when you have an older team like this, they're just
Speaker 1: more susceptible to that kind of thing. But I think
Speaker 1: it was a combination of both. Like you know, I
Speaker 1: think you'd like to, in theory see that type of
Speaker 1: fatigue manifest more in shots not following, because then at
Speaker 1: least you can trust the process, Right, Like, if we're
Speaker 1: running good stuff and we're driving and kicking and we
Speaker 1: got good motion and we're kicking to shooters and they're
Speaker 1: just missing shots, at least then you can say, hey,
Speaker 1: we we we had good process. The results just weren't there.
Speaker 1: But that same drivel penetration that was there in the
Speaker 1: first half was not there in the second half. And
Speaker 1: that's the best way to get out of a slump
Speaker 1: or to get out of a bad run like that, right,
Speaker 1: you know, I always talk about how when you're when
Speaker 1: you're in adversity, you have to fall back on your habits,
Speaker 1: right when when the other team has it going and
Speaker 1: you don't, the only way to flip the script is
Speaker 1: to fall back on good habits that you've established. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, like I said earlier, if Karl Anthony Towns
Speaker 1: has made a couple of threes in D'angela, Russell has
Speaker 1: made a couple of threes, or Anthony Edwards has made
Speaker 1: a couple of threes. All you can do, all you
Speaker 1: can hope to to turn that tide is to make
Speaker 1: them feel uncomfortable. They might make a couple more if
Speaker 1: they're still hot, but if you continue to make them
Speaker 1: feel uncomfortable and you continue to play solid defense, they
Speaker 1: will start missing, because every player in the history of
Speaker 1: basketball will eventually start missing if you play solid defense
Speaker 1: on them. And then on the other end, same thing. Okay,
Speaker 1: if you miss the three, that's fine. Did you have
Speaker 1: good process? Was it just swinging around on the perimeter
Speaker 1: and a guy just jacking the first time he had
Speaker 1: an into breathing room or was it a paint touch.
Speaker 1: Did you get the ball into the paint and they
Speaker 1: kick it out. The difference between those two is, if
Speaker 1: you're driving into the paint and kicking it out, chances
Speaker 1: are the shooter is already squared up to the rim.
Speaker 1: Chances are the shooter doesn't have to do anything weird
Speaker 1: with his vision to find the rim because he's already
Speaker 1: looking at the rim, And chances are he's balanced and
Speaker 1: has his momentum moving towards the basket, and it's probably
Speaker 1: a higher quality shot. That process just got so jacked
Speaker 1: up in the second half, they let Minnesota stay comfortable,
Speaker 1: and on the other end, they were not generating the
Speaker 1: same quality shots that they were in the first half,
Speaker 1: and a couple that with the effort falling off, and
Speaker 1: what you have is a forty twelve quarter. But to
Speaker 1: answer your question, Russ looked great, just like everyone looked great.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis was better than Carl Anthony Downs in the
Speaker 1: first half, but in this but in the second half,
Speaker 1: Carl Anthony Towns was many, many, many levels better than
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. And Russell Westperk completely fell apart and everybody
Speaker 1: fell apart, and that's out went. So I mean, take
Speaker 1: take from that what you want. It's a highly unusual
Speaker 1: game in that respect, because there was some real good
Speaker 1: in that first half. I thought the Lakers on several
Speaker 1: different occasions had a chance to get it up to
Speaker 1: double digits and they just couldn't make a couple of
Speaker 1: plays here and there. But it's definitely a funky one
Speaker 1: in that respect. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to
Speaker 1: throw this whole game out as negative. Sometimes these third
Speaker 1: quarters do happen. I don't like that it's kind of
Speaker 1: become a theme a little bit like they had a okay,
Speaker 1: see had a big run on us twice actually again
Speaker 1: tonight against Minnesota. But I was like in my notes,
Speaker 1: like the first play of the game where we scored
Speaker 1: our first field goal was you know, they had an
Speaker 1: a D. Russ pick and roll, and then since the
Speaker 1: pain was empty, Russ was able to get to the
Speaker 1: basket get a layup and then another one. I think
Speaker 1: he had Dwight Howard on the floor with him as
Speaker 1: the only big He got to the rim and got
Speaker 1: a lay up, and he was he looked really comfortable
Speaker 1: attack in the rim and that way, and that's why
Speaker 1: we start eighty at the five to get him comfortable.
Speaker 1: But like, I don't know, I'm kind of in between
Speaker 1: this where like Russ has to play his game and
Speaker 1: also we kind of need his counting stats with Lebron out,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like that's where I was
Speaker 1: wrestling with during the game live. I looked up, I'm like,
Speaker 1: we're playing really well. We're up five, but Russ has
Speaker 1: like seven points, three assist And in my head, like
Speaker 1: I thought we were playing well at half time, but
Speaker 1: I was just thinking, like that's not sustainable for us
Speaker 1: right now with the talent we have like he needs
Speaker 1: to produce at a more at a higher level um
Speaker 1: and that's kind of how the game went. He continued
Speaker 1: to kind of stay at that seventy point kind of
Speaker 1: it kind of stayed at that point level, and then
Speaker 1: Minnesota went on and went on their run. We had
Speaker 1: a super cold stretch and maybe you just throw that
Speaker 1: third quarter out to fatigue, But it just happens too
Speaker 1: often for me to just throw it out because they
Speaker 1: played an overtime game a couple of days ago. Like
Speaker 1: these offensive droughts happened way too often for me. And
Speaker 1: maybe that's just a function of the offense. Maybe that's
Speaker 1: a function of Lebron not playing our guards out. But
Speaker 1: it is happening a little bit uh to often for
Speaker 1: me to just just throw this as effort. But you know,
Speaker 1: if the team's not caring, like it wasn't definitely a
Speaker 1: combination of like the lineup, the team not caring, and
Speaker 1: Minnesota getting hot. It was like a perfect storm. That's
Speaker 1: not an excuse for them, it's just what I saw live,
Speaker 1: and I saw the body language completely dropped there in
Speaker 1: that in that third quarter, and some of the lineups
Speaker 1: in that second half, like the rondo Westbrook um A
Speaker 1: D and Dwight lineups were just head scratching to me,
Speaker 1: maybe vocal just experimenting, but yeah, Like it's tough to
Speaker 1: take from games like this, like if both of us
Speaker 1: like to go back and rewatch games and the third quarter, Like,
Speaker 1: I just don't know what you do with that kind
Speaker 1: of that kind of film, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like do you just throw that out? Do you only
Speaker 1: take the first half from here? Because they tried in
Speaker 1: the first half, you know what I mean. Like it's tough.
Speaker 1: Even when I'm there at the game, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're down twelve, but this game is over. Like I
Speaker 1: could just feel where the game was going. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of how this one went. I guess. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would throw out the film too. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: what can you learn about strategy when there's not effort
Speaker 1: behind it to support it, you know you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? And you know you like to your point
Speaker 1: about Russ and his aggression. I can't fault the guy
Speaker 1: when I've been begging him all year to make basketball reads,
Speaker 1: like real basketball reads, like reading the teens, and the
Speaker 1: defense was collapsing when he would drive to the rim.
