Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jason Tip Podcast. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your day to come
Speaker 1: hang out and talk some hoops with me. I'm finally
Speaker 1: back in town, hopefully for the long run this time. UM,
Speaker 1: I went up to Utah in Park City. UM did
Speaker 1: some skiing. Uh, it was funny. I managed to survive
Speaker 1: on the mountain pretty well. But then one of the nights,
Speaker 1: my wife and I went ice skating on like a
Speaker 1: little ice drink that was right there next to the slopes,
Speaker 1: and I totally ate ship in the most spectacular way possible,
Speaker 1: where I slammed my back into the ground and gave
Speaker 1: myself a pretty mean case of whiplash and uh, a
Speaker 1: reminder that no matter how athletic you think you are,
Speaker 1: no matter how coordinated you think you are are, you
Speaker 1: can very quickly be humbled anytime you're on on some
Speaker 1: ice skates. So that was interesting. I am back in
Speaker 1: town for a while now. I'm looking forward to getting
Speaker 1: into a good rhythm with this and getting this going
Speaker 1: again to where we have multiple episodes a week. But
Speaker 1: thank you guys as usual for tuning in and supporting.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna talk all about Lakers six Ers today. I
Speaker 1: did a ton of film deep dive today, particularly into
Speaker 1: the specific strategies that the two teams were employing against
Speaker 1: each other. And then I really dove into some numbers
Speaker 1: having to do with the Laker rotation that I think
Speaker 1: is really interesting, particularly as it pertains to the Crusoe
Speaker 1: minutes and the Dennis Schroeder in the starting lineup stuff.
Speaker 1: And I really found some interesting numbers, So hopefully you
Speaker 1: guys will stick around for that, and then I also
Speaker 1: plan on taking some questions at the end. I've got
Speaker 1: one from the tweet I sent out earlier, and then
Speaker 1: while you guys are listening along, drop any questions you
Speaker 1: have in the comments here and I'll get to them
Speaker 1: at the end. But I want to so I have
Speaker 1: a couple of things I wanna touch that I thought
Speaker 1: were interesting in this particular game, because usually in a
Speaker 1: regular season game, you can't take too much from the
Speaker 1: outcome necessarily because there's always some weird thing going on,
Speaker 1: Like the Lakers are in the middle of a super
Speaker 1: long road trip while the Sixers have been at home.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are um and you could tell from the
Speaker 1: start last night the Sixers just felt like they had
Speaker 1: a little bit more that they wanted to prove, so
Speaker 1: they're playing a little bit harder. But what you can
Speaker 1: pay attention to is UH specific strategic things that will
Speaker 1: inevitably end up happening when you get into a playoff series.
Speaker 1: So I want to talk about how the Lakers defended
Speaker 1: Joe l em Bad. I thought that was really interesting.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about the problem with Dennis Schroeder in
Speaker 1: the starting lineup, We're gonna talk about Crusoe's minutes, and
Speaker 1: then I'm gonna talk about some of the stuff that's
Speaker 1: going on with Anthony Davis and what I think might
Speaker 1: be causing those problems. Um So, starting with him bat
Speaker 1: from the start. At the beginning of the game, Gassol
Speaker 1: was on him, and I thought this was interesting because
Speaker 1: if you guys have listened to my podcast at all
Speaker 1: over the last couple of months, I talked about how
Speaker 1: big I thought the Marcosol signing was as insurance for
Speaker 1: specific at thick matchups against Joel Embiid and against Nicola
Speaker 1: Yokich and just bigger, craftier centers that used to just
Speaker 1: absolutely destroy Dwight Howard and UH and JaVale McGee last
Speaker 1: year just because they were a little bit in over
Speaker 1: their skis in terms of their basketball I queue and
Speaker 1: their mobility and things along those lines, and Marcusol has
Speaker 1: a little bit of a history of defending Joel Embiad
Speaker 1: really well, so I was optimistic that there might be
Speaker 1: something there. And to be clear, some people got in
Speaker 1: my case last night. I don't think he did a
Speaker 1: bad job by any means, but he wasn't the same
Speaker 1: force against Joel Embiad that he had shown in the past.
Speaker 1: He wasn't as effective as against him as he used
Speaker 1: to be, And a lot of that has to do
Speaker 1: with the fact that Joel Embiad is just better now.
Speaker 1: It's not as so much about Marcusol's decline as it
Speaker 1: is about Joel Embiid just being in a rare groove
Speaker 1: right now. He's extremely gifted at drawing fouls. He's a
Speaker 1: lot quicker and more decisive when he makes his moves,
Speaker 1: and he's got this whole arsenal of mid range jump
Speaker 1: shots and little floaters and hook shots and stuff that
Speaker 1: he can make now that he didn't used to be
Speaker 1: able to make. Um So that was the first thing
Speaker 1: that I thought was interesting. But as the game progressed,
Speaker 1: they tried Montrez on him for stretches. Montrez got absolutely
Speaker 1: destroyed for the most part, and then they tried or
Speaker 1: they had to send doubles, a hard doubles every time
Speaker 1: he'd end up in that matchup. But then at the
Speaker 1: end of the game, it was a lot of Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis and what was interesting there. If you go into
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed and you scroll down, you'll see a
Speaker 1: video breakdown that I did where I really talked about
Speaker 1: the different types of of of matchups between em Beat
Speaker 1: and Davis at the end of the game, and the
Speaker 1: different types of defensive technique that Anthony Davis used. There
Speaker 1: were plays where Joel took him with his back to
Speaker 1: the basket. There were plays where Joel faced him up.
Speaker 1: When he faced him up, there were times when Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis tried heavy ball pressure, getting up in his grill,
Speaker 1: and then there were times where Anthony Davis gave him
Speaker 1: a little bit more space and just played with a
Speaker 1: hand up to try to force him into a jump shot.
Speaker 1: And it was really clear what was working what wasn't.
