Speaker 1: Mmmm, Welcome to the State of the Lakers podcast. It
Speaker 1: is Friday. I'm Jason. Do you guys know me? We
Speaker 1: got rog my guys here with us again today. Roger,
Speaker 1: how's it going, man? You ready for the weekend? I'm ready? Man. Welcome,
Speaker 1: Welcome to my time zone. Man. I feel like we're
Speaker 1: around the same time zone now, so we're on the
Speaker 1: level playing fields here. Yeah. So we had this worked
Speaker 1: out where it was a little easier for me to
Speaker 1: get back in time for this because I usually have
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff going on Friday mornings, and then uh,
Speaker 1: I was up against it today because of the time change,
Speaker 1: which made things a little more complicated. But also just
Speaker 1: quick announcement, I am hard working on this WiFi situation.
Speaker 1: I think I have some solutions put together. I'm also
Speaker 1: gonna be trying to edit out some of the gaps
Speaker 1: when we put the podcast together. But just thank you
Speaker 1: guys for bearing with me through through the move and
Speaker 1: getting this set up. Um. But I'm super stoked we
Speaker 1: got a lot of really really good stuff to talk
Speaker 1: about today. Um. Since last weekend. The only thing really
Speaker 1: that Roger and I were resoundingly wrong about was we
Speaker 1: thought the Lakers had a good chance to get Blake Griffin.
Speaker 1: As it turned out, they very much did not. Uh.
Speaker 1: But other than that, we we talked about how we
Speaker 1: expected the Lakers to start playing better. Uh, And so
Speaker 1: really quickly here at the start, we're just going to
Speaker 1: talk about how the Lakers have been playing as of late.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to give you guys some numbers to
Speaker 1: let you know just how good things have been relative
Speaker 1: to the way things were before. So in their last
Speaker 1: eight games, they're six and two. One of those games
Speaker 1: Lebron sat out, so they're basically six and one in
Speaker 1: their last seven games that they've played with most of
Speaker 1: their core players. This is since Dennis Shrewder came back
Speaker 1: in that eight game stretch their eighth, and offense in
Speaker 1: their fourth, and defense in their third, and net rating
Speaker 1: their twelve and three point percentage, which again the Lakers
Speaker 1: have never been a great three point shooting team, but
Speaker 1: before that they were the worst three point shooting team
Speaker 1: in the league by a wide margin. So that's a
Speaker 1: market improvement from there. And then their third in the
Speaker 1: league in field goal percentage over that span, and this
Speaker 1: is against some quality opponents. Five of those six wins
Speaker 1: came against teams that are currently in the playoff pictures.
Speaker 1: So we we basically talked about how at length about
Speaker 1: how Dennis shrewder and his ability to offload some of
Speaker 1: the ball handling responsibilities from Lebron would lead to a
Speaker 1: cascading effect that would lead to increased shot quality for
Speaker 1: the perimeter players to help them get their shots going.
Speaker 1: It would make it so they couldn't load up on
Speaker 1: Lebron as much, which would help him get going again.
Speaker 1: And what do you know, we were right Dennis shooters
Speaker 1: returned just kind of put everybody back in their proper
Speaker 1: role and got the Lakers back on track. So what
Speaker 1: have you noticed that you've liked about them in the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks. Yeah, it looks like they've got
Speaker 1: the energy back. Um. K CP looks he has his
Speaker 1: legs back, and the whole team is just running at
Speaker 1: a better pace. UM. And like you said, with the
Speaker 1: three point shooting there were, they were at twelfth in
Speaker 1: the league. They really just need a baseline amount. Right,
Speaker 1: Like last night, there was a stretch, UM, I think
Speaker 1: when the Hornets were coming back and then Who's might
Speaker 1: hit like three straight? KCP hit one in the game,
Speaker 1: went back to ten and that that's really all they need.
Speaker 1: But like, I think the Lakers are now like eleven
Speaker 1: and two when Shrewder and Lebron play like just those
Speaker 1: just those two, which is kind of insane, which just
Speaker 1: shows how much they need another shot creator. And I
Speaker 1: feel like that's really been the big help. Even when
Speaker 1: Shrewder struggles, he gets into the paint, he kicks out.
Speaker 1: He's getting a lot better at driving and kicking. And yeah,
Speaker 1: that's mostly what I've seen in the defense has been consistent.
Speaker 1: We we've talked about this for the last few weeks. Um,
Speaker 1: they're they're really aggressive, the guards hedge up and then um,
Speaker 1: Damien Jones, Man, I know we talked about Blake Griffin
Speaker 1: coming in. The Lakers really just plugged in a ten
Speaker 1: day dude as a starting center, and they have not
Speaker 1: missed a beat. The defense is still still working fine. Um,
Speaker 1: every thing is going into rhythm and he's blocking shots.
Speaker 1: Last night he was deterring people from getting to the rim. Um,
Speaker 1: and he's in their scheme perfectly. So yeah, it's cool
Speaker 1: to see. It looks like eight is gonna be out
Speaker 1: for a while, so this team looks like they're starting
Speaker 1: to get comfortable playing without him, which is important considering
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna play a couple of better teams
Speaker 1: going forward here. Well you you you said it right there,
Speaker 1: like the without a d all those numbers all of
Speaker 1: a sudden look that much more impressive. Like for you
Speaker 1: to be the eighth best offense in this stretch, the
Speaker 1: sixth or the fourth best defense in this stretch, the
Speaker 1: third best net rating team, you know, six and one
Speaker 1: against like a bunch of high quality playoff opponents. That
Speaker 1: within the context of not having Anthony Davis is super
Speaker 1: super good news. And I thought you you brought up
Speaker 1: you made a really interesting point about the shooting, Like
Speaker 1: you know, I think last night the Lakers were only
Speaker 1: thirty from three, so it wasn't even a great shooting game,
Speaker 1: even though they had been pretty good as of late.
Speaker 1: But the important part there is, like when you defend
Speaker 1: as well as they do, and when you put as
Speaker 1: much pressure on the rim as they do, Like I said,
Speaker 1: third and field goal percentage in this stretch, you don't
Speaker 1: need to make all your threes. You don't need to
Speaker 1: shoot like the the Utah Jazz. You just need to
Speaker 1: make enough of them. And that's that cascading effect I
Speaker 1: kept talking about. I talked a lot about how Dennis
Speaker 1: Shrewder being out made the hurt the space thing in
Speaker 1: the sense that they were able to load up a
Speaker 1: little bit more on Lebron as he would fatigue through
Speaker 1: the game, and it led to limited shot quality, which
Speaker 1: led to the Lakers starting to get cold. But and then,
Speaker 1: and and it even went to Lebron who's Lebron was
Speaker 1: like over for the season and has been over in
Speaker 1: his last you know, six seven games or whatever. But
Speaker 1: in that stretch without Shrewder, his shot fell apart, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, in large part because of the fact that
Speaker 1: his offensive responsibilities one up in defenses were loading up
Speaker 1: on him and it started to cause him to lose
Speaker 1: some of his you know, level of comfort out from
Speaker 1: the perimeter. So you said, you made a great point,
Speaker 1: Like it's just they don't even need to be an
Speaker 1: elite shooting team. They just need to knock down, you know,
Speaker 1: thirty five percent ish of their threes to be the
Speaker 1: dominant force that they that they can be. Uh, but
Speaker 1: everybody seems to be playing better. It's like an overall
Speaker 1: like confidence and flow thing. And and you you, you
Speaker 1: said it to like their defense has been consistent. That's
Speaker 1: the most impressive part is this isn't like a you know,
Speaker 1: oh for the season, their first overall, but in the
Speaker 1: last couple of months they've been falling apart. It's like
Speaker 1: every single calendar month they're great on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: It is the bread and butter of their team. It's
Speaker 1: their identity and it's what makes them such a dependable
Speaker 1: team in the playoffs. Right, and we talked about how
Speaker 1: like their scheme kind of switched from last year. Right,
Speaker 1: there were a lot more of like a UM protect
Speaker 1: the ram kind of funnel. But I mean last night,
Speaker 1: Charlotte is a team that makes like thirteen threes at night,
Speaker 1: and they were just running them off the line. I
Speaker 1: think in the first half Charlotte took like six threes,
Speaker 1: which just shows like how aggressive they are um getting
Speaker 1: out running people off the line, forcing them into the paint.
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers also give up a lot of
Speaker 1: paint points, but again, like that's all more volume, I
Speaker 1: feel like because they are really running dudes off the
Speaker 1: line last night. Charlotte has a bunch of players like
Speaker 1: Rogier Um, guys like that who want to get up
Speaker 1: a huge volume of attempts and they really kind of
Speaker 1: ran them off nicely. So that was that was nice
Speaker 1: to see. And like again, man, I keep going back
Speaker 1: to that Damian Jones, Like they really just fit a
Speaker 1: guy that was, you know, out of the was gonna
Speaker 1: be out of the league pretty much, and just flit
Speaker 1: him into the starting line. Marcus sol has been out
Speaker 1: a few games, like, and it's just like they just
Speaker 1: keep pushing on so um, their scheme kind of is
Speaker 1: working through any personnel. Lebron has really picked it up defensively.
Speaker 1: He had a huge night last night, UM helping and
Speaker 1: all that. So yeah, man, it's awesome to see and
Speaker 1: we'll see if they can pick it up. Four wins
Speaker 1: in a row, and I think they play Atlanta tomorrow
Speaker 1: in the afternoon game. They've got a winnable back to
Speaker 1: back this weekend. They play Atlanta and then Phoenix is
Speaker 1: a really good team. But and it's on the road
Speaker 1: and it's back to back, but I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: are gonna be coming for blood in that one. I
Speaker 1: think I think that's the that's the one loss of
Speaker 1: uh since Dennis Shooter came back and Lebron has been
Speaker 1: playing so I think that's when they go after. But
Speaker 1: the Damien Jones thing is interesting, and I was thinking
Speaker 1: about this a lot with that, uh that guy who's
Speaker 1: the big Claxton, the big for Brooklyn that's been playing
Speaker 1: really well, and everyone goes like, oh, well, this this
Speaker 1: Clackston guys awesome. This Clackston guy's awesome. And don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, both Damian Jones, Clackson, these guys have been
Speaker 1: playing great. I don't want to undercut the way they're playing,
Speaker 1: but they're such a classic example of how when you
Speaker 1: have like an elite system and you have an extremely
Speaker 1: simplified role that you have filled, that someone can step
Speaker 1: in and do it. Like Damian Jones was extremely active
Speaker 1: around the rim on both ends in the last few games,
Speaker 1: getting tip dunks, blocking shots at the rim, things along
Speaker 1: those lines, finishing lobs and things like just just really
Speaker 1: simple stuff that made the game easy for him. And
Speaker 1: you know, it's no different than gosh, what's his name,
Speaker 1: who's the who's the the tall linky guard that's like
Speaker 1: the fifteenth man for the Lakers has been playing McKinney.
Speaker 1: Alfonso McKinney is yeah, like the same same thing when
Speaker 1: he was with the Warriors, like he just he uh
Speaker 1: in an extremely simplified role as like that fifth starter
Speaker 1: everyone was freaking out. Remember Stephen A. Smith had his
Speaker 1: big thing, or that Fonso McKinney is the next great Warrior.
Speaker 1: It's like that's what happens when you're playing around really
Speaker 1: good players and that and and I think that, uh,
Speaker 1: that's the beauty of being in a cap strapped position
Speaker 1: is you know, when you have everything else covered, all
Speaker 1: the bases covered, and you have a guy that's got
Speaker 1: a discernible talent, you know, like this guy is super
Speaker 1: tall and can jump out of the gym and his
Speaker 1: long arms and his mobile, Like that's an easy discernible
Speaker 1: role that you can slot into that defense and an offense.
Speaker 1: And so I agree with you. I mean I do
Speaker 1: think I disagreed with some of the Lakers Twitter last night.
Speaker 1: I know, King's the you know, the the guy's the
Speaker 1: regular guest on Jason Maples Poe cast, Like he was
Speaker 1: talking about how why would you want? Why would you want?
Speaker 1: You know, Andre Drummond with how well Keith is playing,
Speaker 1: with how wal Damian Jones is playing, And my thing
Speaker 1: is like Andre Drummond in the Super simplified role that
Speaker 1: Damon Lee is playing would be our Damon Jones is
Speaker 1: playing would be dominant. Okay, like the same thing that
Speaker 1: you saw from Dwight Howard, but almost to another level
Speaker 1: in my opinion, because it's the simplified role. It's the
Speaker 1: it's the very little that you're asking him to do.
Speaker 1: If that makes sense, Yeah, for sure. And that's where
Speaker 1: I'm at with it. Two's funny when people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: did you watch him with the calves, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the calves. I mean, this is he's gonna play
Speaker 1: next to Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Like it's a
Speaker 1: totally different role, um than than he'd be on with
Speaker 1: that team. And you know, a guy that can get
Speaker 1: twenty rebounds at once, I mean, why now you get
Speaker 1: him for free? You pick him up off the buyout market. Um,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't trade for him, obviously, but a guy like
Speaker 1: that is just those guys don't just grow on trees,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, you can't just find that. Um.
Speaker 1: I feel like he would be excited, he would be
Speaker 1: he would be more than motivated here, he'd be playing
Speaker 1: for another contract. I mean, I just don't like Damian
Speaker 1: Jones is a really nice player, but the talent, like
Speaker 1: the just a talent gap between him and Andre Drummond
Speaker 1: is pretty large. Those are two totally different. I think
Speaker 1: Andrew Drummond has made an All Star team if I don't,
Speaker 1: if I recall correctly, he might have came close time.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, he's been around that weekend a lot.