Speaker 1: What I don't remember. And again, I'd have to go
Speaker 1: back and look at the film, but I don't remember
Speaker 1: a play or rush robe into the paint and passed
Speaker 1: on a driving lane, or passed on an opportunity to
Speaker 1: get all the way to the rim just to force
Speaker 1: it to some shooter on the wing. He was just
Speaker 1: making reads and that's that's all we that's all we
Speaker 1: can ask him to do. But you did make a
Speaker 1: really interesting point about their effort, because, like you said,
Speaker 1: if this was a one off, if this was a
Speaker 1: team that had consistent effort and for whatever reason it
Speaker 1: just didn't materialize tonight, then you could fall back and say, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, this is just one of those nights. But
Speaker 1: as we've talked about, this team kind of has an identity,
Speaker 1: and not the good kind. This team has an identity
Speaker 1: in that they are inconsistent with their effort. They have
Speaker 1: an identity in that they are inconsistent in their willingness
Speaker 1: to do the dirty work, in their willingness to physically
Speaker 1: put their imprint on the game. You know, like Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, uh, He'll go through these five
Speaker 1: ten minutes stretches where he's just absolutely manhandling everybody on
Speaker 1: the floor and there's nothing anybody can do with them.
Speaker 1: But then he'll go through a five minute stretch where
Speaker 1: he's kind of just floating around, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So when that happens in a pivotal moment, are we
Speaker 1: going to sit there and say, you know, well, I
Speaker 1: think Davis just had a bad five minute stretch, or
Speaker 1: are you gonna sit there and say, like, this is
Speaker 1: kind of like what he does? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: That's that That's that's what happens. What you know, the
Speaker 1: best indicator of future performances past performance. So if I
Speaker 1: told you that over the course of the next ten games,
Speaker 1: the Lakers were going to have three games where they
Speaker 1: brought absolutely trash effort and they lost to a team
Speaker 1: they probably should have beat, would you be surprised or
Speaker 1: would that just be more of what this team has
Speaker 1: kind of established as who they are, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? And that's the that's the concerning part to me.
Speaker 1: And that's you know, again, like we've talked about this
Speaker 1: in a bunch of different ways or throughout the season,
Speaker 1: like is it related to coaching and buy in? I
Speaker 1: don't know. If you ask me gun to my head, Like,
Speaker 1: do these players seem to be committed to doing the
Speaker 1: job the way that they used to be under Frank
Speaker 1: in the previous two seasons. No, they absolutely are not.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if that's a coaching thing, or
Speaker 1: if it's just a personnel thing, or if it's just
Speaker 1: a These are the we mixed up with some different
Speaker 1: different personalities in the locker room, and these personalities are
Speaker 1: less consistent with their focus and effort. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I genuinely don't know. Um. I can have a theory,
Speaker 1: you know. My theory is that this group isn't bought
Speaker 1: into Frank for whatever reason. But that's not founded on evidence.
Speaker 1: That's just a theory, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: it's hard to say. But but you're I'm glad you
Speaker 1: pointed at that out rage because that's so important. Like this,
Speaker 1: this is not Lakers happened to drop a couple of
Speaker 1: games in a row around Christmas because they just kind
Speaker 1: of were in a little bit of a funk. No,
Speaker 1: this has been the story of the season for this team.
Speaker 1: You know. The differences is when you do it to
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, you still have a chance to win at
Speaker 1: the end and maybe you'll get lucky. But when you
Speaker 1: do it against a team that's half decent, against a
Speaker 1: team that has some all star level talent on the floor,
Speaker 1: they will blow your freaking doors off. Man and and
Speaker 1: and that's what happened. Yeah, in Minnesota's like they haven't
Speaker 1: played well the last few games, but they're a real team.
Speaker 1: Like they're a solid, you know, offensive lane, a team
Speaker 1: that can really break you. And while I was watching
Speaker 1: the game, I'm like, man, and again, I want to
Speaker 1: give a D credit at least for the first half,
Speaker 1: because I thought it was absolutely absurd. Um. Again, he's
Speaker 1: surrounded by a lot of you know, below average guards.
Speaker 1: Um when watching Rondo Ellington Monk all out that together
Speaker 1: next to a D and he has to clean up
Speaker 1: all of that. I don't know how fair that is,
Speaker 1: like for him, I guess to do that all game
Speaker 1: that that's really tiring, switching out helping here, you know,
Speaker 1: blocking here, Um, a lot of like blocks at the
Speaker 1: RAM while also switching out to Anthony Edwards. And we
Speaker 1: just play a lot of like defensive a lot of
Speaker 1: low out, low blow average defensive guards. And maybe that's
Speaker 1: just what's gonna happen right now. Like I thought, Malik
Speaker 1: Monk and Wayne Ellington, we're fine defensively in that first half,
Speaker 1: but maybe just expecting that for a full game is
Speaker 1: just not realistic. Also, a Monk was super cold today. Uh,
Speaker 1: get a couple of shots go in, but I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, missed a lot of open ones our guards
Speaker 1: man in transition, Like if it's not Russ or Lebron
Speaker 1: leading the break, it's just an absolute adventure even in person.
Speaker 1: Some of the passes when Avery Bradley, Malik, Monk, Baysmore
Speaker 1: trying to run transition, just a lot of wild stuff
Speaker 1: with our guards And maybe that's just a factor of
Speaker 1: getting our shot creators back against staring at th Ht
Speaker 1: and Lebron on the bench. The whole game was kind
Speaker 1: of sad watching us, you know, babble balls all out
Speaker 1: all over the floor. But yeah, like I don't know,
Speaker 1: like this team is not gonna be able to be
Speaker 1: a top you know five defensive team. I think they
Speaker 1: were going in the right direction. They were playing well,
Speaker 1: and I was hoping that Miami game was something to
Speaker 1: kind of build off of, and I thought that's what
Speaker 1: that first half was. So if you want to throw
Speaker 1: out the second half and if you want to just build,
Speaker 1: and that's not how basketball works at all, obviously, But
Speaker 1: if you just pilled from that Miami game to like
Speaker 1: the first half of tonight, there's something there. But you
Speaker 1: know this, the second halfs like, like you said, I've
Speaker 1: just been happening too often where we just lay down,
Speaker 1: Like I understand, we're out four or five guys. That
Speaker 1: makes sense. That doesn't give you the right to be
Speaker 1: forty piece five Minnesota, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: they were way too comfortable and there's got to be
Speaker 1: some kind of competitiveness there that kicks in. And maybe
Speaker 1: that's just a lack of that that's combined with the
Speaker 1: lack of defensive identity, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: those two are kind of intertwined in a way. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like this is where we're gonna keep seeing. Man,
Speaker 1: I think we play we play Chicago next. I think Okay, okay, yes,
Speaker 1: the Spurs and Spurs and the president of the team
Speaker 1: a good team. They're not, you know, they're not a
Speaker 1: they might not make the playoffs, but they're just a
Speaker 1: solid team that comes with the baseline level of effort
Speaker 1: every game that you have to be ready for as well,
Speaker 1: so like I don't know, like maybe this is just
Speaker 1: what we're gonna get until the healthy guys comes back. Um,
Speaker 1: but you know, there's no real word on when that is.
