Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jason Tin Podcast. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your Friday evening to
Speaker 1: come hang out and talk some basketball with me. Um.
Speaker 1: I'm heading into a pretty busy weekend and I only
Speaker 1: had gotten to one show this week, so I wanted
Speaker 1: to set aside some time real quick before I get
Speaker 1: busy tonight to UH go over my thoughts of from
Speaker 1: last night's Laker Nuggets Lakers Nuggets game. I went back
Speaker 1: over the film, UH in an in depth manner today, UH,
Speaker 1: and I have a bunch of thoughts on a bunch
Speaker 1: of different things having to do with the Lakers, and
Speaker 1: then I just want to give my quick two cents
Speaker 1: on the the NBA All Star Game and all the
Speaker 1: pushback that they've been receiving. UM. Usually when two sides
Speaker 1: are agreeing to do something, there's kind of like a
Speaker 1: public push, but then there's obviously a private push as well,
Speaker 1: and I think I understand where those folks are coming from. UM.
Speaker 1: But let's let's start with the Lakers and the Nuggets. So,
Speaker 1: you know, one of my favorite things about last night's
Speaker 1: game is it was the the the embodiment of everything
Speaker 1: that I've talked about this team being over the course
Speaker 1: of the last few years, because uh, you know, there's
Speaker 1: been this this big emphasis on how big the Lakers are.
Speaker 1: You know, they had they had Dwight Howard Day, had
Speaker 1: Vale McGee, Lebron six nine seventy pounds, Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: this big athletic freak. There was always this talk about
Speaker 1: how how big they were, and a lot of people
Speaker 1: who weren't watching the Lakers very closely would say that
Speaker 1: that was the reason why they were defending so well.
Speaker 1: They were just too big for teams, and I actually
Speaker 1: disagree with that. I think their size is a huge
Speaker 1: problem on the offensive end, particularly with Lebron and Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: because they can bully you to get close shots, shots
Speaker 1: at the rim. You know, Anthony Davis more so is
Speaker 1: an offensive rebounder, but Lebron as a post up player,
Speaker 1: and just the way that that can really cause problems
Speaker 1: for your defense, especially in a playoff series. However, on
Speaker 1: the defensive end, I've always said that it wasn't built
Speaker 1: on their size. It was built on their guards and
Speaker 1: their wings and the fact that they were all so
Speaker 1: dialed in to being in the right spots, to communicating
Speaker 1: to rotating all the effort and focus stuff. You guys,
Speaker 1: everyone who's been listening to me for a while knows
Speaker 1: that I've been beating that drum forever. And you know,
Speaker 1: when I was looking back at the film today, their
Speaker 1: defense really took off when Montrez Harrold was playing center
Speaker 1: later in the third quarter, uh yesterday, and you know,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis was kind of floating around on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: and and uh talent Horton Tucker was getting everything going
Speaker 1: with his length and his quickness out on the perimeter
Speaker 1: guarding Jamal Murray, taking Jamal Murray out of his core actions,
Speaker 1: bothering him from behind with his length, and then when
Speaker 1: he would get switched off of Jamal Murray by some
Speaker 1: sort of pick and roll or other screening action, he
Speaker 1: would stay engaged in the play, immediately rotate to another
Speaker 1: man that he needs to needed to in the sequence.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of like instinctual stuff, people knowing
Speaker 1: the right places where the right places to be at
Speaker 1: the right times, and the way that that can disrupt
Speaker 1: a really good offense. There's a play on my Twitter
Speaker 1: feed if you scroll down and you look at the
Speaker 1: video clips that I've posted today There's a play where
Speaker 1: he starts on Jamal Murray and then gets caught in
Speaker 1: a ball screen action with Yokich which he inevitably has
Speaker 1: to switch, where he switches and gets up underneath yo
Speaker 1: Kitchen pushes him out kind of to where the semi
Speaker 1: circle was, which leads to a rotation on the back
Speaker 1: end where he believes Yokich to sprint out to the
Speaker 1: corner to contest to Michael Green and it leads to
Speaker 1: an air ball. And that's an example of what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about here the Laker defense that it hasn't just
Speaker 1: been uh talent Horton Tucker this season. Contavious called Bo
Speaker 1: Pope has been great with that for the last two years.
Speaker 1: Alex Crusoe has been great with that for the last
Speaker 1: two years. You know, Avery Bradley was great with that
Speaker 1: last year. It was always built on just this total
Speaker 1: team effort and commitment to rotating and covering for each
Speaker 1: other and being in the right spots at the right time.
Speaker 1: That's always what it was that, Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: Having Anthony Davis and lebron Is, these super versatile forwards
Speaker 1: in the front line that can protect the rim and
Speaker 1: guard on the perimeter is also a huge chunk of
Speaker 1: what makes that defense so good. But I've always thought
Speaker 1: that the guards kind of got the short end of
Speaker 1: the stick in terms of the media and the way
Speaker 1: that the Laker defense is portrayed, because I think they're
Speaker 1: just as important, if not more important, to the success
Speaker 1: of that defense. And I think last night was a
Speaker 1: great example of that. That whole third quarter run was
Speaker 1: was sprung by by town Horton Tucker and honestly Mantrese Harold,
Speaker 1: who was great so real quick on tres one of
Speaker 1: the things that I thought was really interesting and if
Speaker 1: you guys listen to the pot I did with Jason Maples,
Speaker 1: I talked a lot about this, But I've always said
Speaker 1: that I thought Mantrese Harold, with the clip and a
Speaker 1: little bit with the Lakers to start this year, has
Speaker 1: been set up to fail because they've been using him
Speaker 1: as kind of like a center that patrols the paint,
Speaker 1: where he's not a great room protector, not in the
Speaker 1: sense that you would think of like being head up
Speaker 1: with guys and being able to disrupt them and change shots.
