Speaker 1: Mmmm. Welcome to the State of the Lakers post game
Speaker 1: show on DASH Radio. I thank you guys so much
Speaker 1: for coming to hang out with Roger night tonight. This
Speaker 1: we were just talking is the probably the biggest win
Speaker 1: that I can remember, biggest regular season win and I
Speaker 1: can remember from this team in a long time. When
Speaker 1: you factor in all of the you know, relevant information,
Speaker 1: not just Lebron being out, but almost a completely and
Speaker 1: totally decimated roster um including losing you know, one of
Speaker 1: their uh not someone that I like for Frank to play,
Speaker 1: but someone that Frank really likes to rely on with
Speaker 1: Lebron out, and Rajon Rondo in Austin Reeves who has
Speaker 1: been one of the primary driving forces of this team's effort,
Speaker 1: and and uh in passion on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the ball. And then you factor in Miami who was
Speaker 1: am I correct and saying they were the one seed
Speaker 1: in the East coming into tonight, rog Yeah, I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: but if record wise they were, but they they definitely
Speaker 1: played like it. To me, they're the most impressive team
Speaker 1: in the East and honestly maybe throughout the league beside
Speaker 1: the Warriors. This is a really damn good team, Like
Speaker 1: we were texting back and forth and we were like,
Speaker 1: if they lose by like ten or fifteen, would be
Speaker 1: kind of happy, you know what I mean, like if
Speaker 1: they can stay competitive, And they did even more than
Speaker 1: that tonight. But you know, the Heat are a legit
Speaker 1: really good team. Yeah, I had to I had a
Speaker 1: really uh you know, at the end of our last
Speaker 1: odd Um, I told you that I had a kind
Speaker 1: of a vision for what I expected to happen tonight.
Speaker 1: And I'm not I'm not you know, touting this is
Speaker 1: some measure of success, because I'm wrong about stuff all
Speaker 1: the time. But I just like Miami brings the best
Speaker 1: out of people. Like they come in in early and
Speaker 1: the first few possessions in the game, they always hit
Speaker 1: you in the mouth. Um with this, with this physicality
Speaker 1: and focus and intensity, and you know, even even if
Speaker 1: you look at their bench and their coaching staff, they're
Speaker 1: just so animated. Like there's a there's a program, a
Speaker 1: junior college program here in Arizona. It's called Coaches College
Speaker 1: and they're right down by the Mexican border, and uh
Speaker 1: they are in the middle of nowhere, but in the
Speaker 1: JUCO Conference here in Arizona, they're always the team that
Speaker 1: everyone hates to play because they have just this loud
Speaker 1: Boisters coach and they have they just thrive on this
Speaker 1: this this culture, this like intensity, this everything they do
Speaker 1: is just so everything they do is just a hundred
Speaker 1: miles an hour, and a lot of teams just crumble
Speaker 1: under like the intensity of it, you know. And to me,
Speaker 1: the miament he kind of reminds me of that in
Speaker 1: the NBA, Like they they just play a different level
Speaker 1: of intense, intense basketball. And obviously they have all this
Speaker 1: stuff that we hear about with heat culture and the
Speaker 1: way they make people take care of their bodies and
Speaker 1: the way that they approach um, you know, everything and
Speaker 1: every facet of the game. Well, they brought the best
Speaker 1: out of the Lakers tonight. This was their best effort
Speaker 1: that we saw um so far this season. I was
Speaker 1: worried that fatigue would eventually come back to bite them,
Speaker 1: which is something we talked about in the last pot,
Speaker 1: that they would hang around, but eventually Miami would just
Speaker 1: be too much for them, and that kind of is
Speaker 1: what happened. As they got up by I think nine
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarters, either nine or eleven, I remember,
Speaker 1: But all it took was Mellow stuck a big three,
Speaker 1: and then the Leak Monk stuck a big three, and
Speaker 1: then Avery Bradley banked in the three, and and then
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook started making jump shots and and just like that,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the Lakers were able to send
Speaker 1: it to overtime where they were able to get a win.
Speaker 1: But you know, I didn't think I didn't think they
Speaker 1: had much of a chance to win tonight at all
Speaker 1: um and and they got it done, so that obviously
Speaker 1: it's just what a what a great way to kind
Speaker 1: of kickstart what I hope will be the beginning of
Speaker 1: what we hope to see from this team this season.
Speaker 1: And we talked about it, like I think after the
Speaker 1: last spaces, like Miami was going to get our kind
Speaker 1: of a game, like they were going to respect them,
Speaker 1: come with them, come with the competitiveness that they needed
Speaker 1: to to play tonight. Like Miami's really damn good. Like
Speaker 1: I know, I kept saying that they run actions that
Speaker 1: are really tough toend to defend, even in our two
Speaker 1: big line up. The offense really ugly. But just like
Speaker 1: the defensive effort there minus like DeAndre Jordan probably in
Speaker 1: the third you saw a d exhausted. I thought at
Speaker 1: the end of the fourth and over time he looked
Speaker 1: like he had very little left left in the tank.
Speaker 1: But like, this is the type of stuff I wanted
Speaker 1: to see. We kept kind of blaming their you know,
Speaker 1: their losses on the injuries, which is true, you know,
Speaker 1: losing the three rotation players outside of just Lebron, But like,
Speaker 1: if you play like this, you don't lose against Okay,
Speaker 1: see twice, you know what I mean. Like, just like
Speaker 1: if you play with this type of effort and you
Speaker 1: know they're not gonna shoot the way they did tonight.
Speaker 1: I think the link Monk was like ten of thirteen
Speaker 1: at one point, but the defense was there. Russ again
Speaker 1: had the turnovers and stuff. But this is just a
Speaker 1: big time win, man. I want to kind of stick
Speaker 1: on that. It could have easily, like you know, faltered
Speaker 1: you talked about Miami went up nine, and I thought
Speaker 1: we kind of let go of the rope there. I
Speaker 1: thought we didn't have enough offense to keep up. But
Speaker 1: like you said, Carmelo, big time three. He had another
Speaker 1: one was like a little dribble in mid range jumper.
Speaker 1: I think when we were down seven or something, he said,
Speaker 1: Miami is a team we don't want to play like
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry and p J. Tugger are annoying as hell
Speaker 1: to play when you're on the other side, like they
Speaker 1: just they just are. Kyle Lord played forty two minutes
Speaker 1: in regulation. Didn't even realize that until I saw the
Speaker 1: numbers in overtime. But yeah, Miami is a tough, tough team.
Speaker 1: It's a big win, man, Like this is. It was ugly,
Speaker 1: there was some turnovers late, but this is just a
Speaker 1: big time win that you can kind of build off
Speaker 1: of here going forward. I think they played the Spurs next.
Speaker 1: I'm not hundred cent sure, but you know, this is
Speaker 1: a this is a big time win that they got tonight.
Speaker 1: I agree. You know, we talked a lot about identity
Speaker 1: right with the Lakers. This this uh, you know, their
Speaker 1: identity in the previous two years was everything that they
Speaker 1: did on the defensive end of the ball. But the
Speaker 1: true phiz is that with the personnel that they have
Speaker 1: right now active with a reason out, with th ht out,
Speaker 1: with Lebron out, it's really hard to have like a
Speaker 1: hard nose defensive identity. But your identity is kind of vague,
Speaker 1: Like your identity doesn't have to be defense like Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: Brooklyn's identity is in defense. Brooklyn's identity is just having
Speaker 1: a bunch of really high i Q players and a
Speaker 1: ton of offensive talent on the floor, and you know,
Speaker 1: just just in the aggregate, when you factor in their
Speaker 1: average defense, that's enough to carry them and every given
Speaker 1: every single night, the way they play offense is their identity.
Speaker 1: The same goes with the Warriors with their ball movement
Speaker 1: and the way that Steph drags attention and and they
Speaker 1: do everything off of that attention that he that he
Speaker 1: gathers from the defense. Well, with this Laker group, like
Speaker 1: maybe the the the the identity becomes them just playing hard.