Speaker 1: I know he's I think he was in the Dunk
Speaker 1: Contest or something like that. But the talent gap between
Speaker 1: those two is pretty large. Now. I love what Jones
Speaker 1: has been doing. He's a guy that's played well. I
Speaker 1: think he's earned a second well. I don't think he
Speaker 1: can get another ten day, but he's there in a
Speaker 1: contract somewhere. I don't know if he'll be with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: but yeah, the gap between him and Andre Drumm and
Speaker 1: a guy that rolls as hard as he does, who
Speaker 1: can you know he can catch lobs, he can protect
Speaker 1: the rim at some point in some way when he's motivated.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I just think it's a total talent gap
Speaker 1: that we're seeing, and I feel like we're gonna We
Speaker 1: talked about this with Blake Griffin. I feel like his
Speaker 1: role with the Nets is gonna be so super charged
Speaker 1: and specific that people are gonna be like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: where was this guy? Well, he's playing next to Katie
Speaker 1: Harden and you know Kyrie, so it it's gonna be
Speaker 1: totally different. And we'll we'll see if they'll pick up Drummond.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna get bought out here soon coming
Speaker 1: coming up. Yeah. So uh, Well, with the Blake Griffin example,
Speaker 1: the trick is, uh, the role is small offensively, and
Speaker 1: I do expect him to succeed in that role, but
Speaker 1: is is what they need from that position defensively doesn't
Speaker 1: really make sense in my opinion. But as far as
Speaker 1: Andre Drummond goes, like the Damian Jones represents insurance against that.
Speaker 1: Like Damiens, Jones has demonstrated that in limited minutes in
Speaker 1: his very tiny role, he can be productive enough for
Speaker 1: the Lakers to win with him on the floor. So like,
Speaker 1: if you get Andre Drummond, you let Damien Jones go
Speaker 1: and you have this supercharged version of that for the
Speaker 1: rest of the season. If he doesn't, then you keep
Speaker 1: Damian Jones. That's the beauty of of of Damien Jones,
Speaker 1: as he's insurance against that. But but yeah, Like it's like,
Speaker 1: as far what was the other thing you brought up
Speaker 1: trying to think Uh oh Drummond. Yeah, so uh. I
Speaker 1: listened to the Woad pod yesterday or might have been
Speaker 1: the day before. Uh. He basically said that that the
Speaker 1: Cleveland really wants a second round pick, but the craziness
Speaker 1: because that's what they paid for Andre Drummond and they
Speaker 1: just want to get their right back basically. But the
Speaker 1: trick is is like trying to match his salary at
Speaker 1: that number, it's extremely difficult, and so they do very
Speaker 1: much expect him to get bought out. Uh. Now. He
Speaker 1: also said in that podcast that he expects Drummond to
Speaker 1: start if he played for the Lakers, but that he
Speaker 1: would not start if he played for the Uh if
Speaker 1: he played for the Nets, And I don't really necessarily
Speaker 1: see what would be standing in the way of him
Speaker 1: starting with the Nets either, and arguably there would be
Speaker 1: more minutes available there because when when Drummond gets back,
Speaker 1: or if Drumming came to l A and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: comes back, there's just not a lot of availability for
Speaker 1: him there in those lineups with Anthony Davis back. But again,
Speaker 1: like I said, if if, if if Rob gets on
Speaker 1: the phone and he's like, yeah, I'm coming to l A, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be that supercharged version of Damien Jones. Because
Speaker 1: all of the things you worried about with him were
Speaker 1: the same things you worried about with Dwight. All the
Speaker 1: Dwight pessimists were like, I worry about his attitude. He's
Speaker 1: famously unliked in the locker room. He makes too many
Speaker 1: fart jokes, he does all this like literally Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: at oh hell, He's constantly calling for post ups. He
Speaker 1: never likes to screen and roll, he never likes to
Speaker 1: do all these things. And then literally none of those
Speaker 1: things were a problem because of the the cashe that
Speaker 1: Lebron had in that locker room and his ability to
Speaker 1: basically stare fireballs into Dwight and be like don't you
Speaker 1: don't you know, like like don't mess with me, man.
Speaker 1: And so he's gonna do the same thing with Drummond,
Speaker 1: and and he's gonna come back and and and he's
Speaker 1: gonna be some you know, minimized version of minimized roll
Speaker 1: version of what he did. And he's got freakish tools,
Speaker 1: like he's arguably the best bet to get a twenty
Speaker 1: on any given night, you know what I mean, right,
Speaker 1: and you can't just find those guys, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean if people people forget what the amount of
Speaker 1: questions that were. And Dwight wasn't even on a guaranteed
Speaker 1: deal until December. I mean, I know they guaranteed a
Speaker 1: little earlier, but we just we just forget those kind
Speaker 1: of things. So yeah, when you put him into this
Speaker 1: kind of environment, this locker room, and then if Vocal
Speaker 1: can get Damien Jones in a defensive stand like last night,
Speaker 1: there was a play um where like I think Gordon
Speaker 1: Hayward was running a pick and roll and like Jones
Speaker 1: was icing it and I think KCP or something made
Speaker 1: the wrong play and so he had a switch, so
Speaker 1: he switched on Gordon Hayward and he's like in a
Speaker 1: full defensive stance, moving to speek. He cut him off,
Speaker 1: and then I think Gordon Hayward kicked it to somebody
Speaker 1: who dunked. I think Lebron missed his rotation there something.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, he's got this guy, you know,
Speaker 1: in a defensive stance moving and I think he was
Speaker 1: one of the warriors. I think it was Tommy. I
Speaker 1: think he's he quoted me. He's like Damien Jones could
Speaker 1: even play three minutes under seved curve because of you know,
Speaker 1: he was just following out every second, So I thought
Speaker 1: that was kind of funny. But but but yeah, um
Speaker 1: he has him playing, you know, great defense. I just
Speaker 1: can't imagine what he does with someone with the defensive
Speaker 1: talent as uh In Andre Drummond could have. But again,
Speaker 1: this is all potential. This is all on drum and
Speaker 1: if he's gonna buying and things like that. But I
Speaker 1: just think this culture is something to bed on with
Speaker 1: the player of that kind of that kind of talent.
Speaker 1: You just you just don't um deny those kind of
Speaker 1: things when you have this kind of team for sure.
Speaker 1: And and we just have seen so many examples of
Speaker 1: dude with on bad team getting around really high i
Speaker 1: Q players with a real good chance to win and
Speaker 1: it reinvigorating them. Like I have absolutely no doubt that
Speaker 1: p J. Tucker is gonna play really well for for Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: A couple other notes that we noticed, uh from the
Speaker 1: last eight games. I have been extremely hard on talent
Speaker 1: Horton Tucker as of late. UH in the last couple
Speaker 1: of podcasts that we've done, it is worth mentioning that
Speaker 1: he has more or less regained somewhat of his offensive
Speaker 1: rhythm that he had earlier in the season, and that
Speaker 1: he's been much better on the defensive end. It that's
Speaker 1: typical for young players to ebb and flow in their
Speaker 1: focus and to ebb and flowing their confidence. But it's
Speaker 1: I want to pay him the compliment of saying that, uh,
Speaker 1: he has seemingly bounced back and has actually had some crazy,
Speaker 1: really really productive shifts in his last few games where
Speaker 1: he's looked really good. What have you noticed from t HD. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I feel like rookies go through this thing where
Speaker 1: like the league figures them out right and then usually
Speaker 1: after that they usually don't refigure out the league until
Speaker 1: the next season. And I think it's really cool that
Speaker 1: like he's figured out Okay, when I drive, everybody is collapsing,
Speaker 1: like the paint is just collapsed, and he's he's doing
Speaker 1: a nice job kicking out before he turns it over.
Speaker 1: He still jumps the pass a lot, which gets him
Speaker 1: in trouble, but like he's he's going in and he
Speaker 1: knows exactly where everyone else based on the floor vocal
Speaker 1: has kind of made it easy because they've really got
Speaker 1: to high screen and roll with him. Or usually they'll
Speaker 1: have him run off a couple of drag screens on
Speaker 1: the side and he'll come up and run a screen
Speaker 1: roll with treads or something. He knows exactly what the
Speaker 1: shooters are, so he'll get in the air and then
Speaker 1: kicked to Kuzman in the corner. Or he'll find Harold
Speaker 1: at the at the dunker spot. I think that's really
Speaker 1: where he's grown. He's still I mean, I've never seen
Speaker 1: a player who goes for a reverse on the right
Speaker 1: side with the wrong hand as much as he does,
Speaker 1: like he's looking for that, which is funny. But he's
Speaker 1: he's played so much better. And what I really like
Speaker 1: is they played him a lot next to Shrewder, so
Speaker 1: like Vogel has really adjusted in there. Um, and they
Speaker 1: have two guys who just put a lot of pressure
Speaker 1: on the rim consistently. I think that's helped him. He drives,
Speaker 1: takes it back to Shrewder and the shooter can re
Speaker 1: drive and then re kick, which um, I think has
Speaker 1: really helped him a lot. And Yeah, he just looks
Speaker 1: so much better. I think he's turned over. His turnovers
Speaker 1: are down. Um, he's not taking those weird fade aways
Speaker 1: like in the paint as much as he used to.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, he's he's been great. I think you
Speaker 1: talked about it. He's gonna stay on the floor for
Speaker 1: his defense, like if if he can defend, he's gonna play.
Speaker 1: And he's been a lot better. He's not falling asleep
Speaker 1: as much. He still gets lost sometimes on switches. I
Speaker 1: think last night and there was a play where I
Speaker 1: think Graham, Graham and Rogier run a screen role and
Speaker 1: they should have just switched, or LaMelo and Grandma ran
Speaker 1: a screen and role and they should have just switched it.
Speaker 1: And instead he tried to like hedge and recover and
Speaker 1: Graham got to open three or something. So but he's
Speaker 1: doing a lot better. Um, And yeah, he's twenty man,
Speaker 1: which is which I have to keep telling myself when
Speaker 1: I watched him, like he's twenty years old. He's a
Speaker 1: year older than LaMelo, who got drafted like five months ago,
Speaker 1: which is which is kind of crazy. Yeah, So the
Speaker 1: reverse layer thing is funny because I was thinking about
Speaker 1: this a lot last night that it goes cross wise
Speaker 1: to everything that you're taught growing up as a basketball player,
Speaker 1: because so the trick is is like when you do that,
Speaker 1: that's saying that that wrong hand reverse layer, you're showing
Speaker 1: the defender of the ball. So that's one of the
Speaker 1: big reasons why you're trained not to do that because
Speaker 1: it's it's an easier shot to block because it's like
Speaker 1: defender side and you're you're making it extremely visible to
Speaker 1: him as you're going up. But what th h T
Speaker 1: does that counters that is he instead of like kind
Speaker 1: of doing it straight in front of him, he kind
Speaker 1: of turns his body and like positions his back between
Speaker 1: the defender and the basket and literally, uh puts the
Speaker 1: defender between his back in the basket and he'll literally
Speaker 1: kind of go behind his head. And he's a tough shot,
Speaker 1: right yeah, which is a tough shot. But I thought
Speaker 1: about that a lot too. And it's because he has
Speaker 1: such huge hands, like he's got like he's not as
Speaker 1: tall as Kawai, but he's got some Kauai esque physical traits.
Speaker 1: And one of the big ones is just how big
Speaker 1: his hands are. But he just he gets you on
Speaker 1: his hip, he turns his body away from you and
Speaker 1: just just the scoop almost it's almost like a backwards shot,
Speaker 1: which is which is crazy, but but it works. But
Speaker 1: you you're right. The defense is going to be what
Speaker 1: keeps him on the floor. And you know, my guess
Speaker 1: is that his role in this playoff run will actually
Speaker 1: look a lot like what it was last year, which
Speaker 1: is he's going to get these spot minutes. Uh and
Speaker 1: when he's playing well, they're gonna ride him. And if
Speaker 1: he makes one or two defensive mistakes at the start
Speaker 1: of a game, I think I think Frank's gonna go
Speaker 1: away from him, because Frank has just demonstrated at length
Speaker 1: that that's the number one thing that that he cares about.
Speaker 1: But the last thing I'll say about t HD before
Speaker 1: we move on is like, you know, this is something
Speaker 1: I'm gonna harp on a lot throughout the season, and
Speaker 1: it's something that I mentioned with Contavious call blow Pope
Speaker 1: last night. You know the Lakers. You know, as far
Speaker 1: as offensively goes, the reason why th h d s
Speaker 1: offense is never going to factor into his minutes is
Speaker 1: because outside of Dennis Shrewder, none of the guards really
Speaker 1: bring that much offensively. Like KCP is hot and cold
Speaker 1: sometimes as a shooter, he's probably your best offensive guard
Speaker 1: outside of Dennis Shooter. But it's like Carusoe super inconsistent offensively.
Speaker 1: Wesley Matthews has been awful this season offensively, Like, you're
Speaker 1: not getting a ton from those guys. So you can
Speaker 1: live with the offensive mistakes with th HD because a
Speaker 1: bad night from him is gonna look more or less
Speaker 1: like most nights from Alex Crusoe offensively that you you
Speaker 1: just have to get him to commit on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: But what I think is really interesting about th HD
Speaker 1: on the offensive end is when Dennis Shrewder and Lebron
Speaker 1: are playing, and especially when Anthony Davis gets back, they
Speaker 1: are putting so much pressure on the defense where almost
Speaker 1: everything that these guys do offensively is about attacking close outs.