Speaker 1: He can block shots if he really gets loaded up
Speaker 1: in the right spot. If another defenders involved. That prevents
Speaker 1: the the the offensive player from being really aggressive to
Speaker 1: the rim. He can really load up in block shots
Speaker 1: and he will get blocks that way. But he's never
Speaker 1: been great as just an overall just rim presence is
Speaker 1: just too small and his instincts aren't that great. But
Speaker 1: he has strengths. He has legitimate athletic strengths that would
Speaker 1: make him a great defensive player. He's very quick for
Speaker 1: a for a big man. He's got really long arms,
Speaker 1: and he plays super hard. He's got a great motor,
Speaker 1: which fits great into what the Lakers are trying to
Speaker 1: do every single game. And so what you saw, what
Speaker 1: you saw last night is ironically what turned things around
Speaker 1: for Trey's was the fact that that center that they
Speaker 1: were using, Yokich was starting a lot of actions with
Speaker 1: the ball in his hand. So he wasn't defending a
Speaker 1: ball handler out on the perimeter as a screening defending
Speaker 1: like defending the screener where he was caught kind of
Speaker 1: in some sort of weird drop coverage or in between.
Speaker 1: Instead a lot of times he was on the ball.
Speaker 1: So because of that, he opted to ball pressure Yokich
Speaker 1: and kind of get up underneath them and get into
Speaker 1: his his handle a little bit, and it really bothered Yoki.
Speaker 1: And I think that was a big reason why he
Speaker 1: had so much success defensively last night. What was he
Speaker 1: was kind of by virtue of what the Denver Nuggets
Speaker 1: were doing. It allowed the Lakers to play treads to
Speaker 1: his strengths. Uh. And then you know, Jason Maples brought
Speaker 1: this up a lot in our pod, but he said that, um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's very important for treads to be aggressive
Speaker 1: in certain matchups, and a lot of times last night
Speaker 1: they would have Michael Porter Jr. Playing the four, you know,
Speaker 1: And so they were at the end of the third
Speaker 1: quarter that lineup they had Yokich at the five and
Speaker 1: MPG at the four. They'd had u Yoki on Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis and Tres was just destroying the uh, the Nuggets,
Speaker 1: especially in transition when they would get caught in a
Speaker 1: cross match or like Michael Porter Jr. Would end up
Speaker 1: on Kyle Kuzma, uh and all of a sudden, he's
Speaker 1: got Jamal Murray on him or Will Barton on him
Speaker 1: right under the basket, and he's getting he's getting dunks
Speaker 1: and deep seals and things along those lines. There's one
Speaker 1: in transition that he got out in front of Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray for a dunk, and then there was another one
Speaker 1: where he got switched on to Will Barton just did
Speaker 1: a really good side seal and Lebron through a really
Speaker 1: nice bounce pass into the right spot and he got
Speaker 1: another dome. That's that's an example of Montrez finding a
Speaker 1: way to to to use his strengths, the things that
Speaker 1: he's really good at. Because all of these role players,
Speaker 1: they all have they all have pros and cons. You know,
Speaker 1: because if if there was a player out there who
Speaker 1: was playing a role for a team who had no weaknesses,
Speaker 1: he would be on the floor all the time and
Speaker 1: he'd be he'd be a star. He wouldn't be a
Speaker 1: role player. So when you're dealing with these kinds of guys,
Speaker 1: these in between or type NBA players, they've got downsides,
Speaker 1: and so you need to structure their role on the
Speaker 1: team in a way that that that strengthens what they do.
Speaker 1: So what I used to talk about all all the
Speaker 1: time last year with the Laker guards. Everyone was obsessed
Speaker 1: with the fact that the Lakers didn't have good guards,
Speaker 1: And I said, who cares, Lebron's your guard on offense.
Speaker 1: All they need to do is defend, and it turned
Speaker 1: out all of them could defend, and they didn't need
Speaker 1: to be you know, uh, super versatile defensive players that
Speaker 1: could defend all three levels. They just needed to chase
Speaker 1: people off of the three point line and funnel him
Speaker 1: into Anthony Davis. So it worked. The everything is about,
Speaker 1: you know, taking your player, finding out what he's good at,
Speaker 1: finding out what he's bad at, and then keeping him
Speaker 1: in in a wheelhouse for him or he's gonna play well. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the same goes for talent Horton Tucker. I
Speaker 1: talked a lot about how I wasn't sure if talent
Speaker 1: Horton Tucker was going to be usable as a playoff
Speaker 1: rotation player, and it was never about the offense. Like
Speaker 1: he he was incredible offensively last night, particularly attacking close outs.