Speaker 1: And that's what it was tonight, you know, like just
Speaker 1: bringing that you can if your identity becomes that effort
Speaker 1: and focus in every fast out of the game, even
Speaker 1: if you don't have the defensive talent, then when the
Speaker 1: ship it's the fan and things get really hard, you'll
Speaker 1: fall back on that identity. And that identity could just
Speaker 1: be we play really really hard, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: And and that's what carried them tonight. Like I bet
Speaker 1: you when we go back and look at the defensive metrics,
Speaker 1: they'll be good, not great. You know, they didn't blow
Speaker 1: they didn't they didn't strangle Miami tonight. There was they
Speaker 1: gave them some big problems with their two big lineups,
Speaker 1: but when they went with a D at the five
Speaker 1: or with Dwhite Howard at the five, like they gave
Speaker 1: up a lot of baskets tonight. But the truth is
Speaker 1: is throughout the game, with exception of the few rolls
Speaker 1: in there, they were able to maintain a certain level
Speaker 1: of effort uh and focus. And if that, if that
Speaker 1: becomes their identity, if this team plays hard every night,
Speaker 1: when Lebron comes back and all these guys come back,
Speaker 1: they're just gonna start beating the hell out of people
Speaker 1: because they do have a lot of talent. You saw
Speaker 1: that tonight, you know what I mean, And which I
Speaker 1: think is a good good segue into Molik Monk because
Speaker 1: you know, Molik Monk is an extremely talented basketball player
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of but compare him to to
Speaker 1: Lou Williams, you know, or um like he's just your stereotypical,
Speaker 1: like off the bench, nuclear offensive guard. And it always
Speaker 1: bothered me that Frank was so hesitant to play him,
Speaker 1: or when he would play him, play him in kind
Speaker 1: of a role where he's off the ball all the time,
Speaker 1: you know, where he's primarily just standing in the corner,
Speaker 1: not really involved in the offense. And the truth of
Speaker 1: the matter is that the guy like that, like you
Speaker 1: know the phrase like let him cook. You have to
Speaker 1: you have to let Molik Monk have the ball in
Speaker 1: his hands. Then you have to let him you have
Speaker 1: to let him get comfortable, and you have to let
Speaker 1: him make plays. Like there people you like you said
Speaker 1: at the beginning, like, oh, Molik Monk got hot. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's on characteristic. Yeah, like he's not. The dude's not
Speaker 1: go an average twenty seven. You're right about that. However,
Speaker 1: like that, in order for him to have a game
Speaker 1: like this every two or three games, he has to
Speaker 1: have the ball in his hands. And so I I
Speaker 1: like the direction of going that way as a secondary
Speaker 1: ball handler option, you know, when you're not going through
Speaker 1: Russ and when you're not going with Lebron instead of
Speaker 1: going through Rod though, do you agree as far as
Speaker 1: Milik Monk is concerned. Oh, yeah, he looked. He looked
Speaker 1: awesome tonight, and he was the de facto backup point
Speaker 1: guard right because we had Russ and then just no
Speaker 1: one backing him up, and there were some turnovers with that,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you could see him getting more and more
Speaker 1: comfortable as the game kind of went on with this shot.
Speaker 1: He was really comfortable taking it from far. He was
Speaker 1: running pick and rolls, you know, trying to find a D.
Speaker 1: There were some bad passes there, but you're right, man,
Speaker 1: like just he again I said, he was like ten
Speaker 1: of thirteen. And what I mean by like, he's not
Speaker 1: gonna go off like this every night, but he doesn't
Speaker 1: have to write. You can just be a little bit
Speaker 1: of like a nuclear, like you said, offensive punch off
Speaker 1: the bench. And I kept thinking, like, I want to
Speaker 1: see him next to like Kendrick Nunn, you know, I
Speaker 1: think that's like a really fun kind of backcourd to
Speaker 1: bring off the bench him with like Ellington as well,
Speaker 1: and if you can put defenders around that because he's fearless.
Speaker 1: He's a fearless guy. Gets to the basket. Gave Russ
Speaker 1: a guy you can give the ball too, because they
Speaker 1: just kept switching that Russ and a D ball screen
Speaker 1: and they let Malik kind of just like you said,
Speaker 1: let him cook. They let him cook for a lot
Speaker 1: of that fourth quarter. Uh, there was nothing going on
Speaker 1: the in the half court and they just said here, Malik,
Speaker 1: you know, do your thing. And he was able to
Speaker 1: go off tonight on you know Tyler Hero and Duncan Robinson,
Speaker 1: who again aren't great defenders, but you know, he took
Speaker 1: advantage of that coming off screens, being able to pull
Speaker 1: up off the dribble. He's a guy that this is
Speaker 1: why you go and get these type of offensive players, right, Like,
Speaker 1: this is kind of what you saw in the defense
Speaker 1: for offense trade and I thought you saw that on
Speaker 1: the defensive end as well. Got back cut a lot,
Speaker 1: but like this, his offense was huge and we're gonna
Speaker 1: need him and I want to see him next to
Speaker 1: like the starters and playing next to defensive minded players
Speaker 1: because I think he can really go off. But but
Speaker 1: you're right, he's a nuclear option that they can go to.
Speaker 1: And what I mean, he doesn't have to be the guy.
Speaker 1: But if you have him or Ellington or none or
Speaker 1: Thhd going off, at least one of them going off.
Speaker 1: If you get too, I think we're in business. But
Speaker 1: that's what I saw from the night because this is
Speaker 1: something he definitely can do. He can he can go
Speaker 1: for to thirty on on any given night and you
Speaker 1: can win you game. Like that's the key. Like he
Speaker 1: made a gigantic three in overtime, and he made a
Speaker 1: gigantic three in the fourth quarter that got them back
Speaker 1: into the game. And you know, it goes back to
Speaker 1: that idea that we've talked about a lot this season
Speaker 1: having to do with versatility. You know, if if Malik
Speaker 1: doesn't have it going, if you've given him a six
Speaker 1: minute shift where the ball has been in his hands
Speaker 1: a lot and it's not going, you can go with
Speaker 1: a Bradley, you can go with the Reeves, you can
Speaker 1: go with the th h T or in Ellington, you
Speaker 1: can go with a different option. That there. The whole
Speaker 1: concept of the way this was put together, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: was versatility, like having options, Whereas in previous seasons it
Speaker 1: was like do you want this defensive guard or do
Speaker 1: you want this defensive guard, or do you want this
Speaker 1: guy who probably is gonna, you know, go one for
Speaker 1: four from three or this guy who's gonna go one
Speaker 1: for four from three. No, it's like this year we
Speaker 1: have a mix of all of those types of identities.
Speaker 1: I mean, and we're going to talk about Ellington at
Speaker 1: some point later in the show, and he's another example.
Speaker 1: He's almost like a third a third archetype of guard,
Speaker 1: you know, like we have these guys like Malik Monk
Speaker 1: and Raijion Rondo or these primarily you know, dribble dribble attack,
Speaker 1: have the ball in their hands to feel comfortable type
Speaker 1: of guards. But then we have these you know, Austin
Speaker 1: Reeve types, these Avery Bradley types that are just just
Speaker 1: focus on the defensive end and you never have to
Speaker 1: run a play for them and they can just stand
Speaker 1: in the corner and shoot threes. But then we also
Speaker 1: have this Wayne Ellington is like Duncan Robinson type of
Speaker 1: archetype that you can run him off of screens and
Speaker 1: the way that that occupies defenders off the ball. Like
Speaker 1: Wayne hasn't shot the ball well this year, but when
Speaker 1: when he's been out there, the offense has looked very
Speaker 1: fluid because of just his gravity and and what and
Speaker 1: what he brings uh with his intelligence as a as
Speaker 1: a as a off the ball shooter who can move
Speaker 1: around and and keep the defense out of you know,
Speaker 1: off balance. Like that, they're just options here there that
Speaker 1: we're starting final just finally and you know what, Laker fans,
Speaker 1: you deserve it because it's been a rough go here
Speaker 1: early on. But this is finally starting, just barely to
Speaker 1: take shape as what our vision was for what the
Speaker 1: good version of this team could be, which is everything
Speaker 1: that the old teams were, just with versatility to go
Speaker 1: in a different direction when things aren't working, and and
Speaker 1: to and to me, that's exciting. And you know what,
Speaker 1: Malik has been defending better. I think this is a
Speaker 1: good segue into mellow in his defense. You know, we
Speaker 1: talked a lot about We talked a lot about how,
Speaker 1: you know, guys like k CP, guys like how Kuzma Um,
Speaker 1: you know, even Alex Caruso to a certain extent, just
Speaker 1: coming up through the Lakers system and th h T.
Speaker 1: You know, like, if you ship th ht off to
Speaker 1: NBA Siberia and he learns to play basketball somewhere else,
Speaker 1: he might not be the same defender that he's shaping
Speaker 1: up to be under Frank, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And and I think it's really cool to watch over
Speaker 1: the last couple of years the way some of these
Speaker 1: really limited defensive players that struggle on that side of
Speaker 1: the floor have shaped into pros who can hold their
Speaker 1: own on that end, and it has been awesome to
Speaker 1: see Mellow start to show some sparks of defensive potential,
Speaker 1: not I shouldn't even say potential, but just being able
Speaker 1: to hold his own, you know. And that the same
Speaker 1: goes for Monk and and I mean even DeAndre Jordan,
Speaker 1: even though we slammer him all the time, he's playing
Speaker 1: a lot better on defense than he was in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: even though we still want more out of him. It's
Speaker 1: been cool to see that shape together and that was
Speaker 1: gonna take a lot of games. So are you are
Speaker 1: you certain to come around on that as well? Do
Speaker 1: you think this defense could come around to where it
Speaker 1: was in previous seasons by the end of the year.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure to where it was. I mean, they
Speaker 1: were the best defensive the league last year and wear
Speaker 1: before I think they were right there, but it's definitely
Speaker 1: coming up. And we talked about defensive identity to start.
Speaker 1: You went into that ad is kind of defensive identity
Speaker 1: and a lot of times and I thought he was
Speaker 1: just incredible tonight. I don't know if you would agree
Speaker 1: like he was. Miami's again like a really tough team.
