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Speaker 1: to Hoops tonight here at the volume heavy Tuesday. Everybody.
Speaker 1: Hope all of you guys are having a great week.
Speaker 1: In this episode, we're just going to be hitting Luca's
Speaker 1: debut with the Los Angeles Lakers. We're going to be
Speaker 1: doing two episodes today. There's a lot of Lakers excitement.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be covering a lot of Laker games
Speaker 1: throughout the rest of the season. Obviously as a fan,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have a take. I'm gonna be watching all
Speaker 1: those games. I want to get that content out there,
Speaker 1: but I don't want to inundate you guys with it.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna be working on kind of separating Lakers
Speaker 1: content from the rest of our content as much as possible.
Speaker 1: Moving forward, we do have another episode coming out today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do a deep dive on the Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 1: I've been really excited about Kyle Kuzma's early returns. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk some Warriors in that one, couple other teams
Speaker 1: as well. So we will have another episode coming out today,
Speaker 1: just Luca's debut with the Lakers. In this one, though,
Speaker 1: you guys are the job before we get started, Subscribe
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Speaker 1: in our Friday mail bags throughout the remainder of the season.
Speaker 1: All right, lealk some basketball. So Luca's debut with the
Speaker 1: Lakers a really weird game because the Jazz are just
Speaker 1: really bad, and the Jazz are also a legit like
Speaker 1: switch everything one through five no matter what type of team,
Speaker 1: and so all your ball screen actions are kind of
Speaker 1: shut down, and the only way you're really gonna get
Speaker 1: advantages is by like slipping out of switches ceiling switches
Speaker 1: or attacking one on one and drawing hell right, And
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that stood out to me in this
Speaker 1: game was their ability to consistently get dribble penetration. There
Speaker 1: was good action too, JJ talked about in the postgame
Speaker 1: press or how they ran a three man horn set
Speaker 1: with Luca Lebron in Austin one time in the game
Speaker 1: and got a wide open shot for Rui Hachimura, and
Speaker 1: it was they made so Austin was at the top,
Speaker 1: Lebron and Luca were at the elbows. Luca's on the
Speaker 1: left elbow. Austin makes a post entry to Luca and
Speaker 1: then cuts off of Lebron, And when he cuts off Lebron,
Speaker 1: Lebron sets a good screen that obviously triggers the switch.
Speaker 1: But Jordan clark was guarding Austin. Lebron just sealed him
Speaker 1: and created that over the top passing angle. Luca threw
Speaker 1: it to him. Now, all of a sudden, Jordan Clarkson's
Speaker 1: trapped on Lebron's backside, so there's nobody in front of him.
Speaker 1: If you don't step up, Lebron's gonna go to the rim.
Speaker 1: Ruy Hachimura's man who was in the corner, steps over
Speaker 1: to help on Lebron. Lebron makes the kickout past to
Speaker 1: Ruey wide open three. That's the type of action that
Speaker 1: they'll have to run more frequently against some of the
Speaker 1: better teams in the league when it's just a little
Speaker 1: bit harder to break down individual defenders. But they did
Speaker 1: get good stuff out out of action. There were some
Speaker 1: other examples, like Rui's first dunk, in the game. Along
Speaker 1: the baseline, Luca set a screen for Ruy Along the baseline,
Speaker 1: Isaiah Collier was guarding Luca and was really hesitant to
Speaker 1: switch off of Luca, and so he did it. John
Speaker 1: Collins got caught on the screen. Ruey Hachimura got a dunk,
Speaker 1: even the lob dunk that Jackson Hayes got to start
Speaker 1: the second half, same sort of concept, a little wide
Speaker 1: screen between Luca and Jackson Hayes. Isaiah Collier did not
Speaker 1: want to switch off of Luca. He was kind of
Speaker 1: hesitant on that, but they did switch off of Jackson Hayes.