Speaker 1: He did such a great job in situations where the
Speaker 1: defense was chaotic, either in transition or in the half court,
Speaker 1: or he would get catch the ball on the wing
Speaker 1: and you could either have a defender who was too
Speaker 1: slow or no defender at all, one that was closing
Speaker 1: out on him, and he was able to attack and
Speaker 1: make quick decisions and get into the paint that that
Speaker 1: that's amazing, that's great, but that's not what you need
Speaker 1: from talent Horton Tucker. In order for him to play
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, he needed him to defend at an
Speaker 1: extremely high level in the entirely focused on that on
Speaker 1: the ball. Remember in the Portland's game early in the season,
Speaker 1: I think it was their second loss of the season.
Speaker 1: In the Portland's game, he got absolutely killed by Gary
Speaker 1: Trent Jr. Because of the fact that he wasn't paying
Speaker 1: attention on the defensive end of the ball every single possession.
Speaker 1: For him to have progressed to where he is now,
Speaker 1: where he's like a regular rotation member, he's actually like
Speaker 1: their six man. It's all about the fact that he
Speaker 1: is now committed on that end of the ball. Whatever
Speaker 1: you get offensively from him is great. He had a
Speaker 1: couple of turnovers he had wanted transition where he got
Speaker 1: a little crazy and tried to throw a chess pass
Speaker 1: to Lebron that got stolen. Those are the other things
Speaker 1: that he's got to be careful of because it's so
Speaker 1: like decision making is so important in a playoff series.
Speaker 1: But I mean, from from a month ago, we were
Speaker 1: all wondering is this kid gonna be usable at all
Speaker 1: in the playoffs too? Now it looks like he's he's
Speaker 1: a very important part of their defensive backcourt. That it's
Speaker 1: it's remarkable how much he's progressed in in such a
Speaker 1: short period of time. All Right, I want to play.
Speaker 1: I want to pay Kyle Kuzma a compliment. So, you know,
Speaker 1: Kyle Kuzma has a specific personality about him that would
Speaker 1: suggest that he'd be a certain type of player, right, Like,
Speaker 1: he's he's very online, he's very on social media, he's
Speaker 1: very he behaves kind of young. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: want to call him immature, because he's not. He's a
Speaker 1: grown man. But he behaves in a way that would
Speaker 1: would make you think that he's wired in a in
Speaker 1: a in a kind of a young, selfish kind of way.
Speaker 1: And to see what's happened in the last couple of
Speaker 1: months between him signing this extension, uh to to make
Speaker 1: potentially less money than he could have if he left
Speaker 1: the Lakers to go put up big numbers on a
Speaker 1: lesser team, and then too after signing that extension, really
Speaker 1: embrace a minimal offensive role that has him just flying
Speaker 1: around all over the place, getting offensive rebounds, getting blocks,
Speaker 1: sprinting back in transition, and becoming just a really really solid,
Speaker 1: almost veteran esque role player is remarkable to me because,
Speaker 1: like I said, it doesn't matter, it doesn't mess up
Speaker 1: with what you think his personality would be. Like you know,
Speaker 1: when you meet people like that, the person who's very online,
Speaker 1: they're usually the They're usually the person who is a
Speaker 1: little self absorbed, a little more worried about what they've
Speaker 1: got going on it. And you know, it's so it's
Speaker 1: so cool to see him buy into this concept and
Speaker 1: and quite frankly, like that's gonna be the thing that
Speaker 1: keeps him in the league as a as a Shane
Speaker 1: Battier type of wing for you know, for a really
Speaker 1: long time. It is him becoming that guy that him
Speaker 1: having a seventeen year NBA career is gonna depend on
Speaker 1: him being this guy. And and and I just like
Speaker 1: I said, I just wanted to pay him a compliment
Speaker 1: because this is literally a player who took potentially less
Speaker 1: money to stay on a team where he is in
Speaker 1: a much smaller role, and he's just addicted to playing
Speaker 1: winning basketball and doing all of these little things that
Speaker 1: lead to a lot of success on the team level.
Speaker 1: And and I and again like I me, just like
Speaker 1: just like all of you, just like most of the
Speaker 1: people in in uh, in the Laker fan base. I've
Speaker 1: been really hard on Kyle Kuzma. Are a lot of
Speaker 1: reasons over the years, and a lot of it had
Speaker 1: to do with the fact that he wasn't embracing those
Speaker 1: little things. And to see him do it now, like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want to say necessarily that we
Speaker 1: owe him an apology, because we had reasons to feel
Speaker 1: the way that we did, but but it's it's incredible
Speaker 1: to see his transformation from that guy into literally like
Speaker 1: the guy who was playing harder than anybody on the
Speaker 1: court last night. It was really really impressive in my opinion.
Speaker 1: So about the next thing I want to talk about
Speaker 1: is Anthony Davis. So I read a poll last night
Speaker 1: and I asked a very simple question. I said, our
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis struggles based on the fact that he's not
Speaker 1: getting enough touches or is it based on the fact
Speaker 1: that that he's just struggling, you know, that he's just
Speaker 1: in a funk. And the voting came came back at
Speaker 1: about thought that he was just in a funk, and
Speaker 1: that it wasn't related to his touches at all. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, I think there's two I think I tweeted
Speaker 1: this last night, and I think it. I think there
Speaker 1: is some truth to the fact that his touches look
Speaker 1: different than they did last year, and a lot of
Speaker 1: that has to do with Schroeder in the starting lineup.