Speaker 1: So that's why I'm kind of tired of just using
Speaker 1: that as an excuse. And DeAndre jordan't even played tonight,
Speaker 1: like the skate Coat didn't even play to night either,
Speaker 1: so you can't even blame him for this. So this
Speaker 1: is a yeah, this is just a trash effor in
Speaker 1: the second half, and maybe that's all it is. Maybe
Speaker 1: we're over analyzing that, but I don't think that's acceptable
Speaker 1: with it. No, I I agree, I you know, I
Speaker 1: like I said, I have no problem with the fans
Speaker 1: booing when when you know they paid good money to
Speaker 1: go see. Like I ad made a joke reminded me
Speaker 1: of the Squid game scene where where he is in
Speaker 1: that like subway station and the dudes like playing the
Speaker 1: game with him, and he's like, he's like, I'll let
Speaker 1: you play again if you let me hit you in
Speaker 1: the face as hard as I can, and like the
Speaker 1: dude just keep playing and the guy just keeps hitting
Speaker 1: him in the face, and like when you're watching the scene,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a little uncomfortable, like you kind
Speaker 1: of are waiting for the main character to kind of
Speaker 1: flip out and just start, you know, beating the ship
Speaker 1: out of the guy just because he's sick of the
Speaker 1: sick of losing and sick of getting hit. But it
Speaker 1: just doesn't happen, you know. And that's kind of the
Speaker 1: way this game was. Like as it's like, okay, you're
Speaker 1: you're up at halftime. Now you're downy. Now you're down
Speaker 1: four can Now you're down seven, okay, Now you're down twelve. Okay,
Speaker 1: now you're down twenty. Okay, now you're down thirty. Like okay,
Speaker 1: at what point, at what point is someone going to
Speaker 1: like get in the huddle and start screaming at people?
Speaker 1: And like at what point is Russ just gonna get
Speaker 1: an offensive foul by just barreling into the rim? Or
Speaker 1: at what point is Anthony Davis gonna like throw someone
Speaker 1: to the side to try to get an offensive rebound
Speaker 1: or do something just to show some fight And that
Speaker 1: fight just wasn't there tonight for whatever reason, you know.
Speaker 1: And like again like as we're as we are talking
Speaker 1: about these little miniature checkpoints throughout the season that kind
Speaker 1: of reveal the mental makeup of the team. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not necessarily sure that this is a bad thing,
Speaker 1: but it's certainly not a good thing. Certainly doesn't make
Speaker 1: me feel more confident about what this team is made of.
Speaker 1: Certainly doesn't make me feel like, you know, you know
Speaker 1: that team. And again, we can't always compare them to
Speaker 1: that because it's not fair because it's a different group
Speaker 1: of guys. But like, there was a certain like a
Speaker 1: certain amount of fight that that team had that that
Speaker 1: made them so much fun to watch because if they
Speaker 1: ever were down ten in a game, you always felt
Speaker 1: like they were still in it. They we were down
Speaker 1: fifteen in a game, you always felt like they were
Speaker 1: still in it because they just always had these runs
Speaker 1: in them where they would kick in the gear and
Speaker 1: fight and fight and fight. Like I'll give you perfect example.
Speaker 1: They went into Milwaukee that year and remember Janice shot
Speaker 1: their eyes out and Middleton shot their eyes out in
Speaker 1: the first quarter and they were down like and you
Speaker 1: were like, this team is going to pack it in,
Speaker 1: but they just didn't. They just battled the entire game
Speaker 1: and I think they only lotted by like nine. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis like even though Janice was on fire. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: just kept going right at him every possession. I think
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis finished with more than thirty in that game,
Speaker 1: had a couple of plays where he took, be honest
Speaker 1: right to the rim or defended him. Well, like it was,
Speaker 1: it was just there. There was a certain fight, And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not saying this team is absolutely capable
Speaker 1: of getting that back. It's just for whatever reason, it's
Speaker 1: not there right now. And I don't really know what
Speaker 1: to make of that. As far as the advanced metrics go,
Speaker 1: you talked about are they gonna be a top five defense? Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, we're nearing what we've already played twelve games.
Speaker 1: We're entering into an area here where there's enough sample
Speaker 1: size that it's gonna be really difficult for this team
Speaker 1: to touch some of the elite teams in the league
Speaker 1: in terms of their season long metrics. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be one of those deals where we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: specially measure their metrics when they actually have their guys available. Um,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Because like they could get
Speaker 1: everybody back and go on like a thirty game run
Speaker 1: where they have all their guys and be a top
Speaker 1: five defense. But it'll manifest as you know, ninth or
Speaker 1: tenth on the season, you know, rankings, just because and
Speaker 1: how much bad data they put in, Like getting your
Speaker 1: ass beat at home by Minnesota by twenty, that's going
Speaker 1: to throw off a bunch of data, you know, throw
Speaker 1: off a bunch of data points for this season, you know.
Speaker 1: So this is one of those things where we're gonna
Speaker 1: have to be really careful as the season progressed. Is
Speaker 1: when we're trying to project how good this team can be,
Speaker 1: We're gonna have to be really careful to kind of
Speaker 1: like find out what's throwaway data and what's not you know,
Speaker 1: because a significant chunk of the season, Carmelo Anthony has
Speaker 1: been their only power forward. So like what do you
Speaker 1: what do you make of that? You know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 1: that's just that's just tough. So, I mean, it is
Speaker 1: what it is. But did you have any more thoughts
Speaker 1: on this game? I thought we could take a minute
Speaker 1: to chat about some of those topics we had talked
Speaker 1: about earlier this week. Yeah, just the last thing I
Speaker 1: guess um I wrote down here. Do you remember that,
Speaker 1: like flagrant foul Carmelo had at the end of the
Speaker 1: end of the first quarter. Do you remember that at
Speaker 1: at I think someone was shooting from like the behind
Speaker 1: the find behind half yes, es, yes, behind half court.
Speaker 1: I thought that, I know, like that was early, but
Speaker 1: I really thought that turned the game. Like just looking
Speaker 1: at body language, Minnesota kind of felt like they were
Speaker 1: so we were up nine. I believe it was like
Speaker 1: s to seventeen, and Minnesota was kind of like feeling like, okay,
Speaker 1: we could kind of get ran out of the building.
Speaker 1: That was just my read on like how they were
Speaker 1: playing and all that they like the Lakers were, you
Speaker 1: know and super boosted up energy. And then that play
Speaker 1: where Powal happened and it only cost us two points,
Speaker 1: but I like rowing my notes like this could kind
Speaker 1: of change the game here, and it did. The Minnesota
Speaker 1: came out of the second quarter, they cut that they
Speaker 1: went on I believe us so they had the two
Speaker 1: points from the free throws and they went on another
Speaker 1: like six oh run, I think to make it like
Speaker 1: and I think they even took Yeah, they took the lead,
Speaker 1: and I thought that really just killed the momentum. And
Speaker 1: again I'm not blaming Mello for a loss, but I
Speaker 1: just think like that was an interesting kind of turning point,
Speaker 1: but I think that's enough. In the last thing on
Speaker 1: this game, I thought Wayne Ellington had a good first half. Again,
Speaker 1: like I thought he played well. I thought he kind
Speaker 1: of busted up the zone. Minnesota went to his own
Speaker 1: one possession and uh in that I think in the
Speaker 1: first half, and Wayne Allington had three. That was my
Speaker 1: only real positive from tonight was the Wayne Allington looks
Speaker 1: like he's a legit shooter in Staples, which is which
Speaker 1: is nice to see. But yeah, that that's pretty much
Speaker 1: it from this game. Again. Yeah, that was That was
Speaker 1: a huge momentum killer, that one. And then the weird
Speaker 1: Rondo play where he just like him and a d
Speaker 1: decided in the middle of a game to have a
Speaker 1: conversation while walking the ball up accord and got it
Speaker 1: and got an eight seconds Oh the app eight second.
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe that. I don't even think that ended
Speaker 1: up hurting them necessarily on the scoreboard except for the
Speaker 1: loss of a possession. But it was just like a
Speaker 1: weird like it was a weird like, Oh, we have
Speaker 1: the lead now and and they're just gonna They're just
Speaker 1: gonna let us run away with the game type of deal,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Um, anyway, let's let's talk.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about this Alex Cruizer. Think for a second,
Speaker 1: because this is super fascinating. Man. You know, there was
Speaker 1: a there was a debate that took place on Brian
Speaker 1: Win or SPoD Um today. I think it might have
Speaker 1: been today, might have been a different day, but they
Speaker 1: were talking about they both kind of picked a side.