Speaker 1: They run a lot of screen actions. Bam is kind
Speaker 1: of in the middle of the floor and he's kind
Speaker 1: of operating. And I thought a D, especially in the
Speaker 1: in the first three quarters, that he got a little
Speaker 1: bit tired there in the fourth, but the shutting off
Speaker 1: all those actions be able to come up help on
Speaker 1: Hero and still get back to Bam defend the rim,
Speaker 1: and he's playing with like a D S surrounded by
Speaker 1: like all these four guards, three guards with Mellow and
Speaker 1: Mellow I'll get into him as well. Just incredible, like
Speaker 1: seeing him, like you said, move his feet defensively. About
Speaker 1: a D. Tonight, I thought was great. Shutting off the rim,
Speaker 1: got a bunch of strips on Bam, some block shots,
Speaker 1: he got beat down the floor a couple of times,
Speaker 1: but taking away lobs like I thought, he was just great.
Speaker 1: Tyler Hero hit a bunch of contested shots over every
Speaker 1: Bradley the hell I guess I'll kind of live with.
Speaker 1: But again, I thought a D was a huge deterrent
Speaker 1: on them and Carmelo man like watching him rotate and
Speaker 1: be right there, you know what I mean. With the Lakers,
Speaker 1: with the coverage they run, and he's starting to understand
Speaker 1: where he's supposed to be, Like I said, he's never
Speaker 1: gonna always get to stop, but he started being the
Speaker 1: right place more than often. Like he's not a guy
Speaker 1: that you can just pick on in the post. They
Speaker 1: try to go at him, and he got to stop there.
Speaker 1: He strips the ball really nicely. It's just really cool
Speaker 1: because this shooting is so it's so important for this
Speaker 1: team right now that if he's just passable defensively, and
Speaker 1: to me, he was even more than that tonight. I
Speaker 1: thought he was actually even kind of a plus defensively,
Speaker 1: especially next day. I agree. I thought he was legitimately
Speaker 1: a plus defensively tonight, which is wild. I cannot believe
Speaker 1: I'm saying it. I thought him in a D like
Speaker 1: as the four or five was our best kind of
Speaker 1: defensive lineup. The way that Dwight was kind of fouling.
Speaker 1: Dwight I think fouled out in eleven minutes. So I
Speaker 1: didn't really get to see much of the Dwight a
Speaker 1: D combo tonight. But yeah, I thought him and Melow
Speaker 1: really were in seeing again. Miami makes you like switch
Speaker 1: and talk on almost every coverage, the way they run
Speaker 1: Duncan Robinson entire hero off all these actions in the corners,
Speaker 1: and I thought Melo held his own, Like we went
Speaker 1: on that run in the fourth we were down nine,
Speaker 1: Mellow was on the floor and when we made on
Speaker 1: that run, and obviously they scored a bunch of points,
Speaker 1: but also got a bunch of stops. I thought he
Speaker 1: was great, Like just seeing him be able to defend
Speaker 1: like that, and like I see people saying he wasn't
Speaker 1: defending like this. I guess in Portland, maybe I wasn't
Speaker 1: really watching that as closely. Body might be a little
Speaker 1: bit better, but he just looks so ready to be
Speaker 1: on a winner and beyond a title contender. It's cool
Speaker 1: to see him playing that out. But yeah, he was
Speaker 1: great and a d I thought really shut them down
Speaker 1: the first in the first few minutes of that game
Speaker 1: to make it even close. Like you said, the offense
Speaker 1: is super ugly to start these games, but the defense
Speaker 1: was there. I thought it was. It was great And
Speaker 1: if they can keep building on this, man, this is
Speaker 1: something you can build off of, Like you can't do
Speaker 1: this and then go do a stinker against whoever they
Speaker 1: play next, Like this is like something you can legitimately
Speaker 1: build off of, even if Lebron is not gonna play
Speaker 1: for a little while. You know, It's it's funny because
Speaker 1: we you and I have talked so much about how
Speaker 1: when Anthony Davis is on the floor, you know, your
Speaker 1: defensive job is less complicated than it is on other teams.
Speaker 1: You know, like if you're if you're playing for the
Speaker 1: Washington Wizards, you have to be so sharp on the
Speaker 1: perimeter and you have to cover so much because you
Speaker 1: don't have that you know, all encompassing defensive mistake a
Speaker 1: racer on the back end, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And and that was what was so shameful about the
Speaker 1: way the Lakers played to start the season, is like
Speaker 1: we watched, you know, pretty limited guards you know in
Speaker 1: previous seasons come in and see the very small checklist
Speaker 1: of defensive responsibilities they had in the Laker lineup, and
Speaker 1: and to not and to knock it out of the park.
Speaker 1: And so to see the guys this year coming and
Speaker 1: really struggle, it was frustrating. And because when you watch
Speaker 1: the game, you see it with effort. It was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this guy just died on that screen, or this guy
Speaker 1: is just not even paying attention off the ball, or okay,
Speaker 1: they beat us off the dribble and we rotated, you know,
Speaker 1: a D stepped over and and stop the guy at
Speaker 1: the rim, and and kicked to the corner, and one
Speaker 1: guy ran out to stop him in the corner. But
Speaker 1: then they swung it one more time and no one
Speaker 1: was there, you know what I mean Like that, it
Speaker 1: just was it was just super super sloppy on that front.
Speaker 1: And what we saw tonight, it was for the first
Speaker 1: time all season for the most part, during the whole game,
Speaker 1: with exception of that ugly stretch there in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: they did a really really good job of those responsibilities.
Speaker 1: They were applying ball pressure and chasing guys off the
Speaker 1: three point line, funneling them into Carmelo and a D
Speaker 1: under the rim. And like you said, Carmelo did a
Speaker 1: really really good job in that Lebron role of any
Speaker 1: time anybody caught in the middle of the floor on
Speaker 1: the short roll, he just stepped up and disrupt them
Speaker 1: and made that next past tough. And then and then
Speaker 1: when that read came out of the short roll, guys
Speaker 1: were flying around and rotating the shooters and contesting shots
Speaker 1: and and that's it's really that simple, you know, Like
Speaker 1: that there was there was a job that had to
Speaker 1: be done in this system, and guys weren't doing their
Speaker 1: jobs to start this season. And now over the course
Speaker 1: of uh, you know this, slowly incrementally, guys are starting
Speaker 1: to do those jobs. In the defense is starting to
Speaker 1: look better. And guess what, it's only going to get
Speaker 1: easier and easier to when you when you get Lebron
Speaker 1: in there. You know, like that that if like we've
Speaker 1: talked a lot about you you talk a lot about
Speaker 1: the Russ A D lineups, right, You talked about how like, hey,
Speaker 1: like when when Lebron is off the floor, we have
Speaker 1: to really lean into russ a D ball. Well, if
Speaker 1: Mellow can be a passable defensive power forward in that lineup,
Speaker 1: holy cow, man, Like I'd go Russ Mellow a d
Speaker 1: um and and do do a lot of that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. Because because with that spacing that they had,
Speaker 1: especially when they went with Monk and Mellow on the wing,
Speaker 1: they were just getting fantastic shots every time down the floor. Um,
Speaker 1: we just could never go to those lineups enough this
Speaker 1: season because they would just get destroyed on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: And now finally, by by virtue of them losing some
Speaker 1: games and put it finding themselves in a position where
Speaker 1: they have to do the job in order to win.
Speaker 1: Guys are starting to do it and so and so
Speaker 1: that's exciting because dude, it's only up from here because
Speaker 1: talent is, reinforcements are on the way right. And I
Speaker 1: want to give Russ like a shout out. We're gonna
Speaker 1: guess we're gonna talk about him pretty soon here his
Speaker 1: offensive moments, but just even defensively, like chasing around Duncan
Speaker 1: Robinson in the late game plays and you know, trying
Speaker 1: to chase around Tyler Hero, watching him get in a
Speaker 1: full like defensive stance and you know, playing full up
Speaker 1: on Tyler here, Like it was awesome seeing him as
Speaker 1: well compete on that end. And that's what we're gonna
Speaker 1: have to have, man, We're gonna have to have the
Speaker 1: whole team kind of competing defensively like this. Miami is
Speaker 1: a really good team. And you could tell the Lakers
Speaker 1: respected them in a way, like they came out with
Speaker 1: the effort, you know, from the tip off, like you
Speaker 1: could tell this was serious. Miami's a team that you know,
Speaker 1: talks back and forth, and you know, it kind of
Speaker 1: got Carmelo going the kind of ship talking back and
Speaker 1: forth but I think this team like they just needed
Speaker 1: that tonight. But I wanted to give Russ a quick
Speaker 1: shout out there as well. Defensively, I thought he was
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened on that last play where
Speaker 1: Tyler hero got open, but you know, just for the
Speaker 1: whole kind of fourth and overtime, I thought he really
Speaker 1: I thought he really competed on that end, and that's
Speaker 1: what we're gonna need. I guess we can kind of
Speaker 1: move move on to Uh, he's just doing like Russ
Speaker 1: is just doing his job now, Like that's that's the key.
Speaker 1: Like there was a there was a certain level of um,
Speaker 1: you know, him carrying over some bad habits from his
Speaker 1: previous destinations into this role, right, which is was to
Speaker 1: be expected, like no one, no one, no one changes overnight,
Speaker 1: you know, especially since we talked about like like if
Speaker 1: you ever watched Austin Reeves play defense man, this guy
Speaker 1: gets hit in the face on everything like every quarter
Speaker 1: at least once, or the shot to the nose or
Speaker 1: an elbow to the ribs or something like doing the
Speaker 1: job of changing. We talked about this a lot on
Speaker 1: the pod. Chasing people over the top of the screen, uh,
Speaker 1: flying around in rotations. It's a dirty job. It sucks.