Speaker 1: This is something I talked about, uh in a couple
Speaker 1: podcasts recently. You know, when Schroeder's on the floor with
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis, they destroy teams without a doubt.
Speaker 1: It is good for the team to have all three
Speaker 1: of them together. However, having all three of them together
Speaker 1: in the starting lineup has a couple of unintended consequences.
Speaker 1: One that I always beat the drumon is that leads
Speaker 1: Lebron to run half of the second quarter by himself
Speaker 1: or with four role players rather than with one of
Speaker 1: the other co stars. And two, I think it really
Speaker 1: does potentially have an impact on Anthony Davis's rhythm. UH.
Speaker 1: That meaning that in the beginning of the game, the
Speaker 1: fact that you've got two of these primary ball handler
Speaker 1: type of players on the floor with Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: just leading him to getting less touches uh initially in
Speaker 1: the game. And one of the things that I that
Speaker 1: I preached about all year last year, if you guys remember,
Speaker 1: is that I thought, you know, Lou Williams over aggressiveness
Speaker 1: uh in Montrese, Harold and as well might have had
Speaker 1: something to do with some of the inconsistency from from
Speaker 1: Paul George. Now, Paul George is proving me very wrong
Speaker 1: this year. But I do I I do think that
Speaker 1: there is some truth to the basketball you know thought
Speaker 1: process that having too many ball handlers on the floor
Speaker 1: can cause some issues with rhythm for players. That is
Speaker 1: true for Anthony Davis. However, he has been really really
Speaker 1: bad on the offensive end of the floor. And at
Speaker 1: a certain point, like if you think of the line
Speaker 1: between the two outcomes, like this is where it's based
Speaker 1: on his rhythm, and this is where he's just not
Speaker 1: playing well, Like it's somewhere in the middle, Like at
Speaker 1: some point he's got to accept some blame for what's
Speaker 1: happening here. At the end of the day, he's he's
Speaker 1: not dribbling the ball very well at all, he's not
Speaker 1: shooting the ball very well at all, and he's not
Speaker 1: being physically aggressive around the rim. Almost every shot that
Speaker 1: he's making this year is something where he's being set
Speaker 1: up by one of his teammates. He's having like one
Speaker 1: of his worst you know, uh scoring individual scoring seasons
Speaker 1: in terms of his isolation, in terms of what he
Speaker 1: was doing so great in the bubble, He's he's having
Speaker 1: a terrible season in that regard, and I can't entirely
Speaker 1: blame that on the touches. Now, there are a couple
Speaker 1: of people that I follow on Twitter, people that are
Speaker 1: Laker fans who have been beating this drum all season,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to undercut that because they are right, Like,
Speaker 1: there is something to be said about the fact that,
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron is playing basically the same way he
Speaker 1: played last year, the same amount of touches, same overall
Speaker 1: control of the game, same everything, and Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: getting less touches. So what is the difference. It's Dennis
Speaker 1: Schroeder that that goes without saying. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, like, I don't think you can entirely
Speaker 1: blame Shorter because you gotta worry about his rhythm and
Speaker 1: if Schroeder just entirely gives up his feel for the
Speaker 1: game and the initial stretches to to force feed Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: It's very likely that Schroeder will have some struggles, and
Speaker 1: he has had some struggles for certain stretches of this
Speaker 1: year where he hasn't played very well well offensively, where
Speaker 1: he hasn't shot the ball really well. So from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: I think, like, you know, if you're Anthony Davis, you've
Speaker 1: got to kind of acknowledge the realities of the situation. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm getting less touches because we have another really, really
Speaker 1: good ball handler this year, and so as a result
Speaker 1: of that, my offense has changed. But he also has
Speaker 1: to look in the mirror and say, however, that's not changing.
Speaker 1: Schroeder's not coming out of the starting lineup. It's very
Speaker 1: clear that he wants that the Lakers have a vested
Speaker 1: interest in trying to keep him here and and and
Speaker 1: get him to come back after his contract runs out.
Speaker 1: So I doubt they're gonna move him to the bench.
Speaker 1: So if you're Anthony Davis, you've got to acknowledge the
Speaker 1: realities of the situation and be like, I have to
Speaker 1: play better. I don't know if I have to spend
Speaker 1: extra time in the gym working on my shot. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I have to just like demand the
Speaker 1: ball a little bit more from maybe from Lebron, because
Speaker 1: Lebron is, you know, less dependent on rhythm, and he's
Speaker 1: someone who's a little bit more capable of of deferring
Speaker 1: and then coming back into the game later on, uh
Speaker 1: and being more aggressive later. I don't know what he
Speaker 1: has to do, but he's got to do something. And
Speaker 1: my and and you know, he had a really really
Speaker 1: good defensive stretch to end the third quarter and in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter last night, he defended Joel and Bed
Speaker 1: really well at the end of the fourth quarter in
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia game. He's had stretches defensively this year where
Speaker 1: he's been great, but he's also had a lot like
Speaker 1: long stretches of the season where he hasn't been great defensively.