Speaker 1: You know, Bontemps was strangely on the same side that
Speaker 1: I'm on for once because that guy, that guy literally
Speaker 1: drives me insane. But uh, basically I'm blanking at his name.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, David Bennaman, David Vanneman took took
Speaker 1: the organization's position, and the way he pitched it basically
Speaker 1: was like we had a number. The number in mind
Speaker 1: was you know, two for fifteen or whatever, seven million
Speaker 1: a year, and they weren't willing to go about that number.
Speaker 1: Because of this larger vision of what they had and
Speaker 1: the way that the way that they looked at it,
Speaker 1: you know, they were able to, like as in terms
Speaker 1: of just a simple cost value proposition, they were able
Speaker 1: to replace a certain percentage of what Alex brought to
Speaker 1: the table for by saving this amount of money. And
Speaker 1: Bontam's you know, pointed out one fact that I thought
Speaker 1: made a lot of sense that was super fascinating. You know,
Speaker 1: the level exception doesn't make you immune to luxury attacks.
Speaker 1: If you the mid level exception gives you the ability
Speaker 1: to go over the salary cap to sign players that
Speaker 1: are not currently on your roster. However, you're still on
Speaker 1: the hook for any tax associated with that salary. And
Speaker 1: basically what Bontam said was like, who's a better player,
Speaker 1: Alex Caruso or Kendrick Nunn? And I think we would
Speaker 1: all agree that. I think we would all agree that
Speaker 1: Alex Cruso is clearly a better player. And you know,
Speaker 1: for the difference between the eight or nine million or
Speaker 1: nine or ten million or whatever that Chicago paid him
Speaker 1: and the six million that they paid Kendrick Nunn, why
Speaker 1: not just pay whatever that gap is and keep Alex
Speaker 1: Crusoe instead. He's just a better player. He's if it's
Speaker 1: a more important need for your roster. You're under the
Speaker 1: impression that you're gonna get Molik Monk, You're under the
Speaker 1: impression that you're gonna get Russell Westbrook, and you have
Speaker 1: Lebron James and so there's just no need necessarily for
Speaker 1: what that position brings. So why were you pinching pennies
Speaker 1: on Alex Crusoe but willing to spend on Kendrick Dunn.
Speaker 1: And you know what, I don't know, I can't I
Speaker 1: can't answer that question for you. That that that is
Speaker 1: a tough one to answer. And at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, this is the same argument that I used
Speaker 1: when when Kyle Lowry was on the table last year.
Speaker 1: People greatly, greatly, greatly underestimate just how close the NBA
Speaker 1: Championship is to swinging a different direction almost every season.
Speaker 1: You know, we talked about Kevin Durant having a foot
Speaker 1: on the line. That was the difference between Brooklyn beating Milwaukee, right,
Speaker 1: we talked about, you know, honest knee be honests knee.
Speaker 1: If that buckles instead of uh, you know, only partially buckling,
Speaker 1: he misses the finals and the Sons win the title.
Speaker 1: You know, even in the NBA Finals, the in game
Speaker 1: four of that series, game five of that series, but
Speaker 1: it was Game four, Game four, Sons are up to
Speaker 1: one then one point lead late in the game, and
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of a couple of big shots,
Speaker 1: a couple of key defensive stops, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you're you're tied series tied to two instead of three one.
Speaker 1: Or Toronto when they're about to fall down three oh
Speaker 1: to the Bucks in two thousand nineteen and they steal
Speaker 1: a crazy game in Game three and it ends up
Speaker 1: turning the series. It's one of those things where you
Speaker 1: have to you have to understand that these margins are
Speaker 1: extremely tight. The difference between winning and losing is so
Speaker 1: small in so many cases, and so it's so so
Speaker 1: dumb to pinch pennies when it could be the difference
Speaker 1: between you winning and losing. Alex Cruiser may not seem
Speaker 1: like that good of a player relative to all of
Speaker 1: the talent on the roster, but he could very well
Speaker 1: be the difference between winning in the first or winning
Speaker 1: the title and losing in the second round to a
Speaker 1: really really good Phoenix Suns team or really really good
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors team. That's how close these margins are,
Speaker 1: and so that's why I had a problem with that
Speaker 1: philosophy from ownership. Yeah, I mean, this is a bad
Speaker 1: night to talk about Alex Crusa, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: probably the worst night to talk about Alex Cruso. Look, man,
Speaker 1: Like I know people say get over it, but I
Speaker 1: mean there was new information that was brought out. He
Speaker 1: went to the Bulls, got a contract, went back to
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and look, I'm not here to tell anyone's money,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I don't know how much
Speaker 1: the luxury tax would have cost. I'm not really into
Speaker 1: I'm not good at the salary having all that stuff.
Speaker 1: But I just think, like title windows is not where
Speaker 1: you It's not where you try to save, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like we are in a full on
Speaker 1: title window and you try to say like trying to
Speaker 1: save money in that time, like just really doesn't make
Speaker 1: sense to me. And you said that Alex Cruso might
Speaker 1: not look like a great player, but he was to us,
Speaker 1: like in house he started Game six of the finals
Speaker 1: like this, obviously they know what his talent is. And
Speaker 1: I have a hard time believe believing Lebron James and
Speaker 1: A d don't see it. And maybe you know it
Speaker 1: was kind of a separation between you know, front office
Speaker 1: and players. I really don't know. I don't know what
Speaker 1: happened there, but there was death, only a mistake like
Speaker 1: Alex Cruising to me is one of the best guard
Speaker 1: defenders in the league, and he's been one for a
Speaker 1: long time, and he was in all of our closing
Speaker 1: lineups on our title teams. Like that, There's no they
Speaker 1: there was no secret for who he was. And my
Speaker 1: biggest issue with this, I guess if you're gonna let
Speaker 1: me just go out here like the like look crediting,
Speaker 1: like like we always talked about crediting and organization for
Speaker 1: a player's success is kind of an unfair way to
Speaker 1: look at it, right, Like that's not really the way
Speaker 1: like people always do that. They're like, oh, Julius Royn,
Speaker 1: he went to the Knicks and now he's a superstar
Speaker 1: created the Knicks, like juwis Ryno put in a ship
Speaker 1: ton of work to get to where he is. I
Speaker 1: was cruised up putting a ship ton of work to
Speaker 1: become the guard defender. He is putting a ship ton
Speaker 1: of film film. Where putting ship ton of you know all,
Speaker 1: being in the gym to make himself a really good
Speaker 1: offensive player to go on to the defense. The Lakers
Speaker 1: did like the hard work though, you know, like they
Speaker 1: found him in the G League, developed him a couple
Speaker 1: of years. He becomes a starter, he becomes really good,
Speaker 1: He becomes one of the most connective players with your
Speaker 1: superstars ad Lebron and Caruso. Plus minuses are through the
Speaker 1: freaking roof, like like they still are. You can go
Speaker 1: back and look at those numbers. Um, those numbers are
Speaker 1: through the through the roof. So you've got him, You
Speaker 1: developed him, you you create you not create him, but
Speaker 1: like you found a gem there and he came to you,
Speaker 1: and he even came and said, look, I'll take a discount,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers still said no. And that's just something
Speaker 1: we have to accept. But that's kind of my issue
Speaker 1: here is, like you they did so much of the
Speaker 1: hard work. Lakers scouting department has hit on so many players,
Speaker 1: but Crusoe heards more because it's like, not only one,
Speaker 1: but he won at the highest level and you prove
Speaker 1: he can play at the highest levels, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean next to the next to your core that
Speaker 1: you're building around. You can still go trade for us
Speaker 1: Westbrook do all that stuff, but you know your core
Speaker 1: kind of players, Like as a fan, which you root
Speaker 1: for because we are still fans here. Um, what you
Speaker 1: root for you want to root for players that kind
Speaker 1: of started on your team, right, that's just kind of
Speaker 1: how it goes. And Crusoe started from the bottom for
Speaker 1: lack of a better term, and kind of raised himself
Speaker 1: up to become a starter on a damn championship team.