Speaker 1: So Luca just threw the lob right up to Jackson
Speaker 1: and he got it dunk. There were examples of them
Speaker 1: getting good stuff out of action, and especially against more
Speaker 1: traditional coverages, they're going to get a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: out of action. But again, by far, the biggest thing
Speaker 1: that stood out to me was their ability to get
Speaker 1: drible penetration. Luca has this remarkable ability to turn any
Speaker 1: small gap or small angle into a full blown drive
Speaker 1: to the rim, and part of it is his incredible
Speaker 1: ability to use fakes. He just says he's really good
Speaker 1: at Like I talk about this all the time when
Speaker 1: he was in Dallas. But he will sell every part
Speaker 1: of every move with every part of his body. So,
Speaker 1: like I talk about this all the time, instead of
Speaker 1: like doing a big sweeping crossover, it makes more sense
Speaker 1: just to face this way and then completely change direction.
Speaker 1: If you sell it with your eyes, and you sell
Speaker 1: it with your shoulders, and you sell it with your hips,
Speaker 1: the defender's going to react. Most good defenders don't watch
Speaker 1: the ball. They watch like your center of gravity to
Speaker 1: see where your body's going. And you sell that direction
Speaker 1: chain and then you pull the ball back across right.
Speaker 1: Like It's more about those little head fakes and body
Speaker 1: fakes to get players out of position. He's great with
Speaker 1: he's great with pump fakes, he's great with pass fakes.
Speaker 1: He can do all these things to get guys out
Speaker 1: of position. And once he gets that tiny little angle,
Speaker 1: that's where his strength takes over. He's just so big
Speaker 1: and so strong that he can turn a small gap
Speaker 1: into like a lumbering drive to the rim because he
Speaker 1: gets you caught on his shoulder or caught on his backside.
Speaker 1: And his drives have a tendency to bring in a
Speaker 1: ton of help because they are slow he like rumbles
Speaker 1: downhill and everybody reacts to it, And because he's such
Speaker 1: a threat to throw the lob pass, everyone kind of
Speaker 1: overreacts to stuff in the paint and that's what opens
Speaker 1: up those kickout reads. Did you notice how much Lebron
Speaker 1: was pressuring the rim last night? A big part of
Speaker 1: that is because he doesn't have to create every single shot,
Speaker 1: he doesn't have to worry about burning himself out. He's
Speaker 1: also clearly very excited right now. That plays a role
Speaker 1: in it. But did you notice that he was, like
Speaker 1: on those switches, being aggressive downhill, pressuring the rim. He
Speaker 1: kind of gets choppy with his feet and tries to
Speaker 1: get ahead of steam so that he gets his body
Speaker 1: weight going downhill, and guys just don't want to get
Speaker 1: in the way of him. Like, there's a certain amount
Speaker 1: of energy that Lebron can afford to expand on each
Speaker 1: individual iso, on each individual post up, on each individual
Speaker 1: ball screen, simply because he has less to do on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor. I thought Lebron was
Speaker 1: fantastic in this game. He's been great for a while.
Speaker 1: JJ Reddick talked after the game about how ever, since
Speaker 1: the Miami game, they had a talk and then if
Speaker 1: you guys remember the Miami game was when I had
Speaker 1: my meltown and I was like, what the hell is
Speaker 1: wrong with these guys? You know, and JJ sat down
Speaker 1: with Lebron, and ever since then, he's been fantastic. I
Speaker 1: dug into the numbers. Since that Miami game, he's averaging
Speaker 1: twenty six point four points per game, eight rebounds per game,
Speaker 1: nine assists per game, fifty four percent from the field,
Speaker 1: forty three percent from three eight thirty point games, four
Speaker 1: triple doubles. He's playing at a top five level right now,
Speaker 1: which is what's so excited about partnering him with Lebron James,
Speaker 1: with the other talent on this roster, I thought Austin
Speaker 1: was fantastic. Again, he had to lead a unit in
Speaker 1: the early second quarter with Lebron, excuse me, in the
Speaker 1: late first quarter with Lebron and Luca both off the
Speaker 1: floor because Luca was on a minute's restriction. Now, I
Speaker 1: would expect that it'll be like all three of them
Speaker 1: to start games. Then Lebron will come out and it'll