Speaker 1: There was a big play at the end of the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter where Joel em Beat faced up Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: a d media it lead like got right up into
Speaker 1: him with his chest on his shoulder and was kind
Speaker 1: of had his arms up like this and was just
Speaker 1: getting up into his space. And Joel embiad is so
Speaker 1: much more physically powerful than Anthony Davis, so much stronger
Speaker 1: and bigger, that he was able to do just a
Speaker 1: really basic ripthrough move to get past Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: finished a reverse layup with the foul. Whereas on later
Speaker 1: possessions when Anthony Davis gave space and used his length
Speaker 1: to his advantage, he was able to beat Joe l
Speaker 1: Emba to the spot and force him to take tougher
Speaker 1: jump shots. And there at the end of the game
Speaker 1: when the Lakers made their comeback in the last few minutes,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of Anthony Davis giving Joel embat space,
Speaker 1: forcing him to to make some sort of dribble move
Speaker 1: or to settle for a jump shot, and they had
Speaker 1: a lot of success, forced them b two into a
Speaker 1: lot of missus a couple of turnovers. It gave the
Speaker 1: Lakers better chances for a lot of dig ins and
Speaker 1: helped to to try to force turnovers, and a lot
Speaker 1: of that had to do with better rotations on the
Speaker 1: back end. So early in the fourth quarter, there was
Speaker 1: a play where Joel was posting up and Matistible was
Speaker 1: one pass away and they doubled off of Matisse Stybel's
Speaker 1: man with Anthony Davis and Uh matist Hebel was wide open,
Speaker 1: but instead of letting him be the guy to take
Speaker 1: the shot, Alex Crusoe rotated over from fur Con Corkmas,
Speaker 1: who was a much much better shooter, and it led
Speaker 1: to a really simple rotation that led to it Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons layup. Whereas if they were when they were a
Speaker 1: little bit smarter late in the game, uh they were
Speaker 1: when they would double and leave Matistible open or when
Speaker 1: Matisse checked out of the game, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot better communication between the Laker guards. You'd
Speaker 1: see k CP usually be two passes away and then
Speaker 1: either Dennis Schroeder or Alex Cruso be one pass away,
Speaker 1: and he would work on digging on embiid and then
Speaker 1: KCP would kind of position himself in a classic kind
Speaker 1: of shell drill position where he's split in the difference
Speaker 1: between the two guys so that he's effectively taking away
Speaker 1: that first pass. But for whatever reason, Joel embiid attempts
Speaker 1: to throw over the top and anticipate KCP jumping the
Speaker 1: first pass, he could still rotate to the second pass.
Speaker 1: That's kind of like cheating that first rotation. It's something
Speaker 1: you can only do against rudimentary passers, but it gives
Speaker 1: you a better opportunity to to recover u in those circumstances.
Speaker 1: And one of the big things to watch for a
Speaker 1: potential NBA Finals series between these two teams is embiad
Speaker 1: still is a rudimentary pass. So there were a lot
Speaker 1: of sequences at the end of that game where the
Speaker 1: Lakers were sending heavy help towards em Beat and he
Speaker 1: just wasn't seeing the floor very well. If you look
Speaker 1: on my little uh, if you look on my little
Speaker 1: a thread that I did, you'll see several plays where
Speaker 1: the Lakers basically abandoned Seth Curry and either left him
Speaker 1: wide open in the corner or one pass away on
Speaker 1: the wing and there and there was a really easy
Speaker 1: opportunity for him Beat to hit one of the best
Speaker 1: three point shooters in the league, but he just wasn't.
Speaker 1: He just wasn't seeing that play. So it's something to
Speaker 1: keep in mind. In one regular season game without a
Speaker 1: whole lot of of reps to really build a strategy.
Speaker 1: The Lakers really found a method to slow down Joe
Speaker 1: l Embiid in the half court, and it involved a
Speaker 1: lot of Anthony Davis on Joel giving space, forcing him
Speaker 1: to make dribble moves and beating him to the spot
Speaker 1: and forcing him to take jumpers, and the Laker guards
Speaker 1: just being in better positions to rotate and banking on
Speaker 1: the fact that Embat's just not a good enough passer
Speaker 1: to be kind of one step ahead of that rotation
Speaker 1: to make the right play to hit the open shooters.
Speaker 1: So that very very uh good news if you're a
Speaker 1: Laker fan for that potential matchup, because usually that sort
Speaker 1: of thing with really really great players can take a
Speaker 1: whole series to figure out, and they kind of figured
Speaker 1: it out in three and a half quarters. So it
Speaker 1: was a really interesting matchup, a lot of interesting stuff
Speaker 1: to take away. But I still like the Lakers defense
Speaker 1: as being very capable of not neutralizing Joel Embiad but
Speaker 1: at least making him take a lot of jump shots
Speaker 1: and forcing him to make tougher reads on the floor.
Speaker 1: So it's a lot of good stuff to take away there.
Speaker 1: So let's move on to Schroder. This is a drum
Speaker 1: that I've been beating all year long, this idea that
Speaker 1: you know, Dennis Shrouder, for ego purposes or whatever the
Speaker 1: reason is, decided that he believes he deserves to start.
Speaker 1: And what I always was saying was just that, and
Speaker 1: beats started. Shoulder starting maybe good for his ego, but
Speaker 1: it's bad for his game. And a lot of that
Speaker 1: has to do with a simple basketball proposition. If you're
Speaker 1: gonna be playing alongside Lebron and Anthony Davis, chances are
Speaker 1: at the beginning of these games they're gonna be very aggressive.
Speaker 1: And if they are, all of a sudden, you, Dennis Schroeder,
Speaker 1: this guy who's supposed to be a lead ball handler,
Speaker 1: is going to pretty much become a spot up shooter.
Speaker 1: And you saw a lot of that in last night's
Speaker 1: game early in the game, a whole lot of Lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis, not a lot of Denn A shooter action.
Speaker 1: And so you're basically wasting Dennis Shooter's minutes in a
Speaker 1: role that Wesley Matthews could just as easily fulfill, if
Speaker 1: not better. Because Western mattheis is a little bit better
Speaker 1: defensively that it's a waste of those minutes and so,
Speaker 1: But the biggest problem is is it's hurting the opportunities
Speaker 1: later in the game when the starters aren't because the
Speaker 1: all three of them together went I dug into the
Speaker 1: line up data today. When Lebron, Anthony Davis, and Dennis
Speaker 1: Shooter on the floor together, the Lakers are amazing. It's
Speaker 1: not a problem with that specific lineup. It's a problem
Speaker 1: with other lineups. So when all three of them are
Speaker 1: on the floor there plus fifteen point four and three
Speaker 1: thirty one minutes, that's great news. That means you can
Speaker 1: go to that lineup inclosing time. That means you can
Speaker 1: go to that lineup at the end of halves or
Speaker 1: whatever it is that you want to do to to
Speaker 1: find minutes for the three of them together. But if
Speaker 1: you don't properly stagger them at the beginning of the game,
Speaker 1: you're gonna end up with these other lineups that end
Speaker 1: up struggling. So, for instance, the Lakers have had to
Speaker 1: run Lebron by himself for a hundred and eighty eight
Speaker 1: minutes this year. That's a lot when you've got three
Speaker 1: star ish level players. If you're counting Dennis Shooter is
Speaker 1: a fringe star. When you've got three really really gifted
Speaker 1: offensive players and you're not staggering them properly, you're gonna
Speaker 1: end up with one of those guys on the floor
Speaker 1: a lot, and that really shouldn't happen. So Lebron in
Speaker 1: a hundred and eighty eight minutes, because he's so good,
Speaker 1: is still a net positive, but he's only a plus
Speaker 1: one point seven, Whereas when Lebron is with a d
Speaker 1: he's plus fifteen point six in forty eight minutes. When
Speaker 1: he's with just Dennis, so Lebron and Dennis together he's
Speaker 1: plus nineteen point one in sixty minutes. So when you
Speaker 1: have Lebron in one of the other two on the
Speaker 1: floor together, you're killing teams, but you're leaving him out
Speaker 1: there by himself for a hundred and eighty eight minutes
Speaker 1: as compared to a hundred and eight minutes with him
Speaker 1: with one of the other two stars, And in those
Speaker 1: minutes you're barely winning because you're leaving Lebron with those
Speaker 1: weird lineups with like Montrez harrold And and Mark Kith
Speaker 1: Morris and things along those lines. So one of the
Speaker 1: problems with with starting Dennis Shrewder is Inevitably, Lebron checks
Speaker 1: out of the game with like five minutes to go
Speaker 1: in the first quarter, and Anthony Davison and and Dennis
Speaker 1: Shrewder are running the team. But then Lebron comes back
Speaker 1: in at the end of the first quarter, and Dennis
Speaker 1: pops out, and then Anthony Davis checks out because he's
Speaker 1: got to get some rest. And so now you're starting
Speaker 1: the second quarter and you're going like a six minute
Speaker 1: stretch with neither Anthony Davis nor Dennis Shutter on the floor.