Speaker 1: And you know, he took a little less money the
Speaker 1: first year, but like now, is this time to pay
Speaker 1: to get to paid? I don't know. It's a bad
Speaker 1: night to talk about this, I guess, but that's my
Speaker 1: biggest easy here. They did the hard work. You find
Speaker 1: him the ge League, develop him, you get him to
Speaker 1: the point where he's not only a good player, he's
Speaker 1: a freaking winning player that impacts winning at a super
Speaker 1: high level. And he just walks out the door for nothing,
Speaker 1: like you just walked out the door. You replaced him
Speaker 1: with some really good players like Kendrick Now was a
Speaker 1: good player. We have to see him play. Um th
Speaker 1: HD was the guy they said was the one on one,
Speaker 1: one for one replacement. I don't think that was necessary really,
Speaker 1: but that's what people say happened. We still need to
Speaker 1: see th HD. Maybe he makes his leap, but the
Speaker 1: cruisal thing definitely is frustrating. So yeah, sorry if that's rambling.
Speaker 1: For no, you're fine, man, It's it's like you're it's
Speaker 1: the it's the reality of the situation, you know. And
Speaker 1: and when when the team you know, I think Genie
Speaker 1: and all these people were banking on the Lakers attacking
Speaker 1: the season early on with their week schedule and them
Speaker 1: sitting at ten into you know, uh, nine and three
Speaker 1: something like that right now, where they would just be
Speaker 1: able to point to all the critics and get like, look,
Speaker 1: you're like, Alex is doing great in Chicago. That's fine,
Speaker 1: but we're doing great too. But that's not what happened.
Speaker 1: You're sitting at seven and six and you've lost the
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City Thunder twice. You just got absolutely destroyed at
Speaker 1: home by the Minnesota Timberwolves, and you look like a
Speaker 1: team that has no identity, particularly on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor and particularly with your effort. So how
Speaker 1: do you not expect the fan base to look at
Speaker 1: what's happening in Chicago where, yeah, it's not all Alex crew,
Speaker 1: So it's a lot of talent. Lonzo Ball is partially
Speaker 1: to blame for the turnaround there. Uh, you know, JAMARDA.
Speaker 1: Rosen is partially to credit for it. But we see
Speaker 1: Alex Cruso in Chicago on a team that suddenly has
Speaker 1: a defensive identity, that suddenly has this liveliness to them
Speaker 1: that was missing in previous seasons. And we remember that
Speaker 1: same effect from Alex when he was here. And so
Speaker 1: we're looking at a seven and six team that looks
Speaker 1: like it could desperately use itself some Alex crew. So
Speaker 1: and so that's that That's where Jeanie screwed up here,
Speaker 1: is she miscalculated the fact that you know, if you
Speaker 1: when you are cheap, when you hoard your money in
Speaker 1: this regard, and the team doesn't perform with the expectations
Speaker 1: that they had, then you open yourself up to criticism.
Speaker 1: And that's what happened here. And I'm glad you pointed
Speaker 1: out all that stuff about just how good Alex is,
Speaker 1: because there's a reason why he started Game six of
Speaker 1: the two NBA finals. It's because when you really factor
Speaker 1: in what needs to be done to win basketball games
Speaker 1: at the highest level, Alex checks all the boxes. You know,
Speaker 1: if you're going to complain about one thing, it's the
Speaker 1: fact that he's not a super great spot up shooter,
Speaker 1: but he does everything else so incredibly well that every
Speaker 1: time on the floor that scale tips in his favor
Speaker 1: and in the favor of the team he's playing for,
Speaker 1: which is why he's a plus minus hero, which is
Speaker 1: why the best line up, the best two man lineup
Speaker 1: for the Lakers of the last two seasons, was Lebron
Speaker 1: and Alex Cruzo. It's it is a he was a
Speaker 1: absolutely amazing fit here, and then when you factor in
Speaker 1: what you just talked about having to do with the
Speaker 1: fact that he's home grown, the fact that he represents
Speaker 1: a win for our front office and our scouting department,
Speaker 1: it's even more disappointing because it's like it'd be like
Speaker 1: if you were a really fancy teaching hospital and you
Speaker 1: picked up this awesome graduate from Harvard who was the
Speaker 1: top of their class, and you trained them their residency,
Speaker 1: and then you got cheap on them when they were
Speaker 1: when it came time for them to apply for a job,
Speaker 1: and you lost them to another hospital. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: then why did you invest all this time and energy
Speaker 1: in training them? Why did you invest all of this
Speaker 1: into helping Alex Crusoe get to where they are? And
Speaker 1: to your point to Alex deserves a lot of credit.
Speaker 1: It is not a you know, there are even the
Speaker 1: greatest organizations in basketball struggle sometimes to convert supreme talents
Speaker 1: into productive basketball players. I mean, look at the raptors
Speaker 1: of Stanley Johnson for instance. So obviously Alex deserves a
Speaker 1: lot of credit for this as well. But there there's
Speaker 1: a good amount of this that reflects a front office
Speaker 1: that that was cheap and now they're losing, and it
Speaker 1: looks like the reason why they're losing is they're lacking
Speaker 1: in certain uh you know, intangible characteristics on the team,
Speaker 1: and Alex addresses does Also, the team doesn't have anybody
Speaker 1: over six five that's really strong and physical and can
Speaker 1: defend their position outside of Anthony Davis. So uh, where
Speaker 1: would Alex Cruiser fit in there? Alex Cruso would be
Speaker 1: a better power forward, you know, than than many of
Speaker 1: the guys that they're having to are not power forward
Speaker 1: but on the wing, than many of the guys that
Speaker 1: they're forced to play right now. And so so it
Speaker 1: is frustrating, but it is what it is. I mean,
Speaker 1: we all got to move on. But to your point,
Speaker 1: there was new information that came out and that yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's the whole reason they discussed exactly and and
Speaker 1: you know, don't don't don't post bail for for for
Speaker 1: rich people. That's just stupid, like especially in a situation
Speaker 1: like this. But the reality of the situation is as
Speaker 1: Genie Bus and the Bus family are doing just fine.