Speaker 1: Something I'm gonna harp on all the time. It's something
Speaker 1: I've talked a lot about with KCP is you're you're
Speaker 1: not asking them to isolate and run, pick and roll
Speaker 1: and do all this crazy stuff that often for the
Speaker 1: most part, it's you get you get the ball swung
Speaker 1: to you a defenders out of position and you have
Speaker 1: to make a quick compact move to get past him
Speaker 1: and need to either draw a second defender or do
Speaker 1: something that that either creates a three for one of
Speaker 1: your teammates or gets all the way to the rim
Speaker 1: and finishes. And I thought as of late that th
Speaker 1: h t s a lot of his offense has actually
Speaker 1: come from attacking closeouts. And he's so strong and he's
Speaker 1: so good at finishing around the rim that when they
Speaker 1: can get him with the head esteem past the defender
Speaker 1: his disadvantage, he's deadly in those situations. It's I I
Speaker 1: think that there is a clearly discernible role for him,
Speaker 1: especially in the playoff rotation. He just needs to defend
Speaker 1: well enough to stay there. Yeah, And it's crazy. He's
Speaker 1: already at the point where like if he goes right,
Speaker 1: I know he's going to score or get found or
Speaker 1: something that because you let go right, that's a strong hand.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have to reverse it. He can flip it
Speaker 1: up to the rim normally. Um, and you talked about
Speaker 1: when he plays with Lebron, but remember earlier in the
Speaker 1: year we were even when a d was here, we
Speaker 1: were kind of talking about the non Lebron minutes, like
Speaker 1: where the offense is going to come from, and there
Speaker 1: was a struggle and again I go back to those
Speaker 1: Shrewder and THHD line I was spanned because we talked
Speaker 1: about we're gonna talk about the rest of the league later,
Speaker 1: but like you look at like the Clippers, We talked
Speaker 1: about them all the time, how they don't put enough
Speaker 1: pressure at the rim. But when when you have two
Speaker 1: guards who just attacked the rim relentlessly because Shrewder he
Speaker 1: wants to get to his mid range pull up, but
Speaker 1: he likes to get to the rim. He likes to
Speaker 1: put on his burners get to the basket, and THD
Speaker 1: does the same thing. And again that's why I feel
Speaker 1: like they played so well. I think you I think
Speaker 1: you tweeted out earlier that they had like their first
Speaker 1: UM plus game where when Lebron didn't play or something
Speaker 1: like that, to the first like positive minutes without Lebron
Speaker 1: of the month. Yeah, and that was I think in
Speaker 1: a row, right, And I think that's when the THHD
Speaker 1: and Shrewder lineup started because and they're scrolling really well
Speaker 1: with that, They're getting open looks and they're getting hair.
Speaker 1: Harold I think is part of that as well, finding him.
Speaker 1: So they really got a nice niche role for th
Speaker 1: HD where they're like, hey, just attack the rim. Do
Speaker 1: what you do. Um, they're not making him be a
Speaker 1: spot up shooter anymore. They tried that, they try to
Speaker 1: fit him into that role. I don't think that's what
Speaker 1: he is right now. He's just not efficient enough at
Speaker 1: shooting to be a good spot up shooter. They have
Speaker 1: him attacking the basket relentlessly and he's getting in the paint.
Speaker 1: He's causing havoc and it's great. I feel like the
Speaker 1: league's gonna adjust again to what he's doing. But right
Speaker 1: now he's doing a good job just finding people and
Speaker 1: scoring at the rim when he can. And like last night,
Speaker 1: like Cody Zeller was on him and he like euro stepped.
Speaker 1: He did like a like a double fake fake past
Speaker 1: euro step. I'm like, man, this is this is this
Speaker 1: is crazy. And yeah, he doesn't even see the big anymore.
Speaker 1: If you have if you don't have rim protection, it's over.
Speaker 1: He's going to score at the rim, which is just
Speaker 1: crazy for a guy who's that young and that raw.
Speaker 1: Still he's pretty good against rim protection to Uh. To
Speaker 1: be clear, I've said this a bunch this year and
Speaker 1: I just want to re you know, reiterate it here. Uh,
Speaker 1: when I ring up at length the non Lebron minutes
Speaker 1: and how much the Lakers have struggled, which they have.
Speaker 1: They flat out half. They have been a bad team
Speaker 1: this year when Lebron is off the floor. And it's
Speaker 1: a problem. I'm not talking about like this is a
Speaker 1: crap team in Lebron's carrying him. That's not what I'm
Speaker 1: saying to me. It's pointing out the problem with the
Speaker 1: fact that with as much talent this roster has, they
Speaker 1: have to figure out a way to get it done.
Speaker 1: And you know, it was one thing when when Dennis
Speaker 1: Shrewder was out and like literally none nobody on the
Speaker 1: team could dribble outside of Lebron and and they were
Speaker 1: falling apartment he was off the floor. That was one thing.
Speaker 1: But this has been a problem even when Dennis Shrewder
Speaker 1: has been playing, even when Anthony Davis was playing. I
Speaker 1: pulled up the numbers again. I had looked at up
Speaker 1: a while back, but I wanted to make sure this
Speaker 1: year and two in one minutes where Dennis Shrewder and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis were on the floor but Lebron was off
Speaker 1: the floor, their minus two point five per points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions. It's been a problem. And so you know,
Speaker 1: some of it's Frank, some of it's a d not
Speaker 1: embracing his job on this team. Uh, and and some
Speaker 1: of it is some of the fit stuff with Dennis
Speaker 1: Shooter as they've kind of learned how to play together.
Speaker 1: But there is enough talent on this team that they
Speaker 1: have to figure out how to win the non Lebron minutes.
Speaker 1: There's no excuse. They have enough talent. And so, again,
Speaker 1: just to reiterate, I'm not saying, oh, this is a
Speaker 1: crap team in Lebron's carrying him. I'm just pointing out
Speaker 1: the problem with the fact that they're not doing that.
Speaker 1: The everyone involved needs to do a better job so
Speaker 1: that this stops happening. And and for the record, this
Speaker 1: Dennis Shooter and th HD lineup but you're talking about,
Speaker 1: appears to have solved some of that. And for two
Speaker 1: games now in a row, the Lakers have been positive
Speaker 1: in the non Lebron minutes. And that's the positive in
Speaker 1: the non Lebron minutes is the difference between this being
Speaker 1: one of the most dominant teams ever and being as
Speaker 1: good as they have been. They had problems with that
Speaker 1: last year. Did I drop out? Can you guys hear
Speaker 1: me now you did, Yeah, and we got theory atrial
Speaker 1: Because I heard this on the low post. I just
Speaker 1: thought it was interesting not I don't know if I
Speaker 1: agree or really go with this, but it said, like
Speaker 1: when you have an offense that revolves around Lebron, right,
Speaker 1: because it's very heliocentric, right, it's all around him pretty
Speaker 1: much when he's on the floor when he goes off.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of tough to kind of, um,
Speaker 1: I guess changed that, right because he's playing about thirty
Speaker 1: five thirty six minutes a game, which means, you know,
Speaker 1: there's only two small shifts where you're really playing without him,
Speaker 1: so those minutes are kind of experimental anyway, kind of
Speaker 1: when you're when you're in there. So I don't know
Speaker 1: if I really adhere to that. I understand it like
Speaker 1: from a from like a just a team standpoint, because
Speaker 1: everything does run through Lebron, But like, do you think
Speaker 1: that's a struggle when you have a like just even
Speaker 1: like you don't even have to go with Lebron. Look
Speaker 1: at when Luca sits out for the maps, right, they
Speaker 1: completely fall apart. They go and run poisenis post up
Speaker 1: and stuff. Which just doesn't make any sense to me,
Speaker 1: But like you just you just look at that when
Speaker 1: Luca goes out or even guys like Lebron James Harden
Speaker 1: they go off the floor. It's just I feel like
Speaker 1: those minutes, if you can be neutral, I think you're okay.
Speaker 1: And again that's the difference, like you said, being like
Speaker 1: a super dominant team and being like a you know,
Speaker 1: a good regular season team. Do you kind of go
Speaker 1: with that theory that like it's tough to kind of
Speaker 1: build a offense that's good without Lebron because it's so helious,
Speaker 1: It's it's so revolves around him when he's on the
Speaker 1: floor anyway, So I think it's kind of tough to
Speaker 1: have a have lineup set I guess are so positive
Speaker 1: when he's off the floor. So there's this weird thing
Speaker 1: that that Dredges of of the basketball world are obsessed with,
Speaker 1: where it's like, any any talking point that works in
Speaker 1: Lebron's favor for whatever it is, or in Lebron's defense,
Speaker 1: people will go to just unbelievable lengths and absurd premises
Speaker 1: to try to undercut them. And this heliocentric basketball one
Speaker 1: is a perfect example of that. Like the there there's
Speaker 1: a difference between the Dennis Shrewder problem like when he
Speaker 1: went out, where it's like, Okay, they're losing the non
Speaker 1: Lebron minutes because they don't have the talent because of
Speaker 1: lack of ball handling outside of Lebron. That's different. And
Speaker 1: you had some of that with the like the two
Speaker 1: thousand eighteen Calves for instance, where it's like like they
Speaker 1: literally they there's no way for them to win the
Speaker 1: non Lebron minutes because of the way the roster is constructed,
Speaker 1: which really wasn't even their faulty. It came down to
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving demanding a trade when they were caps strapped,
Speaker 1: Like that's what really happened there. But the you know, uh,
Speaker 1: the when when the team's had Kyrie, you know when
Speaker 1: when the Cavs had Kyrie. This Laker team is another
Speaker 1: great example with Anthony Davis and Dennis Shudder. This is
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta be pros and and hats off
Speaker 1: to to the Mavericks for figuring out like okay, literally,
Speaker 1: Luke don Che is the most heliocentric basketball player, that
Speaker 1: one one of them, the one of the most that
Speaker 1: we've ever seen. And you know what, they figured it
Speaker 1: out because there pros your job as the coach, your
Speaker 1: job as the backup point guard, your job is the
Speaker 1: secondary ball handler. Your job is to figure it out,
Speaker 1: you know what, Like you have to figure it out,
Speaker 1: you know, because he's doing his job, the heliocentric guys
Speaker 1: doing his job when he's on the floor. You as
Speaker 1: a professional have to figure it out, especially when you
Speaker 1: have that kind of talent. And so yeah, I've never
Speaker 1: prescribed to that line of thinking. And I do think
Speaker 1: there's a huge difference between like the roster build part
Speaker 1: of it, you know, like the you know, if they've
Speaker 1: designed like some some like like James Harden is a
Speaker 1: great example, like they kind of designed the heliocentric style
Speaker 1: and built the roster around him. So I don't think
Speaker 1: it's fair for them to be like, oh, they lost
Speaker 1: seventeen straight games without James Harden. It's like they lost
Speaker 1: seventeen straight games because that roster was designed entirely to
Speaker 1: have James Harten knowld the ball all the time. So
Speaker 1: that to me is different. But but yeah, like I
Speaker 1: I I've never prescribed to that line of thing and thinking. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think that was part of the conversation to like,
Speaker 1: if you have Lebron James on your team, like, how
Speaker 1: much are you going to really use in terms like
Speaker 1: in a cap field, in a salary cap league, how
Speaker 1: much you're gonna give for a you know, a high
Speaker 1: star point guard that's gonna also have the ball, you know,
Speaker 1: the time. And I think we saw that with Houston
Speaker 1: as well, right when they got Chris Paul, and I
Speaker 1: think it worked out really well. It's just they didn't
Speaker 1: Harden really wasn't um accepting of the of the kind
Speaker 1: of situation where he was getting told where to go
Speaker 1: by Chris Paul. And again, that's kind of like when
Speaker 1: you have someone who's so you know, into a heliocentric
Speaker 1: offense when he tries to share it with another person,
Speaker 1: even when they win, because the Rockets won, they still
Speaker 1: had huge issues just because he was trying to adjust.
Speaker 1: So I think that was the main question there was,
Speaker 1: like can you build in And I think you can.
Speaker 1: And again like I think Shrewder and a d should
Speaker 1: be more than good enough to have a positive net
Speaker 1: when Lebron sits. But I just that was an interesting
Speaker 1: thing that, you know, Zach Low. Zachlow kind of kind
Speaker 1: of brought up in terms of roster building kind of
Speaker 1: more rather than just like just giving the coach an excuse.
Speaker 1: So why it doesn't work? M m m m m yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it kind of cut off. See m yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: it's better now there you go. Okay, can you hear me? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I can. Cool. Yeah, I think they will figure it out.
Speaker 1: It's just something that we need a monitor, that's all.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I think, as you know, we talked
Speaker 1: about holding you know, like if, for instance, if Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel was doing a bad job with his scouting reports,
Speaker 1: you would hold him accountable for that, or if Lebron
Speaker 1: wasn't doing his job, you'd hold him accountable for that.
Speaker 1: I think I think it's okay as a fan base
Speaker 1: to hold this very talented roster accountable for their job,
Speaker 1: which is to you know, uh, you know, float the
Speaker 1: ship while Lebron's you don't even have to win those minutes.
Speaker 1: Just dude, don't don't have the bottom fall out. That's
Speaker 1: really it's really that, it's really that simple. Um. So,
Speaker 1: one last guy I wanted to really quickly touch up
Speaker 1: before we move on to some of our other topics
Speaker 1: was Markis Morris is I I. You know, he's one
Speaker 1: of the guys that I was harder on earlier in
Speaker 1: the season as well, because he didn't look he didn't
Speaker 1: look like he was in shape, he wasn't making shots.
Speaker 1: He like he just was struggling everywhere on the floor.
Speaker 1: He's become kind of like a sneaky weapon for them.