Speaker 1: So at a certain point, like I said, at a
Speaker 1: certain point, Anthony Davis has to kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: accept some responsibility for for what's happening here. And it
Speaker 1: attempts to make a change, and I try to do something,
Speaker 1: uh to turn things around. But I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: worried about him. But I mean, let's this is now,
Speaker 1: We're now over a quarter of the way through the season,
Speaker 1: and he's actually really slumping worse now than he was
Speaker 1: to start the season. So I think all I'm saying is,
Speaker 1: I think it's time for Anthony Davis to to try
Speaker 1: to figure this thing out really quickly. On Lebron, um
Speaker 1: I said in the podcast that I did with Tommy
Speaker 1: on Tuesday, I said that I thought Lebron was the
Speaker 1: the m v P front runner just by a hair.
Speaker 1: I think it's important to understand that embid Yokich and
Speaker 1: and be Kauai and Lebron, those three are kind of
Speaker 1: on the same tier, and that that's typical and such
Speaker 1: a short in such a short uh sample size, because
Speaker 1: all that they haven't played enough games to really build
Speaker 1: some gap between each other. But all three teams are
Speaker 1: right around the same record, They're all within a half
Speaker 1: game of each other, all three of them are putting
Speaker 1: up ridiculous numbers, and all three of those teams are
Speaker 1: at the every top of the league. And so from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, they absolutely deserved to all be in that
Speaker 1: tier together. And then I basically said that the reason
Speaker 1: why I thought Lebron deserved to be on the top
Speaker 1: over Kauai had to do with the fact that Kauai
Speaker 1: has had somebody on his team playing just as good
Speaker 1: as him and Paul George, whereas Anthony Davis has kind
Speaker 1: of faded and Lebron has had to deal with that
Speaker 1: really quick short turnaround. And then I also said that Mbiid,
Speaker 1: who has missed I believe five or six games already
Speaker 1: this season, that his availability is starting to become a
Speaker 1: differentiating factor, even though his numbers are better than what
Speaker 1: Kauai and Lebron had been putting up. But last night
Speaker 1: was another great example of that, because you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you're at home, you're playing against You're playing against a
Speaker 1: team that very clearly wants to send a message to you.
Speaker 1: The Nuggets came in with their hair on fire in
Speaker 1: that game, especially in that first half, coming in there
Speaker 1: attempting to to to knock the Lakers off. The Nuggets
Speaker 1: have been playing really well this year. They were eleven
Speaker 1: and four in their previous fifteen games if my math
Speaker 1: is correct, and they were top ten in defense. They
Speaker 1: were ninth in defense in their previous fifteen games, and
Speaker 1: they were top five in offense. They were fourth in
Speaker 1: offense in their previous fifteen games. So the Nuggets came
Speaker 1: in their hair on fire trying to beat the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Lakers don't have much to play for. It their at home,
Speaker 1: the game doesn't mean much for them in the standings. Uh.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis comes out and he was he was aggressive
Speaker 1: on the offensive glass early, but he didn't have anything
Speaker 1: going offensively outside of that. And Lebron did what an
Speaker 1: m v P does, which is he just refuses to
Speaker 1: let his team lose. And throughout that game. Although you know,
Speaker 1: the role players were amazing in that game, but they
Speaker 1: always are for the really good teams. But Lebron throughout
Speaker 1: that game asserted himself when he needed to, uh, in
Speaker 1: order to keep pushing that that uh, that winning go
Speaker 1: forward and and I just think, like you know, over
Speaker 1: the course of the season, that's gonna be a part
Speaker 1: of his case is understanding that the Lakers did did
Speaker 1: get dealt up pretty shitty hand that really quick turnaround.
Speaker 1: You know, like it's very clearly affecting Anthony Davis, but
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, Lebron is just not letting it affect him.
Speaker 1: And he's been really, really good on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: He's he's incredibly gifted around the rim with his hands
Speaker 1: in a way that's actually pretty crazy because you know,
Speaker 1: when you're when you play, when you play basketball in
Speaker 1: college or really in any competitive level, almost every single
Speaker 1: coach and ref will tell you to never swipe down
Speaker 1: on the ball. They always tell you to swipe up.
Speaker 1: That's why when you see guys practice at defensive slide,
Speaker 1: they always kind of have that left hand out with
Speaker 1: their hand up and then the other art hand is
Speaker 1: up as they kind of slide down the court. The
Speaker 1: idea is they're they're training you to reach up at
Speaker 1: the ball because they don't want you to get called
Speaker 1: for a foul. And Lebron just has this ridiculous ability
Speaker 1: around the basket to strip guys on the way up,
Speaker 1: and he does it by reaching down, and he does
Speaker 1: it without getting foul calls, which which is amazing to me.