Speaker 1: I've sure, I've done some research through just picking the
Speaker 1: brains of some people that I know who know more
Speaker 1: than me, and there is there is a contingency set
Speaker 1: up for this team when they have to pay huge
Speaker 1: luxury tax bills. There's a way for them to come
Speaker 1: up with the cash. There's a way for them to
Speaker 1: disperse that. There's a way for them to be able
Speaker 1: to afford it and to make up forward in years
Speaker 1: where they don't pay the tax. Don't let anybody tell
Speaker 1: you that they're physically incapable of of making that payment,
Speaker 1: because they absolutely are. They could pay a hundred billion
Speaker 1: more than they're paying right now. They couldn't do a
Speaker 1: year in and year out, of course, but they there
Speaker 1: are contingencies set up to allow this ownership group to
Speaker 1: be able to shell out the cash to keep players
Speaker 1: entitle windows like this, and they simply chose not to,
Speaker 1: and so that that that, in my opinion, leaves them
Speaker 1: open to criticism. Yeah, and I'm not there to like
Speaker 1: call you know, Genie Chap, but I'm like I'm not
Speaker 1: there at that point, you know what i mean, Like
Speaker 1: I just can't get there. I just feel like it
Speaker 1: was a misplaced you know, thought that they could just
Speaker 1: replace what Alex does. And I can't really just blame
Speaker 1: Genie on that. She's not the president of basketball operations
Speaker 1: like Rob Blinkuez, Like they made the decision to go
Speaker 1: into this new team and look, the roster has flipped
Speaker 1: for the last two years, um, and this may just
Speaker 1: have been another consequence of that. Like I'm not there yet.
Speaker 1: I just think it was I think it was the
Speaker 1: wrong decision, But I'm not there to like call the
Speaker 1: whole organization and cheap, Like I don't think you go
Speaker 1: trade for Russell Westbrook and and and cut corners on
Speaker 1: the side, Like I think that those two, Like I
Speaker 1: can separate Alice Crusoe not on this team and like
Speaker 1: why we should have signed him? And also this team
Speaker 1: is just bad right now, Like I separate those two things,
Speaker 1: Like I'm not like drawing Crusoe on this team, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like, I feel like that is
Speaker 1: just a wrong decision. As a whole, like would he
Speaker 1: help this team? Yeah, But I feel like those are
Speaker 1: two separate kind of issues. They're like, I feel like
Speaker 1: he should just came back anyway, whether or not you
Speaker 1: thought he fit the identity of this team, but they
Speaker 1: obviously didn't. And I'm choosing to believe the head over
Speaker 1: the fact that they just didn't want to pay out
Speaker 1: Screws at all, because it felt very clear that he
Speaker 1: was just not in their plans, which because of the
Speaker 1: offer that was given at least that's what Carusoe kind
Speaker 1: of said on on the on the JJ Reddick podcast.
Speaker 1: The offer was so low that it was completely negligible
Speaker 1: for him. Um, so obviously I think he just was
Speaker 1: not in their plans and that's just something we have
Speaker 1: to accept. It is what it is. And and to
Speaker 1: your point, had some things gone differently to start the season,
Speaker 1: then I don't think people would be complaining. But they didn't,
Speaker 1: and so this is the shoes that they're in, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, That's just the reality of the situation.
Speaker 1: No different than the Frank thing. Frank is not on
Speaker 1: the hot seat if they because the team would be
Speaker 1: competing and winning. But there's talk surrounding his job security
Speaker 1: simply because the team is not performing, you know, to
Speaker 1: their preseason expectations. So we gotta we gotta ten more
Speaker 1: minutes here. And I wanted to touch on one other
Speaker 1: kind of league wide topic with you, just because we
Speaker 1: haven't had a chance to on the pod UH in
Speaker 1: the last few weeks. So there has been There was
Speaker 1: kind of like two extremes in this regard, so the UM.
Speaker 1: Last year, we just had this outrageous offensive season. UM.
Speaker 1: To give you an idea, for the most part, throughout
Speaker 1: NBA history, offensive ratings have hovered somewhere between hundred and
Speaker 1: five points per one hundre possessions and a hundred and
Speaker 1: ten per hunter possessions, depending on the UH, you know,
Speaker 1: depending on the year, depending on how physical the rests
Speaker 1: allowed the game to be. And then last year got crazy,
Speaker 1: got up to like a hundred and twelve, and so
Speaker 1: then you had all these people, these like you know,
Speaker 1: older NBA fans that were obsessed with their era and
Speaker 1: everything that about their era, who were like this is bs,
Speaker 1: this is the steroid era of of of the NBA,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. And then they make these rule
Speaker 1: changes and offensive ratings plummet. I think I think we're
Speaker 1: hovering right around like one oh seven, one oh a
Speaker 1: right now and a bun two guys who used to
Speaker 1: be efficient scores are suddenly struggling to score. And so
Speaker 1: now you're seeing all the same guys come out and
Speaker 1: say like, ah, this is the most skilled era in
Speaker 1: NBA history. Look at them now they can't score, you know,
Speaker 1: And it's kind of like turned into this whole thing
Speaker 1: which almost all the discussion around this kind of thing
Speaker 1: is intellectual dishonesty, and it's and it's kind of frustrating.
Speaker 1: But I guess we can start with you Rush. So
Speaker 1: my question for you is this, do you agree with
Speaker 1: me that the that there that, regardless of what is
Speaker 1: happening with the rules and regardless of what is happening
Speaker 1: with the stats, that the league right now is more
Speaker 1: skilled than it ever has been in the history of
Speaker 1: the league. Oh yeah, absolutely, I think that was pretty clear.
Speaker 1: I mean you can just look at every team you
Speaker 1: go one by one, there's stars, and every team that
Speaker 1: don't even get the attention, I think that they should.
Speaker 1: Like you can even go on Sacramento. I think Jaren
Speaker 1: Fox is just an insane guard, and he just he's
Speaker 1: probably on the lower end of like star star young
Speaker 1: guards with like John Moran and with Daunches and all
Speaker 1: those players. Like. I think players are even coming into
Speaker 1: the league even more skilled than they ever have Like
Speaker 1: they're ready to play right away, Like John Rand rookie year,
Speaker 1: it was probably like a star already walking into the league.
Speaker 1: Like a lot of these players coming in are way
Speaker 1: more ready to contribute than I think they've ever have been.
Speaker 1: The game moves forward right. I think every player now
Speaker 1: learns from learns from everyone from the past, and I
Speaker 1: think that's why players now are definitely more skilled. And look,
Speaker 1: the game is definitely more offensive driven, and I can
Speaker 1: and I feel like the league definitely wants to tilt
Speaker 1: that back a little bit with the new rules and
Speaker 1: with all the you know, nonfoul calls. But most definitely
Speaker 1: I think the league is actually in great hands. I
Speaker 1: think the product is in great hands. The game looks
Speaker 1: even better this year with all the new rules. Definitely
Speaker 1: think players are more skilled today. I didn't actually didn't
Speaker 1: like think that was too much of a debate. I
Speaker 1: know some old heads do definitely think that the game
Speaker 1: was I guess more tougher back then, But I don't
Speaker 1: think you can argue now. I mean, look at the
Speaker 1: just even look at the three point percentages. Look at
Speaker 1: the shots that players are taking now at just a
Speaker 1: ridiculous difficulty um shots that are accepted now as like
Speaker 1: just that back then, weren't you know these like sidestep, dribble,
Speaker 1: fade away threes are now like just normal practice for
Speaker 1: a lot of players in the league. Uh, not just step,
Speaker 1: but like just regular players take those shots regularly that
Speaker 1: you just didn't see before. So I guess that's my
Speaker 1: take on it. I think the league is definitely more
Speaker 1: skilled if the game is better now. I think that's
Speaker 1: a conversation that you know, two people can have. But
Speaker 1: I definitely think players are more skills. So I think
Speaker 1: the driving force between the animosity on this topic has
Speaker 1: to do with the fact that the people associate Like
Speaker 1: if I say Kyrie Irving is the most skilled, you know,
Speaker 1: offensive player that I've seen, you know you're going to
Speaker 1: have people that will be deeply offended that you're not
Speaker 1: factoring in somebody from an altar from a different era.