Speaker 1: be Luca and Austin right in that like mid first
Speaker 1: quarter stretch, and then one of those guys will come
Speaker 1: out probably probably Luca, and it'll be Austin and Lebron
Speaker 1: to end the first quarter, and then they'll probably start
Speaker 1: the second quarter with Lebron and Luca. Then Lebron will
Speaker 1: come out in the middle of the second quarter, it'll
Speaker 1: be Luca and Austin, and then it'll be all three
Speaker 1: of them at the end. Right, that's probably going to
Speaker 1: be the normal progression. You're probably always going to have
Speaker 1: to deal with two of those guys, right, And that's
Speaker 1: the exciting part about this in the big picture, And
Speaker 1: I was literally thinking about it last night, like there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of time over the course of the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks where the Lakers have been playing
Speaker 1: really good basketball, but over the course of games, teams
Speaker 1: will ball pressure Austin and ball pressure Lebron and wear
Speaker 1: them down. And Lebron is forty and Austin is a
Speaker 1: little bit susceptible to strength and athleticism from time and
Speaker 1: from time to time, and they will wear down. And
Speaker 1: they've been playing so great that they've still been winning,
Speaker 1: and Austin still made enough plays in the Pacers game
Speaker 1: to get the job done, and they do what they
Speaker 1: need to do to get the win. But there's clearly
Speaker 1: like a little bit of like a Okay, we're running
Speaker 1: out of gas offensively here, where adding Luca just immediately
Speaker 1: doesn't just address that but turns you into the most
Speaker 1: resilient shot creation team in the league. To just be
Speaker 1: dealing with waves of all three of them, and then
Speaker 1: Luca and Austin, and then Luca and Lebron and then
Speaker 1: Luca and then all three of them again, and it's
Speaker 1: just gonna be Lebron and Austin here and all these
Speaker 1: just these groups that have so much shot creation on
Speaker 1: the floor, they're just gonna have such a resilient offense.
Speaker 1: But again, because of Luca's minutes restriction, Austin had to
Speaker 1: lead a unit by himself. And guess what, He's been
Speaker 1: doing that a lot this year, and he did it
Speaker 1: amazingly well again last night in that first quarter stretch.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest things, though, that I was excited
Speaker 1: about after this trade was the play finishing that is
Speaker 1: on this froster. Okay, like Luca's an indomitable force, there
Speaker 1: are a handful of guys in the league that can
Speaker 1: make him work harder than usual. I think of like
Speaker 1: lou Dort, I think of like Andrew Wiggins, who's not
Speaker 1: even in the conference anymore. But even some of the
Speaker 1: best perimeter defenders in the league, guys like Jaden McDaniels
Speaker 1: right in the Western Conference finals, those guys can't keep
Speaker 1: him from getting to his spots. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: he kind of gets where he wants to easily against them.
Speaker 1: That is the superpower that will help this offense when
Speaker 1: things get really tough. But the other guys do have
Speaker 1: some limitations. Right Lebron's forty. There's a couple times last
Speaker 1: night where he tried to turn the corner on Lourie
Speaker 1: Markinen and just couldn't get there. Laurie was like blocking
Speaker 1: him off the glass or forcing him into bad misses
Speaker 1: five years ago. He's dounking on his head. But he's forty, right,
Speaker 1: and he can wear down a little bit physically over
Speaker 1: the course of games. Although to Lebron's credit, he's been
Speaker 1: fantastic out of late. As of late, and that's the
Speaker 1: optimism with this group. But Lebron is forty years old.
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves, for example, not a great athlete. He can
Speaker 1: struggle under ball pressure sometimes Ruey if it's not a
Speaker 1: dunk under the rim like he's shooting under fifty percent
Speaker 1: on layups right and his jumper under contests can get
Speaker 1: a little finicky sometimes. Point being they're awesome offensive players,
Speaker 1: but they have some limitations when they're in lead roles.
Speaker 1: For all three of those guys, right, but once you
Speaker 1: give them an advantage, if you let Lebron have someone
Speaker 1: sprinting at him and now he's playing driving kick basketball.