Speaker 1: And throughout Russ's career, especially after Kad left, he's had
Speaker 1: so much on his plate offensively that he's been able
Speaker 1: to really really relax on that side of the floor
Speaker 1: and take so much of his focus and energy away
Speaker 1: from that. And you know, I think I think we
Speaker 1: saw a lot of that carry over into the season.
Speaker 1: And ideally with Lebron here he'd have lesser offensive responsibility
Speaker 1: so that he can devote more energy to that end.
Speaker 1: But like that short term urgency that Frank was talking
Speaker 1: about plays a big role here. You know, the Lakers
Speaker 1: had an option. They had two options. The Lakers said
Speaker 1: they were sitting at five and five coming off a
Speaker 1: really really bad loss to Oklahoma City, and they had
Speaker 1: two options. It was play better basketball or just keep losing.
Speaker 1: And a lot of guys had to look in the mirror,
Speaker 1: Guys like mellow guys like Rus even a d has
Speaker 1: stepped up his intensity so much over the course of
Speaker 1: of this past week. Like guys had to look in
Speaker 1: the mirror and say, like, are we gonna start to
Speaker 1: fix these problems or are we just going to continue
Speaker 1: with the status quo? Get our butt kicked by Miami,
Speaker 1: get our butt kicked by San Antonio, get our butt
Speaker 1: kicked by Minnesota, and just tell everybody, oh, well, Lebron's gone,
Speaker 1: Like Lebron will be back and then everything will be fine. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: they they're they addressed. They're starting to address those problems.
Speaker 1: And that's the most important part because we already know
Speaker 1: what Lebron can do and we know how he slots
Speaker 1: into all of this, right, So getting all of these
Speaker 1: guys on board with what their jobs were was such
Speaker 1: an important little checkbox in this process. You know, we've
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about the you know, the little
Speaker 1: checkpoints that you look for over the course of the
Speaker 1: NBA season, and we talked about how that Oklahoma City lost.
Speaker 1: Both of them were bad, they were bad checkpoints, right,
Speaker 1: Like those were examples of like kind of red flags. Right.
Speaker 1: But what happened tonight, this win tonight, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is a huge example of a good checkpoint, a championship
Speaker 1: chip checkpoint. Winning a game you're not supposed to win
Speaker 1: against the team that was heavily favored. I told you
Speaker 1: on the last part that'd be favored by four or
Speaker 1: five points. It was either four and a half or
Speaker 1: five depending on which book he went to. They like, literally,
Speaker 1: they were supposed to lose this game, your best players out.
Speaker 1: It was either lose and no one's gonna blame you
Speaker 1: because you're supposed to, or go out and win the
Speaker 1: damn thing. And what championship teams do is they go
Speaker 1: out and they win the damn thing. And that's what
Speaker 1: the Lakers did. And so this was kind of a
Speaker 1: doesn't this just kind of like take the taste of
Speaker 1: one of the at least one of those Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: losses out of your mouth? Maybe not both, maybe not both.
Speaker 1: Maybe they need to win the next two, but at
Speaker 1: least one of those Sea games has to be kind
Speaker 1: of wiped away from our memory at this point for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I said, like before the Portland game that if they
Speaker 1: got that one, I would kind of, you know, forget
Speaker 1: about one of the Okay See games. But it's crazy
Speaker 1: that the same team tonight when I got their as kick,
Speaker 1: you know, in Portland by a team that just can't
Speaker 1: get its feed together either. Like that's what I mean
Speaker 1: by they should at least be competitive, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like with even without Lebron, even though a
Speaker 1: d even though a d kind of went out in
Speaker 1: the first quarter. Were there, like there's enough talent on
Speaker 1: this team to where you can be competitive. And you
Speaker 1: can see they're starting to get comfortable right Lebron has
Speaker 1: been out a few games, Like players are starting to
Speaker 1: slot into where they are now. They have to move
Speaker 1: up one in the rotation or whatever. Russ still like
Speaker 1: being the main ball handler. Now, They're still gonna be
Speaker 1: turnovers and stuff. But you saw him kind of get
Speaker 1: his foot together. There's some plays, man, and I guess
Speaker 1: we can kind of transition into Russ's offensive game because
Speaker 1: like those aren't great midrange pull ups, Like Mark Jackson
Speaker 1: was begging him to take those market those pull ups
Speaker 1: all night. Uh, they're gonna be open all night. I'll
Speaker 1: be hit them and they're in rhythm. We talked about
Speaker 1: the mid range jumpers for us. There's ones where it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, come up, it's contested, and there's others where
Speaker 1: he's like in a full on dribble pull up rhythm
Speaker 1: where it just looks a lot smoother. I thought those
Speaker 1: last two, the one was a fade away kind of
Speaker 1: I think he thought he got fouled, but the one
Speaker 1: right over right over on in the mid range where
Speaker 1: he hit like that was that's a that's a good
Speaker 1: shot for him, Like in the late against the switch,
Speaker 1: like I thought that was a good stock for him.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like Russ got his moment and stable center,
Speaker 1: like this is a big time play, big time moment.
Speaker 1: That's what he came here for. You come here to
Speaker 1: play these games for if Lebron's out. When Lebron's out,
Speaker 1: like this is a big game for him. And I
Speaker 1: thought he really came through, especially offensively. They needed it.
Speaker 1: Like we we complain about the turnovers and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: but you saw when he went to the bench, the
Speaker 1: team just had zero offensive rhythm. Miami is too good
Speaker 1: to just run this like throw the ball to a
Speaker 1: d like their health defense is way too good and
Speaker 1: completely under control by the way. Yeah, and band like
Speaker 1: shoves Adie off his spot a lot. He saw Adie
Speaker 1: like catch the ball three point line a lot. Miami
Speaker 1: is just really good at that. They know exactly where
Speaker 1: the place players um and I thought Westbrook really came through.
Speaker 1: They needed every single point. I think he banked in
Speaker 1: a couple of those jumpers dating him and would you
Speaker 1: agree with that? He kind of had his moment tonight.
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, And I'm happy for Russ because that having
Speaker 1: a moment like that in Staples is what kind of
Speaker 1: just takes some of the pressure off. You know. Vane
Speaker 1: said something that I thought was really really interesting on
Speaker 1: Twitter after the last game, and he said that Russ
Speaker 1: looks like he doesn't want the ball in those moments. Um,
Speaker 1: not because he's afraid of the moment or anything, but
Speaker 1: Russ is Russ is very aware of his limitations right now.
Speaker 1: I truly believe that, like Russ knows he can't shoot,
Speaker 1: and and Russ knows that guys are packing the paint
Speaker 1: on him and that when he drives it's kind of
Speaker 1: a risk reward proposition that's not in his favor. Um.
Speaker 1: But ironically, the Lebron injury and bam At of bio
Speaker 1: just completely shutting a d down, which will get to
Speaker 1: in a second, Um, that kind of put Russ in
Speaker 1: a situation where he had to shoot, which you know,
Speaker 1: in a weird way, when you have to shoot, some
Speaker 1: of the pressure is off because it's not like if
Speaker 1: you like when Russ took that pull up fifteen foot
Speaker 1: or the one that gave him the two point lead
Speaker 1: laid before the one legged fade away. That shot is
Speaker 1: a weirdly low pressure shot because it's like they had
Speaker 1: just dumped it into a D on the wing a
Speaker 1: couple of times and each time he turned in face
Speaker 1: and bam just just swallowed him up. There's just nothing
Speaker 1: that a D had to go to a fade away,
Speaker 1: and he, as we know right now, is just not
Speaker 1: really capable of making that fade away. So in a
Speaker 1: weird way, Russ is like dribbling the ball the floor.
Speaker 1: It's like it's got to be met, and so that
Speaker 1: takes the pressure off. If misses that fifteen footer, no
Speaker 1: one's really gonna yell at him because you're like, I
Speaker 1: guess that's just the best we can do right now, right,
Speaker 1: you know. So in a weird way, it went in,
Speaker 1: and that, you know, gave him some confidence. And then
Speaker 1: he made an even tougher one after that, and then
Speaker 1: he took a way too tough one after that and
Speaker 1: they heard him. But the point is is like, in
Speaker 1: the long run, Russ doesn't want those possessions because he
Speaker 1: knows he's limited, and that's why he's going to defer
Speaker 1: to Lebron so much in those moments and and it's
Speaker 1: not really something we have to worry about. It just
Speaker 1: we what we saw tonight was something that we finally
Speaker 1: got to see that everyone had been talking about, which
Speaker 1: is can Russ bring a game home when Lebron's gone?
Speaker 1: And he did, And so I thought it was awesome
Speaker 1: for him that he had that moment. And for the record,
Speaker 1: this is why I said it a race. Okay, so
Speaker 1: he lost, like that was a huge win, Like seven
Speaker 1: five looks way better than six and six, especially when
Speaker 1: you factor in all the reinforcements coming. And so I'm
Speaker 1: happy for him as far as the A D thing goes.
Speaker 1: And it's actually super interesting, like you know, this is
Speaker 1: where spacing becomes a factor because, um, what's Anthony Day
Speaker 1: this his advantage against bam Adi Bio on the perimeter?