Speaker 1: And that's happening every single night, and in those minutes,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are barely scraping by with the positive, with
Speaker 1: the positive on the scoreboard. So, for instance, last night,
Speaker 1: Dennis Shooter plays from the beginning of the game to
Speaker 1: about three minutes left in the first quarter, then he
Speaker 1: sits for eleven minutes. He doesn't come back in until
Speaker 1: four minutes left in the second quarter, and at that
Speaker 1: point he's only with Lebron Is checking back in. Lebron
Speaker 1: checks back in with two and a half minutes left
Speaker 1: in the in the second quarter, and so you're you're
Speaker 1: you're wasting the vast majority of the Dennis Shooter minutes
Speaker 1: with Lebron already on the floor, when the whole point
Speaker 1: of having Dennis Shooter to begin with was to have
Speaker 1: him as this like backup ball handler that can help
Speaker 1: with your bench lineups, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where I it's it's I understand,
Speaker 1: you're trying to appease a player that you're trying to
Speaker 1: resign and bring back, you know, as a future for
Speaker 1: this team. So you're trying to take care of his ego,
Speaker 1: You're trying to make him feel better about himself and
Speaker 1: all that good stuff. But genuinely, you're you're damaging other
Speaker 1: areas of the of the team, other lineups in in
Speaker 1: a bunch of different ways too, because guess what, Dennis
Speaker 1: Shooter has been struggling. You want to know why, because
Speaker 1: every single game he comes out and he's starting the
Speaker 1: game playing against playing with two of the four best
Speaker 1: players in the world, and he's not getting the same
Speaker 1: amount of aggression that he normally would get in a
Speaker 1: different lineup. And then to top that off, it's it's
Speaker 1: starting to affect Anthony Davis. We're gonna talk a lot
Speaker 1: about this later In my opinion, one of the big
Speaker 1: reasons why Anthony Davis has had struggles this year stems
Speaker 1: from the fact that there's just a little bit an
Speaker 1: overreliance on trying to keep other guys involved because there's
Speaker 1: too much ball handling on the floor with that initial lineup.
Speaker 1: Whereas last year, one of the bigger reasons why I
Speaker 1: think Anthony Davis was so good was from the beginning,
Speaker 1: it was, Hey, it's Lebron and a D. They're gonna
Speaker 1: do everything. So there was there wasn't an issue with rhythm,
Speaker 1: There wasn't an issue with like building your confidence over
Speaker 1: the course of the game. And I do think that's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons. And we're gonna talk about this
Speaker 1: more later, like I said, but I do think that's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why he has struggled. So, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, makes way more sense. You start with Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D. Then it goes to a D and
Speaker 1: Schroeder at the end of the first when Lebron checks out,
Speaker 1: and then a D checks out, and it's Schroeder and
Speaker 1: Lebron to start the second quarter, you know, and then
Speaker 1: Lebron checks out, a D comes back in and it's
Speaker 1: you know, Schroeder and and and a D and then
Speaker 1: you can end the half either with a D and
Speaker 1: Lebron or you can find a little bit of time
Speaker 1: to take Schroeder out there so he can finish the
Speaker 1: half as well. But there's an easy way to stagger
Speaker 1: this lineup so that you always have two of those
Speaker 1: guys out there. Because like the numbers that I shared
Speaker 1: with you earlier, when they have them at least two
Speaker 1: of them, they're doing pretty well. It's it's the Lebron
Speaker 1: by himself minutes or they're barely scraping by because you're
Speaker 1: not staggering the lineups properly, and it's starting it's starting
Speaker 1: to hurt the team. All right, let's move on to Cruso.
Speaker 1: Remember to drop questions in the comments if you guys
Speaker 1: have any questions for the end. Alright, So, um I
Speaker 1: dug into some of the line up data with Cruiso.
Speaker 1: Um it's getting absolutely out of control and completely nonsensical
Speaker 1: and downright at sometimes seemingly self sabotaging when it when
Speaker 1: it comes to this this stuff with the Crusoe minutes,
Speaker 1: because of all of the Laker rotation players, he's got
Speaker 1: the second highest net rating behind just k c P
Speaker 1: who's around plus nineteen and some change Crusoe's plus sixteen
Speaker 1: point seven and only seventeen point seven minute per game.