Speaker 1: But again, I've been, I've been, uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: took a little bit of not heat. But a couple
Speaker 1: of people that I'm friendly with on Twitter are making
Speaker 1: fun of me yesterday because they said, oh, like figures
Speaker 1: Lebron had Jason as Lebron as the m v P
Speaker 1: again And you know, yeah, man, I think he's the
Speaker 1: best player in the league. And outside of a handful
Speaker 1: of seasons like two thousand fifteen when he missed several
Speaker 1: weeks with injury and UH when his team kind of
Speaker 1: struggled through the regular season, and two thousand and sixteen
Speaker 1: when Steph was just otherworldly, and then two thousand nineteen
Speaker 1: when he was hurt, I do think he was the
Speaker 1: m v P every year. But it's because I don't
Speaker 1: think any basketball player impacts winning nearly as much as
Speaker 1: he does, and and more often than not, like I
Speaker 1: think that that that needs to be something that is
Speaker 1: factored in the MVP race, and and it it. You know,
Speaker 1: if you go look at the the UH the NBA
Speaker 1: dot com stats website, and you you scroll down and
Speaker 1: you look at points per game leaders, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of guys that are averaging plus points a gain
Speaker 1: a lot of them that that doesn't mean anything in
Speaker 1: the NBA anymore. You know, Zach Lavine averages over points
Speaker 1: a game, you wouldn't say he's a top twenty player
Speaker 1: there that that part of it is such a small
Speaker 1: part of what it takes to win basketball games. And
Speaker 1: so when I'm looking at that, when I'm looking at
Speaker 1: at what Lebron brings to the table. Those are the
Speaker 1: that that's the kind of stuff that I try to
Speaker 1: see beyond and look at all of his impact and
Speaker 1: that that's why I'm going to favor him in a
Speaker 1: case like this. And I don't think it's a coincidence
Speaker 1: that when you put him on a roster that has
Speaker 1: the pieces that they need to contend that all of
Speaker 1: a sudden he can win a championship or beyond the
Speaker 1: team that's in the top two or three records in
Speaker 1: the league. That that's literally what it means to impact
Speaker 1: winning at that level is if you put them in
Speaker 1: in a set of good circumstances, they're going to win. Alright, one,
Speaker 1: This is gonna be a shorter show today. There's one
Speaker 1: last thing I wanted to touch on before we're done,
Speaker 1: and if any of you guys have any questions, If
Speaker 1: you guys have any I'll take him at the end,
Speaker 1: m um. So I wanted to touch on the All
Speaker 1: Star Game. So important thing to understand about the way
Speaker 1: that I look at stuff. I you know, I'm an
Speaker 1: optimist when it comes to uh, my sport, my sports interests.
Speaker 1: When I'm rooting for something I'm an optimist. I'm naturally
Speaker 1: easy going in life, and naturally, when I'm looking at
Speaker 1: at something like that, I'm always going to take a
Speaker 1: glass half full type of approach. But when it comes
Speaker 1: to like society and and like, you know, more more
Speaker 1: intense and less playful type of topics, I tend to
Speaker 1: be more of a pessimist and a realist. And I
Speaker 1: think that that's just part of the way I'm wired.
Speaker 1: And I don't think there's anything wrong with having a
Speaker 1: different approach to that kind of stuff, But like, I'm
Speaker 1: always going to look at some of these things with
Speaker 1: a kind of a harsh reality type the type of perspective,
Speaker 1: and and that's kind of the way I look at this,
Speaker 1: this All Star Game thing, because you know, Lebron comes
Speaker 1: out last night and he says, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: want to do this, Like I'm exhausted. I was looking
Speaker 1: forward to having a break and to kind of recalibrate
Speaker 1: and prepare for the second half of the season. Like
Speaker 1: I don't want to be there. I think this is stupid.
Speaker 1: And as I've said several times on Twitter and as
Speaker 1: I said in the pod with Tommy, like the reasoning
Speaker 1: for having an All Star Game is literally the exact
Speaker 1: same reason for having the season. Coming into this season,
Speaker 1: nobody wanted to play basketball in December. None of the
Speaker 1: owners wanted to do it. None of the players wanted
Speaker 1: to do it. Why because of the fact that the
Speaker 1: owners weren't weren't gonna make as much money without fans,
Speaker 1: and because the players needed a break from the bubble,
Speaker 1: and because they knew the pandemic was gonna make the
Speaker 1: season less fun. None of them wanted to play the
Speaker 1: same thing Lebron was feeling when he was talking about
Speaker 1: that All Star Game is the exact same way he
Speaker 1: was feeling when he was talking about this season in
Speaker 1: general back in November, that that that that was the
Speaker 1: reality of the situation. But they went forward with the
Speaker 1: season for a couple of really obvious reasons, For really
Speaker 1: simple reasons. The players really wanted to keep this current
Speaker 1: cb A intact, and so they wanted to uh to
Speaker 1: to try to capitalize on as much of the TV
Speaker 1: contract as they could, because they knew if they didn't
Speaker 1: that the owners would rip up the c b A,
Speaker 1: and that that they didn't want to play seventy two games,
Speaker 1: but they had to in order to fulfill as much
Speaker 1: of the TV contract as possible. They didn't want to
Speaker 1: play in December, but they had to because the TV
Speaker 1: partners were aggressively pressuring them because of the low ratings
Speaker 1: as a result of them playing during the election coverage
Speaker 1: and during the heat of the NFL season back in
Speaker 1: in uh August and September and October. Those were the
Speaker 1: harsh realities of the situation. They knew that if they
Speaker 1: and then also all of a bunch of people in
Speaker 1: the players Association were from other countries and really really
Speaker 1: wanted to play in the Olympics and play for their country,
Speaker 1: and so they needed to be done in July. So
Speaker 1: there were all of these reasons to push through with
Speaker 1: seventy two games from December to July that would that
Speaker 1: would lead to them having kind of a hectic, weird
Speaker 1: season without fans that kind of suck. With all these
Speaker 1: restrictions that they inevitably that they had to even tighten
Speaker 1: further than they did. That this was always going to
Speaker 1: be bad. This was never meant to be fun for them.