Speaker 1: If you let Lebron slip out of screens to where
Speaker 1: he can lead a four on three, if you put
Speaker 1: Austin on the perimeter with the guy sprinting at him
Speaker 1: where he can show the ball and drive left or right.
Speaker 1: If you put Ruey wide open where he's shooting fifty
Speaker 1: three percent on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots this
Speaker 1: year field goal percentage, meaning he's making more than half
Speaker 1: of them with what he can do driving closeouts. Gabe
Speaker 1: has been playing super well again. He was a big
Speaker 1: part of that Austin solo unit that did so well.
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith can knock down and open three. Jackson Hayes,
Speaker 1: like I talked a lot after the Mark Williams trade
Speaker 1: went through or fell through about how like not having
Speaker 1: Mark as like a roleman threat could be a significant
Speaker 1: hit to this offense. After watching last night, like I thought,
Speaker 1: Jackson did just find capitalizing on all the vertical spacing opportunities.
Speaker 1: I believe he was six for six from the field
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, Like I think he's not as
Speaker 1: good as Mark Williams, but I think he's gonna do
Speaker 1: just fine unlocking that vertical spacing. The point is is
Speaker 1: there's just a ton of play finishing on this roster.
Speaker 1: So if you have Luca, who against the very best
Speaker 1: defenses in the league and against the very best defenders
Speaker 1: in the league, can still create advantages, and Lebron, who
Speaker 1: kind of looks like he's still doing it for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: And let's say, let's even pretend for a second that
Speaker 1: Lebron eventually kind of wears down over the course of
Speaker 1: a playoff run and doesn't look like top five Lebron
Speaker 1: but looks like top ten Lebron. Even if that happens,
Speaker 1: Luca is there to create the sh'll advantage once he
Speaker 1: creates that initial advantage. Lebron and Austin and Gabe and
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith and Ruey, those guys are incredible at
Speaker 1: this driving kick thing, and They're just gonna take those
Speaker 1: advantages and either score out of them or drive them
Speaker 1: and draw another defender and create an even better shot.
Speaker 1: There were so many sequences last night where the Lakers
Speaker 1: continued to break down the defense and would get like
Speaker 1: a really good look with like two or three seconds
Speaker 1: on the shot clock. It's like, oh, Lebron's driving on
Speaker 1: like the fourth driving kick of the possession and whipping
Speaker 1: a pass back across the court to Gabe Vincent who
Speaker 1: knocks it down. Or all of the possession is great
Speaker 1: defense from the Jazz and everything's covered. But Walker Kessler
Speaker 1: is on Austin In a switch on the left wing,
Speaker 1: and Austin just pump fakes on a close out. You
Speaker 1: get the end of the possession is you get a
Speaker 1: short close out for Austin on the left wing against
Speaker 1: Walker Kessler. Austin shows the ball, Walker over pursues that
Speaker 1: pump fake, Austin drives and hits a little bank shot
Speaker 1: with like two on the shot clock. That is play finishing.
Speaker 1: I talk about this all the time when you go
Speaker 1: into lower levels. It's dramatic the difference at the high
Speaker 1: school level. If I let the guys play King of
Speaker 1: the Court, with a set defender versus a king of
Speaker 1: the court with a guy closing out at him. Their
Speaker 1: ability to score like quadruples. And when you give them
Speaker 1: that advantage. Now again at the NBA level, it's a
Speaker 1: smaller advantage. It's more like maybe twenty to thirty percent
Speaker 1: more efficient per possession. But that's a substantial increase that
Speaker 1: you can benefit from because now you have the best
Speaker 1: set of advantage creators that are in the NBA. And
Speaker 1: I thought that was screaming off the screen yesterday. Ruey
Speaker 1: was fantastic finishing plays, Jackson, finishing plays Lebron and Austin
Speaker 1: and the driving kick. Even Luca like catching in transition
Speaker 1: when he's got an opportunity and driving and just baiting
Speaker 1: everybody into him with his slow, lumbering drives and flipping
Speaker 1: the ball up to Jackson Hayes. I thought their transition
Speaker 1: pushes were really good. I thought they played with a
Speaker 1: lot of pace, and I thought they did a good
Speaker 1: job of just creating advantages just by playing fast on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. I didn't think they
Speaker 1: really defended all that well last night. I thought Vando
Speaker 1: had his worst game since he came back the whole
Speaker 1: group wasn't particularly engaged, but Utah didn't shoot well and
Speaker 1: they turned the ball over a ton, so it didn't
Speaker 1: really matter. And I don't really care because they're playing
Speaker 1: a bad team. They're kicking the shit out of them,
Speaker 1: and the kind of the silver lining there, the point
Speaker 1: of optimism is the Lakers are eleven and two in
Speaker 1: their last thirteen games. That's the best record in the
Speaker 1: league in that span. But it's the number one defense
Speaker 1: in the league over that span. For thirteen games now,
Speaker 1: no one's been getting stops better than the Los Angeles Lakers. Now,
Speaker 1: Do I think they're going to be that good with Luca, No,
Speaker 1: that's just the reality of having Luke on the floor.