Speaker 1: Cruso is playing only thirty seven percent of available Laker
Speaker 1: minutes in a per game uh and within the scope
Speaker 1: of of of each game, So you're playing two thirds
Speaker 1: of the game without your one of your very best
Speaker 1: role players. And what's crazy about this is, you know
Speaker 1: a lot of times you'll you'll read too much into
Speaker 1: this kind of stuff because of you know, statistical noise
Speaker 1: that can happen in a small sample size. So for instance,
Speaker 1: last year, the exact same thing was happening. Caruso was
Speaker 1: playing limited minutes every single time he was on the
Speaker 1: floor of the Lakers were dominant, and you could but
Speaker 1: there there was there was It was early on, you know,
Speaker 1: there wasn't a ton of of of evidence in the
Speaker 1: Lakers were so good that you could look in the
Speaker 1: mirror and you could be like, yeah, like is it
Speaker 1: really Crusoe or is it just the fact that he's
Speaker 1: out there with Lebron James, who's a you know, second
Speaker 1: in the m v P voting or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But now we're stretching to a whole year and a
Speaker 1: playoff run and an additional you know whatever it nineteen
Speaker 1: games or whatever the Lakers have played this year. We
Speaker 1: have a ton of data now, and this ton of
Speaker 1: data tells us that when Alex Crusoe is on the floor,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are flat out dominant on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. They're right around one sixteen offensive rating and
Speaker 1: their defensive rating is down below one hundred. They are
Speaker 1: dominant on both ends of the floor. With Alex Caruso,
Speaker 1: he has now added enough to his game offensively that
Speaker 1: he's a legitimate positive on that end as well. There
Speaker 1: is absolutely no reason at this point for him not
Speaker 1: to be in the game more than he is at
Speaker 1: one point. You know, you could say early on you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're testing out lineups. You know, we're trying to see,
Speaker 1: you know what, where things fit together. Bl blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. We have a year, a full playoff run,
Speaker 1: in nineteen games of this regular season worth of evidence
Speaker 1: that this guy needs to be playing more, and for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, he's not, and I really don't understand it. Like,
Speaker 1: you know what's funny is he absolutely deserves to be
Speaker 1: an all defensive life to be on one of the
Speaker 1: ALLA all defense teams. He's not gonna get it, you
Speaker 1: know why, because he's not playing enough, which is on
Speaker 1: frank it does. It doesn't make any sense to me,
Speaker 1: And I feel bad because, you know, if if I
Speaker 1: was in Alex Crusoe's position, you can see with the
Speaker 1: way he plays, he's such a competitor. He plays so hard,
Speaker 1: and it's got to be frustrating for him to to
Speaker 1: sit on the bench and watch these games knowing he's
Speaker 1: impacting the game at the level he is, and to
Speaker 1: sit there and know he has to watch for two
Speaker 1: thirds of the game and then maybe get his chance
Speaker 1: at the end. It's It's one of the more nonsensical
Speaker 1: things that I can remember in my time rooting for
Speaker 1: any team in professional sports. But I feel bad for
Speaker 1: Alex because it's like it there is no weakness in
Speaker 1: his game as it pertains to the role that he's
Speaker 1: asked to fill. No one's saying he's Dennis Shrewder as
Speaker 1: an offensive player, but when you're looking at what he's
Speaker 1: asked to do, which is to defend at an extremely
Speaker 1: high level both in rotation and on the ball, and
Speaker 1: he on the other end, he's has to open knockdown,
Speaker 1: open shots, attack blows out into every so once in
Speaker 1: a while, you know, run a pick and roller or
Speaker 1: or something with the ball in his hands. He's not
Speaker 1: asked to do much, and with the things that he's
Speaker 1: asked to do, he's knocking those things out of the
Speaker 1: park every single time, and there's absolutely no reason for
Speaker 1: him not to be in the game. Like when you're watching,
Speaker 1: when you're watching UH Talent Horton Tucker, you're like, man,
Speaker 1: this guy brings a ton to the table. Defensively, every
Speaker 1: once in a while he's making a really really impressive
Speaker 1: offensive play where he's driving the basket and duncan on
Speaker 1: somebody or or he's doing some crazy scoop shot over
Speaker 1: a shop blocker. And then on the defensive end he's
Speaker 1: stealing the ball from somebody here there, he's making some
Speaker 1: crazy play. But when you dig into the numbers UH
Speaker 1: Talent Horton Tucker that the team performs really well defensively
Speaker 1: with him on the floor, they're right around like a
Speaker 1: defensive rating. But in his in his minutes offensively the
Speaker 1: team is struggling. They're down around a hundred and five
Speaker 1: points profit per a hunter possessions offensively, so there's a
Speaker 1: reason why he's not playing very much offensively. He's a
Speaker 1: little bit of a loose cannon and that's to be
Speaker 1: expected at his age, and you can see it in
Speaker 1: the game tape when you're watching the game last night.
Speaker 1: You know, one minute he's driving to the basket and duncan.
Speaker 1: The next minute he's getting stripped in traffic because he's
Speaker 1: not seeing the floor well enough to kind of see
Speaker 1: where the health defense is coming from and to understand
Speaker 1: that there's so much length on the floor with that
Speaker 1: Philly defense that he's not he can't just squeeze through
Speaker 1: all these holes the way that he's used to. So
Speaker 1: Town Horn Tucker, it makes sense to not play him
Speaker 1: as much. You know, Wesley Matthews, he's older, he's coming
Speaker 1: off and a kill his his tear. Makes sense to
Speaker 1: keep his minutes down, you know, he's he's he's been
Speaker 1: a little bit hit or missed this year in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways, so it makes sense for him to
Speaker 1: be unlimited minutes. You know. But as far there are
Speaker 1: three guys in that guard rotation that should never be
Speaker 1: out of the game, you know, as far as their
Speaker 1: normal rotation goes. They should always be in the game,
Speaker 1: you know, uh to to to as much as their
Speaker 1: bodies can handle. And that's k C p Alex Crusoe
Speaker 1: and Dennis Shutter. Those three guys are absolutely flat out
Speaker 1: ballers can play. They need be in the game. And
Speaker 1: it doesn't make any sense to continually have Alex sitting
Speaker 1: on the sideline watching, you know, especially in really competitive
Speaker 1: games like last night, with all the things that he
Speaker 1: brings to the table. So we're gonna talk about Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis now, all right, So Anthony Davis has been flat
Speaker 1: out disappointing this season. I don't need to tell you
Speaker 1: that all of you feel that way. I tweeted last night.
Speaker 1: You know, the synopsis of Anthony Davis this season is
Speaker 1: that he's nowhere near as good as he was defensively
Speaker 1: last year. And on the offensive end, he's drifting further
Speaker 1: away from the basket and making a heck of a
Speaker 1: lot less of those shots than he did last year.
Speaker 1: You know, ros you guys know him, his unwritten rules.
Speaker 1: Every time he'd come on. We talked a lot about
Speaker 1: how Anthony davis Is mid range jump shot is is
Speaker 1: going in at like a k Desque level or Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan's sque level, you know, right around the mid fifties,
Speaker 1: a type of range. That's the way he was shooting
Speaker 1: in the bubble. And not only that, he was shooting
Speaker 1: extremely well in the games leading into the bubble, you know,
Speaker 1: in March and in February. I remember he was like
Speaker 1: forty something percent from three over his last twelve games
Speaker 1: of the of the of the regular season before the shutdown.