Speaker 1: He's pretty good attacking mismatches, uh, very very good post
Speaker 1: up defender, and then he's one of their most reliable
Speaker 1: three point shooters as of late. I've I've been really
Speaker 1: impressed with him, and so I'd like he's another guy
Speaker 1: that kind of adds like some insurance at that center position. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I tweeted before the season started, I said, Markie
Speaker 1: Morris at the minimum is just stupid value. Like, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, I don't like to put players in terms
Speaker 1: of value kind of thing, but just like looking at
Speaker 1: it from a cap situation, getting that kind of player
Speaker 1: from the minimum, it's just insane. Because we watched him
Speaker 1: in the playoffs he was starting against Houston. The Lakers
Speaker 1: big advantage against Houston was starting him and being like
Speaker 1: we can match here, you know, a small ball lineup
Speaker 1: and put him in a d uh together and I
Speaker 1: was kind of getting killed for that because of how
Speaker 1: we started. But again, everything is contextual. You know, seventy
Speaker 1: one day offseason, he's spoken at lengths about it. He's
Speaker 1: been very open that he's really struggled, Um with the
Speaker 1: quick turnaround and trying to get his legs, get his
Speaker 1: legs under him, and so you can see him. He's
Speaker 1: moving so much better now. There was just it's night
Speaker 1: and day. I mean, I think the other day, not
Speaker 1: not against not against Charlotte, but the game before I
Speaker 1: think it was against Minnesota, he had like an up
Speaker 1: and under layup like he drove and like, uh he
Speaker 1: did like up and I'm like, man, there was no
Speaker 1: way he was doing anything close to that earlier in
Speaker 1: the year. And his body just looks more fluid. He's
Speaker 1: a really good, sneaky like isolation score. Like he's a
Speaker 1: guy you can throw it into him and eat possessions,
Speaker 1: as we say, you know, so like if Lebron doesn't
Speaker 1: feel like creating and just like here and Marquis and
Speaker 1: he'll just eat that possession and you'll get a you'll
Speaker 1: get a good look out of it. And I think
Speaker 1: that's important. I think that's very valuable. Um, he's not
Speaker 1: like a great three point shooter, but he's streaky. So
Speaker 1: like he's a guy if he hits one, um, you
Speaker 1: can find him and he'll hit another one in a
Speaker 1: row kind of thing. And he had a quick five
Speaker 1: out run last night when the Hornets were coming back. So,
Speaker 1: and he's defending a lot better. Yeah, and so he's
Speaker 1: not like a switchbull defender, but you know he can
Speaker 1: hold his own. Guys can't really attack him in that way.
Speaker 1: They don't hunt him. Um. And yeah, I think he's
Speaker 1: been good. He'll be like he's not the guy. I
Speaker 1: think that like his skills get uh exceeded playing next
Speaker 1: to Anthony Davis. He's a guy that gets better when
Speaker 1: he plays against plays with better players. Um. I think
Speaker 1: earlier in the year he was playing with like th
Speaker 1: ht Um tres As, like the shot creators in the
Speaker 1: lineup with him, and he just looked really bad just
Speaker 1: to even add on to his conditioning, which is bad
Speaker 1: to start. So now he's he looks like the bubble Marquis.
Speaker 1: So he's he's picking it up. Yeah, he's got he's
Speaker 1: got his legs back and uh, and you know that
Speaker 1: the big thing with him is like something that I'd
Speaker 1: like about him more than I like about his brother,
Speaker 1: is that he has shown, at least last year that
Speaker 1: when you know, Anthony Davis comes back and startlin heavily on,
Speaker 1: did I cut out? Or can you hear me? Now?
Speaker 1: You're good? When when things really start, when they really
Speaker 1: start to lean on Lebron and Nadimore, he has actually
Speaker 1: and the kind of guy who can fall back into
Speaker 1: a really small role and and just do his job.
Speaker 1: And and to me, that makes him very valuable. You know,
Speaker 1: he's not a ball stopper, he's a ball mover. But
Speaker 1: at the same time they can't they can ask him
Speaker 1: to be Marcus Morris and be a little bit more
Speaker 1: of an isolation guy when they need him to. And
Speaker 1: like you said, it's it's it's eating possessions, it's give
Speaker 1: it allowing Lebron to rest while he's on the court.
Speaker 1: That that kind of stuff is all super super valuable. Um,
Speaker 1: did you have something else you wanted that or you cool?
Speaker 1: We move on? No, Yeah, that's good. That's good. So
Speaker 1: the last thing I want to talk about before we
Speaker 1: hop around to some other stuff around the league was, uh,
Speaker 1: the m v P race. So you know, part of
Speaker 1: this is you know, uh, the unfortunate circumstance that that
Speaker 1: Joe l Embiid has has suffered an injury that's caused
Speaker 1: him to miss ten games and very likely to miss
Speaker 1: probably another close to ten. And uh, I would imagine
Speaker 1: that this point that the Sixers are gonna take it
Speaker 1: really slow with him, especially since they have shown an
Speaker 1: ability to win some games with Ben Simmons at the forefront.
Speaker 1: But you know, sometimes like sometimes there's like a moment
Speaker 1: of clarity in the sense that you know, like and
Speaker 1: last night was a good example of it, where you
Speaker 1: just start to kind of look at the landscape and
Speaker 1: you go like, oh, well, like this is an obvious decision,
Speaker 1: and you look at it and it's like the Lakers
Speaker 1: had a super short turnaround. They had seventy two days off,
Speaker 1: you know, from the from hoisting the trophy to having
Speaker 1: to literally start playing NBA basketball games again. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: has missed almost half the games. Dennis Shrewder missed a
Speaker 1: week for COVID, Marcusol has missed a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: for COVID, k CP sprained his ankle at one point.
Speaker 1: Lebron has played almost every single game, and the Lakers
Speaker 1: have been the best defense in the league. He's been
Speaker 1: take one of the all defense teams, probably second team
Speaker 1: All Defense, and and and there's no reason in the
Speaker 1: world why he should not be the front runner at
Speaker 1: this point. And I think it's pretty clear cut. It's
Speaker 1: just they're the They're the best there a game and
Speaker 1: a half back of the best record in basketball, despite
Speaker 1: circumstances that have worked very much against their favor. The
Speaker 1: team that's above them in the standings, Utah has had
Speaker 1: a much much more fortunate season in terms of player availability.
Speaker 1: And you know, I don't think there's any question that
Speaker 1: that Lebron has had a better m v P type
Speaker 1: of season than anybody on that Utah roster. And so
Speaker 1: I think I think things are and Bron's MVP cases
Speaker 1: this to two really quick things. Last year, everyone submitted
Speaker 1: their honest votes halfway through the damn season. It was.
Speaker 1: It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. An
Speaker 1: ego plays a huge part in this. You know, a
Speaker 1: guy comes on Twitter and goes like, oh, Joannice is
Speaker 1: far and away the the MVP leader at this point,
Speaker 1: and then when somebody makes a run at the end
Speaker 1: of the season, like Lebron did. They're all super hesitant
Speaker 1: because of their egos to change their mind about it anything,
Speaker 1: because they didn't have to admit they were wrong about
Speaker 1: saying that Janice was the runaway m VP favorite earlier
Speaker 1: in the season. And so I hope that Lebron gets
Speaker 1: a little bit of that in his favor at this point,
Speaker 1: because I feel like he caught the short end of
Speaker 1: that stick last year. And here's the last thing I'll
Speaker 1: say about it. If he gets the trophy, the m
Speaker 1: v P Trophy, he will have deserved it because they're
Speaker 1: about to head to a super tough part of their
Speaker 1: schedule without a d I mean, I think just next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, and they have one of the toughest schedules
Speaker 1: in the league here down the stretch, so they're they're
Speaker 1: flat out going to need him to be the m
Speaker 1: v P to stay near the top of the standings.
Speaker 1: And if we get to the end of the season
Speaker 1: and the Lakers are the two seed out West or
Speaker 1: the two seed in the league, or even better, like
Speaker 1: there's gonna be there's there's not gonna be anything you
Speaker 1: can say, because there's it's just heading into this difficult
Speaker 1: portion of the schedule and without a d you know,
Speaker 1: he's gonna have to prove it and I believe he will,
Speaker 1: but but we'll see how it goes. Yeah. So my
Speaker 1: thing with him VP is like if you went before
Speaker 1: the season, right even with the Lakers editions and you
Speaker 1: know they're people were saying that, you know, they won
Speaker 1: the offseason or whatever. Um, if you were like, okay,
Speaker 1: take Anthony Davis off this team, how many wins would
Speaker 1: they have? Like just straight? If you ask, like if
Speaker 1: you pull the National Riders, they'd probably say, like what
Speaker 1: forty something that wins like with No A D. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not maybe not as bad as the Worriors, but
Speaker 1: um yeah, they would say it would be a pretty
Speaker 1: bad team and their second in the West. I mean,
Speaker 1: I was just looking at the records, man, Like Utah
Speaker 1: is only one and a half games above Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: has been forty forty two percent of the season. Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert has missed one game. I was checking, Oh no,
Speaker 1: he has missed serial games. Uh, Donovan Mitchell has missed
Speaker 1: two games. Like They've been completely healthy and still I
Speaker 1: think they flew a little too close to the sun.
Speaker 1: They're starting a torpedo back to Earth. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just crazy. That's his case. Like, I don't know how
Speaker 1: that's not leading all of the UM whatever shows that
Speaker 1: I don't watch anymore, but all those m VP debate shows,
Speaker 1: the lead should be Anthony Davis has missed already two
Speaker 1: percent of the season and they are tied with the Suns.
Speaker 1: They are a game and a half back of this
Speaker 1: of the Utah powerhouse that was blowing through the league
Speaker 1: for a while. So that's his case to me, And
Speaker 1: again he has a I think it was interesting you
Speaker 1: tweeted out at like the Bucks had three players make
Speaker 1: the All Defense last year, which is just ridiculous, just
Speaker 1: just ridiculous. The Lakers were a game behind Milwaukee when
Speaker 1: the when the season shut down. I think people kind
Speaker 1: of forget that how much of a run they made.
Speaker 1: And obviously they just lollygat through the bubble games because
Speaker 1: none of them matter. They had they had the ones
Speaker 1: he locked up, so it didn't matter anymore. And I
Speaker 1: think Milwaukee, you don't want a few of those games more.
Speaker 1: But again, when the season shut down, it was around
Speaker 1: the March or something like that, or they have something
Speaker 1: I forget, but they were a game back of Milwaukee
Speaker 1: with two again who started off blazing hot and came
Speaker 1: back to earth, and Lebron's MVP case was kind of growing.
Speaker 1: But like you said, that vote was submitted, That vote
Speaker 1: was submitted a long time ago. Be honest, was gonna
Speaker 1: win his win shares or per seventy five or whatever.
Speaker 1: Numbers were blowing through the water, and I think talked
Speaker 1: about that at length. He was beating up on bad team.
Speaker 1: But again not even to not even to diminish Johannes,
Speaker 1: because I think he's earned his two m vps. But yeah,
Speaker 1: Lebron wins this year, he probably has a narrative going
Speaker 1: for him. I mean, it's I don't know why that's
Speaker 1: like taboo to say. I mean, you kind of earn it.
Speaker 1: You play eighteen years in the league. You earn a
Speaker 1: little bit of a narrative kind of thing, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like, I don't know why that's taboo.
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, no, every m v P should be
Speaker 1: year by year. Nothing in life works without context, like
Speaker 1: it just it just doesn't. You can't ignore Johanna's flaming
Speaker 1: out two straight playoffs and given out. You just can't.
Speaker 1: The context is in everything in life. Why are we
Speaker 1: gonna ignore it with with an awards? So I think
Speaker 1: that that's part of as well, and he'll earn it.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's played great defense as well. You could
Speaker 1: argue he's in the Defensive Player of the Year. He
Speaker 1: won't get that award. I don't think he's the defensive
Speaker 1: player of your conversation. That's one thing I think Lebron
Speaker 1: fans have taken a little too far. Uh But I
Speaker 1: mean I wouldn't. Yeah, he wouldn't. I would say he
Speaker 1: would win it. But I mean, like this defense has
Speaker 1: been carried by him Marc Asol and like a great system,
Speaker 1: I mean you have to you can give it to somebody,
Speaker 1: you know. So yeah, again, like just just seeing his
Speaker 1: m v P ks, I think he's more than earned
Speaker 1: um the lead at it. It's unfortunate that Jolian Bead
Speaker 1: went down. I don't think him missing ten games shouldn't
Speaker 1: take him out of the race, you know. But but
Speaker 1: we'll see. But yeah, I think you're right, he has
Speaker 1: more than enough of a case for the m v
Speaker 1: P this year, can you hear me? Yeah? So, the
Speaker 1: I think the h and they're like, you're disrespecting the
Speaker 1: process by bringing up the narrative, I no sport. It's
Speaker 1: a team sport. So we're interpreting, we are interpreting results.
Speaker 1: So if this was a tennis regular season, then you
Speaker 1: could be like, oh, you know, tennis player A was
Speaker 1: clearly the best player in tennis this year. He beat everybody,
Speaker 1: He's the m v P. But no, it is a
Speaker 1: team sport, and so we have to rely on external
Speaker 1: vidence and context to try to compartmentalize and contextualize like
Speaker 1: what we're seeing. So you know, if I saw a
Speaker 1: really really great Yannice season like this year, I can
Speaker 1: contextualize that by saying like, oh, actually, like a big
Speaker 1: part of this was coach Bud and his system kind
Speaker 1: of spitting up and chewing out teams, chewing up and
Speaker 1: spitting out teams from the Eastern Conference. As things progress
Speaker 1: that that actually wasn't as effective against the best teams
Speaker 1: in the league, and it wasn't as effective in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So we add that context and we can we can
Speaker 1: kind of make it. We can kind of make a
Speaker 1: case for why Janice wasn't the best player in the
Speaker 1: league this year. And I think that's gonna end up
Speaker 1: actually hurting him. And you know, that's the thing with Lebron.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, the it's not as simple as here
Speaker 1: are his numbers and here's the team's record. It's the
Speaker 1: whole story. And that's what that's where I think the
Speaker 1: narrative is not a bad word, but actually just the
Speaker 1: store of his m v P. The story of Lebron's
Speaker 1: MVP is that on a very quick turnaround, UH, with
Speaker 1: very little rest after winning the championship, after being the
Speaker 1: Finals MVP, he came back into this season with an
Speaker 1: injured co star who missed almost half the games and
Speaker 1: a couple of COVID's, a couple of uh COVID losses
Speaker 1: that cost starters to miss a combined three weeks a time.
Speaker 1: He led them to within a game and a half
Speaker 1: of the number one overall seed. He his numbers have
Speaker 1: been you know, uh, you know, just everybody as good
Speaker 1: as last year, minus a few assists per game, which
Speaker 1: isn't him becoming a lesser passage, just him playing alongside
Speaker 1: Dennis Shrewder. But but that's the story of his m
Speaker 1: v P. And you you you tell that story, and
Speaker 1: that's how you plead the That's how you plead the
Speaker 1: case of the value of an individual in a team sport.