Speaker 1: By the way, he looked kind of chubbying, kind of
Speaker 1: slow last night, but again he was kind of chubbying,
Speaker 1: kind of slow in the playoffs last year too. I
Speaker 1: still think they're going to be pretty good on defense, though,
Speaker 1: I'll be looking at the game in Portland on the twentieth,
Speaker 1: So if you look at the schedule now, they play
Speaker 1: Utah again in Utah tomorrow, then they get a big break,
Speaker 1: and then on the nineteenth they play the Hornets and
Speaker 1: then they go to Portland on the twentieth. Portland's won
Speaker 1: six games in a row at home and they beat
Speaker 1: some good teams there. So that's gonna be a tough game.
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm gonna have my eye on as
Speaker 1: like a test for the Lakers defenses because they have
Speaker 1: a lot of speed and they're gonna put the Lakers
Speaker 1: in some predicaments in terms of their defensive personnel, and
Speaker 1: that'll be a good test for them. But again, as
Speaker 1: I look at the Lakers defensively, I don't see them
Speaker 1: as like a group that's gonna be some elite top
Speaker 1: three defense, even though they've been playing great defense as
Speaker 1: of late. The idea here is have achieved peak unguardability
Speaker 1: on offense like Denver did in twenty twenty three, and
Speaker 1: find a way to be good enough on defense somewhere
Speaker 1: in that ten to fifteen range, like ideally in the
Speaker 1: five to in they're like six to ten range, right
Speaker 1: like just outside of that top five. If they can
Speaker 1: get up into that range consistently defensively, that's where this
Speaker 1: group has some championship potential. Again, as long as they
Speaker 1: can catch some favorable matchups and as long as they
Speaker 1: get the type of center that they need. Right. But again,
Speaker 1: like I'm not reading too much into the defense last night,
Speaker 1: just because they were playing the Jazz. A couple other
Speaker 1: things before we get out of here. Jordan Goodwin, he
Speaker 1: in the last two games with the Lakers, seemingly has
Speaker 1: gotten a million loose balls, grabbing offensive rebounds. Every time
Speaker 1: there's a scrum, he just somehow ends up with it.
Speaker 1: There was one last night, I think it was John Collins,
Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly, but it looked like a Jazz
Speaker 1: player had the rebound and next thing you know, Jordan
Speaker 1: Goodwin has it and is laying it up underneath the basket.
Speaker 1: And it's like there's a gift that some players have.
Speaker 1: And I see this with Jimmy Butler with the Warriors too.
Speaker 1: It's been screaming off the screen for me. But like
Speaker 1: Jordan good there are certain players that just have a
Speaker 1: knack for scrapping for the ball, like they have a
Speaker 1: nose for the ball, they have ability to they just
Speaker 1: have an ability to get to the ball somehow, whether
Speaker 1: it's an instinct to be able to understand where it's going,
Speaker 1: whether it's a scrappiness and a fight, whether it's just
Speaker 1: hand eye coordination. I don't know what it is, but
Speaker 1: Jordan Couldwin has been really really good just by scrapping
Speaker 1: and creating extra possessions, and like ironically in garbage time
Speaker 1: he got in there and just got a crazy heater
Speaker 1: from the mid range as a jump shooter and ended
Speaker 1: up hitting the three as well. Like Jordan showed a
Speaker 1: little off the dribble pop last night as well. But
Speaker 1: like that scrappiness, if you look at the Lakers guards
Speaker 1: right now, it's Gabe who's small, and Austin who's thin.