Speaker 1: That's that to me is foolishness, because every player has
Speaker 1: to be you know, graded on the curve. That has
Speaker 1: to do with what their circumstances were. So for instance,
Speaker 1: like you know, even with longevity, it's hard to wait
Speaker 1: the longevity of current players against the longevity of players
Speaker 1: in the eighties when they just didn't have the same
Speaker 1: level of sports medicine. If you had an A C.
Speaker 1: L tear in the seventies, that surgeon doesn't have the
Speaker 1: capability of rebuilding your knee the same way that they
Speaker 1: do today today. An A C. L tear is nothing
Speaker 1: but a year and a half off. When you come back,
Speaker 1: you are absolutely every bit as explosive as you were
Speaker 1: when you left. I mean, hell, we just saw Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant like the world on fire to start the season
Speaker 1: after tearing his achilles, and that used to be a
Speaker 1: death sentence even just five six years ago with Kobe,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And so so much of
Speaker 1: this is like we have two grade people on the
Speaker 1: curve of where they're at. When I say that people
Speaker 1: are more skilled now than they've ever been, that's not
Speaker 1: a shot at former players. That's just, to me, the
Speaker 1: natural progression of the way this industry works. Myself. Realtor
Speaker 1: Jason from Tucson, Arizona has moves offensive moves in my
Speaker 1: game as a basketball player that did not exist on
Speaker 1: the court ten years ago. Things like you're talking about
Speaker 1: side step three, step back three is one, like fade aways,
Speaker 1: things along those lines that just that literally came from
Speaker 1: players ten years ago experimenting and identifying a new way
Speaker 1: to gain an advantage and using that to improve their game,
Speaker 1: and then people copying them. No different than Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: copying Dirk or even Lebron over the course of the
Speaker 1: last stretch of his career is you know, added things
Speaker 1: to his game that have unlicked, like like his turnaround,
Speaker 1: fade away, things that things that he didn't used to take,
Speaker 1: things that you never would see. Um, you know, a
Speaker 1: player that big take the way that he takes him
Speaker 1: you see, you'd see super athletic shooting guards take that
Speaker 1: kind of shot. But like every everyone is kind of
Speaker 1: slowly in but but surely just constructing their game based
Speaker 1: on the whatever is available, whatever intel is available, whatever
Speaker 1: is available to them at the time. You know, like
Speaker 1: that Steph Curry in two thousand fifteen and two thousand
Speaker 1: sixteen was a lesser player than he is today. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, but he was so far ahead of the
Speaker 1: curve relative to his surroundings with his shooting that it
Speaker 1: literally broke the game. The defensive coverages weren't even set
Speaker 1: up to be able to handle him. And so that
Speaker 1: that's the way I look at it, is like if
Speaker 1: you you can only be judged relative to what your
Speaker 1: time was, you know, like and and from that regard
Speaker 1: me saying that the league is more skilled now is
Speaker 1: just an indicator of natural progression and it's not a
Speaker 1: shot at former players. And it goes both ways in
Speaker 1: terms of the offensive ratings. And this is what I
Speaker 1: always tell people, Like in theory, if hand checking got
Speaker 1: you know, outlawed, and you were never allowed to contest
Speaker 1: at three point shot without committing a foul, and you
Speaker 1: were allowed to touch guys off ball, and everybody and
Speaker 1: their brother was just free to do whatever the hell
Speaker 1: they wanted on offense, and defenses were completely handcuffed, and
Speaker 1: guys were as skilled as they are today. In theory,
Speaker 1: teams would average a hundred seventy points a gain, right
Speaker 1: because because they were averaging in the hundreds previous to this,
Speaker 1: but before all these changes. So you have to also
Speaker 1: factor in that defense has improved over the course of time,
Speaker 1: not just in versatility and athleticism, because we went from
Speaker 1: having two lumbering bigs on the floor at every time too.
Speaker 1: Now the vast majority of centers in the league are
Speaker 1: a leaner and less like muscular, but more athletic, and
Speaker 1: they're more like rim running bigs that stretched the floor,
Speaker 1: that are more mobile and capable of covering space on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. And we've ditched the Paul Millsap types of
Speaker 1: the world for the you know, the freak athlete type
Speaker 1: of power forward you know, uh athlete long can switch
Speaker 1: onto guards, that type of thing. Just in general, the
Speaker 1: defenses have transformed to be able to counter all of
Speaker 1: the things that offenses due today. And that's that to
Speaker 1: me is super fascinating. Like you, we we talked about
Speaker 1: it all the time, you and me. Just a little
Speaker 1: little details of defense that Frank Vogel has used over
Speaker 1: the last couple of years to try to slow teams down,
Speaker 1: like the sophistication and the rotations pre switching to try
Speaker 1: to stop from attacking Trey Young. You'll see teams pre
Speaker 1: switch the switch before the switch that stops Trey Young
Speaker 1: from being attacked or you know, all these all these
Speaker 1: little wrinkles that these teams like, everybody's constantly trying to
Speaker 1: gain an advantage, and that's just the way the industry works,
Speaker 1: you know. And in terms of you know, Larry Bird
Speaker 1: to me is like the guy who invented the computer,
Speaker 1: and the guy who invented the computer is immortal. He
Speaker 1: changed the industry. But computers are a lot better now,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. That doesn't That's not an
Speaker 1: insult to Larry Bird. That's not an insult to the
Speaker 1: guy who invented the computer. It's like, if anything, we
Speaker 1: depend on him because none of this would have happened
Speaker 1: without him. And maybe that's a bad comparison, and maybe
Speaker 1: maybe that's the wrong way to put this, but the
Speaker 1: way I look at it is like it is, I
Speaker 1: would I would hope that twenty years from now, the
Speaker 1: game has advanced even so far that people look back
Speaker 1: at Lebron and go like, hold on, like that that
Speaker 1: that guy was the best player in the league. Are
Speaker 1: you serious? Like what about this dude? Who's Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: mixed with John maraat kicks with mixed with Lebron James
Speaker 1: mixed with Luca like, God, God knows what the best
Speaker 1: players in the league is gonna look like in twenty years.
Speaker 1: It's probably gonna be absurd, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And people always developing. And that's what I
Speaker 1: meant by people are coming into the league even more
Speaker 1: developed than ever. I think players practiced definitely now. You know,
Speaker 1: nowadays people are training from like nine nine years old
Speaker 1: and super professional training program ms. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: think that existed before. I look at Luca has been
Speaker 1: hooping since like fifteen, but he knew he was gonna
Speaker 1: be a professional, so like his training was different. He
Speaker 1: walks into the league basically a superstar already. Like you
Speaker 1: just look at these players. You have all these six
Speaker 1: ten guys who now can dribble, you know, step back
Speaker 1: threes and the stuff that just didn't exist back then.
Speaker 1: So I agree with you, the game always moves forward.
Speaker 1: We'll see what comes next. I think like guys like
Speaker 1: kde Lebron are kind of one on one, one of one,
Speaker 1: kind of in that way where you know, they kind
Speaker 1: of changed the game. Katie, I think is the best
Speaker 1: score ever. To me, Lebron is probably one of the
Speaker 1: best players ever in terms of playmate, mixing playmaking with
Speaker 1: just being with a control of defense, manipulated defense, and
Speaker 1: people get better as they come in the league. And
Speaker 1: I think that's just I just that's how I see
Speaker 1: the game. It moves forward every year. I feel like
Speaker 1: players are better at a younger age. Now, their primes
Speaker 1: last a lot longer. You don't have to wait till
Speaker 1: the players like four for them to have m v
Speaker 1: P type of impact. We're getting that at like one
Speaker 1: with a lot of players. It's insane. The league is
Speaker 1: moving at a insane town level. And the amount of
Speaker 1: teams is still like there's only thirty teams, which means
Speaker 1: the talent pool is still only like four fifty guys.