Speaker 1: That's really all it is. It's not any more complicated
Speaker 1: than that. And like, you know, I think a couple
Speaker 1: of Lakers uh TV per sonalities, namely you know Rachel
Speaker 1: uh what's her name, Rachel Nichols, who's not a Lakers person,
Speaker 1: but as you know, a Lebron fan, I guess you'd
Speaker 1: call it. And then uh, you know, Dave mcmanam in
Speaker 1: and and then I think Brian went Horse did it too,
Speaker 1: Like Ramota Shelbert, they get on. They got on last year,
Speaker 1: and they were taking it to borderline theatrical foolishness. You know,
Speaker 1: Kobe's death, you know, he's old, you know all this
Speaker 1: other stupid stuff. You know, Oh he he held a
Speaker 1: meeting in a conference room and a hotel in China,
Speaker 1: so he's the m v P like that was That
Speaker 1: was stupid. That was stupid and and it and it
Speaker 1: took that part of the m v P race and
Speaker 1: threw it off the rails. When the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is is like the way that we decided is
Speaker 1: story based. It's just story based within the context of
Speaker 1: what's actually happening within that locker room. And uh and
Speaker 1: on the court, if that makes sense. Yeah, and and
Speaker 1: people think this is just a Lebron thing, which is
Speaker 1: really strange to me, Like why did Westbrook win the
Speaker 1: m v P like three years ago, Right, It wasn't
Speaker 1: just like, yes, he had the triple doubles, but it
Speaker 1: was because Kevin Durant left that summer, right, And they're like,
Speaker 1: he's going to carry a team, and he carried them
Speaker 1: to like a three seed or a four seed or
Speaker 1: whatever it was. And we take the whole context within it, right,
Speaker 1: just his season alone, probably when I've done it, when
Speaker 1: you look at the story, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: best players in the world ever left his team, he
Speaker 1: carried them, he had the heart. All that stuff is
Speaker 1: into it. And that's fine. It's an MVP award, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not you know, something that's decided by per thirty
Speaker 1: six and win shares and you know stuff stuff like that.
Speaker 1: It is decided by on the court. Your team has
Speaker 1: to win. But I just don't know why people think
Speaker 1: Lebron is the only one that you know, uh, gets
Speaker 1: an advantage from the story being told from it, And
Speaker 1: that's just not true. The m v P has been
Speaker 1: about a story for the long time to go along
Speaker 1: with the basketball. So yeah, he has a case this year.
Speaker 1: I think I think it's fine if you have someone
Speaker 1: else winning. It's just I feel like it's pretty um,
Speaker 1: it's pretty malpractice to say Lebron is not even a
Speaker 1: top three or whatever in the MVP, because I think
Speaker 1: he totally is. Uh, he's a totally good candidate for it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a good candidate. And you know, it is interesting
Speaker 1: as far as like the RUSS m v P goes there,
Speaker 1: there there's a clear like path that happens with an
Speaker 1: m v P uh conversation, and this is why embiad
Speaker 1: is so far up there in my opinion. If you
Speaker 1: look back, it's like, Okay, Lebron in two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine has this m the voter they have to, and
Speaker 1: then there's the fatigue and he's every bit as good
Speaker 1: the following season, but they don't give it to him.
Speaker 1: It's a Steph Curry thing. Steph Curry wins an m
Speaker 1: v P averaging twenty three points per game, but he
Speaker 1: wins the m v P and he comes back to
Speaker 1: and he's definitely better, so they have to give it
Speaker 1: to him again. And then in two thousand seventeen, they're uh,
Speaker 1: they're still the best team in the league. He was
Speaker 1: the best He wasn't the best player in the league
Speaker 1: in my opinion at that point, but he was the
Speaker 1: best player on the best team in the league in
Speaker 1: two thousand and seventeen. Should have been technically, you know,
Speaker 1: an MVP candidate, but you know, there's voter fatigue, there's
Speaker 1: like a there's like a pathway to this, and so
Speaker 1: that that's the unfortunate part about it is like it's like,
Speaker 1: I I'm glad that it's just a regular season award
Speaker 1: that doesn't really amount to all that much for any
Speaker 1: of these things. Because the truth is is the whole
Speaker 1: process is flawed in a lot of ways. Uh, but
Speaker 1: but it is what it is. I do think it's
Speaker 1: important to mention that he has a really good chance
Speaker 1: and real quickly before we're done here. All the Lebron's
Speaker 1: numbers are up year over year last year when he
Speaker 1: was receiving first place MVP votes. Scoring is up, steals
Speaker 1: are up, reboundings up, turnovers are down, free throw percentage up,
Speaker 1: three point percentage up, field goal percentage up. The only
Speaker 1: thing that's down is his assists and so, which again
Speaker 1: is product of them taking on a twenty million dollar
Speaker 1: year guard. Uh that to help with some of the
Speaker 1: ball handling responsibilities. So the truth of the matter is
Speaker 1: is he's in that path now. He missed out on
Speaker 1: an m v P last year. There's a lot of lingering. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of lingering kind of like angst over
Speaker 1: the fact that maybe he didn't deserve it, be honest,
Speaker 1: because he clearly is nowhere near as good at basketball
Speaker 1: is Lebron and then here comes Lebron better than next year.
Speaker 1: So I mean to me, that's a prime set up
Speaker 1: for him to to receive a lot of votes. And uh,
Speaker 1: we'll see how it goes. A bit. Part of it
Speaker 1: is going to be this tough part of the schedule
Speaker 1: and whether or not they can weather through it. Um Uh.
Speaker 1: It's tricky because the last month of the season two,
Speaker 1: they have four sets of back to backs, um so,
Speaker 1: and I think they have three more sets of back
Speaker 1: to backs just this month. So when like, as long
Speaker 1: as as long as they you know, hang out there
Speaker 1: in the top two or three seeds in the West,
Speaker 1: given the circumstances, I think I think he deserves it.
Speaker 1: Um really quickly. I wanted to touch on a couple
Speaker 1: of non Laker topics and get your thoughts on him. So,
Speaker 1: first of all, the Clippers continue to be one of
Speaker 1: the most disappointing contenders that uh, that we've had in
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. Uh. And this is this
Speaker 1: has been consistent from the start. By the way, they
Speaker 1: currently have the seventh best record in the league. Um,
Speaker 1: I guess my question for you is, aside from the
Speaker 1: usual stuff that we've all talked about, like them needing
Speaker 1: a point guard and blahlah blah blah, why do you
Speaker 1: think that they've been so underwhelming, particularly on the defensive end. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's funny because Clipper fans and our Clipper people do
Speaker 1: not like you. I can tell. It's it's hilarious. Uh,
Speaker 1: this players seeing you quote tweet them and they're like,
Speaker 1: stay out of our out of our team, which I
Speaker 1: just think is absolutely hilarious. But uh, yeah, it's funny because,
Speaker 1: like you know, I like to joke about the PG
Speaker 1: narrative and you know, the Paul George stuff, who's actually
Speaker 1: played really well this year. Actually he's had a great year,
Speaker 1: so I give him credit. But when I watched their
Speaker 1: team like it's just looking at the basketball, like they
Speaker 1: put zero pressure on the basket. The only person who
Speaker 1: does is Zoomach when he rolls to the rim. And
Speaker 1: again that can be schemed out, you know when teams
Speaker 1: really want to UM because they'll trap Kauai and you know,
Speaker 1: and they'll help off of anyone who they want to.
Speaker 1: They don't trust anyone to make a jump shot when
Speaker 1: it matters. I think they live with Marcus Morris, you know,
Speaker 1: and all those guys who shoot a good percentage. But
Speaker 1: I think when the game bolt boats down and close
Speaker 1: outs are a little bit harder. Against Dallas, I mean,
Speaker 1: they didn't score for like five minutes. This is with
Speaker 1: Kauai and PG on the floor, like to all two
Speaker 1: superstar wings, and they couldn't get a basket because Paul Jorge,
Speaker 1: every one of their actions, like they run a lot
Speaker 1: of really like Tyler is a good offensive coach. They
Speaker 1: run a lot of like really good actions. They run
Speaker 1: like sippers and um PG comes off two down streets
Speaker 1: being and all these actions pretty much lead to a
Speaker 1: step back contestant mid range jumper. Like that's because they
Speaker 1: just do not want to take contact. And then Paul
Speaker 1: George I saw after the game, he's like, the refs
Speaker 1: aren't giving me calls, you know, and stuff stuff like that,
Speaker 1: which again like maybe, but that doesn't really take you
Speaker 1: out from attacking the basket. So they get nothing at
Speaker 1: the rim other than Kauai dunking on people once or
Speaker 1: twice pretty nicely. But all the shots are mid range
Speaker 1: pull ups or tough contested threes. And again they moved
Speaker 1: the ball around and try to find the open shot.
Speaker 1: But you know late in games, that's really it causes
Speaker 1: for inconsistency in basketball. And as you know, when people
Speaker 1: when teams go on runs, and maybe last night wh
Speaker 1: Charlie went on a run, it it catapults. And when
Speaker 1: you can't get ec shots, um, it's tough to stop those.
Speaker 1: And I think that's where they're inconsistent play comes from.
Speaker 1: But PG and Choir and Kauai especially are good enough
Speaker 1: to where they're gonna kind of they're gonna win enough
Speaker 1: games to be a high seed. But I was looking
Speaker 1: at the standings, man, and they are tied for like
Speaker 1: six or seventh roight now in terms of the losses,
Speaker 1: like another loss would drop them down to six, I
Speaker 1: think or something. So it's when I saw the news
Speaker 1: today that they're interested in Alonzo ball, which made me
Speaker 1: kind of sad because Alonzo is like a lifelong laker
Speaker 1: to me. But I don't know if Alonzo really fixes
Speaker 1: that kind of issue. Is a Lonzo is not attacking
Speaker 1: the rim guard either. He's a really good ball move
Speaker 1: which I think Patrick Beverley is Nick Betune all are
Speaker 1: really great ball movers. But that's kind of what I
Speaker 1: see in them. What do you what do you see
Speaker 1: in their inconsistencies? How the heck are they going to
Speaker 1: get lawns? Like saw that too and I was like,
Speaker 1: I was like, what, Like, they don't have any assets
Speaker 1: they onny drafting. It's just it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: Um it would require it would require David Griffin thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, in his head like oh, like I'd rather
Speaker 1: have Patrick Beverley or something like that. Um So, a
Speaker 1: couple of things really quick. The the Clippers are tied
Speaker 1: with the San Antonio Spurs in the lost column. Um So,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. You know, I'm hard on the Clippers
Speaker 1: for for a lot of reasons. One, I am a
Speaker 1: huge I've always had a huge problem with like prematurely
Speaker 1: crowning people because like, I don't think people. And for
Speaker 1: the record, Lebron is one of the best best examples
Speaker 1: of this in NBA history. He went to the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat in two thousand eleven and thought he already had
Speaker 1: the trophies. Damn Near said as much when he was
Speaker 1: in my in that Miami party that they threw after
Speaker 1: they signed everybody like it is an objectively unlikable quality
Speaker 1: for someone to talk and act as though they've on
Speaker 1: something when they haven't done anything yet. And the Clippers
Speaker 1: haven't put in the work, and that's the most important detail,
Speaker 1: and this is why their defense sucks. You know, on paper,
Speaker 1: their defense should be awesome. Patrick Beverley, you know, although
Speaker 1: he's been injured for a lot of this year. You know,
Speaker 1: Paul George and Kawhile Enterred just those two should be
Speaker 1: good enough to be an elite defensive team, especially when
Speaker 1: you factor and they have Nick Patoum, another big wing,
Speaker 1: and they have Marcus Moore's senior who's another big wing.
Speaker 1: The problem why, the reason why they don't defend well
Speaker 1: is people are looking at it with a simplistic view
Speaker 1: of what defense is. They think, Oh, Kauai can guard
Speaker 1: player X and Paul George can guard player. Why, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great. But the vast majority of defense is not
Speaker 1: just straight up one on one defense. It's all about
Speaker 1: your team concepts. How are you in rotations? How are
Speaker 1: you when you're not matched upright in transition? How are
Speaker 1: you when you have to send a double team and
Speaker 1: everyone's chaotically running around. The Lakers have nowhere near as
Speaker 1: much defensive talent on paper as the Clippers, but they
Speaker 1: put in the work. They do what you're supposed to
Speaker 1: do to guard. They operate well in chaos. They're they're,
Speaker 1: they're they're. Frank does a much better job as setting
Speaker 1: up their scheme. Everything they do make sense. They play
Speaker 1: to their strengths. They chase people off the three point
Speaker 1: line because they have smaller guards. It's it all makes sense.
Speaker 1: That's why it doesn't work. That's why it doesn't work
Speaker 1: for the Clippers. They have everything that they've needed on paper,
Speaker 1: and they haven't put in the requisite work, which, for
Speaker 1: the record, is the microcosm of the entire l A
Speaker 1: Clippers experience since they signed both of them, speaking large
Speaker 1: you know, on uh on, in the large scale of
Speaker 1: of that entire team and their goals and their failures
Speaker 1: last year and so far this year. As far as
Speaker 1: the offensive end goes, it's really simple, and it's the
Speaker 1: reason why I sent that tweet out and the reason
Speaker 1: why Paul George looks so, like I said, pathetic in
Speaker 1: that stupid press conference where he's making these excuses. It's
Speaker 1: you if if you want something and you want to
Speaker 1: complain about something, which I hate complaining regardless, I don't
Speaker 1: like when Lebron complains about the refs and he's literally
Speaker 1: a guy who's bullying his way to the basket all
Speaker 1: day long and constantly getting fat. But the point is
Speaker 1: is like, if you're gonna do it, at least come
Speaker 1: from a position of strength, at least come from a
Speaker 1: position where you're backed by evidence. You literally other than
Speaker 1: the Orlando Magic, or I think it's the Orlando Magic,
Speaker 1: your your twenty nine in the entire league, I get
Speaker 1: a generating shot attempts within five ft of the basket
Speaker 1: and within the restricted area, and it's been like that
Speaker 1: all season long. You're a team that relies on off
Speaker 1: the dribble pull up jump shots from Lou Williams, from
Speaker 1: Paul George and from Kawhi Leonard and even in this league,
Speaker 1: where that type of jump shooting gets a lot of calls.