Speaker 1: You're gonna go with ball handling and speed probably right, Um,
Speaker 1: Like A D can't physically overpower bam really anywhere on
Speaker 1: the floor. That's why when he would start fighting for
Speaker 1: position ten ft from the rim, he'd catch eighteen feet
Speaker 1: from the rim. Um. But if over the course of
Speaker 1: the season, when they really start to nail down their
Speaker 1: spacing and how and how to really position everybody that's
Speaker 1: going to turn into a rip through because ball pressure
Speaker 1: actually is an advantage to the ball handler as long
Speaker 1: as they can make reads, as long as they are
Speaker 1: capable of handling the basketball, which ad is, ball pressure
Speaker 1: is good for you because the defender is putting himself
Speaker 1: out of position to try to make you uncomfortable. And
Speaker 1: so what I'd like to see in the long run
Speaker 1: is when when a D finds himself in those matchups
Speaker 1: where really athletic big someone like Bam pressures him and
Speaker 1: pushes him away from the basket, he needs space to
Speaker 1: operate so that he can catch and just ripped through
Speaker 1: and either get a foul or beat him to the
Speaker 1: dribble and get all the way to the rim. And
Speaker 1: that's where the prospect of Monk and Mellow are so exciting,
Speaker 1: because the Lakers finally are going to be able to
Speaker 1: piece together some lineups now that have real spacing, the
Speaker 1: kind of spacing that will make a D feel comfortable,
Speaker 1: the kind of spacing that will allow him to be
Speaker 1: a slasher like that in some cases. And that's all
Speaker 1: super exciting. So I I look forward to a D
Speaker 1: over the course of the season as if he stays healthy,
Speaker 1: which I'm hopefully they will just getting more and more
Speaker 1: comfortable and growing into like the peak version of himself
Speaker 1: as a guy who can handle that type of thing,
Speaker 1: which will require him to have space to operate, which
Speaker 1: this team will finally be able to afford him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they kept trying to like post him up, and
Speaker 1: I said earlier, Miami's just too good at that, and
Speaker 1: they were doubling him right away, especially with with our starters.
Speaker 1: They really even though Avery Bradley had like three threes
Speaker 1: in the first quarter, they still really just pinched inside
Speaker 1: the paint. They did not respect you know, Camp baysmore
Speaker 1: every Bradley. Like I said, Russell Westbrook, obviously at shooters,
Speaker 1: a D is still not great passing out of doubles,
Speaker 1: and against a team like Miami that's so good on
Speaker 1: our rotations, it was just gonna be ugly. And again
Speaker 1: they had like p J. Tucker guarding Russ, so there's
Speaker 1: a lot of switching. Uh. They just switched that pick
Speaker 1: and roll all night and eight really got nothing open there.
Speaker 1: But like we talked about Wayne Ellington earlier, just having one,
Speaker 1: you know, one knockdown shooter on the floor just changes
Speaker 1: the balance of that, and then when you put in
Speaker 1: Malik mont Carmelo Anthony, I thought the floor kind of
Speaker 1: really opened up. But I can't wait to see him
Speaker 1: with like actual spacing, actual you know, eighty at the
Speaker 1: five line ups, with defense around. But I just thought,
Speaker 1: you know, it was great to see him next to
Speaker 1: some shooting AD always feels like he's having a rough game.
Speaker 1: They you look at the box score, Um, tonight, you
Speaker 1: played forty five minutes, really toughed it out, twenty four points,
Speaker 1: thirteen rebounds, and they needed every point of that, every rebound,
Speaker 1: a bunch of big ones late. But you're right, Bam
Speaker 1: kind of was able to stay hold on him, and
Speaker 1: I think Miami is more. That was more of Miami
Speaker 1: team defense, but Bam was able to kind of push
Speaker 1: him out of his spot. He got a few really
Speaker 1: big jumpers going, a lot of pick and pop jumpers.
Speaker 1: Still wish he kind of attacked the pain a little
Speaker 1: bit more. But again, I thought he was tired, but
Speaker 1: I thought he was great defensively, and I thought that's
Speaker 1: what mattered really tonight. But hopefully he can kind of
Speaker 1: get his offense going. I saw when I saw him
Speaker 1: Leak Monk going and I was hoping aid he can
Speaker 1: kind of close it out offensively. He got a love
Speaker 1: late right there too, But yeah, just seeing whim, like
Speaker 1: do you agree with that? Like did you see the
Speaker 1: floor when they had Wayne Allington out there? It just
Speaker 1: felt like it changed the whole kind of it changed
Speaker 1: how Miami can defend, and they ran actual actions for
Speaker 1: him as well. I guess we can kind of more
Speaker 1: more morph this into Wayne Ellington as well. They were
Speaker 1: running like, you know, double pin downs for him, and
Speaker 1: he had a bunch of big threes. But I just
Speaker 1: thought the floor spacing. When we have one legit guy,
Speaker 1: they can't leave. It just changed the whole game. And
Speaker 1: I hope to see Wayne kind of play more. His
Speaker 1: jumper looks legit. You know, he's an actual professional shooter
Speaker 1: as they call it. Um. I think Monk's more of
Speaker 1: a score, but Wayne, now it's a legit professional shooter,
Speaker 1: and it's cool to have one on the team, especially
Speaker 1: playing next to you know, so many non jump shooters
Speaker 1: right now in a d and then Russ as well,
Speaker 1: obviously trying to get to the rim. Just one guy
Speaker 1: you can't leave, you know, And it felt like he
Speaker 1: changed the floor. Did I mean on that play, there
Speaker 1: was one in particular that I have in mind with
Speaker 1: Ellington on the floor with the idea, and that was
Speaker 1: so fascinating. It was Ellington. Gosh, was it Ellington, Mellow
Speaker 1: and Monk. I think it was. I think it's Ellington,
Speaker 1: Mellow and Monk like, which is just three three shooters
Speaker 1: that are real shooters, like you cannot leave them open shooters.
Speaker 1: And so A d caught at the elbow and he
Speaker 1: kind of like was had his back turned to the
Speaker 1: basket and he was kind of looking over either shoulder
Speaker 1: trying to survey the floor, and obviously he struggles with that,
Speaker 1: so he kind of ended up spinning like right into
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry and p J. Tucker like at the same
Speaker 1: time and didn't really have any angle and damn near
Speaker 1: lost his handle but then ran. But the point is
Speaker 1: is like all the all the guys that they're doubling
Speaker 1: off of our just dead eye shooters and so and shooters.
Speaker 1: The best thing about a shooter is it's not just
Speaker 1: about their ability to make the shot. Shooters are so
Speaker 1: good at identifying where their opportunity to shoot is. They
Speaker 1: can kind of see plays develop and they know their
Speaker 1: spot to hit. They know when to flare to the corner,
Speaker 1: they know when to flare to the wing, they know
Speaker 1: when to cut all the way through on the baseline.
Speaker 1: They know it's because that's what they've been doing their
Speaker 1: whole life, especially guys like Wayne Ellington. You know, Mellow
Speaker 1: is going to continue to get better and better at
Speaker 1: that in this phase of his career. But Wayne Ellington
Speaker 1: saw a D and chaos and saw that he was
Speaker 1: out of control. And a D has a tendency when
Speaker 1: he's out of control to throw it back to the perimeter,
Speaker 1: especially behind him, because he does it. He's not a
Speaker 1: great interior passer. And so Ellington just relocated right behind
Speaker 1: a D at the three point line, and a D
Speaker 1: even in all that, hey, I was just kind of
Speaker 1: shoveled it back to him. And Hey, guess what, you
Speaker 1: just left Wayne Ellington wide open. That's probably gonna go
Speaker 1: in like seventy at the time, like when his feet
Speaker 1: are really set and he's really open like that, it's
Speaker 1: going in. And it did. And so that that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, too, is like what's so cool about that?
Speaker 1: And this is why I looks forward to that line
Speaker 1: up moving forward is Anthony Davis is an absolute like
Speaker 1: beast offensively in single coverage. So if you know, obviously
Speaker 1: we talked about the Band thing earlier, but Band is
Speaker 1: probably the best defender in the league to throw at
Speaker 1: a D right. So like the vast majority, the vast
Speaker 1: majority of the guys that a D is gonna see
Speaker 1: are gonna have no capability of sticking with him physically.
Speaker 1: So guess what happens if you hit Ellington a couple
Speaker 1: of times, and you hit Monk a couple of times,
Speaker 1: and you hit Mellow a couple of times, and you
Speaker 1: show a propensity to be able to make teams pay
Speaker 1: for doubling you, You're gonna start seeing a lot of
Speaker 1: single coverage. That's what happens with Lebron. Like the dirty
Speaker 1: little secrets of most of the Lebron's efficiency is he
Speaker 1: passes himself open. That's how he gets such great looks.