Speaker 1: There was an absolute positive trend and Anthony Davis as
Speaker 1: a jump shooter that was showing not just in the
Speaker 1: bubble but before the bubble, and it gave you, you know, optimistic,
Speaker 1: give you an optimistic outlook on on what you could
Speaker 1: expect from Anthony Davis. You know, moving forward this season,
Speaker 1: he's just not making them. And not only that, he's
Speaker 1: leaning too heavily on it. You know, I always talked about,
Speaker 1: you know, with a jump shot. You know, the thing
Speaker 1: with jump shooting as a superstar, as a really good
Speaker 1: basketball players is it's complicated because there's a fine line
Speaker 1: between you know, settling and using it as as a
Speaker 1: mix up and for rest. So for instance, like everyone
Speaker 1: always wants to say, oh, Lebron should drive to the
Speaker 1: basket and dunk it every time. Well, that's not realistic.
Speaker 1: It's not realistic for fatigue, it's not realistic for you know,
Speaker 1: the way that the defense is going to react. You know,
Speaker 1: like the if you drive to the basket and get
Speaker 1: an easy layup chainces are the next time you attempt
Speaker 1: to drive, there's gonna be a lot more traffic in
Speaker 1: the paint as the defense kind of you know, adapts
Speaker 1: and adjust to what you're trying to do. You have
Speaker 1: to be able to make jump shots in order to
Speaker 1: loosen up the defense and soften up the defense so
Speaker 1: that you can get to the basket. Same goes for
Speaker 1: passing the ball. All of those things are part of
Speaker 1: that experience. And so you know, uh, it's very important
Speaker 1: for Anthony Davis to be able to shoot. But there's
Speaker 1: always a line, and the line for Anthony Davis has
Speaker 1: been crossed. In my opinion, he's leaning too heavily on
Speaker 1: the jump shot to the point where I actually think
Speaker 1: it's starting to detrimentally impact him overall as an offensive player. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, this season, in total, Anthony Davis has attempted
Speaker 1: eight two shots inside a five feet So I think
Speaker 1: of that as like finishing anything around the basket off
Speaker 1: of drop offs and and transition things along those lines.
Speaker 1: But that's also a really physical post move. You know,
Speaker 1: obviously you can get to a seven or eight foot
Speaker 1: hook shot anytime you want when you're as tall as
Speaker 1: he is. But with how physically gifted he is, without
Speaker 1: big and strong he is, with how fast he is,
Speaker 1: without tall he is, he absolutely should be able to
Speaker 1: in isolation, get to the rim a certain amount of time,
Speaker 1: you would think, right, So eight two shot attempts inside
Speaker 1: a five feet he's making those at seventy six percent.
Speaker 1: He's attempted a hundred and forty eight shots outside of
Speaker 1: ten feet, So for every one shot that he's getting
Speaker 1: at the rim, he's taking almost two shots outside of
Speaker 1: ten feet, and he's only making those at a thirty
Speaker 1: six percent clip, a very very tiny fraction of what
Speaker 1: he was doing last year in the bubble, in the
Speaker 1: games leading into the bubble. So if with this Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis stuff, you know, like it was almost like one
Speaker 1: of those things where, uh, he probably took some time
Speaker 1: off after the championship, which he should have took some
Speaker 1: distance from the game to recover mentally to recover physically,
Speaker 1: that's great, but then he came back and whatever rhythm
Speaker 1: he had built up over that stretch, you know, from
Speaker 1: February through the bubble, that rhythm is gone. And so
Speaker 1: now I think he's trying to get that rhythm back,
Speaker 1: but he's doing it by leaning more heavily into those
Speaker 1: long distance jump shots. And as you the problem with
Speaker 1: jump shooting is there's nothing more discouraging than missing a
Speaker 1: jump shot because when you miss a jump shot, it
Speaker 1: always leads too long rebound and transition. It always feels
Speaker 1: like you're settling, so it kind of has a negative
Speaker 1: impact on the rest of the team. You know, there's
Speaker 1: there there's a big downside to missing a jump shot,
Speaker 1: so it can kind of spiral out of control into
Speaker 1: a confidence issue. Next thing, you know, you can't make anything.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is missing wide open shots now in addition
Speaker 1: to the tougher ones that he's taking over the course
Speaker 1: of the game. Like the last couple of games, the
Speaker 1: Golden State game and last night, he missed a couple
Speaker 1: of wide open shots. At the end of the game.
Speaker 1: Against Golden State there was one at the top of
Speaker 1: the key, and then against Philly there was a three
Speaker 1: that he took uh and both of them not even
Speaker 1: really close. Both of them. I think we're wide right.
Speaker 1: That's part of that issue is he doesn't have confidence
Speaker 1: in his jump shot, and he's trying to get confidence
Speaker 1: back in his jump shot by shooting a million of
Speaker 1: him and as a result, he's not getting to the
Speaker 1: basket at all, you know, compared to to what you
Speaker 1: would expect. You want that balance to be to be
Speaker 1: more fifty fifty in my opinion. So I'll have to
Speaker 1: look up the numbers and I'll tweet them out later,
Speaker 1: but I'd be willing to bet that if I pulled
Speaker 1: up lebronze stats at the basket versus ten feet or
Speaker 1: more away from the basket, my bet, my bet would
Speaker 1: be that he would have a better balance and that
Speaker 1: you would see more attempts at the rim to balance
Speaker 1: out the shots that he's getting from the basket. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is taking twice as many shots away from the
Speaker 1: rim over ten feet away as he is inside a
Speaker 1: five ft and I really do think that that is
Speaker 1: part of his problem offensively and part of the reason
Speaker 1: why he's having such a hard time getting into a rhythm.
Speaker 1: You know, when you look at Lebron shooting percentages over
Speaker 1: the course of his career, and you look and it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, his bad games were never the Kobe bad games.
Speaker 1: You know, he never had the six for twenty four.
Speaker 1: That just doesn't happen with Lebron. It's not part of
Speaker 1: it's not part of his shot profile. You know, his
Speaker 1: bad games are like eight of twenty two, you know,
Speaker 1: ten of twenty two. That's what the the inefficient Lebron
Speaker 1: game looks like. And the reason why it's like that
Speaker 1: is he has such a great shot profile. He has
Speaker 1: such a good balance between attempts at the rim and
Speaker 1: attempts further away from the basket. So Lebron can have
Speaker 1: a game where he goes over five from three and
Speaker 1: over two for midrange, you know, but he's ten for
Speaker 1: fourteen inside the paint, and so you know, he finishes up,
Speaker 1: you know, ten for twenty three, and it ends up
Speaker 1: being a much more efficient game in his bad game.