Speaker 1: It's not going to get the same level of calls
Speaker 1: as a team that pressures the rim consistently. And then
Speaker 1: you have the nerve to walk up to the press
Speaker 1: conference table and be like, we're doing our part, we're
Speaker 1: putting pressure on the rim. We're just not getting calls. No,
Speaker 1: you're not. You're living in fantasy land. And you're the
Speaker 1: same guy that stood up to the press conference after
Speaker 1: you tricked off Game six against Denver and said we're
Speaker 1: in control of this series. It's just it's an objectively
Speaker 1: unlikable quality. They're complaining and living in fantasy land, and
Speaker 1: they don't understand that we all have eyes and that
Speaker 1: we're watching the damn games. We're watching the games man,
Speaker 1: like especially Lakers Twitter, because they love hate watching you
Speaker 1: and rooting for you to fail. So like we're all there,
Speaker 1: we're all paying attention and and and I don't know,
Speaker 1: it just it is what it is. I just I
Speaker 1: just you know. And for the record, I'm the most
Speaker 1: scared of them. They are the team that I'm most
Speaker 1: scared enough to beat the Lakers, at least in the West,
Speaker 1: because they're they are built to do it. I just
Speaker 1: what what have you seen in the last two years
Speaker 1: to show them that they will right right? Let me
Speaker 1: let me ask you this because I created this out
Speaker 1: and like you said, I know, I understand the NBA
Speaker 1: is not no longer an isolation game. It's a pick
Speaker 1: and roll heavy game, you know what I mean. But like,
Speaker 1: it was very weird to me that Luca is absolutely
Speaker 1: cooking right like he is. He is, he is not
Speaker 1: even seeing a defender like he is. There was nothing
Speaker 1: he was so comfortable. He could have been as slippers
Speaker 1: that game. Like, he was absolutely comfortable walking to the rim,
Speaker 1: doing floaters, step back three. He's not feeling a thing.
Speaker 1: This is late game, This is a you know, this
Speaker 1: is a big time game they need to win. And
Speaker 1: they have Nickpatune picking up Luca full court. You know,
Speaker 1: this is with Kauai. And again I understand it's not
Speaker 1: a one on one game, but like Nick Patune picking
Speaker 1: him up full court, and then later on they switched
Speaker 1: then later on they switched Marcus Morris on him, like
Speaker 1: and this due Luca does not even feel these dudes
Speaker 1: like he has There's no you know, there's no like
Speaker 1: pressure on him. He's literally walking to the room doing floaters,
Speaker 1: and again Paul George I think, switched on him with
Speaker 1: like two minutes left, and by by that time, Luca
Speaker 1: is completely on fire, like his whole body is pretty
Speaker 1: much heated up that he is not feeling a thing,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So, but it's just interesting
Speaker 1: to me when I see that. I'm like, it's so weird.
Speaker 1: And people are like, oh, they're load managing. You know,
Speaker 1: this is Luca has like forty on like easy easy shots,
Speaker 1: like this is still your you know, have some pride,
Speaker 1: have some use of pride. I mean the load managing
Speaker 1: Nick Patune is thirty two. I mean I don't. I
Speaker 1: just don't understand that part of it. Don't make it
Speaker 1: so easy for them. And that's the thing that's really
Speaker 1: weird to me. They have a lot of weird corks
Speaker 1: that don't make any sense to me. They're hiding kauai
Speaker 1: on I think it was um Brunson in the corn
Speaker 1: and I'm like, that just doesn't does not make any
Speaker 1: sense at all what they're doing with that. I want
Speaker 1: to ask you that because do you think that's an issue?
Speaker 1: Like I think it's very weird when like even Lebron
Speaker 1: last night switched on LaMelo when Lemel started cooking, just
Speaker 1: because you know, just to show like, hey, we're not allowing.
Speaker 1: This is not what we're allowing. Or even Terry rose
Speaker 1: Year when he got cooking, he switched on him. Like
Speaker 1: it's just really weird when I when I see that,
Speaker 1: Like they have the two probably the best two best
Speaker 1: wing defenders in the league on any given night, and
Speaker 1: there they have Nick Betune guarding Luca when he's absolutely
Speaker 1: cooking anyone in isolation. Is just just really strange to me,
Speaker 1: those kind of things that I see. They have weirdly
Speaker 1: weird quirks about their team. Yeah there there there's something
Speaker 1: off in just the chemistry of that entire teams at
Speaker 1: the way it's built. Well, what Clipper fans will tell
Speaker 1: you is that oh uh uh Tylu is holding everything
Speaker 1: and saving everything for the playoffs. That's what I'll tell you,
Speaker 1: Which to me, that's stupid because the whole premise of
Speaker 1: saving things for the playoffs only makes sense within the
Speaker 1: realm of single elimination anyway. It's something that makes a
Speaker 1: lot more sense in football because like Bill Belichick will
Speaker 1: save plays and schemes and formations and stuff for the playoffs,
Speaker 1: because he knows that he needs to beat you once
Speaker 1: and if he can throw you off for a quarter
Speaker 1: and a half because you have to adjust to a
Speaker 1: new scheme, it might win him a playoff game. That's
Speaker 1: not how it works in the NBA. Like the Lakers
Speaker 1: could show you everything that they do, you have to
Speaker 1: play them seven times so that there's no advantage gained
Speaker 1: by Oh, maybe I'll win the first quarter of Game
Speaker 1: one because I randomly started throwing, you know, some crazy
Speaker 1: defensive scheme or some offensive scheme at somebody. And quite frankly,
Speaker 1: with the how deep the West is in the in
Speaker 1: the seating problems that the Clippers are putting themselves in
Speaker 1: danger of dealing with it, they need to win games now.
Speaker 1: They need to win games like for and so the
Speaker 1: whole idea that they've been withholding is stupid to me.
Speaker 1: It's a matter of of of like I said, and
Speaker 1: I'm just reiterating it, but the scheme and the effort
Speaker 1: and the dirty work that a defense has to do
Speaker 1: to make a star feel uncomfortable. You know, Dennis Shouter
Speaker 1: is a is a talented defensive players. So I don't
Speaker 1: want to under cut this. But do you think Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard is worried about whether or not he can get
Speaker 1: by Dennis Shredder. Hell no, Like Dennis Shredder is not
Speaker 1: presenting now. Like my point is is like it's not
Speaker 1: like Ben Simmons, where Ben Simmons literally had Damian Lillard
Speaker 1: feeling like he was in prison and just single coverage.
Speaker 1: That's not what Dame Lillard feels when he goes up
Speaker 1: against Dennis Shrewder. What literally is happening there is the
Speaker 1: Lakers as a team, as a scheme, are making the
Speaker 1: stars feel uncomfortable. And the problem with the Clippers is
Speaker 1: they've got all the talent in the world, but they're
Speaker 1: not making like the Lakers would never in a million
Speaker 1: years have let Luca do that. You know, they got
Speaker 1: burned by Luca once at the beginning of last season,
Speaker 1: and they have really really taken care of him the
Speaker 1: last four or five times they played him, because the
Speaker 1: Lakers will not let you beat them with your star.
Speaker 1: They will not let you do it because they they
Speaker 1: they're they're they're not caught up in the Monoemano type
Speaker 1: style of defense. It's it's us five against your five
Speaker 1: and and and that's and that's why I think they
Speaker 1: have uh you know, that's the difference in my opinion.
Speaker 1: But between those two really quickly before I get you
Speaker 1: out of here, I wanted to share a quick thought
Speaker 1: about the about the Warriors, So you know, I think
Speaker 1: the Warriors are are a fascinating case study of of
Speaker 1: the way aesthetics kind of like throw off people's impressions
Speaker 1: of of a basketball team, because in my opinion, the
Speaker 1: Lakers and the Warriors have a lot in common, uh
Speaker 1: particularly just with like their their their roster build in
Speaker 1: the way that they're trying to win games. So for
Speaker 1: the record, the Lakers are a lot more talented. So
Speaker 1: I don't wanna make that equivalency. I just think there's
Speaker 1: a stylistic similarity. You've got this supreme offensive creator in
Speaker 1: the form of Lebron and Steph Curry, but for some reason,
Speaker 1: the offenses struggle and the fan base says get all
Speaker 1: riled up talking about like this offense looks stupid. Why
Speaker 1: isn't Steph doing this, Why isn't Lebron doing this? Why
Speaker 1: don't they run more offense? If it's the Lakers, you're
Speaker 1: complaining that they're not running enough offense. If it's the Warriors,
Speaker 1: they're complaining that they're running too much offense, It's like
Speaker 1: it's literally just NonStop complaining. And what they don't realize
Speaker 1: is like that is by design the way that team
Speaker 1: was put together. When they were putting the roster together,
Speaker 1: the Warriors said, we don't want to be the two
Speaker 1: thousand eight team caps. We don't want Steph to have
Speaker 1: the most incredible monster statistical season ever but not be
Speaker 1: able to guard anybody. And what they wanted was they
Speaker 1: wanted a team that would muck it up and have
Speaker 1: tons of length and athleticism and speed and play with
Speaker 1: a ton of pace, that would wear teams out, physically
Speaker 1: defend the heck out of the ball, and then we
Speaker 1: just hope Steph can generate enough offense that will win.
Speaker 1: And if you would have told me coming into the season,
Speaker 1: even after the first few weeks of the season, I
Speaker 1: thought they were a terrible team. There's no there's not
Speaker 1: a lot of talent on that roster. You know, Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins was terrible at his previous spot. Kelly Hubrey is
Speaker 1: nothing but a role player. I'm a big believer in
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, and I think that the Warriors fan base
Speaker 1: underrates the heck out of him. However, he's not what
Speaker 1: he once was. He struggles a lot offensively in ways
Speaker 1: that he didn't used to. So the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is, if I told you, hey, Warriors fans back
Speaker 1: when Clay Thompson tours Achilles, so I said you're gonna
Speaker 1: be twenty one and twenty, they'd be stoked because there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of talent on the team. The Western
Speaker 1: Conference is super deep. They were gonna lean so heavily
Speaker 1: on Steph that's a win in these circumstances. But instead
Speaker 1: they're so obsessively focused on how the offense looks, like, oh,
Speaker 1: STEP's missing a lot of shots and you know step
Speaker 1: is slumping, and it's like no, no, no. They have
Speaker 1: consciously made a decision to muck things up by prioritizing
Speaker 1: talent that can carry them defensively because they believe that
Speaker 1: will win. And I really do think the winning above
Speaker 1: their talent level. So what do you think about what
Speaker 1: you've seen from it? Were good? Yeah? Like it's funny.
Speaker 1: As as fans, you want to feel good about our team, right,
Speaker 1: Like that's the whole point of us being fans When
Speaker 1: watch a team you want to feel like we're not.
Speaker 1: We're not only feeling good about this season, but we
Speaker 1: feel about good about where we're going right. And I
Speaker 1: feel like a lot of these postgame like press conferences
Speaker 1: are all kind of for show. They're all media savvy.
Speaker 1: But when you hear Steve Kerr say something like, oh,
Speaker 1: why don't you play Steph More, Oh, we're not really
Speaker 1: going for wins this year, that's that like really attacks
Speaker 1: a fan base. And then you add that with I
Speaker 1: don't think I've seen Wiseman smile on the court once, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't think i've seen him. I'm not saying he
Speaker 1: doesn't enjoy playing basketball. I don't think you get that
Speaker 1: good without enjoying some Lovean Andrew wigging is maybe a
Speaker 1: conclusion of that, but like, I don't think I've seen
Speaker 1: Wiseman like enjoy one minute of his play out there.
Speaker 1: But again you combine that with watching you know, LaMelo
Speaker 1: and his his play, and again they're tweeting LaMelo box scores,
Speaker 1: which I think is psychotic behavior, but you know, like
Speaker 1: tuning out LaMelo's box scores, are watching Anthony Edwards dunk
Speaker 1: on someone and have this joy exuber ends that really
Speaker 1: even though the Minnesota Timberwolves are nine and forty two
Speaker 1: or whatever, they are still Edwards gives like a positive
Speaker 1: view of that. And then they see this team where
Speaker 1: it's like, what are we doing? Are we trying to win?
Speaker 1: Are we developing Wiseman and Pool or what? And I
Speaker 1: think that's where they really struggle with it. I think about, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're watching the Lakers in like
Speaker 1: two thousands seven, two thousand eight, remember that's when I
Speaker 1: started watching, and they had Andrew Bynum right, and again,
Speaker 1: Andrew Biinden wasn't picked second. He was picked I think
Speaker 1: thirteenth or tenth or something like that, but it was
Speaker 1: the first round pick with a Kobe who was obviously
Speaker 1: trying to win. And so you had this mix of
Speaker 1: like two players trying to develop. And the Lakers became good.
Speaker 1: And Andrew Bynum played well, but Andrew Bianna played well,
Speaker 1: and it's like his third year, right, it was like
Speaker 1: the third or second year. And again the question is
Speaker 1: are the war is gonna wait for him to play?
Speaker 1: And I think this is a whole mix. So like
Speaker 1: when people are watching not even watching these games, are
Speaker 1: watching Draymond and now they're trying to be like, hey,
Speaker 1: why don't you score ten points a game? It's not
Speaker 1: what Draymond does. You know this, You watched Draymond for
Speaker 1: the last three years. Who cares how many points he
Speaker 1: scores that's now exit game. Asking him to do that
Speaker 1: now is kind of doesn't really make sense to me.
Speaker 1: So like, I'm more of a I'm a bigger Draymond
Speaker 1: guy than a lot of people. I guess now, I
Speaker 1: still think he impassed a game at a huge level
Speaker 1: even though he's not scoring. That's kind of what I
Speaker 1: see from them. And they're a mid level team. I mean,
Speaker 1: when Steph goes off the floor, I think they're a
Speaker 1: G League team. Like they just they just can't score.