Speaker 1: And so that's what's exciting for me. Is like, if
Speaker 1: you get lots of reps with Russ and a D
Speaker 1: line ups with Lebron off the floor with lots of
Speaker 1: shooting in the other three spots, a D should, over
Speaker 1: the course of the season start to take advantage of
Speaker 1: that shooting and open things up for himself, which will
Speaker 1: allow him to start to go to work in single coverage,
Speaker 1: which will cascade into more confidence. This is why I
Speaker 1: hate the two big lineups, is like it just I
Speaker 1: like my superstars to be comfortable and confident, and the
Speaker 1: only way for them to do that is when they
Speaker 1: have space to operate. And then it just feeds everything
Speaker 1: else in the game. Guys defend better, Guys are are
Speaker 1: better leaders, their their attitude is better when everyone's playing
Speaker 1: better if they just feel better, and it just it
Speaker 1: just helps the whole team. And so that's why I'm
Speaker 1: such a huge believer in that. And and we we
Speaker 1: have real shooting this year, like real, real real shooting,
Speaker 1: like problem shooting for the other team. And that's just
Speaker 1: super exciting to think about all the ways that can help, right,
Speaker 1: And that's why I was so high on Ellington this summer.
Speaker 1: And obviously he's not Buddy Healed at all, but it's
Speaker 1: kind of that archetype. He's a movement shooter, right, you
Speaker 1: talked about Monk and Carmelo. Carmelo is more of like
Speaker 1: a stand still, spot up shooter, like he can create
Speaker 1: his own shot once he has the ball. But you
Speaker 1: know at three point line, he's a spot up guy,
Speaker 1: mink Monk as well, like more like a spot up
Speaker 1: guy and stuff guy who's catching off the shot. Wayne
Speaker 1: Ellington can curl and I like that Vogel was actually
Speaker 1: running like curl plays for him, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was really huge and just it
Speaker 1: just brings a different type of spacing. You talked about
Speaker 1: those two big lineups. Russ is still playing in a
Speaker 1: phone booth, I thought, And that's kind of why we
Speaker 1: have these starts, these offensive starts. DeAndre Jordan's motor just
Speaker 1: to me, isn't good enough to continue to continue what
Speaker 1: we're doing a lot of times where you just staring
Speaker 1: out the ball let alone, this facing issues. But yeah,
Speaker 1: just putting more shooting around, man. And that's why I
Speaker 1: kept saying, just let's lean into this rust ball, especially
Speaker 1: with Lebron out, and I think you can do that.
Speaker 1: Carmelo defends the way he does. Wayne Ellington night, would
Speaker 1: you get Wayne Ellington was like, Okay, defensively he got
Speaker 1: backcut a lot. Miami again a tough team to kind
Speaker 1: of uh to judge that on, but I thought he
Speaker 1: was fine. I think he was fine, defensively in his minutes,
Speaker 1: he didn't make mistakes. He was in the right well
Speaker 1: he main mistakes on backcuts and stuff like that. But
Speaker 1: like for the most part, I thought he was fine.
Speaker 1: But just that shooting. Just have a guy who actually
Speaker 1: comes off when Adi is that second screener, Uh, he
Speaker 1: comes off. They trapped Wayne. He gave it back to
Speaker 1: a d and he hit a mid range jumper or
Speaker 1: he got an open look on a mid range jumper.
Speaker 1: Like That's the stuff that we can start to put
Speaker 1: in and I'd like to see the Vogels using it.
Speaker 1: You know, he didn't run that stuff for anyone else.
Speaker 1: Wayne Allington came back and they started running it for him,
Speaker 1: and I like that they have specific steps for him.
Speaker 1: They have to use him if he's out there. I
Speaker 1: was so high on him this summer. I was disappointed
Speaker 1: in the preseason how he looked, how he didn't have
Speaker 1: a shot there. And he's too good a shooter not
Speaker 1: to at least become somewhat of like maybe not four percent,
Speaker 1: but somewhere in that range. And if his defense can
Speaker 1: just be possible, which it wasn't in the preseason, but
Speaker 1: you know, right now, I think it looks possible enough,
Speaker 1: and his shooting, uh, if it's a man, this is
Speaker 1: this is like the first legit shooter we've had. Carmelo
Speaker 1: obviously has been an inferno. Um, just to have a
Speaker 1: movement shooter next to a D and Lebron would be great.
Speaker 1: So that's why I've been really high on Wayne Ellington
Speaker 1: all summer, and tonight was actually Wayne ellington coming out
Speaker 1: party as well. I forgot how many threes he had,
Speaker 1: but I just thought he met a huge eympatty. I
Speaker 1: actually like Wayne Ellington's defensive fit with this group, and
Speaker 1: I was pretty optimistic with it about it from the beginning.
Speaker 1: And the main reason why I thought people I thought
Speaker 1: people were overreacting to guys lighting up Wayne Ellington in isolation.
Speaker 1: And the reason why it is like like they would
Speaker 1: watch I can't even remember who it was that they
Speaker 1: were playing, but they were watched. I think it was
Speaker 1: that young guard that plays for Brooklyn that's such an
Speaker 1: aggressive jump shooter. I'm blanking on his camp time. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: something like that. Anyway, Like it's like like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: he took a tough step back jump shot and he
Speaker 1: looked pretty comfortable and he knocked it down on Ellington.
Speaker 1: But it's like, the truth of the matter is what
Speaker 1: you what is far more valuable from a perimeter defensive
Speaker 1: in Frank's scheme, is that they're in the right spot. Okay,
Speaker 1: Like if you when you have guys like Lebron and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis on the floor, you can look at Ellington
Speaker 1: and you can be like, look, man, if you give
Speaker 1: up a pull up jump shot, we'll live with that.
Speaker 1: Or or if it's an elite shooter, like something like
Speaker 1: a like a just a straight up dead eye shooter,
Speaker 1: you will will live with Drives just chase him off
Speaker 1: the line and they can tell him like, hey, when
Speaker 1: you're on this spot of the floor, you're funnel to
Speaker 1: the left. When you're on this spot of the floor,
Speaker 1: you're funnel to the right, because this is where the
Speaker 1: help is. Like you know, and in a weird way,
Speaker 1: Ellington has so much experience as a shooter that he
Speaker 1: knows what shooters do. So he's actually shown quite a
Speaker 1: quite a bit of promise as a lock and trail
Speaker 1: defender over the course of the last couple of games
Speaker 1: um in my opinion, and a big part of that
Speaker 1: is just he he does that himself, so he understands
Speaker 1: the little tips and tricks that those guys used to
Speaker 1: get open and he can kind of counter those in
Speaker 1: his own way. But again like yeah, like if in
Speaker 1: a playoff series in the highest leverage moments, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure you can play him because guys will attack him
Speaker 1: in isolation and it might cause things to break down.
Speaker 1: But over the course of the minutes that he's actually
Speaker 1: going to play with this group, which will primarily be
Speaker 1: against reserves, which will primarily be you know, little short
Speaker 1: stance in a fifteen minute type of game, that he
Speaker 1: plays like, he's going to be able to do his
Speaker 1: job in Frank's system, Like what what happens with guys
Speaker 1: like Molikue Monk, although he's been better, is way more damaging.
Speaker 1: Were like you just straight up get lost, you know,
Speaker 1: or like you're straight up not paying attention, You're you're
Speaker 1: you're you're straight up losing focus like that. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna have to worry about that with Wayne Ellington. Wayne
Speaker 1: Ellington's problems are going to be physical like footspeed type
Speaker 1: of problems, and he's probably only going to see those,
Speaker 1: uh manifest as guys attacking him off the dribble and
Speaker 1: taking pull up jump shots and things like that, which
Speaker 1: again you can live with, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And so I I like Wayne Ellington's fit as a
Speaker 1: defensive player, and I think it's gonna look even better,
Speaker 1: um when when he's playing alongside Lebron and a d
Speaker 1: when you get some of those really really really fierce
Speaker 1: Laker defensive lineups. But you know, as far as his
Speaker 1: movement shooting, you you hit the nail on the head man.
Speaker 1: Like it's just it's it's so funny. Like on every level,
Speaker 1: Like I'm coaching high school basketball right now, we put
Speaker 1: in just we have all these you have to run
Speaker 1: super super basic sets with these high school kids because
Speaker 1: they're just I mean, they're the basketball version of brain lists.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's it's a it's a long process trying
Speaker 1: to teach these kids to play basketball. And like it's
Speaker 1: funny because we just are our actions. You know. The guy,
Speaker 1: the guy that I coach with, you know, we played
Speaker 1: professionally overseas overseas for decades, super super smart guys point
Speaker 1: guard and like he just gets it. He gets all
Speaker 1: these little details and it's like he'll just he will
Speaker 1: never just have a pick and roll action. It's a
Speaker 1: pick and roll action with a guy coming off a
Speaker 1: double screen on the other side. I mean, does that
Speaker 1: because knows these high school kids are gonna be on
Speaker 1: the other side of the floor, are going to be
Speaker 1: obsessed with guarding their man. And the truth is that
Speaker 1: works at every level. And having Wayne Ellington doing anything
Speaker 1: off the ball is going to occupy defenders even if
Speaker 1: he's not making shots. And it just in that, it
Speaker 1: just it's it's all about that cascading effect that we
Speaker 1: talked about. It's just what he does to open things
Speaker 1: up for this team. Um makes up for whatever defensive
Speaker 1: limitations that he might have in isolation against the specific
Speaker 1: bad matchup, you know what I mean. And and again,
Speaker 1: if you're playing the Brooklyn nets and Cam Thomas is
Speaker 1: isolating you for pull up jump shots every time down
Speaker 1: the floor, you're probably gonna win because that's not that
Speaker 1: that's not offense, that's conducive to flow in a rhythm.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's actually stagnant. And and so I I
Speaker 1: I'm a fan of Wayne. You and I were both
Speaker 1: heavy high on him right from the beginning. And uh,
Speaker 1: and I'm hopeful that he will get an opportunity to
Speaker 1: prove us right over the course in the next few months. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: me too, man. I just think we haven't had this
Speaker 1: level of shooter and just looking at his name kind
Speaker 1: of next to our other guys that we you know,
Speaker 1: are close to get close to getting back here. Well
Speaker 1: maybe not close, but we'll see Kendrick Nunn th h T.