Speaker 1: And then he has his good game where he's making
Speaker 1: his jump shots, and that's when he ends up with
Speaker 1: his sixteen for twenty four and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: Lebron's shot profile is constructed in a way that even
Speaker 1: on his bad games, he's getting to the rim enough
Speaker 1: that he's maintaining his impact, he's maintaining his efficiency, he's
Speaker 1: maintaining his numbers. As we talked about earlier, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is attempting a hundred and forty eight shots outside of
Speaker 1: ten feet and only eight two shots inside a five
Speaker 1: feet So his shot profile is a little bit too
Speaker 1: stretched further away from the basket. It's negatively impacting his efficiency,
Speaker 1: it's negatively impacting his rhythm, and it's really starting to
Speaker 1: hurt him overall offensively. It's just something to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on. Defensively, it's just weird. I don't I don't
Speaker 1: really know. It's hard to quantify. Because the team is
Speaker 1: defending extremely well. They are number one in the league
Speaker 1: still by a decent margin, they still are having these
Speaker 1: stretches where they're just absolutely stifling. There were a couple
Speaker 1: of plays last night where he did a really nice job,
Speaker 1: but there's still all these random plays where he's getting beat,
Speaker 1: whether it's like Kent Baysmore on a switch toasting Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis to the basket, or Tobias Harris Scott Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: a couple of times last night with like jump shots,
Speaker 1: shots that he used to smother with the other players.
Speaker 1: And then there was there was that play with Danny
Speaker 1: Green and transition. It's in my Twitter feed if you
Speaker 1: look down the thread where Danny Green's running the left
Speaker 1: side of the floor and uh shooting like a left
Speaker 1: handed layup from Danny from Danny Green, where Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: would absolutely swallow that nine times out of ten. And
Speaker 1: he's just not getting He's just not getting that anymore.
Speaker 1: And you know, I honestly think that's just like a
Speaker 1: little bit of effort focusing uh inconfidence thing that will
Speaker 1: come back to him as he as he as the
Speaker 1: offensive end kind of comes around for him. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people talking about on Twitter, are you
Speaker 1: worried about Anthony Davis? Not at all. I am not
Speaker 1: at all worried about Anthony Davis and how good he's
Speaker 1: going to be as the season progresses, and how good
Speaker 1: he's going to be in the playoffs. He's just not
Speaker 1: playing well. It's kind of like the weird thing where
Speaker 1: you know, I can flatly say that he's not playing well,
Speaker 1: but I can also flatly say that I'm sure he's
Speaker 1: going to be fine. Because it's not like he's looking slow.
Speaker 1: It's not like he's looking, you know, like he lost
Speaker 1: some sort of of talent. He's still the same guy.
Speaker 1: He's just not playing well. Some of that's fit, some
Speaker 1: of that shot selection, a lot of it is just confidence.
Speaker 1: It's gonna come back over time. He's gonna have a
Speaker 1: couple of breakout games, and things are gonna come together,
Speaker 1: especially as you get later in the season. So I'm
Speaker 1: not worried about it. All right, That's all I had
Speaker 1: as far as my notes. So let's look at these questions.
Speaker 1: There's one in particular about crunch time that I saw
Speaker 1: on Twitter, but we'll get to that in a second. Um, Okay,
Speaker 1: someone asked, are the Sixers your pick out of the East?
Speaker 1: So after watching last night, I would say that they're clearly,
Speaker 1: And I've watched six or several times this year, but
Speaker 1: it's one of the games that I've watched them most closely,
Speaker 1: especially since I rewatched the game watching the tape the UH.
Speaker 1: I said from the beginning of the year that I
Speaker 1: gave them a really good chance. I was picking Brooklyn
Speaker 1: because I thought that their defense was gonna be good
Speaker 1: enough with Jared Allen and Kevin Durant just bringing a
Speaker 1: ton of length on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: I thought they were gonna be good enough, But after
Speaker 1: the Jared Allen uh trade uh to bring in James Harden,
Speaker 1: I actually would lean a little bit towards the Sixers.
Speaker 1: That Sixers team is extremely physical and extremely long and
Speaker 1: athletic on the defensive end of the floor. They're gonna
Speaker 1: make things really tough on that Brooklyn Nets team. And
Speaker 1: one of the big reasons why they were able to
Speaker 1: The Lakers were able to slow down Joel Embiad, who
Speaker 1: literally might be the second or third best player in
Speaker 1: the league right now, was because of Anthony Davis in
Speaker 1: his ridiculous defensive ability and the the keyton rotations around
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis that allowed the Lakers to shut down the
Speaker 1: the Philly actions later in the game and really make
Speaker 1: things hard on Joel Embiad and allowed them to come back.
Speaker 1: That's not something Brooklyn is capable of. They literally do
Speaker 1: not have somebody who can check Joel Embiad. If you
Speaker 1: thought Marcus al was bad, way to see DeAndre Jordan,
Speaker 1: He's really gonna struggle in that matchup. Outside of DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan's every other player on the team is too thin
Speaker 1: and wiry, They're not gonna be able to stay in
Speaker 1: front of him physically, and then they're not connected enough
Speaker 1: defensively as a unit in terms of the rotations to
Speaker 1: really successfully double and and and and double and rotate
Speaker 1: to try to get the ball out of Joel Mbat's
Speaker 1: hands and make other things happen. Not to mention, Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons is an absolute freight train and transition and he
Speaker 1: one of the big reasons the Lakers were able to
Speaker 1: slow him down was you know, Lebron and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: sitting and drop coverages, you know, playing way off of
Speaker 1: him and forcing him to drive into their chest. Ben
Speaker 1: had a great game, but a lot of his success
Speaker 1: came early, and a lot of his success came as
Speaker 1: a passer as they packed in the paint. They did
Speaker 1: a good job as slowing him down at the end
Speaker 1: of the game, and there were a couple of interesting
Speaker 1: sequences if you look into my thread that I put earlier,
Speaker 1: where you can see how the Lakers kind of defended
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons. But the point being, you know, Philly bring
Speaker 1: him on both ends. They have a truly lead offensive
Speaker 1: player and and Joel and beat that can go toe
Speaker 1: to toe with all the best stars in the league.