Speaker 1: Uber and Wiggins taking midrange jumpers or pull ups. It's
Speaker 1: just not gonna work. So that's a comparison I see.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they have a Pale Gasol trade
Speaker 1: in them where they just get another great star player,
Speaker 1: I think that's the move. But yeah, I see a
Speaker 1: lot of like Andrew Bynum and Wiseman, very similar, very skilled.
Speaker 1: I think Wiseman has a lot more potential than Andrew,
Speaker 1: buying him obviously, but just that kind of like young
Speaker 1: player mixed with a superstar who's who's trying to win,
Speaker 1: and it's it's funny to see them. I mean, I
Speaker 1: feel like a team that just went through a super
Speaker 1: duper dynasty, would you know, be able to handle one
Speaker 1: five season a little bit better. But it's it's not,
Speaker 1: it's not happening the thing. Things can turn around quickly.
Speaker 1: I mean, look no further than the Lakers, but I
Speaker 1: mean Draymond is a perfect example of what we're talking
Speaker 1: about here. Like the book is out on Draymond. When
Speaker 1: he's on the floor, your team usually is winning, Like
Speaker 1: it just it is what it is. And if you
Speaker 1: look at the Lakers or the Warriors this year, it's
Speaker 1: like when Draymond's on the floor with Steph, like it
Speaker 1: just makes stuff just happens. But again, people get so
Speaker 1: obsessively focused on him missing a layup, or him not
Speaker 1: wanting to shoot, or him the defense not guarding him,
Speaker 1: and they're not focused on the bigger vision, which is
Speaker 1: it's a trade off with Draymond, just like it is
Speaker 1: with any other player. Like guess what, there's a little
Speaker 1: bit of a trade off with Steph, Like he's an
Speaker 1: average defensive player, like if you put Dennis Shrewder into
Speaker 1: his role, you would be a better defensive team. You
Speaker 1: know that the reality is is like for for for
Speaker 1: their way. So they're so focused on these aesthetics that
Speaker 1: they that they get like so caught up and bogged
Speaker 1: down in the uh in the in what they're seeing
Speaker 1: that they're not paying attention to the result, which is
Speaker 1: the whole point of what you're doing. And if you
Speaker 1: look at if you look at the Warriors, if I
Speaker 1: told you, like if you look at the Warriors in
Speaker 1: the standings there below like way below five against good teams,
Speaker 1: against teams that are five hundred or above, and then
Speaker 1: they're taking care of business against bad teams. Now, if
Speaker 1: I would have told you going into the season like, hey,
Speaker 1: the Warriors are operating at a big talent disadvantage, but
Speaker 1: they have Steph, then the most likely outcome was that
Speaker 1: they would take care of business against bad teams because
Speaker 1: Steph could lift them over the top. And they're well
Speaker 1: coached and that they play hard, and then they're probably
Speaker 1: gonna be overmatched when they go against the good teams. Like,
Speaker 1: this season is going exactly how it should go for
Speaker 1: a player of Steph's caliber and with the amount of
Speaker 1: talent that's on the roster, and it just I think
Speaker 1: it's I think it's just funny because like it's like
Speaker 1: people get so they're just they're they're a lots and
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know, I don't know what you do.
Speaker 1: Like people say like, oh, would you trade Wiseman in
Speaker 1: this uh in this Minnesota pick for for Bradley Beale,
Speaker 1: And for the record, of course you do. But the
Speaker 1: thing is is like, does is Bradley be All going
Speaker 1: to make them contend for a title? I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I I think I think he makes them better, but
Speaker 1: I think right now they're a ten seed because guess what,
Speaker 1: they're the ten seed, So like they're or not so.
Speaker 1: So the thing is is like, uh, like if you
Speaker 1: have Bradley be what are they like are they the Nuggets? Like?
Speaker 1: Are they are they the Nuggets? You know? Like Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: the next year you get Clay Thompson back and it
Speaker 1: gets more interesting. But a big part of this is
Speaker 1: like the league is a lot more talented now than
Speaker 1: it used to be. And you you know, the if
Speaker 1: the same roster from the two thousand fifteen Warriors isn't
Speaker 1: really enough anymore with how much talent there is in
Speaker 1: the league. It's just I just think I think that,
Speaker 1: just like any other fan base, they're just being a
Speaker 1: little unrealistic. Yeah, And I listened a lot like the
Speaker 1: Warriors kind of podcasts and stuff, and I think the
Speaker 1: point that they make, which is the valid one, is
Speaker 1: that stuff is what thirty three now. So I mean, like,
Speaker 1: and he's in his prime, So I think you owe
Speaker 1: it to a guy like that too, kind of you know,
Speaker 1: trying to make his prime work as while I mean
Speaker 1: he's what created he's increased the value of that franchise
Speaker 1: by the billions, right, and to try to develop I mean,
Speaker 1: it's pretty clear to see. I don't think I mean
Speaker 1: I think Wiseman is gonna be really good. I think
Speaker 1: it's pretty clear to see that he's not going to
Speaker 1: be ready by the time that Steph needs him to
Speaker 1: be ready to be the kind of playoff performers. So
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like they're going to try to
Speaker 1: do both. In my opinion, what they're gonna do is
Speaker 1: keep this in episoda pick if it conveys this year
Speaker 1: and now we'll see man, then I'll try to keep
Speaker 1: Wiseman develop and try to do both at the same time,
Speaker 1: which to me, if you're doing both at the same time,
Speaker 1: you're doing neither kind of thing. So like that's so
Speaker 1: that's that I've seen the Lakers try to do it.
Speaker 1: I remember at the end of Kobe's prime, but it
Speaker 1: kind of got derailed because he had the Achilles. But
Speaker 1: I remember they signed like Jeremy Lynn and Carlos Boozer
Speaker 1: and you know, players that just weren't going to help
Speaker 1: you win. But they also had high draft picks or
Speaker 1: like Julius Random and Jordan Clarkston. So they were kind
Speaker 1: of doing both, which again doing neither and uh say,
Speaker 1: and that can lead you to a ten year playoff
Speaker 1: drought like the Lakers had, however long it was. So
Speaker 1: that's the trouble you get to. And I think that's
Speaker 1: where they're kind of seeing the not light at the
Speaker 1: end of the tunnel, but the dark at the end
Speaker 1: of the tunnel, you know what I mean, where like
Speaker 1: it's been light for so long and now you're kind
Speaker 1: of seeing the dark dark into it. But again, Steph
Speaker 1: is still at m v P level. I think the
Speaker 1: Way's gonna try to do what they can I just
Speaker 1: I wonder My whole thing I question is like if
Speaker 1: Clay was playing right now and there were still five hundred,
Speaker 1: does that change how we view this team? Like if
Speaker 1: let's just say Clay was healthy this year, Like, does
Speaker 1: that change how we breathe in front office? Does a change?
Speaker 1: How would be Steve Kerrent? Like, I feel like the
Speaker 1: Clay has given them a crutch And I'm just wondering,
Speaker 1: like if Clay were to have played this year and
Speaker 1: they were still bad. Because I love Clay Thompson, I
Speaker 1: just don't know how much he solves their issues this
Speaker 1: like just on this roster specifically, Um, he's again he's
Speaker 1: another insane shooter and healthy Clay is a top twenty
Speaker 1: player in the league. I'm just wondering how much he saws,
Speaker 1: Like how many more wins does that add to this
Speaker 1: construction of the roster. And I think it's given them
Speaker 1: a crutch that they may use going forward another year,
Speaker 1: which is which is be interesting. If someone was healthy,
Speaker 1: I think they'd be you know, in the mix in
Speaker 1: the West for sure, but this idea that they would
Speaker 1: be you know, on the same tier as like the
Speaker 1: Lakers and the Nets. I entirely disagree. I think I've
Speaker 1: been on the record about this for a long time
Speaker 1: and Warrior's Twitter gets super upset with me every time
Speaker 1: that we we talked about this. But like, I think
Speaker 1: that a big part of what made the two thousand
Speaker 1: fifteen two sixteen Warriors successful was the fact that um
Speaker 1: was the fact that uh uh Steph Curry caught the
Speaker 1: league off guard, you know, with his style. The defenses
Speaker 1: weren't ready to prepare to deal with it. That's not
Speaker 1: to say that he wasn't good. It just means that
Speaker 1: like there was kind of like a market inefficiency that
Speaker 1: they were going after their kind of like what the
Speaker 1: Rockets were doing in two thousand eighteen, you know, And
Speaker 1: what I think the reality of the situation was, like
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant was so so so good that he put
Speaker 1: them over the top continuing in the future after that.
Speaker 1: But without Kevin Durant, you know, the Steph Clagge Raymond
Speaker 1: core was not a top tier core in the league anymore.
Speaker 1: They were a second tier core in the league at
Speaker 1: that point. That's just my opinion of a lot of
Speaker 1: people would disagree with me on that, But the reality
Speaker 1: is is, like you know, I I do think that
Speaker 1: if Clay was healthy and more or less the same
Speaker 1: guy he was before the A c. L tear, that
Speaker 1: they would have been, you know, right there with Denver
Speaker 1: and Utah and Phoenix, you know, a team that we
Speaker 1: thought was really good but that wasn't quite you know
Speaker 1: on that on the level they need uh to really
Speaker 1: to really feel like they're dangerous. Um. As far as
Speaker 1: the uh, the stuff you brought up at the beginning,
Speaker 1: I think it's important to touch on this really quick, Like, like,
Speaker 1: even though I'm trying to get Warriors Twitter to chill
Speaker 1: out in terms of like understanding the the optics of
Speaker 1: what what their offense is doing. There there's some legit
Speaker 1: criticism like, yeah, I agree that to reading Wiseman like
Speaker 1: with training wheels doesn't make a ton of sense. Like
Speaker 1: your offense sucks. Why not lean a little bit more
Speaker 1: on him, don't discourage him from shooting threes, let him
Speaker 1: be more aggressive, play him a lot, let him figure
Speaker 1: it out, because the truth is is like you're gonna
Speaker 1: be you know, what was the range of outcomes this
Speaker 1: year ten seed to you know, maybe seven seeds, So
Speaker 1: you were gonna be in the play and no matter
Speaker 1: what And if you're banking on the fact that Steph
Speaker 1: can carry you in the plan, which I would too,
Speaker 1: like I wouldn't pick against step in the plan, then
Speaker 1: why not take your lumps during the regular season and
Speaker 1: try to lean a little bit more on Wiseman and
Speaker 1: try to get him to develop if that's your plan.
Speaker 1: But that's that, that's the that's the crux of the problem.
Speaker 1: Though it's like you you can't, you don't want to
Speaker 1: be the Boston Celtics and and be hoarding on the assets.
Speaker 1: You know that that pick for from the Minnesota Timberwolves
Speaker 1: is not going to help you win a basketball game
Speaker 1: right now. It's gonna help Steff win a basketball game
Speaker 1: when he's thirty four. That's the way you have to
Speaker 1: think about it. And that pick is probably not going
Speaker 1: to be old enough and experienced enough to be able
Speaker 1: to impact winning all that much until he's until Steff
Speaker 1: is thirty six, you know what I mean. And so
Speaker 1: I I don't you know, I'm I'm a big sell
Speaker 1: the farm guy, and I know I get a bad
Speaker 1: rap for that because it's something that Lebron has done
Speaker 1: at all of his destinations. But I would remind you
Speaker 1: that Lebron is found a way to win by doing that.
Speaker 1: And you know, one of the big things the last
Speaker 1: thing will say about this is, you know, people talk
Speaker 1: about how oh Lebron you know, screwed over cap sheets
Speaker 1: and everything everywhere he went blah blah blah. That's not
Speaker 1: the way the league works anymore. JR. Smith isn't getting
Speaker 1: a four year deal anymore. Uh, the Stars are getting
Speaker 1: four year deals. Um, But like the Danny Greens, the
Speaker 1: you know, the th h T s Alex Caruso, they're
Speaker 1: all signing two year deals. So there's no there's no
Speaker 1: such thing as this idea that you can sell out
Speaker 1: for the future excuse me, for the moment and not
Speaker 1: still have the opportunity to rebuild because you do and
Speaker 1: you have the mid level exception every single year, and
Speaker 1: you have the bi annual exception every other year, and
Speaker 1: you can you know, work the trade market and things
Speaker 1: along those lines. It is a lot easier now to
Speaker 1: retool on the fly than it used to be. So
Speaker 1: this idea that like if you sold Wiseman and this
Speaker 1: Minnesota pick for Bradley Beale, that you wouldn't have any
Speaker 1: future stupid to me, because if you have a good
Speaker 1: destination of culture stars. You're gonna get the Montrez Harralds,
Speaker 1: You're gonna get the surge of Bakas, You're gonna get
Speaker 1: these like, really really talented players who are willing to
Speaker 1: take a discount to compete for a title. And and
Speaker 1: I think I think that will honestly be something that's
Speaker 1: gonna be really interesting to watch with the Lakers in
Speaker 1: the next five years. Yeah right, I mean, you could
Speaker 1: have all the picks in the world, and I like
Speaker 1: I saw like a good I think when the A
Speaker 1: d trade happened, I forgot who Royal, but someone said,
Speaker 1: like you can get ten straight number one picks and
Speaker 1: not pick a player as good as Anthony Davis, Like
Speaker 1: you could. You could, just you could. That could happen.
Speaker 1: So like I was for like a remember the Lakers
Speaker 1: were rebuilding with Ingram Clarkson and Alonzo and all those guys,
Speaker 1: and I was really for that. I was down. I
Speaker 1: think fans will be with it if you tell them
Speaker 1: straight up what's happening. Right, I think there's a miscommunication
Speaker 1: to mean the front office in Golden State, the coaching staff,
Speaker 1: and with the fans because they're being sold this one
Speaker 1: platter and they're eating a different platter, and it's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's really going on here game to games,
Speaker 1: so I think there's not like a clear direction to it.