Speaker 1: You know, adding Wayne Ellington to that as like a specialist,
Speaker 1: I think it's just really nice having you know, coming
Speaker 1: off your bench. We'll see when the reason gets back.
Speaker 1: But if you're starting, you know, if you're going full
Speaker 1: on into this a d at the five, which is
Speaker 1: what we were kind of sold, you know, on media
Speaker 1: day before all the injuries came. And we'll never know
Speaker 1: if that that was the legit plan, but that's what
Speaker 1: we were kind of told. Uh. And you know, you
Speaker 1: have all these kind of guards coming off, probably not
Speaker 1: another not enough wings, but I'm really excited. Men, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get a bunch of these, Like you said, reinforcements
Speaker 1: are coming and we'll see when that happens. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to, like, I guess close on because Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: the Russell Westbrook experienced um is. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people have you know, said it's a roller coaster,
Speaker 1: like he had a couple of finishes tonight where I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: like you can do that every time. You know, when
Speaker 1: he had one, I think it was in the fourth
Speaker 1: I don't even if you remember it, like in transition.
Speaker 1: I think he had it was lowry back and he
Speaker 1: just perfectly slowed down, you know, he was going full
Speaker 1: speed slowdown, went up with the left hand and finished nicely,
Speaker 1: and I think it put us put us down one
Speaker 1: UM when we were making our runback. There's just stuff
Speaker 1: like that and the others where it's just crazy. But
Speaker 1: the rest of Westbrook experience has been, you know, like
Speaker 1: you said, like I said, an up and down experience.
Speaker 1: But tonight it was great and I kind of want
Speaker 1: to just stick on that point, like I thought, tonight
Speaker 1: he came through and he deserves his kind of flowers
Speaker 1: for that. Like I think this is a big time
Speaker 1: when like Miami is a damn good team like that,
Speaker 1: even without Jimmy Butler in the second half, they came
Speaker 1: in tonight seven and three. UM probably have the best
Speaker 1: defense of the league. I'm not sure if the numbers
Speaker 1: support that just watching the games and to get a win,
Speaker 1: it's just huge, huge tonight, you can tell he's starting
Speaker 1: to get more comfortable, and that's key. Like comfort is
Speaker 1: such a huge, h h huge part of the game
Speaker 1: of basketball. It's like it's the perfect example of this
Speaker 1: is the the Houston Rockets a double header that we played. Like,
Speaker 1: you know, everyone wonders how you know, one night you
Speaker 1: play him and it's and then the next time you
Speaker 1: play him, it's like in the one twenties. And a
Speaker 1: big part of that I thought was especially early in
Speaker 1: that game. You know the Lakers, just like Houston, feel comfortable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you could tell yourself, oh, they're making contested jump shots,
Speaker 1: but there's a huge difference. There's a huge difference between
Speaker 1: a contested jump shot and a jump shot where a
Speaker 1: jump shooter is uncomfortable. Huge difference. If if if you
Speaker 1: if Tyler Harrow catches the ball and I stick my
Speaker 1: hand up, it's a contested shot, but it's Tyler Harrow
Speaker 1: comfortable or was I in his It was I literally
Speaker 1: in his airspace the entire time he was moving around
Speaker 1: and as he's going up into the shot, he's nervous
Speaker 1: that I'm kind of going to knock the ball loose
Speaker 1: and and like do you see the difference of what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about that kind of like level of comfort
Speaker 1: And this is this is what's so important about having
Speaker 1: Russ play with a d at the five or with
Speaker 1: or with one big instead of two bigs. Having Russ
Speaker 1: feel comfortable with the basketball, helping him to when he
Speaker 1: when he's making that read trying to decide when to
Speaker 1: hit the hole, like because there were a lot of
Speaker 1: those like hit the whole moments with Russ where kind
Speaker 1: of reminds you of an NFL running back tonight, where
Speaker 1: it's like he's kind of moving slow and then he
Speaker 1: sees his area of opportunity and just slams the gap.
Speaker 1: There was one that he had is either at the
Speaker 1: end of the fourth quarter overtime where he had a
Speaker 1: reverse lay up with his right hand where there was
Speaker 1: just a tiny opening and he just hit you just
Speaker 1: hit the opening and like you can tell he's starting
Speaker 1: to feel more comfortable. And again, to circle it back around,
Speaker 1: this is my big problem with starting big, whatever advantages
Speaker 1: you think you get out of it, compensating for the
Speaker 1: last of forwards, lack of forwards, I get it. You know,
Speaker 1: trying to eat innings during the regular season, I get it,
Speaker 1: you know, defensive rebounding or whatever it is that Frank
Speaker 1: has tricked himself into thinking. Or the pluses that come
Speaker 1: with going big, they come with these big downsides, And
Speaker 1: one of those big downsides is comfort. Russ has looked
Speaker 1: visibly uncomfortable in the offense for the most part this season,
Speaker 1: and you have to ask yourself how much of that
Speaker 1: is associated with lineups and how much of it is
Speaker 1: associated with his own limitations, And in my opinion, a
Speaker 1: good percentage of that comes with the circumstances he's been
Speaker 1: put in. And so what I really have liked is
Speaker 1: over the last couple of games in particular, Um you
Speaker 1: could tell tonight was actually a better example because the
Speaker 1: last game was a little bit of a nightmare. But
Speaker 1: the point is that he's starting to get He's starting
Speaker 1: to understand and feel comfortable with where where he fits
Speaker 1: in in this offense, when he's supposed to hit holes,
Speaker 1: when he's supposed to be more passive, when his jump
Speaker 1: shots make sense when they don't. And this is why
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in going small. I would much
Speaker 1: rather have every game have my stars feel comfortable, which
Speaker 1: is going to lean into confidence, which is going to
Speaker 1: lead into everything else that comes from your stars playing well.
Speaker 1: And even if it means that you'll lose the starter minutes,
Speaker 1: Like if you told me that this already lineup was
Speaker 1: going to get beat by four or five points every
Speaker 1: single time instead of winning by two or three, I'd
Speaker 1: take it if it meant that Russ got two layups,
Speaker 1: or Russ got too easy driving kicks, or Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: was posting up against a small forward on the wing
Speaker 1: that he got on a switch and he was able
Speaker 1: to bully him all the way to the basket for
Speaker 1: an easy shot because there was space to operate. If
Speaker 1: even if you lose those minutes, which I don't think
Speaker 1: they would, I think they would win those minutes. I
Speaker 1: think the Lakers are better when they play that way.
Speaker 1: But even if even if I had to grab Frank
Speaker 1: by the shoulders and shake him and say, listen, man,
Speaker 1: this is what's going to happen when you go this
Speaker 1: way like that, that that that's that's that to me,
Speaker 1: is the huge part of this that gets glossed over
Speaker 1: in that lineup decision is the comfort of your ball
Speaker 1: handlers and and so I I'm off my soapbox now.
Speaker 1: But that that's just kind of that's just kind of
Speaker 1: my two cents on the on on the Russ finally
Speaker 1: starting to feel comfortable, Yeah, for sure. And Frank obviously
Speaker 1: liked the two big look. He likes the archetype of it.
Speaker 1: He likes the comfort of having another shot blocker about there.
Speaker 1: And I think we're going to continue to see it
Speaker 1: until probably Lebron gets back, or maybe one of the
Speaker 1: other wings gets back. I just think that's what he's
Speaker 1: gonna stick to. I thought DJ had like a good
Speaker 1: first shift and then you know this, this has been
Speaker 1: happening every game. In that third quarter, he just decides
Speaker 1: to stop, you know, having his stop revving his motor up.
Speaker 1: It just it just completely dies in the third quarter.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's just who he is now. But you're right,
Speaker 1: you know they should. I keep saying, just lean into
Speaker 1: the rest ball. I think without Lebron, you have to
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, top your advantages on each other.
Speaker 1: And I think right now it's our offense week, Monk,
Speaker 1: get him as much shots as you can. Austin reeves,
Speaker 1: I'll be okay with starting him. I thought we missed
Speaker 1: his defense and honestly, as a guy who chases over screens,
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley I thought did a great job on Tyler
Speaker 1: Hero kind of chasing him. Even even if Tyler Hero
Speaker 1: hit a bunch of contested shot. Did you see they
Speaker 1: made nine straight shots to him the third quarte to
Speaker 1: him the second quarter Miami, did I think going into
Speaker 1: halftime and a lot of them were like Tira Hero
Speaker 1: just you know of prayer shots going up over every
Speaker 1: Bradley starting to talk ship and stuff. But again, like
Speaker 1: I think tonight was a great win. Russell Westbrook tonight.