Speaker 1: This was work. You know, we all have jobs, but
Speaker 1: you know, they have a more fun job than most. However,
Speaker 1: this season became less fun for them as a result
Speaker 1: of the lack of fans and the lack of the
Speaker 1: ability to you know, have fun in these cities that
Speaker 1: they were traveling to. And that really sucks. And I'm
Speaker 1: not debating now, you know, there's no there's no point
Speaker 1: in and and and trying to tell them how to
Speaker 1: feel about a situation, because obviously they have reasons to
Speaker 1: feel the way they do. All all I'm saying is
Speaker 1: that they knew what this was when they signed on
Speaker 1: the dotted line. This season is gonna suck. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be seventy two games, it's gonna run from December to July.
Speaker 1: None of us want to be doing this, but we're
Speaker 1: doing it for the c b A, We're doing it
Speaker 1: for the television contract or doing it so that we
Speaker 1: can get back to normal next year. They had all
Speaker 1: these reasons why they were doing it, and like if
Speaker 1: I'm the league and Turner Broadcasting comes into the room
Speaker 1: and sits down with Adam Silver and goes like, hey, listen, like,
Speaker 1: the All Star Game is part of our contract. If
Speaker 1: you guys do it, it's gonna make up you know,
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty million of the of our total
Speaker 1: TV deal or whatever it is. I don't know what
Speaker 1: the number is. But then Adam Silver calls up uh,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul and the Players Association and Michelle Roberts and goes, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: like this, this All Star Game is gonna make up
Speaker 1: a huge chunk of our overall TV deal. All we
Speaker 1: gotta do is keep the same protocols and fly everybody
Speaker 1: into Atlanta, have them do dunk contests, have them do
Speaker 1: with three point contests, have them do a game, and
Speaker 1: then fly you out of there. It's gonna put a
Speaker 1: bunch of money in all of our pockets. It's the
Speaker 1: exact same reasoning for why we're doing this whole season
Speaker 1: to begin with. Let's go ahead and do it, you know,
Speaker 1: and and for the you know, one of the most
Speaker 1: common bits of pushback that I've seen is people's saying,
Speaker 1: you know, well, I don't like the idea of putting
Speaker 1: all of our stars in one place. And I get that.
Speaker 1: In theory, if if if an outbreak took place at
Speaker 1: the All Star Break at the All Star Game, that
Speaker 1: would be the worst possible place for it to happen,
Speaker 1: because a bunch of stars from a bunch of different
Speaker 1: teams would get it that that's that's terrifying, right, But
Speaker 1: that's the exact same fear that was in play during
Speaker 1: the bubble. You've got all these players in one spot.
Speaker 1: If if a if an outbreak happens to take place
Speaker 1: in there, it's gonna infect everybody. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: But what kept the bubble secure was the protocols, and
Speaker 1: that's the whole point of trusting them for the purpose
Speaker 1: of the All Star Game. Yes, if COVID happens to
Speaker 1: get into a player who is at one of those
Speaker 1: who's at an event at at at All Star weekend,
Speaker 1: it will be problem. But there's been one positive COVID
Speaker 1: test in the last two testing cycles within the n
Speaker 1: b A strictly because they have great protocols, you know,
Speaker 1: and people people really like to to to roast the
Speaker 1: NBA and to talk a bunch of shit about how
Speaker 1: terrible they are because they're trying to have a season.
Speaker 1: But they really did go to great lengths to to
Speaker 1: uh to have great protocols, and and it's funny because
Speaker 1: they they uh. If you think about what basketball is,
Speaker 1: like I I caught COVID playing basketball. I went to
Speaker 1: an alumni game at the school that I played in college,
Speaker 1: and they stuck a thermometer at my forehead and said
Speaker 1: you're good to go, and made me just sign a
Speaker 1: piece paper that said I wasn't experiencing symptoms. I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure that's where I got it. You know, you do
Speaker 1: catch COVID playing basketball, but somehow NBA players aren't catching
Speaker 1: COVID right now, and it's because of the protocols. So
Speaker 1: for all the the ship talking about shaking hands at
Speaker 1: mid cord or shaking hands at the free throw line
Speaker 1: and all and all of the people given the NBA
Speaker 1: a hard time about some of the cheesy rules, well,
Speaker 1: underneath the cheesy rules, there were a lot of really
Speaker 1: smart rules, and they're basically running like a mobile bubble
Speaker 1: everywhere they go. The team basically exists with within its
Speaker 1: own bubble that travels around to all these destinations, and
Speaker 1: it's working. It is. It's not perfect, it's not as
Speaker 1: perfect as a real bubble, but it's doing really, really well.
Speaker 1: And the NBA deserves more credit for that because for
Speaker 1: all the talk about them being a business who just
Speaker 1: wants to profit and make money, they're at least doing it.