Speaker 1: And with like Lebron destroying cap sheets, I mean, I
Speaker 1: think it's pretty clear that like if he trusts organ
Speaker 1: and organization, he'll sign. I mean, he signed with the
Speaker 1: Lakers four years. I think he gave the Caps one
Speaker 1: year deals and I mean we saw how Dan Gilbert
Speaker 1: operates that I think he was pretty right in in
Speaker 1: terms of doing that. So and again it's all worth
Speaker 1: to ask any any team if they would take Lebron
Speaker 1: destroy the Cap for five years to go to be
Speaker 1: a for sure Finals appearance. I mean, I think teams
Speaker 1: would do that. That's what this is all about. And
Speaker 1: like we watch with Danny Ainge, we make the jokes
Speaker 1: about he almost traded for someone, he almost did this deal.
Speaker 1: And now, look they're a middling playoff team. They're locked
Speaker 1: into two guys who are great, Tatum and Brown are awesome,
Speaker 1: but they have Kemba on a huge long deal now,
Speaker 1: so NBA moves fast man. They owned all the next
Speaker 1: the Nets picks for decades and decades and the Nets
Speaker 1: became a title contender before them. I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: the NBA moves quick So in my opinion, you have
Speaker 1: to um try to do what you can for the
Speaker 1: superstar you have because teams moved so quickly. Like it's
Speaker 1: Lakers couldn't sit down and sit around and wait for
Speaker 1: a Lonzo and Ingraham to get better so that Lebron
Speaker 1: could win a title, like it just wasn't happening. Once
Speaker 1: Lebron signed here, it was clear. So I think that's
Speaker 1: how a team team building is going right now in
Speaker 1: the league. You have to you have to catch up
Speaker 1: for sure. And and again like the it's you're never
Speaker 1: gonna be as messed up with the cap as you
Speaker 1: were because of the shorter deals role players. Uh Like,
Speaker 1: you're right, Like, I mean, the truth is is where
Speaker 1: Lebron kind of screwed over the Calves And it wasn't
Speaker 1: really Lebron, it was just the nature of the league
Speaker 1: at that point. Is Jerry Smith had a bunch of
Speaker 1: huge shots in the NBA Finals and he needed to
Speaker 1: get paid. Tristan Thompson was an absolute dominant offensive, rebound
Speaker 1: and defensive force for the for the Calves, so he
Speaker 1: had to get paid and at that time, the role
Speaker 1: players got four year deals. That's just the way it worked.
Speaker 1: That's not going to be the way it is anymore.
Speaker 1: Real quickly, I promise it's the last thing. Uh. I
Speaker 1: just thought of it because you brought up Kemba. So
Speaker 1: Dennis Shrewder is up for an extension this summer. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: To me, the comp that comes to mind that makes
Speaker 1: it scary from a cat perspective is Drew Holiday. So
Speaker 1: what's Drew Holiday. Drew Holiday is one of the best
Speaker 1: defensive guards in the league, and he's an okay offensive guard.
Speaker 1: Like if you were to rank him as an offensive player,
Speaker 1: he's the middle of the pack to below middle of
Speaker 1: the pack offensive guard. Like there are just so many
Speaker 1: offensive point guards in the league right now that he's
Speaker 1: not even close offensively to a lot of those guys.
Speaker 1: What if how would you describe Dennis Shrewder. He's one
Speaker 1: of the best defensive guards in the league who's an
Speaker 1: offensive weapon. Not on the same level as the best
Speaker 1: offensive guards in the league, but he's an offensive weapon.
Speaker 1: I don't think Dennis Shooter is as good as Drew,
Speaker 1: but I think he's close. And uh, Drew Holidays making
Speaker 1: thirty million a year, so I don't think the Lakers
Speaker 1: are gonna pay him thirty But the truth is is
Speaker 1: like I could see Dennis his agent, looking at at
Speaker 1: the situation and going like, I'm an all defensive player. Um,
Speaker 1: I was Lebron's co star for half the season and
Speaker 1: we were winning most of our games, and uh, I
Speaker 1: should be making twenties six million a year. Let's say
Speaker 1: Dennis asks for that. Are you of the persuasion that
Speaker 1: it's a good idea to tie up your cap with
Speaker 1: Dennis Shooter for million a year for four years. It's
Speaker 1: tough because basically I don't even think the Lakers can
Speaker 1: offer him that much right now. I think his extension
Speaker 1: has a has a max they can go at. I
Speaker 1: think it's like twenty two or something like that a
Speaker 1: year that he can offer him, And I'm kind of fine,
Speaker 1: makes sense. I think it does. I think you just
Speaker 1: have to take into the Lakers content x to where
Speaker 1: they have Lebron and a d locked up, which means
Speaker 1: their cap is they have no cap room anyway. They're
Speaker 1: not gonna have money in terms of free agency to
Speaker 1: offer anyone. So if you lose DNS, it can, but
Speaker 1: I mean the Lakers haven't really been paying the text
Speaker 1: for the last few years. Um anyway, So like like
Speaker 1: you can't you can't lose Dnis shooter, and then you
Speaker 1: don't get that money to spend, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like because of how the NBA salary cap works. So
Speaker 1: and they have his bird rights, which means he's a
Speaker 1: restricted free agent, so that means they can match any offer.
Speaker 1: You know, I believe that that can come at him. So, UM,
Speaker 1: I think that that amount of money is fine. I
Speaker 1: think he's been really good. He's also twenty seven. It's
Speaker 1: not like you're locking up a thirty year old, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like you're you're locking up a
Speaker 1: guy who's pretty young, who's gonna get better. You said
Speaker 1: he's closer Drew Holiday. I mean, I feel like that
Speaker 1: would be a pretty hot take if you put that
Speaker 1: out there at I don't know, I think so I
Speaker 1: feel like I think what they do, No, I I understand.
Speaker 1: I just like Drew Holiday is a guy who's made
Speaker 1: multiple All Star teams, who's um, who's people say he's
Speaker 1: the best defendant the league. Now I'm with you in
Speaker 1: terms of production, Like I think they are I think yeah,
Speaker 1: even then, yeah, he probably could. But I mean Drew
Speaker 1: Holidays looked at as a savior in Milwaukee. I mean,
Speaker 1: you just I mean they traded three first round picks
Speaker 1: for Drew Holiday. I mean that's I don't think anyone's
Speaker 1: putting up three first round picks for Dennis Shrewder. I'm
Speaker 1: just looking at him how he's viewed around the league. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think twenty two is fine. I mean Kuzma makes sixteen,
Speaker 1: right or or like thirteen or something a year, so
Speaker 1: it's it's not like a huge I mean it's kind
Speaker 1: of huge gap. But I don't think you find guards
Speaker 1: like this anywhere, right, Like, you don't. It's hard to
Speaker 1: find scoring guards like this that are fit next to Lebron.
Speaker 1: And he's so dynamic and when he brings and you're
Speaker 1: basically locking him up for the Lebron in eight d years,
Speaker 1: which I think is fine. Um, you're not gonna have
Speaker 1: room to to save on then if you want to
Speaker 1: move them later, you can, so I think it's a
Speaker 1: fine deal. Um, and he can't. I don't even think
Speaker 1: the Lakers can offer a thirty million years. So it's
Speaker 1: gonna be somewhere around the four year eighty ninety rain
Speaker 1: trick them. I'm fine with how about you are? Are
Speaker 1: you okay with that? I mean, as long as Jeanne's
Speaker 1: willing to pay the tax, I think it makes sense.
Speaker 1: But I mean it just gets difficult. I mean. And
Speaker 1: then the other thing too is, uh, just he relies
Speaker 1: so much on his athleticism that gets tricky from the
Speaker 1: standpoint of um, just like how well he'll project in
Speaker 1: the later years of his deal. Now, the good news
Speaker 1: is that he hasn't dealt with too many injuries in
Speaker 1: his career, and he's only twenty seven years old, So
Speaker 1: there that makes it a little less sketchy. Uh. The
Speaker 1: other thing too, that will end up helping the Lakers
Speaker 1: potentially is did you see that the TV deal that
Speaker 1: came out for the NFL yesterday? M hmm, something crazy
Speaker 1: like over ten billion a year just from TV from
Speaker 1: the NFL. Uh. The reason why I thought that was
Speaker 1: interesting was, you know, there was there was all this
Speaker 1: talk about like an NBA TV rights bubble. Clay Travis
Speaker 1: was one of the guys who was leading it. And
Speaker 1: he's like a blowhard who's constantly just you know, he's
Speaker 1: got other motives but his whole point was, you know,
Speaker 1: the no one's watching these NBA games, so, uh, this
Speaker 1: TV rights bubble is gonna burst, and then NBA salary
Speaker 1: caps are gonna fall way down and it's going to
Speaker 1: screw the league up. Was his whole thing. And TV
Speaker 1: ratings have been a problem for the NFL as well.
Speaker 1: And what was really interesting to me about it was
Speaker 1: this right steal which the rights deal encapsulated more than TV.
Speaker 1: It also encamps encapsulated streaming and some social media stuff
Speaker 1: and like highlight rights and stuff along those lines. What
Speaker 1: I always said was more eyes are on the NBA
Speaker 1: than ever. It's not being watched on TV, was but
Speaker 1: more eyes are on it than ever because people are
Speaker 1: consuming the NBA in all these different ways. And so
Speaker 1: what it will be fascinating is is how over time,
Speaker 1: how they value that when they're negotiating the next rights
Speaker 1: deal which kicks in into on UM, and how that
Speaker 1: could potentially, you know, massively increase the salary cap. Uh.
Speaker 1: But it would be interesting to see because that was
Speaker 1: always the concern was whether or not TV companies would
Speaker 1: ever pay this much again, and we found out yesterday
Speaker 1: that yes they will. They'll just they're just playing on
Speaker 1: distributing it differently. Yeah, for sure. And I think you
Speaker 1: said that a lot of more eyes are on it.
Speaker 1: I think that's a good and bad thing. Some of
Speaker 1: the things. The way that the NBA has covered is
Speaker 1: a lot more um transactional in terms of like who's
Speaker 1: going where, and that's where a lot of the views
Speaker 1: kind of come from, and those don't really translate to
Speaker 1: um watching views. I think there's a shift that's coming
Speaker 1: um where like more people are kind of into the
Speaker 1: actual basketball and I think that's a good thing. I
Speaker 1: think that will lead to along It won't be a
Speaker 1: lot of short term kind of growth, but in the
Speaker 1: long term it will help. And it is a way
Speaker 1: longer conversation we can have on that. But but I
Speaker 1: just yeah, just just in terms of like seeing the NFL,
Speaker 1: Like when I watch I don't watch football, but when
Speaker 1: I do, when it's on or whatever, they pretty much
Speaker 1: stick to the game. Like there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: If you watch the NBA broadcasts, and man, those guys
Speaker 1: are doing like their own podcasts within a game going on.
Speaker 1: You couldn't even tell there's a game in front of them.
Speaker 1: And I think that kind of there's the product and
Speaker 1: hurt some money. Lakers have a huge TV deal just
Speaker 1: they have the biggest one in the league by I
Speaker 1: think by far Nicks might be second. But just looking
Speaker 1: at it from that perspective, you want the league to
Speaker 1: kind of grow and that's kind of how it goes,
Speaker 1: and the NFL has done a really good job at
Speaker 1: the NFL has a lot of bigger issues. I see that.
Speaker 1: People say all the time. They really they're not really
Speaker 1: pro player as the NBA is, but they know how
Speaker 1: to market their sport and it and like you said,
Speaker 1: with that TV deal, it kind of shows yeah, And
Speaker 1: I agree with you. It will be real quick about
Speaker 1: this because we're crusting over an hour and a half, yere.
Speaker 1: But the the people talk about the NBA, and I
Speaker 1: agree with you, Like I think officiating is a huge problem.
Speaker 1: I think the way the league is covered in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways is a huge problem. It's it's way
Speaker 1: too melodramatic, I agree. But the overall product is still
Speaker 1: good and people still like watching it in various formats,
Speaker 1: and I think that's the important detail because if you
Speaker 1: look at the NFL, like the NFL, you know gets
Speaker 1: way more viewers than the NBA does, and it's m
Speaker 1: think you cut out here, m all right, can you
Speaker 1: hear me? Uh? It real quickly and then we'll get
Speaker 1: out of here. But like the in the NFL, like
Speaker 1: guess what they have to deal with? They have uh
Speaker 1: you know, if you're you come to watch quarterbacks and
Speaker 1: receivers and passing and catching. If you have a bad
Speaker 1: offensive line, the quarterback can't make a damn throw. And
Speaker 1: so like a lot of times, like games will be
Speaker 1: really boring to watch because of line play and the
Speaker 1: fact that the line they can't figure out line play.
Speaker 1: They do deal with similar officiating problems with wide receivers
Speaker 1: and defensive backs and when should we call holding? When
Speaker 1: should we call pass interference? How? How? How do we
Speaker 1: appreciate these sorts of things there are So the NFL
Speaker 1: has similar watchability problems that that happened over time and
Speaker 1: and and I my thing is is that the league
Speaker 1: per severes in the form that people love football and
Speaker 1: uh and they always will love football. And basketball is
Speaker 1: the same way. And right now in the NFL there
Speaker 1: are more good balls than ever and and the same
Speaker 1: goes for the for basketball. I'm just I'm naturally an optimist,
Speaker 1: so I'm not as concerned, but I do think it's
Speaker 1: okay to talk about the problems that the league has had. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna get you out of here because
Speaker 1: we can go for a while. But this was really good, man,
Speaker 1: and I thought we got to a lot of really
Speaker 1: really good stuff. And uh, I appreciate your time this morning,
Speaker 1: and I appreciate all of you guys who have tuned in,
Speaker 1: tuned in and listened. Um. I will have the podcast
Speaker 1: version out shortly. I have some work stuff I have
Speaker 1: to do first, but um, I appreciate all you guys,
Speaker 1: and we'll see you next week for sure. I have
Speaker 1: a one