Speaker 1: They have a co star and Ben Simmons that can
Speaker 1: bring enough offensively as a co star, you know, pushing
Speaker 1: the ball and transition creating, as as a passer, running
Speaker 1: pick and roll things along those lines. They found a
Speaker 1: way to to kind of balance that in a way
Speaker 1: that they are a really good offensive team and they
Speaker 1: have tons of shooting around those guys. Tobias Harris is
Speaker 1: playing a million times better than he used to. That
Speaker 1: ability to drop a play for Tobias Harris at the
Speaker 1: end of a game, you know, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: the Chris Middleton thing. He's kind of like what Chris
Speaker 1: Middleton is to the Bucks, except for Joe l embiads
Speaker 1: actually capable of doing those things that Janice is not
Speaker 1: capable of doing, so they can bring it on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor and over the course of a
Speaker 1: seven game series. Physicality plays a huge role. The game's
Speaker 1: really slow down. It's a lot of bullyball. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of can you, you know, get key rebounds and
Speaker 1: can you when the rest are swallowing their whistles, can
Speaker 1: you be physical enough and dominate that side of the game,
Speaker 1: and Philly is just going to be monstrously more physical
Speaker 1: than that Brooklyn team is. So uh as a lot
Speaker 1: of basketball left to play. There's obviously the angle of
Speaker 1: of buy out guys, and potentially a trade or two
Speaker 1: that that Brooklyn can make, although they don't have any
Speaker 1: uh trade, They don't many draft picks at this point,
Speaker 1: but as of right this second, I would lean slightly
Speaker 1: towards the Sixers and see what else we got here?
Speaker 1: All right, So I'm gonna get to the one that
Speaker 1: I saw on Twitter. So there was a person asked,
Speaker 1: what did you see in the last four minutes in
Speaker 1: terms of the execution offensively and defensively from the Lakers.
Speaker 1: So a lot of this have already touched on, but
Speaker 1: I'll touch on a couple of things that I did
Speaker 1: that I didn't touch on. Offensively is really simple. They
Speaker 1: ran a lot of stuff, uh through Dennis Shrewder at
Speaker 1: the end of the game, attacking Danny Green. So it's
Speaker 1: a matchup thing. A lot of a lot of times,
Speaker 1: what you'll see at the end of these uh, really
Speaker 1: slow bogged down games is attacking specific matchups. And this
Speaker 1: is something that I love about Lebron James. It's the
Speaker 1: opposite of the Russell Westbrook effects. So like the Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook effect is like Bradley Beal has a good matchup,
Speaker 1: he's going to work. Russ feels like he's kind of
Speaker 1: left doubt. Russ Jack's up a couple of stupid shots
Speaker 1: that that disrupts the rhythm. Lebron is not like that.
Speaker 1: Lebron didn't attempt a shot in the final four minutes
Speaker 1: of that game, and part of the reason was they
Speaker 1: were getting whatever they wanted elsewhere, and Lebron is not
Speaker 1: wired in a way to disrupt the flow of the
Speaker 1: offense for the sake of whatever the hell he's feeling.
Speaker 1: And so Dennis shrewder early before because Lebron temporarily checked
Speaker 1: out there around the five minute The five minute mark
Speaker 1: for is the weird rest that he takes in the
Speaker 1: middle of the fourth quarter, and Dennis shooter just started
Speaker 1: going to work on Danny Green, beating him off the dribble,
Speaker 1: got to the basket for a floater, got to basket
Speaker 1: for a couple of layups. Dennis was playing really, really well,
Speaker 1: and that confidence actually led into him making that huge
Speaker 1: three on the left wing off of the a d
Speaker 1: miss UH later in the game, but that was part
Speaker 1: of the offensive execution. And then late in the game
Speaker 1: it was a lot of Lebron getting switches onto Joel
Speaker 1: and beat and and driving and kicking making the right
Speaker 1: playoff of um off of his drives leading to that
Speaker 1: huge contagious called Pope three in the corner. And then
Speaker 1: I talked about this on the UH on the thread,
Speaker 1: but I really really liked that play that they ran
Speaker 1: at the end of the game for Anthony Davis to
Speaker 1: get the what would have been the game winner had
Speaker 1: Tobias not made a shot. So right before the time out,
Speaker 1: Lebron and a D run pick and roll at the
Speaker 1: top of the key. Ben Simmons is on Lebron, Joel
Speaker 1: Ebad is on Anthony Davis. When they go to kind
Speaker 1: of set the screen, you know, Ben Simmons is going
Speaker 1: under and uh and and it kind of looks like
Speaker 1: Joel Embiad is gonna switch. Nothing's really open unless he
Speaker 1: wants to take a bomb three from like twenty four
Speaker 1: ft away, which he didn't really have much of a
Speaker 1: rhythm at that point. So the Lakers called time out
Speaker 1: and it's clear that they're gonna switch that Lebron a
Speaker 1: d pick and roll because they really liked the way
Speaker 1: he mostly stayed in or and being mostly stayed in
Speaker 1: front of Lebron on his previous drive. So it's one
Speaker 1: of those things that go to the huddle. They're sitting
Speaker 1: there thinking, Okay, they don't want to switch any weaker
Speaker 1: defender onto Lebron. I'm watching the game with my father
Speaker 1: in law at this point. I look over at him
Speaker 1: and I'm like, they're gonna try to get uh Danny
Speaker 1: Green onto Lebron because at this point, Tobias Harris was
Speaker 1: in Mtis Thible was in for the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the ball. So you don't want to tack to Bias.
Speaker 1: You don't want to attack Matisse, you don't want to
Speaker 1: tack Joel, you don't want to attack uh Ben Simmons.
Speaker 1: So I was like, they're going to find a way
Speaker 1: to get Dennis Shrewder into the screening action. I figured
Speaker 1: they'd run to Lebron, Dennis Shrewder pick and roll at
Speaker 1: the top of the key and just try to get
Speaker 1: a switch and then have Lebron attacked Danny Green. That's
Speaker 1: what I was expecting. Then they come out of the
Speaker 1: time out and did what I thought was pretty genius,
Speaker 1: which was they basically had Anthony Davis standing in the
Speaker 1: in the short corner, and they had Dennis Shrewder come
Speaker 1: get the inbound and then Dennis if you watch, if
Speaker 1: you watch three play and I have it on my feet,
Speaker 1: he sprints down and sets a hard screen on Joel Embid.
Speaker 1: A couple of things are important there. By setting a
Speaker 1: really really hard screen where you move quickly, it makes
Speaker 1: it so that, uh, the defensive player who's guarding Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis can't give like kind of like drop away from
Speaker 1: Anthon Davis, so we can go under the screen. He's
Speaker 1: on Anthony Davis. The screen is on him before he
Speaker 1: has a chance to position his body. He gets a
Speaker 1: good hard screen on Joel Embat. Danny Green doesn't want
Speaker 1: to switch, probably because it was directed by Doc Rivers.
Speaker 1: In the huddle before the play, Danny Green hesitates just
Speaker 1: for a second. It doesn't completely abandon a d but
Speaker 1: you can tell he's looking at Shrewder and he just
Speaker 1: hesitates for just a second. Probably based on that directive.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis curls the screen gets a wide open lay up.