Speaker 1: And the talent pool is just growing more and more
Speaker 1: to where only sixty guys get drafted, and then you know,
Speaker 1: you have a bunch of undrafted guys that come to league.
Speaker 1: But the talent pool just keeps growing, and I think
Speaker 1: that's a great thing for the game. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: like Nicola Yoka just starting to look like a bona
Speaker 1: fide top tier superstar. And my guess is that when
Speaker 1: Lebron comes back from his abdominant injury, he's gonna look
Speaker 1: like a bona fide top tier superstar, because that's what
Speaker 1: he looked like against Cleveland and against Houston. So the
Speaker 1: truth of the matter is like we've got Yogis, Lebron,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Joannice, Steph Curry, and we have Kauai you know,
Speaker 1: who will eventually come back and we know when he's capable, Like,
Speaker 1: but when if we ever had this many like top
Speaker 1: tier you know, like ultra super duper duper stars, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And it's just it's it's it's
Speaker 1: to me, it's just I think it's as an NBA fan,
Speaker 1: it's weird to be so resistant to the growth of
Speaker 1: the game, you know what I mean, Like it makes
Speaker 1: way more sense to me to complain about something to
Speaker 1: have to having to do with the flow of the game,
Speaker 1: like officiating and reviews, and you know, the commentators being
Speaker 1: so negative and being so preachy, like those kinds of
Speaker 1: things that that those are the things that disrupt the
Speaker 1: game that we love. Those are the things that deserve
Speaker 1: to be called out and criticized for so many reasons.
Speaker 1: But doing it like attacking the players themselves for their
Speaker 1: little personal touch that they're putting on the game, like
Speaker 1: listening to Charles Barkley, This is where I could brought
Speaker 1: this up. I should have clarified from the beginning. This
Speaker 1: has to do with Charles Barkley's podcast appearance. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: with THATI Gonzalez and with Kevin Durant on the etc. S.
Speaker 1: You know, there was a lot of good in the podcast,
Speaker 1: to be clear, So I'm not trying to undercut that.
Speaker 1: And char Charles I genuinely like him and a lot
Speaker 1: of the things that he has to say. However, in
Speaker 1: this case, the way his general disdain for the way
Speaker 1: guys play basketball now is kind of infuriating to me.
Speaker 1: And you know, they're there. I was happy Kevin during
Speaker 1: kind of called him out on on one thing, like,
Speaker 1: you know, because at one point Barkley is like, you know, like,
Speaker 1: well why do you guys keep shooting them threes? You know,
Speaker 1: and like and Kevin Durant's like, you know, sometimes that's
Speaker 1: what the defense has given you. Like if I drive
Speaker 1: to the basket and they take away the paint for
Speaker 1: me and I kick it out to a really good shooter,
Speaker 1: I don't care if we've missed six in a row.
Speaker 1: If it's a good shot, that's what we take. That's
Speaker 1: how we play basketball today. That's our personal touch that
Speaker 1: we've put on the game. It's a driving kick game
Speaker 1: because the floor is more space. It's not the same
Speaker 1: as it was in your era. And that's okay. And
Speaker 1: you know, and I hope, I hope to god if
Speaker 1: if ten years from now the league changes again and
Speaker 1: I become Mr. I'm on my ports preaching about how
Speaker 1: much these players suck. I hope you guys all come
Speaker 1: for me, you know, like I hope you do, because
Speaker 1: it's it's just not fair. But you know, I think
Speaker 1: it's awesome. I I guys, like, I literally, I literally
Speaker 1: was coming back from the pandemic and I was I
Speaker 1: was twenty pounds overweight. I was trying to drop all
Speaker 1: this weight. I was trying to get back into basketball shape,
Speaker 1: and my my knee was killing me. I was having
Speaker 1: horrible tendonitis and it was really causing me to hit
Speaker 1: a wall and I wasn't moving as well as I
Speaker 1: wanted to, and I was really really frustrated. And then
Speaker 1: some guy on on Twitter who's fifty years old, who
Speaker 1: is still dunking, like sends me this brand new program
Speaker 1: this like, uh, knee knee kind of like uh reconstruction,
Speaker 1: you know, like exercise program to strengthen your patela. I've
Speaker 1: been doing that thing for six weeks and I'm jumping
Speaker 1: better than I have since I was in junior college.
Speaker 1: Like it's insane. Like I literally I'm like, I feel
Speaker 1: like I've got like the secret to life. I just
Speaker 1: want to every time I see somebody, I just want
Speaker 1: to be like, is your knee hurting? Let me show
Speaker 1: you something, Like it's it's crazy and it's like, I
Speaker 1: just these are the kinds of things that we have
Speaker 1: access to now, and I think that's so cool. I
Speaker 1: think that's awesome. Like the guy who invented this program
Speaker 1: has it replaced me? Literally has an is artificial and
Speaker 1: the dude can dunk and and it's and it's because
Speaker 1: of technology that we have Just knowledge is not even
Speaker 1: tech in this case, it's knowledge. We just learned through
Speaker 1: trial and error as human beings, how to be better
Speaker 1: at what we do. And I think that that's so cool.
Speaker 1: And I hate that people poop poo on that all
Speaker 1: the time. It's just it drives it drives me nuts.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's such a negative attitude to have
Speaker 1: about things anyway, I'm off myselfbox. Now you're good, You're
Speaker 1: you're right, Like we're at we're telling you age things
Speaker 1: keep advancing, Players come back from injuries a lot sooner,
Speaker 1: like with Charles Brockley, And even Shack has his stick
Speaker 1: as well, right Like he likes to have the center
Speaker 1: be the you know, go out and get thirty and
Speaker 1: fifteen like he did every night. And Charles Brockley has
Speaker 1: his way of viewing the game, and you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: it does feel like it gets old. He does have
Speaker 1: his own kind of opinions and stuff like that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like you're right, the games moving forward and we have
Speaker 1: a lot more things that we have access to. We're
Speaker 1: lucky that players come back a lot quicker now, you know.
Speaker 1: We're lucky that there's a lot of injuries that aren't
Speaker 1: you know, career ending anymore. And you're it's super cool
Speaker 1: and hopefully the Lakers kind of can kind of be
Speaker 1: a part of that as well, part of that movement
Speaker 1: towards all this brand new stuff that we're kind of
Speaker 1: getting into, uh, while the NBA moves forward as well. Yep,
Speaker 1: I agree, everybody, Thanks for coming to hang out tonight.
Speaker 1: We sincerely. Appreciate it. I know it's Friday. I know
Speaker 1: you're all very busy. UM. I hope you all have
Speaker 1: an awesome weekend, and I hope that on Sunday the
Speaker 1: Lakers come with a little bit more fight and this
Speaker 1: team needs Lebron back desperately. I hope he's right around
Speaker 1: the corner. UM. This is gonna air on dash Radio. Actually,
Speaker 1: this one will not air on dash Radio because our
Speaker 1: Sunday show will, so that might be better because we
Speaker 1: were all piste off to night anyway, but this will
Speaker 1: be on our podcast feed. UM be here in about
Speaker 1: an hour, and as always, we appreciate your guys support
Speaker 1: and we will see you in a couple of days.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it. Thanks everyone,