Speaker 1: Unless of a dumpster fire fashion in the NFL did
Speaker 1: where they where. They just didn't care that people were
Speaker 1: getting it all over the place. These NBA players aren't
Speaker 1: really strict protocols and they know it sucks and they're
Speaker 1: pushing through. But my thing is, like, what what's the
Speaker 1: difference like as as it pertains to the All Star Game?
Speaker 1: You know, as long as they obey those protocols there, adically,
Speaker 1: nothing's going to happen to the group of guys in there,
Speaker 1: even if you had you know, Obama and Gandhi and
Speaker 1: every other famous person in the world within that bubble.
Speaker 1: If they're if they're behaving according to the protocols, they're
Speaker 1: going to be fine. All right. Do we have any
Speaker 1: questions in the comments? Do you care about the NFL?
Speaker 1: Do you care about the NFL? If so, who do
Speaker 1: you have winning the Super Bowl? I do care about
Speaker 1: the NFL, but I'm a very casual fan. I grew
Speaker 1: up a Cowboys fan because all of my my family,
Speaker 1: so my my dad and mom met in Dallas, all
Speaker 1: of their brothers and sisters live in Dallas. Um I
Speaker 1: used to visit Dallas two or three times a year,
Speaker 1: and as a family growing up, every year for Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: we would travel back to Dallas. My parents both moved
Speaker 1: to Tucson, Arizona. That's where I live now, but we
Speaker 1: would travel back to Dallas every single year, and on
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving Day we'd watched the Cowboys play and we watched
Speaker 1: the Lions play. Because my dad was originally from Detroit,
Speaker 1: but I grew up a cow was fan. I've always
Speaker 1: really really liked the NFL. I just had a really
Speaker 1: hard time getting into this season and and that that
Speaker 1: there's a lot of reasons behind that. One is the uh,
Speaker 1: the Cowboys having been very good to the thing with
Speaker 1: the fans and COVID has made it kind of weird
Speaker 1: for me. But three, and this is this is the
Speaker 1: most important. Like, you know, I'm married now, and you
Speaker 1: know I I really invest a lot into my relationship.
Speaker 1: I think it's one of the reasons why you know,
Speaker 1: my wife and I are very happily married is because
Speaker 1: I invest heavily into that. You know, Like when I
Speaker 1: wake up in the morning and I'm making my plan
Speaker 1: for the week and I'm planning gym time and I'm
Speaker 1: planning work because I've run my own business and I'm
Speaker 1: planning all of these things out I also set aside
Speaker 1: time for my wife. I have to, because if I don't,
Speaker 1: I think that sort of thing is what builds all
Speaker 1: of the scar tissue that can lead to a really
Speaker 1: bad relationship. And so um, you know, and it's not perfect.
Speaker 1: I'm not perfect. I mean, my I'm twenty nine years old.
Speaker 1: I'm learning just like every to else. But so far
Speaker 1: it's it's so far, so good as it pertains to
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. And so I really enjoy doing this.
Speaker 1: I enjoy recording these podcasts. I enjoy covering the NBA
Speaker 1: as closely as I can with all of the other
Speaker 1: responsibilities I have. And and one of the ways that
Speaker 1: I do that is I've basically told my wife, like, look,
Speaker 1: if there's a Laker game on, I'm watching it, and
Speaker 1: but outside of that, I'm gonna keep as much time
Speaker 1: for you as I can. So the old days when
Speaker 1: I used to wake up on a Sunday and watch
Speaker 1: football all day, you know, those days are pretty much
Speaker 1: gone because now I set aside the three nights a
Speaker 1: week where I'm gonna be, you know, very closely watching
Speaker 1: the Lakers and and uh and and afterwards being on Twitter,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of engaging in the conversation and and
Speaker 1: doing all of those things. I set that time aside,
Speaker 1: and I save as much of the other time as
Speaker 1: possible to be with my wife and for the other
Speaker 1: social engagements, whether it be my family or her family
Speaker 1: or our friends and things along those lines. So I
Speaker 1: think that's probably be one of the bigger reasons why
Speaker 1: I don't follow the NFL more closely than I do
Speaker 1: is that I'm taking this NBA stuff really serious, and uh,
Speaker 1: I really really enjoy doing this. When I come on
Speaker 1: here and talk about the Lakers. Usually I've watched every
Speaker 1: Laker game twice. Because I don't like being someone who's
Speaker 1: talking out of my ass. I try to I try
Speaker 1: to pretend, at least pretend like I know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. So uh, I think that probably is the
Speaker 1: bigger reason. Let's see any other questions. Nope, that's it. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, guys, thank you so much for listening in.
Speaker 1: Like I said, UM, I just wanted to hop on
Speaker 1: for a little bit before we all get busy with
Speaker 1: our weekends. But I would imagine I'll be doing something
Speaker 1: with Tommy early in the week next week, and then
Speaker 1: uh my next Laker guest that I'm having on is Vine.
Speaker 1: We had a bit of a scheduling conflict last week,
Speaker 1: but we have three kind of week Laker games coming up.
Speaker 1: The they play the thund Or twice, and they play
Speaker 1: the Detroit Pistons. But after that, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: really good games and we're gonna have a lot of
Speaker 1: good Laker basketball to go over. But thank you guys
Speaker 1: as always for your support. And I'll have the podcast
Speaker 1: version of this up shortly and I will see you
Speaker 1: next week for another show.