Speaker 1: Jordan's kind of like an interesting option there. Makes me
Speaker 1: wonder if he keeps playing like this, if the Lakers
Speaker 1: will consider waving Shake Milton and converting him into a
Speaker 1: standard contract to see if he can get onto the
Speaker 1: playoff roster. But I've been really impressed by Jordan Goodwin.
Speaker 1: And as far as that like knows for the ball thing,
Speaker 1: that's another thing that stands out to me every time
Speaker 1: I watch Luca, and really this really comes to the
Speaker 1: surface with his defensive rebounding. Luca has a knack for
Speaker 1: seeing where the ball is gonna come off of the
Speaker 1: rim by just watching the shooter, and he just kind
Speaker 1: of finds that gap and gets in there, and he
Speaker 1: gets a ton of defensive rebounds, And I think that's
Speaker 1: gonna be huge, especially for the Lakers small ball groups
Speaker 1: who could struggle with rebounding from time to time depending
Speaker 1: on the matchup. But the last thing I was gonna
Speaker 1: talk about with the Lakers was the Alex Lenn news.
Speaker 1: So Alex Lenn ended up backing out of his commitment
Speaker 1: to the Indiana Pacers. I think he's gonna end up
Speaker 1: signing with the Lakers. You know, as I look at it,
Speaker 1: if you were gonna if you're gonna look at vetmin
Speaker 1: type of dudes, right you've got You've already got Christian
Speaker 1: KloCo on the roster as kind of like a raw
Speaker 1: prospect who's a defensive mold. You have Jackson Hayes on
Speaker 1: the roster as your starter right now, is like the
Speaker 1: rim running role man kind of thing, right, Well, you
Speaker 1: don't have in terms of like a real contracted player.
Speaker 1: Is a big, strong kind of guy. And Alex Llne's
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty pounds, which is at least an
Speaker 1: option to put out there for some of the bigger centers. Now,
Speaker 1: you might argue that Trey Jamison or Trey Jemison is
Speaker 1: every bit is good an option there. If not better,
Speaker 1: we'll see. But like I do have a feeling it's
Speaker 1: going to end up being Alex lenn that signs with
Speaker 1: the Lakers. If you just look at it, it's like,
Speaker 1: why would he back out of the Indiana Pacers commitment?
Speaker 1: That obviously has ramifications for his agency in terms of
Speaker 1: his credibility for backing out of like a verbal commitment,
Speaker 1: So like there's there's obviously downsides there, And the only
Speaker 1: reason I could think of him doing that is if
Speaker 1: he thought he was going to slot right into the
Speaker 1: Lakers starting lineup or into the Lakers rotation in a
Speaker 1: significant context. So I have a feeling it's going to
Speaker 1: end up being Alex lenn hadn't played him a ton
Speaker 1: in the last couple of years, and I don't hate
Speaker 1: the idea of having a big, big seven footers two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty pounds in that type of spot. But
Speaker 1: I still think in the big picture, Alex Lenz still
Speaker 1: still lends this team towards being primarily a small ball group,
Speaker 1: a group that's going to be operating without a center
Speaker 1: on the floor. In the majority of these situations when
Speaker 1: the when the chips are down in the playoffs. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today, or excuse me,
Speaker 1: all I have for this morning. I'm going to have
Speaker 1: another video coming out this afternoon with a bunch of
Speaker 1: others up around the league. Again, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: for rocking with me and I will see you later
Speaker 1: today the volume What's Up? Guys. As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight. It would
Speaker 1: actually be really helpful for us if you guys would
Speaker 1: take a second and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
Speaker 1: you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
Speaker 1: appreciate it.