Speaker 1: We always qualm about his numbers, but I mean twelve points,
Speaker 1: twelve rebounds, fourteen assists, Like the numbers are what they are,
Speaker 1: like though, that's incredible production to get, especially when Lebron's
Speaker 1: out and they probably points No. Twenty five points, twenty
Speaker 1: five points, twelve rebounds, fourteen assists, seven threes is still
Speaker 1: a lot. Three for seven from three and again that's
Speaker 1: just him having the ball a ship tons so when
Speaker 1: they fly, when they go into those screens so disrespectfully,
Speaker 1: like kind of understand it is. Sometimes he's like I'm
Speaker 1: so wide open. He had a couple of corner threes,
Speaker 1: I think early, but you know, I can't really complain
Speaker 1: too much. Like the turnovers are going to be what
Speaker 1: they are all season. There's some you can live with.
Speaker 1: Some of them are just like where he threw like
Speaker 1: a speedball pass at a D I think hit him
Speaker 1: in the head. Just some of those decisions are a
Speaker 1: little questionable, but again, like I kind of live with
Speaker 1: some of those if like the Russian is still there.
Speaker 1: And I thought in transition, he really pushed the pace,
Speaker 1: he got the team running, found the league, monk cutting
Speaker 1: want to play. That's just like stuff that he brings
Speaker 1: to a team. And I thought his competitiveness tonight in
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter taking over, hitting big shots like he was,
Speaker 1: he took over and that's that's what they brought him
Speaker 1: here for. And he did his job tonight. He deserves
Speaker 1: credit for them. The turnovers are still so confounding to me,
Speaker 1: and it's it's tricky because you know, like sometimes I
Speaker 1: don't actually think this, but sometimes I wonder just for
Speaker 1: a second, like if he's ever if he's actually making reads,
Speaker 1: or if he's just kind of a spas, and like
Speaker 1: it's a spas that just happens to occasionally make a
Speaker 1: play from the time to time, because that's how like confusing.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he'll throw passes and you'll be like, I, honest
Speaker 1: to god, don't know what you saw there, Like like
Speaker 1: I'll rewind it and I'll watch the plague and I'll
Speaker 1: be like, what was he thinking like when he pulled
Speaker 1: the trigger on that past what was like the what
Speaker 1: was like the little calculation that his basketball brain was
Speaker 1: running like It's it's hard for me to to understand sometimes. Um.
Speaker 1: That said, what's so funny is he responded to, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, his worst game of the season. Uh uh,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say his worst game, his worst quarter of
Speaker 1: the season in that fourth quarter against Charlotte where he
Speaker 1: almost single handedly let them back into the game. You know,
Speaker 1: you would think he would respond to that by saying, like,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be more careful. Um, but he didn't.
Speaker 1: But what he did do is he added so much
Speaker 1: more good. You know, we talked about the good bad
Speaker 1: scale with Russ. He just compensated for because I think
Speaker 1: he ended with like seven turnovers tonight, still like, but
Speaker 1: he compensated for that by just making a lot more
Speaker 1: good plays to cover for it. And the exciting, the
Speaker 1: exciting way to look at it, you know, in terms
Speaker 1: of projecting forward, as you can kind of look at
Speaker 1: this and say like, hey man, all you gotta do
Speaker 1: is eventually figure out a way to cut back on
Speaker 1: some of this bad while keeping some of this good.
Speaker 1: And now we're taking a Lebron in a D team
Speaker 1: and adding this really really really positive player. You know
Speaker 1: that that potential is still there, but it's up to
Speaker 1: him to try to figure figure that part out because
Speaker 1: no one. Russ probably thought about valuing the balls with
Speaker 1: the basketball a hundred times coming into this game, but
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, he just can't do it. And you know,
Speaker 1: maybe that's some of that's Miami defense. Maybe some of
Speaker 1: that is just him being super super high usage as
Speaker 1: a result of the injuries. But he will eventually need
Speaker 1: to figure that out. Yeah, I don't think you're gonna
Speaker 1: ever get like super low turnover Russ. Like the key
Speaker 1: there is when Lebron's back, right, Like that kind of
Speaker 1: fixes a lot that you talked about limiting the bad,
Speaker 1: Like limiting the bad is really just getting him out
Speaker 1: there with Lebron, where Lebron is kind of controlling more
Speaker 1: of the actions, where the game matters when it stops,
Speaker 1: when it's in half court situations, like that's really where
Speaker 1: you see a lot of the turnovers. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of it with Russ, Like even like when you
Speaker 1: go back and just rewatch the games, like he does
Speaker 1: a lot of this where he drives with like no
Speaker 1: real intention of scoring. So he'll like drive getting the
Speaker 1: he'll get in the air to pass and you'll like
Speaker 1: turn the ball over there or you think a player
Speaker 1: will cut, or he'll have a like a player, he'll
Speaker 1: try to get them a law. Like it's a lot
Speaker 1: of this, like trying to find teammates in their spots
Speaker 1: when they're really not there, like and those turnums are
Speaker 1: just not going to go away in my opinion. He
Speaker 1: had eight turnovers actually tonight, so he actually shortened him
Speaker 1: one but again like but again he paid uh uh.
Speaker 1: He played forty three minutes to night and with no
Speaker 1: backup guard. But the only other real shock trading guard
Speaker 1: on the team is Malik Monk who who had three
Speaker 1: tourn overs as well. But you know, when that's the case,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get a whole bunch of turnovers. But he's
Speaker 1: a plus ten tonight, and I thought, like those turnovers
Speaker 1: are are what they are. They're not going away this season.
Speaker 1: That decision making is not going away. He has to
Speaker 1: be himself. We talked about this over the time, like
Speaker 1: Russ has to be Russ. And there's a good and
Speaker 1: a bad side to it. There's like a ying and
Speaker 1: a yang, a given a pull. But you know tonight
Speaker 1: you saw the good and that kind of aggressiveness mixed
Speaker 1: with the stars mixed. When a b and Lebron are
Speaker 1: on their on their game like it's it can be
Speaker 1: a winning formula, especially if their defense holds up. Ye agree. Um,
Speaker 1: we've just over an hour now. Is there anything else
Speaker 1: you wanted to touch on tonight before we call it? Uh? No,
Speaker 1: I think that's it, man. I just I just want
Speaker 1: to have on the point like this is a this
Speaker 1: is a big time win, like this is has not
Speaker 1: expected at all. I honestly thought they would loose tonight, Jason,
Speaker 1: You thought they would lose tonight, like beating this Miami
Speaker 1: team that's im playing so well. Uh, they hadn't lost
Speaker 1: before this. But I think they've just been very impressive
Speaker 1: this season, So I think this is a it's a
Speaker 1: big wain to build off of. Man Like They play
Speaker 1: Minnesota actually next on Friday, so that's another one you
Speaker 1: can kind of get. Minnesota has also been playing well
Speaker 1: this season. That's a winnable game, so you can kind
Speaker 1: of build up it. I would say that this is
Speaker 1: the game that if this team ends up winning the
Speaker 1: title or even just goes on any sort of significant
Speaker 1: run here, this is the game. This is the game
Speaker 1: that people are going to look back at as the
Speaker 1: one as the turning point. Um. I feel like they
Speaker 1: kind of sort of discovered a little bit of an
Speaker 1: identity tonight. We talked about this earlier in the show.
Speaker 1: Just like a team that if they can, if they can,
Speaker 1: if they can bottle up this effort in and replicate it,
Speaker 1: they've kind of become a team that can that can,
Speaker 1: that can really really shoot the ball. So if you
Speaker 1: combine that with really consistent effort, and with everything that
Speaker 1: Lebron and Ned bring on the defensive end of the ball,
Speaker 1: this could all kind of shape together into something that's
Speaker 1: really exciting and and the and this could be the
Speaker 1: turning point, but we are going to call it and
Speaker 1: I we I After the Minnesota game, there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of extra league wide stuff that Roger and I want
Speaker 1: to talk about we want to talk about Alex Caruso
Speaker 1: a little bit in the anecdote of this win. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't want to discuss we'll get there. There was gosh,
Speaker 1: there was another big I wanted to talk about this
Speaker 1: concept of of people because Okay, we went too far
Speaker 1: here with this officiating thing to now it's like, now
Speaker 1: we're pretending like the current players aren't anywhere near as
Speaker 1: skilled as as as they look just because scoring numbers
Speaker 1: are down. I want to talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 1: There's a bunch of there's bunch of different things like
Speaker 1: that we're gonna touch on and we'll kind of try
Speaker 1: to slam that into the postgame show, um after the
Speaker 1: Timberwolves game on what's that Friday. So it sounds like
Speaker 1: a planning. Thank you guys so much for the support.
Speaker 1: We are continue to be completely blown away by how
Speaker 1: many of you guys come to hang out with us.
Speaker 1: And I'm sorry we didn't get to any collars tonight.
Speaker 1: Just had too much exciting stuff to talk about after
Speaker 1: a big win. But we will get to some callers
Speaker 1: on Friday. This will be on DASH Radio tomorrow morning
Speaker 1: at seven am, and it will be on our podcast
Speaker 1: feed here in about thirty minutes. Thank you again as always,
Speaker 1: and we will see you guys on Friday. Thanks everyone,