Speaker 1: Lebron's gonna hit hit that every single time. It was
Speaker 1: a genius play design in my opinion, and it was
Speaker 1: a really smart example of how, like you know, you
Speaker 1: can close a basketball game by playing smart basketball. It
Speaker 1: doesn't always have to be Kevin Durred doing seventeen crossovers
Speaker 1: into a pull up jump shot, or Kyrie over Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving doing the same thing, or James Harden doing the
Speaker 1: same thing. The Lakers closed that game scoring every single
Speaker 1: possession in the final I think it was like five minutes.
Speaker 1: They literally scored every time down the floor, I think
Speaker 1: it eight consecutive either made field goals or or trips
Speaker 1: to the free throw line. And they did it all
Speaker 1: with very little isolation. There was a whole lot of
Speaker 1: of driving kick It was a whole lot of uh
Speaker 1: specific screening actions to get guys open offensive rebounding, just
Speaker 1: like they closed the game on both ends of the
Speaker 1: floor by executing defensively and and and just making the
Speaker 1: right play on offense. And they did it, and they
Speaker 1: made it look easy. And then if there was no
Speaker 1: crazy Lebron fadeaway or anything along those lines, and it
Speaker 1: was a great example, you know, of why a closing
Speaker 1: basketball games is so much more complicated than guys like
Speaker 1: Kyrie Iring or Kevin Durant will tell you that it
Speaker 1: is UH, And I did think that that was fun
Speaker 1: to watch. Last question I'll take and then we're done.
Speaker 1: Why is Vogel doing this lineup thing again this season?
Speaker 1: I honestly don't know. UM, there's some stuff early on,
Speaker 1: you know, like the shoulder stuff. It's obvious the shoulder
Speaker 1: stuff has to do with, you know, taking care of
Speaker 1: his ego because he wants to start there. Or there's
Speaker 1: always been some line up stuff with Montrez where they're
Speaker 1: just kind of trying things out. The Montres stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: everyone always says like, why are they playing Keith and Tres?
Speaker 1: Why are they playing Kif and Tres. It's clear that
Speaker 1: the Kief and Tread's stuff isn't working, But to me,
Speaker 1: that's all part of an attempt to try to figure
Speaker 1: out how they can make Tread's work on this team.
Speaker 1: And you know, from the very beginning, all the way
Speaker 1: back to the Treads signing, I said I didn't like it.
Speaker 1: I said I didn't like hardcapping the team. I said
Speaker 1: I didn't like uh his fit naturally on the defensive
Speaker 1: end or offensively. I was never a big fan of
Speaker 1: the tread signing. So, but it is what it is.
Speaker 1: He's on the team now, and uh, and Frank was
Speaker 1: trying things with Tread's to try to find lineups that work.
Speaker 1: The stuff that I can't figure out is the Crusoe stuff,
Speaker 1: Like I said, it just doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 1: He's very clearly one of your top three guards. You know,
Speaker 1: Like this isn't like last year where like KCP was
Speaker 1: struggling sometimes and you know, Rondo was struggling struggling from
Speaker 1: time to time. Like Dennis Shooter is really good and
Speaker 1: and KCP is awesome. So you know, those two guys
Speaker 1: need to be in there a lot. But Crusoe very
Speaker 1: much belongs in that conversation. Uh. But he's very clearly
Speaker 1: in that third spot in the hierarchy of the guards,
Speaker 1: which means it makes absolutely no sense for him to
Speaker 1: only be playing, you know, seventeen points seven minutes per games.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just completely inexcusable. The exciting part about
Speaker 1: the guard rotation is there was a lot of question
Speaker 1: last year about you know, uh, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: question last year about whether the Lakers had enough guard talent,
Speaker 1: And now I think They've got the perfect guard threesome
Speaker 1: to go with Lebron and a D shrewder k CP
Speaker 1: Alex Crusoe, Anthony Davis and Lebron is just gonna be
Speaker 1: an incredible lineup for the Lakers to lean on uh
Speaker 1: in crucial moments the playoff series at the end of
Speaker 1: the season. Alright, guys, well we have one more. Has
Speaker 1: Key progressed, real quick guy, like a guy like Markip Morris,
Speaker 1: classic role player when they go in and out of games, Uh,
Speaker 1: in and out of chunks of the season, shooting the
Speaker 1: ball poorly shooting the ball. Well, I'm not worried about it.
Speaker 1: When he first came to the Lakers last year or
Speaker 1: he couldn't make anything. Uh, and then in the playoffs
Speaker 1: he was a dead eye shooter. He had some moments
Speaker 1: early in the season where he was shooting super Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about it. Markief is what he is.
Speaker 1: He's a backup center, backup four man who can occasionally
Speaker 1: knock down open shots. He's not great attacking clothes outs,
Speaker 1: and he's not great defensively. He's just Uh, he's a
Speaker 1: backup four or five man. He's what he is. Like
Speaker 1: if your if your expectations are for Markis Morris to
Speaker 1: bring some massive thing to the table. You need to
Speaker 1: adjust your expectations because that's just never gonna be something
Speaker 1: that he's gonna be able to do and do well. Um.
Speaker 1: He I would imagine he'll have a few more stretches
Speaker 1: this season where he shoots really well, and I imagine
Speaker 1: he'll have a few more stretches this season where his
Speaker 1: shot seems to leave him, and the same thing goes
Speaker 1: for playoff games. He'll have a game where he makes
Speaker 1: three or four, and then he'll have a game where
Speaker 1: he can't make him It's just kind of part of
Speaker 1: the process. Um. Anyway, So tomorrow I am doing a
Speaker 1: pod with Tommy where I'm gonna talk about other NBA stuff,
Speaker 1: But today I really just wanted to dive into the
Speaker 1: Laker game. You know, not often in a long regular
Speaker 1: season do you have a chance to really, you know,
Speaker 1: get something from a regular season game, because regular season
Speaker 1: basketball always has these other factors. But you could tell
Speaker 1: right away from the beginning that both teams are playing
Speaker 1: super hard and it was gonna be a really competitive game.
Speaker 1: It had a kind of a playoff field to it,
Speaker 1: and and that's why I thought that game was super
Speaker 1: interesting and interesting. It's why I took the time to
Speaker 1: really dive into the numbers. So I took the time
Speaker 1: to really watch the film and try to see what
Speaker 1: I could find that was interesting out of that game.
Speaker 1: But thank you, guys all so much for all of
Speaker 1: your support. You know, I uh, I can't believe how
Speaker 1: many listens these things get and how many downloads of
Speaker 1: podcast gets. I'm so thankful for you, guys, and I
Speaker 1: appreciate you tuning in, like I said, tomorrow with Tommy
Speaker 1: and hopefully two more every week from now on. And
Speaker 1: then if you haven't checked out my film breakdown of
Speaker 1: the of the fourth quarter, you can find it in
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed. All right, guys, enjoy the rest of
Speaker 1: your day and I'll talk to you tomorrow